,单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,Chapter 1 Prototypes and Categories,Philosophical Background,Experientialism(体验主义,All the categories,concepts,deductions and mental abilities are based on the embodied experiences,Procedure:Reality-cognition-language,The aim of cognitive linguistics:To explain the iconicity behind linguistic signs and the cognitive mechanism,Main Contents,Philosophical background,Categorization,The classical theory,Wittgensteins study on categorization,The prototype theory,Empirical researches and Inspirations,Berlin&Kays research on focal colors and inspirations,Eleanor Roschs research(an extended one)and inspirations,Influencing factors on the prototype category,The application of the prototype theory,Categorization,The close relation between language study and category study,“If linguistics can be said to be any one thing it is the study of categories.”(Labov,1973:342),Categorization and category,“The mental process of classification is commonly called categorization,and its products are the cognitive categories“(Ungerer&Schmid,2023:2；2023：8),“There is nothing more basic than categorization to our thought,perception,action and speech.”(Lakoff,1987:5),Categorization,the world is made up of an infinite variety of objects with different substances,shapes and colors.,We dont perceive such variety without order,i.e.we assume there are perceived separating points and boundaries as well as perceived similarities between different entities.Thus,it is necessary to classify entities to group the entities which share perceived similarities together and divide those different entities.,Categorization,Categories,Kinds of things:chairs,nation,illnesses,emotions,Kinds of motor activities:writing,hammering,ironing,kicking,etc.,According to the Australian aboriginal language Dyirbal,there is a category,balan,which includes women,fire,and dangerous things.(Lakoff,1987:5),An understanding of how we categorize is central to any understanding of how we think and how we function,and therefore central to an understanding of what makes us human(Lakoff,1987:6),Categorization,Most categorization is automatic and unconscious,In moving about the world,we automatically categorize people,animals,and physical objects,both natural and man-made.(Lakoff,1987:6),Theories on categorization,The Classical Theory,Wittgensteins theory,The Prototype Theory,The Classical Theory,The classical theory of categorization was the prevalent model since the time of Aristotle and holds that conceptual and linguistic categories have definitional structure(Evans&Green,2023:251).,Representative:Aristotle,Metaphysics(形而上学,E.g.Suppose“man”has the meaning“two-footed animal”.By“having a meaning”I mean this:If“man”is“two-footed animal”,then if anything is a man,its“being-two-footed”will be what its“being-a-man”is.Therefore,if it is true to say of anything that it is a man,it follows necessarily that it is a two-footed animal(for this was the meaning we assigned to“man”)(Aristotle 19991960:69-71),Four Features for the Classical Theory,Categories are defined in terms of a conjunction of necessary and sufficient features.,Features are binary.,Categories have clear boundaries,All members of a category have equal status.,A Question,Do you agree with the classical theory of categorization?,Wittgensteins Study on categorization,Family Resemblance,“Consider for example the proceedings that we call games.I mean board-games,card-games,ball-games,Olympic games,and so on.What is common to them all?Dont say:There must be something common,or they would not be called“games”but look and see whether there is anything common to all.For if you look at them you will not see something that is common to all,but similarities,relationships,and a whole series of them at that.,To repeat:dont think,but look!For example at board-games,with their multifarious relationships.Now pass to card-games;here you find many correspondences with the first group,but many common features drop out,and others appear.When we pass next to ball-games,much that is common is retained,but much is lost.Are they all,amusing,?Compare chess with noughts and crosses.Or is there always,winning and losing,or competition between players?,Think of patience.In ball-games there is winning and losing;but when a child throws his ball at the wall and catches it again,this feature has disappeared.Look at the parts played by,skill and luck,;and at the difference between skill in chess and skill in tennis.Think now of games like ring-a-ring-a roses;here is the element of,amusement,but how many other characteristic features have disappeared!And we can go through the many,many other groups of games in the same way;we see how similarities crop up and disappear.,And the result of this examination is:we see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing:sometimes overall similarities,sometimes similarities of detail.,I can think of no better expression to characterize these similarit