Semantics: a coursebook, second edition
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| Words and things: extensions and prototypes
87 Practice (1) Have you ever argued with another English speaker about whether or not to call some object blue? Yes / No (2) Have you ever been in doubt yourself, as an individual, about whether to call something pink or orange? Yes / No (3) Have you ever been in doubt about whether to call something a tree or a shrub? Yes / No (4) Is there a clear di fference for you between what can be called a book and what can be called a pamphlet? Yes / No (5) Is there a clear di fference between what can be called paper and what can be called card? Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes, probably (2) Yes, probably (3) Yes, probably (4) No, probably not (5) No, probably not Comment The original motivation for the idea of extension was to explain the ability of speakers of a language to group entities having similar characteristics, such as cats or chickens, into distinct mental categories and to refer to these objects in the world, using linguistic expressions containing predicates. In addition, the idea of extension was to explain their ability as hearers to identify the referents of referring expressions containing predicates, and their ability to make and understand descriptive statements using predicates, as in Atkins is a cat. But speakers are in fact only able to do these things in normal situations. The idea of extension is too ambitious, extending to all situations. In fact, a speaker does not have a perfectly clear idea of what is a cat and what is not a cat. Between obvious cats and obvious non-cats there is a grey area of doubt, as we see in the following sketches. In order to get around such di fficulties with the idea of extension, semanticists have introduced the two closely related notions of prototype and stereotype. Definition A PROTOTYPE of a predicate is an object which is held to be very TYPICAL of the kind of object which can be referred to by an expression containing the predicate. In other words, the prototype of a predicate can be thought of as the most typical member of the extension of a predicate. Example A man of medium height and average build, between 30 and 50 years old, with brownish hair, with no particularly distinctive characteristics or defects, could be a prototype of the predicate man in certain areas of the world. PA RT T WO From reference . . . 88 A dwarf or a hugely muscular body-builder could not be a prototype of the predicate man. Practice For each of the drawings (1)–(7), say whether the object shown could be a prototype of the predicate given below it for an average person living in Europe or North America. Feedback (1) Yes (2) No (3) No (4) Yes (5) No (6) Yes (7) No Comment Since we are not especially interested in the language of any one individual, but rather in, say, English as a whole, we will talk in terms of shared prototypes, i.e. objects on which there would be general agreement that they were typical examples of the class of objects described by a certain predicate. In a language community as wide as that of English, there are problems with this idea of prototype, due to cultural di fferences between various English- speaking communities. Consider these examples. Practice (1) Could a double-decker bus (of the kind found in British cities) be a prototype for the predicate bus for a British English-speaker? Yes / No (2) Could such a bus be a prototype for the predicate bus for an American English-speaker? Yes / No (3) Could a skyscraper be a prototype for the predicate building for an inhabitant of New York City? tải về 1.74 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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