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CATEGORIZATION

Julia Mielczarek I MA

Supercategories

Supercategories

Class I- Taxonomic supercategories (e.g. bird, flower, tree)

Kinds of things

Class II: purely functional concepts (e.g. toy, weapon)

Things of any kind made for the same purpose

Class III: collective supercategories: singularia tantum (e.g. furniture)

seperate things of different kinds used in groups in the same way for the same purpose

Class IV: collective supercategories: pluralia tantum (eg.leftovers)

Things of different kinds (not necessairly seperate) which are at the same time, in the same place and for the same reason.

Class V: Heterogenous classes of 'stuffs' and choppable things: pseudo-countables (eg. narcotics, vegetables)

Things of different kinds used for the same purpose, which people obtained in the same way and which are used in the same way

Taxonomies

Taxonomies

The most emphasised principle of human categorization is taxonomy, which is based on a hierarchy of kinds.

E.g. bird, flower, tree

For each supercategory in lower levels there must be a common semantic denominator

IMPORTANT!

All taxonomic concepts (which stand for kinds of things) can be imagined

IMPORTANT

toy vs bird

1. The pictorial representation of a toy cannot be universal. A bird, or a tree can be drawn without pointing a specific kind.

2.Why concepts such as toy, vehicale or weapon are not taxonomies?

Describing a bicycle as a kind of vehicle means choosing one feature over another.

The concept of vehicle (a thing of any kind, that identifies a specific kind of function) is not fully included in the concept of bicycle.

Purely

functional

concepts

Fuzziness

FUZZINESS

Knife= a weapon

or

Knife= a tool

Tricycle= a toy

or

Tricycle= a vehicle

Table, chair, bed are kinds of furniture.

This sentence implies that the concept furniture is included in concept of table, chair, bed

Furniture (uncountable)- collective concept (perceived as collection of things of different kinds)

Table, chair, bed (countable)- taxonomic concepts

Semantically- table is not a kind of furniture

Singularia

Tantum

Pluralia

tantum

Collective supercategories based on contiguity without any reference to function.

For example,

Do the dishes.- the indication is to wash forks, cups, etc, not the plural form of dish

-Groups of things bounded to the specific place, time and limited in quantity

Heterogenius

classes of 'stuff'

Vegetable- 'a kind of thing that people cause to grow out of the ground for people to cook for food' (described in terms partly in terms of function and origin, but not in terms of perpetual characteristics)

three vegetables= three kinds of objects unlike three books or three shelves

While describing e.g. carrots (can be chopped and spinach (a mass) as vegetables one ignores all the perceptual characteristics.

Fruits vs Vegetables

FRUITS VEGETABLES

Fruits vs

Vegetables

Kinds of objects having the same function and origin

-cooked, chopped

A heterogenus class of seperate objects used for a similar purpose

It has double grammatical status: sometimes it behaves like a singualr tantum (furniture), but sometimes like vegetables

-whole but choppable

Grammatical contrast:

I bought 5 kg of apples.

I bought 5 kg of carrot.

Psychological salience

Collective supercategories and purely functional ones are less salient than non-collective concepts (individual kinds of).

The sailence will differ depending on the frequency of appearance.

Animal is more salient psychologically than e.g. furniture.

Kid will most likely use the words like dog or horse before using the word animal but will sooner use the word bird or fish before corresponding to a specie.

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