On the problem of categorization in linguistics

Prototype models

1. Categories are defined relative to prototypes

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     Prototypes can be members of a category with typical features or they can be
     

abstract feature bundles

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  Most or even all members of a class do not have all typical features
  

1. Category membership is defined by family resemblance

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     Centrality to a class is determined by how similar a member is to its prototype
     

2. Certain members of a category are more central than others

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     Members in a category are organized in a “radial set of clustered and overlapping meanings” (Geeraerts 2006)
     

3. Categories can be flexible and have fuzzy boundaries, but they can also have sharp and fixed boundaries

A definitional analysis of the category bird (Geeraerts 2006)

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  Categorization is important in language
  
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    Semantic categories
    
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      E.g. humans, animate (living) objects, animals, birds, food, …
      
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    Syntactic categories
    
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      E.g. nouns, verbs, personal pronouns, tenses, …
      
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    Socio-cultural categories
    
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      E.g. people of authority, parents vs. children, older vs. younger people, …
      
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  We can use different models to categorize concepts
  
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  We can categorize concepts at different levels of generality
  
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  How does this all work together?
  

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  Word classes are at the basis of any linguistic analysis
  
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  They are often not well-defined
  

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  Do all languages have nouns and verbs?
  
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  If so, how do we define them?
  

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  What about adjectives and adverbs?
  
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  Where do these word classes come from?
  

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  Word classes as we know them today did not always exist
  
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  They slowly developed in the Western philosophical tradition
  
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  ‘Modern’ word classes only came into existence around the 4^th
  

century

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  Word classes …
  
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    are no natural categories
    
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    were developed in a Western framework
    
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    were used more or less unchanged for 16 centuries
    

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  Mid 4^th century
  
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  Teacher of St Jerome
  
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    Church Father
    
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    North Eastern Italy
    
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    Translator of the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible
    
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  Nothing else known about his life
  

Saint Jerome Albrecht Dürer, ca. 1495 National Gallery London

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  Donatus Orthographicus
  

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  Works
  
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    Ars grammatica ‘The art of grammar’
    
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      Ars minor
      
    • 
      Ars maior
      
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    Commentarii Vergiliani ‘Commentaries on the life of Virgil’
    

(Nuremberg Chronicle,
1493)

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  Pedagogical grammars (see Harris & Taylor 1997, Ch. 4)
  
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  Study of Greek and later Latin
  
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  European culture
  
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  From late Antiquity to early Middle Ages
  

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  323 - 31 BC
  
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  Alexander the Great’s empire
  
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  Creation of a standard language (based on Attic Greek)
  
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    ... And an associated written tradition
    
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    Writing as part of imperial administration
    
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    Greek language learning as a way to incorporate conquered people
    
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  Need for education scribes and scholars in the Greek language
  

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  Shift:
  

Spoken language
Written language Standardization

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  3^rd – 8^th century
  
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  Description of grammar as a set of systematic rules
  
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