Meaning and cognition - The development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes

Meaning and cognition - The development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes PDF Author: Nadine Richters
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640140265
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: Seminar Linguistik: Semantics: Understanding the meaning of words and their combinations, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes in terms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, prototype semantics has begun to gain an important role in linguistics and led to a pardigm shift. This is proved by research in cognitive psychology. People have a command of categorising, all times. Without the process of categorisation, our brain would be overstrained because the flood of information, the brain receives, has to be memorised and, thus, categorised, in a certain way. First of all, I will explain the importance of categorisation and concepts in everyday life, then I will introduce some forms of categorisations (Artistotle’s traditional view and the prototype theory), explain them by giving examples, analyse and criticise them, insofar as I consider them critisisable. In section three I will describe the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes with regard to childhood. One important question in this context will be whether prototypes are changeable in the course of life? The process of categorisation by having some concepts in mind, is an important factor in human existence. Human beings categorise what they perceive by comparing the perceived object with their mentally represented concept. All people think categorically because it helps them to establish a certainty and order. People need certainty and order, for not drowning in chaos. Without categorising, human beings would have to store the information of each single element which encounters him. Categories and concepts help us to understand the world, its elements and we establish a form of cohesive network by building up concepts and categories and having prototypical exemplars in mind. If we see people, we categorise them, whether it is their outward appearance or how they talk or how they behave towards us. By doing this, we sometimes practise a form of pigeonholing other people. This pigeonholing, though, is human, as we cannot cease to categorise what we perceive. “Categorization provides the gateway between perception and cognition. After a perceptual system acquires information about an entity in the environment, the cognitive system places the entity into a category”.

Meaning and cognition - The development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes

Meaning and cognition - The development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes PDF Author: Nadine Richters
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640140265
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 17

Get Book Here

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: Seminar Linguistik: Semantics: Understanding the meaning of words and their combinations, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes in terms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, prototype semantics has begun to gain an important role in linguistics and led to a pardigm shift. This is proved by research in cognitive psychology. People have a command of categorising, all times. Without the process of categorisation, our brain would be overstrained because the flood of information, the brain receives, has to be memorised and, thus, categorised, in a certain way. First of all, I will explain the importance of categorisation and concepts in everyday life, then I will introduce some forms of categorisations (Artistotle’s traditional view and the prototype theory), explain them by giving examples, analyse and criticise them, insofar as I consider them critisisable. In section three I will describe the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes with regard to childhood. One important question in this context will be whether prototypes are changeable in the course of life? The process of categorisation by having some concepts in mind, is an important factor in human existence. Human beings categorise what they perceive by comparing the perceived object with their mentally represented concept. All people think categorically because it helps them to establish a certainty and order. People need certainty and order, for not drowning in chaos. Without categorising, human beings would have to store the information of each single element which encounters him. Categories and concepts help us to understand the world, its elements and we establish a form of cohesive network by building up concepts and categories and having prototypical exemplars in mind. If we see people, we categorise them, whether it is their outward appearance or how they talk or how they behave towards us. By doing this, we sometimes practise a form of pigeonholing other people. This pigeonholing, though, is human, as we cannot cease to categorise what we perceive. “Categorization provides the gateway between perception and cognition. After a perceptual system acquires information about an entity in the environment, the cognitive system places the entity into a category”.

Meaning and Cognition - The Development of Categorisation, Concepts and Prototypes

Meaning and Cognition - The Development of Categorisation, Concepts and Prototypes PDF Author: Nadine Richters
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640140168
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: Seminar Linguistik: Semantics: Understanding the meaning of words and their combinations, 18 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes in terms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, prototype semantics has begun to gain an important role in linguistics and led to a pardigm shift. This is proved by research in cognitive psychology. People have a command of categorising, all times. Without the process of categorisation, our brain would be overstrained because the flood of information, the brain receives, has to be memorised and, thus, categorised, in a certain way. First of all, I will explain the importance of categorisation and concepts in everyday life, then I will introduce some forms of categorisations (Artistotle's traditional view and the prototype theory), explain them by giving examples, analyse and criticise them, insofar as I consider them critisisable. In section three I will describe the development of categorisation, concepts and prototypes with regard to childhood. One important question in this context will be whether prototypes are changeable in the course of life? The process of categorisation by having some concepts in mind, is an important factor in human existence. Human beings categorise what they perceive by comparing the perceived object with their mentally represented concept. All people think categorically because it helps them to establish a certainty and order. People need certainty and order, for not drowning in chaos. Without categorising, human beings would have to store the information of each single element which encounters him. Categories and concepts help us to understand the world, its elements and we establish a form of cohesive network by building up concepts and categori

Concepts and Conceptual Development

Concepts and Conceptual Development PDF Author: Ulric Neisser
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521378758
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Concepts and Conceptual Development draws together a wide range of theorists to consider many different aspects of 'the psychology of concepts'.

The Origin of Concepts

The Origin of Concepts PDF Author: Susan Carey
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199838801
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 609

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Book Description
New in paperback-- A transformative book on the way we think about the nature of concepts and the relations between language and thought.

Meanings and Prototypes (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar)

Meanings and Prototypes (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar) PDF Author: S.L. Tsohatzidis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317933583
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 631

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Book Description
There are fewer distinctions in any language than there are distinct things in the universe. If, therefore, languages are ways of representing the universe, a primary function of their elements must be to allow the much more varied kinds of elements out of which the universe is made to be categorized in specific ways. A prototype approach to linguistic categories is a particular way of answering the question of how this categorization operates. It involves two claims. First, that linguistic categorization exploits principles that are not specific to language but characterize most, if not all, processes of cognition. Secondly, that a basic principle by which cognitive and linguistic categories are organized is the prototype principle, which assigns elements to a category not because they exemplify properties that are absolutely required of each one of its members, but because they exhibit, in varying degrees, certain types of similarity with a particular category member which has been established as the best example (or: prototype) of its kind. The development of the prototype approach into a satisfactory body of theory obviously requires both that its empirical base be enriched, and that its conceptual foundations be clarified. These are the areas where this volume, in its 26 essays, makes original contributions. The first two parts contain discussions in which various kinds of linguistic phenomena are analysed in ways that make essential use of prototype notions. The last two parts contain discussions in which prototype notions themselves become the object, rather than the instrument, of analytical scrutiny.

The Cambridge Handbook of Psycholinguistics

The Cambridge Handbook of Psycholinguistics PDF Author: Michael Spivey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139536141
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1297

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Book Description
Our ability to speak, write, understand speech and read is critical to our ability to function in today's society. As such, psycholinguistics, or the study of how humans learn and use language, is a central topic in cognitive science. This comprehensive handbook is a collection of chapters written not by practitioners in the field, who can summarize the work going on around them, but by trailblazers from a wide array of subfields, who have been shaping the field of psycholinguistics over the last decade. Some topics discussed include how children learn language, how average adults understand and produce language, how language is represented in the brain, how brain-damaged individuals perform in terms of their language abilities and computer-based models of language and meaning. This is required reading for advanced researchers, graduate students and upper-level undergraduates who are interested in the recent developments and the future of psycholinguistics.

The Big Book of Concepts

The Big Book of Concepts PDF Author: Gregory Murphy
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262250061
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description
Concepts embody our knowledge of the kinds of things there are in the world. Tying our past experiences to our present interactions with the environment, they enable us to recognize and understand new objects and events. Concepts are also relevant to understanding domains such as social situations, personality types, and even artistic styles. Yet like other phenomenologically simple cognitive processes such as walking or understanding speech, concept formation and use are maddeningly complex. Research since the 1970s and the decline of the "classical view" of concepts have greatly illuminated the psychology of concepts. But persistent theoretical disputes have sometimes obscured this progress. The Big Book of Concepts goes beyond those disputes to reveal the advances that have been made, focusing on the major empirical discoveries. By reviewing and evaluating research on diverse topics such as category learning, word meaning, conceptual development in infants and children, and the basic level of categorization, the book develops a much broader range of criteria than is usual for evaluating theories of concepts.

Formal Approaches in Categorization

Formal Approaches in Categorization PDF Author: Emmanuel M. Pothos
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521140720
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
The process of constructing concepts underpins our capacity to encode information in an efficient and competent manner and also, ultimately, our ability to think in terms of abstract ideas such as justice, love and happiness. But what are the mechanisms which correspond to psychological categorization processes? This book unites many prominent approaches in modelling categorization. Each chapter focuses on a particular formal approach to categorization, presented by the proponent(s) or advocate(s) of that approach, and the authors consider the relation of this approach to other models and the ultimate objectives in their research programmes. The volume evaluates progress that has been made in the field and potential future developments. This is an essential companion to any scientist interested in the formal description of categorization and, more generally, in formal approaches to cognition. It will be the definitive guide to formal approaches in categorization research for years to come.

Linguistic Categorization

Linguistic Categorization PDF Author: John R. Taylor
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This is the first accessible introduction to the "cognitive paradigm" in linguistics. Constrasting cognitive linguistics with the assumptions of Chomskyan linguistics, and drawing examples mainly from English, the book explores the potential of the study of word meaning, syntax, and phonology.

Categories and Concepts

Categories and Concepts PDF Author: Iven van Mechelen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
A book aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduates in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, linguistics, applied mathematics and data analysis.