A functional view on prototypes

  • The human mind may produce prototypization within virtually any realm of cognition and behavior. A "comparative prototype-typology" might prove to be an interesting field of study – perhaps a new subfield of semiotics. This, however, would presuppose a clear view on the samenesses and differences of prototypization in these various fields. It seems realistic for the time being that the linguist first confine himself to describing prototypization within the realm of language proper. The literature on prototypes has steadily grown in the past ten years or so. I confine myself to mentioning the volume on Noun Classes and Categorization, edited by C. Craig (1986), which contains a wealth of factual information on the subject, along with some theoretical vistas. By and large, however, linguistic prototype research is still basically in a taxonomic stage - which, of course, represents the precondition for moving beyond. The procedure is largely per ostensionem, and by accumulating examples of prototypes. We still lack a comprehensive prototype theory. The following pages are intended, not to provide such, a theory, but to do the first steps in this direction. Section 2 will feature some elements of a functional theory of prototypes. They have been developed by this author within the frame of the UNITYP model of research on language universals and typology. Section 3 will bring a discussion of prototypization with regard to selected phenomena of a wide range of levels of analysis: Phonology, morphosyntax, speech acts, and the lexicon. Prototypization will finally be studied within one of the universal dimensions, that of APPREHENSION - the linguistic representation of the concepts of objects – as proposed by Seiler (1986).

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Metadaten
Author:Hansjakob SeilerGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-251662
Parent Title (German):Kölner Universalienprojekt: Arbeiten des Kölner Universalien-Projekts ; Nr. 77
Series (Serial Number):Arbeiten des Kölner Universalien-Projekts : akup (77)
Publisher:Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Institut für Linguistik, Universität zu Köln
Place of publication:Köln
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Year of Completion:1989
Year of first Publication:1989
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2012/09/20
GND Keyword:Prototyp <Linguistik>; Funktionalismus <Linguistik>
Page Number:35
HeBIS-PPN:349586896
Dewey Decimal Classification:4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik
Sammlungen:Linguistik
Linguistik-Klassifikation:Linguistik-Klassifikation: Sprachtypologie / Language typology
Linguistik-Klassifikation: Sprachtheorie / Theory of language
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht