Prototype

Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Poland
barbara.lewandowska-tomaszczyk@konin.edu.pl

Prototype in Cognitive Linguistics is a concept in any given language, corresponding to a person, animal, thing, property, or event that best represents this concept. For example, when asked to give an example of the concept of furniture, a chair is more frequently cited than, say, a wardrobe. Prototype theory has been applied in linguistics as part of the mapping from phonological structure to semantics. The term prototype, as defined in psychology and later transferred to linguistics, was first proposed in Eleanor Rosch’s study ‘Natural Categories’ (1973). Prototype analysis has become a key research tool in recent years in Cognitive Linguistics and in a cognitive psychological theory that suggests that when people categorise objects, they do so based on how similar the object is to a prototypical (ideal or the best) example of that category. The essential properties of prototypes are that they are central, representative examples of categories. For instance, when thinking of ‘bird,’ a robin or a sparrow is likely a more prototypical example than a penguin or an ostrich. Then, unlike the classical view, prototype theory proposes that category membership is not all-or-none. Instead, it is a matter of degree. Some members are more central or typical (closer to the prototype), while others are more peripheral or less typical. Because membership is graded, the boundaries between categories are often fuzzy rather than rigid. For Wittgenstein, categories are often structured around family resemblances.( This means that members of a category may share a network of overlapping features, without any single feature being common to all members. Furthermore, prototypes function as cognitive reference points, i.e., they help us organise, understand, and recall information about related concepts. The soundness of the prototype paradigm, according to van Brakel, in particular its basic assumptions relating to such core meanings in basic-level natural kinds, is one of the ways of explaining why human communication and learning are successful.

Keywords: basic-level natural kinds, categorisation, communication, learning

Related Entries: Semantics

References:
Van Brakel, J. (1991). Meaning, prototypes and the future of cognitive science. Minds and Machines, 1(3),233-257.
Rosch, E. H. (1973). Natural categories. Cognitive Psychology, 4(3), 328–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(73)90017-0
Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigation. Blackwell.