[Corpora-List] examples of the use of the terms "prototypical" or "prototypicality"

[Simon Smith]

Hi Jim

I guess you are thinking of the general language word "prototype", which I
suppose is also a term in the domain of product design. Perhaps it is the
same as "beta" in software design? In linguistics, the adjective
"prototypical" refers to an entity which is deemed to be characteristic of
its type. If someone mentions a "bird" in some context, we are more likely
to assume the referent is (say) sparrow or a swallow, rather than an
ostrich or a chicken or a dodo, even though these are actually no less
birds than the ones we see flying around the sky or pooing on our cars (or
on our heads, which thankfully seems to happen less often than the residual
evidence suggests).

I probably came across the term when I first started linguistics in 1995.
But I too have spent much of that time asleep or dozing, not to say
hibernating, so I could very well be wrong.

Best wishes
Simon

___________________________


Simon Smith, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Dept of English & Languages
Coventry University

+44 2476 887 643

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/simon-smith/42/b77/173

http://tinyurl.com/simoncov



> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:44:22 -0500
> From: Jim Fidelholtz <fidelholtz at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] examples of the use of the terms
>         "prototypical"  or "prototypicality"
> To: "Marko, Georg (georg.marko at uni-graz.at)" <georg.marko at uni-graz.at>
> Cc: "corpora at uib.no" <corpora at uib.no>
>
> I have evidently not worked enough in this area. For me, 'prototype' means
> 'an original, perhaps imperfect, version of something'. The word we have
> been discussing here would seem to be 'arquetype', at least for me. I
> suppose I should do a corpus or Google search to see where the hell this
> usage came from while I must have been napping.
>
> Jim
>
> James L. Fidelholtz
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/corpora/attachments/20140628/72e49023/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
UNSUBSCRIBE from this page: http://mailman.uib.no/options/corpora
Corpora mailing list
Corpora at uib.no
http://mailman.uib.no/listinfo/corpora