Linguistics, Vol. 8 No. 2, 2007.
Review article
COGNITIVE THEORY OF CATEGORIZATION, AS EXEMPLIFIED ON JAPANESE MATERIAL
Darko Matovac
orcid.org/0000-0003-2919-2029
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Osijek
Abstract
After an introduction to theoretical distinctions between traditional Aristotelian and contemporary
cognitive approach to the process of human categorization, and a demonstration of the
advantages of the cognitive approach, the paper goes on to discuss Japanese data which exemplify
mental processes underlying the formation of conceptual categories and their mapping
onto linguistic structures. Japanese classifiers are discussed in the context of cognitive
phenomena such as conceptual metaphor and metonymy, conventional mental images, imageschema
transformation, multiple motivation, and the phenomenon of chaining structures. The
final section discusses the conceptual category self in Japanese, specifically the ability of society
and culture to impose a meaning frame within which a given category will be used.
Keywords
Japanese language; classifier; cognitive category; prototype; metaphor; metonymy; schema, multiple motivation; chaining structures; meaning frame; social influence
Hrčak ID:
30740
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2007.
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