Hi there, and welcome to the fourth clip in our semantics chapter. We've already come a long way. Check out our clips concerning the basics, a first look at how we can establish what words mean, and a chapter on frames and connotation.
Head right over there if you want to find out more. But for now, let's concentrate on prototypes. As you have probably noticed yourself, feature semantics is not the nonplusultra, or better, it has its flaws.
The all-or-nothing approach of a plus or a minus in feature semantics is not very close to reality. Would a cat without pointy ears and a tail not still be a cat? And is a tree in winter without any leaves not still a tree?
Indeed, we might say that these two specimens are not the ultimate representatives of their categories, but we still are able to see what they are. So in the ninth... In the 1970s, a semantic model called prototype theory was developed. It also works with semantic features, but in a slightly different way.
Firstly, not all members of the category need to have all features, just like the tailless cat and the leafless tree. Secondly, the features can be met to a higher or lesser degree by members within the category. We are talking less or more, rather than either or.
These two facts lead to so-called graded membership. meaning that there are better and less good representatives of an extension. Let's make this a bit more palpable, shall we? Remember the bone model? Let's think bird.
What makes a bird? Which semantic features could be parameters for bird? Laying eggs, singing, flying, having wings, a beak or a very creepy ability to stare at you without winking. The birds that have the largest number of feet that define the idea of bird and have these features to a high degree are close to the prototype at the center of our concept. In Germany that might be the sparrow and in England it might be the robin.
All the other members of the bird category fulfil the features to a lesser degree, or not at all. The further away they are from the centre, the less prototypical they are. And then there are also members that lie between categories. This phenomenon is called fuzzy edges.
Extensions are not clear-cut, but rather blend into the extensions of other categories, like in the case of the duck-billed platypus. This fellow... lays eggs like birds, has a bill like a duck, again like a bird, but suckles its young like mammals. Prototype theory also describes family resemblance.
The member of the category sharing most features with other members of the category bears highest family resemblance and is close to the prototype. So let's just sort all these new ideas again. Prototype theory deals with features between differently. It is about more or less rather than either or. The member fulfilling most features to a high degree is closest to the prototype and at the centre of the category.
All other members less prototypical are sorted further away from the centre. This is graded membership. This also leads to fuzzy edges as the extensions are no longer clear cut. The member sharing most features with other members bears highest family. resemblance.
This concludes this clip on prototype theory. Next time in Sense Relations, we will be dealing with more models of how meaning is connected.