9. Categories and categorization in cognitive linguistics.

Category – one of the comprehensive means of thinking of a person who generalizes the experience and realizes its classification. Categories arrange the elements according to their levels of abstraction. But this process sometimes is realized intuitively on the basis of cognitive view. From different points of view and different disciplines categories are organized on different principles.

The most important factor for categorization is the fact that every category has a sufficient number of properties, which leads to equality of all members of the categorical group. These properties are the main factor for classification.

Historical classification of categories brings to the following levels of abstraction:

1. Classes (Present Tense Form)

2. Ranks/ розряди (Tense categories)

3. Groupings (Verb categories)

4. Multitudes (Grammatical categories)

5. Categories (Language categories)

Pierce introduced the theory of signs. All signs are divided on icons, indexes, symbols – they are not homogeneous. Signs are reflexion of language and non-verbal entities. The sign theory is developed in different directions. There are iconic, indexical, symbolic signs.

If the material object has the adequate reaction in the mental space of a person and it is not so much differs from person to person. Such signs are called icons. If there is no equation or the same reflexion of the signs in the mental space, it is fuzzy and differs from person to person – symbol. Index – is something intermediate between the symbol and the icon. Due to it we specify the notions which have autonomous existence. There is much literature on categorization, depending on the subject matter there are different experiments related to categorization:

e.g natural category of colour is analyzed with colour spectrum which has conventional limits. Conditions of life influence the process of categorization (white colour for eskimos has more than 30 shades)

Categorization is a dynamic process which is calculated with the help of such mental acts as classification, comparison, nomination. The ways of foundation of a new category and the ways of enrichment of the developed category is the main operation of comprehension. Category procedure is many folded and caterogeneous process – one and the same entity may belong to different categorial groups. E.g turkey – may be categorized as a domestic animal and at the same time it may be introduced in other cat. groups – dishes.

Categorization procedure was studied by different theories:

• Nominalism – similarity of things and their belonging to the same category is determined thanks to name.

• Realism – categories originates due to the objective state of things, that is some objects and things exist independently of our cognition. Language only denotes or marks everything what exist in the world.

• Conceptualism – words and units to which they refer are related between themselves by means of mental representation as a structure. Due to it we cannot put together such notions as dog and red colour.