Axiom of Predominance |
Working Definition:
The feature of a unit that predominates in one's perception of it characterizes one's sense of the behavior of the whole. In expressions about such experiences, the predominat feature is described in a metonymic manner.
Disciplinary Definitions:
See Lakoff on "prototypes" in categorization re: Eleanor Rosch Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things.
See "degrees of typicality" (Ungerer & Schmid, An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, 1996, 14ff) Ungerer, F., & Schmid, H.-J. (1996). An introduction to cognitive linguistics.Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited.
See Dawson, Understanding Cognitive Science, 1998, 44: The weight given to a particular PDP cognitive process produces different outcomes.
Comments:
The axiom of predominance needs to be distinguished from prototype theory. The former is a common aspect of description, the later a common aspect of categorization. Not all descriptions are used as definitions of categories.
The idea of "connection weights" (see Dawson, Understanding Cognitive Science, 1998, 44) works well with the analogy of the color spectrum as an illustration of the axiom of predominance.
Notes
Defining Feature: in the Smith Feature Overlap Model, the defining feature is the absolutely essential feature which is ranked as the top priority in a semantic feature list (Ashcraft, Fundamentals of Cognition, 173)
"Dichotomous Organization" or "matter of degree." (Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2002, 18). Langacker's criticism of dichotomies in linguistic description is that differences are often matters of degree. This fits quite well with the axiom of predominance or aop. His view is that rigidly defined dichoctomies, eg synchrony vs. diachrony, are false because the relation between the terms is more a matter of degree than a if x, then not y type of distinction.
"Entrenchment" (Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2002, 59) is the degree to which a speaker has mastered a linguistic unit.
Check:
Comm 594 notes on AOP & "axiom of predominance"
Tyrganiov's "Dominata"
(Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, 2002, 161ff.). technical terms restrict the expansion
of meaning and are networked instead of freely associated with other terms
(meanings).
jjs
TO RETURN TO READING, CLICK "BACK" ON YOUR BROWSER MENU.
last revised:
June 13, 2007
Send comments to jjs.
copyright © jjs, 2007