Undoubtedly, the prototype theory provided people a more objective and open perspective to observe and study language. Nevertheless, affirmation does not mean that it has been perfect. In the next, I would like to show the uncertain prototype member and fuzzy edge problems with a preliminary exploration.
2. 1 Prototype Uncertainty
The cognition linguist thought the prototype member’s prominent characteristic comes from three following origins:
For some certain area, the dominance is the inherent result of human perception. For example, the black and the white have the strongest dominance comparing to each kind of color, because human’s eyes are most sensitive to the optical frequencies of these tow color. So the black and the white have most dominance in a variety of colors. Therefore the dominance often plays a decisive role on overall perception.
What’s more, the highest frequency sometimes also means the prototype members. This kind of cognitive dominance was close related to human’s psychological schema and human’s familiarity with different objects. The object’s appearance frequency and people's familiar degree has the direct ratio. The object appears in higher frequency, human become more familiar to it and get more experience from it. So their cognitive dominance comes stronger. The other way around, the object appears in lower frequency, people feel more unfamiliar with it. So the strongly fuzzy object will become the edgy member of this category in people’s psychology scheme. So decreasing frequency also means decreasing dominance.
A member of the prototype in a certain category has most common attributes of this category. It is determined by two aspects. Firstly, the objective attributes, it means the inherent attributes in the object itself. People can feel it, feeling its respective differences in shape, color, size and so on. Secondly, the subjective attributes, people summarize the life experience then giving the subjective attributes to the object. For example, when talking about the automobile, the people can immediately associate the long shape of the body, four wheels, a steering wheel…, in addition, people also do not consciously think of the danger, because car accident and danger prone. This is the daily experience of people summed up. Overall, ‘the attribute is the object characteristic in people psychology manifesting; it is the result of the interaction between cognitive and objects itself. Therefore, the attribute has the subjectivity, multitalented, decomposability, and difference, concrete. This is the decisive factor of the prototype member’s stability and certainty’.
The cognitive linguistics holds empiricism views, it believes that the language is mainly acquired and based on experience[6]. None languages is inherent and independent mechanism in the brain but constructed through the interaction with objective world. Each object or phenomenon first affect in human’s sensory organ. Then, people begin to recognize them and sensate them, picking up those out-standings from various discrete materials and regarding them as the first prototype assessment essence. However, it is just this flexible prominent characteristic led to the formation of the uncertainties in determining the prototype members.
2. 2 Fuzziness of the category edge
We often encounter such a situation, you may know what the story is if people do not ask you what is the story, however, when people ask you what is the story, you may be difficult give a clear answer.
We can only say that some people are so defined while other person is defined like that. For the same thing, we often defined it both as broad and as narrow. But, how board can be board as well as how narrow can be narrow. We can hardly describe that clearly.
2. 2. 1 An extreme standpoint of Prototype Theory
In the process of category, because of the prototype members’ dominance in cognition, each prototype member is a cognitive reference point just like a nervous tissue, it enable us focusing on the prototype members of some relevant reasoning which is established in the reference to the prototype similarities and the crisscrossed similar network as well as the attribute. The category is the intrinsic structure which maintained by this similar relations. Therefore, this standpoint held by Wittgenstein, Rosch and some other scholars that those categories like game, furniture and fruit do not have any common attribute is too absolutely[7]. In the right criticism to the classical theory’s ignore on the experience of word meaning and their extremely idealized on semantic structure , the prototype theory now, moved into another extreme at the same time, they also go to the other extreme, that is, rejected the rational aspects of semantic.
2. 2. 2 The limited nature of the language symbol
Second, the language symbols are limited, non-continuous. When use this non-continuous and limited language symbols to carry the unlimited and continual outside world, it is sure to lead to the fuzziness category edge. In other words, the ideational function of language is just to use the orderly symbol system to load a disorderly world. However, the perceptible information is unlimited while the language symbol is limited. And the outside world is continuous, while the language symbol is non-consecutive. So, we can come to the concluding that it is the ultimate reason to the fuzzy category edge that use the limited and non-consecutive symbols to bearing the unlimited consecutive world.
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