[Sigia-l] graded categories?

[Eric Scheid]

On 6/3/06 8:50 AM, "Donna" <donna at maadmob.net> wrote:

> Actually, I don't think there is real gradation in this example.
> You eat vegetables only, you eat meat only, or you eat both. Neat
> boundaries. I don't even think that some animals are more central
> or prototypical. I'm thinking there would only be gradation if
> there are things like animals who are usually carnivores, but will
> eat vegetable matter in extreme situations. and I don't know if
> there are animals like that.

Wild dogs are mostly carnivores, but they will eat grass if they are feeling
unwell. Domesticated dogs get fed lots of vegetables and grains in their
diet, and so I would think would be classed as omnivores.

See, this is an example of gradation, but it's not a great example because
it goes counter to common thought. What's an example of a graded category
where even non-linguisticians go "oh, yeah, that's graded" (but in their own
words ;-)

A classic example of graded categories might be colours: red, green, blue.
There's literally a spectrum of gradation in there, and most lay people
would understand that.

e.