[Sigia-l] graded categories?

[Skot Nelson]

On Mar-5-2006, at 5:08 PM, Eric Scheid wrote:

> Lakoff?

Nice pointer. Interesting reading. I had never heard the name before  
-- my friends are Chomsky obsessives.

> I'm looking for short, simple examples to explain the concept to a lay
> person.

Well, after Googlé-ing a bit I settle on this as nice:
http://semanticcompositions.typepad.com/index/2004/09/ 
what_george_lak.html

and he uses Birds as an example. Very short excerpt:
>> A chicken, for example, is less characteristic of our mental  
>> prototype of a bird -- it can't fly all that far, and the  
>> proportions of the body are rather different than those of  
>> sparrows or robins. Compared to ostriches, though, chickens are  
>> positively prototypical.


> Examples of an obviously graded category, and examples of
> not-so-obvious graded categories, and examples of not-graded-at-all
> categories.

In the modern digital world, I find the word "Photograph" to be  
increasingly graded. I shoot film, tend to scan straight and not  
process beyond colour levels and saturation. I consider this still a  
"Photograph." Others create complex digital composites of multiple  
photographs and consider the final result a "Photograph."

Of course, in the Princess Bride Miracle Max considers death a graded  
category, and pronounces Cary Elwes "Mostly Dead." I'm not so sure  
this is a good example...