Reflections on the “ad hoc categories”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2785-0943/19288Keywords:
category, categorization, prototype, general extenders, collective nouns, languaging activityAbstract
This article is a reflection on the concept of ad hoc categories (AHCs) as developed in a copious number of recent publications. The article refers to well-known concepts such as prototype, and theoretical frameworks such as cognitivism, and construction grammar, which are shortly presented in section 1 inasmuch they may concern the discussion of AHCs and are preliminary to such a discussion. Section 1 deals with the definition(s) of category, section 2 presents the notion of AHC, section 3 deals with different types of AHC, and section 4 discusses some problems connected to this notion and its possible limits. Section 5 is the conclusion that can be drawn from the previous reflections.
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