Discrete dimension accessibility in multidimensional concepts
The noun-adjective distinction
Previous studies have identified that conceptual categories corresponding to nouns exhibit semantic domain effects: (1)
classification into biological ones reflects a non-additive consideration of their defining dimensions whereas classification into
artefactual and, presumably, social nouns is based on an additive one (2) nominal biological concepts are less graded than
artifacts. Nevertheless, much uncertainty exists about the structure of conceptual categories corresponding to multidimensional
adjectives. We propose that the effects observed for concepts corresponding to nouns are connected to a property we term
discrete dimension accessibility and ask how it is manifested in multidimensional concepts corresponding to
adjectives. We then hypothesize that (a) ratings of dimension-counting structures can be used as a diagnostic for these properties
(b) the dimensions of multidimensional concepts corresponding to adjectives are inherently discrete. We report an acceptability
rating experiment involving 42 adult Hebrew speakers revealing that with nouns, dimension-counting constructions with artefactual
and social predicates are rated higher than ones with biological predicates, hence confirming (a). With adjectives, ratings for
dimension-counting constructions remained high across the domain manipulation, hence confirming (b). We argue that the interaction
between discrete dimension accessibility and lexical category indicates that lexical distinctions interact with conceptual ones.
Article outline
- Category classification and dimensions
- Domain effects on classification
- Nouns and adjectives
- The noun/adjective distinction and discrete dimension accessibility
- Are adjectival dimensions inherently discrete?
- Current study
- Experiment
- Participants
- Methods
- Materials
- Pretest: Copula inclusion
- Design and procedure
- Results
- The overall model
- Predicate type × Domain × Structure
- Structure and domain in nouns
- Structure and domain in adjectives
- Control items
- Do artefactual and social categories pattern the same?
- Discussion
- Implications for models of lexical categorization
- Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (94)
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