In this paper, we offer an overview of available category norms and of methodology of their creation. In the second part of the paper, category norms for 12 categories in Czech are presented (i.e. an alcoholic beverage, a colour, a crime, a four-legged animal, a fruit, a metal, a part of the human body, a relative, a sport, a type of vehicle, a toy, a weapon). These norms are then analysed in relation with linguistic frequency and token length. The problems of correlating linguistic frequency which is based on corpus data with associative frequency which is based on category norms are discussed. Preliminarily, it seems that the members of more constrained categories are in a closer relation to each other and activate each other more strongly than members of more open categories. This can be explained based on the principles of the Spreading Activation Theory of Semantic Processing (Collins — Loftus, 1975).
The present text is focused on the pilot data collection which is the first part of the research on language acquisition in children. This acquisition research is aimed especially at semantic feature production and the acquisition of depth of meaning. The goal of the research is to collect a substantial amount of data to create a battery of semantic features in children. This battery is to become a tool for examining children’s vocabulary. The test group consists of children aged eight to nine. In a pilot data collection, children’s preferences for linear or nonlinear record of semantic features were tested. The second form (which is nonlinear and requires children to write semantic features in columns) is widely used in both Czech and foreign research environments. Three approaches to the data collection were tested. For the purpose of our research, some specific code rules were devised and designed to register the semantic information obtained. Some statistical calculations were made as well, which allows to create a notion about feature representations and also about relations between features and concepts.
The paper deals with (meta)linguistic categorization and its role in linguistic/grammatical research. Following the presentation of the starting point on how to assess distinct categorizations, it is shown how the absence or presence of theoretical positions on categorization in languages (structuralism, generativism, usage-based approaches) affects linguistic descriptions, and examples of inconsistencies are also presented. Subsequently, it is suggested a new categorization perspective can be used to overcome existing categorizations. The paper also presents the position that the study of language concerns causal processes applied in multiple frames and concludes that doing distinct and compatible categorizations can truly serve as a spiritus agens of new findings in linguistics.
This article deals with the Czech reflexive form se and its categorization from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. It is argued that in Old Czech, the reflexive was clearly a pronoun because it could be used in a number of contexts that are indicative of its having a syntactic function, e.g. in the context of coordination. Since then, however, the reflexive se has been gradually losing its pronominal nature, being replaced in pronominal contexts by the (originally genitive) form sebe. This process has not been completed yet, hence in contemporary Czech, the reflexive has both pronominal features and features of a morpheme/particle. It thus cannot be discretely categorized; such a categorization would be an inadequate oversimplification because it would necessarily ignore some of the features of the reflexive. Therefore, instead of asking whether the form se is a pronoun or a morpheme/particle in contemporary Czech, I try to answer the question of what pronominal and what non-pronominal features it has.
The aim of this paper is to outline, comment upon and illustrate some new subjects (prototypicality, cognitive models, etc.) which cognitive linguistics offers to the traditional theory of terminology and to the semantic analysis of specialized terms. The paper therefore deals with questions such as: What significance does cognitive information (reflecting a naïve, non-specialized view of the world) have for terms? How can such information be used in the study of categorization and conceptualization of the contents of terms? By making use of findings from both traditional lexicology and semantics and from the cognitive sciences, and by using medical terminology as its material, the paper presents the processes of direct and indirect nomination as they relate to terminologization and determinologization. A selection of terms and names relating to the human body, its parts and organs and to human health or diseases is used to confront the scientific and cognitive approaches. The theoretical starting point, concerning the task of corporeality in human cognition, is applied in the analysis of the different kinds of reflection of cognition in medical terminology. The processes of categorization and nominalization of objective reality are also considered as they are reflected in the onomasiological structures of terms.
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