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2.Thetheory
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Theseprocessesarehiddencognitions,whoseexistenceispostulatedon
thebasisofobservablelinguisticbehaviourscalledentailments.Onlevel1the
categoryisendowedwithafocus(i.e.theprimaryinherentlyfixedcoordinate
asthestartingpoint)andthroughatentiontosimilaritywitharange:
acertainnumberofcolourstimuliareperceivedassimilartotheBufocus.
Onceatentiontosimilarityweakenssufcientlyfordiferencetobecomemore
prominentonlevel2,thecategoryreceivesitsboundaryormargin.
Crucially,thevalueofthewholearrangementderivesfromallofitslevels
asacoherentwhole,eventhoughonlyonelevelisfocusedonatanysingle
moment:
Becauseapersoncanconcentrateononlyonelevelatatimeononlyone
ground-figurerelationatanyinstanttheotherlevelwillberememberedas
apresupposition...Theleveloutofconcentrationispresupposedbythelevelin
concentrationbecausethecoordinatescompriseaclosedsystemofparameters...,
inwhicheachpartislinkedtotheothersandsoimpliestheirexistenceeven
whenaparticularpartisnotatthecenterofawareness.(MacLaury2002:496)
TheBLUEcategorythusmodelledischaracterizedbyonlyonearrange-
mentofcoordinates,onepointofvieworvantage.Buttheremaybemorethan
one,eachbeingreferredtowithaseparateterm.Suchisforinstancethecase
withCOOL(usuallyblue-green)orWARM(usuallyyellow-red)categoriesin
anumberofworldlanguages.AsanexampleconsidertheCOOLcategoryin
Zulu(theBantugroup,Niger-Congofamily),inFigure1-3.
Entailments
focus,range
breadth
margin
Gn
DOMINANT
FC
Bu
VANTAGE
S
hlaza
S
MC
Gn
D
Levels
1
2
3
Gn
RECESSIVE
FC
Bu
VANTAGE
D
kosazana
MC
D
Bu
S
Entailments
focus,margin
curtailment
range
Figure1-3.ModellingoftheZuluCOOLcategoryinVT
however,itfallsoutsidethefocusofthepresentwork,somediscussionwillonlybeoferedon
therelationshipbetweensimilarityandcognitivedistanceinsection2.4.