Treść książki

Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
2.Thetheory
31
aprimitive,cognitiveprocess.Thinkingalongtheselineshasenjoyedarather
longtraditioninphilosophyandpsychology:similarityhasbeenthoughtof
asanaturaloperationofthemind,oneoftheprinciplesofconnectingideas
(Hume1975[1739-1740]:662;histerm:resemblance),anelementarylaw(Mill
1843),anelementaryrelation(James1950[1890]:688),anepistemologically
primitiverelation(Carnap1967[1928]),afundamentalconceptintheoriesof
knowledgeandbehaviour(Tversky1977:327),onethatis“basic,primitive,
notfurtherexplicable”(Heil2003:151)and“centraltomanycognitiveproc-
esses”(SchweringandKuhn2009:30)orevento“allcategorisationprocesses”
(Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk,forthcoming).
However,thestatusofsimilarityasaprimitiveisnotsomethingthatis
advocatedunanimously.Forexample,Lewandowska-Tomaszczykfollowsthe
ideasofShepard(1987;cf.ChaterandVitányi2003:347),andtreatssimilarity
(resemblance)asafunctionofconceptualdistancewithinorbetweencon-
ceptualspaces,intheunderstandingofGärdenfors(2000)colour,shape,etc.
Sheusesthenotionofsimilaritytomodelthemetonymicnatureofmeaning
andcommunication:onlyaportionofthemeaninginthemindisactually
expressedanditisexpressedfromacertainpointofview(Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk2010addressestheprobleminthecontextoftranslation).
ForLewandowska-Tomaszczyk,then,meaningsarenetworksthatfall
withintheboundsimposedbytheupperandlowerlimits,theso-calledtoler-
ancespace.Ameaningisacceptableifitdoesnotexceedatolerancethreshold.
Inthisway,saystheauthor,speakersincommunicationreconstructmeanings,
approximateandenhancesimilaritybetweenthembyreducingthedistance
betweenthespeakerandhearer:
Itisargued...that,conceptually,similarityisamappingofphysicaldistanceon
aclinebetweentheSpeaker’sandAddressee’sconceptualspaces,containing
objects,relationsandevents.Discourseparticipantsmanipulatethedistance
eitherbyshorteningorbylengtheningit,eventhoughtheprototypicalinten-
tionoftheinteractantsistoreducethedistancebetweenmeanings...Theyuse
numerousstrategies(synonymy,paraphrase,polysemy,super-/subordinate
categorymembers,etc.)toachievethiscommunicativegoal.(Lewandowska-
Tomaszczyk,forthcoming)
Theauthorproposesparametersoftheapproximation,notingthat“resem-
blancesareculture-,context-and...speaker-specific”.Whilethisisunquestion-
able,MacLaury’spointisdiferent:conceptualizersdonotwanttoachievethe