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SCIENTIFIC SERIES
“COGNITIVE STUDIES OF LANGUAGE”

PROBLEMS OF CATEGORIZATION OF ARTIFACTS IN LANGUAGE (case study of drinks denominations)

PROBLEMS OF CATEGORIZATION OF ARTIFACTS IN LANGUAGE (case study of drinks denominations)


Author:  D.A. Morel Morel

Affiliation:  Belgorod State National Research University

Abstract
The present paper analyses existing approaches to artifacts categorization and concomitant complications using drinks as a sample. To resolve revealed contradictions the author analyses lexicographic data and the results of his own experiment (open questionnaire survey of 100 students, method of free categorization, interview). Differences of drinks categorization in the Russian language at the level of national and group world views are shown. Peculiarities intrinsic to students’ way of categorizing drinks are revealed on syntagmatic, lexical and semantic levels. The conclusion of French researchers that the category in question has non-hierarchical inner structure is corroborated. Respondents’ main approaches to drinks categorization and its multicriteria nature are revealed.

Keywords:  categorization, artifact, drinks, world view, linguistic representation, prototype theory, hierarchism, thesaurus

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