Nouns denoting more than one species : A comparative approach (English/French) Célia Hoffstetter To cite this version: Célia Hoffstetter. Nouns denoting more than one species : A comparative approach (English/French). Humanities and Social Sciences. 2013. dumas-02047901 HAL Id: dumas-02047901 https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-02047901 Submitted on 25 Feb 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon NOUNS DENOTING MORE THAN ONE SPECIES : A COMPARATIVE APPROACH (E NGLISH /F RENCH ) Célia Hoffstetter Supervised by Laure Gardelle Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................................. 11 I. The classical approach to categorization ...................................................................... 11 1. Theoretical tenets ................................................................................................... 11 a. Essence and accidents ........................................................................................ 11 b. Basic assumptions .............................................................................................. 12 c. Abstractness ....................................................................................................... 13 2. Objections to the classical approach ...................................................................... 13 II. Prototype theory ........................................................................................................... 16 1. Theoretical tenets ................................................................................................... 16 a. “Principle of cognitive economy” and vertical dimension ................................. 16 b. “Principle of perceived world structure” and horizontal dimension .................. 18 c. Why prototype categories? ................................................................................ 20 2. Objections to the standard prototype theory .......................................................... 23 a. The nature of prototypes .................................................................................... 23 b. The notion of similarity, or resemblance ........................................................... 24 3. Attempts to reconcile prototype theory with the classical approach ..................... 26 a. Schemas .............................................................................................................. 26 b. Core and identification procedure ...................................................................... 28 c. Expert and folk categories .................................................................................. 28 III. Radial categories and the theory of idealized cognitive models ............................... 30 1. Idealized cognitive models .................................................................................... 30 a. Matches and mismatches between models ......................................................... 31 b. Cluster models .................................................................................................... 31 c. Metonymic models ............................................................................................. 32 2 2. Radial categories .................................................................................................... 32 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 32 b. Example .............................................................................................................. 33 3. “Addressing the problems with prototype theory” ................................................ 37 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................................. 39 I. Methodology and corpus presentation ......................................................................... 39 1. Corpus .................................................................................................................... 39 2. Methodology .......................................................................................................... 42 II. Nouns denoting animal species in general (without regard to sex or age) ................... 45 1. “Animal” ................................................................................................................ 45 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 45 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 47 2. “Creature” .............................................................................................................. 49 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 49 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 50 3. “Beast” ................................................................................................................... 53 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 53 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 55 4. “Pet” ....................................................................................................................... 57 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 57 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 57 5. “Deer” .................................................................................................................... 59 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 59 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 59 6. “Bug” ..................................................................................................................... 63 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 63 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 65 3 III. Nouns denoting either male or female animals ......................................................... 67 1. “Cock” & “hen” ..................................................................................................... 67 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 67 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 73 2. “Bull” and “cow” ................................................................................................... 79 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 79 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 81 3. “Dog” and “bitch” .................................................................................................. 83 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 83 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 84 4. “Tom” .................................................................................................................... 85 5. “Boar” and “sow”................................................................................................... 87 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 87 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 88 6. “Jack” and “jenny”; ”jack” and “gill”/“jill” ........................................................... 90 a. Definition ........................................................................................................... 90 b. Google search ..................................................................................................... 93 7. “Buck” and “doe”................................................................................................... 95 a. Definition ..........................................................................................................