Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Linguistics, Language & Linguistics, prototype, stereotype, semantic norm, sociosemantics, division of linguistic labor, cooperation, authority, semantic conflict, rigid designation, COGNITION, LANGUAGE

Abstract:

© 2008 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. All rights reserved. The relationship between the concept of prototype as popularized by Eleanor Rosch and the concept of stereotype as defined by Hilary Putnam remains largely unexplored in the context of Cognitive Linguistics. The present paper is devoted to a comparison of both notions, with specific reference to the distribution of meaning in a linguistic community, i.e. to the notion of semantic norms. First, it is argued that prototype-theoretical research should abandon the naive idea of a completely homogeneous linguistic community. Second, it is shown that rigid designation and the division of linguistic labor (as associated with Putnam's approach) are logically independent, which means that Putnam's proposal for a sociosemantic theory needs to be amended. Third, an attempt is made to define a sociosemantic model that realistically expands Putnam's approach. The model takes into account three different types of sociosemantic forces: a semantics of cooperation (underlying prototype-based extensions of meaning as described by Renate Bartsch), a semantics of authority (as in Putnam's view on the division of linguistic labor), and a semantics of conflict and competition (as when semantic choices are implicitly questioned or explicitly debated).