Open AccessThe Semantic Study of Generics
Author(s) -
Zhengling Fu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal for the study of english linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2329-7034
DOI - 10.5296/jsel.v4i1.9380
Subject(s) - metonymy , generalization , categorization , expression (computer science) , cognition , type (biology) , computer science , psychology , linguistics , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , cognitive psychology , epistemology , philosophy , biology , programming language , ecology , metaphor , neuroscience
This paper makes efforts to reveal cognitive motivation of generics, holding that generics and metonymy are the same in the aspect of categorization and generalization, that generics’ economy expression and incomplete statements are closely related to human’s innately given capacity to generalize from instance to type, or from subtype to type, and communicating economically with least efforts and least expression is universally accepted rather than the vise verse.