Thank you so much for these short lessons! Great for people who didn't get a chance to study the subject in college...(however, since when are bats birds?! And yes, penguins have specialized feathers.)
Regarding the classical theory, if some elements belonging to a word-set do not validate each given characteristic it doesn't mean that using characteristics is a bad way of defining a word, it simply means that the characteristics were not chosen wisely in the first place. In your example, "able to fly" should never have been a characteristic for bird in the first place. Moreover, in the prototypes theory, what determines wether an element is closely or loosely related to an exemplar are still characteristics/conditions. Thus, the Prototypes theory doesn't solve a problem, it just blends it into some rigor-lacking ideas. Also bats are most defenitely not birds.
Dear Sir As you have said there are problems in the prototype theory regarding the inclusion of penguin into a 'bird category' or 'animals that swim', how can that theory solve the problem of fuzziness and asymmetry? I would be highly privileged if you give me an answer. Regards Saji Krishna Pillai
Thank you so much professor. Actually, I'm working on professor Eleanor Rosch theory of "Categorization", and I would like you, please, to give me some suggestions about narrowed topics related to this theory to work on them in my Master thesis. Thank you.
