Categories of fruit and vegetables: Attributes and definitions in Serbian
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: According to the results of an empirical investigation performed by E. Rosch and K. Mervis (1975), the prototype structures of the categories FRUIT and VEGETABLES, the two superordinate and neighbouring categories with no clear-cut boundaries between them, are formed by family resemblances. Each category has only two attributes ('(part of) a plant' and 'edible') which are common to all its members and yet not sufficient to define the category and separate it from other categories of edible (parts of) plants. Through the analysis and comparison of a number of definitions for FRUIT and VEGETABLES (obtained in a questionnaire-based survey from a hundred native speakers of Serbian; taken from Lexicography and Conceptual Analysis by A. Wierzbicka; taken from five general dictionaries of the Serbian language), the author of this paper attempts to determine the group of attributes that could play a key role in differentiating the observed categories and to search for the most appropriate way to define the two categories in Serbian which would hopefully be acceptable to both modern (prototype) semantics and practical lexicography.
Author: Dilparić Branislava M.
Institution: University of Prishtina
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4404944129