The perceptual basis of the naive categorization of the objective world

The article examines how the sensually perceptible features of the object recorded in the meaning of lexical units of the language participate in the naive categorization of the objective world. When linguists study words as units of the lexical system and as units of speech, they could find out what knowledge about the object was spotted by a native speaker and what role it plays in the fact that the object was identified as an element of a particular class. Thus it is possible to access the structure of categories into which reality is divided, and also to determine their content and principles of formation. The author believes that lexical categories are categories of an analog type, since lexical units of the language do not divide reality into categories, and are a means of nomination which reflects the results of the cognitive operations of categorization. Strict separation of categorization as a cognitive process and nomination as a linguistic process and the recognition of their correlation are the methodological basis of this work. The contexts in which concrete nouns with the semantics of an object are used served as the material of the article. Only through context we can see exactly why a person relate certain objects to one class. When native speakers talk about why objects have such names or why they are to be called so, they explicate the cognitive process of categorization and its reason. Pointing to the object attributes that motivate the choice of a particular name, speakers refer to properties of things they pay attention to during categorization. Dictionary definitions do not provide such data for a number of reasons. Studying statements in natural language allows, on the one hand, to obtain reliable information about structuring the world and, on the other, to specify the amount of information about the object that is relevant from a cognitive point of view and important for lexicography. The author came to the following results. It has been confirmed that (1) perceptual information plays an important role in the identification of an object as a representative of a certain class. All senses are involved in the perception of such information; (2) the sensuously perceived features of an object (shape, color, size, smell, sound, nature of the surface structure, etc.) can be used comprehensively during categorization. For the first time it has been proved that (1) sensuously imperceptible signs can not be considered in naive categorization, even if they are relevant. This causes differences in the content, scope and structure of the naive and scientific category; (2) sensuously perceived irrelevant features of the object may be considered for inclusion in the naive category if they are firmly associated with a naive view of this class, represent it and if in everyday life they are interpreted as visible and distinctive.

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