Contrast in natural language concepts: An exemplar-based approach

Abstract

We examine the influence of contrast categories on the internal graded membership structure of natural language categories. To this end we contrast two exemplar models in their account of typicality: According to the GCM, typicality is the summed similarity towards all category members. According to the SD-GCM, typicality is determined by both the summed similarity towards all category members and the summed dissimilarity towards members of contrast categories. For five animal categories, we contrast the SD-GCM and the GCM in their account of typicality. Results indicate that the internal category structure can indeed be co-determined by dissimilarity towards potential contrast categories.


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