概念拓扑同化论

The Conceptualization Mechanism of Topological Assimilation

概念是由拓扑属性、拓扑变体和拓扑等效体组成的三元结构;拓扑属性普遍存在于人类的经验世界。人类将纷繁多变的经验同化为拓扑属性并整合成为概念内核,也因此而将拥有共同拓扑属性的不同事物同化,用相同的语词表达。这个概念化机制就是拓扑同化机制(MTA)。它有两个基本过程和方式,即原生同化和次生同化,分别形成原生概念和次生概念;拓扑同化过程具有灵活性:因为人的认知能力、目的和同化视点不同,形成的概念和范畴具有多样性;MTA为人类概念化、范畴化、范畴的隐喻扩展提供了统一的认知机制。通过讨论经典范畴理论、家族相似性理论和原型理论,分析词义范畴的隐喻扩展,本文认为MTA弥补了现有理论的部分不足,深化了对人类概念化和范畴化的认识。

A concept is a ternary structure composed of topo-attributes, topo-variants and an equivalent topo-phantom; Topo-attributes exist universally in our experienced world. They are topologically assimilated from ever-changing experiences and integrated as the kernel of a concept. The assimilation of them induces our seeing different experiences with common attributes as identical and expressing them using the same word. This conceptualization mechanism is the mechanism of topological assimilation （MTA）. Topo-assimilation has two basic processes： primordial and secondary assimilafiori, forming respectively primordial and secondary concepts. It has great flexibility, producing diversified concepts and categories, depending on our cognitive ability, purposes and assimilation viewpoints, etc. ; MTA is a unified cognitive mechanism dominating conceptualization, categorization and the metaphoric extension of a category. Based on a critique of the classical theories, the family resemblance theory and the prototype theory, and a brief analysis of metaphoric extension of lexical categories, this paper suggests that MTA may make for part of the deficiencies in the three and help gain a deeper insight into human conceptualization and categorization.