A COMPARASION ON THE PROTOTYPES IN TURKISH AND TAIWANESE

Categorization has been very important in the fields of Cognitive Science and Linguistics. Each of the linguistic units in our languages is relative to categorization. Researches in categorization, therefore, can help us to understand how human thinks and how our brains work. Categorization has been unquestionable for thousands of years under the effect of the Greek philosopher Aristoteles. Years after, since the researches of Rosch, categorization became a topic under examination again. In Turkey, Gökmen 2013, Seferoğlu 1999 and Önal 2012 had done many researches on categorization. However, although many researches in different languages have been done, there are only a few on the comparison of prototypes between different cultures. In this paper, the prototypes of vegetable, bird, fruit, fish, relatives, instrument, tree, dessert, and beverage will be examined again in Turkey and Taiwan. In this research the internal structures of categorization; the sequences, numbers and frequencies of the members; the relationships under categories; and basic levels of turkish and taiwanese being tested, the influence of geographies, cultures, and living styles between the two culture will be studied. Any other new discoveries will too be mentioned in this paper.