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A new definition is given of sign, sentence meaning, and word meaning. The qualia problem is discussed and all lexical words are considered predicates. A way out is shown for the problem of the synonymous circle in the description of lexical meanings. The views of Katz, Fodor, and Pustejovsky are discussed, as is the theory of lexical decomposition. The importance of prototypicality in word meaning is emphasized.

Among the factors that contribute to perceptions that a face is physically attractive are its overall proportion, its “averageness”/prototypically, and the presence of features which — for one's gender — are ideally sized in relation to each other. Being physically attractive in our culture confers many advantages, including greater popularity with peers, greater desirability as a dating partner, and preferential treatment in hiring, salary, and court decisions. In initial, mixed-sex interactions, women's physical attractiveness has a strong and pervasive positive impact. Men's physical attractiveness has an impact too, affecting how positive and intimate these interactions are. In general, people appear to disclose more to physically attractive opposite-sex strangers than to physically unattractive ones.

This chapter addresses the result that ‘ideal’ forms found in experiments on prototypicality judgments often become peripheral within the corpus distribution of their grammatical category. It shows that a bidirectional model of phonetic perception and production solves the paradox. In that model, corpus frequency shows the production process, whereas prototypicality judgments naturally obtain from a simpler process — the inverted perception process.

This chapter tests the predictions of three hypotheses about the acquisition of spatial adjectives—semantic feature hypothesis, haphazard example hypothesis, and best exemplar hypothesis—against longitudinal data from Dutch. The results suggest that none of the existing hypotheses can fully accommodate the naturalistic longitudinal data. An alternative usage-based approach is introduced in order to overcome the shortcomings of the three existing models. I claim that children store specific adjective–noun/object pairings from the input and start by reproducing these prefabs with the same communicative function as in the language they hear around them. This explains why relative frequencies of spatial adjectives in child speech are strongly correlated with child-directed speech and why children often use spatial adjectives to express contrast. After having stored a critical mass of exemplars, toddlers start generalizing over the specific instances. This stage is characterized by the formation of abstract semantic categories and by overgeneralization (combinability) errors.

This argues against the common grouping of names with nouns, and presents previous alternative views. Names have been characterized as one of the three types of definite referring phrases: names, personal pronouns, definite determiner phrases. A revised characterization in notional dependency grammar groups names with pronouns and determiners as determinatives. But names differ from other determinatives by being inherently nondefinite: they do not always refer (cf. vocative and nominations). This grouping has the major drawback (addressed in Chapter 4) that, while determiners govern nouns, the remaining names and pronouns do not govern. The argument distinguishes lexical (or typically ‘contentful’) and functional primary categories. Secondary categories reflect the prototypical notional character of a primary category. They have a role in allowing referentiality to names. They can play a part in conversion of lexical items from one primary category to another.

This chapter studies the etiologies of genocide and mass atrocity and argues that self-exhibitionism provides a theoretical basis for interpreting the macabresque as a discrete phenomenon in mass atrocity violence. It also engages social constructionism in group dynamics through the concept of prototypicality. The chapter provides a critique of methodological simulation in social and political psychology, specifically, findings that emphasize obeisance, obedience, and obsequiousness found in the works of Milgram, Zimbardo, and others. It also provides a critical survey of a wide range of theoretical perspectives on collective violence, mass atrocity, and war to demonstrate their methodological inadequacies and analytical frailties in the absence of a sustained focus on emotional psychology and the psychodynamics of desire. The analysis introduces the concept of akrasia and akratic willfulness in order to outline a theory of absolute power.