Colloque

The Potential Significance and Different Levels of Prototypes

John Gallup

Membre a labase

John Gallup

Résumé du colloque

The prototype of the potential significate of English words is somewhat different from the prototype of French or Slavic words. All three varieties of words presuppose a common synchronic prototype composed of the necessary and sufficient conditions of the potential significate of any Indo-European word. The conditions exclusively proper to an English word are posterior and accidental to those that allow and oblige us to compare it with words belonging to other branches of I.E. When trying to explain clearly the potential significate of any English word, one must consciously discover at least two different levels of necessary priorities. Experimentally, moving from the more easily observable effects to the less easily observable prior conditions, one becomes conscious first of those necessary to the limited English prototype before distinguishing those other prior conditions common to every I.E. word. It is only by possessing personally a good grasp of the I.E. prototype that one is capable of scientifically explaining by beginning from the more necessary prior conditions and advancing to the less necessary.