Linguistic Fuzziness From The Perspective Of Gestalt Theory

The phenomenon of fuzziness in language has been noted by philosophers andlinguists for a long time, whereas systematic and specialized studies began only afterFuzzy Sets Theory put forward by Zadeh. Since then, fuzzy linguistics, as aninterdisciplinary subject, has been one of the major concerns for experts both at homeand abroad, who have probed into the fuzziness in language from various aspects. Sofar, studies conducted in this field are mainly from the perspective of semantics, witha few from that of pragrnatics. In regards to the causes of linguistic fuzziness,different interpretations have been provided. Some think that fuzziness results fromthe fuzziness of objects. Some ascribe it to the limitation of human Cognition. Othershold that it is because of the fuzzy nature of lansigns. Still others, based on the threejust mentioned, argue that the fuzziness of language is determined by all the threeelements and it is the outcome of the cognitive interaction between subjects andobjects.This paper will try to interpret fuzziness of categories from the perspective ofGestalt theory through analyzing and expatiating the features of the category inhuman cognition with its basic principles.Gestalt theory is originated in the study of perception, which provides supportsfor its most important principles, although it is not merely a doctrine of perception,while perception, as the point where human cognition begins, does contribute a greatdeal to human cognition. So we argue that we can't possibly have a full study of thecategorial fuzziness, which is actually a matter of human cognition, without referringto those Gestalt principles. In other words, we think that those principles can, in acertain sense, explain the phenomenon of fuzziness in natural language. So what thisthesis targets is to discover some aspects of linguistic fuzziness through Gestaltprinciples.Gestalt theory, intended originally for psychology, emphasizes the integralstructure (Gestalt structure) of mental activity, arguing that the primary characteristics of psychological phenomenon are structuredness and integrity reflected in theexperience of cognition, the whole is not simply the sum total of its parts andpsychological process itself is a process of organization, by which an incomplete orunsteady structure is formed based on the cognition of the Gestalt structure of theobject. According to Gestalt psychologists, what is perceived is more than what isseen by our eyes; every component of an experienced phenomenon is connected withother components and therefore they have its own feature; the whole formed in thisway is not determined by its parts while parts are determined by the internal featuresof the whole.Based on this, through investigation on the limitations of the present studies oncategories, the thesis argues that categories in natural language are abstractgeneralization on objects in human mind during the process of experiencing theoutside world and have the feature of Gestalt structure. The category in mind is notjust the sum total of its members in the mode of a mathematical set, but an integrationstructured by Gestalt principles. Grounded on this hypothesis, the thesis begins withthe analysis on child's categorization to illustrate the functions of Gestalt principles inthe categorization at the basic level, proposing a different understanding thatprototypes of a basic category are certain objects in real world that people experienceat the initial steps of categorization, and, through the integration of their features byGestalt principles, an abstract image, which is called proto-image in this thesis, isformed in mind to be a measure in judging whether an object is a member of thecategory.The observation on basic categories suggests that this judgment is processedflexibly in human brain through Gestalt principles as opposed to the artificialintelligence; proto-images have a dynamic feature, especially at the initial steps ofcategorization, though they may be relatively stable later, i.e. when a new object isclassified into a category, the proto-image of the category may be modified by thefeatures of this new member through Gestalt principles. Therefore, the proto-image isfurther called "dynamic proto-image" in this thesis. It is one of the key differences between human brain and the artificial intelligence in promoting constantly thecognition of the outside world in the process of cognition.Based on the interpretation of categories, we arrive at the conclusion that degreeof membership is a reflection of certain distance a member has in similarity to theproto-image. One of the main functions that Gestalt principles have in categorizationis to allow people to skip over differences on a certain scale between an object and theproto-image to classify it into the category. When the difference is considerablyobvious, certain hedges are employed to modify the object so as to narrow thedistance in similarity psychologically for an easy acceptance of the object as amember of the category. As to fuzziness concerning quantity or degree, it is arguedthat we always interpret it in a figure-and-ground mode. Accurate numbers do notalways matter much in our understanding of the terms concerning quantity or degree.Grounded on those findings, it is pointed out finally that it is the conflict betweenthe complexity of human Gestalt cognition and the insufficiency of language indescription that produces fuzziness.The whole thesis falls into four parts:In Chapter 1, we talk about overall introduction to this thesis concerning origin,significance, objectives and organization.A brief review is given on the studies in the field of fuzziness both at home andabroad in Chapter 2.Chapter 3 is devoted to the illumination of our new understanding of fuzziness,beginning with the introduction to Gestalt principles and categorization, continuingwith the observation of basic categories and ending with our new discovery.Chapter 4 is the conclusion of this thesis, in which the limitations of the thesisare pointed out and future studies are planned.