Yaacov pulls a tu-quoque on the Classical Theorist.
O&S charge that Prototype Theory cannot handle conceptual combination--STRIPED
APPLE, PET FISH, etc.--and they're right. But they imply that the
CT is better off in that regard, and Yaacov argues that it's (emphatically)
not. The intersection model doesn't work well for CT either: LUNCH
BOX, DESK CHAIR, KITCHEN CABINET, BUS STATION, COFFEE TABLE, LOGIC BOOK,...,
and my favorite, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER.
Yaacov's complaint is presaged by O&S
themselves, in fns 8 (p. 267) and 12 (p. 272); they say there are kinds
of problems they "will not consider." Their tone suggests
that they're just being nice to PT, in that they could have gone on and
bashed PT with those further kinds of counterexamples as well. Their
examples are GOOD COUNTERFEIT DOLLAR and SMALL GALAXY, for which, they
point out, PT would give the wrong values. O&S fail to notice
that COUNTERFEIT DOLLAR alone is a counterexample, since a counterfeit
dollar is not a dollar at all, not just not a good one. Cf. FAKE
FUR, IMITATION PEARLS.
What these examples have in common with Yaacov's
is that they are all nonintersective or nonconjunctive. (I'll
say a combination FG is intersective/conjunctive iff to be FG is just to
be F and be G.) There are many different types of nonconjunctive
concept. One type is generated by the nullifying modifiers such as
"counterfeit," "fake," et al. Another type involves so-called "attributive
adjectives" such as "small." A small G is not something that is small
and is a G, but rather something that is a G and is small for a G
--hence "small galaxy," "small moose," etc. A third type involves
functional modification: A lunch box is a box used for [carrying]
lunch, not something that is both a lunch and a box. There are many
more types here. (A Paul Ziff example: Contrast OIL CAN, OIL LAMP,
OIL PAINTING.) Analogical predication, a favorite Yaacov topic, plays
a role.
Yaacov is right in contending that CT does
no better by nonconjunctive combinations than does PT. But I think
he does not give O&S full credit. For they're right to maintain
that for conjunctive concepts, CT does better than PT. And
their examples are conjunctive: STRIPED APPLE, PET FISH. This is
still a victory for CT.
It was a tiny bit self-serving of O&S
to rule nonconjunctive combinations out of consideration, because as Yaacov
has shown, CT does no better with them than does PT. Also, Yaacov
might be right to say that once we see how many conceptual combinations
are nonconjunctive in the first place, O&S's victory over PT is small
to the point of insignificance. It remains to be seen, since
maybe classical semantics will go on to do better by the nonconjunctive
combinations than PT can, once it addresses them. (For a survey of
some of the nonconjunctive combinations and an excellent classical-semantic
approach to them, see Romane Clark, "Concerning the Logic of Predicate
Modifiers," Noûs 4 (1970). Of course, that is about
linguistic meanings, not directly about anything psychological.)