Words, therefore, are more than simply labels for specific objects; they are also 20parts of ts of related principles. To a very young child, the word chair may at first refer only to his highchair. Soon afterward, he learns that the fged obje which his parents sit at mealtimes is also called a chair. So is the thing with only three legs, referred to by his parents 25as a broken chair, and so is the upholstered piece of furniture in the living room. The objects form a category, chair, which is t apart from all other categories by a unique bination of features. A chair must posss a at, legs, and back; it may also, but not necessarily, have arms; 30it must aodate only one person. An object that posss the features with but a single exception - it aodates three people - does not belong to the category chair but rather to the category couch, and that category in turn is described by a t of unique features.35
Furthermore, Ameris think of chairs and couches as beied to each other becau they both belong to a category known in English as houhold furniture. But such a relationship betweeegory chair and the category couch is entirely arbitrary 40on the part of English and some other speeunities. Nothing iernal world decrees that a language must place the two categories together. In some Afri speeunities, for example, the category chair would most likely be thought of iion to the category spear, sih are 45emblems of a ruler''s authority.
Words, therefore, are more than simply labels for specific objects; they are also 20parts of ts of related principles. To a very young child, the word chair may at first refer only to his highchair. Soon afterward, he learns that the fged obje which his parents sit at mealtimes is also called a chair. So is the thing with only three legs, referred to by his parents 25as a broken chair, and so is the upholstered piece of furniture in the living room. The objects form a category, chair, which is t apart from all other categories by a unique bination of features. A chair must posss a at, legs, and back; it may also, but not necessarily, have arms; 30it must aodate only one person. An object that posss the features with but a single exception - it aodates three people - does not belong to the category chair but rather to the category couch, and that category in turn is described by a t of unique features.35
Furthermore, Ameris think of chairs and couches as beied to each other becau they both belong to a category known in English as houhold furniture. But such a relationship betweeegory chair and the category couch is entirely arbitrary 40on the part of English and some other speeunities. Nothing iernal world decrees that a language must place the two categories together. In some Afri speeunities, for example, the category chair would most likely be thought of iion to the category spear, sih are 45emblems of a ruler''s authority.
The analysis of words by their categories for the purpo of determining what they mean to speakers of a particular language - that is, what the native speaker, and not some visiting linguist, feels are the 50distinguishiures or pos of that word - is known as "poial analysis" or "formal mantialysis." The aim, in brief, is to determihe pos or features that native speakers u to distinguish similar terms from one another so that more exact meanings be achieved.55