Absolute categories and relative categories

절대범주와 상대범주

The purpose of this paper is to provide two levels of conceptualization of a category such as an absolute category in semantic level and a relative category in pragmatic level on the basis of Aristotelian category theory and prototype category theory. I do not intend to criticize classical category theory and prototype category theory but to show that these two types of category are applied to the different world. Aristotelian categorization is an absolute category because it is based on the possible world called the meta-world and it has an absolute truth value. The members of an absolute category is presented as a set. There is a clear boundary between members and non-members because they are distinguished by the absolute criteria An absolute category is semantic conceptualization. This absolute category is changed into a relative category when it is applied in the real world. A relative category which corresponds to a prototype category is based on the real world called the object world and it has a relative truth value. Here individuals are categorized by the cognition and perception of human beings. A relative category is pragmatic conceptualization. In conclusion, while classical categories which are called absolute categories represent sentence meaning, prototype categories which are called relative categories represent utterance meaning.