6 Ways of classification: German Art and Typ

Abstract

In this paper, the meaning and use of the two taxonomic nouns Art and Typ in German is examined from the point of view of semantics/pragmatics. It is hypothesized that Art and Typ differ in their way of classification: Classification by Art refers to (natural) kinds, and thus individuals belonging to an Art share essential properties that are closely connected to lexical meanings. Classification by Typ, on the other hand, refers to classes in arbitrary (artificial) systems, and tokens of a Typ match a model or prototype represented by the Typ. This entails that while classification by Art makes use of linguistic knowledge in a broad sense, classification by Typ tends to be based on expert-knowledge. The hypothesis was successfully tested against lexicographic data and corpus data and was, moreover, subject of an online experiment. The experimental results not only confirmed the hypothesis, but in addition provided insight into subtle differences between classification by Art and by Typ in cases in which, at first sight, both ways of classification appear equally appropriate. The findings on the difference in meaning of Art and Typ are finally considered against the background of the notions of kind and type as used in formal semantics, highlighting their respective role in semantic theory.