    # KEHOME/knowledge/theory/NaturalSemanticMetalanguage/prototype.html
    # Oct/10/2003

# Prototypes and Invariants

## Basic Ideas

- When people think of concepts, they think of prototypes. But the invariants of a prototype are not the invariants of a concept.
- Matching a prototype is a sufficient, but not necessary, condition for a unit to be subsumed under a concept.

## Examples

bird prototype
  X is a typical bird =
  X can fly
  X has feathers
  ...
bird definition
  X is a kind of bird =
  when people think of X, they think of a typical bird
  some X can't fly
  some X don't have feathers
  ...

## References

1. Anna Wierzbicka, "Semantics: Primes and Universals", Oxford University Press, 1996.
   Chapter 4.

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