Sociocultural Effects on the Perception of Prototype: A Case Study of the Concept ‟Family”

Ivica, Tina (author), Sicherl, Eva (mentor)

In this thesis, I will analyze the influence of sociocultural factors on the perception of prototypes. This research aims to provide theoretical and practical evidence and support for the hypothesis that different sociocultural factors play a major role in language, i.e. in perception, conceptualization, and categorization, which then leads to differences in the creation of prototypes. The leading and crucial chapters of this thesis are 2. Language and Thought, 3. Sociocultural Factors and Language, 4. Family and Language, and 5. The Experiment. While chapter 2. introduces the main idea of the thesis, chapters 3., 4. and 5. analyze sociocultural effects on language and more precisely on the perception of the concept ‘family’. Chapter 5. provides the experimental part of the thesis. Within the experiment, a questionnaire has been used to provide support for the claim that sociocultural factors influence people’s perception of the prototype ‘family’. The questionnaire results indicate that these factors do indeed impact one’s understanding and use of language. Furthermore, the results successfully support the main idea of this thesis.

• Language: English
• Keywords: language, sociocultural factors, culture, prototype, family, influence, conceptualization, perception, categorization
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2022
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-135091
• COBISS.SI-ID: 98835459
• Publication date in RUL: 22.02.2022

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Sociokulturni učinki na percepcijo prototipa: Študija primera koncepta ‟Družinaˮ

Abstract

V tej nalogi bom analizirala vpliv sociokulturnih dejavnikov na percepcijo prototipov. Namen raziskave je zagotoviti teoretične in praktične dokaze ter potrditi hipotezo, ki predvideva, da imajo različni sociokulturni dejavniki veliko vlogo pri jeziku, oziroma percepciji, konceptualizaciji in kategorizaciji, kar vodi k razlikam pri ustvarjanju prototipov. Vodilna in ključna poglavja naloge so 2. Jezik in misel, 3. Sociokulturni dejavniki in jezik, 4. Družina in jezik ter 5. Eksperiment. Poglavje 2. predstavlja uvod v glavno idejo naloge, poglavja 3., 4. in 5. pa analizirajo sociokulturne učinke na jezik, s poudarkom na percepciji koncepta ‘družina’. Peto poglavje vsebuje eksperimentalni del magistrske naloge. V njem predstavim vprašalnik, ki podpira trditvi, da sociokulturni dejavniki vplivajo na percepcijo prototipa ‘družine’. Rezultati vprašalnika pokažejo, da omenjeni dejavniki resnično vplivajo na razumevanje in uporabo jezika posameznikov. Poleg tega pa tudi uspešno potrdijo glavno idejo naloge.

• Keywords: jezik, sociokulturni dejavniki, kultura, prototip, družina, vpliv, konceptualizacija, percepcija, kategorizacija