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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 206 (2015) 30 – 35

XV International Conference "Linguistic and Cultural Studies: Traditions and Innovations”, LKTI
2015, 9-11 November 2015, Tomsk, Russia

Categories of Immaterial Objects in Mind and Language

Galina Galicha, Natalia Shnyakinab*
a
Omsk State University after F.M. Dostoevsky, 17a ul. Mira, Omsk, 644050, Russia
b
Omsk State Pedagogical University, 14 Naberezhnaya Tukhachevskogo, Omsk, 644099, Russia

Abstract

Study of major ontological categories as a form of knowledge and finding the characteristics of their objectivation in language is
one of the most promising areas of cognitive linguistics. It is related to the functions of categories in cognitive processes in
general: their role in structuring and organizing knowledge, as well as in reflecting the significance of summarizing categorical
concepts for the disclosure of the structure of the linguistic world view. The set of these categories is still not worked out, some
of them must be first preliminary researched. Categories of immaterial objects, represented in German by the nouns
«Eigenschaft» - «property», «Qualität»- «quality», «Merkmal» - «attribute», «feature», «sign», «Erscheinung» – «event» and
«Zustand» - «state», which are dialectically interconnected and described in detail in the philosophical literature, are of interest to
linguists, because the study of word combination nominating these categories enables the scientist to understand the problem of
intercategorial relations in linguistic thinking.

© 2015
© 2015TheTheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of LKTI 2015.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of LKTI 2015.
Keywords: Category; categorisation; immaterial objects; intercategorial relations; attribute; property; feature; event; state; objectivation in
German.

1. Introducation

One of the most complicated problems of modern cognitive science and cognitive linguistics as its special branch
is the study of the architecture of cognition, categorical organization of human sphere of concepts and language. The

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zeral@list.ru (N. Shnyakina).

1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of LKTI 2015.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.10.015
 Galina Galich and Natalia Shnyakina / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 206 (2015) 30 – 35 31

solution of this problem is related to the question: which are the general mental structures between nominations in
the proposition and general knowledgebase.
Today there is no clarity even about the name of such general structures, let alone the principles of their
organization. The most acceptable word could be the traditional term “category”, which dates from the categories of
Aristotle and means some generalizations formulated about the human being and the continuum of speech. The list
of these categories is not developed yet; some of them must be first researched (Jackendoff, 1983). Meanwhile
among the cognitive categories, represented in the speech, may be mentioned those, which represent “something”, in
other words, traditional ontological categories, and those, which represent the actual mechanisms of categorization:
procedural, operational or paradigmatic categories, which form the paradigm of the world cognitive mapping in the
structures of language (Galich, 2014, p. 150).
Many sciences use the term “category”: the variability of its understanding depends upon a science. There are
several kinds of categories: philosophical and logical, cognitive, notional, linguistic, grammatical and so on.
However, as a starting-point, the mental categories can be considered, which in different sciences have different
definitions, according to the problems and methods.
Cognitive linguistics attempts to understand natural categories of thought and language. Based on German
language, this article considers the categories of immaterial objects: “Eigenschaft”, “Qualität”, “Merkmal”,
“Erscheinung” and “Zustand”. As data for study serves expressions registered in linguistic corps of German (Das
Digitale Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache; Deutscher Wortschatz - Portal - Universität Leipzig), which include
generalized, hyperonymical nominations of these categories. The sentences with verbalized elements of cognitive
situation are studied using the methods of cognitive and pragmatic interpretation of knowledge.
The research hypothesis is sensible of the fact that forms of natural language do not reflect the scientific
philosophical categories, but common structures of practical mind, naive thinking. Nevertheless, by selecting the
parameters (coordinates) for the interpretation of proposition the elements of scientific definitions of described
categories may be important. Such analysis seems to be productive for the study of immaterial objects that are
characterized primarily by the fact that their specific representatives, as a result of abstracting, exist in the real world
inseparably of their objects and get independent nominations in language: as adjective, substantive or verb (yellow,
yellowness, to appear yellow). Further, these specific designations may be related with generalized nominations of
the corresponding categories (Qualtät/Merkmal/Eigenschaft, Erscheinung/Zustand).

2. Background

Preliminary review of definitions of the categories “Eigenschaft”, “Qualität”, “Merkmal”, “Erscheinung” and
“Zustand” in philosophy is related to analysis and synthesis of diverse view points and allows final development of
possible coordinates for linguistic material interpretations. Scientists from different periods and different
philosophical trends made a lot of attempts to regulate the ontology of the world and to create a list of categories
that describes the main milestones of human existence. In the history of philosophical thought there is a clear
tendency of two kinds of being categories: the categories, which reflect the presence (existence, manifestation) of
something and categories of characteristic features of the object. For example, Aristotle said about the category of
«essence» and “quality” (Aristotle, 1978), in medieval scholasticism there were “being (essence)” and “quality”
(Filosofskij jenciklopedicheskij slovar', 2006), in the German classical philosophy the category of being involved
“quality”, “quantity” and “measure” (Gegel', 2010). In modern Western philosophy in B. Russell`s studies there are
categories “property”, “object”, “existence” (Rassel, 2002). In existentialism the categories “being” and “existence”
were the main ones (Hajdegger, 2003), in dialectical and historical materialism “quality” and “essence” were
distinguished among other categories (Materialisticheskaja dialektika (1981-1995).
Throughout the history of philosophy passes the fundamental division of the world: something from outside and
its inner being, its essence. In philosophy there are many paired categories (essence and phenomenon, quality and
quantity) or triads (things, properties and relations, quality, quantity and measure) by the structure of categorical
system, but such pairs or triads are not conducive to simple and clear definition of each category content. Some
philosophical definitions indicate that the selected for analysis categories are closely connected and are defined by
means of each other: the property is defined as “the quality, attribute, a distinctive feature of someone or somebody”
(Jwnciklopedicheskij slovar’, 2012). Quality is understood as “a combination or system or essential properties of the
32 Galina Galich and Natalia Shnyakina / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 206 (2015) 30 – 35

object” (Filosofija v alfavite, 2006).

Both quality and properties are inherent characteristics of the objects and it seems are not applied to the
characteristics such as, for example, «important», «beautiful» and so on, in other words, to those characters that a
person perceives by comparison with the standard norm and with the help of inferential knowledge. In this case we
are talking about the category «evaluative attribute», that is neither philosophical nor ontological, but rather a
category of thinking and interpretation (cognitive, paradigmatic). In philosophy under the «attribute» is meant
«property on which one perceives and finds out information about the subject» (Filosofskij jenciklopedicheskij
slovar’, 2006). A more general concept «attribute» is used mainly in research in psychology and linguistics. In
linguistic understanding the term «attribute» has more content, its function is not only to mark out something from
the universe of being, but to sign the presence of a subject, which can define the nature of things, because in fact, all
the signs, including perceived by the senses (length, size, color, hardness), in other words which form the essence of
the thing, are passed through the mind of a human.
The categories “quality”, “property” and “attribute” are closely related to the categories “event” and “state”.
“Event” is “detection of the essence of an object through the properties and relationships” (Jenciklopedicheskij
slovar’, 2012) or “something that is perceived by a person” (Biblejskaja jenciklopedija Brokgauza, 1999), this is a
“category of dialectics, indicating the outer side of the subject, in which finds itself the essence” (Andrejchenko &
Gracheva, 2001). And “essence”, in its turn, is understood as a “dialectical category, which reflects the basis of the
existence and development of the object, and which can be represented in the form of object properties and relations
…” [ibid]. Categories “event” and “essence” are traditionally understood in philosophy as two sides of the same
phenomenon. In the philosophical encyclopedia it is indicated that “essence” is the internal content of the object,
which is expressed in the unity of different and opposed forms of its existence; “event” is an expression of the object
the external form of its existence” (Filosofskij jenciklopedicheskij slovar’, 1983). The category “state” is a
“category of scientific knowledge, which characterizes the ability of the motion substance to manifest in various
forms with their inherent essential properties and relationships (Filosofskij jenciklopedicheskij slovar’, 1989)”.

3. Cognitive interpretation

The combination of categories and definitions of some categories over other in a philosophical sense, does not
give a clear picture of interaction of the corresponding mental structures. Thus, not the definition “manifestation of
the essence”, but the definitions in everyday meaning like “everything sensually perceptible” (Filosofskij
jenciklopedicheskij slovar’, 1983) or “direct reflection of things in sensory perception” (Tolkovyj slovar’ T.F.
Efremovoj, 2000) seem to be more informative for understanding the term “event”. This fact complicates the
interpretation of propositions with different lexical elements and understanding of specific content of each category.
This increases the importance of linguistic analysis of the facts of speech, which clarify the mental rules of
categorization (Dmitrenko, 2011; Miletova, 2012; Mironova, 2011; Shibkova, 2006; Paducheva, 2004; Panfilov,
1976). In particular, the study of substantive hyperonymic nominations of categories of immaterial objects and
relationships between them allows a number of new comments related to the specificity of their linguistic
representation.
Firstly, the language material allows understanding the difference between “Merkmal” and “Eigenschaft”,
“Merkmal” and “Zustand”, “Merkmal” and “Erscheinung”.
In the first opposition the “Merkmal” is understood as a certain characteristic of the object, which is a reflection
of its any property (in the following examples as such property is understood the creative or intellectual talents of a
person):
• Seit ihrem achten Jahre betätigte sie sich als Dichterin, und als sie vierzehn Jahre zählte, sammelte ihre
Großmutter alle in diesen sechs Jahren entstandenen Gedichte, die nach dem Urteil Sachverständiger alle den
Stempel des Kindlichen und doch zugleich das Merkmal einer dichterischen Begabung tragen, und übergab sie
der Öffentlichkeit.
• Nach Hume ist das Fehlen des Staunens das charakteristische Merkmal geringer intellektueller
Begabung.
In the context containing the generalized opposition nominations of categories “Merkmal” and “Eigenschaft”,
 Galina Galich and Natalia Shnyakina / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 206 (2015) 30 – 35 33

also is underlined the distinctively characteristic function of an attribute as a kind of typical feature, which is
manifested in a particular situation, and witch demonstrates the other, more general property of the cognizable
object:
• Würde besitzt ein Mensch sowieso nur dann, wenn diese durchaus seltene Eigenschaft ein Merkmal
seiner Haltung oder seines Charakters ist.
• 73 Prozent denken heute primär an das Merkmal «sparsam», hingegen nur zehn Prozent an die
Eigenschaft «erlebnisreich».
The manifestations of nominations “Eigenschaft” and “Merkmal” in the same context indicates a clear difference
in their categorical content: they are not synonymous. “Eigenschaft” is presented in the proposition as something
inherent, belonging to the object (in this case – to a person), but “Merkmal” - as a feature that characterizes the
object's behavior or thinking about it.
In the field of individual properties (attributes, events), for example, smells, are found the same verbalized
relationships of categories. For example, the smell being one of the manifested and perceived in a certain situation
properties of objects or events can be represented as an attribute that has an identification function of these elements
of reality for a man (Shnjakina, 2014, p. 65).
• Aus der Nähe erkennt man die ausgeprägte Leiternervatur und den harzigen Duft der zerquetschten Blätter,
die ein Merkmal der meisten Ozoroa-Arten sind.
• Die Pflanzen sollten robust sein und große Blüten haben - üppiger Duft ist ein charakteristisches Merkmal
von Cottage-Gärten.
In the same way, the interaction between the categories “Merkmal” and “Erscheinung” can be considered as a
relation between the total (“Erscheinung” as a set of different categorical coordinates) and private (“Merkmal” as a
characteristic feature of “Erscheinung”). In general, this intercategorial connection manifests itself in the use of
hyperonimical nominations of categories “Merkmal” and “Erscheinung”:
• Schritt für Schritt richtet sie die Aufmerksamkeit der Kinder auf jene Tatsachen, Vorgänge, Seiten und
Merkmale einer Erscheinung, die sie als Bildungsgut festgelegt hat und die sie als Grundlage braucht, um die
Kinder zu einer beabsichtigten Einsicht zu führen oder sie eine Erkenntnis gewinnen, eine Schlußfolgerung ziehen
zu lassen.
• Meistens hält man sich dabei an Merkmale der äußeren Erscheinung, mitunter auch an Besonderheiten
des mitmenschlichen Kontaktes, seltener an Eigenschaften, die ein Verhältnis des einzelnen zu seinem Lande
charakterisieren.
• Die im normalen Leben eines Tieres auf Sinnesorgane wirksamen Merkmale der Erscheinung sind vor
allem ein Glied der Selbstdarstellung, anderseits können sie Träger bestimmter Rollen im Sozialleben sein.
The demonstrated examples reveal the difference between “Merkmal” and “Erscheinung” that can occur even in
the form of the relationship between the object and its characteristics.
In more specific examples the category “event” is objectified in event-trigger nouns, which are used in
composites or genitive constructions with the word “Merkmal” (Tat, Betrug, Herkunft):
• Dem deutschen «Mord» entspricht das amerikanische «murder of first degree», dessen Tatmerkmale ihn
als besonders verwerflich erscheinen lassen.
• Darin liegt die wahre rechtliche Natur der Erscheinung, die wir da vor uns haben. Nach diesem Massstabe
ergibt sich auch mit Sicherheit die Abgrenzung aller einzelnen Fälle von Hinterziehung, die, obwohl äusserlich die
Merkmale des Betruges an sich tragend, doch nicht als Betrug behandelt warden.
• Michael Jackson hat sich mehr als 30-mal operieren lassen, um die Merkmale seiner afroamerikanischen
Herkunft zu verbergen.
In addition in similar contexts can be used synonymous Zeichen, Kennzeichen:
• Die Zeichen des Verfalls waren nicht zu übersehen, zu verbergen, zu verkennen...
• Allerdings ist es das Kennzeichen eines erfolgreichen Wandels, dass die Gläubigen ihn gar nicht
wahrnehmen.
These nouns like the word “Merkmal” can be used with the verbs of perception and thinking: ignorieren,
verheimlichen, sich irren, annehmen etc, it means to be in some way connected with the cognitive activity of the
subject.
As it is obvious from the text, the category «Merkmal» is based in its content on the properties, relations, external
34 Galina Galich and Natalia Shnyakina / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 206 (2015) 30 – 35

manifestations of the object, which are marked and explicated in the speech. The subject-speaker realizes an
attribute as an inherent to the object feature, which can characterize, designate, mark out and distinguish it from
other objects.
Secondly, the analysis of linguistic material allows us to understand the relationship between the categories
“Eigenschaft” – “Zustand” and “Eigenschaft” – “Erscheinung”. These relationships indicate a continuation of a
closer relationship between the properties and the object as the carrier of this property, state or appearance of this
object to the speaker:
• Und einige Zeit später fordern die italienischen Höfe der Renaissance, wenn der Sinnengenuß vollkommen
sein soll, vier Eigenschaften von der Liebe: sie müsse sinnlich und süß, verboten und schwierig sein.
• Wie können sich Unternehmen unter solch stürmischen Bedingungen behaupten? Steven Goldman, Roger
Nagel, Kenneth Preiss und Hans-Jürgen Warnecke, allesamt ausgewiesene Experten moderner
Fabrikorganisationen, glauben die Formel zu kennen: «Agilität» nennen die vier Wissenschaftler jene Eigenschaft
von Unternehmen, mit der sie auch bei einem raschen Wandel wettbewerbsfähig bleiben können.
Thirdly, the category “Merkmal” can be involved into more complex categorical relationships, such as, for
example, the interaction between “Merkmal” – “Eigenschaft” – “Erscheinung” and “Merkmal” – “Zustand” –
“Erscheinung”. In the first case more simply this interaction can be explained as the relation between the extreme
members of the opposition, the last of which, that is “Erscheinung”, can be recognized because of the “Eigenschaft”
or because of the “Zustand”, which is the distinctive feature of this “Erscheinung” and which is perceived by the
person as a distinctive feature of the “Erscheinung” compared to the others.
• Ein äußeres Entwicklungsmerkmal ist die zunehmende Größe der T.
In the second case, en event can be understood as a feature of a state (ad example of an illness).
• Anfallartiger, einseitiger Drehschwindel mit und ohne Erbrechen, Ohrensausen und Hörstörungen sind
Merkmale einer nach ihrem französischen Entdecker Prosper Menière bezeichneten Krankheit.

4. Results

The analysis of the language shows that the categories of immaterial objects selected for study in many ways
retain the relationships noted in philosophical studies, irrespective of the fact that linguistic thinking differs
significantly from scientific thinking and is natural and practical. The relationship between the nominations of
categories can be identified during the linguistic interpretation of the text. The revealed special features are closely
related to actual language laws of categorization, in particular, general laws of words distribution in different parts
of speech and the possibility of nomination of all categories and their members with nouns and adjectives, their
relationships to the subject of knowledge – verbs. The important role in identification of general categories of
linguistic thinking can play the role of substantive nominations to hyperonymization and generalization. In general,
one of the most important features of these categories structure can be considered as field effect or prototypical
character.

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