IDIOMS AS SUBORDINATE CATEGORIES

Abstract

The article examines cognitive operations underlying the process of forming subordinate categories in German. German idioms are studied as the material for constructing subcategories and defining their role in the categorization process as well as their properties. Different types of the relevant cognitive operations are described as well as functions of the constituting parts realized in idioms subdividing the category “human” in the German language. Cognitive structures, on which semantics is based, reveal a hierarchical constitution. In most studies the basic level is the area of focus but, in fact, the subordinate level mirrors a lot of intimate traits of consciousness and their specific form. In the article the subordinate level is portrayed by idioms of the German language.
The approach applied in the paper can be defined as category analysis that includes the definition of the category status and the cognitive process that underlies the category realization. The cognitive process underlying subcategorization can be described as “category modification” with three components involved: original category, modificating concept and resulting category emerging in the process of interaction of the two structures.
The subordinate categories represented in idiom semantics are divided in two types: classes for direct categorization or to mediate between the cognized entity and the resulting category through representation of idealized cognitive models associated with the relevant category.