Mothers, lies, and bachelors: A brief reply to Wierzbicka (1990)

Abstract

Anna Wierzbicka's work on semantics is well known not only for her genuinely insightful analyses, but also for her harsh criticisms. This note contests some of Wierzbicka's claims of alleged “prototype abuse” in her controversial article, ‘“Prototypes save’: On the uses and abuses of the notion of ‘prototype’ in linguistics and related fields” (Wierzbicka 1990). In particular, I argue that the criticisms Wierzbicka levels at the cognitive-model approach to meaning are largely unfounded and that the definition-based account she presents as superior is actually the less-convincing alternative.