![]() ![]() These discrepant views-these concepts of penguins-are the kind of information researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, elicited from participants in a study that was published last month. But while some people might think they are noisy, plump creatures, more like a whale than an eagle, others might consider them to be awkward, strange animals, more like an ostrich than a dolphin. ![]() ![]() This does not mean we all disagree on the basic definition of a penguin. Our concepts are crucial to exactly what we mean when we use language, and new research has found that the concepts people hold, even for a word like penguin, vary from person to person on a shockingly frequent basis. Instead people think of concepts: the myriad properties, ideas, examples and associations that spring to mind when we think about a word. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “penguin” as “any of various erect short-legged flightless aquatic birds (family Spheniscidae) of the southern hemisphere.” That description seems simple enough, but definitions are not what people have in mind when they actually use words. ![]()
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