Similar, and similar concepts

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Semantics

Background:

• The concept of similarity, often considered symmetrical, has been argued to be psychologically asymmetrical.
• Experimental subjects perceive sentences like 'A is similar to B' and 'B is similar to A' as having different meanings.
• This perceived asymmetry challenges the symmetrical entailment (R x, y <--> R y, x) for concepts like similarity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the apparent asymmetry in English symmetrical predicates.
• To determine if this asymmetry is a property of the words themselves or a result of linguistic interpretation.
• To propose an analysis of symmetrical predication based on experimental findings.

Main Methods:

• Conducted five experiments analyzing 20 intuitively symmetrical predicates (e.g., equal, identical).
• Examined linguistic-interpretative properties, including intransitive reciprocal interpretations.
• Investigated the role of general linguistic-interpretive principles in subject-complement constructions.

Main Results:

• The apparent asymmetry of 'similar' was reproduced for other symmetrical predicates.
• Symmetrical words exhibit unique properties, such as reciprocal interpretation in intransitive use.
• Asymmetrical interpretations in subject-complement constructions are due to general linguistic principles, not inherent word meaning.

Conclusions:

• Symmetry is a property of lexical items, not syntax; sentence structure dictates roles like Figure/Ground or Variant/Referent.
• The behavior of symmetrical predicates varies based on lexical class and semantic designation (e.g., activity vs. state).
• Understanding symmetrical terms requires analyzing the semantics of the syntactic structures in which they appear.