natural language category
a class of things, people, or the like that is defined as a category distinct from other categories by the semantic structure of a particular natural language, rather than by an extralinguistic (scientific or logical) system of classification. Systems of categorization can vary widely from one language to another (see linguistic determinism; linguistic relativity). Some researchers believe that each natural language category is defined by a prototype and that membership in the category is determined by an entity’s degree of resemblance to this prototype. For example, the category “birds” is defined by a prototype consisting of a set of features (has a beak, has feathers, can fly, etc.) representing the ideal or typical bird; an entity that has all or most of these features will be accepted as belonging to this category.