Lingue e categorizzazione: alcune osservazioni

Some aspects of conceptualisation are considered with particular attention to semiotic relevance and motivation. These two organizing principles of language systems are then applied to language description. Some examples from different European languages are briefly discussed that can be related to a particular reading (interpretation) of the world. Other elements show at the same time that the interpretation of the world is often based on cultural and religious traditions which are shared by different language communities. These kinds of observations help us understand cultural peculiarities not only of foreign languages, but also of different varieties of a language. The treatment of categorization can be integrated into a more general description of how languages and cultures interact. This should be taken into account for the purposes of language learning and language awareness.