摘要：The gap between categories and concepts presents itself at its widest at the basic level. The basic categories, as physi- cal phenomena, are directly meaningful; the basic concepts, being mental objects, only mean indirectly. A basic category is a meaning gestalt, of which only part finds its way into the related concept. Basic categories are of two kinds ： those of materials and those of symbols. The former involves physical entities ; the latter concerns linguistic symbols. Both of them arise, though, out of a two-way process, namely, subjectification and objectification. A similar division, based on the interaction between individual and collective experience, can be made between material and symbolic concepts, the former being included in the latter, which also takes in the systematic and pragmatic aspects of the signs. The ostensive definition has been shown to have a key role to play in linguistic cognition as it serves as a fundamental link among the various components of the basic level.%“范疇”和“概念”的差別在基本層次表現的最為明顯。基本層次范疇是物質性的、直接有意義；基本層次概念則是意識性的、間接才有意義。基本層次范疇是個意義完形；基本層次概念則為其中的一部分。基本層次范疇可分為物質范疇和符號范疇，兩者皆為主體客體化和客體主體化的雙向過程的產物，差別在于對象不同：前者為實體；后者為符號。與此類似，基本層次概念也可分為物質概念和符號概念，兩者皆為個體經驗上升為集體經驗和集體經驗走向個體經驗的雙向過程的產物，差別在于內容多寡：前者被包含在后者之內；后者為前者及符號的系統、語用意義之和。實指定義被證明是基本層次“范疇”和“概念”諸方面的連接紐帶，對語言認知起著基礎性作用。
