Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking (145 page)

sandwichology, burning questions of,
215–216

San Francisco, parking in,
296–297
,
327–328

Santa Clara Valley, metamorphosis of,
397

Sapir–Whorf effect,
123–124
; cultural version of,
128–131

Saturn’s rings, waves in the medium of,
213

savanna,
71
,
364–366

Schank, Roger,
104
,
173

schemas: as another name for categories,
336
;
office visit
as an example of,
336–337
;
versus
concrete concepts,
336–337

Schrödinger, Erwin,
453

Schweitzer, Albert, face of,
183–184

science-fiction story as core of a category,
524–526

scientific discoveries: boldness of analogies in,
360–361
; mediated by seeing two phenomena as bagels from the same batch,
310

Scott/Thor facial resemblance as an analogy,
181–182

search engines, limited to surface,
115

search
, virtual, frame-blended with physical search,
402
,
405

secret agent in tunnel
category,
167–168

self-monitoring by speakers,
72–73

Selvinsky, Il’ya L’vovich, poem by,
9–10

semantic approximations,
39–43
,
270–278

semantic halos: errors caused by,
270–278
; as sources of latent analogies,
271
,
273

semantic memory,
137

semantic space/nebula
analogy,
119–120

semantic space, zones in,
10
,
78–81
,
83–84
,
118–124
,
132
;
see also
conceptual spaces

senses, physiological, and analogy-making,
286–288

sentence choice constrained by idea choice,
26

sentences: blended together,
268–269
; ready-made,
98–99

September 11th: as category,
297
; imposing itself on perceptions of events,
31
,
297–298
; pluralization of,
297–298

sexist default assumption,
293

sexist language and marking,
193–195

shadow: due to absence of light,
204–206
; due to absence of mysterious particles,
208
; due to absence of rain,
205
,
207
; due to absence of snow,
205–206
; due to absence of vehicles,
207
; due to absence of young males,
208
; gradual abstraction of,
204–209
; in late afternoon,
205
; of Nazism,
208

Shakespeare, William,
130
,
132
; of advertising, the,
222

shallow depth,
346

shallower and deeper aspects of concepts,
203–204

shallow features, experts’ blindness to,
343–344

sharing:
contrasted with
measuring
,
420–426
; as key concept in division,
419–426
; marked sense of,
419
; as necessarily reducing,
419

shells in a conceptual space,
81

shoes: of Albert Einstein,
455
; left
versus
right,
427

showers, used by analogy,
23
,
507
,
509

sibling
, concept of in various languages,
77

silver platters, analogies handed to the reader on,
160
,
170

Simmons, Curt,
325

simplification, as key drive in mathematics and physics,
440

simulation,
see
mental simulation

single-member categories as no different from multiple-member categories,
39

“sitting right
there”
,
140–141

situations: constant real-time encoded of,
161
; doing the thinking in math problems,
432
; evoking categories,
45–47
,
450
; lacking clear boundaries,
33
,
161
; multi-categorizability of,
188
; possessing both superficial and deep aspects,
342–344
,
515
;
see also
analogy-making
,
remindings

sixty
, pointless analogy involving,
281–282
,
285

size changes, adults’ naïve view of,
295

size, role of, in encoding of situations,
163

skunk caused by stench, thanks to Maxmell’s equations,
411

slippages, conceptual: between opposite concepts,
276–277
,
356–357
; in caricature analogies,
321–326
; cascade of,
357
; due to conceptual proximity,
270–278
; engendering conceptual broadening,
150
; in level of abstraction,
186
; in me-too analogies,
144
,
146–148
,
151
; riding on coattails of other slippages,
276
,
357
; role of, in creativity,
186–187
,
249–256
; triggered by esthetic pressures,
350–351
,
352
,
354
,
357
; unintended, from one person’s name to another’s,
224

Smith, Peter,
see
Peter miswriting year

smoking causing impotence,
362

smurfs, limited vocabulary of,
108

snag, outflanking of, in Copycat domain,
356–357

“sniffing” the crux of a math problem,
450–451

Snoopy the cat, caricature analogy involving,
319

snow shadow, photo of,
206

snuoiqers
versus
iggfruders,
11

“so to speak”, to indicate honorary category members,
64–65

soccer played with a bowling ball,
318

Socrates,
16
; of snails, the,
222

solutions of polynomials, formal symmetries of,
446–447

sound choice mediated by word choice,
25

sound particles/light particles
analogy by Einstein,
461
;
see also
light waves/sound waves analogy sound-quantum hypothesis
,
461

sound waves, Doppler effect for,
469–471

sounds
versus
noises
,
126

source–target paradigm in psychology experiments,
339–340

sour grapes
situations: category of,
29–30
,
113–118
,
310
; contrasted with
silver lining
situations,
117–118

space/space-time
analogy,
498–499

Spalding, Thomas,
436

Spanish language,
369
,
522

speaker/driver
analogy,
73

special relativity,
see
relativity, special

spectrum: blackbody,
455–459
; defined,
455–456
; of ideal gas,
457–459

speech errors: blatant when placed in frames,
261
; collecting of,
261
; no extra insights in analyzing one’s own,
264
; rampant on Web,
261
; revealed by hesitations, phonetic distortions, etc.,
263
,
269
,
281
; translation of,
379
;
see also
errors
,
lexical blends

spider, as occasional member of category
insect
,
58

spilling the beans
as a category,
96–97

spinning universe,
487

Spitz, Mark,
154–155
,
367

square roots of negative numbers: analogy to ordinary numbers,
442
; fear of,
442–443

squares
, as questionable
rectangles
,
234–238
,
255

staircases, negotiated by analogy,
507
,
509
,
516

Stargell, Willie,
325–326
,
383

statistical approach to machine translation,
372–374

staying on the surface
versus
going into depth,
344

stealing
, conceptual halo around,
106–107

stereotypes: of analogy-making,
135–136
,
392
,
521
,
529
; of creativity in physics,
452
; efficiency of,
466
; as overhasty categorizations,
527–528
; shallowness of,
346

Stevens, Wallace,
38

sticks for stirring coffee, absurdity of,
317
,
321–322

strange mass: analogous to energy,
479
; mutating from one form to another,
479
;
versus
normal mass,
476–485

Streep, Meryl, of spitting, the,
222
,
360

strings, alphabetic,
347

string/wire
conceptual conflation,
277
,
278

“study”
versus
“office”,
47–49

stupidity, not the same as ignoring most of the world,
426–427

subgroups, nesting patterns of,
447

subjectivity: of analogies,
522–526
; of categorizations,
522–526

subscripts/exponents
analogy,
169–170
,
174

substitutions, Lagrange’s theory of,
446
,
447

subtraction word-problems, various strategies for solving,
421–422
,
425
,
429–434

suburban sprawl likened to marginal or metaphorical uses of a word or phrase,
62
,
65–66

Sue (fictional Tim’s fictional mother),
34
,
37
,
38

sunset, as seen by astronomy students,
389

“superficial”: meaning of,
340
; pejorative
versus
neutral connotations of,
344

superficial features: guiding perception only in one’s domains of incompetence,
340
; experts’ blindness to,
343–344
; role played by, in memory retrieval,
171
,
343
;
versus
deep features,
340

“superfluid” Copycat analogy,
352

superimposing of instances creating more abstract concept,
23
,
35
,
334
,
336–337
,
521–522
;
see also
schemas

surfaces: bad reputation of,
344
; as cues to depths,
345–346
; as royal road to essences,
344–346

surfaces
versus
essences: proverbs about,
102
; of certain proverbs,
102
,
106–107

surface/depth
correlation,
345–346

surface/depth
distinction: merely a surface-level contrast,
344
; nonexistent for novices,
341–344

surgeon riddle,
293

surgery, mathematical notion of,
426

survival: as dependent on rapid analogy-making,
506–507
; as dependent on rapid categorization,
79
,
505–506

SUV/search engine
analogy,
402

swerves in discourse space,
72–73

swimming pool/black body
explanatory analogy,
see
black body

“swimming pool table” analogy,
455
,
457–458
;
see also
black body/ideal gas analogy

sword of Damocles
, as a category,
95–96

syllepses,
see
zeugmas syllogisms
,
15–16
,
193
,
437

symbol-manipulation recipes, role of analogy-making in the evocation of,
451

symmetry: abstract forms of,
446–447
; as an ideal kind of analogy,
357

synopsis of the book,
29–32

syntactic slots as categories,
68–70

—T—

tags for photos, as analogues to encodings of experiences,
172