ABSTRACT

Roger Brown has been a widely influential researcher and teacher. We would all agree with that; what then, do we mean by it? The study of intellectual history is the study of coherences, but the meaning of coherence is not entirely clear. Recently, I have argued that to see an event as coherent we must see the eventual outcome to have already been contained in some form in the initial ground of the event, and we must see the happening as just that proper and reasonable means for connecting the ground and outcome—that is, for changing the outcome from its initial to its final form (Rosch, 1984, 1987). Situated in the context of Harvard of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Roger Brown's qualities of thought—the kinds of questions that he was asking and the style in which he asked and answered them—form part of the ground of the development of all the contributors to this book. That developmental psycholinguistics would not have its present form without Roger Brown is readily apparent. Perhaps less well known is his influence on the study of concepts and categories; this chapter is an attempt to trace some of that influence.