Prototypes of Consumer Goods in Transition Societies

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to find a connection between changes in societies and changes in semantic prototypes by examining the prototypes of ‘fruit’ and ‘car’ among Slovenes that reached adulthood in Yugoslavia and Slovenes that that reached adulthood in the Republic of Slovenia and to compare those results with a control group of native English speakers. The results of the study suggests that in some aspects, the prototypes of ‘fruit’ and ‘car’ amongyounger Slovenes have moved closer to what they are in cultures that have a long history of capitalism and consumerism. The opinions about how good an example of a ‘fruit’ a banana is, is the best example of this. Younger Slovenes and the control group see it as a very good example, while older Slovenes rated it lower. The older Slovenes were also slightly more accepting of a very small car model being a good example of a ‘car’, than both younger Slovenes and the control group were.