tyypillisyys

Tyypillisyys, in Finnish typology of category membership, refers to the degree to which a member of a category exemplifies the characteristic features associated with that category. It describes how representative or central an instance is within a class. Higher typicity means an item is a more prototypical or typical member; lower typicity indicates a more atypical or peripheral instance.

Etymology and usage-wise, tyypillisyys is formed from the noun tyyppi meaning “type” with the suffix -llisyys denoting a property. The corresponding adjective tyypillinen means “typical.” In everyday Finnish, the term is used to discuss how well something fits common stereotypes or expectations of a group or category.

In cognitive science and psychology, typicity is closely related to prototype theory: people tend to categorize objects faster and more accurately when they are more prototypical for a given category. This results in gradient membership rather than a strict yes/no boundary. In philosophy of language and classification, typicity is invoked to analyze how categories are organized, how members are evaluated as central or peripheral, and how this affects judgments about membership.

Typicality can be illustrated with everyday examples, such as a robin being a highly typical bird and a penguin being less typical. The concept also informs discussions of representativeness, stereotype formation, and the structure of categories in the mind. See also prototype theory, category, and representation.