Cognitive Semantics : Meaning and Cognition

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SEMANTICS AS MEANING DETERMINATION 1 Semantics as Meaning Determination with Semantic-Epistemic Operations 1. Introduction Jens Allwood Department of Linguistics, Göteborg University This paper develops and summarizes an approach to semantics which has so far only been available in Swedish, cf. Allwood (1989). The approach is characterized by the fact that it is cognitive, dynamic and context-sensitive. Meaning and concepts are primarily taken to be cognitive phenomena and are studied in terms of operations on information rather than as static entities. The operations are context-sensitive, so that meaning is seen as determined by operations which are sensitive to and make use of linguistic and extralinguistic context. The 1989 paper also gives an analysis of the nature of meaning and of concepts and of the relation between that analysis and classical theories of meaning. Ways of determining concepts and meanings are discussed, and a number of conceptual or cognitive operations for doing this are proposed. There is also a discussion of the linguistic counterparts of these operations and of how they can be used to determine the meaning of linguistic expressions in context. Finally, the paper presents a number of examples of how different linguistic constructions can be analyzed. 2. Background The approach makes the following assumptions: i. All conventionalized linguistic expressions (morphemes, words, idioms, phrases etc.) are connected with “meaning potentials”, cf. Rommetveit
2 JENS ALLWOOD (1974). A meaning potential is basically a person’s memory of the previous uses of a particular expression and can be seen as the union of all the information the person can associate with the expression. The semantic part of this information will include both what is sometimes called “encyclopedic” and “lexical” information concerning the phenomenon the expression refers to or is otherwise associated with. Philosophical arguments for this position can be found in Quine (1953), and more linguistically flavored arguments can be found in Haiman (1980) and Langacker (1987). ii. When used, a linguistic expression activates its meaning potential. The context-free meaning of a linguistic expression is seen as an activation potential, i.e. as a potential to activate (parts of) the meaning potential associated with a particular expression. iii. The actual meaning of the expression is determined through cognitive operations, the function of which is to achieve compatibility between the meaning potential of a particular expression, the meaning potential of other expressions, and the extralinguistic context. Actual determinate meanings of linguistic expressions thus result from partial activations of the meaning potentials of the expressions guided by cognitive operations. iv. A subset of the operations can be characterized as semantic-epistemic operations, i.e. as operations which have both a linguistic expression and a conceptual-epistemic effect. It is these operations which motivate the use of the term “semantic-epistemic operation”. The basis for these operations are cognitive operations such as discrimination, similarity abstraction, typification and reification, which exist independently of language but are expanded and elaborated by being connected with language. v. The linguistic expressions of the semantic-epistemic operations are mostly what are known as “syncategorematic” expressions, e.g. conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, quantifiers, some adverbs, some interjections, inflectional and derivational affixes. vi. Another part of the vocabulary is made up of “categorematic” roots and stems (the roots and stems of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and some interjections and adverbs). The meaning potentials of such roles are claimed to serve as arguments for various semantic-epistemic operations. The interplay between the meaning potentials of categorematic roots and stems and syncategorematic operations is further claimed to be a major facet of
Page 2 and 3: COGNITIVE SEMANTICS
Page 4 and 5: COGNITIVE SEMANTICS MEANING AND COG
Page 6: “I KNOW, WE WON’T REVOLUTIONIZE
Page 9 and 10: viii PREFACE In this book, which re
Page 11: x PREFACE different mechanisms of s
Page 15 and 16: 4 JENS ALLWOOD types (iii), (vi) an
Page 17 and 18: 6 JENS ALLWOOD operations which can
Page 19 and 20: 8 JENS ALLWOOD the sentence John lo
Page 21 and 22: 10 JENS ALLWOOD leva i (live in) X
Page 23 and 24: 12 JENS ALLWOOD II. Semantic-episte
Page 25 and 26: 14 JENS ALLWOOD State abstract obje
Page 27 and 28: 16 JENS ALLWOOD by forming krig-are
Page 30 and 31: SOME TENETS OF COGNITIVE SEMANTICS
Page 48 and 49: 1. Introduction FUNCTION, COGNITION
Page 50 and 51: FUNCTION, COGNITION, AND LAYERED CL
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FUNCTION, COGNITION, AND LAYERED CL
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FROM VISION TO COGNITION 67 From Vi
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knowledge, and non-understanding, e
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Table 2. Visual perception FROM VIS
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6. Results of the lexical survey FR
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FROM VISION TO COGNITION 75 genomse
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kunskaper ‘knowledge’ vetande
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FROM VISION TO COGNITION 79 trångs
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7. Being opaque → being abstruse,
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FROM VISION TO COGNITION 83 3. Caus
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FROM VISION TO COGNITION 85 Table 3
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88 ÅKE VIBERG dynamic (aspectual,
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90 ÅKE VIBERG The organization of
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92 ÅKE VIBERG The hierarchical str
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94 ÅKE VIBERG Intentional level. I
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96 ÅKE VIBERG but there is also a
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98 ÅKE VIBERG corresponds to an En
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100 ÅKE VIBERG III. Focusing of va
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102 ÅKE VIBERG Another extended se
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104 ÅKE VIBERG Och sen en stark r
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106 ÅKE VIBERG Man slås ju av att
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108 ÅKE VIBERG The second use of s
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110 ÅKE VIBERG “Kaffe”, säger
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112 ÅKE VIBERG The disconnection (
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114 ÅKE VIBERG ‘at poker’ Per
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116 ÅKE VIBERG Han slog ihop matse
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118 ÅKE VIBERG Table 10. The lexic
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120 ÅKE VIBERG Våld våld våld.
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122 ÅKE VIBERG Table 12. Major cla
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124 ÅKE VIBERG Table 13. The lexic
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126 ÅKE VIBERG Han rev loss en sid
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128 ÅKE VIBERG References Aijmer,
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SPACE AND TIME 131 Space and Time E
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SPACE AND TIME 133 visual perceptio
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SPACE AND TIME 135 This strategy is
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SPACE AND TIME 137 mal] with the va
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SPACE AND TIME 139 The articulatory
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SPACE AND TIME 141 in relation to a
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SPACE AND TIME 143 moment represent
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SPACE AND TIME 145 tion through the
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SPACE AND TIME 147 temporal sense (
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Notes SPACE AND TIME 149 1. In talk
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SPACE AND TIME 151 Johnson, M. 1987
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1. Introduction CONCEPTUAL ENGINEER
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 155 II. a li
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 157 The exam
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 159 The firs
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 161 But when
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 163 Figure 8
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 165 Let us f
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CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 167 can be f
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Suggesting Figure 13. Params Evalua
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References CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING 1
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174 JORDAN ZLATEV which need to be
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176 JORDAN ZLATEV learner’s behav
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178 JORDAN ZLATEV Figure 1. Regier
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180 JORDAN ZLATEV Figure 2. A train
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182 JORDAN ZLATEV Notice that, acco
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184 JORDAN ZLATEV However, the vers
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186 JORDAN ZLATEV often referred to
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188 JORDAN ZLATEV respond by giving
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190 JORDAN ZLATEV The experiments w
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192 JORDAN ZLATEV 2. Thus the pictu
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194 JORDAN ZLATEV Small, S., Cottre
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196 INDEX OF NAMES Husserl, E. 4 J
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A abstract 132 Abstract agent 11 ab
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possible worlds 19, 21, 26, 31 post
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22. AUER, Peter and Aldo Di LUZIO (
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69. NOH, Eun-Ju: The Semantics and
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