Analogical Cognition: an Insight into Word Meaning

Pritchard, Timothy

doi:10.1007/s13164-018-0419-y

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…But how does this happen? In general, there are two prominent accounts of how meaning adjustments under semantic strain can take place: sense selection (often called word sense disambiguation ) and online adjustment (also called sense creation; e.g., H. H. Clark & Gerrig 1983 ; Frisson & Pickering, 2007 ; Gerrig, 1989 ; Gerrig & Bortfield, 1999 ; Lenat & Guha, 1989 ; Pritchard, 2019 ; Rapp & Gerrig, 1999 ; Vicente, 2018 ; Vicente & Falkum, 2017 ). There is little dispute that people often draw on existing word senses to resolve meaning when the typical literal interpretation of a word is contextually implausible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain

King¹,

Gentner²

2022

Cognitive Science

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This paper explores the processes underlying verb metaphoric extension. Work on metaphor processing has largely focused on noun metaphor, despite evidence that verb metaphor is more common. Across three experiments, we collected paraphrases of simple intransitive sentences varying in semantic strain-for example, The motor complained → The engine made strange noises-and assessed the degree of meaning change for the noun and the verb. We developed a novel methodology for this assessment using word2vec. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that (a) under semantic strain, verb meanings were more likely to be adjusted than noun meanings; (b) the degree of verb meaning adjustment-but not noun meaning adjustment-increased with semantic strain; and (c) verb meaning extension is primarily driven by online adjustment, although sense selection also plays a role. In Experiment 3, we replicated the word2vec results with an assessment using human subjects. The results further showed that nouns and verbs change meaning in qualitatively different ways, with verbs more likely to change meaning metaphorically and nouns more likely to change meaning taxonomically or metonymically. These findings bear on the origin and processing of verb metaphors and provide a link between online sentence processing and diachronic change over language evolution.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain

King¹,

Gentner²

2022

Cognitive Science

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“…Even some nouns can have thinner meanings Pritchard (2018). analyzes relational nominals such as target and argues that they have an abstract schematic meaning.17 Typically, because words can also be meaningfully used in novel, ad hoc, ways(Carston, 2015).…”

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Chomskyan Arguments Against Truth-Conditional Semantics Based on Variability and Co-predication

Vicente

2019

Erkenn

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In this paper I try to show that semantics can explain word-to-world relations and that sentences can have meanings that determine truth-conditions. Critics like Chomsky typically maintain that only speakers denote, i.e., only speakers, by using words in one way or another, represent entities or events in the world. However, according to their view, individual acts of denotations are not explained just by virtue of speakers' semantic knowledge (since, according to them, semantic knowledge is very scarce: see Pietroski, 2018). Against this view, I will hold that, in the typical cases considered, semantic knowledge can account for the denotational uses of words of individual speakers.

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“…Haueis (2021b) highlights that polysemy is an extremely widespread feature of natural language. Additionally, according to at leastPritchard (2019), studies of analogical cognition suggest that word meanings are not for categorization, but instead primarily for suggesting analogies in some way, and in particular in a way that encourages rather than hinders contextual variation in reference and extension (see also, e.g.,Lakoff 1987;Recanati, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

The many theories of mind: eliminativism and pluralism in context

Gough

2022

Synthese

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In recent philosophy of science there has been much discussion of both pluralism, which embraces scientific terms with multiple meanings, and eliminativism, which rejects such terms. Some recent work focuses on the conditions that legitimize pluralism over eliminativism – the conditions under which such terms are acceptable. Often, this is understood as a matter of encouraging effective communication – the danger of these terms is thought to be equivocation, while the advantage is thought to be the fulfilment of ‘bridging roles’ that facilitate communication between different scientists and specialisms. These theories are geared towards regulating communication between scientists qua scientists. However, this overlooks an important class of harmful equivocation that involves miscommunication between scientists and nonscientists, such as the public or policymakers. To make my case, I use the example of theory of mind, also known as ‘mindreading’ and ‘mentalizing’, and broadly defined as the capacity to attribute mental states to oneself and others. I begin by showing that ‘theory of mind’ has multiple meanings, before showing that this has resulted in harmful equivocations of a sort and in a way not accounted for by previous theories of pluralism and eliminativism.

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Analogical Cognition: an Insight into Word Meaning

Cited by 7 publications

References 68 publications

Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain

Verb Metaphoric Extension Under Semantic Strain

Chomskyan Arguments Against Truth-Conditional Semantics Based on Variability and Co-predication

The many theories of mind: eliminativism and pluralism in context

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