Meaning in behavioral analysis.

Abstract

Meaning is a mentalistic concept in linguistics and philosophy. Linguists assert that a behavioral analysis cannot explain this abstract and deep feature of language. However, behavioral analysis can offer a natural science account of meaning. Meaning is a function of the controlling relation between the antecedents, the verbal behavior, and the consequences that follow. Meaning is indeed abstract because it is neither a mental entity, nor a property of language, nor a content of linguistic structure, nor is it what language represents. Gaining access to the meaning of utterances is the same as gaining access to their controlling relations. The concept of Meaning, as defined in terms of the controlling variables of verbal operants, serves no further purpose.

Speech and language assessment: A verbal behavior analysis.

“…We cannot know what a speaker means if we hear him or her say shoe merely on the basis of the topography (word) itself. We need access to the speaker's reasons, a description of the conditions that evoked such a response (Hegde, 2008). Functional speech-language behavior is evoked and strengthened in a unit in which antecedent and consequent stimuli occur in temporal proximity to an instance of a speaker's topographic behavior and combine to become functional communication (see Sautter & LeBlanc, 2006).…”

“…Meaning defined by environmental context. The meaning of verbal behaviors is a function of their controlling variables (Hegde, 2008;Skinner, 1957). Speakers and listeners do not "make mistakes," "use the wrong word," or "fail to generalize" in the ordinary sense.…”

Language and grammar: A behavioral analysis.

“…Skinner's analysis of tacts is extensive, and includes provocative discussions on how people come to tact private stimuli—stimuli that arise within the speaker's body, and more importantly, how the verbal community manages to arrange contingencies of reinforcement for them. In addition, discussions on problems of reference and meaning (Hegde, 2008b), and a variety of literary behaviors also are included.…”

“…Most SLPs are well versed in the phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, and pragmatic structures of language but are not equally well versed in the functional units that are basic to Skinner's (1957) analysis. Nonetheless, SLP's treatment methods are mostly behavioral (Hegde, 1998, 2008a). Inevitably, this has led to a conceptually inconsistent model of language and treatment of language disorders.…”

“…Contrary to the typical portrayal of Skinner's analysis of language as “simplistic,” it is sophisticated, complex, and comprehensive. His analysis of verbal behavior , as he preferred to call it, includes an innovative analysis of grammar, word order, and meaning (Hegde, 2008b) which is unfamiliar to most SLPs. There are other methodological behavioral approaches to language (Osgood, 1963; Mowrer, 1952; Staats, 1968) that are sometimes confused with Skinner's vastly different radical behavioral approach that offers a natural science view of language, with an ensuing applied technology that SLPs have readily accepted.…”