BibTeX
@MISC{Vigliocco05semanticrepresentation,
author = {Gabriella Vigliocco and David P. Vinson},
title = { Semantic Representation},
year = {2005}
}
Share
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
OpenURL
Abstract
This chapter deals with how word meaning is represented by speakers of a language, reviewing psychological perspectives on the representation of meaning. We start by outlining four key issues in the investigation of word meaning, then we introduce current theories of semantics and we end with a brief discussion of new directions. Meaning representation has long interested philosophers (since Aristotle) and linguists (e.g., Chierchia & McConnell-Ginet, 2000; Dowty, 1979; Pustejovsky, 1993; see Jackendoff, 2002), in addition to psychologists, and a very extensive literature exists in these allied fields. However, given our goal to discuss how meaning is represented in speakers ’ minds/brains, we will not be concerned with theories and debates arising primarily from these fields except where the theories have psychological or neural implications (as for example the work by linguists such as Jackendoff, 2002; Kittay, 1987; Lakoff, 1987, 1992). Moreover, the discussion we present is limited to the meaning of single words; it will not concern the representation and processing of the meaning of larger linguistic units such as sentences and text.
Keyphrases
semantic representation word meaning different content domain explicit claim brief discussion allied field conceptual structure single word different word meaning fundamental question left implicit linguistic unit interested philosopher speaker mind brain semantic structure key issue key issue semantic representation different word semantic organisation chierchia mcconnell-ginet current theory new direction neural implication extensive literature different semantic representation psychological perspective
