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Goal of this course
�Provide you with a cognitively plausible apparatus for the description of linguistic meaningdescription of linguistic meaning
�Connect linguistics to neighboring disciplines
Course prerequisites
� Introductions to Linguistics I & II
� Morphosyntax is only marginally relevant...
� ...but a decent understanding of key concepts used in semantic description is concepts used in semantic description is required
Course requirements
� Weekly reading assignments
� some homework assignments
� oral presentation (20 min)
• term paper• obviously not empirical
• theoretical discussion of some concept discussed here
• meta-analysis (summarize and comment on empirical work that has been done on topic)
• application: use descriptive apparatus introduced here to describe the semantics of a (set of) term(s)
Downloadable Materials
www.daniel-wiechmann.net
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Right now you can get:Right now you can get:• Presentation (PPT) for:
Introduction to Linguistics I: Meaning and Use
• Syllabus • Tool: ppt(x) viewer
Philosophy
Anthropology
Biology
Computer Science
Linguistics
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Anthropology
Psychology[...]
VIEWS FROM PHILOSOPHY
� Meaning and Truth (objectivist approach)� meanings = abstract logical objects
(Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein I, Kripke)
a. There is a real world consisting of entities structured according to their properties and relations. Categorization of these entities is based on their properties.of these entities is based on their properties.
b. The real world is fully and correctly structured so that it can be modeled
c. Symbols are representations of reality and can only be meaningful to the degree that they correspond to reality.
d. The human mind processes the abstract symbols in a computer-like fashion so that it mirrors nature.
e. Human thought is symbol- manipulation and it is independent of the human organism.
http://plato.stanford.edu/
Joint Session of Mind and the Aristotelian Society (1993)
Left to right: W.V. Quine, Donald Davidson, Sir Peter Strawson,Rudolf Fara and Martin Davies
VIEWS FROM COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Perception,
Categorization
Attention
Gestalts
Figure/ ground
Perception,
Language, and Vision
memory
affordances
Prototype effects
VIEWS FROM COGNITIVE SCIENCE
� Meaning and Cognition� Meaning is grounded in perception and action
� Sensory-motor interaction unites organism with environmentorganism with environment
• connectionism
• dynamic systems theory, non-linear dynamics
• chaos, complexity
• self-organization, emergence
Cognitive Grammar
� Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Grammar are “cognitive” in the sense that, insofar as possible, they see language as drawing on other, more basic systems and abilities more basic systems and abilities
� (e.g. perception, attention, categorization)
Cognitive Linguistics
Ronald Langacker:
Cognitive Grammar
Len Talmy:
Force dynamics
Gilles Fauconnier:
Chuck Fillmore & Paul Kay:
George Lakoff:
Metaphor
Idealized cognitive models (ICM)
Lakoff (1987) Women, Fire and Dangerous Things
Cognitive Grammar
Trajector/Landmark organisation
Force dynamics
Figure/Ground organisation
Fauconnier:
Mental Spaces
Conceptual blending
Paul Kay:
Construction Grammar
Cognitive Linguistics
George Lakoff:
Metaphor Ronald Langacker:
Len Talmy:
Force dynamics
Gilles Fauconnier:
Mental Spaces
Chuck Fillmore & Paul Kay: Metaphor
Idealized cognitive
models (ICM)
Ronald Langacker:
Cognitive Grammar
Trajector/Landmark organisation
Langacker (1987) Foundations of Cognitive
Grammar
Force dynamics
Figure/Ground organisation
Mental Spaces
Conceptual blending
Paul Kay:
Construction Grammar
Cognitive Linguistics
George Lakoff:
Metaphor
Ronald Langacker:
Cognitive GrammarGilles Fauconnier:
Mental Spaces
Chuck Fillmore & Paul Kay: Metaphor
Idealized cognitive models (ICM)
Cognitive Grammar
Trajector/Landmark organisation
Len Talmy:
Force dynamics
Figure/Ground organisation
Talmy (2000) Towards a Cognitive Semantics
Mental Spaces
Conceptual blending
Paul Kay:
Construction Grammar
Cognitive Linguistics
George Lakoff:
Metaphor
Ronald Langacker:
Cognitive Grammar
Len Talmy:
Force dynamics Gilles Fauconnier:Chuck Fillmore &
Paul Kay: Metaphor
Idealized cognitive models (ICM)
Cognitive Grammar
Trajector/Landmark organisation
Force dynamics
Figure/Ground organisation
Gilles Fauconnier:
Mental Spaces
Conceptual blending
Fauconnier (1985) Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning
construction in natural language.
Paul Kay:
Construction Grammar
Cognitive Linguistics
George Lakoff: Ronald Langacker: Len Talmy:Gilles Fauconnier:
George Lakoff:
Metaphor
Idealized cognitive models (ICM)
Ronald Langacker:
Cognitive Grammar
Trajector/Landmark organisation
Len Talmy:
Force dynamics
Figure/Ground organisation
Gilles Fauconnier:
Mental Spaces
Conceptual blending
Chuck Fillmore & Paul Kay:
Construction Grammar
Frame Semantics
Cognitive Linguistics
George Lakoff:
Metaphor
Idealized cognitive models (ICM)
Ron Langacker:
Cognitive Grammar
(unified framework)
Len Talmy:
Force-dynamics Figure/Ground organisation
I. Meaning reduces to conceptualization (mental experience)
II. A frequently-used expression typically displays a network of interrelated senses
III. Semantic structures are characterized relative to
Five hypotheses about meaning
III. Semantic structures are characterized relative to cognitive domains
IV. A semantic structure derives its value through the imposition of a profile on a base
V. Semantic structures incoporate conventional imagery, i.e. they construe a situation in a particular fashion
Things we beed to have in place
What is a word?� sense versus reference – Sinn/Bedeutung – intension/extension� referring� predicating
SENSE/LEXICAL RELATIONSSENSE/LEXICAL RELATIONS� Entailment� Opposition� Homonymy� Polysemy� Meronymy� Hyponymy� Ambiguity� Vagueness
Try and keep in mind these things...
� How is it possible that we are able to talk about reality?� If language were to represent reality, then language and reality must have something in common
� If sentence were to represent states of affairs, then a sentence and the state of affairs that it is about must have something in common
� Wittgenstein (I): correspondence � Wittgenstein (I): correspondence � Structural similarity (structure of sentence mimics structure of fact)
� picturing, mirroring
� Because the world determines the structure of language, we can read off the structure of reality from the structure of language
� There is a cat on the mat
� There is no cat on the mat
THE MEANING OF A WORD CAN BE BROKEN DOWN TO A SET OF MORE BASIC NOTIONS
(FEATURES)
MEANINGS AS FEATURE BUNDLES
(FEATURES)
DECOMPOSITIONAL APPROACH
CLASSICAL APPROACH
Describing concepts
BACHELOR(X)
x is humanx is adultx is male
Necessary and (jointly) sufficient conditions
x is unmarriedx has never been married
Describing concepts:Meaning Postulates
BACHELOR
For all x, x is a woman if and only if: L
Where L is a list of features|attributes|properties|conditions
L = { [HUMAN] & [ADULT] & [MALE] L = { [HUMAN] & [ADULT] & [MALE] & ¬ [MARRIED] }
Describing concepts:Meaning Postulates
BACHELOR
For all x, x is a woman if and only if: L
Where L is a list of features|attributes|properties|conditions
L = { [HUMAN] & [ADULT] & [MALE] & ¬ [MARRIED] }
(i) John is a bachelor (i) John is a bachelor entails
(ii) John is a man
(i) John is a bachelorentails and is entailed by (i.e. is synonymous with)
(iii) John is a man who has never married
(i) John is a bachelorcontradicts
(iv) John is married
Describing concepts:Meaning Postulates
BACHELOR
For all x, x is a woman if and only if: L
Where L is a list of features|attributes|properties|conditions
L = { [HUMAN] & [ADULT] & [MALE] & ¬ [MARRIED] }
intersection inclusion
Problems with necessity
BACHELOR(X)
x is HUMANx is ADULTx is male
x is unmarriedx is unmarriedx has never been married
some concepts are ill-defined:the case of game
LINK TOWITTGENSTEIN (II) PU
Encyclopedic knowledge & extended meanings
i. The child is safeii. The beach is safeiii. The shovel is safe
i. Watch out Jane, your husband‘s a right bachelor
Words (expressions), Sense, and Meanings
Polysemy- one form, many meanings -- one form, many meanings -
Polysemy: An examplea ring (=N)
RECTANGULAR
ARENA
CIRCULAR
ARENA
CIRCULAR
ENTITY
GROUP OF PEOPLE
OPERATION TOGETHER
(SECRETLY)
ARENA
CIRCULARPIECE OF
JEWELRY FOR
FINGER
CIRCULAROBJECT
CIRCULARMARK
CIRCULARPIECE OF
JEWELRY
= x is schematic of y
basic sense
= x instantiates y
= x is more peripheral than y
= x is more central than yCENTRALITY/PERIPHERALITY
GENERALITY/SPECIFICITY
Polysemy: An examplea ring (=N)
RECTANGULAR
ARENA
CIRCULAR
ARENA
CIRCULAR
ENTITY
GROUP OF PEOPLE
OPERATION TOGETHER
(SECRETLY)
e.g.
CIRCULAROBJECT
CIRCULAR MARK
e.g.
METAPHORICAL
EXTENSION(senses are linked via similarity)
or:
METONYMICAL
EXTENSION(senses are linked via association; church)
Frames, Domains, Schemas, Scripts, ...
Frames:
•Notion from Frame Semantics (Fillmore 1985 )
•Fillmore views his frame semantic model as a model of the semantics of
understanding
•In F view, speakers produce words and constructions in a text as tool for a
particular activity, namely to evoke understanding (=tool metaphor of
understanding process)understanding process)
•Hearer‘s task is to figure out the activity these tools were intended for
•Words evoke (activate) frames , i.e. knowledge structures about types of
situation
•Sell evokes COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION frame
•one cannot understand the meaning of sell without access to the
knowledge about commercial transactions, which involves particular
entities that stand in particular relations to each other (buyers, goods,
money,....)
•Frames are based on recurrent experience
Frames, Domains, Schemas, Scripts, ...
Scripts:
•Notion from Script theory in artificial intelligence (Schank 1982, 1986)
•Schank attempted to model knowledge representation (especially in the
context of language understanding)
•All memory is episodic, i.e. organized around a person‘s experience
•Generalized episodes are called scripts
•Words evoke (activate) scripts, i.e. knowledge structures about types of •Words evoke (activate) scripts, i.e. knowledge structures about types of
situation
•Scripts allow individual to make inferences
•Scripts allow individual to make predictions
•Scripts allow individuals to fill in knowledge (cf. pragmatic enrichment)
Frames, Domains, Schemas, Scripts, ...
•Words evoke (activate) scripts, i.e. knowledge structures about types of
situation
•Example: Restaurant script
•Scene 1: entering
•S PTRANS S into RESTAURANT
•S ATTEND eyes to TABLES
•S MBUILD where to sit•S MBUILD where to sit
•S PTRANS S to TABLE
•S MOVE to SITTING position
•Scene 2: Ordering
•S PTRANS MENU to S
•S MBUILD choice of FOOD
•S MTRANS signal to WAITER
•WAITER PTRANS WAITER to TABLE
•S MTRANS P(p=I want food) to WAITER
•WAITER PTRANS WAITER to COOK
•Scene 3: Eating [...]
•Scene 4: Exiting [...]
Langacker: content, construal
� Meaning of an expression E consists of conceptual
content (CONTENTE) and a particular way of construing
(viewing) that content (CONSTRUALE)
An expresssion‘s content is provided by a set of cognitive � An expresssion‘s content is provided by a set of cognitive
domains (complex matrix), in each of which the
designated entity plays some role
Profiling
Within the array of conceptual content it evokes as the
basis for its meaning (its conceptual base), an expression
profiles (i.e. refers to) a particular substructure.
hypotenuse
Profiling
Within the array of conceptual content it evokes as the
basis for its meaning (its conceptual base), an expression
profiles (i.e. refers to) a particular substructure.
auntEGO
+FEMALE
Profiling
Expressions that evoke the same content may contrast
semantically by virtue of their choice of profile within
this base
M F
base
Profiling
Expressions that evoke the same content may contrast
semantically by virtue of their choice of profile within
this base
M F
base
wife
Profiling
Expressions that evoke the same content may contrast
semantically by virtue of their choice of profile within
this base
M F
base
husband
Perceptual organisationGestaltist approaches
� Group of German psychologist� Koffka, Köhler, Wertheimer
� Fundmental principle of perceptual organisation:
Koffka
� Fundmental principle of perceptual organisation:
� Law of Prägnanz
� Of several geometrically possible organisations that one will actually occur which possesses the best, simplest, and most stable shape (Kurt Koffka 1935)
What does meaning look like?
� IMAGE SCHEMA
� schematic and imagistic concepts which
� are abstracted from pre-conceptual bodily experience
� function as constituents of more complex notions
provide the structure projected metaphorically to more abstract � provide the structure projected metaphorically to more abstract domains
Image schema
� Image -> imagistic (adj.) ~ sensory experience� Sensory systems: visual, auditory, haptic, tactile, vestibular system
� Contrasts with introspective experience (feelings, emotions)
� Schema -> schematic (adj.) ~ not detailed, but abstractSchema -> schematic (adj.) ~ not detailed, but abstract� Result from repetead experienc e of similar situation
� Example: CONTAINER (cf. Example w/ in, out)
� Image schemas are abstracted from experience and, once established, serve a categorizors (AS-IF description, -> conceptual metaphors)
First thoughts about: image schemas & conceptual metaphors
� She`s in love
� We‘re out of trouble now
� She‘s coming out of a coma� She‘s coming out of a coma
� I‘m slowly getting into shape
� She entered a state of euphoria
� She fell into a depression
First thoughts about: image schemas & conceptual metaphors
� She`s in love� EMOTIONAL STATES are CONTAINERS
� We‘re out of trouble now� SITUATIONS are CONTAINERS
� She‘s coming out of a coma� She‘s coming out of a coma� BODILY STATES are CONTAINERS
� I‘m slowly getting into shape� BODILY STATES are CONTAINERS
� She entered a state of euphoria� EMOTIONAL STATES are CONATINERS
� She fell into a depression� EMOTIONAL STATES are CONTAINERS
IMAGE SCHEMAS, CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE and SEMANTIC STRUCTURE
� Image schemas give rise to types of objects (container)/dimensions of contrast (up/down)
� they can also be more complex and structured entities (SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema)
� can be viewed as the cognitive foundation of FRAMES, � can be viewed as the cognitive foundation of FRAMES, SCRIPTS
� function as categorizors (event may be construed as instantiating a particular image schema)
IMAGE SCHEMAS (examples)
� Container� Blockage� Enablement� Source-Path-Goal� CyclePart-whole
� Attraction� Link� Near-far� Merging� Matching� Contact
� Part-whole� Full-empty� Iteration� Surface� Balance� Counterforce� Process� Collection
� Contact� Object� Compulsion� Restraint removal� Mass-count� Center-periphery� Scale� Splitting� Superimposition
� Container� Blockage� Enablement� Source-Path-Goal� Cycle� Part-whole� Full-empty� Iteration� Surface� Balance� Counterforce
Process
IMAGE SCHEMAS (examples)
� Process� Collection� Attraction� Link� Near-far� Merging� Matching� Contact� Object� Compulsion� Restraint removal� Mass-count� Center-periphery� Scale� Splitting� Superimposition
ANG:FC:277:Joh::1993
Term paper topics:Critical evaluation of theoretical constructs
� A closer look at prototype theory (PT)� Problem of prototypical primes
� Problem of ignorance and error
� Missing prototypes problem
� Problem of compositionality
� Start with general description of PT
� Present challenges of PT
� Focus on subset of problems
� Have a closer look at the texts that formulated the criticism (original sources, not textbook summaries)
� Evaluate the criticim (discuss the problems)
ICM –what are hey
� ICM (Lakoff 1987)
� relatively stable mental representations that represent theories about the world
� compare THEORY-theory of concepts ( Margolis & Laurence 1999, Concepts: Core readings )
� KNOWLEDGE APPROACH to concepts ( Murphy 2004‚ The big book of concepts )
� Similar to Fillmore‘s FRAME s(both relate to complex world knowledge)
� Idealised ~ generalized (i.e. abstractions over instances)
ICM – What do they do?
� ICM guide cognitive processes
� Categorization of perceived stimulus
� ad hoc categories (e.g. THINGS TO DO WHEN YOUR LEG FALLS ASLEEP) exhibit prototype effects; theory of ICM aims at accounting for that
� Reasoning (=draw inferences)� Reasoning (=draw inferences)
ICM – How do they give rise to prototype effects?
� Typically effects arise due to mismatches between ICMs against which particular concept is understood� goodness-of-example rating experiment
� Method: ask people to representativeness of item x for category y
� Empirical result: item pope is judged atypical for category BACHELOR (low scores)
� ICM explanation for that finding:
� BACHELOR is understood against MARRIAGE frame/ICM
� the concept POPE is understood (primarily) against CATHOLIC CHURCH frame/ICM� → Clash of cognitive models (=background knowledge about MARRIAGE & CATHOLIC CHURCH) which is used to categorise perceived objects
� → POPE is mentally categorised as peripheral member of category BACHELOR
� → POPE is judged to be a poor example in experiment (=typicality effect)
THOUGHT IS STRUCTURED NEURAL ACTIVITY
Some conceptual background on how the body computes
NEURAL ACTIVITY
LANGUAGE IS INEXTRICABLE FROM THOUGHT AND EXPERIENCE
(SUBSTANCE) DUALISM –> BODY AND SOUL
Some common (mis)conceptions
BODY AND SOUL
BRAINS AND MIND
PHYSICAL STATES AND MENTAL STATES
CENTRAL METAPHOR:
WE ARE LIKE COMPUTERSBRAINS ~ HARDWARE
MINDS ~ SOFTWARE
Some quick facts about neural information processing
� BRAINS
� 100,000,000,000 processing units
� 1000 operations per second
embodied
� DIGITAL COMPUTER
� 1-100 processing units
� 1,000,000,000 operations per second
� abstract, disembodied
frequently crashes� embodied
� fault tolerant
� gradient, probabilistic signals
� evolves and is self organizing
� learns
� frequently crashes
� binary, deterministic signals
� is explicitly designed
� is programmed
How the body computes...in a nutshell
carries out vital life functions
function as INPUT TERMINALS
functions as single OUTPUT CABLE