Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Conceptual Spaces: conceptual spaces is an expression for a way to relate concepts to each other that are independent of a specific language. Objects are represented by points in a possibly multi-dimensional coordinate system; properties are displayed along the axes. Similarities and differences are represented by greater or lesser distances between the points. The alignment of the distances indicates where the objects resemble each other. Conceptual spaces, in contrast to a linguistic description of objects, allow faster information processing e.g. on the internet of things. See also semantic mapping, semantic web, knowledge representation._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Peter Gärdenfors on Conceptual Space - Dictionary of Arguments
I 21 Conceptual Space/Croft/Gärdenfors: Thesis: the (linguistically fixed) categories may vary from language to language, but they are projected onto a common concept space that represents a common cognitive heritage that is, in fact, the geography of the human mind , (Croft 2003, p. 139)(1). This space can be read due to linguistic facts in a way that advanced brain scans will never allow us. (Croft 2001, p. 364).(2) Gärdenfors: I am not concerned here with the geography of this space, but with its geometry. Thereby, I use terms like dimension, distance, region and some terms of the vector algebra. Conceptual Space: are constructed from quality dimensions such as pitch, temperature, weight, size and force. Dimensions: its primary function is to represent the "qualities" of objects in different domains. Space/Domain: e.g. space (dimensions, height, width, depth) color (hue, saturation, brightness), taste (salty, bitter, sweet, sour, possibly a fifth dimension), feeling (excitement, value), form (less researched dimension). --- I 22 Similarity: topology and geometry of the conceptaul space allow us to say that if x is closer to y than z, then x is more similar to y than z. Interpretation/Qualities: qualities can now be interpreted scientifically and cognitively. We must distinguish this. Cognitive interpretation: means that we do not have to determine e.g. the wavelengths, but psychophysical determinations of the way concepts are represented in our mind. --- I 140 Conceptual space/domain/structure/Gärdenfors: the geometrical structure of a conceptual space influences the possibilities of the linguistic use of adjectives. (See Paradis, 2001, 2008). (3)(4) Here we distinguish scalable domains(e.g. size, temperature) of non-scalable domains: adjectives (e.g. dead, alive). Adverbs: E.g. very, terrible, considerable. --- I 141 See also Paradis (2008, p. 331).(4) Adverbs/Gärdenfors: the topological structure of the adjective-related domain determines which adverbs can be combined with the adjective. 1. Croft, W. (2003). Typology and universals (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge. 2. Croft, W. (2001). Radical construction grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 3. Paradis, C. (2001). Adjectives and boundedness. Cognitive Linguistics, 12, 47–65. 4. Paradis, C. (2008). Configurations, construals, and change: Expressions of DEGREE. English Language and Linguistics, 12, 317–343._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Gä I P. Gärdenfors The Geometry of Meaning Cambridge 2014 |
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> Counter arguments against Gärdenfors
> Counter arguments in relation to Conceptual Space
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-26