Continuity in Linguistic Semantics (Lingvisticae Investigationes Supplementa)

This text presents essays on linguistic issues that include: continuity and modality; definitions of polysemous terms; coarse coding and the lexicon; and the use of continuity in modelling semantic phenomena. CONTINUITY IN LINGUISTIC SEMANTICS......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 Copyright page......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 8 PART I. LINGUISTIC ISSUES......Page 12 THE LIMITS OF CONTINUITY : DISCRETENESS IN COGNITIVE SEMANTICS......Page 14 REFERENCES......Page 24 1. The choice of a theoretical framework and an attempt at a definition of continuity......Page 26 2. The example of pouvoir......Page 29 3. Manifestations of continuity in other types of examples......Page 34 REFERENCES......Page 37 2. Theses about the continuum......Page 38 3. The cognitive-conceptual dimension of Participation......Page 39 4. Linguistic coding and typology......Page 44 5. Concluding remarks......Page 46 REFERENCES......Page 48 1. Discreteness : a point of transition between two continuities......Page 50 3. Are units totally discrete ?......Page 52 4. Problems of grammatical categorization......Page 54 5. The example of Fr. que......Page 56 REFERENCES......Page 60 1. Introduction......Page 62 2. An Example of Gradience : the English Genitive and of-Constructions......Page 64 3. Technique of Analysis......Page 65 4. Step-by-step Methodology......Page 66 5. Statistical Modelling......Page 71 6. Conclusions Drawn from the Analysis......Page 76 7. General Conclusion......Page 78 REFERENCES......Page 80 1. How to build a "continuous; definition"......Page 82 2.1. Basis......Page 88 2.2. Resources......Page 89 2.3. Limits......Page 90 2.4. Specificity......Page 91 REFERENCES......Page 97 0. Introduction......Page 98 1. The linguistic phenomena......Page 99 2. Underlying problematics......Page 101 3. Arguments : the example of polysemy......Page 104 REFERENCES......Page 111 PART II. MODELLING ISSUES......Page 114 1. The Framework......Page 116 2. Against Arguments of Necessity......Page 117 3 . Continuity versus Multiplicity......Page 119 a) Labelling facts and Meta-Reasoning......Page 122 b) Qualitative Physics......Page 124 c) Vagueness......Page 125 d) Thresholds and Trade-offs......Page 126 e) Consistency......Page 127 6. Conclusion......Page 128 REFERENCES......Page 130 CONTINUUM, COGNITION AND LINGUISTICS......Page 132 1.1. The perception input......Page 133 1.2. Cognitive dynamism......Page 136 1.3. A continuum of meaning ?......Page 141 2.1. The position of the problem......Page 145 2.2. The cognitive point of view : Talmy and Poincaré......Page 147 2.3. Confrontation between cognitive-linguistic space and transcen-dental/geometrical space......Page 150 3. Conclusion : the dispute of continuum......Page 154 REFERENCES......Page 157 1. The opposition Continuous-Discrete : Generalities......Page 160 2. The Discrete in the continuous......Page 161 3. The notion of genus and the couple Genus-Species......Page 164 4. Archeology of Seiler's continuum......Page 166 5. Seiler's continuum and the theory of C.S. Peirce......Page 168 REFERENCES......Page 171 Introduction......Page 172 1.1. The main arguments of Fodor and Pylyshyn ......Page 173 1.2. Smolensky's tensorial product......Page 174 1.3. The core of the debate : the need of a configurational definition of the roles......Page 175 2. From syntactic constituency to cognitive archetypes......Page 177 3. From cognitive image-schemas to perceptive constituency......Page 179 4. Contour propagation and the cut locus theory......Page 180 REFERENCES......Page 190 A DISCRETE APPROACH BASED ON LOGIC SIMULATING CONTINUITY IN LEXICAL SEMANTICS......Page 194 1.1. An undecidability in the type of relationship between concepts and polysemous words......Page 195 1.2. Are polysemous words modifiers of the essence of concepts ?......Page 197 2.1. Continuity as a decomposition into fine-grained particles......Page 198 2.1.1. Example of a componential representation of continuity......Page 199 2.1.2. Continuity in the depth of interpretation......Page 200 2.3. The EDGAR1 model : a possible solution considering constraints and goals......Page 203 2.3.1. Formalization of the lexical model......Page 204 2.3.2. Formalization of the interpretation function......Page 205 2.4. Possibilities and Limits of the EDGAR model......Page 206 REFERENCES......Page 208 COARSE CODING AND THE LEXICON......Page 210 Coarse Coding and Locating Visual Features......Page 212 Coarse Coding and the Lexicon......Page 213 Is the word the building block ?......Page 214 Words' contextual stickiness......Page 218 Why don't words with many meanings, or one abstract meaning, pose a comprehension burden ?......Page 220 Computational realization......Page 221 Construction of corpus and training......Page 222 Network behavior......Page 223 Assessment of the implementation of prepositional polysemy......Page 226 Processing Factors......Page 227 Closing Remarks, Related Approaches......Page 228 REFERENCES......Page 231 1. The Verb cut......Page 236 2. Inference in Localist Networks......Page 239 3. Continuity and Distributed Networks......Page 241 4 . The Holy Grail......Page 242 REFERENCES......Page 244 1.1. Categorisation......Page 246 1.2. Compositionality......Page 247 1.3. Representation of meaning......Page 248 2.2. Discreteness......Page 249 3.1 Qualitative modelling......Page 250 3.2 Dynamical systems......Page 251 4.1. Continuity on a digital computer......Page 252 4.2. Connectionism......Page 253 4.3. Current limits of connectionism......Page 254 REFERENCES......Page 256 INDEX......Page 258 Until recently, most linguistic theories as well as theories of cognition have avoided use of the notion of continuity. At the moment, however, several linguistic trends, sharing a preoccupation with semantico-cognitive problems (e.g. cognitive grammars, 'psychomechanics', 'enunciative theories'), are trying to go beyond the constraints imposed by discrete approaches. At the same time, mathematical (e.g. differential geometry and dynamical systems) and computer science tools (e.g. connectionism) have been proposed that can be used for modelling of continuous linguistic phenomena. In this volume, linguists, philosophers, mathematicians and computer scientists discuss which semantic phenomena (linked to the lexicon, to grammatical theories or to syntactic structures) call for continuous models and which formalisation tools can contribute to the development of such models. The first part of the book is devoted to linguistic issues, the second part deals with modelling issues. Many important questions are raised in the discussion, for instance: Is continuity just a convenient representation of gradual yet discrete facts, or is it an intrinsic characteristic of semantic phenomena? How can the introduction of continuity be reconciled with a methodology based on the falsifiability of theories? What is the link between continuity and Gestalt theory? Can linguistic continuity be accounted for by mathematical models? What about statistical models? How can continuity be implemented on a digital and therefore discrete machine?