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The Origin of Words: A Psychophysical Hypothesis

Harnad, Stevan (1996) The Origin of Words: A Psychophysical Hypothesis. [Book Chapter]

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Abstract

It is hypothesized that words originated as the names of perceptual categories and that two forms of representation underlying perceptual categorization -- iconic and categorical representations -- served to ground a third, symbolic, form of representation. The third form of representation made it possible to name and describe our environment, chiefly in terms of categories, their memberships, and their invariant features. Symbolic representations can be shared because they are intertranslatable. Both categorization and translation are approximate rather than exact, but the approximation can be made as close as we wish. This is the central property of that universal mechanism for sharing descriptions that we call natural language.

Item Type:Book Chapter
Keywords:word origins, symbolic representation, symbol grounding, meaning, underdetermination, translation
Subjects:Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
Linguistics > Semantics
Philosophy > Philosophy of Language
ID Code:1602
Deposited By: Harnad, Stevan
Deposited On:19 Jun 2001
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

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