---
abstract: |-
People use language to exchange ideas and influence the actions of others through shared conceptions
of word meanings, and through a shared understanding of how word meanings are combined. Under the
surface form of words lie complex networks of mental structures and processes that give rise to the richly
textured semantics of natural language. Machines, in contrast, are unable to use language in human-like
ways due to fundamental limitations of current computational approaches to semantic representation.
To address these limitations, and to serve as a catalyst for exploring alternative approaches to language
and meaning, we are developing conversational robots. The problem of endowing robots with language
highlights the impossibility of isolating language from other cognitive processes. Instead, we embrace a
holistic approach in which various non-linguistic elements of perception, action, and memory, provide
the foundations for grounding word meaning. I will review recent results in grounding language in
perception and action and sketch ongoing work for grounding a wider range of words including social
terms such as "I" and "my".
altloc:
- http://www.lucs.lu.se/ftp/pub/LUCS_Studies/LUCS101/Roy.pdf
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: 'August 4-5, 2003'
conference: 'Third International Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics: Modeling Cognitive Development in Robotic Systems'
confloc: 'Boston, MA, USA'
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
- family: Roy
given: Deb
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
date: 2003
date_type: published
datestamp: 2004-02-12
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/33/67
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name:
- family: Prince
given: Christopher G.
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Berthouze
given: Luc
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Kozima
given: Hideki
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Bullock
given: Daniel
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Stojanov
given: Georgi
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
- family: Balkenius
given: Christian
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 3367
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/3367/1/Roy.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: pub
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'conversational robots, language grounding'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:27
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: 37
pubdom: TRUE
publication: ~
publisher: Lund University Cognitive Studies
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: ~
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 12
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:50:32
subjects:
- comp-sci-lang
- comp-sci-mach-vis
- comp-sci-robot
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: 'Robots, language, and meaning'
type: confpaper
userid: 3507
volume: 101