week 10 - language Flashcards
semantic memory and word meaning
“CAT”
APPROACH 1: definitions
a carnivrous mammal long domesticated and kept by humans as a pet or for catching rats
BUT: what does mammal, pet or rat mean?
APPROACH 2: its one of those (a picture)
BUT: not everything can be pointed at (eg. trust, democracy) and pointing cant relate cat to other things (breathes, has hair)
approaches to meaning:
semantic networks
network of unitary nodes (no internal structure) and labelled links between them (the nodes)
good for heirarchies
properties are inheritied (eg. everything below animal breathes)
approaches to meaning:
semantic networks
what does it predict?
sentence verification times
more links to cross = more time
approaches to meaning:
semantic networks
diagram
see notes
approaches to meaning:
semantic networks
evidence?
sentence verification data
evidence for semantic networks:
sentence verification data
task: present sentence, participants must respond true / false
- a robin is a robin (fastest - no links)
- a robin is a bird (1 link)
- a robin is an animal (2 links)
- a robin has wings (at bird level)
- a robin has lungs (lungs at animal level)
slower if you have to cross more information
BUT:
a cow is a mammal slower than a cow is an animal
- because of familiarity
a robin is a bird faster than a penguin is a bird
- typicality
semantic memory organised on …
… basis relatedness or semantic distance
(instead of hierarchy)
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
influence of world knowledge
problems with semantic networks
defintion problem
are definitions really as sharp as a network implies?
necessary and sufficient conditions are the usual aproach to sharp definitions
- well defined set of attributes
- if all of them are present we have X
eg. bachelor
- never married
- male
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
problem with necessary and sufficient conditions:
necessary and sufficient conditions can rarely be found for an adequate definition
- so it cant define something in a way that captures the true meaning of what we think we understand
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
problem with necessary and sufficient conditions:
example
define “game” using necessary and sufficient conditions
the prototypical example was stated by Wittgestein
—> “we see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and cross-crossing”
so clear that it really hard to define
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
wittgensetins example shows the 2 problems
problem for learning
problem for meaning
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
problem for learning
how do children figure out what a game is if there is no definition, but the set is also not arbitrary
ie not everything is a game
—> how do children figure this out?
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
problem for meaning
how do i know what you mean by “game”
what if you pick one way and i pick a different way
problems with semantic networks
definition problem
concepts are…
fuzzy!
