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Lexical Structures and Conceptual Structures

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Semantics and the Lexicon

Part of the book series: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy ((SLAP,volume 49))

Abstract

Wittgenstein’s theory of language games has major implications for both computational linguistics and semantic theory. It suggests that the ambiguities of natural language are not the result of careless speech by uneducated people. Instead, they result from the fundamental nature of language and the way it relates to the world: language consists of a finite number of words that may be used and reused in an unlimited number of language games. The same words may be used in different games to express different kinds of things, events, and situations. To accommodate Wittgenstein’s games, this paper draws a distinction between lexical structures and deeper conceptual structures. It suggests that words are associated with a fixed set of lexical patterns that remain the same in various language games. The meanings of those words, however, are deeper conceptual patterns that may vary drastically from one game to another. By means of metaphor and conceptual refinement, the lexical patterns can be modified and adapted to different language games in order to construct a potentially unlimited number of conceptual patterns.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Systems Research, 500 Columbus Avenue, Thornwood, NY, USA, 10594

    John F. Sowa

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  1. John F. Sowa
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Brandeis University, USA

    James Pustejovsky

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Sowa, J.F. (1993). Lexical Structures and Conceptual Structures. In: Pustejovsky, J. (eds) Semantics and the Lexicon. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 49. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1972-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1972-6_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-2386-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1972-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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