SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION
What is the difference between description and explanation in linguistics? We take explanation to be the reduction of description to independently motivated general principles. For language, a promising source of independently motivated general principles can be found in neuroscien...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Murcia
2007-06-01
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| Series: | International Journal of English Studies (IJES) |
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| Online Access: | http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/48841 |
| _version_ | 1811270298830372864 |
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| author | Harry Howard |
| author_facet | Harry Howard |
| author_sort | Harry Howard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | What is the difference between description and explanation in linguistics? We take explanation to be the reduction of description to independently motivated general principles. For language, a promising source of independently motivated general principles can be found in neuroscience, and especially computational neuroscience. As an example, we consider the notion of historical change in word meaning, which in cognitive semantics is often described in terms of conceptual metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche. Why does language rely on these three mental abilities and not some others? We argue that it is because the brain depends on the computational principles of sparseness and entropy to generate efficient mental representations. These principles have been found at work in primary and secondary visual cortex, so that a proper understanding of semantic change takes us through the physiology of early visual cognition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:58:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-63b5095e06ad4b2ab07b35c3cf88c948 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1578-7044 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T21:58:21Z |
| publishDate | 2007-06-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de Murcia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of English Studies (IJES) |
| spelling | doaj.art-63b5095e06ad4b2ab07b35c3cf88c9482022-12-22T03:15:12ZengUniversidad de MurciaInternational Journal of English Studies (IJES)1578-70442007-06-0171173410.6018/ijes.7.1.48841SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISIONHarry HowardWhat is the difference between description and explanation in linguistics? We take explanation to be the reduction of description to independently motivated general principles. For language, a promising source of independently motivated general principles can be found in neuroscience, and especially computational neuroscience. As an example, we consider the notion of historical change in word meaning, which in cognitive semantics is often described in terms of conceptual metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche. Why does language rely on these three mental abilities and not some others? We argue that it is because the brain depends on the computational principles of sparseness and entropy to generate efficient mental representations. These principles have been found at work in primary and secondary visual cortex, so that a proper understanding of semantic change takes us through the physiology of early visual cognition.http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/48841semantic changemetaphormetonymysynecdochesparsenessentropyvisual cortexcomputational neuroscience |
| spellingShingle | Harry Howard SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION International Journal of English Studies (IJES) semantic change metaphor metonymy synecdoche sparseness entropy visual cortex computational neuroscience |
| title | SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION |
| title_full | SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION |
| title_fullStr | SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION |
| title_full_unstemmed | SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION |
| title_short | SPARSENESS AND ENTROPY IN SEMANTIC CHANGE: PRECEDENTS FROM EARLY VISION |
| title_sort | sparseness and entropy in semantic change precedents from early vision |
| topic | semantic change metaphor metonymy synecdoche sparseness entropy visual cortex computational neuroscience |
| url | http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/48841 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT harryhoward sparsenessandentropyinsemanticchangeprecedentsfromearlyvision |