On the functional definition of concepts and linguistic meanings: the embodied/grounded approach

Abstract

The article suggests a way to overcome two well-known problems of embodied/grounded theory of cognition: the impossibility of strict differentiating modal and amodal symbols, and the difficulty in defining abstract concepts/simulators (abstract lexical meanings). The pro­posed functional approach is based on the dichotomy 'perceptual (external) vs. functional (internal)' that goes back to Ivan Sechenov. These cognitive units are shown to play funda­mentally different roles. The function — the embodied human response to the perceived object and the typical interaction with it — strictly defines the concept and the category set by it. The percept — the appearance of the object — allows one to quickly hypothesize which catego­ry this object belongs to. Based on the function of the concept and the division of this function into parts (private functions), it becomes possible to construct, instead of one generic concept (and one lexical meaning associated with it), an ontogenetic concept (ontoconcept) as three age-related variants of the concept (and, accordingly, three variants of the meaning of the word), arising in ontogeny — in preschoolers, early school and late school. As an example, the ontoconcept CHAIR and three variants of the meaning of the word chair are constructed. These constructions resonate with Vygotsky’s thought that the meaning of the word changes with the different modes of thinking. In other words, the ontoconcept supports the idea of het­erogeneous verbal thinking (Werner, Vygotsky, Luria, Tul’viste, and Pomanov), arguing that there are several types of verbal thinking associated with different types of human activity and the tasks solved within the framework of this activity (applied, theoretical, artistic, etc.).

Keywords

• concept
• simulator
• lexical meaning
• embodied cognition
• grounded approach
• concrete thinking
• abstract thinking