Language and the Evolution of Cognition
(1995)- Abstract
- The main purpose of this article is to discuss the kinds of mental representations that are required for language to evolve. Firstly, I distinguish between cued and detached representations. A cued representation stands for something that is present in the current external situation of the representing organism, while a detached representation may stand for objects or events that are neither present in the current situation nor triggered by some recent situation. The inner environment of an agent is deÞned as the collection of all detached representations of the agent. The fundamental difference between signal and a symbol is that the reference of a symbol is a detached representation, while a signal refers to a cued representation. Icons... (More)
- The main purpose of this article is to discuss the kinds of mental representations that are required for language to evolve. Firstly, I distinguish between cued and detached representations. A cued representation stands for something that is present in the current external situation of the representing organism, while a detached representation may stand for objects or events that are neither present in the current situation nor triggered by some recent situation. The inner environment of an agent is deÞned as the collection of all detached representations of the agent. The fundamental difference between signal and a symbol is that the reference of a symbol is a detached representation, while a signal refers to a cued representation. Icons also refer to detached representations, but unlike symbols, the choice of representation is not arbitrary, since an icon in some aspects resembles the thing it represents (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/526164
- author
- Gärdenfors, Peter LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 1995
- type
- Working paper/Preprint
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Cognitive Studies
- ISSN
- 1101-8453
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 326f0890-3faf-41a2-8e13-639dd0933b24 (old id 526164)
- alternative location
- http://www.lucs.lu.se/ftp/pub/LUCS_Studies/LUCS41.ps
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 09:43:52
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 20:55:15
@misc{326f0890-3faf-41a2-8e13-639dd0933b24, abstract = {{The main purpose of this article is to discuss the kinds of mental representations that are required for language to evolve. Firstly, I distinguish between cued and detached representations. A cued representation stands for something that is present in the current external situation of the representing organism, while a detached representation may stand for objects or events that are neither present in the current situation nor triggered by some recent situation. The inner environment of an agent is deÞned as the collection of all detached representations of the agent. The fundamental difference between signal and a symbol is that the reference of a symbol is a detached representation, while a signal refers to a cued representation. Icons also refer to detached representations, but unlike symbols, the choice of representation is not arbitrary, since an icon in some aspects resembles the thing it represents}}, author = {{Gärdenfors, Peter}}, issn = {{1101-8453}}, keywords = {{Cognitive Studies}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Working Paper}}, title = {{Language and the Evolution of Cognition}}, url = {{http://www.lucs.lu.se/ftp/pub/LUCS_Studies/LUCS41.ps}}, year = {{1995}}, }