Categorial compositionality II: universal constructions and a general theory of (quasi-)systematicity in human cognition.

ABSTRACT: A complete theory of cognitive architecture (i.e., the basic processes and modes of composition that together constitute cognitive behaviour) must explain the systematicity property--why our cognitive capacities are organized into particular groups of capacities, rather than some other, arbitrary collection. The classical account supposes: (1) syntactically compositional representations; and (2) processes that are sensitive to--compatible with--their structure. Classical compositionality, however, does not explain why these two components must be compatible; they are only compatible by the ad hoc assumption (convention) of employing the same mode of (concatenative) compositionality (e.g., prefix/postfix, where a relation symbol is always prepended/appended to the symbols for the related en

SUBMITTER: Phillips S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3154512 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature