Representing part-whole relations in conceptual space
Author
Summary, in English
In this paper, we propose a cognitive semantic approach to represent part–whole relations. We base our proposal on the theory of conceptual spaces, focusing on prototypical structures in part–whole relations. Prototypical structures are not accounted for in traditional mereological formalisms. In our account, parts and wholes are represented in distinct conceptual spaces; parts are joined to form wholes in a structure space. The structure space allows systematic similarity judgments between wholes, taking into consideration shared parts and their configurations. A point in the structure space denotes a particular part structure; regions in the space represent different general types of part structures. We argue that the structural space can represent prototype effects: structural types are formed around typical arrangements of parts. We also show how structure space captures the variations in part structure of a given concept across different domains. In addition, we discuss how some taxonomies of part–whole relations can be understood within our framework.
Department/s
Publishing year
2014
Language
English
Pages
127-142
Publication/Series
Cognitive Processing
Volume
15
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
- Learning
Status
Published
Project
- Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
Research group
- Lund University Cognitive Science (LUCS)
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1612-4782