This is an engaging study of the mental lexicon - the way in which the form and meaning of words is stored by speakers of specific languages. Fortescue attempts to narrow the gap between the results of experimental neurology and the concerns of theoretical linguistics in the area of lexical semantics. The prime goal as regards linguistic theory is to show how matters of lexical organization can be analysed and discussed within a neurologically informed framework that is both adaptable and constrained. It combines the perspectives of distributed network modelling and linguistic semantics, and draws upon the accruing evidence from neuroimaging studies as regards the cortical regions involved. It engages with a number of controversial current issues in both disciplines. This text is intended as a tool for linguists interested in psychological adequacy and the latest advances in Cognitive Science. It provides a principled means of distinguishing those semantic features required by a mental lexicon that have a direct bearing on grammar from those that do not. ''A Neural Network Model of Lexical Organisation'' is essential reading for researchers in neurolinguistics and lexical semantics. ''Continuum Studies in Theoretical Linguistics'' publishes work at the forefront of present-day developments in the field. The series is open to studies from all branches of theoretical linguistics and to the full range of theoretical frameworks. Titles in the series present original research that makes a new and significant contribution and are aimed primarily at scholars in the field, but are clear and accessible, making them useful also to students, to new researchers and to scholars in related disciplines.
Author(s): Michael Fortescue
Series: Continuum Studies In Theoretical Linguistics
Publisher: Continuum
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 248
Contents......Page 6
Part 1 The Basics......Page 8
1.1 The mental lexicon......Page 10
1.2 The nature of the model......Page 11
2.1 A noun template......Page 20
2.2 Nouns versus verbs......Page 25
2.3 Other parts of speech......Page 30
2.4 A ‘derived’ word......Page 33
3 The Production and Comprehension of Simple Sentences......Page 37
4.1 Some new word types......Page 44
4.2 Production of a complex sentence – and an inference......Page 53
5.1 Relating event structures......Page 56
5.2 Nominalizations and abstract nouns......Page 61
5.3 Some loose ends......Page 64
Summary of Part 1......Page 72
Part 2 Applications......Page 76
6 Semantic Fields and Lexical Categories......Page 78
7.1 Nominal composition......Page 85
7.2 Verbal decomposition......Page 87
7.3 More on causal derivation......Page 93
7.4 Complex word meaning: a test case for compositionality......Page 95
8 Constructions......Page 102
9.1 Polysemy and context......Page 109
9.2 An excursion into metaphor and metonymy......Page 113
10 Some Further Questions of qualia......Page 118
11 Extensions to Languages of Different Morphological Type......Page 125
Summary of Part 2......Page 139
Part 3 Cognitive Justification of the Model......Page 142
12.1 Grammar templates......Page 144
12.2 The realization of grammatical and semantic features by call trees......Page 147
12.3 How call trees and combination matrices might function......Page 154
13 The Neural Representation of Context......Page 160
14 Acquisition......Page 168
15.1 The justification for separating affordance levels......Page 175
15.2 Potential (dis)confirmation of the model......Page 178
Appendix 1: The Relationship to Burnod’s Neurological Model......Page 184
Appendix 2: Paradigmatic Features of English Words......Page 192
Appendix 3: Sample Derivations......Page 200
List of Templates and Graphic Conventions......Page 202
Notes......Page 206
References......Page 237
D......Page 242
M......Page 243
S......Page 244
Y......Page 245
