The cognitive origins of language and the informational structure of linguistic meaning Cover Image

Poznawcza geneza języka a informacyjna struktura znaczenia
The cognitive origins of language and the informational structure of linguistic meaning

Author(s): Janina Buczkowska
Subject(s): Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie
Keywords: language; meaning; cognitive representations; information

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I would like to propose an explanation of a variety of aspects in which linguistic meaning manifests itself in cognition and linguistic communication from the perspective of the cognitive origins of language. The analysis shows that language is understood as a system of cognitive representations, within which the specific processes of information processing occur. These processes taking place in the human cognitive system are the basis of the relationships between language and human cognition and action. They are also a source of the linguistic meaning and its various informational functions. The analysis shows that no single informational function of language provides linguistic meaning. What is consider to be the linguistic meaning (in the sense of the information submitted by the expression in a specific situation) is not a single function of language, the same in all these processes, but it is rather a complex of different informational functions that language fulfills (for example conventional meaning fulfill different function then contextual one). Such an explanation allows us to identify the mutual relationships of different functions and aspects of the linguistic meaning and recognize them as complementary rather than oppositional.

  • Issue Year: 51/2015
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 75-96
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Polish