Conceptual combination

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Conceptual combination is the process of combining information from two (or more) individual concepts to generate a new concept, as in, for example, combining what is known about dog and house to generate doghouse. This process is important in its own right, as it provides the basis for the process of compounding (i.e., the creation of multi-morphemic words, a common word formation process in many languages, see e.g., Libben & Jarema, 2006). Conceptual combination is also interesting in that 1) it provides information about the adequacy of theories of individual concepts in the sense that theories of concepts need to be able to provide the underpinnings necessary to account for conceptual combination and 2) it provides information about the relation between the language system and the conceptual system, because much conceptual combination occurs in the context of producing and interpreting noun phrases. The ultimate goal of this research project will be the creation of a more complete theory of relational interpretation of conceptual combinations. "Relational interpretation" refers to the fact that conceptual combinations (including compound words) are often paraphrased using relational links such as house FOR a dog, as the paraphrase for doghouse, or virus that CAUSES flu for flu virus (see, e.g., Estes, 2003, Gagné & Shoben, 1997; Wisniewski, 1997). This work has the potential to identify fundamental underlying processes of conceptual access and language comprehension.