Conceptual Combination and Modification

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Conceptual combination is the process of combining information from two (or more) concepts to generate a new concept (e.g., combining dog and house to generate doghouse). Conceptual combination is interesting in that 1) it provides information about the adequacy of theories of individual concepts, in the sense that theories of concepts need to provide the underpinnings to account for conceptual combination, 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, and 3) it provides the basis for the creation of compound words, a common process in many languages. The ultimate goal of this research project is the creation of a more complete theory of relational interpretation of conceptual combinations. "Relational interpretation" refers to the fact that conceptual combinations are often paraphrased using relational links such as house FOR a dog, as the paraphrase for doghouse. This project will develop the RICE (Relational Interpretation Competitive Evaluation) theory (Spalding, Gagné, Mullaly, & Ji, 2010), by investigating how relational interpretations are elaborated. That is, how does the full meaning of a combination like doghouse develop from the relational interpretation. If combined concepts are interpreted via the relational process described in the RICE theory, then the elaboration must proceed from the gist. For example, consider a combination like doghouse. If the gist is "house for a dog" then the elaboration proceeds on that basis. On the other hand, if the gist was "house that has a dog" then the elaboration would proceed quite differently. As a simple example, a house for a dog would suggest no doorknobs, while a house that has a dog (i.e., a house owned by a family that has a dog) would suggest the presence of doorknobs. Understanding the elaboration process is critical to creating a complete theory of conceptual combination.