Conceptual combination

概念组合是将来自两个（或多个）单独概念的信息组合以生成新概念的过程，例如，将关于狗和房子的知识组合以生成doghouse。这个过程本身就很重要，因为它为复合过程提供了基础（即，多词素词的产生，这是许多语言中常见的构词过程，参见例如，Libben & Jarema，2006）。概念组合也是有趣的，因为1）它提供了关于单个概念的理论的充分性的信息，在这个意义上，概念理论需要能够提供解释概念组合所必需的基础; 2）它提供了关于语言系统和概念系统之间关系的信息，因为许多概念组合发生在产生和解释名词短语的上下文中。本研究项目的最终目标将是建立一个更完整的概念组合的关系解释理论。“关系解释”指的是这样一个事实，即概念组合（包括复合词）经常使用关系链接来解释，例如house FOR a dog，作为doghouse的解释，或者virus that CAUSES flu for flu virus（参见，例如，Estes，2003; Gagné & Shoben，1997; Wisniewski，1997）。这项工作有可能确定基本的概念访问和语言理解的潜在过程。

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.