Department of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 May;18(5):229-34. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.02.008. Epub 2014 Mar 14.
The debate on whether language comprehension involves the manipulation of abstract symbols or is grounded in perception and action has reached an impasse, with authors from different theoretical persuasions unable to agree on the diagnostic value of empirical findings. To escape this impasse, I propose a pluralist view of cognition that encompasses abstract and grounded symbols. The contributions of these symbol types to language comprehension vary as a function of the degree to which language use is embedded in the environment. I distinguish five levels of embeddedness: demonstration, instruction, projection, displacement, and abstraction. Only through a closer analysis of context will we make significant progress toward understanding language comprehension and cognition in general.
关于语言理解是否涉及抽象符号的操作，或者是否基于感知和行动的争论已经陷入僵局，来自不同理论流派的作者无法就经验发现的诊断价值达成一致。为了摆脱这种僵局，我提出了一种认知的多元论观点，其中包括抽象符号和基于感知的符号。这些符号类型对语言理解的贡献因语言使用在多大程度上嵌入环境而异。我区分了五个嵌入程度：演示、指导、投射、置换和抽象。只有通过更仔细地分析语境，我们才能在理解语言理解和一般认知方面取得重大进展。
