Mandler J M
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0515.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1994 Oct 29;346(1315):63-9. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1994.0129.
It is agreed that infants require pre-existing conceptual meanings to learn language, although little is known about what those meanings are. By default they have been assumed to be the sensorimotor schemas described by Piaget. However, sensorimotor schemas are not concepts and are not the right sort of representation for learning language. Recent research shows that along with sensorimotor schemas infants are simultaneously developing a rich conceptual system. I have proposed that these concepts are represented by sets of image-schemas, each of which represents a meaning. Image-schemas are created by a process of perceptual analysis that redescribes perceptual information into simplified spatial representations. These representations allow language to be learned by providing an analogue-digital interface between the continuous process of perception and the discrete propositional forms of language.
人们一致认为，婴儿需要预先存在的概念意义来学习语言，尽管对于这些意义具体是什么知之甚少。默认情况下，人们假定它们是皮亚杰所描述的感觉运动图式。然而，感觉运动图式不是概念，也不是学习语言的合适表征类型。最近的研究表明，除了感觉运动图式之外，婴儿同时也在发展一个丰富的概念系统。我提出这些概念由意象图式集来表征，每个意象图式都代表一种意义。意象图式是通过感知分析过程创建的，该过程将感知信息重新描述为简化的空间表征。这些表征通过在连续的感知过程和离散的语言命题形式之间提供一个模拟-数字接口，使得语言得以学习。
