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Jun 2006
ISBN 0262062534
377 pp.
37 illus.
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From Molecule to Metaphor
Jerome A. Feldman

In From Molecule to Metaphor, Jerome Feldman proposes a theory of language and thought that treats language not as an abstract symbol system but as a human biological ability that can be studied as a function of the brain, as vision and motor control are studied. This theory, he writes, is a "bridging theory" that works from extensive knowledge at two ends of a causal chain to explicate the links between. Although the cognitive sciences are revealing much about how our brains produce language and thought, we do not yet know exactly how words are understood or have any methodology for finding out. Feldman develops his theory in computer simulations¿¿¿formal models that suggest ways that language and thought may be realized in the brain. Combining key findings and theories from biology, computer science, linguistics, and psychology, Feldman synthesizes a theory by exhibiting programs that demonstrate the required behavior while remaining consistent with the findings from all disciplines.

Table of Contents
 Contents
 Preface
 Acknowledgements
I Embodied Information Processing
1 The Mystery of Embodied Language
2 The Information Processing Perspective
3 Computational Models
II How the Brain Computes
4 Neurons and Other Cells
5 The Society of Neurons
6 Nature and Nurture
III How the Mind Computes
7 Connections in the Mind
8 Embodied Concepts and Their Words
9 The Computational Bridge
IV Learning Concrete Words
10 First Words
11 Conceptual Schemas and Cultural Frames
12 Learning Spatial Relation Words
V Learning Words for Actions
13 Embodied Knowledge of Actions
14 Learning Action Words
VI Abstract and Metaphorical Words
15 Conceptual Systems
16 Metaphors and Meaning
17 Understanding as Simulation
VII Understanding Stories
18 The Structure of Action and Events
19 Belief and Inference
20 Understanding News Stories
VIII Combining Form and Meaning
21 Combining Forms--Grammar
22 The Language Wars
23 Combining Meanings--Embodied Construction Grammar
IX Embodied Language
24 Embodied Language Understanding
25 Learning Constructions
26 Remaining Mysteries
27 All Together Now
 References and Further Reading
 Index
 
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