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CONCEPTUAL COHERENCE AND THE CHALLENGE OF POLYSEMY
Abstract
In their study of polysemy, the authors build on the principle of cross-disciplinarity and resort to the methods of conceptual analysis and conceptual modelling in linguistic research. The authors focus on the notion of conceptual structure and analyse the role of different conceptual attributes in word sense formation. The article shows that conceptual attributes have a different status and play different roles in the structure of the concept associated with a sense of a polysemous word. Conceptual attributes vary according to the degree of their centrality, proneness to change and their inferential potential. Building on recent research in cognitive psychology, the authors hold that central and immutable attributes play a crucial role in maintaining the conceptual structure of a word whereas those having a high inferential potential stimulate the process of word sense formation. The authors explore the nature of the conceptual processes of inheritance and inference in polysemy. On the basis of the QUALIA structure, the authors simulate the conceptual process of new meaning development using polysemous nouns as a case study.
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