Complex First? On the Evolutionary and Developmental Priority of Semantically Thick Words

The Complex-First Paradox consists in a set of collectively incompatible but individually well-confirmed propositions that regard the evolution, development, and cortical realization of the meanings of concrete nouns. Although these meanings are acquired earlier than those of other word classes, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy of science 2010-12, Vol.77 (5), p.1096-1108
Main Author: Werning, Markus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adjectives
Analytical philosophy
Children
Cognitive development
Complexity theory
Concrete nouns
Evolution
Language use
Linguistics
Nouns
Ontogeny
Paradoxes
Philosophy of language
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Semantic differentials
Semantics
Words
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Summary:The Complex-First Paradox consists in a set of collectively incompatible but individually well-confirmed propositions that regard the evolution, development, and cortical realization of the meanings of concrete nouns. Although these meanings are acquired earlier than those of other word classes, they are semantically more complex and their cortical realizations more widely distributed. For a neurally implemented syntax-semantics interface, it should thus take more effort to establish a link between a concept and its lexical expression. However, in ontogeny and phylogeny, capabilities demanding more effort, ceteris paribus, develop and evolve later than those demanding less effort. The paradox points to an explanatory deficit in linguistic theory.
ISSN:0031-8248
1539-767X
DOI:10.1086/656826