Animal Brains and the Work of Words: Daniel Dennett on Natural Language and the Human Mind

Topoi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Miguens
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Daniel Dennett

The Role of Cognitive Patterns in Modelling Reality by Means of Natural Language (The Case Study of the English Cognitive Pattern “Cleanness / Dirtiness”)

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-81
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Savitskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Cognitive Patterns ◽  
Cognitive Pattern ◽  
The World ◽  
Internal Comparison

In the field of cognitive linguistics it is accepted that, before developing its capacity for abstract and theoretical thought, the human mind went through the stage of reflecting reality through concrete images and thus has inherited old cognitive patterns. Even abstract notions of the modern civilization are based on traditional concrete images, and it is all fixed in natural language units. By way of illustration, the author analyzes the cognitive pattern “сleanness / dirtiness” as a constituent part of the English linguoculture, looking at the whole range of its verbal realization and demonstrating its influence on language-based thinking and modeling of reality. Comparing meanings of language units with their inner forms enabled the author to establish the connection between abstract notions and concrete images within cognitive patterns. Using the method of internal comparison and applying the results of etymological reconstruction of language units’ inner form made it possible to see how the world is viewed by representatives of the English linguoculture. Apparently, in the English linguoculture images of cleanness / dirtiness symbolize mainly two thematic areas: that of morality and that of renewal. Since every ethnic group has its own axiological dominants (key values) that determine the expressiveness of verbal invectives, one can draw the conclusion that people perceive and comprehend world fragments through the prism of mental stereo-types fixed in the inner form of language units. Sometimes, in relation to specific language units, a conflict arises between the inner form which retains traditional thinking and a meaning that reflects modern reality. Still, linguoculture is a constantly evolving entity, and its de-velopment entails breaking established stereotypes and creating new ones. Linguistically, the victory of the new over the old is manifested in the “dying out” of the verbal support for pre-vious cognitive patterns, which leads to “reprogramming” (“recoding”) of linguoculture rep-resentatives’ mentality.

scholarly journals Linguistic anchors in the sea of thought?

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Public Language ◽  
Daniel Dennett ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Computational Properties ◽  
Communicative Role

Language, according to Jackendoff, is more than just an instrument of communication and cultural transmission. It is also a tool which helps us to think. It does so, he suggests, by expanding the range of our conscious contents and hence allowing processes of attention and reflection to focus on items (such as abstract concepts and steps in chains of reasoning) which would not otherwise be available for scrutiny. I applaud Jackendoff s basic vision, but raise some doubts concerning the argument. In particular, I wonder what it is about public language that uniquely fits it to play the functional role which Jackendoff isolates — why couldn't expression in a private inner code induce the same computational benefits? I suggest a weaker position in which the communicative role of public language moulds it into a suitably expressive resource, such that natural language emerges as the logically and technologically contingent filler of a functional role which could, in principle, be filled by other means. I also compare and contrast Jackendoff's position with some related ideas due to Daniel Dennett and others, concluding with a sketch of my own view of language as an external artifact whose computational properties complement those of the basic biological brain.

Linguistic universals as evidence for empiricism

1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Biological Structure ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Absolute Sense ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Universal Properties ◽  
The Mind

I. Noam Chomsky turned the previously rather specialized discipline of linguistics into a subject of considerable general philosophical interest by his argument that the discovery of universal properties of natural language requires us to adopt a ‘nativist’ or ‘rationalist’ view of human mind – a view according to which ‘our systems of belief are those that the mind, as a biological structure, is designed to construct’ (Chomsky, 1976: 7). (I shall use the terms ‘nativism’ and ‘rationalism’ interchangeably in this article, since any difference we make between them is not important in the context of Chomsky's work. The truth is that, as with many philosophical ‘isms’, the two words do duty for a range of many more than two closely related, partly overlapping theses.) When Chomsky began publishing, a widespread attitude to human language was that expressed by Martin Joos (1957: 96): ‘languages [can] differ from each other without limit and in unpredictable ways’. Chomsky claims that this is false: to quote one of his favourite examples, it is perfectly possible to imagine a language which forms yes/no questions simply by reversing the order of the words in the corresponding statements, yet in fact no natural language has a rule remotely like this (even though this rule seems rather simpler, in an absolute sense, than many of the rules which are found in natural languages). Human languages differ in some respects, but in other respects they are all cut to a common pattern. Much of Chomsky's and his followers' work consists of formulating and testing increasingly refined hypotheses about the precise limits within which natural languages may vary.

Natural Language Parsing

2009 ◽  
pp. 158-175
Author(s):  
Pauli Brattico ◽  
Mikko Maatta
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Information Management ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Inductive Learning ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Natural Language Parsing ◽  
Minimalist Theory

Automatic natural language processing captures a lion’s share of the attention in open information management. In one way or another, many applications have to deal with natural language input. In this chapter the authors investigate the problem of natural language parsing from the perspective of biolinguistics. They argue that the human mind succeeds in the parsing task without the help of languagespecific rules of parsing and language-specific rules of grammar. Instead, there is a universal parser incorporating a universal grammar. The main argument comes from language acquisition: Children cannot learn language specific parsing rules by rule induction due to the complexity of unconstrained inductive learning. They suggest that the universal parser presents a manageable solution to the problem of automatic natural language processing when compared with parsers tinkered for specific purposes. A model for a completely language independent parser is presented, taking a recent minimalist theory as a starting point.

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN HEALTHCARE

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Matthew N.O. Sadiku ◽  
Yu Zhou ◽  
Sarhan M. Musa
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Computer Algorithms ◽  
Everyday Language

Natural language processing (NLP)  refers to the process of using of computer algorithms to identify key elements in everyday language and extract meaning from unstructured spoken or written communication.  Healthcare is the biggest user of the NLP tools. It is expected that NLP tools should  be able to bridge the gap between the mountain of data generated daily and the limited cognitive capacity of the human mind.  This paper provides a brief introduction on the use of NLP in healthcare.

Reinterpreting behavior: A human specialization?

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 712-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Povinelli ◽  
Jochen Barth
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Small Difference ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Human Mind

Tomasello et al. argue that the “small difference that made a big difference” in the evolution of the human mind was the disposition to share intentions. Chimpanzees are said to understand certain mental states (like intentions), but not share them. We argue that an alternative model is better supported by the data: the capacity to represent mental states (and other unobservable phenomena) is a human specialization that co-evolved with natural language.

Relative Analysis on Algorithms and Applications of Deep Learning

2020 ◽  
pp. 263-288
Author(s):  
Senbagavalli M. ◽  
Sathiyamoorthi V. ◽  
D. Sudaroli Vijayakumar
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
World Systems ◽  
The Public ◽  
Vehicle Systems ◽  
Relative Analysis

Deep learning is an artificial intelligence function that reproduces the mechanisms of the human mind in processing records and evolving shapes to be used in selection construction. The main objective of this chapter is to provide a complete examination of deep learning algorithms and its applications in various fields. Deep learning has detonated in the public alertness, primarily as inspective and analytical products fill our world, in the form of numerous human-centered smart-world systems, with besieged advertisements, natural language supporters and interpreters, and prototype self-driving vehicle systems. Therefore, it provides a broad orientation for those seeking a primer on deep learning algorithms and its various applications, platforms, and uses in a variety of smart-world systems. Also, this survey delivers a precious orientation for new deep learning practitioners, as well as those seeking to innovate in the application of deep learning.

scholarly journals Metajęzykowe oblicze ironii

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Starodworskaja
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Verbal Irony ◽  
Intellectual Abilities ◽  
Main Target

The paper deals with the problem of relations between verbal irony and metalinguistic features of the natural language. It is shown that the irony in the vast majority of situations involves the reaction to a real or imagined speech, which proceeds from the fact that the human mind, the main target of irony, is explicated in a manner making it possible to be examined and evaluated precisely in speech. The target of the irony is man, his intellectual abilities, ethic and aesthetic choices, his views and beliefs, while his speech (word, statement, text, manner of speaking) turns out to be the direct pretext for ironic utterance.

scholarly journals Highlights on Mental Processes in Management

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Vladimir Modrak ◽  
Mirela Teodorescu ◽  
Daniela Gîfu
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Information Theory ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
William James ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Mental Event ◽  
Mental Process ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Daniel Dennett

Mental process or cognition process is a term often used for all the acts that people can do with their minds. These acts include perception, introspection, reasoning, creativity, imagination, memory, idea, belief, volition, and emotion. A mental event represents an instance involved in cognitive process. The perceiving of the event is different from each event depending of perceiving capacity of that instance. Along human existence, philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Daniel Dennett and et alli. The structure of the mental process is part of psychology and psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and William James who developed essential theories about the nature of the human mind. In the last decades of the 20th and early 21st centuries the domain of cognitive science emerged and developed many varied approaches related to the description of mind and its related phenomena. The field of artificial intelligence is the possibility of non-human minds also explored, and works closely in relation with cybernetics and information theory to understand the ways in which human mental phenomena can be replicated by non-biological machines. The mental process domain is by far vast, this study is suggesting only to highlight some of aspects, subjects of thought for human being.

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