Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The empirical study of language has historically relied heavily upon concrete word stimuli. By definition, concrete words evoke salient perceptual associations that fit well within feature-based, sensorimotor models of word meaning. In contrast, many theorists argue that abstract words are "disembodied" in that their meaning is mediated through language. We investigated word meaning as distributed in multidimensional space using hierarchical cluster analysis. Participants (N = 365) rated target words (n = 400 English nouns) across 12 cognitive dimensions (e.g., polarity, ease of teaching, emotional valence). Factor reduction revealed three latent factors, corresponding roughly to perceptual salience, affective association, and magnitude. We plotted the original 400 words for the three latent factors. Abstract and concrete words showed overlap in their topography but also differentiated themselves in semantic space. This topographic approach to word meaning offers a unique perspective to word concreteness.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Authors: Joshua Troche, Sebastian Crutch, Jamie Reilly
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $931
Awards: G1936895964, Seeing what they see: compensating for cortical visual dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease, Structure of Semantic Memory and its Measurement in Dementia and Aphasia, Early Detection and Treatment of Emerging Cognitive-Linguistic Impairment in Minority Cognitive Aging and Primary Progressive Aphasia
OpenAlex ID: W2123754287