In this paper, I investigate the relationship between natural language and thinking. Specifically, I adopt the view that thinking operates, by and large, according to asso- ciationistic rules and argue that natural language plays a crucial role in thinking, but not a constitutive one, as many have argued. I propose that the suggested view enjoys significant empirical support, mainly from work done with aphasic subjects. The major challenges that all associationistic views of thinking face are the problems of proposi- tional thinking and compositionality of thought. I briefly suggest how these challenges could be met in the light of the suggested view regarding thought production.
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- Michiel van Elk: Preface
- Liane Ströbel: What’s so fascinating about Sensory-Motor Concepts?
- Liane Ströbel: Sensory-Motor Concepts and Language
- Liane Ströbel: The Diversity of Sensory-Motor Concepts and its Implications
- Liane Ströbel: Sensory-Motor Concepts and Perception
- Raymond W. Gibbs: Experimental and Corpus Studies on Embodied Metaphoric Meaning
- Valentina Cuccio: Inferential Communication in the Embodied Language Paradigm
- Johann-Mattis List, Anselm Terhalle and Daniel Schulzek: Traces of Embodiment in Chinese Character Formation A Frame Approach to the Interaction of Writing, Speaking, and Meaning
- Wolfgang G. Müller: Motion and Emotion. The application of sensory-motor concepts to the representation of emotion in literature
- Gerard Steen: Sensory-Motor Concepts and Metaphor in Usage
- Ralf Naumann: Dynamics in the Brain and Dynamic Frame Theory for Action Verbs
- Sander Lestrade: The place of Place (according to spatial case)
- Andrea Bellavia: Force Change Schemas and Excessive Actions: How High-Level Cognitive Operations Constrain Aspect in Idiomatic Constructions
- Lionel Brunel, Denis Brouillet, Rémy Versace: The Sensory Nature of Knowledge
- Martin V.Bütz and Daniel Zöllner: Towards Grounding Compositional Concept Structures in Self-organizing Neural Encodings
- Alex Tillas: Grounding Cognition: The Role of Language in Thinking
- Olaf Hauk: Postface