Perspectives On Abstract Concepts

Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this system, we can talk about things we can physically see, such as cats and tables, but also about more abstract entities, such as theories and feelings. But how are these abstract concepts grounded in human cognition and represented in the mind? How are they constructed in language? And how are they used in natural communication settings? This book addresses these questions through a collection of studies that relate to various theoretical frameworks, ranging from Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Words as Social Tools. Contributors investigate how abstract concepts are grounded in the mind, represented in language, and used in verbal discourse. This richness is matched by a range of methods used throughout the volume, from neuroimaging to computational modeling, and from behavioral experiments to corpus analyses.

Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this system, we can talk about things we can physically see, such as cats and tables, but also about more abstract entities, such as theories and feelings. But how are these abstract concepts grounded in human cognition and represented in the mind? How are they constructed in language? And how are they used in natural communication settings? This book addresses these questions through a collection of studies that relate to various theoretical frameworks, ranging from Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Words as Social Tools. Contributors investigate how abstract concepts are grounded in the mind, represented in language, and used in verbal discourse. This richness is matched by a range of methods used throughout the volume, from neuroimaging to computational modeling, and from behavioral experiments to corpus analyses.

This open access book is a timely contribution in presenting recent issues, approaches, and results that are not only central to the highly interdisciplinary field of concept research but also particularly important to newly emergent paradigms and challenges. The contributors present a unique, holistic picture for the understanding and use of concepts from a wide range of fields including cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer science. The chapters focus on three distinct points of view that lie at the core of concept research: representation, learning, and application. The contributions present a combination of theoretical, experimental, computational, and applied methods that appeal to students and researchers working in these fields.

What is effective mathematics teaching? This book represents the first purposeful cross-cultural collection of studies to answer this question from teachers’ perspectives. It focuses particularly on how teachers view effective teaching of mathematics. Teachers’ voices are heard and celebrated throughout the studies reported in this volume. These studies are drawn from many parts of the world representing both Eastern and Western cultural traditions. The editors and authors have deliberately included the views of teachers and educators from different cultural backgrounds, taking into account that beliefs on effective mathematics teaching and its features are highly influenced by one’s own culture. The book will provide readers and scholars with the stimulus to take the ideas presented and expand on them in ways that help improve mathematics education for children, teachers and researchers in both the East and the West.

This book reviews some of the most recent advances in research exploring the links between how people think and behave in interpersonal situations. This cutting-edge volume will interest those in the social and behavioral sciences, clinical and counseling psychology, and sociology, communication studies, and social work.

Standardization has the potential to shape, expand, and create markets. Information technology has undergone a rapid transformation in the application of standards in practice, and recent developments have augmented the need for the divulgence of supplementary research. Standardization Research in Information Technology: New Perspectives amasses cutting-edge research on the application of standards in the market, covering topics such as corporate standardization, linguistic qualities of international standards, the role of individuals in standardization, and the development, use, application, and influence of information technology in standardization techniques.

Cognitive and Computational Strategies for Word Sense Disambiguation examines cognitive strategies by humans and computational strategies by machines, for WSD in parallel. Focusing on a psychologically valid property of words and senses, author Oi Yee Kwong discusses their concreteness or abstractness and draws on psycholinguistic data to examine the extent to which existing lexical resources resemble the mental lexicon as far as the concreteness distinction is concerned. The text also investigates the contribution of different knowledge sources to WSD in relation to this very intrinsic nature of words and senses.