Semantic Parameters, Cognitive Models, and Mental Units

What is it about?

The article explores types of knowledge that should be stored in long-term semantic memory. These types of knowledge are reflected in what is traditionally known as content and functional words. The first group is generally associated with nouns, verbs, and adjectives, whereas the second group consists of all the rest of the grammatical categories such as prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, among others. It is the latter group that has traditionally been referred to as meaningless, conveying purely grammatical meaning rather than lexical. The paper takes a cognitive perspective on this issue by proposing a theoretical notion termed conceptual parameter. This notion intends to capture the highly schematic information that functional words convey. Crucially, the article supports the claim that all words offer access to conceptual structure since they are symbolic units. This access, however, varies in amplitude in that content words offer a broad access to the human conceptual system, while functional words offer a much narrower one. In the final analysis, the article presents a working hypothesis that points to a close relationship between conceptual parameters and functional words on the one hand, and cognitive models, frames, and content words on the other hand.

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