Abstract
Reflections on the current status of the theory of meaning acquisition (Clark, 1980; Wannenmacher and Seiler, 1981; Bierwisch, 1981) emphasize the necessity of considering the acquisition of word meaning as a process of building up memory structures. Therefore our investigations are embedded in the frame of cognitive psychology. This contribution is concerned with the acquisition of the meaning of verbs used to describe situations and events. In contrast to most nouns, verbs have a relational character. Words like “bird” or “boots” are used to name correlated features defining or characterizing classes of objects (Hoffmann, 1980). Words like “give” or “keep” are used to express various relations between concepts. According to Klix (1976), concepts are connected by those relations. Configurations of concepts and relations are the internal representation of events and situations. The centre of those configurations is a relational concept denoted by a verb which can be characterized in different ways that are not independent from each other:
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1)
The logical argument structure expresses the number and type of relations to object categories.
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2)
The content of the relational concept denoted by a verb can be represented by a bundle of components. Each of these components expresses a category for classifying experiences (Gentner, 1978; Klix, 1976; Bierwisch, 1981).
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3)
Relational concepts also have relationships to other relational concepts. Whether they are structurally represented relations or ones derived optionally from componential configurations is an open question (Klix and van der Meer, 1978).
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Hagendorf, H. (1983). Some Aspects of Verb Meaning. In: Seiler, T.B., Wannenmacher, W. (eds) Concept Development and the Development of Word Meaning. Springer Series in Language and Communication, vol 12. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69000-6_14
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