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Plenary Session |
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Reflexivity and identity: a case for situational
constraints in cognition Pieter A. M. Seuren Max Planck Institute
for Psycholinguistics First I will argue for
the True Binarity Principle (TBP): in language
binary predicates are always truly binary, they require distinct mental
entity representations (addresses). When a binary relation is taken to hold
between an entity and itself, lexicon and grammar require reflexivisation
of the predicate expressing the relation. A reflexivised
predicate is a different predicate. No such constraint exists in logic. TBP
solves a fair number of paradoxes, for example, the paradox that the sentence
Trisha envies all the girls in her
class does not entail that Trisha envies herself, even though she is a
girl in her class. It will be shown that TBP and reflexivity have deep roots
in cognition. Next I will argue that the so-called identity predicate be, as in The morning star is the evening star, or Zeus is Jupiter, is not that but a predicate of identification.
It does not express a binary relation but is an instruction to merge two so
far distinct mental addresses into one for the purpose of further discourse.
Finally, I will argue that cognitive models in general are not just
information stores of the kind found in data bases but are structured as
possible situations and that situational knowledge directs access to, and use
of, information retrieved from available world knowledge. Cognitive models
are thus driven by a general design feature that makes them respect
situational features, including the nonidentity of the terms of a binary
relation. The same design feature constrains lexical meaning relations and
grammars allowing for their expression. |