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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01794081302
Title: | When one meaning is not enough: Word learning in a polysemous world |
Authors: | Floyd, Samantha |
Advisors: | Goldberg, Adele E |
Contributors: | Psychology Department |
Keywords: | cognitive linguistics computation development learning semantics |
Subjects: | Language |
Issue Date: | 2021 |
Publisher: | Princeton, NJ : Princeton University |
Abstract: | Words commonly refer to multiple meanings, a phenomenon known as polysemy: caps can appear on bottles, human heads, or mushrooms; green can refer to a color or an environmental stance; a sheet can be in a notebook or on a bed. Polysemy presents a challenge to many theories of meaning and learning, which posit individual meanings and competition between candidate referents. As a result, many open questions remain about how polysemous meanings are learned and represented. In this dissertation*, I address these fundamental issues from a number of angles, using behavioral, developmental, clinical, and computational methods. I first review existing approaches to word meaning and representation (Chapter 2). I then investigate how children and adults uncover and learn the rich, hidden conceptual structure of meanings using novel learning tasks (Chapter 3) and eye- tracking (Chapter 4). In Chapter 5 I investigate variation in generalization by considering a neurodiverse population. In Chapter 6, I develop and evaluate theories of word generalization in quantifiably-testable computational models. Finally, in Chapter 7 I outline a new approach to understanding word learning. |
URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01794081302 |
Alternate format: | The Mudd Manuscript Library retains one bound copy of each dissertation. Search for these copies in the library's main catalog: catalog.princeton.edu |
Type of Material: | Academic dissertations (Ph.D.) |
Language: | en |
Appears in Collections: | Psychology |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Floyd_princeton_0181D_13789.pdf | 3.76 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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