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in the beginning: word or deed?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2005

stephen j. cowley
Affiliation:
department of psychology, university of hertfordshire, hatfield, hertfordshire al10 9ab, united kingdom and school of psychology, university of kwazulu-natal, south africas.j.cowley@herts.ac.uk

Abstract

emphasizing that agents gain from culture-based patterns, i consider the etiology of meaning. since the simulations show that “shared categories” are not based in learning, i challenge steels & belpaeme's (s&b's) folk view of language. instead, i stress that meaning uses indexicals to set off a replicator process. finally, i suggest that memetic patterns – not words – are the grounding of language.

Type
open peer commentary
Copyright
2005 cambridge university press

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