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A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION OF A RULE THEORY OF ‘SENSE‘
Author(s) -
ALKER HENRY A.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1966.tb01042.x
Subject(s) - equivocation , psychology , meaning (existential) , set (abstract data type) , psycholinguistics , tree (set theory) , linguistics , cognitive psychology , natural language processing , computer science , cognition , mathematics , philosophy , mathematical analysis , neuroscience , psychotherapist , programming language
Sommers, formalizing some procedures of linguistic analysis used by Wittgenstein and Ryle, has proposed that the senses of a set of terms may be represented uniquely and unequivocally by a topological tree. This claim was tested by examining empirically its consequence that sets of terms not fitting on a tree must contain some equivocation. Each of four different measures of equivocation supported this prediction. Implications for current research on meaning are discussed.