Objective How can we understand sentences we’ve never heard before? What distinguishes meaningful things from nonmeaningful things? These questions pose the problems of productivity and intentionality, respectively. These questions have typically been addressed independently. While this modular approach certainly has advantages, nosolution to either problem is fully adequate unless it satisfactorily integrates with a solution to the other. Moreover, work on these problems, especially the problem of productivity, has traditionally interacted only peripherally with psychological work on language understanding and language development.This project will explore the prospects of a leading theory of intentionality, teleosemantics, in addressing the problem of productivity. It will build a recent psychological theory of information management into the core of the theory of productivity. A growing body of literature surrounds the problem of productivity for teleosemantics, but the theory is not yet adequately predictive. By contrast, the traditional approach to the problem of productivity uses mathematical logic in the analysis of natural language. This clear formal structure allows for precise formulation and testing of hypotheses. Teleosemantics cannot be a legitimate alternative unless it provides similar predictive power. The project’s overarching question, “What should logic look like for a teleosemanticist?”. I will draw on my background in formal semantics and developmental psychology. Existing psychological theory of information management (a) faces similar problems as teleosemantics w.r.t. the problem of productivity and (b) has substantial resources for addressing those problems. Bringing these fields together provides a novel perspective on the overarching question. This will yield a teleosemantic theory where precise semantic hypotheses can be developed and tested and, ultimately, an alternative model of the fundamental mechanics of language. Fields of science natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsdiscrete mathematicsmathematical logicsocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivitysocial sciencespsychologydevelopmental psychology Keywords Developmental psychology Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2016 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2016 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator KING'S COLLEGE LONDON Net EU contribution € 183 454,80 Address Strand WC2R 2LS London United Kingdom See on map Region London Inner London — West Westminster Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00
