title: Representing the meanings of object and action words: the featural and unitary semantic space hypothesis.
abstract: This paper presents the Featural and Unitary Semantic Space (FUSS) hypothesis of the meanings of object and action words. The hypothesis, implemented in a statistical model, is based on the following assumptions: First, it is assumed that the meanings of words are grounded in conceptual featural representations, some of which are organized according to modality. Second, it is assumed that conceptual featural representations are bound into lexico-semantic representations that provide an interface between conceptual knowledge and other linguistic information (syntax and phonology). Finally, the FUSS model employs the same principles and tools for objects and actions, modeling both domains in a single semantic space. We assess the plausibility of the model by showing that it can capture generalizations presented in the literature, in particular those related to category-related deficits, and show that it can predict semantic effects in behavioral experiments for object and action words better than other models such as Latent Semantic Analysis (Landauer & Dumais, 1997) and similarity metrics derived from Wordnet (Miller & Fellbaum, 1991).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University College of London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAP, UK. g.vigliocco@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vigliocco
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Vinson
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Merrill F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Garrett
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011581:Psychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012660:Semantics