Reflections [II] Conceptual Spaces At Work: Lund University, Sweden, May 2012

[See also Reflections I CSaW2012]

Among many things Dessalles - From Conceptual Spaces to Predicates - told us that meaning is essentially two-fold: analogue and symbolic.

An evocative summary was provided:

(Topo)logical thinking = Conceptual spaces + Contrast

Concepts do not exist as permanent structures.
Predicates are ephemeral.
Questions included: Is there a contrast logic?

You can find Dessalles online and there is a specific book Why We Talk (2007) (some of the chapters look particularly interesting - information).

Also to investigate are there being no locality principle and the danger of holism, and a point about structural matching as part of problems with traditional approaches to meaning that involve interfaces and relationship structures (pardon the ramble - the paper has not appeared yet).

Geuder's Manner Modification and the Representation of Event Concepts found me tweeting - see below. A biomotion demo was tied to the theme emphasizing perceptual cues, manner and meaning.

Off at a tangent the title had me musing on the importance of 'manner modification' in nursing. Sometimes fleetness of attitudinal, objective and emotional foot is needed to deal with a care situation. Tangent aside, there are clearly some serious considerations around health care processes, these are the bread and butter of healthcare records and information systems.

I've just copied my tweets (clinical examples arose in several sessions):

Gardenfors & Warglien ref new paper?* subspaces corres to a division into domains - event concepts

Manner modification eg. "slowly". (Manner central in health nursing) +mention of forgetting + absentmindedness denotes? PTSD?

A representation of a stage structure is needed - further e.g. "carefully" He cleaned the wound...  filled by context (as ever)

Geuder still, now on emotional state predicates - "sadly" Three possible ways to proceed - close now

* The following may be the new paper:

Peter Gärdenfors and Massimo Warglien Using Conceptual Spaces to Model Actions and Events. J of Semantics first published online April 17, 2012 doi:10.1093/jos/ffs007