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ERIC Number: EJ776922
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Dec
Pages: 7
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0010-0277
EISSN: N/A
More than Words: A Reply to Malt and Sloman
Bloom, Paul
Cognition, v105 n3 p649-655 Dec 2007
In four experiments, Malt and Sloman [Malt, B. C., & Sloman, S. A. (2007). Category essence or essentially pragmatic? Creator's intention in naming and what's really what. "Cognition, 105," 615-648] show that the naming of artifacts is affected by discourse context. They see this phenomenon as posing a problem for the intentional-history theory of artifact categorization (e.g., [Bloom, P. (1996). Intention, history, and artifact concepts. "Cognition, 60," 1-29]), and as supporting instead their alternative theory that naming is determined by communicative goals. This response begins by distinguishing the problem of artifact categorization (determining the categories that artifacts belong to) from the problem of artifact naming (deciding how to talk about members of these categories). In light of this distinction, it turns out that Malt and Sloman's findings are fully consistent with all theories of artifact categorization, including the intentional-historical one. Moreover, contrary to what they argue, there are actually many cases where the relative contributions of categorization and pragmatics can be clearly distinguished. Finally, it is argued that Malt and Sloman's own account of artifact naming presupposes a capacity for artifact categorization; it cannot work without one.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A