Abstract

How do we come to give names to things? Why do some things have names while others do not? What is the nature of the relationship between the reality we perceive and the language we use? How do we establish the meaning of words, and how can we be sure that we are sharing the same meanings with others? These and other related problems have been discussed in linguistics, semiotics, the philosophy of language, and psychology for a long time. In Meaning and Experience, Patrizia Violi reviews the most salient issues and themes in this complex debate, taking an interdisciplinary approach. In addition to citing empirical data from research in linguistics and the philosophy of language, she considers the most recent studies in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology, especially in relation to the problem of categorization and its relevance for the construal of linguistic meaning. Moving from the analysis of lexical meaning, Violi addresses some general issues in semantics, including the role of perception in the structuring of language, text comprehension, and text interpretation. She suggests an original model of analysis based on an experiential and phenomenological approach. This model leads to a blending of lexical analysis with that of textual interpretation. All the theoretical discussions and models presented are richly illustrated with concrete examples.