Advocates of the pictorial theory of meaning claimed that the meaning of a word is a mental picture and that lexical semantic competence — i.e. knowledge of word meaning — is closely connected to visual imagery. As a philosophical theory of meaning, the pictorial theory was discredited in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, there is evidence that visual imagery — the generation of visual mental images — does play a role in semantic processing and is not just a possible side effect of it. The aim of this article is to critically assess the neuroscientific status of the pictorial theory of meaning as a hypothesis about the neurocognitive underpinnings of lexical semantic competence. I will assess relevant neuroimaging, behavioural, and patient data, as well as data from congenital blindness studies.
The empirical status of the pictorial view of meaning
Calzavarini F.
2019-01-01
Abstract
Advocates of the pictorial theory of meaning claimed that the meaning of a word is a mental picture and that lexical semantic competence — i.e. knowledge of word meaning — is closely connected to visual imagery. As a philosophical theory of meaning, the pictorial theory was discredited in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, there is evidence that visual imagery — the generation of visual mental images — does play a role in semantic processing and is not just a possible side effect of it. The aim of this article is to critically assess the neuroscientific status of the pictorial theory of meaning as a hypothesis about the neurocognitive underpinnings of lexical semantic competence. I will assess relevant neuroimaging, behavioural, and patient data, as well as data from congenital blindness studies.
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