From words-as-mappings to words-as-cues: the role of language in semantic knowledge

Semantic knowledge (or semantic memory) refers to knowledge we have about the world. For example, we know that knives are typically sharp, made of metal, and that they are tools used for cutting. To what kinds of experiences do we owe such knowledge? Most work has stressed the role of direct experiences involving perceiving and acting on the world. Another kind, considerably less well understood, is language. We review two ways of thinking about the relationship between language and semantic knowledge: (i) language as mapping onto independently-acquired concepts, and (ii) language as cues to meaning, constructing semantic knowledge from both perception/action. We highlight some problems with the words-as- mappings view, and argue in favor of the words-as-cues alternative. We then review evidence for the role of language on the activation of semantic knowledge, emphasizing the potential of distributional semantics models to help us understand this relationship. We conclude by describing several promising directions for future research.