Precursors of linguistic knowledge.

Abstract

It is agreed that infants require pre-existing conceptual meanings to learn language, although little is known about what those meanings are. By default they have been assumed to be the sensorimotor schemas described by Piaget. However, sensorimotor schemas are not concepts and are not the right sort of representation for learning language. Recent research shows that along with sensorimotor schemas infants are simultaneously developing a rich conceptual system. I have proposed that these concepts are represented by sets of image-schemas, each of which represents a meaning. Image-schemas are created by a process of perceptual analysis that redescribes perceptual information into simplified spatial representations. These representations allow language to be learned by providing an analogue-digital interface between the continuous process of perception and the discrete propositional forms of language.