Some issues involving the relevance of nominal classification systems to cognitive neuroscience: response to commentators

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe central argument of the target article was that any viable theory of the neural substrates of object concepts must be able to accommodate the full range of cross-linguistic similarities and differences among nominal classification systems. This response to the commentators focuses on the following topics: the typology of nominal classification systems; the meaningfulness of classifiers; the representation and processing of classifiers in the brain; and the status of classifiers in the context of debates about the degree to which linguistically encoded concepts are based on a universal semantic system, and the degree to which they influence thought and perception.