Sentence comprehension requires paying attention to roles, such as time, place, trajectory, actor, etc. The importance of roles is reflected in the fact that they are made explicit in syntax. Roles are rooted in metaphor and analogy (i.e., in terms of when they can be applied), such as parallel relations between time and space. "Many of our language-grammar `rules' embody or reflect some systematic correspondences -- and these are among our most powerful ways to think."
(NB: All of this makes me think of Jackendoff's analysis of conceptual structure, which makes the things that Minsky calls roles explicit, and which assumes that such structures are made explicit in syntax.)
Pearl Street | Society of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |