Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition, and Science

A sequel to CTF’07 and CTF’09, CTF’12 is the third interdisciplinary conference to contribute to the development of a general frame theory of human concepts. The conference explores the application of frames in linguistics and other sciences. It discusses foundational issues for the development of a theory of frames from the perspectives of general and computational linguistics, mathematics, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, ontology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science.

Frames

CTF’12 explores fundamental aspects of a formal theory of frames understood as recursive attribute-value structures with functional attributes. The aspects include representation and model-theoretic interpretation, attributes and value types, and appropriate frame structures for different types of concepts. A special focus will be on dynamic aspects of frame theory: modeling dynamic frame components for event and process frames; exploring operations on frames such as type shifts and frame composition.

Cognition
CTF’12 explores empirical evidence for and consequences of the frame approach. It addresses the distinction of types of concepts, in particular relational and functional nominal concepts. Major topics include the grounding of concepts in the sensory-motor system and dynamic aspects of concept formation.

Language
CTF’12 explores the application of a formal­ized theory of frames at various levels of linguistic description: lexical semantics of the different conceptual types of nouns and verbs, deep lexical decomposition, semantics of word formation, the syntax-semantics interface, syntactic and semantic composition, and anaphora and coherence in discourse.
 
Science
CTF’12 explores the applications of the frame approach in various fields of institutional categorization: e.g., the evolution of the frame notion in the history of philosophy; scientific frames and paradigm shifts; frames for legal concepts; frames in applied ontology; a frame model of the mind; and frame description of psychiatric disorders.

Contact information

Contact person: Sebastian Löbner

Meeting email: ctf12@phil.hhu.de