Evolving Social Constraints on Individual Conceptual Representations

The paper deals with how constraints on conceptual representations evolve through processes of knowledge sharing. We describe pragmatic settings of referential communication and provide a model of how names, nouns and adjectives emerge through a process of abstraction. In situations of referential communication, the contrast class – the set that intended referents must be distinguished from – is important for determining the degree of specification of referential utterances. Two processing strategies involving contrast classes are proposed that are connected to the nominal and adjectival levels of abstraction. Certain cognitive representational skills are needed to be able to assess a contrast class in a communicative situation. We propose three communicative strategies that correspond to different assessments of the relevant contrast class.