Language, Cognition, and Mind Lucas Bechberger Kai-Uwe Kühnberger Mingya Liu Editors Concepts in Action Representation, Learning, and Application Language, Cognition, and Mind Volume 9 Series Editor Chungmin Lee, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of) Editorial Board Tecumseh Fitch, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Peter Gärdenfors, Lund University, Lund, Sweden Bart Geurts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Noah D. Goodman, Stanford University, Stanford, USA Robert Ladd, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Dan Lassiter, Stanford University, Stanford, USA Edouard Machery, Pittsburgh University, Pittsburgh, USA This series takes the current thinking on topics in linguistics from the theoretical level to validation through empirical and experimental research. The volumes published offer insights on research that combines linguistic perspectives from recently emerging experimental semantics and pragmatics as well as experimental syntax, phonology, and cross-linguistic psycholinguistics with cognitive science perspectives on linguistics, psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence and neuroscience, and research into the mind, using all the various technical and critical methods available. The series also publishes cross-linguistic, cross-cultural studies that focus on finding variations and universals with cognitive validity. The peer reviewed edited volumes and monographs in this series inform the reader of the advances made through empirical and experimental research in the language-related cognitive science disciplines. For inquiries and submission of proposals authors can contact the Series Editor, Chungmin Lee at [email protected]. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13376 Lucas Bechberger · Kai-Uwe Kühnberger · Mingya Liu Editors Concepts in Action Representation, Learning, and Application Editors Lucas Bechberger Kai-Uwe Kühnberger Institute of Cognitive Science Institute of Cognitive Science Osnabrück University Osnabrück University Osnabrück, Germany Osnabrück, Germany Mingya Liu Department of English and American Studies Humboldt University of Berlin Berlin, Germany ISSN 2364-4109 ISSN 2364-4117 (electronic) Language, Cognition, and Mind ISBN 978-3-030-69822-5 ISBN 978-3-030-69823-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69823-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021. This book is an open access publication. 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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements This volume is a result of the first Summer School and workshop on “Concepts in Action: Representation, Learning and Application” (CARLA) that took place from August 6–10, 2018 in Osnabrück (cf. https://www.conceptuccino.uni-osnabr ueck.de). We owe our sincere gratitude to the invited lecturers and speakers Nicholas Asher, Robert L. Goldstone, Peter Gärdenfors, Julie Hunter, Christiane C. Fellbaum, Michael Spranger, and Max Garagnani, as well as participants for inspiring exchanges on concept research. In addition, we thank Ulf Krumack and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments. Last but not the least, we thank all the contributing authors. This research received generous fundings from the Volkswagen Foundation. In addition, the publication of this work was also supported by the Open Access Publi- cation Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Institute of Cognitive Science of Osnabrück University, as well as the DFG (German Research Foundation) to the Research Training Group 2340 “Computational Cognition”. v vi Acknowledgements Contents Concepts in Action: Introduction ................................... 1 Lucas Bechberger and Mingya Liu Generalizing Psychological Similarity Spaces to Unseen Stimuli ........ 11 Lucas Bechberger and Kai-Uwe Kühnberger Theories of Meaning for the Internet of Things ....................... 37 Michael Färber, Yulia Svetashova, and Andreas Harth A Qualitative Similarity Framework for the Interpretation of Natural Language Similarity Expressions ......................... 63 Helmar Gust and Carla Umbach Numerical Concepts in Context ..................................... 93 Paola Gega, Mingya Liu, and Lucas Bechberger Evaluating Semantic Co-creation by Using a Marker as a Linguistic Constraint Tool in Shared Cognitive Representation Models ........... 121 Stefan Schneider and Andreas Nürnberger Does the Activation of Motor Information Affect Semantic Processing? ....................................................... 153 Elisa Scerrati, Cristina Iani, and Sandro Rubichi Grounding Abstract Concepts in Action ............................. 167 Paola Vernillo vii Contributors Lucas Bechberger Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany Michael Färber Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute AIFB, Karl- sruhe, Germany Paola Gega Institute of Philosophy, University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany Helmar Gust Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany Andreas Harth Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Nurem- berg, Germany; Fraunhofer IIS-SCS, Nuremberg, Germany Cristina Iani Department of Surgery, Medicine, Dentistry and Morphological Sciences with Interest in Transplant, Oncology and Regenerative Medicine, Univer- sity of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Center for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy Kai-Uwe Kühnberger Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany Mingya Liu Department of English and American Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany Andreas Nürnberger Data and Knowledge Engineering Group, Faculty of Computer Science, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany Sandro Rubichi Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy; Center for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy ix x Contributors Elisa Scerrati Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, Univer- sity of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy Stefan Schneider Data and Knowledge Engineering Group, Faculty of Computer Science, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany Yulia Svetashova Robert Bosch GmbH, Corporate Research and Advance Engi- neering, Renningen, Germany Carla Umbach Department of German Language & Literature I, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany Paola Vernillo Università degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI), Firenze, Italy Concepts in Action: Introduction Lucas Bechberger and Mingya Liu It is impossible to talk about human cognition without talking about concepts— there simply is no human cognition without concepts. Concepts form an abstraction of reality that is central to the functioning of the human mind. Conceptual knowledge (of e.g., APPLE, LOVE and BEFORE) is crucial for us to categorize, understand, and reason about the world. Only equipped with concepts and words for them can we successfully communicate and carry out actions. But what exactly are concepts? How are concepts acquired? How does the human mind use concepts? Such questions have been a subject of discussion since antiquity and remain highly relevant in multiple fields (e.g., Murphy 2002; Margolis and Laurence 2015). Recent decades have seen fruitful results and methodological advances on concept research in disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, psychology, artificial intelli- gence, and computer science. For instance, cognitive psychologists use empirical experiments to validate formal models of concept representation and learning such as the prototype theory (Rosch et al. 1976), the exemplar theory (Murphy 2016)or other alternative theories (Rogers and McClelland 2004; Blouw et al. 2016). Linguists pursue the goal of assigning more precise