Publications
Publication details [#20284]
Gopnik, Alison. 1984. Conceptual and semantic change in scientists and children: Why there are no semantic universals. In Collier, René. Some physiological and perceptual contrasts on tonal systems. In : 237–247. : 163–179.
Annotation
G. challenges the claim that semantic structures reflect fixed, universal cognitive structures (`mentalese'), by arguing that for scientists and children, conceptual and semantic structures are constantly changing qualitatively. These changes reflect the development of new theories of the world, the concepts of which cannot be reduced to concepts of theories that preceded them.