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    What we mean when we say semantic: Toward a multidisciplinary semantic glossary


    Reilly, Jamie, Shain, Cory, Borghesani, Valentina, Kuhnke, Philipp, Vigliocco, Gabriella, Peelle, Jonathan E., Mahon, Bradford Z., Buxbaum, Laurel J., Majid, Asifa, Brysbaert, Marc, Borghi, Anna M., De Deyne, Simon, Dove, Guy, Papeo, Liuba, Pexman, Penny M., Poeppel, David, Lupyan, Gary, Boggio, Paulo, Hickok, Gregory, Gwilliams, Laura, Fernandino, Leonardo, Mirman, Daniel, Chrysikou, Evangelia G., Sandberg, Chaleece W., Crutch, Sebastian J., Pylkkänen, Liina, Yee, Eiling, Jackson, Rebecca L., Rodd, Jennifer M., Bedny, Marina, Connell, Louise, Kiefer, Markus, Kemmerer, David, de Zubicaray, Greig, Jefferies, Elizabeth, Lynott, Dermot, Siew, Cynthia S.Q., Desai, Rutvik H., McRae, Ken, Diaz, Michele T., Bolognesi, Marianna, Fedorenko, Evelina, Kiran, Swathi, Montefinese, Maria, Binder, Jeffrey R., Yap, Melvin J., Hartwigsen, Gesa, Cantlon, Jessica, Bi, Yanchao, Hoffman, Paul, Garcea, Frank E. and Vinson, David (2025) What we mean when we say semantic: Toward a multidisciplinary semantic glossary. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 32 (1). pp. 243-280. ISSN 1069-9384

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    Abstract

    Tulving characterized semantic memory as a vast repository of meaning that underlies language and many other cognitive processes. This perspective on lexical and conceptual knowledge galvanized a new era of research undertaken by numerous fields, each with their own idiosyncratic methods and terminology. For example, “concept” has different meanings in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. As such, many fundamental constructs used to delineate semantic theories remain underspecified and/or opaque. Weak construct specificity is among the leading causes of the replication crisis now facing psychology and related fields. Term ambiguity hinders cross-disciplinary communication, falsifiability, and incremental theory-building. Numerous cognitive subdisciplines (e.g., vision, affective neuroscience) have recently addressed these limitations via the development of consensus-based guidelines and definitions. The project to follow represents our effort to produce a multidisciplinary semantic glossary consisting of succinct definitions, background, principled dissenting views, ratings of agreement, and subjective confidence for 17 target constructs (e.g., abstractness, abstraction, concreteness, concept, embodied cognition, event semantics, lexical-semantic, modality, representation, semantic control, semantic feature, simulation, semantic distance, semantic dimension) . We discuss potential benefits and pitfalls (e.g., implicit bias, prescriptiveness) of these efforts to specify a common nomenclature that other researchers might index in specifying their own theoretical perspectives (e.g., They said X, but I mean Y).
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: Semantic; Multidisciplinary Semantic Glossary;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
    Item ID: 20055
    Identification Number: 10.3758/s13423-024-02556-7
    Depositing User: Dermot Lynott
    Date Deposited: 23 Jun 2025 16:03
    Journal or Publication Title: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
    Publisher: Springer
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/20055
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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