?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=The+Origin+of+Words%3A+A+Psychophysical+Hypothesis&rft.creator=Harnad%2C+Stevan&rft.subject=Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Semantics&rft.subject=Philosophy+of+Language&rft.description=It+is+hypothesized+that+words+originated+as+the+names+of+perceptual+categories+and+that%0Atwo+forms+of+representation+underlying+perceptual+categorization+--+iconic+and+categorical%0Arepresentations+--+served+to+ground+a+third%2C+symbolic%2C+form+of+representation.+The+third+form+of%0Arepresentation+made+it+possible+to+name+and+describe+our+environment%2C+chiefly+in+terms+of+categories%2C%0Atheir+memberships%2C+and+their+invariant+features.+Symbolic+representations+can+be+shared+because+they%0Aare+intertranslatable.+Both+categorization+and+translation+are+approximate+rather+than+exact%2C+but+the%0Aapproximation+can+be+made+as+close+as+we+wish.+This+is+the+central+property+of+that+universal%0Amechanism+for+sharing+descriptions+that+we+call+natural+language.+&rft.publisher=NJ%3AErlbaum&rft.contributor=Velichkovsky%2C+B.&rft.contributor=Rumbaugh%2C+D.&rft.date=1996&rft.type=Book+Chapter&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F1602%2F1%2Fharnad96.word.origin.html&rft.identifier=++Harnad%2C+Stevan++(1996)+The+Origin+of+Words%3A+A+Psychophysical+Hypothesis.++%5BBook+Chapter%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F1602%2F