“Structural Meanings” in Early Utterances
J. J. Gibson, Cornell University
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Brown’s Classification
I. Operations of reference
Nominations: e.g. “that book”
Notice: “Hi Children”
Recurrence: More meat, ‘Nother raisin
Nonexistence: All gone juice, no more dog
II. Relations
Attributive: Ad. + N (big train)
Possessive: N + N (Mommy lunch)
Locative: N + N (sweater chair)
Locative: V + N (go store)
Agent-action: N + V (Adam write)
Agent-object: V + N (Mommy sock)
Action-object: V + N (ate meat)
Schlesinger’s Classifications of Relations
Agent-action: N + V
Action-object: V + N
Agent-object: H + N
Modifiers
Negation
Datives (throw Daddy)
Ostension (Here, There, See)
Locatives
Gibson ñ Pickup of Structure or Relations (meaning)
Appearance
Disappearance
occlusion vs. “going out of existence” (All gone, no more)
Reappearance
recurrence or return
Attribution
of a property, e.g. size, color
Possessions
Location
Causality
Temporal relations (before, after, yesterday, etc.)
Negation?