Does it link words to pictures in your mind? So there is a mapping from the word “owl” to a picture of an owl in your head?
Can I also add that I don’t think this mapping involves word definitions, so for example the word owl won’t map to the word definition of an owl since you need to define words in the definition itself. This causes a never ending chain as you keep having to define words in further definitions.
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Something that might be related is word vectors, it’s a technique for storing words in a manner that encodes meaning as a string of decimal point numbers.
In fact with this method every word in the english dictionary can be compressed into 300 decimal numbers, with each representing some abstract quality of the word.
Its quite possible that the brain uses a similar technique, with certain pathways for the cuteness or englishness of a concept, with different words being more or less of those attributes.
However I actually have no idea for sure. Just something interesting to share.
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