Language Puzzles

Abstract

The linguistic category model (LCM) is highlighted from 3 interrelated perspectives: (a) as a functional tool with distinctive properties that have evolved to link language producers and perceivers and, therefore, adapted to both; (b) within a general framework of linguistic behavior and an analysis of the architecture of linguistic behavior that highlights why lexical decisions, the prime analytic focus of LCM, generally escape conscious access; and finally (c) from an extended functional one, which views language as an instrument to steer attention and illustrates a new way of looking at how language shapes perception. Specifically, differential attention-driving functions of the LCM categories are illustrated with recent research.