Brain, meaning, and computation

Abstract

This thesis deals with the question how the human brain acquires, represents, and processes the meaning of natural language expressions. A computational neural theory of meaning is introduced with the goal of overcoming the strong prevalence of empirical results over theoretical understanding that is currently present in the neuroscience of language. In this context, the brain is regarded as a goal-directed system, which acquires language and meaning as one means for achieving its goals. To accomplish complex learning tasks, such as acquiring a language, the brain uses subsystems, which differ especially with respect to their learning strategies, but interact so as to achieve the global goals of the system. Diese Arbeit behandelt die Frage, wie das menschliche Gehirn Bedeutungen lernt, speichert und prozessiert.