A Survey of theories of linguistic meaning.

It therefore takes seriously constraints on a theory of meaning coming from the cognitive structure of human concepts, from the need to learn words, and from the connection between meaning, perception, action, and nonlinguistic thought. The theory treats meanings, like phonological structures, as articulated into substructures or tiers: a division into an algebraic Conceptual Structure and a geometric/ topological Spatial Structure; a division of the former into Propositional Structure and Information Structure; and possibly a division of Propositional Structure into a descriptive tier and a referential tier. All of these structures contribute to word, phrase, and sentence meanings. The ontology of Conceptual Semantics is richer than in most approaches, including not only individuals and events but also locations, trajectories, manners, distances, and other basic categories. Word meanings are decomposed into functions and features, but some of the features and connectives among them do not lend themselves to standard definitions in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions.