Conceptual schemas as propositional idealized cognitive models : in search of a unified framework for the analysis of knowledge organization

Résumé

This paper addresses the issue of the organization of (propositional) knowledge in the form of conceptual networks. We follow closely Ruiz de Mendoza’s (1996) proposal in this respect and we try to make it compatible with the still programmatic proposals made in Cognitive Linguistics by Langacker and Lakoff. We discuss some of the main deficiencies in each account and provide arguments for the possibility of a unified account where semantic characterizations take the form of conceptual networks which - when activated- produce sets of propositions arranged according to degrees of prominence. We illustrate our arguments by discussing the conceptual schema for party.