Capraru, Mihnea (2026) The relevance of relativistic mechanics to natural language semantics. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Situated language and cognition arguably can concern aspects of their environs without mentally representing them. Recently, I have argued that cognition and language can also concern remote situations, as well as general states of affairs, without mental representation. I have illustrated this with thought experiments involving a hypothetical people called the Sundial tribe. As I argue in the present article, such phenomena are not merely a theoretical possibility, but occur routinely in real, ordinary English: Distances and durations are relative to frames of reference, but ordinary English speakers either do not know this, or ignore it in practice. Nevertheless, people can routinely communicate in ordinary English about distances and durations as measured relative to Earth, despite not representing Earth as the frame of reference. Furthermore, provided that we can travel to Mars, ordinary English as we know it will enable us to communicate about distances and durations relative to multiple planets at once, as well as to generalize across heavenly bodies, without mentally representing the relevant reference frames. Our capacity to think and talk without representation therefore does not reduce to our capacity for context-bound, situated cognition, but goes beyond it. The suggested explanation is as follows: (1) situated cognition is fit or adapted to particular environs; (2) these particular environs often instantiate broader patterns, whether natural or artificial ones; and (3) when we encounter additional instances of these patterns, we can often deal with them effectively, in the same way as we deal with the original ones.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Capraru, Mihnea
Additional Information:	forthcoming in Synthese (final draft)
Keywords:	situated cognition contextualism representation natural language semantics displacement embedded cognition
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User:	Mihnea Capraru
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2026 12:32
Last Modified:	01 Jun 2026 12:32
Item ID:	29745
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Concepts and Representations General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date:	2026
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29745

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