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Concept formation as knowledge accumulation: A computational linguistics study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2006

ANDY DONG
ANDY DONG
Affiliation:
Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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Abstract

Language plays at least two roles in design. First, language serves as representations of ideas and concepts through linguistic behaviors that represent the structure of thought during the design process. Second, language also performs actions and creates states of affairs. Based on these two perspectives on language use in design, we apply the computational linguistics tools of latent semantic analysis and lexical chain analysis to characterize how design teams engage in concept formation as the accumulation of knowledge represented by lexicalized concepts. The accumulation is described in a data structure comprised by a set of links between elemental lexicalized concepts. The folding together of these two perspectives on language use in design with the information processing theories of the mind afforded by the computational linguistics tools applied creates a new means to evaluate concept formation in design teams. The method suggests that analysis at a linguistic level can characterize concept formation even where process-oriented critiques were limited in their ability to uncover a formal design method that could explain the phenomenon.

Keywords

Concept FormationDesign LanguageLatent Semantic AnalysisLexical Chain Analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
AI EDAM , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 2006 , pp. 35 - 53
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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