“概念”研究正在成为计算语言学、自然语言处理和人工智能等领域的热门话题。早在古希腊时期,就已经有先哲们思考“概念”的定义、特征及范围等问题,并逐渐形成了亚里士多德的“经典概念观”。现代语言学和语言哲学诞生后,“概念”研究分别在不同学术领域中得以深入。一方面,语言哲学中逻辑分析学派通过区分句子中的“对象”和“概念”来定义和研究“概念”,而概念分析学派则着重从词义方面对“概念”进行分析,二者都认为“概念”与“语言”密不可分,不能够脱离“语言”谈“概念”;另一方面,以语言学的视角和方法看待“概念”,拓宽了“概念”研究的边界,形成了新的语言学理论。概念依存理论认为人类语言各个单位都由“概念”组成,通过概念表达式可以描述语义,进而描写人类的行为。概念层次网络理论在“作用效用链”的基础上,构建了语言概念空间的四层级结构体,用于表示“概念”之间的相互联系,为计算机处理人类自然语言提供了便利。研究语言学和语言哲学中的“概念”,展现“概念”研究的发展脉络,厘清“概念”研究的认识误区,将有助于指导自然语言理解与认知智能理论研究,同时为自然语言处理工程实践提供帮助。

The study on concept is now becoming a hot topic in Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence. As early as ancient Greek times, philosophers started to think about the issue of concept such as definition, features and boundary, and gradually formed Aristotle's Classical Concept View. After modern Linguistics and Language Philosophy came into being, concept is studied intensively in different fields. On the one hand, the Logical Analysis School of Language Philosophy defines and studies concept by distinguishing the object and concept in the sentences, while the Concept Analysis School focuses on the analysis of concept from the meaning of words. Both believe that concept and language are inseparable, and it is impossible to talk about concept without language, thus pushing the research of concept forward. On the other hand, researching concept from the perspective and method of linguistics has broadened the boundaries of concept research and formed new linguistic theories. Conceptual Dependency Theory believes that each unit of human language is composed of concepts, through which conceptual expressions can describe meaning and then describe human behavior. Based on Function-effect Chain, Hierarchical Network of Concepts Theory proposes a four-layer system of language concept space. It is used to express the interconnection among concepts and help computers to process natural language. Studying concept in Linguistics and Language Philosophy, demonstrating the development of research on concept, revealing the misunderstandings and errors in concept studies can provide references and guidelines for further theoretical research on Natural Language Understanding, Cognitive Intelligence and applied research on Natural Language Processing.