Does the mind care about whether a word is abstract or concrete? Why concreteness is probably not a natural kind

Mind and Language (forthcoming)
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Abstract

Many psychologists currently assume that there is a psychologically real distinction to be made between concepts that are abstract and concepts that are concrete. It is for example largely agreed that concepts and words are more easily processed if they are concrete. Moreover, it is assumed that this isbecausethese words and concepts are concrete. It is thought that interesting generalizations can be made about certain conceptsbecausethey are concrete. I argue that we have surprisingly little reason to believe that the abstract‐concrete distinction is psychologically real.

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Guido Löhr
Vrije University

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