Perceptual semantics: the construction of meaning in artificial devices

The design of an artificial device that can acquire its own perceptually grounded meanings for internally represented control structure is discussed. A perceptual semantics, in which perceptual routines are mapped onto innate conceptual operators, is described. Entities and relations in the environment take on `meaning´ for the device in three forms: the connotation, which is the internal encoding of an object within a syntactic discrimination lattice; the annotation, which is a procedural encoding of how connotations are translated into action/perception; and the denotation, which is the action associated with a procedure within the action-percept feedback loop. The author argues against model-theoretic interpretations for semantics of devices interacting within their environment, and in favor of pragmatically determined models of meaning