Colloque - Discourse Files - Barbu Revencu : Stand-For Relations between Objects and Discourse Referents in Early Development

François Recanati Philosophie du langage et de l'esprit Collège de France Année 2024-2025 Colloque - Discourse Files Stand-For Relations between Objects and Discourse Referents in Early Development Barbu Revencu Postdoctorant, Collège de France Résumé From static diagrams to dynamic animations, humans routinely convey information through depictions—representational stimuli in which visual objects are arranged in spatiotemporal configurations for communicative ends. First, I will argue that depictions recruit two representational layers: one that tracks object symbols in space, and one that represents the entities under discussion through discourse referents. The two layers are linked by an assignment function that provides pointers from the symbols to their corresponding discourse referents. This link constitutes a stand-for relation, which allows interpreters to gather information about the discourse referents from the object symbols. Second, I will present empirical evidence that stand-for relations are available in early human development. By 15 months, infants can interpret geometric shapes as symbols of familiar animals and objects: Pointing to a triangle and calling it "a duck" is enough for infants to interpret the triangle as a symbol of a duck. Infants use these stand-for relations to interpret how shapes move and interact, while recognizing that these relations do not extend outside the current communicative context. Finally, I will argue that positing stand-for relations in early ontogeny provides a better explanation of pretend play than alternative accounts. Barbu Revencu Barbu Revencu is a postdoctoral researcher at Collège de France in the ERC Mental Files project to François Recanati. His work investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying depictions: representational stimuli, ranging from diagrams to animations, in which visual objects function as symbols and are arranged in spatial configurations for communicative ends.

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Colloque - Discourse Files - Barbu Revencu : Stand-For Relations between Objects and Discourse Referents in Early Development is an episode from Colloques interdisciplinaires by Collège de France.

This episode is 73:20 long.

This episode was published on Mar 31, 2026.

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