From grouping to visual meaning: a new theory of perceptual organization

The chapter answers to the question of what is a perceptual meaning, and if it is possible to speak of a ‘visual language’ arising from the rules of perceptual organization, whose conceptualizations are embedded in the grammar and the lexicon of natural languages. Aims of this work are to suggest that perception is perceiving appearances of grouping, shapes and meanings, and to propose a new theory of perceptual organization based on three different forms of organization: grouping, shape, and meaning. This tripartite distinction can widen the domain of vision science and of cognitive semantics, up to the item of meanings, usually considered as a specific issue of the Cognitive Science domain, and usually considered to be top down. More specific purposes are: to suggest a link between perceptual grouping, shape perception and visual meaning; to trace the visual meanings back to organizational processes eliciting objects and shapes, while going beyond the principles studied by Gestalt psychologists; to define the phenomenal underlying structure and principles ruling the formation of meanings; and, finally to define the main properties common to the three forms of perceptual organization. In so doing the chapter proposes a foundation of meaning on perceptual basis, providing experimental evidence to the thesis that the contents and structures of the phenomenal world are transposed into language as nuclei bearing semantic and syntactic features. More generally, the paper shows that semantic contents and syntactic structures of natural language can be broken down into meaningful traits, parts or aspects rooted in perception. Accordingly, in the analysis of the structure of language, it is made use of phenomenological concepts and principles drawn from Gestalt psychology. The arguments presented are in favour of a basic universalist position in language.