The fourth of the guiding principles of cognitive semantics. Asserts that language itself does not encode meaning. Instead, words (and other linguistic units) are treated as 'prompts' for the construction of meaning. Accordingly, meaning is constructed at the conceptual level (or level C ). Meaning-construction is equated with conceptualization, a process whereby linguistic units serve as prompts for an array of conceptual operations and the recruitment of background knowledge. On this view, meaning is a process rather than a discrete 'thing' that can be 'packaged' by language.