Search results for " Semantics"
showing 10 items of 95 documents
Sense Activation Triggering in English Epistentials: Attention Distribution, Contextual Modulation of Meaning, and Categorization Issues
2015
Drawing on Talmy’s forthcoming The Attention System of Language and elaborating on a series of previous studies, this paper addresses the interrelation of attention distribution, contextual modulation of meaning, and categorization issues in the area of evidentiality and epistemic modality Adopting a corpus-based approach, it will investigate how the default salience levels of evidential and epistemic semantic components in so-called epistentials (linguistic items that syncretistically represent evidential and epistemic components) can be raised, lowered, or even inhibited under the impact of immediately adjacent items that themselves associate evidential or epistemic semantic components (i…
Assimilation of Problematic Experiences in Linguistic Therapy of Evaluation: A Case Study
2008
In this article the process of assimilation in the problematic experience of tiredness of one patient, Maria, is shown. Maria was treated with linguistic therapy of evaluation (LTE), a therapy midway between constructivist and cognitive therapies based on the theory of General Semantics, for 14 sessions. Maria was one of the most successful cases of LTE. Aims of the study were to show the process of assimilation in a case with good outcome and to explore if this process shows an irregular pattern, with setbacks or jumps between stages. This process is analyzed by the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES), an eight-stage scale that shows the process of assimilation from an exp…
Lexical and conceptual components of stem completion priming in patients with Alzheimer's disease
1999
This study evaluated the hypothesis of dissociation between normal lexical but deficient conceptual repetition priming in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). For this purpose, we administered to patients with AD and age-matched normal controls the Stem Completion task. In Experiment 1, the level of word processing during study was manipulated by requiring subjects to count vowels (graphemic condition) or generate meanings (semantic condition) of target words. In Experiment 2, the presentation modality was varied during the study to obtain an intramodal and crossmodal repetition priming. Probably due to a floor effect of performance in the graphemic condition, in Experiment 1, AD patient…
Semantic anomaly detection in school-aged children during natural sentence reading : A study of fixation-related brain potentials
2018
In this study, we investigated the effects of context-related semantic anomalies on the fixation-related brain potentials of 12–13-year-old Finnish children in grade 6 during sentence reading. The detection of such anomalies is typically reflected in the N400 event-related potential. We also examined whether the representation invoked by the sentence context extends to the orthographic representation level by replacing the final words of the sentence with an anomalous word neighbour of a plausible word. The eye-movement results show that the anomalous word neighbours of plausible words cause similar first-fixation and gaze duration reactions, as do other anomalous words. Similarly, we obser…
Embedded word priming elicits enhanced fMRI responses in the visual word form area.
2018
Lexical embedding is common in all languages and elicits mutual orthographic interference between an embedded word and its carrier. The neural basis of such interference remains unknown. We employed a novel fMRI prime-target embedded word paradigm to test for involvement of a visual word form area (VWFA) in left ventral occipitotemporal cortex in co-activation of embedded words and their carriers. Based on the results of related fMRI studies we predicted either enhancement or suppression of fMRI responses to embedded words initially viewed as primes, and repeated in the context of target carrier words. Our results clearly showed enhancement of fMRI responses in the VWFA to embedded-carrier …
Contextual diversity facilitates learning new words in the classroom.
2017
Published: June 6, 2017 In the field of word recognition and reading, it is commonly assumed that frequently repeated words create more accessible memory traces than infrequently repeated words, thus capturing the word-frequency effect. Nevertheless, recent research has shown that a seemingly related factor, contextual diversity (defined as the number of different contexts [e.g., films] in which a word appears), is a better predictor than word-frequency in word recognition and sentence reading experiments. Recent research has shown that contextual diversity plays an important role when learning new words in a laboratory setting with adult readers. In the current experiment, we directly mani…
Linguistic Therapy of Evaluation
2006
The linguistic therapy of evaluation (LTE) comes from the theory of general semantics (GS) developed by Alfred Korzybski. GS emphasizes the role that language plays in evaluating the world of “events,” that is, what is going on (WIGO in the individual’s world). GS is the science of both evaluation and values. “Evaluation” implies that a similar degree of importance is given to thinking and feeling. When evaluating an experience, we construe the world through language. Korzybski (1933, p. 24) defined a semantic reaction as “the psychological reaction of a given individual to words, language, symbols, and events, in connection with their meanings, and the psychological reactions, which become…
FrameNet Resource Grammar Library for GF
2012
In this paper we present an ongoing research investigating the possibility and potential of integrating frame semantics, particularly FrameNet, in the Grammatical Framework (GF) application grammar development. An important component of GF is its Resource Grammar Library (RGL) that encapsulates the low-level linguistic knowledge about morphology and syntax of currently more than 20 languages facilitating rapid development of multilingual applications. In the ideal case, porting a GF application grammar to a new language would only require introducing the domain lexicon - translation equivalents that are interlinked via common abstract terms. While it is possible for a highly restricted CNL,…
Supramodal neural processing of abstract information conveyed by speech and gesture
2013
Abstractness and modality of interpersonal communication have a considerable impact on comprehension. They are relevant for determining thoughts and constituting internal models of the environment. Whereas concrete object-related information can be represented in mind irrespective of language, abstract concepts require a representation in speech. Consequently, modality-independent processing of abstract information can be expected. Here we investigated the neural correlates of abstractness (abstract vs. concrete) and modality (speech vs. gestures), to identify an abstractness-specific supramodal neural network. During fMRI data acquisition 20 participants were presented with videos of an ac…