Search results for "COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS"

Multi-factorial sicilian modals: a case of continuity in discourse

2008

We intend to analyze a few constructions, in Sicilian (S) and in the variety of Italian spoken in Sicily (IS), involving the modals voliri (S)/volere (IS) “want” and aviri a (S)/dovere (IS) “have to”. They are used to express both modal values, along a deontic→epistemic continuum, and futurity (Sicilian, but not Italian, lacks a synthetic future). Modality has been traditionally defined as the linguistic manifestation of the speaker’s attitude towards his utterance. However, modality does not have an unambiguous treatment and there is no agreement on number and kind of semantic categories that can be completely defined as modals (cf. Bybee et al. 1994; Palmer 2001; Nuyts 2005). From a cogni…

The skills related to the early reading acquisition in Spain and Peru

2018

This paper deals with the skills related to the early reading acquisition in two countries that share language. Traditionally on reading readiness research there is a great interest to find out what factors affect early reading ability, but differ from other academic skills that affect general school learnings. Furthermore, it is also known how the influence of pre-reading variables in two countries with the same language, affect the development of the reading. On the other hand, several studies have examined what skills are related to reading readiness (phonological awareness, alphabetic awareness, naming speed, linguistic skills, metalinguistic knowledge and basic cognitive processes), bu…

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…

Early improvement of executive test performance during antidepressant treatment predicts treatment outcome in patients with Major Depressive Disorder

2017

Executive dysfunctions frequently occur in patients with Major Depressive Disorder and have been shown to improve during effective antidepressant treatment. However, the time course of improvement and its relationship to treatment outcome is unknown. The aim of the study was to assess the test performance and clinical outcome by repetitive assessments of executive test procedures during antidepressant treatment. Executive test performance was assessed in 209 –patients with Major Depressive Disorder (mean age 39.3 ± 11.4 years) and 84 healthy controls five times in biweekly intervals from baseline to week 8. Patients were treated by a defined treatment algorithm within the early medication c…

Domain-specific intensifying constructions and/in weather-related proverbs. A case study based on Dutch dialects in Flanders.

2021

International audience; [Introduction] There are few things so rigorously present in human consciousness and communication as the subject of the weather. Nevertheless, both in formal (weather forecasts) and informal contexts (daily conversations), this “weather discourse” remains understudied within linguistics (Liégeois 2019). This kind of discourse (Koch & Oesterreicher 1985), however, appears very interesting to different constructionist approaches (Gautier 2018), such as frame semantics and (cognitive) construction grammar. [Research question] In this context, this proposal looks from a constructionist perspective into what could be called “weather sayings” in the dialects of Flanders; …

A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: VIEWPOINT PHENOMENA IN THE EVOLUTION OF GRAMMAR

2014

Language provides a variety of means to conceptualize objects, states, events, and abstract entities in different ways and from different perspectives. These so-called ‘construal operations’ play a key role in Cognitive Linguistics. With the example of construal operations pertaining to viewpoint and perspectivation, this paper aims to demonstrate how different theoretical and methodological approaches can be combined to yield a better understanding of how languages systematically make use of general cognitive capacities of perspective-taking, -setting, and sharing. These insights can in turn shed light on the evolution of specific grammatical phenomena as well as on the evolution of langua…

INTEGRATING ONTOLOGY AND COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE PRODUCTION AND UNDERSTANDING A CASE OF STUDY IN FLUID CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR.

2012

Raccontare e rappresentare le lingue e lo spazio. L'esperienza dell'Atlante Linguistico della Sicilia

2017

La Dialettologia Percettiva, disciplina che si occupa dello studio delle opinioni dei parlanti sulle varietà di lingua, nell'ultimo decennio ha rinnovato i propri fondamenti. Il volume da un lato intende ripercorrere criticamente tali profonde innovazioni, dall'altro propone una serie di modelli originali per l'analisi e l'interpretazione dei dati. Il corpus della ricerca è costituito dalle risposte di circa 900 informatori distribuiti in 60 punti d'inchiesta a tre domande del questionario dell'Atlante Linguistico della Sicilia (ALS) pensate per rilevare la percezione e rappresentazione della differenza linguistica. Una mole imponente di dati che sono stati trattati con un approccio quanti-…

Suffissi valutativi in Plauto: una proposta cognitivista e morfo-pragmatica

2020

Latin evaluative suffixes, especially diminutives, have received considerable attention in the relevant literature, but a morphologicalpragmatic analysis of their uses is still lacking. This work aims at analysing the behavior of the archaic Latin suffix -llus within a theoretical framework combining ressler – Merlini Barbaresi’s (1994) morpho-pragmatic model and the cognitive perspective on polysemy and the pragmatic polyfunctionality of evaluative suffixes. As an evaluative suffix,, -llus is used with a proper diminutive function that adds to the base the semantic component 'small'. In many cases, however, -llus plays a function related to the complex system of relations between the speak…