Search results for "Semantics"

How domain-sensitive are existential constructions? Evidence from Swedish and Dutch weather reports

2020

International audience; [Introduction] Over the last two decades, linguists have shown considerable interest in the advantages of CxG-theories for various linguistic sub-disciplines. A particular question that has arisen within more “applied” frameworks, is whether or not constructions can have domain-specific manifestations regarding meaning and/or form (Fischer/Nikiforidou 2015; Bücker/Günther/Imo 2015; Gautier/Bach 2019). However, sufficient empirical analyses are currently missing, and this research question needs to be more systematically tested for constructions in various languages and different LSP-oriented domains. Beside the mere “applied” focus, such work can lead to interestin…

Semantic, Typicality and Odor Representation: A Cross-cultural Study

2005

This study investigated odor-category organization in three cultures by evaluating (i) the relationship between linguistic and perceptual categorization and (ii) the existence of an internal structure of odor categories. In the first experiment, three groups of 30 participants from American, French and Vietnamese cultures performed a sorting task. The first group sorted 40 odorants on the basis of odor similarity, the second group sorted 40 odor names on the basis of name similarity and the last group sorted 40 odor names on the basis of imagined odor similarity. Results showed that odor categorization was based on perceptual or conceptual similarity and was in part independent of word and …

Semantics bias in cross-national comparative analyses : Is it good or bad to have "fair" health?

2016

The Health Behavior in School-aged Children is a cross-national study collecting data on social and health indicators on adolescents in 43 countries. The study provides comparable data on health behaviors and health outcomes through the use of a common protocol, which have been a back bone of the study sine its initiation in 1983. Recent years, researchers within the study have noticed a questionable comparability on the widely used item on self-rated health. One of the four response categories to the item “Would you say your health is….?” showed particular variation, as the response category “Fair” varied from 20 % in Latvia and Moldova to 3–4 % in Bulgaria and Macedonia. A qualitative min…

Vamos a Traducir los MRV(Let’s Translate the VRM): Linguistic and Cultural Inferences Drawn from Translating a Verbal Coding System from English into…

1997

Translating a verbal coding system from one language to another can yield unexpected insights into the process of communication in different cultures. This paper describes the problems and understandings we encountered as we translated a verbal response modes (VRM) taxonomy from English into Spanish. Standard translations of text (e.g., psychotherapeutic dialogue) systematically change the form of certain expressions, so supposedly equivalent expressions had different VRM codings in the two languages. Prominent examples of English forms whose translation had different codes in Spanish included tags, question forms, and "let's" expressions. Insofar as participants use such forms to convey nu…

The Foundations of Cognitive Linguistics

2015

Definitions and Contexts of Intercultural Dialogue in European Policy Documents

2020

In this chapter, we analyse how the concept of intercultural dialogue is both explicitly and implicitly used in European education policy documents. First, we explore how the concept is explicitly dealt with in the documents and how its meanings are produced in relation to other concepts and terms, such as culture, cultural heritage, identity, inclusion, empathy, tolerance, multiculturalism, citizenship, participation, and social responsibility. We pay special attention to the values and ideals conveyed by the education policy documents in general and these concepts in particular. Second, we discuss the thematic overlap of these concepts and how different concepts, terms, and conceptual exp…

The effects of associative and semantic priming in the lexical decision task.

2001

Four lexical decision experiments were conducted to examine under which conditions automatic semantic priming effects can be obtained. Experiments 1 and 2 analyzed associative/semantic effects at several very short stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs), whereas Experiments 3 and 4 used a single-presentation paradigm at two response-stimulus intervals (RSIs). Experiment 1 tested associatively related pairs from three semantic categories (synonyms, antonyms, and category coordinates). The results showed reliable associative priming effects at all SOAs. In addition, the correlation between associative strength and magnitude of priming was significant only at the shortest SOA (66 ms). When prime-t…

Using Semantics in the Environment for Multiagent-Based Simulation

2014

In this chapter, we carry out an overview and analysis of the usage of semantics to enhance environments in the domain of multiagent-based simulations. Firstly, we take a look at what a multiagent system (MAS) is, and after that we look at the environment for these systems, and why semantics are required in it. Various propositions to put semantics in the environment for MAS are then reviewed, as well as the strengths and weaknesses for these approaches. These propositions are grouped together under two categories, regarding whether the proposed approach is based on only the environment or on both the agents and the environment. The paper is then concluded with findings that have emerged by…

Models Versus Model Descriptions

2021

In the development of computer-based systems, modelling is often advocated in addition to programming, in that it helps in reflecting the application domain and that it makes the design and experiment activities of development more efficient. However, there is disagreement about what models are and how they can be used in software systems development. In this paper, we present the Scandinavian approach to modelling, which makes a clear distinction between models and model descriptions. This paper explains the connections between models, descriptions, systems, and executions. Combining the Scandinavian approach with the Kiel notion of model, we establish that both descriptions and executions…

Les grammaires de construction au service de la morphologie lexicale ? Apports pour la description des noms-termes en allemand

2019

International audience; Contexte Le « goût » de la langue allemande pour la créativité lexicale, en particulier dans le domaine nominal, fait figure de lapalissade. Ceci est particulièrement vrai en discours spécialisés où les besoins en dénomination de nouveaux concepts passent, outre les différentes formes d’emprunts ou de néologismes de forme, par les deux procédés classiques que sont la dérivation et la composition. C’est dans ce contexte que la présente proposition de communication vise à interroger les apports des grammaires de construction appliquées à ces phénomènes – on parlera alors avec Booij (2017) de morphologie constructionnelle – pour une analyse de l’interface syntaxe-séma…