Search results for "semantics"

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…

Semantics driven interaction using natural language in students tutoring

2007

The aim of this work is to introduce a semantic integration between an ontology and a chatbot in an Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to interact with students using natural language. The interaction process is driven by the use of a purposely defined ontology. In the ontology two types of conceptual relations are defined. Besides the usual relations, which are used to define the domain's structure, another type of relation is used to define the navigation schema inside the ontology according to the need of managing uncertainty. Uncertainty level is related to student knowledge level about the involved concepts. In this work we propose an ITS for the Java programming language called TutorJ…

OWL Orthogonal Extension

2012

It is critical for knowledge bases to capture the reality in direct and intuitive way. OWL ontology language was designed for this goal. In this paper we study the limitations of the OWL open world semantics for the task of knowledge capture and retrieval. We propose a new mechanism based on the closed world semantics that alleviates part of the limitations. Further we describe a system where both OWL and the new mechanisms interoperate together. Finally, we outline some immediate applications and further research directions.

On the role of the upper part of words in lexical access: evidence with masked priming.

2012

More than 100 years ago, Huey (1908) indicated that the upper part of words was more relevant for perception than the lower part. Here we examined whether mutilated words, in their upper/lower portions (e.g., , , , ), can automatically access their word units in the mental lexicon. To that end, we conducted four masked repetition priming experiments with the lexical decision task. Results showed that mutilated primes produced a sizeable masked repetition priming effect. Furthermore, the magnitude of the masked repetition priming effect was greater when the upper part of the primes was preserved than when the lower portion was preserved –this was the case not only when the mutilated words we…

Shipping forecasts as examples of controlled languages - A cross-linguistic (NL, FR, GE) and cross-medial analysis (print, radio)

2022

Slowly progressive aphasia: a four-year follow-up study

2001

This paper reports the long-term follow-up of GC, a patient with primary progressive aphasia of the fluent type. GC presented at onset with an anomia characterized by sparing of first letter knowledge, that applied mainly to proper names and living categories. No semantic deficits were observed in the first stage of the disease, and MRI showed a left temporal lobe atrophy with a gradient from the pole to the posterior regions, the latter being less involved. We now report the clinical evolution of GC from the 2nd to the 4th year of disease. As the disease progressed, the anomia became more severe and the phenomenon of first letter sparing was no longer detectable. Also semantic knowledge wa…

On Formalizing Logical Modalities

2021

This paper is in the scope of the philosophy of modal logic; more precisely, it concerns the semantics of modal logic, when the modal elements are interpreted as logical modalities. Most authors have thought that the logic for logical modality—that is, the one to be used to formalize the notion of logical truth (and other related notions)—is to be found among logical systems in which modalities are allowed to be iterated. This has raised the problem of the adequacy, to that formalization purpose, of some modal schemes, such as S4 and S5 . It has been argued that the acceptance of S5 leads to non-normal modal systems, in which the uniform substitution rule fails. The thesis supported in this…

Left but not right temporal involvement in opaque idiom comprehension: a repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study

2004

Abstract It has been suggested that figurative language, which includes idioms, is controlled by the right hemisphere. We tested the right hemisphere hypothesis by using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to transiently disrupt the function of the frontal and temporal areas of the right versus left hemisphere in a group of normal participants involved in a task of opaque idiom versus literal sentence comprehension. Forty opaque, nonambiguous idioms were selected. Fifteen young healthy participants underwent rTMS in two sessions. The experiment was run in five blocks, corresponding to the four stimulated scalp positions (left frontal and temporal and right frontal and tempor…

Phonological precision for word recognition in skilled readers

2019

According to the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007), differences in the orthographic, semantic, and phonological representations of words will affect individual reading performance. Whilst several studies have focused on orthographic precision and semantic coherence, few have considered phonological precision. The present study used a suite of individual difference measures to assess which components of lexical quality contributed to competition resolution in a masked priming experiment. The experiment measured form priming for word and pseudoword targets with dense and sparse neighbourhoods in 84 university students. Individual difference measures of language and cognitive skills …

Perspectives on Pragmatics and Philosophy

2013

This volume provides insight into linguistic pragmatics from the perspective of linguists who have been influenced by philosophy. Theory of Mind and perspectives on point of view are presented along with other topics including: semantics vs. semiotics, clinical pragmatics, explicatures, cancellability of explicatures, interactive language use, reference, common ground, presupposition, definiteness, logophoricity and point of view in connection with pragmatic inference, pragmemes and language games, pragmatics and artificial languages, the mechanism of the form/content correlation from a pragmatic point of view, amongst other issues relating to language use. Relevance Theory is introduced as…