Semantics

Temporal dependencies: anaphora vs. movement

by Lucas Champollion

Champollion, Lucas (2012). Temporal dependencies: anaphora vs. movement. Poster presentation at the 35th GLOW colloquium. Potsdam, March 28-30, 2012

Temporal dependencies provide a useful testbed for syntactic and semantic theories of meaning/context interaction. In... more Temporal dependencies provide a useful testbed for syntactic and semantic theories of meaning/context interaction. In this poster, I consider two kinds of temporal dependencies: those that hold between temporal adjuncts as in (1a) and (1b), and those that hold between before and its complement, as in (2a).

(1) a. Last year, it rained in the afternoon.
b. Last year, it rained every day.
(2) a. John left before Mary claimed she would arrive.
b. John left before Mary made the claim that she would arrive.

I show that the former are anaphora-like and the latter are movement-like and I provide a variable-free implementation of the former.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Complement Coercion

by Martin Paczynski

Kuperberg, GR., Choi, A., Cohn, N., Paczynski M., Jackendoff, R. (2010) Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 22(12), 2685-2701.

This study examined the electrophysiological correlates of complement coercion. ERPs were measured as participants... more This study examined the electrophysiological correlates of complement coercion. ERPs were measured as participants read and made acceptability judgments about plausible coerced sentences, plausible noncoerced sentences, and highly implausible animacy-violated sentences (“The journalist began/wrote/ astonished the article before his coffee break”). Relative to non- coerced complement nouns, the coerced nouns evoked an N400 effect. This effect was not modulated by the number of possible activities implied by the coerced nouns (e.g., began reading the article; began writing the article) and did not differ either in magnitude or scalp distribution from the N400 effect evoked by the animacy-violated complement nouns. We suggest that the N400modulation to both coerced and animacy-violated complement nouns reflected different types of mismatches between the semantic restrictions of the verb and the semantic properties of the incoming complement noun. This is consistent with models holding that a verbʼs semantic argument structure is represented and stored at a distinct level from its syntactic argument structure. Unlike the coerced complement noun, the animacy-violated nouns also evoked a robust P600 effect, which may have been triggered by the judgments of the highly implausible (syntactically determined) meanings of the animacy-violated propositions. No additional ERP effects were seen in the coerced sentences until the sentence-final word that, relative to sentence-final words in the noncoerced sentences, evoked a sustained anteriorly distributed positivity. We suggest that this effect reflected delayed attempts to retrieve the specific event(s) implied by coerced complement nouns.

Establishing Causal Coherence across Sentences: An ERP Study

by Martin Paczynski

Kuperberg, G.R., Paczynski, M., and Ditman, T. (2011) Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23(5), 1230–1246

This study examined neural activity associated with establishing causal relationships across sentences during on-line... more This study examined neural activity associated with establishing causal relationships across sentences during on-line comprehension. ERPs were measured while participants read and judged the relatedness of three-sentence scenarios in which the final sentence was highly causally related, intermediately related, and causally unrelated to its context. Lexico-semantic co-occurrence was matched across the three conditions using a Latent Semantic Analysis. Critical words in causally unrelated scenarios evoked a larger N400 than words in both highly causally related and intermediately related scenarios, regardless of whether they appeared before or at the sentence-final position. At midline sites, the N400 to intermediately related sentence-final words was attenuated to the same degree as to highly causally related words, but otherwise the N400 to intermediately related words fell in between that evoked by highly causally related and intermediately related words. No modulation of the late positivity/P600 component was observed across conditions. These results indicate that both simple and complex causal inferences can influence the earliest stages of semantically processing an incoming word. Further, they suggest that causal coherence, at the situation level, can influence incremental word-by-word discourse comprehension, even when semantic relationships between individual words are matched.

Electrophysiological Evidence for Use of the Animacy Hierarchy, but not Thematic Role Assignment, During Verb Argument Processing

by Martin Paczynski

Paczynski, M., Kuperberg, G. (2011), Language and Cognitive Processes, 26 (9), 1402-1456

Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it... more Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it exerts its effects: (1) through links to syntactic ordering, (2) through inherent differences between animate and inanimate entities in their salience/lexico-semantic accessibility, and (3) through links to specific thematic roles. We contrasted these three accounts in two event-related potential (ERP) experiments examining the processing of direct object arguments in simple English sentences. In Experiment 1, we found a larger N400 to animate than inanimate direct object arguments assigned the Patient role, ruling out the second account. In Experiment 2, we found no difference in the N400 evoked by animate direct object arguments assigned the Patient role (prototypically inanimate) and those assigned the Experiencer role (prototypically animate), ruling out the third account. We therefore suggest that animacy may impact processing through a direct link to syntactic linear ordering, at least on postverbal arguments in English. We also exam- ined processing on direct object arguments that violated the animacy-based selection-restriction constraints of their preceding verbs. These violations evoked a robust P600, which was not modulated by thematic role assignment or reversibility, suggesting that the so-called semantic P600 is driven by overall propositional impossibility, rather than thematic role reanalysis

The symbiotic relationship between the two “enemies” in the “War on Terror”: A systemic functional grammar analysis.

by Simon Humphries

Reference: Humphries, S. (2007). The symbiotic relationship between the two “enemies” in the “War on Terror”: A systemic functional grammar analysis. Research reports: Kinki University Technical College, 1, 75-84.

Conflicts can be a useful means to unite groups against a common enemy. In this sense, both the US Administration and... more Conflicts can be a useful means to unite groups against a common enemy. In this sense, both the US Administration and Al Qaeda have not only benefited from the “war on terror”, but even share a covert symbiotic relationship. The former won the 2002 and 2004 elections by exploiting the American public’s fear of further terrorist attacks, while the latter also benefited from the hatred it was able to generate amongst its followers. The Republican Party’s television advertisement broadcast in November 2006 was the first time, however, that their aims could be seen to have converged so overtly. The Systemic Functional approach is employed to analyse the strata of context, semantics, and lexicogrammar. According to this approach, the strata are “semiotic dimensions that intersect in a vast, elastic, semiotic space” (Matthiessen, cited in Lukin, 2006, p. 1) that have a bi-directional relationship of realisation. Lukin asks: “do language users shape the social context, or is our language practice constrained or determined by it?” (2006, p. 8). In this case, the advertisement helped to shape the context, but not in the way that the Republicans intended, because they lost seats in the election to the Democrats.

Techniques and tools. Corpus methods and statistics for semantics

by Dylan Glynn

An overview of the corpus methods and statistical techniques in Cognitive Semantics An overview of the corpus methods and statistical techniques in Cognitive Semantics

Semantic Narrowing of Neologisms in Korean

by Sophie Marta

VERSION 2

Submitted as part of the assessment for "Languages in the 21st Century - Cultural Contact and New Words"

Department of Linguistics
The University of Adelaide
2012

A short essay on Korean words... more Department of Linguistics
The University of Adelaide
2012

A short essay on Korean words that have undergone phonetic adaptation and semantic change during the importation process from languages such as English and German.

Eine semantische Einführung in die Jugendsprachen

by Utku Tanrıvere

Die Semantik des Genitivs der Negation im Russischen

by Dimitrios Meletis

draft only

Der Genitiv der Negation (GenNeg) stellt im Russischen eine komplexe Konstruktion dar, deren Facettenreichtum in der... more Der Genitiv der Negation (GenNeg) stellt im Russischen eine komplexe Konstruktion dar, deren Facettenreichtum in der Linguistik von interdisziplinärem Interesse ist. Seit Jahrzehnten wird geforscht und diskutiert, unter welchen Konditionen eine Alternation zwischen Nominativ und Genitiv in negierten Sätzen auftritt, seien es morphologische, syntaktische, lexikalische, semantische oder gar pragmatische Kriterien, die den Gen¬Neg bedingen. Die Beziehung zwischen Thema und Rhema und der davon abhängige Skopus der Negation sind ein kleiner Teil der Faktoren, die großteils einstimmig als essentielle (semantische) Ursache für das Auftreten des GenNeg erachtet werden und denen in der Literatur viel Beachtung geschenkt wurde. Diese Arbeit sammelt die markantesten Erkenntnisse dieser Richtung der Forschung, namentlich die von Babby (1980) und Borschev und Partee (1998, 2002, 2007), und versucht, einen summarischen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Forschung dieser speziellen Sparte der Untersuchung des GenNeg zu geben und diese anhand von prägnanten Beispielen anschaulich zu machen und zu überprüfen.

Semantic categories in the motion domain by adult speakers of Danish, German and Turkish

by Moiken Jessen

draft only, comments welcome!

This study examines the semantic categories in the motion domain by adult speakers of Danish, German and Turkish. The... more This study examines the semantic categories in the motion domain by adult speakers of Danish, German and Turkish. The participants described 37 video clips depicting a large variety of motion events. The results of the study showed that the segmentation of the semantic space shows a great deal of variation across all three groups. Turkish differs from German and Danish with respect to the parameters used to segment the semantic space, that is to say on a horizontal level, whereas German and Danish differ greatly with respect to a. how fine grained the distinctions made are, i.e. on a vertical level and b. how motion verbs with a common Germanic root are distributed across the semantic space, i.e. on a horizontal level. It was found that the parameters applied by speakers are in line with typological membership as proposed by Talmy.

Few and Fewer

by Stephanie Solt

Snippets, Issue 15, March 2007

Postsuppositon and Pastiche Talk

by Thorold (Thor) May

University of Melbourne Working Papers in Linguistics 14 (1994): 31-46

Abstract : Natural languages are examined as members of the class of complex dynamic systems in nature. The... more Abstract : Natural languages are examined as members of the class of complex dynamic systems in nature. The mathematical models of Complexity Theory have shown that complex dynamic systems as diverse as cyclones, the stock market and the human genome have the properties of a) being self-organising, b) existing in a precarious state of cyclical activity which alters slightly on each cycle, and c) containing an inherent indeterminacy. This last property, indeterminacy, is taken as a cue to develop an argument that language cannot be entirely representational, or altogether functional. It is proposed that in the generation of language there is a constant oscillation where thought sometimes gives rise to language, and alternatively, where unmotivated fragments of language force the development of post-rationalised ideas. Evidence is sought from the behaviour of formulaic phrases and apparent presuppositions

Purposive Constructions in English

by Thorold (Thor) May

The detailed analysis of Purposive Constructions in this long paper will help researchers to clarify these phenomena in English, even though the linguistic model employed, Chomsky's Government and Binding, has (in my view) been superseded.

Abstract: This thesis* explores some of the syntactic & semantic properties of Purposive Constructions in English.... more Abstract: This thesis* explores some of the syntactic & semantic properties of Purposive Constructions in English. The term "purposive" is recognized as a semantic concept which finds regular expression in a small range of syntactic configurations. Purpose Clauses (PCs) and Rationale Clauses (Rat.Cs) are examined in some detail. Briefer reference is made to several other configurations, notably Because Clauses, So-That Clauses and Infinitival Relatives. In general Purposive Constructions comprise rather fuzzy semantic categories. Nevertheless, the main syntactic features are fairly clear. Interpretation of the constructions requires a systematic account of the control of empty slots (ellipted NPs) by thematic elements in the matrix clause. General conditions of Government and Binding appear adequate to predict the distribution of gaps in most Purposive Clauses. However, the relationship between propositions predicated of a common argument in these constructions is found to sometimes require matching conditions too subtle for syntax alone to predict. A concept of Thematic Coextensiveness is introduced to account for such matching.

OT semantics and control

by Ben Lyngfelt

Lindner 1981

by Bert Cappelle

Using my own space here to share Susan Lindner's classic 1981 thesis, which might otherwise be hard to come by.

Federated Ontology Search for the Medical Domain

by Vasco Pedro

Van niet willen en van niet kunnen, en ook van moeten, mogen en zullen

by Bert Cappelle

To appear in the popularizing journal "Over Taal"

Abstract, Dedication, and Acknowledgments for the Hobbs (2011) dissertation published by SAS.

by Robert Dean Hobbs

The Hobbs (2011) doctoral study is published in the ProQuest Dissertations and These database, UMI No. 3484309

The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how... more The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how and when to incorporate second and third languages into the curriculum to improve language acquisition. Research indicates that L3 enhances and reinforces L2 and L1. The stratified systematic grounded theory study explored the perspectives of neurolinguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and interdisciplinary education researchers to derive variables for constructing a new model of education. The outcome of the Internet survey revealed that 100% of the participants agreed that education must change and that teacher training must improve. Variables from the cross-disciplinary data contributed to the construction of an integrated model of multilingual education consisting of four primary models and other models to serve as tools for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment as well as determining demographics and student meta-analysis of language abilities and storage in the brain. The first model emerged from the data to offer multilingual principles of education. The other primary models are macro, meso, and micro models. The macro model represents schools, instruction, assessment, and the curriculum cycle. The meso model depicts the developmental domains of the individual learner and includes a cyclical equation. The micro model delineates multilingual processing in the brain based on neurolinguistic research, variables from the current study, and Kees de Bot's bilingual adaptation of Levelt's language processing model. Recommendations include the incorporation of notional-functional pragmatic-aesthetic concepts as depicted in the models developed for the study and enhanced by input from published researchers with unique language and research repertoires who were located on four continents.

Comparison to Arbitrary Standards

by Stephanie Solt

To appear in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 16

Phonological and semantic priming: Evidence for task-independent effects

by Guy Tiberghien