Lexical Semantics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Geeraerts
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Historical Semantics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lexical Relations ◽  
Lexical Fields

Lexical semantics is the study of word meaning. Descriptively speaking, the main topics studied within lexical semantics involve either the internal semantic structure of words, or the semantic relations that occur within the vocabulary. Within the first set, major phenomena include polysemy (in contrast with vagueness), metonymy, metaphor, and prototypicality. Within the second set, dominant topics include lexical fields, lexical relations, conceptual metaphor and metonymy, and frames. Theoretically speaking, the main theoretical approaches that have succeeded each other in the history of lexical semantics are prestructuralist historical semantics, structuralist semantics, and cognitive semantics. These theoretical frameworks differ as to whether they take a system-oriented rather than a usage-oriented approach to word-meaning research but, at the same time, in the historical development of the discipline, they have each contributed significantly to the descriptive and conceptual apparatus of lexical semantics.

Judgments of Learning

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew G. Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Memory Performance ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Judgments Of Learning ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Combine Information ◽  
Future Work

Several decades of research have examined predictions of future memory performance—typically referred to as judgments of learning (JOLs). In this chapter, I first discuss the early history of research on JOLs and their fit within a leading metacognitive framework. A common methodological approach has evolved that permits the researcher to investigate the correspondence between JOLs and memory performance, as well as the degree to which JOLs distinguish between information that is or is not remembered. Factors that influence each aspect of the accuracy of JOLs are noted and considered within theoretical approaches to JOLs. Thus far, research on JOLs had yielded a number of findings and promising theoretical frameworks that will continue to be refined. Future work will benefit by considering how learners combine information to arrive at a judgment, the implications of alternative methods of measuring JOLs, and the potential for JOLs to influence memory.

Lexical Semantics

2019 ◽  
pp. 180-203
Author(s):  
David Stringer
Keyword(s):  
Feature Selection ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Structure Theory ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Thematic Roles ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Lexical Relations

Lexical semantics is concerned with inherent aspects of word meaning and the semantic relations between words, as well as the ways in which word meaning is related to syntactic structure. This chapter provides an introduction to some of the main themes in lexical semantic research, including the nature of the mental lexicon, lexical relations, and the decomposition of words into grammatically relevant semantic features. The mapping between the semantics of verbs and their associated syntax is discussed in terms of thematic roles, semantic structure theory, and feature selection. A review of some of the most influential findings in second language research involving both open-class and closed-class lexical items reveals important implications for classroom pedagogy and syllabus design in the domain of vocabulary instruction.

scholarly journals ЛЕКСИКОГРАФИЯТА – ИСТОРИЯ, ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА / LEXICOGRAPHY – HISTORY, THEORY AND PRACTICE

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (02) ◽  
pp. 11-12
Author(s):  
Diana Blagoeva
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Semantic Relations ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Semantic Equivalence ◽  
Short Forms ◽  
Family Names ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Special Approach ◽  
Point Of Departure

The papers featured in Issue 2/2021 of the Journal deal with major topics in the theory and practice of lexicography – both in a contemporary and historical perspective. The authors address problems of onomastic lexicography, neography, explanatory lexicography and the history of Bulgarian dictionary crafting. One of the papers sheds light on some aspects of the lexicographic practice in Poland. The issue is dedicated to one of the most eminent representatives of contemporary Bulgarian academic lexicography – Prof. DSc Maria Choroleeva – on the occasion of her forthcoming jubilee. Boris Parashkevov’s paper outlines a project for the creation of a dictionary of Bulgarian surnames. The concept of the dictionary envisages the organisation of family names in nests based on semantic equivalence (correspondence), associative reference and shared structural membership, thus making it possible to reveal the structural and semantic relations among the names under study. In addition, the dictionary entries document the derivational paradigm of the respective surnames, including short forms, diminutives and suffixal derivatives. Sia Kolkovska addresses some peculiarities in the lexicographic description of Bulgarian neologisms motivated by specific types of polysemy and synonymy. The author comments on the lexicographic description of the semantic structure of new polysemous loanwords and discusses the criteria for selecting a dominant synonym in synonym sets composed of neologisms. Diana Blagoeva and Sia Kolkovska’s paper also deals with issues in neography. The authors discuss the views on the categorial nature of neologisms of the type бизнесцентър/бизнес център (business centre) in Bulgarian and comment on the reasons for the emergence and establishment of this type of lexemes in the language, while considering the dynamics of their functioning. The paper motivates the necessity for the application of a special approach to the lexicographic description of this type of neologisms. Tsvetelina Georgieva comments on Nayden Gerov’s understanding of the so-called „равнознаменаменователни речи“ and highlights the contribution of the renowned lexicographer of the National Revival and the Post-liberation period to the representation of such names in an explanatory dictionary. The author maintains that these names should be considered not synonyms but heteroyms as they belong to different dialects. Nadezhda Kostova also takes a look at the history of Bulgarian lexicography in her discussion on the arrangement of dictionary entries in different types of dictionaries from the beginning of the 20th century. The author provides a comparative analysis of the peculiarities in the application of the alphabetical-nest arrangement in the lexicographic works under discussion. In his paper Petar Sotirov studies the application of the qualifier colloquially (potoczne) in Polish explanatory lexicography, taking as a point of departure the views on the notion of colloquialism in Polish linguistics. The author concludes that the dominant notion of colloquialism in Polish lexicography is the stylistic one and goes on to identify certain cases of inconsistencies and discrepancies in the use of the qualifier. Mihaela Kuzmova discusses the place of precedent phenomena (in par-ticular, the so-called “winged words”) in phraseology. The author proposes an analysis of several popular expressions of domestic precedent origin which have neither been described in lexicographic works, nor commented in the linguistic literature, and offers some observations on their phraseologisation and usualisation.

scholarly journals On Some Criteria for Defining Lexical Semantics

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2 (7)) ◽  
pp. 55-61
Author(s):  
Yelena Yerznkyan ◽  
Lusine Harutyunyan
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Direct Outcome ◽  
Broad Meaning

The article examines the two major types of word meaning – broad meaning and polysemy. An attempt is made to define the standards which will make the distinction between these complicated, extremely indefinite and at times partly or fully coinciding phenomena possible. The research demonstrates that broad-meaning and polysemantic words differ from each other not only functionally and semantically, but also with their semantic structure which is the direct outcome of the historical process of the change of meanings. In case of broad meaning words, there are more meanings since the number of the denotators of the latter is not limited. Rather, it is predetermined by its theoretically possible subtexts whereas the number of the meanings of the polysemantic words is determined by the number of the denotators fixed by itself.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
David Kennerley
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Gender History ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
British Culture

This introductory chapter sets out the key arguments, theoretical frameworks, and historiographical context of the book, and also presents summaries of each chapter. It reviews theoretical approaches to the concept of “voice” and explains this book’s stance towards exploring the cultural history of voices. It demonstrates how this focus on voice advances the gender history of this period, particularly in relation to moving beyond the longstanding debate over the “separate spheres” paradigm. It explains why this period is particularly important for the history of female voices, emphasising both the growth of middle-class audiences for music, and the impact of the evangelical revival on British culture. It concludes by offering some thoughts about the ways in which the present study draws upon and draws together recent developments in both history and musicology that have brought the two disciplines into closer alignment.

Dancing Women

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usha Iyer
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The Body ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
History Of ◽  
Material History ◽  
Cultural Forms ◽  
Hindi Cinema

Dancing Women: Choreographing Corporeal Histories of Hindi Cinema, an ambitious study of two of South Asia’s most popular cultural forms—cinema and dance—historicizes and theorizes the material and cultural production of film dance, a staple attraction of popular Hindi cinema. It explores how the dynamic figurations of the body wrought by cinematic dance forms from the 1930s to the 1990s produce unique constructions of gender, stardom, and spectacle. By charting discursive shifts through figurations of dancer-actresses, their publicly performed movements, private training, and the cinematic and extra-diegetic narratives woven around their dancing bodies, the book considers the “women’s question” via new mobilities corpo-realized by dancing women. Some of the central figures animating this corporeal history are Azurie, Sadhona Bose, Vyjayanthimala, Helen, Waheeda Rehman, Madhuri Dixit, and Saroj Khan, whose performance histories fold and intersect with those of other dancing women, including devadasis and tawaifs, Eurasian actresses, oriental dancers, vamps, choreographers, and backup dancers. Through a material history of the labor of producing on-screen dance, theoretical frameworks that emphasize collaboration, such as the “choreomusicking body” and “dance musicalization,” aesthetic approaches to embodiment drawing on treatises like the Natya Sastra and the Abhinaya Darpana, and formal analyses of cine-choreographic “techno-spectacles,” Dancing Women offers a variegated, textured history of cinema, dance, and music. Tracing the gestural genealogies of film dance produces a very different narrative of Bombay cinema, and indeed of South Asian cultural modernities, by way of a corporeal history co-choreographed by a network of remarkable dancing women.

Temporal comparisons, historical semantics of interaction and ‘post-war consensus’ in British Parliament: Studying time references in a deliberative environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 0961463X2110212
Author(s):  
Kirill Postoutenko ◽  
Olga Sabelfeld
Keyword(s):  
House Of Commons ◽  
Temporal Semantics ◽  
Sociopolitical Environment ◽  
Social Time ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Historical Semantics ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Concepts ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War

This article aims to demonstrate that the transition from the mainstream narrative to the interactional history of concepts promises tangible benefits for scholars of social time in general and temporal comparisons in particular. It is shown that the traditionally close alignment of narration with the production of historical consciousness at various levels hinders the study of time as a semantic variable perpetually contested, amended and upheld across society. Alternatively, the references to time made in public settings, allowing for more or less instant reactions (turn-taking) as well as expression of dissenting opinions (stance-taking), offer a much more representative palette of temporal semantics and pragmatics in a given sociopolitical environment. In a particularly intriguing case, the essentially deliberative venue where contestation is supported by both institutional arrangements and political reasons (British House of Commons) is put to test under circumstances commonly known as ‘the post-war consensus’ – the unspoken convention directing opposing political parties to suspend stance-taking regarding the past actions of the government during WWII, its immediate aftermath and its future prospects. As a reliable indicator of this arrangement, the contestation of temporal comparisons between relevant pasts and futures is tested in oppositions reflecting party allegiances (Conservatives vs. Labour vs. Liberals) and executive functions (government vs. opposition) between 1946 and 1952. It is shown that, notwithstanding the prevalence of non-contested statements aimed at preserving interactional coherence and pragmatic functionality of the setting, the moderately active contestation of the adversary’s temporal comparisons in the House of Commons at that time helped all parties, albeit to a different degree, to shape their own political and institutional roles as well as to delegitimize their respective adversaries.

scholarly journals The relevance of first language attrition to theories of bilingual development

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 637-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika S. Schmid ◽  
Barbara Köpke
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
First Language Attrition ◽  
Bilingual Development

Abstract Research on second language acquisition and bilingual development strongly suggests that when a previously monolingual speaker becomes multilingual, the different languages do not exist in isolation: they are closely linked, dependent on each other, and there is constant interaction between these different knowledge systems. Theoretical frameworks of bilingual development acknowledge this insofar as they usually draw heavily on evidence of how the native language influences subsequent languages, and how and to what degree this influence can eventually be overcome. The fact that such crosslinguistic transfer is not a one-way street, and that the native language is similarly influenced by later learned languages, on the other hand, is often disregarded. We review the evidence on how later learned languages can re-shape the L1 in the immediate and the longer term and demonstrate how such phenomena may be used to inform, challenge and validate theoretical approaches of bilingual development.

Naming and Indexicality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Bochner
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Epistemic Constraints ◽  
Theories Of Meaning

How do words stand for things? Taking ideas from philosophical semantics and pragmatics, this book offers a unique, detailed, and critical survey of central debates concerning linguistic reference in the twentieth century. It then uses the survey to identify and argue for a novel version of current 'two-dimensional' theories of meaning, which generalise the context-dependency of indexical expressions. The survey highlights the history of tensions between semantic and epistemic constraints on plausible theories of word meaning, from analytic philosophy and modern truth-conditional semantics, to the Referentialist and Externalist revolutions in theories of meaning, to the more recent reconciliatory ambition of two-dimensionalists. It clearly introduces technical semantical notions, theses, and arguments, with easy-to-follow, step-by-step guides. Wide-ranging in its scope, yet offering an accessible route into literature that can seem complex and technical, this will be essential reading for advanced students, and academic researchers in semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language.

Education and the Postmodern Subject in Neoliberal Society and the Possibilities of Emancipation by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-76
Author(s):  
Ronnie Peter Pereira Zanatta ◽  
Maria Sara Lima Dias ◽  
Nestor Cortez Saavedra Filho
Keyword(s):  
History Of Education ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Educational Legislation ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Humanist Education ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Company Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fredric Jameson

Background: In a society increasingly marked by the logic of contemporary capitalism, education becomes an instrument for the reproduction of alienated labour forces. Objectives: To provide an overview of the characteristics of subjectivity and attitudes of the postmodern subject based on the studies of Fredric Jameson and David Harvey; unveiling the development of techniques for producing more effective ways of subjecting the company culture to neoliberal rationality described by Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval and their influences on the formation of contemporary identities; reflect on the role of education, in particular of scientific education, in overcoming the state of alienation brought about by the capitalist system of neoliberal societies. Design: Articulation between exploratory and bibliographic research, articulated with the theoretical frameworks of Paulo Freire’s critical theory and pedagogy.  Settings and Participants: Given the typology of the research carried out, articles, books and documents about the capitalist system in neoliberal societies, the educational legislation and Paulo Freire’s pedagogy. Data Collection and analysis: Critical reflection on the texts consulted and included in the research. Results: There is a relationship between the subjects constituted from the marketing logic and the role of the school as a reproducer of mechanisms of subjugation to the hegemonic capitalist system; there is also the business and industrial influence in the development of educational policies throughout the history of education. Conclusions: As a possibility of transforming this scenario of alienation from the educational system to hegemonic power, the Freirean conception of emancipatory critical humanist education is presented, in addition to the reproduction of capitalist logic, based on the awareness of subjects based on dialogical pedagogy and the appropriation of the scientific knowledge as a transformer of reality.

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