The Playful Lexicon in the Romance Languages: Prosodic Templates, Onomatopoeia, Reduplication, Clipping, Blending

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pharies
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Repeated Sequences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Social Convention ◽  
Separate Category ◽  
Semantic Effect ◽  
Full Form ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Lexical Items

A lexical item is described as “playful” or “ludic” when it shows evidence of manipulation of the relation that inheres between its form (signifier) and its meaning (signified). The playful lexicon of any given language, therefore, is the sum total of its lexical items that show signs of such manipulation. Linguists have long recognized that the only necessary link between a word’s form and its meaning is the arbitrary social convention that binds them. However, nothing prevents speakers from creating additional, unnecessary and therefore essentially “playful” links, associating forms with meanings in a symbolic, hence non-arbitrary way. This semantic effect is most evident in the case of onomatopoeia, through which the phonetic form of words that designate sounds is designed to be conventionally imitative of the sound. A second group of playful words combines repeated sequences of sounds with meanings that are themselves suggestive of repetition or related concepts such as collectivity, continuity, or actions in sequence, as well as repeated, back-and-forth, or uncontrolled movements, or even, more abstractly, intensity and hesitation. The playfulness of truncated forms such as clips and blends is based on a still more abstract connection between forms and meanings. In the case of clipping, the truncation of the full form of a word triggers a corresponding connotative truncation or diminution of the meaning, that is, a suggestion that the referent is small—either endearingly, humorously, or contemptuously so. In blending, truncation is often accompanied by overlapping, which symbolically highlights the interrelatedness or juxtaposition of the constituents’ individual meanings. Prosodic templates do not constitute a separate category per se; instead, they may play a part in the formation or alteration of words in any of the other categories discussed here.

Denial

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-57
Author(s):  
David Ripley
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Aspect ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Lexical Items

Denial is something we do; it is a speech act. Negation, on the other hand, is a particular lexical item. Despite being very different kinds of things, denial and negation certainly seem to have something to do with each other. There’s something negative about them both. This ‘negative’ aspect, whatever it is, unifies denial and negation across these categories. It is something that denial does not share with the speech act of assertion, for example, although they are both speech acts; nor does negation share it with, say, ‘must’, although they are both lexical items. There are a range of theories about the relationships between negation and denial. This article aims to give a brief overview of these theories, and to indicate some of the reasons for and against each.

The Problem of the Typology of Rationality in Muslim Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Lukashev
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
The Common ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Muslim Culture

The typology of rationality is one of major issues of modern philosophy. In an attempt to provide a typology to Oriental materials, a researcher faces additional problems. The diversity of the Orient as such poses a major challenge. When we say “Oriental,” we mean several cultures for which we cannot find a common denominator. The concept of “Orient” involves Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Turkish and other cultures, and the only thing they share is that they are “non-Western.” Moreover, even if we focus just on Islamic culture and look into rationality in this context, we have to deal with a conglomerate of various trends, which does not let us define, with full confidence, a common theoretical basis and treat them as a unity. Nevertheless, we have to go on trying to find common directions in thought development, so as to draw conclusions about types of rationality possible in Islamic culture. A basis for such a typology of rationality in the context of the Islamic world was recently suggested in A.V. Smirnov’s logic of sense theory. However, actual empiric material cannot always fit theoretical models, and the cases that do not fit the common scheme are interesting per se. On the one hand, examination of such cases gives an opportunity to specify certain provisions of the theory and, on the other hand, to define the limits of its applicability.

Glottalization and linking in the L2 speech of Czech learners of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110158
Author(s):  
Radek Skarnitzl ◽  
Petr Čermák ◽  
Pavel Šturm ◽  
Zora Obstová ◽  
Jan Hricsina
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression Model ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mixed Effects ◽  
Lexical Stress ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Short Text ◽  
Sound Pattern ◽  
Frequent Use

The use of linking or glottalization contributes to the characteristic sound pattern of a language, and the use of one in place of the other may affect a speaker’s comprehensibility and fluency in certain contexts. In this study, native speakers of Czech, a language that is associated with a frequent use of glottalization in vowel-initial word onsets, are examined in the second language (L2) context of three Romance languages that predominantly employ linking between words (Spanish, Italian and Portuguese). In total, 29 native speakers and 51 non-native learners were asked to read a short text in the respective language. The learners were divided into two groups based on their experience with the target language. A number of other factors were examined in a mixed-effects logistic regression model (segmental context, lexical stress, prosodic breaks, and the semantic status of the words). The main results show that, regardless of the target language, the more experienced (ME) learners displayed significantly lower rates of glottalization than the less experienced (LE) learners, but significantly higher rates than native speakers. The pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.

scholarly journals Inclusion, Contrast and Polysemy in Dictionaries: The Relationship between Theory, Language Use and Lexicographic Practice

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-340
Author(s):  
Anu Koskela
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Corpus

This paper explores the lexicographic representation of a type of polysemy that arises when the meaning of one lexical item can either include or contrast with the meaning of another, as in the case of dog/bitch, shoe/boot, finger/thumb and animal/bird. A survey of how such pairs are represented in monolingual English dictionaries showed that dictionaries mostly represent as explicitly polysemous those lexical items whose broader and narrower readings are more distinctive and clearly separable in definitional terms. They commonly only represented the broader readings for terms that are in fact frequently used in the narrower reading, as shown by data from the British National Corpus.  

HALF-WAY TECHNOLOGIES ARE PROFITABLE

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 681-681
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Commercial Organizations

Decisive interventions, like vaccines, can be quite inexpensive. But commercial organizations make money by selling commodities; they cannot produce and sell "health" per se. The most profitable commodities are those embodying the "half-way" technologies, for those with the means to pay for them-again and again and again. Vaccines, on the other hand, "may never prove as enticing as drugs for pharmaceutical makers. They can be quite expensive to develop, and they produce less income-repeated refills not required ... "

Analyse discriminante et vocabulaire politique : Essai méthodologique

Res Publica ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-97
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Chapelle ◽  
Pierre Couvreur ◽  
Giuseppe Pagano
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Discriminant Function ◽  
The Other ◽  
Limited Sample ◽  
Ideological Differences ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
Lexical Items

This paper aims at testing the hypothesis of growing ideological uniformity of political speeches. If political speeches lack ideological differences, it should be difficult to re-classify them only by analyzing the presence or absence of lexical items. We first worked out a method to classify political speeches and then carried a test on two speeches by leading Belgian French-speaking politicians.  The method is based on discriminant analysis. It utilizes the words most encountered in one speech and not in the other as discriminant factors. Statistical softwares then assess a discriminant function used to re-classify short parts of each speech called blocks. The most discriminating 10 factors re-classify correctly 89% of the blocks. The percentage increases to 93% with 20 factors and to 98% with 30 factors.However the results should be taken with caution because of the limited sample, the test tends to question the growing uniformity of political speeches. The sampled ones had enough specific features for allowing a rather simpte method to re-classify most parts of them correctly, even if some typically ideological items are not to be found.

The relationship among freezing tolerance, vernalization requirement, Ppd alleles and winter hardiness in European wheat cultivars

2017 ◽  
Vol 155 (9) ◽  
pp. 1353-1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. GORASH ◽  
R. ARMONIENĖ ◽  
Ž. LIATUKAS ◽  
G. BRAZAUSKAS
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Complex Trait ◽  
Winter Hardiness ◽  
Photoperiod Sensitivity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Wheat Cultivars ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Relationship

SUMMARYWinter hardiness of wheat is a complex trait involving a system of structural, regulatory and developmental genes, which interact in a complex pathway. The objective of the present work was to study the relationship among the main traits determining the level of adaptation and the possibility for target manipulation of breeding material by using molecular markers and phenological parameters. Wheat cultivars from different ecoclimatic environments of Europe were included for analysis. Gene-specific assay showed that photoperiod sensitivity of the studied cultivars was determined by polymorphism in the Ppd-D1 allele. The study established the relationship among winter hardiness, LT50 (the temperature at which 50% of plants are killed), photoperiod sensitivity, vernalization duration and earliness per se genes in the environment of Lithuania. The cultivars from Northern and Western Europe exhibited stronger requirement for vernalization and photoperiod. Although the group of cultivars from the southern latitudes were characterized by earliness, they possessed a stronger level of LT50. The level of LT50 was found to be the most crucial component of winter hardiness, the other traits served as supplementary components.

Semantic Congruency Improves Recognition Memory Performance for Both Audiovisual and Visual Stimuli

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 763-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenni Heikkilä ◽  
Kimmo Alho ◽  
Kaisa Tiippana
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
The Other ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Semantic Congruency ◽  
Recognition Memory Performance ◽  
Visual Encoding ◽  
Per Se

Audiovisual semantic congruency during memory encoding has been shown to facilitate later recognition memory performance. However, it is still unclear whether this improvement is due to multisensory semantic congruency or just semantic congruencyper se. We investigated whether dual visual encoding facilitates recognition memory in the same way as audiovisual encoding. The participants memorized auditory or visual stimuli paired with a semantically congruent, incongruent or non-semantic stimulus in the same modality or in the other modality during encoding. Subsequent recognition memory performance was better when the stimulus was initially paired with a semantically congruent stimulus than when it was paired with a non-semantic stimulus. This congruency effect was observed with both audiovisual and dual visual stimuli. The present results indicate that not only multisensory but also unisensory semantically congruent stimuli can improve memory performance. Thus, the semantic congruency effect is not solely a multisensory phenomenon, as has been suggested previously.

The Image of Jews as Constructed by Lexical Items

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-212
Author(s):  
Xiu Gao
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western World ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Face ◽  
Original Figure ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Target Culture ◽  
Social Backgrounds

In the Western world, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is controversial due to its stereotypical description of Jews as evil and greedy. In China, the work was not widely known until its translations came out. This article deals with two Chinese renderings of Shakespeare’s classic, by Laura White (1914–1915) and Shiqiu Liang (2001/1936) respectively, which reconstruct the image of Shylock and Jews on the basis of the translators’ perceptions of the original figure, combining their identities and social backgrounds. In imagology, based on the ideas of Pageaux (1989/1994), the image of the ‘other’ can be analysed on three levels: lexical items, larger textual units, and plot. On the face of it, the image of the ‘other’ in translation can originate in either the source or target culture. However, the present article, which focuses on the lexical level, shows that there is a third possibility – a lexicon that blends two or more cultures.

scholarly journals Wieloaspektowość międzyjęzykowej ekwiwalencji stałych połączeń wyrazowych a ujęcie onomazjologiczne na przykładzie frazeologizmów typu tęga głowa

2020 ◽  
pp. 333-355
Author(s):  
Joanna Szerszunowicz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
The Other ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Multiword Expressions ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Minor Significance ◽  
The Cross

The aim of this paper is to discuss the usefulness and reliability of the onomasiological approach in the cross-linguistic analysis of fixed multiword expressions based on the example of Polish phrases coined according to the model: ADJECTIVENOM FEM SING + GŁOWA ‘HEAD’ and their English and Italian counterparts. The three corpora are constituted by expressions registered in general and phraseological dictionaries of the respective languages to ensure that the units belong to the canon of Polish, English and Italian phraseological stock. The analysis of units collected for the purpose of the study clearly shows that in order to determine the true picture of cross-linguistic equivalence, the study should be focused on semantics of analysed phrases. Furthermore, the formal aspectmay be of minor significance in some cases due to the similarity of imagery of a source language idiom and the target language lexical item. On the other hand, stylistic value may have a great impact on the relation of cross-linguistic correspondence of the analysed units.

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