scholarly journals Typicality and Graded Membership in Dimensional Adjectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (7) ◽  
pp. 2250-2286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Verheyen ◽  
Paul Égré
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Adjectives

scholarly journals The acquisition of some dimensional adjectives by both normal and language-impaired children

1981 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan G. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Pair Member ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Semantic Complexity ◽  
Speech Therapist ◽  
Dimensional Adjectives ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Adjective Acquisition ◽  
Impaired Children

The main aim of this study was to assess various predictions made by H. and E. Clark with respect to the acquisition of certain dimensional adjectives. In addition, the performance of children with impaired language skills was compared with that of children with normally developing language. Eighteen subjects in the age range 3,3 to 4 years were divided into two groups; those with adequate language (C group) and those with impaired language (E group). The dimensional adjective pairs of  "length", "tallness" and "width" were investigated on comprehension tasks of increasing dimensionality. A qualitative analysis of  the data, for  both C and Ε groups, revealed findings supporting the predictions concerning the order of dimensional adjective acquisition in terms of semantic complexity, the acquisition of  the unmarked pair member before the marked member, and the acquisition of the concept of polarity before dimensionality. A quantitative analysis of  the data revealed significant  differences between the C and Ε groups on a few tasks only. Implications for the researcher and speech therapist are considered.

Measuring the influence of context: The interpretation of dimensional adjectives

1987 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 205-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence T. Maloney ◽  
Susan A. Gelman
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Adjectives

Phrase comprehension after brain damage

1982 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Sloan Berndt ◽  
Alfonso Caramazza
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
The Other ◽  
Right Hemisphere Damage ◽  
Dimensional Adjectives ◽  
Neurologically Normal ◽  
The Right

ABSTRACTComprehension of six dimensional adjectives was found to be intact in groups of left hemisphere-damaged, right hemisphere-damaged and neurologically normal patients. Phrases with those adjectives were interpreted quite differently by left hemisphere-damaged patients than by the other two groups, and a subgroup of left-damaged patients appeared to be responsible for that group's deviant responses to phrases such as slightly bigger. All patients in the left-damaged group had some difficulty with negative phrases such as not big, however. Patients with right hemisphere-damage had difficulty interpreting only negative phrases with small. Results are interpreted with reference to Luria's discussion of semantic aphasia, and with regard to recent findings concerning the role of the right hemisphere in language comprehension.

The acquisition of word-meaning for dimensional adjectives: the long and short of it

1974 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca E. Eilers ◽  
D. Kimbrough Oller ◽  
Judy Ellington
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Confounding Variable ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Age Dependent ◽  
Dimensional Adjectives ◽  
Feature Theory ◽  
Size Preference ◽  
Rule Out

ABSTRACTTwo experiments tested the semantic feature hypothesis with children younger than those previously studied. Two predictions were considered: (1) that order of acquisition of dimensional adjective pairs corresponds with their order of semantic generality; (2) that at an early stage of development, the marked members of dimensional pairs are interpreted as having the meaning of the unmarked members. In general, both experiments supported prediction one but failed to support prediction two. In Experiment II, a possible confounding variable (non-semantic size preference) was examined. Two general conclusions were reached: (1) that it is difficult to rule out semantically irrelevant factors (size preference) from experiments investigating the learning of dimensional adjectives; and (2) that refinements of the semantic feature theory may be necessary to accommodate individual differences (which may be age dependent) in strategies for learning dimensional adjectives.

scholarly journals Scale exhaustivity and the Modification Condition

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
M. Ryan Bochnak
Keyword(s):  
Vector Space ◽  
Measure Phrases ◽  
Comparative Constructions ◽  
Dimensional Adjectives ◽  
Modification Condition

This paper pursues a Vector Space Semantics (VSS) analysis of evaluative and extreme adjectives in absolute and comparative constructions, with a particular emphasis on the licensing of measure phrases (MPs) in these environments. I show that the Modification Condition (Winter 2005), which restricts the distribution of MPs with locative/directional PPs and dimensional adjectives, can be extended to account for MP licensing with evaluative and extreme adjectives as well. Importantly, the non-satisfaction of the Modification Condition is entailed when a set of vectors does not exhaust the range of possible values on a particular scale. This observation thus allows us to link a long-standing generalization that scale exhaustivity and MP licensing are crucially related (Bierwisch 1989) with the formal denotational properties of certain linguistic expressions.

scholarly journals Scale exhaustivity and the Modification Condition

2015 ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
M. Ryan Bochnak
Keyword(s):  
Vector Space ◽  
Measure Phrases ◽  
Comparative Constructions ◽  
Dimensional Adjectives ◽  
Modification Condition

This paper pursues a Vector Space Semantics (VSS) analysis of evaluative and extreme adjectives in absolute and comparative constructions, with a particular emphasis on the licensing of measure phrases (MPs) in these environments. I show that the Modification Condition (Winter 2005), which restricts the distribution of MPs with locative/directional PPs and dimensional adjectives, can be extended to account for MP licensing with evaluative and extreme adjectives as well. Importantly, the non-satisfaction of the Modification Condition is entailed when a set of vectors does not exhaust the range of possible values on a particular scale. This observation thus allows us to link a long-standing generalization that scale exhaustivity and MP licensing are crucially related (Bierwisch 1989) with the formal denotational properties of certain linguistic expressions.

scholarly journals Parents’ Spatial Language Mediates a Sex Difference in Preschoolers’ Spatial-Language Use

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1583-1596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon M. Pruden ◽  
Susan C. Levine
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Sex Difference ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spatial Language ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Dimensional Adjectives ◽  
Parent Child

Do boys produce more terms than girls to describe the spatial world—that is, dimensional adjectives (e.g., big, little, tall, short), shape terms (e.g., circle, square), and words describing spatial features and properties (e.g., bent, curvy, edge)? If a sex difference in children’s spatial-language use exists, is it related to the spatial language that parents use when interacting with children? We longitudinally tracked the development of spatial-language production in children between the ages of 14 and 46 months in a diverse sample of 58 parent-child dyads interacting in their homes. Boys produced and heard more of these three categories of spatial words, which we call “what” spatial types (i.e., unique “what” spatial words), but not more of all other word types, than girls. Mediation analysis revealed that sex differences in children’s spatial talk at 34 to 46 months of age were fully mediated by parents’ earlier spatial-language use, when children were 14 to 26 months old, time points at which there was no sex difference in children’s spatial-language use.

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