scholarly journals The Semantic Map of Aktionart and Troponymy of Old English Strong Verbs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Fidalgo Allo

The aim of this article is to analyse the semantic relations that hold between Old English primitive and derived verbs in terms of troponymy and Aktionsart. The results of this analysis are presented in a semantic map, while emphasis is made on the points of contact between these phenomena. The main conclusion is that semantic maps represent a more flexible and applicable methodology than previous work suggests since they have been used to deal with one language, to explain historical languages and to refer to specific lexical items. Likewise, this analysis shows evidence of an inherent relationship between both phenomena: troponymy and Aktionsart.

Information ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Xiaoning Han ◽  
Shuailong Li ◽  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
Weijia Zhou

Sensing and mapping its surroundings is an essential requirement for a mobile robot. Geometric maps endow robots with the capacity of basic tasks, e.g., navigation. To co-exist with human beings in indoor scenes, the need to attach semantic information to a geometric map, which is called a semantic map, has been realized in the last two decades. A semantic map can help robots to behave in human rules, plan and perform advanced tasks, and communicate with humans on the conceptual level. This survey reviews methods about semantic mapping in indoor scenes. To begin with, we answered the question, what is a semantic map for mobile robots, by its definitions. After that, we reviewed works about each of the three modules of semantic mapping, i.e., spatial mapping, acquisition of semantic information, and map representation, respectively. Finally, though great progress has been made, there is a long way to implement semantic maps in advanced tasks for robots, thus challenges and potential future directions are discussed before a conclusion at last.


Author(s):  
Ana Elvira Ojanguren López

Abstract The aim of this article is to analyse the syntactic and semantic interclausal relations that hold with Old English verbs of inaction. These verbs are studied from the perspective of juncture-nexus relations and the semantic relations Phase, Psych-action and Causative. The results are compared on the grounds of the Interclausal Relations Hierarchy. The comparison of semantic content and syntactic expression evidences discrepancies between too weak juncture-nexus types, such as clausal subordination, and very close semantic relations, like Phase. Two main conclusions are drawn. Firstly, the Interclausal Relations Hierarchy allows us to describe the variation in the complementation of inaction verbs in Old English; and to make predictions on the diachronic axis, given that the loss of finite clause complementation and the change to infinitival complementation presented by Present-Day English verbs of inaction are fully predicted by the IRH. Secondly, semantic relations and nexus types remain stable throughout the change, whereas juncture levels change.


Lyuboslovie ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 293-310
Author(s):  
Teodora G. Ilieva ◽  

In this article the neo-semanticisms are presented by real neologisms and occasionalisms, excerpted in recent years from Bulgarian media texts with different thematic orientation and stylistic expression. Commens are also made on the lexicon that has emerged through tracing and borrowing, which builds formal relations of homonymy with words that already exist in our language. Each of the 44 lexical items is presented in a dictionary article, including its morphological and semantic characteristics; word formation parameters; the motivating foreign word (if any); distribution of the palette of semes registered in the lexicographic arrays; the new sememe – the result of semantic transformation, in a minimal context; classification of the free and/or stable word combination it forms; the formal and semantic relations in which it enters and its stylistic affiliation. The study finds that the enrichment of the vocabulary of the Bulgarian language is achieved as a result of democratization, colloquialization and internationalization of the language. Semantic modifications are realized mainly through: metaphorization, metonymization, personification and comparison.


MANUSYA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-53
Author(s):  
Sorabud Rungrojsuwan

In addition to the arbitrary invention of words in human language, there are also a number of lexical items in languages generated from the symbolization of particular groups of sounds. The present study investigates the structural and semantic characteristics of “soundsymbolic words” (or onomatopoeic words) in Thai. Data were drawn from formal and informal written documents. The Royal Institute’s and Matichon’s dictionaries were used as representatives of formal documents, while 40 Japanese-to-Thai translated comics were used for the informal documents. Structurally, it was found that most sound-symbolic words are either monomorphemic or reduplicated. In relation to semantics, sound symbolization in the data shows semantic relations to human behaviors, activities, and surroundings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanasis Georgakopoulos ◽  
Stéphane Polis

Abstract This paper extends the scope of application of the semantic map model to diachronic lexical semantics. Combining a quantitative approach to large-scale synchronic polysemy data with a qualitative evaluation of the diachronic material in two text languages, ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek, it shows that weighted diachronic semantic maps can capture informative generalizations about the organization of the lexicon and its reshaping over time. The general methodology developed in the paper is illustrated with a case study of the semantic extension of time-related lexemes. This case study shows that the blend of tools well established in linguistic typology with proven methods of historical linguistics enables a principled approach to long-standing questions in the fields of diachronic semasiology and onomasiology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-617
Author(s):  
Rafał Jurczyk

Abstract Old English se-demonstratives (which usually trace less salient referents) and personal pronouns (usually continuing previous topics) have frequently been taken to share a common pronominal property (e.g. Breban 2012; Epstein 2011; van Gelderen 2013, 2011; Kiparsky 2002; Howe 1996). This assumption holds despite their non-overlapping distribution which still remains a puzzle (cf. van Gelderen 2013; Los and van Kemenade 2018). In this paper, we argue that this distributional discrepancy stems from the lack of syntactic and formal affinities between the two forms. Se-demonstratives are either dependent (introducing full DPs) or independent (usually labeled as “pronominal”), but still instances of the same lexical item. As a D-category, they necessarily license their NP complements regardless of their being lexical or empty, thereby entering into tight formal and semantic relations with their nominal antecedents. In doing so, they rely on the working of their gender- and case-features, the two carrying semantic import and mapping onto the specific reference [+ref/spec]-property in the semantic module(s). Being bundles of case- and/or φ-features, pronominals lack the complex syntactic structure of se-demonstratives. Their formal and semantic relations with nominal antecedents are thus less intimate, holding due to interpretable person- and number-features.


Language ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel R. Levin
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Merja Stenroos

This chapter uses a new resource, the Middle English Grammar Corpus (MEG-C), a corpus of 14th and 15th Century English texts, to answer an old question: it is possible to find traces of a systematic distinction between the reflexes of Old English e/ē and eo/ēo in Middle English? An investigation into the spelling variation found in 27 lexical items that contain a vowel representing Old English eo/ēo as well as the equivalent Old Norse element jó throws up a wide range of spellings, the vast majority of which show <e>/<ee>. Spellings that might suggest a rounded pronunciation are also fairly robustly present, however, particularly <eo>, with the Southwest Midlands as its core area. The second part of the investigation retrieves all words that were spelled with the digraph <eo>. The vast majority of these turn out to be reflexes of Old English eo/ēo, and almost all of them are localized to the Southwest Midlands. They occur either as reflexes of OE y/ȳ, or in unstressed syllables, or in words where <eo> follows <w> – three groups for which a rounded pronunciation would be plausible.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Maria Beatriz Nascimento Decat

Resumo: Este trabalho consiste na análise de alguns aspectos da língua oral, através de discursos produzidos por professores de curso de Letras em duas situações: a de comversa espontânea e a de sala de aula. A análise procurou verificar, primeiro, se é possivel estabelecer para os dois tipos de discurso examinados em português as ditocomias planejado/não-planejado, formal/informal, (1979) e vários outros autores; em segundo lugar, se o português oral do Brasil revela as características de discurso não-planejado apontadas por vários autores. Para tanto, foram examinados os seguintes aspectos: coordenação e subordinação (incluindo tipos de orações subordinadas, relações semânticas entre proposições), mecanismos de coesão textual, elementos de transição, mecanismos de repetição e de substituição de itens lexicais (REPAIRS), mecanismos de distanciamento (detachment) tais como construção passiva e indeterminação de agente. Procurei mostrar que os discursos examinados apresentam uma mesclagem de características de ambos os polos, e que a diferença entre eles deverá ser estabelecida em termos de gradação.Abstract: In this paper I take as my field of analysis the oral language, as I analyze discourses produced by professors of the Department of letters of a Brazilian University. I developed a comparative analysis between the classroom language used by the leacher in his/her lectures and the language used by him/her in ordinary conversation, aiming at: a) verifying whether there is an opposition in terms of dichotomies such as formal/informal, or planned/unplanned, on basis of the characteristics listed by Ochs (1979) and Givón (1979), and by others scholars; b) verifying whether oral Brazilian Portuguese presents the characteristics of unplanned discourse pointed out by the authours chosen for discussion. In this analysis I examined the following aspects: coordination and subordination (including types of subordinate clauses, semantic relations between the propositions), textual cohesion devices, transitional elements, mechanisms of repetition and substitution of lexical items (REPAIRS), the (detachment) mechanisms (such as passive construction and agent indeterminacy). I aimed to point that the discourses examined presented a mixture of characteristics from both poles (planned/unplanned or formal/informal), and that the differences between them should be taken for establishing a gradation among various styles of speech.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei V. Samsonovich ◽  
Giorgio A. Ascoli

The emergent consensus on dimensional models of sentiment, appraisal, emotions, and values is on the semantics of the principal dimensions, typically interpreted as valence, arousal, and dominance. The notion of weak semantic maps was introduced recently as distribution of representations in abstract spaces that are not derived from human judgments, psychometrics, or any other a priori information about their semantics. Instead, they are defined entirely by binary semantic relations among representations, such as synonymy and antonymy. An interesting question concerns the ability of the antonymy-based semantic maps to capture all “universal” semantic dimensions. The present work shows that those narrow weak semantic maps are not complete in this sense and can be augmented with other semantic relations. Specifically, including hyponym-hypernym relations yields a new semantic dimension of the map labeled here “abstractness” (or ontological generality) that is not reducible to any dimensions represented by antonym pairs or to traditional affective space dimensions. It is expected that including other semantic relations (e.g., meronymy/holonymy) will also result in the addition of new semantic dimensions to the map. These findings have broad implications for automated quantitative evaluation of the meaning of text and may shed light on the nature of human subjective experience.


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