MECHANISMS OF EVALUATIVE CATEGORIZATION OF ENGLISH ABSTRACT NOUNS NAMING THE PRODUCTS OF HUMAN MENTAL ACTIVITY

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 767-774
Author(s):  
D.A. Popova
Keyword(s):  
Mental Activity ◽  
English Abstract ◽  
Abstract Nouns

Temperaments, tempers, and temporality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Bert Cappelle ◽  
Vassil Mostrov ◽  
Fayssal Tayalati
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Component Analysis ◽  
English Abstract ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
French And English ◽  
Main Dimension

Abstract This study focuses on French and English abstract nouns denoting properties that can be ascribed to humans, such as beauty, carefulness and anger. Previous research showed that some but not all of these nouns are licensed in both locative existentials (e.g., There’s an intense anger in Isabella) and possessive existentials (e.g., Isabella has an intense anger). What remains unclear is how these and other patterns correlate among themselves depending on how easily they host such nouns. We here use speaker ratings of these nouns in different constructional environments. A principal component analysis suggests that the main dimension underlying native speakers’ ratings of these abstract nouns in six different patterns is temporal limitability. This gradable distinction, strongly correlated with the locative existential, holds for both the French and English data and outweighs any French-English contrastive differences in how acceptable human property nouns are considered to be in the patterns studied.

scholarly journals Noun Phrases as expressions of evidentiality: an analysis of four English abstract nouns and their Spanish equivalents

Kalbotyra ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (69) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Carretero
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
English Abstract ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Comparable Corpora ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Labelling Function ◽  
Shell Nouns

This paper presents an analysis of the expression of evidentiality with the English nouns evidence, indication, proof and sign and their Spanish equivalents evidencia, indicación, prueba and señal. The nouns are described as shell nouns having the properties of encapsulating, signalling and labelling. The delimitation of their evidential and non-evidential uses is determined by three factors: existence of a qualified proposition (Belief), non-occurrence within an irrealis context and constant value of the evidential qualification when the Belief refers to a plurality of events. The difficulties posed by the delimitation illustrate the problems involved in determining the scope of evidentiality when expressed by lexical devices belonging to the content of a proposition. A quantitative analysis was carried out on 400 occurrences of the nouns, extracted from two comparable corpora. The results reveal that all the nouns except two expressed evidentiality in most cases, that the linguistic context in which they appear shows great variation in terms of syntax and information structure, and that the labelling function is prominent. The results also uncover idiosyncratic evidential expressions with some of the nouns.

scholarly journals Atomic Structures in the Denotation Of Abstract Nouns

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-74
Author(s):  
Halima Husić
Keyword(s):  
English Abstract ◽  
Atomic Structures ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Binary Division

Countability is a universal lexical category that provides a binary division of nouns into countable and uncountable nouns or is also called count and mass nouns. Usually, count nouns refer to things or objects which can be individuated and thus counted, while mass nouns refer to substances or stuff such as water,wine, blood, or mud for which it is less easy to identify what and how to count. This cognitive division leaves abstract nouns out. Abstract nouns neither refer to things or objects nor to substances or stuff. On the contrary, the reference of abstract nouns is rather heterogeneous comprising different kinds of nouns such as processes, states, events, measure and time terms, and alike. The aim of this paper is to present the challenges abstract nouns pose for theories of countability, and to reflect on possibilities to incorporate abstract nouns in contemporary theories of countability. The research discussed in this paper circles around English abstract nouns but we will also discuss the application of certain semantic phenomena onto Bosnian nouns.

Pleasure as a Sign of Efficacy of Mental Activity

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Cabanac ◽  
Chantal Pouliot ◽  
James Everett
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Magnitude Estimation ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Macintosh Computer ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Cognitive Efficiency ◽  
Sensory Pleasure ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Mental Tasks

Previous work has shown that sensory pleasure is both the motor and the sign of optimal behaviors aimed at physiological ends. From an evolutionary psychology point of view it may be postulated that mental pleasure evolved from sensory pleasure. Accordingly, the present work tested empirically the hypothesis that pleasure signals efficacious mental activity. In Experiment 1, ten subjects played video-golf on a Macintosh computer. After each hole they were invited to rate their pleasure or displeasure on a magnitude estimation scale. Their ratings of pleasure correlated negatively with the difference par minus performance, i.e., the better the performance the greater the pleasure reported. In Experiments 2 and 3, the pleasure of reading poems was correlated with comprehension, both rated by two groups of subjects, science students and arts students. In the majority of science students pleasure was significantly correlated with comprehension. Only one arts student showed this relationship; this result suggests that the proposed relationship between pleasure and cognitive efficiency is not tautological. Globally, the results support the hypothesis that pleasure is aroused by the same mechanisms, and follows the same laws, in physiological and cognitive mental tasks and also leads to the optimization of performance.

Are Emotions Abstract or Concrete?

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 315-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Xu ◽  
Chunyan Kang ◽  
Kaia Sword ◽  
Taomei Guo
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
N400 Amplitude ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Concrete Nouns ◽  
Emotion Concepts ◽  
Healthy Participants

Abstract. The ability to identify and communicate emotions is essential to psychological well-being. Yet research focusing exclusively on emotion concepts has been limited. This study examined nouns that represent emotions (e.g., pleasure, guilt) in comparison to nouns that represent abstract (e.g., wisdom, failure) and concrete entities (e.g., flower, coffin). Twenty-five healthy participants completed a lexical decision task. Event-related potential (ERP) data showed that emotion nouns elicited less pronounced N400 than both abstract and concrete nouns. Further, N400 amplitude differences between emotion and concrete nouns were evident in both hemispheres, whereas the differences between emotion and abstract nouns had a left-lateralized distribution. These findings suggest representational distinctions, possibly in both verbal and imagery systems, between emotion concepts versus other concepts, implications of which for theories of affect representations and for research on affect disorders merit further investigation.

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