scholarly journals On some problems of meaning - polysemy between sense enumeration and core meaning paradigms

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Nikola Dobric

Polysemy is a semantic phenomenon which occurs when one lexical item has more meanings which can be seen as related to each other. It is to be distinguished from the other extreme pole of ambiguity, homonymy, which occurs when two or more unrelated meanings are by means of an etymological accident tied to the same orthographic and/or phonological form. Even though polysemy can be considered as a non-issue, since discourse easily solves all of the problems of possible ambiguity for use in everyday language use, accounting for it (in an systematic manner) in terms of how polysemy is represented in the mental lexicon and how to account for the criteria governing the meaning distinctions and the interaction of meanings, for example, is a challenge still not fully met. The paper first gives an overview of the existing theoretical accounts of polysemy which arose over the course of the last two centuries to meet one of the said challenges, namely how polysemy is represented in our minds. The discussion is followed up by a conclusion of the predominant and most plausible theoretical view on multiple meanings stemming from the presented philosophical, semantic, and cognitive frameworks and models.

KÜLÖNBSÉG ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Horváth

The paper investigates the question if formal logic is a valid tool for analysing everyday speech in Strawson, Quine, and Russell. Strawson accuses Russel of wanting to cleanse language of reference through logical analysis. In contrast to Russell, Strawson claims it is an illusion to think that formal logic is a valid tool for analysing everyday language and reference can be eliminated from it. Quine, similarly to Russell, considers logic the ideal analytical tool from which reference can be eliminated. Yet both Strawson’s and Quine’s positions agree that everyday language use “has no logic.” One of them claims that this is why everyday language cannot be re-presented via logic, while the other maintains that is why everyday language has to be replaced by logic. Based on Russell, the paper argues that formal logic can indeed process referential expressions from everyday language use.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurmaliana Sari ◽  
Sumarsih Sumarsih ◽  
Busmin Gurning

This study discusses about language use occurred by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The method of this research is descriptive qualitative. The subjects of this study are male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The data are the utterances produced by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. This research focuses on the show broadcasted on October 2016 by taking 4 videos randomly. The objective of this study is to describe kinds of the language use uttered by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The findings showed that the kinds of language use consist of 6 parts. The dominant language use uttered by male host is expletive, because male’s utterances are frequently stated in a negative connotation. On the other hand, female host utterances are found in specialized vocabulary as the most dominant because female host has more interest in talking family affairs, such as the education of children, clothes, cooking, and fashion, etc. Women also tended to talk about one thing related to the home and domestic activities. However, the representation of language use uttered by male and female are deficit, dominance and different. Keywords: Language Use, Gender, Talk Show


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-297
Author(s):  
Aldona Sopata ◽  
Kamil Długosz

AbstractThis article examines the acquisition of German as the weaker language in the cases of German-Polish bilingual children. Focusing on negation and verb position, phenomena that have frequently been taken as diagnostic when distinguishing between the course of language development characteristic for first (L1) and second language acquisition (L2), we analyse experimental and productive data from six simultaneously bilingual children. Due to the constrained input, German is their weaker language. The results in Forced Choice and Grammaticality Judgements tasks are compared with the results of monolingual children. We show that in the area of negation the acquisition of German as the weaker language resembles L1, and in the area of inversion and verb final position the development of the weaker language is delayed. The striking difference between bilinguals’ results in the experimental vs. productive tasks points to specific processing mechanisms in bilingual language use. In narrative contexts of the production tasks the language of the performance is activated, while the other is inhibited, which leads to a target-like performance. Structural properties of the stronger language tend to be activated, however, in the experimental tasks involving the weaker language, resulting in non-target-like responses.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-340
Author(s):  
Anu Koskela

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.  


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rochelle Lieber

A lively introduction to morphology, this textbook is intended for undergraduates with relatively little background in linguistics. It shows students how to find and analyze morphological data and presents them with basic concepts and terminology concerning the mental lexicon, inflection, derivation, morphological typology, productivity, and the interfaces between morphology and syntax on the one hand and phonology on the other. By the end of the text students are ready to understand morphological theory and how to support or refute theoretical proposals. Providing data from a wide variety of languages, the text includes hands-on activities designed to encourage students to gather and analyse their own data. The third edition has been thoroughly updated with new examples and exercises. Chapter 2 now includes an updated detailed introduction to using linguistic corpora, and there is a new final chapter covering several current theoretical frameworks.


Author(s):  
Pedro Luis Luchini

This study reports on an experimental research carried out with 50 Spanish-L1 trainees, divided into 2 groups: A & B. Both groups were presented with a traditional-teacher centered approach based on controlled exercises (repetition, imitation), but group B added a communicative component in which students completed a battery of sequenced tasks with a focus on phonological form. Both groups recorded a speaking test before & after instruction which was used to measure and compare degrees of accentedness, frequency & duration of pauses and nuclear stress placement. Ten English-native-speaker-raters judged the recordings to determine the speakers’ degree of perceived accentedness. Two specialists, using inter-marker reliability, segmented the transcriptions of recordings and identified nuclear stress placement. Another two specialists identified empty pauses. Multivariate analysis was used to measure results. Overall, group B (learners exposed to the communicative component) obtained better results in all 3 parameters than the other group. Finally, some pedagogical implications for the teaching of L2 pronunciation in ELT contexts will be discussed. 


2020 ◽  
pp. 333-355
Author(s):  
Joanna Szerszunowicz ◽  

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-329
Author(s):  
Tamara Vorobyeva ◽  
Aurora Bel

Abstract This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers of Russian living in Spain and examines factors that have been claimed to promote heritage language proficiency, namely, age, gender, age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use. A group of 30 Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilingual children aged 7–11 participated in the study. In order to measure heritage language proficiency (L1 Russian), oral narratives were elicited. The results demonstrated a significant relationship between L1 proficiency and three sociolinguistic variables (age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use). Additionally, the multiply regression model demonstrated that the only significant variable affecting language proficiency was family language use and it accounted only for 33% of the variation of children’s language proficiency. The study raises the question about what are the other, yet unknown factors, which can affect heritage language proficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
Carla Ovejas Ramírez

This article discusses hyperbolic markers in modeling hyperbole from the perspective of a scenario-based account of language use within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. In this view, hyperbole is seen as a mapping across two conceptual domains (Peña y Ruiz de Mendoza, 2017), a source domain, here relabeled as the magnified scenario, which contains a hypothetical unrealistic situation based on exaggeration, and a target domain or observable scenario which depicts the real situation addressed by the hyperbolic expression. Since the hypothetical scenario is a magnified version of the observable scenario, the mapping contains source-target matches in varying degrees of resemblance. Within this theoretical context, the article explores resources available to speakers for the construction of magnified scenarios leading to hyperbolic interpretation. Among such resources, we find hyperbole markers and the setting up of domains of reference. Finally, the article also discusses hyperbole blockers, which cancel out the activity of the other hyperbolic meaning construction mechanisms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Gajak-Toczek

The language as home — on the functional teaching of Polish in textbooks for teachers by Tadeusz Czapczyński The aim of this article is to discuss Tadeusz Czapczyński’s textbooks for teachers: Exercises in Speaking 1922 and Methodology of Stylistic Exercises in Primary and Secondary School. The Manual for Taught 1929. It grew out of the reform tendencies specific to the education in Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland and correlated with the innovative findings of the pedagogical and psychological sciences and the disciplines of motherhood. In an innovative way Czapczyński prevented nineteenth-century verbalism, placing the student in a new role: researcher and explorer. This Polish teacher was advocating for the training of correct and proficient skills in speech and writing, and thus subjected practical purposes to classroom activities. In place of memorizing the norms and rules he introduced exercises in everyday language use.


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