You won’t guess that: On the limited benefits of guessing when learning a foreign language

Guessing the meaning of a foreign word before being presented with the right answer benefits recognition performance for the translation compared to reading the full translation outright. However, guessing does not increase memory for the foreign-word-to-translation associations, which is crucial for language acquisition. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether this disadvantage of guessing for performance in cued-recall tests would be eliminated if a restudy phase was added. In Experiments 1–3, we consistently demonstrated that guessing resulted in lower cued-recall performance compared to reading, both before and after restudy. Even for items for which participants successfully recalled their initial guesses on the cued-recall test, accuracy levels did not exceed those from the reading condition. In Experiment 4, we aimed to generalize our findings concerning restudy to a different set of materials – weakly associated word pairs. Even though this time guessing led to better performance than reading, consistent with previous studies, this guessing benefit was not moderated by adding a restudy phase. Our results thus underscore the importance of the initial learning phase for future learning and retention, while undermining the usefulness of the learning-through-guessing strategy for acquiring foreign language vocabulary.

"Semantic modification and lexical neologization – a means of enriching the Bulgarian lexicon"

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.

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IN THE CADAR DIALECT OF THE DARGA LANGUAGE

The entry of a foreign word into a borrowing language or dialect is a long multi-step process. This article describes the ways of mastering foreign-language borrowings in the Canarian dialect (grammatical mastering; semantic mastering). The analysis shows the presence of peculiarities in the development of Arabisms, Iranisms, Turkisms, Rusisms by the Kadar dialect of the Dargin language and in their use in word formation.

Modelyuvannya istorychnoho slovnyka polonizmiv (na materiali pivnichnoukrayins'kykh pam'yatok XVI–XVII st.)

This article substantiates the relevance of the historical dictionary of words borrowed from the Polish language, describes the principles of its construction, the structure of the dictionary articles. The main purpose of the dictionary is to collectively present the Polonisms that functioned in the northern Ukrainian records of the XVI–XVII centuries as well as to indicate origins, semantics, chronology, territory, etc. The register of lexicographical work will include Polonisms found in the records of the XVI–XVII centuries. Borrowed words will be selected from the etymological source, etymon will be added to them, each lexical meaning will be illustrated, the location and time of writing the record will be indicated. If necessary, the words will be given a broader commentary on the semantics, phonetic or grammatical design, etc. Today, its file contains about 800 words of Polish origin, found in various texts of the XVI–XVII centuries in northern Ukrainian area (acts of city, sub-chamber and district governments in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Lutsk, Zhytomyr, Ovruch, Kyiv, diplomas, universals both public and private; texts of various genres: fiction, polemical, confessional literature). In the publication we substantiate that before borrowing there must be an indication of the source of information (relevant etymological dictionaries or other work), because, firstly, it confirms the origin of foreign words, and secondly, from an ethical point of view, researchers often do not trace history of a foreign word, and on the basis of existing studies of etymologists, respectively, there should be a vocation, and thirdly, a number of tokens in Ukrainian linguistics do not have an unambiguous interpretation, so the researcher of borrowings thus illustrates whose views he adheres or has his own opinion.

Lexical Borrowing in the Light of Digital Resources: Nyet as a Case Study

The mere appearance of a foreign word does not necessarily mark the birth of a loanword, which requires documented usage by the speech community. Relatively little research has been dedicated so far to the “prenatal” stage that would investigate the tentative infiltration of foreign-derived words. Nyet, a borrowing from Russian, is taken as a case in point. Although its first recorded instance in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED3) is dated to 1928, it had been increasingly recognized in English for several decades. This article focuses on textual attestations for nyet discovered in a range of digital resources, including British and American newspaper archives, and discusses their usefulness as potential antedatings for OED3’s entry.

Vois-tu le kem? Do you see the bos? Foreign word learning at 14-months

How easily can infants regularly exposed to only one language begin to acquire a second one? In three experiments, we tested 14‐month‐old English and French monolingual infants’ ability to learn words presented in foreign language sentence frames. Infants were trained on two novel word‐object pairings and then tested using a preferential looking task. Word forms were phonetically and phonotactically legal in both languages, and cross‐spliced across conditions, so only the sentence frames established the word as native or foreign. In Experiment 1, infants were taught one native and one foreign word and successfully learned both. In Experiment 2 and 3, infants were taught two foreign words, but only showed successful learning of the first word they encountered. These results demonstrate that infants can successfully learn words embedded in foreign language sentences, but this is more challenging than native word learning. More broadly, they show that the sentential context of a novel word, and not just the word form itself, influences infants’ early word learning.

Klimat i jego pole leksykalne jako słowa klucze współczesnego dyskursu publicznego

This paper presents increased frequency of vocabulary related to climate and health in public discourse and the position of this vocabulary in Polish and foreign word of the year contests. The fi rst part of the text discusses the notion of keywords, methods of their distinction, and word frequency monitoring works at the University of Warsaw. These works are composed of: 1) monitoring of the frequency of the vocabulary in daily newspapers against a comparable corpus covering 12 months, 2) selection of the word of the month from the most frequent words and describing it in philological terms, 3) word of the year contests using the most frequent words as propositions. The second part of the paper presents individual words from the lexical fi eld of climate selected as words of the month and of the year, such as upał (heat), nawałnica (a storm), smog (smog), drzewo (a tree), puszcza (a forest), klimat (climate). Part three demonstrates words from this lexical fi eld in Polish and foreign word of the year contests. The discussed lexical fi eld was divided into working categories: 1) “What the nature can do to a human being”, e.g. nawałnica (a storm), smog (smog), and 2) “What a human being does to the nature”, e.g. drzewo (a tree), puszcza (a forest) (tree cutting in a forest), klimat (climate) (climate change). The latter category gathers words with a greater symbolic power, more abstract, more appropriate as keywords in the long run. Keywords: keywords – frequency – word of the year contest – signifi cance of a word – climate

How to Read Uncommon Names in Present-Day Japan: A Guide for Non-Native Japanese Speakers

A previous study categorized uncommon names in present-day Japan. However, it was presented in Japanese mainly for native Japanese speakers and thus failed to explain shared knowledge about naming practices, making it difficult for non-native Japanese speakers to understand the study. It is important to share cultural practices not only within but also beyond the culture. Moreover, considering that Japanese names are difficult to read, reducing the risk of failing to read names correctly is helpful especially for non-native Japanese speakers. Therefore, by adding supplementary explanations, this paper systematically describes the characteristics and patterns of uncommon names in present-day Japan. Uncommon names largely take two forms: names with an uncommon reading of Chinese characters and names with uncommon Chinese characters. Regarding the reading, there are three types: 1-1) names that abbreviate the common reading of Chinese characters, 1-2) names that are pronounced as a foreign word, and 1-3) names that are pronounced based on the meaning/image of Chinese characters. Regarding the writing, there are two types: 2-1) names with Chinese characters used infrequently and 2-2) names with silent Chinese characters adding to the semantic meaning without contributing to the pronunciation. Further, a combination of these methods makes names more unique.

INTERACTION AND COMPETITION OF SPECIFIC AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE WORD-FORMING RESOURCES IN THE MODERN UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

The article focuses on the theoretical aspects of the interaction and competition of specific and foreign word-forming resources in the modern Ukrainian language. The views of linguists on the trend of development of the latest derivation system are outlined. It is emphasized that the symbiosis of native-Ukrainian and foreign-language word-formation means is generated and is based on the tendency to democratization and intellectualization of language in the context of globalization of social processes. Possibilities of functioning of productive foreign affixes in their interaction with specific counterparts are considered. Such forms contribute to the active creation of occasional and stylistically neutral derivatives and are markers of the current state of development of the Ukrainian language. It is substantiated that the analysis of new word-forming phenomena caused by globalization influences, processes of mastering new borrowings partly lacks objectivity, critical linguistic assessment, professional recommendations on the need and expediency of their use. The purpose of the study is to analyze the theoretical aspects of the interaction and competition of specific and foreign word-forming resources in the modern Ukrainian language. It is substantiated that new phenomena and processes in Ukrainian word formation are largely due to extralinguistic factors, including globalization influences, active borrowings from the lexicon and sectoral terminology of the Ukrainian language, changes in socio-political nature in Ukraine, awakening of national-linguistic consciousness of the Ukrainian elite. etc., as well as linguistic factors, primarily the development of intralinguistic processes aimed at strengthening the indigenous word-forming variants and preserving the identity of national word-formation. It is determined that under the influence of globalization tendencies the Ukrainian language practice was flooded with complex units (direct borrowings and innovations), combining two nouns, the first of which expresses an attributive meaning. It has been observed that the parallel functioning of genetically heterogeneous but close in meaning prefixes has led to the development of unequal relationships between word-forming types, as well as discussions about their differentiation and qualification – prefixes, prefixoids, prefixoid bases, prepositional components, international components, etc. Ukrainian soil function as prefixes. It is determined that the new phenomena recorded in the Ukrainian language practice and in the word-forming structure of the Ukrainian literary language of the last two decades are heterogeneous, and dynamic processes are diametrically opposite: some of them are aimed at strengthening historically formed Ukrainian word-forming variants, preserving national identity. word-forming types of the Russian language and their replacement by Ukrainian; others, in particular those under globalization, especially active lexical borrowing, imposed on it word-formation patterns of complex words, abbreviations, and other derivatives of the English language.