Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cognate words'

The majority of previous studies on cognate words have found a robust cognate facilitation effect in picture naming using alphabetic languages. Research has also identified that if the cognates do not share phonology or meaning (i.e., false cognate inhibition effect), this effect may become inhibitory. These mixed findings seem to suggest that semantics, phonology and orthography may contribute differently to cognate word processing. In this thesis, two effects, the phonological overlap effect and the orthographical overlap effect were examined independently for the first time by testing picture naming in two non-alphabetic languages: Cantonese and Mandarin. Two types of cognate words were included: cognate and semi-cognate words. The orthography of both cognate and semi-cognate words is shared between L1 and L2, but only cognate words share phonology. The thesis study included three experiments. In the preparatory experiment, an on-line rating study was conducted, whereby cognate and semi-cognate words with mono-syllabic or bi-syllabic names in Mandarin and Cantonese were rated on word AOA, frequency, picture complexity, familiarity and image agreement. From the preparatory experiments a pictorial-word corpus was selected to use in Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiment 1, Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals named pictures in the corpus in L1 (Cantonese). By contrasting cognate and semi-cognate word naming latency, the results showed a slowed naming latency for cognate words that was marginally significant. It is argued that this finding reflects a possible inhibitory effect from the difference in stages at which competition occurs and the difference in the cognitive load of that competition for cognate and semi-cognate words. In Experiment 2, Cantonese-Mandarin bilinguals named the same pictures in L2 (Mandarin), showing a similar trend of cognate inhibition effect as that found in Experiment 1, albeit with a smaller magnitude of cognate inhibition. Taken together, the cognate inhibition effect can be explained by the different stages of cross-language competition that occur for cognate and semi-cognate words in picture naming. The cognitive load of overcoming that competition is larger for cognate than for semi-cognate words.
published_or_final_version
Speech and Hearing Sciences
Master
Master of Philosophy

If an individual speaks more than one language, there are always at least two ways of verbalising any thought to be expressed. The bilingual speaker must then have a means of ensuring that their utterances are produced in the desired language. However, prominent models of speech production are based almost exclusively on monolingual considerations and require substantial modification to account for bilingual production. A particularly important feature to be explained is the way bilinguals control the language of speech production: for instance, preventing interference from the unintended language, and switching from one language to another. One recent model draws a parallel between bilinguals??? control of their linguistic system and the control of cognitive tasks more generally. The first two experiments reported in this thesis explore the validity of this model by comparing bilingual language switching with a monolingual switching task, as well as to the broader task-switching literature. Switch costs did not conform to the predictions of the task-set inhibition hypothesis in either experiment, as the ???paradoxical??? asymmetry of switch costs was not replicated and some conditions showed benefits, rather than costs, for switching between languages or tasks. Further experiments combined picture naming with negative priming and semantic competitor priming paradigms to examine the role of inhibitory and competitive processes in bilingual lexical selection. Each experiment was also conducted in a parallel monolingual version. Very little negative priming was evident when speaking the second language, but the effects of interlingual cognate status were pronounced. There were some indications of cross-language competition at the level of lexical selection: participants appeared unable to suppress the irrelevant language, even when doing so would make the task easier. Across all the experiments, there was no evidence for global inhibition of the language-not-in-use during speech production. Overall results were characterised by a remarkable flexibility in the mechanisms of bilingual control. A striking dissociation emerged between the patterns of results for cognate and non-cognate items, which was reflected throughout the series of experiments and implicates qualitative differences in the way these lexical items are represented and interconnected.

Research has shown that cognates between Japanese and English have the potential to be a valuable learning tool (Daulton, 2008). Yet little is known on how Japanese learners of English produce cognates in context. Recently, studies have argued that cognates can cause a surprisingly high number of syntactic errors in sentence writing activities with Japanese learners (Rogers, Webb, & Nakata, 2014; Masson, 2013). In the present study, I investigated how Japanese learners of English understood and used true cognates (words that have equivalent meanings in both languages) and non-true cognates (words where the Japanese meaning differs in various ways from their English source words). Via quasi-replication, I analyzed participants' sentences to determine the interaction of true and non-true cognates on semantics and syntax. In an experimental study, twenty Japanese exchange students filled out a word knowledge scale of thirty target words (half true cognates and half non-true cognates) and wrote sentences for the words they indicated they knew. These sentences were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively for both semantic and syntactic errors. Sentences with true cognates were semantically accurate 86% of the time, while those with non-true cognates were accurate only 62.3% of the time, which was a statistically significant difference. When the sentences were analyzed for syntax, there was no statistically significant difference in the number of errors between true and non-true cognates, which contrasts with previous research. Qualitative analysis revealed that the most problematic syntactic issue across both cognate types was using collocations correctly. Among those collocational issues, there were clear differences in the types of errors between true and non-true cognates. True cognate target words were more likely to lead to problems with prepositional collocations, while non-true cognate target words were more likely to lead to problems with verb collocations. These results suggest that for intermediate Japanese learners of English, semantics of non-true cognates should be prioritized in learning, followed by syntax of true and non-true cognates, which should be taught according to the most problematic error types per cognate status.

Published in TESOL Quarterly a decade ago, the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000) has become increasingly influential in the field of TESOL. With more than 82% of the AWL comprised of words of Latin and Greek, much of this important list logically consists of English-Spanish cognates because Spanish originated from Latin. In order to serve Spanish-speaking English language learners (SSELLs) better, their teachers need to know which AWL words are cognates. Using published sources and linguistic analysis of the 570 items in the AWL, the research in this thesis has resulted in a newly reorganized AWL divided into four categories that are more useful for our Spanish-speaking English language learners as well as their instructors, curriculum designers, and materials writers: English-Spanish true cognates, partial cognates, false cognates, and non-cognates.
ID: 029050607; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-116).
M.A.
Masters
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Arts and Humanities

The present study investigates lexical similarity perceptions by students of Swedish as a foreign language (L3) with a good yet non-native proficiency in English (L2). The general theoretical framework is provided by studies in transfer of learning and its specific instance, transfer in language acquisition.

It is accepted as true that all previous linguistic knowledge is facilitative in developing proficiency in a new language. However, a frequently reported phenomenon is that students see similarities between two systems in a different way than linguists and theoreticians of education do. As a consequence, the full facilitative potential of transfer remains unused.

The present research seeks to shed light on the similarity perceptions with the focus on the comprehension of a written text. In order to elucidate students’ views, a form involving similarity judgements and multiple choice questions for formally similar items has been designed, drawing on real language use as provided by corpora. 123 forms have been distributed in 6 groups of international students, 4 of them studying Swedish at Level I and 2 studying at Level II. 

The test items in the form vary in the degree of formal, semantic and functional similarity from very close cognates, to similar words belonging to different word classes, to items exhibiting category membership and/or being in subordinate/superordinate relation to each other, to deceptive cognates. The author proposes expected similarity ratings and compares them to the results obtained. The objective measure of formal similarity is provided by a string matching algorithm, Levenshtein distance.

The similarity judgements point at the fact that intermediate similarity values can be considered problematic. Similarity ratings between somewhat similar items are usually lower than could be expected. Besides, difference in grammatical meaning lowers similarity values significantly even if lexical meaning nearly coincides. Thus, the obtained results indicate that in order to utilize similarities to facilitate language learning, more attention should be paid to underlying similarities.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
國文學系
99
The Cognate words study on ancient Chinese is a comprehensive research which contents of Chinese Phonetics, semantics. It is the combination of sound and meaning and the change of semantic system. Since the 20th, all scholars with the Chinese dialects and classical literature researcher, inherited the crystallization of the efforts of the ancient linguists, and scholars of Western theories and methods of etymology, The Cognate words of concepts and practice a wide range of discussion. Ancient Linguist have play an important role in the The Cognate words. This article is base on Zhu Jun sheng’s〝Shuowen Tongxun Dingsheng〞 to discuss the Phonological Symbols system on the Cognate words. For the purpose of confirm the Zhu Jun sheng’s contribution on the Cognate words, but also to show the importance of〝Shuowen Tongxun Dingsheng〞on Chinese linguistic research.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia
Estudos que explorem o papel das similaridades interlinguísticas na aquisição de palavras cognatas são escassos (Comesaña et al., 2012a). Para explorar esta questão, manipulámos o efeito da fonologia e ortografia durante a aquisição de vocabulário novo em Catalão em falantes nativos de Português Europeu (PE). No método 1, as palavras em Catalão foram apresentadas de forma escrita e auditiva, enquanto que no método 2, apenas auditivamente. Participaram na experiência 25 adultos (23 mulheres, Midade = 21.21, DP = 1.23) e 42 crianças (22 do sexo feminino, Midade = 10.62, DP =0.49). Os participantes realizaram uma tarefa auditiva de decisão lexical go/no-go em dois momentos: após a aprendizagem e uma semana depois. Os resultados revelaram vantagem das palavras cognatas sobre as não cognatas e modulações no processamento de palavras em função do método de aprendizagem. Estas modulações variaram em função da idade dos participantes. Adicionalmente, o processamento de palavras cognatas foi modulado pelo grau de partilha formal (tempos de resposta e percentagem de erro diminuíram de maior a menor semelhança fonológica e ortográfica) em ambas populações. Os resultados foram discutidos à luz do modelo BIA+ de reconhecimento visual de palavras (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002; Dijkstra et al., 2010).
Studies exploring the role of cross-language similarities in cognate word acquisition are scarce (Comesaña et al., 2012a). We aimed to explore this issue by manipulating the interplay of orthography and phonology during the early stages of Catalan word acquisition in native speakers of European Portuguese (EP). In method 1, Catalan words were presented in auditory and written modalities along with EP translations, whereas in method 2 they were auditory presented. Twenty-five adults (23 female, Mage = 21.21, SD = 1.23) and forty-two children (22 female, Mage = 10.62, SD = 0.49) participated in the experiment. Participants performed a go/no-go lexical decision task in two moments: after learning and a week later. Results revealed an advantage of cognates relative to noncognates on the percentage of errors (%E) and modulations in word processing as a function of the learning method which varied with participant’s age. Moreover, results showed that the processing of cognates was modulated by the degree of cross-language similarity (response times and error percentages decrease as the degree of O and P overlap increases) in both populations. The results were discussed within the BIA+ model of bilingual visual word recognition (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002; Dijkstra et al., 2010).

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia
The Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus Model (BIA+; Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002) is perhaps the most relevant computational model on bilingual word recognition. Although interesting it fails to explain modulations on cognate word processing as a function of deviantletter position (Font, 2001). Thus, the present research aimed to further explore the role of deviant-letter position on cognate word processing by using a masked priming lexical decision task. To that purpose 288 stimuli (144 Portuguese-English translation words [72 cognates and 72 noncognates] and 144 pseudowords) were selected. Cognates were assigned to three experimental conditions according to deviant-letter position: 1) at end of the word (matriz- MATRIX); 2) at the beginning of the word (coala-KOALA); and 3) at the end and at the beginning (escala-SCALE). Twenty-eight proficient Portuguese-English bilinguals took part in the study. The results revealed faster responses for cognates with greater degree of crosslanguage overlap (Conditions 1 and 2). More important, priming effects were not modulated by deviant-letter position and thus no amendments seems to be needed in the “front-end” of the coding scheme of the BIA+ model, at least regarding cognate processing. Future studies should be developed in order to explore if these results are restricted to outer deviant-letters.
O Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus Model (BIA+; Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002) é, possivelmente, o modelo bilingue mais relevante acerca do reconhecimento de palavras. Porém, o modelo não é capaz de explicar modulações no processamento de palavras cognatas em função da posição da letra desviante (Font, 2001). A presente investigação procurou explorar o papel desta variável no processamento de palavras cognatas, usando uma tarefa de decisão lexical com um paradigma de priming mascarado. Para tal, foram selecionados 288 estímulos (144 palavras [72 cognatas e 72 nãocognatas] e 144 pseudopalavras). As palavras cognatas foram distribuídas por condições em função da posição da letra desviante: final (e.g., matriz- MATRIX); inicial (e.g., coala-KOALA); inicial e final das palavras (e.g., escala-SCALE). Participaram no estudo 28 bilingues proficientes de Português Europeu-Inglês. Os resultados revelaram respostas mais rápidas para cognatas com maior grau de sobreposição entre línguas (Condição 1 e 2). Adicionalmente, os efeitos de priming não foram modulados pela posição da letra desviante. Portanto, conclui-se que o sistema de codificação do modelo BIA+ encontra-se bem formulado, pelo menos no que diz respeito ao processamento de palavras cognatas. Futuras investigações devem ser conduzidas para explorar se estes resultados são restritos a letras desviantes em posições externas.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia Experimental)
O processamento diferencial de palavras cognatas (CG) e não-cognatas (NCG) tem sido alvo de inúmeras investigações, pois este tipo de palavras constituem uma ferramenta muito valiosa para o estudo da organização e funcionamento da memória bilingue. Existem duas propostas teóricas centrais na explicação da vantagem no processamento observado para palavras CG vs. NCG: a proposta léxicomorfológica (Davis et al., 2010), que defende que há uma representação distinta das palavras cognatas na memória bilingue, enquanto a proposta sublexical salienta que a vantagem ocorre devido à semelhança semântica e às semelhanças formais (ortográficas e fonológicas) existentes entre as palavras CG (Dijkstra, Miwa, Brummelhuis, Sappelli, & Baayen, 2010). Neste trabalho examinou-se o impacto da sobreposição ortográfica e fonológica no reconhecimento visual de palavras CG. Com este intuito selecionou-se um conjunto de 192 palavras inglesas, sendo 96 CG e 96 NCG. As palavras CG foram divididas de forma ortogonal em quatro grupos consoante o grau de sobreposição ortográfica e fonológica existente entre a palavra em inglesa e a sua tradução equivalente em português europeu. Um segundo objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o impacto do tipo de tarefa no reconhecimento visual de palavras. Assim realizaram-se dois estudos, no primeiro recorreu-se a uma tarefa de leitura silenciosa (N = 28), no segundo a uma tarefa de decisão lexical (N = 22). As duas tarefas foram combinadas com o paradigma de primação mascarada. No primeiro estudo os resultados mostraram tempos de resposta maiores para palavras CG vs. NCG, que não houve efeito de primação de tradução, e que o grau de semelhança formal não modulou o padrão de resultados. No segundo estudo os resultados mostraram um padrão inverso, isto é, menores tempos de resposta para palavras CG vs. NCG (apenas na percentagem de erros), efeito de primação de tradução para as palavras CG e NCG (de maior magnitude para as palavras CG) e que o grau de partilha formal, ortográfica e fonológica, influenciou a magnitude do efeito de primação de tradução (maiores magnitudes para as palavras CG O+F- e O-F+). Os dados obtidos mostram que tanto o tipo de tarefa como a sobreposição ortográfica e fonológica influenciam o reconhecimento visual de palavras, portanto, são consistentes com os postulados da hipótese sublexical (Dijkstra et al., 2010).
The differential processing of cognate (CG) and non-cognate (NCG) words has been the subject of numerous investigations because such words are a very valuable tool for studying the organization and functioning of bilingual memory. There are two central theoretical proposals that explain the processing advantage for CG vs. NCG: the lexical-morphological proposal (Davis et al., 2010), which claims that there is a distinct representation of cognate words in bilingual memory, while the sublexical proposal supports that the advantage is due to semantic and formal (orthographic and phonological) similarity between the GC words (Dijkstra, Miwa, Brummelhuis, Sappelli, & Baayen, 2010). In this study we examined the impact of orthographic and phonological overlap in visual recognition of words CG. For this purpose we selected a set of 192 English words, 96 CG and 96 NCG. The CG words were divided orthogonally into four groups according to the degree of orthographic and phonological overlap between the English word and its translation equivalent in European Portuguese. The second objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of the type of task in the visual recognition of words. Therefore, two studies have been designed, the first with a silent reading task (N = 28), the second with a lexical decision task (N = 22). The two tasks were combined with the masked priming paradigm. In the first study the results showed response times higher for GC vs NCG words, absence of priming effect, and revealed that the degree of formal similarity did not modulated the results. In the second study the results showed an inverse pattern with shorter response times to GC vs. NCG words (only in the percentage of errors), a translation priming effect for CG and NCG words (larger magnitudes for the CG words) and that the degree of formal overlap, orthographic and phonological, influences the magnitude of the translation priming effect (larger magnitudes for the O+F- and O-F + CG words). These data show that both the type of task and the orthographic and phonological overlap influence the visual recognition of words, therefore, are consistent with the postulates of the hypothesis sublexical (Dijkstra et al., 2010).

This is a study of the broad scope of cognition verbs in Afrikaans. Firstly, the nonmetaphorical cognition verbs [e.g. ken (= know), weet (= know), dink (= think), verstaan (= understand)] are discussed and then the metaphorical cognition verbs which are subcategorized in metaphorical verbs of vision [kyk (= look), sien (= see)] and metaphorical manipulation verbs [vorm (= form), gryp (= grab), voel (= feel), vat (= take) etc.]. The study is embedded in the cognitive linguistic stance of embodiment which inter alia implies that our neurological functioning is based on feeling (which includes our sense of touch), and that the way our bodies are structured also determines the way we express our thoughts. This extensive descriptive study of Afrikaans cognition verbs, metaphorical and nonmetaphorical, indicates that visual lexemes in Afrikaans express subtle abstract thought, while manipulation lexemes express less subtle, yet still abstract result-driven thought. Synthesis is an important factor in this study because the non-metaphorical cognition verbs as well as the metaphorical cognition verbs are linked to the basic cognitive principle of embodiment. Also, the two metaphorical verb types can by seen in synthesis when the stage frame ( = vision) and the workshop frame ( = manipulation) are merged. The synthesis of the stage frame and the workshop frame eventually provides us with another perspective, namely that vision and manipulation (which includes touch and feeling) are in a state of interacting nurturing symbiosis.
Linguistics
D. Litt. et Phil (Linguistics)

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde)
Uma questão central no bilinguismo é saber que fatores podem afetar as ligações léxico-semânticas entre palavras da língua materna e as de um novo idioma. Estudos recentes demonstraram que o método de aprendizagem (baseado em imagens vs. palavras), bem como o estatuto da palavra (cognata vs. não cognata) (Comesaña, Soares, Sanchez-Casas, & Lima, 2012a), influenciam o acesso ao sistema conceptual mesmo em fases iniciais da aprendizagem de uma segunda língua (L2) (Comesaña, Perea, Pineiro, & Fraga, 2009). Este estudo procurou explorar os efeitos de composição da lista de estímulos no estabelecimento dessas ligações, bem como a sua estabilidade no tempo. Crianças no quinto ano aprenderam palavras cognatas e não cognatas separadamente (condição bloqueada) ou em conjunto (condição mista), através de um método baseado em imagens. De seguida, realizaram uma tarefa de reconhecimento de traduções, imediatamente após a aprendizagem e uma semana depois. Tal como esperado, as crianças demoraram mais tempo e cometeram mais erros a rejeitar palavras semanticamente relacionadas do que palavras não relacionadas com a palavra na L2 (efeito de interferência semântica). Adicionalmente, na condição bloqueada, o efeito foi observado apenas para cognatas. As implicações destes resultados são discutidas à luz do Modelo Hierárquico Revisto (Kroll & Stewart, 1994).
Understanding the type of lexical-semantic connections and their establishment in second language (L2) acquisition is a main topic in bilingualism research. Recent studies showed the learning method used (picture vs. word-based methods) influence the access to the conceptual system in early stages of L2 learning (Comesaña et al., 2009). Moreover, this effect seems to vary according to word status, especially in children (Comesaña et al., 2012a). This study aimed to further explore list composition effects in the establishment of L2 wordsto- concepts connections by using a picture-based method. Fifth-grade children were taught cognate and noncognate words, presented separately or in a mixed way. Afterwards, they performed a backward-translation recognition task. Results revealed, as expected, that children took longer and made more errors when rejecting semantically related than unrelated words as correct translations (semantic interference effect). Importantly, a differential processing for cognate words was observed in the blocked condition. These findings are discussed within the light of the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994).