Academic literature on the topic 'Lexico-Semantic representations'

This article is devoted to the study of lexical units for expressing compliments in the speech of modern Russian and Chinese youth. The study reveals the dominant parts of speech in the lexical inventory and word-formation mechanisms in youth compliment slang. While building the compliment lexico-semantic group, typical cognitive-semantic models and a corresponding world view in youth speech communication have been revealed. Common and distinctive features in their lexico-semantic representations have also been specified.

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate automated processing during translation. We provide evidence from a translation priming study which suggests that translation involves activation of shared lexico-semantic and syntactical representations, i.e., the activation of features of both source and target language items which share one single cognitive representation. We argue that activation of shared representations facilitates automated processing. The paper revises the literal translation hypothesis and the monitor model (Ivir 1981; Toury 1995; Tirkkonen-Condit 2005), and re-defines it in terms of findings from translation process research. On the basis of the evidence, we propose a recursive model of translation.

Lexeme analysis, including spatio-temporal definitions, indicates a universal process of categorizing human knowledge in objective reality. The article presents a synthesis of philosophical and linguistic approaches to the analysis of the category «space», via using encyclopedic, philosophical and cultural, metaphorical dictionaries for systemic and multilevel lexico-semantic research. Language confirms the existence in our heads of various structures of knowledge about the world, which are based on such a unit of mental information as a concept. Images, representations, concepts or their combinations pictures, gestalts, schemes, diagrams, propositions, frames are formed in the process of perceiving the world, they are created as a result of cognition, reflect and synthesize human experience and reality meaningful in different types of activity with the world. The components of thematic groups of spatial relationships have been described in details and various ways. Nominative-semantic groups of the linguistic implementation of the category «space» have also been examined and systematized.

Previous research suggests that bilingual comprehenders access lexical representations of words in both languages nonselectively. However, it is unclear whether global language suppression plays a role in guiding attention to target language representations during ongoing lexico-semantic processing. To help clarify this issue, this study examined the relative timing of language membership and meaning activation during visual word recognition. Spanish–English bilinguals performed simultaneous semantic and language membership classification tasks on single words during EEG recording. Go/no-go ERP latencies provided evidence that language membership information was accessed before semantic information. Furthermore, N400 frequency effects indicated that the depth of processing of words in the nontarget language was reduced compared to the target language. These results suggest that the bilingual brain can rapidly identify the language to which a word belongs and subsequently use this information to selectively modulate the degree of processing in each language accordingly.

The article is devoted to the study of a special type of literary discourse – the discourse of the Scottish fairy tale, which is understood as a complex sociocultural communicative product of the thought process of the collective linguistic personality of the ethnic group. A fairy tale is the most extensive type of oral folk art, it is a symbol of culture, a work created collectively by a certain nation, which reflects its spiritual state, morality, customs and traditions; it is a way of preserving culture in different historical periods, awareness of the spiritual values ​​of the people, history, traditions, beliefs and ideals. One of the important basic categories in human being is the category of space, as it is the universal form of existence of matter. When studying the lexical-semantic representations of the field "space", the hierarchical system of the functional-semantic field "space" N.D. Tkachenko was taken as a basis and two microfields (names of natural space and artificial space) are distinguished, which consist of 12 thematic groups (names of land masses; names of relief; names of lowlands; names of forests; names of mountains and hills; names of water space; names of swamps; names of administrative divisions of the earth surface; names of countries; names of settlements; names of communication routes; names of housing). The largest number of nominations includes the thematic group of names of settlements (60%), the second in terms of words is the group of names of mountains and hills (13%). Nominations of groups of water space names and country names make up 12% and 9%, respectively. Considering the obtained results, it can be stated that spatial lexemes and toponyms are symbols that reflect the specifics of national self-awareness, the nation's reflection on its own history and culture. The space of geographical names of fairy tales should be considered as a special microcosm in which the real reality familiar to every person is reflected.

The article provides a contrastive analysis of the semantic paradigms – thematical groups and semantic series of the British and American cultural linguistic space representations. The aim of the article is to select the thematical groups with the highest territorial and functional variativity linked to the problem of developing functional semantics in both compared variants of English. The contrastive analysis of the thematical groups of the British and American nominations of natural spaces reveals the highest development of functional semantics in the names of valleys and water spaces; the highest territorial and functional semantic variativity is observed in the names of artificial spaces, for example, those of communications. Thematical group reducing takes place in the process of space names desemantization, and their increasing is typical of lexico-semantic variants of other thematical groups, borrowings and homonyms, the words of different functional styles of English.

Abstract Difficulty perceiving phonological contrasts in a second language (L2) can impede initial L2 lexical learning. Such is the case for English speakers learning tonal languages, like Mandarin Chinese. Given the hypothesized role of reduced neuroplasticity in adulthood limiting L2 phonological perception, the current study examined whether transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), a relatively new neuromodulatory technique, can facilitate L2 lexical learning for English speakers learning Mandarin Chinese over 2 days. Using a double-blind design, one group of participants received 10 min of continuous priming taVNS before lexical training and testing each day, a second group received 500 msec of peristimulus (peristim) taVNS preceding each to-be-learned item in the same tasks, and a third group received passive sham stimulation. Results of the lexical recognition test administered at the end of each day revealed evidence of learning for all groups, but a higher likelihood of accuracy across days for the peristim group and a greater improvement in response time between days for the priming group. Analyses of N400 ERP components elicited during the same tasks indicate behavioral advantages for both taVNS groups coincided with stronger lexico-semantic encoding for target words. Comparison of these findings to pupillometry results for the same study reported in Pandža, N. B., Phillips, I., Karuzis, V. P., O'Rourke, P., and Kuchinsky, S. E. (Neurostimulation and pupillometry: New directions for learning and research in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 40, 56–77, 2020) suggest that positive effects of priming taVNS (but not peristim taVNS) on lexico-semantic encoding are related to sustained attentional effort.

The article discusses the hunting vocabulary used in the work by the Yakut front-line writer Timofey Smetanin “Tales of the hunter Meheelecheen”. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that there is no comprehensive description of the hunting vocabulary in the Yakut language; part of the vocabulary, including the special vocabulary as a hunting language has been lost. The purpose of this study is to identify lexico-semantic groups of hunting vocabulary used in the work. The hunting vocabulary was divided into thirteen lexico-semantic groups: 1) nominations of hunting activities and their results; 2) nominations of habits of animals and birds observed during hunting; 3) nominations of birds, groups of birds and animals; 4) designations of hunting methods; 5) names of hunters’ clothes, footwear and equipment; 6) names of hunting accessories, their parts and equipment; 7) names of hunters and their assistants; 8) names of body parts and internal organs of animals and birds; 9) names of types of meat of animals or birds and specific food of hunters and fishermen; 10) names of hunting buildings; 11) geographical features of the area; 12) sounds of the surrounding world; 13) figurative representations of the movements of animals and birds.

Previous behavioral studies reported a robust effect of increased naming latencies when objects to be named were blocked within semantic category, compared to items blocked between category. This semantic context effect has been attributed to various mechanisms including inhibition or excitation of lexico-semantic representations and incremental learning of associations between semantic features and names, and is hypothesized to increase demands on verbal self-monitoring during speech production. Objects within categories also share many visual structural features, introducing a potential confound when interpreting the level at which the context effect might occur. Consistent with previous findings, we report a significant increase in response latencies when naming categorically related objects within blocks, an effect associated with increased perfusion fMRI signal bilaterally in the hippocampus and in the left middle to posterior superior temporal cortex. No perfusion changes were observed in the middle section of the left middle temporal cortex, a region associated with retrieval of lexical–semantic information in previous object naming studies. Although a manipulation of visual feature similarity did not influence naming latencies, we observed perfusion increases in the perirhinal cortex for naming objects with similar visual features that interacted with the semantic context in which objects were named. These results provide support for the view that the semantic context effect in object naming occurs due to an incremental learning mechanism, and involves increased demands on verbal self-monitoring.

Au cours d'un dialogue, les interlocuteurs coordonnent leurs comportements linguistiques afin d'atteindre une compréhension mutuelle (Clark, 1996 ; Garrod & Anderson, 1987). Ils peuvent par exemple adapter leur usage des mots dans le contexte de la conversation, afin de les faire correspondre à ceux de leur partenaire (Brennan & Clark, 1996). Au niveau représentationnel, la théorie de l'alignement interactif (Pickering et Garrod, 2004 ; 2021) suggère que les représentations linguistiques augmentent leur niveau d'activation pour devenir plus similaires entre les partenaires de dialogue. Cependant, il reste à déterminer si le dialogue impacte ou non les représentations linguistiques, de sorte qu'elles restent changées après l'interaction. Cette thèse se focalise plus particulièrement sur les changements qui se produisent au niveau des représentations lexico-sémantiques, étant donné que le dialogue favorise les modifications d'usages des mots. De plus, des études en dehors du domaine du dialogue portant sur la compréhension du langage ont déjà montré que les représentations lexico-sémantiques pouvaient changer après une exposition à de nouveaux inputs linguistiques (Rodd et al., 2012 ; 2013 ; 2016). Cependant, de telles adaptations n'ont pas encore été démontrées après un dialogue. Cette thèse vise donc à examiner l'impact potentiel du dialogue sur l'accès aux représentations lexico-sémantiques préexistantes, et dans quelle mesure leur organisation au sein du réseau lexico-sémantique demeure changée après un dialogue. Deux types de changements étaient testés dans cette thèse : le premier concernait la possibilité de créer une nouvelle relation entre des représentations lexico-sémantiques préexistantes et le second la possibilité de modifier l'organisation de catégories sémantiques. Deux séries d'expériences ont été menées au cours desquelles les participants prenaient part à une tâche de dialogue collaboratif autour d'images et durant laquelle ces deux types de changements étaient manipulés. L'organisation des représentations lexico-sémantiques était ensuite évaluée soit immédiatement après le dialogue, soit après une nuit de sommeil censée favoriser la consolidation en mémoire. La tâche de dialogue pour la première série d'expériences a nécessité la création de la première base de données d'images de tangram (Expérience 1). Ces images étaient en effet discutées par les participants des Expériences 2 à 4, qui devaient associer deux mots sémantiquement non-reliés à une même image afin de créer de nouveaux liens lexico-sémantiques. Dans les Expériences 5 et 6, la possibilité de manipuler la typicalité de mots était testée, en rendant des mots atypiques plus typiques de leur catégorie sémantique. Ni la création de nouvelles relations lexico-sémantiques (Expériences 2-3) ni les changements dans l'organisation des catégories sémantiques (Expériences 5-6) n'ont été mis en évidence lorsqu'ils étaient testés de manière implicite (i.e. tâche de décision lexicale). Lorsque les participants étaient explicitement amenés à se concentrer sur les relations sémantiques entre les paires de mots (i.e. tâche de jugement de proximité sémantique), un impact significatif du dialogue sur les représentations lexico-sémantiques était observé après une nuit de sommeil (Expérience 4). Ces résultats sont interprétés comme une preuve de l'impact du dialogue sur les représentations lexico-sémantiques un jour après, bien que les changements de connexions au sein du réseau lexico-sémantique soient probablement trop faibles pour être détectés sans focalisation attentionnelle portée sur les propriétés sémantiques. En tant que première preuve empirique d'un impact du dialogue sur les représentations lexico-sémantiques, cette thèse offre des contributions à la fois théoriques et méthodologiques à la compréhension du dialogue et de ses relations avec les représentations lexico-sémantiques, tout en ouvrant la voie à de futures recherches dans le domaine
During dialogue, interlocutors must coordinate their linguistic behaviours to achieve mutual understanding (Clark, 1996; Garrod & Anderson, 1987). For instance, interlocutors adjust their linguistic behaviours to their partners such that they adapt their word usage to the context of the conversation, in order to match it with their partner (Brennan & Clark, 1996). At the representational level, the interactive alignment theory (Pickering and Garrod, 2004; 2021) suggests that linguistic representations stored in semantic memory increase their level of activation to become more similar between dialogue partners. However, it remains unclear whether or not dialogue can impact linguistic representations so that they remain changed after the dialogue. In the present thesis, we focus on the changes occurring at the level of lexico-semantic representations, given that dialogue promote changes in word usage to match new meanings in particular contexts. Crucially, studies outside the field of dialogue and working on language comprehension already showed that lexico-semantic representations can be adapted following exposure to new linguistic inputs (Rodd et al., 2012; 2013; 2016). However, such adaptations have not yet been evidenced after dialogue. The present thesis thus aims to investigate the potential impact of dialogue on the access to pre-existing lexico-semantic representations and the extent to which their organisation within the lexico-semantic network remains changed after dialogue. Two types of changes were tested in this thesis: the first concerned the possibility to create a new relationship between pre-existing lexico-semantic representations, and the second focused on the possibility to change the organisation of semantic categories. To this aim, two sets of experiments were conducted in which participants were engaged in a collaborative dialogue task about pictures during which we manipulated these two types of changes. The organisation of the lexico-semantic representations was then assessed either immediately or after a night of sleep promoting offline consolidation, in order to track the time course of the changes. Crucially, the dialogue task for the first set of experiments required us to create the first database for standardised tangram pictures, as these pictures were discussed by the participants (Experiment 1). The first set of experiments which explored the possibility to create a new lexico-semantic relationships led participants to associate two semantically unrelated words with a common tangram picture (Experiments 2 to 4). In the second set of experiments, we examined the possibility of manipulating the typicality of words by making atypical words more typical of their semantic category (Experiments 5 to 6). Neither the creation of new lexico-semantic relationships (Experiment 2 and 3) nor the changes in the organisation of semantic categories (Experiment 5 and 6) were evidenced when tested implicitly (i.e. lexical decision task). When participants were explicitly asked to focus on the semantic relationships between the newly semantically related words (i.e. semantic relatedness judgement task), a significant impact of dialogue on lexico-semantic representations was found after a night of sleep (Experiment 4). Overall, we interpreted these findings as evidence that dialogue impacts lexico-semantic representations even one day later, but that the changes in the connections within the lexico-semantic network are likely too weak to be detected without attentional focus on the semantic properties. As the first empirical evidence of an impact of dialogue on the lexico-semantic representations, this thesis offers both theoretical and methodological contributions to the understanding of dialogue and lexico-semantic representations, while paving the way for future research in this area

L’histoire de France est marquée depuis le XVIe siècle par l’uniformisation linguistique. La République a ouvert son ère par une Terreur politique qui s’est accompagnée de Terreur linguistique. Depuis, France et français sont intimement liés dans l’organisation comme dans les imaginaires politiques. Or, à un moment récent et bref de l’histoire de France, lors de la XIème législature [1997-2002], le débat a émergé quant à l’opportunité de reconnaitre une diversité linguistique de moins en moins importante sur le territoire national, les locuteurs des langues régionales disparaissant progressivement par un pur effet démographique. En effet, le débat sur la Charte européenne des langues régionales ou minoritaires [1999] puis sur le statut de la Corse [2001] a occupé la scène politique et médiatique française comme rarement les questions de statut des langues en France l’avaient fait. La multiplicité des lieux d’expression et des conditions de production et de réception des discours politiques a nécessité, pour aborder ce que les médias nomment « la classe politique » et que nous définissons comme une communauté discursive, la construction d’un corpus fortement hétérogène. Séances parlementaires à l’Assemblée nationale ou au Sénat, rapports, avis, projets ou propositions de loi, questions au gouvernement, mais également expression de la communauté discursive des hommes et des femmes politiques dans la presse écrite et audiovisuelle ont été réunis pour tenter de saisir le débat dans son ensemble. L’hétérogénéité constitutive du corpus a justifié un traitement différencié des sous corpus, en fonction de leur lieu de production et de leurs conditions de transmission : le corpus parlementaire, représentant plus de 250000 mots a fait l’objet d’un traitement automatique par Lexico3, ce qui a permis d’entrer dans le corpus. Le traitement lexicométrique de l’ensemble parlementaire et traitement manuel des corpus médiatiques ont été articulés de manière féconde : une analyse de discours à entrée lexicale a été possible grâce à la façon dont le traitement automatique a mis en valeur des phénomènes de catégorisation opérées par les locuteurs au moyen du lexique. L’approche lexico-sémantique a été complétée d’une cartographie des arguments en présence : la communauté discursive des hommes politiques dessine des imaginaires sociodiscursifs. Des idéologies concurrentes de ce qu’est la Nation et de son devenir s’opposent alors
French history is influenced, since the 16th century, by language standardisation. The French Republic has started its era through political Terror that was completed by language Terror. Since, France and French have been intertwined in terms of politics as well as in terms of collective representations. However, in recent years, during the mandate of L. Jospin as a Prime Minister [1997-2002], France debated about the possibility of acknowledging its language diversity. Although, for mere demographic reasons, this diversity is fading away, it meets a strong social support. In 1999, with the opportunity of signing the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and in 2001 at the time where a possible new status was debated for Corsica, a language debate finally took place in France. From this debate, we built a corpus constructed to take into account all accessible discourse produced by French political personnel, seen as a discursive community. The consequence of such a project is a highly heterogeneous corpus, where Parliament debates, reports, law propositions etc. adjoin excerpts from written and audiovisual media. This heterogeneity commanded to approach the data differently: the vast corpus gathered from the Parliament [250,000 words approx.] underwent statistical treatment through Lexico3. This lexico-semantic analysis was hinged on manual analysis of the somewhat numerically smaller media corpus thanks to the lexical categorisation phenomena that were put into light via statistics. This lexico-semantic approach was completed by the analysis of the arguments deployed by different sides of the discursive community, as well as by an exploration of their collective representations of language management. Ideology about both the Nation and its future emerge from the debate, on a much wider scale than for languages [country’s unity, human rights, diversity, etc.]

Магістерська робота присвячена виявленню та дослідженню мовних засобів репрезентації толерантної/інтолерантної комунікативної поведінки в сучасному американському президентському дискурсі.
The language means of representation of tolerant/intolerant communicative behaviour in modern American presidential discourse are studied in the master’s thesis.

Abstract A central topic in bilingual processing research is how words and meanings are represented and organized in the mind of a bilingual speaker. Research on this topic deals with specific issues such as whether a bilingual speaker has one integrated bilingual lexicon or two separate lexicons, whether a bilingual speaker has an integrated semantic system or two separate semantic systems, and how a word in one language is linked to a word in another and to semantic representations. Multiple theoretical proposals have been put forward, such as the distributed conceptual feature model and the revised hierarchical model. Empirical research has led to some consensuses, e.g., that the two lexical systems are linked to a shared semantic system. Researchers differ in their view regarding other issues, e.g., whether less proficient bilinguals rely on lexical links more and whether bilinguals can access meaning equally efficiently from their two languages.

Recent work in Machine Learning and Computer Vision has highlighted the presence of various types of systematic flaws inside ground truth object recognition benchmark datasets. Our basic tenet is that these flaws are rooted in the many-to-many mappings which exist between the visual information encoded in images and the intended semantics of the labels annotating them. The net consequence is that the current annotation process is largely under-specified, thus leaving too much freedom to the subjective judgment of annotators. In this paper, we propose vTelos, an integrated Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Representation, and Computer Vision methodology whose main goal is to make explicit the (otherwise implicit) intended annotation semantics, thus minimizing the number and role of subjective choices. A key element of vTelos is the exploitation of the WordNet lexico-semantic hierarchy as the main means for providing the meaning of natural language labels and, as a consequence, for driving the annotation of images based on the objects and the visual properties they depict. The methodology is validated on images populating a subset of the ImageNet hierarchy.