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The extent to which a symbolic time–series (a sequence of sounds or letters) is a typicalword of a language, referred to as WORDLIKENESS, has been shown to have effects in speech perception and production, reading proficiency, lexical development and lexical access, short–term and long–term verbal memory. Two quantitative models have been suggested to account for these effects: serial phonotactic probabilities (the likelihood for a given symbolic sequence to appear in the lexicon) and lexical density (the extent to which other words can be obtained from a target word by changing, deleting or inserting one or more symbols in the target). The two measures are highly correlated and thus easy to be confounded in measuring their effects in lexical tasks. In this paper, we propose a computational model of lexical organisation, based on Self–Organising Maps with Hebbian connections defined over a temporal layer (TSOMs), providing a principled algorithmic account of effects oflexical acquisition, processing and access, to further investigate these issues. In particular, we show that (morpho–)phonotactic probabilities and lexical density, though correlated in lexical organisation, can be taken to focus on different aspects of speakers’ word processing behaviour and thus provide independent cognitive contributions to our understanding of the principles of perception of typicality that govern lexical organisation.
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The article focuses on the toponymy of the western coast of the White Sea. Linguistic analysis allows us to conclude that for many centuries the territory has been an area of interethnic communication, traces of which can still be seen in the language and toponymy of the present-day population of the area. The article shows that on the White Sea coast Finnic place names occur side by side with Russian toponymy, which was formed first by Novgorod and then by Moscow colonizations. A number of linguistic facts prove that the south-western coast of the White Sea was an important transport junction of water and portage ways, which were developed by Finnic population as well as by Russian settlers who were in close relations with the local Sami population. The linguistic data also proves that Slavic population settled down nearby the territory which had already been developed by representatives of the Finno-Ugric language family. In the author’s opinion, this is also evidenced by a large number of place names of non-Russian origin as well as by hybrid toponyms in the toponymy of the region.
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The article focuses on the role of learning context in language acquisition.Learning context here refers to environments in which languages are learned:either a foreign language environment (often isolated from the target society,culture and language; mostly in a classroom and educational setting and consisting of formal learning) or a second language environment (surrounded by the target language, culture and society; often a natural setting outside of the classroom and comprising informal learning). Previous studies have shown that educational settings have an effect on how language is learned and which skills(e.g. pragmatic or grammatical competence) are mastered earlier.The data for this study come from four corpora. There were two learner corpora: the International Corpus of Learner Finnish (ICLFI), consisting of foreign language data (texts produced by learners studying Finnish outside Finland); and the National Certificate Corpus (NCC), consisting of second language data (texts produced for proficiency tests in Finland). Both sets of data are rated according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, Council of Europe, 2001). The data for the present study comprise texts rated at level B1. The size of the ICLFI B1 data is 102,000 tokens and the NCC B1 data 23,500. In addition, two native language corpora and Internet data are used in the study.Keyword analysis showed that certain degree modifiers are overused in the NCC compared to ICLFI, which indicates that the learning context may affect learner production. The results, however, seem to be contradictory as well as more complex than they appear. They support the conclusions of previous studies that suggest learners overuse degree modifiers in general. However, the range of degree modifiers seem to be more restricted in the second language production data than in the foreign language data. Furthermore, both learner groups tend to favour certain lexical teddy bears, but these differ according to the learner group and learning context. Finally, the study reveals that the usage of degree modifiers is related to syntagmatic associations (collocations)and situational context (spoken vs. written language) and that the associations deviate from lexical structures produced by native speakers.
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The Estonian word korts ‘wrinkle, fold, crease’, dial. also ‘tuck, ruffle’, is considered to be a descriptive Finnic stem with possible cognate language equivalents Karelian kurttša, kurttšu ‘wrinkle, fold’, Ludic kurtšištuda ‘to shrivel’, Veps kurtšištuda ‘to double up, to wrinkle up one’s forehead’. The vowel correspondence of Estonian korts and the mentioned Finnic words is unusual: in general, the equivalent of the Finnic u in Estonian is u rather than o. Besides the word korts with a back vowel in the first syllable, there is the word körts in Estonian dialects, meaning the same, with a front vowel in the first syllable. The word körts is considered to be etymologically connected with the word kört ‘skirt’, < Middle Low German schorte, schörte ‘a short garment, worn around the hips, apron, part of armour, covering the lower part of the body’. It is not plausible that the words korts and körts are of different origin and their similarity is accidental. Several words in Estonian (dialects) have variants with front and back vowels in parallel. This is characteristic primarily of onomatopoetic stems, but such variability also occurs in some Low German loanwords in Estonian dialects, e.g. vooder ~ vööder ‘lining’, proovima ~ pröövima ‘to try, to attempt, to test’. In the latter the variety is based on different phonetic variants (without vs. with metaphony) in the donor language. Thus the etymologies of the words korts and körts must be observed together. Formally and semantically, the word körts may have developed from the Low German loanword kört ‘skirt’ as it has been suggested. The suffix-like element -s has been added in Estonian, like in some other words, cf. e.g., nööp and nöps ‘button’. In this case, the word korts could have developed from another phonetic variant of the Low German word. The parallel variants of another derivative of the stem kört, the words körtsik and kortsik ‘skirt’ may indicate the variable pronunciation of the Low German source. There is another possible explanation as well. While examining the etymologies of the words korts and körts, attention has to be paid to the dialectal and colloquial verbs with stems kört(s)- and kort(s)-: körtmä ‘to frill, to ruffle, to pleat’, körtsima ‘to ruck, to crease; to sew negligently or unskilfully’, kortsima ‘to patch up, to mend clothes; to sew quickly and unskilfully; to frill, to ruffle, to pleat’. These verbs are probably borrowed from Middle Low German schorten ‘to shorten; to tighten the clothes with a belt etc., to draw together, to knot; to wrinkle up one’s nose’. Again, the different quality of the vowel in the first 160 syllable in Estonian could reflect the variable pronunciation in Low German. The suffix-like element -s is added in Estonian, like in some other verbs, cf. e.g., tippima and tipsima ‘to trip’. The words korts and körts can be derived from the verbs kortsima and körtmä, körtsima. Considering semantics, ‘wrinkle, fold; tuck, ruffle’ is the result of ‘rucking, frilling, mending (clothes), unskilful sewing’. Note that in dialects there is also the derivative kört ‘tuck, ruffle’ (homonymous with kört ‘skirt’) from the verb körtmä. Thus the word korts (and dial. körts) probably originates from the Middle Low German verb schorten, borrowed into Estonian also as (dial. and colloquial) verbs kortsima, körtmä, körtsima. There has been some mutual influence between the words korts, körts and kortsik, körtsik, derived from the word kört ‘skirt’ as well.
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Pronouns are one of the methods for language economy. Due to the limited amount of text in Twitter, the usage of pronouns in the social website is widespread. The function of place deixis can be related to such Latvian demonstrative pronouns as tas, tā, šis, šī, tāds, tāda, šāds, šāda, viņš. All of the mentioned place deixis, as well as their non-standard equivalents, are common in Twitter. Non-standard pronouns have additional stylistically elevated or reduced meaning. Definite article and place deixis are closely related. In some occasions place deixis tend to have emphatic function.
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The study is focused on word-formation and lexical peculiarities of words with numeral morpheme in Bulgarian dialects whose origin is connected with the system of Bulgarian numerals.
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Emīlija Soida is one of the founders of the synchronic and systemic description of Latvian morphology and word-formation. The description of Latvian grammar made by Soida is characterised by high level of generalization, thus allowing her to treat the material of Latvian grammar in the context of typological and general linguistics. The symmetric typology of word-formation / inflection patterns and means established by Soida is especially innovative. In word-formation and inflection Soida postulates morphological, syntactic and semantic patterns. Every pattern is based on specific language elements – affixation in the morphological pattern, syntactic relations and context in the syntactic pattern, and contextual or paradigmatic usage of lexemes in the semantic pattern.
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The aim of this article is to present tendencies of Latvian double prefixation and give some remarks on prefixes often used in it. Although prefixation is an active word-formation process in Latvian, double prefixation does not provide vast material. In double prefixaton, secondary prefixes are not prefixed initially, so the studies on double prefixation detect an active facet of word-formation and speaker’s involvedness in word-formation as linguistic activity. Since primary prefixes are mostly lexicalized, the analysis of prefixal combinations is not so important in Latvian.The prefix pār- is incomparably productive in double prefixation. It express repetition and excessiveness of action. Pār-verbs represent almost the half of all the double-prefixed verbs. The repetitive semantics of the prefix is special in that it allows prefixal reduplication (pārpārplānot ‘rereplan’). From a stylistic point of view, pār-verbs can be used both neutrally and terminologically. This article focuses also on other prefixes: perfectivizing prefix no- and diminutive pa-. Regardless of various meanings that can be brought by prefixes, the characteristic of double prefixation in Latvian is aspectual modification, but not spatial one.The article sheds light on the use of double-prefixed verbs with their metalinguistic explanation and various devices designated for that like brackets or dashes which reflect the writer’s own aim to be better understood by readers or to brighten the text stylistically, using double-prefixed verbs that are more precise and compact linguistic devices.
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One of the hardest-to-solve problems in lexicology and semantics is distinguishing the meanings of polysemous words and establishing their number. The lack of criteria for the distinguishing of the word meanings is also observed in the Latvian language explanatory dictionaries where a consistent approach has not been used to create polysemous word systems, e.g. the verb grūst ‘to push’ in “Latviešu literārās valodas vārdnīca” (“The Dictionary of Standard Latvian”) has nine meanings, “Latviešu valodas vārdnīca” (“The Latvian Language Dictionary”) lists six meanings, while “Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīca” (“The Modern Latvian Language Dictionary”) provides five meanings. Although explanatory dictionaries in one language differ in terms of volume, it cannot be treated as a criterion for limiting the number of word meanings presented therein.In the article, taking into account the lack of criteria for determination of the meanings in the Latvian language explanatory dictionaries, the system of meanings of polysemous verb of movement grūst ‘to push’ has been analysed by using a complex approach. In order to demonstrate approaches to semantic structure analysis of polysemous verb the following theories and the methods arising therefrom have been employed: the method of componential analysis, the distributional analysis, prototype theory and the mental spaces theory, as well as explanations of basic terms of these theories have been provided. In discussing the system of meanings of the verb grūst ‘to push’ by using different methods, it was established that four meanings might be determined for the verb grūst ‘to push’ by all methods used. In turn, when comparing the system of meanings of the verb grūst ‘to push’ created by the author of the article with the meanings provided in the Latvian language explanatory dictionaries (the meanings are summarised in Table No. 2 “Reflection of the system of meanings of the verb grūst ‘to push’ in the Latvian explanatory dictionaries”) it can be concluded that they differ in the number of meanings and their definitions. Thus in determining the meanings by using the complex approach, the system of meanings can be established more objectively, as well as explanations of the meanings can be made more precise.
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This paper deals with the set of the semantic roles used in annotation of the valency of Latvian verbs. It describes the granularity, i.e., how fine-grained or coarse-grained semantic roles are chosen and which grammatical forms correspond to semantic roles in Latvian. The set of the semantic roles has been developed taking into account several approaches to case grammar and verb valency (Fillmore, 1968; Hajičová, 1993; Sližienė 1994, 2004; Van Valin, LaPolla 2004; Mustajoki, 2006). However, semantic roles are chosen and classified also according to the language corpora used in annotation. The main concern is most important (mainly core) semantic roles – AGENT, PATIENT, EXPERIENCER etc. The description of each semantic role includes the information about its grammatical form. Semantic roles with adverbial meaning and the problem of core and peripheral semantic roles are just outlined. This article reflects the current state of the database of the valency of Latvian verbs and the set of semantic roles which can be changed.
More...Figurative use of computer terms
The rapidly emerging terminology associated with the Internet and its use result in highly figurative use of the terminology in this domain (the Internet), and its supporting technology (the computers). The present paper takes a look at the figurative use of computer terms from a cognitive linguistics point of view, arguing the vocabulary of the language of information technology is created in a number of ways, including neologisation, derivation, blending, conversion, analogy to general language vocabulary, compression, etc., with metaphor being highly used in the language of information technology. The paper introduces the language of information technology and its accompanying features in the context of Netspeak as a new online medium of communication.
More...procesi signifikacije i dinamika promjena crkvene semiosfere u Betini
This paper discusses the relations between the primary and the secondary semiotic system and the creation of the church semiosphere as a semiotic space within which a determined language functions. The analysis was conducted on a selected corpus of 80 lexical variants that name different elements, objects or customs used in the church semiosphere of Betina. The study analyses the church terminology as the primary semiotic system, mostly of Romance or Latin origin (61%), and the church customs, as the secondary system, mostly of Slavic origin (32%). Both of the systems used to co-exist actively as text in Betina’s church semiosphere until the middle or the end of the last century. The study, conducted in 2009 and 2010, involved semi-structured interviews with older speakers (age between 60-85). In order to determine language and cultural influences, the corpus has been etymologically analyzed, and, to determine whether the variants belong to passive or to active vocabulary of Betina, it was examined with the methods of variationist linguistics. The theoretical background of this study is the thesis of the Moscow and Tartu semiotic school that implies a reciprocity between language and culture. The starting point of this research is Lotman’s assumption that, without the semiosphere — that is, the semiotic space of the culture in question — language not only does not function but does not exist. Accordingly, the current article deals with linguistic and semiological signs. To illustrate these points and to show our interest in the cognitive effect on the interpreter, the variants and their referents are represented through Peirce’s and Morris’s semiotic triangle. The semiotic triangle begins with an understanding of the sign as the primary element of any semiotic system. Strictly speaking, semiosis, and not the sign, is the proper object of semiotic study. The aim of this work is to determine and illustrate a reciprocal influence between language and culture. It has confirmed that one of the reasons of the language change is alteration and transformation of the semiosphere (of the social and cultural context) and that the change of language causes the transformation and change in the semiotic space of the culture in question.
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The paper investigates oxymoron collocations based on lexical antonymy of their components and compares them with antithesis. As a result of the analysis of a new factual material, we reveal the following peculiarities of an oxymoron collocation: the relatedness of opposite qualities to one denotatum, the creation of a new quality by synthesizing the incompatible, the subordinate connection between the collocation’s components, and the required presence of quality words. We make a conclusion that oxymoron collocations selectively reflect the reality, and their purpose is to express emotions and assessments with respect to the denominated.
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The article deals with functional and semantic features of the components of an etymological nest with the root год- (year-) in proverbs and sayings. Attention is drawn to the specific perception of time in the Russian linguistic worldview. The role of the studied words in the creation of means of expression is shown. The author concludes that the use of etymologically related lexemes is a powerful means of expression.
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Eponym is derived from the Greek epi (upon) and onoma (a name). An eponym is a person, whether real or fictional, after which a particular item is named. There are abundant medical eponyms that are mnemonics, add color to medical writing, serve to immortalize the outstanding persons besides making students life miserable. Women’s names are only rarely encountered. We have endeavoured to make a list of medical eponyms, short of being exhaustive, with names of exceptional women from mythology, religion and art with emphasis on scientists and physicians, who were the first to describe a disease or syndrome and were honoured to be named after them.
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We consider the functional and semantic status of conjunctions and identify tendencies in the use of these words in contemporary print media, taking into account the punctuation component and intratextual distancing. On the basis of the comprehensive analysis of the system of coordinating and subordinating linking words, we establish their anthropocentric expressive and modus potential and show their pragmatic meanings in dialogical genres.
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This article proposes a structuring of the vocabulary of the English non-standard professional sublanguage of transport drivers. The study was conducted within the communicative and functional approach using the theory of corpus linguistics. The professionalisms under consideration were divided into thematic groups. It was revealed that the English professional sublanguage of transport drivers is predominantly represented by nouns, a significant proportion of which have a negative emotional coloring.
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The article deals with the history of German-Russian lexicography and the methodology of analysis of lexicographic works. For the first time we have studied a “forgotten” lexicographic monument of the 19th-century – the German-Russian dictionary of 1834–1835 of the “Society of Lovers of Both Languages”. The paper is focused on the dictionary’s macro and micro-structural characteristics and features of composition, i.e. the structural parts of the dictionary, the scope and selection of headwords, the principles of arrangement and presentation of language material, the ways of explanation and differentiation of word meanings, the presentation of phonetic and grammatical information, and the nature of illustrative examples. In addition, we describe the situation in German-Russian lexicography in the first half of the 19th century and the public reaction on the dictionary under study, based on the review of the famous Russian literary critic V.G. Belinsky.
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