Interfering Embodiment Effects on Chinese “Transfer Verbs”

This study aims to show that language-specific distinctions of lexicalization patterns are crucial to verbal semantic studies by examining the differences of Placement verbs in English and Chinese. It argues that cross-linguistic transference of lexical knowledge should not be made without a detailed analysis of seemingly corresponding verbs in different languages. It also probes into the long-debated issue on how languages conceptualize a common event type with distinct lexical and grammatical realizations. By conducting a contrastive study of the lexicalization patterns of placement verbs in Chinese and English, it is proposed that, while a placing event is conceptually universal in taking the basic semantic components of Agent, Theme, Location, and Path, placement verbs in Chinese and English vary in their lexical origins, level of specificity and morpho-semantic subtypes. It is shown that placement verbs are lexicalized and categorized in language-specific ways that have typological implications. Ultimately, the study sheds new light on class-specific, cross-linguistic comparisons.

This study used a dual-task paradigm to analyze the time course of motor resonance during the comprehension of action language. In the study, participants read sentences describing a transfer either away from ("I threw the tennis ball to my rival") or toward themselves ("My rival threw me the tennis ball"). When the transfer verb appeared on the screen, and after a variable stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), a visual motion cue (Experiment 1) or a static cue (Experiment 2) prompted participants to move their hand either away from or toward themselves to press a button. The results showed meaning-action interference at short SOAs and facilitation at the longest SOA for the matching conditions. These results support the hypothesis that motor processes associated with the comprehension of action-related language interfere with an overlapping motor task, whereas they facilitate a delayed motor task. These effects are discussed in terms of resonance processes in the motor cortex.

The role of embodied mechanisms in processing sentences endowed with a first person perspective is now widely accepted. However, whether embodied sentence processing within a third person perspective would also have motor behavioral significance remains unknown. Here, we developed a novel version of the Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) in which participants were asked to perform a movement compatible or not with the direction embedded in a sentence having a first person (Experiment 1: You gave a pizza to Louis) or third person perspective (Experiment 2: Lea gave a pizza to Louis). Results indicate that shifting perspective from first to third person was sufficient to prevent motor embodied mechanisms, abolishing the ACE. Critically, ACE was restored in Experiment 3 by adding a virtual “body” that allowed participants to know “where” to put themselves in space when taking the third person perspective, thus demonstrating that motor embodied processes are space-dependent. A fourth, control experiment, by dissociating motor response from the transfer verb's direction, supported the conclusion that perspective-taking may induce significant ACE only when coupled with the adequate sentence-response mapping.

This study entitled Argument Structure of Transition and Transfer Verbs. It focused on the argument structure which maps the grammatical relation and the semantic roles. This study aimed to recognize the grammatical relations of transition and transfer verbs of slides verbs arguments and to explain the semantic roles of transition and transfer verbs of slides verbs arguments. This study is library research. The data of this study were collected from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) which was related to transition and transfer verbs. The documentation method and note-taking technique were applied in collecting the data. In analyzing the data, the descriptive-qualitative method was applied. The data were described and explained based on the theory of argument structure and the theory of transition and transfer verbs. Based on the analysis, the grammatical relation operated within transition and transfer verbs with the class of slide verb involve subject, object and oblique. Verb bounce, float, move, roll and slide can be constructed with SV, SVO, SV OBL, SVO OBL and SVO OBL OBL. Furthermore, the structure SVO OBL OBL only appears in the verb of move.

abstractThe present study explores whether embodied meaning is activated in comprehension of action-related Mandarin counterfactual sentences. Participants listened to action-related Mandarin factual or counterfactual sentences describing transfer events (actions towards or away from the participant), and then performed verb-compatible or -incompatible motor action after a transfer verb (action towards or away from the participant) onset. The results demonstrated that motor simulation, specifically the interfering action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE), was obtained in both factual and counterfactual sentences. Additionally, the temporal course of motor resonance was slightly different between factual and counterfactual sentences. We concluded that embodied meaning was activated in action-related Chinese counterfactual sentences. The results supported a neural network model of Chersi, Thill, Ziemke, and Borghi (2010), proposed within the embodiment approach, which explains the interaction between processing action-related sentences and motor performance. Moreover, we speculated that the neural network model of Chersi et al. was also applicable to action-related Mandarin counterfactual comprehension.

This research focuses on Rub subtype verbs in and English Konjo language. The aims of the research were (1) to identify Rub subtype verbs in Konjo language and English. (2) to investigate the similarities and the differences of Rub subtype verbs in English and Konjo language in the aspect of semantic and grammatical construction. Furthermore, this research used descriptive qualitative method. English data were taken from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English). Meanwhile, Konjo language data were taken from observation and interview. Then, the results of this research indicated that (1) there are twelve Rub subtype verbs in English: rub, wipe, scrape, scratch, mark, sweep, brush, shave, rake, polish, lick and wash. Then, in Konjo language, there are nineteen verbs of Rub subtype: a’goso’, assossoro, angngampallasa, a’lu’lu’, angnga’ru’ akkankang, angngara’musu, annanrai, a’ca’ a’barrasa, assika’, accukkuru, kokkoro, assumer, a’lemong, angngemu’, a’bissa, assassa, and angngi’lasi. (2) The similiarities and the differences of Rub subtype verbs in English and Konjo language: The similarities are both of Rub subtype verbs in English and Konjo language can be applied in construction I (Agent + Target + Manip) and construction II (Agent + Manip + Target). The differences are the variant construction of English Rub subtype verbs and the extra constructions of Konjo language Rub subtype verbs. The variant construction of English Rub subtype verbs is variant construction Ib (Agent + Target (Adj) + Manip) and extra constructions of Konjo language are extra construction Ia (Agent + Target), Ib (Target + Agent), Ic (Agent + Target + Agent), Id (Agent), Ie (Target + Agent)*, IIa (Agent + Target + Manip)*, IIb (Manip + Agent + Target), IIIa (Manip + Target + Manip) and IIIb (Manip + Manip + Target).

<p>This study employs semantic component analysis and lexicalization theory to conduct a comparative analysis of the semantic components and lexicalization patterns of “cry” type verbs in English and Chinese. The findings reveal that these verbs in both languages exhibit both universality and specificity in their semantic components and lexicalization patterns. The core semantic components determine the semantic field of synonymous verbs, while peripheral components differentiate their nuances. Furthermore, “cry” type verbs in both languages follow the lexicalization pattern of “action + manner + cause + X”. This study advances the semantic and lexicalization analysis of “cry” type verbs in English and Chinese, offering novel theoretical and translational insights. Through systematic examination of their semantic components and lexicalization patterns, it enables more precise cross-linguistic understanding and application in translation practice.</p>

Patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit atypical responses to language use and comprehension. Recently, various degrees of primary autistic symptoms have been reported in the general population. We focused on autistic traits and examined the differences in mechanisms related to language comprehension using the action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE). ACE is a phenomenon in which response is facilitated when the action matches the behavior described in the statement. In total, 70 non-clinical individuals were divided into low autistic and high autistic groups according to their autism spectrum quotient (AQ) scores. ACEs with adverbs and onomatopoeias were examined using a stimulus set of movement-related sentences. A choice-response task helped determine the correct sentence using antonym adverbs (slow and fast) and onomatopoeia (quick and satto) related to the speed of the movement. The low-AQ group showed ACEs that modulated the reaction time in antonym sentences. The high-AQ group showed less temporal modulation, and their overall reaction time was shorter. The low-AQ group showed faster reaction times for onomatopoeic words; however, the high-AQ group showed a tendency to reverse this trend. In individuals with intermediate autistic traits, the angle effect may be moderated by individual differences in motor skills and experience rather than autistic traits. The stimulus presentation involved a passive paradigm. This study provides insight into language comprehension processes in non-clinical individuals ranging from low to high autistic idiosyncrasy and elucidates language and behavior in individuals at different locations on the autistic trait continuum.

The action-sentence compatibility effect (ACE): Meta-analysis of a benchmark finding for embodiment

BackgroundBehavioral studies have provided evidence for an action–sentence compatibility effect (ACE) that suggests a coupling of motor mechanisms and action-sentence comprehension. When both processes are concurrent, the action sentence primes the actual movement, and simultaneously, the action affects comprehension. The aim of the present study was to investigate brain markers of bidirectional impact of language comprehension and motor processes.Methodology/Principal FindingsParticipants listened to sentences describing an action that involved an open hand, a closed hand, or no manual action. Each participant was asked to press a button to indicate his/her understanding of the sentence. Each participant was assigned a hand-shape, either closed or open, which had to be used to activate the button. There were two groups (depending on the assigned hand-shape) and three categories (compatible, incompatible and neutral) defined according to the compatibility between the response and the sentence. ACEs were found in both groups. Brain markers of semantic processing exhibited an N400-like component around the Cz electrode position. This component distinguishes between compatible and incompatible, with a greater negative deflection for incompatible. Motor response elicited a motor potential (MP) and a re-afferent potential (RAP), which are both enhanced in the compatible condition.Conclusions/SignificanceThe present findings provide the first ACE cortical measurements of semantic processing and the motor response. N400-like effects suggest that incompatibility with motor processes interferes in sentence comprehension in a semantic fashion. Modulation of motor potentials (MP and RAP) revealed a multimodal semantic facilitation of the motor response. Both results provide neural evidence of an action-sentence bidirectional relationship. Our results suggest that ACE is not an epiphenomenal post-sentence comprehension process. In contrast, motor-language integration occurring during the verb onset supports a genuine and ongoing brain motor-language interaction.

The Action-sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) is a well-known demonstration of the role of motor activity in the comprehension of language. Participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences by producing movements toward the body or away from the body. The ACE is the finding that movements are faster when the direction of the movement (e.g., toward) matches the direction of the action in the to-be-judged sentence (e.g., Art gave you the pen describes action toward you). We report on a pre-registered, multi-lab replication of one version of the ACE. The results show that none of the 18 labs involved in the study observed a reliable ACE, and that the meta-analytic estimate of the size of the ACE was essentially zero.

Chinese verbs behave very differently from their counterparts in Indo-European languages and pose interesting challenges to the study of syntax-semantic interface for theoretical and applicational linguistics. The lexical semantic distinctions encoded in the Chinese verbal lexicon are introduced with a thorough review of previous works from different approaches with different concerns and answers. The recent development in constructing a digital database of verbal information in Mandarin Chinese, the Mandarin VerbNet, is also introduced, which offers frame-based constructional analyses of the Chinese verbs and verb classes. Finally, a case study on Chinese emotion verbs is presented to illustrate the unique properties of lexicalization patterns in Chinese verbs. In general, due to its typological characteristics in coding a Topic, rather than a Subject, as a prominent element in the sentence, Chinese shows a more flexible range of form-meaning mapping relations in lexical distinctions.

Verbs denoting transfer between two persons have already been partially studied in French and in English. The systematic investigation undertaken in this study is aimed at showing that the transfer predicate — in both languages — matches structures that appear in other semantic contexts. A number of criteria have been isolated to detect the verbs of transfer and a distinction has been made between lexical and expanded datives. Classes of verbs have been set up in which the syntactic property of transposition appears to be productive both in French and in English, as shown in the following sentences: Max fournit du vin à Luc — Max fournit Luc en vin. The relationship of the structure known as "dative shift" with other "shifted" structures has been clarified. A comparison between these French and English verbs has been established with the aim of using this information in an error-correction program.

Ergativity is one the distinctive features that differentiate between two types of languages: ergative languages such as Basque and Eskimo languages and non-ergative languages such as Indo European languages. The paper stated a brief account about the ergative verbs in English and Arabic and how ergative verbs assign their subject to be under their influence. The paper highlighted the similarities and differences between Ergative verbs in English and Arabic. This comparison will help the researchers in grammar to understand the form and syntactic behavior of Ergative verbs in both languages English and Arabic. This paper would be of a good guide for both researchers of English and Arabic grammar.

The article deals with semantic structure of polysemantic verbs of present-day English. Polysemantic English verbs having evaluative lexico-semantic variants of meaning are analyzed in the article. It is underlined that lexico-semantic variants of meaning of a polysemantic English verb are joined in its structure with a common dominating semantic component; semantic variants with emotive and evaluative meaning play a significant role in the semantic structure of a polysemantic verb. It is stressed that the semantic variant of verb meaning with a certain evaluative content possesses an independent linguistic status and simultaneously plays an important role in the development of pragmatic meaning of a polysemantic verb. Emotive and evaluative components of meaning of the English verb were defined by means of linguistic definition analysis of meanings on the basis of definitions in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. The New English-Russian Dictionary edited by professor I.R. Galperin served as material for analysis in our research. Polysemantic English verbs have a great number of lexico-semantic variants of meaning including semantic variants implying evaluation of actions denoted by the verb. Ways of forming these meanings are analyzed in the article, the main ways of forming evaluative meanings of the English verb are considered to be semantic transfer. The most widespread type of semantic transfer of the English verb is change of the subject of the action denoted by the verb from an inanimate object to an animate person. Metaphoric transfer of meaning from denotation of a physical action towards a psychic one is also widespread among English polysemantic verbs. Further development of evaluative meaning of the English verb may be based on transfer of denotation of a concrete action towards an abstract one, simultaneously a referent is evaluated and this evaluation is absolute according to its type. New lexico-semantic variants may be added to the semantic structure of a polysemantic English verb as a result of linguistic process of enantiosemy, i.e. juxtaposition of evaluative meanings of opposite evaluative sign.