Cognate Words Research Articles

Judas’ Proskynesis

The present article starts from an observation that Mark and Matthew use two different, though cognate words for Judas’ kiss (philein and kataphilein). Kataphilein is omitted from Luke’s passion narrative, while Judas’ kiss as such is absent from John. A closer look is offered at the verb kataphilein in Classical contexts, where it may be synonymous with proskynein (‘to perform a ritual prostration’). It is suggested that what Judas actually performed at Gethsemane was technically proskynesis. Judas’ gesture, perhaps imitated by some of his armed accomplices, was rendered as an unwilling act of reverence to Jesus by some of Judas’ companions in John. It is further argued that the Gethsemane proskynesis was orchestrated in collusion with the temple elites that needed firm evidence of Jesus’ revolutionary activity to obtain the Roman governor’s consent to put Jesus to death (they previously had tried to entrap him in the taxation discourse). As a Roman military unit was present at the arrest of Jesus, Pilate had now several Roman witnesses of the royal style of Jesus, and was forced to act together with the temple elite. This reconstruction speaks for complementarity of the passion narratives in spite of differing highlights of the four evangelists.

Latinate Loan-Cognate Word Pairs in English and Italian: Patterns of Meaning Variation and Change

The aim of this paper is to show the existence of regularities in word meaning variation and change between Latinate borrowings in present-day English and their cognates in Italian, such as gross/grosso, lecture/lettura and rumour/rumore. Starting from an original and shared meaning core, the semantics of these etymologically related words has evolved in different directions in the two languages, often producing what are commonly known as ‘false friends’. Despite their ‘false-friendship’, however, there appear to be some recurrent patterns in meaning evolution: through a qualitative analysis of 30 pairs of English and Italian cognate words, five main processes have been identified, namely meaning bifurcation, original meaning retention, non-figurative meaning extension, figurative meaning extension (via metaphor and metonymy) and meaning inversion.

Reading stories in Arabic: the impact of lexico-phonological and diglossic distance level on comprehension and receptive and productive vocabulary among Arab kindergarten children

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of the lexico-phonological diglossic distance of story reading (a scaffolded storybook intervention, informed by Vygotsky’s theory of scaffolding and fading) on Arabic-speaking preschool children’s comprehension and receptive and productive vocabulary.MethodThe participants were 139 Israeli-Palestinian kindergartners: 71 composed an intervention group and 68 composed a comparison group. The intervention group heard stories gradually from the SpA, identical, cognate, and unique word forms, whereas the comparison group heard traditional stories unrelated to their lexico-phonological distances. Story 1 was read in unique spoken Arabic (SpA) form, stories 2 and 3 were read in 58 and 45% identical and cognate word forms, respectively, and story 4 was read in 70% unique word forms.ResultsThe results clearly showed that children’s vocabulary and story understanding was significantly higher after the intervention, especially noticeable in stories that contained a higher proportion of Standard Arabic (StA). Interestingly, the stories told entirely in Spoken Arabic (SpA) were the most effective, yielding the highest scores in both comprehension and vocabulary. Stories that mixed different word forms also performed well, though not as strongly as the SpA stories, while those solely in StA were the least effective.ConclusionThe findings of the study suggest that scaffolded storybook intervention may enhance the receptive vocabulary and comprehension skills of children. This study shows that, in the context of diglossia, stories should be read to children systematically and gradually according to the lexical-phonological distance of words in the stories.

False friends in the romanian and english languages a comparative survey

False friends or false cognates, a linguistic phenomenon, are an important topic within the study of language, a living organism that is constantly changing and evolving. Even though the focus of analysis in this paper is the concept of false friends, it is very important to comprehend the difference between these and cognate words. False friends often confuse what people are trying to communicate, especially when context cannot help in resolving the confusion. Hence, to avoid possible misunderstandings that might arise, it is important for learners to know the most important false friends between two languages.

Multilingual end-to-end ASR for low-resource Turkic languages with common alphabets

To obtain a reliable and accurate automatic speech recognition (ASR) machine learning model, it is necessary to have sufficient audio data transcribed, for training. Many languages in the world, especially the agglutinative languages of the Turkic family, suffer from a lack of this type of data. Many studies have been conducted in order to obtain better models for low-resource languages, using different approaches. The most popular approaches include multilingual training and transfer learning. In this study, we combined five agglutinative languages from the Turkic family—Kazakh, Bashkir, Kyrgyz, Sakha, and Tatar,—in order to provide multilingual training using connectionist temporal classification and an attention mechanism including a language model, because these languages have cognate words, sentence formation rules, and alphabet (Cyrillic). Data from the open-source database Common voice was used for the study, to make the experiments reproducible. The results of the experiments showed that multilingual training could improve ASR performances for all languages included in the experiment, except Bashkir language. A dramatic result was achieved for the Kyrgyz language: word error rate decreased to nearly one-fifth and character error rate decreased to one-fourth, which proves that this approach can be helpful for critically low-resource languages.

The universality of differentiation of word form and the theory of differentiation of Chinese characters

The differentiation of word form or character is a universal phenomenon in language and writing systems, resulting from the evolution of the relationship between word sound and meaning. Polysemy, homonymy, and heteronymy are three basic causes of this phenomenon, which can be observed across all world languages and writing systems. The principle of Chinese character differentiation is also a manifestation of this universal law of word form differentiation. However, it is important to note that differentiation of cognate and non-cognate words occurs at the level of language, while character differentiation occurs at the level of the writing system. In the Chinese language, the monosyllabic nature of roots and the characteristics of Chinese character design based on meaning interact to determine the relationship between words and their graphic forms. The differentiation of monosyllabic words, including Jiajie (borrowing) and Tongxing (homophony) in archaic Chinese, is the fundamental driving force behind the differentiation of Chinese characters. Sound change and word form change are both markers used to distinguish words, but their effects are not equal. The differentiation of Chinese characters not only reflects the differentiation of words but also consolidates the results of the differentiation. In this interactive process, the Chinese language and writing system have evolved to become increasingly compatible and accurate.

We have a lot in common: Cognate words

AbstractThis study presents a list of 2022 Bulgarian‐Turkish cognate words that can be used to facilitate vocabulary acquisition and cross‐linguistic awareness. The list was created manually through a multi‐step process that involved scanning the database of an online dictionary to identify Bulgarian words that had the same or similar forms in Turkish. For each cognate word identified, its Bulgarian and Turkish forms and English meanings were recorded, and their accuracy was checked through additional sources and expert consultation. The final list of cognate words includes only those confirmed based on linguistic criteria and expert judgement. The use of cognate words in language teaching methods such as total physical response and teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling can enhance the effectiveness of these methods by helping students understand and remember new vocabulary and building their confidence in language learning. Additionally, this study highlights the potential of cognate awareness to promote peace in the world by emphasizing the commonalities among languages and cultures. By recognizing the abundance of cognates across different languages, we can reinforce the idea that we are all part of the same human family and share a common linguistic heritage. Moreover, the study demonstrates how a new and innovative multilingual education can be achieved through cognates, showing that language education does not necessarily have to be limited to bilingual instruction. The use of cognates as a tool for vocabulary acquisition and cross‐linguistic awareness can open up opportunities for multilingualism and facilitate communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Future research could explore the use of cognate words in other language teaching contexts and investigate the potential benefits and limitations of using cognates in language learning.

Bilingual parafoveal processing: Children and adults preprocess orthographic information of the upcoming word during sentence reading in their first and second language.

Readers of different ages and across different languages routinely process information of upcoming words in a sentence, before their eyes move to fixate them directly (parafoveal processing). However, there is inconsistent evidence of similar parafoveal processing in a reader's second language (L2). In this eye movement study, the gaze-contingent boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975a) was used to test whether parafoveal processing of orthographic information is an integral part of both beginning and proficient L2 reading. The eye movements of beginning L2-learners (n = 53, aged 11-14 years) and highly proficient L2-users (n = 56, aged 19-65 years) were recorded while they read sentences in their first language (L1) German and L2 English. Sentences each contained a cognate target word (e.g., English: tunnel, German: Tunnel). The parafoveal preview of the targets either (a) preserved the spelling and meaning of the target (identity condition), (b) preserved letter identities but transposed the position of two adjacent letters (transposed-letter [TL] condition, e.g., tunenl/Tunenl), or substituted the identity of two adjacent letters (substituted-letter condition, e.g., tunocl/Tunocl). TL previews elicited longer early first-pass reading times than identity previews in both L1 and L2 reading in children and adults, suggesting that letter position was processed parafoveally. Substituted-letter previews resulted in longer reading times than TL previews in children and adults in L1 and L2, suggesting that letter identity information was processed independently of position information. These results suggest that letter position and identity information are extracted from the parafovea during L1 and L2 reading, facilitating word recognition in children and adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of orthography and cognate status on second language Spanish lexical encoding

Abstract This study examined the accuracy of English-speaking learners of Spanish in storing L2 sounds within cognates and noncognates, specifically in words containing 〈g〉 and 〈h〉, which have differing cross-linguistic phoneme-grapheme correspondences. In the first task, participants heard Spanish words with target-like pronunciations of 〈g〉 and 〈h〉 or inaccurate pronunciations with an English-like phonemic substitution for these graphemes, and they decided whether or not they were words. The second task had participants decide between the two pronunciations of each Spanish word and select the accurate pronunciation. The findings in both tasks showed that for L2 learners, 〈h〉 cognate words had less accurate phonological representations compared to all other conditions, possibly due to the greater consistency in phoneme-grapheme correspondence for 〈h〉 in English. These results show that cognate status and orthographic (in)congruity interact to influence the accuracy of L2 lexical encoding.

The impact of lexical and phonological distance on reading acquisition: The diglossic context of Arabic

BackgroundArabic is recognised as diglossic; one manifestation of diglossia is the co‐existence of two varieties of the language used in different social settings: standard (or literary) Arabic (StA) and spoken Arabic (SpA).The study investigated the impact of lexical–phonological distance in Arabic (identical, cognate, unique, which are different types of words) on reading accuracy and fluency across grade levels.MethodsThe participants were 180 native Arabic‐speaking children first and second graders. Participants were asked to read three‐word lists comprising words of three different lexical distance from spoken Arabic (identical, cognates and unique) and three text selections representing similar lexical distance (mostly identical, mostly cognates and mostly unique).ResultsThe findings showed a main effect of the word and text lexical distance fluency and accuracy reading scores. There was also a main effect of grade level on both scores. In addition, a significant interaction between the word and type words text lexical distance and grade level was found. The results revealed a more significant gap between the identical and the other two lexical distance categories (cognates and unique) in the second grade than in the first grade. Similarly, a more significant disparity was observed between the mostly identical type words and mostly cognate type word texts compared to unique type word texts in the second grade than in the first grade.ConclusionsThe results highlight the importance of StA knowledge and the centrality of diglossia lexical–phonological distance categories in reading, especially the contribution of reading StA words to text reading. The higher performance levels when reading identical compared to unique and cognate words and texts are discussed in light of the theoretical approaches to diglossic lexical–phonological distance. The results point to the centrality of diglossia lexical–phonological distance categories in reading.

Корекція та розвиток лексико-семантичної складової мовлення в молодших школярів із загальним недорозвиненням мовлення при опануванні ними навичками читання і письма

The article highlights the peculiarities of correctional and developmental work with younger schoolchildren with general underdevelopment of speech (GUS) III - IV levels in elementary school, when the urgent tasks are to overcome the disorders of their oral speech and assist in mastering reading and writing skills. The article considers the directions of work on correction and development of lexico-semantic component of speech in children with GUS. Such work is planned and carried out within certain lexical topics, which allows to increase the volume of passive and active vocabulary based on clarification, expansion of knowledge about the world in the process of learning the native language, reading artistic and cognitive texts, for the formation of the structure of the lexico-semantic meaning of words, the semantic connections between them, the formation of an understanding of the meaning of a word in the unity of its lexical and grammatical meanings. The article reveals the peculiarities of influence on the lexico-semantic component, taking into account the close relationship between the work on correction and development in younger schoolchildren oral and written speech. The described correctional and developmental work contributes to the consolidation of the sound-letter structure of words included in certain semantic fields, their comparison by lexical meaning and degree of generalization. Examples of children's exercise in the use of synonyms, antonyms, polysemantic words, phraseological units, in the analysis of cognate words are given, which, in general, contributes to the enrichment of lexical means, experience of speech activity. The article states that the study of a certain lexical topic requires involving children in drawing up dialogues, monologues in oral speech within various life and didactic situations, organizing practice for them in using accessible, interesting and important phrases and texts in writing from the point of view of communication. The described work should be carried out taking into account the psychophysiological, individual characteristics of students, during the organization of cognitive activities which interested for them.

Who's afraid of false friends? Cognate ratios in translated and non-translated Dutch

AbstractThis paper presents an empirical study on the proportion of cognate words (cognate ratios) in translated Dutch texts, compared to cognate words ratio in texts originally written in Dutch. To this end, we compiled a gold standard with manually verified cognate pairs for both studied language pairs, viz. English–Dutch and French–Dutch. In this study, we propose three hypotheses about how translators deal with cognates: (1) translators use the high degree of formal and semantic overlap between cognate translations to their advantage so as to produce the “easiest and fastest” translation (default translation hypothesis), (2) the higher the level of cognateness between a source and target language, the higher the cognate ratio in translated texts will be (cognate facilitation effect), (3) the higher the level of cognateness between the two languages, the more translators will be hesitant to use cognate translations (fear of false friends hypothesis). The results show a mixed picture: whereas not much evidence has been found for the first two hypotheses (depending on the respective language pair), the third hypothesis was confirmed. Further evidence, however, is needed from other language pairs, as cognate-receptiveness appears to be language-specific.

Visual recognition of identical cognates involves sublexical inhibition and lexical facilitation.

The study investigated the consequences of cross-language activation on the time course of bilingual word recognition. Twenty-two Spanish-English bilinguals and 21 English monolingual controls decided whether visually presented letter strings were English words, while behavioral and event-related potential responses were recorded. The language status of words was manipulated experimentally, such that words were either identical cognates between English and Spanish (e.g. CLUB) or noncognates (e.g. CLOCK). Participants were equally fast in responding to cognate and noncognate words. Bilinguals were more accurate in responding to cognates, whereas monolinguals exhibited higher accuracy in response to noncognates. Critically, bilinguals produced larger P200 followed by smaller N400 responses to cognates than noncognates, whereas monolinguals showed a pattern of reduced N400 responses to cognates. The results of the current study indicate that cross-language activation may not only result in lexical facilitation (indexed by a reduction of the N400 response to cognates) as a result of shared form-meaning associations across languages but also in sublexical inhibition (indexed by a larger P200 response to cognates) as a consequence of cross-language competition among phonological forms. Results support the language-nonselective view of bilingual lexical access and suggest that while lexical facilitation for identical cognates may be observed at most levels of second language proficiency, sublexical inhibition in response to identical cognates may be a marker of advanced levels of proficiency.

Kekerabatan Bahasa Minangkabau di Nagari Mungo Kecamatan Luak Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota dan Bahasa Melayu Riau di Desa Buantan Besar Kecamatan Siak Sri Indrapura Kabupaten Siak

This research aims to (1) determine the percentage level of kinship between the two languages studied, (2) determine the length of time of separation between the two languages studied, and (3) determine the sound correspondence between the languages studied. This type of research is quantitative and qualitative research with the field of comparative historical linguistics. The research object of this study is the Minangkabau language spoken by people in Nagari Mungo, Luak District, Lima Puluh Kota Regency and Riau Malay language spoken by people in Buantan Besar Village, Siak Sri Indrapura District, Siak Regency. The data of this study are oral and written which are guided by the Morris Swadesh vocabulary list and the cultural vocabulary list of the two languages. Based on calculations and existing research data, it was found that the cognate vocabulary between Minangkabau language in Nagari Mungo, Luak Subdistrict, Lima Puluh Kota Regency and Riau Malay language in Buantan Besar Village, Siak Sri Indrapura Subdistrict, Siak Regency was 371 cognate words and 129 non-cognate words. Therefore, the percentage level of kinship between the two languages is 75.5%. Furthermore, based on the calculation of the glottochronology method, it was found that the separation time between the two languages was 693 years later. Based on the five hundred vocabularies encountered, there are sound correspondences consisting of 175 form similarity vocabularies, 101 sound/phoneme replacement vocabularies, 82 sound/phoneme subtraction vocabularies, and 13 sound/phoneme additions with sound correspondences.

COGNITIVE-PRAGMATIC AND SEMANTIC-SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MENTAL VERB EXPECT AND ITS DERIVATIVES (IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

One of the main tasks of linguistic research is to analyze the linguistic phenomena associated with the refl ection of human mental activity in the language. Th e work of the linguistic representation of human mental activity has not been fully defi ned and described yet. Th is can be explained by the diffi culty of perceiving the internal processes of thinking that are impossible to see, and the lack of any resonable classifi cation of linguistic means with the meaning “mental”. The article deals with the cognitive-pragmatic and semantic-syntactic features of the mental verb “expect” and its derivatives in the English language. Th e purpose of the research is to study the semantic-syntactic and cognitive features of the verb “expect” and its derivatives. Th e scientifi c originality of the work is determined by the analysis of the syntactic features of the verb “expect” and its derivatives with the meaning “mental” within the communicative and pragmatic aspect in English language. Th e objectives of the work are to describe the syntactic features of the verb expect and its derivatives with the meaning “mental”, to determine the lexical-semantic structure of the verb “expect” and its derivatives with the meaning “mental”; to identify the 70semantic, pragmatic and cognitive characteristics of the verb “expect” and its derivatives. Th e following methods were used in the work: the defi nitional analysis and the method of contextual analysis. Th e results of the study showed that the cognitive meaning “mental” is in the cognate words of the verb “expect”. Th e author concluded that the actualization of the pragmatic meanings of the verb expect and its derivatives only occurs in the context of real communicative discourse.

Colour Name ‘Shkhue’ in Adyghe Linguistic Culture: Etymology, Internal Form, Semantics

The etymological and historical-semasiological analysis of the word ‘shkhue’, the designation of one of the most significant sacred flowers in the Adyghe linguoculture, has been carried out. The analysis of this linguistic unit is accompanied by a study of the semantic development and word-formation relations of single-root words grouped around the main generating base, represented by the root word ‘shkhue’, in the modern language. The purpose of the study is to research the historical and semantic development of the color lexeme ‘shkhue’in the Adyghe linguistic culture. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the genesis and further development of the word is reconstructed, which is at the head of the systemic semantic and word-formation relations between linguistic units united by genetic kinship. In the course of the study of cognate words, not only the type of semantic relations, but the possibilities of maintaining or breaking (full or partial) semantic links are studied. Results: Based on the analysis of texts and dictionaries, language units that form a nest with a ‘shkhue’ top were collected. The chain of semantic transitions in this group of nominations is restored. The internal form of derived units is clarified. The originality of metaphors is commented. It has been established that the continuants of this nest implement semantic models that are characterized by seriality and regularity. On the basis of color naming, other color naming conventions of a wide range (all shades of the changing color of the sky), the names of birds as inhabitants of the sky (or by the color of their plumage), animals by coat color, as well as designations from the sphere of magic and traditional medicine (drugs, poison), and finally, words denoting fear, blurred perception, etc.

Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence with different-script languages: Evidence from eye tracking

AbstractThis study compared patterns of nonselective cross-language activation in L1 and L2 visual word recognition with different-script bilinguals. The aim was to determine (1) whether lexical processing is nonselective in the L1 (as in L2), and (2) if the same cross-linguistic factors affected processing similarly in each language. To examine the time course of activation, eye movements were tracked during lexical decision. Thirty-two Japanese–English bilinguals responded to 250 target words in Japanese and in English. The same participants and items (i.e., cognate translation equivalents) were used to directly compare L1 and L2 processing. Response latencies as well as eye movements representing early and late processing were analyzed using mixed-effects regression modeling. Similar cross-linguistic effects, namely cognate word frequency, phonological similarity, and semantic similarity, were found in both languages. These factors affected processing to different degrees in each language, however. While cognate frequency was significant as early as the first fixation, effects of cross-linguistic phonological and semantic similarity arose later in time. Increased phonological similarity slowed responses in L2 but speeded them in L1, while greater semantic overlap was facilitatory in both languages. Results are discussed from the perspective of the BIA+ model of visual word recognition.

The distribution of cognates and their impact on response accuracy in the EIKEN tests

Although there is abundant evidence for the use of first-language (L1) knowledge by bilinguals when using a second language (L2), investigation into the impact of L1 knowledge in large-scale L2 language assessments and discussion of how such impact may be controlled has received little attention in the language assessment literature. This study examines these issues through investigating the use of L1-Japanese loanword knowledge in test items targeting L2-English lexical knowledge in the Reading section of EIKEN grade-level tests, which are primarily taken by Japanese learners of English. First, the proportion of English target words that have loanwords in Japanese was determined through analysis of corpus-derived wordlists, revealing that the distribution of such items is broadly similar to that in language in general. Second, the impact of loanword frequency in Japanese (and cognate status) was demonstrated through statistical analysis of response data for the items. Taken together, the findings highlight the scope and impact of such cognate items in large-scale language assessments. Discussion centers on how test developers can and/or should deal with the inclusion of cognate words in terms of context validity and test fairness.

Reconstruction of Proto Central of Pahang River Phoneme

This study reconstructed the proto-phoneme of consonants for a subdialect in the central basin of the Pahang River. The length of this river is 459 kilometres, and the area in the centre part of the river was selected to perform comparative linguistics observations. Five research sites were selected for this study purpose, namely Kuala Tembeling (KT), Lada (LDA), Jeransang (JRG), Kedondong (DDG), and Bukit Nikmat (BMT), based on their distinctive phonological characteristics. The research sites were visited twice to ensure the authenticity of the gathered data. The data were screened to extract cognate words using Crowley’s framework. Crowley’s sound correspondence set (SCS) was employed to evaluate and extract proto-phonemes. After the phonemes were retrieved, the reconstructed proto-phoneme of Adelaar was used as a point of comparison. The findings revealed that Proto-Centre Pahang river (PCPr) has 18 ancient consonant phonemes (*p, *b, *t, *d, *k, *ɡ, *m, *n, *ɲ, *ŋ, *l, *s, *ɣ, *h, *c, *ɟ, *w, and *j). The distribution of these consonants is diverse and depends on the consonant type. A vocalic feature of PCPr, such as vowels and diphthongs, should be the subject of future discussion to arrive at definitive conclusions regarding phonological changes between PCPr and Proto-Malayic (PM).

A Study of Bloom Narrative in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Fiction

Elizabeth Gaskell was an influential female writer in the 19th-century English literary arena. The courtship and marriage narrative almost ran through all her fiction. This paper argues that Linnaeus’ botanical system provided discourse support for her courtship and marriage narrative. From the late 18th century to the 19th century, as Linnaean classification popularized, the term “flower”(plants’sexual organ) became more commonly used as “bloom,” referring to “potential sex.” Linnaeus termed the sexual reproduction of a flower marriage, linking “sex” to marriage and rendering the natural (illegitimate) meaning of sex socialized (legitimate). In this cultural context, Gaskell introduced “bloom narrative” into her works, using “bloom” and its cognate words “garden, landscape, etc.” to represent the sexual attraction of blooming girls and reproduce their marriage and courtship, and using botanical language as a metaphor for the process of female socialization to explore the possible social consequences. It is worth noting that Linnaeus divided plants into public marriage and clandestine marriage according to whether flowers could be seen by the naked eye. Gaskell not only reproduced the sexual attraction in public marriages as traditional writers as Austen did but also discussed the sexual attraction in clandestine marriages. In North and South, Linnaeus’s “public marriage” category was represented. Gaskell linked sexual attraction to marriage and enabled the heroine to successfully exercise her feminine influence, and thus facilitate labor-capital reconciliation, demonstrating her strong desire to bridge the gap between the public and private spheres. In Ruth, by separating sexual attraction (bloom) from marriage and treating the sexual behavior of the hero and heroine as Linnaeus’s “clandestine marriage,) Gaskell presented both the heroine’s sexual charm and her innocence, thus effectively challenging the traditional narrative of depraved women. The bloom narrative meets Gaskell’s multiple requirements of conforming to secular moral values, achieving realistic effects as well as participating in the discussion of gender topics, which reveals her diverse and cross-boundary artistic creation concept.