Cognate Words Research Articles

Rethinking the Neural Basis of Prosody and Non-literal Language: Spared Pragmatics and Cognitive Compensation in a Bilingual With Extensive Right-Hemisphere Damage.

Above and beyond the critical contributions of left perisylvian regions to language, the neural networks supporting pragmatic aspects of verbal communication in native and non-native languages (L1s and L2, respectively) have often been ascribed to the right hemisphere (RH). However, several reports have shown that left-hemisphere activity associated with pragmatic domains (e.g., prosody, indirect speech, figurative language) is comparable to or even greater than that observed in the RH, challenging the proposed putative role of the latter for relevant domains. Against this background, we report on an adult bilingual patient showing preservation of pragmatic verbal skills in both languages (L1: Spanish, L2: English) despite bilateral damage mainly focused on the RH. After two strokes, the patient sustained lesions in several regions previously implicated in pragmatic functions (vast portions of the right fronto-insulo-temporal cortices, the bilateral amygdalae and insular cortices, and the left putamen). Yet, comparison of linguistic and pragmatic skills with matched controls revealed spared performance on multiple relevant tasks in both her L1 and L2. Despite mild difficulties in some aspects of L2 prosody, she showed no deficits in comprehending metaphors and idioms, or understanding indirect speech acts in either language. Basic verbal skills were also preserved in both languages, including verbal auditory discrimination, repetition of words and pseudo-words, cognate processing, grammaticality judgments, equivalent recognition, and word and sentence translation. Taken together, the evidence shows that multiple functions of verbal communication can be widely spared despite extensive damage to the RH, and that claims for a putative relation between pragmatics and the RH may have been overemphasized in the monolingual and bilingual literature. We further discuss the case in light of previous reports of pragmatic and linguistic deficits following brain lesions and address its relation to cognitive compensation in bilingual patients.

Automatic Inference of Sound Correspondence Patterns across Multiple Languages

Sound correspondence patterns play a crucial role for linguistic reconstruction. Linguists use them to prove language relationship, to reconstruct proto-forms, and for classical phylogenetic reconstruction based on shared innovations. Cognate words that fail to conform with expected patterns can further point to various kinds of exceptions in sound change, such as analogy or assimilation of frequent words. Here I present an automatic method for the inference of sound correspondence patterns across multiple languages based on a network approach. The core idea is to represent all columns in aligned cognate sets as nodes in a network with edges representing the degree of compatibility between the nodes. The task of inferring all compatible correspondence sets can then be handled as the well-known minimum clique cover problem in graph theory, which essentially seeks to split the graph into the smallest number of cliques in which each node is represented by exactly one clique. The resulting partitions represent all correspondence patterns that can be inferred for a given data set. By excluding those patterns that occur in only a few cognate sets, the core of regularly recurring sound correspondences can be inferred. Based on this idea, the article presents a method for automatic correspondence pattern recognition, which is implemented as part of a Python library which supplements the article. To illustrate the usefulness of the method, I present how the inferred patterns can be used to predict words that have not been observed before.

Multilingual Place Names in Southern Africa

Numerous place names in southern Africa reveal cultural and language contact between Bushmen (San), Khoikhoi, Bantu and European language speakers over many thousands of years. These toponyms reflect the diversity of languages that had an influence on words and common names used by local people speaking different languages. Many of these place names are complex and their origins and meanings can only be explained by tracing onymic (naming) formatives in components from cognate words appearing in other languages, often only by deciphering the phonological, orthographic and morphological adaptations that they underwent, or through translated names elucidating the meanings. The findings of this research provide insights into the inter-connected, multilingual context and show names as being verifiable evidence of onymic, lexemic and toponymic exchange. They indicate language elements that survived in names that are part of the toponymic heritage of the region.

Auto/Biography and Conflict: The Year in Spain

Auto/Biography and ConflictThe Year in Spain Ana Belén Martínez García (bio) Recent Spanish History and Politics It is little wonder that the majority of auto/biographical narratives in Spain published from mid-2017 to mid-2018 deal with "the Catalan question." A political conflict that has been latent for decades—some might say centuries—in Spain, it is part of our collective memory and national consciousness. Catalonia has become an unavoidable but thorny issue lately, with increasingly polarized views that may turn rather violent, of which there is already sad proof on both sides. One of the most striking examples of this subgenre is Peláez Viñas's El procés explicat als idiotes, roughly translated into English as "the procés for dummies," a graphic memoir of the four months that the movement for independence in Catalonia was at its height (September to December 2017). The Catalan word procés refers to the unilateral Declaration of the Initiation of the Process of Independence of Catalonia from Spain issued by the Generalitat on November 9, 2015. The word is usually left untranslated in Spanish mainstream news to refer to the pro-independence movement intent on establishing a republic in Catalonia. The procés is of particular resonance now, when the main leaders of the movement are being tried for rebellion, sedition, and misuse of power at the Spanish Supreme Court. Full of irony and a penchant for excess (drugs, alcohol, etc.), Peláez Viñas writes and draws himself into the conflict, criticizing politicians and intellectuals alike, and defying the Spanish justice system that has issued severe fines and/or jail time to several individuals found guilty of taking too much liberty with their freedom of expression. A similarly humorous work is Javier Marías's Cuando los tontos mandan, roughly translated as "when dumb people are in charge." Marías, a prolific writer whose novels fill Spanish libraries and bookshops, compiles here some of his critical essays published in the widely read weekly magazine El Semanal. Significantly, the collection was a No. 1 Amazon bestseller soon after its publication in March 2018. [End Page 147] Among the myriad topics he satirizes, the Catalan procés features prominently alongside global political icons such as Donald Trump. A slightly different tone is adopted by Santi Vila in his memoir De héroes y traidores: El dilema de Cataluña o los diez errores del procés. Vila, a former member of Puigdemont's cabinet before its collapse, blends the styles of confessional and political writing. Instead of highlighting his role in driving the region toward independence, he admits to his errors in judgement and his participation in the illegal referendum in Catalonia in October 2017. Finally, an interesting attempt at relating the current turmoil to its historical roots is ¿Seré yo español? [Am I a Spaniard?]. A posthumous edited collection of essays by Gaziel, a Catalan journalist who tried to explain Catalonia to the Spanish ruling elite under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1925–1930), these reflections prove to be highly relevant and illuminating to address the Catalan conflict today. Strong assertions like the need to distinguish between what Gaziel calls catalanismo and catalanidad deserve some careful examination. This is an author who inhabited "tierra de nadie" [no-man's land] (11), as the prologue warns readers. He wanted to offer his personal version of Catalonia as an intrinsic part of a Spanish consciousness, and he did that by writing in Spanish and expressing his own doubts, as the title emphasizes. An appropriate summary, in Gaziel's words, is that one cannot see what happens in Catalonia without the "varita mágica" [magic wand] of "comprensión" [understanding] (138). Moreover, Gaziel expands, "Catalanidad es una voz hermana de castellanidad" [catalanidad and castellanidad are cognate words] (139). This peaceful message of brotherhood among inhabitants of an "España plural" [plural Spain] (502) is a constant throughout this must-read. Political memoirs, a recurring presence in Spanish bookshops every year, are worth mentioning. Jaume Aurell rightly argued in his essay for the International Year in Review last year that this is one of the main...

Lingo-Didactic Potential Derivation Syntagmatics in Russian Language

The article deals with the specificity of syntagmatic relations in the word-formation system of the Russian language. The subject of the study is the typical derivational chains and their part-of-speech patterns as a methodologically relevant means of teaching the language. The aim of the work is to reveal and describe the linguodidactic potential of word-forming syntagmatics in the Russian language, reflected in simple and complex (typical) units of the word-formation system. It has been established that the typology of derivational chains reflects the hierarchy inherent in the units of the word-formation system. Typical chains are correlated with categorical models – the units of a higher level of abstraction, taking into account the partial status of derivatives. Different types of combinations on the basis of the similarity of structure and semantics are characteristic of these units. Their regularity and reproducibility in the Russian language demonstrates the degree of word-formative productivity of various parts of speech. The typical derivational chains allow the teacher to demonstrate the system properties of lexical units, which is important for the formation of linguistic competence. The comprehension of the laws of Russian word-formation makes it possible to reduce the number of words necessary to memorize and thus creates the prerequisites for the potential enrichment of vocabulary. The study of parts of speech within the framework of typical derivational chain, namely by the sequential introduction of cognate words into the active vocabulary of students, promotes the realization of the principle of continuity of learning – from word formation to morphology and syntax, which ultimately leads to the learning of new words.

Context, word, and student predictors in second language vocabulary learning

ABSTRACTWe examined to what extent the variation in vocabulary learning outcomes (vocabulary knowledge, learning gain, and rate of forgetting) in English as a second language (L2) in context can be predicted from semantic contextual support, word characteristics (cognate status, Levenshtein distance, word frequency, and word length), and student characteristics (prior vocabulary knowledge, reading ability, and exposure to English) in 197 Dutch adolescents. Students were taught cognates, false friends, and control words through judging sentences with varying degrees of semantic contextual support using a pretest/posttest between subjects design. Participants were presented with an English target word and its Dutch translation, followed by an English sentence. They were instructed to judge the plausibility of the sentence. Mixed-efffects models indicated that learning gains were higher for sentences with more semantic contextual support and in students with stronger reading comprehension skills. We were the first to show that Levenshtein distance is an important predictor for L2 vocabulary learning outcomes. Furthermore, more accurate as well as faster learning task performance lead to higher learning outcomes. It can thus be concluded that L2 study materials containing semantically supportive contexts and that focus on words with little L1-L2 overlap are most effective for L2 vocabulary learning.

Особенности употребления глаголов в российской и казахстанской рекламе

The aim of the article is to analyze the lexical, morphological and syntactic features of the verbs functioning in advertising slogans and texts in terms of their pragmatic potential, to describe lexicalsemantic manipulative means of using verbs in advertising discourse, their word-forming potential, the specificity of the usage of different types of sentences in which the main member is a verb, in terms of their structure, purpose and emotional coloring. Grammatical categories of a verb play an important role in achieving the effect of speech influence. The most important morphological categories are the category of mood, tense, aspect and person. In commercials occasional verbs, which are designed to attract the recipient s attention with its originality, are actively used. Lexical-semantic manipulative means of using verbs in advertising discourse are the following: the usage of homonyms, antonyms, cognate words, idioms, modified proverbs, winged expressions, archaic and slang words. Among the syntactic categories, simple sentences, one-part sentences (definite-personal and impersonal infinitive sentences) are often used, and also imperative and interrogative sentences, which activate the attention of the recipient and induce him to act; the emotional coloring of the statement is demonstrated by the usage of exclamatory sentences.

Bilingualism, cognates and reading fluency in children

BackgroundThe goal of this study was to examine the effect of cognates on Spanish–English bilingual children's English reading fluency. Because cognates lead to higher levels of non‐target language activation, we hypothesised that the presence of cognates would result in reduced reading fluency for bilingual children.MethodsMonolingual English‐speaking children and Spanish–English bilingual children (ages = 8–13 years) read aloud two stories in English. One story contained cognate words, while the other story did not.ResultsResults revealed that bilingual children made more errors and read more slowly when reading a story containing cognates.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that the presence of cognates in a text disrupts bilinguals' oral reading fluency, suggesting that lexical‐level, local co‐activation can have a global effect on bilinguals' ability to engage in a higher‐level reading task.

The role of cognate English–Kurdish words in teaching English

The role of cognate English–Kurdish words in teaching English

Controle metodológico: criação de um corpus para estudos sobre o processamento lexical de indivíduos bilíngues e multilíngues

Estudos sobre o acesso lexical multilíngue utilizam tarefas de decisão lexical para comparar o processamento de palavras cognatas com não-cognatas e investigar se há co-ativação das línguas durante o processamento em uma língua só. Para entender como funciona esse processo em trilíngues Português/Inglês/Italiano a partir de uma tarefa de decisão lexical em italiano, foi elaborado um corpus seguindo as seguintes etapas: seleção de 1129 substantivos em italiano que possuem de 4 a 8 letras, e suas frequências de ocorrência; tradução das palavras italianas para o português e para o inglês; classificação das palavras como cognatas nas três línguas, cognatas italiano-português, cognatas italiano-inglês e não-cognatas nas três línguas, de acordo com um índice de similaridade ortográfica (SO); e classificação de ambiguidade lexical no italiano. Foram retiradas da lista as palavras homônimas, restando apenas palavras sem ambiguidade ou polissêmicas. A seguir, pseudopalavras foram criadas a partir de palavras existentes em italiano. Após essa etapa, separamos as palavras por condição e calculamos as médias de frequência, número de letras e de sílabas e similaridade ortográfica para averiguar, estatisticamente, se eram iguais. Por fim, a lista de palavras que irá compor a tarefa de decisão lexical em italiano conta com três condições de 22 palavras cognatas cada, uma de 66 não-cognatas e uma de 132 pseudopalavras. Essa tarefa nos permitirá verificar a co-ativação do inglês e do português no acesso lexical de palavras em italiano. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2018n46a1142

A relação raiz e estrutura sintática na semântica da formação de palavras no português brasileiro e espanhol

Este trabalho teve por objetivo observar se é possível palavras com múltiplas camadas morfológicas ganharem novos significados, tendo em vista os estudos sintáticos sobre a relação entre a derivação das palavras e seus significados possíveis. Seguindo a teoria Exo-esqueletal (BORER, H. 2005, 2013, 2015a e 2015b), assumimos que palavras complexas podem receber significados novos em nível morfológico superior à primeira junção entre a raiz e um morfema categorizador. Neste trabalho, mostraremos que dados de línguas aparentadas, como o Português do Brasil (PB) e o Espanhol (Esp), podem apresentar diferentes formas de inserção do conteúdo conceitual em palavras cognatas complexas. Com este estudo podemos trazer à teoria um avanço na compreensão da interface entre a sintaxe e a semântica.

Does phonological distance impact quality of phonological representations? Evidence from Arabic diglossia.

The study tested the impact of the phonological distance between Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA) on quality of phonological representations among kindergarten, first-, second-, and sixth-grade Arabic-speaking children (N = 120). A pronunciation accuracy judgment task targeted three types of StA words that varied in extent of phonological distance from their form in SpA: (a) identical words, with an identical lexical-phonological form in StA and SpA; (b) cognate words, with partially overlapping phonological forms; items in this category varied in degree of phonological distance too; and (c) unique words with entirely different lexical-phonological forms. Multilevel Regression analysis showed that phonological distance had a significant impact on quality of phonological representations across all grades. Growth in quality of phonological representations was mainly noted between the three younger groups and the sixth-graders. Implications for the impact of phonological distance on phonological representations and on language and literacy development are discussed.

한국어와 몽골어 사이의 동원어(同源語)에 대한 기초적 연구 : 대응하는 어휘를 중심으로

한국어와 몽골어 사이의 동원어(同源語)에 대한 기초적 연구 : 대응하는 어휘를 중심으로

TO THE QUESTION OF HISTORICAL COMMENTING OF DERIVATION MODERN FACTS

The comparison of synchronic and diachronic derivation analysis on the appointing of derived and derivating steams is making in the article. The loss of semantic links between cognate words during language development is shown.

Neurophysiological indices of the effect of cognates on vowel perception in late Spanish-English bilinguals

It is well established that acquiring a second language (L2) later in life results in less accurate production and perception of speech sounds in the L2. An interesting question is to what extent phonological similarity of translation equivalents across the first language (L1) and L2 affects speech-sound processing and lexical access in an L2.The present study examined this question by comparing processing of Spanish-English translation equivalents that either were phonologically similar (cognates) or dissimilar (non-cognates) in fifteen monolingual English-speakers and 15 late Spanish-English bilinguals. Event related potentials (ERP) were used to examine whether late L2-learners had more difficulty discriminating mispronunciations of vowels in English words that have Spanish cognates compared to words that do not have cognates. Behavioral results indicated effects of language background and cognate status on discrimination, with bilinguals showing poorer discrimination of English vowel mispronunciations than the American-English monolingual control group. ERP results revealed that cognate words facilitated L2 phonological processing as evidenced by a larger frontal positive component (P400) ERP effect, similar in amplitude to the P400 from monolinguals. Results suggest that cognate words facilitate speech processing in adult L2 learners, and, thus, may also be useful as a tool for perceptual learning of L2 phonology.

Does phonological overlap of cognate words modulate cognate acquisition and processing in developing and skilled readers?

ABSTRACTVery few studies exist on the role of cross-language similarities in cognate word acquisition. Here we sought to explore, for the first time, the interplay of orthography (O) and phonology (P) during the early stages of cognate word acquisition, looking at children and adults with the same level of foreign language proficiency and by using two variants of the word-association learning paradigm (auditory learning method vs. auditory + written method). Eighty participants (40 children and 40 adults, native speakers of European Portuguese [EP]), learned a set of EP-Catalan cognate words and noncognate words. Among the cognate words, the degree of orthographic and phonological similarity was manipulated. Half of the children and adult participants learned the new words via an L2 auditory and written-L1 word association method, while the other half learned the same words only through an L2 auditory-L1 word association method. Both groups were tested in an auditory recognition task and a go/no-go lexical decision task. Results revealed a disadvantage for children in comparison to adults, which was reduced in the auditory learning method. Furthermore, there was an advantage for cognates relative to noncognates regardless of the age of participants. Importantly, there were modulations in cognate word processing as a function of the degree of O and P overlap that were restricted to children. The findings are discussed in light of the most relevant bilingual models of word recognition.

List composition effect on cognate and non-cognate word acquisition in children

Abstract Previous studies on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition with children showed that the use of a picture learning method favours the creation of direct links between the semantic system and new lexical representations at early stages of L2 acquisition (Comesaña et al., 2009). However, recent studies found that this influence seems to vary according to the cognate status of the words being learned (Comesaña et al., 2012), raising the question of how the type of words involved can modulate the lexical-semantic connections between the words of both languages in the bilingual memory. The main goal of the present study was to explore list composition effects in the establishment of L2 word-to-concept connections in Portuguese children by using a picture-based method. Results showed no influence of list composition in the establishment of L2 lexical-semantic connections when cognates have to be learned. Findings are discussed in light of relevant models of bilingual memory.

The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts: 20 Years Later

The article summarizes the goals and the current state of the Catalogue of sematic shifts (CSSh), its primary notions being those of a semantic shift , which is understood as a relation of cognitive proximity between two linguistic meanings, and a realization of a semantic shift, i.e. one polysemic word or a pair of cognate words of the same language or different languages that act as “exponents” of this relation. The typology of semantic shifts occupies a position at the crossroad of semantic, lexical and grammatical typologies, overlapping each of these areas of study in terms of linguistic data and methods used; however, the domain of CSSh does not coincide with any of them. The framework of CSSh provides the theoretical foundation for identifying recurring cross-linguistic semantic shifts, and collecting them in the Database of Semantic Shifts for further analysis. The article demonstrates that the notion of semantic shift as defined in CSSh is just a formalization of an instrument of linguistic analysis that is already quite common in various areas of linguistics. Semantic shift provides a basis for the notion of semantic parallel used in the historical linguistics and etymology, for motivational models in word-formation, it is a central notion for grammati- calization theory; finally, semantic shift is one of various types of implicit meanings (along with presuppositions and connotations) that shape the “linguistic model of the world”. Linguistic data contained in the Database of Semantic Shifts can be used in all these areas, in order to provide semantic plausibility criteria for linguistic reconstruction, to act as empirical evidence for cognitive mechanisms of linguistic conceptualization, to aid in identifying specific features of the semantic system of a given language or group of languages.

The Meaning of Χειρόγραφον in Colossians 2:14 Revisited

In this article we explore the uses of χειρόγραφον in ancient papyri and ostraca and conclude that χειρόγραφον does not refer to a debt certificate, contrary to scholars’ consensus (except for Peter Arzt-Grabner). Instead, χειρόγραφον was used to express various handwritten declarations including receipts, loans, contracts, and records of oath in ancient Greek papyri. In particular, χειρόγραφον and its cognate words are used in the formula of declaration (ὁμολογῶ κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ χειρόγραφον) and with the expression of oath (χειρογραφία ὅρκου). Xειρόγραφον in Colossians 2:14 can be interpreted in this context. Declaration or oath on the observance of religious regulations was significant in ancient paganism and Judaism. Thus, χειρόγραφον τοῖς δόγμασιν in Colossians 2:14 can be read as the handwritten document which contains the declaration or oath with regard to the observance of religious regulations.

Structural priming in bilinguals

In this review, we examine how structural priming has been used to investigate the representation of first and second language syntactic structures in bilinguals. Most experiments suggest that structures that are identical in the first and second language have a single, shared mental representation. The results from structures that are similar but not fully identical are less clear, but they may be explained by assuming that first and second language representations are merely connected rather than fully shared. Some research has also used structural priming to investigate the representation of cognate words. We will also consider whether cross-linguistic structural priming taps into long-term implicit learning effects. Finally, we discuss recent research that has investigated how second language syntactic representations develop as learners’ proficiency increases.