Semantic Concepts Research Articles

ANALYSIS OF DILALAH TASHAWWURIYYAH (CONCEPTUAL METHAPOR) IN THE AL-QUR'AN SURAH YASIN / ANALISIS DILALAH TASHAWWURIYYAH (METAFORA KONSEPTUAL) DALAM AL-QUR'AN SURAH YASIN

This research aims to discover and explain the types of dilalah tashawwuriyyah (conceptual metaphor) and the image schemes contained in the Al-Qur'an Surah Yasin. The general theory used in this study is the conceptual theory of cognitive semantics from Lakoff & Johnson, while the theory used to determine the type of metaphor is conceptual meaning theory and the theory used to determine the image schema is Cruse & Croft's theory. The method used in this research is a descriptive qualitative method. To analyze the conceptual theory of Arabic using the matching method with Arabic dictionary and Tafsir as tools to explore further the meaning contained in the theory to find conceptual meaning, because in understanding the Qur'an is not enough to use only one point of view. The results of this research show that there are 5 dilalah tashawuriyyah (conceptual metaphors) found in Surah Yasin, namely 3 types of systematic metaphors and 2 types of anthropomorphic metaphors. The metaphor has 3 image schemas, namely identity (matching), existence (process), and force (compulsion) image schemas.

The Conceptual Relationships in N+N Compounds in Arabic Compared to English

The current study investigates the semantic or conceptual relations that exist between two compound elements in Arabic based on the theoretical framework of Conceptual Semantics and a modified version of Parallel Architecture called Relational Morphology (RM). It also explores the similarities and/or differences between these relations and those identified by Jackendoff pertaining to English compounds. To this end, a corpus of Arabic compounds was collected and analysed to identify the type of conceptual basis on which both lexicalised and novel compounds are formed in Arabic. The analysis revealed that all conceptual relations found between elements of English compounds can also be found in Arabic, yet the direction of the head was different in the latter. The analysis also demonstrated that Arabic compounds exhibit other types of conceptual relations which were not mentioned by Jackendoff. It is suggested that both regular stored lexicalised compounds that have idiosyncratic interpretations and novel compounds (with the majority being formed based on Synthetic Genitive Construction) can be reconciled under the approach of Relational Morphology, as they can be generated by the same compound schema.

USING BIG DATA IN SEMANTIC RESEARCH: PERSPECTIVES AND APPROACHES

Statement of the problem. Digitization and technology are rapidly taking over various fields of humanitarian sciences, including cognitive linguistics that is developing new algorithms and methods of language research, with linguists being encouraged to acquire new skills in data collection and processing as well as to expand their sources of language materials. In cognitive semantics and discourse studies, the biggest game-changer has been ever increasing (to the points of apparent limitlessness) volumes of various language data from digitalized texts available on the Internet that effectively accumulate in and function as Big Data – data sets that are too multiple, large and complex to be processed by traditional, ‘by-hand’ methods. Extensive language data requires specific mining and analysis tools and techniques and imposes certain restrictions on its processing and interpretation. In this paper, the authors discuss approaches to processing (‘intellectualization’) of empirical linguistic data coming from various online sources via search engines and their overall reliability for cognitive semantics research. Results. The main argument is that to ensure the validity of the digital language data under study and credible study results, researchers should employ several data collection methods and tools, i.e., opt for methodological triangulation. The authors describe their methodology on a practical example and conclude that big data systems such as indexed digital texts can effectively replace native speakers as a source of credible information on a natural language semantics as well as improve the overall quality and verifiability of semantics studies. Conclusion. Considering the national segment of the Internet in a certain language (English, Russian, etc.) as a natural text corpus of high representativeness, the researcher can use it as a tool for testing various linguistic hypotheses. At the same time, it is necessary to reflect on the intrinsic qualities of big data, such as volume, velocity (swiftness of change), variability, lack of structure, valuableness, and the presence of “noise”, as well as carefully consider, design and test procedures for using search engines to collect big data in order to ensure the quality and verifiability of the results obtained.

Zmiany w kulturze religijnej mniejszości katolickich w Polsce i Ukrainie.

The article discusses the most critical aspects of the book “Catholic Religious Minorities in Poland and Ukraine.” The research is analyzed in the broader context of religious studies conducted by Polish anthropologists in Lithuania and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I am interested in how religious culture's conceptual scope and semantics and the contexts of religious phenomena in Eastern Europe have changed in current studies. Research in the last decade of the twentieth century included religious knowledge, local interpretations of the Bible, knowledge of the Apocrypha, magical thinking, and its relationship to religiosity. The study aimed to determine what people believe in and the rituals accompanying it. The approach has changed, as studies published in the book show. Scholars were less interested in faith and its reconstruction and more in how Catholic communities and religious institutions were organized.

A Semantic Cognitive Analysis of the Conception and Emotional Implications of Cheerfulness in Indonesian Proverbs

This study employs Cognitive Semantics Analysis and Qualitative Methods to examine Indonesian proverbs and uncover the underlying elements of cheerfulness within them. Using a diverse corpus of Indonesian proverbs, the study scrutinizes their linguistic and cognitive structures, applying cognitive semantics theories to discern the interplay between language, culture, and emotions in the proverbs. Additionally, the study draws upon the perceptions and interpretations of native speakers to gain a holistic understanding of cheerfulness as manifested in these linguistic gems. The findings show (1) the Indonesian proverbs that describe cheerfulness often use a wide range of metaphorical expressions that draw upon sensory and embodied experiences, (2) cultural resonance underscores the shared understanding of cheerfulness within the community, highlighting its salience as a cultural value, and (3) proverbs from contemporary contexts may reflect the evolving nature of happiness and well-being in Indonesian society. The findings contribute to a deeper comprehension of Indonesian culture and language and offer valuable insights into the field of cognitive semantics. The study also facilitates cross-cultural comparisons and appreciation of the universality and linguistic manifestations of human emotions.

The Semantic Definition of Truth as an Emergent Symbol of Translation Process

In their attempt to provide formal accounts of the concepts of truth and meaning, Tarski and Davidson did not completely purify their theories of cumbersome terms that retain a ‘semantic’ link to the physical reality. However, it can be argued that this burden was not located where the authors and their subsequent commentators generally claimed. The following article aims to demonstrate that a common semantic concept at the heart of their analyses was the idea of translation process. Firstly then, both theories will be briefly reconstructed on the basis of texts by the philosophers themselves. Subsequently, the place of a translative element will be pointed out. Its recognition will provide an interesting answer to several objections against the accounts, also shedding a new light on the outcome of their venture. Yet most importantly, the study shows that Tarski’s and Davidson’s definitions ultimately clinch an inextricable connection between translation and truth – a bond which should be acknowledged in any proper enquiry into the meaning of verity.

Unveiling the Heart of Longing in Indonesian Proverbs: Their Components and Mental Connotations

This study delves into the complex and intricate realm of human emotions, specifically focusing on the cognitive structure of longing, as it is portrayed through Indonesian proverbs. The study employs a comprehensive methodology rooted in Cognitive Semantics Analysis and Qualitative Methods. The main objective of this study is to unravel the intricate web of thought processes, cultural nuances, and linguistic expressions associated with the profound emotion of longing within the context of Indonesian proverbs. To achieve this objective, the study meticulously scrutinizes a diverse corpus of Indonesian proverbs. The study aims to uncover the underlying cognitive patterns and conceptualizations that shape how longing is linguistically and culturally framed by analyzing the linguistic elements, metaphorical expressions, and cultural connotations within these proverbs. The results show that (1) one of the most striking features of Indonesian proverbs is their frequent use of metaphorical expressions to convey the experience of longing, (2) Indonesian proverbs frequently emphasized the communal and relational aspects of longing; longing was often depicted as a force that strengthens bonds between individuals, reflecting the collectivist nature of Indonesian society, and (3) that the emotion of longing is deeply embedded in Indonesian culture and society. This study offers valuable insights into the cultural fabric of Indonesia. Exploring the interplay between cognition, language, and culture in the context of longing sheds light on the intricacies of human emotional experiences and their representation in language. Additionally, the study contributes to the field of Cognitive Semantics and enriches our comprehension of the human condition.

On the conceptual nature of hybrid adverbials in Isu

We review Kießling’s (2011) assessment of the emergence of hybrid adverbials from serial verb constructions in Isu of Bantoid and the Narrow Grassfield group of East Benue Congo. He posits two paths, preverbal and postverbal, that coverb elements follow as they abandon verbal properties pertaining to syntax, morphology, and tone. Our focus rests on whether this impressive array of grammatical change might reflect a particular system of semantic concepts. We contend that one lens through which to view such a system consists of a merger of Dixon’s secondary concept types and Nuyts’ hierarchy of categories conveying clausal modification. To support our contention, we apply the resulting system of semantic concepts to Isu preverbal hybrid adverbials, finding eight conceptual types oriented toward characterization of grammatical subject. Despite the highly tentative nature of this effort, results align with a similar range of conceptual types that occur as preverbs in West Benue Congo Yoruboid and Edoid, which have also grammaticalized from verbs.

БОЛАШАҚ МҰҒАЛІМНІҢ СӨЙЛЕУ МӘДЕНИЕТІН ҚАЛЫПТАСТЫРУ

Annotation. Linguistic and cultural bases of formation of linguistic personality of philological students can be used as classification signs in document classification, as semantic concepts in generating thesauruses and ontologies, as supporting concepts in media content analysis. In virtually all automatic text processing tasks, such as annotation, indexing, classification, machine translation, knowledge extraction, and more. it will be necessary to produce the terminology. This monograph calls for the description and systematization of these methods in order to determine the future and development issues of language identity formation. The importance of the identified issues is based on the phenomenon of information explosion in modern society. It is intended for research workers, specialists, university teachers, doctoral students, graduate students and students in the field of language personality formation. Key words: word culture, speech culture, linguistic personality, linguistic personality of the student, formation of linguistic personality.

Supplier Selection Method for Complex Product Based on Grey Group Clustering and Improved Criteria Importance

Supplier selection is of great significance and role, which influence the quality of major product development, and economic security and life safety. However, there exists a variety of uncertain information as a result of evaluation experts’ strong subjective consciousness and complexity of decision environment in the process of supplier selection evaluation. To deal with these problems, by exploiting gray incidence analysis, cloud models and TOPSIS, we establish a multi-attribute decision-making supplier selection method for complex product based on gray group clustering and improved criteria importance through intercriteria correlation, and then a case verifies the validity and feasibility of the proposed method. The results show that (1) the proposed model can provide a better portrayal of the uncertainty of the evaluation process in terms of both the fuzziness of the semantic concept and the randomness of the affiliation degree, while taking into account the differences between the evaluated solution and the positive and negative ideal solutions. (2) The proposed model can fully voice the decision-maker’s attitude on the basis of available information, allowing the decision-making process to be better tailored to reality by taking into account the ambiguity and randomness of the evaluation process.

A Cross-Linguistic Case Study of Chinese and English Eye: Cognitive Semantics as Approach

A Cross-Linguistic Case Study of Chinese and English Eye: Cognitive Semantics as Approach

The semantics of colors in Arabic and English poetry: A comparative study of Al-Mutanabbi’s poems and Shakespeare’s sonnets

The study aimed at interpreting the concept of color across cultures with reference to Arabic and English. It investigated the semantic denotation of colors by the type of emotions conveyed in the poems of Al-Mutanabbi and the sonnets of Shakespeare with respect to the symbolic meaning. The study focused on the lines in which color appeared in a symbolic sense. The poetic evidence for color existence in the poems were collected. The study followed the descriptive-analytical approach to investigate and clarify the aspects of the significance of colors and their denotations. The study revealed that studying the semantic denotation of colors could be a confusing subject even within the one culture, as some colors had different associations in different occasions. The two poets sometimes used the same color to convey different meanings, and sometimes more than one color were used in the same poetic line or verse to reflect the inner-self of the poets. Color denotations were determined according to personal or public intuition and culture but there were no clear-cut linguistic universals for the symbolic use of colors. The study recommended that more studies should be conducted on the denotation of colors to reach a semantic universal concept.

Paradigm Shift in the Representation of Women in Anglo-American Paremiology – A Cognitive Semantics Perspective

Abstract The present paper, adopting some of the tools offered by Cognitive Linguistics, namely the mechanisms of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, is a qualitative study of a sociolinguistic nature. Its overall purpose is an attempt at exhibiting a paradigm shift in the representation of women in Anglo-American proverbs. Combining the potential of the cross-fertilisation between Cognitive Linguistics and paremiological studies, the study appertains to the sense-threads embedded in the figurative language of proverbs, with the main focus on a cognitive semantic analysis of selected Anglo-American paremias directed towards women and animals. The main goal of the research is the juxtaposition of the meaning coded in two proverbs of traditional status, as representatives of a larger group of paremiological units (i.e. A woman, a cat, and a chimney should never leave the house; A whistling girl and a crowing hen always come to no good end), reflecting the deep-rooted gender-biased ideology in patriarchal Anglo-American society, with the content of the selected anti-proverb (i.e. The early bird gets up to serve his wife breakfast in bed) and a contemporary proverb (i.e. A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle), serving as sample evidence of the heralds of a paradigm shift in the issue of gender stereotyping stored in paremiological wisdom. The paper shows that the motivation behind the use of the analysed proverbs is to be accounted for by reference to the mechanism of metaphor-metonymy interaction, while the rise of new gender-related proverbs can be regarded as a sign of socio-cultural changes. Specifically, through the medium of modern paremiology, asymmetrical representation of male and female gender, coupled with traditional masculine and feminine characteristics as well as social roles, appears if not endangered then, at least, to be taking a promising path.

Semantic cognition as an early cognitive marker of Alzheimer’s disease: importance of executive processes mediation

AbstractBackgroundImpaired semantic memory is one of the earliest characteristic features of Alzheimer’s disease. Its assessment is crucial to accurately predict conversion to Alzheimer disease related disorders (ADRD). Recent evidence supports the necessity to differentiate between subprocesses of semantic cognition: a) activation in the semantic representation system; b) executive processes to control or select relevant aspects of semantic knowledge. In this study we compare semantic memory tests that differ in these subprocesses to find out which of them are the best predictors of conversion of MCI to ACD in two years. We also want to identify which semantic memory tests have more sensitivity and specificity at the baseline in the differentiation MCI‐no converters and MCI converters after two yearsMethodWe assessed 130 amnestic MCI patients. Semantic memory tests more based on integrity of semantic knowledge (Similarities, ACE‐language) and more executive determined (verbal fluency – phonemic and categories, Boston Naming Test) were administered at baseline and at 2‐years follow‐up, together with cognitive screening tools and IADL measures. A binary regression model was used to examine which semantic memory tests predict MCI progression to Alzheimer’s Clinical Syndrome (ACS) in two years. ROC curves were used to study early clinical diagnosis differentiating MCI converters and MCI non convertersResultOnly semantic category fluency test significantly explained the conversion to ACS (p<.01). Baseline score semantic categories fluency were significantly lower in MCI patients who develop ACS after two years (p<.001). ROC curves showed that semantic categories fluency and Boston Naming tests were the best tests to differentiate at baseline between MCI converter and non‐converter (AUC = 0.768, p<0,0001 and AUC = 0.712, p<0,01, respectively)ConclusionSemantic category fluency test was the best predictor from MCI to ACS conversion in two years. Semantic category fluency and Boston Naming tests clearly identify people with high risk to develop ACS in two years. Semantic memory tests including executive contributions could detect and characterize prodromal Alzheimer’s disease

A hybrid approach for text summarization using semantic latent Dirichlet allocation and sentence concept mapping with transformer

<span lang="EN-US">Automatic text summarization generates a summary that contains sentences reflecting the essential and relevant information of the original documents. Extractive summarization requires semantic understanding, while abstractive summarization requires a better intermediate text representation. This paper proposes a hybrid approach for generating text summaries that combine extractive and abstractive methods. To improve the semantic understanding of the model, we propose two novel extractive methods: semantic latent Dirichlet allocation (semantic LDA) and sentence concept mapping. We then generate an intermediate summary by applying our proposed sentence ranking algorithm over the sentence concept mapping. This intermediate summary is input to a transformer-based abstractive model fine-tuned with a multi-head attention mechanism. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid model generates coherent summaries using the intermediate extractive summary covering semantics. As we increase the concepts and number of words in the summary the rouge scores are improved for precision and F1 scores in our proposed model.</span>

Answering Binary Causal Questions Using Role-Oriented Concept Embedding

Answering binary causal questions is a challenging task, and it requires rich background knowledge to answer such questions. Extracting useful causal features from the background knowledge base and applying them effectively in a model is a crucial step to answering binary causal questions. The state-of-the-art approaches apply deep learning techniques to answer binary causal questions. In these approaches, candidate concepts are often embedded into vectors to model causal relationships among them. However, a concept may play the role of a cause in one question, but it could be an effect in another question. This aspect has not been extensively explored in existing approaches. Role-oriented causal concept embeddings are proposed in this paper to model causality between concepts. We also propose leveraging semantic concept similarity to extract causal information from concepts. Finally, we develop a deep learning framework to answer binary causal questions. Our approach yields accuracy that is comparable to or better than the benchmark approaches. <underline xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Impact Statement</u> —Understanding causality is crucial for automatic question-answering systems, which are useful in extracting and distributing human knowledge. An automatic question-answering system with causal knowledge can be used to check whether there is causal relationship between two concepts. Existing approaches to answer binary causal questions often answer such questions with close to 55% accuracy due to the limited usage of causal and contextual features. The deep learning framework we propose in this paper uses a role-oriented concept embedding to address such issues. Our approach achieves better accuracy by up to 3.6%, compared to the state-of-the-art benchmark approaches. The proposed approach can be used in a variety of fields, including prescriptive analysis, event prediction, and any other area where entity relationships are essential. It could also be used to improve the retrieval of causality-related inquiries in web search engines.

Clinical Manifestations.

Semantic cognition requires both semantic representation (conceptual knowledge), and semantic control (the ability to shape and manipulate information for a particular context/task) (Lambon Ralph, Jefferies, Patterson, & Rogers, 2017). Prior investigations have contrasted the semantic representation loss in semantic dementia with semantic control deficits in post-stroke semantic aphasia (SA) (Jefferies & Lambon Ralph, 2006; Thompson et al., 2022). The logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) has neuroanatomical commonalities with SA, including damage centred on the left temporoparietal and inferior frontal regions, and neuropsychological commonalities including executive and language impairments. Accordingly, we investigated whether lvPPA impairs semantic control. We compared 12 individuals with lvPPA, 9 with typical amnestic Alzheimer's disease (AD), and 12 age-matched healthy controls on a battery of verbal and non-verbal semantic, language, memory and executive functioning tests. The lvPPA patients spanned multiple levels of performance across the different tests and showed the characteristic features of a semantic control deficit: (i) They showed impairments in tests that require greater semantic demand (e.g., semantic association knowledge test more than straightforward word-picture matching); (ii) only lvPPA patients showed strong correlations between semantic and executive tests; (iii) an effect of item familiarity was not found in lvPPA patients; and (iv) both lvPPA and AD patients benefited from phonemic cueing on the Boston Naming Test. LvPPA patients' performance on semantic tests is similar to that of previously reported SA, suggesting an impairment of semantic control. Imaging analysis is underway and will be available at the AAIC conference.

Categorical reasoning in Alzheimer’s disease: What is preserved?

AbstractBackgroundSemantic knowledge impairment appears to be a robust early indicator of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. The disruption of semantic cognition has been detected in preclinical AD. We investigate the ability of patients with mild to moderate AD to categorize items belonging to two semantic domains critical in daily life, living kinds and artefacts.MethodThe categorial reasoning competence of 12 patients with AD and 16 age‐matched normal controls, in the semantic domains of living kinds and man‐made objects are compared by means of an unconstrained pile‐sorting experiment. The participants are left to decide how to lump a list of items, hence, to select organizational schemes of their choosing. Unconstrained pile‐sorting has the potential to better reveal the most salient concepts and principles that orient the classificatory decisions of the participants.ResultThe experimental findings highlight both preserved and disrupted abilities. Important structural principles organizing knowledge in both semantic categories seem to remain well preserved and to still drive patients’ core reasoning. Patients and controls do differ in the specific contents of their piles, even though the number of piles generated by each group does not diverge. Patients with AD were less systematic in their categorization strategies than control participants. The performance of patients displays evidence of a broad weakening of conceptual associations at levels of categorizations requiring finer details.ConclusionEarly deviations in cognitive performance of individuals with AD from cognitively normal adults might only appear when careful analyses of contents are conducted. To our knowledge, it is the first study to use this task as developed in cognitive anthropology to investigate semantic knowledge in AD. We propose that the detection of early deviations in performance of patients with AD might be enhanced by the combination of detailed analysis of contents and a quantitative approach.

Prospects for Investigations of Political Discourse (Review of a Monograph by Prof A.A. Romanov and O.V. Novosiolova “Constructions of Threat in Pre-electoral Discourse. Linguocognitive Analysis of papers and programs of presidential campaign in 2018”. Moscow: URSS, 2021. — 440 p.)

This article presents a review of the monograph titled “Constructions of Threat in Pre-electoral Discourse. Linguocognitive Analysis of papers and programs of the 2018 presidential campaign” by A.A. Romanov and O.V. Novosyolova. The authors examined different factors related to pre-election communication, such as cognitive-discursive, psycholinguistic, and pragmalinguistic factors. They analyzed representative material and used topical linguistic analysis methods, including Diatone, an automated program for analyzing textual data in pre-election communication. They also examined the emotional-suggestive impact of pre-election programmes. Prof. A.A. Romanov and O.V. Novosyolova’s monograph is topical since it is grounded upon present-day trends of conducting linguistic analysis on the basis of one of the genres of political discourse in a comprehensive manner. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it is the first time such a massive investigation has been completed. The results of the book under study significantly contribute to further development of various linguistic theories, such as pragmalinguistics, speech act theory, functional semantics, communication theory as well as political discourse, cognitive semantics, and communicative-pragmatic constructivism. The practical value of this research is evident in the sphere of political linguistics as well as in teaching courses such as “Topical Issues of Present-day Linguistics”, “Methods of Linguistic Analysis”, “Modern Political Discourse”. It also contributes to integration of new courses into programmes that explore interaction between language and thinking, language and speech, and language and society from a political science perspective.

Uncovering the Pedagogical Propositions Embedded in Indonesian Proverbs through Cognitive Semantics Analysis

In this study, Cognitive Semantics Analysis and Qualitative Method are employed to provide an in-depth investigation into the educational value of Indonesian proverbs. The study aims to scrutinize the linguistic and cognitive mechanisms underlying these sayings, which have been used for generations to transmit cultural knowledge and wisdom. Through rigorous qualitative analysis, the study uncovers the context-specific meanings encapsulated within these proverbs, highlighting the cultural, social, and cognitive dimensions that make them a valuable source of traditional wisdom. The main objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Indonesian language and culture by exploring the educational potential of proverbs. The findings show that (1) applying CSA to Indonesian proverbs has revealed that these linguistic expressions are complex interplays of metaphoric and metonymic mappings to represent the pedagogical propositions and (2) Indonesian proverbs have been found to contain intricate nuances, cultural contexts, and societal values concerning the pedagogical propositions. The findings of this study can also serve as a valuable resource for educators and curriculum developers, who can integrate these proverbs into their teaching materials to maximize their academic potential for future generations. By incorporating sayings into educational curricula, students can gain a deeper understanding of cultural values and beliefs, as well as improve their linguistic and cognitive abilities. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the educational value of proverbs, particularly in the Indonesian context. The study findings can be used to enhance the teaching and learning of the Indonesian language and culture and can serve as a basis for future study on the topic.