Form-meaning Relationship Research Articles

Verifying the morpho-semantics of aspect via typological homogeneity

Abstract This article investigates grammatical aspect in Slavic and non-Slavic languages, starting from Slavic languages, by providing crosslinguistic evidence for the presence of the so-called concept-dependent default aspect. This line of research builds on and extends accounts that draw a parallel between the structure and semantics of aspect. I show that structural simplicity (relating to whether the imperfective or the perfective is the derivation base for the respective reverse form) corresponds to prominence in meaning. More precisely, I assume that (im)perfective basic morphological or syntactic representations are indicators for primary interpretations. By building upon existing studies in typology, I introduce typological homogeneity as a criterion for the establishment of a form-meaning (in Slavic morpho-semantic) relationship within (im)perfective realizations of a particular verbal concept. This criterion complements high frequency and preferred choice in associative experiments as properties of aspectual alpha-verbs. In this paper, I discuss typological homogeneity by using the primary example of verbs of evidence collection, also called reveal-type predicates, and by additionally discussing manner-of-speaking and speech act verbs. These novel data provide evidence of typological homogeneity in the aspectual representation.

A Socio-Pragmatic Study of Honorific Expressions in ''Pride and Prejudice''

Honorific expressions are mostly common used in literature, specifically in novels. They have occupied an important role within the domain of socio-pragmatic studies of language. They refer to one form of speech that signal social deference, through conventionalized understandings of some aspects of the form-meaning relationship. Honorific expressions have not been studied sufficiently from a socio-pragmatic perspective, particularly in literature. The problem is, therefore, honorifics have not received an adequate analysis and significant attention from a socio-pragmatic perspective, specifically in literary text. Hence, this study attempts to answer the following questions: what is the relationship between honorification and politeness? That is, are honorifics necessarily utilized to indicate politeness or not"? Is there a relationship between the honorific expressions and the sociolinguistic variables like, age, social distance, educational degree and social status in the movie ''Pride and Prejudice''? This paper aims at identifying these honorific forms that are manifested socially and pragmatically with reference to theory of intimacy/status and the theory of politeness. Besides, it attempts to investigate the relationship between the positive and negative politeness strategies and the functions of different categories of honorifics that are used by some public characters in movie 'Pride and Prejudice'. It also sheds light on the effect of different sociolinguistic variables in interpreting and identifying the honorific expressions. The finding of this study reveals that context and other sociolinguistic factors are an effective factors and have an important role in providing a full understanding of the intended meaning of honorific forms. Substantially, this paper shows that how the choice of honorific expressions is utilized differently depending on particular socio-pragmatic aspects.

Thinking with the head, seeing with the eyes? Investigating the relationship between place of articulation (PoA) and two semantic domains in German Sign Language (DGS)

Iconicity, the (perceived) form-meaning relationship, is present on all linguistic levels insign languages. Looking at the phonological level, there is awell established relationshipbetween the (fore)head as place of articulation (PoA) and the semantic domain of cognitionfor multiple sign languages. In previous studies, this relationship has been suggestedfor German Sign Language (DGS) as well, but none of them looked at the quantitativedistribution of PoAs in signs within the semantic domain of cognition. In thisstudy, we not only investigate the quantitative distribution of PoAs in signs of the semanticdomain of cognition for DGS but also in the semantic domain of visual perception.Findings of this study are in line with previous research, suggesting a strong relationshipbetween the semantic domain of cognition and the associated PoA (fore)head. Forthe semantic domain of visual perception, signs are predominantly articulated near theupper half of the face but not always close to the expected PoA, namely the eyes in thenarrow sense.

Gradience in iconicity

Abstract While it has largely been taken for granted by most linguists that the relationship between linguistic signifier and signified is arbitrary in nature, a growing number of studies suggest otherwise. In this article, we demonstrate that iconicity in total reduplicative constructions in Nigerian Pidgin is graded in nature, and that the degree of iconicity of any given reduplicative is largely correlated with the word class to which its simplex form belongs, with reduplicated ideophones and adverbials exhibiting the highest degree of iconicity, reduplicated pronouns the lowest degree of iconicity, and reduplicated adjectives, nouns, numerals and verbs intermediate degrees of iconicity. Our results shed light, not only on which word classes are more prototypically involved in reduplication than others in the world’s languages, but also on typical pathways that reduplicatives follow in processes of grammaticalization, whereby their isomorphic form-meaning relationship appears increasingly attenuated, albeit due to varying language-internal factors that are specific to individual languages.

The impact of phonological relatedness on semantic congruency judgements in readers with dyslexia: Evidence from behavioural judgements, event related potentials and pupillometry

Readers with developmental dyslexia are known to be impaired in representing and accessing phonology, but their ability to process meaning is generally considered to be intact. However, neurocognitive studies show evidence of a subtle semantic processing deficit in dyslexic readers, relative to their typically-developing peers. Here, we compared dyslexic and typical adult readers on their ability to judge semantic congruency (congruent vs. inconcongruent) in short, two-word phrases, which were further manipulated for phonological relatedness (alliterating vs. non-alliterating); “dazzling-diamond”; “sparkling-diamond”; “dangerous-diamond”; and “creepy-diamond”. At the level of behavioural judgement, all readers were less accurate when evaluating incongruent alliterating items compared with incongruent non-aliterating, suggesting that phonological patterning creates the illusion of semantic congruency (as per Egan et al., 2020). Dyslexic readers showed a similar propensity for this form-meaning relationship despite a phonological processing impairment as evidenced in the cognitive and literacy indicative assessments. Dyslexic readers also showed an overall reduction in the ability to accurately judge semantic congruency, suggestive of a subtle semantic impairment. Whilst no group differences emerged in the electrophysiological measures, our pupil dilation measurements revealed a global tendency for dyslexic readers to manifest a reduced attentional response to these word stimuli, compared with typical readers. Our results show a broad manifestation of neurocognitive differences in adult dyslexic and typical readers’ processing of print, at the level of autonomic arousal as well as in higher level semantic judgements.

현대중국어 ‘X不到哪裡去’ 구문의 형성 원인과 기제 연구

In this paper, we use the theory of constructionalization to discuss the formation, motivation and mechanism of the the negative construction ‘X bu dao na li qu (不到哪里去)’.BR First of all, ‘X bu dao na li qu’comes from the rhetorical question “X dao na li qu”. The negative meaning comes from the speakers’ doubts of the behavior of ‘X bu dao na li qu’. In fact, he does not believe this kind of behavior is possible. Then, ‘X bu dao na li qu’ absorbs the negative information conveyed by the rhetorical context and highlights the negative information with a negative mark to form the negative structure of ‘X bu dao na li qu’. It makes negation from the pragmatic meaning of ‘X dao na li qu’ to the grammatical meaning of ‘X bu dao na li qu’ which results in the phenomenon of pragmatic grammaticalization. In the process of the evolution from “X dao na li qu” to “X bu dao na li qu”, the structural correspondence principle of form-meaning relationship is the motivation, the absorption of context is an important way and the neoanalysis is the mechanism to promote the change of the basic structure of language form.

THE USE OF SYMBOLS, WHICH ARE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF TURKISH CULTURE, IN PAINTING ART IN MODERN ART AND POST PERIOD IN TURKEY

It is thought that in the 20th century and later period, the paintings in which the symbols of Turkish culture are used do not take place sufficiently in the literature. In this context, it is important to support the production of works within the relevant framework and to increase the recognition of existing ones. The aim of this study; To explore, understand and interpret the use of symbols, which have an important place in Turkish culture, in modern art and post-painting art in Turkey in terms of form-meaning relationship. The study was carried out according to the hermeneutic pattern in line with the purpose. Three works by Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Erol Akyavaş, Rauf Tuncer, Hüsamettin Koçan and Süleyman Saim Tekcan, one of the pioneers of Turkish painting art, formed the study group. The document method was used as a data collection tool, and the data were analyzed by concept analysis and artifact review method. It has been determined that the symbols, which are the dominant elements in the related works, are presented to the audience in different styles. The fact that the symbols of Turkish culture were successfully synthesized with the universal plastic expression in the examples of works discussed in terms of form and meaning relationship was considered important in the context of the possibility of reaching wider masses. Keywords: Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Erol Akyavaş, Rauf Tuncer, Hüsamettin Koçan, Süleyman Saim Tekcan

The iconicity of possessive-affix position in Malayo-Polynesian

Abstract Most languages which code possession morphologically do so by using either prefixes or suffixes. This study examines the minority of languages which employ both prefixes and suffixes in order to express the contrast between alienable and inalienable possession. The focus is on a possible interaction of affix order type and possession type. An analysis of a dozen Malayo-Polynesian languages (8 Eastern Malayo-Polynesian and 4 Central Malayo-Polynesian) reveals a surprisingly consistent pattern. Ten of these languages consistently associate prefixes with alienable possession and suffixes with inalienable possession. None of the 12 languages does it the other way around. This form-meaning relationship is argued to be iconically motivated. Suffixes are claimed to be more closely linked to their stems than prefixes are. This formal closeness mirrors the tighter relationship between possessor and possessum in inalienable than in alienable possession. Five languages make a three-way contrast among inalienable, intermediate and alienable possession. This suggests that the distinction between alienable and inalienable possession should be viewed as a continuum rather than a dichotomy. Individual languages may split up this continuum in different ways.

Learning aspect in Italian as additional language. The role of second languages

Abstract The study examines the role played by English and Romance languages (L2s) when learning grammatical aspect in Italian as additional language (Ln). Swedish university students of Italian (n = 34), divided according to knowledge of a Romance L2 and English aspectual knowledge, completed an interpretation task of aspectual contrast in Italian. Eight native speakers served as a control group. The findings showed that knowledge of a Romance language as L2 and high English aspectual knowledge exerted a differential influence on learning aspect in Italian. This outcome is discussed in the light of a consistent form-meaning relationship between the L2s and Italian. Yet, with a mismatch between grammatical and lexical aspect, the learners’ judgments differed from the native speakers’ judgments. Thus, our findings also support the idea of the existence of differential learning paths sustained by the L2s when learning complex aspectual configurations.

KURT SCHWITTERS’ MERZ WORKS OUTSIDE THE SURFACE: MERZBAU

The objective of this study is to explore and interpret Kurt Schwitters’ outside-the-surface Merzbau works in terms of form-meaning relationship. The study was carried on according to hermeneutic model. Documents were used as data collection tool. The study group consists of Merzbau works by Kurt Schwitters. It has been found out by the data obtained that the Merzbau works the artist made in Hannover, Germany and Norway were destroyed, and that his work in England, which he started making in 1947, is his only Merzbau work that survives until today. In the study, analyses were made based on the photographs left from the works and correlations were made with other artists’ works produced at the time. It has been observed that Schwitters composed his works by assembling trashes and found objects to which he assigned his own meaning. It has been seen that this resembles Cabinet of Curiosities in Renaissance. By placing his Merz works on a space, Schwitters transformed them into installations. Therefore, it has been found out that there is a connection between V. Tatlin’s corner counter-reliefs and his transforming the object into an artwork by isolating its worldly task. It has also been observed that the artist influenced Art Povera with the materials he used. It has been stated that throughout his lifetime, some additions could be made on Merzbau works that he created on the basis of concepts such as limitlessness-irregularity-infinity, and therefore, the endpoint of his works can be related to his moment of death. Keywords: Kurt Schwitters, Dada, Installation, Inherent, Avant-garde

Language shaping identity or identity shaping language – a study on sensory sound-symbolism among native Macedonian speakers

A number of different theories exist concerning the origin of words. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the phýsis and the nómos/thesis theories about the origin of words, arguments debated even in one of Plato’s dialogues - Cratylus. It goes without saying that words show different relations between their form and their meaning. This paper takes a closer look at linguists’ divided opinions, presenting and comparing them, setting out from the notion that the forms of the words bear only an arbitrary association with their meaning, and goes on to discuss the notions of onomatopoeia, sound-symbolism and iconicity. Furthermore, this paper presents several studies covering the experimental approaches to sound-symbolism, with special attention devoted to sensory sound-symbolism. The summary of these studies suggests what potential elements of the form of the word might be responsible for the form-meaning relationship in a word. In addition, a small-scale online survey was conducted with the aim to investigate potential sensory sound-symbolism in Macedonian based on the above-mentioned studies, in order to see what similarities and differences exist. Evidence of patterns of non-arbitrariness present in language is analysed through a discussion of the relation between the form, particularly the sounds and the meaning of words. / Keywords: arbitrariness, sound-symbolism, iconicity, form-meaning relations, ideophones

Facilitative transfer only?

Abstract This study investigates transfer effects and later development in English-Cantonese bilinguals’ L3 Mandarin grammar. Three types of Mandarin sentence-final particle clusters are involved as the target structures. The results show that L3 learners with the knowledge of Cantonese behave in a less native-like way than their English-speaking L2 counterparts on the illicit Mandarin cluster [*de le/* le de] that has a licit corresponding cluster in Cantonese, and outperform their L2 counterparts on the licit Mandarin cluster [le ne] that has a Cantonese equivalent. This is regarded as strong evidence of transfer effects from Cantonese, which is typologically and structurally more similar to Mandarin than English. We hence argue that L3 initial transfer is not determined by the order of the languages previously acquired but the structural similarity. More importantly, our study shows that transfer effects can be facilitative as well as detrimental. In addition, our data cross different proficiency levels show that factors such as the learning situation (learning or unlearning), word frequency and form-meaning relationship can influence the success of acquisition of a specific property in the L3.

Sound Symbolism Facilitates Long-Term Retention of the Semantic Representation of Novel Verbs in Three-Year-Olds

Previous research has shown that sound symbolism facilitates action label learning when the test trial used to assess learning immediately followed the training trial in which the (novel) verb was taught. The current study investigated whether sound symbolism benefits verb learning in the long term. Forty-nine children were taught either sound-symbolically matching or mismatching pairs made up of a novel verb and an action video. The following day, the children were asked whether a verb can be used for a scene shown in a video. They were tested with four videos for each word they had been taught. The four videos differed as to whether they contained the same or different actions and actors as in the training video: (1) same-action, same-actor; (2) same-action, different-actor; (3) different-action, same-actor; and (4) different-action, different-actor. The results showed that sound symbolism significantly improved the childrens’ ability to encode the semantic representation of the novel verb and correctly generalise it to a new event the following day. A control experiment ruled out the possibility that children were generalising to the “same-action, different-actor” video because they did not recognize the actor change due to the memory decay. Nineteen children were presented with the stimulus videos that had also been shown to children in the sound symbolic match condition in Experiment 1, but this time the videos were not labeled. In the test session the following day, the experimenter tested the children’s recognition memory for the videos. The results indicated that the children could detect the actor change from the original training video a day later. The results of the main experiment and the control experiment support the idea that a motivated (iconic) link between form and meaning facilitates the symbolic development in children. The current study, along with recent related studies, provided further evidence for an iconic advantage in symbol development in the domain of verb learning. A motivated form-meaning relationship can help children learn new words and store them long term in the mental lexicon.

PEMAHAMAN KUANTITATIF DASAR DAN PENERAPANNYA DALAM MENGKAJI KETERKAITAN ANTARA BENTUK DAN MAKNA

This contribution discusses basic concepts of Chi-Square (χ2) test as a kind of analytical statistics and illustrates its application to one of the central issues in linguistics, namely form-meaning relationship. As a case study using Indonesian Web as Corpus from the Sketch Engine, this paper measures the association between morphosyntactic forms of words in the lexical field of panas ‘hot’ and their (non-)metaphorical usages. The χ2 test demonstrates a highly significant and robust association between the morphosyntactic form of words with the root panas ‘hot’ and their preference for (non-)metaphorical usages. The clear effects are shown by (i) the strong preference of the inchoative form memanas ‘to become hot’ for metaphorical usage, and (ii) the strong dispreference of dipanaskan ‘to be caused to be hot’ and panas ‘hot’ for metaphorical usage. This finding has implication on the predominant semantic trait of words with certain morphosyntactic forms, thus capturing the form-meaning relationship in language.

Iconicity in the lexicon

AbstractThis paper presents a study on the form-meaning relationship within a subpart of the lexicon, namely lexical reduplication. It compares the semantic classification of lexical reduplication in diverse languages, focusing on three quantitative studies on the distributions of semantic categories in three typologically and genetically unrelated languages, Bikol, Tibetan and Arabic. On this basis, it is argued that the common view that lexical reduplications are a “semantically arbitrary class” and as such irrelevant for studies on reduplication is not justified. It is in contrast claimed that the mapping of certain meanings on this specific phonological pattern is highly iconic, and that these word forms can be classified as a specific subgroup ofexpressives.This group even shows remarkable parallels with the prototypical meanings of morphological reduplication. An explanation for this – certainly controversially discussed – observation could be provided by the cognitive semiotic concept of “cross-modal iconicity” (Ahlner & Zlatev 2010).

An Analysis of Persian Compound Nouns as Constructions

In Construction Morphology (CM), a compound is treated as a construction at the word level with a systematic correlation between its form and meaning, in the sense that any change in the form is accompanied by a change in the meaning. Compound words are coined by compounding templates which are called abstract schemas in CM. These abstract constructional schemas generalize over sets of existing compound words and specify how new compound words can be created. The schemas dominate the compounds so that they inherit all predictable morphological and semantic properties from these schemas. Also, CM adopts a paradigmatic approach to word formation, that is, the creation of new compound words is caused by the extension of a systematic form-meaning relationship in a set of existing compound words to new cases resulting in new compounds. Regarding these properties of CM, This paper studies Persian compound nouns in the framework of Construction Morphology. From this perspective, two types of compound nouns including endocentric and exocentric ones are treated in a rather similar way because the compound noun construction as a holistic schema plays the main role in specifying the syntactic features and semantic content of compound nouns, not their individual constituents. According to findings of this study, the analysis of Persian compound nouns based on CM increases the degree of generality in compound noun formation and develops the concept of holisticity in the form and meaning of compound nouns as well as it highlights the paradigmatic relationship in Persian compound noun formation templates.

An Evaluation of Teacher Candidates’ Opinions about Art Education and Form-meaning Relationship

We live in an age in which visuality is important. In this day and time, instead of long texts and narrations, incarnated forms of meaning and notions are used for informational transfer. As to the reach of an individual for abstract notions, it is a competence of that individual which is gained by the education. Due tothe indispensable contributions of art education classes have on an individual's reasoning and imagination, they also directly contribute to development of said individual's cognitive abilities.This research aims to evaluate the ability of thinking in expressible meanings of forms, examined among the teacher candidates who took visual arts education and art and aesthetics class in 2012-2013 academic year, majoring in pre-school teaching and social studies teaching respectively. Purpose is to present how teaching candidates develop the form-meaning relationship. A total of 298 teacher candidates were involved in the research. Symbols such as circle, triangle, square, tree, pencil, hand, fish, flying bird, wheel, bitten apple, and yin-yang were shown to these teacher candidates before and after 12 weeks curriculum, and it is asked from them to answer the question of what these symbols are and what may them express. Finally, answers were evaluated using qualitative research model.

An application of graph theory to linguistic complexity

Abstract This article introduces a new measure of linguistic complexity which is based on the dual nature of the linguistic sign. Complexity is analyzed as consisting of three components, namely the conceptual complexity (complexity of the signified), the formal complexity (complexity of the signifier) and the form-meaning correspondence complexity. I describe a way of plotting the form-meaning relationship on a graph with two tiers (the form tier and the meaning tier) and apply a complexity measure from graph theory (average vertex degree) to assess the complexity of such graphs. The proposed method is illustrated by estimating the complexity of full noun phrases (determiner + adjective + noun) in English, Swedish, and German. I also mention the limitations and the problems which might arise when using this method.

Making choices in Russian: pros and cons of statistical methods for rival forms

Sometimes languages present speakers with choices among rival forms, such as the Russian forms ostric’ vs. obstric’ ‘cut hair’ and proniknuv vs. proniksi ‘having penetrated’. The choice of a given form is often influenced by various considerations involving the meaning and the environment (syntax, morphology, phonology). Understanding the behavior of rival forms is crucial to understanding the form-meaning relationship of language, yet this topic has not received as much attention as it deserves. Given the variety of factors that can influence the choice of rival forms, it is necessary to use statistical models in order to accurately discover which factors are significant and to what extent. The traditional model for this kind of data is logistical regression, but recently two new models, called ‘tree & forest’ and ‘naive discriminative learning’ have emerged as alternatives. We compare the performance of logistical regression against the two new models on the basis of four datasets reflecting rival forms in Russian. We find that the three models generally provide converging analyses, with complementary advantages. After identifying the significant factors for each dataset, we show that different sets of rival forms occupy different regions in a space defined by variance in meaning and environment.

Putting the cyclic gesture on a cognitive basis

In this paper we describe the cognitive model that governs the forms and uses of the cyclic gesture, recurrent in a corpus of spontaneous German conversations. The gesture shows a stable form-meaning relationship: The continuous circular outward movement correlates with the semantic core of cyclic continuity in each context of use. On the basis of a thorough analysis of each of the 56 instances found in the data, we found that the cyclic gesture is not used randomly but distributed over a stable set of contexts of use showing a systematic variation of form and meaning. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that the image schema cycle, which the core of this gesture is reminiscent of, is metaphorically construed drawing on the metaphors mind is a machine, body is a machine, and time is motion through space. According to these findings, we argue for a shared underlying Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM, cf. Lakoff 1987) which functions as a model for thinking about and classifying cyclic events and guides the uses of this gesture. Via our study, we can give a new, semantic, perspective on the notion of gesture families.