General Lexicon Research Articles

Reforming Science Teaching: What Research Says About Inquiry

Inquiry has a decades-long and persistent history as the central word used to characterize good science teaching and learning. Even at a time when a new word, constructivism, had entered the general educational lexicon as the descriptor of good education, the authors of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) chose to stay with inquiry and totally ignore the new word. But in spite of its seemingly ubiquitous use, many questions surround inquiry. What does it mean to teach science as, through, or with inquiry? Is the emphasis on science as inquiry, learning as inquiry, teaching as inquiry or all of the above? Is it an approach to science education that can be realized in the classroom or is it an idealized approach that is more theoretical than practical? Is it something that the “average” teacher can do, or is it only possible in the hands and minds of the exceptional teacher? What are the goals of its use? Does it result in greater or better learning? How does one prepare a teacher to utilize this type of science education? What barriers must be overcome to initiate such science education in the schools? What dilemmas do teachers face as they move to this form of science education? The list of questions goes on. They are of particular importance to people committed to the NSES and wanting to see these standards put into greater practice. Reformers from all categories—teachers, teacher educators, administrators, policy makers and members of the general public want to know what answers research has for such questions. Given the central role of teacher education in the process of educational reform, however, these questions are of particular interest to science teacher educators. Researchers’ pursuit of answers has resulted in an extensive literature. Defining the arena broadly, the number of studies is in the hundreds and probably more. This body of research literature is worth exploring, but it will be necessary to limit and focus. Since the NSES is at the center of current discussions of U.S. science education improvement, it is well to begin with that document and consider its use of inquiry. This beginning point, of course, does not imply that the NSES document is without problems or that is fully grounded in the latest research. It is well to remember that it is a political document, based on an attempt to find consensus among the various educational, scientific and public constituencies in the realm of science education. As a result of its wide usage, the language of the document is useful for our communication. Consideration subsequently can be given to how far research goes in answering the questions at hand. *This article is based on a commissioned paper prepared for the Center for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education at the National Research Council.

Emotional Connotation in Speech Perception: Semantic Associations in the General Lexicon

Lexical access of emotion words has been shown to depend on three underlying dimensions (Evaluation, Activity, and Potency). The importance of these dimensions of emotional connotation was assessed during on-line speech perception of words drawn from the general lexicon. Lexical decision times were significantly predicted by main effects of Evaluation and Potency, as well as by an Evaluation Activity interaction and an Evaluation Potency interaction. An evolutionary account is proposed to explain the differential processing of words in the general and affective lexica. Whereas the affective lexicon seems to be structured to avoid threats to the individual, the general lexicon appears to be designed for obtaining scarce but valuable resources.

The adaptive value of connotation in speech perception

In previous work it was demonstrated that reaction times (RTs) in a lexical decision paradigm were related to words’ ratings on the dimensions of evaluation, potency, and activity (independent of word frequency). This was found to be true of words in general [D. A. Vakoch and L. H. Wurm, Cognition and Emotion (in press)], and also of words from the affective lexicon [L. H. Wurm and D. A. Vakoch, Cognition and Emotion 10, 409–423 (1996)], but there were differences in the way these dimensions appeared to be used in each case. For emotion words, RTs were quickest for words that were rated as bad, strong, and fast (the evaluation × potency × activity interaction was significant), a finding interpreted in terms of the adaptiveness of danger avoidance. For words from the general lexicon, RTs were quickest to words that were rated as either good and strong, or good and fast, as though these represented resources that had to be seized quickly or lost. The current study clarifies the earlier findings, and expands the existing theory to include concepts such as the danger and usefulness of referents. [Work supported by AFOSR and NIMH.]

The Homer Lexicon of Apollonius Sophista: II. Identity and Transmission

R EADERS OF HOMER today have a choice of lexica: Homeric or general or in-between: Ebeling or Autenrieth, LSJ or one of its abridgements, the Lexikon des friihgriechischen Epos. In antiquity, from the first century on, they had the Homeric lexicon of Apollonius. The LSJ of the day was Pamphilus' 95-book amalgamation of all the specialized lexica he could lay his hands on. This was to attain wider circulation in the more affordable abridged form of Diogenianus' 5-book HpepwpyonEvr1?E5, which in turn, like Apollonius, was to end up in the capacious net of Hesychius (5th cent.?). Just as Diogenianus served as the standard general lexicon (see P.Oxy. XLVII 3329), so Apollonius immediately became the standard Homeric one, and held its own through the atticistic obsessions of the next centuries. No fewer than seven papyri of it have been recognized. None preserves its title, so we cannot know that they all owned Apollonian authorship, but in most cases their basic identity is assured.1 Collectively they give an excellent glimpse of the variety of forms that the lexicon took in response to the shifting needs of its consumers. I list them here, in approximate order of date of manuscript.

Affect classification in the German gender system

Gender has traditionally been cited as a paradigm instance of the arbitrariness of language. This paper builds on previous evidence provided by the authors showing that gender classification is not arbitrary in German, but rather forms a complex system based on phonetic and semantic organizing principles. Within the affect lexicon a set of compounds formed with the last member - mut is first experimentally evaluated and shown to have masc-gender or fem-gender assignment depending on the affective Extroversion or Introversion of the noun. The resulting classification is then applied to nouns with the derivational suffix - nis, which are shown to have a strong association between fem-gender and Introverted affect. Following this the classification is applied to a thorough sample of 177 affect nouns drawn from the entire lexicon. Here there is also shown to be a strong association between masc-gender and Extroverted affect, and between fem-gender and Introverted affect. An additional group of fem-gender nouns expressing arousal is uncovered. Thus the distribution of gender in the general affective lexicon supports the experimental results based on mut-compounds. Finally, historical evidence shows that (a) a number of nouns have undergone formal or semantic changes, and (b) a number of borrowed or newly coined nouns have received gender assignments in accordance with the hypothesized affect classification. It is concluded that the semantic organization of gender in the affective lexicon has a prototype structure as depicted e.g. by Rosch (1977).

Billiards, Pool, and Snooker Terms in Everyday Use

SPORTING JARGON has long been recognized as an important source of enrichment for American English. Studies in the transfer of sporting and gaming lingo into the language at large are numerous: baseball, cards, and horse racing have been particularly well scrutinized in this respect.1 There have, however, been no studies devoted to the influence of billiards and related games on the colloquial lexicon of our language.2 Although the origins of several widely used words and phrases have been traced to billiards, there is no collection of such words; there are, moreover, a number of colloquialisms whose poolroom origins seem not to have been noted, much less fully described. As a group, the expressions from billiards and pool in the following glossary exemplify the general process by which jargon is assimilated into the language at large. The terms stand in varying stages of dissociation from their origins. English has long since been wholly appropriated by the general lexicon, and its precise origins have been lost, even to lexicographers and historians. The case with fluke is similar. On the other hand, after the nineball and give it a ride are probably uncommon in general use, may be localisms, and seem likely to be used only by persons familiar with poolroom jargon. They derive from nineball, a relatively recent game. Perhaps those two terms are in a state of emergence that once characterized such expressions as behind the eightball, break, know the angles, and play it safe. The latter three expressions seem quite fully assimilated today; it is likely that many people, even those who play billiards or pool, use them without consciousness of their origins. Other phrases, such as behind the eightball and call the shots, seem somewhere between emergence and assimilation. They retain their origins and yet are widely used in general discourse; they are metaphorical. Taken together, the words and phrases in the glossary suggest several areas for inquiry. It seems at first glance extraordinary that there are so many well assimilated phrases from billiards, a game that the public does not follow with the same attention it gives to baseball, football, or other sporting sources of colloquialisms. Surprising, too, is the absence of stigma attached to most borrowings from the jargon of a game long infamous for its clientele of hustlers and underworld inhabitants. A brief consideration of the history of billiards sheds some light on