General Verbs Research Articles

Anticipatory Processing in a Verb-Initial Mayan Language: Eye-Tracking Evidence During Sentence Comprehension in Tseltal.

We present a visual world eye-tracking study on Tseltal (a Mayan language) and investigate whether verbal information can be used to anticipate an upcoming referent. Basic word order in transitive sentences in Tseltal is Verb-Object-Subject (VOS). The verb is usually encountered first, making argument structure and syntactic information available at the outset, which should facilitate anticipation of the post-verbal arguments. Tseltal speakers listened to verb-initial sentences with either an object-predictive verb (e.g., "eat") or a general verb (e.g., "look for") (e.g., "Ya slo'/sle ta stukel on te kereme," Is eating/is looking (for) by himself the avocado the boy/ "The boy is eating/is looking (for) an avocado by himself") while seeing a visual display showing one potential referent (e.g., avocado) and three distractors (e.g., bag, toy car, coffee grinder). We manipulated verb type (predictive vs. general) and recorded participants' eye movements while they listened and inspected the visual scene. Participants' fixations to the target referent were analyzed using multilevel logistic regression models. Shortly after hearing the predictive verb, participants fixated the target object before it was mentioned. In contrast, when the verb was general, fixations to the target only started to increase once the object was heard. Our results suggest that Tseltal hearers pre-activate semantic features of the grammatical object prior to its linguistic expression. This provides evidence from a verb-initial language for online incremental semantic interpretation and anticipatory processing during language comprehension. These processes are comparable to the ones identified in subject-initial languages, which is consistent with the notion that different languages follow similar universal processing principles.

Literal and metaphorical usages of Babanki EAT and DRINK verbs

In Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of North-West Cameroon, two of the numerous consumption verbs, namely the generic verbs ʒɨ́ ‘eat’ and ɲʉ́ ‘drink’, constitute a major source of metaphorical extensions outside the domain of ingestion. Setting out from a characterisation of the basic meanings of these two lexical items as they emerge from their paradigmatic relations within the semantic field of alimentation processes, this paper explores the figurative usages of the two verbs and their underlying semantic motivations. Semantic extensions that radiate from eat can be subsumed under two closely related structural metaphors, i.e. APPROPRIATION OF RESOURCES IS EATING and WINNING IS EATING. The first metaphor construes the acquisition and exploitation of non-food items such as material possession as eating, while the second metaphor casts the acquisition of immaterial advantage in the mould of eating. Both metaphors have further entailments, i.e. the derivation of pleasure from consumption of resources, the depletion of resources via consumption and the deprivation of a third party from access to these resources. Semantic extensions that radiate from drink can be accounted for in two structural metaphors, i.e. INHALATION IS DRINKING and ABSORPTION IS DRINKING. Remarkably, some metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs attested in other African languages, such as extensions of EAT for sexual intercourse and for killing, and the extensions of DRINK for undergoing trouble and enduring painful experiences are absent in Babanki.

Language changes in Alzheimer’s disease: A systematic review of verb processing

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) results in language impairments and higher-level communication problems. Research into the language of people with AD (pwAD) has mainly focused on nouns; however, improved understanding of verb processing by pwAD could improve diagnostic assessments and communicative interventions. This systematic review synthesizes findings of AD’s effects on verbs from single-word, sentence, and discourse tasks. Review of 57 studies revealed that pwAD were less accurate than controls on single-word tasks and less accurate with verbs than nouns on these tasks. They had difficulty comprehending sentences featuring multiple verbs or verbs with reversible thematic roles. Discourse production by pwAD was marked by vagueness, including declines in total output and propositional content and a preference for generic verbs and simple syntax. Few studies examining sentence production or discourse comprehension were found. Future research should address relationships between long-term memory and language preservation as well as verb use in discourse.

한일 인용구문에 관한 대조연구 - 인용동사와 인용절의 의미관계를 중심으로 -

This paper examines the semantic relation between quoted clauses and quotative verbs in terms of the ‘saying verb level’ and the role of quotation markers in modern Japanese and Korean quotation structure. It classifies types of quotative verbs into high, medium, and low ‘saying verb levels’, and analyzes the semantic relationship between each verb type and the quoted clause. As a result, for general verbs with a high ‘saying verb level’, the quoted clause suggests specific contents of the verb, and emotional verbs with a medium ‘saying verb level’ conveys a cause of the emotion in the main clause. The low level saying verb shows a situation in which the utterance of the quoted clause coincides with the action of the verb, and unlike in the previous two types, there is no semantic relationship at all in the low level saying verb type. In addition, the marker to is not acting as a quotation marker but as a marker to indicate the ‘equivalent relation’ when it appears in the “-o -to V” clause.

Thought complements in Australian languages

Very little has been written on the grammar of complement constructions in Australian Aboriginal languages. Grammars rarely provide much information, and few references treat the topic either in particular languages or cross-linguistically. This paper addresses this lacuna with a typological investigation of thought complements in the languages of the continent. Some languages show evidence of a separate construction type for coding propositional thoughts. In most Australian languages it seems that a limited range of verbs can be employed in the matrix clause; these usually include generic verbs meaning ‘say, do, think’ or ‘hear, think’. Two other constructions resemble the reported thought construction, a type of desiderative, and mistaken belief constructions; the major grammatical features of these constructions are discussed. In most languages there is no compelling evidence that the clause of thought serves as an argument of the matrix clause, and thus the construction is not a complement construction in the traditional sense. Rather, what is involved is framing – a relation distinct from both embedding and dependency; some issues with this analysis are discussed and resolved. The investigation is based on a corpus of just over seventy languages, partly a convenience sample (depending on available information) and partly a representative one (the major geographical regions and families are included, albeit unevenly).

형식동사의 부가어 연구

Dummy verbs is used as predicate like general verb, they are weakened the original meaning of movement or action. they didn’t display substantive meaning, they formed a phrase with object that displayed movement. their name is very various, the object property of them is different from the property of general object. it is not clear about category, feature, and function, so many problems still are in constant discussion. we need to study about it, the adjunct of dummy verbs has not yet been studied. this paper according to the generation grammar’s theory and adjunct condition, we considered classification, feature and generative processes in the adjunct of dummy verbs, we came to the following conclusions. the adjunct of dummy verbs are made up of adverbs, auxiliary verb and prepositional phrase. they are used of adverbial in front of dummy verbs. several adjuncts can also be used together. and dummy verbs isn’t a overt light verb or covert light verb. the meaning of verb is weakened by itself, they have properties and functions of verb, they can use dynamic postposition behind dummy verbs, and they can use negative adverb, auxiliary verb in front of dummy verbs, and the object of them stand for movement, they have a property of noun. the adjunct of dummy verbs was added to maximal projection, it can’t be added to argument NP or CP. light verb phrase vP hasn’t the feature of argument, adjunct can be added to vP. adjunct was projected in vP head according to Adjunct Projection Principle. adjunct is generated in surface structure, it doesn’t need to move position, it merges on this right spot. we don’t check features because it has the feature that was projected in maximal projection. the adjunct of dummy verbs it is merged into the left in tree diagram, and it is consisted of one structure, so we can’t extract any element among them. according to the related generation grammar theory and adjunct theory, we progress the syntax project in the adjunct of dummy verbs structure, we can project like this paper 〈picture 5〉 and 〈picture 7〉. the adjunct of dummy verbs is located in front of them, it is merged into the left in tree diagram. several adjuncts can also be projected together, we can’t extract any element among them, this is the sole parameter phenomenon of chinese, we have to modify category and properties of generation grammar adjunct.

Conversational Mental Verbs In English Song Lyrics

This corpus-driven study explores the linguistics phenomenon of mental verbs in English song lyrics from 1960s until 2000s. This study aims to identify the frequency distributions of lexical verbs, mental verbs, and to analyze the language uses of mental verbs in the Diachronic Corpus of English Song Lyrics (DCOESL). Quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis were implemented to complement each other. First, quantitative data covering frequency distributions of general verbs was produced via LancsBox. Top three mental verbs in song lyrics were selected for analysis and discussion. The frequency distributions of mental verbs and collocations were produced via LancsBox. Collocational patterns are illustrated through collocational graphs constructed via LancsBox. Frequency distributions of mental verbs were compared to reference corpus Contemporary Corpus of American English (COCA) for the purpose of generalizing the findings from this study as representative of English language. The statistical data were submitted for four statistical tests of significance namely Chi-square, Mutual Information, Log-likelihood, and t-score. Second, qualitative data are composed of corpus annotations. Corpus annotations were conducted via CLAWS for assigning part-of-speech C7 tagset to identify verbs. Semantic categories of mental verbs were identified via UCREL Semantic Analysis System (USAS). Findings uncovered the significantly high frequencies of mental verbs know, want, and love in English song lyrics through 1960s until 1990s. These three mental verbs possess high inclination to occur alongside personal pronouns I and you, depict social actions, high predilection for simple present tense, and simple sentence structure. These attributes illuminate that song lyrics emulate spoken English, predominantly the informal conversation register.
 
 Keywords: Corpus Linguistics, Corpus Driven, Computational Corpus Linguistics, Mental Verbs, Song Lyrics.

To Score or to Score a Goal: Transitivity in Football Match Reports

ABSTRACT This article investigates the use and non-use of objects with six transitive verbs in a corpus of English football match reports. The verbs were selected on the basis of their frequency as well as their lexico-grammatical features of “footballness” and transitivity. The study suggests that object omission may not be as pervasive as hinted at in previous studies (e.g. Bergh and Ohlander 2016; Ruppenhofer and Michaelis 2010). Regarding potential reasons for object omission, it is uncovered that the football verbs-net, save, play-are more prone to object omission than the general verbs: feed, create, take. This is attributed to the strong attraction of the former to recurrent collocates such as goal and ball. This suggests that verbs used to report on unremarkable and canonical situations (to the game of football) more readily omit the object, albeit not on a general basis, as individual differences between the verbs also emerge.

Lexique raisonné du français académique par Catherine Fuchs et Sylvie Garnier

Reviewed by: Lexique raisonné du français académique par Catherine Fuchs et Sylvie Garnier Jessica L. Sturm Fuchs, Catherine, et Sylvie Garnier. Lexique raisonné du français académique. Tome 1. Ophrys, 2020. ISBN 978-2-7080-1555-5. Pp. 317. The focus on verb-noun pairs—which verbs can take which nouns as objects—makes this text an excellent reference for non-native speaking graduate students of French, as well as a pedagogical tool for advanced undergraduates. The authors rightly suggest that their work is useful for: students of French as a second language at the B2/C level; native speakers of French who wish to enrich their lexicon; teachers of French as a foreign language; translators/translation instructors. Lexique raisonnée du français académique is designed to help students avoid false cognates and overuse of generic verbs, and to help them refine their comprehension. In teaching, it can be used to help students observe the language in context, where they can analyze the conditions of use. Specifically, this text focuses on, and is divided into, three parts respectively labeled: verbs of starting, continuing, and finishing. Each Partie of the book, subdivided into commencer and faire commencer, begins with an introductory table of verbs and ends with a summary table and exercises (answers can be found at: <http://www.ophrys.fr/fr/catalogue-detail/2309/lexique-raisonne-du-francais-academique-tome-1.html>). In between, each Partie features a series of notes on individual verbs, followed by comparative notes on pairs of verbs such as se dégager/se faire jour. The individual notes are divided into two parts: Quelque chose [verb] and Ce qui [verb]. Each part gives a definition or precision of the verb's usage, along with several examples. The examples are organized by type: un objet intellectuel, un objet social ou institutionnel, un état, un processus, une période de temps. Symbols such as the warning triangle or magnifying glass call the reader's attention to particularities of each verb (and are defined before the introduction). The comparative notes begin with a table demonstrating which verb is appropriate for which (type of) noun, followed by elaborate examples. Exercises, found at the end of each Partie, explore the precisions and particularities of each pair of verbs. One could create an entire linguistics or academic writing course around this text or use specific notes and their affiliated exercises as independent units in a language, culture, or linguistics course. All of these tables, notes, and exercises combine to create a text that is an excellent resource for anyone using, learning, or teaching the French language. [End Page 287] Jessica L. Sturm Purdue University (IN) Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French

Development of the progressive construction in Chinese EFL learners’ written production: From prototypes to marginal members

Abstract This study investigates the developmental trajectory of L2 English progressive construction with a focus on frequency, verb-construction contingency and semantic prototypicality. Comparisons were made on the use of the progressive construction in argumentative essays written by Chinese learners at three different proficiency levels and English native speakers. Data of frequency and verb type distribution indicate that L2 learners’ progressive repertoire showed an increase in productivity and variability and a spread from a fixed type to a wider range of verbs. Contingency data demonstrate that, when associating verbs with the progressive, learners’ preference shifted from prototypical progressive verbs which denote specific and dynamic meanings to more marginal members represented by generic verbs. In addition, semantic prototypicality overweighs generality in driving the development of the progressive, which presents an interesting contrast with findings in the verb-argument construction learning literature where semantically general verbs were first predominantly used in the construction.

Глаголы падения в английском языке: данные корпусов и типология

The paper presents the results of the studies carried over the group of English verbs with the meaning of falling. The research goals included classification of the lexical meanings, both direct and metaphorical, rendered by those verbs, on the basis of the analysis of the components of the situations put together in the special questionnaire. This was carried out together with native speakers of English, after which the collected set of examples was verified and expanded with searches in the big corpora of English speakers’ oral and written production available at the SketchEngine platform. Besides being a great source of extracting lexical meanings, Sketch Engine also provided the data and the statistics for the analysis of collocational behaviour of the verbs in question used with different subjects of falling. The scope of application of the umbrella verb fall and the distribution between it and its two rivals — drop and fall down — was in focus of the three corresponding sections in the paper, while the range of peripheral verbs of falling with all the comparative analysis of their lexical features formed one more section. Separately from the verbs conveying the direct meanings of falling, metaphoric shifts in the meanings of these verbs made up the content of section 6. Based on the findings presented in the previous sections, the conclusions regarding the concept of falling in English are discussed in the last part of the paper. The research confirmed that the verb fall is by far the most widely used in various contexts of falling. Whether used alone or combined with adverbial or prepositional particles, it covers the overwhelming majority of meanings of falling, both literal and metaphorical. Although drop proved to be the most frequent synonym of fall, there is a distribution of meanings between the two related to the nature of the subject and the intentionality of the action. As shown in the paper, the choice between fall and fall down appears to be determined by the trajectory of the fall and whether the typical position of the subject is vertical or not. Likewise, the distribution between fall off and fall down is conditioned by the trajectory, with the surface mentioned with the latter. Among the various peripheral verbs of falling, come and go — the most general verbs of movement — are also used in combination with down in specific cases of falling.

Use of Tense and Aspect in Academic Writing in Engineering: Simple Past and Present Perfect

This study aims to analyze the use of tense and aspect in academic writing in engineering with a major focus on the use of simple past and present perfect. In general, one of the most difficult items for Japanese EFL learners is the appropriate use of tense and aspect. The previous literature pointed out that ESL learners are often confused about using them. Therefore, the American Psychological Association recommends that the past tense is used when discussing another researcher’s work and reporting results, whereas the present perfect is used to describe an action beginning in the past and continuing to the present. Toward this end, the current study analyzed the use of simple past and present perfect using a small corpus compiled from 21 major journal articles in mechanical engineering. The study found that the frequently appearing simple past verbs were “showed,” “occurred,” “resulted,” and “indicated.” Additionally, “been” was the most frequently used verb in sentences that employ the present perfect. In addition, more than 90% of the sentences were followed by sentences that use the past participle of general verbs. Therefore, many forms of the present perfect clearly appeared in passive sentences.

한·일 양언어의 비가열 조리동사 대조연구 - 혼합과 발효를 중심으로 -

The study of vocabulary on cooking in Japanese and Korean has been conducted in many fields. However, they have mainly focused on cooking verbs about "heated food" and there are few studies on "unheated cooking verbs". Moreover, there is no previous study that encompasses various aspects of the derivative meaning as well as the primary meaning. This study examines what unheated cooking verbs are in both languages by limiting the range of unheated cooking verbs to mixing and fermentation among Japanese and Korean cooking verbs, and furthermore, clarifies the derivative aspects of the meaning of heating cooking verbs. For this, firstly, headings of the "unheated cooking verb" were extracted from previous studies and cooking books, and then the headings were classified into two subsets, "processing and mixing" and "preservation and fermentation". The group of verbs for ‘processing and mixing’ was further divided into 〈seasoning to taste〉, 〈putting〉, and 〈mixing〉 and the group of verbs for ‘preservation and fermentation’ were divided into 〈dipping〉, 〈brewing〉, and 〈fermenting〉. The Japanese and Korean unheated cooking verbs share many similar parts, but they also show interesting differences according to the differences in expression. Further, among the "unheated cooking verbs" of both languages, verbs that were used purely to convey the meaning of cooking were rarely observed. Many verbs expanded their meaning from the meaning of general verbs to the meaning of cooking. This aspect of the meaning expansion cannot be explained by the linguistic aspect only, and the relationship with the cultural aspect should be examined together. The difference in the usage patterns of the two languages" cooking verbs is thought to be related to the differences in the types of foods, the cooking methods, and the language expressions that stem from the development of the food culture, and it is expected that the differences in the food culture between the two countries will be clarified by summarizing the overall cooking verbs in Japanese and Korean. 日本語と韓国語の調理に関する研究は多岐にわたって行われているが、調理動詞の側面においては、主に「加熱調理動詞」を中心に行われており、「非加熱調理動詞」を扱う研究は少ない。さらに、調理の一次的な意味だけでなく、派生的な意味の様相を合わせた先行研究はほとんど見つからなかった。 このような点に着目し、本論文では、まず、日本語と韓国語の調理動詞のうち、混合と発酵を中心とした非加熱調理動詞に範囲を限定する。そして両言語において、どのような非加熱調理動詞の表現が現れるのか考察し、さらに加熱調理動詞の意味の派生様相を明らかにしようとした。 このため、まず先行研究と辞典および料理関連書から「非加熱調理動詞」を抽出し、「加工および混合」、「保存および発酵」に分類した。また、「加工および混合」を〈味付ける〉、〈入れる〉、〈混ぜる〉に分け、「保存および発酵」の段階を〈漬ける〉、〈醸す〉、〈発酵する〉に分け、それぞれの動詞を分類した。 日本語と韓国語の「非加熱調理動詞」は表現の側面において似たような部分が多いが、その中でも表現の違いによる相違点が見られることが興味深い結果になる。 一方、両国の「非加熱調理動詞」のうち、純粋に料理の意味でのみ使用される動詞はほとんど確認されず、多くの動詞が一般動詞の意味から調理の意味に拡張されて現れる様相を確認することができた。 このような考察の結果は、言語的側面だけでは説明しきれない部分があり、文化的側面との関係も見てみる必要がある。料理の種類と調理方法及び食文化の発達による表現の差が調理動詞の使用様相とも関係があると判断され、日本語と韓国語の全体的な調理動詞を整理してみると両国の食文化の差も明確に現われると思われる。

Data-driven Learning Approach for Teaching Verb-Noun Collocations in an English Foreign Language Context

This study addresses the learners’ actual use of corpora in the classroom for learning verb-noun collocations. The target items were selected through a multi-level approach which consisted of three levels: a corpus-based approach, a phraseological approach and a pedagogical approach. The study relied on data collected from fifty-one participants studying general English at the intermediate level in the foundation year at a university in Saudi Arabia. The study ran for five weeks and included three training sessions for learners on how to use a corpus resource (AntConc) and to read and analyse concordance lines. There were also two test sessions. The participants were tracked via software tracker in both the training and testing sessions. Data were collected through tracking logs and activity sheets. The main finding was that the participants were able to apply the DDL (Data-driven Learning) approach independently in the same way as they had been trained, which indicates that the training was successful. The learners were also able to identify the general verb patterns through the use of concordance lines.

The representation of action in Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Abstract The present study investigates the types of verb and symbolic representational strategies used by 10 deaf signing adults and 13 deaf signing children who described in Italian Sign Language 45 video clips representing nine action types generally communicated by five general verbs in spoken Italian. General verbs, in which the same sign was produced to refer to several different physical action types, were rarely used by either group of participants. Both signing children and adults usually produced specific depicting predicates by incorporating, through a representational strategy, the object and/or the modality of the action into the sign. As for the different types of representational strategies, the adults used the hand-as-object strategy more frequently than the children, who, in turn, preferred to use the hand-as-hand strategy, suggesting that different degrees of cognitive complexity are involved in these two symbolic strategies. Addressing the symbolic iconic strategies underlying sign formation could provide new insight into the perceptual and cognitive processes of linguistic meaning construction. The findings reported here support two main assumptions of cognitive linguistics applied to sign languages: there is a strong continuity between gestures and language; lexical units and depicting constructions derive from the same iconic core mechanism of sign creation.

BIASPECTIVES SEMANTIC DISTRIBUTION BY UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE

The verb link is an important modern Ukrainian language component in the nominative means system. In modern linguistics, more and more attention is paid to the features verb tokens as sentence-forming units study, because the verb semantic structure in general projects the whole sentence organization. Verbs grammatical categories differently characterize the actions, processes and being in states course. In traditional grammar, the form was defined mainly as a basic morphological or general verb grammatical category, because it is inherent in all verb formations and forms: in a certain context, each form expresses the either imperfect or perfect form meaning. Type is a verb grammatical category that acts as a central to a more general verb category – aspectuality. The action aspect is directly related to the verb semantics, the meanings of which are determined by the whole language grammatical structure and the semantic-paradigmatic lexical connections system. The determining the place difficulty of the action aspect (broader actionality) in the verb categories system is explained by the fact that they intersect lexical, word-forming and grammatical features, between which it is not always possible to draw a clear line. The most common is the action interpretation as a semantic category, because the action genres are not word-forming categories, although some of them are characterized by certain morphemes. The Ukrainian language uses a number of verbs in which the same base can simultaneously express the perfect and imperfect form meaning, which is why they are called two-type verbs or biaspectives. Issues related to the biaspectives study are extremely relevant and little studied. An attempt is made in the proposed exploration to shed light on the biaspectives semantic distribution by Ukrainian language.

Conceitos do tempo e do espaço em russo e em português: diferenças e dificuldades na aprendizagem

O artigo analisa as diferenças estruturais entre as línguas russa e portuguesa no domínio dos conceitos do tempo e do espaço e os erros típicos dos alunos russofalantes provocados por estas distinções. Elas são as seguintes: o calendário russo começa a semana com a segunda-feira, enquanto no caso do português, com o domingo; as 24 horas do dia são divididas e denominadas em russo e em português de maneira diferente. Enquanto o português descreve a posição do objeto no espaço mediante os verbos genéricos, o russo especifica a sua posição horizontal ou vertical. Os conceitos espaciais e temporais na língua portuguesa podem expressar-se pelos mesmos lexemas, ao passo que em russo esta confusão é praticamente impossível.

Bridging Linkage in Tariana, An Arawak Language from Northwest Amazonia

Bridging constructions—a means of linking sentences within narratives—can be of two kinds. Recapitulating linkage may involve repetition of the last clause of the preceding sentence as the first, dependent clause of the following one. Summary linkage involves using a generic verb in a dependent clause summarizing the actions of the previous sentence. Both have been referred to with various terms, including tail-head or head-tail linkage. In a number of languages, including Tariana, a North Arawak language spoken within the Vaupés River Basin linguistic area in Brazil, the two techniques are distinct in their form, in the content of the recapitulating and the summary clause, and in their functions. Both bridging techniques are the result of recent areal diffusion from the neighboring and unrelated East Tucanoan languages. The use of the generic verb in summary clauses and the repetition in recapitulating sentences are consistent with broader patterns in language structure and language use.

Messages must be tuned to the target language: Some implications of crosslinguistic semantic diversity for neurolinguistic research on speech production

Abstract There are nearly 6,500 languages in the world, and they vary greatly with regard to both lexical and grammatical semantics. Hence, an early stage of utterance planning involves thinking for speaking—i.e., shaping the thoughts to be expressed so they fit the idiosyncratic meanings of the symbolic units that happen to be available in the target language. This paper has three main sections that cover three distinct types of crosslinguistic semantic diversity. Each type is initially elaborated with examples, and then its implications for the neurobiology of speech production are considered. Type 1: Semantic field partitions. These are exemplified by huge crosslinguistic differences in many domains of meaning, including colors, body parts, household containers, events of cutting and breaking, and topological spatial relations. When such differences are viewed from the perspective of contemporary neurocognitive theories which assume that most concrete concepts are subserved by both modal (i.e., sensory, motor, and affective) and transmodal (i.e., integrative) cortical systems, they imply that speakers must access language-specific semantic structures at multiple levels of representation in the brain. Type 2: Semantic conflation classes. Some languages have whole sets of words that systematically encode two or more components of meaning. For instance, in the roughly 53 Athabaskan languages there are no generic verbs like give, carry, or throw; instead, there are entire sets of 9–13 verbs for these kinds of actions, with each set making the same distinctions between the types of objects that are given, carried, or thrown, such as animate objects, round objects, stick-like objects, flat objects, etc. This regular conflation of [action + object] in Athabaskan verb meanings predicts that speakers frequently co-activate both action-related and object-related cortical regions in a functionally integrated fashion. Type 3: Grammatically obligatory semantic categories. This kind of crosslinguistic variation involves not only the particular dimensions of experience that speakers are forced to track for grammatical purposes, but also the precise contrasts that they must make along those dimensions, with examples including systems of nominal classification, tense, and evidentiality. It is still not known exactly where or how the meanings of grammatically necessary closed-class morphemes are implemented in the brain, but it is quite clear that whatever the neural substrates of these meanings turn out to be, they are strongly influenced by crosslinguistic differences. In all, by focusing on three separate forms of crosslinguistic semantic diversity, this paper reinforces Levelt's (1989) point that messages must be tuned to the target language, and it also shows that this point continues to have significant consequences for neurolinguistic research on speech production.

German, Spanish and Mandarin speakers' metapragmatic awareness of vague language compared

English vague language (VL), as in general noun phrases, general extenders and general verbs, is central to casual conversation. It can have discourse functions and create an informality and solidarity. The rationale for the study described here was a gap in the literature vis-à-vis language learner metapragmatic awareness of VL in their L1. It was hypothesised that attitudes towards VL vary from language to language.This paper describes a comparative questionnaire study of German, Spanish and Mandarin speakers’ attitudes to VL in their languages. Subjects were invited to translate English VL to their languages and to think of other vague forms: German speakers volunteered ‘Dingsbums’ and ‘und so’; Spanish speakers suggested ‘cómo se llame’ and ‘o algo así; Mandarin speakers noted ‘na ge dong xi’.Subjects were also asked to describe social variables, domains and functions associated with their VL: German speakers saw VL as creating closeness but many felt that it made addressors sound unreliable and mildly impolite; Spanish speakers mostly saw VL as a way of showing a relaxed, close, comfortable, friendly, but a few saw it as an sign of laziness and impoliteness; Mandarin speakers responded that VL was a marker of friendly informality and solidarity but they mostly associated it with indifference, laziness, impatience, irritation, anger, disappointment, contempt and dishonesty.The paper concludes with suggestions of ways to incorporate tasks on VL into English language teaching classrooms, and to raise language teachers’ awareness of English L2 users’ beliefs and intercultural differences in terms of VL.