Lexical Field Research Articles

Polite Discourse on the Earls' Journey to Rome: Exploring the Lexical Field and Sensibility of 'Conversation' in Irish

Structured personal accounts of contemporary events and happenings composed in the Irish language are exceedingly rare in the pre-Revival period; that is to say, in the period prior to the founding of the Gaelic League or Conradh na Gaeilge in Dublin in 1893. The first such composition and the main focus of this paper is the account of the Ulster Earls’ journey from Rathmullan in Co. Donegal to Rome in 1607–8. It was written by Tadhg Ó Cianáin, a member of the native learned class, who accompanied the Earls on their journey. Tadhg Ó Cianáin’s account of the Earls’ journey to Rome includes many instances where specific reference is made to conversation as an accomplishment and pleasurable social activity. There would seem to be no doubt but that this reflects Ó Cianáin’s observation of a practice which was being cultivated on the Continent for societal and aesthetic purposes, and regarded as being conducive to family, kindred and community cohesion. Nonetheless, the examples of conversation-in-being culled from Irish literature more generally and cited in this article bear witness to the ongoing engagement with conversation, discourse and storytelling which has always permeated Irish culture.

At the Crossroads of Cognition and Emotion : Wonder, a Multifunctional and Polysemous Marker

Wonder belongs to two subclasses of cognition verbs. As a lexical verb, it appears in sentences expressing either an affective stance or a mental process. Wonder licenses a wide range of complements, mainly preposition phrases (e.g. about-PP, af-PP) and various types of finite clauses (e.g. if-clauses, Wh-clauses, that-clauses). Moreover, wonder can also be used as a discourse marker, in parenthetical constructions or in exclamatory sentences, for instance. The present study sets out to accomplish three main goals : first, to establish whether each syntactic construction or type of complementation matches with one particular meaning— cognition or emotion ; second, to determine the discursive uses of wonder, both in its cognitive and emotive senses ; third, to shed light on the parameters and factors that allow for a unified perspective on wonder. To achieve this, a qualitative, corpus-based analysis is conducted, which helps to understand to what extent different grammatical codings embody specific ways of viewing the scene. First, the definitions of the concepts involved — cognition and emotion— and verbal typologies are presented in Section 1, which is also devoted to the definition of wonderand the respective characteristics of cognitive and emotive verbs. Section 2 presents the methodology employed to collect data for the study, as well as a corpus-based typology of the complements of wonder. The two sections that follow focus on cognitive wonder and emotive wonder, and their respective prototypical constructions, while underlining their differing discursive functions. Finally, a synthesis of all the meanings and uses of wonder is proposed, bringing to light that wonder is a telling example of the continuum existing between the intellectual, cognitive pole and the subjective, emotive pole. This continuum is iconic of the unbroken chain of cognitive processes in the human mind, which implies that the structure of the lexical field of cognition mirrors the organisation of cognitive phenomena. The study shows that syntax is motivated by meaning : the noninterchangeable syntactic constructions contribute to both conveying a particular meaning and carrying out a precise discursive function.

НОМІНАТИВНЕ ПОЛЕ СУБКОНЦЕПТУ SANITAS В ЛАТИНСЬКІЙ МОВІ

The article is devoted to the investigation of the nominative field of the subconcept SANITAS in the Latin language, which has a complex character due to the integration in its structure lexical field, phraseological field and synonymic sets. The essence of the nominative field in the system of language has been analyzed with regard to the specifics of nominative units – its verbalizers; kernel and prekernel zones, near and far peripheries have been defined; the means of microfields verbalization of the prekernel zone of subconcept SANITAS as well as the list of lingual units verbalizing the concept HEALTH have been investigated. It has been defined that nominative field structure of the HEALTH concept is represented as core and pre-core zones consisting of some microfields as well as close and distant peripheries of SALUS, SANITAS, VALETUDO subconcepts. The semantic field of the SANITAS subconcept has been built up due to the principle of semantic proximity / difference basing on the integral seme and frequency of acquiring certain meanings by the concepts’ names. It has been defined that the SALUS, SANITAS, VALETUDO subconcepts share the common slots «being (somatically and/or mentally) healthy» and «providing somatic and/or mental health». It has also been emphasized that the SANITAS subconcept substantially integrated the semes of HEALTH concept that led to its dominant role in nominating both somatic and mental health states in the lingual world model of the ancient Romans, while the sanitas lexeme and co-root words appear to be the fundamental means that verbalize the HEALTH concept in the Latin language. Therefore, the article contributes to the development of the theoretical principles of ancient languages concepts’ research as well as to the development of cognitive linguistics, linguistic culturology, axiological linguistics, etc. It enables to find out the specific dimensions of ancient Romans’ mode of thinking and their world outlook.

True German and phony English laughter: Schmidt-Hidding was still Schmidt

Schmidt-Hidding’s (b. 1903, d. 1967) lexical field study on the area of Humor und Witz [humor and wit/jokes] (1963b) receives attention in humor research to this day, especially in German-speaking countries. His diamond-shaped illustration of the two dimensions of the field of humor, not least in its aim to distinguish “earthy” German from “courteous” English humor, has become well-known. In view of this continued interest in the final write-up of Schmidt-Hidding’s work on humor (1963a, 1963b), in which he consistently ignores his earlier related publications under the name of Schmidt, this paper aims to discourage researchers from basing their work on it for two reasons. The more important one is the flawed, or at least muddled and definitely outdated, methodology of his study. The more delicate one that is focused on here is that the motivation for and the ideological direction of the study are strongly influenced by its author’s National Socialist ideology, which Schmidt-Hidding had possibly assumed for opportunistic reasons and abandoned after World War II. I will first document this ideological alignment with National Socialism from Schmidt’s earlier work, basically a prelude to his Schlüsselwörter (1963a). Then I’ll briefly present the methodological flaws, to the degree that Schmidt-Hidding was sufficiently explicit about his method to make that possible. This approach of interpreting a complex issue in its historical and social contexts, along with showing what the issue is in contrast to analogous issues, is the important research agenda that Davies brought to humor research.

A Study on Vocabulary Education Contents in North Korea For the development of Integrated Curriculum of South and North Korea

This paper analyzed the contents of Vocabulary Education in North Korea by analyzing the Korean language curriculum in elementary school, elementary junior high school and junior high school in North Korea. And it emphasizes understanding and use of words, suggests various ways of understanding meaning, improve of quantitative ability, emphasizes understanding of Sino-Korean words without Chinese characters translation, the use of appropriate vocabulary for the content of the text, the use of native words, present of lexical field. Among them, awareness of Chinese character education, awareness of Chinese character use, provide a list of learning vocabulary, repetition of content elements, method of hierachization will be an issue during the development of integrated curriculum South and North Korea.

Ideologies Et Terminologies Associees A L’homosexualite Chez Les Populations De Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire

The populations of Bouaké in general have extremely negative perceptions of homosexuality. They translate this aversion by a whole lexical field with depreciative and offensive connotations in refering to it. On the other hand, there are homosexuals who have positive perceptions, and who, in order to escape social reprobation, secretly live their sexuality while at the same time developing a jargon that allows them to first recognize each other and then value themselves. This homophobia is not without dramatic consequences for homosexuals as well as for society itself. There is therefore a need to work at all levels (family, legal, political etc.) to curb homophobic acts before the worst happens.

Estudo lexical do vocabulário do jogo de arco e flecha e da corrida de tora Parkatêjê

Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar a documentação e estudo sobre o léxico de duas atividades tradicionais do povo Parkatêjê: corrida de tora e o jogo de arco e flecha. Para isso, partimos de dois campos léxicos, corrida de tora e jogo de arco e flecha, os quais foram subdivididos em cinco subcampos semânticos: espaço físico; etapas e processos; elementos humanos; partes, componentes, especificações e medidas e instrumentos. A coleta de dados foi realizada in loco com a aplicação de questionários linguísticos com informantes de três faixas etárias. Todo o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa baseou-se em postulações teórico-metodológicas da Etnolinguística por (Coseriu (1990), Velarde (1991) e Rodrigues (2005); da Lexicologia e Lexicografia (Biderman (2001) e Dubois et al. (1973); e no Campo Léxico com Coseriu (1977) e Abbade (2011). Ao término do estudo chegamos à estrutura e à organização do vocabulário a que nos propomos investigar, bem como às suas particularidades linguísticas.

Armelle Sabatier, Shakespeare and Visual Culture–A Dictionary

The contents of this Dictionary include, in order of appearance, a list of Figures, Acknowledgements, the Series Editor’s Preface, the list of Abbreviations, a list of Headwords, an Introduction by Armelle Sabatier, A-Z, a Bibliography and an Index. Armelle Sabatier’s detailed introduction delineates the main fields of interest which have guided the selection of headwords among the lexical fields related to the semantic field of Visual Culture. The choice of these two words for the book title...

A Study on the Topic-based Vocabulary in Korean Textbooks Considering Learners’ Proficiency.

This study is a basic study for the selection of the subject-based vocabulary list of Korean textbooks. To this end, the textbooks compiled by Korean language education institutions were analyzed. In this analysis were examined the types and difference of the vocabulary list of the same subject presented in the same proficiency. These results suggest the necessity of selecting the vocabulary list of subject in Korean textbook considering the proficiency. This study analyzed three intermediate(third) level textbooks in four Korean language institutes. The main contents of the analysis are as follows. First, it was examined whether the subject of each unit would be suited to proficiency. Second, it was analyzed whether vocabulary lists for the same proficiency were similar. Third, it was considered whether the target vocabulary were presented as productive words and practice were included. As a result, the topics were mostly different for each of the four textbooks, and there was only one common theme. It can be inferred that the knowledge possessed by the learners of each institution will be different. Next, there was a big difference in the vocabulary list including the same topic. Similar vocabulary lists were not presented when presented as a target vocabulary. And the vocabulary presented in the task was presented as a comment and the purpose of presentation was unclear. Finally, in the case of vocabulary presentation and practice, the target vocabulary was presented as lexical field. However, there was no activity or practice to analogize and understand the meaning of the target vocabulary. Based on these results, this study suggests that it is necessary to select a list of thematic vocabulary considering the proficiency. (Kyunggi University)

Remarks on the Interpretation of Some Ambiguous Greek Textile Terms

The study of written sources of the Classical period (5th and 4th centuries BC) reveals the existence of a very rich vocabulary related to textile production. There are terms referring to materials, tools, manufacture and decoration techniques, colours, people and places related to textile manufacture. Many terms are quite clearly defined, while others present major difficulties in their interpretation. Usually these concern terms for tools, such as κερκίς (pin beater or shuttle) and ἡλακάτη (distaff or spindle) or terms describing fabrics with some kind of decoration. Among the decorative terms, some refer to specific decorative techniques, such as κατάστικτος (embroidered) while others refer to aesthetic results, such as ποικίλος (with elaborate and colourful decoration).2 I believe it is quite important at this point to underline a significant characteristic of the ancient Greek language. Although languages are not simply univocal codes and their meaning is the most important dimension, ancient Greek has what may be called an indivisible polysemy of words (and grammatical cases). Its semantic richness cannot be compared to modern European languages, such as English.3 In this context, one and the same ancient Greek term can include more than one meaning simultaneously (e.g., ὥρα = time, season, youth, perfect moment), in which case the translator does not have to choose between the different meanings, because they are all included – or the same term can have different meanings depending on the context (e.g., ὀργή = anger, wrath, but also drive, impulse, temperament, outburst), in which case the translator has to choose the right meaning. This could lead to difficulties in the lexical field of textiles and textile production. Very often a single term creates semantic harmonics, which produce in the mind of the listener a series of mental associations through its resonances, consonances and connotations. In order to understand a term, one has to clarify its entire semantic potential. Furthermore, each term must be interpreted in relation to its context as opposed to adopting an univocal or unambiguous meaning. This kind of ambiguity certainly does not apply to every single term. For example, terms for weaving tools must have been clearly defined in Antiquity, although they often seem ambiguous to us today.

La desaparición de los 43 normalistas en México: una aproximación al análisis crítico del discurso en la prensa

Se propone un análisis crítico del discurso de la prensa en el cubrimiento de la desaparición de cuarenta y tres jóvenes estudiantes en Guerrero (México) en septiembre de 2014. Para ello se explora un corpus de 2.107 documentos periodísticos, obtenido en tres meses de seguimiento a los diarios Reforma y La Jornada, con el objetivo de identificar las estrategias discursivas utilizadas en la prensa para reportar este suceso, a partir del análisis de la frecuencia léxica y la ocurrencia de frases nominales. En concreto se identifican cuatro estrategias discursivas: la negación y la neutralización, empleadas para ocultar la responsabilidad del Estado en los actos violentos; y la historización y la acreditación, como parte del discurso disidente. Todas estas estrategias están orientadas a la disputa de los campos léxicos que dan sentido a la desaparición forzada y a la violación de los derechos humanos. © Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales.

Aiming for Cognitive Equivalence – Mental Models as a Tertium Comparationis for Translation and Empirical Semantics

This paper introduces my concept of cognitive equivalence (cf. Mandelblit, 1997), an attempt to reconcile elements of Nida’s dynamic equivalence with recent innovations in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology, and building on the current focus on translators’ mental processes in translation studies (see e.g. Göpferich et al., 2009, Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2010). My approach shares its general impetus with Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk’s concept of re-conceptualization, but is independently derived from findings in cognitive linguistics and simulation theory (see e.g. Langacker, 2008; Feldman, 2006; Barsalou, 1999; Zwaan, 2004). Against this background, I propose a model of translation processing focused on the internal simulation of reader reception and the calibration of these simulations to achieve similarity between ST and TT impact. The concept of cognitive equivalence is exemplarily tested by exploring a conceptual / lexical field (MALE BALDNESS) through the way that English, German and Japanese lexical items in this field are linked to matching visual-conceptual representations by native speaker informants. The visual data gathered via this empirical method can be used to effectively triangulate the linguistic items involved, enabling an extra-linguistic comparison across languages. Results show that there is a reassuring level of inter-informant agreement within languages, but that the conceptual domain for BALDNESS is linguistically structured in systematically different ways across languages. The findings are interpreted as strengthening the call for a cognition-focused, embodied approach to translation.

Linguistic DNA: Investigating Conceptual Change in Early Modern English Discourse

ABSTRACTThis article describes the background and premises of the AHRC-funded project, ‘The Linguistic DNA of Modern Western Thought’. We offer an empirical, encyclopaedic approach to historical semantics regarding ‘conceptual history’, i.e. the history of concepts that shape thought, culture and society in a particular period. We relate the project to traditional work in conceptual and semantic history and define our object of study as the discursive concept, a category of meaning encoded linguistically as a cluster of expressions that co-occur in discourse. We describe our principal data source, EEBO-TCP, and introduce our key research interests, namely, the contexts of conceptual change, the semantic structure of lexical fields and the nature of lexicalisation pressure. We outline our computational processes, which build upon the theoretical definition of discursive concepts, to discover the linguistically encoded forms underpinning the discursive concepts we seek to identify in EEBO-TCP. Finally, we share preliminary results via a worked example, exploring the discursive contexts in which paradigmatic terms of key cultural concepts emerge. We consider the extent to which particular genres, discourses and users in the early modern period make paradigms, and examine the extent to which these contexts determine the characteristics of key concepts.

LEXICO-STYLISTIC CHOICES AND MEDIA IDEOLOGY IN NEWSPAPER REPORTS ON NIGER DELTA CONFLICTS

Media reports on Niger Delta (Henceforth, ND) conflicts have reflected a relationship between lexico-stylistic choices and media ideologies. The existing media studies on the discourse have predominantly utilised pragmatic, stylistic and discourse analytical tools in presenting and labelling discourse participants and/or their ideologies, but neglected how media ideologies can be revealed through lexico-stylistic choices made in the reports. This paper therefore examines the lexico-stylistic choices in the reports in order to establish their link to specific ideological goals of the newspapers in relaying the conflict news. Forty reports on ND conflicts, published between 2003 and 2007, sampled from two ND-based (The Tide and Pioneer) and two national (The Punch and THISDAY, labelled) newspapers, were subjected to stylistic and critical analyses, with insights from structural (relational) semantics and aspects of stylistics discourse. Two broad lexical stylistic choices are identified, including paradigmatic (61.8%—indexed by synonymous, antonymous, hyponymous, colloquial, and register items, and coinages) and syntagmatic (38.2%—marked by collocations, metaphors, pleonasms, and lexical fields) features. The features are utilised for three ideological ends; namely, picking out and framing participants as perpetrators of the violence in the discourse, evaluating specific entities and their roles in the conflicts, and reducing the impact of the activities of the news actors. Although there are overlaps, the evaluative ideology is largely associated with the national newspaper, the impact reduction ideology with the ND-based newspapers, while the framist ideology is observed in the two sets of newspapers. With these findings the study has added the lexical stylistics angle to the existing scholarship on ND conflict news discourse. Thus, the newspaper reports on ND conflicts are motivated by their ideological goals to change the reader’s outlook on the issues relating to the conflicts.

Handel alkoholem w leksyce staro- i średniopolskiej

In the herein article over thirty lexical units are maintained and analysed depicting the place where the alcohol was sold or the person selling that ‛thing’. The written material was gathered from all available lexicographical sources registering the old vocabulary — to the end of the 18th century. Stemming from the etymology, the authoress investigated the meanings of particular word-forms, which she put into the table-chart at the end. The diagram illustrates quantity and quality changes which happened in analyzed lexical field. It was documented and stated that the character of these changes was influenced by the ongoing linguistic theory and vogue. The longest in practice are the oldest names in unchanged state which are reaching with its own roots the pre-Slavic culture.

El léxico de la gestión turística en lengua francesa en el Diccionario Multilingue de Turismo: análisis contrastivo con la lengua inglesa

For this research study we identified lexical units from a comparable corpus of approximately three million words in English, Spanish and French, taken web pages for private lodgings and accommodations. This corpus has lexical units related to hotel accommodations, services, facilities and management; these units constitute the entries of the Multilingual Dictionary of Tourism. In this article, we will focus our study on the lexical field of hotel management in French of the dictionary: simple and compound nouns. After, we’ll analyse some differences between the two languages and the solution taken for finding specific equivalents of chosen units in English.

The Anthropological Context of Euskaro-Caucasian

The hypothesis that the Basque language is genetically related to languages in the Caucasus region was developed in the 20th century by respected scholars including C. C. Uhlenbeck, Georges Dumézil, and René Lafon, but has recently fallen into disfavour. The author defends the Euskaro-Caucasian hypothesis in a refined model in which Basque (Euskara) is most closely related to the North Caucasian language family (but not “South Caucasian” = Kartvelian). It is maintained that this hypothesis is not only linguistically convincing, supported by hundreds of basic etymologies, sound correspondences, and shared morphology, but is also consistent with recent results in archaeology and human genetics. Among the Euskaro-Caucasian etymologies is a significant number involving small and large cattle, swine, dairying, grain and pulse crops, and tools and methods of processing crops. These lexical fields are consistent with the spread of agriculture and animal husbandry to Western Europe by means of colonisation by bearers of the Cardial (Impressed Ware) Culture who came from the Anatolian (or possibly Balkan) region, and spoke a language related to Proto-North Caucasian. The well-known genetic distinctiveness of the Basques is a result of centuries of low population size, genetic drift and endogamy, rather than purely Paleolithic ancestry. The present-day Basque people represent a genetic amalgam of the Cardial colonists with indigenous hunter-gatherers, but their Euskaro-Caucasian language is colonial, not indigenous, in origin. Basque is the sole remaining descendant of the Euskaro-Caucasian family in Western Europe, but there is evidence (in the form of substratum words) that this colonial language was formerly more widely spread in other nearby regions (Sardinia, parts of Iberia, France, the Alps, Italy, the Balkans, and perhaps beyond).

Verbal number in Goemai (West Chadic)

Abstract Chadic languages are known for marking verbal number, and Goemai is no exception. When comparing Goemai to other Chadic languages, however, several differences emerge: the inventory is exceptionally large; the verbs come from all lexical fields; and they are used to indicate participant number rather than event number. Contrary to expectations, the marking of participant number does not only cover intransitive subjects and transitive objects, but also some transitive subjects and peripheral arguments. These patterns have a semantic basis, and this chapter explores the interaction of verbal number, transitivity and semantic roles in Goemai.

Lexis, Lexical Competence and Lexical Knowledge: A Review

Lexis is one essential component of language and language development. Limited lexical knowledge can lead EFL learners to frustration and demotivation. To reach a higher level of development in the four basic communication skills, learners should have a basis of lexis that allows them to do so. One of the factors affecting the ongoing development of communicative competence is neglecting the systematic teaching of lexis. Teachers’ lack of knowledge of the lexical field has contributed negatively to this current situation. To meet these needs, this article reviews concepts such as lexis/vocabulary, lexical competence and knowledge and size and depth of lexical knowledge. It discusses new perspectives that could help language teachers develop conceptual knowledge to handle lexical instructional practice.

Le vocabulaire du bonheur et de la joie chez Plaute et Cicéron

The vocabulary of happiness and joy in Plautus and Cicero. The terms of these two lexical fields are compared, going deeper than simply the usual translations. Happiness is related to life’s opportunities and changes (fortunatus), is a dynamic of success (felix), or results from a process in which expectations are met, procuring inner fulfilment (beatus). While gaudium is often more neutral, laetitia refers rather to a strong inner or outer impact. Finally, the links between happiness and joy are complex. The inner fulfilment of happiness restored is scarcely mentioned by Plautus, but characterises the happiness of the philosopher, although Cicero emphasises that the condition of beatus cannot be founded on the exuberance and fragility of laetitia.