Lexical Morphology Research Articles

Lexical Morphology as a Source of Risk and Resilience for Learning to Read With Dyslexia: An fNIRS Investigation.

We examined the neurocognitive bases of lexical morphology in children of varied reading abilities to understand the role of meaning-based skills in learning to read with dyslexia. Children completed auditory morphological and phonological awareness tasks during functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging. We first examined the relation between lexical morphology and phonological processes in typically developing readers (Study 1, N = 66, Mage = 8.39), followed by a more focal inquiry into lexical morphology processes in dyslexia (Study 2, N = 50, Mage = 8.62). Typical readers exhibited stronger engagement of language neurocircuitry during the morphology task relative to the phonology task, suggesting that morphological analyses involve synthesizing multiple components of sublexical processing. This effect was stronger for more analytically complex derivational affixes (like + ly) than more semantically transparent free base morphemes (snow + man). In contrast, children with dyslexia exhibited stronger activation during the free base condition relative to derivational affix condition. Taken together, the findings suggest that although children with dyslexia may struggle with derivational morphology, they may also use free base morphemes' semantic information to boost word recognition. This study informs literacy theories by identifying an interaction between reading ability, word structure, and how the developing brain learns to recognize words in speech and print. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25944949.

Function-Level Code Obfuscation Detection Through Self-Attention-Guided Multi-Representation Fusion

Malware developers often employ code obfuscation techniques to conceal their malicious functionality, making it challenging to detect and analyze such software. While various de-obfuscation techniques exist, the majority of them require prior knowledge of the obfuscation tools and techniques in use. Identifying the specific obfuscation tools or algorithms applied to the obfuscated code is thus of vital importance, which, however, typically demands in-depth expert knowledge and substantial efforts. Therefore, this paper presents DeObA, a deep learning (DL) driven approach for the precise and efficient detection of obfuscation algorithms on the fine-grained function-level code snippets. To comprehensively capture unique patterns or features of different obfuscation algorithms from code, DeObA works on multiple distinct code views, encompassing token sequences, abstract syntax trees (AST) and program dependency graphs (PDG), which will reflect the code’s lexical morphology, syntactic and structural aspects. After individually collecting obfuscation-indicative features with well-matched DL encoder from each code view, a self-attention-based fusion strategy is performed on these features to produce an integrated, dense, yet feature-rich vector. This vector is then fed into a softmax classification layer for prediction. Due to the lack of a moderately sized dataset, a large obfuscation corpus is curated with 7 different obfuscation tools and a total of 12 obfuscation algorithms on 39,070 C/C[Formula: see text] functions. The experimental evaluations conducted on the dataset exhibit a distinguished detection performance of DeObA, which achieve accuracy rates of 99.90% and 99.19% on the obfuscation tool detection and obfuscation algorithm detection tasks, respectively. The ablation study also confirms the active role of considering multiple distinct code views and the effectiveness of the designed self-attention-based fusion strategy.

The names of the supreme being in Bemba: some critical morphological insights

In this article, we use lexical morphology to account for names of the supreme being in Bemba, a Bantu language spoken in Zambia as rendered by various translators in the Christian holy book, the Bible. Motivated by the agglutinative nature of the Bemba language in which lexical items are built out of distinctly identifiable sub-parts carrying specific meanings and functions, we segment morphemes of theonyms to unravel their meanings that are couched in the broader context of the Bemba sociocultural knowledge and narratives. We use semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis to collect data. There is a wealth of information and knowledge contained in the theonyms, and we propose two morphological structures on which the Bemba Christian theonyms are constructed. To this end, the study highlights single-word morphological structures that manifest as denominals, deverbals and de-adjectivals as well as a phrasal morphological structure, a combination of two or more separate words from any class as structures that inform the construction of the Bemba Christian theonyms.

The Linguistics of Connotation of Profanity in Ewe Place Names

Aim: Toponyms are universal to the globe but relevant and specific to cultures across the world. Humans use toponyms in various contexts in society. Toponyms are avoided in a particular speech context, due to its social, linguistic and cultural consequences for the name bearer and users. Toponyms sometimes attract ambiguity in the meaning assigned them. This ambiguity degenerates into connotative meanings. One such connotative practice among the Ewes is profanity. The Ewes frown on the use of profane words and has punitive codes and consequences for its guilt. However same community beautifully internalizes profane connotation into place names. This paper investigates the morphology of profanity in Ewe toponyms using linguistic anthropology and lexical morphology.
 Methods: Data for the qualitative study was collected using a WhatsApp platform for Tutors of Ewe.
 Results: The study found that the connotation centered on the human genitalia (penis, scrotum, vagina) have been the sources of compounding in the crafting of profanity in the place names. The names are used mainly by the youth in teasing and in group joking practices in oral language generally in casual or playful communication. The names usually have roots and stems that take on derivational and inflectional morphemes in the process of forming the profane connotation.
 Conclusion: Though the Ewes frown upon profanity in official language, the usage in place names is decorous and linguistically acceptable. The appropriate use of these names in jovial in-group and entertaining utterances demonstrates the linguistic competence of the interlocutors of the speech act. 
 Recommendation: The study recommends a further research on the syntactic implications of the profane names in the Ewe language.

Word Order of Noun Phrase by Modification in Mambwe Language

Mambwe language is spoken in Mbala and Senga districts in Northern Province along the corridors of Zambia and Tanzania. Guthrie (1948) classifies Mambwe as M15. Nurse and Phillipson (1999) have characterized Mambwe as emanating from a language called Fipa in Southern Tanzania. Nurse and Phillipson (1999) add that most speakers of Mambwe language are found on the Zambian side. This article presents an analysis of the syntactic structure of the word of the noun phrase (NP) by modification in Mambwe language. The paper is underpinned by Lexical Morphology (LM) and Bantu Morpho-syntax theoretical frameworks. The study used qualitative approach, elicitation and document analysis methods for data collection and analysis. The paper identifies the modifiers which are prevalent in Mambwe and analyses how they combine with nouns to form the NP. It also outlines the prevailing word orders in the NP by modification in Mambwe language. The study shows that there are three common word orders in the NP by modification in Mambwe language, namely; Noun + Demonstrative (N+Dem), Noun + Adjective (N+Adj) and Possessive Pre-prefix + Adjective (Poss. Pre-prefix +Adj).

복합어 構詞의 구조와 의미관계 고찰

The morphemes in a word are related structurally and semantically. This study uses the notion of verbal morpheme, and a verbal morpheme with lexical meaning of cooking is a cooking verbal morpheme. Most Chinese cooking verbs are monosyllabic, consisting of a single verbal morpheme, which has concrete lexical meaning and strong productivity of word formation. The objects of this study are Chinese compound words formed by cooking verbal morphemes. This study aims to investigate the structural and semantic relation of the verbal morphemes, mainly investigating the lexical morphology in a specific word group with the cooking meaning. As a result, in Chinese, the relative compound words are rich in the number and types, and some of them have similar structure with Chinese phrasal structure. As for lexical morphology, the most productive type is modifier-core type. As for the meaning of the components, those with the related relation(关联关系) are the most productive. But original meaning relation(一致关系) is also quite productive. This means participating in word formation while maintaining the conceptual meaning as much as possible rather than the expanding meaning. The core meaning of most compound words are cooking, however, some of the compound words(熬, 涮) choose metaphorical meanings as its core meaning. It is widely used as a metaphor in our life.

A Morphological Analysis of Tense in Mambwe Language

Guthrie (1948) classifies Mambwe as M15. The language is spoken in Mbala and Senga districts in Northern Province of Zambia. Nurse and Philipson (1999) have characterized Mambwe as originating from Fipa language in Southern Tanzania. The paper outlines the rules governing tense categorization and evaluates the verbal structure of tense in Mambwe language. The study employed the qualitative approach and elicitation methodology to collect data. Using descriptive and Lexical Morphology (LM) theoretical underpinnings, the article identifies the forms or categories of tense and their respective structures in Mambwe language. The study shows that tense in Mambwe language is as attested by other Bantu languages in terms of the present, past and the future tenses with their corresponding progressive counterparts.

Plurality in Anaang Language

Human knowledge of an entity at any point in time always has underneath it the concept of number because of the possibility of using the entity in speech or writing. The act of counting and having ‘one’ or ‘more than one’ entity as reference in speech or writing is a common phenomenon in the use of language. In concrete situations, every language user finds himself tending to express number or talking about ‘one’ or ‘more than one’ entity. Number is indispensable in the use of language. Entities that constitute the subject and, or object in sentences often occur in singular or plural form and languages grammaticalise the concept differently. Proper reference to entities in number is essential in constructing a grammatical sentence. This paper investigates plural marking in Anaang language. The Anaang language is one of the Lower Cross languages under the Delta Cross in the New Benue Congo family. The data for the study were collected from naturally occurring language recorded from native speakers of Anaang language during a fieldwork. The study used Lexical morphology and Aronof’s (1976) Unitary Base Hypothesis (UBH). The study reveals that Anaang language pluralizes entities through vowel alternation at the initial and at the medial positions, zero morpheme and through stem change, among other processes.

Vowel Serialization: A Derivation Contextualized Phenomenon in Yorùbá Morphology

The paper argues against the linguistic contextualisation of vowel serialization as basic phenomenon in the appraisal of Yorùbá concatenation morphology. Its findings are based on lexical derivation hypothesis of the lexical morphology theory to be able to account for the phonology and etymology of specified examples of vowel sequence in the language. Primary and secondary data were collected and subjected to analysis. Two sequence of vowel serialization as a morpho-phonological process in the word formation are identified: the VVCV, VCVV and CVV sequence. Vowel serialization frequently occurs consequent on the deletion of the first intervocalic segment and assimilation process between V1 and V2 in Yorùbá VVCV word sequence. Ideophonic words like gbòò, fòò, sàà, wàà and so on also undergo the similar processes. Also, functors such as kì í, má à, and tí ì comprise two seperate syntactic units each which mark two different functional categories in the language. Therefore, they are to be written seperately. Keywords: Vowel sequence, transformation, Yorubá, lexical morphology, syllabic structures

Cross-linguistic influences of L1 on L2 morphosyntactic processing: An fNIRS study

This study examined how the morphological typology of second language (L2) learners' first language (L1) affected neural processing of L2 morphosyntactic knowledge. We used functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine adult L2 learners’ processing of English Subject-Verb number agreement (e.g., duck swims, ducks swim) during a picture-sentence matching task. Two English learner groups with contrasting L1s, Spanish (with rich inflectional morphology, n = 16) and Mandarin (with a lexical morphology, n = 18), were compared to native English speakers (n = 19). Both L2-learner groups demonstrated comparable accuracy on the picture-sentence matching task. However, neural results revealed L1 influence on L2 morphosyntactic processing. Mandarin-speaking English L2 learners showed greater neural activity in the left middle temporal gyrus (L-MTG) for singular (e.g., the duck swims) versus plural sentences (e.g., the ducks swim). Mandarin relies on semantic, rather than inflectional, information to infer number and L-MTG is involved in lexical-semantic processing, suggesting L1 influence on L2 inflectional processing. Spanish-speaking English L2 learners showed greater neural activity in areas including the right MTG and prefrontal cortex for the plural versus singular sentences whereas native English speakers showed greater activity for singular versus plural sentences. The plural form is morphologically marked in Spanish and greater neural activation for the plural rather than singular form suggests L1 influence. Importantly, cross-linguistic influences were only observed at the neural level, revealing that different neural activation patterns underpin similar behavioral results. Both L2-learner groups showed different patterns of neural activation corresponding to the specific linguistic features of their L1, indicating that L2 processing is affected by L1 characteristics in linguistically principled ways. This study advances our understanding of how morphosyntactically-distinct languages are organized and processed in adult L2 learners.

Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese-English, Spanish-English bilingual, and English monolingual children.

How do early bilingual experiences influence children's neural architecture for word processing? Dual language acquisition can yield common influences that may be shared across different bilingual groups, as well as language-specific influences stemming from a given language pairing. To investigate these effects, we examined bilingual English speakers of Chinese or Spanish, and English monolinguals, all raised in the US (N=152, ages 5-10). Children completed an English morphological word processing task during fNIRS neuroimaging. The findings revealed both language-specific and shared bilingual effects. The language-specific effects were that Chinese and Spanish bilinguals showed principled differences in their neural organization for English lexical morphology. The common bilingual effects shared by the two groups were that in both bilingual groups, increased home language proficiency was associated with stronger left superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation when processing the English word structures that are most dissimilar from the home language. The findings inform theories of language and brain development during the key periods of neural reorganization for learning to read by illuminating experience-based plasticity in linguistically diverse learners.

Incremental processing of telicity in Italian children

A sentence like 'Lyn has peeled the apple' triggers two types of inferences: a telicity inference that the event is telic; and a culmination inference that the event has reached its telos and has stopped. This results in the final interpretation of the sentence that Lyn has completely peeled the apple. We present an eye-tracking study to test children's ability to predict the upcoming noun (e.g., the apple) during the incremental processing of sentences like 'Look at the picture in which he/she has peeled the…' in which the predicate is telic and the verb appears in the perfective form. By means of the Visual World Paradigm, we aimed to investigate children's ability to use the lexical semantics and aspectual morphology of verbs during language processing. To test if children can predict the target (e.g., a completely peeled apple) by exploiting the lexical-semantic meaning of the verb, we contrasted the target picture with a picture of an object that cannot be peeled; to test if they can predict on the basis of the verb's perfective morphology, we compared the target with the picture of a half-peeled apple. Our results show that Italian children can anticipate the upcoming noun in both cases, providing evidence that children can exploit the morphosyntactic cue on the verb (perfective aspect) to incrementally derive the culmination inference that the telos is reached and the event is completed. We also show that the integration of aspect requires some additional time compared to the integration of the basic lexical semantics of the verb.

POLYSYLLABIC STRATUM ORDERING ANALYSIS IN SCIENTIFIC TEXT: A MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY

The word formation is largely influenced by derivational affixes. These affixes however have certain level orderings called stratum ordering that lead to the formation of new words hierarchically. The study focuses on the investigation of the possible stratum ordering of derivational morphemes in scientific texts and the analysis of how these stratums form polysyllables derivational words. Qualitative research methodology is applied to this study. The data source of this study was taken from http://ijiemjournal.uns.ac.rs/v11/v11-01.html. This journal concerns Industrial Engineering and Management. The intended data are randomly taken from five journals published on Volume 11 | Issue 1 | March 2020 limited to polysyllables of scientific terms. The data were analyzed using the theory of Francis Katamba proposing that the central to lexical morphology is organized in a series of hierarchical strata and also Spencer (1991) supported by Plag and Baayen (2008). This paper concludes in general that the addition of derivational affixes to scientific terms is hierarchically structured based on the theory, such as the placement of strata 1 affixes closer to the root word, the neutrality of stress placement of strata 2 suffixes, and non-netrality of strata 1 suffixes. However, it is also found some inconsistencies in the placement of derivational suffixes in which the second strata are placed closer to the root. This happens when suffix -able is combined with -ity in availability (adjective to noun) or when suffix -ize is combined with -ion to form verb to noun in parameterization. The most formations found is the use of suffixes -ion, -ity for nouns, -ize for verbs, -ive and -able for adjectives.

Derivational Morphology in Urdu: A Lexical Morphology Approach

From the theoretical perspective of lexical morphology (LM), this paper analyzes neutral and non-neutral affixes and their general organizational position in the morphology of derived words in Urdu. It explores the properties and behavior that Urdu affixes exercise during their attachment or insertion into roots/bases to produce new words, to question the assumptions of LM. Nine hundred and eighty sample words were randomly selected from our observations, articles in Urdu newspapers, and Urdu news television channels in Pakistan. While LM helps a lot regarding the analysis of neutral and non-neutral affixes, its assumptions concerning the hierarchical organization of affixes in derived word-formations do not correspond with the morphology of words in Urdu. This paper contributes as an initial step toward formulating a theory of the morphology of derived words in Urdu – a language rarely theoretically analyzed regarding the morphology of its derived words.

До питання антонімічних відносин у англійській, французькій та німецькій терміносистемах урбоекології

The purpose of this article is a comparative structural and semantic analysis of the antonymous relations of the terms of urban ecology in English, French and German. The analysis is based on one of the urban ecology sections of “physical factors of urban pollution”. Identifying similarities and differences in the terminological systems allows us to bring the basis for a comparative-typological study of terms, both in the field of lexical semantics and in the field of lexical morphology. In modern linguistics, the question of the existence of antonymous relations in terminological systems is debatable. As you know, science has repeatedly stated that antonymous relations are not inherent in the terms, and it is indicated that it is more of simple division, delimitation of concepts, rather than their opposition. These ideas are typical for such scientists as L. O. Novikov or L. A. Bulakhovsky, who denied the existence of monosyllabic antonyms. But according to today's leading scholars, lexical antonymy is inherent to the scientific language even more than to the literature language. The antonymy is even more specific to terminological units than synonymy or polysemy. The phenomenon of terminological antonymy is quite widespread in terminological vocabulary, the only question is which of these varieties are inherent to the scientific field. According to V. P. Danylenko, “two structural types of antonyms in the language of science are used – lexical and word-forming”. The lexical type of antonymy is quite widely represented in the studied term system. Central to determining the lexical antonymy of the terminology of urban ecology is the concept of opposition. The logical basis of antonymy is formed by incompatible opposite species concepts (contrasting and complementary). The contrary difference is expressed by highly symmetric members of an ordered set (contrasting species concepts), between which there is a middle intermediate term. As you can see, in the compared versions of the studied urban ecology terminology, the picture is almost the same. The word-forming type of antonymy is expressed through the regular use of prefixes. Most often there is an alternation of prefixes with its absence. The only difference is that in English and French such prefixes have not completely lost their own meaning. The vector difference is also manifested. The only difference is that such prefixes have not completely lost their own meaning and in some cases are written with words not together, but through a hyphen. The study presented allows us to conclude that antonymic relations are inherent in the term system of urban ecology and play a significant role in structuring the concepts of given scientific field. So, if the synonymy inherent in this terminology to some extent deprives it of its accuracy, introduces variability into it, the antonymous relations, on the contrary, are the manifestation of its consistency and integrity.

The study of synonymy in Turkic and Crimean Tatar linguistics

The study of lexical-semantic structure of the Crimean Tatar language is one of the relevant tasks of modern Turkology. Systematic interpretation and presentation of the language suggests comprehensive characteristics of lexical-phraseological composition in terminology of paradigmatics, syntagmatics and epidigmatics. Selection of this topic is substantiated by the fact that the category of synonymy in the Crimean Tatar language has not previously become the object of special research. The relevance of studying this topic is defined by insufficient coverage of the problem in the Crimean Tatar language. The existing in modern scientific and educational literature records on synonymy of the Crimean Tatar language are rather fragmentary. The question of synonymy is one of the central in modern linguistics. Multiple aspects of synonymy are also relevant in the Turkic linguistics. The interest towards lexical morphology of synonyms, synonymous use of the borrowed lexis, as well as phraseological synonymy has increased over the recent years. A historiographical overview of the existing in Turkology scientific literature proves that the study of synonymy in Turkic linguistics is currently picking up. A substantial number of works dedicated to this topic examine various concepts of the phenomenon of synonymy, as well as its other important aspects. Many aspects of synonymy are quite relevant in the Turkic linguistics. The interest towards morphology of synonyms, synonymous use of the borrowed lexis, and phraseological synonymy is growing significantly.

Wolof Terminology: Lexical Morphology and Sociolinguistic Implications

In this paper, we study the lexical morphology of Wolof and tools for terminologization. We focus on prefixes and suffixes. We will apply morphological analysis using the NooJ tool for the identification and extraction of terms from a corpus. We will also discuss the modality of corpus constitution and sources.The lexicon and morphology of Wolof are pretexts for terminological work. Beyond the linguistic aspects, we are interested in the sociolinguistic implications of the development of terminological units in this language. This is part of the general framework of language planning which, to be effective, must be taken into account through a clear and accepted language policy. The social impact covers the fields of scientific and general culture, thus contributing to the vitality of the language, to its social consolidation and to a change in the perception of speakers towards Wolof.Terminologie wolof: morphologie lexicale et implications sociolinguistiques

The Character Values-Based Folklores as Teaching Resources to Support English Acquisition

The purpose of this study was to identify the folklores carrying character values as teaching materials in English acquisition in Indonesia. This exploratory study was conducted in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces, Indonesia by inviting 139 participants of Junior high school teachers, students, and experts. The data was collected through interview, documentation and observation, and analyzed descriptively using the Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña' scheme, namely data collection, data condensation, data presentation and conclusion (2014). The result obtained 208 folklores categorized as fairytale, legend, and myth. By applying the Processability Theory (Pienemann, 2005), the researchers proposed some ideas in using the folklores which carry character values for supporting the English acquisition among junior high school students in Indonesia. Through an English integrated teaching and learning process, the students not only learnt the moral values from the folklores but also studied and acquired English as their foreign language. The students, who have been familiar with folklores from their hometown, possessed confidence in understanding the main idea of the story though it was written or told in English. They mostly learnt as well as acquired phrasal and lexical morphology of English.

Lexical Processing of English Derived Words by Korean EFL Learners and NSE

Debate has continued about how L1 speakers process morphologically complex words. Consensus has been divided between single- and dual-route processing models. We conducted lexical decision experiments with a wide variety of English derived words to investigate how Korean EFL learners and L1 English speakers access complex words. First, we show that English prefixed or suffixed words are processed with greater cost than simplex words for both English L1 speakers and EFL learners. Second, suffixed words are processed with faster response times and higher accuracy than prefixed words. Third, complex words are accessed differently in terms of affixal salience according to the individual affixes that belong to the same morphological classes. Finally, the homophony of affixes with dual membership induces Korean EFL learners, not English L1 speakers to process complex words with more difficulty than those with single-membership affixes. These results suggest that derived words are processed via morphological decomposition into stems and affixes whereas simplex words are directly accessed as whole word units, supporting the dual-route processing models. Additionally, this study implies that prefixes are more likely to be parsed from the bases than suffixes. Furthermore, it is suggested that the processing efficiency of derivational words varies according to each affix type, which complements the formal structural theory of lexical morphology. Finally, it is indicated that the confusability of affixes with dual membership hinders the processing of the derivational words.

Negation and lexical morphology

The merit of this manuscript lies in a detailed exposition of almost all the important problems connected with morphological negation. Based on the contrastive approach, the main focus of the discussion will be to show both similarities and differences in mapping negative structures in both languages. We take English as our frame of reference and the target language is viewed through the prism of a given morphological inventory of English. The main goal is to perform a thorough study of negative derivational affixes in English and Armenian. More specifically it aims to unveil the Armenian equivalents of English affixes de-, dis-, in-, un- and -less. These include morphological equivalents (i.e. negative prefixes in Armenian as well as non-morphological equivalents (i.e. single words devoid of negative affixation, multi-word units or paraphrases).