Lexical Selection Research Articles

Role of Executive Functions in Lexical Selection

Abstract Objectives This article determines the number of correct responses under confrontation naming, producing category coordinates, superordinates, and features associated with the target. Materials and Methods Thirty participants in the age range of 18 to 30 years served as participants. The study was carried out in Malayalam, the native language of the participants. A conditioned naming task was administered to the participants. Statistical Analysis Within-group analysis was carried out using Friedman's test. Results It was found that the participants erred more in naming category coordinates, derivatives, and superordinates. Conclusion The amount of cognitive control varied for each of these conditional naming tasks, and with increasing complexity in cognitive control, scores on conditional naming tasks also differed, showing the relationship between these two aspects.

The Language of Crisis: Print Media’s Re[presentation] of the Covid-19 Discourses through Linguistic Choices

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked intense discourse and public debate, underscoring the critical role of print media in disseminating information and shaping public understanding. This paper explores the representation of Covid-19 discourses by print media, with a particular focus on linguistic choices. Employing a qualitative research approach, this study investigates how print media, including reputable sources such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, employed specific linguistic strategies to represent the discourses surrounding the Covid-19 crisis. Through analysis of news items, newspaper articles, and editorials, the research aims to uncover the underlying linguistic patterns used to frame and portray the pandemic. The study aims to uncover the underlying patterns and variations in the language employed by media outlets to frame and portray the pandemic. The findings suggest that print media employed various linguistic strategies to represent the discourses surrounding Covid-19. Lexical selection plays a significant role, with certain words and phrases being strategically employed to convey specific meanings and evoke emotional responses. The New York Times, for example, tends to use precise and factual language, while The Guardian may employ more emotive and inclusive language. Additionally, the use of metaphors and analogies enables print media to frame the crisis in relatable terms, shaping public understanding and interpretation. Furthermore, the tone and rhetoric employed by print media contribute to the construction of different discourses surrounding the pandemic. For instance, some newspapers may emphasize the economic impact of the crisis, while others focus on the healthcare and social implications. These discourses influence public perception, policy decisions, and societal responses. Understanding the language of crisis employed by print media in representing the discourses surrounding Covid-19 is essential for comprehending the societal impact and dynamics of the pandemic. This research contributes to media literacy and critical analysis by highlighting the role of linguistic choices in shaping public discourse. It underscores the need for responsible and ethical journalism that presents a nuanced and balanced representation of the Covid-19 crisis. Keywords: Language of crisis, print media, representation, Covid-19 discourses, lexical selection, metaphors, framing, tone, rhetoric DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-10-07 Publication date: May 31 st 2023

Polar kya in Urdu: Both Mirative and Interrogative

This study aims to address the following question: what are the licensing conditions for the Urdu/Hindi polar question particle kya’s multiple concept selection behaviour? More specifically, what is the nature of contexts in which kya contributes both interrogative and mirative meanings, and how can such a phenomenon be characterized in terms of cognitive semantic compositional processes? To address this research question, the present study uses the Lexical Concept and Cognitive Model (Evans, 2009) as its theoretical underpinnings. This framework proposes the constructs of Lexical Concept and Cognitive Model to account for the mechanisms of semantic composition for polyfunctional phenomena. The study employs multiple data sources such as naturally occurring data, individual and dialogical introspections and Urdu Lughat. The study finds that to encode interrogative as well as mirative meanings, the polar kya undergoes the semantic compositional processes of lexical concept selection, integration and interpretation for final information characterization. The study concludes that kya can encode multiple lexical concepts in certain contexts, and its pragmatic functions result from construal imposed on the propositional content in the prior discourse. Theoretically the study shows that linguistic form-meaning relation is shaped by actual use.

ACRONIMUL COVID: DESPRE TERMINOLOGIE ȘI CÂTEVA „SECHELE” DIN LIMBA ROMÂNĂ ACTUALĂ

The COVID acronym, the most important term in the pandemic-related vocabulary, has generated a number of original words in current Romanian. I made a representative lexical selection (with contextual quotes), and I studied the WHO terminology, the word formation, some semantic and stylistic aspects. The psycholinguistic perspective is also useful.

The unseen, the seen, and the spoken: Latent and overt priming in cyclic picture naming.

Language production entails selecting words in the face of internally, and sometimes externally, driven competition that influences the long-term accessibility of both selected words and competitors. Because both endogenous and externally presented competitors usually result in semantic interference, it is often assumed that they engage the same underlying processes. We question this assumption. Specifically, we propose that latent primes may more naturally commingle with endogenous lexical activation whereas overt primes elicit strong control processes. Two experiments examined the effects of latent (masked) and overt (picture-word) priming in combination with cyclic picture naming of small sets of taxonomically or thematically related or unrelated pictures. A subsequent continuous picture naming phase was designed to assess enduring effects of service as a prime or target. Only taxonomic relations showed substantial interference in cyclic naming. Latent priming tended to increase interference for taxonomic relations, but it produced facilitation for thematic relations. In contrast, overt priming induced interference for both types of relation, indicating exertion of cognitive control. In the continuous picture naming phases, accessibility was hindered for previously presented latent primes (Experiment 1) but enhanced for previously overt primes (Experiment 2). Surprisingly, interference in cyclic naming did not carry forward to the continuous phase. These findings suggest that masked priming may be a viable intervention in the internal dynamics of lexical selection. In contrast, they also add to the body of evidence questioning the validity of using picture-word procedures to study inherent semantic interference.

Análise socioclínica do contexto do trabalho e sua relação com o adoecimento mental de policiais militares do Distrito Federal

Abstract Mental and behavioral disorders are the third leading cause of incapacity in police work. This research analyzes, through Clinical Sociology and Critical Discourse Analysis, the context of the work of the Military Police of the Federal District and its relationship with the mental illness of police officers. This was an ethnographic study. Participant observation notes and interviews contributed to data collection and corpus formation. The analysis explored the representational meaning of the discourses using the following categories: transitivity, representation of social actors, and lexical selection. The results point to the organization of work, interpersonal conflicts, weakening social bonds, and abuse of power as the main triggers of mental illness. Paying attention to the mental health care of police officers must be a continuous action of the corporation and part of the Federal District’s agenda, promoting initiatives to protect professionals and, consequently, the safety of society.

Podaci o markiranosti leksema u dvojezičkim rječnicima / Usage labels in bilingual dictionaries

The paper examines the issue of indicating lexeme markedness in bilingual dictionaries. Markedness goes beyond the denotative meaning of lexemes and is considered to be the information referring to the lexical knowledge that must be given to the dictionary user in order for their lexical selection to be adequate for the communicative situation they might find themselves in. This information comprises, for example, data on the stylistic, temporal, and regional markedness of lexical units. In the first part of the paper, a theoretical overview of markedness in lexicography is presented. In the empirical part, the lexicographic practice of markedness is investigated using the example of the lexemes from the semantic field TO DIE in the Croatian German dictionary by Jakić and Hurm (1999). Suggestions for labelling markedness in the Bosnian-German universal dictionary (BNJUR), which is in the process of being created, are proposed as well. The goals of this research are: (1) to determine the representation of pragmatic information at the macrostructural level in the Croatian-German dictionary by Jakić and Hurm (1999); (2) to determine the representation of pragmatic information in the dictionary articles in the form of usage labels and ways of presenting their lexicographic description. Here, it is also important to determine a) for which language elements the label is specified and b) for how many elements the specified label “is valid”; (3) to propose concrete solutions for improving the labelling of pragmatic information in BNJUR, keeping in mind the needs of its target users. The analysis indicated several shortcomings in lexicographic practice, ranging from listing equivalents that are marked differently in relation to the entry, not listing usage labels for marking in general, to ambiguities regarding what the usage labels refer to.

Royal chancery after 1066

This paper explores linguistic and sociolinguistic mechanisms that facilitated collaboration between English and Norman administrators in the decades following the Norman Conquest. First, a community of royal and episcopal chancellors and scribes is reconstructed from historical and documentary sources and their ties and networks are described. In the second step, two subcorpora are used to illustrate the processes of lexical selection and focusing in their common professional language, Latin: royal writs of William I and circuit returns of the Domesday inquest for the South-West. Both parts of the study demonstrate high involvement of Norman actors in the leading bureaucratic positions but, at the same time, point to their wide collaboration with the local administrative and scribal personnel. As a result, the two vernaculars are mutually enriched with new professional vocabulary, while in the written Latin standard, common to both, compromise lexical features emerge.

Malicious URL Detection An Evaluation of Feature Extraction and Machine Learning Algorithm

Cyber attacks are increasing rapidly today, and have a great influence on network security. Many of cyber attacks take place via malicious Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). As a result, various approaches have been developed to detect malicious URLs. One of the most competitive techniques is machine learning and deep learning. However, the detailed techniques concerning feature extraction for URLs and machine learning algorithm are still in the process of development. This paper aims to provide some references for screening out the methods of feature extraction and machine learning algorithm. In the designed experiment, the selected URLs are processed by two different methods of feature extraction, tokenization and vectorization, and lexical feature selection. The resultant constructs two different datasets (data1 and data2) for machine learning. Two traditional learning algorithms (Logistic Regression and SVM) and three ensemble learning algorithms (Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, and Bagging) are adopted as detection model for both datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the method of tokenization and vectorization for feature extraction, together with ensemble learning algorithms can result in good predictive performance of malicious URL detection.

Neighing dogs: Semantic context effects of environmental sounds in spoken word production - a replication and extension.

Semantic context effects are well established using both words and pictures as stimuli. One such effect, semantic interference, is observed in naming latencies when a categorically related distractor word or picture is presented together with a target picture (e.g., dog-LION). Recently, this effect has also been shown to occur when an environmental sound (e.g., a dog barking) is presented as an auditory distractor during picture naming and when a distractor picture is presented with a target sound for naming. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (1) to replicate the semantic interference effect in the picture-sound interference (PSI) paradigm and (2) determine whether a semantic interference effect is also observable when distractor words are presented with environmental sounds as target auditory objects for naming, using a novel sound-word interference (SWI) paradigm. We replicated the semantic interference effect in Experiment 1 with environmental sound distractors. Experiment 2 demonstrated significant semantic interference during an SWI paradigm for the first time. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of the origin and locus of the semantic interference effect according to current theories of lexical selection.

Semantic interference and facilitation in picture naming: The effects of type of impairment and compensatory strategies

ABSTRACT We assessed effects of semantic interference in people with aphasia (PWA). Two naming tasks (continuous naming and cyclic blocking) were contrasted with tasks which required suppression of competitors but minimized lexical access (probe task) or required extra-lexical mechanisms of control (Stroop task). In continuous naming, some PWA showed increased interference compared to control participants, with slower RTs and increased omissions. Others showed normal or weaker interference effects in terms of RTs but increased semantic errors. Patterns were consistent only between naming tasks. We explain results by assuming that some PWA are slow at implementing mechanisms of control/selection which weed-out competitors. Others, instead, will have activation difficulties which will induce them to lower the threshold needed for selection. Results highlight how different kinds of brain damage may induce different compensatory strategies and how semantic relatedness may induce both interference and facilitation. Implications for models of lexical selection are discussed.

Lexical Selection in Bolognese Clitic Allomorphy

This paper presents an analysis of the Bolognese 3ms.nom clitic, which deviates from the expected alternations found in other Romance languages. It appears as [al] preconsonantally and [l] prevocalically, but it surprisingly has an apparent third allomorph, [a], which occurs only (and sometimes optionally) when preceding dat, acc, or neg clitics. For example, [a=t=ˈdiːz] ‘he says to you.s’ seems to show a sequence of 3ms.nom [a] and 2s.dat [t]; the expected preconsonantal [al] is replaced by [a]. We argue that constructions of this sort involve not a string of clitics but instead a “duplex” clitic [at] that combines 3ms.nom with 2s.dat. This approach explains why the apparent [a] surfaces only before certain clitics: it is actually the first half of a larger clitic that is available only in the presence the appropriate feature combinations (such as 3ms.nom and 2s.dat). We formalize this proposal in Optimality Theory using the framework of Lexical Selection. This analysis accounts for the puzzling behavior of the 3ms.nom clitic and necessitates refinements to the Lexical Selection formalism.

Malicious URL Detection Using Decision Tree-based Lexical Features Selection and Multilayer Perceptron Model

Network information security risks multiply and become more dangerous. Hackers today generally target end-to-end technology and take advantage of human weaknesses. Furthermore, hackers take advantage of technology weaknesses by applying various methods to attack. Nowadays, one of the greatest dangers to the modern digital world is malicious URLs, and stopping them is one of the biggest challenges in the field of cyber security. Detecting harmful URLs using machine learning and deep learning algorithms have been the subject of various academic papers. However, time and accuracy are the two biggest challenges of these tools. This paper proposes a multilayer perceptron (MLP) model that utilizes two significant aspects to make it more practical, lightweight, and fast: Using only lexical features and a decision tree (DT) algorithm to select the best relevant subset of features. The effectiveness of the experimental outcomes is evaluated in terms of time, accuracy, and error reduction. The results show that a MLP model using 35 features could achieve an accuracy of 94.51% utilizing only URL lexical features. Furthermore, the model is improved in time after applying the DT as feature selection with a slight improvement in accuracy and loss.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DICTIONARY STRUCTURE FOR THE CHAT-BOT OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES CATALOG OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION

The aim of this article is to develop a dictionary structure for a chatbot of educational services catalog of the higher education institution. The quality of information support for consumers of educational services depends on the timeliness and reliability of the information provided. If the World Wide Web user does not receive information from official sources of the higher education institution (HEI), this may cause a negative impact on the information system of the higher education institution. The motivational intentions of the official web resources users of the higher education institution in thematic requests to the chatbot correspond to specific sections in the educational services catalog of the higher education institution. Therefore, the lexical selection of motivational intentions, which are characterized by keywords in the thematic query, makes it possible to clearly formulate/correct the completeness of the provision of relevant information. This will make it possible to rationally use the communication process between higher education institution and educational services consumers. As a result of the research, the structure of the lexical content of the dictionary for the chatbot of the educational services catalog is proposed, taking into account the peculiarities of the formation of users information needs from official web resources of the higher education institution. Each thematic request to the proposed chatbot is characterized by a set of keywords that correspond to certain sections of the educational services catalog of the higher education institution. The importance of these keywords are determined by the weighting factor, which shows the relevance of the thematic query to the section of the educational services catalog. For this, a statistical indicator was used, which evaluates the keywords in the query and reduces the importance of common words. The results of the research are applied and can be used for effective communication between the higher education institution and consumers of educational services using HEI’s official resources for effective planning of educational services.

Neural correlates of semantic matching in indirect priming

Electrophysiological and functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the role of a left temporo-parietal brain network in prospective processing during direct priming (“body” – “hand”) using a short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). In contrast, indirect priming (“lion” – “stripes” related through “tiger”) has been related to the activation of right hemisphere regions such as the supramarginal and middle frontal gyri and the insula involved in automatic semantic processing. Postlexical retrospective strategies like semantic matching, compound cue or episodic retrieval have been largely neglected even though there is consistent evidence of their contribution to direct and indirect priming. The present study was designed to map the brain regions participating in semantic priming based on postlexical retrospective semantic matching. 16 right-handed Spanish speakers (ages 20–40, 50 % male) were given a visual lexical decision task in a 1.5 T scanner with a TR of 3.5 s to obtain BOLD activations. In order to reduce the effects of automatic spreading activation on priming we used a long SOA (800 ms). To minimize the effects of expectancy, we increased the related-unrelated ratio to 1:2 (20 related, 40 unrelated, 20 pseudowords) and employed an indirect priming paradigm with weakly associated targets to enhance the effects of semantic matching. Each 3500 ms trial consisted on a fixation screen for 1000 ms followed by a 100 ms black screen, then the prime word for 600 ms, another black screen for 200 ms, the target word/pseudoword for 600 ms and finally a response screen for 1000 ms. Response time was longer for pseudowords compared to related and unrelated targets. An increased activity was found in lIFG for related pairs and pseudowords, whereas a large cluster of activation was found in left fusiform gyrus for unrelated pairs. Right insula was also activated for unrelated and pseudoword conditions. Furthermore, all conditions showed a decreased activity in left precuneus/parieto-occipital sulcus. These data addressed the role of frontal, temporal, parietal and insular regions in retrospective semantic matching with a differential pattern according to the lexical retrieval, selection and inhibition processes required to make a lexical decision.

Experience-driven meaning affects lexical choices during language production.

The role of meaning facets based on sensorimotor experiences is well investigated in comprehension but has received little attention in language production research. In two experiments, we investigated whether experiential traces of space influenced lexical choices when participants completed visually presented sentence fragments (e.g., "You are at the sea and you see a . . .") with spoken nouns (e.g., "dolphin," "palm tree"). The words were presented consecutively in an ascending or descending direction, starting from the centre of the screen. These physical spatial cues did not influence lexical choices. However, the produced nouns met the spatial characteristics of the broader sentence contexts such that the typical spatial locations of the produced noun referents were predicted by the location of the situations described by the sentence fragments (i.e., upper or lower sphere). By including distributional semantic similarity measures derived from computing cosine values between sentence nouns and produced nouns using a web-based text corpus, we show that the meaning dimension of "location in space" guides lexical selection during speaking. We discuss the relation of this spatial meaning dimension to accounts of experientially grounded and usage-based theories of language processing and their combination in hybrid approaches. In doing so, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the many facets of meaning processing during language production and their impact on the words we select to express verbal messages.

Emotion Words in Spanish: Lexical Selection, Affective Dimensions, Sex and Age Differences

Abstract This study proposes a method for selection and analysis of words that refer to emotions. A comparison of 380 synonyms corresponding to the six basic emotions in 15 Spanish thesauri resulted in 43 terms. Respondents of an online survey (n = 980) stated whether they recognized and used each word and how often they experienced the designated emotion, which resulted in 23 terms. The correlation matrix for the selected terms frequencies and a multivariate analysis of the data revealed three affective dimensions: anger, fear, and satisfaction. The frequency for the terms was higher for women, who reported more panic and irritation than men. In both, the frequency of the negative emotions of fear and sadness decrease with age, while pleasure, satisfaction, and indignation increase. The results suggest the existence of three affective dimensions (anger/repulsion, fear/sorrow, and satisfaction/admiration), which have been recognized in neurobiological, ecological, ethological, and evolutionary models.

Language dominance influences bilingual lexical selection quantitatively but not qualitatively in language production: Evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals

Previous research on bilingual lexical selection has mainly investigated the influence of the dominant first language (L1) on the speech production of the non-dominant second language (L2). However, research in the reverse direction is quite rare. Here we examined the influence in both directions using a bilingual picture-word interference (PWI) paradigm, where Chinese-English bilinguals named pictures in one language while ignoring distractors presented in another language. In both L1 and L2 naming, naming times were longer when distractors were semantically related to the picture names than when they were unrelated, resulting in a between-language semantic interference effect. In contrast, naming times were shorter when distractors were translations of the picture names than when they were unrelated, resulting in a translation facilitation effect. The results suggested that the mechanism of lexical selection in language production was in line with the within-language competition theory, showing no qualitative differences in the mechanism between L1 and L2. At the same time, the semantic interference effect sizes were not significantly different in L1 and L2 production, but the translation facilitation effect size was significantly larger in L2 production than in L1 production, indicating there exist quantitative differences in the mechanism of lexical selection between L1 and L2. A computational model was constructed to simulate naming performance and confirmed the accuracy of the within-language competition view in L1 and L2 lexical selection for Chinese-English bilinguals. We concluded that language dominance influences bilingual lexical selection quantitatively but not qualitatively in bilingual language production.

A chimpanzee by any other name: The contributions of utterance context and information density on word choice

An important feature of language production is the flexibility of lexical selection; producers could refer to an animal as chimpanzee, chimp, ape, she, and so on. Thus, a key question for psycholinguistic research is how and why producers make the lexical selections that they do. Information theoretic approaches have argued that producers regulate the uncertainty of the utterance for comprehenders, for example using longer words like chimpanzee if their messages are likely to be misunderstood, and shorter ones like chimp when the message is easy to understand. In this work, we test for the relative contributions of the information theoretic approach and an approach more aligned with psycholinguistic models of language production. We examine the effect on lexical selection of whole utterance-level factors that we take as a proxy for register or style in message-driven production accounts. Using a modern machine learning-oriented approach, we show that for both naturalistic stimuli and real-world corpora, producers prefer words to be longer in systematically different contexts, independent of the specific message they are trying to convey. We do not find evidence for regulation of uncertainty, as in information theoretic approaches. We offer suggestions for modification of the standard psycholinguistic production approach that emphasizes the need for the field to specify how message formulation influences lexical choice in multiword utterances.

Good-Enough Production: Selecting Easier Words Instead of More Accurate Ones

Dominant theories of language production suggest that word choice—lexical selection—is driven by alignment with the intended message: To talk about a young feline, we choose the most aligned word, kitten. Another factor that could shape lexical selection is word accessibility, or how easy it is to produce a given word (e.g., cat is more accessible than kitten). To test whether producers are also influenced by word accessibility, we designed an artificial lexicon containing high- and low-frequency words whose meanings correspond to compass directions. Participants in a communication game (total N = 181 adults) earned points by producing compass directions, which often required an implicit decision between a high- and low-frequency word. A trade-off was observed across four experiments; specifically, high-frequency words were produced even when less aligned with messages. These results suggest that implicit decisions between words are impacted by accessibility. Of all the times that people have produced cat, sometimes they likely meant kitten.