Model Of Polysemy Research Articles

A Historical-Cognitive Linguistics Study of Caesar’s Characterization in Shakespearean Plays

By using “polysemy model” of semantic change theories in historical linguistics, “mapping” and “conceptual integration” of metaphor, and “classical taxonomic structure” of categorization theories in cognitive linguistics, and literary conventions of structuralist poetics in literary studies, this article studies Caesar’s characterization in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and other plays. After analyzing the semantic change of “Caesar” and different characters’ cognition on Caesar in the fictional world created by dialogues and character interactions, this article discovers that the negotiation and exchange between the totalculture in 1599 and Shakespeare’s personal artistic pursuit propel Shakespeare to create an ambiguous but great and unique Caesar in Julius Caesar, within the two kinds of intertexts consisting of different characters’ discourses scattered in other Shakespearean plays, Caesar’s ambiguity is eliminated, and his greatness and uniqueness are strengthened, and it is in his skillful maneuver of different literary conventions in characterizing Caesar that Shakespeare’s great literary competence is manifested.

Varying Abstractions: a conceptual vs. distributional view on prepositional polysemy

The term ‘meaning’, as it is presently employed in Linguistics, is a polysemous concept, covering a broad range of operational definitions. Focussing on two of these definitions, meaning as ‘concept’ and meaning as ‘context’ (also known as ‘distributional semantics’), this paper explores to what extent these operational definitions lead to converging conclusions regarding the number and nature of distinct senses a polysemous form covers. More specifically, it investigates whether the sense network that emerges from the principled polysemy model of over as proposed by Tyler & Evans (2003; 2001) can be reconstructed by the neural language model BERT. The study assesses whether the contextual information encoded in BERT embeddings can be employed to succesfully (i) recognize the abstract sense categories and (ii) replicate the relative distances between the senses of over proposed in the principled polysemy model. The results suggest that, while there is partial convergence, the two models ultimately lead to different global abstractions because the imagistic information that plays a key role in conceptual approaches to prepositional meaning may not be encoded in contextualized word embeddings.

Word Senses as Clusters of Meaning Modulations: A Computational Model of Polysemy.

Most words in natural languages are polysemous; that is, they have related but different meanings in different contexts. This one-to-many mapping of form to meaning presents a challenge to understanding how word meanings are learned, represented, and processed. Previous work has focused on solutions in which multiple static semantic representations are linked to a single word form, which fails to capture important generalizations about how polysemous words are used; in particular, the graded nature of polysemous senses, and the flexibility and regularity of polysemy use. We provide a novel view of how polysemous words are represented and processed, focusing on how meaning is modulated by context. Our theory is implemented within a recurrent neural network that learns distributional information through exposure to a large and representative corpus of English. Clusters of meaning emerge from how the model processes individual word forms. In keeping with distributional theories of semantics, we suggest word meanings are generalized from contexts of different word tokens, with polysemy emerging as multiple clusters of contextually modulated meanings. We validate our results against a human-annotated corpus of polysemy focusing on the gradedness, flexibility, and regularity of polysemous sense individuation, as well as behavioral findings of offline sense relatedness ratings and online sentence processing. The results provide novel insights into how polysemy emerges from contextual processing of word meaning from both a theoretical and computational point of view.

شیکردنەوەی تۆڕی واتایی ئامرازە بەندەکانی (تا) و (لەگەڵ) لە ڕوانگەی واتاسازیی زانینییەوە

This research exposes the( distinct senses) and (primary sense) of the prepositions (Ta) and (Lægæl), based on (principled polysemy model); this model is presented within the Cognitive Linguistics framework in 2003 by ( Tyler and Evans). It determines both distinct senses and primary sense of prepositions. In the beginning, the model and the concepts related to the main point of the research are defined. After that according to the model criteria the distinct senses and primary sense are demonstrated. The paper concludes that the Semantic network of preposition (ta), apart from the sense that (shows the end of place /time) which is the primary sense of that preposition, has (four) distinct senses as long as (one) cluster sense among them. The Semantic network of the preposition (Lægæl) conveys the sense of (together), which is considered the primary sense of that preposition, It has also (thirteen) distinctive senses, that are linked with the primary sense through (three) cluster senses.

The Effect of Data-driven Learning & Image-schema-based Polysemy Networks Instruction on Learning Spatial Prepositions of Verticality: The Case of Moroccan EFL Learners

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study investigating the effects of a teaching methodology that combines Cognitive Linguistics (CL) and Corpus Linguistics (CrpL) insights on the acquisition of the two sets of English spatial prepositions of verticality, over/above and under/below. In addition, it is also concerned with learners’ attitudes towards the method of instruction. A total of 55 Moroccan first-year university students participated in this study, 22 of which were assigned to the experimental group, and 26 to the control group. The experimental group received what we termed the IPDDL instruction, which involves cognitive representations of the prepositions based on Image-schemas, the Principled Polysemy model, and Data-Driven Learning. The control group, in contrast, received a traditional instruction based on definitions and example sentences provided in dictionaries. Participants' performance was measured with pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests in the form of a semantic judgment task and a gap-filling task. The findings demonstrate that the IPDDL method of instruction was significantly more effective in helping students acquire vertical prepositions, and its advantages proved durable posterior to two weeks of the instruction period. Thus, this study lends support to the applicability of a CL-CrpL-inspired methodology in second language instruction.

A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE ON THE ARABIC SPATIAL NOUN/ فَوْقَ /FAWQA/ APPLYING THE PRINCIPLE POLYSEMY MODEL

<p class="TeksAbstrak">The present paper provides a cognitive linguistics (CL) framework for analyzing the semantic structure of Arabic spatial noun <em>fawqa</em> based on <em>Principled Polysemy Model </em>(PPM) of Tyler and Evans (2003). PPM approach can broaden the narrow view of classical cognitive linguists regarding the semantic variation in the concept of physical-geometry of a preposition. As a polysemous lexeme,<em> fawqa</em> used by Arabian native to express a broad range of meanings, not only spatial relation but also non-spatial relation. The substantial sense of the lexeme is investigated using a large amount of corpus data (<em>corpus.kacst.edu.sa</em>) and applying the five steps of PPM approach. Through this approach, we ascertain that every single usage of <em>fawqa </em>expressing extended senses is always in its semantic network. Our study reveals that the usages of this lexeme in many situations and many cases show non-up down spatial relation, and non-physical relation, but they essentially refer to the primary sense.</p>

On the Motivated Polysemy of the Lithuanian ŽEMIAU ‘below’

The principle of motivated polysemy advocated by cognitively-oriented linguists has been applied in the analysis of English prepositions. However, other languages, especially highly inflected languages, received less attention. The present paper demonstrates how the principle works on a selected preposition in Lithuanian. It aims at: (1) establishing different senses of žemiau ‘below’ as (2) related in a single network. The data is retrieved from the Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian Language and analysed according to the Principled Polysemy Model (Tyler & Evans 2003). Results of the study reveal that the primary sense based on a proto-spatial scene of the Figure (F) underneath the region of the Ground (G) functions as a derivational basis for a network of senses. The investigation demonstrates that the senses only partially overlap with the ones given in dictionary entries.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.32.0.19290

Polisemična struktura pridjeva “sec/suh” prema modelu primjenjivih semičkih obilježja (PSO)

Polisemična struktura pridjeva “sec/suh” prema modelu primjenjivih semičkih obilježja (PSO)

Adaptive Resonance Theory as a model of polysemy and vagueness in the cognitive lexicon

AbstractCognitive linguistic analyses of the relationship between ambiguity and vagueness suggest that these categories are gradable. That is, whether a given distinction in lexical meaning amounts to ambiguity can vary across contexts. A computational model of the representation of lexical polysemy was applied to three nouns, and the verb paint. The model, based on a neuropsychologically inspired framework, Adaptive Resonance Theory, was applied to judgements and property ratings from 120 participants. Model results were compared to an independent usage-based analysis, and in the case of paint to an earlier cognitive linguistic analysis. Good correspondence was found, with the model reproducing specific features of those analyses, such as the extraction of similar schemata, as well as the key general feature of the gradability of ambiguity and vagueness. At the same time, the analysis revealed substantial interpersonal variability. Additional modelling demonstrated that the availability of specific aspects of conceptual knowledge could be contextually modified, leading to predicted changes in the pattern of ambiguity. Because Adaptive Resonance Theory uses elementary neural processing, previously used to successfully model cognitive phenomena, the gradability of ambiguity can be explained as a consequence of these general properties of memory and cognition.

The iconicity of embodied meaning. Polysemy of spatial prepositions in the cognitive framework

This paper examines the concept of polysemy which serves as the basis of the ‘principled polysemy model’ of spatial prepositions proposed by A. Tyler and V. Evans in a number of recent publications [Tyler, Andrea, Evans, Vyvyan, 2001. Reconsidering prepositional polysemy networks: The case of over. Language 77, 724–765; Tyler, Andrea, Evans, Vyvyan, 2003a. The case of over. In: Brigitte Nerlich, Zazie Todd, Vimala Herman, Clarke, David D., (Eds.), Polysemy. Flexible Patterns of Meaning in Mind and Language. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin/New York, pp. 99–159; Tyler, Andrea, Evans, Vyvyan, 2003b. The Semantics of English Prepositions. Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge]. After situating the polysemy problem in a historical context (its roots can be traced back at least to Leibniz’ discussion of Locke’s semantic account of particles), some merits of Tyler and Evans’s model are pointed out. Tyler and Evans support a moderate polysemy view by distinguishing more carefully between an item’s uses and senses than was previously done in the radical polysemy hypothesis advocated by authors working in the Brugman–Lakoff tradition. The paper then focuses on Tyler and Evans’s criteria to postulate a list of 15 distinct senses of a linguistic item, viz. the preposition over. An analysis of the ‘covering’ sense of over, which according to Tyler and Evans should be considered as a distinct sense because it cannot be pragmatically inferred, shows that Tyler and Evans’s argument is not conclusive. This observation leads to the question whether the view that over is a polysemous word with a fixed number of distinct senses is valid beyond the cognitive model Tyler and Evans propose. Building on E. Coseriu, we argue, firstly, that the cognitive model in general erroneously conceives of prepositional meanings in terms of lexical rather than instrumental meanings, and that the alleged distinct senses of the preposition over Tyler and Evans postulate are in fact utterance meanings of entire phrases and clauses; this explains the still high number of distinct senses attributed to the prepositional item. Secondly, we attempt to illustrate that the main reason why a battery of senses is postulated in the first place derives from a non-linguistic criterion we term the ‘iconicity of embodied meaning’. This criterion prompts the linguist to accept as many distinct senses as there are prototypical common sense experiences commonly associated with (or, ‘reflected by’) the use of a specific linguistic item in various instantiations.

The effects of homonymy and polysemy on lexical access: an MEG study

We examined the neural correlates of semantic ambiguity by measuring changes in MEG recordings during a visual lexical decision task in which the properties of ambiguous words were manipulated. Words that are ambiguous between unrelated meanings (like bark, which can refer to a tree or to a dog) were accessed more slowly than words that have no unrelated meanings (such as cage). In addition, words that have many related senses (e.g., belt, which can be an article of clothing or, closely related in sense, a fan belt used in machinery) were accessed faster than words that have few related senses (e.g., ant). The findings are inconsistent with accounts that posit that both kinds of ambiguity involve separate lexical entries, but instead offer both behavioral and neurophysiological support for separate entry accounts only for homonymy, and a single-entry model of polysemy. The findings also provide neural correlates for a behavioral study of lexical ambiguity that demonstrated that the frequently reported ambiguity advantage in lexical decision tasks is not due to the presence of many unrelated meanings but to the presence of many related senses.