Semantic Challenge Research Articles

Category-specific effects in semantic memory: Category–task interactions suggested by fMRI

Much work has investigated the neural representation of specific categories of knowledge, but relatively scant attention has been paid in the cognitive neuroscience literature to the semantic processes that contribute to semantic memory. In this study, we monitored regional cortical activity with fMRI while healthy young adults evaluated visually displayed NATURAL KIND, ARTIFACT, and ABSTRACT nouns with two standard tasks: Typicality judgments and Pleasantness judgments. We observed a significant interaction effect between the category of knowledge and the type of judgment used to evaluate members of these semantic categories. Typicality judgments recruited greater temporal–occipital activation relative to Pleasantness judgments of the same category, and this was seen for comparisons of all three semantic categories. However, when contrasted with Typicality judgments, Pleasantness judgments activated a different anatomic distribution for each semantic category. These findings are consistent with a dynamic approach to semantic memory that includes at least two components: semantic knowledge and semantic processes that interpret this knowledge in several ways depending on the particular semantic challenge.

A “Global Theory of Federalism”: The Nature and Challenges of a Federal State

Innumerable attempts have been made to explore the theoretical nature of federalism. Due to the long history, worldwide existence and interdisciplinary character of federalism, a plethora of literature has been written on the topic. Yet, these endeavours have not even resulted in a clear and commonly used definition of the term. Surely, it is one of the great dilemmas of this field of research that despite so much discussion, there is no settled common denominator of ‘federalism'. Whereas practical studies and exchange of experience between the various federal systems offer a more conventional research arena, comparative theoretical approaches are much more seldom. This is not the least because of the tremendous semantic challenges of a comparative theoretical approach. At first glance, it is sometimes difficult to understand the terminology of federalism, the meaning of which differs according to the perspectives of constitutional law, political science or economics. Even more difficulty arises when the substance of federal theories is discussed. Again, differences between theories may be due to different academic approaches, particularly between understanding federalism as an overall principle or as a more concrete concept of a federal state and, in particular, whether the constituent units of a federal state are states, and, if states, whether they are sovereign.

Inductive Reasoning in Alzheimer's Disease

We evaluated knowledge of basic level and superordinate semantic relations and the role of cognitive resources during inductive reasoning in probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nineteen mildly demented AD patients and 17 healthy control subjects judged the truthfulness of arguments with a premise and a conclusion that contain familiar concepts coupled with “blank” predicates, such as “Spiders contain phosphatidylcholine; therefore all insects contain phosphatidylcholine.” Like healthy control subjects, AD patients were relatively insensitive to the typicality of the premise category when judging the strength of arguments with a conclusion containing a basic-level concept, but were relatively sensitive to typicality during judgments of arguments containing a superordinate in the conclusion. Moreover, AD patients resembled control subjects in judging arguments with an immediate superordinate in the conclusion compared to arguments with a distant superordinate. AD patients differed from control subjects because they could not take advantage of two premises in an argument containing basic-level concepts. We conclude that semantic knowledge is sufficiently preserved in AD to support inductive reasoning, but that limited cognitive resources may interfere with AD patients' ability to consider the entire spectrum of information available during semantic challenges.

Translatology: Back to linguistics and semantics?

The present article reports on a comparative study of adjectives in random sampling from a science fiction novel. The Moon and Sixpence, by S. Maugham and the corresponding adjectival body in the Russian translation by N. Man. The article postulates that the semantic level challenges the translator with a number of objective regularities based on linguistic factors. Five translation modes of the Adjective are singled out: 1) an equivalent translation matching every source‐text adjective with a dictionary‐registered correlative in the target text; 2) an analytical transsemantic translation leading to re‐packaging of the source‐text adjectival sememes into other word‐classes in the target text; 3) a synthetical transsemantic translation in which an adjective in the target text springs from the sememes of other parts of speech in the source text; 4) an inter‐adjectival transsemantic translation connecting a source‐text adjective with a target‐text adjective on distant associative lines; and 5) a non‐translation, that is, an annihilative translation which implies that a source‐text adjective is not realized in the target text. Each mode has been estimated quantitatively. This has made it possible to identify certain semantic, morphemic, and syntactic peculiarities of adjectives entering a concrete mode. A generalization made on these quantitative estimates vectors the increase of semantic and formal complexity in terms of equivalent translation to the other modes.

The nature of concepts: A point of view

On occasion, one may suddenly be called upon to define or clarify, for himself or others, a word form that has been so basic to his personal understanding and inquiry that to pause and consider the what or why of it seems redundant. If it should become necessary to respond to some probing, insistent semantic challenge (Well, define it!), the knowledgeable individual proceeds with assurance until the formidable impasse takes place. For instance, What is a concept? Now the encounter begins. That word we believed we knew so well and used so frequently becomes enmeshed in a bewildering variety of meanings given it by society, cultural institutions, professional groups and so on. This complexity of multiple meanings, informed understandings, and tacit agreements about a becomes the real identity of the word. Concept means many different things to many different people. Since definitive agreement is so difficult it becomes necessary to establish a route of inquiry through which a base of shared understandings and uses of the word may be developed. core of the problem lies in the inquiries one finds useful in dealing with the complexities of understanding. Some constructs for systemizing relations among various elements of analysis have been suggested by recent research. Structural characteristics of concepts as defined by researchers such as Berlyne (1965), Davis (1966), and Gagne (1966) suggest a range of different viewpoints, some of which overlap. Upon close examination of various theoretical systems, we see a pervasive group concept of the nature of concepts. It may be helpful to consider H. H. Kendler's comments in Melton's text (1964) on the topic, The Concept of the Concept. Kendler felt that because of the scientific infancy of this topic, he was in the inevitable, but not uncommon, position of being unconstrained by an orderly arrangement of facts and theories which would demand systematic treatment of the topic. Such freedom permits flights of fancy and broad generalizations without much fear of embarrassment by any clear-cut contradictory evidence. It is interesting to note that Kendler's investigation of the is concerned not with empirical criticism of the problem, but with clarification. He is less concerned with theoretical truth than

Echo-reaction as an approach to semantic resolution.

To determine the relationship of echo-reactions to degree of semantic challenge, instances of spontaneous echo, vocalized and whispered, were tabulated from performances of eight-year-olds on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Two hundred of 364 echoed 2226 of the stimuli on presentation. Analysis revealed that the occurrence of echoing increased as the semantic difficulty increased. The more difficult words were echoed significantly more often than were the less difficult words. Results are considered with respect to overt and covert echo-reactions—their role in the perception of speech and their developmental disposition as private, self-guiding speech.