Semantic Contribution Research Articles

Semantic and phonological contributions to short-term repetition and long-term cued sentence recall.

The function of verbal short-term memory is supported not only by the phonological loop, but also by semantic resources that may operate on both short and long time scales. Elucidation of the neural underpinnings of these mechanisms requires effective behavioral manipulations that can selectively engage them. We developed a novel cued sentence recall paradigm to assess the effects of two factors on sentence recall accuracy at short-term and long-term stages. Participants initially repeated auditory sentences immediately following a 14-s retention period. After this task was complete, long-term memory for each sentence was probed by a two-word recall cue. The sentences were either concrete (high imageability) or abstract (low imageability), and the initial 14-s retention period was filled with either an undemanding finger-tapping task or a more engaging articulatory suppression task (Exp. 1, counting backward by threes; Exp. 2, repeating a four-syllable nonword). Recall was always better for the concrete sentences. Articulatory suppression reduced accuracy in short-term recall, especially for abstract sentences, but the sentences initially recalled following articulatory suppression were retained better at the subsequent cued-recall test, suggesting that the engagement of semantic mechanisms for short-term retention promoted encoding of the sentence meaning into long-term memory. These results provide a basis for using sentence imageability and subsequent memory performance as probes of semantic engagement in short-term memory for sentences.

Process modeling and decision mining in a collaborative distance learning environment

This paper is divided into four main parts. In the first part of the study, we identified the most significant factors that affect the performance of groups in collaborative learning situations. The results showed that the extent of communication, interactions and involvement/participation between students have crucial impacts on the performance of groups. In the second part of the study, we defined and explained specific alphabets and keywords derived from a collected event log during a distance learning activity using a real-time multi-user concept mapping service. Our aim was to interpret the data in such a way that eventually can increase the instructor’s awareness about entire the collaborative process. In the third part of the study, we used several statistical and process mining techniques in order to discover and compare distinguished patterns of interaction and involvement between the groups with high and low performance. The results showed that the extent of students’ interaction was four times greater in the high performance groups. Similarly, the extent of students’ involvement and participation was three times greater in the high performance groups compared with the low performance groups. In the fourth part of the study, we analyzed the extent of communication with respect to textual and semantic contributions of the students written/typed and shared in the chat rooms during the online distance activity. The results showed that the level of students’ communication was two times greater in the groups with high performance. And finally, we applied a Decision Tree/Rules technique to extract a model of decisions (as well as their possible consequences) about performance of groups in collaborative learning situations.

Pursuing Meaning

<i>Pursuing Meaning</i>

Reduplicated Numerals as Pluractionals: Distributivity as a Window to the Individuation of Events

The focus of this paper are Reduplicated Numerals in Mandarin Chinese (Sino-Tibetan) and in Karitiana (Arikem, Tupi). Our goal is to elucidate their semantics and thus to contribute to the understanding of the relation between distributivity and individuation in the event domain. It is well known that reduplicated numerals have distributive effects across languages (Gil 1988, Balusu 2006). In this paper, we look at reduplicated numerals in two typologically unrelated languages that lack morphological Number marking on the NP/DP. We analyze the distributive effects of reduplicated numerals as generated by a pluractional operation (see also Cable 2014). By considering the semantic contribution of the numeral phrase within the pluractional operator, we wish to open a window on the delicate issue of event individuation.

Instrumental with and use: modality and implicature

I present an analysis of the instrumental elements with and use, as in Betty cut the cake with a knife. A variety of evidence indicates that with and use do not make the same semantic contribution, casting doubt on the theory that these elements introduce the thematic role Instrument. For use, I adopt the analysis in Rissman (to appear): use expresses modal, goal-related content. For with, a modal reading may be implicated but is not entailed, explaining a variety of contrasts between with and use. The implications of this analysis for a theory of thematic roles is discussed.

Towards a Compositional Semantics for Locative Modifiers

Within linguistic theory, very little effort has been devoted so far to a comprehen­sive theory of the syntax and semantics of modifiers. It is predominantly assumed that modifiers make a constant semantic contribution to the meaning of the constituent that is modified, irrespective of any conceivable syntactic differentiations. This account cannot cope with a multitude of empirical data and should therefore be replaced by a theory of modification that pays more attention to the exact nature of a given syntactic configuration and its impact on semantic composition. The approach advocated here is illustrated with locative modifiers of verb phrases. It will be shown that these expressions have a large range of meaning variability. Using German data, it is argued that differences in meaning can be correlated with diffe­rences in syntactic structure. On this basis, a compositional semantics for locative modifiers is proposed.

The Semantic Contributions of Wh-words and Type Shifts: Evidence from Free Relatives Crosslinguistically

No abstract.

What Do Reciprocals Mean?

Research on reciprocals has uncovered a variety of semantic contributions that the reciprocal can make, creating problems for proposals that the reciprocal unambiguously means something weak (e.g., Langendoen 1978). However, there is no real evidence that reciprocals are ambiguous, despite previous claims to the contrary (e.g., Fiengo and Lasnik 1973). First, we classify the apparently heterogeneous list of meanings proposed in previous research into a natural taxonomy, showing how they arise from a small stock of logical operations and predicates. Second, we exhibit a partial ordering of the various reciprocal meanings according to logical strength, which we make crucial use of in determining what reciprocals mean in each specific context where they appear. Third, we hypothesize that a reciprocal statement expresses the strongest candidate meaning that is consistent with known properties of the relation expressed by the scope of the reciprocal. This hypothesis is supported by analysis of a large collection of examples we have gathered from various corpora.

Accounting for counting: A unified semantics for measure terms and classifiers

This paper develops and extends the semantic account of morphological number marking in the presence of numerals from Scontras (2013). The account handles variation in patterns of number marking along two dimensions: cross-linguistically, between languages that either necessitate or prohibit singular morphology in the presence of numerals greater than ‘one’, and within one and the same language: English. The proposed semantics accounts for both sorts of variation by assuming flexibility in the selection of the measure relevant to the one-ness presupposition of the morphological singular form. The system also provides an explanation for the Slobin-Greenberg-Sanches Generalization, which states that no classifier language has obligatory number marking: by aligning the semantics of counting in both number marking and classifier languages, and by assuming that nouns in classifier languages denote kinds, the semantic contribution of number marking is necessarily redundant in classifier languages. A system of obligatory number marking only surfaces in languages where it delivers otherwise unrecoverable information about the number of intended referents.

Cross-categorial modification of properties in Hebrew and English

Abstract Work in the past decade has greatly improved our understanding of the meaning of gradable predicates and degree modification. The discussion of these expressions has charted the way to an examination of additional types of modifiers that do not operate on degrees but rather on context candidates. In this study, I analyze the Hebrew modifier _mamaš_ and its English equivalent _really_ as modifiers of properties of individuals, situations, or propositions. The flexible semantics accounts for these modifiers’ wide distribution and types of semantic contribution.

Cross-categorial modification of properties in Hebrew and English

Abstract Work in the past decade has greatly improved our understanding of the meaning of gradable predicates and degree modification. The discussion of these expressions has charted the way to an examination of additional types of modifiers that do not operate on degrees but rather on context candidates. In this study, I analyze the Hebrew modifier _mamaš_ and its English equivalent _really_ as modifiers of properties of individuals, situations, or propositions. The flexible semantics accounts for these modifiers’ wide distribution and types of semantic contribution.

Semantic cache replacement strategy for XML algebra-based query optimization

Aiming at the fact that traditional cache replacement strategy lacks pertinence to the semantic cache in the process of extensible markup language (XML) algebra query, a replacement strategy based on the semantic cache contribution value is proposed. First, pattern matching rules for XML algebra query and semantic caches are given. Second, the method of calculating the semantic cache contribution value is proposed. In XML documents with four different sizes, the experimental results of time efficiency show that this strategy supports environment of the XML algebra query and it has better time efficiency than both least frequency used (LFU) and least recently used (LRU).

What do quantifier particles do?

In many languages, the same particles that form quantifier words also serve as connectives, additive and scalar particles, question markers, roots of existential verbs, and so on. Do these have a unified semantics, or do they merely bear a family resemblance? Are they aided by silent operators in their varied roles―if yes, what operators? I dub the particles “quantifier particles” and refer to them generically with capitalized versions of the Japanese morphemes. I argue that both MO and KA can be assigned a stable semantics across their various roles. The specific analysis I offer is motivated by the fact that MO and KA often combine with just one argument; I propose that this is their characteristic behavior. Their role is to impose semantic requirements that are satisfied when the immediately larger context is interpreted as the meet/join of their host’s semantic contribution with something else. They do not perform meet/join themselves. The obligatory vs. optional appearance of the particles depends on whether the meet/join interpretations arise by default in the given constellation. I explicate the proposal using the toolkit of basic Inquisitive Semantics.

Expressive meaning in an AAE attributive construction

This paper presents an overview of the syntax, semantics, and prosody of the discourse -ass construction in African American English, as in get all that ugly-ass junk out of here. This construction involves attributive modification in which a noun or adjective (called the associate) forms a constituent with the word ass and modifies a head noun. The paper describes the syntactic distribution of both the associate and the word ass. Arguments are presented that support an analysis in which -ass is not a nominal but a functional head that categorizes its sister as adjectival, similar to -ish and -y in mainstream English. Semantically, it is argued that discourse -ass is an expressive in the sense of Potts (2007b): it is “semantically bleached” (Spears, 1998), and its semantic contribution is not truth conditional. The paper shows how discourse -ass has the properties associated with expressives as articulated by Potts (2007b) and as first observed about the construction in Spears (1998).

Temporal restrictions on personal pronouns: The composition of Blackfoot proclitics

Based on a detailed investigation of the syntax and semantics of two series of person proclitics in Blackfoot (Algonquian: Alberta), we argue that in addition to traditional ɸ-features, personal pronouns may also contain a temporal component that conditions their distribution and interpretation. Specifically, we propose that one series of Blackfoot proclitics consists of morphosyntactically simplex pro-ɸPs that only encode person features, while the other series are morphosyntactically complex pro-DPs composed of a ɸP plus a D head. The semantic contribution of the D head is temporal: it restricts the denotation of the proclitic to a contextually relevant stage of an individual. We argue that this restriction conditions the distribution of the long forms; they appear in contexts which only involve a temporally restricted stage of the individual. We discuss three such contexts: inalienable possession, the perfect, and epistemic modality. The short form proclitics, which lack this temporal restriction, appear in contexts that do not refer to specific stage. Regarding their external syntax, we argue that the short form proclitics are introduced directly by a lexical head (N or V), whereas the long forms are introduced higher in the functional structure, by Poss and INFL.

On the syntax and semantics of Italian spatial Ps

This paper offers a unified approach to Italian spatial prepositions, such as di fronte a ‘in front of’, verso ‘towards’, in ‘in’, dietro a ‘behind’, and nel mezzo di ‘in the middle of’. Three assumptions play a key role. First, Italian spatial prepositions can differ sensibly in their morphological structure, but share the same syntactic properties. Second, their sentential distribution is in part context-sensitive, thus based on the categories with which they combine. Third, their semantic contribution is “layered”, in the sense that it includes the meaning dimensions of both aspectual boundedness and specificity. The main result is a generalised theory on the structure and semantic interpretation of these prepositions.

Syntactic Properties of Expletive there and Semantic Contribution of Case(Kansai English Studies)

Syntactic Properties of Expletive there and Semantic Contribution of Case(Kansai English Studies)

Accentual preferences and predictability: An acceptability study on split intransitivity in German

Abstract The difference in the default prosodic realization of simple sentences with unergative vs. unaccusative/passive verbs (assigning early nuclear accent with unaccusative/passive verbs but late nuclear accent with unergative verbs) is often related to the syntactic distinction of their nominative arguments as starting off in different hierarchical positions. Alternative accounts try to trace this prosodic variation back to asymmetries in the semantic or pragmatic contribution of the verb to an utterance. The present article investigates the interaction of the assignment of default nuclear accent with the predictability of the verb. In an experimental study testing the acceptability of nuclear accent assignment, we confirmed that the predictability of the verb influences accentual preferences (such that highly predictable verbs are preferably not accented). However, the experiment also reveals that the unaccusativity distinction cannot be accounted for by means of pragmatic phenomena of this type: the two verb classes are associated with distinct accentual patterns in the baseline condition, that is, without the predictability manipulation.

A unified analysis of conditionals as topics

We bring out syntactic and semantic similarities of two types of conditionals with fronted antecedents [normal indicative conditionals (NCs) and biscuit conditionals (BCs)] and two types of left dislocation constructions in German (German left dislocation and hanging topic left dislocation), which mark two types of topicality (aboutness topicality and relevance topicality). On the basis of these similarities we argue that (the antecedent if-clauses of) NCs and BCs are aboutness topics and relevance topics, respectively. Our analysis extends the approach to aboutness topicality of Endriss (Quantificational topics. A scopal treatment of exceptional wide scope phenomena, 2009) to relevance topics to derive the semantic and pragmatic contribution of left-dislocated DPs and applies it to an analysis of conditionals as (maximal) pluralities of possible worlds. We show how this uniform approach to the interpretation of topicality accounts for the nominal left dislocation constructions as well as for the semantic and pragmatic effects observed in connection with the two types of conditionals. We furthermore discuss the potential of our proposal to deal with subjunctive biscuit conditionals, if-clauses modifying speech acts different from assertions, conditionals with right-dislocated if-clauses, and nested conditionals.

Semantic effects in sentence recall: The contribution of immediate vs delayed recall in language assessment

Sentence recall is increasingly used to assess language. It is widely debated what the task is actually testing, but one rarely explored aspect is the contribution of semantics to sentence recall. The few studies that have examined the role of semantics in sentence recall have employed an ‘intrusion paradigm’, following Potter and Lombardi (1990), and their paradigm relies on interference errors with conclusions based on an analysis of error patterns. We have instead manipulated the semantic plausibility of whole sentences to investigate the effects of semantics on immediate and delayed sentence recall. In Study 1, adults recalled semantically plausible and implausible sentences either immediately or after distracter tasks varying in lexical retrieval demands (backward counting and picture naming). Results revealed significant effects of plausibility, delay, and a significant interaction indicating increasing reliance on semantics as the demands of the distracter tasks increased. Study 2, conducted with 6-year-old children, employed delay conditions that were modified to avoid floor effects (delay with silence and forward counting) and a similar pattern of results emerged. This novel methodology provided robust evidence showing the effectiveness of delayed recall in the assessment of semantics and the effectiveness of immediate recall in the assessment of morphosyntax. The findings from our study clarify the linguistic mechanisms involved in immediate and delayed sentence recall, with implications for the use of recall tasks in language assessment.Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to: (i) define the difference between immediate and delayed sentence recall and different types of distractors, (ii) explain the utility of immediate and delayed recall sentence recall in language assessment, (iii) discuss suitability of delayed recall for the assessment of semantics.