Semantic Subcategories Research Articles

SEMANTIC RETRIEVAL PATTERNS IN COGNITIVELY HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS

Abstract Word finding difficulties can be a normative change in aging. The purpose of this descriptive study is to establish metrics of word retrieval patterns in older adults using a semantic fluency task. Forty-five healthy aging, primary English speakers (mean age 75.0; 69% female, mean MoCA = 26.5) participated. Participants were asked “I want you to tell me all the animals you can think of in one minute.” The responses were scored using two novel normalized coefficients. (1) Archetypal Coefficient (AC): frequency proportional to the 60-second frequency. (2) Seeding Coefficient (SC): frequency proportional to both the 60-second frequency and the first-word frequency. Cluster coefficients (CC) also measured adjacency of responses. Participants generated mean of 19.9 words with a low correlation to MoCA (r=0.32). A total of 204 unique animal names including developmental stages (e.g., puppy), sex differences (e.g., rooster), and nicknames (e.g., bunny) were produced. In descending order, the most frequent responses were cat (AC=1.00), dog (AC=0.99), elephant (AC=0.89), horse (AC=0.83), and lion (AC=0.78). SC showed high ranking for archetypal animals (e.g., dog (SC=1.00), cat (SC=0.72)) and animals beginning with the letter “a” (e.g., anteater (SC=0.18), aardvark (SC=0.17)). CC showed greater adjacency for semantic subcategories such as pets (cat-dog) or farm animals (cow-horse), closely related species (mouse-rat) and superordinate labels (bird-fish). Our novel indices and CC revealed semantic retrieval in healthy aging occurs in an organized fashion that includes linguistic (i.e., alphabetical, word frequency) and semantic characteristics of animals, which adds to the current literature on semantic networks.

On sisters and zussen: integrating semasiological and onomasiological perspectives on the use of English person-reference nouns in Belgian-Dutch teenage chat messages

Abstract This paper targets the division of labor between borrowed English forms and heritage alternatives in Belgian-Dutch youth language. Through lexical semantic analysis of a youth-language corpus containing over 450,000 private instant messages, the choice for English or Dutch person-reference nouns (e.g. Eng. girlfriend, loser, sister; Du. vriendin, sukkel, zus) is studied at three levels of semasiological granularity. First, at the level of the semantic field as a whole, Dutch appears to have the strongest foothold, accounting for over 75 % of the types and over 85 % of the tokens referencing people. Second, coarse-grained semantic-feature annotation reveals that Dutch retains its dominant position in all identified semantic subcategories of person-reference nouns although some hubs of English are also attested. Third, an in-depth analysis of the selection between the near-synonyms sis, sister, zus, zusje and zuster in the corpus indicates socio-pragmatic differentiation between the English and Dutch terms, English being used more for (affective) address and for friends, Dutch being reserved for reference and for proper kin. Overall, our study indicates the potential of a three-tiered onomasiological approach: the results of the three case studies show both similarities, in the systematically stronger foothold of Dutch at all levels of analysis, and differences, in the semantic specialization for English progressively uncovered from the first to the third sub-study.

MULTIPLE NEGATION IN CORPUS AND DISCOURSE

The relevance of the chosen topic is substantiated, research tasks and methods are formulated, literary sources of analysis are indicated, and the compositional structure of the article is outlined. A brief overview of the theoretical material and a working definition of the linguistic category of negation are presented, the main terms are defined, and the main approaches to the interpretation of the category of negation are defined in domestic and foreign sources. The objection is considered in the views of scientists of various fields of linguistics.Attention is drawn to the historical issues of language development, namely: the use of multiple negation and its separate subtypes in different periods of the English language. The specifics and pragma-functional features of the speech of British youth are determined. Emphasis is placed on the psychological and linguistic (discourse) development of adolescents. Part of the article is devoted to the level analysis of systemic means of negation in terms of their functioning in the text. The pragmatic character of units-components of negative intensification is described.Along with the main laws, narrower points are also involved: presented, analyzed and divided into classes and semantic subcategories and idioms with negative polarity in modern English. The focus of the article is the context as an independent object of observation, which proves the undeniable pragmatic motivation of negation in modern English writing and speech. The results of the research are summarized, the main characteristics of which are the establishment of functional equality of all means of negation at each language level, in the text and in speech; and also -in revealing their unlimited possibilities for the transfer of negative information of the most varied volume.

When fruits lose to animals: Disorganized search of semantic memory in Parkinson's disease.

The semantic fluency task is widely used in both clinical and research settings to assess both the integrity of the semantic store and the effectiveness of the search through it. Our aim was to investigate whether nondemented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients show an impairment in the strategic exploration of the semantic store and whether the tested semantic category has an impact on multiple measures of performance. We compared 74 nondemented PD patients with 254 healthy subjects in a semantic fluency test using relatively small (fruits) and large (animals) semantic categories. Number of words produced, number of explored semantic subcategories, and degree of order in the produced sequences were computed as dependent variables. PD patients produced fewer words than healthy subjects did, regardless of the category. Number of subcategories was also lower in PD patients than in healthy subjects, without a significant difference between categories. Critically, PD patients' sequences were less semantically organized than were those of controls, but this effect appeared in only the smaller category (fruits), thus pointing to a lack of strategy in exploring the semantic store. Our results show that the semantic fluency deficit in PD patients has a strategic component, even though that may not be the only cause of the impaired performance. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that the semantic category used in the test influences performance, hence providing an explanation for the failure by previous studies, which often used large categories such as animals, to detect strategy deficits in PD. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Distance Lectures in University Studies: Advantages, Disadvantages, Improvement

Distance learning is not a new subject in university study practice. It is clear that a significant number of universities practiced this way of learning before the pandemic. In the case of distance learning, the emphasis is always not so much on the means used for teaching and learning, as on the very fact of the physical separation of the lecturer and the student. There is a reasonable concern about the quality of studies, their efficiency, the quality of the qualifications acquired by future specialists, etc. The new context creates the need to analyse and assess the distance learning situation that arose during the pandemic. In January-February 2021, a qualitative study was conducted, in which 158 students from three Lithuanian universities participated. Most of the respondents were students of social and humanitarian study programmes. Qualitative data obtained on the basis of open-ended questions were analysed using the method of quantitative content analysis, i.e., semantic subcategories and categories according to four main variables were distinguished: advantages of distance lectures, disadvantages of distance lectures, and distance lecture improvement. It has been established that the main advantages are the convenience of studying and the flexibility of the study process. Meanwhile, the most obvious shortcomings are deterioration of physical and mental health and non-realisation of social needs, deterioration of the quality of academic activities. Improving the design of lectures and improving their planning and organisation are considered the key areas of improvement.

The linguocultural image of raspberries (Rubus idaeus) in Polish

Background: The aim of the article is to reconstruct the linguocultural view of raspberries ( Rubus idaeus ) in the Polish language and folk culture based on the assumptions of the cognitive definition. The popular account of raspberries found in folklore introduces the ethnolinguistic methodology, which is used to describe the world of plants by the Lublin-based team of researchers under the guidance of Jerzy Bartminski – the originator and editor of Slownik stereotypow i symboli ludowych [ Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols ], published since the 1980s. The author shows that similar research – combining ethnobotany, linguistics, ethnography and folklore studies – has also been conducted in other Slavic countries, such as Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and Belarus. Methods: Following the methodology adopted in the Lublin ethnolinguistic dictionary, the author reconstructs – based on the collected documentary material and using the cognitive definition method – the entry malina [raspberry] ( Rubus idaeus ) and arranges stereotypical judgments about this plant into separate semantic subcategories (facets). The reconstruction applies the panchronic approach, which allows to present the general characteristics of raspberries in Polish linguaculture. Results: On the basis of the collected source material (lexicographic, folklore and ethnographic data) the cognitive definition of raspberries involves such semantic subcategories as: collections and complexes, appearance and properties, ripening and harvesting, location, vehicle, practical applications, magical and medicinal applications, equivalents and symbolism. The reconstruction of the cognitive definition is preceded by the analysis of names, species and varieties, as well as ways of plant categorisation, according to the postulate of the subjective reconstruction of the linguistic worldview. Conclusions: In conclusion, the author presents the semantic “capsule” of raspberry ( Rubus idaeus ), containing the most important characteristics of the plant that are most firmly entrenched in the Polish language and Polish folk culture. Keywords: ethnolinguistics, ethnobotany, cognitive definition, linguistic worldview, raspberry ( Rubus idaeus )

The ethnobotanical character of the Polish Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols

Background : The aim of the article is to present the ethnolinguistic methodology used by a team of Lublin-based ethnolinguists centered around Jerzy Bartminski, the originator and ed of Slownik stereotypow i symboli ludowych [ Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols ], which has been published since the 1980s, and to demonstrate the ethnobotanic character of the second volume of the Lublin ethnolinguistic dictionary. By outlining the areas common to ethnobotany and ethnolinguistics, the article hopes to pave a way for a satisfactory cooperation between the representatives of both fields. Methods : Using the methodology applied in the abovementioned ethnolinguistic dictionary, in particular the cognitive definition method, the author reconstructs the dictionary entry mirt ‘myrtle’ ( Myrtus communis ). On the basis of the collected source material (lexicographic, folklore and ethnographic data), the following semantic subcategories in the cognitive definition of the myrtle are distinguished: complexes, collections and equivalents; appearance and properties; location; cultivation and care; practical, ritualistic, magical and medicinal applications; prophecies; fortune-telling and symbolism, which follow the analysis of names and ways of categorising plants, according to the postulate of the subjective reconstruction of the linguistic worldview. Results : The author presents a tabular compilation of selected semantic subcategories, which are used in Slownik stereotypow i symboli ludowych to describe plants and explains how they are understood. As a result, the proposed facets can inspire other similar research in Europe or worldwide. Conclusion : On the basis of the conducted analyses, the author comes to the conclusion that the issues described in particular facets, which constitute the ethnolinguistic narrative about plants largely coincide with the area of interest of ethnobotany. The commonalities between both disciplines include: the object of research, the relations between the plant world and the human world described in both disciplines, the appreciation of the role of language and the subjective view of the world. The reflections presented in this article indicate the possibility of future interdisciplinary research, bringing together linguists and botanists. Keywords : ethnolinguistics, ethnobotany, cognitive definition, linguistic worldview

Italian norms and naming latencies for 357 high quality color images.

In the domain of cognitive studies on the lexico-semantic representational system, one of the most important means of ensuring effective experimental designs is using ecological stimulus sets accompanied by normative data on the most relevant variables affecting the processing of their items. In the context of image sets, color photographs are particularly suited to this purpose as they reduce the difficulty of visual decoding processes that may emerge with traditional image sets of line drawings. This is especially so in clinical populations. In this study we provide Italian norms for a set of 357 high quality image-items belonging to 23 semantic subcategories from the Moreno-Martínez and Montoro database. Data from several variables affecting image processing were collected from a sample of 255 Italian-speaking participants: age of acquisition, familiarity, lexical frequency, manipulability, name agreement, typicality and visual complexity. Lexical frequency data were derived from the CoLFIS corpus. Furthermore, we collected data on image oral naming latencies to explore how the variance in these latencies could be explained by these critical variables. Multiple regression analyses on the naming latencies show classical psycholinguistic phenomena, such as the effects of age of acquisition and name agreement. In addition, manipulability was also a significant predictor. The described Italian normative data and naming latencies are available for download as supplementary material.

Emotion in politics: Affective-discursive practices in UKIP and Labour

Recent political trends in many countries have sparked renewed interest in populism. Despite general agreement that the affective/emotive aspects of political communication are particularly important in this, there is little recent analysis of how populists operationalise emotion or how they genuinely differ from mainstream parties in this sense. This article applies mixed methods to explore the ‘affective-discursive practices’ that characterise the discourses of two opposition parties in the United Kingdom: United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and Labour. Comparison of the frequency of semantic subcategories related to emotion in corpora of press releases published by these parties on their websites is complemented by qualitative analysis of how specific emotional areas such as fear, anger and anxiety are invoked by the two parties. Different ‘affective-discursive practices’ underpin their discourses, since Labour characteristically frames reactions to social phenomena in terms of worry and concern, while UKIP legitimates fear and anger, but also projects more positive emotions.

Exploiting textual and visual features for image categorization

Studies show that refining real-world categories into semantic subcategories contributes to better image modeling and classification. Previous image sub-categorization work relying on labeled images and WordNet’s hierarchy is labor-intensive. To tackle this problem, in this work, we extract textual and visual features to automatically select and subsequently classify web images into semantic rich categories. The following two major challenges are well studied: (1) noise in the labels of subcategories derived from the general corpus; (2) noise in the labels of images retrieved from the web. Specifically, we first obtain the semantic refinement subcategories from the text perspective and remove the noise by using the relevance-based approach. To suppress the search error induced noisy images, we then formulate image selection and classifier learning as a multi-instance learning problem and propose to solve the employed problem by the cutting-plane algorithm. The experiments show significant performance gains by using the generated data of our approach on image categorization tasks. The proposed approach also consistently outperforms existing weakly supervised and web-supervised approaches.

Haiku y flamenco. Un caso paradigmático de abstracción conceptual y minimalismo formal, con especial atención al significado nocional y procedimental

haiku y flamenco. Un caso paradigmático de abstracción conceptual y minimalismo formal, con especial atención al significado nocional y procedimental

Префикс од- в хорватском языке. Когнитивно-семантический анализ Источника

The focus of this paper is on the semantics of the Croatian prefix od-, or, more specifically, on its contribution to the verbal semantics and the resulting network of senses that are realized by all the verbs with an od- prefix in standard Croatian. Following a brief review of the current most influential theoretical treatments of the semantics of the Croatian od-, which is complemented by a brief review of the (cognitively based) analyses of ot- in Russian, the central portion of the paper not only deals with a detailed and systematic analysis of the semantic components, but also with the syntactic requirements of all the Croatian verbs with an od- prefix. In the conclusive part of the paper the authors propose a semantic network that accomodates all the different meanings (senses) expressed by Croatian verbs with an od- prefix, which is paralleled by systematic syntactic requirements of verbs with the od- prefix falling into different semantic subcategories.

An ecological alternative to Snodgrass & Vanderwart: 360 high quality colour images with norms for seven psycholinguistic variables.

This work presents a new set of 360 high quality colour images belonging to 23 semantic subcategories. Two hundred and thirty-six Spanish speakers named the items and also provided data from seven relevant psycholinguistic variables: age of acquisition, familiarity, manipulability, name agreement, typicality and visual complexity. Furthermore, we also present lexical frequency data derived from Internet search hits. Apart from the high number of variables evaluated, knowing that it affects the processing of stimuli, this new set presents important advantages over other similar image corpi: (a) this corpus presents a broad number of subcategories and images; for example, this will permit researchers to select stimuli of appropriate difficulty as required, (e.g., to deal with problems derived from ceiling effects); (b) the fact of using coloured stimuli provides a more realistic, ecologically-valid, representation of real life objects. In sum, this set of stimuli provides a useful tool for research on visual object-and word- processing, both in neurological patients and in healthy controls.

Getting ‘do’ in Croatian. Goals, boundaries and more in prefixal semantics

Abstract The focus of this paper is on the semantics of the Croatian prefix ‘do-’, or, more specifically, on its contribution to the verbal semantics and the resulting network of senses realized by all the ‘do-’ prefixed verbs in standard Croatian. Following a brief review of the current most influential theoretical treatments of the semantics of the Croatian ‘do-’, which is complemented by a brief review of the analyses of ‘do-’ in Polish and Russian, the central portion of the paper is represented by a detailed and systematic analysis and of the semantic components but also syntactic requirements of all the ‘do-’ prefixed Croatian verbs. In the conclusive part of the paper the authors propose a semantic network accommodating all the senses expressed by Croatian ‘do-’ prefixed verbs, which is interestingly paralleled by systematic syntactic requirements of ‘do-’ prefixed verbs falling into different semantic subcategories.

Clustering and Switching Strategies During Verbal Fluency Performance Differentiate Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Aging

Clustering and switching strategies during phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks as defined by Troyer et al. (1997), Abwender et al. (2001), and Lanting et al. (2009) were compared using archival data to determine which scoring procedures best differentiate healthy older adults (n = 26) from individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 26). Total word production showed the largest group difference, especially for semantic fluency. The AD group produced fewer switches when compared to the healthy control group, whereas the groups did not differ in cluster size. The AD group also accessed fewer novel semantic subcategories, presumably due to reduced access to semantic memory storage rather than lower processing speed. Clustering and switching scores on the phonemic task did not add information above total words produced, consistent with previous research indicating these variables are most informative in relation to semantic fluency.

The Hatfield Image Test (HIT): A new picture test and norms for experimental and clinical use

We present a new corpus of 147 high-quality photographic colour images (the Hatfield Image Test: HIT). Existing sets of pictorial stimuli tend to be line drawn, contain many items that are readily identifiable by healthy participants, and, therefore, have an inherent tendency towards ceiling effects in the normal population. The broad range of item difficulty and range of semantic subcategories in the HIT permits researchers to select stimuli of appropriate difficulty as required. We present naming data from 152 healthy participants. Additionally, we present mean ratings for each item on several widely used psycholinguistic variables: age of acquisition, colour diagnosticity, familiarity, name agreement (and the H statistic), visual complexity, and word frequency. These stimuli provide a useful corpus for experimental and clinical researchers.

Les Adverbes d'énonciation. Comment les définir et les sous-classifier ?

General works on adverbs, but also textbook grammars in their chapter on this part of speech, all recognise a category whose most neutral label, theoretically speaking, is that of“utterance-level adverbs”. The most representative of these are the adverbs franchement( “frankly”), honnêtement ( “honestly”), sincèrement ( “sincerely”), etc. These works also agreeon the over all definition of the category : these are adverbs which serve to refer to theparticular conditions of production of a speaker’s utterance. Within this category ofutterance-level adverbs, which in large part is constituted differentially in relation to the others, we argue for the following semantic sub-categories : 1. Adverbs denoting the speaker’s psychological or moral stance with respect to the addressee. For example, franchement, honnêtement, sincèrement, entre nous ( “between youand me”), etc. 2. Adverbs expressing some kind of comment by the speaker on the make-up of theutterance (e.g. concrètement ( “concretely”), objectivement ( “objectively”), en clair( “specifically”), en gros ( “in general terms”), etc.). 3. Adverbs having to do with the source of the information at issue : 3.1. Adverbs of personal opinion (e.g. à mon avis ( “in my opinion”), à mon sens ( “in myview”), à mon sentiment ( “what I feel is...”), etc.). 3.2. Modally-distancing adverbs (e.g. autant que je sache ( “as far as I know”), à ma connnaissance ( “to my knowledge”), si j’ai bonne mémoire ( “if I remember rightly”), sauf erreurde ma part ( “if I’m not mistaken”), etc.). 3.3. Evidential adverbs (e.g. à ce que j’ai entendu dire ( “from what I’ve heard”), à ce qu’on raconte ( “from what they say”), de source (sûre + bien informée + diplomatique) ( “fromreliable/well-informed/diplomatic sources”), etc. 3.4. Individuating adverbs (e.g. personnellement ( “personally”), en ce qui me concerne ( “as faras I’m concerned”), pour ma part ( “for my part”)). In this article, we list and briefly summarise this set of forms.

Treatment for lexical retrieval in progressive aphasia

Background: Treatment for lexical retrieval impairment has been shown to yield positive outcomes in individuals with aphasia due to focal lesions, but there has been little research regarding the treatment of such impairments in individuals with progressive aphasia. Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the therapeutic effects of a semantic treatment for anomia in progressive aphasia relative to the outcome in an individual with stroke‐induced aphasia. Methods & Procedures: Two individuals with progressive aphasia and one with aphasia resulting from stroke participated in the study. Each participant presented with fluent, anomic aphasia; however, one of the patients with progressive aphasia demonstrated characteristics indicating a likely progression towards non‐fluency. Each participant received a brief, intensive treatment intended to improve lexical retrieval in the context of generative naming for selected semantic categories. Treatment tasks included guided lexical retrieval prompted by the identification and elaboration of items within semantic subcategories, as well as other semantic tasks. Treatment outcomes were quantified using standard effects sizes as well as nonparametric tests comparing pre‐ versus post‐treatment performance. Outcomes & Results: One of the individuals with progressive aphasia showed large treatment effects for lexical retrieval of items from targeted semantic categories. The other progressive aphasia patient showed very small effects overall for treated categories. The individual with the focal lesion due to stroke showed medium‐sized effects for trained categories as well as significant improvement on a standardised measure of naming. Conclusions: Findings indicate that intensive, semantically based treatment for lexical retrieval can result in positive outcomes in individuals with progressive as well as stroke‐induced aphasia. Examination of individual differences suggests that the status of semantic and episodic memory may provide predictive information regarding responsiveness to treatment.

Clustering and switching processes in semantic verbal fluency in the course of Alzheimer's disease subjects: Results from the PAQUID longitudinal study

Reduced semantic fluency performances have been reported in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD). To investigate the cognitive processes underlying this early deficit, this study analyzed the verbal production of predemented subjects for the animals category with the qualitative parameters related to clustering (i.e. the ability to generate words belonging to semantic subcategories of animals) and switching (i.e. the ability to shift from one subcategory to another) proposed by Troyer.This qualitative analysis was applied to the PAQUID (Personnes Agées QUID) cohort, a 17-year longitudinal population-based study. The performances on the animal verbal fluency task of 51 incident cases of possible and probable AD were analyzed at the onset of dementia, 2 years and 5 years before dementia onset. Each case was matched for age, sex and education to two control subjects leading to a sample of 153 subjects. The mean cluster size and the raw number of switches were compared in the two samples. The results revealed a significantly lower switching index in the future AD subjects than in the elderly controls including 5 years before dementia incidence. A significant decline in this parameter was evidenced all along the prodromal phase until the clinical diagnosis of dementia. In contrast, the mean cluster size could not discriminate the two groups. Therefore the results support the hypothesis that impaired shifting abilities – rather than semantic memory storage degradation – could explain the early decline in semantic fluency performance occurring in the predementia phase of AD.

Role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in covert word retrieval: Neural correlates of switching during verbal fluency

Word retrieval ability is commonly assessed with a semantic verbal fluency task, in which subjects must produce a list of exemplars of a category (e.g., animals). The order in which exemplars are produced is not random; rather, subjects tend to produce “clusters” of semantically related items (e.g., cow, pig, sheep) and occasionally “switch” to other clusters (e.g., lion, tiger, bear). Patients with frontal lobe pathology (associated with focal lesions or Parkinson's disease) exhibit reduced output on semantic fluency tasks that has been characterized as a reduction in switching, in contrast to other impaired patient groups who produce normal switches but smaller clusters (e.g., [Troyer, A. K., Moscovitch, M., Winocur, G., Leach, L., & Freedman, M. (1998). Clustering and switching on verbal fluency tests in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4(2), 137–143]). The ability to initiate a switch between two semantic categories may require the selection of weakly activated representations over active (but already reported) representations. Previous studies have shown that increased demands on selection among competing representations are associated with activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and with deficits in patients with lesions including LIFG [Thompson-Schill, S. L., Jonides, J., Marshuetz, C., Smith, E. E., D’Esposito, M., Kan, I. P., et al. (2002). Effects of frontal lobe damage on interference effects in working memory. Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2(2), 109–120; Thompson-Schill, S. L., Swick, D., Farah, M. J., D’Esposito, M., Kan, I. P., & Knight, R. T. (1998). Verb generation in patients with focal frontal lesions: A neuropsychological test of neuroimaging findings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 26, 14792–14797]. In the present study, we investigated the neural correlates of switching in the verbal fluency task, and in particular, the role of the LIFG in switching between semantic sub-categories. We observed greater activation in the LIFG during switching compared to free generation (Experiment 1) and self-reported clustering (Experiment 2), which is consistent with the hypothesis that the switching mechanism is subserved by the LIFG due to high semantic selection demands.