Semantic Theory Research Articles

CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN FOOTBALL NEWS ON GOAL.COM

This research examines conceptual metaphors as defined by Lakoff and Johnson, focusing on three types: structural, ontological, and orientational. The study analyzes an editorial from Goal.com titled, "Arsenal have no margin for error! Gunners told Liverpool showdown is 'must-win' in title race just eight games into 2024-25 season," using a qualitative approach grounded in cognitive semantic theory to explore the nuanced meanings conveyed through metaphor in sports commentary. Known for its in-depth and timely football analysis, Goal.com offers insights into how metaphors enhance fans' understanding of competitive sports narratives. Data collection involved close reading and note-taking, identifying instances of structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors, along with their source and target domains and image schemas. Findings reveal five structural metaphors, which use schemas such as Scale and Force to emphasize competitive intensity; four ontological metaphors, drawing on Container, Force, and Existence schemas to illustrate team pressures; and one orientational metaphor, using the Container schema to deepen spatial and relational context in the text. This study highlights the role of sports media metaphors in shaping public perception, making abstract concepts like competition and resilience more tangible. By framing sports challenges in relatable, high-stakes terms, these metaphors foster emotional engagement among fans, creating a shared understanding of a team's journey and pressures and underscoring the powerful influence of metaphor in sports narratives.

Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka Reconsidered: Neopragmatist Reflections on Language

This paper provides a novel interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka. I highlight what I take to be an unexamined presupposition shared by contemporary Madhyamaka scholars, i.e., representationalism, in order to show how this assumption underpins ongoing debates over whether Nāgārjuna’s thought is primarily “reason-driven” or principally “soteriologically-animated”. Using a neopragmatist account of language, I trace scholarly debates over the metalinguistic function of Nāgārjuna’s assertions and demonstrate representationalism’s role in contemporary constructions of a Madhyamaka-friendly semantic theory. I argue that by explicitly rejecting representationalism, we can sidestep scholarly debates about truth and utility, as well as lay to rest concerns with the order of value between zetetic and protreptic techniques. Finally, through a comparison with Richard Rorty, I show that an anti-representationalist framework is implicit in Nāgārjuna’s arguments. This, in turn, allows the problem of hypostatization to take center stage in the Madhyamaka message.

Sudut Pandang Dan Kefahaman Warganet Terhadap Zakat Semasa Pandemik Covid-19 Di Malaysia Berdasarkan Teori Prosodi Semantik

The COVID-19 pandemic has left a huge impact on economic activities, thus affecting the people. The evidence is that 1.78 million data extracted from social media is related to socioeconomic issues. One of the most talked about topics is the issue of zakat (alms) in Malaysia. Intrigued by these problems, this article aims to examine the viewpoint and understanding of the alms, especially in relation to applications and helplines, as well as the issues of confusion in the meaning and concept of alms. By using the keyword [zakat] obtained through the virtual advertising operation on Facebook data, the study examined 35,000 posts (reply comments) detected from January to June 2020. All data analysed are based on the semantic prosody theory which expresses the view that each word has its own consistent aura, thus enabling it to be transferred and its meaning attached to other words in a sentence. The results of the analysis found that both issues highlighted often showed the collocation of the word [zakat] with the words [mohon/apply], [proses/process], [konsep/concept], [makna/meaning] and [asnaf/a group of Muslims worthy of receiving Muslim tithe or]. The understanding of the collocation relationship displays two forms of difficulties in alms which are difficulty in understanding the process and procedure of alms application and difficulty in understanding the concept and meaning of [zakat] and its details. The analysis also found that both issues were discussed cynically, causing misunderstanding if not properly addressed. This situation indicates that no matter how small the issue is raised, it should be taken care of in order to ensure that the alms management can be preserved in the name of Islam.

Domain embeddings for generating complex descriptions of concepts in Italian language.

In this work, we propose a Distributional Semantic resource enriched with linguistic and lexical information extracted from electronic dictionaries. This resource is designed to bridge the gap between the continuous semantic values represented by distributional vectors and the discrete descriptions provided by general semantics theory. Recently, many researchers have focused on the connection between embeddings and a comprehensive theory of semantics and meaning. This often involves translating the representation of word meanings in Distributional Models into a set of discrete, manually constructed properties, such as semantic primitives or features, using neural decoding techniques. Our approach introduces an alternative strategy based on linguistic data. We have developed a collection of domain-specific co-occurrence matrices derived from two sources: a list of Italian nouns classified into four semantic traits and 20 concrete noun sub-categories and Italian verbs classified by their semantic classes. In these matrices, the co-occurrence values for each word are calculated exclusively with a defined set of words relevant to a particular lexical domain. The resource includes 21 domain-specific matrices, one comprehensive matrix, and a Graphical User Interface. Our model facilitates the generation of reasoned semantic descriptions of concepts by selecting matrices directly associated with concrete conceptual knowledge, such as a matrix based on location nouns and the concept of animal habitats. We assessed the utility of the resource through two experiments, achieving promising outcomes in both the automatic classification of animal nouns and the extraction of animal features.

Witch, strumpet, maid and saint

Abstract Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 1 depicts Joan of Arc in contradictory terms. This paper discusses the narrative and literary techniques that are used to develop Joan of Arc’s characterisation, particularly the alternation of location between the Anglo-Burgundian and the French-Armagnac camp, the antagonistic staging of Joan of Arc compared to Lord Talbot and Margaret of Anjou, and the contrastive use of epithets, including the shifting positive, neutral or negative dictionary meanings and context-dependent meanings, as per Ray Jackendoff’s theory of Conceptual Semantics. This results in questioning the apparent meaning of words and concepts and thereby also the apparent judgment on the characters themselves, thus ambiguating, questioning, and ridiculing apparent certainties.

Unlocking the complexity of phrasal composition: An interplay between semantic features and linguistic relations

Understanding the computational operations involved in conceptual composition is fundamental for theories of language. However, the existing literature on this topic remains fragmented, comprising disconnected theories from various fields. For instance, while formal semantic theories in Linguistics rely on type-driven interpretation without explicitly representing the conceptual content of lexical items, neurolinguistic research suggests that the brain is sensitive to conceptual factors during word composition. What is the relationship between these two types of theories? Do they describe two distinct aspects of composition, operating independently, or do they connect in some way during interpretation by our brain? To probe this, we explored how the mathematical operations explaining the combination of two words into a phrase are affected by the semantic content of items and the formal linguistic relations between the combining items. For six phrase types that varied properties relevant to type-driven interpretation such as modification vs. argument-saturation and modifier context sensitivity, we collected human ratings of experiential semantic features both for the phrases and for all the individual words within the phrases. We then compared the ability of different computational combination rules to explain the phrase ratings based on the individual word ratings. Our results indicate that composition operations are not one-size-fits-all but rather depend on both feature type and linguistic relation. For example, in intersective Adjective-Noun phrases, addition is used to merge attention-related features, while color features are predominantly determined by the first word's ratings. In the case of social features, the verb chiefly guides interpretation in Verb-Noun phrases, whereas in Noun-Noun phrases, the model employs multiplication to combine the social features of the nouns.

A Cognitive -Semantic Study of Love Metaphor in Mawlawi Poems

This study is entitled "A Cognitive Semantic Study of Love Metaphor in Mawlawi Poems". It is an attempt to construe the semantic aspects of Mawlawi's poetic texts in light of the cognitive semantic approach. The study, through a linguistic and cognitive analysis, clarifies the way meaning is constructed in the selected poems. It adopts the theoretical framework proposed by the cognitive semantic theory of metaphor. That is, according to the cognitive theory of metaphor, it explores the metaphorization of LOVE in the selected poems. In cognitive approach to metaphor, an abstract concept named the target domain is understood in terms of another called the source domain (usually concrete). The source domain is a conceptual domain used metaphorically so as to understand the abstract target concept, i.e., the target domain is a conceptual domain interpreted through the source domain. The current study investigates the ways in which LOVE as an abstract target concept is construed in terms of other source conceptual domains. That is, the primary aim of the study is to scrutinize how LOVE is metaphorized in the poems, what are the source domains the poet relies upon so as to interpret the target domain of LOVE. In other words, what are the more concrete conceptual source domains that are metaphorically used in order to comprehend the abstract target concept of LOVE? Accordingly, the recent study is mainly concerned with conceptualization (the way LOVE is conceptualized) which is the cognitive processes of meaning-making. This means that, it illuminates meaning construction process in Mawlawi literature. The study first provides a brief introduction to Cognitive Linguistics and then the nature of meaning in cognitive semantic approach is highlighted. Following this, the cognitive approach to metaphor is presented. The last section is devoted to elucidating the metaphorical structuring of LOVE in Mawlawi's poems based on the contemporary theory of metaphor.

THE NOTION OF SEQUENTIALITY IN LANGUAGE: AN INVESTIGATION IN COGNITIVE SEMANTICS

AbstractThis research aims to clarify the concept of sequentiality in language: the case in which a number of things occur one after the other, as seen in phrases like a queue of customers, a strand of programs and a fleet of cars. Utilizing Langacker's theory of Cognitive Semantics, the study seeks to substantiate two claims. The first is that the meaning of a linguistic expression is understood in terms of the domain in which it is embedded. The second is that the meaning of a linguistic expression is the outcome of the specific construal imposed on its content. The paper proposes that the choice of a sequential phrase is influenced by how the speaker perceives and describe a situation. The study intends to demonstrate that each sequential phrase carries a unique meaning that sets it apart from others. When two or more sequential phrases modify a noun, they indicate semantic contrast, with each phrase offering a different perspective. The findings show that sequential phrases have distinct functions and are distinguishable in their usage through examples provided.

Five Models Used in Contrastive Semantics: A Comprehensive Synthesis and Analysis

The present study aims to assess and contrast five different approaches in the field of contrastive semantics: natural semantic metalanguage (NSM), conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), frame semantics (FC), semantic field theory (SFT), and cognitive grammar (CG). The research is set to review the available literature on the described techniques in order to focus on their distinguishing characteristics, practical applications, and illustrative samples. The findings reveal that these five models do play an insightful role when it comes to analyzing and comparing synonymous and semantically related profiles across distinct languages. Relations of semantic elements are the core concern of NSM while CMT investigates the internal schemata of the mind. As opposed to cognitive frame analysis, where knowledge structures are the central object of study, in SFT are language units grouped according to their meaning, while CG sees no separation of grammatical and meaning structures. This paper expounds on how these frameworks fill the gaps left by each of them and offers a broader understanding of the ways words encode meaning and how speakers of different cultures think about the world. Moreover, this study augments the knowledge regarding the variations of languages and gives an understanding of how languages relate to cognition, culture, and how people think about the world through words.

Meanings of Basqueness: An Account from Brandomian Inferentialism on Basque Identity and Its Evolution

ABSTRACT In this paper, I will analyze how the conceptualization of the term ‘Basqueness’, and the meaning of ‘being Basque’, have been instrumental in determining the way in which citizens of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) have chosen to identify themselves. What it means to be Basque has experienced a significant evolution from its ethnic and linguistic origins to being a matter of feeling and doing; however, the way Basque citizens felt about Basqueness, and what actions participated in Basqueness, was substantially influenced by the climate of political polarization, the appropriation by nationalism of Basque symbols and features and the violence of terrorist organization ETA, as well as the justification of its crimes. Working from the semantic theory of Brandomian inferentialism, I want to show how these factors functioned as inferential relations that constituted the meaning of Basqueness. As these inferences changed with the dissolution of ETA and the easing of political polarization, what it means to be Basque has subsequently changed its meaning, which might contribute to explaining why in recent years an increasing number of people in the BAC have incorporated Basqueness into their mixed or liminal identities.

Trends in Mutual Transpositions of Lexical and Grammatical Noun Categories in Russian Language

This study addresses the gap in understanding the lexico-grammatical-structural types of nouns, particularly how lexico-semantic variants gain new connotations during transposition. Drawing upon Babaytseva’s theory of transitivity phenomena and building on Mel’chuk’s text semantic theory, we identify the schemes and mechanisms of transposition relations concerning the lexical and grammatical categories of modern Russian nouns, by analyzing transposition phenomena and their semantic mechanisms in 660 Russian nouns with indefinite denotation and lexical and grammatical status. The research details all possible immigration transpositions of the lexical and grammatical categories of nouns at the minimal context level and their mechanisms. Findings reveal that approximately 27% of the examined nouns carry connotative meanings, encompassing functional-stylistic, cultural-ethnic, and emotional-evaluative facets. Additionally, the transposition of nouns can occur within or between categories. The principal mechanisms of transposition at the syntagmatic level include metaphors and metonymy. Transpositions at the lexical and semantic categories of nouns coincide with several phenomena: changes in the numerical paradigm, phraseologization, connotation, and the unveiling of the noun’s stylistic potential.

Ajdukiewicz’s Semantic Turn

Ajdukiewicz called his article Problemat idealizmu transcendentalnego w sformułowaniu semantycznym [The Semantic Version of Transcendental Idealism], published in “Przegląd Filozoficzny” in 1937, a “turning point” of his philosophical development. The aim of the paper is to present various aspects of this turn. Firstly, the historical and philosophical background of the 1937 paper is sketched. It includes the metaphilosophical position of the Lvov‑Warsaw School, and the development of methods applied in this group. Secondly, Ajdukiewicz’s ideas up to 1937 are outlined in order to present what the semantic turn consisted in. Next, the program of the semantic theory of knowledge is sketched, and the steps of Ajdukiewicz’s argumentation against transcendental idealism, with an emphasis on the use of metalogical and semantic results, are presented. Finally, Ajdukiewicz’s proposal is discussed from the methodological point of view.

LINGUISTIC EXPLORATION OF IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS IN RATATOUILLE

This study examines the idiomatic expressions present in the movie Ratatouille. Idioms are fascinating aspects of language that add depth and color to our communication. They are expressions or phrases with a figurative meaning that differ from their literal interpretation. The purpose of using idioms in communication is to enhance the interest of the listener or reader. The author applies semantics theory to analyze idiomatic expressions in the movie Ratatouille in this study. The methodology systematically identifies and categorises idiomatic expressions into (McCarthy & O’Dell, 2010) seven categories: similes, binomials, trinomials, proverbs, clichés, euphemisms, and fixed statements. The selection of the movie Ratatouille was based on its suitability for all audiences, particularly children, and its numerous idiomatic expressions. The study aims to analyze these expressions to avoid confusion. This study employs a descriptive-qualitative methodology to conduct qualitative research. The subject of this research is a movie entitled Ratatouille. This analysis provides insight into Ratatouille as a fascinating linguistic expression element that enriches and complicates human communication. The data consisted of various scenes from the movie Ratatouille, which included idiomatic expressions spoken by the characters. In order to draw meaningful conclusions from the data analysis, it was necessary to classify and categorize the data systematically. Furthermore, the fixed statement is the most used type of idiomatic expression. On the other hand, the cliché idiom is the least-used type of idiomatic expression found in the Ratatouille movie. In addition, the study revealed that incorporating idiomatic expressions in Ratatouille enhanced the narrative with depth and richness and offered the audience a distinctive cultural context. The fixed statements, like "anyone can cook," profoundly conveyed the movie's themes of ambition and defying societal expectations. Moreover, the fixed statement "anyone can cook" became a notable catchphrase from the movie, representing the idea that cooking is not limited to a certain group of individuals but rather a skill that anyone with passion and determination can acquire. In contrast, the cliché idioms, while less frequently used, still added a touch of familiarity and relatability to the characters, making their dialogue more believable and realistic. The presence of idiomatic expressions showcased the attention to detail in the film's writing, engaging with audiences and making Ratatouille a memorable experience.

A linguistics-based approach to refining automatic intent detection in conversational agent design

In this paper, we propose Automatic Intent Detector (AID), a framework for automatic intent detection to facilitate the creation of a conversational agent. AID follows an eight-step process incorporating best practices from the current literature and introducing innovative approaches in certain steps. The most notable innovation within AID is the automatic labeling of clusters, which is based on detailed and sophisticated rules derived from linguistics. These rules focus on morphosyntactic analysis, while also taking into account an aspect of semantic role theory. Furthermore, as for the overall validation of the results obtained, it provides an approach based on the concepts of semantic coherence, variability, and label appropriateness. After describing AID at the technical level, we illustrate the experiments we conducted both on a dataset widely used as benchmark in the literature and on a real corporate dataset. Finally, we present a critical discussion on the results obtained.

Semantic Analysis of Selected Nigerian Newspaper Reports on the Effect of the 2023 Naira Redesign

This study is a semantic analysis of news reports on the effect of the 2023 Nigerian Naira redesign from selected Nigerian newspapers. A total of 40 news reports were purposively sampled from four Nigerian newspapers (The Sun, Vanguard, The Guardian and Premium Times). Fillmore’s (1982) Frame Semantic Theory, which proposed that language is composed of semantic frames, which are mental representations of situations or scenarios, was adopted for this study. A qualitative research design was employed in the data analysis to examine the elements of Frame Semantic Theory evident in the extracted data. The findings revealed that all the four newspapers consistently framed the effects of the Naira redesign within the context of economic hardship. It also revealed that the newspapers predominantly conveyed negative perspectives regarding the Naira redesign. The cross-newspaper comparative analysis also highlighted the widespread and varied effects of the Naira redesign.

EKSPRESI BAHASA EVALUATIF PADA ARTIKEL ILMIAH BERBAHASA INDONESIA

Authors of scientific articles are faced with two opposing demands: objectivity and critical evaluation when expressing reality and truth. To date, no evaluative language mapping has been performed on Indonesian scientific articles which can accurately describe an article’s degree of objectivity so that it can be used as a tool for objectivizing and negotiating truth. Using the appraisal framework, this research aims to identify and examine these two opposing orientations as they appear in Indonesian scientific articles. The qualitative approach was applied to perform in-depth analysis of interpersonal functions in scientific articles. Data in the form of Indonesian scientific articles were obtained from top ten highest impact factor journals which are accredited and indexed by the Science and Technology Index (SINTA), representing ten different scientific disciplines. Results show that the authors could not completely avoid subjectivity. However, objectivity was clearly sought through five strategies: passivation, verbalization, prioritization of verbs before explicit expressions of affect, nominalization, and prioritization of nouns before explicit expressions of affect. Using the appraisal framework, the modality theory in Indonesian (Alwi 1992), and the lexical semantic theory (Cruse 1986) as bases for data analysis, this research offers a taxonomic evaluative language map of Indonesian scientific articles. This research used the appraisal framework (Martin and White, 2005), especially the attitude and graduation system, to define boundaries while combining objective and evaluative- critical language in three parameters: (1) distance between the personal evaluation source and the evaluative item; (2) the prominence of agentivity and a person’s involvement in the actualization of events; and (3) the root meaning of evaluative lexemes.

Analysis of Forms and Usage of Onomatopoeia in Babymetal Band Singer's Song Lyrics

The aim of this descriptive qualitative study discusses the analysis of forms and usage of onomatopoeia in the Babymetal Band singer song lyrics so that listeners can understand the meanings of the lyrics. Using listening and note-taking techniques, data is analyzed by Miles and Huberman's semantic theory. The result concludes that there are 14 contexts in the lyrics containing onomatopoeia that can be categorized into 5 types i.e. Giseigo, Giongo, Gitaigo, Giyougo, Gijougo, and 8 characteristics i.e. Gokon, Oto wo tsumeru, Oto ho haneru, Cho'on, Morpheme “ri”, Hanpukukei, Oto no ichibu koutai, Counter sound Seion and Dakuon. However, the types Gijougo and the characteristic Hanpukukei were most frequently found because Babymetal often uses emotional elements in their music.

Emotional palette: a computational mapping of aesthetic experiences evoked by visual art

Despite the evolutionary history and cultural significance of visual art, the structure of aesthetic experiences it evokes has only attracted recent scientific attention. What kinds of experience does visual art evoke? Guided by Semantic Space Theory, we identify the concepts that most precisely describe people’s aesthetic experiences using new computational techniques. Participants viewed 1457 artworks sampled from diverse cultural and historical traditions and reported on the emotions they felt and their perceived artwork qualities. Results show that aesthetic experiences are high-dimensional, comprising 25 categories of feeling states. Extending well beyond hedonism and broad evaluative judgments (e.g., pleasant/unpleasant), aesthetic experiences involve emotions of daily social living (e.g., “sad”, “joy”), the imagination (e.g., “psychedelic”, “mysterious”), profundity (e.g., “disgust”, “awe”), and perceptual qualities attributed to the artwork (e.g., “whimsical”, “disorienting”). Aesthetic emotions and perceptual qualities jointly predict viewers’ liking of the artworks, indicating that we conceptualize aesthetic experiences in terms of the emotions we feel but also the qualities we perceive in the artwork. Aesthetic experiences are often mixed and lie along continuous gradients between categories rather than within discrete clusters. Our collection of artworks is visualized within an interactive map (https://barradeau.com/2021/emotions-map/), revealing the high-dimensional space of aesthetic experiences associated with visual art.

Synchronized Shared Memory and Black-box Procedural Abstraction: Toward a Formal Semantics of Blech

Traditional imperative synchronous programming languages heavily rely on a strict separation between data memory and communication signals. Signals can be shared between computational units but cannot be overwritten within a synchronous reaction cycle. Memory can be destructively updated but cannot be shared between concurrent threads. This incoherence makes traditional imperative synchronous languages cumbersome for the programmer. The recent definition of sequentially constructive synchronous languages offers an improvement. It removes the separation between data memory and communication signals and unifies both through the notion of clock synchronized shared memory . However, it still depends on global causality analyses, which precludes black-box procedural abstraction. This complicates reuse and composition of software components. This article shows how black-box procedural abstraction can be accommodated inside the sequentially constructive model of computation. We present the Sequentially Constructive Procedural Language ( SCoPL ) and its semantic theory of policy-constructive synchronous processes. SCoPL supports black-box procedural abstractions using policy interfaces to ensure that procedure calls are memory-safe and wait-free and their scheduling is determinate and causal. At the same time, a policy interface constrains the level of freedom for the implementation and subsequent refactoring of a procedure. As a result, policies enable separate compilation and composition of procedures. We present our extensions abstractly as a formal semantics for SCoPL and motivate it concretely in the context of the open-source, embedded, real-time language Blech .

An Overview of Cognitive Strategies in SLA of English in 21st Century

Cognitive linguistics scrutinizes the close relationship between the human brain, mind and SLA. Since the beginning of the 21st century, many new paradigms and approaches have emerged in this domain of SLA. Based on English as L2, this paper delves into the review in cognitive dimension from three main aspects: cognitive linguistics represented by constructional grammar, empirical cognitive science represented by neural-brain science and corpus research, as well as category and metaphor-related theories in cognitive semantics. These cognitive perspectives and strategies are interconnected and complementary, constituting a general and comprehensive sketch of new paradigms in cognitive SLA. This paper summarizes and analyzes how cognitive linguistics and cognitive science in the 21st century can provide coherent and appropriate theoretical guidance and methodological reference for the study of SLA, and meanwhile criticize and reflect on the shortcomings of the current research field and offers suggestions for future research directions.