Uncommon Words Research Articles

Syntactic indices of language use of mentally retarded and normal children.

Three groups of 11-year old children institutionalized and non-institutionalized retardates and normals, were compared in their language usage on responses to TAT cards. The distribution of their words into common and uncommon, and over the part of speech categories was analysed, as well as the complexity and diversity of their sentences, verb and noun phrases. Retarded children did not differ from normal children in their usage of common and uncommon words, nor in their use of part of speech categories. Also, their verb phrases and noun phrases were in many respects comparable to those used by normal children. The clearest differences were found in the measures of sentence complexity and diversity: institutionalized retardates received the lowest scores of the three groups on these measures (significantly lower than the scores of the normal children), the scores of the non-institutionalized retardates were intermediate and those of the normal children the highest. Additional comparisons of the patterns of scores with those received by younger children showed that the institutionalized retardates were most comparable to normal 5-year olds, particularly in their sentence usage, whereas the non-institutionalized retardates were most comparable to normal children of the same chronological age.

Thinking of a word under instructional constraints

Instructions to think of an uncommon word to complete a verbal problem (e.g., f___k) could either prompt the recall of only uncommon words or leave the common-to-uncommon order of recall intact and establish the criteria for rejecting recalled common words. Postsolution recognition tests consisted of all possible solution words and indicated that common and uncommon word instructions elicited the most common of the possible solution words first. A second, less common, word was recalled only if the first word was too common to meet the uncommon word criteria. Word frequency instructions affect the evaluation, and not the recall, stage of solving verbal problems.

Verbal-discrimination learning: Familiarization of common and uncommon words.

Verbal-discrimination learning: Familiarization of common and uncommon words.

Instructional effects on word association commonality in high and low "schizophrenic" college students.

Summary In an attempt to assess the ability of normal Ss to give uncommon word associations and of “schizophrenic” Ss to give common ones, the effects of three types of instruction on the word association performance of 144 college students were measured. All Ss, including those with valid MMPI profiles suggestive of schizophrenia were able to increase their response commonality under instructions to give the word “most people” would give, and to decrease their commonality under instructions to give a word “no one else” would give, relative to the free association condition. Though Ss with high MMPI Schizophrenia scores produced more original associations under all conditions, there was an apparent floor effect on the production of popular responses under the “no one else” instructions.

The essential schemes of syntax: An analysis of rhetorical theory's recommendations for uncommon word orders

The essential schemes of syntax: An analysis of rhetorical theory's recommendations for uncommon word orders

Differential repetition of common versus uncommon word associations

The tendency to repeat common versus uncommon word associations was investigated using 127 Ss. Each had two administrations of a 100-word association list, with 86 Ss instructed on their second administration to repeat the responses made originally, and with 41 Ss not specifically instructed to repeat. For both groups, the mean number of common associations repeated was significantly greater than the mean number of uncommon associations.

Associative originality training in children

The effects of 1-, 3-, and 5-days of associative originality training on three criterion tasks was studied in 336 4th, 5th, and 6th grade children. Results indicated that while 3- and 5-days of training facilitated uncommon word association responding, no reliable facilitation of unusual uses and letter tasks was obtained. Scores on three personality scales were independent of all associative measures.

Word-Frequency Effect and Errors in the Perception of Speech

The following interpretation of the word frequency effect—the tendency for common words to be perceived correctly at much lower speech to-noise ratios than uncommon words—was proposed and verified experimentally. When a stimulus word is only a few decibels below its intelligibility threshold, many of its features—the number of syllables, for example—are still perceived correctly. If enough such features are heard, then only a small number of English words will be consistent with them. Subjects' incorrect responses will be taken from that small set of words, and furthermore they will usually be the relatively common words in the set. If the stimulus is an uncommon word and there are common English words that are phonetically quite similar to it, then these common words will usually be given as (incorrect) responses except at quite high speech-to noise ratios. This interpretation is confirmed by an analysis of errors in an articulation test. The results show that all subjects tend to give the same incorrect responses, that these incorrect responses are usually more common than the stimuli to which they were given, and that, when a word is not confused with another in this way, its threshold is relatively low regardless of its frequency of occurrence in English usage.

Verbal Conditioning of Common and Uncommon Word Associations

A series of experiments on originality training by Maltzman and his associates (1958; 1960) has indicated that uncommon associations, as scored by word association norms, may be induced by repeatedly presenting the same stimulus words with instructions to give a different response upon each presentation. Of greater significance is the finding that there is a subsequent increase in the occurrence of uncommon associations to new stimulus words. An increased disposition for uncommon responses occurs in the absence of any reinforcement for uncommon responses administered by E. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether common as well as uncommon word associations may be induced solely by administering verbal reinforcement for the appropriate type of response. An additional aim was to investigate the transfer effects of such training upon a somewhat different type of verbal task, Guilford's (1950) Unusual Uses Test. METHOD Subjects.-Ss were 93 scudents in an introductory psychology class, who were assigned to one of three groups in order of their appearance for the experiment. Stimulzu matcriQ1s.-A list of stimulus words, the 100 words in the KentRosanoff word association test, was prepared. For each stimulus word its three most frequently occurring responses were determined from the Minnesota norms (Russell & Jenkins, 1954). E was provided with the list of stimulus words which he read to S, and the three most common normative responses to each of the words. Following presentation of the word association test all Ss were given the Unusual Uses Test, which asks for different uses for six common objects. Ten minutes was allowed for completion of the test. Procedare.-Each S was seated at a table facing the wall in a small ex

Grundtvigs sang-værk. Sjette bind, hefte 1

Grundtvigs Hymns , Vol. VI, Part I. Variant Readings and Notes on Vols. I & II. Det Danske Forlag (The Danish Publishing Co.), 1956. 180 pages. By Steen Johansen. The new edition of N. F. S. Grundtvig’s hymns, which was begun in 1944, has now reached its sixth and last volume, which contains only variant readings and explanatory notes, etc., on the preceding volumes. However, owing to the extent of the material it has been decided to publish the volume in three parts of numbers, of which up to the present the first has been published (in 1956), containing variant readings and notes on the first two volumes. The whole of this edition of the hymns, which is in charge of a commission under the leadership of the Reverend Uffe Hansen, has this peculiarity, that the first five volumes give only the text, while all the variant readings, explanations, etc., are given together in the final volume. In the reviewer’s opinion, it would certainly have been better if the variant readings had been printed in connection with each hymn; more space could thus have been gained for explanatory notes, which would have been of advantage to the edition. In preparing the list of variant readings all the various manuscripts have been used, in contradistinction to earlier editions. This in itself is sufficient to ensure that the present edition makes all previous ones of date. Much work has also be done on the investigation of the sources of Grundtvig’s translations of hymns, and, in addition, there are explanations of uncommon words, and references to Biblical passages in the hymns and to the literature on the subject of Grundtvig’s hymns. With all these qualities, this volume of notes marks a great step forward in Danish research on Grundtvig’s writings. Only now have Grundtvig’s hymns been published in a scholary form suited to our own time.

How Difficult Are Children's Encyclopedias? II

Uncommon words, omitting proper nouns.-Table i shows the number of uncommon words for each encyclopedia in each of the eleven areas. The rank order of the means places Britannica Junior first (with the smallest number of uncommon words); Compton's, second; and World Book, third. The mean percentages of uncommon words for the three encyclopedias are 20, 21, and 23, respectively. The entire 33,ooo-word sampling shows a range in the percentage of uncommon words of from 15-3 to 30.4, with a median percentage of 21.4. The greatest contributor to reading difficulty found in this study was the number of different uncommon words. Table I indicates this load for each encyclopedia and each topic area, together with comparative rank orders based on lightness of this load. Britan-

Some English Loan-words in Gujarati

The following loan-words are taken from two newspapers, the Kheḍā vartamān of 5th December, 1928, and the Gujarat Times of 1st January, 1929.The editors are both Hindus and the readers were for the most part Hindu also. The newspapers contain only a few words in English characters, perhaps eight or nine in each number. The proportion of English loan-words to the total may be about 2 per cent, but this is inevitably only a rough estimate.The words have been transliterated faithfully with two exceptions—(1) Inherent a of final consonants is omitted.(2) Inherent a (not final) is omitted, if not pronounced. In such cases it is indicated by a dot. In Gujarati, however, there are certain consonants which do not alter their form when conjunct, such as “ ka ”. For practical purposes, this is of little importance, as conjunct consonants are often not used, when permissible.In preparing the list some very uncommon words and transitory political expressions like “Sāyaman gobek” have been omitted. There are one or two words included, which are not English, e.g. peseṭā and Mādrīd, which have been included for their interest. Peseṭā has probably been taken for the English version of the Spanish word, as the t is retroflex. It is not clear, however, why the dental d is used for Mādrīd.The articles in which few, if any, loan-words occur, are the political leading articles, a notice of a meeting of Brahmans, and a serial story about old Rajputana.

An Objective Method of Determining Reading Difficulty

The difficulty of vocabulary in reading material is an exceedingly important factor in selecting textbooks and reading matter for children. For lack of a simple and reliable method of determining this difficulty, however, the attempts to adapt vocabularies to various grades and ages have been largely a matter of guess work or personal judgment. Several methods of evaluating vocabulary difficulty have been sug gested. S. L. Pressey and Bertha A. Lively1 worked on the theory that the higher the frequency of use, as discovered by Dr. Thorndike's study, the easier the vocabulary. This method they found rather cumbersome and inconvenient because each selection contained words of unknown frequency and, therefore, unknown difficulty. L. C. Pressey2 made a study of the technical vocabulary, believing that the percent of technical words employed might be a measure of the vocabulary burden of a given textbook. She did not proceed, however, to use it as such a measure. Washburne and Vogel3 worked out a formula which they found satis factory for the grade placement of books by combining in certain pro portions the following elements : 1. The number of different words that occur in a sampling of 1000 words. 2. The number of uncommon words found in a 1000 word sampling, as determined by the Thorndike list of 10,000 words. 3. The number of prepositions in a 1000 word sampling. 4. The number of simple sentences estimated in a sample of 75 sentences. Alfred S. Lewerenz4 reported a study made by the Educational Re search Division of the Los Angeles Public Schools. By comparing the

Modern Physics

THIS is, in many respects, a curious work. It shows very extensive reading, as well as much patient thought, on the part of its author; and is, throughout, eminently “readable,” although somewhat disfigured by the use of strange and uncommon words, such as “question-ability,” “irrecusable,” “luminar,” “consiliences,” &c., and even of words apparently made for the occasion. With engaging frankness, the author tells us in the Preface that a previous work of his was written when he The Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics. By J. B. Stallo. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1882.)