Verb Phrase Research Articles

Let’s Square the Accounts: the Use of Names of Shapes as Verbs in English and Polish

The paper analyses the use of names of shapes as verbs in English and Polish. In particular, the use of circle and square as verbs in English and the verbs related to the Polish names of these shapes, koło/okręg and kwadrat, is studied. The analysis shows that in English both circle and square function as verbs (often phrasal verbs), while in Polish these nouns cannot become verbs. Still, several verbs formed from the names koło and okręg were found while there is no verb related to kwadrat. In many cases the meaning of these “shape verbs” manifests a semantic relation to the shape itself.

Early acquisition of syntactic variation: Lexical conditioning of Spanish variable clitic placement

Abstract This paper examines how children acquire Spanish variable clitic placement (VCP), a lexically conditioned phenomenon whereby clitics may precede or follow complex verb phrases. Research on how children acquire truly syntactic variable phenomena suggests that they either generalize one variant initially or they match the variation in the input from the beginning. Here I examine how children acquire the lexical conditioning of Spanish VCP. A corpus study of naturalistic conversations between parents and young children suggests that from the earliest ages examined (2;0-3;0) children display lexically-specific patterns that seem to be fine-tuned by the early school years. Experimental results using two different elicitation techniques with children ages 4;0-7;0 provide further support for early acquisition of the lexical conditioning of VCP and some evidence for fine-tuning during this age window. Thus, methodological triangulation enables detection of variable use where children would otherwise show categorical use of variants with infrequent syntactic phenomena, such as Spanish VCP.

A Literature Review of the Image Schema Theory and Concepts of Construction

Cognitive Linguistics holds a view that linguistics forms are usage-based and motivation-based, especially on humans’ embodied conceptualizations. The image schema theory, as a new attempt to make language learning both interesting and effectively, plays a key role in Cognitive Linguistics and Neurology, featuring strong generality and explanatory power. Thus, this paper aims to examine a review of the existing literature on image schema. Besides, applying schematic constructions in teaching has sparked heated discussion among the scholars in the field of Cognitive Linguistics. For example, how to make constructions on idioms and phrasal verbs has also been greatly discussed in L2 acquisition. However, there has been a scarcity of research on the teaching of schematic constructions. To achieve this, this paper also aims to provide some suggestions for teaching practice.

Structural-Semantic Types of Modern Armenian and English Two-Component Verbal Phraseological Units

Keywords and phrases։verb of analytical structure, verb-particle construction, phrasal verb,non-verbal component, meaning, comparison. Both Armenian and English are rich in these units. Verbs of analytical structure in both languages can be divided into two groups: analytical verbs that don’t have phraseological meaning and those that possess it. The study of verbal phraseologicalunits provides an opportunity to better understand the similarities and differences between languages, cultures and character of peoples. In this article, we have conducted a thorough examination and categorization of substantial groups of Armenian and English two-component verbal PUs based on the semantic attributes of their non-verbal components. Our analysis has employed both comparative and analytical methods. Based on the interpretations of the non-verbal component, two-component verbal phraseological units (PUs) can be categorized into several discernible groups. These groups encompass PUs in which the non-verbal component pertains to the human body or body parts, the psychological and intellectual facets of human cognition, as well as physical capabilities, distinct characteristics, emotional expressions, interpretations of various natural occurrences, various natural phenomena, the animal world, food, place and direction. A substantial proportion of two-component verbal PUs has equivalence in the languages under consideration. Such correspondences often emanate from shared cognitive patterns across different cultures, analogous worldviews, and common interpretations of diverse phenomena. In certain instances, these PUs may also manifest as linguistic loans. However, it is noteworthy that numerous two-component verbal PUs are inherently language-specific, lacking direct counterparts in the language under consideration.

The N400 is Elicited by Meaning Changes but not Synonym Substitutions: Evidence From Persian Phrasal Verbs.

We tested two accounts of the cognitive process underlying the N400 event-related potential component: one that it reflects meaning-based processing and one that it reflects the processing of specific words. The experimental design utilized separable Persian phrasal verbs, which form a strongly probabilistic, long-distance dependency, ideal for the study of probabilistic processing. In sentences strongly constraining for a particular continuation, we show evidence that between two low-probability words, only the word that changed the expected meaning of the sentence increased N400 amplitude, while a synonym of the most probable target word did not. The findings support an account of the N400 in which its underlying process is driven by the processing of meaning rather than of specific words.

Modeling Brain Representations of Words' Concreteness in Context Using GPT-2 and Human Ratings.

The meaning of most words in language depends on their context. Understanding how the human brain extracts contextualized meaning, and identifying where in the brain this takes place, remain important scientific challenges. But technological and computational advances in neuroscience and artificial intelligence now provide unprecedented opportunities to study the human brain in action as language is read and understood. Recent contextualized language models seem to be able to capture homonymic meaning variation ("bat", in a baseball vs. a vampire context), as well as more nuanced differences of meaning-for example, polysemous words such as "book", which can be interpreted in distinct but related senses ("explain a book", information, vs. "open a book", object) whose differences are fine-grained. We study these subtle differences in lexical meaning along the concrete/abstract dimension, as they are triggered by verb-noun semantic composition. We analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations elicited by Italian verb phrases containing nouns whose interpretation is affected by the verb to different degrees. By using a contextualized language model and human concreteness ratings, we shed light on where in the brain such fine-grained meaning variation takes place and how it is coded. Our results show that phrase concreteness judgments and the contextualized model can predict BOLD activation associated with semantic composition within the language network. Importantly, representations derived from a complex, nonlinear composition process consistently outperform simpler composition approaches. This is compatible with a holistic view of semantic composition in the brain, where semantic representations are modified by the process of composition itself. When looking at individual brain areas, we find that encoding performance is statistically significant, although with differing patterns of results, suggesting differential involvement, in the posterior superior temporal sulcus, inferior frontal gyrus and anterior temporal lobe, and in motor areas previously associated with processing of concreteness/abstractness.

Frequency and Functions of Non-Finite Clauses in Native and Non-Native Academic Texts

Non-finite clauses are one of the elements considered as an index of syntactic complexity, which is a distinguishing feature of academic register. In this sense, the current study aims to reveal the frequency and syntactic functions of non-finite clauses in the academic writings of non-native and native English students. In order to reach this aim, a specialized corpus with two sub-corpora consisting of the MA and PhD theses of natives and non-natives was compiled. The native and non-native corpora were similar in terms of size and the topics of the texts. The data were analyzed using the Antconc concordancing tool, and the log-likelihood tool was used to calculate the significance of the findings. The result of the study showed that non-natives significantly underused the non-finite clauses in their academic texts compared to their native counterparts. Although there is a statistically significant difference in terms of the overall frequency of non-finite clauses, the distribution of the forms of the non-finite clauses was found to be balanced in NS and NNS texts. That is, both NSs and NNSs used bare infinitives less frequently and to infinitival most frequently in academic papers. In terms of the syntactic functions of the non-finite clauses, adjectival (adnominal) was used more frequently and nominals were used less frequently in both corpora. The findings of this study were compared with the previous findings, and educational implications were presented.

The multiword processing by low‐proficiency Japanese English learners: Meaningfulness and constructions

AbstractRecent psycholinguistic research underscores the significance of multiword units in language processing and acquisition, aligning with the Chunk‐and‐Pass framework. In this study, 55 low‐proficiency Japanese English learners and 27 native English speakers undertook a phrasal decision task featuring two trigram types: syntactically and semantically complete (send me letters) and fragmental (send me two) across four construction types (phrasal verb, simple transitive verb, caused‐motion verb, and ditransitive verb constructions). Results revealed that while native speakers distinguished between the trigram types, Japanese learners did less so. Additionally, Japanese learners struggled more with the ditransitive construction compared to other types, a challenge not faced by native speakers. This indicates that Japanese English learners may lack native‐like multiword chunking skills and that the learners’ processing efficiency differs by construction.

Breaking Down BBC News Headlines: A Study of Structure Types

This study aims to find the structure types used in BBC News headlines. This research used Morley's (2000) theory for sentence types and Matthews' (1981) theory for phrase types as well as Brown & Miller's (1991) theory to analyze its constituent structure. This research used descriptive qualitative method to explain the final result of the research. The data sources were obtained from 186 BBC headlines for the period July 2023 which were then presented in a table according to the frequency of occurrence. The results showed that based on the sentence types, there are three sentence types found, namely simple sentences, complex sentences, and compound sentences. Among the sentence types used, simple sentences are the most frequent, with 151 occurrences, followed by complex sentences with 20 occurrences, and compound sentences with three occurrences. Furthermore, based on the phrase types, 11 headlines with noun phrase structure and one headline with verb phrase structure were found. It is hoped that after this research is conducted, it can make a positive contribution to the development of science, especially in the field of syntax.

Registers Used in Online Food Shops of Instagram: A Sociolinguistic Analysis

The jargon of any given online store will be unlike that used in regular communication. In the context of online grocery stores, there are special words for describing certain occurrences. Many online grocery store registers are available, with the English language being the most common. In this regard, this study studies the linguistic forms and the significance of those registries employed by online food businesses and Instagram profiles. This study is a qualitative in nature quantitative investigation. This study aims to examine the English registers used on Facebook sites for restaurants and grocery stores with the goal of determining their forms and implications. The collected information consists of register phrases, phrases, and phrases used in food website shop articles, captions. Instagram food groups and shops, messages exchanged between buyers and sellers, and user-uploaded content from those stores all contribute to the data set. Finding responses, captions, and debates in the mail of food internet shops, reading them over and over again, signaling registers words, and recording discussion, registered words, and phrases are all steps in the data collection process. Larson's Hypothesis of Ambient Relevance and Halliday's Model of Register are applied to the data. The writer sorts the material into types, examines the language in its entirety, examines the situational context, finds the differences between ambient while lexical meanings, and finally draws an conclusion. Scholar discovers information structured according to the syntax (7 verb data, 5 noun data, 1 adjective datum, 12 compound word data, 6 shorthand data, 6 noun phrase data, 6 verb phrase data, and 3 sentence data). The author gathers information from the meaning of words and their context to create an argument.

Probability and confidence: How to improve communication of uncertainty about uncertainty in intelligence analysis

AbstractIntelligence agencies communicate uncertainty to decision‐makers through verbal probability phrases that correspond to numerical ranges (i.e., probability lexicons) and ordinal levels of confidence. However, decision‐makers may misinterpret the relationship between these concepts and form inappropriate interpretations of intelligence analysts' uncertainty. In two experiments, four ways of conveying second‐order probability to decision‐makers were compared: (a) probability and confidence phrases written in the text of a report, (b) the addition of a probability lexicon, (c) the addition of a probability lexicon that varied numerical ranges according to the level of confidence (i.e., revised lexicon), and (d) a probability phrase written in text followed by a numerical range that varied according to the level of confidence. The revised lexicon was expected to improve interpretations of second‐order probability. The 275 participants in Experiment 1 and 796 participants in Experiment 2 provided numerical estimates corresponding to analytic judgments provided in descriptions about three overseas military operations and also indicated their support for approving or delaying the operations. The results demonstrated that providing the numerical range in the text of the report or providing a probability lexicon, improved interpretations of probability phrases above the verbal phrase‐only condition, but not interpretations of confidence. Participants were unable to correctly interpret confidence with respect to the precision of their estimate intervals and their decisions about the operations. However, in Experiments 2 and 3 the effects on these variables of providing decision‐makers with information about the source of the analyst's uncertainty were examined. In Experiment 3 (n = 510), providing this information improved correspondence between confidence level and approval of the operation. Recommendations are provided regarding additional methods of improving decision‐makers' interpretation of second‐order probability conveyed in intelligence reporting.

Learner knowledge of English phrasal verbs: Awareness, confidence, and learning experiences

AbstractThis study investigated the knowledge of English phrasal verbs (PVs) among Japanese university students. PVs have been described by learners as ambiguous and difficult, often resulting in their avoidance, and much of the literature has focused on how they can be taught effectively. However, it is relatively unknown as to what knowledge learners typically develop on their own without undergoing classroom interventions that focus specifically on PVs. To investigate this issue, a survey on PVs was distributed to eight different departments at universities across Japan resulting in 221 participants, with six students participating in follow‐up interviews. The data from the PV survey provided qualitative data for analysis, the interviews were transcribed, and axial coding was utilized to formulate a holistic examination of the participants’ knowledge of PVs. The results revealed that the participants had an awareness of PVs but had acquired most of them as chunks of language without much knowledge of their individual parts, which was found to lower their confidence and increase their perceived difficulty. Additionally, directional PVs, particularly with go and come, were the easiest for the participants due to L1–L2 similarities. However, their understanding of idiomatic and aspectual PVs appeared to be superficial and lacking.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF VERB-PARTICLE CONSTRUCTIONS WITH THE COMPONENT UP, ABOVE-ՎԵՐ/ՎԵՐև, AGAINST-ԴԵՄ/ԸՆԴԴԵՄ IN MODERN ENGLISH AND ARMENIAN

English and Armenian exhibit richness in infinitive+preposition/postposition or adverb constructions. These constructions are referred to as verb-particle constructions in Armenian and phrasal verbs in English. These constructions reflect the richness and flexibility of expressing thoughts and actions in English and Armenian languages. The non-verbal component of these constructions is preposition, postposition or adverb with a sense of place and direction. Examples include take up «prefer», blow up «explode», վեր հանել (literally «to take up», meaning «to open the secret, to find out smth», and դեմ ընկնել (literally «fall against», meaning «to ask, to beg»). When studying these constructions, it is necessary to pay attention to the context in order to accurately determine their meanings and usage in each language. This article presents a comparative analysis of verb-particle constructions with the particles up, above, against, վեր/վերև, դեմ, ընդդեմ. The verb-particle constructions in English and Armenian exhibit numerous similarities. It is noteworthy that units with the mentioned components are often used in similar contexts, conveying similar meanings and exhibiting comparable structural characteristics. However, in addition to their common meanings, these units also possess distinct meanings unique to one language. In Armenian, due to the synthetic nature of the language, the meanings of English phrasal verbs featuring the components up, above, and against can be also expressed through the use of endings.

Англоязычный лингвокультурный сценарий “Legal systems”: структурно-семантические характеристики языковых единиц

The aim of the study is to identify the structural and semantic features of linguistic units that serve as means of linguistic expression of the English-language linguocultural scenario “Legal systems”. The paper sheds light on the “linguocultural scenario” notion, provides a detailed description of the frame structure of the scenario by identifying the reference concepts and sub-concepts. The authors concentrate on the structural and semantic characteristics of linguistic units. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the English-language linguocultural scenario of the thematic area “Legal systems” is described as a cognitive scheme of a speech situation, while the application of a comprehensive cognitive-cultural approach to extensive linguistic material allows the researchers to identify the features of the structure and semantics of linguistic units. As a result of the analysis, it has been found that structurally separable linguistic units, more accurately characterizing phenomena and objects, are the most common in the analyzed scenario. Affixed nouns and nouns with heterogeneous composition, one-word verbs characterizing actions within the legal system predominate among structurally inseparable linguistic units. Among structurally separable nominators, the predominance of two-component nominal phrases with the noun serving as a basic component and two-word verbal phrases has been noted.

The impact of guessing and retrieval strategies for learning phrasal verbs

Abstract Previous research on phrasal verbs has focused on the effectiveness of exercises requiring learners to provide the missing particle for a given verb. However, this research does not address other common exercise formats, such as those requiring learners to complete entire phrasal verbs. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring such an exercise format and its two principal implementations. The participants were 134 Japanese EFL learners. Both exercise setups present the definition and initial letter of a phrasal verb as a prompt. In the guessing method, students attempt to fill in the missing phrasal verb based solely on the prompt and then receive corrective feedback. In contrast, in the error-free retrieval method, students study the phrasal verb and its definition before attempting the same gap-fill exercise. Retention of phrasal verbs improved more with the guessing method. Further, across both methods, participants struggled more with recalling particles than verbs.

Above and below verbal roots: A case study of English adverbs of results

This study investigates English resultative adverbs focusing on their syntactic peculiarities. Based on the observation that resultative adverbs can appear in certain activity verb phrases, we argue for an elaborate verbal structure. In particular, we propose that two distinct syntactic heads need to be postulated for resultative adverbial modification (Res(ult)) and for encoding the aspectual information of the verb (v). The proposal correctly predicts the distributional contrasts between resultative and manner adverbs, the patterns of adverbs ambivalent in denoting manner and result meanings, and the possibilities of modification of verb and adjective derivatives. The analysis of resultative adverbs advanced in this study is shown to newly account for measure adverbs. In doing so, we demonstrate that certain roots can head-adjoin either to Res or v with the corollary that the resulting verb can either denote a result or manner. Finally, an implication of this study is discussed regarding the relationship between result roots and the Res head.

“Dividing the labor”: Lexical verbs and the linguistic encoding of physical support in 2- to 4.5-year-old children

Infants reason about support configurations (e.g., teddy bear on table) and young children talk about a variety of support relations, including support-from-below (e.g., apple on table) and many other types (e.g., Band-Aid on leg, picture on wall). Given this wide variation in support types, we asked whether early differentiation of the semantic space of support may play a key role in helping children to learn spatial language in this domain. Previous research has shown such differentiation with 20-month-olds mapping the basic locative construction (BE on) to support-from-below (cube on top of box), but not to a mechanical support configuration (cube on side of box via adhesion). Older children and adults show the same differentiation, with preferential mapping of BE on to support-from-below and lexical verbs to mechanical support. We further explored the development of this differentiation by testing how children aged 2 to 4.5 years map lexical verbs to a wide variety of support configurations. In Experiment 1, using an intermodal preferential pointing paradigm, we found that 2- to 3.5-year-olds map a lexical verb phrase (“sticks to”) to mechanical support via adhesion. In Experiments 2 and 3, we expanded the range of mechanical support relations and used production and forced-choice tasks to ask whether 2- to 4.5-year-olds also encode mechanical relations using lexical verbs. We found that they do. These findings suggest continuity between infancy and childhood in the way that children use spatial language to differentially map to support-from-below versus mechanical support and raise new questions about how mechanical support language develops.

IDIOMS AND SLOGANS IN POSTER LIKE PROPAGANDA

21-st century is very busy, contradictive and tensed because of several cores of wars, accordingly abundant information flows out from the internet. Nobody has time to read several pages for a long time. Minimalism in words is appreciated more. As the 12 th century renaissance period Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli said in the prologue to his famous masterpiece "The Man in the Panther’s Skin”: “A long word is told shortly” (in few words is uttered a long discourse) as “Minstrelsy is, first of all, a branch of wisdom “…
 So, the idioms, slogans, proverbs, parables, some other kinds of phrasal verbs and witty sayings are still the object of scientific studies as far as they have been in use side by side with ballads, poems, songs and preaches since time immemorial up today. You may meet them in modern publicist texts, in posters, in adverts, in web design as well. Therefore, interpreting the idioms adequately isn’t so easy. It’s well known that idioms are the set of fixed expressions, which is impossible to understand directly and, in most cases, one should consult with the dictionaries of idioms.
 Thus, presented article’s topicality is conditioned by researching some idioms in posters for filling the information gap and developing intercultural dialogue. The methodology of investigation is qualitative, based on researching different posters, describing and analyzing.
 Propaganda is an attempt to influence peoples’ opinions or behavior through the use of specific images and words. It usually gives limited information which is heavily biased in its presentation. Propaganda typically achieves its aims by generating an emotional reaction in the viewer. For much of the twentieth century, public posters were a common way for governments to use propaganda to persuade their citizens. They often relied upon simple images in order to manipulate people through fear or guilt. Propaganda uses stereotypes so that audiences can readily identify which people group is the target of the poster.

Иллокутивное самоубийство как прагматическое ядро комических речевых жанров

The article is devoted to the study of “illocutionary suicide” in comic speech genres, the basis for the analysis of which was the model of the speech genre developed by T.V. Shmeleva. In linguopragmatics there is a narrow (Z. Wendler) and a broad understanding of the named pragmatic phenomenon. Given the specifics of Russian performatives, by “illocutionary suicide” we mean a speech act in which a verb (phrase, idiom) is used, forming the intention of “self-exposure”. During the analysis of the empirical material it was found that “illocutionary suicide” is stated only in jokes, jokes, comic dialogues and humorous “opinions about”. In addition to the obligatory intention to make the interlocutor laugh, intentional “self-exposure” also acts as a presenter. The axiological component of all the analyzed comic speech genres is multifaceted: from the point of view of real communicants, actions called “provocative” verbs are condemned by society; from the point of view of the heroes of these works, assessments and values can vary, up to a positive attitude to autonomous actions and deeds. The leading type of presumption is counterethical, which includes additional semantic shades. It is revealed that the content of the proposition is based mainly on ontological anomalies, sometimes synthesized with logical or lingual ones. The linguistic embodiment is presented in the traditional form for a performative speech act, or is mitigated by negation and constructions with the semantics of the condition.

Joe Biden’s Confidence in Addressing World Security Issue: An Interpersonal Analysis of Political Discourse

This study aimed to discover President Joe Biden's confidence level and the realization of probability in his speech. A qualitative content analysis approach was conducted in this research. The data of this research were the speeches of Joe Biden on several occasions accessed from YouTube. Furthermore, the data were transcribed and then analyzed using probability theory. Therefore, the analysis result indicated that Joe Biden has high confidence. This result can be observed through his speech that he tends to use a high degree of probability in stating his plans, promises, and predictions of the policies he will implement. The probabilities used by Joe Biden also tend to vary in forms such as modal verbs, modal verb phrases, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns.appraisal