Verb Classes Research Articles

One cat, two cats, red cat, blue cats: eliciting morphemes from individuals with primary progressive aphasia

ABSTRACT Background: Progressive neurodegenerative impairment with central language features, primary progressive aphasia (PPA), can be further distinguished for many individuals into one of three variants: semantic, non-fluent/agrammatic, and logopenic variant PPA. Variants differ in their relative preservation and deficits of language skills, particularly in word finding and grammar. The majority of elicited language assessments used in this population focus on single noun and verb production, while modifiers and inflectional morphemes are far less commonly examined. Aims: The purpose of the present study is to determine whether there was an interaction between PPA variant and production of high-frequency nouns, proper names, modifiers, and bound inflectional morphemes to better understand how the variants differ. Methods & Procedures: Forty-six people with PPA and 47 individuals with no known neurological diagnoses completed a morphosyntactic generation assessment designed to target differential production of high-frequency nouns, proper names, modifiers (number, size, color), and bound inflectional morphemes (plural -s and possessive ’s), the Morphosyntactic Generation test (MorGen). Performance is averaged for each of the seven morphosyntactic targets independently, resulting in seven separate performance scores. Outcomes & Results: Individuals with PPA performed significantly more poorly than controls on the assessed morphemes in a repeated-measures analysis of variance, as well as on each morpheme considered independently via t-test. In a multivariable analysis of variance among PPA variants, the interaction of morpheme and PPA variant was significant, suggesting different variants produced the morphemes with a significantly different pattern of success. When morphemes were considered independently, only production of colour resulted in a significant difference between variants, driven by the performance of individuals with nfavPPA, who performed near-ceiling. When MorGen performance was used to predict PPA variant in a multinomial logistic regression the model was significant, with age, plural -s, noun, and number contributing significantly to the prediction. In a discriminate function analysis, classification of cases was best for agrammatic variant with 70% accuracy. Conclusions: Individuals with PPA, particularly semantic and logopenic variants, demonstrated difficulty on the MorGen compared to controls. The MorGen proved useful in predicting PPA variant. These findings highlight the potential benefit of examining a broader range of morphemes, particularly bound morphemes and modifiers, in addition to the more frequently investigated classes of nouns and verbs when understanding PPA.

Mental time travel in patients “cured” from primary central nervous system lymphoma

ABSTRACT Introduction: Significant advances in neuro-oncological treatment led to considering neurocognitive functioning and everyday functional needs in patients with long-term survival. Since a potentially lethal disease interrupts normal life and represents a threat to physical and psychological integrity, patients have to cope with the new challenges. Long-term survival and even “cure” is possible in primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL), however, suffering from a life-threatening disease may affect patients´ cognitive processing of past and future (i.e., the generation of personal past memories and generation of personal future events). Therefore, the present study aimed to assess how PCNSL long-term survivors remember their past and anticipate their future. Methods: Recall of past and anticipation of future events (i.e., mental time travel), both positive and negative, was assessed in 39 PCNSL patients with ongoing complete remission to therapy for at least 1 year in an adapted verbal fluency paradigm. A group of 39 healthy controls matched for age, gender and education was assessed with the same paradigm evaluating retrospective and prospective cognitions. Results: Concerning the generation of personal future events PCNSL patients anticipated significantly fewer negative events for the distant future as compared to healthy controls. At trend level, patients also reported fewer negative events regarding their recent past. Conclusions: The results provide support for an altered generation of personal future events (i.e., future-directed assumptions) in PCNSL patients with ongoing complete remission. Being “cured” after experiencing a threat to life might induce cognitive reappraisal processes and lead people to reexamine their priorities and principles in life, resulting in a less negative evaluation of (future) life (i.e., “optimism bias”) after facing death. Clinicians should be aware of these possible cognitive and affective processes and of chronic psychological disturbances in cancer survivors. Possible adaptive strategies ought to be promoted in supportive (neuro)psychological therapy.

Semantic classification of phraseological verbs in publicistic discourse of economic orientation

The article examines the role of phrasal verbs in prama-semantic organisation of publicistic discourse. The relevance of this research is explained by the growing interest of linguists in the problems of using phrasal verbs in different types of discourse, as well as the poorly studied issue of phrasal verbs at the junction of economic and publicistic discourse and their pragmatic potential. The objective of he work is to demonstrate the connection between the language and the currect economic realia which constitutes the flexible nature of pragma-semantic system of discourse. The research relies on functional-pragmatic method and component analysis. The method of continuous sampling (articles on the topic of the impact of coronavirus on the economy of different countries) was used to select the material. On the basis of materials taken from English-language newspapers on the topic of the coronavirus impact on the economy of European countries the semantic classification of phrasal verbs was carried out, the results of which shown that the most frequent semes are «slowing down», «improvement», «novelty», «measures / actions», «refusal». The authors conclude that the semantic classification forms the basis of communicative strategies for creating an image of various entities or people, strategies for forming a public opinion, and strategies for uniting the society. In the pragmatic system of publicistic discourse phrasal verbs are particular speech means involved in the implementation of the general communicative strategies. They are indicative of national and cultural self-identitication, the striving for economic growth and social unity in crisis conditions.

Object Sharing in Mbya Guarani: A Case of Asymmetrical Verbal Serialization?

In this paper, we intend to describe and discuss the grammatical status of the V1-V2 (Cy/vy) constructions found in Mbya Guarani which can express simultaneous events, among other meanings, and which involve a single clause. We suggest here that this verbal complex can be treated as a case of asymmetrical verbal serialization because it contains verbs from a major lexical class, occupying the V1 slot, followed by a more restricted intransitive verbal class, such as movement, postural, or stative verbs, which stands in the V2 position. The curious property of these constructions is that V2 can be transitivized through the attachment of applicative or causative morphemes and “share” its object with transitive V1. “Object sharing” is another property attributed to serialization, as suggested by Baker and Baker and Stewart, which may be seen as a strong argument in favor of the present hypothesis. We will also provide evidence to distinguish Mbya Guarani V1-V2 (Cy/vy) complex from other constructions, such as temporal and purpose subordinate clauses, involving the particle vy.

Input Issues in the Development of L2 French Morphosyntax

The aim of this article is to discuss the role of input characteristics in the development of French verb morphology. From a usage-based perspective, several cognitive and linguistic factors contribute to the ease or difficulty of processing input in L2 acquisition. This article concentrates on frequency, salience, and form–function association, factors that might influence what aspects of input are available to the learners’ attention. A presentation of French verb morphology from this perspective shows how these factors can contribute to the use of the regular -er verb paradigm as a default. A review of empirical studies confirms the influence of input characteristics. The results suggest that the dominant pattern of regular verbs and the scarcity of salient clues from irregular verbs contribute to the specificity of L2 French development. The conclusion addresses the question of enriching L2 classroom input with irregular verbs. Such an input could facilitate the perception of form–function association, and thus, contribute to a more efficient development of French verb morphology. The article concludes by suggesting other ways of studying the influence of input as well as avenues for future research.

Словотвір та система відмінювання давньоперського дієслова

Словотвір та система відмінювання давньоперського дієслова

On the acquisition of potential verbs and conjugation types of verbs in Japanese

Abstract It is well-known that children whose native language is Japanese first begin vocalizing potential verbs at about the age of 2 years and continue to utter ungrammatical forms which are not used in adults’ speech as well as correct ones until approximately at the age of 5 years when their acquisition of potential verbs completes, with virtually no erroneous uses observed. Interestingly enough, the process of the acquisition of potential verbs proceeds in a manner parallel with that of causative/inchoative alternation. In this study, based on children’s natural speech data reported in previous research, we argue that the approach put forth in Fuji, Hashimoto, and Murasugi (2008a. “A VP-shell analysis for the undergeneration and the overgeneration in the acquisition of Japanese causatives and potentials.” Nanzan Linguistics 4: 21–41; 2008b. “VP-shell analysis for the acquisition of Japanese potentials.” Nanzan Linguistics: Special Issue 3(2): 65–102) is not empirically valid in that it cannot correctly predict changes in morphological patterns of potential verbs uttered by children along the period of language acquisition. Moreover, in the course of our discussion, it is shown that the acquisition process of the potential morpheme e by children can be identified as that of (in)transitive morpheme e which forms the class of mono-grade vowel-ending verbs.

Formal Similarity as One of the Common Causes of Selected Verbal Paradigms

The research showed the importance of common verbal words and the possibility of denying its existence in the Arabic language. It deals with the way common verbal words gain a kind of flexibility and voluntarism. The research tackles two topics: common verbal paradigms and the connotation of names compatible with the meanings of divergent.

An Analysis of the Reclassification of English Locative Verbs and the Change Factors in Language Use

This study investigates the reclassification of English locative verbs with the following question: What factors caused the change? Firstly, the patten of the class change is observed in terms of both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and then possible factors that cause the change are investigated sequentially by examining whether the factors may be operable. In addition, this study observed what factor can work at the base and what factor can be applied extensively. Reclassified verbs have changed their class from Ground-only to alternating verb class, and there is a preference to use most alternating locative verbs in Figure precedent constructions. This study reveals that there are two processes or two levels of processing that affect the syntactic change involved in the use of locative verbs, but they are independent. In one case, semantic change directly affects the structure of locative verbs. In the second case, the cognitive process directly causes the class change. However, this change is not affected by semantic change. Figure Precedence Principle can be an important factor in explaining the change in the use of locative verbs by reflecting on the cognitive process of human brain.

Intelligent query optimization and course recommendation during online lectures in E-learning system

This article explores the possibility of disaggregating query/question information in e-learning system online lectures or course recommendations. Information arrangement includes reading, parsing and classification of inquiry/question messages. Data extraction is a kind of shallow content processing. It finds a set of predefined applicable content in the feature language archives and performs common language processing through artificial intelligence strategies. During online lectures, many problems emerged in the listener’s minds, and the development of query optimization systems is of great significance to the evaluation of problems in online lectures. The results shows that our proposed method improve the classification of action verbs to a more accurate level. Later, we evaluated our proposed method, and measured a very high macro average for all one-sixth of the cognitive domain. We also provide the analytical examination in which we compared the designed method with the state of the art methods. The results indicate that the proposed method outperform the traditional methods

What you “mean” is not what I “mean”: Categorization of verbs by Germans and Koreans using the semantic differential

Although there are different approaches to classifying verb categories, the approaches are often not consistent with the results of experimental studies investigating the neurocognitive reality of the categories. One proposal for addressing these inconsistencies is embodiment theory, which states that verbs can be categorized based on accompanying sensorimotor mental simulations. Despite numerous studies on this topic, it remains unclear whether verbs can actually be categorized by means of these sensorimotor simulations and whether these categories are crosslingual.In this study, verbs were examined using the semantic differential in 106 native German and Korean speakers. The aim was to determine with which semantic dimensions each verb can be described and whether verb subcategories can be defined.We were able to show that every verb has an individual semantic profile and that subcategories of verbs exist. For the German and Korean participants, most of the verb categories were comparable and therefore mostly crosslingual. However, there were also distinct subcategories of verbs which can probably be correlated with subtle cognitive and experience-based differences between the participating groups. We conclude from this research that it is problematic to use a single verb classification system for the German and Korean languages.

From movement into action to manner of causation: changes in argument mapping in the into-causative

Abstract Over the last 300 years, the into-causative (he talked his father into giving him money) increased in frequency and lexical diversity. Changes of this kind are often taken as evidence of functional expansion. From a Construction Grammar (CxG) perspective, this paper argues that what appears to be a loss of restrictions on the verbal slot results from changes in argument mapping links. As the construction provides the argument roles by mapping semantics (causer, causee, result) onto syntax (subject, object, oblique), stronger mapping links increasingly facilitated the use of verbs that are semantically and syntactically atypical for the expression of causation. Data from the Corpus of Historical American English confirm three predictions of this hypothesis with respect to shifts in (i) the semantic classes of matrix verbs, (ii) their general argument structure preferences, and (iii) voice-marking. The results provide evidence for a subtle semantic change from movement into action to manner of causation. The increase in frequency and productivity are hence explained as the consequence of the syntactic form becoming a more reliable cue for causative meaning. We discuss implications for models of language change against the background of current issues in Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG) pertaining to constructionalization vs. constructional change.

Medical Spanish Musculoskeletal and Dermatologic Educational Module.

IntroductionWhile many medical schools provide opportunities in medical Spanish for medical students, schools often struggle with identifying a structured curriculum. The purpose of this module was to provide a flexible, organ system-based approach to teaching and learning musculoskeletal and dermatologic Spanish terminology, patient-centered communication skills, and sociocultural health contexts.MethodsAn 8-hour educational module for medical students was created to teach musculoskeletal and dermatologic medical communication skills in Spanish within the Hispanic/Latinx cultural context. Participants included 47 fourth-year medical students at an urban medical school with a starting minimum Spanish proficiency at the intermediate level. Faculty provided individualized feedback on speaking, listening, and writing performance of medical Spanish skills, and learners completed a written pre- and postassessment testing skills pertaining to communication domains of vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension as well as self-reported confidence levels.ResultsStudents demonstrated improvement in vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, and self-confidence of musculoskeletal and dermatologic medical Spanish topics. While students with overall lower starting proficiency levels (intermediate) scored lower on the premodule assessment compared to higher proficiency students (advanced/native), the postmodule assessment did not show significant differences in skills performance among these groups.DiscussionAn intermediate Spanish level prerequisite for this musculoskeletal and dermatologic module can result in skills improvement for all learners despite starting proficiency variability. Future study should evaluate learner clinical performance and integration of this module into other educational settings such as graduate medical education (e.g., orthopedic, rehabilitation, and dermatology residency programs) and other health professions (e.g., physical therapy and nursing).

Alternations of classificatory verb stems in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì: a cognitive semantic account

Abstract This paper investigates the phenomenon of ‘classificatory verbs’, i.e. a set of motion and positional verbs that show stem alternations depending on the semantic features of one of their arguments in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (Dogrib), based on field notes and documentary sources of the language. The paper shows that Tłı̨chǫ classificatory verbal categories belong to four semantic subclasses which have inconsistent stem inventories caused by the presence or absence of some semantic features. Stem inventories of locative verb systems vary depending on the scalar [effort] feature, and those of motion verbs correlate with the scalar [agentive] feature. The paper explains why other semantically related verbs do not show stem alternations and proposes contrastive hierarchies to represent variations in stem inventories intra- and cross-linguistically assuming that the selection of a stem for a particular semantic category follows a series of binary choices that characterize the opposition’s active in the language.

Alternations of classificatory verb stems in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì: a cognitive semantic account

AbstractThis paper investigates the phenomenon of ‘classificatory verbs’, i.e. a set of motion and positional verbs that show stem alternations depending on the semantic features of one of their arguments in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (Dogrib), based on field notes and documentary sources of the language. The paper shows that Tłı̨chǫ classificatory verbal categories belong to four semantic subclasses which have inconsistent stem inventories caused by the presence or absence of some semantic features. Stem inventories of locative verb systems vary depending on the scalar [effort] feature, and those of motion verbs correlate with the scalar [agentive] feature. The paper explains why other semantically related verbs do not show stem alternations and proposes contrastive hierarchies to represent variations in stem inventories intra- and cross-linguistically assuming that the selection of a stem for a particular semantic category follows a series of binary choices that characterize the opposition’s active in the language.

From language to meteorology: kinesis in weather events and weather verbs across Sinitic languages

Interactions among the environment, humans and language underlie many of the most pressing challenges we face today. This study investigates the use of different verbs to encode various weather events in Sinitic languages, a language family spoken over a wide range of climates and with 3000 years of continuous textual documentation. We propose to synergise the many concepts of kinesis that grew from Aristotle’s original ideas to account for the correlation between meteorological events and their linguistic encoding. It is observed that the two most salient key factors of weather events, i.e., mass of weather substances and speed of weather processes, are the two contributing components of kinetic energy. Leveraging the linguistic theory that kinesis underpins conceptualisation of verb classes, this paper successfully accounts for the selection of verbs for different meteorological events in all Sinitic languages in terms of both language variations and changes. Specifically, weather events with bigger weather substances and faster weather processes tend to select action verbs with high transitivity. The kinesis driven accounts also predict the typological variations between verbal and nominal constructions for weather expressions. The correlation between kinesis and the selection of verbs is further corroborated by an experiment on the perception of native Sinitic language speakers, as well as analyses of regional variations of verb selections that do not follow general typological patterns. It is found that such typological exceptions generally correspond to variations in meteorological patterns. By explicating the pivotal role of kinesis in bridging weather events and the linguistic encoding of weather, this study underlines the role of cognition as the conceptualisation of physical and sensory inputs to sharable knowledge encoded by language.

Category-specific verb-semantic deficits in Alzheimer’s disease: Evidence from static and dynamic action naming

ABSTRACT We investigated the representation and breakdown of verb knowledge employing different syntactic and semantic classes of verbs in a group of individuals with probable Alzheimer’s Disease (pAD). In an action naming task with coloured photographs (Fiez & Tranel, 1997. Standardized stimuli and procedures for investigating the retrieval of lexical and conceptual knowledge for action. Memory and Cognition, 25(4), 543–569. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03201129), pAD individuals were impaired for naming actions compared to objects. Verb tense was also affected, with simple-past (e.g., chopped) being more difficult to name than the gerundial form (e.g., chopping). Employing action-naming with short movies depicting events and states, we contrasted three verb classes based on their hypothetical structural and semantic/conceptual properties: argument structure, thematic structure, and conceptual templates. The three classes were: causatives (peel), verbs of perception (hear), and verbs of motion (run) Overall, results suggest that individuals with pAD are selectively impaired for verb tense and thematic assignment, but not conceptual-template complexity. Methodologically, we also show that dynamic scenes are more ecologically valid than static scenes to probe verb knowledge in AD.

Говірка як точка перетину локального й інтерлокального (із спостережень над говіркою села Грозинці на Буковині)

The article deals with description of one dialect as a system. The purpose of of this study is to describe the main features of the dialect v. Hrozyntsi, manifested in oral dialectal speech, at all language levels. Attention is drawn to typical phonetic, morphological and syntactic dialectal features. The author’s own records from this dialect (2010), dictionary materials (2005, 2006) and lexical materials of this village are the source base of the study. The interview method was used to record the material. The features of word change of noun parts of speech and conjugation of verbs, morphological features of nouns (vacillation in the genus), adjectives (creation of degrees of comparison), dialectal forms of pronouns and adverbs are characterizes for the dialect morphological system. Some previously unknown words have been found, they enriches the vocabulary of the dialect. This material supplement the Dictionary Bukovyna Dialects of with new information: new words, original semantics of famous words, new word forms, expands the idea of the localization of individual words. Among the dialect words there are a number of literary names that have passed into the passive, but continue to function in the dialect. This fact testifies to the connection between literary language and its dialectal variants. The obtained results make it possible confirm that this dialect is Bukovyna dialect with the features of Podillia dialect.

Типи дієслів-маркерів пресупозицій

Presupposition triggers are among the most debatable issues in pragmatics. Although Levinson`s classification, on which many further studies of this topic are based, appeared in 1983, nowadays some of Levinson`s triggers are questionableand the complete list of triggers is still unclear. Moreover, while numerous works analyse the words and constructions of the English or Russian language, little is known about the classification of verbs as presupposition triggers in the Ukrainian language.

A novel approach for identification and classification of verbs in Dogri language

A novel approach for identification and classification of verbs in Dogri language