The semantics and probabilistic pragmatics of deadjectival intensifiers

In this paper, we consider the role of semantics in the spoken dialogue translation systems. We begin by looking at some of the key properties of an existing spoken dialogue system, namely the sundial system which provides flight and train information over the telephone, and how these properties affect the design methodology and functionality of spoken translation systems. These properties include the effects of speech processing, designing the system to meet the needs of users, and an analysis model which clearly separates the linguistic, conceptual, pragmatic and task levels. In this model many task functionalities are dependent upon, and sometimes realizable by, the semantic and pragmatic analysis components. Central to this approach, is the use of underspecified semantic representations which are further specified as and when required by domain and/or task analysis. This model can be applied in the development of spoken translation systems with two important effects: monolingual semantic and pragmatic analysis can be carried out by processes independent of, but correlated with, the (translation) function of the system; and the main functions of the transfer processes is to further specifying the representations for the target language and to deal with mismatches between source and target language representations. We illustrate this approach with semantic analyses of German utterances required for translation in the verbmobil spoken dialogue translation system.

Replication efforts involving large samples are recommended in helping to determine the reliability of an effect. This approach was taken for a study from Meier, Robinson, and Clore (2004) , one of the first papers in social cognition guided by conceptual metaphor theory, which reported that evaluations were faster when word valence metaphorically matched (e.g., a word with a negative meaning in black) rather than mismatched (e.g., a word with a negative meaning in white) font color. The present investigation was a direct large-scale replication attempt involving 980 participants who completed an experiment using web-based software and were diverse in terms of race, age, and geographical location. Words with a positive meaning were evaluated faster when font color was white rather than black and words with a negative meaning were evaluated faster when font color was black rather than white, replicating the main results of Meier et al. (2004) .

This study describes and explains marginalisation strategy through discourse as social practice in Indonesian language, as reflected in language behavior appearing in the form of euphemism, disphemism, labelisation, and stereotype, one the basis of library research. The result of study shows that marginalisation strategy through discourse as social practice in Indonesian language designates the power dominance of upper level social class towards lower level social class. The manfestation of the marginalisation strategy is stated and implied in the use of the following words or terms (a) ;pemutusan hubungan kerja’ replacing ‘pemberhentian’ or ‘pemecatan’ (euphemism) in economy discourse, (b) ‘pencaplokan’ or ‘penyerobotan’ with the conotation of negative meaning (diphemism) in political discouse, (c) ‘penggarap liar’ and ‘penyerobot lahan’ with the negative meaning (labelisation) in political discourse, and (d) ‘perempuan’ with the negative meaning and ‘wanita’ with the positive meaning (stereotype) in social and cultural discourse .

In Russian, Chinese and English, there is a variety of vocabulary related to taste sensations, which often has a deep figurative meaning. The subject of this study is precisely such a taste vocabulary in the mentioned languages. The object of the research is cognitive metaphors of key taste words, which are used in creating emotional images-schemes. The aim of the study is to study and compare the similarities and differences in the use of cognitive metaphors for the most important taste words in emotional images—schemes typical of Russian, Chinese and English languages. The main task of the study is to analyze the ways of metaphorical representation of taste vocabulary in these emotional images-schemes and identify the unique features of each language in the context of this topic. The research methods are comparative analysis and the corpus method, which allows you to analyze the use of language in large text collections. The novelty of this study lies in the development of a methodology for the analysis of emotional images-schemes associated with taste words. The study shows that in Russian, Chinese and English there is a high degree of similarity in cognitive schemas for the taste words "sour" and "sweet", which most often have a similar emotional image-scheme and are located at opposite ends of the image-scheme "LINE". However, there are differences in the words "bitter" and "acute": in English, both words usually have a negative meaning, in Russian "bitter" is mostly negatively colored, and "acute" can be both negative and positive. In Chinese, both the words "bitter" and "spicy" can have both positive and negative meanings. The metaphorical representation of taste words in an emotional image-scheme helps to make the metaphorical transfer of abstract taste words more concrete and visual, which makes it possible to better understand the differences and similarities in the translation of taste sensations in different languages.

ABSTRACTThe current paper examines systematic differences in life story high and low points. Narratives from a young adult sample (n = 145) and a late midlife adult sample (n = 154) were coded for vividness, meaning, and coherence. An automated linguistic coding technique was also used. Mean level comparisons found high and low points had similar levels of vividness and coherence. Among the young adults, but not the late midlife adults, there was greater total meaning making (positive and negative combined) in low points than in high points. Across high and low points, levels of positive meaning were greater than negative meaning, in both samples, suggesting a positivity bias in meaning making in valenced life stories. Moreover, the bias was large in both samples (68% in young adults, 450% in late midlife adults). Preliminary analyses suggested midlife adults, when compared to young adults, had a greater bias towards producing more positive than negative meaning. In both samples, automated linguistic analyses indicated that low points displayed greater word counts and usage of cognitive mechanism words, suggesting greater cognitive processing in low points at the level of word usage. Findings are framed within autobiographical memory and narrative research and socioemotional selectivity theory.

With improved accessibility to life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy, the treatment and care requirements of people living with HIV and AIDS resembles that of more established chronic diseases. As an increasing number of people living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya have access to ART, the primary caregivers of poor resource settings, often children, face the challenge of meeting the requirements of rigid ART adherence schedules and frequent relapses. This, and the long-term duty of care, has an impact on the primary caregiver's experience of this highly stigmatised illness – an impact that is often described in relation to psychological deprivation. Reflecting the meanings attached to caregiving by 48 children in Western Kenya, articulated in writing, through photography and drawing, individual and group interviews, this paper presents three case studies of young caregiving. Although all the children involved in the study coped with their circumstances, some better than others, we found that the meanings they attach to their circumstances impact on how well they cope. Our findings suggest that only a minority of young caregivers attach either positive or negative meanings to their circumstances, whilst the majority attaches a mix of positive and negative meanings depending on the context they are referring to. Through a continuum of psychosocial coping, we conclude that to provide appropriate care for young carers, health professionals must align their understanding and responses to the psychosocial cost of chronic care, to a more nuanced and contextual understanding of children's social agency and the social and symbolic resources evident in many African communities.

The article deals with the indefinite pronouns and the usage of their equivalents in the Azerbaijan language. The article especially considers the indefinite pronouns /some/ and /any/ and their equivalents in the Azerbaijan language. It has been observed that the indefinite pronouns /some/ and /any/ have some equivalents in the Azerbaijan language. One of the famous linguists of Azerbaijan M.Huseynzade distinguishes the indefinite pronouns such as /biri, birisi, bəziləri, bir az, bir neçə, xeyli, az-çox, bir qədər/. He names these kinds of words as indefinite pronouns in Azerbaijani. According to M.Huseynzade, some of them are formed by adding the word /qədər/ to the nouns and numerals. The others are considered to be words denoting indefinite numbers. It is necessary to underline that each of the words denoting indefinite number has its way of usage in the Azerbaijan language. They cannot be used instead of each other, and they cannot be observed to limit one another’s positions in the sentence. The investigations show that the indefinite pronouns /some/ and /any/ cover the same stated pecularities of the indefinite words in Azerbaijan. According to specialists, /some/ has a positive meaning, /any/ has a negative meaning. The article highlights the usages of /some/ and /any/ and their equivalents in the Azerbaijan language.The article analyzes more than 20 sources dealing with the stated problem. The article is intended to stimulate the investigation of the discussed problem.

: An advertisement has never been departed from an ideology. Although it occurs implicitly, an ideology in an advertisement is able to make someone believe in particular value of life. This study tries to reveal the ideology both in positive meaning as a belief system which marks certain group and in negative meaning as a false consciousness. Besides that, this study also tries to reveal the way of illustrating the ideology that lies within the Axe Chocolate advertisement. In order to obtain the ideology, each scene in the Axe Chocolate advertisement is analyzed based on Barthes’ model of sign. Then, to find the way of illustrating the ideology, the connotative meaning of mass media codes applied in the advertisement, i.e. fashion codes, color codes, non-verbal codes and technical codes is analyzed. The result of this study shows that masculinity appears as the negative and positive ideology because masculinity is not contradictory with Indonesian culture. However, the value of masculinity shown by the advertiser is narrowed down into the area of sexuality only. In addition to this, the way of illustrating the ideology of masculinity in sexuality area also gives negative stereotype to women, for instance by showing women as figures who like to advertise their body through wearing fashion which exposes women’s body. Keywords: ideology, advertisement, semiotics, mass media codes

The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the commonalities and differences between the two languages by contrasting 'dog' in Korean and 'it' in Uzbek. Furthermore, there is a secondary purpose in reducing errors in the language use of Korean and Uzbek learners as foreign languages. The Korean word “dog” and the Uzbek word “it” have something in common that they originate from the animal's name, “dog” [犬]. In addition, “dog” and “it” are characterized by being used in negative meanings as well as in positive meanings in recent years. On the other hand, the difference is that the Korean word “dog” has a strong dependency, but the Uzbek word “it” has an adverbial usage. Through this study, it was possible to derive similarities and differences between the elements 'dog' and 'it' of forming new words in Korean and Uzbek, and to suggest the relevance of the use of new words.

In order to reveal what it means for the frail elderly living at home to use a wheelchair in daily life and to obtain suggestions regarding improving their mobility, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 elderly people.As a result, following 8 categories of meanings were obtained : “secure, safe, and easy mobilization,” “enjoy outings without having to walk,” “leading a life with less pain of injury or illness,” “the wheelchair being second nature to the person,” “restrictions due to physical barriers,” “minimizing the anxiety of their families,” “movement dependant on others” and “concerns about other's perceptions.” These were classified into 2 dimensions : meanings based on “the user's activities” and meanings based on “the psychological relationships with others.” The meanings in each of these dimensions were then classified as “positive meanings” and “negative meanings,” respectively.The result shows that using a wheelchair not only affects the way and the range of the user's activities but also has an effect on their psychological relationships with others, and it is important to give sufficient consideration to the latter effect as well as the former effect in supporting for the elderly with wheelchairs.

Phototherapy is generally described as the use of photography, a visual image, for the communication in the process of therapy/counseling. The purpose of this study is to introduce the phototherapy technique as a method which will increase therapeutic communication in the process of psychological counseling and to present an example for training purposes based on the use of the technique. The study was conducted in the phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research patterns. The study group was comprised of nine senior students who have been in the department of psychological counseling and guidance. The data were collected with the structured interview technique using photography. As a result of the application, it was observed that the use of photography enabledthe initiation and deepening of communication among the group members. In respect to the meaning of the photos chosen, eight members of the study group have brought a photo with a positive meaning and one has brought a photo with a negative meaning. It was inspected that each participant clearly and thoroughly remembered the story of the photo he brought fort he study and expressed that they had the same feeling at the moment. It was found that each member attributed a different meaning and created a different story for the same photo. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions were made based on this.

IntroductionPrevious research suggests that negative views on homosexuality are fostered by higher levels of religiosity. Little is known, however, about what meanings religious people attribute to homosexuality, how these meanings connect with each other, what kind of network they form, and which of them are central.MethodsThe research was conducted in 2020, based on a representative sample of Polish Catholics (N = 874). Religiosity was determined using latent class analysis. Based on an investigation of press discourse in Poland, six meanings of homosexuality were identified as positive (orientation, love, fulfillment) and negative (sin, deviation, disease). Network analysis was used to determine the relationship between religiosity and the meanings attributed to homosexuality.ResultsThe analyses showed that greater compliance of religious orientations with the Roman Catholic Church’s expectations translates into increased acceptance of negative meanings of homosexuality (primarily sin). Weaker (negative) correlations were noted between religiosity and positive meanings, which we interpret as resulting from the absence of the negation of positive meanings in Roman Catholic teaching.ConclusionsThe relationships between religiosity and positive and negative meanings of homosexuality were found to be asymmetrical, unbalanced, and designated by negativity bias. The weakening meaning of sin may play an important role in changing religious people’s attitude toward homosexuality.Policy ImplicationsThe absolution of homosexuality would reduce the likelihood of negative meanings such as deviance or disease. This could lead to a reduction in exclusionary perceptions of homosexuality.

The article discusses the complex character of manipulative potential of stylistic devices in English and Italian fashion advertisements. By conducting semantic analysis, it was found out that positive and negative connotations, denotative and connotative meanings have a certain persuasive effect on the audience. Materials consist of 250 fashion advertisements in English and 250 in Italian derived from Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan online magazines issued September 2022-January 2023. The work relies on descriptive method to investigate the function of stylistic devices as manipulative means; the quantitative method to draw a parallel between the English and Italian and the comparative method to compare the results in English and Italian. The main conclusion of this research is that studied stylistic devices, positive and negative connotations, denotative and connotative meanings can be considered as techniques of verbal manipulation. The classification and functions of stylistic and semantic techniques in the process of verbal manipulation are presented as the final outcome of this research.

The paper argues that linguistic forms per se do not have any positive or negative meaning and that one form is not better than the other. However, this is not fully perceived outside the narrow linguistic community. Very often it is demonstrated by the apparent stigmatization of non-native accents by native speakers of the language. This phenomenon seems true in reference to many communities and languages. Different sociolinguists have conducted research to prove the ungrounded nature of linguistic partiality. They try to account for the listeners’ attitudes towards non-native speech by incorporating the model of dual cognitive processing methods, namely implicit and explicit. They believe that attitudes are formed by the interaction of these two cognitive mechanisms. The negative attitude can be cured by application of more explicit cognitive techniques.

Traditional approaches to semantic change typically focus on outcomes of meaning change and list types of change such as metaphoric and metonymic extension, broadening and narrowing, and the development of positive and negative meanings. Examples are usually considered out of context, and are lexical members of nominal and adjectival word classes. However, language is a communicative activity that is highly dependent on context, whether that of the ongoing discourse or of social and ideological changes. Much recent work on semantic change has focused, not on results of change, but on pragmatic enabling factors for change in the flow of speech. Attention has been paid to the contributions of cognitive processes, such as analogical thinking, production of cues as to how a message is to be interpreted, and perception or interpretation of meaning, especially in grammaticalization. Mechanisms of change such as metaphorization, metonymization, and subjectification have been among topics of special interest and debate. The work has been enabled by the fine-grained approach to contextual data that electronic corpora allow.