This study explores the extent to which comprehending negated antonyms in Persian involves the mitigation effect, whereby a negated word means less than its antonym. In two mouse-tracking experiments, participants rated sentences containing negated/non-negated scalar (e.g., tall-short) and complementary (e.g., dead-alive) antonymous adjectives on a continuous scale. Their reaction times and mouse movements were recorded by MouseTracker. The analysis of reaction times shows that negated adjectives are processed slower than their affirmative counterparts. Moreover, the analysis of mouse trajectories shows that (...) complementary adjectives are rated further apart, closer to the endpoints of the scale than scalar adjectives. We also found that both complementary and scalar adjectives are mitigated under negation, but the mitigation effect is greater in scalar, rather than complementary, adjectives. The results speak in favor of a particular kind of mitigation effect, so-called negative strengthening, which causes negated antonyms to receive a strong pragmatic interpretation towards the opposite member of the pair. (shrink)

This paper investigates the way that linguistic expressions influence vagueness, focusing on the interpretation of the positive (unmarked) form of gradable adjectives. I begin by developing a semantic analysis of the positive form of ‘relative’ gradable adjectives, expanding on previous proposals by further motivating a semantic basis for vagueness and by precisely identifying and characterizing the division of labor between the compositional and contextual aspects of its interpretation. I then introduce a challenge to the analysis from the class of ‘absolute’ (...) gradable adjectives: adjectives that are demonstrably gradable, but which have positive forms that relate objects to maximal or minimal degrees, and do not give rise to vagueness. I argue that the truth conditional difference between relative and absolute adjectives in the positive form stems from the interaction of lexical semantic properties of gradable adjectives—the structure of the scales they use—and a general constraint on interpretive economy that requires truth conditions to be computed on the basis of conventional meaning to the extent possible, allowing for context dependent truth conditions only as a last resort. (shrink)

This article is concerned with how we make decisions based on how problems are presented to us and the effect that the framing of the problem might have on our choices. Current philosophical and psychological accounts of the framing effect in experiments such as the Asian Disease Problem concern reference points and domains. We question the importance of reference points and domains. Instead, we adopt a linguistic perspective focussing on the role of the evaluative polarity evoked by the words - (...) negativeand positive - used to describe the options in the decision problem. We show that the evaluative polarity of the different wordings in the ADP better explain participants’ behaviour than reference points and domains. We propose two models in which the values given to evaluative polarity words directly influence the strength of framing. The results indicate that linguistic considerations regarding evaluative polarity have to be considered in relation to the ADP. The account resembles Fuzzy-Trace-Theory but allows for thestrength of evaluative polarity to directly affect behaviour. In the discussion, we also assess how evaluative polarity relates to negation, antonyms and the communicative frame within which the choices are presented. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of lexical meaning, broadly along the lines of Cognitive Semantics (Langacker 1987a). Within the proposed model, all aspects of meaning are to be explained in terms of properties of ontologies in conceptual space, i.e. properties of content ontologies and schematic ontologies and construals which are imposed on the conceptual structures on the occasion of use. It is through the operations of construals on ontological structures that different readings of lexical expressions (...) arise. Lexical meanings are dynamic and sensitive to contextual demands, rather than fixed and stable. In a dynamic, usage-based model like this, polysemy and multiple readings emerge as a natural consequence of the human ability to think flexibly. Another more specific purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the usefulness of ontologies in linguistic research in general and semantic modelling in particular. (shrink)

Although typically realized by free items, degree modification has a number of morphological exponents in Polish, including the neoclassical prefix arcy-, which, while originally attaching to profession-denoting nouns with a view to indicating a higher rank in a hierarchy, has come to perform the function of reinforcement in conjunction with adjectival bases. Since the scarce previous research concerned with the aforementioned prefixal reinforcer builds only on lexicographic material, this paper offers a quantitative, corpus-based account of the productivity of the formative (...) at issue by providing its TTR (type-token ratio) and HTR (hapax-token ratio) measures, calculated by dividing the number of, respectively, types of adjectival bases and hapax adjectives by that of all relevant tokens, in two periods in the history of Polish, namely in the Baroque epoch, when arcy- gained a strong foothold in language practice owing to the then prevalent rhetorical tendency toward a profuse employment of elements of foreign provenance, and in contemporary Polish. The results of the empirical analysis indicate a dramatic decrease in the level of the bound form’s productivity over time, to the point that the probability of an arcy-adjective encountered by a language user being unique fell from nearly 30% in the Baroque period to less than 1% at present time, which can be accounted for in terms of the formative having been superseded by more recent, functionally analogous prefixes, particularly super- and mega-. (shrink)

Events can be modeled through a geometric approach, representing event structures in terms of spaces and mappings between spaces. At least two spaces are needed to describe an event, an action space and a result space. In this article, we invoke general mathematical structures in order to develop this geometric perspective. We focus on three cognitive processes that are crucially involved in events: causal thinking, control of action and learning by generalization. These cognitive processes are supported by three corresponding mathematical (...) properties: monotonicity (that we relate to qualitative causal thinking and allows extrapolation); continuity (that plays a key role in our activities of action control); and convexity (that facilitates generalization and the categorization of events, and enables interpolation). We define how such properties constrain events representations and relate them to thinking about events. We discuss the relevance of the three constraints for event segmentation and explore the implications of such constraints for semantics. We conclude by a discussion that relates our approach to other accounts of events. (shrink)

Previous research on the INTRODUCTORY IT PATTERN unveiled various lexical and grammatical aspects of its use as a grammatical stance device, including the range of the most frequently used adjectival and verbal stance lexemes, associated stance meanings, the most frequent sub-patterns, and the distinct uses in various contextual settings of the pattern. However, the stance meanings of the pattern, which are deeply rooted in the associated lexical resources, are still understudied. This study explores the meanings of the INTRODUCTORY IT PATTERN (...) by referring to the stance meanings of the pattern associated with the adjectival and verbal lexemes that are statistically attracted to the pattern. The research samples were extracted from the British component of the International Corpus of English. The samples were manually annotated for different stance types and a collexeme analysis was performed to identify the full range of stance lexemes statistically associated with the INTRODUCTORY IT PATTERN. The results show that both adjectival and verbal collexemes are statistically and functionally significant for the delivery of discrete stance types/subtypes. Adjectival collexemes are frequently deployed for all four stance types: Epistemic stance, Evaluation stance, Dynamic stance, and Deontic stance, while verbal collexemes are valuable lexical resources for the Epistemic stance, as their use entails modalized evidentiality, pointing to epistemic judgment of the writer-speaker toward events/propositions. Close examination of the use of adjectival and verbal collexemes identified three fundamental meanings of the INTRODUCTORY IT PATTERN. First, the pattern is inherently evaluative as it tends to attract more lexemes with evaluative meanings and associates evaluative meanings with superficially non-evaluative lexemes. Second, it features a scalarized expression of diversified stance types/subtypes, thus, especially reflective of the scalarized semantic feature of stance expression. Third, it connotates an overwhelmingly positive likelihood judgment. The article concludes by discussing the limitations of this study. (shrink)

This paper investigates the semantics of measure phrases in Japanese. Based on new data, we argue that the interpretation of measure phrases in Japanese is sensitive to scale structure such that (i) measure phrases are introduced by a degree morpheme that selects only for gradable predicates whose scale contains a minimal element (i.e., a lower closed scale) and (ii) violations to this restriction are repaired via coercion, which forces a comparative interpretation with a contextually determined standard and hence a minimal (...) element. We compare the Japanese facts to data in other languages and argue that the requirement of having a minimal element is not specific to Japanese, but universal. We show that languages may vary in how they deal with potential violations of this universal constraint, including coercion of a contextually recoverable derived minimal element (Japanese), ungrammaticality (e.g., Spanish, Korean, Russian), and a hybrid system of ungrammaticality for some adjectives and allowed constraint violation for others (e.g., English, German, Italian). (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to propose a constrained lexical semantic definition of referential metonymy within a model of meaning as ontology and construal. Due to their various types of lexical-referential pairings, 3 types of construals that are frequently referred to as metonymy in the cognitive literature are distinguished as metonymization, facetization, and zone activation. Metonymization involves the use of a lexical item to evoke the sense of something that is not conventionally linked to that particular lexical item. It (...) is argued that metonymy is a contingent relation that stops at the sense level. Facetization and zone activation both involve the use of conventional pairings of lexical items and contextual readings. Facetization takes place within senses at the level of qualia structure and zone activation takes place within qualia structure. Zone activation is a ubiquitous phenomenon that concerns all readings, senses as well facets. (shrink)

The construction we are discussing is a recent American English construction with an individual-denoting noun phrase in the predicate position modified by a degree modifier that typically occurs with gradable adjectives, as in 'This is so Obama!' We attempt to look deeper into the structure and compositional semantics of this construction, and though we do not provide a complete analysis of it, we believe that the study of this construction can contribute to questions of gradable predicate semantics, multidimensionality, degree constructions (...) and proper name semantics. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza el lenguaje subjetivo empleado por el intelectual y político andalusí Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Ḫaṭīb (m. 1375) en su obra de exilio Nufāḍat al-ǧirāb. El objetivo es explorar la utilidad de un enfoque lingüístico en la comprensión del lugar que ocupa este texto dentro del proceso de transición cultural del Occidente islámico hacia el paradigma moderno europeo. El estudio se divide en tres partes: en la primera, se hace una breve introducción al autor, a su contexto socio-político y (...) al contenido de la obra; en la segunda, se plantea una metodología cuantitativo-cualitativa a través de la cual se estructura el texto misceláneo digitalizado en función de sus géneros y se especifica un esquema de anotación que permite extraer las instancias de los fenómenos lingüísticos más destacados; y en la tercera, se procede al análisis de los datos obtenidos en torno a la acción, la emoción y la evaluación. El análisis muestra una compleja codificación de la subjetividad en la Nufāḍa donde, a diferencia del Taʿrīf de Ibn Ḫaldūn, las marcas de expresión en primera persona, aunque significativas, son escasas. Sin embargo, se identifica un abundante uso de adjetivos evaluativos a lo largo de la obra, con una riqueza léxica que permite revelar de forma explícita el punto de vista del sujeto autor. Este hallazgo demuestra la utilidad de una metodología híbrida en la aproximación a textos histórico-literarios premodernos, así como la necesidad de incorporar el análisis lingüístico, empírico y comparativo al estudio de la transición epistemológica señalada. (shrink)