Search

BACKGROUND: The home environment has a critical influence on an infant’s development and well-being. The Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development-Infant Scale (AHEMD-IS) is an instrument that has been developed to assess the home environment. This article illustrates the translation, validation and cultural adaptation process of the AHEMD-IS from English to Spanish. METHODS: The AHEMD-IS underwent a comprehensive process involving a four-phase translation process: 1) Forward translation, 2) Semantic equivalence, 3) Content equivalence testing, and 4) Final version development. RESULTS: Steps 1 & 2 resulted in linguistic alterations from the initial translation to enhance clarity for general public understanding. In step 3, mothers reported the instrument was clear and easy to complete. Step 4 involved a final review of the instrument. CONCLUSION: The final outcome is a validated instrument that may prove beneficial when evaluating the home environment with Spanish-speaking populations, particularly those of Mexican descent.

The research deals with a semantic field constructing method and comparative analysis of two semantic fields. Semantic features of lexemes are on the basis of creating an abstract model of concept that semantically unites all the units of compared semantic fields. The method of contrasting semantic fields is on the basis of “abstractness-concreteness”, which can give quantitative estimate of differences between semantic fields. Cooking verbs semantic fields are taken into consideration. It is shown that the semantic field of cooking verbs in English is more specific compared with that in Russian.

In this paper we carry out an extensive comparison of many off-the-shelf distributed semantic vectors representations of words, for the purpose of making predictions about behavioural results or human annotations of data. In doing this comparison we also provide a guide for how vector similarity computations can be used to make such predictions, and introduce many resources available both in terms of datasets and of vector representations. Finally, we discuss the shortcomings of this approach and future research directions that might address them.

he study is a product-oriented investigation into the translation of metaphor in four modern English versions of a stretch of text from Dante's Inferno. Its first aim is to establish the extent of equivalence of semantic field between the metaphors of the source text and their realizations in the target texts. This then provides the basis for exploring the mediation of metaphor by the translators and for analyzing the strategies they use. Toury's norms model is the frame of reference drawn on to explain the patterns of equivalence that emerge in the group. The discussion analyzes the findings of the data collection, as well as individual examples of mediation from the translated texts, for what they reveal about orientations towards ST- or TT-norms. Though there are interesting correspondences across the English versions, the study focuses on divergent mediations of source text metaphor because this is the perspective that enables features of the praxis of individual translators to emerge most clearly. The data are presented in a detailed table in an appendix to the study to supplement the material under discussion and provide a point of reference for it. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This article explores the influence of conceptuality on the distribution of four semantically equivalent possession-marking constructions in eighteenth-century Dutch: the prestigious genitive case (which was promoted in the prescribed norm but was decreasing in productivity at the time), as well as the (relatively) novel van-construction, possessive -s and periphrastic possessive. Comparing the division of labour between these constructions in private egodocuments and texts that were produced for publication, and viewing the findings in the context of contemporary language users’ everyday lives, the article reveals and analyses a complex picture of pragmatic variation. Even in the most norm-accordant texts, the prescribed genitive is never dominant. The egodocuments, which did not adhere strictly to the norm, display not only a productive use of the genitive, but also a noticeable rarity of the conceptually oral periphrastic possessive construction. This is attributed to the writers’ schooling and their f...

‘Time brings all things to pass.’—AeschylusJosh Dever argues that there is no real choice to make between semantic eternalism and temporalism, as they are semantically equivalent. He calls this pos...

Metalinguistic descriptivism is the view that proper names are semantically equivalent to descriptions featuring their own quotations (e.g., ‘Socrates’ means ‘the bearer of “Socrates”’). The present paper shows that Millians can actually accept an inferential version of this equivalence thesis without running afoul of the modal argument. Indeed, they should: for it preserves the explanatory virtues of more familiar forms of descriptivism while avoiding objections (old and new) to Kent Bach's nominal description theory. We can make significant progress on Frege's puzzle and Plato's beard without committing ourselves one way or the other on the semantic values of proper names. The view on offer can also be motivated by analogy with Tarski's schema T, inviting the idea that the equivalence between a name and the associated nominal description has more to do with the semantics of representational locutions than it does with names per se. My response to the modal argument exploits the Kripkean distinction betw...

We discuss the use of cognitive interviewing with bilinguals as an integral part of cross-cultural adaptation of personality questionnaires. The aim is to maximize semantic equivalence to increase the likelihood of items maintaining the intended structure and meaning in the target language. We refer to this part of adaptation as semantic enhancement, and integrate cognitive interviewing within it as a tool for scrutinizing translations, the connotative meaning, and the psychological impact of items across languages. During the adaptation of a work-based personality questionnaire from English to Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), and Spanish, we cognitively interviewed 12 bilingual participants about 136 items in different languages (17% of all items), of which 67 were changed. A content analysis categorizing the reasons for amending items elicited eleven errors that affect two identified forms of semantic equivalence. We provide the resultant coding scheme as a framework for designing cognitive interviewing protocols and propose a procedure for implementing them. We discuss implications for theory and practice

An animated concept map is a presentation of a network diagram in which nodes and links are sequentially added or modified. An experiment compared learning from animated concept maps and text by randomly assigning 133 undergraduates to study 1 of 4 narrated animations presenting semantically equivalent information accompanied by identical audio narration. Two of the animations presented text; one with concurrent audio and another with delayed audio. Two of the animations presented concept maps; one in black and white and the other with nodes colored to represent semantic relatedness. The concept map groups outperformed the text groups on free recall (p < .05). The black-and-white concept map group outperformed the text groups on a multiple-choice knowledge test (p < .05). No advantages were statistically detected for color enhancements of the animated map. The results indicate that verbal information can be effectively communicated by learner-paced animated concept maps accompanied by audio narrations.

The anterior portion of the inferior parietal cortex possesses comprehensive representations of actions embedded in behavioural contexts. Mirror neurons, which respond to both self-executed and observed actions, exist in this brain region in addition to those originally found in the premotor cortex. We found that parietal mirror neurons responded differentially to identical actions embedded in different contexts. Another type of parietal mirror neuron represents an inverse and complementary property of responding equally to dissimilar actions made by itself and others for an identical purpose. Here, we propose a hypothesis that these sets of inferior parietal neurons constitute a neural basis for encoding the semantic equivalence of various actions across different agents and contexts. The neurons have mirror neuron properties, and they encoded generalization of agents, differentiation of outcomes, and categorization of actions that led to common functions. By integrating the activities of these mirror neurons with various codings, we further suggest that in the ancestral primates' brains, these various representations of meaningful action led to the gradual establishment of equivalence relations among the different types of actions, by sharing common action semantics. Such differential codings of the components of actions might represent precursors to the parts of protolanguage, such as gestural communication, which are shared among various members of a society. Finally, we suggest that the inferior parietal cortex serves as an interface between this action semantics system and other higher semantic systems, through common structures of action representation that mimic language syntax.

Semantic roles are a critical aspect of linguistic knowledge because they indicate the relations of the participants in an event to the main predicate. Experimental studies on children and adults show that both groups use associations between general semantic roles such as Agent and Theme, and grammatical positions such as Subject and Object, even in the absence of familiar verbs. Other studies suggest that semantic roles evolve over time, and might best be viewed as a collection of verb-based or general semantic properties. A usage-based account of language acquisition suggests that general roles and their association with grammatical positions can be learned from the data children are exposed to, through a process of generalisation and categorisation. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic usage-based model of semantic role learning. Our model can acquire associations between the semantic properties of the arguments of an event, and the syntactic positions that the arguments appear in. These probabil...

This paper describes the Application Information Mapping Test (AIMT) – a type of content-level test procedure for Business-to-Business (B2B) integration across enterprises. The goal of AIMT is to assure that the semantics of a B2B message element are interpreted by the system under test (SUT) according to the element's intended meaning. AIMT provides this assurance by verifying that the element values are correctly processed, stored, and utilised by the SUT to reflect that intended meaning. This paper discusses the AIMT methodology for test development and test execution, which is based on our experience to provide a self-testing capability in a B2B-interoperability project for automotive industry. In particular, we propose an efficient and robust test procedure for AIMT which reduces the time-consuming manual steps and prevents mapping errors. This procedure also proposes a minimum set of test trials by considering practical message constraints of industrial environments. A simulation experiment is prese...

We sketch an account according to which the semantic concepts themselves are not pathological and the pathologies that attend the semantic predicates arise because of the intention to impose on them a role they cannot fulfill, that of expressing semantic concepts for a language that includes them. We provide a simplified model of the account and argue in its light that (i) a consequence is that our meaning intentions are unsuccessful, and such semantic predicates fail to express any concept, and that (ii) in light of this it is incorrect to characterize the pathology simply as semantic inconsistency; a more nuanced view of the problem is needed. We also show that the defects of the semantic predicates need not undercut the use of a truth theory in a compositional semantics for a language containing them because the meaning theory per se need not involve commitment to the axioms of the truth theory it exploits.

Research involving comparisons between English-speaking and non-English-speaking populations often includes a process of scale translation. The goals of translation of a psychosocial instrument from its original, source language (e.g., English) to another target language (e.g., Spanish) are to maintain denotative and connotative word meanings, and to ensure the source and target scales correctly measure the attributes of interest. This essay offers advice on some of the important issues related to the translation of instruments used in communication research. Specific concerns about various translation methods are addressed, and suggestions for assessing the semantic equivalence and translation invariance of scales are discussed.

Statistically equivalent models produce the same range of moment matrices over the domain of their parameter spaces. Raykov and Marcoulides (2001) proposed a proof that leads to the conclusion that all structural equation (SE) models with certain minimal components have infinitely many statistically equivalent models. A variation on their proof covers an even broader class of models. This conclusion has important implications for the application of at least one notion of eliminative induction to structural equation modeling (SEM). Normally, assertions of statistical equivalence imply that the models differ in meaning, giving statistical equivalence its interest. Consequently, a particular complex causal structure provides a counterexample to the proposed proof. This counterexample suggests that a successful proof may require more detailed attention to the concept of semantic equivalence as characterized by different substantive implications. A formal account of semantic equivalence rests on translation be...

Increasingly companies are doing business in an environment replete with heterogeneous information systems which must cooperate. Cooperation between these systems presupposes the resolution of the semantic conflicts that are bound to occur. In this article, we propose a classification of semantic conflicts which can be used as the basis for the incremental discovery and resolution of these conflicts. We classify conflicts along the two dimensions of naming and abstraction which, taken together, capture the semantic mapping of the conflict. We add a third dimension, level of heterogeneity to assist in the schematic mapping between two databases. The classification provides a systematic representation of alternative semantic interpretations of conflicts during the reconciliation process. As a result, the design of query‐directed dynamic reconciliation systems is possible. The classification is shown to be sound and minimal. Completeness is discussed.

USMARC records that contain non-Roman scripts exhibit two types of linkage between the Latin script fields and their alternate graphic representation (the non-Roman text): linkage based on systematic romanization, and linkage between names for the same person, place, or thing. The lack of rules for linkage inhibits copy cataloging, and causes inconsistency on record displays. To determine an unequivocal basis for linkage, four types of field association in bibliographic records are examined: hierarchy of components, functional equivalence, semantic equivalence, and systematic romanization. Semantic equivalence is shown to be the proper basis for linkage. Linkage based on semantic equivalence can be accommodated by the current structure of the USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data

Financial reporting involves the publication of financial statements (profit and loss account, balance sheet, etc.) together with supplementary material such as notes, a management report and a report by independent auditors. Developments such as that of the Single European Market and, more generally, the internationalisation of financial markets, have led to an increasing tendency for large European business organisations to undertake what may be termed ’transnational financial reporting’, using one or more languages in addition to the language of the original report. Our research indicates that such reporting raises a number of interesting issues in Linguistics. One of these issues falls into the domain of Semantics, and concerns the extent to which the professional registers of accounting and finance in different countries exhibit semantic equivalence. Other issues fall into the domain of Pragmatics. Translating the report of the independent auditors can pose various kinds of problems of eithe...

(2002). No Patents for Semantic Information. The American Journal of Bioethics: Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 15-16.

Duch Charles, Frawley William. A system of semantic equivalence in specialized discourse. In: Équivalences, 9e année-n°2-3, 1978. pp. 29-35.

Summary Two experiments are reported concerning the effects of semantic encoding operations on the subsequent usefulness of interitem semantic relations in recall. These experiments employ the Mathews paradigm in which Ss first make judgments about the semantic relatedness of words presented in triplets and subsequently have their memory for the words tested. These experiments examine the effects of variations in interitem associative strength (Experiment 1), and task instructions and triplet order (Experiment 2). The results are discussed in terms of the general effects of the semantic judgment task on the encoding of task-relevant and task-irrelevant semantic attributes of words.

This study examines student translations into the L1 (Hebrew or Arabic) as a means of evaluating reading comprehension of an English text. Attention focused on the following research questions: 1. What kinds of errors in translation are students likely to make frequently? 2. Which of these errors reflect reading comprehension difficulty? Units of student translations were analysed in terms of micro‐structure: Utterance‐Level (Propositional Content, Communicative Function — Explicit and Implicit) and Word‐Level (Vocabulary/Expressions, Parts of Speech/Verb Tense, Pronoun Agreement, and Cohesion). Also macro‐structures were examined, namely the frame or schema of the text. Mistranslations in these areas were compared with misinterpretations of the same translated units evaluated also on the macro‐level. Vocabulary/Expressions and Utterance‐Level mistranslations proved to be good indicators of lack of comprehension. Results also indicate that in addition to surface structure and semantic equivalence...

Users must understand the meaning of a database before they can intelligently interpret the data in it. We explore the problem of making databases selfdescriptive. We first examine the levels of semantics of data by analogy to the area of programming languages. Next, we consider several semantic data models, which are formal languages for conceptual data description, and how a semantic description can be linked to the objects in a database. We discuss the advantages of making a semantic description part of a database itself and the types of application programs that would use that description. In particular, we focus on pique, a high-level relational query language that uses such semantic information.

A preliminary description of co-ordination is presented and it is pointed out that further investigation is necessary. Thereafter co-ordination as a semantic relation is compared with other types of semantic relations. It was found that co-ordination overlaps with intra-sentential conjunctive binding. With regard to a comparison between the range or scope of semantic relations in sentences and texts, it was found that co-ordination occupies an intermediate position: It does not only appear in the internal structure of sentences but also intra-sententially where it overlaps with intra- sentential conjunctive binding. Because of these properties co-ordination has a wider range of accidence than other semantic relations. Anaphoric semantic connectivity is the most mobile because it is not bound by structure.

(1969). Verbs of judging: An exercise in semantic description. Paper in Linguistics: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 91-117.

(1973). Towards a semantic description of English. English Studies: Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 347-357.