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This study examines the semantic variation in fruit and vegetable classifier usage in Amman, Jordan, employing a cognitive sociolinguistic approach. The semantic variation revolves around using idiomatic classifiers, such as raːs basˤal ("head of onion"), in contrast to neutral classifiers, i.e., ħabbet basˤal ("a piece of onion") or numerals, such as basˤalteːn ("two onions"). This study focuses on classifiers used with fruits and vegetables, which are particularly relevant due to their physical shapes often prompting metaphorical classifiers and their tendency to take Arabic collective forms that are grammatically singular but semantically plural, complicating the issue of counting and potentially leading to the innovation of novel classifiers. The sample comprised 50 individuals from Amman, stratified based on their gender, age, and education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal a statistically significant inclination among older, male, and less formally educated speakers towards favoring idiomatic classifiers over the neutral options. This preference suggests that the choice between idiomatic and neutral classifiers may be influenced by social factors. We categorized the metaphors underlying the idiomatic classifiers as entrenched, conventionalized, and transparent, based on Müller (2009). The context of conventional metaphors demonstrates that the source domains of these metaphors could be active for a speaker at a specific moment but may not be active for another speaker at another moment, proposing that metaphoricity is not only a property of a linguistic item but also the cognitive achievement of a certain speaker. The preference for idiomatic classifiers, we argue, may be associated with notions of lower refinement, traditionalism, or reduced prestige. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the semantic variation in fruit and vegetable classifier usage in Amman, Jordan, employing a cognitive sociolinguistic approach. The semantic variation revolves around using idiomatic classifiers, such as raːs basˤal (“head of onion”), in contrast to neutral classifiers, i.e., ħabbet basˤal (“a piece of onion”) or numerals, such as basˤalteːn (“two onions”). This study focuses on classifiers used with fruits and vegetables, which are particularly relevant due to their physical shapes often prompting metaphorical classifiers and their tendency to take Arabic collective forms that are grammatically singular but semantically plural, complicating the issue of counting and potentially leading to the innovation of novel classifiers. The sample comprised 50 individuals from Amman, stratified based on their gender, age, and education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal a statistically significant inclination among older, male, and less formally educated speakers towards favoring idiomatic classifiers over the neutral options. This preference suggests that the choice between idiomatic and neutral classifiers may be influenced by social factors. We categorized the metaphors underlying the idiomatic classifiers as entrenched, conventionalized, and transparent, based on Müller (2009). The context of conventional metaphors demonstrates that the source domains of these metaphors could be active for a speaker at a specific moment but may not be active for another speaker at another moment, proposing that metaphoricity is not only a property of a linguistic item but also the cognitive achievement of a certain speaker. The preference for idiomatic classifiers, we argue, may be associated with notions of lower refinement, traditionalism, or reduced prestige.

This article discusses the traditional image schema theory, which is J. Lakoff and M. Johnson's conceptual. Although it was introduced several decades ago, certain clarifications and refinements must be made to its framework and key terms in response to the latest advance in cognitive science. In particular, questions have been raised about certain properties of an image schema, such as bringing together different types of perception, relying primarily on human motor experience, abstractness, and being able to morph into other image schemas. For a better understanding of these properties, the concept “circle” in the Russian linguistic worldview was analyzed, and the following properties of the image schema were singled out by the methods of analysis (component, definitional, contextual, logical-linguistic, and etymological), modeling, and cognitive interpretation: spatiality (the presence of a spatial image), visualization, generalization of the experience to a logical scheme, high ability to form meaning due to the cognitive and semantic types of variation, and combinatorial activity (the ability to combine with various image schemas as parts of a larger image or to become the center of association for other image schemas in a different situation). Of special interest are the means of representation characteristic of an image schema: unlike in concepts of other types, its verbalization is performed with the help of not only lexical and phraseological means but also word-building morphemes with spatial semantics (prefixes). A macro-image schema can consist of many micro-image schemas bounded together under the principle of “family resemblance”, wherein any image schema can be central, i.e., play the role of a unifying one. The results obtained here on the refinement of the traditional image schema theory should promote further development of linguocognitive research.

Using the Mass Observation corpus of 12th of May Diaries, we investigate concepts that are characteristic of the first coronavirus lockdown in the UK. More specifically, we extract and analyse concepts which are distinctive of the discourses produced in May 2020 in relation to concepts used in the 10 previous years, 2010–2019. In the current paper we focus on the concept of regulation, which we identify through a novel approach to querying semantic content in large datasets. Typically, linguists look at keywords to understand differences between two datasets. We demonstrate that taking the perspective of a keyconcept rather than the keyword in linguistic analysis is a beneficial way of identifying trends in broader patterns of thoughts and behaviours which reflect lived-experiences that are particularly prominent of a given dataset, which, in this current paper, is the COVID-19 era dataset. In order to contextualise the keyconcept analysis, we investigate the discourses surrounding the concept of regulation. We find that diarists communicate collective experience of limited individual agency, surrounded by feelings of fear and gratitude. Diarists' reporting on events is often fragmented, focused on new information, and firmly placed in a temporal frame.

This paper operates with the archive of digitized texts (about 150 novels published between 1845 and 1900) offered by the project ASTRA Data Mining: The Digital Museum of the 19th Century Romanian Novel. By identifying the occurrences for the term “străin” (“foreign/er”; “strange/r”) and its entire lexical family, the study intends to prove that there is a strong correlation between linguistic signs and literary concepts. More precisely, my survey finds its starting point in the methodology developed by Ryan Heuser and Long Le-Khac. The two researchers use the pair of notions “signal/concept,” where “signal” means “any number of things that are readily tracked computationally” and “concept” represents “the phenomenon that we take a signal to stand for, or the phenomenon we take the signal to reveal,” in order to explain their working method. This precisely is the main reason why I have chosen to classify the occurrences of my key-word based on their semantic valence and to discuss semantic variation as an important indicator in trying to delineate different types of literary discourse and the novelistic subgenres. Lastly, my paper intends to provide a complete ad litteram image of “foreignness” as it occurs in the nineteenth-century Romanian novel. This image will be formed based on the meanings (“implicit” and “explicit” meaning, according to Teun A. van Dijk’s delineation) of the terms that comprise the lexical family for my key-word and on the context (the “micro-” and “macro-context”) in which these words occur as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic categories in the world's languages often reflect a historical process of chaining: A name for one referent is extended to a conceptually related referent, and from there on to other referents, producing a chain of exemplars that all bear the same name. The beginning and end points of such a chain might in principle be rather dissimilar. There is also evidence supporting a contrasting picture: Languages tend to support efficient, informative communication, often through semantic categories in which all exemplars are similar. Here, we explore this tension through computational analyses of existing cross-language naming and sorting data from the domain of household containers. We find (a) formal evidence for historical semantic chaining, and (b) evidence that systems of categories in this domain nonetheless support near-optimally efficient communication. Our results demonstrate that semantic chaining is compatible with efficient communication, and they suggest that chaining may be constrained by the functional need for efficient communication.

Focal colors, or best examples of color terms, have traditionally been viewed as either the underlying source of cross-language color-naming universals or derived from category boundaries that vary widely across languages. Existing data partially support and partially challenge each of these views. Here, we advance a position that synthesizes aspects of these two traditionally opposed positions and accounts for existing data. We do so by linking this debate to more general principles. We show that best examples of named color categories across 112 languages are well-predicted from category extensions by a statistical model of how representative a sample is of a distribution, independently shown to account for patterns of human inference. This model accounts for both universal tendencies and variation in focal colors across languages. We conclude that categorization in the contested semantic domain of color may be governed by principles that apply more broadly in cognition and that these principles clarify the interplay of universal and language-specific forces in color naming.

Cross-linguistic research has shown that boundaries forlexical categories differ from language to language. The aimof this study is to explore these differences between languagesin relation to the categorization differences within a language.Monolingual Dutch- (N=400) and French-speaking (N=300)Belgian adults provided lexical category judgments for threelexical categories that are roughly equivalent in Dutch andFrench. Each category was represented by good, borderline,and bad examples. A mixture modeling approach enabled usto identify latent groups of categorizers within a language andto evaluate cross-linguistic variation in relation to within-language variation. We found complex patterns of lexicalvariation within as well as between language groups. Evenwithin a seemingly homogeneous group of speakers sharingthe same mother tongue, latent groups of categorizers displaya variability that resembles patterns of lexical variation foundat a cross-linguistic level of comparison.

Semantic categories in the world’s languages often reflect ahistorical process of chaining: A name for one idea is extendedto a conceptually related idea, and from there on to other ideas,producing a chain of concepts that all bear the same name.The beginning and end points of such a chain might in prin-ciple be conceptually rather dissimilar. There is also evidencesupporting a contrasting picture: Languages tend to supportefficient, informative communication, often through semanticcategories in which all exemplars are similar. Here, we explorethis tension through computational analyses of existing cross-language naming and sorting data from the domain of house-hold containers. We find: (1) formal evidence for historical se-mantic chaining, and (2) evidence that systems of categories inthis domain nonetheless support near-optimally efficient com-munication. Our results suggest that semantic chaining maybe constrained by the functional need for efficient, informativecommunication.

Resumo: Este trabalho investiga as ocorrências de valoração (MARTIN, WHITE, 2005) em um texto literário escrito em língua inglesa e a reinstanciação da valoração em traduções para o português brasileiro. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar as ocorrências de valoração por estágios narrativos em excertos do conto Eveline, de James Joyce, e suas variações semânticas em duas traduções distintas para o português brasileiro. O trabalho se calca no arcabouço do sistema de valoração e adota o conceito literário de estágio (ROTHERY, STENGLIN, 1997) para o estudo das ocorrências. A metodologia utilizada foi semiautomática e envolveu três passos principais: seleção dos excertos de cada estágio narrativo e seus correspondentes nos textos-traduzidos; inserção e anotação dos excertos em planilhas eletrônicas; e comparação entre ocorrências de valoração entre os textos a fim de possibilitar a identificação de variações semânticas nas reinstanciações. Os resultados alcançados indicam a ocorrência de valorações com configurações similares, alinhadas a orientações de valor. Variações semânticas foram devidas majoritariamente a variações em acoplamento e calibragem nos subsistemas de atitude, carga e gradação. O subsistema de gradação foi especialmente produtivo no estudo de variações, devido ao não-acoplamento ou calibragem em menor grau nas ocorrências valorativas nas reinstanciações. A análise valorativa revelou-se produtiva para a identificação de valorações com configurações similares e de variações semânticas em textos traduzidos. Palavras-chave: valoração; reinstanciação; variações semânticas; Eveline. Abstract: This study investigates occurrences of appraisal (MARTIN, WHITE, 2005) in a literary text written in English and the re-instantiation of appraisal in translations to Brazilian Portuguese. This study aims to analyze appraisal occurrences in excerpts of the short story Eveline by James Joyce, and semantic variation in two distinct translations to Brazilian Portuguese. Analysis is based on the appraisal system’s framework and adopts the literary concept of stage (ROTHERY, STENGLIN, 1997). The adopted methodology was semi-automatic and involved three main steps: selection of excerpts from each narrative stage and their correspondent excerpts in the translated texts; insertion of texts in electronic sheets and annotation; and comparison of appraisal occurrences between texts in order to enable the identification of semantic variations in the re-instantiations. Results indicate the occurrence of evaluations with similar configurations, which were aligned to value orientations. Semantic variation was due mainly to different coupling and commitment of the attitude, loading and graduation subsystems. graduation was especially productive due to non-coupling or commitment in lesser degree in appraisal occurrences in the re-instantiations. appraisal analysis was shown to be productive for the identification of occurrences with similar configurations and semantic variation in translated texts. Keywords: appraisal; re-instantiation; semantic variation; Eveline.

Dialectometry studies patterns of linguistic variation through correlations between geographic and aggregate measures of linguistic distance. However, aggregating smooths out the role of semantic characteristics, which have been shown to affect the distribution of lexical variants across dialects. Furthermore, although dialectologists have always been well-aware of other variables like population size, isolation and socio-demographic features, these characteristics are generally only included in dialectometric analyses afterwards for further interpretation of the results rather than as explanatory variables. This study showcases linear mixed-effects modelling as a method that is able to incorporate both language-external and language-internal factors as explanatory variables of linguistic variation in the Limburgish dialect continuum in Belgium and the Netherlands. Covering four semantic domains that vary in their degree of basic vs. cultural vocabulary and their degree of standardization, the study models linguistic distances using a combination of external (e.g., geographic distance, separation by water, population size) and internal (semantic density, salience) sources of variation. The results show that both external and internal factors contribute to variation, but that the exact role of each individual factor differs across semantic domains. These findings highlight the need to incorporate language-internal factors in studies on variation, as well as a need for more comprehensive analysis tools to help better understand its patterns.

"As exemplified by a causative situation which realises the mode of an emotional state, the author makes an attempt to present semantic variations of the category of causation in its emotional mode. The paper aims at determining semantic variations of a causative situation of an emotional mode and systematising them. The object of the research is the peculiarities of functioning of Russian emotive verbs of interpersonal semantics. The subject of the analysis is their functional potential. The data of the research were Russian verbs taken from Russian collocation and defining dictionaries. The research methods comprised a hypothetical-deductive method and contextual analysis. As a result of the analysis, five semantic variations of a causational situation of an emotional mode were determined. They are realised by causative verbs of perception, psychophysical sensations, mental state, understanding of an attitute to others, intuitive understanding of a situation."

This article takes as its focus the overlexicalization and semantic variation of reference terms for Native Americans in the period of the English exploration, settlement and colonization of Virginia (1584-1724). The corpus-assisted discourse analysis of pamphlets, first-hand accounts and letters taken from the Virtual Jamestown Digital Archive reveals that the lexical items used for naming the Natives undergo a process of amelioration and pejoration throughout the decades in relation to the changing historical and sociocultural context in which they are used. An investigation of the definition and quotations of the same lexical items in the online version of the OED shows that although the dictionary attests the overlexicalization occurring for the Native Americans and reflects the most frequent lexico-syntactic patterns in which the words are found in the corpus, the choice of the quotations fails to account for instances of semantic variation and for the resulting ambivalent connotations of the terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates occurrences of appraisal (MARTIN, WHITE, 2005) in a literary text written in English and the re-instantiation of appraisal in translations to Brazilian Portuguese. This study aims to analyze appraisal occurrences in excerpts of the short story Eveline by James Joyce, and semantic variation in two distinct translations to Brazilian Portuguese. Analysis is based on the appraisal system's framework and adopts the literary concept of stage (ROTHERY, STENGLIN, 1997). The adopted methodology was semi-automatic and involved three main steps: selection of excerpts from each narrative stage and their correspondent excerpts in the translated texts; insertion of texts in electronic sheets and annotation; and comparison of appraisal occurrences between texts in order to enable the identification of semantic variations in the re-instantiations. Results indicate the occurrence of evaluations with similar configurations, which were aligned to value orientations. Semantic variation was due mainly to different coupling and commitment of the attitude, loading and graduation subsystems. graduation was especially productive due to non-coupling or commitment in lesser degree in appraisal occurrences in the re-instantiations. appraisal analysis was shown to be productive for the identification of occurrences with similar configurations and semantic variation in translated texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with axiological aspects of ideologeme “order” in the political discourse of Russia and the USA. It is also supplied with some results of comparative research of ideologeme “order” in Russian and American political discourse.

Using the Mass Observation corpus of 12 th of May Diaries, we investigate concepts that are characteristic of the first coronavirus lockdown in the UK. More specifically, we extract and analyse concepts which are distinctive of the discourses produced in May 2020 in relation to concepts used in the 10 previous years, 2010-2019. In the current paper we focus on the concept of regulation, which we identify through a novel approach to querying semantic content in large datasets. Typically, linguists look at keywords to understand differences between two datasets. We demonstrate that taking the perspective of a keyconcept rather than the keyword in linguistic analysis is a beneficial way of identifying trends in broader patterns of thoughts and behaviours which reflect lived-experiences that are particularly prominent of a given dataset, which, in this current paper, is the COVID-19 era dataset. In order to contextualise the keyconcept analysis, we investigate the discourses surrounding the concept of regulation. We find that diarists communicate collective experience of limited individual agency, surrounded by feelings of fear and gratitude. Diarists' reporting on events is often fragmented, focused on new information, and firmly placed in a temporal frame., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor RJ is currently organising a Research Topic with the authors JR and RP., (Copyright © 2023 Robinson, Sandow and Piazza.)

En este artículo se presenta la variación verbal desde un enfoque sociolingüístico, desde esta perspectiva de análisis las particularidades sociales, históricas y etnográficas del habla de una región se manifestarían en el uso de la lengua tanto en el nivel morfológico, sintáctico y semántico. En el marco de la investigación acerca de la variación lingüística en Magallanes se presenta la variación sintáctico-semántica de los verbos considerados como variantes patrimoniales de la comunidad de habla magallánica: crecer (lo)-caer(lo)- pasar a caer (¡o) .Desde un punto de vista teórico, estos verbos reflejarían procesos sintácticos de ergativización, es decir, aquellos procesos lingüísticos que se caracterizan por expíicitar el agente de ¡a acción expresada en la estructura gramatical del verbo. A su vez, en el plano semántico este proceso se manifiesta a través de la atribución de un significado particular a los verbos utilizados por los hablantes. Entre las conclusiones principales, podemos señalar que el significado de estos verbos es reconocido por la totalidad de los hablantes encuestados, sin embargo, su uso está determinado por las variables de edad y escolaridad. Igualmente, podemos señalar que la variación sintáctico-semántica de los verbos en estudio se encontraría en un proceso inicial de cambio lingüístico (Labov, 1983) y que correspondería a aquellos usos lingüísticos que presentan menor concentración en ciertos grupos sociales.In this article verbal variation is presented from a sociolinguistic approach. From this perspective of analysis, social, historie and ethnographic peculiarities of speech of a región are manifested in the use of the language at a morphological, syntactic and semantic level. In the context of the investigation about linguistic variation in Magallanes it is presented the syntactic-semantic variation of the verbs that are considered patrimonial variants of the Magellan community: crecer(ío) - pasar a caerr - caer(ío). From a theoretical point of view, these verbs would reflect syntactic processes of ergativity, that is to say, those linguistic processes that are characterized by making exphcit the subject of the action mentioned in the grammatical structure of the verb. At the same time, at a semantic level this process is manifested by giving a particular meaning to the verbs used by the speakers. Among main conclusions, we can say that the meanings of these verbs are recognized by all the people polled, however the use is determined by the variables of age and schooling. Likewise, we can also say that the syntactic-semantic variations of the verbs being studied are in an initial process of linguistic change (Labov, 1983) and that would correspond to those linguistic uses that present less concentration in certain social groups.

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Some natural languages do not lexically distinguish between modals of possibility and modals of necessity. From the perspective of languages like English, modals in such languages appear to do double duty: they are used both where possibility modals are expected and where necessity modals are expected. The Nez Perce modal suffix o'qa offers an example of this behavior. I offer a simple account of the flexibility of the o'qa modal centered on the absence of scalar implicatures. O'qa is a possibility modal that does not belong to a Horn scale; its use is never associated with a scalar implicature. Accordingly, in an upward-entailing environment, Φ-o'qa is appropriate whenever there are accessible Φ-worlds, even if indeed ALL accessible worlds are Φ-worlds. In a downward-entailing environment, the flexibility of the o'qa modal is seen no more. Here, neither o'qa nor English possibility modals are associated with scalar implicatures, and the use of o'qa exactly parallels the use of English modals of possibility. Given that o'qa is a possibility modal that does not contrast with a modal of necessity, just how do you talk about necessities in Nez Perce? Speakers translating into Nez Perce rely on a variety of techniques to paraphrase away expressions of simple necessity. Their strategies highlight an area where Nez Perce and English plausibly differ in the range of propositions they convey. The data cast doubt on any strong form of effability as a language universal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion presents a framework of concepts that is intended to account for the rationality of semantic change and variation, suggesting that each scientific concept consists of three components of content: (1) reference, (2) inferential role, and (3) the epistemic goal pursued with the concept's use. I argue that in the course of history a concept can change in any of these components, and that change in the concept's inferential role and reference can be accounted for as being rational relative to the third component, the concept's epistemic goal. This framework is illustrated and defended by application to the history of the gene concept. It is explained how the molecular gene concept grew rationally out of the classical gene concept despite a change in reference, and why the use and reference of the contemporary molecular gene concept may legitimately vary from context to context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: A continual problem confronting the implementation of standardized vocabularies such as SNOMED CT is that their expressive flexibility and power provide more than one way to represent a given concept. The goal of this study was to investigate how the CliniClue™ Expression Transformer tool could be used to help in discerning similarities and differences among three separate sets of clinical research concepts coded in SNOMED CT by three different paid expert coding companies. Methods: Initial editing of the companies’ coded datasets was required to enable accurate input into CliniClue Version: 2006.2.0030 Expression Transformer tool. The normal forms of the company codings for the 319 clinical research question/answer sets were compared to determine whether they were equivalent or otherwise related (e.g., if one was subsumed by the other). Basic frequencies were computed for (957) pairwise comparisons of each of 319 concepts each coded by the three expert coders, and the implications of the results discussed. Results: The primary finding from this study was that, for each of the paired comparisons, approximately half of the time the companies’ codings could be related, primarily via subsumption. The greatest percentage of equivalent concepts between any two companies was 33%. These same two companies also agreed most often on the core clinical concept measure from an earlier study by the authors. Conclusion: Heterogeneity among coders using the same controlled terminology appears inescapable despite the extensive efforts of terminological standards developers and implementers. In our study, the computable determination of equivalence of discordantly coded concepts still failed to yield acceptably comparable data. A clearer articulation, and perhaps a simplification, of rules for the consistent use for terminologies such as SNOMED CT is needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The "passado composto" in Portuguese does not convey perfective aspect, as does the correlate constructions in French and some varieties of Spanish. In contemporary Portuguese, this periphrasis expresses imperfective (iterative or durative). In this paper, I make a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of the use of the "passado composto" in texts from the XVI-XIX centuries, in order to demonstrate how its semantics changed over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in computational terminology call for the design of multiple and complementary tools for the acquisition, the structuring and the exploitation of terminological data. This paper proposes to bridge the gap between term acquisition and thesaurus construction by offering a framework for automatic structuring of multi-word candidate terms with the help of corpus-based links between single-word terms. First, we present a system for corpus-based acquisition of terminological relationships through discursive patterns. This system is built on previous work on automatic extraction of hyponymy links through shallow parsing. Second, we show how hypernym links between single-word terms can be extended to semantic links between multi-word terms through corpus-based extraction of semantic variants. The induced hierarchy is incomplete but provides an automatic generalization of single-word terms relations to multi-word terms that are pervasive in technical thesauri and corpora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]