This study formulates a general semantics theory of societal cohesion, and tests the extent to which general semantics instruction in public schools can alter group attitudes in the directions suggested by the theory. The test instrument, which consists of measurable elements, rationality, acceptance of change, nonprejudice, and…

Some psychologically salient meaning properties of lexical items were isolated using judgments about the similarity of meaning within three sets of words: verbs of judging, hypothetical verbs, and locative prepositions. Subjects were asked to rate the similarity of meaning of all possible pairs of words from one of the three domains on a 1-9…

The sentence intonation of Panjabi (a tone language) is described, as it is spoken in the district of Sialkot in West Pakistan. A system of phonetic transcription is established, and the intonation of sentences and questions is treated in two chapters. (JB)

The study analyzes, for readability and difficulty, the language of 50 commonly used application forms. The forms were compared with respect to length, readability, t-unit density, and word-length variables. Forms were also compared against two word-frequency lists. Results show that many of the words appearing often on forms do not appear on the…

The purpose of this study was to delineate the implications of language within an educational context as a means of facilitating self-actualization. Three premises identified in a priori fashion were drawn from the literature in linguistics, psychology, and general semantics, creating a three-part language continuum--acquisition, development, and…

This study investigated semantic aspects of children's language as it is related to emotional expression. Children's ratings of vocabulary items categorized as expressing happy, sad, loving, angry, confident, and scared feelings were examined in three different ways: in isolation, in verbal contexts, and accompanying pictures of emotional…

A General Semantics Language Arts program was developed to improve the self-confidence of third-grade pupils. The effectiveness of the program was tested in an experiment involving 165 students. Four treatment group teachers used the program three times a week for ten weeks; control group teachers were not introduced to the program and continued…

The objective of this study was to explore the semantic structure used by subjects in assessing (evaluating) a series of eight television commercials previously (but unofficially) rated for deceptiveness by FTC attorneys. Five local respondent groups were used: 158 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory advertising course, 175…

To investigate children's ability to make linguistic judgments, a 60-item Awareness of Acceptable Sentences task was constructed. This task and the reading subtest of the Metropolitan Achievement Test were administered to 144 children in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Analyses of results indicated that children's performance on the…

This study investigated the effect of training in general semantics on social adjustment. Acting on the Whorfian Hypothesis that the language structures we use influence our feeling, thinking, and behaving and therefore our social adjustment, the Is of Identity Test and Uncritical Inference Test were used as measures of social adjustment. The…

The principal aim of this study was to bring together three contemporary frameworks, general semantics, linguistic semantics in transformational theory, and speech acts in ordinary language philosophy, and to present their individual methods for analyzing the nature of meaning in language. The survey of these three systems forms the basis for a…

This study attempted to determine if reading ability and grade level differences accounted for differences in the word associations and written syntactic structures of 180 selected students. The study also investigated the relationship of semantic associations and syntactic complexity. An oral, free word association test was used to measure…

The first part of this dissertation is a metatheoretical discussion of the needs and means of semantic analysis. This discussion includes sections on metalanguage, deep and surface structure and structural semantics, and procedures for relating the English of abstracts to a classification concordance in the same language. The second part describes…

Palauan is a relatively undescribed Austronesian language. This dissertation is an attempt to provide an account of the affixes which Palauan verbs can take, since there are complexities associated with almost every affix, with regard to both its phonological form and its syntactic and semantic function. In order to generalize about the verb…

An integrated analysis of the syntax and semantics of serial verb constructions (SVCs) in a group of West African languages is presented. With data from Dagaare and closest relatives, a structural definition for SVCs is developed (two or more lexical verbs that share grammatical categories within a clause), establishing SVCs as complex predicates.…