Effects of semantic versus syntactic constraints on resolution of Hebrew heterophonic-homographic words were examined at three reading skill levels. Fourth-and sixth-grade students and a group of adults read aloud sentences containing two types of heterophonic-homographs: noun-noun (e.g., BYCH [Hebrew characters] is read as beitsa 'egg' and bitsa…

This study investigated the noun definitions given by Cantonese speakers at different ages. Definitional responses on six concrete nouns from 1075 children aged 4;10 to 12;01 and 15 adults were analyzed with reference to the semantic content and the syntactic form. Results showed that conventional definitions produced by Cantonese adult speakers…

This study investigated children's understanding of unfamiliar noun and verb definitions in tasks that were manipulated for syntactic and semantic properties of definitions. The study was also designed to examine the relation between understanding word definitions and the skills of syntactic awareness and making inferences. A total of 117 children…

The authors address the need to teach students to become more word aware by focusing on metasemantic awareness, alongside morphological and syntactic awareness, as a basis for developing metacognition about words. They extend the concept of a definition map to other forms of vocabulary learning and provide several helpful graphic organizers.…

A semantic inventory, an organized network of observations on the lexical structure of Huichol, is presented. Each entry includes a name form or lemma, its pronunciation if not clear from the lemma form, part of speech, and examples to illustrate its range of inflections. The discussion of semantics begins with a syntactic framework for the…

Examines the lexicographic definition as an informal analysis of the meanings of words. (AM)

Revised version of a paper presented at the 11th International Congress of Linguists, Bologna, Italy, 1972. (DD)

This study was designed to investigate children's ability to use semantic syntax in connection with two types of meanings of polysemantic words. One hundred fourth graders ranked the familiarity of multiple definitions of 60 words given in a semantic survey. Those 34 words found to have common meanings or obscure meanings were used to construct a…

An editorialized report of data accumulated in a study of current American practice in the treatment of problems of usage in general purpose dictionaries. Their descriptive objectivity is characterized as "that of the blind men examining the elephant." Such practices reveal little change from that of Samuel Johnson's 1755 English…

Syntactical aspects and semantic classification of adverbial modality in German; part one of a continuing series. (RS)

Presents a syntax of metophor, discussing a typology of metaphor, the relationship between literal sense and figurative sense, and the importance of a precise definition of metaphor. (AM)

Part of Lexicography and Dialect Geography, Festgabe for Hans Kurath''. Comments are based on the compiling of A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue''. Paper presented at the Table Ronde de Lexicographie Historique, Florence, Italy, May 4, 1971. (DD)

In this column, the term "pragmatics", a part of linguistic analysis, is explained. The study of pragmatics concerns language usage in natural context. The item of analysis is not the sentence, but the utterance of the sentence in a particular well-defined set of contexts. (SW)

Analyzes the structure of French distributive complements, including the formal and semantic similarities and differences among them. (AM)