This paper presents the Featural and Unitary Semantic Space (FUSS) hypothesis of the meanings of object and action words. The hypothesis, implemented in a statistical model, is based on the following assumptions: First, it is assumed that the meanings of words are grounded in conceptual featural representations, some of which are organized…

We examined the influence of semantic transparency on morphological facilitation in English in three lexical decision experiments. Decision latencies to visual targets (e.g., CASUALNESS) were faster after semantically transparent (e.g., CASUALLY) than semantically opaque (e.g., CASUALTY) primes whether primes were auditory and presented…

The semantic category effect represents a category dissociation between biological and nonbiological objects in picture naming. The aim of this preliminary study was to further examine this phenomenon, and to explore the possible association between the effect and subjective emotional valence for the named objects. Using a speeded picture naming…

The relationship between two classes of retrieval process--retrieval orientation and retrieval effort--was investigated using electrophysiological (ERP) and behavioural measures. ERPs were recorded during retrieval phases of exclusion tasks in which participants focused on retrieval of either phonological or semantic associates that were generated…

This experiment employed the boundary paradigm during sentence reading to explore the nature of early phonological coding in reading. Fixation durations were shorter when the parafoveal preview was the correct word than when it was a spelling control pseudoword. In contrast, there was no significant difference between correct word and…

N400 is an event-related brain potential that indexes operations in semantic memory conceptual space, whether elicited by language or some other representation (e.g., drawings). Language models typically propose three stages: lexical access or orthographic- and phonological-level analysis; lexical selection or word-level meaning and associate…

This paper surveys work on applying the insights of lexicalized grammars to low-level discourse, to show the value of positing an autonomous grammar for low-level discourse in which words (or idiomatic phrases) are associated with discourse-level predicate-argument structures or modification structures that convey their syntactic-semantic meaning…

A well-known asymmetry exists in the bilingual masked priming literature in which lexical decision is used: namely, masked primes in the dominant language (L1) facilitate decision times on targets in the less dominant language (L2), but not vice versa. In semantic categorization, on the other hand, priming is symmetrical. In Experiments 1-3 we…

The purposes of this study were: (1) to implement an intervention approach for children with language and phonological impairments, targeting multiple linguistic domains within a unitary activity, and (2) to investigate whether any observed changes in selected outcome measures were associated with particular scaffolding procedures. The…

The distinction between singular and plural enters into linguistic phenomena such as morphology, lexical semantics, and agreement and also must interface with perceptual and conceptual systems that assess numerosity in the world. Three experiments examine the computation of semantic number for singulars and plurals from the morphological…

Theorists of language acquisition have long debated the means by which children learn the argument structure of verbs (e.g. Bowerman, 1974, 1990; Pinker, 1984, 1989; Tomasello, 1992). Central to this controversy has been the possible role of verb semantics, especially in learning which verbs undergo dative-shift alternation in languages like…

This paper reports on an investigation of children's (aged 3;5-9;8) comprehension of sentences containing ambiguity of prepositional phrase (PP) attachment. Results from a picture selection study (N=90) showed that children use verb semantics and preposition type to resolve the ambiguity, with older children also showing sensitivity to the…

The Korean orthography uses both alphabetic Hangul and logographic Hanja. Two experiments investigated semantic and phonological processing of words written in the two scripts. In the experiments, Korean readers had to respond to words either in a pure context with words from one single script or in a mixed context with words from the two scripts.…

The present study investigated the utility of employing computerized speech content analysis software to detect feigned depression in psychologically healthy adults. Twenty-two subjects between the ages of 19 and 54 years old, who scored lower than 10 on the Beck depression inventory (BDI, 1996), were asked to speak freely in response to a neutral…

Semantic incompatibility, an error in constructing measuring instruments for rating oneself, others, or objects, refers to the extent to which item wordings are incongruent with, and hence inappropriate for, scale labels and vice versa. This study examines the effects of semantic incompatibility on rating responses. Using a 2 x 2 factorial design…