Ways of making the natural language of unsophisticated computer users meaningful to the computer are discussed. The discussion is set within the context of the Rapidly Extensible Language (REL) System, a question answering system with underlying relational data bases. Major topics covered include individuals and predicates, the problem of verbs,…

Linguistics is not a single field of learning but is rather a collection of fields of study, all concerned with the scientific study of language. There is no single linguistic method of teaching reading but rather each field of linguistics influences reading in varying degrees. Phonology and its subbranches (phonetics, phonemics, and phonics)…

High school and undergraduate subjects were randomly assigned to either a semantic or symbolic learning program concerning the computation of the derivative of an algebraic expression and the multiplication of vectors in order to study aptitude-achievement interaction. Results of achievement and ability tests indicated that there does exist…

Chomsky and Halle claim that an orthography based on their system of phonological representations of lexical items would be optimal. Their analysis assumes that (1) a reader need read only for meaning and not for sound, (2) an orthography based on their underlying phonological representations would not be exceptionally difficult to learn, and (3)…

In measuring attitudes by Semantic Differential, bipolar adjective scales with high loadings on an evaluative factor derived by Principal Components Analysis are used typically as unidimensional attitude measures. Komorita and Bass, using conventional statistical techniques, report the discovery of more than one evaluative factor. This paper…

This paper emphasizes the need for empirical research and objective discovery procedures in semantics, and illustrates a method by which these goals may be obtained. The aim of the methodology described is to provide a description of the internal structure of a semantic field by eliciting the description--in an objective, standardized manner--from…

This research studied the processes which enable people to acquire semantic information from natural-language discourse. Specific objectives were: (1) to represent semantically the structural meaning of English discourse by a well-defined semantic model; (2) to develop a way of using the semantic representation of a text as a structural model for…

Ludwig Wittgenstein's pragmatic conception of language, his theory on language learning, and his treatment of the function of language in the growth of the child are the focus of this book. Wiggenstein's study of language is compared with those made by linguists, psychologists, and sociologists, and accounts of language learning based on empirical…

This study examines the basic question about the position of dicursivity with respect to language, arising from the axiomatic statements concerning linguistic sign, form and meaning as definition components of the structural conception of language. The book is divided into two sections: I. Axiomatics of Structural Linguistics, and II. Linguistics…

Three approaches used in the analysis of semantic differential data to determine similarity in meaning between profile ratings on concept pairs are discussed. These approaches are: (1) to compute mean scores on each scale for each concept and to compare concepts on a scale-by-scale basis; (2) to form mean scores on each dimension for each concept…

The individual components of language -- on the semantic, syntactic, and phonological levels -- mean little or nothing as individual constructs. Language research must proceed according to a concept of linguistic structure which reflects the correlation of elements within and between levels of structure. (VM)

In an attempt to overcome the lack of natural means of communication between student and computer, this thesis addresses the problem of developing a system which can understand natural language within an educational problem-solving environment. The nature of the environment imposes efficiency, habitability, self-teachability, and awareness of…

Questions of reference, which occur in those situations in which the function or meaning of a name or description is at issue, cannot be answered by a purely semantic theory but need to be supported by aspects of a theory of pragmatics. This report investigates the implications of direct and indirect reference in language, concludes that a…

Three experiments investigated the hypothesis that, when interpreted in context, general terms are typically encoded on the basis of an instantiation. The results indicated that a particular term naming the expected instantiation of a general term was a better cue for the recall of a sentence than the general term itself, even though the general…

This study investigates acquisition of two aspects of the meaning of color terms: semantic organization and reference. A longitudinal, repeated measure design was used, and data were collected from 33 subjects, 2 to 4 years old at first testing. Four tasks were used: one to assess semantic organization (the acquisition of the…