Examines the notions of ambiguity and disambiguation, and of understanding word meaning as facets of communication. (CK)

A network model of logical and semantic structures from which speakers or writers generate linguistic messages at the discourse level is presented. (Author)

Research supported by a grant from the U.S. Office of Education. 1

Photography has always been examined within a representational paradigm that does not accurately reflect its true nature. A new paradigm for thinking about photography based upon the work of language theorists and semioticians, and particularly upon the communications triangle of discourse theorist James L. Kinneavy, provides a vocabulary and…

A set of six conditions for critically analyzing proposals in the various areas of language acquisition is developed and justified. These conditions are then applied to theoretical proposals in language acquisition literature. Proposals in the following areas are discussed and evaluated: (1) phonological development, (2) early lexical development,…

This discussion argues that the development of children's definitions is shaped by a particular orientation to word meaning characteristic of literate language use. This orientation is marked by increased attention to the linguistic form of expressions. To test this argument, a study was undertaken in which eight common nouns, familiar to most…

Punctuation is not necessary in a sentence if a pair of adjacent words suggests an intentional conceptual relationship. However, when the pair suggests a relationship that is not a part of the intended communication, the writer must alert the reader, so some punctuation is necessary. When members of an adjacent pair do not suggest a plausible…

Lexical semantics deals with the determination and description of the semantic knowledge or structure embodied in the lexicon. A description of lexical structure focuses on the meaning of a single lexical item in terms of its place in a structure consisting of related lexical items. This study concerns Japanese and English verbs of judging with…

Some results are reported of an investigation into the meanings of the English modal auxiliary verbs. The corpus consisted of the one million word Brown University corpus of American English and a matching Lancaster University corpus of British English. The three factors operative in the study were: (1) contextual features, that is, co-occurring…

This study focuses on meaning differentiation among different causative expressions. Semantic differences between lexical and periphrastic expressions are reviewed. A picture comprehension task was administered to 32 adults and 99 children between the ages of 32 and 70 months. The children were asked to select the picture that matched a sentence…

Teaching composition as involving merely syntax and paragraph structure has no clear relation to an education in the liberal arts or to significant growth in understanding. Work in mechanics needs to be subordinated to the communicative and logological (how words act rather than their content) functions of language. One hopeful approach to…

Seven computer programs were written for use with the semantic differential and two additional programs were modified or expanded. The nine programs can compute the following: means, standard deviations, and standard errors on nine subscales and on evaluation, potency, and activity factors (EPA); Osgood D values for all concepts; correlations…

This paper provides a review of some basic general semantic principles and then applies them to the area of prenatal classes and labor room practices. It first presents an overview of the principle that language is not a neutral factor in human perceptions but an active, reactive force. Next, it looks at the relationship between language and…