In this dissertation I argue that truth-conditional semantics for vague predicates, combined with a Bayesian account of statistical inference incorporating knowledge of truth-conditions of utterances, generates false predictions regarding negations and metalinguistic inference. I thus propose a fundamentally probabilistic semantics for vagueness…

Most previous studies of semantic processing have examined group-level data. We investigated the possibility that there might be individual differences in semantic decision performance even among the standard undergraduate population and that such differences might provide insights into semantic processing. We analyzed the Calgary Semantic…

In this study, we investigated crosslinguistic influence (CLI) at developmental stages of third language (L3) acquisition of English by Russian--Norwegian children (N = 31). We tested seven linguistic properties within three linguistic modules (morphology, syntax and syntax-semantics). We compared the L3 learners to Norwegian (N = 90) and Russian…

This research was prompted by the phenomenon of binge-watching Korean television series (K-drama) amongst college students in Taiwan, where English as a foreign language (EFL) is a required course. The researcher-teacher sought to create a pedagogically useful list of the frequent semantically non-compositional multi-word expressions (MWEs) for…

How does linguistic structure affect children's developing cardinal number knowledge? The bootstrapping theory proposes that children might use syntactic information provided by known words such as quantifiers to bootstrap the meanings of unfamiliar words such as number words. Prior studies of numeral and quantifier development have indicated that…

In South Korea, curriculum is revised, made public and implemented under a system known as a nation led curriculum. The South Korean national curriculum was completely revised 10 times between 1946 and 2015. At present, a complete revision is underway to replace the current 2015 national curriculum which is called the 2022 revised national…

Semantic illusions are recognition errors that occur when an individual fails to notice that information contradicts their prior knowledge (Barton & Sanford, 1993; Erickson & Mattson, 1981). For example, after hearing the question, "If a plane crashes while flying over state lines, where should the survivors be buried?" many…

Choosing how to recognize community-engaged scholarship in promotion and tenure policies so that it is assessed accurately and fairly remains a relatively new and ongoing challenge for institutions of higher education. This case study examines how one US research university integrated text to recognize community-engaged scholarship across all…

This study investigated Reading Recovery teacher understandings about language and early literacy acquisition by applying a constructivist grounded theory design. Participants were Reading Recovery teachers working across three varied districts in Massachusetts (N=33). The purpose of the study was to engage Reading Recovery teachers in surveys,…

This study examined the effects of three subtitle conditions on English vocabulary learning, form recognition and meaning recall, from TED Talks videos while controlling for vocabulary size and initial knowledge of the target words. The participants, 105 Libyan students (16 males and 89 females) at intermediate English proficiency level, were…

This study aimed to examine freshmen and senior college students' episodic and semantic memory use in classroom context regarding short and long time delays and college experience level. Data were collected in 2014 and 2017, right after students' final exams (T1) and 5 weeks later (T2). Students were given exemplar questions from their final exams…

Non-obligatory control constructions (NOC) are sentences which contain a non-finite clause with a null subject whose reference is determined pragmatically. Little is known about how children assign reference to these subjects, yet this is important as our current understanding of reference-resolution development is limited to less complex…

This study was prepared to investigate prospective biology teachers' cognitive structures related to "water". As the research design of the study, the case study was applied. The data were collected from 44 prospective biology teachers. The free word-association test, the drawing-writing technique and the semantic differential attitude…

Adjectival participles have been classified by their syntactic and semantic functions in many languages. Among the semantic functions, it is proposed that "reversible/irreversible interpretation" of those forms have a distinctive property. Like English, German, Greek and Turkish, it is claimed that Japanese adjectival forms have…

This article draws attention to the keyword "global citizenship" through an analysis of the ambiguity of expectations of teachers from the Ontario curriculum documents. Particular reference is drawn to the citizenship education framework, an addition to the 2013 revision of "Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1 to 6;…