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Lexical Knowledge (lexical + knowledge)
Selected AbstractsOn the Meaning of Words and Dinosaur Bones: Lexical Knowledge Without a LexiconCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009Jeffrey L. Elman Abstract Although for many years a sharp distinction has been made in language research between rules and words,with primary interest on rules,this distinction is now blurred in many theories. If anything, the focus of attention has shifted in recent years in favor of words. Results from many different areas of language research suggest that the lexicon is representationally rich, that it is the source of much productive behavior, and that lexically specific information plays a critical and early role in the interpretation of grammatical structure. But how much information can or should be placed in the lexicon? This is the question I address here. I review a set of studies whose results indicate that event knowledge plays a significant role in early stages of sentence processing and structural analysis. This poses a conundrum for traditional views of the lexicon. Either the lexicon must be expanded to include factors that do not plausibly seem to belong there; or else virtually all information about word meaning is removed, leaving the lexicon impoverished. I suggest a third alternative, which provides a way to account for lexical knowledge without a mental lexicon. [source] Greater leftward lateralization of the inferior frontal gyrus in second language learners with higher syntactic abilitiesHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 11 2009Arihito Nauchi Abstract There is a great individual variability for acquiring syntactic knowledge in a second language (L2). Little is, however, known if there is any anatomical basis in the brain for individual differences in syntactic acquisition. Here we examined brain structures in 95 nonnative speakers of English, including 78 high-school students and 17 adult international students. We found a significant correlation between the performance of a syntactic task and leftward lateralization of a single region in the triangular part (F3t) of the inferior frontal gyrus, which has been proposed as the grammar center. Moreover, this correlation was independent of the performance of a spelling task, age, gender, and handedness. This striking result suggests that the neural basis for syntactic abilities in L2 is independent of that for lexical knowledge in L2, further indicating that the individual differences in syntactic acquisition are related to the lateralization of the grammar center. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Bilingual lexical development: a Persian,Swedish word association studyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2004Shidrokh Namei Previous word association studies show that the first language (L1) mental lexicon is organized mainly on a semantic basis, while the organization of the second language (L2) mental lexicon in the early stages of development is phonologically based, indicating a less profound lexical knowledge. This study examines whether or not this is the case by comparing 100 Persian,Swedish bilingual subjects with 100 native speakers of Swedish and Persian. The elicitation instrument was the Kent-Rosanoff association list (1910), and the subjects' task was to give a single-word response to each stimulus word. The results show that phonologically-based associations occur in both the L1 and the L2 as a function of the degree of word knowledge. Phonologically-based organization is a primary acquisition feature of every individual word, and it is not abandoned even during the advanced stages of language proficiency, whether in the L1 or the L2. It was found that words that are barely known may elicit phonologically-based associations, those that are partially known may have a strong syntactic organization, and well-known words are connected to other words mainly on a semantic basis. [source] Vocabulary acquisition: acquiring depth of knowledge through network buildingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 2 2000Kirsten Haastrup Lexical progression involves a process of network building whereby learners acquire depth of lexical knowledge. This includes the knowledge of a word's different sense relations, paradigmatic as well as syntagmatic, to other words. The focus of this article is a longitudinal study of young foreign language learners'acquisition of English adjectives. A series of tasks were developed to tap lexical relations between adjectives of emotion, e.g. the paradigmatic relations of synonymy and gradation, in order to study how a particular adjective such as thrilled finds its place among other near-synonymous expressions in the subfield HAPPY. Data were collected over a three-year period, so it was possible to study learner performance over time as well as across tasks. Findings revealed that network building is an extremely slow process and that some subfields are much more difficult than others. With the help of qualitative analyses, an account is given of the way in which particular adjectives become enmeshed , or fail to become enmeshed , in the meaning network of related words in the lexical field. [source] The Effect of Frequency of Input-Enhancements on Word Learning and Text ComprehensionLANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2007Susanne Rott Research on second language lexical development during reading has found positive effects for word frequency, the provision of glosses, and elaborative word processing. However, findings have been inconclusive regarding the effect of such intervention tasks on long-term retention. Likewise, few studies have looked at the cumulative effect of interventions on word learning or text comprehension. This investigation sought to assess the effect of increased frequency of target words (TWs) comparing lexical gain of words that occurred once (F1) or four times (F4) in the input passage. The study further investigated the combined effect of frequency (F4) and semantic or visual enhancements. It compared the following reading conditions: (a) TWs were glossed four times in the text (four-gloss: 4G); (b) TWs were first glossed, then retrieved in the first language, and bolded twice (gloss-retrieval: GR); and (c) TWs were first glossed and then bolded three times (gloss-bolding: GB). In addition, the study assessed the effect of these interventions on long-term retention (4,6 weeks) of lexical knowledge and on text comprehension. Findings revealed that the GR and 4G reading conditions resulted in more productive word gain than the GB condition or when readers encountered a TW only once. Repeated visual enhancements seemed to have no effect on strengthening word encoding. The comprehension of main ideas was highest when the TW was glossed four times followed by the gloss-bolding reading condition and the gloss-retrieval task. [source] A Native-Like Ability to CircumlocuteMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2000Sarah Jourdain The ability to circumlocute successfully is of utmost importance in compensating for gaps in lexical knowledge. Although all studies indicate that one's ability to circumlocute increases with increasing proficiency, it is interesting that little attention has been paid to those learners who have the greatest ability to circumlocute, native-like speakers. This study addresses the norms of native and native-like circumlocution. It expands the discussion of strategies involved in this skill to include the means by which speakers frame their message and thereby set the linguistic context for their listeners. Participants in this study, both native and native-like speakers, were found to employ similar strategies while circumlocuting, including the use of synonyms, analogies, and descriptions. These participants also consistently framed their speech to facilitate listener comprehension, and they frequently included in their discourse some reference to their status as a nonexpert in the field. Similarities in native and native-like circumlocution found in this study help to provide some empirical validation to the notion of "native-like." [source] On the Meaning of Words and Dinosaur Bones: Lexical Knowledge Without a LexiconCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009Jeffrey L. Elman Abstract Although for many years a sharp distinction has been made in language research between rules and words,with primary interest on rules,this distinction is now blurred in many theories. If anything, the focus of attention has shifted in recent years in favor of words. Results from many different areas of language research suggest that the lexicon is representationally rich, that it is the source of much productive behavior, and that lexically specific information plays a critical and early role in the interpretation of grammatical structure. But how much information can or should be placed in the lexicon? This is the question I address here. I review a set of studies whose results indicate that event knowledge plays a significant role in early stages of sentence processing and structural analysis. This poses a conundrum for traditional views of the lexicon. Either the lexicon must be expanded to include factors that do not plausibly seem to belong there; or else virtually all information about word meaning is removed, leaving the lexicon impoverished. I suggest a third alternative, which provides a way to account for lexical knowledge without a mental lexicon. [source] | ||||||||||