Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Psychology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (Proquest, viewed on Aug. 20, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-75). Also issued in print.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-24).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1999. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-62).

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The purpose of the present study was to investigate word meaning and its development in primary school children (6-12 years) . It was argued that the learning and development of the meanings of words such as pain cannot be primarily explained by means of ostensive definition. Furthermore, existing theories of word meaning which deal predominantly with substantive words fail to account for the learning of non-ostensive words. The pertinent psychological, linguistic and developmental psycholinguistic approaches to word meaning are reviewed briefly. The prototype approaches to word meaning are modified to apply to non-ostensive words . The focus is on conceptual meaning, that is, the way in which the senses of a word alter in different contexts. It is argued that the meaning of the word is its use in a diversity of linguistic contexts. The term "grammar" is applied in a unique way to encompass the meaning of the word (which stems in part from the words with which it co-occurs) as well as its selective use with other words in the language. Ninety-five metalinguistically-phrased tasks comprising short questions and picture-story sequences were analyzed in depth. The tasks were administered individually. A flexible interview afforded additional probing for each question. The analysis comprised percentage scores of responses at different age levels together with verbatim transcripts and qualitative descriptions: Uniformity, variation and developmental trends were found on different tasks for any particular word. Developmental trends were noted in children's understanding of particular words (for example, same), thereby extending the findings of previous researchers. There was evidence for a progression in children's ability to take into consideration that a word alters its sense according to the linguistic context in which it occurs (for example, same as it relates to chair versus dress versus pain). A comprehensive account of the words meaning could be established when a diversity of tasks was applied for each word. Children of different age levels employed different strategies in answering the questions posed. A model is proposed to describe the development of the meaning of non-ostensive words during the primary school years. It is suggested that psycholinguistic studies on word meaning be re-evaluated and that language and reading programmes incorporate the notion of "grammar". Application of this approach to the study of substantive word meaning in preschool children has important implications for theories of word meaning and for therapeutic intervention.

Sentiment Analysis has been researched in a variety of contexts but in this thesis, the focus is on sentiment analysis in Twitter, which poses its own unique challenges such as the use of slang, abbreviations, emoticons, hashtags, and user mentions. The 140-character restriction on the length of tweets can also lead to text that is difficult even for a human to determine its sentiment. Specifically, this study will analyze sentiment analysis of bilingual (U.S. English and Spanish language) Tweets. The hypothesis here is that Bilingual sentiment analysis is more accurate than sentiment analysis in a single language (English or Spanish) when analyzing bilingual tweets. In general, currently sentiment analysis in bilingual tweets is done against an English dictionary. For each of the test cases in this thesis’ experiment we will use the Python NLTK sentiment package. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Research shows that L2 learners' communicative problems are often pragmatic in nature. Pragmatic competence has been defined as the ability to recognize the force and the intended meaning of an utterance by making judgments about its appropriateness (Thomas 1983). Studies on interlanguage pragmatics have provided evidence that conversational strategies differ cross-linguistically and cross-culturally. Also, recent studies on the way native and nonnative speakers of English comprehend and understand conversational implicatures (Bouton 1988, 1989, 1990) have revealed that non-native speakers of English do not interpret implicatures the way native speakers do and that this is due to cultural differences.This study investigated the way native speakers of Arabic and (American) English interpret and comprehend implicatures. It was hypothesized that, as a part of their communicative competence, the Arab speakers' ability to interpret implicatures in English may be influenced by four variables: 1) overall proficiency level in English (measured by standardized ESL tests); 2) length of exposure to American culture; 3) level of motivation to learn English andattitudes toward Americans and American culture; and 4) strategic interference due to the differences in pragmatic functions between Arabic and English.136 subjects (61 Arabs and 75 Americans) participated in this study, which employed three empirical instruments: 1) an implicature questionnaire designed in the form of a multiple-choice test to test the native and nonnative subjects' comprehension of implicatures; 2) a motivation/attitudes questionnaire to measure the non-native subjects' motivational levels for learning English and their attitudes towards American culture and people; and 3) the Michigan Proficiency Test, a standardized test of grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. In addition, a post-test interview was used to gather information from non-native speakers regarding the choices made on each implicature question.Statistical analyses of the results revealed significant differences between native and nonnative speakers in their comprehension and interpretation of implicatures. In a multiple-regression, length of stay was found to be a significant predictor of non-native speakers' comprehension of implicatures. / Department of English

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67).

This thesis focuses on connotative meaning routinely ignored or difficult to locate in the available ESL textbooks and dictionaries. This perceived absence led to the following study: a review of ESL textbooks, a review of standard monolingual English and learner dictionaries, and a survey of ESL instructors.