Many persons with aphasia (PWA), who have trouble communicating after a stroke, have difficulty naming objects, frequently producing speech errors. Picture (confrontation) naming tasks are commonly used to assess the presence and/or severity of naming difficulties, but these tests do not adequately capture the underlying cause of impairment. This project addresses the limitations of the standard picture naming paradigm by incorporating the measurement of eye movements, thereby providing a precise estimate of participants’ visual attention during the task. While prior studies have measured eye movements to distractor pictures when a spoken word is presented, to our knowledge no eye tracking studies have examined picture naming with written distractors in aphasia. Using a novel approach, we measured PWA’s and healthy controls’ eye movements as they selected the correct written word corresponding to the picture over other related words (semantically and sound-based distractors). The results of this project seek to: (1) indicate the feasibility of a novel eye tracking paradigm to study both intact and impaired lexical retrieval; (2) provide detailed information about the nature and time course of impaired naming; and (3) yield insight into the relative preservation of semantic and phonological representations in aphasia.

This thesis describes a novel methodology, grounded in the distributional semantic paradigm, for building context sensitive models of word meaning, affording an empirical exploration of the relationship between words and concepts. Anchored in theoretical linguistic insight regarding the contextually specified nature of lexical semantics, the work presented here explores a range of techniques for the selection of subspaces of word co-occurrence dimensions based on a statistical analysis of input terms as observed within large-scale textual corpora. The relationships between word-vectors that emerge in the projected subspaces can be analysed in terms of a mapping between their geometric features and their semantic properties. The power of this modelling technique is its ability to generate ad hoc semantic relationships in response to an extemporaneous linguistic or conceptual situation. The product of this approach is a generalisable computational linguistic methodology, capable of taking input in various forms, including word groupings and sentential context, and dynamically generating output from a broad base model of word co-occurrence data. To demonstrate the versatility of the method, this thesis will present competitive empirical results on a range of established natural language tasks including word similarity and relatedness rating, metaphor and metonymy detection, and analogy completion. A range of techniques will be applied in order to explore the ways in which different aspects of projected geometries can be mapped to different semantic relationships, allowing for the discovery of a range of lexical and conceptual properties for any given input and providing a basis for an empirical exploration of distinctions between the semantic phenomena under analysis. The case made here is that the flexibility of these models and their ability to extend output to evaluations of unattested linguistic relationships constitutes the groundwork for a method for the extrapolation of dynamic conceptual relationships from large-scale textual corpora. This method is presented as a complement and a counterpoint to established distributional methods for generating lexically productive word-vectors. Where contemporary vector space models of distributional semantics have almost universally involved either the factorisation of co-occurrence matrices or the incremental learning of abstract representations using neural networks, the approach described in this thesis preserves the connection between the individual dimensions of word-vectors and statistics pertaining to observations in a textual corpus. The hypothesis tested here is that the maintenance of actual, interpretable information about underlying linguistic data allows for the contextual selection of non-normalised subspaces with more nuanced geometric features. In addition to presenting competitive results for various computational linguistic targets, the thesis will suggest that the transparency of its representations indicates scope for the application of this model to various real-world problems where an interpretable relationship between data and output is highly desirable. This, finally, demonstrates a way towards the productive application of the theory and philosophy of language to computational linguistic practice.

Cette recherche a lobjectif de montrer les marques de liconicité dans les lettres de chansons brésiliennes qui évoquent les plusieurs Brasis. Dun côté, lanalyse de corpus sinscrit dans un cadre théorique sorti de la sémantique et de la sémiotique, qui présente comme le point de départ la marque des unités lexicales en icônes, en indices et en symboles, selon la théorie de liconicité, et de lautre côté, une perspective sociolinguistique, qui va soutenir notre pensée sur limportance des plusieurs usages linguistiques pour lenseignement de la langue portugaise, qui a besoin daccompagner les habitudes langagières. Pour cela, il faut reconnaître lhétérogénéité linguistique comme lun des facteurs de richesse dune langue. Notre méthodologie permet dassocier un texte à une image dont le signifié représente les particularités linguistiques et discursives dune culture régionale. Nous voulons arriver à un résultat qui montre la potentialité linguistique et sémiotique des lettres de chansons brésiliennes comme un genre de texte qui démontre les valeurs socioculturelles et littéraires dune langue, pour que nous puissions dynamiser les cours de langue portugaise dans les écoles / Trabalho de investigação das marcas de iconicidade em letras-de-música brasileira que representam os vários Brasis. Análise do córpus com fundamentação semântico-semiótica, endossada pela perspectiva sociolinguística, como ponto de partida para a caracterização dos itens lexicais como ícone, índice ou símbolo, à luz da Teoria da Iconicidade, como identificadores de um espaço sociocultural. A orientação sociolinguística sustenta nossas reflexões acerca da importância da inserção dos diversos usos linguísticos na prática de ensino de língua portuguesa, que precisa acompanhar a vida da linguagem na comunicação cotidiana, com vistas à valorização e à democratização da língua. Ademais, impõe-se reconhecer a heterogeneidade linguística como fator de riqueza da língua. O trabalho de análise consiste em uma metodologia que permite associar o texto a uma imagem com significado representativo das particularidades linguístico-discursivas de uma cultura regional. Os resultados esperados incluem a afirmação da potencialidade linguístico-semiótica da letra-de-música como gênero textual suficiente para a demonstração dos valores socioculturais impressos na língua e, possivelmente, como um gênero de importante valor literário que se pode aproveitar para dinamizar aulas de língua portuguesa

Esta tese teve como objetivo identificar a norma semântico-lexical de cinco municípios da Região Norte do Alto Tietê- ReNAT, no estado de São Paulo,e pauta-se pelos estudos dialetológicos, geolinguísticos e sociogeolinguísticos. O local da pesquisa, a antiga Vila de Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos Guarulhos, é atualmente uma região composta por cinco municípios: Guarulhos, Arujá, Santa Isabel, Mairiporã e Nazaré Paulista. Está situada na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo, com exceção do quinto município, Nazaré Paulista, localizado na microrregião de Atibaia. A origem da região composta pelos cinco municípios, corpus do trabalho, remonta à época da fundação de São Paulo. Três municípios estão situados na região do Alto Tietê, ao norte do rio que leva o mesmo nome, por isso é denominada ReNAT. A vila era inicialmente povoada pelos índios Maromomis. A tese fundamentou-se nos trabalhos linguísticos voltados para a Dialetologia, a Geolinguística a Sociolinguística variacionista, a Sociolinguística interacional, a Semântica e a Lexicologia. Além do tratamento quantitativo dos dados, conforme a proposta de Muller, privilegiou a abordagem dos aspectos semânticos-lexicais a partir de Pottier e Rastier, e baseou-se na concepção de norma de Coseriu. Assim, de acordo com os procedimentos teórico-metodológicos atuais da Geolinguística e da Sociogeolinguística, aplicaram-se as 202 questões do questionário Semântico-Lexical (QSL) do projeto ALiB e, também, 31 questões do Questionário Semântico-Lexical do Projeto Estudo sociogeolinguístico do Município de São Paulo, elaborado pelo Grupo de Pesquisa em Dialetologia e Geolinguística (GPDG) da Universidade de São Paulo. As entrevistas foram desenvolvidas in loco, ou seja, nos seis pontos da pesquisa, localizados nos cinco municípios. As 233 questões, dos dois questionários, foram aplicadas a 24 sujeitos-entrevistados de ambos os gêneros masculino e feminino em duas faixas etárias, quais sejam: 18 a 30 anos e 50 a 65 anos. Os resultados estão apresentados em gráficos ou tabelas com informações de frequências absoluta e relativa. A esses dados, seguiu-se a análise interpretativa dos resultados de cada questão. As respostas dos sujeitos-entrevistados, bem como a localização destes estão registradas em 233 cartogramas linguísticos. Acredita-se que as palavras refletem a história dos sujeitos, confirmando que para a expressão linguística são exigidos fatores internos e estes estão associados a fatores externos à linguagem. Assim, a língua, conforme o espaço, variação diatópica, sofre variações. Toda a dinamicidade da língua é evidenciada sobretudo no léxico, nível linguístico que melhor expressa a mobilidade das estruturas sociais, o qual reflete a maneira como a sociedade vê e representa o mundo. Ao final da pesquisa, mostrou-se o quadro da diversidade linguística na região, constatando-se a variação semântico-lexical na ReNAT. Enfim, a tese registrou a realidade linguística dos cinco municípios que compõem a região pesquisada, com relação ao léxico utilizado pelos sujeitos-entrevistados. Sabe-se que a área pesquisada tem dimensões pequenas, mas, ainda assim, revela sua importância para os estudos sociogeolinguísticos, pois expressa a situação real de uso da linguagem do sujeito num espaço e momento determinado, e também denota as características sócio-histórico-culturais de uma comunidade linguística. / This thesis aims to identify the semantic and lexical norm of five counties of the North region of the High Tietê- ReNAT, in the state of São Paulo, and it is based on the dialectological, geolinguistic and sociogeolinguistic studies. The premise of the research, which is the ancient Vila de Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos Guarulhos, is currently composed of five counties: Guarulhos, Arujá, Santa Isabel, Mairiporã and Nazaré Paulista. It is located in the Great São Paulo area, except for Nazaré Paulista, that is situated in the micro region of Atibaia. The origin of the region composed of five counties, the corpus of this research goes back to the epoch of the foundation of São Paulo. Three counties are situated in the region of High Tietê, to the north of the river which takes the same name, that is why it is called ReNAT. This thesis has its fundamentals on the linguistic works featured by the dialectological and sociogeolinguistic studies focusing on the semantic and lexical aspect. The theory has been based on linguistic studies which have helped develop essays on Dialectology, Geolinguistic; Variational, Sociolinguistc; Interactional Sociolinguistic, Semantics and Lexicology. Besides the quantitative treatment of data, as of the studies of Muller, we have prioritized the approach of the lexical and semantic aspects, based on Pottier and Rastier, stemming from the conception of norm by the theory of Coseriu. Based on the recent methodological procedures of Geolinguistic and Sociogeolinguistic, 202 questions of the Semantic-Lexical (QSL) questionnaire of the ALIB project have been applied as well as the 31 questions of the questionnaire lexical-semantic of the Atlas of the São Paulo city (ALESP), created by the Grupo de Pesquisa em Dialetologia e Geolinguistica(GPDG) of the University of São Paulo. The interviews have been carried out in loco, that is, on the 6 places of research where the five counties belong to. The 233 questions of the 2 questionnaires were applied to 24 subjects of both genre- male and female- in two age brackets: from 18 to 30 and 50 to 65 years old. The results are presented in tables, graphs with information of absolute and relative frequency. To this data, followed the interpretative analysis of the results of each question. The answers of the interviewee- subjects are registered in 233 linguistic cartograms. It is believed that the words reflect the story of the individuals, confirming that to the linguistic expression are demanded the internal factors which are associated to the external factors of the language. Thus, language according to space, suffers variation and all this dynamism is evidenced on the lexicon- the linguistic level that better expresses the mobility of the social structures, which reflects the way the society sees and represents the world. A the end of this research, we have shown the picture of linguistic diversity of the aimed region by proving the variation of the ReNAT. At last, this research has registered the linguistic reality of the five counties that compose the region as to the lexicon used by the subjects interviewed. The studied area has small dimensions, but, even so, it reveals great importance to socio-geo-linguistic studies , for, they express the real usage of language in a certain space and time as well as the socio-historical and cultural features of a linguistic community.

Submitted by PPG Letras (letraspg@pucrs.br) on 2018-10-09T16:57:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o Ricardo Coimbra da Rocha.pdf: 1269148 bytes, checksum: 18eacd11e36d4e02bd0bdacf601e7dd5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2018-10-09T17:41:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o Ricardo Coimbra da Rocha.pdf: 1269148 bytes, checksum: 18eacd11e36d4e02bd0bdacf601e7dd5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-09T17:49:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o Ricardo Coimbra da Rocha.pdf: 1269148 bytes, checksum: 18eacd11e36d4e02bd0bdacf601e7dd5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-16 / The aim of this work is to investigate the lexical aspect based on telicity and to observe whether this property operates independently in relation to the grammatical aspect through an analysis of the representation of time and events in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). The main question of this research is to investigate our language ability to describe an event using both the perfective and the imperfective aspect without affecting the telicity of this event when we change its tense in terms of verbal inflection and periphrases. The function of providing information about the point where this event ends, or its telos, belongs to the semantic-lexical properties of the verb and its relationship with its internal argument, since the information regarding the telicity of the event depends on the form in which this relation is established. We start with the analysis of the morphosyntactic realizations of the perfective, imperfective and progressive aspect in Portuguese, using the system developed by Reinhart (1986), which modifies the theory of Reichenbach (1947) in order to describe how time and grammatical aspect are realized in a more precise way, through an analysis of interval relations between R, E and S. We begin by analyzing these intervals, some of them realized in Portuguese, through the perfect preterite of the indicative, imperfect preterite of the indicative and compound imperfect preterite of the indicative. Subsequently, we use non-stative verbs which indicate process or transition, to find out if a predicate is telic or atelic through tests of identification of telicity and the analysis of the interaction between the verb and its argument. As a result, we present semantic definitions of the lexical properties of these verbs in terms of process, transition and telicity for the subsequent use of these definitions and properties in an integrated way, although the systems responsible for encoding time, intervals and lexical aspect still operate independently. For this analysis, we propose an approximation between Verkuyl's theoretical proposals (1999, 2002), where we have the lexical definition of the verb through the property [+ -ADD TO] ? which according to Arsenijevic (2006) introduces the potential of an event being mapped towards a scalar structure where we can understand this mapping through the relation between the semantic properties of the verb and the information that is contained in its argument [+ -SQA] ? and Pustejovsky's (1992) approach, in which we have the semantic information of the verb presented through the transition (E1, ?E2) and process (E1, En) properties. The motivation for the approximation of these theories is based on the fact that, in order to understand how the unfolding of an event occurs, it is important to observe the quantificational properties contained in the verb and what would be the values of n indicated by its argument, since we need at least two points for an event to unfold, and when we get the value of n and integrate it with the lexical properties of the verb, we could observe how the telicity of this event occurs and whether its unfolding actually happens independently of the interval where this event is inserted. / O objetivo deste trabalho ? investigar o aspecto lexical baseado na telicidade e observar se essa propriedade opera independentemente em rela??o ao aspecto gramatical, por meio de uma an?lise da representa??o do tempo e de eventos no Portugu?s Brasileiro (PB). A quest?o principal desta pesquisa ? investigar a habilidade da nossa linguagem para descrever um evento, utilizando tanto o aspecto perfectivo como o aspecto imperfectivo, sem afetar a telicidade desse evento quando mudamos o tempo em termos de inflex?o verbal e per?frases. A fun??o de fornecer informa??es sobre o ponto em que esse evento termina, ou seu telos, pertence ?s propriedades sem?ntico-lexicais do verbo e sua rela??o com seu argumento interno, uma vez que a informa??o referente ? telicidade do evento depende da forma em que esta rela??o ? estabelecida. Partimos da an?lise das realiza??es morfossint?ticas do aspecto perfectivo, imperfeito e progressivo em portugu?s, utilizando o sistema desenvolvido por Reinhart (1986), que modifica a teoria de Reichenbach (1947), para descrever como o tempo e o aspecto gramatical se realizam. De maneira mais precisa, por uma an?lise das rela??es de intervalo entre R, E e S. Come?amos por analisar esses intervalos, alguns deles realizados em portugu?s, por meio do pret?rito perfeito do indicativo, pret?rito imperfeito do indicativo e composto imperfeito do pret?rito do indicativo. Posteriormente, usamos verbos n?o-estativos que indicam processo ou transi??o, a fim de descobrir se um predicado ? t?lico ou at?lico por meio de testes de identifica??o de telicidade e a an?lise da intera??o entre o verbo e seu argumento. Como resultado, apresentamos defini??es sem?nticas das propriedades lexicais desses verbos em termos de processo, transi??o e telicidade para o uso subsequente dessas defini??es e propriedades de forma integrada, embora os sistemas respons?veis por codificar tempo, intervalos e aspecto lexical ainda operarem de forma independente. Para esta an?lise, propomos uma aproxima??o entre as propostas te?ricas de Verkuyl (1999, 2002) e Pustejovsky (1992). Em Verkuyl, temos a defini??o lexical do verbo por meio da propriedade [+ -ADD TO], que, segundo Arsenijevic (2006), introduz o potencial de um evento sendo mapeado para uma estrutura escalar, onde podemos entender esse mapeamento pela rela??o entre as propriedades sem?nticas do verbo e da informa??o que est? contida em seu argumento [+ -SQA]. Na abordagem de Pustejovsky (1992), temos a informa??o sem?ntica do verbo apresentado atrav?s das propriedades de transi??o (E1, ?E2) e processo (E1, En). A motiva??o para a aproxima??o dessas teorias baseia-se no fato de que, para entender como ocorre o desdobramento de um evento, ? importante observar as propriedades quantificacionais contidas no verbo e quais seriam os valores de n indicados pelo seu argumento, uma vez que precisamos de pelo menos dois pontos para um evento se desdobrar. Quando obtemos o valor de n e o integramos com as propriedades lexicais do verbo, podemos observar como a telicidade desse evento ocorre e se o seu desdobramento realmente acontece independentemente do intervalo em que esse evento ? inserido.

Within a dual-route neuropsychological model, two distinct but interrelated pathways are used to read and write, known as the lexical and sublexical routes. Individuals with reading and writing deficits often exhibit impairments in one or both of these routes, and therefore must rely on the combined power of the integrated system in print processing tasks. The resultant errors reflect varying degrees of lexical and sublexical accuracy in a single production. However, no system presently exists to analyze bimodal errors robustly in both routes. The goal of this project was to develop a system that simultaneously, quantitatively, and qualitatively captures lexical and sublexical errors for single-word reading and writing tasks. This system evaluates responses hierarchically in both routes according to proximity to a target. Each response earns a bivariate score [sublexical, lexical], which is plotted along x and y axes. This scoring system was developed using data from a novel treatment study for patients with acquired alexia/agraphia. Repeated-measures multivariate analyses of variance and post hoc analyses revealed a significant treatment effect in both the lexical and sublexical systems. Qualitative analyses were also conducted to evaluate patterns of change in both the trained and untrained modalities, in the sublexical and lexical systems. Overall, the results of this study indicate that treatment-induced evolution of reading/writing responses can be comprehensively represented by this novel scoring system. / 2018-07-07T00:00:00Z

La communication en général, et les capacités linguistiques en particulier, constituent de formidables obstacles pour beaucoup d'enfants avec TSA, qui ont du mal à faire connaître leurs idées, sentiments et intentions à autrui. La sémantique lexicale est fondamentale dans le choix des bons mots et la compréhension du monde autour de soi. Dans la recherche sur le Trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA), les capacités langagières sont communément mesurées sur la base de la performance sur des tâches qui mesurent les capacités en sémantique lexicale—les connaissances sur la signification des mots. Or, les connaissances scientifiques sur comment les capacités sémantiques lexicales sont liées aux autres aspects du langage dans le TSA sont pauvres. / Communications in general and linguistic abilities in particular, constitute formidable obstacles for many children with ASD, who struggle with making their ideas, feelings and intentions known to others. Lexical semantics is fundamental to choosing the right words, and understanding the surrounding world. In research on ASD, language abilities are very widely measured on the basis of performance on tasks testing lexical semantic abilities—knowledge of the meaning of words. However, very little is known about how lexical semantic abilities are related to other aspects of language in ASD.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The study focuses on the lemmatization of lexical items in Tshivenḓa. It was conducted by reviewing selected Tshivenḓa dictionaries and the lexical items investigated were nouns, locatives, verbs and adjectives. The analysis looked at the approaches used in the macro- and micro-structural treatment of these important lexical items in dictionaries. The study also covered the treatment of the morphological, syntactical and semantic aspects of these lexical items in Tshivenḓa. This research ended with recommendations that will help dictionary compilers to overcome challenges they experience when lemmatizing nouns, locatives, verbs and adjectives.

Limited research is available about how lexical and phonological verb properties interact with past tense production by children. Frequency of the inflected form and phonotactic probability might serve as input-driven alternatives to previously-studied factors such as lexical aspect and coda composition. Archival elicited production data from 4-9 year old children with typical language (N = 24) and specific language impairment (N=14) using 108 two-clause complex sentences/85 different verbs were analyzed for past tense use, coda composition, telicity, phonotactic probability (Vitevitch & Luce, 2004), and lexical frequency (CHILDES; MacWhinney, 2000). Several regression models were considered, including one with only categorical factors (e.g. obstruent/continuant ending), one with only continuous factors (e.g. average biphone probability), one with only phonological factors, one with only lexical factors, and several mixed models. Diagnostic status and verb regularity accounted for the majority of the variance. The combination of lexical frequency of the inflected form with residuals of stem lexical frequency was the best lexical model. Place and manner information for the final consonant of the stem comprised the best phonological model. These two models combined into a final overall predictive model.

Young infants can discriminate a great variety of speech sounds both native and nonnative in their language environment. The focus of the perceptual reorganisation research to date has been on infants’ discrimination of nonnative segments, in particular, consonants and vowels. In tone languages (eg. Cantonese, Mandarin, and Thai) phonemic distinctions are signalled not only by consonants and vowels, but also by lexical tone – consisting of variations in fundamental frequency (pitch) and related features. Although such languages are spoken by over half the world’s population, the development of lexical tone perception has been relatively neglected. This thesis addresses whether perceptual reorganisation occurs for tone in infancy. Overall, the results of experiments conducted support the hypotheses and the existence of perceptual reorganisation for tone in infancy, similar to that for consonants and vowels. Implications of the results for speech perception development theories, “tone space”, tone acquisition, and early word learning are discussed, and future studies relating to these issues suggested. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)