Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2004 / Refer to the document / Department of Sports, Arts and Culture

A doença de Alzheimer, doença neurodegenerativa, em que a dificuldade de encontrar palavras é um dos déficits mais presentes, mesmo em estágios iniciais já ocorrem alterações focalmente no hipocampo e giros parahipocampais. Com o avanço da doença, a dificuldade de encontrar palavras e o uso de itens lexicais efetivos ficam muitas vezes mais comprometidos sugerindo distribuição difusa da doença no encéfalo. A dificuldade em encontrar palavras ou anomia se deve consensualmente à deterioração do processamento semântico e ao déficit da memória operacional. Ainda, mesmo nesses estágios iniciais da doença, muitos pacientes relatam dificuldades em encontrar os itens lexicais adequados para seguir uma conversação, o que os constrange causando isolamento e falta de interações comunicativas verbais. Esse relato indica que eles têm consciência dessa perda cognitiva. Nas conversações ou interações sociais entre pacientes e cuidadores, muitas vezes a dificuldade de encontrar os itens lexicais não é claramente percebida. Entretanto, com o progresso da doença essa incompreensão se acentua, gerando situações estressantes e de sobrecarga, especialmente para o cuidador. A presente pesquisa objetivou analisar os itens lexicais no discurso oral dos pacientes com doença de Alzheimer, verificar aquelas palavras mais preservadas, que visem à elaboração de estratégias linguísticas adequadas e que permitam o desenvolvimento de mecanismos discursivos, a fim de identificar estratégias que possam melhorar a interação entre cuidadores e pacientes. Neste estudo avaliaram-se os itens lexicais verbos e substantivos, hápax e as oito outras categorias gramaticais da língua portuguesa de 23 pacientes com doença de Alzheimer e 23 idosos controles sadios. Os itens selecionados foram extraídos de conversações livres por no máximo 20 minutos com os temas: cidade, família, educação, alimentação, saúde e religião. Foi utilizado o programa Stablex que efetua o tratamento computacional de itens lexicais e confecções de léxico para identificar os itens lexicais mais frequentes e com maior peso ou valor. Os resultados indicam que os pacientes têm maior dificuldade em nomear substantivos, especialmente seres vivos, p<0,05. Ainda, esses pacientes apresentam maior preservação de itens lexicais concretos em relação aos itens lexicais abstratos. Além disso, foi observada maior preservação de verbos do que de substantivos, hápax fica preservado nos pacientes com doença de Alzheimer, p<0.001. Os adjetivos, p<0,001, interjeições, p<0,001,artigos e preposições p<0,001, também são significantes na doença. Conclui-se, assim, que embora os pacientes tenham perda lexical progressiva, suas habilidades comunicativas, semântico-pragmáticas não estão muito alteradas e que os pacientes ao serem estimulados com frases curtas, com aquelas palavras mais preservadas no seu léxico ainda podem se comunicar e interagir oralmente. Portanto, as análises de itens lexicais nos discursos orais dos pacientes com doença de Alzheimer não só contribuirão para o entendimento dos déficits de linguagem, mas também oferecerão formas de melhorar a comunicação entre pacientes e cuidadores / Alzheimer\'s disease, neurodegenerative disease, wherein the word-finding difficulty is one of the most common deficits, even at early stages alterations occur focally in the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyri. With disease progression, the word-finding difficulty and effective use of lexical items are often more affected suggesting diffuse distribution of the disease in the brain. The word-finding difficulty or anomie is consensually to the deterioration of semantic processing or the occurrence of impaired connection between the lexical and semantic level as well as the working memory impairment. Yet, even in these early stages of the disease, many patients report difficulties in finding suitable lexical items to follow a conversation, therefore the patients get constrained, causing isolation and lack of verbal communicative interactions. This indicates that they are aware of this cognitive loss. In conversations or social interactions between patients and caregivers, often the difficulty of finding lexical items is not clearly perceived. These caregivers often help the patient to complete the words and sentences inferring meanings thereby masking the stage of disease. However, with the progress of the disease misunderstanding increases, causing overload and stressful situations, especially for the caregiver. The current study aimed at analyzing the lexical items in oral discourse of patients with Alzheimer\'s disease, to verify the most retained words in order to develop appropriate linguistic strategies enabling the development of discursive mechanisms to identify strategies to improve the interaction between caregivers and patients. This study evaluated the lexical items, verbs, nouns hápax and the other eight grammatical categories of Portuguese language of 23 patients with Alzheimer\'s disease and 23 healthy elderly controls. The selected items were drawn from free conversations of at least 20 minutes with the themes: city, family, education, food, health and religion. We used Stablex program that performs the computational treatment of lexical items and creates lexicons to identify more frequently lexical items and with their weight or value. The results indicate patients have greater difficulty in naming living things, p<0.05. Also, these patients have higher retention of concrete lexical items in relation to abstract lexical items. Moreover, hapax is retained in Alzheimers disease, p<0.001. It is attributed to the greater number of nouns in the languages compared to verbs or because, perhaps, the frontal areas of the brain where the verbs are represented are affected later. Also, it was observed that the lexical item hapax is significant in patients with Alzheimer\'s disease. Adjectives, p<0,001, interjections, p<0,001, articles and prepositions, p<0,001, are also significant during the disease, We conclude, therefore, that although patients have progressive lexical loss, their communication and semantic-pragmatic skills are not much changed, and when patients are stimulated with short sentences with words that are more retained in their lexicons they can still communicate and interact verbally. Therefore, the analysis of lexical items in oral discourse of patients with Alzheimers disease not only contributes to the understanding of language deficits, but also it will offer ways to improve communication between patients and caregivers

A doença de Alzheimer, doença neurodegenerativa, em que a dificuldade de encontrar palavras é um dos déficits mais presentes, mesmo em estágios iniciais já ocorrem alterações focalmente no hipocampo e giros parahipocampais. Com o avanço da doença, a dificuldade de encontrar palavras e o uso de itens lexicais efetivos ficam muitas vezes mais comprometidos sugerindo distribuição difusa da doença no encéfalo. A dificuldade em encontrar palavras ou anomia se deve consensualmente à deterioração do processamento semântico e ao déficit da memória operacional. Ainda, mesmo nesses estágios iniciais da doença, muitos pacientes relatam dificuldades em encontrar os itens lexicais adequados para seguir uma conversação, o que os constrange causando isolamento e falta de interações comunicativas verbais. Esse relato indica que eles têm consciência dessa perda cognitiva. Nas conversações ou interações sociais entre pacientes e cuidadores, muitas vezes a dificuldade de encontrar os itens lexicais não é claramente percebida. Entretanto, com o progresso da doença essa incompreensão se acentua, gerando situações estressantes e de sobrecarga, especialmente para o cuidador. A presente pesquisa objetivou analisar os itens lexicais no discurso oral dos pacientes com doença de Alzheimer, verificar aquelas palavras mais preservadas, que visem à elaboração de estratégias linguísticas adequadas e que permitam o desenvolvimento de mecanismos discursivos, a fim de identificar estratégias que possam melhorar a interação entre cuidadores e pacientes. Neste estudo avaliaram-se os itens lexicais verbos e substantivos, hápax e as oito outras categorias gramaticais da língua portuguesa de 23 pacientes com doença de Alzheimer e 23 idosos controles sadios. Os itens selecionados foram extraídos de conversações livres por no máximo 20 minutos com os temas: cidade, família, educação, alimentação, saúde e religião. Foi utilizado o programa Stablex que efetua o tratamento computacional de itens lexicais e confecções de léxico para identificar os itens lexicais mais frequentes e com maior peso ou valor. Os resultados indicam que os pacientes têm maior dificuldade em nomear substantivos, especialmente seres vivos, p<0,05. Ainda, esses pacientes apresentam maior preservação de itens lexicais concretos em relação aos itens lexicais abstratos. Além disso, foi observada maior preservação de verbos do que de substantivos, hápax fica preservado nos pacientes com doença de Alzheimer, p<0.001. Os adjetivos, p<0,001, interjeições, p<0,001,artigos e preposições p<0,001, também são significantes na doença. Conclui-se, assim, que embora os pacientes tenham perda lexical progressiva, suas habilidades comunicativas, semântico-pragmáticas não estão muito alteradas e que os pacientes ao serem estimulados com frases curtas, com aquelas palavras mais preservadas no seu léxico ainda podem se comunicar e interagir oralmente. Portanto, as análises de itens lexicais nos discursos orais dos pacientes com doença de Alzheimer não só contribuirão para o entendimento dos déficits de linguagem, mas também oferecerão formas de melhorar a comunicação entre pacientes e cuidadores / Alzheimer\'s disease, neurodegenerative disease, wherein the word-finding difficulty is one of the most common deficits, even at early stages alterations occur focally in the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyri. With disease progression, the word-finding difficulty and effective use of lexical items are often more affected suggesting diffuse distribution of the disease in the brain. The word-finding difficulty or anomie is consensually to the deterioration of semantic processing or the occurrence of impaired connection between the lexical and semantic level as well as the working memory impairment. Yet, even in these early stages of the disease, many patients report difficulties in finding suitable lexical items to follow a conversation, therefore the patients get constrained, causing isolation and lack of verbal communicative interactions. This indicates that they are aware of this cognitive loss. In conversations or social interactions between patients and caregivers, often the difficulty of finding lexical items is not clearly perceived. These caregivers often help the patient to complete the words and sentences inferring meanings thereby masking the stage of disease. However, with the progress of the disease misunderstanding increases, causing overload and stressful situations, especially for the caregiver. The current study aimed at analyzing the lexical items in oral discourse of patients with Alzheimer\'s disease, to verify the most retained words in order to develop appropriate linguistic strategies enabling the development of discursive mechanisms to identify strategies to improve the interaction between caregivers and patients. This study evaluated the lexical items, verbs, nouns hápax and the other eight grammatical categories of Portuguese language of 23 patients with Alzheimer\'s disease and 23 healthy elderly controls. The selected items were drawn from free conversations of at least 20 minutes with the themes: city, family, education, food, health and religion. We used Stablex program that performs the computational treatment of lexical items and creates lexicons to identify more frequently lexical items and with their weight or value. The results indicate patients have greater difficulty in naming living things, p<0.05. Also, these patients have higher retention of concrete lexical items in relation to abstract lexical items. Moreover, hapax is retained in Alzheimers disease, p<0.001. It is attributed to the greater number of nouns in the languages compared to verbs or because, perhaps, the frontal areas of the brain where the verbs are represented are affected later. Also, it was observed that the lexical item hapax is significant in patients with Alzheimer\'s disease. Adjectives, p<0,001, interjections, p<0,001, articles and prepositions, p<0,001, are also significant during the disease, We conclude, therefore, that although patients have progressive lexical loss, their communication and semantic-pragmatic skills are not much changed, and when patients are stimulated with short sentences with words that are more retained in their lexicons they can still communicate and interact verbally. Therefore, the analysis of lexical items in oral discourse of patients with Alzheimers disease not only contributes to the understanding of language deficits, but also it will offer ways to improve communication between patients and caregivers

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans Language))--University of Stellenbosch, 1990. / 199 leaves single sided printed, preliminary pages and numbered pages 1-187. Includes bibliography. Digitized using a Bizhub 250 Scanner to pdf format (OCR). / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: An evaluation of semantic information in a dictionary must take into account all aspects of meaning of lexical items. Therefore the different homonyms and polysemous senses of lexical items and the underlying semantic relations between lexical items are accounted for. A description should be given of the lexical items which form the macrostructure of HAT. These lexical items include sublexical, multilexical and free lexical items. The treatment of multilexical items in HAT is not satisfactory at present and suggestions are made for the improvement of the situation. Possible solutions for distinguishing between homonymy and polysemy are given. Suggestions to determine the possible polysemous senses of a lexical item are also made. The ordering of polysemous senses and different homonyms are discussed. It is essential to make use of a synchronic criterion to distinguish between homonymy and polysemy. The HAT's treatment of semantic relations between lexical items is not always very succesfull. The semantic relation which receives the most substantial treatment is that of semantic inclusion between lexical items. The HAT's treatment of synonyms is not without problems. More attention should be given to semantic linking and semantic opposition between lexical items. An evaluation of the system of cross-references in HAT is given, with special reference to the function of cross-references. Sometimes indistinct typographical conventions are used and they confuse the user of the dictionary. The indistinct use of typographical conventions has a detrimental influence on the transfer of information. The cross-reference system of HAT can be improved by an informative explanation in the general introduction, focusing on ways and means to use it more specifically, unambiguously and consistently. A distinction is made between various types of definitions used to define lemmas. Well known lexicographic definitions such as definitions per genus et differentia, synonymdefinitions, example definitions, circular definitions and descriptive definitions are discussed. The usage definition and two definitions which explicate a semantic plus value, the contrast and diminutive definitions, are identified. Attention is also given to the role of the general introduction in a standard synchronic dictionary. Suggestions are made to improve the general introduction of HAT. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wanneer semantiese inligting in 'n woordeboek ondersoek word, word alle aspekte van leksikale items se betekenis in ag geneem. Dit sluit homonimiese vorme en polisemiese onderskeidinge van leksikale items in, asook die semantiese betrekkinge wat leksikale items onderling met mekaar aangaan. Die leksikale items wat die makrostruktuur van die HAT vorm, word beskryf. Dit sluit subleksikale, multileksikale en vrye leksikale items in. Verskillende tipes multileksikale en subleksikale items word onderskei. Tans word multileksikale items in HAT nie na wense hanteer nie en voorstelle word aan die hand gedoen hoe die stelsel verbeter kan word. Moontlike oplossings vir die onderskeidingsprobleem tussen homonimie en polisemie, asook maniere waarop 'n leksikale item se polisemiese onderskeidinge vasgestel kan word, word verskaf. Aandag word ook aan die ordening van polisemiese onderskeidinge en homonimiese vorme gegee. Dit is belangrik dat 'n sinchroniese maatstaf gebruik word om tussen homonimie en polisemie te onderskei. Semantiese betrekkinge tussen leksikale items word met 'n wisselende mate van sukses deur HAT hanteer. Semantiese insluiting tussen leksikale items word die meeste beskryf. Daar bestaan egter probleme by die hantering van sinonimie tussen leksikale items. Semantiese aansluiting tussen leksikale items word min deur die woordeboek aangedui. Semantiese opposisie tussen leksikale items kan ook meer deur die HAT aangedui word. Die kruisverwysingstelsel van die HAT word ondersoek. Funksies van kruisverwysings word beskryf. Kruisverwysings word wel deur die HAT redaksie gebruik, maar hulle kan nog meer gebruik word. Soms word onduidelike tipografiese konvensies gebruik en dit het swak inligtingsoordrag tot gevolg. Die kruisverwysingstelsel van die HAT kan verbeter word deur dit in die toeligtende aantekeninge te verduidelik, spesifiek en ondubbelsinnig toe te pas en deur dit konsekwent te gebruik. Verskillende tipes definisies waarmee leksikale items gedefinieer word, word onderskei. Bekende leksikografiese definisies soos genus-differentia-definisies, sinoniemdefinisies, voorbeelddefinisies, sirkeldefinisies en deskriptiewe definisies word bespreek. Die gebruiksdefinisie en twee definsies wat semantiese pluswaardes ekspliseer, naamlik die teenstellingsdefinisie en die verkleiningsdefinisie,word geidentifiseer. Die rol van toeligtende aantekeninge in 'n handwoordeboek word bespreek. Daar word gewys op die swak toeligtende aantekeninge van die HAT. Voorstelle word gedoen oor hoe die hantering van semantiese inligting in die toeligtende aantekeninge verduidelik moet.

Este trabalho constitui uma pesquisa sobre o léxico de origem africana presente em falares da região diamantina de Minas Gerais. Estão aqui reunidos os léxicos de diferentes pesquisas sobre a região, além dos resultados recentes de nossa investigação, realizada em quatro comunidades remanescentes de quilombo: Ausente e Baú, no distrito de Milho Verde, Serro; Espinho, no município de Gouveia; e, Quartel do Indaiá, no distrito de São João da Chapada, Diamantina. O objetivo principal deste estudo é apresentar uma investigação etimológica dos itens lexicais coletados, procurando fazer um estudo histórico e linguístico da realidade observada. A partir de orientações para o trabalho etimológico de Viaro (2011), procuramos consultar as fontes de registro mais antigas de línguas africanas que pudessem estar relacionadas ao léxico da região. Esses registros são constituídos, principalmente, de dicionários de línguas africanas e alguns estudos históricos e linguísticos sobre as comunidades mineiras investigadas. O estudo realizado permite afirmar que o sistema de escravidão na região diamantina, o tráfico mais recente partindo do porto de Benguela e a proximidade lexical das línguas do grupo banto preservaram por um período uma língua africana de características bantas. Não se pode identificar com certeza qual seria essa língua, apesar da presença de um grande número de itens lexicais do umbundo. É mais prudente propor que se trate de um caso de convergência de um falar veicular do grupo R com as línguas do grupo H, presentes na região. / This is a study of lexical items from African speeches (falares africanos) in the diamond-mining region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. We collected the lexical items from different researches in the area, complementing them with results from our investigative research in four maroon-descendent communities: Ausente and Baú, district of Milho Verde, Serro; Espinho, Gouveia; and, Quartel do Indaiá, district of São João da Chapada, Diamantina. Our main objective is to present an etymological investigation of the items collected, based on a historical and linguistic study. Based on Viaro (2011), we consulted the oldest registers of African languages that could be related to the lexical items found in the region. These registers are constituted mostly by African languages dictionaries, besides some historical and linguistic studies of the African-Brazilian communities from Minas Gerais. Our study indicates that the slavery system of the diamond region, the late traffic departing from Benguela seaport and the lexical proximity of Bantu languages, favored the preservation during a certain period of time of an African language of Bantu characteristics. It is not possible to identify precisely which language it was, but we could identify a great lexical contribution from umbundo (R10). It is reasonable to propose that there was a case of linguistic convergence of a vehicular language from the R group with languages from the H group, both present in the region.

As a lingua franca across the globe, English plays a vital role in international communications. Due to rapid economic, political, and educational globalization, the English language has become a powerful means of communication. Therefore, English education is vital to the development of many countries around the world. Since 1932, the need for a lingua franca in Saudi Arabia developed as the country progressed politically, economically, and educationally. Now, English is important to Saudis’ economic, educational, and career development and success. Vocabulary is a major step in learning any language. By deepening students’ lexical knowledge, they will be able to use English accurately to express themselves. However, teaching words in isolation and through memorization is not highly effective; English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners need to interact with the language and its usage in a more profound way. This can be done by integrating corpora and stylistics analysis in an EFL curriculum. The importance of stylistics analysis to literary texts in the EFL classroom lies in the way that EFL learners will be exposed to authentic language. At the same time they will get insight into how English is structured; and by accessing corpora, which provide a wide range of data for the analysis of stylistics, students will be able to compare the lexical and grammatical patterns in authentic texts. Also, it is important to introduce students to the different levels of English (i.e. semantic, lexis, morphology); this will enlarge EFL learners’ knowledge of English vocabulary and various grammatical patterns. This project offers an innovative perspective on how to teach English for EFL university-level students by using corpora in a lexicalized stylistics approach, which will enable EFL learners to acquire vocabulary by reading literary texts. This provides a rich environment of lexical items and a variety of grammatical patterns. This approach offers EFL learners analytical tools that will improve their linguistic skills as they interact with and analyze authentic examples of English and gain insight about its historical, social and cultural background.

<p>The aim of this Magister Degree Project has been to investigate if can corpora be used to investigate patterns of lexical distribution and/or borrowing from one variety to another. Another aim has been to investigate how well classification of lexical items as either “British” or “American” supported by evidence from corpora of English.</p><p>In order to accomplish these aims sets of lexical items have been examined in two ways: first through dictionary research and “dictionary dating”, and second through the use of such English corpora as the British National Corpus (BNC), the United Kingdom Web Archiving Consortium (ukWaC), and the TIME Corpus of American English. The results of this research suggest that the simplistic labelling of certain items as “American” versus “British” is sometimes misleading, and that corpus investigations on their own, though useful, may not be entirely sufficient in this context.</p>

Este trabalho constitui uma pesquisa sobre o léxico de origem africana presente em falares da região diamantina de Minas Gerais. Estão aqui reunidos os léxicos de diferentes pesquisas sobre a região, além dos resultados recentes de nossa investigação, realizada em quatro comunidades remanescentes de quilombo: Ausente e Baú, no distrito de Milho Verde, Serro; Espinho, no município de Gouveia; e, Quartel do Indaiá, no distrito de São João da Chapada, Diamantina. O objetivo principal deste estudo é apresentar uma investigação etimológica dos itens lexicais coletados, procurando fazer um estudo histórico e linguístico da realidade observada. A partir de orientações para o trabalho etimológico de Viaro (2011), procuramos consultar as fontes de registro mais antigas de línguas africanas que pudessem estar relacionadas ao léxico da região. Esses registros são constituídos, principalmente, de dicionários de línguas africanas e alguns estudos históricos e linguísticos sobre as comunidades mineiras investigadas. O estudo realizado permite afirmar que o sistema de escravidão na região diamantina, o tráfico mais recente partindo do porto de Benguela e a proximidade lexical das línguas do grupo banto preservaram por um período uma língua africana de características bantas. Não se pode identificar com certeza qual seria essa língua, apesar da presença de um grande número de itens lexicais do umbundo. É mais prudente propor que se trate de um caso de convergência de um falar veicular do grupo R com as línguas do grupo H, presentes na região. / This is a study of lexical items from African speeches (falares africanos) in the diamond-mining region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. We collected the lexical items from different researches in the area, complementing them with results from our investigative research in four maroon-descendent communities: Ausente and Baú, district of Milho Verde, Serro; Espinho, Gouveia; and, Quartel do Indaiá, district of São João da Chapada, Diamantina. Our main objective is to present an etymological investigation of the items collected, based on a historical and linguistic study. Based on Viaro (2011), we consulted the oldest registers of African languages that could be related to the lexical items found in the region. These registers are constituted mostly by African languages dictionaries, besides some historical and linguistic studies of the African-Brazilian communities from Minas Gerais. Our study indicates that the slavery system of the diamond region, the late traffic departing from Benguela seaport and the lexical proximity of Bantu languages, favored the preservation during a certain period of time of an African language of Bantu characteristics. It is not possible to identify precisely which language it was, but we could identify a great lexical contribution from umbundo (R10). It is reasonable to propose that there was a case of linguistic convergence of a vehicular language from the R group with languages from the H group, both present in the region.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:43:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2438500 bytes, checksum: d5b82b593d0da6e288762e3d5e5d24de (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This research is an investigation of how complex words formed with bound words, in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), are processed (represented and accessed in the mental lexicon). We are concerned to know whether they are accessed in its complete form (whole-form) or are accessible by their morphemes, with separation of affixes (affix stripping) when processing. Two experiments were made to know about this performance among adult native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The first experiment was based on the paradigm of the Stroop Effect and the second experiment was based on masked priming paradigm. The results of the first experiment revealed that complex words formed with bound bases were processed longer than complex words formed with free bases and which caused this delay was the Stroop effect that acted as a extra linguistic, thus resulting in the need to conduct the second experiment, the masked priming that in addition revealed that the words formed with bound bases are actually processed faster than the free bases, also revealed that words formed with bound bases in condition of morphologically related prime and target are processed faster than words formed with bound bases in prime condition and targets phonetically related or unrelated. In general, the results showed that complex words formed with bound bases are stored in the mental lexicon in full and do not undergo any process prior decomposition when they are accessed. / Esta pesquisa é uma investigação sobre como palavras complexas formadas com bases presas, no português brasileiro (PB), são processadas (representadas e acessadas no léxico mental). Interessa-nos saber se elas são acessadas em sua forma completa (whole-form) ou se são acessadas por seus morfemas, havendo separação dos afixos (affix stripping) quando de seu processamento. Dois experimentos foram feitos para averiguação dessas possibilidades, entre falantes nativos adultos do português brasileiro. O primeiro experimento foi baseado no paradigma do Efeito Stroop e o segundo experimento baseou-se no paradigma de priming encoberto. Os resultados do primeiro experimento revelaram que as palavras complexas formadas com bases presas foram processadas em maior tempo do que as palavras complexas formadas com bases livres e o que provocou esse atraso foi o efeito stroop, que atuou como efeito extralinguístico, induzindo uma prévia decomposição. Surgiu, assim, a necessidade da realização do segundo experimento, o de priming encoberto, que, além de revelar que as palavras formadas com bases presas são de fato, processadas mais rapidamente do que as bases livres, revelaram também que palavras formadas com bases presas na condição de prime e alvo relacionados morfologicamente são processadas mais rapidamente do que palavras formadas com bases presas na condição de prime e alvos relacionados foneticamente ou sem nenhuma relação. Em geral, os resultados mostraram que palavras complexas formadas com bases presas estão estocadas no léxico mental por inteiro e não passam por nenhum processo de prévia decomposição quando são acessadas.

The aim of this Magister Degree Project has been to investigate if can corpora be used to investigate patterns of lexical distribution and/or borrowing from one variety to another. Another aim has been to investigate how well classification of lexical items as either “British” or “American” supported by evidence from corpora of English. In order to accomplish these aims sets of lexical items have been examined in two ways: first through dictionary research and “dictionary dating”, and second through the use of such English corpora as the British National Corpus (BNC), the United Kingdom Web Archiving Consortium (ukWaC), and the TIME Corpus of American English. The results of this research suggest that the simplistic labelling of certain items as “American” versus “British” is sometimes misleading, and that corpus investigations on their own, though useful, may not be entirely sufficient in this context.