One goal of applied linguistics is to learn languages better and faster. Second language (L2) learners need to acquire large vocabularies to approach native-like proficiency in their targeted language. A number of studies have explored the factors that facilitate and hinder word learning using highly controlled experiments, however, these lack ecological validity and the findings may not generalize to real-world learning. The studies in this thesis respond to this gap in the literature. The studies leverage big data from a popular language learning app called Lingvist to explore how understudied semantic factors such as valence (positivity/negativity) and concreteness impact adult L2 word learning. Chapter 2 explores the shape of valence effects on learning, the interaction between the semantics of the target word and the linguistic context in which the word is learned, and how these effects unfold over multiple exposures to the target word. Users learn both positive and negative words better than neutral ones, and learning improves by 7% when target words appear in emotionally congruent contexts (i.e., positive words in positive sentences, negative words in negative sentences). These effects are strongest on the learner’s second encounter with the word and diminish over subsequent encounters. Chapter 3 examines the interaction between target word valence and concreteness. Increased positivity increased accuracy for concrete words by up to 13%, but had little impact on learning abstract words. On the theoretical front, findings provide support for embodied cognition, the lexical quality hypothesis, and the multimodal induction hypothesis. On the applied front, they indicate that context valence can be manipulated to facilitate learning and identify which words will be most difficult to learn. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Language learners need to know tens of thousands of words to communicate fluently in a language. These studies use data from a popular language learning app called Lingvist to understand how the emotionality of words and the sentences we see them in impact learning. Negative words (e.g., murder) and positive words (e.g., vaccation) were learned better than neutral words. Positive words were learned better when they are part of a positive sentence and negative words are learned better in more negative sentences. The second study found that concrete words like brick or table are easier to learn when they are positive, but emotions have little impact on learning abstract words like hope. These findings help researchers understand how words are represented in the mind and point to ways to make language learning faster and easier.

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The purpose of this study was to examine language organization in the brain by using a series of three tasks concurrent with event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate both hemispheric differences and interhemispheric reactions. Overall, the findings from this study support a relative rather than absolute hemispheric specialization for language processing. Despite an overall RVF (LH) advantage, both hemispheres were capable of performing the tasks and benefited from semantic priming.

本論文從語言使用者的心理層面及對實體存現的預設兩方面來考察“實指/虛指“(specific/non-specific)這一組概念，並研究它們在香港粤語語法中的表現方式。實指/虛指與名詞短語的指稱狀態有關：在使用一個名詞短語時，如果說話人心裡存在特定的指稱對象，這個名詞短語即為實指名詞短語；如果說話人心裡不存在特定的指稱對象，這個名詞短語即為虛指（非實指）名詞短語。 / 為能從跨語言的視角把握實指/虛指的本質，本文探討了實指名詞短語的兩個定義性特徵，以及與實指/虛指現象有關的因素，並且系統地回顧了前人對該現象的幾個具代表性的分析方法。本文認為應從語用學的角度分析實指/虛指現象，才能更充份地說明實証語料，即基於聽話人是否有某種理由假設說話人在使用某一名詞短語時心裡存在特定的指稱對象。這一觀點從具體分析土耳其語及普通話中與實指/虛指相關的語言結構可得到印證。 / 本文進一步研究了實指/虛指概念在香港粤語語法中的語言表現形式，對影響實指/虛指的有關因素進行分析，例如名詞形式、句法位置及語境。我們對幾種名詞短語在已然及未然語境下的實指/虛指理解提出了一個系統分析。然後，我們深入分析了粤語中一般被認為是實指標記的名詞成分"某"。我們認為“某“能在已然語境中實指，也可在某些未然語境中虛指。本文揭示粤語中的“某“是一個具有某種預設性的特指性定詞（趙元任1968；張洪年2007），具有預設性，包含“特定性這一語義成分，並受某種“數量限制“所約束。我們把“某“分析為一個能把某一個集合由另一個集合中區別出來的函數，其函數值按會話語境而定。我們認為這個函數分析能夠解釋為甚麼帶“某“的名詞短語既能實指亦可虛指。本文進一步提出人類語言中實指虛指的語法化，可能通過把某種現存性融入到語法來實現。 / This thesis investigates the notion of 'specificity' with reference to the psychological state of language users, existential presupposition of entities, and the relation between these notions and their potential linguistic encoding in the grammar of Hong Kong Cantonese. Specificity concerns the referential status of noun phrases; a specific noun phrase is generally taken to be one used when the speaker has a particular referent in mind for it, whereas a non-specific noun phrase is one used when the speaker does not have any particular referent in mind. / In an effort to grasp the essence of specificity encoding in the grammar of human languages, we critically review the defining characteristics of specific nominals, factors relevant to specificity, and the representative major approaches to the study of this phenomenon. It will be argued that an empirically adequate treatment should look at specificity from a pragmatic perspective, based on whether the hearer has some reason(s) to assume that the speaker has the ability to identify the referent s/he has in mind for the noun phrase s/he uses. This view coincides with concrete analyses of selected specificity-related linguistic structures in languages such as Turkish and Mandarin Chinese. / The rest of the study examines how specificity may be encoded in the grammar of Cantonese. The distribution of specific nominals in Cantonese is found to be the result of the interplay between noun form, syntactic position, and context. Cantonese nominals containing the element mau5, which is putatively a marker of specific reference, are shown to be specific in the realis and the soeng "want" contexts in general, but potentially non-specific in certain irrealis contexts. A lexicographic scrutiny of Cantonese mau5 reveals that mau5 is a "specifying determiner" (Chao 1968; Cheung 2007) encoded with presuppositionality, the meaning of "particularity", and is constrained by a "quantity restriction". We analyze mau5 as a function with a context-dependent value differentiating a set of entity/entities out of a superset, explaining the chameleon behavior of nominals containing mau5. We further argue for the possibility that grammaticalization of specificity is through the encoding of some sort of existentiality in the grammar of human languages. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Tse, Ming San Crono. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-122). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / 摘要 --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Some Characteristics of Specific Noun Phrases --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Specificity and its Linguistic Encoding in Cantonese --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Goals of Research --- p.9 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Factors Relevant to Specificity and Approaches to Specificity --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- Factors Relevant to Specificity --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- The Ability to Establish Discourse Referents --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Non-restrictive Relative Clause Modification --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Verb Type --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- The Length of Descriptive Modifiers --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Mass Terms --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1.6 --- Assumptions about Entities Held by Interlocutors --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- Major Approaches to Specificity --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Interpreting Specificity in Terms of Logical Scope --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Lexical Ambiguity Approach --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Pragmatic Approach --- p.26 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Nature of Specificity --- p.31 / Chapter 2.4 --- Language-particular Analyses of Specificity --- p.39 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Object-case Marking in Turkish --- p.39 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- The Subject Constraint and OMN in Mandarin Chinese --- p.42 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Secondary Predication in Mandarin Chinese --- p.48 / Chapter 2.5 --- An Eclectic View on Specificity in the Grammar --- p.49 / Chapter Chapter Three --- An Investigation of Specificity Encoding in Cantonese --- p.53 / Chapter 3.1 --- Reasons for Studying Various Nominal Forms in --- p.53 / Chapter 3.2 --- Nominal Forms Relevant to the Specificity Phenomenon --- p.59 / Chapter 3.3 --- Nominals in Realis Contexts --- p.60 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Nominals in the Subject Position --- p.60 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Nominals in the Object Position --- p.63 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Interim Discussion --- p.64 / Chapter 3.4 --- Nominals in the Soeng "want" Context --- p.67 / Chapter 3.5 --- Nominals in the Jyugwo "if and the Muidong" whenever Contexts --- p.69 / Chapter 3.6 --- Conclusions --- p.75 / Chapter Chapter Four --- On Mau5 in Cantonese --- p.77 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Categorial Status of Mau5 --- p.78 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Semantics of Mau5 --- p.82 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Previous Analyses of Mau5 in the Literature --- p.82 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- The Presuppositionality of Mau5 --- p.84 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- The Quantity Aspect of Mau5 --- p.98 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Conclusions --- p.104 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary --- p.104 / Chapter 5.2 --- Implications and Residual Questions --- p.107 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- The Semantic Complexities of Quantification --- p.107 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- On the Referentiality of Non-specific Nominals --- p.107 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- The "Quantity Restriction" --- p.109 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- Potential Limitations on the Value of the Function --- p.110 / Chapter 5.2.5 --- Semantics-Phonology Interface --- p.112 / Chapter Appendix: --- Other Uses of Mau5 --- p.113 / References --- p.119

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This study examined comprehension of verb particle constructions in persons with aphasia (PWA) and young and older typical adults according to the semantic classes by Jackendoff (2002). The experimental task focused on the following three classes of verb particle constructions: idiomatic, directional, and aspectual verb particles. Movement of the object NP also was examined. The study involved a picture-matching task counterbalanced for each participant. The results revealed that PWAs showed slower than normal overall processing, slower processing of aspectual verb forms, and slower processing of syntactic form regardless of movement. Error analysis revealed a bias toward the meaning of the verb, particularly on aspectual verb constructions for all three groups. Accuracy data revealed no significant differences between groups although the aphasic group was less accurate in idiomatic verb forms. The results support current literature on the processing of syntactic structures in PWA.

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