Humans are sensitive to the properties of individual items, and exemplar models are useful for capturing this sensitivity. I am a proponent of an extension of exemplar-based architectures that I briefly describe. However, exemplar models are very shallow architectures in which it is necessary to stipulate a set of primitive elements that make up…

Depending on how one does the math, there are between a quarter-million and a million words in the English language. Of all these words, the author holds in contempt only one. That word is "like"--not the tepid expression of mild appreciation but the parasitic form that now bleeds the mother tongue, marks the user as a dunce, and, were it truly…

States that Christian Morgenstern made a fundamental point of semantics clear by making any absolute faith in words ridiculous. Describes other pieces of Morgenstern's poetry, and examines its implications in semantic terms. Points out that Morgenstern ridiculed the assumption that what is said must be sensible, as if the world must obey human…

Children's early word learning is not usually considered creative in the same sense as artistic productions of later life. Yet early word learning is a creative response to the intrinsic instability of word meaning. As the child acts to participate in her community, she strives for intersubjectivity, manifest in neologisms and under- and…

Discusses the semantic differences between the near-synonyms "detenteur" and "titulaire" in French, and provides a list of terms correctly used with the two words and the additional near-synonym "porteur." (AM)

Presents an analysis of the verb "get," which is portrayed as having different shades of meaning that stand in a noncomplex, semantically motivated relation to each other. The intended result is an explanation of the various uses of "get." (36 references) (JL)

Discusses the tendency of humans to describe parts and functions of a computer with terminology that refers to human characteristics; for example, parts of the body (electronic brain), intellectual activities (optical memory), and physical activities (command). Computers are also described through metaphors, connotations, allusions, and analogies…

Discusses four types of doublespeak: euphemism, jargon, bureaucratese, and inflated language. Cites examples of the pervasive use of doublespeak in business, politics, and the military. Asserts that to eliminate doublespeak, English teachers should teach respect for language as well as effective use of language. (MM)

Recounts the efforts of a long-time advocate of E-Prime (English without the verb "to be") to use fewer forms of "to be" when writing, and especially, when speaking, where it is more difficult to monitor oral utterances. Uses a "crispness index" (a semantic equation) to measure language processes. Discusses empirical…

"Properties, Types and Meaning (Vol. I, Fundamental Issues and Vol. II, Semantic Issues)," by Gennaro Chiercia et al., is reviewed. The book contains revisions of essays originally presented at a 1986 meeting at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A critique and application of Richard Montogue's Intensional Logic unites the two volumes.…

Describes the use in a semantics/linguistics class of rural Midwestern idioms of the past to demonstrate the relationship of the language and the experience it represents. States that, although students do not always appreciate the figures of speech, when they relate the symbols to the referents, they get involved in the message. (PA)

Postmodernists' denials of the existence of objective truth are made without supporting evidence and fail to account for semantic structures and linguistic usage. Analysis of semantic structure reveals truth embedded in language. Truth and socially constructed meaning are interrelated. (SK)

Juliette Goldman and Christine Collier have recently proposed that the editor of "Sex Education" should adopt a policy of replacing the phrase "opposite sex" with "other sex" in all published articles, on the grounds that the word "opposite" has connotations of hostility or adversity. In this brief reply I…

Proposes a new theory of "delocutivite," expanding on that of E. Benveniste. (AM)

Presents a biographical sketch of S. I. Hayakawa and the results of a recent interview with him over the impact of his writing. (KEH)