The quality of redundancy in language usage can be examined to determine its effect on communication efficiency. Semiotic redundancy, defined as the quantity of prolixity between semantic and pragmatic information, has the potential of reducing equivocation and error and, at the optimal level, provides maximum communication efficiency. Thus,…

Intercollegiate debate competition depends on close and fair definition of terms for effective debates. Overly narrow or slanted definitions by affirmative debate cases so limit the ensuing argument that debate, as it is now conceived, cannot go on. Improper stipulation shifts fields of argument onto the affirmative case's grounds, rendering the…

This dissertation outlines and demonstrates a method of analyzing full-length argumentative essays from a semantic point of view. As a method, semantic analysis is based on a theory which defines composition as a multi-leveled and multi-dimensional problem-solving process. According to the theory, the writer must be capable of making intelligent…

Two pilot studies are presented in the context of a discussion of the interpretation of anomalous sentences. In the first study, it was shown that naive language users differ in their judgments of the interpretability of semantically anomalous sentences; in the second, that they coincide in their ranking of the appropriateness of various contexts…

Investigates the effects of adding adjective modifiers to the nouns constituting metaphorical sentences. It is found that different patterns of adjective modification influenced constituent phrase similarity, and such differences were consistent with changes in metaphor goodness and interpretability. Available from Plenum Publishing Corp., 227 W.…

This article discusses methods of teaching literature. A method that derives from the hermeneutic-dialectic school of metascience is outlined, in which the researcher attempts a dialogue with the researched, the goal being mutual and self-understanding. This approach is contrasted with the logical-empirical approach. (CLK)

Some Spanish nouns designating non-animate things may have either feminine or masculine gender. The reasons given for the choice of gender are many and varied. It is put forward that in some cases the masculine acts as a diminutive and the feminine as an augmentative. (Text is in Spanish.) (TL)

Semantic and paradigmatic analyses are employed to show that deixis of the lexical content is the differentiating factor between pre- and post-position of the attributive adjective in French. The nature of modification in general is also discussed. (DB)

Described is the system of mental operations occurring in text comprehension and in recall and summarization. A processing model is outlined: 1) the meaning elements of a text become organized into a coherent whole, 2) the full meaning of the text is condensed into its gist, and 3) new texts are generated from the comprehension processes.…

Examines a family of Spanish compounds formed by the combination of a third-person singular verb form with a following noun, and attempts to show the semantic categories of such compounds. It is argued that speakers of Spanish intuitively categorize unfamiliar "guarda" compounds according to their existing repertoires. (EJS)

Describes the contrasting structures of negation in French and in Hungarian. (AM)

Properties of categories were investigated by analyzing 22 measures of the 56 categories used in the 1969 Battig and Montague norms. A factor analysis of the data indicated that categories in semantic memory possess at least four factors (category familiarity, category size, category-label printed frequency, semantic complexity) that may affect…

On critique of an anthology which contains 12 papers by 11 authors. The critique is preceded by a lengthy theoretical framework for such terms as syntax and semantics, since the anthologized authors, who represent a diversity of specialities, use such simple terms in widely differing senses. (EJS)