Semantics and Pragmatics Commons^™

The Semantics Of Article Acquisition, Emily G. Renie

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

Accurately using articles has consistently been a difficult task for English language learners as articles are often treated as solely grammatical forms rather than also recognizing as representatives of complex semantic properties. This paper aims to synthesize individual research on semantic factors which influence article acquisition and explore how they interact with each other. This paper especially focuses on how native and second language speakers of English acquire and understand the concepts of definiteness and specificity and explores these features within the framework of Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar. This paper examines the Fluctuating Hypothesis (FH) and its use as …

Experimental Results Of Training In General Semantics Upon Intellingence-Test Scores, Joseph C. Trainor

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

The theory of General Semantics in its present (1935) form is essentially that there exists in the human nervous system a general mechanism, somewhat similar in nature of concept to that type of functioning which we have been calling vaguely, intelligence. In distinction, however, to the commonly held views on intelligence, General Semantics implies that this mechanism is exceedingly amenable to environmental influences; that it may, in other words, show marked effects of training in Semantic methods.

To this end a group of thirty sophomores in the Washington State Normal School at Ellensburg, Washington, were given the Detroit Intelligence Test, …