5 results on '"*AMBIGUITY"'
Search Results
2. Not all ambiguous words are created equal: An EEG investigation of homonymy and polysemy
- Author
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Klepousniotou, Ekaterini, Pike, G. Bruce, Steinhauer, Karsten, and Gracco, Vincent
- Subjects
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ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY , *POLYSEMY , *EVOKED potentials (Electrophysiology) , *METAPHOR , *LABORATORY rabbits , *METONYMS , *ELECTRODES - Abstract
Abstract: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to investigate the time-course of meaning activation of different types of ambiguous words. Unbalanced homonymous (“pen”), balanced homonymous (“panel”), metaphorically polysemous (“lip”), and metonymically polysemous words (“rabbit”) were used in a visual single-word priming delayed lexical decision task. The theoretical distinction between homonymy and polysemy was reflected in the N400 component. Homonymous words (balanced and unbalanced) showed effects of dominance/frequency with reduced N400 effects predominantly observed for dominant meanings. Polysemous words (metaphors and metonymies) showed effects of core meaning representation with both dominant and subordinate meanings showing reduced N400 effects. Furthermore, the division within polysemy, into metaphor and metonymy, was supported. Differences emerged in meaning activation patterns with the subordinate meanings of metaphor inducing differentially reduced N400 effects moving from left hemisphere electrode sites to right hemisphere electrode sites, potentially suggesting increased involvement of the right hemisphere in the processing of figurative meaning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Processing homonymy and polysemy: Effects of sentential context and time-course following unilateral brain damage
- Author
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Klepousniotou, Ekaterini and Baum, Shari R.
- Subjects
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POLYSEMY , *SEMANTICS , *BRAIN damage , *BRAIN diseases - Abstract
Abstract: The present study investigated the abilities of left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) non-fluent aphasic, right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD), and normal control individuals to access, in sentential biasing contexts, the multiple meanings of three types of ambiguous words, namely homonyms (e.g., “punch”), metonymies (e.g., “rabbit”), and metaphors (e.g., “star”). Furthermore, the predictions of the “suppression deficit” and “coarse semantic coding” hypotheses, which have been proposed to account for RH language function/dysfunction, were tested. Using an auditory semantic priming paradigm, ambiguous words were incorporated in dominant- or subordinate-biasing sentence-primes followed after a short (100ms) or long (1000ms) interstimulus interval (ISI) by dominant-meaning-related, subordinate-meaning-related or unrelated target words. For all three types of ambiguous words, both the effects of context and ISI were obvious in the performance of normal control subjects, who showed multiple meaning activation at the short ISI, but eventually, at the long ISI, contextually appropriate meaning selection. Largely similar performance was exhibited by the LHD non-fluent aphasic patients as well. In contrast, RHD patients showed limited effects of context, and no effects of the time-course of processing. In addition, although homonymous and metonymous words showed similar patterns of activation (i.e., both meanings were activated at both ISIs), RHD patients had difficulties activating the subordinate meanings of metaphors, suggesting a selective problem with figurative meanings. Although the present findings do not provide strong support for either the “coarse semantic coding” or the “suppression deficit” hypotheses, they are viewed as being more consistent with the latter, according to which RH damage leads to deficits suppressing alternative meanings of ambiguous words that become incompatible with the context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Unilateral brain damage effects on processing homonymous and polysemous words.
- Author
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Klepousniotou, Ekaterini and Baum, Shari R.
- Subjects
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BRAIN damage , *BRAIN diseases , *BRAIN injuries , *LANGUAGE disorders , *HOMONYMS , *SEMANTICS - Abstract
Using an auditory semantic priming paradigm, the present study investigated the abilities of left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) non-fluent aphasic-right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and normal control individuals to access, out of context, the multiple meanings of three types of ambiguous words, namely homonyms (e.g., "punch"), metonymies (e.g., "rabbit"), and metaphors (e.g., "star"). In addition, the study tested certain predictions of the "suppression deficit" and "coarse semantic coding" hypotheses that have been proposed to account for the linguistic deficits typically observed after RH damage. Homonymous, metonymous, and metaphorical words were used as primes followed after a short (100 ms) or a long (1000 ms) inter-stimulus interval (ISI) by dominant-meaning-related, subordinate-meaning-related or unrelated target words. No significant group effects were found, and for both ISIs, dominant- and subordinate-related targets were facilitated relative to unrelated control targets for the homonymy and metonymy conditions. In contrast, for the metaphor condition, only targets related to the dominant meaning were facilitated. These findings provide only partial support for the "suppression deficit" hypothesis and no support for the "coarse semantic coding" hypothesis (as interpreted herein) indicating that patients with focal LH or RH damage can access the multiple meanings of ambiguous words and exhibit processing abilities comparable to those of older normal control subjects, at least at the single-word level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. The Processing of Lexical Ambiguity: Homonymy and Polysemy in the Mental Lexicon
- Author
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Klepousniotou, Ekaterini
- Subjects
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LEXICOLOGY , *SEMANTICS , *POLYSEMY , *COGNITION , *COMPARATIVE studies , *DECISION making , *RESEARCH methodology , *MEDICAL cooperation , *METAPHOR , *REACTION time , *RESEARCH , *SPEECH perception , *VOCABULARY , *EVALUATION research - Abstract
Under the theoretical assumption that lexical ambiguity is not a homogeneous phenomenon, but rather that it is subdivided into two distinct types, namely homonymy and polysemy, the present study investigated whether these different types of lexical ambiguity are psychologically real. Four types of ambiguous words, homonymous words (e.g., “pen”), polysemous words with metaphorical extensions (e.g., “eye”), polysemous words with a count/mass metonymic extension (e.g., “turkey”), and polysemous words with a producer/product metonymic extension (e.g., “Dali”), were used in a cross-modal sentence-priming lexical decision task. Overall, the theoretical distinction between homonymy and polysemy was reflected in the results of the present study, which revealed differential processing depending on the type of ambiguity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2002
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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