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This article investigates whether newsreaders exploit their expressive style for signalling different types of communicatively relevant information. The study reported upon here investigates whether these speakers use their facial expressions to “package” the content of their messages so that they reflect the relative importance, the emotional connotation and the intended audience of the news items. To this end, Dutch newsreaders (addressing audiences consisting of either adults or children) were analysed in terms of their facial expressions. The first study explores whether eyebrow movements and head nods of newsreaders (only adult news) are correlated with the relative prominence of words in their messages. Consistent with findings in the literature for other styles of speech, it was found that pitch-accented words in the newsreader data tended to be marked by variations in eyebrow movements and head nods. The second study aimed to find out whether newsreaders adapt their facial expressions to the seriousness of the topic they are talking about, and, if so, whether this adaptation differs for newsreaders addressing adults or children. Analyses reveal that both the topic and the intended audience had an effect of the newsreaders’ expressions, especially as the positive topics and the child-directed news items tended to be more expressive. The relevance of the findings of studies 1 and 2 for speech production and recognition is discussed.

This study is based on the assumption that politicians, in their struggle for power and hegemony, deliberately use metaphors in their discourse to encode meanings derived from the patriarchal view on the roles women and men play in society, and hence leaving strong ideological effects on different participants. The aim of the study is to explore the cultural grounds of these metaphors and their connotations in different political situations. The data were collected from different websites and newspapers, both print and online, in addition to personal observation and follow-up of political events in the media. The analysis was carried out within Danesi's framework of connotations, which draws primarily upon Barthes’ development of the sign and Lakoff's theory of conceptual metaphors. The data were analyzed through a semiotic approach of connotational interpretation. It has been found that political planners and decision-makers, depending on the receivers’ schemata of appropriate gender roles in relation to...

One group of signs in French Sign Language (LSF) is described in the Dictionnaire des sourds-muets at the end of the 18th century as having in common the form of a cross, placed in front of the face. All of these signs have negative connotations. We identify the etymon of the signs as an emblematic gesture of hostility used by hearing people since the 15th century. Inherited from the hearing milieu, the gesture evolved into an important lexical family in use by the deaf in both LSF and its sister language, American Sign Language (ASL). At each step in the gesture’s evolution, two conceptual mechanisms explain changes in both form and meaning: economy of articulation and metaphorical abstraction. We show that latent meanings have been invested in the signs’ handshapes, placements, and movements, all of which were inherited from gestures of the hearing world.

Although typically scored as indicating moderate or neutral trait standing, personality assessment respondents endorse the Likert-scale middle response category for a variety of reasons. Through the application of a cognitive processing model and an item characteristic orientation, middle category endorsements were found to exhibit a relatively high response latency, an “it depends” connotation, and a strong, negative relationship with item clarity. These general associations stress the importance of retaining unambiguous items for trait identification but also offer a tool to the personality assessment researcher – investigating the number of elicited middle category endorsements to identify trait indicators in possible need of contextualization.

A model is built of semantic triangle characterized by its universal nature: it is suitable not only for the elements of the real world but also for any elements of the Universe. Various possibilities of the development of the given model are shown, including a dialectic triangle.

Connotations, or the semantic prosodies of words, are associations acquired through exposure to diverse contexts and may be different for the same language item used by different speakers or groups of speakers. In order to compare connotations of the same language item between groups, tools of comparison are of interest. One such tool is analysis of word frequencies in contexts. This article considers a few hypotheses on gender-linked differences in the use of color words in Russian literary texts. Frequencies of total use of color words, and then of color words modifying nouns referring to body parts, color words modifying nouns referring to clothes, color words which have emotional connotations and of color words used to describe elements of landscape are compared for texts authored by women or by men. For the first three subcategories, it was hypothesized that women on average use more color adjectives in this category than men do. For the last category, it was hypothesized that men use more color adjectives in this category than women do. Two studies have been done to verify these hypotheses. Only the last hypothesis, on greater frequency of color words used to describe landscape in men-authored texts, has been confirmed at a statistically significant level. The hypotheses that women use a greater number of total color adjectives on average, and that women use more color adjectives to modify nouns referring to body parts and clothes, were each confirmed at a marginal level of statistical significance. Another avenue for investigating the limits of the concept “connotation” uses syntactic tests. One can say that a number of phrases in Russian are (un)acceptable or highly unusual because there exists a recurring connotation connecting a certain color with a certain state of affairs. However, it is questionable whether connotations limited to a sociolinguistic group can be tested using syntactic tests.

This study draws on elements from linguistics (pragmatics), literature and translation studies in order to analyze the use of the expressions “connotations” and “associations” and the pragmatic notion of “inference”. Existing definitions have been found to be confusing, and therefore an attempt is made at separating out the elements of connotation from those of association, with the aid of a comparison between translations from English into Swedish and Spanish. The study has its origin in an analysis of inference in literary translation which has broadened into an empirical study on what is generally called “associations” in a variety of genres, such as the translation of “serious” fiction, bestsellers and film titles.

This paper investigates the connotations of English colour terms with particular attention to figurative uses of black, white, grey, brown, yellow, red, green, blue and a few miscellaneous colours. The connotations are judged on the basis of whether the phrases in which the colour terms occur are typically orthophemistic, euphemistic, or dysphemistic. All the colours surveyed have some, often many, orthophemistic connotations; euphemistic connotations of colours are rare; but dysphemism is common. Black is used orthophemistically but not euphemistically; it more often has dysphemistic connotations than other colours. It is often connected to darkness (the night), death, decay, and evil deeds. Black has often been used dysphemistically of human skin colour, though it can be orthophemistic. White is in contrast to black and, as such, linked to light and purity; it mostly has positive connotations. Dysphemistic uses depict cowardice and fear; white is rarely used in euphemism. Located on the achromatic scale between black and white, grey is, of course, used for indeterminability and dullness. It gives rise to few figures. The faecal associations of brown lead to several dysphemisms; it is found in no euphemisms and few orthophemisms in figurative speech. In figurative expressions, yellow is dysphemistically used of cowards and cheap paper, and sometimes of Asiatic people. Most figurative expressions, both positive and negative, link red with blood-life-blood, the blood of the slain, or menstrual blood. The colour green is linked to living vegetation; negative connotations arise when it is the colour of illness or jealousy. The negative aspects of figurative uses of blue arise from fear, fighting, despondency, and tabooed language and behaviour. It is arguable that the use of blue to speak about these topics is euphemistic and that uses of blue are rarely dysphemistic. Colour terms such as gold, silver, and platinum derive from the names for valuable metals from which they derive their mostly positive connotations. All figurative uses of colour terms surveyed are, perhaps predictably, based upon the visual attributes of the denotatum. Although individuals may experience synesthesia when encountering colour terms, the language resources demonstrate none. My classification of the connotations of English colour terms reveals networks of associations, but no surprises.

The soteriological metaphor in Tit 3:5 δια λουτρου παλιγγενεσιαζ και ανακαινωσεωζ seems to be a combination of Pauline and pagan language. The Pauline neologism ανακαινωσιζ describes the individual salvation in the context of the new creation as a universal process, and seems to serve as an explanation of the preceding term παλιγγενεσια. The author of Titus uses the expression παλιγγενεσια, which is probably influenced by the reception of Stoic terminology by Philo, to describe not only the salvation of the individual person, but also of all believers in a universal sense. As the Stoic term παλιγγενεσια is used for the cosmic renewal of the world, this connotation has to be remembered even in Titus. Consequently παλιγγενεσια has to be translated rather with “regeneration” than with “rebirth”.

1 1 take here the occasion to express my gratitude to William Duba, for revising my English, and to Roberto Pinzani and the anonymous referees, for commenting on this paper. I take the responsibility for any mistakes and misinterpretations. 2 This discussion has a long story. On this, see J. Trentman, "Ockham on Mental," Mind 79 (1970): 576-90; P. V. Spade, "Ockham's Distinction Between Absolute and Connotative Terms," Vivarium 13 (1975): 55-76; P.V. Spade, "Synonymy and Equivocation in Ockham's Mental Language," Journal of the History of Philosophy 18 (1980): 9-22; J. Boler, "Connotative Terms in Ockham," in History of Philosophy Quarterly 2 (1985): 21-37; M. McCord Adams, William Ockham , 2 vols. (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 1987), vol. 1, 322 ff.; C.G. Normore, "Ockham on Mental Language," in J.-C. Smith, ed., Historical Foundations of Cognitive Science (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1990), 53-70; C. Panaccio, "Connotative Terms in Ockham's Mental Language," Cahiers ďepistemologie 9016 (1990), 1-22; C. Michon, Nominalisme: La Theorie de la signification d'Occam (Paris: Vrin, 1994); D.J. Brown, "The Puzzle of Names in Ockham's Theory of Mental Language," Review of Metaphysics 50 (1996): 79-99; and, for a general reappraisal of the debate, C. Panaccio, "Guillaume d'Ockham, les connotatifs et le langage mental," Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 11 (2000): 297-316, and R. Gaskin, "Ockham's Mental Language, Connotation, and the Inherence Regress," in D. Perler, ed., Ancient and Medieval Theories of Intentionality (Leiden-Boston-Koln: Brill, 2001), 227-63; C. Panaccio, "Connotative Concepts and their Definitions in Ockham's Nominalism," in J. Biard and I. Rosier-Catach, eds., La Tradition Medievale des Categories (XHe-XVe siecles) (Louvain-la-Neuve-Louvain375 Franciscan Studies 67 (2009)

International audience; Semantic memory impairments are a common symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may occur at a relatively early stage. These disturbances can be evidenced by a hyperpriming effect (greater semantic priming in AD patients than in controls). Up till now, very few studies of semantic memory have included emotionally charged concepts. Our aim was therefore to study the semantic processing of such concepts, as opposed to neutral ones, in early AD. Given that emotional processes are relatively preserved at the beginning of the disease compared with other cognitive functions, we expected that an emotional connotation would influence the spreading activation of words and affect some of the impairments in semantic processing. We administered a semantic priming task (lexical decision task) implicitly assessing semantic memory to 26 patients with AD and 26 normal controls. Primes and targets either had a semantic relationship (e.g. tiger-lion), a semantic and emotional (positive or negative) relationship (e.g. slap-smack) or no relationship at all (e.g. chair-horse), or else belonged to a word-nonword condition (e.g. window-inuly). Compared with controls, the patients showed pathological hyperpriming effects in all conditions, especially in the emotional conditions. Hyperpriming implies a deterioration in specific attributes, as it is difficult to tell two concepts apart once their distinctive attributes have been lost. These results suggest that emotional concepts, like neutral ones, lose some of their distinctive attributes in early AD, and as the emotional processes are preserved, there is greater similarity between close emotional concepts than between close neutral concepts.

Summary. A more exact terminology than that current is suggested for behaviour having the effect of deflecting intruders from a bird's nest or chicks. The general term “diversionary display” is used to describe all such activities, and a distinction is made between “distraction display” and displacement activities having a diversionary function. Various sub-categories of distraction display are distinguished–injury-simulation, chick-simulation, eccentric deportment and advertising distraction display. Attention is called to the possibility that a number of displacement activities habitually performed when an intruder menaces the nest or chicks may have diversionary function.

Human attitudes about killing nonhuman animals are complex, ambivalent, and contradictory. This study attempts to elucidate those attitudes through a linguistic analysis of the terms used to refer to the killing of animals. Whereas terms used for killing human beings are highly specific and differentiated on the basis of the motivation for the killing, the nature of the participants, and evaluative and emotional content, terms used for killing animals are vague and interchangeable. Terms for animal-killing often background aspects of the act, making it more palatable to humans. When a term is extended from use with humans to use with animals, it lends a connotation of compassion and mercy to the killing. When a term is extended from use with animals to use with humans, it gives the killing a connotation of brutality. These findings reflect assumptions about the human "right" to take animals' lives while serving to ameliorate the negative feelings such killings evoke.

”Barbarian” and “barbarism” are terms that convey a predominantly negative connotation, and are used not only as descriptions, but also to convey a pejorative evaluation. They strongly convey difference, and also disapproval on grounds of language, cultural practices, habits of thought, and intellect, measured in relation to the ideal of civilization, as represented from one's own vantage point. There is one concept of barbarism, but many conceptions. Bartolome de Las Casas identified four meanings, which included barbaric acts by civilized societies. Characterizations of barbarians and barbarism have the effect of dehumanization and demonization, often exaggerated in mythical or imaginary accounts of repulsive or primitive practices, such as blood rituals, sacrifice, cannibalism, bestiality, and brutal slaughter.

The research of woman’s perfectionism image on advertisement of the Mustika Ratu beauty products, especially focused on advertisement of Lulur Krem dan Hand & Body Bengkoang Whitening products. The analysis technique used semiotic approach, in order to looking for sign, index, symbol, and connotation in the advertisement related to the products. Finally, the research found that the woman’s perfectionism image can be explained through several aspects, including model pose, costume, and narrative (text) existing in the advertisement. Key words: magazine, advertisement, woman, beauty product, perfectionism.

Semiology is a way of understanding the world as a system of relations, the main unit of which is the "sign." As suggested by Umberto Eco, a sign is a lie; it is something that is presented in lieu of another thing (Eco, 1976). Semiological reading is to read the objects that surround us based on both their primary meanings and their cultural codes (metaphorical meanings). According to the French philosopher, Roland Barthes, semiology is based on understanding the systems of signs, analyzing their operative structures, and thus explaining the structure of the world of meaning (Barthes, 2005). J. Baudrillard, on the other hand, considered the semiological approach regarding objects in the reference frame of a consumption ideology, and this approach was underscored as a social logical analysis, which classifies or categorizes the objects and tells their uses, or as an analysis towards the political function of an ideology that dominates the discriminative social function borne by the objects (Adanir, 2009; Baudrillard, 2009). In that sense it can be argued that objects are transformed into cultural-social signs along with maintaining their existence as material objects, and thus all people who are exposed to these signs start to bow to these cultural codes (Adanir, 2009).In the reference frame thereof, Barthes focuses his attention on the presentation mechanisms of political powers in a society within a universe of meanings surrounded by signs. In accordance with the Barthesian semiological approach, elements and objects of all life styles can be recognized as a product of a certain total structure, as appearances of a systemic organization. Furthermore, each bears a connotation beyond its denotative meaning with regard to the fact that each element or object is an integral part of that system. We can find in many culturally produced objects (or in natural objects that we attribute meaning to) a narration or an expression of the structure formed directly (deliberately) or indirectly through the discourse of power. In this sense, applying the Barthesian perspective, each and every visual element involved in the educational process from the architecture of school buildings to the physical structure of the classes, to the textbooks, course materials, pictures, photographs, and symbols, can be read as "signs" that bear a connotation beyond their denotative meanings. They are packed with cultural codes (Apple, 2006; Bernstein, 1990; Giroux, 2007; Spring, 1997).Semiology as a method of analysis, is generally applied in the fields of Media and Cultural Studies. It should also be used more frequently in the field of Educational Sciences in order to analyze the visual characteristics of educational processes on the grounds that semiology allows the ability to attribute meanings to objects in regard to the entire social sphere.Therefore, the main aim of this study is to sketch a theoretical framework regarding the semiological approach that could also be considered as a requirement in the field of educational studies. The aim is to propose a methodological expansion and by means of an exemplary semiological analysis on a sample photograph, to propose semiology as a method for the field of Educational Sciences. This is done by demonstrating that many visual elements within the educational process can in fact be read with the help of analysis as a sign containing certain ideologically-loaded cultural codes.In this respect, the present study will first present the theories regarding the theoretical background of semiology, specifically in the framework of Saussure and Barthes, and underscore examples of how these theories have been used as a method in the field of social sciences. The study will present, in light of the aforementioned framework and by means of critical semiological analysis, which myths have been formed or activated by the visual elements as introduced during the educational process, school environment, and text books. …

So far, we have employed analytic philosophy and anthropological semiotics to analyse the fundamental changes in the semantics of ‘talent’, in order to establish what sort of term it is, and how it is currently used. In this way, we have been able to determine that ‘talent’ has become an accidental designator and an empty signifier, and, as such, is no longer causally linked to the actual world. In this chapter, I go into more detail, providing a linguistic analysis of what it is that changes, in the semantics themselves, as a term is transformed from a standard signifier to an empty one. I provide a general framework for this kind of thinking, and then elucidate the details of the transformation in the case of ‘talent’, which, as I discuss below, primarily involves the gradual weakening of the word’s connections to its original denotative meaning, concurrent with the slow accumulation and strengthening of multiple competing, subjective, and equally vacuous connotative meanings.

Visual Communication Design unprecedented tremendous development, rich visual form also brings to the audience a sense of visual fatigue. Visual communication designers must be the most sensitive to understanding the audience's attention lying. Graphical symbols have vivid, expressive and appealing features. The most important thing is to make people in a short period of fast memory, distinguish complex visual information, making it stand out. This paper focuses on research on graphic symbols expression in visual communication design. This paper mainly use classic business case study analysis, to find graphic symbols in Visual Communication Design major commercial value and social significance. For the re-creation of graphic symbols in-depth analysis, draw lessons from the relevant argument scholars, to achieve rich connotation about a graphic symbol context, the diversity of the graphic symbol, figurative expression of graphic symbols, graphical notations of abstract expression and so on.

In this chapter, we introduce the idea of what we call the semiotic Babushka Principle (sign systems within sign systems) presented by Louis Hjelmslev. We discuss the implications of applying this principle to the analysis of music and musical scores. We argue that, through the conceivably infinite mapping of connotational systems, music is capable of accomplishing significant symbolic depth.

In order to investigate the factors that affect a certain type of special vehicle crewman’s basic cognitive ability, this paper starts from the basic connotation of basic cognitive ability, to determine the test content that affects the cognitive ability including depth perception, spatial perception, sound/light simple reaction time, attention span, attention focus ability, etc. About 107 subjects participate in the static environment test, the variance analysis method is used to deal with test results. The analysis result shows that: the crewman’s basic cognitive ability is greatly influenced by individual operating mode and external environmental factors, while different ages, educational background, and region have no obvious effect on the basic cognitive ability in the crewman. These conclusions have a certain reference value for the design of this special vehicle.

The Murut ethnic group is one of the largest indigenous groups in Sabah. They are known to use symbolic motifs to decorate their handicraft and traditional attires. The denotative and connotative meanings have been adapted into the motifs based on their experience and environment. In the effort of preserving the motifs through application in both traditional and non-traditional medium, the message or theme visually communicated to the viewers through the motifs has to be carefully regarded to avoid misinterpretations. This study aims to evaluate the viewers’ comprehension of the denotation and connotation conveyed in select traditional Murut motifs. This study uses a mixed-method approach through the usage of unstructured interviews with elders and representatives of the Murut ethnic group; as well as questionnaires testing 55 individuals with backgrounds in art and design, of their comprehension of the denotative and connotative meanings of select Murut motifs. Through the interviews, the researchers concluded that the Murut community is, right now, focusing more on preserving the form of the motifs in its traditional medium with less focus on the denotative and connotative meanings. The results of the questionnaires suggested a more favourable recognition towards the anthropomorphic motifs compared to zoomorphic, phytomorphic and tool-based motifs.

Through a particular choice of a predicate (e.g., "x violated y"), a writer can subtly connote a range of implied sentiments and presupposed facts about the entities x and y: (1) writer's perspective: projecting x as an "antagonist"and y as a "victim", (2) entities' perspective: y probably dislikes x, (3) effect: something bad happened to y, (4) value: y is something valuable, and (5) mental state: y is distressed by the event. We introduce connotation frames as a representation formalism to organize these rich dimensions of connotation using typed relations. First, we investigate the feasibility of obtaining connotative labels through crowdsourcing experiments. We then present models for predicting the connotation frames of verb predicates based on their distributional word representations and the interplay between different types of connotative relations. Empirical results confirm that connotation frames can be induced from various data sources that reflect how people use language and give rise to the connotative meanings. We conclude with analytical results that show the potential use of connotation frames for analyzing subtle biases in online news media., 11 pages, published in Proceedings of ACL 2016

Hip-hop style, a controversial dress form associated with rap music culture in the 1990s, is analyzed and interpreted based on premises associated with structural approaches to semiotics. The semiotic system is isolated in time, and three coding operations are considered in terms of the relationships they establish between elements of the system and potential meanings ascribed to these: paradigmatic alignment (bipolar opposition), denotation and connotation (literal and extended descriptions), and figurative devices (implied figures of speech). Results reveal the structure of the system in terms of a dialectic between signs in the hip-hop system and signs in the system of conventional dress. Components of the rule system of conventional dress are exposed, and figurative language supporting the hip-hop system is described. The hip-hop system is construed as an example of a larger category of appearance-related systems designated extraordinary dress, poised in opposition to ordinary appearance forms. Implications include potential contributions to theory development.

The word semiotics derives from the ancient Greek words for sign and signal. In ancient times semiotics was a specific branch of medical science, in which signs were taken to describe symptoms for the purpose of diagnosis. Later it became a branch of philosophy where verbal and non-verbal signs were taken to be representations of the true nature of things. The Scholastic tradition posited a sign to be something that we can not only directly perceive but also connect with something else, by virtue of our or somebody’s else experience. A sign not only represents but also causes other signs to come to mind as a consequence of itself: this relation is expressed in the medieval formula aliquid stat pro aliquo, which is translated as something standing for something else. The word symbol is derived from Greek symbolon, that is, a token composed of two halves used to verify identity by matching one part to the other. Symbol is usually a concrete sign or image that stands for some other, more abstract, entity or idea by virtue of convention, analogy, or metaphor. Semiotics is a study of signs and their signification; as such, it is considered to be of eminent importance to an interdisciplinary research. As a separate science, semiotics studies things that function as signs, and the interpretation of which leads to discovery of meanings. But signs can be polysemic, that is, they may connote more than one meaning. Therefore symbolic meanings may be characterized by their surplus. A symbolic connotation may demonstrate a deeper layer of meanings, sometimes with complex emotional associations, or having a cryptic character as pointing to something beyond itself.

Starting with a simple presentation of location determination techniques, physical location and geographic location as two common kinds of location description methods are discussed. The semantic location concept is then introduced and a correction is given, which especially emphasizes that location property is an important part of semantic location. By analyzing the connotation and extension of every geographic location, what should be contained in a location property is determined. Using a hierarchical model, the relations and associations among locations are clearly described. To realize a formalized description of semantic location, an ontology technique that can adequately describe semantic information of location is used. Organized by ontology web language, a location ontology model allows semantic location to be read and processed by computer. The location ontology model realizes the knowledge description of location information and establishes an important foundation to personalized preference services in location based services.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo discutir o papel do timbre no edifício teórico da Semiótica da Canção, entendida aqui como a vertente teórica da semiótica francesa desenvolvida principalmente por A. J. Greimas mas também por demais integrantes da assim chamada Escola de Paris voltada para o estudo da canção popular brasileira. Preconizada pelo semioticista Luiz Tatit, essa linha de estudos vem se consolidando gradativamente como um instrumental analítico especializado no estudo da canção popular tomada como uma unidade orgânica constituída pela integração entre letra e melodia. Após um primeiro período de formulação e consolidação das ferramentas analíticas que constituem a base do modelo, assistiu-se ao surgimento de diversos estudos que buscaram expandir seu escopo de abrangência em direção aos elementos não contemplados até o momento, como é o caso do timbre. Dentre estes, as teses de doutorado de Carmo Jr. (2007), Coelho (2007) e Dietrich (2008) assumem posição de destaque por levantar questionamentos primordiais para delimitar o estatuto semiótico do timbre enquanto elemento produtor de efeitos de sentido. As proposições apresentadas por estes autores foram submetidas a uma revisão crítica a fim de extrair os vetores teóricos e metodológicos que deverão orientar as investigações futuras sobre esse objeto. Desse confronto de perspectivas, elaboramos a hipótese de que o timbre se comporta como elemento pertinente ao domínio das semióticas conotativas, conforme o modelo de análise hierarquizada idealizado pelo linguista Louis Hjelmslev (2006). Essa abordagem visa elucidar os mecanismos pelos quais o timbre participa na construção de efeitos de sentido, embora ele possa ser descartado como dado variável e secundário até determinado estágio da descrição semiótica. Com esse objetivo em mente, foi realizado um levantamento da presença da conotação nos textos do semioticista A. J. Greimas a fim viii de determinar seu lugar de pertinência no edifício conceitual da teoria e delimitar com maior precisão as potencialidades analíticas desse conceito. As diretrizes teóricas e metodológicas traçadas até esse ponto foram aplicadas em dois momentos. No primeiro, foi analisado como a descrição verbal presente em manuais de instrumentação e orquestração registra de maneira implícita as cifras tensivas subjacentes ao timbre. No segundo, foi analisado o papel do timbre no álbum Música de Brinquedo da banda Pato Fu, observando especialmente quais efeitos de sentido eram produzidos pelas substituições tímbricas do arranjo desse álbum em comparação com o arranjo original. As análises permitem concluir que, enquanto fenômeno da ordem da conotação, o timbre pode criar fisionomias no âmbito do uso, ora pela instauração de assimetrias e irregularidades, ora pelas variações implicadas nas práticas de rearranjo musical. Em ambos os casos, verifica-se que o lugar privilegiado de pertinência do timbre está no campo do uso e da práxis enunciativa. Graças a essas distinções conceituais, a perspectiva linguística e discursiva pode trazer contribuições valiosas para compreender de maneira sistemática o timbre nos processos de significação. This work aims to discuss the role of timbre (tone color) within the theoretical framework of the Semiotics of Songs, defined as a special field of French Semiotics developed mainly by A. J. Greimas but also by other members of the so-called Paris School of Semiotics and applied to the Brazilian popular song. Developed by the semiotician Luiz Tatit, this line of research is being consolidated as an analytical tool specialized at the study of popular music, this being understood as an organic unity made up of lyrics and melody. After the first phase of the theory, at which the basic analytical tools were formulated and enhanced, several researches sought the expansion of the theorys analytical scope towards issues not discussed until then, e.g. timbre. The doctoral theses of Carmo Jr. (2007), Coelho (2007) and Dietrich (2008) stand out among these studies as they raise essential issues to explain the semiotic role of timbre in the production of meaning effects. The propositions presented by these authors were critically reviewed in order to draw out the methodological and theoretical guidelines, which shall support this work as much as future research on this subject. From this confrontation of perspectives, one can draw the hypothesis that timbre belongs rather to the field of connotative semiotics, according to the analytic model of hierarchic levels outlined by the linguist Louis Hjelmslev (2006). This approach aims to explain how timbre plays a role at the meaning-effects construction, although it can be regarded as a secondary and variable element up to a certain extent of the semiotic description. In order to achieve this goal, the concept of connotation was researched in A. J. Greimas work in order to determine more precisely its role within the theoretical framework of semiotics as much as its analytical possibilities. The theoretical and methodological guidelines drawn out until this point were applied in two different scenarios. The first one analyzed how the verbal descriptions given by orchestration handbooks implicitly encode x tensive algorithms underlying timbre. The second one analyzed the role of timbre in the album Música de Brinquedo of the Brazilian pop band Pato Fu, especially regarding the meaning effects triggered by the timbre shifting in comparison to the songs original arrangement. The result of the analyses leads to the conclusion that, as a connotative phenomenon, timbre can generate physiognomies either by the emerging of irregularities and asymmetrical combinations, or by the variations created through the musical re-elaboration. In both cases, one can verify that privileged place of timbre lies in the domain of usage and enunciative praxis. Such conceptual distinctions show that the linguistic and discursive perspective can bring valuable contributions to a systematic understanding of timbre at meaning processes.

The article deals with the problem of swearing and its translation from Ukrainian intoGerman. It provides the analyses of the previous researches covering the topics “foul language”,“obscene language” and “swearing”. Swearing is a language taboo that conveys the negativeenergy a speaker wants to get rid of by the means of shifting it on the recipient. It is not always therecipient who is the addressee of the swearing, since language taboo includes the usage of anaddress-free swearing, the latter one belonging to the parenthetic words which are languageincrustations and which do not carry semantic meaning. But in the language there are also otherobscene words with the semantically-lowered connotation. The article reveals the differences in theusage of swear language by different nations, it also provides the comparison of the Ukrainian,Russian and German swearing. It is pointed out that Russian obscene language is more connectedto the rude names of genitals, sexual intercourse and sexual deviations, but it is less connected tothe physiological ejections. The article studies the influence of the Russian culture on other nations’cultures, including the Ukrainian one. In the Ukrainian and German languages, contrary to theRussian language, obscene words are mainly connected to the physiological ejections (scatologicalhumour). After careful study of the certain scholars works the author of the article alsodemonstrates the ways obscene words come up in the Ukrainian language. The article alsodemonstrates the ways of translation of the swearing the examples being provided from the fromthe post-modern literature works.

The article, firstly, seeks to outline the main steps that gender studies have taken in the field of phraseology in Russia. The analysis of bibliographic databases showed that far more attention has been paid to phraseological units referring to a female person. Secondly, it illustrates the general criteria of selecting gender-specific phraseological units from lexicographic sources. Thirdly, it studies connotation of phraseological units semantically oriented to a male person, i.e. their functional-stylistic reference, evaluation, emotiveness and expressivity. Thus, this line of research connects phraseology, phraseography and gender studies.

The problem of the interaction of language and culture is of interest to many scientists nowadays. Proverbs and sayings are units which contain bits of folk wisdom, values and beliefs of the nation. One of the ways to study a culture is to analyze its proverbs and sayings. The aim of the study was to compare paremiological units, namely proverbs and sayings, with zoonym components of three typologically unrelated languages: Russian, German and Tatar. The article deals with proverbs and sayings with the names of domestic animals only. In the study we used such methods as descriptive, structural, interpretative, continuous sampling method and statistical method. The analysis of the selected material revealed 847 Russian, 386 German and Tatar 1634 proverbs and sayings with the domestic animal components, 20 zoonyms in total, including names of birds. The study showed that paremiological units with the names of domestic animals in some cases carry the same connotative semes, mostly pejorative, in all three languages. However, the same component of proverbs in a particular language may have the opposite meaning depending on the speech situation. Such pejorative connotative semes as [stupidity, ignorance], [idleness, laziness], [cowardice], [greed] and etc. were revealed in numerous Russian, German and Tatar proverbs and sayings. The materials of the study may be used in cultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics, cultural studies and phraseology.

A fundamental question for evaluation research is whether cues can impact evaluative responses directly or only in combination with contextual information. Focusing on the experience of processing fluency, the current work tested whether manipulating this cue’s motivational context would moderate its evaluative impact. Because fluently processed stimuli can be assumed to communicate safety, owing to implicit signals of either familiarity (through processes monitoring perception–memory coordination), we reasoned that motivation to avoid negative events should heighten preferences for fluently processed stimuli. Following a motivation manipulation, prevention-focused, but not promotion-focused, participants preferred stimuli that they were able to process quickly (Experiment 2) and that were preceded by concordant primes (Experiment 1). These findings suggest that the value of fluent processing reflects its relation to contextual features, such as one’s current motivational state.

This paper investigates the status that the genre of fable acquires when it is employed in literature. In particular, it surveys Horace9s treatment of fables in the Satires and Epistles and the carefully controlled circumstances in which zoomorphic language is allowed to emerge during the banquet at Trimalchio9s in Petronius9 Satyrica . The analysis of the distribution of fables in Horace shows that for the Roman literary public the act of speaking through fables bore in itself a negative connotation, so much that the moral discourse of the satirist needed at first to provide additional justification in order to incorporate them: from vindication of ingenuitas and shifts in narrative voice, to use of rhetorical misnomers and eventually of philosophical frankness. Petronius9 text, in turn, suggests that what is wrong with fable is precisely its being reminiscent of a servile past. During the dinner at Trimalchio9s allusions to recognizable fable plots and zoomorphic language are allowed to surface only during a momentary absence of the host. This circumstance suggests that fable is not just another literary genre among the many genres abused in Trimalchio9s house: for both the host and his freedmen guests fables are an uncomfortable reminder of an enduring past inscribed in their language.

The concept of semantic prosody was introduced to the public by Bill Louw in 1993, and has become one of the more important concepts in corpus linguistics. However, while other concepts such as collocation, colligation and semantic preference are relatively unproblematic, one cannot say the same for semantic prosody. At present, it is defined in at least three, distinctly different ways, and more significantly, these differences remain largely undiscussed. This article offers a detailed analysis of Louw's concept of semantic prosody (in Sections 1 through 3), and hopes to demonstrate that the concept and the arguments for it are unconvincing. Concluding the article (Sections 4 and 5) is a brief reflection on the paradox created by Louw's use of metaphor in his definition of semantic prosody.

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has often proved fruitful in providing insights into the relationship between language and ideology. However, CDA is not without its critics. Constructive criticism has been offered by Stubbs, who suggests bolstering CDA by using a large corpus as the basis on which to make reliable generalisations about language use. Taking up that suggestion, this paper reports on a study of a group of words semantically related to corruption. In the study, corpus methodology is used to manipulate the data: concordances and collocational tools are used to provide semantic profiles of the words and highlight connotational differences, and to identify the geographical locations that the words refer to. It is argued that words with a noticeably negative connotation tend to be used when referring to activities that take place outside of Britain, while less negative words are used when referring to similar activities in British contexts. CDA theory is drawn on to interpret the ideological significance of the findings.

Two types of passive in Malay are compared using corpora examples, the dipassive and the kena adversative passive. It is proposed that the latter is constrained by pragmatic specifications related to the contexts in which it appears. In one analysis, 50 instances of each of these two passives collected from two newspapers were compared as to their frequency, degree of transitivity, and two pragmatic functions: their connotations and their register. The results show that the kena adversative passive is lower in frequency, higher in transitivity, less formal in register, and that it has a negative connotation for recipients of the actions when compared with the dipassive. In a second analysis, an additional 100 examples of the kena adversative passive were collected (50 from classical Malay manuscripts and 50 from Internet sources) and compared with the instances from newspaper articles. The results show that the kena passives from all three sources reflect similar features of transitivity and pragmatic use in discourse. Some of the kena instances from the Internet display more colloquial usage than those from the other sources, manifest, for example, by simplified spellings in kena phrases and by the frequent occurrence of code-switching whereby an English past participle form is used following kena (as in kena caught).

The aim of this study is the comparative analysis of Lisbela e o prisioneiro (Lisbela and the prisoner),Osman Lins' play (1961), with the homonym film by Guel Arraes (2003), focusing on thetransmutation of the text from novel to filmic. Both are characterized by the regionalism (hinterlandof Pernambuco), getting the "stories", accounts and incidents witnessed by friends and acquaintances,using popular characters, regional expressions, sayings written in truck bumpers, retaken in aninteractive and seductive language, where the receiver recognizes himself/herself and the freedomvalues are catharsisly incorporated. Interactive, inter-textual and carnivalized, Guel Arraes'movie riseswith readings of national and North-American films which shape a kind of "popular" repertory, andmoreover, in a self-reference process, explains the structure and composition of his movie throughthe narrator character and the "off " voice, both of which dialogue with the watchers, becoming agift to the filmic narrative. Here is the place where reality and fiction are joined in a new order, ruledby connotation and by the cooperative role of the receiver.

This paper tried to investigate the presence of the terms of colors and its connotation in the metaphors of Minangkabau Language. To do so, the data were collected from the native speakers and from the books such as Minangkabau Language Dictionary, The Minangkabau Language of Proverb, text of randai, and the lyrics of Minangkabau songs. The metaphorical color expressions were analysed by correlating them with their literal meanings and other factors such as physical, psychological, historical, and cultural. The findings of this research showed that there were six colors found in metaphorical expression, i.e itam ’black’, putiah ‘white, kulabu ’grey’, sirah ’red’, kunyiang ’yellow’, and ijau ’green’. Some colors such as black, white, red, and yellow, contained both negative and positive connotation. However, the other colors such as grey and green only contained negative connotation. These methaporical color expressions were unique because they were mostly influenced by many factors in Minangkabau language and culture. Abstrak Makalah ini mencoba meneliti keberadaan warna-warna dan makna yang dikandung dalam ekpresi metafora bahasa Minangkabau. Data diperoleh dari penutur asli dan beberapa buku di perpustakaan, seperti Kamus Bahasa Minangkabau, Kamus Ungkapan Bahasa Minangkabau, teks randai, dan lirik lagu. Konotasi ekpresi metafora warna tersebut dianalisis dengan cara menghubungkannya dengan makna literalnya. Selain itu, analisis juga dikaitkan dengan faktor-faktor lain, seperti keadaan fisik, psikologi, sejarah, dan budaya yang mempengaruhinya. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada enam warna yang ditemukan dalam ekspresi metafora bahasa Minangkabau, yaitu itam ‘hitam, putiah ‘putih’, kulabu ‘abu-abu’, sirah ‘merah’, kunyiang ‘kuning’, dan ijau ‘hijau’. Ekspresi metafora yang menggunakan warna hitam, putih, merah, dan kuning memiliki konotasi positif dan negatif. Akan tetapi, ekpresi metafora yang menggunakan warna abu-abu dan hijau hanya memiliki konotasi negatif. Setiap ekpresi metafora yang menggunakan kata warna dalam bahasa Minangkabau memiliki keunikan. Keunikan metafora warna tersebut sangat dipengaruhi oleh berbagai faktor dalam bahasa dan budaya Minangkabau.

This article’s goal is to distinguish in Plato two expressions often regarded as perfect synonyms : ἀντιλέγeιν and ἐναντία λέγeιν. Plato uses the verb ἀντιλέγeιν and members of its family (ἀντιλογία, ἀντιλογικῶς and ἀντιλογικός) to describe a practice he condemned bluntly : eristic sophistry. These expressions have thus a negative connotation that ἐναντία λέγeιν doesn’t share. Moreover, although it may mean “refute” and “contradict”, the verb ἀντιλέγeιν is never used by Plato to describe refutations conducted by Socrates, the expression ἐναντία λέγeιν being rather used. Finally, Plato gives the expression ἐναντία λέγeιν a precise technical meaning, which contrasts with his predecessors and announces Aristotelian logic.

Accessing the meaning of words to produce and understand language requires the activation of semantic representations. These latter are stored in semantic memory, organizing concepts according to semantic attributes (e.g., the cat mews), and semantic categories (e.g., the cat is an animal). Concerning semantic attributes, non-living concepts (e.g., tools) are processed preferentially according to functional features (e.g., a saw cuts) rather than visual features, whereas living concepts (e.g., animals) are processed preferentially according to visual features (e.g., the cat is little, with sharp ears) rather than functional ones (Warrington and Shallice, 1984). Within these semantic attributes, some are widely shared, independently from our personal history (e.g., the cat mews), and some are linked with our autobiographic memory (e.g., I had a cat when during my childhood). Moreover, most of the concepts have an emotional connotation which, whether it is widely shared (e.g., a black cat brings misfortune) or linked with our personal history (e.g., I love cats because mine was so soft) in a subjective-centered manner, constitutes a semantic attribute, i.e. a defining characteristic (Cato Jackson and Crosson, 2006). Therefore, not only semantic category and “cold” widely-shared semantic attributes, but also “warm” emotion-related attributes should be activated to produce or understand a word. Even if the meaning of words may be accessed by a single “cold” semantic processing, words with emotional connotation (widely-shared and/or personal) are more quickly and efficiently processed (Bock and Klinger, 1986), allowing a faster and more accurate lexical access than neutral words (Scott et al., 2009; Mendez-Bertolo et al., 2011; Kissler and Herbert, 2013). It is worth noting that processing word-emotional connotation “differs from the actual experience of emotion: emotional connotation refers to knowledge about the emotional property of an object” (Cato Jackson and Crosson, 2006) and that “emotion modulates word production at several processing stages” (Hinojosa et al., 2010). Semantic representations forming concepts are more than the simple summation of defining features (Lambon-Ralph et al., 2010). However, how these semantic representations are organized at the neural level is still poorly understood. While some models suggest a distributed organization between a number of interacting cortical associative regions (Turken and Dronkers, 2011), an alternative model proposes an unified organization of semantic representations in an amodal shape in the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs), receiving integrated information from different modality-specific cortical areas. In this latter framework, the ATLs are named “amodal hubs” (Patterson et al., 2007; Lambon-Ralph et al., 2009). Here, in the light of our clinical observations during picture naming in glioma patients who underwent awake surgery, we bring a new insight on how semantic and personal-emotional information are integrated at the brain systems level, enabling to perform a well-rounded and efficient semantic processing, in order to achieve a complete noetic experience.

Semantic triangle theory is one of the important theories of linguistics. This paper begins with a brief introduction to the connotation of semantic triangle theory, and then analyzes the concrete thinking process of translators in the translation process and the reading process of readers, finally gives the points for attention of English translation based on the semantic triangle theory in order to provide some references for the related researchers.

The emergence of language and thought is an achievement of intelligence, instituted by a plurality of individuals. They similarly experience a common world while having already developed their imagination and sensorimotor skills so as to form and express to one another signs and names, which they can recognize and freely associate thanks to their verbal memory. If these individuals did not confront the same world with a sufficiently analogous experience of and response to it, they could not understand their expressions to have any shared connotation and meaning.1 If they lacked sufficient semiotic imagination and sensorimotor skills, they could not produce and communicate any verbal terms. If they lacked verbal memory, they would be unable to reidentify and connect any signs and names. Although these requirements consist in individual psychological endowments, the move from name production and memorization to language takes place through psychological activities that individuals can engage in only in interaction with others who perform them as well.2 These interrelated activities are at once constitutive of thought and linguistic communication, as well as of the basis of normative community.3

We present a pilot study analyzing the connotative language found in a bilingual corpus of French and English headlines. We find that (1) manual annotation of connotation at the word-level is more reliable than using segment-level judgments, (2) connotation polarity is often, but not always, preserved in reference translations produced by humans, (3) machine translated text does not preserve the connotative language identified by an English connotation lexicon. These lessons will helps us build new resources to learn better models of connotation and translation.

The aim of this study is to prove that the function of emotiveness in any type of business communication as a linguistic category reflects language design of communicants’ emotion. The concept of zero emotiveness is considered as an example of business communication but a business text can acquire emotiveness. The semantic status of zero emotiveness in a business text has the status of potential. Zero emotiveness is manifested in words with the potential that acquire emotive connotation due to actualization of latent, probabilistic semes of emotiveness or putting semes of emotiveness from consociation to the semantic of neutral words. The degree of emotiveness depends on the status of a business text. Even in strictly standardized and regulated business texts emotiveness is presented in its zero degree.

This paper explores the collocational behaviour and semantic prosody of the words ‘mianzi’ and ‘liǎn’ occurring in expressions pertaining to ‘human relationships’ or ‘reputation’ in modern Chinese. A statistical analysis of a 1.2 million words of authentic texts from the CCL corpus reveals that these two words tend to have opposite semantic prosody especially when used in the samesentence. Through a further investigation on the semantic prototype of ‘mian’ and ‘liǎn’ via the diachronic corpus, ‘liǎn’ is mainly used to refer to the face of women or animals from the Wei-Jin Southern and Northern dynasties until the Ming-Qing dynasties. It also often used as curse words in novels of the Ming and Qing periods and clearly reflects the inequity between genders in the old days. This negative connotation thus gives rise to a negative semantic prosody in ‘liǎn’. This suggests that the emergence of a different semantic prosody for ‘mianzi’ and ‘liǎn’ in modern Chinese is rather an evolution and a result of its former use throughout history.

In recent years, several narrative researchers have questioned the notion of narrative in its traditional connotation of a solitary, individual performer telling a story. In contrast, these researchers have observed that in many verbal contexts, narratives are co-constructed by multiple speakers (Coates 1997; Falk 1980; Tannen 1989; Watson 1975) and that in some social groups and settings, these jointly constructed narratives may be more prevalent than solo narratives (Eder 1998; Tannock 1998). Even in situations where there is one primary speaker, in many genres of oral narrative the audience is expected to contribute through various forms of verbal and non-verbal backchannel talk (Duranti and Brenneis 1986; Goodwin 1981).

The paper investigates tendencies with regard to gender-specific or gender-non-specific designations in English and German by means of nouns in present-day usage as well as the historical development of these tendencies. German favours “feminisation”, i.e. the overt marking of gender affiliation by the appropriate morphological form and the corresponding splitting, e.g. Professor/Professorin, because it has a productive suffix for this purpose. English, on the other hand, prefers neutralised forms and also treats the agent suffix -er as basically neutral, relegating the gender-specificity to pronominal coreference. The reason for this difference is the loss of the original Germanic feminising suffixes in English, where the Romance loan suffixes -ess and -ette never really became productive (usually they have a pejorative connotation), whereas in German the -in-suffix preserved its productivity and now has become a major instrument in the struggle for political correctness.

Цель. Статья посвящена исследованию концепта «женщина» в русском языке на уровне паремиологических и фразеологических единиц. Предметом исследования выступают процессы эволюции концепта «женщина» в русской паремилогической и фразеологической картинах мира. Цель работы – установить экстралингвистические факторы, влияющие на эволюцию концепта «женщина» на материале русских фразеологических и паремиологических единиц.Метод или методология проведения работы. Основу исследования составляют способы и принципы изучения концепта, реализуемые с помощью лингвокультурологического подхода.Результаты. Обобщая результаты исследования, следует заметить, что в русском языке обнаруживаются фразеологизмы, которые по своему содержанию имеют отношение только к женщине, касающиеся непосредственно жизни женщин (внешности, характера, поведения, социального статуса и т.п.); что в русской паремиологии имеет место андроцентричный (в большинстве случаев отрицательно коннотированный) взгляд на образ женщины и наличие женского сознания, мышления. Отрицательная коннотация характерна в основном для понятия «баба», а положительная – для понятия «мать» (матушка).Область применения результатов. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы при изучении основных концептов, образующих универсальную концептосферу отдельно взятого народа.

The Tempest is a “mankind” type of play, and Shakespeare’s strategy is to present fallen man in terms of language. Various aspects of “fallen language” are encoded in the characterisation and verbal exchanges. The unifying feature is a notable lack of “caritas”, due to an extreme self-centredness in the speakers, which Shakespeare displays in scenes of all-round incomprehension between many of the persons of the play. Such closed states of mind I have labelled “subjective”, giving this word a negative connotation. A regenerative process is marked by a hard-won return to communication worthy of being called “human” according to Renaissance ideals. I have labelled such negotiations between characters “intersubjective”. In the play, the channels of communication are restored by means of various insights, among them Prospero’s better self-knowledge and Ferdinand’s experiential discovery of truth. The “language of the soul” flows when such processes are set in motion; this special language is written into the play and is experienced in many guises within the play and, according to Renaissance rhetorical theory, by the audience as well.

This article aims to offer an analysis proposal for the structures formed in Spanish with the verb meter (‘to introduce’, ‘to put inside’) and the noun mano / manos (‘hand/ hands’) from a cognitive linguistics perspective (Langaker: 1987, 1990, 1991, 2008). The structures in question were taken from a synchronic corpus of Mexican Spanish and correspond to expressions such as: meter las manos en un lugar (‘to put the hands inside a location’), the pockets for example, meter las manos por alguien (‘to advocate for someone’), meter las manos al fuego por alguien (‘to take risk for someone’), meterle mano a alguien and meter mano (this two meanings with sexual connotation). The analysis is based on construction grammar (Golberg 1995, 2003, 2006) and blend theory (Fauconnier and Turner 2002) to explain both structure conformation and their different meanings. That these expressions have as origin a mother construction, namely, the construction of caused movement, which modified its meaning when adding the corporal noun is the hypothesis developed. It was observed that some of these expressions arise from an overlap between two constructions, that of caused movement and that of transference, which also brings light upon the verb-noun construct meter mano . Lastly, a conceptual integration network of these structures is shown.

The aim of this paper is to discuss some statements concerning the syntactic features of imperative forms of the verbs BAĆ SIĘ, OBAWIAĆ SIĘ, LĘKAĆ SIĘ (‘to fear (of) sth’) made by M. Gębka-Wolak and A. Moroz in the article Individual syntactic propensities of imperative forms (on the basis of the verbs : BAĆ SIĘ, OBAWIAĆ SIĘ, LĘKAĆ SIĘ) (2011). The conclusion is that the imperative forms of the verbs BAĆ SIĘ, OBAWIAĆ SIĘ, LĘKAĆ SIĘ, against the opinion of these Authors, do not have syntactical requirements different from those of the forms of the indicative mood of these verbs. Celem artykułu jest dyskusja z niektórymi sądami dotyczącymi właściwości składniowych form trybu rozkazującego czasowników BAĆ SIĘ, OBAWIAĆ SIĘ, LĘKAĆ SIĘ wyrażonymi przez M. Gębkę-Wolak i A. Moroza w artykule Indywidualne dyspozycje składniowe form trybu rozkazującego (na przykładzie czasowników BAĆ SIĘ, OBAWIAĆ SIĘ, LĘKAĆ SIĘ) (2011). Przeprowadzone rozważania prowadzą do wniosku, że wbrew opinii tych Autorów formy trybu rozkazującego czasowników BAĆ SIĘ, LĘKAĆ SIĘ, OBAWIAĆ SIĘ nie mają odmiennych wymagań składniowych od form trybu oznajmującego tychże czasowników.