An Analysis of the Logical Semantic Meanings of 'or' in Elementary Science Texts.

The Chinese character ... (Romanized as 'huo'; English meaning 'or') can be used in many ways, including as a noun, verb, pronoun, and logical connective. As it functions as a logical connective, at least five different semantic meanings (inclusive-, exclusive-, identical-, whole-, and both-or) have been distinguished. This paper explores the deployment and meaning variations of 'huo' in elementary science texts. The findings indicate that the five types of 'huo' are prevailingly deployed in elementary science text. Crucially, the texts consistently lack linguistic cues for teachers and readers to understand the exact meaning. Understanding the meaning of 'huo' depends a great deal on domain knowledge. Strategies for teaching logical connectives and topics for further investigations are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]