Semantic memory

Abstract A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. It is the basic unit of language used to express meaning, an utterance that expresses an intention. Normally, the speech act is a sentence, but it can be a word or phrase as long as it follows the rules necessary to accomplish the intention. In our daily life interactions, we perform a speech act whether through greeting, requesting, apologizing...etc. Speech act is generally associated with pragmatic equivalence.…

Hermeneutics, a critical approach, is concerned with understanding of meaning of texts. It was first employed in interpreting The Old Testament and TheBible and law. This study deals with three issues: concept of hermeneutics, Husserl's and Heidegger's philosophical influences on hermeneutics, and the applicability of hermeneutics in Joyce's Finn's Hotel analysis. It is prefaced by explaining the essential concepts of hermeneutics, such as, prejudice, historical horizon, historical consciousness…

Linguistic complexity is commonly defined as the variedness and elaborateness of language production (Ellis, 2003). The definition resembles the philosophical definition of complexity as a function of the number of a system’s constituent elements, the variety of these constituents, and the elaborateness of their inter- relations (Rescher, 1998). Accordingly, the measurement of linguistic complex- ity involves quantitatively measuring the number and nature of linguistic sub- components and the…

In my book Four-dimensionalism (chapter 4, section 9), I argued that four- dimensionalism – the doctrine of temporal parts – follows from several other premises, chief among which is the premise that existence is never vague. Kathrin Koslicki (preceding article) claims that the argument fails since its crucial premise is unsupported, and is dialectically inappropriate to assume in the context of arguing for four-dimensionalism. Since the relationship between four-dimensionalism and the…

Another theory is the one created by Raskin referred to as The Semantic Script Theory, which is a theory of verbal humour. In his theory the linguistic incongruity stresses the switching of context. According to Raskin (1985: 99) there is an “enriched, structured chunk of semantic information, associated with word meaning and evoked by specific words” called scripts. Those scripts are linked with each other forming semantic net-works (Attardo 1994: 201). Raskin highlights that in order to create…

Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” urges individuals to pursue the truth instead of blindly accepting lies and myths when seeking knowledge by explicitly revealing the existence of the two separate paths, through the objects of the book and the camera. The text then endorses the path to truth, as a viable alternative to the common path of falsehood, when it use a physical object to mimic the process of collecting concrete facts instead of speculations and stories, represented by an abstract…

example descriptive, expository, expressive or argumentative forms. The manner in which it is relayed by the author always means that the reader will have to find his or her own meaning as relates to the usage of the verb in whatever context. Hence, semantic structures make construction agreeable with verbs that show types of coordinated action. Ramchand further argues that the use of verbs…

The following website (including any associated pages from directly linked websites) using discourse analysis: http://www.add101.com/ The following questions might help you with your analysis: 1. What is Discourse Analysis? Discourse analysis as defined by the Oxford Journal Family Practice states Discourse analysis is the study of “social life, understood through analysis of language in its widest sense (including face-to-face talk, non-verbal interaction, images, symbols and…

A Discourse Community of an Art Educator A discourse community is a group of people who share a common interest and also have a particular language. According to, “The Concept of Discourse Community” by John Swales a professor of linguistic and codirector of the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English, sets specifics as to what a Discourse Community is. For example, it consists of six-defining characteristics, a community must have participation, communication, a specific genre of writing, a…

Comp I, also known as English 3 is an English class where students are taught how to write a proper essay. Many high schools allow their students to take Comp I and Comp II for college credit as well as for high school credit. In this class they are shown how to write a good thesis statement, how to put yourself into the paper, the importance of an introduction and conclusion, as well as the various different essay styles. Throughout the class, students will write a descriptive essay, evaluation…