Search results for 'tag:Semantic meanings' matching tag 'Semantic meanings'

exploring the use of article in depth

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:55:05 GMT

Hi,
I think a proper name (I think a name is a proper noun) like Joe can take an adjective but attaching some adjectives creates a need for an article and some do not.

good Joe is on the run.
A jubilant/sad Joe is on the run.

See, to me, 'jubilant and sad' create a need for an article, in this being an indefinite one, whereas the use of 'good' has not. I think it is on the nature and semantic meaning of the words involved.

I think I can adorn 'Joe' with an article and an adjective like 'good' if I make a context that exhibits type differentiation like this.

A good Joe is on the run, where as a bad Joe, which is what he used be is resting at home.

I think the same principles? method? can be applied to an uncountable noun like the word 'happiness'.

Low-degree happiness is possible when your life revolves around mundane routines without anything extraordinary.

But if I attach a different adjective with a different feel to it a need for an article is apparent.

An all-consuming happiness is one that doesn't come very often to a normal person, in my opinion.

See, whatever that 'all-consuming' mean in that context, the nature or semantic meaning of the words 'all-consuming' created a need for an article. It can be arisen by contexct, IMO, too like the name.

A happiness I felt when my long dog friend found a mate and bore a puppy.was unlike any happiness I felt until that time.

In summary, I think this method? can be applied to most of the proper names like *** Street and *** Stadium, the ones that normally do not take articles. Am I right?

Re: NOUN

Avangi — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:11:13 GMT

Hi Believer, I'm not brave enough or knowledgeable enough to give you a definitive answer. For starters, I'm not familiar with the implications of your expression, "a typical (known-to-be??) uncountable noun."

I think I can imagine situations where the semantic meaning of what's in quotes would have a bearing on it's "countable-ness," and others where it would not. In Yankee's example, the semantic meaning is an integral part of the meaning of the sentence. And yet by changing a few words in the sentence surrounding the quote (and leaving the quote untouched) we can change it from countable to uncountable.

- A.

Re: help for re-organize paragraph

Mister Micawber — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:27:09 GMT

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The focus on âfeeling" in design text is a distinctive turn from the prior focus in design research on understanding design text, which has heretofore emphasized semantic meaning.

Semantic meaning is the subject matter of design text. Broadly speaking, the subject matter of design text is about design project (product), design process or design team (people). Semantic meaning has been a principle concern of research in understanding design documents.

Ascertaining the subject matter of design text and the purpose of understanding the subject matter has been approached in different ways. For instance, Segers created WordGraphs to stimulate architects into thinking about related concepts using semantically similar words. Initially, the system selected single words as input for two existing words. To compose WordGraphs, the system searched the semantic relationships between them and inserted a new word which could connect them. The researchers selected only those WordGraphs which could interest designers for further observation and found that the designers preferred to use those intermediary words in subsequent design activities.

Hill examined a design team's shared understanding by adopting latent semantic analysis (LSA), a matrix computational method, to reveal design document similarity. In LSA, documents are represented by a word-frequency document matrix X with n (rows) words w1;w2; :::wn and m (columns) documents d1; d2; :::dm. The semantic meaning of a given word is represented in the matrix by labeling its frequency of appearance in the corresponding documents. By applying a series of computations to the matrix, the similarity of two documents is measured by the cosine of their document vectors in high-dimension space sense.

Dong used the same approach to study the cohesiveness of design team communication and mapped the results over time to provide an intuitive way of understanding. Dong explored the relationship between the designer's individual mind and design concept formation with the use of another computational linguistic method, lexical chain analysis or LCA. Dong adapted LCA to reveal the role of language in forming and representing knowledge in design and examine the grammatical structures associated with representing knowledge and knowledge accumulation.

The difference between LSA and LCA is the way in which they express semantic meaning. Semantic meaning is carried in individual words themselves in LSA, while it is expressed by statistical co-occurrence of words across larger bodies in LCA. Dong uses LCA to reveal the semantic connections of nouns or concepts between two utterances within an utterance window. Semantic connection (lexical chains) between nouns or concepts is derived from dictionary databases such as WordNet. The analysis of these lexical chains is applied to examine how designers format their concepts and how they focus on the same topic in their conversations.

Re: help for re-organize paragraph

kinhong — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:17:59 GMT

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The focus on âfeeling" in design text is a distinctive turn from the prior focus in

design research on understanding design text, which has heretofore emphasized semantic

meaning. Semantic meaning is the subject matter of design text. Broadly speaking

the subject matter of design text is about design project (product), design process or

design team (people). Semantic meaning has been a principle concern of research in

understanding design documents. Ascertaining the subject matter of design text

and the purpose of understanding the subject matter has been approached in diÂ®erent

ways.

For instance, Segers created WordGraphs to stimulate architects thinking about

related concepts using semantically similar words. Initially, the system selected single

words as input for two existing words. The system searched the semantic relationship be-

tween them and inserted a new word which can connect them to compose WordGraphs.

The researchers selected only those WordGraphs which can interest designers for fur-

ther observation, and found that the designers prefer to use those intermediary words

in the following design activities. Hill examined design teams' share understanding

by adopting latent semantic analysis(LSA), a matrix computational method, to reveal

design documents' document similarity. Dong used the same approach to study the

cohesiveness of design team communication and mapped the results over time to provide

an intuitive way for understanding. Dong explored the relationship between designers'

individual mind and design concept formation with the use of another computational lin-

guistic method (lexical chain analysis, LCA). Dong adopted LCA to reveal language's

role in forming and representing knowledge in design, examine the grammatical structures associated with representing knowledge and knowledge accumulation.

The difference between latent semantic analysis (LSA) and lexical chain analysis

(LCA) is the way they express semantic meaning. Semantic meaning is carried in in-

dividual words themselves in latent semantic analysis (LSA) while it is expressed by

statistical co-occurrence of words across large body in lexical chain analysis (LCA).

In latent semantic analysis (LSA), documents are represented by a word frequency-

document matrix X with n (rows) words w1;w2; :::wn and m (columns) documents

d1; d2; :::dm . The semantic meaning of a given word is represented in the matrix

by labeling its appearing frequency in the corresponding documents. By applying a se-

ries of computations on the matrix, similarity of two documents is measured by the cosine of their document vectors in high-dimension space sense.

Dong uses the lexical chain analysis (LCA) to reveal nouns or concepts' semantic

connections between two utterances within an utterance window. Semantic connection

(lexical chain) between nouns or concepts is derived from dictionary databases such as

WordNet. The analysis of these lexical chains is applied to examine how designer format

their concept and how they focus on the same topic in their conversations.

Re: NOUN

Believer — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:55:17 GMT

Thank you, Avangi.

In my previous post, I should have used third-person verb tenses, 'sounds' and 'gives' -- proper subject-verb agreement wasn't made due to my carelessness.

Going back to your request for examples of cases where I would feel something in quotes could not be used with an indefinite article becauss of its semantic meaning, I would have say that I can't think of any at this point in time.

Do you think anything in quotes is good a candidate as a typical (known-to-be??) uncountable noun?

Thank you.

help for re-organize paragraph

kinhong — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:19:11 GMT

Hello all, I am writing a review, but found that it is poor organized, could you please re-arrange the paragraph for me? thanks.

The focus on ``feeling'' in design text is a distinctive turn from the prior focus in design research on understanding design text, which has heretofore emphasized semantic meaning. Semantic meaning has been a principle concern of research in understanding design documents . Semantic meaning is the subject matter of design text. Broadly speaking the subject matter of design text is about product, process or people. Ascertaining the subject matter of design text and the purpose of understanding the subject matter has been approached in different ways. For instance, Hill examined design teams' share understanding by adopting latent semantic analysis(LSA), a matrix computational method, to reveal design documents' document similarity. In LSA, documents are represented by a word frequency-document matrix. The semantic meaning of a given word is represented in the matrix by labeling its appearing frequency in the corresponding documents. By applying a series of computations on the matrix, similarity of two documents is measured by the cosine of their document vectors in high-dimension space sense. Dong used the LSA approach to study the cohesiveness of design team communication and mapped the results over time to provide an intuitive way for understanding. Dong explored the relationship between designers' individual mind and design concept formation with the use of a computational linguistic method (lexical chain analysis, LCA). The authors adopted LCA to reveal language's role in forming and representing knowledge in design, examine the grammatical structures associated with representing knowledge and knowledge accumulation. The principle of LCA is revealing nouns/concepts' semantic connections between two utterances within a utterance window. The difference between latent semantic analysis (LSA) and lexical chain analysis (LCA) is the way they express semantic meaning. In latent semantic analysis, semantic meaning is carried in individual words themselves. Semantic meaning is expressed by statistical co-occurrence of word across large body in lexical chain analysis. Segers created WordGraphs to stimulate architects thinking about related concepts using semantically similar words. Initially, the system selected single words as input for two existing words. The system searched the semantic relationship between them and inserted a new word which can connect them to compose WordGraphs. The researchers selected only those WordGraphs which can interest designers for further observation, and found that the designers prefer to use those intermediary words in the following design activities.

Re: NOUN

Avangi — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:21:57 GMT

Hi Believer,

In terms of common usage, both your examples work with both definite and indefinite articles - i.e., countable and uncountable. I'd say your interpretation of the situation is correct.

In the case of quotes, we observe the "a/an" switch, based on the way the letter would be spel(t): an "ing"; an "s"; a "t"; a "w."

The "mixing" examples are all good, and natural. (I once worked in a large bakery.) I can't imagine what "an instance of sugar and flour" might mean. You could say "the/a/an occurrence/combination of sugar and flour in the same recipe . . . " (I think you'd have to say, "an instance of sugar and flour being etc. )

Could you please provide examples of cases where you feel something in quotes could not be used with an indefinite artlcle because of its semantic meaning?

Best wishes, - A.

Edit. In Yankee's example, a definite article would also work, right?? The "I'm sorry" you gave me last night is not nearly enough.

P.S. Can anyone tell me if "instance" and "occurrence" may be used interchangeably?

NOUN

Believer — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:12:14 GMT

Hi,

It has been known to me that a gerund can function as a noun and should or likely to be treated more as an uncountable noun than a countable noun.

Mixing of sugar and flour makes this dough ...

If you want to be specific, I think you could write:

The mixing of sugar and flour makes this dough ...

If you want to indicate the mixing being an instance of it or an example of it, you could write (I think) like this:

A mixing of sugar and flour makes this dough ...

It could be more clear if you write this though (but the above example seems to be correct grammatically too):

An instance of sugar and flour makes this dough ...

It has been to me that a quoted content (I may be wrong but what I call a quoted content is one that has quotation marks around it, whether or not they are done to quote someone's words or to highlight a word/words) can be treated an uncountble noun too.

"-ing" is not needed in your sentence. -- Just the mention of a case to highlight, I think.

The "-ing" is not needed in your sentence. -- Not just mentioning but specificallymentioning, I think.

A "-ing" is not needed in your sentence. -- An example of "-ing" use or an instance of "-ing" use, but this is what gives me trouble. I think whether a word in quotation marks can accommodate an indefinite article is predicated on whether its semantic meaning can embrace it.

So, I think I would be able to say, depending on words, some words that are in quotation marks can accommodate its having an indefinite article, whereas some words that are in quotation marks can't accommodate the use because its semantic meaning and how it is used in sentences make it awkward at best if not wrong to have an indefinite article. Sounds plausible?

Sorry for a long post.

Re: Could and can

CalifJim — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:41:00 GMT

Believer
Could you pass me the salt? ... Here, I think 'willlingness' and not physical capability is at play.

No, not really. In both this version and the other, more direct version (Can you pass me the salt?), you need to make a distinction between semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning.

The semantic meaning of such a statement involves asking if someone has the physical ability to pick up the salt shaker and hand it to the person requesting the salt. It is quite literal.

The pragmatic meaning is based on the real world knowledge that the literal answer is "Yes". (Of course that person has the physical ability to do what is requested.) The real world knowledge underlying this conversational move is that we all understand that the ability to do something is a precondition for doing it. We ask the other person to reason thus: If I can/could do it, and someone is calling my attention to this fact, then I should do it in this situation. It is a disguised imperative: Pass me the salt!

_________

Note that the same reasoning applies to [Do you have to / Must you] make so much noise? although somewhat in reverse.

The semantic meaning contains a question about the necessity of making the noise. The literal answer is "No".

The pragmatic meaning is based on the real world fact that if a person has no need to something, he is able to stop doing it. Having no need to do something is a precondition for not doing it. Again, there is an underlying imperative: Stop making so much noise!

noun as adjective

Believer — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:11:58 GMT

Hi,

Can a person use a noun with an availble standard adjectival form, which he might not realize the existence of it, can use the noun as an adjective and be considered OK?

person tutors vs. personal tutors

institution problems vs. institutional problems

education materials vs. educational materials

reflection tasks vs. reflective tasks

When is the use of available adjectives necessary or a must? What if a person doesn't know the existence of an available adjective? I do admit that those sets of examples seem to give somewhat different impressions in respect to their counter parts but I think, to a person without a keen knowledge of their semantic meanings, the overall impression of phrases might not be all that apparent.