Aim. The present research explores the cognitive principles that underlie the selection of negation types in Jordanian Arabic (JA) while expressing futurity. Methods. Data was collected by asking speakers of Jordanian Arabic to perform an acceptability judgement task by rating according to a 5-point Likert scale the three negation types: preverbal (*mā*), postverbal (*…š*), and bipartite (*mā…š*). Results. Findings have shown a strong preference for preverbal negation with the proclitic mā, as opposed to the discontinuous (bipartite) negation construction with mā …… š which was consistently rated as the least acceptable, particularly when combined with the lexical future marker bedd- Postverbal negation with the enclitic …š was slightly less acceptable, while the discontinuous (bipartite) negation construction with mā …… š was least favored by the participants. Analysis of participants’ responses indicated that this preference is driven by verbal and cognitive economy; speakers favored forms that offer better processing efficiency and articulatory simplicity. This, in turn, challenges the phonologically based explanation for negation preference, as the preference forpreverbal negation was high even with labial initial verbs. Conclusions. The study provides evidence that the choice among negation types in Jordanian Arabic (JA) is neither arbitrary nor purely pragmatic; instead, it is governed by cognitive constraints of economy and processing efficiency. A significant preference for preverbal negation over bipartite negation was identified. It was established that the use of preverbal structures ensures early polarity identification and reduces working memory load, whereas bipartite structures increase processing complexity. These findings align with the Uniform Information Density (UID) hypothesis, confirming the influence of cognitive principles on syntactic choice across typologically diverse languages. The research demonstrates that processing efficiency principles are fundamental to speech production and take priority over phonological constraints. An exception occurs when bipartite negation is utilized to fulfill the pragmatic function of emphasis. Regarding language change, it is substantiated that preverbal negation is more resistant to transformation, while more complex bipartite structures are vulnerable to reduction. The author concludes that cycles of language change reflect underlying cognitive preferences for structures optimal for cognitive processing.
Aims. This study aims to explore contronyms (Janus words), which are words that have two opposite meanings, in English and Arabic, by examining the default and dominant meaning of certain selected contronyms to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals comprehend such paradoxical meanings. Methods. Forty Jordanian participants (20 males and 20 females) were asked to provide the first meaning that comes to their mind when reading certain selected contronyms and, then They were asked to give the meaning of the same contronyms in contextualized sentences where three sentences are used for each contronym and; the first sentence bias one meaning, the second sentence bias the opposite meaning and a third sentence that is neutral and allows both interpretation. the frequencies of the participants responses were to calculate using SPSS to analyzed the default (dominant) meaning of the selected contronyms. Results. The analysis revealed the dynamic nature of the semantic memory as that there are common and default senses for these contronyms. The results offer valuable insights for translation and language pedagogy strategies. Conclusion. Exploring contronyms provides valuable insights into the interaction between automatic access and context-driven meaning selection in both Arabic and English. One meaning consistently appeared as the most dominant interpretation, reflecting semantic dominance which is shaped by familiarity, and frequency, often overriding default meanings when sentences biased alternative senses. In general, the study emphasize the centrality of context in psycholinguistic models of lexical access and provides empirical support for the notion that contronyms as the polysemous words are processed through a dynamic interplay of default activation and contextual modulation. This study has several implications for translation, language teaching strategies, lexicography, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems. Future studies could replicate this study, including participants from various linguistic backgrounds, considering factors such as linguistic proficiency, and socioeconomic background, including more complex contexts, such as narratives, conversations, investigating Online language processing of contronyms using eye-tracking technique, and for Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, training or even preparing large language models to identify default meanings in neutral contexts, that could lead to a more accurate linguistics models.
Мета статті – визначити домінантні психологічні й прагматичні засади сучасного українського молодіжного нікнеймінгу у віртуальному середовищі. Для досягнення поставленої мети виконано такі завдання: (1) з’ясовано стратегії вибору нікнеймів молодих українців; (2) проаналізовано зібраний матеріал з погляду прагматики та психологічних передумов творення; (3) установлено вплив гендеру на вибір нікнеймів; (4) визначено переваги й недоліки агресивної та непристойної самопрезентації молоді у віртуальному просторі. Методи і методики. Дослідження виконано за допомогою методів аналізу, синтезу, індукції, дедукції, описового, анонімного анкетування, комунікативно-прагматичного аналізу, методики внутрішньої інтроспекції, зіставного методу (для порівняння психосемантичних особливостей відповідей респондентів), корелятивного аналізу (для визначення залежності нікнеймів від статі респондентів) та методу кількісних підрахунків (для визначення домінантних стратегій нікнеймінгу). Результати. З’ясовано, що українська молодь активно формує багатовимірну модель цифрової самопрезентації, практикуючи як особистісні, так і творчі, концептуальні та епатажні підходи до вибору нікнеймів. Визначено пріоритетність оригінального й особистісного звучання віртуальних псевд для молодих українців. Проаналізовано психологічні передумови вибору переможних, естетичних, агресивних, гібридних та сороміцьких нікнеймів. Установлено вплив гендеру, а також соціально-політичних умов життя молодих українців на їхню віртуальну самопрезентацію. Висновки. Обґрунтовано важливість нікнеймінгу в духовно-культурному розвитку й соціалізації молодих українців. Наголошено, що нікнейми слугують важливим інструментом саморефлексії, творчого самовираження, емоційної саморегуляції та соціокультурного самовизначення молоді в онлайн-середовищі. Доведено, що нікнейми не лише слугують інструментом самопрезентації, але й віддзеркалюють колективні цінності, настрої та культурні практики сучасної української молоді.
Purpose. The paper analyses the written errors which rural Turkish ethnic children make learning Bulgarian as a second language (L2). The children in the study are pupils in the Bulgarian primary school (between 7-11 years old). They live in a small village in Northeast Bulgaria ‒ region populated with ethnic Turks. Turkish minority children learn Bulgarian is their L2 at primary school and they make a lot of errors under the influence of their mother tongue ‒ Turkish (L1). The paper is dedicated to written errors the children make, writing a story. Methods and Procedure. In the paper the interlingual errors of the children in Bulgarian are classified and analyzed on phonological, morphosyntactic and syntactic levels. The children are given two serries of pictures: “The cat story” and “The horse story” and they get instruction to write two narratives based on the series of the pictures. The written texts of the children are collected and analyzed. The writing process is organized in the natural classroom environment to avoid any kind of stress. Results. Based on the collected language errors, we propose the following classification: Phonetic errors, result of violation of spelling norms; Morphosyntactic errors, result of violation of grammatical norms in the language; Syntactic errors, result of violation of syntactic norms. To illustrate the errors, examples from the produced text of the children are given. Conclusions. The bilingual Turkish children whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian need, special attention on their speech errors and they should be classified at different levels. The children transfer the errors from their oral language to their written one. The influence of Turkish is observed in the acquisition of both phonetics and grammar. Bulgarian language education for bilingual children in primary grades should not be monotonous and boring. The desire to communicate in Bulgarian should be provoked and motivated by the teacher. In the conclusions of the paper recommendations to Bulgarian language teachers are made how to correct the errors of the children and motivate them to learn written L2 better.
Purpose. This study aims to systematically examine how L2 proficiency and experimental task demands interact to shape the early stages of morphological processing, addressing a gap in current research regarding how speakers process morphologically complex words within the mental lexicon. Methods. Two groups of Chinese EFL learners (more proficient and less proficient) were recruited to complete two masked priming tasks: a lexical decision task (LDT) and a naming task. The study utilized three critical prime types designed to disentangle the contributions of form and meaning: Transparent (e.g., worker-WORK), Opaque (e.g., corner-CORN), and Form (e.g., think-THIN). Results. More proficient learners demonstrated a clear semantic effect, with Transparent priming emerging as significantly stronger than both Opaque and Form priming, particularly in the LDT. In contrast, less proficient learners produced priming effects only for form-related words, suggesting a reliance on surface-level orthographic cues. Furthermore, the advantage for transparent words was significantly modulated by both proficiency and task, emerging most strongly for more proficient learners in the LDT. Conclusions. The results demonstrate that early L2 morphological processing is guided by an interaction between form and meaning, lending strong support to a supra-lexical model where semantic verification influences initial recognition. Crucially, the expression of these morpho-semantic effects is not uniform but is critically dependent on both the learner’s L2 proficiency and the processing depth required by the task.
