From owner-cse727-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon Feb 26 09:55:34 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l1QEtYAP013878 for ; Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:55:34 -0500 (EST) Received: from front1.acsu.buffalo.edu (warmfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.88]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l1QEtVGp003728 for ; Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:55:31 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 26285 invoked from network); 26 Feb 2007 14:48:51 -0000 Received: from mailscan4.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.136) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 26 Feb 2007 14:48:51 -0000 Received: (qmail 4515 invoked from network); 26 Feb 2007 14:48:51 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 26 Feb 2007 14:48:51 -0000 Received: (qmail 1418 invoked from network); 26 Feb 2007 14:48:38 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 26 Feb 2007 14:48:38 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 3524629 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:48:38 -0500 Delivered-To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Received: (qmail 20521 invoked from network); 26 Feb 2007 14:48:38 -0000 Received: from mailscan8.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.55) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 26 Feb 2007 14:48:38 -0000 Received: (qmail 4411 invoked by uid 60001); 26 Feb 2007 14:48:38 -0000 X-Mailer: University at Buffalo WebMail Cyrusoft SilkyMail v1.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Originating-IP: 128.205.150.169 X-UB-Relay: (internal) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <1172501318.45e2f346274ae@mail4.buffalo.edu> Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:48:38 -0500 Reply-To: petrova3@BUFFALO.EDU Sender: "CVA Seminar, Spring 2007" From: Nyurguyana Petrova Subject: Heinz, Werner, and Edith Kaplan "Development of word meaning through verbal context: an experimental study" (1950) To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1335; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.2 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/2655/Mon Feb 26 03:40:40 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 973 Heinz, Werner, and Edith Kaplan "Development of word meaning through verbal context: an experimental study" (1950): A very interesting study: the obtained results are striking and reveal the way kids learn new words. However, I am curious why exactly they chose this particular age range (from 8 to 13)? Due to this experimental study we know when children tentatively stop using "the most immature form of signification" (Heinz et al., 1950), that is the whole sentence used to express a meaning for one word. The results show that this form of signification drops significantly around the age of 11-12. However, I was wondering at what age kids actually start developing sentence-contextual meaning representation? And, also, if the sentence-contextual is the most immature and the earliest way to understand a meaning of an unfamiliar word, then when the the second type of signification, i.e. non-sentence-contextual type, comes to practice? Nyurguyana Petrova From owner-cse727-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Sat Mar 3 22:11:17 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l243BHpx028184 for ; Sat, 3 Mar 2007 22:11:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from front2.acsu.buffalo.edu (coldfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.89]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l243BCdS077059 for ; Sat, 3 Mar 2007 22:11:12 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 14352 invoked from network); 4 Mar 2007 03:11:12 -0000 Received: from mailscan6.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.95) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Mar 2007 03:11:12 -0000 Received: (qmail 3632 invoked from network); 4 Mar 2007 03:11:12 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Mar 2007 03:11:12 -0000 Received: (qmail 7077 invoked from network); 4 Mar 2007 03:10:57 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Mar 2007 03:10:57 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 3611522 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Sat, 3 Mar 2007 22:10:57 -0500 Delivered-To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 272 invoked from network); 4 Mar 2007 03:00:57 -0000 Received: from mailscan8.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.55) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Mar 2007 03:00:57 -0000 Received: (qmail 8612 invoked from network); 4 Mar 2007 03:00:55 -0000 Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (66.249.82.234) by smtp1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 4 Mar 2007 03:00:55 -0000 Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id s18so1105692wxc for ; Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:00:55 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.114.111.1 with SMTP id j1mr828050wac.1172977255096; Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:00:55 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.115.73.10 with HTTP; Sat, 3 Mar 2007 19:00:55 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Google-Sender-Auth: f0ecb516c5e5236d X-UB-Relay: (wx-out-0506.google.com) X-PM-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <4e4445330703031900q5731399an2fad00e4ff57f061@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 22:00:55 -0500 Reply-To: "Paul M. Heider" Sender: "CVA Seminar, Spring 2007" From: "Paul M. Heider" Subject: CVA CSE727: Werner_Kaplan1950 To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (wx-out-0506.google.com) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/2713/Sat Mar 3 10:57:58 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: RO Content-Length: 1164 I though the sentence-core concept responses were very interesting. One explanation for their occurence at the younger ages could also be a stricter notion of word competition for the younger children. That is, it's fairly common to consider semantic fields to be the result of border conflicts between closely related terms (e.g., my concept of blue is more salient and thus pushes a little farther into the green category than yours does). It would seem plausible the younger children wouldn't choose "stick" as a simple definition because they already know a word "stick." They would want to find a more precisely fitting word to the context. This position (not really mine because I don't have strong evidence) has a few implications. On the micro-scale, could everyone's word definitions be a mix of over-definition and then backing off techniques given contrary evidence? On the other hand, we may pass through macro stages of over-defining everything followed by stages of trying to generalize. In general, there were a lot of possible cognitive confounds and ideolect influence. In other words, they seem to have opened a large can of worms. ~Paul From owner-cse727-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Sun Apr 8 23:09:31 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l3939UsB000189 for ; Sun, 8 Apr 2007 23:09:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front1.acsu.buffalo.edu (coldfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.89]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l3939S1M011314 for ; Sun, 8 Apr 2007 23:09:28 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 19482 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 03:09:28 -0000 Received: from mailscan1.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.133) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 03:09:28 -0000 Received: (qmail 28542 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 03:09:25 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 03:09:25 -0000 Received: (qmail 23585 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 03:09:23 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 03:09:23 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 4468635 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Sun, 8 Apr 2007 23:09:23 -0400 Delivered-To: cse727-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 27522 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 03:09:23 -0000 Received: from mailscan3.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.135) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 03:09:23 -0000 Received: (qmail 26054 invoked by uid 60001); 9 Apr 2007 03:09:22 -0000 X-Mailer: University at Buffalo WebMail Cyrusoft SilkyMail v1.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Originating-IP: 66.67.170.95 X-UB-Relay: (internal) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <1176088162.4619ae62b3308@mail1.buffalo.edu> Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 23:09:22 -0400 Reply-To: jcwhite2@BUFFALO.EDU Sender: "CVA Seminar, Spring 2007" From: John C White Subject: Response to WernerKaplan50 To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/3050/Sun Apr 8 19:47:56 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 1137 It was intriguing how the experiments showed a lot of early misinterpretation of word meaning. Not only does it seem odd for them to just use the rest of the sentence as the definition as they did in some cases, but the fact that they merely added to their existing idea rather than revising it is kind of strange. Still, it seems to be something that even adults do in different situations. Mostly, it reminds me of some bad coding practices that plague many of us CS folks where we continue to add code until something works the way we want it, even if subtracting from and changing it would lead to a more efficient solution. In terms of CVA I am not totally sure what this contributes to CVA other than showing that our models perhaps should avoid too much relationship to the methodology used by younger subjects. Still, there is something to be said for the rate of vocabulary acquisition among people of such ages regardless of the tendency for misinterpretation. It kind of makes me wonder how exactly they pick up so much in such a short time with ways of thinking such as those mentioned in the article. -John White From owner-cse727-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon Apr 9 08:33:59 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l39CXxUf029815 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:33:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front2.acsu.buffalo.edu (upfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.4.140]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l39CXu5n061427 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:33:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 1366 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 12:33:56 -0000 Received: from mailscan8.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.55) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 12:33:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 1395 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 12:33:56 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 12:33:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 22015 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 12:33:54 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 12:33:54 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 4459307 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:33:54 -0400 Delivered-To: cse727-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 2868 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 12:23:54 -0000 Received: from mailscan8.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.55) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 12:23:54 -0000 Received: (qmail 25639 invoked from network); 9 Apr 2007 12:23:53 -0000 Received: from mta11.adelphia.net (68.168.78.205) by smtp5.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 9 Apr 2007 12:23:53 -0000 Received: from [127.0.0.1] (really [68.168.90.36]) by mta11.adelphia.net (InterMail vM.6.01.05.02 201-2131-123-102-20050715) with ESMTP id <20070409122353.ZCDJ22297.mta11.adelphia.net@[127.0.0.1]> for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:23:53 -0400 User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (Windows/20070221) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-UB-Relay: (mta11.adelphia.net) X-PM-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <461A306F.7080106@cse.buffalo.edu> Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:24:15 -0400 Reply-To: Jeffrey Howell Sender: "CVA Seminar, Spring 2007" From: Jeffrey Howell Subject: CSE727: Werner & Kaplan 1950 To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (mta11.adelphia.net) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/3051/Mon Apr 9 07:51:27 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 1591 My initial reaction when looking at the one fully-fleshed out set of contexts that was given (for 'corplum') was that it was very similar to what was described for the 'bratchet' example - one sentence at a time is examined, with a context being built from that. Further examination shows a fairly significant difference - the bratchet example includes sentences from a single source as part of a much larger context - all of it is natural use of language. Werner & Kaplan's example appears to be more or less entirely artificial, and seem almost *designed* to cause the reader to have to rethink their mental definition. I'd be very interested to see the full set of sentences. For that matter, I'd be interested in seeing the full set of results, and the 60 criteria the judges used. I'm also unsure about the significance of some of what was observed. That older children showed better reading comprehension skills is not exactly surprising. I wonder what the results would have looked like in a second trial if the basics of CVA were explained to the children beforehand... I suspect they'd do better if they had a specific method in mind before starting. For that matter, I wonder what the results would have looked like if the trials had been verbal rather than using written text, particularly since young children tend to be very good at picking up languages without any kind of formal instruction. All in all, the article at least provides an interesting counter-point to the protocols we've done with adult subjects. If only there were more details! From owner-cse727-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon Apr 9 20:40:59 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l3A0ex93028317 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:40:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front1.acsu.buffalo.edu (coldfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.89]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l3A0etna017923 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:40:55 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 18389 invoked from network); 10 Apr 2007 00:40:55 -0000 Received: from mailscan5.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.137) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 10 Apr 2007 00:40:55 -0000 Received: (qmail 18342 invoked from network); 10 Apr 2007 00:40:55 -0000 Received: from defer.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.58) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 10 Apr 2007 00:40:55 -0000 Received: (qmail 20635 invoked from network); 10 Apr 2007 00:40:35 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by defer.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 10 Apr 2007 00:40:35 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 4482301 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:40:35 -0400 Delivered-To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Received: (qmail 24254 invoked from network); 10 Apr 2007 00:38:56 -0000 Received: from mailscan3.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.135) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 10 Apr 2007 00:38:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 12590 invoked from network); 10 Apr 2007 00:38:55 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.14) by smtp4.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 10 Apr 2007 00:38:55 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (rapaport@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l3A0ctVO027861 for ; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:38:55 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rapaport@localhost) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l3A0ctqr027860 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:38:55 -0400 (EDT) X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <200704100038.l3A0ctqr027860@castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU> Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 20:38:55 -0400 Reply-To: "William J. Rapaport" Sender: "CVA Seminar, Spring 2007" From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: Re: CSE727: Werner & Kaplan 1950 To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1335; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/3058/Mon Apr 9 15:45:50 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 699 | Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:24:15 -0400 | From: Jeffrey Howell | Subject: CSE727: Werner & Kaplan 1950 | | If only there were more details! Want more details than you have time for? Take a look at the longer version of their paper, which is the complete, book-length report: Werner, Heinz, & Kaplan, Edith (1952), "The Acquisition of Word Meanings: A Developmental Study", Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc., Vol. 15, Serial No. 51, No. 1 (1950) (Evanston, IL: Child Development Publications of the Society for Research in Child Development, Northwestern University). http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/CVA/refs-vocab.html#1952 From owner-cse727-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon May 7 12:15:25 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l47GFPoC017772 for ; Mon, 7 May 2007 12:15:25 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front2.acsu.buffalo.edu (warmfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.88]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l47GFLuv082423 for ; Mon, 7 May 2007 12:15:21 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 18103 invoked from network); 7 May 2007 16:15:21 -0000 Received: from mailscan3.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.135) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 7 May 2007 16:15:21 -0000 Received: (qmail 2259 invoked from network); 7 May 2007 16:15:20 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front3.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 7 May 2007 16:15:20 -0000 Received: (qmail 15853 invoked from network); 7 May 2007 16:15:07 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 7 May 2007 16:15:07 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 5322334 for CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 7 May 2007 12:15:06 -0400 Delivered-To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Received: (qmail 14391 invoked from network); 7 May 2007 16:15:06 -0000 Received: from mailscan3.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.135) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 7 May 2007 16:15:06 -0000 Received: (qmail 11711 invoked by uid 60001); 7 May 2007 16:15:06 -0000 X-Mailer: University at Buffalo WebMail Cyrusoft SilkyMail v1.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Originating-IP: 128.205.201.14 X-UB-Relay: (internal) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <1178554506.463f508a21ecc@mail3.buffalo.edu> Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 12:15:06 -0400 Reply-To: ask8@BUFFALO.EDU Sender: "CVA Seminar, Spring 2007" From: Ashish Kulkarni Subject: CSE 727 Heinz Werner and Edith Kaplan: Development of word meaning through verbal context: an experimental study To: CSE727-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1336; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/3216/Mon May 7 03:36:02 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 1109 I observed that most of the children’s ways of trying to find out the meaning of the unknown words was underdeveloped, meaning inaccurate. The context in which the words were kept were easy to understand for an adult while the children made their own theories which they believed to be true. This makes me think that while learning the meaning of a word by context children and even adults might be making erroneous assumptions about rarely used words but still continuing to think that the words mean what they think. For words with high frequency, it is easy to eventually figure out what the word means since there are many contexts in which the expected meaning of the word fits in right. The words with rare occurrences though can be thought to have the wrong meaning, unless there is a severe contradiction. This shows that software trying to find out the meaning of a word through context need not always guess the word’s meaning correctly if it has a system that changes the meaning of the word if some other context contradicts the prior meaning, just like the belief revision system used by Cassie.