Modeling of the perceptual-based component of language semantics using a psycholinguistic database

Abstract

In Russian cognitive linguistics, a point of view is widely accepted according to which the core information of a concept is concrete-imagery (perceptual-based), acquired first of all through bodily experience and interaction with the external world. This is true for concrete concepts, as well as for abstract ones. At present there is no prevalent linguistic method to extract imagery information a concept contains. In the article, methods proposed by I.A. Sternin and M.Ya. Rosenfeld are considered: the analysis of the dictionary definition and the directed associative experiment. Advantages and disadvantages of the methods are discussed. The usage of psycholinguistic databases is proposed, including the scaling method (semantic differential, Likert scale), in order to describe the concrete-imagery (perceptual-based) semantic component. The classification of the psycholinguistic scales used in similar projects (e.g., imageability, modality rating, manipulability, age of acquisition etc.) is presented. The description of the project of the psycholinguistic database which is currently being developed at Tomsk State University is given: 506 Russian nouns of different semantic categories are rated by participants by strength of their relation to five perceptual modalities (modality rating), imageability, spatial localization on the vertical axis, ability to interact with the object with participants' hands (manipulability), and other scales. Preliminary conclusions have been made: it is revealed that relation of the words of the sample to visual modality is the strongest one; relation to haptic modality is less strong, followed by relation to auditory modality. The relation to gustatory and olfactory modalities is the weakest one. It is discovered that, in general, the words of the sample have a relatively high level of imageability, which is in line with findings of studies with other languages. It is shown that words of different semantic categories differ in their level of imageability. The strongest positive correlations were found between relation to visual modality and word imageability, as well as between olfactory and gustatory components of word semantics; negative correlation between word imageability and its age of acquisition was revealed. Advantages and restrictions of the proposed method are discussed: numeric format of semantic information allows applying statistical methods to solving semantic problems, though one cannot judge on qualitative parameters of conceptual structures. The method of psycholinguistic databases creating is considered as a complementary one to the directed associative experiment, because it gives an opportunity to present quantitative parameters of concrete-imagery (perceptual-based) information in the word semantic structure.