Kind, considerate, thoughtful: a semantic analysis

This paper presents a semantic analysis of three English words denoting positive character traits, namely kind, considerate and thoughtful. These three words are closely related, and the differences (and similarities) in their meanings can be very difficult to pinpoint. It shall be shown that modern dictionaries demonstrate a great deal of circularity in their definitions of these words, reflecting the closeness of their meanings. An analysis of usage examples provides evidence on the basis of which their differences can be understood. Some of the differences that shall be noted are the following: kind and thoughtful necessarily involve doing something for another person, while consideratedoes not; kind involves not wanting anyone to feel bad, considerateinvolves not wanting anyone to feel bad as a result of one's actions, and thoughtful focuses on a specific situation another is in, and not wanting them to feel bad in that situation; kind involves wanting to do something for another's good, while considerate involves wanting to avoid something that may harm another; and both considerate and thoughtful imply some kind of thinking about another before one acts, as reflected in their morphology. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach, as developed by Wierzbicka (1972, 1980, 1996) and colleagues, is used to propose definitions for these words, with the aim of exhaustively capturing their meaning, and clearly delineating their range of use. Such definitions can be particularly valuable to second language learners, and can provide a basis for cross-linguistic, and cross-cultural, comparisons of related concepts.Keywords: kind; considerate; thoughtful,semantics; lexicography; natural semantic metalanguage; definitions; character traits; personality; dictionary; wierzbicka; circularity; cross-cultural studie

Fireflies

Introduction: Fireflies may be expected to have inappropriate, innate responses to foreign light, similar to those that occur in other organisms. (Excerpted from: Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting, edited by Catherine Rich and Travis Longcore, published by Island Press, 2005.

What do subject pronouns do in discourse? Cognitive, mechanical and constructional factors in variation

In languages with variable subject expression, or pro-drop languages, when do speakers use subject pronouns? We address this question by investigating the linguistic conditioning of Spanish first-person singular pronoun yo in conversational data, testin

Bueno: A Spanish Interactive Discourse Marker

Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetics and Phonological Universals (1998

Using forced alignment for sociophonetic research on a minority language

Until recently, large-scale phonetic analyses have been out of reach for under-documented languages, but with the advent of methodologies such as forced alignment, they have now become possible. This paper describes a methodology for applying forced alignment (using the Montreal Forced Aligner) to a speech corpus of Matukar Panau, a minority language spoken in Papua New Guinea. We obtained measurements for 68,785 vowel tokens, produced in both narrative and conversational data by 34 speakers. We examined the social conditioning on a subset of these vowels according to traditional sociolinguistic categories of age and gender, and also consider the impact of clan as a major axis of organization in this community. We show that there is a role for clan as a sociolinguistic factor in conditioning the variation observed

Identifying a sufficient core group for trachoma transmission.

BackgroundIn many infectious diseases, a core group of individuals plays a disproportionate role in transmission. If these individuals were effectively prevented from transmitting infection, for example with a perfect vaccine, then the disease would disappear in the remainder of the community. No vaccine has yet proven effective against the ocular strains of chlamydia that cause trachoma. However, repeated treatment with oral azithromycin may be able to prevent individuals from effectively transmitting trachoma.Methodology/principal findingsHere we assess several methods for identifying a core group for trachoma, assuming varying degrees of knowledge about the transmission process. We determine the minimal core group from a completely specified model, fitted to results from a large Ethiopian trial. We compare this benchmark to a core group that could actually be identified from information available to trachoma programs. For example, determined from the rate of return of infection in a community after mass treatments, or from the equilibrium prevalence of infection.Conclusions/significanceSufficient groups are relatively easy for programs to identify, but will likely be larger than the theoretical minimum

Sub-lethal Effects of 2,4-D Exposure on Golf Course Amphibians

Amphibians are among the most common vertebrates inhabiting golf courses. They are frequent inhabitants of golf course wetlands, where they are likely to be episodically exposed to small quantities of herbicides in proper golf course maintenance. The goal of this study was to investigate whether amphibian larvae subjected to sublethal concentrations of a common herbicide used in golf course maintenance would likely result in significant life history, locomotor, or behavioral effects (e.g., changes in growth, swimming speed, or feeding ability). For these experiments we selected as models tadpoles of the southern leopard frog (Rana sphenocephala) and the herbicide 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The study’s findings include: Some life history traits (e.g., survival to metamorphosis) may be affected by chronic exposure at high doses, but other traits (e.g., growth, timing of metamorphosis, and size at metamorphosis) are not affected. Acute exposure is unlikely to have significant impact on life history traits. Acute exposure does not alter locomotor ability. Acute exposure to 2,4-D reduces the activity of tadpoles, and it also reduces feeding activity when predators are present. We conclude that 2,4-D does not represent a particularly strong threat to amphibian larvae inhabiting golf course where the herbicide is applied responsibly