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THE SEMANTIC FUNCTION OF NEGATIVES AND PASSIVES
Author(s) -
GREENE JUDITH M.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1970.tb02797.x
Subject(s) - psychology , meaning (existential) , competence (human resources) , function (biology) , contrast (vision) , linguistics , natural (archaeology) , cognitive psychology , semantic relation , context (archaeology) , task (project management) , communication , natural language processing , cognition , artificial intelligence , social psychology , computer science , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , biology , history , philosophy , paleontology , management , archaeology , economics , psychotherapist
The hypothesis was tested that syntactic constructions would be easier to deal with when they were being used for their natural semantic function rather than for an unnatural function. The experimental task required subjects to decide whether pairs of sentences had the same or a different meaning. The results confirmed the prediction that deciding about pairs of affirmative and negative sentences would be relatively facilitated when the negative was performing its natural function of signalling a change of meaning. In contrast, performance was facilitated when pairs of active and passive sentences had the same meaning. These results are discussed in connexion with the relation between syntactic competence and semantic context.