Papers by Dimitra Serakioti
Περιοδικό Γλωσσολογία, 2023
This paper suggests a new categorization of dvandva compounds in Modern Greek, based on lexicalse... more This paper suggests a new categorization of dvandva compounds in Modern Greek, based on lexicalsemantics. More specifically, we study a) the relationship between the components and the wholecompound and b) the relationship between the two components. With regard to the latter, dvandvacompounds can be divided into a) additive (vorioδitikós = north western), in which the meaning derivesfrom the sum of the meanings of the two components and b) metonymic, which can further bedistinguished into superordinate metonymic, in which the meaning is broader than that of the parts (i.e.maxeropíruna = knives + forks) and subordinate metonymic, in which the two components are parts of aseparate entity, denoting a hyponymic relationship and a high degree of semantic transparency (i.e.avγolémono = a kind of sauce). According to the relationship between the two components, thecompounds could be classified into a) opposites (merónixto = day-night), in which the components haveopposite meanings to each other, b) synonymic (roδotriandáfila), and c) consecutive (astrapóvrodo =lightening thunder). Some cases are ambiguous, as a compound can be included in more than onecategory, while the role of the context seems to be crucial.
Studia humana, 2022
This article is concerned with the concept of ambiguity in argumentation. Ambiguity in linguistic... more This article is concerned with the concept of ambiguity in argumentation. Ambiguity in linguistics lies on the coexistence of two possibly interpretations of an utterance, while the role of contextual factors and background/encyclopedic knowledge within a specific society seems to be crucial. From a systemic point of view, Halliday has proposed three main language functions (meta-functions): a) ideational function, b) interpersonal function, c) textual function. Language could reflect speaker's experience of his external and internal world, interpersonal relationships and organization of text, respectively. Lexico-grammatical choices under a micro-level perspective and context (the environment of language) may lead to inconsistent interpretations through semantic or syntactic ambiguities. In philosophy and argumentation logic, strategies of ambiguity have been investigated by Aristotle, since the first sophistic movement. In his Topics, Metaphysics and Rhetoric, has pointed out the notion of "τὸ διττῶς / διχῶς λεγόμενον", meaning that a term can have different senses and double interpretation. In this paper we discuss how we reconstruct the meaning of an utterance in dialogue through the mechanism of interpretation and how we analyze and construe ambiguities, combining the insights of argumentation theory and text linguistics. Research results show that in case of misunderstanding, the "best interpretation" is the less defeasible one according to contextual presumptions.
Στην παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εξετάζεται πειραματικά η σημασιολογική επίδραση που ασκεί ο μηχ... more Στην παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εξετάζεται πειραματικά η σημασιολογική επίδραση που ασκεί ο μηχανισμός της σύνθεσης στη Νέα Ελληνική σε σύνθετα με τα βασικά χρώματα. Για τη διεξαγωγή του πειράματος χρησιμοποιήθηκε ως εργαλείο το πείραμα των Berlin & Kay (1969), σύμφωνα με τους οποίους κάθε γλώσσα περιέχει βασικές κατηγορίες χρωμάτων και για κάθε χρωματικό όρο ανά γλώσσα υπάρχει μία κεντρική τιμή. Στόχος της εμπειρικής αυτής μελέτης είναι α) να εξεταστεί πειραματικά αν η αντίληψη των ομιλητών στα σύνθετα χρώματα βρίσκεται μεταξύ των δύο συνθετικών ή τείνει περισσότερο στο πρώτο ή στο δεύτερο συνθετικό, με βάση το χρωματικό φάσμα ή μέσω του μηχανισμού της παράφρασης, και να μελετηθούν οι σημασιολογικές διεργασίες που επιτελούνται μέσω της σύνθεσης, β) να ερευνηθεί αν η αλλαγή στη σειρά των συστατικών δημιουργεί και διαφορετική εκτίμηση από τους ομιλητές. Παρά το γεγονός ότι στη βιβλιογραφία τα σύνθετα με τα βασικά χρώματα θεωρούνται ως παρατακτικά ...
Research Result. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics Series
This study deals with research made on cross-linguistic colour categorization and naming based on... more This study deals with research made on cross-linguistic colour categorization and naming based on the hypothesis raised in Berlin and Kay (1969) about an almost universal pattern in the selection of colours that receive abstract names in each language. In order to reveal the overall palette of basic colour terms within the Greek language as well as the level of agreement among speakers, we have conducted two experiments. The mechanism of compound formation using basic colours is further tested against the principle of the Right-hand Head Rule as proposed in Williams (1981). The results of our empirical research show, on the one hand, that Greek speakers' intuition agrees with the universality claim for the basic colour terms, but on the other hand compounding involving two colour constituents rejects the RHR by shifting the head to the left.
European Scientific Journal ESJ
14ο Διεθνές Συνέδριο Ελληνικής Γλωσσολογίας, 2021
This paper examines for the first time the meaning of the terms white (aspros/lefkos) and black (... more This paper examines for the first time the meaning of the terms white (aspros/lefkos) and black (mavros) in Modern Greek, based on Greek Corpora and Greek dictionaries. The results of the study showed that the term mavros has a negative connotation, as opposed to lefkos associated with a positive connotation, confirming the Berlin & Kay's hypothesis about the existence of semantic universals between languages. Web as a Corpus, also, provides new collocations with a high degree of semantic opacity, which are not contained in Modern Greek dictionaries and are English translation loans deriving from the field of technology.
This paper examines the ways that intensity is expressed in the Greek and the Albanian language a... more This paper examines the ways that intensity is expressed in the Greek and the Albanian language and the similarities and differences between the two languages. Regarding Greek, the research is based on the existing bibliography and on dictionaries of Modern Greek, while for Albanian, given the lack of relevant studies, it is based on interviews of Albanian native speakers and on dictionaries of the Albanian language. The comparison of the two languages indicates that intensity is expressed with corresponding adjectives, adverbs and set expressions. However, the lack of prefixes in the Albanian for the expression of intensity is opposed to the large number intensive prefixes in Greek.
The present paper attempts an empirical investigation of the semantic impact of colour compounds ... more The present paper attempts an empirical investigation of the semantic impact of colour compounds in Modern Greek interpretation. The study adopted the framework put forward by Berlin and Kay (1969), statistical tools were used for data analysis and Venn diagrams depicted the relationship between the compounding elements. Taking into consideration that the research literature supports the view that colour compounds may be considered as coordinates, and despite the intuition, that native speakers are likely to consider the second constituent as basic one according to the Right-hand Head Rule that applies for Greek, the results of our experiments negate our two hypotheses. Specifically, respondents' perception regarding colour compounds tends to acknowledge the first constituent as strongest. This might well be attributed to the gradual left-to-right speech processing, as observed at the sentence level. Moreover, the alternate order of the constituents does not lead to different intuitions.
European Scientific Journal, 2020
The present paper attempts an empirical investigation of the semantic impact of colour compounds ... more The present paper attempts an empirical investigation of the semantic impact of colour compounds in Modern Greek interpretation. The study adopted the framework put forward by Berlin and Kay (1969), statistical tools were used for data analysis and Venn diagrams depicted the relationship between the compounding elements. Taking into consideration that the research literature supports the view that colour compounds may be considered as coordinates, and despite the intuition, that native speakers are likely to consider the second constituent as basic one according to the Right-hand Head Rule that applies for Greek, the results of our experiments negate our two hypotheses. Specifically, respondents' perception regarding colour compounds tends to acknowledge the first constituent as strongest. This might well be attributed to the gradual left-to-right speech processing, as observed at the sentence level. Moreover, the alternate order of the constituents does not lead to different intuitions.
Πρακτικά του 13ου Διεθνούς Συνεδρίου Ελληνικής Γλωσσολογίας , 2019
This paper examines for the first time the semantic impact of the derivation mechanism on derivat... more This paper examines for the first time the semantic impact of the derivation mechanism on derivative words with basic colors in Μodern Greek. The Berlin & Kay' s (1969) experiment was used to conduct the study, according to which, each language contains basic color categories, and for each color term there is a central value. We attempted to (a) experimentally explore the semantic effect of the prefix kata-(eg, fully red) and the suffix-opos (eg, reddish) on interpretation; as well as to (b) find out whether color nouns differ from affixed nominalizations. As far as the prefix kata-is concerned, which is considered to be intensive (see, for example, Gavriilidou 2013), we would expect this derivate mechanism to create colors that are closer to the central value. On the other hand, as regards-opos, we can assume that this mechanism creates colors that deviate from the central value based on the color spectrum. The results of the empirical research have shown that the speaker's estimation on derivative colors differs from that for the basic colors. More specifically, the derivative colors with the prefix kata-are located in darker hues compared with the respective basic colors, while those with the suffix-opos are presented in brighter shades of the color spectrum. This phenomenon may well be attributed to psychological parameters related to value or saturation of colours.
The aim of the present research is the examination of the ways that the lexicogrammatical choices... more The aim of the present research is the examination of the ways that the lexicogrammatical choices in texts of the Greek journalism can reproduce and advance social phenomena, under the perspective of the Critical Discourse Analysis, and mainly of van Dijk's theory. More specifically, I investigate: a) which lexicogrammatical elements (e.g. activepassive structure, choice of grammatical person, nominalization, shell nouns) occur in racist texts, b) whether these elements can reveal the writer's ideology and lead to the formation of aspects of the social reality, and c) the structure and the information load of the text. The conclusions of the analysis indicate that the choice of the lexicogrammatical elements plays a primary role in the (re)production of social inequalities.
Μελέτες για την ελληνική γλώσσα 35, 2015
In the present paper, discourse analysis is implemented to journalism under the perspective of CD... more In the present paper, discourse analysis is implemented to journalism under the perspective of CDA, using Fairclough's three-dimensional model. A descriptive analysis of the texts is carried out, focusing on the function of lexical choices, according to Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar. The aim is to make evident how language (re)produces stereotypes and asymmetric power relations, forming aspects of the social reality and revealing the authors' ideologies. More particularly, 70 texts have been chosen from the feminist magazine Ο Αγώνας της Γυναίκας 'The woman's struggle', of which 39 belong to the period 1923-1936 and 31 from the 1980's. According to the results of the research, the lexicogrammatical elements play a crucial role in the reproduction of social inequalities, while certain unexpected ideological trends emerging from the comparison of the two periods under examination are particularly interesting.
Πρακτικά 7ου Συνεδρίου Μεταπτυχιακών Φοιτητών του Τμήματος Φιλολογίας, 2014
In the Greek jurisprudence verbal abuse is an offence against honour, unclear regarding its lingu... more In the Greek jurisprudence verbal abuse is an offence against honour, unclear regarding its linguistic determination. The aim of the present research is to examine the function of the contextual factors and lexicogrammatical choices of verbal abuse, as an offence against honour according to the penal code. The material is based on judgments from the Legal Data Bank "Isocrates". The results of the analysis have shown that there are not only objective evaluative characterizations that mark the style as abusive, but mainly contextual elements, which attribute a certain quality to speech and are perceived as insulting for the honour of the victim. This does not mean that there are no lexical elements carrying independently abusive meaning, but the mere existence of such elements is not a sufficient condition for proving verbal abuse. Conversely, there are cases of judgments in which the relationships, the intentions, the communication norms and paralinguistic elements play the main role.
Research result. Theoretical and applied linguistics, 2015
According to Berlin & Kay’s theory, it is possible for a language to include more than 11 basic c... more According to Berlin & Kay’s theory, it is possible for a language to include more than 11 basic colour terms. It is remarkable that in certain languages more than one term denote «blue». Russian is a good example of a language having two basic terms for blue – sinij (dark blue) and goluboj (light blue). Similar examples of languages with two basic colour terms for blue are Turkish, Arabian, Italian and Chinese. In addition, Androulaki et al. claim that Modern Greek has 12 basic colour terms, supporting that γalбzjo (light blue) should be included in these terms. The question arising is whether the term γalбzjo in Modern Greek could be considered as a basic colour term. This is the main issue in the present experimental research. For conducting the experiment the Munsell colour system was used. The results of the empirical research show that the term γalanу is a lighter hue of blй (blue) in relation to γalбzjo. Moreover, these terms cannot be considered as basic, since, on the one hand, they are included in a basic colour category (blй), and, on the other hand, they occur only in particular collocations, violating the corresponding Berlin & Kay’s criteria.
In this paper, the Berlin & Kay (1969) experiment is applied to the Greek language for the first ... more In this paper, the Berlin & Kay (1969) experiment is applied to the Greek language for the first time. The aims are: (1) to examine whether the universal perception of colours is valid, based on Greek data· (2) to investigate whether speakers have the same perception of basic categories of colours in compounds consisting of basic colours and also of colour terms that are considered as synonyms in the lexicon· (3) given that the data are collected from a sample of men and women, to examine whether there is a difference in the perception of colours between the two genders. The experiment showed that there is a universal perception both of the basic colours and of the compounds of these colours. Indeed, regarding the compounds, in most cases the speakers' estimation tends closer to the first component. The clustering of word couples in different areas of the palette, although these terms are considered as synonyms in the lexicon, has also been noticed. Finally, there are some deviations regarding the perception of colours, mainly of red and green, between the two genders, while men's answers tend toward brighter hues.
This study deals with research made on cross-linguistic colour categorization and naming based on... more This study deals with research made on cross-linguistic colour categorization and naming based on the hypothesis raised in Berlin and Kay (1969) about an almost universal pattern in the selection of colours that receive abstract names in each language. In order to reveal the overall palette of basic colour terms within the Greek language as well as the level of agreement among speakers, we have conducted two experiments. The mechanism of compound formation using basic colours is further tested against the principle of the Right-hand Head Rule as proposed in Williams (1981). The results of our empirical research show, on the one hand, that Greek speakers' intuition agrees with the universality claim for the basic colour terms, but on the other hand compounding involving two colour constituents rejects the RHR by shifting the head to the left.
11ο Διεθνές Συνέδριο Ελληνικής Γλωσσολογίας, 2014
The present research aims at examining the ways that lexicogrammatical choices lead to a characte... more The present research aims at examining the ways that lexicogrammatical choices lead to a character analysis through a play text, under the perspective of a linguistics stylistic analysis. The selected work is Gregorios Xenopoulos' "Stella Violanti", a text with powerful and conflicting characters, whose behaviour is inscribed in the cultural and regulatory standards of their era. The analysis shows that lexicogrammatical choices play a crucial role in the interpretation of the identities, taking into account the context and the interlocutors. Moreover, it is remarkable the fact that the character shift is accompanied by a corresponding change in the style and the language structures.
This study deals with research made on cross-linguistic colour categorization and naming based on... more This study deals with research made on cross-linguistic colour categorization and naming based on the hypothesis raised in Berlin and Kay (1969) about an almost universal pattern in the selection of colours that receive abstract names in each language. In order to reveal the overall palette of basic colour terms within the Greek language as well as the level of agreement among speakers, we have conducted two experiments. The mechanism of compound formation using basic colours is further tested against the principle of the Right-hand Head Rule as proposed in Williams (1981). The results of our empirical research show, on the one hand, that Greek speakers' intuition agrees with the universality claim for the basic colour terms, but on the other hand compounding involving two colour constituents rejects the RHR by shifting the head to the left.
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Papers by Dimitra Serakioti