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This study sheds light on the lexical choice difficulty encountered by advanced learners of English by analyzing the lexical choice errors committed by a group of Jordanian students majoring in English. A task was set for 40 students to translate from Arabic into English several sentences including lexical items whose specific senses restrict their use and applications in a particular context and within certain collocational patterns. The sources of the errors were identified and categorized. In backtracking the sources of the errors in each category, the study attempts to deduce the possible cognitive strategies employed by the students in dealing with a lexical choice difficulty. Hence, the study provides psycholinguistic empirical evidence on the lexical retrieval processes and strategies employed by second language (L2) learners in tackling lexical choice problems. Results of the study revealed that the students employ a range of first language (L1)-based and L2-based lexical retrieval strategies such as semantic association, semantic analogy, approximation and derivations.

The analysis and assessment of style involves examination of a writer's choice of words, his figures of speech, the devices (rhetorical and otherwise), the shape of his sentences (whether they be loose or periodic), the shape of his paragraphs - indeed, of every conceivable aspect of his language and the way in which he uses it.2 And then comes the blow, for Cuddon continues: \"Style defies complete analysis or definition. The present dossier containing a quartet of studies on aspects of style illustrates how varied the themes and approaches can and are bound to be. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Current Online Version, 2006), https://www.oxfordreference.com (accessed on 17 July 2025).

This article is focused on the language of tourism as a means of economic potential. Language in tourism, especially language of promotional texts, motivates and attracts tourists to visit a certain destination, and, consequently, makes profits. In its introductory part, the article offers a short theoretical insight into the functions of tourism discourse and, further on, Rick Steves‘ website texts (travelogues) about European destinations are examined through discourse analysis, more precisely linguistic analysis involving analysis of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. The results confirming the importance of lexical choices in tourism discourse are presented and discussed at the end of the article. Steves’ travelogues aim to turn potential tourists into actual tourists by employing language, rich in stylistic devices and lexical imagery. The texts convince the potential tourists actually to buy the tourism services and products promoted in the texts. Thus, Steves’ texts are examples of positive branding which aim to attract business. The research is orginial in the sense that it is concentrated on linguistic analysis of persuasive features based on discursive theories.

Previous work has demonstrated that New Zealanders who do not speak Māori but are regularly exposed to the language develop implicit knowledge of it. The core of this knowledge, it has been argued, is the 'proto-lexicon'-a set of stored word-forms, without associated meaning, which yields subsequent Māori phonotactic and morphological knowledge. Previous research shows that having a proto-lexicon gives learners a head start in learning Māori word meanings in formal education. We investigate experimentally whether the proto-lexicon confers an advantage for attaching meanings to words. In Experiment 1, non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders were tested on their ability to identify meanings of Māori words in a forced-choice definition task, and they did this relatively well. Then, words with low accuracy were selected for Experiment 2, where non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders and non-New Zealanders were asked to learn meanings for Māori words and nonwords. New Zealanders performed better, indicating that familiarity with Māori word shapes confers an advantage. However, they showed no greater advantage for real words over nonwords. If these words are definitely in the proto-lexicon, then this would suggest that knowledge of individual word-forms does not, in fact, confer an advantage. In Experiment 3, we therefore explore whether the words in Experiment 2 are actually robustly in the participants' proto-lexicon, by running a word identification task with the same participants. These words were not robustly distinguished from nonwords. By selecting words for their lack of semantic knowledge, we also inadvertently selected words that do not appear to be in the proto-lexicon. Together, our results indicate that different levels of semantic knowledge exist for different words, even when we consider only words that cannot confidently be said to be in a full lexicon. The results suggest that the claim of previous studies that the proto-lexicon is 'without semantics' may be oversimplified.

Language is the primary means of human communication in which the addresser uses a given linguistic sign to arouse a specific set of meaning(s) in the addressee. The term meaning is used here to refer to the images, interpretations and feelings or signification aroused by a particular sign or lexical item. In other words, communication takes place when there is a correspondence of meaning/ signification between the communicator and the receiver.   Lexical diversity is a significant aspect of Urdu news media. It occurs due to the fact that the news editors, belonging to diverse news agencies, choose from diverse lexical resources at their disposal to convey the same message in their own style and as per their own needs. However, it needs to be considered that the linguistic signs/ words are not just useless or insignificant entities that are used haphazardly and randomly. They have a certain role and signification and are used with certain intent by the news editors while framing the news items. It is clear that meaning of these signs/lexical items depends upon a host of factors including their collocation, socio-cultural setting and context of use. As such, these language symbols are selected and utilized very consciously and systematically by the news editors and, in doing so, they chose and exploit the lexical items in a planned manner to convey the intended message to the audience.   Given this backdrop, the present paper aims to undertake a psycho-semiotic analysis of Urdu news media to throw light on the selective use of lexical items by the news editors according to their background, purpose, and intention.

Research suggests that the exercise of control is desirable and adaptive, but the precise mechanisms underlying the affective value of control are not well understood. The study reported here characterized the affective experience of personal control by examining the neural substrates recruited when individuals anticipate the opportunity to make a choice— in other words, when they anticipate the means for exercising control. We used an experimental paradigm that probed the value of having a choice. Participants reported liking cues that predicted a future opportunity to make a choice more than cues that predicted no choice. The anticipation of choice itself was associated with increased activity in corticostriatal regions, particularly the ventral striatum, involved in affective and motivational processes. This study is the first direct examination of the affective value of having the opportunity to choose. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of perception of control, and choice itself, in self-regulatory processes.

While corpus-based translation studies have extensively analyzed lexical patterns, they exhibit critical theoretical limitations in integrating translation theories with empirical analysis, particularly in dramatic translation contexts where cultural mediation and audience reception intersect. Existing high-frequency verb research lacks systematic analysis of how individual lexical choices serve multiple simultaneous function—linguistic, cultural, and theatrical—in cross-cultural dramatic translation. This study addresses these gaps through integrated corpus-translation theory analysis of MAKE deployment in Cyril Birch’s English translation of Mistress and Maid (Jiaohongji) , a classical Chinese chuanqi play. Using AntConc 4.1.1 for corpus analysis (158 MAKE instances from 86,047-word corpus) combined with systematic cultural context examination, the research investigates how high-frequency verbs function as cultural bridging mechanisms. Methodological limitations include single-translator focus and potential genre-specific constraints. Analysis reveals five systematic functional categories: delexical verb constructions facilitating cultural concept transfer, causative verb patterns in bridging metaphorical traditions, notional verb usage in supporting plot development, linking constructions creating thematic resonance, and phrasal verb constructions in emotional expression. These patterns demonstrate that high-frequency verb deployment serves strategic cultural mediation functions beyond simple linguistic substitution. Theoretical Contributions: the study validates and refines the application translation universals in dramatic contexts, demonstrating how simplification and explicitation operate through systematic high-frequency verb deployment. It integrates descriptive translation studies with cultural mediation theory, revealing how micro-level lexical choices serve macro-level intercultural communication goals while challenging corpus linguistics’ purely quantitative approaches to translation analysis. Findings offer evidence-based guidance for dramatic translators regarding strategic use of high-frequency verbs to balance source-text fidelity with target-audience accessibility, particularly in contexts requiring cultural sensitivity and dramatic authenticity.

The present study examines the patterns of speech act in the herdsmen-farmers conflict (HFC) news headlines and interrogates the choice of words and context of the patterns of speech act in the headlines. The study adopts Searle, John. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Approach to speech act considering its relevance to the study of news headlines. Six Nigerian newspapers that cover a period between March 2019 and March 2021 were selected. Hundred headlines were sampled from each of the selected newspapers making a total of 600 headlines. Twenty-five were purposively selected for analysis. Four illocutionary acts were identified in the newspapers’ headlines, namely, assertive, commissive, directive, and declarative. The study submits that the headlines are capable of spiraling the conflict, therefore, newspaper writers should use headlines that can help to curb the conflict and readers must also go beyond the headlines because of their sensationalism.

The auditory Stroop is a modification of the classic Stroop paradigm commonly used in dual-task research when the motor task requires the visual system. Despite its use, there are gaps in our understanding of this tool. For example, in visual/auditory Stroop paradigms, neutral cues irrelevant to the required response, which theoretically cause less interference/facilitation, are used to elucidate effects of visual/auditory demands on neural processes. Specifically, in auditory Stroop paradigms the use and choice of neutral cue words is inconsistent. To address these gaps, we instrumented participants with kinematic markers and a digital microphone and asked them to respond to auditory Stroop cues and neutral cue words consisting of either one or two syllables, while simultaneously performing an unobstructed locomotor task. Two blocks of trials were collected. In one block, participants had prior knowledge that either an auditory Stroop or a neutral word stimulus would be presented (Known); a second block presented both types of cognitive cues in a random order to participants (Mixed). We observed main effects of cognitive task (neutral, incongruent, congruent) and instructional set (Known, Mixed) on response times, but not on center of mass velocity. Also, more time was required to verbally respond to an incongruent compared to congruent or neutral task across all conditions, and neutral task words with one syllable resulted in longer response times compared to two syllable neutral words. We recommend that researchers include neutral cues when using the auditory Stroop test and to carefully consider their neutral word choice.

This note on Propertius 4.7 argues that Cynthia, repeatedly cast in the role of the poet's Muse, rejects the burden of inspiration through a learned choice of words (non tamen insector, 4.7.49). The verb insector constitutes a clear reference to the invocation of the Camena in Livius Andronicus and of the Muse in Ennius. Cynthia recalibrates the parlance of poetic inspiration to end her relationship with Propertius, both as his puella and as his Muse.