An analysis of the logical semantic meanings of “or” in elementary science texts

The Chinese character ‘或’ (Romanized as ‘huo’; English meaning ‘or’) can be used in many ways, including as a noun, verb, pronoun, and logical connective. As it functions as a logical connective, at least five different semantic meanings (inclusive-, exclusive-, identical-, whole-, and both-or) have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJiao ke shu yan jiu Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 1
Main Authors Chia-Ling, Chiang, Wen-Gin, Yang, Pin-Yin Liao, Wei-Yu, Shih
Format Journal Article
LanguageChinese
English
Published Taipei National Academy for Educational Research 01.04.2014
Subjects
Semantics
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Summary:The Chinese character ‘或’ (Romanized as ‘huo’; English meaning ‘or’) can be used in many ways, including as a noun, verb, pronoun, and logical connective. As it functions as a logical connective, at least five different semantic meanings (inclusive-, exclusive-, identical-, whole-, and both-or) have been distinguished. This paper explores the deployment and meaning variations of ‘huo’ in elementary science texts. The findings indicate that the five types of ‘huo’ are prevailingly deployed in elementary science text. Crucially, the texts consistently lack linguistic cues for teachers and readers to understand the exact meaning. Understanding the meaning of ‘huo’ depends a great deal on domain knowledge. Strategies for teaching logical connectives and topics for further investigations are proposed.
ISSN:1999-8856
1999-8864