This study investigates speakers’ assessment of the evaluative polarity of the members of eight antonym pairs, e.g., fast–slow and warm–cold, that are not inherently evaluative, unlike antonyms such as good–bad, ugly–beautiful. The contentful structures foregrounded by fast–slow and warm–cold are SPEED and TEMPERATURE, repectively, but the properties that they evoke may also be profiled against...

The study of grammatical mood has a long tradition in philology and linguistic semantics. Typologically, we find morphological distinctions such as indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative. Focussing on the subjunctive versus indicative contrast, traditional grammars typically identify the indicative with realis and the subjunctive with irrealis, and describe the contrast in terms of selec...

We used dense-array event-related potentials (ERP) to examine the time course and neural bases of evaluative processing. Participants made good vs. bad (evaluative) and abstract vs. concrete (nonevaluative) judgments of socially relevant concepts (e.g., "murder," "welfare"), and then rated all concepts for goodness and badness. Results revealed a late positive potential (LPP) beginning at about...

Evaluative responses appear to involve 2 seemingly distinct sets of processes: those that are automatically activated and others that are more consciously controlled. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the authors investigated the brain systems associated with automatic and controlled evaluative processing. Participants made either evaluative (good-bad) or nonevaluative (past-present)...