Biomedical subjects

C Cacciari

Publications and source records attributed to C Cacciari.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

The effects of different tasks on the comprehension and production of idioms in children.

The present study investigated the developmental processes which lead from a literal interpretation of idiomatic expression to the ability of comprehending and producing them figuratively. A Model of the Development of Figurative Competence was presented according to which acquisition of idioms occurs as part of the general process of language and world knowledge development. Three experiments were carried out with second- and fourth-grade children, in which comprehension tasks - Recall, Multiple Choice, Paraphrase - and a production task - Completion - were employed. The results showed that younger children are more literally oriented than older children who in turn are more idiomatically oriented and that children of both age groups found it more difficult to produce idiomatic expressions than to comprehend them.

Child↗

PubMed1992

Children's comprehension and production of idioms: the role of context and familiarity.

Several studies have argued that children under the ages of nine or ten years rarely comprehend figurative language and therefore interpret it literally. Cacciari & Levorato (1989) showed that when idioms are presented within a rich informational environment, children are able to grasp the figurative sense at the age of seven, and also that children are less able to produce idioms than to comprehend them. In three experiments involving 264 children (whose age ranged from 6;9 to 11;9), we contrasted this global elaboration hypothesis with a partially alternative one, the acquisition via exposure hypothesis, according to which the frequency of exposure of children to idioms is the main factor explaining their acquisition and production. Results showed that familiarity (i.e. frequency of exposure) plays a minor role and only for children who are not yet able to use contextual information. Familiarity per se does not adequately explain how children acquire a figurative competence. A tentative model is proposed in order to account for figurative competence acquisition.

Child↗

PubMed1989

How children understand idioms in discourse.

Some studies have shown that children tend to interpret figurative language literally. Our hypothesis is that they can reach an idiomatic competence if idioms are presented within a rich informational environment allowing children to grasp their figurative sense. First and third graders were presented with narratives biased both to the figurative meaning of idioms (experiment 1) and to the literal meaning (experiment 2) and then given a comprehension task. Experiment 3 was designed to investigate children's production of idioms as compared to the comprehension abilities explored in experiments 1 and 2. Results show that informative contexts can improve children's ability to perceive idiomatic meanings even at the age of seven; and that children are less able to produce idioms than to comprehend them. Generally results emphasize that children seem able to perceive that language can be both figurative and literal.

Child↗

PubMed1979

Assessment of cerulein effects on serum bile acids concentration in liver disease. Comparison with the test meal.

Twenty-four liver patients and seven healthy subjects underwent the enzymatic-fluorimetric assay of total serum bile acids during fasting and after a hyperlipidic meal, both alone and with the intramuscular administration of 0.3 microgram/kg of cerulein. A third test with cerulein alone was carried out on the control group and on 12 liver patients. The liver patients were divided into two groups; those with moderate and severe liver disease, according to the degree of liver function impairment and the clinical data. The best discriminant efficiency was observed in the test with the meal alone, even if, in the liver patients, the meal with cerulein caused a greater percentual increase of serum bile acids. After taking into account the most significant correlations between serum bile acids and liver function tests, the addition of cerulein to the meal may be recommended for liver patients with previous cholecystectomy or gallbladder pathology.

Adult↗

PubMed1978

Retained gastric antrum syndrome diagnosed by [99mTc] pertechnetate scintiphotography in man: hormonal and radioisotopic study of two cases.

Retained-antrum syndrome is a rare condition, occurring in Billroth II gastrectomised patients, in which an ulcer recurs associated with high levels of circulating gastrin. Some gastrin tests are useful to differentiate a retained antrum from a gastrinoma, but a firm diagnosis is sometimes very difficult. We have studied two cases of retained-antrum syndrome both by gastrin tests and by [99mTc] pertechnetate scintiphotography. By this method a prominent area of activity was observed on the anatomic site of the duodenal stump bottom. It appeared after 20 or 30 min and lasted for the 2 hr of observation. After surgical resection, no area of activity was observed at the scintiphotographic followup. No false positive was observed out of the more than 30 subjects studied. Scintiphotography by pertechnetate seems able to demonstrate the presence and the size of retained gastric antrum in B II gastrectomised patients with recurrent ulcer.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

PubMed1972