scholarly journals From shared contexts to syntactic categories: The role of distributional information in learning linguistic form-classes

2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Reeder ◽  
Elissa L. Newport ◽  
Richard N. Aslin
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Distributional Information

scholarly journals Experiencer as quasi-agent: «from meaning to the linguistic form»

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 112-136
Author(s):  
М.А. Fomina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Conceptual Category ◽  
Linguistic Representation ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Grammatical Subject

The paper focuses on the category of semantic subject within the framework of a functional approach to linguistics. The variety of roles subject may have in a sentence accounts for the radially structured category of subject. With the agent subject being the center of the category, other members – Possessor, Experiencer, Neutral, etc. – appear to be scattered within the syntactical category of subject being more central or peripheral. The paper deals with the Experiencer subject. The author stresses the key role of a well-elaborated metalanguage in linguistic analysis and assumes that a thorough analysis of the relevant conceptual category, its structure and content, should precede the stage of developing a metalanguage. The paper 1) differentiates between similar though not interchangeable notions such as semantic subject, grammatical subject, and the bearer of predicative feature, 2) features the peripheral status of the Experiencer within the category of semantic subject, 3) reveals the means of its linguistic representation, 4) makes a structural and semantic analysis of the models with the Experiencer.

scholarly journals Linking the neural basis of hierarchical prediction with statistical learning: The paradox of attention

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Schneider ◽  
Yi-Lun Weng ◽  
Anqi Hu ◽  
Zhenghan Qi
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Attentional Shift ◽  
Cortical Responses ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
Segmentation Task ◽  
Dependent Learning

Statistical learning, the process of tracking distributional information and discovering embedded patterns, is traditionally regarded as a form of implicit learning. However, recent studies proposed that both implicit (attention-independent) and explicit (attention-dependent) learning systems are involved in statistical learning. To understand the role of attention in statistical learning, the current study investigates the cortical processing of prediction errors in speech based on either local or global distributional information. We then ask how these cortical responses relate to statistical learning behavior in a word segmentation task. We found ERP evidence of pre-attentive processing of both the local (mismatching negativity) and global distributional information (late discriminative negativity). However, as speech elements became less frequent and more surprising, some participants showed an involuntary attentional shift, reflected in a P3a response. Individuals who displayed attentive neural tracking of distributional information showed faster learning in a speech statistical learning task. These results provide important neural evidence elucidating the facilitatory role of attention in statistical learning.

scholarly journals Novel metaphor translation is modulated by translation direction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jankowiak ◽  
Olha Lehka-Paul
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Process Research ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
L1 English

Abstract Previous translation process research has pointed to an increased cognitive load when translating metaphoric compared to literal language. Yet, studies conducted thus far have not examined the role of translation direction (i.e., L1–L2 vs. L2–L1) in novel metaphor translation and have not tested whether and how this process might be modulated by the linguistic form of a novel meaning. In the present study, Polish (L1) – English (L2) translation students translated novel nominal metaphors (A is B), novel similes (A is like B), and literal sentences, in either L1–L2 or L2–L1 translation directions, while their translation behavior was recorded using a keystroke logging method. The results revealed longer translation durations for both metaphors and similes relative to literal utterances. Furthermore, we found slower translation times for novel nominal metaphors compared to novel similes and literal sentences, yet only in the L2–L1 translation direction. Such results might indicate that novel meaning translation is more cognitively taxing in the case of novel nominal metaphors, which require a more robust activation of comparison mechanisms, relative to novel similes. Importantly, this effect might be stronger when translating in the direction in which access to semantic representations is potentially more automatic (i.e., L2–L1 translation).

The role of task repetition with direct written corrective feedback in L2 writing complexity, accuracy and fluency

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sima Khezrlou
Keyword(s):  
Error Correction ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Task Repetition ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Initial Task ◽  
Writing Complexity

Abstract This study explored whether the effects of task repetition in drawing learners’ attention to linguistic form could be reinforced through the provision of two types of unfocused direct written corrective feedback. Fifty-seven learners formed three conditions: (1) task repetition with no feedback (TR, control), (2) task repetition with error correction (TR+EC), and (3) task repetition with reformulation (TR+R). All groups repeated an identical writing narrative task but only the experimental groups received feedback after their initial task performance. All participants were then asked to complete a new task of the same type followed by a new task of a different type. Performance was gauged by multiple measures of complexity, accuracy and fluency. Results revealed the persistent superiority of the TR+EC condition on all measures of accuracy while the TR+R condition led to immediate written complexity improvement regarding subordination. Furthermore, both the TR+R and TR conditions resulted in delayed fluency gains.

Learning to assign stress in a second language: The role of second-language vocabulary size and transfer from the native language in second-language readers of Italian

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-136
Author(s):  
Giacomo Spinelli ◽  
Luciana Forti ◽  
Debra Jared
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Stress Assignment ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
Written Word

AbstractLearning to pronounce a written word implies assigning a stress pattern to that word. This task can present a challenge for speakers of languages like Italian, in which stress information must often be computed from distributional properties of the language, especially for individuals learning Italian as a second language (L2). Here, we aimed to characterize the processes underlying the development of stress assignment in native English and native Chinese speakers learning L2 Italian. Both types of bilinguals produced evidence supporting a role of vocabulary size in modulating the type of distributional information used in stress assignment, with an early bias for Italian's dominant stress pattern being gradually replaced by use of associations between orthographic sequences and stress patterns in more advanced bilinguals. We also obtained some evidence for a transfer of stress assignment habits from the bilinguals’ native language to Italian, although only in English native speakers.

Lexical reduplication and affective contents

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 148-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Affective Content ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The One

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the use of a linguistic form (lexical reduplication) can communicate affective contents. Lexical reduplication, understood as the intentional repetition of a word, is defined as a pattern XX used to convey, on the one hand, a content which differs from the “basic” meaning of X by involving, for instance, intensification, narrowing, or expansion, and, on the other hand, an affective content that results from the evaluation of the state of affairs at hand. To test reduplication as well as the derivation of affective contents linked to its use, I have relied on a recognition task: after hearing a short story, participants were asked if the items presented on the screen occurred in the story or not. The results obtained suggest that the formal pattern of reduplication plays the role of a trigger.

scholarly journals Apparent evidence for unconscious sound symbolism is probably artifactual: Commentary on Heyman, Maerten, Vankrunkelsven, Voorspoels and Moors (in press).

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Rabagliati
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Item Effects ◽  
Apparent Evidence ◽  
Surprising Finding

Sound symbolism refers to the intuition that a word’s sound should match the characteristics of its referents – e.g., kiki should label something spiky – and its prevalence and systematicity provide compelling evidence for an intuitive mapping between linguistic form and meaning. Striking recent work (Hung, Styles, & Hsieh, 2017) suggests that these mappings may have an unconscious basis, such that participants can compute the fit between a word’s sound and an object’s shape when both are masked from awareness. This surprising finding replicated in the pre-registered report by Heyman, Maerten, Vankrunkelsven, Voorspoels and Moors (2019), with potentially far-reaching implications for the role of awareness in language processing (Hassin, 2013; Rabagliati, Robertson, & Carmel, 2018). However, as I demonstrate, it is an artifact of the stimuli used. Once item effects are accounted for, these data provide no evidence that sound symbolism, and language more generally, can be processed without awareness.

scholarly journals Logic in the Tradition of Prabhācandra

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Hélène Gorisse
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Logical Inference ◽  
Epistemological Problem ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
Core Issue

The characterization of truth-preserving arguments is a core issue in India and received the detailed attention of philosophers. This chapter presents Prabhācandra’s theory of inference from the eleventh century, stressing its uniqueness and detailed critique of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti. In Prabhācandra’s framework, the inferential evidence has not three but just one characteristic, “being impossible otherwise.” The epistemological problem of the means to know when evidence has this characteristic is solved without regress by appeal to a non-inferential source of knowing, the “discernment of universals” (tarka). Finally, important advances in the role of negation in logical inference are related to a greater emphasis on linguistic form.

scholarly journals Notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use

Pragmatics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jef Verschueren
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Linguistic Form ◽  
The Status ◽  
Specific Manifestation

Against the background of a general theory of pragmatics, reflections are formulated on the central role of metapragmatic awareness as a specific manifestation of salience, the status of processes of meaning generation in language use in relation to the cognitive apparatus. First the notions of metalanguage and metapragmatics, as used in linguistics, are discussed. Then metalinguistic and metapragmatic phenomena are presented as reflections of metapragmatic awareness. Two ways in which indicators of metapragmatic awareness function in language use are distinguished: Their functioning as anchoring devices locating linguistic form in relation to context, and their functioning as signals of the language users’ reflexive interpretations of the activities they are engaged in. Finally, some social implications of metapragmatic functioning are discussed, in particular in relation to language ideologies and identity construction.

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