Grammatical category influences lateralized imagery for sentences

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
SOFIA STROUSTRUP ◽  
MIKKEL WALLENTIN
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Female Character ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Reading Direction ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Figure Drawings ◽  
Natural Language Syntax

abstractNatural language syntax has previously been thought to reflect abstract processing rules independent of meaning construction. However, grammatical categories may serve a functional role by allocating attention towards recurrent topics in discourse. Here, we show that listeners incorporate grammatical category into imagery when producing stick figure drawings from heard sentences, supporting the latter view. Participants listened to sentences with transitive verbs that independently varied whether a male or a female character (1) was mentioned first, (2) was the agent or recipient of an action, and (3) was the grammatical subject or object of the sentence. Replicating previous findings, we show that the first named character as well as the agent of the sentence tends to be drawn to the left in the image, probably reflecting left-to-right reading direction. But we also find that the grammatical subject of the sentence has a propensity to be drawn to the left of the object. We interpret this to suggest that grammatical category carries discursive meaning as an attention allocator. Our findings also highlight how language influences processes hitherto thought to be non-linguistic.

scholarly journals Grammar, gender and demonstratives in lateralized imagery for sentences

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Wallentin ◽  
Roberta Rocca ◽  
Sofia Stroustrup
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Gender Effects ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Grammatical Subject ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
Reading Direction ◽  
Figure Drawings ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Significant Support

We investigated biases in the organization of imagery by asking participants to make stick-figure drawings of sentences containing a man, a woman and a transitive action (e.g. She kisses that guy). Previous findings show that prominent features of meaning and sentence structure are placed to the left in drawings, according to reading direction (e.g. Stroustrup & Wallentin, 2018). Five hundred thirty participants listened to sentences in Danish and made 8 drawings each. We replicated three findings: 1) that the first mentioned element is placed to the left more often, 2) that the agent in the sentence is placed to the left, and 3) that the grammatical subject is placed to the left of the object. We further tested hypotheses related to deixis and gender stereotypes. By adding demonstratives (e.g. Danish equivalents of this and that), that have been found to indicate attentional prominence, we tested the hypothesis that this is also translated into a left-ward bias in the produced drawings. We were unable to find support for this hypothesis. Analyses of gender biases tested the presence of a gender identification and a gender stereotype effect. According to the identification hypothesis, participants should attribute prominence to their own gender and draw it to the left, and according to the stereotype effect participants should be more prone to draw the male character to the left, regardless of own gender. We were not able to find significant support for either of the two gender effects. The combination of replications and null-findings suggest that the left-ward bias in the drawing experiment might be narrowly tied to left-to-right distribution in written language and less to overall prominence. No effect of handedness was observed.

Natural language syntax

Language ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 945-948
Author(s):  
Robert D. Borsley
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Natural Language Syntax

scholarly journals Natural language syntax complies with the free-energy principle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliot Murphy ◽  
Emma Holmes ◽  
Karl Friston
Keyword(s):  
Free Energy ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Speech Segmentation ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Energy Principle ◽  
Free Energy Principle ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Theoretical Syntax ◽  
Natural Language Syntax

Natural language syntax yields an unbounded array of hierarchically structured expressions. We claim that these are used in the service of active inference in accord with the free-energy principle (FEP). While conceptual advances alongside modelling and simulation work have attempted to connect speech segmentation and linguistic communication with the FEP, we extend this program to the underlying computations responsible for generating elementary syntactic objects. We argue that recently proposed principles of economy in language design—such as “minimal search” and “least effort” criteria from theoretical syntax—adhere to the FEP. This permits a greater degree of explanatory power to the FEP—with respect to higher language functions—and presents linguists with a grounding in first principles of notions pertaining to computability. More generally, we explore the possibility of migrating certain topics in linguistics over to the domain of fields that investigate the FEP, such as complex polysemy. We aim to align concerns of linguists with the normative model for organic self-organisation associated with the FEP, marshalling evidence from theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics to ground core principles of efficient syntactic computation within active inference.

Constructional meaning representation within a knowledge engineering framework

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ricardo Mairal-Usón
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Engineering ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Language Understanding ◽  
Role And Reference Grammar ◽  
Reference Grammar ◽  
Meaning Representation

FunGramKB is a multipurpose lexico-conceptual knowledge base for natural language processing systems, and more particularly, for natural language understanding. The linguistic layer of this knowledge-engineering project is grounded in compatible aspects of two linguistic accounts, namely, Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and the Lexical Constructional Model (LCM). RRG, although originally a lexicalist approach, has recently incorporated constructional configurations into its descriptive and explanatory apparatus. The LCM has sought to understand from its inception the factors that constrain lexical-constructional integration. Within this theoretical context, this paper discusses the format of lexical entries, highly inspired in RRG proposals, and of constructional schemata, which are organized according to the descriptive levels supplied by the LCM. Both lexical and constructional structure is represented by means of Attribute Value Matrices (AVMs). Thus, the lexical and grammatical levels of FunGramKB are the focus of our attention here. Additionally, the need for a conceptualist approach to meaning construction is highlighted throughout our discussion.

scholarly journals Linguistic anchors in the sea of thought?

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Public Language ◽  
Daniel Dennett ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Computational Properties ◽  
Communicative Role

Language, according to Jackendoff, is more than just an instrument of communication and cultural transmission. It is also a tool which helps us to think. It does so, he suggests, by expanding the range of our conscious contents and hence allowing processes of attention and reflection to focus on items (such as abstract concepts and steps in chains of reasoning) which would not otherwise be available for scrutiny. I applaud Jackendoff s basic vision, but raise some doubts concerning the argument. In particular, I wonder what it is about public language that uniquely fits it to play the functional role which Jackendoff isolates — why couldn't expression in a private inner code induce the same computational benefits? I suggest a weaker position in which the communicative role of public language moulds it into a suitably expressive resource, such that natural language emerges as the logically and technologically contingent filler of a functional role which could, in principle, be filled by other means. I also compare and contrast Jackendoff's position with some related ideas due to Daniel Dennett and others, concluding with a sketch of my own view of language as an external artifact whose computational properties complement those of the basic biological brain.

A Study of the Middle Construction in English with Special Reference to Learner’s Dictionaries

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-421
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Zhu ◽  
Guohua Chen
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Grammatical Category ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Semantic Properties ◽  
Significant Attention

Abstract Although the middle construction has attracted significant attention from syntacticians, its identity still remains controversial and it is not treated as a separate grammatical category in any English learner’s dictionary. This article, based on the data collected from three English learner’s dictionaries, investigates the middle construction in terms of its syntactic and semantic properties and the constraints on its use. It shows that the three learner’s dictionaries treat the middle construction in inconsistent and problematic manners. The middle use of a verb is not distinguished from either transitive verbs with an implicit object or intransitive verbs, which may hinder English learners’ acquisition of the construction. The article proposes that middle verbs should be treated as a separate subcategory of verbs on a par with transitive and intransitive verbs so that learners will become more aware of them and learn to use them correctly.

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