scholarly journals Subcortical Involvement in Formulaic Language: Studies on Bilingual Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 4029-4045
Author(s):  
Binna Lee ◽  
Diana Van Lancker Sidtis
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Language Studies

Purpose An impoverished production of routinized expressions, namely, formulaic language, has been reported for monolingual speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD). Little is known regarding how formulaic expressions might be manifested in individuals with neurological damage who speak more than one language. This study investigated the processing of formulaic language across first language (L1) and second language (L2) in bilingual individuals with PD. Method Eleven Korean–English bilingual speakers with PD, who acquired Korean as L1 and English as L2, were recruited for this study. Two matched control groups composed of 11 healthy Korean–English bilingual individuals and 11 healthy native English speakers were included for comparison. Their performance on three structured tasks (comprehension, completion, and judgment–correction) and conversational speech was measured and compared across groups for analyses. Results The bilingual speakers with PD had significantly impaired comprehension of formulaic language in L1 and had lower proportions of formulaic expressions in their L1 conversational speech compared with the bilingual controls. Regarding L2, both bilingual groups with and without PD were comparable in their English performance across all tasks. Both groups performed significantly poorer in L2 structured tasks than the native English speakers. Spontaneous production of formulaic language in English (L2 for bilingual individuals) was similar across all three groups. Conclusions The results of this study contribute to the growing body of literature on impoverishment of formulaic language production following subcortical dysfunction. Additionally, findings here demonstrate a selective impairment of formulaic language performance in L1 but not L2 for bilinguals with PD, further supporting the role of the basal ganglia in native language.

scholarly journals Formulaic Language in Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease: Complementary Effects of Subcortical and Cortical Dysfunction

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1493-1507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Van Lancker Sidtis ◽  
JiHee Choi ◽  
Amy Alken ◽  
John J. Sidtis
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
The Right

Purpose The production of formulaic expressions (conversational speech formulas, pause fillers, idioms, and other fixed expressions) is excessive in the left hemisphere and deficient in the right hemisphere and in subcortical stroke. Speakers with Alzheimer's disease (AD), having functional basal ganglia, reveal abnormally high proportions of formulaic language. Persons with Parkinson's disease (PD), having dysfunctional basal ganglia, were predicted to show impoverished formulaic expressions in contrast to speakers with AD. This study compared participants with PD, participants with AD, and healthy control (HC) participants on protocols probing production and comprehension of formulaic expressions. Method Spontaneous speech samples were recorded from 16 individuals with PD, 12 individuals with AD, and 18 HC speakers. Structured tests were then administered as probes of comprehension. Results The PD group had lower proportions of formulaic expressions compared with the AD and HC groups. Comprehension testing yielded opposite contrasts: participants with PD showed significantly higher performance compared with participants with AD and did not differ from HC participants. Conclusions The finding that PD produced lower proportions of formulaic expressions compared with AD and HC supports the view that subcortical nuclei modulate the production of formulaic expressions. Contrasting results on formal testing of comprehension, whereby participants with AD performed significantly worse than participants with PD and HC participants, indicate differential effects on procedural and declarative knowledge associated with these neurological conditions.

Prosodic Disambiguation in First and Second Language Production: English and Korean

2021 ◽  
pp. 002383092110420
Author(s):  
Hyunah Baek
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Phonological Categories ◽  
Production Experiment ◽  
Phonetic Cues

This study investigates the use of prosodic cues for syntactic ambiguity resolution by first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers. In a production experiment, sentences with relative clause attachment ambiguity were elicited in three language conditions: native English speakers’ L1 productions as well as Korean-English bilingual speakers’ L1 Korean and L2 English productions. The results show that English uses both boundary marking (pause) and relative word prominence (elevated pitch and intensity) for disambiguation, while Korean mainly relies on boundary marking (pre-boundary lengthening and pause). The bilingual speakers have learned to use the English phonological categories such as pitch accents for disambiguation, but their use of phonetic cues to realize these categories still differed from that of native English speakers. In addition, they did not show a significant use of boundary cues. These results are discussed in relation to the typological differences between the prosody of English and of Korean.

scholarly journals Where the action could be: Speakers look at graspable objects and meaningful scene regions when describing potential actions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn L Rehrig ◽  
Candace Elise Peacock ◽  
Taylor Hayes ◽  
Fernanda Ferreira ◽  
John M. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Real World ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
General Meaning ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Better Than

The world is visually complex, yet we can efficiently describe it by extracting the information that is most relevant to convey. How do the properties of real-world scenes help us decide where to look and what to say? Image salience has been the dominant explanation for what drives visual attention and production as we describe displays, but new evidence shows scene meaning predicts attention better than image salience. Here we investigated the relevance of one aspect of meaning, graspability (the grasping interactions objects in the scene afford), given that affordances have been implicated in both visual and linguistic processing. We quantified image salience, meaning, and graspability for real-world scenes. In three eyetracking experiments, native English speakers described possible actions that could be carried out in a scene. We hypothesized that graspability would preferentially guide attention due to its task-relevance. In two experiments using stimuli from a previous study, meaning explained visual attention better than graspability or salience did, and graspability explained attention better than salience. In a third experiment we quantified image salience, meaning, graspability, and reach-weighted graspability for scenes that depicted reachable spaces containing graspable objects. Graspability and meaning explained attention equally well in the third experiment, and both explained attention better than salience. We conclude that speakers use object graspability to allocate attention to plan descriptions when scenes depict graspable objects within reach, and otherwise rely more on general meaning. The results shed light on what aspects of meaning guide attention during scene viewing in language production tasks.

Some cases of linguistic interference in Bulgarian in English-Bulgarian bilingual children and english native speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language

Proglas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliyana Dimitrova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
Children's Speech

he study examines some linguistic errors in the process of learning Bulgarian by Bulgarian-English bilingual children and by native English speakers who study Bulgarian as a second language. The emphasis is on some typical interference errors which are common (identical) for both the bilingual children’s speech and the speech of native English speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language. Based on the analyzed aberration corpus, the opinion we give is that many of the processes taking place during the acquisition of the Bulgarian language are the same for both bilingual children with English and native English speakers.

Single Word Insertions as Code-Switching or Established Borrowing?

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Marzieh Hadei
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Class 1

<p class="1"><span lang="X-NONE">The present study aims to show whether or not English single word insertions in Persian can be considered as code-switching or established borrowing. A mixed method design is chosen for the study. Data for the present study were collected from 12 Persian-English bilingual speakers in different tape-recorded spontaneous conversations. The findings of the study revealed that English single word insertions cannot be considered as established borrowing for several reasons:  a) They are not integrated phonologically into the Persian frame b) They behave similarly to phrasal insertions with different Persian markers c) They are not fixed in the mental lexicon of the bilingual Persian-English speakers and are used without any awareness and d) English verbs cannot integrate into the Persian frame- neither morphologically nor syntactically. <span>Overall, the present study agrees with Myers-Scotton’s (2002) </span>that borrowing arises originally as code-switching, and borrowed forms and code-switched forms tend to fall across a continuum.</span></p>

English Nasalance Values of Chinese Learners of English

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Yilan Liu ◽  
Sue Ann S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Chinese Learners Of English

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate nasalance scores of speakers of different languages, little research has examined the nasalance characteristics of second language learners. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The goal of the current study was to examine whether English nasalance values of Mandarin Chinese speakers are similar to those of native English speakers, examining the potential effect of the first language on the nasalance scores of the second language production. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Thirty-two adults (16 Mandarin Chinese speakers and 16 native English speakers) with a normal velopharyngeal anatomy participated. Nasalance scores of various speech stimuli were obtained using a nasometer and compared between the 2 groups. <b><i>Results and Conclusions:</i></b> Chinese learners of English produced higher nasalance scores than native English speakers on prolonged vowel /i/ and /a/, the syllable “nin,” and non-nasal sentences and passages. The first language effect on nasalance of the second language found in the current study suggests the importance of linguistic consideration in the clinical evaluation of resonance.

scholarly journals Efficacy and Acceptance of a Lombard-response Device for Hypophonia in Parkinson’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 634-641
Author(s):  
Scott Adams ◽  
Niraj Kumar ◽  
Philippe Rizek ◽  
Angeline Hong ◽  
Jenny Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Communication Effectiveness ◽  
Conversational Speech ◽  
Trial Period ◽  
Speech Impairment ◽  
Response Device ◽  
High Satisfaction

ABSTRACT:Objective:The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness, satisfaction, and acceptance of a low-cost Lombard-response (LR) device in a group of individuals with Parkinson’s disease (IWPD) and their communication partners (CPs).Method:Sixteen IWPD and hypophonia and their CPs participated in the study. The IWPD wore a LR device that included a small MP3 player (Sony Walkman) and headphones playing a multi-talker noise audio file at 80 dB during lab-based speech tasks and during their daily conversational speech over a 2-week device trial period. Outcome measures included average conversational speech intensity and scores on a questionnaire related to speech impairment, communication effectiveness, and device satisfaction.Results:Conversational speech intensity of the IWPD is increased by 7 to 10 dB with the LR device. Following a 2-week trial period, eight of the IWPD (50%) gave the LR device moderate-to-high satisfaction and effectiveness ratings and decided to purchase the device for long-term daily use. At the 4-month follow-up, none of the IWPDs were still using the LR device. Device rejection was related to discomfort (loudness), headaches, interference with cognition, and difficulty controlling device.Conclusion:Short-term acceptance and satisfaction with the LR device was moderate, but long-term acceptance, beyond 4 months, was absent. Future studies are required to determine if other types of low-cost LR devices can be developed that improve long-term efficacy and device acceptance in IWPD and hypophonia.

The Influence of Language Exposure on Lexical and Syntactic Language Processing

2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Love ◽  
Edwin Maas ◽  
David Swinney
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
On Line ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Structural Processing ◽  
Object Relative

Abstract. Previous literature has argued that proficient bilingual speakers often demonstrate monolingual-equivalent structural processing of language (e.g., the processing of structural ambiguities; Frenck-Mestre, 2002 ). In this paper, we explore this thesis further via on-line examination of the processing of syntactically complex structures with three populations: those who classify as monolingual native English speaker (MNES), those who classify as non-native English speakers (NNES), and those who classify as bilingual native English speakers (BNES). On-line measures of processing of object-relative constructions demonstrated that both NNES and BNES have different patterns of performance as compared to MNES. Further, NNES and BNES speakers perform differently from one another in such processing. The study also examines the activation of lexical information in biasing contexts, and suggests that different processes are at work in the different type of bilinguals examined here. The nature of these differences and the implications for developing sensitive models of on-line language comprehension are developed and discussed.

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