Processing strategies used by Basque-French bilingual and Basque monolingual children for the production of the subject-agent in Basque

An experiment was carried out to examine the effect of presentation rate on recall, as a function of the kind of input-processing carried out by the subject during a running memory task. Subjects listened to long sequences of digits (16–35 items in length), and attempted to recall as many as possible of the last 10 items presented during a 15 s break between successive sequences. Digits were presented at rates of 1, 2 or 3/s in different sequences, distributed randomly throughout a 60-sequence test. Separate groups of 16 subjects were instructed to use one of the following strategies in listening to the digits: Active—rehearsing and grouping digits by threes; Passive—avoiding all forms of organization of the input. The results demonstrate clear and reliable differences between strategies in the effect of rate. Active is best at 1/s and deteriorates monotonically with increases in rate, while Passive shows the opposite trend, improving from 1 to 3/s. The operation of an important input-processing factor is evident in these findings, and is probably at least partly responsible for the previous lack of agreement in studies of the effect of presentation rate in immediate recall.

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A Semantic Analysis of Absent Subjects of Idioms in Gĩkũyũ

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ◽

10.7575/aiac.alls.v.11n.3p.9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 9

Author(s):

Purity Njambi Kiguta ◽

Moses Gatambuki Gathigia ◽

Catherine Waithera Ndung’u

Keyword(s):

Figurative Language ◽

Semantic Analysis ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

Group Discussions ◽

Descriptive Research ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Content Analysis Method ◽

Idiomatic Expressions ◽

The Subject ◽

Etymological Elaboration

Idioms have been studied for a considerable time by linguists with a view of explaining their meaning. In Gĩkũyũ, for example, the meaning of most idioms can be derived from constituents that form them. However, in some Gĩkũyũ idioms, the meaning is hindered by the absence of the subject in the idiomatic utterance or sentence. It is against this background that this study sought to conduct a semantic analysis on selected idioms in Gĩkũyũ. Thus, the objective of this study was to establish the absent subject in the selected Gĩkũyũ idioms through etymological elaboration and then conduct a semantic analysis of the idioms. The study was based on the Conventional Figurative Language Theory (Dobrovol and Elisabeth). The study employed the descriptive research design and purposively targeted 20 Gĩkũyũ idioms. Data was collected through focus group discussions involving 10 participants who are native speakers of Gĩkũyũ. The study used the content analysis method, which is within the qualitative research paradigm. The data was presented in form of tables and themes. The Gĩkũyũ idiomatic expressions and the established subjects were listed and their gloss provided. Through etymological elaboration, a semantic analysis of the idiomatic expressions was conducted. The findings of the study are that the absence of the subject in idioms greatly hinders their comprehensibility. Further, etymological elaboration is required in order to establish the absent subject. The findings therefore imply that whenever the comprehensibility of an idiom is compromised by the lack of the subject in the utterance, cognitive linguists should process the meaning by using etymological elaboration The study concludes that interpretation of idiomatic expressions in Gĩkũyũ can be enhanced by establishing the absent subject through etymological elaboration which provides clues that aid interpretation .Secondly, semantic analysis of the idioms enhances comprehensibility. The study recommends further research on absent subjects in Gĩkũyũ idioms that were not part of this study. Secondly, other idiom processing strategies for example contextualization (Copper, 2004) can be used to establish the absent subjects in idiomatic expressions. Thirdly, further research can be conducted to establish other aspects of idioms that hinder comprehensibility of idioms not only in Gĩkũyũ but also in other languages. The study will not only provide valuable linguistic knowledge on the study of idioms in Gĩkũyũ but will also encourage further research on idioms in other languages.

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Bilingual Processing of Comparative Structures in Spanish

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages3030035 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 35

Author(s):

Álvaro Villegas

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Strategies ◽

The United States ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

Semantic Ambiguity ◽

Bilingual Speakers ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Comparative Structure ◽

The Subject ◽

Bilingual Processing ◽

Similar Processing

Previous studies have focused on the access of content words to investigate the cognitive strategies used in bilingual processing (e.g., Fernández 2003), but less is known about functional words. In this study, I assess (i) whether three groups of bilingual speakers of Spanish (native, heritage, and second language (L2) speakers) access the lexically-encoded information of the quantifier más ‘more’ to activate a comparative structure interpretation, and (ii) what processing strategies are used to resolve a temporary semantic ambiguity that surfaces upon accessing that interpretation. Using a self-paced reading task, three groups of Spanish speakers living in the United States read comparative sentences, which allowed for two possible continuations at the subordinate clause: a subject continuation (e.g., El cantante obtiene más premios que el pianista en el festival ‘The singer gets more awards than the pianist at the festival’) or an object continuation (e.g., El cantante obtiene más premios que críticas en el festival ‘The singer gets more awards than criticism at the festival’). Results revealed longer reading times for the subject comparison compared to the object comparison structures, and no significant differences between the three groups, suggesting that participants in all groups followed similar processing strategies and preferences in the reading of comparative structures.

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From emergence to acquisition

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/aral.20.1.05man ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 83-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Fethi Mansouri

Keyword(s):

Information Structures ◽

Linguistic Complexity ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

The Subject ◽

Agreement Morphology ◽

And Gender

Abstract This paper concerns the emergence and development of agreement marking in Arabic interlanguage. It investigates the effect of competing structures (pragmatics, semantics and morphosyntax) on the development of Arabic subject-verb agreement morphology. It is hypothesised that Arabic Interlanguage morphology is constrained by the availability of processing strategies (Clahsen, 1986) and competing information structures (Bates and McWhinney, 1981; 1987) especially when dealing with complex agreement patterns. The results show that linguistic complexity (a) influences the types of processing strategies employed and (b) determines the order of acquisition of different agreement patterns. It is also revealed that when the three information structures compete for interpretation of speech, morphosyntax emerges as the least influential eventhough it seems that S-V agreement in Arabic, at least on the surface, is essentially a transfer of morphosyntactic features (person, number and gender) from the subject onto the verb.

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Processing strategies used by Basque-French bilingual and Basque monolingual children for the production of the subject-agent in Basque

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.16047.dug ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (4-5) ◽

pp. 514-541 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Isabelle Duguine ◽

Barbara Köpke

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Word Order ◽

Language Production ◽

Competition Model ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Cue Validity ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Case Marker ◽

Different Ages ◽

The Subject

Abstract We sought to describe the strategies used by 2L1 and L2 Basque-French bilingual children and monolingual Basque children to express subject-agent function in a free elicitation context in Basque. Based on a three-year longitudinal study, the analysis focused on transitive constructions requiring a subject-agent noun marked for ergative case. The results showed that the children mastered production of the ergative case marker at different ages, and used different psycholinguistic strategies to refer to the subject-agent. The majority of the bilingual children favoured topological strategy (i.e., marking of the subject-agent in the first position through subject-verb-object word order). However, the children with L1 Basque seemed to engage more in morphological strategy, through the use of the nominal ergative suffix. These data allowed us to discuss variations in the performance of bilingual children in light of the cue cost and cue validity concepts elaborated by the Competition Model applied to language production.

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Processing transfer: Language-specific processing strategies as a source of interlanguage variation

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716400000370 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 351-377 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Michael Harrington

Keyword(s):

Word Order ◽

Speech Processing ◽

Order Effects ◽

Response Patterns ◽

English Sentence ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

The Subject ◽

Left And Right ◽

Simple Sentences

ABSTRACTA sentence interpretation experiment based on the functionalist Competition Model of speech processing (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982) was administered to three groups of university-age English L1, Japanese ESL, and Japanese L1 subjects (n = 12 per group) in an attempt to elicit evidence for (1) processing strategies characteristic of the Japanese and English L1 groups and, (2) transfer/influence of Japanese L1 strategies on the English sentence interpretations of the Japanese ESL group. Subjects selected the subject/actor of simple sentences incorporating word order, animacy, and stress cues in random converging and competing orders. The English L1 and ESL groups were tested on English sentences and the Japanese L1 group tested on Japanese sentences. The Japanese L1 interpretations were most heavily influenced by animacy cues, while the English L1 group showed a higher overall sensitivity to word order manipulations. The ESL group resembled the Japanese L1 group in reliance on animacy cues, with the exception of allowing inanimate nouns to act as subjects. While the ESL group showed greater sensitivity to word order effects than the Japanese L1 group, no “second-noun” strategy (i.e., systematically interpreting the NNV and VNN orders as left- and right-dislocated SOV and VOS orders) was evident.Although the findings were generally consistent with previous research, the presence of contrasting response patterns in the English L1 group suggests caution in attempting to typify languages on the basis of processing strategies drawn from probablistic tendencies evident in grouped data, and leaves open the role of such processing strategy typologies as a potential source of variation in inter-language.

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Words

PMLA ◽

10.1017/s003081290013041x ◽

1935 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 1320-1327

Author(s):

Colbert Searles

Keyword(s):

Subject Matter ◽

Assistant Professor ◽

The Subject

THE germ of that which follows came into being many years ago in the days of my youth as a university instructor and assistant professor. It was generated by the then quite outspoken attitude of colleagues in the “exact sciences”; the sciences of which the subject-matter can be exactly weighed and measured and the force of its movements mathematically demonstrated. They assured us that the study of languages and literature had little or nothing scientific about it because: “It had no domain of concrete fact in which to work.” Ergo, the scientific spirit was theirs by a stroke of “efficacious grace” as it were. Ours was at best only a kind of “sufficient grace,” pleasant and even necessary to have, but which could, by no means ensure a reception among the elected.

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Artificial satellite orbit computations

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900105662 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 25 ◽

pp. 363-371

Author(s):

P. Sconzo

Keyword(s):

Artificial Satellite ◽

Satellite Orbit ◽

Artificial Satellites ◽

Orbital Elements ◽

Differential Correction ◽

Gravitational Effects ◽

Short Intervals ◽

The Subject ◽

Introductory Discussion ◽

Orbit Computation

In this paper an orbit computation program for artificial satellites is presented. This program is operational and it has already been used to compute the orbits of several satellites.After an introductory discussion on the subject of artificial satellite orbit computations, the features of this program are thoroughly explained. In order to achieve the representation of the orbital elements over short intervals of time a drag-free perturbation theory coupled with a differential correction procedure is used, while the long range behavior is obtained empirically. The empirical treatment of the non-gravitational effects upon the satellite motion seems to be very satisfactory. Numerical analysis procedures supporting this treatment and experience gained in using our program are also objects of discussion.

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C. Wire Cabling for Telescope Systems

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900180180 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. 159-161

Keyword(s):

The Subject ◽

Data Multiplexing

Rule: I'd like at this point to bring up the subject of cables and wireways around the telescope. We've touched upon this twice during previous sessions: the cable wrap up problem, the communications problem, and data multiplexing problem. I think we'll ask Bill Baustian if he will give us a brief run down on what the electrical run problems are, besides doubling the system every year.

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The relationship of the scleractinian corals to the rugose corals

Paleobiology ◽

10.1017/s0094837300025707 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 6 (02) ◽

pp. 146-160 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

William A. Oliver

Keyword(s):

Critical Points ◽

Scleractinian Corals ◽

Convincing Evidence ◽

Early Triassic ◽

Rugose Corals ◽

History Of ◽

The Subject ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

Biologic Factors

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.

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