scholarly journals Relative entropy effects on the processing of spoken Romanian verbs

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-48
Author(s):  
Filip Nenadić ◽  
Petar Milin ◽  
Benjamin V. Tucker

Abstract A multitude of studies show the relevance of both inflectional paradigms (word form frequency distributions, i.e., inflectional entropy) and inflectional classes (whole class frequency distributions) for visual lexical processing. Their interplay has also been proven significant, measured as the difference between paradigm and class frequency distributions (relative entropy). Relative entropy effects have now been recorded in nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. However, all of these studies used visual stimuli – either written words or picture-naming tasks. The goal of our study is to test whether the effects of relative entropy can also be captured in the auditory modality. Forty young native speakers of Romanian (60% female) living in Serbia as part of the Romanian ethnic minority participated in an auditory lexical decision task. Stimuli were 168 Romanian verbs from two inflectional classes. Verbs were presented in four forms: present and imperfect 1st person singular, present 3rd person plural, and imperfect 2nd person plural. The results show that relative entropy influences both response accuracy and response latency. We discuss alternative operationalizations of relative entropy and how they can help us test hypotheses about the structure of the mental lexicon.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Nenadic ◽  
Benjamin V. Tucker ◽  
Petar Milin

A multitude of studies show the relevance of both inflectional paradigms (word form frequency distributions, i.e., inflectional entropy) and inflectional classes (whole class frequency distributions) for visual lexical processing. Their interplay has also been proven significant, measured as the difference between paradigm and class frequency distributions (relative entropy). Relative entropy effects have now been recorded in nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. However, all of these studies used visual stimuli — either written words or picture-naming tasks. The goal of our study is to test whether the effects of relative entropy can be captured in the auditory modality as well. Forty young native speakers of Romanian (60% female) living in Serbia as part of the Romanian ethnic minority participated in an auditory lexical decision task. Stimuli were 168 Romanian verbs from two inflectional classes. Verbs were presented in four forms: present and imperfect 1st person singular, present 3rd person plural, and imperfect 2nd person plural. The results show that relative entropy influences both response accuracy and response latency. We discuss alternative operationalizations of relative entropy and how they can help us test hypotheses about the structure of the mental lexicon.


1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Woutersen ◽  
Albert Cox ◽  
Bert Weltens ◽  
Kees De Bot

ABSTRACTWeinreich (1953) distinguished three types of bilingualism: the compound, the coordinate, and the subordinative. In this article, we use his partition to describe the effects of a small typological distance on the organization of the bilingual lexicon. In order to do so, two relatively closely related varieties were used, standard Dutch and the dialect of Maastricht. Subjects had to carry out an auditory lexical decision task using the repetition priming paradigm. Stimuli under investigation were cognates and noncognates. There were two age groups (13 and 17 years old) and two language backgrounds (standard Dutch and Maastricht dialect). The results indicated no differences depending on age. With regard to language background, no interlingual repetition priming was found for the dialect speakers. However, in contrast with earlier findings on visual repetition priming, there were interlingual repetition effects not only for the cognates, but also for the noncognates when the standard speakers were concerned. Therefore, we concluded that, at least in the auditory modality, the dialect speakers in question are coordinate bilinguals and the standard speakers are subordinative bilinguals. Finally, it is shown that Weinreich's model in his pure form leads to unexplainable processes in language acquisition. For that reason, his distinctions are incorporated into the lexico-semantic model of Levelt (1989).


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Barrios ◽  
Rachel Hayes-Harb

Second language (L2) learners often exhibit difficulty perceiving novel phonological contrasts and/or using them to distinguish similar-sounding words. The auditory lexical decision (LD) task has emerged as a promising method to elicit the asymmetries in lexical processing performance that help to identify the locus of learners’ difficulty. However, LD tasks have been implemented and interpreted variably in the literature, complicating their utility in distinguishing between cases where learners’ difficulty lies at the level of perceptual and/or lexical coding. Building on previous work, we elaborate a set of LD ordinal accuracy predictions associated with various logically possible scenarios concerning the locus of learner difficulty, and provide new LD data involving multiple contrasts and native language (L1) groups. The inclusion of a native speaker control group allows us to isolate which patterns are unique to L2 learners, and the combination of multiple contrasts and L1 groups allows us to elicit evidence of various scenarios. We present findings of an experiment where native English, Korean, and Mandarin speakers completed an LD task that probed the robustness of listeners’ phonological representations of the English /æ/-/ɛ/ and /l/-/ɹ/ contrasts. Words contained the target phonemes, and nonwords were created by replacing the target phoneme with its counterpart (e.g., lecture/*[ɹ]ecture, battle/*b[ɛ]ttle). For the /æ/-/ɛ/ contrast, all three groups exhibited the same pattern of accuracy: near-ceiling acceptance of words and an asymmetric pattern of responses to nonwords, with higher accuracy for nonwords containing [æ] than [ɛ]. For the /l/-/ɹ/ contrast, we found three distinct accuracy patterns: native English speakers’ performance was highly accurate and symmetric for words and nonwords, native Mandarin speakers exhibited asymmetries favoring [l] items for words and nonwords (interpreted as evidence that they experienced difficulty at the perceptual coding level), and native Korean speakers exhibited asymmetries in opposite directions for words (favoring [l]) and nonwords (favoring [ɹ]; evidence of difficulty at the lexical coding level). Our findings suggest that the auditory LD task holds promise for determining the locus of learners’ difficulty with L2 contrasts; however, we raise several issues requiring attention to maximize its utility in investigating L2 phonolexical processing.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 981-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Miller ◽  
Diane Swick

Interactive models of reading propose that phonological representations directly activate and/or constrain orthographic representations through feedback. These models also predict that spoken words should activate their orthographic forms. The effect of word orthography on auditory lexical access was investigated in two patients with alexia without agraphia. Several theories of alexia suggest that letter-by-letter reading results from impaired access to orthographic representations. Although alexics can often correctly identify orally spelled words and spell to dictation, it is unknown whether they can access the whole orthographic “word-form” as a unit via auditory presentation. The nonobligatory activation of orthography was examined in an auditory lexical decision task, in which the orthographic and phonological similarity between prime and target was manipulated. In controls, the combined effect of phonological and orthographic relatedness (OP) produced greater facilitation than phonological relatedness alone, indicating that orthography can influence auditory lexical decisions. The alexics displayed patterns of facilitation comparable to controls, suggesting they can quickly access whole-word orthographic information via the auditory modality. An alternate account posits that the OP advantage does not require on-line access of orthography, but instead is a developmental by-product of learning to read an orthographically inconsistent language. The results have implications for cognitive theories of alexia and provide support for interactive models of word recognition.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 654-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karien M. Coppens ◽  
Agnes Tellings ◽  
Ludo Verhoeven ◽  
Robert Schreuder

Purpose To address the problem of low reading comprehension scores among children with hearing impairment, it is necessary to have a better understanding of their reading vocabulary. In this study, the authors investigated whether task and word type differentiate the reading vocabulary knowledge of children with and without severe hearing loss. Method Seventy-two children with hearing loss and 72 children with normal hearing performed a lexical and a use decision task. Both tasks contained the same 180 words divided over 7 clusters, each cluster containing words with a similar pattern of scores on 8 word properties (word class, frequency, morphological family size, length, age of acquisition, mode of acquisition, imageability, and familiarity). Results Whereas the children with normal hearing scored better on the 2 tasks than the children with hearing loss, the size of the difference varied depending on the type of task and word. Conclusions Performance differences between the 2 groups increased as words and tasks became more complex. Despite delays, children with hearing loss showed a similar pattern of vocabulary acquisition as their peers with normal hearing. For the most precise assessment of reading vocabulary possible, a range of tasks and word types should be used.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-250
Author(s):  
Liuxin Chen ◽  
Nanfang Luo ◽  
Xiaoling Gou

In the real multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) problems, there will be an interactive relationship among different decision makers (DMs). To identify the overall influence, we define the Shapley value as the DM’s weight. Entropy is a measure which makes it better than similarity measures to recognize a group decision making problem. Since we propose a relative entropy to measure the difference between two systems, which improves the accuracy of the distance measure.In this paper, a MCGDM approach named as TODIM is presented under q-rung orthopair fuzzy information.The proposed TODIM approach is developed for correlative MCGDM problems, in which the weights of the DMs are calculated in terms of Shapley values and the dominance matrices are evaluated based on relative entropy measure with q-rung orthopair fuzzy information.Furthermore, the efficacy of the proposed Gq-ROFWA operator and the novel TODIM is demonstrated through a selection problem of modern enterprises risk investment. A comparative analysis with existing methods is presented to validate the efficiency of the approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Frances ◽  
Eugenia Navarra-Barindelli ◽  
Clara D. Martin

AbstractLanguage perception studies on bilinguals often show that words that share form and meaning across languages (cognates) are easier to process than words that share only meaning. This facilitatory phenomenon is known as the cognate effect. Most previous studies have shown this effect visually, whereas the auditory modality as well as the interplay between type of similarity and modality remain largely unexplored. In this study, highly proficient late Spanish–English bilinguals carried out a lexical decision task in their second language, both visually and auditorily. Words had high or low phonological and orthographic similarity, fully crossed. We also included orthographically identical words (perfect cognates). Our results suggest that similarity in the same modality (i.e., orthographic similarity in the visual modality and phonological similarity in the auditory modality) leads to improved signal detection, whereas similarity across modalities hinders it. We provide support for the idea that perfect cognates are a special category within cognates. Results suggest a need for a conceptual and practical separation between types of similarity in cognate studies. The theoretical implication is that the representations of items are active in both modalities of the non-target language during language processing, which needs to be incorporated to our current processing models.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110188
Author(s):  
Filiz Mergen ◽  
Gulmira Kuruoglu

Aims and objectives: This study aims to investigate how lexical processing (LP) is organized in early Turkish–English bilinguals and Turkish monolinguals. Methodology: We used a visual hemifield paradigm where bilingual ( n = 48) and monolingual ( n = 53) participants performed a lexical decision task. Bilingual participants performed the task in both their languages. Data and analysis: We recorded response times (RTs) and the accuracy rates (ARs) of the participants. An analysis of variance and t-test were run to analyze the bilingual and monolingual data, respectively. Findings: The results obtained from the analysis of the RTs and ARs for the Turkish and English words showed a balanced hemispheric organization in LP in bilingual speakers. The RTs for Turkish words in the monolingual group provided supportive evidence for the predominant role of the left hemisphere in LP. However, no significant difference was found in the accuracy of their answers, suggesting that the monolingual participants’ performance was not influenced by visual field of presentation of the words. Finally, the comparison of the two groups revealed that bilingual participants’ performance was inferior to monolinguals’ in speed and accuracy of processing of words presented in both visual fields. This result gives further support for the differential representation of LP in monolinguals and bilinguals. Originality: The psycholinguistic literature abounds with studies of LP in bilinguals and monolinguals from a variety of language backgrounds; however, there is much less data regarding the brain correlates of LP in Turkish–English bilinguals and Turkish monolinguals. Implications: Since Turkish–English bilinguals and Turkish monolinguals are underrepresented in the literature as compared to the population who speak other languages with alphabetic writing, this study provides preliminary data for future studies. Limitations: We did not control for gender or lexical factors such as orthographic neighbors when designing the word sets used as stimuli.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Furgoni ◽  
Antje Stoehr ◽  
Clara D. Martin

PurposeIn languages with alphabetical writing systems, the relationship between phonology and orthography is strong. Phonology-to-orthography mappings can be consistent (i.e., one phonological unit corresponds to one orthographic unit) or inconsistent (i.e., one phonological unit corresponds to multiple orthographic units). This study investigates whether the Orthographic Consistency Effect (OCE) emerges at the phonemic level during auditory word recognition, regardless of the opacity of a language’s writing system.MethodsThirty L1-French (opaque language) and 30 L1-Spanish (transparent language) listeners participated in an L1 auditory lexical decision task which included stimuli with either only consistently-spelled phonemes or both consistently-spelled and a number of inconsistently-spelled phonemes. ResultsThe results revealed that listeners were faster at recognizing consistently-spelled words than inconsistently-spelled words. This implies that consistently-spelled words are recognized more easily than inconsistent ones. As for pseudoword processing, there is a numerical trend that might indicate a higher sensibility of French listeners to phoneme-to-grapheme inconsistencies. ConclusionsThese findings have theoretical implications: inconsistent phoneme-to-grapheme mappings, like inconsistencies at the level of the syllable or rhyme, impact auditory word recognition. Moreover, our results suggest that the OCE should occur in all languages with alphabetical writing systems, regardless of their level of orthographic opacity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 185-190
Author(s):  
Filiz Mergen ◽  
Gulmira Kuruoglu

A great bulk of research in the psycholinguistic literature has been dedicated to hemispheric organization of words. An overwhelming evidence suggests that the left hemisphere is primarily responsible for lexical processing. However, non-words, which look similar to real words but lack meaningful associations, is underrepresented in the laterality literature. This study investigated the lateralization of Turkish non-words. Fifty-three Turkish monolinguals performed a lexical decision task in a visual hemifield paradigm. An analysis of their response times revealed left-hemispheric dominance for non-words, adding further support to the literature. The accuracy of their answers, however, were comparable regardless of the field of presentation. The results were discussed in light of the psycholinguistic word processing views.


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