Question constructions, argument mapping, and vocabulary development in English L2 by Japanese speakers

2016 ◽  
pp. 35-64
Author(s):  
Satomi Kawaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Argument Mapping

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Do Bilinguals Acquire Similar Words to Monolinguals? An Examination of Word Acquisition and the Similarity Effect in Japanese–English Bilinguals’ Vocabularies

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-182
Author(s):  
Aya Kutsuki
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Word Category ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Similarity Effect ◽  
Japanese English

Previous research has paid much attention to the overall acquisition of vocabularies among bilingual children in comparison to their monolingual counterparts. Much less attention has been paid to the type of words acquired and the possible transfer or cross-linguistic effects of the other language on vocabulary development. Thus, this study aims to explore similarities and dissimilarities in the vocabularies of simultaneous bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals and considers the possible cross-linguistic similarity effect on word acquisition. Six simultaneous Japanese–English bilingual children (mean age = 34.75 months (2.56)) were language–age-matched with six Japanese monolinguals; their productive vocabularies were compared regarding size and categories. Additionally, characteristic acquired words were compared using correspondence analyses. Results showed that, although delayed due to the reduced inputs, young bilinguals have a similar set of vocabularies in terms of word category as monolinguals. However, bilingual children’s vocabularies reflect their unevenly distributed experience with the language. Fewer interactive experiences with language speakers may result in a lower acquisition of interactive words. Furthermore, there is a cross-linguistic effect on acquisition, likely caused by form similarity between Japanese katakana words and English words. Even between languages with great dissimilarities, resources and cues are sought and used to facilitate bilingual vocabulary acquisition.

Git4Voc: Collaborative Vocabulary Development Based on Git

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. 167-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavdim Halilaj ◽  
Irlán Grangel-González ◽  
Gökhan Coskun ◽  
Steffen Lohmann ◽  
Sören Auer
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Data Integration ◽  
Software Development ◽  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Version Control ◽  
Version Control System

Collaborative vocabulary development in the context of data integration is the process of finding consensus between experts with different backgrounds, system understanding and domain knowledge. The complexity of this process increases with the number of people involved, the variety of the systems to be integrated and the dynamics of their domain. In this paper, we advocate that the usage of a powerful version control system is one of the keys to address this problem. Driven by this idea and the success of the version control system Git in the context of software development, we investigate the applicability of Git for collaborative vocabulary development. Even though vocabulary development and software development have much more similarities than differences, there are still important challenges. These need to be considered in the development of a successful versioning and collaboration system for vocabulary development. Therefore, this paper starts by presenting the challenges we are faced with during the collaborative creation of vocabularies and discusses its distinction to software development. Drawing from these findings, we present Git4Voc which comprises guidelines on how Git can be adopted to vocabulary development. Finally, we demonstrate how Git hooks can be implemented to go beyond the plain functionality of Git by realizing vocabulary-specific features like syntactic validation and semantic diffs.

scholarly journals Do Sibilants Fly? Evidence from a Sound Symbolic Pattern in Pokémon Names

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 386-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigeto Kawahara ◽  
Mahayana C. Godoy ◽  
Gakuji Kumagai
Keyword(s):  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Normal Type ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Symbolic Value

AbstractAncient writers, including Socrates and the Upanishads, argued that sibilants are associated with the notions of wind, air and sky. From modern perspectives, these statements can be understood as an assertion about sound symbolism, i.e., systematic connections between sounds and meanings. Inspired by these writers, this article reports on an experiment that tests a sound symbolic value of sibilants. The experiment is a case study situated within the Pokémonastics research paradigm, in which the researchers explore the sound symbolic patterns in natural languages using Pokémon names. The current experiment shows that when presented with pairs of a flying-type Pokémon character and a normal-type Pokémon character, Japanese speakers are more likely to associate the flying-type Pokémons with names that contain sibilants than those names that do not contain sibilants. As was pointed out by Socrates, the sound symbolic connection identified in the experiment is likely to be grounded in the articulatory properties of sibilants – the large amount of oral airflow that accompanies the production of sibilants. Various implications of the current experiment for the sound symbolism research are discussed throughout the article.

Early vocabulary development: Relationships with prelinguistic skills and early social-emotional/behavioral problems and competencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 101525
Author(s):  
Katariina Rantalainen ◽  
Leila Paavola-Ruotsalainen ◽  
Jaana Alakortes ◽  
Alice S. Carter ◽  
Hanna E. Ebeling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Social Emotional

scholarly journals A wug-shaped curve in sound symbolism: the case of Japanese Pokémon names

Phonology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-418
Author(s):  
Shigeto Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Evolution Status ◽  
Stochastic Optimality

An experiment showed that Japanese speakers’ judgement of Pokémons’ evolution status on the basis of nonce names is affected both by mora count and by the presence of a voiced obstruent. The effects of mora count are a case of counting cumulativity, and the interaction between the two factors a case of ganging-up cumulativity. Together, the patterns result in what Hayes (2020) calls ‘wug-shaped curves’, a quantitative signature predicted by MaxEnt. I show in this paper that the experimental results can indeed be successfully modelled with MaxEnt, and also that Stochastic Optimality Theory faces an interesting set of challenges. The study was inspired by a proposal made within formal phonology, and reveals important previously understudied aspects of sound symbolism. In addition, it demonstrates how cumulativity is manifested in linguistic patterns. The work here shows that formal phonology and research on sound symbolism can be mutually beneficial.

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