Semantic comprehension of idioms

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Leila Erfaniyan Qonsuli ◽  
Shahla Sharifi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Time ◽  
The Self ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Moving Windows ◽  
Serial Process ◽  
Semantic Comprehension ◽  
Graded Salience

Abstract This study intends to test the Graded Salience Hypothesis, in order to investigate the factors involved in comprehension. This research considered predictions derived from this hypothesis by evaluating the salience of idioms in the Persian language. We intended to measure Reading Time (RTs), and the design comprised 2 Contexts (figurative, literal), 3 Types of Statements (familiar vs. unfamiliar vs. less familiar) and RTs (long, short, equal). Two types of contexts (figuratively inviting and literally inviting contexts) were prepared. The software for this experiment was prepared for the purpose of self-paced reading experiments. Two pretests were performed. In the first pretest, participants rated the expressions on a 1–7 familiarity scale. The second pretest was designed to confirm that contexts are equally supportive. Then, expressions were divided according to their familiarity (familiar, less-familiar, unfamiliar). Sentences were used so that, according to the second pretest, their contexts would be equally supportive. Sentences were displayed on a PC, controlled by Windows 7. The self-paced reading task was applied using the Moving Windows software. In the first part of the experiment, participants read each idiom in figuratively inviting contexts and their RTs were recorded. In the second part of the experiment, participants read each idiom in literally inviting contexts and their RTs were recorded. Results of testing these idioms support the Graded Salience Hypothesis, but not entirely. Such findings suggested that sometimes context affects the access of salient information and a semi serial process is witnessed. Results indicate that the salient meaning of both familiar and less familiar idioms is figurative. In addition, salient meanings in the space following the unfamiliar idiom and the first word of the next (spillover) sentence, were both, figurative and literal.

From Interlanguage grammar to target grammar in L2 processing of definiteness as uniqueness

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunah Ahn
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Real World ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
First Language ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
English Articles

This study investigated the processing of English articles by second language (L2) speakers whose first language (L1) is Korean. Previous studies in L2 English article use had some issues unresolved such as using offline tasks, conflating definiteness with real-world knowledge, and operationalizing definiteness and relevant constructs in ways that participants can be primed or get metalinguistic cues. To revisit such issues, the construct ‘definiteness’ was operationalized as unique identifiability, a self-paced reading task was used to collect data, and regression models were employed to analyse logarithm residuals of raw reading time data, which can detect subtle differences that are otherwise buried. The results show that L1 speakers show sensitivity to the use of definite and indefinite articles in response to given contexts and that both advanced and intermediate L2 speakers first resort to their non-target-like Interlanguage grammar, but the advanced group later revises their initial interpretation and eventually shows the effect of target grammar. The L2 behavior is discussed in terms of its theoretical implications.

Reader responses to shifts in point of view: An empirical study

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaxiao Cui
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Main Experiment ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
To The Lighthouse ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Processing Effort

This paper reports an empirical study that investigates reader responses to a prominent narrative phenomenon in Virginia Woolf’s novels: shifts in point of view. While the frequent viewpoint shifts in Woolf’s novels have been noted by critics and literary linguists, only a limited amount of research has been conducted to examine how ‘ordinary readers’, that is, readers without much literary or linguistic training, respond to this stylistic feature. In order to gain a better understanding of this issue, the current study combines qualitative and quantitative approaches in the investigation. The main experiment material is a passage from To the Lighthouse, in which the narrative viewpoint shifts between two characters. For the purpose of comparison, another three passages containing a consistent narrative point of view were also selected. A re-reading task was set up: in the first reading, participants read for general comprehension, and in the second reading, they were asked to identify whose point(s) of view each passage is narrated from. After assigning narrative point of view to the four passages, participants were instructed to rate each passage between 1 and 6 both in terms of difficulty in comprehension and in terms of difficulty in viewpoint attribution. Results obtained from this study show that a significant number of participants identified shifts in point of view and that this narrative phenomenon tends to require more reading time and processing effort.

Parsing Temporarily Ambiguous Complements

1987 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Rayner ◽  
Lyn Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Present Experiment ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Garden Path ◽  
Movement Data ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Attachment Strategy

Holmes, Kennedy and Murray (1987) recently claimed that the empirical support for the Minimal Attachment Strategy of sentence parsing had been weakened by results they reported. They found that reading time for an ambiguous string of words did not decrease when it was preceded by an overt complementizer, which should have disambiguated it. Thus, they suggested that results that we (Frazier and Rayner, 1982) earlier attributed to Minimal Attachment were not due to “garden-path” effects, but rather reflected the extra complexity caused by having to process two sets of clausal relations instead of just one. In the present experiment, we replicated their experiment using eye movement data rather than the subject-paced reading task they used. We found that readers processed Nonminimal Attachment sentences with overt complementizers considerably faster than those without a complementizer. Our results showed that the complexity of Nonminimal Attachment sentences cannot be attributed to their clausal status per se. Differences between the tasks that might contribute to the different pattern of results across the experiments are discussed.

Processing conjunctive entailment of disjunction

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin-Ting Jimbo Liu ◽  
Li-mei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Child Language ◽  
The Self ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Negative Statements

Abstract In a sentence where the disjunction huo ‘or’ appears under the negation mei ‘no’ (e.g.: Ta mei chi qingjiao huo qiezi. ‘He did not eat green peppers or eggplants.’), the sentence is globally ambiguous between the conjunctive interpretation and the disjunctive interpretation. The primary goal of this study is to investigate if there is a default meaning for simple negative statements containing huo ‘or’. Data collected from the self-paced region-by-region reading experiment indicated that the participants consistently preferred the conjunctive interpretation. Additionally, in the conjunction-biased condition where the sentences turned out to favor the disjunctive interpretations at the end, there was reading time penalty at the last region of the sentences and participants spent significantly longer time judging the appropriateness of those sentences. Contrary to Jing’s (2008) assertion that both disjunction and conjunction readings are equally prominent in an out-of-the-blue context, the results from the quantitative data revealed that the conjunction reading is the default meaning for simple negative statements containing huo ‘or’. The findings of the current experiment provide essential implications to the study of child language acquisition. Specifically, we argue that understanding the adults’ linguistic patterns is a prerequisite to the study of children’s language acquisition patterns.

Visual processing of connected and unconnected letters and words in Arabic

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-238
Author(s):  
Deia Ganayim
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Length Effect ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Lexical Route ◽  
Word Length Effect ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Encoding Strategies

A letter-reading task (Experiments 1) and a word-reading task of regular words (Experiments 2) and of visually distorted words (Experiments 3) were used to examine the reciprocal interaction between phonological encoding strategies and visual factors, such as the global word shape, local letters shape, and inter-letter spacing. Our participants comprised Arabic readers familiar with different letter and word forms (connected vs. unconnected: without inter-letter spaces vs. with inter-letter spaces). In addition, this study is the first instance of the word length effect being studied in an Arabic context using different word lengths (3 vs. 5 letters). The average reading times for Arabic words are affected by the word connectivity, since the average reading time is shorter for connected than unconnected words of all word lengths (3 and 5 letters) reflecting the activation of lexical route, which processes letters in letter strings in parallel. As well, the average reading times for Arabic words are affected by the word length, since the average reading time is shorter for 3-letter words than 5-letter words reflecting the activation of non-lexical route, which processes letters in letter strings sequentially. Length effect is the signature of the non-lexical route due to its seriality caused by assembled phonology.

“The Necessary Ornaments of Place”

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 47-73
Author(s):  
Mana Kia
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Travel Writing ◽  
The Self ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
The West ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
The World

This article analyzes representations of place in seventeenth-century texts to consider how early modern Persians made sense of the world. The Persian formulation of alterity stands in contrast to Edward Said’s formulation about Orientalism, by which Europe makes itself into the West. In early modern Persianate Asia, common representations of place appear in geographical and travel writing. These shared features, which I call ornaments, adorned both places that shared a learned Persian language, Muslim rule, and those beyond, in other parts of Asia and Africa. The presence or absence of these ornaments made the world intelligible for early modern Persians, creating categories of similarity and alterity that were partial, diffuse, and aporetic, defying the self-other distinctions of Orientalism. This form of knowledge about the self and the world then generated the possibility for encounters different from both modern colonial power and the nation-state.

Creating brand characteristics

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 10-12
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Purchase Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pertinent Information ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings – Brands occupy a prominent position in the lives of many consumers. People express themselves through the brands they consume to the extent that these brands serve as an extension of the self. Congruence between brand and self is seen as critical, and individuals will largely opt for those brands which can best reflect their self-concept. It has accordingly become the norm for many consumers to view products and brands as being more than functional. What they symbolize is often of greater importance and drives purchase behavior to a considerable extent. Practical implications – Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to digest format.

Investigating the Effect of Self-regulatory Strategy Development on Iranian EFL Learners’ Metadiscoursal Writing Skill

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 54-65
Author(s):  
Mehrnoosh Eslami ◽  
Rahman Sahragard
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Strategy Instruction ◽  
The Self ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
Regulatory Strategy ◽  
Post Test

The present research investigates the effect of self-regulatory strategy instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ metadiscoursal writing abilities. To this purpose, 50 Iranian EFL intermediate learners were all native speakers of the Persian language learning the English language in an institute were selected via convenience random sampling. Self-regulated Strategies Intervention and Metadiscoursal writing pretest and post-test were the research instruments employed to collect the data. Because of the circumstance of Covid-19, the instructor made a new WhatsApp group apart from the virtual group, namely Adobe Connect, to make contact with the students. The learners were required to take a metadiscoursal writing pretest. After passing six sessions, intervention through self-regulated strategies was taught, and the participants were required to follow the guidelines. The instructor checked every single learner’s progress. Ultimately, they took a post-test. The findings revealed that the self-regulatory strategy significantly impacted Iranian EFL learners’ metadiscoursal writing skills. In conclusion, the results indicated that it could be suitable for teachers to gain more information regarding the self-regulated strategy and utilize it, where necessary, for its positive results.

scholarly journals Incremental structure building of preverbal PPs in Dutch

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 38-52
Author(s):  
Cas W. Coopmans ◽  
Gert-Jan Schoenmakers
Keyword(s):  
Reading Time ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Intransitive Verbs

Abstract Incremental comprehension of head-final constructions can reveal structural attachment preferences for ambiguous phrases. This study investigates how temporarily ambiguous PPs are processed in Dutch verb-final constructions. In De aannemer heeft op het dakterras bespaard/gewerkt ‘The contractor has on the roof terrace saved/worked’, the PP is locally ambiguous between attachment as argument and as adjunct. This ambiguity is resolved by the sentence-final verb. In a self-paced reading task, we manipulated the argument/adjunct status of the PP, and its position relative to the verb. While we found no reading-time differences between argument and adjunct PPs, we did find that transitive verbs, for which the PP is an argument, were read more slowly than intransitive verbs, for which the PP is an adjunct. We suggest that Dutch parsers have a preference for adjunct attachment of preverbal PPs, and discuss our findings in terms of incremental parsing models that aim to minimize costly reanalysis.

Problem behavior in autism spectrum disorders: A paradigmatic self-organized perspective of network structures

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucio Tonello ◽  
Luca Giacobbi ◽  
Alberto Pettenon ◽  
Alessandro Scuotto ◽  
Massimo Cocchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
The Self ◽  
Network Structures ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
Critical Equilibrium ◽  
Self Organized Criticality ◽  
Acute Agitation ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

AbstractAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) subjects can present temporary behaviors of acute agitation and aggressiveness, named problem behaviors. They have been shown to be consistent with the self-organized criticality (SOC), a model wherein occasionally occurring “catastrophic events” are necessary in order to maintain a self-organized “critical equilibrium.” The SOC can represent the psychopathology network structures and additionally suggests that they can be considered as self-organized systems.

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