scholarly journals The Cerebellum and English Grammatical Morphology: Evidence from Production, Comprehension, and Grammaticality Judgments

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 1115-1130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Justus
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Grammatical Morphology

Three neuropsychological experiments on a group of 16 cerebellar patients and 16 age-and education-matched controls investigated the effects of damage to the cerebellum on English grammatical morphology across production, comprehension, and grammaticality judgment tasks. In Experiment 1, participants described a series of pictures previously used in studies of cortical aphasic patients. The cerebellar patients did not differ significantly from the controls in the total number of words produced or in the proportion of closed-class words. They did differ to a marginally significant extent in the production of required articles. In Experiment 2, participants identified the agent in a series of aurally presented sentences in which three agency cues (subject–verb agreement, word order, and noun animacy) were manipulated. The cerebellar patients were less affected than the controls were by the manipulation of subject–verb agreement to a marginally significant extent. In Experiment 3, participants performed a grammaticality judgment task on a series of aurally presented sentences. The cerebellar patients were significantly less able to discriminate grammatical and ungrammatical sentences than the controls were, particularly when the error was of subject– verb agreement as opposed to word order. The results suggest that damage to the cerebellum can result in subtle impairments in the use of grammatical morphology, and are discussed in light of hypothesized roles for the cerebellum in language.

The adjective in Dutch-French codeswitching: Word order and agreement

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Vanden Wyngaerd
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Minimalist Approach ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Points Of View

Aims and Objectives: This paper investigates the word order and adjectival agreement patterns in French-Dutch codeswitched Determiner Phrases (DPs). It examines the predictions made by two theoretical points of view: the approach by MacSwan (2009) within the Minimalist Program (MP) and the Matrix Language Framework (MLF) (Myers-Scotton & Jake, 2009). Methodology: The predictions of these frameworks are compared to data gathered in a grammaticality judgment task. In total, 120 codeswitched sentences were presented aurally to participants, who were asked to rate the sentences on a three-point scale. Originality: While some previous work on word order within codeswitched DP’s exists, this paper is the first study investigating the adjectival agreement patterns in codeswitching. Data and Analysis: Statistical analysis of the data showed that the MacSwan approach is a better predictor for the grammaticality judgments, as sentences predicted to be grammatical by the MP were rated higher than sentences predicted to be ungrammatical by the same model. This difference was statistically significant. There was no significant difference in rating for the predictions of the MLF. Conclusions: The results of the judgment task in combination with the results of previous research on codeswitching highlight the importance of a combination of data from both naturalistic and experimental settings. Implications: The predictions of the Minimalist approach have the upper hand over the predictions of the MLF. However, it remains is important to integrate results from other experimental methodologies, such as naturalistic data and results from psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies.

You That Read Wrong Again! A Transposed-Word Effect in Grammaticality Judgments

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 1922-1929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Mirault ◽  
Joshua Snell ◽  
Jonathan Grainger
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Base Sequence ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Sentence Level

We report a novel transposed-word effect in speeded grammaticality judgments made about five-word sequences. The critical ungrammatical test sequences were formed by transposing two adjacent words from either a grammatical base sequence (e.g., “The white cat was big” became “The white was cat big”) or an ungrammatical base sequence (e.g., “The white cat was slowly” became “The white was cat slowly”). These were intermixed with an equal number of correct sentences for the purpose of the grammaticality judgment task. In a laboratory experiment ( N = 57) and an online experiment ( N = 94), we found that ungrammatical decisions were harder to make when the ungrammatical sequence originated from a grammatically correct base sequence. This provides the first demonstration that the encoding of word order retains a certain amount of uncertainty. We further argue that the novel transposed-word effect reflects parallel processing of words during written sentence comprehension combined with top-down constraints from sentence-level structures.

scholarly journals Bilingual exposure enhances left IFG specialization for language in children

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 783-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIA M. ARREDONDO ◽  
XIAO-SU HU ◽  
ERICA SEIFERT ◽  
TERESA SATTERFIELD ◽  
IOULIA KOVELMAN
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Brain Lateralization ◽  
Cortical Organization ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Left Brain ◽  
Verb Tense ◽  
Inferior Frontal Region

Language acquisition is characterized by progressive use of inflectional morphology marking verb tense and agreement. Linguistic milestones are also linked to left-brain lateralization for language specialization. We used neuroimaging (fNIRS) to investigate how bilingual exposure influences children's cortical organization for processing morpho-syntax. In Study 1, monolinguals and bilinguals (n = 39) completed a grammaticality judgment task that included English sentences with violations in earlier-acquired (verb agreement) and later-acquired (verb tense/agreement) structures. Groups showed similar performance and greater activation in left inferior frontal region (IFG) for later- than earlier-acquired conditions. Bilinguals showed stronger and more restricted left IFG activation. In Study 2, bilinguals completed a comparable Spanish task revealing patterns of left IFG activation similar to English. Taken together, the findings suggest that bilinguals with linguistic competence at parity with monolingual counterparts have a higher degree of cortical specialization for language, likely a result of enriched linguistic experiences.

scholarly journals Constructional tolerance

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florent Perek ◽  
Martin Hilpert
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Relative Ease ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Way

The present paper investigates the question whether different languages can be categorized into ‘constructionally tolerant’ languages, which grant speakers considerable freedom to combine syntactic constructions with lexical items in non-conventional ways, and ‘valency-driven’ languages, which impose stronger restrictions on the way in which constructions and lexical items can be combined. The idea of such a typological distinction is sketched for instance by Rostila (2014). In order to explore possible effects of constructional tolerance, a grammaticality judgment task is administered to speakers of English and French, which are two languages that differ with regard to this phenomenon: English verbs can be used across different argument structure constructions with relative ease, French verbs are more constrained. Both populations of speakers are exposed to stimuli sentences of varying creativity in a second language, namely German. The paper advances the constructional tolerance hypothesis, which states that speakers of a constructionally tolerant language should judge non-conventional examples in an L2 with more lenience than speakers of a valency-driven language. The experimental results are in line with this hypothesis, but they also suggest that grammaticality judgments are influenced by the availability of a productive L1 construction that shows functional overlap.

On-line grammaticality judgments in French children and adults: a crosslinguistic perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 713-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELE KAIL
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Position Effect ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
On Line ◽  
Verbal Agreement ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Processing

This study examined the on-line processing of French sentences in a grammaticality judgment experiment. Three age groups of French children (mean age: 6;8, 8;6 and 10;10 years) and a group of adults were asked to detect grammatical violations as quickly as possible. Three factors were studied: the violation type: agreement violations (number and gender) vs. word order violations; the violation position: early vs. late in the sentence; the target type of the violations: intra vs. interphrasal. An example of an early interphrasal verbal agreement violation follows: ‘Chaque semaine la voisine remplissent le frigo après avoir fait les courses au marché’ (Every week the neighbour fill the fridge after shopping at the market). The main developmental results were the following: not surprisingly, children were always slower than adults in the detection of grammatical violations. At each age level, morphological violations were more rapidly detected than word order violations. Each age group was faster at judging sentences with later occurring violations and the position effect was especially strong in the youngest groups. Finally, intraphrasal violations were more rapidly detected than interphrasal ones, this effect being observed only in the oldest groups (i.e. 10;10 years and adults). The results were compared to previous on-line data obtained in modern Greek (Kail & Diakogiorgi, 1998) showing strong similarities, even though Greek is a very rich morphological language. These results are discussed within the framework of the Competition Model, outlining the necessity to incorporate new processing constraints into the model.

How similar are adult second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers? Spanish clitics and word order

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
SILVINA MONTRUL
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Family Language ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

ABSTRACTRecent studies of heritage speakers, many of whom possess incomplete knowledge of their family language, suggest that these speakers may be linguistically superior to second language (L2) learners only in phonology but not in morphosyntax. This study reexamines this claim by focusing on knowledge of clitic pronouns and word order in 24 L2 learners and 24 Spanish heritage speakers. Results of an oral production task, a written grammaticality judgment task, and a speeded comprehension task showed that, overall, heritage speakers seem to possess more nativelike knowledge of Spanish than their L2 counterparts. Implications for theories that stress the role of age and experience in L2 ultimate attainment and for the field of heritage language acquisition and teaching are discussed.

Grammaticality judgments in autism: Deviance or delay

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 999-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
INGE-MARIE EIGSTI ◽  
LOISA BENNETTO
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Lower Sensitivity ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Grammaticality Judgments ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Subject

ABSTRACTLanguage in autism has been the subject of intense interest, because communication deficits are central to the disorder, and because autism serves as an arena for testing theories of language acquisition. High-functioning older children with autism are often considered to have intact grammatical abilities, despite pragmatic impairments. Given the heterogeneity in language skills at younger ages, this assumption merits further investigation. Participants with autism (n=21, aged nine to seventeen years), matched on chronological age, receptive vocabulary and IQ, to 22 typically developing individuals, completed a grammaticality judgment task. Participants with autism were significantly less sensitive than controls, specifically for third person singular and present progressive marking. Performance interacted with sentence length, with lower sensitivity to errors occurring at the end of the longest stimulus sentences. Performance sensitivity was associated with onset of single word and phrase speech, and with severity of autistic symptomatology. Implications of findings are discussed.

scholarly journals ERPs Recorded during Early Second Language Exposure Predict Syntactic Learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2005-2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Batterink ◽  
Helen J. Neville
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Category Effect ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Open Class

Millions of adults worldwide are faced with the task of learning a second language (L2). Understanding the neural mechanisms that support this learning process is an important area of scientific inquiry. However, most previous studies on the neural mechanisms underlying L2 acquisition have focused on characterizing the results of learning, relying upon end-state outcome measures in which learning is assessed after it has occurred, rather than on the learning process itself. In this study, we adopted a novel and more direct approach to investigate neural mechanisms engaged during L2 learning, in which we recorded ERPs from beginning adult learners as they were exposed to an unfamiliar L2 for the first time. Learners' proficiency in the L2 was then assessed behaviorally using a grammaticality judgment task, and ERP data acquired during initial L2 exposure were sorted as a function of performance on this task. High-proficiency learners showed a larger N100 effect to open-class content words compared with closed-class function words, whereas low-proficiency learners did not show a significant N100 difference between open- and closed-class words. In contrast, amplitude of the N400 word category effect correlated with learners' L2 comprehension, rather than predicting syntactic learning. Taken together, these results indicate that learners who spontaneously direct greater attention to open- rather than closed-class words when processing L2 input show better syntactic learning, suggesting a link between selective attention to open-class content words and acquisition of basic morphosyntactic rules. These findings highlight the importance of selective attention mechanisms for L2 acquisition.

Evidence of V to I raising in L2 Spanish

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes ◽  
María Pilar Larrañaga
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
L2 Spanish

This article focuses on the acquisition of verb placement (adverb placement, subject–verb inversion in yes/no questions, subject–verb inversion in direct, indirect and pseudo wh-questions) in L2 Spanish. Four different elicitation tasks (an identification task, a grammaticality judgment task, a preference grammaticality task and a production task) were used for data collection. The subjects were 41 English adult L2 learners of Spanish at different proficiency levels (beginners, low intermediate, intermediate and advanced) according to an independent placement test. In line with Lardiere’s (1998a, 1998b, 2000) and Prévost and White’s (2000) findings, evidence for developments in syntax which is independent of developments in morphology is found in support of the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. Although L2 learners’ verb-placement is target like at the surface level, their knowledge of verb agreement is poor and limited. That is, L2 learners appear to have reset the verb movement parameter in Spanish (i.e., [+movement]), even though they fail to morphologically mark the verb for person and number correctly, showing lack of knowledge that the inflections in Spanish I are strong. These findings suggest that there is a strong dissociation between syntax and morphology (Lardiere, 2000), but they will also be discussed in the light of some current theories on the acquisition of new values for uninterpretable syntactical features (Hawkins & Hattori, 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007).

Processing subject focus across two Spanish varieties

Probus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-127
Author(s):  
Bradley Hoot ◽  
Tania Leal
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
New Information ◽  
Basic Facts

AbstractLinguists have keenly studied the realization of focus – the part of the sentence introducing new information – because it involves the interaction of different linguistic modules. Syntacticians have argued that Spanish uses word order for information-structural purposes, marking focused constituents via rightmost movement. However, recent studies have challenged this claim. To contribute sentence-processing evidence, we conducted a self-paced reading task and a judgment task with Mexican and Catalonian Spanish speakers. We found that movement to final position can signal focus in Spanish, in contrast to the aforementioned work. We contextualize our results within the literature, identifying three basic facts that theories of Spanish focus and theories of language processing should explain, and advance a fourth: that mismatches in information-structural expectations can induce processing delays. Finally, we propose that some differences in the existing experimental results may stem from methodological differences.

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