scholarly journals The Effects of Age-of-Acquisition on Ambiguity Resolution: Evidence from Eye Movements

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Juhasz ◽  
Margaret M. Gullick ◽  
Leah W. Shesler
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Meaning Frequency

Words that are rated as acquired earlier in life receive shorter fixation durations than later acquired words, even when word frequency is adequately controlled (Juhasz & Rayner, 2003; 2006). Some theories posit that age-of-acquisition (AoA) affects the semantic representation of words (e.g., Steyvers & Tenenbaum, 2005), while others suggest that AoA should have an influence at multiple levels in the mental lexicon (e.g. Ellis & Lambon Ralph, 2000). In past studies, early and late AoA words have differed from each other in orthography, phonology, and meaning, making it difficult to localize the influence of AoA. Two experiments are reported which examined the locus of AoA effects in reading. Both experiments used balanced ambiguous words which have two equally-frequent meanings acquired at different times (e.g. pot, tick). In Experiment 1, sentence context supporting either the early- or late-acquired meaning was presented prior to the ambiguous word; in Experiment 2, disambiguating context was presented after the ambiguous word. When prior context disambiguated the ambiguous word, meaning AoA influenced the processing of the target word. However, when disambiguating sentence context followed the ambiguous word, meaning frequency was the more important variable and no effect of meaning AoA was observed. These results, when combined with the past results of Juhasz and Rayner (2003; 2006) suggest that AoA influences access to multiple levels of representation in the mental lexicon. The results also have implications for theories of lexical ambiguity resolution, as they suggest that variables other than meaning frequency and context can influence resolution of noun-noun ambiguities.

Semantic ambiguity norms for 530 Spanish words

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUAN HARO ◽  
PILAR FERRÉ ◽  
ROGER BOADA ◽  
JOSEP DEMESTRE
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Ambiguous Word ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Semantic Ambiguity ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Subjective Measures ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Ambiguous Words

ABSTRACTThis study presents semantic ambiguity norms for 530 Spanish words. Two subjective measures of semantic ambiguity and two subjective measures of relatedness of ambiguous word meanings were collected. In addition, two objective measures of semantic ambiguity were included. Furthermore, subjective ratings were obtained for some relevant lexicosemantic variables, such as concreteness, familiarity, emotional valence, arousal, and age of acquisition. In sum, the database overcomes some of the limitations of the published databases of Spanish ambiguous words; in particular, the scarcity of measures of ambiguity, the lack of relatedness of ambiguous word meanings measures, and the absence of a set of unambiguous words. Thus, it will be very helpful for researchers interested in exploring semantic ambiguity as well as for those using semantic ambiguous words to study language processing in clinical populations.

An exploratory study of linguistic–colour associations across languages in multilingual synaesthetes

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 1343-1355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kylie J. Barnett ◽  
Joanne Feeney ◽  
Michael Gormley ◽  
Fiona N. Newell
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Visual Structure ◽  
Visual Properties

In one of the most common forms of synaesthesia, linguistic–colour synaesthesia, colour is induced by stimuli such as numbers, letters, days of the week, and months of the year. It is not clear, however, whether linguistic–colour synaesthesia is determined more by higher level semantic information—that is, word meaning—or by lower level grapheme or phoneme structure. To explore this issue, we tested whether colour is consistently induced by grapheme or phoneme form or word meaning in bilingual and trilingual linguistic–colour synaesthetes. We reasoned that if the induced colour was related to word meaning, rather than to the acoustic or visual properties of the words, then the induced colours would remain consistent across languages. We found that colours were not consistently related to word meaning across languages. Instead, induced colours were more related to form properties of the word across languages, particularly visual structure. However, the type of inducing stimulus influenced specific colour associations. For example, colours to months of the year were more consistent across languages than were colours to numbers or days of the week. Furthermore, the effect of inducing stimuli was also associated with the age of acquisition of additional languages. Our findings are discussed with reference to a critical period in language acquisition on synaesthesia.

scholarly journals Modulation of the N400 component in relation to hypomanic personality traits in a word meaning ambiguity resolution task

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (9) ◽  
pp. 637-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delphine Raucher-Chéné ◽  
Sarah Terrien ◽  
Pamela Gobin ◽  
Fabien Gierski ◽  
Arthur Kaladjian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
N400 Component

McGurk effect in Finnish syllables, isolated words, and words in sentences: Effects of word meaning and sentence context

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 75-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Sams ◽  
Petri Manninen ◽  
Veikko Surakka ◽  
Pia Helin ◽  
Riitta Kättö
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Mcgurk Effect

Effects of sentence context on lexical ambiguity resolution in patients with schizophrenia

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 1079-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Andreou ◽  
Kyrana Tsapkini ◽  
Vasilis P. Bozikas ◽  
Maria Giannakou ◽  
Athanasios Karavatos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity Resolution

Incidental acquisition of new words during reading in L2: Inference of meaning and its integration in the L2 mental lexicon

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
DENISA BORDAG ◽  
AMIT KIRSCHENBAUM ◽  
ERWIN TSCHIRNER ◽  
ANDREAS OPITZ
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
New Words ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Priming Task ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Incidental Vocabulary ◽  
Lower Activation ◽  
Semantic Inhibition

A novel combination of several experimental and non-experimental paradigms was applied to explore initial stages of incidental vocabulary acquisition (IVA) during reading in German as a second language (L2). The results show that syntactic complexity of the context positively affects incidental acquisition of new words, triggering the learner's shift of attention from the text level to the word level. A subsequent semantic priming task revealed that the new words establish associations with semantically related representations in the L2 mental lexicon after just three previous occurrences and without any consolidation period. The semantic inhibition effect for the new words (contrary to semantic facilitation for known L2 words), however, indicates that the memory traces of the new semantic representation are still very weak and that their retrieval is probably hindered by stronger semantically related representations that have much lower activation thresholds and higher potential for being selected.

scholarly journals Differential effects of sentence context on lexical ambiguity resolution in different subgroups of patients with schizophrenia

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreou Christina ◽  
Kyrana Tsapkini ◽  
Vasilis Bozikas ◽  
Athanasios Karavatos ◽  
Kostas Fokas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity Resolution

scholarly journals Social Semantics: The Organisation and Grounding of Abstract Concepts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny M. Pexman ◽  
Veronica Diveica ◽  
Richard J Binney
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Specific Proposal ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Processing Language

Abstract concepts, like justice and friendship, are a central feature of our daily lives. Traditionally, abstract concepts are distinguished from other concepts in that they cannot be directly experienced through the senses. As such, they pose a challenge for strongly embodied models of semantic representation that assume a central role for sensorimotor information. There is growing recognition, however, that it is possible for meaning to be ‘grounded’ via cognitive systems, including those involved in processing language and emotion. In this article, we focus on the specific proposal that social significance is a key feature in the representation of some concepts. We begin by reviewing recent evidence in favour of this proposal from the fields of cognitive science and neuroimaging. We then discuss the limited extent to which there is consensus about the definition of ‘socialness’ and propose essential next steps for research in this domain. Taking one such step, we describe preliminary data from an unprecedented large-scale rating study that can help determine how socialness is distinct from other facets of word meaning. We provide a backdrop of contemporary theories regarding semantic representation and social cognition and highlight important predictions for both brain and behaviour.

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