scholarly journals Sentence Complexity in Context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedetta Iavarone ◽  
Dominique Brunato ◽  
Felice Dell’Orletta
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Complexity

When Hearing Does Not Mean Understanding: On the Neural Processing of Syntactically Complex Sentences by Listeners With Hearing Loss

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Margreet Vogelzang ◽  
Christiane M. Thiel ◽  
Stephanie Rosemann ◽  
Jochem W. Rieger ◽  
Esther Ruigendijk
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Sentence Complexity ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
And Task

Purpose Adults with mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss typically exhibit issues with speech understanding, but their processing of syntactically complex sentences is not well understood. We test the hypothesis that listeners with hearing loss' difficulties with comprehension and processing of syntactically complex sentences are due to the processing of degraded input interfering with the successful processing of complex sentences. Method We performed a neuroimaging study with a sentence comprehension task, varying sentence complexity (through subject–object order and verb–arguments order) and cognitive demands (presence or absence of a secondary task) within subjects. Groups of older subjects with hearing loss ( n = 20) and age-matched normal-hearing controls ( n = 20) were tested. Results The comprehension data show effects of syntactic complexity and hearing ability, with normal-hearing controls outperforming listeners with hearing loss, seemingly more so on syntactically complex sentences. The secondary task did not influence off-line comprehension. The imaging data show effects of group, sentence complexity, and task, with listeners with hearing loss showing decreased activation in typical speech processing areas, such as the inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus. No interactions between group, sentence complexity, and task were found in the neuroimaging data. Conclusions The results suggest that listeners with hearing loss process speech differently from their normal-hearing peers, possibly due to the increased demands of processing degraded auditory input. Increased cognitive demands by means of a secondary visual shape processing task influence neural sentence processing, but no evidence was found that it does so in a different way for listeners with hearing loss and normal-hearing listeners.

scholarly journals Syntactic complexity in translated and non-translated texts: A corpus-based study of simplification

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253454
Author(s):  
Kanglong Liu ◽  
Muhammad Afzaal
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Pairwise Comparison ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
British English ◽  
Sentence Complexity ◽  
Comparable Corpora ◽  
Main Effect

This study approaches the investigation of the simplification hypotheses in corpus-based translation studies from a syntactic complexity perspective. The research is based on two comparable corpora, the English monolingual part of COCE (Corpus of Chinese-English) and the native English corpus of FLOB (Freiburg-LOB Corpus of British English). Using the 13 syntactic complexity measures falling into five subconstructs (i.e. length of production unit, amount of subordination, amount of coordination, phrasal complexity and overall sentence complexity), our results show that translation as a whole is less complex compared to non-translation, reflected most prominently in the amount of subordination and overall sentence complexity. Further pairwise comparison of the four subgenres of the corpora shows mixed results. Specifically, the translated news is homogenous to native news as evidenced by the complexity measures; the translated genres of general prose and academic writing are less complex compared to their native counterparts while translated fiction is more complex than non-translated fiction. It was found that mean sentence length always produced a significant effect on syntactic complexity, with higher syntactic complexity for longer sentence lengths in both corpora. ANOVA test shows a highly significant main effect of translation status, with higher syntactic complexity in the non-translated texts (FLOB) than the translated texts (COCE), which provides support for the simplification hypothesis in translation. It is also found that, apart from translation status, genre is an important variable in affecting the complexity level of translated texts. Our study offers new insights into the investigation of simplification hypothesis from the perspective of translation from English into Chinese.

scholarly journals Genre Analysis: A Study of Pakistani Wedding Invitation Cards

2020 ◽  
Vol V (I) ◽  
pp. 155-162
Author(s):  
Nazish Amjad ◽  
Fakhira Riaz
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Genre Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Sentence Complexity

The present study has examined the Pakistani wedding invitation cards. The objectives of this study are to conduct the genre analysis of wedding cards i.e. to analyze the moves, its order, communicative purpose and nature; and to explore the micro-linguistic features of the language of wedding invitation cards. For this purpose, fifty Baraat invitation cards, Mehndi invitation cards and wedding cards envelopes each was selected for the analysis by using models proposed by Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993). The results revealed eleven moves in Baraat invitation cards, ten in Mehndi cards and five in wedding cards envelopes out of which some are optional and some are obligatory depending on the frequency of its occurrence in wedding cards. For the analysis of micro-linguistic features, Bhatia’s model (1993) has been used. The micro-linguistic analysis includes sentence complexity, length of the sentence, verb, nouns, conjunctions and prepositions

Decrements in Logical Reasoning Performance under Conditions of Sleep Loss and Physical Exercise: The Factor of Sentence Complexity

1985 ◽  
Vol 61 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1179-1188 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Ryman ◽  
Paul Naitoh ◽  
Carl E. Englund
Keyword(s):  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Sleep Loss ◽  
Logical Reasoning ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Sentence Complexity ◽  
Percent Correct ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Complex Information ◽  
Reasoning Test ◽  
Simple Sentences

Baddeley's Logical Reasoning Test was used in a series of Sustained Operations (SUSOP) studies involving 100 US Matine Corps enlisted subjects, to assess the effects of sleep loss and long-term physical exercise on the ability to process complex information. The percent correct answers to the eight Logical Reasoning sentence types involving different voice (active vs passive), use of negatives, and outcome (true vs false) were analyzed over three days across three levels of exercise and rest conditions in the seven studies. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated no differences on the baseline day among the seven studies. Analyses on the baseline day and throughout the next two continuous workdays (CWs) showed consistently higher percent correct for the actively worded than for the passively worded sentences. The sleep loss over the two CWs resulted in a significant decrease in percent correct for the statements which had active wording. Sleep loss had no effect on statements with passive wording. There were no differences in comprehension between groups which had different rest conditions (no rest, 3- or 4-hr. nap, 8-hr. sleep) between the two CWs for any of the sentences; and there was no recovery from pretest to postrest. Fatigue due to exercise during either CW had no effect on comprehension for any of the sentence types. The sleep loss effects on comprehension seem due to a lessening of the attention given to those more simple sentences in active voice, whereas increased arousal may have been elicited by the more complex sentences in passive voice. The increased attention to the passive statements may have overcome the effects of sleep loss. The present study shows the usefulness of analyzing responses to the logical reasoning test by sentence complexity for indicating selective cognitive changes in the processing of information.

Early vocabulary, parental education, and the frequency of shared reading as predictors of toddler's vocabulary and grammar at age 2;7: a Slovenian longitudinal CDI study

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
LJUBICA MARJANOVIČ-UMEK ◽  
URŠKA FEKONJA-PEKLAJ ◽  
GREGOR SOČAN
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Shared Reading ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Sentence Complexity ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

AbstractThe aim of this longitudinal study, carried out on a sample of Slovenian-speaking toddlers, was to analyze developmental changes and stability in early vocabulary development; to establish relations between toddler's vocabulary and grammar; and to analyze the effects of parental education and the frequency of shared reading on toddlers' vocabulary and grammar. The sample included fifty-one toddlers, aged 1;4 at the time of the first, and 2;7 at the time of the last, assessment. Toddlers' vocabulary and grammar were assessed six times during a 15-month period using the Slovenian adaptation of the CDI. Our findings suggest great individual differences in both size and rate of toddlers' vocabulary development. Toddlers' vocabulary scores remained relatively stable across a 3-month period. Early vocabulary at 1;7 predicted vocabulary, sentence complexity, and mean length of utterance (MLU) at 2;7, while the frequency of shared reading mediated the effect of parental education on toddlers' vocabulary and grammar at 2;7.

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