A corpus-based analysis of referentiality in Mapudungun

LIAMES Línguas Indígenas Americanas ◽

10.20396/liames.v21i00.8658929 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 ◽

pp. e021010

Author(s):

Lucía Golluscio ◽

Christian Lehmann ◽

Felipe Daniel Hasler Sandoval ◽

Anna Pamies

Keyword(s):

Structural Properties ◽

Discourse Structure ◽

Referential Expressions ◽

New Phenomena ◽

Methodological Guidelines ◽

Semantic Parameters

This report presents the methodological guidelines as well as some partial results of the study of referentiality in Mapudungun, a language isolate spoken in Chile and Argentina with different degrees of vitality. Reference in discourse encompasses two basic operations: the individuation of the referents and their anchorage in the discourse. Our research is part of a wider project which seeks to identify the structural resources used by the languages in referential operations. We investigate a set of structural and semantic parameters of referential expressions as they occur in a corpus of Mapudungun texts belonging to different genres. Some of the findings may represent general patterns of reference in natural texts, while others may be representative of specific Mapudungun genres. At a methodological level, our research shows that it is possible to substantiate hypotheses on reference and on discourse structure related to reference by hard figures, to characterize text genres by measurable semantic and structural properties, and to discover new phenomena which demand an explanation.

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Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2020_ajslp-19-00094 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Eun Jin Paek ◽

Si On Yoon

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Referential Communication ◽

Sorting Task ◽

Audience Design ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Communication Task ◽

Design Skills ◽

Referential Expressions

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

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Geometric structural properties of bonded layers of chemically modified silicas

Journal of Chromatography A ◽

10.1016/s0021-9673(01)91460-8 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 447 (3) ◽

pp. 103-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

A Fadeev

Keyword(s):

Structural Properties ◽

Chemically Modified ◽

Chemically Modified Silicas

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Electronic, vibrational and structural properties of alkali halide clusters

Physica B Condensed Matter ◽

10.1016/s0921-4526(84)92608-5 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 127 (1-3) ◽

pp. 214-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

T MARTIN

Keyword(s):

Structural Properties ◽

Alkali Halide

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Newborn's Preference for Faces

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040.1.3.200 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 200-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Carlo Umiltà ◽

Francesca Simion ◽

Eloisa Valenza

Keyword(s):

Visual System ◽

Structural Properties ◽

Sensory Properties ◽

Human Face ◽

System Experiment ◽

Face Experiment

Four experiments were aimed at elucidating some aspects of the preference for facelike patterns in newborns. Experiment 1 showed a preference for a stimulus whose components were located in the correct arrangement for a human face. Experiment 2 showed a preference for stimuli that had optimal sensory properties for the newborn visual system. Experiment 3 showed that babies directed their attention to a facelike pattern even when it was presented simultaneously with a non-facelike stimulus with optimal sensory properties. Experiment 4 showed the preference for facelike patterns in the temporal hemifield but not in the nasal hemifield. It was concluded that newborns' preference for facelike patterns reflects the activity of a subcortical system which is sensitive to the structural properties of the stimulus.

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