scholarly journals Structural priming is determined by global syntax rather than internal phrasal structure: Evidence from young and older adults

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie M Hardy ◽  
Linda Wheeldon ◽  
Katrien Segaert
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Transitive Verb ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Patient Role ◽  
Target Experiment

Structural priming refers to the tendency of speakers to repeat syntactic structures across sentences. We investigated the extent to which structural priming persists with age and whether the effect depends upon highly abstract syntactic representations that only encompass the global sentence structure or whether representations are specified for internal constituent phrasal properties. In Experiment 1, young and older adults described transitive verb targets that contained the plural morphology of the patient role (“The horse is chasing the frogs/ The frogs are being chased by the horse”). While maintaining the conceptual and global syntactic structure of the prime, we manipulated the internal phrasal structure of the patient role to either match (plural; “The king is punching the builders/ The builders are being punched by the king”) or mismatch (coordinate noun phrase; “The king is punching the pirate and the builder/ The pirate and the builder are being punched by the king”) the target. In both age groups, we observed limited priming of onset latencies, but robust effects of choice structural priming – participants produced more passive targets following passive primes – which critically did not vary dependent on whether the internal constituent structure matched or mismatched between the prime and target. Experiment 2 replicated these findings for the agent role: choice structural priming was unaffected by age or changes to the prime noun phrase type. This demonstrates that global, not internal, syntactic structure determines syntactic choices in young and older adults, as predicted by residual activation and implicit learning models of structural priming.

scholarly journals Syntactic Structure Analysis on Deaf Student of Brawijaya University

PARADIGM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
Finda Muftihatun Najihah
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Narrative Writing ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Deaf Students ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Transitive Verb ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Simple Sentences ◽  
Compound Sentence ◽  
Moderate Hearing Loss

This paper is aimed to investigate the syntactic structure of deaf students of Brawijaya Universirty. Syntactic structure which focuses on this discussion is the ability to recognize the sentence structure produced by deaf students. This study basically focuses on the language produced by deaf students of Brawijaya University in form of narrative writing. The narrative writing is written in Indonesian language. I chose Indonesian language as the language recourse, because the primary language of deaf students is Indonesian.This study uses descriptive qualitative research because this research basically aimed at describing the data in the form written text. The participant of this research is five deaf students who are classified into mild and moderate hearing loss. In term of analyzing the data, we concern on the three aspects of sentence structure. Those are: types of sentence, the presence of Subject and Verb in a sentence and the presence of Object for transitive verb.The finding indicates that the deaf students of Brawijaya University are able to write both simple sentences and compound sentence. They are also capable to write transitive verb which is followed by the object well. Yet, they are less in writing the passive voice form. Moreover, the data shows that different time durations of writing create a different number of words produced by them. Different deaf classification can provide different significance to a number of sentences produced by them.

scholarly journals TEACHING THE VARIETY OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES USING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Svetlana Iļjina ◽  
Valentīna Prikule
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
British Press

The research examines the variety of syntactic structures that are used in formation of newspaper headlines in British press. The report focuses on the peculiarities of newspaper headlines in terms of their syntactic structure. The present study also points out the influence of the sentence structure on the meaning of the entire headline.  

Cross-Structural Priming

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maaike Loncke ◽  
Sébastien M. J. Van Laere ◽  
Timothy Desmet
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Target Sentence ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Syntactic Structures

In this paper we show that attachment height (high vs. low attachment) of a modifier to a complex noun phrase (CNP; e.g., “the servant of the actress”), can be primed between dissimilar syntactic structures. In a sentence completion experiment, we found that the attachment height of a prepositional phrase (PP) in the prime sentence primed the attachment height of a relative clause (RC) in the target sentence. This cross-structural priming effect cannot be explained in terms of the priming of specific phrase-structure rules or even sequences of specific phrase-structure rules ( Scheepers, 2003 ), because the attachment of a PP to a CNP is generated by a different phrase-structure rule than the attachment of an RC. However, the present data suggest that the location at which the RC is attached to the CNP is mentally represented, independent of the specific phrase-structure rule that is attached, or by extension, that the abstract hierarchical configuration of the full CNP and the attached RC is represented ( Desmet & Declercq, 2006 ). This is the first demonstration of a cross-structural priming effect that cannot be captured by phrase-structure rules.

scholarly journals Do two and three year old children use an incremental first-NP-as-agent bias to process active transitive and passive sentences?: A permutation analysis.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Abbot-Smith ◽  
Caroline F Rowland ◽  
Franklin Chang ◽  
Julian Pine ◽  
Heather Jane Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Passive Condition ◽  
Patient Relations ◽  
Pointing Task ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Permutation Analysis

We used eye-tracking to investigate if and when children show an incremental bias to assume that the first noun phrase in a sentence is the agent (first-NP-as-agent bias) while processing the meaning of English active and passive transitive sentences. We also investigated whether children can override this bias to successfully distinguish active from passive sentences, after processing the remainder of the sentence frame. For this second question we used eye-tracking (Study 1) and forced-choice pointing (Study 2). For both studies, we used a paradigm in which participants simultaneously saw two novel actions with reversed agent-patient relations while listening to active and passive sentences. We compared English-speaking 25-month-olds and 41-month-olds in between-subjects sentence structure conditions (Active Transitive Condition vs. Passive Condition). A permutation analysis found that both age groups showed a bias to incrementally map the first noun in a sentence onto an agent role. Regarding the second question, 25-month-olds showed some evidence of distinguishing the two structures in the eye-tracking study. However, this only reached significance very briefly and nearly 4800 ms after the onset of the second noun phrase. Moreover, 25-month-olds did not distinguish active from passive sentences in the forced choice pointing task. In contrast, the 41-month-old children clearly reanalysed their initial first-NP-as-agent bias to the extent that they distinguished between active and passive sentences both in the eye-tracking data and in the pointing task. The results are discussed in relation to the development of syntactic (re)parsing.

Structural priming supports grammatical networks

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Network Structure ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Dependency Structure ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Theory Of Language

AbstractAs Branigan & Pickering (B&P) argue, structural priming has important implications for the theory of language structure, but these implications go beyond those suggested. Priming implies a network structure, so the grammar must be a network and so must sentence structure. Instead of phrase structure, the most promising model for syntactic structure is enriched dependency structure, as in Word Grammar.

scholarly journals Wh-Movement Pattern in the Spoken Discourse of Teachers: A Syntactic Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol III (II) ◽  
pp. 400-420
Author(s):  
Muhammad Seleem ◽  
Fatima Alam Khan ◽  
Aleena Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
National University ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
The One

This study investigates the syntactic structures of spoken discourse of teachers in academic discourse. The knowledge of syntactic structure of a language helps in understanding the spoken discourse. So, the study identifies the wh-Movement in the syntactic structures of teachers in English classroom sessions. The data was collected from two universities of Federal government, Pakistan. The one was Air University Islamabad and the second was National University of Modern Languages Islamabad. The data was collected through the recording tool where the English classroom sessions of the teachers were audio-recorded and transcribed. The analysis of data was quantitative and qualitative in nature. The frequency of wh-movement in the structures of recorded English spoken data was analysed quantitatively. In qualitative analyses, the transcribed data was analysed syntactically, keeping in view minimalist perspective, with the help of parsing rules and figures. The analyzed data shows that the teachers at undergraduate level use language where wh-movement is employed in syntactic structure of English used in classroom sessions. They move whexpression into other slots like internal merge and pied-pipe. However, the minimalist parametric unit, wh-movement, was found in the sentence structures of the teachers in the delivery of classroom sessions. So, the minimal pairs of sentence structure impacts different level of language.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽  
Derek M. Isaacowitz
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

Conflict Monitoring Across the Life Span

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Czernochowski
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Subsequent Performance ◽  
Additional Control ◽  
Performance Response ◽  
Conflict Detection And Resolution

Errors can play a major role for optimizing subsequent performance: Response conflict associated with (near) errors signals the need to recruit additional control resources to minimize future conflict. However, so far it remains open whether children and older adults also adjust their performance as a function of preceding response conflict. To examine the life span development of conflict detection and resolution, response conflict was elicited during a task-switching paradigm. Electrophysiological correlates of conflict detection for correct and incorrect responses and behavioral indices of post-error adjustments were assessed while participants in four age groups were asked to focus on either speed or accuracy. Despite difficulties in resolving response conflict, the ability to detect response conflict as indexed by the Ne/ERN component was expected to mature early and be preserved in older adults. As predicted, reliable Ne/ERN peaks were detected across age groups. However, only for adults Ne/ERN amplitudes associated with errors were larger compared to Nc/CRN amplitudes for correct trials under accuracy instructions, suggesting an ongoing maturation in the ability to differentiate levels of response conflict. Behavioral interference costs were considerable in both children and older adults. Performance for children and older adults deteriorated rather than improved following errors, in line with intact conflict detection, but impaired conflict resolution. Thus, participants in all age groups were able to detect response conflict, but only young adults successfully avoided subsequent conflict by up-regulating control.

Similarities in the Syntactic Structure of the German and Croatian Language

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Manuela Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
German Language ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Subordinate Clauses

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse any potential similarities between the Croatian and German language and present them adopting a contrastive approach with the intent of simplifying the learning process in regards to the German syntactic structure for Croatian German as foreign language students. While consulting articles and books on the theories and methods of foreign language teaching, attention is usually drawn to differences between the mother tongue and the foreign language, especially concerning false friends etc. The same applies to textbooks, workbooks and how teachers behave in class. Thus, it is common practice to deal with the differences between the foreign language and the mother tongue but less with similarities. This is unfortunate considering that this would likely aid in acquiring certain grammatical and syntactic structures of the foreign language. In the author's opinion, similarities are as, if not more, important than differences. Therefore, in this article the existence of similarities between the Croatian and German language will be examined closer with a main focus on the segment of sentence types. Special attention is drawn to subordinate clauses as they play an important role when speaking and/or translating sentences from Croatian to German and vice versa. In order to present and further clarify this matter, subordinate clauses in both the German and Croatian language are defined, clarified and listed to gain an oversight and to present possible similarities between the two. In addition, the method to identify subordinate clauses in a sentence is explained as well as what they express, which conjunctions are being used for each type of subordinate clause in both languages and where the similarities and/or differences between the two languages lie.

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