scholarly journals Sentence first, arguments after: Mechanisms of morphosyntax acquisition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Getz
Keyword(s):  
Distributional Analysis ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The One ◽  
Open Class

Natural languages contain complex grammatical patterns. For example, in German, finite verbs occur second in main clauses while non-finite verbs occur last, as in 'dein Bruder möchte in den Zoo gehen' (“Your brother wants to go to the zoo”). Children easily acquire this type of morphosyntactic contingency (Poeppel & Wexler, 1993; Deprez & Pierce, 1994). There is extensive debate in the literature over the nature of children’s linguistic representations, but there are considerably fewer mechanistic ideas about how knowledge is actually acquired. Regarding German, one approach might be to learn the position of prosodically prominent open-class words (“verbs go 2nd or last”) and then fill in the morphological details. Alternatively, one could work in the opposite direction, learning the position of closed-class morphemes (“-te goes 2nd and -en goes last”) and fitting open-class items into the resulting structure. This second approach is counter-intuitive, but I will argue that it is the one learners take.Previous research suggests that learners focus distributional analysis on closed-class items because of their distinctive perceptual properties (Braine, 1963; Morgan, Meier, & Newport, 1987; Shi, Werker & Morgan, 1999; Valian & Coulson, 1988). The Anchoring Hypothesis (Valian & Coulson, 1988) posits that, because these items tend to occur at grammatically important points in the sentence (e.g., phrase edges), focusing on them helps learners acquire grammatical structure. Here I ask how learners use closed-class items to acquire complex morphosyntactic patterns such as the verb form/position contingency in German. Experiments 1-4 refute concerns that morphosyntactic contingencies like those in German are too complex to learn distributionally. Experiments 5-8 explore the mechanisms underlying learning, showing that adults and children analyze closed-class items as predictive of the presence and position of open-class items, but not the reverse. In these experiments, subtle mathematical distinctions in learners’ input had significant effects on learning, illuminating the biased computations underlying anchored distributional analysis. Taken together, results suggest that learners organize knowledge of language patterns relative to a small set of closed-class items—just as patterns are represented in modern syntactic theory (Rizzi & Cinque, 2016).

scholarly journals Biased statistical learning of closed-class items

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Getz ◽  
Elissa Newport
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Linear Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mathematical Relationship ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Asymmetrical Structure ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
The One ◽  
Open Class

In natural languages, closed-class items predict open-class items but not the other way around. For example, in English, if there is a determiner there will be a noun, but nouns can occur with or without determiners. Here we asked whether statistical learning of closed-class items is also asymmetrical. In three experiments we exposed adults to a miniature language with the one-way dependency “if X then Y”: if X was present, Y was also present, but Y could occur without X. We created different versions of the language in order to ask whether learning depended on which category (X or Y) was an open or closed class. In one condition, X had the main properties of a closed class and Y had the main properties of an open class; in a contrasting condition, X had properties of an open class and Y had properties of a closed class. Learners’ exposure in these two conditions was otherwise identical. Learning was significantly better with closed-class X. Additional experiments demonstrated that it is the perceptual distinctiveness of closed-class items that drives learners to analyze them differently, and that the mathematical relationship between closed- and open-class items influences learning more strongly than their linear order. These results suggest that statistical learning is biased: learners privilege computations in which closed-class items are predictive of, rather than predicted by, open-class items. We suggest that the distributional asymmetries of closed-class items in natural languages—and perhaps the asymmetrical structure of linguistic representations—may arise in part from this learning bias.

Gender and Noun Classification

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Functional Elements ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Lexical Categories ◽  
Nominal Structure ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

This volume explores the many ways in which natural languages categorize nouns into genders or classes. A noun may belong to a given class because of its logical or symbolic similarity with other nouns, because it shares a similar morphological form with other nouns, or simply through an arbitrary convention. The aim of this book is to establish which functional or lexical categories are responsible for this type of classification, especially along the nominal syntactic spine. The book’s contributors draw on data from a wide range of languages, including Amharic, French, Gitksan, Haro, Lithuanian, Japanese, Mi’kmaw, Persian, and Shona. Chapters examine where in the nominal structure gender is able to function as a classifying device, and how in the absence of gender, other functional elements in the nominal spine come to fill that gap. Other chapters focus on how gender participates in grammatical concord and agreement phenomena. The volume also discusses semantic agreement: hybrid agreement sometimes arises due to a distinction that grammars encode between natural gender on the one hand and grammatical gender on the other. The findings in the volume have significant implications for syntactic theory and theories of interpretation, and contribute to a greater understanding of the interplay between inflection and derivation.

Arrangement Of Monomeric Units In Fibrin

1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Hermans
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Axis ◽  
High Symmetry ◽  
Linear Polymers ◽  
Fiber Volume ◽  
High Fiber ◽  
Rotation Axes ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Helical Turn ◽  
The One ◽  
Kinetics Of

Measurements of light scattering have given much information about formation and properties of fibrin. These studies have determined mass-length ratio of linear polymers (protofibrils) and of fibers, kinetics of polymerization and of lateral association and volume-mass ratio of thick fibers. This ratio is 5 to 1. On the one hand, this high value suggests that the fiber contains channels that allow the diffusion of enzymes such as Factor XHIa and plasmin; on the other hand, the high value appears paradoxical for a stiff fiber made up of elongated units (fibrin monomers) arranged in parallel. Such a high fiber volume is a property of only a small set out of many high-symmetry models of fibrin, which may be constructed from overlapping three-domain monomers which are arranged into strands, are aligned nearly parallel to the fiber axis and make adequate longitudinal and lateral contacts. These models contain helical protofibrils related to each other by rotation axes parallel to the fiber axis. The protofibrils may contain 2, 3 or 4 monomers per helical turn and there are four possible symmetries. A large specific volume is achieved if the ends of each monomer are slightly displaced from the protofibril axis, either by a shift or by a tilt of the monomer. The fiber containing tilted monomers is more highly interconnected; the two ends of a tilted monomer form lateral contacts with different adjacent protofibrils, whereas the two ends of a non-tilted monomer contact the same adjacent protofibril(s).

Intra-individual variation in adults and children: measuring and conceptualizing individual dialect–standard repertoires

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irmtraud Kaiser ◽  
Andrea Ender
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Standard Spectrum ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

Abstract This paper explores intra-individual variation as a manifestation of language-internal multilingualism in the Central-Bavarian Austrian context. Based on speech data from children and adults in different contexts, we discuss different methods of measuring and analyzing inter-situational variation along the dialect and standard language spectrum. By contrasting measures of dialectality, on the one hand, and proportions of turns in dialect, standard language or intermediate/mixed forms on the other, we gain complementary insights not only into the individual dialect-standard repertoires but also into the consequences of different methodological choices. The results indicate that intra-individual variation is ubiquitous in adults and children and that individual repertoires need to be taken into account from the beginning of the language acquisition process. We suggest that while intra-individual variation can be attested through the use of various methods, the revealed level of granularity and the conclusions that can be drawn as to the individual repertoires on the dialect-standard spectrum largely depend on the measures used and their inherent assumptions and intrinsically necessary categorizations.

Open class and closed class: Sentence-imitation experiments on intrasentential code-switching

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Azuma ◽  
Richard P. Meier
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Speech Errors ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Sentence Imitation ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Japanese English

ABSTRACTOne of the most striking facts about exchange errors in speech is that open class items are exchanged, but closed class items are not. This article argues that a pattern analogous to that in speech errors also appears in intrasentential code-switching. Intrasentential code-switching is the alternating use of two languages in a sentence by bilinguals. Studies of the spontaneous conversation of bilinguals have supported the claim that open class items may be codeswitched, but closed class items may not. This claim was tested by two sentence repetition experiments, one with Japanese/English bilinguals and the other with Spanish/English bilinguals. The results show that the switching of closed class items caused significantly longer response times and more errors than the switching of open class items.

PRAGMATIC, LINGUAL CULTURAL SENSES AND ETHNIC SYMBOLS IN ARTISTIC TRANSLATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (32) ◽  
pp. 130-148
Author(s):  
Oleh Tyshchenko
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
The Other ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Expressive Speech ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
English Translations ◽  
The One ◽  
The Master And Margarita

The article considers performative speech acts (expressives, commissives, wishes, curses, threats, warnings, etc.) and generally exclamatory phraseology in the original and translation in terms of the function of the addressee, the specifics of the communicative situation, the symbolism and pragmatics of the cultural text. Through cultural and semiotic reconstruction of these units, their semantic and grammatical structure and features of motivation in several linguistic cultures were clarified. Collectively, these verbal acts, on the one hand, mark the semiotic structure of the narrative structure of the text, and on the other hand, indicate the idiostyle of a particular author or characterize the speech of the characters and the associated range of emotions (curses, invectives, cries of indignation, dissatisfaction, etc.). Several translated versions of M. Bulgakov’s novel «The Master and Margarita» (in Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak and English) and English translations of M. Kotsyubynsky’s novel «Fata Morgana» and Dovzhenko’s short story «Enchanted Desna» constitute the material for the study. The obtained results are essential for elucidating the specifics of the national conceptual sphere of a certain culture and revealing the types of inter lingual equivalents, idiomatic analogues in the transmission of common ethno-cultural content. This approach can be useful for a new understanding of domestication and adaptation in translation, translation of culturally marked units, onyms, mythological concepts, etc. as a specific translation practices. There was further developed the theory of phatic and performative-expressive speech acts in lingual cultural comprehension.

Arrangemet, of Monomeric Units in Fibrin

1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Hermans
Keyword(s):  
Factor Xiiia ◽  
Fiber Axis ◽  
High Symmetry ◽  
Linear Polymers ◽  
Fiber Volume ◽  
High Fiber ◽  
Rotation Axes ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Helical Turn ◽  
The One

Measurements of light scattering have given much information about formation and properties of fibrin. These studies have determined mass-length ratio of linear polymers (protofibrils) and of fibers, kinetics of polymerization and of lateral association and volume-mass ratio of thick fibers. This ratio is 5 to 1. On the one hand, this high value suggests that the fiber contains channels that allow the diffusion of enzymes such as Factor XIIIa and plasmin; on the other hand, the high value appears paradoxical for a stiff fiber made up of elongated units (fibrin monomers) arranged in parallel. Such a high fiber volume is a property of only a small set out of many high-symmetry models of fibrin, which may be constructed from overlapping three-domain monoirers which are arranged into strands, are aligned nearly parallel to the fiber axis ant) make adequate longitudinal and lateral contacts. These models contain helical protofibrils related to each other by rotation axes parallel to the fiber axis. The protofibrils may contain 2, 3 or 4 monomers per helical turn and there are four possible symmetries. A large specifi volume is achieved if the ends of each monomer are slightly displaced from the protofibril axis, either by a shift or by a that of the monomer. The fiber containing tilted monomere is more highly interconnected; the two ends of a tilted monomer form lateral contacts with different adjacent protofibrils, whereas the two ends of a non-tilted monu mer contact the same adjacent protofibril(s).

Neural Systems for Sentence Processing in Stuttering

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 814-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Weber-Fox
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Functional Brain Organization ◽  
Open Class

The role of neurolinguistic factors in stuttering was investigated by determining whether individuals who stutter display atypical neural functions for language processing, even with no speech production demands. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were obtained while 9 individuals who stutter (IWS) and 9 normally fluent speakers (NS) read sentences silently. The ERPs were elicited by: (a) closed-class words that provide structural or grammatical information, (b) open-class words that convey referential meaning, and (c) semantic anomalies (violations in semantic expectation). In standardized tests, adult IWS displayed similar grammatical and lexical abilities in both comprehension and production tasks compared to their matched, normally fluent peers. Yet the ERPs elicited in IWS for linguistic processing tasks revealed differences in functional brain organization. The ERPs elicited in IWS were characterized by reduced negative amplitudes for closed-class words (N280), open-class words (N350), and semantic anomalies (N400) in a temporal window of approximately 200–450 ms after word onsets. The overall pattern of results indicates that alterations in processing for IWS are related to neural functions that are common to word classes and perhaps involve shared, underlying processes for lexical access.

Function words and polarity

2021 ◽  
pp. 66-85
Author(s):  
Matteo Greco
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Approach ◽  
The Other ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
The One ◽  
Syntactic Derivation

Function words are commonly considered to be a small and closed class of words in which each element is associated with a specific and fixed logical meaning. Unfortunately, this is not always true as witnessed by negation: on the one hand, negation does reverse the truth-value conditions of a proposition, and the other hand, it does not, realizing what is called Expletive Negation. This chapter aims to investigate whether a word that is established on the basis of its function can be ambiguous by discussing the role of the syntactic derivation in some instances of so-called Expletive Negation clauses, a case in which negation seems to lose its capacity to deny the proposition associated with its sentence. Both a theoretical and an experimental approach has been adopted.

The closed-class vocabulary as a closed set

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Chafetz
Keyword(s):  
Older Children ◽  
Closed Set ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Class Function ◽  
Specific Language Impairments ◽  
Semantic Value ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Repetition Task

AbstractChildren who have normal language development are aware of the distinction between closed-class and open-class words at a very early age. In order to test to what extent children know the closed class to be, in fact, closed, 104 children aged 3 to 5 years participated in a sentence repetition task. Each sentence contained a nonsense word that fulfilled either an open-class or a closed-class function. Children were more likely to repeat sentences correctly when the nonsense words functioned in open-class, rather than in closed-class, contexts. In addition, older children correctly repeated more sentences containing nonsense words that functioned in closed-class contexts than younger children. This last result shows a mechanism by which children may acquire new closed-class words. The theoretical implications of the results are also discussed relative to children with specific language impairments, especially in terms of their reliance on semantic value in word acquisition.

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