Comparing the cognate effect in spoken and written second language word production

Cognates – words that share form and meaning between languages – are processed faster than control words. However, is this facilitation effect merely lexical in nature or does it cascade to phonological/orthographic (i.e., sub-lexical) processes? This study compared cognate effects in spoken and typewritten production, which share lexical, but not sub-lexical processes. Dutch–English bilinguals produced English names for pictures representing Dutch–English cognates and control words in either the spoken or typewritten modality. Onset latencies were shorter and accuracy was higher for cognates vs. control words and this effect was similar in both modalities. Compared to controls, total latencies in the written modality were similar for cognates with much cross-linguistic overlap, but longer for ones with less overlap. Additionally, error analysis showed that cognates were more affected by L1 interference than controls. These results suggest two different cognate effects: one at the lexical and one at the sub-lexical level.

EXPRESS: Attention in Post-Lexical Processes of Utterance Production: Dual-Task Cost in Younger and Older Adults

There is a general agreement that speaking requires attention at least for conceptual and lexical processes of utterance production. However, conflicting results have been obtained with dual-task paradigms using either repetition tasks or more generally tasks involving limited loading of lexical selection. This study aimed to investigate whether post-lexical processes recruit attentional resources. We used a new dual-task paradigm in a set of experiments where a continuous verbal production task involved either high or low demand on lexical selection processes. Experiment 1 evaluates lexical and post-lexical processes with a semantic verbal fluency task, whereas experiments 2 and 3 focus on post-lexical processes with a non-propositional speech task. In each experiment, two types of non-verbal secondary tasks were used: processing speed (simple manual reaction times) or inhibition (Go/No-go). In Experiment 1, a dual-task cost was observed on the semantic verbal fluency task and each non-verbal task. In Experiment 2, a dual-task cost appeared on the non-verbal tasks but not on the speech task. The same paradigm was used with older adults (Experiment 3), as increased effort in post-lexical processes has been associated with ageing. For older adults, a dual-task cost was also observed on the non-propositional verbal task when speech was produced with the inhibition non-verbal task. The results suggest an attentional cost on post-lexical processes and strategic effects in the resolution of the dual-task.

On the locus of individual differences in perceptual flexibility: ERP evidence for perceptual warping of speech sounds

Listeners vary in how they categorize speech sounds: some are more step-like, while others are more gradient. Recent work suggests that gradient listeners are more flexible in cue integration and recovery from misperceptions (Kapnoula et al., 2017, 2021). We investigated the source of these differences and asked how they cascade to lexical processing. Individual differences in speech categorization were assessed via a visual analogue scaling (VAS) task. Following Toscano et al. (2010), we used the N1 ERP component to track pre-categorical encoding of speech cues. Separate tasks were used to measure inhibitory control and lexical processes. The N1 linearly tracked the continuum, reflecting a fundamentally gradient speechperception; however, for step-like listeners this linearity was disrupted near the boundary. This suggests that, while all listeners are generally gradient, there are individual differences deriving from the idiosyncratic encoding of specific cues, and that cue-level gradiency cascadesthroughout the system.

Dynamics of Word Production in the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood

Changes in word production occur across the lifespan. Previous studies have shown electrophysiological, temporal, and functional differences between children and adults accompanying behavioral changes in picture-naming tasks ( Laganaro, Tzieropoulos, Fraunfelder, & Zesiger, 2015 ). Thus, a shift toward adult-like processes in referential word production occurs somewhere between the ages of 13 and 20. Our aim was to investigate when and how children develop adult-like behavior and brain activation in word production. Toward this aim, performance and event-related potentials (ERP) in a referential word production task were recorded and compared for two groups of adolescents (aged 14 to 16 and 17 to 18), children (aged 10 to 13), and young adults (aged 20 to 30). Both groups of adolescents displayed adult-like production latencies, which were longer only for children, while accuracy was lower in the younger adolescents and in children, compared to adults. ERP waveform analysis and topographic pattern analysis revealed significant intergroup differences in key time-windows on stimulus-locked ERPs, both early (150–220 ms)—associated with pre-linguistic processes—and late (280–330 ms)—associated with lexical processes. The results indicate that brain activation underlying referential word production is completely adult-like in 17-year-old adolescents, whereas an intermediate pattern is still observed in adolescents aged 14 to 16 years old, although their production speed, but not their accuracy, is already adult-like.

Naming pictures and sounds: Stimulus type affects semantic context effects

Semantic context effects obtained in naming tasks have been most influential in devising and evaluating models of word production. We re-investigated this effect in the frequently used blocked-cyclic naming task in which stimuli are presented repeatedly either sorted by semantic category (homogeneous context) or intermixed (heterogeneous context). Previous blocked-cyclic naming studies have shown slower picture naming responses in the homogeneous context. Our study compared this context effect in two task versions, picture naming and sound naming. Target words were identical across task versions (e.g., participants responded with the word “dog” to either the picture of that animal or to the sound [barking] produced by it). We found semantic interference in the homogeneous context also with sounds and the effect was substantially larger than with pictures (Experiments 1 and 2). This difference is unlikely to result from extended perceptual processing of sounds as compared to pictures (Experiments 3 and 4) or from stronger links between pictures and object names than between sounds and object names (Experiment 5). Overall, our results show that semantic context effects in blocked-cyclic naming generalize to stimulus types other than pictures and – in part – also reflect pre-lexical processes that depend on the nature of the stimuli used for eliciting the naming responses.

Neuroplasticity in visual word recognition: An exploration of learning-related behavioural and neural changes

Visual word recognition is perceived to remain relatively stable throughout adulthood, but recent research suggests the system involved is malleable, with evidence of behavioural changes after lexical decision task (LDT) practice. The potential for, and extent of, neural changes have yet to be elucidated in this context. If identified, these neural changes could be due to processes associated with learning, where performance that is initially effortful becomes efficient and supported by an optimized task network. Replicating the British Lexicon Project, participants completed 16 hours of LDT learning over several days. We recorded EEG at three intervals to track neural change during LDT learning and assessed event-related potentials and brain signal complexity. We found that response times decreased during LDT learning, and there was evidence of neural change through N170, P200, N400, and LPC amplitudes across the EEG sessions, suggesting alterations to both the general cognitive and specific lexical processes involved in LDT performance. We also found widespread complexity decreases alongside localized increases, suggesting that processing became more automatic with specific increases in processing flexibility. These findings suggest that the visual word recognition system is dynamic, and has the potential for plastic changes to support more efficient and automatic task performance.

Naming pictures and sounds: Stimulus type affects semantic context effects

Semantic context effects obtained in naming tasks have been most influential in devising and evaluating models of word production. We re-investigated this effect in the frequently used blocked-cyclic naming task in which stimuli are presented repeatedly either sorted by semantic category (homogeneous context) or intermixed (heterogeneous context). Previous blocked-cyclic naming studies have shown slower picture naming responses in the homogeneous context. Our study compared this context effect in two task versions, picture naming and sound naming. Target words were identical across task versions (e.g., participants responded with the word “dog” to either the picture of that animal or to the sound [barking] produced by it). We found semantic interference in the homogeneous context also with sounds and the effect was substantially larger than with pictures (Experiments 1 and 2). This difference is unlikely to result from extended perceptual processing of sounds as compared to pictures (Experiments 3 and 4) or from stronger links between pictures and object names than between sounds and object names (Experiment 5). Overall, our results show that semantic context effects in blocked-cyclic naming generalize to stimulus types other than pictures and – in part – also reflect pre-lexical processes that depend on the nature of the stimuli used for eliciting the naming responses.

Korean KE compounds as novel evidence for phrase-to-word compounding in the Syntax

This paper reports on undocumented Korean data, dubbed as KE compounds and analyzes the structure thereof syntactically by alluding to detailed nominal structure and previous (re)analyses of compounding in the syntax, especially addressing the debate between Lexicalism and Anti-lexicalism. Korean KE compounds cannot be analyzed as typical CPs, despite surficial similarities, and they require an analysis with finer nominal structure and compounding in the syntax. Therefore, Korean KE compounding advocates the idea of finer nominal structure and syntactic operations substituting for lexical processes. The paper goes as follows. Firstly, I will outline the ongoing question in linguistic architecture around the lexicon, by addressing the major points and analysis on compounding that Lexicalism and Anti-lexicalism provide, respectively. Secondly, I will report Korean KE compounds data and show how they differ from typical Korean CP constructions. Lastly, I will analyze Korean KE compounding using finer nominal structure and the ideas of forming compounds using syntactic operations. That is, Korean KE compounding is an AspP-to-nP nominalization.

ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ДИНАМИЗМ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ОСЕТИНСКОЙ ЛЕКСИКИ

В статье рассматриваются лексические процессы, свидетельствующие об активизации осетинского словарного фонда, проявляющейся, в частности, в проникновении в исконный и иноязычный речевой оборот единиц, ранее находившихся на периферии лингвистической структуры или же для нее в целом не актуальных. В условиях глобализации, стирания национальных отличий регионалистические исследования языков все чаще привлекают научное внимание, что свидетельствует о несомненной важности данной научной специализации. Цель статьи – описание функционального динамизма лексической системы современного осетинского литературного языка на фоне таких актуальных векторов глобальной языковой динамики, как либерализация и демократизация языков, а также современного языкового контактирования в аспекте сравнения с действием указанных факторов в современном русском литературном языке. Представляются наблюдения над влиянием диалектного потенциала, а также влиянием другой тенденции, формирующей современный языковой вкус, – либерализации языка, приводящей к обновлению литературного канона. Функциональный динамизм осетинского языка рассматривается и на фоне современного языкового контактирования, которое представляет собой широкомасштабное явление, наглядно демонстрирующее влияние языковой глобализации; отмечается, что параллельно в современном мире наблюдается интеграция локальных сообществ, стремление их к определенной автаркии, в том числе на уровне языковых систем. Работа показала, что в осетинском языке функциональные сдвиги проявляются в русле взаимодействия двух разнонаправленных векторов современной языковой динамики: с одной стороны, глобализации, с другой, регионализации. На материале указанных наблюдений обнаруживаются особенности современной осетинской и русской лексической динамики. Утверждается, что изменения в сфере языковой политики, произошедшие в последнее время в Республике Северная Осетия-Алания, обусловливают наряду с активным влиянием на осетинский язык русского языка возникновение параллельной, осетинско-русской, линии языковых контактов; данное обстоятельство объективно диктуется самой природой последних: известно, что любой долговременный этнический контакт не может быть односторонним.The article deals with lexical processes that indicate the activation of the Ossetian vocabulary. The purpose of the article is to describe the functional dynamism of the lexical system of the modern Ossetian literary language. In the aspect of comparison with the vocabulary of modern Russian literary language. The work showed that functional shifts in the Ossetian language are manifested in the interaction of two different vectors of modern language dynamics: on the one hand, globalization, on the other hand, regionalization. The material of these observations reveals the features of modern Ossetian and Russian lexical dynamics. Russian language policy in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, along with the active influence of the Russian language on the Ossetian language, causes the emergence of a parallel, Ossetian-Russian, line of language contacts. This fact is objectively dictated by the very nature of the latter: it is well known that any long-term ethnic contact cannot be unilateral.