Cerebral White Matter Mediation of Age-Related Differences in Picture Naming Across Adulthood

As people age, one of the most common complaints is difficulty with word retrieval. A wealth of behavioral research confirms such age-related language production deficits, yet the structural neural differences that relate to age-related language production deficits remains an open area of exploration. Therefore, the present study used a large sample of healthy adults across adulthood to investigate how age-related white matter differences in three key left-hemisphere language tracts may contribute to age-related differences in language ability. Specifically, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to measure fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD) which are indicators of white matter structure. We then used a series of path models to test whether white matter from the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and the frontal aslant tract (FAT) mediated age-related differences in one form of language production, picture naming. We found that FA, as well as RD from the SLF and FAT mediated the relation between age and picture naming performance, whereas a control tract (corticospinal; CST) was not a mediator. Moreover, differences between mediation of picture naming and a control naming condition suggest that left SLF has a greater role in higher-order aspects of naming, such as semantic and lexical selection whereas left FAT is more sensitive to sensorimotor aspects of fluency or speech motor planning. These results suggest that dorsal white matter contributes to age-related differences in generating speech and may be particularly important in supporting word retrieval across adulthood.

Exploring the Korean Hangul Word Decoding Properties of Children with Reading Disabilities: Implication for Reading Intervention and Reading Related Language Factors

Objectives: This study analyzed the Korean Hangul word decoding properties of children with reading disabilities by considering reading intervention and reading related language factors.Methods: A corresponding sample t-test, correlation analysis, and repeated measurement were examined for the relevance of Hangul and reading difficulties, predictors of Hangul reading difficulties, and the effects of Korean word meaningfulness (word/non-word) and spelling regularity (regular/irregular) variables.Results: 1) After reading intervention, children with reading disabilities improved in their Hangul decoding, listening comprehension, phonological awareness, and word writing scores. 2) Before and after reading interventions, variables related to decoding were receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, word writing, and rapid naming. 3) The variables of children’s ability that predicted decoding were word writing, listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and rapid naming; and the variable that predicted non-word decoding was word writing. Phonological awareness, which showed significant correlation with decoding scores, did not act as a significant predictor of decoding scores. 4) Reading interventions and decoding-level variables (word meaning and spelling regularity) both showed significant effects in the decoding of Korean Hangul, especially after reading interventions.Conclusion: The reading disability of Hangul is acting on both the characteristics of the ideogram and phonogram system, and the characteristics of Hangul’s unique spelling system.

Sleep talking vs. sleep moaning: electrophysiological patterns preceding linguistic vocalizations during sleep

Sleep talking (ST) has been rarely studied as an isolated phenomenon. Late investigations over the psycholinguistic features of vocal production in ST pointed to coherence with wake language formal features. Therefore, we investigated the EEG correlates of Verbal ST as the overt manifestation of sleep-related language processing, with the hypothesis of shared electrophysiological correlates with wake language production.From a sample of 155 highly frequent STs, we recorded 13 participants (age range 19-30y, mean age 24.6 ± 3.3; 7F) via vPSG for at least 2-consecutive nights, and a total of 28 nights. We first investigated the sleep macrostructure of STs compared to 13 age and gender matched subjects. We then compared the EEG signal before 21 Verbal STs vs. 21 Non-verbal STs (moaning, laughing, crying, ...) in 6 STs reporting both vocalization types in Stage 2 NREM sleep.The 2x2 mixed ANOVA Group x Night interaction showed no statistically significant effect for macrostructural variables, but significant main effects for Group with lower REM (%), TST, TBT SEI and greater NREM (%) for STs compared to controls.EEG statistical comparisons (paired-samples Student's t-Test) showed a decrement in power spectra for Verbal STs vs. Non-verbal STs within the theta and alpha EEG bands, strongly lateralized to the left hemisphere and localized on centro-parietal-occipitals channels. A single left parietal channel (P7) held significance after Bonferroni correction.Our results suggest shared neural mechanisms between Verbal ST and language processing during wakefulness and a possible functional overlapping with linguistic planning in wakefulness.

Linguistics - Translation Studies - Linguistics: eine Einführung

The introduction primarily explains the meaning of the title “Linguistics and Translation Studies. Translation Studies and Linguistics” and furthermore focuses on the choice of the term “translation studies” which in the present context should be considered as any form of scientific approach to transla¬tion which is not based on a preconceived theory.The second paragraph outlines the difficult relationship between lin-guistics and translation studies. The convergence of both disciplines was particularly favoured by the fact that since the Seventies and Eighties, Linguistics have expanded their research to include text linguistics, prag-matics and cognitive studies. The three mentioned fields and the actual tech¬nological developments are the basis on which this publication was subdi¬vided into four parts.The third paragraph presents various contributions. The first part “textlinguistic approaches” starts with an overview of the relationship between (text) linguistics and translation studies (Holzer); two pair-related language contributions (Krein-Kühle, Sládková), a contribution on hermeneutics, translation and text linguistics (Stolze) and a contribution on translational text production from a pragmatic functional viewpoint (Feyrer). In part two “pragmatic approaches ”, the various aspects of prag-matism are represented: the sociocultural context of the translator (Goyens & Van Hoecke), rendering the implicit explicit by the translator (Zlateva), the cultural influences on juridical terminology (Brugnoli), the genre as a culture-specific category (García Izquierdo & Montalt i Resurrecció), the social relationship between sender and receiver (Nord) and the involvement of the reader in the translation discussion (Renkema & van Wijk). The contributions to the third part are divided into three main themes: 1. Cognitive structures which are the basis for complex relations between terms and the formation of metaphors (Thelen, Temmerman, Holm), 2. cognitive processes of information flow in understanding and translating (Sévigny) and the description of the note-taking technique of the interpreter as a language and discourse (Kohn & Albl-Mikasa), 3. empirical studies of the translation process on the basis of data collection with subsequent didactic goals (Rydning, Büyükkantarcio lu & Do an, Hansen, Breedveld & van den Bergh). The fourth part “technological approaches” consists on the one hand of contributions that examine technological procedures as an auxiliary means for the translator (Michiels, Feder, Schmitz) and on the other hand contributions that relate to corpus-based research as a bridge between linguistics and translation studies (Ramón-García, Nilsson, Olohan).

Geospatial Semantics Analysis of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau Based on Microblog Short Texts

Place descriptions record qualitative information related to places and their spatial relationships; thus, the geospatial semantics of a place can be extracted from place descriptions. In this study, geotagged microblog short texts recorded in 2017 from the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province were used to extract the place semantics of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). ERNIE, a language representation model enhanced by knowledge, was employed to extract thematic topics from the microblog short texts, which were then geolocated and used to analyze the place semantics of the QTP. Considering the large number of microblogs published by tourists in both Qinghai and Tibet, we separated the texts into four datasets according to the user, i.e., local users in Tibet, tourists in Tibet, local users in Qinghai, and tourists in Qinghai, to explore the place semantics of the QTP from different perspectives. The results revealed clear spatial variability in the thematic topics. Tibet is characterized by travel- and scenery-related language, whereas Qinghai is characterized by emotion, work, and beauty salon-related language. The human cognition of place semantics differs between local residents and tourists, and with a greater difference between the two in Tibet than in Qinghai. Weibo texts also indicate that local residents and tourists are concerned with different aspects of the same thematic topics. The cities on the QTP can be classified into three groups according to their geospatial semantic components, i.e., tourism-focused, life-focused, and religion-focused cities.

Sequences of high tones across word boundaries in Tswana

The article analyses violations of the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) above the word level in Tswana, a Southern Bantu language, by investigating the realization of adjacent lexical high tones across word boundaries. The results show that across word boundaries downstep (i.e. a lowering of the second in a series of adjacent high tones) only takes place within a phonological phrase. A phonological phrase break blocks downstep, even when the necessary tonal configuration is met. A phrase-based account is adopted in order to account for the occurrence of downstep. Our study confirms a pattern previously reported for the closely related language Southern Sotho and provides controlled, empirical data from Tswana, based on read speech of twelve speakers which has been analysed auditorily by two annotators as well as acoustically.

Hoe universeel zijn receptieve meertaligheidsstrategieën?

There are multiple ways in which language learners’ multilingual repertoire can be put to use in foreign language learning and teaching. One such use is receptive multilingualism (RM, cf. Blees & Ten Thije 2017). Despite the fact that RM has been found to be an effective means of communication between adult speakers of typologically related languages, like Dutch and German (see Beerkens, 2010; Van Mulken & Hendriks, 2015; Ribbert & Ten Thije, 2007), there is hardly any research investigating its use and effectiveness in younger learners in school settings (Ten Thije, Gulikers & Schoutsen, 2020). In this contribution, we present the results of a pilot study in which we investigate whether German secondary-school students make use of their multilingual repertoire by employing receptive multilingual strategies when decoding an unknown, but typologically related language (Dutch) and whether they can transfer these skills when decoding a less typologically related, unknown language (Maltese).