A meta-analysis of task-based differences in bilingual L1 and L2 language networks

The functional organization of first (L1) and second (L2) language processing in bilinguals remains a topic of great interest to the neurolinguistics community. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies report meaningful differences in the location and extent of hemodynamic changes between tasks performed in the L1 and L2, yet there is no consensus on whether these networks can be considered truly distinct. In part, this may be due to the multiplicity of task designs implemented in such studies, which complicates the interpretation of their findings. This paper compares the results of previous bilingual meta-analyses to a new ALE meta-analysis that categorizes neuroimaging studies by task design. Factors such as the age of L2 acquisition (AoA) and the L2 language proficiency level of participants are also considered. The findings support previous accounts of the effect of participant characteristics on linguistic processing, while at the same time revealing dissociable differences in fMRI activation for L1 and L2 networks within and across tasks that appear independent of these external factors.

A Relational Approach to Lexical Borrowings in the Discourse of Romanian Bilingual Immigrants in Spain

A Relational Approach to Lexical Borrowings in the Discourse of Romanian Bilingual Immigrants in Spain. This paper is a neurocognitive analysis of idiosyncratic lexical borrowings recorded in the discourse of bilingual Romanian immigrants living in Spain. The neurocognitive approach, also known as Relational Network Theory (RNT), conceives language as an interconnected relational network composed of nodes and lines, part of and connected to the general cognitive system. Linguistic processing is a result of spreading activation through the network and of interaction of the system with other biological systems. The model elegantly describes real and inferred linguistic behaviors, both well-formed and erroneous. We use this approach to explore the underlying mechanisms that trigger the emergence of linguistic interference in the discourse of bilingual speakers. We focus on several lexical borrowings selected from corpora of Romanian spoken in Spain, and we model them, using the NeuroLab tool, in relational network terms. The network modeling of these hybrid forms pinpoints new ways of understanding the differences between adapted and non-adapted, and between necessary and luxury borrowings. We conclude that the RNT model is well suited for explaining bilingual processing and, arguably, one of the few models that can account for the hybrid forms emerging in the discourse of bilingual speakers. Keywords: Relational Network Theory, lexical borrowing, Romanian, Spanish, Rumañol, neurocognitive linguistics.

Why subtitle speed matters: Evidence from word skipping and rereading

High subtitle speed undoubtedly impacts the viewer experience. However, little is known about how fast subtitles might impact the reading of individual words. This article presents new findings on the effect of subtitle speed on viewers’ reading behavior using word-based eye-tracking measures with specific attention to word skipping and rereading. In multimodal reading situations such as reading subtitles in video, rereading allows people to correct for oculomotor error or comprehension failure during linguistic processing or integrate words with elements of the image to build a situation model of the video. However, the opportunity to reread words, to read the majority of the words in the subtitle and to read subtitles to completion, is likely to be compromised when subtitles are too fast. Participants watched videos with subtitles at 12, 20, and 28 characters per second (cps) while their eye movements were recorded. It was found that comprehension declined as speed increased. Eye movement records also showed that faster subtitles resulted in more incomplete reading of subtitles. Furthermore, increased speed also caused fewer words to be reread following both horizontal eye movements (likely resulting in reduced lexical processing) and vertical eye movements (which would likely reduce higher-level comprehension and integration).

Interpretação Preferencial do Pronome Nulo em Falantes Bilíngues do Espanhol L2- Português Brasileiro L1 / Preferential Interpretation of the Null Pronoun in Spanish Bilingual Speakers L2- Brazilian Portuguese L1

Resumo: Esta pesquisa analisou o processamento anafórico de pronomes nulos (caracterizado como pro), investigando como esse tipo de expressão anafórica é interpretada por falantes bilíngues espanhol L2- português brasileiro L1, e se as gramáticas, aqui entendidas como conhecimentos internalizados sobre determinadas línguas, nos termos de Chomsky (1981), interferem umas nas outras na interpretação preferencial nas frases ambíguas. Tem-se como objetivo investigar a interpretação preferencial do pronome nulo na língua espanhola, analisando a preferência em frases ambíguas. Este estudo justifica-se por haver necessidade de dirimir controvérsias na literatura acerca das retomadas anafóricas, sobretudo em frases ambíguas, nas quais possivelmente há interferência dos mecanismos linguísticos da língua materna, utilizada pelo aprendiz. Muitos pesquisadores tentam compreender o funcionamento do processamento linguístico de uso da língua nos bilíngues, os quais falam duas línguas com competência igual ou similar a de um nativo (GONÇALVES, 2010). Ancoramos nossa hipótese nos princípios de Carminati (2005), que apontam que o pronome nulo em frases ambíguas estabelece preferencialmente a correferência com o antecedente em posição de sujeito, e também na a Hipótese da Interface de Sorace (2011), referente a influência da L1 na interpretação da correferência, já que os bilíngues estão sujeitos a utilizar os mesmos mecanismos de sua gramática L1 na L2 em situações de ambiguidade. A metodologia aplicada foi um teste off-line no Google forms, composto por perguntas sobre a preferência da retomada em frases ambíguas, associadas a frases distratoras, no qual participaram 08 voluntários bilíngues em nível avançado, estudantes do 9º período do curso de Letras – Português/Espanhol da Universidade de Pernambuco. Os resultados encontrados corroboram com a Hipótese da Posição do Antecedente de acordo com Carminati (2005) e com a Hipótese de Interface de Sorace (2011). Palavras-chave: Bilinguismo. Correferência anafórica. Interpretação preferencial. Pronome nulo. Abstract: This research analyzed the anaphoric processing of null pronouns (characterized as pro), investigating how this type of anaphoric expression is interpreted by bilingual Spanish L2-Portuguese L1 speakers, and if the grammars, here understood as internalized knowledge about certain languages, in terms by Chomsky (1981), interfere with each other in the preferential interpretation of ambiguous sentences. The objective is to investigate the preferential interpretation of the null pronoun in Spanish, analyzing the preference in ambiguous sentences. This study is justified by the need to resolve controversies in the literature about anaphoric retakes, especially in ambiguous sentences, in which there is possibly interference from the linguistic mechanisms of the mother tongue, used by the learner. Many researchers try to understand the functioning of linguistic processing of language use in bilinguals, who speak two languages with equal or similar competence to a native (GONÇALVES, 2010). We anchor our hypothesis in the principles of Carminati (2005), which point out that the null pronoun in ambiguous sentences preferentially establishes the correlation with the antecedent in subject position, and also in the Interface Hypothesis of Sorace (2011), regarding the influence of L1 in the interpretation of the coreference, since bilinguals are subject to using the same mechanisms of their L1 grammar in L2 in situations of ambiguity. The methodology applied was an offline test on Google forms, consisting of questions about the preference of retaking ambiguous phrases, associated with distracting phrases, in which 08 bilingual volunteers at advanced level participated, students of the 9th period of the Language course - Portuguese /Spanish from the University of Pernambuco. The results found corroborate the Antecedents Position Hypothesis according to Carminati (2005) and the Interface Hypothesis of Sorace (2011).Keywords: Bilingualism. Anaphoric Coreference. Preferred interpretation. Null pronoun.

Reading Minds, Reading Stories: Social-Cognitive Abilities Affect the Linguistic Processing of Narrative Viewpoint

Although various studies have shown that narrative reading draws on social-cognitive abilities, not much is known about the precise aspects of narrative processing that engage these abilities. We hypothesized that the linguistic processing of narrative viewpoint—expressed by elements that provide access to the inner world of characters—might play an important role in engaging social-cognitive abilities. Using eye tracking, we studied the effect of lexical markers of perceptual, cognitive, and emotional viewpoint on eye movements during reading of a 5,000-word narrative. Next, we investigated how this relationship was modulated by individual differences in social-cognitive abilities. Our results show diverging patterns of eye movements for perceptual viewpoint markers on the one hand, and cognitive and emotional viewpoint markers on the other. Whereas the former are processed relatively fast compared to non-viewpoint markers, the latter are processed relatively slow. Moreover, we found that social-cognitive abilities impacted the processing of words in general, and of perceptual and cognitive viewpoint markers in particular, such that both perspective-taking abilities and self-reported perspective-taking traits facilitated the processing of these markers. All in all, our study extends earlier findings that social cognition is of importance for story reading, showing that individual differences in social-cognitive abilities are related to the linguistic processing of narrative viewpoint.

The journey of Jephthah’s daughter: On spatial cognition, body and language in Judges 11:37

The traditional literal interpretation of the text in Judges 11:37 shows exceptional variation in topographic depiction. The literal interpretation of Driver, published in Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, is an example. From a linguistic perspective, no attention was paid whatsoever to the relation of interiority between an objective body and an objective space. This article proposes a cognitive semantic perspective and argues that the motion-path verb ירד (yrd) in Judges 11:37 carries a metaphorical meaning, and the linguistic processing, that is, the metaphorical mapping of the image schematic structure of CHANGE (up-down) as the source domain onto that of BEHAVIOUR as the target domain, involving activation of cultural spatial and bodily systems. With this background in mind, Judges 11:37 represents a new understanding for similar UP-DOWN image schemas applied in the Hebrew Bible.Contribution: This article contributes to the understanding of the apparent ‘inexact’ sense of the use of ירד (yrd) in Judges 11:37.

Vocal Imitation and Linguistic Processing of Super Mario Theme Music by Yorùbá Gamers

An aspect of gaming culture among Yorùbá millennials is the linguistic interpretations of the background music that accompanies the popular video game called Super Mario. The themes of the interpretations are comparable to those of music texts at traditional Yorùbá events. Drawing on the Yorùbá tradition, the account is that the gamers assumed that the background music of the game has a similar function as the music at traditional Yorùbá events. The choice of words in the interpretation is conditioned by the situational contexts where the music is heard in the video game. The results of acoustic analyses show that the interpretations are also determined by mapping the pitch trajectories of the music melodies to the tones of the gamers’ language. Notably, the results of this study suggest that the linguistic processing of music may not only involve phonetic iconicity (Steinbeis and Koelsch, 2011) but situational context and social expectation.

More than words: word predictability, prosody, gesture and mouth movements in natural language comprehension

The ecology of human language is face-to-face interaction, comprising cues such as prosody, co-speech gestures and mouth movements. Yet, the multimodal context is usually stripped away in experiments as dominant paradigms focus on linguistic processing only. In two studies we presented video-clips of an actress producing naturalistic passages to participants while recording their electroencephalogram. We quantified multimodal cues (prosody, gestures, mouth movements) and measured their effect on a well-established electroencephalographic marker of processing load in comprehension (N400). We found that brain responses to words were affected by informativeness of co-occurring multimodal cues, indicating that comprehension relies on linguistic and non-linguistic cues. Moreover, they were affected by interactions between the multimodal cues, indicating that the impact of each cue dynamically changes based on the informativeness of other cues. Thus, results show that multimodal cues are integral to comprehension, hence, our theories must move beyond the limited focus on speech and linguistic processing.

KHANTY-ORIGIN LEXEMES WITH FIGURATIVE MEANING IN RUSSIAN WRITTEN SOURCES, 1870–1930

Исследован корпус хантыйской лексики с переносными значениями, зафиксированной в статусе слов-вкраплений в русских письменных источниках 1870–1930 гг. Цели анализа: 1. Выявить способы номинации и семантические особенности указанной лексики. 2. Добавить новую информацию к этимологическому словарю хантыйского языка В. Штейница. 3. Показать причины возникновения лексико-семантических вариантов лексем и специфику передачи хантыйских слов в русских текстах. Методами исследования выступили общенаучные (анализ, синтез, сравнение) и частные лингвистические методы: описательный, этимологический, сопоставительный, метод реконструкции и статистической обработки материала. Переносные значения слов показаны в контекстах из источников, даны этимологии лексем по словарю В. Штейница, буквальный перевод. В результате исследования в статье приведены лексемы и их графические варианты по хронологии в рамках отдельных групп с учетом способа номинации: типы метафорического переноса 1) по форме (6 единиц), 2) по цвету (2), 3) по расположению в пространстве (3), 4) по функции (2); примеры метонимического переноса (4) и синекдохи (1). Указана многокомпонентная лексика, называющая животных и включающая в буквальном значении слова «мужчина» (2), «женщина» (4), «зверь» (4). Перечислены новые лексемы, дополняющие диалектные данные этимологического словаря хантыйского языка В. Штейница с учетом разных говоров, соседних или отдаленных друг от друга диалектов. Отмечены 4 сложных слова, не зафиксированные в указанном словаре. В статье проанализированы причины возникновения вариативности на лексико-семантическом уровне, отраженной в источниках: 1) в сравнении с фиксациями в словаре В. Штейница некоторые лексемы имеют новый компонент и вследствие этого семантический оттенок сложного слова (3 единицы); 2) полисемия в хантыйском языке в лексемах с компонентом ЮХ «дерево», при которой одно из значений на основе метонимии — «приспособление из дерева» (4). Исследование отражает специфику передачи в русских письменных текстах переносных значений словвкраплений в дописьменный период хантыйского языка, а также особенности осознания и отражения авторами внутренней формы сложных лексем при переводе: обобщение литературным словом, сокращение одного из компонентов при сохранении переносного смысла слова, буквальный перевод, описание предметов при переводе или без него. Статья вводит в научный оборот новый материал и может быть интересна для лингвистов, этнографов, историков, археологов. The study examines Khanty lexemes with figurative meanings recorded as borrowings in Russian written sources from 1870 through 1930. Analysis objectives: 1) Establish nomination methods and semantic characteristics of recorded lexemes; 2) Add new content to the etymological dictionary by W. Steinitz; 3) Show reasons for lexemes’ emerging lexico-semantic variations and specifics of how Khanty words get recorded in Russian texts. The study’s methodology incorporates general scientific (analysis, synthesis, comparison) and specific linguistic methods: descriptive, etymological, comparative, as well reconstructive and statistical processing of materials. Figurative meanings of words are presented in the source context, accompanied by their etymologies from the Steinitz dictionary, as well as literal translations. The study lists lexemes and their graphical variants chronologically, in groups based on the nomination approach: metaphoric transference according to 1) form (6 units); 2) color (2); 3) spatial orientation (3); 4) function (2); examples of metonymic transference (4) and synecdoche (1). Included multicomponent lexemes are used for naming animals and including the words “man” (2), “woman” (4), and “beast” (4). The study lists new lexemes, which complement the dialect data of the Steinitz dictionary taking into account various geographic variants and dialects. They include 4 compound words not recorded in the above dictionary. The study analyzes the causes of emerging lexico-semantic variability as presented in the examined materials: 1) compared to those recorded in the Steinitz dictionary, some lexemes show new components and therefore semantic facets of a compound word (3 units); 2) polysemy of the Khanty language in lexemes with component ЮХ “tree” includes cases with one of the metonymy-based meanings being “a wooden utensil” (4). The study points out specific ways, in which Russian written texts recorded figurative meanings of borrowings from the Khanty language before it became a written language. The study shows cognitive and linguistic processing, on the part of creators of examined sources, of the inner form of complex lexemes when translating them: using a more general literary term; shortening one of the word components while preserving its figurative meaning; literal translation; describing an object (in combination with translation or without it). The article introduces new material to the scientific domain and could be of interest for linguists, ethnographers, historians and archeologists.