"All mimsy were the borogoves” – A discriminative learning model of morphological knowledge in pseudo-word inflection

Grammatical knowledge of native speakers has often been investigated in so-called wug tests, in which participants have to inflect pseudo-word forms (wugs). Typically it has been argued that in inflecting these pseudo-words, speakers apply their knowledge of word formation processes. However, it remains unclear what exactly this knowledge is and how it is learned.According to one theory, the knowledge is best characterized as abstractions and rules that specify how units can be combined. Another theory maintains that it is best characterized by analogy. In both cases the knowledge is learned by association based on positive evidence alone.In this paper, we model the classification of pseudo-words to Maltese plural classes on the basis of phonetic input using a shallow neural network trained with an error-driven learning algorithm. We demonstrate that the classification patterns mirror those of Maltese native speakers in a wug test. Our results indicate that speakers rely on gradient knowledge of a relation between the phonetics of whole words and plural classes, which is learned in an error-driven way.

The Predictive Role of Grapho-Morphological Knowledge in Reading Comprehension for Beginning-Level L2 Chinese Learners

Reading comprehension entails a set of distinct, yet interdependent cognitive, linguistic, and nonlinguistic processes. Previous second language (L2) Chinese studies have identified significant and positive impacts of grapho-morphological knowledge at the character and subcharacter (radical) levels on passage reading comprehension; however, little is known regarding how early L2 grapho-morphological knowledge at the character and radical levels jointly predict later L2 reading comprehension. This study aimed to fill this gap. One hundred and five beginning-level L2 Chinese collegiate learners were recruited, and completed two character-related and two radical-related tasks in Week 8, as well as one reading comprehension tasks in Week 18. The main findings, based on correlational and path analyses, suggested that L2 Chinese learners’ early character-level and radical-level grapho-morphological knowledge significantly predicted later reading comprehension, yet the interrelations among grapho-morphological knowledge at the character and radical levels were complex. Path analyses identified direct and indirect paths from early character-level grapho-morphological knowledge to later reading comprehension, as well as indirect paths from early radical-level grapho-morphological knowledge to later reading comprehension. Methodological and pedagogical implications for L2 Chinese reading research and practices are discussed.

INTELLIGENT DATA MODEL FOR ARABIC MORPHOLOGY: MORPHOSCRIPT LANGUAGE

This paper aims to propose a specific formalism for Arabic morphology modeling that is too complex to model exhaustively with classical approaches. Therefore, it was necessary to find out an adequate representation of formalism. We designed, thus, a declarative, object-oriented language, referenced to us: MorphoScript, which allowed us to represent the complete morphological knowledge that we could identify optimally. The study that we are presenting here aims to propose an adequate data model of natural language morphological components and composition rules. We will thus present the basic elements and the theoretical and technical foundations of a language reproducing and assisting a morphological analysis process and the principles that guided the conception of this data model fully based on class concepts. Therefore, it is an object-oriented language using inheritance as basic support to define the morphological links between the different morphological classes. We have also used aggregation concepts and an annotation indexing system allowing the morphological designer a better representation of morphological knowledge.

Morphological Awareness in L2 Chinese Reading Comprehension: Testing of Mediating Routes

This study aims to examine the contribution of morphological awareness to second language (L2) Chinese reading comprehension through potential mediating factors. Adult L2 Chinese learners (n = 447) participated in the study and completed two morphological awareness tasks (segmentation and discrimination), two vocabulary knowledge tasks (character knowledge and word-meaning knowledge), one lexical inference task, and one reading comprehension task. By testing alternative path models, this study identified the preferred model assuming the covariates of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge jointly contributed to L2 Chinese reading comprehension through lexical inference. The written modality of morphological awareness induced the activation of both morphological and orthographic information in print. The result suggests that morphological awareness (in the form of grapho-morphological knowledge) and vocabulary knowledge seem to be two parallel components under the same construct predicting Chinese reading comprehension. More importantly, this study underscores the intermediary effect of lexical inference in associating morphological awareness and reading comprehension in L2 Chinese learners.

Morphological Knowledge as an Aid to Word Learning: A Cross-Situational Word Learning Study

The present study explores morphological bootstrapping in cross-situational word learning. Adult, English-speaking participants were exposed to novel words from an artificial language from three different semantic categories: fruit, animals, and vehicles. In the Experimental conditions, the final CV syllable was consistent across categories (e.g., /-ke/ for fruits), while in the Control condition, the endings were the same, but were assigned to words randomly. After initial training on the morphology under various degrees of referential uncertainty, participants were given a cross-situational word learning task with high referential uncertainty. With poor statistical cues to learn the words across trials, participants were forced to rely on the morphological cues to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, participants in the Experimental conditions repeatedly outperformed participants in the Control conditions. In Experiment 4, when referential uncertainty was high in both parts of the experiment, there was no evidence of learning or making use of the morphological cues. These results suggest that learners apply morphological cues to word meaning only once they are reliably available.

The “Sound of Silence”: Sensitivity to Silent Letters in Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate general spelling difficulties. This study investigated accuracy on and sensitivity to silent letters in spelling in children with and without DLD. Investigating silent-letter production provides a window into orthographic and morphological knowledge and enhances understanding of children's spelling skills. Method A group of children with DLD ( M age = 9;11 [years;months]) and two control groups of typically developing children ( n = 30 in each group) were given a dictated spelling task of 44 words that each contained a derivational or a nonderivational silent letter. We coded the silent letter in each word and counted 1 point for each correctly spelled letter in order to examine accuracy on silent letters. Two error patterns were distinguished to analyze sensitivity to silent letters: silent-letter substitutions and silent-letter omissions. Results Repeated-measures ANOVA showed that children with DLD produced significantly more errors on silent letters than did both control groups. Both control groups showed a greater sensitivity to silent-letter endings, as they tended to substitute incorrect silent letters where they made errors. In contrast, children with DLD tended to omit silent letters in their spelling attempts. Conclusions Our results suggest that silent-letter production is a major source of difficulty for spellers, especially for those with DLD, who appear to lack sensitivity to silent letters. These results highlight the importance of promoting spelling instruction to enhance orthographic knowledge in children with DLD.

Adaptive potential of Pedunculate oak in geographical cultures of the Lower Don

Дуб черешчатый, формируя искусственные лесные насаждения имеет различные формы или разновидности: географические, эдафические, фенологические и морфологические. Важное прикладное значение имеют знания о продуктивности и росте географических форм лесных насаждений, для чего создают и в дальнейшем исследуют специальные лесные культуры. Для изучения географической изменчивости видов древесных растений и уточнения их ценности для лесного хозяйства, создания массивов географических пород из посевного материала разного географического происхождения создают испытательные насаждения различных ценных пород. Государственный природный заказник "Горненский", расположенный в центральной части Ростовской области, являясь особо охраняемой природной территорией областного значения, имеет уникальные объекты географических культур, в частности дуба черешчатого (Quercus robur L.). В статье отражены исследования географических культур дуба черешчатого, произрастающих на территории заказника. Исследовано 9 вариантов. Определены лесоводственно-таксационные характеристики изученных вариантов. Выявлено, что к возрасту 42 года лучшее состояние имеют насаждения дуба, созданные из желудей, привезенных из Ставропольского края. Petiolate oak, forming artificial forest stands, has various forms or varieties: geographical, edaphic, phenological and morphological. Knowledge about the productivity and growth of geographical forms of forest stands is of great practical importance, for which special forest crops are created and further studied. To study the geographical variability of woody plant species and clarify their value for forestry, to create arrays of geographical rocks from seed material of different geographical origin, test plantings of various valuable species are created. The state nature Reserve "Gornensky", located in the central part of the Rostov region, is a specially protected natural area of regional significance, has unique objects of geographical cultures, in particular the oak petiolate (Quercus robur L.). The article reflects the research of geographical cultures of oak petiolate growing on the territory of the reserve. 9 variants were investigated. The forestry and taxation characteristics of the studied variants are determined. It was revealed that by the age of 42, the best condition is the oak plantings created from acorns brought from the Stavropol Territory.

Effects of L1 morphological type on L2 morphological awareness

Previous studies on bilingual children have shown a significant correlation between first language (L1) and second language (L2) morphological awareness and a unique contribution of morphological awareness in one language to reading performance in the other language, suggesting cross-linguistic influence. However, few studies have compared advanced adult L2 learners from L1s of different morphological types or compared native speakers with advanced learners from a morphologically more complex L1 in their target-language morphological awareness. The current study filled this gap by comparing native English speakers (analytic) and two L2 groups from typologically different L1s: Turkish (agglutinative) and Chinese (isolating). Participants’ morphological awareness was evaluated via a series of tasks, including derivation, affix-choice word and nonword tasks, morphological relatedness, and a suffix-ordering task. Results showed a significant effect of L1 morphological type on L2 morphological awareness. After accounting for L2 proficiency, the Turkish group significantly outperformed the Chinese group in the derivation, morphological relatedness, and suffix-ordering tasks. More importantly, the Turkish group significantly outperformed the native English group in the morphological relatedness task even without accounting for English proficiency. Such results have implications for theories in second language acquisition regarding representation of the bilingual lexicon. In addition, results of the current study underscored the need to guard against the comparative fallacy and highlighted the influential effect of L1 experience on the acquisition of L2 morphological knowledge.