"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 role of grammar in spelling homophonous regular verbs

Can a lack of grammatical knowledge alone be held accountable for the spelling errors that are made for homophonous verb forms and do these errors occur because spellers do not apply their grammatical knowledge? Three experiments with secondary school pupils were conducted on Dutch weak prefix verbs. The results confirmed that pupils made many spelling errors and also have great problems identifying the verb forms’ functions. Moreover, a direct correlation was revealed between a pupil’s identification of the form’s grammatical function and its spelling. These results indicate that many errors result from pupils’ inability to determine the grammatical functions of the forms. If pupils know the form’s function, they are more likely to also spell the form correctly. If they do not, they often choose the form’s homophone, especially if the homophone is more frequent than the target form. Spelling education thus needs a strong grammatical basis.

What Language Disorders Reveal About the Mechanisms of Morphological Processing

We addressed an understudied topic in the literature of language disorders, that is, processing of derivational morphology, a domain which requires integration of semantic and syntactic knowledge. Current psycholinguistic literature suggests that word processing involves morpheme recognition, which occurs immediately upon encountering a complex word. Subsequent processes take place in order to interpret the combination of stem and affix. We investigated the abilities of individuals with agrammatic (PPA-G) and logopenic (PPA-L) variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and individuals with stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia (StrAg) to process pseudowords which violate either the syntactic (word class) rules (*reheavy) or the semantic compatibility (argument structure specifications of the base form) rules (*reswim). To this end, we quantified aspects of word knowledge and explored how the distinct deficits of the populations under investigation affect their performance. Thirty brain-damaged individuals and 10 healthy controls participated in a lexical decision task. We hypothesized that the two agrammatic groups (PPA-G and StrAg) would have difficulties detecting syntactic violations, while no difficulties were expected for PPA-L. Accuracy and Reaction Time (RT) patterns indicated: the PPA-L group made fewer errors but yielded slower RTs compared to the two agrammatic groups which did not differ from one another. Accuracy rates suggest that individuals with PPA-L distinguish *reheavy from *reswim, reflecting access to and differential processing of syntactic vs. semantic violations. In contrast, the two agrammatic groups do not distinguish between *reheavy and *reswim. The lack of difference stems from a particularly impaired performance in detecting syntactic violations, as they were equally unsuccessful at detecting *reheavy and *reswim. Reduced grammatical abilities assessed through language measures are a significant predictor for this performance, suggesting that the “hardware” to process syntactic information is impaired. Therefore, they can only judge violations semantically where both *reheavy and *reswim fail to pass as semantically ill-formed. This finding further suggests that impaired grammatical knowledge can affect word level processing as well. Results are in line with the psycholinguistic literature which postulates the existence of various stages in accessing complex pseudowords, highlighting the contribution of syntactic/grammatical knowledge. Further, it points to the worth of studying impaired language performance for informing normal language processes.

The effect of editing techniques on machine translation-informed academic foreing language writing

Although the field of machine translation has witnessed huge improvements in recent years, its potentials have not been fully exploited in other interdisciplinary areas such as foreign language teaching. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to report an experiment in which this technology was employed to teach a foreign language to a group of students. This mixed-method study explores the effect of teaching editing techniques in machine translation to a group of Persian EFL university students in an academic writing course. Twenty students took part in a 4-day workshop in which one session was devoted to teaching editing techniques and three remaining sessions to the use of editing techniques, namely, correcting mistakes, removing ambiguities, simplifying structures and combining structures. Each session consisted of a pre-test, a training and a post-test. In addition, in each session, one key writing point, namely, determiners, paraphrasing and collocations were discussed. A questionnaire for candidates’ demographic information and another for learning experiences were administered. The results indicated a statistically significant improvement in the overall gain score. Further analysis showed a significant improvement in the use of determiners in contrast to paraphrasing and collocations. Lack of improvement in data driven learning in paraphrasing and collocation seemed to stem from weakness in vocabulary and grammatical knowledge in both the mother tongue and the target language. Analysis of questionnaire data revealed that the instruction proved to be beneficial since it could be easily implemented in correction and confirmation. On the whole, it can be concluded that providing the correct type of guidance and feedback on how to use machine translation will indeed have a profound effect on foreign language writing skill.

The Students’ Attitude toward English Instruction on the EFL Students’ Speaking Class

In general, an English teacher uses bilingual method in teaching process. However, a native English teacher uses English only in the class. Due to the new atmosphere faced by the students, the present study aimed to investigate the students’ attitude toward English instruction on the EFL students’ speaking class. This current study employed a quantitative method and it was designed as a descriptive research. The participants of this study were 156 students of English Study Program enrolled at Speaking class, Faculty of Tarbiyah, State Islamic Institute of Parepare. A 20-item survey questionnaire related to the students’ attitude toward English instruction with a five point likert scale was assigned to obtain the data from the participants. The results of the study revealed that the students have a positive attitude toward English instruction. They agreed with teaching English by using English instruction. The students’ cognitive and affective responses showed that the students believed that English instruction could improve the students’ abilities at intermediate level. Furthermore, the students’ cognitive responses indicated that the students’ vocabularies and grammatical knowledge improved. The use of English instruction also gave the students an opportunity to learn pronunciation from the native English teacher. While, the results of affective responses indicated that the students liked to study using English instruction and they were motivated to speak in English.

ГРАМАТИЧЕСКИ ФОРМАЛИЗМИ В ПОМОЩ НА ГРАМАТИКОГРАФИЯТА / GRAMMATICAL FORMALISMS IN AID OF GRAMMATICOGRAPHY

This paper presents some of the results of a larger study dedicated to the path of grammatical knowledge from the ancient Greek-Byzantine grammatical treatises to the Eastern Orthodox Slavic world, to the Bulgarian grammatical tradition from the Na-tional Revival period. The focus is on the syntactic element of the grammatical description. A formal notation of the sentence sections in the grammars of Avram Mrazović, Yuriy Venelin and Ivan Bogorov is enclosed to the end of comparing the “art and craft of writing grammars”. Grammatical formalisms have proved to be a reliable tool in the analytical procedures in the phylogenetic study of the Bulgarian syntactic tradition, as well as in the configurational analysis of the sentence, which departs from the practice of asking “questions” and looks into the fundamental property of “syntactic function” through the prism of modern grammar. Keywords: Bulgarian syntactic tradition, grammaticography, grammatical forma-lisms

The alternation between exterior locative cases and postpositions in Estonian web texts

A probabilistic grammar approach to language assumes that grammatical knowledge has a probabilistic component and that this probabilistic knowledge of language is derived from language experience. It is assumed that the extent and nature of grammatical knowledge is reflected in language variation. In the present paper, the probabilistic variation patterns of the Estonian exterior locative cases and the corresponding postpositions are determined by exploring a large, manually annotated dataset of Estonian web texts. It is proposed that there are both similarities and differences in the morphosyntactic knowledge on the part of Estonian speakers as pertains to the three alternations: allative ~ peale ‘onto’, adessive ~ peal ‘on’, ablative ~ pealt ‘off’. The study points towards the stability and direction of the factors that have been found significant in the previous studies. Multivariate analysis of corpus data shows that the grammatical knowledge of Estonian exterior cases and the corresponding postpositions is probabilistic and regulated by both morphosyntactic and semantic factors. Kokkuvõte. Jane Klavan: Eesti keele väliskohakäänete ja kaassõnade peal, peale, pealt kasutus eestikeelses veebis. Tõenäosusliku grammatika raamistikus eeldatakse, et grammatiline teadmine hõlmab endas tõenäosuslikku komponenti ja et see tõenäosuslik komponent pärineb suures osas keele kasutuse kogemusest. Sellistelt põhimõtetelt lähtuvate uurimuste eesmärgiks on mõõta grammatilise teadmise ulatust ja olemust nagu see peegeldub keelelises varieeruvuses. Esitan suuremahulise korpusuurimuse eesti keele väliskohakäänete ja nendega rööpselt tarvitatavate kaassõnade (peale, peal, pealt) paralleelsest kasutusest eestikeelsetel veebilehtedel. Korpusandmete multifaktoriaalne analüüs näitab, et grammatiline teadmine sellest rööpsest kasutusest on tõenäosuslik ja et seda reguleerivad nii morfosüntaktilised kui semantilised tegurid.

Free Conversation: A Legitimate Use of Class Time?

The notion that interactional competence in the L2 emerges naturally once sufficient lexical/grammatical knowledge is in place was disputed by Widdowson (1978), but this notion may still underlie some attitudes toward language learning in an institutional context. In this paper, I describe some central features of the genre of conversation and contrast these with the traditional interactional structures found in Japanese university classrooms. I suggest that the ability of learners to interact in the L2 requires both extensive opportunities for learners to engage in non-directed, phatic interactions supported by the teaching of interactional language skills. The approach may be initially challenging and confusing for learners, but over time, students align with the approach and interaction becomes smoother and more natural. 第二言語習得において、正確で高度な語彙と文法の知識が習得されれば相互行為能力は自然と身に付くものだと信じられてきた。Widdowson (1978)により批判に晒された現在でも、この根拠のない神話は未だに現場に浸透し、言語学習の姿勢形成に影響力を行使している感が否めない。本稿では、実際の学生の会話において話題・ジャンルの主要な特徴を記述し、日本の大学において元来の教授法で実施されている会話と比較した。。第二言語によるやりとりに必要とされる要素は、教師にお膳立てされることなく交感的なやりとりに参与する豊富な機会と、明確な相互行為能力指導の二点である。当初はこの新しいアプローチに困惑する学習者を生む場合もあるが、継続することで学生も徐々に適応し、第二言語によるやりとりを元来の教授法ではたどり着けないスムーズなものに変容させることができると考えられる。