The channel capacity of multilevel linguistic features constrains speech comprehension

Humans are expert at processing speech but how this feat is accomplished remains a major question in cognitive neuroscience. Capitalizing on the concept of channel capacity, we developed a unified measurement framework to investigate the respective influence of seven acoustic and linguistic features on speech comprehension, encompassing acoustic, sub-lexical, lexical and supra-lexical levels of description. We show that comprehension is independently impacted by all these features, but at varying degrees and with a clear dominance of the syllabic rate. Comparing comprehension of French words and sentences further reveals that when supra-lexical contextual information is present, the impact of all other features is dramatically reduced. Finally, we estimated the channel capacity associated with each linguistic feature and compared them with their generic distribution in natural speech. Our data point towards supra-lexical contextual information as the feature limiting the flow of natural speech. Overall, this study reveals how multilevel linguistic features constrain speech comprehension.

Reflet de la pandémie de Covid-19 dans les dictionnaires de la langue française

The Reflection of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Dictionaries of the French Language. Languages adapt to reflect changes taking place in the life of users. The COVID-19 pandemic, by its specificity, has had an enriching effect on the French language, which quickly created and borrowed simple and complex lexical units, a new specialized vocabulary reflecting the transformations that have occurred in the society. Medical terms like coronavirus (type of virus) and COVID-19 (disease caused by SARS -CoV-2) became a part of everyday conversation. New words and new meanings are usually added to dictionaries once editors have enough evidence to demonstrate continued historical use; therefore, they must be used over a significant period of time to earn their place in dictionaries. Based on the above, the question arises: how has the epidemic impacted dictionary editors? The present study attempts to investigate the new French words and expressions that emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and were added to dictionaries of the French language. The corpus collected within this study comprises neologisms (the concept of neologism can be misleading here, because the lexicography theory characterizes neologisms as words which have not been included in current dictionaries) from various fields, new words or expressions and new meanings which have been added to the Petit Robert and the Petit Larousse illustré and the online dictionaries Grand dictionnaire terminologique and Wiktionnaire. The French dictionary Le Petit Robert has added 26 new words and meanings to its 2022 dictionary, and 48 new words and meanings, from cluster to coronapiste (a cycle lane introduced during the COVID-19 crisis), have entered the French dictionary Le Petit Larousse 2022. The present study shows how French dictionaries have been able to adapt to the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this health crisis, the French language has been extraordinarily dynamic.

English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence

Second language (L2) learners often show influence from their first language (L1) in all domains of language. This cross-linguistic influence could, in some cases, be mediated by semantics. The purpose of the present study was to test whether implicit English gender connotations affect L1 English speakers’ judgments of the L2 French gender of objects. We hypothesized that gender estimates derived from word embedding models that measure similarity of word contexts in English would affect accuracy and response time on grammatical gender (GG) decision in L2 French. L2 French learners were asked to identify the GG of French words estimated to be either congruent or incongruent with the implicit gender in English. The results showed that they were more accurate with words that were congruent with English gender connotations than words that were incongruent, suggesting that English gender connotations can influence grammatical judgments in French. Response times showed the same pattern. The results are consistent with semantics-mediated cross-linguistic influence.

Blame the French

This chapter explains the role of the French in the weirdness of English. In 1066, William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, came over from France to defeat the English king and claim the throne. For the next few hundred years, England was controlled by French speakers. But the majority of people in England, those who did not rule, preach, study, or own land, did not become French speakers. Nevertheless, the ruling language managed to mix its way in. Because they controlled all official institutions, the vocabulary of government, law, and land administration came to be overwhelmingly rooted in Norman influence. Ultimately, the French transformed the vocabulary of English not just by introducing French words in almost every aspect of life, but also by providing an easy gateway to Latin borrowing and word creation. The French also introduced new word stress patterns that created confusion and splits based on stress alone, and left behind old word forms and phrase ordering. It even encouraged the development of a new English speech sound with its own letter, v.

Cross-language semantic parafoveal preview benefits in bilinguals

The aim of this project was to identify factors contributing to cross-language semantic preview benefits. In Experiment 1, Russian-English bilinguals read English sentences with Russian words presented as parafoveal previews. The gaze-contingent boundary paradigm was used to present sentences. Critical previews were cognate translations of the target word (CTAPT - START), noncognate translations (CPOK - TERM), or interlingual homograph translations (MOPE - SEA). A semantic preview benefit (i.e., shorter fixation durations) was observed for cognate and interlingual homograph translations, but not for noncognate translations. In Experiment 2, English-French bilinguals read English sentences with French words used as parafoveal previews. Critical previews were interlingual homograph translations of the target word (PAIN - BREAD) or interlingual homograph translations with a diacritic added (PÁIN - BREAD). A robust semantic preview benefit was found only for interlingual homographs without diacritics, although both preview types produced a semantic preview benefit in the total fixation duration. Our findings suggest that semantically-related previews need to have substantial orthographic overlap with words in the target language to produce cross-language semantic preview benefits in early eye fixation measures. In terms of the Bilingual Interactive Activation + model, the preview word may need to activate the language node for the target language before its meaning is integrated with that of the target word.

Perceptual and Interoceptive Strength Norms for 270 French Words

Perceptual experience through the five modalities (i.e., vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell) has demonstrated its key role in semantics. Researchers also highlighted the role of interoceptive information in the grounded representation of concepts. However, to this day, there is no available data across these modalities in the French language. Therefore, the aim of this study was to circumvent this caveat. Participants aged between 18 and 50 completed an online survey in which we recorded scores of perceptual strength (PS), interoceptive information, imageability, concreteness, conceptual familiarity, and age of acquisition of 270 words of the French language. We also analysed the relationships between perceptual modalities and psycholinguistic variables. Results showed that vast majority of concepts were visually-dominant. Correlation analyses revealed that the five PS variables were strongly correlated with imageability, concreteness, and conceptual familiarity and highlight that PS variables index one aspect of the semantic representations of a word. On the other hand, high interoceptive scores were highlighted only for the less imageable and less concrete words, emphasizing their importance for the grounding of abstract concepts. Future research could use these norms in the investigation of the role of perceptual experience in the representation of concepts and their impact on word processing.

How to pronounce silent letters in English and French

According to the Law on Education, the National Training Program, new educational institutions have been built, and the existing ones have been reconstructed and repaired in accordance with modern standards. In the framework of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Education" and the National Program of Personnel Training, a comprehensive system of teaching foreign languages, is the formation of a harmoniously developed, educated, modern-minded young generation , a system aimed at further integration of the republic into the world community has been created. Silent letter is part of a word that written but not spoken. Silent letter can sometimes join with other letters to form part of a word. Silent letters exist in many English words and French words as well. Because of this, they often cause confusion and sometimes embarrassment when they are accidentally spoken.One of the reasons why silent letters are used in English, French and some other languages relates to following. During the formation evolution of English and French many foreign words were assimilated or absorbed in the language in Latin ,Germanic , Greek words were readily added to early English and French as was the spelling. All natural languages change and because they change, they have histories. Every language changes in different ways, so their histories are unique and different. The history of a given language is the description of how it has changed over time.

Learning French Liaison with Gradient Symbolic Representations: Errors, Predictions, Consequences

Smolensky & Goldrick (2016) first made the case for Gradient Symbolic Representations (GSRs) as the inputs to phonological grammar using the phenomena of French liaison. Under this view, many common French words are stored underlyingly with partially-activated word-final consonants, and others with gradient blends of partially-activated word-initial consonants. In this paper, we follow up some of that view's predictions and consequences, focusing on the acquisition of French liaison using GSRs. We compare our simulations of error-driven GSR learning with observed errors made by French-learning children, and find the results to be encouragingly similar. We also compare predictions about the end state of GSR learning with a pilot study reporting adult French speakers' use of liaison in nonce words, where we find a rather less good explanatory fit. The paper emphasizes the role of word and collocation frequency in the development of phonological patterns by a GSR learner, and outlines many future avenues for research.