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Sample records for linguistic intelligence word

  1. Are Prospective English Teachers Linguistically Intelligent?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tezel, Kadir Vefa

    2017-01-01

    Language is normally associated with linguistic capabilities of individuals. In the theory of multiple intelligences, language is considered to be related primarily to linguistic intelligence. Using the theory of Multiple Intelligences as its starting point, this descriptive survey study investigated to what extent prospective English teachers'…

  2. iWordNet: A New Approach to Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence

    OpenAIRE

    Chang, Mark; Chang, Monica

    2017-01-01

    One of the main challenges in artificial intelligence or computational linguistics is understanding the meaning of a word or concept. We argue that the connotation of the term “understanding,” or the meaning of the word “meaning,” is merely a word mapping game due to unavoidable circular definitions. These circular definitions arise when an individual defines a concept, the concepts in its definition, and so on, eventually forming a personalized network of concepts, which we call an iWordNet....

  3. Words Get in the Way: Linguistic Effects on Talker Discrimination.

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    Narayan, Chandan R; Mak, Lorinda; Bialystok, Ellen

    2017-07-01

    A speech perception experiment provides evidence that the linguistic relationship between words affects the discrimination of their talkers. Listeners discriminated two talkers' voices with various linguistic relationships between their spoken words. Listeners were asked whether two words were spoken by the same person or not. Word pairs varied with respect to the linguistic relationship between the component words, forming either: phonological rhymes, lexical compounds, reversed compounds, or unrelated pairs. The degree of linguistic relationship between the words affected talker discrimination in a graded fashion, revealing biases listeners have regarding the nature of words and the talkers that speak them. These results indicate that listeners expect a talker's words to be linguistically related, and more generally, indexical processing is affected by linguistic information in a top-down fashion even when listeners are not told to attend to it. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  4. The Actualization of Literary Learning Model Based on Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence

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    Nur Ihsan Halil

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This article is inspired by Howard Gardner's concept of linguistic intelligence and also from some authors' previous writings. All of them became the authors' reference in developing ideas on constructing a literary learning model based on linguistic intelligence. The writing of this article is not done by collecting data empirically, but by developing and constructing an existing concept, namely the concept of linguistic intelligence, which is disseminated into a literature-based learning of verbal-linguistic intelligence. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how to apply the literary learning model based on the verbal-linguistic intelligence. Then, regarding Gardner's concept, the author formulated a literary learning model based on the verbal-linguistic intelligence through a story-telling learning model with five steps namely arguing, discussing, interpreting, speaking, and writing about literary works. In short, the writer draw a conclusion that learning-based models of verbal-linguistic intelligence can be designed with attention into five components namely (1 definition, (2 characteristics, (3 teaching strategy, (4 final learning outcomes, and (5 figures.

  5. On the accessibility of phonological, orthographic, and semantic aspects of second language vocabulary learning and their relationship with spatial and linguistic intelligences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abbas Ali Zarei

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study was an attempt to investigate the differences in the accessibility of phonological, semantic, and orthographic aspects of words in L2 vocabulary learning. For this purpose, a sample of 119 Iranian intermediate level EFL students in a private language institute in Karaj was selected. All of the participants received the same instructional treatment. At the end of the experimental period, three tests were administered based on the previously-taught words. A subset of Gardner’s’ (1983 Multiple Intelligences questionnaire was also used for data collection. A repeated measures one-way ANOVA procedure was used to analyze the obtained data. The results showed significant differences in the accessibility of phonological, semantic, and orthographic aspects of words in second language vocabulary learning. Moreover, to investigate the relationships between spatial and linguistic intelligences and the afore-mentioned aspects of lexical knowledge, a correlational analysis was used. No significant relationships were found between spatial and linguistic intelligences and the three aspects of lexical knowledge. These findings may have theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers, teachers, and learners.

  6. Let's all speak together! Exploring the masking effects of various languages on spoken word identification in multi-linguistic babble.

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    Gautreau, Aurore; Hoen, Michel; Meunier, Fanny

    2013-01-01

    This study aimed to characterize the linguistic interference that occurs during speech-in-speech comprehension by combining offline and online measures, which included an intelligibility task (at a -5 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio) and 2 lexical decision tasks (at a -5 dB and 0 dB SNR) that were performed with French spoken target words. In these 3 experiments we always compared the masking effects of speech backgrounds (i.e., 4-talker babble) that were produced in the same language as the target language (i.e., French) or in unknown foreign languages (i.e., Irish and Italian) to the masking effects of corresponding non-speech backgrounds (i.e., speech-derived fluctuating noise). The fluctuating noise contained similar spectro-temporal information as babble but lacked linguistic information. At -5 dB SNR, both tasks revealed significantly divergent results between the unknown languages (i.e., Irish and Italian) with Italian and French hindering French target word identification to a similar extent, whereas Irish led to significantly better performances on these tasks. By comparing the performances obtained with speech and fluctuating noise backgrounds, we were able to evaluate the effect of each language. The intelligibility task showed a significant difference between babble and fluctuating noise for French, Irish and Italian, suggesting acoustic and linguistic effects for each language. However, the lexical decision task, which reduces the effect of post-lexical interference, appeared to be more accurate, as it only revealed a linguistic effect for French. Thus, although French and Italian had equivalent masking effects on French word identification, the nature of their interference was different. This finding suggests that the differences observed between the masking effects of Italian and Irish can be explained at an acoustic level but not at a linguistic level.

  7. Frequency Analysis of the Words in the Academic Word List (AWL) and Non-AWL Content Words in Applied Linguistics Research Papers

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    Vongpumivitch, Viphavee; Huang, Ju-yu; Chang, Yu-Chia

    2009-01-01

    This study is a corpus-based lexical study that aims to explore the use of words in Coxhead's (2000) Academic Word List (AWL) in journal articles in the field of applied linguistics. A 1.5 million-word corpus called the Applied Linguistics Research Articles Corpus (ALC) was created for this study. The corpus consists of 200 research articles that…

  8. Pairing Linguistic and Music Intelligences

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    DiEdwardo, MaryAnn Pasda

    2005-01-01

    This article describes how music in the language classroom setting can be a catalyst for developing reading, writing, and understanding skills. Studies suggest that pairing music and linguistic intelligences in the college classroom improves students' grades and abilities to compose theses statements for research papers in courses that emphasize…

  9. The Actualization of Literary Learning Model Based on Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hali, Nur Ihsan

    2017-01-01

    This article is inspired by Howard Gardner's concept of linguistic intelligence and also from some authors' previous writings. All of them became the authors' reference in developing ideas on constructing a literary learning model based on linguistic intelligence. The writing of this article is not done by collecting data empirically, but by…

  10. The Potential of Automatic Word Comparison for Historical Linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    List, Johann-Mattis; Greenhill, Simon J; Gray, Russell D

    2017-01-01

    The amount of data from languages spoken all over the world is rapidly increasing. Traditional manual methods in historical linguistics need to face the challenges brought by this influx of data. Automatic approaches to word comparison could provide invaluable help to pre-analyze data which can be later enhanced by experts. In this way, computational approaches can take care of the repetitive and schematic tasks leaving experts to concentrate on answering interesting questions. Here we test the potential of automatic methods to detect etymologically related words (cognates) in cross-linguistic data. Using a newly compiled database of expert cognate judgments across five different language families, we compare how well different automatic approaches distinguish related from unrelated words. Our results show that automatic methods can identify cognates with a very high degree of accuracy, reaching 89% for the best-performing method Infomap. We identify the specific strengths and weaknesses of these different methods and point to major challenges for future approaches. Current automatic approaches for cognate detection-although not perfect-could become an important component of future research in historical linguistics.

  11. Acquisition of linguistic procedures for printed words: neuropsychological implications for learning.

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    Berninger, V W

    1988-10-01

    A microcomputerized experiment, administered to 45 children in the 2nd, 5th, and 8th month of first grade, manipulated three variables: (a) stimulus unit (whole word or letter-by-letter presentation), (b) nature of stimulus information (phonically regular words, phonically irregular words, nonsense words, and letter strings, which differ in whether phonemic, orthographic, semantic, and/or name codes are available), and (c) linguistic task (lexical decision, naming, and written reproduction). Letter-by-letter presentation resulted in more accurate lexical decision and naming but not more accurate written reproduction. Interactions between nature of stimulus information and linguistic task occurred. Throughout the year, accuracy was greater for lexical decision than for naming or written reproduction. The superiority of lexical decision cannot be attributed to the higher probability of correct responses on a binary choice task because only consistently correct responses on repeated trials were analyzed. The earlier development of lexical decision, a receptive task, than of naming or written reproduction, production tasks, suggests that hidden units (Hinton & Sejnowski, 1986) in tertiary cortical areas may abstract visual-linguistic associations in printed words before production units in primary cortical areas can produce printed words orally or graphically.

  12. Flexible word classes in linguistic typology and grammatical theory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    van Lier, Eva; Rijkhoff, Jan

    2013-01-01

    Currently one of the most controversial topics in linguistic typology and grammatical theory concerns the existence of FLEXIBLE LANGUAGES, i.e. languages with a word class whose members cover functions that are typically associated with two or more of the traditional word classes (verb, noun...

  13. The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning.

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    Cooper, Angela; Wang, Yue

    2012-06-01

    Adult non-native speech perception is subject to influence from multiple factors, including linguistic and extralinguistic experience such as musical training. The present research examines how linguistic and musical factors influence non-native word identification and lexical tone perception. Groups of native tone language (Thai) and non-tone language listeners (English), each subdivided into musician and non-musician groups, engaged in Cantonese tone word training. Participants learned to identify words minimally distinguished by five Cantonese tones during training, also completing musical aptitude and phonemic tone identification tasks. First, the findings suggest that either musical experience or a tone language background leads to significantly better non-native word learning proficiency, as compared to those with neither musical training nor tone language experience. Moreover, the combination of tone language and musical experience did not provide an additional advantage for Thai musicians above and beyond either experience alone. Musicianship was found to be more advantageous than a tone language background for tone identification. Finally, tone identification and musical aptitude scores were significantly correlated with word learning success for English but not Thai listeners. These findings point to a dynamic influence of musical and linguistic experience, both at the tone dentification level and at the word learning stage.

  14. N400 Response Indexes Word Learning from Linguistic Context in Children

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    Abel, Alyson D.; Schneider, Julie; Maguire, Mandy J

    2018-01-01

    Word learning from linguistic context is essential for vocabulary growth from grade school onward; however, little is known about the mechanisms underlying successful word learning in children. Current methods for studying word learning development require children to identify the meaning of the word after each exposure, a method that interacts…

  15. Role of Gender and Linguistic Diversity in Word Decoding Development

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    Verhoeven, Ludo; van Leeuwe, Jan

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of gender and linguistic diversity in the growth of Dutch word decoding skills throughout elementary school for a representative sample of children living in the Netherlands. Following a longitudinal design, the children's decoding abilities for (1) regular CVC words, (2) complex…

  16. Quantifying the information in the long-range order of words: semantic structures and universal linguistic constraints.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montemurro, Marcelo A

    2014-06-01

    We review some recent progress on the characterisation of long-range patterns of word use in language using methods from information theory. In particular, two levels of structure in language are considered. The first level corresponds to the patterns of words usage over different contextual domains. A direct application of information theory to quantify the specificity of words across different sections of a linguistic sequence leads to a measure of semantic information. Moreover, a natural scale emerges that characterises the typical size of semantic structures. Since the information measure is made up of additive contributions from individual words, it is possible to rank the words according to their overall weight in the total information. This allows the extraction of keywords most relevant to the semantic content of the sequence without any prior knowledge of the language. The second level considered is the complex structure of correlations among words in linguistic sequences. The degree of order in language can be quantified by means of the entropy. Reliable estimates of the entropy were obtained from corpora of texts from several linguistic families by means of lossless compression algorithms. The value of the entropy fluctuates across different languages since it depends on linguistic organisation at various levels. However, when a measure of relative entropy that specifically quantifies the degree of word ordering in language is estimated, it presents an almost constant value over all the linguistic families studied. This suggests that the entropy of word ordering is a novel quantitative linguistic universal. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. INTELLIGENT AUTOMATED SYSTEM OF CONTROL OF KNOWLEDGE: LINGUISTIC SUBSYSTEM

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    I. Katerynchuk

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available A flowchart linguistic structure (morfological, syntactical, semantic and pragmatic analysis of sentences of the automated system of control of intellectual knowledge. The model of artificial intelligence recognition and evaluation of textual answers.

  18. Word on the Street: Investigating Linguistic Landscapes with Urban Canadian Youth

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    Burwell, Catherine; Lenters, Kimberly

    2015-01-01

    This article reports on a case study inspired by the concept of "linguistic landscapes." We collaborated with a group of Humanities teachers to design and implement the "Word on the Street" project, in which Grade 10 students took on the role of researchers to explore the linguistic, visual and spatial texts of their…

  19. Fracture Mechanics Method for Word Embedding Generation of Neural Probabilistic Linguistic Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bi, Size; Liang, Xiao; Huang, Ting-Lei

    2016-01-01

    Word embedding, a lexical vector representation generated via the neural linguistic model (NLM), is empirically demonstrated to be appropriate for improvement of the performance of traditional language model. However, the supreme dimensionality that is inherent in NLM contributes to the problems of hyperparameters and long-time training in modeling. Here, we propose a force-directed method to improve such problems for simplifying the generation of word embedding. In this framework, each word is assumed as a point in the real world; thus it can approximately simulate the physical movement following certain mechanics. To simulate the variation of meaning in phrases, we use the fracture mechanics to do the formation and breakdown of meaning combined by a 2-gram word group. With the experiments on the natural linguistic tasks of part-of-speech tagging, named entity recognition and semantic role labeling, the result demonstrated that the 2-dimensional word embedding can rival the word embeddings generated by classic NLMs, in terms of accuracy, recall, and text visualization.

  20. The Contribution of Auditory and Cognitive Factors to Intelligibility of Words and Sentences in Noise.

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    Heinrich, Antje; Knight, Sarah

    2016-01-01

    Understanding the causes for speech-in-noise (SiN) perception difficulties is complex, and is made even more difficult by the fact that listening situations can vary widely in target and background sounds. While there is general agreement that both auditory and cognitive factors are important, their exact relationship to SiN perception across various listening situations remains unclear. This study manipulated the characteristics of the listening situation in two ways: first, target stimuli were either isolated words, or words heard in the context of low- (LP) and high-predictability (HP) sentences; second, the background sound, speech-modulated noise, was presented at two signal-to-noise ratios. Speech intelligibility was measured for 30 older listeners (aged 62-84) with age-normal hearing and related to individual differences in cognition (working memory, inhibition and linguistic skills) and hearing (PTA(0.25-8 kHz) and temporal processing). The results showed that while the effect of hearing thresholds on intelligibility was rather uniform, the influence of cognitive abilities was more specific to a certain listening situation. By revealing a complex picture of relationships between intelligibility and cognition, these results may help us understand some of the inconsistencies in the literature as regards cognitive contributions to speech perception.

  1. THE EFFECTS OF LEARNING MODELS AND LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE ON THE PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILL

    OpenAIRE

    Yusri, Yusri; Emzir, Emzir

    2017-01-01

    The objective of this study is to know the effects of learning models (problem solving and project based learning) and linguistic intelligence  on the students of persuasive writing skill of the fourth semester students  of English Department, State Polytechnic of Sriwijaya Palembang, in the academic year of 2016-2017. The writer used linguistic intelligence test and persuasive writing test to collect the data. The data was analyzed  statistically by using two-factor ANOVA a...

  2. Fracture Mechanics Method for Word Embedding Generation of Neural Probabilistic Linguistic Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Size Bi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Word embedding, a lexical vector representation generated via the neural linguistic model (NLM, is empirically demonstrated to be appropriate for improvement of the performance of traditional language model. However, the supreme dimensionality that is inherent in NLM contributes to the problems of hyperparameters and long-time training in modeling. Here, we propose a force-directed method to improve such problems for simplifying the generation of word embedding. In this framework, each word is assumed as a point in the real world; thus it can approximately simulate the physical movement following certain mechanics. To simulate the variation of meaning in phrases, we use the fracture mechanics to do the formation and breakdown of meaning combined by a 2-gram word group. With the experiments on the natural linguistic tasks of part-of-speech tagging, named entity recognition and semantic role labeling, the result demonstrated that the 2-dimensional word embedding can rival the word embeddings generated by classic NLMs, in terms of accuracy, recall, and text visualization.

  3. A cross-linguistic study of real-word and non-word repetition as predictors of grammatical competence in children with typical language development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dispaldro, Marco; Deevy, Patricia; Altoe, Gianmarco; Benelli, Beatrice; Leonard Purdue, Laurence B.

    2013-01-01

    Background Although relationships among non-word repetition, real-word repetition and grammatical ability have been documented, it is important to study whether the specific nature of these relationships is tied to the characteristics of a given language. Aims The aim of this study is to explore the potential cross-linguistic differences (Italian and English) in the relationship among non-word repetition, real-word repetition, and grammatical ability in three- and four-year-old children with typical language development. Methods & Procedures To reach this goal, two repetition tasks (one real-word list and one non-word list for each language) were used. In Italian the grammatical categories were the third person plural inflection and the direct-object clitic pronouns, while in English they were the third person singular present tense inflection and the past tense in regular and irregular forms. Outcomes & Results A cross-linguistic comparison showed that in both Italian and English, non-word repetition was a significant predictor of grammatical ability. However, performance on real-word repetition explained children’s grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Conclusions & Implications Abilities underlying non-word repetition performance (e.g., the processing and/or storage of phonological material) play an important role in the development of children’s grammatical abilities in both languages. Lexical ability (indexed by real-word repetition) showed a close relationship to grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences, genetic research, clinical intervention and methodological issues. PMID:21899673

  4. A cross-linguistic study of real-word and non-word repetition as predictors of grammatical competence in children with typical language development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dispaldro, Marco; Deevy, Patricia; Altoé, Gianmarco; Benelli, Beatrice; Leonard, Laurence B

    2011-01-01

    Although relationships among non-word repetition, real-word repetition and grammatical ability have been documented, it is important to study whether the specific nature of these relationships is tied to the characteristics of a given language. The aim of this study is to explore the potential cross-linguistic differences (Italian and English) in the relationship among non-word repetition, real-word repetition, and grammatical ability in three-and four-year-old children with typical language development. To reach this goal, two repetition tasks (one real-word list and one non-word list for each language) were used. In Italian the grammatical categories were the third person plural inflection and the direct-object clitic pronouns, while in English they were the third person singular present tense inflection and the past tense in regular and irregular forms. A cross-linguistic comparison showed that in both Italian and English, non-word repetition was a significant predictor of grammatical ability. However, performance on real-word repetition explained children's grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Abilities underlying non-word repetition performance (e.g., the processing and/or storage of phonological material) play an important role in the development of children's grammatical abilities in both languages. Lexical ability (indexed by real-word repetition) showed a close relationship to grammatical ability in Italian but not in English. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences, genetic research, clinical intervention and methodological issues. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

  5. Linguistica matematica, statistica linguistica e linguistica applicata. Una nota storica sui lessici di frequenza e l'educazione linguistica (Mathematical Linguistics, Linguistic Statistics, and Applied Linguistics. An Historical Note on Word Frequencies and Linguistic Education)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elia, Annibale

    1977-01-01

    This article traces the history of several themes in applied linguistics and to show the relationships between linguistic theory and the sciences concerned with the learning and teaching of languages. Interest in word frequency statistics is discussed in particular. (Text is in Italian.) (CFM)

  6. The Two-Word Stage: Motivated by Linguistic or Cognitive Constraints?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berk, Stephanie; Lillo-Martin, Diane

    2012-01-01

    Child development researchers often discuss a "two-word" stage during language acquisition. However, there is still debate over whether the existence of this stage reflects primarily cognitive or linguistic constraints. Analyses of longitudinal data from two Deaf children, Mei and Cal, not exposed to an accessible first language (American Sign…

  7. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TELEPON KALENG GAME AS A MEDIA TO STIMULATE LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

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    Betty Yulia Wulansari

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this research is to determine the validity of telepon kaleng game as a medium to stimulate the linguistic intelligence of early childhood, as well as to know the merits and drawbacks of telepon kaleng game as learning media. The research method used is research and development (R & D. Development procedures include planning, design, and development. Product validation is done by alpha test, beta test, and final evaluation. Apha test is validated by an expert in material development and an expert in teaching-media development. Meanwhile, the subjects in beta test are students BA Aisyiah Yanggong and BA Aisyiah Wonoasri Jenangan District, Ponorogo Regency. The result of this research is the development of telepon kaleng game as a media to stimulate linguistic intelligence of early child. The tools and materials used in this development are used-can, thread / rope, flannel, scissors, and double tape. Material experts and media experts have validated telepon kaleng products developed. From validation, the results need to improve the use of tin cans and the improvement of learning materials. In the next stage, feasibility testing for users in BA 'Aisyiah Yanggong and BA' Aisyiah Wonoasri Jenang Subdistrict of Ponorogo Regency, from the result of the experiment showed that telepon kaleng could be used to stimulate the linguistic intelligence of early child. These telepon kalengs, when used in unlimited form by children, stimulate linguistic intelligence more than IN structured-form. The merit of telepon kaleng as a linguistic intelligence stimulus medium is an attractive form of the child compared totelepon kaleng without any accessories. Children tend to prefer things that are bright and engaging. The drawback of this telepon kaleng, if it is used continuously, is that it will lead to monotonous learning process so it needs to alternate with other game equipment.

  8. Multi-word Lexical Units in English and Slovak Linguistics Terminology

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    Магдалена Била

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The research issue discussed in the paper falls within pragmatics, lexicographic and translation studies. It is part of the research grant project entitled “Virtual interactive English-Slovak bilingual encyclopedic linguistics dictionary”. One of the key tasks is to deal with the linguistics term as a concept. This presupposes understanding not only the surface structure but also the deep structure of the term. In preparing the inventory of the prospective dictionary, conceptualization has to take place and defining and translating of the term has to be done accordingly. The ongoing research has shown that one of the most problematic terms is “multi-word lexical unit” (in Slovak “viacslovné pomenovanie”. The problem lies in the different conceptualization of the terms in the two languages. Straightforwardly, in Slovak, the term implies examples that in English would be mostly considered compounds (Ološtiak, Ivanová 2015; in other words word-formation is the case here. In English, the term is more heterogeneous and encompasses categories like collocation, phrasal verb, idioms, speech formulas (on the term, see Sonomura 1996, situation bound utterances (on the term, see Kecskes 2010, and paremiological expressions (Moon 2015. In these categories, pragmatics rather than word-formation and syntax is the case (Erman and Warren 2000; Gibbs Jr. 2002, Kecskes 2014. The paper offers the analysis of the deep structure of the term in question, explores the role of figurativeness, exemplifies the differences, proposes the translation equivalents, and justifies the different nature of the seemingly corresponding terms, often making an impression of being a calque.

  9. A word-count approach to analyze linguistic patterns in the reflective writings of medical students

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    Chi-Wei Lin

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Background: Teaching reflection and administering reflective writing assignments to students are widely practiced and discussed in medical education and health professional education. However, little is known about how medical students use language to construct their narratives. Exploring students’ linguistic patterns in their reflective writings can facilitate understanding the scope and facets of their reflections and their representational or communication approaches to share their experiences. Moreover, research findings regarding gender differences in language use are inconsistent. Therefore, we attempted to examine how females and males differ in their use of words in reflective writing within our research circumstance to detect the unique and gender-specific approaches to learning and their applications. Methods: We analyzed the linguistic profiles of psychological process categories in the reflective writings of medical students and examined the difference in word usage between male and female medical students. During the first year of a clinical rotation, 60 fifth-year medical students wrote reflective narratives regarding pediatric patients and the psychosocial challenges faced by the patients and their family members. The narratives were analyzed using the Chinese version of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (CLIWC, a text analysis software program. Multivariate procedures were applied for statistical analysis. Results: Cognitive words were most pervasive, averaging 22.16%, whereas perceptual words (2.86% were least pervasive. Female students used more words related to positive emotions and sadness than did male students. The male students exceeded the female students only in the space category. The major limitation of this study is that CLIWC cannot directly acquire contextual text meanings; therefore, depending on the research topic, further qualitative study of the given texts might be necessary. Conclusions: To enhance students

  10. Symbol Grounding Without Direct Experience: Do Words Inherit Sensorimotor Activation From Purely Linguistic Context?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Günther, Fritz; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

    2018-05-01

    Theories of embodied cognition assume that concepts are grounded in non-linguistic, sensorimotor experience. In support of this assumption, previous studies have shown that upwards response movements are faster than downwards movements after participants have been presented with words whose referents are typically located in the upper vertical space (and vice versa for downwards responses). This is taken as evidence that processing these words reactivates sensorimotor experiential traces. This congruency effect was also found for novel words, after participants learned these words as labels for novel objects that they encountered either in their upper or lower visual field. While this indicates that direct experience with a word's referent is sufficient to evoke said congruency effects, the present study investigates whether this direct experience is also a necessary condition. To this end, we conducted five experiments in which participants learned novel words from purely linguistic input: Novel words were presented in pairs with real up- or down-words (Experiment 1); they were presented in natural sentences where they replaced these real words (Experiment 2); they were presented as new labels for these real words (Experiment 3); and they were presented as labels for novel combined concepts based on these real words (Experiment 4 and 5). In all five experiments, we did not find any congruency effects elicited by the novel words; however, participants were always able to make correct explicit judgements about the vertical dimension associated to the novel words. These results suggest that direct experience is necessary for reactivating experiential traces, but this reactivation is not a necessary condition for understanding (in the sense of storing and accessing) the corresponding aspects of word meaning. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  11. Impressive Words: Linguistic Predictors of Public Approval of the U.S. Congress

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    Decter-Frain, Ari; Frimer, Jeremy A.

    2016-01-01

    What type of language makes the most positive impression within a professional setting? Is competent/agentic language or warm/communal language more effective at eliciting social approval? We examined this basic social cognitive question in a real world context using a big data approach—the recent record-low levels of public approval of the U.S. Congress. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), we text analyzed all 123+ million words spoken by members of the U.S. House of Representa...

  12. Linguistic Context Versus Semantic Competition in Word Recognition by Younger and Older Adults With Cochlear Implants.

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    Amichetti, Nicole M; Atagi, Eriko; Kong, Ying-Yee; Wingfield, Arthur

    The increasing numbers of older adults now receiving cochlear implants raises the question of how the novel signal produced by cochlear implants may interact with cognitive aging in the recognition of words heard spoken within a linguistic context. The objective of this study was to pit the facilitative effects of a constraining linguistic context against a potential age-sensitive negative effect of response competition on effectiveness of word recognition. Younger (n = 8; mean age = 22.5 years) and older (n = 8; mean age = 67.5 years) adult implant recipients heard 20 target words as the final words in sentences that manipulated the target word's probability of occurrence within the sentence context. Data from published norms were also used to measure response entropy, calculated as the total number of different responses and the probability distribution of the responses suggested by the sentence context. Sentence-final words were presented to participants using a word-onset gating paradigm, in which a target word was presented with increasing amounts of its onset duration in 50 msec increments until the word was correctly identified. Results showed that for both younger and older adult implant users, the amount of word-onset information needed for correct recognition of sentence-final words was inversely proportional to their likelihood of occurrence within the sentence context, with older adults gaining differential advantage from the contextual constraints offered by a sentence context. On the negative side, older adults' word recognition was differentially hampered by high response entropy, with this effect being driven primarily by the number of competing responses that might also fit the sentence context. Consistent with previous research with normal-hearing younger and older adults, the present results showed older adult implant users' recognition of spoken words to be highly sensitive to linguistic context. This sensitivity, however, also resulted in a

  13. The Problem of Evaluative Categorization of Human Intelligence in Linguistic World Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abisheva, Klara M.; Dossanova, Altynay Zh.; Ismakova, Bibissara S.; Aupova, Gulbagira K.; Ayapbergenov, Bulat K.; Tlegenova, Kulyan A.

    2016-01-01

    The aim of the research is to determine the peculiarities of the evaluative categorization of human intelligence in linguistic world images. The study describes the interdisciplinary approach to studying evaluative categorization, which assumes the use of complex methodology including the anthropocentric, the interdisciplinary, and the cognitive…

  14. The relation of linguistic awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling for first-grade students participating in response to intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young-Suk; Apel, Kenn; Al Otaiba, Stephanie

    2013-10-01

    The relations of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling were examined for 304 first-grade children who were receiving differentiated instruction in a Response to Intervention (RtI) model of instruction. First-grade children were assessed on their phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness; expressive vocabulary; word reading; and spelling. Year-end word reading and spelling were outcome variables, and phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness; expressive vocabulary; and RtI status (Tiers 1, 2, & 3) were predictor variables. The 3 linguistic awareness skills were unique predictors of word reading, and phonological and orthographic awareness were unique predictors of spelling. The contributions that these linguistic awareness skills and vocabulary made to word reading and spelling did not differ by children's RtI tier status. These results, in conjunction with previous studies, suggest that even beginning readers and spellers draw on multiple linguistic awareness skills for their word reading and spelling regardless of their level of literacy abilities. Educational implications are discussed.

  15. Diminutives facilitate word segmentation in natural speech: cross-linguistic evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kempe, Vera; Brooks, Patricia J; Gillis, Steven; Samson, Graham

    2007-06-01

    Final-syllable invariance is characteristic of diminutives (e.g., doggie), which are a pervasive feature of the child-directed speech registers of many languages. Invariance in word endings has been shown to facilitate word segmentation (Kempe, Brooks, & Gillis, 2005) in an incidental-learning paradigm in which synthesized Dutch pseudonouns were used. To broaden the cross-linguistic evidence for this invariance effect and to increase its ecological validity, adult English speakers (n=276) were exposed to naturally spoken Dutch or Russian pseudonouns presented in sentence contexts. A forced choice test was given to assess target recognition, with foils comprising unfamiliar syllable combinations in Experiments 1 and 2 and syllable combinations straddling word boundaries in Experiment 3. A control group (n=210) received the recognition test with no prior exposure to targets. Recognition performance improved with increasing final-syllable rhyme invariance, with larger increases for the experimental group. This confirms that word ending invariance is a valid segmentation cue in artificial, as well as naturalistic, speech and that diminutives may aid segmentation in a number of languages.

  16. Mindwaves: Story of How a Girl Constructs Higher Order, Verbal Linguistic Intelligence in a Multiple Intelligences Classroom.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fluellen, Jerry

    Howard Gardner and Jerome Bruner have given much to teachers who want to know how the minds of children grow. This story of a girl's construction of higher order, verbal linguistic intelligence is also theirs. Ideas they created have been cloned to fit a big city, public school classroom of African American 4th graders, each with a set of multiple…

  17. Reasoning Words as Linguistic Features of Exploratory Talk: Classroom Use and What It Can Tell Us

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, Maureen; Kong, Yiren

    2017-01-01

    Reasoning words are linguistic features associated with classroom exploratory talk as students talk-to-learn, explore ideas, and probe each other's thinking. This study extends established research on use of reasoning words to a fourth- to fifth-grade literature-based English language learning context. We examined frequency and patterning of…

  18. The relation of linguistic awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling for first grade students participating in Response to Intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young-Suk; Apel, Kenn; Otaiba, Stephanie Al

    2013-01-01

    Purpose We examined the relations of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling for first grade children who were receiving differentiated instruction in a Response to Intervention (RTI) model of instruction (N = 304). Method First grade children were assessed on their phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness, expressive vocabulary, word reading, and spelling. Year-end word reading and spelling were outcome variables while phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness, expressive vocabulary, and RTI status (Tiers 1, 2, & 3) were predictor variables assessed in the middle of the school year. Results The three linguistic awareness skills were unique predictors of word reading and phonological and orthographic awareness were unique predictors of spelling. The contributions these linguistic awareness skills and vocabulary made to word reading and spelling did not differ by children's RTI tier status. Conclusion These results, in conjunction with previous studies, suggest that even beginning readers and spellers draw on multiple linguistic awareness skills for their word reading and spelling regardless of their level of literacy skills. Educational implications are discussed. PMID:23833281

  19. Word classes in the brain: implications of linguistic typology for cognitive neuroscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemmerer, David

    2014-09-01

    Although recent research on the neural substrates of word classes has generated some valuable findings, significant progress has been hindered by insufficient attention to theoretical issues involving the nature of the lexical phenomena under investigation. This paper shows how insights from linguistic typology can provide cognitive neuroscientists with well-motivated guidelines for interpreting the extant data and charting a future course. At the outset, a fundamental distinction is made between universal and language-particular aspects of word classes. Regarding universals, prototypical nouns involve reference to objects, and their meanings rely primarily on the ventral temporal lobes, which represent the shape features of entities; in contrast, prototypical verbs involve predication of actions, and their meanings rely primarily on posterior middle temporal regions and frontoparietal regions, which represent the visual motion features and somatomotor features of events. Some researchers maintain that focusing on object nouns and action verbs is inappropriate because it conflates the semantic and grammatical properties of each word class. However, this criticism not only ignores the importance of the universal prototypes, but also mistakenly assumes that there are straightforward morphological and/or syntactic criteria for identifying nouns and verbs in particular languages. In fact, at the level of individual languages, the classic method of distributional analysis leads to a proliferation of constructionally based entity-denoting and event-denoting word classes with mismatching memberships, and all of this variation must be taken seriously, not only by linguists, but also by cognitive neuroscientists. Many of these word classes involve remarkably close correspondences between grammar and meaning and hence are highly relevant to the neurobiology of conceptual knowledge, but so far hardly any of them have been investigated from a neurolinguistic perspective

  20. Estimating valence from the sound of a word : Computational, experimental, and cross-linguistic evidence

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Louwerse, Max; Qu, Zhan

    2017-01-01

    It is assumed linguistic symbols must be grounded in perceptual information to attain meaning, because the sound of a word in a language has an arbitrary relation with its referent. This paper demonstrates that a strong arbitrariness claim should be reconsidered. In a computational study, we showed

  1. Comparison of Word Intelligibility in Spoken and Sung Phrases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauren B. Collister

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Twenty listeners were exposed to spoken and sung passages in English produced by three trained vocalists. Passages included representative words extracted from a large database of vocal lyrics, including both popular and classical repertoires. Target words were set within spoken or sung carrier phrases. Sung carrier phrases were selected from classical vocal melodies. Roughly a quarter of all words sung by an unaccompanied soloist were misheard. Sung passages showed a seven-fold decrease in intelligibility compared with their spoken counterparts. The perceptual mistakes occurring with vowels replicate previous studies showing the centralization of vowels. Significant confusions are also evident for consonants, especially voiced stops and nasals.

  2. Auditory Processing, Linguistic Prosody Awareness, and Word Reading in Mandarin-Speaking Children Learning English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Wei-Lun; Jarmulowicz, Linda; Bidelman, Gavin M.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined language-specific links among auditory processing, linguistic prosody awareness, and Mandarin (L1) and English (L2) word reading in 61 Mandarin-speaking, English-learning children. Three auditory discrimination abilities were measured: pitch contour, pitch interval, and rise time (rate of intensity change at tone onset).…

  3. Production Variability and Single Word Intelligibility in Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haley, Katarina L.; Martin, Gwenyth

    2011-01-01

    This study was designed to estimate test-retest reliability of orthographic speech intelligibility testing in speakers with aphasia and AOS and to examine its relationship to the consistency of speaker and listener responses. Monosyllabic single word speech samples were recorded from 13 speakers with coexisting aphasia and AOS. These words were…

  4. Relationship between conversational repair strategies and cognitive-linguistic skills in children with moderate hearing loss in Ahvaz, Southern Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peyman Zamani

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Conversational repair skills are essential for establishing mutually successful verbal communication. Cognitive and linguistic disorders can have negative effects on these skills. Children with hearing loss have special cognitive and linguistic issues. This study was performed to contribute to the paucity of data on conversational repair strategies used by hearing impaired children.Methods: The participants included 58 children with moderate hearing loss (38 boys and 20 girls aged 6 to 7 from Ahvaz city. A cross-sectional study design was used. Frequency of using different types of repair strategies in ten repair situations was calculated. Scores of intelligence, memory, word finding, lexical richness, and mean length of sentences was obtained through cognitive-linguistic tests. Data was analyzed employing an independent t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and logistic regression.Results: A direct correlation was observed between clarification strategy and communicative social intelligence (p=0.045. A direct correlation was observed between applying different types of conversational repair strategies and linguistic abilities in children with moderate hearing loss (p<0.05.Conclusion: Children with moderate hearing loss (age: 6-7 years use repetition more than any other strategy to repair conversation. One unit increase in word finding ability or in mean length of sentence predicts one unit increase in the degree of using repetition strategy.

  5. A Fuzzy Linguistic Methodology to Deal With Unbalanced Linguistic Term Sets

    OpenAIRE

    Herrera, F.; Herrera-Viedma, Enrique; Martinez, L.

    2008-01-01

    Many real problems dealing with qualitative aspects use linguistic approaches to assess such aspects. In most of these problems, a uniform and symmetrical distribution of the linguistic term sets for linguistic modeling is assumed. However, there exist problems whose assessments need to be represented by means of unbalanced linguistic term sets, i.e., using term sets that are not uniformly and symmetrically distributed. The use of linguistic variables implies processes of computing with words...

  6. The intelligibility of Chinese-accented English to Korean and American students at a U.S. university

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hardman, Jocelyn

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the intelligibility of Chinese and American graduate students to their Korean and American peers. A psycholinguistic word-recognition-in-noise study investigated the effects on intelligibility of speakers’ L1 and segmental pronunciation accuracy and how this varied...... international and American university students should receive the linguistic perception training necessary to accommodate the range of accent diversity that has become an integral part of academia today.  ...

  7. Flexible Word Classes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    • First major publication on the phenomenon • Offers cross-linguistic, descriptive, and diverse theoretical approaches • Includes analysis of data from different language families and from lesser studied languages This book is the first major cross-linguistic study of 'flexible words', i.e. words...... that cannot be classified in terms of the traditional lexical categories Verb, Noun, Adjective or Adverb. Flexible words can - without special morphosyntactic marking - serve in functions for which other languages must employ members of two or more of the four traditional, 'specialised' word classes. Thus......, flexible words are underspecified for communicative functions like 'predicating' (verbal function), 'referring' (nominal function) or 'modifying' (a function typically associated with adjectives and e.g. manner adverbs). Even though linguists have been aware of flexible world classes for more than...

  8. Impressive Words: Linguistic Predictors of Public Approval of the U.S. Congress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Decter-Frain, Ari; Frimer, Jeremy A

    2016-01-01

    What type of language makes the most positive impression within a professional setting? Is competent/agentic language or warm/communal language more effective at eliciting social approval? We examined this basic social cognitive question in a real world context using a "big data" approach-the recent record-low levels of public approval of the U.S. Congress. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), we text analyzed all 123+ million words spoken by members of the U.S. House of Representatives during floor debates between 1996 and 2014 and compared their usage of various classes of words to their public approval ratings over the same time period. We found that neither agentic nor communal language positively predicted public approval. However, this may be because communion combines two disparate social motives (belonging and helping). A follow-up analysis found that the helping form of communion positively predicted public approval, and did so more strongly than did agentic language. Next, we conducted an exploratory analysis, examining which of the 63 standard LIWC categories predict public approval. We found that the public approval of Congress was highest when politicians used tentative language, expressed both positive emotion and anxiety, and used human words, numbers, prepositions, numbers, and avoided conjunctions and the use of second-person pronouns. These results highlight the widespread primacy of warmth over competence as the primary dimensions of social cognition.

  9. Impressive Words: Linguistic Predictors of Public Approval of the U.S. Congress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ari eDecter-Frain

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available What type of language makes the most positive impression within a professional setting? Is competent/agentic language or warm/communal language more effective at eliciting social approval? We examined this basic social cognitive question in a real world context using a big data approach—the recent record-low levels of public approval of the U.S. Congress. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC, we text analyzed all 123+ million words spoken by members of the U.S. House of Representatives during floor debates between 1996-2014 and compared their usage of various classes of words to their public approval ratings over the same time period. We found that neither agentic nor communal language positively predicted public approval. However, this may be because communion combines two disparate social motives (belonging and helping. A follow-up analysis found that the helping form of communion positively predicted public approval, and did so more strongly than did agentic language. Next, we conducted an exploratory analysis, examining which of the 63 standard LIWC categories predict public approval. We found that the public approval of Congress was highest when politicians used tentative language, expressed both positive emotion and anxiety, and used human words, numbers, prepositions, numbers, and avoided conjunctions and the use of second-person pronouns. These results highlight the widespread primacy of warmth over competence as the primary dimensions of social cognition.

  10. Baby's first 10 words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tardif, Twila; Fletcher, Paul; Liang, Weilan; Zhang, Zhixiang; Kaciroti, Niko; Marchman, Virginia A

    2008-07-01

    Although there has been much debate over the content of children's first words, few large sample studies address this question for children at the very earliest stages of word learning. The authors report data from comparable samples of 265 English-, 336 Putonghua- (Mandarin), and 369 Cantonese-speaking 8- to 16-month-old infants whose caregivers completed MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories and reported them to produce between 1 and 10 words. Analyses of individual words indicated striking commonalities in the first words that children learn. However, substantive cross-linguistic differences appeared in the relative prevalence of common nouns, people terms, and verbs as well as in the probability that children produced even one of these word types when they had a total of 1-3, 4-6, or 7-10 words in their vocabularies. These data document cross-linguistic differences in the types of words produced even at the earliest stages of vocabulary learning and underscore the importance of parental input and cross-linguistic/cross-cultural variations in children's early word-learning.

  11. Quantitative Research in Systemic Functional Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Qingshun

    2018-01-01

    The research of Systemic Functional Linguistics has been quite in-depth in both theory and practice. However, many linguists hold that Systemic Functional Linguistics has no hypothesis testing or experiments and its research is only qualitative. Analyses of the corpus, intelligent computing and language evolution on the ideological background of…

  12. Variability and Intelligibility of Clarified Speech to Different Listener Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silber, Ronnie F.

    Two studies examined the modifications that adult speakers make in speech to disadvantaged listeners. Previous research that has focused on speech to the deaf individuals and to young children has shown that adults clarify speech when addressing these two populations. Acoustic measurements suggest that the signal undergoes similar changes for both populations. Perceptual tests corroborate these results for the deaf population, but are nonsystematic in developmental studies. The differences in the findings for these populations and the nonsystematic results in the developmental literature may be due to methodological factors. The present experiments addressed these methodological questions. Studies of speech to hearing impaired listeners have used read, nonsense, sentences, for which speakers received explicit clarification instructions and feedback, while in the child literature, excerpts of real-time conversations were used. Therefore, linguistic samples were not precisely matched. In this study, experiments used various linguistic materials. Experiment 1 used a children's story; experiment 2, nonsense sentences. Four mothers read both types of material in four ways: (1) in "normal" adult speech, (2) in "babytalk," (3) under the clarification instructions used in the "hearing impaired studies" (instructed clear speech) and (4) in (spontaneous) clear speech without instruction. No extra practice or feedback was given. Sentences were presented to 40 normal hearing college students with and without simultaneous masking noise. Results were separately tabulated for content and function words, and analyzed using standard statistical tests. The major finding in the study was individual variation in speaker intelligibility. "Real world" speakers vary in their baseline intelligibility. The four speakers also showed unique patterns of intelligibility as a function of each independent variable. Results were as follows. Nonsense sentences were less intelligible than story

  13. Impressive Words: Linguistic Predictors of Public Approval of the U.S. Congress

    Science.gov (United States)

    Decter-Frain, Ari; Frimer, Jeremy A.

    2016-01-01

    What type of language makes the most positive impression within a professional setting? Is competent/agentic language or warm/communal language more effective at eliciting social approval? We examined this basic social cognitive question in a real world context using a “big data” approach—the recent record-low levels of public approval of the U.S. Congress. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), we text analyzed all 123+ million words spoken by members of the U.S. House of Representatives during floor debates between 1996 and 2014 and compared their usage of various classes of words to their public approval ratings over the same time period. We found that neither agentic nor communal language positively predicted public approval. However, this may be because communion combines two disparate social motives (belonging and helping). A follow-up analysis found that the helping form of communion positively predicted public approval, and did so more strongly than did agentic language. Next, we conducted an exploratory analysis, examining which of the 63 standard LIWC categories predict public approval. We found that the public approval of Congress was highest when politicians used tentative language, expressed both positive emotion and anxiety, and used human words, numbers, prepositions, numbers, and avoided conjunctions and the use of second-person pronouns. These results highlight the widespread primacy of warmth over competence as the primary dimensions of social cognition. PMID:26941691

  14. The Effects of Linguistic Context on Word Recognition in Noise by Elderly Listeners Using Spanish Sentence Lists (SSL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cervera, Teresa; Rosell, Vicente

    2015-01-01

    This study evaluated the effects of the linguistic context on the recognition of words in noise in older listeners using the Spanish Sentence Lists. These sentences were developed based on the approach of the SPIN test for the English language, which contains high and low predictability (HP and LP) sentences. In addition, the relative contribution…

  15. Conversation Analysis and Applied Linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schegloff, Emanuel A.; Koshik, Irene; Jacoby, Sally; Olsher, David

    2002-01-01

    Offers biographical guidance on several major areas of conversation-analytic work--turn-taking, repair, and word selection--and indicates past or potential points of contact with applied linguistics. Also discusses areas of applied linguistic work. (Author/VWL)

  16. Word segmentation in children’s literacy: a study about word awareness

    OpenAIRE

    Débora Mattos Marques; Aline Lorandi

    2016-01-01

    The present research aimed to investigate how linguistic awareness regarding the concept of “word” may influence some mistakes on segmenting words in children’s writing in the Elementary School. The observed data comprised those of hyper and hyposegmentation which were then related to word awareness. For the analysis of linguistic awareness data, the Representational Redescription, proposed by Karmillof-Smith (1986-1992), has been used. It postulates four levels where knowledge is redescri...

  17. Word segmentation in children’s literacy: a study about word awareness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Débora Mattos Marques

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The present research aimed to investigate how linguistic awareness regarding the concept of “word” may influence some mistakes on segmenting words in children’s writing in the Elementary School. The observed data comprised those of hyper and hyposegmentation which were then related to word awareness. For the analysis of linguistic awareness data, the Representational Redescription, proposed by Karmillof-Smith (1986-1992, has been used. It postulates four levels where knowledge is redescribed in the human mind, becoming accessible for awareness and verbalization along with the time. The research methodology consisted of six tests, out of which four were applied in order to verify word awareness, and, the other two tests, to obtain samples of writing data. Thus, it was noticed that a great part of the segmentation mistakes identified in the collected writings are related to the informants' ability to distinguish between different words until the moment they were observed. As a result, the uncommon segmentation mistakes found in the analyzed data evidenced that not only are they motivated by prosodic or phonological matters, but they are also influenced by linguistic awareness issues involving the informants’ understanding of word.

  18. Ninth international conference on computational linguistics Coling 82

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1983-01-01

    This paper presents the summary reports presented at the concluding session and evaluating the state of the art, trends and perspectives as reflected in the papers presented at Coling 82 in six domains: machine translation, grammatico-semantic analysis, linguistics in its relations to computational linguistics, question answering, artificial intelligence and knowledge representation, and information retrieval and linguistic data bases.

  19. Word learning mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Angela Xiaoxue; Arunachalam, Sudha

    2017-07-01

    How do children acquire the meanings of words? Many word learning mechanisms have been proposed to guide learners through this challenging task. Despite the availability of rich information in the learner's linguistic and extralinguistic input, the word-learning task is insurmountable without such mechanisms for filtering through and utilizing that information. Different kinds of words, such as nouns denoting object concepts and verbs denoting event concepts, require to some extent different kinds of information and, therefore, access to different kinds of mechanisms. We review some of these mechanisms to examine the relationship between the input that is available to learners and learners' intake of that input-that is, the organized, interpreted, and stored representations they form. We discuss how learners segment individual words from the speech stream and identify their grammatical categories, how they identify the concepts denoted by these words, and how they refine their initial representations of word meanings. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1435. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1435 This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language Acquisition Psychology > Language. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. A Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Analysis of the Adult Attachment Interview in Two Large Corpora.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waters, Theodore E A; Steele, Ryan D; Roisman, Glenn I; Haydon, Katherine C; Booth-LaForce, Cathryn

    2016-01-01

    An emerging literature suggests that variation in Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) states of mind about childhood experiences with primary caregivers is reflected in specific linguistic features captured by the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count automated text analysis program (LIWC; Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007). The current report addressed limitations of prior studies in this literature by using two large AAI corpora ( N s = 826 and 857) and a broader range of linguistic variables, as well as examining associations of LIWC-derived AAI dimensions with key developmental antecedents. First, regression analyses revealed that dismissing states of mind were associated with transcripts that were more truncated and deemphasized discussion of the attachment relationship whereas preoccupied states of mind were associated with longer, more conflicted, and angry narratives. Second, in aggregate, LIWC variables accounted for over a third of the variation in AAI dismissing and preoccupied states of mind, with regression weights cross-validating across samples. Third, LIWC-derived dismissing and preoccupied state of mind dimensions were associated with direct observations of maternal and paternal sensitivity as well as infant attachment security in childhood, replicating the pattern of results reported in Haydon, Roisman, Owen, Booth-LaForce, and Cox (2014) using coder-derived dismissing and preoccupation scores in the same sample.

  1. From Word Alignment to Word Senses, via Multilingual Wordnets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dan Tufis

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available Most of the successful commercial applications in language processing (text and/or speech dispense with any explicit concern on semantics, with the usual motivations stemming from the computational high costs required for dealing with semantics, in case of large volumes of data. With recent advances in corpus linguistics and statistical-based methods in NLP, revealing useful semantic features of linguistic data is becoming cheaper and cheaper and the accuracy of this process is steadily improving. Lately, there seems to be a growing acceptance of the idea that multilingual lexical ontologisms might be the key towards aligning different views on the semantic atomic units to be used in characterizing the general meaning of various and multilingual documents. Depending on the granularity at which semantic distinctions are necessary, the accuracy of the basic semantic processing (such as word sense disambiguation can be very high with relatively low complexity computing. The paper substantiates this statement by presenting a statistical/based system for word alignment and word sense disambiguation in parallel corpora. We describe a word alignment platform which ensures text pre-processing (tokenization, POS-tagging, lemmatization, chunking, sentence and word alignment as required by an accurate word sense disambiguation.

  2. Sensory Intelligence for Extraction of an Abstract Auditory Rule: A Cross-Linguistic Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Xiao-Tao; Wang, Xiao-Dong; Liang, Xiu-Yuan; Wang, Ming; Chen, Lin

    2018-02-21

    In a complex linguistic environment, while speech sounds can greatly vary, some shared features are often invariant. These invariant features constitute so-called abstract auditory rules. Our previous study has shown that with auditory sensory intelligence, the human brain can automatically extract the abstract auditory rules in the speech sound stream, presumably serving as the neural basis for speech comprehension. However, whether the sensory intelligence for extraction of abstract auditory rules in speech is inherent or experience-dependent remains unclear. To address this issue, we constructed a complex speech sound stream using auditory materials in Mandarin Chinese, in which syllables had a flat lexical tone but differed in other acoustic features to form an abstract auditory rule. This rule was occasionally and randomly violated by the syllables with the rising, dipping or falling tone. We found that both Chinese and foreign speakers detected the violations of the abstract auditory rule in the speech sound stream at a pre-attentive stage, as revealed by the whole-head recordings of mismatch negativity (MMN) in a passive paradigm. However, MMNs peaked earlier in Chinese speakers than in foreign speakers. Furthermore, Chinese speakers showed different MMN peak latencies for the three deviant types, which paralleled recognition points. These findings indicate that the sensory intelligence for extraction of abstract auditory rules in speech sounds is innate but shaped by language experience. Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Reader, Word, and Character Attributes Contributing to Chinese Children's Concept of Word

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jing; Lin, Tzu-Jung; Ku, Yu-Min; Zhang, Jie; O'Connell, Ann

    2018-01-01

    Concept of word--the awareness of how words differ from nonwords or other linguistic properties--is important to learning to read Chinese because words in Chinese texts are not separated by space, and most characters can be productively compounded with other characters to form new words. The current study examined the effects of reader, word, and…

  4. Linguistic Recycling and the Open Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dasgupta, Probal

    2001-01-01

    Examines linguistic recycling in the context of domestic Esperanto use. Argues that word-meaning recycling reflects the same fundamental principles as sentential recursion, and that a linguistics theoretically sensitive to these principles strengthens practical efforts towards the social goal of an open speech community. (Author/VWL)

  5. Inhibitory control, word retrieval and bilingual aphasia: is there a relationship?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah

    2014-04-01

    Responses to incongruent trials were slower than congruent for linguistic (F(1,126.3=44.9, p.05. While confrontation naming and category fluency were highly correlated (r=.77, p<.001, correlations between linguistic and non-linguistic inhibition and between word retrieval and linguistic/non-linguistic inhibition were non-significant. This large group study poses challenges to theories of bilingual advantage and the role of non-lexical inhibitory measures in word retrieval in PWA.

  6. The Transition from Animal to Linguistic Communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Smit, Harry

    2016-01-01

    Darwin's theory predicts that linguistic behavior gradually evolved out of animal forms of communication (signaling). However, this prediction is confronted by the conceptual problem that there is an essential difference between signaling and linguistic behavior: using words is a normative practice.

  7. [An essay about science and linguistics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cugini, P

    2011-01-01

    Both the methodology and epistemology of science provided the criteria by which the scientific research can describe and interpret data and results of its observational or experimental studies. When the scientist approaches the conclusive inference, it is mandatory to think that both the knowledge and truth imply the use of words semantically and etymologically (semiologically) appropriate, especially if neologisms are required. Lacking a vocabulary, there will be the need of popularizing the inference to the linguistics of the context to which the message is addressed. This could imply a discrepancy among science, knowledge, truth and linguistics, that can be defined "semiologic bias". To avoid this linguistic error, the scientist must feel the responsibility to provide the scientific community with the new words that are semantically and etymologically coherent with what it has been scientifically discovered.

  8. Situated Word Learning: Words of the Year (WsOY) and Social Studies Inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heafner, Tina L.; Triplett, Nicholas; Handler, Laura; Massey, Dixie

    2018-01-01

    Current events influence public interest and drive Internet word searches. For over a decade, linguists and dictionary publishers have analyzed big data from Internet word searches to designate "Words of the Year" (WsOY). In this study, we examine how WsOY can foster critical digital literacy and illuminate essential aspects of inquiry…

  9. Words as "Lexical Units" in Learning/Teaching Vocabulary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almela, Moisés; Sanchez, Aquilino

    2007-01-01

    One of the genuine contributions of theoretical linguistics to the interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics is to elucidate the nature of "what should be taught" and "how it should be taught". Traditionally, the input supplied in vocabulary teaching has consisted either of word lists (most often) or of words-in-context…

  10. Functional Neuroanatomy of Contextual Acquisition of Concrete and Abstract Words

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mestres-Misse, Anna; Munte, Thomas F.; Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni

    2009-01-01

    The meaning of a novel word can be acquired by extracting it from linguistic context. Here we simulated word learning of new words associated to concrete and abstract concepts in a variant of the human simulation paradigm that provided linguistic context information in order to characterize the brain systems involved. Native speakers of Spanish…

  11. Lexicography and Linguistic Creativity | Moon | Lexikos

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Abstract: Conventionally, dictionaries present information about institutionalized words, phrases, and senses of words; more creative formations and usages are generally ignored. Yet text and corpus data provide ample evidence of creativity in language, showing that it is part of ordinary linguistic behaviour and indeed ...

  12. The Emotions of Abstract Words: A Distributional Semantic Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenci, Alessandro; Lebani, Gianluca E; Passaro, Lucia C

    2018-04-06

    Recent psycholinguistic and neuroscientific research has emphasized the crucial role of emotions for abstract words, which would be grounded by affective experience, instead of a sensorimotor one. The hypothesis of affective embodiment has been proposed as an alternative to the idea that abstract words are linguistically coded and that linguistic processing plays a key role in their acquisition and processing. In this paper, we use distributional semantic models to explore the complex interplay between linguistic and affective information in the representation of abstract words. Distributional analyses on Italian norming data show that abstract words have more affective content and tend to co-occur with contexts with higher emotive values, according to affective statistical indices estimated in terms of distributional similarity with a restricted number of seed words strongly associated with a set of basic emotions. Therefore, the strong affective content of abstract words might just be an indirect byproduct of co-occurrence statistics. This is consistent with a version of representational pluralism in which concepts that are fully embodied either at the sensorimotor or at the affective level live side-by-side with concepts only indirectly embodied via their linguistic associations with other embodied words. Copyright © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  13. Natural language processing in an intelligent writing strategy tutoring system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McNamara, Danielle S; Crossley, Scott A; Roscoe, Rod

    2013-06-01

    The Writing Pal is an intelligent tutoring system that provides writing strategy training. A large part of its artificial intelligence resides in the natural language processing algorithms to assess essay quality and guide feedback to students. Because writing is often highly nuanced and subjective, the development of these algorithms must consider a broad array of linguistic, rhetorical, and contextual features. This study assesses the potential for computational indices to predict human ratings of essay quality. Past studies have demonstrated that linguistic indices related to lexical diversity, word frequency, and syntactic complexity are significant predictors of human judgments of essay quality but that indices of cohesion are not. The present study extends prior work by including a larger data sample and an expanded set of indices to assess new lexical, syntactic, cohesion, rhetorical, and reading ease indices. Three models were assessed. The model reported by McNamara, Crossley, and McCarthy (Written Communication 27:57-86, 2010) including three indices of lexical diversity, word frequency, and syntactic complexity accounted for only 6% of the variance in the larger data set. A regression model including the full set of indices examined in prior studies of writing predicted 38% of the variance in human scores of essay quality with 91% adjacent accuracy (i.e., within 1 point). A regression model that also included new indices related to rhetoric and cohesion predicted 44% of the variance with 94% adjacent accuracy. The new indices increased accuracy but, more importantly, afford the means to provide more meaningful feedback in the context of a writing tutoring system.

  14. Working memory components that predict word problem solving: Is it merely a function of reading, calculation, and fluid intelligence?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fung, Wenson; Swanson, H Lee

    2017-07-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess whether the differential effects of working memory (WM) components (the central executive, phonological loop, and visual-spatial sketchpad) on math word problem-solving accuracy in children (N = 413, ages 6-10) are completely mediated by reading, calculation, and fluid intelligence. The results indicated that all three WM components predicted word problem solving in the nonmediated model, but only the storage component of WM yielded a significant direct path to word problem-solving accuracy in the fully mediated model. Fluid intelligence was found to moderate the relationship between WM and word problem solving, whereas reading, calculation, and related skills (naming speed, domain-specific knowledge) completely mediated the influence of the executive system on problem-solving accuracy. Our results are consistent with findings suggesting that storage eliminates the predictive contribution of executive WM to various measures Colom, Rebollo, Abad, & Shih (Memory & Cognition, 34: 158-171, 2006). The findings suggest that the storage component of WM, rather than the executive component, has a direct path to higher-order processing in children.

  15. Linguistic Characteristics of Advertising English

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    易高燕

    2010-01-01

    Advertising language takes form under the influence of linguistics,psychology and sociology,etc,and its way of choosing words and building sentences are quite different from normal English.And as a practical language,advertising English has its specific functions,and it has been distinguished from normal English as an independent language,and it has plentiful values.This paper aims to discuss some linguistic characteristics of advertising English.

  16. Semantic and Syntactic Associations During Word Search Modulate the Relationship Between Attention and Subsequent Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Wei; Mo, Fei; Zhang, Yunhong; Ding, Jinhong

    2017-01-01

    Two experiments were conducted to investigate how linguistic information influences attention allocation in visual search and memory for words. In Experiment 1, participants searched for the synonym of a cue word among five words. The distractors included one antonym and three unrelated words. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to judge whether the five words presented on the screen comprise a valid sentence. The relationships among words were sentential, semantically related or unrelated. A memory recognition task followed. Results in both experiments showed that linguistically related words produced better memory performance. We also found that there were significant interactions between linguistic relation conditions and memorization on eye-movement measures, indicating that good memory for words relied on frequent and long fixations during search in the unrelated condition but to a much lesser extent in linguistically related conditions. We conclude that semantic and syntactic associations attenuate the link between overt attention allocation and subsequent memory performance, suggesting that linguistic relatedness can somewhat compensate for a relative lack of attention during word search.

  17. Dynamic Neural Processing of Linguistic Cues Related to Death

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Yina; Qin, Jungang; Han, Shihui

    2013-01-01

    Behavioral studies suggest that humans evolve the capacity to cope with anxiety induced by the awareness of death’s inevitability. However, the neurocognitive processes that underlie online death-related thoughts remain unclear. Our recent functional MRI study found that the processing of linguistic cues related to death was characterized by decreased neural activity in human insular cortex. The current study further investigated the time course of neural processing of death-related linguistic cues. We recorded event-related potentials (ERP) to death-related, life-related, negative-valence, and neutral-valence words in a modified Stroop task that required color naming of words. We found that the amplitude of an early frontal/central negativity at 84–120 ms (N1) decreased to death-related words but increased to life-related words relative to neutral-valence words. The N1 effect associated with death-related and life-related words was correlated respectively with individuals’ pessimistic and optimistic attitudes toward life. Death-related words also increased the amplitude of a frontal/central positivity at 124–300 ms (P2) and of a frontal/central positivity at 300–500 ms (P3). However, the P2 and P3 modulations were observed for both death-related and negative-valence words but not for life-related words. The ERP results suggest an early inverse coding of linguistic cues related to life and death, which is followed by negative emotional responses to death-related information. PMID:23840787

  18. Once More on the Etymology of the Russian Word Mazurik ‘Cheater’ (in Light of the Cultural and Linguistic Image of Mazur in Slavic Traditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena L. Berezovich

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The article proves the hypothesis of the origin of the Russian colloquial word mazurik as deriving from the name of the Polish ethnographic group mazury ‘Mazurs’—inhabitants of Mazovia (in central and south-eastern Poland as well as immigrants from this area to other places, mainly in the north-east. This hypothesis had previously been stated in the literature, but it had not been demonstrated rigorously. The authors show that the word mazurik is included in the big semantic word family that is derived from mazur, by studies focused on nationwide usage and through dialects. Using data from the lexical system and from folklore, the linguistic portrait of the Mazurs in the Russian tradition is reconstructed, and it is compared with linguistic stereotypes of the Mazurs in the source language (Polish and the languages of peoples in close contact with the Mazurs (Ukrainian and Belarusian. The main features of these portraits are the same in these languages, and they create a negative image of the Mazur in the Slavic tradition, making the “Polish” etymological version semantically legitimate. In addition, the authors prove this hypothesis from the point of view of word formation, linguogeography, and sociolinguistic characteristics of the words under consideration. It is noted that the derivatives of the word family derived from mazur are attracted to the lexemes which have similar form and meaning but different origin, in particular, to derivatives of the verb mazatʹ and the words murza and zamurzannyi. The article contains an overview with commentary of hypotheses about the origin of the Russian mazurik existing in Slavic etymological literature.

  19. Multiple Intelligences in Action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, Bruce

    1992-01-01

    Describes the investigation of the effects of a four-step model program used with third through fifth grade students to implement Gardener's concepts of seven human intelligences--linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal intelligence--into daily learning. (BB)

  20. The effectiveness of linguistic plays on the grammatical skills of hearing-impaired children with hearing aids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sahar Mohammad Esmaeilzadeh

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: Grammatical skills development of hearing-impaired children depends on using appropriate educational rehabilitation programs. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of linguistic plays on the grammatical skills in hearing-impaired children with hearing aids.Methods: Ten hearing-impaired children with hearing aids, aged between 5 and 7, were randomly assigned to two groups (5 children in each group. Each treatment group received 12 sessions on linguistic plays. The grammatical skills of these children were evaluated via the TOLD-P: 3 (Persian version; in addition, their level of intelligence was assessed by the Raven test.Results: The difference between the scores of both control and treatment groups revealed a statistically significant difference in grammatical skills (t=7.61, p=0.001 and three subskills of the children who participated in the linguistic plays. These subskills include syntactic understanding (t=3.16, p=0.013, sentence imitation (t=1.71, p=0.006, and morphological completion (t=6.55, p=0.001. In other words, the findings suggest that linguistic plays have a significant impact on the improvement of the aforementioned skills in hearing-impaired children.Conclusion: Results suggest that it would be beneficial to include linguistic plays as part of routine rehabilitation programs as a means of improving the grammatical difficulties of children. After partaking in linguistic plays, children significantly improved their ability to comprehend the meaning of sentences and also to recognize, understand, and use common Persian morphological forms.

  1. Listen to the beat : A cross-linguistic perspective on the use of stress in segmentation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Ommen, S.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relation of word stress to word segmentation in a cross-linguistic perspective. While many studies have addressed this issue before, the current one takes a typologically broad cross-linguistic approach to the use of edge-aligned word stress in

  2. Is adaptation of the word accentuation test of premorbid intelligence necessary for use among older, Spanish-speaking immigrants in the United States?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schrauf, Robert W; Weintraub, Sandra; Navarro, Ellen

    2006-05-01

    Adaptations of the National Adult Reading Test (NART) for assessing premorbid intelligence in languages other than English requires (a) generating word-items that are rare and do not follow grapheme-to-phoneme mappings common in that language, and (b) subsequent validation against a cognitive battery normed on the population of interest. Such tests exist for Italy, France, Spain, and Argentina, all normed against national versions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Given the varieties of Spanish spoken in the United States, the adaptation of the Spanish Word Accentuation Test (WAT) requires re-validating the original word list, plus possible new items, against a cognitive battery that has been normed on Spanish-speakers from many countries. This study reports the generation of 55 additional words and revalidation in a sample of 80 older, Spanish-dominant immigrants. The Batería Woodcock-Muñoz Revisada (BWM-R), normed on Spanish speakers from six countries and five U.S. states, was used to establish criterion validity. The original WAT word list accounted for 77% of the variance in the BWM-R and 58% of the variance in Ravens Colored Progressive Matrices, suggesting that the unmodified list possesses adequate predictive validity as an indicator of intelligence. Regression equations are provided for estimating BWM-R and Ravens scores from WAT scores.

  3. Cognitive-linguistic effort in multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation: Decreasing vs. increasing cues for word retrieval.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choe, Yu-Kyong; Foster, Tammie; Asselin, Abigail; LeVander, Meagan; Baird, Jennifer

    2017-04-01

    Approximately 24% of stroke survivors experience co-occurring aphasia and hemiparesis. These individuals typically attend back-to-back therapy sessions. However, sequentially scheduled therapy may trigger physical and mental fatigue and have an adverse impact on treatment outcomes. The current study tested a hypothesis that exerting less effort during a therapy session would reduce overall fatigue and enhance functional recovery. Two stroke survivors chronically challenged by non-fluent aphasia and right hemiparesis sequentially completed verbal naming and upper-limb tasks on their home computers. The level of cognitive-linguistic effort in speech/language practice was manipulated by presenting verbal naming tasks in two conditions: Decreasing cues (i.e., most-to-least support for word retrieval), and Increasing cues (i.e., least-to-most support). The participants completed the same upper-limb exercises throughout the study periods. Both individuals showed a statistically significant advantage of decreasing cues over increasing cues in word retrieval during the practice period, but not at the end of the practice period or thereafter. The participant with moderate aphasia and hemiparesis achieved clinically meaningful gains in upper-limb functions following the decreasing cues condition, but not after the increasing cues condition. Preliminary findings from the current study suggest a positive impact of decreasing cues in the context of multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation.

  4. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Howard

    1987-01-01

    The multiple intelligence theory is based on cultural contexts, biological analysis, developmental theories, and a vertical theory of faculties. Seven intelligences are identified: linguistic, logical mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. The theory's educational implications are described,…

  5. Swearing, Euphemisms, and Linguistic Relativity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowers, Jeffrey S.; Pleydell-Pearce, Christopher W.

    2011-01-01

    Participants read aloud swear words, euphemisms of the swear words, and neutral stimuli while their autonomic activity was measured by electrodermal activity. The key finding was that autonomic responses to swear words were larger than to euphemisms and neutral stimuli. It is argued that the heightened response to swear words reflects a form of verbal conditioning in which the phonological form of the word is directly associated with an affective response. Euphemisms are effective because they replace the trigger (the offending word form) by another word form that expresses a similar idea. That is, word forms exert some control on affect and cognition in turn. We relate these findings to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, and suggest a simple mechanistic account of how language may influence thinking in this context. PMID:21799832

  6. The Linguistic and Embodied Nature of Conceptual Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louwerse, Max M.; Jeuniaux, Patrick

    2010-01-01

    Recent theories of cognition have argued that embodied experience is important for conceptual processing. Embodiment can be contrasted with linguistic factors such as the typical order in which words appear in language. Here, we report four experiments that investigated the conditions under which embodiment and linguistic factors determine…

  7. Schooling Built on the Multiple Intelligences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kunkel, Christine D.

    2009-01-01

    This article features a school built on multiple intelligences. As the first multiple intelligences school in the world, the Key Learning Community shapes its students' days to include significant time in the musical, spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, as well as the more traditional areas of logical-mathematical and linguistics. In…

  8. Examining explanations for fundamental frequency's contribution to speech intelligibility in noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlauch, Robert S.; Miller, Sharon E.; Watson, Peter J.

    2005-09-01

    Laures and Weismer [JSLHR, 42, 1148 (1999)] reported that speech with natural variation in fundamental frequency (F0) is more intelligible in noise than speech with a flattened F0 contour. Cognitive-linguistic based explanations have been offered to account for this drop in intelligibility for the flattened condition, but a lower-level mechanism related to auditory streaming may be responsible. Numerous psychoacoustic studies have demonstrated that modulating a tone enables a listener to segregate it from background sounds. To test these rival hypotheses, speech recognition in noise was measured for sentences with six different F0 contours: unmodified, flattened at the mean, natural but exaggerated, reversed, and frequency modulated (rates of 2.5 and 5.0 Hz). The 180 stimulus sentences were produced by five talkers (30 sentences per condition). Speech recognition for fifteen listeners replicate earlier findings showing that flattening the F0 contour results in a roughly 10% reduction in recognition of key words compared with the natural condition. Although the exaggerated condition produced results comparable to those of the flattened condition, the other conditions with unnatural F0 contours all yielded significantly poorer performance than the flattened condition. These results support the cognitive, linguistic-based explanations for the reduction in performance.

  9. Learning word order at birth: A NIRS study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Benavides-Varela

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In language, the relative order of words in sentences carries important grammatical functions. However, the developmental origins and the neural correlates of the ability to track word order are to date poorly understood. The current study therefore investigates the origins of infants’ ability to learn about the sequential order of words, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS with newborn infants. We have conducted two experiments: one in which a word order change was implemented in 4-word sequences recorded with a list intonation (as if each word was a separate item in a list; list prosody condition, Experiment 1 and one in which the same 4-word sequences were recorded with a well-formed utterance-level prosodic contour (utterance prosody condition, Experiment 2. We found that newborns could detect the violation of the word order in the list prosody condition, but not in the utterance prosody condition. These results suggest that while newborns are already sensitive to word order in linguistic sequences, prosody appears to be a stronger cue than word order for the identification of linguistic units at birth.

  10. Original article Functioning of memory and attention processes in children with intelligence below average

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aneta Rita Borkowska

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND The aim of the research was to assess memorization and recall of logically connected and unconnected material, coded graphically and linguistically, and the ability to focus attention, in a group of children with intelligence below average, compared to children with average intelligence. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE The study group included 27 children with intelligence below average. The control group consisted of 29 individuals. All of them were examined using the authors’ experimental trials and the TUS test (Attention and Perceptiveness Test. RESULTS Children with intelligence below average memorized significantly less information contained in the logical material, demonstrated lower ability to memorize the visual material, memorized significantly fewer words in the verbal material learning task, achieved lower results in such indicators of the visual attention process pace as the number of omissions and mistakes, and had a lower pace of perceptual work, compared to children with average intelligence. CONCLUSIONS The results confirm that children with intelligence below average have difficulties with memorizing new material, both logically connected and unconnected. The significantly lower capacity of direct memory is independent of modality. The results of the study on the memory process confirm the hypothesis about lower abilities of children with intelligence below average, in terms of concentration, work pace, efficiency and perception.

  11. In Few Words: Linguistic Gap but Adequate Narrative Structure in Preschool Bilingual Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonifacci, Paola; Barbieri, Margherita; Tomassini, Marta; Roch, Maja

    2018-01-01

    The aim of this study was to compare linguistic and narrative skills of monolingual and bilingual preschoolers and to estimate linguistic predictors of the macro-structural level of narratives. A battery of linguistic measures in Italian was administered to sixty-four Monolinguals and sixty-four Early Bilinguals; it included Vocabulary,…

  12. Multiple Intelligences and Perfectionism in Middle School Gifted Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Süleyman KAHRAMAN

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available In this study, the perfectionism levels of 181 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade gifted students’ were investigated in terms of multiple intelligences. In the study a relational screening model, Survey of Positive and Negative Perfectionism, developed by Kırdök (2004, was used to assess the level of the students’ positive and negative perfectionism. The Multiple Intelligences Inventory, developed by Saban (2001, was used to determine the students’ multiple intelligences, and a personal information form was implemented to obtain socio-demographic data. The results of the study showed that [verbal-linguistic intelligence, mathematical-logical intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence] [intrapersonal intelligence, mathematical-logical intelligence, and verbal-linguistic intelligence] predicted 34% of the students’ perfectionism levels (p<.001. The explanatory power of the scores in multiple intelligences over negative perfectionism was not found to be statistically significant for any of the sub-dimensions. In order to develop gifted students’ positive perfectionism qualifications, assuming that multiple intelligences can be used as a tool, some suggestions were presented for researchers, counselors, and teachers.

  13. Towards new information resources for public health--from WordNet to MedicalWordNet.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fellbaum, Christiane; Hahn, Udo; Smith, Barry

    2006-06-01

    In the last two decades, WordNet has evolved as the most comprehensive computational lexicon of general English. In this article, we discuss its potential for supporting the creation of an entirely new kind of information resource for public health, viz. MedicalWordNet. This resource is not to be conceived merely as a lexical extension of the original WordNet to medical terminology; indeed, there is already a considerable degree of overlap between WordNet and the vocabulary of medicine. Instead, we propose a new type of repository, consisting of three large collections of (1) medically relevant word forms, structured along the lines of the existing Princeton WordNet; (2) medically validated propositions, referred to here as medical facts, which will constitute what we shall call MedicalFactNet; and (3) propositions reflecting laypersons' medical beliefs, which will constitute what we shall call the MedicalBeliefNet. We introduce a methodology for setting up the MedicalWordNet. We then turn to the discussion of research challenges that have to be met to build this new type of information resource. We build a database of sentences relevant to the medical domain. The sentences are generated from WordNet via its relations as well as from medical statements broken down into elementary propositions. Two subcorpora of sentences are distinguished, MedicalBeliefNet and MedicalFactNet. The former is rated for assent by laypersons; the latter for correctness by medical experts. The sentence corpora will be valuable for a variety of applications in information retrieval as well as in research in linguistics and psychology with respect to the study of expert and non-expert beliefs and their linguistic expressions. Our work has to meet several considerable challenges. These include accounting for the distinction between medical experts and laypersons, the social issues of expert-layperson communication in different media, the linguistic aspects of encoding medical knowledge, and

  14. Linguistic analysis of communication in therapist-assisted internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy for generalized anxiety disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirkse, Dale; Hadjistavropoulos, Heather D; Hesser, Hugo; Barak, Azy

    2015-01-01

    Therapist-assisted Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) involves elements of expressive writing through secure messaging with a therapist. Expressive writing has been associated with psychological and physical health benefits in past research; furthermore, certain linguistic dimensions in expressive writing have been identified as particularly beneficial to health, such as less frequent use of negative emotion words and greater use of positive emotion words. No research, to date, has analyzed linguistic dimensions in client communication over the course of therapist-assisted ICBT for individuals with symptoms of generalized anxiety. This naturalistic study examined messages sent to therapists during the course of ICBT using linguistic analysis, and explored covariation of word use with symptom improvement. Data were obtained from patients with symptoms of generalized anxiety (N = 59) who completed 12 modules of therapist-assisted ICBT and rated symptoms of anxiety, depression, and panic at the beginning of each module. Linguistic analysis categorized text submitted to therapists into different word categories. Results found that patients' use of negative emotion, anxiety, causation, and insight words reduced over the course of treatment, while past tense words increased. Furthermore, negative emotion words significantly covaried with symptom ratings over the course of treatment. While causal statements cannot be made, findings improve our understanding of patient communication in ICBT and suggest that the further study of linguistic dimensions as psychological indicators and the potential utility of expressive writing strategies in therapist-assisted ICBT may be worthwhile.

  15. The Mental Representation of Polysemy across Word Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anastasiya Lopukhina

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Experimental studies on polysemy have come to contradictory conclusions on whether words with multiple senses are stored as separate or shared mental representations. The present study examined the semantic relatedness and semantic similarity of literal and non-literal (metonymic and metaphorical senses of three word classes: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Two methods were used: a psycholinguistic experiment and a distributional analysis of corpus data. In the experiment, participants were presented with 6–12 short phrases containing a polysemous word in literal, metonymic, or metaphorical senses and were asked to classify them so that phrases with the same perceived sense were grouped together. To investigate the impact of professional background on their decisions, participants were controlled for linguistic vs. non-linguistic education. For nouns and verbs, all participants preferred to group together phrases with literal and metonymic senses, but not any other pairs of senses. For adjectives, two pairs of senses were often grouped together: literal with metonymic, and metonymic with metaphorical. Participants with a linguistic background were more accurate than participants with non-linguistic backgrounds, although both groups shared principal patterns of sense classification. For the distributional analysis of corpus data, we used a semantic vector approach to quantify the similarity of phrases with literal, metonymic, and metaphorical senses in the corpora. We found that phrases with literal and metonymic senses had the highest degree of similarity for the three word classes, and that metonymic and metaphorical senses of adjectives had the highest degree of similarity among all word classes. These findings are in line with the experimental results. Overall, the results suggest that the mental representation of a polysemous word depends on its word class. In nouns and verbs, literal and metonymic senses are stored together, while

  16. The Mental Representation of Polysemy across Word Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopukhina, Anastasiya; Laurinavichyute, Anna; Lopukhin, Konstantin; Dragoy, Olga

    2018-01-01

    Experimental studies on polysemy have come to contradictory conclusions on whether words with multiple senses are stored as separate or shared mental representations. The present study examined the semantic relatedness and semantic similarity of literal and non-literal (metonymic and metaphorical) senses of three word classes: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Two methods were used: a psycholinguistic experiment and a distributional analysis of corpus data. In the experiment, participants were presented with 6–12 short phrases containing a polysemous word in literal, metonymic, or metaphorical senses and were asked to classify them so that phrases with the same perceived sense were grouped together. To investigate the impact of professional background on their decisions, participants were controlled for linguistic vs. non-linguistic education. For nouns and verbs, all participants preferred to group together phrases with literal and metonymic senses, but not any other pairs of senses. For adjectives, two pairs of senses were often grouped together: literal with metonymic, and metonymic with metaphorical. Participants with a linguistic background were more accurate than participants with non-linguistic backgrounds, although both groups shared principal patterns of sense classification. For the distributional analysis of corpus data, we used a semantic vector approach to quantify the similarity of phrases with literal, metonymic, and metaphorical senses in the corpora. We found that phrases with literal and metonymic senses had the highest degree of similarity for the three word classes, and that metonymic and metaphorical senses of adjectives had the highest degree of similarity among all word classes. These findings are in line with the experimental results. Overall, the results suggest that the mental representation of a polysemous word depends on its word class. In nouns and verbs, literal and metonymic senses are stored together, while metaphorical senses are

  17. The Mental Representation of Polysemy across Word Classes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopukhina, Anastasiya; Laurinavichyute, Anna; Lopukhin, Konstantin; Dragoy, Olga

    2018-01-01

    Experimental studies on polysemy have come to contradictory conclusions on whether words with multiple senses are stored as separate or shared mental representations. The present study examined the semantic relatedness and semantic similarity of literal and non-literal (metonymic and metaphorical) senses of three word classes: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Two methods were used: a psycholinguistic experiment and a distributional analysis of corpus data. In the experiment, participants were presented with 6-12 short phrases containing a polysemous word in literal, metonymic, or metaphorical senses and were asked to classify them so that phrases with the same perceived sense were grouped together. To investigate the impact of professional background on their decisions, participants were controlled for linguistic vs. non-linguistic education. For nouns and verbs, all participants preferred to group together phrases with literal and metonymic senses, but not any other pairs of senses. For adjectives, two pairs of senses were often grouped together: literal with metonymic, and metonymic with metaphorical. Participants with a linguistic background were more accurate than participants with non-linguistic backgrounds, although both groups shared principal patterns of sense classification. For the distributional analysis of corpus data, we used a semantic vector approach to quantify the similarity of phrases with literal, metonymic, and metaphorical senses in the corpora. We found that phrases with literal and metonymic senses had the highest degree of similarity for the three word classes, and that metonymic and metaphorical senses of adjectives had the highest degree of similarity among all word classes. These findings are in line with the experimental results. Overall, the results suggest that the mental representation of a polysemous word depends on its word class. In nouns and verbs, literal and metonymic senses are stored together, while metaphorical senses are stored

  18. Learning biases predict a word order universal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Culbertson, Jennifer; Smolensky, Paul; Legendre, Géraldine

    2012-03-01

    How recurrent typological patterns, or universals, emerge from the extensive diversity found across the world's languages constitutes a central question for linguistics and cognitive science. Recent challenges to a fundamental assumption of generative linguistics-that universal properties of the human language acquisition faculty constrain the types of grammatical systems which can occur-suggest the need for new types of empirical evidence connecting typology to biases of learners. Using an artificial language learning paradigm in which adult subjects are exposed to a mix of grammatical systems (similar to a period of linguistic change), we show that learners' biases mirror a word-order universal, first proposed by Joseph Greenberg, which constrains typological patterns of adjective, numeral, and noun ordering. We briefly summarize the results of a probabilistic model of the hypothesized biases and their effect on learning, and discuss the broader implications of the results for current theories of the origins of cross-linguistic word-order preferences. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Design Features for Linguistically-Mediated Meaning Construction: The Relative Roles of the Linguistic and Conceptual Systems in Subserving the Ideational Function of Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Vyvyan

    2016-01-01

    nature of these qualitatively distinct representations. And second, language itself is adapted to the conceptual system-the semantic potential-that it marshals in the meaning construction process. Hence, a linguistic system itself exhibits a bifurcation, in terms of the symbolic resources at its disposal. This design feature I dub the birfucation in linguistic organization. As I shall argue, this relates to two distinct reference strategies available for symbolic encoding in language: what I dub words-to-world reference and words-to-words reference. In slightly different terms, this design feature of language amounts to a distinction between a lexical subsystem, and a grammatical subsystem.

  20. Appraisal of space words and allocation of emotion words in bodily space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando; Elosúa, María Rosa; Yamada, Yuki; Hamm, Nicholas Francis; Noguchi, Kimihiro

    2013-01-01

    The body-specificity hypothesis (BSH) predicts that right-handers and left-handers allocate positive and negative concepts differently on the horizontal plane, i.e., while left-handers allocate negative concepts on the right-hand side of their bodily space, right-handers allocate such concepts to the left-hand side. Similar research shows that people, in general, tend to allocate positive and negative concepts in upper and lower areas, respectively, in relation to the vertical plane. Further research shows a higher salience of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the performance of sensorimotor tasks. The aim of the paper is to examine whether there should be a dominance of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane, not only at a sensorimotor level but also at a conceptual level. In Experiment 1, various participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds were asked to rate the words "up", "down", "left", and "right". In Experiment 2, right-handed participants from two linguistic backgrounds were asked to allocate emotion words into a square grid divided into four boxes of equal areas. Results suggest that the vertical plane is more salient than the horizontal plane regarding the allocation of emotion words and positively-valenced words were placed in upper locations whereas negatively-valenced words were placed in lower locations. Together, the results lend support to the BSH while also suggesting a higher saliency of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the allocation of valenced words.

  1. Information properties of morphologically complex words modulate brain activity during word reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hakala, Tero; Hultén, Annika; Lehtonen, Minna; Lagus, Krista; Salmelin, Riitta

    2018-06-01

    Neuroimaging studies of the reading process point to functionally distinct stages in word recognition. Yet, current understanding of the operations linked to those various stages is mainly descriptive in nature. Approaches developed in the field of computational linguistics may offer a more quantitative approach for understanding brain dynamics. Our aim was to evaluate whether a statistical model of morphology, with well-defined computational principles, can capture the neural dynamics of reading, using the concept of surprisal from information theory as the common measure. The Morfessor model, created for unsupervised discovery of morphemes, is based on the minimum description length principle and attempts to find optimal units of representation for complex words. In a word recognition task, we correlated brain responses to word surprisal values derived from Morfessor and from other psycholinguistic variables that have been linked with various levels of linguistic abstraction. The magnetoencephalography data analysis focused on spatially, temporally and functionally distinct components of cortical activation observed in reading tasks. The early occipital and occipito-temporal responses were correlated with parameters relating to visual complexity and orthographic properties, whereas the later bilateral superior temporal activation was correlated with whole-word based and morphological models. The results show that the word processing costs estimated by the statistical Morfessor model are relevant for brain dynamics of reading during late processing stages. © 2018 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Appraisal of space words and allocation of emotion words in bodily space.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos

    Full Text Available The body-specificity hypothesis (BSH predicts that right-handers and left-handers allocate positive and negative concepts differently on the horizontal plane, i.e., while left-handers allocate negative concepts on the right-hand side of their bodily space, right-handers allocate such concepts to the left-hand side. Similar research shows that people, in general, tend to allocate positive and negative concepts in upper and lower areas, respectively, in relation to the vertical plane. Further research shows a higher salience of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the performance of sensorimotor tasks. The aim of the paper is to examine whether there should be a dominance of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane, not only at a sensorimotor level but also at a conceptual level. In Experiment 1, various participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds were asked to rate the words "up", "down", "left", and "right". In Experiment 2, right-handed participants from two linguistic backgrounds were asked to allocate emotion words into a square grid divided into four boxes of equal areas. Results suggest that the vertical plane is more salient than the horizontal plane regarding the allocation of emotion words and positively-valenced words were placed in upper locations whereas negatively-valenced words were placed in lower locations. Together, the results lend support to the BSH while also suggesting a higher saliency of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the allocation of valenced words.

  3. Appraisal of Space Words and Allocation of Emotion Words in Bodily Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando; Elosúa, María Rosa; Yamada, Yuki; Hamm, Nicholas Francis; Noguchi, Kimihiro

    2013-01-01

    The body-specificity hypothesis (BSH) predicts that right-handers and left-handers allocate positive and negative concepts differently on the horizontal plane, i.e., while left-handers allocate negative concepts on the right-hand side of their bodily space, right-handers allocate such concepts to the left-hand side. Similar research shows that people, in general, tend to allocate positive and negative concepts in upper and lower areas, respectively, in relation to the vertical plane. Further research shows a higher salience of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the performance of sensorimotor tasks. The aim of the paper is to examine whether there should be a dominance of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane, not only at a sensorimotor level but also at a conceptual level. In Experiment 1, various participants from diverse linguistic backgrounds were asked to rate the words “up”, “down”, “left”, and “right”. In Experiment 2, right-handed participants from two linguistic backgrounds were asked to allocate emotion words into a square grid divided into four boxes of equal areas. Results suggest that the vertical plane is more salient than the horizontal plane regarding the allocation of emotion words and positively-valenced words were placed in upper locations whereas negatively-valenced words were placed in lower locations. Together, the results lend support to the BSH while also suggesting a higher saliency of the vertical plane over the horizontal plane in the allocation of valenced words. PMID:24349112

  4. The Word Frequency Effect on Second Language Vocabulary Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koirala, Cesar

    2015-01-01

    This study examines several linguistic factors as possible contributors to perceived word difficulty in second language learners in an experimental setting. The investigated factors include: (1) frequency of word usage in the first language, (2) word length, (3) number of syllables in a word, and (4) number of consonant clusters in a word. Word…

  5. Learning word order at birth: A NIRS study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benavides-Varela, Silvia; Gervain, Judit

    2017-06-01

    In language, the relative order of words in sentences carries important grammatical functions. However, the developmental origins and the neural correlates of the ability to track word order are to date poorly understood. The current study therefore investigates the origins of infants' ability to learn about the sequential order of words, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with newborn infants. We have conducted two experiments: one in which a word order change was implemented in 4-word sequences recorded with a list intonation (as if each word was a separate item in a list; list prosody condition, Experiment 1) and one in which the same 4-word sequences were recorded with a well-formed utterance-level prosodic contour (utterance prosody condition, Experiment 2). We found that newborns could detect the violation of the word order in the list prosody condition, but not in the utterance prosody condition. These results suggest that while newborns are already sensitive to word order in linguistic sequences, prosody appears to be a stronger cue than word order for the identification of linguistic units at birth. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  6. Role of linguistic skills in fifth-grade mathematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleemans, Tijs; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2018-03-01

    The current study investigated the direct and indirect relations between basic linguistic skills (i.e., phonological skills and grammatical ability) and advanced linguistic skills (i.e., academic vocabulary and verbal reasoning), on the one hand, and fifth-grade mathematics (i.e., arithmetic, geometry, and fractions), on the other, taking working memory and general intelligence into account and controlling for socioeconomic status, age, and gender. The results showed the basic linguistic representations of 167 fifth graders to be indirectly related to their geometric and fraction skills via arithmetic. Furthermore, advanced linguistic skills were found to be directly related to geometry and fractions after controlling for arithmetic. It can be concluded that linguistic skills directly and indirectly relate to mathematical ability in the upper grades of primary education, which highlights the importance of paying attention to such skills in the school curriculum. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Flexible and fast: linguistic shortcut affects both shallow and deep conceptual processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connell, Louise; Lynott, Dermot

    2013-06-01

    Previous research has shown that people use linguistic distributional information during conceptual processing, and that it is especially useful for shallow tasks and rapid responding. Using two conceptual combination tasks, we showed that this linguistic shortcut extends to the processing of novel stimuli, is used in both successful and unsuccessful conceptual processing, and is evident in both shallow and deep conceptual tasks. Specifically, as predicted by the ECCo theory of conceptual combination, people use the linguistic shortcut as a "quick-and-dirty" guide to whether the concepts are likely to combine into a coherent conceptual representation, in both shallow sensibility judgment and deep interpretation generation tasks. Linguistic distributional frequency predicts both the likelihood and the time course of rejecting a novel word compound as nonsensical or uninterpretable. However, it predicts the time course of successful processing only in shallow sensibility judgment, because the deeper conceptual process of interpretation generation does not allow the linguistic shortcut to suffice. Furthermore, the effects of linguistic distributional frequency are independent of any effects of conventional word frequency. We discuss the utility of the linguistic shortcut as a cognitive triage mechanism that can optimize processing in a limited-resource conceptual system.

  8. Neurological evidence linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation in conceptual processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louwerse, Max; Hutchinson, Sterling

    2012-01-01

    There is increasing evidence from response time experiments that language statistics and perceptual simulations both play a role in conceptual processing. In an EEG experiment we compared neural activity in cortical regions commonly associated with linguistic processing and visual perceptual processing to determine to what extent symbolic and embodied accounts of cognition applied. Participants were asked to determine the semantic relationship of word pairs (e.g., sky - ground) or to determine their iconic relationship (i.e., if the presentation of the pair matched their expected physical relationship). A linguistic bias was found toward the semantic judgment task and a perceptual bias was found toward the iconicity judgment task. More importantly, conceptual processing involved activation in brain regions associated with both linguistic and perceptual processes. When comparing the relative activation of linguistic cortical regions with perceptual cortical regions, the effect sizes for linguistic cortical regions were larger than those for the perceptual cortical regions early in a trial with the reverse being true later in a trial. These results map upon findings from other experimental literature and provide further evidence that processing of concept words relies both on language statistics and on perceptual simulations, whereby linguistic processes precede perceptual simulation processes.

  9. Electric Symbols: Internet Words And Culture

    OpenAIRE

    Fraim, John

    2002-01-01

    The famous Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis posits a linguistic determinism arguing language plays a central role in creation of a worldview. In the sense that language is a product of words, one can say that a culture's worldview is affected and influenced by the words of its particular language. Words both create and communicate worldviews. The greatest potential in history for the observation and analysis of words exists on the Internet. Indeed, the Internet can be considered history's greatest obse...

  10. Cognitive-Linguistic Deficit and Speech Intelligibility in Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackenzie, Catherine; Green, Jan

    2009-01-01

    Background: Multiple sclerosis is a disabling neurological disease with varied symptoms, including dysarthria and cognitive and linguistic impairments. Association between dysarthria and cognitive-linguistic deficit has not been explored in clinical multiple sclerosis studies. Aims: In patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis, the…

  11. Bridging Home and School through Multiple Intelligences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reiff, Judith C.

    1996-01-01

    Suggests that teachers can share information with parents about multiple intelligences and encourage parents to provide activities to nurture their child's own intelligences. Provides teachers with instructional strategies and parents with activities related to linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal,…

  12. A Linguistic Analysis of Suicide-Related Twitter Posts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Dea, Bridianne; Larsen, Mark E; Batterham, Philip J; Calear, Alison L; Christensen, Helen

    2017-09-01

    Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide. Identifying those at risk and delivering timely interventions is challenging. Social media site Twitter is used to express suicidality. Automated linguistic analysis of suicide-related posts may help to differentiate those who require support or intervention from those who do not. This study aims to characterize the linguistic profiles of suicide-related Twitter posts. Using a dataset of suicide-related Twitter posts previously coded for suicide risk by experts, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and regression analyses were conducted to determine differences in linguistic profiles. When compared with matched non-suicide-related Twitter posts, strongly concerning suicide-related posts were characterized by a higher word count, increased use of first-person pronouns, and more references to death. When compared with safe-to-ignore suicide-related posts, strongly concerning suicide-related posts were characterized by increased use of first-person pronouns, greater anger, and increased focus on the present. Other differences were found. The predictive validity of the identified features needs further testing before these results can be used for interventional purposes. This study demonstrates that strongly concerning suicide-related Twitter posts have unique linguistic profiles. The examination of Twitter data for the presence of such features may help to validate online risk assessments and determine those in need of further support or intervention.

  13. Data Acquisition and Linguistic Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strassel, Stephanie; Christianson, Caitlin; McCary, John; Staderman, William; Olive, Joseph

    All human language technology demands substantial quantities of data for system training and development, plus stable benchmark data to measure ongoing progress. While creation of high quality linguistic resources is both costly and time consuming, such data has the potential to profoundly impact not just a single evaluation program but language technology research in general. GALE's challenging performance targets demand linguistic data on a scale and complexity never before encountered. Resources cover multiple languages (Arabic, Chinese, and English) and multiple genres -- both structured (newswire and broadcast news) and unstructured (web text, including blogs and newsgroups, and broadcast conversation). These resources include significant volumes of monolingual text and speech, parallel text, and transcribed audio combined with multiple layers of linguistic annotation, ranging from word aligned parallel text and Treebanks to rich semantic annotation.

  14. Development and validity of mathematical learning assessment instruments based on multiple intelligence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helmiah Suryani

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This study was aimed to develop and produce an assessment instrument of mathematical learning results based on multiple intelligence. The methods in this study used Borg & Gall-Research and Development approach (Research & Development. The subject of research was 289 students. The results of research: (1 Result of Aiken Analysis showed 58 valid items were between 0,714 to 0,952. (2 Result of the Exploratory on factor analysis indicated the instrument consist of three factors i.e. mathematical logical intelligence-spatial intelligence-and linguistic intelligence. KMO value was 0.661 df 0.780 sig. 0.000 with valid category. This research succeeded to developing the assessment instrument of mathematical learning results based on multiple intelligence of second grade in elementary school with characteristics of logical intelligence of mathematics, spatial intelligence, and linguistic intelligence.

  15. Some remarks on word formation in Danish

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Götzsche, Hans

    Abstract for the 25th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics Some remarks on wordformation in Danish Some Danish word formation phenomena pose a problem for the linguist, being a predicament for analysis. In Danish a train leaves the station when it afgår ‘leaves’, while a minister may gå af......, there are some patterns for these Danish compounds concerning their internal semantics, in that the same lexical items may be used for different purposes depending on whether they are formed as a straightforward linear sequence (a word formation) or a reversed sequence (a phrase). The problem is (i) how the two...

  16. A measurement model of multiple intelligence profiles of management graduates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krishnan, Heamalatha; Awang, Siti Rahmah

    2017-05-01

    In this study, developing a fit measurement model and identifying the best fitting items to represent Howard Gardner's nine intelligences namely, musical intelligence, bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, mathematical/logical intelligence, visual/spatial intelligence, verbal/linguistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, naturalist intelligence and spiritual intelligence are the main interest in order to enhance the opportunities of the management graduates for employability. In order to develop a fit measurement model, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied. A psychometric test which is the Ability Test in Employment (ATIEm) was used as the instrument to measure the existence of nine types of intelligence of 137 University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) management graduates for job placement purposes. The initial measurement model contains nine unobserved variables and each unobserved variable is measured by ten observed variables. Finally, the modified measurement model deemed to improve the Normed chi-square (NC) = 1.331; Incremental Fit Index (IFI) = 0.940 and Root Mean Square of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.049 was developed. The findings showed that the UTeM management graduates possessed all nine intelligences either high or low. Musical intelligence, mathematical/logical intelligence, naturalist intelligence and spiritual intelligence contributed highest loadings on certain items. However, most of the intelligences such as bodily kinaesthetic intelligence, visual/spatial intelligence, verbal/linguistic intelligence interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence possessed by UTeM management graduates are just at the borderline.

  17. Validitas Lesson Plan Berbasis Multiple Intelligences untuk Pembelajaran Matematika

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vigih Hery Kristanto

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to know the validity of Lesson Plan based on multiple intelligences for learning mathematics in junior high school students. This research is a simple research with qualitative type. The validity of Lesson Plan is seen through two aspects, namely the linguistic aspect and the substance (content aspect. Thus, the instrument used in this research is the Linguistic Aspects Validation Guidance and the Substance Validation Guidelines (contents Guidance. Validation is done by two validators Lingusitic expert field and Mathematics expert field. The results showed that the validity of linguistic aspects of 3.35 and the validity of the substance (content of 3.82, so it can be concluded Lesson Plan based multiple intelligences for learning mathematics in junior high school students who have been compiled valid based on the language aspect. In addition, Lesson Plan based multiple intelligences for learning mathematics in junior high school students who have been compiled valid based on aspects of substance (content.

  18. Pronunciation modelling of foreign words for Sepedi ASR

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Modipa, T

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available , specifically: (1) using language-specific letter-to-sound rules to predict the pronunciation of each word (based on the language of the word) and mapping foreign phonemes to Sepedi phonemes using linguistically motivated mappings, (2) experimenting with data...

  19. Understanding the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Staff Workshop Handout

    Science.gov (United States)

    Early Childhood Today, 2005

    2005-01-01

    In his "Theory of Multiple Intelligences," Dr. Howard Gardner expands the concept of intelligence to include such areas as music, spatial relations, and interpersonal knowledge in addition to the traditional view of two intelligences--mathematical and linguistic. Using biological as well as cultural research, Gardner formulated a list of seven…

  20. Right-hemispheric processing of non-linguistic word features

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Baumgaertner, Annette; Hartwigsen, Gesa; Roman Siebner, Hartwig

    2013-01-01

    -hemispheric homologues of classic left-hemispheric language areas may partly be due to processing nonlinguistic perceptual features of verbal stimuli. We used functional MRI (fMRI) to clarify the role of the right hemisphere in the perception of nonlinguistic word features in healthy individuals. Participants made...... perceptual, semantic, or phonological decisions on the same set of auditorily and visually presented word stimuli. Perceptual decisions required judgements about stimulus-inherent changes in font size (visual modality) or fundamental frequency contour (auditory modality). The semantic judgement required......, the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), an area previously suggested to support language recovery after left-hemispheric stroke, displayed modality-independent activation during perceptual processing of word stimuli. Our findings indicate that activation of the right hemisphere during language tasks may...

  1. Granular, soft and fuzzy approaches for intelligent systems dedicated to professor Ronald R. Yager

    CERN Document Server

    Filev, Dimitar; Beliakov, Gleb

    2017-01-01

    This book offers a comprehensive report on the state-of-the art in the broadly-intended field of “intelligent systems”. After introducing key theoretical issues, it describes a number of promising models for data and system analysis, decision making, and control. It discusses important theories, including possibility theory, the Dempster-Shafer theory, the theory of approximate reasoning, as well as computing with words, together with novel applications in various areas, such as information aggregation and fusion, linguistic data summarization, participatory learning, systems modeling, and many others. By presenting the methods in their application contexts, the book shows how granular computing, soft computing and fuzzy logic techniques can provide novel, efficient solutions to real-world problems. It is dedicated to Professor Ronald R. Yager for his great scientific and scholarly achievements, and for his long-lasting service to the fuzzy logic, and the artificial and computational intelligence communit...

  2. Play games to grow up bilingual: The BlaSquare linguistic game

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Valente

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available A new kind of computer game is proposed, to support the linguistic development of primary school children, growing in multilingual environments: with it players will be able to simultaneously learn multiple languages. The novel idea is to treat words in different languages as physical items, that the player can collect and exchange for other words or for concrete objects. A prototype is currently under development, and it will be tested in cooperation with local schools. By design this linguistic game will also be extensible, so parents and teachers can tailor it with respect to languages and learning contexts.

  3. Intelligence: Real or artificial?

    OpenAIRE

    Schlinger, Henry D.

    1992-01-01

    Throughout the history of the artificial intelligence movement, researchers have strived to create computers that could simulate general human intelligence. This paper argues that workers in artificial intelligence have failed to achieve this goal because they adopted the wrong model of human behavior and intelligence, namely a cognitive essentialist model with origins in the traditional philosophies of natural intelligence. An analysis of the word “intelligence” suggests that it originally r...

  4. Linguistic Formalism for Semi-Autonomous Reactor Operation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joo, Sungmoon; Seo, Sang Mun; Suh, Yong-Suk; Park, Cheol

    2017-01-01

    The ultimate goal of our work is to develop a novel, integrated system for semi-autonomous reactor operation by introducing an interfacing language shared by human reactor operators and artificially intelligent service agents (e.g., robots). We envision that human operators and artificially intelligent service agents operate the reactor cooperatively in the future. For example, an artificially intelligent service agent carries out a human reactor operator's command or reports the result of a task commanded by the human reactor operator. This work presents preliminary work towards a unified linguistic formalism for cooperative, semiautonomous reactor operation. Application of the proposed formalism to reactor operator communication domain shows that the formalism effectively captures the syntax and semantics of the domain-specific language defined by the communication protocol.

  5. Selective processing of linguistic and pictorial food stimuli in females with anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stormark, Kjell Morten; Torkildsen, Øivind

    2004-01-01

    This study investigated subjects with eating disorders' selective attention to linguistic and pictorial representations of food stimuli in a version of the Stroop color-naming task. If subjects with eating disorders' attention really are biased by food stimuli, one would expect equally delayed color-naming latencies to food pictures as previous studies have found to food words. Twenty females with eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or a combination of both) and 24 female controls identified the color of Stroop versions of linguistic and pictorial representations of color, food, emotional, and neutral stimuli. The eating disorder group was slower than the controls in identifying the color of all words (including the food words) and the pictures depicting food stimuli (but not any of the other pictures). The eating disorder group was also slower in identifying the color of both food and emotional than neutral stimuli, both for the linguistic and pictorial stimuli. These findings indicate that females with bulimia and anorexia nervosa's biased attention to food stimuli are not restricted to linguistic representations. The delayed responses to the emotional words and pictures suggest that processing of negative emotional stimuli, in addition to dysfunctional concerns about stimuli related to food and eating, is important in the maintenance of eating disorders.

  6. Planning and production of grammatical and lexical verbs in multi-word messages.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Violaine Michel Lange

    Full Text Available Grammatical words represent the part of grammar that can be most directly contrasted with the lexicon. Aphasiological studies, linguistic theories and psycholinguistic studies suggest that their processing is operated at different stages in speech production. Models of sentence production propose that at the formulation stage, lexical words are processed at the functional level while grammatical words are processed at a later positional level. In this study we consider proposals made by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models to derive two predictions for the processing of grammatical words compared to lexical words. First, based on the assumption that grammatical words are less crucial for communication and therefore paid less attention to, it is predicted that they show shorter articulation times and/or higher error rates than lexical words. Second, based on the assumption that grammatical words differ from lexical words in being dependent on a lexical host, it is hypothesized that the retrieval of a grammatical word has to be put on hold until its lexical host is available, and it is predicted that this is reflected in longer reaction times (RTs for grammatical compared to lexical words. We investigated these predictions by comparing fully homonymous sentences with only a difference in verb status (grammatical vs. lexical elicited by a specific context. We measured RTs, duration and accuracy rate. No difference in duration was observed. Longer RTs and a lower accuracy rate for grammatical words were reported, successfully reflecting grammatical word properties as defined by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models. Importantly, this study provides insight into the span of encoding and grammatical encoding processes in speech production.

  7. Planning and production of grammatical and lexical verbs in multi-word messages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messerschmidt, Maria; Harder, Peter; Siebner, Hartwig Roman; Boye, Kasper

    2017-01-01

    Grammatical words represent the part of grammar that can be most directly contrasted with the lexicon. Aphasiological studies, linguistic theories and psycholinguistic studies suggest that their processing is operated at different stages in speech production. Models of sentence production propose that at the formulation stage, lexical words are processed at the functional level while grammatical words are processed at a later positional level. In this study we consider proposals made by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models to derive two predictions for the processing of grammatical words compared to lexical words. First, based on the assumption that grammatical words are less crucial for communication and therefore paid less attention to, it is predicted that they show shorter articulation times and/or higher error rates than lexical words. Second, based on the assumption that grammatical words differ from lexical words in being dependent on a lexical host, it is hypothesized that the retrieval of a grammatical word has to be put on hold until its lexical host is available, and it is predicted that this is reflected in longer reaction times (RTs) for grammatical compared to lexical words. We investigated these predictions by comparing fully homonymous sentences with only a difference in verb status (grammatical vs. lexical) elicited by a specific context. We measured RTs, duration and accuracy rate. No difference in duration was observed. Longer RTs and a lower accuracy rate for grammatical words were reported, successfully reflecting grammatical word properties as defined by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models. Importantly, this study provides insight into the span of encoding and grammatical encoding processes in speech production. PMID:29091940

  8. Planning and production of grammatical and lexical verbs in multi-word messages.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michel Lange, Violaine; Messerschmidt, Maria; Harder, Peter; Siebner, Hartwig Roman; Boye, Kasper

    2017-01-01

    Grammatical words represent the part of grammar that can be most directly contrasted with the lexicon. Aphasiological studies, linguistic theories and psycholinguistic studies suggest that their processing is operated at different stages in speech production. Models of sentence production propose that at the formulation stage, lexical words are processed at the functional level while grammatical words are processed at a later positional level. In this study we consider proposals made by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models to derive two predictions for the processing of grammatical words compared to lexical words. First, based on the assumption that grammatical words are less crucial for communication and therefore paid less attention to, it is predicted that they show shorter articulation times and/or higher error rates than lexical words. Second, based on the assumption that grammatical words differ from lexical words in being dependent on a lexical host, it is hypothesized that the retrieval of a grammatical word has to be put on hold until its lexical host is available, and it is predicted that this is reflected in longer reaction times (RTs) for grammatical compared to lexical words. We investigated these predictions by comparing fully homonymous sentences with only a difference in verb status (grammatical vs. lexical) elicited by a specific context. We measured RTs, duration and accuracy rate. No difference in duration was observed. Longer RTs and a lower accuracy rate for grammatical words were reported, successfully reflecting grammatical word properties as defined by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models. Importantly, this study provides insight into the span of encoding and grammatical encoding processes in speech production.

  9. Education for All: Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gisela Emst-Slavit

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available In the last years the Theory of the Multiple Intelligences developed by Howard Gardner has had a tremendous impact in elementary and secondary classrooms in the United States. Gardner(1983 defines intelligence as the ability to solve a problem or fashion a product that is valued in one or more cultural settings. His definition expands our understanding of "intelligence" beyond the familiar linguistic and Logical-mathematical intelligences, to include the spatial, musical,bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist. interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences. This new wayof conceptualizing human intelligence has profound implications for educators whose task needs to include the identification and nourishment of the different talents brought by al students.

  10. Linguistic measures of chemical diversity and the "keywords" of molecular collections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woźniak, Michał; Wołos, Agnieszka; Modrzyk, Urszula; Górski, Rafał L; Winkowski, Jan; Bajczyk, Michał; Szymkuć, Sara; Grzybowski, Bartosz A; Eder, Maciej

    2018-05-15

    Computerized linguistic analyses have proven of immense value in comparing and searching through large text collections ("corpora"), including those deposited on the Internet - indeed, it would nowadays be hard to imagine browsing the Web without, for instance, search algorithms extracting most appropriate keywords from documents. This paper describes how such corpus-linguistic concepts can be extended to chemistry based on characteristic "chemical words" that span more than traditional functional groups and, instead, look at common structural fragments molecules share. Using these words, it is possible to quantify the diversity of chemical collections/databases in new ways and to define molecular "keywords" by which such collections are best characterized and annotated.

  11. Dissociating linguistic and non-linguistic gesture processing: electrophysiological evidence from American Sign Language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grosvald, Michael; Gutierrez, Eva; Hafer, Sarah; Corina, David

    2012-04-01

    A fundamental advance in our understanding of human language would come from a detailed account of how non-linguistic and linguistic manual actions are differentiated in real time by language users. To explore this issue, we targeted the N400, an ERP component known to be sensitive to semantic context. Deaf signers saw 120 American Sign Language sentences, each consisting of a "frame" (a sentence without the last word; e.g. BOY SLEEP IN HIS) followed by a "last item" belonging to one of four categories: a high-close-probability sign (a "semantically reasonable" completion to the sentence; e.g. BED), a low-close-probability sign (a real sign that is nonetheless a "semantically odd" completion to the sentence; e.g. LEMON), a pseudo-sign (phonologically legal but non-lexical form), or a non-linguistic grooming gesture (e.g. the performer scratching her face). We found significant N400-like responses in the incongruent and pseudo-sign contexts, while the gestures elicited a large positivity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Understanding Online Health Groups for Depression: Social Network and Linguistic Perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Ronghua; Zhang, Qingpeng

    2016-03-10

    Mental health problems have become increasingly prevalent in the past decade. With the advance of Web 2.0 technologies, social media present a novel platform for Web users to form online health groups. Members of online health groups discuss health-related issues and mutually help one another by anonymously revealing their mental conditions, sharing personal experiences, exchanging health information, and providing suggestions and support. The conversations in online health groups contain valuable information to facilitate the understanding of their mutual help behaviors and their mental health problems. We aimed to characterize the conversations in a major online health group for major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in a popular Chinese social media platform. In particular, we intended to explain how Web users discuss depression-related issues from the perspective of the social networks and linguistic patterns revealed by the members' conversations. Social network analysis and linguistic analysis were employed to characterize the social structure and linguistic patterns, respectively. Furthermore, we integrated both perspectives to exploit the hidden relations between them. We found an intensive use of self-focus words and negative affect words. In general, group members used a higher proportion of negative affect words than positive affect words. The social network of the MDD group for depression possessed small-world and scale-free properties, with a much higher reciprocity ratio and clustering coefficient value as compared to the networks of other social media platforms and classic network models. We observed a number of interesting relationships, either strong correlations or convergent trends, between the topological properties and linguistic properties of the MDD group members. (1) The MDD group members have the characteristics of self-preoccupation and negative thought content, according to Beck's cognitive theory of depression; (2) the social structure

  13. Mentalist vs Behaviorist : Chomsky`s Linguistic Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Solehah Yaacob

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The research emphasizes on the relationship between linguistics and logic according modern views and approaches. However, linguistic argumentation is needed for analyzing a language system that uses the meaning of expressions in a sentence to provide the complete meaning of the sentence, as there lies a dependence between expressions. In fact, the connection between expressions enhances the overall meaning from the fundamentals of the sentence structure in the logical relationship between ideas; where there lies a relation between words and thought, which is dependent on the logic of combined utterances. In order to signify the above concept of thinking, the researcher has reviewed the theory of the early system of Arabic grammar that focuses more on an analogical approach rather than anomaly. The analogical approach in the system is based on the underlying theory that implies the aforementioned relationship, even though some modern views may disagree on the interpretation of this issue. To add to the discussion, the researcher has included similar existing theories on Chomsky`s approaches, which have shown the logical approach as a result from the connection between linguistic argumentation and logic. As a result of this discussion, the connection between words and logic is shown to be a universal concept.

  14. Cognitive logical systems with artificial intelligence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liss, E

    1983-09-01

    The simulation of cognitive processes for the purpose of the technical development of learning systems with intelligent behavior is a basic object of the young interdisciplinary cognition science which is based upon artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, computer science, linguistics and pedagogics. Cognitive systems may be described as knowledge-based logical systems. Based on structural and functional principles of intelligent automata and elementary information processing systems with structural learning capability the future process, machine and robot controls, advising units and fifth generation computers may be developed.

  15. THE CONTRAST OF THE COMPOUND WORDS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND ALBANIAN LANGUAGE

    OpenAIRE

    Shkelqim Millaku

    2017-01-01

    In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word-formation that creates compound lexemes (the other word-formation process being derivation). Compounding or Word-compounding refers to the faculty and device of language to form new words by combining or putting together old words. In other words, compound, compounding or word-compounding occurs when a person attaches two or more words together to make th...

  16. WORDS AS “LEXICAL UNITS” IN LEARNING/TEACHING VOCABULARY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moisés Almela

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available One of the genuine contributions of theoretical linguistics to the interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics is to elucidate the nature of what should be taught and how it should be taught. Traditionally, the input supplied in vocabulary teaching has consisted either of word lists (most often or of words-in-context (more recently. In the first case, words are treated as self-contained receptacles of meaning, and in the second case, they are considered as nodes of semantic relationships. However, recent directions in corpus-driven lexicology are exploring the gulf between the concept of a “word” and that of a “semantic unit”. The main purpose of this paper is to update some implications of this discussion for one of the applied disciplines, namely FL/L2 vocabulary teaching and learning.

  17. Competition between multiple words for a referent in cross-situational word learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benitez, Viridiana L.; Yurovsky, Daniel; Smith, Linda B.

    2016-01-01

    Three experiments investigated competition between word-object pairings in a cross-situational word-learning paradigm. Adults were presented with One-Word pairings, where a single word labeled a single object, and Two-Word pairings, where two words labeled a single object. In addition to measuring learning of these two pairing types, we measured competition between words that refer to the same object. When the word-object co-occurrences were presented intermixed in training (Experiment 1), we found evidence for direct competition between words that label the same referent. Separating the two words for an object in time eliminated any evidence for this competition (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 demonstrated that adding a linguistic cue to the second label for a referent led to different competition effects between adults who self-reported different language learning histories, suggesting both distinctiveness and language learning history affect competition. Finally, in all experiments, competition effects were unrelated to participants’ explicit judgments of learning, suggesting that competition reflects the operating characteristics of implicit learning processes. Together, these results demonstrate that the role of competition between overlapping associations in statistical word-referent learning depends on time, the distinctiveness of word-object pairings, and language learning history. PMID:27087742

  18. Machine Learning from Garden Path Sentences: The Application of Computational Linguistics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiali Du

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the application of computational linguistics in the machine learning (ML system for the processing of garden path sentences. ML is closely related to artificial intelligence and linguistic cognition. The rapid and efficient processing of the complex structures is an effective method to test the system. By means of parsing the garden path sentence, we draw a conclusion that the integration of theoretical and statistical methods is helpful for the development of ML system.

  19. Media Komik Pada Pelajaran IPA Untuk Meningkatkan Multiple Intelligences Siswa SD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Margaretha Sri Yuliariatiningsih

    2016-07-01

    point grade. Comic also developed elementary school students’ multiple intelligences in the aspects of verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematic, visual-spatial, naturalist, and interpersonal. It is recommended that comic should be developed as teaching media especially in elementary school. Comis can be used as one alternative of learning medias that can motivate students to learn something as well as improving their reading hobby. Key Word: comic, motivation, learning science, achievement

  20. English words structure, history, usage

    CERN Document Server

    Katamba, Francis

    2015-01-01

    How do we find the right word for the job? Where does that word come from? Why do we spell it like that? And how do we know what it means? Words are all around us - we use them every day to communicate our joys, fears, hopes, opinions, wishes and demands - but we don't often think about them too deeply. In this highly accessible introduction to English words, the reader will discover what the study of words can tell them about the extraordinary richness and complexity of our daily vocabulary and about the nature of language in general. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the book covers a wide range of topics, including the structure of words, the meaning of words, how their spelling relates to pronunciation, how new words are manufactured or imported from other languages, and how the meaning of words changes with the passage of time. It also investigates how the mind deals with words by highlighting the amazing intellectual feat performed routinely when the right word is retrieved from the mental dic...

  1. Cascaded processing in written compound word production

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raymond eBertram

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available In this study we investigated the intricate interplay between central linguistic processing and peripheral motor processes during typewriting. Participants had to typewrite two-constituent (noun-noun Finnish compounds in response to picture presentation while their typing behavior was registered. As dependent measures we used writing onset time to assess what processes were completed before writing and inter-key intervals to assess what processes were going on during writing. It was found that writing onset time was determined by whole word frequency rather than constituent frequencies, indicating that compound words are retrieved as whole orthographic units before writing is initiated. In addition, we found that the length of the first syllable also affects writing onset time, indicating that the first syllable is fully prepared before writing commences. The inter-key interval results showed that linguistic planning is not fully ready before writing, but cascades into the motor execution phase. More specifically, inter-key intervals were largest at syllable and morpheme boundaries, supporting the view that additional linguistic planning takes place at these boundaries. Bigram and trigram frequency also affected inter-key intervals with shorter intervals corresponding to higher frequencies. This can be explained by stronger memory traces for frequently co-occurring letter sequences in the motor memory for typewriting. These frequency effects were even larger in the second than in the first constituent, indicating that low-level motor memory starts to become more important during the course of writing compound words. We discuss our results in the light of current models of morphological processing and written word production.

  2. Cascaded processing in written compound word production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bertram, Raymond; Tønnessen, Finn Egil; Strömqvist, Sven; Hyönä, Jukka; Niemi, Pekka

    2015-01-01

    In this study we investigated the intricate interplay between central linguistic processing and peripheral motor processes during typewriting. Participants had to typewrite two-constituent (noun-noun) Finnish compounds in response to picture presentation while their typing behavior was registered. As dependent measures we used writing onset time to assess what processes were completed before writing and inter-key intervals to assess what processes were going on during writing. It was found that writing onset time was determined by whole word frequency rather than constituent frequencies, indicating that compound words are retrieved as whole orthographic units before writing is initiated. In addition, we found that the length of the first syllable also affects writing onset time, indicating that the first syllable is fully prepared before writing commences. The inter-key interval results showed that linguistic planning is not fully ready before writing, but cascades into the motor execution phase. More specifically, inter-key intervals were largest at syllable and morpheme boundaries, supporting the view that additional linguistic planning takes place at these boundaries. Bigram and trigram frequency also affected inter-key intervals with shorter intervals corresponding to higher frequencies. This can be explained by stronger memory traces for frequently co-occurring letter sequences in the motor memory for typewriting. These frequency effects were even larger in the second than in the first constituent, indicating that low-level motor memory starts to become more important during the course of writing compound words. We discuss our results in the light of current models of morphological processing and written word production.

  3. Using Internet search engines to estimate word frequency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blair, Irene V; Urland, Geoffrey R; Ma, Jennifer E

    2002-05-01

    The present research investigated Internet search engines as a rapid, cost-effective alternative for estimating word frequencies. Frequency estimates for 382 words were obtained and compared across four methods: (1) Internet search engines, (2) the Kucera and Francis (1967) analysis of a traditional linguistic corpus, (3) the CELEX English linguistic database (Baayen, Piepenbrock, & Gulikers, 1995), and (4) participant ratings of familiarity. The results showed that Internet search engines produced frequency estimates that were highly consistent with those reported by Kucera and Francis and those calculated from CELEX, highly consistent across search engines, and very reliable over a 6-month period of time. Additional results suggested that Internet search engines are an excellent option when traditional word frequency analyses do not contain the necessary data (e.g., estimates for forenames and slang). In contrast, participants' familiarity judgments did not correspond well with the more objective estimates of word frequency. Researchers are advised to use search engines with large databases (e.g., AltaVista) to ensure the greatest representativeness of the frequency estimates.

  4. Translation Ambiguity but Not Word Class Predicts Translation Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prior, Anat; Kroll, Judith F.; Macwhinney, Brian

    2013-01-01

    We investigated the influence of word class and translation ambiguity on cross-linguistic representation and processing. Bilingual speakers of English and Spanish performed translation production and translation recognition tasks on nouns and verbs in both languages. Words either had a single translation or more than one translation. Translation…

  5. Influence of syllable structure on L2 auditory word learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamada, Megumi; Goya, Hideki

    2015-04-01

    This study investigated the role of syllable structure in L2 auditory word learning. Based on research on cross-linguistic variation of speech perception and lexical memory, it was hypothesized that Japanese L1 learners of English would learn English words with an open-syllable structure without consonant clusters better than words with a closed-syllable structure and consonant clusters. Two groups of college students (Japanese group, N = 22; and native speakers of English, N = 21) learned paired English pseudowords and pictures. The pseudoword types differed in terms of the syllable structure and consonant clusters (congruent vs. incongruent) and the position of consonant clusters (coda vs. onset). Recall accuracy was higher for the pseudowords in the congruent type and the pseudowords with the coda-consonant clusters. The syllable structure effect was obtained from both participant groups, disconfirming the hypothesized cross-linguistic influence on L2 auditory word learning.

  6. Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pagel, Mark; Atkinson, Quentin D; S Calude, Andreea; Meade, Andrew

    2013-05-21

    The search for ever deeper relationships among the World's languages is bedeviled by the fact that most words evolve too rapidly to preserve evidence of their ancestry beyond 5,000 to 9,000 y. On the other hand, quantitative modeling indicates that some "ultraconserved" words exist that might be used to find evidence for deep linguistic relationships beyond that time barrier. Here we use a statistical model, which takes into account the frequency with which words are used in common everyday speech, to predict the existence of a set of such highly conserved words among seven language families of Eurasia postulated to form a linguistic superfamily that evolved from a common ancestor around 15,000 y ago. We derive a dated phylogenetic tree of this proposed superfamily with a time-depth of ~14,450 y, implying that some frequently used words have been retained in related forms since the end of the last ice age. Words used more than once per 1,000 in everyday speech were 7- to 10-times more likely to show deep ancestry on this tree. Our results suggest a remarkable fidelity in the transmission of some words and give theoretical justification to the search for features of language that might be preserved across wide spans of time and geography.

  7. Linguistic adaptation between mothers and children in ASD

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fusaroli, Riccardo; Weed, Ethan; Fein, Deborah

    We investigate mother-child linguistic adaptation in 33 ASD and 33 matched TD children at two time-scales: conversational match and longitudinal development. We employ a longitudinal corpus (6 visits over 2 years) consisting of controlled playful activities between mothers and their children...... (Goodwin et al. 2012). We quantified amount (number of words and utterances) and complexity (lexical repertoire and utterance length) of linguistic behavior in both mother and child. We used mixed-effects growth curve models to quantify i)match within-conversation and ii)longitudinal impact between visits....... Child and mother are strongly correlated in their linguistic behaviors (R2 between .07 and .62, pMother-child pairs in the ASD group, however, show a shallower increase in match. Amount and complexity...

  8. Foreign language learning, hyperlexia, and early word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sparks, R L; Artzer, M

    2000-01-01

    Children with hyperlexia read words spontaneously before the age of five, have impaired comprehension on both listening and reading tasks, and have word recognition skill above expectations based on cognitive and linguistic abilities. One student with hyperlexia and another student with higher word recognition than comprehension skills who started to read words at a very early age were followed over several years from the primary grades through high school when both were completing a second-year Spanish course. The purpose of the present study was to examine the foreign language (FL) word recognition, spelling, reading comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening skills of the two students and another high school student without hyperlexia. Results showed that the student without hyperlexia achieved higher scores than the hyperlexic student and the student with above average word recognition skills on most FL proficiency measures. The student with hyperlexia and the student with above average word recognition skills achieved higher scores on the Spanish proficiency tasks that required the exclusive use of phonological (pronunciation) and phonological/orthographic (word recognition, spelling) skills than on Spanish proficiency tasks that required the use of listening comprehension and speaking and writing skills. The findings provide support for the notion that word recognition and spelling in a FL may be modular processes and exist independently of general cognitive and linguistic skills. Results also suggest that students may have stronger FL learning skills in one language component than in other components of language, and that there may be a weak relationship between FL word recognition and oral proficiency in the FL.

  9. Effects of Phonological Abilities and Linguistic Comprehension on the Development of Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jong, Peter F.; van der Leij, Aryan

    2002-01-01

    Examines specific effects of phonological abilities and linguistic comprehension on the development of word-decoding ability and reading comprehension, respectively, of 141 Dutch children from the end of first grade to the end of third grade. Finds that partly different determinants underlie the development of word-decoding ability and reading…

  10. The socially-weighted encoding of spoken words: A dual-route approach to speech perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meghan eSumner

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Spoken words are highly variable. A single word may never be uttered the same way twice. As listeners, we regularly encounter speakers of different ages, genders, and accents, increasing the amount of variation we face. How listeners understand spoken words as quickly and adeptly as they do despite this variation remains an issue central to linguistic theory. We propose that learned acoustic patterns are mapped simultaneously to linguistic representations and to social representations. In doing so, we illuminate a paradox that results in the literature from, we argue, the focus on representations and the peripheral treatment of word-level phonetic variation. We consider phonetic variation more fully and highlight a growing body of work that is problematic for current theory: Words with different pronunciation variants are recognized equally well in immediate processing tasks, while an atypical, infrequent, but socially-idealized form is remembered better in the long-term. We suggest that the perception of spoken words is socially-weighted, resulting in sparse, but high-resolution clusters of socially-idealized episodes that are robust in immediate processing and are more strongly encoded, predicting memory inequality. Our proposal includes a dual-route approach to speech perception in which listeners map acoustic patterns in speech to linguistic and social representations in tandem. This approach makes novel predictions about the extraction of information from the speech signal, and provides a framework with which we can ask new questions. We propose that language comprehension, broadly, results from the integration of both linguistic and social information.

  11. The socially weighted encoding of spoken words: a dual-route approach to speech perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumner, Meghan; Kim, Seung Kyung; King, Ed; McGowan, Kevin B

    2013-01-01

    Spoken words are highly variable. A single word may never be uttered the same way twice. As listeners, we regularly encounter speakers of different ages, genders, and accents, increasing the amount of variation we face. How listeners understand spoken words as quickly and adeptly as they do despite this variation remains an issue central to linguistic theory. We propose that learned acoustic patterns are mapped simultaneously to linguistic representations and to social representations. In doing so, we illuminate a paradox that results in the literature from, we argue, the focus on representations and the peripheral treatment of word-level phonetic variation. We consider phonetic variation more fully and highlight a growing body of work that is problematic for current theory: words with different pronunciation variants are recognized equally well in immediate processing tasks, while an atypical, infrequent, but socially idealized form is remembered better in the long-term. We suggest that the perception of spoken words is socially weighted, resulting in sparse, but high-resolution clusters of socially idealized episodes that are robust in immediate processing and are more strongly encoded, predicting memory inequality. Our proposal includes a dual-route approach to speech perception in which listeners map acoustic patterns in speech to linguistic and social representations in tandem. This approach makes novel predictions about the extraction of information from the speech signal, and provides a framework with which we can ask new questions. We propose that language comprehension, broadly, results from the integration of both linguistic and social information.

  12. Ideological changes identified in and through Linguistic expressions: what should stand for Korea in Chinese, chaoxian1 or Hanguo ? Ideological changes identified in and through Linguistic expressions: what should stand for Korea in Chinese, chaoxian1 or Hanguo ?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanley Zhongwei Song

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an attempt to explain changes of China’s dominant ideology, the socialist ideology identified in and through linguistic expressions. By analysing from a historical perspective the meanings potential of the word Korea with its correlated expressions in Chinese, it highlights how deeply the way of referring to two Koreas has been influenced under the traditional ideology of the Chinese society, manipulated by the communist ideology in socialist China and challenged by less powerful yet emerging ideologies in market-oriented China. With the major linguistic references in Chinese to two political entities in the Korean peninsula, North and South Korea, the paper studies the relationship between ideological changes in modern Chinese society and linguistic expressions that, as part of the system of language, reflect ideological investments in and political implications of the changes. Added with a translation-related case study with a focus of emphasis on the word Korea, it concludes that with a flourishing of cultural pluralism in China, usually a forerunner of political pluralism, less dominant ideologies do compete with the official ideology in various ways and forms, and the competition can be traced and identified in and through linguistic expressions. In other words, given the political and economic dynamics of China in the past half century, change of linguistic expressions may indicate, in one way or another, the wax and wane of the Chinese dominant socialist ideology in a dialectical sense. This paper presents an attempt to explain changes of China’s dominant ideology, the socialist ideology identified in and through linguistic expressions. By analysing from a historical perspective the meanings potential of the word Korea with its correlated expressions in Chinese, it highlights how deeply the way of referring to two Koreas has been influenced under the traditional ideology of the Chinese society, manipulated by

  13. Modern data-driven decision support systems: the role of computing with words and computational linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kacprzyk, Janusz; Zadrożny, Sławomir

    2010-05-01

    We present how the conceptually and numerically simple concept of a fuzzy linguistic database summary can be a very powerful tool for gaining much insight into the very essence of data. The use of linguistic summaries provides tools for the verbalisation of data analysis (mining) results which, in addition to the more commonly used visualisation, e.g. via a graphical user interface, can contribute to an increased human consistency and ease of use, notably for supporting decision makers via the data-driven decision support system paradigm. Two new relevant aspects of the analysis are also outlined which were first initiated by the authors. First, following Kacprzyk and Zadrożny, it is further considered how linguistic data summarisation is closely related to some types of solutions used in natural language generation (NLG). This can make it possible to use more and more effective and efficient tools and techniques developed in NLG. Second, similar remarks are given on relations to systemic functional linguistics. Moreover, following Kacprzyk and Zadrożny, comments are given on an extremely relevant aspect of scalability of linguistic summarisation of data, using a new concept of a conceptual scalability.

  14. Remembering rejection: specificity and linguistic styles of autobiographical memories in borderline personality disorder and depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenbach, Charlotte; Renneberg, Babette

    2015-03-01

    High levels of rejection sensitivity are assumed to be the result of early and prolonged experiences of rejection. Aim of this study was to investigate autobiographical memories of rejection in clinical samples high in rejection sensitivity (Borderline Personality Disorder, BPD, and Major Depressive Disorder, MDD) and to identify group differences in the quality of the memories. Memories of rejection were retrieved using an adapted version of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; five positive cue words, five cue words referring to rejection). Specificity of memories and linguistic word usage was analyzed in 30 patients with BPD, 27 patients with MDD and 30 healthy controls. Patients with BPD retrieved less specific memories compared to the healthy control group, whereas patients with MDD did not differ from controls in this regard. The group difference was no longer significant when controlling for rejection sensitivity. Linguistic analysis indicated that compared to both other groups, patients with BPD showed a higher self-focus, used more anger-related words, referred more frequently to social environments, and rated memories of rejection as more relevant for today's life. Clinical symptoms were not assessed in the control group. Moreover, the written form of the AMT might reduce the total number of specific memories. The level of rejection sensitivity influenced the specificity of the retrieved memories. Analysis of linguistic styles revealed specific linguistic patterns in BPD compared to non-clinical as well as depressed participants. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. A critique of artificial intelligence | Airoboman | Sophia: An African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... for mental attribution to further buttress the distinction between man and automata. Key Words: Cybernetics, Artificial intelligence, automata, virtual reality, consciousness, mind, the criterion of the mental. Key Words: Cybernetics, Artificial intelligence, automata, virtual reality, consciousness, mind, the criterion of the mental ...

  16. Linguistic resources and strategies used in multilingual ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    infrastructure, larger patients base and more staff than its counterpart, (HC-2), which is smaller and has a smaller patient and ... staff members, particularly doctors, have a variety of linguistic repertoires and cultural .... consultation. Some can use odd words that they have picked up, others felt that they could follow the gist of.

  17. Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Syllable Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehta, Sheena; Ding, Yi; Ness, Molly; Chen, Eric C

    2018-06-01

    The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental levels can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students, of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the importance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor readers struggled with spelling words with double consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two- and three-syllable words than typical readers. Practical implications for early identification and instruction are discussed.

  18. Effects of orthographic consistency on eye movement behavior: German and English children and adults process the same words differently.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rau, Anne K; Moll, Kristina; Snowling, Margaret J; Landerl, Karin

    2015-02-01

    The current study investigated the time course of cross-linguistic differences in word recognition. We recorded eye movements of German and English children and adults while reading closely matched sentences, each including a target word manipulated for length and frequency. Results showed differential word recognition processes for both developing and skilled readers. Children of the two orthographies did not differ in terms of total word processing time, but this equal outcome was achieved quite differently. Whereas German children relied on small-unit processing early in word recognition, English children applied small-unit decoding only upon rereading-possibly when experiencing difficulties in integrating an unfamiliar word into the sentence context. Rather unexpectedly, cross-linguistic differences were also found in adults in that English adults showed longer processing times than German adults for nonwords. Thus, although orthographic consistency does play a major role in reading development, cross-linguistic differences are detectable even in skilled adult readers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Scale-invariant transition probabilities in free word association trajectories

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin Elias Costa

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Free-word association has been used as a vehicle to understand the organization of human thoughts. The original studies relied mainly on qualitative assertions, yielding the widely intuitive notion that trajectories of word associations are structured, yet considerably more random than organized linguistic text. Here we set to determine a precise characterization of this space, generating a large number of word association trajectories in a web implemented game. We embedded the trajectories in the graph of word co-occurrences from a linguistic corpus. To constrain possible transport models we measured the memory loss and the cycling probability. These two measures could not be reconciled by a bounded diffusive model since the cycling probability was very high (16 % of order-2 cycles implying a majority of short-range associations whereas the memory loss was very rapid (converging to the asymptotic value in ∼ 7 steps which, in turn, forced a high fraction of long-range associations. We show that memory loss and cycling probabilities of free word association trajectories can be simultaneously accounted by a model in which transitions are determined by a scale invariant probability distribution.

  20. The Effect of Background Noise on the Word Activation Process in Nonnative Spoken-Word Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scharenborg, Odette; Coumans, Juul M. J.; van Hout, Roeland

    2018-01-01

    This article investigates 2 questions: (1) does the presence of background noise lead to a differential increase in the number of simultaneously activated candidate words in native and nonnative listening? And (2) do individual differences in listeners' cognitive and linguistic abilities explain the differential effect of background noise on…

  1. Words and possible words in early language acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marchetto, Erika; Bonatti, Luca L

    2013-11-01

    In order to acquire language, infants must extract its building blocks-words-and master the rules governing their legal combinations from speech. These two problems are not independent, however: words also have internal structure. Thus, infants must extract two kinds of information from the same speech input. They must find the actual words of their language. Furthermore, they must identify its possible words, that is, the sequences of sounds that, being morphologically well formed, could be words. Here, we show that infants' sensitivity to possible words appears to be more primitive and fundamental than their ability to find actual words. We expose 12- and 18-month-old infants to an artificial language containing a conflict between statistically coherent and structurally coherent items. We show that 18-month-olds can extract possible words when the familiarization stream contains marks of segmentation, but cannot do so when the stream is continuous. Yet, they can find actual words from a continuous stream by computing statistical relationships among syllables. By contrast, 12-month-olds can find possible words when familiarized with a segmented stream, but seem unable to extract statistically coherent items from a continuous stream that contains minimal conflicts between statistical and structural information. These results suggest that sensitivity to word structure is in place earlier than the ability to analyze distributional information. The ability to compute nontrivial statistical relationships becomes fully effective relatively late in development, when infants have already acquired a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge. Thus, mechanisms for structure extraction that do not rely on extensive sampling of the input are likely to have a much larger role in language acquisition than general-purpose statistical abilities. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  2. Do Age and Sex of School Students Make Significant Difference in Their Multiple Intelligences?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ravi, R.; Vedapriya, S. Gethsi

    2009-01-01

    Multiple Intelligences are a new educational theory proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983. Multiple intelligences describe an array of different kinds of intelligences exhibited by human beings. This theory consists of verbal-linguistic, logical and mathematics, visual and spatial, bodily kinesthetic, musical-rhythmic, intrapersonal, interpersonal,…

  3. TEORI MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES DAN IMPLIKASINYA TERHADAP PENGELOLAAN PEMBELAJARAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir Hamzah

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available The article clarifies Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory. He states that the theory serves nine kinds of intelligences---linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodilykinestheticc, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential. The theory claims that infants have different intelligences, moreover it influences learning orientation. It enables students to comprehend the subjects more easily, if the subjects are presented based on the students’ potencies. Yet, it is important for the teachers to understand the theory to accelerate the learning process and output.

  4. Categorizing words through semantic memory navigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borge-Holthoefer, J.; Arenas, A.

    2010-03-01

    Semantic memory is the cognitive system devoted to storage and retrieval of conceptual knowledge. Empirical data indicate that semantic memory is organized in a network structure. Everyday experience shows that word search and retrieval processes provide fluent and coherent speech, i.e. are efficient. This implies either that semantic memory encodes, besides thousands of words, different kind of links for different relationships (introducing greater complexity and storage costs), or that the structure evolves facilitating the differentiation between long-lasting semantic relations from incidental, phenomenological ones. Assuming the latter possibility, we explore a mechanism to disentangle the underlying semantic backbone which comprises conceptual structure (extraction of categorical relations between pairs of words), from the rest of information present in the structure. To this end, we first present and characterize an empirical data set modeled as a network, then we simulate a stochastic cognitive navigation on this topology. We schematize this latter process as uncorrelated random walks from node to node, which converge to a feature vectors network. By doing so we both introduce a novel mechanism for information retrieval, and point at the problem of category formation in close connection to linguistic and non-linguistic experience.

  5. An Exploratory Study on Multiple Intelligences and Social Work Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matto, Holly; Berry-Edwards, Janice; Hutchison, Elizabeth D.; Bryant, Shirley A.; Waldbillig, Amy

    2006-01-01

    This study surveyed social work educators about the importance of multiple intelligences for social work practice and social work education. The sample consisted of 91 faculty members who responded to an online survey that asked them to rate the importance of 7 intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial,…

  6. Geography literation to improve spatial intelligence of high school student

    Science.gov (United States)

    Utami, WS; Zain, IM

    2018-01-01

    Spatial intelligence is deeply related to success in the STEM disciplines (science,technology, engineering, and math). spatial intelligence as a transversal capacity which is useful for everyday life but which cannot be characterized in any specific and distinctive way, as are, for example, linguistic or mathematical ability. The ability of geographical literacy relates to spatial intelligence. test results prove that the ability of high-liter geography of high school students found in students who have a good spatial intelligence score

  7. Overview of a Linguistic Theory of Design. AI Memo 383A.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Mark L.; Goldstein, Ira P.

    The SPADE theory, which uses linguistic formalisms to model the planning and debugging processes of computer programming, was simultaneously developed and tested in three separate contexts--computer uses in education, automatic programming (a traditional artificial intelligence arena), and protocol analysis (the domain of information processing…

  8. Development of the Korean Adult Reading Test (KART to estimate premorbid intelligence in dementia patients.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dahyun Yi

    Full Text Available We aimed to develop a word-reading test for Korean-speaking adults using irregularly pronounced words that would be useful for estimation of premorbid intelligence. A linguist who specialized in Korean phonology selected 94 words that have irregular relationship between orthography and phonology. Sixty cognitively normal elderly (CN and 31 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD were asked to read out loud the words and were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, 4th edition, Korean version (K-WAIS-IV. Among the 94 words, 50 words that did not show a significant difference between the CN and the AD group were selected and constituted the KART. Using the 30 CN calculation group (CNc, a linear regression equation was obtained in which the observed full-scale IQ (FSIQ was regressed on the reading errors of the KART, where education was included as an additional variable. When the regressed equation computed from the CNc was applied to 30 CN individuals of the validation group (CNv, the predicted FSIQ adequately fit the observed FSIQ (R2 = 0.63. In addition, independent sample t-test showed that the KART-predicted IQs were not significantly different between the CNv and AD groups, whereas the performance of the AD group was significantly worse in the observed IQs. In addition, an extended validation of the KART was performed with a separate sample consisted of 84 CN, 56 elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, and 43 AD patients who were administered comprehensive neuropsychological assessments in addition to the KART. When the equation obtained from the CNc was applied to the extended validation sample, the KART-predicted IQs of the AD, MCI and the CN groups did not significantly differ, whereas their current global cognition scores significantly differed between the groups. In conclusion, the results support the validity of KART-predicted IQ as an index of premorbid IQ in individuals with AD.

  9. Linguistic Extensions of Topic Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-01

    Movie Legally Multiplex Heralded As Linchpin To Growth The Shape of Cinema , Transformed At the Click of a Mouse A Peaceful Crew Puts Muppets...Linguistic Representation of Multiple Languages The formalism of WordNet has been applied to many languages from different language families, e.g. Japanese ...could be also share information gleaned from 100 reviews on Amazon.com’s Japanese and German language sites. 6.2.3 Learning Deeper Structures and Testing

  10. Young Children Follow Pointing over Words in Interpreting Acts of Reference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grassmann, Susanne; Tomasello, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Adults refer young children's attention to things in two basic ways: through the use of pointing (and other deictic gestures) and words (and other linguistic conventions). In the current studies, we referred young children (2- and 4-year-olds) to things in conflicting ways, that is, by pointing to one object while indicating linguistically (in…

  11. On national flags and language tags: Effects of flag-language congruency in bilingual word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grainger, Jonathan; Declerck, Mathieu; Marzouki, Yousri

    2017-07-01

    French-English bilinguals performed a generalized lexical decision experiment with mixed lists of French and English words and pseudo-words. In Experiment 1, each word/pseudo-word was superimposed on the picture of the French or UK flag, and flag-word congruency was manipulated. The flag was not informative with respect to either the lexical decision response or the language of the word. Nevertheless, lexical decisions to word stimuli were faster following the congruent flag compared with the incongruent flag, but only for French (L1) words. Experiment 2 replicated this flag-language congruency effect in a priming paradigm, where the word and pseudo-word targets followed the brief presentation of the flag prime, and this time effects were seen in both languages. We take these findings as evidence for a mechanism that automatically processes linguistic and non-linguistic information concerning the presence or not of a given language. Language membership information can then modulate lexical processing, in line with the architecture of the BIA model, but not the BIA+ model. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. A generic method for the evaluation of interval type-2 fuzzy linguistic summaries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boran, Fatih Emre; Akay, Diyar

    2014-09-01

    Linguistic summarization has turned out to be an important knowledge discovery technique by providing the most relevant natural language-based sentences in a human consistent manner. While many studies on linguistic summarization have handled ordinary fuzzy sets [type-1 fuzzy set (T1FS)] for modeling words, only few of them have dealt with interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FS) even though IT2FS is better capable of handling uncertainties associated with words. Furthermore, the existent studies work with the scalar cardinality based degree of truth which might lead to inconsistency in the evaluation of interval type-2 fuzzy (IT2F) linguistic summaries. In this paper, to overcome this shortcoming, we propose a novel probabilistic degree of truth for evaluating IT2F linguistic summaries in the forms of type-I and type-II quantified sentences. We also extend the properties that should be fulfilled by any degree of truth on linguistic summarization with T1FS to IT2F environment. We not only prove that our probabilistic degree of truth satisfies the given properties, but also illustrate by examples that it provides more consistent results when compared to the existing degree of truth in the literature. Furthermore, we carry out an application on linguistic summarization of time series data of Europe Brent Spot Price, along with a comparison of the results achieved with our approach and that of the existing degree of truth in the literature.

  13. Attention demands of spoken word planning: A review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ardi eRoelofs

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Attention and language are among the most intensively researched abilities in the cognitive neurosciences, but the relation between these abilities has largely been neglected. There is increasing evidence, however, that linguistic processes, such as those underlying the planning of words, cannot proceed without paying some form of attention. Here, we review evidence that word planning requires some but not full attention. The evidence comes from chronometric studies of word planning in picture naming and word reading under divided attention conditions. It is generally assumed that the central attention demands of a process are indexed by the extent that the process delays the performance of a concurrent unrelated task. The studies measured the speed and accuracy of linguistic and nonlinguistic responding as well as eye gaze durations reflecting the allocation of attention. First, empirical evidence indicates that in several task situations, processes up to and including phonological encoding in word planning delay, or are delayed by, the performance of concurrent unrelated nonlinguistic tasks. These findings suggest that word planning requires central attention. Second, empirical evidence indicates that conflicts in word planning may be resolved while concurrently performing an unrelated nonlinguistic task, making a task decision, or making a go/no-go decision. These findings suggest that word planning does not require full central attention. We outline a computationally implemented theory of attention and word planning, and describe at various points the outcomes of computer simulations that demonstrate the utility of the theory in accounting for the key findings. Finally, we indicate how attention deficits may contribute to impaired language performance, such as in individuals with specific language impairment.

  14. An ordinal approach to computing with words and the preference-aversion model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Franco de los Rios, Camilo Andres; Rodríguez, J. Tinguaro; Montero, Javier

    2014-01-01

    Computing with words (CWW) explores the brain’s ability to handle and evaluate perceptions through language, i.e., by means of the linguistic representation of information and knowledge. On the other hand, standard preference structures examine decision problems through the decomposition of the p......Computing with words (CWW) explores the brain’s ability to handle and evaluate perceptions through language, i.e., by means of the linguistic representation of information and knowledge. On the other hand, standard preference structures examine decision problems through the decomposition...... of the preference predicate into the simpler situations of strict preference, indifference and incomparability. Hence, following the distinctive cognitive/neurological features for perceiving positive and negative stimuli in separate regions of the brain, we consider two separate and opposite poles of preference...... and aversion, and obtain an extended preference structure named the Preference–aversion (P–A) structure. In this way, examining the meaning of words under an ordinal scale and using CWW’s methodology, we are able to formulate the P–A model under a simple and purely linguistic approach to decision making...

  15. WORD ORIGIN HELPS EXPAND LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY TEACHING APPROACH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jing

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Word origin (motivation deals with the connection between name and sense, explaining how a word originated. With the knowledge of how words are originated, learners can grasp a word easier and thus expand their vocabulary more quickly. The introduction to word origin (motivation by teachers can also help the learners gain interest in the process of learning and learn more about the cultural and historical background of the English-speaking countries. This paper tries to clarify this method of teaching from four aspects: onomatopoeia, word formation, cultural and historical background and cognitive linguistics.

  16. Speeded Verbal Responding in Adults Who Stutter: Are There Deficits in Linguistic Encoding?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hennessey, Neville W.; Nang, Charn Y.; Beilby, Janet M.

    2008-01-01

    Linguistic encoding deficits in people who stutter (PWS, n = 18) were investigated using auditory priming during picture naming and word vs. non-word comparisons during choice and simple verbal reaction time (RT) tasks. During picture naming, PWS did not differ significantly from normally fluent speakers (n = 18) in the magnitude of inhibition of…

  17. Compound words prompt arbitrary semantic associations in conceptual memory

    OpenAIRE

    Boutonnet, Bastien; McClain, Rhonda; Thierry, Guillaume

    2014-01-01

    Linguistic relativity theory has received empirical support in domains such as colour perception and object categorisation. It is unknown however, whether relations between words idiosyncratic to language impact nonverbal representations and conceptualisations. For instance, would one consider the concepts of horse and sea as related were it not for the existence of the compound seahorse? Here, we investigated such arbitrary conceptual relationships using a non-linguistic picture relatedness ...

  18. Linguistic embodiment and verbal constraints: human cognition and the scales of time

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cowley, Stephen

    2014-01-01

    Using radical embodied cognitive science, the paper offers the hypothesis that language is symbiotic: its agent-environment dynamics arise as linguistic embodiment is managed under verbal constraints. As a result, co-action grants human agents the ability to use a unique form of phenomenal......, linguistic symbiosis grants access to diachronic resources. On this distributed-ecological view, language can thus be redefined as: “activity in which wordings play a part.”...

  19. A 38 million words Dutch text corpus and its users | Kruyt | Lexikos

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In August 1996, the 38 Million Words Corpus was available for consultation by the international research community. The present paper reports on the characteristics of this corpus (design, text classification, linguistic annotation) and on its use, both in dictionary projects and in linguistic research. In spite of limitations with ...

  20. Discourse Bootstrapping: Preschoolers Use Linguistic Discourse to Learn New Words

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Jessica; Barner, David

    2016-01-01

    When children acquire language, they often learn words in the absence of direct instruction (e.g. "This is a ball!") or even social cues to reference (e.g. eye gaze, pointing). However, there are few accounts of how children do this, especially in cases where the referent of a new word is ambiguous. Across two experiments, we test…

  1. The Eastern Origin of English Words

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ömer Şekerci

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Etymology is a branch of linguistics describing the origin of words, their changeand development. To-day the far reaching advances in linguistics and in ELT and EFLoblige us, teachers of English to know well not only the language itself but about thelanguage as well. So are they for the English vocabulary. This paper explains thereasons for the percentage of borrowings in the English language. Explanations for thisshould be sought in the eventful history of England. If to summarize the origin of theEnglish vocabulary, it can be roughly called Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Scandinavian andFrench. However, the borrowings are not confined only to these languages. There areborrowings from Arabic, Turkish, Indian and many others. Some of the borrowingshave been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English language, while otherslook and sound as loan words. The English language can be regarded as the mosthospitable language in the world.

  2. A fuzzy linguistic interface for data bases in nuclear safety problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lyapin, B.; Ryjov, A.; Moscow Univ.

    1994-01-01

    This work describes the idea of a fuzzy linguistic interface for large-scale data bases, allowing to effectively handle a large amount of information. This effect is reached by providing an opportunity to search information on the basis of generalised concepts, or in other words, linguistic descriptions. These concepts are formulated by the user in natural language, and modelled by fuzzy sets, defined on the universe of the significances of the characteristics of the data base objects

  3. Planning and production of grammatical and lexical verbs in multi-word messages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lange, Violaine Michel; Messerschmidt, Maria; Harder, Peter

    2017-01-01

    to lexical words. First, based on the assumption that grammatical words are less crucial for communication and therefore paid less attention to, it is predicted that they show shorter articulation times and/or higher error rates than lexical words. Second, based on the assumption that grammatical words...... were reported, successfully reflecting grammatical word properties as defined by linguistic theories and psycholinguistic models. Importantly, this study provides insight into the span of encoding and grammatical encoding processes in speech production....

  4. Investigating the Association between Turkish Freshman's Multiple Intelligence Profiles and University Entrance Exam Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atas, Sait; Erisen, Yavuz

    2016-01-01

    Even though curriculum designers in Turkey considered Gardner's multiple intelligence theory as one of the most important theories during the curricula reform in 2005, the university entrance examination system is still on the basis of the two intelligence areas only, mathematical-logical and linguistics intelligence. The aim of this study was to…

  5. Linguistic Features of Humor in Academic Writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen Skalicky

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available A corpus of 313 freshman college essays was analyzed in order to better understand the forms and functions of humor in academic writing. Human ratings of humor and wordplay were statistically aggregated using Factor Analysis to provide an overall Humor component score for each essay in the corpus. In addition, the essays were also scored for overall writing quality by human raters, which correlated (r = .195 with the humor component score. Correlations between the humor component scores and linguistic features were examined. To investigate the potential for linguistic features to predict the Humor component scores, regression analysis identified four linguistic indices that accounted for approximately 17.5% of the variance in humor scores. These indices were related to text descriptiveness (i.e., more adjective and adverb use, lower cohesion (i.e., less paragraph-to-paragraph similarity, and lexical sophistication (lower word frequency. The findings suggest that humor can be partially predicted by linguistic features in the text. Furthermore, there was a small but significant correlation between the humor and essay quality scores, suggesting a positive relation between humor and writing quality. Keywords: humor, academic writing, text analysis, essay score, human rating

  6. Quantitative Social Dialectology : Explaining Linguistic Variation Geographically and Socially

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wieling, Martijn; Nerbonne, John; Baayen, R. Harald

    2011-01-01

    In this study we examine linguistic variation and its dependence on both social and geographic factors. We follow dialectometry in applying a quantitative methodology and focusing on dialect distances, and social dialectology in the choice of factors we examine in building a model to predict word

  7. Linguistic Characteristics of Individuals with High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seung, Hye Kyeung

    2007-01-01

    This study examined the linguistic characteristics of high functioning individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome. Each group consisted of 10 participants who were matched on sex, chronological age, and intelligence scores. Participants generated a narrative after watching a brief video segment of the Social Attribution Task video. Each…

  8. Curriculum-Based Language Assessment With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in the Context of Mathematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newkirk-Turner, Brandi L; Johnson, Valerie E

    2018-04-05

    The purpose of this tutorial is to discuss the use of curriculum-based language assessment (CBLA) with students who are English language learners and students who speak nonmainstream varieties of English, such as African American English. The article begins with a discussion of the discourse of mathematics and the role of the speech-language pathologist (SLP), followed by a review of studies that includes those that examined the performance of English language learner and nonmainstream dialect-speaking students on word-based math items. The literature review highlights the linguistic and content biases associated with word-based math problems. Useful strategies that SLPs and educators can incorporate in culturally and linguistically appropriate assessments are discussed. The tutorial ends with a discussion of CBLA as a viable assessment approach to use with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Tests used at national, state, and school levels to assess students' math abilities have associated linguistic bias and content bias often leading to an inaccurate depiction of culturally and linguistically diverse students' math skills. CBLA as an assessment method can be used by school-based SLPs to gather valid and useful information about culturally and linguistically diverse students' language for learning math. By using CBLA, SLPs can help modify curricular tasks in broader contexts in an effort to make math, including high-level math, "accessible and achievable for all" students (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2017).

  9. Data modelling in corpus linguistics: how low may we go?

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Velzen, Marjolein H; Nanetti, Luca; de Deyn, Peter P

    2014-06-01

    Corpus linguistics allows researchers to process millions of words. However, the more words we analyse, i.e., the more data we acquire, the more urgent the call for correct data interpretation becomes. In recent years, a number of studies saw the light attempting to profile some prolific authors' linguistic decline, linking this decline to pathological conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). However, in line with the nature of the (literary) work that was analysed, numbers alone do not suffice to 'tell the story'. The one and only objective of using statistical methods for the analysis of research data is to tell a story--what happened, when, and how. In the present study we describe a computerised but individualised approach to linguistic analysis--we propose a unifying approach, with firm grounds in Information Theory, that, independently from the specific parameter being investigated, guarantees to produce a robust model of the temporal dynamics of an author's linguistic richness over his or her lifetime. We applied this methodology to six renowned authors with an active writing life of four decades or more: Iris Murdoch, Gerard Reve, Hugo Claus, Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and Harry Mulisch. The first three were diagnosed with probable Alzheimer Disease, confirmed post-mortem for Iris Murdoch; this same condition was hypothesized for Agatha Christie. Our analysis reveals different evolutive patterns of lexical richness, in turn plausibly correlated with the authors' different conditions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Linguistic embodiment and verbal constraints: human cognition and the scales of time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cowley, Stephen J.

    2014-01-01

    Using radical embodied cognitive science, the paper offers the hypothesis that language is symbiotic: its agent-environment dynamics arise as linguistic embodiment is managed under verbal constraints. As a result, co-action grants human agents the ability to use a unique form of phenomenal experience. In defense of the hypothesis, I stress how linguistic embodiment enacts thinking: accordingly, I present auditory and acoustic evidence from 750 ms of mother-daughter talk, first, in fine detail and, then, in narrative mode. As the parties attune, they use a dynamic field to co-embody speech with experience of wordings. The latter arise in making and tracking phonetic gestures that, crucially, mesh use of artifice, cultural products and impersonal experience. As observers, living human beings gain dispositions to display and use social subjectivity. Far from using brains to “process” verbal content, linguistic symbiosis grants access to diachronic resources. On this distributed-ecological view, language can thus be redefined as: “activity in which wordings play a part.” PMID:25324799

  11. Word-Level Stress Patterns in the Academic Word List

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, John; Kandil, Magdi

    2004-01-01

    This paper addresses teachers and researchers of English as a second or foreign language who are interested in speech intelligibility training and/or vocabulary acquisition. The study reports a stress-pattern analysis of the Academic Word List (AWL) as made available by Coxhead [TESOL Quarterly 34 (2000) 213]. To examine the AWL in a new way, we…

  12. The relationship between Test Takers’ Multiple Intelligences and Their Performance on the Reading Sections of TOEFL and IELTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Minoo Alemi

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available The present study aimed at investigating the hypothetical relationship between the multiple intelligences of test takers and their performance on the reading sections of TOEFL and IELTS. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences suggests that intelligence is not a single and solely inborn capacity, rather a multiple construct which is only partly genetic, and can be crystallized or paralyzed over one’s lifetime. Based on the theory, there are eight types of intelligence: linguistic, mathematical, musical, bodily, spatial, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalist, but the list is not exhaustive. The multiple intelligences of test takers were estimated by means of MIDAS, the Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales, developed by Shearer (1994. Subsequently, the bias detection for the reading section of TOEFL was carried out on 90 participants, and this subtest was found to correlate positively with linguistic and logical intelligences. By the same token, 89 out of the 163 participants in the study were included in the analysis of the relationship between the multiple intelligences of test takers and their performance on the reading section of IELTS, and this test proved biased toward linguistic and spatial intelligences. The implications concern the inadequacy of the definition of language proficiency .Moreover, Measurement-Driven Instruction courses and preparatory materials of the two proficiency tests, TOEFL and IELTS, can benefit from the results of the study by being designed in such a way as to represent the intelligences which are positively correlated with performance on the tests in question.

  13. The linguistic aspect of strategic framing in modern political campaigns

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agnieszka Pluwak

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The linguistic aspect of strategic framing in modern political campaigns The following article describes the role of semantics in political marketing, emphasizing the mechanism of framing and perspectivising in discourse. The complexity of the framing process is discussed in the introduction, then the linguistic aspect of political framing is debated and the technique of wording formulation in political discourse analyzed. Finally, implications and conclusions for further research are presented. Examples of political framing provided within the paper are based on the analysis of contemporary public discourses.

  14. Formation of new linguistic competences in education space: naming examination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Remchukova Elena

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The naming examination is a new kind of linguistic examination. The article deals with linguistic aspects of teaching this course in higher school for the special training of experts. In order to form professional competence on naming examination in the process of teaching special attention is paid to studies of theory of nomination and onomastics, to examination of language units from the point of view of component analysis, semantic-stylistic analysis and others, as well as the formation of the skills of work with different lexicographic sources and digital resources and database. In the laboratory course “Applied and mathematical linguistics,” the skills of lexico-semantic, morphological, etymological, morphemic, word-formation, phonetic analysis of concrete names are practiced. We focus on the studies of artificial naming patterns, including advertising names, which bring out the creative potential of the Russian language. Creative trends dominate in this area of nomination. Naming examination as a new kind of forensic linguistic examination is taught within the course ”Forensic linguistic examination” which accomplishes technical education of students

  15. Intelligibility of clear speech: effect of instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lam, Jennifer; Tjaden, Kris

    2013-10-01

    The authors investigated how clear speech instructions influence sentence intelligibility. Twelve speakers produced sentences in habitual, clear, hearing impaired, and overenunciate conditions. Stimuli were amplitude normalized and mixed with multitalker babble for orthographic transcription by 40 listeners. The main analysis investigated percentage-correct intelligibility scores as a function of the 4 conditions and speaker sex. Additional analyses included listener response variability, individual speaker trends, and an alternate intelligibility measure: proportion of content words correct. Relative to the habitual condition, the overenunciate condition was associated with the greatest intelligibility benefit, followed by the hearing impaired and clear conditions. Ten speakers followed this trend. The results indicated different patterns of clear speech benefit for male and female speakers. Greater listener variability was observed for speakers with inherently low habitual intelligibility compared to speakers with inherently high habitual intelligibility. Stable proportions of content words were observed across conditions. Clear speech instructions affected the magnitude of the intelligibility benefit. The instruction to overenunciate may be most effective in clear speech training programs. The findings may help explain the range of clear speech intelligibility benefit previously reported. Listener variability analyses suggested the importance of obtaining multiple listener judgments of intelligibility, especially for speakers with inherently low habitual intelligibility.

  16. Culture-Bound Words of the Danube Basin Countries: Translation into English

    OpenAIRE

    Chetverikova Olena

    2015-01-01

    Any course in linguistic country study or popular text translation is impossible without adequate understanding and presentation of culture-bound elements, which present one of the most difficult topics to deal with, especially in multicultural countries. Our investigation aims to show the problems, which appear when we deal with equivalent-lacking words related to culture. Sometimes equivalent-lacking words are associated with culture-bound words, the Ukrainian equivalent for the...

  17. Rank Dynamics of Word Usage at Multiple Scales

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José A. Morales

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The recent dramatic increase in online data availability has allowed researchers to explore human culture with unprecedented detail, such as the growth and diversification of language. In particular, it provides statistical tools to explore whether word use is similar across languages, and if so, whether these generic features appear at different scales of language structure. Here we use the Google Books N-grams dataset to analyze the temporal evolution of word usage in several languages. We apply measures proposed recently to study rank dynamics, such as the diversity of N-grams in a given rank, the probability that an N-gram changes rank between successive time intervals, the rank entropy, and the rank complexity. Using different methods, results show that there are generic properties for different languages at different scales, such as a core of words necessary to minimally understand a language. We also propose a null model to explore the relevance of linguistic structure across multiple scales, concluding that N-gram statistics cannot be reduced to word statistics. We expect our results to be useful in improving text prediction algorithms, as well as in shedding light on the large-scale features of language use, beyond linguistic and cultural differences across human populations.

  18. The Words Children Hear: Picture Books and the Statistics for Language Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montag, Jessica L; Jones, Michael N; Smith, Linda B

    2015-09-01

    Young children learn language from the speech they hear. Previous work suggests that greater statistical diversity of words and of linguistic contexts is associated with better language outcomes. One potential source of lexical diversity is the text of picture books that caregivers read aloud to children. Many parents begin reading to their children shortly after birth, so this is potentially an important source of linguistic input for many children. We constructed a corpus of 100 children's picture books and compared word type and token counts in that sample and a matched sample of child-directed speech. Overall, the picture books contained more unique word types than the child-directed speech. Further, individual picture books generally contained more unique word types than length-matched, child-directed conversations. The text of picture books may be an important source of vocabulary for young children, and these findings suggest a mechanism that underlies the language benefits associated with reading to children. © The Author(s) 2015.

  19. Words and melody are intertwined in perception of sung words: EEG and behavioral evidence.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reyna L Gordon

    Full Text Available Language and music, two of the most unique human cognitive abilities, are combined in song, rendering it an ecological model for comparing speech and music cognition. The present study was designed to determine whether words and melodies in song are processed interactively or independently, and to examine the influence of attention on the processing of words and melodies in song. Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs and behavioral data were recorded while non-musicians listened to pairs of sung words (prime and target presented in four experimental conditions: same word, same melody; same word, different melody; different word, same melody; different word, different melody. Participants were asked to attend to either the words or the melody, and to perform a same/different task. In both attentional tasks, different word targets elicited an N400 component, as predicted based on previous results. Most interestingly, different melodies (sung with the same word elicited an N400 component followed by a late positive component. Finally, ERP and behavioral data converged in showing interactions between the linguistic and melodic dimensions of sung words. The finding that the N400 effect, a well-established marker of semantic processing, was modulated by musical melody in song suggests that variations in musical features affect word processing in sung language. Implications of the interactions between words and melody are discussed in light of evidence for shared neural processing resources between the phonological/semantic aspects of language and the melodic/harmonic aspects of music.

  20. The computational linguistics of biological sequences

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Searls, D. [Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)

    1995-12-31

    This tutorial was one of eight tutorials selected to be presented at the Third International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology which was held in the United Kingdom from July 16 to 19, 1995. Protein sequences are analogous in many respects, particularly their folding behavior. Proteins have a much richer variety of interactions, but in theory the same linguistic principles could come to bear in describing dependencies between distant residues that arise by virtue of three-dimensional structure. This tutorial will concentrate on nucleic acid sequences.

  1. Rank diversity of languages: generic behavior in computational linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocho, Germinal; Flores, Jorge; Gershenson, Carlos; Pineda, Carlos; Sánchez, Sergio

    2015-01-01

    Statistical studies of languages have focused on the rank-frequency distribution of words. Instead, we introduce here a measure of how word ranks change in time and call this distribution rank diversity. We calculate this diversity for books published in six European languages since 1800, and find that it follows a universal lognormal distribution. Based on the mean and standard deviation associated with the lognormal distribution, we define three different word regimes of languages: "heads" consist of words which almost do not change their rank in time, "bodies" are words of general use, while "tails" are comprised by context-specific words and vary their rank considerably in time. The heads and bodies reflect the size of language cores identified by linguists for basic communication. We propose a Gaussian random walk model which reproduces the rank variation of words in time and thus the diversity. Rank diversity of words can be understood as the result of random variations in rank, where the size of the variation depends on the rank itself. We find that the core size is similar for all languages studied.

  2. Implicit and explicit processing of kanji and kana words and non-words studied with fMRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thuy, Dinh Ha Duy; Matsuo, Kayako; Nakamura, Kimihiro; Toma, Keiichiro; Oga, Tatsuhide; Nakai, Toshiharu; Shibasaki, Hiroshi; Fukuyama, Hidenao

    2004-11-01

    Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the implicit language processing of kanji and kana words (i.e., hiragana transcriptions of normally written kanji words) and non-words. Twelve right-handed native Japanese speakers performed size judgments for character stimuli (implicit language task for linguistic stimuli), size judgments for scrambled-character stimuli (implicit language task for non-linguistic stimuli), and lexical decisions (explicit language task). The size judgments for scrambled-kanji stimuli and scrambled-kana stimuli produced activations on the bilateral lingual gyri (BA 18), the bilateral occipitotemporal regions (BA 19/37), and the bilateral superior and inferior parietal cortices (BA 7/40). Interestingly, besides these areas, activations of the left inferior frontal region (Broca's area, BA 44/45) and the left posterior inferior temporal cortex (PITC, BA 37), which have been considered as language areas, were additionally activated during size judgment for kanji character stimuli. Size judgment for kana character stimuli also activated Broca's area, the left PITC, and the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG, BA 40). The activations of these language areas were replicated in the lexical decisions for both kanji and kana. These findings suggest that language processing of both kanji and kana scripts is obligatory to literate Japanese subjects. Moreover, comparison between the scrambled kanji and the scrambled kana showed no activation in the language areas, while greater activation in the bilateral fusiform gyri (left-side predominant) was found in kanji vs. kana comparison during the size judgment and the lexical decision. Kana minus kanji activated the left SMG during the size judgment, and Broca's area and the left middle/superior temporal junction during the lexical decision. These results probably reflect that in implicit or explicit reading of kanji words and kana words (i.e., hiragana transcriptions of kanji words

  3. Artificial Intelligence Applications to Videodisc Technology

    OpenAIRE

    Vries, John K.; Banks, Gordon; McLinden, Sean; Moossy, John; Brown, Melanie

    1985-01-01

    Much of medical information is visual in nature. Since it is not easy to describe pictorial information in linguistic terms, it has been difficult to store and retrieve this type of information. Coupling videodisc technology with artificial intelligence programming techniques may provide a means for solving this problem.

  4. Early print-tuned ERP response with minimal involvement of linguistic processing in Japanese Hiragana strings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okumura, Yasuko; Kasai, Tetsuko; Murohashi, Harumitsu

    2014-04-16

    The act of reading leads to the development of specific neural responses for print, the most frequently reported of which is the left occipitotemporal N170 component of event-related potentials. However, it remains unclear whether this electrophysiological response solely involves print-tuned neural activities. The present study examined an early print-tuned event-related potential response with minimal involvement of linguistic processing in a nonalphabetic language. Japanese Hiragana words, nonwords, and alphanumeric symbol strings were presented rapidly and the task was to detect the change in color of a fixation cross to restrict linguistic processing. As a result, Hiragana words and nonwords elicited a larger posterior N1 than alphanumeric symbol strings bilaterally, irrespective of intercharacter spacing. The fact that this N1 was enhanced specifically for rapidly presented Hiragana strings suggests the existence of print-tuned neural processes that are relatively independent of the influence of linguistic processing.

  5. Astrolinguistics Design of a Linguistic System for Interstellar Communication Based on Logic

    CERN Document Server

    Ollongren, Alexander

    2013-01-01

    In linguistics, one of the main areas of modern research involves the capabilities and possibilities of there being a "lingua cosmica," a LINCOS, a universal language that could be used to communicate with non-human intelligences. This book touches on the area of the development and use of a "lingua universalis" for interstellar communication, but it also presents concepts that cover a broad area of linguistics. Chomsky's paradigm on universal properties of natural languages, for a long time a leading general theory of natural languages, includes the strong assumption that humans are born with some kind of universals stored in their brains. Are there universals of this kind of language used by intelligent beings and societies elsewhere in the universe? We do not know whether such languages exist. It seems to be impossible to determine, simply because the universe is too large for an exhaustive search. Even verification will be hard to obtain, without quite a bit of luck. This book uses astrolinguistic princip...

  6. Effects of Ease-of-Pronunciation on Non-Word Memory and Product Judgments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Erz, Antonia; Christensen, Bo

    The ease or difficulty of pronunciation can affect judgments. We experimentally show that linguistic fluency has a direct effect on liking and a U-shaped effect on memory of non-words. We further demonstrate that the fluency of novel, fictitious non-word brand names affects novelty and performance...

  7. PENERAPAN TEORI MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES HOWARD GARDNER DALAM PEMBELAJARAN PENDIDIKAN AGAMA ISLAM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mushollin -

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available This article is to describe the concept and the theory of Multiple Intelligences developd by Howard Gardner. Furthermore, it tries to explain how they are applied in the classroom in the Islamic education learning. The theory is the development of doubled-intelligences theory stating that human have different intelligences. Gardner argues that human are endowed eight intelligences---linguistic, natural, logic-mathematic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, musical, and natural. In educational context, Gardner’s theory effects the learning practice in school as well as the parents treatment to the children in the house. In practice, learning is demanded to develop each intelligence and use any kinds of intelligences to measure the students’ intelligence.

  8. Attention demands of spoken word planning: A review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roelofs, A.P.A.; Piai, V.

    2011-01-01

    Attention and language are among the most intensively researched abilities in the cognitive neurosciences, but the relation between these abilities has largely been neglected. There is increasing evidence, however, that linguistic processes, such as those underlying the planning of words, cannot

  9. Songs to syntax: the linguistics of birdsong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berwick, Robert C; Okanoya, Kazuo; Beckers, Gabriel J L; Bolhuis, Johan J

    2011-03-01

    Unlike our primate cousins, many species of bird share with humans a capacity for vocal learning, a crucial factor in speech acquisition. There are striking behavioural, neural and genetic similarities between auditory-vocal learning in birds and human infants. Recently, the linguistic parallels between birdsong and spoken language have begun to be investigated. Although both birdsong and human language are hierarchically organized according to particular syntactic constraints, birdsong structure is best characterized as 'phonological syntax', resembling aspects of human sound structure. Crucially, birdsong lacks semantics and words. Formal language and linguistic analysis remains essential for the proper characterization of birdsong as a model system for human speech and language, and for the study of the brain and cognition evolution. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Constructing an XML database of linguistics data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J H Kroeze

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available A language-oriented, multi-dimensional database of the linguistic characteristics of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament can enable researchers to do ad hoc queries. XML is a suitable technology to transform free text into a database. A clause’s word order can be kept intact while other features such as syntactic and semantic functions can be marked as elements or attributes. The elements or attributes from the XML “database” can be accessed and proces sed by a 4th generation programming language, such as Visual Basic. XML is explored as an option to build an exploitable database of linguistic data by representing inherently multi-dimensional data, including syntactic and semantic analyses of free text.

  11. Intelligent Chatter Bot for Regulation Search

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Luise, María Daniela López; Pascal, Andrés; Saad, Ben; Álvarez, Claudia; Pescio, Pablo; Carrilero, Patricio; Malgor, Rafael; Díaz, Joaquín

    2016-01-01

    This communication presents a functional prototype, named PTAH, implementing a linguistic model focused on regulations in Spanish. Its global architecture, the reasoning model and short statistics are provided for the prototype. It is mainly a conversational robot linked to an Expert System by a module with many intelligent linguistic filters, implementing the reasoning model of an expert. It is focused on bylaws, regulations, jurisprudence and customized background representing entity mission, vision and profile. This Structure and model are generic enough to self-adapt to any regulatory environment, but as a first step, it was limited to an academic field. This way it is possible to limit the slang and data numbers. The foundations of the linguistic model are also outlined and the way the architecture implements the key features of the behavior.

  12. All-but-the-Top: Simple and Effective Postprocessing for Word Representations

    OpenAIRE

    Mu, Jiaqi; Bhat, Suma; Viswanath, Pramod

    2017-01-01

    Real-valued word representations have transformed NLP applications; popular examples are word2vec and GloVe, recognized for their ability to capture linguistic regularities. In this paper, we demonstrate a {\\em very simple}, and yet counter-intuitive, postprocessing technique -- eliminate the common mean vector and a few top dominating directions from the word vectors -- that renders off-the-shelf representations {\\em even stronger}. The postprocessing is empirically validated on a variety of...

  13. Minimal prosodic stems/words in Malawian Tonga: A Morpheme ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    the level of prosodic stem analysis in this language (see Mtenje,. 2006; Mkochi ..... results into the generation of the surface minimal prosodic stems/words in. ciTonga. .... asymmetry. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (2006) 24, 179-.

  14. Impact of the linguistic environment on speech perception : comparing bilingual and monolingual populations

    OpenAIRE

    Roessler, Abeba, 1981-

    2012-01-01

    The present dissertation set out to investigate how the linguistic environment affects speech perception. Three sets of studies have explored effects of bilingualism on word recognition in adults and infants and the impact of first language linguistic knowledge on rule learning in adults. In the present work, we have found evidence in three auditory priming studies that bilingual adults, in contrast to monolinguals have developed mechanisms to effectively overcome interference from irrelevant...

  15. Linguistic coding deficits in foreign language learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sparks, R; Ganschow, L; Pohlman, J

    1989-01-01

    As increasing numbers of colleges and universities require a foreign language for graduation in at least one of their degree programs, reports of students with difficulties in learning a second language are multiplying. Until recently, little research has been conducted to identify the nature of this problem. Recent attempts by the authors have focused upon subtle but ongoing language difficulties in these individuals as the source of their struggle to learn a foreign language. The present paper attempts to expand upon this concept by outlining a theoretical framework based upon a linguistic coding model that hypothesizes deficits in the processing of phonological, syntactic, and/or semantic information. Traditional psychoeducational assessment batteries of standardized intelligence and achievement tests generally are not sensitive to these linguistic coding deficits unless closely analyzed or, more often, used in conjunction with a more comprehensive language assessment battery. Students who have been waived from a foreign language requirement and their proposed type(s) of linguistic coding deficits are profiled. Tentative conclusions about the nature of these foreign language learning deficits are presented along with specific suggestions for tests to be used in psychoeducational evaluations.

  16. New concepts and new words--how do languages cope with the problem of neology?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muhvić-Dimanovski, Vesna

    2004-01-01

    It is a well-known fact that languages react differently when foreign words denoting new concepts have to be integrated into the native system. The procedure mostly depends on the degree of purism present in a linguistic community: some languages are rather open to foreign influences and do not demonstrate any special hostility towards new words which are easily accepted and adapted to the phonological and morphological systems of the receiving language. Languages, which have a strong puristic tradition, usually channel their borrowings into the loan translation field using internal word formation resources as a means of creating neologisms. Regardless of whether they are built of native elements or appear as loans, neologisms are necessarily the result of linguistic changes.

  17. On Lying and Being Lied to: A Linguistic Analysis of Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hancock, Jeffrey T.; Curry, Lauren E.; Goorha, Saurabh; Woodworth, Michael

    2008-01-01

    This study investigated changes in both the liar's and the conversational partner's linguistic style across truthful and deceptive dyadic communication in a synchronous text-based setting. An analysis of 242 transcripts revealed that liars produced more words, more sense-based words (e.g., seeing, touching), and used fewer self-oriented but more…

  18. Multilayered Word Structure Model for Assessing Spelling of Finnish Children in Shallow Orthography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulju, Pirjo; Mäkinen, Marita

    2017-01-01

    This study explores Finnish children's word-level spelling by applying a linguistically based multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling performance. The model contributes to the analytical qualitative assessment approach in order to identify children's spelling performance for enhancing writing skills. The children (N = 105)…

  19. Linguistic Theory in the Practical Lexicography of the African Languages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emmanuel Chabata

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: In this article, we look at the relationship between linguistics and lexicography. We specifically look at the relevance of data derived from theoretical linguistic investigations to the compilation of diction-aries in African languages. Our point of departure is that since it is language description that lies at the core of both lexicography and linguistic theory, lexicographers can improve their work by using insights from theoretically-guided linguistic investigations. Our view is that as long as lexicographers focus on words and their existence in the linguistic system, they cannot work effectively without referring to linguistic theory, consciously or unconsciously. Lexicography is not only concerned with dictionary creation, that is, with the collection of lexical units and their proper description in dictionary entries, but also with the theoretical aspects concerning the lexicon. It is necessary for dictionaries to capture all lexical interrelationships of a phonetic, morphological, syntactic or semantic nature. Drawing examples from a few dictionaries on African languages, we try to show how dictionary compilers have benefited from specific theoretical investigations in general linguistics. We look at how the different linguistic theories have contributed to the improvement in the quality of the contents of some dictionaries of African languages. Our conclusion is that there is a stronger bond between linguistic theory and lexicographic practice than is generally assumed. Ways must therefore be found to understand the various links between the two disciplines. There should be a deliberate move from mutual neglect to collaboration between the two disciplines.

  20. The Effect of Word Meaning on Speech DysFluency in Adults with Developmental Stuttering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elham Masumi

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Stuttering is one of the most prevalent speech and language disorders. Symptomology of stuttering has been surveyed from different aspects such as biological, developmental, environmental, emotional, learning and linguistic. Previous researches in English-speaking people have suggested that some linguistic features such as word meanings may play a role in the frequency of speech non-fluency in people who stutter. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of word meanings on the frequency of dysfluency in Persian-speaking adults with developmental stuttering. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was performed on 14 adults who stuttered. Their average age was 25 years. The frequency of non-fluency instances was evaluated upon reading two lists containing 60 words and 60 non-words. The words were selected on the basis of common Persian syllable structures. ‘Kolmogoro-Smirnov one sample test’ and paired t-test was used to analyze data the significance level was set at P<0.05. Results:There was a significant difference between the dysfluency in word and non-word lists (P<0.05. Discussion: The findings of this study indicate a significant increase in the frequency of dysfluency on non-words than on real words. It seems that the phonological encodingprocess of non-word reading is much more complex than for word reading, because, in non-word reading, the component of semantic content retrieval (word meaning is missing when compared to word reading.

  1. The logical syntax of number words: theory, acquisition and processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musolino, Julien

    2009-04-01

    Recent work on the acquisition of number words has emphasized the importance of integrating linguistic and developmental perspectives [Musolino, J. (2004). The semantics and acquisition of number words: Integrating linguistic and developmental perspectives. Cognition93, 1-41; Papafragou, A., Musolino, J. (2003). Scalar implicatures: Scalar implicatures: Experiments at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Cognition, 86, 253-282; Hurewitz, F., Papafragou, A., Gleitman, L., Gelman, R. (2006). Asymmetries in the acquisition of numbers and quantifiers. Language Learning and Development, 2, 76-97; Huang, Y. T., Snedeker, J., Spelke, L. (submitted for publication). What exactly do numbers mean?]. Specifically, these studies have shown that data from experimental investigations of child language can be used to illuminate core theoretical issues in the semantic and pragmatic analysis of number terms. In this article, I extend this approach to the logico-syntactic properties of number words, focusing on the way numerals interact with each other (e.g. Three boys are holding two balloons) as well as with other quantified expressions (e.g. Three boys are holding each balloon). On the basis of their intuitions, linguists have claimed that such sentences give rise to at least four different interpretations, reflecting the complexity of the linguistic structure and syntactic operations involved. Using psycholinguistic experimentation with preschoolers (n=32) and adult speakers of English (n=32), I show that (a) for adults, the intuitions of linguists can be verified experimentally, (b) by the age of 5, children have knowledge of the core aspects of the logical syntax of number words, (c) in spite of this knowledge, children nevertheless differ from adults in systematic ways, (d) the differences observed between children and adults can be accounted for on the basis of an independently motivated, linguistically-based processing model [Geurts, B. (2003). Quantifying kids. Language

  2. Structural similarities between brain and linguistic data provide evidence of semantic relations in the brain.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Colleen E Crangle

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new method of analysis by which structural similarities between brain data and linguistic data can be assessed at the semantic level. It shows how to measure the strength of these structural similarities and so determine the relatively better fit of the brain data with one semantic model over another. The first model is derived from WordNet, a lexical database of English compiled by language experts. The second is given by the corpus-based statistical technique of latent semantic analysis (LSA, which detects relations between words that are latent or hidden in text. The brain data are drawn from experiments in which statements about the geography of Europe were presented auditorily to participants who were asked to determine their truth or falsity while electroencephalographic (EEG recordings were made. The theoretical framework for the analysis of the brain and semantic data derives from axiomatizations of theories such as the theory of differences in utility preference. Using brain-data samples from individual trials time-locked to the presentation of each word, ordinal relations of similarity differences are computed for the brain data and for the linguistic data. In each case those relations that are invariant with respect to the brain and linguistic data, and are correlated with sufficient statistical strength, amount to structural similarities between the brain and linguistic data. Results show that many more statistically significant structural similarities can be found between the brain data and the WordNet-derived data than the LSA-derived data. The work reported here is placed within the context of other recent studies of semantics and the brain. The main contribution of this paper is the new method it presents for the study of semantics and the brain and the focus it permits on networks of relations detected in brain data and represented by a semantic model.

  3. Listeners Experience Linguistic Masking Release in Noise-Vocoded Speech-in-Speech Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Viswanathan, Navin; Kokkinakis, Kostas; Williams, Brittany T.

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether listeners with normal hearing perceiving noise-vocoded speech-in-speech demonstrate better intelligibility of target speech when the background speech was mismatched in language (linguistic release from masking [LRM]) and/or location (spatial release from masking [SRM]) relative to the…

  4. Can the meaning of multiple words be integrated unconsciously?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Gaal, S.; Naccache, L.; Meuwese, J.D.I.; van Loon, A.M.; Leighton, A.H.; Cohen, L.; Dehaene, S.

    2014-01-01

    What are the limits of unconscious language processing? Can language circuits process simple grammatical constructions unconsciously and integrate the meaning of several unseen words? Using behavioural priming and electroencephalography (EEG), we studied a specific rule-based linguistic operation

  5. From Shared Contexts to Syntactic Categories: The Role of Distributional Information in Learning Linguistic Form-Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reeder, Patricia A.; Newport, Elissa L.; Aslin, Richard N.

    2013-01-01

    A fundamental component of language acquisition involves organizing words into grammatical categories. Previous literature has suggested a number of ways in which this categorization task might be accomplished. Here we ask whether the patterning of the words in a corpus of linguistic input ("distributional information") is sufficient, along with a…

  6. Automated Linguistic Personality Description and Recognition Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danylyuk Illya

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: The relevance of our research, above all, is theoretically motivated by the development of extraordinary scientific and practical interest in the possibilities of language processing of huge amount of data generated by people in everyday professional and personal life in the electronic forms of communication (e-mail, sms, voice, audio and video blogs, social networks, etc.. Purpose: The purpose of the article is to describe the theoretical and practical framework of the project "Communicative-pragmatic and discourse-grammatical lingvopersonology: structuring linguistic identity and computer modeling". The description of key techniques is given, such as machine learning for language modeling, speech synthesis, handwriting simulation. Results: Lingvopersonology developed some great theoretical foundations, its methods, tools, and significant achievements let us predict that the newest promising trend is a linguistic identity modeling by means of information technology, including language. We see three aspects of the modeling: 1 modeling the semantic level of linguistic identity – by means of the use of corpus linguistics; 2 sound level formal modeling of linguistic identity – with the help of speech synthesis; 3 formal graphic level modeling of linguistic identity – with the help of image synthesis (handwriting. For the first case, we suppose to use machine learning technics and vector-space (word2vec algorithm for textual speech modeling. Hybrid CUTE method for personality speech modeling will be applied to the second case. Finally, trained with the person handwriting images neural network can be an instrument for the last case. Discussion: The project "Communicative-pragmatic, discourse, and grammatical lingvopersonology: structuring linguistic identity and computer modeling", which is implementing by the Department of General and Applied Linguistics and Slavonic philology, selected a task to model Yuriy Shevelyov (Sherekh

  7. Determining the Effectiveness of Visual Input Enhancement across Multiple Linguistic Cues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Comeaux, Ian; McDonald, Janet L.

    2018-01-01

    Visual input enhancement (VIE) increases the salience of grammatical forms, potentially facilitating acquisition through attention mechanisms. Native English speakers were exposed to an artificial language containing four linguistic cues (verb agreement, case marking, animacy, word order), with morphological cues either unmarked, marked in the…

  8. Mimicry in online conversations : an exploratory study of linguistic analysis techniques

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Carrick, Tom; Rashid, Awais; Taylor, Paul Jonathon; Kumar, Ravi; Caverlee, James; Tong, Hanghang

    2016-01-01

    A number of computational techniques have been proposed that aim to detect mimicry in online conversations. In this paper, we investigate how well these reflect the prevailing cognitive science model, i.e. the Interactive Alignment Model. We evaluate Local Linguistic Alignment, word vectors, and

  9. Neurocognitive processes of linguistic cues related to death.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Shihui; Qin, Jungang; Ma, Yina

    2010-10-01

    Consciousness of the finiteness of one's personal existence influences human thoughts and behaviors tremendously. However, the neural substrates underlying the processing of death-related information remain unclear. The current study addressed this issue by scanning 20 female adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, in a modified Stroop task that required naming colors of death-related, negative-valence, and neutral-valence words. We found that, while both death-related and negative-valence words increased activity in the precuneus/posterior cingulate and lateral frontal cortex relative to neutral-valence words, the neural correlate of the processing of death-related words was characterized by decreased activity in bilateral insula relative to both negative-valence and neutral-valence words. Moreover, the decreased activity in the left insula correlated with subjective ratings of death relevance of death-related words and the decreased activity in the right insula correlated with subjective ratings of arousal induced by death-related words. Our fMRI findings suggest that, while both death-related and negative-valence words are associated with enhanced arousal and emotion regulation, the processing of linguistic cues related to death is associated with modulations of the activity in the insula that mediates neural representation of the sentient self. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Morpho-phonemic analysis boosts word reading for adult struggling readers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Susan H; Ehri, Linnea C; Locke, John L

    2018-01-01

    A randomized control trial compared the effects of two kinds of vocabulary instruction on component reading skills of adult struggling readers. Participants seeking alternative high school diplomas received 8 h of scripted tutoring to learn forty academic vocabulary words embedded within a civics curriculum. They were matched for language background and reading levels, then randomly assigned to either morpho-phonemic analysis teaching word origins, morpheme and syllable structures, or traditional whole word study teaching multiple sentence contexts, meaningful connections, and spellings. Both groups made comparable gains in learning the target words, but the morpho-phonemic group showed greater gains in reading unfamiliar words on standardized tests of word reading, including word attack and word recognition. Findings support theories of word learning and literacy that promote explicit instruction in word analysis to increase poor readers' linguistic awareness by revealing connections between morphological, phonological, and orthographic structures within words.

  11. Linguistic Engineering and Linguistic of Engineering: Adaptation of Linguistic Paradigm for Circumstance of Engineering Epoch

    OpenAIRE

    Natalya Halina

    2014-01-01

    The article is devoted to the problems of linguistic knowledge in the Engineering Epoch. Engineering Epoch is the time of adaptation to the information flows by knowledge management, The system of adaptation mechanisms is connected with linguistic and linguistic technologies, forming in new linguistic patterns Linguistic Engineering and Linguistic of Engineering.

  12. Rank Diversity of Languages: Generic Behavior in Computational Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocho, Germinal; Flores, Jorge; Gershenson, Carlos; Pineda, Carlos; Sánchez, Sergio

    2015-01-01

    Statistical studies of languages have focused on the rank-frequency distribution of words. Instead, we introduce here a measure of how word ranks change in time and call this distribution rank diversity. We calculate this diversity for books published in six European languages since 1800, and find that it follows a universal lognormal distribution. Based on the mean and standard deviation associated with the lognormal distribution, we define three different word regimes of languages: “heads” consist of words which almost do not change their rank in time, “bodies” are words of general use, while “tails” are comprised by context-specific words and vary their rank considerably in time. The heads and bodies reflect the size of language cores identified by linguists for basic communication. We propose a Gaussian random walk model which reproduces the rank variation of words in time and thus the diversity. Rank diversity of words can be understood as the result of random variations in rank, where the size of the variation depends on the rank itself. We find that the core size is similar for all languages studied. PMID:25849150

  13. The Linguistic Affiliation Constraint and Phoneme Recognition in Diglossic Arabic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor; Levin, Iris; Hende, Nareman; Ziv, Margalit

    2011-01-01

    This study tested the effect of the phoneme's linguistic affiliation (Standard Arabic versus Spoken Arabic) on phoneme recognition among five-year-old Arabic native speaking kindergarteners (N=60). Using a picture selection task of words beginning with the same phoneme, and through careful manipulation of the phonological properties of target…

  14. Accentuate or repeat? Brain signatures of developmental periods in infant word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Männel, Claudia; Friederici, Angela D

    2013-01-01

    Language acquisition has long been discussed as an interaction between biological preconditions and environmental input. This general interaction seems particularly salient in lexical acquisition, where infants are already able to detect unknown words in sentences at 7 months of age, guided by phonological and statistical information in the speech input. While this information results from the linguistic structure of a given language, infants also exploit situational information, such as speakers' additional word accentuation and word repetition. The current study investigated the developmental trajectory of infants' sensitivity to these two situational input cues in word recognition. Testing infants at 6, 9, and 12 months of age, we hypothesized that different age groups are differentially sensitive to accentuation and repetition. In a familiarization-test paradigm, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) revealed age-related differences in infants' word recognition as a function of situational input cues: at 6 months infants only recognized previously accentuated words, at 9 months both accentuation and repetition played a role, while at 12 months only repetition was effective. These developmental changes are suggested to result from infants' advancing linguistic experience and parallel auditory cortex maturation. Our data indicate very narrow and specific input-sensitive periods in infant word recognition, with accentuation being effective prior to repetition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. 8th KES International Conference on Intelligent Decision Technologies

    CERN Document Server

    Caballero, Alfonso; Howlett, Robert; Jain, Lakhmi

    2016-01-01

    The KES-IDT-2016 proceedings give an excellent insight into recent research, both theoretical and applied, in the field of intelligent decision making. The range of topics explored is wide, and covers methods of grouping, classification, prediction, decision support, modelling and many more in such areas as finance, linguistics, medicine, management and transportation. This proceedings contain several sections devoted to specific topics, such as: · Specialized Decision Techniques for Data Mining, Transportation and Project Management · Pattern Recognition for Decision Making Systems · New Advances of Soft Computing in Industrial and Management Engineering · Recent Advances in Fuzzy Systems · Intelligent Data Analysis and Applications · Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems · Intelligent Methods for Eye Movement Data Processing and Analysis · Intelligent Decision Technologies for Water Resources Management · Intelligent Decision Making for Uncertain Unstructured Big Data · Decision Making Theory for Ec...

  16. Developmental trends in the interaction between auditory and linguistic processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jerger, S; Pirozzolo, F; Jerger, J; Elizondo, R; Desai, S; Wright, E; Reynosa, R

    1993-09-01

    The developmental course of multidimensional speech processing was examined in 80 children between 3 and 6 years of age and in 60 adults between 20 and 86 years of age. Processing interactions were assessed with a speeded classification task (Garner, 1974a), which required the subjects to attend selectively to the voice dimension while ignoring the linguistic dimension, and vice versa. The children and adults exhibited both similarities and differences in the patterns of processing dependencies. For all ages, performance for each dimension was slower in the presence of variation in the irrelevant dimension; irrelevant variation in the voice dimension disrupted performance more than irrelevant variation in the linguistic dimension. Trends in the degree of interference, on the other hand, showed significant differences between dimensions as a function of age. Whereas the degree of interference for the voice-dimension-relevant did not show significant age-related change, the degree of interference for the word-dimension-relevant declined significantly with age in a linear as well as a quadratic manner. A major age-related change in the relation between dimensions was that word processing, relative to voice-gender processing, required significantly more time in the children than in the adults. Overall, the developmental course characterizing multidimensional speech processing evidenced more pronounced change when the linguistic dimension, rather than the voice dimension, was relevant.

  17. Experiment on building Sundanese lexical database based on WordNet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dewi Budiwati, Sari; Nurani Setiawan, Novihana

    2018-03-01

    Sundanese language is the second biggest local language used in Indonesia. Currently, Sundanese language is rarely used since we have the Indonesian language in everyday conversation and as the national language. We built a Sundanese lexical database based on WordNet and Indonesian WordNet as an alternative way to preserve the language as one of local culture. WordNet was chosen because of Sundanese language has three levels of word delivery, called language code of conduct. Web user participant involved in this research for specifying Sundanese semantic relations, and an expert linguistic for validating the relations. The merge methodology was implemented in this experiment. Some words are equivalent with WordNet while another does not have its equivalence since some words are not exist in another culture.

  18. Cherokee self-reliance and word-use in stories of stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, John; Riggs, Cheryl; Henson, Jim; Elder, Tribal; Liehr, Patricia

    2009-01-01

    This study examined the relationship between Cherokee self-reliance and related values expressed through word-use in stories of stress written by Cherokee adolescents. The overall aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility of using cultural appropriate measurements for a larger intervention study of substance abuse prevention in Cherokee adolescents. A sample of 50 Cherokee adolescent senior high school students completed the Cherokee Self-Reliance Questionnaire and wrote their story of stress. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program, a word-based computerized text analysis software, was used to report the percentage of words used in the selected word categories in relation to all the words used by a participant. Word-use from the stories of stress were found to correlate with Cherokee self-reliance.

  19. Noun and verb knowledge in monolingual preschool children across 17 languages: Data from Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (LITMUS-CLT).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haman, Ewa; Łuniewska, Magdalena; Hansen, Pernille; Simonsen, Hanne Gram; Chiat, Shula; Bjekić, Jovana; Blažienė, Agnė; Chyl, Katarzyna; Dabašinskienė, Ineta; Engel de Abreu, Pascale; Gagarina, Natalia; Gavarró, Anna; Håkansson, Gisela; Harel, Efrat; Holm, Elisabeth; Kapalková, Svetlana; Kunnari, Sari; Levorato, Chiara; Lindgren, Josefin; Mieszkowska, Karolina; Montes Salarich, Laia; Potgieter, Anneke; Ribu, Ingeborg; Ringblom, Natalia; Rinker, Tanja; Roch, Maja; Slančová, Daniela; Southwood, Frenette; Tedeschi, Roberta; Tuncer, Aylin Müge; Ünal-Logacev, Özlem; Vuksanović, Jasmina; Armon-Lotem, Sharon

    2017-01-01

    This article investigates the cross-linguistic comparability of the newly developed lexical assessment tool Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (LITMUS-CLT). LITMUS-CLT is a part the Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) battery (Armon-Lotem, de Jong & Meir, 2015). Here we analyse results on receptive and expressive word knowledge tasks for nouns and verbs across 17 languages from eight different language families: Baltic (Lithuanian), Bantu (isiXhosa), Finnic (Finnish), Germanic (Afrikaans, British English, South African English, German, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Swedish), Romance (Catalan, Italian), Semitic (Hebrew), Slavic (Polish, Serbian, Slovak) and Turkic (Turkish). The participants were 639 monolingual children aged 3;0-6;11 living in 15 different countries. Differences in vocabulary size were small between 16 of the languages; but isiXhosa-speaking children knew significantly fewer words than speakers of the other languages. There was a robust effect of word class: accuracy was higher for nouns than verbs. Furthermore, comprehension was more advanced than production. Results are discussed in the context of cross-linguistic comparisons of lexical development in monolingual and bilingual populations.

  20. Accent modulates access to word meaning: Evidence for a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Zhenguang G; Gilbert, Rebecca A; Davis, Matthew H; Gaskell, M Gareth; Farrar, Lauren; Adler, Sarah; Rodd, Jennifer M

    2017-11-01

    Speech carries accent information relevant to determining the speaker's linguistic and social background. A series of web-based experiments demonstrate that accent cues can modulate access to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, British participants were more likely to retrieve the American dominant meaning (e.g., hat meaning of "bonnet") in a word association task if they heard the words in an American than a British accent. In addition, results from a speeded semantic decision task (Experiment 4) and sentence comprehension task (Experiment 5) confirm that accent modulates on-line meaning retrieval such that comprehension of ambiguous words is easier when the relevant word meaning is dominant in the speaker's dialect. Critically, neutral-accent speech items, created by morphing British- and American-accented recordings, were interpreted in a similar way to accented words when embedded in a context of accented words (Experiment 2). This finding indicates that listeners do not use accent to guide meaning retrieval on a word-by-word basis; instead they use accent information to determine the dialectic identity of a speaker and then use their experience of that dialect to guide meaning access for all words spoken by that person. These results motivate a speaker-model account of spoken word recognition in which comprehenders determine key characteristics of their interlocutor and use this knowledge to guide word meaning access. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Ethico-epistemological implications of artificial intelligence for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    We argued for a re-direction of AI. research and suggested a humanization of Artificial Intelligence that cloaks technoscientific innovations with humanistic life jackets for man‟s preservation. The textual analysis method is adopted for this research. Key words: Ethics, Epistemology, Artificial Intelligence, Humanity.

  2. On avoided words, absent words, and their application to biological sequence analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almirantis, Yannis; Charalampopoulos, Panagiotis; Gao, Jia; Iliopoulos, Costas S; Mohamed, Manal; Pissis, Solon P; Polychronopoulos, Dimitris

    2017-01-01

    The deviation of the observed frequency of a word w from its expected frequency in a given sequence x is used to determine whether or not the word is avoided . This concept is particularly useful in DNA linguistic analysis. The value of the deviation of w , denoted by [Formula: see text], effectively characterises the extent of a word by its edge contrast in the context in which it occurs. A word w of length [Formula: see text] is a [Formula: see text]-avoided word in x if [Formula: see text], for a given threshold [Formula: see text]. Notice that such a word may be completely absent from x . Hence, computing all such words naïvely can be a very time-consuming procedure, in particular for large k . In this article, we propose an [Formula: see text]-time and [Formula: see text]-space algorithm to compute all [Formula: see text]-avoided words of length k in a given sequence of length n over a fixed-sized alphabet. We also present a time-optimal [Formula: see text]-time algorithm to compute all [Formula: see text]-avoided words (of any length) in a sequence of length n over an integer alphabet of size [Formula: see text]. In addition, we provide a tight asymptotic upper bound for the number of [Formula: see text]-avoided words over an integer alphabet and the expected length of the longest one. We make available an implementation of our algorithm. Experimental results, using both real and synthetic data, show the efficiency and applicability of our implementation in biological sequence analysis. The systematic search for avoided words is particularly useful for biological sequence analysis. We present a linear-time and linear-space algorithm for the computation of avoided words of length k in a given sequence x . We suggest a modification to this algorithm so that it computes all avoided words of x , irrespective of their length, within the same time complexity. We also present combinatorial results with regards to avoided words and absent words.

  3. Word position affects stimulus recognition: evidence for early ERP short-term plastic modulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spironelli, Chiara; Galfano, Giovanni; Umiltà, Carlo; Angrilli, Alessandro

    2011-12-01

    The present study was aimed at investigating the short-term plastic changes that follow word learning at a neurophysiological level. The main hypothesis was that word position (left or right visual field, LVF/RH or RVF/LH) in the initial learning phase would leave a trace that affected, in the subsequent recognition phase, the Recognition Potential (i.e., the first negative component distinguishing words from other stimuli) elicited 220-240 ms after centrally presented stimuli. Forty-eight students were administered, in the learning phase, 125 words for 4s, randomly presented half in the left and half in the right visual field. In the recognition phase, participants were split into two equal groups, one was assigned to the Word task, the other to the Picture task (in which half of the 125 pictures were new, and half matched prior studied words). During the Word task, old RVF/LH words elicited significantly greater negativity in left posterior sites with respect to old LVF/RH words, which in turn showed the same pattern of activation evoked by new words. Therefore, correspondence between stimulus spatial position and hemisphere specialized in automatic word recognition created a robust prime for subsequent recognition. During the Picture task, pictures matching old RVF/LH words showed no differences compared with new pictures, but evoked significantly greater negativity than pictures matching old LVF/RH words. Thus, the priming effect vanished when the task required a switch from visual analysis to stored linguistic information, whereas the lack of correspondence between stimulus position and network specialized in automatic word recognition (i.e., when words were presented to the LVF/RH) revealed the implicit costs for recognition. Results support the view that short-term plastic changes occurring in a linguistic learning task interact with both stimulus position and modality (written word vs. picture representation). Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights

  4. A Play on Words: Using Cognitive Computing as a Basis for AI Solvers in Word Puzzles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manzini, Thomas; Ellis, Simon; Hendler, James

    2015-12-01

    In this paper we offer a model, drawing inspiration from human cognition and based upon the pipeline developed for IBM's Watson, which solves clues in a type of word puzzle called syllacrostics. We briefly discuss its situation with respect to the greater field of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and how this process and model might be applied to other types of word puzzles. We present an overview of a system that has been developed to solve syllacrostics.

  5. Revealing Word Order: Using Serial Position in Binomials to Predict Properties of the Speaker

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iliev, Rumen; Smirnova, Anastasia

    2016-01-01

    Three studies test the link between word order in binomials and psychological and demographic characteristics of a speaker. While linguists have already suggested that psychological, cultural and societal factors are important in choosing word order in binomials, the vast majority of relevant research was focused on general factors and on broadly…

  6. The Effect of Signal-to-Noise Ratio on Linguistic Processing in a Semantic Judgment Task: An Aging Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanley, Nicholas; Davis, Tara; Estis, Julie

    2017-03-01

    Aging effects on speech understanding in noise have primarily been assessed through speech recognition tasks. Recognition tasks, which focus on bottom-up, perceptual aspects of speech understanding, intentionally limit linguistic and cognitive factors by asking participants to only repeat what they have heard. On the other hand, linguistic processing tasks require bottom-up and top-down (linguistic, cognitive) processing skills and are, therefore, more reflective of speech understanding abilities used in everyday communication. The effect of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on linguistic processing ability is relatively unknown for either young (YAs) or older adults (OAs). To determine if reduced SNRs would be more deleterious to the linguistic processing of OAs than YAs, as measured by accuracy and reaction time in a semantic judgment task in competing speech. In the semantic judgment task, participants indicated via button press whether word pairs were a semantic Match or No Match. This task was performed in quiet, as well as, +3, 0, -3, and -6 dB SNR with two-talker speech competition. Seventeen YAs (20-30 yr) with normal hearing sensitivity and 17 OAs (60-68 yr) with normal hearing sensitivity or mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss within age-appropriate norms. Accuracy, reaction time, and false alarm rate were measured and analyzed using a mixed design analysis of variance. A decrease in SNR level significantly reduced accuracy and increased reaction time in both YAs and OAs. However, poor SNRs affected accuracy and reaction time of Match and No Match word pairs differently. Accuracy for Match pairs declined at a steeper rate than No Match pairs in both groups as SNR decreased. In addition, reaction time for No Match pairs increased at a greater rate than Match pairs in more difficult SNRs, particularly at -3 and -6 dB SNR. False-alarm rates indicated that participants had a response bias to No Match pairs as the SNR decreased. Age-related differences were

  7. Chomsky and Wittgenstein on Linguistic Competence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thomas McNally

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available In his Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language, Saul Kripke presents his influential reading of Wittgenstein’s later writings on language. One of the largely unexplored features of that reading is that Kripke makes a small number of suggestive remarks concerning the possible threat that Wittgenstein’s arguments pose for Chomsky’s linguistic project. In this paper, we attempt to characterise the relevance of Wittgenstein’s later work on meaning and rule-following for transformational linguistics, and in particular to identify the potentially negative impact it has on that project. Although we use Kripke’s remarks to articulate some of the pertinent issues, we return to Wittgenstein’s later writings to address them. We argue that Wittgenstein’s main target in the relevant sections of the Philosophical Investigations is the notion of ‘logical compulsion’, which involves assuming that there is more to applying a word or rule than how we are naturally or “psychologically” compelled to apply. We characterise two of the main lines of argument in the Investigations in terms of the rejection of logical compulsion. We thus propose to address the relevance of Wittgenstein’s writings for Chomsky by considering whether Chomsky’s linguistics presupposes the targeted notion of logical compulsion. We argue that Chomsky’s conception of linguistic competence in terms of successive states of the “language faculty” (containing the principles of universal grammar does presuppose this problematic notion. Chomsky responded to Kripke by devoting a chapter of his Knowledge of Language to defending this conception of linguistic competence against the Wittgensteinian arguments. We evaluate his response and argue that he has misidentified the threat to his linguistic project as consisting in the attack on its ‘individual psychology’ standpoint, rather than its commitment to logical compulsion. We conclude by arguing that Chomsky

  8. Brand names of Portuguese medication: understanding the importance of their linguistic structure and regulatory issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pires, Carla; Vigário, Marina; Cavaco, Afonso

    2015-08-01

    Among other regulatory requirements, medicine brands should be composed of single names without abbreviations to prevent errors in prescription of medication. The purposes of the study were to investigate the compliance of a sam ple of Portuguese medicine brand names with Portuguese pharmaceutical regulations. This includes identifying their basic linguistic characteristics and comparing these features and their frequency of occurrence with benchmark values of the colloquial or informal language. A sample of 474 brand names was selected. Names were analyzed using manual (visual analyses) and computer methods (FreP - Frequency Patterns of Phonological Objects in Portuguese and MS word). A significant number of names (61.3%) failed to comply with the Portuguese phonologic system (related to the sound of words) and/or the spelling system (related to the written form of words) contained more than one word, comprised a high proportion of infrequent syllable types or stress patterns and included abbreviations. The results suggest that some of the brand names of Portuguese medication should be reevaluated, and that regulation on this issue should be enforced and updated, taking into consideration specific linguistic and spelling codes.

  9. The Inclusion of Word Formation

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    user

    lemmata that are morphologically related can promote word comprehension .... informative and intelligible to enable the user to better understand and use the ..... It seems overly optimistic to expect an average dictionary user to read the Ref- ..... A Handbook of Lexicography: The Theory and Practice of Dictionary-making.

  10. Universals of Word Order in Esperanto. Lektos: Interdisciplinary Working Papers in Language Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 2.

    Science.gov (United States)

    St. Clair, Robert N.

    The contention that Esperanto is a natural linguistic system is discussed. Research is cited concerning universals of word order, dominant word order, polar type languages, Esperanto as a verb-subject-object language, and gapping in Esperanto. It is concluded that contrary to grammatical tradition, word order is not and cannot be completely free.…

  11. Identification of vowel length, word stress and compound words and phrases by postlingually-deafened cochlear implant listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Morris, David Jackson; Magnusson, Lennart; Faulkner, Andrew

    2013-01-01

    Background: The accurate perception of prosody assists a listener in deriving meaning from natural speech. Few studies have addressed the ability of cochlear implant (CI) listeners to perceive the brief duration prosodic cues involved in contrastive vowel length, word stress, and compound word...... word stress, vowel length, and compound words or phrases all of which were presented with minimal-pair response choices. Tests were performed in quiet and in speech-spectrum shaped noise at a 10 dB signal- to-noise ratio. Also, discrimination thresholds for four acoustic properties of a synthetic vowel...... recipients’ ability to perceive brief prosodic cues. This is of interest in the preparation of rehabilitation materials used in training and in developing realistic expectations for potential CI candidates. Key Words: Cochlear implants, speech acoustics, speech intelligibility...

  12. The Impact of Metacognitive Strategies and Self-Regulating Processes of Solving Math Word Problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vula, Eda; Avdyli, Rrezarta; Berisha, Valbona; Saqipi, Blerim; Elezi, Shpetim

    2017-01-01

    This empirical study investigates the impact of metacognitive strategies and self-regulating processes in learners' achievement on solving math word problems. It specifically analyzes the impact of the linguistic factor and the number of steps and arithmetical operations that learners need to apply during the process of solving math word problems.…

  13. The Impact of Morphological Awareness on Word Reading and Dictation in Chinese Early Adolescent Readers With and Without Dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalindi, Sylvia Chanda; Chung, Kevin Kien Hoa

    2018-01-01

    This study investigated the role of morphological awareness in understanding Chinese word reading and dictation among Chinese-speaking adolescent readers in Hong Kong as well as the cognitive-linguistic profile of early adolescent readers with dyslexia. Fifty-four readers with dyslexia in Grades 5 and 6 were compared with 54 chronological age-matched (CA) typical readers on the following measures of cognitive-linguistic and literacy skills: morphological awareness, phonological awareness, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, vocabulary knowledge, verbal short-term memory (STM), Chinese word reading, and dictation (or spelling). The results indicated that early adolescent readers with dyslexia performed less well than the typical readers on all cognitive-linguistic and literacy measures except the phonological measures. Both groups' scores showed substantial correlations between morphological awareness and Chinese word reading and dictation. Visual-orthographic knowledge and rapid naming were also associated with dictation in early adolescent readers with and without dyslexia, respectively. Moderated multiple regression analyses further revealed that morphological awareness and rapid naming explained unique variance in word reading and dictation for the readers with dyslexia and typical readers separately after controlling readers' age and group effect. These results highlight the potential importance of morphological awareness and rapid naming in Chinese word reading and writing in Chinese early adolescents' literacy development and impairment.

  14. Multiple Intelligences - Based Planning of EFL Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanan Shero Malo Zebari

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The present study aimed to set a plan for teaching EFL classes based on the identification of university students’ dominant multiple intelligences in EFL classes, and the differences in the types of intelligence between female and male students in terms of their gender. The problem the present study aimed to address is that the traditional concept that “one size fits all” is still adopted by many EFL teachers, and that EFL students’ differences and preferences are noticeably unheeded. It is believed that identifying students’ dominant intelligences is a sound remedial solution for such a problem before embarking on any teaching program. Moreover, getting students aware of their different types of intelligence will motivate and encourage them in the classroom. The researchers used a questionnaire as a research instrument for data collection.  The results arrived at showed that there were no significant differences in the types of intelligence between female and male students in terms of their gender, except for bodily- kinesthetic intelligence. They also showed that the dominant intelligences were ranked from the highest to the lowest as follows interpersonal, linguistic, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily kinesthetic, intrapersonal, musical, and naturalistic.

  15. Intelligence and Psychopathy Do Not Influence Malingering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demakis, George; Rimland, Casey; Reeve, Charlie; Ward, Jonathan

    2015-01-01

    This study examined the influence of psychopathy and intelligence on malingering in a simulated malingering design. We hypothesized that participants high in both traits would be more adept at evading detection on performance validity tests (PVTs). College students (N = 92) were first administered the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading, a reading measure that estimates intelligence, and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form under standard conditions. They were then asked to imagine as if they had suffered a concussion a year ago and were instructed to fake or exaggerate symptoms in a believable fashion to improve their settlement as part of a lawsuit. Participants were subsequently administered a brief neuropsychological battery that included the Word Memory Test, Rey 15-Item Test with Recognition, Finger-Tapping Test, and Digit Span from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition. Moderated multiple regressions with hierarchical entry were conducted. Intelligence, psychopathy, and the interaction of intelligence and psychopathy were not related to performance on any of the PVTs. In other words, participants who scored higher on intelligence and psychopathy did not perform differently on these measures compared with other participants. Though a null finding, implications of this study are discussed in terms of the broader research and clinical literature on malingering.

  16. Teaching Culture and Language through the Multiple Intelligences Film Teaching Model in the ESL/EFL Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeh, Ellen

    2014-01-01

    This paper will demonstrate how to enhance second language (L2) learners' linguistic and cultural competencies through the use of the Multiple Intelligences Film Teaching (MIFT) model. The paper will introduce two ideas to teachers of English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL). First, the paper shows how L2 learners learn linguistic and…

  17. Menzerath-Altmann Law: Statistical Mechanical Interpretation as Applied to a Linguistic Organization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eroglu, Sertac

    2014-10-01

    The distribution behavior described by the empirical Menzerath-Altmann law is frequently encountered during the self-organization of linguistic and non-linguistic natural organizations at various structural levels. This study presents a statistical mechanical derivation of the law based on the analogy between the classical particles of a statistical mechanical organization and the distinct words of a textual organization. The derived model, a transformed (generalized) form of the Menzerath-Altmann model, was termed as the statistical mechanical Menzerath-Altmann model. The derived model allows interpreting the model parameters in terms of physical concepts. We also propose that many organizations presenting the Menzerath-Altmann law behavior, whether linguistic or not, can be methodically examined by the transformed distribution model through the properly defined structure-dependent parameter and the energy associated states.

  18. Manipulating Objects and Telling Words: A Study on Concrete and Abstract Words Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borghi, Anna M.; Flumini, Andrea; Cimatti, Felice; Marocco, Davide; Scorolli, Claudia

    2011-01-01

    Four experiments (E1–E2–E3–E4) investigated whether different acquisition modalities lead to the emergence of differences typically found between concrete and abstract words, as argued by the words as tools (WAT) proposal. To mimic the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts, participants either manipulated novel objects or observed groups of objects interacting in novel ways (Training 1). In TEST 1 participants decided whether two elements belonged to the same category. Later they read the category labels (Training 2); labels could be accompanied by an explanation of their meaning. Then participants observed previously seen exemplars and other elements, and were asked which of them could be named with a given label (TEST 2). Across the experiments, it was more difficult to form abstract than concrete categories (TEST 1); even when adding labels, abstract words remained more difficult than concrete words (TEST 2). TEST 3 differed across the experiments. In E1 participants performed a feature production task. Crucially, the associations produced with the novel words reflected the pattern evoked by existing concrete and abstract words, as the first evoked more perceptual properties. In E2–E3–E4, TEST 3 consisted of a color verification task with manual/verbal (keyboard–microphone) responses. Results showed the microphone use to have an advantage over keyboard use for abstract words, especially in the explanation condition. This supports WAT: due to their acquisition modality, concrete words evoke more manual information; abstract words elicit more verbal information. This advantage was not present when linguistic information contrasted with perceptual one. Implications for theories and computational models of language grounding are discussed. PMID:21716582

  19. From text to political positions: The convergence of political, linguistic and discourse analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Elfrinkhof, A.M.E.; Maks, I.; Kaal, A.R.; Kaal, A.R.; Maks, I.; van Elfrinkhof, A.M.E.

    2014-01-01

    Abstract: This chapter explores how three methods of political text analysis can complement each other to differentiate parties in detail. A word-frequency method and corpus linguistic techniques are joined by critical discourse analysis in an attempt to assess the ideological relation between

  20. How age and linguistic competence affect memory for heard information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruce A Schneider

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The short-term memory performance of a group of younger adults, for whom English was a second language (young EL2 listeners, was compared to that of younger and older adults for whom English was their first language (EL1 listeners. To-be-remembered words were presented in noise and in quiet. When presented in noise, the listening situation was adjusted to insure that the likelihood of recognizing the individual words was comparable for all groups. Previous studies which used the same paradigm found memory performance of older EL1 adults on this paired-associate task to be poorer than that of their younger EL1 counterparts both in quiet and in a background of babble. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the less well-established semantic and linguistic skills of EL2 listeners would also lead to memory deficits even after equating for word recognition as was done for the younger and older EL1 listeners. No significant differences in memory performance were found between young EL1 and EL2 listeners after equating for word recognition, indicating that the EL2 listeners’ poorer semantic and linguistic skills had little effect on their ability to memorize and recall paired associates. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that age-related declines in memory are primarily due to age-related declines in the perceptual and attentional processes required for extracting the word pairs from a background babble of voices. Such declines are likely to increase the load on higher-order (possibly limited cognitive processes supporting memory. The problems that these results pose for the comprehension of spoken language in these three groups are discussed.

  1. Intelligibility of emotional speech in younger and older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dupuis, Kate; Pichora-Fuller, M Kathleen

    2014-01-01

    Little is known about the influence of vocal emotions on speech understanding. Word recognition accuracy for stimuli spoken to portray seven emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, neutral, happiness, and pleasant surprise) was tested in younger and older listeners. Emotions were presented in either mixed (heterogeneous emotions mixed in a list) or blocked (homogeneous emotion blocked in a list) conditions. Three main hypotheses were tested. First, vocal emotion affects word recognition accuracy; specifically, portrayals of fear enhance word recognition accuracy because listeners orient to threatening information and/or distinctive acoustical cues such as high pitch mean and variation. Second, older listeners recognize words less accurately than younger listeners, but the effects of different emotions on intelligibility are similar across age groups. Third, blocking emotions in list results in better word recognition accuracy, especially for older listeners, and reduces the effect of emotion on intelligibility because as listeners develop expectations about vocal emotion, the allocation of processing resources can shift from emotional to lexical processing. Emotion was the within-subjects variable: all participants heard speech stimuli consisting of a carrier phrase followed by a target word spoken by either a younger or an older talker, with an equal number of stimuli portraying each of seven vocal emotions. The speech was presented in multi-talker babble at signal to noise ratios adjusted for each talker and each listener age group. Listener age (younger, older), condition (mixed, blocked), and talker (younger, older) were the main between-subjects variables. Fifty-six students (Mage= 18.3 years) were recruited from an undergraduate psychology course; 56 older adults (Mage= 72.3 years) were recruited from a volunteer pool. All participants had clinically normal pure-tone audiometric thresholds at frequencies ≤3000 Hz. There were significant main effects of

  2. Emotional words can be embodied or disembodied: the role of superficial vs. deep types of processing

    OpenAIRE

    Abbassi, Ensie; Blanchette, Isabelle; Ansaldo, Ana I.; Ghassemzadeh, Habib; Joanette, Yves

    2015-01-01

    Emotional words are processed rapidly and automatically in the left hemisphere (LH) and slowly, with the involvement of attention, in the right hemisphere (RH). This review aims to find the reason for this difference and suggests that emotional words can be processed superficially or deeply due to the involvement of the linguistic and imagery systems, respectively. During superficial processing, emotional words likely make connections only with semantically associated words in the LH. This pa...

  3. Marine litter prediction by artificial intelligence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balas, Can Elmar; Ergin, Aysen; Williams, Allan T.; Koc, Levent

    2004-01-01

    Artificial intelligence techniques of neural network and fuzzy systems were applied as alternative methods to determine beach litter grading, based on litter surveys of the Antalya coastline (the Turkish Riviera). Litter measurements were categorized and assessed by artificial intelligence techniques, which lead to a new litter categorization system. The constructed neural network satisfactorily predicted the grading of the Antalya beaches and litter categories based on the number of litter items in the general litter category. It has been concluded that, neural networks could be used for high-speed predictions of litter items and beach grading, when the characteristics of the main litter category was determined by field studies. This can save on field effort when fast and reliable estimations of litter categories are required for management or research studies of beaches--especially those concerned with health and safety, and it has economic implications. The main advantages in using fuzzy systems are that they consider linguistic adjectival definitions, e.g. many/few, etc. As a result, additional information inherent in linguistic comments/refinements and judgments made during field studies can be incorporated in grading systems

  4. Marine litter prediction by artificial intelligence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Balas, Can Elmar; Ergin, Aysen; Williams, Allan T.; Koc, Levent

    2004-03-01

    Artificial intelligence techniques of neural network and fuzzy systems were applied as alternative methods to determine beach litter grading, based on litter surveys of the Antalya coastline (the Turkish Riviera). Litter measurements were categorized and assessed by artificial intelligence techniques, which lead to a new litter categorization system. The constructed neural network satisfactorily predicted the grading of the Antalya beaches and litter categories based on the number of litter items in the general litter category. It has been concluded that, neural networks could be used for high-speed predictions of litter items and beach grading, when the characteristics of the main litter category was determined by field studies. This can save on field effort when fast and reliable estimations of litter categories are required for management or research studies of beaches--especially those concerned with health and safety, and it has economic implications. The main advantages in using fuzzy systems are that they consider linguistic adjectival definitions, e.g. many/few, etc. As a result, additional information inherent in linguistic comments/refinements and judgments made during field studies can be incorporated in grading systems.

  5. Automatic Contextual Text Correction Using The Linguistic Habits Graph Lhg

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcin Gadamer

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Automatic text correction is an essential problem of today text processors and editors. Thispaper introduces a novel algorithm for automation of contextual text correction using a LinguisticHabit Graph (LHG also introduced in this paper. A specialist internet crawler hasbeen constructed for searching through web sites in order to build a Linguistic Habit Graphafter text corpuses gathered in polish web sites. The achieved correction results on a basis ofthis algorithm using this LHG were compared with commercial programs which also enableto make text correction: Microsoft Word 2007, Open Office Writer 3.0 and search engineGoogle. The achieved results of text correction were much better than correction made bythese commercial tools.

  6. Gender differences in brain activity toward unpleasant linguistic stimuli concerning interpersonal relationships: an fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shirao, Naoko; Okamoto, Yasumasa; Okada, Go; Ueda, Kazutaka; Yamawaki, Shigeto

    2005-10-01

    Women are more vulnerable to psychosocial stressors such as interpersonal conflicts than men, and are more susceptible to some psychiatric disorders. We hypothesized that there are differences in the brain activity of men and women while perceiving unpleasant linguistic stimuli concerning interpersonal relationships, and that they underlie the different sensitivity toward these stressful stimuli. We carried out a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study on 13 young female adults and 13 young male adults who performed an emotional decision task including sets of unpleasant words concerning interpersonal relationships and sets of neutral words. In the women, the unpleasant words more significantly activated the bilateral caudate nuclei and left putamen than the neutral words. However, among the men, there was no difference in the level of activation of any brain area induced by the unpleasant or neutral word stimuli. Upon performing the task, there was a significant gender difference in brain activation. Moreover, among the female subjects, the activation in the bilateral caudate nuclei and left thalamus was negatively correlated with the average rating of pleasantness of the words concerning interpersonal conflicts by the subject. These results demonstrate gender differences in brain activity in processing unpleasant linguistic stimuli related to interpersonal conflicts. Our data suggest that the bilateral caudate nuclei and left putamen play an important role in the perception of words concerning interpersonal conflicts in women. The bilateral caudate nuclei and left thalamus may regulate a woman's sensitivity to unpleasant information about interpersonal difficulties.

  7. Unraveling the linguistic nature of specific autobiographical memories using a computerized classification algorithm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takano, Keisuke; Ueno, Mayumi; Moriya, Jun; Mori, Masaki; Nishiguchi, Yuki; Raes, Filip

    2017-06-01

    In the present study, we explored the linguistic nature of specific memories generated with the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) by developing a computerized classifier that distinguishes between specific and nonspecific memories. The AMT is regarded as one of the most important assessment tools to study memory dysfunctions (e.g., difficulty recalling the specific details of memories) in psychopathology. In Study 1, we utilized the Japanese corpus data of 12,400 cue-recalled memories tagged with observer-rated specificity. We extracted linguistic features of particular relevance to memory specificity, such as past tense, negation, and adverbial words and phrases pertaining to time and location. On the basis of these features, a support vector machine (SVM) was trained to classify the memories into specific and nonspecific categories, which achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of .92 in a performance test. In Study 2, the trained SVM was tested in terms of its robustness in classifying novel memories (n = 8,478) that were retrieved in response to cue words that were different from those used in Study 1. The SVM showed an AUC of .89 in classifying the new memories. In Study 3, we extended the binary SVM to a five-class classification of the AMT, which achieved 64%-65% classification accuracy, against the chance level (20%) in the performance tests. Our data suggest that memory specificity can be identified with a relatively small number of words, capturing the universal linguistic features of memory specificity across memories in diverse contents.

  8. The words children hear: Picture books and the statistics for language learning

    OpenAIRE

    Montag, Jessica L.; Jones, Michael N.; Smith, Linda B.

    2015-01-01

    Young children learn language from the speech they hear. Previous work suggests that the statistical diversity of words and of linguistic contexts is associated with better language outcomes. One potential source of lexical diversity is the text of picture books that caregivers read aloud to children. Many parents begin reading to their children shortly after birth, so this is potentially an important source of linguistic input for many children. We constructed a corpus of 100 children’s pict...

  9. Interactive language learning by robots: the transition from babbling to word forms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyon, Caroline; Nehaniv, Chrystopher L; Saunders, Joe

    2012-01-01

    The advent of humanoid robots has enabled a new approach to investigating the acquisition of language, and we report on the development of robots able to acquire rudimentary linguistic skills. Our work focuses on early stages analogous to some characteristics of a human child of about 6 to 14 months, the transition from babbling to first word forms. We investigate one mechanism among many that may contribute to this process, a key factor being the sensitivity of learners to the statistical distribution of linguistic elements. As well as being necessary for learning word meanings, the acquisition of anchor word forms facilitates the segmentation of an acoustic stream through other mechanisms. In our experiments some salient one-syllable word forms are learnt by a humanoid robot in real-time interactions with naive participants. Words emerge from random syllabic babble through a learning process based on a dialogue between the robot and the human participant, whose speech is perceived by the robot as a stream of phonemes. Numerous ways of representing the speech as syllabic segments are possible. Furthermore, the pronunciation of many words in spontaneous speech is variable. However, in line with research elsewhere, we observe that salient content words are more likely than function words to have consistent canonical representations; thus their relative frequency increases, as does their influence on the learner. Variable pronunciation may contribute to early word form acquisition. The importance of contingent interaction in real-time between teacher and learner is reflected by a reinforcement process, with variable success. The examination of individual cases may be more informative than group results. Nevertheless, word forms are usually produced by the robot after a few minutes of dialogue, employing a simple, real-time, frequency dependent mechanism. This work shows the potential of human-robot interaction systems in studies of the dynamics of early language

  10. Computing with Words in Decision support Systems: An overview on Models and Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis Martinez

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Decision making is inherent to mankind, as human beings daily face situations in which they should choose among different alternatives by means of reasoning and mental processes. Many of these decision problems are under uncertain environments with vague and imprecise information. This type of information is usually modelled by linguistic information because of the common use of language by the experts involved in the given decision situations, originating linguistic decision making. The use of linguistic information in decision making demands processes of Computing with Words to solve the related decision problems. Different methodologies and approaches have been proposed to accomplish such processes in an accurate and interpretable way. The good performance of linguistic computing dealing with uncertainty has caused a spread use of it in different types of decision based applications. This paper overviews the more significant and extended linguistic computing models due to its key role in linguistic decision making and a wide range of the most recent applications of linguistic decision support models.

  11. Fast Mapping Across Time: Memory Processes Support Children's Retention of Learned Words

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haley eVlach

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available Children's remarkable ability to map linguistic labels to objects in the world is referred to as fast mapping. The current study examined children's (N = 216 and adults’ (N = 54 retention of fast-mapped words over time (immediately, after a 1 week delay, and after a 1 month delay. The fast mapping literature often characterizes children's retention of words as consistently high across timescales. However, the current study demonstrates that learners forget word mappings at a rapid rate. Moreover, these patterns of forgetting parallel forgetting functions of domain general memory processes. Memory processes are critical to children's word learning and the role of one such process, forgetting, is discussed in detail—forgetting supports both word mapping and the generalization of words and categories.

  12. Cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Wingerden, Evelien; Segers, Eliane; van Balkom, Hans; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-11-01

    A considerable number of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to acquire basic word reading skills. However, not much is known about their achievements in more advanced reading comprehension skills. In the present study, a group of 49 children with ID and a control group of 21 typically developing children with word decoding skills in the normal ranges of first grade were compared in lower level (explicit meaning) and higher level (implicit meaning) reading comprehension abilities. Moreover, in the group of children with ID it was examined to what extent their levels of lower level and higher level reading comprehension could be predicted from their linguistic skills (word decoding, vocabulary, language comprehension) and cognitive skill (nonverbal reasoning). It was found that children with ID were weaker than typically developing children in higher level reading comprehension but not in lower level reading comprehension. Children with ID also performed below the control group on nonverbal reasoning and language comprehension. After controlling for nonverbal reasoning, linguistic skills predicted lower level reading comprehension but not higher level reading comprehension. It can be concluded that children with ID who have basic decoding skill do reasonably well on lower level reading comprehension but continue to have problems with higher level reading comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Effects of metric hierarchy and rhyme predictability on word duration in The Cat in the Hat.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breen, Mara

    2018-05-01

    Word durations convey many types of linguistic information, including intrinsic lexical features like length and frequency and contextual features like syntactic and semantic structure. The current study was designed to investigate whether hierarchical metric structure and rhyme predictability account for durational variation over and above other features in productions of a rhyming, metrically-regular children's book: The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss, 1957). One-syllable word durations and inter-onset intervals were modeled as functions of segment number, lexical frequency, word class, syntactic structure, repetition, and font emphasis. Consistent with prior work, factors predicting longer word durations and inter-onset intervals included more phonemes, lower frequency, first mention, alignment with a syntactic boundary, and capitalization. A model parameter corresponding to metric grid height improved model fit of word durations and inter-onset intervals. Specifically, speakers realized five levels of metric hierarchy with inter-onset intervals such that interval duration increased linearly with increased height in the metric hierarchy. Conversely, speakers realized only three levels of metric hierarchy with word duration, demonstrating that they shortened the highly predictable rhyme resolutions. These results further understanding of the factors that affect spoken word duration, and demonstrate the myriad cues that children receive about linguistic structure from nursery rhymes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Accentedness and intelligibility: Mandarin-accented English for Korean and American listeners

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hardman, Jocelyn

    .S. who were certified to teach at the university level, and the key words were highly familiar to native speakers of English, those words which matched exactly were scored as accurate, while those which did not were marked as inaccurate. In addition, the listeners rated their familiarity with known key...... words on an increasing 5-point Likert scale, while unknown words were entered as ‘0.’. A series of mixed effects models with logistic regression analyzed the effect of speaker segmental production accuracy and listener word familiarity on intelligibility. Individual speaker and listener variation......, as well as key word variation, were crossed as random effects. For the Koreans, Mandarin-accented English was significantly less intelligible than for the Americans and the differences in the segments that most frequently caused problems for each L1 listener group lend evidence to the strong role played...

  15. How Age and Linguistic Competence Affect Memory for Heard Information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneider, Bruce A; Avivi-Reich, Meital; Leung, Caterina; Heinrich, Antje

    2016-01-01

    The short-term memory performance of a group of younger adults, for whom English was a second language (young EL2 listeners), was compared to that of younger and older adults for whom English was their first language (EL1 listeners). To-be-remembered words were presented in noise and in quiet. When presented in noise, the listening situation was adjusted to ensure that the likelihood of recognizing the individual words was comparable for all groups. Previous studies which used the same paradigm found memory performance of older EL1 adults on this paired-associate task to be poorer than that of their younger EL1 counterparts both in quiet and in a background of babble. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the less well-established semantic and linguistic skills of EL2 listeners would also lead to memory deficits even after equating for word recognition as was done for the younger and older EL1 listeners. No significant differences in memory performance were found between young EL1 and EL2 listeners after equating for word recognition, indicating that the EL2 listeners' poorer semantic and linguistic skills had little effect on their ability to memorize and recall paired associates. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that age-related declines in memory are primarily due to age-related declines in higher-order processes supporting stream segregation and episodic memory. Such declines are likely to increase the load on higher-order (possibly limited) cognitive processes supporting memory. The problems that these results pose for the comprehension of spoken language in these three groups are discussed.

  16. Forensic linguistics: Applications of forensic linguistics methods to anonymous letters

    OpenAIRE

    NOVÁKOVÁ, Veronika

    2011-01-01

    The title of my bachelor work is ?Forensic linguistics: Applications of forensic linguistics methods to anonymous letters?. Forensic linguistics is young and not very known branch of applied linguistics. This bachelor work wants to introduce forensic linguistics and its method. The bachelor work has two parts ? theory and practice. The theoretical part informs about forensic linguistics in general. Its two basic aspects utilized in forensic science and respective methods. The practical part t...

  17. Applied Linguistics and the "Annual Review of Applied Linguistics."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, Robert B.; Grabe, William

    2000-01-01

    Examines the complexities and differences involved in granting disciplinary status to the role of applied linguistics, discusses the role of the "Annual Review of Applied Linguistics" as a contributor to the development of applied linguistics, and highlights a set of publications for the future of applied linguistics. (Author/VWL)

  18. THE CONCEPT OF “RUSSIA” THROUGH ETHNO-LINGUISTIC AND ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malykhina, T.M.

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Etymology can help understand word meanings as well as the process of language evolution. This process is a reflection of the entire history course. In addition, the study of language etymology makes it possible to identify words originally Russian denoting traditional Russian subjects. The authors deal with the concept of “Russia” as one of the most important concepts, integrating many aspects of linguistic world image: fertilizing moisture, water, light (“the face of the sun”, colour, rod (gender and life development, the world and the white light, the community of peoples, Rodimaya zemlya (native land and the Sate.

  19. UNITS OF MEASUREMENT: ORAL TRADITION, TRANSLATION STUDIES AND CORPUS LINGUISTICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John ZEMKE

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The study of the world’s verbal arts offers an opportunity to consider ways that computational analysis and modeling of narratives may lead to new understandings of how they are constructed, their dynamics and relationships. Similarly, as corpus linguistics operations must define metrics, it offers an occasion to review basic interpretive concepts such as “units of analysis, context, and genre." My essay begins with an admittedly cursory overview from a novice perspective of what capabilities corpus linguistics currently possesses for the analysis and modeling of narratives. Consideration is given to the epistemological issue in the social sciences with the positivistic prescription or empiricist description of units of analysis and the potential pitfalls or advantages corpus linguistics encounters in searching for adequate equivalent terms. This review leads naturally to reflection on the crucial determinative action of context on meaning and the extent to which current computational interfaces are able to account for and integrate into global analysis of linguistic and performance dimensions such as performer, intonation, gesture, diction, idioms and figurative language, setting, audience, time, and occasion. As a tentative conclusion from this review, it can be stated that artificial intelligence for modeling narratives or devising narrative algorithms must develop capacities to account for performance dimensions in order to fulfill their analytical potential.

  20. A Word on “Etymological Dictionary of the Tatar Language” »

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R.T. Safarov

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Research in the field of etymology demands from a specialist in-depth knowledge, vast erudition, language skills, extensive work experience. Therefore, there are not many works in this area in Tatar linguistics. Rifkat Gazizzyanovich Akhmetyanov is a linguist who devoted his life to this particular field of linguistics. His “Eymological Dictionary of the Tatar Language” is a long-awaited work not only for the Tatar humanitarians, but also for the whole Turkic world and researchers of the history and language of the ethnic groups neighboring with the Tatars. This is the first fundamental etymological dictionary in Tatar linguistics. The two-volume dictionary contains information about the origin and formation of approximately 10 300 words, not counting their numerous variants. First of all, the author’s intention was to give an etymological analysis of the lexical structure of the Tatar literary language. Therefore, the dictionary contains all the root words of the three-volume explanatory dictionary of the Tatar language, published in 1977–1981. Special attention was also given to actively developing etymology of dialect vocabulary linking the Tatar language with other Turkic languages or borrowed from other languages. In general, each entry is composed of vocable, its translation into Russian, dialectal variants with their values, indications of source language (if it is a borrowing, area of distribution, i.e. parallels of analyzed lexema, first of all, from the Turkic or, in certain cases, from the Slavic and Finno-Ugric and other languages (if it is not a borrowing. If the etymology of the word is clear, the author points out it. If it causes some controversy, he cites the opinion of authoritative researchers, expresses his attitude and so on. The huge linguistic material based on the consistent scientific principles, studied in details and recorded in the dictionary, allows us to form an opinion on the influence of other languages on

  1. Between-Word Simplification Patterns in the Continuous Speech of Children with Speech Sound Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Harriet B.; Liu-Shea, May

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: This study was designed to identify and describe between-word simplification patterns in the continuous speech of children with speech sound disorders. It was hypothesized that word combinations would reveal phonological changes that were unobserved with single words, possibly accounting for discrepancies between the intelligibility of…

  2. Adaptive Fuzzy-Lyapunov Controller Using Biologically Inspired Swarm Intelligence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandro Carrasco Elizalde

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The collective behaviour of swarms produces smarter actions than those achieved by a single individual. Colonies of ants, flocks of birds and fish schools are examples of swarms interacting with their environment to achieve a common goal. This cooperative biological intelligence is the inspiration for an adaptive fuzzy controller developed in this paper. Swarm intelligence is used to adjust the parameters of the membership functions used in the adaptive fuzzy controller. The rules of the controller are designed using a computing-with-words approach called Fuzzy-Lyapunov synthesis to improve the stability and robustness of an adaptive fuzzy controller. Computing-with-words provides a powerful tool to manipulate numbers and symbols, like words in a natural language.

  3. Cognitive Systematicity of Semantic Change: Cross-Linguistic Evidence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baseel A. AlBzour

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Banking on intrinsic generative assumptions of cognitive semantics, this paper is a humble attempt that specifically sheds light on some major aspects of overtly intricate yet covertly systematic interaction that steers our conceptual processing of inherent semantic and pragmatic changes. The basic premises of such cognitive operations stem from yet may exceed the limitations of Elizabeth Traugott’s and Eve Sweetser’s historical pragmatic approach that elaborately envisages such lexical changes as meaning relations with their metaphorically polysemous progress in light of relevant epistemic constraints that can help us decode ambiguous components of some functional and lexical categories. Therefore, this paper examines in principle how schematic lexical meaning can be cross-linguistically and cross-culturally traced, handled and perceived in order to cater for an optimal matrix and some rule-governed clues and rules that may explain the internal universal design and flow of semanticity and pragmaticity in charge of such linguistic behavior. The data this study exploits and explores draw on some English and Arabic representative examples that can satisfactorily exhibit an interesting well-established cognitive mechanism that can reveal the role of Homo sapiens’ encyclopedic and collective faculty vis-à-vis such word processing; the data primarily encompass the English words silly, simple, innocent and naïve as well as their Arabic counterparts.

  4. Audiovisual semantic interactions between linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli: The time-courses and categorical specificity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yi-Chuan; Spence, Charles

    2018-04-30

    We examined the time-courses and categorical specificity of the crossmodal semantic congruency effects elicited by naturalistic sounds and spoken words on the processing of visual pictures (Experiment 1) and printed words (Experiment 2). Auditory cues were presented at 7 different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) with respect to the visual targets, and participants made speeded categorization judgments (living vs. nonliving). Three common effects were observed across 2 experiments: Both naturalistic sounds and spoken words induced a slowly emerging congruency effect when leading by 250 ms or more in the congruent compared with the incongruent condition, and a rapidly emerging inhibitory effect when leading by 250 ms or less in the incongruent condition as opposed to the noise condition. Only spoken words that did not match the visual targets elicited an additional inhibitory effect when leading by 100 ms or when presented simultaneously. Compared with nonlinguistic stimuli, the crossmodal congruency effects associated with linguistic stimuli occurred over a wider range of SOAs and occurred at a more specific level of the category hierarchy (i.e., the basic level) than was required by the task. A comprehensive framework is proposed to provide a dynamic view regarding how meaning is extracted during the processing of visual or auditory linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli, therefore contributing to our understanding of multisensory semantic processing in humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  5. Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Atraktif Berbasis Multiple Intelligences Tentang Pemantulan Cahaya pada Cermin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Intan Kusumawati

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektivitas penerapan model pembelajaran atraktif berbasis multiple intelligences dalam meremediasi miskonsepsi siswa tentang pemantulan cahaya pada cermin. Pada penelitian ini digunakan bentuk pre-eksperimental design dengan rancangan one group pretest-post test design. Alat pengumpulan data berupa tes pilihan ganda dengan reasoning. Hasil validitas sebesar 4,08 dan reliabilitas 0,537. Siswa dibagi menjadi lima kelompok kecerdasan, yaitu kelompok linguistic intelligence, mathematical-logical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, bodily-khinestetic intelligence, dan musical intelligence. Siswa membahas konsep fisika sesuai kelompok kecerdasannya dalam bentuk pembuatan pantun-puisi, teka-teki silang, menggambar kreatif, drama, dan mengarang lirik lagu. Efektivitas penerapan model pembelajaran multiple intelligences menggunakan persamaan effect size. Ditemukan bahwa skor effect size masing-masing kelompok berkategori tinggi sebesar 5,76; 3,76; 4,60; 1,70; dan 1,34. Penerapan model pembelajaran atraktif berbasis multiple intelligences efektif dalam meremediasi miskonsepsi siswa. Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat digunakan pada materi fisika dan sekolah lainnya.

  6. Sound symbolism: the role of word sound in meaning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svantesson, Jan-Olof

    2017-09-01

    The question whether there is a natural connection between sound and meaning or if they are related only by convention has been debated since antiquity. In linguistics, it is usually taken for granted that 'the linguistic sign is arbitrary,' and exceptions like onomatopoeia have been regarded as marginal phenomena. However, it is becoming more and more clear that motivated relations between sound and meaning are more common and important than has been thought. There is now a large and rapidly growing literature on subjects as ideophones (or expressives), words that describe how a speaker perceives a situation with the senses, and phonaesthemes, units like English gl-, which occur in many words that share a meaning component (in this case 'light': gleam, glitter, etc.). Furthermore, psychological experiments have shown that sound symbolism in one language can be understood by speakers of other languages, suggesting that some kinds of sound symbolism are universal. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1441. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1441 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Fast Mapping Across Time: Memory Processes Support Children's Retention of Learned Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vlach, Haley A; Sandhofer, Catherine M

    2012-01-01

    Children's remarkable ability to map linguistic labels to referents in the world is commonly called fast mapping. The current study examined children's (N = 216) and adults' (N = 54) retention of fast-mapped words over time (immediately, after a 1-week delay, and after a 1-month delay). The fast mapping literature often characterizes children's retention of words as consistently high across timescales. However, the current study demonstrates that learners forget word mappings at a rapid rate. Moreover, these patterns of forgetting parallel forgetting functions of domain-general memory processes. Memory processes are critical to children's word learning and the role of one such process, forgetting, is discussed in detail - forgetting supports extended mapping by promoting the memory and generalization of words and categories.

  8. Neural dynamics of morphological processing in spoken word comprehension: Laterality and automaticity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caroline M. Whiting

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Rapid and automatic processing of grammatical complexity is argued to take place during speech comprehension, engaging a left-lateralised fronto-temporal language network. Here we address how neural activity in these regions is modulated by the grammatical properties of spoken words. We used combined magneto- and electroencephalography (MEG, EEG to delineate the spatiotemporal patterns of activity that support the recognition of morphologically complex words in English with inflectional (-s and derivational (-er affixes (e.g. bakes, baker. The mismatch negativity (MMN, an index of linguistic memory traces elicited in a passive listening paradigm, was used to examine the neural dynamics elicited by morphologically complex words. Results revealed an initial peak 130-180 ms after the deviation point with a major source in left superior temporal cortex. The localisation of this early activation showed a sensitivity to two grammatical properties of the stimuli: 1 the presence of morphological complexity, with affixed words showing increased left-laterality compared to non-affixed words; and 2 the grammatical category, with affixed verbs showing greater left-lateralisation in inferior frontal gyrus compared to affixed nouns (bakes vs. beaks. This automatic brain response was additionally sensitive to semantic coherence (the meaning of the stem vs. the meaning of the whole form in fronto-temporal regions. These results demonstrate that the spatiotemporal pattern of neural activity in spoken word processing is modulated by the presence of morphological structure, predominantly engaging the left-hemisphere’s fronto-temporal language network, and does not require focused attention on the linguistic input.

  9. Talker and background noise specificity in spoken word recognition memory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Cooper

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Prior research has demonstrated that listeners are sensitive to changes in the indexical (talker-specific characteristics of speech input, suggesting that these signal-intrinsic features are integrally encoded in memory for spoken words. Given that listeners frequently must contend with concurrent environmental noise, to what extent do they also encode signal-extrinsic details? Native English listeners’ explicit memory for spoken English monosyllabic and disyllabic words was assessed as a function of consistency versus variation in the talker’s voice (talker condition and background noise (noise condition using a delayed recognition memory paradigm. The speech and noise signals were spectrally-separated, such that changes in a simultaneously presented non-speech signal (background noise from exposure to test would not be accompanied by concomitant changes in the target speech signal. The results revealed that listeners can encode both signal-intrinsic talker and signal-extrinsic noise information into integrated cognitive representations, critically even when the two auditory streams are spectrally non-overlapping. However, the extent to which extra-linguistic episodic information is encoded alongside linguistic information appears to be modulated by syllabic characteristics, with specificity effects found only for monosyllabic items. These findings suggest that encoding and retrieval of episodic information during spoken word processing may be modulated by lexical characteristics.

  10. Cognitive bias in spider-phobic children: Comparison of a pictorial and a linguistic spider Stroop.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kindt, M.; Brosschot, J.F.

    1999-01-01

    Examined the relation between spider fear in children and cognitive processing bias toward threatening information. It was investigated whether spider fear in children is related to a cognitive bias for threatening pictures and words. Pictorial and linguistic Stroop stimuli were administered to 28

  11. Computational Linguistics Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Piasecki, Maciej; Jassem, Krzysztof; Fuglewicz, Piotr

    2013-01-01

    The ever-growing popularity of Google over the recent decade has required a specific method of man-machine communication: human query should be short, whereas the machine answer may take a form of a wide range of documents. This type of communication has triggered a rapid development in the domain of Information Extraction, aimed at providing the asker with a  more precise information. The recent success of intelligent personal assistants supporting users in searching or even extracting information and answers from large collections of electronic documents signals the onset of a new era in man-machine communication – we shall soon explain to our small devices what we need to know and expect valuable answers quickly and automatically delivered. The progress of man-machine communication is accompanied by growth in the significance of applied Computational Linguistics – we need machines to understand much more from the language we speak naturally than it is the case of up-to-date search systems. Moreover, w...

  12. The effects of stating problems in bilingual students' first and second languages on solving mathematical word problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernardo, Allan B I; Calleja, Marissa O

    2005-03-01

    Researchers have suggested that among bilinguals, solving word problems in mathematics is influenced by linguistic factors (K. Durkin & B. Shire, 1991; L. Verschaffel, B. Greer, & E. De Corte, 2000). Others have suggested that students exhibit a strong tendency to exclude real-world constraints in solving mathematics word problems (L. Verschaffel, E. De Corte, & S. Lasure, 1994). In the present study, the authors explored the effects of stating word problems in either Filipino or English on how Filipino-English bilingual students solved word problems in which the solution required the application of real-world knowledge. The authors asked bilingual students to solve word problems in either their first or second language. For some of the word problems, real-life constraints prevented straightforward application of mathematical procedures. The authors analyzed the students' solutions to determine whether the language of the word problems affected the tendency to apply real-life constraints in the solution. Results showed that the bilingual students (a) rarely considered real-life constraints in their solutions, (b) were more successful in understanding and solving word problems that were stated in their first language, and (c) were more likely to experience failure in finding a solution to problems stated in their second language. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between linguistic and mathematical problem-solving processes among bilinguals.

  13. Does Grammatical Structure Accelerate Number Word Learning? Evidence from Learners of Dual and Non-Dual Dialects of Slovenian.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Franc Marušič

    Full Text Available How does linguistic structure affect children's acquisition of early number word meanings? Previous studies have tested this question by comparing how children learning languages with different grammatical representations of number learn the meanings of labels for small numbers, like 1, 2, and 3. For example, children who acquire a language with singular-plural marking, like English, are faster to learn the word for 1 than children learning a language that lacks the singular-plural distinction, perhaps because the word for 1 is always used in singular contexts, highlighting its meaning. These studies are problematic, however, because reported differences in number word learning may be due to unmeasured cross-cultural differences rather than specific linguistic differences. To address this problem, we investigated number word learning in four groups of children from a single culture who spoke different dialects of the same language that differed chiefly with respect to how they grammatically mark number. We found that learning a dialect which features "dual" morphology (marking of pairs accelerated children's acquisition of the number word two relative to learning a "non-dual" dialect of the same language.

  14. Does Grammatical Structure Accelerate Number Word Learning? Evidence from Learners of Dual and Non-Dual Dialects of Slovenian

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plesničar, Vesna; Razboršek, Tina; Sullivan, Jessica; Barner, David

    2016-01-01

    How does linguistic structure affect children’s acquisition of early number word meanings? Previous studies have tested this question by comparing how children learning languages with different grammatical representations of number learn the meanings of labels for small numbers, like 1, 2, and 3. For example, children who acquire a language with singular-plural marking, like English, are faster to learn the word for 1 than children learning a language that lacks the singular-plural distinction, perhaps because the word for 1 is always used in singular contexts, highlighting its meaning. These studies are problematic, however, because reported differences in number word learning may be due to unmeasured cross-cultural differences rather than specific linguistic differences. To address this problem, we investigated number word learning in four groups of children from a single culture who spoke different dialects of the same language that differed chiefly with respect to how they grammatically mark number. We found that learning a dialect which features “dual” morphology (marking of pairs) accelerated children’s acquisition of the number word two relative to learning a “non-dual” dialect of the same language. PMID:27486802

  15. Word Family Size and French-Speaking Children's Segmentation of Existing Compounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicoladis, Elena; Krott, Andrea

    2007-01-01

    The family size of the constituents of compound words, or the number of compounds sharing the constituents, affects English-speaking children's compound segmentation. This finding is consistent with a usage-based theory of language acquisition, whereby children learn abstract underlying linguistic structure through their experience with particular…

  16. Categorizing words using 'frequent frames': what cross-linguistic analyses reveal about distributional acquisition strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chemla, Emmanuel; Mintz, Toben H; Bernal, Savita; Christophe, Anne

    2009-04-01

    Mintz (2003) described a distributional environment called a frame, defined as the co-occurrence of two context words with one intervening target word. Analyses of English child-directed speech showed that words that fell within any frequently occurring frame consistently belonged to the same grammatical category (e.g. noun, verb, adjective, etc.). In this paper, we first generalize this result to French, a language in which the function word system allows patterns that are potentially detrimental to a frame-based analysis procedure. Second, we show that the discontinuity of the chosen environments (i.e. the fact that target words are framed by the context words) is crucial for the mechanism to be efficient. This property might be relevant for any computational approach to grammatical categorization. Finally, we investigate a recursive application of the procedure and observe that the categorization is paradoxically worse when context elements are categories rather than actual lexical items. Item-specificity is thus also a core computational principle for this type of algorithm. Our analysis, along with results from behavioural studies (Gómez, 2002; Gómez and Maye, 2005; Mintz, 2006), provides strong support for frames as a basis for the acquisition of grammatical categories by infants. Discontinuity and item-specificity appear to be crucial features.

  17. On Linguistic Abilities, Multilingualism, and Linguistic Justice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iannàccaro Gabriele

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The notion of linguistic justice should be related to the concept of linguistic ease, by which we mean the full social and communicative freedom of concern of the speaker in a given social interaction involving the use of language(s present in the society, according to the social norms of use. To acquire an acceptable degree of linguistic ease, the knowledge of at least one L2 is considered important. But the acquisition of a L2 is interfered by the previous linguistic skills of the learner/speaker who, in many cases, does not have a suitable competence even of the languages of the society in which he/she lives.

  18. On the interaction of Linguistic Typology and Functional Grammar

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rijkhoff, J.

    2002-01-01

    of adjectives as a distinct word class. Conversely it will be shown that facts from many different languages have played an important role in the development of a layered model of the noun phrase in Functional Grammar and how currently these facts are used to test hypotheses concerning parallels between NPs...... empirical research in a wide variety of languages as practiced in the context of linguistic typology and one particular theory, Simon Dik's theory of Functional Grammar. In my view, the relationship between Functional Grammar and linguistic typology is an excellent example of the fruitful combination...... of theory driven data collection and data driven hypothesis formation. Furthermore, typological facts do not only serve to confirm the theory of Functional Grammar, but they also serve as a heuristics for an extension of the theory.Research conducted within the wider theoretical framework of Dik...

  19. Galen-In-Use: using artificial intelligence terminology tools to improve the linguistic coherence of a national coding system for surgical procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigues, J M; Trombert-Paviot, B; Baud, R; Wagner, J; Meusnier-Carriot, F

    1998-01-01

    GALEN has developed a language independent common reference model based on a medically oriented ontology and practical tools and techniques for managing healthcare terminology including natural language processing. GALEN-IN-USE is the current phase which applied the modelling and the tools to the development or the updating of coding systems for surgical procedures in different national coding centers co-operating within the European Federation of Coding Centre (EFCC) to create a language independent knowledge repository for multicultural Europe. We used an integrated set of artificial intelligence terminology tools named CLAssification Manager workbench to process French professional medical language rubrics into intermediate dissections and to the Grail reference ontology model representation. From this language independent concept model representation we generate controlled French natural language. The French national coding centre is then able to retrieve the initial professional rubrics with different categories of concepts, to compare the professional language proposed by expert clinicians to the French generated controlled vocabulary and to finalize the linguistic labels of the coding system in relation with the meanings of the conceptual system structure.

  20. Vocabulary used by ethno-linguistically diverse South African toddlers: a parent report using the language development survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonasillan, A; Bornman, J; Harty, M

    2013-12-01

    The primary aim of this study was to ascertain the relevance of the vocabulary of the Language Development Survey (LDS) for typically developing South African toddlers who attend ethno-linguistically diverse early childhood development centres. The need for exploration of the expressive vocabulary of this population stems from the diverse linguistic contexts to which toddlers are exposed on a day-to-day basis in South Africa. Many parents prefer English as the language of learning and teaching for their child. As a result, toddlers interact with ethno-linguistically diverse peers from a young age, usually within their early childhood development centres. An adapted version of the LDS was presented to 40 middle-class parents in Mpumalanga. Vocabulary commonly used by toddlers was determined and a comparison of parent responses made between the present study and the original American-based survey. Results revealed that nouns were used most often by toddlers, in keeping with research on vocabulary acquisition. Significant correlations between the two groups were evident in 12 of the 14 categories. Parents reported that nouns, verbs, adjectives and words from other word classes were used similarly by toddlers, despite differences in their linguistic exposure. These findings suggest that the LDS is a valuable clinical screening tool for speech-language therapists who deliver services to toddlers within the South African context.

  1. Language and modeling word problems in mathematics among bilinguals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernardo, Allan B I

    2005-09-01

    The study was conducted to determine whether the language of math word problems would affect how Filipino-English bilingual problem solvers would model the structure of these word problems. Modeling the problem structure was studied using the problem-completion paradigm, which involves presenting problems without the question. The paradigm assumes that problem solvers can infer the appropriate question of a word problem if they correctly grasp its problem structure. Arithmetic word problems in Filipino and English were given to bilingual students, some of whom had Filipino as a first language and others who had English as a first language. The problem-completion data and solution data showed similar results. The language of the problem had no effect on problem-structure modeling. The results were discussed in relation to a more circumscribed view about the role of language in word problem solving among bilinguals. In particular, the results of the present study showed that linguistic factors do not affect the more mathematically abstract components of word problem solving, although they may affect the other components such as those related to reading comprehension and understanding.

  2. Language, arithmetic word problems, and deaf students: Linguistic strategies used to solve tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

    2001-12-01

    There has been limited examination of the intersection between language and arithmetic in the performance of deaf students, although some previous research has shown that deaf and hearing-impaired1 students are delayed in both their language acquisition and arithmetic performance. This paper examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in South-East Queensland, Australia, in solving arithmetic word problems. It was found that the subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for hearing students, but that their performance was delayed in comparison. The results confirm other studies where deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language acquisition and this impacts on their capacity to successfully undertake the resolution of word problems.

  3. Word translation entropy in translation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schaeffer, Moritz; Dragsted, Barbara; Hvelplund, Kristian Tangsgaard

    2016-01-01

    This study reports on an investigation into the relationship between the number of translation alternatives for a single word and eye movements on the source text. In addition, the effect of word order differences between source and target text on eye movements on the source text is studied....... In particular, the current study investigates the effect of these variables on early and late eye movement measures. Early eye movement measures are indicative of processes that are more automatic while late measures are more indicative of conscious processing. Most studies that found evidence of target...... language activation during source text reading in translation, i.e. co-activation of the two linguistic systems, employed late eye movement measures or reaction times. The current study therefore aims to investigate if and to what extent earlier eye movement measures in reading for translation show...

  4. The linguistically aware teacher and the teacher-aware linguist.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCartney, Elspeth; Ellis, Sue

    2013-07-01

    This review evaluates issues of teacher linguistic knowledge relating to their work with children with speech, language and communication difficulties (SLCD). Information is from Ellis and McCartney [(2011a). Applied linguistics and primary school teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], a state-of-the-art text deriving from a British Association of Applied Linguistics/Cambridge University Press expert seminar series that details: linguistic research underpinning primary school curricula and pedagogy; the form of linguistic knowledge useful for teachers supporting children with SLCD in partnership with speech and language therapists; and how and when teachers acquire and learn to apply such knowledge. Critical analysis of the options presented for teacher learning indicate that policy enjoinders now include linguistic application as an expected part of teachers' professional knowledge, for all children including those with SLCD, but there is a large unmet learning need. It is concluded that there is a role for clinical linguists to disseminate useable knowledge to teachers in an accessible format. Ways of achieving this are considered.

  5. Calculation and word problem-solving skills in primary grades - Impact of cognitive abilities and longitudinal interrelations with task-persistent behaviour.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jõgi, Anna-Liisa; Kikas, Eve

    2016-06-01

    Primary school math skills form a basis for academic success down the road. Different math skills have different antecedents and there is a reason to believe that more complex math tasks require better self-regulation. The study aimed to investigate longitudinal interrelations of calculation and problem-solving skills, and task-persistent behaviour in Grade 1 and Grade 3, and the effect of non-verbal intelligence, linguistic abilities, and executive functioning on math skills and task persistence. Participants were 864 students (52.3% boys) from 33 different schools in Estonia. Students were tested twice - at the end of Grade1 and at the end of Grade 3. Calculation and problem-solving skills, and teacher-rated task-persistent behaviour were measured at both time points. Non-verbal intelligence, linguistic abilities, and executive functioning were measured in Grade 1. Cross-lagged structural equation modelling indicated that calculation skills depend on previous math skills and linguistic abilities, while problem-solving skills require also non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, and task persistence. Task-persistent behaviour in Grade 3 was predicted by previous problem-solving skills, linguistic abilities, and executive functioning. Gender and mother's educational level were added as covariates. The findings indicate that math skills and self-regulation are strongly related in primary grades and that solving complex tasks requires executive functioning and task persistence from children. Findings support the idea that instructional practices might benefit from supporting self-regulation in order to gain domain-specific, complex skill achievement. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

  6. Fast mapping of novel word forms traced neurophysiologically

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yury eShtyrov

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Human capacity to quickly learn new words, critical for our ability to communicate using language, is well-known from behavioural studies and observations, but its neural underpinnings remain unclear. In this study, we have used event-related potentials to record brain activity to novel spoken word forms as they are being learnt by the human nervous system through passive auditory exposure. We found that the brain response dynamics change dramatically within the short (20 min exposure session: as the subjects become familiarised with the novel word forms, the early (~100 ms fronto-central activity they elicit increases in magnitude and becomes similar to that of known real words. At the same time, acoustically similar real words used as control stimuli show a relatively stable response throughout the recording session; these differences between the stimulus groups are confirmed using both factorial and linear regression analyses. Furthermore, acoustically matched novel non-speech stimuli do not demonstrate similar response increase, suggesting neural specificity of this rapid learning phenomenon to linguistic stimuli. Left-lateralised perisylvian cortical networks appear to be underlying such fast mapping of novel word forms unto the brain’s mental lexicon.

  7. Right Lateral Cerebellum Represents Linguistic Predictability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesage, Elise; Hansen, Peter C; Miall, R Chris

    2017-06-28

    Mounting evidence indicates that posterolateral portions of the cerebellum (right Crus I/II) contribute to language processing, but the nature of this role remains unclear. Based on a well-supported theory of cerebellar motor function, which ascribes to the cerebellum a role in short-term prediction through internal modeling, we hypothesize that right cerebellar Crus I/II supports prediction of upcoming sentence content. We tested this hypothesis using event-related fMRI in male and female human subjects by manipulating the predictability of written sentences. Our design controlled for motor planning and execution, as well as for linguistic features and working memory load; it also allowed separation of the prediction interval from the presentation of the final sentence item. In addition, three further fMRI tasks captured semantic, phonological, and orthographic processing to shed light on the nature of the information processed. As hypothesized, activity in right posterolateral cerebellum correlated with the predictability of the upcoming target word. This cerebellar region also responded to prediction error during the outcome of the trial. Further, this region was engaged in phonological, but not semantic or orthographic, processing. This is the first imaging study to demonstrate a right cerebellar contribution in language comprehension independently from motor, cognitive, and linguistic confounds. These results complement our work using other methodologies showing cerebellar engagement in linguistic prediction and suggest that internal modeling of phonological representations aids language production and comprehension. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The cerebellum is traditionally seen as a motor structure that allows for smooth movement by predicting upcoming signals. However, the cerebellum is also consistently implicated in nonmotor functions such as language and working memory. Using fMRI, we identify a cerebellar area that is active when words are predicted and

  8. An Interaction Between the Effects of Bilingualism and Cross-linguistic Similarity in Balanced and Unbalanced Bilingual Adults' L2 Mandarin Word-Reading Production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Hsiu-Ling

    2017-08-01

    We conducted three experiments investigating in more detail the interaction between the two effects of bilingualism and L1-L2 similarity in the speech performance of balanced and unbalanced bilinguals. In Experiment 1, L1 Mandarin monolinguals and two groups of Hakka and Minnan balanced bilinguals (Hakka: more similar to Mandarin) performed a non-contextual single-character reading task in Mandarin, which required more inhibitory control. The two bilingual groups outperformed the monolinguals, regardless of their L1 background. However, the bilingual advantage was not found in a contextual multi-word task (Experiment 2), but instead the effect of cross-linguistic similarity emerged. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, the Hakka unbalanced bilinguals showed an advantage in the non-contextual task, while their Minnan counterparts did not, and the impact of L1-L2 similarity emerged in both tasks. These results unveiled the way the two effects dynamically interplayed depending on the task contexts and the relative degrees of using L1 and L2.

  9. [Old English plant names from the linguistic and lexicographic viewpoint].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sauer, Hans; Krischke, Ulrike

    2004-01-01

    Roughly 1350 Old English plant names have come down to us; this is a relatively large number considering that the attested Old English vocabulary comprises ca. 24 000 words. The plant names are not only interesting for botanists, historians of medicine and many others, but also for philologists and linguists; among other aspects they can investigate their etymology, their morphology (including word-formation) and their meaning and motivation. Practically all Old English texts where plant names occur have been edited (including glosses and glossaries), the names have been listed in the Old English dictionaries, and some specific studies have been devoted to them. Nevertheless no comprehensive systematic analysis of their linguistic structure has been made. Ulrike Krischke is preparing such an analysis. A proper dictionary of the Old English plant names is also a desideratum, especially since the Old English dictionaries available and in progress normally do not deal with morphological and semantic aspects, and many do not provide etymological information. A plant-name dictionary concentrating on this information is being prepared by Hans Sauer and Ulrike Krischke. In our article here, we sketch the state of the art (ch. 1), we deal with some problems of the analysis of Old English plant names (ch. 2), e.g. the delimitation of the word-field plant names, the identification of the plants, errors and problematic spellings in the manuscripts. In ch. 3 we sketch the etymological structure according to chronological layers (Indo-European, Germanic, West-Germanic, Old English) as well as according to the distinction between native words and loan-words; in the latter category, we also mention loan-formations based on Latin models. In ch. 4 we survey the morphological aspects (simplex vs. complex words); among the complex nouns, compounds are by far the largest group (and among those, the noun + noun compounds), but there are also a few suffix formations. We also briefly

  10. Educational Implications of Conductive Hearing Loss in School Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyon, David J.; And Others

    1986-01-01

    The study investigated specific linguistic abilities/disabilities of 15 children with conductive hearing loss and a history of middle ear dysfunction. Results found significant deficits in verbal intelligence, word recognition, and receptive syntactic skills substantiating the finding that conductive hearing loss due to otitis media is deleterious…

  11. Does length or neighborhood size cause the word length effect?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jalbert, Annie; Neath, Ian; Surprenant, Aimée M

    2011-10-01

    Jalbert, Neath, Bireta, and Surprenant (2011) suggested that past demonstrations of the word length effect, the finding that words with fewer syllables are recalled better than words with more syllables, included a confound: The short words had more orthographic neighbors than the long words. The experiments reported here test two predictions that would follow if neighborhood size is a more important factor than word length. In Experiment 1, we found that concurrent articulation removed the effect of neighborhood size, just as it removes the effect of word length. Experiment 2 demonstrated that this pattern is also found with nonwords. For Experiment 3, we factorially manipulated length and neighborhood size, and found only effects of the latter. These results are problematic for any theory of memory that includes decay offset by rehearsal, but they are consistent with accounts that include a redintegrative stage that is susceptible to disruption by noise. The results also confirm the importance of lexical and linguistic factors on memory tasks thought to tap short-term memory.

  12. Detecting regular sound changes in linguistics as events of concerted evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hruschka, Daniel J; Branford, Simon; Smith, Eric D; Wilkins, Jon; Meade, Andrew; Pagel, Mark; Bhattacharya, Tanmoy

    2015-01-05

    Concerted evolution is normally used to describe parallel changes at different sites in a genome, but it is also observed in languages where a specific phoneme changes to the same other phoneme in many words in the lexicon—a phenomenon known as regular sound change. We develop a general statistical model that can detect concerted changes in aligned sequence data and apply it to study regular sound changes in the Turkic language family. Linguistic evolution, unlike the genetic substitutional process, is dominated by events of concerted evolutionary change. Our model identified more than 70 historical events of regular sound change that occurred throughout the evolution of the Turkic language family, while simultaneously inferring a dated phylogenetic tree. Including regular sound changes yielded an approximately 4-fold improvement in the characterization of linguistic change over a simpler model of sporadic change, improved phylogenetic inference, and returned more reliable and plausible dates for events on the phylogenies. The historical timings of the concerted changes closely follow a Poisson process model, and the sound transition networks derived from our model mirror linguistic expectations. We demonstrate that a model with no prior knowledge of complex concerted or regular changes can nevertheless infer the historical timings and genealogical placements of events of concerted change from the signals left in contemporary data. Our model can be applied wherever discrete elements—such as genes, words, cultural trends, technologies, or morphological traits—can change in parallel within an organism or other evolving group. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. GERMAN „MINNE” AND ARABIC MINNAH ( يُح : TWO OF A KIND? COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF „FAVORITISM” IN HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fee - Alexandra HAASE

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Traditionally it is assumed among historical linguists that language families are the main groups of common languages and their ancestors. Identical structural features of cases of words in different language families such as the case we discuss here and their etymological history demonstrate that there are parallels between derived semantic fields of the similar morphological structures of words from different language families. This claim c an be considered an argument in favour of the relationship of languages beyond the level of barriers of language families, which are usually considered to be the markers of linguistic difference. The following case study of the conceptualization of ̳favour ing‘ in the German and Arabic languages is a case illustrating such a relationship between words, which lead to parallels beyond the traditional language barriers. We are going to discuss here the phonetic and semantic relationship between the Arabic word minnah ( يُح and the Old High German and Middle High German words minna / minme in the context of the socio - cultural function of the common concept of both languages entailing the concept of ̳favouring‘. We conclude that there are genuine similarities betw een the words, even though the words belong to two different language families ( the Germanic languages within the Indo - European language family and the Semitic Afro - asiatic language family , and that in both cases the functioning of the socio - cultural conc ept of ̳favouring‘ reflected the socio - cultural context of the time at which the authors used the words ; in Germanic linguistic documents this concept of ̳favouritism‘ is embedded in the context of ̳love‘, while the realization of ̳favouritism‘ in Arabic p ertains to the economic context of society.

  14. Linguistic Polyphony

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nølke, Henning

    on the Scandinavian variant of polyphony, ScaPoLine. ScaPoLine is a formal linguistic theory whose main purpose is to specify the instructions conveyed through linguistic form for the creation of polyphonic meaning. The theoretical introduction is followed by polyphonic analyses of linguistic phenomena...

  15. Corpus linguistics, systemic functional grammar and literary meaning: a critical analysis of harry potter and the philosopher’s stone Corpus linguistics, systemic functional grammar and literary meaning: a critical analysis of harry potter and the philosopher’s stone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Goatly

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The research reported in this paper has two aims. First, to show how corpus linguistics, using word frequency and concordance data, which is then analysed according to transitivity systems of systemic functional grammar (SFG, can be useful to the enterprise of critical linguistics. Second, to investigate to what extent this critical corpus linguistics (CCL gives a valid representation of the meanings and ideologies of a literary text. The hypothesis tested is that semiotic models of communication, in this case of popular children’s literature, with their emphasis on the encoding and decoding of meanings, lend themselves to a corpus linguistics approach. But that, in fact, these mutually reinforcing approaches (SFG and CCL with their reliance on what is encoded as text cannot entirely succeed in accounting for how literature, in particular, is understood and interpreted, and how ideology works within it and behind it. For a richer critical discourse analysis we need a pragmatic account, for example an analysis of presupposition, inference and propositional attitude. The issues here will be discussed in the light of recent debate between Michael Stubbs and Henry Widdowson on the strengths and limitations of corpus linguistics in critical discourse analysis. The research reported in this paper has two aims. First, to show how corpus linguistics, using word frequency and concordance data, which is then analysed according to transitivity systems of systemic functional grammar (SFG, can be useful to the enterprise of critical linguistics. Second, to investigate to what extent this critical corpus linguistics (CCL gives a valid representation of the meanings and ideologies of a literary text. The hypothesis tested is that semiotic models of communication, in this case of popular children’s literature, with their emphasis on the encoding and decoding of meanings, lend themselves to a corpus linguistics approach. But that, in fact, these

  16. English Words and Phrases in Croatian: A Small-Scale Study of Language Awareness and Attitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marija Perić

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The focus of this paper is on language attitudes towards English words and phrases in the Croatian language. In order to prevent loanwords, linguistic purism has arisen as a theory about what languages should be like. The tradition of linguistic purism in Croatia has been shaped by various socio-historical factors. English may be viewed as a language of opportunity, or as a threat to the survival of other, usually minority and endangered, languages. In order to provide an insight into the use of English words and phrases in the Croatian context, a questionnaire about language attitudes and awareness was conducted on 534 participants. The aim of the questionnaire was to determine participants’ language attitudes and familiarity with English words and phrases. The results show that although people in Croatia generally like English, many of them are not familiar with English words, especially older participants and those with little or no knowledge of the English language. Moreover, the results indicate that the younger generation is more inclined towards English than the older generation; however, they are not as familiar with Croatian equivalents as they claim.

  17. Development of the Visual Word Form Area Requires Visual Experience: Evidence from Blind Braille Readers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Judy S; Kanjlia, Shipra; Merabet, Lotfi B; Bedny, Marina

    2017-11-22

    Learning to read causes the development of a letter- and word-selective region known as the visual word form area (VWFA) within the human ventral visual object stream. Why does a reading-selective region develop at this anatomical location? According to one hypothesis, the VWFA develops at the nexus of visual inputs from retinotopic cortices and linguistic input from the frontotemporal language network because reading involves extracting linguistic information from visual symbols. Surprisingly, the anatomical location of the VWFA is also active when blind individuals read Braille by touch, suggesting that vision is not required for the development of the VWFA. In this study, we tested the alternative prediction that VWFA development is in fact influenced by visual experience. We predicted that in the absence of vision, the "VWFA" is incorporated into the frontotemporal language network and participates in high-level language processing. Congenitally blind ( n = 10, 9 female, 1 male) and sighted control ( n = 15, 9 female, 6 male), male and female participants each took part in two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments: (1) word reading (Braille for blind and print for sighted participants), and (2) listening to spoken sentences of different grammatical complexity (both groups). We find that in blind, but not sighted participants, the anatomical location of the VWFA responds both to written words and to the grammatical complexity of spoken sentences. This suggests that in blindness, this region takes on high-level linguistic functions, becoming less selective for reading. More generally, the current findings suggest that experience during development has a major effect on functional specialization in the human cortex. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The visual word form area (VWFA) is a region in the human cortex that becomes specialized for the recognition of written letters and words. Why does this particular brain region become specialized for reading? We

  18. Compound words prompt arbitrary semantic associations in conceptual memory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bastien eBoutonnet

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Linguistic relativity theory has received empirical support in domains such as colour perception and object categorisation. It is unknown however, whether relations between words idiosyncratic to language impact nonverbal representations and conceptualisations. For instance, would one consider the concepts of horse and sea as related were it not for the existence of the compound seahorse? Here, we investigated such arbitrary conceptual relationships using a non-linguistic picture relatedness task in participants undergoing event-related brain potential recordings. Picture pairs arbitrarily related because of a compound and presented in the compound order elicited N400 amplitudes similar to unrelated pairs. Surprisingly, however, pictures presented in the reverse order (as in the sequence horse – sea reduced N400 amplitudes significantly, demonstrating the existence of a link in memory between these two concepts otherwise unrelated. These results break new ground in the domain of linguistic relativity by revealing predicted semantic associations driven by lexical relations intrinsic to language.

  19. On the Nature of Cross-Linguistic Transfer: A Case Study of Andean Spanish

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muntendam, Antje G.

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents the results of a study on cross-linguistic transfer in Andean Spanish word order. In Andean Spanish the object appears in preverbal position more frequently than in non-Andean Spanish, which has been attributed to an influence from Quechua (a Subject-Object-Verb language). The high frequency of preverbal objects could be…

  20. Ontological Annotation with WordNet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanfilippo, Antonio P.; Tratz, Stephen C.; Gregory, Michelle L.; Chappell, Alan R.; Whitney, Paul D.; Posse, Christian; Paulson, Patrick R.; Baddeley, Bob; Hohimer, Ryan E.; White, Amanda M.

    2006-06-06

    Semantic Web applications require robust and accurate annotation tools that are capable of automating the assignment of ontological classes to words in naturally occurring text (ontological annotation). Most current ontologies do not include rich lexical databases and are therefore not easily integrated with word sense disambiguation algorithms that are needed to automate ontological annotation. WordNet provides a potentially ideal solution to this problem as it offers a highly structured lexical conceptual representation that has been extensively used to develop word sense disambiguation algorithms. However, WordNet has not been designed as an ontology, and while it can be easily turned into one, the result of doing this would present users with serious practical limitations due to the great number of concepts (synonym sets) it contains. Moreover, mapping WordNet to an existing ontology may be difficult and requires substantial labor. We propose to overcome these limitations by developing an analytical platform that (1) provides a WordNet-based ontology offering a manageable and yet comprehensive set of concept classes, (2) leverages the lexical richness of WordNet to give an extensive characterization of concept class in terms of lexical instances, and (3) integrates a class recognition algorithm that automates the assignment of concept classes to words in naturally occurring text. The ensuing framework makes available an ontological annotation platform that can be effectively integrated with intelligence analysis systems to facilitate evidence marshaling and sustain the creation and validation of inference models.

  1. Linguistic transfer in bilingual children with specific language impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verhoeven, Ludo; Steenge, Judit; van Balkom, Hans

    2012-01-01

    In the literature so far the limited research on specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children has concentrated on linguistic skills in the first language (L1) and/or the second language (L2) without paying attention to the relations between the two types of skills and to the issue of linguistic transfer. To examine the first and second language proficiency of 75 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children with SLI in the age range between 7 and 11 years living in the Netherlands. A multidimensional perspective on language proficiency was taken in order to assess children's Turkish and Dutch proficiency levels, whereas equivalent tests were used in order to determine language dominance. A second aim was to find out to what extent the children's proficiency in L2 can be predicted from their L1 proficiency, while taking into account their general cognitive abilities. The children's performance on a battery of equivalent language ability tests in Turkish and Dutch was compared at three age levels. By means of analyses of variance, it was explored to what extent the factors of language and grade level as well as their interactions were significant. Bivariate correlations and partial correlations with age level partialled out were computed to examine the relationships between L1 and L2 proficiency levels. Moreover, regression analysis was conducted to find out to what extent the variance in general L2 proficiency levels could be explained by children's L1 proficiency, short-term memory and non-verbal intelligence. Repeated measures analyses showed that the children had generally higher scores on L1 as compared with L2 and that with progression of age the children's scores in L1 and L2 improved. Medium to high correlations were found between phonological memory, phonological awareness, grammatical skills and story comprehension in the two languages. Regression analysis revealed that children's L2 proficiency levels could be explained by their proficiency levels in L1

  2. The impact of metacognitive strategies and self-regulating processes of solving math word problems

    OpenAIRE

    Eda Vula; Rrezarta Avdyli; Valbona Berisha; Blerim Saqipi; Shpetim Elezi

    2017-01-01

    This empirical study investigates the impact of metacognitive strategies and self-regulating processes in learners’ achievement on solving math word problems. It specifically analyzes the impact of the linguistic factor and the number of steps and arithmetical operations that learners need to apply during the process of solving math word problems. Two hundred sixty-three learners, of three classes of third graders (N=130) and four classes of fifth ...

  3. Discourse abilities in the structure of intelligence

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    Voronin A. N.

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Background. This article is devoted to empirical research on discourse abilities within the structure of cognitive abilities. Discourse abilities, as well as linguistic abilities, are part of language abilities, but they are directly linked with discourse practices and a certain communicative situation. Discourse abilities allow a person to effectively initiate, keep, expand, and complete the process of communication, using language appropriate to any given situation. These abilities contribute to making communication more effective and achieving mutual understanding between partners, while at the same time they speed up the process of forming an interaction strategy. the empirical verification of the construct “discourse abilities,” and the design of original diagnostic tests on them, led us to differentiate linguistic and discourse abilities. Objective. However, it is not yet clear what place discourse abilities occupy in the structure of cognitive abilities. This is the primary goal of our research. Method. The design of the study involved group testing (in groups of 15-35 people using the following methods: a discourse abilities test; a short selection test; a social intelligence test, and short variations of Torrance’s and Mednick’s tests. In total, 208 people (133 women and 75 men, ages 17 to 21 years participated in the study, all of them either first year humanities students or high school students from Moscow. Results and Discussion. The research results revealed that discourse abilities relevantly correlate with the majority of indicators of general and social intelligence and creativity (except non-verbal intelligence. Discourse abilities as part of the structure of cognitive capabilities form a discrete factor, and include relevant components such as verbal and general intelligence and indicators of social intelligence, such as the ability to group expressions. Structures indicative of cognitive abilities varied within the

  4. Ladies First? Not So Fast: Linguistic Sexism in Peer-Reviewed Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willis, Malachi; Jozkowski, Kristen N

    2018-02-01

    The words we use reflect and influence our interpretation of the world. The role of gender within a language varies; biases based on social gender are referred to as linguistic sexism. Male firstness is the practice of persistently ordering masculine terms before feminine terms. Because academic writing is mandated to be free of bias, peer-reviewed research should not contain any form of linguistic sexism. To assess the presence of male firstness in academic writing, we examined 862 contemporary articles from 10 social science journals across three disciplines: sexuality, health, and psychology. To assess male firstness, we tallied common gendered pairs (e.g., "women and men"; "male and female") and calculated percentages indicating how often men were presented before women. We found that male firstness bias was present in each of the 10 journals. For individual journals, the percentage of gendered phrases that presented masculine terms first ranged from 57.7% to 88.8%. Sexuality and health journals demonstrated less linguistic sexism than psychology; however, there were no consistent trends between journals within each discipline. We discuss the current presence of male firstness in academic journals and the issues this bias triggers. Recommendations for reducing linguistic sexism in peer-reviewed research are also discussed.

  5. Exploring the Correlates of Impaired Non-Word Repetition in Down Syndrome

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cairns, Peter; Jarrold, Christopher

    2005-01-01

    Non-word repetition, in which participants hear and repeat unfamiliar verbal stimuli, is thought to provide a particularly sensitive measure of verbal short-term memory capacity. However, performance on this task can also be constrained by hearing and speech production skills, and by an individuals' linguistic knowledge. This study examined real…

  6. How to define a word in a lexical network?

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    Dorota Sikora

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available As underlined in Wierzbicka (1996: 239, a «linguistic definition is a scientific hypothesis about the concept encoded in a given word». The present paper focuses on the problem of what such hypothesis is about. Lexicon of any language is structured with a set of connections relating lexical items. That is to say that speakers of any language need to master not only separate words, but rather a cluster of connected senses. If so, then a lexical definition should lay out the concept the word lexicalizes in the way that gives access to the whole grasp of its conceptual, paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. We discuss the topic of definitional structures developed in the context of the French Lexical Network (Réseau Lexical du Français.

  7. Semantic Neighborhood Effects for Abstract versus Concrete Words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danguecan, Ashley N; Buchanan, Lori

    2016-01-01

    Studies show that semantic effects may be task-specific, and thus, that semantic representations are flexible and dynamic. Such findings are critical to the development of a comprehensive theory of semantic processing in visual word recognition, which should arguably account for how semantic effects may vary by task. It has been suggested that semantic effects are more directly examined using tasks that explicitly require meaning processing relative to those for which meaning processing is not necessary (e.g., lexical decision task). The purpose of the present study was to chart the processing of concrete versus abstract words in the context of a global co-occurrence variable, semantic neighborhood density (SND), by comparing word recognition response times (RTs) across four tasks varying in explicit semantic demands: standard lexical decision task (with non-pronounceable non-words), go/no-go lexical decision task (with pronounceable non-words), progressive demasking task, and sentence relatedness task. The same experimental stimulus set was used across experiments and consisted of 44 concrete and 44 abstract words, with half of these being low SND, and half being high SND. In this way, concreteness and SND were manipulated in a factorial design using a number of visual word recognition tasks. A consistent RT pattern emerged across tasks, in which SND effects were found for abstract (but not necessarily concrete) words. Ultimately, these findings highlight the importance of studying interactive effects in word recognition, and suggest that linguistic associative information is particularly important for abstract words.

  8. Linguistic aspects of eponymic professional endocrinologic terminology

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    N.I. Bytsko

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Background. Special linguistic researches of terminological units of different branches of medicine allow analyzing in details the ways of creating the systems of clinical terminology from different aspects: historical, scientific, cultural, linguistic and semantic. There is a wide area of terminology related to the clinical and experimental endocrino­logy within general medical terminological system. The purpose of the study: to demonstrate the structure of endocrine medical terms — eponyms through the prism of systematization of methodological researches on eponymic vocabulary. Materials and methods. The actual material received as a result of a total choice of eponyms (there were 296 terms from the “Reference dictionary for endocrinologist”, which was composed by the scientists of V. Danilevsky Institute of Endocrine Pathology Problems and Kharkiv Medical Academy of Postgraduate education — A.V. Kozakov, N.A. Kravchun, I.M. Ilyina, M.I. Zubko, O.A. Goncharova, I.V. Cherniavska has 10,000 endocrine terms, the authors successfully streamlined medical terms of the clinical and experimental endocrinology into the vocabulary. The method of total choice of terms from professional literature, the descriptive method and distributive method were used in the study that allowed distinguishing lexical and semantic features of eponymic terms in the branch of endocrinology. Results. The obtained results point out to the modernity of studies in the field of clinical and experimental endocrinology, which is due to the fact that this is the oldest terminology, by the example of which it is possible to trace the ways of formation, development and improvement of terms, the realization of semantic processes, certain trends, ways and means of word formation. Conclusions. The results of the research on the above mentioned sublanguage of clinical medicine at the level of linguistic observations of the functio­ning in dictionaries and scientific works will

  9. Extraction of Linguistic Information from Successive Words during Reading: Evidence for Spatially Distributed Lexical Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chin-An; Inhoff, Albrecht W.

    2013-01-01

    Two experiments examined whether word recognition progressed from one word to the next during reading, as maintained by sequential attention shift models such as the E-Z Reader model. The boundary technique was used to control the visibility of to-be-identified short target words, so that they were either previewed in the parafovea or masked. The…

  10. Biomimetics in Intelligent Sensor and Actuator Automation Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruckner, Dietmar; Dietrich, Dietmar; Zucker, Gerhard; Müller, Brit

    Intelligent machines are really an old mankind's dream. With increasing technological development, the requirements for intelligent devices also increased. However, up to know, artificial intelligence (AI) lacks solutions to the demands of truly intelligent machines that have no problems to integrate themselves into daily human environments. Current hardware with a processing power of billions of operations per second (but without any model of human-like intelligence) could not substantially contribute to the intelligence of machines when compared with that of the early AI times. There are great results, of course. Machines are able to find the shortest path between far apart cities on the map; algorithms let you find information described only by few key words. But no machine is able to get us a cup of coffee from the kitchen yet.

  11. The socio-rhetorical force of 'truth talk' and lies: The case of 1 John

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Test

    2010-08-05

    Aug 5, 2010 ... The point is that humans have immense linguistic capacity. The power of words ... discussing it especially when the lines of veracity were being pushed in written .... unbecoming of human intelligence. .... Arguments about lying and the quality of truth were rhetorically ... artificial context of written discourse.

  12. The role of visual representations during the lexical access of spoken words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Gwyneth; Poeppel, David

    2014-07-01

    Do visual representations contribute to spoken word recognition? We examine, using MEG, the effects of sublexical and lexical variables at superior temporal (ST) areas and the posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) compared with that of word imageability at visual cortices. Embodied accounts predict early modulation of visual areas by imageability--concurrently with or prior to modulation of pMTG by lexical variables. Participants responded to speech stimuli varying continuously in imageability during lexical decision with simultaneous MEG recording. We employed the linguistic variables in a new type of correlational time course analysis to assess trial-by-trial activation in occipital, ST, and pMTG regions of interest (ROIs). The linguistic variables modulated the ROIs during different time windows. Critically, visual regions reflected an imageability effect prior to effects of lexicality on pMTG. This surprising effect supports a view on which sensory aspects of a lexical item are not a consequence of lexical activation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. DINAMIC ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONALIZATION IN MODERN MEDIA WORD CREATION

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    Ratsiburskaya Larisa Viktorovna

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In the context of globalization at the turn of XX–XXI centuries there are various manifestations of internationalization in the Russian language notified by linguists. Internationalization in modern Russian word-formation reveals itself in derivational activity of loan morphemes and models, as well as in the borrowing of new derivational morphemes. In modern mass media word creation well-known derivational affixes (the prefixes anti-, contr-, pseudo-, quasi-, super-, hyper-, ultra-, ex-, as well as some new derivational elements (the prefix mega-, the suffix -ing, -land, -wood, suffixed -gate are noted, and the author puts forward arguments to substantiate their morphemic status. "Ameroglobalization", and in particular the influence of the English language on the semantics of prefixes, contributes to the growth of word-building activity and productivity of the prefixes which are of Greek-Latin origin. The appearance of new word-building affixes in the modern Russian language is affected by active usage of the corresponding foreign morphemes in the journalists' word creation, in media texts and on the internet forums. Activization of foreign derivation elements in the media word creation is conditioned by sociocultural factors. Advertisement and mass media encourage the trend of using angloamericanisms and facilitate growth of word-building productivity of new affixes and new word-building models.

  14. Language Play and Linguistic Hybridity as Current Trends in Hungarian Word-Formation

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    Réka Benczes

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Hungarian literature on word-formation typically focuses on rule-governed descriptions of regular and typologically relevant patterns. However, there are plenty of other word-formation trends that usually go unnoticed in mainstream morphological research. The present paper will focus on two such trends: 1 rhyming and alliterating compounds such as pannon puma ‘Pannonian puma’ (a euphemism for Hungary’s economic performance, on the analogy of Asian tiger; and 2 creative prefixations such as meggugliz (‘to google’ and felhájpol (‘to hype’. Although these are seemingly two quite different patterns, in fact they share two significant traits. On the one hand, they are demonstrations of the fact that language users make full use of the creative possibilities in language and routinely play with sounds and meanings. On the other hand, they are also indications of the influential role of English in present-day Hungarian word-formation. It seems that language users are not only aware of the possibilities that this interference can result in but are also able to exploit these consciously. This crossing of language boundaries is becoming increasingly inevitable with the global spread of English.

  15. [A pilot study of differences in behavioral and linguistic characteristics between Sina suicide microblog users and Sina microblog users without suicide idea].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guan, Li; Hao, Bibo; Liu, Tianli; Cheng, Qijin; Yip, Paul Siu Fai; Zhu, Tingshao

    2015-05-01

    To investigate how suicide microblog users in China "act" and "speak" differently from other microblog users without suicide idea. The suicide group consisted of 31 Chinese microblog users identified as suicide via online information provided by a Sina microblog user, and the control group consisted of 30 active microblog users without suicide idea screened by using suicide-related psychological scales. The differences in 10 microblog use behavioral characteristics and 88 linguistic characteristics between the suicide group and the control group were compared with normality test and rank sum test respectively. In the behavioral characteristics, the suicide group used hyperlinks and "@" less frequently than the control group [0.04 (0.04) vs. 0.06 (0.04), P=0.029; 0.60 (0.27) vs. 0.69 (0.18), P=0.028], and was more self-focused [0.47 (0.25) vs. 0.30 (0.10), P=0.010]. In the linguistic characteristics, the suicide group showed less frequency in using measure word, work related word and apostrophe than the control group (P<0.05), and showed more frequency in using pronoun, personal pronoun, third person singular, non-specific pronoun, word expressing social experience, word expressing anxiety, word expressing exclusion, sexual word, religious word, second person singular, human being related word, negative emotion related word, anger related word, sadness or death related word (P<0.05). Suicides seemed to interact less with others, showed more self-concern and more negative expressions, use more cognitively exclusive, death-related, religion-related words, and use less work-related words. The results of this study might be helpful for the research on suicide among netizen.

  16. Cross-Linguistic Analysis of Vietnamese and English with Implications for Vietnamese Language Acquisition and Maintenance in the United States

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giang Tang

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Two overall goals of this paper are a to provide a linguistic basis for promoting first language maintenance of Vietnamese in a larger United States context and b to stimulate future research in language acquisition of Vietnamese-English speakers. This paper is divided into three sections. Section 1 discusses previous studies on first language (L1 maintenance among Vietnamese Americans. Section 2 presents a cross-linguistic comparison of Vietnamese and English across speech-sound, word, and grammatical language levels. A cross-linguistic analysis may help educators better understand speaking patterns of Vietnamese American students. Based on this cross-linguistic comparison, Section 3 presents potential bi-directional interactions between Vietnamese and English within an individual speaker. These predictions are intended to provide a framework for future empirical studies related to bilingual development.

  17. What is specific and what is shared between numbers and words?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Júlia Beatriz Lopes-Silva

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Reading and spelling performance have a significant correlation with number transcoding, which is the ability to establish a relationship between the verbal and Arabic representations of numbers, when a conversion of numerical symbols from one notation to the other is necessary. The aim of the present study is to reveal shared and specific mechanisms involved in reading and writing words and Arabic numerals in Brazilian school-aged children. One hundred and seventy two children from 2nd to 4th grades were evaluated. All of them had normal intelligence. We conducted a series of hierarchical regression models using scores on word spelling and reading single words and Arabic numerals, as dependent variables. As predictor variables we investigated intelligence, the phonological and visuospatial components of working memory and phonemic awareness. All of the writing and reading tasks (single word spelling and reading as well as number reading and number writing were significantly correlated to each other. In the regressions models, phonological working memory was specifically associated to word reading. Phonemic awareness was the only cognitive variables that systematically predicted all of the school skills investigated, both numerical and word tasks. This suggests that phonemic awareness is a modular cognitive ability shared by several school tasks and might be an important factor associated to the comorbidity between dyslexia and dyscalculia.

  18. The organization of words and environmental sounds in memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendrickson, Kristi; Walenski, Matthew; Friend, Margaret; Love, Tracy

    2015-03-01

    In the present study we used event-related potentials to compare the organization of linguistic and meaningful nonlinguistic sounds in memory. We examined N400 amplitudes as adults viewed pictures presented with words or environmental sounds that matched the picture (Match), that shared semantic features with the expected match (Near Violation), and that shared relatively few semantic features with the expected match (Far Violation). Words demonstrated incremental N400 amplitudes based on featural similarity from 300-700ms, such that both Near and Far Violations exhibited significant N400 effects, however Far Violations exhibited greater N400 effects than Near Violations. For environmental sounds, Far Violations but not Near Violations elicited significant N400 effects, in both early (300-400ms) and late (500-700ms) time windows, though a graded pattern similar to that of words was seen in the mid-latency time window (400-500ms). These results indicate that the organization of words and environmental sounds in memory is differentially influenced by featural similarity, with a consistently fine-grained graded structure for words but not sounds. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. A frequency-based linguistic approach to protein decoding and design: Simple concepts, diverse applications, and the SCS Package

    Science.gov (United States)

    Motomura, Kenta; Nakamura, Morikazu; Otaki, Joji M.

    2013-01-01

    Protein structure and function information is coded in amino acid sequences. However, the relationship between primary sequences and three-dimensional structures and functions remains enigmatic. Our approach to this fundamental biochemistry problem is based on the frequencies of short constituent sequences (SCSs) or words. A protein amino acid sequence is considered analogous to an English sentence, where SCSs are equivalent to words. Availability scores, which are defined as real SCS frequencies in the non-redundant amino acid database relative to their probabilistically expected frequencies, demonstrate the biological usage bias of SCSs. As a result, this frequency-based linguistic approach is expected to have diverse applications, such as secondary structure specifications by structure-specific SCSs and immunological adjuvants with rare or non-existent SCSs. Linguistic similarities (e.g., wide ranges of scale-free distributions) and dissimilarities (e.g., behaviors of low-rank samples) between proteins and the natural English language have been revealed in the rank-frequency relationships of SCSs or words. We have developed a web server, the SCS Package, which contains five applications for analyzing protein sequences based on the linguistic concept. These tools have the potential to assist researchers in deciphering structurally and functionally important protein sites, species-specific sequences, and functional relationships between SCSs. The SCS Package also provides researchers with a tool to construct amino acid sequences de novo based on the idiomatic usage of SCSs. PMID:24688703

  20. A FREQUENCY-BASED LINGUISTIC APPROACH TO PROTEIN DECODING AND DESIGN: SIMPLE CONCEPTS, DIVERSE APPLICATIONS, AND THE SCS PACKAGE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kenta Motomura

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Protein structure and function information is coded in amino acid sequences. However, the relationship between primary sequences and three-dimensional structures and functions remains enigmatic. Our approach to this fundamental biochemistry problem is based on the frequencies of short constituent sequences (SCSs or words. A protein amino acid sequence is considered analogous to an English sentence, where SCSs are equivalent to words. Availability scores, which are defined as real SCS frequencies in the non-redundant amino acid database relative to their probabilistically expected frequencies, demonstrate the biological usage bias of SCSs. As a result, this frequency-based linguistic approach is expected to have diverse applications, such as secondary structure specifications by structure-specific SCSs and immunological adjuvants with rare or non-existent SCSs. Linguistic similarities (e.g., wide ranges of scale-free distributions and dissimilarities (e.g., behaviors of low-rank samples between proteins and the natural English language have been revealed in the rank-frequency relationships of SCSs or words. We have developed a web server, the SCS Package, which contains five applications for analyzing protein sequences based on the linguistic concept. These tools have the potential to assist researchers in deciphering structurally and functionally important protein sites, species-specific sequences, and functional relationships between SCSs. The SCS Package also provides researchers with a tool to construct amino acid sequences de novo based on the idiomatic usage of SCSs.

  1. Gender and neural substrates subserving implicit processing of death-related linguistic cues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Jungang; Shi, Zhenhao; Ma, Yina; Han, Shihui

    2018-02-01

    Our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging study revealed decreased activities in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and bilateral insula for women during the implicit processing of death-related linguistic cues. Current work tested whether aforementioned activities are common for women and men and explored potential gender differences. We scanned twenty males while they performed a color-naming task on death-related, negative-valence, and neutral-valence words. Whole-brain analysis showed increased left frontal activity and decreased activities in the ACC and bilateral insula to death-related versus negative-valence words for both men and women. However, relative to women, men showed greater increased activity in the left middle frontal cortex and decreased activity in the right cerebellum to death-related versus negative-valence words. The results suggest, while implicit processing of death-related words is characterized with weakened sense of oneself for both women and men, men may recruit stronger cognitive regulation of emotion than women.

  2. Emotional Intelligence, Academic Procrastination and Academic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Itwas therefore recommended that efforts should be made to look into other pressing factors like self-esteem, teacher's attitude, student's attitude, parental background among others which may be influencing student's poor academic achievement. Key words: Emotional Intelligence, Academic Procrastination, Academic ...

  3. Computational principles of syntax in the regions specialized for language: integrating theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohta, Shinri; Fukui, Naoki; Sakai, Kuniyoshi L

    2013-01-01

    The nature of computational principles of syntax remains to be elucidated. One promising approach to this problem would be to construct formal and abstract linguistic models that parametrically predict the activation modulations in the regions specialized for linguistic processes. In this article, we review recent advances in theoretical linguistics and functional neuroimaging in the following respects. First, we introduce the two fundamental linguistic operations: Merge (which combines two words or phrases to form a larger structure) and Search (which searches and establishes a syntactic relation of two words or phrases). We also illustrate certain universal properties of human language, and present hypotheses regarding how sentence structures are processed in the brain. Hypothesis I is that the Degree of Merger (DoM), i.e., the maximum depth of merged subtrees within a given domain, is a key computational concept to properly measure the complexity of tree structures. Hypothesis II is that the basic frame of the syntactic structure of a given linguistic expression is determined essentially by functional elements, which trigger Merge and Search. We then present our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, demonstrating that the DoM is indeed a key syntactic factor that accounts for syntax-selective activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Hypothesis III is that the DoM domain changes dynamically in accordance with iterative Merge applications, the Search distances, and/or task requirements. We confirm that the DoM accounts for activations in various sentence types. Hypothesis III successfully explains activation differences between object- and subject-relative clauses, as well as activations during explicit syntactic judgment tasks. A future research on the computational principles of syntax will further deepen our understanding of uniquely human mental faculties.

  4. CODE SWITCHING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC SYSTEM OF SIMULTANEOUS BILINGUAL CHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leni Amelia Suek

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Code switching and code mixing are the phenomena commonly seen done by a bilingual. This behavior is influenced by several aspects such as the linguistic system, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and language competence of the bilingual. If children are able to distinguish two different languages since early age, they will be considered simultaneous bilinguals. They show that they develop multiple, rather than single, linguistic systems. However, it was understood that code switching and code mixing were due to the failure in using proper words, language features, and sociolinguistic competence. Yet, recent studies have shown that bilingual children are able to use both languages proficiently with no signs of confusion or failure in language use. This ability also does not hinder their cognitive development.

  5. A Mexican Study of Multiple Intelligences for Pre-Service Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rebeca Elena Tapia Carlín

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available This article describes a study conducted in a Mexican English teacher education program about multiple intelligences. Seventy-four first year students participated in the study. Findings reveal that the highest kinds of intelligences were the bodily kinesthetic, the interpersonal, the intrapersonal, and the musical; the lowest ones were the naturalist, the existential, the verbal linguistic, the logical mathematical, and the visual spatial. The authors suggest that it is important to diagnose and promote these intelligences in trainees in a systematic way in order to equip them with knowledge and experience of multiple intelligences in order to use them in their future teacher practice.

  6. Automated Intelligibility Assessment of Pathological Speech Using Phonological Features

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    Catherine Middag

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available It is commonly acknowledged that word or phoneme intelligibility is an important criterion in the assessment of the communication efficiency of a pathological speaker. People have therefore put a lot of effort in the design of perceptual intelligibility rating tests. These tests usually have the drawback that they employ unnatural speech material (e.g., nonsense words and that they cannot fully exclude errors due to listener bias. Therefore, there is a growing interest in the application of objective automatic speech recognition technology to automate the intelligibility assessment. Current research is headed towards the design of automated methods which can be shown to produce ratings that correspond well with those emerging from a well-designed and well-performed perceptual test. In this paper, a novel methodology that is built on previous work (Middag et al., 2008 is presented. It utilizes phonological features, automatic speech alignment based on acoustic models that were trained on normal speech, context-dependent speaker feature extraction, and intelligibility prediction based on a small model that can be trained on pathological speech samples. The experimental evaluation of the new system reveals that the root mean squared error of the discrepancies between perceived and computed intelligibilities can be as low as 8 on a scale of 0 to 100.

  7. Are computers effective lie detectors? A meta-analysis of linguistic cues to deception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauch, Valerie; Blandón-Gitlin, Iris; Masip, Jaume; Sporer, Siegfried L

    2015-11-01

    This meta-analysis investigates linguistic cues to deception and whether these cues can be detected with computer programs. We integrated operational definitions for 79 cues from 44 studies where software had been used to identify linguistic deception cues. These cues were allocated to six research questions. As expected, the meta-analyses demonstrated that, relative to truth-tellers, liars experienced greater cognitive load, expressed more negative emotions, distanced themselves more from events, expressed fewer sensory-perceptual words, and referred less often to cognitive processes. However, liars were not more uncertain than truth-tellers. These effects were moderated by event type, involvement, emotional valence, intensity of interaction, motivation, and other moderators. Although the overall effect size was small, theory-driven predictions for certain cues received support. These findings not only further our knowledge about the usefulness of linguistic cues to detect deception with computers in applied settings but also elucidate the relationship between language and deception. © 2014 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  8. First-language raters’ opinions when validating word recordings for a newly developed speech reception threshold test

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seema Panday

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: The purpose of this study was to consider the value of adding first-language speaker ratings to the process of validating word recordings for use in a new speech reception threshold (SRT test in audiology. Previous studies had identified 28 word recordings as being suitable for use in a new SRT test. These word recordings had been shown to satisfy the linguistic criteria of familiarity, phonetic dissimilarity and tone, and the psychometric criterion of homogeneity of audibility.   Objectives: The aim of the study was to consider the value of adding first-language speakers’ ratings when validating word recordings for a new SRT test.   Method: A single observation, cross-sectional design was used to collect and analyse quantitative data in this study. Eleven first-language isiZulu speakers, purposively selected, were asked to rate each of the word recordings for pitch, clarity, naturalness, speech rate and quality on a 5-point Likert scale. The percent agreement and Friedman test were used for analysis.   Results: More than 20% of these 11 participants rated the three-word recordings below ‘strongly agree’ in the category of pitch or tone, and one-word recording below ‘strongly agree’ in the categories of pitch or tone, clarity or articulation and naturalness or dialect.   Conclusion: The first-language speaker ratings proved to be a valuable addition to the process of selecting word recordings for use in a new SRT test. In particular, these ratings identified potentially problematic word recordings in the new SRT test that had been missed by the previously and more commonly used linguistic and psychometric selection criteria.

  9. First-language raters' opinions when validating word recordings for a newly developed speech reception threshold test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panday, Seema; Kathard, Harsha; Pillay, Mershen; Wilson, Wayne

    2018-03-29

     The purpose of this study was to consider the value of adding first-language speaker ratings to the process of validating word recordings for use in a new speech reception threshold (SRT) test in audiology. Previous studies had identified 28 word recordings as being suitable for use in a new SRT test. These word recordings had been shown to satisfy the linguistic criteria of familiarity, phonetic dissimilarity and tone, and the psychometric criterion of homogeneity of audibility. Objectives: The aim of the study was to consider the value of adding first-language speakers' ratings when validating word recordings for a new SRT test. Method: A single observation, cross-sectional design was used to collect and analyse quantitative data in this study. Eleven first-language isiZulu speakers, purposively selected, were asked to rate each of the word recordings for pitch, clarity, naturalness, speech rate and quality on a 5-point Likert scale. The percent agreement and Friedman test were used for analysis. Results: More than 20% of these 11 participants rated the three-word recordings below 'strongly agree' in the category of pitch or tone, and one-word recording below 'strongly agree' in the categories of pitch or tone, clarity or articulation and naturalness or dialect. Conclusion: The first-language speaker ratings proved to be a valuable addition to the process of selecting word recordings for use in a new SRT test. In particular, these ratings identified potentially problematic word recordings in the new SRT test that had been missed by the previously and more commonly used linguistic and psychometric selection criteria.

  10. Functional and anatomical correlates of word-, sentence-, and discourse-level integration in sign language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomoo eInubushi

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available In both vocal and sign languages, we can distinguish word-, sentence-, and discourse-level integration in terms of hierarchical processes, which integrate various elements into another higher level of constructs. In the present study, we used magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry to test three language tasks in Japanese Sign Language (JSL: word-level (Word, sentence-level (Sent, and discourse-level (Disc decision tasks. We analyzed cortical activity and gray matter volumes of Deaf signers, and clarified three major points. First, we found that the activated regions in the frontal language areas gradually expanded in the dorso-ventral axis, corresponding to a difference in linguistic units for the three tasks. Moreover, the activations in each region of the frontal language areas were incrementally modulated with the level of linguistic integration. These dual mechanisms of the frontal language areas may reflect a basic organization principle of hierarchically integrating linguistic information. Secondly, activations in the lateral premotor cortex and inferior frontal gyrus were left-lateralized. Direct comparisons among the language tasks exhibited more focal activation in these regions, suggesting their functional localization. Thirdly, we found significantly positive correlations between individual task performances and gray matter volumes in localized regions, even when the ages of acquisition of JSL and Japanese were factored out. More specifically, correlations with the performances of the Word and Sent tasks were found in the left precentral/postcentral gyrus and insula, respectively, while correlations with those of the Disc task were found in the left ventral inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus. The unification of functional and anatomical studies would thus be fruitful for understanding human language systems from the aspects of both universality and individuality.

  11. Multiple Intelligences within the Cross-Curricular Approach

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    Anthoula Vaiou

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available The present study was realized in a Greek 6th grade State Primary School class and was based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which was first introduced in 1983. More particularly, it was explored to what extent the young learners possess multiple intelligences through the use of a specially-designed questionnaire and a series of interviews. The findings of the above have served as a tool to the construction of a project work based on students’ learning preferences within a cross-curricular framework, easily applicable to the Greek State School curriculum. All learners were activated to participate within a school environment that traditionally promotes linguistic and mathematical skills matching dominant multiple intelligences or a combination of some of them to thematic units already taught by Greek teachers. The suggested project was assessed through observation and student portfolio, showing that the young learners’ multiple intelligences were exploited to a great extent, promoting the learning process satisfactorily. The results of this study can provide a contribution to the literature of multiple intelligences in the Greek reality and suggest a need for further consideration and exploration in the field. Finally, the researcher of this study hopes the present work could function as a springboard for more elaborated studies in the future.

  12. By their words ye shall know them: evidence of genetic selection against general intelligence and concurrent environmental enrichment in vocabulary usage since the mid 19th century

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    Michael Anthony Woodley of Menie

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available It has been theorized that declines in g due to negative selection stemming from the inverse association between completed fertility and IQ, and the Flynn effect co-occur, with the effects of the latter being concentrated on less-heritable non-g sources of intelligence variance. Evidence for this comes from the observation that 19th Century populations were more intellectually productive, and also exhibited faster simple reaction times than modern ones, suggesting higher g. This co-occurrence model is tested via examination of historical changes in the utilization frequencies of words from the highly g-loaded WORDSUM test across 5.9 million texts spanning 1850 to 2005. Consistent with predictions, words with higher difficulties (δ parameters from Item Response Theory and stronger negative correlations between pass-rates and completed fertility presented a steeper decline in use over time, than less difficult and less negatively selected words, which increased in use over time, suggestive of a Flynn effect. These findings persisted when explicitly controlled for word age, literacy rates and temporal autocorrelation. These trends constitute compelling evidence that both producers and consumers of text have experienced declines in g since the mid-19th Century.

  13. The linguistic roots of Natural Pedagogy

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    Otávio eMattos

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Natural pedagogy is a human-specific capacity that allows us to acquire cultural information from communication even before the emergence of the first words, encompassing three core elements: (i a sensitivity to ostensive signals like eye contact that indicate to infants that they are being addressed through communication, (ii a subsequent referential expectation (satisfied by the use of declarative gestures and (iii a biased interpretation of ostensive-referential communication as conveying relevant information about the referent's kind (Csibra & Gergely, 2011, 2009, 2006. Remarkably, the link between natural pedagogy and another human-specific capacity, namely language, has rarely been investigated in detail. We here argue that children’s production and comprehension of declarative gestures around 10 months of age are in fact expressions of an evolving faculty of language. Through both declarative gestures and ostensive signals, infants can assign the roles of 3rd , 2nd and 1st person, building the ‘deictic space’ that grounds both natural pedagogy and language use. Secondly, we argue that the emergence of two kinds of linguistic structures (i.e. proto-determiner phrases and proto-sentences in the one-word period sheds light on the different kinds of information that children can acquire or convey at different stages of development (namely, generic knowledge about kinds and knowledge about particular events/actions/state of affairs, respectively. Furthermore, the development of nominal and temporal reference in speech allows children to cognize information in terms of spatial and temporal relations. In this way, natural pedagogy transpires as an inherent aspect of our faculty of language, rather than as an independent adaptation that pre-dates language in evolution or development (Csibra & Gergely, 2006. This hypothesis is further testable through predictions it makes on the different linguistic profiles of toddlers with developmental

  14. The linguistic roots of natural pedagogy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mattos, Otávio; Hinzen, Wolfram

    2015-01-01

    Natural pedagogy is a human-specific capacity that allows us to acquire cultural information from communication even before the emergence of the first words, encompassing three core elements: (i) a sensitivity to ostensive signals like eye contact that indicate to infants that they are being addressed through communication, (ii) a subsequent referential expectation (satisfied by the use of declarative gestures) and (iii) a biased interpretation of ostensive-referential communication as conveying relevant information about the referent's kind (Csibra and Gergely, 2006, 2009, 2011). Remarkably, the link between natural pedagogy and another human-specific capacity, namely language, has rarely been investigated in detail. We here argue that children's production and comprehension of declarative gestures around 10 months of age are in fact expressions of an evolving faculty of language. Through both declarative gestures and ostensive signals, infants can assign the roles of third, second, and first person, building the 'deictic space' that grounds both natural pedagogy and language use. Secondly, we argue that the emergence of two kinds of linguistic structures (i.e., proto-determiner phrases and proto-sentences) in the one-word period sheds light on the different kinds of information that children can acquire or convey at different stages of development (namely, generic knowledge about kinds and knowledge about particular events/actions/state of affairs, respectively). Furthermore, the development of nominal and temporal reference in speech allows children to cognize information in terms of spatial and temporal relations. In this way, natural pedagogy transpires as an inherent aspect of our faculty of language, rather than as an independent adaptation that pre-dates language in evolution or development (Csibra and Gergely, 2006). This hypothesis is further testable through predictions it makes on the different linguistic profiles of toddlers with developmental

  15. Identification of threats using linguistics-based knowledge extraction.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chew, Peter A.

    2008-09-01

    One of the challenges increasingly facing intelligence analysts, along with professionals in many other fields, is the vast amount of data which needs to be reviewed and converted into meaningful information, and ultimately into rational, wise decisions by policy makers. The advent of the world wide web (WWW) has magnified this challenge. A key hypothesis which has guided us is that threats come from ideas (or ideology), and ideas are almost always put into writing before the threats materialize. While in the past the 'writing' might have taken the form of pamphlets or books, today's medium of choice is the WWW, precisely because it is a decentralized, flexible, and low-cost method of reaching a wide audience. However, a factor which complicates matters for the analyst is that material published on the WWW may be in any of a large number of languages. In 'Identification of Threats Using Linguistics-Based Knowledge Extraction', we have sought to use Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and other similar text analysis techniques to map documents from the WWW, in whatever language they were originally written, to a common language-independent vector-based representation. This then opens up a number of possibilities. First, similar documents can be found across language boundaries. Secondly, a set of documents in multiple languages can be visualized in a graphical representation. These alone offer potentially useful tools and capabilities to the intelligence analyst whose knowledge of foreign languages may be limited. Finally, we can test the over-arching hypothesis--that ideology, and more specifically ideology which represents a threat, can be detected solely from the words which express the ideology--by using the vector-based representation of documents to predict additional features (such as the ideology) within a framework based on supervised learning. In this report, we present the results of a three-year project of the same name. We believe

  16. Concurrent Correlates of Chinese Word Recognition in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ching, Boby Ho-Hong; Nunes, Terezinha

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to explore the relative contributions of phonological, semantic radical, and morphological awareness to Chinese word recognition in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Measures of word recognition, general intelligence, phonological, semantic radical, and morphological awareness were administered to 32 DHH and 35…

  17. Linguistic labels, dynamic visual features, and attention in infant category learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Wei Sophia; Sloutsky, Vladimir M

    2015-06-01

    How do words affect categorization? According to some accounts, even early in development words are category markers and are different from other features. According to other accounts, early in development words are part of the input and are akin to other features. The current study addressed this issue by examining the role of words and dynamic visual features in category learning in 8- to 12-month-old infants. Infants were familiarized with exemplars from one category in a label-defined or motion-defined condition and then tested with prototypes from the studied category and from a novel contrast category. Eye-tracking results indicated that infants exhibited better category learning in the motion-defined condition than in the label-defined condition, and their attention was more distributed among different features when there was a dynamic visual feature compared with the label-defined condition. These results provide little evidence for the idea that linguistic labels are category markers that facilitate category learning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. LINGUISTIC DATABASE FOR AUTOMATIC GENERATION SYSTEM OF ENGLISH ADVERTISING TEXTS

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    N. A. Metlitskaya

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the linguistic database for the system of automatic generation of English advertising texts on cosmetics and perfumery. The database for such a system includes two main blocks: automatic dictionary (that contains semantic and morphological information for each word, and semantic-syntactical formulas of the texts in a special formal language SEMSINT. The database is built on the result of the analysis of 30 English advertising texts on cosmetics and perfumery. First, each word was given a unique code. For example, N stands for nouns, A – for adjectives, V – for verbs, etc. Then all the lexicon of the analyzed texts was distributed into different semantic categories. According to this semantic classification each word was given a special semantic code. For example, the record N01 that is attributed to the word «lip» in the dictionary means that this word refers to nouns of the semantic category «part of a human’s body».The second block of the database includes the semantic-syntactical formulas of the analyzed advertising texts written in a special formal language SEMSINT. The author gives a brief description of this language, presenting its essence and structure. Also, an example of one formalized advertising text in SEMSINT is provided.

  19. Can the meaning of multiple words be integrated unconsciously?

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Gaal, Simon; Naccache, Lionel; Meuwese, Julia D I; van Loon, Anouk M; Leighton, Alexandra H; Cohen, Laurent; Dehaene, Stanislas

    2014-05-05

    What are the limits of unconscious language processing? Can language circuits process simple grammatical constructions unconsciously and integrate the meaning of several unseen words? Using behavioural priming and electroencephalography (EEG), we studied a specific rule-based linguistic operation traditionally thought to require conscious cognitive control: the negation of valence. In a masked priming paradigm, two masked words were successively (Experiment 1) or simultaneously presented (Experiment 2), a modifier ('not'/'very') and an adjective (e.g. 'good'/'bad'), followed by a visible target noun (e.g. 'peace'/'murder'). Subjects indicated whether the target noun had a positive or negative valence. The combination of these three words could either be contextually consistent (e.g. 'very bad - murder') or inconsistent (e.g. 'not bad - murder'). EEG recordings revealed that grammatical negations could unfold partly unconsciously, as reflected in similar occipito-parietal N400 effects for conscious and unconscious three-word sequences forming inconsistent combinations. However, only conscious word sequences elicited P600 effects, later in time. Overall, these results suggest that multiple unconscious words can be rapidly integrated and that an unconscious negation can automatically 'flip the sign' of an unconscious adjective. These findings not only extend the limits of subliminal combinatorial language processes, but also highlight how consciousness modulates the grammatical integration of multiple words.

  20. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AS PREDICTORS OF READING COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

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    Abbas Ali Zarei

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The present study was conducted to investigate types of Multiple Intelligences as predictors of reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. To meet this objective, a 60-item TOEFL test and a 90-item multiple intelligences questionnaire were distributed among 240 male and female Iranians studying English at Qazali and Parsian Universities in Qazvin. Data were analyzed using a multiple regression procedure. The result of the data analysis indicated that musical, interpersonal, kinesthetic, and logical intelligences were predicators of reading comprehension. Moreover, musical, verbal, visual, kinesthetic and natural intelligences made significant contributions to predicting vocabulary knowledge.   Key words: Multiple intelligences, reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge.

  1. Speech Transduction Based on Linguistic Content

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Juel Henrichsen, Peter; Christiansen, Thomas Ulrich

    Digital hearing aids use a variety of advanced digital signal processing methods in order to improve speech intelligibility. These methods are based on knowledge about the acoustics outside the ear as well as psychoacoustics. This paper investigates the recent observation that speech elements...... with a high degree of information can be robustly identified based on basic acoustic properties, i.e., function words have greater spectral tilt than content words for each of the 18 Danish talkers investigated. In this paper we examine these spectral tilt differences as a function of time based on a speech...... material six times the duration of previous investigations. Our results show that the correlation of spectral tilt with information content is relatively constant across time, even if averaged across talkers. This indicates that it is possible to devise a robust method for estimating information density...

  2. Corpus linguistics and statistics with R introduction to quantitative methods in linguistics

    CERN Document Server

    Desagulier, Guillaume

    2017-01-01

    This textbook examines empirical linguistics from a theoretical linguist’s perspective. It provides both a theoretical discussion of what quantitative corpus linguistics entails and detailed, hands-on, step-by-step instructions to implement the techniques in the field. The statistical methodology and R-based coding from this book teach readers the basic and then more advanced skills to work with large data sets in their linguistics research and studies. Massive data sets are now more than ever the basis for work that ranges from usage-based linguistics to the far reaches of applied linguistics. This book presents much of the methodology in a corpus-based approach. However, the corpus-based methods in this book are also essential components of recent developments in sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, computational linguistics, and psycholinguistics. Material from the book will also be appealing to researchers in digital humanities and the many non-linguistic fields that use textual data analysis and t...

  3. Motorcycle Start-stop System based on Intelligent Biometric Voice Recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winda, A.; E Byan, W. R.; Sofyan; Armansyah; Zariantin, D. L.; Josep, B. G.

    2017-03-01

    Current mechanical key in the motorcycle is prone to bulgary, being stolen or misplaced. Intelligent biometric voice recognition as means to replace this mechanism is proposed as an alternative. The proposed system will decide whether the voice is belong to the user or not and the word utter by the user is ‘On’ or ‘Off’. The decision voice will be sent to Arduino in order to start or stop the engine. The recorded voice is processed in order to get some features which later be used as input to the proposed system. The Mel-Frequency Ceptral Coefficient (MFCC) is adopted as a feature extraction technique. The extracted feature is the used as input to the SVM-based identifier. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent voice recognition and word recognition system. It show that the proposed method produces a good training and testing accuracy, 99.31% and 99.43%, respectively. Moreover, the proposed system shows the performance of false rejection rate (FRR) and false acceptance rate (FAR) accuracy of 0.18% and 17.58%, respectively. In the intelligent word recognition shows that the training and testing accuracy are 100% and 96.3%, respectively.

  4. General William Slim and the Power of Emotional and Cultural Intelligence in Multinational and Multicultural Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-06-12

    other six intelligences identified by Gardner were musical -rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic and...support those traditions by officially sanctioning cultural festivals and respecting the religious diversity of the Indian subcontinent. Of course...

  5. Automating Ontological Annotation with WordNet

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    Sanfilippo, Antonio P.; Tratz, Stephen C.; Gregory, Michelle L.; Chappell, Alan R.; Whitney, Paul D.; Posse, Christian; Paulson, Patrick R.; Baddeley, Bob L.; Hohimer, Ryan E.; White, Amanda M.

    2006-01-22

    Semantic Web applications require robust and accurate annotation tools that are capable of automating the assignment of ontological classes to words in naturally occurring text (ontological annotation). Most current ontologies do not include rich lexical databases and are therefore not easily integrated with word sense disambiguation algorithms that are needed to automate ontological annotation. WordNet provides a potentially ideal solution to this problem as it offers a highly structured lexical conceptual representation that has been extensively used to develop word sense disambiguation algorithms. However, WordNet has not been designed as an ontology, and while it can be easily turned into one, the result of doing this would present users with serious practical limitations due to the great number of concepts (synonym sets) it contains. Moreover, mapping WordNet to an existing ontology may be difficult and requires substantial labor. We propose to overcome these limitations by developing an analytical platform that (1) provides a WordNet-based ontology offering a manageable and yet comprehensive set of concept classes, (2) leverages the lexical richness of WordNet to give an extensive characterization of concept class in terms of lexical instances, and (3) integrates a class recognition algorithm that automates the assignment of concept classes to words in naturally occurring text. The ensuing framework makes available an ontological annotation platform that can be effectively integrated with intelligence analysis systems to facilitate evidence marshaling and sustain the creation and validation of inference models.

  6. Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummins, Chris; Gavarró, Anna; Kuvač Kraljević, Jelena; Hrzica, Gordana; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.; Skordi, Athina; Jensen de López, Kristine; Sundahl, Lone; van Hout, Angeliek; Hollebrandse, Bart; Overweg, Jessica; Faber, Myrthe; van Koert, Margreet; Smith, Nafsika; Vija, Maigi; Zupping, Sirli; Kunnari, Sari; Morisseau, Tiffany; Rusieshvili, Manana; Yatsushiro, Kazuko; Fengler, Anja; Varlokosta, Spyridoula; Konstantzou, Katerina; Farby, Shira; Guasti, Maria Teresa; Vernice, Mirta; Okabe, Reiko; Isobe, Miwa; Crosthwaite, Peter; Hong, Yoonjee; Balčiūnienė, Ingrida; Ahmad Nizar, Yanti Marina; Grech, Helen; Gatt, Daniela; Cheong, Win Nee; Asbjørnsen, Arve; Torkildsen, Janne von Koss; Haman, Ewa; Miękisz, Aneta; Gagarina, Natalia; Puzanova, Julia; Anđelković, Darinka; Savić, Maja; Jošić, Smiljana; Slančová, Daniela; Kapalková, Svetlana; Barberán, Tania; Özge, Duygu; Hassan, Saima; Chan, Cecilia Yuet Hung; Okubo, Tomoya; van der Lely, Heather; Sauerland, Uli; Noveck, Ira

    2016-01-01

    Learners of most languages are faced with the task of acquiring words to talk about number and quantity. Much is known about the order of acquisition of number words as well as the cognitive and perceptual systems and cultural practices that shape it. Substantially less is known about the acquisition of quantifiers. Here, we consider the extent to which systems and practices that support number word acquisition can be applied to quantifier acquisition and conclude that the two domains are largely distinct in this respect. Consequently, we hypothesize that the acquisition of quantifiers is constrained by a set of factors related to each quantifier’s specific meaning. We investigate competence with the expressions for “all,” “none,” “some,” “some…not,” and “most” in 31 languages, representing 11 language types, by testing 768 5-y-old children and 536 adults. We found a cross-linguistically similar order of acquisition of quantifiers, explicable in terms of four factors relating to their meaning and use. In addition, exploratory analyses reveal that language- and learner-specific factors, such as negative concord and gender, are significant predictors of variation. PMID:27482119

  7. Stuttering on function words in bilingual children who stutter: A preliminary study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gkalitsiou, Zoi; Byrd, Courtney T; Bedore, Lisa M; Taliancich-Klinger, Casey L

    2017-01-01

    Evidence suggests young monolingual children who stutter (CWS) are more disfluent on function than content words, particularly when produced in the initial utterance position. The purpose of the present preliminary study was to investigate whether young bilingual CWS present with this same pattern. The narrative and conversational samples of four bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking CWS were analysed. All four bilingual participants produced significantly more stuttering on function words compared to content words, irrespective of their position in the utterance, in their Spanish narrative and conversational speech samples. Three of the four participants also demonstrated more stuttering on function compared to content words in their narrative speech samples in English, but only one participant produced more stuttering on function than content words in her English conversational sample. These preliminary findings are discussed relative to linguistic planning and language proficiency and their potential contribution to stuttered speech.

  8. Culture-Bound Words of the Danube Basin Countries: Translation into English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chetverikova Olena

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Any course in linguistic country study or popular text translation is impossible without adequate understanding and presentation of culture-bound elements, which present one of the most difficult topics to deal with, especially in multicultural countries. Our investigation aims to show the problems, which appear when we deal with equivalent-lacking words related to culture. Sometimes equivalent-lacking words are associated with culture-bound words, the Ukrainian equivalent for them is “реалії” (derived from Latin realis, pl. realia. However, the term “culture-bound word” is of narrower meaning than the term “equivalent-lacking word”. A culture-bound word names an object peculiar to this or that ethnic culture. Equivalent-lacking words include, along with culture-bound words, neologisms, i.e. newly coined forms, dialect words, slang, taboo-words, foreign (third language terms, proper names, misspellings, archaisms. Comparison of languages and cultures reveals the various types of culture-bound words. Reasons for using them can be extralinguistic, lexical or stylistic. When translating culture-bound words a translator should be aware of the receptor’s potential problems, take into account his background knowledge and choose the best means of translation.

  9. Linguistic validation of translation of the self-assessment goal achievement (saga) questionnaire from English

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-01-01

    Background A linguistic validation of the Self-Assessment Goal Achievement (SAGA) questionnaire was conducted for 12 European languages, documenting that each translation adequately captures the concepts of the original English-language version of the questionnaire and is readily understood by subjects in the target population. Methods Native-speaking residents of the target countries who reported urinary problems/lower urinary tract problems were asked to review a translation of the SAGA questionnaire, which was harmonized among 12 languages: Danish, Dutch, English (UK), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. During a cognitive debriefing interview, participants were asked to identify any words that were difficult to understand and explain in their own words the meaning of each sentence in the questionnaire. The qualitative analysis was conducted by local linguistic validation teams (original translators, back translator, project manager, interviewer, and survey research expert). Results Translations of the SAGA questionnaire from English to 12 European languages were well understood by the participants with an overall comprehension rate across language of 98.9%. In addition, the translations retained the original meaning of the SAGA items and instructions. Comprehension difficulties were identified, and after review by the translation team, minor changes were made to 7 of the 12 translations to improve clarity and comprehension. Conclusions Conceptual, semantic, and cultural equivalence of each translation of the SAGA questionnaire was achieved thus confirming linguistic validation. PMID:22525050

  10. Linguistic validation of translation of the self-assessment goal achievement (saga questionnaire from English

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piault Elisabeth

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A linguistic validation of the Self-Assessment Goal Achievement (SAGA questionnaire was conducted for 12 European languages, documenting that each translation adequately captures the concepts of the original English-language version of the questionnaire and is readily understood by subjects in the target population. Methods Native-speaking residents of the target countries who reported urinary problems/lower urinary tract problems were asked to review a translation of the SAGA questionnaire, which was harmonized among 12 languages: Danish, Dutch, English (UK, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. During a cognitive debriefing interview, participants were asked to identify any words that were difficult to understand and explain in their own words the meaning of each sentence in the questionnaire. The qualitative analysis was conducted by local linguistic validation teams (original translators, back translator, project manager, interviewer, and survey research expert. Results Translations of the SAGA questionnaire from English to 12 European languages were well understood by the participants with an overall comprehension rate across language of 98.9%. In addition, the translations retained the original meaning of the SAGA items and instructions. Comprehension difficulties were identified, and after review by the translation team, minor changes were made to 7 of the 12 translations to improve clarity and comprehension. Conclusions Conceptual, semantic, and cultural equivalence of each translation of the SAGA questionnaire was achieved thus confirming linguistic validation.

  11. Linguistic input, electronic media, and communication outcomes of toddlers with hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambrose, Sophie E; VanDam, Mark; Moeller, Mary Pat

    2014-01-01

    The objectives of this study were to examine the quantity of adult words, adult-child conversational turns, and electronic media in the auditory environments of toddlers who are hard of hearing (HH) and to examine whether these factors contributed to variability in children's communication outcomes. Participants were 28 children with mild to severe hearing loss. Full-day recordings of children's auditory environments were collected within 6 months of their second birthdays by using Language ENvironment Analysis technology. The system analyzes full-day acoustic recordings, yielding estimates of the quantity of adult words, conversational turns, and electronic media exposure in the recordings. Children's communication outcomes were assessed via the receptive and expressive scales of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning at 2 years of age and the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language at 3 years of age. On average, the HH toddlers were exposed to approximately 1400 adult words per hour and participated in approximately 60 conversational turns per hour. An average of 8% of each recording was classified as electronic media. However, there was considerable within-group variability on all three measures. Frequency of conversational turns, but not adult words, was positively associated with children's communication outcomes at 2 and 3 years of age. Amount of electronic media exposure was negatively associated with 2-year-old receptive language abilities; however, regression results indicate that the relationship was fully mediated by the quantity of conversational turns. HH toddlers who were engaged in more conversational turns demonstrated stronger linguistic outcomes than HH toddlers who were engaged in fewer conversational turns. The frequency of these interactions was found to be decreased in households with high rates of electronic media exposure. Optimal language-learning environments for HH toddlers include frequent linguistic interactions between parents and

  12. The Interpretability of the Word “Soxan” in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F Vejdani

    2014-02-01

    Foregrounding the status of this word in the linguistic structure of this work which paves the way for the interpretability of the text and also representing his personal style in using such word which asks the reader to decode its meaning and interprets it himself are other aims of this research which is unprecedented among researches about Shahnameh.

  13. A Russian Keyword Spotting System Based on Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition and Linguistic Knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valentin Smirnov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper describes the key concepts of a word spotting system for Russian based on large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. Key algorithms and system settings are described, including the pronunciation variation algorithm, and the experimental results on the real-life telecom data are provided. The description of system architecture and the user interface is provided. The system is based on CMU Sphinx open-source speech recognition platform and on the linguistic models and algorithms developed by Speech Drive LLC. The effective combination of baseline statistic methods, real-world training data, and the intensive use of linguistic knowledge led to a quality result applicable to industrial use.

  14. The Growth Dynamics of Words: How Historical Context Shapes the Competitive Linguistic Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tenenbaum, Joel; Petersen, Alexander; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene

    2012-02-01

    Using the massive Google n-gram database of over 10^11 word uses in English, Hebrew, and Spanish, we explore the connection between the growth rates of relative word use and the observed growth rates of disparate competing actors in a common environment such as businesses, scientific journals, and universities, supporting the concept that a language's lexicon is a generic arena for competition, evolving according to selection laws. We find aggregate-level anomalies in the collective statistics corresponding to the time of key historical events such as World War II and the Balfour Declaration.

  15. Examination of the Effect of Drama Education on Multiple Intelligence Areas of Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Köksal Akyol, Aysel

    2018-01-01

    This study was conducted to determine whether or not drama education causes any difference in the verbal-linguistic, mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, musical-rhythmic, bodily-kinaesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences of children. The sample group of the study consisted of 46 children (23 children in the experimental group…

  16. Economic anglicisms: adaptation to the Spanish linguistic system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paloma López Zurita

    2005-10-01

    Full Text Available The enormous number of anglicisms used everyday in Spanish language generates lexical interference between both languages. This paper provides a semantic analysis of the changes in lexis this language contact brings about, through the different linguistic mechanisms of inter-language adaptation involved. When these anglicisms come from the current trend to include English words in Spanish discourse, we also add appropriate equivalents which could avoid the excess of redundant neologisms. A glossary of the most habitual terms derived from interference in English and Spanish in the economic field is included as a result of this study.

  17. Price Comparisons on the Internet Based on Computational Intelligence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jun Woo; Ha, Sung Ho

    2014-01-01

    Information-intensive Web services such as price comparison sites have recently been gaining popularity. However, most users including novice shoppers have difficulty in browsing such sites because of the massive amount of information gathered and the uncertainty surrounding Web environments. Even conventional price comparison sites face various problems, which suggests the necessity of a new approach to address these problems. Therefore, for this study, an intelligent product search system was developed that enables price comparisons for online shoppers in a more effective manner. In particular, the developed system adopts linguistic price ratings based on fuzzy logic to accommodate user-defined price ranges, and personalizes product recommendations based on linguistic product clusters, which help online shoppers find desired items in a convenient manner. PMID:25268901

  18. Unity and disunity in evolutionary sciences: process-based analogies open common research avenues for biology and linguistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    List, Johann-Mattis; Pathmanathan, Jananan Sylvestre; Lopez, Philippe; Bapteste, Eric

    2016-08-20

    For a long time biologists and linguists have been noticing surprising similarities between the evolution of life forms and languages. Most of the proposed analogies have been rejected. Some, however, have persisted, and some even turned out to be fruitful, inspiring the transfer of methods and models between biology and linguistics up to today. Most proposed analogies were based on a comparison of the research objects rather than the processes that shaped their evolution. Focusing on process-based analogies, however, has the advantage of minimizing the risk of overstating similarities, while at the same time reflecting the common strategy to use processes to explain the evolution of complexity in both fields. We compared important evolutionary processes in biology and linguistics and identified processes specific to only one of the two disciplines as well as processes which seem to be analogous, potentially reflecting core evolutionary processes. These new process-based analogies support novel methodological transfer, expanding the application range of biological methods to the field of historical linguistics. We illustrate this by showing (i) how methods dealing with incomplete lineage sorting offer an introgression-free framework to analyze highly mosaic word distributions across languages; (ii) how sequence similarity networks can be used to identify composite and borrowed words across different languages; (iii) how research on partial homology can inspire new methods and models in both fields; and (iv) how constructive neutral evolution provides an original framework for analyzing convergent evolution in languages resulting from common descent (Sapir's drift). Apart from new analogies between evolutionary processes, we also identified processes which are specific to either biology or linguistics. This shows that general evolution cannot be studied from within one discipline alone. In order to get a full picture of evolution, biologists and linguists need to

  19. Constructing and validating readability models: the method of integrating multilevel linguistic features with machine learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Yao-Ting; Chen, Ju-Ling; Cha, Ji-Her; Tseng, Hou-Chiang; Chang, Tao-Hsing; Chang, Kuo-En

    2015-06-01

    Multilevel linguistic features have been proposed for discourse analysis, but there have been few applications of multilevel linguistic features to readability models and also few validations of such models. Most traditional readability formulae are based on generalized linear models (GLMs; e.g., discriminant analysis and multiple regression), but these models have to comply with certain statistical assumptions about data properties and include all of the data in formulae construction without pruning the outliers in advance. The use of such readability formulae tends to produce a low text classification accuracy, while using a support vector machine (SVM) in machine learning can enhance the classification outcome. The present study constructed readability models by integrating multilevel linguistic features with SVM, which is more appropriate for text classification. Taking the Chinese language as an example, this study developed 31 linguistic features as the predicting variables at the word, semantic, syntax, and cohesion levels, with grade levels of texts as the criterion variable. The study compared four types of readability models by integrating unilevel and multilevel linguistic features with GLMs and an SVM. The results indicate that adopting a multilevel approach in readability analysis provides a better representation of the complexities of both texts and the reading comprehension process.

  20. Using Amazon Mechanical Turk for linguistic research

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    Schnoebelen Tyler

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service makes linguistic experimentation quick, easy, and inexpensive. However, researchers have not been certain about its reliability. In a series of experiments, this paper compares data collected via Mechanical Turk to those obtained using more traditional methods One set of experiments measured the predictability of words in sentences using the Cloze sentence completion task (Taylor, 1953. The correlation between traditional and Turk Cloze scores is high (rho=0.823 and both data sets perform similarly against alternative measures of contextual predictability. Five other experiments on the semantic relatedness of verbs and phrasal verbs (how much is “lift” part of “lift up” manipulate the presence of the sentence context and the composition of the experimental list. The results indicate that Turk data correlate well between experiments and with data from traditional methods (rho up to 0.9, and they show high inter-rater consistency and agreement. We conclude that Mechanical Turk is a reliable source of data for complex linguistic tasks in heavy use by psycholinguists. The paper provides suggestions for best practices in data collection and scrubbing.

  1. A BRIEF SOCIO-LINGUISTIC SURVEY OF ZHOUQU TIBETAN

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    Abe Powell

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a brief sketch of the socio-linguistic situation of Zhouqu Tibetan, a unique Tibetic variety spoken in Gansu Province, China. The authors used participatory methods to investigate questions of language vitality, domains of language use, language attitudes, and dialectal variation. The results show that: (1 Zhouqu Tibetan is used in all language domains; (2 locals see their language as an integral part of their identity even though they acknowledge that Chinese language proficiency is necessary for employment, education, and healthcare; and (3 locals perceive little in the way of dialectal variation in Zhouqu Tibetan, with only Boyu Village's speech variety being divergent to the point that it impacts intelligibility.

  2. Age of Acquisition Effects on Word Processing for Chinese Native Learners? English: ERP Evidence for the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis

    OpenAIRE

    Xue, Jin; Liu, Tongtong; Marmolejo-Ramos, Fernando; Pei, Xuna

    2017-01-01

    The present study aimed at distinguishing processing of early learned L2 words from late ones for Chinese natives who learn English as a foreign language. Specifically, we examined whether the age of acquisition (AoA) effect arose during the arbitrary mapping from conceptual knowledge onto linguistic units. The behavior and ERP data were collected when 28 Chinese-English bilinguals were asked to perform semantic relatedness judgment on word pairs, which represented three stages of word learni...

  3. Age of Acquisition Effects on Word Processing for Chinese Native Learners’ English: ERP Evidence for the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis

    OpenAIRE

    Jin Xue; Tongtong Liu; Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos; Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos; Xuna Pei

    2017-01-01

    The present study aimed at distinguishing processing of early learned L2 words from late ones for Chinese natives who learn English as a foreign language. Specifically, we examined whether the age of acquisition (AoA) effect arose during the arbitrary mapping from conceptual knowledge onto linguistic units. The behavior and ERP data were collected when 28 Chinese-English bilinguals were asked to perform semantic relatedness judgment on word pairs, which represented three stages of word learni...

  4. Speech Intelligibility and Personality Peer-Ratings of Young Adults with Cochlear Implants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freeman, Valerie

    2018-01-01

    Speech intelligibility, or how well a speaker's words are understood by others, affects listeners' judgments of the speaker's competence and personality. Deaf cochlear implant (CI) users vary widely in speech intelligibility, and their speech may have a noticeable "deaf" quality, both of which could evoke negative stereotypes or…

  5. The organization of words and environmental sounds in memory☆

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendrickson, Kristi; Walenski, Matthew; Friend, Margaret; Love, Tracy

    2015-01-01

    In the present study we used event-related potentials to compare the organization of linguistic and meaningful nonlinguistic sounds in memory. We examined N400 amplitudes as adults viewed pictures presented with words or environmental sounds that matched the picture (Match), that shared semantic features with the expected match (Near Violation), and that shared relatively few semantic features with the expected match (Far Violation). Words demonstrated incremental N400 amplitudes based on featural similarity from 300–700 ms, such that both Near and Far Violations exhibited significant N400 effects, however Far Violations exhibited greater N400 effects than Near Violations. For environmental sounds, Far Violations but not Near Violations elicited significant N400 effects, in both early (300–400 ms) and late (500–700 ms) time windows, though a graded pattern similar to that of words was seen in the midlatency time window (400–500 ms). These results indicate that the organization of words and environmental sounds in memory is differentially influenced by featural similarity, with a consistently fine-grained graded structure for words but not sounds. PMID:25624059

  6. Proceedings 2015: Selected Papers from the Nineteenth College-Wide Conference for Students in Languages, Linguistics & Literature (19th, Honolulu, Hawai'i, April 18, 2015)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aguirre, Samuel, Ed.; Plumb, Emily Gazda, Ed.; Martin, Kristyn, Ed.

    2016-01-01

    The theme for this year's annual Graduate Student Conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature (LLL) was "In a Word," which captured a basic component that runs through the College of LLL since words are essential to the work students do in each of the departments that form the College. The conference opened with a…

  7. Effects of Classroom Bilingualism on Task Shifting, Verbal Memory, and Word Learning in Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Gross, Megan; Buac, Milijana

    2014-01-01

    We examined the effects of classroom bilingual experience in children on an array of cognitive skills. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared with children who spoke English as the native language and who had been exposed to Spanish in the context of dual-immersion schooling for an average of two years. The groups were compared on a measure of non-linguistic task-shifting; measures of verbal short-term and working memory; and measures of word-learning. The two groups of children did not differ on measures of non-linguistic task-shifting and verbal short-term memory. However, the classroom-exposure bilingual group outperformed the monolingual group on the measure of verbal working memory and a measure of word-learning. Together, these findings indicate that while exposure to a second language in a classroom setting may not be sufficient to engender changes in cognitive control, it can facilitate verbal memory and verbal learning. PMID:24576079

  8. Exposure to Androstenes Influences Processing of Emotional Words

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    Patrizia d'Ettorre

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available There is evidence that human-produced androstenes affect attitudinal, emotional, and physiological states in a context-dependent manner, suggesting that they could be involved in modulating social interactions. For instance, androstadienone appears to increase attention specifically to emotional information. Most of the previous work focused on one or two androstenes. Here, we tested whether androstenes affect linguistic processing, using three different androstene compounds. Participants (90 women and 77 men performed a lexical decision task after being exposed to an androstene or to a control treatment (all compounds were applied on the philtrum. We tested effects on three categories of target words, varying in emotional valence: positive, competitive, and neutral words (e.g., hope, war, and century, respectively. Results show that response times were modulated by androstene treatment and by emotional valence of words. Androstenone, but not androstadienone and androstenol, significantly slowed down the reaction time to words with competitive valence. Moreover, men exposed to androstenol showed a significantly reduced error rate, although men tended to make more errors than women in general. This suggests that these androstenes modulate the processing of emotional words, namely some particular lexical emotional content may become more salient under the effect of androstenes.

  9. EEG Correlates of Song Prosody: A New Look at the Relationship between Linguistic and Musical Rhythm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, Reyna L.; Magne, Cyrille L.; Large, Edward W.

    2011-01-01

    Song composers incorporate linguistic prosody into their music when setting words to melody, a process called “textsetting.” Composers tend to align the expected stress of the lyrics with strong metrical positions in the music. The present study was designed to explore the idea that temporal alignment helps listeners to better understand song lyrics by directing listeners’ attention to instances where strong syllables occur on strong beats. Three types of textsettings were created by aligning metronome clicks with all, some or none of the strong syllables in sung sentences. Electroencephalographic recordings were taken while participants listened to the sung sentences (primes) and performed a lexical decision task on subsequent words and pseudowords (targets, presented visually). Comparison of misaligned and well-aligned sentences showed that temporal alignment between strong/weak syllables and strong/weak musical beats were associated with modulations of induced beta and evoked gamma power, which have been shown to fluctuate with rhythmic expectancies. Furthermore, targets that followed well-aligned primes elicited greater induced alpha and beta activity, and better lexical decision task performance, compared with targets that followed misaligned and varied sentences. Overall, these findings suggest that alignment of linguistic stress and musical meter in song enhances musical beat tracking and comprehension of lyrics by synchronizing neural activity with strong syllables. This approach may begin to explain the mechanisms underlying the relationship between linguistic and musical rhythm in songs, and how rhythmic attending facilitates learning and recall of song lyrics. Moreover, the observations reported here coincide with a growing number of studies reporting interactions between the linguistic and musical dimensions of song, which likely stem from shared neural resources for processing music and speech. PMID:22144972

  10. EEG correlates of song prosody: A new look at the relationship between linguistic and musical rhythm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Reyna L Gordon

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Song composers incorporate linguistic prosody into their music when setting words to melody, a process called textsetting. Composers tend to align the expected stress of the lyrics with strong metrical positions in the music. The present study was designed to explore the idea that temporal alignment helps listeners to better understand song lyrics by directing listeners’ attention to instances where strong syllables occur on strong beats. Three types of textsettings were created by aligning metronome clicks with all, some or none of the strong syllables in sung sentences. Electroencephalographic (EEG recordings were taken while participants listened to the sung sentences (primes and performed a lexical decision task on subsequent words and pseudowords (targets, presented visually. Comparison of misaligned and well-aligned sentences showed that temporal alignment between strong/weak syllables and strong/weak musical beats were associated with modulations of induced beta and evoked gamma power, which have been shown to fluctuate with rhythmic expectancies. Furthermore, targets that followed well-aligned primes elicited greater induced alpha and beta activity, and better lexical decision task performance, compared with targets that followed misaligned and varied sentences. Overall, these findings suggest that alignment of linguistic stress and musical meter in song enhances musical beat tracking and comprehension of lyrics by synchronizing neural activity with strong syllables. This approach may begin to explain the mechanisms underlying the relationship between linguistic and musical rhythm in songs, and how rhythmic attending facilitates learning and recall of song lyrics. Moreover, the observations reported here coincide with a growing number of studies reporting interactions between the linguistic and musical dimensions of song, which likely stem from shared neural resources for processing music and speech.

  11. EEG Correlates of Song Prosody: A New Look at the Relationship between Linguistic and Musical Rhythm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordon, Reyna L; Magne, Cyrille L; Large, Edward W

    2011-01-01

    Song composers incorporate linguistic prosody into their music when setting words to melody, a process called "textsetting." Composers tend to align the expected stress of the lyrics with strong metrical positions in the music. The present study was designed to explore the idea that temporal alignment helps listeners to better understand song lyrics by directing listeners' attention to instances where strong syllables occur on strong beats. Three types of textsettings were created by aligning metronome clicks with all, some or none of the strong syllables in sung sentences. Electroencephalographic recordings were taken while participants listened to the sung sentences (primes) and performed a lexical decision task on subsequent words and pseudowords (targets, presented visually). Comparison of misaligned and well-aligned sentences showed that temporal alignment between strong/weak syllables and strong/weak musical beats were associated with modulations of induced beta and evoked gamma power, which have been shown to fluctuate with rhythmic expectancies. Furthermore, targets that followed well-aligned primes elicited greater induced alpha and beta activity, and better lexical decision task performance, compared with targets that followed misaligned and varied sentences. Overall, these findings suggest that alignment of linguistic stress and musical meter in song enhances musical beat tracking and comprehension of lyrics by synchronizing neural activity with strong syllables. This approach may begin to explain the mechanisms underlying the relationship between linguistic and musical rhythm in songs, and how rhythmic attending facilitates learning and recall of song lyrics. Moreover, the observations reported here coincide with a growing number of studies reporting interactions between the linguistic and musical dimensions of song, which likely stem from shared neural resources for processing music and speech.

  12. Peculiarities of Grammatical Properties in Nominal Word Combinations

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    Irina B. Klienkova

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article examines some peculiarities if grammatical properties of nominal word combinations based on the study of German-speaking Swiss press. The accumulated experience of linguists is analyzed and certain factors influencing the choice of syntactic relations in nominal word combinations with quantitative meaning are researched. It has been established that the choice of syntactic relations in such word combinations is determined by functional style, semantics and grammatical features of nouns - first or second components in a word combination. The aforementioned factors influencing the choice of syntactic relations in quantitative nominal word combinations are studied on the material of Germanspeaking Swiss press. The research revealed a number of peculiarities. First of all, German-speaking Swiss press uses such syntactic relation as genitive subordination quite often, not only on "special occasion" and unlike its use in Germany does not produce a magniloquent, pompous impression. Secondly, it has been established that the choice of syntactic relations in word combinations of the above-mentioned type of word combinations greatly depends on the semantic meaning of the noun - the first component of the word combination - and does not always coincide with the grammatical properties in nominal combinations in Germany. Thirdly, a clear dependence of syntactic relations choice is observed. Moreover, the article highlights the importance of grammatical features of the second component. These are such features as gender, number, case accompanied by noun declension. All the afore-mentioned features help to define the type of syntactic relations, which nominal quantitative word combinations may be connected by. The results of the comparisons of grammatical properties of quantitative nominal word combinations in German and Swiss press are demonstrated in a table below.

  13. Linguistic Structure Prediction

    CERN Document Server

    Smith, Noah A

    2011-01-01

    A major part of natural language processing now depends on the use of text data to build linguistic analyzers. We consider statistical, computational approaches to modeling linguistic structure. We seek to unify across many approaches and many kinds of linguistic structures. Assuming a basic understanding of natural language processing and/or machine learning, we seek to bridge the gap between the two fields. Approaches to decoding (i.e., carrying out linguistic structure prediction) and supervised and unsupervised learning of models that predict discrete structures as outputs are the focus. W

  14. Relations Between Self-Reported and Linguistic Monitoring Assessments of Affective Experience in an Extreme Environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Nathan

    2018-03-01

    Approaches for monitoring psychosocial health in challenging environments are needed to maintain the performance and safety of personnel. The purpose of the present research was to examine the relationship between 2 candidate methods (self-reported and linguistics) for monitoring affective experience during extreme environment activities. A single-subject repeated-measures design was used in the present work. The participant was a 46-year-old individual scheduled to complete a self-supported ski expedition across Arctic Greenland. The expedition lasted 28 days, and conditions included severe cold, low stimulation, whiteouts, limited habitability, and threats to life and limb. During the expedition, the participant completed a daily self-report log including assessment of psychological health (perceptions of control and affect) and a video diary (emotion). Video diary entries were subjected to linguistic inquiry and word count analyses before the links between self-report and linguistic data across the expedition period were tested. Similarities in the pattern of self-reported and linguistic assessments emerged across the expedition period. A number of predictable correlations were identified between self-reported and linguistic assessments of affective/emotional experience. Overall, there was better agreement between self-reports and linguistic analytics for indicators of negative affect/emotion. Future research should build on this initial study to further test the links between self-reported affect and emotional states monitored via linguistics. This could help develop methods for monitoring psychological health in extreme environments and support organizational decision making. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. English Word-Level Decoding and Oral Language Factors as Predictors of Third and Fifth Grade English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landon, Laura L.

    2017-01-01

    This study examines the application of the Simple View of Reading (SVR), a reading comprehension theory focusing on word recognition and linguistic comprehension, to English Language Learners' (ELLs') English reading development. This study examines the concurrent and predictive validity of two components of the SVR, oral language and word-level…

  16. ON DIRTY WORDS: AN ATTEMPT TO INTIMATE THE CONUNDRUM OF THE SIN

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    Yazid Basthomi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This article analyzes the use of dirty words with reference to sociolinguis- tic and Saussurean conceptual frameworks. It starts with a personal-anecdotal ac- count on the difficulties in dealing with didactic issues in relation to the use of dirty words. In the guise of tackling the problem, sociolinguistic explanation is pursued, which, in the end, shows that sociolinguistic explanation is not really adequate to handle  the  issue.  This  relates  to  the  possible  notion  that  dirty  words  might  be enacted as a (very personal expression, devoid of any physical addressees. Saussu- rean linguistic concepts are also explored, and, yet, similar to the sociolinguistic ex- planation, also lacks explanatory rigor in that the Saussurean materiality approach affirms that dirty words are neutral in their very materiality. A hypothetical proposi- tion to deal with dirty words will conclude the article

  17. The what, when, where, and how of visual word recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carreiras, Manuel; Armstrong, Blair C; Perea, Manuel; Frost, Ram

    2014-02-01

    A long-standing debate in reading research is whether printed words are perceived in a feedforward manner on the basis of orthographic information, with other representations such as semantics and phonology activated subsequently, or whether the system is fully interactive and feedback from these representations shapes early visual word recognition. We review recent evidence from behavioral, functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, and biologically plausible connectionist modeling approaches, focusing on how each approach provides insight into the temporal flow of information in the lexical system. We conclude that, consistent with interactive accounts, higher-order linguistic representations modulate early orthographic processing. We also discuss how biologically plausible interactive frameworks and coordinated empirical and computational work can advance theories of visual word recognition and other domains (e.g., object recognition). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Representation Learning of Logic Words by an RNN: From Word Sequences to Robot Actions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatsuro Yamada

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available An important characteristic of human language is compositionality. We can efficiently express a wide variety of real-world situations, events, and behaviors by compositionally constructing the meaning of a complex expression from a finite number of elements. Previous studies have analyzed how machine-learning models, particularly neural networks, can learn from experience to represent compositional relationships between language and robot actions with the aim of understanding the symbol grounding structure and achieving intelligent communicative agents. Such studies have mainly dealt with the words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs that directly refer to real-world matters. In addition to these words, the current study deals with logic words, such as “not,” “and,” and “or” simultaneously. These words are not directly referring to the real world, but are logical operators that contribute to the construction of meaning in sentences. In human–robot communication, these words may be used often. The current study builds a recurrent neural network model with long short-term memory units and trains it to learn to translate sentences including logic words into robot actions. We investigate what kind of compositional representations, which mediate sentences and robot actions, emerge as the network's internal states via the learning process. Analysis after learning shows that referential words are merged with visual information and the robot's own current state, and the logical words are represented by the model in accordance with their functions as logical operators. Words such as “true,” “false,” and “not” work as non-linear transformations to encode orthogonal phrases into the same area in a memory cell state space. The word “and,” which required a robot to lift up both its hands, worked as if it was a universal quantifier. The word “or,” which required action generation that looked apparently random, was represented as an

  19. Verbal Working Memory Is Related to the Acquisition of Cross-Linguistic Phonological Regularities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosma, Evelyn; Heeringa, Wilbert; Hoekstra, Eric; Versloot, Arjen; Blom, Elma

    2017-01-01

    Closely related languages share cross-linguistic phonological regularities, such as Frisian -âld [ͻ:t] and Dutch -oud [ʱut], as in the cognate pairs kâld [kͻ:t] - koud [kʱut] 'cold' and wâld [wͻ:t] - woud [wʱut] 'forest'. Within Bybee's (1995, 2001, 2008, 2010) network model, these regularities are, just like grammatical rules within a language, generalizations that emerge from schemas of phonologically and semantically related words. Previous research has shown that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of grammar, but not vocabulary. This suggests that verbal working memory supports the acquisition of linguistic regularities. In order to test this hypothesis we investigated whether verbal working memory is also related to the acquisition of cross-linguistic phonological regularities. For three consecutive years, 5- to 8-year-old Frisian-Dutch bilingual children ( n = 120) were tested annually on verbal working memory and a Frisian receptive vocabulary task that comprised four cognate categories: (1) identical cognates, (2) non-identical cognates that either do or (3) do not exhibit a phonological regularity between Frisian and Dutch, and (4) non-cognates. The results showed that verbal working memory had a significantly stronger effect on cognate category (2) than on the other three cognate categories. This suggests that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of cross-linguistic phonological regularities. More generally, it confirms the hypothesis that verbal working memory plays a role in the acquisition of linguistic regularities.

  20. Verb-second word order after German weil ‘because’: Psycholinguistic theory from corpus-linguistic data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gerard Kempen

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available In present-day spoken German, subordinate clauses introduced by the connector 'weil '‘because’ occur with two orders of subject, finite verb, and object(s. In addition to 'weil 'clauses with verb-final word order (“VF”; standard in subordinate clauses one often hears 'weil 'clauses with SVO, the standard order of main clauses (“verb-second”, V2. The “'weil'-V2” phenomenon is restricted to sentences where the 'weil 'clause follows the main clause, and is virtually absent from formal (written, edited German, occurring only in extemporaneous speech. Extant accounts of 'weil'-V2 focus on the interpretation of 'weil'-V2 clauses by the hearer, in particular on the type of discourse relation licensed by 'weil'-V2 vs. 'weil'-VF: causal/propositional or inferential/epistemic. Focusing instead on the production of 'weil 'clauses by the speaker, we examine a collection of about 1,000 sentences featuring a causal connector ('weil, da 'or 'denn' after the main clause, all extracted from a corpus of spoken German dialogues and annotated with tags denoting major prosodic and syntactic boundaries, and various types of disfluencies (pauses, hesitations. Based on the observed frequency patterns and on known linguistic properties of the connectors, we propose that 'weil'-V2 is caused by miscoordination between the mechanisms for lexical retrieval and grammatical encoding: Due to its high frequency, the lexical item 'weil 'is often selected prematurely, while the grammatical encoder is still working on the syntactic shape of the 'weil 'clause. 'Weil'-V2 arises when pragmatic and processing factors drive the encoder to discontinue the current sentence, and to plan the clause following 'weil 'in the form of the main clause of an independent, new sentence. Thus, the speaker continues with a V2 clause, seemingly in violation of the VF constraint imposed by the preceding 'weil'. We also explore implications of the model regarding the interpretation of

  1. On possible linguistic correlates to brain lateralization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tania Kouteva/Kuteva

    2014-04-01

    The present paper compares the two modes of processing proposed by Van Lancker Sidtis (2009 in her dual process model and the two domains of discourse organization distinguished in the framework of Discourse Grammar (Heine et al. 2013; Kaltenböck et al. 2011. These two frameworks were developed on different kinds of data. In the dual process model it is observations on patients with left or right hemisphere damage that marked the starting point of analysis. Central to the dual process model is the distinction between novel speech (or novel language, or newly created language, or propositional speech and formulaic speech (or formulaic expressions or automatic speech. Easily identified instances of formulaic speech are swear words, interjections, pause fillers, discourse elements, non-literal lexical meanings for idioms, proverbs. Unlike the dual process model, in the Discourse Grammar model it is linguistic discontinuities that provided the basis of analysis. Discourse grammar in this model is understood as all the linguistic resources that are available for constructing spoken and written (and signed texts. We argue that Discourse Grammar can be divided into two distinct domains, namely Sentence Grammar and Thetical Grammar. Whereas Sentence Grammar has been at the centre of interest in mainstream linguistics, Thetical Grammar encompasses linguistic phenomena – such as formulae of social exchange, imperatives, vocatives, interjections, including hesitation markers and pause fillers and what is traditionally known as “parenthetical” constructions – that pose a problem to orthodox grammatical analysis. We show that the findings made within the two frameworks are largely compatible with one another: both models converge on claiming that there is a significant correlation between linguistic categorization and hemisphere-based brain activity. In the dual process model it is hypothesized that there is a significant correlation between certain kinds of speech

  2. Interdependence of linguistic and indexical speech perception skills in school-age children with early cochlear implantation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geers, Ann E; Davidson, Lisa S; Uchanski, Rosalie M; Nicholas, Johanna G

    2013-09-01

    This study documented the ability of experienced pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users to perceive linguistic properties (what is said) and indexical attributes (emotional intent and talker identity) of speech, and examined the extent to which linguistic (LSP) and indexical (ISP) perception skills are related. Preimplant-aided hearing, age at implantation, speech processor technology, CI-aided thresholds, sequential bilateral cochlear implantation, and academic integration with hearing age-mates were examined for their possible relationships to both LSP and ISP skills. Sixty 9- to 12-year olds, first implanted at an early age (12 to 38 months), participated in a comprehensive test battery that included the following LSP skills: (1) recognition of monosyllabic words at loud and soft levels, (2) repetition of phonemes and suprasegmental features from nonwords, and (3) recognition of key words from sentences presented within a noise background, and the following ISP skills: (1) discrimination of across-gender and within-gender (female) talkers and (2) identification and discrimination of emotional content from spoken sentences. A group of 30 age-matched children without hearing loss completed the nonword repetition, and talker- and emotion-perception tasks for comparison. Word-recognition scores decreased with signal level from a mean of 77% correct at 70 dB SPL to 52% at 50 dB SPL. On average, CI users recognized 50% of key words presented in sentences that were 9.8 dB above background noise. Phonetic properties were repeated from nonword stimuli at about the same level of accuracy as suprasegmental attributes (70 and 75%, respectively). The majority of CI users identified emotional content and differentiated talkers significantly above chance levels. Scores on LSP and ISP measures were combined into separate principal component scores and these components were highly correlated (r = 0.76). Both LSP and ISP component scores were higher for children who received a CI

  3. Review of Raffaele Simone and Francesca Masini: Word classes: Nature, typology and representations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shibuya, Yoshikata; Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

    2016-01-01

    Review of Raffaele Simone and Francesca Masini (eds.). Word classes: Nature, typology and representations. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory [CILT] 332. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014, 293 + vii pp., ISBN: 1978-90-272-4851-0. Hardback and E-book 99.00 EUR / 149...

  4. In an absolute state: elevated use of absolutist words is a marker specific to anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation

    OpenAIRE

    Al-Mosaiwi, Mohammed; Johnstone, Tom

    2018-01-01

    Absolutist thinking is considered a cognitive distortion by most cognitive therapies for anxiety and depression. Yet, there is little empirical evidence of its prevalence or specificity. Across three studies, we conducted a text analysis of 63 internet forums (over 6,400 members) using the Linguistic- Inquiry and Word Count software (Pennebaker, Booth, Boyd, & Francis, 2015) to examine absolutism at the linguistic level. We predicted and found that anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation fo...

  5. Thresholds of visibility for masked lexical, non-lexical, and non-linguistic items in aphasia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JoAnn P Silkes

    2015-04-01

    Data collected to date demonstrate a clear difference between individuals with and without aphasia in their ability to perceive masked real words, but there appears to be no difference between groups for non-words and non-linguistic stimuli, although a trend is seen for these groups. Given the high variability for the NW and NL conditions, these analyses may be underpowered; therefore, data collection is ongoing and a clearer picture should be available by the time of presentation. Regardless of the eventual outcome, this poster will discuss the theoretical motivation for the study, and will discuss the possible implications for understanding the nature of underlying deficits in aphasia.

  6. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: MANAGEMENT MODEL APPROACH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John N. N. Ugoani

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Modern organization theory considers emotional intelligence as the index of competencies that help organizations to develop a vision for competitiveness. It also allows organizational leaders to enthusiastically commit to the vision, and energize organizational members to achieve the vision. To maximize competiveness organizations use models to simplify and clarify thinking, to identify important aspects, to suggest explanations and to predict consequences, and explore other performance areas that would otherwise be hidden in an excess of words. The survey research design was used to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational competitiveness. The study found that emotional intelligence has strong positive relationship with organizational competitiveness

  7. The Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (12th, Santa Cruz, California, April 2-4, 1993).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Erin, Ed.; And Others

    Papers on phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics from a conference on formal linguistics include: "Major Class Alternations" (Young-Mee Yu Cho, S. Inkelas); "On Defining Complex Templates (R. Kager); "Sandhi and Syllables in Classical Sanskrit" (B. Kessler); "Catalexis in Word Stress: Evidence from Spanish and…

  8. Probabilistic linguistics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bod, R.; Heine, B.; Narrog, H.

    2010-01-01

    Probabilistic linguistics takes all linguistic evidence as positive evidence and lets statistics decide. It allows for accurate modelling of gradient phenomena in production and perception, and suggests that rule-like behaviour is no more than a side effect of maximizing probability. This chapter

  9. Using Spanish-English Cognates in Children's Choices Picture Books to Develop Latino English Learners' Linguistic Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hernández, Anita C.; Montelongo, José A.; Herter, Roberta J.

    2016-01-01

    Educators can take advantage of Latino English learners' linguistic backgrounds by teaching Spanish-English cognate vocabulary using the Children's Choices picture books. Cognates are words that have identical or nearly identical spellings and meanings in two languages because of their Latin and Greek origins. Students can learn to recognize…

  10. A taste for words and sounds: a case of lexical-gustatory and sound-gustatory synesthesia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Colizoli, O.; Murre, J.M.J.; Rouw, R.

    2013-01-01

    Gustatory forms of synesthesia involve the automatic and consistent experience of tastes that are triggered by non-taste related inducers. We present a case of lexical-gustatory and sound-gustatory synesthesia within one individual, SC. Most words and a subset of non-linguistic sounds induce the

  11. Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Phonological Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehta, Sheena

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of the current research is to assess the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determine whether invented spelling and word stress (supra-segmental level measures) can also be used to better identify reading difficulties. The proposed invented spelling tool incorporated linguistic manipulations to alter the difficulty…

  12. Learning to Solve Addition and Subtraction Word Problems in English as an Imported Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verzosa, Debbie Bautista; Mulligan, Joanne

    2013-01-01

    This paper reports an intervention phase of a design study aimed to assist second-grade Filipino children in solving addition word problems in English, a language they primarily encounter only in school. With Filipino as the medium of instruction, an out-of-school pedagogical intervention providing linguistic and representational scaffolds was…

  13. Proposing a clinical quantification framework of macro-linguistic structures in aphasic narratives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anthony Pak Hin Kong

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Background Analysis of aphasic narratives can be a challenge for clinicians. Previous studies have mainly employed measures that categorized speech samples at the word level. They included quantification of the use and misuse of different word classes, presence and absence of narrative contents and errors, paraphasias, and perseverations, as well as morphological structures and errors within a narrative. In other words, a great amount of research has been conducted in the aphasiology literature focusing on micro-linguistic structures of oral narratives. Aspects of macro- linguistic structures, such as the analysis of content information by a speaker, consistency of using cohesive devices to present information within a narrative, and order of presenting information necessary to form a coherent discourse, have not been extensively investigated. The current investigation proposes a clinical analytic system to target three aspects of macro-linguistic structures in narratives among speakers with aphasia. Specifically, (1 the presence of search events (i.e., the mentioning of key events that allow the listener to understand; Capilouto, Wright, &Wagovich, 2006 within a narrative, (2 the sequence of the mentioned events, and (3 the informativeness (i.e., the fulfillment of lexical items that allow the user to understand what the event is detailing of the event contents, were focused in the proposed framework. Method Ten controls transcripts from were selected from the AphasiaBank (MacWhinney, Fromm, Forbes, & Holland, 2011. Three narrative tasks, including sequential picture description of ‘Refused Umbrella’, procedural narrative of making a ‘Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich’, and telling of ‘Cinderella’ story, were used to establish normative data for the basis of analysis. Specifically, the Search Events (e and Informative Words (i used by at least 70% of the speakers were listed for each genre. The sequential order of mentioning the

  14. Making myself understood: perceived factors affecting the intelligibility of sung text.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fine, Philip A; Ginsborg, Jane

    2014-01-01

    Singing is universal, and understanding sung words is thought to be important for many listeners' enjoyment of vocal and choral music. However, this is not a trivial task, and sung text intelligibility is probably affected by many factors. A survey of musicians was undertaken to identify the factors believed to have most impact on intelligibility, and to assess the importance of understanding sung words in familiar and unfamiliar languages. A total of 143 professional and amateur musicians, including singers, singing teachers, and regular listeners to vocal music, provided 394 statements yielding 851 references to one or more of 43 discrete factors in four categories: performer-related, listener-related, environment-related and words/music-related. The factors mentioned most frequently in each of the four categories were, respectively: diction; hearing ability; acoustic; and genre. In more than a third of references, the extent to which sung text is intelligible was attributed to the performer. Over 60% of respondents rated the ability to understand words in familiar languages as "very important," but only 17% when the text was in an unfamiliar language. Professional musicians (47% of the sample) rated the importance of understanding in both familiar and unfamiliar languages significantly higher than amateurs but listed fewer factors overall and fewer listener-related factors. The more important the respondents rated understanding, the more performer-related and environment-related factors they tended to list. There were no significant differences between the responses of those who teach singing and those who do not. Enhancing sung text intelligibility is thus perceived to be within the singer's control, at least to some extent, but there are also many factors outside their control. Empirical research is needed to explore some of these factors in greater depth, and has the potential to inform pedagogy for singers, composers, and choral directors.

  15. What can we learn from learning models about sensitivity to letter-order in visual word recognition?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lerner, Itamar; Armstrong, Blair C.; Frost, Ram

    2014-01-01

    Recent research on the effects of letter transposition in Indo-European Languages has shown that readers are surprisingly tolerant of these manipulations in a range of tasks. This evidence has motivated the development of new computational models of reading that regard flexibility in positional coding to be a core and universal principle of the reading process. Here we argue that such approach does not capture cross-linguistic differences in transposed-letter effects, nor do they explain them. To address this issue, we investigated how a simple domain-general connectionist architecture performs in tasks such as letter-transposition and letter substitution when it had learned to process words in the context of different linguistic environments. The results show that in spite of of the neurobiological noise involved in registering letter-position in all languages, flexibility and inflexibility in coding letter order is also shaped by the statistical orthographic properties of words in a language, such as the relative prevalence of anagrams. Our learning model also generated novel predictions for targeted empirical research, demonstrating a clear advantage of learning models for studying visual word recognition. PMID:25431521

  16. A Socratic epistemology for verbal emotional intelligence

    OpenAIRE

    Abe Kazemzadeh; James Gibson; Panayiotis Georgiou; Sungbok Lee; Shrikanth Narayanan

    2016-01-01

    We describe and experimentally validate a question-asking framework for machine-learned linguistic knowledge about human emotions. Using the Socratic method as a theoretical inspiration, we develop an experimental method and computational model for computers to learn subjective information about emotions by playing emotion twenty questions (EMO20Q), a game of twenty questions limited to words denoting emotions. Using human–human EMO20Q data we bootstrap a sequential Bayesian model that drives...

  17. Speech intelligibility of normal listeners and persons with impaired hearing in traffic noise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aniansson, G.; Peterson, Y.

    1983-10-01

    Speech intelligibility (PB words) in traffic-like noise was investigated in a laboratory situation simulating three common listening situations, indoors at 1 and 4 m and outdoors at 1 m. The maximum noise levels still permitting 75% intelligibility of PB words in these three listening situations were also defined. A total of 269 persons were examined. Forty-six had normal hearing, 90 a presbycusis-type hearing loss, 95 a noise-induced hearing loss and 38 a conductive hearing loss. In the indoor situation the majority of the groups with impaired hearing retained good speech intelligibility in 40 dB(A) masking noise. Lowering the noise level to less than 40 dB(A) resulted in a minor, usually insignificant, improvement in speech intelligibility. Listeners with normal hearing maintained good speech intelligibility in the outdoor listening situation at noise levels up to 60 dB(A), without lip-reading (i.e., using non-auditory information). For groups with impaired hearing due to age and/or noise, representing 8% of the population in Sweden, the noise level outdoors had to be lowered to less than 50 dB(A), in order to achieve good speech intelligibility at 1 m without lip-reading.

  18. A interferência da frequência em fenômenos linguísticos The interface between frequency and linguistic processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Paula Huback

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Este artigo discute efeitos de frequência em alguns casos de variações fonológicas e morfológicas do português brasileiro. O Modelo de Redes (Bybee 1985, 2001, 2010 foi adotado como foco teórico. Quatro fenômenos linguísticos do português brasileiro foram comparados na tentativa de entender que tipos de processos linguísticos afetam as palavras mais frequentes ou as menos frequentes primeiro. Conclui-se que, nos casos analisados, variações de fundo analógico parecem afetar as palavras menos frequentes primeiro, ao passo que reduções fonéticas parecem afetar as palavras mais frequentes primeiro.This article discusses frequency effects in some Brazilian Portuguese phonological and morphological variations. The theoretical background adopted is the Network Model (Bybee 1985, 2001, 2010. Different linguistic phenomena are compared to analyze which linguistic processes affect the most or the least frequent words first. As a conclusion, it is observed that variations based on analogy seem to affect the least frequent words first, whereas phonetic reductions seem to affect the most frequent words first.

  19. Spelling It Out: How Words Work and How to Teach Them

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adoniou, Misty

    2016-01-01

    Spelling can be a source of anxiety for school children and working professionals alike. Yet the spelling of words in English is not as random or chaotic as it is often perceived to be; rather, it is a system based on both meaning and a fascinating linguistic history. Misty Adoniou's public articles on the processes of teaching and learning…

  20. The Study on the Effect of Educational Games for the Development of Students’ Logic-Mathematics of Multiple Intelligence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jing; Ma, Sujuan; Ma, Linqing

    Firstly, in this article, we expound the theory of the educational games and multiple intelligence and analyze the relationship between them. Then, further, we elaborate educational games' effect on the development of students' multiple intelligence, taking logic-mathematics intelligence for example. Also, we discuss the strategies of using educational games to improve students' intelligence. In a word, we can use the computer games to develop the students' multi-intelligence.

  1. Word and nonword repetition in patients with Schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alireza Farnam

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The assessment of the verbal repetition is important in the study of acquired language disorders and neuropsychology. It is helpful in differential diagnosis of aphasia subtypes, auditory breakdowns, and working memory (WM performance. Though different linguistic disorders have been identified in patients with schizophrenia, very little is known about their verbal repetition ability. Methods: The present study was conducted in the inpatient ward of Razi Psychiatric Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran, during the year 2013. Participants were: 30 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia during the maintenance phase of treatment and 30 healthy people as control group. They were asked to repeat 15 words and 15 nonwords immediately. The stimuli were 1, 2, and 3 syllabic in Turkish language. Any incorrect repetition scored 1 and correct repetitions scored 0. Lexicalization errors were compared between groups too. Results: Both groups repeated words better than nonwords. Patients showed lower ability to repeat nonwords than controls, especially in 3 syllabics. There was no significant difference in the repetition of words between groups though it was better in controls. Patients with schizophrenia made more errors in both words and nonwords and lexicalization errors were twice more. Conclusion: Lower ability to repeat nonwords (than words in patients with schizophrenia may show the involvement of phonological loop of WM. More lexicalization errors may take place because of dis-inhibition.

  2. Executive functioning in schizophrenia: Unique and shared variance with measures of fluid intelligence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, A K; Mowry, B; Reutens, D; Robinson, G A

    2015-10-01

    Patients with schizophrenia often display deficits on tasks thought to measure "executive" processes. Recently, it has been suggested that reductions in fluid intelligence test performance entirely explain deficits reported for patients with focal frontal lesions on classical executive tasks. For patients with schizophrenia, it is unclear whether deficits on executive tasks are entirely accountable by fluid intelligence and representative of a common general process or best accounted for by distinct contributions to the cognitive profile of schizophrenia. In the current study, 50 patients with schizophrenia and 50 age, sex and premorbid intelligence matched controls were assessed using a broad neuropsychological battery, including tasks considered sensitive to executive abilities, namely the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT), word fluency, Stroop test, digit-span backwards, and spatial working memory. Fluid intelligence was measured using both the Matrix reasoning subtest from the Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and a composite score derived from a number of cognitive tests. Patients with schizophrenia were impaired on all cognitive measures compared with controls, except smell identification and the optimal betting and risk-taking measures from the Cambridge Gambling Task. After introducing fluid intelligence as a covariate, significant differences remained for HSCT suppression errors, and classical executive function tests such as the Stroop test and semantic/phonemic word fluency, regardless of which fluid intelligence measure was included. Fluid intelligence does not entirely explain impaired performance on all tests considered as reflecting "executive" processes. For schizophrenia, these measures should remain part of a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment alongside a measure of fluid intelligence. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. The Pragmatic Functions and Cultural Differences of Color Words

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    陈俊屹

    2015-01-01

    Color relates to people very closely; with the development of society and culture, people’s understanding of color is not confided to the visual characteristics of color itself, besides, people give color cultural connotation and actual meanings. In language, the unique glamour that the color words demonstrate makes people regard them with special esteem. Color words describe colors of nature with different cultural implications. They have unique linguistic functions and symbolic connotations. Colors play an indispensable part in our life and it's an effective way to learn the different culture. There is an increase in mis-understanding and communicative barriers because of frequent cross-cultural communication. Chinese and English color words possess different cultural meanings and connotation due to the difference in customs and habits, history and traditions, religions and beliefs, geographic locations, national psychology and ways of thinking. Thus, it’s easy to make mistakes on understanding and comprehension. The methods used in the research procedure are like this: collect some representative color words both from Chinese and English and take them as samples, then make a comparison between cultural connotations. According to the comparison, make a summary about the differences of color words between China and England. This thesis brings a discussion of cultural differences between English and Chinese color words. Color words in learning English is very important. It can help us t make a better understanding of the culture difference of both nations, and achieve the effective cross-culture communication.

  4. Verbal Working Memory Is Related to the Acquisition of Cross-Linguistic Phonological Regularities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evelyn Bosma

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Closely related languages share cross-linguistic phonological regularities, such as Frisian -âld [ͻ:t] and Dutch -oud [ʱut], as in the cognate pairs kâld [kͻ:t] – koud [kʱut] ‘cold’ and wâld [wͻ:t] – woud [wʱut] ‘forest’. Within Bybee’s (1995, 2001, 2008, 2010 network model, these regularities are, just like grammatical rules within a language, generalizations that emerge from schemas of phonologically and semantically related words. Previous research has shown that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of grammar, but not vocabulary. This suggests that verbal working memory supports the acquisition of linguistic regularities. In order to test this hypothesis we investigated whether verbal working memory is also related to the acquisition of cross-linguistic phonological regularities. For three consecutive years, 5- to 8-year-old Frisian-Dutch bilingual children (n = 120 were tested annually on verbal working memory and a Frisian receptive vocabulary task that comprised four cognate categories: (1 identical cognates, (2 non-identical cognates that either do or (3 do not exhibit a phonological regularity between Frisian and Dutch, and (4 non-cognates. The results showed that verbal working memory had a significantly stronger effect on cognate category (2 than on the other three cognate categories. This suggests that verbal working memory is related to the acquisition of cross-linguistic phonological regularities. More generally, it confirms the hypothesis that verbal working memory plays a role in the acquisition of linguistic regularities.

  5. Rapid Linguistic Ambiguity Resolution in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Eye Tracking Evidence for the Limits of Weak Central Coherence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahn, Noemi; Snedeker, Jesse; Rabagliati, Hugh

    2015-12-01

    Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have often been reported to have difficulty integrating information into its broader context, which has motivated the Weak Central Coherence theory of ASD. In the linguistic domain, evidence for this difficulty comes from reports of impaired use of linguistic context to resolve ambiguous words. However, recent work has suggested that impaired use of linguistic context may not be characteristic of ASD, and is instead better explained by co-occurring language impairments. Here, we provide a strong test of these claims, using the visual world eye tracking paradigm to examine the online mechanisms by which children with autism resolve linguistic ambiguity. To address concerns about both language impairments and compensatory strategies, we used a sample whose verbal skills were strong and whose average age (7; 6) was lower than previous work on lexical ambiguity resolution in ASD. Participants (40 with autism and 40 controls) heard sentences with ambiguous words in contexts that either strongly supported one reading or were consistent with both (John fed/saw the bat). We measured activation of the unintended meaning through implicit semantic priming of an associate (looks to a depicted baseball glove). Contrary to the predictions of weak central coherence, children with ASD, like controls, quickly used context to resolve ambiguity, selecting appropriate meanings within a second. We discuss how these results constrain the generality of weak central coherence. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. A New Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic TOPSIS Method for Group Multi-Criteria Linguistic Decision Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fangling Ren

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Hesitant fuzzy linguistic decision making is a focus point in linguistic decision making, in which the main method is based on preference ordering. This paper develops a new hesitant fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method for group multi-criteria linguistic decision making; the method is inspired by the TOPSIS method and the preference degree between two hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTSs. To this end, we first use the preference degree to define a pseudo-distance between two HFLTSs and analyze its properties. Then we present the positive (optimistic and negative (pessimistic information of each criterion provided by each decision maker and aggregate these by using weights of decision makers to obtain the hesitant fuzzy linguistic positive and negative ideal solutions. On the basis of the proposed pseudo-distance, we finally obtain the positive (negative ideal separation matrix and a new relative closeness degree to rank alternatives. We also design an algorithm based on the provided method to carry out hesitant fuzzy linguistic decision making. An illustrative example shows the elaboration of the proposed method and comparison with the symbolic aggregation-based method, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method and the hesitant fuzzy linguistic VIKOR method; it seems that the proposed method is a useful and alternative decision-making method.

  7. The Relationship between Multiple Intelligences and Reading Comprehension of EFL Learners across Genders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masoud Khalili Sabet

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available With developments in psychology and cognitive sciences in recent years, the significance of individual differences in L2 pedagogy has been highlighted. One of the outcomes of attending to individual differences is the increased attention to the concept of multiple intelligences and its relationship with language learning and different skills including reading comprehension skill. On the same line, the present study aimed at investigating the relationship between multiple intelligences of a group of L2 learners and their reading comprehension ability. To this purpose, 157 medical students studying at the Guilan University of Medical Sciences participated in the study. The instruments utilized were Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS and a reading comprehension test. The findings revealed that among the components of multiple intelligences of the medical students verbal-linguistic intelligence was prevalent. Furthermore, results of Pearson correlation demonstrated a positive but weak relationship between medical students’ MI and their reading comprehension ability. The findings also indicated that there is no difference between male and female medical students except in naturalistic intelligence. These findings further pinpoint the importance of attending to multiple intelligences of L2 learners and devising lessons which take their individual differences into account. Keywords: Multiple intelligences, reading comprehension, medical students, gender, EFL

  8. Linguistic Imperialism

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Phillipson, Robert

    2013-01-01

    The study of linguistic imperialism focuses on how and why certain languages dominate internationally, and attempts to account for such dominance in a theoretically informed way.......The study of linguistic imperialism focuses on how and why certain languages dominate internationally, and attempts to account for such dominance in a theoretically informed way....

  9. Developmental Constraints on Learning Artificial Grammars with Fixed, Flexible and Free Word Order

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iga Nowak

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Human learning, although highly flexible and efficient, is constrained in ways that facilitate or impede the acquisition of certain systems of information. Some such constraints, active during infancy and childhood, have been proposed to account for the apparent ease with which typically developing children acquire language. In a series of experiments, we investigated the role of developmental constraints on learning artificial grammars with a distinction between shorter and relatively frequent words (‘function words,’ F-words and longer and less frequent words (‘content words,’ C-words. We constructed 4 finite-state grammars, in which the order of F-words, relative to C-words, was either fixed (F-words always occupied the same positions in a string, flexible (every F-word always followed a C-word, or free. We exposed adults (N = 84 and kindergarten children (N = 100 to strings from each of these artificial grammars, and we assessed their ability to recognize strings with the same structure, but a different vocabulary. Adults were better at recognizing strings when regularities were available (i.e., fixed and flexible order grammars, while children were better at recognizing strings from the grammars consistent with the attested distribution of function and content words in natural languages (i.e., flexible and free order grammars. These results provide evidence for a link between developmental constraints on learning and linguistic typology.

  10. Selecting tense, aspect, and connecting words in language generation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gaasterland, T. [Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Mathematics and Computer Science Div.; Dorr, B. [Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Dept. of Computer Science

    1995-12-31

    Generating language that reflects the temporal organization of represented knowledge requires a language generation model that integrates contemporary theories of tense and aspect, temporal representations, and methods to plan text. This paper presents a model that produces complex sentences that reflect temporal relations present in underlying temporal concepts. The main result of this work is the successful application of constrained linguistic theories of tense and aspect to a generator which produces meaningful event combinations and selects appropriate connecting words that relate them.

  11. Prosodic cues to word order: what level of representation?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carline eBernard

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Within language, systematic correlations exist between syntactic structure and prosody. Prosodic prominence, for instance, falls on the complement and not the head of syntactic phrases, and its realization depends on the phrasal position of the prominent element. Thus, in Japanese, a functor-final language, prominence is phrase-initial and realized as increased pitch (^Tōkyō ni ‘Tokyo to’, whereas in French, English or Italian, functor-initial languages, it manifests itself as phrase-final lengthening (to Rome. Prosody is readily available in the linguistic signal even to the youngest infants. It has, therefore, been proposed that young learners might be able to exploit its correlations with syntax to bootstrap language structure. In this study, we tested this hypothesis, investigating how 8-month-old monolingual French infants processed an artificial grammar manipulating the relative position of prosodic prominence and word frequency. In Condition 1, we created a speech stream in which the two cues, prosody and frequency, were aligned, frequent words being prosodically non-prominent and infrequent ones being prominent, as is the case in natural language (functors are prosodically minimal compared to content words. In Condition 2, the two cues were misaligned, with frequent words carrying prosodic prominence, unlike in natural language. After familiarization with the aligned or the misaligned stream in a headturn preference procedure, we tested infants’ preference for test items having a frequent word initial or a frequent word final word order. We found that infants’ familiarized with the aligned stream showed the expected preference for the frequent word initial test items, mimicking the functor-initial word order of French. Infants in the misaligned condition showed no preference. These results suggest that infants are able to use word frequency and prosody as early cues to word order and they integrate them into a coherent

  12. Linguistically deprived children: meta-analysis of published research underlines the importance of early syntactic language use for normal brain development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrey Vyshedskiy

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available We analyzed all published reports of individuals not exposed to syntactic language until puberty: two feral children, who grew up without hearing any language, and eight deaf linguistic isolates, who grew up communicating to their families using homesign or kitchensign, a system of gestures which allows them to communicate simple commands but lacks much in the way of syntax. A common observation in these individuals is the lifelong difficulty understanding syntax and spatial prepositions, even after many years of rehabilitation. This debilitating condition stands in stark contrast to linguistic isolates’ performance on memory as well as semantic tests: they could easily remember hundreds of newly learned words and identify previously seen objects by name. The lack of syntactic language comprehension in linguistic isolates may stem from inability to understand words and/or grammar or inability to mentally synthesize known objects into novel configurations. We have previously shown that purposeful construction of novel mental images is the function of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC ability to dynamically control posterior cortex neurons (Vyshedskiy et al. 2017. Here we have ranked all tests performed on linguistic isolates by their reliance on the LPFC control of the posterior cortex: a the amount of posterior cortex territory that needs to be recruited by the LPFC and b the number of disparate objects that have to be combined together by the LPFC in order to answer the test question. According to our analysis, linguistic isolates performed well in all tests that did not involve the LPFC control of the posterior cortex, showed decreasing scores in tests that involved greater recruitment of the posterior cortex by the LPFC, and failed in tests that involved greatest recruitment of posterior cortex necessary for mental synthesis of multiple objects. This pattern is consistent with inadequate frontoposterior connections in linguistic isolates

  13. What Is Applied Linguistics?

    Science.gov (United States)

    James, Carl

    1993-01-01

    Ostensive and expository definitions of applied linguistics are assessed. It is suggested that the key to a meaningful definition lies in the dual articulation of applied linguistics: it is an interface between linguistics and practicality. Its role as an "expert system" is suggested. (45 references) (Author/LB)

  14. The role of linguistic experience in the processing of probabilistic information in production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gustafson, Erin; Goldrick, Matthew

    2018-01-01

    Speakers track the probability that a word will occur in a particular context and utilize this information during phonetic processing. For example, content words that have high probability within a discourse tend to be realized with reduced acoustic/articulatory properties. Such probabilistic information may influence L1 and L2 speech processing in distinct ways (reflecting differences in linguistic experience across groups and the overall difficulty of L2 speech processing). To examine this issue, L1 and L2 speakers performed a referential communication task, describing sequences of simple actions. The two groups of speakers showed similar effects of discourse-dependent probabilistic information on production, suggesting that L2 speakers can successfully track discourse-dependent probabilities and use such information to modulate phonetic processing.

  15. The Study of Critical Eco-Linguistic in Green Discourse: Prospective Eco-Linguistic Analysis

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    Tommi Yuniawan

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Eco-linguistic studies are influenced by one of the other interdisciplinary sciences, namely critical discourse analysis. The combination of these two sciences is called critical eco-linguistic studies. Critical eco-linguistic examines the discourse about the environment and various forms of discourse and their ideology which concerns people and the environment. The environmental discourse with all its manifestations (oral text, written text is called green discourse. To that end, critical eco-linguistic dictates the linguistic aspects contained in the green discourse. Utilization of lingual units in green discourse will affect the sense and logic of people involved in the discourse, ie the writers and readers or the speakers and the speakers. What is recorded in their cognition, will affect their attitudes and actions to the environment. If green discourse is constructive, then their attitude and actions to the environment are constructive. Conversely, if green discourse is more destructive and exploitative, then their attitudes and actions towards the environment will also be affected towards destruction and exploitation. For this reason, critical eco-linguistic studies in green discourse deserve to be given space as a form of prospective eco-linguistic analysis.

  16. Framing effects are robust to linguistic disambiguation: A critical test of contemporary theory.

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    Chick, Christina F; Reyna, Valerie F; Corbin, Jonathan C

    2016-02-01

    Theoretical accounts of risky choice framing effects assume that decision makers interpret framing options as extensionally equivalent, such that if 600 lives are at stake, saving 200 implies that 400 die. However, many scholars have argued that framing effects are caused, instead, by filling in pragmatically implied information. This linguistic ambiguity hypothesis is grounded in neo-Gricean pragmatics, information leakage, and schema theory. In 2 experiments, we conducted critical tests of the linguistic ambiguity hypothesis and its relation to framing. We controlled for this crucial implied information by disambiguating it using instructions and detailed examples, followed by multiple quizzes. After disambiguating missing information, we presented standard framing problems plus truncated versions, varying types of missing information. Truncations were also critical tests of prospect theory and fuzzy trace theory. Participants were not only college students, but also middle-age adults (who showed similar results). Contrary to the ambiguity hypothesis, participants who interpreted missing information as complementary to stated information nonetheless showed robust framing effects. Although adding words like "at least" can change interpretations of framing information, this form of linguistic ambiguity is not necessary to observe risky choice framing effects. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  17. Intelligences Developed by the Student Chess Player

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    Yuraima Margelis Matos De Rojas

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available To strengthen cognitive development in students requires the use of innovative, creative and formative strategies that allow it to achieve, being one of the didactic strategies chess. For what was proposed as research purpose: Identify the intelligences developed by the student athlete of the Sports Talent Education Unit that play chess, to suggest some recommendations that can be put into practice in educational institutions. Methodologically it was approached from the qualitative paradigm through a phenomenological method that reveals the reality from the experiences and experiences of the social actors. Six key students of the institution were chess players, to whom an open interview was applied to obtain the necessary information, which was systematized to extract the categories, codifications and triangulate the information. As results, it was obtained that the students develop the intelligences: logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial and visual, as the intrapersonal during the game of chess and in the learning processes. Configured in categories, analyzed and interpreted from the voices of social actors, theorists and researchers. Suggesting some recommendations that can be put into practice to strengthen the intelligences in the student.

  18. THE ARABIC ORIGINS OF ENGLISH AND INDO-EUROPEAN "URBAN TERMS": A RADICAL LINGUISTIC THEORY APPROACH

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    Zaidan Ali Jassem

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper traces the Arabic origins of English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit "urban terms" from a radical linguistic (or lexical root theory perspective. The data comprises 130 such terms like abide, building, city, construction, courtyard, hotel, house, live, mansion, mason, palace, metropolis, residence, road, rural, sedentary, sojourn, stay, structure, tent, town, urban, villa, village, zoo, and so on. The results clearly show that all such words have true Arabic cognates with the same or similar forms and meanings, whose differences are due to natural and plausible causes and different routes of linguistic change. Moreover, the results support the adequacy of the radical linguistic theory according to which, unlike the Comparative Method and/or Family Tree Model, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit are dialects of the same language or family, renamed Eurabian or Urban family, with Arabic being their origin all for sharing the whole cognates with them and for its huge phonetic, morphological, grammatical, and lexical variety and wealth. Also, they indicate that there is a radical language from which all human languages stemmed and which has been preserved almost intact in Arabic as the most conservative and productive language, without which it is impossible to interpret its linguistic richness and versatility on all levels.

  19. The Heuristic of George Polya and Its Relation to Artificial Intelligence

    Science.gov (United States)

    1981-07-01

    entitled Mathematical methods in physical science -- odd, in not being the standard freshman fare of physics, chemistry , western civilization and...the questions teachers should use. The first I I Having used a linguistic variation lo convey a matter of substance, a comment on etymology is in...Intelligence to Chemistry : The DEN ORAL project. New York- McGraw-Hill 1980. McDermott, J. Learning to use analogies. Proceedings of the International Joint

  20. The semantics of prosody: acoustic and perceptual evidence of prosodic correlates to word meaning.

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    Nygaard, Lynne C; Herold, Debora S; Namy, Laura L

    2009-01-01

    This investigation examined whether speakers produce reliable prosodic correlates to meaning across semantic domains and whether listeners use these cues to derive word meaning from novel words. Speakers were asked to produce phrases in infant-directed speech in which novel words were used to convey one of two meanings from a set of antonym pairs (e.g., big/small). Acoustic analyses revealed that some acoustic features were correlated with overall valence of the meaning. However, each word meaning also displayed a unique acoustic signature, and semantically related meanings elicited similar acoustic profiles. In two perceptual tests, listeners either attempted to identify the novel words with a matching meaning dimension (picture pair) or with mismatched meaning dimensions. Listeners inferred the meaning of the novel words significantly more often when prosody matched the word meaning choices than when prosody mismatched. These findings suggest that speech contains reliable prosodic markers to word meaning and that listeners use these prosodic cues to differentiate meanings. That prosody is semantic suggests a reconceptualization of traditional distinctions between linguistic and nonlinguistic properties of spoken language. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  1. Linguistic and Psycho-Linguistic Principles of Linguadidactics (theoretical interpretation

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    Liudmila Mauzienė

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available This article considers linguadidactics being closely related to linguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics and didactics and applies their theoretical statements and regularities in its scientific studies. Methodology refers to linguistics which investigates the language as a teaching subject. Methodology is linked to psychology in two ways. First of all, it is based on psychology as the teaching process is an intellectual psychical act and its regularities are necessary to know. On the other hand, methodology applies rules of pedagogy that predicts ways of learning and development of language skills. The article emphasizes that sustainable work experience and analysis of scientific research show that teaching process is more effective if consistent patterns of linguistics and psychology are appropriately applied.

  2. Profile of Cognitive Ability and Multiple Intelligence of Vocational Students in Application of Electric Energy Conservation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurniawan, A.; Rustaman, N. Y.; Kaniawati, I.; Hasanah, L.

    2017-09-01

    The purpose of this study is to obtain a profile picture of cognitive ability and multiple intelligence of students on physics learning activities in relation to the discourse of conservation of electrical energy. Research activities are conducted in the even semester of the 2015/2016 school year. The subjects of the study were the students of class XI (36 students) in one of the state vocational schools in Bandung consisting of one class chosen at random (cluster random sampling). Research data in the form of cognitive ability test results and multiple intelligences are analyzed descriptively and qualitatively. Research data is then analyzed and compared with predetermined success indicators. The results showed that the cognitive abilities profile of students in vocational schools in Bandung is still low. This can be seen from the average score of cognitive ability of students in remember (C1) of 57.75, understanding (C2) of 53.50, applying (C3) of 43.75, and analyzing (C4) of 37.75. The multiple intelligence profiles indicate frequency of linguistic intelligence number 9 students, musical intelligence 3 students, logical mathematical intelligence 13 students, spatial intelligence 7 students, kinesthetic intelligence 5 students, intrapersonal intelligence 7 students, interpersonal intelligence 6 students, and naturalistic intelligence 5 students.

  3. WORD-FORMATION IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTI-DISCIPLINARY COGNITIVE PARADIGM

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    Abrosimova Larisa

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Traditional  structure-oriented analysis of derivatives does not comply with the requirements of the  new cognitive paradigm of linguistic knowledge, which incorporates knowledge gained within different sciences. Word-formation serves the explication of human cognitive potential, which originates from linguistic personality’s individual and collective experience.The analysis of  -er, -ee, -ant / -ent and -ist  revealed that the considered affixes which are characterized by close semantic links can objectify cognitive structures with similar meanings although the derivatives with these suffixes are characterized by a wide degree of polysemy. Thus, any concrete derivational mechanism objectifies the act of thought production in a verbal-sign form. Specificity and regularity of   major operations with knowledge structures in mental space of a linguistic personality are represented in the basic derivational mechanisms which take place in a lexico-semantic subsystem of this or that language.The results of this research indicate the inseparable connection of derivational processes with the idea of a language as a mental phenomenon, focusing on organizing, processing and transferring information. Cognitive word-formation analysis of derivatives can represent the basis for our knowledge organization at the junction of «language» and «thought». /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Обычная таблица"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

  4. The meaning of 'life' and other abstract words: Insights from neuropsychology.

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    Hoffman, Paul

    2016-09-01

    There are a number of long-standing theories on how the cognitive processing of abstract words, like 'life', differs from that of concrete words, like 'knife'. This review considers current perspectives on this debate, focusing particularly on insights obtained from patients with language disorders and integrating these with evidence from functional neuroimaging studies. The evidence supports three distinct and mutually compatible hypotheses. (1) Concrete and abstract words differ in their representational substrates, with concrete words depending particularly on sensory experiences and abstract words on linguistic, emotional, and magnitude-based information. Differential dependence on visual versus verbal experience is supported by the evidence for graded specialization in the anterior temporal lobes for concrete versus abstract words. In addition, concrete words have richer representations, in line with better processing of these words in most aphasic patients and, in particular, patients with semantic dementia. (2) Abstract words place greater demands on executive regulation processes because they have variable meanings that change with context. This theory explains abstract word impairments in patients with semantic-executive deficits and is supported by neuroimaging studies showing greater response to abstract words in inferior prefrontal cortex. (3) The relationships between concrete words are governed primarily by conceptual similarity, while those of abstract words depend on association to a greater degree. This theory, based primarily on interference and priming effects in aphasic patients, is the most recent to emerge and the least well understood. I present analyses indicating that patterns of lexical co-occurrence may be important in understanding these effects. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Neuropsychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the British Psychological Society.

  5. Psychometrically equivalent bisyllabic words for speech recognition threshold testing in Vietnamese.

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    Harris, Richard W; McPherson, David L; Hanson, Claire M; Eggett, Dennis L

    2017-08-01

    This study identified, digitally recorded, edited and evaluated 89 bisyllabic Vietnamese words with the goal of identifying homogeneous words that could be used to measure the speech recognition threshold (SRT) in native talkers of Vietnamese. Native male and female talker productions of 89 Vietnamese bisyllabic words were recorded, edited and then presented at intensities ranging from -10 to 20 dBHL. Logistic regression was used to identify the best words for measuring the SRT. Forty-eight words were selected and digitally edited to have 50% intelligibility at a level equal to the mean pure-tone average (PTA) for normally hearing participants (5.2 dBHL). Twenty normally hearing native Vietnamese participants listened to and repeated bisyllabic Vietnamese words at intensities ranging from -10 to 20 dBHL. A total of 48 male and female talker recordings of bisyllabic words with steep psychometric functions (>9.0%/dB) were chosen for the final bisyllabic SRT list. Only words homogeneous with respect to threshold audibility with steep psychometric function slopes were chosen for the final list. Digital recordings of bisyllabic Vietnamese words are now available for use in measuring the SRT for patients whose native language is Vietnamese.

  6. The cingulo-opercular network provides word-recognition benefit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaden, Kenneth I; Kuchinsky, Stefanie E; Cute, Stephanie L; Ahlstrom, Jayne B; Dubno, Judy R; Eckert, Mark A

    2013-11-27

    Recognizing speech in difficult listening conditions requires considerable focus of attention that is often demonstrated by elevated activity in putative attention systems, including the cingulo-opercular network. We tested the prediction that elevated cingulo-opercular activity provides word-recognition benefit on a subsequent trial. Eighteen healthy, normal-hearing adults (10 females; aged 20-38 years) performed word recognition (120 trials) in multi-talker babble at +3 and +10 dB signal-to-noise ratios during a sparse sampling functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) contrast was elevated in the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and frontal operculum in response to poorer speech intelligibility and response errors. These brain regions exhibited significantly greater correlated activity during word recognition compared with rest, supporting the premise that word-recognition demands increased the coherence of cingulo-opercular network activity. Consistent with an adaptive control network explanation, general linear mixed model analyses demonstrated that increased magnitude and extent of cingulo-opercular network activity was significantly associated with correct word recognition on subsequent trials. These results indicate that elevated cingulo-opercular network activity is not simply a reflection of poor performance or error but also supports word recognition in difficult listening conditions.

  7. Emotional words can be embodied or disembodied: the role of superficial vs. deep types of processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbassi, Ensie; Blanchette, Isabelle; Ansaldo, Ana I; Ghassemzadeh, Habib; Joanette, Yves

    2015-01-01

    Emotional words are processed rapidly and automatically in the left hemisphere (LH) and slowly, with the involvement of attention, in the right hemisphere (RH). This review aims to find the reason for this difference and suggests that emotional words can be processed superficially or deeply due to the involvement of the linguistic and imagery systems, respectively. During superficial processing, emotional words likely make connections only with semantically associated words in the LH. This part of the process is automatic and may be sufficient for the purpose of language processing. Deep processing, in contrast, seems to involve conceptual information and imagery of a word's perceptual and emotional properties using autobiographical memory contents. Imagery and the involvement of autobiographical memory likely differentiate between emotional and neutral word processing and explain the salient role of the RH in emotional word processing. It is concluded that the level of emotional word processing in the RH should be deeper than in the LH and, thus, it is conceivable that the slow mode of processing adds certain qualities to the output.

  8. Specific Character of Loan-Words Perception in Youth Ethnic Culture

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    Lyubov Georgievna Fomichenko

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of a sociolinguistic survey of students conducted on the basis of a corpus of interviews gathered at the Institute of Philology and Cross Cultural Communication, Volgograd State University. The experimental study was aimed at the recognition of loan-words belonging to different thematic groups by the undergraduates and graduates. The findings of the research may be referred to the solution of ecolinguistic problems as they are oriented to researching the language speakers' mental processes while assimilating foreign words. The analysis has shown that the students' foreign language competence may not only define the variety of associations referring to the loan-word meanings, but is also able to lead to false interpretations. The contrastive analysis of the findings in the junior and senior groups of students revealed that the quantity of zero reactions to the foreign words awareness was almost equal. However, the undergraduates' reaction to the semantics of imported words was more creative, which testifies to their willingness in exposing their linguistic skills. The involvement of students in some activities (business, IT, fashion, sport, entertainment is probably a significant motivating factor in assimilating foreign words, but the interpretation of loanwords in the sphere of politics and terminology is a problematic issue for the young native speakers of Russian.

  9. Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems (Poster Session)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harber, K.S. [ed.

    1993-05-01

    This report contains the following papers: Implications in vivid logic; a self-learning Bayesian Expert System; a natural language generation system for a heterogeneous distributed database system; ``competence-switching`` managed by intelligent systems; strategy acquisition by an artificial neural network: Experiments in learning to play a stochastic game; viewpoints and selective inheritance in object-oriented modeling; multivariate discretization of continuous attributes for machine learning; utilization of the case-based reasoning method to resolve dynamic problems; formalization of an ontology of ceramic science in CLASSIC; linguistic tools for intelligent systems; an application of rough sets in knowledge synthesis; and a relational model for imprecise queries. These papers have been indexed separately.

  10. How humans transmit language: horizontal transmission matches word frequencies among peers on Twitter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryden, John; Wright, Shaun P; Jansen, Vincent A A

    2018-02-01

    Language transmission, the passing on of language features such as words between people, is the process of inheritance that underlies linguistic evolution. To understand how language transmission works, we need a mechanistic understanding based on empirical evidence of lasting change of language usage. Here, we analysed 200 million online conversations to investigate transmission between individuals. We find that the frequency of word usage is inherited over conversations, rather than only the binary presence or absence of a word in a person's lexicon. We propose a mechanism for transmission whereby for each word someone encounters there is a chance they will use it more often. Using this mechanism, we measure that, for one word in around every hundred a person encounters, they will use that word more frequently. As more commonly used words are encountered more often, this means that it is the frequencies of words which are copied. Beyond this, our measurements indicate that this per-encounter mechanism is neutral and applies without any further distinction as to whether a word encountered in a conversation is commonly used or not. An important consequence of this is that frequencies of many words can be used in concert to observe and measure language transmission, and our results confirm this. These results indicate that our mechanism for transmission can be used to study language patterns and evolution within populations. © 2018 The Author(s).

  11. Consideration of the linguistic characteristics of letters makes the universal model of reading more universal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyungil; Lee, Chang H; Lee, Yoonhyoung

    2012-10-01

    We suggest that the linguistic characteristics of letters also need to be considered to fully understand how a reader processes printed words. For example, studies in Korean showed that unambiguity in the assignment of letters to their appropriate onset, vowel, or coda slot is one of the main sources of the letter-transposition effect. Indeed, the cognitive system that processes Korean is tuned to the structure of the Korean writing system.

  12. Contribution of Word Reading Speed to Reading Comprehension in Brazilian Children: Does Speed Matter to the Comprehension Model?

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    Alessandra G. Seabra

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Studies have suggested that reading speed (RS or fluency should be a component of reading comprehension (RC models. There is also evidence of a relationship between RS and RC. However, some questions remain to be explored, as the changes in such a relationship may be a function of development. In addition, while there are studies published with English speakers and learners, less evidence exists in more transparent orthographies, such as Portuguese. This study investigated the relationship between RC and RS in typical readers. Objectives included elucidating the following: (1 the contribution of RS to RC controlling for intelligence, word recognition, and listening and (2 the differential relationships and contributions of RS to comprehension in different school grades. The sample of participants comprised 212 students (M = 8.76; SD = 1.06 from 2nd to 4th grade. We assessed intelligence, word recognition, word RS, listening, and RC. Performance in all tests increased as a function of grade. There were significant connections between RC and all other measures. Nonetheless, the regression analysis revealed that word RS has a unique contribution to RC after controlling for intelligence, word recognition, and listening, with a very modest but significant improvement in the explanatory power of the model. We found a significant relationship between RS and RC only for 4th grade and such relationship becomes marginal after controlling for word recognition. The findings suggest that RS could contribute to RC in Portuguese beyond the variance shared with listening and, mainly, word recognition, but such a contribution was very small. The data also reveal a differential relationship between RS and RC in different school grades; specifically, only for the 4th grade does RS begins to relate to RC. The findings add a developmental perspective to the study of reading models.

  13. Action Speaks Louder than Words: Young Children Differentially Weight Perceptual, Social, and Linguistic Cues to Learn Verbs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandone, Amanda C.; Pence, Khara L.; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy

    2007-01-01

    This paper explores how children use two possible solutions to the verb-mapping problem: attention to perceptually salient actions and attention to social and linguistic information (speaker cues). Twenty-two-month-olds attached a verb to one of two actions when perceptual cues (presence/absence of a result) coincided with speaker cues but not…

  14. Effects of Steady-State Noise on Verbal Working Memory in Young Adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marrone, Nicole; Alt, Mary; DeDe, Gayle; Olson, Sarah; Shehorn, James

    2015-12-01

    We set out to examine the impact of perceptual, linguistic, and capacity demands on performance of verbal working-memory tasks. The Ease of Language Understanding model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) provides a framework for testing the dynamics of these interactions within the auditory-cognitive system. Adult native speakers of English (n = 45) participated in verbal working-memory tasks requiring processing and storage of words involving different linguistic demands (closed/open set). Capacity demand ranged from 2 to 7 words per trial. Participants performed the tasks in quiet and in speech-spectrum-shaped noise. Separate groups of participants were tested at different signal-to-noise ratios. Word-recognition measures were obtained to determine effects of noise on intelligibility. Contrary to predictions, steady-state noise did not have an adverse effect on working-memory performance in every situation. Noise negatively influenced performance for the task with high linguistic demand. Of particular importance is the finding that the adverse effects of background noise were not confined to conditions involving declines in recognition. Perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive demands can dynamically affect verbal working-memory performance even in a population of healthy young adults. Results suggest that researchers and clinicians need to carefully analyze task demands to understand the independent and combined auditory-cognitive factors governing performance in everyday listening situations.

  15. CAUSES AND WAYS OF OCCURRENCE OF OCCASIONAL WORDS IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE PRESS

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    Radchenko Marina Vasilevna

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available This article contains an analytical overview of opinions of modern linguists on the causes of neologisms appearance and the principles of their differentiation. The author identifies the criteria for attributing the word to occasional words by comparing them with neologisms. Following other researchers, the author believes that the distinctive feature of occasional words and neologisms is that they belong to speech and language, respectively. The distinctive features of occasional words according to M.V. Radchenko are novelty, one-time use, and the fact that their appearance is usually dictated by the creative challenges faced by the author. However, these do not allow reckoning the occasional words among speech. The author is convinced that the occasional use, first of all, is in violation of grammar, word forming, lexical and semantic rules of the language. This is a motivated irregularity that is rationally organized. The author describes the causes of neologisms appearance in the language of the media. The article details the derivation aspect of occasional words. On the examples of journalistic texts, M.V. Radchenko describes the regulatory and non-normative methods of occasional words forming. Finally, she concludes that for the occasional word forming the regulatory models already existing in the language are often used.

  16. The Intelligence Dilemma: Proximity and Politicization–Analysis of External Influences

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    Beth Eisenfeld

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The relationship between policy-making and strategic intelligence is a source of ongoing discourse. Although there is an abundance of literature about the relationship between consumers and producers of intelligence, consensus as to the relationship between policy makers and intelligence producers is lacking. The two concepts–proximity and politicization–represent the intelligence dilemma that leads to claims of politicization, a word with many interpretations. Most observers of the democratic policy-making process are familiar with the traditional potential sources of politicization yet those sources are not the only potential sources of politicization and there is a paucity of literature about external influences and the politicization of intelligence. In democracies, governed by the people through their elected representatives, many individuals and groups interact with policymakers to influence decisions. This article provides a framework for understanding sources of politicization external to the intelligence community. It identifies an outside-in influence and uses three examples to show how this type of stimulus contributes to the politicization of intelligence.

  17. Spectrotemporal processing drives fast access to memory traces for spoken words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tavano, A; Grimm, S; Costa-Faidella, J; Slabu, L; Schröger, E; Escera, C

    2012-05-01

    The Mismatch Negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potentials is generated when a detectable spectrotemporal feature of the incoming sound does not match the sensory model set up by preceding repeated stimuli. MMN is enhanced at frontocentral scalp sites for deviant words when compared to acoustically similar deviant pseudowords, suggesting that automatic access to long-term memory traces for spoken words contributes to MMN generation. Does spectrotemporal feature matching also drive automatic lexical access? To test this, we recorded human auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to disyllabic spoken words and pseudowords within a passive oddball paradigm. We first aimed at replicating the word-related MMN enhancement effect for Spanish, thereby adding to the available cross-linguistic evidence (e.g., Finnish, English). We then probed its resilience to spectrotemporal perturbation by inserting short (20 ms) and long (120 ms) silent gaps between first and second syllables of deviant and standard stimuli. A significantly enhanced, frontocentrally distributed MMN to deviant words was found for stimuli with no gap. The long gap yielded no deviant word MMN, showing that prior expectations of word form limits in a given language influence deviance detection processes. Crucially, the insertion of a short gap suppressed deviant word MMN enhancement at frontocentral sites. We propose that spectrotemporal point-wise matching constitutes a core mechanism for fast serial computations in audition and language, bridging sensory and long-term memory systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Identification of multiple intelligences for high school students in theoretical and applied science courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiseman, D. Kim

    Historically educators in the United States have used the Stanford-Binet intelligence test to measure a students' ability in logical/mathematical and linguistic domains. This measurement is being used by a society that has evolved from agrarian and industrial-based economies to what is presently labeled a technological society. As society has changed so have the educational needs of the students who will live in this technological society. This study assessed the multiple intelligences of high school students enrolled in theoretical and applied science (physics and applied physics) courses. Studies have verified that performance and outcomes of students enrolled in these courses are similar in standardized testing but instructional methodology and processes are dissimilar. Analysis of multiple intelligence profiles collected from this study found significant differences in logical/mathematical, bodily/kinesthetic and intrapersonal multiple intelligences of students in theoretical science courses compared to students in applied science courses. Those differences clearly illustrate why it is imperative for educators to expand the definition of intelligence for students entering the new millennium.

  19. Pathway evidence of how musical perception predicts word-level reading ability in children with reading difficulties.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hugo Cogo-Moreira

    Full Text Available To investigate whether specific domains of musical perception (temporal and melodic domains predict the word-level reading skills of eight- to ten-year-old children (n = 235 with reading difficulties, normal quotient of intelligence, and no previous exposure to music education classes.A general-specific solution of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA, which underlies a musical perception construct and is constituted by three latent factors (the general, temporal, and the melodic domain, was regressed on word-level reading skills (rate of correct isolated words/non-words read per minute.General and melodic latent domains predicted word-level reading skills.

  20. The Linguistic Recontextualization of the Kosova and Serbia Negotiations in Global Media

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    Lindita Tahiri

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available This study compares the coverage of Serbia and Kosova negotiations in the period from September 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 by The New York Times and Al Jazeera English, from the perspective of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The content analyses highlight the profile of the texts in these two outlets, their sources and topics, grammatical features such as word frequency, predication, attribution, classifier role and word relations. The Critical Discourse Analysis uses the concept of recontextualization of social practices developed by van Leeuwen (2008 and analyzes the media recontextualization of the social practice of Kosova and Serbia negotiations from the perspective of three key elements: participants with their roles and identities, the kind of actions they undertake, and the construction of the discursive legitimation for these actions. This paper raises questions about the linguistic choices of The New York Times and Al Jazeera in presenting the Kosova-Serbia negotiations, questions about knowledge and values these media transmit, and in particular questions about their ideological effects. The findings of this study reveal dominant linguistic elements in journalistic narratives of these two global media, hence revealing the strategic interaction of these media with the audience. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis results correspond and show that The New York Times and Al Jazeera apply dissimilar recontextualizing practices, generating ideologies which influence the social and political reasoning by shaping the way the audience understands the everyday world.

  1. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SELF-ESTIMATES OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AMONG LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abbas Zare-ee

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available According to Howard Gardner, human intellectual ability cannot be measured by a unitary concept of general intelligence, and the performance of cognitive tasks draws on different types of intelligence, including linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, natural, and existential. Despite the lack of adequate empirical support and recent doubts raised about its validity, this view of multiple intelligences has been extensively employed for the characterization of learners and the development of tasks for language teaching and learning. Whereas gender differences in the learning and use of language have been extensively researched, context-specific information on gender differences in different domains of multiple intelligences has not been seriously examined. The survey reported here is based on the hypothesis that multiple intelligences vary not only at the individual level, but also in the case of gender at a cultural level, and uses Mckenzie's Multiple Intelligences Survey to explore possible gender differences in Gardner’s intelligences. Questionnaire data relating to each of the nine intelligences was elicited from 300 undergraduate volunteers studying English at the University of Kashan in central Iran. The questionnaire included 90 statements and 10 items on each intelligence, and was used to identify the intelligence profile of the participants according to their own self-estimates. The scores for each intelligence type were calculated, analyzed and compared across genders. The results of the study showed that in contrast to the trend observed in previous research, female learners tended to rate themselves higher on most intelligences and their means were significantly higher than those of male learners in the areas of naturalistic and existential intelligences. The findings have both theoretical and practical implications not only for the reconsideration of previous claims

  2. Forensic Linguistics: The Linguistic Analyst and Expert Witness of Language Evidence in Criminal Trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Sherilynn Nidever

    Forensic linguistics (FL) provides consultation to lawyers through the analysis of language evidence during the pre-trial investigation. Evidence commonly analyzed by linguists in criminal cases includes transcripts of police interviews and language crimes (such as bribery) and anonymous or questioned texts. Forensic linguistic testimony is rarely…

  3. German and English Bodies: No Evidence for Cross-Linguistic Differences in Preferred Orthographic Grain Size

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xenia Schmalz

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Previous studies have found that words and nonwords with many body neighbours (i.e., words with the same orthographic body, e.g., 'cat, brat, at' are read faster than items with fewer body neighbours. This body-N effect has been explored in the context of cross-linguistic differences in reading where it has been reported that the size of the effect differs as a function of orthographic depth: readers of English, a deep orthography, show stronger facilitation than readers of German, a shallow orthography. Such findings support the psycholinguistic grain size theory, which proposes that readers of English rely on large orthographic units to reduce ambiguity of print-to-speech correspondences in their orthography. Here we re-examine the evidence for this pattern and find that there is no reliable evidence for such a cross-linguistic difference. Re-analysis of a key study (Ziegler et al., 2001, analysis of data from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007, and a large-scale analysis of nine new experiments all support this conclusion. Using Bayesian analysis techniques, we find little evidence of the body-N effect in most tasks and conditions. Where we do find evidence for a body-N effect (lexical decision for nonwords, we find evidence against an interaction with language.

  4. Sample Undergraduate Linguistics Courses. Linguistics in the Undergraduate Curriculum, Appendix 5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linguistic Society of America, Washington, DC.

    Thirty-six nontraditional undergraduate courses in linguistics are described. Course topics include: animal communication, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, introductory linguistics, language and formal reasoning, language and human conflict, language and power, language and sex, language and the brain, language planning, language typology and…

  5. The theory of multiple intelligences in the identification of high-ability students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Hernández-Torrano

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This study provides a framework to implement the theory of multiple intelligences (MI in the identification of high-ability students in secondary education. The internal structure of three scales to assess students' MI (students, parents and teachers' ratings was analyzed in a sample of 566 students nominated as gifted by their teachers. Participants aged 11 to 16 years (M = 14.85, SD = 1.08. The results indicated differentiated intellectual profiles depending on the informant estimating students' MI. This study provided evidence for two components that allow us to analyze the cognitive competence of high-ability students beyond the areas commonly assessed at school: an academic component composed by the linguistic, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, and visual-spatial intelligences; and a non-academic component statistically loaded by the bodily-kinesthetic, musical and social intelligences. Convergence of the two components in the three scales was evidenced; and correlations between these components and students' objective performance on a psychometric intelligence test were found to be low. Finally, the utility of the MI scales to identify high-ability students in secondary education is discussed.

  6. ERP evidence on the interaction between information structure and emotional salience of words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lin; Bastiaansen, Marcel; Yang, Yufang; Hagoort, Peter

    2013-06-01

    Both emotional words and words focused by information structure can capture attention. This study examined the interplay between emotional salience and information structure in modulating attentional resources in the service of integrating emotional words into sentence context. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to affectively negative, neutral, and positive words, which were either focused or nonfocused in question-answer pairs, were evaluated during sentence comprehension. The results revealed an early negative effect (90-200 ms), a P2 effect, as well as an effect in the N400 time window, for both emotional salience and information structure. Moreover, an interaction between emotional salience and information structure occurred within the N400 time window over right posterior electrodes, showing that information structure influences the semantic integration only for neutral words, but not for emotional words. This might reflect the fact that the linguistic salience of emotional words can override the effect of information structure on the integration of words into context. The interaction provides evidence for attention-emotion interactions at a later stage of processing. In addition, the absence of interaction in the early time window suggests that the processing of emotional information is highly automatic and independent of context. The results suggest independent attention capture systems of emotional salience and information structure at the early stage but an interaction between them at a later stage, during the semantic integration of words.

  7. Linguistics and the digital humanities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard

    2014-01-01

    Corpus linguistics has been closely intertwined with digital technology since the introduction of university computer mainframes in the 1960s. Making use of both digitized data in the form of the language corpus and computational methods of analysis involving concordancers and statistics software......, corpus linguistics arguably has a place in the digital humanities. Still, it remains obscure and figures only sporadically in the literature on the digital humanities. This article provides an overview of the main principles of corpus linguistics and the role of computer technology in relation to data...... and method and also offers a bird's-eye view of the history of corpus linguistics with a focus on its intimate relationship with digital technology and how digital technology has impacted the very core of corpus linguistics and shaped the identity of the corpus linguist. Ultimately, the article is oriented...

  8. Defining the Roles, Responsibilities, and Functions for Data Science Within the Defense Intelligence Agency

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    different variables. Specifically, this component consisted of a mixture of organizational, psychological , and cognitive sciences and has not been...organizational science, etc.) and a branch of terms strongly associated with cognitive science, psychology , linguistics, and artificial intelligence. We binned...blog post, n.d.; Jeffrey Goldstein , “Resource Guide and Glossary for Nonlinear/Complex Systems Terms,” PlexusInstitute.org, n.d

  9. Strong and long: effects of word length on phonological binding in verbal short-term memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jefferies, Elizabeth; Frankish, Clive; Noble, Katie

    2011-02-01

    This study examined the effects of item length on the contribution of linguistic knowledge to immediate serial recall (ISR). Long words are typically recalled more poorly than short words, reflecting the greater demands that they place on phonological encoding, rehearsal, and production. However, reverse word length effects--that is, better recall of long than short words--can also occur in situations in which phonological maintenance is difficult, suggesting that long words derive greater support from long-term lexical knowledge. In this study, long and short words and nonwords (containing one vs. three syllables) were presented for immediate serial recall in (a) pure lists and (b) unpredictable mixed lists of words and nonwords. The mixed-list paradigm is known to disrupt the phonological stability of words, encouraging their phonemes to recombine with the elements of other list items. In this situation, standard length effects were seen for nonwords, while length effects for words were absent or reversed. A detailed error analysis revealed that long words were more robust to the mixed-list manipulation than short words: Their phonemes were less likely to be omitted and to recombine with phonemes from other list items. These findings support an interactive view of short-term memory, in which long words derive greater benefits from lexical knowledge than short words-especially when their phonological integrity is challenged by the inclusion of nonwords in mixed lists.

  10. Understanding the Role of Linguistic Processes in the Solution of Arithmetic Word Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LeBlanc, Mark D.

    Ongoing work toward developing a learning environment that will perform real-time diagnoses of students' difficulties in solving mathematical word problems is described. The learning environment designed consists of a microworld and expert modules. The microworld (or toolbox) is a collection of mouse-driven interfaces that facilitate a transition…

  11. Emotional words can be embodied or disembodied: the role of superficial vs. deep types of processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ensie eAbbassi

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Emotional words are processed rapidly and automatically in the left hemisphere (LH and slowly, with the involvement of attention, in the right hemisphere (RH. This review aims to find the reason for this difference and suggests that emotional words can be processed superficially or deeply due to the involvement of the linguistic and imagery systems, respectively. During superficial processing, emotional words likely make connections only with semantically associated words in the LH. This part of the process is automatic and may be sufficient for the purpose of language processing. Deep processing, in contrast, seems to involve conceptual information and imagery of a word’s perceptual and emotional properties using autobiographical memory contents. Imagery and the involvement of autobiographical memory likely differentiate between emotional and neutral word processing and explain the salient role of the RH in emotional word processing. It is concluded that the level of emotional word processing in the RH should be deeper than in the LH and, thus, it is conceivable that the slow mode of processing adds certain qualities to the output.

  12. Emotional words can be embodied or disembodied: the role of superficial vs. deep types of processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbassi, Ensie; Blanchette, Isabelle; Ansaldo, Ana I.; Ghassemzadeh, Habib; Joanette, Yves

    2015-01-01

    Emotional words are processed rapidly and automatically in the left hemisphere (LH) and slowly, with the involvement of attention, in the right hemisphere (RH). This review aims to find the reason for this difference and suggests that emotional words can be processed superficially or deeply due to the involvement of the linguistic and imagery systems, respectively. During superficial processing, emotional words likely make connections only with semantically associated words in the LH. This part of the process is automatic and may be sufficient for the purpose of language processing. Deep processing, in contrast, seems to involve conceptual information and imagery of a word’s perceptual and emotional properties using autobiographical memory contents. Imagery and the involvement of autobiographical memory likely differentiate between emotional and neutral word processing and explain the salient role of the RH in emotional word processing. It is concluded that the level of emotional word processing in the RH should be deeper than in the LH and, thus, it is conceivable that the slow mode of processing adds certain qualities to the output. PMID:26217288

  13. Spoken Word Recognition Errors in Speech Audiometry: A Measure of Hearing Performance?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martine Coene

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This report provides a detailed analysis of incorrect responses from an open-set spoken word-repetition task which is part of a Dutch speech audiometric test battery. Single-consonant confusions were analyzed from 230 normal hearing participants in terms of the probability of choice of a particular response on the basis of acoustic-phonetic, lexical, and frequency variables. The results indicate that consonant confusions are better predicted by lexical knowledge than by acoustic properties of the stimulus word. A detailed analysis of the transmission of phonetic features indicates that “voicing” is best preserved whereas “manner of articulation” yields most perception errors. As consonant confusion matrices are often used to determine the degree and type of a patient’s hearing impairment, to predict a patient’s gain in hearing performance with hearing devices and to optimize the device settings in view of maximum output, the observed findings are highly relevant for the audiological practice. Based on our findings, speech audiometric outcomes provide a combined auditory-linguistic profile of the patient. The use of confusion matrices might therefore not be the method best suited to measure hearing performance. Ideally, they should be complemented by other listening task types that are known to have less linguistic bias, such as phonemic discrimination.

  14. Elementary school students’ mathematical intelligence based on mathematics learning using classical music of the baroque era as the backsound

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karlimah

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Many studies suggest that classical music can inccrease the listeners’ intelligence, including mathematical intelligence [3, 12, 2, 11]. In this research, we used the classical music of Baroque era as the backsound during math learning. The research method used was quasi experiment with nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design to grade V SD students in Tasikmalaya city. The results show that the use of classical music of Baroque era during the learning of mathematics gave a high contribution to the mathematical intelligence of fifth grade elementary school students. The student's mathematical intelligence can be seen in the cognitive abilities which were at the high level in the knowledge up to analysis, and at the low level in the synthesis and evaluation. Low mathematical intelligence was shown by students in calculating amount and difference of time, and projecting word problem into the form of mathematical problems. High mathematical intelligence arose in reading and writing integers in words and numbers. Thus, the mathematical intelligence of fifth grade Elementary School students will be better if classical music of Baroque era is used as the backsound in mathematics learning about solving math problems.

  15. Errors and Intelligence in Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Parsers and Pedagogues. Routledge Studies in Computer Assisted Language Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heift, Trude; Schulze, Mathias

    2012-01-01

    This book provides the first comprehensive overview of theoretical issues, historical developments and current trends in ICALL (Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning). It assumes a basic familiarity with Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory and teaching, CALL and linguistics. It is of interest to upper undergraduate and/or graduate…

  16. Individual language experience modulates rapid formation of cortical memory circuits for novel words

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimppa, Lilli; Kujala, Teija; Shtyrov, Yury

    2016-01-01

    Mastering multiple languages is an increasingly important ability in the modern world; furthermore, multilingualism may affect human learning abilities. Here, we test how the brain’s capacity to rapidly form new representations for spoken words is affected by prior individual experience in non-native language acquisition. Formation of new word memory traces is reflected in a neurophysiological response increase during a short exposure to novel lexicon. Therefore, we recorded changes in electrophysiological responses to phonologically native and non-native novel word-forms during a perceptual learning session, in which novel stimuli were repetitively presented to healthy adults in either ignore or attend conditions. We found that larger number of previously acquired languages and earlier average age of acquisition (AoA) predicted greater response increase to novel non-native word-forms. This suggests that early and extensive language experience is associated with greater neural flexibility for acquiring novel words with unfamiliar phonology. Conversely, later AoA was associated with a stronger response increase for phonologically native novel word-forms, indicating better tuning of neural linguistic circuits to native phonology. The results suggest that individual language experience has a strong effect on the neural mechanisms of word learning, and that it interacts with the phonological familiarity of the novel lexicon. PMID:27444206

  17. The impact of inverted text on visual word processing: An fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sussman, Bethany L; Reddigari, Samir; Newman, Sharlene D

    2018-06-01

    Visual word recognition has been studied for decades. One question that has received limited attention is how different text presentation orientations disrupt word recognition. By examining how word recognition processes may be disrupted by different text orientations it is hoped that new insights can be gained concerning the process. Here, we examined the impact of rotating and inverting text on the neural network responsible for visual word recognition focusing primarily on a region of the occipto-temporal cortex referred to as the visual word form area (VWFA). A lexical decision task was employed in which words and pseudowords were presented in one of three orientations (upright, rotated or inverted). The results demonstrate that inversion caused the greatest disruption of visual word recognition processes. Both rotated and inverted text elicited increased activation in spatial attention regions within the right parietal cortex. However, inverted text recruited phonological and articulatory processing regions within the left inferior frontal and left inferior parietal cortices. Finally, the VWFA was found to not behave similarly to the fusiform face area in that unusual text orientations resulted in increased activation and not decreased activation. It is hypothesized here that the VWFA activation is modulated by feedback from linguistic processes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Learning and Processing Abstract Words and Concepts: Insights From Typical and Atypical Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vigliocco, Gabriella; Ponari, Marta; Norbury, Courtenay

    2018-05-21

    The paper describes two plausible hypotheses concerning the learning of abstract words and concepts. According to a first hypothesis, children would learn abstract words by extracting co-occurrences among words in linguistic input, using, for example, mechanisms as described by models of Distributional Semantics. According to a second hypothesis, children would exploit the fact that abstract words tend to have more emotional associations than concrete words to infer that they refer to internal/mental states. Each hypothesis makes specific predictions with regards to when and which abstract words are more likely to be learned; also they make different predictions concerning the impact of developmental disorders. We start by providing a review of work characterizing how abstract words and concepts are learned in development, especially between the ages of 6 and 12. Second, we review some work from our group that tests the two hypotheses above. This work investigates typically developing (TD) children and children with atypical development (developmental language disorders [DLD] and autism spectrum disorder [ASD] with and without language deficits). We conclude that the use of strategies based on emotional information, or on co-occurrences in language, may play a role at different developmental stages. © 2018 Cognitive Science Society Inc.

  19. The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Li, Ed.

    2011-01-01

    "The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader" is an essential collection of readings for students of Applied Linguistics. Divided into five sections: Language Teaching and Learning, Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Identity and Power and Language Use in Professional Contexts, the "Reader" takes a broad…

  20. Universal Dimensions of Meaning Derived from Semantic Relations among Words and Senses: Mereological Completeness vs. Ontological Generality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexei V. Samsonovich

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available A key to semantic analysis is a precise and practically useful definition of meaning that is general for all domains of knowledge. We previously introduced the notion of weak semantic map: a metric space allocating concepts along their most general (universal semantic characteristics while at the same time ignoring other, domain-specific aspects of their meanings. Here we address questions of the number, quality, and mutual independence of the weak semantic dimensions. Specifically, we employ semantic relationships not previously used for weak semantic mapping, such as holonymy/meronymy (“is-part/member-of”, and we compare maps constructed from word senses to those constructed from words. We show that the “completeness” dimension derived from the holonym/meronym relation is independent of, and practically orthogonal to, the “abstractness” dimension derived from the hypernym-hyponym (“is-a” relation, while both dimensions are orthogonal to the maps derived from synonymy and antonymy. Interestingly, the choice of using relations among words vs. senses implies a non-trivial trade-off between rich and unambiguous information due to homonymy and polysemy. The practical utility of the new and prior dimensions is illustrated by the automated evaluation of different kinds of documents. Residual analysis of available linguistic resources, such as WordNet, suggests that the number of universal semantic dimensions representable in natural language may be finite. Their complete characterization, as well as the extension of results to non-linguistic materials, remains an open challenge.

  1. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES THEORY – A MILESTONE INNOVATION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NIŠ MEDICAL SCHOOL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataša Bakić-Mirić

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Theory of multiple intelligences is considered an innovation in both teaching and learning English language because it helps students develop all the eight intelligences that are grouped as verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist. The aforementioned intelligences are thought to represent ways in which individuals understand and perceive the world, solve problems and learn. Correspondingly, by focusing on the problem solving activities, teachers, by implementing theory of multiple intelligences encourage students not only to build-up their existing language knowledge but also learn new content and skills. The implementation of the theory of multiple intelligences in teaching the English language at the University of Niš Medical School has had a positive impact on learning English language and increased students' interest in language learning. Genarally speaking, this theory offers a better understanding of students’ intelligence and a greater appreciation of their strengths. It provides numerous opportunities for students to use and develop all the eight intelligences not just the few they excel in prior to enrolling a university or college.

  2. More Than Words: The Role of Multiword Sequences in Language Learning and Use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christiansen, Morten H; Arnon, Inbal

    2017-07-01

    The ability to convey our thoughts using an infinite number of linguistic expressions is one of the hallmarks of human language. Understanding the nature of the psychological mechanisms and representations that give rise to this unique productivity is a fundamental goal for the cognitive sciences. A long-standing hypothesis is that single words and rules form the basic building blocks of linguistic productivity, with multiword sequences being treated as units only in peripheral cases such as idioms. The new millennium, however, has seen a shift toward construing multiword linguistic units not as linguistic rarities, but as important building blocks for language acquisition and processing. This shift-which originated within theoretical approaches that emphasize language learning and use-has far-reaching implications for theories of language representation, processing, and acquisition. Incorporating multiword units as integral building blocks blurs the distinction between grammar and lexicon; calls for models of production and comprehension that can accommodate and give rise to the effect of multiword information on processing; and highlights the importance of such units to learning. In this special topic, we bring together cutting-edge work on multiword sequences in theoretical linguistics, first-language acquisition, psycholinguistics, computational modeling, and second-language learning to present a comprehensive overview of the prominence and importance of such units in language, their possible role in explaining differences between first- and second-language learning, and the challenges the combined findings pose for theories of language. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  3. Linguistic Peculiarities of Methodical Educational Publications Issued in 2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Regina Žukienė

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The article presents linguistic peculiarities of methodical educational publications prepared and published using European structural funds allocated to the VGTU Transport Engineering, Biomechanics and Aviation Mechanical Engineering project “Renewal of the Study Programmes in Accordance with the EU Requirements by Improving the Quality of the Studies and Applying Innovative Study Methods” carried out in accordance with the Lithuania’s 2007–2013 year Human Resources Development Operational Programme, priority axis 2 “Education and Lifelong Learning”, measure VP1-2.2-MES-07-K “Improving Studies Quality, Increasing Internationalization”. Characteristic properties of style and culture of writing, compliance with language norms, and instances of foreign words used in aviation are analysed.

  4. English and Persian Cognates/Pseudo Cognates-A Cross-Linguistic Investigation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amin Marzban

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Different world languages have a lot of contact with each other and have had different influences on one another. Cognates, words which are similar across two or more languages in some aspects, especially with regard to pronunciation, portray an interesting and relevant aspect of foreign/second language translation and research. This study intended to identify a type of cognate words called false cognates in Persian and English, words which have the same form in two languages but represent different meanings, and tried to study and determine the historical relations between English and Persian words. It also aimed to trace their route back from Proto Indo-European languages to the modern languages. To this end, the related literature was gone through and a sufficient corpus of information has been revealed. Afterwards, authentic monolingual dictionaries in both Farsi and English languages were consulted to provide definitions for the cognates and allow for their cross-linguistic comparison. The findings revealed that most of such problematic cognates with different meanings in Farsi and English as found through this study are likely to be confusing and deceptive for Farsi-speaking EFL learners. The findings also pointed to the need for this line of research to receive more scholarly attention. The study of true and false cognates has some implications for contrastive analysts, error analysts, translators, translation theorists, foreign language teachers, curriculum designers, as well as lexicographers and lexicologists.

  5. Measuring Linguistic Empathy: An Experimental Approach to Connecting Linguistic and Social Psychological Notions of Empathy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kann, Trevor

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation investigated the relationship between Linguistic Empathy and Psychological Empathy by implementing a psycholinguistic experiment that measured a person's acceptability ratings of sentences with violations of Linguistic Empathy and correlating them with a measure of the person's Psychological Empathy. Linguistic Empathy…

  6. LANGUE AND PAROLE IN AMERICAN LINGUISTICS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LEVIN, SAMUEL R.

    THE PROBLEM OF THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURE IS CONSIDERED AND THE FORM WHICH ANY LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION SHOULD TAKE. THE AUTHOR EXAMINES THE INFLUENCE OF THE SWISS LINGUIST, FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE, ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS. THE QUESTION OF "MENTALISM" IN LINGUISTICS IS REDUCED TO THE PROBLEM OF WHETHER LINGUISTIC…

  7. Multilingualism at Danish universities equal to English? The Implications for other foreign languages and linguistic poverty

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cancino, Rita

    and revenue (Phillipson, 2010). This issue forms the background of the presentation, in which it will be discussed how the extended use of English at Danish Universities contributes to linguistic poverty and lack of other foreign languages. The presentation will be centered around the study of language......Language policy and the economics of the workplace, Language policy and globalization Keywords: Key words: Danish Universities, multilingualism, language policy, foreign languages, globalization, Multilingualism at Danish universities equal to English? The Implications for other foreign languages...... and linguistic poverty. Since 2003, with the new Danish University Act and the strengthening of internationalisation, Danish Universities have changed rapidly with a massive transition to English as language of instruction in many study programmes. Studies taught in English attract a large amount of both Danish...

  8. Linguistic Communications 1.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monash Univ., Clayton, Victoria (Australia).

    The present compilation of papers on linguistics is the result of joint efforts by the Classical Studies, French, Japanese, Linguistics, and Russian Departments of Monash University. Selections in the Pre-Prints and Articles section include: "For/Arabic Bilingualism in the Zalingei Area," by B. Jernudd; "Prosodic Problems in a Generative Phonology…

  9. A comparison of conscious and automatic memory processes for picture and word stimuli: a process dissociation analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McBride, Dawn M; Anne Dosher, Barbara

    2002-09-01

    Four experiments were conducted to evaluate explanations of picture superiority effects previously found for several tasks. In a process dissociation procedure (Jacoby, 1991) with word stem completion, picture fragment completion, and category production tasks, conscious and automatic memory processes were compared for studied pictures and words with an independent retrieval model and a generate-source model. The predictions of a transfer appropriate processing account of picture superiority were tested and validated in "process pure" latent measures of conscious and unconscious, or automatic and source, memory processes. Results from both model fits verified that pictures had a conceptual (conscious/source) processing advantage over words for all tasks. The effects of perceptual (automatic/word generation) compatibility depended on task type, with pictorial tasks favoring pictures and linguistic tasks favoring words. Results show support for an explanation of the picture superiority effect that involves an interaction of encoding and retrieval processes.

  10. The Profile of Adolescent’ Moral Intelligence and Practical Solution to Its Improvement Efforts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prasetiawan Hardi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available High moral quality is needed by adolescent to be success in their personal and educational life. Those who have high morale quality can be considered as morally intelligent Individuals. This study is aimed to collect information about adolescents’ moral intelligent by using moral intelligence Instrument that consists of seven aspects, empathy, self control, conscience, respect, kindness, tolerance dan fairness, furthermore, alternative solution is given to improve their moral intelligence. Subject of this study was selected through simple random sampling. Based on the result of the survey, it was found that students in a State Junior high school in Yogyakarta have 69% moral intelligence percentage. In other words, they have medium moral Intelligence. Adolescents’ moral quality develops through continuous process in their life. One of many methods that can be done to improve moral intelligence is guidance and counseling service, in specific, group counseling with self- management technique.

  11. Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems (Poster Session)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harber, K.S. (ed.)

    1993-05-01

    This report contains the following papers: Implications in vivid logic; a self-learning bayesian expert system; a natural language generation system for a heterogeneous distributed database system; competence-switching'' managed by intelligent systems; strategy acquisition by an artificial neural network: Experiments in learning to play a stochastic game; viewpoints and selective inheritance in object-oriented modeling; multivariate discretization of continuous attributes for machine learning; utilization of the case-based reasoning method to resolve dynamic problems; formalization of an ontology of ceramic science in CLASSIC; linguistic tools for intelligent systems; an application of rough sets in knowledge synthesis; and a relational model for imprecise queries. These papers have been indexed separately.

  12. Effect of Whole-Body Vibration on Speech. Part 2; Effect on Intelligibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Begault, Durand R.

    2011-01-01

    The effect on speech intelligibility was measured for speech where talkers reading Diagnostic Rhyme Test material were exposed to 0.7 g whole body vibration to simulate space vehicle launch. Across all talkers, the effect of vibration was to degrade the percentage of correctly transcribed words from 83% to 74%. The magnitude of the effect of vibration on speech communication varies between individuals, for both talkers and listeners. A worst case scenario for intelligibility would be the most sensitive listener hearing the most sensitive talker; one participant s intelligibility was reduced by 26% (97% to 71%) for one of the talkers.

  13. Working Memory for Linguistic and Non-linguistic Manual Gestures: Evidence, Theory, and Application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudner, Mary

    2018-01-01

    Linguistic manual gestures are the basis of sign languages used by deaf individuals. Working memory and language processing are intimately connected and thus when language is gesture-based, it is important to understand related working memory mechanisms. This article reviews work on working memory for linguistic and non-linguistic manual gestures and discusses theoretical and applied implications. Empirical evidence shows that there are effects of load and stimulus degradation on working memory for manual gestures. These effects are similar to those found for working memory for speech-based language. Further, there are effects of pre-existing linguistic representation that are partially similar across language modalities. But above all, deaf signers score higher than hearing non-signers on an n-back task with sign-based stimuli, irrespective of their semantic and phonological content, but not with non-linguistic manual actions. This pattern may be partially explained by recent findings relating to cross-modal plasticity in deaf individuals. It suggests that in linguistic gesture-based working memory, semantic aspects may outweigh phonological aspects when processing takes place under challenging conditions. The close association between working memory and language development should be taken into account in understanding and alleviating the challenges faced by deaf children growing up with cochlear implants as well as other clinical populations.

  14. LINGUISTICS AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING: AN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The relationship between linguistics and second language teaching has always been a controversial one. Many linguists have argued that linguistics has nothing to say to the teacher. Sampson (1980, p.10), for example, says: ·"1 do not believe that linguistics has any contribution to make to the teaching of English or the.

  15. On the concept of a linguistic variable

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kerre, E.

    1996-01-01

    The concept of a linguistic variable plays a crucial role in the representation of imprecise knowledge in information sciences. A variable is called linguistic as soon as its values are linguistic terms rather than numerical ones. The power of daily communication and common sense reasoning lies in the use of such linguistic values. Even when exact numerical values are available, experts tend to transform these values into linguistic ones. A physician will usually translate a numerical measurement of a blood pressure into linguistic specifications such as normal, very high, too low... Zadeh has argued that the set of values for a linguistic variable assumes a more-or-less fixed structure. Starting from an atomic value and its antonym all remaining values are constructed using logical connectives on the one hand and linguistic hedges on the other hand. In this paper we will describe how to represent the value set of a linguistic variable in general and of linguistic hedges in particular

  16. Clinical Linguistics--Retrospect and Prospect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grunwell, Pamela

    In the past 20 years, linguistics has gained a prominent position in speech and language pathology in Britain, evolving into a new field, clinical linguistics. It includes three related areas of activity: training of speech pathologists/therapists; professional practice; and research. Linguistics and speech/language pathology have developed as…

  17. JAVANESE CULTURAL WORDS IN LOCAL NEWSPAPERS IN CENTRAL JAVA AS A LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE MODEL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deli Nirmala

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Javanese cultural words are the linguistic units which are very specific to Javanese culture and society. This article aims at describing what Javanese cultural words that are found in the local newspapers, what they represent, and why they are used in the local newspapers in Central Java. Non-participant observation is used to present the data for analysis, continued with page-filing and note-taking techniques. Referential, reflective-introspective, and abductive inferential methods are used to analyze the data. The result indicates that the Javanese cultural words found in the local newspapers represent festivals, rituals, Javanese ways of life, social activities, actions, feelings, thoughts, behavior, and experiences. The words become the indicators that the journalists of the local newspapers in Cental Java have positive attitudes toward Javanese words. This becomes a model for language maintenance of Javanese. This implies that the words are stored in the long-term memory, that become mental image, which are used when needed by the user for communication. The existence of the concepts residing in the mind will make the Javanese language maintenance possible, which is supported by the attitudes of the Javanese.

  18. Easy-to-read texts for students with intellectual disability: linguistic factors affecting comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fajardo, Inmaculada; Ávila, Vicenta; Ferrer, Antonio; Tavares, Gema; Gómez, Marcos; Hernández, Ana

    2014-05-01

    The use of 'easy-to-read' materials for people with intellectual disabilities has become very widespread but their effectiveness has scarcely been evaluated. In this study, the framework provided by Kintsch's Construction-Integration Model (1988) is used to examine (i) the reading comprehension levels of different passages of the Spanish text that have been designed following easy-to-read guidelines and (ii) the relationships between reading comprehension (literal and inferential) and various linguistic features of these texts. Sixteen students with mild intellectual disability and low levels of reading skills were asked to read easy-to-read texts and then complete a reading comprehension test. The corpus of texts was composed of a set of forty-eight pieces of news selected from www.noticiasfacil.es, a Spanish digital newspaper that publishes daily journalistic texts following international guidelines for the design of easy-to-read documents (IFLA, Tronbacke B. (1997) Guidelines for Easy-to-read Materials. IFLA, The Hague). Participants correctly answered 80% of the comprehension questions, showing significantly higher scores for literal questions than for inferential questions. The analyses of the texts' linguistic features revealed that the number of coreferences was the variable that best predicted literal comprehension, but contrary to what the previous literature seemed to indicate, the relationship between the two variables was inverse. In the case of inferential comprehension, the number of sentences was a significant negative predictor; that is, the higher the sentence density, the lower the ability of these students to find relationships between them. The effects of the rest of linguistic variables, such as word frequency and word length, on comprehension were null. These results provide preliminary empirical support for the use of easy-to-read texts but bring into question the validity of some popular design guidelines (e.g. augmenting word frequency) to

  19. SIM2PeD– Intelligent monitoring system for prevention of diabetic foot

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Tuoyo Aghomotsegin

    2016-10-12

    Oct 12, 2016 ... integrated with a mobile device to capture individuals' data, entitled Mobile ... Key words: Intelligent module, diabetes, application, diabetic foot. ..... treatment of 575 diabetic foot ulcers at home, Ph.D. thesis, University.

  20. Etymology and Modern Linguistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malkiel, Yakov

    1975-01-01

    Discusses the estrangement between etymology and modern linguistics, and concludes that a reconciliation between spatio-temporal linguistics and etymology must occur, because without it, both disciplines are doomed to inanition. (Author/AM)