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Brocard S, Wilson VAD, Berton C, Zuberbühler K, Bickel B. A universal preference for animate agents in hominids. iScience 2024; 27:109996. [PMID: 38883826 PMCID: PMC11177197 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Revised: 03/15/2024] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/18/2024] Open
Abstract
When conversing, humans instantaneously predict meaning from fragmentary and ambiguous mspeech, long before utterance completion. They do this by integrating priors (initial assumptions about the world) with contextual evidence to rapidly decide on the most likely meaning. One powerful prior is attentional preference for agents, which biases sentence processing but universally so only if agents are animate. Here, we investigate the evolutionary origins of this preference, by allowing chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, human children, and adults to freely choose between agents and patients in still images, following video clips depicting their dyadic interaction. All participants preferred animate (and occasionally inanimate) agents, although the effect was attenuated if patients were also animate. The findings suggest that a preference for animate agents evolved before language and is not reducible to simple perceptual biases. To conclude, both humans and great apes prefer animate agents in decision tasks, echoing a universal prior in human language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Brocard
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
| | - Vanessa A D Wilson
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Chloé Berton
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
| | - Klaus Zuberbühler
- Department of Comparative Cognition, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland (UK)
| | - Balthasar Bickel
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Huber E, Sauppe S, Isasi-Isasmendi A, Bornkessel-Schlesewsky I, Merlo P, Bickel B. Surprisal From Language Models Can Predict ERPs in Processing Predicate-Argument Structures Only if Enriched by an Agent Preference Principle. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2024; 5:167-200. [PMID: 38645615 PMCID: PMC11025647 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2024]
Abstract
Language models based on artificial neural networks increasingly capture key aspects of how humans process sentences. Most notably, model-based surprisals predict event-related potentials such as N400 amplitudes during parsing. Assuming that these models represent realistic estimates of human linguistic experience, their success in modeling language processing raises the possibility that the human processing system relies on no other principles than the general architecture of language models and on sufficient linguistic input. Here, we test this hypothesis on N400 effects observed during the processing of verb-final sentences in German, Basque, and Hindi. By stacking Bayesian generalised additive models, we show that, in each language, N400 amplitudes and topographies in the region of the verb are best predicted when model-based surprisals are complemented by an Agent Preference principle that transiently interprets initial role-ambiguous noun phrases as agents, leading to reanalysis when this interpretation fails. Our findings demonstrate the need for this principle independently of usage frequencies and structural differences between languages. The principle has an unequal force, however. Compared to surprisal, its effect is weakest in German, stronger in Hindi, and still stronger in Basque. This gradient is correlated with the extent to which grammars allow unmarked NPs to be patients, a structural feature that boosts reanalysis effects. We conclude that language models gain more neurobiological plausibility by incorporating an Agent Preference. Conversely, theories of human processing profit from incorporating surprisal estimates in addition to principles like the Agent Preference, which arguably have distinct evolutionary roots.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Huber
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Sebastian Sauppe
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Arrate Isasi-Isasmendi
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Paola Merlo
- Department of Linguistics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- University Center for Computer Science, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Balthasar Bickel
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Slioussar N, Harchevnik M. Word order and context in sentence processing: evidence from L1 and L2 Russian. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1344366. [PMID: 38572206 PMCID: PMC10989519 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1344366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction In this paper, we studied how native (L1) speakers of Russian and speakers of Mandarin Chinese learning Russian as a foreign language (L2) process Russian sentences with different word orders. We compared SVO (canonical) and OVS (non-canonical) orders in isolation and in context. Experiments focusing on the L2 processing of different word orders are still not very numerous, and those using context are extremely rare. Methods In Experiment 1, target sentences were presented in isolation. In Experiment 2, one-sentence contexts introduced one NP mentioned in the target sentence, either the first (so that given information preceded new information, which is characteristic for Russian and many other languages) or the second. As a result, two factors could be compared: the syntactic (word order) and the contextual (whether the context is appropriate from the information-structural perspective). We used different measures to capture online and offline effects: word-by-word reading times, question-answering accuracy and sentence rating on a 1 to 5 scale (for L1 participants). Results and discussion In both experiments, RTs and question-answering accuracy data showed that non-canonical orders were difficult for L2 participants, but not for L1 participants. However, L1 participants gave non-canonical orders lower ratings in isolation, presumably because in naturally occurring texts, they are used only in particular contexts. As for the context factor in Experiment 2, some effects were the same for L1 and L2 processing: all participants read given NPs faster than new ones and preferred sentences with a 'given - new' word order. The latter may reflect the universal principles of narrative coherence. However, unlike native speakers, L2 readers are not sensitive to more subtle contextual requirements of different word orders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Slioussar
- School of Linguistics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
- Institute for Cognitive Studies, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
| | - Maria Harchevnik
- Institute for Cognitive Studies, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
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Anand GG, Barhwal KK, Goyal M, Rao BN. The Effect of Difference in Word Order on Semantic Processing in Hindi-English Bilinguals. Ann Neurosci 2023; 30:169-176. [PMID: 37779547 PMCID: PMC10540767 DOI: 10.1177/09727531221146825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The typology of word order in Hindi (Subject-Object-Verb, SOV) differs from that of English (Subject-Verb-Object, SVO). Bilinguals whose two languages have conflicting word order provide a unique opportunity to understand how word order affects language processing. Earlier behavioural and event-related brain potential (ERP) studies with Spanish-Basque bilinguals showed longer reading times and more errors in the comprehension of OSV sentences than SOV sentences in Basque language, indicating that non-canonical word orders (OSV) were difficult to process than canonical word order (SOV). Purpose This study was designed to explore how the difference in word order in Hindi and English languages affects N400 parameters in proficient Hindi-English bilinguals, using semantic congruity paradigm. Methods Twenty-five proficient Hindi-English bilingual subjects were asked to silently read the congruent and incongruent sentences presented in one word at a time in both the languages. ERPs were recorded from midline frontal, central and parietal sites. Results The mean amplitude of the N400 effect at the parietal sites in Hindi-English proficient bilinguals was larger for English than for Hindi but there was no significant difference in the N400 latencies. Conclusion Hindi-English bilingual subjects processed SOV and SVO sentences with equal ease as evidenced by the N400 latencies. Higher amplitude of the N400 effect with English sentences indicate that placing 'Object' as the final word makes sentences more predictable than verb as the final word. Understanding the word order difference might help to unravel the neurophysiological mechanisms of language comprehension and may offer some insights in terms of functional advantage of a particular word order in bilinguals.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kalpana K Barhwal
- Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Manish Goyal
- Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
| | - Bodepudi Narasimha Rao
- Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
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5
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Zuhra FT, Saleem K. Hybrid embeddings for transition-based dependency parsing of free word order languages. Inf Process Manag 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2023.103334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/17/2023]
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Jap BAJ, Hsu YY, Politzer-Ahles S. Neural correlates of thematic role assignment for passives in Standard Indonesian. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0272207. [PMID: 35944041 PMCID: PMC9362935 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 07/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies of multiple languages have found processing differences between patient-first and agent-first word orders. However, the results are inconsistent as they do not identify a specific ERP component as a unique correlate of thematic role processing. Furthermore, these studies generally confound word order with frequency, as patient-first structures tend to be infrequent in the languages that have been investigated. There is evidence that frequency at the sentence level plays a significant role in language processing. To address this potential confounding variable, we will test a language where the non-canonical sentences are more frequent and are comparable to the canonical sentences, namely Standard Indonesian. In this language, there is evidence from acquisition, corpus, and clinical data indicates that the use of passive is frequent and salient. One instance of this difference can be demonstrated by the fact that it has been suggested that frequency may be the reason why Indonesian-speaking aphasic speakers do not have impairments in the comprehension of passives, whereas speakers of other languages with aphasia often do. In the present study, we will test 50 native speakers of Indonesian using 100 sentences (50 active and 50 passive sentences). If the neural correlates of thematic role processing are not observed in the critical region of the sentence (the prefix of the verb), this would suggest that the previous results were indeed influenced by frequency, but if we find that specific ERPs are connected to the hypothesized syntactic operations, this would further reinforce the existing evidence of the increased cognitive load required to process more syntactically complicated sentences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernard A. J. Jap
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- * E-mail:
| | - Yu-Yin Hsu
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
| | - Stephen Politzer-Ahles
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
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Sayehli S, Gullberg M, Newman AJ, Andersson A. Native Word Order Processing Is Not Uniform: An ERP Study of Verb-Second Word Order. Front Psychol 2022; 13:668276. [PMID: 35432120 PMCID: PMC9006952 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.668276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Studies of native syntactic processing often target phrase structure violations that do not occur in natural production. In contrast, this study examines how variation in basic word order is processed, looking specifically at structures traditionally labelled as violations but that do occur naturally. We examined Swedish verb-second (V2) and verb-third (V3) word order processing in adult native Swedish speakers, manipulating sentence-initial adverbials (temporal idag ‘today’, spatial hemma ‘at home’ and sentential kanske ‘maybe’) in acceptability judgements, in simultaneously recorded event-related potentials (ERP) to visually presented sentences and in a written sentence completion task. An initial corpus study showed that the adverbials differ in frequency in fronted position (idag > kanske > hemma), and although all occur mainly with V2 word order, kanske occurs more frequently with V3 in natural production than both idag and hemma. The experimental results reflected these patterns such that V2 sentences were overall more frequently produced and were deemed more acceptable than V3 sentences. The ERP results consisted of a biphasic N400/P600 response to V3 word order that indicated effects of word retrieval and sentence reanalysis. We also found consistent effects of adverbials. As predicted, V3 was produced more frequently and judged as more acceptable in Kanske sentences than in sentences with the other two adverbials. The ERP analyses showed stronger effects for idag and hemma with V3, especially regarding the P600. The results suggest that the naturally occurring word order ‘violation’, V3 with kanske, is processed differently than V3 with other adverbials where the V2 norm is stronger. Moreover, these patterns are related to individuals’ own production patterns. Overall, the results suggest a more varied native word order processing than previously reported.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan Sayehli
- Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Aaron J Newman
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
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Müller G, Bodnár E, Skopeteas S, Kröger JM. On the Impact of Case and Prosody on Thematic Role Disambiguation: An Eye-Tracking Study on Hungarian. LANGUAGE AND SPEECH 2021; 64:930-961. [PMID: 33342343 PMCID: PMC8592110 DOI: 10.1177/0023830920974709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Thematic-role assignment is influenced by several classes of cues during sentence comprehension, ranging from morphological exponents of syntactic relation such as case and agreement to probabilistic cues such as prosody. The effect of these cues cross-linguistically varies, presumably reflecting their language-specific robustness in signaling thematic roles. However, language-specific frequencies are not mapped onto the cue strength in a one-to-one fashion. The present article reports two eye-tracking studies on Hungarian examining the interaction of case and prosody during the processing of case-unambiguous (Experiment 1) and case-ambiguous (Experiment 2) clauses. Eye fixations reveal that case is a strong cue for thematic role assignment, but stress only enhances the effect of case in case-unambiguous clauses. This result differs from findings reported for Italian and German in which case initial stress reduces the expectation for subject-first clauses. Furthermore, the sentence comprehension facts are not explained by corpus frequencies in Hungarian. After considering an array of hypotheses about the roots of cross-linguistic variation, we conclude that the crucial difference lies in the high reliability/availability of case cues in Hungarian in contrast to the further languages examined within this experimental paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Emese Bodnár
- Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany
- University of Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Stavros Skopeteas
- Stavros Skopeteas, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Käte-Hamburger Weg 3, Goettingen, 37073, Germany.
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9
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Prosody facilitates learning the word order in a new language. Cognition 2021; 213:104686. [PMID: 33863550 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2020] [Revised: 03/15/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
One of the prominent ideas developed by Jacques Mehler and his colleagues was that perceptual tuning, present from birth on, enables infants, and language learners in general, to extract regularities from speech input. Here we discuss language learners'' ability to extract basic word order (VO or OV) structure from prosodic regularities in a language. The two are closely related: in phonological phrases of VO languages, the most prominent word is the rightmost one, and in OV languages, it is the leftmost one. In speech, this prominence is realized as extended duration, or as elevated pitch, sometimes combined with changes in intensity. When learning the first (L1) or the second language (L2), exposure to relevant rhythmic structure elicits implicit learning about syntactic structure, including the basic word order. However, it remains unclear whether triggering the learning process requires a certain level of familiarity with the relevant rhythm. It is moreover unknown whether prosodic information can help L2 learners to extract and learn the vocabulary of a new language. We tested Spanish- and Italian-speaking adults' ability to learn words from an artificial language with either non-native OV or native VO word order. The results show that learners used prosodic information to identify the most prominent words in short utterances when the artificial language was similar to the native language, with duration-based prominence in prosody and a VO word order. In contrast, when the artificial language had a non-native prominence marked by pitch alternations and an OV word order, prominent words were learned only after a three-day exposure to the relevant rhythmic structure. Thus, for adult L2 learners, only repeated exposure to the relevant prosody elicited learning new words from an unknown language with non-native prosodic marking, indicating that, with familiarity, prosodic cues can facilitate learning in L2.
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Santesteban M, Zawiszewski A, Hatzidaki A. ERP indexes of number attraction and word order during correct verb agreement production. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2020; 208:104826. [PMID: 32590184 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2019] [Revised: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Successful subject-verb agreement production requires retrieving the verbal forms that agree with the features of the subject head noun and not of other nouns in the sentence. We investigate, for the first time, the electrophysiological indexes of number attraction and word order during agreement production. Twenty-four Basque native speakers were tested while producing auxiliary verbs during sentence completion of transitive sentence preambles involving singular subjects and singular or plural objects in canonical (SOV) and non-canonical (OSV) structures. ERP results yielded a larger production P2 (pP2) amplitude for mismatching than matching objects in SOV sentences, and larger negativity for OSV than SOV in number matching condition. We explain these results in terms of distinct contributions of number and word order during correct agreement production, with the pP2 indexing morphosyntactic retrieval difficulty of agreement-inflection, and the frontal negativity reflecting word order effects during monitoring the correctness of the selected verbal form.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mikel Santesteban
- Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain.
| | - Adam Zawiszewski
- Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain
| | - Anna Hatzidaki
- Department of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
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11
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Leivada E, Westergaard M. Universal linguistic hierarchies are not innately wired. Evidence from multiple adjectives. PeerJ 2019; 7:e7438. [PMID: 31396461 PMCID: PMC6679903 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2018] [Accepted: 07/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Linguists and psychologists have explained the remarkable similarities in the orderings of linguistic elements across languages by suggesting that our inborn ability for language makes available certain innately wired primitives. Different types of adjectives, adverbs, and other elements in the functional spine are considered to occupy fixed positions via innate hierarchies that determine orderings such as A>B>C, banning other permutations (*B>C>A). The goal of this research is to tap into the nature and rigidity of such hierarchies by comparing what happens when people process orderings that either comply with them or violate them. METHOD N = 170 neurotypical, adult speakers completed a timed forced choice task that featured stimuli showing a combination of two adjectives and a Spelke-object (e.g., 'I bought a square black table'). Two types of responses were collected: (i) acceptability judgments on a 3-point Likert scale that featured the options 'correct', 'neither correct nor wrong', and 'wrong' and (ii) reaction times. The task featured three conditions: 1. size adjective > nationality adjective, 2. color adjective > shape adjective, 3. subjective comment adjective > material adjective. Each condition had two orders. In the congruent order, the adjective pair was ordered in agreement with what is traditionally accepted as dictated by the universal hierarchy. In the incongruent order, the ordering was reversed, thus the hierarchy was violated. RESULTS In the first experiment, the results of n = 140 monolinguals showed that across conditions, both congruent and incongruent orders were generally accepted as correct. For 2/3 conditions, the difference in acceptability ratings between congruent and incongruent orders did not reach statistical significance. Using time as a window to processing, reaction times showed that incongruent orders do not take longer to process than congruent ones, as should be the case if the former were treated as being licensed under some type of special condition (e.g., contrastive focus) that reverses the unmarked order and legitimizes the violation of the hierarchy. In the second experiment, the results of n = 30 bidialectals, tested in both language varieties, corroborated the findings of the first experiment. CONCLUSIONS Our findings do not provide evidence for an innate hierarchy for adjective ordering that imposes one rigid, unmarked order. We discuss the importance of notions such as subjectivity and inherentness, and show that for some conditions, not only is there no evidence for a hard constraint that bans incongruent orders, but even simple preferences of congruent orders over incongruent ones are hard to discern. Capturing the bigger picture, given that both the hierarchies and their legit permutations have been described as innate, our results reduce the amount of primitives that are cast as innate, eventually offering a deflationist approach to human linguistic cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evelina Leivada
- Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Marit Westergaard
- Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- Department of Language & Literature, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
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Arantzeta M, Howard D, Webster J, Laka I, Martínez-Zabaleta M, Bastiaanse R. Bilingual aphasia: Assessing cross-linguistic asymmetries and bilingual advantage in sentence comprehension deficits. Cortex 2019; 119:195-214. [PMID: 31154078 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Revised: 02/01/2019] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
People with aphasia frequently have difficulties understanding semantically reversible sentences presented in derived word order. This impairment may be related to the inconsistent processing of morphological information, as well as to difficulties inhibiting the inverse interpretation of the sentence. Studies on bilingual aphasia may contribute to our understanding of these issues by shedding light on i) differences in processing of morphology across languages; ii) enhanced control mechanisms. We studied early Basque-Spanish bilingual speakers with aphasia and monolingual Spanish speakers with aphasia, as well as unimpaired individuals. Using comparable sets of materials across languages, we combined behavioural and eye-tracking methods. Results indicate that i) at the group level, bilingual speakers perform better in Spanish than in Basque, particularly in sentences with Theme-Agent argument order. Individual case analysis shows a pattern of weak dissociation across languages in several participants; ii) bilingual people with aphasia do not outperform monolingual people with aphasia in comprehension accuracy, although gaze data suggests that bilingual speakers exhibit higher inhibition and monitoring abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miren Arantzeta
- International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches into Brain and Language (IDEALAB), Universities of Groningen (NL), Newcastle (UK), Potsdam (DE), Trento (IT) & Macquarie University Sydney (AU), Groningen, the Netherlands.
| | - David Howard
- Speech and Language Sciences, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Janet Webster
- Speech and Language Sciences, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Itziar Laka
- Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
| | - Maite Martínez-Zabaleta
- Biodonostia Health Research Institute, San Sebastian University Hospital, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
| | - Roelien Bastiaanse
- Centre for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen, the Netherlands; Centre for Language and Brain, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
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13
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Subject preference emerges as cross-modal strategy for linguistic processing. Brain Res 2018; 1691:105-117. [PMID: 29627484 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2018.03.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2017] [Revised: 01/30/2018] [Accepted: 03/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Research on spoken languages has identified a "subject preference" processing strategy for tackling input that is syntactically ambiguous as to whether a sentence-initial NP is a subject or object. The present study documents that the "subject preference" strategy is also seen in the processing of a sign language, supporting the hypothesis that the "subject"-first strategy is universal and not dependent on the language modality (spoken vs. signed). Deaf signers of Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) were shown videos of locally ambiguous signed sentences in SOV and OSV word orders. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data indicated higher cognitive load in response to OSV stimuli (i.e. a negativity for OSV compared to SOV), indicative of syntactic reanalysis cost. A finding that is specific to the visual modality is that the ERP (event-related potential) effect reflecting linguistic reanalysis occurred earlier than might have been expected, that is, before the time point when the path movement of the disambiguating sign was visible. We suggest that in the visual modality, transitional movement of the articulators prior to the disambiguating verb position or co-occurring non-manual (face/body) markings were used in resolving the local ambiguity in ÖGS. Thus, whereas the processing strategy of "subject preference" is cross-modal at the linguistic level, the cues that enable the processor to apply that strategy differ in signing as compared to speech.
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Erdocia K, Laka I. Negative Transfer Effects on L2 Word Order Processing. Front Psychol 2018; 9:337. [PMID: 29593626 PMCID: PMC5861198 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2017] [Accepted: 02/27/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Does first language (L1) word order affect the processing of non-canonical but grammatical syntactic structures in second language (L2) comprehension? In the present study, we test whether L1-Spanish speakers of L2-Basque process subject-verb-object (SVO) and object-verb-subject (OVS) non-canonical word order sentences of Basque in the same way as Basque native speakers. Crucially, while OVS orders are non-canonical in both Spanish and Basque, SVO is non-canonical in Basque but is the canonical word order in Spanish. Our electrophysiological results showed that the characteristics of L1 affect the processing of the L2 even at highly proficient and early-acquired bilingual populations. Specifically, in the non-native group, we observed a left anterior negativity-like component when comparing S and O at sentence initial position and a P600 when comparing those elements at sentence final position. Those results are similar of those reported by Casado et al. (2005) for native speakers of Spanish indicating that L2-Basque speakers rely in their L1-Spanish when processing SVO-OVS word order sentences. Our results favored the competition model (MacWhinney, 1997).
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Affiliation(s)
- Kepa Erdocia
- Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
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Wolpert M, Mancini S, Caffarra S. Addressee Identity and Morphosyntactic Processing in Basque Allocutive Agreement. Front Psychol 2017; 8:1439. [PMID: 28928680 PMCID: PMC5591851 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2017] [Accepted: 08/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Information about interlocutor identity is pragmatic in nature and has traditionally been distinguished from explicitly coded linguistic information, including mophosyntax. Study of speaker identity in language processing has questioned this distinction, but addressee identity has been less considered. We used Basque to explore how addressee identity is processed during morphosyntactic analysis. In the familiar register hika, Basque has obligatory allocutive agreement, where verbal morphology represents the gender of a non-argument addressee. We manipulated the gender of the allocutive verb and the congruence of addressee gender in conversations between two interlocutors. Items with person agreement manipulations were included as a control comparison. Basque speakers familiar with hika completed speeded acceptability judgments and unspeeded, offline naturalness ratings for each conversation. Results showed a main effect of addressee identity congruence for naturalness ratings, but there was no main effect for addressee identity congruence for reaction times or accuracy in the acceptability judgment. Interactions and correlations with biographical data showed that the effect of congruence was modulated by the gender of the allocutive verb and that hika proficiency was related to participants' performance for the acceptability judgment. These results show an interaction between morphosyntactic and pragmatic information and are the first experimental data of allocutive processing. In comparison, clear effects were seen for the person agreement condition, indicating that person disagreement is more disruptive to processing than addressee identity incongruence. This study has implications for investigation of the role of extralinguistic information in morphosyntactic processing, and suggests that not all such information plays an equal role.
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Affiliation(s)
- Max Wolpert
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and LanguageSan Sebastian, Spain.,Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill UniversityMontreal, QC, Canada.,Centre for Research on Brain, Language and MusicMontreal, QC, Canada
| | - Simona Mancini
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and LanguageSan Sebastian, Spain
| | - Sendy Caffarra
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and LanguageSan Sebastian, Spain
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Mansbridge MP, Tamaoka K, Xiong K, Verdonschot RG. Ambiguity in the processing of Mandarin Chinese relative clauses: One factor cannot explain it all. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0178369. [PMID: 28594939 PMCID: PMC5464565 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2016] [Accepted: 05/11/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
This study addresses the question of whether native Mandarin Chinese speakers process and comprehend subject-extracted relative clauses (SRC) more readily than object-extracted relative clauses (ORC) in Mandarin Chinese. Presently, this has been a hotly debated issue, with various studies producing contrasting results. Using two eye-tracking experiments with ambiguous and unambiguous RCs, this study shows that both ORCs and SRCs have different processing requirements depending on the locus and time course during reading. The results reveal that ORC reading was possibly facilitated by linear/temporal integration and canonicity. On the other hand, similarity-based interference made ORCs more difficult, and expectation-based processing was more prominent for unambiguous ORCs. Overall, RC processing in Mandarin should not be broken down to a single ORC (dis)advantage, but understood as multiple interdependent factors influencing whether ORCs are either more difficult or easier to parse depending on the task and context at hand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael P. Mansbridge
- Department of Japanese Language and Culture, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
| | - Katsuo Tamaoka
- Department of Japanese Language and Culture, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
| | - Kexin Xiong
- Department of Japanese Language and Culture, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
| | - Rinus G. Verdonschot
- Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS), Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
- * E-mail:
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Koizumi M, Kim J. Greater Left Inferior Frontal Activation for SVO than VOS during Sentence Comprehension in Kaqchikel. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1541. [PMID: 27790165 PMCID: PMC5064666 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2016] [Accepted: 09/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cortical activations during the processing of Kaqchikel transitive sentences with canonical and non-canonical word orders were investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Kaqchikel is an endangered Mayan language spoken in Guatemala. The word order in this language is relatively flexible. We observed higher cortical activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus for sentences with the subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, as compared to sentences with the verb-object-subject (VOS) word order, suggesting that Kaqchikel sentences are easier to process when they have the VOS order than when they have the SVO order. This supports the traditional analysis of Mayan word order: the syntactically simplest word order of transitive sentences in Mayan languages, including Kaqchikel, is VOS. More importantly, the results revealed that the subject-before-object word order preference in sentence comprehension, previously observed in other languages, might not reflect a universal aspect of human languages. Rather, processing preference may be language-specific to some extent, reflecting syntactic differences in individual languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masatoshi Koizumi
- Department of Linguistics, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University Sendai, Japan
| | - Jungho Kim
- Department of Foreign Languages, Kyoto Women's University Kyoto, Japan
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Antón-Méndez I, Gerfen C, Ramos M. Salience Effects: L2 Sentence Production as a Window on L1 Speech Planning. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2016; 45:537-552. [PMID: 25822758 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-015-9361-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Salience influences grammatical structure during production in a language-dependent manner because different languages afford different options to satisfy preferences. During production, speakers may always try to satisfy all syntactic encoding preferences (e.g., salient entities to be mentioned early, themes to be assigned the syntactic function of object) and adjust when this is not possible (e.g., a salient theme in English) or, alternatively, they may learn early on to associate particular conceptual configurations with particular syntactic frames (e.g., salient themes with passives). To see which of these alternatives is responsible for the production of passives when dealing with a salient theme, we looked at the second language effects of salience for English-speaking learners of Spanish, where the two preferences can be satisfied simultaneously by fronting the object (Prat-Sala and Branigan in J Mem Lang 42:168-182, 2000). In accordance with highly incremental models of language production, English speakers appear to quickly make use of the alternatives in the second language that allow observance of more processing preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inés Antón-Méndez
- Linguistics, BCSS, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia.
| | - Chip Gerfen
- Department of World Languages and Cultures, American University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Miguel Ramos
- Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
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Imamura S, Sato Y, Koizumi M. The Processing Cost of Scrambling and Topicalization in Japanese. Front Psychol 2016; 7:531. [PMID: 27148139 PMCID: PMC4835679 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2015] [Accepted: 03/30/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
This article presents two reading comprehension experiments, using the sentence correctness decision task, that explore the causes of processing cost of Japanese sentences with SNOMOACCV, STOPOACCV, OACCSNOMV, and OTOPSNOMV word orders. The first experiment was conducted in order to see if either syntax or frequency plays a significant role in the processing of these sentences. The results of the first experiment have shown that both the structure-building process and frequency directly affect processing load. We observed that there was no difference in processing cost between SNOMOACCV and STOPOACCV, both of which are easier to process than OACCSNOMV, which is in turn easier to process than OTOPSNOMV: SNOMOACCV = STOPOACCV < OACCSNOMV < OTOPSNOMV. This result is the mixture of the two positions. Specifically, the structure building cost of STOPOACCV was neutralized by its high frequency. The aim of the second experiment was to investigate the interaction between syntactic structure, frequency, and information structure. The results showed that the processing cost of OACCSNOMV was facilitated by given-new ordering, but SNOMOACCV, STOPOACCV, and OTOPSNOMV were not. Thus, we can conclude that information structure also influences processing cost. In addition, the distribution of informational effects can be accounted for by Kuno's (1987, p. 212) Markedness Principle for Discourse Rule Violations: SNOMOACCV and STOPOACCV are unmarked/canonical options, and as such are not penalized even when they violate given-new ordering, OACCSNOMV is penalized when it does not maintain given-new ordering because it is a marked/non-canonical option, and OTOPSNOMV is penalized even when it obeys given-new ordering possibly because more specific contexts are needed. Another reason for the increased processing cost of OTOPSNOMV is a garden path effect; upon encountering OTOP of OTOPSNOMV, the parser preferentially (mis)interpreted it as STOP due to a subject-before-object preference. The revision of the interpretation may be the cause of the high processing cost observed in OTOPSNOMV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoshi Imamura
- Faculty of Oriental Studies, Research Centre for Japanese Language and Linguistics, University of Oxford Oxford, UK
| | - Yohei Sato
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University Sendai, Japan
| | - Masatoshi Koizumi
- Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University Sendai, Japan
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Gattei CA, Tabullo Á, París L, Wainselboim AJ. The role of prominence in Spanish sentence comprehension: An ERP study. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2015; 150:22-35. [PMID: 26291770 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2015.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2015] [Revised: 07/30/2015] [Accepted: 08/01/2015] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Prominence is the hierarchical relation among arguments that allows us to understand 'Who did what to whom' in a sentence. The present study aimed to provide evidence about the role of prominence information for the incremental interpretation of arguments in Spanish. We investigated the time course of neural correlates associated to the comprehension of sentences that require a reversal of argument prominence hierarchization. We also studied how the amount of available prominence information may affect the incremental build-up of verbal expectations. Results of the ERP data revealed that at the disambiguating verb region, object-initial sentences (only one argument available) elicited a centro-parietal negativity with a peak at 400 ms post-onset. Subject-initial sentences (two arguments available) yielded a broadly distributed positivity at around 650 ms. This dissociation suggests that argument interpretation may depend on their morphosyntactic features, and also on the amount of prominence information available before the verb is encountered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolina A Gattei
- Grupo de Lingüística y Neurobiología Experimental del Lenguaje, Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales (INCIHUSA - CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina.
| | - Ángel Tabullo
- Grupo de Lingüística y Neurobiología Experimental del Lenguaje, Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales (INCIHUSA - CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina
| | - Luis París
- Grupo de Lingüística y Neurobiología Experimental del Lenguaje, Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales (INCIHUSA - CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina
| | - Alejandro J Wainselboim
- Grupo de Lingüística y Neurobiología Experimental del Lenguaje, Instituto de Ciencias Humanas, Sociales y Ambientales (INCIHUSA - CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina
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Li XQ, Zheng YY, Zhao HY, Xia JY. How the speed of working memory updating influences the on-line thematic processing of simple sentences in Mandarin Chinese. Cogn Neurodyn 2015; 8:447-64. [PMID: 26396645 DOI: 10.1007/s11571-014-9292-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2014] [Revised: 04/03/2014] [Accepted: 04/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
This ERP study used electrophysiological technique to examine how individual differences in the speed of working memory updating influence the use of syntactic and semantic information during on-line sentence argument interpretation, and the time course of that working memory updating effect. The basic structure of the experimental sentences was "Noun + Verb + adverb + 'le' + a two-character word", with the Noun being the sentence initial argument. This initial argument is animate or inanimate and the following verb disambiguates it as an agent or patient. The results at the initial argument revealed that, the quick-updating group elicited a larger positivity over the frontal cortex (within 500-800 ms post-noun onset) as compared with the slow-updating group. At the following disambiguating verb, the slow-updating group only showed a word order effect, indicating that the patient-first condition elicited a larger P600 (within 500-1,000 ms post-verb onset) than the agent-first one; for the quick-updating group, at the early stage of processing, the patient-first sentences elicited a larger N400 (within 300-500 ms post-verb onset) than the agent-first ones only when the initial argument was inanimate; however, at the late stage, the patient-first sentences elicited an enhanced P600 (within 800-1,000 ms post-verb onset) only when the initial argument was animate. These results suggested that the speed of working memory updating not only influences the maintenance of sentence argument when the contents of working memory change but also influences the efficiency of integrating that argument with the verb at a late time point. When integrating the argument with the disambiguating verb, individuals with quick-updating ability can combine multiple sources of information (both noun animacy and word order), and conduct rapid and fine-grained two-stage processing; individuals with slow-updating ability, however, only rely on one dominant source of information types (word order), and conducted slow and course-grained processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Qing Li
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101 People's Republic of China
| | - Yuan-Yuan Zheng
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101 People's Republic of China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Hai-Yan Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101 People's Republic of China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jin-Yan Xia
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101 People's Republic of China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Erdocia K, Zawiszewski A, Laka I. Word order processing in a second language: from VO to OV. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2014; 43:815-837. [PMID: 24368710 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-013-9280-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Event-related potential studies on second language processing reveal that L1/L2 differences are due either to proficiency, age of acquisition or grammatical differences between L1 and L2 (Kotz in Brain Lang 109(2-3):68-74, 2009). However, the relative impact of these and other factors in second language processing is still not well understood. Here we present evidence from behavioral and ERP experiments on Basque sentence word order processing by L1Spanish-L2Basque early bilinguals (Age of Aquisition [Formula: see text] 3 years) with very high proficiency in their L2. Results reveal that these L2 speakers have a preference towards canonical Subject-Object-Verb word order, which they processed faster and with greater ease than non-canonical Object-Subject-Verb. This result converges with the processing preferences shown by natives and reported in Erdocia et al. (Brain Lang 109(1):1-17, 2009). However, electrophysiological measures associated to canonical (SOV) and non-canonical (OSV) sentences revealed a different pattern in the non-natives, as compared to that reported previously for natives. The non-native group elicited a P600 component that native group did not show when comparing S and O at sentence's second position. This pattern of results suggests that, despite high proficiency, non-native language processing recruits neural resources that are different from those employed in native languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kepa Erdocia
- Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Unibertsitateko Ibilbidea 5, 01006 , Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain,
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EHME: a new word database for research in Basque language. SPANISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2014; 17:E79. [PMID: 26054360 DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2014.79] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
This article presents EHME, the frequency dictionary of Basque structure, an online program that enables researchers in psycholinguistics to extract word and nonword stimuli, based on a broad range of statistics concerning the properties of Basque words. The database consists of 22.7 million tokens, and properties available include morphological structure frequency and word-similarity measures, apart from classical indexes: word frequency, orthographic structure, orthographic similarity, bigram and biphone frequency, and syllable-based measures. Measures are indexed at the lemma, morpheme and word level. We include reliability and validation analysis. The application is freely available, and enables the user to extract words based on concrete statistical criteria 1 , as well as to obtain statistical characteristics from a list of words
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Sinnemäki K. Cognitive processing, language typology, and variation. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2014; 5:477-487. [PMID: 26308657 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2013] [Revised: 03/06/2014] [Accepted: 03/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
UNLABELLED Linguistic typological preferences have often been linked to cognitive processing preferences but often without recourse to typologically relevant experiments on cognitive processing. This article reviews experimental work on the possible parallels between preferences in cognitive processing and language typology. I summarize the main theoretical accounts of the processing-typology connection and show that typological distributions arise diachronically from preferred paths of language change, which may be affected by the degree to which alternative structures are preferred (e.g., easier) in acquisition or usage. The surveyed experimental evidence shows that considerable support exists for many linguistic universals to reflect preferences in cognitive processing. Artificial language learning experiments emerge as a promising method for researching the processing-typology connection, as long as its limitations are taken into account. I further show that social and cultural differences in cognition may have an effect on typological distributions and that to account for this variation a multidisciplinary approach to the processing-typology connection has to be developed. Lastly, since the body of experimental research does not adequately represent the linguistic diversity of the world's languages, it remains as an urgent task for the field to better account for this diversity in future work. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014, 5:477-487. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1294 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. CONFLICT OF INTEREST The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaius Sinnemäki
- Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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The relation between thematic role computing and semantic relatedness processing during on-line sentence comprehension. PLoS One 2014; 9:e95834. [PMID: 24755643 PMCID: PMC3995949 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2013] [Accepted: 04/01/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Sentence comprehension involves timely computing different types of relations between its verbs and noun arguments, such as morphosyntactic, semantic, and thematic relations. Here, we used EEG technique to investigate the potential differences in thematic role computing and lexical-semantic relatedness processing during on-line sentence comprehension, and the interaction between these two types of processes. Mandarin Chinese sentences were used as materials. The basic structure of those sentences is “Noun+Verb+‘le’+a two-character word”, with the Noun being the initial argument. The verb disambiguates the initial argument as an agent or a patient. Meanwhile, the initial argument and the verb are highly or lowly semantically related. The ERPs at the verbs revealed that: relative to the agent condition, the patient condition evoked a larger N400 only when the argument and verb were lowly semantically related; however, relative to the high-relatedness condition, the low-relatedness condition elicited a larger N400 regardless of the thematic relation; although both thematic role variation and semantic relatedness variation elicited N400 effects, the N400 effect elicited by the former was broadly distributed and reached maximum over the frontal electrodes, and the N400 effect elicited by the latter had a posterior distribution. In addition, the brain oscillations results showed that, although thematic role variation (patient vs. agent) induced power decreases around the beta frequency band (15–30 Hz), semantic relatedness variation (low-relatedness vs. high-relatedness) induced power increases in the theta frequency band (4–7 Hz). These results suggested that, in the sentence context, thematic role computing is modulated by the semantic relatedness between the verb and its argument; semantic relatedness processing, however, is in some degree independent from the thematic relations. Moreover, our results indicated that, during on-line sentence comprehension, thematic role computing and semantic relatedness processing are mediated by distinct neural systems.
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26
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Hörberg T, Koptjevskaja-Tamm M, Kallioinen P. The neurophysiological correlate to grammatical function reanalysis in Swedish. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.651345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Kiyama S, Tamaoka K, Kim J, Koizumi M. Effect of Animacy on Word Order Processing in Kaqchikel Maya. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2013. [DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2013.33027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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28
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Havas V, Rodríguez-Fornells A, Clahsen H. Brain potentials for derivational morphology: an ERP study of deadjectival nominalizations in Spanish. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2012; 120:332-344. [PMID: 22169628 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2011.10.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2011] [Revised: 08/31/2011] [Accepted: 10/24/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
This study investigates brain potentials to derived word forms in Spanish. Two experiments were performed on derived nominals that differ in terms of their productivity and semantic properties but are otherwise similar, an acceptability judgment task and a reading experiment using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in which correctly and incorrectly formed derived words were presented in sentence contexts. The first experiment indicated productivity differences between the different nominalization processes in Spanish. The second experiment yielded a pattern of ERP responses that differed from both the familiar lexical-semantic and grammatical ERP effects. Violations of derivational morphology elicited an increased N400 component plus a late positivity (P600), unlike gender-agreement violations, which produced the biphasic LAN/P600 ERP pattern known from previous studies of morpho-syntactic violations. We conclude that the recognition of derived word forms engages both word-level (lexical-semantic) and decompositional (morpheme-based) processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Viktória Havas
- Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
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Slioussar N. Processing of a free word order language: the role of syntax and context. JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH 2011; 40:291-306. [PMID: 21739339 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-011-9171-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
In languages with flexible constituent order (so-called free word order languages), available orders are used to encode given/new distinctions; they therefore differ not only syntactically, but also in their context requirements. In Experiment 1, using a self-paced reading task, we compared Russian S V IO DO (canonical), DO S V IO and DO IO V S constructions in appropriate vs. inappropriate contexts (those that violated their context requirements). The context factor was significant, while the syntax factor was not. The less pronounced context effect evidenced in previous studies (e.g., Kaiser and Trueswell in Cognitioin 94:113-147, 2004) might be due to the use of shorter target sentences and less extensive contexts. We also demonstrated that the slow-down starts at the first contextually inappropriate constituent, which shows that the information about context requirements is taken into account immediately, but that it develops faster on preverbal subjects and postverbal indirect objects (occupying their canonical positions) than on preverbal indirect objects (occupying a noncanonical position, or scrambled). In Experiment 2, these findings were replicated for IO S V DO and IO DO V S orders. S V IO DO orders with a continuation were used to show that there is no additional effect of inappropriate context at the end of the sentence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalia Slioussar
- Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Trans 10, Utrecht 3512 JK, The Netherlands.
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del Río D, Maestú F, López-Higes R, Moratti S, Gutiérrez R, Maestú C, del-Pozo F. Conflict and cognitive control during sentence comprehension: Recruitment of a frontal network during the processing of Spanish object-first sentences. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:382-91. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.12.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2010] [Revised: 07/26/2010] [Accepted: 12/02/2010] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Li XQ, Yang YF, Lu Y. How and when prosodic boundaries influence syntactic parsing under different discourse contexts: An ERP study. Biol Psychol 2010; 83:250-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2009] [Revised: 01/12/2010] [Accepted: 01/13/2010] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Syntax, concepts, and logic in the temporal dynamics of language comprehension: evidence from event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia 2010; 48:1525-42. [PMID: 20138065 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2009] [Revised: 11/16/2009] [Accepted: 01/19/2010] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Logic has been intertwined with the study of language and meaning since antiquity, and such connections persist in present day research in linguistic theory (formal semantics) and cognitive psychology (e.g., studies of human reasoning). However, few studies in cognitive neuroscience have addressed logical dimensions of sentence-level language processing, and none have directly compared these aspects of processing with syntax and lexical/conceptual-semantics. We used ERPs to examine a violation paradigm involving "Negative Polarity Items" or NPIs (e.g., ever/any), which are sensitive to logical/truth-conditional properties of the environments in which they occur (e.g., presence/absence of negation in: John hasn't ever been to Paris, versus: John has *ever been to Paris). Previous studies examining similar types of contrasts found a mix of effects on familiar ERP components (e.g., LAN, N400, P600). We argue that their experimental designs and/or analyses were incapable of separating which effects are connected to NPI-licensing violations proper. Our design enabled statistical analyses teasing apart genuine violation effects from independent effects tied solely to lexical/contextual factors. Here unlicensed NPIs elicited a late P600 followed in onset by a late left anterior negativity (or "L-LAN"), an ERP profile which has also appeared elsewhere in studies targeting logical semantics. Crucially, qualitatively distinct ERP-profiles emerged for syntactic and conceptual semantic violations which we also tested here. We discuss how these findings may be linked to previous findings in the ERP literature. Apart from methodological recommendations, we suggest that the study of logical semantics may aid advancing our understanding of the underlying neurocognitive etiology of ERP components.
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Processing canonical and non-canonical sentences in Basque: The case of object–verb agreement as revealed by event-related brain potentials. Brain Res 2009; 1284:161-79. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.05.099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2008] [Revised: 05/26/2009] [Accepted: 05/27/2009] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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