Why are some languages confused for others? Investigating data from the Great Language Game

How Characters Are Learned Leaves Its Mark on the Neural Substrates of Chinese Reading

Understanding how the brain functions differently as one learns to read may shed light on the controversial nature of the reading ability of human being. Logographic writing system such as Chinese has been found to rely on specialized neural substrates beyond the reading network of alphabetic languages. The ability to read in Chinese has also been proposed to rely on writing skills. However, it was unclear whether the learning-related alteration of neural responses was language specific or resulted from the more reliance on writing practice during acquisition. This study investigated whether the emergence of typical logographic-specific regions relied on learning by writing. We taught proficient alphabetic language readers Chinese characters and used pre-test and post-test to identify changes in two critical stages of reading, namely, orthographic processing and orthographic-to-phonological mapping. Two typical left hemispheric areas for logographic reading showed increased responses to characters in the brains of proficient alphabetic readers after learning, regardless of whether the learning strategy involved writing practice. Moreover, learning strategy modulated the response magnitude or multivoxel patterns in the left superior parietal lobule, left middle frontal gyrus, and right fusiform gyrus, some of which were task dependent. The findings corroborated a limited role of writing in the emergence of logographic-specific reading network and suggested the heterogeneous nature of different brain regions in this network.

Phonetic Cues in Auditory Identification of Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, and Russian Language of Origin

This work presents the results of an auditory language of origin identification experiment. Disyllabic and trisyllabic logatomes were recorded by speakers of Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, and Russian, and presented to L1 speakers of the abovementioned Slavic languages. The goals of the test were to verify the ability of lay listeners to recognize the linguistic origin of speakers, based on spoken samples with limited segmental and suprasegmental information, and to correlate the signal features with the subjects' performance. It was found that position of word stress is not an important predictor in language recognition. However, inherent vowel characteristics such as duration and vowel space computed by the means of Pillai scores correlate with subjects' performance. Both the linguistic profile and the familiarity with closely related languages also appear to be relevant predictors of listeners' performance. Finally, the information-theoretic notion of surprisal applied on regular cross-linguistic sound correspondences was correlated with recognition scores; though, the correlations did not reach the threshold of statistical significance. We conclude that auditory identification of linguistic origin by lay persons, native speakers of closely related languages, is possible even when exposed to limited segmental information, which can serve as a cue in the identification of linguistic origin.

Pantomimic fossils in modern human communication

Bodily mimesis, the capacity to use the body representationally, was one of the key innovations that allowed early humans to go beyond the 'baseline' of generalized ape communication and cognition. We argue that the original human-specific communication afforded by bodily mimesis was based on signs that involve three entities: an expression that represents an object (i.e. communicated content) for an interpreter. We further propose that the core component of this communication, pantomime, was able to transmit referential information that was not limited to select semantic domains or the 'here-and-now', by means of motivated-most importantly iconic-signs. Pressures for expressivity and economy then led to conventionalization of signs and a growth of linguistic characteristics: semiotic systematicity and combinatorial expression. Despite these developments, both naturalistic and experimental data suggest that the system of pantomime did not disappear and is actively used by modern humans. Its contemporary manifestations, or pantomimic fossils, emerge when language cannot be used, for instance when people do not share a common language, or in situations where the use of (spoken) language is difficult, impossible or forbidden. Under such circumstances, people bootstrap communication by means of pantomime and, when these circumstances persist, newly emergent pantomimic communication becomes increasingly language-like. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.

Big data suggest strong constraints of linguistic similarity on adult language learning

When adults learn new languages, their speech often remains noticeably non-native even after years of exposure. These non-native variants ('accents') can have far-reaching socio-economic consequences for learners. Many factors have been found to contribute to a learners' proficiency in the new language. Here we examine a factor that is outside of the control of the learner, linguistic similarities between the learner's native language (L1) and the new language (Ln). We analyze the (open access) speaking proficiencies of about 50,000 Ln learners of Dutch with 62 diverse L1s. We find that a learner's L1 accounts for 9-22% of the variance in Ln speaking proficiency. This corresponds to 28-69% of the variance explained by a model with controls for other factors known to affect language learning, such as education, age of acquisition and length of exposure. We also find that almost 80% of the effect of L1 can be explained by combining measures of phonological, morphological, and lexical similarity between the L1 and the Ln. These results highlight the constraints that a learner's native language imposes on language learning, and inform theories of L1-to-Ln transfer during Ln learning and use. As predicted by some proposals, we also find that L1-Ln phonological similarity is better captured when subcategorical properties (phonological features) are considered in the calculation of phonological similarities.