inflected verb forms: Topics by Science.gov

Sample records for inflected verb forms

Comparing generativist and constructivist accounts of the use of the past tense form in early child Japanese.

PubMed

Tatsumi, Tomoko; Pine, Julian M

2016-11-01

The present study investigated children's early use of verb inflection in Japanese by comparing a generativist account, which predicts that the past tense will have a special default-like status for the child during the early stages, with a constructivist input-driven account, which assumes that children's acquisition and use of inflectional forms reflects verb-specific distributional patterns in their input. Analysis of naturalistic data from four Japanese children aged 1;5 to 2;10 showed that there was substantial by-verb variation in the use of inflectional forms from the earliest stages of verb use, and no general preference for past tense forms. Correlational and partial correlational analyses showed that it was possible to predict the proportional frequency with which the child produced verbs in past tense versus other inflectional forms on the basis of differences in the proportional frequency with which the verb occurred in past tense form in the child's input, even after controlling for differences in the rate at which verbs occurred in past tense form in input averaged across the caregivers of the other children in the sample. When taken together, these results count against the idea that the past tense has a special default-like status in early child Japanese, and in favour of a constructivist input-driven account of children's early use of verb inflection.
The Impact of Verb Form, Sentence Position, Home Language, and Second Language Proficiency on Subject-Verb Agreement in Child Second Language Dutch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blom, Elma; Baayen, Harald R.

2013-01-01

It has been argued that children learning a second language (L2) omit agreement inflection because of communication demands. The conclusion of these studies is that L2 children know the morphological and syntactic properties of agreement inflection, but sometimes insert an inflectional default form (i.e., the bare verb) in production. The present…
Grammatical categories in the brain: the role of morphological structure.

PubMed

Longe, O; Randall, B; Stamatakis, E A; Tyler, L K

2007-08-01

The current study addresses the controversial issue of how different grammatical categories are neurally processed. Several lesion-deficit studies suggest that distinct neural substrates underlie the representation of nouns and verbs, with verb deficits associated with damage to left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and noun deficits with damage to left temporal cortex. However, this view is not universally shared by neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies. We have suggested that these inconsistencies may reflect interactions between the morphological structure of nouns and verbs and the processing implications of this, rather than differences in their neural representations (Tyler et al. 2004). We tested this hypothesis using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, to scan subjects performing a valence judgment on unambiguous nouns and verbs, presented as stems ('snail, hear') and inflected forms ('snails, hears'). We predicted that activations for noun and verb stems would not differ, whereas inflected verbs would generate more activation in left frontotemporal areas than inflected nouns. Our findings supported this hypothesis, with greater activation of this network for inflected verbs compared with inflected nouns. These results support the claim that form class is not a first-order organizing principle underlying the representation of words but rather interacts with the processes that operate over lexical representations.
The Role of Meaning in Past-Tense Inflection

PubMed Central

Bandi-Rao, Shoba; Murphy, Gregory L.

2009-01-01

Although English verbs can be either regular (walk-walked) or irregular (sing-sang), “denominal verbs” that are derived from nouns, such as the use of the verb ring derived from the noun a ring, take the regular form even if they are homophonous with an existing irregular verb: The soldiers ringed the city rather than *The soldiers rang the city. Is this regularization due to a semantic difference from the usual verb, or is it due to the application of the default rule, namely VERB + -ed suffix? In Experiment 1, participants rated the semantic similarity of the extended senses of polysemous verbs and denominal verbs to their central senses. Experiment 2 examined the acceptability of the regular and irregular past-tenses of the different verbs. The results showed that all the denominal verbs were rated as more acceptable for the regular inflection than the same verbs used polysemously, even though the two were semantically equally similar to the central meaning. Thus, the derivation of the verb (nominal or verbal) determined the past-tense preference more than semantic variables, consistent with dual-route models of verb inflection. PMID:16839538
PAST-TENSE GENERATION FROM FORM VERSUS MEANING: BEHAVIOURAL DATA AND SIMULATION EVIDENCE

PubMed Central

Woollams, Anna M.; Joanisse, Marc; Patterson, Karalyn

2009-01-01

The standard task used to study inflectional processing of verbs involves presentation of the stem form from which the participant is asked to generate the past tense. This task reveals a processing disadvantage for irregular relative to regular English verbs, more pronounced for lower-frequency items. Dual- and single-mechanism theories of inflectional morphology are both able to account for this pattern; but the models diverge in their predictions concerning the magnitude of the regularity effect expected when the task involves past-tense generation from meaning. In this study, we asked normal speakers to generate the past tense from either form (verb stem) or meaning (action picture). The robust regularity effect observed in the standard form condition was no longer reliable when participants were required to generate the past tense from meaning. This outcome would appear problematic for dual-mechanism theories to the extent that they assume the process of inflection requires stem retrieval. By contrast, it supports single-mechanism models that consider stem retrieval to be task-dependent. We present a single-mechanism model of verb inflection incorporating distributed phonological and semantic representations that reproduces this task-dependent pattern. PMID:20161125
Comparing different models of the development of verb inflection in early child Spanish.

PubMed

Aguado-Orea, Javier; Pine, Julian M

2015-01-01

How children acquire knowledge of verb inflection is a long-standing question in language acquisition research. In the present study, we test the predictions of some current constructivist and generativist accounts of the development of verb inflection by focusing on data from two Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 2;0 and 2;6. The constructivist claim that children's early knowledge of verb inflection is only partially productive is tested by comparing the average number of different inflections per verb in matched samples of child and adult speech. The generativist claim that children's early use of verb inflection is essentially error-free is tested by investigating the rate at which the children made subject-verb agreement errors in different parts of the present tense paradigm. Our results show: 1) that, although even adults' use of verb inflection in Spanish tends to look somewhat lexically restricted, both children's use of verb inflection was significantly less flexible than that of their caregivers, and 2) that, although the rate at which the two children produced subject-verb agreement errors in their speech was very low, this overall error rate hid a consistent pattern of error in which error rates were substantially higher in low frequency than in high frequency contexts, and substantially higher for low frequency than for high frequency verbs. These results undermine the claim that children's use of verb inflection is fully productive from the earliest observable stages, and are consistent with the constructivist claim that knowledge of verb inflection develops only gradually.
When do combinatorial mechanisms apply in the production of inflected words?

PubMed

Cholin, Joana; Rapp, Brenda; Miozzo, Michele

2010-01-01

A central question for theories of inflected word processing is to determine under what circumstances compositional procedures apply. Some accounts (e.g., the dual-mechanism model; Clahsen, 1999 ) propose that compositional processes only apply to verbs that take productive affixes. For all other verbs, inflected forms are assumed to be stored in the lexicon in a nondecomposed manner. This account makes clear predictions about the consequences of disruption to the lexical access mechanisms involved in the spoken production of inflected forms. Briefly, it predicts that nonproductive forms (which require lexical access) should be more affected than productive forms (which, depending on the language task, may not). We tested these predictions through the detailed analysis of the spoken production of a German-speaking individual with an acquired lexical impairment resulting from a stroke. Analyses of response accuracy, error types, and frequency effects revealed that combinatorial processes are not restricted to verbs that take productive inflections. On this basis, we propose an alternative account, the stem-based assembly model (SAM), which posits that combinatorial processes may be available to all stems and not only to those that combine with productive affixes.
When do combinatorial mechanisms apply in the production of inflected words?

PubMed Central

Cholin, Joana; Rapp, Brenda; Miozzo, Michele

2010-01-01

A central question for theories of inflected word processing is to determine under what circumstances compositional procedures apply. Some accounts (e.g., the Dual Mechanism Model; Clahsen, 1999) propose that compositional processes only apply to verbs that take productive affixes. For all other verbs, inflected forms are assumed to be stored in the lexicon in a non-decomposed manner. This account makes clear predictions about the consequences of disruption to the lexical access mechanisms involved in the spoken production of inflected forms. Briefly, it predicts that non-productive forms (which require lexical access) should be more affected than productive forms (which, depending on the language task, may not). We tested these predictions through the detailed analysis of the spoken production of a German-speaking individual with an acquired lexical impairment resulting from a stroke. Analyses of response accuracy, error types, and frequency effects revealed that combinatorial processes are not restricted to verbs that take productive inflections. On this basis, we propose an alternative account, the Stem-based Assembly Model (SAM) that posits that combinatorial processes may be available to all stems, and not only those that combine with productive affixes. PMID:21104479
The Emergence of Grammar: Early Verbs and beyond

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Armon-Lotem, Sharon; Berman, Ruth A.

2003-01-01

The paper examines the first twenty verb-forms recorded for six Hebrew-speaking children aged between 1;2 and 2;1, and how they evolve into fully inflected verbs for three of these children. Discussion focuses first on what word-forms children initially select for the verbs they produce, what role these forms play in children's emergent grammar,…
Semantic, Lexical, and Phonological Influences on the Production of Verb Inflections in Agrammatic Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Thompson, Cynthia K.

2004-01-01

Verb inflection errors, often seen in agrammatic aphasic speech, have been attributed to either impaired encoding of diacritical features that specify tense and aspect, or to impaired affixation during phonological encoding. In this study we examined the effect of semantic markedness, word form frequency and affix frequency, as well as accuracy…
Disentangling Effects of Input Frequency and Morphophonological Complexity on Children's Acquisition of Verb Inflection: An Elicited Production Study of Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tatsumi, Tomoko; Ambridge, Ben; Pine, Julian M.

2018-01-01

This study aims to disentangle the often-confounded effects of input frequency and morphophonological complexity in the acquisition of inflection, by focusing on simple and complex verb forms in Japanese. Study 1 tested 28 children aged 3;3-4;3 on stative (complex) and simple past forms, and Study 2 tested 30 children aged 3;5-5;3 on completive…
Verbal Inflectional Morphology in L1 and L2 Spanish: A Frequency Effects Study Examining Storage versus Composition

PubMed Central

Bowden, Harriet Wood; Gelfand, Matthew P.; Sanz, Cristina; Ullman, Michael T.

2009-01-01

This study examines the storage vs. composition of Spanish inflected verbal forms in L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish. L2 participants were selected to have mid-to-advanced proficiency, high classroom experience, and low immersion experience, typical of medium-to-advanced foreign language learners. Participants were shown the infinitival forms of verbs from either Class I (the default class, which takes new verbs) or Classes II and III (non-default classes), and were asked to produce either first-person singular present-tense or imperfect forms, in separate tasks. In the present tense, the L1 speakers showed inflected-form frequency effects (i.e., higher frequency forms were produced faster, which is taken as a reflection of storage) for stem-changing (irregular) verb-forms from both Class I (e.g., pensar-pienso) and Classes II and III (e.g., perder-pierdo), as well as for non-stem-changing (regular) forms in Classes II/III (e.g., vender-vendo), in which the regular transformation does not appear to constitute a default. In contrast, Class I regulars (e.g., pescar-pesco), whose non-stem-changing transformation constitutes a default (e.g., it is applied to new verbs), showed no frequency effects. L2 speakers showed frequency effects for all four conditions (Classes I and II/III, regulars and irregulars). In the imperfect tense, the L1 speakers showed frequency effects for Class II/III (-ía-suffixed) but not Class I (-aba-suffixed) forms, even though both involve non-stem-change (regular) default transformations. The L2 speakers showed frequency effects for both types of forms. The pattern of results was not explained by a wide range of potentially confounding experimental and statistical factors, and does not appear to be compatible with single-mechanism models, which argue that all linguistic forms are learned and processed in associative memory. The findings are consistent with a dual-system view in which both verb class and regularity influence the storage vs. composition of inflected forms. Specifically, the data suggest that in L1, inflected verbal forms are stored (as evidenced by frequency effects) unless they are both from Class I and undergo non-stem-changing default transformations. In contrast the findings suggest that at least these L2 participants may store all inflected verb-forms. Taken together, the results support dual-system models of L1 and L2 processing in which, at least at mid-to-advanced L2 proficiency and lower levels of immersion experience, the processing of rule-governed forms may depend not on L1 combinatorial processes, but instead on memorized representations. PMID:20419083
The Power of Imageability: How the Acquisition of Inflected Forms Is Facilitated in Highly Imageable Verbs and Nouns in Czech Children

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Smolík, Filip; Kríž, Adam

2015-01-01

Imageability is the ability of words to elicit mental sensory images of their referents. Recent research has suggested that imageability facilitates the processing and acquisition of inflected word forms. The present study examined whether inflected word forms are acquired earlier in highly imageable words in Czech children. Parents of 317…
A characterization of verb use in Turkish agrammatic narrative speech.

PubMed

Arslan, Seçkin; Bamyacı, Elif; Bastiaanse, Roelien

2016-01-01

This study investigates the characteristics of narrative-speech production and the use of verbs in Turkish agrammatic speakers (n = 10) compared to non-brain-damaged controls (n = 10). To elicit narrative-speech samples, personal interviews and storytelling tasks were conducted. Turkish has a large and regular verb inflection paradigm where verbs are inflected for evidentiality (i.e. direct versus indirect evidence available to the speaker). Particularly, we explored the general characteristics of the speech samples (e.g. utterance length) and the uses of lexical, finite and non-finite verbs and direct and indirect evidentials. The results show that speech rate is slow, verbs per utterance are lower than normal and the verb diversity is reduced in the agrammatic speakers. Verb inflection is relatively intact; however, a trade-off pattern between inflection for direct evidentials and verb diversity is found. The implications of the data are discussed in connection with narrative-speech production studies on other languages.
Morphological and Phonological Factors in the Production of Verbal Inflection in Adult L2 Learners and Patients with Agrammatic Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szupica-Pyrzanowski, Malgorzata

2009-01-01

Failure to supply inflection is common in adult L2 learners of English and agrammatic aphasics (AAs), who are known to resort to bare verb forms. Among attempts to explain the absence of inflection are competing morphological and phonological explanations. In the L2 acquisition literature, omission of inflection is explained in terms of: mapping…
Syntactic Dependencies and Verbal Inflection: Complementisers and Verbal Forms in Standard Arabic

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Saeed, Feras

2015-01-01

This paper investigates the syntactic dependency between complementisers and verbal forms in Standard Arabic and provides a new analysis of this dependency. The imperfective verb in this language surfaces with three different forms, where each form is indicated by a different suffixal marker attached to the end of the verb as (-u), (-a), or (-Ø).…
Verb inflection in Monolingual Dutch and Sequential Bilingual Turkish-Dutch Children with and without SLI

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blom, Elma; De Jong, Jan; Orgassa, Antje; Baker, Anne; Weerman, Fred

2013-01-01

Both children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children who acquire a second language (L2) make errors with verb inflection. This overlap between SLI and L2 raises the question if verb inflection can discriminate between L2 children with and without SLI. In this study we addressed this question for Dutch. The secondary goal of the study…
Changes in functional connectivity within the fronto-temporal brain network induced by regular and irregular Russian verb production

PubMed Central

Kireev, Maxim; Slioussar, Natalia; Korotkov, Alexander D.; Chernigovskaya, Tatiana V.; Medvedev, Svyatoslav V.

2015-01-01

Functional connectivity between brain areas involved in the processing of complex language forms remains largely unexplored. Contributing to the debate about neural mechanisms underlying regular and irregular inflectional morphology processing in the mental lexicon, we conducted an fMRI experiment in which participants generated forms from different types of Russian verbs and nouns as well as from nonce stimuli. The data were subjected to a whole brain voxel-wise analysis of context dependent changes in functional connectivity [the so-called psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis]. Unlike previously reported subtractive results that reveal functional segregation between brain areas, PPI provides complementary information showing how these areas are functionally integrated in a particular task. To date, PPI evidence on inflectional morphology has been scarce and only available for inflectionally impoverished English verbs in a same-different judgment task. Using PPI here in conjunction with a production task in an inflectionally rich language, we found that functional connectivity between the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and bilateral superior temporal gyri (STG) was significantly greater for regular real verbs than for irregular ones. Furthermore, we observed a significant positive covariance between the number of mistakes in irregular real verb trials and the increase in functional connectivity between the LIFG and the right anterior cingulate cortex in these trails, as compared to regular ones. Our results therefore allow for dissociation between regularity and processing difficulty effects. These results, on the one hand, shed new light on the functional interplay within the LIFG-bilateral STG language-related network and, on the other hand, call for partial reconsideration of some of the previous findings while stressing the role of functional temporo-frontal connectivity in complex morphological processes. PMID:25741262
Lexical Semantics and Irregular Inflection

PubMed Central

Huang, Yi Ting; Pinker, Steven

2010-01-01

Whether a word has an irregular inflection does not depend on its sound alone: compare lie-lay (recline) and lie-lied (prevaricate). Theories of morphology, particularly connectionist and symbolic models, disagree on which nonphonological factors are responsible. We test four possibilities: (1) Lexical effects, in which two lemmas differ in whether they specify an irregular form; (2) Semantic effects, in which the semantic features of a word become associated with regular or irregular forms; (3) Morphological structure effects, in which a word with a headless structure (e.g., a verb derived from a noun) blocks access to a stored irregular form; (4) Compositionality effects, in which the stored combination of an irregular word’s meaning (e.g., the verb’s inherent aspect) with the meaning of the inflection (e.g., pastness) doesn’t readily transfer to new senses with different combinations of such meanings. In four experiments, speakers were presented with existing and novel verbs and asked to rate their past-tense forms, semantic similarities, grammatical structure, and aspectual similarities. We found (1) an interaction between semantic and phonological similarity, coinciding with reported strategies of analogizing to known verbs and implicating lexical effects; (2) weak and inconsistent effects of semantic similarity; (3) robust effects of morphological structure, and (4) robust effects of aspectual compositionality. Results are consistent with theories of language that invoke lexical entries and morphological structure, and which differentiate the mode of storage of regular and irregular verbs. They also suggest how psycholinguistic processes have shaped vocabulary structure over history. PMID:21151703
Past-Tense Generation from Form versus Meaning: Behavioural Data and Simulation Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woollams, Anna M.; Joanisse, Marc; Patterson, Karalyn

2009-01-01

The standard task used to study inflectional processing of verbs involves presentation of the stem form from which the participant is asked to generate the past tense. This task reveals a processing disadvantage for irregular relative to regular English verbs, more pronounced for lower-frequency items. Dual- and single-mechanism theories of…

Acquiring Novel Words and Their Past Tenses: Evidence from Lexical Effects on Phonetic Categorisation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindsay, Shane; Sedin, Leanne M.; Gaskell, M. Gareth

2012-01-01

Two experiments addressed how novel verbs come to be represented in the auditory input lexicon, and how the inflected forms of such novel words are acquired and recognised. Participants were introduced to new spoken forms as uninflected verbs. These varied in whether they contained a final /d/ (e.g., "confald" or "confal"). Either immediately…
Homophone dominance at the whole-word and sub-word levels: spelling errors suggest full-form storage of regularly inflected verb forms.

PubMed

Sandra, Dominiek

2010-01-01

Two experiments and two corpus studies focus on homophone dominance in the spelling of regularly inflected verb forms, the phenomenon that the higher-frequency homophone causes more intrusion errors on the lower-frequency one than vice versa. Experiment 1 was a speeded dictation task focusing on the Dutch imperative, a verb form whose formation rule is poorly known. A clear-cut effect of homophone dominance was found. This effect was equally strong when the target imperative was preceded by another imperative in the same sentence whose pronunciation reflected the spelling rule. Experiment 2 indicated that the effect of homophone dominance cannot be reduced to an effect of recency. Language users cannot discriminate a recently seen verb form when shown the two homophones. Instead, they choose the most frequent spelling pattern. In Corpus Study 1 a Google search on the world wide web revealed a sublexical effect of homophone dominance in the spelling errors on regular past tense forms. Corpus Study 2 demonstrated the validity of the search method. The sublexical effect of homophone dominance, involving units that cut across the stem-suffix boundary, lends itself naturally to a representational model of the connectionist or analogical processing tradition but is hard to reconcile with a rule-based account.
The Hebrewer: A Web-Based Inflection Generator

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Foster, James Q.; Harrell, Lane Foster; Raizen, Esther

2004-01-01

This paper reports on the grammatical and programmatical production aspects of the "Hebrewer," a cross-platform web-based reference work in the form of a Hebrew inflection generator. The Hebrewer, a Java applet/servlet combination, is currently capable of generating 2,500 nouns in full declension and 500 verbs in full conjugation,…
The Acquisition of Verbal Inflection in Child Grammars in a Variability Model of Early Morphosyntactic Development: A Biolinguistic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rus, Dominik

2010-01-01

This dissertation investigates the acquisition of early verb inflection in child Slovenian from morphosyntactic and morphophonological perspectives. It centers on the phenomenon of root nonfinites, particularly the patterns of omission and substitution errors in verb inflection marking. It argues that every acquisition model needs to account…
Children's Production of Subject-Verb Agreement in Hebrew When Gender and Context Are Ambiguous

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karniol, Rachel; Artzi, Sigal; Ludmer, Maya

2016-01-01

Third and 5th grade Hebrew-speaking children performed two sentence completion tasks, one requiring the assignment of male, female, or gender-ambiguous names and the inflection of verbs for male-stereotyped, female-stereotyped, and gender-neutral activities, and the other task, of inflecting verbs for male- and female-stereotyped activities…
Deficits on irregular verbal morphology in Italian-speaking Alzheimer's disease patients

PubMed Central

Walenski, Matthew; Sosta, Katiuscia; Cappa, Stefano; Ullman, Michael T.

2010-01-01

Studies of English have shown that temporal-lobe patients, including those with Alzheimer's disease, are spared at processing real and novel regular inflected forms (e.g., blick → blicked; walk → walked), but impaired at real and novel irregular forms (e.g., spling → splang; dig → dug). Here we extend the investigation cross-linguistically to the more complex system of Italian verbal morphology, allowing us to probe the generality of the previous findings in English, as well as to test different explanatory accounts of inflectional morphology. We examined the production of real and novel regular and irregular past-participle and present-tense forms by native Italian-speaking healthy control subjects and patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. Compared to the controls, the patients were impaired at inflecting real irregular verbs but not real regular verbs both for past-participle and present-tense forms, but were not impaired at real regular verbs either for past-participle or present-tense forms. For novel past participles, the patients exhibited this same pattern of impaired production of class II (irregular) forms but spared class I (regular) production. In the present tense, patients were impaired at the production of class II forms (which are regular in the present tense), but spared at production of class I (regular) forms. Contrary to the pattern observed in English, the errors made by the patients on irregulars did not reveal a predominance of regularization errors (e.g., dig → digged). The findings thus partly replicate prior findings from English, but also reveal new patterns from a language with a more complex morphological system that includes verb classes (which are not possible to test in English). The demonstration of an irregular deficit following temporal-lobe damage in a language other than English reveals the cross-linguistic generality of the basic effect, while also elucidating important language-specific differences in the neuro-cognitive basis of regular and irregular morphological forms. PMID:19428387
Comparing Generativist and Constructivist Accounts of the Use of the Past Tense Form in Early Child Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tatsumi, Tomoko; Pine, Julian M.

2016-01-01

The present study investigated children's early use of verb inflection in Japanese by comparing a generativist account, which predicts that the past tense will have a special default-like status for the child during the early stages, with a constructivist input-driven account, which assumes that children's acquisition and use of inflectional forms…
Verb inflection in monolingual Dutch and sequential bilingual Turkish-Dutch children with and without SLI.

PubMed

Blom, Elma; de Jong, Jan; Orgassa, Antje; Baker, Anne; Weerman, Fred

2013-01-01

Both children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children who acquire a second language (L2) make errors with verb inflection. This overlap between SLI and L2 raises the question if verb inflection can discriminate between L2 children with and without SLI. In this study we addressed this question for Dutch. The secondary goal of the study was to investigate variation in error types and error profiles across groups. Data were collected from 6-8-year-old children with SLI who acquire Dutch as their first language (L1), Dutch L1 children with a typical development (TD), Dutch L2 children with SLI, and Dutch L1 TD children who were on average 2 years younger. An experimental elicitation task was employed that tested use of verb inflection; context (3SG, 3PL) was manipulated and word order and verb type were controlled. Accuracy analyses revealed effects of impairment in both L1 and L2 children with SLI. However, individual variation indicated that there is no specific error profile for SLI. Verb inflection use as measured in our study discriminated fairly well in the L1 group but classification was less accurate in the L2 group. Between-group differences emerged furthermore for certain types of errors, but all groups also showed considerable variation in errors and there was not a specific error profile that distinguished SLI from TD. © 2013 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
Developing Structural Specification: Productivity in Early Hebrew Verb Usage

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Lustigman, Lyle

2013-01-01

The study investigates acquisition of verb inflections by four monolingual Hebrew-acquiring children from middle-class backgrounds, audio-recorded in longitudinal, weekly samples at a mean age-range of between 18 and 26 months. Productive use of inflectional morphology is shown to manifest increasing structural specification, as a function of…
A neuroconstructivist model of past tense development and processing.

PubMed

Westermann, Gert; Ruh, Nicolas

2012-07-01

We present a neural network model of learning and processing the English past tense that is based on the notion that experience-dependent cortical development is a core aspect of cognitive development. During learning the model adds and removes units and connections to develop a task-specific final architecture. The model provides an integrated account of characteristic errors during learning the past tense, adult generalization to pseudoverbs, and dissociations between verbs observed after brain damage in aphasic patients. We put forward a theory of verb inflection in which a functional processing architecture develops through interactions between experience-dependent brain development and the structure of the environment, in this case, the statistical properties of verbs in the language. The outcome of this process is a structured processing system giving rise to graded dissociations between verbs that are easy and verbs that are hard to learn and process. In contrast to dual-mechanism accounts of inflection, we argue that describing dissociations as a dichotomy between regular and irregular verbs is a post hoc abstraction and is not linked to underlying processing mechanisms. We extend current single-mechanism accounts of inflection by highlighting the role of structural adaptation in development and in the formation of the adult processing system. In contrast to some single-mechanism accounts, we argue that the link between irregular inflection and verb semantics is not causal and that existing data can be explained on the basis of phonological representations alone. This work highlights the benefit of taking brain development seriously in theories of cognitive development. Copyright 2012 APA, all rights reserved.
Italian Verb Inflection in Alzheimer Dementia

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Colombo, Lucia; Fonti, Cristina; Stracciari, Andrea

2009-01-01

A group of 20 patients with probable Alzheimer disease (AD) and a control group were tested in a verb generation task, in a verb synonym task and several cognitive tests. Three types of verbs and novel verbs were presented in simple sentence frames, in two different conditions. In one condition participants were presented with the verb in the…
General three-state model with biased population replacement: Analytical solution and application to language dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colaiori, Francesca; Castellano, Claudio; Cuskley, Christine F.; Loreto, Vittorio; Pugliese, Martina; Tria, Francesca

2015-01-01

Empirical evidence shows that the rate of irregular usage of English verbs exhibits discontinuity as a function of their frequency: the most frequent verbs tend to be totally irregular. We aim to qualitatively understand the origin of this feature by studying simple agent-based models of language dynamics, where each agent adopts an inflectional state for a verb and may change it upon interaction with other agents. At the same time, agents are replaced at some rate by new agents adopting the regular form. In models with only two inflectional states (regular and irregular), we observe that either all verbs regularize irrespective of their frequency, or a continuous transition occurs between a low-frequency state, where the lemma becomes fully regular, and a high-frequency one, where both forms coexist. Introducing a third (mixed) state, wherein agents may use either form, we find that a third, qualitatively different behavior may emerge, namely, a discontinuous transition in frequency. We introduce and solve analytically a very general class of three-state models that allows us to fully understand these behaviors in a unified framework. Realistic sets of interaction rules, including the well-known naming game (NG) model, result in a discontinuous transition, in agreement with recent empirical findings. We also point out that the distinction between speaker and hearer in the interaction has no effect on the collective behavior. The results for the general three-state model, although discussed in terms of language dynamics, are widely applicable.
Breaking into the Hebrew Verb System: A Learning Problem

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Ashkenazi, Orit; Ravid, Dorit; Gillis, Steven

2016-01-01

Verb learning is an important part of linguistic acquisition. The present study examines the early phases of verb acquisition in Hebrew, a language with complex derivational and inflectional verb morphology, analyzing verbs in dense recordings of CDS and CS of two Hebrew-speaking parent-child dyads aged 1;8-2;2. The goal was to pinpoint those cues…
An ERP study of regular and irregular English past tense inflection.

PubMed

Newman, Aaron J; Ullman, Michael T; Pancheva, Roumyana; Waligura, Diane L; Neville, Helen J

2007-01-01

Compositionality is a critical and universal characteristic of human language. It is found at numerous levels, including the combination of morphemes into words and of words into phrases and sentences. These compositional patterns can generally be characterized by rules. For example, the past tense of most English verbs ("regulars") is formed by adding an -ed suffix. However, many complex linguistic forms have rather idiosyncratic mappings. For example, "irregular" English verbs have past tense forms that cannot be derived from their stems in a consistent manner. Whether regular and irregular forms depend on fundamentally distinct neurocognitive processes (rule-governed combination vs. lexical memorization), or whether a single processing system is sufficient to explain the phenomena, has engendered considerable investigation and debate. We recorded event-related potentials while participants read English sentences that were either correct or had violations of regular past tense inflection, irregular past tense inflection, syntactic phrase structure, or lexical semantics. Violations of regular past tense and phrase structure, but not of irregular past tense or lexical semantics, elicited left-lateralized anterior negativities (LANs). These seem to reflect neurocognitive substrates that underlie compositional processes across linguistic domains, including morphology and syntax. Regular, irregular, and phrase structure violations all elicited later positivities that were maximal over midline parietal sites (P600s), and seem to index aspects of controlled syntactic processing of both phrase structure and morphosyntax. The results suggest distinct neurocognitive substrates for processing regular and irregular past tense forms: regulars depending on compositional processing, and irregulars stored in lexical memory.
Processing verbal morphology in patients with congenital left-hemispheric brain lesions.

PubMed

Knecht, Marion; Lidzba, Karen

2016-01-01

The goal of this study was to test whether children, teenagers and adults with congenital left-hemispheric brain lesions master the regularities of German verbal inflectional morphology. Thirteen patients and 35 controls without brain damage participated in three experiments. A grammaticality judgment task, a participle inflection task and a nonce-verb inflection task revealed significant differences between patients and controls. In addition, a main effect of verb type could be observed as patients and controls made more mistakes with irregular than with regular verbs. The findings indicate that the congenitally damaged brain not only has difficulties with complex syntactic structures during language development, as reported by earlier studies, but also has persistent deficits on the morphological level. These observations suggest that the plasticity of the developing brain cannot fully compensate for congenital brain damage which affects regions associated with language functions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Survival of the Strongest: Strong Verbs in the History of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branchaw, Sherrylyn Elizabeth

2010-01-01

The English strong verbs, throughout their history, have shown a tendency to be attracted into the large class of regular verbs. The retention of strong inflection for some verbs is a phenomenon that many scholars have sought to explain. The dissertation presents hypotheses that strong preterites have historically correlated with long vowels, and…
Morphological Encoding in German Children's Language Production: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jessen, Anna; Fleischhauer, Elisabeth; Clahsen, Harald

2017-01-01

This study reports developmental changes in morphological encoding across late childhood. We examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) during the silent production of regularly vs. irregularly inflected verb forms (viz. "-t" vs. "-n" participles of German) in groups of eight- to ten-year-olds, eleven- to…
Blackfoot Dictionary of Stems, Roots, and Affixes. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frantz, Donald G.; Russell, Norma Jean

The dictionary of stems, roots, and affixes for the Blackfoot language provides, for each entry, information on the item's morphological type (e.g., noun stem, verb stem, root), subclassification if relevant, English index, and certain diagnostic inflectional forms (full words or sentences), each with an English translation. In addition, entries…
Children's Overtensing Errors: Phonological and Lexical Effects on Syntax

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stemberger, Joseph Paul

2007-01-01

Overtensing (the use of an inflected form in place of a nonfinite form, e.g. *"didn't broke" for target "didn't break") is common in early syntax. In a ChiLDES-based study of 36 children acquiring English, I examine the effects of phonological and lexical factors. For irregulars, errors are more common with verbs of low frequency and when…
Learning to Construct Verbs in Navajo and Quechua

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Courtney, Ellen H.; Saville-Troike, Muriel

2002-01-01

Navajo and Quechua, both languages with a highly complex morphology, provide intriguing insights into the acquisition of inflectional systems. The development of the verb in the two languages is especially interesting, since the morphology encodes diverse grammatical notions, with the complex verb often constituting the entire sentence. While the…

AN ERP STUDY OF REGULAR AND IRREGULAR ENGLISH PAST TENSE INFLECTION

PubMed Central

Newman, Aaron J.; Ullman, Michael T.; Pancheva, Roumyana; Waligura, Diane L.; Neville, Helen J.

2006-01-01

Compositionality is a critical and universal characteristic of human language. It is found at numerous levels, including the combination of morphemes into words and of words into phrases and sentences. These compositional patterns can generally be characterized by rules. For example, the past tense of most English verbs (“regulars”) is formed by adding an -ed suffix. However, many complex linguistic forms have rather idiosyncratic mappings. For example, “irregular” English verbs have past tense forms that cannot be derived from their stems in a consistent manner. Whether regular and irregular forms depend on fundamentally distinct neurocognitive processes (rule-governed combination vs. lexical memorization), or whether a single processing system is sufficient to explain the phenomena, has engendered considerable investigation and debate. We recorded event-related potentials while participants read English sentences that were either correct or had violations of regular past tense inflection, irregular past tense inflection, syntactic phrase structure, or lexical semantics. Violations of regular past tense and phrase structure, but not of irregular past tense or lexical semantics, elicited left-lateralized anterior negativities (LANs). These seem to reflect neurocognitive substrates that underlie compositional processes across linguistic domains, including morphology and syntax. Regular, irregular, and phrase structure violations all elicited later positivities that were maximal over right parietal sites (P600s), and which seem to index aspects of controlled syntactic processing of both phrase structure and morphosyntax. The results suggest distinct neurocognitive substrates for processing regular and irregular past tense forms: regulars depending on compositional processing, and irregulars stored in lexical memory. PMID:17070703
Spoken Verb Processing in Spanish: An Analysis Using a New Online Resource

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rivera, Semilla M.; Bates, Elizabeth A.; Orozco-Fegueroa, Araceli; Wicha, Nicole Y. Y.

2010-01-01

Verbs are one of the basic building blocks of grammar, yet few studies have examined the grammatical, morphological, and phonological factors contributing to lexical access and production of Spanish verb inflection. This report describes an online data set that incorporates psycholinguistic dimensions for 50 of the most common early-acquired…
Production and Processing of Subject-Verb Agreement in Monolingual Dutch Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blom, Elma; Vasic, Nada; de Jong, Jan

2014-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors investigated whether errors with subject-verb agreement in monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) are influenced by verb phonology. In addition, the productive and receptive abilities of Dutch acquiring children with SLI regarding agreement inflection were compared. Method: An SLI…
Symmetries and Asymmetries in the Acquisition of Basque Inflectional Morphology by Spanish-Speaking Children and Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franco, Jon; Landa, Alazne

1998-01-01

Basque auxiliary verbs encode tense, agreement relations with ergative, absolutive, and dative arguments, which constitute an inflectional verbal amalgam whose acquisition is not problematic for Spanish-speaking children but is for Spanish-speaking adults. This asymmetry is due to different processes by which the inflectional amalgam is acquired.…
Patients with impaired verb-tense processing: do they know that yesterday is past?

PubMed

Patterson, Karalyn; Holland, Rachel

2014-01-01

This paper begins with a focus on the task of stem inflection, where participants are given a verb stem and asked to produce the verb's past-tense form, which can produce a neuropsychological double dissociation with respect to regular versus irregular verbs. Two differing theoretical interpretations are outlined: one is based on specifically morphological and separate brain mechanisms for processing regular versus irregular verbs; the other argues that the two sides of the dissociation can arise from one procedure, which is not specifically morphological, and which relies to differing extents on phonological versus semantic information for regular versus irregular verbs. We then present data from a different version of the task, in which patients were given past-tense forms and asked to produce the present-tense or stem forms (talked → talk and ate → eat). This change yielded a very different pattern of performance in four non-fluent aphasic patients as a function of the regular-irregular manipulation, an outcome which is argued to be more compatible with the single- than the dual-mechanism account. Finally, we present a small amount of data from a task in which the patient was asked to judge whether spoken regular and irregular verb stems and past-tense forms indicated actions occurring today or yesterday. This task produced an even more different and intriguing pattern of performance suggesting a deficit in morpho-syntactic knowledge: not how to produce past-tense forms but what such forms mean and how that understanding interacts with verb regularity. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the research field of acquired disorders of tense processing might advance as a result of new approaches, in particular those informed by studies of developmental disorders.
Inflectional Dependencies: A Study of Complex Verbal Expressions in Ndebele

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pietraszko, Joanna

2017-01-01

This thesis is a study of the syntax of multi-verb constructions, in which a single clause contains more than one verbal element. Multi-verb constructions are of special interest in light of the hypothesis that clausal structure is headed by a verb. Implemented in terms of extended projections, this hypothesis states that clausal functional…
The Use of Tense and Agreement by Hungarian-Speaking Children with Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lukacs, Agnes; Leonard, Laurence B.; Kas, Bence; Pleh, Csaba

2009-01-01

Purpose: Hungarian is a null-subject language with both agglutinating and fusional elements in its verb inflection system, and agreement between the verb and object as well as between the verb and subject. These characteristics make this language a good test case for alternative accounts of the grammatical deficits of children with language…
Noun or Verb? Adult Readers' Sensitivity to Spelling Cues to Grammatical Category in Word Endings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemp, Nenagh; Nilsson, Jodi; Arciuli, Joanne

2009-01-01

The spelling of many disyllabic English word endings holds cues to their grammatical category, beyond obvious inflectional endings such as "-ing" for verbs. For example, some letter sequences are clearly associated with nouns (e.g., "-oon") and others with verbs (e.g., "-erge"). This study extended recent research by Arciuli and Cupples (2006),…
The Role of Meaning in Inflection: Why the Past Tense Does Not Require a Rule

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramscar, Michael

2002-01-01

How do we produce the past tenses of verbs? For the last 20 years this question has been the focal domain for conflicting theories of language, knowledge representation, and cognitive processing. On one side of the debate have been similarity-based or single-route approaches that propose that all past tenses are formed simply through phonological…
Time reference in agrammatic aphasia: A cross-linguistic study

PubMed Central

Bastiaanse, Roelien; Bamyaci, Elif; Hsu, Chien-Ju; Lee, Jiyeon; Duman, Tuba Yarbay; Thompson, Cynthia K.

2015-01-01

It has been shown across several languages that verb inflection is difficult for agrammatic aphasic speakers. In particular, Tense inflection is vulnerable. Several theoretical accounts for this have been posed, for example, a pure syntactic one suggesting that the Tense node is unavailable due to its position in the syntactic tree (Friedmann & Grodzinsky, 1997); one suggesting that the interpretable features of the Tense node are underspecified (Burchert, Swoboda-Moll, & De Bleser, 2005; Wenzlaff & Clahsen, 2004, 2005); and a morphosemantic one, arguing that the diacritic Tense features are affected in agrammatism (Faroqi–Shah & Dickey, 2009; Lee, Milman, & Thompson, 2008). However recent findings (Bastiaanse, 2008) and a reanalysis of some oral production studies (e.g. Lee et al., 2008; Nanousi, Masterson, Druks, & Atkinson, 2006) suggest that both Tense and Aspect are impaired and, most importantly, reference to the past is selectively impaired, both through simple verb forms (such as simple past in English) and through periphrastic verb forms (such as the present perfect, ‘has V-ed’, in English). It will be argued that reference to the past is discourse linked and reference to the present and future is not (Zagona, 2003, in press). In-line with Avrutin’s (2000) theory that suggests discourse linking is impaired in Broca’s aphasia, the PAst DIscourse LInking Hypothesis (PADILIH) has been formulated. Three predictions were tested: (1) patients with agrammatic aphasia are selectively impaired in use of grammatical morphology associated with reference to the past, whereas, inflected forms which refer to the present and future are relatively spared; (2) this impairment is language-independent; and (3) this impairment will occur in both production and comprehension. Agrammatic Chinese, English and Turkish speakers were tested with the Test for Assessing Reference of Time (TART; Bastiaanse, Jonkers, & Thompson, unpublished). Results showed that both the English and Turkish agrammatic speakers performed as hypothesized, showing a selective deficit for production of inflected forms referring to the past, despite the typological difference between the languages. The Chinese agrammatic speakers were poor in reference to the past as well, but reference to the present and future also was severely impaired. For comprehension, the results were strikingly similar for the three languages: reference to the past was impaired for all. These results confirmed our hypothesis that reference to the past is discourse linked and, therefore, grammatical morphology used for reference to the past is impaired in agrammatic aphasia, whether this is done through Tense and/or Aspect markers. PMID:26451073
Proto-Algonquian Verb Inflection.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Proulx, Paul

1990-01-01

Proto-Algonquian had six or seven orders (morphological types) of verbs. The potential order had three modes, the subordinative two, and by one interpretation, the conjunct had four. By another, all conjuncts are participles in the protolanguage. Evidentials include an attestive suppositive dubitative, and perhaps a recollective. Only a few…
Outline of Polish Morphology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bidwell, Charles E.

This volume, one of a series of concise but relatively exhaustive descriptions of the grammatical structures of the principal standard Slavic languages, contains an outline of Polish morphology. The four major sections are morphophonemics, nominal inflection, the Polish verb (Part 1--stem alternation and conjugation, and the Polish verb (Part…
Do the Hard Things First: A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Effects of Exemplar Selection on Generalization Following Therapy for Grammatical Morphology

PubMed Central

Fey, Marc; Curran, Maura

2017-01-01

Purpose Complexity-based approaches to treatment have been gaining popularity in domains such as phonology and aphasia but have not yet been tested in child morphological acquisition. In this study, we examined whether beginning treatment with easier-to-inflect (easy first) or harder-to-inflect (hard first) verbs led to greater progress in the production of regular past-tense –ed by children with developmental language disorder. Method Eighteen children with developmental language disorder (ages 4–10) participated in a randomized controlled trial (easy first, N = 10, hard first, N = 8). Verbs were selected on the basis of frequency, phonological complexity, and telicity (i.e., the completedness of the event). Progress was measured by the duration of therapy, number of verb lists trained to criterion, and pre/post gains in accuracy for trained and untrained verbs on structured probes. Results The hard-first group made greater gains in accuracy on both trained and untrained verbs but did not have fewer therapy visits or train to criterion on more verb lists than the easy-first group. Treatment fidelity, average recasts per session, and verbs learned did not differ across conditions. Conclusion When targeting grammatical morphemes, it may be most efficient for clinicians to select harder rather than easier exemplars of the target. PMID:28796874
An Elicited-Production Study of Inflectional Verb Morphology in Child Finnish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Räsänen, Sanna H. M.; Ambridge, Ben; Pine, Julian M.

2016-01-01

Many generativist accounts (e.g., Wexler, 1998) argue for very early knowledge of inflection on the basis of very low rates of person/number marking errors in young children's speech. However, studies of Spanish (Aguado-Orea & Pine, 2015) and Brazilian Portuguese (Rubino & Pine, 1998) have revealed that these low overall error rates…
The Production of Nominal and Verbal Inflection in an Agglutinative Language: Evidence from Hungarian

PubMed Central

Peckham, Don; Szanka, Szilvia; Gazso, Dorottya; Lovassy, Noemi; Ullman, Michael T.

2015-01-01

The contrast between regular and irregular inflectional morphology has been useful in investigating the functional and neural architecture of language. However, most studies have examined the regular/irregular distinction in non-agglutinative Indo-European languages (primarily English) with relatively simple morphology. Additionally, the majority of research has focused on verbal rather than nominal inflectional morphology. The present study attempts to address these gaps by introducing both plural and past tense production tasks in Hungarian, an agglutinative non-Indo-European language with complex morphology. Here we report results on these tasks from healthy Hungarian native-speaking adults, in whom we examine regular and irregular nominal and verbal inflection in a within-subjects design. Regular and irregular nouns and verbs were stem on frequency, word length, and phonological structure, and both accuracy and response times were acquired. The results revealed that the regular/irregular contrast yields similar patterns in Hungarian, for both nominal and verbal inflection, as in previous studies of non-agglutinative Indo-European languages: the production of irregular inflected forms was both less accurate and slower than of regular forms, both for plural and past-tense inflection. The results replicate and extend previous findings to an agglutinative language with complex morphology. Together with previous studies, the evidence suggests that the regular/irregular distinction yields a basic behavioral pattern that holds across language families and linguistic typologies. Finally, the study sets the stage for further research examining the neurocognitive substrates of regular and irregular morphology in an agglutinative non-Indo-European language. PMID:25769039
The Aspect Hypothesis Revisited: A Cross-Sectional Study of Tense and Aspect Marking in Interlanguage.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robison, Richard E.

1995-01-01

This article examined the aspect hypothesis, which asserts that verb inflections in early interlanguage systems function primarily as markers of lexical aspect independent of the target language. A study of interviews conducted with 26 Puerto Rican college students grouped into 4 proficiency levels found that the association of inflections with…
Verb and auxiliary movement in agrammatic Broca’s aphasia

PubMed Central

Bastiaanse, Roelien; Thompson, Cynthia K.

2011-01-01

Verb production in agrammatic Broca’s aphasia has repeatedly been shown to be impaired by a number of investigators. Not only is the number of verbs produced often significantly reduced, but verb inflections and auxiliaries are often omitted as well (e.g., Bastiaanse, Jonkers, & Moltmaker-Osinga, 1996; Saffran, Berndt, & Schwartz, 1989; Thompson, Shapiro, Li, & Schendel, 1994, 1997). It has been suggested that these problems are, in part, caused by the fact that finite verbs need to be moved from their base-generated position to inflectional nodes in the syntactic tree (e.g., Bastiaanse & Van Zonneveld, 1998). Others have suggested that production deficits in agrammatism can be predicted based on the position that certain structures take in the syntactic tree (Friedmann & Grodzinsky, 1997; Hagiwara, 1995). If the former theory is correct, several predictions can be made. First of all, the discrepancy between production of finite verbs in the matrix and embedded clause that has been found for Dutch (Bastiaanse & Van Zonneveld, 1998) should not be observed in English, since the word order of the matrix and embedded clause are the same in the latter language. Second, if verb movement (including movement of auxiliaries) is problematic for speakers with agrammatic aphasia, then a hierarchy in the production of auxiliaries in yes/no questions, auxiliaries, and finite verbs in declarative sentences in English would be expected, since the former has been moved and the two latter are in base-generated position. In the present paper, these hypotheses were tested in a cross-linguistic study of Dutch and English. Results showed the position in the syntactic tree does not predict deficit patterns; rather the critical factor appears to relate to whether or not verb or auxiliary movement is required. PMID:12590917
Aspects of the Acquisition of Object Control and ECM-Type Verbs in European Portuguese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Ana Lúcia; Gonçalves, Anabela; Hyams, Nina

2016-01-01

We investigate the acquisition of sentential complementation under causative, perception, and object control verbs in European Portuguese, a language rich in complement types, including the typologically marked inflected infinitives. We tested 58 children between 3 and 5 years of age and 24 adults on a sentence completion task. The results support…
Acoustic Correlates of Inflectional Morphology in the Speech of Children with Specific Language Impairment and Their Typically Developing Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, Amanda J.; Goffman, Lisa

2007-01-01

The development of the use of the third-person singular -s in open syllable verbs in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their typically developing peers was examined. Verbs that included overt productions of the third-person singular -s morpheme (e.g. "Bobby plays ball everyday;" "Bear laughs when mommy buys…
L2 Irregular Verb Morphology: Exploring Behavioral Data from Intermediate English Learners of German as a Foreign Language Using Generalized Mixed Effects Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Thomas

2017-01-01

This paper examines possible psycholinguistic mechanisms governing stem vowel changes of irregular verbs in intermediate English learners of German as a foreign language (GFL). In Experiment 1, nonce-infinitives embedded in an authentic fictional text had to be inflected for German preterite, thus testing possible analogy-driven pattern…

An Event-Related Potential Study of Cross-modal Morphological and Phonological Priming

PubMed Central

Justus, Timothy; Yang, Jennifer; Larsen, Jary; de Mornay Davies, Paul; Swick, Diane

2009-01-01

The current work investigated whether differences in phonological overlap between the past- and present-tense forms of regular and irregular verbs can account for the graded neurophysiological effects of verb regularity observed in past-tense priming designs. Event-related potentials were recorded from sixteen healthy participants who performed a lexical-decision task in which past-tense primes immediately preceded present-tense targets. To minimize intra-modal phonological priming effects, cross-modal presentation between auditory primes and visual targets was employed, and results were compared to a companion intra-modal auditory study (Justus, Larsen, de Mornay Davies, & Swick, 2008). For both regular and irregular verbs, faster response times and reduced N400 components were observed for present-tense forms when primed by the corresponding past-tense forms. Although behavioral facilitation was observed with a pseudopast phonological control condition, neither this condition nor an orthographic-phonological control produced significant N400 priming effects. Instead, these two types of priming were associated with a post-lexical anterior negativity (PLAN). Results are discussed with regard to dual- and single-system theories of inflectional morphology, as well as intra- and cross-modal prelexical priming. PMID:20160930
Do the Hard Things First: A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Effects of Exemplar Selection on Generalization Following Therapy for Grammatical Morphology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Horne, Amanda Jean Owen; Fey, Marc; Curran, Maura

2017-01-01

Purpose: Complexity-based approaches to treatment have been gaining popularity in domains such as phonology and aphasia but have not yet been tested in child morphological acquisition. In this study, we examined whether beginning treatment with easier-to-inflect (easy first) or harder-to-inflect (hard first) verbs led to greater progress in the…
Past tense in the brain's time: neurophysiological evidence for dual-route processing of past-tense verbs.

PubMed

Bakker, Iske; Macgregor, Lucy J; Pulvermüller, Friedemann; Shtyrov, Yury

2013-05-01

A controversial issue in neuro- and psycholinguistics is whether regular past-tense forms of verbs are stored lexically or generated productively by the application of abstract combinatorial schemas, for example affixation rules. The success or failure of models in accounting for this particular issue can be used to draw more general conclusions about cognition and the degree to which abstract, symbolic representations and rules are psychologically and neurobiologically real. This debate can potentially be resolved using a neurophysiological paradigm, in which alternative predictions of the brain response patterns for lexical and syntactic processing are put to the test. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record neural responses to spoken monomorphemic words ('hide'), pseudowords ('smide'), regular past-tense forms ('cried') and ungrammatical (overregularised) past-tense forms ('flied') in a passive listening oddball paradigm, in which lexically and syntactically modulated stimuli are known to elicit distinct patterns of the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response. We observed an enhanced ('lexical') MMN to monomorphemic words relative to pseudowords, but a reversed ('syntactic') MMN to ungrammatically inflected past tenses relative to grammatical forms. This dissociation between responses to monomorphemic and bimorphemic stimuli indicates that regular past tenses are processed more similarly to syntactic sequences than to lexically stored monomorphemic words, suggesting that regular past tenses are generated productively by the application of a combinatorial scheme to their separately represented stems and affixes. We suggest discrete combinatorial neuronal assemblies, which bind classes of sequentially occurring lexical elements into morphologically complex units, as the neurobiological basis of regular past tense inflection. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Quantifying the relative contributions of lexical and phonological factors to regular past tense accuracy

PubMed Central

Owen Van Horne, Amanda J.; Green Fager, Melanie

2015-01-01

Purpose Children with specific language impairment (SLI) frequently have difficulty producing the past tense. This study aimed to quantify the relative influence of telicity (i.e., the completedness of an event), verb frequency, and stem final phonemes on the production of past tense by school-age children with SLI and their typically-developing (TD) peers. Method Archival elicited production data from children with SLI between the ages of 6 and 9 and TD peers ages 4 to 8 were reanalyzed. Past tense accuracy was predicted using measures of telicity, verb frequency measures, and properties of the final consonant of the verb stem. Result All children were highly accurate when verbs were telic, the inflected form was frequently heard in the past tense, and the word ended in a sonorant/ non-alveolar consonant. All children were less accurate when verbs were atelic, rarely heard in the past tense, or ended in a word final obstruent or alveolar consonant. SLI status depressed overall accuracy rates, but did not influence how facilitative a given factor was. Conclusion Some factors that have been believed to be useful only when children are first discovering past tense, such as telicity, appear to be influential in later years as well. PMID:25879455
Errors of Omission in English-Speaking Children's Production of Plurals and the Past Tense: The Effects of Frequency, Phonology, and Competition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Danielle E.; Theakston, Anna L.

2006-01-01

How do English-speaking children inflect nouns for plurality and verbs for the past tense? We assess theoretical answers to this question by considering errors of omission, which occur when children produce a stem in place of its inflected counterpart (e.g., saying "dress" to refer to 5 dresses). A total of 307 children (aged 3;11-9;9)…
Spoken verb processing in Spanish: An analysis using a new online resource

PubMed Central

Rivera, Semilla M.; Bates, Elizabeth A.; Orozco-Figueroa, Araceli; Wicha, Nicole Y. Y.

2012-01-01

Verbs are one of the basic building blocks of grammar, yet few studies have examined the grammatical, morphological, and phonological factors contributing to lexical access and production of Spanish verb inflection. This report describes an online data set that incorporates psycholinguistic dimensions for 50 of the most common early-acquired Spanish verbs. Using this data set, predictors of response time (RT) from stimulus onset and mean differences at offset are examined. Native Spanish speakers, randomly assigned to one of two tasks, listened to prerecorded verbs and either repeated the verb (single word shadowing) or produced its corresponding pronoun. Factors such as stimulus duration, number of syllables, syllable stress position, and specific levels of initial phoneme facilitated both shadowing of a verb and production of its pronoun. Higher frequency verbs facilitated faster verb repetition, whereas verbs with alternative pronouns increased RT to pronoun production. Mean differences at offset (stimulus duration is removed) indicated that listeners begin speaking earlier when the verb is longer and multisyllabic compared to shorter, monosyllabic words. These results highlight the association between psycholinguistic factors and RT measures of verb processing, in particular, features unique to languages like Spanish, such as alternative pronoun and tense. PMID:23002318
Change without Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naro, Anthony; Gorski, Edair; Fernandes, Eulalia

1999-01-01

Discusses a shift in the distribution of first person plural pronouns, as well as changes in the patterns of use of the corresponding verb inflections, in spoken Brazilian Portuguese across four generations of speakers from Rio de Janeiro. (Author/VWL)
The use of negative inflections by Finnish-speaking children with and without specific language impairment

PubMed Central

Kunnari, Sari; Savinainen-Makkonen, Tuula; Leonard, Laurence B.; Mäkinen, Leena; Tolonen, Anna-Kaisa

2015-01-01

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulty expressing subject-verb agreement. However, in many languages, tense is fused with agreement, making it difficult to attribute the problem to agreement in particular. In Finnish, negative markers are function words that agree with the subject in person and number but do not express tense, providing an opportunity to assess the status of agreement in a more straightforward way. Fifteen Finnish-speaking preschoolers with SLI, 15 age controls, and 15 younger controls responded to items requiring negative markers in first person singular and plural, and third person singular and plural. The children with SLI were less accurate than both typically developing groups. However, their problems were limited to particular person-number combinations. Furthermore, the children with SLI appeared to have difficulty selecting the form of the lexical verb that should accompany the negative marker, suggesting that agreement was not the sole difficulty. PMID:24588468
Neural Specificity for Grammatical Operations is Revealed by Content-Independent fMR Adaptation

PubMed Central

Shapiro, Kevin A.; Moo, Lauren R.; Caramazza, Alfonso

2012-01-01

The ability to generate novel sentences depends on cognitive operations that specify the syntactic function of nouns, verbs, and other words retrieved from the mental lexicon. Although neuropsychological studies suggest that such operations rely on neural circuits distinct from those encoding word form and meaning, it has not been possible to characterize this distinction definitively with neuroimaging. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that a brain area engaged in a given grammatical operation can be identified uniquely by a monotonic decrease in activation as that operation is repeated. We applied this methodology to identify areas involved selectively in the operation of inflection of nouns or verbs. By contrast, areas involved in processing word meaning do not show this monotonic adaptation across stimuli. These results are the first to demonstrate adaptation in the fMR signal evoked not by specific stimuli, but by well-defined cognitive linguistic operations. PMID:22347206
Rule-based learning of regular past tense in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Smith-Lock, Karen M

2015-01-01

The treatment of children with specific language impairment was used as a means to investigate whether a single- or dual-mechanism theory best conceptualizes the acquisition of English past tense. The dual-mechanism theory proposes that regular English past-tense forms are produced via a rule-based process whereas past-tense forms of irregular verbs are stored in the lexicon. Single-mechanism theories propose that both regular and irregular past-tense verbs are stored in the lexicon. Five 5-year-olds with specific language impairment received treatment for regular past tense. The children were tested on regular past-tense production and third-person singular "s" twice before treatment and once after treatment, at eight-week intervals. Treatment consisted of one-hour play-based sessions, once weekly, for eight weeks. Crucially, treatment focused on different lexical items from those in the test. Each child demonstrated significant improvement on the untreated past-tense test items after treatment, but no improvement on the untreated third-person singular "s". Generalization to untreated past-tense verbs could not be attributed to a frequency effect or to phonological similarity of trained and tested items. It is argued that the results are consistent with a dual-mechanism theory of past-tense inflection.
Learning to construct verbs in Navajo and Quechua.

PubMed

Courtney, Ellen H; Saville-Troike, Muriel

2002-08-01

Navajo and Quechua, both languages with a highly complex morphology, provide intriguing insights into the acquisition of inflectional systems. The development of the verb in the two languages is especially interesting, since the morphology encodes diverse grammatical notions, with the complex verb often constituting the entire sentence. While the verb complex in Navajo is stem-final, with prefixes appended to the stem in a rigid sequence, Quechua verbs are assembled entirely through suffixation, with some variation in affix ordering. We explore issues relevant to the acquisition of verb morphology by children learning Navajo and Quechua as their first language. Our study presents naturalistic speech samples produced by five Navajo children, aged 1;1 to 4;7, and by four Quechua-speaking children, aged 2;0 to 3;5. We centre our analysis on the role of phonological criteria in segmentation of verb stems and affixes, the production of amalgams, the problem of homophony, and the significance of distributional learning and semantic criteria in the development of the verb template. The phenomena observed in our data are discussed in light of several proposals, especially those of Peters (1983, 1995), Pinker (1984), Slobin (1985), and Hyams (1986, 1994).
Input Sources of Third Person Singular –s Inconsistency in Children with and without Specific Language Impairment*

PubMed Central

Leonard, Laurence B.; Fey, Marc E.; Deevy, Patricia; Bredin-Oja, Shelley L.

2015-01-01

We tested four predictions based on the assumption that optional infinitives can be attributed to properties of the input whereby children inappropriately extract nonfinite subject-verb sequences (e.g. the girl run) from larger input utterances (e.g. Does the girl run? Let’s watch the girl run). Thirty children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 30 typically developing children heard novel and familiar verbs that appeared exclusively either in utterances containing nonfinite subject-verb sequences or in simple sentences with the verb inflected for third person singular –s. Subsequent testing showed strong input effects, especially for the SLI group. The results provide support for input-based factors as significant contributors not only to the optional infinitive period in typical development, but also to the especially protracted optional infinitive period seen in SLI. PMID:25076070
Tense and Agreement Impairment in Ibero-Romance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gavarro, Anna; Martinez-Ferreiro, Silvia

2007-01-01

We examine the inflectional productions of seven Catalan, seven Galician, and seven Spanish speaking agrammatic subjects in an elicitation and a sentence repetition task and consider them in the light of the Tree Pruning Hypothesis (TPH). The results show relatively spared subject person/number agreement with the verb and impaired tense marking…
Inflectional spelling deficits in developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Egan, Joanne; Tainturier, Marie-Josèphe

2011-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine past-tense spelling deficits in developmental dyslexia and their relationship to phonological abilities, spoken morphological awareness and word specific orthographic memory. Three groups of children (28 9-year-old dyslexic, 28 chronological age-matched and 28 reading/spelling age-matched children) completed a battery of tests including spelling regularly inflected words (e.g., kissed) and matched one-morpheme words (e.g., wrist). They were also assessed on a range of tests of reading and spelling abilities and associated linguistic measures. Dyslexic children were impaired in relation to chronological age-matched controls on all measures. Furthermore, they were significantly poorer than younger reading and spelling age-matched controls at spelling inflected verbs, supporting the existence of a specific deficit in past-tense spelling in dyslexia. In addition to under-using the -ed spelling on inflected verbs, the dyslexic children were less likely to erroneously apply this spelling to one-morpheme words than younger controls. Dyslexics were also poorer than younger controls at using a consistent spelling for stems presented in isolation versus as part of an inflected word, indicating that they make less use of the morphological relations between words to support their spelling. In line with this interpretation, regression analyses revealed another qualitative difference between the spelling and reading age-matched group and the dyslexic group: while both spoken morphological awareness and orthographic word specific memory were significant predictors of the accuracy of past-tense spelling in the former group, only orthographic memory (irregular word reading and spelling) was a significant factor in the dyslexic group. Finally, we identified a subgroup of seven dyslexic children who were severely deficient in past-tense spelling. This subgroup was also significantly worse than other dyslexics and than younger controls on scores of orthographic memory. The implications of our findings for teaching and remediation strategies are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.
Similarities and Differences between Phrase Structure and Morphosyntactic Violations in Spanish: An Event-Related Potentials Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinojosa, Jose A.; Martin-Loeches, Manuel; Casado, Pilar; Munoz, Francisco; Rubia, Francisco J.

2003-01-01

Event-related potentials (EPRs) were employed to compare word category and verb inflection violations in Spanish. A similar frontal negativity was found between 250-400 ms for both violation types, suggesting that they equally disrupt initial syntactic analyses. These and other findings are discussed in detail. (VWL)
Language Learning of Children with Typical Development Using a Deductive Metalinguistic Procedure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finestack, Lizbeth H.

2014-01-01

Purpose: In the current study, the author aimed to determine whether 4- to 6-year-old typically developing children possess requisite problem-solving and language abilities to produce, generalize, and retain a novel verb inflection when taught using an explicit, deductive teaching procedure. Method: Study participants included a cross-sectional…
Why Reference to the Past Is Difficult for Agrammatic Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastiaanse, Roelien

2013-01-01

Many studies have shown that verb inflections are difficult to produce for agrammatic aphasic speakers: they are frequently omitted and substituted. The present article gives an overview of our search to understanding why this is the case. The hypothesis is that grammatical morphology referring to the past is selectively impaired in agrammatic…
Stem Access in Regular and Irregular Inflection: Evidence from German Participles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolka, Eva; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Rosler, Frank

2007-01-01

This study investigated whether German participles are retrieved as whole words from lexical storage or whether they are accessed via their morphemic constituents. German participle formation is of particular interest, since it is concatenative for both regular and irregular verbs and results from combinations of regular/irregular stems with…
Electrophysiology of subject-verb agreement mediated by speakers' gender.

PubMed

Hanulíková, Adriana; Carreiras, Manuel

2015-01-01

An important property of speech is that it explicitly conveys features of a speaker's identity such as age or gender. This event-related potential (ERP) study examined the effects of social information provided by a speaker's gender, i.e., the conceptual representation of gender, on subject-verb agreement. Despite numerous studies on agreement, little is known about syntactic computations generated by speaker characteristics extracted from the acoustic signal. Slovak is well suited to investigate this issue because it is a morphologically rich language in which agreement involves features for number, case, and gender. Grammaticality of a sentence can be evaluated by checking a speaker's gender as conveyed by his/her voice. We examined how conceptual information about speaker gender, which is not syntactic but rather social and pragmatic in nature, is interpreted for the computation of agreement patterns. ERP responses to verbs disagreeing with the speaker's gender (e.g., a sentence including a masculine verbal inflection spoken by a female person 'the neighbors were upset because I (∗)stoleMASC plums') elicited a larger early posterior negativity compared to correct sentences. When the agreement was purely syntactic and did not depend on the speaker's gender, a disagreement between a formally marked subject and the verb inflection (e.g., the womanFEM (∗)stoleMASC plums) resulted in a larger P600 preceded by a larger anterior negativity compared to the control sentences. This result is in line with proposals according to which the recruitment of non-syntactic information such as the gender of the speaker results in N400-like effects, while formally marked syntactic features lead to structural integration as reflected in a LAN/P600 complex.
Electrophysiology of subject-verb agreement mediated by speakers’ gender

PubMed Central

Hanulíková, Adriana; Carreiras, Manuel

2015-01-01

An important property of speech is that it explicitly conveys features of a speaker’s identity such as age or gender. This event-related potential (ERP) study examined the effects of social information provided by a speaker’s gender, i.e., the conceptual representation of gender, on subject–verb agreement. Despite numerous studies on agreement, little is known about syntactic computations generated by speaker characteristics extracted from the acoustic signal. Slovak is well suited to investigate this issue because it is a morphologically rich language in which agreement involves features for number, case, and gender. Grammaticality of a sentence can be evaluated by checking a speaker’s gender as conveyed by his/her voice. We examined how conceptual information about speaker gender, which is not syntactic but rather social and pragmatic in nature, is interpreted for the computation of agreement patterns. ERP responses to verbs disagreeing with the speaker’s gender (e.g., a sentence including a masculine verbal inflection spoken by a female person ‘the neighbors were upset because I ∗stoleMASC plums’) elicited a larger early posterior negativity compared to correct sentences. When the agreement was purely syntactic and did not depend on the speaker’s gender, a disagreement between a formally marked subject and the verb inflection (e.g., the womanFEM ∗stoleMASC plums) resulted in a larger P600 preceded by a larger anterior negativity compared to the control sentences. This result is in line with proposals according to which the recruitment of non-syntactic information such as the gender of the speaker results in N400-like effects, while formally marked syntactic features lead to structural integration as reflected in a LAN/P600 complex. PMID:26441771

A Demystification of Syntactic Drift. Montreal Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koch, Monica

This paper addresses itself to the question of why the English language should have levelled almost all of its inflections, and what the relationship is between the breakdown of the case system and the rise of fixed word-order, prepositional phrases, and verb periphrases. The explanation proposed for the phenomenon of syntactic drift is considered…
The Role of "Is" in the Acquisition of Finiteness by Adult Turkish Learners of Dutch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van de Craats, Ineke

2009-01-01

This article deals with the interlanguage of adult second language (L2) learners acquiring finiteness. Due to the inaccessibility of bound inflectional morphology, learners use free morphology to mark a syntactic relationship as well as person and number features separately from the thematic verb, expressed by a pattern like "the man is go".…
Role of Linguistic Input in Third Person Singular -"s" Use in the Speech of Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finneran, Denise A.; Leonard, Laurence B.

2010-01-01

Purpose: To examine the role of linguistic input in how young, typically developing children use the 3rd person singular -"s" (3S) inflection. Method: Novel verbs were presented to 16 young children in either 3S contexts (e.g., "The tiger heens") or nonfinite (NF) contexts (e.g., "Will the tiger heen?"). The input was further manipulated for…
THE PARADOX OF SIGN LANGUAGE MORPHOLOGY

PubMed Central

Aronoff, Mark; Meir, Irit; Sandler, Wendy

2011-01-01

Sign languages have two strikingly different kinds of morphological structure: sequential and simultaneous. The simultaneous morphology of two unrelated sign languages, American and Israeli Sign Language, is very similar and is largely inflectional, while what little sequential morphology we have found differs significantly and is derivational. We show that at least two pervasive types of inflectional morphology, verb agreement and classifier constructions, are iconically grounded in spatiotemporal cognition, while the sequential patterns can be traced to normal historical development. We attribute the paucity of sequential morphology in sign languages to their youth. This research both brings sign languages much closer to spoken languages in their morphological structure and shows how the medium of communication contributes to the structure of languages.* PMID:22223926
Sentence-position effects on children's perception and production of English third person singular -s.

PubMed

Sundara, Megha; Demuth, Katherine; Kuhl, Patricia K

2011-02-01

Two-year-olds produce third person singular -s more accurately on verbs in sentence-final position as compared with verbs in sentence-medial position. This study was designed to determine whether these sentence-position effects can be explained by perceptual factors. For this purpose, the authors compared 22- and 27-month-olds' perception and elicited production of third person singular -s in sentence-medial versus-final position. The authors assessed perception by measuring looking/listening times to a 1-screen display of a cartoon paired with a grammatical versus an ungrammatical sentence (e.g., She eats now vs. She eat now). Children at both ages demonstrated sensitivity to the presence/absence of this inflectional morpheme in sentence-final, but not sentence-medial, position. Children were also more accurate at producing third person singular -s sentence finally, and production accuracy was predicted by vocabulary measures as well as by performance on the perception task. These results indicate that children's more accurate production of third person singular -s in sentence-final position cannot be explained by articulatory factors alone but that perceptual factors play an important role in accounting for early patterns of production. The findings also indicate that perception and production of inflectional morphemes may be more closely related than previously thought.
Marking of verb tense in the English of preschool English-Mandarin bilingual children: evidence from language development profiles within subgroups on the Singapore English Action Picture Test.

PubMed

Brebner, Chris; McCormack, Paul; Liow, Susan Rickard

2016-01-01

The phonological and morphosyntactic structures of English and Mandarin contrast maximally and an increasing number of bilinguals speak these two languages. Speech and language therapists need to understand bilingual development for children speaking these languages in order reliably to assess and provide intervention for this population. To examine the marking of verb tense in the English of two groups of bilingual pre-schoolers learning these languages in a multilingual setting where the main educational language is English. The main research question addressed was: are there differences in the rate and pattern of acquisition of verb-tense marking for English-language 1 children compared with Mandarin-language 1 children? Spoken language samples in English from 481 English-Mandarin bilingual children were elicited using a 10-item action picture test and analysed for each child's use of verb tense markers: present progressive '-ing', regular past tense '-ed', third-person singular '-s', and irregular past tense and irregular past-participle forms. For 4-6 year olds the use of inflectional markers by the different language dominance groups was compared statistically using non-parametric tests. This study provides further evidence that bilingual language development is not the same as monolingual language development. The results show that there are very different rates and patterns of verb-tense marking in English for English-language 1 and Mandarin-language 1 children. Furthermore, they show that bilingual language development in English in Singapore is not the same as monolingual language development in English, and that there are differences in development depending on language dominance. Valid and reliable assessment of bilingual children's language skills needs to consider the characteristics of all languages spoken, obtaining accurate information on language use over time and accurately establishing language dominance is essential in order to make a differential diagnosis between language difference and impairment. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
Processing Tense/Aspect-Agreement Violations On-Line in the Second Language: A Self-Paced Reading Study with French and German L2 Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Leah; Liszka, Sarah Ann

2013-01-01

In this article, we report the results of a self-paced reading experiment designed to investigate the question of whether or not advanced French and German learners of English as a second language (L2) are sensitive to tense/aspect mismatches between a fronted temporal adverbial and the inflected verb that follows (e.g. *"Last week, James has…
Caregivers' suffix frequencies and suffix acquisition by language impaired, late talking, and typically developing children.

PubMed

Warlaumont, Anne S; Jarmulowicz, Linda

2012-11-01

Acquisition of regular inflectional suffixes is an integral part of grammatical development in English and delayed acquisition of certain inflectional suffixes is a hallmark of language impairment. We investigate the relationship between input frequency and grammatical suffix acquisition, analyzing 217 transcripts of mother-child (ages 1 ; 11-6 ; 9) conversations from the CHILDES database. Maternal suffix frequency correlates with previously reported rank orders of acquisition and with child suffix frequency. Percentages of children using a suffix are consistent with frequencies in caregiver speech. Although late talkers acquire suffixes later than typically developing children, order of acquisition is similar across populations. Furthermore, the third person singular and past tense verb suffixes, weaknesses for children with language impairment, are less frequent in caregiver speech than the plural noun suffix, a relative strength in language impairment. Similar findings hold across typical, SLI and late talker populations, suggesting that frequency plays a role in suffix acquisition.
Limits on negative information in language input.

PubMed

Morgan, J L; Travis, L L

1989-10-01

Hirsh-Pasek, Treiman & Schneiderman (1984) and Demetras, Post & Snow (1986) have recently suggested that certain types of parental repetitions and clarification questions may provide children with subtle cues to their grammatical errors. We further investigated this possibility by examining parental responses to inflectional over-regularizations and wh-question auxiliary-verb omission errors in the sets of transcripts from Adam, Eve and Sarah (Brown 1973). These errors were chosen because they are exemplars of overgeneralization, the type of mistake for which negative information is, in theory, most critically needed. Expansions and Clarification Questions occurred more often following ill-formed utterances in Adam's and Eve's input, but not in Sarah's. However, these corrective responses formed only a small proportion of all adult responses following Adam's and Eve's grammatical errors. Moreover, corrective responses appear to drop out of children's input while they continue to make overgeneralization errors. Whereas negative feedback may occasionally be available, in the light of these findings the contention that language input generally incorporates negative information appears to be unfounded.
Direct-access retrieval during sentence comprehension: Evidence from Sluicing

PubMed Central

Martin, Andrea E.; McElree, Brian

2011-01-01

Language comprehension requires recovering meaning from linguistic form, even when the mapping between the two is indirect. A canonical example is ellipsis, the omission of information that is subsequently understood without being overtly pronounced. Comprehension of ellipsis requires retrieval of an antecedent from memory, without prior prediction, a property which enables the study of retrieval in situ (Martin & McElree, 2008, 2009). Sluicing, or inflectional phrase ellipsis, in the presence of a conjunction, presents a test case where a competing antecedent position is syntactically licensed, in contrast with most cases of nonadjacent dependency, including verb phrase ellipsis. We present speed-accuracy tradeoff and eye-movement data inconsistent with the hypothesis that retrieval is accomplished via a syntactically guided search, a particular variant of search not examined in past research. The observed timecourse profiles are consistent with the hypothesis that antecedents are retrieved via a cue-dependent direct-access mechanism susceptible to general memory variables. PMID:21580797
A Japanese Child's Use of Stative and Punctual Verbs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cziko, Gary A.; Koda, Keiko

1987-01-01

Investigation of use of stative, process, punctual, and non-punctual verbs by a child acquiring Japanese as a first language found that sampled present progressive verb forms occurred with process verbs while these forms were never used with stative verbs. Most omissions of present progressive forms occurred with the early use of "mixed"…
A model of language inflection graphs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukś, Henryk; Farzad, Babak; Cao, Yi

2014-01-01

Inflection graphs are highly complex networks representing relationships between inflectional forms of words in human languages. For so-called synthetic languages, such as Latin or Polish, they have particularly interesting structure due to the abundance of inflectional forms. We construct the simplest form of inflection graphs, namely a bipartite graph in which one group of vertices corresponds to dictionary headwords and the other group to inflected forms encountered in a given text. We, then, study projection of this graph on the set of headwords. The projection decomposes into a large number of connected components, to be called word groups. Distribution of sizes of word group exhibits some remarkable properties, resembling cluster distribution in a lattice percolation near the critical point. We propose a simple model which produces graphs of this type, reproducing the desired component distribution and other topological features.
Time Reference of Verbs in Biblical Hebrew Poetry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zwyghuizen, Jill E.

2012-01-01

This dissertation suggests that the time reference of verbs in Hebrew poetry can be determined from a combination of form (aspect) and "Aktionsart" (stative vs. fientive). Specifically, perfective forms of stative verbs have past or present time reference. Perfective forms of fientive verbs have past time reference. Imperfective forms of…
An fMRI Study of Grammatical Morpheme Processing Associated with Nouns and Verbs in Chinese

PubMed Central

Yu, Xi; Bi, Yanchao; Han, Zaizhu; Law, Sam-Po

2013-01-01

This study examined whether the degree of complexity of a grammatical component in a language would impact on its representation in the brain through identifying the neural correlates of grammatical morpheme processing associated with nouns and verbs in Chinese. In particular, the processing of Chinese nominal classifiers and verbal aspect markers were investigated in a sentence completion task and a grammaticality judgment task to look for converging evidence. The Chinese language constitutes a special case because it has no inflectional morphology per se and a larger classifier than aspect marker inventory, contrary to the pattern of greater verbal than nominal paradigmatic complexity in most European languages. The functional imaging results showed BA47 and left supplementary motor area and superior medial frontal gyrus more strongly activated for classifier processing, and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus more responsive to aspect marker processing. We attributed the activation in the left prefrontal cortex to greater processing complexity during classifier selection, analogous to the accounts put forth for European languages, and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus to more demanding verb semantic processing. The overall findings significantly contribute to cross-linguistic observations of neural substrates underlying processing of grammatical morphemes from an analytic and a classifier language, and thereby deepen our understanding of neurobiology of human language. PMID:24146745
Rules vs. Statistics: Insights from a Highly Inflected Language

PubMed Central

Mirković, Jelena; Seidenberg, Mark S.; Joanisse, Marc F.

2011-01-01

Inflectional morphology has been taken as a paradigmatic example of rule-governed grammatical knowledge (Pinker, 1999). The plausibility of this claim may be related to the fact that it is mainly based on studies of English, which has a very simple inflectional system. We examined the representation of inflectional morphology in Serbian, which encodes number, gender and case for nouns. Linguists standardly characterize this system as a complex set of rules, with disagreements about their exact form. We present analyses of a large corpus of nouns which showed that, as in English, Serbian inflectional morphology is quasiregular: it exhibits numerous partial regularities creating neighborhoods that vary in size and consistency. We then asked whether a simple connectionist network could encode this statistical information in a manner that also supported generalization. A network trained on 3,244 Serbian nouns learned to produce correctly inflected phonological forms from a specification of a word’s lemma, gender, number and case, and generalized to untrained cases. The model’s performance was sensitive to variables that also influence human performance, including surface and lemma frequency. It was also influenced by inflectional neighborhood size, a novel measure of the consistency of meaning to form mapping. A word naming experiment with native Serbian speakers showed that this measure also affects human performance. The results suggest that, as in English, generating correctly inflected forms involves satisfying a small number of simultaneous probabilistic constraints relating form and meaning. Thus, common computational mechanisms may govern the representation and use of inflectional information across typologically diverse languages. PMID:21564267
The processing of English regular inflections: Phonological cues to morphological structure

PubMed Central

Post, Brechtje; Marslen-Wilson, William D.; Randall, Billi; Tyler, Lorraine K.

2008-01-01

Previous studies suggest that different neural and functional mechanisms are involved in the analysis of irregular (caught) and regular (filled) past tense forms in English. In particular, the comprehension and production of regular forms is argued to require processes of morpho-phonological assembly and disassembly, analysing these forms into a stem plus an inflectional affix (e.g., {fill} + {-ed}), as opposed to irregular forms, which do not have an overt stem + affix structure and must be analysed as full forms [Marslen-Wilson, W. D., & Tyler, L. K. (1997). Dissociating types of mental computation. Nature, 387, 592–594; Marslen-Wilson, W. D., & Tyler, L. K. (1998). Rules, representations, and the English past tense. Trends in Cognitive Science, 2, 428–435]. On this account, any incoming string that shows the critical diagnostic properties of an inflected form – a final coronal consonant (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/) that agrees in voicing with the preceding segment as in filled, mild, or nilled – will automatically trigger an attempt at segmentation. We report an auditory speeded judgment experiment which explored the contribution of these critical morpho-phonological properties (labelled as the English inflectional rhyme pattern) to the processing of English regular inflections. The results show that any stimulus that can be interpreted as ending in a regular inflection, whether it is a real inflection (filled–fill), a pseudo-inflection (mild–mile) or a phonologically matched nonword (nilled–nill), is responded to more slowly than an unambiguously monomorphemic stimulus pair (e.g., belt–bell). This morpho-phonological effect was independent of phonological effects of voicing and syllabicity. The findings are interpreted as evidence for a basic morpho-phonological parsing process that applies to all items with the criterial phonological properties. PMID:18834584
The Role of Native-Language Knowledge in the Perception of Casual Speech in a Second Language

PubMed Central

Mitterer, Holger; Tuinman, Annelie

2012-01-01

Casual speech processes, such as /t/-reduction, make word recognition harder. Additionally, word recognition is also harder in a second language (L2). Combining these challenges, we investigated whether L2 learners have recourse to knowledge from their native language (L1) when dealing with casual speech processes in their L2. In three experiments, production and perception of /t/-reduction was investigated. An initial production experiment showed that /t/-reduction occurred in both languages and patterned similarly in proper nouns but differed when /t/ was a verbal inflection. Two perception experiments compared the performance of German learners of Dutch with that of native speakers for nouns and verbs. Mirroring the production patterns, German learners’ performance strongly resembled that of native Dutch listeners when the reduced /t/ was part of a word stem, but deviated where /t/ was a verbal inflection. These results suggest that a casual speech process in a second language is problematic for learners when the process is not known from the leaner’s native language, similar to what has been observed for phoneme contrasts. PMID:22811675
Prefixation of Simplex Pairs in Czech: An Analysis of Spatial Semantics, Distributive Verbs, and Procedural Meanings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilchey, Christian Thomas

2014-01-01

This dissertation examines prefixation of simplex pairs. A simplex pair consists of an iterative imperfective and a semelfactive perfective verb. When prefixed, both of these verbs are perfective. The prefixed forms derived from semelfactives are labeled single act verbs, while the prefixed forms derived from iterative imperfective simplex verbs…
The role of the input in the acquisition of third person singular verbs in English.

PubMed

Theakston, Anna L; Lieven, Elena V M; Tomasello, Michael

2003-08-01

During the early stages of language acquisition, children pass through a stage of development when they produce both finite and nonfinite verb forms in finite contexts (e.g., "it go there," "it goes there"). Theorists who assume that children operate with an abstract understanding of tense and agreement marking from the beginnings of language use tend to explain this phenomenon in terms of either performance limitations in production (e.g., V. Valian, 1991) or the optional use of finite forms in finite contexts due to a lack of knowledge that tense and agreement marking is obligatory (the optional infinitive hypothesis; K. Wexler, 1994, 1996). An alternative explanation, however, is that children's use of nonfinite forms is based on the presence of questions in the input ("Where does it go?") where the grammatical subject is immediately followed by a nonfinite verb form. To compare these explanations, 2 groups of 24 children aged between 2 years 6 months and 3 years were exposed to 6 known and 3 novel verbs produced in either declaratives or questions or in both declaratives and questions. The children were then questioned to elicit use of the verbs in either finite or nonfinite contexts. The results show that for novel verbs, the children's patterns of verb use were closely related to the patterns of verb use modeled in the language to which they were exposed. For known verbs, there were no differences in the children's use of individual verbs, regardless of the specific patterns of verb use modeled in the language they heard. The implications of these findings for theories of early verb use are discussed.
Spread the word: MMN brain response reveals whole-form access of discontinuous particle verbs.

PubMed

Hanna, Jeff; Cappelle, Bert; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2017-12-01

The status of particle verbs such as rise (…) up as either lexically stored or combinatorially assembled is an issue which so far has not been settled decisively. In this study, we use the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response to observe neurophysiological responses to discontinuous particle verbs. The MMN can be used to distinguish between whole-form storage and combinatorial processes, as it is enhanced to stored words compared to unknown pseudowords, whereas combinatorially legal strings elicit a reduced MMN relative to ungrammatical ones. Earlier work had found larger MMNs to congruent than to incongruent verb-particle combinations when particle and verb appeared as adjacent elements, thus suggesting whole-form storage at least in this case. However, it is still possible that particle verbs discontinuously spread out across a sentence would elicit the combinatorial, grammar-violation response pattern instead. Here, we tested the brain signatures of discontinuous verb-particle combinations, orthogonally varying congruence and semantic transparency. The results show for the first time brain indices of whole-form storage for discontinuous constituents, thus arguing in favour of access to whole-form-stored lexical elements in the processing of particle verbs, irrespective of their semantic opacity. Results are discussed in the context of linguistic debates about the status of particle verbs as words, lexical elements or syntactically generated combinations. The explanation of the pattern of results within a neurobiological language model is highlighted. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The trouble with nouns and verbs in Greek fluent aphasia.

PubMed

Kambanaros, Maria

2008-01-01

In the past verb retrieval problems were associated primarily with agrammatism and noun retrieval difficulties with fluent aphasia. With regards to fluent aphasia, so far in the literature, three distinct patterns of verb/noun dissociations have been described for individuals with fluent anomic aphasia in languages with different underlying forms; better verb retrieval, poorer verb retrieval and equal retrieval difficulties for verbs and nouns. Verbs and nouns in Greek are considered of similar morphological complexity thus it was predicted that anomic aphasic individuals would suffer from a non-dissociated impairment of verbs and nouns. Problems with verbs and/or nouns may arise at any stage in the process of lexical retrieval, i.e. lexical-semantic, lemma, lexeme or articulation. The aim of this research was to investigate verb and noun retrieval using a picture-naming task to explore any possible selective noun and/or verb comprehension or retrieval deficits in Greek individuals with anomic aphasia. The results revealed a significant verb/noun dichotomy with verbs significantly more difficult to retrieve than nouns. These findings lend support for the growing body of evidence showing a specific verb impairment in fluent anomic individuals as well as Broca's patients. Given the prevailing view, that anomic patients experience difficulty retrieving the morpho-phonological form of the target word, the results show that specific information of the grammatical category is also important during word form retrieval. LEARNER OUTCOMES: The reader will become familiar with (i) studies investigating grammatical word class breakdown in individuals with aphasia who speak different languages, (ii) the application of the serial model to word production breakdown in aphasia and (iii) the characteristics of verbs and nouns in Greek. It will be concluded that successful verb retrieval for fluent aphasic individuals who speak Greek is dependant on the retrieval of the morpho-phonological information of the target verb.
The Past Conditional Verb Form in French Children: The Role of Semantics in Late Grammatical Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boloh, Yves; And Others

1993-01-01

The study analyzes four- to eight-year-old French children's acquisition of conditional verb forms. Relevant data in the literature and results of an experiment designed to gain information on the temporal meaning of young children's past conditional verb forms are presented and discussed. (25 references) (KM)
Teaching Grammar: The Use of The English Auxiliary "BE" Present Tense Verb among Malaysian Form 4 and Form 5 Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jishvithaa, Joanna M.; Tabitha, M.; Kalajahi, Seyed Ali Rezvani

2013-01-01

This research paper aims to explore the usage of the English Auxiliary "Be" Present Tense Verb, using corpus based method among Malaysian form 4 and form 5 students. This study is conducted by identifying and classifying the types of errors in the Auxiliary "Be" Present Tense verb in students' compositions from the MCSAW corpus…
Relations between Mental Verb and False Belief Understanding in Cantonese-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Him; Chen, Hsuan-Chih; Yeung, William

2009-01-01

Previous research has shown that linguistic forms that codify mental contents bear a specific relation with children's false belief understanding. These forms include mental verbs and their following complements, yet the two have not been considered separately. The current study examined the roles of mental verb semantics and the complement syntax…
Processing of Regular and Irregular Past-Tense Verb Forms in First and Second Language Reading Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Zeeuw, Marlies; Schreuder, Rob; Verhoeven, Ludo

2013-01-01

We investigated written word identification of regular and irregular past-tense verb forms by first (L1) and second language (L2) learners of Dutch in third and sixth grade. Using a lexical decision task, we measured speed and accuracy in the identification of regular and irregular past-tense verb forms by children from Turkish-speaking homes (L2…
ERP correlates of German Sign Language processing in deaf native signers.

PubMed

Hänel-Faulhaber, Barbara; Skotara, Nils; Kügow, Monique; Salden, Uta; Bottari, Davide; Röder, Brigitte

2014-05-10

The present study investigated the neural correlates of sign language processing of Deaf people who had learned German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) from their Deaf parents as their first language. Correct and incorrect signed sentences were presented sign by sign on a computer screen. At the end of each sentence the participants had to judge whether or not the sentence was an appropriate DGS sentence. Two types of violations were introduced: (1) semantically incorrect sentences containing a selectional restriction violation (implausible object); (2) morphosyntactically incorrect sentences containing a verb that was incorrectly inflected (i.e., incorrect direction of movement). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 74 scalp electrodes. Semantic violations (implausible signs) elicited an N400 effect followed by a positivity. Sentences with a morphosyntactic violation (verb agreement violation) elicited a negativity followed by a broad centro-parietal positivity. ERP correlates of semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of DGS clearly differed from each other and showed a number of similarities with those observed in other signed and oral languages. These data suggest a similar functional organization of signed and oral languages despite the visual-spacial modality of sign language.
ERP correlates of German Sign Language processing in deaf native signers

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The present study investigated the neural correlates of sign language processing of Deaf people who had learned German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS) from their Deaf parents as their first language. Correct and incorrect signed sentences were presented sign by sign on a computer screen. At the end of each sentence the participants had to judge whether or not the sentence was an appropriate DGS sentence. Two types of violations were introduced: (1) semantically incorrect sentences containing a selectional restriction violation (implausible object); (2) morphosyntactically incorrect sentences containing a verb that was incorrectly inflected (i.e., incorrect direction of movement). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 74 scalp electrodes. Results Semantic violations (implausible signs) elicited an N400 effect followed by a positivity. Sentences with a morphosyntactic violation (verb agreement violation) elicited a negativity followed by a broad centro-parietal positivity. Conclusions ERP correlates of semantic and morphosyntactic aspects of DGS clearly differed from each other and showed a number of similarities with those observed in other signed and oral languages. These data suggest a similar functional organization of signed and oral languages despite the visual-spacial modality of sign language. PMID:24884527
Implicit Learning of Semantic Preferences of Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paciorek, Albertyna; Williams, John N.

2015-01-01

Previous studies of semantic implicit learning in language have only examined learning grammatical form-meaning connections in which learning could have been supported by prior linguistic knowledge. In this study we target the domain of verb meaning, specifically semantic preferences regarding novel verbs (e.g., the preference for a novel verb to…
Non-Linguistic Cognitive Dimensions of Subject-Verb Agreement Error Detection in (L2) French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frimu, Rodica

2017-01-01

Subject-verb agreement constitutes a robust characteristic of French. However, especially at beginner and intermediate levels, second language (L2) learners might substitute or fail to recognize an infinitive for a conjugated verb, or a 3rd person singular form for a plural form, as "Les enfants mangera" (The children will eat--3rd…
How Do Children Restrict Their Linguistic Generalizations? An (Un-)Grammaticality Judgment Study

PubMed Central

Ambridge, Ben

2013-01-01

A paradox at the heart of language acquisition research is that, to achieve adult-like competence, children must acquire the ability to generalize verbs into non-attested structures, while avoiding utterances that are deemed ungrammatical by native speakers. For example, children must learn that, to denote the reversal of an action, un- can be added to many verbs, but not all (e.g., roll/unroll; close/*unclose). This study compared theoretical accounts of how this is done. Children aged 5–6 (N = 18), 9–10 (N = 18), and adults (N = 18) rated the acceptability of un- prefixed forms of 48 verbs (and, as a control, bare forms). Across verbs, a negative correlation was observed between the acceptability of ungrammatical un- prefixed forms (e.g., *unclose) and the frequency of (a) the bare form and (b) alternative forms (e.g., open), supporting the entrenchment and pre-emption hypotheses, respectively. Independent ratings of the extent to which verbs instantiate the semantic properties characteristic of a hypothesized semantic cryptotype for un- prefixation were a significant positive predictor of acceptability, for all age groups. The relative importance of each factor differed for attested and unattested un- forms and also varied with age. The findings are interpreted in the context of a new hybrid account designed to incorporate the three factors of entrenchment, pre-emption, and verb semantics. PMID:23252958
An image is worth a thousand words: why nouns tend to dominate verbs in early word learning.

PubMed

McDonough, Colleen; Song, Lulu; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Lannon, Robert

2011-03-01

Nouns are generally easier to learn than verbs (e.g., Bornstein, 2005; Bornstein et al., 2004; Gentner, 1982; Maguire, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2006). Yet, verbs appear in children's earliest vocabularies, creating a seeming paradox. This paper examines one hypothesis about the difference between noun and verb acquisition. Perhaps the advantage nouns have is not a function of grammatical form class but rather related to a word's imageability. Here, word imageability ratings and form class (nouns and verbs) were correlated with age of acquisition according to the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) (Fenson et al., 1994). CDI age of acquisition was negatively correlated with words' imageability ratings. Further, a word's imageability contributes to the variance of the word's age of acquisition above and beyond form class, suggesting that at the beginning of word learning, imageability might be a driving factor.
Early Verb Constructions in French: Adjacency on the Left Edge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veneziano, Edy; Clark, Eve V.

2016-01-01

Children acquiring French elaborate their early verb constructions by adding adjacent morphemes incrementally at the left edge of core verbs. This hypothesis was tested with 2657 verb uses from four children between 1;3 and 2;7. Consistent with the Adjacency Hypothesis, children added clitic subjects frst only to present tense forms (as in…
On the Distinction between Regular and Irregular Inflectional Morphology: Evidence from Dinka

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladd, D. Robert; Remijsen, Bert; Manyang, Caguor Adong

2009-01-01

Discussions of the psycholinguistic significance of regularity in inflectional morphology generally deal with languages in which regular forms can be clearly identified and revolve around whether there are distinct processing mechanisms for regular and irregular forms. We present a detailed description of Dinka's notoriously irregular noun number…
Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks

PubMed Central

Service, Elisabet; Maury, Sini

2015-01-01

Working memory (WM) has been described as an interface between cognition and action, or a system for access to a limited amount of information needed in complex cognition. Access to morphological information is needed for comprehending and producing sentences. The present study probed WM for morphologically complex word forms in Finnish, a morphologically rich language. We studied monomorphemic (boy), inflected (boy+’s), and derived (boy+hood) words in three tasks. Simple span, immediate serial recall of words, in Experiment 1, is assumed to mainly rely on information in the focus of attention. Sentence span, a dual task combining sentence reading with recall of the last word (Experiment 2) or of a word not included in the sentence (Experiment 3) is assumed to involve establishment of a search set in long-term memory for fast activation into the focus of attention. Recall was best for monomorphemic and worst for inflected word forms with performance on derived words in between. However, there was an interaction between word type and experiment, suggesting that complex span is more sensitive to morphological complexity in derivations than simple span. This was explored in a within-subjects Experiment 4 combining all three tasks. An interaction between morphological complexity and task was replicated. Both inflected and derived forms increased load in WM. In simple span, recall of inflectional forms resulted in form errors. Complex span tasks were more sensitive to morphological load in derived words, possibly resulting from interference from morphological neighbors in the mental lexicon. The results are best understood as involving competition among inflectional forms when binding words from input into an output structure, and competition from morphological neighbors in secondary memory during cumulative retrieval-encoding cycles. Models of verbal recall need to be able to represent morphological as well as phonological and semantic information. PMID:25642181
Relations between mental verb and false belief understanding in Cantonese-speaking children.

PubMed

Cheung, Him; Chen, Hsuan-Chih; Yeung, William

2009-10-01

Previous research has shown that linguistic forms that codify mental contents bear a specific relation with children's false belief understanding. These forms include mental verbs and their following complements, yet the two have not been considered separately. The current study examined the roles of mental verb semantics and the complement syntax in children's false belief understanding. Independent tasks were used to measure verb meaning, complements, and false belief understanding such that the verbs in question were present only in the verb meaning test, and no linguistic devices biased toward false belief were used in the false belief test. We focused on (a) some mental verbs that obligatorily affirm or negate what follows and (b) sentential complements, the content of which is to be evaluated against the mind of another person, not reality. Results showed that only (a) predicted false belief understanding in a group of Cantonese-speaking 4-year-olds, controlling for nonverbal intelligence and general language ability. In particular, children's understanding of the strong nonfactive semantics of the Cantonese verbs /ji5-wai4/ ("falsely think") predicted false belief understanding most strongly. The current findings suggest that false belief understanding is specifically related to the comprehension of mental verbs that entail false thought in their semantics.
Some Remarks on Mood and Aspect in Russian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, J.

1974-01-01

An explanation is offered of aspect in imperative verb forms and in certain infinitive verb forms in Russian. Three presuppositions or conditions of appropriateness are postulated and their correlation to the aspect of an imperative or infinitive form discussed. (RM)
Defining a Rule for the Use of Infinitive and Gerund Complements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conti, Gregory

2011-01-01

This essay formulates a rule for the use of the to+verb and verb+ing finite complements designed to help students and teachers of English as a foreign language. The rule results from an analysis of the distinction between the directional function and inceptive aspect of the to+verb form, rooted in the prepositional origins of to, and the…
Los problemas de contenido y de empleo del verbo haber (Problems of Meaning and Use of the Verb "Haber.")

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez Botero, Luis A.

1975-01-01

Discusses the derivation, meaning and both past and present uses of the Spanish verb "haber." The verb refers to relationships of possession, duration and existence, and is used as an auxiliary. Extant derivative forms of the verb in other languages and earlier Spanish meanings are noted. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)
Status report on speech research. A report on the status and progress of studies of the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation and practical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Studdert-Kennedy, M.; Obrien, N.

1983-05-01

This report is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. Manuscripts cover the following topics: The influence of subcategorical mismatches on lexical access; The Serbo-Croatian orthography constraints the reader to a phonologically analytic strategy; Grammatical priming effects between pronouns and inflected verb forms; Misreadings by beginning readers of Serrbo-Croatian; Bi-alphabetism and work recognition; Orthographic and phonemic coding for word identification: Evidence for Hebrew; Stress and vowel duration effects on syllable recognition; Phonetic and auditory trading relations between acoustic cues in speech perception: Further results; Linguistic coding by deaf children in relation beginning reading success; Determinants of spelling ability in deaf and hearing adults: Access to linguistic structures; A dynamical basis for action systems; On the space-time structure of human interlimb coordination; Some acoustic and physiological observations on diphthongs; Relationship between pitch control and vowel articulation; Laryngeal vibrations: A comparison between high-speed filming and glottographic techniques; Compensatory articulation in hearing impaired speakers: A cinefluorographic study; and Review (Pierre Delattre: Studies in comparative phonetics.)
Neural Correlates of Morphological Decomposition in a Morphologically Rich Language: An fMRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lehtonen, Minna; Vorobyev, Victor A.; Hugdahl, Kenneth; Tuokkola, Terhi; Laine, Matti

2006-01-01

By employing visual lexical decision and functional MRI, we studied the neural correlates of morphological decomposition in a highly inflected language (Finnish) where most inflected noun forms elicit a consistent processing cost during word recognition. This behavioral effect could reflect suffix stripping at the visual word form level and/or…

Understanding the internal states of others by listening to action verbs.

PubMed

Di Cesare, G; Fasano, F; Errante, A; Marchi, M; Rizzolatti, G

2016-08-01

The internal state of others can be understood observing their actions or listening to their voice. While the neural bases of action style (vitality forms) have been investigated, there is no information on how we recognize others' internal state by listening to their speech. Here, using fMRI technique, we investigated the neural correlates of auditory vitality forms while participants listened to action verbs in three different conditions: human voice pronouncing the verbs in a rude and gentle way, robot voice pronouncing the same verbs without vitality forms, and a scrambled version of the same verbs pronounced by human voice. In agreement with previous studies on vitality forms encoding, we found specific activation of the central part of insula during listening to human voice conveying specific vitality forms. In addition, when listening both to human and robot voices there was an activation of the posterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus and of the parieto-premotor circuit typically described to be activated during observation and execution of arm actions. Finally, the superior temporal gyrus was activated bilaterally in all three conditions. We conclude that, the central part of insula is a key region for vitality forms processing allowing the understanding of the vitality forms regardless of the modality by which they are conveyed. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Obligatory Grammatical Categories and the Expression of Temporal Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winskel, Heather; Luksaneeyanawin, Sudaporn

2009-01-01

Thai has imperfective aspectual morphemes that are not obligatory in usage, whereas English has obligatory grammaticized imperfective aspectual marking on the verb. Furthermore, Thai has verb final deictic-path verbs that form a closed class set. The current study investigated if obligatoriness of these grammatical categories in Thai and English…
The dark side of gendered language: The masculine-generic form as a cause for self-report bias.

PubMed

Vainapel, Sigal; Shamir, Opher Y; Tenenbaum, Yulie; Gilam, Gadi

2015-12-01

Language reflects sociocultural structures, such as gender, and affects individuals' perceptions and cognitions. In gendered languages, male-inflected parts of speech are generally used for both sexes (i.e., masculine generics), thus proliferating stereotypes, inequality, and misattributions. We hypothesized that masculine-generic inflection in a questionnaire would bias women's reports compared with a gender-neutral inflection (e.g., "he or she"). We tested our prediction using an academic motivation questionnaire. We found that women reported lower task value and intrinsic goal orientation in the masculine-generic form compared with the gender-neutral form, and lower self-efficacy than men in the masculine-generic form. These findings suggest that questionnaires and surveys written in gendered languages or translated into them may contain construct-irrelevant variance that may undermine the validity of their scores' interpretations, thus risking the possibility of false conclusions. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
Vers une approche plus rationnelle des temps verbaux (Toward a More Rational Approach to Verb Tenses).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montredon, Jacques

1983-01-01

Experiences in teaching French verb tenses to Japanese students are used to illustrate teaching techniques that not only help students acquire verb forms but also present them as a coherent linguistic unity tied to fundamental communicative needs. A variety of exercises are included. (MSE)
Structure of Complex Verb Forms in Meiteilon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Lourembam Surjit

2016-01-01

This piece of work proposes to descriptively investigate the structures of complex verbs in Meiteilon. The categorization of such verbs is based on the nature of semantic and syntactic functions of a lexeme or verbal lexeme. A lexeme or verbal lexeme in Meiteilon may have multifunctional properties in the nature of occurrence. Such lexical items…
A Different Approach to the English Verb.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knowles, Lance

1976-01-01

The English verb is traditionally presented as having so many "tenses" that both students and teachers are confused. No real logic seems to hold the whole thing together, and teachers' explanations are often off the mark. Organizing verb forms in terms of past, present, and future is not only incorrect, but misleading. The linguist…
Cognate and Word Class Ambiguity Effects in Noun and Verb Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bultena, Sybrine; Dijkstra, Ton; van Hell, Janet G.

2013-01-01

This study examined how noun and verb processing in bilingual visual word recognition are affected by within and between-language overlap. We investigated how word class ambiguous noun and verb cognates are processed by bilinguals, to see if co-activation of overlapping word forms between languages benefits from additional overlap within a…
Morphological processing in a second language: behavioral and event-related brain potential evidence for storage and decomposition.

PubMed

Hahne, Anja; Mueller, Jutta L; Clahsen, Harald

2006-01-01

This study reports the results of two behavioral and two event-related brain potential experiments examining the processing of inflected words in second-language (L2) learners with Russian as their native language. Two different subsystems of German inflection were studied, participial inflection and noun plurals. For participial forms, L2 learners were found to widely generalize the -t suffixation rule in a nonce-word elicitation task, and in the event-related brain potential experiment, they showed an anterior negativity followed by a P600-both results resembling previous findings from native speakers of German on the same materials. For plural formation, the L2 learners displayed different preference patterns for regular and irregular forms in an off-line plural judgment task. Regular and irregular plural forms also differed clearly with regard to their brain responses. Whereas overapplications of the -s plural rule produced a P600 component, overapplications of irregular patterns elicited an N400. In contrast to native speakers of German, however, the L2 learners did not show an anterior negativity for -s plural overapplications. Taken together, the results show clear dissociations between regular and irregular inflection for both morphological subsystems. We argue that the two processing routes posited by dual-mechanism models of inflection (lexical storage and morphological decomposition) are also employed by L2 learners.
Gallery of ESOL Lesson Plans.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Literacy Assistance Center, New York, NY.

This collection of lesson plans for teaching English as a Second Language includes the following: "You Scratched Me!" which has students examine verbs in three forms (base, past, and progressive) together with questions, accelerating the memorization and understanding of verb forms and tenses; "Getting Acquainted/Inferential Thinking," which…
Tense and aspect in word problems about motion: diagram, gesture, and the felt experience of time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Freitas, Elizabeth; Zolkower, Betina

2015-09-01

Word problems about motion contain various conjugated verb forms. As students and teachers grapple with such word problems, they jointly operationalize diagrams, gestures, and language. Drawing on findings from a 3-year research project examining the social semiotics of classroom interaction, we show how teachers and students use gesture and diagram to make sense of complex verb forms in such word problems. We focus on the grammatical category of "aspect" for how it broadens the concept of verb tense. Aspect conveys duration and completion or frequency of an event. The aspect of a verb defines its temporal flow (or lack thereof) and the location of a vantage point for making sense of this durational process.
Representation of the verb's argument-structure in the human brain

PubMed Central

Assadollahi, Ramin; Rockstroh, Brigitte S

2008-01-01

Background A verb's argument structure defines the number and relationships of participants needed for a complete event. One-argument (intransitive) verbs require only a subject to make a complete sentence, while two- and three-argument verbs (transitives and ditransitives) normally take direct and indirect objects. Cortical responses to verbs embedded into sentences (correct or with syntactic violations) indicate the processing of the verb's argument structure in the human brain. The two experiments of the present study examined whether and how this processing is reflected in distinct spatio-temporal cortical response patterns to isolated verbs and/or verbs presented in minimal context. Results The magnetoencephalogram was recorded while 22 native German-speaking adults saw 130 German verbs, presented one at a time for 150 ms each in experiment 1. Verb-evoked electromagnetic responses at 250 – 300 ms after stimulus onset, analyzed in source space, were higher in the left middle temporal gyrus for verbs that take only one argument, relative to two- and three-argument verbs. In experiment 2, the same verbs (presented in different order) were preceded by a proper name specifying the subject of the verb. This produced additional activation between 350 and 450 ms in or near the left inferior frontal gyrus, activity being larger and peaking earlier for one-argument verbs that required no further arguments to form a complete sentence. Conclusion Localization of sources of activity suggests that the activation in temporal and frontal regions varies with the degree by which representations of an event as a part of the verbs' semantics are completed during parsing. PMID:18644141
Grammatical processing in schizophrenia: Evidence from morphology

PubMed Central

Walenski, Matthew; Weickert, Thomas W.; Maloof, Christopher J.; Ullman, Michael T.

2009-01-01

Patients with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia commonly present with impaired language. Here we investigate language in schizophrenia with a focus on inflectional morphology, using an intensively-studied and relatively well-understood linguistic paradigm. Patients with schizophrenia (n=43) and age-matched healthy control subjects (n=42) were asked to produce past-tenses of regular (slip), irregular (swim), and novel (plag) English verbs. Patients were impaired at regulars and novels (slipped, plagged), with relative sparing of irregulars (swam), controlling for numerous subject- and item-specific factors (e.g., IQ, phonological complexity). Additionally, patients’ thought-disorder scores significantly predicted their performance at regular and novel (but not irregular) past-tense production. The results support grammatical deficits in schizophrenia, with a relative sparing of lexical memory, and suggest that thought disorder may be linked with grammatical impairments in the disorder. PMID:19766129
Hebrew Verbal Passives in Later Language Development: The Interface of Register and Verb Morphology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ravid, Dorit; Vered, Lizzy

2017-01-01

The current study examined the production of Hebrew verbal passives across adolescence as mediated by linguistic register and verb morphology. Participants aged eight to sixteen years and a group of adults were asked to change written active-voice sentences into corresponding passive-voice forms, divided by verb register (neutral and high),…
Children's Early Productivity with Verbal Morphology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Laura; Swensen, Lauren D.; Naigles, Letitia R.

2009-01-01

Three studies using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm examined onset of productive comprehension of tense/aspect morphology in English. When can toddlers understand these forms with novel verbs and novel events? The first study used familiar verbs and showed that 26-36-month olds correctly matched a past/perfective form ("-ed" or…
The existence of inflection points for generalized log-aesthetic curves satisfying G1 data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karpagavalli, R.; Gobithaasan, R. U.; Miura, K. T.; Shanmugavel, Madhavan

2015-12-01

Log-Aesthetic (LA) curves have been implemented in a CAD/CAM system for various design feats. LA curves possess linear Logarithmic Curvature Graph (LCG) with gradient (shape parameter) denoted as α. In 2009, a generalized form of LA curves called Generalized Log-Aesthetic Curves (GLAC) has been proposed which has an extra shape parameter as ν compared to LA curves. Recently, G1 continuous GLAC algorithm has been proposed which utilizes the extra shape parameter using four control points. This paper discusses on the existence of inflection points in a GLAC segment satisfying G1 Hermite data and the effect of inflection point on convex hull property. It is found that the existence of inflection point can be avoided by manipulating the value of α. Numerical experiments show that the increase of α may remove the inflection point (if any) in a GLAC segment.
Toddlers Default to Canonical Surface-to-Meaning Mapping When Learning Verbs

PubMed Central

Dautriche, Isabelle; Cristia, Alejandrina; Brusini, Perrine; Yuan, Sylvia; Fisher, Cynthia; Christophe, Anne

2013-01-01

Previous work has shown that toddlers readily encode each noun in the sentence as a distinct argument of the verb. However, languages allow multiple mappings between form and meaning which do not fit this canonical format. Two experiments examined French 28-month-olds’ interpretation of right-dislocated sentences (nouni-verb, nouni) where the presence of clear, language-specific cues should block such a canonical mapping. Toddlers (N = 96) interpreted novel verbs embedded in these sentences as transitive, disregarding prosodic cues to dislocation (Experiment 1) but correctly interpreted right-dislocated sentences containing well-known verbs (Experiment 2). These results suggest that toddlers can integrate multiple cues in ideal conditions, but default to canonical surface-to-meaning mapping when extracting structural information about novel verbs in semantically impoverished conditions. PMID:24117408
The neural bases of the learning and generalization of morphological inflection.

PubMed

Nevat, Michael; Ullman, Michael T; Eviatar, Zohar; Bitan, Tali

2017-04-01

Affixal inflectional morphology has been intensively examined as a model of productive aspects of language. Nevertheless, little is known about the neurocognition of the learning and generalization of affixal inflection, or the influence of certain factors that may affect these processes. In an event-related fMRI study, we examined the neurocognition of the learning and generalization of plural inflections in an artificial language, as well as the influence of both affix type frequency (the proportion of words receiving a given affix) and affix predictability (based on phonological cues in the stem). Adult participants were trained in three sessions, and were scanned after the first and last sessions while inflecting trained and untrained words. Untrained words yielded more activation than trained words in medial frontal (including pre-SMA) and left inferior frontal cortices, which have previously shown activation in compositional grammatical processing. A reliance on phonological cues for untrained word inflection correlated positively with pre-SMA activation, but negatively with activation in the pars triangularis. Thus, pre-SMA may be involved in phonological cue-based composition, while the pars triangularis underlies alternative processes. Inflecting trained items yielded activation in the caudate head bilaterally, only in the first session, consistent with a role for procedural memory in learning grammatical regularities. The medial frontal and left inferior regions activated by untrained items were also activated by trained items, but more weakly than untrained items, with weakest activation for trained-items taking the high-frequency affix. This suggests less involvement of compositional processes for inflecting trained than untrained items, and least of all for trained inflected forms with high-frequency affixes, consistent with the storage of such forms (e.g., in declarative memory). Overall, the findings further elucidate the neural bases of the learning and generalization of affixal morphology, and the roles of affix type frequency and affix phonological predictability in these processes. Moreover, the results support and further specify the declarative/procedural model, in particular in adult language learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Linguistic Resource Creation for Research and Technology Development: A Recent Experiment

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-01-01

inflectional morphology. For instance, Tzeltal (a Mayan language of Mexico), Swahili (east Africa), and Shuar (a Jivaroan language of Ecuador) all...or they can come from dictionaries, as was the case for Tzeltal and Shuar . In the case of inflectionally rich languages, when the word forms are
Acquiring and Producing Sentences: Whether Learners Use Verb-Specific or Verb-General Information Depends on Cue Validity

PubMed Central

Thothathiri, Malathi; Rattinger, Michelle G.

2016-01-01

Learning to produce sentences involves learning patterns that enable the generation of new utterances. Language contains both verb-specific and verb-general regularities that are relevant to this capacity. Previous research has focused on whether one source is more important than the other. We tested whether the production system can flexibly learn to use either source, depending on the predictive validity of different cues in the input. Participants learned new sentence structures in a miniature language paradigm. In three experiments, we manipulated whether individual verbs or verb-general mappings better predicted the structures heard during learning. Evaluation of participants’ subsequent production revealed that they could use either the structural preferences of individual verbs or abstract meaning-to-form mappings to construct new sentences. Further, this choice varied according to cue validity. These results demonstrate flexibility within the production architecture and the importance of considering how language was learned when discussing how language is used. PMID:27047428
Anaphoric Islands and Anaphoric Forms: The Role of Explicit and Implicit Focus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garnham, Alan; Oakhill, Jane; Reynolds, David

2018-01-01

Two experiments are reported in which people resolve references to sets of entities (e.g., lies) that have previously been introduced either explicitly into a text ("the lies") or implicitly via a cognate verb (a form of the verb "to lie"). Previous work has show that pronominal references to such entities were judged as…

The Acquisition of Inflection: A Parameter-Setting Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyams, Nina

2008-01-01

First written in 1986, prior to the many findings concerning the optionality of finiteness and the root infinitive phenomenon, this article attempts to extend the parameter-setting model of grammatical development to the acquisition of inflectional morphology. I propose that the Stem Parameter, which states that a stem is/is not a well-formed word…
Two-Year-Olds' Sensitivity to Inflectional Plural Morphology: Allomorphic Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Benjamin; Xu Rattanasone, Nan; Demuth, Katherine

2017-01-01

Many English-speaking children use plural nominal forms in spontaneous speech before the age of two, and display some understanding of plural inflection in production tasks. However, results from an intermodal preferential study suggested a lack of "comprehension" of nominal plural morphology at 24 months of age (Kouider, Halberda, Wood,…
Language disorders as a window on universal grammar: an abstract theory of agreement for IP, DP, and V-PP.

PubMed

Roeper, T; Ramos, E; Seymour, H; Abdul-Karim, L

2001-06-01

A new concept of Agreement (AGR) has been represented as a Formal Feature that can appear in a wide range of different configurations (Chomsky, 1998). A case study from language disorders supports and extends this abstract concept. The child shows no agreement in Inflectional Phrase me can and Determiner Phrase them eyes. We then extend the notion of AGR to include verb-Prepositional Phrase relations, where the child also systematically avoids certain prepositions (go beach). The analysis is supported by intuitional data from compounds (sweep with broom --> broom-swept). We also define a systematic notion of Possible deficit as a premature fixation of functional items which normally require additional Phi-features. The notion of Maximization of Formal Features then emerges as a significant feature of learnability from both a normal and disordered perspective. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.
Subthalamic nucleus stimulation and spontaneous language production in Parkinson's disease: A double laterality problem.

PubMed

Batens, Katja; De Letter, Miet; Raedt, Robrecht; Duyck, Wouter; Vanhoutte, Sarah; Van Roost, Dirk; Santens, Patrick

2015-08-01

Asymmetric degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, are characteristic for Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite the lateralized representation of language, the correlation of asymmetric degeneration of nigrostriatal networks in PD with language performance has scarcely been examined. The laterality of dopamine depletion influences language deficits in PD and thus modulates the effects of subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation on language production. The spontaneous language production of patients with predominant dopamine depletion of the left (PD-left) and right (PD-right) hemisphere was compared in four stimulation conditions. PD-right made comparatively more verb inflection errors than PD-left. Bilateral STN stimulation improves spontaneous language production only for PD-left. The laterality of dopamine depletion influences spontaneous language production and the effect of STN stimulation on linguistic functions. However, it is probably only one of the many variables influencing the effect of STN stimulation on language production. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Early comprehension of the Spanish plural*

PubMed Central

Arias-Trejo, Natalia; Cantrell, Lisa M.; Smith, Linda B.; Alva Canto, Elda A.

2015-01-01

Understanding how linguistic cues map to the environment is crucial for early language comprehension and may provide a way for bootstrapping and learning words. Research has suggested that learning how plural syntax maps to the perceptual environment may show a trajectory in which children first learn surrounding cues (verbs, modifiers) before a full mastery of the noun morpheme alone. The Spanish plural system of simple codas, dominated by one allomorph -s, and with redundant agreement markers, may facilitate early understanding of how plural linguistic cues map to novel referents. Two-year-old Mexican children correctly identified multiple novel object referents when multiple verbal cues in a phrase indicated plurality as well as in instances when the noun morphology in novel nouns was the ONLY indicator of plurality. These results demonstrate Spanish-speaking children’s ability to use plural noun inflectional morphology to infer novel word referents which may have implications for their word learning. PMID:24560441
Natural Language Processing Of Online Propaganda As A Means Of Passively Monitoring An Adversarial Ideology

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

Warfare. 14. SUBJECT TERMS data mining, natural language processing, machine learning, algorithm design , information warfare, propaganda 15. NUMBER OF...Speech Tags. Adapted from [12]. CC Coordinating conjunction PRP$ Possessive pronoun CD Cardinal number RB Adverb DT Determiner RBR Adverb, comparative ... comparative UH Interjection JJS Adjective, superlative VB Verb, base form LS List item marker VBD Verb, past tense MD Modal VBG Verb, gerund or
Cerebellum engages in automation of verb-generation skill.

PubMed

Yang, Zhi; Wu, Paula; Weng, Xuchu; Bandettini, Peter A

2014-03-01

Numerous studies have shown cerebellar involvement in item-specific association, a form of explicit learning. However, very few have demonstrated cerebellar participation in automation of non-motor cognitive tasks. Applying fMRI to a repeated verb-generation task, we sought to distinguish cerebellar involvement in learning of item-specific noun-verb association and automation of verb generation skill. The same set of nouns was repeated in six verb-generation blocks so that subjects practiced generating verbs for the nouns. The practice was followed by a novel block with a different set of nouns. The cerebellar vermis (IV/V) and the right cerebellar lobule VI showed decreased activation following practice; activation in the right cerebellar Crus I was significantly lower in the novel challenge than in the initial verb-generation task. Furthermore, activation in this region during well-practiced blocks strongly correlated with improvement of behavioral performance in both the well-practiced and the novel blocks, suggesting its role in the learning of general mental skills not specific to the practiced noun-verb pairs. Therefore, the cerebellum processes both explicit verbal associative learning and automation of cognitive tasks. Different cerebellar regions predominate in this processing: lobule VI during the acquisition of item-specific association, and Crus I during automation of verb-generation skills through practice.
The Effects of Form-Focused Instruction on the Acquisition of Subject-Verb Inversion in German

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindseth, Martina

2016-01-01

This study examines the effects of form-focused instruction (FFI) on the acquisition of subject-verb inversion word order in declarative sentences in German. A group of U.S. college students who participated in a semester-long study abroad program in Germany and were comparable in terms of preprogram oral proficiency levels and accuracy scores in…
Playing with Word Endings: Morphological Variation in the Learning of Russian Noun Inflections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kempe, Vera; Brooks, Patricia J.; Mironova, Natalija; Pershukova, Angelina; Fedorova, Olga

2007-01-01

This paper documents the occurrence of form variability through diminutive "wordplay", and examines whether this variability facilitates or hinders morphology acquisition in a richly inflected language. First, in a longitudinal speech corpus of eight Russian mothers conversing with their children (1.6-3.6), and with an adult, the use of diminutive…
Exploiting Degrees of Inflectional Ambiguity: Stem Form and the Time Course of Morphological Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarvikivi, Juhani; Pyykkonen, Pirita; Niemi, Jussi

2009-01-01

The authors compared sublexical and supralexical approaches to morphological processing with unambiguous and ambiguous inflected words and words with ambiguous stems in 3 masked and unmasked priming experiments in Finnish. Experiment 1 showed equal facilitation for all prime types with a short 60-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) but significant…
Salience in Second Language Acquisition: Physical Form, Learner Attention, and Instructional Focus

PubMed Central

Cintrón-Valentín, Myrna C.; Ellis, Nick C.

2016-01-01

We consider the role of physical form, prior experience, and form focused instruction (FFI) in adult language learning. (1) When presented with competing cues to interpretation, learners are more likely to attend to physically more salient cues in the input. (2) Learned attention is an associative learning phenomenon where prior-learned cues block those that are experienced later. (3) The low salience of morphosyntactic cues can be overcome by FFI, which leads learners to attend cues which might otherwise be ignored. Experiment 1 used eye-tracking to investigate how language background influences learners’ attention to morphological cues, as well as the attentional processes whereby different types of FFI overcome low cue salience, learned attention and blocking. Chinese native speakers (no L1 verb-tense morphology) viewed Latin utterances combining lexical and morphological cues to temporality under control conditions (CCs) and three types of explicit FFI: verb grammar instruction (VG), verb salience with textual enhancement (VS), and verb pretraining (VP), and their use of these cues was assessed in a subsequent comprehension test. CC participants were significantly more sensitive to the adverbs than verb morphology. Instructed participants showed greater sensitivity to the verbs. These results reveal attentional processes whereby learners’ prior linguistic experience can shape their attention toward cues in the input, and whereby FFI helps learners overcome the long-term blocking of verb-tense morphology. Experiment 2 examined the role of modality of input presentation – aural or visual – in L1 English learners’ attentional focus on morphological cues and the effectiveness of different FFI manipulations. CC participants showed greater sensitivity toward the adverb cue. FFI was effective in increasing attention to verb-tense morphology, however, the processing of morphological cues was considerably more difficult under aural presentation. From visual exposure, the FFI conditions were broadly equivalent at tuning attention to the morphology, although VP resulted in balanced attention to both cues. The effectiveness of morphological salience-raising varied across modality: VS was effective under visual exposure, but not under aural exposure. From aural exposure, only VG was effective. These results demonstrate how salience in physical form, learner attention, and instructional focus all variously affect the success of L2 acquisition. PMID:27621715
Verb and sentence production and comprehension in aphasia: Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS)

PubMed Central

Cho-Reyes, Soojin; Thompson, Cynthia K.

2015-01-01

Background Verbs and sentences are often impaired in individuals with aphasia, and differential impairment patterns are associated with different types of aphasia. With currently available test batteries, however, it is challenging to provide a comprehensive profile of aphasic language impairments because they do not examine syntactically important properties of verbs and sentences. Aims This study presents data derived from the Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS; Thompson, 2011), a new test battery designed to examine syntactic deficits in aphasia. The NAVS includes tests for verb naming and comprehension, and production of verb argument structure in simple active sentences, with each examining the effects of the number and optionality of arguments. The NAVS also tests production and comprehension of canonical and non-canonical sentences. Methods & Procedures A total of 59 aphasic participants (35 agrammatic and 24 anomic) were tested using a set of action pictures. Participants produced verbs or sentences for the production subtests and identified pictures corresponding to auditorily provided verbs or sentences for the comprehension subtests. Outcomes & Results The agrammatic group, compared to the anomic group, performed significantly more poorly on all subtests except verb comprehension, and for both groups comprehension was less impaired than production. On verb naming and argument structure production tests both groups exhibited difficulty with three-argument verbs, affected by the number and optionality of arguments. However, production of sentences using three-argument verbs was more impaired in the agrammatic, compared to the anomic, group. On sentence production and comprehension tests, the agrammatic group showed impairments in all types of non-canonical sentences, whereas the anomic group exhibited difficulty primarily with the most difficult, object relative, structures. Conclusions Results show that verb and sentence deficits seen in individuals with agrammatic aphasia are largely influenced by syntactic complexity; however, individuals with anomic aphasia appear to exhibit these impairments only for the most complex forms of verbs and sentences. The present data indicate that the NAVS is useful for characterising verb and sentence deficits in people with aphasia. PMID:26379358
Seeing the "Harm" in "Harmed" and "Harmful": Morphological Processing by Children in Grades 4, 6, and 8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deacon, S. Helene; Campbell, Emily; Tamminga, Meredith; Kirby, John

2010-01-01

This study examined morphological processing of inflected and derived words by children in Grades 4, 6, and 8. Participants were shown root forms and inflected, derived, and orthographic control items (e.g., "harm", "harmed", "harmful", or "harmony"), followed by a fragment completion task (e.g., completing "h a_ _"). Participants were equally…
Precursors of Reading Skill from Infancy to First Grade in Finnish: Continuity and Change in a Highly Inflected Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silven, Maarit; Poskiparta, Elisa; Niemi, Pekka; Voeten, Marinus

2007-01-01

The course of language acquisition from infancy to public primary school was followed in a sample of 56 Finnish children to examine precursors to reading at first grade. Structural equation modeling of continuity suggested effects from growth in early vocabulary to mastery of inflectional forms at preschool age. The early language directly…
Verbal Inflectional Morphology in L1 and L2 Spanish: A Frequency Effects Study Examining Storage versus Composition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowden, Harriet Wood; Gelfand, Matthew P.; Sanz, Cristina; Ullman, Michael T.

2010-01-01

This study examines the storage versus composition of Spanish inflected verbal forms in first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers of Spanish. L2 participants were selected to have mid-to-advanced proficiency, high classroom experience, and low immersion experience, typical of medium-to-advanced foreign language learners. Participants…
Visual variability affects early verb learning.

PubMed

Twomey, Katherine E; Lush, Lauren; Pearce, Ruth; Horst, Jessica S

2014-09-01

Research demonstrates that within-category visual variability facilitates noun learning; however, the effect of visual variability on verb learning is unknown. We habituated 24-month-old children to a novel verb paired with an animated star-shaped actor. Across multiple trials, children saw either a single action from an action category (identical actions condition, for example, travelling while repeatedly changing into a circle shape) or multiple actions from that action category (variable actions condition, for example, travelling while changing into a circle shape, then a square shape, then a triangle shape). Four test trials followed habituation. One paired the habituated verb with a new action from the habituated category (e.g., 'dacking' + pentagon shape) and one with a completely novel action (e.g., 'dacking' + leg movement). The others paired a new verb with a new same-category action (e.g., 'keefing' + pentagon shape), or a completely novel category action (e.g., 'keefing' + leg movement). Although all children discriminated novel verb/action pairs, children in the identical actions condition discriminated trials that included the completely novel verb, while children in the variable actions condition discriminated the out-of-category action. These data suggest that - as in noun learning - visual variability affects verb learning and children's ability to form action categories. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.
Children's Computation of Complex Linguistic Forms: A Study of Frequency and Imageability Effects

PubMed Central

Dye, Cristina D.; Walenski, Matthew; Prado, Elizabeth L.; Mostofsky, Stewart; Ullman, Michael T.

2013-01-01

This study investigates the storage vs. composition of inflected forms in typically-developing children. Children aged 8–12 were tested on the production of regular and irregular past-tense forms. Storage (vs. composition) was examined by probing for past-tense frequency effects and imageability effects – both of which are diagnostic tests for storage – while controlling for a number of confounding factors. We also examined sex as a factor. Irregular inflected forms, which must depend on stored representations, always showed evidence of storage (frequency and/or imageability effects), not only across all children, but also separately in both sexes. In contrast, for regular forms, which could be either stored or composed, only girls showed evidence of storage. This pattern is similar to that found in previously-acquired adult data from the same task, with the notable exception that development affects which factors influence the storage of regulars in females: imageability plays a larger role in girls, and frequency in women. Overall, the results suggest that irregular inflected forms are always stored (in children and adults, and in both sexes), whereas regulars can be either composed or stored, with their storage a function of various item- and subject-level factors. PMID:24040318
Verbs in Mothers’ Input to Six-Month-Olds: Synchrony between Presentation, Meaning, and Actions Is Related to Later Verb Acquisition

PubMed Central

Nomikou, Iris; Koke, Monique; Rohlfing, Katharina J.

2017-01-01

In embodied theories on language, it is widely accepted that experience in acting generates an expectation of this action when hearing the word for it. However, how this expectation emerges during language acquisition is still not well understood. Assuming that the intermodal presentation of information facilitates perception, prior research had suggested that early in infancy, mothers perform their actions in temporal synchrony with language. Further research revealed that this synchrony is a form of multimodal responsive behavior related to the child’s later language development. Expanding on these findings, this article explores the relationship between action–language synchrony and the acquisition of verbs. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, we analyzed the coordination of verbs and action in mothers’ input to six-month-old infants and related these maternal strategies to the infants’ later production of verbs. We found that the verbs used by mothers in these early interactions were tightly coordinated with the ongoing action and very frequently responsive to infant actions. It is concluded that use of these multimodal strategies could significantly predict the number of spoken verbs in infants’ vocabulary at 24 months. PMID:28468265
Morphosyntactic Development of Bangla-Speaking Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sultana, Asifa; Stokes, Stephanie; Klee, Thomas; Fletcher, Paul

2016-01-01

This study examines the morphosyntactic development, specifically verb morphology, of typically-developing Bangla-speaking children between the ages of two and four. Three verb forms were studied: the Present Simple, the Present Progressive and the Past Progressive. The study was motivated by the observations that reliable language-specific…
Robert Lowth and the Strong Verb System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Ostade, Ingrid Tieken-Boon

2002-01-01

Traces the origin of the grammatical rule that strong verbs should distinguish between past tense and past participle forms. The rule, credited to Robert Lowth, did not in fact originate from Lowth nor did it reflect his usage as found in his private unpublished letters. (Author/VWL)

The processing of actions and action-words in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients.

PubMed

Papeo, Liuba; Cecchetto, Cinzia; Mazzon, Giulia; Granello, Giulia; Cattaruzza, Tatiana; Verriello, Lorenzo; Eleopra, Roberto; Rumiati, Raffaella I

2015-03-01

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with prime consequences on the motor function and concomitant cognitive changes, most frequently in the domain of executive functions. Moreover, poorer performance with action-verbs versus object-nouns has been reported in ALS patients, raising the hypothesis that the motor dysfunction deteriorates the semantic representation of actions. Using action-verbs and manipulable-object nouns sharing semantic relationship with the same motor representations, the verb-noun difference was assessed in a group of 21 ALS-patients with severely impaired motor behavior, and compared with a normal sample's performance. ALS-group performed better on nouns than verbs, both in production (action and object naming) and comprehension (word-picture matching). This observation implies that the interpretation of the verb-noun difference in ALS cannot be accounted by the relatedness of verbs to motor representations, but has to consider the role of other semantic and/or morpho-phonological dimensions that distinctively define the two grammatical classes. Moreover, this difference in the ALS-group was not greater than the noun-verb difference in the normal sample. The mental representation of actions also involves an executive-control component to organize, in logical/temporal order, the individual motor events (or sub-goals) that form a purposeful action. We assessed this ability with action sequencing tasks, requiring participants to re-construct a purposeful action from the scrambled presentation of its constitutive motor events, shown in the form of photographs or short sentences. In those tasks, ALS-group's performance was significantly poorer than controls'. Thus, the executive dysfunction manifested in the sequencing deficit -but not the selective verb deficit- appears as a consistent feature of the cognitive profile associated with ALS. We suggest that ALS can offer a valuable model to study the relationship between (frontal) motor centers and the executive-control machinery housed in the frontal brain, and the implications of executive dysfunctions in tasks such as action processing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Reports 4. The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Filipovic, Rudolf, Ed.

The fourth volume in this series contains nine articles dealing with various aspects of Serbo-Croatian-English contrastive analysis. They are: "Adverbial Clauses of Cause, Place and Manner in English and Serbo-Croatian," by Gordana Gavrilovic; "Intransitive Verbs+Adverbials or Complements Containing Non-Finite Verb Forms," by…
Memory Operations that Support Language Comprehension: Evidence from Verb-Phrase Ellipsis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Andrea E.; McElree, Brian

2009-01-01

Comprehension of verb-phrase ellipsis (VPE) requires reevaluation of recently processed constituents, which often necessitates retrieval of information about the elided constituent from memory. A. E. Martin and B. McElree (2008) argued that representations formed during comprehension are content addressable and that VPE antecedents are retrieved…
Basic Grammar in Use: Reference and Practice for Students of English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Raymond

This basic grammar book for beginning to low-intermediate level students of English contains 106 units. The units are divided into the following categories: Present; Past; Present Perfect; Passive; Future and Modals; Imperative; "There" and "It"; Verb Forms; Auxiliary Verbs; Negatives; Questions; "To" and "-ing"; Reported Speech; "Get" and "Go";…
Engineering Design vs. Artistic Design: Some Educational Consequences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eder, Wolfgang Ernst

2013-01-01

"Design" can be a noun, or a verb. Six paths for research into engineering design (as verb) are identified, they must be coordinated for internal consistency and plausibility. Design research tries to clarify design processes and their underlying theories--for designing in general, and for particular forms, e.g., design engineering. Theories are a…
Topics in Ho Morphophonology and Morphosyntax

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pucilowski, Anna

2013-01-01

Ho, an under-documented North Munda language of India, is known for its complex verb forms. This dissertation focuses on analysis of several features of those complex verbs, using data from original fieldwork undertaken by the author. By way of background, an analysis of the phonetics, phonology and morphophonology of Ho is first presented. Ho has…
Comprehension of Infrequent Subject-Verb Agreement Forms: Evidence from French-Learning Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Legendre, Geraldine; Barriere, Isabelle; Goyet, Louise; Nazzi, Thierry

2010-01-01

Two comprehension experiments were conducted to investigate whether young French-learning children (N = 76) are able to use a single number cue in subject-verb agreement contexts and match a visually dynamic scene with a corresponding verbal stimulus. Results from both preferential looking and pointing demonstrated significant comprehension in…
Gavagai Is as Gavagai Does: Learning Nouns and Verbs from Cross-Situational Statistics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monaghan, Padraic; Mattock, Karen; Davies, Robert A. I.; Smith, Alastair C.

2015-01-01

Learning to map words onto their referents is difficult, because there are multiple possibilities for forming these mappings. Cross-situational learning studies have shown that word-object mappings can be learned across multiple situations, as can verbs when presented in a syntactic context. However, these previous studies have presented either…
Image Schemas in Verb-Particle Constructions: Evidence from a Behavioral Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Tangfeng

2016-01-01

Cognitive linguists claim that verb-particle constructions are compositional and analyzable, and that the particles contribute to the overall meaning in the form of image schemas. This article examined this claim with a behavioral experiment, in which participants were asked to judge the sensibility of short sentences primed by image-schematic…
Detection of Irregular Verb Violations by Children with and without SLI.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Redmond, Sean M.; Rice, Mabel L.

2001-01-01

Fifty-seven children (ages 5-8) with and without specific language impairment (SLI) participated in judgment and elicitation tasks designed to evaluate their understanding of irregular verb forms. Differences between SLI and control children were observed in their productions and relative levels of sensitivity to infinitive errors in finite…
Variability, Negative Evidence, and the Acquisition of Verb Argument Constructions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfors, Amy; Tenenbaum, Joshua B.; Wonnacott, Elizabeth

2010-01-01

We present a hierarchical Bayesian framework for modeling the acquisition of verb argument constructions. It embodies a domain-general approach to learning higher-level knowledge in the form of inductive constraints (or overhypotheses), and has been used to explain other aspects of language development such as the shape bias in learning object…
Inflection point in running kinetic term inflation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Tie-Jun; Xiu, Wu-Tao; Yang, Xiu-Yi

2017-04-01

In this work, we calculate the general form of the scalar potential with polynomial superpotential in the framework of running kinetic term inflation, then focus on a polynomial superpotential with two terms and obtain the inflection point inflationary model. We study the inflationary dynamics and show that the predicted value of the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio can lie within the 1σ confidence region allowed by the result of Planck 2015.
Dissociable intrinsic functional networks support noun-object and verb-action processing.

PubMed

Yang, Huichao; Lin, Qixiang; Han, Zaizhu; Li, Hongyu; Song, Luping; Chen, Lingjuan; He, Yong; Bi, Yanchao

2017-12-01

The processing mechanism of verbs-actions and nouns-objects is a central topic of language research, with robust evidence for behavioral dissociation. The neural basis for these two major word and/or conceptual classes, however, remains controversial. Two experiments were conducted to study this question from the network perspective. Experiment 1 found that nodes of the same class, obtained through task-evoked brain imaging meta-analyses, were more strongly connected with each other than nodes of different classes during resting-state, forming segregated network modules. Experiment 2 examined the behavioral relevance of these intrinsic networks using data from 88 brain-damaged patients, finding that across patients the relative strength of functional connectivity of the two networks significantly correlated with the noun-object vs. verb-action relative behavioral performances. In summary, we found that verbs-actions and nouns-objects are supported by separable intrinsic functional networks and that the integrity of such networks accounts for the relative noun-object- and verb-action-selective deficits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Nominalization and Alternations in Biomedical Language

PubMed Central

Cohen, K. Bretonnel; Palmer, Martha; Hunter, Lawrence

2008-01-01

Background This paper presents data on alternations in the argument structure of common domain-specific verbs and their associated verbal nominalizations in the PennBioIE corpus. Alternation is the term in theoretical linguistics for variations in the surface syntactic form of verbs, e.g. the different forms of stimulate in FSH stimulates follicular development and follicular development is stimulated by FSH. The data is used to assess the implications of alternations for biomedical text mining systems and to test the fit of the sublanguage model to biomedical texts. Methodology/Principal Findings We examined 1,872 tokens of the ten most common domain-specific verbs or their zero-related nouns in the PennBioIE corpus and labelled them for the presence or absence of three alternations. We then annotated the arguments of 746 tokens of the nominalizations related to these verbs and counted alternations related to the presence or absence of arguments and to the syntactic position of non-absent arguments. We found that alternations are quite common both for verbs and for nominalizations. We also found a previously undescribed alternation involving an adjectival present participle. Conclusions/Significance We found that even in this semantically restricted domain, alternations are quite common, and alternations involving nominalizations are exceptionally diverse. Nonetheless, the sublanguage model applies to biomedical language. We also report on a previously undescribed alternation involving an adjectival present participle. PMID:18779866
Verb Form Indicates Discourse Segment Type in Biological Research Papers: Experimental Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Waard, Anita; Maat, Henk Pander

2012-01-01

Corpus studies suggest that verb tense is a differentiating feature between, on the one hand, text pertaining to experimental results (involving methods and results) and on the other hand, text pertaining to more abstract concepts (i.e. regarding background knowledge in a field, hypotheses, problems or claims). In this paper, we describe a user…
Modality in Amele and Other Papuan Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, John R.

1990-01-01

Data are presented from Amele and other Papuan languages to show how the medial verb form is marked for a binary distinction of realis versus irrealis modality. It is demonstrated that in these languages realis-irrealis distinction interacts with categories of tense and mood marked on the final verb to divide them into domains of realis and…
'Right Now, Sophie (∗)Swims in the Pool?!': Brain Potentials of Grammatical Aspect Processing.

PubMed

Flecken, Monique; Walbert, Kelly; Dijkstra, Ton

2015-01-01

We investigated whether brain potentials of grammatical aspect processing resemble semantic or morpho-syntactic processing, or whether they instead are characterized by an entirely distinct pattern in the same individuals. We studied aspect from the perspective of agreement between the temporal information in the context (temporal adverbials, e.g., Right now) and a morpho-syntactic marker of grammatical aspect (e.g., progressive is swimming). Participants read questions providing a temporal context that was progressive (What is Sophie doing in the pool right now?) or habitual (What does Sophie do in the pool every Monday?). Following a lead-in sentence context such as Right now, Sophie…, we measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) time-locked to verb phrases in four different conditions, e.g., (a) is swimming (control); (b) (∗)is cooking (semantic violation); (c) (∗)are swimming (morpho-syntactic violation); or (d)?swims (aspect mismatch); …in the pool." The collected ERPs show typical N400 and P600 effects for semantics and morpho-syntax, while aspect processing elicited an Early Negativity (250-350 ms). The aspect-related Negativity was short-lived and had a central scalp distribution with an anterior onset. This differentiates it not only from the semantic N400 effect, but also from the typical LAN (Left Anterior Negativity), that is frequently reported for various types of agreement processing. Moreover, aspect processing did not show a clear P600 modulation. We argue that the specific context for each item in this experiment provided a trigger for agreement checking with temporal information encoded on the verb, i.e., morphological aspect marking. The aspect-related Negativity obtained for aspect agreement mismatches reflects a violated expectation concerning verbal inflection (in the example above, the expected verb phrase was Sophie is X-ing rather than Sophie X-s in condition d). The absence of an additional P600 for aspect processing suggests that the mismatch did not require additional reintegration or processing costs. This is consistent with participants' post hoc grammaticality judgements of the same sentences, which overall show a high acceptability of aspect mismatch sentences.
Cross-linguistic gestures reflect typological universals: a subject-initial, verb-final bias in speakers of diverse languages.

PubMed

Futrell, Richard; Hickey, Tina; Lee, Aldrin; Lim, Eunice; Luchkina, Elena; Gibson, Edward

2015-03-01

In communicating events by gesture, participants create codes that recapitulate the patterns of word order in the world's vocal languages (Gibson et al., 2013; Goldin-Meadow, So, Ozyurek, & Mylander, 2008; Hall, Mayberry, & Ferreria, 2013; Hall, Ferreira, & Mayberry, 2014; Langus & Nespor, 2010; and others). Participants most often convey simple transitive events using gestures in the order Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), the most common word order in human languages. When there is a possibility of confusion between subject and object, participants use the order Subject-Verb-Object (SVO). This overall pattern has been explained by positing an underlying cognitive preference for subject-initial, verb-final orders, with the verb-medial order SVO order emerging to facilitate robust communication in a noisy channel (Gibson et al., 2013). However, whether the subject-initial and verb-final biases are innate or the result of languages that the participants already know has been unclear, because participants in previous studies all spoke either SVO or SOV languages, which could induce a subject-initial, verb-late bias. Furthermore, the exact manner in which known languages influence gestural orders has been unclear. In this paper we demonstrate that there is a subject-initial and verb-final gesturing bias cross-linguistically by comparing gestures of speakers of SVO languages English and Russian to those of speakers of VSO languages Irish and Tagalog. The findings show that subject-initial and verb-final order emerges even in speakers of verb-initial languages, and that interference from these languages takes the form of occasionally gesturing in VSO order, without an additional bias toward other orders. The results provides further support for the idea that improvised gesture is a window into the pressures shaping language formation, independently of the languages that participants already know. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
MEG masked priming evidence for form-based decomposition of irregular verbs

PubMed Central

Fruchter, Joseph; Stockall, Linnaea; Marantz, Alec

2013-01-01

To what extent does morphological structure play a role in early processing of visually presented English past tense verbs? Previous masked priming studies have demonstrated effects of obligatory form-based decomposition for genuinely affixed words (teacher-TEACH) and pseudo-affixed words (corner-CORN), but not for orthographic controls (brothel-BROTH). Additionally, MEG single word reading studies have demonstrated that the transition probability from stem to affix (in genuinely affixed words) modulates an early evoked response known as the M170; parallel findings have been shown for the transition probability from stem to pseudo-affix (in pseudo-affixed words). Here, utilizing the M170 as a neural index of visual form-based morphological decomposition, we ask whether the M170 demonstrates masked morphological priming effects for irregular past tense verbs (following a previous study which obtained behavioral masked priming effects for irregulars). Dual mechanism theories of the English past tense predict a rule-based decomposition for regulars but not for irregulars, while certain single mechanism theories predict rule-based decomposition even for irregulars. MEG data was recorded for 16 subjects performing a visual masked priming lexical decision task. Using a functional region of interest (fROI) defined on the basis of repetition priming and regular morphological priming effects within the left fusiform and inferior temporal regions, we found that activity in this fROI was modulated by the masked priming manipulation for irregular verbs, during the time window of the M170. We also found effects of the scores generated by the learning model of Albright and Hayes (2003) on the degree of priming for irregular verbs. The results favor a single mechanism account of the English past tense, in which even irregulars are decomposed into stems and affixes prior to lexical access, as opposed to a dual mechanism model, in which irregulars are recognized as whole forms. PMID:24319420
Let Luke Skywalker and Cinderella Help You Teach the Preterite And Imperfect, Too!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Frank B.

Instructional materials for the preterite tense in Spanish are based on Robert Terry's technique of using familiar stories in the foreign language, written in the present tense, which students must place in the past by changing verb forms. The objective is to avoid the disadvantages of simply translating verb tenses and to allow the student to get…

The Use of Consciousness-Raising Tasks in Learning and Teaching of Subject-Verb Agreement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Idek, Sirhajwan; Fong, Lee Lai; Sidhu, Gurnam Kaur

2013-01-01

This study investigates the use of two types of Consciousness-Raising (CR) tasks in learning Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA). The sample consisted of 28 Form 2 students who were divided into two groups. Group 1 was assigned with Grammaticality Judgment (GJ) tasks and Group 2 received Sentence Production (SP) tasks for eight weeks. Learners were given…
Let Cinderella and Luke Skywalker Help You Teach the Passe Compose and Imperfect.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terry, Robert M.

Instructional materials for the passe compose and imperfect tenses in French use the technique of presenting familiar stories in the foreign language, written in the present tense, which students must place in the past by changing verb forms. The objective is to avoid the disadvantages of simply translating verb tenses and to allow the student to…
"Heating up" or "Cooling up" the Brain? MEG Evidence that Phrasal Verbs Are Lexical Units

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cappelle, Bert; Shtyrov, Yury; Pulvermuller, Friedemann

2010-01-01

There is a considerable linguistic debate on whether phrasal verbs (e.g., "turn up," "break down") are processed as two separate words connected by a syntactic rule or whether they form a single lexical unit. Moreover, views differ on whether meaning (transparency vs. opacity) plays a role in determining their syntactically-connected or lexical…
Objects, Events and "to Be" Verbs in Spanish--An ERP Study of the Syntax-Semantics Interface

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leone-Fernandez, Barbara; Molinaro, Nicola; Carreiras, Manuel; Barber, Horacio A.

2012-01-01

In Spanish, objects and events at subject position constrain the selection of different forms of the auxiliary verb "to be": locative predicates about objects require "estar en", while those relating to events require "ser en", both translatable as "to be in". Subjective ratings showed that while the "object + ser + en" is considered as incorrect,…
Word Lists to Limit Vocabulary in Technical Information.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-02-01

COMPOSITE adjective COMPACTING verb COMPOSITES noun " COMPACTS verb COMPOSITION noun COMPANIES noun COMPOSITIONS noun COMPANY noun COMPOUND adj/verb...COMPARE verb COMPOUNDED * verb COMPARED* verb COMPOUNDING verb . COMPARES verb COMPOUNDS noun/verb - COMPARING verb COMPRESS noun/verb COMPARISON noun...34 DID* verb DIRECTS verb DIE verb DIRT noun DIED* verb DIRTIED * verb BOLDFACE a Root Word ’ a Past Participle A-28 . .. Technical Report 164 COMMON WORD
A Cross-Linguistic Study of Sound-Symbolism in Children’s Verb Learning

PubMed Central

Yoshida, Hanako

2012-01-01

A long history of research has considered the role of iconicity in language and the existence and role of non-arbitrary properties in language and the use of language. Previous studies with Japanese-speaking children whose language defines a large grammatical class of words with clear sound symbolism suggest that iconicity properties in Japanese may aid early verb learning, and a recent extended work suggest that such early sensitivity is not limited to children whose language supports such word classes. The present study further considers the use of sounds symbolic words in verb learning context by conducting systematic cross-linguistic comparisons on early exposure to and effect of sound symbolism in verb mapping. Experiment 1 is an observational study of how English- and Japanese-speaking parents talk about verbs. More conventionalized symbolic words were found in Japanese-speaking parental input and more idiosyncratic use of sound symbolism in English-speaking parental input. Despite this different exposure of iconic forms to describe actions, the artificial verb learning task in Experiment 2 revealed that children in both language groups benefit from sound-meaning correspondences for their verb learning. These results together confirm more extensive use of conventionalized sound-symbolism among Japanese-speakers, and also support a cross-linguistic consistency of the effect, which has documented in the recent work. The work also points to the potential value of understanding the contexts in which sound-meaning correspondences matter in language learning. PMID:23807870
Graded Representations in the Acquisition of English and German Transitive Constructions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbot-Smith, Kirsten; Lieven, Elena; Tomasello, Michael

2008-01-01

English and German children aged 2 years 4 months and 4 years heard both novel and familiar verbs in sentences whose form was grammatical, but which mismatched the event they were watching (e.g., "The frog is pushing the lion", when the lion was actually the "agent" or "doer" of the pushing). These verbs were then elicited in new sentences. All…
Effects of Type of Agreement Violation and Utterance Position on the Auditory Processing of Subject-Verb Agreement: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Dube, Sithembinkosi; Kung, Carmen; Peter, Varghese; Brock, Jon; Demuth, Katherine

2016-01-01

Previous ERP studies have often reported two ERP components—LAN and P600—in response to subject-verb (S-V) agreement violations (e.g., the boys *runs). However, the latency, amplitude and scalp distribution of these components have been shown to vary depending on various experiment-related factors. One factor that has not received attention is the extent to which the relative perceptual salience related to either the utterance position (verbal inflection in utterance-medial vs. utterance-final contexts) or the type of agreement violation (errors of omission vs. errors of commission) may influence the auditory processing of S-V agreement. The lack of reports on these effects in ERP studies may be due to the fact that most studies have used the visual modality, which does not reveal acoustic information. To address this gap, we used ERPs to measure the brain activity of Australian English-speaking adults while they listened to sentences in which the S-V agreement differed by type of agreement violation and utterance position. We observed early negative and positive clusters (AN/P600 effects) for the overall grammaticality effect. Further analysis revealed that the mean amplitude and distribution of the P600 effect was only significant in contexts where the S-V agreement violation occurred utterance-finally, regardless of type of agreement violation. The mean amplitude and distribution of the negativity did not differ significantly across types of agreement violation and utterance position. These findings suggest that the increased perceptual salience of the violation in utterance final position (due to phrase-final lengthening) influenced how S-V agreement violations were processed during sentence comprehension. Implications for the functional interpretation of language-related ERPs and experimental design are discussed. PMID:27625617
Effects of Type of Agreement Violation and Utterance Position on the Auditory Processing of Subject-Verb Agreement: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Dube, Sithembinkosi; Kung, Carmen; Peter, Varghese; Brock, Jon; Demuth, Katherine

2016-01-01

Previous ERP studies have often reported two ERP components-LAN and P600-in response to subject-verb (S-V) agreement violations (e.g., the boys (*) runs). However, the latency, amplitude and scalp distribution of these components have been shown to vary depending on various experiment-related factors. One factor that has not received attention is the extent to which the relative perceptual salience related to either the utterance position (verbal inflection in utterance-medial vs. utterance-final contexts) or the type of agreement violation (errors of omission vs. errors of commission) may influence the auditory processing of S-V agreement. The lack of reports on these effects in ERP studies may be due to the fact that most studies have used the visual modality, which does not reveal acoustic information. To address this gap, we used ERPs to measure the brain activity of Australian English-speaking adults while they listened to sentences in which the S-V agreement differed by type of agreement violation and utterance position. We observed early negative and positive clusters (AN/P600 effects) for the overall grammaticality effect. Further analysis revealed that the mean amplitude and distribution of the P600 effect was only significant in contexts where the S-V agreement violation occurred utterance-finally, regardless of type of agreement violation. The mean amplitude and distribution of the negativity did not differ significantly across types of agreement violation and utterance position. These findings suggest that the increased perceptual salience of the violation in utterance final position (due to phrase-final lengthening) influenced how S-V agreement violations were processed during sentence comprehension. Implications for the functional interpretation of language-related ERPs and experimental design are discussed.
Optional Elements and Variant Structures in the Productions of "Bei2" "to Give" Dative Constructions in Cantonese-Speaking Adults and Three-Year-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Chow, Dorcas C.-C.; McBride-Cheng, Catherine; Stokes, Stephanie F.

2010-01-01

To express object transfer, Cantonese-speakers use a "ditransitive" ([V-R-T] or [V-T-R] where V = Verb, T = Theme, R = Recipient), or a more complex prepositional/serial-verb (P/SV) construction. Clausal elements in Cantonese datives can be optional (resulting in "full" versus "non-full" forms) or appear in variant…
Vandetanib-eluting Radiopaque Beads: In vivo Pharmacokinetics, Safety and Toxicity Evaluation following Swine Liver Embolization.

PubMed

Denys, Alban; Czuczman, Peter; Grey, David; Bascal, Zainab; Whomsley, Rhys; Kilpatrick, Hugh; Lewis, Andrew L

2017-01-01

To evaluate the plasma and tissue pharmacokinetics, safety and toxicity following intra-arterial hepatic artery administration of Vandetanib (VTB)-eluting Radiopaque Beads (VERB) in healthy swine. In a first phase, healthy swine were treated with hepatic intra-arterial administration of VERB at target dose loading strengths of 36 mg/mL (VERB36), 72 mg/mL (VERB72) and 120 mg/mL (VERB120). Blood and tissue samples were taken and analysed for VTB and metabolites to determine pharmacokinetic parameters for the different dose forms over 30 days. In a second phase, animals were treated with unloaded radiopaque beads or high dose VTB loaded beads (VERB100, 100 mg/mL). Tissue samples from embolized and non-embolized areas of the liver were evaluated at necropsy (30 and 90 days) for determination of VTB and metabolite levels and tissue pathology. Imaging was performed prior to sacrifice using multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) and imaging findings correlated with pathological changes in the tissue and location of the radiopaque beads. The peak plasma levels of VTB (C max ) released from the various doses of VERB ranged between 6.19-17.3 ng/mL indicating a low systemic burst release. The plasma profile of VTB was consistent with a distribution phase up to 6 h after administration followed by elimination with a half-life of 20-23 h. The AUC of VTB and its major metabolite N-desmethyl vandetanib (NDM VTB) was approximately linear with the dose strength of VERB. VTB plasma levels were at or below limits of detection two weeks after administration. In liver samples, VTB and NDM VTB were present in treated sections at 30 days after administration at levels above the in vitro IC 50 for biological effectiveness. At 90 days both analytes were still present in treated liver but were near or below the limit of quantification in untreated liver sections, demonstrating sustained release from the VERB. Comparison of the reduction of the liver lobe size and associated tissue changes suggested a more effective embolization with VERB compared to the beads without drug. Hepatic intra-arterial administration of VERB results in a low systemic exposure and enables sustained delivery of VTB to target tissues following embolization. Changes in the liver tissue are consistent with an effective embolization and this study has demonstrated that VERB100 is well tolerated with no obvious systemic toxicity.
Grammatical Analysis as a Distributed Neurobiological Function

PubMed Central

Bozic, Mirjana; Fonteneau, Elisabeth; Su, Li; Marslen-Wilson, William D

2015-01-01

Language processing engages large-scale functional networks in both hemispheres. Although it is widely accepted that left perisylvian regions have a key role in supporting complex grammatical computations, patient data suggest that some aspects of grammatical processing could be supported bilaterally. We investigated the distribution and the nature of grammatical computations across language processing networks by comparing two types of combinatorial grammatical sequences—inflectionally complex words and minimal phrases—and contrasting them with grammatically simple words. Novel multivariate analyses revealed that they engage a coalition of separable subsystems: inflected forms triggered left-lateralized activation, dissociable into dorsal processes supporting morphophonological parsing and ventral, lexically driven morphosyntactic processes. In contrast, simple phrases activated a consistently bilateral pattern of temporal regions, overlapping with inflectional activations in L middle temporal gyrus. These data confirm the role of the left-lateralized frontotemporal network in supporting complex grammatical computations. Critically, they also point to the capacity of bilateral temporal regions to support simple, linear grammatical computations. This is consistent with a dual neurobiological framework where phylogenetically older bihemispheric systems form part of the network that supports language function in the modern human, and where significant capacities for language comprehension remain intact even following severe left hemisphere damage. PMID:25421880
University Students' Grasp of Inflection Points

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsamir, Pessia; Ovodenko, Regina

2013-01-01

This paper describes university students' grasp of inflection points. The participants were asked what inflection points are, to mark inflection points on graphs, to judge the validity of related statements, and to find inflection points by investigating (1) a function, (2) the derivative, and (3) the graph of the derivative. We found four…
Who Says What's Correct and How Do You Say It? Multimodal Management of Oral Peer-Assessment in a Grammar Boardgame in a Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Konzett, Carmen

2015-01-01

This paper describes how a small group of students in a foreign language classroom manage the interactional task of orally assessing the correctness of verb forms while playing a board game aimed at revising verb conjugation. In their interaction, the students orient to the institutional context of this activity as a language learning exercise by…
Processing of zero-derived words in English: an fMRI investigation.

PubMed

Pliatsikas, Christos; Wheeldon, Linda; Lahiri, Aditi; Hansen, Peter C

2014-01-01

Derivational morphological processes allow us to create new words (e.g. punish (V) to noun (N) punishment) from base forms. The number of steps from the basic units to derived words often varies (e.g., nationalitybridge-V) i.e., zero-derivation (Aronoff, 1980). We compared the processing of one-step (soaking
Electrophysiological Correlates of Second-Language Syntactic Processes Are Related to Native and Second Language Distance Regardless of Age of Acquisition

PubMed Central

Díaz, Begoña; Erdocia, Kepa; de Menezes, Robert F.; Mueller, Jutta L.; Sebastián-Gallés, Núria; Laka, Itziar

2016-01-01

In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1). Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old) and 13 late (AoA = 18 years old) Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants' L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants' languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants' L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants' L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners' ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants' L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants' L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives' ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency. PMID:26903930
Learning verbs without arguments: the problem of raising verbs.

PubMed

Becker, Misha

2005-03-01

This paper addresses the problem of learning the class of raising verbs (e.g seem). These verbs are potentially problematic for learners in that unlike typical main verbs these verbs do not stand in a semantic relation with any Noun Phrase (NP) arguments. Moreover, a second class of verbs, known as control verbs, shares certain distributional properties with raising verbs, but the two verb classes differ in important structural properties. The central problem addressed here is that of how a learner would distinguish raising verbs from control verbs, given their partial overlap in distribution. A series of experiments with English-speaking adults using a fill-in-the-blank questionnaire revealed two main types of cues that led participants to distinguish the two verb classes: inanimate NPs and semantically empty subjects ("it's raining") yielded the highest proportion of raising verb responses from adults, while animate NPs paired with eventive predicates yielded a high rate of control verb responses. On the basis of these results, suggestions are made as to how one should study the learning of these verbs in children.
Cross-Validation of AFOQT Form S for Cyberspace Operations - Cyberspace Control

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-20

50.8 61.5 66.0 69.1 82.5 VERB 60.3 26.1 .36*** 45.6 56.7 61.1 65.8 76.4 QUANT 65.7 24.9 .29*** 55.2 63.3 65.5 67.7 81.0 Notes. *** p < .001...Grade Quintile Note. Percentile scoring on y-axis. 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0 PILOT NAVTECH ACAD VERB QUANT AVE
Grammatical analysis as a distributed neurobiological function.

PubMed

Bozic, Mirjana; Fonteneau, Elisabeth; Su, Li; Marslen-Wilson, William D

2015-03-01

Language processing engages large-scale functional networks in both hemispheres. Although it is widely accepted that left perisylvian regions have a key role in supporting complex grammatical computations, patient data suggest that some aspects of grammatical processing could be supported bilaterally. We investigated the distribution and the nature of grammatical computations across language processing networks by comparing two types of combinatorial grammatical sequences--inflectionally complex words and minimal phrases--and contrasting them with grammatically simple words. Novel multivariate analyses revealed that they engage a coalition of separable subsystems: inflected forms triggered left-lateralized activation, dissociable into dorsal processes supporting morphophonological parsing and ventral, lexically driven morphosyntactic processes. In contrast, simple phrases activated a consistently bilateral pattern of temporal regions, overlapping with inflectional activations in L middle temporal gyrus. These data confirm the role of the left-lateralized frontotemporal network in supporting complex grammatical computations. Critically, they also point to the capacity of bilateral temporal regions to support simple, linear grammatical computations. This is consistent with a dual neurobiological framework where phylogenetically older bihemispheric systems form part of the network that supports language function in the modern human, and where significant capacities for language comprehension remain intact even following severe left hemisphere damage. Copyright © 2014 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Prosodic constraints on inflected words: an area of difficulty for German-speaking children with specific language impairment?

PubMed

Kauschke, Christina; Renner, Lena; Domahs, Ulrike

2013-08-01

Recent studies suggest that morphosyntactic difficulties may result from prosodic problems. We therefore address the interface between inflectional morphology and prosody in typically developing children (TD) and children with SLI by testing whether these groups are sensitive to prosodic constraints that guide plural formation in German. A plural elicitation task was designed consisting of 60 words and 20 pseudowords. The performance of 14 German-speaking children with SLI (mean age 7.5) was compared to age-matched controls and to younger children matched for productive vocabulary. TD children performed significantly better than children with SLI. Error analyses revealed that children with SLI produced more forms that did not meet the optimal shape of a noun plural. Beyond the fact that children with SLI have deficits in plural marking, the findings suggest that they also show reduced sensitivity to prosodic requirements. In other words, the prosodic structure of inflected words seems to be vulnerable in children with SLI.

Graded effects of regularity in language revealed by N400 indices of morphological priming.

PubMed

Kielar, Aneta; Joanisse, Marc F

2010-07-01

Differential electrophysiological effects for regular and irregular linguistic forms have been used to support the theory that grammatical rules are encoded using a dedicated cognitive mechanism. The alternative hypothesis is that language systematicities are encoded probabilistically in a way that does not categorically distinguish rule-like and irregular forms. In the present study, this matter was investigated more closely by focusing specifically on whether the regular-irregular distinction in English past tenses is categorical or graded. We compared the ERP priming effects of regulars (baked-bake), vowel-change irregulars (sang-sing), and "suffixed" irregulars that display a partial regularity (suffixed irregular verbs, e.g., slept-sleep), as well as forms that are related strictly along formal or semantic dimensions. Participants performed a visual lexical decision task with either visual (Experiment 1) or auditory prime (Experiment 2). Stronger N400 priming effects were observed for regular than vowel-change irregular verbs, whereas suffixed irregulars tended to group with regular verbs. Subsequent analyses decomposed early versus late-going N400 priming, and suggested that differences among forms can be attributed to the orthographic similarity of prime and target. Effects of morphological relatedness were observed in the later-going time period, however, we failed to observe true regular-irregular dissociations in either experiment. The results indicate that morphological effects emerge from the interaction of orthographic, phonological, and semantic overlap between words.
Learning transitive verbs from single-word verbs in the input by young children acquiring English.

PubMed

Ninio, Anat

2016-09-01

The environmental context of verbs addressed by adults to young children is claimed to be uninformative regarding the verbs' meaning, yielding the Syntactic Bootstrapping Hypothesis that, for verb learning, full sentences are needed to demonstrate the semantic arguments of verbs. However, reanalysis of Gleitman's (1990) original data regarding input to a blind child revealed the context of single-word parental verbs to be more transparent than that of sentences. We tested the hypothesis that English-speaking children learn their early verbs from parents' single-word utterances. Distribution of single-word transitive verbs produced by a large sample of young children was strongly predicted by the relative token frequency of verbs in parental single-word utterances, but multiword sentences had no predictive value. Analysis of the interactive context showed that objects of verbs are retrievable by pragmatic inference, as is the meaning of the verbs. Single-word input appears optimal for learning an initial vocabulary of verbs.
Bulgarian Verbs of Motion: Slavic Verbs in a Balkan Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindsey, Traci Speed

2011-01-01

This study examines the motion verb system of Bulgarian, focusing both on the structure of the Bulgarian motion verb itself, and on the information typically encoded in the Bulgarian verb of motion. It then compares the Bulgarian motion verb system with the motion verb systems of two other Slavic languages, Russian and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian…
The Effects of Verb Argument Complexity on Verb Production in Persons with Aphasia: Evidence from a Subject-Object-Verb Language.

PubMed

Sung, Jee Eun

2016-04-01

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of verb argument complexity on verb production in individuals with aphasia using a verb-final language. The verb-argument complexity was examined by the number of arguments (1-, 2-, and 3-place) and the types of arguments (unaccusative vs. unergative comparisons). Fifteen Korean-speaking individuals with aphasia and 16 normal controls participated in the study. A confrontation naming task was used to elicit verb production with a total of 36 items for each verb type (1-place unergative, 1-place unaccusative, 2-place, and 3-place verbs). Individuals with aphasia presented lower mean percentage correctness in 3-place than in 1-place verbs, and showed differentially greater difficulties with unaccusative constructions than with unergative verbs, compared to the control group. The effects of verb-argument complexity were clearly observed in Korean-speaking individuals with aphasia. The effects of the number of arguments were observed most clearly in Broca's and Wernicke's types of aphasia and individuals with lower overall aphasia severity. The effects of Korean unaccusativity manifested across aphasia groups. General patterns of verb-argument complexity in Korean were consistent with previous findings in English.
Verb deficits in Alzheimer’s disease and agrammatism: Implications for lexical organization☆

PubMed Central

Kim, Mikyong; Thompson, Cynthia K.

2011-01-01

This study examined the nature of verb deficits in 14 individuals with probable Alzheimer’s Disease (PrAD) and nine with agrammatic aphasia. Production was tested, controlling both semantic and syntactic features of verbs, using noun and verb naming, sentence completion, and narrative tasks. Noun and verb comprehension and a grammaticality judgment task also were administered. Results showed that while both PrAD and agrammatic subjects showed impaired verb naming, the syntactic features of verbs (i.e., argument structure) influenced agrammatic, but not Alzheimer’s disease patients’ verb production ability. That is, agrammatic patients showed progressively greater difficulty with verbs associated with more arguments, as has been shown in previous studies (e.g., Kim & Thompson, 2000; Thompson, 2003; Thompson, Lange, Schneider, & Shapiro, 1997), and suggest a syntactic basis for verb production deficits in agrammatism. Conversely, the semantic complexity of verbs affected PrAD, but not agrammatic, patients’ performance, suggesting “bottom-up” breakdown in their verb lexicon, paralleling that of nouns, resulting from the degradation or loss of semantic features of verbs. PMID:14698726
The Effects of Verb Argument Complexity on Verb Production in Persons with Aphasia: Evidence from a Subject-Object-Verb Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Jee Eun

2016-01-01

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of verb argument complexity on verb production in individuals with aphasia using a verb-final language. The verb-argument complexity was examined by the number of arguments (1-, 2-, and 3-place) and the types of arguments (unaccusative vs. unergative comparisons). Fifteen Korean-speaking…
La forme en -l en macedonien (The Form Suffixed -1 in Macedonian).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hristova, Doreana

The Macedonian verb form corresponding to the form ending in "-l" in French is examined, focusing on the active past participle, which represents the past indeterminate or non-testimonial tense. Special attention is paid to aspectual, modal, temporal, and prosodic values, and all examples are drawn from the two languages. (MSE)
Precursors to Natural Grammar Learning: Preliminary Evidence from 4-Month-Old Infants

PubMed Central

Friederici, Angela D.; Mueller, Jutta L.; Oberecker, Regine

2011-01-01

When learning a new language, grammar—although difficult—is very important, as grammatical rules determine the relations between the words in a sentence. There is evidence that very young infants can detect rules determining the relation between neighbouring syllables in short syllable sequences. A critical feature of all natural languages, however, is that many grammatical rules concern the dependency relation between non-neighbouring words or elements in a sentence i.e. between an auxiliary and verb inflection as in is singing. Thus, the issue of when and how children begin to recognize such non-adjacent dependencies is fundamental to our understanding of language acquisition. Here, we use brain potential measures to demonstrate that the ability to recognize dependencies between non-adjacent elements in a novel natural language is observable by the age of 4 months. Brain responses indicate that 4-month-old German infants discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical dependencies in auditorily presented Italian sentences after only brief exposure to correct sentences of the same type. As the grammatical dependencies are realized by phonologically distinct syllables the present data most likely reflect phonologically based implicit learning mechanisms which can serve as a precursor to later grammar learning. PMID:21445341
Training verb argument structure production in agrammatic aphasia: Behavioral and neural recovery patterns

PubMed Central

Thompson, Cynthia K.; Riley, Ellyn A.; den Ouden, Dirk-Bart; Meltzer-Asscher, Aya; Lukic, Sladjana

2013-01-01

Introduction Neuroimaging and lesion studies indicate a left hemisphere network for verb and verb argument structure processing, involving both frontal and temporoparietal brain regions. Although their verb comprehension is generally unimpaired, it is well known that individuals with agrammatic aphasia often present with verb production deficits, characterized by an argument structure complexity hierarchy, indicating faulty access to argument structure representations for production and integration into syntactic contexts. Recovery of verb processing in agrammatism, however, has received little attention and no studies have examined the neural mechanisms associated with improved verb and argument structure processing. In the present study we trained agrammatic individuals on verbs with complex argument structure in sentence contexts and examined generalization to verbs with less complex argument structure. The neural substrates of improved verb production were examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods Eight individuals with chronic agrammatic aphasia participated in the study (four experimental and four control participants). Production of three-argument verbs in active sentences was trained using a sentence generation task emphasizing the verb’s argument structure and the thematic roles of sentential noun phrases. Before and after training, production of trained and untrained verbs was tested in naming and sentence production and fMRI scans were obtained, using an action naming task. Results Significant pre- to post-training improvement in trained and untrained (one- and two-argument) verbs was found for treated, but not control, participants, with between-group differences found for verb naming, production of verbs in sentences, and production of argument structure. fMRI activation derived from post-treatment compared to pre-treatment scans revealed upregulation in cortical regions implicated for verb and argument structure processing in healthy controls. Conclusions Training verb deficits emphasizing argument structure and thematic role mapping is effective for improving verb and sentence production and results in recruitment of neural networks engaged for verb and argument structure processing in healthy individuals. PMID:23514929
Diversity Matters: Parent Input Predicts Toddler Verb Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Ning; Hadley, Pamela A.; Rispoli, Matthew

2017-01-01

The contribution of parent input to children's subsequent expressive verb diversity was explored in twenty typically developing toddlers with small verb lexicons. Child developmental factors and parent input measures (i.e. verb quantity, verb diversity, and verb-related structural cues) at age 1;9 were examined as potential predictors of…
Stemming Malay Text and Its Application in Automatic Text Categorization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasukawa, Michiko; Lim, Hui Tian; Yokoo, Hidetoshi

In Malay language, there are no conjugations and declensions and affixes have important grammatical functions. In Malay, the same word may function as a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or, a verb, depending on its position in the sentence. Although extensively simple root words are used in informal conversations, it is essential to use the precise words in formal speech or written texts. In Malay, to make sentences clear, derivative words are used. Derivation is achieved mainly by the use of affixes. There are approximately a hundred possible derivative forms of a root word in written language of the educated Malay. Therefore, the composition of Malay words may be complicated. Although there are several types of stemming algorithms available for text processing in English and some other languages, they cannot be used to overcome the difficulties in Malay word stemming. Stemming is the process of reducing various words to their root forms in order to improve the effectiveness of text processing in information systems. It is essential to avoid both over-stemming and under-stemming errors. We have developed a new Malay stemmer (stemming algorithm) for removing inflectional and derivational affixes. Our stemmer uses a set of affix rules and two types of dictionaries: a root-word dictionary and a derivative-word dictionary. The use of set of rules is aimed at reducing the occurrence of under-stemming errors, while that of the dictionaries is believed to reduce the occurrence of over-stemming errors. We performed an experiment to evaluate the application of our stemmer in text mining software. For the experiment, text data used were actual web pages collected from the World Wide Web to demonstrate the effectiveness of our Malay stemming algorithm. The experimental results showed that our stemmer can effectively increase the precision of the extracted Boolean expressions for text categorization.
The Natural History of Human Language: Bridging the Gaps without Magic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merker, Bjorn; Okanoya, Kazuo

Human languages are quintessentially historical phenomena. Every known aspect of linguistic form and content is subject to change in historical time (Lehmann, 1995; Bybee, 2004). Many facts of language, syntactic no less than semantic, find their explanation in the historical processes that generated them. If adpositions were once verbs, then the fact that they tend to occur on the same side of their arguments as do verbs ("cross-category harmony": Hawkins, 1983) is a matter of historical contingency rather than a reflection of inherent structural constraints on human language (Delancey, 1993).
Frequency of verb use in young children who stutter.

PubMed

Wagovich, Stacy A; Bernstein Ratner, Nan

2007-01-01

Several recent studies have suggested that young children who stutter (CWS) tend to show depressed lexical performance relative to peers. Given the developmental literature as well as several studies of verb processing in individuals who stutter, verbs may pose a particular challenge for this group. The purpose of the present study was to examine verb use in CWS. In theory, if young CWS differ in their production of verbs, this finding would partially explain the findings of studies that probed conversational vocabulary skills more generally. Fifteen CWS and 15 children who do not stutter (CWNS) participated in a play-based conversational sample with a parent. Samples were analyzed for the total number of verbs, the number of different verbs, and the proportion of general all-purpose (GAP) verbs within the samples. CWS produced significantly fewer different verbs and total verbs than the CWNS. However, previously reported near-significant differences in utterance length between groups would appear to temper the robustness of this finding. The groups did not differ in the proportion of GAP verbs used, suggesting that the CWS did not over-rely on GAP verbs in conversational language production but rather used these verbs to the same extent as their peers. As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to: (1) relate the purpose and rationale for examining verb use in children who stutter (CWS); (2) summarize the procedures used to assess verb use and GAP verb use in the present study; (3) explain the findings of the present study; (4) relate findings to the extant literature on lexical diversity in CWS.
Representing number in the real-time processing of agreement: self-paced reading evidence from Arabic

PubMed Central

Tucker, Matthew A.; Idrissi, Ali; Almeida, Diogo

2015-01-01

In the processing of subject-verb agreement, non-subject plural nouns following a singular subject sometimes “attract” the agreement with the verb, despite not being grammatically licensed to do so. This phenomenon generates agreement errors in production and an increased tendency to fail to notice such errors in comprehension, thereby providing a window into the representation of grammatical number in working memory during sentence processing. Research in this topic, however, is primarily done in related languages with similar agreement systems. In order to increase the cross-linguistic coverage of the processing of agreement, we conducted a self-paced reading study in Modern Standard Arabic. We report robust agreement attraction errors in relative clauses, a configuration not particularly conducive to the generation of such errors for all possible lexicalizations. In particular, we examined the speed with which readers retrieve a subject controller for both grammatical and ungrammatical agreeing verbs in sentences where verbs are preceded by two NPs, one of which is a local non-subject NP that can act as a distractor for the successful resolution of subject-verb agreement. Our results suggest that the frequency of errors is modulated by the kind of plural formation strategy used on the attractor noun: nouns which form plurals by suffixation condition high rates of attraction, whereas nouns which form their plurals by internal vowel change (ablaut) generate lower rates of errors and reading-time attraction effects of smaller magnitudes. Furthermore, we show some evidence that these agreement attraction effects are mostly contained in the right tail of reaction time distributions. We also present modeling data in the ACT-R framework which supports a view of these ablauting patterns wherein they are differentially specified for number and evaluate the consequences of possible representations for theories of grammar and parsing. PMID:25914651
Hyper-active gap filling

PubMed Central

Omaki, Akira; Lau, Ellen F.; Davidson White, Imogen; Dakan, Myles L.; Apple, Aaron; Phillips, Colin

2015-01-01

Much work has demonstrated that speakers of verb-final languages are able to construct rich syntactic representations in advance of verb information. This may reflect general architectural properties of the language processor, or it may only reflect a language-specific adaptation to the demands of verb-finality. The present study addresses this issue by examining whether speakers of a verb-medial language (English) wait to consult verb transitivity information before constructing filler-gap dependencies, where internal arguments are fronted and hence precede the verb. This configuration makes it possible to investigate whether the parser actively makes representational commitments on the gap position before verb transitivity information becomes available. A key prediction of the view that rich pre-verbal structure building is a general architectural property is that speakers of verb-medial languages should predictively construct dependencies in advance of verb transitivity information, and therefore that disruption should be observed when the verb has intransitive subcategorization frames that are incompatible with the predicted structure. In three reading experiments (self-paced and eye-tracking) that manipulated verb transitivity, we found evidence for reading disruption when the verb was intransitive, although no such reading difficulty was observed when the critical verb was embedded inside a syntactic island structure, which blocks filler-gap dependency completion. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that in English, as in verb-final languages, information from preverbal noun phrases is sufficient to trigger active dependency completion without having access to verb transitivity information. PMID:25914658
Hyper-active gap filling.

PubMed

Omaki, Akira; Lau, Ellen F; Davidson White, Imogen; Dakan, Myles L; Apple, Aaron; Phillips, Colin

2015-01-01

Much work has demonstrated that speakers of verb-final languages are able to construct rich syntactic representations in advance of verb information. This may reflect general architectural properties of the language processor, or it may only reflect a language-specific adaptation to the demands of verb-finality. The present study addresses this issue by examining whether speakers of a verb-medial language (English) wait to consult verb transitivity information before constructing filler-gap dependencies, where internal arguments are fronted and hence precede the verb. This configuration makes it possible to investigate whether the parser actively makes representational commitments on the gap position before verb transitivity information becomes available. A key prediction of the view that rich pre-verbal structure building is a general architectural property is that speakers of verb-medial languages should predictively construct dependencies in advance of verb transitivity information, and therefore that disruption should be observed when the verb has intransitive subcategorization frames that are incompatible with the predicted structure. In three reading experiments (self-paced and eye-tracking) that manipulated verb transitivity, we found evidence for reading disruption when the verb was intransitive, although no such reading difficulty was observed when the critical verb was embedded inside a syntactic island structure, which blocks filler-gap dependency completion. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that in English, as in verb-final languages, information from preverbal noun phrases is sufficient to trigger active dependency completion without having access to verb transitivity information.
[Take] and the ASL Verb Complex: An Autolexical Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metlay, Donald S.

2012-01-01

This dissertation will show how linguistic description and an Autolexical account of the bound verb root [take] shed a light on the nature of complex verb constructions in American Sign Language (ASL). This is accomplished by creating a new ASL Verb Complex Model unifying all verbs into one category of VERB. This model also accounts for a variety…
The Effects of Word Order on Subject-Verb and Object-Verb Agreement: Evidence from Basque

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santesteban, Mikel; Pickering, Martin J.; Branigan, Holly P.

2013-01-01

We report two experiments investigating subject-verb and object-verb agreement in Basque. Participants repeated and completed preambles containing singular or plural subjects and objects in sentences with canonical subject-object-verb (SOV) or non-canonical object-subject-verb (OSV) order; in Experiment 2, they did so while remembering two…
Obligatory grammatical categories and the expression of temporal events.

PubMed

Winskel, Heather; Luksaneeyanawin, Sudaporn

2009-03-01

Thai has imperfective aspectual morphemes that are not obligatory in usage, whereas English has obligatory grammaticized imperfective aspectual marking on the verb. Furthermore, Thai has verb final deictic-path verbs that form a closed class set. The current study investigated if obligatoriness of these grammatical categories in Thai and English affects the expression of co-occurring temporal events and actions depicted in three different short animations. Ten children aged four years, five years, six years and seven years, and ten adults as a comparison group from each of the two languages participated. English speakers explicitly expressed the ongoingness of the events more than Thai speakers, whereas Thai speakers expressed the entrance and exit of protagonists depicted in the animations significantly more than English speakers. These results support the notion that obligatory grammatical categories shape how Thai and English speakers express temporal events or actions.
The influence of semantic and morphological complexity of verbs on sentence recall: Implications for the nature of conceptual representation and category-specific deficits.

PubMed

Mobayyen, Forouzan; de Almeida, Roberto G

2005-03-01

One hundred and forty normal undergraduate students participated in a Proactive Interference (PI) experiment with sentences containing verbs from four different semantic and morphological classes (lexical causatives, morphological causatives, and morphologically complex and simplex perception verbs). Past research has shown significant PI build-up effects for semantically and morphologically complex verbs in isolation (de Almeida & Mobayyen, 2004). The results of the present study show that, when embedded into sentence contexts, semantically and morphologically complex verbs do not produce significant PI build-up effects. Different verb classes, however, yield different recall patterns: sentences with semantically complex verbs (e.g., causatives) were recalled significantly better than sentences with semantically simplex verbs (e.g., perception verbs). The implications for the nature of both verb-conceptual representations and category-specific semantic deficits are discussed.

Word Order and Voice Influence the Timing of Verb Planning in German Sentence Production.

PubMed

Sauppe, Sebastian

2017-01-01

Theories of incremental sentence production make different assumptions about when speakers encode information about described events and when verbs are selected, accordingly. An eye tracking experiment on German testing the predictions from linear and hierarchical incrementality about the timing of event encoding and verb planning is reported. In the experiment, participants described depictions of two-participant events with sentences that differed in voice and word order. Verb-medial active sentences and actives and passives with sentence-final verbs were compared. Linear incrementality predicts that sentences with verbs placed early differ from verb-final sentences because verbs are assumed to only be planned shortly before they are articulated. By contrast, hierarchical incrementality assumes that speakers start planning with relational encoding of the event. A weak version of hierarchical incrementality assumes that only the action is encoded at the outset of formulation and selection of lexical verbs only occurs shortly before they are articulated, leading to the prediction of different fixation patterns for verb-medial and verb-final sentences. A strong version of hierarchical incrementality predicts no differences between verb-medial and verb-final sentences because it assumes that verbs are always lexically selected early in the formulation process. Based on growth curve analyses of fixations to agent and patient characters in the described pictures, and the influence of character humanness and the lack of an influence of the visual salience of characters on speakers' choice of active or passive voice, the current results suggest that while verb planning does not necessarily occur early during formulation, speakers of German always create an event representation early.
Familiar Verbs Are Not Always Easier than Novel Verbs: How German Pre-School Children Comprehend Active and Passive Sentences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dittmar, Miriam; Abbot-Smith, Kirsten; Lieven, Elena; Tomasello, Michael

2014-01-01

Many studies show a developmental advantage for transitive sentences with familiar verbs over those with novel verbs. It might be that once familiar verbs become entrenched in particular constructions, they would be more difficult to understand (than would novel verbs) in non-prototypical constructions. We provide support for this hypothesis…
Verb bias and verb-specific competition effects on sentence production

PubMed Central

Thothathiri, Malathi; Evans, Daniel G.; Poudel, Sonali

2017-01-01

How do speakers choose between structural options for expressing a given meaning? Overall preference for some structures over others as well as prior statistical association between specific verbs and sentence structures (“verb bias”) are known to broadly influence language use. However, the effects of prior statistical experience on the planning and execution of utterances and the mechanisms that facilitate structural choice for verbs with different biases have not been fully explored. In this study, we manipulated verb bias for English double-object (DO) and prepositional-object (PO) dative structures: some verbs appeared solely in the DO structure (DO-only), others solely in PO (PO-only) and yet others equally in both (Equi). Structural choices during subsequent free-choice sentence production revealed the expected dispreference for DO overall but critically also a reliable linear trend in DO production that was consistent with verb bias (DO-only > Equi > PO-only). Going beyond the general verb bias effect, three results suggested that Equi verbs, which were associated equally with the two structures, engendered verb-specific competition and required additional resources for choosing the dispreferred DO structure. First, DO production with Equi verbs but not the other verbs correlated with participants’ inhibition ability. Second, utterance duration prior to the choice of a DO structure showed a quadratic trend (DO-only < Equi > PO-only) with the longest durations for Equi verbs. Third, eye movements consistent with reimagining the event also showed a quadratic trend (DO-only < Equi > PO-only) prior to choosing DO, suggesting that participants used such recall particularly for Equi verbs. Together, these analyses of structural choices, utterance durations, eye movements and individual differences in executive functions shed light on the effects of verb bias and verb-specific competition on sentence production and the role of different executive functions in choosing between sentence structures. PMID:28672009
Descriptive norms for 350 Chinese idioms with seven syntactic structures.

PubMed

Li, Degao; Zhang, Yu; Wang, Xiaolu

2016-12-01

The most important forms of idioms in Chinese, chengyus (CYs), have a fixed length of four Chinese characters. Most CYs are joined structures of two, two-character words-subject-verb units (SVs), verb-object units (VOs), structures of modification (SMs), or verb-verb units-or of four, one-character words. Both the first and second pairs of words in a four-word CY form an SV, a VO, or an SM. In the present study, normative measures were obtained for knowledge, familiarity, subjective frequency, age of acquisition, predictability, literality, and compositionality for 350 CYs, and the influences of the CYs' syntactic structures on the descriptive norms were analyzed. Consistent with previous studies, all of the norms yielded a high reliability, and there were strong correlations between knowledge, familiarity, subjective frequency, and age of acquisition, and between familiarity and predictability. Unlike in previous studies (e.g., Libben & Titone in Memory & Cognition, 36, 1103-1121, 2008), however, we observed a strong correlation between literality and compositionality. In general, the results seem to support a hybrid view of idiom representation and comprehension. According to the evaluation scores, we further concluded that CYs consisting of just one SM are less likely to be decomposable than those with a VOVO composition, and also less likely to be recognized through their constituent words, or to be familiar to, known by, or encountered by users. CYs with an SMSM composition are less likely than VOVO CYs to be decomposable or to be known or encountered by users. Experimental studies should investigate how a CY's syntactic structure influences its representation and comprehension.
Content and cultural validity in the development of the Indigenous Play Partner Scale.

PubMed

Dender, Alma M; Stagnitti, Karen E

2017-08-01

Culturally relevant assessments of Australian Indigenous children's social pretend play do not exist. This study investigated the content validity and cultural validity of the Indigenous Play Partner Scale (I-PPS). Six pairs of children (i.e. 12 children) aged four-six years from a remote Australian town were videoed playing in pairs, and 14 community elders and mothers participated across three focus groups. The social interactions between the children were transcribed from the videos. Nineteen verbs, grouped into five categories of social interaction, described the social interactions between the pairs of children. The descriptions of the social interaction verbs were presented to the community elders and mothers in a focus group. The themes from the focus groups were 'background of Indigenous understanding of play' and 'proposed social interaction verbs'. The first theme reflected community collaboration, children playing in multi-aged groups and the role of older children within the play. Guided by the focus group discussion, the videos were re-analysed and 20 social interaction verbs were described that reflected the cultural context of play. The content and cultural validity of the I-PPS was established through community consultation. Twenty social interaction verbs, which form the basis of the items of the I-PPS, reflected Indigenous cultural values of being non-judgemental of Indigenous children's social interactions during pretend play. Culturally relevant assessments for Australian Indigenous children do not disadvantage this population group and are essential for practice in occupational therapy. © 2017 Occupational Therapy Australia.
SU-E-T-614: Derivation of Equations to Define Inflection Points and Its Analysis in Flattening Filter Free Photon Beams Based On the Principle of Polynomial function

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muralidhar, K Raja; Komanduri, K

2014-06-01

Purpose: The objective of this work is to present a mechanism for calculating inflection points on profiles at various depths and field sizes and also a significant study on the percentage of doses at the inflection points for various field sizes and depths for 6XFFF and 10XFFF energy profiles. Methods: Graphical representation was done on Percentage of dose versus Inflection points. Also using the polynomial function, the authors formulated equations for calculating spot-on inflection point on the profiles for 6X FFF and 10X FFF energies for all field sizes and at various depths. Results: In a flattening filter free radiationmore » beam which is not like in Flattened beams, the dose at inflection point of the profile decreases as field size increases for 10XFFF. Whereas in 6XFFF, the dose at the inflection point initially increases up to 10x10cm2 and then decreases. The polynomial function was fitted for both FFF beams for all field sizes and depths. For small fields less than 5x5 cm2 the inflection point and FWHM are almost same and hence analysis can be done just like in FF beams. A change in 10% of dose can change the field width by 1mm. Conclusion: The present study, Derivative of equations based on the polynomial equation to define inflection point concept is precise and accurate way to derive the inflection point dose on any FFF beam profile at any depth with less than 1% accuracy. Corrections can be done in future studies based on the multiple number of machine data. Also a brief study was done to evaluate the inflection point positions with respect to dose in FFF energies for various field sizes and depths for 6XFFF and 10XFFF energy profiles.« less
The Use of Subject-Verb Agreement and Verb Argument Structure in Monolingual and Bilingual Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spoelman, Marianne; Bol, Gerard W.

2012-01-01

This study investigates the use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure in the spoken Dutch of monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual Frisian-Dutch children with SLI. Both SLI groups appeared to be less efficient in their use of subject-verb agreement and verb argument structure than the…
The behavioural patterns and neural correlates of concrete and abstract verb processing in aphasia: A novel verb semantic battery.

PubMed

Alyahya, Reem S W; Halai, Ajay D; Conroy, Paul; Lambon Ralph, Matthew A

2018-01-01

Typically, processing is more accurate and efficient for concrete than abstract concepts in both healthy adults and individuals with aphasia. While, concreteness effects have been thoroughly documented with respect to noun processing, other words classes have received little attention despite tending to be less concrete than nouns. The aim of the current study was to explore concrete-abstract differences in verbs and identify their neural correlates in post-stroke aphasia. Given the dearth of comprehension tests for verbs, a battery of neuropsychological tests was developed in this study to assess the comprehension of concrete and abstract verbs. Specifically, a sensitive verb synonym judgment test was generated that varied both the items' imageability and frequency, and a picture-to-word matching test with numerous concrete verbs. Normative data were then collected and the tests were administered to a cohort of 48 individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia to explore the behavioural patterns and neural correlates of verb processing. The results revealed significantly better comprehension of concrete than abstract verbs, aligning with the existing aphasiological literature on noun processing. In addition, the patients performed better during verb comprehension than verb production. Lesion-symptom correlational analyses revealed common areas that support processing of concrete and abstract verbs, including the left anterior temporal lobe, posterior supramarginal gyrus and superior lateral occipital cortex. A direct contrast between them revealed additional regions with graded differences. Specifically, the left frontal regions were associated with processing abstract verbs; whereas, the left posterior temporal and occipital regions were associated with processing concrete verbs. Moreover, overlapping and distinct neural correlates were identified in association with the comprehension and production of concrete verbs. These patient findings align with data from functional neuroimaging and neuro-stimulation, and existing models of language organisation.
Language-motor interference reflected in MEG beta oscillations.

PubMed

Klepp, Anne; Niccolai, Valentina; Buccino, Giovanni; Schnitzler, Alfons; Biermann-Ruben, Katja

2015-04-01

The involvement of the brain's motor system in action-related language processing can lead to overt interference with simultaneous action execution. The aim of the current study was to find evidence for this behavioural interference effect and to investigate its neurophysiological correlates using oscillatory MEG analysis. Subjects performed a semantic decision task on single action verbs, describing actions executed with the hands or the feet, and abstract verbs. Right hand button press responses were given for concrete verbs only. Therefore, longer response latencies for hand compared to foot verbs should reflect interference. We found interference effects to depend on verb imageability: overall response latencies for hand verbs did not differ significantly from foot verbs. However, imageability interacted with effector: while response latencies to hand and foot verbs with low imageability were equally fast, those for highly imageable hand verbs were longer than for highly imageable foot verbs. The difference is reflected in motor-related MEG beta band power suppression, which was weaker for highly imageable hand verbs compared with highly imageable foot verbs. This provides a putative neuronal mechanism for language-motor interference where the involvement of cortical hand motor areas in hand verb processing interacts with the typical beta suppression seen before movements. We found that the facilitatory effect of higher imageability on action verb processing time is perturbed when verb and motor response relate to the same body part. Importantly, this effect is accompanied by neurophysiological effects in beta band oscillations. The attenuated power suppression around the time of movement, reflecting decreased cortical excitability, seems to result from motor simulation during action-related language processing. This is in line with embodied cognition theories. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Why Are Verbs So Hard to Remember? Effects of Semantic Context on Memory for Verbs and Nouns.

PubMed

Earles, Julie L; Kersten, Alan W

2017-04-01

Three experiments test the theory that verb meanings are more malleable than noun meanings in different semantic contexts, making a previously seen verb difficult to remember when it appears in a new semantic context. Experiment 1 revealed that changing the direct object noun in a transitive sentence reduced recognition of a previously seen verb, whereas changing the verb had little impact on noun recognition. Experiment 2 revealed that verbs exhibited context effects more similar to those shown by superordinate nouns rather than basic-level nouns. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the degree of meaning change in a target word resulting from changes in semantic context influenced the magnitude of context effects, but context effects remained larger for verbs than for nouns even when the degree of meaning change was similar for nouns and verbs. These results are discussed with respect to the imageability and grammatical roles played by nouns and verbs in a sentence. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.
Neural Correlates of Verb Argument Structure Processing

PubMed Central

Thompson, Cynthia K.; Bonakdarpour, Borna; Fix, Stephen C.; Blumenfeld, Henrike K.; Parrish, Todd B.; Gitelman, Darren R.; Mesulam, M.-Marsel

2008-01-01

Neuroimaging and lesion studies suggest that processing of word classes, such as verbs and nouns, is associated with distinct neural mechanisms. Such studies also suggest that subcategories within these broad word class categories are differentially processed in the brain. Within the class of verbs, argument structure provides one linguistic dimension that distinguishes among verb exemplars, with some requiring more complex argument structure entries than others. This study examined the neural instantiation of verbs by argument structure complexity: one-, two-, and three-argument verbs. Stimuli of each type, along with nouns and pseudowords, were presented for lexical decision using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design. Results for 14 young normal participants indicated largely overlapping activation maps for verbs and nouns, with no areas of significant activation for verbs compared to nouns, or vice versa. Pseudowords also engaged neural tissue overlapping with that for both word classes, with more widespread activation noted in visual, motor, and peri-sylvian regions. Examination of verbs by argument structure revealed activation of the supramarginal and angular gyri, limited to the left hemisphere only when verbs with two obligatory arguments were compared to verbs with a single argument. However, bilateral activation was noted when both two- and three-argument verbs were compared to one-argument verbs. These findings suggest that posterior peri-sylvian regions are engaged for processing argument structure information associated with verbs, with increasing neural tissue in the inferior parietal region associated with increasing argument structure complexity. These findings are consistent with processing accounts, which suggest that these regions are crucial for semantic integration. PMID:17958479
Lexical Resources and Their Application.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gellerstam, Martin

This paper discusses computer-based resources for lexical data and their uses. First, the kinds of lexical data available are described, including those related to form (spelling, pronunciation, inflection, word class), meaning (definition/equivalent, synonyms/antonyms/hyperonyms, thesaurus classification), context (grammatical collocations,…
Production of verbs related to body movement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's Disease (PD).

PubMed

Cousins, Katheryn A Q; Ash, Sharon; Grossman, Murray

2018-03-01

Theories of grounded cognition propose that action verb knowledge relies in part on motor processing regions, including premotor cortex. Accordingly, impaired action verb knowledge in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's Disease (PD) is thought to be due to motor system degeneration. Upper motor neuron disease in ALS degrades the motor cortex and related pyramidal motor system, while disease in PD is centered in the basal ganglia and can spread to frontostriatal areas that are important to language functioning. These anatomical distinctions in disease may yield subtle differences in the action verb impairment between patient groups. Here we compare verbs where the body is the agent of the action to verbs where the body is the theme. To examine the role of motor functioning in body verb production, we split patient groups into patients with high motor impairment (HMI) and those with low motor impairment (LMI), using disease-specific measures of motor impairment. Regression analyses assessed how verb production in ALS and PD was related to motor system atrophy. We find a dissociation between agent- and theme-body verbs in ALS: ALS HMI were impaired for agent body verbs but not theme verbs, compared to ALS LMI. This dissociation was not present in PD patients, who instead show depressed production for all body verbs. Although patients with cognitive impairment were excluded from this study, cognitive performance significantly correlated with the production of theme verbs in ALS and cognitive/stative verbs in PD. Finally, regression analyses related the agent-theme dissociation in ALS to grey matter atrophy of premotor cortex. These findings support the view that motor dysfunction and disease in premotor cortex contributes to the agent body verb deficit in ALS, and begin to identify some distinct characteristics of impairment for verbs in ALS and PD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Verb-Final Typology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogihara, Saeko

2010-01-01

This dissertation is a typological study of verb-final languages, the purpose of which is to examine various grammatical phenomena in verb-final languages to discover whether there are correlations between the final position of the verb and other aspects of grammar. It examines how finality of the verb interacts with argument coding in simple…
Semantic Weight and Verb Retrieval in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barde, Laura H. F.; Schwartz, Myrna F.; Boronat, Consuelo B.

2006-01-01

Individuals with agrammatic aphasia may have difficulty with verb production in comparison to nouns. Additionally, they may have greater difficulty producing verbs that have fewer semantic components (i.e., are semantically "light") compared to verbs that have greater semantic weight. A connectionist verb-production model proposed by Gordon and…
Lao Serial Verb Constructions and Their Event Representations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Douglas James

2016-01-01

This dissertation is an investigation of serial verb constructions in Lao (Tai-Kadai, SVO) and the events that they encode. Serial verb constructions (SVCs), structures where multiple verbs appear in a single clause, raise several important questions for syntactic theory. One issue is how the verbs are related; proposals involving coordination…
Does Variability Across Events Affect Verb Learning in English, Mandarin and Korean?

PubMed Central

Childers, Jane B.; Paik, Jae H.; Flores, Melissa; Lai, Gabrielle; Dolan, Megan

2016-01-01

Extending new verbs is important to becoming a productive speaker of a language. Prior results show children have difficulty extending verbs when they have seen events with varied agents. This paper further examines the impact of variability on verb learning, and asks whether this interacts with event complexity or differs by language. Children (aged 2 ½- to 3-years) in the U.S., China, Korea and Singapore learned verbs linked to simple and complex events. Sets of events included one or three agents, and children were asked to extend the verb at test. Children learning verbs linked to simple movements performed similarly across conditions. However, children learning verbs linked to events with multiple objects were less successful if those events were enacted by multiple agents. A follow-up study rules out an influence of event order. Overall, similar patterns of results emerged across languages, suggesting common cognitive processes support children’s verb learning. PMID:27457679
Applying Pedagogical Principles to Grammar Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kanda, Makiko; Beglar, David

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of two experimental methods of teaching the present progressive verb tense based on four instructional principles: teach form-function relations, compare similar grammatical forms, promote learner autonomy, and provide opportunities for generative use. Ninety-nine Japanese first-year…
Building words on actions: verb enactment and verb recognition in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Levi, Gabriel; Colonnello, Valentina; Giacchè, Roberta; Piredda, Maria Letizia; Sogos, Carla

2014-05-01

Recent studies have shown that language processing is grounded in actions. Multiple independent research findings indicate that children with specific language impairment (SLI) show subtle difficulties beyond the language domain. Uncertainties remain on possible association between body-mediated, non-linguistic expression of verbs and early manifestation of SLI during verb acquisition. The present study was conducted to determine whether verb production through non-linguistic modalities is impaired in children with SLI. Children with SLI (mean age 41 months) and typically developing children (mean age 40 months) were asked to recognize target verbs while viewing video clips showing the action associated with the verb (verb-recognition task) and to enact the action corresponding to the verb (verb-enacting task). Children with SLI performed more poorly than control children in both tasks. The present study demonstrates that early language impairment emerges at the bodily level. These findings are consistent with the embodied theories of cognition and underscore the role of action-based representations during language development. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Verb-based versus class-based accounts of actionality effects in children's comprehension of passives.

PubMed

Gordon, P; Chafetz, J

1990-09-01

Several studies have shown that children perform worse on tests of passive comprehension when the verb is non-actional than when it is actional. Most existing accounts focus on the semantic characteristics of the class of non-action verbs in explaining this difference. An alternative is a "verb-based" account in which passives are initially learned verb by verb, and children hear fewer non-actional passives in their language input. An analysis of the passives heard by Adam, Eve and Sarah (Brown, 1973) found more actional than non-actional passives, consistent with the verb-based account. In a second study, children tested for passive comprehension were re-tested a week later. The verb-based account predicts that children should show a consistent pattern of responses for individual verbs on test and re-test. Such consistency was found, with some inconsistency due to improvement over the re-test. Further analyses showed no effects of affectedness in explaining children's problems with passives. Finally, we discuss whether a mixed model containing both verb-based and class-based mechanisms is required to explain the actionality effects.

Tibetan-English Dictionary with Supplement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buck, Stuart H.

The format of this Tibetan-English dictionary includes the following: (1) after the Tibetan word or phrase, variant spellings are noted in parentheses; (2) irregular past, future, or imperative forms of the verb are also given in parentheses; (3) English definitions are separated into categories by semicolons; (4) verbal forms in English are…
Effects of acoustic manipulation on the real-time inflectional processing of children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Montgomery, James W; Leonard, Laurence B

2006-12-01

This study reports the findings of an investigation designed to examine the effects of acoustic enhancement on the processing of low-phonetic-substance inflections (e.g., 3rd-person singular -s, possessive -s) versus a high-phonetic-substance inflection (e.g., present progressive -ing) by children with specific language impairment (SLI) in a word recognition, reaction time (RT) processing task. The effects of acoustic enhancement on the processing of the same morphemes as well as an additional morpheme (comparative -er) were examined in an offline grammaticality judgment task. The grammatical function of 1 of the higher-phonetic-substance inflections, -ing, was presumed to be hypothesized relatively early by children; the function of the other, -er, was presumed to be hypothesized relatively late. Sixteen children with SLI (age(M) = 9 years;0 months) and 16 chronological age (CA; age(M) = 8;11) children participated. For both tasks, children listened to sentences containing the target morphemes as they were produced naturally (natural condition) or with acoustic enhancement (enhanced condition). On the RT task, the children with SLI demonstrated RT sensitivity only to the presence of the high-substance inflection, irrespective of whether it was produced naturally or with enhancement. Acoustic enhancement had no effect on these children's processing of low-substance inflections. The CA children, by contrast, showed sensitivity to low-substance inflections when they were produced naturally and with acoustic enhancement. These children also showed sensitivity to the high-substance inflection in the natural condition, but in the enhanced condition they demonstrated significantly slower RT. On the grammaticality judgment task, the children with SLI performed worse than the CA children overall and showed especially poor performance on low-substance inflections. Acoustic enhancement had a beneficial effect on the inflectional processing of the children with SLI, but it had no effect on CA children. The findings are interpreted to suggest that the reduced language processing capacity of children with SLI constrains their ability to process low-substance grammatical material in real time. This factor should be considered along with any difficulty that might be attributable to the grammatical function of the inflection.
Internal and external dynamics in language: evidence from verb regularity in a historical corpus of English.

PubMed

Cuskley, Christine F; Pugliese, Martina; Castellano, Claudio; Colaiori, Francesca; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca

2014-01-01

Human languages are rule governed, but almost invariably these rules have exceptions in the form of irregularities. Since rules in language are efficient and productive, the persistence of irregularity is an anomaly. How does irregularity linger in the face of internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) pressures to conform to a rule? Here we address this problem by taking a detailed look at simple past tense verbs in the Corpus of Historical American English. The data show that the language is open, with many new verbs entering. At the same time, existing verbs might tend to regularize or irregularize as a consequence of internal dynamics, but overall, the amount of irregularity sustained by the language stays roughly constant over time. Despite continuous vocabulary growth, and presumably, an attendant increase in expressive power, there is no corresponding growth in irregularity. We analyze the set of irregulars, showing they may adhere to a set of minority rules, allowing for increased stability of irregularity over time. These findings contribute to the debate on how language systems become rule governed, and how and why they sustain exceptions to rules, providing insight into the interplay between the emergence and maintenance of rules and exceptions in language.
Internal and External Dynamics in Language: Evidence from Verb Regularity in a Historical Corpus of English

PubMed Central

Cuskley, Christine F.; Pugliese, Martina; Castellano, Claudio; Colaiori, Francesca; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca

2014-01-01

Human languages are rule governed, but almost invariably these rules have exceptions in the form of irregularities. Since rules in language are efficient and productive, the persistence of irregularity is an anomaly. How does irregularity linger in the face of internal (endogenous) and external (exogenous) pressures to conform to a rule? Here we address this problem by taking a detailed look at simple past tense verbs in the Corpus of Historical American English. The data show that the language is open, with many new verbs entering. At the same time, existing verbs might tend to regularize or irregularize as a consequence of internal dynamics, but overall, the amount of irregularity sustained by the language stays roughly constant over time. Despite continuous vocabulary growth, and presumably, an attendant increase in expressive power, there is no corresponding growth in irregularity. We analyze the set of irregulars, showing they may adhere to a set of minority rules, allowing for increased stability of irregularity over time. These findings contribute to the debate on how language systems become rule governed, and how and why they sustain exceptions to rules, providing insight into the interplay between the emergence and maintenance of rules and exceptions in language. PMID:25084006
Do Early Noun and Verb Production Predict Later Verb and Noun Production? Theoretical Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longobardi, Emiddia; Spataro, Pietro; Putnick, Diane L.; Bornstein, Marc H.

2017-01-01

Many studies have addressed the question of the relative dominance of nouns over verbs in the productive vocabularies of children in the second year of life. Surprisingly, cross-class (noun-to-verb and verb-to-noun) relations between these two lexical categories have seldom been investigated. The present longitudinal study employed observational…
A STUDY IN THE ANALYSIS OF THE HINDI VERB.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BAHL, KALI C.

A CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE OF HINDI WAS FORMULATED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE PHENOMENA OF COMPOUND AND CONJUNCT VERBS IN THE LANGUAGE. THE TRADITIONAL CLASS OF CONJUNCT VERBS OR THE COMPOUND VERBS, CONSISTING OF NOUN OR ADJECTIVE PLUS VERB, WAS REINTERPRETED IN THIS ANALYSIS. THE FOUR SECTIONS OF THE TEXT DEALT WITH (1) THE SUBJECT-PREDICATE KERNEL…
Verb Argument Structure in Children with SLI: Evidence from Eye-Tracking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreu, Llorenc

2011-01-01

Despite the problems found in relation to verbs, to date there have been few studies on the online processing of verb argument structure in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This work explores the role of verb semantics and specifically verb argument structure in language comprehension and language production. To carry out the…
Ya33 ‘give’ as a valency increaser in Jinghpo nuclear serialization: from benefactive to malefactive

PubMed Central

Peng, Guozhen; Chappell, Hilary

2013-01-01

This paper analyzes serial verb constructions in Jinghpo formed by ya33 ‘give’, arguing that it has the function of a valency–increasing device in nuclear serialization: the use of ya33 allows the licensing of an additional beneficiary argument as a core argument to the lexical verb. In a new twist, however, on the evolution of give verbs, we demonstrate that the benefactive usage is extended to malefactive semantics in a distinct, derived structure, conditioned via the expression of possession, a type of malefactive that is not well-documented in current literature on this domain. Furthermore, the existence of two distinct constructions for the benefactive and the malefactive in Jinghpo conforms to Radetzky & Smith’s claim (2010: 116) that this is an areal feature comprising the Indian subcontinent, Southeast and East Asia, and thus contrasts strongly with the conflation of both types of construction in many European languages. Finally, we propose that the nuclear type of serialization, integral to the typological profile of Jinghpo, a SOV language, is a determining factor in the reanalysis of ya33. This feature is subsequently invoked to explain why the malefactive usage of ya33 constitutes a separate development from the well-attested pathway for give verbs leading to permissive causative verbs and adversative passive markers, which, while blocked in Jinghpo, is commonly found in many other East and Southeast Asian languages with core serialization. The present analysis is based on the variety of Jinghpo spoken in Luxi county, Yunnan province, China, using in the main natural discourse data collected in the field. PMID:24159251
Distributional structure in language: Contributions to noun–verb difficulty differences in infant word recognition

PubMed Central

Willits, Jon A.; Seidenberg, Mark S.; Saffran, Jenny R.

2014-01-01

What makes some words easy for infants to recognize, and other words difficult? We addressed this issue in the context of prior results suggesting that infants have difficulty recognizing verbs relative to nouns. In this work, we highlight the role played by the distributional contexts in which nouns and verbs occur. Distributional statistics predict that English nouns should generally be easier to recognize than verbs in fluent speech. However, there are situations in which distributional statistics provide similar support for verbs. The statistics for verbs that occur with the English morpheme –ing, for example, should facilitate verb recognition. In two experiments with 7.5- and 9.5-month-old infants, we tested the importance of distributional statistics for word recognition by varying the frequency of the contextual frames in which verbs occur. The results support the conclusion that distributional statistics are utilized by infant language learners and contribute to noun–verb differences in word recognition. PMID:24908342
Effect of verb argument structure on picture naming in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI)

PubMed Central

Andreu, Llorenç; Sanz-Torrent, Mònica; Legaz, Lucia Buil; MacWhinney, Brian

2014-01-01

Background This study investigated verb argument structure effects in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Aims A picture-naming paradigm was used to compare the response times and naming accuracy for nouns and verbs with differing argument structure between Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment. Methods & Procedures Twenty-four children with SLI (ages 5;3–8;2 [years;months]), 24 age-matched controls (ages 5;3–8;2), 24 MLU-w controls (ages 3;3–7;1 years), and 31 adults participated in a picture-naming study. Outcomes & Results The results show all groups produced more correct responses and were faster for nouns than all verbs together. As regards verb type accuracy, there were no differences between groups in naming one-argument verbs. However, for both two- and three-argument verbs, children with SLI were less accurate than adults and age-matched controls, but similar to the MLU-matched controls. For verb type latency, children with SLI were slower than both the age-matched controls and adults for one- and two-argument verbs, while no differences were found in three-argument verbs. No differences were found between children with SLI and MLU-matched controls for any verb type. Conclusions & Implications It has been shown that the naming of verbs is delayed in Spanish children with SLI. It is suggested that children with SLI may have problems encoding semantic representations. PMID:23121524
Career inflection points of women who successfully achieved the hospital CEO position.

PubMed

Sexton, Donald W; Lemak, Christy Harris; Wainio, Joyce Anne

2014-01-01

Women are significantly underrepresented in hospital CEO positions, and this gender disparity has changed little over the past few decades. The purpose of this study was to analyze the career trajectories of successful female healthcare executives to determine factors that generated inflections in their careers. Using qualitative research methodology, we studied the career trajectories of 20 women who successfully ascended into a hospital CEO position. Our findings revealed 25 inflection points related to education and training, experience, career management, family, networking, and mentorship and sponsorship. We found substantial differences in the career inflection points by functional background. Inflections were more pronounced early in the careers of women in healthcare management, while clinical and administrative support executives experienced more inflections later as they took on responsibilities outside of their professional roles. Only two inflections were common among all the executives: completing a graduate degree and obtaining experience as a chief operating officer. More importantly, our findings show that organizational support factors are critical for the career advancement of women. We conclude with recommendations for individuals in an effort to enhance their career trajectories. We also provide recommended activities for organizations to support the careers of women in healthcare leadership.
Foreign Language Teaching and the Computer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garrett, Nina; Hart, Robert S.

1988-01-01

A review of the APPLE MACINTOSH-compatible software "Conjugate! Spanish," intended to drill Spanish verb forms, points out its strengths (error feedback, user manual, user interface, and feature control) and its weaknesses (pedagogical approach). (CB)
Performance of children with typical development when reading and interpreting graphic-symbol sequences.

PubMed

Boyer, Catherine; Trudeau, Natacha; Sutton, Ann

2012-06-01

In order to understand a sequence of graphic symbols as sentences, one must not only recognize the meaning of individual symbols but also integrate their meaning together. In this study children without disabilities were asked to perform two tasks that presented sequences of graphics as stimuli but that differed in the need to treat the symbols as a sentence (i.e., with evidence of relationships among the individual symbols): a "reading" task (transpose the symbol sequence into speech), and an act-out task (demonstrate the meaning of the symbol sequences using puppets). The participants, aged 3 (n=18), 4 (n=36), 5 (n=27), and 6 (n=23) years, all succeeded on the reading task, but the younger groups were much less successful than the older groups on the act-out task. The children were more likely to pass the act-out task if they used conjugated rather than infinitive verb forms in their spoken responses on the reading task. In the younger age groups, children who used conjugated verb forms had higher receptive vocabulary scores. The findings suggest that being able to reproduce a sequence of symbols does not guarantee that the symbols are treated as a sentence. The inclusion in the study of children who were able to respond using speech, permitted observation of two types of responses (conjugated versus infinitive verb forms) that revealed different levels of understanding of graphic symbol sequences.
Systematic Asymmetries in Perception and Production of L2 Inflections in Mandarin L2 Learners of English: The Effects of Phonotactics, Salience, and Processing Pressure on Inflectional Variability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonner, Timothy E.

2013-01-01

The study of language production by adults who are learning a second language (L2) has received a good deal of attention especially when it comes to omission of inflectional morphemes within L2 utterances. Several explanations have been proposed for these inflectional errors. One explanation is that the L2 learner simply does not have the L2…
Acquiring and processing verb argument structure: distributional learning in a miniature language.

PubMed

Wonnacott, Elizabeth; Newport, Elissa L; Tanenhaus, Michael K

2008-05-01

Adult knowledge of a language involves correctly balancing lexically-based and more language-general patterns. For example, verb argument structures may sometimes readily generalize to new verbs, yet with particular verbs may resist generalization. From the perspective of acquisition, this creates significant learnability problems, with some researchers claiming a crucial role for verb semantics in the determination of when generalization may and may not occur. Similarly, there has been debate regarding how verb-specific and more generalized constraints interact in sentence processing and on the role of semantics in this process. The current work explores these issues using artificial language learning. In three experiments using languages without semantic cues to verb distribution, we demonstrate that learners can acquire both verb-specific and verb-general patterns, based on distributional information in the linguistic input regarding each of the verbs as well as across the language as a whole. As with natural languages, these factors are shown to affect production, judgments and real-time processing. We demonstrate that learners apply a rational procedure in determining their usage of these different input statistics and conclude by suggesting that a Bayesian perspective on statistical learning may be an appropriate framework for capturing our findings.
Automatic Lemmatization in Serbo-Croatian.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spraycar, Rudy S.

1980-01-01

Discusses problems of lemmatization encountered by lexicographers and concordance-makers with highly inflected languages such as Serbo-Croatian and recommends the use of the computer in classifying individual works by dictionary-entry form. Suggests that computerized stylistic scanning of large literary databases is necessary to test the…
Subliminal enhancement of predictive effects during syntactic processing in the left inferior frontal gyrus: an MEG study.

PubMed

Iijima, Kazuki; Sakai, Kuniyoshi L

2014-01-01

Predictive syntactic processing plays an essential role in language comprehension. In our previous study using Japanese object-verb (OV) sentences, we showed that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) responses to a verb increased at 120-140 ms after the verb onset, indicating predictive effects caused by a preceding object. To further elucidate the automaticity of the predictive effects in the present magnetoencephalography study, we examined whether a subliminally presented verb ("subliminal verb") enhanced the predictive effects on the sentence-final verb ("target verb") unconsciously, i.e., without awareness. By presenting a subliminal verb after the object, enhanced predictive effects on the target verb would be detected in the OV sentences when the transitivity of the target verb matched with that of the subliminal verb ("congruent condition"), because the subliminal verb just after the object could determine the grammaticality of the sentence. For the OV sentences under the congruent condition, we observed significantly increased left IFG responses at 140-160 ms after the target verb onset. In contrast, responses in the precuneus and midcingulate cortex (MCC) were significantly reduced for the OV sentences under the congruent condition at 110-140 and 280-300 ms, respectively. By using partial Granger causality analyses for the OV sentences under the congruent condition, we revealed a bidirectional interaction between the left IFG and MCC at 60-160 ms, as well as a significant influence from the MCC to the precuneus. These results indicate that a top-down influence from the left IFG to the MCC, and then to the precuneus, is critical in syntactic decisions, whereas the MCC shares its task-set information with the left IFG to achieve automatic and predictive processes of syntax.
A Common Mechanism in Verb and Noun Naming Deficits in Alzheimer’s Patients

PubMed Central

Almor, Amit; Aronoff, Justin M.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.; Gonnerman, Laura M.; Kempler, Daniel; Hintiryan, Houri; Hayes, UnJa L.; Arunachalam, Sudha; Andersen, Elaine S.

2009-01-01

We tested the ability of Alzheimer’s patients and elderly controls to name living and non-living nouns, and manner and instrument verbs. Patient’s error patterns and relative performance with different categories showed evidence of graceful degradation for both nouns and verbs, with particular domain specific impairments for living nouns and instrument verbs. Our results support feature-based, semantic representations for nouns and verbs and support the role of inter-correlated features in noun impairment, and the role of noun knowledge in instrument verb impairment. PMID:19699513
Rhyme and Word Placement in Storybooks Support High-Level Verb Mapping in 3- to 5-Year-Olds

PubMed Central

Read, Kirsten; Quirke, Jacqueline

2018-01-01

High-level verbs can be especially challenging for young children to initially map to meaning. This study manipulated the format of a storybook designed to support such verb learning from shared reading. We tested whether 3- to 5-year-olds (n = 38) could remember the referents of eight new verbs when presented as essential actions within a narrative story but with differences in placement. Children were randomly assigned to either a rhymed condition, in which target verbs were heard at the end of rhyming stanzas making them maximally appreciable, or a control condition, where the verbs were presented in the same story, but not in final position or within a rhymed stanza. After hearing the story, each child was given three sets of retention questions testing their identification, demonstration, and production of the target verbs. Children identified and successfully demonstrated more target verbs in the rhymed condition than the control condition, and only in the rhymed condition did children’s initial verb mappings exceed chance. No differences between conditions were found in children’s ability to produce the target verbs, in part because of how often they reverted to more generic terms to describe the actions in the story. Nonetheless, these findings support the hypothesis that giving children maximal support within a storybook reading context can facilitate an initial grasp on challenging verbs.
The Head in "Wo Pao De Kuai."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dai, John Xiang-Ling.

1992-01-01

Analysis of six cross-linguistic properties characterizing the head verb in the resultative construction in Chinese shows that the first verb, and not the second verb, should be analyzed as the head verb. (15 references) (Author/CB)

The effect of morphological complexity on verbal working memory: results from Arabic speaking children.

PubMed

Cohen-Mimran, Ravit; Adwan-Mansour, Jasmeen; Sapir, Shimon

2013-06-01

To examine the role of morphology in verbal working memory. Forty nine children, all native speakers of Arabic from the same region and of the same dialect, performed a Listening Word Span Task, whereby they had to recall Arabic uninflected words (i.e., base words), inflected words with regular (possessive) morphology, or inflected words with irregular (broken plural) morphology. Each of these words was at the end of a sentence (henceforth, target word). The participant's task was to listen to a series of sentences and then recall the target words. Recall of inflected words was significantly poorer than uninflected words, and recall of words with regular morphology was significantly poorer than recall of words with irregular morphology. These findings, albeit preliminary, suggest a role of morphology in verbal working memory. They also suggest that, at least in Arabic, regular morphological forms are decomposed into their component elements and hence impose an extra load on the central executive and episodic buffer components of working memory. Furthermore, in concert with findings from other studies, they suggest that the effect of morphology on working memory is probably language-specific. The clinical implications of the present findings are addressed.
Why Are Verbs so Hard to Remember? Effects of Semantic Context on Memory for Verbs and Nouns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Earles, Julie L.; Kersten, Alan W.

2017-01-01

Three experiments test the theory that verb meanings are more malleable than noun meanings in different semantic contexts, making a previously seen verb difficult to remember when it appears in a new semantic context. Experiment 1 revealed that changing the direct object noun in a transitive sentence reduced recognition of a previously seen verb,…
Neural Correlates of Lexicon and Grammar: Evidence from the Production, Reading, and Judgment of Inflection in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ullman, M.T.; Pancheva, R.; Love, T.; Yee, E.; Swinney, D.; Hickok, G.

2005-01-01

Are the linguistic forms that are memorized in the mental lexicon and those that are specified by the rules of grammar subserved by distinct neurocognitive systems or by a single computational system with relatively broad anatomic distribution? On a dual-system view, the productive -ed-suffixation of English regular past tense forms (e.g.,…
Implicit causality bias in English: a corpus of 300 verbs.

PubMed

Ferstl, Evelyn C; Garnham, Alan; Manouilidou, Christina

2011-03-01

This study provides implicit verb causality norms for a corpus of 305 English verbs. A web-based sentence completion study was conducted, with 96 respondents completing fragments such as "John liked Mary because..." The resulting bias scores are provided as supplementary material in the Psychonomic Society Archive, where we also present lexical and semantic verb features, such as the frequency, semantic class and emotional valence. Our results replicate those of previous studies with much smaller numbers of verbs and respondents. Novel effects of gender and its interaction with verb valence illustrate the type of issues that can be investigated using stable norms for a large number of verbs. The corpus will facilitate future studies in a range of areas, including psycholinguistics and social psychology.
Live Action: Can Young Children Learn Verbs From Video?

PubMed Central

Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Parish-Morris, Julia; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick

2009-01-01

The availability of educational programming aimed at infants and toddlers is increasing, yet the effect of video on language acquisition remains unclear. Three studies of 96 children aged 30–42 months investigated their ability to learn verbs from video. Study 1 asked whether children could learn verbs from video when supported by live social interaction. Study 2 tested whether children could learn verbs from video alone. Study 3 clarified whether the benefits of social interaction remained when the experimenter was shown on a video screen rather than in person. Results suggest that younger children only learn verbs from video with live social interaction while older children can learn verbs from video alone. Implications for verb learning and educational media are discussed. PMID:19765005
Live action: can young children learn verbs from video?

PubMed

Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Parish-Morris, Julia; Golinkoff, Roberta M

2009-01-01

The availability of educational programming aimed at infants and toddlers is increasing, yet the effect of video on language acquisition remains unclear. Three studies of 96 children aged 30-42 months investigated their ability to learn verbs from video. Study 1 asked whether children could learn verbs from video when supported by live social interaction. Study 2 tested whether children could learn verbs from video alone. Study 3 clarified whether the benefits of social interaction remained when the experimenter was shown on a video screen rather than in person. Results suggest that younger children only learn verbs from video with live social interaction whereas older children can learn verbs from video alone. Implications for verb learning and educational media are discussed.
Enjoying vs. smiling: Facial muscular activation in response to emotional language.

PubMed

Fino, Edita; Menegatti, Michela; Avenanti, Alessio; Rubini, Monica

2016-07-01

The present study examined whether emotionally congruent facial muscular activation - a somatic index of emotional language embodiment can be elicited by reading subject-verb sentences composed of action verbs, that refer directly to facial expressions (e.g., Mario smiles), but also by reading more abstract state verbs, which provide more direct access to the emotions felt by the agent (e.g., Mario enjoys). To address this issue, we measured facial electromyography (EMG) while participants evaluated state and action verb sentences. We found emotional sentences including both verb categories to have valence-congruent effects on emotional ratings and corresponding facial muscle activations. As expected, state verb-sentences were judged with higher valence ratings than action verb-sentences. Moreover, despite emotional congruent facial activations were similar for the two linguistic categories, in a late temporal window we found a tendency for greater EMG modulation when reading action relative to state verb sentences. These results support embodied theories of language comprehension and suggest that understanding emotional action and state verb sentences relies on partially dissociable motor and emotional processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Processing Flexible Form-to-Meaning Mappings: Evidence for Enriched Composition as Opposed to Indeterminacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roehm, Dietmar; Sorace, Antonella; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina

2013-01-01

Sometimes, the relationship between form and meaning in language is not one-to-one. Here, we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to illuminate the neural correlates of such flexible syntax-semantics mappings during sentence comprehension by examining split-intransitivity. While some ("rigid") verbs consistently select one…
Defense Science Board 2006 Summer Study on 21st Century Strategic Technology Vectors. Volume 1: Main Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-02-01

understand forms to military personnel and monolingual English-speaking analysts in response to direct or implicit requests. Human, Social, Cultural, and... dictionary defines “disruptive” as the adjective form of the verb disrupts, which means to interrupt, separate forcefully, or shatter. In application to
Response to "The Availability of Conscious Knowledge: A Comment on Lindseth (2016)"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindseth, Martina

2016-01-01

My study (Lindseth, "The Effects of Form-Focused Instruction on the Acquisition of Subject-Verb Inversion in German") that was published in the Volume 49, No. 1 issue of "Foreign Language Annals" suggested that form-focused instruction that targets a specific structure may help learners progress faster toward accurate use of…
Effects of relative embodiment in lexical and semantic processing of verbs.

PubMed

Sidhu, David M; Kwan, Rachel; Pexman, Penny M; Siakaluk, Paul D

2014-06-01

Research examining semantic richness effects in visual word recognition has shown that multiple dimensions of meaning are activated in the process of word recognition (e.g., Yap et al., 2012). This research has, however, been limited to nouns. In the present research we extended the semantic richness approach to verb stimuli in order to investigate how verb meanings are represented. We characterized a dimension of relative embodiment for verbs, based on the bodily sense described by Borghi and Cimatti (2010), and collected ratings on that dimension for 687 English verbs. The relative embodiment ratings revealed that bodily experience was judged to be more important to the meanings of some verbs (e.g., dance, breathe) than to others (e.g., evaporate, expect). We then tested the effects of relative embodiment and imageability on verb processing in lexical decision (Experiment 1), action picture naming (Experiment 2), and syntactic classification (Experiment 3). In all three experiments results showed facilitatory effects of relative embodiment, but not imageability: latencies were faster for relatively more embodied verbs, even after several other lexical variables were controlled. The results suggest that relative embodiment is an important aspect of verb meaning, and that the semantic richness approach holds promise as a strategy for investigating other aspects of verb meaning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Beyond Picture Naming: Norms and Patient Data for a Verb Generation Task**

PubMed Central

Kurland, Jacquie; Reber, Alisson; Stokes, Polly

2014-01-01

Purpose The current study aimed to: 1) acquire a set of verb generation to picture norms; and 2) probe its utility as an outcomes measure in aphasia treatment. Method Fifty healthy volunteers participated in Phase I, the verb generation normative sample. They generated verbs for 218 pictures of common objects (ISI=5s). In Phase II, four persons with aphasia (PWA) generated verbs for 60 objects (ISI=10s). Their stimuli consisted of objects which were: 1) recently trained (for object naming; n=20); 2) untrained (a control set; n=20); or 3) from a set of pictures named correctly at baseline (n=20). Verb generation was acquired twice: two months into, and following, a six-month home practice program. Results No objects elicited perfect verb agreement in the normed sample. Stimuli with the highest percent agreement were mostly artifacts and dominant verbs primary functional associates. Although not targeted in treatment or home practice, PWA mostly improved performance in verb generation post-practice. Conclusions A set of clinically and experimentally useful verb generation norms was acquired for a subset of the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) picture set. More cognitively demanding than confrontation naming, this task may help to fill the sizeable gap between object picture naming and propositional speech. PMID:24686752
Computer aided lexicography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sklenář, Ivan; Kříž, Václav

1990-11-01

Programs with a natural-language user interface and text-processing programs require a vocabulary providing the mapping of the individual word form onto a lexeme, e.g. "says", "said", "saying"→"see". Examples of such programs are indexing programs for information retrieval, and spelling correctors for text-processing systems. The lexicographical task of such a computer vocabulary is especially difficult for Slavic languages, because their morphological structure is complex. An average Czech verb, for example, has 25 forms, and we have identified more than 100 paradigms for verbs. In order to support the creation of a Czech vocabulary, we have designed a system of programs for paradigm identification and derivation of words. The result of our effort is a vocabulary comprising 110 000 words and 1250 000 word forms. This vocabulary was used for the PASSAT system in the Czechoslovak Press Agency. This vocabulary may also be used in a spelling corrector. However, for such an application the vocabulary must be compressed into a compact form in order to shorten the access times. Compression is based on the paradigmatic structure of morphology which defines suffix sets for each word.
Processing of Inflected Nouns in Late Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Portin, Marja; Lehtonen, Minna; Laine, Matti

2007-01-01

This study investigated the recognition of Swedish inflected nouns in two participant groups. Both groups were Finnish-speaking late learners of Swedish, but the groups differed in regard to their Swedish language proficiency. In a visual lexical decision task, inflected Swedish nouns from three frequency ranges were contrasted with corresponding…
Using the Inflection Points and Rates of Growth and Decay to Predict Levels of Solar Activity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Robert M.; Hathaway, David H.

2008-01-01

The ascending and descending inflection points and rates of growth and decay at specific times during the sunspot cycle are examined as predictors for future activity. On average, the ascending inflection point occurs about 1-2 yr after sunspot minimum amplitude (Rm) and the descending inflection point occurs about 6-7 yr after Rm. The ascending inflection point and the inferred slope (including the 12-mo moving average (12-mma) of (Delta)R (the month-to-month change in the smoothed monthly mean sunspot number (R)) at the ascending inflection point provide strong indications as to the expected size of the ongoing cycle s sunspot maximum amplitude (RM), while the descending inflection point appears to provide an indication as to the expected length of the ongoing cycle. The value of the 12-mma of (Delta)R at elapsed time T = 27 mo past the epoch of RM (E(RM)) seems to provide a strong indication as to the expected size of Rm for the following cycle. The expected Rm for cycle 24 is 7.6 +/- 4.4 (the 90-percent prediction interval), occurring before September 2008. Evidence is also presented for secular rises in selected cycle-related parameters and for preferential grouping of sunspot cycles by amplitude and/or period.
Inflectional instabilities in the wall region of bounded turbulent shear flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swearingen, Jerry D.; Blackwelder, Ron F.; Spalart, Philippe R.

1987-01-01

The primary thrust of this research was to identify one or more mechanisms responsible for strong turbulence production events in the wall region of bounded turbulent shear flows. Based upon previous work in a transitional boundary layer, it seemed highly probable that the production events were preceded by an inflectional velocity profile which formed on the interface between the low-speed streak and the surrounding fluid. In bounded transitional flows, this unstable profile developed velocity fluctuations in the streamwise direction and in the direction perpendicular to the sheared surface. The rapid growth of these instabilities leads to a breakdown and production of turbulence. Since bounded turbulent flows have many of the same characteristics, they may also experience a similar type of breakdown and turbulence production mechanism.
Multiunit Sequences in First Language Acquisition.

PubMed

Theakston, Anna; Lieven, Elena

2017-07-01

Theoretical and empirical reasons suggest that children build their language not only out of individual words but also out of multiunit strings. These are the basis for the development of schemas containing slots. The slots are putative categories that build in abstraction while the schemas eventually connect to other schemas in terms of both meaning and form. Evidence comes from the nature of the input, the ways in which children construct novel utterances, the systematic errors that children make, and the computational modeling of children's grammars. However, much of this research is on English, which is unusual in its rigid word order and impoverished inflectional morphology. We summarize these results and explore their implications for languages with more flexible word order and/or much richer inflectional morphology. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.
Verb-raising and Numeral Classifiers in Japanese: Incompatible Bedfellows.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fukushima, Kazuhiko

2003-01-01

Examines verb raising in Japanese and looks at Koizumi's (2000) evidence for verb-raising based on data involving, among other things, numeral classifiers. Demonstrates that Koizumi's evidence based on numeral classifiers does not support his claim that verb-raising occurs in Japanese. (Author/VWL)
Left-right compatibility in the processing of trading verbs.

PubMed

Vicario, Carmelo M; Rumiati, Raffaella I

2014-01-01

The research investigating the nature of cognitive processes involved in the representation of economical outcomes is growing. Within this research, the mental accounting model proposes that individuals may well use cognitive operations to organize, evaluate, and keep track of their financial activities (Thaler, 1999). Here we wanted to test this hypothesis by asking to a group of participants to detect a syntax mistake of verbs indicating incoming and going out activities related to economical profit (trading verbs), swapping (swapping verbs) and thinking (thinking verbs). We reported a left-right compatibility for trading verbs (i.e., participants were faster with their right hand while detecting verb referring to a monetary gain with respect to a monetary loss; and faster with their left hand while detecting a monetary loss with respect to a monetary gain). However, this pattern of result was not reported while detecting swapping verbs. Results are discussed taking into account the mental accounting theory as well as to the spatial mapping of valence hypothesis.
A Class of Clowns: Spontaneous Joking in Computer-Assisted Discussions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holcomb, Christopher

1997-01-01

Finds that joking in computer-mediated communication constitutes a hybrid form of discourse, mingling the conventions of print and speech. Notes that students use typography and space to better capture the rhythms and inflections of oral joking, but such joking instantly organizes participants into hierarchically differentiated groups, creating…

Effects of Verb Familiarity on Finiteness Marking in Children With Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Rice, Mabel L.; Bontempo, Daniel E.

2015-01-01

Purpose Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have known deficits in the verb lexicon and finiteness marking. This study investigated a potential relationship between these 2 variables in children with SLI and 2 control groups considering predictions from 2 different theoretical perspectives, morphosyntactic versus morphophonological. Method Children with SLI, age-equivalent, and language-equivalent (LE) control children (n = 59) completed an experimental sentence imitation task that generated estimates of children's finiteness accuracy under 2 levels of verb familiarity—familiar real verbs versus unfamiliar real verbs—in clausal sites marked for finiteness. Imitations were coded and analyzed for overall accuracy as well as finiteness marking and verb root imitation accuracy. Results Statistical comparisons revealed that children with SLI did not differ from LE children and were less accurate than age-equivalent children on all dependent variables: overall imitation, finiteness marking imitation, and verb root imitation accuracy. A significant Group × Condition interaction for finiteness marking revealed lower levels of accuracy on unfamiliar verbs for the SLI and LE groups only. Conclusions Findings indicate a relationship between verb familiarity and finiteness marking in children with SLI and younger controls and help clarify the roles of morphosyntax, verb lexicon, and morphophonology. PMID:25611349
Unaccusative Mismatches in Japanese.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsujimura, Natsuko

Two instances of unaccusative verb mismatches in Japanese are examined. An unaccusative mismatch is the situation in which a different accusative diagnostic singles out different classes of intransitive verbs within and across languages. One type of unaccusative mismatch has to do with group C verbs, or verbs of manner with protagonist control.…
The Crucial Role of Tense for Verb Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Druks, J.; Carroll, E.

2005-01-01

The case of an aphasic patient whose spontaneous speech contains very few lexical verbs is reported. Instead of sentences with lexical verbs, the patient produces many (grammatical) copular constructions. He also substitutes lexical verbs with the copula. Although this results in ungrammatical utterances, by doing so, a resemblance of sentence…
Reciprocal Pronouns Binding within Psych-Verb Constructions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epoge, Napoleon

2015-01-01

This paper aims at giving an analysis of certain syntactic peculiarities of reciprocal pronouns within verbs of psychological state, commonly known as psych-verbs. The analysis reveal that psych-verbs constructions have a peculiar property in that the binding conditions of reciprocal pronouns are satisfied in Experiencer-Subject (ES) psychverbs…
Awareness of Verb Subcategorization Probabilities with Polysemous Verbs: The Second Language Situation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uckun, Berrin

2012-01-01

Different meanings of a verb are associated with different argument structures (subcategorization), which in this study are sentential complements (SC) and direct object (DO) arguments. Interaction between verbal meaning and argument structure is investigated at the production level using polysemous verbs in the absence (Norming Experiment) and…
Impaired Verb Fluency: A Sign of Mild Cognitive Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostberg, Per; Fernaeus, Sven-Erik; Hellstrom, Ake; Bogdanovic, Nenad; Wahlund, Lars Olof

2005-01-01

We assessed verb fluency vs. noun and letter-based fluency in 199 subjects referred for cognitive complaints including Subjective Cognitive Impairment, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. ANCOVAs and factor analyses identified verb, noun, and letter-based fluency as distinct tasks. Verb fluency performance in Mild Cognitive…
Acquiring and Processing Verb Argument Structure: Distributional Learning in a Miniature Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wonnacott, Elizabeth; Newport, Elissa L.; Tanenhaus, Michael K.

2008-01-01

Adult knowledge of a language involves correctly balancing lexically-based and more language-general patterns. For example, verb argument structures may sometimes readily generalize to new verbs, yet with particular verbs may resist generalization. From the perspective of acquisition, this creates significant learnability problems, with some…
Seeing for speaking: Semantic and lexical information provided by briefly presented, naturalistic action scenes

PubMed Central

Bölte, Jens; Hofmann, Reinhild; Meier, Claudine C.; Dobel, Christian

2018-01-01

At the interface between scene perception and speech production, we investigated how rapidly action scenes can activate semantic and lexical information. Experiment 1 examined how complex action-scene primes, presented for 150 ms, 100 ms, or 50 ms and subsequently masked, influenced the speed with which immediately following action-picture targets are named. Prime and target actions were either identical, showed the same action with different actors and environments, or were unrelated. Relative to unrelated primes, identical and same-action primes facilitated naming the target action, even when presented for 50 ms. In Experiment 2, neutral primes assessed the direction of effects. Identical and same-action scenes induced facilitation but unrelated actions induced interference. In Experiment 3, written verbs were used as targets for naming, preceded by action primes. When target verbs denoted the prime action, clear facilitation was obtained. In contrast, interference was observed when target verbs were phonologically similar, but otherwise unrelated, to the names of prime actions. This is clear evidence for word-form activation by masked action scenes. Masked action pictures thus provide conceptual information that is detailed enough to facilitate apprehension and naming of immediately following scenes. Masked actions even activate their word-form information–as is evident when targets are words. We thus show how language production can be primed with briefly flashed masked action scenes, in answer to long-standing questions in scene processing. PMID:29652939
Imageability and semantic association in the representation and processing of event verbs.

PubMed

Xu, Xu; Kang, Chunyan; Guo, Taomei

2016-05-01

This study examined the relative salience of imageability (the degree to which a word evokes mental imagery) versus semantic association (the density of semantic network in which a word is embedded) in the representation and processing of four types of event verbs: sensory, cognitive, speech, and motor verbs. ERP responses were recorded, while 34 university students performed on a lexical decision task. Analysis focused primarily on amplitude differences across verb conditions within the N400 time window where activities are considered representing meaning activation. Variation in N400 amplitude across four types of verbs was found significantly associated with the level of imageability, but not the level of semantic association. The findings suggest imageability as a more salient factor relative to semantic association in the processing of these verbs. The role of semantic association and the representation of speech verbs are also discussed.
Processing Intransitive Verbs: How Do Children Differ from Adults?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koring, Loes; Mak, Pim; Mulders, Iris; Reuland, Eric

2018-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that, for adults, differences between unaccusative verbs (e.g., "fall") and unergative verbs (e.g., "dance") lead to a difference in processing. However, so far we don't know whether this effect shows up in children's processing of these verbs as well. This study measures children's processing…
Verb Aspect and the Activation of Event Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferretti, Todd R.; Kutas, Marta; McRae, Ken

2007-01-01

The authors show that verb aspect influences the activation of event knowledge with 4 novel results. First, common locations of events (e.g., arena) are primed following verbs with imperfective aspect (e.g., was skating) but not verbs with perfect aspect (e.g., had skated). Second, people generate more locative prepositional phrases as…
Predictors of Verb-Mediated Anticipatory Eye Movements in the Visual World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hintz, Florian; Meyer, Antje S.; Huettig, Falk

2017-01-01

Many studies have demonstrated that listeners use information extracted from verbs to guide anticipatory eye movements to objects in the visual context that satisfy the selection restrictions of the verb. An important question is what underlies such verb-mediated anticipatory eye gaze. Based on empirical and theoretical suggestions, we…
English Verb Accuracy of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

2017-01-01

Purpose: Knowledge of verb development in typically developing bilingual preschoolers may inform clinicians about verb accuracy rates during the 1st 2 years of English instruction. This study aimed to investigate tensed verb accuracy in 2 assessment contexts in 4- and 5-year-old Cantonese-English bilingual preschoolers. Method: The sample included…
Rules and Construction Effects in Learning the Argument Structure of Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demuth, Katherine; Machobane, 'Malillo; Moloi, Francina

2003-01-01

Theorists of language acquisition have long debated the means by which children learn the argument structure of verbs (e.g. Bowerman, 1974, 1990; Pinker, 1984, 1989; Tomasello, 1992). Central to this controversy has been the possible role of verb semantics, especially in learning which verbs undergo dative-shift alternation in languages like…
Chinese Learners' Acquisition of English Verbs: A Corpus-Driven Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Linxiao; Jo, Hie-myung

2012-01-01

Limited research has investigated advanced language learners' acquisition of English verbs. The current study examines and compares the acquisition pattern of English verbs among Chinese second language (L2) learners at both intermediate and advanced levels to answer the following questions: (1) Do L2 learners acquire regular verbs and irregular…
Lexical Analysis of the Verb "COOK" and Learning Vocabulary: A Corpus Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Priyono

2011-01-01

English verbs have built-in properties that determine how they behave syntactically and generate appropriate meaning associated. With these inherent properties some verbs can fill in only in certain syntactic structures and some in others. The observation of the verb "COOK" using English corpus has revealed its lexical properties…
Argument structure and the representation of abstract semantics.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier; Andreu, Llorenç; Sanz-Torrent, Mònica

2014-01-01

According to the dual coding theory, differences in the ease of retrieval between concrete and abstract words are related to the exclusive dependence of abstract semantics on linguistic information. Argument structure can be considered a measure of the complexity of the linguistic contexts that accompany a verb. If the retrieval of abstract verbs relies more on the linguistic codes they are associated to, we could expect a larger effect of argument structure for the processing of abstract verbs. In this study, sets of length- and frequency-matched verbs including 40 intransitive verbs, 40 transitive verbs taking simple complements, and 40 transitive verbs taking sentential complements were presented in separate lexical and grammatical decision tasks. Half of the verbs were concrete and half were abstract. Similar results were obtained in the two tasks, with significant effects of imageability and transitivity. However, the interaction between these two variables was not significant. These results conflict with hypotheses assuming a stronger reliance of abstract semantics on linguistic codes. In contrast, our data are in line with theories that link the ease of retrieval with availability and robustness of semantic information.
Animation of graphic symbols representing verbs and prepositions: effects on transparency, name agreement, and identification.

PubMed

Schlosser, Ralf W; Shane, Howard; Sorce, James; Koul, Rajinder; Bloomfield, Emma; Debrowski, Lisa; DeLuca, Tim; Miller, Stephanie; Schneider, Danielle; Neff, Allison

2012-04-01

The effects of animation on transparency, name agreement, and identification of graphic symbols for verbs and prepositions were evaluated in preschoolers of 3 age groups. Methods A mixed-group design was used; in each age group, half of the children were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 orders of symbol formats. The 52 children were asked to guess the meaning of symbols and to identify a target symbol among foils given the spoken label. Animated symbols were more transparent than static symbols, although this was more pronounced for verbs. Animated verbs were named more accurately than static verbs, but there was no difference between animated and static prepositions. Verbs were identified more accurately compared with prepositions, but there was no difference between symbol formats. Older children guessed, named, and identified symbols more effectively than younger children. Animation enhances transparency and name agreement, especially for verbs, which reduces the instructional burden that comes with nontransparent symbols. Animation does not enhance identification accuracy. Verbs are easier to identify than prepositions. A developmental effect was observed for each measure. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
Enlightened Use of Passive Voice in Technical Writing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trammell, M. K.

1981-01-01

The passive voice as a normal, acceptable, and established syntactic form in technical writing is defended. Passive/active verb ratios, taken from sources including 'antipassivist' text books, are considered. The suitability of the passive voice in technical writing which involves unknown or irrelevant agents is explored. Three 'myths' that the passive (1) utilizes an abnormal and artificial word order, (2) is lifeless, and (3) is indirect are considered. Awkward and abnormal sounding examples encountered in text books are addressed in terms of original context. Unattractive or incoherent passive sentences are explained in terms of inappropriate conversion from active sentences having (1) short nominal or pronominal subjects or (2) verbs with restrictions on their passive use.
English Verb Accuracy of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers.

PubMed

Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

2017-07-26

Knowledge of verb development in typically developing bilingual preschoolers may inform clinicians about verb accuracy rates during the 1st 2 years of English instruction. This study aimed to investigate tensed verb accuracy in 2 assessment contexts in 4- and 5-year-old Cantonese-English bilingual preschoolers. The sample included 47 Cantonese-English bilinguals enrolled in English preschools. Half of the children were in their 1st 4 months of English language exposure, and half had completed 1 year and 4 months of exposure to English. Data were obtained from the Test of Early Grammatical Impairment (Rice & Wexler, 2001) and from a narrative generated in English. By the 2nd year of formal exposure to English, children in the present study approximated 33% accuracy of tensed verbs in a formal testing context versus 61% in a narrative context. The use of the English verb BE approximated mastery. Predictors of English third-person singular verb accuracy were task, grade, English expressive vocabulary, and lemma frequency. Verb tense accuracy was low across both groups, but a precocious mastery of BE was observed. The results of the present study suggest that speech-language pathologists may consider, in addition to an elicitation task, evaluating the use of verbs during narratives in bilingual Cantonese-English bilingual children.

Subliminal enhancement of predictive effects during syntactic processing in the left inferior frontal gyrus: an MEG study

PubMed Central

Iijima, Kazuki; Sakai, Kuniyoshi L.

2014-01-01

Predictive syntactic processing plays an essential role in language comprehension. In our previous study using Japanese object-verb (OV) sentences, we showed that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) responses to a verb increased at 120–140 ms after the verb onset, indicating predictive effects caused by a preceding object. To further elucidate the automaticity of the predictive effects in the present magnetoencephalography study, we examined whether a subliminally presented verb (“subliminal verb”) enhanced the predictive effects on the sentence-final verb (“target verb”) unconsciously, i.e., without awareness. By presenting a subliminal verb after the object, enhanced predictive effects on the target verb would be detected in the OV sentences when the transitivity of the target verb matched with that of the subliminal verb (“congruent condition”), because the subliminal verb just after the object could determine the grammaticality of the sentence. For the OV sentences under the congruent condition, we observed significantly increased left IFG responses at 140–160 ms after the target verb onset. In contrast, responses in the precuneus and midcingulate cortex (MCC) were significantly reduced for the OV sentences under the congruent condition at 110–140 and 280–300 ms, respectively. By using partial Granger causality analyses for the OV sentences under the congruent condition, we revealed a bidirectional interaction between the left IFG and MCC at 60–160 ms, as well as a significant influence from the MCC to the precuneus. These results indicate that a top-down influence from the left IFG to the MCC, and then to the precuneus, is critical in syntactic decisions, whereas the MCC shares its task-set information with the left IFG to achieve automatic and predictive processes of syntax. PMID:25404899
Feature-Specific Event-Related Potential Effects to Action- and Sound-Related Verbs during Visual Word Recognition

PubMed Central

Popp, Margot; Trumpp, Natalie M.; Kiefer, Markus

2016-01-01

Grounded cognition theories suggest that conceptual representations essentially depend on modality-specific sensory and motor systems. Feature-specific brain activation across different feature types such as action or audition has been intensively investigated in nouns, while feature-specific conceptual category differences in verbs mainly focused on body part specific effects. The present work aimed at assessing whether feature-specific event-related potential (ERP) differences between action and sound concepts, as previously observed in nouns, can also be found within the word class of verbs. In Experiment 1, participants were visually presented with carefully matched sound and action verbs within a lexical decision task, which provides implicit access to word meaning and minimizes strategic access to semantic word features. Experiment 2 tested whether pre-activating the verb concept in a context phase, in which the verb is presented with a related context noun, modulates subsequent feature-specific action vs. sound verb processing within the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, ERP analyses revealed a differential ERP polarity pattern for action and sound verbs at parietal and central electrodes similar to previous results in nouns. Pre-activation of the meaning of verbs in the preceding context phase in Experiment 2 resulted in a polarity-reversal of feature-specific ERP effects in the lexical decision task compared with Experiment 1. This parallels analogous earlier findings for primed action and sound related nouns. In line with grounded cognitions theories, our ERP study provides evidence for a differential processing of action and sound verbs similar to earlier observation for concrete nouns. Although the localizational value of ERPs must be viewed with caution, our results indicate that the meaning of verbs is linked to different neural circuits depending on conceptual feature relevance. PMID:28018201
Feature-Specific Event-Related Potential Effects to Action- and Sound-Related Verbs during Visual Word Recognition.

PubMed

Popp, Margot; Trumpp, Natalie M; Kiefer, Markus

2016-01-01

Grounded cognition theories suggest that conceptual representations essentially depend on modality-specific sensory and motor systems. Feature-specific brain activation across different feature types such as action or audition has been intensively investigated in nouns, while feature-specific conceptual category differences in verbs mainly focused on body part specific effects. The present work aimed at assessing whether feature-specific event-related potential (ERP) differences between action and sound concepts, as previously observed in nouns, can also be found within the word class of verbs. In Experiment 1, participants were visually presented with carefully matched sound and action verbs within a lexical decision task, which provides implicit access to word meaning and minimizes strategic access to semantic word features. Experiment 2 tested whether pre-activating the verb concept in a context phase, in which the verb is presented with a related context noun, modulates subsequent feature-specific action vs. sound verb processing within the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, ERP analyses revealed a differential ERP polarity pattern for action and sound verbs at parietal and central electrodes similar to previous results in nouns. Pre-activation of the meaning of verbs in the preceding context phase in Experiment 2 resulted in a polarity-reversal of feature-specific ERP effects in the lexical decision task compared with Experiment 1. This parallels analogous earlier findings for primed action and sound related nouns. In line with grounded cognitions theories, our ERP study provides evidence for a differential processing of action and sound verbs similar to earlier observation for concrete nouns. Although the localizational value of ERPs must be viewed with caution, our results indicate that the meaning of verbs is linked to different neural circuits depending on conceptual feature relevance.
Modulation of Arm Reaching Movements during Processing of Arm/Hand-Related Action Verbs with and without Emotional Connotation

PubMed Central

Spadacenta, Silvia; Gallese, Vittorio; Fragola, Michele; Mirabella, Giovanni

2014-01-01

The theory of embodied language states that language comprehension relies on an internal reenactment of the sensorimotor experience associated with the processed word or sentence. Most evidence in support of this hypothesis had been collected using linguistic material without any emotional connotation. For instance, it had been shown that processing of arm-related verbs, but not of those leg-related verbs, affects the planning and execution of reaching movements; however, at present it is unknown whether this effect is further modulated by verbs evoking an emotional experience. Showing such a modulation might shed light on a very debated issue, i.e. the way in which the emotional meaning of a word is processed. To this end, we assessed whether processing arm/hand-related verbs describing actions with negative connotations (e.g. to stab) affects reaching movements differently from arm/hand-related verbs describing actions with neutral connotation (e.g. to comb). We exploited a go/no-go paradigm in which healthy participants were required to perform arm-reaching movements toward a target when verbs expressing emotional hand actions, neutral hand actions or foot actions were shown, and to refrain from moving when no-effector-related verbs were presented. Reaction times and percentages of errors increased when the verb involved the same effector as used to give the response. However, we also found that the size of this interference decreased when the arm/hand-related verbs had a negative emotional connotation. Crucially, we show that such modulation only occurred when the verb semantics had to be retrieved. These results suggest that the comprehension of negatively valenced verbs might require the simultaneous reenactment of the neural circuitry associated with the processing of the emotion evoked by their meaning and of the neural circuitry associated with their motor features. PMID:25093410
Verb Disposition in Argument Structure Alternations: A Corpus Study of the Dative Alternation in Dutch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colleman, Timothy

2009-01-01

Semantic accounts of verb pattern alternations often rely on observations about "verb disposition": the preference of verbs with particular lexical semantic characteristics for one of two competing constructions is taken as a clue to the semantic differences between the two constructions. For instance, it has been observed with regard to the…
The Matrix Verb as a Source of Comprehension Difficulty in Object Relative Sentences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staub, Adrian; Dillon, Brian; Clifton, Charles, Jr.

2017-01-01

Two experiments used eyetracking during reading to examine the processing of the matrix verb following object and subject relative clauses. The experiments show that the processing of the matrix verb following an object relative is indeed slowed compared to the processing of the same verb following a subject relative. However, this difficulty is…
Analysis of the "-sja" Passive of Russian Verbs of Governing and Wanting as a Conceptual Integration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Min, Junghee

2011-01-01

This dissertation represents a study of the formation of "-sja" passives of Russian verbs of governing and wanting. I explore five imperfective verbs of governing: "zavedovat" "manage"; "komandovat" "command"; "pravit" "govern"; "rukovdit" "direct"; and "upravljat" "manage"; as well as four imperfective verbs of wanting: "iskat" "seek"; "trebovat"…
Effects of Weight and Syntactic Priming on the Production of Cantonese Verb-Doubling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francis, Elaine J.; Matthews, Stephen; Wong, Reace Wing Yan; Kwan, Stella Wing Man

2011-01-01

Verb-doubling, where a copy of the main verb occurs both before and after the direct object, is a structure commonly used in Chinese in sentences containing a frequency or duration phrase. In Cantonese, verb-doubling is highly optional and therefore problematic for existing syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic accounts of its distribution in…
Focusing on the Relation: Fewer Exemplars Facilitate Children's Initial Verb Learning and Extension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maguire, Mandy J.; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Brandone, Amanda C.

2008-01-01

One of the most prominent theories for why children struggle to learn verbs is that verb learning requires the abstraction of relations between an object and its action (Gentner, 2003). Two hypotheses suggest how children extract relations to extend a novel verb: (1) seeing "many different" exemplars allows children to detect the invariant…
Eating Apples and Houseplants: Typicality Constraints on Thematic Roles in Early Verb Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meints, Kerstin; Plunkett, Kim; Harris, Paul L.

2008-01-01

Are thematic roles linked to verbs in young children as in adults or will children accept any participant in a given role with any verb? To assess early verb comprehension we used typicality ratings with adults, parental questionnaires, and Intermodal Preferential Looking with children. We predicted that children would look at named targets, would…
The On-Line Processing of Verb-Phrase Ellipsis in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poirier, Josee; Shapiro, Lewis P.; Love, Tracy; Grodzinsky, Yosef

2009-01-01

We investigate the on-line processing of verb-phrase ellipsis (VPE) constructions in two brain injured populations: Broca's and Anomic aphasics. VPE constructions are built from two simple clauses; the first is the antecedent clause and the second is the ellipsis clause. The ellipsis clause is missing its verb and object (i.e., its verb phrase…
Comparison of Different Test Construction Strategies in the Development of a Gender Fair Interest Inventory Using Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wetzel, Eunike; Hell, Benedikt; Passler, Katja

2012-01-01

Three test construction strategies are described and illustrated in the development of the Verb Interest Test (VIT), an inventory that assesses vocational interests using verbs. Verbs might be a promising alternative to the descriptions of occupational activities used in most vocational interest inventories because they are context-independent,…
Does Variability across Events Affect Verb Learning in English, Mandarin, and Korean?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childers, Jane B.; Paik, Jae H.; Flores, Melissa; Lai, Gabrielle; Dolan, Megan

2017-01-01

Extending new verbs is important in becoming a productive speaker of a language. Prior results show children have difficulty extending verbs when they have seen events with varied agents. This study further examines the impact of variability on verb learning and asks whether variability interacts with event complexity or differs by language.…
How Polish Children Switch from One Case to Another when Using Novel Nouns: Challenges for Models of Inflectional Morphology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krajewski, Grzegorz; Theakston, Anna L.; Lieven, Elena V. M.; Tomasello, Michael

2011-01-01

The two main models of children's acquisition of inflectional morphology--the Dual-Mechanism approach and the usage-based (schema-based) approach--have both been applied mainly to languages with fairly simple morphological systems. Here we report two studies of 2-3-year-old Polish children's ability to generalise across case-inflectional endings…
Apparatus and methods of measuring minority carrier lifetime using a liquid probe

DOEpatents

Li, Jian

2016-04-12

Methods and apparatus for measuring minority carrier lifetimes using liquid probes are provided. In one embodiment, a method of measuring the minority carrier lifetime of a semiconductor material comprises: providing a semiconductor material having a surface; forming a rectifying junction at a first location on the surface by temporarily contacting the surface with a conductive liquid probe; electrically coupling a second junction to the semiconductor material at a second location, wherein the first location and the second location are physically separated; applying a forward bias to the rectifying junction causing minority carrier injection in the semiconductor material; measuring a total capacitance as a function of frequency between the rectifying junction and the second junction; determining an inflection frequency of the total capacitance; and determining a minority lifetime of the semiconductor material from the inflection frequency.
The Storage and Composition of Inflected Forms in Adult-Learned Second Language: A Study of the Influence of Length of Residence, Age of Arrival, Sex, and Other Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Babcock, Laura; Stowe, John C.; Maloof, Christopher J.; Brovetto, Claudia; Ullman, Michael T.

2012-01-01

It remains unclear whether adult-learned second language (L2) depends on similar or different neurocognitive mechanisms as those involved in first language (L1). We examined whether English past tense forms are computed similarly or differently by L1 and L2 English speakers, and what factors might affect this: regularity (regular vs. irregular…
Morphological Cues for Lexical Semantics

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-06-01

decompositions) exist for some intensional verbs, they are very difficult to contrive for ones like resemble (as in the one-horned goat resembled a unicorn ...TELIC re- fine NEWDERSTEM TELICre- finance NEWDERSTEM TELICre- fold NEWDERSTEM TELICre- form INLEX TELICre- formulate NEWDERSTEM TELICre- fuel INLEX
The Voice of Holland: Allograph Production in Written Dutch Past Tense Inflection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Bree, Elise; van der Ven, Sanne; van der Maas, Han

2017-01-01

According to the Integration of Multiple Patterns hypothesis (IMP; Treiman & Kessler, 2014), the spelling difficulty of a word is affected by the number of cues converging on the correct answer. We tested this hypothesis in children's regular past tense formation in Dutch. Past tenses are formed by adding either-"de"…
Regimes of Performance: Practices of the Normalised Self in the Neoliberal University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrissey, John

2015-01-01

Universities today inescapably find themselves part of nationally and globally competitive networks that appear firmly inflected by neoliberal concerns of rankings, benchmarking and productivity. This, of course, has in turn led to progressively anticipated and regulated forms of academic subjectivity that many fear are overly econo-centric in…
An Experimental and Numerical Comparison of the Rupture Locations of an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

PubMed Central

Doyle, Barry J.; Corbett, Timothy J.; Callanan, Anthony; Walsh, Michael T.; Vorp, David A.; McGloughlin, Timothy M.

2009-01-01

Purpose: To identify the rupture locations of idealized physical models of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) using an in-vitro setup and to compare the findings to those predicted numerically. Methods: Five idealized AAAs were manufactured using Sylgard 184 silicone rubber, which had been mechanically characterized from tensile tests, tear tests, and finite element analysis. The models were then inflated to the point of rupture and recorded using a high-speed camera. Numerical modeling attempted to confirm these rupture locations. Regional variations in wall thickness of the silicone models was also quantified and applied to numerical models. Results: Four of the 5 models tested ruptured at inflection points in the proximal and distal regions of the aneurysm sac and not at regions of maximum diameter. These findings agree with high stress regions computed numerically. Wall stress appears to be independent of wall thickness, with high stress occurring at regions of inflection regardless of wall thickness variations. Conclusion: According to these experimental and numerical findings, AAAs experience higher stresses at regions of inflection compared to regions of maximum diameter. Ruptures of the idealized silicone models occurred predominantly at the inflection points, as numerically predicted. Regions of inflection can be easily identified from basic 3-dimensional reconstruction; as ruptures appear to occur at inflection points, these findings may provide a useful insight into the clinical significance of inflection regions. This approach will be applied to patient-specific models in a future study. PMID:19642790

The Two-Level Theory of verb meaning: An approach to integrating the semantics of action with the mirror neuron system.

PubMed

Kemmerer, David; Gonzalez-Castillo, Javier

2010-01-01

Verbs have two separate levels of meaning. One level reflects the uniqueness of every verb and is called the "root". The other level consists of a more austere representation that is shared by all the verbs in a given class and is called the "event structure template". We explore the following hypotheses about how, with specific reference to the motor features of action verbs, these two distinct levels of semantic representation might correspond to two distinct levels of the mirror neuron system. Hypothesis 1: Root-level motor features of verb meaning are partially subserved by somatotopically mapped mirror neurons in the left primary motor and/or premotor cortices. Hypothesis 2: Template-level motor features of verb meaning are partially subserved by representationally more schematic mirror neurons in Brodmann area 44 of the left inferior frontal gyrus. Evidence has been accumulating in support of the general neuroanatomical claims made by these two hypotheses-namely, that each level of verb meaning is associated with the designated cortical areas. However, as yet no studies have satisfied all the criteria necessary to support the more specific neurobiological claims made by the two hypotheses-namely, that each level of verb meaning is associated with mirror neurons in the pertinent brain regions. This would require demonstrating that within those regions the same neuronal populations are engaged during (a) the linguistic processing of particular motor features of verb meaning, (b) the execution of actions with the corresponding motor features, and (c) the observation of actions with the corresponding motor features. 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
THE TWO-LEVEL THEORY OF VERB MEANING: AN APPROACH TO INTEGRATING THE SEMANTICS OF ACTION WITH THE MIRROR NEURON SYSTEM

PubMed Central

Kemmerer, David; Castillo, Javier Gonzalez

2010-01-01

Verbs have two separate levels of meaning. One level reflects the uniqueness of every verb and is called the “root.” The other level consists of a more austere representation that is shared by all the verbs in a given class and is called the “event structure template.” We explore the following hypotheses about how, with specific reference to the motor features of action verbs, these two distinct levels of semantic representation might correspond to two distinct levels of the mirror neuron system. Hypothesis 1: Root-level motor features of verb meaning are partially subserved by somatotopically mapped mirror neurons in the left primary motor and/or premotor cortices. Hypothesis 2: Template-level motor features of verb meaning are partially subserved by representationally more schematic mirror neurons in Brodmann area 44 of the left inferior frontal gyrus. Evidence has been accumulating in support of the general neuroanatomical claims made by these two hypotheses—namely, that each level of verb meaning is associated with the designated cortical areas. However, as yet no studies have satisfied all the criteria necessary to support the more specific neurobiological claims made by the two hypotheses—namely, that each level of verb meaning is associated with mirror neurons in the pertinent brain regions. This would require demonstrating that within those regions the same neuronal populations are engaged during (a) the linguistic processing of particular motor features of verb meaning, (b) the execution of actions with the corresponding motor features, and (c) the observation of actions with the corresponding motor features. PMID:18996582
Aspectual asymmetries in the mental representation of events: Role of lexical and grammatical aspect.

PubMed

Yap, Foong Ha; Chu, Patrick Chun Kau; Yiu, Emily Sze Man; Wong, Stella Fay; Kwan, Stella Wing Man; Matthews, Stephen; Tan, Li Hai; Li, Ping; Shirai, Yasuhiro

2009-07-01

Temporal information is important in the construction of situation models, and many languages make use of perfective and imperfective aspect markers to distinguish between completed situations (e.g., He made a cake) and ongoing situations (e.g., He is making a cake). Previous studies in which the effect of grammatical aspect has been examined have shown that perfective sentences are often processed more quickly than imperfective ones (e.g., Chan, Yap, Shirai, & Matthews, 2004; Madden & Zwaan, 2003; Yap et al., 2004; Yap et al., 2006). However, these studies used only accomplishment verbs (i.e., verbs with an inherent endpoint, such as bake a cake). The present study on the processing of Cantonese includes activity verbs (i.e., durative verbs with no inherent endpoint, such as play the piano), and the results indicate a strong interaction between lexical aspect (i.e., verb type) and grammatical aspect. That is, perfective sentences were processed more quickly with accomplishment verbs, consistent with previous findings, but imperfective sentences were processed more quickly with activity verbs. We suggest that these different aspectual asymmetries emerge as a result of the inherent associations between accomplishment verbs and the bounded features of perfective aspect and between activity verbs and the unbounded features of imperfective aspect. The sentence stimuli from this study may be downloaded from mc.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
Attention to body-parts varies with visual preference and verb-effector associations.

PubMed

Boyer, Ty W; Maouene, Josita; Sethuraman, Nitya

2017-05-01

Theories of embodied conceptual meaning suggest fundamental relations between others' actions, language, and our own actions and visual attention processes. Prior studies have found that when people view an image of a neutral body in a scene they first look toward, in order, the head, torso, hands, and legs. Other studies show associations between action verbs and the body-effectors used in performing the action (e.g., "jump" with feet/legs; "talk" with face/head). In the present experiment, the visual attention of participants was recorded with a remote eye-tracking system while they viewed an image of an actor pantomiming an action and heard a concrete action verb. Participants manually responded whether or not the action image was a good example of the verb they heard. The eye-tracking results confirmed that participants looked at the head most, followed by the hands, and the feet least of all; however, visual attention to each of the body-parts also varied as a function of the effector associated with the spoken verb on image/verb congruent trials, particularly for verbs associated with the legs. Overall, these results suggest that language influences some perceptual processes; however, hearing auditory verbs did not alter the previously reported fundamental hierarchical sequence of directed attention, and fixations on specific body-effectors may not be essential for verb comprehension as peripheral visual cues may be sufficient to perform the task.
Neuroanatomical distribution of five semantic components of verbs: evidence from fMRI.

PubMed

Kemmerer, David; Castillo, Javier Gonzalez; Talavage, Thomas; Patterson, Stephanie; Wiley, Cynthia

2008-10-01

The Simulation Framework, also known as the Embodied Cognition Framework, maintains that conceptual knowledge is grounded in sensorimotor systems. To test several predictions that this theory makes about the neural substrates of verb meanings, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan subjects' brains while they made semantic judgments involving five classes of verbs-specifically, Running verbs (e.g., run, jog, walk), Speaking verbs (e.g., shout, mumble, whisper), Hitting verbs (e.g., hit, poke, jab), Cutting verbs (e.g., cut, slice, hack), and Change of State verbs (e.g., shatter, smash, crack). These classes were selected because they vary with respect to the presence or absence of five distinct semantic components-specifically, ACTION, MOTION, CONTACT, CHANGE OF STATE, and TOOL USE. Based on the Simulation Framework, we hypothesized that the ACTION component depends on the primary motor and premotor cortices, that the MOTION component depends on the posterolateral temporal cortex, that the CONTACT component depends on the intraparietal sulcus and inferior parietal lobule, that the CHANGE OF STATE component depends on the ventral temporal cortex, and that the TOOL USE component depends on a distributed network of temporal, parietal, and frontal regions. Virtually all of the predictions were confirmed. Taken together, these findings support the Simulation Framework and extend our understanding of the neuroanatomical distribution of different aspects of verb meaning.
When Transparency Doesn't Mean Ease: Learning the Meaning of Resultative Verb Compounds in Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Jidong

2017-01-01

Children have to figure out the lexicalization of meaning components in learning verb semantics (e.g. Behrens, 1998; Gentner, 1982; Tomasello & Brooks, 1998). The meaning of an English state-change verb (e.g. "break") is divided into two portions (i.e. cause and result), respectively encoded with a separate verb in a Mandarin…
Effects of Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus on Naming and Reading Nouns and Verbs in Parkinson's Disease

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silveri, Maria Caterina; Ciccarelli, Nicoletta; Baldonero, Eleonora; Piano, Carla; Zinno, Massimiliano; Soleti, Francesco; Bentivoglio, Anna Rita; Albanese, Alberto; Daniele, Antonio

2012-01-01

An impairment for verbs has been described in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), suggesting that a disruption of frontal-subcortical circuits may result in dysfunction of the neural systems involved in action-verb processing. A previous study suggested that deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) during verb generation…
The PHaVE List: A Pedagogical List of Phrasal Verbs and Their Most Frequent Meaning Senses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garnier, Mélodie; Schmitt, Norbert

2015-01-01

As researchers and practitioners are becoming more aware of the importance of multi-word items in English, there is little doubt that phrasal verbs deserve teaching attention in the classroom. However, there are thousands of phrasal verbs in English, and so the question for practitioners is which phrasal verbs to focus attention upon. Phrasal verb…
The Role of Configurational Asymmetry in the Lexical Access of Prefixed Verbs: Evidence from French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsapkini, Kyrana; Jarema, Gonia; Di Sciullo, Anna-Maria

2004-01-01

In this paper we investigated the effects of configurational asymmetry in prefixed verbs in French. We used a simple lexical decision paradigm to compare prefixed verbs with external and internal prefixes as specified in linguistic theory (Di Sciullo, 1997) where external prefixes do not change the aktionsart and the verb argument structure of the…
Asymmetries in the Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement in Dutch: Evidence from Comprehension and Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verhagen, Josje; Blom, Elma

2014-01-01

Across languages, children do not comprehend 3SG/3PL subject-verb agreement before age five, despite early mastery in spontaneous speech. This study investigates subject-verb agreement in a language hitherto not studied in this respect, namely Dutch. The authors examine if (1) Dutch two- and three-year-olds comprehend subject-verb agreement and…
Verbs in the lexicon: Why is hitting easier than breaking?

PubMed

McKoon, Gail; Love, Jessica

2011-11-01

Adult speakers use verbs in syntactically appropriate ways. For example, they know implicitly that the boy hit at the fence is acceptable but the boy broke at the fence is not. We suggest that this knowledge is lexically encoded in semantic decompositions. The decomposition for break verbs (e.g. crack, smash) is hypothesized to be more complex than that for hit verbs (e.g. kick, kiss). Specifically, the decomposition of a break verb denotes that "an entity changes state as the result of some external force" whereas the decomposition for a hit verb denotes only that "an entity potentially comes in contact with another entity." In this article, verbs of the two types were compared in a lexical decision experiment - Experiment 1 - and they were compared in sentence comprehension experiments with transitive sentences (e.g. the car hit the bicycle and the car broke the bicycle) - Experiments 2 and 3. In Experiment 1, processing times were shorter for the hit than the break verbs and in Experiments 2 and 3, processing times were shorter for the hit sentences than the break sentences, results that are in accord with the complexities of the postulated semantic decompositions.
Verbs and attention to relational roles in English and Tamil*

PubMed Central

SETHURAMAN, NITYA; SMITH, LINDA B.

2013-01-01

English-learning children have been shown to reliably use cues from argument structure in learning verbs. However, languages pair overtly expressed arguments with verbs to varying extents, raising the question of whether children learning all languages expect the same, universal mapping between arguments and relational roles. Three experiments examined this question by asking how strongly early-learned verbs by themselves, without their corresponding explicitly expressed arguments, point to ‘conceptual arguments’ – the relational roles in a scene. Children aged two to four years and adult speakers of two languages that differ structurally in terms of whether the arguments of a verb are explicitly expressed more (English) or less (Tamil) frequently were compared in their mapping of verbs, presented without any overtly expressed arguments, to a range of scenes. The results suggest different developmental trajectories for language learners, as well as different patterns of adult interpretation, and offer new ways of thinking about the nature of verbs cross-linguistically. PMID:22289295
The Time Course of Verb Processing in Dutch Sentences

PubMed Central

Shapiro, Lewis P.; Wester, Femke; Swinney, David A.; Bastiaanse, Roelien

2012-01-01

The verb has traditionally been characterized as the central element in a sentence. Nevertheless, the exact role of the verb during the actual ongoing comprehension of a sentence as it unfolds in time remains largely unknown. This paper reports the results of two Cross-Modal Lexical Priming (CMLP) experiments detailing the pattern of verb priming during on-line processing of Dutch sentences. Results are contrasted with data from a third CMLP experiment on priming of nouns in similar sentences. It is demonstrated that the meaning of a matrix verb remains active throughout the entire matrix clause, while this is not the case for the meaning of a subject head noun. Activation of the meaning of the verb only dissipates upon encountering a clear signal as to the start of a new clause. PMID:19452278
When Verbs Collide: Papers from the Ohio State Mini-Conference on Serial Verbs (Columbus, Ohio, May 26-27, 1990). Working Papers in Linguistics No. 39.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Brian D., Ed.; Zwicky, Arnold M., Ed.

Papers from the conference on the occurrence of verbal constituents in series in certain languages, particularly pidgins and creoles, include the following: "What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Serial Verbs?" (Arnold M. Zwicky); "Serial Verb Constructions" (Pieter Seuren); "On the Definition and Distribution of…
Novel Noun and Verb Learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imai, Mutsumi; Li, Lianjing; Haryu, Etsuko; Okada, Hiroyuki; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Shigematsu, Jun

2008-01-01

When can children speaking Japanese, English, or Chinese map and extend novel nouns and verbs? Across 6 studies, 3- and 5-year-old children in all 3 languages map and extend novel nouns more readily than novel verbs. This finding prevails even in languages like Chinese and Japanese that are assumed to be verb-friendly languages (e.g., T. Tardif,…
Auxiliary Verbs, Dictionaries and the Late Evolution of the Italian Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinder, John J.

2004-01-01

The use of BE as an auxiliary verb with intransitive verbs has declined in all the Romance languages over the past five centuries. Today, Spanish and Portuguese use only HAVE, in Catalan and Romanian BE occurs in marginal contexts, and in French, BE is used with approximately 40 verbs. Italian is a notable exception, since BE is still used as the…
Radiation-induced polymerization of glass forming systems. VI. Polymerization rate at higher conversion in binary systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kaetsu, I.; Ito, A.; Hayashi, K.

1973-08-01

The effect of temperature and composition on the inflection point in the time-conversion curve and the saturated conversion was investigated in the gamma -radio-induced radical polymerization of binary systems consisting of a glass- forming monomer and a solvent. In the polymerization of completely homogeneous systems such as glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) -triacetin and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) --propylene glycol systems, the time-conversion curve has an inflection point at polymerization temperatures between T/sub vm/(T/sub v/ of monomer system) and T/sub vp/ (T/sub v/ of polymer system). Such conversions at the inflection point changed monotonically between 0 and 100% in this temperature range. T/submore » v/ was found to be 30 to 50 deg C higher than T/sub g/ (glass transition temperature) and a monotonic function of composition (monomer -- polymer -- solvent). The acceleration effect continued to 100% conversion above T/sub vp/, and no acceleration effect was observed below T/sub vm/. The saturated conversion in homogeneous systems changed monotonically between 0 and 100% for polymerization temperatures between T/sub gm/ (T/sub g/ of monomer system) and T/sub gp/(T of polymer system). T/sub g/ was also a monotonic function of composition. No saturation in conversion was observed above T/sub gp/ , and no polymerization occurred below T/sub gm/. In the polymerization of completely heterogeneous systems such as HEMA-dioctyl phthalate, no acceleration effect was observed at any temperature and composition. The saturated conversion was 100% sbove T/sub g/ of pure HEMA, and no polymerization occurred below this temperature in this system. (auth)« less
Comparing nouns and verbs in a lexical task.

PubMed

Cordier, Françoise; Croizet, Jean-Claude; Rigalleau, François

2013-02-01

We analyzed the differential processing of nouns and verbs in a lexical decision task. Moderate and high-frequency nouns and verbs were compared. The characteristics of our material were specified at the formal level (number of letters and syllables, number of homographs, orthographic neighbors, frequency and age of acquisition), and at the semantic level (imagery, number and strength of associations, number of meanings, context dependency). A regression analysis indicated a classical frequency effect and a word-type effect, with latencies for verbs being slower than for nouns. The regression analysis did not permit the conclusion that semantic effects were involved (particularly imageability). Nevertheless, the semantic opposition between nouns as prototypical representations of objects, and verbs as prototypical representation of actions was not tested in this experiment and remains a good candidate explanation of the response time discrepancies between verbs and nouns.
Linguistic generalization on the basis of function and constraints on the basis of statistical preemption.

PubMed

Perek, Florent; Goldberg, Adele E

2017-11-01

How do people learn to use language in creative but constrained ways? Experiment 1 investigates linguistic creativity by exposing adult participants to two novel word order constructions that differ in terms of their semantics: One construction exclusively describes actions that have a strong effect; the other construction describes actions with a weaker but otherwise similar effect. One group of participants witnessed novel verbs only appearing in one construction or the other, while another group witnessed a minority of verbs alternating between constructions. Subsequent production and judgment results demonstrate that participants in both conditions extended and accepted verbs in whichever construction best described the intended message. Unlike related previous work, this finding is not naturally attributable to prior knowledge of the likely division of labor between verbs and constructions or to a difference in cue validity. In order to investigate how speakers learn to constrain generalizations, Experiment 2 includes one verb (out of 6) that was witnessed in a single construction to describe both strong and weak effects, essentially statistically preempting the use of the other construction. In this case, participants were much more lexically conservative with this verb and other verbs, while they nonetheless displayed an appreciation of the distinct semantics of the constructions with new novel verbs. Results indicate that the need to better express an intended message encourages generalization, while statistical preemption constrains generalization by providing evidence that verbs are restricted in their distribution. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Using Instruments to Understand Argument Structure: Evidence for Gradient Representation

PubMed Central

Rissman, Lilia; Rawlins, Kyle; Landau, Barbara

2015-01-01

The arguments of a verb are commonly assumed to correspond to the event participants specified by the verb. That is, drink has two arguments because drink specifies two participants: someone who drinks and something that gets drunk. This correspondence does not appear to hold, however, in the case of instrumental participants, e.g. John drank the soda with a straw. Verbs such as slice and write have been argued to specify an instrumental participant, even though instruments do not pattern like arguments given other criteria. In this paper, we investigated how instrumental verbs are represented, testing the hypothesis that verbs such as slice encode three participants in the same way that dative verbs such as lend encode three participants. In two experiments English-speakers reported their judgments about the number of participants specified by a verb, e.g. that drink specifies two participants. These judgments indicate that slice does not encode three distinct arguments. Nonetheless, some verbs were systematically more likely to elicit the judgment that the instrument is specified by the verb, a pattern that held across individual subjects. To account for these findings, we propose that instruments are not independent verbal arguments but are represented in a gradient away: an instrument may be a more or less salient part of the force exerted by an agent. These results inform our understanding of the relationship between argument structure and event representation, raising questions concerning the role of arguments in language processing and learning. PMID:26057832

The Role of Input Frequency and Semantic Transparency in the Acquisition of Verb Meaning: Evidence from Placement Verbs in Tamil and Dutch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narasimhan, Bhuvana; Gullberg, Marianne

2011-01-01

We investigate how Tamil- and Dutch-speaking adults and four- to five-year-old children use caused posture verbs ("lay/stand a bottle on a table") to label placement events in which objects are oriented vertically or horizontally. Tamil caused posture verbs consist of morphemes that individually label the causal and result subevents ("nikka…
The Two-Level Theory of Verb Meaning: An Approach to Integrating the Semantics of Action with the Mirror Neuron System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemmerer, David; Gonzalez-Castillo, Javier

2010-01-01

Verbs have two separate levels of meaning. One level reflects the uniqueness of every verb and is called the "root". The other level consists of a more austere representation that is shared by all the verbs in a given class and is called the "event structure template". We explore the following hypotheses about how, with specific reference to the…
The Origin of Word-related Motor Activity

PubMed Central

Papeo, Liuba; Lingnau, Angelika; Agosta, Sara; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro; Battelli, Lorella; Caramazza, Alfonso

2015-01-01

Conceptual processing of verbs consistently recruits the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (lpMTG). The left precentral motor cortex also responds to verbs, with higher activity for action than nonaction verbs. The early timing of this effect has suggested that motor features of words' meaning are accessed directly, bypassing access to conceptual representations in lpMTG. An alternative hypothesis is that the retrieval of conceptual representations in lpMTG is necessary to drive more specific, motor-related representations in the precentral gyrus. To test these hypotheses, we first showed that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied to the verb-preferring lpMTG site selectively impoverished the semantic processing of verbs. In a second experiment, rTMS perturbation of lpMTG, relative to no stimulation (no-rTMS), eliminated the action–nonaction verb distinction in motor activity, as indexed by motor-evoked potentials induced in peripheral muscles with single-pulse TMS over the left primary motor cortex. rTMS pertubation of an occipital control site, relative to no-rTMS, did not affect the action–nonaction verb distinction in motor activity, but the verb contrast did not differ reliably from the lpMTG effect. The results show that lpMTG carries core semantic information necessary to drive the activation of specific (motor) features in the precentral gyrus. PMID:24421174
Comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in temporal lobe epilepsy.

PubMed

Yurchenko, Anna; Golovteev, Alexander; Kopachev, Dmitry; Dragoy, Olga

2017-10-01

Previous research on linguistic performance at the single-word level in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) has mostly been limited to the comprehension and production of nouns, and findings have been inconsistent. Results are likewise limited and controversial regarding the lateralization of the epileptogenic focus. The present study investigates comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in patients with left and right TLE (12 in each group). We designed a comprehension (word-picture matching) test and a production (naming) test, matched on a range of psycholinguistic parameters for the two word classes. The results showed impaired verb comprehension in patients with left TLE and impaired noun and verb production in both groups of patients compared to the control group. Patients with left and right TLE differed significantly on verb comprehension and noun production, whereas verb production was equally impaired in the two groups of patients. These findings suggest difficulties with single-word processing in patients with both left and right TLE, which are more prominent for verbs than for nouns in patients with left TLE. The verb production (action naming) test turned out to be the most effective tool for assessing linguistic difficulties at the single-word level in patients with TLE. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Psych verbs, the Linking Problem, and the Acquisition of Language

PubMed Central

Hartshorne, Joshua K.; O'Donnell, Timothy J.; Sudo, Yasutada; Uruwashi, Miki; Lee, Miseon; Snedeker, Jesse

2016-01-01

In acquiring language, children must learn to appropriately place the different participants of an event (e.g., causal agent, affected entity) into the correct syntactic positions (e.g., subject, object) so that listeners will know who did what to whom. While many of these mappings can be characterized by broad generalizations, both within and across languages (e.g., semantic agents tend to be mapped onto syntactic subjects), not all verbs fit neatly into these generalizations. One particularly striking example is verbs of psychological state: The experiencer of the state can appear as either the subject (Agnes fears/hates/loves Bartholomew) or the direct object (Agnes frightens/angers/delights Bartholomew). The present studies explore whether this apparent variability in subject/object mapping may actually result from differences in these verbs’ underlying meanings. Specifically, we suggest that verbs like fear describe a habitual attitude towards some entity whereas verbs like frighten describe an externally caused emotional episode. We find that this distinction systematically characterizes verbs in English, Mandarin, and Korean. This pattern is generalized to novel verbs by adults in English, Japanese, and Russian, and even by English-speaking children who are just beginning to acquire psych verbs. This results support a broad role for systematic mappings between semantics and syntax in language acquisition. PMID:27693942
Language-Invariant Verb Processing Regions in Spanish-English Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Willms, Joanna L.; Shapiro, Kevin A.; Peelen, Marius V.; Pajtas, Petra E.; Costa, Albert; Moo, Lauren R.; Caramazza, Alfonso

2011-01-01

Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of all languages. Studies of brain-damaged patients and healthy individuals have demonstrated that verb processing can be dissociated from noun processing at a neuroanatomical level. In cases where bilingual patients have a noun or verb deficit, the deficit has been observed in both languages. This suggests that the noun-verb distinction may be based on neural components that are common across languages. Here we investigated the cortical organization of grammatical categories in healthy, early Spanish-English bilinguals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a morphophonological alternation task. Four regions showed greater activity for verbs than for nouns in both languages: left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG), left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG); no regions showed greater activation for nouns. Multi-voxel pattern analysis within verb-specific regions showed indistinguishable activity patterns for English and Spanish, indicating language-invariant bilingual processing. In LMTG and LMFG, patterns were more similar within than across grammatical category, both within and across languages, indicating language-invariant grammatical class information. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying verb-specific processing are largely independent of language in bilinguals, both at the macroscopic neuroanatomical level and at the level of voxel activity patterns. PMID:21515387
Developmental Stability and Changes in the Impact of Root Consistency on Children's Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deacon, S. Helene; Dhooge, Sarah

2010-01-01

The study reported here examined grade 2-4 children's sensitivity to the consistency in the spelling of roots in related words. We build on earlier research by attempting to quantify the extent that children's spellings of both inflected and derived forms accord with this principle. We contrasted children's accuracy and consistency in spelling the…
Modality and Children's Scope Understanding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chin-Ting Jimbo; Lee, Hsiu-Fen Hélène

2014-01-01

This study intends to shed light on the inconclusive argument pertaining to children's acquisition of logical form (LF) operation. Specifically, we examined children's interpretations of sentences with the ambiguous modal verb "yinggai" "should," like "Xiaohua yinggai shangchuang shuijiao le", whose meanings…
Correspondence between Grammatical Categories and Grammatical Functions in Chinese.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Fu

1993-01-01

A correspondence is shown between grammatical categories and grammatical functions in Chinese. Some syntactic properties distinguish finite verbs from nonfinite verbs, nominals from other categories, and verbs from other categories. (Contains seven references.) (LB)
The Interaction of Morphological and Stereotypical Gender Information in Russian.

PubMed

Garnham, Alan; Yakovlev, Yuri

2015-01-01

Previous research, for example in English, French, German, and Spanish, has investigated the interplay between grammatical gender information and stereotype gender information (e.g., that secretaries are usually female, in many cultures), in the interpretation of both singular noun phrases (the secretary) and plural nouns phrases, particularly so-called generic masculines-nouns that have masculine grammatical gender but that should be able to refer to both groups of men and mixed groups of men and women. Since the studies have been conducted in cultures with broadly similar stereotypes, the effects generally reflect differences in the grammatical systems of the languages. Russian has a more complex grammatical gender system than the languages previously studied, and, unlike those languages frequently presents examples in which grammatical gender is marked on the predicate (in an inflection on the verb). In this study we collected stereotype norms for 160 role names in Russian, providing a useful resource for further work in this language. We also conducted a reading time study examining the interaction of grammatical and stereotype gender information in the interpretation of both Russian singular noun phrases, and plurals that were (potentially) generic masculines. Our results show that, although both types of gender information are used, when available, the effects of grammatical marking on the predicate are not as strong as those of such marking on subject noun phrases.
The Interaction of Morphological and Stereotypical Gender Information in Russian

PubMed Central

Garnham, Alan; Yakovlev, Yuri

2015-01-01

Previous research, for example in English, French, German, and Spanish, has investigated the interplay between grammatical gender information and stereotype gender information (e.g., that secretaries are usually female, in many cultures), in the interpretation of both singular noun phrases (the secretary) and plural nouns phrases, particularly so-called generic masculines—nouns that have masculine grammatical gender but that should be able to refer to both groups of men and mixed groups of men and women. Since the studies have been conducted in cultures with broadly similar stereotypes, the effects generally reflect differences in the grammatical systems of the languages. Russian has a more complex grammatical gender system than the languages previously studied, and, unlike those languages frequently presents examples in which grammatical gender is marked on the predicate (in an inflection on the verb). In this study we collected stereotype norms for 160 role names in Russian, providing a useful resource for further work in this language. We also conducted a reading time study examining the interaction of grammatical and stereotype gender information in the interpretation of both Russian singular noun phrases, and plurals that were (potentially) generic masculines. Our results show that, although both types of gender information are used, when available, the effects of grammatical marking on the predicate are not as strong as those of such marking on subject noun phrases. PMID:26635650
The mental simulation of state/psychological verbs in the adolescent brain: An fMRI study.

PubMed

Tomasino, Barbara; Nobile, Maria; Re, Marta; Bellina, Monica; Garzitto, Marco; Arrigoni, Filippo; Molteni, Massimo; Fabbro, Franco; Brambilla, Paolo

2018-06-01

This fMRI study investigated mental simulation of state/psychological and action verbs during adolescence. Sixteen healthy subjects silently read verbs describing a motor scene or not (STIMULUS: motor, state/psychological verbs) and they were explicitly asked to imagine the situation or they performed letter detection preventing them from using simulation (TASK: imagery vs. letter detection). A significant task by stimuli interaction showed that imagery of state/psychological verbs, as compared to action stimuli (controlled by the letter detection) selectively increased activation in the right supramarginal gyrus/rolandic operculum and in the right insula, and decreased activation in the right intraparietal sulcus. We compared these data to those from a group of older participants (Tomasino et al. 2014a). Activation in the left supramarginal gyrus decreased for the latter group (as compared to the present group) for imagery of state/psychological verbs. By contrast, activation in the right superior frontal gyrus decreased for the former group (as compared to the older group) for imagery of state/psychological verbs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Processing Elided Verb Phrases with Flawed Antecedents: the Recycling Hypothesis

PubMed Central

Arregui, Ana; Clifton, Charles; Frazier, Lyn; Moulton, Keir

2006-01-01

Traditional syntactic accounts of verb phrase ellipsis (e.g. “Jason laughed. Sam did [ ] too.”) categorize as ungrammatical many sentences that language users find acceptable (they “undergenerate”); semantic accounts overgenerate. We propose that a processing theory, together with a syntactic account, does a better job of describing and explaining the data on verb phrase-ellipsis. Five acceptability judgment experiments supported a “VP recycling hypothesis,” which claims that when a syntactically-matching antecedent is not available, the listener/reader creates one using the materials at hand. Experiments 1 and 2 used verb phrase ellipsis sentences with antecedents ranging from perfect (a verb phrase in matrix verb phrase position) to impossible (a verb phrase containing only a deverbal word). Experiments 3 and 4 contrasted antecedents in verbal versus nominal gerund subjects. Experiment 5 explored the possibility that speakers are particularly likely to go beyond the grammar and produce elided constituents without perfect matching antecedents when the antecedent needed is less marked than the antecedent actually produced. This experiment contrasted active (unmarked) and passive antecedents to show that readers seem to honor such a tendency. PMID:17710192
Semantic priming in the motor cortex: evidence from combined repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and event-related potential.

PubMed

Kuipers, Jan-Rouke; van Koningsbruggen, Martijn; Thierry, Guillaume

2013-08-21

Reading action verbs is associated with activity in the motor cortices involved in performing the corresponding actions. Here, we present new evidence that the motor cortex is involved in semantic processing of bodily action verbs. In contrast to previous studies, we used a direct, nonbehavioural index of semantic processing after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Participants saw pairs of hand-related (e.g. to grab-to point) or mouth-related (e.g. to speak-to sing) verbs, whereas semantic priming was assessed using event-related potentials. Presentation of the first verb coincided with rTMS over the participant's cortical-left hand area and event-related brain potentials were analysed time-locked to the presentation onset of the second verb. Semantic integration - indexed by the N400 brain potential - was impaired for hand-related but not for mouth-related verb pairs after rTMS. This finding provides strong evidence that the motor cortex is involved in semantic encoding of action verbs, and supports the 'embodied semantics' hypothesis.
Children's Judgments of Regular and Irregular Novel Past-Tense Forms: New Data on the English Past-Tense Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambridge, Ben

2010-01-01

Is language governed by formal rules or by analogy to stored exemplars? The acquisition of the English past tense has long played a central role in this debate. In the present study, children rated the acceptability of a regular and an irregular past-tense form of each of 40 novel verbs (e.g., "fleeped", "flept") using a…
Infinitives or Bare Stems? Are English-Speaking Children Defaulting to the Highest-Frequency Form?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Räsänen, Sanna H. M.; Ambridge, Ben; Pine, Julian M.

2014-01-01

Young English-speaking children often produce utterances with missing 3sg -s (e.g., *He play). Since the mid 1990s, such errors have tended to be treated as Optional Infinitive (OI) errors, in which the verb is a non-finite form (e.g., Wexler, 1998; Legate & Yang, 2007). The present article reports the results of a cross-sectional…
An investigation into inflection-point instability in the entrance region of a pulsating pipe flow

PubMed Central

Wang, R. H.; Jian, T. W.; Hsu, Y. T.

2017-01-01

This paper investigates the inflection-point instability that governs the flow disturbance initiated in the entrance region of a pulsating pipe flow. Under such a flow condition, the flow instability grows within a certain phase region in a pulsating cycle, during which the inflection point in the unsteady mean flow lifts away from the viscous effect-dominated region known as the Stokes layer. The characteristic frequency of the instability is found to be in agreement with that predicted by the mixing-layer model. In comparison with those cases not falling in this category, it is further verified that the flow phenomenon will take place only if the inflection point lifts away sufficiently from the Stokes layer. PMID:28265188
A Syntactic Account for the Power of Verbs within X-Phemism: A Corpus-Base Exploration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Rawi, Maather Mohammad; Al-Shurafa, Nuha Suleiman Daoud

2016-01-01

The main aim of this paper is to examine the syntactic status of a selected text-corpus focus, with a special focus on the verb within its Verb-Phrase. The major claim is that the power of the verb in its VP is loaded syntactically through which the speaker's desire of the doublespeak within X-Phemism is achieved. In order to fulfill this claim, a…
Children's acquisition of nouns and verbs in Italian: contrasting the roles of frequency and positional salience in maternal language.

PubMed

Longobardi, Emiddia; Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia; Spataro, Pietro; Putnick, Diane L; Bornstein, Marc H

2015-01-01

Because of its structural characteristics, specifically the prevalence of verb types in infant-directed speech and frequent pronoun-dropping, the Italian language offers an attractive opportunity to investigate the predictive effects of input frequency and positional salience on children's acquisition of nouns and verbs. We examined this issue in a sample of twenty-six mother-child dyads whose spontaneous conversations were recorded, transcribed, and coded at 1;4 and 1;8. The percentages of nouns occurring in the final position of maternal utterances at 1;4 predicted children's production of noun types at 1;8. For verbs, children's growth rates were positively predicted by the percentages of input verbs occurring in utterance-initial position, but negatively predicted by the percentages of verbs located in the final position of maternal utterances at 1;4. These findings clearly illustrate that the effects of positional salience vary across lexical categories.
Object attraction effects during subject-verb agreement in Persian.

PubMed

Feiz, Aazam; Cowles, Wind

2018-04-01

Subject-verb agreement provides insight into how grammatical and semantic features interact during sentence production, and prior studies have found attraction errors when an intervening local noun is grammatically part of the subject. Two major types of theories have emerged from these studies: control based and competition-based. The current study used an subject-object-verb language with optional subject-verb agreement, Persian, to test the competition-based hypothesis that intervening object nouns may also cause attraction effects, even though objects are not part of the syntactic relationship between the subject and verb. Our results, which did not require speakers to make grammatical errors, show that objects can be attractors for agreement, but this effect appears to be dependent on the type of plural marker on the object. These results support competition-based theories of agreement production, in which agreement may be influenced by attractors that are outside the scope of the subject-verb relationship.

Definitions of Tactical and Strategic: An Informal Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, Paul C.

2004-01-01

Seventeen subject matter experts defined tactical and strategic within the aviation domain. They provided five verbs and a sentence describing both behaviors. The verbs for strategic behavior were Plan, Think, Arrange, Formulate, Intend, Devise, Anticipate, and Order. The verbs for tactical behavior were Act, Fly, Respond, Do, Avoid, Control, React, and Move. Verbs that were common to both were Get Information, Navigate, Know, Execute, Manage, Perceive, Understand, Direct, Concentrate, and Point. The responses highlight the difference between planning (strategic) and carrying out those plans (tactical). Tactical verbs are more action-oriented that change the state of the world after they have been accomplished. Strategic verbs are more prescriptive in that they do not change the state of the world but offer a procedure or program for changing the world. The pilot is in a tactical mode when actually moving the aircraft and in a strategic mode when thinking about moving it.
Utilization of Prosodic Information in Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Two self paced listening experiments examined the role of prosodic phrasing in syntactic ambiguity resolution. In Experiment 1, the stimuli consisted of early closure sentences (e.g., “While the parents watched, the child sang a song.”) containing transitive-biased subordinate verbs paired with plausible direct objects or intransitive-biased subordinate verbs paired with implausible direct objects. Experiment 2 also contained early closure sentences with transitively and intransitive-biased subordinate verbs, but the subordinate verbs were always followed by plausible direct objects. In both experiments, there were two prosodic conditions. In the subject-biased prosodic condition, an intonational phrase boundary marked the clausal boundary following the subordinate verb. In the object-biased prosodic condition, the clause boundary was unmarked. The results indicate that lexical and prosodic cues interact at the subordinate verb and plausibility further affects processing at the ambiguous noun. Results are discussed with respect to models of the role of prosody in sentence comprehension. PMID:20033849
40 CFR Appendix A-2 to Part 60 - Test Methods 2G through 3C

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... the main probe to extend its reach. 3.6 “May,” “Must,” “Shall,” “Should,” and the imperative form of...,” and the imperative form of verbs (such as “record” or “enter”) are used to indicate that a provision... results on a form similar to Table 2F-1 presented in Method 2F. If there is visible damage to the 3-D...
40 CFR Appendix A-2 to Part 60 - Test Methods 2G through 3C

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... the main probe to extend its reach. 3.6 “May,” “Must,” “Shall,” “Should,” and the imperative form of...,” and the imperative form of verbs (such as “record” or “enter”) are used to indicate that a provision... results on a form similar to Table 2F-1 presented in Method 2F. If there is visible damage to the 3-D...
40 CFR Appendix A-2 to Part 60 - Test Methods 2G through 3C

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... the main probe to extend its reach. 3.6 “May,” “Must,” “Shall,” “Should,” and the imperative form of...,” and the imperative form of verbs (such as “record” or “enter”) are used to indicate that a provision... results on a form similar to Table 2F-1 presented in Method 2F. If there is visible damage to the 3-D...
40 CFR Appendix A-2 to Part 60 - Test Methods 2G through 3C

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... the main probe to extend its reach. 3.6 “May,” “Must,” “Shall,” “Should,” and the imperative form of...,” and the imperative form of verbs (such as “record” or “enter”) are used to indicate that a provision... results on a form similar to Table 2F-1 presented in Method 2F. If there is visible damage to the 3-D...
40 CFR Appendix A-2 to Part 60 - Test Methods 2G through 3C

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... the main probe to extend its reach. 3.6 “May,” “Must,” “Shall,” “Should,” and the imperative form of...,” and the imperative form of verbs (such as “record” or “enter”) are used to indicate that a provision... results on a form similar to Table 2F-1 presented in Method 2F. If there is visible damage to the 3-D...
Predictors of verb-mediated anticipatory eye movements in the visual world.

PubMed

Hintz, Florian; Meyer, Antje S; Huettig, Falk

2017-09-01

Many studies have demonstrated that listeners use information extracted from verbs to guide anticipatory eye movements to objects in the visual context that satisfy the selection restrictions of the verb. An important question is what underlies such verb-mediated anticipatory eye gaze. Based on empirical and theoretical suggestions, we investigated the influence of 5 potential predictors of this behavior: functional associations and general associations between verb and target object, as well as the listeners' production fluency, receptive vocabulary knowledge, and nonverbal intelligence. In 3 eye-tracking experiments, participants looked at sets of 4 objects and listened to sentences where the final word was predictable or not predictable (e.g., "The man peels/draws an apple"). On predictable trials only the target object, but not the distractors, were functionally and associatively related to the verb. In Experiments 1 and 2, objects were presented before the verb was heard. In Experiment 3, participants were given a short preview of the display after the verb was heard. Functional associations and receptive vocabulary were found to be important predictors of verb-mediated anticipatory eye gaze independent of the amount of contextual visual input. General word associations did not and nonverbal intelligence was only a very weak predictor of anticipatory eye movements. Participants' production fluency correlated positively with the likelihood of anticipatory eye movements when participants were given the long but not the short visual display preview. These findings fit best with a pluralistic approach to predictive language processing in which multiple mechanisms, mediating factors, and situational context dynamically interact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).
Children's Developing Understanding of Mental Verbs: Remember, Know, and Guess.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Carl Nils; Wellman, Henry M.

1980-01-01

Preschoolers interpreted mental verbs with respect to their mental state in contrast to external state. These children were nontheless ignorant of definitive distinctions between the mental verbs, completely confusing cases of remembering, knowing, and guessing. (Author/RH)
Changes in airway configuration with different head and neck positions using magnetic resonance imaging of normal airways: a new concept with possible clinical applications.

PubMed

Greenland, K B; Edwards, M J; Hutton, N J; Challis, V J; Irwin, M G; Sleigh, J W

2010-11-01

The sniffing position is often considered optimal for direct laryngoscopy. Another concept of airway configuration involving a laryngeal vestibule axis and two curves has also been suggested. We investigated whether this theory can be supported mathematically and if it supports the sniffing position as being optimal for direct laryngoscopy. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed in 42 normal adult volunteers. The airway passage was divided into two curves-primary (oro-pharyngeal curve) and secondary (pharyngo-glotto-tracheal curve). Airway configuration was evaluated in the neutral, extension, head lift, and sniffing positions. The airway passage, point of inflection (where the two curves meet), its tangent, and the line of sight were plotted on each scan. The point of inflection lay within the laryngeal vestibule in all positions. The head lift and sniffing positions caused the tangent to the point of inflection to approximate the horizontal plane. The sniffing, extension, and head lift positions caused a reduction in the area between the line of sight and the airway curve compared with the neutral position. A two-curve theory is proposed as a basis for explaining airway configuration. The changes in these curves with head and neck positioning support the sniffing position as optimal for direct laryngoscopy. Application of this new concept to other forms of laryngoscopy should be investigated.
Predicate Adjective Usage in Standard Russian.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Morton

1959-01-01

This paper describes predicate adjective usage in modern standard Russian using a corpus of written Russian derived from "Pravda" (neutral literary style) and "Krokodil" (conversational material). The short, long nominative, and instrumental forms are examined in relation to the type of adjective, copulative verb, sentence subject, and other…
Determining the Effectiveness of Visual Input Enhancement across Multiple Linguistic Cues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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…
Our World Their World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brisco, Nicole

2011-01-01

Build, create, make, blog, develop, organize, structure, perform. These are just a few verbs that illustrate the visual world. These words create images that allow students to respond to their environment. Visual culture studies recognize the predominance of visual forms of media, communication, and information in the postmodern world. This…
Somali Syntax,

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-01-01

they - go The Vietnamese people should be allowed the right of determining their own destiny . 174" a.- ] !- ’--- _ (373) Anaa warrameya. I/SP (baa... embryo of a form of prepositional government which is the same for verbs and nouns alike and which is developing on the basis of a spatial noun
Transcriptome Analysis of Liangshan Pig Muscle Development at the Growth Curve Inflection Point and Asymptotic Stages Using Digital Gene Expression Profiling

PubMed Central

Du, Jingjing; Liu, Chendong; Wu, Xiaoqian; Pu, Qiang; Fu, Yuhua; Tang, Qianzi; Liu, Yuanrui; Li, Qiang; Yang, Runlin; Li, Xuewei; Tang, Guoqing; Jiang, Yanzhi; Li, Mingzhou; Zhang, Shunhua; Zhu, Li

2015-01-01

Animal growth curves can provide essential information for animal breeders to optimize feeding and management strategies. However, the genetic mechanism underlying the phenotypic differentiation between the inflection point and asymptotic stages of the growth curve is not well characterized. Here, we employed Liangshan pigs in stages of growth at the inflection point (under inflection point: UIP) and the two asymptotic stages (before the inflection point: BIP, after the inflection point: AIP) as models to survey global gene expression in the longissimus dorsi muscle using digital gene expression (DGE) tag profiling. We found Liangshan pigs reached maximum growth rate (UIP) at 163.6 days of age and a weight of 134.6 kg. The DGE libraries generated 117 million reads of 5.89 gigabases in length. 21,331, 20,996 and 20,139 expressed transcripts were identified BIP, UIP and AIP, respectively. Among them, we identified 757 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between BIP and UIP, and 271 DEGs between AIP and UIP. An enrichment analysis of DEGs proved the immune system was strengthened in the AIP stage. Energy metabolism rate, global transcriptional activity and bone development intensity were highest UIP. Meat from Liangshan pigs had the highest intramuscular fat content and most favorable fatty acid composition in the AIP. Three hundred eighty (27.70%) specific expression genes were highly enriched in QTL regions for growth and meat quality traits. This study completed a comprehensive analysis of diverse genetic mechanisms underlying the inflection point and asymptotic stages of growth. Our findings will serve as an important resource in the understanding of animal growth and development in indigenous pig breeds. PMID:26292092
Transcriptome Analysis of Liangshan Pig Muscle Development at the Growth Curve Inflection Point and Asymptotic Stages Using Digital Gene Expression Profiling.

PubMed

Shen, Linyuan; Luo, Jia; Du, Jingjing; Liu, Chendong; Wu, Xiaoqian; Pu, Qiang; Fu, Yuhua; Tang, Qianzi; Liu, Yuanrui; Li, Qiang; Yang, Runlin; Li, Xuewei; Tang, Guoqing; Jiang, Yanzhi; Li, Mingzhou; Zhang, Shunhua; Zhu, Li

2015-01-01

Animal growth curves can provide essential information for animal breeders to optimize feeding and management strategies. However, the genetic mechanism underlying the phenotypic differentiation between the inflection point and asymptotic stages of the growth curve is not well characterized. Here, we employed Liangshan pigs in stages of growth at the inflection point (under inflection point: UIP) and the two asymptotic stages (before the inflection point: BIP, after the inflection point: AIP) as models to survey global gene expression in the longissimus dorsi muscle using digital gene expression (DGE) tag profiling. We found Liangshan pigs reached maximum growth rate (UIP) at 163.6 days of age and a weight of 134.6 kg. The DGE libraries generated 117 million reads of 5.89 gigabases in length. 21,331, 20,996 and 20,139 expressed transcripts were identified BIP, UIP and AIP, respectively. Among them, we identified 757 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between BIP and UIP, and 271 DEGs between AIP and UIP. An enrichment analysis of DEGs proved the immune system was strengthened in the AIP stage. Energy metabolism rate, global transcriptional activity and bone development intensity were highest UIP. Meat from Liangshan pigs had the highest intramuscular fat content and most favorable fatty acid composition in the AIP. Three hundred eighty (27.70%) specific expression genes were highly enriched in QTL regions for growth and meat quality traits. This study completed a comprehensive analysis of diverse genetic mechanisms underlying the inflection point and asymptotic stages of growth. Our findings will serve as an important resource in the understanding of animal growth and development in indigenous pig breeds.
Production of Verb Tense in Agrammatic Aphasia: A Meta-Analysis and Further Data

PubMed Central

Faroqi-Shah, Yasmeen; Friedman, Laura

2015-01-01

In a majority of languages, the time of an event is expressed by marking tense on the verb. There is substantial evidence that the production of verb tense in sentences is more severely impaired than other functional categories in persons with agrammatic aphasia. The underlying source of this verb tense impairment is less clear, particularly in terms of the relative contribution of conceptual-semantic and processing demands. This study aimed to provide a more precise characterization of verb tense impairment by examining if there is dissociation within tenses (due to conceptual-semantic differences) and an effect of experimental task (mediated by processing limitations). Two sources of data were used: a meta-analysis of published research (which yielded 143 datasets) and new data from 16 persons with agrammatic aphasia. Tensed verbs were significantly more impaired than neutral (nonfinite) verbs, but there were no consistent differences between past, present, and future tenses. Overall, tense accuracy was mediated by task, such that picture description task was the most challenging, relative to sentence completion, sentence production priming, and grammaticality judgment. An interaction between task and tense revealed a past tense disadvantage for a sentence production priming task. These findings indicate that verb tense impairment is exacerbated by processing demands of the elicitation task and the conceptual-semantic differences between tenses are too subtle to show differential performance in agrammatism. PMID:26457004
Language-invariant verb processing regions in Spanish-English bilinguals.

PubMed

Willms, Joanna L; Shapiro, Kevin A; Peelen, Marius V; Pajtas, Petra E; Costa, Albert; Moo, Lauren R; Caramazza, Alfonso

2011-07-01

Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of all languages. Studies of brain-damaged patients and healthy individuals have demonstrated that verb processing can be dissociated from noun processing at a neuroanatomical level. In cases where bilingual patients have a noun or verb deficit, the deficit has been observed in both languages. This suggests that the noun-verb distinction may be based on neural components that are common across languages. Here we investigated the cortical organization of grammatical categories in healthy, early Spanish-English bilinguals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a morphophonological alternation task. Four regions showed greater activity for verbs than for nouns in both languages: left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LMTG), left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG); no regions showed greater activation for nouns. Multi-voxel pattern analysis within verb-specific regions showed indistinguishable activity patterns for English and Spanish, indicating language-invariant bilingual processing. In LMTG and LMFG, patterns were more similar within than across grammatical category, both within and across languages, indicating language-invariant grammatical class information. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying verb-specific processing are largely independent of language in bilinguals, both at the macroscopic neuroanatomical level and at the level of voxel activity patterns. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Investigation of the use of thermometric titrimetry for the determination of acidic substances in wine.

PubMed

Godinho, O E; Coelho, J A; Chagas, A P; Aleixo, L M

1984-03-01

The use of thermometric titrimetry in the determination of acidic substances in red wine is described. The titration curve obtained in the thermometric titration of red wine with strong base presents two inflections. The stoichiometry corresponding to the first inflection presents good agreement with the so-called "total acidity" of wine, and is proposed for its determination. The second inflection is related to the content of phenolic substances in red wine.
Effect of Two Isolated Vocal-facilitating Techniques Chant Talk and Pitch Inflections on the Phonation of Female Speech-language Pathology Students: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Meerschman, Iris; Bettens, Kim; Dejagere, Stefanie; Tetaert, Lieselot; D'haeseleer, Evelien; Claeys, Sofie; Van Lierde, Kristiane

2016-11-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the isolated vocal-facilitating techniques Chant Talk and Pitch Inflections on the phonation of healthy female speech-language pathology (SLP) students. A multigroup pretest-posttest design was used. A homogenous group of 40 healthy female SLP students with a mean age of 18.7 years were randomly assigned into 3 groups: a Chant Talk group (practicing Chant Talk across 18 weeks), a Pitch Inflections group (practicing Pitch Inflections across 18 weeks), and a control group (practicing no facilitating techniques). To compare vocal measures before and after this time span, an identical objective voice assessment protocol (aerodynamic measurement, acoustic analysis, voice range profile, and Dysphonia Severity Index) was performed in the 3 groups. Both Chant Talk and Pitch Inflections groups resulted in a significant decrease of the acoustic measure noise-to-harmonics ratio compared with the control group. The Chant Talk group resulted in a significant increase in the acoustic measure fundamental frequency compared with the control group. The results of this pilot study suggest that the facilitating techniques Chant Talk and Pitch Inflections may improve the objective measure of breathiness (noise-to-harmonics ratio) in healthy female SLP students. Copyright Â© 2016 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

String Vacuous Overt Verb Raising.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koisumi, Masatoshi

2000-01-01

Presents evidence for overt verb raising in Japanese, thereby defending the validity of the head parameter with its two values (head initial and head final). Explores consequences of the overt verb raising analysis of Japanese to various aspects of syntactic theory. (Author/VWL)
Dissociation between Semantic Representations for Motion and Action Verbs: Evidence from Patients with Left Hemisphere Lesions

PubMed Central

Taylor, Lawrence J.; Evans, Carys; Greer, Joanna; Senior, Carl; Coventry, Kenny R.; Ietswaart, Magdalena

2017-01-01

This multiple single case study contrasted left hemisphere stroke patients (N = 6) to healthy age-matched control participants (N = 15) on their understanding of action (e.g., holding, clenching) and motion verbs (e.g., crumbling, flowing). The tasks required participants to correctly identify the matching verb or associated picture. Dissociations on action and motion verb content depending on lesion site were expected. As predicted for verbs containing an action and/or motion content, modified t-tests confirmed selective deficits in processing motion verbs in patients with lesions involving posterior parietal and lateral occipitotemporal cortex. In contrast, deficits in verbs describing motionless actions were found in patients with more anterior lesions sparing posterior parietal and lateral occipitotemporal cortex. These findings support the hypotheses that semantic representations for action and motion are behaviorally and neuro-anatomically dissociable. The findings clarify the differential and critical role of perceptual and motor regions in processing modality-specific semantic knowledge as opposed to a supportive but not necessary role. We contextualize these results within theories from both cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience that make claims over the role of sensory and motor information in semantic representation. PMID:28261070
Heavy NP shift is the parser’s last resort: Evidence from eye movements ⋆

PubMed Central

Staub, Adrian; Clifton, Charles; Frazier, Lyn

2006-01-01

Two eye movement experiments explored the roles of verbal subcategorization possibilities and transitivity biases in the processing of heavy NP shift sentences in which the verb’s direct object appears to the right of a post-verbal phrase. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences in which a prepositional phrase immediately followed the verb, which was either obligatorily transitive or had a high transitivity bias (e.g., Jack praised/watched from the stands his daughter’s attempt to shoot a basket). Experiment 2 compared unshifted sentences to sentences in which an adverb intervened between the verb and its object, and obligatorily transitive verbs to optionally transitive verbs with widely varying transitivity biases. In both experiments, evidence of processing difficulty appeared on the material that intervened between the verb and its object when the verb was obligatorily transitive, and on the shifted direct object when the verb was optionally transitive, regardless of transitivity bias. We conclude that the parser adopts the heavy NP shift analysis only when it is forced to by the grammar, which we interpret in terms of a preference for immediate incremental interpretation. PMID:17047731
Body-part specific interactions of action verb processing with motor behaviour.

PubMed

Klepp, Anne; Niccolai, Valentina; Sieksmeyer, Jan; Arnzen, Stephanie; Indefrey, Peter; Schnitzler, Alfons; Biermann-Ruben, Katja

2017-06-15

The interaction of action-related language processing with actual movement is an indicator of the functional role of motor cortical involvement in language understanding. This paper describes two experiments using single action verb stimuli. Motor responses were performed with the hand or the foot. To test the double dissociation of language-motor facilitation effects within subjects, Experiments 1 and 2 used a priming procedure where both hand and foot reactions had to be performed in response to different geometrical shapes, which were preceded by action verbs. In Experiment 1, the semantics of the verbs could be ignored whereas Experiment 2 included semantic decisions. Only Experiment 2 revealed a clear double dissociation in reaction times: reactions were facilitated when preceded by verbs describing actions with the matching effector. In Experiment 1, by contrast, there was an interaction between verb-response congruence and a semantic variable related to motor features of the verbs. Thus, the double dissociation paradigm of semantic motor priming was effective, corroborating the role of the motor system in action-related language processing. Importantly, this effect was body part specific. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Noun-Verb Ambiguity in Chronic Undifferentiated Schizophrenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldfarb, Robert; Bekker, Natalie

2009-01-01

This study investigated noun-verb retrieval patterns of 30 adults with chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia and 67 typical adults, to determine if schizophrenia affected nouns (associated with temporal lobe function) differently from verbs (associated with frontal lobe function). Stimuli were homophonic homographic homonyms, balanced according…
Understanding and use of phrasal verbs and idioms in medical/nursing texts.

PubMed

Polackova, G

2008-01-01

Phrasal verbs and idioms are frequently used in everyday English. They are also used in more specific language as equivalents for special terms. The use of phrasal verbs and idioms by native patients and health care workers makes their communication easier and less confusing. Non-native medical workers often come across with English phrasal verbs (idioms) in authentic texts and communication. They should be able to recognize them and after analyzing their meaning include them into their own active vocabulary (Ref. 5).
Morphological Awareness Intervention with Kindergartners and First- and Second-Grade Students from Low Socioeconomic Status Homes: A Feasibility Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Apel, Kenn; Brimo, Danielle; Diehm, Emily; Apel, Lynda

2013-01-01

Purpose: The effect of a morphological awareness intervention on the morphological awareness and literacy skills of students from low socioeconomic status homes was investigated. Method: A 9-week intervention designed to increase awareness of affixes and the relations between base words and their inflected and derived forms was conducted with…
How Children Process Over-Regularizations: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clahsen, Harald; Luck, Monika; Hahne, Anja

2007-01-01

This study examines the mental processes involved in children's on-line recognition of inflected word forms using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixty children in three age groups (20 six- to seven-year-olds, 20 eight- to nine-year-olds, 20 eleven- to twelve-year-olds) and 23 adults (tested in a previous study) listened to sentences containing…
Text Enhancement and the Acquisition of English Verbal Inflection "-s" by L1 Haitian Creole Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Santis, Paulina

2008-01-01

This article contributes to the growing body of research investigating the effects of drawing learner attention to the problematic aspects of the linguistic input in the context of meaning-focused instruction. One specific approach to concentrate learner attention on form in the written input is known as textual enhancement. The pilot study…
Lexicality, morphological structure, and semantic transparency in the processing of German ver-verbs: The complementarity of on-line and off-line evidence.

PubMed

Schirmeier, Matthias K; Derwing, Bruce L; Libben, Gary

2004-01-01

Two types of experiments investigate the visual on-line and off-line processing of German ver-verbs (e.g., verbittern 'to embitter'). In Experiments 1 and 2 (morphological priming), latency patterns revealed the existence of facilitation effects for the morphological conditions (BITTER-VERBITTERN and BITTERN-VERBITTERN) as compared to the neutral conditions (SAUBER-VERBITTERN and SAUBERN-VERBITTERN). In Experiments 3 and 4 (rating tasks) participants had to judge whether the target (VERBITTERN) "comes from," "contains a form of," or "contains the meaning of" the root (BITTER) or the root+en substring (BITTERN). Taken together, these studies revealed the combined influence of the three factors of lexicality (real word status), morphological structure, and semantic transparency.
Detecting evolutionary forces in language change.

PubMed

Newberry, Mitchell G; Ahern, Christopher A; Clark, Robin; Plotkin, Joshua B

2017-11-09

Both language and genes evolve by transmission over generations with opportunity for differential replication of forms. The understanding that gene frequencies change at random by genetic drift, even in the absence of natural selection, was a seminal advance in evolutionary biology. Stochastic drift must also occur in language as a result of randomness in how linguistic forms are copied between speakers. Here we quantify the strength of selection relative to stochastic drift in language evolution. We use time series derived from large corpora of annotated texts dating from the 12th to 21st centuries to analyse three well-known grammatical changes in English: the regularization of past-tense verbs, the introduction of the periphrastic 'do', and variation in verbal negation. We reject stochastic drift in favour of selection in some cases but not in others. In particular, we infer selection towards the irregular forms of some past-tense verbs, which is likely driven by changing frequencies of rhyming patterns over time. We show that stochastic drift is stronger for rare words, which may explain why rare forms are more prone to replacement than common ones. This work provides a method for testing selective theories of language change against a null model and reveals an underappreciated role for stochasticity in language evolution.
Clustering the lexicon in the brain: a meta-analysis of the neurofunctional evidence on noun and verb processing

PubMed Central

Crepaldi, Davide; Berlingeri, Manuela; Cattinelli, Isabella; Borghese, Nunzio A.; Luzzatti, Claudio; Paulesu, Eraldo

2013-01-01

Although it is widely accepted that nouns and verbs are functionally independent linguistic entities, it is less clear whether their processing recruits different brain areas. This issue is particularly relevant for those theories of lexical semantics (and, more in general, of cognition) that suggest the embodiment of abstract concepts, i.e., based strongly on perceptual and motoric representations. This paper presents a formal meta-analysis of the neuroimaging evidence on noun and verb processing in order to address this dichotomy more effectively at the anatomical level. We used a hierarchical clustering algorithm that grouped fMRI/PET activation peaks solely on the basis of spatial proximity. Cluster specificity for grammatical class was then tested on the basis of the noun-verb distribution of the activation peaks included in each cluster. Thirty-two clusters were identified: three were associated with nouns across different tasks (in the right inferior temporal gyrus, the left angular gyrus, and the left inferior parietal gyrus); one with verbs across different tasks (in the posterior part of the right middle temporal gyrus); and three showed verb specificity in some tasks and noun specificity in others (in the left and right inferior frontal gyrus and the left insula). These results do not support the popular tenets that verb processing is predominantly based in the left frontal cortex and noun processing relies specifically on temporal regions; nor do they support the idea that verb lexical-semantic representations are heavily based on embodied motoric information. Our findings suggest instead that the cerebral circuits deputed to noun and verb processing lie in close spatial proximity in a wide network including frontal, parietal, and temporal regions. The data also indicate a predominant—but not exclusive—left lateralization of the network. PMID:23825451
Abstract Syntax in Sentence Production: Evidence from Stem-Exchange Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Liane Wardlow; Ferreira, Victor S.

2010-01-01

Three experiments tested theories of syntactic representation by assessing "stem-exchange" errors ("hates the record"[right arrow]"records the hate"). Previous research has shown that in stem exchanges, speakers pronounce intended nouns ("REcord") as verbs ("reCORD"), yielding syntactically well-formed utterances. By "lexically based" theories,…
Spanish in Four Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silva-Corvalan, Carmen, Ed.

Papers on Spanish bilingualism and Spanish in contact with other languages include: "The Study of Language Contact: An Overview of the Issues" (Carmen Silva-Corvalan); "Language Mixture: Ordinary Processes, Extraordinary Results" (Sarah G. Thomason); "The Impact of Quichua on Verb Forms Used in Spanish Requests in Otavalo,…
The Language of Inquiry and the Language of Authority.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edelman, Murray

Political language employed in serious inquiry differs systematically from language employed to promote loyalty to authority in respect to syntax; grammatical completeness and complexity; proportion of nouns, verbs, and other parts of speech; and forms of qualification. Formal language entails continuous effort at verfication or falsification and…
VERB - a social marketing campaign to increase physical activity among youth.

PubMed

Wong, Faye; Huhman, Marian; Heitzler, Carrie; Asbury, Lori; Bretthauer-Mueller, Rosemary; McCarthy, Susan; Londe, Paula

2004-07-01

The VERB campaign is a multiethnic media campaign with a goal to increase and maintain physical activity among tweens, or children aged nine to 13 years. Parents, especially mothers aged 29 to 46, and other sources of influence on tweens (e.g., teachers, youth program leaders) are the secondary audiences of the VERB initiative. VERB applies sophisticated commercial marketing techniques to address the public health problem of sedentary lifestyles of American children, using the social marketing principles of product, price, place, and promotion. In this paper, we describe how these four principles were applied to formulate the strategies and tactics of the VERB campaign, and we provide examples of the multimedia materials (e.g., posters, print advertising, television, radio spots) that were created.
The Retreat from Locative Overgeneralisation Errors: A Novel Verb Grammaticality Judgment Study

PubMed Central

Bidgood, Amy; Ambridge, Ben; Pine, Julian M.; Rowland, Caroline F.

2014-01-01

Whilst some locative verbs alternate between the ground- and figure-locative constructions (e.g. Lisa sprayed the flowers with water/Lisa sprayed water onto the flowers), others are restricted to one construction or the other (e.g. *Lisa filled water into the cup/*Lisa poured the cup with water). The present study investigated two proposals for how learners (aged 5–6, 9–10 and adults) acquire this restriction, using a novel-verb-learning grammaticality-judgment paradigm. In support of the semantic verb class hypothesis, participants in all age groups used the semantic properties of novel verbs to determine the locative constructions (ground/figure/both) in which they could and could not appear. In support of the frequency hypothesis, participants' tolerance of overgeneralisation errors decreased with each increasing level of verb frequency (novel/low/high). These results underline the need to develop an integrated account of the roles of semantics and frequency in the retreat from argument structure overgeneralisation. PMID:24830412
Ventral and dorsal streams for choosing word order during sentence production

PubMed Central

Thothathiri, Malathi; Rattinger, Michelle

2015-01-01

Proficient language use requires speakers to vary word order and choose between different ways of expressing the same meaning. Prior statistical associations between individual verbs and different word orders are known to influence speakers’ choices, but the underlying neural mechanisms are unknown. Here we show that distinct neural pathways are used for verbs with different statistical associations. We manipulated statistical experience by training participants in a language containing novel verbs and two alternative word orders (agent-before-patient, AP; patient-before-agent, PA). Some verbs appeared exclusively in AP, others exclusively in PA, and yet others in both orders. Subsequently, we used sparse sampling neuroimaging to examine the neural substrates as participants generated new sentences in the scanner. Behaviorally, participants showed an overall preference for AP order, but also increased PA order for verbs experienced in that order, reflecting statistical learning. Functional activation and connectivity analyses revealed distinct networks underlying the increased PA production. Verbs experienced in both orders during training preferentially recruited a ventral stream, indicating the use of conceptual processing for mapping meaning to word order. In contrast, verbs experienced solely in PA order recruited dorsal pathways, indicating the use of selective attention and sensorimotor integration for choosing words in the right order. These results show that the brain tracks the structural associations of individual verbs and that the same structural output may be achieved via ventral or dorsal streams, depending on the type of regularities in the input. PMID:26621706
Verbal Complementizers in Arabic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed, Hossam Eldin Ibrahim

2015-01-01

A class of Modern Standard Arabic complementizers known as "'?inna' and its sisters" demonstrate unique case and word order restrictions. While CPs in Arabic allow both Subject-Verb (SV) and Verb-Subject (VS) word order and their subjects show nominative morphology, CPs introduced by "?inna" ban a verb from directly following…
Verb Learning in 14- and 18-Month-Old English-Learning Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Angela Xiaoxue; Lidz, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

The present study investigates English-learning infants' early understanding of the link between the grammatical category "verb" and the conceptual category "event," and their ability to recruit morphosyntactic information online to learn novel verb meanings. We report two experiments using an infant-controlled…

PASBio: predicate-argument structures for event extraction in molecular biology

PubMed Central

Wattarujeekrit, Tuangthong; Shah, Parantu K; Collier, Nigel

2004-01-01

Background The exploitation of information extraction (IE), a technology aiming to provide instances of structured representations from free-form text, has been rapidly growing within the molecular biology (MB) research community to keep track of the latest results reported in literature. IE systems have traditionally used shallow syntactic patterns for matching facts in sentences but such approaches appear inadequate to achieve high accuracy in MB event extraction due to complex sentence structure. A consensus in the IE community is emerging on the necessity for exploiting deeper knowledge structures such as through the relations between a verb and its arguments shown by predicate-argument structure (PAS). PAS is of interest as structures typically correspond to events of interest and their participating entities. For this to be realized within IE a key knowledge component is the definition of PAS frames. PAS frames for non-technical domains such as newswire are already being constructed in several projects such as PropBank, VerbNet, and FrameNet. Knowledge from PAS should enable more accurate applications in several areas where sentence understanding is required like machine translation and text summarization. In this article, we explore the need to adapt PAS for the MB domain and specify PAS frames to support IE, as well as outlining the major issues that require consideration in their construction. Results We introduce PASBio by extending a model based on PropBank to the MB domain. The hypothesis we explore is that PAS holds the key for understanding relationships describing the roles of genes and gene products in mediating their biological functions. We chose predicates describing gene expression, molecular interactions and signal transduction events with the aim of covering a number of research areas in MB. Analysis was performed on sentences containing a set of verbal predicates from MEDLINE and full text journals. Results confirm the necessity to analyze PAS specifically for MB domain. Conclusions At present PASBio contains the analyzed PAS of over 30 verbs, publicly available on the Internet for use in advanced applications. In the future we aim to expand the knowledge base to cover more verbs and the nominal form of each predicate. PMID:15494078
Verbs and Attention to Relational Roles in English and Tamil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sethuraman, Nitya; Smith, Linda B.

2013-01-01

English-learning children have been shown to reliably use cues from argument structure in learning verbs. However, languages pair overtly expressed arguments with verbs to varying extents, raising the question of whether children learning all languages expect the same, universal mapping between arguments and relational roles. Three experiments…
Yes, We Still Need Universal Grammar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lidz, Jeffrey; Gleitman, Lila R.

2004-01-01

In a recent paper [Lidz, J., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. (2003). Understanding how input matters: Verb learning and the footprint of universal grammar. "Cognition," 87, 151-178], we provided cross-linguistic evidence in favor of the following linked assertions: (i) Verb argument structure is a correlate of verb meaning; (ii) However, argument…
The Timing of Verb Selection in Japanese Sentence Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Momma, Shota; Slevc, L. Robert; Phillips, Colin

2016-01-01

Many influential models of sentence production (e.g., Bock & Levelt, 1994; Kempen & Hoenkamp, 1987; Levelt, 1989) emphasize the central role of verbs in structural encoding, and thus predict that verbs should be selected early in sentence formulation, possibly even before the phonological encoding of the first constituent (Ferreira, 2000).…
Vocabulary Learning: Sentence Contexts Linked by Events in Scenarios Facilitate Third Graders' Memory for Verb Meanings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chilton, Molly Welsh; Ehri, Linnea C.

2015-01-01

An experiment compared the impact of more and less semantically connected sentence contexts on vocabulary learning. Third graders (N = 40) were taught the definitions and meanings of six unfamiliar verbs: "anticipate," "attain," "devise," "restrain," "wield," and "persist." The verbs were…
575 Tlingit Verbs: A Study of Tlingit Verb Paradigms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eggleston, Keri M.

2013-01-01

The Tlingit language, indigenous to Southeast Alaska and neighboring parts of British Columbia and the Yukon territory, is related to the Athabascan languages and the recently extinct language Eyak. Like Athabascan and Eyak, Tlingit verbal morphology is highly complex. The conjugation of Tlingit verbs is unpredictable in certain respects, making…
Tense, Aspect and the Verbs of Motion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pahomov, George S.

1979-01-01

To help students learn the imperfect and perfect aspects of Russian verbs, principles of math and physics can be utilized. This Orbit-Trajectory-Stasis method presents verbs of motion by avoiding tense, and suggests new verbal configurations for exploring both conceptual and concrete aspects. Appendices further illustrate the approach. (PMJ)
The English Verb System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorayska, Barbara

1978-01-01

Techniques of teaching the English finite verb to speakers of other languages must account for meaning that is signalled by the structure alone and meaning derived from the context. Accordingly, this study attempts to distinguish the semantic components of the finite verb structure. The structure is viewed as being always composed of the following…
Referent Predictability Is Affected by Syntactic Structure: Evidence from Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Wei; Almor, Amit

2017-01-01

This paper examines the effect of syntactic structures on referent predictability. Focusing on stimulus-experiencer (SE) verbs, we conducted two sentence-completion experiments in Chinese by contrasting SE verbs in three structures (active canonical, active "ba," and passive). The results showed that although verb semantics and discourse…
Toddlers' Verb Lexicon Diversity and Grammatical Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadley, Pamela A.; Rispoli, Matthew; Hsu, Ning

2016-01-01

Purpose: The goals of this study were to quantify longitudinal expectations for verb lexicon growth and to determine whether verb lexicon measures were better predictors of later grammatical outcomes than noun lexicon measures. Method: Longitudinal parent-report measures from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al.,…
Preferences for Verb Interpretation in Children with Specific Language Impairment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Donna J.; Rice, Mabel L.

1994-01-01

This study examined initial preferences for verb interpretation by 15 5-year-old children with specific language impairment, 15 language-matched children, and 15 age-matched children. Children indicated preferred interpretations of novel verbs from videotapes of motion and change-of-state activity scenes. Findings suggested that children's verb…
Early Verb Learning: How Do Children Learn How to Compare Events?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childers, Jane B.; Parrish, Rebecca; Olson, Christina V.; Burch, Clare; Fung, Gavin; McIntyre, Kevin P.

2016-01-01

An important problem verb learners must solve is how to extend verbs. Children could use cross-situational information to guide their extensions; however, comparing events is difficult. In 2 studies, researchers tested whether children benefit from initially seeing a pair of similar events ("progressive alignment") while learning new…
The Role of Semantic Features in Verb Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonnotte, Isabelle

2008-01-01

The present study examined the general hypothesis that, as for nouns, stable representations of semantic knowledge relative to situations expressed by verbs are available and accessible in long term memory in normal people. Regular associations between verbs and past tenses in French adults allowed to abstract two superordinate semantic features…
Ueber das Mannheimer Woerterbuch zur Verbvalenz (About the Mannheim Dictionary of Verb Valence)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumacher, Helmut

1976-01-01

Describes the purpose, structure and application of this monolingual verb lexicon, which indicates the morphosyntactic environments of the most common German verbs. Mention is made of the forthcoming valence lexicon. The book is for teachers and textbook writers. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)
Remarks on Causative Verbs and Object Deletion in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onozuka, Hiromi

2007-01-01

Rappaport Hovav and Levin [Rappaport Hovav, M., Levin, B., 1998. "Building verb meanings." In: Butt, M., Geuder, W. (Eds.), "The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors." CSLI Publications, Stanford, pp. 97-134] contend that result verbs disallow object deletion because of their lexical semantic properties. Their point is that…
Social Marketing as a Framework for Youth Physical Activity Initiatives: a 10-Year Retrospective on the Legacy of CDC's VERB Campaign.

PubMed

Huhman, Marian; Kelly, Ryan P; Edgar, Timothy

2017-06-01

In 2002, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the VERB. It's what you do! campaign to increase physical activity among tweens and concomitantly respond to the rise in childhood obesity. This retrospective study summarizes the history of the VERB campaign's social marketing approach and its effectiveness in promoting behavior change in the targeted population. The legacy of VERB, which ended in 2006, is discussed, with an emphasis on examining initiatives over the last decade and the degree to which they followed (or did not follow) the structural and thematic lead of the campaign. The article ends with suggestions for how VERB still has the potential to inform other social marketing campaigns going forward.
Effects of testing on subsequent re-encoding and long-term forgetting of action-relevant materials: On the influence of recall type.

PubMed

Kubik, Veit; Nilsson, Lars-Göran; Olofsson, Jonas K; Jönsson, Fredrik U

2015-10-01

Testing one's memory of previously studied information reduces the rate of forgetting, compared to restudy. However, little is known about how this direct testing effect applies to action phrases (e.g., "wash the car") - a learning material relevant to everyday memory. As action phrases consist of two different components, a verb (e.g., "wash") and a noun (e.g., "car"), testing can either be implemented as noun-cued recall of verbs or verb-cued recall of nouns, which may differently affect later memory performance. In the present study, we investigated the effect of testing for these two recall types, using verbally encoded action phrases as learning materials. Results showed that repeated study-test practice, compared to repeated study-restudy practice, decreased the forgetting rate across 1 week to a similar degree for both noun-cued and verb-cued recall types. However, noun-cued recall of verbs initiated more new subsequent learning during the first restudy, compared to verb-cued recall of nouns. The study provides evidence that testing has benefits on both subsequent restudy and long-term retention of action-relevant materials, but that these benefits are differently expressed with testing via noun-cued versus verb-cued recall. © 2015 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Language for action: Motor resonance during the processing of human and robotic voices.

PubMed

Di Cesare, G; Errante, A; Marchi, M; Cuccio, V

2017-11-01

In this fMRI study we evaluated whether the auditory processing of action verbs pronounced by a human or a robotic voice in the imperative mood differently modulates the activation of the mirror neuron system (MNs). The study produced three results. First, the activation pattern found during listening to action verbs was very similar in both the robot and human conditions. Second, the processing of action verbs compared to abstract verbs determined the activation of the fronto-parietal circuit classically involved during the action goal understanding. Third, and most importantly, listening to action verbs compared to abstract verbs produced activation of the anterior part of the supramarginal gyrus (aSMG) regardless of the condition (human and robot) and in the absence of any object name. The supramarginal gyrus is a region considered to underpin hand-object interaction and associated to the processing of affordances. These results suggest that listening to action verbs may trigger the recruitment of motor representations characterizing affordances and action execution, coherently with the predictive nature of motor simulation that not only allows us to re-enact motor knowledge to understand others' actions but also prepares us for the actions we might need to carry out. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Negative Sentences in Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thornton, Rosalind; Rombough, Kelly; Martin, Jasmine; Orton, Linda

2016-01-01

This study used elicited production methodology to investigate the negative sentences that are produced by English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Negative sentences were elicited in contexts in which adults use the negative auxiliary verb doesn't (e.g., "It doesn't fit"). This form was targeted to see how…
Classical Sanskrit Preverb Ordering: A Diachronic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papke, Julia Kay Porter

2010-01-01

The Indo-European language family contains many "small words" with various adverbial meanings and functions, including preverbs. The term "preverb" is used to label any of a variety of modifying morphemes that form a close semantic unit with a verb, including both words and prefixes (Booij and Kemenade 2003). Some Indo-European languages not only…

Voseo to Tuteo Accommodation among Two Salvadoran Communities in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sorenson, Travis Doug

2010-01-01

This study documents and accounts for maintenance and change in dialectal features of Salvadoran Spanish in the United States, especially "voseo", as opposed to "tuteo", terms signifying the use of the second person singular familiar pronouns vos and tu , with their corresponding verb forms. It compares two distinct Salvadoran…
A Dictionary of Hindi Verbal Expressions (Hindi-English). Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bahl, Kali Charan, Comp.

This dictionary covers approximately 28,277 verbal expressions in modern standard Hindi and their rendered English equivalents. The study lists longer verbal expressions which are generally matched by single verbs in English. The lexicographer notes that the majority of entries in this dictionary do not appear in their present form in most other…
Constructing a Second Language: Analyses and Computational Simulations of the Emergence of Linguistic Constructions from Usage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Nick C.

2009-01-01

This article presents an analysis of interactions in the usage, structure, cognition, coadaptation of conversational partners, and emergence of linguistic constructions. It focuses on second language development of English verb-argument constructions (VACs: VL, verb locative; VOL, verb object locative; VOO, ditransitive) with particular reference…
Effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment in Moderate-to-Severe Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edmonds, Lisa A.; Babb, Michelle

2011-01-01

Purpose: This Phase II treatment study examined the effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) on individuals with moderate-to-severe aphasia. Research questions addressed (a) pre- to posttreatment changes and pretreatment to treatment phase changes on probe sentences containing trained verbs (e.g., "The carpenter is 'measuring' the…
A Common Mechanism in Verb and Noun Naming Deficits in Alzheimer's Patients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almor, Amit; Aronoff, Justin M.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.; Gonnerman, Laura M.; Kempler, Daniel; Hintiryan, Houri; Hayes, UnJa L.; Arunachalam, Sudha; Andersen, Elaine S.

2009-01-01

We tested the ability of Alzheimer's patients and elderly controls to name living and non-living nouns, and manner and instrument verbs. Patients' error patterns and relative performance with different categories showed evidence of graceful degradation for both nouns and verbs, with particular domain-specific impairments for living nouns and…
Patterns of Morphosyntactic and Functional Diversification in the Usage of Cognate Verbs in Indo-Iranian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shirtz, Shahar Baruch

2017-01-01

This is a study of processes of structural and functional diversification of the uses of three cognate verbs across the Indo-Iranian language family: "do/make", "be/become", and "give". First, this study identifies over sixty distinct construction types in which these verbs are used, including complex predicate…
Development of Lexical and Syntactic Representations: The Acquisition of Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gurcanli, Ozge

2013-01-01

This dissertation concerns the acquisition of the interaction between lexicosemantic properties of verbs and syntax, focusing on symmetrical and asymmetrical verbs in different syntactic structures. Based on linguistic evidence, it is shown that two conceptual categories, Mutuality and Number, interact to give rise to four event-types: Single…
Processing Coordinated Verb Phrases: The Relevance of Lexical-Semantic, Conceptual, and Contextual Information towards Establishing Verbal Parallelism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tutunjian, Damon A.

2010-01-01

This dissertation examines the influence of lexical-semantic representations, conceptual similarity, and contextual fit on the processing of coordinated verb phrases. The study integrates information gleaned from current linguistic theory with current psycholinguistic approaches to examining the processing of coordinated verb phrases. It has…
Neural Correlates of Dutch Verb Second in Speech Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

den Ouden, Dirk-Bart; Hoogduin, Hans; Stowe, Laurie A.; Bastiaanse, Roelien

2008-01-01

Dutch speakers with agrammatic Broca's aphasia are known to have problems with the production of finite verbs in main clauses. This performance pattern has been accounted for in terms of the specific syntactic complexity of the Dutch main clause structure, which requires an extra syntactic operation (Verb Second), relative to the basic…
When We Think about Thinking: The Acquisition of Belief Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papafragou, Anna; Cassidy, Kimberly; Gleitman, Lila

2007-01-01

Mental-content verbs such as "think," "believe," "imagine" and "hope" seem to pose special problems for the young language learner. One possible explanation for these difficulties is that the concepts that these verbs express are hard to grasp and therefore their acquisition must await relevant conceptual development. According to a different,…
Exploring Atypical Verb+Noun Combinations in Learner Technical Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luzon Marco, Maria Jose

2011-01-01

Professional and academic discourse is characterised by a specific phraseology, which usually poses problems for students. This paper investigates atypical verb+noun collocations in a corpus of English technical writing of Spanish students. I focus on the type of verbs that most frequently occurred in these awkward or questionable combinations and…
Lexical Retrieval of Nouns and Verbs in a Sentence Completion Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abel, Alyson D.; Maguire, Mandy J.; Naqvi, Fizza M.; Kim, Angela Y.

2015-01-01

This study explored noun and verb retrieval using a sentence completion task to expand upon previous findings from picture naming tasks. Participants completed sentences missing either a target noun or verb in the final position. Non-target responses were coded for substitution type, imageability and frequency. Like picture naming, nouns and verbs…
Comparing Nouns and Verbs in a Lexical Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cordier, Francoise; Croizet, Jean-Claude; Rigalleau, Francois

2013-01-01

We analyzed the differential processing of nouns and verbs in a lexical decision task. Moderate and high-frequency nouns and verbs were compared. The characteristics of our material were specified at the formal level (number of letters and syllables, number of homographs, orthographic neighbors, frequency and age of acquisition), and at the…
Can We Separate Verbs from Their Argument Structure? A Group Study in Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caley, Sarah; Whitworth, Anne; Claessen, Mary

2017-01-01

Background: Given the integral role that verbs play in sentence production, understanding verb deficits is critical to clinical practice. Difficulties in sentence production are often directly related to an inability to retrieve argument structure information which, according to most theoretical accounts, is specified at a lexical level as part of…
Counting the Nouns: Simple Structural Cues to Verb Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Sylvia; Fisher, Cynthia; Snedeker, Jesse

2012-01-01

Two-year-olds use the sentence structures verbs appear in--"subcategorization frames"--to guide verb learning. This is syntactic bootstrapping. This study probed the developmental origins of this ability. The structure-mapping account proposes that children begin with a bias toward one-to-one mapping between nouns in sentences and participant…
Using Action Verbs as Learning Outcomes: Applying Bloom's Taxonomy in Measuring Instructional Objectives in Introductory Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nevid, Jeffrey S.; McClelland, Nate

2013-01-01

We used a set of action verbs based on Bloom's taxonomy to assess learning outcomes in two college-level introductory psychology courses. The action verbs represented an acronym, IDEA, comprising skills relating to identifying, defining or describing, evaluating or explaining, and applying psychological knowledge. Exam performance demonstrated…
Mandarin Learners Use Syntactic Bootstrapping in Verb Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Joanne N.; Naigles, Letitia R.

2008-01-01

Mandarin Chinese allows pervasive ellipsis of noun arguments (NPs) in discourse, which casts doubt concerning child learners' use of syntax in verb learning. This study investigated whether Mandarin learning children would nonetheless extend verb meanings based on the number of NPs in sentences. Forty-one Mandarin-speaking two- and three-year-olds…
Lexical, Syntactic, and Semantic-Geometric Factors in the Acquisition of Motion Predicates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skordos, Dimitrios; Papafragou, Anna

2014-01-01

We report a study that explored the mechanisms used in hypothesizing meanings for novel motion predicates (verbs and prepositions) cross-linguistically. Motion stimuli were presented to English- and Greek-speaking adults and preschoolers accompanied by (a) a novel intransitive verb, (b) a novel transitive verb, (c) a novel transitive preposition,…
Verb Particle and Preposition Acquisition in Language-Impaired Preschoolers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watkins, Ruth V.; Rice, Mabel L.

1991-01-01

This study examined the acquisition of verb particles and prepositions in language-impaired, language-matched, and age-matched preschool children (total n=42). Results indicated that the use of verb particles constituted a particularly challenging task for the language-impaired subjects relative to both the age-matched and language-matched peers.…
Young Children Can Extend Motion Verbs to Point-Light Displays.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Chung, He Len; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Liu, Jing; Bertenthal, Bennett I.; Brand, Rebecca; Maguire, Mandy J.; Hennon, Elizabeth

2002-01-01

Used point-light displays (lights corresponding to the joints of the human body) to examine 3-year-olds' understanding of verbs. Found that children could extend familiar motion verbs (walking, dancing) to videotaped point-light actions shown in an intermodal preferential looking paradigm. Children watched the action matching the requested verb…

Live Action: Can Young Children Learn Verbs from Video?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Parish-Morris, Julia; Golinkoff, Roberta M.

2009-01-01

The availability of educational programming aimed at infants and toddlers is increasing, yet the effect of video on language acquisition remains unclear. Three studies of 96 children aged 30-42 months investigated their ability to learn verbs from video. Study 1 asked whether children could learn verbs from video when supported by live social…
Do Acting out Verbs with Dolls and Comparison Learning between Scenes Boost Toddlers' Verb Comprehension?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwarz, Amy Louise; Van Kleeck, Anne; Maguire, Mandy J.; Abdi, Herve

2017-01-01

To better understand how toddlers integrate multiple learning strategies to acquire verbs, we compared sensorimotor recruitment and comparison learning because both strategies are thought to boost children's access to scene-level information. For sensorimotor recruitment, we tested having toddlers use dolls as agents and compared this strategy…
Infants use known verbs to learn novel nouns: evidence from 15- and 19-month-olds.

PubMed

Ferguson, Brock; Graf, Eileen; Waxman, Sandra R

2014-04-01

Fluent speakers' representations of verbs include semantic knowledge about the nouns that can serve as their arguments. These "selectional restrictions" of a verb can in principle be recruited to learn the meaning of a novel noun. For example, the sentence He ate the carambola licenses the inference that carambola refers to something edible. We ask whether 15- and 19-month-old infants can recruit their nascent verb lexicon to identify the referents of novel nouns that appear as the verbs' subjects. We compared infants' interpretation of a novel noun (e.g., the dax) in two conditions: one in which dax is presented as the subject of animate-selecting construction (e.g., The dax is crying), and the other in which dax is the subject of an animacy-neutral construction (e.g., The dax is right here). Results indicate that by 19months, infants use their representations of known verbs to inform the meaning of a novel noun that appears as its argument. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Typical Neural Representations of Action Verbs Develop without Vision

PubMed Central

Caramazza, A.; Pascual-Leone, A.; Saxe, R.

2012-01-01

Many empiricist theories hold that concepts are composed of sensory–motor primitives. For example, the meaning of the word “run” is in part a visual image of running. If action concepts are partly visual, then the concepts of congenitally blind individuals should be altered in that they lack these visual features. We compared semantic judgments and neural activity during action verb comprehension in congenitally blind and sighted individuals. Participants made similarity judgments about pairs of nouns and verbs that varied in the visual motion they conveyed. Blind adults showed the same pattern of similarity judgments as sighted adults. We identified the left middle temporal gyrus (lMTG) brain region that putatively stores visual–motion features relevant to action verbs. The functional profile and location of this region was identical in sighted and congenitally blind individuals. Furthermore, the lMTG was more active for all verbs than nouns, irrespective of visual–motion features. We conclude that the lMTG contains abstract representations of verb meanings rather than visual–motion images. Our data suggest that conceptual brain regions are not altered by the sensory modality of learning. PMID:21653285
The role of syntax in complex networks: Local and global importance of verbs in a syntactic dependency network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Čech, Radek; Mačutek, Ján; Žabokrtský, Zdeněk

2011-10-01

Syntax of natural language has been the focus of linguistics for decades. The complex network theory, being one of new research tools, opens new perspectives on syntax properties of the language. Despite numerous partial achievements, some fundamental problems remain unsolved. Specifically, although statistical properties typical for complex networks can be observed in all syntactic networks, the impact of syntax itself on these properties is still unclear. The aim of the present study is to shed more light on the role of syntax in the syntactic network structure. In particular, we concentrate on the impact of the syntactic function of a verb in the sentence on the complex network structure. Verbs play the decisive role in the sentence structure (“local” importance). From this fact we hypothesize the importance of verbs in the complex network (“global” importance). The importance of verb in the complex network is assessed by the number of links which are directed from the node representing verb to other nodes in the network. Six languages (Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese) were used for testing the hypothesis.
Exploring telicity and transitivity in primordial thought language and body boundary imagery.

PubMed

Cariola, Laura A

2014-12-01

Linguistics research on 'unconscious knowledge' related to the right brain-hemisphere represents a shift from the prevalent scientific investigation of the linguistic processes of grammatical structures associated with the dominant 'verbal' left brain-hemisphere. This study explores the relationship among primordial thought language, body boundary awareness and syntactic features--i.e., telicity, perfectivity and transitivity-in autobiographical narratives of everyday and dream memories. The results showed that event descriptions with atelic predicates and intransitive structures were more frequent in dream recall than in narratives of everyday memories. Primordial thought language and body boundary awareness, however, decreased with atelic predicates and transitive structures, which might indicate both the tendency of events to describe result states, such as achievements and accomplishments, as a means to bring about an unconscious wish fulfilment and the emphasis on event arguments to be realised without the inclusion of an external object. In narratives of everyday memories, penetration imagery increased with imperfective verb forms and decreased with perfective verb forms, and emotion lexis increased with atelic predicates and transitive structures, but not in dream memories.
Thinking About Multiword Constructions: Usage-Based Approaches to Acquisition and Processing.

PubMed

Ellis, Nick C; Ogden, Dave C

2017-07-01

Usage-based approaches to language hold that we learn multiword expressions as patterns of language from language usage, and that knowledge of these patterns underlies fluent language processing. This paper explores these claims by focusing upon verb-argument constructions (VACs) such as "V(erb) about n(oun phrase)." These are productive constructions that bind syntax, lexis, and semantics. It presents (a) analyses of usage patterns of English VACs in terms of their grammatical form, semantics, lexical constituency, and distribution patterns in large corpora; (b) patterns of VAC usage in child-directed speech and child language acquisition; and (c) investigations of VAC free-association and psycholinguistic studies of online processing. We conclude that VACs are highly patterned in usage, that this patterning drives language acquisition, and that language processing is sensitive to the forms of the syntagmatic construction and their distributional statistics, the contingency of their association with meaning, and spreading activation and prototypicality effects in semantic reference. Language users have rich implicit knowledge of the statistics of multiword sequences. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.
What's in the input? Frequent frames in child-directed speech offer distributional cues to grammatical categories in Spanish and English

PubMed Central

Weisleder, Adriana; Waxman, Sandra R.

2010-01-01

Recent analyses have revealed that child-directed speech contains distributional regularities that could, in principle, support young children's discovery of distinct grammatical categories (noun, verb, adjective). In particular, a distributional unit known as the frequent frame appears to be especially informative (Mintz, 2003). However, analyses have focused almost exclusively on the distributional information available in English. Because languages differ considerably in how the grammatical forms are marked within utterances, the scarcity of cross-linguistic evidence represents an unfortunate gap. We therefore advance the developmental evidence by analyzing the distributional information available in frequent frames across two languages (Spanish and English), across sentence positions (phrase medial and phrase final), and across grammatical forms (noun, verb, adjective). We selected six parent-child corpora from the CHILDES database (3 English; 3 Spanish), and analyzed the input when children were 2;6 years or younger. In each language, frequent frames did indeed offer systematic cues to grammatical category assignment. We also identify differences in the accuracy of these frames across languages, sentences positions, and grammatical classes. PMID:19698207
What's in the input? Frequent frames in child-directed speech offer distributional cues to grammatical categories in Spanish and English.

PubMed

Weisleder, Adriana; Waxman, Sandra R

2010-11-01

Recent analyses have revealed that child-directed speech contains distributional regularities that could, in principle, support young children's discovery of distinct grammatical categories (noun, verb, adjective). In particular, a distributional unit known as the frequent frame appears to be especially informative (Mintz, 2003). However, analyses have focused almost exclusively on the distributional information available in English. Because languages differ considerably in how the grammatical forms are marked within utterances, the scarcity of cross-linguistic evidence represents an unfortunate gap. We therefore advance the developmental evidence by analyzing the distributional information available in frequent frames across two languages (Spanish and English), across sentence positions (phrase medial and phrase final), and across grammatical forms (noun, verb, adjective). We selected six parent-child corpora from the CHILDES database (three English; three Spanish), and analyzed the input when children were aged 2 ; 6 or younger. In each language, frequent frames did indeed offer systematic cues to grammatical category assignment. We also identify differences in the accuracy of these frames across languages, sentences positions and grammatical classes.
Nanoparticle agglomeration in an evaporating levitated droplet for different acoustic amplitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tijerino, Erick; Basu, Saptarshi; Kumar, Ranganathan

2013-01-01

Radiatively heated levitated functional droplets with nanosilica suspensions exhibit three distinct stages namely pure evaporation, agglomeration, and finally structure formation. The temporal history of the droplet surface temperature shows two inflection points. One inflection point corresponds to a local maximum and demarcates the end of transient heating of the droplet and domination of vaporization. The second inflection point is a local minimum and indicates slowing down of the evaporation rate due to surface accumulation of nanoparticles. Morphology and final precipitation structures of levitated droplets are due to competing mechanisms of particle agglomeration, evaporation, and shape deformation. In this work, we provide a detailed analysis for each process and propose two important timescales for evaporation and agglomeration that determine the final diameter of the structure formed. It is seen that both agglomeration and evaporation timescales are similar functions of acoustic amplitude (sound pressure level), droplet size, viscosity, and density. However, we show that while the agglomeration timescale decreases with initial particle concentration, the evaporation timescale shows the opposite trend. The final normalized diameter can be shown to be dependent solely on the ratio of agglomeration to evaporation timescales for all concentrations and acoustic amplitudes. The structures also exhibit various aspect ratios (bowls, rings, spheroids) which depend on the ratio of the deformation timescale (tdef) and the agglomeration timescale (tg). For tdef
Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading

PubMed Central

Columbus, Georgie; Sheikh, Naveed A.; Côté-Lecaldare, Marilena; Häuser, Katja; Baum, Shari R.; Titone, Debra

2015-01-01

Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension. We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1. When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors). Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal), and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented. PMID:25628557
Grammatical Class Effects Across Impaired Child and Adult Populations

PubMed Central

Kambanaros, Maria; Grohmann, Kleanthes K.

2015-01-01

The aims of this study are to compare quantitative and qualitative differences for noun/verb retrieval across language-impaired groups, examine naming errors with reference to psycholinguistic models of word processing, and shed light on the nature of the naming deficit as well as determine relevant group commonalities and differences. This includes an attempt to establish whether error types differentiate language-impaired children from adults, to determine effects of psycholinguistic variables on naming accuracies, and to link the results to genetic mechanisms and/or neural circuitry in the brain. A total of 89 (language-)impaired participants took part in this report: 24 adults with acquired aphasia, 20 adults with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, 31 adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and 14 children with specific language impairment. The results of simultaneous multiple regression analyses for the errors in verb naming compared to the psycholinguistic variables for all language-impaired groups are reported and discussed in relation to models of lexical processing. This discussion will lead to considerations of genetic and/or neurobiological underpinnings: Presence of the noun–verb dissociation in focal and non-focal brain impairment make localization theories redundant, but support for wider neural network involvement.The patterns reported cannot be reduced to any one level of language processing, suggesting multiple interactions at different levels (e.g., receptive vs. expressive language abilities).Semantic-conceptual properties constrain syntactic properties with implications for phonological word form retrieval.Competition needs to be resolved at both conceptual and phonological levels of representation. Moreover, this study may provide a cross-pathological baseline that can be probed further with respect to recent suggestions concerning a reconsideration of open- vs. closed-class items, according to which verbs may actually fall into the latter rather than the standardly received former class. PMID:26635644
Individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing: an eye movement study of sentence reading.

PubMed

Columbus, Georgie; Sheikh, Naveed A; Côté-Lecaldare, Marilena; Häuser, Katja; Baum, Shari R; Titone, Debra

2014-01-01

Metaphors are common elements of language that allow us to creatively stretch the limits of word meaning. However, metaphors vary in their degree of novelty, which determines whether people must create new meanings on-line or retrieve previously known metaphorical meanings from memory. Such variations affect the degree to which general cognitive capacities such as executive control are required for successful comprehension. We investigated whether individual differences in executive control relate to metaphor processing using eye movement measures of reading. Thirty-nine participants read sentences including metaphors or idioms, another form of figurative language that is more likely to rely on meaning retrieval. They also completed the AX-CPT, a domain-general executive control task. In Experiment 1, we examined sentences containing metaphorical or literal uses of verbs, presented with or without prior context. In Experiment 2, we examined sentences containing idioms or literal phrases for the same participants to determine whether the link to executive control was qualitatively similar or different to Experiment 1. When metaphors were low familiar, all people read verbs used as metaphors more slowly than verbs used literally (this difference was smaller for high familiar metaphors). Executive control capacity modulated this pattern in that high executive control readers spent more time reading verbs when a prior context forced a particular interpretation (metaphorical or literal), and they had faster total metaphor reading times when there was a prior context. Interestingly, executive control did not relate to idiom processing for the same readers. Here, all readers had faster total reading times for high familiar idioms than literal phrases. Thus, executive control relates to metaphor but not idiom processing for these readers, and for the particular metaphor and idiom reading manipulations presented.
Overextension in verb conjunctions.

PubMed

Jönsson, Martin L

2015-11-01

Hampton (1988) discovered that people are subject to overextension-they categorize some things as falling under a conjunction (e.g., they categorize chess as a sport which is also a game) but not as falling under both of the corresponding conjuncts (e.g., they do not categorize chess as a sport). Although subsequent literature has replicated this effect with a wider range of constructions than those originally used by Hampton, the research so far has been exclusively concerned with various forms of noun compounds. This article generalizes the previous findings to the domain of verb conjunctions. By using a novel paradigm for studying overextension effects, this study demonstrates a very strong overextension effect for conjunctions of gerunds (e.g., walking and smoking). The author discusses the implications of the new findings for available explanations of overextension. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
Action verbs are processed differently in metaphorical and literal sentences depending on the semantic match of visual primes

PubMed Central

Troyer, Melissa; Curley, Lauren B.; Miller, Luke E.; Saygin, Ayse P.; Bergen, Benjamin K.

2014-01-01

Language comprehension requires rapid and flexible access to information stored in long-term memory, likely influenced by activation of rich world knowledge and by brain systems that support the processing of sensorimotor content. We hypothesized that while literal language about biological motion might rely on neurocognitive representations of biological motion specific to the details of the actions described, metaphors rely on more generic representations of motion. In a priming and self-paced reading paradigm, participants saw video clips or images of (a) an intact point-light walker or (b) a scrambled control and read sentences containing literal or metaphoric uses of biological motion verbs either closely or distantly related to the depicted action (walking). We predicted that reading times for literal and metaphorical sentences would show differential sensitivity to the match between the verb and the visual prime. In Experiment 1, we observed interactions between the prime type (walker or scrambled video) and the verb type (close or distant match) for both literal and metaphorical sentences, but with strikingly different patterns. We found no difference in the verb region of literal sentences for Close-Match verbs after walker or scrambled motion primes, but Distant-Match verbs were read more quickly following walker primes. For metaphorical sentences, the results were roughly reversed, with Distant-Match verbs being read more slowly following a walker compared to scrambled motion. In Experiment 2, we observed a similar pattern following still image primes, though critical interactions emerged later in the sentence. We interpret these findings as evidence for shared recruitment of cognitive and neural mechanisms for processing visual and verbal biological motion information. Metaphoric language using biological motion verbs may recruit neurocognitive mechanisms similar to those used in processing literal language but be represented in a less-specific way. PMID:25538604
Influencing the parents of children aged 9-13 years: findings from the VERB campaign.

PubMed

Price, Simani M; Huhman, Marian; Potter, Lance D

2008-06-01

The CDC's VERB campaign was designed to increase physical activity among children aged 9-13 years (tweens). As part of the strategy to surround tweens with support to be physically active, VERB developed messages for parents, the secondary target audience, to encourage them to support their tween's physical activity. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine whether parent awareness of VERB was a significant predictor of seven factors that related to parental attitudes, beliefs, and supportive behaviors for tweens' physical activity using the Youth Media Campaign Longitudinal Survey (YMCLS). Parents (N=1946) of U.S. children aged 9-13 years. Advertising directed at tweens through paid television, radio, print, Internet, and schools was the primary VERB intervention; tween advertising could have been also seen by parents. Messages directed at parents encouraging their support of tweens' physical activity were delivered in English through mainly print and radio. In-language messages for Latino and Asian audiences were delivered through print, radio, television, and at events. Parents' awareness of VERB; parents' attitudes, beliefs, and support for their tweens' physical activities. Awareness increased each year of the campaign; more than 50% of parents were aware of VERB by the third year of the campaign. Parents reported that their main source of awareness was television, the main channel used to reach tweens. Awareness of VERB was predictive of positive attitudes about physical activity for all children, belief in the importance of physical activity for their own child, and the number of days parents were physically active with their child. Parents' awareness of VERB was associated with positive attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. Parents' awareness probably resulted from a combination of messages directed to parents and tweens. To maximize audience reach, social marketers who are developing health messages should consider the potential value of parents and their children seeing or hearing the same messages, separately or together.
Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex: wide-coverage evaluation sets of word similarity in biomedicine.

PubMed

Chiu, Billy; Pyysalo, Sampo; Vulić, Ivan; Korhonen, Anna

2018-02-05

Word representations support a variety of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. The quality of these representations is typically assessed by comparing the distances in the induced vector spaces against human similarity judgements. Whereas comprehensive evaluation resources have recently been developed for the general domain, similar resources for biomedicine currently suffer from the lack of coverage, both in terms of word types included and with respect to the semantic distinctions. Notably, verbs have been excluded, although they are essential for the interpretation of biomedical language. Further, current resources do not discern between semantic similarity and semantic relatedness, although this has been proven as an important predictor of the usefulness of word representations and their performance in downstream applications. We present two novel comprehensive resources targeting the evaluation of word representations in biomedicine. These resources, Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex, address the previously mentioned problems, and can be used for evaluations of verb and noun representations respectively. In our experiments, we have computed the Pearson's correlation between performances on intrinsic and extrinsic tasks using twelve popular state-of-the-art representation models (e.g. word2vec models). The intrinsic-extrinsic correlations using our datasets are notably higher than with previous intrinsic evaluation benchmarks such as UMNSRS and MayoSRS. In addition, when evaluating representation models for their abilities to capture verb and noun semantics individually, we show a considerable variation between performances across all models. Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex enable intrinsic evaluation of word representations. This evaluation can serve as a predictor of performance on various downstream tasks in the biomedical domain. The results on Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex using standard word representation models highlight the importance of developing dedicated evaluation resources for NLP in biomedicine for particular word classes (e.g. verbs). These are needed to identify the most accurate methods for learning class-specific representations. Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex are publicly available.
The formulation of argument structure in SLI: an eye-movement study

PubMed Central

ANDREU, LLORENÇ; SANZ-TORRENT, MÒNICA; OLMOS, JOAN GUÀRDIA; MACWHINNEY, BRIAN

2014-01-01

This study investigated the formulation of verb argument structure in Catalan- and Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing age-matched controls. We compared how language production can be guided by conceptual factors, such as the organization of the entities participating in an event and knowledge regarding argument structure. Eleven children with SLI (aged 3;8 to 6;6) and eleven control children participated in an eye-tracking experiment in which participants had to describe events with different argument structure in the presence of visual scenes. Picture descriptions, latency time and eye movements were recorded and analyzed. The picture description results showed that the percentage of responses in which children with SLI substituted a non-target verb for the target verb was significantly different from that for the control group. Children with SLI made more omissions of obligatory arguments, especially of themes, as the verb argument complexity increased. Moreover, when the number of arguments of the verb increased, the children took more time to begin their descriptions, but no differences between groups were found. For verb type latency, all children were significantly faster to start describing one-argument events than two- and three-argument events. No differences in latency time were found between two- and three-argument events. There were no significant differences between the groups. Eye-movement showed that children with SLI looked less at the event zone than the age-matched controls during the first two seconds. These differences between the groups were significant for three-argument verbs, and only marginally significant for one- and two-argument verbs. Children with SLI also spent significantly less time looking at the theme zones than their age-matched controls. We suggest that both processing limitations and deficits in the semantic representation of verbs may play a role in these difficulties. PMID:23294226
Event representations constrain the structure of language: Sign language as a window into universally accessible linguistic biases.

PubMed

Strickland, Brent; Geraci, Carlo; Chemla, Emmanuel; Schlenker, Philippe; Kelepir, Meltem; Pfau, Roland

2015-05-12

According to a theoretical tradition dating back to Aristotle, verbs can be classified into two broad categories. Telic verbs (e.g., "decide," "sell," "die") encode a logical endpoint, whereas atelic verbs (e.g., "think," "negotiate," "run") do not, and the denoted event could therefore logically continue indefinitely. Here we show that sign languages encode telicity in a seemingly universal way and moreover that even nonsigners lacking any prior experience with sign language understand these encodings. In experiments 1-5, nonsigning English speakers accurately distinguished between telic (e.g., "decide") and atelic (e.g., "think") signs from (the historically unrelated) Italian Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, and Turkish Sign Language. These results were not due to participants' inferring that the sign merely imitated the action in question. In experiment 6, we used pseudosigns to show that the presence of a salient visual boundary at the end of a gesture was sufficient to elicit telic interpretations, whereas repeated movement without salient boundaries elicited atelic interpretations. Experiments 7-10 confirmed that these visual cues were used by all of the sign languages studied here. Together, these results suggest that signers and nonsigners share universally accessible notions of telicity as well as universally accessible "mapping biases" between telicity and visual form.
Iconicity in English and Spanish and Its Relation to Lexical Category and Age of Acquisition

PubMed Central

Lupyan, Gary

2015-01-01

Signed languages exhibit iconicity (resemblance between form and meaning) across their vocabulary, and many non-Indo-European spoken languages feature sizable classes of iconic words known as ideophones. In comparison, Indo-European languages like English and Spanish are believed to be arbitrary outside of a small number of onomatopoeic words. In three experiments with English and two with Spanish, we asked native speakers to rate the iconicity of ~600 words from the English and Spanish MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories. We found that iconicity in the words of both languages varied in a theoretically meaningful way with lexical category. In both languages, adjectives were rated as more iconic than nouns and function words, and corresponding to typological differences between English and Spanish in verb semantics, English verbs were rated as relatively iconic compared to Spanish verbs. We also found that both languages exhibited a negative relationship between iconicity ratings and age of acquisition. Words learned earlier tended to be more iconic, suggesting that iconicity in early vocabulary may aid word learning. Altogether these findings show that iconicity is a graded quality that pervades vocabularies of even the most “arbitrary” spoken languages. The findings provide compelling evidence that iconicity is an important property of all languages, signed and spoken, including Indo-European languages. PMID:26340349

Effects of Verb Semantics and Proficiency in Second Language Use of Constructional Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hyunwoo; Rah, Yangon

2016-01-01

This study investigates the influence of the semantic heaviness of verbs (i.e., heavy or light verbs) and language proficiency on second language (L2) learners' use of constructional information in a sentence-sorting task and a corpus analysis. Previous studies employing a sentence-sorting task demonstrated that advanced L2 learners sorted English…
The Acquisition of Verb Argument Structure in Basilectal Jakarta Indonesian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hidajat, Lanny

2010-01-01

This dissertation studies the acquisition of verb argument structure in the basilectal subvariety of Jakarta Indonesian (henceforth, bJI). There are two characteristics of bJI that potentially affect the acquisition of verb argument structure. First, bJI sentences can surface not only in the full frame but also in truncated frames. Second, the…
An Analysis of Stative Verbs Used with the Progressive Aspect in Corpus-Informed Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belli, Serap Atasever

2018-01-01

This study was designed to investigate whether contemporary corpus-informed grammar textbooks written for English language learners and teachers presented the progressive use of stative verbs and if yes, which stative verbs were presented to occur with the progressive aspect and for which functions they took this aspect. A corpus of six electronic…
Effect of Verb Argument Structure on Picture Naming in Children with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreu, Llorenc; Sanz-Torrent, Monica; Legaz, Lucia Buil; MacWhinney, Brian

2012-01-01

Background: This study investigated verb argument structure effects in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Aims: A picture-naming paradigm was used to compare the response times and naming accuracy for nouns and verbs with differing argument structure between Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment. Methods…
The Influence of Semantic and Morphological Complexity of Verbs on Sentence Recall: Implications for the Nature of Conceptual Representation and Category-Specific Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mobayyen, F.; de Almeida, R.G.

2005-01-01

One hundred and forty normal undergraduate students participated in a Proactive Interference (PI) experiment with sentences containing verbs from four different semantic and morphological classes (lexical causatives, morphological causatives, and morphologically complex and simplex perception verbs). Past research has shown significant PI build-up…
Mental Verb Input for Promoting Children's Theory of Mind: A Training Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gola, Alice Ann Howard

2012-01-01

An experimental study investigated the effect of the type of mental verb input (i.e., input with "think", "know", and "remember") on preschoolers' theory of mind development. Preschoolers (n = 72) heard 128 mental verb utterances presented in video format across four sessions over two weeks. The training conditions differed only in the way the…
Acquiring Spanish at the Interfaces: An Integrative Approach to the L2 Acquisition of Psych-Verbs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez Soler, Inmaculada

2012-01-01

This dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of the L2 acquisition of Spanish psych-verbs (e.g. "gustar" "to like") across four different proficiency levels. In particular, psych-verbs constitute a testing ground for the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace and Filiaci, 2006; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycok &…
Kinematic Signatures of Telic and Atelic Events in ASL Predicates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malaia, Evie; Wilbur, Ronnie B.

2012-01-01

This article presents an experimental investigation of kinematics of verb sign production in American Sign Language (ASL) using motion capture data. The results confirm that event structure differences in the meaning of the verbs are reflected in the kinematic formation: for example, in the telic verbs (throw, hit), the end-point of the event is…
A Review of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment: Theory, Methods, Results, and Clinical Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edmonds, Lisa A.

2016-01-01

This article examines Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST), a relatively new treatment approach for anomia in people with aphasia. The VNeST protocol aims to promote generalization to increased lexical retrieval of untrained words across a hierarchy of linguistic tasks, including single-word naming of nouns and verbs, sentence production,…
Polysemous Verbs and Modality in Native and Non-Native Argumentative Writing: A Corpus-Based Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salazar, Danica; Verdaguer, Isabel

2009-01-01

The present study is a corpus-based analysis of a selection of polysemous lexical verbs used to express modality in student argumentative writing. Twenty-three lexical verbs were searched for in three 100,000-word corpora of argumentative essays written in English by American, Filipino and Spanish university students. Concordance lines were…
Broca's Aphasia, Verbs and the Mental Lexicon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastiaanse, Roelien; van Zonneveld, Ron

2004-01-01

Verb production is notoriously difficult for individuals with Broca's aphasia, both at the word and at the sentence level. An intriguing question is at which level in the speech production these problems arise. The aim of the present study is to identify the functional locus of the impairment that results in verb production deficits in Broca's…
Differential Effects of Language Attrition in the Domains of Verb Placement and Object Expression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Cristina

2012-01-01

This study investigates the differential effects of language attrition in two diverse linguistic domains: verb placement and object expression. Linguistic phenomena at the syntax--discourse interface, such as object expression, have been shown to be more vulnerable to attrition than narrow syntax properties, such as verb placement. This study aims…
Action Naming in Anomic Aphasic Speakers: Effects of Instrumentality and Name Relation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jonkers, Roel; Bastiaanse, Roelien

2007-01-01

Many studies reveal effects of verb type on verb retrieval, mainly in agrammatic aphasic speakers. In the current study, two factors that might play a role in action naming in anomic aphasic speakers were considered: the conceptual factor instrumentality and the lexical factor name relation to a noun. Instrumental verbs were shown to be better…
Parallelism Effects and Verb Activation: The Sustained Reactivation Hypothesis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callahan, Sarah M.; Shapiro, Lewis P.; Love, Tracy

2010-01-01

This study investigated the processes underlying parallelism by evaluating the activation of a parallel element (i.e., a verb) throughout "and"-coordinated sentences. Four points were tested: (1) approximately 1,600ms after the verb in the first conjunct (PP1), (2) immediately following the conjunction (PP2), (3) approximately 1,100ms after the…
The Range of Gapping and the Status of Auxiliaries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warner, A. R.

Full verbs and auxiliaries are subject to gapping. In the simplest cases, this construction type involves apparent ellipsis within one or more clausal conjuncts under identity with the finite verb or auxiliary of a preceding conjunct. It has often been suggested that the apparent ellipsis must involve at least a verb. Some researchers see in the…
Interpretation of Verb Phrase Telicity: Sensitivity to Verb Type and Determiner Type

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogiela, Diane A.; Schmitt, Cristina; Casby, Michael W.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The authors examine how adults use linguistic information from verbs, direct objects, and particles to interpret an event description as encoding a logical endpoint to the event described (in which case, it is telic) or not (in which case, it is atelic). Current models of aspectual composition predict that quantity-sensitive verbs…
Verbs and Syntactic Frames in Children's Elicited Actions: A Comparison of Tamil- and English-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sethuraman, Nitya; Laakso, Aarre; Smith, Linda B.

2011-01-01

We directly compare children learning argument expressing and argument dropping languages on the use of verb meaning and syntactic cues, by examining enactments of transitive and intransitive verbs given in transitive and intransitive syntactic frames. Our results show similarities in the children's knowledge: (1) Children were somewhat less…
Regularity and/or Consistency in the Production of the Past Participle?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colombo, Lucia; Laudanna, Alessandro; De Martino, Maria; Brivio, Cristina

2004-01-01

In the present study we have investigated the acquisition of the past participle of Italian verbs of the second (including mostly irregular verbs) and third (including mostly regular verbs) conjugations in school age children, and with simulations with an artificial neural network. We aimed to verify the extent to which children are sensitive to…
The Semological Structure of the English Verbs of Motion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ikegami, Yoshihiko

Verbs of motion are understood in this paper as those verbs which refer to changes in locus. This definition is meant to exclude those cases in which only part of an object is moved, while the object as a whole remains in the same place ("swell,""expand,""stretch"). A discussion of this definition (Chapter 1) is…
Formal and Informal Experiential Realms in German as a Foreign Language: A Preliminary Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moyer, Alene

2005-01-01

In this study of German as a foreign language, formal classroom experience is compared with informal use of German outside the classroom focusing on three syntactic features: main clause word order (subject-verb-object, or SVO), topicalization (subject-verb inversion), and subordinate word order (subject-object-verb, or SOV). T tests and…

Characteristics of "Tween" Participants and Non-Participants in the VERB[TM] Summer Scorecard Physical Activity Promotion Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nickelson, Jen; Alfonso, Moya L.; McDermott, Robert J.; Bumpus, Elizabeth C.; Bryant, Carol A.; Baldwin, Julie A.

2011-01-01

Creating community-based opportunities for youth to be physically active is challenging for many municipalities. A Lexington, Kentucky community coalition designed and piloted a physical activity program, "VERB[TM] summer scorecard (VSS)", leveraging the brand equity of the national VERB[TM]--It's What You Do! campaign. Key elements of…
Verb Selection and Past-Tense Morphology: Crystal's Criteria Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiler, Brian

2013-01-01

Research findings concerning verb-level influences on past-tense morphology carry implications for the careful selection of treatment targets. Using 6 of the broad criteria for "good verbs to choose" proposed by D. Crystal (1985) more than 25 years ago as a framework, this article summarizes some of the more recent research with a nod…
Verb Biases Are Shaped through Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryskin, Rachel A.; Qi, Zhenghan; Duff, Melissa C.; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah

2017-01-01

Verbs often participate in more than 1 syntactic structure, but individual verbs can be biased in terms of whether they are used more often with 1 structure or the other. For instance, in a sentence such as "Bop the bunny with the flower," the phrase "with the flower" is more likely to indicate an instrument with which to…
Clinical, Imaging and Pathological Correlates of a Hereditary Deficit in Verb and Action Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bak, Thomas H.; Yancopoulou, Despina; Nestor, Peter J.; Xuereb, John H.; Spillantini, Maria G.; Pulvermuller, Friedemann; Hodges, John R.

2006-01-01

Selective verb and noun deficits have been observed in a number of neurological conditions and their occurrence has been interpreted as evidence for different neural networks underlying the processing of specific word categories. We describe the first case of a familial occurrence of a selective deficit of verb processing. Father (Individual I)…
Giant Steps: A Game to Enhance Semantic Development of Verbs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Entwisle, Doris R.; And Others

The game "Giant Steps" was described. It was designed to aid children in the semantic development of verbs. The purpose of the experimental evaluation was to determine whether playing the game actually did influence the associative structure of those verbs and adverbs that are "guessed" words in the game. Third graders from two classrooms in an…
A depictive neural model for the representation of motion verbs.

PubMed

Rao, Sunil; Aleksander, Igor

2011-11-01

In this paper, we present a depictive neural model for the representation of motion verb semantics in neural models of visual awareness. The problem of modelling motion verb representation is shown to be one of function application, mapping a set of given input variables defining the moving object and the path of motion to a defined output outcome in the motion recognition context. The particular function-applicative implementation and consequent recognition model design presented are seen as arising from a noun-adjective recognition model enabling the recognition of colour adjectives as applied to a set of shapes representing objects to be recognised. The presence of such a function application scheme and a separately implemented position identification and path labelling scheme are accordingly shown to be the primitives required to enable the design and construction of a composite depictive motion verb recognition scheme. Extensions to the presented design to enable the representation of transitive verbs are also discussed.
Comprehending how visual context influences incremental sentence processing: insights from ERPs and picture-sentence verification

PubMed Central

Knoeferle, Pia; Urbach, Thomas P.; Kutas, Marta

2010-01-01

To re-establish picture-sentence verification – discredited possibly for its over-reliance on post-sentence response time (RT) measures - as a task for situated comprehension, we collected event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as participants read a subject-verb-object sentence, and RTs indicating whether or not the verb matched a previously depicted action. For mismatches (vs matches), speeded RTs were longer, verb N400s over centro-parietal scalp larger, and ERPs to the object noun more negative. RTs (congruence effect) correlated inversely with the centro-parietal verb N400s, and positively with the object ERP congruence effects. Verb N400s, object ERPs, and verbal working memory scores predicted more variance in RT effects (50%) than N400s alone. Thus, (1) verification processing is not all post-sentence; (2) simple priming cannot account for these results; and (3) verification tasks can inform studies of situated comprehension. PMID:20701712
Grammatical distinctions in the left frontal cortex.

PubMed

Shapiro, K A; Pascual-Leone, A; Mottaghy, F M; Gangitano, M; Caramazza, A

2001-08-15

Selective deficits in producing verbs relative to nouns in speech are well documented in neuropsychology and have been associated with left hemisphere frontal cortical lesions resulting from stroke and other neurological disorders. The basis for these impairments is unresolved: Do they arise because of differences in the way grammatical categories of words are organized in the brain, or because of differences in the neural representation of actions and objects? We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to suppress the excitability of a portion of left prefrontal cortex and to assess its role in producing nouns and verbs. In one experiment subjects generated real words; in a second, they produced pseudowords as nouns or verbs. In both experiments, response latencies increased for verbs but were unaffected for nouns following rTMS. These results demonstrate that grammatical categories have a neuroanatomical basis and that the left prefrontal cortex is selectively engaged in processing verbs as grammatical objects.
Procedures to increase some aspects of creativity.

PubMed Central

Glover, J; Gary, A L

1976-01-01

Instructions reinforcement (team points), and practice were applied to four behaviorally defined creative behaviors of eight fourth- and fifth-grade students. All four aspects (number of different responses, fluency; number of verb forms, flexibility; number of words per response, elaboration; and statistical infrequency of response forms, originality) were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's tests of creativity. Application of the experimental procedures may well be practical for classroom teachers. PMID:943391
Procedures to increase some aspects of creativity.

PubMed

Glover, J; Gary, A L

1976-01-01

Instructions reinforcement (team points), and practice were applied to four behaviorally defined creative behaviors of eight fourth- and fifth-grade students. All four aspects (number of different responses, fluency; number of verb forms, flexibility; number of words per response, elaboration; and statistical infrequency of response forms, originality) were demonstrated to be under experimental control. The procedures also raised students' scores on Torrance's tests of creativity. Application of the experimental procedures may well be practical for classroom teachers.
Incidence Rate of Canonical vs. Derived Medical Terminology in Natural Language.

PubMed

Topac, Vasile; Jurcau, Daniel-Alexandru; Stoicu-Tivadar, Vasile

2015-01-01

Medical terminology appears in the natural language in multiple forms: canonical, derived or inflected form. This research presents an analysis of the form in which medical terminology appears in Romanian and English language. The sources of medical language used for the study are web pages presenting medical information for patients and other lay users. The results show that, in English, medical terminology tends to appear more in canonical form while, in the case of Romanian, it is the opposite. This paper also presents the service that was created to perform this analysis. This tool is available for the general public, and it is designed to be easily extensible, allowing the addition of other languages.
Complement Syntax, Mental Verbs, and Theory of Mind in Children Who Are Deaf

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keddington, Holly B.

2013-01-01

The present study was conducted in three parts. Each part analyzed theory of mind (ToM) development in children who are deaf in relation to mental verb and complement syntax understanding. In the first part, participants were given a series of tests for the purpose of correlational analysis of ToM, mental verb understanding, and memory for…
Auditory Word Recognition of Nouns and Verbs in Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreu, Llorenc; Sanz-Torrent, Monica; Guardia-Olmos, Joan

2012-01-01

Nouns are fundamentally different from verbs semantically and syntactically, since verbs can specify one, two, or three nominal arguments. In this study, 25 children with Specific Language Impairment (age 5;3-8;2 years) and 50 typically developing children (3;3-8;2 years) participated in an eye-tracking experiment of spoken language comprehension…
The Time Course of Argument Reactivation Revealed: Using the Visual World Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koring, Loes; Mak, Pim; Reuland, Eric

2012-01-01

Previous research has found that the single argument of unaccusative verbs (such as "fall") is reactivated during sentence processing, but the argument of agentive verbs (such as "jump") is not ( and ). An open question so far was whether this difference in processing is caused by a difference in thematic roles the verbs assign, or a difference in…
The Lexical Status of Basic Arabic Verb Morphemes among Dyslexic Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, Salim; Saliba, Fadi

2008-01-01

The masked priming paradigm was used to examine the role of the root and verb pattern morphemes in lexical access within the verb system of Arabic. Three groups participated in the study: grade 6 dyslexics, a reading-level-matched group and grade 6 normal readers. The first group consisted of: 28 grade 6 reading disabled (RD) students, 8 girls and…
A Picture Database for Verbs and Nouns with Different Action Content in Turkish

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayram, Ece; Aydin, Özgür; Ergenc, Hacer Iclal; Akbostanci, Muhittin Cenk

2017-01-01

In this study we present a picture database of 160 nouns and 160 verbs. All verbs and nouns are divided into two groups as action and non-action words. Age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, name agreement and complexity norms are reported alongside frequency, word length and morpheme count for each word. Data were collected from 600…
Language Use in a "One Parent-One Language" Mandarin-English Bilingual Family: Noun versus Verb Use and Language Mixing Compared to Maternal Perception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qiu, Chen; Winsler, Adam

2017-01-01

Via naturalistic observations, parent interview, and direct assessments, we examined language proficiency, language use, and differentiation of a 3-year, 4-month-old bilingual child exposed to Mandarin and English via the "one parent-one language" principle. Although noun versus verb dominance has been explored across verb-based…
A Developmental Shift from Similar to Language-Specific Strategies in Verb Acquisition: A Comparison of English, Spanish, and Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maguire, Mandy J.; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Imai, Mutsumi; Haryu, Etsuko; Vanegas, Sandra; Okada, Hiroyuki; Pulverman, Rachel; Sanchez-Davis, Brenda

2010-01-01

The world's languages draw on a common set of event components for their verb systems. Yet, these components are differentially distributed across languages. At what age do children begin to use language-specific patterns to narrow possible verb meanings? English-, Japanese-, and Spanish-speaking adults, toddlers, and preschoolers were shown…
Chinese L1 Children's English L2 Verb Morphology over Time: Individual Variation in Longterm Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paradis, Joanne; Tulpar, Yasemin; Arppe, Antti

2016-01-01

This study examined accuracy in production and grammaticality judgements of verb morphology by eighteen Chinese-speaking children learning English as a second language (L2) followed longitudinally from four to six years of exposure to English, and who began to learn English at age 4;2. Children's growth in accuracy with verb morphology reached a…
Children's Acquisition of Nouns and Verbs in Italian: Contrasting the Roles of Frequency and Positional Salience in Maternal Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longobardi, Emiddia; Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia; Spataro, Pietro; Putnick, Diane L.; Bornstein, Marc H.

2015-01-01

Because of its structural characteristics, specifically the prevalence of verb types in infant-directed speech and frequent pronoun-dropping, the Italian language offers an attractive opportunity to investigate the predictive effects of input frequency and positional salience on children's acquisition of nouns and verbs. We examined this…

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