@misc{SeržantMoroz2022, author = {Seržant, Ilja A. and Moroz, George A.}, title = {Universal attractors in language evolution provide evidence for the kinds of efficiency pressures involved}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe}, volume = {9}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe}, number = {180}, issn = {1866-8380}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58397}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-583976}, pages = {9}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Efficiency is central to understanding the communicative and cognitive underpinnings of language. However, efficiency management is a complex mechanism in which different efficiency effects-such as articulatory, processing and planning ease, mental accessibility, and informativity, online and offline efficiency effects-conspire to yield the coding of linguistic signs. While we do not yet exactly understand the interactional mechanism of these different effects, we argue that universal attractors are an important component of any dynamic theory of efficiency that would be aimed at predicting efficiency effects across languages. Attractors are defined as universal states around which language evolution revolves. Methodologically, we approach efficiency from a cross-linguistic perspective on the basis of a world-wide sample of 383 languages from 53 families, balancing all six macro-areas (Eurasia, North and South America, Australia, Africa, and Oceania). We explore the grammatical domain of verbal person-number subject indexes. We claim that there is an attractor state in this domain to which languages tend to develop and tend not to leave if they happen to comply with the attractor in their earlier stages of evolution. The attractor is characterized by different lengths for each person and number combination, structured along Zipf's predictions. Moreover, the attractor strongly prefers non-compositional, cumulative coding of person and number. On the basis of these and other properties of the attractor, we conclude that there are two domains in which efficiency pressures are most powerful: strive towards less processing and articulatory effort. The latter, however, is overridden by constant information flow. Strive towards lower lexicon complexity and memory costs are weaker efficiency pressures for this grammatical category due to its order of frequency.}, language = {en} } @article{SeržantMoroz2022, author = {Seržant, Ilja A. and Moroz, George A.}, title = {Universal attractors in language evolution provide evidence for the kinds of efficiency pressures involved}, series = {Humanities \& Social Sciences Communications}, volume = {9}, journal = {Humanities \& Social Sciences Communications}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, address = {London}, issn = {2662-9992}, doi = {10.1057/s41599-022-01072-0}, pages = {9}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Efficiency is central to understanding the communicative and cognitive underpinnings of language. However, efficiency management is a complex mechanism in which different efficiency effects-such as articulatory, processing and planning ease, mental accessibility, and informativity, online and offline efficiency effects-conspire to yield the coding of linguistic signs. While we do not yet exactly understand the interactional mechanism of these different effects, we argue that universal attractors are an important component of any dynamic theory of efficiency that would be aimed at predicting efficiency effects across languages. Attractors are defined as universal states around which language evolution revolves. Methodologically, we approach efficiency from a cross-linguistic perspective on the basis of a world-wide sample of 383 languages from 53 families, balancing all six macro-areas (Eurasia, North and South America, Australia, Africa, and Oceania). We explore the grammatical domain of verbal person-number subject indexes. We claim that there is an attractor state in this domain to which languages tend to develop and tend not to leave if they happen to comply with the attractor in their earlier stages of evolution. The attractor is characterized by different lengths for each person and number combination, structured along Zipf's predictions. Moreover, the attractor strongly prefers non-compositional, cumulative coding of person and number. On the basis of these and other properties of the attractor, we conclude that there are two domains in which efficiency pressures are most powerful: strive towards less processing and articulatory effort. The latter, however, is overridden by constant information flow. Strive towards lower lexicon complexity and memory costs are weaker efficiency pressures for this grammatical category due to its order of frequency.}, language = {en} } @article{BoraScherbaumKuehnetal.2014, author = {Bora, Sanjay Singh and Scherbaum, Frank and K{\"u}hn, Nicolas and Stafford, Peter}, title = {Fourier spectral- and duration models for the generation of response spectra adjustable to different source-, propagation-, and site conditions}, series = {Bulletin of earthquake engineering : official publication of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering}, volume = {12}, journal = {Bulletin of earthquake engineering : official publication of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {1570-761X}, doi = {10.1007/s10518-013-9482-z}, pages = {467 -- 493}, year = {2014}, abstract = {One of the major challenges related with the current practice in seismic hazard studies is the adjustment of empirical ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) to different seismological environments. We believe that the key to accommodating differences in regional seismological attributes of a ground motion model lies in the Fourier spectrum. In the present study, we attempt to explore a new approach for the development of response spectral GMPEs, which is fully consistent with linear system theory when it comes to adjustment issues. This approach consists of developing empirical prediction equations for Fourier spectra and for a particular duration estimate of ground motion which is tuned to optimize the fit between response spectra obtained through the random vibration theory framework and the classical way. The presented analysis for the development of GMPEs is performed on the recently compiled reference database for seismic ground motion in Europe (RESORCE-2012). Although, the main motivation for the presented approach is the adjustability and the use of the corresponding model to generate data driven host-to-target conversions, even as a standalone response spectral model it compares reasonably well with the GMPEs of Ambraseys et al. (Bull Earthq Eng 3:1-53, 2005), Akkar and Bommer (Seismol Res Lett 81(2):195-206, 2010) and Akkar and Cagnan (Bull Seismol Soc Am 100(6):2978-2995, 2010).}, language = {en} } @article{vandeVijverSennemaZimmer–Stahl2006, author = {van de Vijver, Ruben and Sennema, Anke and Zimmer-Stahl, Anne}, title = {An analysis of pitch and duration in material used to test L2 processing of words}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19583}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The material reported on in this paper is part of a set of experiments in which the role of Information Structure on L2 processing of words is tested. Pitch and duration of 4 sets of experimental material in German and English are measured and analyzed in this paper. The well-known finding that accent boosts duration and pitch is confirmed. Syntactic and lexical means of marking focus, however, do not give the duration and the pitch of a word an extra boost.}, language = {en} }