@article{VanonciniBollAvetisyanElsneretal.2022, author = {Vanoncini, Monica and Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie and Elsner, Birgit and Hoehl, Stefanie and Kayhan, Ezgi}, title = {The role of mother-infant emotional synchrony in speech processing in 9-month-old infants}, series = {Infant behavior and development : an international \& interdisciplinary journal}, volume = {69}, journal = {Infant behavior and development : an international \& interdisciplinary journal}, publisher = {Elsevier Science}, address = {Amsterdam [u.a.]}, issn = {0163-6383}, doi = {10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101772}, pages = {13}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Rhythmicity characterizes both interpersonal synchrony and spoken language. Emotions and language are forms of interpersonal communication, which interact with each other throughout development. We investigated whether and how emotional synchrony between mothers and their 9-month-old infants relates to infants' word segmentation as an early marker of language development. Twenty-six 9-month-old infants and their German-speaking mothers took part in the study. To measure emotional synchrony, we coded positive, neutral and negative emotional expressions of the mothers and their infants during a free play session. We then calculated the degree to which the mothers' and their infants' matching emotional expressions followed a predictable pattern. To measure word segmentation, we familiarized infants with auditory text passages and tested how long they looked at the screen while listening to familiar versus novel words. We found that higher levels of predictability (i.e. low entropy) during mother-infant interaction is associated with infants' word segmentation performance. These findings suggest that individual differences in word segmentation relate to the complexity and predictability of emotional expressions during mother-infant interactions.}, language = {en} } @article{AbakarovaFuchsNoiray2022, author = {Abakarova, Dzhuma and Fuchs, Susanne and Noiray, Aude}, title = {Developmental changes in coarticulation degree relate to differences in articulatory patterns: an empirically grounded modeling approach}, series = {Journal of speech, language, and hearing research}, volume = {65}, journal = {Journal of speech, language, and hearing research}, number = {9}, publisher = {American Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc.}, address = {Rockville, Md.}, issn = {1092-4388}, doi = {10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00212}, pages = {3276 -- 3299}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Purpose: Coarticulatory effects in speech vary across development, but the sources of this variation remain unclear. This study investigated whether developmental differences in intrasyllabic coarticulation degree could be explained by differences in children's articulatory patterns compared to adults. Method: To address this question, we first compared the tongue configurations of 3-to 7-year-old German children to those of adults. The observed developmental differences were then examined through simulations with Task Dynamics Application, a Task Dynamics simulation system, to establish which articulatory modifications could best reproduce the empirical results. To generate syllables simulating the lack of tongue gesture differentiation, we tested three simulation scenarios. Results: We found that younger speakers use less differentiated articulatory patterns to achieve alveolar constrictions than adults. The simulations corresponding to undifferentiated control of tongue tip and tongue body resulted in (a) tongue shapes similar to those observed in natural speech and (b) higher degrees of intrasyllabic coarticulation in children when compared to adults. Conclusions: Results provide evidence that differences in articulatory patterns contribute to developmental differences in coarticulation degree. This study further shows that empirically informed modeling can advance our understanding of changes in coarticulatory patterns across age.}, language = {en} } @article{GaspariniLangusTsujietal.2021, author = {Gasparini, Loretta and Langus, Alan and Tsuji, Sho and Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie}, title = {Quantifying the role of rhythm in infants' language discrimination abilities}, series = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, volume = {213}, journal = {Cognition : international journal of cognitive science}, publisher = {Elsevier Science}, address = {Amsterdam [u.a.]}, issn = {0010-0277}, doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104757}, pages = {31}, year = {2021}, abstract = {More than 30 years have passed since Mehler et al. (1988) proposed that newborns can discriminate between languages that belong to different rhythm classes: stress-, syllable- or mora-timed. Thereupon they developed the hypothesis that infants are sensitive to differences in vowel and consonant interval durations as acoustic correlates of rhythm classes. It remains unknown exactly which durational computations infants use when perceiving speech for the purposes of distinguishing languages. Here, a meta-analysis of studies on infants' language discrimination skills over the first year of life was conducted, aiming to quantify how language discrimination skills change with age and are modulated by rhythm classes or durational metrics. A systematic literature search identified 42 studies that tested infants' (birth to 12 months) discrimination or preference of two language varieties, by presenting infants with auditory or audio-visual continuous speech. Quantitative data synthesis was conducted using multivariate random effects meta-analytic models with the factors rhythm class difference, age, stimulus manipulation, method, and metrics operationalising proportions of and variability in vowel and consonant interval durations, to explore which factors best account for language discrimination or preference. Results revealed that smaller differences in vowel interval variability (oV) and larger differences in successive consonantal interval variability (rPVI-C) were associated with more successful language discrimination, and better accounted for discrimination results than the factor rhythm class. There were no effects of age for discrimination but results on preference studies were affected by age: the older infants get, the more they prefer non-native languages that are rhythmically similar to their native language, but not non-native languages that are rhythmically distinct. These findings can inform theories on language discrimination that have previously focussed on rhythm class, by providing a novel way to operationalise rhythm in language in the extent to which it accounts for infants' language discrimination abilities.}, language = {en} } @article{YadavHusainFutrell2022, author = {Yadav, Himanshu and Husain, Samar and Futrell, Richard}, title = {Assessing corpus evidence for formal and psycholinguistic constraints on nonprojectivity}, series = {Computational linguistics}, volume = {48}, journal = {Computational linguistics}, number = {2}, publisher = {MIT Press}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {0891-2017}, doi = {10.1162/coli_a_00437}, pages = {375 -- 401}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Formal constraints on crossing dependencies have played a large role in research on the formal complexity of natural language grammars and parsing. Here we ask whether the apparent evidence for constraints on crossing dependencies in treebanks might arise because of independent constraints on trees, such as low arity and dependency length minimization. We address this question using two sets of experiments. In Experiment 1, we compare the distribution of formal properties of crossing dependencies, such as gap degree, between real trees and baseline trees matched for rate of crossing dependencies and various other properties. In Experiment 2, we model whether two dependencies cross, given certain psycholinguistic properties of the dependencies. We find surprisingly weak evidence for constraints originating from the mild context-sensitivity literature (gap degree and well-nestedness) beyond what can be explained by constraints on rate of crossing dependencies, topological properties of the trees, and dependency length. However, measures that have emerged from the parsing literature (e.g., edge degree, end-point crossings, and heads' depth difference) differ strongly between real and random trees. Modeling results show that cognitive metrics relating to information locality and working-memory limitations affect whether two dependencies cross or not, but they do not fully explain the distribution of crossing dependencies in natural languages. Together these results suggest that crossing constraints are better characterized by processing pressures than by mildly context-sensitive constraints.}, language = {en} } @article{MalyshevskayaGalloEfremovetal.2022, author = {Malyshevskaya, Anastasia S. and Gallo, Federico and Efremov, Aleksei A. and Myachykov, Andriy V. and Shtyrov, Yury Y.}, title = {Роль билингвизма в формировании нейрокогнитивного резерва}, series = {Žurnal vysšej nervnoj dejatel'nosti imeni J. P. Pavlova}, volume = {72}, journal = {Žurnal vysšej nervnoj dejatel'nosti imeni J. P. Pavlova}, number = {5}, publisher = {Nauka}, address = {Moskva}, issn = {0044-4677}, doi = {10.31857/S0044467722050094}, pages = {591 -- 608}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Развитие науки, общества и медицины ведет за собой неуклонный рост средней продолжительности жизни. В результате наука сталкивается с новыми задачами, в число которых входит предотвращение деменции и поддержание эффективной работоспособности мозга при старении человека. Одним из защитных факторов, предотвращающих ослабление когнитивных функций и поддерживающих нейропластичность мозга, является билингвизм. Однако дебаты насчет нейропротекторных свойств двуязычия до сих пор являются актуальными. В данной статье рассмотрен феномен нейрокогнитивного резерва (НКР) и определена взаимосвязь между билингвизмом и такими составляющими НКР, как мозговой резерв, нейрональный резерв и нейрональная компенсация. Кроме этого, в статье приведен обзор исследований, посвященных изучению нейронных и когнитивных механизмов влияния билингвизма на здоровое функционирование мозга при старении. В заключении мы вкратце остановились на том, каким образом двуязычие может защищать мозг от старения благодаря взаимодействию между мозговыми и когнитивными составляющими НКР.}, language = {ru} } @article{KoukouliotiStavrakakiVomvaetal.2022, author = {Koukoulioti, Vasiliki and Stavrakaki, Stavroula and Vomva, Maria and Adani, Flavia}, title = {Gender marking and clitic pronoun resolution in simultaneous bilingual children}, series = {Languages : open access journal}, volume = {7}, journal = {Languages : open access journal}, number = {4}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2226-471X}, doi = {10.3390/languages7040250}, pages = {49}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The acquisition of clitics still remains a highly controversial issue in Greek acquisition literature despite the bulk of studies performed. Object clitics have been shown to be early acquired by monolingual children in terms of production rates, whereas only highly proficient bilingual children achieve target-like performance. Crucially, errors in gender marking are persistent for monolingual and bilingual children even when adult-like production rates are achieved. This study aims to readdress the acquisition of clitics in an innovative way, by entering the variable of gender in an experimental design targeting to assess production and processing by bilingual and monolingual children. Moreover, we examined the role of language proficiency (in terms of general verbal intelligence and syntactic production abilities). The groups had comparable performance in both tasks (in terms of correct responses and error distribution in production and reaction times in comprehension). However, verbal intelligence had an effect on the performance of the monolingual but not of the bilingual group in the production task, and bilingual children were overall slower in the comprehension task. Syntactic production abilities did not have any effect. We argue that gender marking affects clitic processing, and we discuss the implications of our findings for bilingual acquisition.}, language = {en} } @article{FelserUygun2022, author = {Felser, Claudia and Uygun, Serkan}, title = {Optional plural agreement in heritage Turkish speakers' verb form choices}, series = {Heritage language Journal}, volume = {19}, journal = {Heritage language Journal}, number = {1}, publisher = {Brill}, address = {Leiden}, issn = {1550-7076}, doi = {10.1163/15507076-bja10004}, pages = {1 -- 30}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Turkish 3rd person plural subjects are frequently used with verbs that are unmarked for number, with plural suffix omission influenced by semantic and word-order related constraints. Previous findings from judgment tasks indicate that monolingual and heritage Turkish speakers differ in the way they are affected by these constraints. This study builds and expands upon previous research by investigating the role of word order in more detail, and by examining whether the constraint weightings obtained from Uygun and Felser's (2021) acceptability judgment data are able to predict speakers' verb form choices in a timed sentence completion task. Besides confirming that word-order related constraints are information-structural in nature, our results show that heritage speakers over-produce plural-marked verbs in comparison to monolingual speakers, indicating between-group differences in constraint ranking. We interpret this as reflecting a tendency among Turkish heritage speakers to regularize the agreement system, which is not necessarily observed in metalinguistic judgment tasks.}, language = {en} } @article{PopescuChitoran2022, author = {Popescu, Anisia and Chitoran, Ioana}, title = {Linking gestural representations to syllable count judgments}, series = {Laboratory Phonology}, volume = {13}, journal = {Laboratory Phonology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Open Library of Humanities}, issn = {1868-6346}, doi = {10.16995/labphon.7681}, pages = {1 -- 48}, year = {2022}, abstract = {A special class of English words with tense vowel/diphthong nuclei and liquid codas receive variable syllable count judgments (one and over-one syllables). Tilsen and Cohn (2016) showed that differences in judgments correlate with differences in production, supporting their hypothesis that meta-phonological judgments and speech motor control share a common representation. In the present study, we further propose that syllable count judgments are related to subsegmental representation in the rime, and are independent of acoustic duration. We test the hypothesis by comparing English and German, chosen for their similar word structures and vowel length contrast, and their crucial difference in the gestural specification of coda liquids. In English, coda liquids have an earlier vocalic gesture relative to the consonantal one, while in German, both gestures are simultaneous. We stipulated that sesquisyllabic (over-one) judgments are related to the count of sequentially-timed vocalic gestures in the rime. The difference in the coda liquid composition between the two languages predicts that sesquisyllables should not emerge in German. Our predictions were confirmed by the results of parallel production (acoustic) and syllable count judgment experiments in English and German. We propose a model accounting for these results, and we discuss its typological implications and its limitations.}, language = {en} } @article{BeerHofmannRegenbrechtetal.2022, author = {Beer, Carola de and Hofmann, Andrea and Regenbrecht, Frank and Huttenlauch, Clara and Wartenburger, Isabell and Obrig, Hellmuth and Hanne, Sandra}, title = {Production and comprehension of prosodic boundary marking in persons with unilateral brain lesions}, series = {Journal of speech, language, and hearing research}, volume = {65}, journal = {Journal of speech, language, and hearing research}, number = {12}, publisher = {American Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc.}, address = {Rockville, Md.}, issn = {1092-4388}, doi = {10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00258}, pages = {4774 -- 4796}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Purpose: Persons with unilateral brain damage in the right hemisphere (RH) or left hemisphere (LH) show limitations in processing linguistic prosody, with yet inconclusive results on their ability to process prosodically marked structural boundaries for syntactic ambiguity resolution. We aimed at systematically investigating production and comprehension of three prosodic cues (f(0) range, final lengthening, and pause) at structural boundaries in coordinate sequences in participants with right hemisphere brain damage (RHDP) and participants with left hemisphere brain damage (LHDP). Method: Twenty RHDP and 15 LHDP participated in our study. Comprehension experiment: Participants and a control group listened to coordinate name sequences with internal grouping by a prosodically marked structural boundary (grouped condition, e.g., "(Gabi und Leni) \# und Nina") or without internal grouping (ungrouped condition, e.g., "Gabi und Leni und Nina") and had to identify the target condition. The strength and combinations of prosodic cues in the stimuli were manipulated. Production experiment: Participants were asked to produce coordinate sequences in the two conditions (grouped, ungrouped) in two different tasks: a Reading Aloud and a Repetition experiment. Accuracy of participants' productions was subsequently assessed in a rating study and productions were analyzed with respect to use of prosodic cues. Results: In the Comprehension experiment, RHDP and LHDP had overall lower identification accuracies than unimpaired control participants and LHDP were found to have particular problems with boundary identification when the pause cue was reduced. In production, LHDP and RHDP employed all three prosodic cues for boundary marking, but struggled to clearly mark prosodic boundaries in 28\% of all productions. Both groups showed better performance in reading aloud than in repetition. LHDP relied more on using f(0) range and pause duration to prosodically mark structural boundaries, whereas RHDP employed final lengthening more vigorously than LHDP in reading aloud. Conclusions: We conclude that processing of linguistic prosody is affected in RHDP and LHDP, but not completely impaired. Therefore, prosody can serve as a relevant communicative resource. However, it should also be considered as a target area for assessment and treatment in both groups.}, language = {en} } @article{KiddGarcia2022, author = {Kidd, Evan and Garcia, Rowena}, title = {Where to from here? Increasing language coverage while building a more diverse discipline}, series = {First language}, volume = {42}, journal = {First language}, number = {6}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {0142-7237}, doi = {10.1177/01427237221121190}, pages = {837 -- 851}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Our original target article highlighted some significant shortcomings in the current state of child language research: a large skew in our evidential base towards English and a handful of other Indo-European languages that partly has its origins in a lack of researcher diversity. In this article, we respond to the 21 commentaries on our original article. The commentaries highlighted both the importance of attention to typological features of languages and the environments and contexts in which languages are acquired, with many commentators providing concrete suggestions on how we address the data skew. In this response, we synthesise the main themes of the commentaries and make suggestions for how the field can move towards both improving data coverage and opening up to traditionally under-represented researchers.}, language = {en} }