@misc{CiaccioClahsen2019, author = {Ciaccio, Laura Anna and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {Variability and consistency in first and second language processing}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {1}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-51772}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-517727}, pages = {36}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Word forms such as walked or walker are decomposed into their morphological constituents (walk + -ed/-er) during language comprehension. Yet, the efficiency of morphological decomposition seems to vary for different languages and morphological types, as well as for first and second language speakers. The current study reports results from a visual masked priming experiment focusing on different types of derived word forms (specifically prefixed vs. suffixed) in first and second language speakers of German. We compared the present findings with results from previous studies on inflection and compounding and proposed an account of morphological decomposition that captures both the variability and the consistency of morphological decomposition for different morphological types and for first and second language speakers. Open Practices This article has been awarded an Open Materials badge. Study materials are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at . Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science.}, language = {en} } @misc{RubergRothweilerVerissimoetal.2019, author = {Ruberg, Tobias and Rothweiler, Monika and Ver{\´i}ssimo, Jo{\~a}o Marques and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {Childhood bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {3}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-51809}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-518095}, pages = {15}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This study addresses the question of whether and how growing up with more than one language shapes a child's language impairment. Our focus is on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in bilingual (Turkish-German) children. We specifically investigated a range of phenomena related to the so-called CP (Complementizer Phrase) in German, the hierarchically highest layer of syntactic clause structure, which has been argued to be particularly affected in children with SLI. Spontaneous speech data were examined from bilingual children with SLI in comparison to two comparison groups: (i) typically-developing bilingual children, (ii) monolingual children with SLI. We found that despite persistent difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the two groups of children with SLI did not show any impairment of the CP-domain. We conclude that while subject-verb agreement is a suitable linguistic marker of SLI in German-speaking children, for both monolingual and bilingual ones, 'vulnerability of the CP-domain' is not.}, language = {en} } @article{RubergRothweilerVerissimoetal.2019, author = {Ruberg, Tobias and Rothweiler, Monika and Ver{\´i}ssimo, Jo{\~a}o Marques and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {Childhood bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment}, series = {Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}, volume = {23}, journal = {Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}, number = {3}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1366-7289}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000580}, pages = {668 -- 680}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This study addresses the question of whether and how growing up with more than one language shapes a child's language impairment. Our focus is on Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in bilingual (Turkish-German) children. We specifically investigated a range of phenomena related to the so-called CP (Complementizer Phrase) in German, the hierarchically highest layer of syntactic clause structure, which has been argued to be particularly affected in children with SLI. Spontaneous speech data were examined from bilingual children with SLI in comparison to two comparison groups: (i) typically-developing bilingual children, (ii) monolingual children with SLI. We found that despite persistent difficulty with subject-verb agreement, the two groups of children with SLI did not show any impairment of the CP-domain. We conclude that while subject-verb agreement is a suitable linguistic marker of SLI in German-speaking children, for both monolingual and bilingual ones, 'vulnerability of the CP-domain' is not.}, language = {en} } @article{HoehleBijeljacBabicNazzi2019, author = {H{\"o}hle, Barbara and Bijeljac-Babic, Ranka and Nazzi, Thierry}, title = {Variability and stability in early language acquisition}, series = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, volume = {23}, journal = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, number = {1}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {1366-7289}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000348}, pages = {56 -- 71}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Many human infants grow up learning more than one language simultaneously but only recently has research started to study early language acquisition in this population more systematically. The paper gives an overview on findings on early language acquisition in bilingual infants during the first two years of life and compares these findings to current knowledge on early language acquisition in monolingual infants. Given the state of the research, the overview focuses on research on phonological and early lexical development in the first two years of life. We will show that the developmental trajectory of early language acquisition in these areas is very similar in mono- and bilingual infants suggesting that these early steps into language are guided by mechanisms that are rather robust against the differences in the conditions of language exposure that mono- and bilingual infants typically experience.}, language = {en} } @article{Felser2019, author = {Felser, Claudia}, title = {Do processing resource limitations shape heritage language grammars?}, series = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, volume = {23}, journal = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, number = {1}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {1366-7289}, doi = {10.1017/S1366728919000397}, pages = {23 -- 24}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sotiropoulou2019, author = {Sotiropoulou, Stavroula}, title = {Pleiotropy of phonetic indices in the expression of syllabic organization}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-54639}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-546399}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xv, 184}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This dissertation is concerned with the relation between qualitative phonological organization in the form of syllabic structure and continuous phonetics, that is, the spatial and temporal dimensions of vocal tract action that express syllabic structure. The main claim of the dissertation is twofold. First, we argue that syllabic organization exerts multiple effects on the spatio-temporal properties of the segments that partake in that organization. That is, there is no unique or privileged exponent of syllabic organization. Rather, syllabic organization is expressed in a pleiotropy of phonetic indices. Second, we claim that a better understanding of the relation between qualitative phonological organization and continuous phonetics is reached when one considers how the string of segments (over which the nature of the phonological organization is assessed) responds to perturbations (scaling of phonetic variables) of localized properties (such as durations) within that string. Specifically, variation in phonetic variables and more specifically prosodic variation is a crucial key to understanding the nature of the link between (phonological) syllabic organization and the phonetic spatio-temporal manifestation of that organization. The effects of prosodic variation on segmental properties and on the overlap between the segments, we argue, offer the right pathway to discover patterns related to syllabic organization. In our approach, to uncover evidence for global organization, the sequence of segments partaking in that organization as well as properties of these segments or their relations with one another must be somehow locally varied. The consequences of such variation on the rest of the sequence can then be used to unveil the span of organization. When local perturbations to segments or relations between adjacent segments have effects that ripple through the rest of the sequence, this is evidence that organization is global. If instead local perturbations stay local with no consequences for the rest of the whole, this indicates that organization is local.}, language = {en} } @article{LarteyTsiwahAmponsahetal.2019, author = {Lartey, Nathaniel and Tsiwah, Frank and Amponsah, Clement and Martinez-Ferreiro, Silvia and Bastiaanse, Roelien}, title = {Resumption in the production of focused constructions in Akan speakers with agrammatism}, series = {Aphasiology}, volume = {34}, journal = {Aphasiology}, number = {3}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, doi = {10.1080/02687038.2019.1686746}, pages = {343 -- 364}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Background: The distribution of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. This distribution has led to conflicting results in studies that investigated pronoun resolution in agrammatic indviduals. In the investigation of pronominal resolution, the linguistic phenomenon of "resumption" is understudied in agrammatism. The construction of pronominal resolution in Akan presents the opportunity to thoroughly examine resumption. Aims: To start, the present study examines the production of (pronominal) resumption in Akan focus constructions (who-questions and focused declaratives). Second, we explore the effect of grammatical tone on the processing of pronominal (resumption) since Akan is a tonal language. Methods \& Procedures: First, we tested the ability to distinguish linguistic and non-linguistic tone in Akan agrammatic speakers. Then, we administered an elicitation task to five Akan agrammatic individuals, controlling for the structural variations in the realization of resumption: focused who-questions and declaratives with (i) only a resumptive pronoun, (ii) only a clause determiner, (iii) a resumptive pronoun and a clause determiner co-occurring, and (iv) neither a resumptive pronoun nor a clause determiner. Outcomes \& Results: Tone discrimination .both for pitch and for lexical tone was unimpaired. The production task demonstrated that the production of resumptive pronouns and clause determiners was intact. However, the production of declarative sentences in derived word order was impaired; wh-object questions were relatively well-preserved. Conclusions: We argue that the problems with sentence production are highly selective: linguistic tones and resumption are intact but word order is impaired in non-canonical declarative sentences.}, language = {en} } @misc{LarteyTsiwahAmponsahetal.2019, author = {Lartey, Nathaniel and Tsiwah, Frank and Amponsah, Clement and Martinez-Ferreiro, Silvia and Bastiaanse, Roelien}, title = {Resumption in the production of focused constructions in Akan speakers with agrammatism}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {3}, issn = {1866-8364}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-52529}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-525296}, pages = {24}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Background: The distribution of pronouns varies cross-linguistically. This distribution has led to conflicting results in studies that investigated pronoun resolution in agrammatic indviduals. In the investigation of pronominal resolution, the linguistic phenomenon of "resumption" is understudied in agrammatism. The construction of pronominal resolution in Akan presents the opportunity to thoroughly examine resumption. Aims: To start, the present study examines the production of (pronominal) resumption in Akan focus constructions (who-questions and focused declaratives). Second, we explore the effect of grammatical tone on the processing of pronominal (resumption) since Akan is a tonal language. Methods \& Procedures: First, we tested the ability to distinguish linguistic and non-linguistic tone in Akan agrammatic speakers. Then, we administered an elicitation task to five Akan agrammatic individuals, controlling for the structural variations in the realization of resumption: focused who-questions and declaratives with (i) only a resumptive pronoun, (ii) only a clause determiner, (iii) a resumptive pronoun and a clause determiner co-occurring, and (iv) neither a resumptive pronoun nor a clause determiner. Outcomes \& Results: Tone discrimination .both for pitch and for lexical tone was unimpaired. The production task demonstrated that the production of resumptive pronouns and clause determiners was intact. However, the production of declarative sentences in derived word order was impaired; wh-object questions were relatively well-preserved. Conclusions: We argue that the problems with sentence production are highly selective: linguistic tones and resumption are intact but word order is impaired in non-canonical declarative sentences.}, language = {en} } @misc{ZarriessSchlangen2019, author = {Zarriess, Sina and Schlangen, David}, title = {Objects of Unknown Categories}, series = {The 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics}, journal = {The 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics}, publisher = {Association for Computational Linguistics}, address = {Stroudsburg}, isbn = {978-1-950737-48-2}, pages = {654 -- 659}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Zero-shot learning in Language \& Vision is the task of correctly labelling (or naming) objects of novel categories. Another strand of work in L\&V aims at pragmatically informative rather than "correct" object descriptions, e.g. in reference games. We combine these lines of research and model zero-shot reference games, where a speaker needs to successfully refer to a novel object in an image. Inspired by models of "rational speech acts", we extend a neural generator to become a pragmatic speaker reasoning about uncertain object categories. As a result of this reasoning, the generator produces fewer nouns and names of distractor categories as compared to a literal speaker. We show that this conversational strategy for dealing with novel objects often improves communicative success, in terms of resolution accuracy of an automatic listener.}, language = {en} } @article{CiaccioClahsen2019, author = {Ciaccio, Laura Anna and Clahsen, Harald}, title = {Variability and consistency in first and second language processing}, series = {Language Learning}, volume = {70}, journal = {Language Learning}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0023-8333}, doi = {10.1111/lang.12370}, pages = {103 -- 136}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Word forms such as walked or walker are decomposed into their morphological constituents (walk + -ed/-er) during language comprehension. Yet, the efficiency of morphological decomposition seems to vary for different languages and morphological types, as well as for first and second language speakers. The current study reports results from a visual masked priming experiment focusing on different types of derived word forms (specifically prefixed vs. suffixed) in first and second language speakers of German. We compared the present findings with results from previous studies on inflection and compounding and proposed an account of morphological decomposition that captures both the variability and the consistency of morphological decomposition for different morphological types and for first and second language speakers. Open Practices This article has been awarded an Open Materials badge. Study materials are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at . Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science: .}, language = {en} } @article{Fominyam2019, author = {Fominyam, Henry Zamchang}, title = {Inverting the subject in Awing}, series = {Italian Journal of Linguistics}, volume = {30}, journal = {Italian Journal of Linguistics}, number = {2}, publisher = {Pacini}, address = {Pisa}, issn = {1120-2726}, doi = {10.26346/1120-2726-128}, pages = {159 -- 186}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This paper addresses the morpho-phonological, syntactic and pragmatic properties of postverbal subject constructions in Awing. Analogous to other inversion constructions in Bantu literature (Marten \& Van der Wal 2014), Awing has a construction in which the subject occurs immediately after the verb, resulting in a subject or sentence focus interpretation. However in Awing, crucially, a VSX clause cannot host a subject marker, but must contain a certain le morpheme in sentence-initial position. Following Baker (2003) and Collins (2004), I argue that the subject marker triggers movement of the subject from Spec/vP, explaining why it is banned in VSX clauses. I further claim that although the subject is interpreted as focus, it is not in a lower focus phrase (Belletti 2004), but rather trapped in Spec/vP. Awing postverbal subject constructions also exhibit verb doubling: VSVO. I argue that verb doubling is due to Case requirement: In canonical SVO clauses the subject marker and the verb value the nominative and accusative Cases, respectively. In VSVO constructions, on the contrary, the verb values both nominative and accusative Cases, thus forcing syntax to spell out two copies of the same verb.}, language = {en} } @article{Hassler2019, author = {Haßler, Gerda}, title = {Le tournant s{\´e}miotique du d{\´e}but du XX{\`e}me si{\`e}cle}, series = {Historiographia Linguistica}, volume = {46}, journal = {Historiographia Linguistica}, number = {1-2}, publisher = {John Benjamins Publishing Co.}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0302-5160}, doi = {10.1075/hl.00039.has}, pages = {85 -- 100}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Le centenaire de la publication du Cours de linguistique g{\´e}n{\´e}rale (1916) de Ferdinand de Saussure nous a invit{\´e} {\`a} reconsid{\´e}rer l'importance de cet ouvrage et le r{\^o}le de son auteur pour la fondation d'une linguistique int{\´e}gr{\´e}e dans une s{\´e}miologie. Il n'y a aucun doute que cet auteur fut extr{\^e}mement important pour le d{\´e}veloppement de la linguistique structurale en Europe et qu'avec son concept du signe linguistique il a fait œuvre de pionnier pour le tournant s{\´e}miologique. Mais l'accueil favorable d'une th{\´e}orie dans le milieu scientifique ne s'explique pas seulement par sa qualit{\´e} int{\´e}rieure, mais par plusieurs conditions ext{\´e}rieures. Ces conditions seront analys{\´e}es sur trois plans: (1) l'arriv{\´e}e de la m{\´e}thode des n{\´e}ogrammairiens {\`a} ses limites qui incitait alors {\`a} l'{\´e}tude de l'unit{\´e} du signifiant et du signifi{\´e}; (2) la simplification et l'outrance de la pens{\´e}e structurale dans le Cours, publi{\´e} en 1916 par Charles Bally et Albert Sechehaye et (3) la pr{\´e}paration de la r{\´e}ception de la pens{\´e}e s{\´e}miologique par plusieurs travaux parall{\`e}les.}, language = {fr} } @article{RenansDeVeaughGeiss2019, author = {Renans, Agata and De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P.}, title = {Experimental Studies on it-Clefts and Predicate Interpretation}, series = {Semantics and pragmatics}, volume = {12}, journal = {Semantics and pragmatics}, publisher = {Linguistic Society of America}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1937-8912}, doi = {10.3765/sp.12.11}, pages = {50}, year = {2019}, abstract = {There is an ongoing discussion in the literature whether the series of sentences 'It's not α that did P. α and β did P.' is acceptable or not. Whereas the homogeneity approach in B{\"u}ring \& Križ 2013, Križ 2016, and Križ 2017 predicts these sentences to be unacceptable, the alternative-based approach predicts acceptability depending on the predicate being interpreted distributively or non- distributively (among others, Horn 1981, Velleman et al. 2012, Renans 2016a,b). We report on three experiments testing the predictions of both types of approaches. These studies provide empirical data that not only bears on these approaches, but also allows us to distinguish between different accounts of cleft exhaustivity that might otherwise make the same predictions. The results of the three studies reported here suggest that the acceptability of clefts depends on the interpretation of the predicate, thereby posing a serious challenge to the homogeneity approach, and contributing to the ongoing discussion on the semantics of it-clefts.}, language = {en} } @article{StedeSchefflerMendes2019, author = {Stede, Manfred and Scheffler, Tatjana and Mendes, Amalia}, title = {Connective-Lex}, series = {Discours : revue de linguistique, psycholinguistique et informatique}, journal = {Discours : revue de linguistique, psycholinguistique et informatique}, number = {24}, publisher = {Universit{\´e} de Paris-Sorbonne}, address = {Paris}, issn = {1963-1723}, doi = {10.4000/discours.10098}, pages = {36}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In this paper, we present a tangible outcome of the TextLink network: a joint online database project displaying and linking existing and newly-created lexicons of discourse connectives in multiple languages. We discuss the definition and demarcation of the class of connectives that should be included in such a resource, and present the syntactic, semantic/pragmatic, and lexicographic information we collected. Further, the technical implementation of the database and the search functionality are presented. We discuss how the multilingual integration of several connective lexicons provides added value for linguistic researchers and other users interested in connectives, by allowing crosslinguistic comparison and a direct linking between discourse relational devices in different languages. Finally, we provide pointers for possible future extensions both in breadth (i.e., by adding lexicons for additional languages) and depth (by extending the information provided for each connective item and by strengthening the crosslinguistic links).}, language = {en} } @misc{OfnerStober2019, author = {Ofner, Andre and Stober, Sebastian}, title = {Hybrid variational predictive coding as a bridge between human and artificial cognition}, series = {ALIFE 2019: The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life}, journal = {ALIFE 2019: The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life}, publisher = {MIT Press}, address = {Cambridge}, pages = {68 -- 69}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Predictive coding and its generalization to active inference offer a unified theory of brain function. The underlying predictive processing paradigmhas gained significant attention in artificial intelligence research for its representation learning and predictive capacity. Here, we suggest that it is possible to integrate human and artificial generative models with a predictive coding network that processes sensations simultaneously with the signature of predictive coding found in human neuroimaging data. We propose a recurrent hierarchical predictive coding model that predicts low-dimensional representations of stimuli, electroencephalogram and physiological signals with variational inference. We suggest that in a shared environment, such hybrid predictive coding networks learn to incorporate the human predictive model in order to reduce prediction error. We evaluate the model on a publicly available EEG dataset of subjects watching one-minute long video excerpts. Our initial results indicate that the model can be trained to predict visual properties such as the amount, distance and motion of human subjects in videos.}, language = {en} } @article{HallMalabarbaKimura2019, author = {Hall, Joan Kelly and Malabarba, Taiane and Kimura, Daisuke}, title = {What's Symmetrical?}, series = {The Embodied Work of Teaching}, volume = {75}, journal = {The Embodied Work of Teaching}, publisher = {Multilingual Matters}, address = {Bristol}, isbn = {978-1-78892-548-8}, doi = {10.21832/9781788925501-006}, pages = {37 -- 56}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This chapter investigates teacher management of learner turns in an American second-grade classroom during a read-aloud activity. A read-aloud is a whole-group instructional activity which involves a teacher read-ing aloud a book to a cohort of students as they listen (Tainio \& Slotte, 2017). Using ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA) and drawing on the concepts of alignment and affi liation (Steensig, 2012; Stivers, 2008; Stivers et al., 2011), we investigate how embodied practices such as gaze, facial expressions, body positioning and gestures in addition to verbal practices are used by the teacher separately and together to respond to learner turns in ways that keep the learners aff ectively engaged and, at the same time, ensure the orderly progression of the lesson. Our analysis shows that teacher cooperative management of learners' turns involves: (1) orient-ing to them as affi liative tokens in order to neutralize their disaligning force while still treating learners as cooperative participants in the activity; and (2) managing turns not only according to their sequential positions and the actions they project but, just as importantly, to the larger instructional proj-ect being accomplished. The study contributes to the re-specifi cation of the everyday grounds of teaching in order to broaden understandings of the specialized nature of such work (Macbeth, 2014).}, language = {en} } @article{MuellerMachicaoyPriemer2019, author = {M{\"u}ller, Stefan and Machicao y Priemer, Antonio}, title = {Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar}, series = {Current Approaches to Syntax : a comparative handbook}, volume = {3}, journal = {Current Approaches to Syntax : a comparative handbook}, publisher = {De Gruyter Mouton}, address = {Berlin}, isbn = {978-3-11-054025-3}, doi = {10.1515/9783110540253-012}, pages = {317 -- 359}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar is a constraint-based theory. It uses features and values to model linguistic objects. Values may be complex, e. g. consist of feature values pairs themselves. The paper shows that such feature value pairs together with identity of values and relations between feature values are sufficient to develop a complete linguistic theory including all linguistic levels of description. The paper explains the goals of researchers working in the framework and the way they deal with data and motivate their analyses. The framework is explained with respect to an example sentence that involves the following phenomena: valence, constituent structure, adjunction/modification, raising, case assignment, nonlocal dependencies, relative clauses.}, language = {en} } @article{Aldrup2019, author = {Aldrup, Marit}, title = {Well let me put it uhm the other way around maybe'}, series = {Classroom discourse}, volume = {10}, journal = {Classroom discourse}, number = {1}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1946-3014}, doi = {10.1080/19463014.2019.1567360}, pages = {46 -- 70}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This study is concerned with repair practices that a teacher and students employ to restore intersubjectivity when faced with interactional problems in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classroom. Adopting a conversation analytic (CA) approach, it examines the interactional treatment of students' verbal and embodied trouble displays in a video-recorded, teacher-fronted geography lesson held in English at a German high school. At the same time, it explores to what extent the repair practices employed are fitted to this specific interactional context. The analysis shows that students' verbal trouble displays often result in extensive repair sequences, whereas students' embodied trouble displays are usually met with teacher self-repair in the transition space. In this way, the latter are resolved much earlier and more quickly. The study further reveals practices like reformulation and translation to be especially useful for repairing interactional problems in classrooms in which a foreign language is used as the medium of instruction. The findings may be of interest for prospective as well as practicing teachers in that they provide relevant insights into how interactional trouble can be successfully managed in (CLIL) classroom interaction.}, language = {en} } @article{AlxatibSauerland2019, author = {Alxatib, Sam and Sauerland, Ulrich}, title = {Vagueness}, series = {The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics}, journal = {The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, doi = {10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198791768.013.24}, pages = {28}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Though vague phenomena have been studied extensively for many decades, it is only in recent years that researchers sought the support of quantitative data. This chapter highlights and discusses the insights that experimental methods brought to the study of vagueness. One area focused on are 'borderline contradictions', that is, sentences like 'She is neither tall nor not tall' that are contradictory when analysed in classical logic, but are actually acceptable as descriptions of borderline cases. The flourishing of theories and experimental studies that borderline contradictions have led to are examined closely. Beyond this illustrative case, an overview of recent studies that concern the classification of types of vagueness, the use of numbers, rounding, number modification, and the general pragmatic status of vagueness is provided.}, language = {en} } @article{Michl2019, author = {Michl, Diana}, title = {Metonymies are more literal than metaphors}, series = {Language and cognition : an interdisciplinary journal of language and cognitive science}, volume = {11}, journal = {Language and cognition : an interdisciplinary journal of language and cognitive science}, number = {1}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1866-9808}, doi = {10.1017/langcog.2019.7}, pages = {98 -- 124}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Metaphor and metonymy are likely the most common forms of non-literal language. As metaphor and metonymy differ conceptually and in how easy they are to comprehend, it seems likely that they also differ in their degree of non-literalness. They frequently occur in idioms which are foremost non-literal, fixed expressions. Given that non-literalness seems to be the defining criterion of what constitutes an idiom, it is striking that no study so far has focused specifically on differing non-literalness in idioms. It is unclear whether and how metaphoric and metonymic structures and their properties are perceived in idioms, given that the comprehension of idioms is driven by a number of other properties that are connected. This study divides idioms according to their metonymic or metaphoric structure and lets participants rate their non-literalness, familiarity, and transparency. It focuses on non-literalness as key property, finds it strongly connected to transparency, and to be the one key factor in predicting idiom type. Specifically, it reveals that metonymies are generally perceived as rather or even extremely literal, while metaphors are generally perceived as highly non-literal.}, language = {en} }