@article{BrandtKobeleHoehle2010, author = {Brandt-Kobele, Oda-Christina and H{\"o}hle, Barbara}, title = {What asymmetries within comprehension reveal about asymmetries between comprehension and production : the case of verb inflection in language acquisition}, issn = {0024-3841}, doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2010.02.008}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Two recent studies (Johnson et al., 2005; Perez-Leroux, 2006) found that English- and Spanish-learning children do not show the ability to use verb inflection as a cue to subject number before the age of 5 to 6 years. These findings suggest an asymmetric development as verb inflections are usually correctly produced before this age. In the present study we investigated whether German 3- to 4-year-olds take advantage of the information provided by the verb inflection in sentence comprehension. In a first study, children's looking behavior at two pictures was measured after presentation of a sentence in which the subject number was coded only by the verb inflection. The results from this study suggest that children's looks reflect correct interpretation of the sentences and thus show their ability to make use of verb inflection. In a second experiment, preferential looking was combined with an additional task in which the children had to point to the matching picture. in this case children did not perform above chance level. Our results underline the relevance that specific task demands have on the performance of children in comprehension testing. These have to be accounted for when interpreting findings on production and comprehension asymmetries in language acquisition.}, language = {en} } @article{AdanivanderLelyForgiarinietal.2010, author = {Adani, Flavia and van der Lely, Heather K. J. and Forgiarini, Matteo and Guasti, Maria Teresa}, title = {Grammatical feature dissimilarities make relative clauses easier : a comprehension study with Italian children}, issn = {0024-3841}, doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2010.03.018}, year = {2010}, abstract = {The Relativized Minimality approach to A'-dependencies (Friedmann et al., 2009) predicts that headed object relative clauses (RCs) and which questions are the most difficult, due to the presence of a lexical restriction on both the subject and the object DP which creates intervention. We investigated comprehension of center-embedded headed object RCs with Italian children, where Number and Gender feature values on subject and object DPs are manipulated. We found that. Number conditions are always more accurate than Gender ones, showing that intervention is sensitive to DP-internal structure. We propose a finer definition of the lexical restriction where external and syntactically active features (such as Number) reduce intervention whereas internal and (possibly) lexicalized features (such as Gender) do so to a lesser extent. Our results are also compatible with a memory interference approach in which the human parser is sensitive to highly specific properties of the linguistic input, such as the cue-based model (Van Dyke, 2007).}, language = {en} } @article{WartenburgerKuehnSassenbergetal.2010, author = {Wartenburger, Isabell and K{\"u}hn, Esther and Sassenberg, Uta and Foth, Manja and Franz, Elisabeth A. and van der Meer, Elke}, title = {On the relationship between fluid intelligence, gesture production, and brain structure}, issn = {0160-2896}, doi = {10.1016/j.intell.2009.11.001}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Individuals scoring high in fluid intelligence tasks generally perform very efficiently in problem solving tasks and analogical reasoning tasks presumably because they are able to select the task-relevant information very quickly and focus on a limited set of task-relevant cognitive operations. Moreover, individuals with high fluid intelligence produce more representational hand and arm gestures when describing a geometric analogy task than individuals with average fluid intelligence. No study has yet addressed the relationship between intelligence, gesture production, and brain structure, to our knowledge. That was the purpose of our study. To characterize the relation between intelligence, gesture production, and brain structure we assessed the frequency of representational gestures and cortical thickness values in a group of adolescents differing in fluid intelligence. Individuals scoring high in fluid intelligence showed higher accuracy in the geometric analogy task and produced more representational gestures (in particular more movement gestures) when explaining how they solved the task and showed larger cortical thickness values in some regions in the left hemisphere (namely the pars opercularis, superior frontal, and temporal cortex) than individuals with average fluid intelligence. Moreover, the left pars opercularis (a part of Broca's area) and left transverse temporal cortex showed larger cortical thickness values in participants who produced representational and in particular movement gestures compared to those who did not. Our results thus indicate that cortical thickness of those brain regions is related to both high fluid intelligence and the production of gestures. Results are discussed in the gestures-as-simulated-action framework that states that gestures result from simulated perception and simulated action that underlie embodied language and mental imagery.}, language = {en} } @article{Vicente2010, author = {Vicente, Luis}, title = {A note on the movement analysis of gapping}, issn = {0024-3892}, year = {2010}, language = {en} } @article{SwertsZerbian2010, author = {Swerts, Marc and Zerbian, Sabine}, title = {Intonational differences between L1 and L2 english in South Africa}, issn = {0031-8388}, doi = {10.1159/000321052}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Previous studies have shown that characteristics of a person's first language (L1) may transfer to a second language (L2). The current study looks at the extent to which this holds for aspects of intonation as well. More specifically, we investigate to what extent traces of the L1 can be discerned in the way intonation is used in the L2 for two functions: (1) to highlight certain words by making them sound more prominent and (2) to signal continuation or finality in a list by manipulating the speech melody. To this end, the article presents an explorative study into the way focus and boundaries are marked prosodically in Zulu, and it also compares such prosodic functions in two variants of English in South Africa, i.e., English spoken as an L1, and English spoken as an L2/additional language by speakers who have Zulu as their L1. The latter language is commonly referred to as Black South African English. This comparison is interesting from a typological perspective, as Zulu is intonationally different from English, especially in the way prosody is exploited for signalling informationally important stretches of speech. Using a specific elicitation procedure, we found in a first study that speakers of South African English (as L1) mark focused words and position within a list by intonational means, just as in other L1 varieties of English, whereas Zulu only uses intonation for marking continuity or finality. A second study focused on speakers of Black South African English, and compared the prosody of proficient versus less proficient speakers. We found that the proficient speakers were perceptually equivalent to L1 speakers of English in their use of intonation for marking focus and boundaries. The less proficient speakers marked boundaries in a similar way as L1 speakers of English, but did not use prosody for signalling focus, analogous to what is typical of their native language. Acoustic observations match these perceptual results.}, language = {en} } @article{SkopeteasFanselow2010, author = {Skopeteas, Stavros and Fanselow, Gisbert}, title = {Focus in Georgian and the expression of contrast}, issn = {0024-3841}, doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2008.10.012}, year = {2010}, abstract = {This paper examines the impact of contrastive focus in Georgian syntax. In a semi-naturalistic production study, we elicited spontaneous answers to questions which have shown that contexts involving contrastive focus induce placement of the focused constituent at the immediately preverbal position more frequently than other contexts. Based on this observation we investigate the properties of Georgian grammar which may account for the different impact of contrastive vs. non-contrastive contexts on word order. We first examine the involved syntactic structures and present evidence that preverbal focus is a result of movement to the specifier position of a functional projection whose head attracts the finite verb. We then address the question whether there is evidence for an association between contrast and movement to this position and we provide evidence that the correlation between context and order in the behavioral data does not result from a biunique form-function association of the kind 'contrast <-> move-movement to the specifier position', but from an asymmetry at a discourse level such that contexts involving contrast induce answers in which focused constituents occupy the stressed position in the clause more often than contexts that do not.}, language = {en} } @article{ZerbianBarnard2010, author = {Zerbian, Sabine and Barnard, Etienne}, title = {Realisation of two adjacent high tones : Acoustic evidence from Northern Sotho}, issn = {1607-3614}, doi = {10.2989/16073614.2010.519099}, year = {2010}, abstract = {We present findings of a multi-speaker production study that was undertaken to investigate the realisation of two adjacent high tones within the verb word in Northern Sotho, a Southern Bantu language. Experimental tokens are selected to ensure that the high tones originate from different combinations of morphosyntactic constituents. It is found that the morphosyntactic constituency determines how the adjacent high tones are realised. When both high tones originate within either the inflectional stem or the macrostem constituents, a single pitch peak is realised. Additionally, when the macrostem contains two high tones, the tone of the object concord is absorbed into the stem. Two adjacent high tones, of which one stems from the inflectional stem and the other from the macrostem, produce two pitch peaks, with the latter of the two delayed in order to satisfy the Obligatory Contour Principle. These generalisations are supported by acoustic data. A set of rules is formulated that describes the surface realisation of adjacent high tones in the verbal domain of Northern Sotho (with the exception of one unresolved issue).}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Feldhausen2010, author = {Feldhausen, Ingo}, title = {Sentential form and prosodic structure of catalan}, series = {Linguistik Aktuell}, volume = {168}, journal = {Linguistik Aktuell}, publisher = {Benjamins}, address = {Amsterdam}, isbn = {978-90-272-5551-8}, issn = {0166-0829}, pages = {285 S.}, year = {2010}, language = {en} } @misc{SchwarzFiedler2010, author = {Schwarz, Anne and Fiedler, Ines}, title = {Informationsstruktur oder : Was es in der Grammatik zu entdecken gibt}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-069-4}, pages = {DVD : 46,06 Min}, year = {2010}, language = {de} } @article{BreitensteinStadie2010, author = {Breitenstein, Sarah and Stadie, Nicole}, title = {Phonologische Verarbeitung bei Lese-Rechtschreib-Schw{\"a}che : Kinder aus der 1. bis 3. Klasse}, year = {2010}, language = {de} }