TY - JOUR A1 - Miklashevsky, Alex A. T1 - О высоком и низком: пространственная семантика абстрактных и конкретных существительных JF - Tomsk state university journal N2 - Aim and material: In the present study, the data of the rating study presented earlier, where participants estimated the position of an object or phenomenon in vertical space by using the seven-point Likert scale, are used in order to systematically describe spatial information included in language units of different semantic categories. Background: The role of spatial semantics in language understanding is assumed by modern cognition theories and confirmed in experimental studies. Hypotheses: Based on conceptual metaphor theory, a number of hypotheses are proposed in the present study: different semantic categories of nouns (e.g., tools vs. animals vs. emotions etc.) should significantly differ in their spatial semantics as well; different semantic categories of abstract nouns (e.g., mental states vs. emotions vs. physical sensations) should also differ in their spatial semantics, as the latter is included in their conceptual structure; mental states and phenomena (e.g., imagination, thought or memory) should have higher values (i.e., be located higher in the virtual subjective space) than any other abstract concepts; emotional concepts (e.g., love, disgust or happiness) should be located higher than physical sensations (e.g., pain or softness); positive emotions (like joy or euphoria) should be located higher than negative ones (like feeling of guilt or disappointment). Methods: Statistical methods (parametric and non-parametric ones) are used in order to test the hypotheses. As additional cross-testing methods corpora data and expert assessment are included. Results: The results of the study confirmed all the hypotheses. A number of additional regularities were revealed: in general, abstract concepts get higher values on a scale, i.e., are located higher in the virtual subjective space than concrete ones; tool concepts are related more to the lower space, unlike sound concepts that are related to higher space. No difference was found between action concepts (like attack or running) and physical sensations. Discussion: The results obtained can also be explained in terms of other theories within the embodied cognition framework, as it is discussed in the conclusion (words as social tools by A. Borghi and F. Binkofski; ideas by G. Vigliocco and neurosemantic approach by F. Pulvermuller). The need in an integrative model and larger studies with other semantic categories is underlined. N2 - Проведен анализ пространственной семантики различных категорий русских существительных, входящих в психолингви-стическую базуданных; особое внимание уделяется абстрактным концептам. Выявлены различия пространственной семантики наименований физических ощущений и действий, эмоций, ментальных процессов. Полученны ерезультаты обсуждаются с точки зрения отдельных подходов в рамках теории воплощенного познания – теории концептуальной метафоры, теории слов как социальных инструментов (WAT, Words As social Tools), нейросемантики. T2 - About the high and the low: spatial semantics of abstract and concrete nouns KW - embodied cognition KW - spatial semantics KW - conceptual metaphor KW - neurosemantics KW - words as social tools KW - psycholinguistic databases KW - abstract concepts KW - абстрактные концепты KW - психолингвистическая база данных KW - слова как социальные инструменты KW - нейросемантика KW - концептуальная метафора KW - пространственная семантика KW - воплощенное познание Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.17223/15617793/424/4 SN - 1561-7793 SN - 1561-803X IS - 424 SP - 26 EP - 34 PB - Tomsk Stata Univ CY - Tomsk ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fargier, Raphael A1 - Bürki-Foschini, Audrey Damaris A1 - Pinet, Svetlana A1 - Alario, F. -Xavier A1 - Laganaro, Marina T1 - Word onset phonetic properties and motor artifacts in speech production EEG recordings JF - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research N2 - Electrophysiological research using verbal response paradigms faces the problem of muscle artifacts that occur during speech production or in the period preceding articulation. In this context, this paper has two related aims. The first is to show how the nature of the first phoneme influences the alignment of the ERPs. The second is to further characterize the EEG signal around the onset of articulation, both in temporal and frequency domains. Participants were asked to name aloud pictures of common objects. We applied microstate analyses and time-frequency transformations of ERPs locked to vocal onset to compare the EEG signal between voiced and unvoiced labial plosive word onset consonants. We found a delay of about 40 ms in the set of stable topographic patterns for /b/ relative to /p/ onset words. A similar shift was observed in the power increase of gamma oscillations (30-50 Hz), which had an earlier onset for /p/ trials (similar to 150 ms before vocal onset). This 40-ms shift is consistent with the length of the voiced proportion of the acoustic signal prior to the release of the closure in the vocal responses. These results demonstrate that phonetic features are an important parameter affecting response-locked ERPs, and hence that the onset of the acoustic energy may not be an optimal trigger for synchronizing the EEG activity to the response in vocal paradigms. The indexes explored in this study provide a step forward in the characterization of muscle-related artifacts in electrophysiological studies of speech and language production. KW - EEG KW - motor artifact KW - phonetics KW - picture naming KW - speech production Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12982 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 55 IS - 2 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schotter, Elizabeth Roye A1 - Leinenger, Mallorie A1 - von der Malsburg, Titus Raban T1 - When your mind skips what your eyes fixate BT - how forced fixations lead to comprehension illusions in reading JF - Psychonomic bulletin & review : a journal of the Psychonomic Society N2 - The phenomenon of forced fixations suggests that readers sometimes fixate a word (due to oculomotor constraints) even though they intended to skip it (due to parafoveal cognitive-linguistic processing). We investigate whether this leads readers to look directly at a word but not pay attention to it. We used a gaze-contingent boundary paradigm to dissociate parafoveal and foveal information (e.g., the word phone changed to scarf once the reader's eyes moved to it) and asked questions about the sentence to determine which one the reader encoded. When the word was skipped or fixated only briefly (i.e., up to 100 ms) readers were more likely to report reading the parafoveal than the fixated word, suggesting that there are cases in which readers look directly at a word but their minds ignore it, leading to the illusion of reading something they did not fixate. KW - Word recognition KW - Text comprehension KW - Eye movements and reading Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1356-y SN - 1069-9384 SN - 1531-5320 VL - 25 IS - 5 SP - 1884 EP - 1890 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiese, Heike A1 - Oncu, Mehmet Tahir A1 - Bracker, Philip T1 - Verb-third-position in Turkish-German Language Contact BT - Information-structured Linearization of singular and multilingual Speakers JF - Deutsche Sprache : ds ; Zeitschrift für Theorie, Praxis, Dokumentation N2 - In present-day German we find new word order options, particularly well-known from Turkish-German bilingual speakers in the contexts of new urban dialects, which allow violations of the canonical verb-second position in independent declarative clauses. In these cases, two positions are occupied in the forefield in front of the finite verb, usually by an adverbial and a subject, which identify, at the level of information structure, frame-setter and topic, respectively. Our study investigates the influence of verbal versus language -independent information-structural preferences for this linearisation, comparing Turkish-German multilingual speakers who have grown up in Germany with monolingual German and Turkish speakers. For tasks, in which grammatical restrictions were largely minimised, the results indicate a general tendency to place verbs in a position after the frame-setter and the topic; in addition, we found language-specific influences that distinguish Turkish-German and monolingual German speakers from monolingual Turkish ones. We interpret this as evidence for an information-structural motivation for verb-third, and for a clear dominance of German for Turkish-German speakers in Germany. Y1 - 2017 SN - 0340-9341 SN - 1866-5233 VL - 45 IS - 1 SP - 31 EP - 52 PB - Erich Schmidt CY - Berlin ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Kügler, Frank T1 - Tone and intonation in Akan T2 - Intonation in African Tone Languages N2 - This chapter provides an account of the intonation patterns in Akan (Kwa, Niger-Congo). Tonal processes such as downstep, tonal spreading and tonal replacement influence the surface tone pattern of a sentence. In general, any Akan utterance independent of sentence type shows a characteristic down-trend in pitch. This chapter proposes that Akan employs a simple post-lexical tonal grammar that accounts for the shapes of an intonation contour. The unmarked post-lexical structure is found in simple declaratives. The downward trend of an intonation contour is shaped by local tonal interactions (downstep), and sentence-final tonal neutralization. In polar questions, an iota-phrase-final low boundary tone (L%) accounts for the intensity increase and lengthening of the final vowel compared to a declarative. Complex declaratives and left-dislocations show a partial pitch reset at the left edge of an embedded iota-phrase. Underlying lexical tones are not affected by intonation with the exception of sentence-final H-tones. KW - downstep KW - low boundary tone KW - polar question KW - constituent question KW - imperative KW - complex declarative KW - Akan KW - pitch register reset KW - prosodic phrasing KW - tonal neutralization KW - avoidance KW - lax question prosody Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-3-11-050352-4; 978-3-11-048479-3 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110503524-004 SN - 1861-4191 VL - 24 SP - 89 EP - 129 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bosch, Sina A1 - Krause, Helena A1 - Leminen, Alina T1 - The time-course of morphosyntactic and semantic priming in late bilinguals: A study of German adjectives JF - Bilingualism : language and cognition. N2 - How do late proficient bilinguals process morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic information in their non-native language (L2)? How is this information represented in the L2 mental lexicon? And what are the neural signatures of L2 morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic processing? We addressed these questions in one behavioral and two ERP priming experiments on inflected German adjectives testing a group of advanced late Russian learners of German in comparison to native speaker (L1) controls. While in the behavioral experiment, the L2 learners performed native-like, the ERP data revealed clear L1/L2 differences with respect to the temporal dynamics of grammatical processing. Specifically, our results show that L2 morphosyntactic processing yielded temporally and spatially extended brain responses relative to L1 processing, indicating that grammatical processing of inflected words in an L2 is more demanding and less automatic than in the L1. However, this group of advanced L2 learners showed native-like lexical-semantic processing. KW - Inflection KW - EEG KW - Grammatical Processing KW - Mental Lexicon Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000055 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 20 SP - 435 EP - 456 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jacob, Gunnar A1 - Katsika, Kalliopi A1 - Family, Neiloufar A1 - Allen, Shanley E. M. T1 - The role of constituent order and level of embedding in cross-linguistic structural priming JF - Bilingualism : language and cognition N2 - In two cross-linguistic priming experiments with native German speakers of L2 English, we investigated the role of constituent order and level of embedding in cross-linguistic structural priming. In both experiments, significant priming effects emerged only if prime and target were similar with regard to constituent order and also situated on the same level of embedding. We discuss our results on the basis of two current theoretical accounts of cross-linguistic priming, and conclude that neither an account based on combinatorial nodes nor an account assuming that constituent order is directly responsible for the priming effect can fully explain our data pattern. We suggest an account that explains cross-linguistic priming through a hierarchical tree representation. This representation is computed during processing of the prime, and can influence the formulation of a target sentence only when the structural features specified in it are grammatically correct in the target sentence. KW - cross-linguistic structural priming KW - constituent order KW - level of embedding KW - hierarchical tree structures Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000717 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 20 SP - 269 EP - 282 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Adani, Flavia A1 - Stegenwallner-Schutz, Maja Henny Katherine A1 - Niesel, Talea T1 - The Peaceful Co-existence of Input Frequency and Structural Intervention Effects on the Comprehension of Complex Sentences in German-Speaking Children JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The predictions of two contrasting approaches to the acquisition of transitive relative clauses were tested within the same groups of German-speaking participants aged from 3 to 5 years old. The input frequency approach predicts that object relative clauses with inanimate heads (e.g., the pullover that the man is scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with an animate head (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). In contrast, the structural intervention approach predicts that object relative clauses with two full NP arguments mismatching in number (e.g., the man that the boys are scratching) are comprehended earlier and more accurately than those with number-matching NPs (e.g., the man that the boy is scratching). These approaches were tested in two steps. First, we ran a corpus analysis to ensure that object relative clauses with number-mismatching NPs are not more frequent than object relative clauses with number-matching NPs in child directed speech. Next, the comprehension of these structures was tested experimentally in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds respectively by means of a color naming task. By comparing the predictions of the two approaches within the same participant groups, we were able to uncover that the effects predicted by the input frequency and by the structural intervention approaches co-exist and that they both influence the performance of children on transitive relative clauses, but in a manner that is modulated by age. These results reveal a sensitivity to animacy mismatch already being demonstrated by 3-year-olds and show that animacy is initially deployed more reliably than number to interpret relative clauses correctly. In all age groups, the animacy mismatch appears to explain the performance of children, thus, showing that the comprehension of frequent object relative clauses is enhanced compared to the other conditions. Starting with 4-year-olds but especially in 5-year-olds, the number mismatch supported comprehension-a facilitation that is unlikely to be driven by input frequency. Once children fine-tune their sensitivity to verb agreement information around the age of four, they are also able to deploy number marking to overcome the intervention effects. This study highlights the importance of testing experimentally contrasting theoretical approaches in order to characterize the multifaceted, developmental nature of language acquisition. KW - relative clauses KW - sentence comprehension KW - input frequency KW - number KW - animacy KW - language acquisition KW - German Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01590 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Metzner, Paul A1 - von der Malsburg, Titus Raban A1 - Vasishth, Shravan A1 - Roesler, Frank T1 - The Importance of Reading Naturally: Evidence From Combined Recordings of Eye Movements and Electric Brain Potentials JF - Cognitive science : a multidisciplinary journal of anthropology, artificial intelligence, education, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology ; journal of the Cognitive Science Society KW - Reading KW - Sentence comprehension KW - ERP KW - Eye movements KW - Regressions Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12384 SN - 0364-0213 SN - 1551-6709 VL - 41 SP - 1232 EP - 1263 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Patterson, Clare A1 - Esaulova, Yulia A1 - Felser, Claudia T1 - The impact of focus on pronoun resolution in native and non-native sentence comprehension JF - Second language research KW - clefts KW - discourse-level cues KW - focus KW - focus-sensitive particles KW - information structure KW - non-native speakers KW - pronoun resolution Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658317697786 SN - 0267-6583 SN - 1477-0326 VL - 33 SP - 403 EP - 429 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER -