TY - GEN A1 - Zarriess, Sina A1 - Schlangen, David T1 - Objects of Unknown Categories T2 - The 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics N2 - 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. Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-1-950737-48-2 SP - 654 EP - 659 PB - Association for Computational Linguistics CY - Stroudsburg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zakarias, Lilla A1 - Kelly, Helen A1 - Sails, Christos A1 - Code, Chris T1 - The methodological quality of short-term/working memory treatments in poststroke aphasia BT - a systematic review JF - Journal of speech, language, and hearing research N2 - Purpose: The aims of this systematic review are to provide a critical overview of short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) treatments in stroke aphasia and to systematically evaluate the internal and external validity of STM/WM treatments. Method: A systematic search was conducted in February 2014 and then updated in December 2016 using 13 electronic databases. We provided descriptive characteristics of the included studies and assessed their methodological quality using the Risk of Bias in N-of-1 Trials quantitative scale (Tate et al., 2015), which was completed by 2 independent raters. Results: The systematic search and inclusion/exclusion procedure yielded 17 single-case or case-series studies with 37 participants for inclusion. Nine studies targeted auditory STM consisting of repetition and/or recognition tasks, whereas 8 targeted attention and WM, such as attention process training including n-back tasks with shapes and clock faces as well as mental math tasks. In terms of their methodological quality, quality scores on the Risk of Bias in N-of-1 Trials scale ranged from 4 to 17 (M = 9.5) on a 0-30 scale, indicating a high risk of bias in the reviewed studies. Effects of treatment were most frequently assessed on STM, WM, and spoken language comprehension. Transfer effects on communication and memory in activities of daily living were tested in only 5 studies. Conclusions: Methodological limitations of the reviewed studies make it difficult, at present, to draw firm conclusions about the effects of STM/WM treatments in poststroke aphasia. Further studies with more rigorous methodology and stronger experimental control are needed to determine the beneficial effects of this type of intervention. To understand the underlying mechanisms of STM/WM treatment effects and how they relate to language functioning, a careful choice of outcome measures and specific hypotheses about potential improvements on these measures are required. Future studies need to include outcome measures of memory functioning in everyday life and psychosocial functioning more generally to demonstrate the ecological validity of STM and WM treatments. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-18-0057 SN - 1092-4388 SN - 1558-9102 VL - 62 IS - 6 SP - 1979 EP - 2001 PB - American Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc. CY - Rockville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wulff, Dirk U. A1 - De Deyne, Simon A1 - Jones, Michael N. A1 - Mata, Rui A1 - Austerweil, Joseph L. A1 - Baayen, R. Harald A1 - Balota, David A. A1 - Baronchelli, Andrea A1 - Brysbaert, Marc A1 - Cai, Qing A1 - Dennis, Simon A1 - Hills, Thomas T. A1 - Kenett, Yoed N. A1 - Keuleers, Emmanuel A1 - Marelli, Marco A1 - Pakhomov, Serguei A1 - Ramscar, Michael A1 - Schooler, Lael J. A1 - Shing, Yee Lee A1 - da Souza, Alessandra S. A1 - Siew, Cynthia S. Q. A1 - Storms, Gert A1 - Veríssimo, Joao Marques T1 - New Perspectives on the Aging Lexicon JF - Trends in cognitive science N2 - The field of cognitive aging has seen considerable advances in describing the linguistic and semantic changes that happen during the adult life span to uncover the structure of the mental lexicon (i.e., the mental repository of lexical and conceptual representations). Nevertheless, there is still debate concerning the sources of these changes, including the role of environmental exposure and several cognitive mechanisms associated with learning, representation, and retrieval of information. We review the current status of research in this field and outline a framework that promises to assess the contribution of both ecological and psychological aspects to the aging lexicon. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.05.003 SN - 1364-6613 SN - 1879-307X VL - 23 IS - 8 SP - 686 EP - 698 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vasishth, Shravan A1 - Nicenboim, Bruno A1 - Engelmann, Felix A1 - Burchert, Frank T1 - Computational Models of Retrieval Processes in Sentence Processing JF - Trends in Cognitive Sciences N2 - Sentence comprehension requires that the comprehender work out who did what to whom. This process has been characterized as retrieval from memory. This review summarizes the quantitative predictions and empirical coverage of the two existing computational models of retrieval and shows how the predictive performance of these two competing models can be tested against a benchmark data-set. We also show how computational modeling can help us better understand sources of variability in both unimpaired and impaired sentence comprehension. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.09.003 SN - 1364-6613 SN - 1879-307X VL - 23 IS - 11 SP - 968 EP - 982 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - THES A1 - Stegenwallner-Schütz, Maja Henny Katherine T1 - The Development of Syntactic and Pragmatic Aspects of Language in Children with Developmental Disorders BT - evidence from Specific Language Impairment and Autism Spectrum Disorders Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stede, Manfred A1 - Scheffler, Tatjana A1 - Mendes, Amalia T1 - Connective-Lex BT - a Web-Based Multilingual Lexical Resource for Connectives JF - Discours : revue de linguistique, psycholinguistique et informatique N2 - 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). N2 - Nous présentons dans cet article un résultat tangible du réseau TextLink : un projet conjoint de base de données en ligne, qui montre et relie des lexiques, aussi bien existants que créés récemment, de connecteurs discursifs dans plusieurs langues. Nous commençons par considérer la définition et la délimitation de la classe des connecteurs qui devraient être inclus dans une telle ressource, et nous présentons l’information syntaxique, sémantico-pragmatique et lexicographique que nous avons recueillie. D’autre part, l’implémentation technique de cette base de données et les fonctionnalités de recherche qu’elle permet sont aussi décrites. Nous discutons de quelle manière l’intégration multilingue de plusieurs lexiques de connecteurs apporte une valeur ajoutée aux chercheurs en linguistique et aux autres utilisateurs qui s’intéressent aux connecteurs, en permettant de comparer plusieurs langues et de relier directement les connecteurs dans différentes langues. Pour finir, nous donnons des indications quant à une possible extension future en termes d’ampleur (par exemple, en ajoutant des lexiques pour de nouvelles langues) et de profondeur (en augmentant l’information qui est donnée pour chaque connecteur et en renforçant les liens entre lexiques). KW - discourse connectives KW - lexicon KW - multilingual resources KW - crosslinguistic links Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4000/discours.10098 SN - 1963-1723 IS - 24 PB - Université de Paris-Sorbonne CY - Paris ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ruberg, Tobias A1 - Rothweiler, Monika A1 - Veríssimo, João Marques A1 - Clahsen, Harald T1 - Childhood bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment BT - A study of the CP-domain in German SLI JF - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition N2 - 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. KW - developmental language impairment KW - specific language impairment KW - child second language acquisition KW - syntax KW - agreement Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000580 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 23 IS - 3 SP - 668 EP - 680 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Renans, Agata A1 - De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P. T1 - Experimental Studies on it-Clefts and Predicate Interpretation JF - Semantics and pragmatics N2 - 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 Büring & 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. KW - it-clefts KW - exhaustivity KW - homogeneity KW - distributive,collective, and mixed predicates KW - distributive vs. non-distributive interpretation KW - experimental study Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3765/sp.12.11 SN - 1937-8912 VL - 12 PB - Linguistic Society of America CY - Washington ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ofner, Andre A1 - Stober, Sebastian T1 - Hybrid variational predictive coding as a bridge between human and artificial cognition T2 - ALIFE 2019: The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life N2 - 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. Y1 - 2019 SP - 68 EP - 69 PB - MIT Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Noiray, Aude A1 - Wieling, Martijn A1 - Abakarova, Dzhuma A1 - Rubertus, Elina A1 - Tiede, Mark T1 - Back from the future T1 - Nonlinear anticipation in adults' and children's speech JF - Journal of speech, language, and hearing research N2 - Purpose: This study examines the temporal organization of vocalic anticipation in German children from 3 to 7 years of age and adults. The main objective was to test for nonlinear processes in vocalic anticipation, which may result from the interaction between lingual gestural goals for individual vowels and those for their neighbors over time. Method: The technique of ultrasound imaging was employed to record tongue movement at 5 time points throughout short utterances of the form V1#CV2. Vocalic anticipation was examined with generalized additive modeling, an analytical approach allowing for the estimation of both linear and nonlinear influences on anticipatory processes. Conclusions: A developmental transition towards more segmentally-specified coarticulatory organizations seems to occur from kindergarten to primary school to adulthood. In adults, nonlinear anticipatory patterns over time suggest a strong differentiation between the gestural goals for consecutive segments. In children, this differentiation is not yet mature: Vowels show greater prominence over time and seem activated more in phase with those of previous segments relative to adults. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-S-CSMC7-18-0208 SN - 1092-4388 SN - 1558-9102 VL - 62 IS - 8 SP - 3033 EP - 3054 PB - American Speech-Language-Hearing Association CY - Rockville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neumann, Sandra A1 - Quinting, Jana A1 - Rosenkranz, Anna A1 - De Beer, Carola A1 - Jonas, Kristina A1 - Stenneken, Prisca T1 - Quality of life in adults with neurogenic speech-language-communication difficulties BT - A systematic review of existing measures JF - Journal of communication disorders Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2019.01.003 SN - 0021-9924 SN - 1873-7994 VL - 79 SP - 24 EP - 45 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Navratil, Michael T1 - Jenseits des politischen Realismus BT - Kontrafaktik als Verfahren politischen Schreibens in der Gegenwartsliteratur (Juli Zeh, Michel Houellebecq) JF - Das Politische in der Literatur der Gegenwart Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:101:1-2020081210315564625980 SN - 978-3-11-056854-7 SN - 978-3-11-056864-6 SP - 359 EP - 376 PB - de Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Stefan A1 - Machicao y Priemer, Antonio T1 - Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar JF - Current Approaches to Syntax : a comparative handbook N2 - 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. Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-3-11-054025-3 SN - 978-3-11-053821-2 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110540253-012 VL - 3 SP - 317 EP - 359 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin ER - TY - GEN A1 - Miklashevsky, Alex A. T1 - Words as social tools BT - the old and the new. Bridging cognition and communication Comment on "Words as social tools: Language, sociality and inner grounding in abstract concepts" by Anna M. Borghi et al. T2 - Physics of life reviews Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2019.04.002 SN - 1571-0645 SN - 1873-1457 VL - 29 SP - 164 EP - 165 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Michl, Diana T1 - Speedy Metonymy, Tricky Metaphor, Irrelevant Compositionality: How Nonliteralness Affects Idioms in Reading and Rating JF - Journal of psycholinguistic research N2 - It is widely acknowledged that fixed expressions such as idioms have a processing advantage over non-idiomatic language. While many idioms are metaphoric, metonymic, or even literal, the effect of varying nonliteralness in their processing has not been much researched yet. Theoretical and empirical findings suggest that metonymies are easier to process than metaphors but it is unclear whether this applies to idioms. Two self-paced reading experiments test whether metonymic, metaphoric, or literal idioms have a greater processing advantage over non-idiomatic control sentences, and whether this is caused by varying nonliteralness. Both studies find that metonymic and literal idioms are read significantly faster than controls, while the advantage for metaphoric idioms is only tenuous. Only experiment 2 finds literal idioms to be read fastest of all. As compositionality of the idioms cannot account for these findings, some effect of nonliteralness is suggested, together with idiomaticity and the sentential context. KW - Idiom processing KW - Nonliteralness KW - Metaphor KW - Metonymy KW - Self-paced reading Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-019-09658-7 SN - 0090-6905 SN - 1573-6555 VL - 48 IS - 6 SP - 1285 EP - 1310 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Michl, Diana T1 - Metonymies are more literal than metaphors BT - evidence from ratings of German idioms JF - Language and cognition : an interdisciplinary journal of language and cognitive science N2 - 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. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2019.7 SN - 1866-9808 SN - 1866-9859 VL - 11 IS - 1 SP - 98 EP - 124 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lartey, Nathaniel A1 - Tsiwah, Frank A1 - Amponsah, Clement A1 - Martinez-Ferreiro, Silvia A1 - Bastiaanse, Roelien T1 - Resumption in the production of focused constructions in Akan speakers with agrammatism JF - Aphasiology N2 - 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. KW - Agrammatism KW - focus constructions KW - (pronominal) resumption KW - clause determiner KW - Akan Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2019.1686746 VL - 34 IS - 3 SP - 343 EP - 364 PB - Routledge CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kuberski, Stephan R. A1 - Gafos, Adamantios I. T1 - The speed-curvature power law in tongue movements of repetitive speech JF - PLoS one N2 - The speed-curvature power law is a celebrated law of motor control expressing a relation between the kinematic property of speed and the geometric property of curvature. We aimed to assess whether speech movements obey this law just as movements from other domains do. We describe a metronome-driven speech elicitation paradigm designed to cover a wide range of speeds. We recorded via electromagnetic articulometry speech movements in sequences of the form /CV…/ from nine speakers (five German, four English) speaking at eight distinct rates. First, we demonstrate that the paradigm of metronome-driven manipulations results in speech movement data consistent with earlier reports on the kinematics of speech production. Second, analysis of our data in their full three-dimensions and using advanced numerical differentiation methods offers stronger evidence for the law than that reported in previous studies devoted to its assessment. Finally, we demonstrate the presence of a clear rate dependency of the power law’s parameters. The robustness of the speed-curvature relation in our datasets lends further support to the hypothesis that the power law is a general feature of human movement. We place our results in the context of other work in movement control and consider implications for models of speech production. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213851 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 14 IS - 3 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jeglinski-Mende, Melinda A. T1 - Alcohol in the aging brain BT - the interplay between alcohol consumption, cognitive decline and the cardiovascular system JF - Frontiers in neuroscience N2 - As our society grows older new challenges for medicine and healthcare emerge. Age-related changes of the body have been observed in essential body functions, particularly in the loco-motor system, in the cardiovascular system and in cognitive functions concerning both brain plasticity and changes in behavior. Nutrition and lifestyle, such as nicotine intake and chronic alcohol consumption, also contribute to biological changes in the brain. This review addresses the effect of alcohol consumption on cognitive decline, changes in brain plasticity in the aging brain and on cardiovascular health in aging. Thus, studies on the interplay of chronic alcohol intake and either cognitive decline or cognitive preservation are outlined. Because of the inconsistency in the literature of whether alcohol consumption preserves cognitive functions in the aging brain or whether it accelerates cognitive decline, it is crucial to consider individual contributing factors such as culture, health and lifestyle in future studies. KW - cognitive decline KW - neuroplasticity KW - AUD KW - alcohol consumption KW - aging brain Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.00713 SN - 1662-453X VL - 13 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Bijeljac-Babic, Ranka A1 - Nazzi, Thierry T1 - Variability and stability in early language acquisition BT - comparing recognition and bilingual infants' speech perception and word recognition JF - Bilingualism : language and cognition N2 - 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. KW - language acquisition KW - bilingual infants KW - bilingual phonological KW - development KW - bilingual lexical development KW - simultaneous bilingualism Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000348 SN - 1366-7289 SN - 1469-1841 VL - 23 IS - 1 SP - 56 EP - 71 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER -