The use of statistical inference in linguistics and related areas like psychology typically involves a binary decision: either reject or accept some null hypothesis using statistical significance testing. When statistical power is low, this frequentist data-analytic approach breaks down: null results are uninformative, and effect size estimates associated with significant results are overestimated. Using an example from psycholinguistics, several alternative approaches are demonstrated for reporting inconsistencies between the data and a theoretical prediction. The key here is to focus on committing to a falsifiable prediction, on quantifying uncertainty statistically, and learning to accept the fact that - in almost all practical data analysis situations - we can only draw uncertain conclusions from data, regardless of whether we manage to obtain statistical significance or not. A focus on uncertainty quantification is likely to lead to fewer excessively bold claims that, on closer investigation, may turn out to be not supported by the data.

We present a compositionally transparent, unified semantic analysis of two kinds of so ... wie-equative constructions in German, namely degree equatives and property equatives in the domain of individuals or events. Unlike in English and many other European languages (Haspelmath & Buchholz 1998, Rett 2013), both equative types in German feature the parameter marker so, suggesting a unified analysis. We show that the parallel formal expression of German degree and property equatives is accompanied by a parallel syntactic distribution (in predicative, attributive, and adverbial position), and by identical semantic properties: Both equative types allow for scope ambiguities, show negative island effects out of context, and license the negative polarity item uberhaupt 'at all' in the complement clause. As the same properties are also shared by German comparatives, we adopt the influential quantificational analysis of comparatives in von Stechow (1984ab), Heim (1985, 2001, 2007), and Beck (2011), and treat both German equative types in a uniform manner as expressing universal quantification over sets of degrees or over sets of properties (of individuals or events). Conceptually, the uniform marking of degree-related and property-related meanings is expected given that the abstract semantic category degree (type ) can be reconstructed in terms of equivalence classes, i.e., ontologically simpler sets of individuals (type ) or events (type ). These are found in any language, showing that whether or not a language makes explicit reference to degrees (by means of gradable adjectives, degree question words, degree-only equatives) does not follow on general conceptual or semantic grounds, but is determined by the grammar of that language.

Despite scarce empirical evidence, introducing new vocabulary in semantic categories has long been standard in second language teaching. We examined the effect of learning context on encoding, immediate recall and integration of new vocabulary into semantic memory by contrasting categorically related (novel names for familiar concepts blocked by semantic category) and unrelated (mixed semantic categories) learning contexts. Two learning sessions were conducted 24 hours apart, with each participant exposed to both contexts. Subsequently, a test phase examined picture naming, translation and picture-word interference tasks. Compared to the unrelated context, the categorically related context resulted in poorer naming accuracy in the learning phase, slower response latencies at the immediate recall tasks and greater semantic interference in the picture-word interference task (picture naming in L1 with semantically related novel word distractors). We develop a theoretical account of word learning that attributes observed differences to episodic rather than semantic memory.

Die neuere Literaturtheorie hat sich mit dem Sachverhalt auseinanderzusetzen, dass immer mehr zeitgenössische Erzähltexte durchgehend das Präsens nutzen, um zu erzählen. Das deutschsprachige Mittelalter kennt solche durchgängig im Präsens erzählenden Texte, also solche, die das ›narrative Präsens‹ verwenden, unserem Wissen nach nicht. Was es kennt, ist der punktuelle Gebrauch des Präsens in Texten, die ansonsten nahezu durchgängig im epischen Präteritum abgefasst sind, also ein Präsens, das oft als ›historisches‹ bezeichnet wird, das sich für das Mittelhochdeutsche jedoch besser als ›punktuelles Präsens‹ fassen lässt. Die Verwendung eines solchen Präsens bildet den Gegenstand dieses Beitrages. Wir verfolgen dabei die Frage, wie sich dieser Tempusgebrauch narratologisch beschreiben lässt und welche Auswirkungen er auf die diegetische Struktur eines Erzähltextes hat. Diese Frage, mag sie auch schlicht daherkommen, ist eine recht voraussetzungsreiche, erfordert sie doch zwei grundsätzliche Klärungen. Zunächst die nach der ganz allgemeinen Temporalität des Präsens. Was sagt das Präsens über die zeitliche Lagerung einer Aussage überhaupt aus? Außerdem berührt der Versuch, den Präsensgebrauch in Erzähltexten narratologisch zu beschreiben, auch die Frage, ob sich die Funktion von Tempora in narrativen und/oder fiktionalen Texten ändert oder ändern kann. Beides sind nicht nur umfassende und komplexe Fragen, sondern auch solche, die in der Forschung hochgradig umstritten sind. Unsere Überlegungen hierzu können angesichts dessen nur skizzenhaft und vorläufig sein.

Empirical investigations on the uncanny valley have almost solely focused on the analysis of people?s noninteractive perception of a robot at first sight. Recent studies suggest, however, that these uncanny first impressions may be significantly altered over an interaction. What is yet to discover is whether certain interaction patterns can lead to a faster decline in uncanny feelings. In this paper, we present a study in which participants with limited expertise in Computer Science played a collaborative geography game with a Furhat robot. During the game, Furhat displayed one of two personalities, which corresponded to two different interaction strategies. The robot was either optimistic and encouraging, or impatient and provocative. We performed the study in a science museum and recruited participants among the visitors. Our findings suggest that a robot that is rated high on agreeableness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness can indeed weaken uncanny feelings. This study has important implications for human-robot interaction design as it further highlights that a first impression, merely based on a robot?s appearance, is not indicative of the affinity people might develop towards it throughout an interaction. We thus argue that future work should emphasize investigations on exact interaction patterns that can help to overcome uncanny feelings.