Active Sentences Research Articles

Conflict Adaptation in Aphasia: Upregulating Cognitive Control for Improved Sentence Comprehension.

This study investigated conflict adaptation in aphasia, specifically whether upregulating cognitive control improves sentence comprehension. Four individuals with mild aphasia completed four eye tracking sessions with interleaved auditory Stroop and sentence-to-picture matching trials (critical and filler sentences). Auditory Stroop congruency (congruent/incongruent across a male/female voice saying "boy"/"girl") was crossed with sentence congruency (syntactically correct sentences that are semantically plausible/implausible), resulting in four experimental conditions (congruent auditory Stroop followed by incongruent sentence [CI], incongruent auditory Stroop followed by incongruent sentence [II], congruent auditory Stroop followed by congruent sentence [CC], and incongruent auditory Stroop followed by congruent sentence [IC]). Critical sentences were always preceded by auditory Stroop trials. At the end of each session, a five-item questionnaire was administered to assess overall well-being and fatigue. We conducted individual-level mixed-effects regressions on reaction times and growth curve analyses on the proportion of eye fixations to target pictures during incongruent sentences. One participant showed conflict adaptation indicated by faster reaction times on active sentences and more rapid growth in fixations to target pictures on passive sentences in the II condition compared to the CI condition. Incongruent auditory Stroop also modulated active-sentence processing in an additional participant, as indicated by eye movements. This is the first study to observe conflict adaptation in sentence comprehension in people with aphasia. The extent of adaptation varied across individuals. Eye tracking revealed subtler effects than overt behavioral measures. The results extend the study of conflict adaptation beyond neurotypical adults and suggest that upregulating cognitive control may be a potential treatment avenue for some individuals with aphasia. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27056149.

Political Communication Strategy of Indonesian Republic President Joko Widodo Through Political Diction and Strategic Grammar

This study aims to explore Joko Widodo’s political communication strategy through political diction and strategic grammar. At this point, language is a tool that is full of political interests to gain and maintain power. With a critical paradigm in a qualitative approach, the data are the text of President Joko Widodo’s state speeches in the 2019-2023 period. Data analysis was performed using Fowler’s version of CDA (critical discourse analysis). In the end, the results show that the hidden meanings of using political diction in President Joko Widodo’s speech include embracing political opponents, gathering support, responding to demands, boosting image, growing optimism, and issuing warnings. Apart from that, Joko Widodo in his State of the Union speech also makes use of grammar strategically to highlight positive things or successes by packing them into active sentences and disguising (covering) negative things or failures by packing them into passive sentences. Keywords: political diction, strategic grammar, hidden meaning, political communication strategy

Sentence comprehension in Malay-speaking adults with aphasia: the role of affix integration

ABSTRACT Background One of the impairments in comprehension mostly reported for aphasia is that in reversible passive sentences, where a systematic asymmetry with reversible active sentences has been attested across languages. In several accounts, this selective impairment has been proposed to be the result of the specific syntax of passive sentences. However, some results particularly from flexible word order languages suggest that a pattern where both active and passive sentences are impaired also exists. Aims In this study, we examined the actives and passives in the comprehension of a flexible word order language, namely standard Malay, in people with aphasia (PWA), aiming to confirm that the predominant pattern in this language is one of generalised impairment across reversible sentences (active and passive), and not an asymmetrical one. The role of fluency in determining the pattern of impairment was also explored. Methods & procedures Fourteen healthy adults and 20 PWA, 14 with fluent aphasia and 6 with non-fluent aphasia, took part in a comprehension study in standard Malay. Standard Malay is a flexible word order language that relies on the parsing of the voice affix on the verb to correctly interpret both active and passive sentences. Participants were tested on a sentence-picture matching task on comprehension of active and passive reversible clauses. Outcomes and results The study revealed that PWA were overall less accurate than healthy speakers in comprehension of reversible active and passive sentences, and non-fluent PWA were less accurate than fluent PWA with no effect of sentence type (active/passive). While not predominant, an asymmetric pattern was present in some participants. We propose that an impairment in thematic role assignment leads to a generalised impairment in comprehension of reversible sentences, while preserved thematic role mapping and impaired syntax lead to an asymmetric impairment. Conclusions The study confirmed that speakers of Malay mostly show a generalised impairment in both active and passive sentences. Given the nature of the language, we propose that this suggests that impairment in Malay is predominantly shown on affix integration, first in mapping of thematic roles, and then in the full syntactic processing.

Embodied cognition and L2 sentence comprehension: an eye-tracking study of motor representations.

Evidence from neuroscience and behavioral research has indicated that language meaning is grounded in our motor-perceptual experiences of the world. However, the question of whether motor embodiment occurs at the sentence level in L2 (second language) comprehension has been raised. Furthermore, existing studies on motor embodiment in L2 have primarily focused on the lexical and phrasal levels, often providing conflicting and indeterminate results. Therefore, to address this gap, the present eye-tracking study aimed to explore the embodied mental representations formed during the reading comprehension of L2 action sentences. Specifically, it sought to identify the types of motor representations formed during L2 action sentence comprehension and the extent to which these representations are motor embodied. A total of 56 advanced L2 learners participated in a Sentence-Picture Verification Task, during which their response times (RTs) and eye movements were recorded. Each sentence-picture pair depicted an action that either matched or mismatched the action implied by the sentence. Data analysis focused on areas of interest around the body effectors. RTs in the mismatch condition indicated an impeding effect. Furthermore, fixations on the body effector executing an action were longer in the mismatch condition, especially in late eye-movement measures.

NOMINALISASI DAN PERAN SEMANTIK DALAM PODCAST JOE ROGAN “ISRAEL IS STARTING WW3”

This research focuses on nominalization, semantic roles or theta roles, and the functions of nominalizations in Joe Rogan’s Youtube Podcast entitled “Israel is Starting WW3”. This research is conducted based on two fundamental matters. The first one is that this research wants to reveal how the participants or speakers in the podcast create messages on this Israel-Palestine conflict since they are both American but one of them is middle-eastern mixed race. The second thing is due to the fact that there are still no research that combine the focus as what this research does which is the analysis of nominalizations, theta roles, and the functions of nominalizations. By combining these as the focus, this research aims to reveal not just on syntactic and semantic level but beyond those two approaches since this research also analyzes the functions of nominalization on the Podcast. This is a qualitative descriptive research for it’s data are multiple and holistically constructed and cannot be taken away from the context. In order to perform. The research findings show the total of 62 Data in both active and passive sentences. The findings also show that the roles are mostly agent-patient in active sentences and the functions are mostly to create framing of certain topic.

The role of embodied cognition in action language comprehension in L1 and L2

In this study we carried out a behavioral experiment comparing action language comprehension in L1 (Italian) and L2 (English). Participants were Italian native speakers who had acquired the second language late (after the age of 10). They performed semantic judgments on L1 and L2 literal, idiomatic and metaphorical action sentences after viewing a video of a hand performing an action that was related or unrelated to the verb used in the sentence. Results showed that responses to literal and metaphorical L1 sentences were faster when the action depicted was related to the verb used rather than when the action depicted was unrelated to the verb used. No differences were found for the idiomatic condition. In L2 we found that all responses to the three conditions were facilitated when the action depicted was related to the verb used. Moreover, we found that the difference between the unrelated and the related modalities was greater in L2 than in L1 for the literal and the idiomatic condition but not for the metaphorical condition. These findings are consistent with the embodied cognition hypothesis of language comprehension.

The Passive Voice in Urdu: A Syntactic Investigation and Transformational Analysis

This paper explores passive structures in the Urdu language. It aims to understand their syntactic configuration and how to convert active sentences into passive ones. Limited research exists on Urdu's passivization compared to English. The research questions focus on the structure of passive sentences in Urdu and the necessary modifications for passivization. A qualitative research methodology is used, analyzing written texts and daily conversations of native Urdu speakers. The literature review compares Urdu's passive structures with English, including the standard "be" passive and less common "get passive" and "have passive." Findings show that Urdu passives use the auxiliary “Gaya” and the agent can be explicitly mentioned using "from-PP" rather than "by-PP." The paper also covers passivization in imperative sentences, using “ja:” and “cha:hi:e” morphemes. Moreover, voice neutrality is examined, showing that passive and active sentences in Urdu often convey the same event with similar agent-patient relationships. The study’s conclusive remarks on passive construction in Urdu have the potential to ignite future research in this domain. The paper contributes to the knowledge of passive constructions in Urdu which can significantly impact translation accuracy and interpretation between Urdu and English. This research also adds to the big picture of how languages work.

A Speech Act Analysis of Nadiem Anwar Makarim’s Speech

Speech is the ability to speak in front of the public to tell their opinion or give an idea about something important. This research aimed to analyze the kinds of communication function in illocutionary act in a speech made by Nadiem Anwar Makarim as Ministry of Education as well as identifying the effects contained in the speech made by Nadiem Anwar Makarim. The research used qualitative approach. The approach used in this study is a qualitative approach. In this research to check the correctness of the data from different perspectives, researchers used triangulation. Data analyses used by researchers are consisted of 3 ways in data analysis, namely data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing. The result showed that: 1) All kinds of illocutionary act from Searle were occurred in whichrepresentatives act was the act which was mostly usedin a speech made by Nadiem Anwar Makarim which was 43.66%. Then, in a speech made by Nadiem Anwar Makarim, there was an indication of declaration (14.08%), directives (19.71%), expressives (15.49%) and commissive (4.23%). 2) The speech from Nadiem Makarim was mostly in the form of direct and active sentence (70%). The reason is because Nadiem Makarim state his speech directly by himself, there is no other people or company whom he referred and he mostly used prefix “me” and suffix “kan” to state his speech directly. There is also the form of passive voice, imperative sentence and indirect sentence.

The Effect of the Elected Chief Prosecutor on Punitiveness in Local Courtrooms

The United States currently leads the world in the number and proportion of individuals held under correctional supervision. Prosecutors are widely considered to be the most influential actors in the courtroom, and some current reform efforts center around prosecutor-driven reductions in punitiveness. However, little is known about the extent to which elected chief prosecutors impact punitiveness in local courtrooms. This study examines how dismissal and active sentence rates in nine mid- to large-sized prosecutorial districts in North Carolina are influenced by the identity of the elected District Attorney (DA) who was in office when the case was disposed. The study sample included four types of criminal cases (marijuana possession and sale, possession of firearm by felon, larceny, and driving while intoxicated) resolved in the nine districts from 2005–2018. A two-way fixed effects regression analyses showed that elected prosecutors significantly influenced dismissal and active sentence rates in their districts, typically to a small degree (by less than 5%) but sometimes by 20–30%. However, prosecutors did not influence punitiveness consistently across all crime types or according to traditional political party. This study suggests that the elected prosecutor matters in local criminal prosecution and enhances the current understanding of the power of the elected prosecutor to shape punitiveness in local courtrooms.

The Challenges of Changing Active to Passive Voice Towards the Third Grade Students of Muhammadiyah Tangerang University

Grammar seems to be an unavoidable challenge for most learners, especially when it comes to acquiring Active to Passive Voice. Active sentences are sentence patterns where the subject does work, and passive sentences are sentence patterns where the subject accepts work. This is a difficult time for English Education students at Muhammadiyah University, Tangerang. The purpose of this research is to find out students' challenges in learning Active to Passive Voice and how they deal with these problems. The selected participants were 12 students from the Intermediate English Grammar Class of 2022. The research method used was qualitative. Data collection was carried out through tests and interviews. The data shows that students have three major difficulties in changing Active to Passive Voice such as placing subjects and objects, using auxiliary verbs, and determining past participles. In addition, two strategies are used by students to overcome learning obstacles. Through understanding formulas to help them master active and passive learning and doing a lot of active and passive exercises to help them better understand the active and passive material.

英语被动句的汉译探析

In the academic research and practice of English translation, in-depth analysis and discussion on English passive sentences and their Chinese translation strategies are of great significance. This article employs a variety of Chinese translation strategies including direct conversion, active sentence conversion, addition, omission, and segmentation to unveil and analyze the essential factors that must be considered in the process of translating English passive sentences into Chinese. These factors encompass word class, grammatical structure, and specific language habits, underscoring their importance in ensuring the accuracy and fluency of translations. This paper aims to assist scholars and learners in the field of English translation not only to gain a deeper understanding of the grammatical and semantic characteristics of English passive sentences but also to master and apply effective translation techniques to enhance their ability to accurately translate English passive sentences into Chinese.

Flexible and fine-grained simulation of speed in language processing.

According to the embodied cognition theory, language comprehension is achieved through mental simulation. This account is supported by a number of studies reporting action simulations during language comprehension. However, which details of sensory-motor experience are included in these simulations is still controversial. Here, three experiments were carried out to examine the simulation of speed in action language comprehension. Experiment 1 adopted a lexical decision task and a semantic similarity judgment task on isolated fast and slow action verbs. It has been shown that fast action verbs were processed significantly faster than slow action verbs when deep semantic processing is required. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 investigated the contextual influence on the simulation of speed, showing that the processing of verbs, either depicting fast actions or neutral actions, would be slowed down when embedded in the slow action sentences. These experiments together demonstrate that the fine-gained information, speed, is an important part of action representation and can be simulated but may not in an automatic way. Moreover, the speed simulation is flexible and can be modulated by the context.

Effects of Lexical Priming on Priming Type and Presence of Distractors in Persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objectives: The purpose of the study is to examine if the lexical priming effect is valid in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In addition, this study attempted to examine the correlation between working memory and sentence production ability for MCI and healthy adults (HA).Methods: Fifteen individuals with MCI and sixteen HA described action pictures in sentences following lexical (agent or theme) primes. Priming effect was analyzed in terms of priming type and presence of distractor.Results: 1) Persons with MCI did show significantly lower proportion of passive sentences compared to HA. Overall, the proportion of passives were significantly higher in the theme primed condition versus the agent primed condition. 2) The difference in the presence of distractor stimuli in the agent primed condition was significantly larger than in the theme primed condition. 3) It was observed that the better the working memory ability of MCI participants, the higher the production of active sentences when compared with passive sentences in the theme primed condition.Conclusion: Persons with MCI used word-driven information as a strategy of sentence production like HA did. In addition, MCI participants showed difficulty in production of complex structures such as passive sentences. In previous research, most of the studies examined the priming effect through structural priming tasks for HA and aphasia patients. The results of this study also showed the effect of lexical priming in persons with MCI, and the finding of lower production of passive sentences in persons with MCI compared to HA emphasized the linguistic deficits that may appear in individuals with MCI.

From breaking bread to breaking hearts: embodied simulation and action language comprehension

ABSTRACT In this study, we conducted a behavioural experiment using literal, idiomatic, conventional and novel metaphorical action sentences. Participants viewed an action video, immediately after a sentence containing a verb that did (matching modality) or did not (mismatching modality) match the observed action. All the sentences were presented both in the matching modality and the mismatching modality. Participants had to indicate whether the sentence made sense or not by pressing a designated response key. We recorded participants' reaction times and accuracy. We found no significant differences between the matching and mismatching modality in the idiomatic condition. Instead, we found a facilitation effect for the literal and the metaphorical conventional condition in the matching modality compared to the mismatching modality and an interference effect for the metaphorical novel condition in the matching modality compared to the mismatching modality. We interpret these findings in light of the Embodied Cognition approach to language.

The Effect of Syntactic Similarity on Intra-Sentential Switching Costs: Evidence from Chinese-English Bilinguals.

In order to better understand the role of syntactic similarity in a code-switched sentence, the current study explored the effect of similar and different syntactic structures on Chinese-English bilinguals' intra-sentential switching costs. L2 proficiency and switching directions as factors that potentially intervene in bilingual performance were together explored to see if there was any interaction. We manipulated the degree of syntactic similarity by utilizing clauses in active voice (greater similarity) and passive voice (lesser similarity). The study conducted a self-paced reading paradigm as a more natural language reading processing. Results showed overall longer reading times for active sentences than passive counterparts, which supported a syntactic similarity impediment rather than facilitation. The impediment seemed to be predominant irrespective of L2 proficiency. Furthermore, syntactic similarity modulated the asymmetry of switching costs between forward (L1-L2) and backward (L2-L1) direction: word RTs for the 1st and the 2nd switched word yielded greater costs in L2-L1 condition, while greater costs in L1-L2 condition was observed in 3rd switched word RTs and average RTs. The present study observed syntactic similarity impediment rather than facilitation for Chinese-English bilinguals. Notably, syntactic similarity plays a predominant role compared to L2 proficiency, and modulates the asymmetry between switching directions.

Teori Roger Fowler dalam Strategi Penggunaan Kosakata dan Tata Bahasa pada Pemberitaan Serambinews.Com

One topic of crime reporting and legal issues that is currently being widely discussed is murder cases. Critical discourse analysis helps uncover and understand hidden agenda interests behind the way reporting is done. By using Roger Fowler's critical discourse analysis approach, this research will pay attention to how the mass media uses certain vocabulary, grammar and transformations to shape and direct readers' views. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research and tends to use analysis. Process and meaning (subject perspective) are more emphasized in qualitative research. From the results of the research analysis and discussion, there is the use of Roger Fowler's theory in the vocabulary aspect; limiting views, discourse battles, and marginalization, as well as grammatical aspects in the form of using active sentences in writing news headlines to reveal the father-in-law as the subject (S), the perpetrator of the murder as the party to blame. Fitria's victim is marginalized and leads readers to position themselves as those who share in the cruelty towards the victim by the perpetrator.

First language interference in speaking and writing Indonesian language of Azerbaijani students in Indonesian language course at Azerbaijan University of Languages

This study examines the issue of first language interference in spoken and written Indonesian by Azerbaijani students who are taking an Indonesian language course at Azerbaijan University of Languages. The study is framed within the context of bilingualism, where first language interference occurs when individuals learn a foreign language. The aim of this research is to identify the types and causes of interference displayed by Azerbaijani-speaking students when using Indonesian language, with a focus on speaking and writing during classroom activities. A descriptive qualitative approach was used to collect data through observation and documentation, including oral recordings and written assignments. Analysis revealed that Azerbaijani students face pronunciation, morphology, and syntax challenges due to interference based on Weinreich’s theory. Pronunciation challenges arise from the lack of the phonetic sound [ê] in Azerbaijani, resulting in substitutions with [é]. Morphological complexities arise from the unfamiliarity with prefixes in Azerbaijani, making it difficult to transform active sentences into passive structures. Syntactic challenges arise due to the differing sentence structures between Azerbaijani (S-O-P-C) and Indonesian (S-P-O-C). To mitigate interference, it is recommended to include targeted phonological drills, increased morphological exercises, and enhanced syntactic practice to facilitate a smoother language acquisition journey for Azerbaijani students who are mastering Indonesian language.

Neural correlates of processing active and passive sentences: proficiency-dependent event-related potential evidence in Chinese English foreign language learners.

We explored whether and to what extent the neural mechanisms of second language sentence processing resemble those of native speakers by investigating the temporal dynamics of syntactic processing in terms of active or passive voice in reading English sentences by Chinese English Foreign Language (EFL) learners with high or low English proficiency. Participants were divided into two groups based on their proficiency levels in English. Three types of sentences (active, passive and ungrammatical) were presented to participants when their event-related potential responses were recorded at the verbs and the final words. The results showed that high-proficiency participants exhibited a greater anterior negativity at the verb position for ungrammatical sentences compared to active sentences. Furthermore, passive sentences elicited a larger frontal positivity than active sentences at the final word position. Additionally, greater P600 effects were observed for both passive and ungrammatical sentences than active sentences at the final word. The low-proficiency group exhibited a greater anterior negativity at the verb (but not the final word) position. In conclusion, these findings emphasize the role of proficiency as a modulating factor in the processing of English active and passive sentences among Chinese EFL learners. Furthermore, the processing of English active and passive sentences by these learners can be conceptualized as a three-stage process: prediction, correction and integration, representing the underlying cognitive mechanisms. This study provides novel insights into the understanding of the cognitive mechanism involved in second language sentence processing.

Analisis Konstruk Sintaktik Bahasa Jawa Pada Anak Tuna Rungu Wicara (Disphasia) Di Yayasan Rehabilitasi Tuna Rungu Wicara Surakarta

The aim of this research is to describe the syntactic constructs of the Javanese language for deaf and speech impaired students. This research is included in qualitative research. Data was collected by listening freely and engaging in conversation. After the data is collected, data analysis is carried out. The language analysis technique in this research was carried out using the change of form technique. From the results of data analysis, it can be seen that the syntactic constructs of the Javanese language spoken by deaf and speech impaired children at the Deaf and Speech Impaired Rehabilitation Foundation (YRTRW) are adverbial phrases, single clauses with an active sentence type (ukara Horn) positioned as interrogative sentences ukara pitaken, ukara sambawa, and ukara cariyos.

When spatial agency bias and the advantage of the first mention are in contradiction: Evidence from Czech, German, and Spanish

Evidence from Art (History), perceptual psychology, and (psycho-)linguistics support the claim that in Western culture (or rather within left-to-right writing languages), people depict or visualize more important or salient figures to the left. However, linguistics studies investigating this topic almost exclusively use active sentences with standard Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) syntax as stimuli, where the subject takes the role of an agent. However natural language exhibits much more syntactical variation. To determine if this pattern is also present when the less common syntax is used, we asked native German, Spanish, and Czech speakers (N=300) to draw situations representing ten sentences varying in syntactic structure. These drawings, simplified versions of the mental representation of the situation, provide a glimpse into the conceptualization of the scenes. The spatial placement of the agent figures in the sentences was coded. Results show that although the asymmetrical effect is strong in prototypical SVO sentences, where the subject has the function of an agent and the object a function of a patient, the effect is weaker or disappears in passive sentences, where the subject at the first position is a patient and object on the second position is an agent, as well as in topicalized (OVS) sentences. Furthermore, we found cross-linguistic differences, which suggests that the character of the bias is language-specific. We postulate that placing the agent to the left is only one of the factors influencing spatial placement. The other factor playing an important role is the naming order.