Sentence Condition Research Articles

Mental simulation of colour properties during language comprehension: influence of context and comprehension stages.

Many studies have shown that mental simulation may occur during language comprehension. Supporting evidence is derived from the matching effects in the sentence-picture verification (SPV) task often used to assess mental simulations of object properties, such as size, orientation, and shape. However, mixed results have been obtained regarding object colour, with researchers reporting matching or mismatching effects. This study investigated the impact of colour information clarity within sentences on the process of mental simulation during language comprehension. Employing the SPV task and using novel objects, we examined whether there is a mental simulation of colour after excluding typical/atypical colour bias and how varying levels of colour information clarity in sentences influence the emergence of matching effects at different stages of comprehension. To address these issues, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, the participants read normal sentences and subsequently engaged in picture verification with a novel object after a 500ms delay. In Experiment 2, the participants encountered sentences containing both clear and unclear colour information and, after either a 0ms or 1500ms interval, completed picture verification tasks with a novel object. Null effects were found in the 500ms condition for normal sentences and the 0ms condition for unclear colour information sentences. A mismatching effect appeared in the 0ms condition after clear colour information sentences, and a matching effect appeared in the 1500ms condition for all sentences. The results indicated that after excluding colour bias, the participants still formed mental simulations of colour during language comprehension. Our results also indicated that ongoing colour simulation with time pressure impacted the participant responses. The participants ignored unclear colour information under time pressure, but without time pressure, they constructed simulations that were as detailed as possible, regardless of whether the implicit colour information in the sentence was clear.

Camouflaging in Autistic Adults is Modulated by Autistic and Neurotypical Characteristics of Interaction Partners.

Many autistic people reportedly engage in camouflaging to navigate everyday social interactions; however, the function of this behavior remains largely unknown. We hypothesized that autistic people camouflage more toward neurotypical others than toward autistic others, employing it as a strategy to "fit in" within the neurotypical-majority community. This study aimed to empirically investigate this hypothesis for the first time. Autistic and neurotypical participants took part in a web-based survey. Data from 48 autistic and 137 neurotypical participants were analyzed. Camouflaging toward autistic and neurotypical others was separately measured using the modified Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q). For each CAT-Q item, a sentence describing a hypothetical interaction partner with autistic or neurotypical characteristics was added, creating respective sentence conditions. The interaction effect of the participants' characteristics and sentence conditions was analyzed using a multilevel regression analysis, accounting for differing individual baselines. The analysis revealed an interaction effect between participants' characteristics and sentence conditions. The autistic group showed significantly more camouflaging in the autistic sentence condition than in the neurotypical sentence condition. Conversely, the neurotypical group did not differ significantly in camouflaging levels in the sentence conditions. Contrary to our hypothesis, autistic people demonstrated more camouflaging toward autistic others than toward neurotypical others. This finding questions the assumption that autistic people camouflage to assimilate into a neurotypical-majority society. Instead, it could be conceptualized as a more general social strategy used by autistic people aiming to improve their relationships with others.

Spectral degradation and carrier sentences increase age-related temporal processing deficits in a cue-specific manner.

Advancing age is associated with decreased sensitivity to temporal cues in word segments, particularly when target words follow non-informative carrier sentences or are spectrally degraded (e.g., vocoded to simulate cochlear-implant stimulation). This study investigated whether age, carrier sentences, and spectral degradation interacted to cause undue difficulty in processing speech temporal cues. Younger and older adults with normal hearing performed phonemic categorization tasks on two continua: a Buy/Pie contrast with voice onset time changes for the word-initial stop and a Dish/Ditch contrast with silent interval changes preceding the word-final fricative. Target words were presented in isolation or after non-informative carrier sentences, and were unprocessed or degraded via sinewave vocoding (2, 4, and 8 channels). Older listeners exhibited reduced sensitivity to both temporal cues compared to younger listeners. For the Buy/Pie contrast, age, carrier sentence, and spectral degradation interacted such that the largest age effects were seen for unprocessed words in the carrier sentence condition. This pattern differed from the Dish/Ditch contrast, where reducing spectral resolution exaggerated age effects, but introducing carrier sentences largely left the patterns unchanged. These results suggest that certain temporal cues are particularly susceptible to aging when placed in sentences, likely contributing to the difficulties of older cochlear-implant users in everyday environments.

The truth conditions of sentences with referentially used definite descriptions

The truth conditions of sentences with referentially used definite descriptions

Altered neural oscillations in classical galactosaemia during sentence production.

Classical galactosaemia (CG) is a hereditary disease in galactose metabolism that despite dietary treatment is characterized by a wide range of cognitive deficits, among which is language production. CG brain functioning has been studied with several neuroimaging techniques, which revealed both structural and functional atypicalities. In the present study, for the first time, we compared the oscillatory dynamics, especially the power spectrum and time-frequency representations (TFR), in the electroencephalography (EEG) of CG patients and healthy controls while they were performing a language production task. Twenty-one CG patients and 19 healthy controls described animated scenes, either in full sentences or in words, indicating two levels of complexity in syntactic planning. Based on previous work on the P300 event related potential (ERP) and its relation with theta frequency, we hypothesized that the oscillatory activity of patients and controls would differ in theta power and TFR. With regard to behavior, reaction times showed that patients are slower, reflecting the language deficit. In the power spectrum, we observed significant higher power in patients in delta (1-3 Hz), theta (4-7 Hz), beta (15-30 Hz) and gamma (30-70 Hz) frequencies, but not in alpha (8-12 Hz), suggesting an atypical oscillatory profile. The time-frequency analysis revealed significantly weaker event-related theta synchronization (ERS) and alpha desynchronization (ERD) in patients in the sentence condition. The data support the hypothesis that CG language difficulties relate to theta-alpha brain oscillations.

Non-doxastic Attitude Reports, Information Structure, and Semantic-Pragmatic Interface

AbstractTruth conditions of sentences ascribing non-doxastic propositional attitudes seem to depend on the information structure of the embedded clause. In this paper, we argue that this kind of sensitivity is a semantic phenomenon rather than a pragmatic one. We report four questionnaire studies which explore the impact of the information structure on the truth conditions of non-doxastic attitude ascriptions from different perspectives. The results of the first two studies show that the acceptability of those ascriptions can be affected by some structural modifications of the embedded clause, in particular, when we replace a simple form by an equivalent complex conjunctional form (‘p and q’). However, it is possible that different evaluations of such ascriptions have a pragmatic source, namely, the ascriptions with embedded conjunction imply that the agent’s attitude transfers to both conjuncts. In the second pair of studies, we further investigate the nature of this implication which can be classified as ‘Conjunction Elimination’ (CE) in the scope of an attitude verb. The results show that CE-inferences in the context of non-factive non-doxastic attitude ascriptions are not easily cancellable and hence of a semantic rather than pragmatic nature. The results are not conclusive when it comes to the factive non-doxastic attitudes. We conclude our findings by some considerations about a potential source of the observed difference between non-factive and factive attitude verbs and the significance of our general findings to the semantic theory of non-doxastic attitude ascriptions.

Verb Recognition Abilities in Young and Older Adults as a Function of Linguistic Presentation Units

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine differences in verb recognition performance according to linguistic presentation units and question types between young and older adults. This study also examined the relationship between verb recognition performance and neuropsychological tests. Methods: A total of 39 participants (21 young adults and 18 old adults) participated in this study. All were administered verb recognition tasks in word and sentence conditions, and three types of recognition questions (presented verb, unpresented-related verb, unpresented-unrelated verb) were implemented. Results: First, the older adults showed significantly lower verb recognition performance than the young adults. Second, there was a significant interaction effect in linguistic presentation units and groups. Post-hoc analysis revealed that young adults’ recognition accuracy was higher in sentence condition compared to word condition, whereas old adults’ accuracy was higher in word condition than the sentence condition. Third, there was a significant main effect of question types. Fourth, in terms of accuracy of recognition questions, unpresented-unrelated verbs showed different tendency results compared to presented and unpresented-related verbs. Lastly, verb recognition performance was significantly correlated with neuropsychological tests. Conclusion: Results showed older adults’ decreased recognition performance due to cognitive decline and revealed the different patterns in recognition abilities according to linguistic presentation units and question types. These results suggest that cognitive load affected verb recognition in both conditions and that the verb recognition task could be implemented to examine older adults’ cognitive abilities.

Binding of Reflexives in Polish as Agree, Move, and Late Spell-Out

Abstract: This paper considers components necessary for a successful account of A-binding relations in Polish, a language with subject-oriented reflexives and a binding domain delimited by the Tensed Sentence Condition. Following the presentation of major relevant data points in Polish, two comprehensive theories of binding—the Agree-based theory, presented in Reuland 2011, and the Move-based theory, presented in Boeckx et.al. 2008—are briefly outlined and applied to said data. It turns out that the two theories, in their most orthodox forms, fall short of achieving empirical adequacy. Subsequently, a positive theory of A-binding is proposed which combines upward Agree, movement (and copy pronunciation) of the bound element, similar to movement of clitic/weak pronoun in Polish, and a lexicalization algorithm modeled upon the proposals in Safir 2014 and Nikolaeva 2014. It is shown in a number of derivations with possessives how both the subject and the object engage in binding relations as antecedents and how their dependents become lexicalized as either reflexive or pronominal.

Acquaintance and evidence in appearance language

Assertions about appearances license inferences about the speaker’s perceptual experience. For instance, if I assert, Tom looks like he’s cooking, you will infer both that I am visually acquainted with Tom (what I call the individual acquaintance inference), and that I am visually acquainted with evidence that Tom is cooking (what I call the evidential acquaintance inference). By contrast, if I assert, It looks like Tom is cooking, only the latter inference is licensed. I develop an account of the acquaintance inferences of appearance assertions building on two main previous lines of research: first, the copy raising literature, which has aimed to account for individual acquaintance inferences through the perceptual source semantic role; second, the subjectivity literature, which has focused on the status of acquaintance inferences with predicates of personal taste, but hasn’t given much attention to the added complexities introduced by appearance language. I begin by developing what I take to be the most empirically-sound version of a perceptual source analysis. I then show how its insights can be maintained, while however taking anything about perception out of the truth conditions of appearance sentences. This, together with the assumption that appearance assertions express experiential attitudes, allows us to capture the acquaintance inferences of bare appearance assertions without making incorrect predictions about the behavior of appearance verbs in embedded environments.

Neural correlates of Japanese honorific agreement processing mediated by socio-pragmatic factors: An fMRI study

Socio-pragmatic factors, such as social roles and language experience, could be key variables influencing language processing. However, little is known regarding the neural correlates of syntactic processing mediated by socio-pragmatic factors. Honorific agreement in Japanese is well-suited for the investigation of this issue. Japanese honorifics are governed by socio-pragmatic and syntactic rules. Lower social status speakers are expected to address higher social status counterparts in accordance with these rules. This linguistic skill is typically developed through language experience accrued in social contexts. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated the neural correlates of the honorific agreement processing mediated by socio-pragmatic factors. Thirty-three native Japanese speakers performed a socio-pragmatic judgment task containing sentence conditions manipulated by conventionality (i.e., conventional vs. unconventional) and speaker (lower-status vs. higher-status). The lower-status conditions elicited significantly more activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), bilateral insula, and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex than the higher-status ones, irrespective of conventionality. This suggests that social cues (i.e., speaker social status) trigger computation of honorific agreement via the left IFG. Furthermore, the conventional conditions significantly enhanced activation of the bilateral anterior temporal lobes (ATLs), compared with the unconventional conditions. Finally, the listener's experience with honorific use in the workplace was positively correlated with activation of the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) during comprehension of conventional honorific utterances. Our findings demonstrate the importance of socio-pragmatic factors in Japanese honorific agreement processing, which involves the ATLs and IPL. • Speaker-related social cues mediate neural processing of Japanese honorific agreement. • Left IFG, dmPFC, and insula are jointly involved in processing Japanese honorific agreement. • Language experiences of honorific use influence left IPL activity.

Corrective Repetition of Ungrammatical Gender Agreement Stimuli: A Transcortical Sensory Aphasia Single Case Study

ABSTRACT Background Oral repetition in Transcortical Sensory Aphasia (TSA) has been shown to display linguistically informed altering of purposefully grammatically incorrect repetition stimuli, with a tendency to correct grammatical errors during repetition in spite of the absence of semantic comprehension. Aims The present TSA single-case study, conducted in Italian, investigated the processing of linguistic Gender agreement errors through a series of oral repetition tasks, with the purpose of (i) investigating whether grammatical and semantic Gender can be independently spared; and (ii) investigating whether Gender agreement errors are informative among the linguistic facts that the patient retains sensitivity towards, and if so, how. Methods and Procedures TST, a native speaker of Italian diagnosed with TSA, was administered 8 oral repetition tasks, each containing Gender agreement errors that occurred either in phrase condition (i.e., “definite article + noun”), or in sentence condition (i.e., “subject + nominal predicate”). These different conditions were formulated with the purpose of appreciating possible differences in the processing of the Gender feature in two different syntactic environments. A number of additional variables was introduced: singular/plural; feminine/masculine; Gender morphological (un)informativeness; common noun/proper name status; animate/inanimate noun referents. Outcomes and Results During repetition, the changes applied by the patient were almost exclusively corrective and mostly followed a left-to-right strategy. Among the introduced variables, those that gave significant effects were as follows: animate/inanimate noun referents and phrase/sentence agreement. Gender morphological (un)informativeness gave no significant effects, and neither did common noun/proper name status, singular/plural and feminine/masculine nouns. Implications for linguistic theory in terms of the Gender/Class pairing are discussed. Conclusions Findings indicate that (i) grammatical and semantic Gender can be independently spared; and (ii) in Italian, Gender is morphologically realized and could consequently be accessed for the purposes of agreement only in the case of nouns of the animate kind: Gender of animate nouns elicited corrective changes, while Gender of inanimate nouns was utterly ignored.

Executive function in individuals who are compliant and non-compliant with the conditions of a community-based sentence

Executive function encompasses multiple processes (e.g. regulating emotions, managing behaviours, problem-solving) essential in daily living. A growing body of neuropsychological research shows a relationship between executive dysfunction and criminal behaviour. However, is executive functioning relevant to sentence management? We examined relationships between self-reported executive functioning and community supervision sentence compliance. Sixty-four individuals serving community-based supervision sentences completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function–Adult Version, and their compliance data for six months were collected from probation officer notes. The sample’s mean scores were significantly higher (i.e. poorer executive functioning) than those for the normative sample. Those who complied with sentence conditions had higher mean scores than those who were non-compliant. Subsequent exploratory analyses showed that those with poorer executive functioning received more probation officer support to comply with sentence conditions. Attention to responsivity issues like executive function problems may help avoid entrapping people in the criminal justice system.

The association between self-reported traumatic brain injury, neuropsychological function, and compliance among people serving community sentences.

Traumatic brain injury is overrepresented in incarcerated samples and has been linked to a number of poor correctional outcomes. Despite this, no research has explored the impact of a recent TBI on compliance outcomes for individuals serving community-based. We screened for a history of TBI in 106 adults on community sentences and collected compliance (arrests, sentence violations) and related variables (e.g., risk scores, substance use) over 6 months. Sixty-four participants also completed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), the Comprehensive Trail Making Test and Color-Word Inference Test. A TBI in the last year predicted a significantly higher likelihood of arrest, even when controlling for risk of reconviction and current substance use, but was not associated with non-compliance with sentence conditions nor with performance on the neuropsychological tests. In addition, no significant associations were found between performance on neuropsychological tests and measures of non-compliance. TBI in the last year was an independent predictor of arrest. This result suggests that those with a recent TBI on a community sentence may need additional monitoring or support to reduce the risk of reoffending.

Testing Speech Perception with Cochlear Implants Through Digital Audio Streaming in a Virtual Sound Booth: A Feasibility Study

For patients who have received cochlear implants (CIs), speech-perception testing requires specialized equipment. This limits locations where these services can be provided, which can introduce barriers for provision of care. Providing speech test stimuli directly to the CI via wireless digital audio streaming (DAS) or wired direct audio input (DAI) allows for testing without the need for a sound booth (SB). A few studies have investigated the use of DAI for testing speech perception in CIs, but none have evaluated DAS. The goal of this study was to compare speech perception testing in CI users via DAS versus a traditional SB to determine if differences exist between the two presentation modes. We also sought to determine whether pre-processing the DAS signal with room acoustics (reverberation and noise floor) to emulate the SB environment would affect performance differences between the SB and DAS. In Experiment 1, speech perception was measured for monosyllabic words in quiet and sentences in quiet and in noise. Scores were obtained in a SB and compared to those obtained via DAS with unprocessed speech (DAS-U) for 11 adult CI users (12 ears). In Experiment 2, speech perception was measured for sentences in noise, where both the speech and noise stimuli were pre-processed to emulate the SB environment. Scores were obtained for 11 adult CI users (12 ears) in the SB, via DAS-U, and via DAS with the processed speech (DAS-P). For Experiment 1, there was no significant difference between SB and DAS-U conditions for words or sentences in quiet. However, DAS-U scores were significantly better than SB scores for sentences in noise. For Experiment 2, there was no significant difference between the SB and DAS-P conditions. Similar to Experiment 1, DAS-U scores were significantly better than SB or DAS-P scores. By pre-processing the test materials to emulate the noise and reverberation characteristics of a traditional SB, we can account for differences in speech-perception scores between those obtained via DAS and in a SB.

Ascent and fallacy of semantic descent

A substantial share of recent semantic and epistemological debates is focused on the description and analysis of ways to defend the thesis that changes in truth conditions of knowledge claims enfold on the back of subjective parameters. The broad popularity of this thesis - which runs contrary to the notion that variation in truth value is independent of informal factors - is a result of the belief that it offers a sustainable methodological framework for responding to the skeptic?s doubts. This paper begins by sketching the key points which serve to illustrate the nature of this antiskeptical strategy. Further on, the paper describes three problems the strategy faces, as well as attempts to address them by articulating a meta-linguistical thesis on truth conditions of knowledge attribution sentences. The aim of the paper is to reconstruct the project of the meta-linguistical analysis, point to its specifics and flaws, and answer the question of what it achieves.

Receptive Knowledge of Transitivity Alternation by Korean Heritage Speakers

Heritage speakers (HS) have historically been attributed with what they cannot do or what they have lost; however while heritage grammars are inevitably different from the monolingual variety, investigating HS knowledge and abilities can reveal much about their capacity for retention. This article investigates Korean HS living in the U.S. and their receptive knowledge of Korean transitivity alternation, specifically, whether they are able to retain a phonologically reduced transitivity marker that is not reinforced in the dominant language, a previous unstudied area of heritage grammar and a feature that does not exist in the speakers’ dominant language, English. Participants (N = 20) rated their acceptability judgment of four sentence conditions on a self-paced online assessment. In a second task, other participants (N = 14) translated the four sentence conditions into English. Results revealed a significant effect of sentence condition for the HS on their acceptability ratings, Wald χ2(3) = 61.133, p < .001, indicating that participants’ judgments of test sentences were significantly influenced by which category of sentence they were given. The HS also demonstrated keen distinctions between sentences with and without the transitivity marker in their translations. Overall, the study shows that Korean HS are able to retain this the transitivity marker.

TIME REFERENCE IN INDIRECT SPEECH IN RUSSIAN AS A NON-SOT LANGUAGE

TIME REFERENCE IN INDIRECT SPEECH IN RUSSIAN AS A NON-SOT LANGUAGE

Sentence Context Differentially Modulates Contributions of Fundamental Frequency Contours to Word Recognition in Chinese-Speaking Children With and Without Dyslexia.

Previous work has shown that children with dyslexia are impaired in speech recognition in adverse listening conditions. Our study further examined how semantic context and fundamental frequency (F0) contours contribute to word recognition against interfering speech in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. Thirty-two children with dyslexia and 35 chronological-age-matched control children were tested on the recognition of words in normal sentences versus wordlist sentences with natural versus flat F0 contours against single-talker interference. The dyslexic children had overall poorer recognition performance than non-dyslexic children. Furthermore, semantic context differentially modulated the effect of F0 contours on the recognition performances of the two groups. Specifically, compared with flat F0 contours, natural F0 contours increased the recognition accuracy of dyslexic children less than non-dyslexic children in the wordlist condition. By contrast, natural F0 contours increased the recognition accuracy of both groups to a similar extent in the sentence condition. These results indicate that access to semantic context improves the effect of natural F0 contours on word recognition in adverse listening conditions by dyslexic children who are more impaired in the use of natural F0 contours during isolated and unrelated word recognition. Our findings have practical implications for communication with dyslexic children when listening conditions are unfavorable.

Is Reference Essential to Meaning?

Most linguists and philosophers will tell you that whatever meaning is, it determines the reference of names, the satisfaction conditions of nouns and verbs, the truth conditions of sentences; in linguist speak, meaning determines semantic value. So a change in semantic value implies a change in meaning. So the semantic value a meaning determines is essential to that meaning: holding contributions from context constant, if two words have different semantic values they cannot mean the same thing. If this is correct, then in a fairly straightforward sense reference is essential to meaning. In this paper I argue that reference is not essential to meaning by giving an example in which groups in different circumstances use a phrase with the same meaning but a different reference.

The Neural Basis of Metaphor Comprehension: Evidence from Left Hemisphere Degeneration.

Despite the ubiquity of metaphor in cognition and communication, it is absent from standard clinical assessments of language, and the neural systems that support metaphor processing are debated. Previous research shows that patients with focal brain lesions can display selective impairments in processing metaphor, suggesting that figurative language abilities may be disproportionately vulnerable to brain injury. We hypothesized that metaphor processing is especially vulnerable to neurodegenerative disease, and that the left hemisphere is critical for normal metaphor processing. To evaluate these hypotheses, we tested metaphor comprehension in patients with left-hemisphere neurodegeneration, and in demographically matched healthy comparison participants. Stimuli consisted of moderately familiar metaphors and closely matched literal sentences sharing the same source term (e.g., The interview was a painful crawl / The infant's motion was a crawl). Written sentences were presented, followed by four modifier-noun answer choices (one target and three foils). Healthy controls, though reliably better at literal than metaphor trials, comprehended both sentence conditions well. By contrast, participants with left-hemisphere neurodegeneration performed disproportionately poorly on metaphor comprehension. Anatomical analyses show relationships between metaphor accuracy and patient atrophy in the left middle and superior temporal gyri, and the left inferior frontal gyrus, areas that have been implicated in supporting metaphor comprehension in previous imaging research. The behavioral results also suggest deficits of metaphor comprehension may be a sensitive measure of cognitive dysfunction in some forms of neurodegenerative disease.