Cross-linguistic Considerations Research Articles

The presumption of realism

AbstractWithin contemporary metaethics, it is widely held that there is a “presumption of realism” in moral thought and discourse. Anti-realist views, like error theory and expressivism, may have certain theoretical considerations speaking in their favor, but our pretheoretical stance with respect to morality clearly favors objectivist metaethical views. This article argues against this widely held view. It does so by drawing from recent discussions about so-called “subjective attitude verbs” in linguistics and philosophy of language. Unlike pretheoretically objective predicates (e.g., “is made of wood”, “is 185 cm tall”), moral predicates embed felicitously under subjective attitude verbs like the English “find”. Moreover, it is argued that the widespread notion that moral discourse bears all the marks of fact-stating discourse is rooted in a blinkered focus on examples from English. Cross-linguistic considerations suggest that subjective attitude verbs are actually the default terms by which we ascribe moral views to people. Impressions to the contrary in English have to do with some unfortunate quirks of the term “think”.

Intransparent-Gap Relatives in Japanese

Abstract In the present article, we describe what we call Intransparent-Gap Relatives (IGRs) in Japanese. In IGRs, a gap is located within the relative clause, and the head noun appears outside the relative clause. Unlike the standard head-external relatives, the gap in IGRs is not transparently associated with the head noun, but they are mediated through a metonymic relation. We propose a formal account of IGRs in terms of incremental parsing in Dynamic Syntax: an IGR string is processed in a left-to-right manner, and a semantic structure is progressively built up. This account unifies the standard head-external relatives and IGRs, relegating their differences to the ways in which the head noun is parsed and construed against the relative clause structure. Confirmation of this analysis comes from cross-constructional and cross-linguistic considerations. First, the analysis predicts that a metonymic reading is available in relatives but not in other rightward-displacement constructions, such as clefts and postposing. Second, the analysis suggests that IGRs are possible in languages such as Japanese and Korean, where the relative clause is processed before the head noun, but not in languages such as English and French, where the head noun is processed before the relative clause.

Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation and Incremental Sentence Comprehension: Computational Dependencies during Language Learning as Revealed by Neuronal Oscillations.

We hypothesize a beneficial influence of sleep on the consolidation of the combinatorial mechanisms underlying incremental sentence comprehension. These predictions are grounded in recent work examining the effect of sleep on the consolidation of linguistic information, which demonstrate that sleep-dependent neurophysiological activity consolidates the meaning of novel words and simple grammatical rules. However, the sleep-dependent consolidation of sentence-level combinatorics has not been studied to date. Here, we propose that dissociable aspects of sleep neurophysiology consolidate two different types of combinatory mechanisms in human language: sequence-based (order-sensitive) and dependency-based (order-insensitive) combinatorics. The distinction between the two types of combinatorics is motivated both by cross-linguistic considerations and the neurobiological underpinnings of human language. Unifying this perspective with principles of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, we posit that a function of sleep is to optimize the consolidation of sequence-based knowledge (the when) and the establishment of semantic schemas of unordered items (the what) that underpin cross-linguistic variations in sentence comprehension. This hypothesis builds on the proposal that sleep is involved in the construction of predictive codes, a unified principle of brain function that supports incremental sentence comprehension. Finally, we discuss neurophysiological measures (EEG/MEG) that could be used to test these claims, such as the quantification of neuronal oscillations, which reflect basic mechanisms of information processing in the brain.

A Cross-Language Study of Acoustic Predictors of Speech Intelligibility in Individuals With Parkinson's Disease.

The present study aimed to compare acoustic models of speech intelligibility in individuals with the same disease (Parkinson's disease [PD]) and presumably similar underlying neuropathologies but with different native languages (American English [AE] and Korean). A total of 48 speakers from the 4 speaker groups (AE speakers with PD, Korean speakers with PD, healthy English speakers, and healthy Korean speakers) were asked to read a paragraph in their native languages. Four acoustic variables were analyzed: acoustic vowel space, voice onset time contrast scores, normalized pairwise variability index, and articulation rate. Speech intelligibility scores were obtained from scaled estimates of sentences extracted from the paragraph. The findings indicated that the multiple regression models of speech intelligibility were different in Korean and AE, even with the same set of predictor variables and with speakers matched on speech intelligibility across languages. Analysis of the descriptive data for the acoustic variables showed the expected compression of the vowel space in speakers with PD in both languages, lower normalized pairwise variability index scores in Korean compared with AE, and no differences within or across language in articulation rate. The results indicate that the basis of an intelligibility deficit in dysarthria is likely to depend on the native language of the speaker and listener. Additional research is required to explore other potential predictor variables, as well as additional language comparisons to pursue cross-linguistic considerations in classification and diagnosis of dysarthria types.

Even Wh-doublets Don't Move in a Language Without Wh-movement

In this paper, I have examined an array of understudied Wh-doubling constructions in Tagalog, a Wh-fronting language, and in Korean, a typical Wh-in-situ language. Cross-linguistic considerations show that “reduplication” or “double”occurrences of Wh-words in Whinterrogatives, whether it is exact or non-exact, word-level (X 0 ) or a phrase level (XP), seem quite ubiquitous in natural languages. This might be robust evidence for successive cyclic Wh-movement (Radford 2004) or for a movement theory of Copy-and-Deletion (Hornstein, Nunes, Grohmann 2005). Hong (2014), Deppe & Hong (2014), and Hong & Deppe (2016) have reported a novel set of Korean/Tagalog data that shows that Korean displays doubled Wh-words in Wh-interrogatives, and that Tagalog shows Wh-doublets in Spec-CP. Interestingly, Chung (1999) has argued that the plural (or list) reading of Korean Wh-doublets comes from the morphological structure of the word, [X 0 [X0Whl]+[X 0 Wh2]] having the two root words, as a co-compound. Departing from Chungs analysis, I propose that the internal structure of Wh-doubling construction is derived via Head movement of X 0 to Contrastive Reduplication Projection (CRP), originally suggested in Ghomesh, Jackendoff, Rosen, and Russell (2004) for English Contrastive Focus Reduplication. Thus, the Wh-doublet in Wh-in-situ language such as Korean stays in its thematic position and Wh-fronting language with Wh-doublets, Tagalog, allows Wh-movement of Wh-doublets, which is triggered by the strong Number feature in C. The ramification of this analysis is that Reduplication phenomenon, Wh or non-Wh, can be accounted for as Copy theory of Movement.

Suffixal Diminutives and Augmentatives in Slovak

The paper primarily focuses on the synchronical suffixal means forming diminutives and augmentatives in Slovak, presenting a basic research in these areas. It is aimed at their identification, distribution in the particular word-classes, systemic status within evaluative morphology, and the analysis of some of the semantic features and pragmatic aspects of suffixal diminutives and augmentatives. Included are also several cross-linguistic considerations within the wider context of some of the relevant phenomena.

On the universality of language comprehension strategies: Evidence from Turkish

A fundamental question in psycholinguistic research concerns the universality of comprehension strategies. We investigated this issue by examining the so-called “subject preference” in Turkish, a language which allows for a natural (unmarked) object reading of an initial ambiguous argument. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we observed increased processing difficulty in the form of a broadly distributed positivity when an initial ambiguous argument was disambiguated towards an object reading. This effect was independent of the animacy (i.e. semantic subject prototypicality) of the ambiguous argument. Our results therefore speak in favour of a universal tendency to interpret the first argument encountered as the “subject” of the clause, even in languages providing no obvious structural motivation for such a strategy. However, we argue that the underlying explanation for this preference must be modified in accordance with cross-linguistic considerations.

What's in a name Cross cultural, cross linguistic considerations

(2005). What's in a name Cross cultural, cross linguistic considerations. Advances in Speech Language Pathology: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 80-83.

The neurology of syntax: Language use without Broca's area

A new view of the functional role of the left anterior cortex in language use is proposed. The experimental record indicates that most human linguistic abilities are not localized in this region. In particular, most of syntax (long thought to be there) is not located in Broca's area and its vicinity (operculum, insula, and subjacent white matter). This cerebral region, implicated in Broca's aphasia, does have a role in syntactic processing, but a highly specific one: It is the neural home to receptive mechanisms involved in the computation of the relation between transformationally moved phrasal constituents and their extraction sites (in line with the Trace-Deletion Hypothesis). It is also involved in the construction of higher parts of the syntactic tree in speech production. By contrast, basic combinatorial capacities necessary for language processing--for example, structure-building operations, lexical insertion--are not supported by the neural tissue of this cerebral region, nor is lexical or combinatorial semantics. The dense body of empirical evidence supporting this restrictive view comes mainly from several angles on lesion studies of syntax in agrammatic Broca's aphasia. Five empirical arguments are presented: experiments in sentence comprehension, cross-linguistic considerations (where aphasia findings from several language types are pooled and scrutinized comparatively), grammaticality and plausibility judgments, real-time processing of complex sentences, and rehabilitation. Also discussed are recent results from functional neuroimaging and from structured observations on speech production of Broca's aphasics. Syntactic abilities are nonetheless distinct from other cognitive skills and are represented entirely and exclusively in the left cerebral hemisphere. Although more widespread in the left hemisphere than previously thought, they are clearly distinct from other human combinatorial and intellectual abilities. The neurological record (based on functional imaging, split-brain and right-hemisphere-damaged patients, as well as patients suffering from a breakdown of mathematical skills) indicates that language is a distinct, modularly organized neurological entity. Combinatorial aspects of the language faculty reside in the human left cerebral hemisphere, but only the transformational component (or algorithms that implement it in use) is located in and around Broca's area.

Frasi Scisse e "Small Clauses". Un'analisi dell'inglese

Cleft constructions constitute a difficult challenge for linguistic analysis, due both to the cross-linguistic variety of their realisations and to the peculiar syntactic and semantic effects they display. Following recent proposals on copular sentences within the Minimalist framework, the present paper offers an analysis of the cleft construction as a Small Clause whose constituents are, on the one hand, a relative clause headed by a Null Operator and, on the other hand, the cleft constituent. Syntactic evidence is provided that the cleft constituent is an Identificational Focus, which Operator-moves to the Specifier of the Focus Phrase projection in order to check the Focus ([+F]) feature with the matrix copula and identify (i.e., assign a value to) the Null Operator within the relative clause. This analysis is consistent with minimalist tenets insofar as movement operations are only driven by morphological requirements, necessary for interface interpretation, and includes cleft constituents within the current analysis of (narrow) Focus as a feature-checking operation. The investigation is mainly focused on English, however cross-linguistic considerations are also present in order to test and support the validity of the analysis proposed.