German Sentences Research Articles

Infant sensitivity to mismatches between same/other-race faces and native/non-native speech

Perceptual narrowing typically occurs around 6 months of age, and drastically changes an infant’s perception of stimuli such as faces or spoken language according to the frequency with which the infant encounters them. It has already been well established that perceptual narrowing improves the sensitivity of infants to frequently encountered stimuli such as same-race faces and their native language while reducing their sensitivity to other-race faces and non-native languages. However, the effect of perceptual narrowing on the combined perception of face and language stimuli is not well understood. Therefore, to investigate the changes in the sensitivity of infants to matches and mismatches between faces and speech which might occur in the course of perceptual narrowing, we tested 3- and 9-month-old German infants using German faces and German spoken sentences which would be familiar to the infants, as well as completely unfamiliar Chinese faces and French spoken sentences. The infants were tested using an intermodal association paradigm, whereby each infant saw sequences of German or Chinese faces, interspersed with German or French spoken sentences. We analyzed the total looking time of infants in conditions where the faces and spoken sentences were congruent (either both familiar, or both unfamiliar), versus incongruent conditions where only the faces or only the sentences were familiar. We found that while the 9-month-olds looked for similar durations in congruent versus incongruent conditions, the 3-month-olds looked significantly longer during congruent conditions versus incongruent conditions, indicating a greater attentiveness to face-speech matches and mismatches prior to the onset of perceptual narrowing.

How disruptive are monocular reading conditions really?

Purpose. Based on the fact that reading with both eyes shows a binocular advantage of about 10 % (shorter reading and fixation times compared to monocular reading) with good binocular coordination, the present study aims to investigate the influence of the quality of binocular vision on the effectiveness of reading. Material and Methods. The binocular eye movements (Eyelink II) of 260 test subjects were reevaluated. All subjects read 60 sentences in German containing a target word occurring either frequently or rarely in this language. Additionally, the reading condition was changed from monocular to binocular for 30 sentences. Furthermore the objective heterophoria and MCH heterophoria for all participants were determined. Results. In the case of monocular reading conditions, there was only a weak general word-frequency effect (b = 7.21; t = 1.91; p = 0.06) but fixation times for frequent words shortened slightly when objective heterophoria increased (b = −4.24; t = −3.82; p < 0.001). For binocular reading conditions, on the other hand, there was a clear word-frequency effect (b = −48.77; t = −6.03; p < 0.001) and, at the same time, an interaction with individual heterophoria (objective: b = 8.19; t = 14.57; p < 0.001; MCH: b = 3.27; t = 4.40; p < 0.001). Conclusion. Monocular reading conditions can be proven to be disruptive when investigating people with good binocular coordination. However, this effect turns out to be much smaller than what is assumed by many optometrists. People with good binocular coordination clearly show greater benefits when reading with both eyes. Keywords: BINOCULAR COORDINATION, BINOCULAR ADVANTAGE, READING

Моделирование импликативной семантики ландшафтных номинаций в предложении (на материале немецкого языка)

The purpose of the study is to identify the relationship of the implicative semantics of landscape nominations with logical and grammatical types of sentences and to build models of implication of additional meanings of landscape nominations on this basis. The article explores the concept of implicative semantics and investigates how the logical and grammatical structure of German sentences relates to the implicit meanings of landscape-related terms found within them. These implicit meanings are derived from German linguistic culture. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the fact that for the first time the implicative semantics of landscape nominations is modeled in connection with the logical and grammatical types of the German sentence. As a result, based on the corpus data of the Digital Dictionary of the German Language, sentences containing nominations of large landscape forms are analyzed. The specifics of the semantic roles of landscape nominations in four main types of German sentences are described. The speaker's predicative connections with landscape objects and their implicative potential in German linguoculture are systematized. Models of the formation of the implicative meaning of landscape nominations are presented in the form of four types of frames: action, procedural, evaluative and the frame of "inclusion of the singular into the particular". The necessity of taking into account the speaker's intention in interpreting the implicative meaning in different types of discourse is shown.

German demonstrative pronouns differ in their sensitivity to discourse and sentence topics

German has two demonstrative pronoun series: the short form der, die, das, and the long form dieser, diese, dieses. Both forms can be used anaphorically, and they contrast with the personal pronouns er, sie, es in that they refer to an antecedent that is less prominent at that point in the discourse when the discourse provides different potential antecedents. Demonstrative pronouns are typically used in the preverbal position in a German sentence, i.e., the topic position. Thus, they are assumed to be topic shifters (from a non-topical antecedent to the topical argument in the current sentence). However, der can be repeated, yielding topic chains, thus referring back to a topical antecedent, while this is not the case for dieser. In this article, we argue that der and dieser both contribute to topic management, but they do this in different ways: der is a marker of a sentence topic, while dieser is a marker of discourse topic shift. We present the results of two experiments that compare the use of personal pronouns with either demonstrative pronoun manipulating sentence topic or discourse topic. First, both experiments show that the personal pronoun is not sensitive to either type of topichood of its antecedent. Second, Experiment 1 shows that both demonstrative pronouns prefer a context where discourse topic and sentence topic are shifted. Third, Experiment 2 shows that only dieser prefers a context with a shifted discourse topic, but der is not sensitive to discourse topichood alone. We take the results as supporting our claim that the two demonstratives have different discourse functions: der marks a sentence topic, while dieser is a shifter (and marker) of the discourse topic.

Surprisal From Language Models Can Predict ERPs in Processing Predicate-Argument Structures Only if Enriched by an Agent Preference Principle.

Language models based on artificial neural networks increasingly capture key aspects of how humans process sentences. Most notably, model-based surprisals predict event-related potentials such as N400 amplitudes during parsing. Assuming that these models represent realistic estimates of human linguistic experience, their success in modeling language processing raises the possibility that the human processing system relies on no other principles than the general architecture of language models and on sufficient linguistic input. Here, we test this hypothesis on N400 effects observed during the processing of verb-final sentences in German, Basque, and Hindi. By stacking Bayesian generalised additive models, we show that, in each language, N400 amplitudes and topographies in the region of the verb are best predicted when model-based surprisals are complemented by an Agent Preference principle that transiently interprets initial role-ambiguous noun phrases as agents, leading to reanalysis when this interpretation fails. Our findings demonstrate the need for this principle independently of usage frequencies and structural differences between languages. The principle has an unequal force, however. Compared to surprisal, its effect is weakest in German, stronger in Hindi, and still stronger in Basque. This gradient is correlated with the extent to which grammars allow unmarked NPs to be patients, a structural feature that boosts reanalysis effects. We conclude that language models gain more neurobiological plausibility by incorporating an Agent Preference. Conversely, theories of human processing profit from incorporating surprisal estimates in addition to principles like the Agent Preference, which arguably have distinct evolutionary roots.

Exkurs zur Analyse der Korrelat konstruktionen

The main idea that led me to write such research paper within the framework of Germanic linguistics is that I have not found any topic dealing with the term correlate in the German language, except in several articles in linguistic journals as well as one topic in a book describing the use of such a linguistic phenomenon in the language system. The research initially deals with the definition of the correlate at the level of the German language system. Correlate is unity describes specific relation of two sentences and identifies denoted constructs. Correlate is called a placeholder at the syntactic level because it does not occupy its original topological fields in the syntactic structure. The correlate (es) or the prepositional adverbs or adverbs can occur in the matrix clause, it is the second feature. The third categorical feature of the correlate is morphological, in that the correlate is inflexible and the last feature shows that the correlate does not confer case features on its syntactic environment, where the correlate possesses the matrix clause. The correlate can appear as the first part of the complex connector in the subordinate clause or the infinitive construction. The last feature refers to the fact that the correlate construction can be attributive in the complex sentence, whereby the sentence structure, which is the constituent of attributively formed correlate specifiers, is embedded. The research presents the conceptual content of the linguistic expression described by the correlate, functioning as a pro-element in the major premise and considered as a dentate. It is a matter of denotation of the correlate and deictic expressions. Furthermore, the present research sheds light on the obligatory and optional use of the correlate constructions in the German sentence. In German there are correlates when using certain verbs. In addition, certain linguistic constructions or expressions require correlates of both particles and prepositional adverbs. The reasons for this are contextual and communicative aspects. In relation to the contextual-communicative aspects such as verbs affect the connection with the correlate. She signals the connection through the grade particles. Compared to other verbs, the use of the correlate (es) is reduced. The reason for this is the appearance of degree particles as well, even, at most, only, only. This can be the case if the grading of the text passage does not focus on the extreme predicate, but rather on the infinitive construction or the subordinate clause. This was studied at work. Then it was examined how the correlate constructions occur with certain subjunctives by dividing them into two forms, namely attributive correlate constructions and left displacement constructions. If the correlate occurs before the subjunctive phrase, it is called an attributive correlate construction. This form is also called a correlate specifier. The subjunctive phrase has the function of being an attribute for the correlate. They can be directly followed by the correlate, whereby it is possible that the correlate alone carries the main clause after deducting the so-called phrase.

Vienna Talking Faces (ViTaFa): A multimodal person database with synchronized videos, images, and voices

Social perception relies on different sensory channels, including vision and audition, which are specifically important for judgements of appearance. Therefore, to understand multimodal integration in person perception, it is important to study both face and voice in a synchronized form. We introduce the Vienna Talking Faces (ViTaFa) database, a high-quality audiovisual database focused on multimodal research of social perception. ViTaFa includes different stimulus modalities: audiovisual dynamic, visual dynamic, visual static, and auditory dynamic. Stimuli were recorded and edited under highly standardized conditions and were collected from 40 real individuals, and the sample matches typical student samples in psychological research (young individuals aged 18 to 45). Stimuli include sequences of various types of spoken content from each person, including German sentences, words, reading passages, vowels, and language-unrelated pseudo-words. Recordings were made with different emotional expressions (neutral, happy, angry, sad, and flirtatious). ViTaFa is freely accessible for academic non-profit research after signing a confidentiality agreement form via https://osf.io/9jtzx/ and stands out from other databases due to its multimodal format, high quality, and comprehensive quantification of stimulus features and human judgements related to attractiveness. Additionally, over 200 human raters validated emotion expression of the stimuli. In summary, ViTaFa provides a valuable resource for investigating audiovisual signals of social perception.

Semantic temporality analysis: A computational approach to time in English and German texts

Temporality is an important aspect of political discourse. Politicians and policymakers attempt to construct the past and the future to gain power, legitimize their policies, claim success for themselves and blame others. To make computational analysis of temporality more accessible, we develop a new methodology using a semisupervised machine-learning algorithm called Latent Semantic Scaling. Only with a set of common verbs in the past perfect and future tense as seed words, the algorithm estimates the temporality of all other words. We demonstrate that it can identify temporal orientation of English and German sentences from election manifestos around 60–70% accurately, which is comparable to the results from a recent study based on supervised machine-learning algorithms. We also apply it to Twitter posts by German political parties to reveal temporal orientation of policy issues.

The wrong horse was bet on: the effects of argument structure versus argument adjacency on the processing of idiomatic sentences.

Psycholinguistic research remains puzzled about the circumstances under which syntactically transformed idioms keep their figurative meaning. There is an abundance of linguistic and psycholinguistic studies that have examined which factors may determine why some idioms are more syntactically fixed than others, including transparency, compositionality, and syntactic frozenness; however, they have returned inconclusive, sometimes even conflicting, results. This is the first study to examine argument structure (i.e., the number of arguments a verb takes) and argument adjacency (i.e., the position of the critical arguments relative to the verb) and their effects on the processing of idiomatic and literal sentences in German. Our results suggest that neither the traditional models of idiom processing (according to which idioms are stored as fixed entries) nor more recent hybrid theories (which concede some compositional handling in addition to a fixed entry) adequately account for the effects of argument structure or argument adjacency. Therefore, this study challenges existing models of idiom processing. In two sentence-completion experiments, participants listened to idiomatic and literal sentences in both active and passive voice without the sentence-final verb. They indicated which of three visually-presented verbs best completed the sentence. We manipulated the factor argument structure within experiments and argument adjacency across experiments. In Experiment 1, passivized three-argument sentences had the critical argument adjacent to the verb while two-argument sentences had the critical argument non-adjacent to the verb, and vice versa in Experiment 2. In both experiments, voice interacted with argument structure. Active sentences-both literal and idiomatic-showed equivalent processing of two- and three-argument sentences. However, passive sentences returned contrasting effects. In Experiment 1, three-argument sentences were processed faster than two-argument sentences and vice versa in Experiment 2. This pattern corresponds to faster processing when critical arguments are adjacent than non-adjacent. The results point to the dominant role of argument adjacency over the number of arguments in the processing of syntactically transformed sentences. Regarding idiom processing, we conclude that the adjacency of the verb to its critical arguments determines whether passivized idioms keep their figurative meaning and present the implications of this finding for relevant models of idiom processing.

Reading times show effects of contextual complexity and uncertainty in comprehension of German universal quantifiers

We report three experiments, in which we combined self-paced reading with picture-sentence verification to test how reading times are affected by meaning-related processes. In particular, we investigated German sentences containing the universal quantifier alle (“all”) and examined how restrictive processes incrementally interact with other aspects of quantifier meaning, comparably to previous studies using other methods. Our results show that reading times were sensitive towards a match between context and sentence meaning and also towards an interaction between picture complexity and task demands. The results also point to the need for integrated processing models that combine refined notions of the relation between memory and expectations, on the one hand, with assumptions about adaptive processes and about representations involved in compositional interpretation, on the other.

Processing noncanonical sentences: effects of context on online processing and (mis)interpretation

Prior research has shown that sentences with noncanonical argument order (e.g., patient-before- agent instead of agent-before-patient order) are associated with additional online processing difficulty, but that this difficulty can be alleviated if the discourse context licenses noncanonical order. Other studies demonstrated that noncanonical sentences are prone to misinterpretation effects: comprehenders sometimes seem to form interpretations with incorrect assignments of semantic roles to argument NPs. However, those studies tested noncanonical sentences in isolation. To further clarify the source of misinterpretation effects, we designed three experiments that investigated how discourse properties licensing noncanonical order affect online processing and final interpretation. All experiments tested unambiguous active declarative sentences in German with agentive verbs and two arguments, probing both online processing difficulty (using selfpaced reading) and accuracy of interpretation (using wh-comprehension questions). Besides word order (subject-before-object, SO vs. object-before-subject, OS), we varied the context preceding the target sentence (neutral context vs. context licensing OS, Experiment 1), the type of NP serving as object (definite vs. demonstrative NP, Experiment 2) and the type of question probing comprehension (two-argument vs. one-argument wh-questions, Experiment 3). Consistent with earlier findings, we observed that discourse properties licensing OS order facilitated online processing in early sentence regions. However, they did barely affect accuracy on comprehension questions, with accuracy instead being a function of word order and question type. Our results support models that explain misinterpretation effects in terms of task-specific retrieval processes. A retrieval mechanism capturing the effects of question type is proposed.

Lexico - Semantic Interpretation of Transitive And Intransitive Constructions in The Grammar of The German Language

The article is devoted to the description of studies of transitivity-intransitivity categories as a grammatical category of the German language.The author pays special attention to the question of the function and place of the accusative in a German sentence. It should be noted that the interpretation of the accusative is directly related to the interpretation of the nominative. Many scientists, emphasizing the crucial role of the accusative not only in the content, but also in the structure of the sentence. However, they deny him the right to be called a case, since this case is controlled. From the standpoint of generative grammar, an accusative cannot be included in the number of nuclear components, since a verbal phrase is split into a verb and an object only at a later stage.

Artificial Intelligent Decoding of Rare Words in Natural Language Translation Using Lexical Level Context

Artificial intelligence based Machine Translation is a Natural Language Processing, attaining significant attention to fully automate the system that can translate source language content into the target languages. The proposed method is a Neural Machine Translation, end-to-end system, with the lexical level context for converting German sentences to English sentences. The Transformer based Machine Translation is used for translation for handling the occurrence of rare words in the lexical level context. The FSR group rare words together and represent sentence level context as Latent Topic Representation. WMT En-De bilingual parallel corpus is used for translation handling the Out of Vocabulary words using clustering of tags. In the existing method there is a mismatch of translation but the proposed system is more superior due to the sentence context inclusion. The model performance is enhanced with hyper parameter optimization obtaining a BLEU score with a better translation of source to target language. Finally minimizing the TER score to attain a better translation rate

Artificial Intelligent Decoding of Rare Words in Natural Language Translation Using Lexical Level Context and Fuzzy Semantic Reasoning

Artificial intelligence based Machine Translation is a Natural Language Processing, attaining significant attention to fully computerize the system that can decode basis content into the target languages. The proposed method is a Neural Machine Translation, end-to-end system, with the sentence context for converting German sentences to English sentences. The Transformer based Machine Translation is used for translation integrated with fuzzy semantic representation for handling the occurrence of rare words in the sentence level context. The FSR organization uncommon phrases collectively and constitute sentence degree context as Latent Topic Representation. WMT En-De bilingual parallel corpus is used for translation handling the Out of Vocabulary words using clustering of tags. In the present approach there's a mismatch of translation however the proposed device is extra advanced because of the sentence context inclusion. The model performance is enhanced with hyper parameter optimization obtaining a BLEU score with a better translation of source to target language. Finally minimizing the TER score to attain a better translation rate

Processing emotional prosody in a foreign language: the case of German and Hebrew

This study investigated the universality of emotional prosody in perception of discrete emotions when semantics is not available. In two experiments the perception of emotional prosody in Hebrew and German by listeners who speak one of the languages but not the other was investigated. Having a parallel tool in both languages allowed to conduct controlled comparisons. In Experiment 1, 39 native German speakers with no knowledge of Hebrew and 80 native Israeli speakers rated Hebrew sentences spoken with four different emotional prosodies (anger, fear, happiness, sadness) or neutral. The Hebrew version of the Test for Rating of Emotions in Speech (T-RES) was used for this purpose. Ratings indicated participants’ agreement on how much the sentence conveyed each of four discrete emotions (anger, fear, happiness and sadness). In Experient 2, 30 native speakers of German, and 24 Israeli native speakers of Hebrew who had no knowledge of German rated sentences of the German version of the T-RES. Based only on the prosody, German-speaking participants were able to accurately identify the emotions in the Hebrew sentences and Hebrew-speaking participants were able to identify the emotions in the German sentences. In both experiments ratings between the groups were similar. These findings show that individuals are able to identify emotions in a foreign language even if they do not have access to semantics. This ability goes beyond identification of target emotion; similarities between languages exist even for “wrong” perception. This adds to accumulating evidence in the literature on the universality of emotional prosody.

Die Schwelle überschreiten: die Rolle der verbfreien Nachfeldbesetzungen in Bundestagsreden

The essay outlines the properties of the so-called Nachfeld, the post-final syntactic field often referred to as a typical construction of spoken language, focusing on its peculiar forms in deputy speeches from the Parliament of Germany. After a brief introduction on the German sentence and on the typical features of how language is used in political discourse, the characteristics of the deputy speech as a sub-text type of political speeches are highlighted so as to present the reference corpus on which the essay is based. More precisely, the corpus is composed of 40 deputy speeches delivered between March and October 2020, a half of which address the theme of the coronavirus pandemic. The aim of the analysis is to show the constant presence of the Nachfeld in all speeches and that it should not be considered a mere form defect or a colloquial choice, as it is in fact a real means of persuasion. This fact will also be underlined thanks to the consideration of how the Nachfeld is treated in the written version of the speeches developed by the Parliament shorthand typists. Eventually, a system to categorise the functions and the linguistic appearances of the Nachfeld is proposed in order to demonstrate the existence of a real “syntax of politics.”

Alpha power during task performance predicts individual language comprehension

Alpha power attenuation during cognitive task performing has been suggested to reflect a process of release of inhibition, increase of excitability, and thereby benefit the improvement of performance. Here, we hypothesized that changes in individual alpha power during the execution of a complex language comprehension task may correlate with the individual performance in that task. We tested this using magnetoencephalography (MEG) recorded during comprehension of German sentences of different syntactic complexity.Results showed that neither the frequency nor the power of the spontaneous oscillatory activity at rest were associated with the individual performance. However, during the execution of a sentences processing task, the individual alpha power attenuation did correlate with individual language comprehension performance. Source reconstruction localized these effects in left temporal-parietal brain regions known to be associated with language processing and their right-hemisphere homologues.Our results support the notion that in-task attenuation of individual alpha power is related to the essential mechanisms of the underlying cognitive processes, rather than merely to general phenomena like attention or vigilance.

Penggunaan Media Foto Dalam Menulis Kalimat Sederhana Bahasa Jerman

Abstract. This research was conducted to obtain data and information about students' ability to write simple sentences in German using Photo Media. This research is an experimental research. The population of this study were all students of class XI IPS SMAN 11 Makassar which consisted of 3 classes with a total of 120 people. The sample of this study consisted of two classes as follows: class XI IPS 1 with 20 students as the experimental class and class XI IPS 3 with 20 students as the control class. Samples were selected randomly (Random Sampling). The research data was obtained through a simple sentence writing test with the theme Die Familie. Data analysis by t-test. The results of data analysis showed tcount 4.78 > ttable 2.03 at a significant level of 0.05. The results of this study indicate that the use of Photo media is effective in writing simple sentences in German for class XI IPS 1 students of SMAN 11 Makassar.Keyword: Effectiveness, Photo Media, Writing sentences, German

An ERP Evidence on the German Scrambled Sentence Processing of Korean L2 Learners

In this ERP study, we investigated the Korean German learners’ perception of differences between canonical word order and non-canonical word order in German. The experimental materials were constructed by manipulating the canonical word order factor, i.e. nominative-first vs. dative or accusative-first in subordinate sentences in German. During the sentence comprehension, the brain responses of 15 participants in the intermediate level of German were recorded and analyzed. As a result of the experiment, the positivity was elicited at the verb region in the dative-first sentences. In contrast, the positivity was obtained from the all region(first noun region, second noun region, verb region) in the accusative-first sentences. These difference demonstrates that Korean German learners could recognize canonical word order in the accusative sentences, but not in the dative one.

Errors in Writing Made by German Language Students and Suggested Solutions

Abstract. This qualitative descriptive study aims to describe student errors in German writing and to propose solutions. The data was collected from the essays of 28 German students from the 2018 class. The results of data analysis showed that student errors in German writing varied, including 1) grammatical/structural errors in German sentences, 2) errors in conjugating German verbs that do not match the subject, 3) errors in word choices, 4) errors in prepositions, and 5) errors in the arrangement of words if there are conjunctions in the sentence. Meanwhile, the suggested solutions to these problems include the use of clustering or associograms while teaching and the development of practice materials for German writing.Keywords: Errors in Writing, German, Solution