Kinds Of Sentences Research Articles

Effects of syntactic information on semantic access of ambiguous verbs in spoken language comprehension: Evidence from a cross‐modal priming experiment1

Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine how syntactic information affects the semantic processing of ambiguous verbs in spoken Japanese. The effect of a postpositional particle on semantic access of an ambiguous verb at the end of the sentence was demonstrated in two kinds of sentences, S‐ga‐V sentences (subject, subjective postpositional particle, and ambiguous verb) and O‐wo‐V sentences (object, objective postpositional particle, and ambiguous verb). A cross‐modal priming method was used in which a target noun was presented visually in Kanji (Chinese) characters either one syllable before the end or immediately after the end of the ambiguous verb. Weak multiple priming occurred in the one‐syllable‐before condition, followed by selective access in the immediately after condition, but this multiple access was partially constrained by the preceding postpositional particle. A brief occurrence of multiple access and rapid transition to selective access were detected. Furthermore, objective particles were found to have stronger constraints on multiple access than on subjective particles. A connectionist model using a constraint‐based lexical approach was consistent with the experimental results.

Grammaticality judgments on sentences with and without movement of phrasal constituents—an event-related fMRI study

One of the leading neurolinguistic theories of syntactic comprehension disorders in agrammatic aphasic subjects—the Trace Deletion Hypothesis—postulates a specific impairment in processing syntactic chains, and that this function is mediated by Broca's area. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the specific involvement of Broca's area in processing syntactic traces can be verified using functional brain imaging. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while healthy subjects were asked to judge the grammaticality of visually presented sentences with and without movement of phrasal constituents. During both kinds of sentences, fMRI showed activation in language-related brain regions. Comparing both kinds of sentences did not result in differential brain activation of left frontal or temporal regions. In particular, Broca's area was similarly activated in processing both moved and nonmoved sentences. Thus, Broca's area seems to be involved in general syntactic processing as required by grammaticality judgments rather than having a specific function in transmitting syntactic relations.

Children's command of quantification

In this article we present data from two sets of experiments designed to investigate how children and adult speakers of English and Kannada (Dravidian) interpret scopally ambiguous sentences containing numerally quantified noun phrases and negation (e.g. Donald didn't find two guys). We use this kind of sentence as a way to find evidence in children's linguistic representations for the hierarchical structure and the abstract relations defined over these structures (in particular, the relation of c-command) that linguists take to be at the core of grammatical knowledge. Specifically, we uncover the existence of systematic differences in the way that children and adult speakers resolve these ambiguities, independent of the language they speak. That is, while adults can easily access either scope interpretation, 4-year-old children display a strong preference for the scopal interpretation of the quantified elements which corresponds to their surface syntactic position. Crucially, however, we show that children's interpretations are constrained by the surface hierarchical relations (i.e. the c-command relations) between these elements and not by their linear order. Children's non-adult interpretations are therefore informative about the nature of the syntactic representations they entertain and the rules they use to determine the meaning of a sentence from its structure.

The Role of the Pars Recta and Pars Oblique of Cricothyroid Muscle in Speech Production

To evaluate the functional difference of the pars recta and pars oblique during speech production, the electromyographic activities of these muscles were measured in thyroidectomized patients. The hooked wire electrodes were inserted into the normal side of the bellies of the pars recta and pars oblique bundles. Two kinds of sentences were used to obtain pitch changes, a simple interrogative sentence and a complex sentence with stress contrasts. The pars recta and pars oblique were simultaneously activated for initial lengthening and tensing of vocal folds to produce speech. The pars oblique might be initially more active than the pars recta at the initial task of speech and the pars recta might be more active at the pitch elevation in the interrogative sentence and the stress contrast of the complex sentence. The maximum electromyographic activity range of the pars recta and pars oblique seemed to be nearly equal. These results demonstrated that the patterns of electrical activities of the two bellies are different during speech and the combined activities of the pars recta and pars oblique are important in the adjustment of the vocal fold length during speech.

Vasiliev's paraconsistent logic interpreted by means of the dual role played by the double negation law

Vasiliev's paraconsistent logic is interpreted by differentiating in a scientific theory among axiom-principles, methodological principles and mere guess. The three kinds of sentence fit the three kinds of Vasiliev's sentences when "S is A" is translated in ¬¬A→A, and accordingly the remaining two sentences. In this interpretation it is shown that the parallelism Vasiliev claimed to hold between his logic and Lobachevskii's non-Euclidean geometry may be formalised. Between the two formal paraconsistent systems previously suggested - i.e. Arruda's one and da Costa and Puga's one - the latter one fits the above interpretation..

One Model or Two? Sentence Verification in Children and Adults

Abstract We employed the sentence‐picture verification paradigm to ask whether children are more likely than adults to construct unitary representations of ambiguous sentences. Six kinds of sentence were presented with the two kinds of inherently ambiguous sentences being: “There are crosses either above or below the line” and “There are crosses above [below] the line”. These sentences are inherently ambiguous because they afford both ‘inclusive’ and ‘exclusive’ readings, the readings being determined by whether subjects judge a picture with crosses both above and below a line to be true of the sentences. In Experiment 1, which had a sentence‐picture order, and in Experiment 2, which had a picture‐sentence order, the verification reaction‐time and the true/false judgement data together suggested that the younger subjects were more likely to construct unitary representations for the ambiguous sentences. Our strongest evidence for this claim was that children are heavily biased towards an inclusive reading of disjunction. Analysis of the sentence reading times in Experiments 1 and 3 suggested that children, unlike adults, may be deferring the construction of a mental model of the disjunctive sentence until the picture arrives.

Apport, support et sujet en coréen

The author discusses the nature of subject in Korean. Regarding subject, there are three kinds of sentences in this language: 1) sentences with an apparent subject such as tayhanminkwuk-un wuli nala-i-ta 'South Korea is our country', 2) sentences with a 'hidden1 subject, that is, there is no apparent subject in the sentence but, attached to a word in this sentence, we find a suffix which hints to the existence of a subject. For instance: eti-tul ka-pni-кка 'where do you go ?' with -tul a suffix of plural hinting that several people are the subject of the verb ka-ta 'to go', and 3) sentences such as yel-eyse twul-ul ppay-myen yetelp-i-ta 'two from ten makes eight'. The problem of subject in relation with topic and focus is also briefly discussed.

Comments on Stephen D. Krashen's "Teaching Issues: Formal Grammar Instruction". The Effect of Formal Grammar Teaching: Still Peripheral

In my view, the data from White et al. does not tell us whether direct instruction resulted in acquired or learned competence. To show that learned knowledge becomes acquired or underlying competence, one must demonstrate an impact on tests that tap only acquired competence. Lightbown and Pienemann maintain that evidence from Spada and Lightbown (1993) shows that the oral test was indeed a test of acquired competence because children showed no evidence of hesitation, mental searching, or distraction. This apparent fluency is indeed suggestive, and I have utilized similar observations in discussing monitor use (Krashen, 1991). But these observations are just that, observations, and are only suggestive. No comparison was made with the spontaneous speech of these subjects, nor was a comparison made between fluency in asking questions (the target structure) and using different kinds of sentences. Lightbown and Pienemann also maintain that the focus on form in class had not been excessive. In my view, 9 hours of direct instruction on questions in only 2 weeks is a lot of focusing on form, even if it was less than 20% of the total class time. In addition, afterjust completing 2 weeks of instruction on questions, and taking other tests that clearly focused the students on questions (White et al., 1991), and being prompted when they failed to produce wh questions (When students did not spontaneously produce a wh question after two questions, the interviewer prompted them [e.g., Can you ask me a question with what?] [Spada & Lightbown, 1993, p. 211]), it is reasonable to suggest

Perceiving the logical status of sentences

Two experiments confirmed Osherson and Markman's (1975) finding that children find it very difficult to perceive when the truth or falsity of sentences is self-evident (contradictions and tautologies) and when it is open to testing. The study also addressed two claims made by these authors: (a) that one source of difficulty is with taking an ‘objective’ mental stance towards the sentences, treating them as objects for assessment distinct from their referents; (b) that it is the nonempirical nature of the sentences which is responsible for much of the difficulty, not the ‘logical words’ (e.g., ‘and’, ‘not’, ‘or’) which the sentences contain. Claim (a) received some partial support: although manipulating the objectivity of the sentence presentation medium did not affect performance, removing the referents did. Hypothesis (b) received no support for the following reasons. First, the subjects also interpreted empirical sentences nonempirically, frequently justifying their decision. Second, the tautologies were far more difficult to assess than the contradictions, despite the fact that both kinds of sentence were equally nonempirical. The crucial difference between the tautologies and the contradictions was that the former contained disjunctions and the latter conjunctions. Subjects' responses on the empirical sentences suggested that they were interpreting ‘either … or’ constructions empirically. The possibility was discussed that the semantics of disjunction could explain this strategy. Finally, this semantic explanation of the problem with tautology was contrasted with a cognitive account of it.

強情モチーフの布置とその意味

We find 20 sentences of the hardening-motif in the Book of Exodus 4-14. They consist of three kinds of sentences, namely, 6 sentences of kbd-motif (7; 14aβ, 8; 11aβ, 28aα, 9; 7bα, 34b, 10; 1bα), 2 sentences of qsh-motif (7; 3a, 13; 15aα) and 12 sentences of hzq-motif (4; 2lb, 7; 13aα, 22bα, 8; 15bα, 9; 12aα, 35aα, 10; 20a, 27a, 11; 10bα, 14; 4aα, 8aα, 17aα).The 6 sentences of kbd-motif are contained in the Story of Plagues (Ex. 7; 8-10; 27). Among them, 8; 28aα, 9; 7bα and 9; 34b are the center of grammatical structures and narratives, and two types of poise, that is, change of mind and stubbornness. Those who read the sentences of kbd-motif think of them, recalling the meaning of kbd. The word “kbd” means being heavy, making heavy, bringing association of the derivative noun, glory, especially the glory of YHWH. Thus the readers recognize that Pharaoh laid weight on his own mind rather than the glory of YHWH, and so he could change his mind easily or become stubborn.The 2 sentences of qsh-motif are both written in Direct Speech, and from narrative part of Aaron's staff (7; 8-13) to that of slain of the firstborn in Egypt, they are placed at the beginning and at the ending. 7; 3a shows the cause of “sign and wonders”, which YHWH gives to the Israelites. 13; 15aα tells the cause of the slain of the firstborn in Egypt (13; 15aβ), whom YHWH killed. The readers of the sentences of qsh-motif, recalling the meaning of qsh, read the narrative of Pharaoh who was made stubborn by YHWH. The word “qsh” means to treat hard, reminding the readers understand that the plans of God YHWH, namely God's sign and wonder, are hidden in the severe circumstances brought out by Pharaoh's stubbornness.The 12 sentences of hzq-motif are placed in the overall story of Exodus 4-14. When we observe each of the change of the descriptive sentence of hzq-motif, its preceding sentence and the following sentence, their narrations turn greatly from 9; 35aα. The contents of hzq-motif sentence change from Pharaoh's becoming stubborn to YHWH's making Pharaoh stubborn, the contents in the preceding sentence, that is, from Decaying Egyptian magicians to Pharaoh's becoming weak, and the contents in the following sentence, from Pharaoh's refusal to listen to Moses and Aaron to his refusal of their going out of the country: the narration changes thus. At the same time this change shows that the conflict between Pharaoh and his followers and Moses and Aaron moved to the conflict between Pharaoh and his followers to YHWH. The readers of the sentences of hzq-motif, recalling the meaning of hzq, read the change of narrative. The word “hzq” means to be (-come) strong and to overpower. Therefore the readers know from the change of narration above, that as Pharaoh's mind becomes the stronger, he becomes more and more against YHWH, and at last YHWH overpowers Pharaoh.

De Rol Van Toonhoogtekontoeren Bij Het Segmenteren Van Spraak Door Luisteraars.Een Contrastieve Studie Frans-Nederlands

A comparison was made between French and Dutch pitch contours at the level of the word and the prosodic word. The overlap between the two systems was supposed to cause problems in the segmentation of words in speech communication for French dominant and Dutch dominant French-Dutch bilinguals. Two types of experiments were reported. In the first type native speakers of French (French dominant French-Dutch bilinguals) read Dutch sentences. These sentences are ambiguous without orthographic or intonational specification. The resulting French coloured realisations were interpreted by native speakers of Dutch in a way which differed from the interpretation suggested by Dutch orthography. In a second type of experiment pitch contours were manipulated by means of a resynthesis program. The same kind of sentences as in the first experiment were read by native speakers of French (French dominant French-Dutch bilinguals). On the sentences produced by these speakers a Dutch pitch contour was superimposed. This contour corresponded to the orthographic form in which the sentence had been presented to the native speakers of French. Other prosodie or segmental parameters were left unmodified. The resulting sentences were presented to native speakers of Dutch. The results showed that these native speakers of Dutch interpreted these manipulated sentences according to the orthography of the original Dutch stimulus. To control for the influence of other prosodie or segmental features of French in the realisation of the Dutch sentences by the French speakers, a number of Dutch sentences of the same kind as in the previous experiments were read by native speakers of Dutch. Their realisations were provided with a pitch contour corresponding to the contours the French speakers had realised on the same type of sentences. The effect of the pitch modification on the interpretation of these sentences by native speakers of Dutch was the same as the effect of having French dominant bilinguals read the original Dutch sentences.

The Speech Act Fallacy Fallacy

John Searle has charged R.M. Hare's prescriptivist analysis of the meaning of ‘good,’ ‘ought’ and the other evaluative words with committing what he calls the ‘speech act fallacy.’ This is a fallacy which Searle thinks is committed not only by Hare's analysis, but by any analysis which attributes to a word the function of indicating that a particular speech act is being performed, or that an utterance has a particular illocutionary force. ‘There is a condition of adequacy which any analysis of the meaning of a word must meet,’ Searle writes, ‘and which the speech act analysis fails to meet. Any analysis of the meaning of a word must be consistent with the fact that the same word (or morpheme) can mean the same thing in all the different kinds of sentences in which it can occur.' Hare maintains that the word ‘good’ is used to indicate the speech act of prescribing. He maintains that one of the principal functions of this word is to indicate that utterances of sentences containing it have prescriptive illocutionary force, and that an analysis of its meaning must make explicit and ineliminable reference to this force-indicating function. But ‘good’ regularly occurs in sentences utterances of which appear to have no prescriptive illocutionary force.

Remembering what you feel: Effects of emotion on memory.

In two studies, recall was best when subjects' manipulated facial expressions were consistent with the emotional content of material recalled. In both studies, subjects' mood response to manipulated expressions was first assessed in a separate procedure. Subjects whose mood was affected were designated the selfproduced cue group. In Study 1, 60 undergraduate volunteers then read two passages of the same emotional content, either anger-provoking editorials or humorous selections by Woody Allen. Later, one selection was recalled while frowning and one while smiling. In the self-produced cue group, recall was significantly better for the editorials when frowning and for the Woody Allen stories when smiling. In the nonself cue group, expressions did not affect recall. In Study 2, 20 subjects heard and recalled three kinds of sentences, angry, sad, or fearful, in the same three expressions. Again, only in the self-produced cue group was recall significantly better when sentence and expression were consistent. The combination of studies indicates that these effects are due to mood rather than expression and to the match between expression and content at the time of recall.

On so-called ‘rhetorical’ questions

Under the heading ‘rhetorical question’, very different kinds of sentences appear in grammars and manuals. The present paper starts from a logico-semantical definition based on the pragmatical determinedness of rhetorical questions (Belnap 1963) and limits the linguistic description to definite types exemplified in English, German, French, and Portuguese: the rhetorical use of question-answer-pairs, the auto-responsive rhetorical question, the implicative types of rhetorical question. Furthermore, particular attention is given to elliptical forms. Rhetorical questions, however, can be regarded not only as pseudo-assertions (because of their semantic nature): from a pragmatical and textual point of view, they function as answers (to genuine questions) as well, if so interpreted by the addressee. In a last section, it is discussed whether the complex utterance ‘rhetorical question’ may be regarded as an indirect speech act or not.

Ontological-Hysteric Manifesto II

One always begins with the desire to write a certain kind of sentence (to put on stage a certain “kind” of gesture. That “kind” then turns out to be about that-which-becomes-your-content).The key, however, is in this sentence (gesture) cell. Most people don't see the cell, are perceptually unable to see small enough (ephemeralization). Because their LIFE training is that to “see small” means to enter the realm where contradictions are seen to be at the root of reality—and that disturbing realization they would avoid at all costs.The desire to write a certain kind of sentence (gesture) is akin to the desire to live—be—have the world be in a certain kind of way. (Art as a solution to what is—Musil. Through style, through smallest possible units. Bricks determine one style of architecture, stone another, etc.)

TÜRKÇEDE YAN TÜMCE TÜRLERİ VE İŞLEVLERİ

Subordinate clauses, although it is a sentence with its structure, meaningly bound to main sentence without being autonomous gramatically. Some subordinate clauses like if clauses, wish clauses and verb clauses don’t explain the true meaning of sentences. A subordinate clause can be a component of main sentence as well as taking part in another subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses in their main sentences are always bound to an upper sentence with some syntax functions. Briefly, subordinate clauses strengthen, explain and complete the idea of main sentence and bound to it with some ways. Subordinate clauses in Turkish are two types as subordinate clauses with finite verb forms and with infinite verb forms. Wish – if clauses, that clauses and subordinate clauses which are structured with some prepositions and repeats are finite verb forms. These are also called as fully equipped subordinate sentences and are few in Turkish. Main forms of subordinate clauses are infinite verb forms in Turkish. These kinds of sentences are structured with both noun and nonfinite verbal forms (nonverb, pronoun verb, subordinate verb form) which are functioning as verbs. They are not fully equipped subordinate sentences. Subordinate sentences function as noun, adjective, subject, complement and adverb in sentences. This study is very useful for those who teach and learn Turkish language because it tries to determine principles of Turkish language syntax and bring up the structure of Turkish sentence especially by analyzing compound sentences

On Children's Comprehension of Synonymous Sentences

Tests of language comprehension usually include very simple tasks: for example, subjects may be asked to respond to commands, to select pictures which correspond to relations expressed in sentences, and to respond to questions with yes/no answers. There is often also a crossing over from one sensory modality to another in these tests. Thus to select a picture that correctly depicts the sentence The girl showed the cat the dog, a child brings into play both auditory and visual modalities as well as motor activity. Though these tests, along with sentence imitation, have been very useful in studies by Fraser, Bellugi, and Brown and by Paula Menyuk, they frequently impose constraints on the sentences that can be tested.1 Obviously one has to use picturable relations in tests incorporating visual stimuli; commands, by their very nature, impose strong constraints on the kinds of sentences that may be used. Imitation permits greater variety in sentence structure than the other tests, but it is in itself no certain test of understanding. It is, after all, possible to mimic nonsense. Despite these limitations, however, students of language development have been quite successful in using tests like these to demonstrate that children, even before entering first grade, understand the basic system of language. Yet generative grammar implies much more about man's comprehension of language than what these tasks, in themselves, can reveal. Imitating, obeying simple commands, selecting pictures, and answering yes/no questions generally permit us to explore only partially the strong linkages between understanding and transformational processes. One instance of a problem in comprehension that these tasks leave untouched and that this study investigates is the development in children of a sense that sentences may mean the same thing though they differ somewhat in grammatical style. In other words, the differences between synonymous sentences may be due only to the optional transformations that are used to derive their manifest forms. For example, the sentence The girl showed the cat the dog may

Things, Relations and Identity

Philosophers have long believed that if the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles were logically true, there would be no problem of individuation. I show (a) that if spatial relations are, as seems plausible, of such a nature that it makes no sense to say of one thing that it is related to itself, then the Principle is a logical truth, asserting that a certain kind of state of affairs is impossible because the kind of sentence purporting to express it is ill-formed and (b) that even if the Principle were such a truth the problem of individuation would remain. I then examine some of what Leibniz and Wittgenstein have said about the notions of individuation, difference and non-identity.

Dimensions of Grammatical Constructions

with one set of contrastive features in rows, another in columns, and with phones in the cells of the matrix? Would this approach allow for presentation-simply, comparably-of the construction types of a large number of languages as a basis for a universal etics of grammar? Our answer to these questions is affirmative. Several difficulties in early tagmemic descriptions would be lessened by such a presentation. Redundancy-most annoying, perhaps, of the characteristics of current tagmemic presentation-would be sharply cut. Where sentence (or clause, or phrase, or word) features have been repeated in order to allow for multiplied sentence types, single presentation of the intersection of two features could be made, with later cross reference to this total complex. Where a basic kind of sentence is modifiable in various ways for emphasis, or to make interrogative sentences, various devices have been used to avoid a listing of each basic type repeatedly, plus the modifications. Helen L. Hart2 sets up for Amuzgo a single emphatic sentence type to cover relevant emphatic variants of all basic sentences. Similarly, one query sentence type, one response type, and one quotative type are set up to handle varieties of all the basic sentence types. Velma Pickett for Zapotec3 points in the direction of dimensions by charts of constructions in reference to contrastive classes of clause4 and phrase construc-