Native Speakers Of Greek Research Articles

Neuropsychological testing of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals: the case of Greek-speaking individuals

The aim of this review is to update clinicians and researchers regarding neuropsychological tools that have been normed in Greece, thereby assisting them to improve diagnostic accuracy when undertaking neuropsychological assessment of Greek-speaking individuals. A growing number of neuropsychological tests of cognition have been normed in the healthy Greek adult population and the findings reported in the English-language literature. Neuropsychological Greek normative studies have revealed performance differences in Greek speakers. In general, research findings indicate that population-specific norms are required for accurate neuropsychological assessment of the Greek adult population. Validating neuropsychological tests of cognition in healthy Greek adults improves clinicians' and researchers' ability to accurately assess, diagnose and manage Greek individuals with cognitive disorders. Normative studies in Greek-speaking clinical populations and studies examining performance differences between native Greek speakers and the Greek diaspora are directions for future research.

Perceptual Assimilation and L2 Learning: Evidence from the Perception of Southern British English Vowels by Native Speakers of Greek and Japanese

This study examined the extent to which previous experience with duration in first language (L1) vowel distinctions affects the use of duration when perceiving vowels in a second language (L2). Native speakers of Greek (where duration is not used to differentiate vowels) and Japanese (where vowels are distinguished by duration) first identified and rated the eleven English monophthongs, embedded in /bVb/ and /bVp/ contexts, in terms of their L1 categories and then carried out discrimination tests on those English vowels. The results demonstrated that both L2 groups were sensitive to durational cues when perceiving the English vowels. However, listeners were found to temporally assimilate L2 vowels to L1 category/categories. Temporal information was available in discrimination only when the listeners’ L1 duration category/categories did not interfere with the target duration categories and hence the use of duration in such cases cannot be attributed to its perceptual salience as has been proposed.

Doing (Bi)lingualism: Language alternation as performative construction of online identities

The purpose of this paper is to examine practices of language alternation in email communication among native speakers of Greek and to argue that such practices are a facet of the performative construction of an ‘online’ communicative identity. In the slowly-growing body of literature on linguistic practices in computer-mediated communication (CMC) or computer-mediated discourse (CMD) it is emerging that concomitant aspects of linguistic performance relate to the construction of particular sociolinguistic identities relevant to the medium, or, to adopt a less radical perspective, that sociolinguistic identities typical of face-to-face or written interaction are mediated by the social/communicative practices and norms relevant to, or accruing to, types of CMD. Language alternation features prominently among the mechanisms used in constructing such novel linguistic/social-performative identities. In this context, the research presented in this paper examines the performance of a group of six native speakers of Greek, who are also part of a relatively closely-knit social network. The analysis reveals extensive code-switching between Greek and English, both inter- and intra-sentential, with English covering around 20% of the total of words used. The qualitative analysis shows that expressions of affect and evaluative comments are mostly in English, while Greek is reserved for the transmission of factual/referential information. The data further reveal that extensive style- or register-shifting and mixing is a favored strategy among members of the group; such mixing includes shifting among dialects or sociolects of Greek, the use of other languages, and, notably, the use of constructed words and structures with humorous overtones. This complex type of language play is an overarching feature of the group’s (socio)linguistic performance in asynchronous electronic communication, which may single them out as a localized community of practice. The data highlight the theoretical and methodological necessity for fine-grained accounts of specific types of CMD, which can be tackled not in terms of overarching macro-contextual linguistic and extralinguistic variables, but as dynamic reflexes both of specific participant constellations and of the negotiation of emerging generic norms within localized communities of practice. The paper also presents and discusses a quantitative study of views and attitudes on language alternation expressed by subjects who code-switch systematically on email, in an attempt to gauge the types of metalinguistic awareness involved. It emerges from the quantitative study that users abstract away from ‘phobic’ attitudes towards the use of English and that they treat language alternation as a manifestation of balanced or functional bilingualism, which is furthermore situation-specific and ‘genre’-appropriate.

Temporal modification in Greek adverbial clauses: The role of aspect and negation

The aim of this paper is to provide a formal account of the differences between adverbial clauses introduced by the Greek temporal connectives kathos, eno and afu. Based on Haegeman's (2003, this issue) criteria for distinguishing between central and peripheral clauses, we examine the ‘external’ and ‘internal’ syntax of Greek adverbials introduced by these connectives. Although Haegeman's proposal aims to cover not only English but also cross-linguistic properties of central vs. peripheral clauses, we would like to argue that there are certain language-specific criteria, namely aspect and negation, which could be used as additional support for the structural distinction proposed and which call for some modifications of the structural differences suggested for English adverbials. The Greek connectives are shown to be aspectually dependent in the sense that they are specified for [boundedness] as part of their lexical entry. This property affects their structural position in central vs. peripheral adverbials, on one hand, and the possibilities of temporal anchoring onto the matrix clause, on the other. Finally, the language-specific criteria discussed, namely aspect and negation, are tested through an interpretation task with native speakers of Greek in order to establish the preference for the temporal over the non-temporal readings when aspect and negation are controlled for.

Individual gains from auditory training of English vowels for Greek native speakers.

Several studies have shown that high‐variability auditory training can improve the perception of second‐language (L2) sounds by adult learners. However, even when testing a homogenous L2 group, considerable differences are commonly found between individuals not only in pre‐training performance but also in how each trainee responds to training. Additionally, it is not clear what aspects of perceptual processing are actually being trained. To address these issues the present study trained Greek native speakers in perceiving the vowels of Southern British English. The trainees received five sessions of high‐variability auditory training (including multiple words spoken by multiple talkers). The pre‐ and post‐training tests included identification and discrimination tasks in L1 (Greek) and L2 (English), and a nonspeech (F2 only) discrimination task. Preliminary results show significant improvement in the trainees’ identification of L2 vowels, but no significant change in their L2 discrimination. The relationships between pre‐training L1, L2, and nonspeech performance and gains in L2 identification for individuals will be discussed.

Unconscious effects of language-specific terminology on preattentive color perception

It is now established that native language affects one's perception of the world. However, it is unknown whether this effect is merely driven by conscious, language-based evaluation of the environment or whether it reflects fundamental differences in perceptual processing between individuals speaking different languages. Using brain potentials, we demonstrate that the existence in Greek of 2 color terms--ghalazio and ble--distinguishing light and dark blue leads to greater and faster perceptual discrimination of these colors in native speakers of Greek than in native speakers of English. The visual mismatch negativity, an index of automatic and preattentive change detection, was similar for blue and green deviant stimuli during a color oddball detection task in English participants, but it was significantly larger for blue than green deviant stimuli in native speakers of Greek. These findings establish an implicit effect of language-specific terminology on human color perception.

Exploring the minimal structure in prepositional phrase attachment ambiguities: Evidence from Greek

This paper investigates prepositional phrase attachment preferences in Greek V-NP-PP structures. Native Greek speakers’ attachment preferences were investigated through an off-line acceptability task and an on-line self-paced grammaticality judgment task. The experimental sentences include Greek V-NP-PP sentences in which four Greek prepositions were inserted ( me [with], se [in, into], ja [for], apo [from, by]) so as to examine possible lexical effects that may stem from the lexicosemantic properties of each preposition. In addition, the influence of Definiteness Agreement, a language-specific grammatical phenomenon in Modern Greek, was investigated in the experimental data by varying the definiteness of the NP complement of P. The results indicate an initial VP-attachment preference consistent with principles of syntax-based models of sentence processing (Minimal Attachment, Minimal Everything). In addition, the influence of Definiteness Agreement in the NP domain was evident both in the on-line and in the off-line data suggesting that attachment preferences may also be influenced by language-specific grammatical properties.

Poster 67: Neuropsychologic Performance in Greek and English Speakers: Multicultural Comparisons and Implications for Measuring Rehabilitation Outcomes

Objectives: To compare older and younger Greek and English (U.S.) speakers on a battery of common neuropsychologic tests and to identify patterns of performance as a function of age and language. Design: Between-group experimental design. Setting: Standard clinical setting. Participants: 34 young native Greek speakers (age range, 16–46y; mean ± SD, 26.53±7.58y), 47 young English speakers (age range, 16–50y; mean, 25.62±5.8y), 26 older Greek speakers (age range, 55–90y; mean, 66.92±8.02y), and 32 older English speakers (age range, 55–92y; mean, 70.03±6.39y).

Aspect and argument realization: A study on antecedentless null objects in Greek

The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between viewpoint aspect and argument realization. More specifically, we examine the correlation of +/−perfective verb forms in Greek and null objects with indefinite, non-specific interpretation. It is argued that although null objects are possible with both perfective and imperfective verbs, imperfective verbs favour object omission more than perfectives. We claim that this is due to two reasons: first, that there is a difference in the syntactic representation of overt direct objects with perfective and imperfective verbs, which is associated with the notion of economy in their respective derivations, i.e. Merge as opposed to Merge + Move; secondly, that perfective verbs show an interpretive difference at the LF interface depending on the overt versus null nature of the direct object, whereas imperfectives do not. The difference is related to the semantic notion of telicity. This prediction has been tested in an off-line sentence-completion task with two groups of native speakers of Greek, an adult and a child group. The data revealed that native speakers of Greek preferred to use overt DP objects with perfective verbs more than with imperfectives. This finding is interpreted as showing that Aspect is a functional feature with an effect on argument realization.

Ambiguity resolution in sentence processing: the role of lexical and contextual information

This study investigates how the parser employs thematic and contextual information in resolving temporary ambiguities during sentence processing. We report results from a sentence-completion task and from a self-paced reading experiment with native speakers of Greek examining two constructions under different referential context conditions: relative clauses (RCs) preceded by complex noun phrases with genitives, [NP1+NP2Gen], and RCs preceded by complex noun phrases containing prepositional phrases, [NP1+PP[P NP2]]. We found different attachment preferences for these two constructions, a high (NP1) preference for RCs with genitive antecedents and a low (NP2) preference for RCs with PP antecedents. Moreover, referential context information was found to modulate RC attachment differently in the two experimental tasks. We interpret these findings from the perspective of modular theories of sentence processing and argue that on-line ambiguity resolution relies primarily on grammatical and lexical-thematic information, and makes use of referential context information only as a secondary resource.

Temporal and acoustic characteristics of Greek vowels produced by adults with cerebral palsy

The present investigation examined the temporal and spectral characteristics of Greek vowels as produced by speakers with intact (NO) versus cerebral palsy affected (CP) neuromuscular systems. Six NO and six CP native speakers of Greek produced the Greek vowels [i, e, a, o, u] in the first syllable of CVCV nonsense words in a short carrier phrase. Stress could be on either the first or second syllable. There were three female and three male speakers in each group. In terms of temporal characteristics, the results showed that: vowels produced by CP speakers were longer than vowels produced by NO speakers; stressed vowels were longer than unstressed vowels; vowels produced by female speakers were longer than vowels produced by male speakers. In terms of spectral characteristics the results showed that the vowel space of the CP speakers was smaller than that of the NO speakers. This is similar to the results recently reported by Liu et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117, 3879-3889 (2005)] for CP speakers of Mandarin. There was also a reduction of the acoustic vowel space defined by unstressed vowels, but this reduction was much more pronounced in the vowel productions of CP speakers than NO speakers.

Perceptual and production variables in explicating interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit

This study attempts to investigate the importance of the degree of similarity or difference in the language backgrounds of the speakers and listeners, as it interacts differentially in intelligibility judgment of foreign-accented speech (Bent and Bradlow, 2003). The present study attempts to clarify the distinction in the matched and mismatched listening conditions, in context of addressing the overarching question whether auditory exposure to a language alone, without corresponding proficiency in production of that language, can provide a listening advantage. Particularly, do listeners understand accented-English speech spoken by native individuals of the language to which they are exposed to, as compared to listeners without that exposure? Greek-accented English speakers (and native monolingual English speakers) were judged for their speech intelligibility by four groups of listeners (n=10, each): native Greek speakers (matched), Greek-Americans (matched only through auditory exposure to Greek without any corresponding spoken proficiency), native monolingual American-English speakers (unmatched), and a mixed group (mismatched). Pilot data have shown that the intelligibility judgments by Greek-American listeners are intermediate to the native Greeks, and both the American-English and the mixed group. Further data-collection is underway, and will be presented as they bear important theoretical and clinical implications.

PARSING STRATEGIES IN L1 AND L2 SENTENCE PROCESSING

To contribute to a better understanding of second language (L2) sentence processing, the present study examines how L2 learners parse temporarily ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses. Results are reported from both off-line and on-line experiments with three groups of advanced learners of Greek whose native languages (L1s) were Spanish, German, or Russian as well as from corresponding experiments with a control group of adult native speakers of Greek. We found that, despite their nativelike mastery of the construction under investigation, the L2 learners showed relative-clause attachment preferences that were different from those of the native speakers. Moreover, the L2 learners did not exhibit L1-based preferences in their L2 Greek, as might be expected if they were directly influenced by L1 attachment preferences. We suggest that L2 learners integrate information relevant for parsing differently from native speakers, with the L2 learners relying more on lexical cues than the native speakers and less on purely structurally based parsing strategies.

Syntax interacts with prosody: the VOS order in Greek

The examination of the prosodic aspect of word order phenomena so far has been limited to theories about the location of nuclear stress and the effect the latter has on the realization of focus (e.g. Zubizarreta, M.-L., 1998. Prosody, Focus and Word Order. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA). This work has not been carried out for Greek. As far as Greek is concerned, a number of studies have been done on rhythm and intonation [e.g. Arvaniti, A., 1994. Accoustic features of Greek rhythmic structure. J Phon 22, 239; Botinis, A., 1998. Intonation in Greek. In: Hirst, D., Di Cristo, A. (Eds.), Intonation Systems. A Survey of Twenty Languages. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 288–310], but these have been conducted independently of syntax. Therefore, what remains unexplored is a prosodic analysis of an utterance on an experimental basis and in relation to its syntactic properties, since these two components interact. The present research is both theoretical and experimental in nature, since it is based both on the intuition of the linguist and on an amount of speech data. In particular, a number of adult male and female native speakers of Greek were recorded. The subjects uttered sentences with the VOS order and answered questions which had been constructed so as to elicit subject focus. An intonation pattern was derived from a measured pitch track and, taking the phenomenon of perceptual equivalence into account, we looked into the ways sentences with a VOS order are realized in terms of prosody. More specifically, the results of this study show the following: First, in the VOS order, it is some constituent other than the subject that is most frequently focused and second, in narrow focus questions (subject focusing), the preferred orders are SVO and OclVS.

Scalar implicatures: experiments at the semantics–pragmatics interface

In this article we present two sets of experiments designed to investigate the acquisition of scalar implicatures. Scalar implicatures arise in examples like Some professors are famous where the speaker's use of some typically indicates that s/he had reasons not to use a more informative term, e.g. all. Some professors are famous therefore gives rise to the implicature that not all professors are famous. Recent studies on the development of pragmatics suggest that preschool children are often insensitive to such implicatures when they interpret scalar terms ( Cognition 78 (2001) 165; Chierchia, G., Crain, S., Guasti, M.T., Gualmini, A., & Meroni, L. (2001). The acquisition of disjunction: evidence for a grammatical view of scalar implicatures. In A.H.-J. Do, L. Dominguez, & A. Johansen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 157–168). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press; Musolino, J., & Lidz, J. (2002). Preschool logic: truth and felicity in the acquisition of quantification. In B. Skarabela, S. Fish, & A.H.-J. Do, Proceedings of the 26th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 406–416). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press). This conclusion raises two important questions: (a) are all scalar terms treated in the same way by young children?, and (b) does the child's difficulty reflect a genuine inability to derive scalar implicatures or is it due to demands imposed by the experimental task on an otherwise pragmatically savvy child? Experiment 1 addresses the first question by testing a group of 30 5-year-olds and 30 adults (all native speakers of Greek) on three different scales, 〈 oli, meriki〉 (〈 all, some〉), 〈 tris, dio〉 (〈 three, two〉) and 〈 teliono, arxizo〉 (〈 finish, start〉). In each case, subjects were presented with contexts which satisfied the semantic content of the stronger (i.e. more informative) terms on each scale (i.e. all, three and finish) but were described using the weaker terms of the scales (i.e. some, two, start). We found that, while adults overwhelmingly rejected these infelicitous descriptions, children almost never did so. Children also differed from adults in that their rejection rate on the numerical scale was reliably higher than on the two other scales. In order to address question (b), we trained a group of 30 5-year-olds to detect infelicitous statements. We then presented them with modified versions of the stories of Experiment 1, which now more readily invited scalar inferences. These manipulations gave rise to significantly higher rejection rates than those observed in Experiment 1. Overall, these findings indicate that children do not treat all scalar terms alike and, more importantly, that children's ability to derive scalar implicatures is affected by their awareness of the goal of the task. Developmental and methodological implications as well as theoretical implications for the semantics of numeral terms are discussed.

A cross‐language study of vowel spaces and interference

This is a study of the spectral characteristics of the vowels of German and modern Greek in relation to those of American English. Two native speakers of German produced 18 words containing the short and long vowels of German, and two native speakers of Greek produced five words containing the five pure vowels of Greek. All speakers also produced nine English words containing the nine simple vowels of English. Vowel target zones for German, Greek, and foreign‐accented English are established within the auditory perceptual theory [J. D. Miller, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 76, S79 (1984)] and compared to the target zones of native speakers of English. A metric of the distance between the foreign, foreign‐accented English, and native English target zones will be developed. Perception experiments are planned to obtain both identification scores and paired‐comparison ratings of foreign accentedness. The positions of vowels in both the native and acquired language will be correlated with these ratings to determine if an objective measure of foreign accent and phonetic interference can be derived.