Non-action Verbs Research Articles

Embodied cognition in native and foreign language – evidence from a typing task

ABSTRACT This study explores embodied cognition by examining the interplay between psycholinguistic features and motor processes in written language reproduction. We investigated whether previously observed effects (such as verb type and sentence structure influencing motor performance) in native languages also occur in non-native languages, shedding light on sensorimotor grounding across languages. A typing task assessed two phenomena: the manual action verb phenomenon and the negation phenomenon, both known to affect motor planning and performance. Experiment 1 involved native speakers, while Experiment 2 involved non-native speakers of German. We found interference effects (but no facilitation) for manual action verbs compared to non-action verbs in both speaker groups. Results for the negation paradigm were ambiguous and were influenced by syntactic operators. Our findings suggest similar sensorimotor grounding for native and foreign languages, contributing to research on embodied cognition in foreign language contexts. Methodological challenges and future research implications are discussed.

HD-tDCS of primary and higher-order motor cortex affects action word processing.

The contribution of action-perception systems of the brain to lexical semantics remains controversial. Here, we used high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) in healthy adults to examine the role of primary (left hand motor area; HMA) and higher-order (left anterior inferior parietal lobe; aIPL) action areas in action-related word processing (action verbs and manipulable nouns) compared to non-action-related control words (non-action verbs and non-manipulable nouns). We investigated stimulation-related effects at three levels of semantic processing: subliminal, implicit, and explicit. Broadly, we found that stimulation of HMA and aIPL resulted in relative facilitation of action-related language processing compared to non-action. HMA stimulation facilitated action verb processing in subliminal and implicit task contexts, suggesting that HMA helps represent action verbs even in semantically shallow tasks. HMA stimulation also facilitated manipulable noun comprehension in an explicit semantic task, suggesting that HMA contributes to manipulable noun comprehension when semantic demands are high. aIPL stimulation facilitated both manipulable noun and action verb processing during an implicit task. We suggest that both HMA and aIPL play a functional role in action semantics. HMA plays a general role in the semantics of actions and manipulable objects, while aIPL is important only when visuo-motor coordination is required for the action.

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF VERB IN INDONESIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE ON SINDO NEWS

This study contrasted verb features that exist between the two languages, with Indonesian as the source language and English as the target language. The contrastive analysis is used to help second language or foreign language learners understand the target language being studied more easily. The problem limitation is focused on analyzing the differences in verbs for action and non-action verbs between English and Indonesian (https://ekbis.sindonews.com/read/824401/33/dunia-gonjang-ganjing-luhut-ekonomi-kita-salah-satu-yang-terbaik ) in SINDO News. The research used descriptive qualitative research. The technique of analyzing data used in this study is based on contrastive analysis from SINDO News. The researchers searched and found data from Google media. After that, the researcher analyzes each word from the economic news, which includes the action verb and non-action verb. Next, the researcher analyzes for words that have the same meaning in the action verb and non-action verb by using an English dictionary, then compares them with the same word in Indonesian using the Indonesian dictionary. The results of the analysis show that there are 15 verbs found in news.

The Neural Blending of Words and Movement: Event-Related Potential Signatures of Semantic and Action Processes during Motor-Language Coupling.

Behavioral embodied research shows that words evoking limb-specific meanings can affect responses performed with the corresponding body part. However, no study has explored this phenomenon's neural dynamics under implicit processing conditions, let alone by disentangling its conceptual and motoric stages. Here, we examined whether the blending of hand actions and manual action verbs, relative to nonmanual action verbs and nonaction verbs, modulates electrophysiological markers of semantic integration (N400) and motor-related cortical potentials during a lexical decision task. Relative to both other categories, manual action verbs involved reduced posterior N400 amplitude and greater modulations of frontal motor-related cortical potentials. Such effects overlapped in a window of ∼380-440 msec after word presentation and ∼180 msec before response execution, revealing the possible time span in which both semantic and action-related stages reach maximal convergence. These results allow refining current models of motor-language coupling while affording new insights on embodied dynamics at large.

How words ripple through bilingual hands: Motor-language coupling during L1 and L2 writing

The speed of our hand movements can be affected by concurrent processing of manual action verbs (MaVs). Whereas this phenomenon is well established for native languages (L1s), it remains underexplored in late foreign languages (L2s), especially during highly automatized tasks. Here we timed keystroke activity while Spanish-English bilinguals copied MaVs, non-manual action verbs, and non-action verbs in their L1 and L2. Motor planning and execution dynamics were indexed by first-letter lag (the time-lapse between word presentation and first keystroke) and whole-word lag (the time-lapse between first and last keystroke), respectively. Despite yielding no effects on motor planning, MaVs facilitated typing execution in L1 but delayed it in L2, irrespective of the subjects’ typing skills, age of L2 learning, and L2 competence. Therefore, motor-language coupling effects seem to be present in both languages though they can arise differently in each. These results extend language grounding models, illuminating the role of embodied mechanisms throughout life.

Characterizing the Language Features and Rhetorical Moves of Argumentative Essays Written by Filipino ESL Senior High School Writers

This study presents the Filipino ESL senior high school students’ strengths and weaknesses in writing an argumentative essay. In the context of an institution in the Philippines where English is used as a second language by learners with varied L1, and the learners are required to write in academic English, the aim of this study is to identify the language features and the rhetorical moves of the argumentative essays using Hyland’s model (1990). Analyzing the students’ essays as a requirement in the academe across disciplines could provide appropriate scaffolding in guiding the Filipino ESL writers. The original essays written within an hour by 51 (from 108) Filipino ESL senior high school writers were encoded and processed using the Antconc software to identify the language features that characterize the essays. The essays were coded by the researcher and an inter-coder verified the analysis in relation to the stages/parts and the rhetorical moves found in the essays. The top three most commonly used verbs in the argumentative essays of the Filipino ESL writers of English are non-action verbs–is, are, have. In writing argumentative essays, the Filipino ESL senior high school writers of English lack lexical verbs in the lexical level, and the thesis and conclusion parts in the discourse level. They were familiar with the argument part, but lack citation as support to their claims.

The Embodied Penman: Effector-Specific Motor-Language Integration During Handwriting.

Several studies have illuminated how processing manual action verbs (MaVs) affects the programming or execution of concurrent hand movements. Here, to circumvent key confounds in extant designs, we conducted the first assessment of motor-language integration during handwriting-a task in which linguistic and motoric processes are co-substantiated. Participants copied MaVs, non-manual action verbs, and non-action verbs as we collected measures of motor programming and motor execution. Programming latencies were similar across conditions, but execution was faster for MaVs than for the other categories, regardless of whether word meanings were accessed implicitly or explicitly. In line with the Hand-Action-Network Dynamic Language Embodiment (HANDLE) model, such findings suggest that effector-congruent verbs can prime manual movements even during highly automatized tasks in which motoric and verbal processes are naturally intertwined. Our paradigm opens new avenues for fine-grained explorations of embodied language processes.

How meaning unfolds in neural time: Embodied reactivations can precede multimodal semantic effects during language processing

Research on how the brain construes meaning during language use has prompted two conflicting accounts. According to the ‘grounded view’, word understanding involves quick reactivations of sensorimotor (embodied) experiences evoked by the stimuli, with simultaneous or later engagement of multimodal (conceptual) systems integrating information from various sensory streams. Contrariwise, for the ‘symbolic view’, this capacity depends crucially on multimodal operations, with embodied systems playing epiphenomenal roles after comprehension. To test these contradictory hypotheses, the present magnetoencephalography study assessed implicit semantic access to grammatically constrained action and non-action verbs (n = 100 per category) while measuring spatiotemporally precise signals from the primary motor cortex (M1, a core region subserving bodily movements) and the anterior temporal lobe (ATL, a putative multimodal semantic hub). Convergent evidence from sensor- and source-level analyses revealed that increased modulations for action verbs occurred earlier in M1 (∼130–190 ms) than in specific ATL hubs (∼250–410 ms). Moreover, machine-learning decoding showed that trial-by-trial classification peaks emerged faster in M1 (∼100–175 ms) than in the ATL (∼345–500 ms), with over 71% accuracy in both cases. Considering their latencies, these results challenge the ‘symbolic view’ and its implication that sensorimotor mechanisms play only secondary roles in semantic processing. Instead, our findings support the ‘grounded view’, showing that early semantic effects are critically driven by embodied reactivations and that these cannot be reduced to post-comprehension epiphenomena, even when words are individually classified. Briefly, our study offers non-trivial insights to constrain fine-grained models of language and understand how meaning unfolds in neural time.

The kinematics, not the orientation, of an action influences language processing.

Consistent with the embodied view of cognition, several studies have shown a link between action and the processing of action verbs. However, it is largely unknown how action properties can influence semantic activation during word processing. On the basis of the observation of point-light display (PLDs), the present study addressed this issue. Through four experiments, we assessed whether kinematics and orientation, which are two crucial characteristics of human action, can influence the link between action and language. Participants performed a semantic decision task involving action and nonaction verbs after seeing a PLD representing either a biological or a nonbiological human movement, the kinematics (Experiments 1 and 2) or orientation (Experiment 3) of which was modified. Experiment 1 showed that important modifications to the kinematics of actions have a direct influence on the link between action and language. Experiment 2 confirmed this effect and showed that the effect is somatotopic because only modifications to the relevant part of actions affected the link between action and language. In contrast, Experiment 3 showed that modifying the orientation did not disturb the influence of an action on language probably due to the use of a mental rotation strategy. Experiment 4 confirmed this view by demonstrating the use of mental rotation when participants have to recognize rotated point-light actions. These outcomes shed light on how action properties can influence action verbs processing, a crucial step to better understanding the link between action and language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Aquisição de sentenças passivas: uma retrospectiva teórico-experimental

Neste artigo, discutimos a aquisição tardia de sentenças passivas, focando nos estudos sobre passivas do português brasileiro (PB). A aquisição tardia das construções passivas já é bem conhecida na literatura, é o chamado “efeito Maratsos”: o atraso na aquisição de passivas verbais com verbos de não ação (“ouvir”, “ver”, “gostar”, etc.). Duas hipóteses são defendidas na literatura para explicar esse fenômeno: a hipótese da maturação de habilidades linguísticas (BORER & WEXLER, 1987) e a hipótese da influência do input linguístico (DEMUTH, 1989; DEMUTH et al., 2010). Neste artigo, procuramos traçar um panorama de ambas as explicações teóricas sobre o atraso na aquisição das passivas e discuti-las com base nos estudos de aquisição de sentenças passivas em PB. Sob viés linguístico teórico-experimental, analisamos alguns estudos-chave e concluímos que eles parecem trazer evidências para se acreditar que a hipótese maturacional fornece uma explicação mais sensata para os dados do PB.

Verb naming fluency in hypokinetic and hyperkinetic movement disorders

Cortical motor regions are considered to play a role in action related language. These regions are affected differently in different types of movement disorders. Parkinson's disease, a hypokinetic movement disorder, has been shown to cause action language disruptions alongside movement deficits. Action language, however, has not been investigated in primary cervical dystonia, a hyperkinetic movement disorder. The aim of this study is to investigate whether action language is affected differently in hypokinetic and hyperkinetic movement disorders which have different effects on movements. Thirty patients with Parkinson's disease, thirty primary cervical dystonia patients and thirty healthy controls were included in the study. Participants performed phonemic, semantic and action fluency tasks. Verbs produced during action fluency were grouped as action and non-action verbs and group differences were investigated. Our results showed that all participants performed similarly in all of the fluency tasks. Mean action content of the verbs produced in action fluency did not differ between groups. During action fluency, however, whereas healthy controls produced more action verbs than non-action verbs, both patient groups did not have this difference between verb groups. Primary cervical dystonia patients produced less action verbs compared to healthy controls. The lack of action language deficits in Parkinson's disease and only an action verb deficit in primary cervical dystonia without any other action language deficits reject strong embodiment.

Making sense: motor activation and action plausibility during sentence processing

ABSTRACTThe current electroencephalography study investigated the relationship between the motor and (language) comprehension systems by simultaneously measuring mu and N400 effects. Specifically, we examined whether the pattern of motor activation elicited by verbs depends on the larger sentential context. A robust N400 congruence effect confirmed the contextual manipulation of action plausibility, a form of semantic congruency. Importantly, this study showed that: (1) Action verbs elicited more mu power decrease than non-action verbs when sentences described plausible actions. Action verbs thus elicited more motor activation than non-action verbs. (2) In contrast, when sentences described implausible actions, mu activity was present but the difference between the verb types was not observed. The increased processing associated with a larger N400 thus coincided with mu activity in sentences describing implausible actions. Altogether, context-dependent motor activation appears to play a functional role in deriving context-sensitive meaning.

Hands typing what hands do: Action–semantic integration dynamics throughout written verb production

Processing action verbs, in general, and manual action verbs, in particular, involves activations in gross and hand-specific motor networks, respectively. While this is well established for receptive language processes, no study has explored action–semantic integration during written production. Moreover, little is known about how such crosstalk unfolds from motor planning to execution. Here we address both issues through our novel “action semantics in typing” paradigm, which allows to time keystroke operations during word typing. Specifically, we created a primed-verb-copying task involving manual action verbs, non-manual action verbs, and non-action verbs. Motor planning processes were indexed by first-letter lag (the lapse between target onset and first keystroke), whereas execution dynamics were assessed considering whole-word lag (the lapse between first and last keystroke). Each phase was differently delayed by action verbs. When these were processed for over one second, interference was strong and magnified by effector compatibility during programming, but weak and effector-blind during execution. Instead, when they were processed for less than 900ms, interference was reduced by effector compatibility during programming and it faded during execution. Finally, typing was facilitated by prime–target congruency, irrespective of the verbs’ motor content. Thus, action-verb semantics seems to extend beyond its embodied foundations, involving conceptual dynamics not tapped by classical reaction-time measures. These findings are compatible with non-radical models of language embodiment and with predictions of event coding theory.

Observing, Performing, and Understanding Actions: Revisiting the Role of Cortical Motor Areas in Processing of Action Words

Language content and action/perception have been shown to activate common brain areas in previous neuroimaging studies. However, it is unclear whether overlapping cortical activation reflects a common neural source or adjacent, but distinct, sources. We address this issue by using multivoxel pattern analysis on fMRI data. Specifically, participants were instructed to engage in five tasks: (1) execute hand actions (AE), (2) observe hand actions (AO), (3) observe nonbiological motion (MO), (4) read action verbs, and (5) read nonaction verbs. A classifier was trained to distinguish between data collected from neural motor areas during (1) AE versus MO and (2) AO versus MO. These two algorithms were then used to test for a distinction between data collected during the reading of action versus nonaction verbs. The results show that the algorithm trained to distinguish between AE and MO distinguishes between word categories using signal recorded from the left parietal cortex and pre-SMA, but not from ventrolateral premotor cortex. In contrast, the algorithm trained to distinguish between AO and MO discriminates between word categories using the activity pattern in the left premotor and left parietal cortex. This shows that the sensitivity of premotor areas to language content is more similar to the process of observing others acting than to acting oneself. Furthermore, those parts of the brain that show comparable neural pattern for action execution and action word comprehension are high-level integrative motor areas rather than low-level motor areas.

The origin of word-related motor activity.

Conceptual processing of verbs consistently recruits the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (lpMTG). The left precentral motor cortex also responds to verbs, with higher activity for action than nonaction verbs. The early timing of this effect has suggested that motor features of words' meaning are accessed directly, bypassing access to conceptual representations in lpMTG. An alternative hypothesis is that the retrieval of conceptual representations in lpMTG is necessary to drive more specific, motor-related representations in the precentral gyrus. To test these hypotheses, we first showed that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied to the verb-preferring lpMTG site selectively impoverished the semantic processing of verbs. In a second experiment, rTMS perturbation of lpMTG, relative to no stimulation (no-rTMS), eliminated the action-nonaction verb distinction in motor activity, as indexed by motor-evoked potentials induced in peripheral muscles with single-pulse TMS over the left primary motor cortex. rTMS pertubation of an occipital control site, relative to no-rTMS, did not affect the action-nonaction verb distinction in motor activity, but the verb contrast did not differ reliably from the lpMTG effect. The results show that lpMTG carries core semantic information necessary to drive the activation of specific (motor) features in the precentral gyrus.

An investigation of semantic similarity judgments about action and non-action verbs in Parkinson's disease: implications for the Embodied Cognition Framework.

The Embodied Cognition Framework maintains that understanding actions requires motor simulations subserved in part by premotor and primary motor regions. This hypothesis predicts that disturbances to these regions should impair comprehension of action verbs but not non-action verbs. We evaluated the performances of 10 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 10 normal comparison (NC) participants on a semantic similarity judgment task (SSJT) that included four classes of action verbs and two classes of non-action verbs. The patients were tested both ON and OFF medication. The most salient results involved the accuracies and reaction times (RTs) for the action verbs taken as a whole and the non-action verbs taken as a whole. With respect to accuracies, the patients did not perform significantly worse than the NC participants for either the action verbs or the non-action verbs, regardless of whether they were ON or OFF their medication. And with respect to RTs, although the patients' responses were significantly slower than those of the NC participants for the action verbs, comparable processing delays were also observed for the non-action verbs; moreover, there was again no notable influence of medication. The major dissociation was therefore not between action and non-action verbs, but rather between accuracies (relatively intact) and RTs (relatively delayed). Overall, the data suggest that semantic similarity judgments for both action and non-action verbs are correct but slow in individuals with PD. These results provide new insights about language processing in PD, and they raise important questions about the explanatory scope of the Embodied Cognition Framework.

“She” Is Not Like “I”: The Tie between Language and Action Is in Our Imagination

Embodied theories hold that understanding what another person is doing requires the observer to map that action directly onto his or her own motor representation and simulate it internally. The human motor system may, thus, be endowed with a "mirror matching" device through which the same motor representation is activated, when the subject is either the performer or the observer of another's action ("self-other shared representation"). It is suggested that understanding action verbs relies upon the same mechanism; this implies that motor responses to these words are automatic and independent of the subject of the verb. In the current study, participants were requested to read silently and decide on the syntactic subject of action and nonaction verbs, presented in first (1P) or third (3P) person, while TMS was applied to the left hand primary motor cortex (M1). TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials were recorded from hand muscles as a measure of cortico-spinal excitability. Motor-evoked potentials increased for 1P, but not for 3P, action verbs or 1P and 3P nonaction verbs. We provide novel demonstration that the motor simulation is triggered only when the conceptual representation of a word integrates the action with the self as the agent of that action. This questions the core principle of "mirror matching" and opens to alternative interpretations of the relationship between conceptual and sensorimotor processes.

An electrophysiological investigation of the effects of levodopa on semantic comprehension of action words in Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract Patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) evidence an impairment of implicit language processing, specifically for phonology, morphology and syntax. The current manuscript reports an electrophysiological investigation of semantic comprehension of action words in PD. In seven patients with advanced PD, we investigated the dopaminergic effects on action-word comprehension by means of event-related potentials. The patients were asked to silently read a randomized series of verbs, consisting of hand action and non-action verbs. Using LORETA-analysis, the current densities in ten brain areas of interest were studied over a predefined time window from 150 to 260 ms after word onset. Higher current densities were found after levodopa administration. In 5/7 patients a temporal increase in current density was found in these areas between 200 and 230 ms after word onset. In 1 of these 5 patients, this occurred only during the on-evaluation. Moreover, our results suggest a laterality of these effects, corresponding with the laterality of clinical motor signs. These results are discussed in a broad context of neuromodulatory influence of dopamine on semantic activation and lateralized physiological changes in PD.

Effects of TMS on different stages of motor and non-motor verb processing in the primary motor cortex.

The embodied cognition hypothesis suggests that motor and premotor areas are automatically and necessarily involved in understanding action language, as word conceptual representations are embodied. This transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study explores the role of the left primary motor cortex in action-verb processing. TMS-induced motor-evoked potentials from right-hand muscles were recorded as a measure of M1 activity, while participants were asked either to judge explicitly whether a verb was action-related (semantic task) or to decide on the number of syllables in a verb (syllabic task). TMS was applied in three different experiments at 170, 350 and 500 ms post-stimulus during both tasks to identify when the enhancement of M1 activity occurred during word processing. The delays between stimulus onset and magnetic stimulation were consistent with electrophysiological studies, suggesting that word recognition can be differentiated into early (within 200 ms) and late (within 400 ms) lexical-semantic stages, and post-conceptual stages. Reaction times and accuracy were recorded to measure the extent to which the participants' linguistic performance was affected by the interference of TMS with M1 activity. No enhancement of M1 activity specific for action verbs was found at 170 and 350 ms post-stimulus, when lexical-semantic processes are presumed to occur (Experiments 1–2). When TMS was applied at 500 ms post-stimulus (Experiment 3), processing action verbs, compared with non-action verbs, increased the M1-activity in the semantic task and decreased it in the syllabic task. This effect was specific for hand-action verbs and was not observed for action-verbs related to other body parts. Neither accuracy nor RTs were affected by TMS. These findings suggest that the lexical-semantic processing of action verbs does not automatically activate the M1. This area seems to be rather involved in post-conceptual processing that follows the retrieval of motor representations, its activity being modulated (facilitated or inhibited), in a top-down manner, by the specific demand of the task.

Verb-based versus class-based accounts of actionality effects in children's comprehension of passives

Several studies have shown that children perform worse on tests of passive comprehension when the verb is non-actional than when it is actional. Most existing accounts focus on the semantic characteristics of the class of non-action verbs in explaining this difference. An alternative is a “verb-based” account in which passives are initially learned verb by verb, and children hear fewer non-actional passives in their language input. An analysis of the passives heard by Adam, Eve and Sarah (Brown, 1973) found more actional than non-actional passives, consistent with the verb-based account. In a second study, children tested for passive comprehension were re-tested a week later. The verb-based account predicts that children should show a consistent pattern of responses for individual verbs on test and re-test. Such consistency was found, with some inconsistency due to improvement over the re-test. Further analyses showed no effects of affectedness in explaining children;s problems with passives. Finally, we discuss whether a mixed model containing both verb-based and class-based mechanisms is required to explain the actionality effects.