Set Of Nouns Research Articles

Variable stem-final fricative voicing in American English plurals: Different pa[ð ~ θ]s of change

AbstractThis paper investigates analogical leveling in a small set of English nouns that have irregular plural forms. In these nouns, all of which end in a voiceless fricative, the fricative standardly voices in the plural (e.g.,wolf–wol[v]es, path–pa[ð]s, house–hou[z]es). Using audio data from three large spoken corpora of American English, I demonstrate that this stem-final fricative voicing is variable and conditioned by a number of factors, most notably the identity of the stem-final fricative—with /f/-final lexemes (e.g.,wolf), /θ/-final lexemes (e.g.,path), and the /s/-final lexemehouseall patterning differently in apparent time—and the frequency of a lexeme in its plural form. I argue that the way these two factors affect the variation is reminiscent of the patterns seen in children's first language acquisition errors, providing a potential source for the variation and underscoring the importance of considering morphophonological factors when accounting for patterns of change.

Noun and verb processing in aphasia: Behavioural profiles and neural correlates.

The behavioural and neural processes underpinning different word classes, particularly nouns and verbs, have been a long-standing area of interest in psycholinguistic, neuropsychology and aphasiology research. This topic has theoretical implications concerning the organisation of the language system, as well as clinical consequences related to the management of patients with language deficits. Research findings, however, have diverged widely, which might, in part, reflect methodological differences, particularly related to controlling the psycholinguistic variations between nouns and verbs. The first aim of this study, therefore, was to develop a set of neuropsychological tests that assessed single-word production and comprehension with a matched set of nouns and verbs. Secondly, the behavioural profiles and neural correlates of noun and verb processing were explored, based on these novel tests, in a relatively large cohort of 48 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia. A data-driven approach, principal component analysis (PCA), was also used to determine how noun and verb production and comprehension were related to the patients' underlying fundamental language domains. The results revealed no performance differences between noun and verb production and comprehension once matched on multiple psycholinguistic features including, most critically, imageability. Interestingly, the noun-verb differences found in previous studies were replicated in this study once un-matched materials were used. Lesion-symptom mapping revealed overlapping neural correlates of noun and verb processing along left temporal and parietal regions. These findings support the view that the neural representation of noun and verb processing at single-word level are jointly-supported by distributed cortical regions. The PCA generated five fundamental language and cognitive components of aphasia: phonological production, phonological recognition, semantics, fluency, and executive function. Consistent with the behavioural analyses and lesion-symptom mapping results, both noun and verb processing loaded on common underlying language domains: phonological production and semantics. The neural correlates of these five principal components aligned with existing models of language and the regions implicated by other techniques such as functional neuroimaging and neuro-stimulation.

Visually Grounded and Textual Semantic Models Differentially Decode Brain Activity Associated with Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Important advances have recently been made using computational semantic models to decode brain activity patterns associated with concepts; however, this work has almost exclusively focused on concrete nouns. How well these models extend to decoding abstract nouns is largely unknown. We address this question by applying state-of-the-art computational models to decode functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) activity patterns, elicited by participants reading and imagining a diverse set of both concrete and abstract nouns. One of the models we use is linguistic, exploiting the recent word2vec skipgram approach trained on Wikipedia. The second is visually grounded, using deep convolutional neural networks trained on Google Images. Dual coding theory considers concrete concepts to be encoded in the brain both linguistically and visually, and abstract concepts only linguistically. Splitting the fMRI data according to human concreteness ratings, we indeed observe that both models significantly decode the most concrete nouns; however, accuracy is significantly greater using the text-based models for the most abstract nouns. More generally this confirms that current computational models are sufficiently advanced to assist in investigating the representational structure of abstract concepts in the brain.

Motivating an English-German contrast in word-formation

AbstractGerman has a set of nouns which are derived from a combination of a preposition and the reciprocal pronouneinander‘one another’. Compounds of this type are strikingly absent from English, although all the components that enter the German formations are available in English, as well. This paper takes a closer look at the relevant word-formation patterns, focusing on compounding and different types of conversion, also taking into account the diachrony of reciprocal pronouns (einanderin German andeach other/one anotherin English) and the role of morphological schemas. It will be argued that for explaining the lack of English nouns corresponding to the German nouns under discussion contrasts in the history and the grammar of reciprocals are less relevant than (i) the availability of well-entrenched word-formation patterns, and (ii) the more significant role of ‘syntactic conversion’ in German.

Effects of semantic neighborhood density in abstract and concrete words

Concrete and abstract words are thought to differ along several psycholinguistic variables, such as frequency and emotional content. Here, we consider another variable, semantic neighborhood density, which has received much less attention, likely because semantic neighborhoods of abstract words are difficult to measure. Using a corpus-based method that creates representations of words that emphasize featural information, the current investigation explores the relationship between neighborhood density and concreteness in a large set of English nouns. Two important observations emerge. First, semantic neighborhood density is higher for concrete than for abstract words, even when other variables are accounted for, especially for smaller neighborhood sizes. Second, the effects of semantic neighborhood density on behavior are different for concrete and abstract words. Lexical decision reaction times are fastest for words with sparse neighborhoods; however, this effect is stronger for concrete words than for abstract words. These results suggest that semantic neighborhood density plays a role in the cognitive and psycholinguistic differences between concrete and abstract words, and should be taken into account in studies involving lexical semantics. Furthermore, the pattern of results with the current feature-based neighborhood measure is very different from that with associatively defined neighborhoods, suggesting that these two methods should be treated as separate measures rather than two interchangeable measures of semantic neighborhoods.

The Grammatical Encoding of Space in Yonghe Qiang

Like other languages of the Western Sichuan linguistic area, the Yonghe variety of Qiang has robust grammatical systems for spatial concepts. Within the noun phrase, there are specialized locative casemarkers for different degrees of distance of the object being located. There is also a set of locational nouns, which are structured based on an intrinsic frame of reference, at least for some speakers. In the verb phrase, there is a system of five existential verbs, four of which have locational semantics; choice of existential depends on containment and attachment, then secondarily on the animacy of the referent being located. There is also a set of eight directional prefixes. These have different discourse frequencies, reflecting different levels of prefix-verb collocation. In addition, the prefixes primarily occur in perfective clauses and imperatives; however, they are optional when an adverbial phrase is also used. Thus, the system approximates derivation rather than inflection. These patterns of distribution, together with comparative data from other Western Sichuan languages, suggest a grammaticalization pathway from directional prefix to perfective to imperative.

Interidentity amnesia in dissociative identity disorder

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Patients diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID) usually present with alternative personality states (alters) who take separate control of consciousness. Commonly, one alter will claim they have no awareness of events which took place when another alter was in control. However, some kinds of material are transferred across the alter boundary. Huntjens et al. devised an objective method of demonstrating such transfer.Methods: In the main study, following Huntjens et al., for three patients, two alters were taught different sets of nouns. The following week, one of the alters was given a recognition memory test including both sets plus distractor words. The patients in the Huntjens experiment responded in the same way to words in both sets.Results: In the present experiemnt, two of the patients tested had pairs of alters where there was no interference from the material which was presented to the other alter. In one of these cases, there was breakthrough with one pairing of alters, a pattern matched in a subsidiary experiment.Conclusions: The population of individuals with DID are not homogeneous with respect to the depth of the blocking of episodic material from one alter to another.

Development of a method for determining the keywords in the slavic language texts based on the technology of web mining

The authors accomplished the task of development of algorithmic support of processes of the content monitoring for solving the problem of defining the keywords of a Slavic language text based on Web Mining technology. Substantiation of peculiarities of its use for defining keywords and subject heading of the text content was considered. Web Mining technology allows us to take advantage of the text content monitoring method based on the Porter’s stemmer to solve the problem on determining the keywords. Stemming modification is based on the well-known classification of morpheme and word formation structure of derivatives of the Ukrainian language, revealing patterns of affixes combination, modeling the structural organization of verbs and suffixed nouns. Algorithms of morphonological modifications in the process of verb word changing and adjective word changing and word formation in the Ukrainian language were used. Decomposition of the method of determining keywords of the text content was performed. Its features include adaptation of morphological and syntactic analysis of lexical units to peculiarities of Ukrainian words/text structures. Algorithm support of its main structural components was developed. Its features include convolution and analysis of a nominal/verb group and construction of appropriate trees of analysis for each sentence, taking into account the features of their structures as elements of the Slavic language texts. The formal approach to the implementation of stemming of a Ukrainian language text was proposed. It is aimed at automatic detection of notional keywords of a Ukrainian text due to the proposed formal approach to implementation of stemming for the Ukrainian language content. Theoretically, the ways of enhancing efficiency of the keywords search, in particular their density in the text, were found. They are based on an analysis of not the words themselves (nouns, a set of nouns, adjectives with nouns, other parts of speech are ignored), but rather of word stems in Slavic language texts. The rules of stem separations in texts consider not only the isolation of inflexions, but also suffixes, as well as registering the letter alternation during declension of nouns and adjectives. Based on the developed software, we received the results of experimental testing of the proposed content monitoring method for defining keywords in Slavic language scientific texts of technical area based on the Web Mining technology. It was found that for the selected experimental base of 100 works, the best results according to density criterion are achieved by the method of article analysis without compulsory initial information and a list of literature. This is attained through training the system and by checking the refined blocked words and refined thematic dictionary. It was also discovered that for technical scientific texts of the experimental base, the best results are reached by the method of article analysis without beginning (title, authors, UDC, abstracts in two languages, author’s keywords in two languages, work place of authors) and without a list of literature with the check of specified blocked words and refined thematic dictionary – for it the average value of keywords density in the text reaches 0.34, which is by 81 % higher than the correspondent value of density of the original text, which makes 0.19. By numerous data of statistical analysis, it was proved that setting parameters of the system increases the number of defined keywords almost by 2 times without decreasing the indicator of accuracy and reliability. Testing of the proposed method for determining keywords from other categories of texts, such as scientific humanitarian, fiction, journalistic, require further experimental research.

A new statistical model for analyzing rating scale data pertaining to word meaning.

The concrete-abstract categorization scheme has guided several research programs. A popular way to classify words into one of these categories is to calculate a word's mean value in a Concreteness or Imageability rating scale. However, this procedure has several limitations. For instance, results can be highly distorted by outliers, ascribe differences among words when none may exist, and neglect rating trends in participants. We suggest using an alternative procedure to analyze rating scale data called median polish analysis (MPA). MPA is tolerant to outliers and accounts for information in multiple dimensions, including trends among participants. MPA performance can be readily evaluated using an effect size measure called analog R 2 and be integrated with bootstrap 95% confidence intervals, which can prevent assigning inexistent differences among words. To compare these analysis procedures, we asked 80 participants to rate a set of nouns and verbs using four different rating scales: Action, Concreteness, Imageability, and Multisensory. We analyzed the data using both two-way and three-way MPA models. We also calculated 95% CIs for the two-way models. Categorizing words with the Action scale revealed a continuum of word meaning for both nouns and verbs. The remaining scales produced dichotomous or stratified results for nouns, and continuous results for verbs. While the sample mean analysis generated continua irrespective of the rating scale, MPA differentiated among dichotomies and continua. We conclude that MPA allowed us to better classify words by discarding outliers, focusing on main trends, and considering the differences in rating criteria among participants.

Prediction Signatures in the Brain: Semantic Pre-Activation during Language Comprehension

There is broad agreement that context-based predictions facilitate lexical-semantic processing. A robust index of semantic prediction during language comprehension is an evoked response, known as the N400, whose amplitude is modulated as a function of semantic context. However, the underlying neural mechanisms that utilize relations of the prior context and the embedded word within it are largely unknown. We measured magnetoencephalography (MEG) data while participants were listening to simple German sentences in which the verbs were either highly predictive for the occurrence of a particular noun (i.e., provided context) or not. The identical set of nouns was presented in both conditions. Hence, differences for the evoked responses of the nouns can only be due to differences in the earlier context. We observed a reduction of the N400 response for highly predicted nouns. Interestingly, the opposite pattern was observed for the preceding verbs: highly predictive (that is more informative) verbs yielded stronger neural magnitude compared to less predictive verbs. A negative correlation between the N400 effect of the verb and that of the noun was found in a distributed brain network, indicating an integral relation between the predictive power of the verb and the processing of the subsequent noun. This network consisted of left hemispheric superior and middle temporal areas and a subcortical area; the parahippocampus. Enhanced activity for highly predictive relative to less predictive verbs, likely reflects establishing semantic features associated with the expected nouns, that is a pre-activation of the expected nouns.

Züge sui generis der rumänischen Komposita des Typs frz. „coupe-papier“

Abstract The Romanian linguist Th. Hristea suggested the term phraseological derivation for those situations inwhich a noun set phrase is obtained froma verbal set phrase. For instance, from a pescui in ape tulburi “to benefit from a confusing situation” pescuitor in ape tulburi has been formed. The possibility of creating noun phraseologisms from the verbal ones is in accordance with the system of the Romanian language. In this article we have tried to prove that some verbal set phrases, while substantivized, thanks to their semantic content, slipped into a general compounding/derivation procedure specific to the Romance languages, also encountered in examples such as the Fr. coupe-papier, It. taglia-carte, Rom. pierde-vară, etc. The fact that this type of compounds is used in Romanian almost exclusively in order to pejoratively designate persons has contributed to drawing some set phrases to this procedure.

Toward a brain-based componential semantic representation

ABSTRACTComponential theories of lexical semantics assume that concepts can be represented by sets of features or attributes that are in some sense primitive or basic components of meaning. The binary features used in classical category and prototype theories are problematic in that these features are themselves complex concepts, leaving open the question of what constitutes a primitive feature. The present availability of brain imaging tools has enhanced interest in how concepts are represented in brains, and accumulating evidence supports the claim that these representations are at least partly “embodied” in the perception, action, and other modal neural systems through which concepts are experienced. In this study we explore the possibility of devising a componential model of semantic representation based entirely on such functional divisions in the human brain. We propose a basic set of approximately 65 experiential attributes based on neurobiological considerations, comprising sensory, motor, spatial, temporal, affective, social, and cognitive experiences. We provide normative data on the salience of each attribute for a large set of English nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and show how these attribute vectors distinguish a priori conceptual categories and capture semantic similarity. Robust quantitative differences between concrete object categories were observed across a large number of attribute dimensions. A within- versus between-category similarity metric showed much greater separation between categories than representations derived from distributional (latent semantic) analysis of text. Cluster analyses were used to explore the similarity structure in the data independent of a priori labels, revealing several novel category distinctions. We discuss how such a representation might deal with various longstanding problems in semantic theory, such as feature selection and weighting, representation of abstract concepts, effects of context on semantic retrieval, and conceptual combination. In contrast to componential models based on verbal features, the proposed representation systematically relates semantic content to large-scale brain networks and biologically plausible accounts of concept acquisition.

Plural exponence in the Nez Perce DP: a DM analysis

This paper analyzes two patterns of number marking in the DP in Nez Perce (Sahaptian) within the framework of Distributed Morphology. The first involves under-realization of plural on nouns. Number has classically been understood as a feature inherent to nouns, rather than to adjectives that modify them. In Nez Perce, however, only a small set of nouns show number morphology, whereas number morphology is highly productive on adjectival modifiers. Adjectives in fact may realize the plural more than once per word—an instance of multiple exponence. I show that the puzzle of under-realization for nouns can be solved through conditioned allomorphy, providing new evidence for the presence of gender features on n (Lowenstamm 2007; Kramer 2014). The puzzle of multiple exponence (over-realization) for adjectives can be solved through Local Dislocation (Embick and Noyer 2001) combined with very late insertion of reduplicative content (Haugen 2008, 2011), demonstrating one way the DM architecture may produce multiple exponence without recourse to dedicated mechanisms.

"A lady of few words": Review of literature and report of a case of progressive nonfluent aphasia type of frontotemporal dementia

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a clinically and pathologically heterogeneous syndrome. It can be classified into three clinical syndromes depending on the early and predominant symptoms: A behavioral variant FTD and two language variants namely, semantic dementia, and progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) which are very rare and elude diagnosis. We report the case of an elderly homemaker who came to our institute with features of cognitive decline and behavioral problems with language deficits in the form of nonfluent speech, impaired vocabulary to three pairs of words, agrammatism, and impaired single sentence comprehension with corroborative magnetic resonance imaging findings. PNFA is a rare clinical variant of FTD and often underdiagnosed. It should be considered in elderly patients who apart from having cognitive decline, behavioral problems, and absent insight also develop limited vocabulary, especially using a set of nouns to express themselves. Speech therapy and behavioral therapy in the initial stages can be of utility.

Integrating global and local visual features with semantic hierarchies for two-level image annotation

Image annotation is a challenge task due to the semantic gap between low-level visual features and high-level human concepts. Most previous annotation methods take the task as a multilabel classification problem. However, these methods always suffer from poor accuracy and efficiency in the case that plentiful visual variations and large semantic vocabularies are encountered. In this paper, we focus on two-level image annotation by integrating both the global and local visual features with semantic hierarchies, in an effort to simultaneously learn annotation correspondences in a relatively small and most relevant subspace. Given an image, the two-level task includes scene classification for the image and object labeling for its regions. For scene classification, we first define several specific scenes that describe the most case of the given image data, and then use support vector machines (SVMs) based on the global features. For region labeling, we first format a set of abstract nouns in accordance with WordNet to define relevant objects, and then use local support tensor machines (LSTMs) based on high-order regional features. By introducing a new conditional random field (CRF) model that exploits the multiple correlations with respect to scene–object hierarchies and object–object relationships, our system achieves a more hierarchical and coherent description of image contents than do the simpler image annotation tasks. Experimental results have been reported over the MSRC and SAIAPR datasets to validate the superiority of using multiple visual features and prior semantic correlations for image annotation by comparing with several state-of-the-art methods.

The category of animacy in the local dialects of the lower Dreta Valley

In the local dialects of the lower Dreta Valley (between Gornji Grad and Nazarje), which belong to the Upper Savinja dialect group, the set of animate nouns is larger than in standard Slovenian.

Noun plural production in preschoolers with early cochlear implantation: An experimental study of Dutch and German

ObjectivesStudies investigating language skills of children after cochlear implantation usually present general measures of expressive/receptive vocabulary and grammar and rarely tackle the acquisition of specific language phenomena (word classes, grammatical constructions, word forms, etc.). Furthermore, research is largely restricted to children acquiring English. Cross-linguistic comparisons among children acquiring different languages are almost inexistent. The present study targets the acquisition of noun plurals (e.g., dogs, balls) by Dutch- and German-speaking children implanted before their second birthday. Given its structural complexity and irregularity, noun plural formation is a good indicator of grammatical proficiency in children at risk for a developmental delay. MethodsThe study sample consisted of 14 cochlear-implanted (CI) children (M=55 months of age), 80 age-matched normally hearing (NH) controls, and 40 normally hearing controls matched by Hearing Age (HA). The children were administered an elicitation task in which they had to provide plural forms to a set of singular nouns. The analysis focussed on the following variables: Hearing status (CI, NH), Language (Dutch, German), and Suffix Predictability/Stem Transparency of the plural words. ResultsThere was no significant difference between children with CI and their NH peers in correct plural production. In both child groups, plural responses followed the predicted pattern of Suffix Predictability/Stem Transparency. However, children with CI significantly more frequently replied to the test item with a recast of the singular noun instead of the plural, and the probability of these responses increased with later age of CI implantation. Furthermore, Dutch-speaking children showed an overall better performance than German-speaking children. ConclusionsThe findings suggest that after 3 years of implant use, preschoolers with early cochlear implantation show age-appropriate patterns of noun plural formation, but still have to catch up with respect to associating a particular singular with its plural form.

ON THE USE OF THE ARTICLE WITH PEOPLE�S PROPER NAMES IN GALICIAN

This paper examines the use of the definite article with proper names designating people in Galician. In Galician there is an area where the definite article can be used with proper names and another where this does not occur (Alvarez & Xove 2002: 380; Sousa 1994). Thus some speakers produce utterances such as A Luisa veu onte (DEF.ART - Luisa came yesterday ) whereas other people say Luisa veu onte ( Luisa came yesterday ). The paper looks at this question while seeking to contribute to the study of Galician dialect var iation, still inadequately described, through comparison with what occurs in other (particularly Romance) languages. It commences with a review of the functions of the definite article and the semantic characteristics of personal names (Gary - Prieur 1994 ; V an Langendonck 2007), and looks at the extent of the phenomenon and its social status in other languages, especially in Romance. The next section describes the dialectal distribution of the use of the article with proper names in Galician based on two twen tieth - century geolinguistic studies, Atlas Linguistico de la Peninsula Iberica (ALPI) and Atlas Linguistico Galego (ALGa), in order to establish where the phenomenon occurs. In this connection, following an assessment of the usefulness of studies in lingui stic geography for studying syntactic variation, it will be concluded that one must be very cautious data, on account of certain metho do logical problems that we perceive in this atlas. As our main conclusion, we will argue that the mot ivation for the use of the article with proper names in Galician is a process of the article's functional expansion, also obs erved in other languages (Lyons 1999). In an attempt to demonstrate this hypothesis, the phenomenon is compared to the use of the a rticle with another set of nouns, kinship terms, which share some semantic features with propers names.

Prosodic parallelism explaining morphophonological variation in German

AbstractWords in German show several instances of a seemingly optional schwa-zero alternation, both in relation with inflected forms as well as in the final position of stems and simplex words, as inLarge-scale corpora are used as the main source of evidence for the verification or falsification of the hypothesis. A diverse set of nouns and adverbs involving schwa-zero alternations were studied in appropriate phrasal contexts, both from present-day Standard German and from Early New High German. Based on comprehensive corpus counts, these phrases are tested for the hypothesis of prosodic parallelism. A series of chi square tests and a generalized linear model with mixed effects demonstrate statistically that the prosodic shapes of the target word and its adjacent form are not independent of each other. The focus of the paper is on empirical evidence for

Differences in the acoustic correlates of intonation in child and adult speech

During speech perception, toddlers use prosodic cues, such as pitch, in order to identify the most salient/prominent information in the discourse. This process is critical in facilitating early word recognition and learning. How do children then use these acoustic cues in their own speech in comparison to mature adult speech? The motivation for this study is to examine the acoustic correlates of intonation employed by child (mean: 2.5 years) and adult speakers of English during a guided spontaneous production task. During an interactive game, we elicit a set of target nouns and label them as one of three types: (1) new, uttered for the first time by the participant, (2) given, previously uttered at least once by the participant, or (3) contrastive, uttered in direct opposition to a previously mentioned referent. Along with labeling the pitch accent, we measured f0 range, f0 slope, duration, and intensity for each target word under these varying conditions. These measurements allow us to compare the types of pitch accents used by children and adults, and how each group employs the acoustic correlates of intonation. Identifying how these parameters are used during production is an important step in understanding speech development in early language acquisition.