Orthography Language Research Articles

Exploring Spanish writing abilities of children with developmental language disorder in expository texts.

Numerous studies have shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD), in addition to oral language difficulties, exhibit impaired writing abilities. Their texts contain problems in grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output. However, most of these studies have been conducted with English speakers. English is characterized by complex phonological structure, opaque orthography, poor morphology and strict word order. The aim of this research is to observe the writing abilities of children with DLD in a language with simple phonological structure, transparent orthography, rich morphology and flexible word order like Spanish in the production of expository texts. Twenty-six children with DLD (mean age in months = 128.85) and 26 age-and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (mean age in months = 124.61) wrote an expository text about their favorite animal. In order to analyze how the two groups plan and encode written texts, we looked at word frequency and sentence structure, grammatical complexity and lexical density, and omissions and errors. Compared to the TD group, the children with DLD omitted more content words; made more errors with functional words, verb conjugation and inflectional morphemes, and made a large number of spelling errors. Moreover, they wrote fewer words, fewer sentences, and less structurally and lexically complex texts. These results show that children with DLD who speak a transparent orthography language such as Spanish also have difficulties in most language areas when producing written texts. Our findings should be considered when planning and designing interventions.

Word and pseudoword superiority effects: Evidence from a shallow orthography language.

The word superiority effect (WSE) denotes better recognition of a letter embedded in a word rather than in a pseudoword. Along with WSE, also a pseudoword superiority effect (PSE) has been described: It is easier to recognise a letter in a legal pseudoword than in an unpronounceable nonword. At the current state of the art, both WSE and PSE have been mainly tested with English speakers. This study uses the Reicher-Wheeler paradigm with native speakers of Italian (a shallow orthography language). Different from English and French, we found WSE for reaction times (RTs) only, whereas PSE was significant for both accuracy and RTs. This finding indicates that in the Reicher-Wheeler task, readers of a shallow orthography language can effectively rely on both the lexical and the sublexical routes. As to the effect of letter position, a clear advantage for the first-letter position emerged, a finding suggesting a fine-grained processing of the letter strings with coding of letter position and indicating the role of visual acuity and crowding factors.

Word and pseudoword superiority effects in a shallow orthography language: the role of hemispheric lateralization.

The word superiority effect (WSE) has made it possible to demonstrate the automatic activation of lexical-orthographic entries in reading. The observation of this effect is important since it led to experimental support of the main cognitive reading models. These models were mostly developed on English data, hence the verification in different orthography systems is relevant. The present study tested WSE in Italian, a language in which this effect was predicted to be less constant given the highly consistent correspondence between orthography and phonology. Moreover, the presentation of the items in a lateralized visual field condition allowed testing of assumptions about the roles of the right and left hemispheres in written word recognition and, in particular, on the hemispheric lateralization of lexical processing. Two experiments were conducted with undergraduate students who had to recognize a target letter within a word, pseudoword, or nonword. In Experiment 1, prime and probe letters were in the same letter case, while in Experiment 2 they were in different letter cases. Error rates and reaction times were analyzed with mixed models. The results showed a superiority of pseudowords (pseudoword superiority effect; PSE) over illegal strings with no evidence of a clear superiority of words over pseudowords for both left and right visual field presentations. This suggests that in Italian, the sub-lexical route could play a major role in reading and that this route relies on a visual-perceptual orthographic coding concerning familiarity of letter combinations, which is also available to the right hemisphere.

Hemispheric asymmetry in recognition memory: Effects of retention level on the recognition of Portuguese words

Early findings from Broca and Wernicke led to the classical view of hemispheric specialization, where the main idea relates to left-hemisphere language capabilities compared to right-hemisphere visual capabilities. Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) have suggested that semantic encoding for verbal information in the right hemisphere can be more effective when memory demands are higher. In light of this, our main goal was to study the effect of retention level of verbal information on hemispheric processes. However, regarding the cross-linguistic differences in orthography and their subsequent effects on word recognition (Frost, Katz, & Bentin, 1987), our intent was also to test prior predictions of Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) for a "shallow" orthography language, where words have a clear correspondence between graphemes and phonemes, as opposed to English, which is a "deep" orthography language. Portuguese concrete nouns were selected. The participants were submitted to a visual half-field word presentation using a continuous recognition memory paradigm. The retention level included 1, 2, 4, 8, 20 or 40 words. Results showed that recognition accuracy was higher for words studied in the right visual field, compared to those studied in the left visual field, when the retention interval included 2, 4, or 20 words. No significant differences were found for the remaining intervals. Further analysis on accuracy data for intermediate retention levels showed that recognition accuracy was higher for the 2 words retention level than for the levels including 4, 8, or 20 words; it was higher for left-hemisphere encoding as well. Our results also indicated that reaction times were slower for left-hemisphere encoding and for the 40 words retention level when compared to that of 20 words. In summary, the current results are in partial agreement with those of Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) and suggest different hemispheric memory strategies for the semantic encoding of verbal information.

Emergent literacy and learning to write: A predictive model for italian language

The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) contribute to identifying a model for the variables that compose the emergent literacy construct and their relationships; (2) assess the predictive power of the emergent literacy model on early writing abilities in a transparent orthography language. We examined emergent literacy skills in 464 children (mean age 5.5, range: 48-6.1) who were followed longitudinally until entering the 1st grade in primary school. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses were used to address questions on the nature of emergent literacy skills and their possible relationships. Regression analyses were implemented to evaluate the predictive capability of an emergent literacy model on word writing competences. The factor analyses showed three factorial dimensions (phonological, conceptual knowledge on writing system and textual) and their relationship. The regressions showed a significant prediction of conceptual knowledge on writing system and of phonological abilities on early writing abilities

Types of dyslexia in aphasia: A multiple single-case study in a shallow orthography language

Types of dyslexia in aphasia: A multiple single-case study in a shallow orthography language

Qumran Grotte 4. XXII: Textes Arameens, premiere partie, 4Q529-549 (review)

Reviewed by: Qumran Grotte 4. XXII: Textes Araméens, première partie, 4Q529-549 Robert A. Kugler Qumran Grotte 4. XXII: Textes Araméens, première partie, 4Q529-549, by Émile Puech. DJD XXXI. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001. 439 pp. + Plates. $125.00. In this DJD volume, one of two in the series dedicated entirely to Aramaic texts from Qumran, Émile Puech provides the editio princeps of 4Q529-549. These manuscripts were originally assigned to one of the early scrolls editors, Père Starcky. Starcky died before he was able to finish his work, which was then passed on to Puech. J. T. Milik also had a hand in interpreting the fragments [End Page 155] that constitute these texts, and his contributions, along with Starcky's, are often—and suitably—acknowledged by Puech. The volume includes the following manuscripts. 4QWords of Michael (4Q529) is a single fragment of sixteen lines of text and a second fragment of two lines of just over a dozen letters; it reports the "words of the book which Michael spoke to the angels." 4QBook of Giantsb-e (4Q530–533) is four manuscripts of text closely related to Gen 6:1–4 and the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 6–16); Puech relates 4Q203 1 to 4Q530–533 as well, and he publishes an appendix including that fragment in this volume. 4QBirth of Noaha-c (4Q534–536) are three manuscripts that seem to have to do with, among other things, the birth of Noah. 4QTestament of Jacob (4Q537) is a single manuscript that Milik in particular was persuaded provides a testamentary-style vision from the patriarch Jacob. Puech relates aspects of the very fragmentary and small manuscript 4QTestament of Judah (4Q538) to the Testament of Judah of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Likewise, Puech relates 4QTestament of Joseph (4Q539) to the Testament of Joseph. At one time Puech identified 4QApocryphon of Levia-b? (4Q540–541) as perhaps two more Aramaic texts belonging to Aramaic Levi (4Q213-214), but now he seems content to treat them as an apocryphon somehow connected with the biblical patriarch Levi. 4QTestament of Qahat (4Q542) is preserved in sufficient scope to provide confidence that it is a valedictory speech of the text's namesake to his sons. And finally, 4QVisions of Amrama-g (4Q543–549) are manuscripts claiming to recount Amram's visions as he described them to his sons at his death. While there are differences in how each work is presented depending on the special circumstances affecting it and its representative manuscripts (e.g., 4QBook of Giantsb-e merits an additional section on its relationship with the Book of Giants and the Books of Enoch), Puech usually provides the following elements in presenting each manuscript: a physical description of it, a discussion of its paleography and date, and an analysis of its orthography language. Then follows a transcription of the fragments with notes on readings, a translation, and commentary on the translation. As is typical for Puech, every step is exhaustively accomplished, but receiving special care and attention is the paleographical analysis of each manuscript. Few match Puech on this score. Also typical of Puech are the remarkably full reconstructions of very fragmentary texts. Though one of the less important manuscripts in the volume, 4QTestament of Joseph 2–3 (4Q539) perhaps illustrates this best. Merging two fragments of six and seven lines respectively—and there are never more than ten to twelve letters per line!—Puech fills in the gaps that remain to produce nearly seven full lines of reconstructed text which he relates closely to [End Page 160] Testament of Joseph 15–16 in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. While his reconstruction is ingenious, it must be noted that it begins with the smallest of hints that the scroll may be related to the Testament of Joseph, brings the two fragments together on that basis, and then fills in the gaps in the joined fragments from what one knows of the Greek testament itself. In other words, it is a reconstruction that depends heavily on comparison with much later material preserved only in Greek. None of this is to counsel readers...