Turkish Speakers Research Articles

Adaptation and normative data of the cognitive assessment battery of language (BECLA-Tr) for the Turkish adult population

ABSTRACT Introduction Normal cognitive aging is identified from pathological through the administration of neuropsychological tests, including tests of language ability. Compared to English, available tests and test batteries for assessing acquired language deficits in Turkish speakers are much more limited. This study reports on the adaptation and generation of normative data of the The Batterie d’Évaluation Cognitive du Langage (BECLA) for the adult Turkish population. Method The article describes two studies. Study 1 concerns the Turkish adaptation of the BECLA (BECLA-Tr). Study 2 examined a group of older neurotypical Turkish-speaking adults to obtain normative data. Results In Study 1, some changes were made to adapt the original test battery linguistically and culturally for use in Turkey. In Study 2, normative data were obtained based on the performance of 409 participants aged 18 years and older with different education levels. Conclusion The BECLA-Tr fills an important gap in the clinical practice of speech and language pathologists in Turkey. This comprehensive test battery has the potential to help clinicians and researchers better detect acquired language deficits in the adult and elderly Turkish population.

Turkish Validity and Reliability of the Novel Validated Short Questionnaire for Assessing Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet and Nutritional Sustainability (MedQ-Sus): A Methodological Study

This study aims to validate the "Adherence of Mediterranean Diet and Nutritional Sustainability Questionnaire (MedQ-Sus)" and Filling the gap of a reliable, alcohol-free Mediterranean diet adherence tool for the Turkish population, considering the culture of low alcohol consumption. This study, which involved 290 participants aged 18 to 64, was conducted from October 2023 to May 2024. Content validity was assessed by an expert panel of 10 dietitian academics. The Davis method was applied to calculate the Content Validity Index (CVI). With CVI scores ranging from 0.8 to 1.0, none of the scale items were removed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) served to assess the construct validity of the scale. The data were deemed appropriate for factor analysis, as indicated by the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value of 0.905 and the Bartlett test results (χ² = 2426.436, p < 0.001). The single-factor structure of the scale was supported by the EFA results, with item factor loadings between 0.699 and 0.916. The Cronbach's α coefficient for the scale was found to be 0.954 in the internal consistency analyses. Positive item-total correlations were observed, and removing any item did not result in a significant increase in the Cronbach's α coefficient. As a result, it was concluded that the MedQ-Sus scale in its Turkish version is both valid and reliable. In Turkey, this scale can be utilized to evaluate the adherence of adults to the Mediterranean diet (MD) as well as their perception of nutritional sustainability. This study contributes to validating and establishing the reliability of a tool for measuring adherence to the MD among Turkish speakers.

Multiple Sayings as a Resource for Halting a Course of Action in Interaction: Evidence from Turkish Everyday Discourse

Self-repetition, which is defined as repeating one’s own utterance, performs various functions in spoken discourse. This study investigates the use of “multiple sayings”, a specific type of self-repetition which involves the speaker’s repetition of some unit of talk in the same turn multiple times, under a single intonational contour. In everyday discourse different linguistic resources are used as multiple sayings performing different communicative functions. The study limits itself in two aspects: (i) the use of lexical multiple sayings such as “yes yes yes” and “wait wait wait”; (ii) their function of halting the prevailing course of action in talk-in interaction. Although repetitions have been investigated in Turkish in several studies, this specific form of repetition and this specific function remains to be explored. To this end, using Conversation Analysis as the method of analysis, the study aims to find out what multiple sayings are used in Turkish everyday discourse for halting a course of action and what courses of action they halt. The database of the study consists of the recordings of a 10-hour Turkish everyday discourse. The analysis of the data reveals that in line with the previous studies conducted in other languages, Turkish speakers use multiple sayings to stop an unwarranted course of action, which implicates the universality of this function.

Conceptual Blending Theory: The Case of ‘Flying Bus’ from Turkish

Based on current discussions on Conceptual Blending/Integration Theory (CIT) and Conceptual metaphor Theory (CMT), this study investigates the application of Conceptual Blending Theory to a Turkish scenario where a Turkish speaker conceptualises a dangerously speeding bus as flying and associates it with Turkish Airlines. The study emphasizes the role of conceptual blending in creating novel meanings online by integrating disparate conceptual elements, as well as highlighting the complementary nature of CIT and CMT in meaning construction. In our scenario, the speaker’s metaphoric utterance as a reaction to the overspeed of a bus was explained by the metaphor TOO FAST DRIVING IS FLYING, which inherits the superordinate metaphor FAST MOTION IS FLIGHT, which is entrenched in our cultural cognition. Through a conceptual blending network mentally activated by the conceptualisation of the speeding bus as if flying, we illustrated how selected elements from the source (bus and driver) and target (plane and pilot) spaces were projected onto the blended space. It was also shown that Vital Relations within the blending network like Space, Role, and Disanalogy compressed the relevant counterparts from the source and target spaces into new integrated concepts to create novel meanings in the emergent structure, emphasizing the danger involved in the situation in the scenario.

Directionality and Individual Differences in Consecutive Interpreting

This study aims to examine the students’ consecutive interpreting in English and Turkish. This study was carried out with 32 senior students who are native Turkish speakers at the Department of English Translation and Interpreting. The students were required to render the speeches chosen from the EU Speech Repository, a speech bank for interpreting studies, in the En-Tr and Tr-En directions, respectively. The students were audio-recorded. In addition, students’ working memory (WM) capacities were determined by conducting digit span and word span tests, and attention levels were determined by conducting monolingual and bilingual Stroop test. The data was assessed with the overall assessment score of consecutive interpreting performance, total duration, pauses, linguistic errors, participants’ individual differences (WM and attention level), and directionality. The recordings were transcribed and assessed by two experts. A detailed error analysis was performed using MAXQDA Analytics Pro Academic. Students with higher WM levels also have better performance in the En-Tr direction, yet this is not observed in the Tr-En. This can be explained by the fact that students have more difficulty and spend more time interpreting to L2 due to their language proficiency in translation (such as lack of vocabulary, difficulties related to structure, etc.). There was no significant relationship between students' attention skills and interpreting performance. Differences were also observed in the errors and strategies used by students depending on directionality. It is expected that this study will contribute to understanding the consecutive interpreting process, revealing the main difficulties, and thereby contributing to interpreter training.

Relevance of Prosodic Focus and Lexical Stress for Discourse Comprehension in Turkish: Evidence from Psychometric and Electrophysiological Data.

Prosody underpins various linguistic domains ranging from semantics and syntax to discourse. For instance, prosodic information in the form of lexical stress modifies meanings and, as such, syntactic contexts of words as in Turkish kaz-má "pickaxe" (noun) versus káz-ma "do not dig" (imperative). Likewise, prosody indicates the focused constituent of an utterance as the noun phrase filling the wh-spot in a dialogue like What did you eat? I ate----. In the present study, we investigated the relevance of such prosodic variations for discourse comprehension in Turkish. We aimed at answering how lexical stress and prosodic focus mismatches on critical noun phrases-resulting in grammatical anomalies involving both semantics and syntax and discourse-level anomalies, respectively-affect the perceived correctness of an answer to a question in a given context. To that end, 80 native speakers of Turkish, 40 participating in a psychometric experiment and 40 participating in an EEG experiment, were asked to judge the acceptability of prosodic mismatches that occur either separately or concurrently. Psychometric results indicated that lexical stress mismatch led to a lower correctness score than prosodic focus mismatch, and combined mismatch received the lowest score. Consistent with the psychometric data, EEG results revealed an N400 effect to combined mismatch, and this effect was followed by a P600 response to lexical stress mismatch. Conjointly, these results suggest that every source of prosodic information is immediately available and codetermines the interpretation of an utterance; however, semantically and syntactically relevant lexical stress information is assigned more significance by the language comprehension system compared with prosodic focus information.

Reliability of the Revised Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire-Turkish in patients with neck pain: a cross-validation study

Background & Objectives: The Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) measures the level of knowledge of patients and healthcare professionals regarding the neurophysiology of pain. The revised Turkish (Tr) version has low reliability for patients with chronic spinal pain. In this study, we investigated the reliability of the Revised NPQ-Tr in patients with neck pain. Methodology: The Revised NPQ-Tr was administered to 219 participants suffering from neck pain for at least 3 months, who were between the ages of 25 and 60 y and native Turkish speakers. Correct responses were awarded one point, while undecided or incorrectly marked responses were awarded 0 points. In order to analyse the validity of the test, the high-scoring and low-scoring groups were compared. Using the percentage of correct responses in the high and low scoring groups, we calculated the difficulty of the item (P-value) and the discrimination power of the item (r). Results: Responses to the questionnaire were highly correlated. Items 1 and 2 had high discrimination power (r > 0.40), and items 3 and 5 had very good item quality (0.30 < r < 0.39). Among the items ranked between 1-7 and 9-12 in terms of difficulty of the item and discrimination power, only item 8 was found to be a difficult yet discriminating item (P < 0.60). According to Cronbach's alpha (0.81) and Kuder-Richardson-20 (0.81) coefficients, the questionnaire had a high internal consistency and reliability, and a split-half correlation coefficient (0.802) determined its internal consistency and reliability. Conclusion: We conclude that the Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire-Turkish can be used on neck pain, and it is reliable and highly valid. Keywords: Chronic Pain, neck pain, pain knowledge, pain education, pain beliefs, Turkish language, reliability, validity. Citation: Yasarer O, Sari Z, Copuroglu OB, Eker TA, Aydogdu O. Reliability of the Revised Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire-Turkish in patients with neck pain: a cross-validation study. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2024;28(5):859−865; DOI: 10.35975/apic.v28i5.2552 Received: August 04, 2024; Reviewed: August 14, 2024; Accepted: August 17, 2024

Acoustic features of labial and dental plosives in children with hypernasality

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is a birth defect that can have negative effects on feeding, physical appearance, speech, hearing, and psychological development.VFI-induced hypernasality are high-pressure sounds such as plosives, fricatives, and affricates. In this study, the influence of hypernasality on plosive sounds was investigated. Six children with CLP with hypernasality and six children with typical development participated in this descriptive comparative study. All of the participants were between 10 and 12 years old and were native Turkish speakers. These two groups were matched by age and gender. For the acoustic analysis, the stop component, burst duration, and total duration of each target sound were calculated. Additionally, voice onset time (VOT) was assessed and contrasted between groups. A linear mixed-effects model was used for the statistical analysis. This study demonstrates that children with hypernasality have longer target sound durations. In addition, the burst duration of target sounds is determined to be prolonged in this group. Moreover, hypernasality is linked to a prolonged stop duration. Children without hypernasality experience a shortened duration of VOT than those with hypernasality. According to this study's findings, velofarengeal insufficiency has an effect on the duration of obstruent sounds. This explains the differences between the hypernasality group and the non-hypernasality group. This research suggests that CLP therapy for children may enhance their condition. Using acoustic measurements, this investigation generates theoretical results. Therapies' administration and evaluation could be combined.

Insights into early childhood English education: a comparative analysis of perspectives between English teachers and preschool teachers

ABSTRACT The study aims to illuminate and compare of the perceptions of Turkish preschool and EFL teachers regarding English language education in the preschool years. The study is a basic qualitative research method involving 16 Turkish EFL and Turkish preschool teachers. As a result, the teachers showed similar views about early English education benefits a child’s language, cognitive, and socio-emotional development. However, both groups expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of early English education, highlighting the challenges. Teachers emphasized that English language should be taught by native Turkish speakers rather than native English speakers.

The Strategies of Invitation Speech Act in Turkish

This study examines the strategies on invitation speech act in Turkish based on the speech act theory in pragmatics which fundamentally positions that when people use language they actually perform a kind of action. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the strategies employed on invitation speech act by native speakers of Turkish. To accomplish the goal, an online Written Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was employed with an aim to delineate the strategies Turkish speakers use while inviting. Another method was examining several different Turkish television series. Following the implication of the quantitative technique of conversation analysis, the utterances in data from invitation acts were analyzed in terms of the patterns of the semantic formulas categorized in the taxonomy by Suzuki (2009). The findings of the study revealed that invitation acts used in Turkish have their unique patterns. Direct invitations (84.90%) were more frequent than indirect ones (15.09%). Moreover, the most predominant type of head act was declarative (40.33%) and query on hearer’s plan (17.64%) had the highest frequency among preparatory acts. The most common supportive move was description of event by 48.44% of Turkish invitations.

Demonstratives in heritage Greek, Russian, and Turkish in Germany and the United States

Aims and Objectives: This study investigates the use of definite noun phrases involving demonstratives in adolescent and adult monolingually raised and heritage speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish with the following research questions: (1) Do heritage speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish align with monolingually raised speakers regarding the production of demonstratives? and (2) Do mode and register affect the use of demonstratives? Methodology: We conducted a corpus study on production data of heritage speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish residing in the United States and Germany and the respective monolingually raised speakers in Greece, Russia, and Turkey. The majority languages of the heritage speakers were German or English, respectively. Data were elicited in two distinct registers (formal vs informal) and in two distinct modes (spoken vs written). Participants were asked to narrate what happened in a short video showing a fictional minor car accident. Analysis: Oral and written narrations were annotated and analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects regression modeling on the use of demonstratives by heritage and monolingually raised speakers accounting for individual variation, country of elicitation, mode, and register. Findings: The results show that heritage and monolingually raised speakers of Greek, Russian, and Turkish converge in their use of demonstratives. Also, mode and/or register significantly affect the production of definite noun phrases with demonstratives across all speaker groups. Originality: This is the first cross-linguistically comparable large-scale corpus study with ecologically valid production data of definite noun phrases with demonstratives in bilinguals. Significance: The study contributes to understanding the use of demonstratives in heritage and monolingual Greek, Russian, and Turkish. It provides insights into the use of demonstratives in languages with different determiner systems and the impact of mode and/or register, which seems to be pronounced roughly similarly across these languages.

Computational analysis of linguistic features in speech samples of first-episode bipolar disorder and psychosis

BackgroundIn recent years, automated analyses using novel NLP methods have been used to investigate language abnormalities in schizophrenia. In contrast, only a few studies used automated language analyses in bipolar disorder. To our knowledge, no previous research compared automated language characteristics of first-episode psychosis (FEP) and bipolar disorder (FEBD) using NLP methods. MethodsOur study included 53 FEP, 40 FEBD and 50 healthy control participants who are native Turkish speakers. Speech samples of the participants in the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) underwent automated generic and part-of-speech analyses, as well as sentence-level semantic similarity analysis based on SBERT. ResultsBoth FEBD and FEP were associated with the use of shorter sentences and increased sentence-level semantic similarity but less semantic alignment with the TAT pictures. FEP also demonstrated reduced verbosity and syntactic complexity. FEP differed from FEBD in reduced verbosity, decreased first-person singular pronouns, fewer conjunctions, increased semantic similarity as well as shorter sentence and word length. The mean classification accuracy was 82.45 % in FEP vs HC, 71.1 % in FEBD vs HC, and 73 % in FEP vs FEBD. After Bonferroni correction, the severity of negative symptoms in FEP was associated with reduced verbal output and increased 5th percentile of semantic similarity. LimitationsThe main limitation of this study was the cross-sectional nature. ConclusionOur findings demonstrate that both patient groups showed language abnormalities, which were more severe and widespread in FEP compared to FEBD. Our results suggest that NLP methods reveal transdiagnostic linguistic abnormalities in FEP and FEBD.

Eyes do not lie but words do

Abstract Evidentiality encodes how a speaker has access to the information contained in his/her proposition. It has been shown that some ‘evidential language’ speakers make a deliberate choice of evidentials while telling lies (Aikhenvald 2004). In this study, we recruited 40 native speakers of Turkish, an ‘evidential language’, to judge statements with evidentials using an eye-movement-monitoring-during-reading study with an end-of-sentence deception detection task. The participants read sentences with four conditions, containing a direct or indirect evidential form either compatible or incompatible with the given information source. Our results show that the indirect evidential condition was detected as a lie more often than the direct evidential condition. Readers had the tendency to judge stimulus material with source-evidentiality mismatch to be untruthful. These findings were mirrored in the eye-movement data, as we found gaze duration to be longer at the critical verb region for indirect evidential and mismatch conditions.

One suitcase, two grammars: what can we conclude about Australian Turkish heritage speakers’ divergent processing of evidentiality?

Abstract This study investigates the processing of evidentiality using an auditory sentence verification task in heritage speakers of Turkish residing in Sydney, Australia. Evidentiality is a grammatical category that marks the sources of information through which the speaker comes to know information regarding an event. Turkish obligatorily marks two distinct forms of direct and indirect evidentials. We compare the sensitivity to evidentiality-information source mismatches of the speakers of Turkish as a heritage language to Turkish speakers who were late arrivals to Australia. The results show that the heritage language speakers perform less accurately and with longer response times than late arrivals, and both the groups’ response accuracy is largely predicted by amount of exposure to Turkish during their development. The data suggest that heritage speakers of Turkish show insensitivity to evidentiality. Moreover, diminishing exposure to Turkish throughout heritage speakers’ development appears to be an important trigger for divergent attainment of evidentiality in Turkish heritage grammar.

Analyzing Mother Tongue Interference in Turkish EFL Students' Written Products: A Lexical and Syntactical Perspective

It is clear that languages vary in numerous aspects and are considered to be dynamic and evolving entities. It is evident that each language possesses distinct characteristics, and the way it interacts with another language over the extensive process of language acquisition is of great interest to many experts in the subject of Second Language Acquisition. Language learning is a continuous process that involves exposure to various elements. Despite extensive research, the idea of language transfer remains enigmatic as studies have not fully elucidated it. The objective of this study is to identify the errors that arise due to the influence of the first language on the learning of written English by Turkish learners of English as a foreign language in a formal environment. The objective is to examine the linguistic domains impacted by transfer and to analyze the consequences of this transfer on the educational process. The additional objective is to ascertain whether a correlation exists between the rates of error and the levels of proficiency in the second language (L2). The research questions are addressed through the utilization of qualitative and quantitative data analysis approaches. A total of 252 students were included in this study after excluding the 16 non-native Turkish speakers out of the initial 268 participants. The study's findings indicate that negative transfer is seen in both lexical and syntactical language categories. Empirical evidence has demonstrated a strong correlation between certain error kinds and the competence levels of students. Moreover, further specific recommendations have been proposed to enhance the discipline of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The constraints of this study have also been incorporated.

TACO: A Turkish database for abstract concepts.

The organization of abstract concepts reflects different dimensions, grounded in the brain regions coding for the corresponding experience. Normative measures of linguistic stimuli offer noteworthy insights into the organization of conceptual knowledge, but studies differ in the dimensions and classes of concepts considered. Additionally, most of the available information has been collected in English, without considering possible linguistic and cultural differences. Here, we aimed to create a comprehensive Turkish database for abstract concepts (TACO), including rarely investigated classes such as political concepts. We included 503 words-78 concrete (fruits, animals, tools) and 425 abstract (emotions, social, mental states, theoretical, quantity, space, political)-rated by 134 Turkish speakers for familiarity, imageability, age of acquisition, valence, arousal, quantity, space, theoretical, social, mental state, and political dimensions. We calculated dominance and exclusivity, indicating the dimension receiving the highest mean score for each word, and the position of the word along the unidimensional-multidimensional continuum, respectively. A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on the semantic dimensions. The results showed that mental state was the dominant dimension for most concepts. Moderate to low levels of exclusivity indicated that the concepts were multidimensional. PCA revealed three components: Component 1 captured the juxtaposition between social/mental state and magnitude polarities, Component 2 highlighted affective components, and Component 3 grouped together political and theoretical dimensions. The introduction of political concepts provided insights into the multidimensional nature of this unexplored class, closely intertwined with the theoretical dimension. TACO constitutes the first comprehensive Turkish database covering several abstract dimensions, paving the way for cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies of semantic representations.

Using Case Forms for Expressing Temporal Relations in Modern Turkish Language

Many languages, including modern Turkish, employ lexemes with spatial meaning to express temporal relations. However, the Turkish language stands out for its use of case forms of nouns both to describe the spatial position and movement of objects and to establish the temporal reference of actions and events. These differences are systemic, suggest that native Turkish speakers perceive spatial and temporal phenomena in a unique way, and determine the historical change in their models of time perception. They challenge the belief that spatial relations prevail over temporal ones in the perception of the surrounding world by peoples with nomadic roots but highlight the necessity of considering materials from other Turkic languages. The results obtained show that facts from different linguistic levels should be involved to analyze how temporal relations are conveyed.

Monolingualism in Iran: The Politics of Writing in Azeri Turkish

Throughout the twentieth century, Azeri Turkish was intermittently banned, occasionally tolerated, but always marginalized in relation to Persian, which was perceived as the unifying, defining, essential language of the nation. Despite the substantial population of Azeri Turkish speakers in Iran—the largest linguistic minority—any attempt to teach the language publicly or to publish in Azeri Turkish has often been regarded, even to this day, as a highly political act of dissidence. Historical analysis of Azeri Turkish texts and a review of policies in language teaching, publication, and censorship within Iranian Azerbaijan reveal a symbiotic but simultaneously paradoxical interaction between this mother tongue and the official master language.

Cross-linguistic effects in grammatical gender assignment and predictive processing in L1 Greek, L1 Russian, and L1 Turkish speakers of Norwegian as a second language

The present study examines grammatical gender knowledge in offline production (gender marking on indefinite articles) and online gender processing (visual world paradigm) in adult second language (L2) learners of Norwegian with three different first languages (L1s): Greek, Russian, and Turkish. In particular, it investigates the role of the following factors: (1) presence vs. absence of grammatical gender in L1 (Norwegian, Greek and Russian have gender, whereas Turkish does not), (2) lexical gender congruency, (3) structural similarity between L1 and L2 in the realization of gender, and (4) proficiency in L2. In offline production, no difference was found between the three L2 groups: they all overused the default gender (masculine). However, L1 effects were observed in the eye-tracking task, where the high-proficiency L1 Greek and L1 Russian speakers showed earlier and more prominent signs of predictive gender processing compared to the high-proficiency L1 Turkish speakers. There were no effects of lexical gender congruency or structural similarity. This suggests that, when it comes to predictive gender processing, what matters is proficiency and the presence vs. absence of grammatical gender in the L1. We interpret the findings in the context of current approaches to predictive processing emphasizing the role of cue reliability and utility.

Print exposure leads to individual differences in the Turkish aorist

Several studies have established that not all native speakers extract the same generalization for a given construction due to speaker internal or external reasons, challenging a widely held assumption in linguistics. While there is a considerable number of studies investigating individual differences in grammatical knowledge in other languages, very little is known about how L1 Turkish speakers might manifest such differences in their linguistic knowledge. This is the first study to examine individual differences in the constructional representation of the Turkish aorist in adult L1 Turkish speakers. The aorist is known to be irregular and pose acquisition problems, especially when combined with monosyllabic sonorant ending verbs. The variants of the Turkish aorist have different corpus frequencies across spoken and written modalities. The study investigates to what extent differences in print exposure would lead to differences in how L1 Turkish speakers would apply the construction to monosyllabic-sonorant ending nonce-verbs. Based on the results, people with more written language experience extracted a more sensitive rule that applies to monosyllabic-sonorant ending nonce-verbs, such that they produced more -Ir than -Ar. Contrastingly, people who read less used more -Ar (r = –0.35), and print exposure accounted for roughly 12% of the variance. Our findings are compatible with usage-based approaches and suggest that print exposure-borne differences are pervasive in linguistic knowledge, adding to the growing body of evidence that challenges the convergence hypothesis.