Spontaneous Language Production Research Articles

Diverging neural dynamics for syntactic structure building in naturalistic speaking and listening

The neural correlates of sentence production are typically studied using task paradigms that differ considerably from the experience of speaking outside of an experimental setting. In this fMRI study, we aimed to gain a better understanding of syntactic processing in spontaneous production versus naturalistic comprehension in three regions of interest (BA44, BA45, and left posterior middle temporal gyrus). A group of participants (n = 16) was asked to speak about the events of an episode of a TV series in the scanner. Another group of participants (n = 36) listened to the spoken recall of a participant from the first group. To model syntactic processing, we extracted word-by-word metrics of phrase-structure building with a top-down and a bottom-up parser that make different hypotheses about the timing of structure building. While the top-down parser anticipates syntactic structure, sometimes before it is obvious to the listener, the bottom-up parser builds syntactic structure in an integratory way after all of the evidence has been presented. In comprehension, neural activity was found to be better modeled by the bottom-up parser, while in production, it was better modeled by the top-down parser. We additionally modeled structure building in production with two strategies that were developed here to make different predictions about the incrementality of structure building during speaking. We found evidence for highly incremental and anticipatory structure building in production, which was confirmed by a converging analysis of the pausing patterns in speech. Overall, this study shows the feasibility of studying the neural dynamics of spontaneous language production.

Reduced syntactic recursion in spontaneous speech of Parkinson's disease patients

Although characterized as a movement disorder, Parkinson's disease (PD) affects more than just the motor system. Within the heterogenous non-motor symptoms, language impairment is frequent but poorly understood beyond semantic processing.This study investigates the impact of PD on syntactic subordination in spontaneous language production. Fifteen PD patients in ON levodopa status narrated a short story guided by a set of pictures. Thirteen PD patients were also assessed in OFF levodopa status. Narrations were digitally recorded, subsequently transcribed and annotated, making the produced speech accessible to systematical quantitative analysis.Compared to a healthy matched control group, PD patients showed a significant reduction of subordinating structures while the number of non-embedding sentences remained unaffected. No significant effect comparing ON versus OFF levodopa status emerged. Our results suggest a contribution of the basal ganglia to language processing, such as syntactic composition, which, however, does not seem to be dopamine dependent.

Identifying an Appropriate Picture Stimulus for a Bangla Picture Description Task.

The absence of culture- and language-specific aphasia assessment in Bangla underscores a critical problem in communication sciences and disorders. Aphasia occurs in ~41% of Bangla-speaking stroke survivors. In the past 40 years, stroke incidence has doubled in low- and middle-income countries, such as Bangladesh and India, where there are ~250 million native Bangla speakers. This study aims to initiate the first step toward identifying an appropriate picture stimulus for the Bangla picture description task (PDT) intended for inclusion in a Bangla aphasia assessment. Researchers have reported the importance of cultural relevance and three visuographic variables of a picture (high-context, color, and photograph vs. black-and-white line drawing) for faster comprehension and comprehensive language production in people with aphasia and neurologically healthy adults. Ninety-six neurologically healthy native Bangla speakers of three age groups (young 19-30, middle age 40-55, and older 65-89 years) were recruited to compare spontaneous language production for four selected culturally related and nonrelated picture stimuli with and without the three visuographic variables. Five linguistic variables were used to analyze the language samples. The results demonstrated a significant (a) picture type effect for moving-average type-token ratio, words per minute (WPM), and mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU) and (b) age group effect for WPM, MLU, and complexity index. This study suggests that a culturally related high-context color photograph is the optimal choice for the Bangla PDT. This study also indicates reduced fluency, grammatical complexity, and syntactic complexity in healthy Bangla-speaking adults aged 65 years and above. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22233664.

Acquisition of reflexive and reflexively used pronouns in Croatian and Austrian German: A corpus-based study

Acquisition of pronouns in L1 has often been used as a testing ground for postulates of linguistic theories. The present study approaches the subject differently, by contrastively studying the early acquisition of a specific set of pronouns in Croatian and Austrian German. The data were extracted from three children’s corpora of spontaneous language production for each language. The emergence and early production of specialised reflexive pronouns and reflexively used personal pronouns in the two languages were examined and compared with the emergence of non-reflexively used personal pronouns. The results have shown that reflexive and reflexively used pronouns emerge later and initially at a slower pace in child production in Austrian German than in Croatian. The same is true for the emergence of non-reflexively used personal pronouns in the oblique cases. No clear temporal precedence in child production was found for either reflexive/reflexively used or non-reflexively used personal pronouns. The differences found in the acquisition timeline between the two languages are accounted for by the differences between the two languages in terms of nature of the pronominals used as reflexive markers, distribution of reflexive and reflexively used pronouns in the CDS, and morphological richness.

Omissions and Overgeneralizations of Reflexive Clitic in the Acquisition of Reflexive Constructions in Croatian as L1

Verb constructions with a reflexive marker are termed “reflexive constructions”. Reflexive constructions in language acquisition research have been studied mainly within a formal theoretical framework while focusing on developmental differences in comprehension of syntactically bound or free pronominal elements. The present study aimed to determine the acquisition pathway of reflexive constructions in Croatian by examining the errors that children produce in early stages of acquisition. Correct and erroneous reflexive verb constructions were extracted from the spontaneous language production of three children previously recorded and transcribed for the Croatian Corpus of Child Language (Kovačević 2003). Errors were classified as omissions or overgeneralizations and further analyzed with respect to the type of reflexive construction, the complexity of the verb’s argument structure and consistency between the reflexive marker and verb. The results showed that children initially omitted the reflexive marker, then gradually introduced it into their production, occasionally overextending its use and thus producing overgeneralization errors. With age they became more successful in producing reflexive constructions. Consistent use of a reflexive marker alongside the verb in child-directed speech influenced the error rates in different types of reflexive constructions, while potential influence of the complexity of argument structure needs to be studied further.

Bidirectional Language Contact Effects at the DP Domain: The Case of Greek and Vlach Aromanian Speakers

We investigate the effects of the historical language contact of Modern Greek (MG) with Vlach Aromanian (VA) in bilingual speakers of three generations living in Epirus, Greece. We focus on a VA variety spoken in a specific language community, with our study constituting one of the early attempts in this field of research. (1) Background: Given that bilingualism is a dynamic process in which language domains are not uniformly affected by external (i.e., sociolinguistic) factors, the investigation of bidirectional crosslinguistic influence can shed light on the resilience of morphosyntactic and semantic feature changes. MG differs from VA in a number of morphosyntactic properties at the DP domain, namely definiteness marking, positioning the adjective and gender marking. (2) Methods: To examine the language contact effects in VA–MG bilinguals, we elicited spontaneous language production in VA and MG from speakers across three generations with different levels of proficiency in each language. (3) Results: The data analysis showed evidence of bidirectional crosslinguistic influence since (a) MG seems to affect VA in definiteness marking and adjective positioning in younger bilingual groups and (b) VA influences MG in gender marking in older bilinguals. (4) Conclusions: The present study presents original language data from VA–MG bilinguals and provides evidence of bidirectional language contact effects.

Elicited vs. spontaneous language as methods for the assessment of grammatical development: The DEME assessment tool

Introduction and objectivesThis study compares data collection approaches in the assessment of grammatical development in Spanish-speaking children. Specifically, we compared error rates produced in data collected using samples from spontaneous language versus elicited production, using both broad (overall) and narrow measures (errors with noun phrases). Methods and participantsMonolingual-Spanish-speaking five-year-olds (n=55) were divided into typical language development (TL) and at-risk (Risk) according to a preexisting test, Tamiz de Problemas del Lenguaje. All children completed an elicited production and a narrative task. ResultsChildren in the TL group outperform children in the Risk group in all measures used in this study. Statistically significant differences were found between children at Risk and TL children in both spontaneous and elicited language measures, although the effect size of the elicited language measures was considerably higher. Elicited and spontaneous tasks are more likely to produce results that are in accord than in disaccord. However, when results are in disaccord, the results almost always show low performance in elicited language but high performance in spontaneous language. Elicitation methods do not seem to have an impact on the type of error produced for neither narrow nor broad measures.

Spanish phraseology in formal and informal spontaneous oral language production

Abstract The study presented in this paper aims to perform a comprehensive analysis of the use of phraseological units (PUs) in contemporary Spanish according to two different levels of oral language production: (a) spontaneous informal (on the basis of conversations uttered among the contestants of the Spanish version of the reality show Big Brother), (b) spontaneous formal (on the basis of interviews performed on Spanish radio and TV programmes). The configuration of Spanish phraseology as it is used in formal and informal spontaneous oral language production will be investigated according to four variables: frequency distribution, typological distribution, stylistic distribution, and individual distribution. It will be shown that a) the more informal the discourse context, the higher the frequency of use of PUs, b) that idioms (and not routine formulae or proverbs) are clearly dominant in both formal and informal oral contexts, c) that there are speakers in formal discourse contexts who often utter informal PUs, d) that vulgar vs. non-vulgar PUs – and not so much informal vs. non-informal PUs – is the main disagreement between formal and informal spontaneous oral contexts, and e) that using vulgar PUs more or less frequently would be a highly individual issue.

Neural correlates of spontaneous language production in two patients with right hemispheric language dominance

ABSTRACT Background It is not conclusively explored what kind of reorganisation processes are set off after a stroke with resulting aphasia. Since the development of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), linguistic processes and their neural representation have been researched, especially in aphasic patients after left hemispheric insult. The situation differs in aphasic patients with crossed aphasia or aphasia after a right hemispheric lesion, for which only few studies have been carried out. In order to close this gap, the present study deals with the localisation of language functions in the brain of patients with crossed aphasia and right hemispheric language dominance. Aim The objective of the current study was to provide insights into the neural correlates of continuous aphasic language production of patients with right hemispheric language dominance. Based on the current state of research, a mirror image representation was expected. Methods & Procedures Two patients with fluent aphasia due to right hemisphere lesions, one presenting with crossed aphasia, described complex pictures. The continuous language output was transcribed and categorised into events. Lexical search (i.e. the difference between unimpaired speaking and word-finding difficulties) was analysed using fMRI. The neural activation clusters were compared with the corresponding areas of a control group consisting of 12 patients with left hemispheric aphasia. Outcomes & Results The analysis of the behavioural data revealed word-finding difficulties as one of the most limiting factors in the spontaneous language output of the patients. The neural correlates of lexical search (unimpaired minus impaired) were observed in four activation clusters both patients had in common. Each cluster was predominantly localised in the contra-lesional hemisphere. Compared to the corresponding areas of the control group, in general, a mirrored image representation could be confirmed. Conclusions The combination of detailed linguistic analysis and fMRI confirmed the assumption of mirrored language organisation for anomia in continuous language production. Moreover, the study might add to a more general understanding of the contribution of the contra-lesional hemisphere to language recovery in aphasia after left or right hemisphere damage.

Cross-Morpheme Generalization Using a Complexity Approach in School-Age Children.

Purpose This single-case study examines a complexity approach to target selection in grammatical intervention in three children with varying levels of mastery of tense and agreement. Specifically, we examine whether targeting a complex tense and agreement grammatical structure (auxiliary BE in questions) leads to generalization to other less complex and related tense and agreement markers (auxiliary BE in declaratives, copula BE, third-person singular -s, and past tense -ed). Method Three children (all boys; aged 5;5-9;7 [years;months]) with deficits in morphosyntax were enrolled in a treatment program targeting a complex grammatical structure (auxiliary BE in questions) following collection of multiple baselines. Children's performance on the complex structure and related tense and agreement markers were tracked before, during, and after the intervention across three different tasks. Results Results show that, despite its grammatical complexity, the target was elicited in all three children with incomplete mastery of the tense and agreement system. Furthermore, all children demonstrated generalization to expressive language by increasing their mean length of utterance by approximately one morpheme during spontaneous language production following intervention. All children demonstrated individual patterns of generalization to other tense and agreement structures not targeted during intervention. Conclusions These functional changes observed following intervention set the stage for future controlled studies to establish a stronger cause-effect relation. Taken together, this study contributes to an emerging body of work showing that complex grammatical targets may be used in intervention earlier than previously thought.

Comparing language samples of Bangla speakers using a colour photograph and a black-and-white line drawing.

A comprehensive aphasia assessment is necessary to diagnose the type and severity of aphasia differentially and guide appropriate interventions. One component of an aphasia assessment is the picture description task (PDT), designed to probe spontaneous speech fluency and information content. Most aphasia assessments use black-and-white line drawings (LD) to elicit spontaneous language samples from people with aphasia (PWA). However, recent studies reported two visuographic variables: (1) colour (over black and white) and (2) photograph (over LD), that tended to encourage easier and faster comprehension and increased overall naturalistic language production from neurologically healthy individuals as well as PWA. Additionally, a suitable stimulus for a PDT should always be culturally relevant to the target population. Therefore, we suggest that a new PDT must include a culturally appropriate colour photograph (CP). To investigate if a culturally appropriate CP elicits longer and more complex utterances than a culturally appropriate black-and-white LD from neurologically healthy native Bangla speakers. A total of 30 participants (mean age = 36.03 years) were recruited based on self-reports of no known impairments in cognition, language, vision and hearing. All were of middle socioeconomic status with at least 12 years of formal education. A culturally appropriate CP was selected showing multiple characters performing various functions. Later, an artist prepared the black-and-white LD of that CP. The elicited language samples using these two pictures were transcribed and coded following preset transcription and coding guidelines. The transcribed samples were further analysed using the Bangla adaptation of Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. To identify the differences in language production between these two picture types, investigators used four measurement variables: mean length of utterances (MLU), complexity index (CI), total number of words (TNW) and words per minute (WPM). Of the four measures, only MLU showed a statistically significant difference between the CP and the black-and-white LD. CI demonstrated a strong correlation with MLU for the CP, which indicates that the participants who produced higher MLU for the CP also produced a higher CI for the CP. There were no significant differences between the two picture types for CI, TNW and WPM. This study found that the grammatical complexity, as measured by MLU, of spontaneous language production of neurologically healthy adults was higher when a CP was used in a PDT. A CP may also be beneficial for PWA to produce complex language samples. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject There are studies on neurologically healthy individuals as well as on PWA that identified the impact of using different visuographic variables (colour and photograph) separately, which enhanced the picture comprehension and improved performances on associated language production tasks. To our knowledge, no studies have identified the combined impact of these two visuographic variables on spontaneous language production. Therefore, this initial study on neurologically healthy Bangla adults reports the impact of using a CP as a stimulus item for a PDT task to elicit spontaneous language samples. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study reports that using a culturally appropriate CP for a PDT enhances the grammatical complexity of spontaneous language production of neurologically healthy adults. To our knowledge, this is the first study in Bangla that used the MLU as a measurement variable to analyse adults' spontaneous language production. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The development of future aphasia assessments should consider incorporating CPs as stimuli for PDTs, which may guide speech-language pathologists to provide accurate diagnoses for aphasia and related language disorders.

AN EVALUATION OF FIVE KEY ASPECTS OF THE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (LA) – A CRITICAL REVIEW OF KRASHEN`S THEORY

The development of Krashen`s theory of second language acquisition has been disadvantaged due to the dispute over its untestable hypotheses. In his Monitor Model Krashen (1981; 1982; 1985) claims that linguistic competence can only be acquired subconsciously, while conscious learning mainly depends on learners’ mood and emotions at the time of learning a second language. A review of the studies investigating the coherence of Krashen’s hypotheses derived from the Monitor Model supported the validity of this approach. However, competing theories emphasize the importance of conscious learning not addressed by the Monitor Model. This paper critically reviews the five key aspects of Krashen’s Monitor Model and closely looks at the relevance of the theory and its characteristics to SLA nowadays. It was concluded that while effective in some classroom applications, the Monitor Model is too restrictive to justify the conscious learning as a source of spontaneous language production, so cannot alone provide a comprehensive account of language competence.

Improving Class Interaction Using Hand-Made Wordless Picture Series for Preschoolers during Storytelling

Early childhood is a critical period for language development. Children need more language interactions with caregivers, for optimal its development. Narrative skill become the most power full point to language development. Promoting narrative skill for preschooler was challenging goals for kindergarten teachers. Prior research shows that storytelling promotes preschoolers’ language production and interaction. However, little is known about the potential role of wordless picture series books. Comparing to books with text, wordless picture books can foster more spontaneous language production and teachers’ feedback. In this study aims to find out the different level of class interactions of twenty preschoolers to their teachers using a wordless picture series book and a story book with text. The wordless picture series books were hand-made by teachers. We found that in the wordless picture series book condition teachers showed higher levels of instructional support. The result revealed a significant improvement of teachers’ quality of feedback during storytelling instruction. It was proofing that wordless picture series books may boost classroom interaction and finally support language development of preschool students.Â

Length of Utterance, in Morphemes or in Words?: MLU3-w, a Reliable Measure of Language Development in Early Basque.

The mean length of utterace (MLU), which was proposed by Brown (1973) as a better index for language development in children than age, has been regularly reported in case studies as well as in cross-sectional studies on early spontaneous language production. Despite the reliability of MLU as a measure of (morpho-)syntactic development having been called into question, its extensive use in language acquisition studies highlights its utility not only for intra- and inter-individual comparison in monolingual language acquisition, but also for cross-linguistic assessment and comparison of bilinguals' early language development (Müller, 1993; Yip and Matthews, 2006; Meisel, 2011). An additional issue concerns whether MLU should be measured in words (MLU-w) or morphemes (MLU-m), the latter option being the most difficult to gauge, since new challenges have arisen regarding how to count zero morphemes, suppletive and fused morphemes. The different criteria have consequences, especially when comparing development in languages with diverging morphological complexity. A variant of MLU, the MLU3, which is calculated out of the three longest sentences produced (MLU3-w and MLU3-m), is included among the subscales of expressive language development in CDI parental reports (Fenson et al., 1993, 2007). The aim of the study is to investigate the consistency and utility of MLU3-w and MLU3-m as a measure for (morpho-)syntactic development in Basque, an agglutinative language. To that end, cross-sectional data were obtained using either the Basque CDI-2 instrument (16- to 30-month-olds) or the Basque CDI-3 (30- to 50-month-olds). The results of analyzing reports on over 1,200 children show three main findings. First, MLU3-w and MLU3-m can report equally well on very young children's development. Second, the strong correlations found between MLU3 and expressive vocabulary in the Basque CDI-2 and CDI-3 instruments, as well as between MLU3 and both nominal and verbal morphology scales, confirm the consistency not only of MLU3 but also of the two Basque CDI instruments. Finally, both MLU3-w and MLU3-m subscales appear sensitive to input after age 2, which emphasizes their utility for identifying developmental patterns in Basque bilinguals.

Spontaneous language production of Italian children with cochlear implants and their mothers in two interactive contexts.

In recent years many studies have shown that the use of cochlear implants (CIs) improves children's skills in processing the auditory signal and, consequently, the development of both language comprehension and production. Nevertheless, many authors have also reported that the development of language skills in children with CIs is variable and influenced by individual factors (e.g., age at CI activation) and contextual aspects (e.g., maternal linguistic input). To assess the characteristics of the spontaneous language production of Italian children with CIs, their mothers' input and the relationship between the two during shared book reading and semi-structured play. Twenty preschool children with CIs and 40 typically developing children, 20 matched for chronological age (CATD group) and 20 matched for hearing age (HATD group), were observed during shared book reading and semi-structured play with their mothers. Samples of spontaneous language were transcribed and analysed for each participant. The numbers of types, tokens, mean length of utterance (MLU) and grammatical categories were considered, and the familiarity of each mother's word was calculated. The children with CIs produced shorter utterances than the children in the CATD group. Their mothers produced language with lower levels of lexical variability and grammatical complexity, and higher proportions of verbs with higher familiarity than did the mothers in the other groups during shared book reading. The children's language was more strongly related to that of their mothers in the CI group than in the other groups, and it was associated with the age at CI activation. The findings suggest that the language of children with CIs is related both to their mothers' input and to age at CI activation. They might prompt suggestions for intervention programs focused on shared-book reading.

Wordless picture books boost preschoolers’ language production during shared reading

Prior research shows that shared book reading promotes preschoolers’ language and literacy skills. However, little is known about the potential role of books’ features – in particular, the role of using wordless picture books compared with books with text – in children’s spontaneous language production and teachers’ instructional support. In this study, we transcribed verbal interactions of thirteen Colombian teachers reading to groups of children (aged 43–55 months) during reading sessions in Spanish using a wordless picture book (condition 1) and a prototypical storybook with text (condition 2). Books were matched for page length, type and theme. Using Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN), we found that in the wordless-picture-book condition children produced significantly more word tokens, word types and utterances, and teachers showed higher levels of instructional support. Regression analyses revealed a significant association between children’s language production and teachers’ quality of feedback during literacy instruction, suggesting that wordless picture books may boost children’s language by enhancing instructional support.

EP 48. Effects of thalamic deep brain stimulation on spontaneous language production

Introduction The thalamus is thought to contribute to language-related functions, but specifications of this notion remain vague. Objectives An assessment of potential effects of thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) on spontaneous language may help to delineate respective functions. Patients and methods For this purpose, we analysed spontaneous language samples from thirteen (six female/seven male) patients with essential tremor (ET) treated with DBS of the thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) in their respective ON vs. OFF conditions. Samples were obtained from semi-structured interviews and examined on multidimensional linguistic levels. The main results were correlated with a more general score of cognitive function. Results In the VIM-DBS ON condition, participants produced significantly less hypotactic sentences compared to the OFF condition. This reduction correlated with the variation of the general cognitive score. Further, active VIM-DBS led to a decreased use of words from the open class. In conclusion, VIM-DBS appears to induce the use of a simplified syntactic and lexical structure. The findings are discussed in relation to the proposed functions of the thalamus for language-related cognitive behavior.

Effects of thalamic deep brain stimulation on spontaneous language production

The thalamus is thought to contribute to language-related processing, but specifications of this notion remain vague. An assessment of potential effects of thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) on spontaneous language may help to delineate respective functions.For this purpose, we analyzed spontaneous language samples from thirteen (six female / seven male) patients with essential tremor treated with DBS of the thalamic ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) in their respective ON vs. OFF conditions. Samples were obtained from semi-structured interviews and examined on multidimensional linguistic levels.In the VIM-DBS ON condition, participants used a significantly higher proportion of paratactic as opposed to hypotactic sentence structures. This increase correlated negatively with the change in the more global cognitive score, which in itself did not change significantly.In conclusion, VIM-DBS appears to induce the use of a simplified syntactic structure. The findings are discussed in relation to concepts of thalamic roles in language-related cognitive behavior.

Subthalamic nucleus stimulation and spontaneous language production in Parkinson’s disease: A double laterality problem

BackgroundAsymmetric degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, are characteristic for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Despite the lateralized representation of language, the correlation of asymmetric degeneration of nigrostriatal networks in PD with language performance has scarcely been examined. Objective/hypothesisThe laterality of dopamine depletion influences language deficits in PD and thus modulates the effects of subthalamic nucleus (STN) stimulation on language production. MethodsThe spontaneous language production of patients with predominant dopamine depletion of the left (PD-left) and right (PD-right) hemisphere was compared in four stimulation conditions. ResultsPD-right made comparatively more verb inflection errors than PD-left. Bilateral STN stimulation improves spontaneous language production only for PD-left. ConclusionsThe laterality of dopamine depletion influences spontaneous language production and the effect of STN stimulation on linguistic functions. However, it is probably only one of the many variables influencing the effect of STN stimulation on language production.

The effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation on semantic and syntactic performance in spontaneous language production in people with Parkinson's disease

Abstract Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has become an established therapeutic option for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, the effects of unilateral and bilateral STN stimulation on spontaneous language production are explored, by comparing linguistic performance in different stimulation conditions with normative data of healthy subjects. Language samples of ten PD patients with DBS of the STN were obtained in four stimulation conditions: bilateral stimulation on, bilateral stimulation off, stimulation of the left STN only and stimulation of the right STN only. The spontaneous language production differed from the normative data in all four stimulation conditions. Especially morphosyntactic elements of spontaneous language production were altered. Despite these linguistic differences with normal controls no significant differences between stimulation conditions were found. These results emphasize that the effects of STN stimulation on spontaneous language production reflect a complex interplay of multiple factors.