Use Of Linguistic Cues Research Articles

Interference effects on the processing of Korean double relative clauses

The current investigates the parsing process and its utilization of various linguistic information to resolve dependencies in Korean double relative clauses. While previous research has revealed evidence of interference effects of a distractor during dependency formations, a distractor involving dependency formations by itself has not been thoroughly explored. In light of this, we aimed to explore how the grammatical-role parallelism of a distractor modulates multiple filler-gap dependencies and examine the role of case marking in the resolution of these dependencies. In a self-paced reading experiment, we discovered that the parallelism effects of both head nouns were instrumental in the resolution of longer dependencies of a higher head noun and its gap. The non-parallel role of a distractor (i.e., low head noun) was reanalyzed before the integration of higher head noun and its gap. This finding suggests that parallelism effects play a critical role in the resolution of complex dependency structures. Additionally, our experiments investigated the role of case marking as a morphosyntactic cue in predicting the syntactic encoding of upcoming noun phrases. Our results demonstrated the immediate processing difficulty of conditions with double nominative markers, suggesting that parsers are selectively sensitive to case marking. Overall, our study contributes to our understanding of the parsing process and the selective use of linguistic cues in the resolution of complex dependency structures.

Cross-Linguistic Trade-Offs and Causal Relationships Between Cues to Grammatical Subject and Object, and the Problem of Efficiency-Related Explanations.

Cross-linguistic studies focus on inverse correlations (trade-offs) between linguistic variables that reflect different cues to linguistic meanings. For example, if a language has no case marking, it is likely to rely on word order as a cue for identification of grammatical roles. Such inverse correlations are interpreted as manifestations of language users’ tendency to use language efficiently. The present study argues that this interpretation is problematic. Linguistic variables, such as the presence of case, or flexibility of word order, are aggregate properties, which do not represent the use of linguistic cues in context directly. Still, such variables can be useful for circumscribing the potential role of communicative efficiency in language evolution, if we move from cross-linguistic trade-offs to multivariate causal networks. This idea is illustrated by a case study of linguistic variables related to four types of Subject and Object cues: case marking, rigid word order of Subject and Object, tight semantics and verb-medial order. The variables are obtained from online language corpora in thirty languages, annotated with the Universal Dependencies. The causal model suggests that the relationships between the variables can be explained predominantly by sociolinguistic factors, leaving little space for a potential impact of efficient linguistic behavior.

Persuasive linguistic tricks in social media marketing communication-The memetic approach.

The paper reports the results of a study into the use of linguistic cues defined as Persuasive Linguistic Tricks (PLT) in social media (SM) marketing communication. It was assumed that the content shared on Social Networking Sites (SNS) could be perceived as specific sets of meanings (memeplexes), where a single component, also PLT, may function as their part. Following an original typology of PLT, created based on an emotional factor, the research focused on whether and how the number of positive, neutral and negative PLT used in Facebook posts impacted the behaviour of content recipients. These activities, including liking, commenting and sharing, are strictly connected with post spreading and range. The data analysis focused on 167 Facebook posts shared by five leading Polish travel agencies and 1911 responding comments. The quantitative content analysis method and Spearman's correlation tests were used. A relationship was observed between the number of emotionally positive and neutral PLT and the increase in the range of content with these PLT. The use of PLT by post recipients was also observed in their comments. This phenomenon is possibly related to the memetic nature of PLT. From the perspective of marketing messages, the obtained results contribute to and guide the textual content-building with a high spreading potential owing to the memetic capability of PLT. Further elaborations were made on the assumption for the evolutionary approach in social media content transfer and its processing.

Receptor expectations and interlingual translation reception

The fundamental question that this paper addresses is to what extent an individual’s judgment of incoming linguistic stimuli – in the form of a translation product – can be thought of as static and objective, as opposed to dynamic and subjectively constructed. By extension, this article proposes that rather than being viewed (solely) as displaying a set of stable features, the target text can be construed as a cognitive construct that is dynamically shaped. This proposition is tested against the cognitive mechanisms of expectations. I discuss two empirical studies examining how expectations about the authorship of translation, and therefore its characteristics like quality, can influence the audience’s perception of the translation product. The question is examined for written translation (Study 1) and subtitling (Study 2). While in both cases, the central subject of inquiry are linguistic stimuli, in the latter case, these are embedded multimodally. The hypothesis is that generating certain product expectations through the use of linguistic cues will lead the audience to assess the product differently than in a condition where identical material is assessed without cuing or where opposite receptor expectations are generated. It is relevant to note that both experiments were conducted with students whose background included linguistics and translation. Such a participant profile could be associated with a more rigorously principled – and therefore stable – assessment of linguistic stimuli in both monosemiotic and polysemiotic contexts. This, in turn, would make our participants less susceptible to the effects of anticipatory cognition than would be the case with participants without formal training in the relevant fields

Judging dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at from short self-descriptions at zero-acquaintance: Testing self-other agreement, consensus, and accuracy

We examined the accuracy of judgments of three dispositions toward ridicule and being laughed at in two thin slices studies. Participants (N1/2 = 218/132) provided short written self-descriptions (Study 2 also included diary data across 14 days). In each study, ten judges provided their impressions of the targets’ dispositions based on targets’ written self-descriptions. Computerized text analyses provided information on the presence and use of linguistic cues. We found robust self-other agreement on the single dispositions (r ≥ 0.19) and profiles (r ≥ 0.18), robust consensus among judges (ICC ≥ 0.39), and the expected low correlations with the behavioral criterion (r ≥ 0.06). How people deal with ridicule and being laughed at can be well perceived from minimal personal information.

How to tell a happy person: Accuracy of subjective well-being perception from texts

Although perceptions of subjective well-being (SWB) in unacquainted others have been shown to play a major role in impression formation, little is known about how accurate such perceptions are. In two original studies and one pre-registered replication, we explored the accuracy of life satisfaction and happiness judgments from texts and its underlying mechanisms (use of linguistic cues). Participants filled in life satisfaction and happiness measures and completed a brief writing task. Another sample of participants judged the targets’ life satisfaction and happiness from the obtained texts. All three studies demonstrated a small to moderate self-other agreement. A linguistic analysis showed that targets with higher (vs. lower) scores on SWB were less likely to use negation words in their texts, which allowed observers to make accurate judgment of their SWB level. Two studies pointed at negative emotion words as valid and positive emotion words as invalid (but often used) cues to happiness, yet these effects did not replicate in Study 3.

Non-native word recognition in babble and white noise

Noise causes degradation in speech signals, which poses difficulties for non-native perception. In this study, we examined impacts of noisy conditions on word recognition in naturally produced sentences by Chinese speakers of English (CE) and native speakers of English (NE). We also manipulated the linguistic contexts where targeted words occur, in order to assess how syntactic and semantic information may contribute to facilitate speech perception in adverse conditions. We recorded and compared the mean accuracy of keyword rewriting, to examine effects of noise and linguistic cues across listener groups. Results show that babble noise had more severe influence on CE groups' performance, which was also found commensurate with their English proficiencies. NE listeners, however, showed different patterns in their tolerance of noise and in use of linguistic cues.

Effect of Context and Hearing Loss on Time-Gated Word Recognition in Children.

The purpose of this study was to examine word recognition in children who are hard of hearing (CHH) and children with normal hearing (CNH) in response to time-gated words presented in high- versus low-predictability sentences (HP, LP), where semantic cues were manipulated. Findings inform our understanding of how CHH combine cognitive-linguistic and acoustic-phonetic cues to support spoken word recognition. It was hypothesized that both groups of children would be able to make use of linguistic cues provided by HP sentences to support word recognition. CHH were expected to require greater acoustic information (more gates) than CNH to correctly identify words in the LP condition. In addition, it was hypothesized that error patterns would differ across groups. Sixteen CHH with mild to moderate hearing loss and 16 age-matched CNH participated (5 to 12 years). Test stimuli included 15 LP and 15 HP age-appropriate sentences. The final word of each sentence was divided into segments and recombined with the sentence frame to create series of sentences in which the final word was progressively longer by the gated increments. Stimuli were presented monaurally through headphones and children were asked to identify the target word at each successive gate. They also were asked to rate their confidence in their word choice using a five- or three-point scale. For CHH, the signals were processed through a hearing aid simulator. Standardized language measures were used to assess the contribution of linguistic skills. Analysis of language measures revealed that the CNH and CHH performed within the average range on language abilities. Both groups correctly recognized a significantly higher percentage of words in the HP condition than in the LP condition. Although CHH performed comparably with CNH in terms of successfully recognizing the majority of words, differences were observed in the amount of acoustic-phonetic information needed to achieve accurate word recognition. CHH needed more gates than CNH to identify words in the LP condition. CNH were significantly lower in rating their confidence in the LP condition than in the HP condition. CHH, however, were not significantly different in confidence between the conditions. Error patterns for incorrect word responses across gates and predictability varied depending on hearing status. The results of this study suggest that CHH with age-appropriate language abilities took advantage of context cues in the HP sentences to guide word recognition in a manner similar to CNH. However, in the LP condition, they required more acoustic information (more gates) than CNH for word recognition. Differences in the structure of incorrect word responses and their nomination patterns across gates for CHH compared with their peers with NH suggest variations in how these groups use limited acoustic information to select word candidates.

The Use of Linguistic Cues in Sentence Comprehension by Mandarin-Speaking Children with High-Functioning Autism.

Two studies were conducted to investigate how high-functioning children with autism use different linguistic cues in sentence comprehension. Two types of linguistic cues were investigated: word order and morphosyntactic cues. The results show that children with autism can use both types of cues in sentence comprehension. However, compared to age-matched typically developing peers, children with autism relied significantly more on word order cues and exhibited significantly more difficulties in interpreting sentences in which there was a conflict between the morphosyntactic cue and the word order cue. We attribute the difficulties exhibited by children with autism to their deficits in executive function. We then discuss the implications of the findings for understanding the nature of the sentence processing mechanism in autism.

Dutch and English toddlers' use of linguistic cues in predicting upcoming turn transitions.

Adults achieve successful coordination during conversation by using prosodic and lexicosyntactic cues to predict upcoming changes in speakership. We examined the relative weight of these linguistic cues in the prediction of upcoming turn structure by toddlers learning Dutch (Experiment 1; N = 21) and British English (Experiment 2; N = 20) and adult control participants (Dutch: N = 16; English: N = 20). We tracked participants' anticipatory eye movements as they watched videos of dyadic puppet conversation. We controlled the prosodic and lexicosyntactic cues to turn completion for a subset of the utterances in each conversation to create four types of target utterances (fully incomplete, incomplete syntax, incomplete prosody, and fully complete). All participants (Dutch and English toddlers and adults) used both prosodic and lexicosyntactic cues to anticipate upcoming speaker changes, but weighed lexicosyntactic cues over prosodic ones when the two were pitted against each other. The results suggest that Dutch and English toddlers are already nearly adult-like in their use of prosodic and lexicosyntactic cues in anticipating upcoming turn transitions.

Situated language understanding for a spoken dialog system within vehicles

In this paper, we address issues in situated language understanding in a moving car, which has the additional challenge of being a rapidly changing environment. More specifically, we propose methods for understanding user queries regarding specific target buildings in their surroundings. Unlike previous studies on physically situated interactions, such as interactions with mobile robots, the task at hand is very time sensitive because the spatial relationship between the car and target changes while the user is speaking. We collected situated utterances from drivers using our research system called Townsurfer, which was embedded in a real vehicle. Based on this data, we analyzed the timing of user queries, the spatial relationships between the car and the targets, the head pose of the user, and linguistic cues. Based on this analysis, we further propose methods to optimize timing and spatial distances and to make use of linguistic cues. Finally, we demonstrate that our algorithms improved the target identification rate by 24.1% absolute.

Brain-based individual differences in online L2 grammatical comprehension

Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we investigated the impact of a range of individual difference measures related to L2 learning on proficient L1 Spanish – L2 English bilinguals’ brain responses during L2 morphosyntactic processing. Although grand mean ERP analyses revealed a biphasic N400–P600 response to English subject–verb agreement violations, subsequent analyses showed that participants’ brain responses varied along a continuum between N400- and P600-dominance. To investigate this pattern, we introduce two novel ERP measures that independently quantify relative brain response type and overall magnitude. Multivariate analyses revealed that larger overall brain responses were associated with higher L2 proficiency, while relative brain response type (N400 or P600) was predicted by a coalition of variables, most notably learners’ motivation and age of arrival in an L2 environment. Our findings show that aspects of a learner's background can differentially impact a learner's overall sensitivity to L2 morphosyntax and qualitative use of linguistic cues during processing.

An experimental study of social selection and frequency of interaction in linguistic diversity

Computational simulations have provided evidence that the use of linguistic cues as group markers plays an important role in the development of linguistic diversity shortcite (Nettle & Dunbar, 1997; Nettle, 1999). Other simulations, however, have contradicted these findings (Livingstone & Fyfe, 1999; Livingstone, 2002). Similar disagreements exist in sociolinguistics (e.g. Labov, 1963, 2001; Trudgill, 2004, 2008a; Baxter et al., 2009). This paper describes an experimental study in which participants played an anonymous economic game using an instant-messenger-style program and an artificial ‘alien language’. The competitiveness of the game and the frequency with which players interacted were manipulated. Given frequent enough interaction with team-mates, players were able to use linguistic cues to identify themselves. In the most competitive condition, this led to divergence in the language, which did not occur in other conditions. This suggests that both frequency of interaction and a pressure to use language to mark identity play a significant role in encouraging linguistic divergence over short periods, but that neither is suffi cient on its own.

Remedial readers reading for meaning: the use of the linguistic context when words are read correctly

Summary In a study which focused on words read correctly (as opposed to oral reading errors) the ability of 52 11‐year‐old remedial readers to make use of the linguistic context was investigated. Three reading passages which differed in ‘accessibility’ but not in linguistic difficulty were used. The results gave a clear indication that not only were the children able to make successful use of linguistic cues in solving (potentially) ‘difficult’ words, but that they relied on such textual information to some extent. The ‘context‐dependency’ illustrated was shown to be affected by both decoding ability and text accessibility. It was suggested that the examination of what happens when words are read correctly is important if the ability of remedial readers to read for meaning is not to be underestimated.

Reading Cue Utilization by Low-Achieving College Freshmen

Recent research has questioned the role of graphic analysis (decoding) in reading. In this study the utilization of graphic cues by low-achieving college freshmen is described in its relationship to syntactic and semantic factors. Cue utilization was evidenced by varying probabilities of correcting word substitutes across levels of these three dimensions. The results indicate that use of graphics is associated with syntactic and semantic characteristics of the substitutes. There was also evidence that use of graphic and grammatical cues varies with difficulty of the passage. These results confirm multiple use of linguistic cues as described by Goodman.