Search

Although there is a broad consensus that both the procedural and declarative memory systems play a crucial role in language learning, use, and knowledge, the mapping between linguistic types and memory structures remains underspecified: by default, a dual‐route mapping of language systems to memory systems is assumed, with declarative memory handling idiosyncratic lexical knowledge and procedural memory handling rule‐governed knowledge of grammar. We experimentally contrast the processing of morphology (case and aspect), syntax (subordination), and lexical semantics (collocations) in a healthy L1 population of Polish, a language rich in form distinctions. We study the processing of these four types under two conditions: a single task condition in which the grammaticality of stimuli was judged and a concurrent task condition in which grammaticality judgments were combined with a digit span task. Dividing attention impedes access to declarative memory while leaving procedural memory unaffected and hence constitutes a test that dissociates which types of linguistic information each long‐term memory construct subserves. Our findings confirm the existence of a distinction between lexicon and grammar as a generative, dual‐route model would predict, but the distinction is graded, as usage‐based models assume: the hypothesized grammar–lexicon opposition appears as a continuum on which grammatical phenomena can be placed as being more or less "ruly" or "idiosyncratic." However, usage‐based models, too, need adjusting as not all types of linguistic knowledge are proceduralized to the same extent. This move away from a simple dichotomy fundamentally changes how we think about memory for language, and hence how we design and interpret behavioral and neuroimaging studies that probe into the nature of language cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chomsky's latest linguistic work has problematized projection and labeling. With the earlier Phrase Structure Grammar and X’‐bar theory, it is taken for granted that a phrase contains a specifier, head, and complement; the current work only assumes a labeling algorithm to meet requirements of the conceptual‐intentional interface. Such an algorithm automatically rules out particular configurations, for instance, ones with a specifier unless they share certain features. In this brief paper, I point out how regular patterns of language change can be seen as resolutions to the labeling paradox and how they themselves can possibly shed light on the precise nature of this labeling algorithm. I focus on the change where specifiers are reanalyzed as heads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the presence of an implicit projected argument in Spec,Voice in Spanish impersonal- and passive- se constructions. The main empirical support comes from an available inalienable-possession interpretation of the sole overt DP when it is a body part in both constructions. This interpretation is only possible in the presence of a syntactically present c-commanding possessor. I argue that the implicit projected external argument serves as the inalienable possessor of the body part. Neither the periphrastic passive nor the anticausative- se construction in Spanish allows an inalienable-possession interpretation of the sole overt DP when it is a body part. In these instances, I claim, no implicit argument projects in Spec,Voice. I discuss how the presence of a projected argument in Spec,Voice is responsible for by-phrase restrictions in impersonal- and passive- se constructions and person restrictions in passive- se constructions; the lack of a projected implicit argument in Spec,Voice of both the periphrastic passive and the anticausative- se construction is responsible for the lack of the person restrictions in both, and the lack of by-phrase restrictions in the periphrastic passive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shift-reduce parsing enjoys the property of efficiency because of the use of efficient parsing algorithms like greedy/deterministic search and beam search. In addition, shift-reduce parsing is much simpler and easy to implement compared with other parsing algorithms. In this article, we explore constituent boundary information to improve the performance of shift-reduce phrase-structure parsing. In previous work, constituent boundary information has been used to speed up chart parsers successfully. However, whether it is useful for improving parsing accuracy has not been investigated. We propose two different models to capture constituent boundary information, based on which two sets of novel features are designed for a shift-reduce parser. The first model is a boundary prediction model that uses a classifier to predict the boundaries of constituents. We use automatically parsed data to train the classifier. The second one is a Tree Likelihood Model that measures the validity of a constituent by its likelihood which is calculated on automatically parsed data. Experimental results show that our proposed method outperforms a strong baseline by 0.8 % and 1.6 % in F-score on English and Chinese data, respectively, achieving the competitive parsing accuracies on Chinese (84.8 %) and English (90.8 %). To our knowledge, this is the first time for shift-reduce phrase-structure parsing to advance the state-of-the-art with constituent boundary information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to convey our thoughts using an infinite number of linguistic expressions is one of the hallmarks of human language. Understanding the nature of the psychological mechanisms and representations that give rise to this unique productivity is a fundamental goal for the cognitive sciences. A long-standing hypothesis is that single words and rules form the basic building blocks of linguistic productivity, with multiword sequences being treated as units only in peripheral cases such as idioms. The new millennium, however, has seen a shift toward construing multiword linguistic units not as linguistic rarities, but as important building blocks for language acquisition and processing. This shift-which originated within theoretical approaches that emphasize language learning and use-has far-reaching implications for theories of language representation, processing, and acquisition. Incorporating multiword units as integral building blocks blurs the distinction between grammar and lexicon; calls for models of production and comprehension that can accommodate and give rise to the effect of multiword information on processing; and highlights the importance of such units to learning. In this special topic, we bring together cutting-edge work on multiword sequences in theoretical linguistics, first-language acquisition, psycholinguistics, computational modeling, and second-language learning to present a comprehensive overview of the prominence and importance of such units in language, their possible role in explaining differences between first- and second-language learning, and the challenges the combined findings pose for theories of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper first discusses the influence of Labov on certain recent Chomskyan developments, starting from an identification of two radically different readings of the relationship between Labovian variationist sociolinguistics and the dominant theoretical paradigm of the latter half of the 20th century which is Chomskyan theoretical linguistics, i.e. as either a supplement or an alternative. Variation at the level of closely related languages, at the level of the language community, and at the level of the individual, have all been treated by Chomskyans under various headings, thus giving evidence that empirical results stemming from variationist sociolinguistics cannot be ignored. However, the treatment has not led to an integration of variation into Chomskyan theory, nor could it. In the final section we outline what a Labovian materialist alternative to Chomskyan idealism could be. We argue that this calls for a broader definition of sociolinguistics than just variationism and poses demands for both internal integration, viz. of linguistic disciplines, and external integration of the language sciences with evolutionary psychology, anthropology and social history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of formal linguistics was founded on the premise that language is mentally represented as a deterministic symbolic grammar. While this approach has captured many important characteristics of the world's languages, it has also led to a tendency to focus theoretical questions on the correct formalization of grammatical rules while also de-emphasizing the role of learning and statistics in language development and processing. In this review we present a different approach to language research that has emerged from the parallel distributed processing or 'connectionist' enterprise. In the connectionist framework, mental operations are studied by simulating learning and processing within networks of artificial neurons. With that in mind, we discuss recent progress in connectionist models of auditory word recognition, reading, morphology, and syntactic processing. We argue that connectionist models can capture many important characteristics of how language is learned, represented, and processed, as well as providing new insights about the source of these behavioral patterns. Just as importantly, the networks naturally capture irregular (non-rule-like) patterns that are common within languages, something that has been difficult to reconcile with rule-based accounts of language without positing separate mechanisms for rules and exceptions. WIREs Cogn Sci 2015, 6:235-247. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1340 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a set of biologically and computationally motivated design choices for modeling the learning of language, or of other types of sequential, hierarchically structured experience and behavior, and describe an implemented system that conforms to these choices and is capable of unsupervised learning from raw natural-language corpora. Given a stream of linguistic input, our model incrementally learns a grammar that captures its statistical patterns, which can then be used to parse or generate new data. The grammar constructed in this manner takes the form of a directed weighted graph, whose nodes are recursively (hierarchically) defined patterns over the elements of the input stream. We evaluated the model in seventeen experiments, grouped into five studies, which examined, respectively, (a) the generative ability of grammar learned from a corpus of natural language, (b) the characteristics of the learned representation, (c) sequence segmentation and chunking, (d) artificial grammar learning, and (e) certain types of structure dependence. The model's performance largely vindicates our design choices, suggesting that progress in modeling language acquisition can be made on a broad front-ranging from issues of generativity to the replication of human experimental findings-by bringing biological and computational considerations, as well as lessons from prior efforts, to bear on the modeling approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As teachers organize classroom schedules to meet curricular demands and time constraints, they strive to seek ways to motivate and sustain student engagement in quality vocabulary instruction, enjoyable learning experiences, and interesting informational books. This article addresses these concerns and describes a vocabulary acquisition strategy called the Generative Vocabulary Matrix (GVM). The GVM is an interactive concept organizer that scaffolds student engagement in meaning-making discourse to develop background knowledge. Teacher teams applied research on motivation and literacy to design a disciplinary science unit using a GVM as a tool for supporting conceptual understanding within a Learning Workshop context. Because learning activities resembled the language and practices that experts actually use in their field, including drawing from a richly structured schema, the GVM supports a disciplinary literacy approach for young learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two kinds of theoretical framework for syntax are encountered in current linguistics. One emerged from the mathematization of proof theory, and is referred to here as generative-enumerative syntax ( GES). A less explored alternative stems from the semantic side of logic, and is here called model-theoretic syntax ( MTS). I sketch the outlines of each, and give a capsule summary of some mathematical results pertaining to the latter. I then briefly survey some diverse types of evidence suggesting that in some ways MTS seems better suited to theorizing about the relevant linguistic phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response from the author of the article related to computational complexity in grammatically generated data structures is presented. It states that various minimalist conceptions can be used as reducing computational complexity or enhancing computational efficiency. It mentions that the goal of Generative Grammar is to discover computational procedure that generates an unbounded number of pi, lambda pairs.

. 'GSGM' builds no syntactic structures; rather, semantics and morphosyntax are both generative and run in parallel, and so have no need of mediating syntactic structure. In this environment, positing different modes of embedding for NPs and clauses, as in Williams 2003, affords new minimal accounts of movement, scope, agreement, and the bounds on them. Syntax/morphosyntax is instantiated as a single parameterized function ('Combine'). Combine derives both mirroring and nonmirroring structure, as any theory must, but in distinctive 'size-relative' patterns determined by its parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repetition priming was used to examine whether children with dyslexia bias a lexical-semantic pathway when reading words aloud. For the dyslexic group (n = 18, age 9.4-11.8 years), but not for age-matched controls (n = 18, age 9.2-12.4 years), reaction times when naming pictures were faster after naming the corresponding word. A reading age-matched control group (n = 24, age 6.8-8.9 years) showed similar priming effects to the children with dyslexia. The magnitude of repetition priming was greater for children with dyslexia with poor nonword reading and slower picture naming. Assuming repetition priming of picture naming is contingent on accessing lexical phonology via semantics, the results suggest less-skilled normal and disordered readers show a stronger bias towards a lexical- semantic pathway during word reading than skilled readers, and the severity of the phonological representations deficit modulates the strength of that bias in children with dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The BioNLP'09 Shared Task deals with extracting information on molecular events, such as gene expression and protein localization, from natural language text. Information in this benchmark are given as tuples including protein names, trigger terms for each event, and possible other participants such as bindings sites. We address all three tasks of BioNLP'09: event detection, event enrichment, and recognition of negation and speculation. Our method for the first two tasks is based on a deep parser; we store the parse tree of each sentence in a relational database scheme. From the training data, we collect the dependencies connecting any two relevant terms of a known tuple, that is, the shortest paths linking these two constituents. We encode all such linkages in a query language to retrieve similar linkages from unseen text. For the third task, we rely on a hierarchy of hand-crafted regular expressions to recognize speculation and negated events. In this paper, we added extensions regarding a post-processing step that handles ambiguous event trigger terms, as well as an extension of the query language to relax linkage constraints. On the BioNLP Shared Task test data, we achieve an overall F1-measure of 32%, 29%, and 30% for the successive Tasks 1, 2, and 3, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a series of formal acceptability-judgment experiments designed to investigate the syntactic properties of a relatively understudied type of wh-dependency: multiple wh-questions in English. By using a factorial definition of island effects made available only by formal experiments, we report an unpredicted pattern of acceptability that suggests the existence of reverse island effects for whether and adjunct islands inside of multiple wh-questions, but not for subject and CNPC islands. We argue that this unpredicted effect can best be analyzed by taking into account the parsing processes that are necessary for real-time comprehension of multiple wh-questions in English. We propose that multiple wh-questions require a backward search for an antecedent that is in many ways similar to the forward search for a gap site that occurs in single wh-questions in English (). We then present additional acceptability-judgment experiments in both English and Japanese to test the predictions of the backward-search analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the success of generative linguistics and transformational grammar, proponents of the linguistic analogy (LA) in moral psychology hypothesize that careful attention to folk-moral judgments is likely to reveal a small set of implicit rules and structures responsible for the ubiquitous and apparently unbounded capacity for making moral judgments. As a theoretical hypothesis, LA thus requires a rich description of the computational structures that underlie mature moral judgments, an account of the acquisition and development of these structures, and an analysis of those components of the moral system that are uniquely human and uniquely moral. In this paper we present the theoretical motivations for adopting LA in the study of moral cognition: (a) the distinction between competence and performance, (b) poverty of stimulus considerations, and (c) adopting the computational level as the proper level of analysis for the empirical study of moral judgment. With these motivations in hand, we review recent empirical findings that have been inspired by LA and which provide evidence for at least two predictions of LA: (a) the computational processes responsible for folk-moral judgment operate over structured representations of actions and events, as well as coding for features of agency and outcomes; and (b) folk-moral judgments are the output of a dedicated moral faculty and are largely immune to the effects of context. In addition, we highlight the complexity of the interfaces between the moral faculty and other cognitive systems external to it (e.g., number systems). We conclude by reviewing the potential utility of the theoretical and empirical tools of LA for future research in moral psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonic Grammar (HG) and Optimality Theory (OT) are closely related formal frameworks for the study of language. In both, the structure of a given language is determined by the relative strengths of a set of constraints. They differ in how these strengths are represented: as numerical weights (HG) or as ranks (OT). Weighted constraints have advantages for the construction of accounts of language learning and other cognitive processes, partly because they allow for the adaptation of connectionist and statistical models. HG has been little studied in generative linguistics, however, largely due to influential claims that weighted constraints make incorrect predictions about the typology of natural languages, predictions that are not shared by the more popular OT. This paper makes the case that HG is in fact a promising framework for typological research, and reviews and extends the existing arguments for weighted over ranked constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main tenets of transformational grammar is that movement processes affect heads and phrases in different ways. In this article, I argue against this claim and propose that heads should be allowed to move in the same way as phrases. Conceptually, this proposal is the logical consequence of a common set of assumptions about syntax in general and movement in particular. Empirically, it finds support in the Spanish predicate cleft construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A selective review is presented of empirical evidence from different languages concerning phonological development and reading development in children. It is demonstrated that the development of reading depends on phonological awareness in all languages so far studied. However, because languages vary in syllable structure and in the consistency with which phonology is represented by the orthography, there are developmental differences in the grain size of lexical representations and in the reading strategies that develop across languages. It is argued that these cross-language data can be explained by a psycholinguistic grain size theory of reading and its development, as proposed by Ziegler and Goswami. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the relegation of the binding theory to the C-I interface (LF) is theoretically undesirable and empirically unwarranted. Recent minimalist research has sought to eliminate the binding theory from UG by reducing its conditions to narrow-syntactic operations ( Hornstein 2000, 2006 ; Reuland 2001, 2006 ; Kayne 2002 ; Zwart 2002, 2006 ; Hicks 2006 ). This approach remains controversial since the canonical minimalist binding theory ( Chomsky 1993 ; Chomsky & Lasnik 1993 ) views the binding conditions as interpretive rules applying at LF, supported by evidence that condition A interacts with other interpretive phenomena assumed to be determined at LF ( Lebeaux 1998 ; Fox & Nissenbaum 2004 ). While the interaction of anaphor binding and scope relations in particular is not disputed, I show that it is attributable to factors outside the binding theory, namely the requirement that variables (including anaphors) must be c-commanded by their binders at LF. Deprived of its strongest empirical argument, the LF binding theory can then be picked apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates an argument-adjunct asymmetry in English as a second language (ESL) learners' acquisition of inversion in wh-questions. A generative approach ( DeVilliers, 1991 ; Stromswold, 1990 ) claims that inversion is acquired earlier in argument wh-questions than in adjunct wh-questions, the asymmetry resulting from their different structural properties. However, an input frequency approach ( Rowland & Pine, 2000, 2003 ; Rowland, Pine, Lieven, & Theakston, 2005 ) proposes that individual wh-word + auxiliary combinations are acquired based on their input frequency, with no argument-adjunct asymmetry being predicted other than as an indirect consequence of a frequency difference. Two studies were conducted: one acquisition study with a grammaticality judgment task and one input study with a corpus analysis of the learners' input sources. The results show that learners are more successful at subject-auxiliary inversion in argument wh-questions than in adjunct wh-questions and that the argument-adjunct asymmetry cannot be traced to input frequency. The results of the studies here run counter to the input frequency account but conform to the prediction of a structure-based generative approach: There exists an argument-adjunct asymmetry in the acquisition of inversion in wh-questions because of the different syntactic properties of two types of wh-phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is concerned with the internal structure of Germanic what for phrases. A comparative look at what for across Dutch, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Swiss German leads to a drastic revision of the traditional view on what for. The proposal recognizes an (often silent) functional nominal SORT as a constitutive part of the what for construction. For is analyzed as a prepositional complementizer whose complement contains the (silent) nominal and the trace of what, to which for assigns accusative Case. The projection of for, forP, is argued to sit in a specifier position in the extended projection of the head noun, similar to adjectival modifiers on a Cinquean view. What moves out of forP into the left periphery of the noun phrase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Mordvin definite conjugation, portmanteau verbal affixes cross-reference the person and number of both subject and object. This complex agreement system shows extensive syncretism, which is more acute among the most marked members of the paradigm. I argue that Optimality-Theory gives a more explanatory account of the pattern of neutralizations in the Mordvin verb than rule-based theories. Predictions of the analysis are tested against data from other Finno-Ugric and Uralic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emphatic verb doubling, developed as a diagnostic of T-to-C movement in Classical Hebrew, demonstrates that discontinuous agreement is not a consequence of movement to between hypothetical Person and Number phrases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that clause union/restructuring constructions such as verb clusters in German do not involve head clustering in the form of (lexical or derived) complex head formation. I provide several arguments showing that clause union properties are licensed in the absence of complex head formation and that complex head formation hence cannot be seen as a condition on clause union/restructuring. Complex head approaches are compared to syntactic complementation approaches—in particular, to an approach where the verbs of a restructuring construction project independent VPs that include all the internal arguments associated with the particular verbs. A series of empirical facts are considered (constituency, word order, modification, event structure properties, and nominalizations) that all point to the conclusion that these constructions involve regular VPs rather than complex V-V heads. Although it is not excluded that complex head approaches could be adjusted to accommodate these facts, the main advantage of the VP-complementation approach is that the sum of the properties discussed follows without additional assumptions from the structure suggested and that this approach also correctly predicts which constructions are excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All languages have strategies which enable speakers to ask constituent (‘wh’-) questions. Of the strategies available, three types based on the notion of movement are usually cited in the literature: in situ, multiple fronting, and simple fronting. However, data reveal that focusing is the defining characteristic of constituent question formation cross-linguistically. This paper therefore adopts a different approach, presenting a unified analysis within the non-derivational framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar which captures the relevant generalisations about focusing and in turn provides a fresh perspective on the typology of constituent question formation strategies. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the syntax of clausal gerunds—a class of gerunds that can have either a null subject or an overt DP Case-marked with accusative or nominative. First, it addresses the difficulty of accounting for gerunds that allow both null and overt subjects in principles and parameters/minimalist approaches to Case and control. Second, the paper explores the existence of a common structure for the two clausal gerunds, supported by the absence of empirical distinctions in their feature specification, especially regarding tense. Third, the paper introduces new observations about the distribution of clausal gerunds and argues that the complex alternations and restrictions on their distribution results from the interaction between Case and Agreement valuation, the limited possibility of A-movement out of a clausal gerund, and convergence considerations resulting from the existence of distinct numerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issues concerning the conventionality of deeper aspects of language. According to the author, there are probably two reasons to doubt the conventionality of language, including the concept of closely tied up with logic in which logic is not conventional and the generative linguistic that do not have any humanly possible alternatives. Furthermore, he presents his arguments regarding the two aspects of language in which he begins with an outline of what social conventions are and how they differ from other types of norms.

The article discusses some research papers which shows how causal networks and generative grammars can be applied to problems of longstanding interest in cognitive development. The research papers focus on two classes of learning problems. Causal learning, category learning and word learning are all problems of induction in which children form representations of the world's abstract structure that extend qualitatively beyond the data they observe.

Sociolinguistic research on Creole communities has so far focused mainly on the social and linguistic distinctiveness of Creoles and on their synchronic interaction with their European lexifier. To date, little work has been done on the stylistic make-up of Creoles and on how these styles are employed in interactions to negotiate social identities and relationships. This paper investigates patterns of code-switching between different Creole varieties in the Eastern Maroon community using Myers-Scotton's markedness model. It demonstrates that such patterns are structurally similar to those found in other bilingual communities and function as an important resource for creating interactional meanings. Moreover, it shows that overall similar patterns of code-switching convey partially different meanings due to their interaction with situational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aprimary goal of behavioural interventions aimed at teaching skills is to establish generative responding. Recombinative generalization, which has been defined as the demonstration of novel arrangements of previously established linguistic units, is a process involved in generative responding. Successful recombinations contribute to the development of a functional, not rote, language repertoire that often generalizes across stimuli, responses, and time. Although research on recombinative generalization began some 80 years ago, understanding of this process is still not complete. Furthermore, programming for successful recombinations when teaching language and reading to typically and not‐typically developing children is still minimal. The early recombinative generalization studies worked on a “miniature linguistic system”; the referential stimuli (words) were arranged in a pattern that included all possible combinations of the dimensions of interest. Matrix training approaches to recombinative generalization showed how to produce functional language. In the present paper, I will (1) review research on recombinative generalization, (2) discuss conditions necessary for successful recombinations, and (3) make suggestions for practice relating to recombinative generalization. The discrimination required for successful recombinations fits well in the definition of “abstraction”: a discrimination based on a single property of a stimulus, independent of other properties; thus, generalization to other stimuli with that property. Abstraction is demonstrated when an individual correctly identifies untrained stimuli based on property of interest. Recombinative generalization contributes to achieving functional language. Further research on recombinative generalization will broaden the understanding of basic processes and their application to teaching language and early literacy skills.L'objectif primaire des interventions comportementales qui visent à enseigner des compétences est d'établir une génération de réponse. La généralisation recombinante, définie comme étant une démonstration de nouveaux arrangements des unités linguistiques établies préalablement, est un processus qui implique la génération de réponse. Les recombinaisons réussies contribuent au développement d'un répertoire de langage fonctionnel, pas mécanique, qui se généralise souvent à travers les stimuli et le temps. Même si la recherche sur la généralisation recombinante a débuté quelque 80 ans plus tôt, la compréhension de ce processus est toujours incomplète. De plus, la programmation pour des recombinaisons réussies est encore minimale pendant l'enseignement d'une langue ainsi que de la lecture à des enfants qui se développent typiquement et des enfants atypiques. Les premières études portant sur la généralisation recombinante ont porté sur le «système linguistique miniature»; les stimuli référentiels (les mots) étaient arrangés selon un patron qui a inclus toutes les combinaisons possibles des dimensions d'intérêt. Les approches fondées sur une matrice d'entraînement pour la généralisation recombinante ont montré une production de langage fonctionnel. Dans le présent article, l'auteur: (1) révisera la recherche sur la généralisation recombinante, (2) discutera les conditions nécessaires pour la réussite des recombinaisons, et (3) proposera des suggestions pour la pratique reliées à la généralisation recombinante. La discrimination requise pour la réussite des recombinaisons entre bien dans la définition de «l'abstraction»: une discrimination basée sur la propriété unique d'un stimulus, indépendamment des autres propriétés; d'où la généralisation à d'autres stimuli avec la même propriété. L'abstraction est démontrée lorsqu'un individu identifie correctement les stimuli sans entraînement en se basant sur la propriété d'intérêt. La généralisation recombinante contribue à parvenir au langage fonctionnel. La recherche future sur la généralisation recombinante élargira la compréhension des processus de base et de leur application à l'enseignement d'une langue et aux capacités précoces d'alphabétisation.Una meta fundamental de las intervenciones conductuales que buscan enseñar habilidades es establecer respuestas generativas. La generalización recombinatoria que se define como la demostración de arreglos novedosos de unidades lingüísticas previamente establecidas, es un proceso que toma parte en las respuestas generativas. Las recombinaciones exitosas contribuyen al desarrollo de un repertorio funcional del lenguaje, no mecánico, que con frecuencia se generaliza a través de los estímulos, las respuestas y del tiempo. Aunque la investigación acerca de la generalización recombinatoria comenzó hace aproximadamente 80 años, el proceso no se entiende completamente. Más aún, la programación de recombinaciones exitosas para enseñar lenguaje y lectura a niños con desarrollo típico y con desarrollo atípico, es todavía mínimo. Los estudios iniciales sobre generalización recombinatoria se referían a “sistemas lingüísticos en miniatura”; los estímulos de referencia (palabras) se organizaban en una pauta que incluía todas las posibles combinaciones de las dimensiones de interés. Los enfoques de matriz de entrenamiento para investigar la generalización recombinatoria mostraron que produce lenguaje funcional. En el presente artículo, la autora: (1) revisa la investigación sobre generalización recombinatoria, (2) discute las condiciones necesarias para las recombinaciones exitosas, y (3) presenta sugerencias para la práctica relacionada con la generalización recombinatoria. La discriminación que se requiere para combinaciones exitosas encaja bien en la definición de “abstracción”: una discriminación basada en una sola propiedad de un estímulo independiente de las otras propiedades; en esta forma ocurre la generalización a otros estímulos que posean esa propiedad. La abstracción se demuestra cuando un individuo identifica correctamente sin entrenamiento estímulos basados en esta propiedad que nos interesa. La generalización recombinatoria contribuye al logro del lenguaje funcional. Investigaciones adicionales sobre la generalización recombinatoria aumentará nuestra comprensión de los procesos básicos y de su aplicación a la enseñanza del lenguaje y a las habilidades tempranas de lecto‐escritura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental problem in spoken language is the duality between the continuous aspects of phonetic performance and the discrete aspects of phonological competence. We study 2 instances of this problem from the phenomenon of voicing neutralization and vowel harmony. In each case, we present a model where the experimentally observed continuous distinctions are linked to the discreteness of phonological form using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the grammatical constructions referred to as raising and control. Raising and control have been central concerns of generative syntax since the 1960s. Peter Rosenbaum's book "The grammar of English predicate complement constructions," proposed the seminal generative account of raising and control constructions.

Historically, control in generative grammar has fallen within the province of syntactic theory. One primary reason for this is that Mainstream Generative Grammar (MGG) has imposed a strong uniformity criterion on analyses as a measure of their explanatory adequacy. One aspect of this uniformity criterion, which we call Interface Uniformity, holds that the syntax-semantics interface is maximally simple, in that meaning maps transparently into syntactic structure, and that it is maximally uniform, so that the same meaning always maps into the same syntactic structure. It follows from Interface Uniformity that a nonfinite VP has a syntactic subject that is assigned its external θ-role. We argue that this view is most sustainable if one does not take into account the full richness and complexity of control phenomena, but treats control strictly in terms of complementation. When a fuller range of phenomena is taken into account, it appears that it is preferable to "turn over control" to the semantics, which is better equipped to capture the facts. We outline how to formulate the syntax-semantics interface so as to get the semantic facts to line up properly with the syntactic facts. This analysis of the interface extends naturally to raising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control has played an important role in theoretical debates within the Minimalist Program. This is so because control implicates notions such as module, θ-role, the Last Resort nature of syntactic operations, movement, binding, chains, Case, complementation, and more. Hornstein (1999) has controversially claimed that control is a subspecies of movement. That is, control is just like familiar instances of raising, except that it involves movement into an additional θ-position. If correct, the movement analysis has important conceptual and empirical repercussions, some of which are examined here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study offers an Optimality-Theoretic analysis of the syllabification of intervocalic consonants and glides in Modern English. It will be argued that the proposed syllabifications fall out from universal markedness constraints – all of which derive motivation from other languages – and a language-specific ranking. The analysis offered below is therefore an alternative to the traditional rule-based analyses of English syllabification, e.g. Kahn (1976), Borowsky (1986), Giegerich (1992, 1999) and to the Optimality-Theoretic treatment proposed by Hammond (1999), whose analysis requires several language-specific constraints which apparently have no cross-linguistic motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes and explores a natural language processing- (NLP) based strategy to address out-of-dictionary and vocabulary mismatch problems in query translation based English–Chinese Cross-Language Information Retrieval (EC-CLIR). The strategy, named the LKB approach, is to construct a lexical knowledge base (LKB) and to use it for query translation. In this article, the author describes the LKB construction process, which customizes available translation resources based on the document collection of the EC-CLIR system. The evaluation shows that the LKB approach is very promising. It consistently increased the percentage of correct translations and decreased the percentage of missing translations in addition to effectively detecting the vocabulary gap between the document collection and the translation resource of the system. The comparative analysis of the top EC-CLIR results using the LKB and two other translation resources demonstrates that the LKB approach has produced significant improvement in EC-CLIR performance compared to performance using the original translation resource without customization. It has also achieved the same level of performance as a sophisticated machine translation system. The study concludes that the LKB approach has the potential to be an empirical model for developing real-world CLIR systems. Linguistic knowledge and NLP techniques, if appropriately used, can improve the effectiveness of English–Chinese cross-language information retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gray & Atkinson's (2003) application of quantitative phylogenetic methods to Dyen, Kruskal & Black's (1992) Indo-European database produced controversial divergence time estimates. Here we test the robustness of these results using an alternative data set of ancient Indo-European languages. We employ two very different stochastic models of lexical evolution – Gray & Atkinson's (2003) finite-sites model and a stochastic-Dollo model of word evolution introduced by Nicholls & Gray (in press). Results of this analysis support the findings of Gray & Atkinson (2003). We also tested the ability of both methods to reconstruct phylogeny and divergence times accurately from synthetic data. The methods performed well under a range of scenarios, including widespread and localized borrowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends Howard Lasnik's commentary inSyntactic Structures Revisited(2000) on Chomsky's transformational analyses of the verbal morphology system. It reviews Lasnik's critique of the transformational machinery inSyntactic Structuresand shows how the problems he identifies are resolved under a more minimal theory of transformations that developed circa 1980. Considering the three central topics in the analysis of this system—the order and form of verbal elements, the main verb movement parameter, and the distribution of periphrasticdo—it discusses some problems that arise in Lasnik's hybrid account and proposes a lexicalist alternative that eliminates the rules of affix hopping anddo-support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defends three interconnected claims: (a) selection is the only licensing procedure available to UG, specifically, checking is an instance of selection; (b) selection obtains in the mutual c-command configuration; and (c) though a head does not mutually c-command its own specifier, it mutually c-commands the specifier of its complement. A head may therefore license the specifier of its complement (as well as its complement) but not its own specifier (it is not local enough). This effectively eliminates the spec-head configuration from the repertoire of syntactic configurations, in favor of a unified notion of locality strictly identifiable with mutual c-command, a symmetric configuration. The discussion shows that a theory that collapses these distinctions remains empirically discriminating. The resulting theory is therefore genuinely reductionist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Book reviewed in this article: April McMahon (ed.), Change, Chance, and Optimality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines to what degree lenition happens in alveolars in Liverpool, England English. By looking closely at the realisation of /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /ts/ and /dz/ in both initial and final position, it will be investigated whether there is really any kind of neutralisation between the categories, and in which environments, if any, this occurs. The author's hypothesis is that, although there seems to be a much greater approximation between the categories, a difference is maintained. General neutralisation would pose too much of a problem to comprehension. Although minimal pairs like right and rice could be differentiated by a feature such as vowel length even if the final consonants were phonetically identical, it will be shown that there are differences between lenited stops, affricates and fricatives. It will be evident that stops are lenited, having either considerable friction following closure, or no closure at all, and that this effect will be greater for voiceless than for voiced consonants, and also greater for consonants in final position.

Presents a response to the article `Emergentism, Connectionism and Language Learning,' by Nick Ellis. Summary on Ellis' article; Additions and suggestions on language learning research; Personal views on connectionism; Success of transformational generative grammar in providing explanation for variety of concerns in language studies.

Abstract. We construct a completely cyclic Minimalist theory of syntactic derivations. A derivation consists of a sequence of cycles. Each cycle starts with the introduction of a new head and merger of the head's selected arguments, followed by satisfaction (via checking) of the head's removable features. The theory includes no acyclic devices such as lexical arrays or comparison of derivations. Satisfaction of features is accompanied by full category movement whenever it is not blocked by morphology or constraints barring multiple specifiers. The Minimal Link Condition is viewed computationally and is naturally incorporated into Satisfy. Our precise notion of checking involves sets of features interacting in the same checking relation, and yields an account of successive cyclic movement, the distribution of expletives, EPP, and quirky case phenomena. The paper can be read as empirical evidence that the core syntactic algorithm is computationally efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a guide to various literature on aggressive behavior.