Search

Purpose -- This paper aims to demonstrate how fundamental social and psychological drivers can affect the language used by people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their carers. Design/methodology/approach -- A theoretical model is used to predict four ways in which communicative priorities in a given context will generate formulaic linguistic responses in interaction. Evidence from the language of both people with AD and their carers illustrates each point. Moreover, the model offers an explanation for several effective approaches for improving interaction. Findings -- The paper explains the dynamics of a downward spiral in interaction that features more and more "formulaic" language, and indicates how carers can help create a context for greater empowerment of people with AD. Practical implications -- Since people with AD need the stimulation of meaningful and targeted interaction, the downward spiral arising from carers' formulaic responses is potentially damaging. To improve the quafity of communication between people with AD and their carers, the negative impact of formulaic language in interaction needs to be transformed into something more positive and productive. Indications are offered for how this can be achieved. Originality/value -- The paper offers significant new insights into the causes of the well-recognised patterns of repetitive language in people with AD, and explains how they can trigger unhelpful responses in carers. The theoretical underpinning offers opportunities for understanding how best to support carers in engaging more positively with people with AD, resulting in a richer type of communication for the latter and reduced stress levels for the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article briefly summarizes key developments in formulaic language research over the past 5 years, before exploring certain assumptions typically made, regarding the coherence of formulaicity as a phenomenon, the significance of frequency as a property, and the location of subtypes of formulaic language along various continua. It is argued that we do not yet have the full measure of how different features associated with formulaicity fit together. The challenge lies in reconciling the range of evidence types within an explanation that is rooted not only in usage itself, but in the underlying motivations that determine usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What measurements should linguists use when comparing texts written by different writers? We report aspects of a systematic evaluation of 381 different language measures derived from 200 analytic tools, carried out during the pilot for a study exploring genetic contributions to language variation. The measures covered lexis, structure, meaning, and discourse features, and were evaluated with a focus on capturing numerically the qualitative features that linguists consider central to differentiating one text from another. We review principles for selecting analytic tools, and the choices faced by the researcher in processing and analysing data. We then identify and demonstrate five of the measures, which between them provide a useful profile of different linguistic features, and note correlations with psychometric measures taken for each writer. We conclude with some caveats regarding general issues of validity and some indications about potential links between our work and research into authorship attribution for forensic purposes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We explore the proposal that the linguistic forms and structures employed by our earliest language-using ancestors might have been significantly different from those observed in the languages we are most familiar with today, not because of a biological difference between them and us, but because the communicative context in which they operated was fundamentally different from that of most modern humans. Languages that are used predominantly for esoteric (intra-group) communication tend to have features that are semantically and grammatically ‘complex’, while those used also (or even exclusively) for exoteric (inter-group) communication become ‘simplified’ towards rule-based regularity and semantic transparency. Drawing on a range of contemporary data, we propose a psycholinguistic explanation for why esotericity would promote such complexity, and argue that this is the natural default setting for human language. This being so, it should be taken into account when modelling the evolution of language, for some of the features that are normally viewed as fundamental – including the notion of fully developed underlying rule-based systematicity – may, in fact, be cultural add-ons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

TESSA is an interactive translation system designed to support transactions between a post office clerk and a deaf customer. The system translates the clerk''s speech into British Sign Language (BSL), displayed on a screen, using a specially-developed avatar (virtual human). TESSA is a context-constrained exemplification of one of two basic approaches to machine translation, neither of which can currently fulfil all of the demands of successful automatic translation. Drawing on recent research in theoretical psycholinguistics, we show how TESSA is a convincing prototype model of one aspect of real human language processing. Ways are suggested of exploiting this parallel, potentially offering new possibilities for the future design of artificial language systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article explores how academic linguists have become marginalised from policy-making aimed at reforming English teaching in English schools, and how they are now beginning to contribute again. A pluralistic model of interaction between central government politicians, linguists and media professionals is applied to two ``critical incidents.'' First, linguists were commissioned by the government a decade ago to produce materials for teaching English in the National Curriculum. The materials were rejected as reflecting the ``progressive'' educational ideology that ministers claimed had led to poor standards. Second, in 1998 the successor government introduced a ``National Literacy Strategy'' into primary schools, developed without linguists' input and reflecting a ``traditional'' view of language. The materials were flawed, prompting a constructive response by linguists that resulted in unpublicised modifications. Our model shows how linguists best serve their interest by staying out of the media spotlight while they engage in seeking common ground with government politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent model of language processing in normal native speakers (Wray, 2002a) proposes that speakers reap substantial benefits from storing and retrieving prefabricated utterances from memory, rather than always constructing novel ones on line. Substantial evidence from a wide range of linguistic research is consistent with the model, but independent tests of its viability would be difficult to conduct. A small number of 'natural experiments', however, provide an opportunity to gain insights into some of the parameters of the model. One such 'natural' experiment is TALK, a system developed to promote conversational fluency in non-speaking individuals. The design and efficacy of TALK are explored and evaluated as a potential working model of Wray's depiction of normal language processing. TALK is demonstrated to be a valuable tool for the pursuit of language awareness, both because it demands of its users a highly developed sensitivity about how conversation works, and because it provides researchers with glimpses of a phenomenon that is normally inaccessible - language processing in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data was collected from the BBC Singers during rehearsals and recording sessions leading to a broadcast and CD of a musical setting of an Early Modern English (EModE) text. Three patterns emerged in the singers' pronunciation of the EModE phonemes /ae:/ and /E:/. One, [ae] and [E] respectively, reflected the targets but was not sustainable. The second, [E] and [E], destroyed the phonemic contrast. The third, [a] and [ae] or [E] maintained the contrast using patterns similar to those in modern English. Reasons for this are sought in the nature of singing and the `non-native speaker' status of modern users of EModE. Tentative parallels are drawn with recent claims about the fundamental stability of /ae:/ and /E:/ as a phoneme pair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our tolerance for, and promotion of, linguistic irregularity is a key arbitrator between Arbib's proposal that holistic protolanguage preceded culturally imposed compositionality, and the standard view that discrete units with word-like properties came first. The former, coupled with needs-only analysis, neatly accounts for the second-order linguistic complexity that is rationalised as fuzzy grammaticality, subclass exception, and full irregularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]