Academic literature on the topic 'Semantics. Language acquisition. Psycholinguistics'

AbstractAcross languages, age of acquisition (AoA) is a critical psycholinguistic factor in lexical processing, reflecting the influence of learning experience. Early-acquired words tend to be processed more quickly and accurately than late-acquired words. Recently, an integrated view proposed that both the mappings between representations and the construction of semantic representations contribute to AoA effects, thus, predicting larger AoA effects for words with arbitrary mappings between representations as well as for tasks requiring greater semantic processing. We investigated how these predictions generalize to the Chinese language system that differs from alphabetic languages regarding the ease of mappings and semantic involvement in lexical processing. A cross-task investigation of differential psycholinguistic effects was conducted with large character naming and lexical decision datasets to establish the extent to which semantics is involved in the two tasks. We focused on examining the effect sizes of lexical-semantic variables and AoA, and the interaction between AoA and consistency. The results demonstrated that semantics influenced Chinese character naming more than lexical decision, which is in contrast with the findings related to English language, though, critically, AoA effects were more pronounced for character naming than for lexical decision. Additionally, an interaction between AoA and consistency was found in character naming. Our findings provide cross-linguistic evidence supporting the view of multiple origins of AoA effects in the language-processing system.

This paper utilised bibliometric and scientometric indicators to assess the current state of research in psycholinguistics. A total of 32,586 documents in psycholinguistics were included from Scopus, WOS, and Lens between 1946 and 2022. The collected data were analysed using CiteSpace 5.8.R3 and VOSviewer 1.6.18. The results included tabulation, visualisation, and mapping for the past, present, and future directions of the field of psycholinguistics. We identified key authors, works, journals, and concepts in the existing evidence concerning (children’s) language acquisition, production, comprehension, and dissolution. The study contributes to the systematic study of existing scholarship in the field of psycholinguistics by documenting the progress of the field and informing relevant researchers about the current state of the field of psycholinguistics. Having grouped the 32,586 documents in psycholinguistics, 12 clusters were identified. These include (1) examining individual difference in affective norm and familiarity account; (2) examining refractory effect in the role of Broca’s area in sentence processing; (3) using eye movement to study bilingual language control and familiarity account; (4) exploring familiarity account through relative clauses; (5) the study of formulaic language and language persistence; (6) examining affective norm and sub-lexical effect in Spanish words; (7) examining lexical persistence in multiplex lexical networks; (8) the study of persistence through cortical dynamics; (9) the study of context effect in language learning and language processing; (10) the study of neurophysiological correlates in semantic context integration; (11) examining persistence as an acquisition norm through naming latencies; and (12) following a cross-linguistic perspective to study aphasic speakers.

This research focuses on the semantics acquisition of a child with language delay diagnosed as autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). The research problem is on how the child acquired the ability to comprehend meaning. It aims at answering the questions on how the child identified lexical meanings and how he labeled targeted lexicons of his first language. The approach employed in this research is descriptive qualitative to get adequate explanation on a specific language phenomenon, namely semantics acquisition. Its design is case study with the type neo-ethnographic. As the data collection method, it uses participant observation of longitudinal study considering that the research subject has familial relation with the researcher. The data analysis shows that the semantic acquisition of the research subject has complexity in vocabulary enrichment. The research subject often performs echolalic speech when he is asked to identify or label certain object given. The typical idiosyncratic speech is shown by the unique feature of limited syllable and prosody. In general, his ability to identify lexical meanings is far exceeding his ability to label objects. He also has sensitivity to perceive the non-verbal symbol performed by the people he knows well. The use of verbal language supported by non-verbal language facilitates his perception. He finds it difficult to comprehend the lexicons having similar sound as he assumes that one lexicon represents one object which typically belongs to concrete object. In addition, the ability of the research subject in labeling objects cannot be developed easily because of his difficulty in expressing ideas through words. To pronounce the words correctly, he shows high anxiety by lowering down his speech. In selecting the lexicon he also finds it hard to use pronoun, to label homonyms and to apply both polysemy and hyponym. Accordingly, he tends to communicate only to fulfill his needs by asking things, asking the listeners to do or not to do something, and protesting something as shown in the contexts. Further, he is likely to label objects by the lexicons got from the immediate exposure.keywords; Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Language Acquisition; Psycholinguistics

The problem of building a computer model of a small language was under solution. The relevance of this task is due to the following considerations: the need to eliminate the information inequality between speakers of different languages; the need for new tools for the study of poorly understood languages, as well as innovative approaches to language modeling in the low-resource context; the problem of supporting and developing small languages.There are three main objectives in solving the problem of small natural language processing at the stage of describing the problem situation: to justify the problem of modeling language in the context of resource scarcity as a special task in the field of natural languages processing, to review the literature on the relevant topic, to develop the concept of language acquisition model with a relatively small number of available resources. Computer modeling techniques using neural networks, semi-supervised learning and reinforcement learning were involved.The paper provides a review of the literature on modeling the learning of vocabulary, morphology, and grammar of a child's native language. Based on the current understanding of the language acquisition and existing computer models of this process, the architecture of the system of small language processing, which is taught through modeling of ontogenesis, is proposed. The main components of the system and the principles of their interaction are highlighted. The system is based on a module built on the basis of modern dialogical language models and taught in some rich-resources language (e.g., English). During training, an intermediate layer is used which represents statements in some abstract form, for example, in the symbols of formal semantics. The relationship between the formal recording of utterances and their translation into the target low-resource language is learned by modeling the child's acquisition of vocabulary and grammar of the language. One of components stands for the non-linguistic context in which language learning takes place.This article explores the problem of modeling small languages. A detailed substantiation of the relevance of modeling small languages is given: the social significance of the problem is noted, the benefits for linguistics, ethnography, ethnology and cultural anthropology are shown. The ineffectiveness of approaches applied to large languages in conditions of a lack of resources is noted. A model of language learning by means of ontogenesis simulation is proposed, which is based both on the results obtained in the field of computer modeling and on the data of psycholinguistics.

The paper discusses possibilities and ways of studying concepts in teaching foreign languages to students-interpreters. The author notes that modern didactic research has interdisciplinary nature, analyzes the theory of the concept from the point of view of linguistics, cultural studies and psycholinguistics. The author also notes the fact of creation of linguo-conceptodidactics as a new scientific direction. The paper presents a linguodidactic understanding of the concept, analyzes its structure and semantic content. The author describes in detail the process of foreign language concepts acquisition and presents it as a sequence of several stages. The acquisition of foreign language concepts is associated with the development of concept competence. The paper notes that the acquisition of foreign language concepts should go in parallel with the acquisition of foreign language lexis. In addition, it is necessary to use authentic materials in teaching foreign languages that allows forming a conceptual picture of the world of native speakers. Acquisition of foreign language concepts is especially important for students-interpreters who study several foreign languages and are faced with the problem of translating foreign concepts and phenomena of foreign language reality. The paper presents how conceptuality can be realized in teaching foreign languages. The author gives a practical example of studying the English concept Travel, offers examples of exercises and tasks for mastering it, as well as mnemonic techniques for memorizing lexemes that represent the concept. In the paper is stressed, that the concepts should be included in the content of foreign language teaching to students-interpreters. This contributes to the development of correct ideas about foreign language reality, understanding the facts of the native and foreign language culture, i.e. cultural reflection development.

Early language acquisition is a complex cognitive task. Recent data-informed approaches showed that children do not learn words uniformly at random but rather follow specific strategies based on the associative representation of words in the mental lexicon, a conceptual system enabling human cognitive computing. Building on this evidence, the current investigation introduces a combination of machine learning techniques, psycholinguistic features (i.e., frequency, length, polysemy and class) and multiplex lexical networks, representing the semantics and phonology of the mental lexicon, with the aim of predicting normative acquisition of 529 English words by toddlers between 22 and 26 months. Classifications using logistic regression and based on four psycholinguistic features achieve the best baseline cross-validated accuracy of 61.7% when half of the words have been acquired. Adding network information through multiplex closeness centrality enhances accuracy (up to 67.7%) more than adding multiplex neighbourhood density/degree (62.4%) or multiplex PageRank versatility (63.0%) or the best single-layer network metric, i.e., free association degree (65.2%), instead. Multiplex closeness operationalises the structural relevance of words for semantic and phonological information flow. These results indicate that the whole, global, multi-level flow of information and structure of the mental lexicon influence word acquisition more than single-layer or local network features of words when considered in conjunction with language norms. The highlighted synergy of multiplex lexical structure and psycholinguistic norms opens new ways for understanding human cognition and language processing through powerful and data-parsimonious cognitive computing approaches.

MacWhinney, Bates, and colleagues developed the Competition Model in the 1980s as an alternate to Chomskyan models that encapsulate syntax as a special-purpose module. The Competition Model adopted the functional perspective that language serves communicative goals and functions. In contrast to the premise that knowledge of language is innate, the Competition model asserts that language is learned and processed through general cognitive mechanisms that identify and weight phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic cues in the language experiences of the learner. These weighted cues guide the language user in the comprehension and production of language forms. The present article provides background on the Competition Model, describes machine simulations of linguistic competition, and extends the principles of the Competition Model to new machine models and applications through deep learning networks. References Bates, E. & MacWhinney, B. (1982). A functionalist approach to grammar. In E. Wanner & L. Gleitman (Eds.), Language acquisition: the state of the art. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In: The Crosslinguistic Study of Sentence Processing, (pp 3-76). B. MacWhinney and E. Bates (Eds.), New York: Cambridge University Press. Devescovi, A., D’Amico, S., Smith, S., Mimica, I., & Bates, E. (1998). The development of sentence comprehension in Italian and Serbo-Croatian: Local versus distributed cues. In: Syntax and Semantics: Vol. 31. Sentence Pocessing: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective, (pp. 345-377). D. Hillert (Ed.), San Diego: Academic Press. Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What it is, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579. Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review, 87, 329-354. Langacker, R. (1989). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 2: Applications. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Li, P., & MacWhinney, B. (2013). Competition model. In: The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), Malden, MA: Wiley. MacWhinney, B. (1987). The competition model. In: Mechanisms of Language Acquisition, (pp.249-308). B. MacWhinney (Ed.).Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. MacWhinney, B. (2001). The competition model: The input, the context, and the brain. In: Cognition and Second Language Instruction, (pp. 69–90). P. Robinson (Ed.), New York: Cambridge University Press. MacWhinney, B. (2008). A Unified Model. In: Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, (pp. 341-371). P. Robinson & N. Ellis (Eds.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. MacWhinney B. (2012). The logic of the Unified Model. In: The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, (pp. 211–227). S. Gass and A. Mackey (Eds.). New York: Routledge. MacWhinney, B. (2015). Multidimensional SLA. In: Usage-Based Perspectives on Second Language Learning, (pp. 22-45). S. Eskilde and T. Cadierno (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. MacWhinney, B., Bates, E. & Kliegl, R. (1984). Cue validity and sentence interpretation in English, German, and Italian. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 127-150. MacWhinney, B., Leinbach, J., Taraban, R., & McDonald, J. (1989). Language learning: Cues or rules? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 255-277. McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1986). Parallel Distributed Processing. Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition. Volume 2: Psychological and Biological Models. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Presson, N. & MacWhinney, B. (2011). The Competition Model and language disorders. In: Handbook of Psycholinguistic and Cognitive Processes, (pp. 31-48). J. Guendozi, F. Loncke, and M. Williams (Eds.). New York: Psychology Press. Sokolov, J. L. (1988). Cue validity in Hebrew sentence comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 15, 129-156. Taraban, R. (2004). Drawing learners’ attention to syntactic context aids gender-like category induction. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(2), 202-216. Taraban, R. (2017). Hate, white supremacy, PTSD, and metacognition. In: Improve With Metacognition [online]. L. Scharff, A. Richmond, & J. Draeger (Eds.). Retrieved from: www.improvewithmetacognition.com. Taraban, R., & Kempe, V. (1999). Gender processing in native and non-native Russian speakers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 119-148. Taraban, R., McDonald, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Category learning in a connectionist model: Learning to decline the German definite article. In R. Corrigan, F. Eckman, & M. Noonan (Eds.), Linguistic categorization (pp. 163-193). Philadelphia: Benjamins. Taraban, R., & Roark, B. (1996). Competition in learning language-based categories. Applied Psycholinguistics, 17, 125-148.

Most work on acquisition of lexical meaning in developmental psycholinguistics is based on the idea of the relevance of the adult model, which is generally described in relation to certain theoretical semantic analyses. Up to the present, adult behavior itself has not been examined and its validity as a model for children has been taken for granted. This paper analyzes the knowledge of spatial terms, namely dimensional terms, shown by a group of 20 adults. The results show that the adult subjects used in our study - supposedly linguistically competent - committed errors, significantly varying their strategies for naming dimensions from one case to another, and showing a lack of consistency between them. The results are discussed in terms of assumed theoretical validity with regard to theoretical semantic analysis, as well as the methods of research about the acquisition of lexical meaning.

Second language acquisition research (sla) is the systematic exploration of the conditions that make the acquisition of a foreign language possible, both in natural and in instructional settings. Its objects of study are the biological, linguistic, psychological, and emotional makeup of language learners and the educational, social, and institutional context of learning and teaching. Whereas language as a linguistic system is studied through the metalanguage of linguistics (phonology, syntax, and semantics), language learning, as psycholinguistic process and sociolinguistic discourse, is researched through the metadiscourse of applied linguistics: psycho- and sociolinguistics, anthropological and educational linguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, stylistics, and composition and literacy studies. These fields illuminate what it means to learn to speak, read, write, and interact in a foreign language, what it means to appropriate for oneself the national idiom of communities that share a history and a culture that are different from one's own. SLA provides the applied linguistic metadiscourse for the practice of language learning and teaching.

Although both Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and grammatical gender acquisition have been the focus of scientific interest for decades, a few research has been conducted in order to explore how DLD Russian-speaking children acquire this linguistic category. One of the main reasons for this is the difficulty of recruiting DLD children as we still cannot reliably identify these children. Previous studies claim that typically developing children acquire grammatical gender at about 3-4 years of age, but have difficulties with neuter gender up to 6 years of age. This brief report aims at providing the theoretical background of a research in process. The review deals with the issue of grammatical gender acquisition by Russian-speaking children diagnosed with DLD. Specifically, this paper reviews i) the main findings of studies on gender acquisition in typically developing Russian-speaking children, ii) the outcomes of research on how Russian-speaking DLD children make use of grammatical gender. References Anderson, R.T. & Souto, S.M. (2005). The use of articles by monolingual Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26(4), 621-647. Bedore, L. M., & Leonard, L. B. (2001). Grammatical morphology deficits in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44(4), 905–924 Bishop, D.V.M., Snowling M.J., Thompson, P. A., Greenhalgh Y., & The CATALISE Consortium. (2017): Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology. PLoS ONE, 11(7), 1-26. Clahsen, H., Bartke, S. & Göllner S. (1997). Formal features in impaired grammars: A Com­parison of English and German SLI children. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 10(2/3), 151-171. Corbett, G. G. (1991). Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Гвоздев, А.Н. (1961). Формирование у ребенка грамматического строя русского языка. Москва: АПН РСФСР. Jackson-Maldonado, D. & Maldonado, R. (2017). Grammaticality differences between Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment and their typically developing peers. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 52(6), 750-765. Leonard, Laurence B. (2014). Children with Specific Language Impairment. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Mitrofanova, N., Rodina, Y., Urek, O. & Westergaard, M. (2018). Bilinguals’ Sensitivity to Grammatical Gender Cues in Russian: The Role of Cumulative Input, Proficiency, and Dominance. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01894 Orgassa, A., & Weerman, F. (2008). Dutch gender in specific language impairment and second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 24(3), 333–364. Popova, M. I. (1973). Grammatical elements of language in the speech of pre-preschool children. In Studies of child language development, (pp. 269–80). C. A. Ferguson & D. I. Slobin (eds). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Rakhlin, N., Kornilov, S., & Grigorenko, E. (2014). Gender and agreement processing in children with Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of Child Language, 41(2), 241–274. Rodina, Y. (2008). Semantics and morphology: The acquisition of grammatical gender in Russian. Doctoral thesis. Tromso: University of Tromso. Retrieved from: https://munin.uit.no/handle/ 10037/2247. Rodina, Y. & Westeergard M. (2012). A cue-based approach to the acquisition of grammatical gender in Russian. Journal of Child Language, 39(5), 1077-1106. Roulet-Amiot, L., & Jacubowicz, C. (2006). Production and perception of gender agreement in French SLI. Advances in Speech Language Pathology, 8(4), 335–346. Silveira, M. (2006). A preliminary investigation of grammatical gender abilities in Portuguese speaking children with Specific Language Impairment. Unpublished working paper, University College London, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics. Retrieved from: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ psychlangsci/research/linguistics/publications/wpl/06papers/silveira Tribushinina, E., & Dubinkina, E. (2012). Adjective production by Russian-speaking children with specific language impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 26(6), 554–571. Tribushinina, E., Mak, M., Dubinkina, E. & Mak, W.M. (2018). Adjective production by Russian-speaking children with developmental language disorder and Dutch-Russian simultaneous bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(5), 1033-1064. Цейтлин, С. Н. (2005). Категория рода в детской речи. Проблемы функциональной грамматики: полевые структуры. А.В. Бондаренко (ред.). Санкт-Петербург: Наука, 346-375. Цейтлин, С.Н. (2009). Очерки по словообразованию и формообразованию в детской речи. Москва: Знак. Varlokosta, S. & Nerantzini, M. (2013). Grammatical gender in Specific Language Impairment: Evidence from Determiner-Noun Contexts in Greek. Psychology, 20(3), 338-357. References (translated and transliterated) Anderson, R.T. & Souto, S.M. (2005). The use of articles by monolingual Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26(4), 621-647. Bedore, L. M., & Leonard, L. B. (2001). Grammatical morphology deficits in Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44(4), 905–924 Bishop, D.V.M., Snowling M.J., Thompson, P. A., Greenhalgh Y., & The CATALISE Consortium. (2017): Phase 2 of CATALISE: a multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development: Terminology. PLoS ONE, 11(7), 1-26. Clahsen, H., Bartke, S. & Göllner S. (1997). Formal features in impaired grammars: A Com­parison of English and German SLI children. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 10(2/3), 151-171. Corbett, G. G. (1991). Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Гвоздев, А.Н. (1961). Формирование у ребенка грамматического строя русского языка. Москва: АПН РСФСР. Gvozdev, A. N. (1961). Formirovanie u Rebenka Grammatičeskogo Stroja Russkogo Jazyka [The Construction of the Grammatical Basis of the Russian Language in a Child]. Moscow: The Russian Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Jackson-Maldonado, D. & Maldonado, R. (2017). Grammaticality differences between Spanish-speaking children with specific language impairment and their typically developing peers. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 52(6), 750-765. Leonard, Laurence B. (2014). Children with Specific Language Impairment. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Mitrofanova, N., Rodina, Y., Urek, O. & Westergaard, M. (2018). Bilinguals’ Sensitivity to Grammatical Gender Cues in Russian: The Role of Cumulative Input, Proficiency, and Dominance. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01894 Orgassa, A., & Weerman, F. (2008). Dutch gender in specific language impairment and second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 24(3), 333–364. Popova, M. I. (1973). Grammatical elements of language in the speech of pre-preschool children. In Studies of child language development, (pp. 269–80). C. A. Ferguson & D. I. Slobin (eds). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Rakhlin, N., Kornilov, S., & Grigorenko, E. (2014). Gender and agreement processing in children with Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of Child Language, 41(2), 241–274. Rodina, Y. (2008). Semantics and morphology: The acquisition of grammatical gender in Russian. Doctoral thesis. Tromso: University of Tromso. Retrieved from: https://munin.uit.no/handle/ 10037/2247. Rodina, Y. & Westeergard M. (2012). A cue-based approach to the acquisition of grammatical gender in Russian. Journal of Child Language, 39(5), 1077-1106. Roulet-Amiot, L., & Jacubowicz, C. (2006). Production and perception of gender agreement in French SLI. Advances in Speech Language Pathology, 8(4), 335–346. Silveira, M. (2006). A preliminary investigation of grammatical gender abilities in Portuguese speaking children with Specific Language Impairment. Unpublished working paper, University College London, Department of Phonetics and Linguistics. Retrieved from: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ psychlangsci/research/linguistics/publications/wpl/06papers/silveira Tribushinina, E., & Dubinkina, E. (2012). Adjective production by Russian-speaking children with specific language impairment. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 26(6), 554–571. Tribushinina, E., Mak, M., Dubinkina, E. & Mak, W.M. (2018). Adjective production by Russian-speaking children with developmental language disorder and Dutch-Russian simultaneous bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(5), 1033-1064. Цейтлин, С. Н. (2005). Категория рода в детской речи. Проблемы функциональной грамматики: полевые структуры. А.В. Бондаренко (ред.). Санкт-Петербург: Наука, 346-375. Ceitlin, S. N. (2005). Kategorija roda v detskoj reči [The category of gender in child speech]. In Problemy funkcional'noj grammatiki: Polevye struktury [Issues in functional grammar: Field structures], (pp. 346–375). A. V. Bondarko (ed.). S.-Petersburg: Nauka. Цейтлин, С.Н. (2009). Очерки по словообразованию и формообразованию в детской речи. Москва: Знак. Ceitlin, S. N. (2009). Ocherki po slovoobrazovaniju i formoobrazovaniju v detskoj rechi [On Inflection and Derivation in Child Language]. Moscow: Znak. Varlokosta, S. & Nerantzini, M. (2013). Grammatical gender in Specific Language Impairment: Evidence from Determiner-Noun Contexts in Greek. Psychology, 20(3), 338-357.

Suivant la proposition de Tarski (1936), la sémantique vériconditionnelle associeà une phrase déclarative des conditions de vérité. Ainsi, comprendre le sens dela phrase “Il pleut”, c’est pouvoir dire après avoir regardé par la fenêtre si elle estvraie ou fausse. Toutefois, ceci ne permet de rendre compte que des phrases déclaratives,et pas des questions puisqu’aucune situation ne rendra jamais la question“Qui a appelé ce matin ?” vraie ou fausse. Hamblin (1973) propose la premièrethéorie des questions dans le cadre de la sémantique véri-conditionnelle, et proposede leur associer des conditions de résolutions, c’est-à-dire des ensembles deréponses. Comprendre le sens de la question “Qui a appelé ce matin ?” c’est alorssavoir que “Jean a appelé” est une réponse possible, tandis que “il pleuvait” n’enest pas une.Très rapidement, l’étude de la sémantique des questions s’est tournée versles questions enchâssées dans des phrases déclaratives (questions indirectes). Eneffet, il est beaucoup plus aisé de juger des conditions de vérité d’une phrasesdéclarative que des conditions de résolution d’une question. Or moyennant deshypothèses sur la sémantique des verbes enchâssant des questions (‘savoir’, ‘oublier’.. . ), on peut relier les conditions de vérité d’une phrase déclarative au sensde la question qu’elle enchâsse. Cette approche, proposée par Karttunen (1977), adonné lieu à une littérature théorique très riche
Two important questions arise from the recent literature on embedded questions.First, Heim (1994) proposed that embedded questions are ambiguous betweena weakly and strongly exhaustive reading. Spector (2005) recently proposedan intermediate exhaustive reading as well. Second, adverbs of quantity such as’mostly’ can quantify over answers to an embedded questions (Berman, 1991). Ananalysis of this phenomena reveals an analogy between embedded questions andplural determiner phrases, and suggests a fine-grained structures for the denotationof questions (Lahiri, 2002).The first part of the dissertation consist of three psycholinguistic studies on theexhaustive readings of questions under ‘know’ in English, the acquisition of thesereadings under ‘savoir’ by French 5-to-6-ear-olds, and the properties of emotivefactivepredicates such as ‘surprise’. The second part presents a theory of embeddedquestions built on Klinedinst and Rothschild’s (2011) proposal to derive exhaustivereadings as implicatures, although it differs in the fine-grained structureit adopts for questions denotations in order to account for plurality effects as well.The theory solves problem raised by B. R. George (2013) and makes predictions fora larger range of sentences

The research presented in this PhD dissertation examines the phenomenon of semantic implicit learning, using semantic preferences of novel verbs as a test case. Implicit learning refers to the phenomenon of learning without intending to learn or awareness that one is learning at all. Semantic preference (or selectional preference – as preferred in computational linguistics) is the tendency of a word to co-occur with words sharing similar semantic features. For example, ‘drink’ is typically followed by nouns denoting LIQUID, and the verb ‘chase’ is typically followed by ANIMATE nouns. The material presented here spans across disciplines. It examines a well-documented psychological phenomenon - implicit learning – and applies it in the context of language acquisition, thereby providing insights into both fields. The organisation of this dissertation groups its experiments by their methodology. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the current psychological and linguistic literature. Chapter 2 includes a pen-and-paper study carried out in a classroom environment on Polish learners of English, where awareness is assessed by subjective measures taken at each test question as well as a post-experiment questionnaire. Chapter 3 includes a collection of 5 computer-based experiments based on a false-memory paradigm. After exposure to sentential contexts containing novel verbs, participants are shown to endorse more previously unseen verb-noun pairings that follow the correct semantic preference patterns to the pairings that violate it. The result holds even when participants do not reveal any explicit knowledge of the patterns in the final debriefing. Awareness is additionally assessed using indirect measures examining correlations of confidence judgements with performance. Chapter 4 examines whether implicit learning of novel verb semantic preference patterns is automatic. To this end, a reaction time procedure is developed based on two consecutive decisions (“double decision priming”). The method reveals that semantic implicit learning, at least in the described cases, exerts its influence with a delay, in post-processing. Chapter 5 comprises research done in collaboration with Dr Nitin Williams, University of Reading. It documents an attempt at finding neural indices of implicit learning using a novel single-trial analysis of an electroencephalographic (EEG) signal, based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) denoising. Chapter 6 presents a final discussion and indications for future research. The main contribution of this dissertation to the general field of implicit learning research consists in its challenging the predominant view that implicit learning mainly relies on similarity of forms presented in training and test. The experiments presented here require participants to make generalisations at a higher, semantic level, which is largely independent of perceptual form. The contribution of this work to the field of Second Language Acquisition consists of empirical support for the currently popular but seldom tested assumptions held by advocates of communicative approaches to language teaching, namely that certain aspects of linguistic knowledge can develop without explicit instruction and explanation. At the same time, it challenges any view assuming that vocabulary learning necessarily relies on explicit mediation. The experiments collected here demonstrate that at least word usage in context can be learnt implicitly. A further contribution of this dissertation is its demonstration that the native language may play a key role in determining what is learnt in such situations. A deeper understanding of the phenomenon of semantic implicit learning promises to shed light on the nature of word and grammar learning in general, which is crucial for an account of the processes involved in the development of a second language mental lexicon.

This dissertation discusses the convergence of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, the language acquisition and development of young children who are minimally verbal or nonverbal who acquire their native language while simultaneously learning to use an aided AAC system, and explicit and implicit elements that influence language outcomes. Factors investigated include those related to language acquisition universals, the AAC system, the young aided AAC user, and practices, philosophies, and beliefs of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Further examined were: (a) language acquisition parallels in atypical populations who do not possess the full range of senses who have been shown to develop language, and (b) analogies between the linguistic structures of pidgins, interlanguages, and the syntax of young aided AAC users. This dissertation employed a survey methodology to capture the practices and beliefs of SLPs as a means of identifying potential contributing factors to the reduced linguistic outcomes of these children. Quantitative findings revealed statistically significant differences in SLPs’ perceptions of confidence and qualification with the two populations of children with language impairments who use an oral modality and young aided AAC users. Descriptive trends across all constructs measured suggested differences in SLPs’ practices, belifes, and perspectives in their work with these two populations. The analysis of the syntactic structures of the language of young aided AAC users revealed definitive parallels with the construct of interlanguages.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 2003.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-318).
This thesis examines article choice and parameter-setting in second language (L2) acquisition. It argues, on the basis of L2-English elicitation and production data, that L2- learners have access to UG-based semantic distinctions governing article choice, but do not know which distinction is appropriate for English. A Fluctuation Hypothesis (FH) is proposed, according to which L2-learners fluctuate between different parameter settings until the input leads them to set the parameter to the target value. The thesis proposes that articles cross-linguistically may encode definiteness or specificity. The definition of specificity that is adopted is based on Fodor and Sag's (1982) view of specificity as speaker intent to refer. The behavior of referential this, a specificity marker in colloquial English, is examined, and it is proposed that the definition of specificity incorporates the concept of noteworthy property. An Article Choice Parameter is next proposed, which governs whether articles in a given language are distinguished on the basis of definiteness or on the basis of specificity. While English has the Definiteness setting of this parameter, it is suggested, on the basis of data from Mosel and Hovdhaugen (1992), that Samoan has the Specificity setting. It is hypothesized, in accordance with the FH, that L2-learners fluctuate between the two settings of the Article Choice Parameter. This hypothesis leads to the prediction that L2- English errors of article use should come in two types: overuse of the with specific indefinites and overuse of a with non-specific definites. These predictions are examined in a series of studies with adult speakers of Russian and Korean, two languages with no
(cont.) articles. The empirical data confirm the predictions, and show that L2-English article choice is not random but reflects access to the two settings of the Article Choice Parameter. The same patterns of results are found for L-Russian and L-Korean speakers, and it is shown that the results are not attributable to LI-transfer. On the basis of these findings, it is concluded that L2-learners have direct UG-access to semantic distinctions underlying article choice. The data also provide evidence for the existence of a specificity distinction which cross-cuts the definiteness distinction.
bu Tania Ruth Ionin.
Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-288). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) provide educational benefits through one-on-one tutoring by assessing children's existing knowledge and providing tailored educational content. In the domain of language acquisition, several studies have shown that children often learn new words by forming semantic relationships with words they already know. In this paper, we present a model that uses word semantics (semantics-based model) to make inferences about a child's vocabulary from partial information about their existing vocabulary knowledge. We show that the proposed semantics-based model outperforms models that do not use word semantics (semantics-free models) on average. A subject-level analysis of results reveals that different models perform well for different children, thus motivating the need to combine predictions. To this end, we use two methods to combine predictions from semantics-based and semantics-free models and show that these methods yield better predictions of a child's vocabulary knowledge. Our results motivate the use of semantics-based models to assess children's vocabulary knowledge and build ITS that maximizes children's semantic understanding of words.