Publications

Displaying 101 - 157 of 157
  • Otake, T., & Cutler, A. (2001). Recognition of (almost) spoken words: Evidence from word play in Japanese. In P. Dalsgaard (Ed.), Proceedings of EUROSPEECH 2001 (pp. 465-468).

    Abstract

    Current models of spoken-word recognition assume automatic activation of multiple candidate words fully or partially compatible with the speech input. We propose that listeners make use of this concurrent activation in word play such as punning. Distortion in punning should ideally involve no more than a minimal contrastive deviation between two words, namely a phoneme. Moreover, we propose that this metric of similarity does not presuppose phonemic awareness on the part of the punster. We support these claims with an analysis of modern and traditional puns in Japanese (in which phonemic awareness in language users is not encouraged by alphabetic orthography). For both data sets, the results support the predictions. Punning draws on basic processes of spokenword recognition, common across languages.
  • Ozyurek, A. (2001). What do speech-gesture mismatches reveal about language specific processing? A comparison of Turkish and English. In C. Cavé, I. Guaitella, & S. Santi (Eds.), Oralité et gestualité: Interactions et comportements multimodaux dans la communication: Actes du Colloque ORAGE 2001 (pp. 567-581). Paris: L'Harmattan.
  • Petersson, K. M., Reis, A., & Ingvar, M. (2001). Cognitive processing in literate and illiterate subjects: A review of some recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging data. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42, 251-267. doi:10.1111/1467-9450.00235.

    Abstract

    The study of illiterate subjects, which for specific socio-cultural reasons did not have the opportunity to acquire basic reading and writing skills, represents one approach to study the interaction between neurobiological and cultural factors in cognitive development and the functional organization of the human brain. In addition the naturally occurring illiteracy may serve as a model for studying the influence of alphabetic orthography on auditory-verbal language. In this paper we have reviewed some recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging data indicating that learning an alphabetic written language modulates the auditory-verbal language system in a non-trivial way and provided support for the hypothesis that the functional architecture of the brain is modulated by literacy. We have also indicated that the effects of literacy and formal schooling is not limited to language related skills but appears to affect also other cognitive domains. In particular, we indicate that formal schooling influences 2D but not 3D visual naming skills. We have also pointed to the importance of using ecologically relevant tasks when comparing literate and illiterate subjects. We also demonstrate the applicability of a network approach in elucidating differences in the functional organization of the brain between groups. The strength of such an approach is the ability to study patterns of interactions between functionally specialized brain regions and the possibility to compare such patterns of brain interactions between groups or functional states. This complements the more commonly used activation approach to functional neuroimaging data, which characterize functionally specialized regions, and provides important data characterizing the functional interactions between these regions.
  • Petersson, K. M., Sandblom, J., Gisselgard, J., & Ingvar, M. (2001). Learning related modulation of functional retrieval networks in man. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42, 197-216. doi:10.1111/1467-9450.00231.
  • Poletiek, F. H. (2001). Hypothesis-testing behaviour. Hove: Psychology Press.
  • Quené, H., & Janse, E. (2001). Word perception in time-compressed speech [Abstract]. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 2738.

    Abstract

    ASA conference abstract
  • Reis, A., Petersson, K. M., Castro-Caldas, A., & Ingvar, M. (2001). Formal schooling influences two- but not three-dimensional naming skills. Brain and Cognition, 47, 397-411. doi:doi:10.1006/brcg.2001.1316.

    Abstract

    The modulatory influence of literacy on the cognitive system of the human brain has been indicated in behavioral, neuroanatomic, and functional neuroimaging studies. In this study we explored the functional consequences of formal education and the acquisition of an alphabetic written language on two- and three-dimensional visual naming. The results show that illiterate subjects perform significantly worse on immediate naming of two-dimensional representations of common everyday objects compared to literate subjects, both in terms of accuracy and reaction times. In contrast, there was no significant difference when the subjects named the corresponding real objects. The results suggest that formal education and learning to read and to write modulate the cognitive process involved in processing two- but not three-dimensional representations of common everyday objects. Both the results of the reaction time and the error pattern analyses can be interpreted as indicating that the major influence of literacy affects the visual system or the interaction between the visual and the language systems. We suggest that the visual system in a wide sense and/or the interface between the visual and the language system are differently formatted in literate and illiterate subjects. In other words, we hypothesize that the pattern of interactions in the functional–anatomical networks subserving visual naming, that is, the interactions within and between the visual and language processing networks, differ in literate and illiterate subjects
  • Robinson, J. D., & Stivers, T. (2001). Achieving activity transitions in primary-care encounters: From history taking to physical examination. Human Communication Research, 27(2), 253-298. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2958.2001.tb00782.x.
  • Sandberg, A., Lansner, A., & Petersson, K. M. (2001). Selective enhancement of recall through plasticity modulation in an autoassociative memory. Neurocomputing, 38(40), 867-873. doi:10.1016/S0925-2312(01)00363-0.

    Abstract

    The strength of a memory trace is modulated by a variety of factors such as arousal, attention, context, type of processing during encoding, salience and novelty of the experience. Some of these factors can be modeled as a variable plasticity level in the memory system, controlled by arousal or relevance-estimating systems. We demonstrate that a Bayesian confidence propagation neural network with learning time constant modulated in this way exhibits enhanced recall of an item tagged as salient. Proactive and retroactive inhibition of other items is also demonstrated as well as an inverted U-shape response to overall plasticity
  • Scharenborg, O., Sturm, J., & Boves, L. (2001). Business listings in automatic directory assistance. In Interspeech - Eurospeech 2001 - 7th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (pp. 2381-2384). ISCA Archive.

    Abstract

    So far most attempts to automate Directory Assistance services focused on private listings, because it is not known precisely how callers will refer to a business listings. The research described in this paper, carried out in the SMADA project, tries to fill this gap. The aim of the research is to model the expressions people use when referring to a business listing by means of rules, in order to automatically create a vocabulary, which can be part of an automated DA service. In this paper a rule-base procedure is proposed, which derives rules from the expressions people use. These rules are then used to automatically create expressions from directory listings. Two categories of businesses, viz. hospitals and the hotel and catering industry, are used to explain this procedure. Results for these two categories are used to discuss the problem of the over- and undergeneration of expressions.
  • Schiller, N. O., Greenhall, J. A., Shelton, J. R., & Caramazza, A. (2001). Serial order effects in spelling errors: Evidence from two dysgraphic patients. Neurocase, 7, 1-14. doi:10.1093/neucas/7.1.1.

    Abstract

    This study reports data from two dysgraphic patients, TH and PB, whose errors in spelling most often occurred in the final part of words. The probability of making an error increased monotonically towards the end of words. Long words were affected more than short words, and performance was similar across different output modalities (writing, typing and oral spelling). This error performance was found despite the fact that both patients showed normal ability to repeat the same words orally and to access their full spelling in tasks that minimized the involvement of working memory. This pattern of performance locates their deficit to the mechanism that keeps graphemic representations active for further processing, and shows that the functioning of this mechanism is not controlled or "refreshed" by phonological (or articulatory) processes. Although the overall performance pattern is most consistent with a deficit to the graphemic buffer, the strong tendency for errors to occur at the ends of words is unlike many classic "graphemic buffer patients" whose errors predominantly occur at word-medial positions. The contrasting patterns are discussed in terms of different types of impairment to the graphemic buffer.
  • Senft, G. (2001). Das Präsentieren des Forschers im Felde: Eine Einführung auf den Trobriand Inseln. In C. Sütterlin, & F. S. Salter (Eds.), Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt: Zu Person und Werk, Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag (pp. 188-197). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
  • Senft, G. (2001). [Review of the book Handbook of language and ethnic identity ed. by Joshua A. Fishman]. Linguistics, 39, 188-190. doi:10.1515/ling.2001.004.
  • Senft, G. (2001). [Review of the book Language Death by David Crystal]. Linguistics, 39, 815-822. doi:10.1515/ling.2001.032.
  • Senft, G. (2001). [Review of the book Malinowski's Kiriwina: Fieldwork photography 1915-1918 by Michael W. Young]. Paideuma, 47, 260-263.
  • Senft, G. (2001). [Review of the CD Betel Nuts by Christopher Roberts (1996)]. Kulele, 3, 115-122.

    Abstract

    (TMCD 9602). Taipei: Trees Music & Art, 12-1, Lane 10, Sec. 2, Hsin Yi Rd. Taipei, TAIWAN. Distributed by Sony Music Entertainment (Taiwan)Ltd.,6th fl. No 35 , Lane 11, Kwang-Fu N. Rd., Taipei TAIWAN (CD accompanied by a full color bucklet)
  • Senft, G. (2001). Frames of spatial reference in Kilivila. Studies in Language, 25(3), 521-555. doi:10.1075/sl.25.3.05sen.

    Abstract

    Members of the MPI for Psycholinguistics are researching the interrelationship between language, cognition and the conceptualization of space in various languages. Research results show that there are three frames of spatial reference, the absolute, the relative, and the intrinsic frame of reference. This study first presents results of this research in general and then discusses the results for Kilivila. Speakers of this Austronesian language prefer the intrinsic frame of reference for the location of objects with respect to each other in a given spatial configuration. But they prefer an absolute frame of reference system in referring to the spatial orientation of objects in a given
    spatial configuration. Moreover, the hypothesis is confirmed that languages seem to influence the choice and the kind of conceptual parameters their speakers use to solve non-verbal problems within the domain of space.
  • Senft, G. (2001). Kevalikuliku: Earthquake magic from the Tobriand Islands (for Unshakebles). In A. Pawley, M. Ross, & D. Tryon (Eds.), The boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton (pp. 323-331). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Senft, G. (2001). Sprache, Kognition und Konzepte des Raumes in verschiedenen Kulturen: Affiziert sprachliche Relativität die Philosophie? In L. Salwiczek, & W. Wickler (Eds.), Wie wir die Welt erkennen: Erkenntnisweisen im interdisziplinären Diskurs (pp. 203-242). Freiburg: Karl Alber.
  • Senft, G. (2001). Ritual communication and linguistic ideology [Comment on Joel Robbins]. Current Anthropology, 42, 606.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). A view of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). [Review of the book The real professor Higgins: The life and career of Daniel Jones by Berverly Collins and Inger M. Mees]. Linguistics, 39(4), 822-832. doi:10.1515/ling.2001.032.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). Language and philosophy. In N. J. Smelser, & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. Volume 12 (pp. 8297-8303). Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). Lexical meaning and metaphor. In E. N. Enikö (Ed.), Cognition in language use (pp. 422-431). Antwerp, Belgium: International Pragmatics Association (IPrA).
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1967). Negation in Dutch. Neophilologus, 51(4), 327-363.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). The cognitive dimension in language study. Folia Linguistica, 35(3-4), 209-242. doi:10.1515/flin.2001.35.3-4.209.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). Simple and transparent [Commentary on The worlds simplest grammars are creole grammars by John H. McWhorter]. Linguistic Typology, 5(2-3), 176-180. doi:10.1515/lity.2001.002.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2001). Sprachwissenschaft des Abendlandes. Eine Ideengeschichte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Hohengehren: Schneider Verlaq.

    Abstract

    Translation of the first four chapters of Western linguistics: An historical introduction (1998)
  • Seuren, P. A. M., Capretta, V., & Geuvers, H. (2001). The logic and mathematics of occasion sentences. Linguistics & Philosophy, 24(5), 531-595. doi:10.1023/A:1017592000325.

    Abstract

    The prime purpose of this paper is, first, to restore to discourse-bound occasion sentences their rightful central place in semantics and secondly, taking these as the basic propositional elements in the logical analysis of language, to contribute to the development of an adequate logic of occasion sentences and a mathematical (Boolean) foundation for such a logic, thus preparing the ground for more adequate semantic, logical and mathematical foundations of the study of natural language. Some of the insights elaborated in this paper have appeared in the literature over the past thirty years, and a number of new developments have resulted from them. The present paper aims atproviding an integrated conceptual basis for this new development in semantics. In Section 1 it is argued that the reduction by translation of occasion sentences to eternal sentences, as proposed by Russell and Quine, is semantically and thus logically inadequate. Natural language is a system of occasion sentences, eternal sentences being merely boundary cases. The logic hasfewer tasks than is standardly assumed, as it excludes semantic calculi, which depend crucially on information supplied by cognition and context and thus belong to cognitive psychology rather than to logic. For sentences to express a proposition and thus be interpretable and informative, they must first be properly anchored in context. A proposition has a truth value when it is, moreover, properly keyed in the world, i.e. is about a situation in the world. Section 2 deals with the logical properties of natural language. It argues that presuppositional phenomena require trivalence and presents the trivalent logic PPC3, with two kinds of falsity and two negations. It introduces the notion of Σ-space for a sentence A (or A/A, the set of situations in which A is true) as the basis of logical model theory, and the notion of PA/ (the Σ-space of the presuppositions of A), functioning as a `private' subuniverse for A/A. The trivalent Kleene calculus is reinterpreted as a logical account of vagueness, rather than of presupposition. PPC3 and the Kleene calculus are refinements of standard bivalent logic and can be combined into one logical system. In Section 3 the adequacy of PPC3 as a truth-functional model of presupposition is considered more closely and given a Boolean foundation. In a noncompositional extended Boolean algebra, three operators are defined: 1a for the conjoined presuppositions of a, ã for the complement of a within 1a, and â for the complement of 1a within Boolean 1. The logical properties of this extended Boolean algebra are axiomatically defined and proved for all possible models. Proofs are provided of the consistency and the completeness of the system. Section 4 is a provisional exploration of the possibility of using the results obtained for a new discourse-dependent account of the logic of modalities in natural language. The overall result is a modified and refined logical and model-theoretic machinery, which takes into account both the discourse-dependency of natural language sentences and the necessity of selecting a key in the world before a truth value can be assigned
  • Seyfeddinipur, M., & Kita, S. (2001). Gestures and dysfluencies in speech. In C. Cavé, I. Guaïtella, & S. Santi (Eds.), Oralité et gestualité: Interactions et comportements multimodaux dans la communication. Actes du colloque ORAGE 2001 (pp. 266-270). Paris, France: Éditions L'Harmattan.
  • Siddiqui, M. R., Meisner, S., Tosh, K., Balakrishnan, K., Ghei, S., Fisher, S. E., Golding, M., Narayan, N. P. S., Sitaraman, T., Sengupta, U., Pitchappan, R., & Hill, A. V. (2001). A major susceptibility locus for leprosy in India maps to chromosome 10p13 [Letter]. Nature Genetics, 27, 439-441. doi:10.1038/86958.

    Abstract

    Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, is prevalent in India, where about half of the world's estimated 800,000 cases occur. A role for the genetics of the host in variable susceptibility to leprosy has been indicated by familial clustering, twin studies, complex segregation analyses and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) association studies. We report here a genetic linkage scan of the genomes of 224 families from South India, containing 245 independent affected sibpairs with leprosy, mainly of the paucibacillary type. In a two-stage genome screen using 396 microsatellite markers, we found significant linkage (maximum lod score (MLS) = 4.09, P < 2x10-5) on chromosome 10p13 for a series of neighboring microsatellite markers, providing evidence for a major locus for this prevalent infectious disease. Thus, despite the polygenic nature of infectious disease susceptibility, some major, non-HLA-linked loci exist that may be mapped through obtainable numbers of affected sibling pairs.
  • Smits, R. (2001). Hierarchical categorization of coarticulated phonemes: A theoretical analysis. Perception and Psychophysics, 63, 1109-1139. doi:10.3758/BF03194529.

    Abstract

    This article is concerned with the question of how listeners recognize coarticulated phonemes. The problem is approached from a pattern classificationperspective. First, the potential acoustical effects of coarticulation are defined in terms of the patterns that form the input to a classifier.Next, a categorization model called HICAT is introduced that incorporates hierarchical dependencies to optimally dealwith this input. The model allows the position, orientation, and steepness of one phoneme boundary to depend on the perceivedvalue of a neighboring phoneme. It is argued that, if listeners do behave like statistical pattern recognizers, they may use the categorization strategies incorporated in the model. The HICAT model is compared with existing categorizationmodels, among which are the fuzzylogical model of perception and Nearey’s diphone-biased secondary-cuemodel. Finally, a method is presented by which categorization strategies that are likely to be used by listeners can be predicted from distributions of acoustical cues as they occur in natural speech.
  • Smits, R. (2001). Evidence for hierarchial categorization of coarticulated phonemes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27, 1145-1162. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.27.5.1145.

    Abstract

    The reported research investigates how listeners recognize coarticulated phonemes. First, 2 data sets from experiments on the recognition of coarticulated phonemes published by D. H. Whalen (1989) are reanalyzed. The analyses indicate that listeners used categorization strategies involving a hierarchical dependency. Two new experiments are reported investigating the production and perception of fricative-vowel syllables. On the basis of measurements of acoustic cues on a large set of natural utterances, it was predicted that listeners would use categorization strategies involving a dependency of the fricative categorization on the perceived vowel. The predictions were tested in a perception experiment using a 2-dimensional synthetic fricative-vowel continuum. Model analyses of the results pooled across listeners confirmed the predictions. Individual analyses revealed some variability in the categorization dependencies used by different participants.
  • Soto-Faraco, S., Sebastian-Galles, N., & Cutler, A. (2001). Segmental and suprasegmental mismatch in lexical access. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 412-432. doi:10.1006/jmla.2000.2783.

    Abstract

    Four cross-modal priming experiments in Spanish addressed the role of suprasegmental and segmental information in the activation of spoken words. Listeners heard neutral sentences ending with word fragments (e.g., princi-) and made lexical decisions on letter strings presented at fragment offset. Responses were compared for fragment primes that fully matched the spoken form of the initial portion of target words, versus primes that mismatched in a single element (stress pattern; one vowel; one consonant), versus control primes. Fully matching primes always facilitated lexical decision responses, in comparison to the control condition, while mismatching primes always produced inhibition. The respective strength of the contribution of stress, vowel, and consonant (one feature mismatch or more) information did not differ statistically. The results support a model of spoken-word recognition involving automatic activation of word forms and competition between activated words, in which the activation process is sensitive to all acoustic information relevant to the language’s phonology.
  • Stivers, T., & Heritage, J. (2001). Breaking the sequential mould: Narrative and other methods of answering "more than the question" during medical history taking. Text, 21(1), 151-185.
  • Stivers, T. (2001). Negotiating who presents the problem: Next speaker selection in pediatric encounters. Journal of Communication, 51(2), 1-31.
  • Terrill, A. (2001). Activation in Lavukaleve pronouns: oia versus foia. Linguistic Typology, 5, 67-90. doi:10.1515/lity.5.1.67.

    Abstract

    The first part of this paper describes an unusual system of anaphoric reference tracking in Lavukaleve, a Papuan language of the Solomon Islands. Lavukaleve has two demonstrative pronouns which can be used to make anaphoric reference in narratives. One of these demonstrative pronouns is used to make anaphoric reference to a semi-activated participant, and the other to an activated participant. The second part of the paper situates Lavukaleve's activation-based system of reference tracking in a general typology of reference tracking. Other languages which have reference tracking systems based on the cognitive status of the referent are discussed, and the close connection between these and obviation systems is pointed out.
  • Terrill, A. (2001). Warlpiri. In J. Garry, & C. Rubino (Eds.), Facts about the world’s languages: An encyclopedia of the world's major languages past and present (pp. 801-803). New York: H.W. Wilson Press.
  • Theakston, A. L., Lieven, E. V., Pine, J. M., & Rowland, C. F. (2001). The role of performance limitations in the acquisition of verb-argument structure: an alternative account. Journal of Child Language, 28(1), 127-152.

    Abstract

    This study investigates the role of performance limitations in children's early acquisition of verb-argument structure. Valian (1991) claims that intransitive frames are easier for children to produce early in development than transitive frames because they do not require a direct object argument. Children who understand this distinction are expected to produce a lower proportion of transitive verb utterances early in development in comparison with later stages of development and to omit direct objects much more frequently with mixed verbs (where direct objects are optional) than with transitive verbs. To test these claims, data from nine children aged between 1;10.7 and 2;0.25 matched with Valian's subjects on MLU were examined. When analysed in terms of abstract syntactic structures Valian's findings are supported. However, a detailed lexical analysis of the data suggests that the children were not selecting argument structure on the basis of syntactic complexity. Instead, a clear predictor of the frames used by the children with specific verbs was the frames used by the children's mothers with those same verbs, regardless of whether they were transitive or intransitive. This suggests that the most important determinant of the children's use of verb frame was the specific patterns of verb use in the input rather than abstract grammatical knowledge constrained by performance limitations. The implications of these findings for performance-based explanations for children's early errors and early patterns of language use are discussed.
  • Van den Brink, D., Brown, C. M., & Hagoort, P. (2001). Electrophysiological evidence for early contextual influences during spoken-word recognition: N200 versus N400 effects. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 13(7), 967-985. doi:10.1162/089892901753165872.

    Abstract

    An event-related brain potential experiment was carried out to investigate the time course of contextual influences on spoken-word recognition. Subjects were presented with spoken sentences that ended with a word that was either (a) congruent, (b) semantically anomalous, but beginning with the same initial phonemes as the congruent completion, or (c) semantically anomalous beginning with phonemes that differed from the congruent completion. In addition to finding an N400 effect in the two semantically anomalous conditions, we obtained an early negative effect in the semantically anomalous condition where word onset differed from that of the congruent completions. It was concluded that the N200 effect is related to the lexical selection process, where word-form information resulting from an initial phonological analysis and content information derived from the context interact.
  • Van der Meulen, F. (2001). Moving eyes and naming objects. PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen. doi:10.17617/2.2057610.
  • Van der Meulen, F., Meyer, A. S., & Levelt, W. J. M. (2001). Eye movements during the production of nouns and pronouns. Memory & Cognition, 29(3), 512-521.

    Abstract

    Earlier research has established that speakers usually fixate the objects they name and that the viewing time for an object depends on the time necessary for object recognition and for the retrieval of its name. In three experiments, speakers produced pronouns and noun phrases to refer to new objects and to objects already known. Speakers looked less frequently and for shorter periods at the objects to be named when they had very recently seen or heard of these objects than when the objects were new. Looking rates were higher and viewing times longer in preparation of noun phrases than in preparation of pronouns. If it is assumed that there is a close relationship between eye gaze and visual attention, these results reveal (1) that speakers allocate less visual attention to given objects than to new ones and (2) that they allocate visual attention both less often and for shorter periods to objects they will refer to by a pronoun than to objects they will name in a full noun phrase. The experiments suggest that linguistic processing benefits, directly or indirectly, from allocation of visual attention to the referent object.
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2001). Functional linguistics. In M. Aronoff, & J. Rees-Miller (Eds.), The handbook of Linguistics (pp. 319-336). Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Van Staden, M., Senft, G., Enfield, N. J., & Bohnemeyer, J. (2001). Staged events. In S. C. Levinson, & N. J. Enfield (Eds.), Manual for the field season 2001 (pp. 115-125). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.874668.

    Abstract

    The term “event” is a controversial concept, and the “same” activity or situation can be linguistically encoded in many different ways. The aim of this task is to explore features of event representation in the language of study, in particular, multi-verb constructions, event typicality, and event complexity. The task consists of a description and recollection task using film stimuli, and a subsequent re-enactment of certain scenes by other participants on the basis of these descriptions. The first part of the task collects elaborate and concise descriptions of complex events in order to examine how these are segmented into macro-events, what kind of information is expressed, and how the information is ordered. The re-enactment task is designed to examine what features of the scenes are stereotypically implied.
  • Van Alphen, P. M., & McQueen, J. M. (2001). The time-limited influence of sentential context on function word identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27, 1057-1071. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.27.5.1057.

    Abstract

    Sentential context effects on the identification of the Dutch function words te (to) and de (the) were examined. In Experiment 1, listeners labeled words on a [tә]-[dә] continuum more often as te when the context was te biased (Ik probeer [?ә] schieten [I try to/the shoot]) than when it was de biased (Ik probeer [?ә] schoenen [I try to/the shoes]). The effect was weaker in slower responses. In Experiment 2, disambiguation began later, in the second word after [?ә]. There was a weak context effect only in the slower responses. In Experiments 3 and 4, disambiguation occurred on the word before [?ә]: There was no context effect when one set of sentences was used, but there was an effect (larger in the faster responses) when more sentences were used. Syntactic processing affects word identification only within a limited time frame. It appears to do so not by influencing lexical access processes through feedback but, instead, by biasing decision making.
  • Vonk, W. (2001). Zin in tekst [Inaugural lecture]. Mook: Zevendal.

    Abstract

    Rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar in de Psycholinguïstiek aan de Faculteit der Letteren van de Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen op vrijdag 18 mei 2001
  • Warner, N., & Weber, A. (2001). Perception of epenthetic stops. Journal of Phonetics, 29(1), 53-87. doi:10.1006/jpho.2001.0129.

    Abstract

    In processing connected speech, listeners must parse a highly variable signal. We investigate processing of a particular type of production variability, namely epenthetic stops between nasals and obstruents. Using a phoneme monitoring task and a dictation task, we test listeners' perception of epenthetic stops (which are not part of the string of segments intended by the speaker). We confirm that the epenthetic stop perceived is the one predicted by articulatory accounts of how such stops are produced, and that the likelihood of an epenthetic stop being perceived as a real stop is related to the strength of acoustic cues in the signal. We show that the probability of listeners mis-parsing epenthetic stops as real is influenced by language-specific syllable structure constraints, and depends on processing demands. We further show, through reaction time data, that even when epenthetic stops are perceived, they impose a greater processing load than stops which were intended by the speaker. These results show that processing of phonetic variability is affected by several factors, including language-specific phonology, even though the mis-timing of articulations that creates epenthetic stops is universally possible.
  • Warner, N., Jongman, A., Cutler, A., & Mücke, D. (2001). The phonological status of Dutch epenthetic schwa. Phonology, 18, 387-420. doi:10.1017/S0952675701004213.

    Abstract

    In this paper, we use articulatory measures to determine whether Dutch schwa epenthesis is an abstract phonological process or a concrete phonetic process depending on articulatory timing. We examine tongue position during /l/ before underlying schwa and epenthetic schwa and in coda position. We find greater tip raising before both types of schwa, indicating light /l/ before schwa and dark /l/ in coda position. We argue that the ability of epenthetic schwa to condition the /l/ alternation shows that Dutch schwa epenthesis is an abstract phonological process involving insertion of some unit, and cannot be accounted for within Articulatory Phonology.
  • Warner, N., Jongman, A., Mucke, D., & Cutler, A. (2001). The phonological status of schwa insertion in Dutch: An EMA study. In B. Maassen, W. Hulstijn, R. Kent, H. Peters, & P. v. Lieshout (Eds.), Speech motor control in normal and disordered speech: 4th International Speech Motor Conference (pp. 86-89). Nijmegen: Vantilt.

    Abstract

    Articulatory data are used to address the question of whether Dutch schwa insertion is a phonological or a phonetic process. By investigating tongue tip raising and dorsal lowering, we show that /l/ when it appears before inserted schwa is a light /l/, just as /l/ before an underlying schwa is, and unlike the dark /l/ before a consonant in non-insertion productions of the same words. The fact that inserted schwa can condition the light/dark /l/ alternation shows that schwa insertion involves the phonological insertion of a segment rather than phonetic adjustments to articulations.
  • Warner, N., & Arai, T. (2001). The role of the mora in the timing of spontaneous Japanese speech. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109, 1144-1156. doi:10.1121/1.1344156.

    Abstract

    This study investigates whether the mora is used in controlling timing in Japanese speech, or is instead a structural unit in the language not involved in timing. Unlike most previous studies of mora-timing in Japanese, this article investigates timing in spontaneous speech. Predictability of word duration from number of moras is found to be much weaker than in careful speech. Furthermore, the number of moras predicts word duration only slightly better than number of segments. Syllable structure also has a significant effect on word duration. Finally, comparison of the predictability of whole words and arbitrarily truncated words shows better predictability for truncated words, which would not be possible if the truncated portion were compensating for remaining moras. The results support an accumulative model of variance with a final lengthening effect, and do not indicate the presence of any compensation related to mora-timing. It is suggested that the rhythm of Japanese derives from several factors about the structure of the language, not from durational compensation.
  • Wassenaar, M., & Hagoort, P. (2001). Het matchen van zinnen bij plaatjes door Broca afasiepatiënten: een hersenpotentiaal studie. Afasiologie, 23, 122-126.
  • Weber, A. (2001). Language-specific listening: The case of phonetic sequences. PhD Thesis, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. doi:10.17617/2.68255.
  • Weber, A. (2001). Help or hindrance: How violation of different assimilation rules affects spoken-language processing. Language and Speech, 44(1), 95-118. doi:10.1177/00238309010440010401.

    Abstract

    Four phoneme-detection studies tested the conclusion from recent research that spoken-language processing is inhibited by violation of obligatory assimilation processes in the listeners’ native language. In Experiment 1, native listeners of German detected a target fricative in monosyllabic Dutch nonwords, half of which violated progressive German fricative place assimilation. In contrast to the earlier findings, listeners detected the fricative more quickly when assimilation was violated than when no violation occurred. This difference was not due to purely acoustic factors, since in Experiment 2 native Dutch listeners, presented with the same materials, showed no such effect. In Experiment 3, German listeners again detected the fricative more quickly when violation occurred in both monosyllabic and bisyllabic native nonwords, further ruling out explanations based on non-native input or on syllable structure. Finally Experiment 4 tested whether the direction in which the rule operates (progressive or regressive) controls the direction of the effect on phoneme detection responses.When regressive German place assimilation for nasals was violated, German listeners detected stops more slowly, exactly as had been observed in previous studies of regressive assimilation. It is argued that a combination of low expectations in progressive assimilation and novel popout causes facilitation of processing,whereas not fulfilling high expectations in regressive assimilation causes inhibition.
  • Wilkins, D. (2001). Eliciting contrastive use of demonstratives for objects within close personal space (all objects well within arm’s reach). In S. C. Levinson, & N. J. Enfield (Eds.), Manual for the field season 2001 (pp. 164-168). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
  • Wilkins, D., Kita, S., & Enfield, N. J. (2001). Ethnography of pointing questionnaire version 2. In S. C. Levinson, & N. J. Enfield (Eds.), Manual for the field season 2001 (pp. 136-141). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
  • Wilkins, D. (2001). The 1999 demonstrative questionnaire: “This” and “that” in comparative perspective. In S. C. Levinson, & N. J. Enfield (Eds.), Manual for the field season 2001 (pp. 149-163). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
  • Zavala, R. (2001). Entre consejos, diablos y vendedores de caca, rasgos gramaticales deloluteco en tres de sus cuentos. Tlalocan. Revista de Fuentes para el Conocimiento de las Culturas Indígenas de México, XIII, 335-414.

    Abstract

    The three Olutec stories from Oluta, Veracruz, werenarrated by Antonio Asistente Maldonado. Roberto Zavala presents amorpheme-by-morpheme analysis of the texts with a sketch of the majorgrammatical and typological features of this language. Olutec is spoken bythree dozen speakers. The grammatical structure of this language has not beendescribed before. The sketch contains information on verb and noun morphology,verb dasses, clause types, inverse/direct patterns, grammaticalizationprocesses, applicatives, incorporation, word order type, and discontinuousexpressions. The stories presented here are the first Olutec texts everpublished. The motifs of the stories are well known throughout Middle America.The story of "the Rabbit who wants to be big" explains why one of the mainprotagonists of Middle American folktales acquired long ears. The story of "theDevil who is inebriated by the people of a village" explains how theinhabitants of a village discover the true identity of a man who likes to dancehuapango and decide to get rid of him. Finally the story of "theshit-sellers" presents two compadres, one who is lazy and the otherone who works hard. The hard-worker asks the lazy compadre how he surviveswithout working. The latter lies to to him that he sells shit in theneighboring village. The hard-working compadre decides to become a shit-sellerand in the process realizes that the lazy compadre deceived him. However, he islucky and meets with the Devil who offers him money in compensation for havingbeen deceived. When the lazy compadre realizes that the hard-working compadrehas become rich, he tries to do the same business but gets beaten in theprocess.

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