Displaying 301 - 371 of 371
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Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Presupposition. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 10) (pp. 80-87). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Presupposition is a semantic device built into natural language to make sentences fit for use in certain contexts but not in others. A sentence carrying a presupposition thus evokes a context in which that presupposition is fulfilled. The study of presupposition was triggered by the behavior of natural language negation, which tends to preserve presuppositions either as invited inferences or as entailments. As the role of discourse became more apparent in semantics, presupposition began to be seen increasingly as a discourse-semantic phenomenon with consequences for the logic of language. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Projection problem. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 10) (pp. 128-131). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
The property of presuppositions to be sometimes preserved through embeddings, albeit often in a weakened form, is called projection. The projection problem consists in formulating the conditions under which the presuppositions of an embedded clause (a) are kept as presuppositions of the superordinate structure, or (b) remain as an invited inference that can be overruled by context, or (c) are canceled. Over the past 25 years it has been recognized that the projection problem is to be solved in the context of a wider theory of presupposition and discourse incrementation. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Propositional and predicate logic-linguistic aspects. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 10) (pp. 146-153). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Logic was discovered by Aristotle when he saw that the semantic behavior of the negation word not is different in sentences with a definite and in those with a quantified subject term. Until the early 20th century, logic remained firmly language-based, but for the past century it has been mainly a tool in the hands of mathematicians, which has meant an alienation from linguistic reality. With the help of new techniques, it is now possible to revert to the logic of language, which is seen as based on a semantic analysis of the logical words (constants) involved. This new perspective, combined with much improved insights into the semantically defined discourse dependency of natural language sentences, leads to a novel and more functionally oriented approach to logic and to a reappraisal of traditional predicate calculus, whose main fault, undue existential import, evaporates when discourse dependency, in particular the presuppositional aspect, is brought into play. Traditional predicate calculus is seen to have a much greater logical power and a much greater functionality than modern predicate calculus. There is also full isomorphism, neglected in modern logic, between traditional predicate calculus and propositional calculus, which raises the question of any possible deeper causes. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Virtual objects. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 13) (pp. 438-441). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Virtual objects are objects thought up by a thinking individual. Although 20th-century philosophy has tried to ban them from ontology, they make it impossible to account for the truth of sentences such as Apollo was worshipped in the island of Delos, in which a property is assigned to the nonexisting, virtual entity Apollo. Such facts are the reason why virtual objects are slowly being recognized again. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Factivity. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 4) (pp. 423-424). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Some predicates are ‘factive’ in that they induce the presupposition that what is said in their subordinate that clause is true. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Donkey sentences. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 3) (pp. 763-766). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
The term ‘donkey sentences’ derives from the medieval philosopher Walter Burleigh, whose example sentences contain mention of donkeys. The modern philosopher Peter Geach rediscovered Burleigh's sentences and the associated problem. The problem is that natural language anaphoric pronouns are sometimes used in a way that cannot be accounted for in terms of modern predicate calculus. The solution lies in establishing a separate category of anaphoric pronouns that refer via the intermediary of a contextually given antecedent, possibly an existentially quantified expression. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Early formalization tendencies in 20th-century American linguistics. In S. Auroux, E. Koerner, H.-J. Niederehe, & K. Versteegh (
Eds. ), History of the Language Sciences: An International Handbook on the Evolution of the Study of Language from the Beginnings to the Present (pp. 2026-2034). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Discourse domain. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of language and lingusitics (vol. 1) (pp. 638-639). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
A discourse domain D is a form of middle-term memory for the storage of the information embodied in the discourse at hand. The information carried by a new utterance u is added to D (u is incremented to D). The processes involved and the specific structure of D are a matter of ongoing research. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Discourse semantics. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (vol. 3) (pp. 669-677). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Discourse semantics (DSx) is based on the fact that the interpretation of uttered sentences is dependent on and co-determined by the information stored in a specialized middle-term cognitive memory called discourse domain (D). DSx studies the structure and dynamics of Ds and the conditions to be fulfilled by D for proper interpretation. It does so in the light of the truth-conditional criteria for semantics, with an emphasis on intensionality phenomena. It requires the assumption of virtual entities and virtual facts. Any model-theoretic interpretation holds between discourse structures and pre-established verification domains. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Aristotle and linguistics. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of language and lingusitics (vol.1) (pp. 469-471). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Aristotle's importance in the professional study of language consists first of all in the fact that he demythologized language and made it an object of rational investigation. In the context of his theory of truth as correspondence, he also provided the first semantic analysis of propositions in that he distinguished two main constituents, the predicate, which expresses a property, and the remainder of the proposition, referring to a substance to which the property is assigned. That assignment is either true or false. Later, the ‘remainder’ was called subject term, and the Aristotelian predicate was identified with the verb in the sentence. The Aristotelian predicate, however, is more like what is now called the ‘comment,’ whereas his remainder corresponds to the topic. Aristotle, furthermore, defined nouns and verbs as word classes. In addition, he introduced the term ‘case’ for paradigmatic morphological variation. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Meaning, the cognitive dependency of lexical meaning. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 7) (pp. 575-577). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
There is a growing awareness among theoretical linguists and philosophers of language that the linguistic definition of lexical meanings, which must be learned when one learns a language, underdetermines not only full utterance interpretation but also sentence meaning. The missing information must be provided by cognition – that is, either general encyclopedic or specific situational knowledge. This fact crucially shows the basic insufficiency of current standard model-theoretic semantics as a paradigm for the analysis and description of linguistic meaning. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Lexical conditions. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 7) (pp. 77-79). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
The lexical conditions, also known as satisfaction conditions, of a predicate P are the conditions that must be satisfied by the term referents of P for P applied to these term referents to yield a true sentence. In view of presupposition theory it makes sense to distinguish two categories of lexical conditions, the preconditions that must be satisfied for the sentence to be usable in any given discourse, and the update conditions which must be satisfied for the sentence to yield truth. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Multivalued logics. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (vol. 8) (pp. 387-390). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
The widely prevailing view that standard bivalent logic is the only possible sound logical system, imposed by metaphysical necessity, has been shattered by the development of multivalent logics during the 20th century. It is now clear that standard bivalent logic is merely the minimal representative of a wide variety of viable logics with any number of truth values. These viable logics can be subdivided into families. In this article, the Kleene family and the PPCn family are subjected to special examination, as they appear to be most relevant for the study of the logical properties of human language. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (1991). Formalism and ecologism in linguistics. In E. Feldbusch, R. Pogarell, & C. Weiss (
Eds. ), Neue Fragen der Linguistik: Akten des 25. Linguistischen Kolloquiums, Paderborn 1990. Band 1: Bestand und Entwicklung (pp. 73-88). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (1991). Modale klokkenhuizen. In M. Klein (
Ed. ), Nieuwe eskapades in de neerlandistiek: Opstellen van vrienden voor M.C. van den Toorn bij zijn afscheid als hoogleraar Nederlandse taalkunde aan de Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen (pp. 202-236). Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff. -
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. (2009). Hesseling, Dirk Christiaan. In H. Stammerjohann (
Ed. ), Lexicon Grammaticorum: A bio-bibliographical companion to the history of linguistics. Volume 1. (2nd ed.) (pp. 649-650). Berlin: DeGruyter. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (1991). The definition of serial verbs. In F. Byrne, & T. Huebner (
Eds. ), Development and structures of Creole languages: Essays in honor of Derek Bickerton (pp. 193-205). Amsterdam: Benjamins. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (1991). Präsuppositionen. In A. Von Stechow, & D. Wunderlich (
Eds. ), Semantik: Ein internationales Handbuch der zeitgenössischen Forschung (pp. 286-318). Berlin: De Gruyter. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2009). Voorhoeve, Jan. In H. Stammerjohann (
Ed. ), Lexicon Grammaticorum: A bio-bibliographical companion to the history of linguistics. Volume 2. (2nd ed.) (pp. 1593-1594). Berlin: DeGruyter. -
Seuren, P. A. M. (2011). Western linguistics: An historical introduction [Reprint]. In D. Archer, & P. Grundy (
Eds. ), The pragmatics reader (pp. 55-67). London: Routledge.Abstract
Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing from: Seuren, P. A. M. (1998) Western linguistics, 25: pp. 426-428, 430-441. Oxford Blackwell Publishers -
Sicoli, M. A. (2011). Agency and ideology in language shift and language maintenance. In T. Granadillo, & H. A. Orcutt-Gachiri (
Eds. ), Ethnographic contributions to the study of endangered languages (pp. 161-176). Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. -
Sicoli, M. A., Majid, A., & Levinson, S. C. (2009). The language of sound: II. In A. Majid (
Ed. ), Field manual volume 12 (pp. 14-19). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.446294.Abstract
The task is designed to elicit vocabulary for simple sounds. The primary goal is to establish how people describe sound and what resources the language provides generally for encoding this domain. More specifically: (1) whether there is dedicated vocabulary for encoding simple sound contrasts and (2) how much consistency there is within a community in descriptions. This develops on materials used in The language of sound -
Sjerps, M. J., & Chang, E. F. (2019). The cortical processing of speech sounds in the temporal lobe. In P. Hagoort (
Ed. ), Human language: From genes and brain to behavior (pp. 361-379). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. -
Skiba, R. (2006). Computeranalyse/Computer Analysis. In U. Amon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier, & P. Trudgill (
Eds. ), Sociolinguistics: An international handbook of the science of language and society [2nd completely revised and extended edition] (pp. 1187-1197). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter. -
Skiba, R. (1991). Eine Datenbank für Deutsch als Zweitsprache Materialien: Zum Einsatz von PC-Software bei Planung von Zweitsprachenunterricht. In H. Barkowski, & G. Hoff (
Eds. ), Berlin interkulturell: Ergebnisse einer Berliner Konferenz zu Migration und Pädagogik. (pp. 131-140). Berlin: Colloquium. -
Slobin, D. I., Bowerman, M., Brown, P., Eisenbeiss, S., & Narasimhan, B. (2011). Putting things in places: Developmental consequences of linguistic typology. In J. Bohnemeyer, & E. Pederson (
Eds. ), Event representation in language and cognition (pp. 134-165). New York: Cambridge University Press.Abstract
The concept of 'event' has been posited as an ontological primitive in natural language semantics, yet relatively little research has explored patterns of event encoding. Our study explored how adults and children describe placement events (e.g., putting a book on a table) in a range of different languages (Finnish, English, German, Russian, Hindi, Tzeltal Maya, Spanish, and Turkish). Results show that the eight languages grammatically encode placement events in two main ways (Talmy, 1985, 1991), but further investigation reveals fine-grained crosslinguistic variation within each of the two groups. Children are sensitive to these finer-grained characteristics of the input language at an early age, but only when such features are perceptually salient. Our study demonstrates that a unitary notion of 'event' does not suffice to characterize complex but systematic patterns of event encoding crosslinguistically, and that children are sensitive to multiple influences, including the distributional properties of the target language in constructing these patterns in their own speech. -
De Smedt, K., & Kempen, G. (1987). Incremental sentence production, self-correction, and coordination. In G. Kempen (
Ed. ), Natural language generation: New results in artificial intelligence, psychology and linguistics (pp. 365-376). Dordrecht: Nijhoff. -
De Smedt, K., & Kempen, G. (1991). Segment Grammar: A formalism for incremental sentence generation. In C. Paris, W. Swartout, & W. Mann (
Eds. ), Natural language generation and computational linguistics (pp. 329-349). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Abstract
Incremental sentence generation imposes special constraints on the representation of the grammar and the design of the formulator (the module which is responsible for constructing the syntactic and morphological structure). In the model of natural speech production presented here, a formalism called Segment Grammar is used for the representation of linguistic knowledge. We give a definition of this formalism and present a formulator design which relies on it. Next, we present an object- oriented implementation of Segment Grammar. Finally, we compare Segment Grammar with other formalisms. -
Snowdon, C. T., & Cronin, K. A. (2009). Comparative cognition and neuroscience. In G. Berntson, & J. Cacioppo (
Eds. ), Handbook of neuroscience for the behavioral sciences (pp. 32-55). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. -
Stivers, T. (2006). Treatment decisions: negotiations between doctors and parents in acute care encounters. In J. Heritage, & D. W. Maynard (
Eds. ), Communication in medical care: Interaction between primary care physicians and patients (pp. 279-312). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. -
Stivers, T. (2011). Morality and question design: 'Of course' as contesting a presupposition of askability. In T. Stivers, L. Mondada, & J. Steensig (
Eds. ), The morality of knowledge in conversation (pp. 82-106). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Files private
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Stivers, T., Mondada, L., & Steensig, J. (2011). Knowledge, morality and affiliation in social interaction. In T. Stivers, L. Mondada, & J. Steensig (
Eds. ), The morality of knowledge in conversation (pp. 3-26). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Files private
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Terrill, A., & Dunn, M. (2006). Semantic transference: Two preliminary case studies from the Solomon Islands. In C. Lefebvre, L. White, & C. Jourdan (
Eds. ), L2 acquisition and Creole genesis: Dialogues (pp. 67-85). Amsterdam: Benjamins. -
Terrill, A. (2006). Central Solomon languages. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (vol. 2) (pp. 279-280). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
The Papuan languages of the central Solomon Islands are a negatively defined areal grouping: They are those four or possibly five languages in the central Solomon Islands that do not belong to the Austronesian family. Bilua (Vella Lavella), Touo (Rendova), Lavukaleve (Russell Islands), Savosavo (Savo Island) and possibly Kazukuru (New Georgia) have been identified as non-Austronesian since the early 20th century. However, their affiliations both to each other and to other languages still remain a mystery. Heterogeneous and until recently largely undescribed, they present an interesting departure from what is known both of Austronesian languages in the region and of the Papuan languages of the mainland of New Guinea. -
Terrill, A. (2011). Limits of the substrate: Substrate grammatical influence in Solomon Islands Pijin. In C. Lefebvre (
Ed. ), Creoles, their substrates, and language typology (pp. 513-529). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Abstract
What grammatical elements of a substrate language find their way into a creole? Grammatical features of the Oceanic substrate languages have been shown to be crucial in the development of Solomon Islands Pijin and of Melanesian Pidgin as a whole (Keesing 1988), so one might expect constructions which are very stable in the Oceanic family of languages to show up as substrate influence in the creole. This paper investigates three constructions in Oceanic languages which have been stable over thousands of years and persist throughout a majority of the Oceanic languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. The paper asks whether these are the sorts of constructions which could be expected to be reflected in Solomon Islands Pijin and shows that none of these persistent constructions appears in Solomon Islands Pijin at all. The absence of these constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin could be due to simplification: Creole genesis involves simplification of the substrate grammars. However, while simplification could be the explanation, it is not necessarily the case that all complex structures become simplified. For instance Solomon Islands Pijin pronoun paradigms are more complex than those in English, but the complexity is similar to that of the substrate languages. Thus it is not the case that all areas of a creole language are necessarily simplified. One must therefore look further than just simplification for an explanation of the presence or absence of stable grammatical features deriving from the substrate in creole languages. An account based on constraints in specific domains (Siegel 1999) is a better predictor of the behaviour of substrate constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin. -
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. -
Thomaz, A. L., Lieven, E., Cakmak, M., Chai, J. Y., Garrod, S., Gray, W. D., Levinson, S. C., Paiva, A., & Russwinkel, N. (2019). Interaction for task instruction and learning. In K. A. Gluck, & J. E. Laird (
Eds. ), Interactive task learning: Humans, robots, and agents acquiring new tasks through natural interactions (pp. 91-110). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. -
Tuinman, A., & Cutler, A. (2011). L1 knowledge and the perception of casual speech processes in L2. In M. Wrembel, M. Kul, & K. Dziubalska-Kolaczyk (
Eds. ), Achievements and perspectives in SLA of speech: New Sounds 2010. Volume I (pp. 289-301). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Abstract
Every language manifests casual speech processes, and hence every second language too. This study examined how listeners deal with second-language casual speech processes, as a function of the processes in their native language. We compared a match case, where a second-language process t/-reduction) is also operative in native speech, with a mismatch case, where a second-language process (/r/-insertion) is absent from native speech. In each case native and non-native listeners judged stimuli in which a given phoneme (in sentence context) varied along a continuum from absent to present. Second-language listeners in general mimicked native performance in the match case, but deviated significantly from native performance in the mismatch case. Together these results make it clear that the mapping from first to second language is as important in the interpretation of casual speech processes as in other dimensions of speech perception. Unfamiliar casual speech processes are difficult to adapt to in a second language. Casual speech processes that are already familiar from native speech, however, are easy to adapt to; indeed, our results even suggest that it is possible for subtle difference in their occurrence patterns across the two languages to be detected,and to be accommodated to in second-language listening -
Van Staden, M., Bowerman, M., & Verhelst, M. (2006). Some properties of spatial description in Dutch. In S. C. Levinson, & D. Wilkins (
Eds. ), Grammars of Space (pp. 475-511). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. -
Van Berkum, J. J. A. (2009). The neuropragmatics of 'simple' utterance comprehension: An ERP review. In U. Sauerland, & K. Yatsushiro (
Eds. ), Semantics and pragmatics: From experiment to theory (pp. 276-316). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Abstract
In this chapter, I review my EEG research on comprehending sentences in context from a pragmatics-oriented perspective. The review is organized around four questions: (1) When and how do extra-sentential factors such as the prior text, identity of the speaker, or value system of the comprehender affect the incremental sentence interpretation processes indexed by the so-called N400 component of the ERP? (2) When and how do people identify the referents for expressions such as “he” or “the review”, and how do referential processes interact with sense and syntax? (3) How directly pragmatic are the interpretation-relevant ERP effects reported here? (4) Do readers and listeners anticipate upcoming information? One important claim developed in the chapter is that the well-known N400 component, although often associated with ‘semantic integration’, only indirectly reflects the sense-making involved in structure-sensitive dynamic composition of the type studied in semantics and pragmatics. According to the multiple-cause intensified retrieval (MIR) account -- essentially an extension of the memory retrieval account proposed by Kutas and colleagues -- the amplitude of the word-elicited N400 reflects the computational resources used in retrieving the relatively invariant coded meaning stored in semantic long-term memory for, and made available by, the word at hand. Such retrieval becomes more resource-intensive when the coded meanings cued by this word do not match with expectations raised by the relevant interpretive context, but also when certain other relevance signals, such as strong affective connotation or a marked delivery, indicate the need for deeper processing. The most important consequence of this account is that pragmatic modulations of the N400 come about not because the N400 at hand directly reflects a rich compositional-semantic and/or Gricean analysis to make sense of the word’s coded meaning in this particular context, but simply because the semantic and pragmatic implications of the preceding words have already been computed, and now define a less or more helpful interpretive background within which to retrieve coded meaning for the critical word. -
Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2009). Case in role and reference grammar. In A. Malchukov, & A. Spencer (
Eds. ), The Oxford handbook of case (pp. 102-120). Oxford University Press. -
Van Berkum, J. J. A., & Nieuwland, M. S. (2019). A cognitive neuroscience perspective on language comprehension in context. In P. Hagoort (
Ed. ), Human language: From genes and brain to behavior (pp. 429-442). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. -
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 Gijn, R. (2011). Multi-verb constructions in Yurakaré. In A. Y. Aikhenvald, & P. C. Muysken (
Eds. ), Multi-verb constructions: A view from the Americas (pp. 255-282). Leiden: Brill. -
Van Gijn, R., & Gipper, S. (2009). Irrealis in Yurakaré and other languages: On the cross-linguistic consistency of an elusive category. In L. Hogeweg, H. De Hoop, & A. Malchukov (
Eds. ), Cross-linguistic semantics of tense, aspect, and modality (pp. 155-178). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Abstract
The linguistic category of irrealis does not show stable semantics across languages. This makes it difficult to formulate general statements about this category, and it has led some researchers to reject irrealis as a cross-linguistically valid category. In this paper we look at the semantics of the irrealis category of Yurakaré, an unclassified language spoken in central Bolivia, and compare it to irrealis semantics of a number of other languages. Languages differ with respect to the subcategories they subsume under the heading of irrealis. The variable subcategories are future tense, imperatives, negatives, and habitual aspect. We argue that the cross-linguistic variation is not random, and can be stated in terms of an implicational scale. -
Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2009). Privileged syntactic arguments, pivots and controllers. In L. Guerrero, S. Ibáñez, & V. A. Belloro (
Eds. ), Studies in role and reference grammar (pp. 45-68). Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. -
Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2006). Some universals of verb semantics. In R. Mairal, & J. Gil (
Eds. ), Linguistic universals (pp. 155-178). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. -
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.Additional information
2001_Staged_events_1a.zip 2001_Staged_events_1b.zip 2001_Staged_events_2a.zip 2001_Staged_events_2b.zip -
Van Gijn, R., Haude, K., & Muysken, P. (2011). Subordination in South America: An overview. In R. Van Gijn, K. Haude, & P. Muysken (
Eds. ), Subordination in native South-American languages (pp. 1-24). Amsterdam: Benjamins. -
Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2009). Role and reference grammar. In F. Brisard, J.-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (
Eds. ), Grammar, meaning, and pragmatics (pp. 239-249). Amsterdam: Benjamins. -
Van Gijn, R. (2011). Semantic and grammatical integration in Yurakaré subordination. In R. Van Gijn, K. Haude, & P. Muysken (
Eds. ), Subordination in native South-American languages (pp. 169-192). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Abstract
Yurakaré (unclassified, central Bolivia) has five subordination strategies (on the basis of a morphosyntactic definition). In this paper I argue that the use of these different strategies is conditioned by the degree of conceptual synthesis of the two events, relating to temporal integration and participant integration. The most integrated events are characterized by shared time reference; morphosyntactically they are serial verb constructions, with syntactically fused predicates. The other constructions are characterized by less grammatical integration, which correlates either with a low degree of temporal integration of the dependent predicate and the main predicate, or with participant discontinuity. -
Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2006). Semantic macroroles and language processing. In I. Bornkessel, M. Schlesewsky, B. Comrie, & A. Friederici (
Eds. ), Semantic role universals and argument linking: Theoretical, typological and psycho-/neurolinguistic perspectives (pp. 263-302). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. -
van Hell, J. G., & Witteman, M. J. (2009). The neurocognition of switching between languages: A review of electrophysiological studies. In L. Isurin, D. Winford, & K. de Bot (
Eds. ), Multidisciplinary approaches to code switching (pp. 53-84). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Abstract
The seemingly effortless switching between languages and the merging of two languages into a coherent utterance is a hallmark of bilingual language processing, and reveals the flexibility of human speech and skilled cognitive control. That skill appears to be available not only to speakers when they produce language-switched utterances, but also to listeners and readers when presented with mixed language information. In this chapter, we review electrophysiological studies in which Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) are derived from recordings of brain activity to examine the neurocognitive aspects of comprehending and producing mixed language. Topics we discuss include the time course of brain activity associated with language switching between single stimuli and language switching of words embedded in a meaningful sentence context. The majority of ERP studies report that switching between languages incurs neurocognitive costs, but –more interestingly- ERP patterns differ as a function of L2 proficiency and the amount of daily experience with language switching, the direction of switching (switching into L2 is typically associated with higher switching costs than switching into L1), the type of language switching task, and the predictability of the language switch. Finally, we outline some future directions for this relatively new approach to the study of language switching. -
Verhagen, J. (2009). Light verbs and the acquisition of finiteness and negation in Dutch as a second language. In C. Dimroth, & P. Jordens (
Eds. ), Functional categories in learner language (pp. 203-234). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. -
Verkerk, A. (2009). A semantic map of secondary predication. In B. Botma, & J. Van Kampen (
Eds. ), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2009 (pp. 115-126).Files private
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Vernes, S. C., & Fisher, S. E. (2011). Functional genomic dissection of speech and language disorders. In J. D. Clelland (
Ed. ), Genomics, proteomics, and the nervous system (pp. 253-278). New York: Springer.Abstract
Mutations of the human FOXP2 gene have been shown to cause severe difficulties in learning to make coordinated sequences of articulatory gestures that underlie speech (developmental verbal dyspraxia or DVD). Affected individuals are impaired in multiple aspects of expressive and receptive linguistic processing and display abnormal grey matter volume and functional activation patterns in cortical and subcortical brain regions. The protein encoded by FOXP2 belongs to a divergent subgroup of forkhead-box transcription factors, with a distinctive DNA-binding domain and motifs that mediate hetero- and homodimerization. This chapter describes the successful use of FOXP2 as a unique molecular window into neurogenetic pathways that are important for speech and language development, adopting several complementary strategies. These include direct functional investigations of FOXP2 splice variants and the effects of etiological mutations. FOXP2’s role as a transcription factor also enabled the development of functional genomic routes for dissecting neurogenetic mechanisms that may be relevant for speech and language. By identifying downstream target genes regulated by FOXP2, it was possible to identify common regulatory themes in modulating synaptic plasticity, neurodevelopment, and axon guidance. These targets represent novel entrypoints into in vivo pathways that may be disturbed in speech and language disorders. The identification of FOXP2 target genes has also led to the discovery of a shared neurogenetic pathway between clinically distinct language disorders; the rare Mendelian form of DVD and a complex and more common form of language disorder known as Specific Language Impairment.Files private
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Vernes, S. C. (2019). Neuromolecular approaches to the study of language. In P. Hagoort (
Ed. ), Human language: From genes and brain to behavior (pp. 577-593). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. -
Virpioja, S., Lehtonen, M., Hulten, A., Salmelin, R., & Lagus, K. (2011). Predicting reaction times in word recognition by unsupervised learning of morphology. In W. Honkela, W. Dutch, M. Girolami, & S. Kaski (
Eds. ), Artificial Neural Networks and Machine Learning – ICANN 2011 (pp. 275-282). Berlin: Springer.Abstract
A central question in the study of the mental lexicon is how morphologically complex words are processed. We consider this question from the viewpoint of statistical models of morphology. As an indicator of the mental processing cost in the brain, we use reaction times to words in a visual lexical decision task on Finnish nouns. Statistical correlation between a model and reaction times is employed as a goodness measure of the model. In particular, we study Morfessor, an unsupervised method for learning concatenative morphology. The results for a set of inflected and monomorphemic Finnish nouns reveal that the probabilities given by Morfessor, especially the Categories-MAP version, show considerably higher correlations to the reaction times than simple word statistics such as frequency, morphological family size, or length. These correlations are also higher than when any individual test subject is viewed as a model. -
Von Stutterheim, C., Carroll, M., & Klein, W. (2009). New perspectives in analyzing aspectual distinctions across languages. In W. Klein, & P. Li (
Eds. ), The expression of time (pp. 195-216). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. -
Wegener, C. (2011). Expression of reciprocity in Savosavo. In N. Evans, A. Gaby, S. C. Levinson, & A. Majid (
Eds. ), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 213-224). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Abstract
This paper describes how reciprocity is expressed in the Papuan (i.e. non-Austronesian) language Savosavo, spoken in the Solomon Islands. The main strategy is to use the reciprocal nominal mapamapa, which can occur in different NP positions and always triggers default third person singular masculine agreement, regardless of the number and gender of the referents. After a description of this as well as another strategy that is occasionally used (the ‘joint activity construction’), the paper will provide a detailed analysis of data elicited with set of video stimuli and show that the main strategy is used to describe even clearly asymmetric situations, as long as more than one person acts on more than one person in a joint activity. -
Wilkin, K., & Holler, J. (2011). Speakers’ use of ‘action’ and ‘entity’ gestures with definite and indefinite references. In G. Stam, & M. Ishino (
Eds. ), Integrating gestures: The interdisciplinary nature of gesture (pp. 293-308). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Abstract
Common ground is an essential prerequisite for coordination in social interaction, including language use. When referring back to a referent in discourse, this referent is ‘given information’ and therefore in the interactants’ common ground. When a referent is being referred to for the first time, a speaker introduces ‘new information’. The analyses reported here are on gestures that accompany such references when they include definite and indefinite grammatical determiners. The main finding from these analyses is that referents referred to by definite and indefinite articles were equally often accompanied by gesture, but speakers tended to accompany definite references with gestures focusing on action information and indefinite references with gestures focusing on entity information. The findings suggest that speakers use speech and gesture together to design utterances appropriate for speakers with whom they share common ground.Files private
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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. -
Wood, N. (2009). Field recording for dummies. In A. Majid (
Ed. ), Field manual volume 12 (pp. V). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. -
Zeshan, U. (2006). Sign language of the world. In K. Brown (
Ed. ), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (vol. 11) (pp. 358-365). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Abstract
Although sign language-using communities exist in all areas of the world, few sign languages have been documented in detail. Sign languages occur in a variety of sociocultural contexts, ranging from sign languages used in closed village communities to officially recognized national sign languages. They may be grouped into language families on historical grounds or may participate in various language contact situations. Systematic cross-linguistic comparison reveals both significant structural similarities and important typological differences between sign languages. Focusing on information from non-Western countries, this article provides an overview of the sign languages of the world. -
Zeshan, U., & Panda, S. (2011). Reciprocals constructions in Indo-Pakistani sign language. In N. Evans, & A. Gaby (
Eds. ), Reciprocals and semantic typology (pp. 91-113). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Abstract
Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) is the sign language used by deaf communities in a large region across India and Pakistan. This visual-gestural language has a dedicated construction for specifically expressing reciprocal relationships, which can be applied to agreement verbs and to auxiliaries. The reciprocal construction relies on a change in the movement pattern of the signs it applies to. In addition, IPSL has a number of other strategies which can have a reciprocal interpretation, and the IPSL lexicon includes a good number of inherently reciprocal signs. All reciprocal expressions can be modified in complex ways that rely on the grammatical use of the sign space. Considering grammaticalisation and lexicalisation processes linking some of these constructions is also important for a better understanding of reciprocity in IPSL. -
Zhang, Y., Chen, C.-h., & Yu, C. (2019). Mechanisms of cross-situational learning: Behavioral and computational evidence. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior; vol. 56 (pp. 37-63).
Abstract
Word learning happens in everyday contexts with many words and many potential referents for those words in view at the same time. It is challenging for young learners to find the correct referent upon hearing an unknown word at the moment. This problem of referential uncertainty has been deemed as the crux of early word learning (Quine, 1960). Recent empirical and computational studies have found support for a statistical solution to the problem termed cross-situational learning. Cross-situational learning allows learners to acquire word meanings across multiple exposures, despite each individual exposure is referentially uncertain. Recent empirical research shows that infants, children and adults rely on cross-situational learning to learn new words (Smith & Yu, 2008; Suanda, Mugwanya, & Namy, 2014; Yu & Smith, 2007). However, researchers have found evidence supporting two very different theoretical accounts of learning mechanisms: Hypothesis Testing (Gleitman, Cassidy, Nappa, Papafragou, & Trueswell, 2005; Markman, 1992) and Associative Learning (Frank, Goodman, & Tenenbaum, 2009; Yu & Smith, 2007). Hypothesis Testing is generally characterized as a form of learning in which a coherent hypothesis regarding a specific word-object mapping is formed often in conceptually constrained ways. The hypothesis will then be either accepted or rejected with additional evidence. However, proponents of the Associative Learning framework often characterize learning as aggregating information over time through implicit associative mechanisms. A learner acquires the meaning of a word when the association between the word and the referent becomes relatively strong. In this chapter, we consider these two psychological theories in the context of cross-situational word-referent learning. By reviewing recent empirical and cognitive modeling studies, our goal is to deepen our understanding of the underlying word learning mechanisms by examining and comparing the two theoretical learning accounts. -
Zuidema, W., & Fitz, H. (2019). Key issues and future directions: Models of human language and speech processing. In P. Hagoort (
Ed. ), Human language: From genes and brain to behavior (pp. 353-358). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. -
Zwitserlood, I., & Van Gijn, I. (2006). Agreement phenomena in Sign Language of the Netherlands. In P. Ackema (
Ed. ), Arguments and Agreement (pp. 195-229). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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