Publications

Displaying 101 - 149 of 149
  • Sauter, D. (2009). Emotion concepts. In A. Majid (Ed.), Field manual volume 12 (pp. 20-30). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.883578.

    Abstract

    The goal of this task is to investigate emotional categories across linguistic and cultural boundaries. There are three core tasks. In order to conduct this task you will need emotional vocalisation stimuli on your computer and you must translate the scenarios at the end of this entry into your local language.
  • Schimke, S. (2009). Does finiteness mark assertion? A picture selection study with Turkish learners and native speakers of German. In C. Dimroth, & P. Jordens (Eds.), Functional categories in learner language (pp. 169-202). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Scott, S. K., Sauter, D., & McGettigan, C. (2009). Brain mechanisms for processing perceived emotional vocalizations in humans. In S. M. Brudzynski (Ed.), Handbook of mammalian vocalization: An integrative neuroscience approach (pp. 187-198). London: Academic Press.

    Abstract

    Humans express emotional information in their facial expressions and body movements, as well as in their voice. In this chapter we consider the neural processing of a specific kind of vocal expressions, non-verbal emotional vocalizations e.g. laughs and sobs. We outline evidence, from patient studies and functional imaging studies, for both emotion specific and more general processing of emotional information in the voice. We relate these findings to evidence for both basic and dimensional accounts of the representations of emotion. We describe in detail an fMRI study of positive and negative non-verbal expressions of emotion, which revealed that prefrontal areas involved in the control of oro-facial movements were also sensitive to different kinds of vocal emotional information.
  • Senft, G. (2006). Prolegomena to Kilivila grammar of space. In S. C. Levinson, & D. P. Wilkins (Eds.), Grammars of space: Explorations in cognitive diversity (pp. 206-229). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Abstract

    This paper presents preliminary remarks on some of the central linguistic means speakers of Kilivila use in expressing their conceptions of space and for referring to objects, persons, and events in space . After a brief characterisation of the language and its speakers, I sketch how specific topological relations are encoded, how motion events are described, and what frames of spatial reference are preferred in what contexts for what means and ends.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski. In G. Senft, J.-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Culture and language use (pp. 210-225). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Elicitation. In G. Senft, J.-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Culture and language use (pp. 105-109). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Fieldwork. In G. Senft, J.-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Culture and language use (pp. 131-139). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Linguistische Feldforschung. In H. M. Müller (Ed.), Arbeitsbuch Linguistik (2nd rev. ed., pp. 353-363). Paderborn: Schöningh UTB.

    Abstract

    This article provides a brief introduction into field research, its aims, its methods and the various phases of fieldwork.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Introduction. In G. Senft, J.-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Culture and language use (pp. 1-17). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Phatic communion. In G. Senft, J.-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Culture and language use (pp. 226-233). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Sind die emotionalen Gesichtsausdrücke des Menschen in allen Kulturen gleich? In Max Planck Society (Ed.), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Jahrbuch 2008/09 Tätigkeitsberichte und Publikationen (DVD) (pp. 1-4). München: Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science.

    Abstract

    This paper presents a project which tests the hypothesis of the universality of facial expressions of emotions crossculturally and crosslinguistically. First results are presented which contradict the hypothesis.
  • Senft, G. (2009). Trobriand Islanders' forms of ritual communication. In G. Senft, & E. B. Basso (Eds.), Ritual communication (pp. 81-101). Oxford: Berg.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2006). Sentence-oriented semantic approaches in generative grammar. 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. 2201-2213). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Abstract

    1. Introduction 2. A generative grammar as an algorithm 3. The semantic component 4. Bibliography 1. Introduction Throughout the 20th century up to the present day grammar and semantics have been uneasy bedfellows. A look at the historical background will make it clear how this curious situation came about. 20th-century linguistics has been characterized by an almost exclusive concern with the structure of words, word groups and sentences. This concern was reinforced, especially on the American side of the Atlantic, by the sudden rise and subsequent dominance of behaviorism during the 1920s. It started in psychology but quickly permeated all the human sciences, including linguistics, until the early 1960s, when it collapsed as suddenly as it had arisen.
  • 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. (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. (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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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 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 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).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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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