230 research outputs found
Cue Phrase Classification Using Machine Learning
Cue phrases may be used in a discourse sense to explicitly signal discourse
structure, but also in a sentential sense to convey semantic rather than
structural information. Correctly classifying cue phrases as discourse or
sentential is critical in natural language processing systems that exploit
discourse structure, e.g., for performing tasks such as anaphora resolution and
plan recognition. This paper explores the use of machine learning for
classifying cue phrases as discourse or sentential. Two machine learning
programs (Cgrendel and C4.5) are used to induce classification models from sets
of pre-classified cue phrases and their features in text and speech. Machine
learning is shown to be an effective technique for not only automating the
generation of classification models, but also for improving upon previous
results. When compared to manually derived classification models already in the
literature, the learned models often perform with higher accuracy and contain
new linguistic insights into the data. In addition, the ability to
automatically construct classification models makes it easier to comparatively
analyze the utility of alternative feature representations of the data.
Finally, the ease of retraining makes the learning approach more scalable and
flexible than manual methods.Comment: 42 pages, uses jair.sty, theapa.bst, theapa.st
Moving beyond the monosyllable in models of skilled reading:Mega-study of disyllabic nonword reading
AbstractMost English words are polysyllabic, yet research on reading aloud typically focuses on monosyllables. Forty-one skilled adult readers read aloud 915 disyllabic nonwords that shared important characteristics with English words. Stress, pronunciation, and naming latencies were analyzed and compared to data from three computational accounts of disyllabic reading, including a rule-based algorithm (Rastle & Coltheart, 2000) and connectionist approaches (the CDP++ model of Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2010, and the print-to-stress network of Å eva, Monaghan, & Arciuli, 2009). Item-based regression analyses revealed orthographic and phonological influences on modal human stress assignment, pronunciation variability, and naming latencies, while human and model data comparisons revealed important strengths and weaknesses of the opposing accounts. Our dataset provides the first normative nonword corpus for British English and the largest database of its kind for any language; hence, it will be critical for assessing generalization performance in future developments of computational models of reading
Stress affects articulation planning in reading aloud.
Three experiments of pseudoword reading assessed whether stress assignment affects reading aloud at the level of articulation planning. In experiment 1 (immediate reading) both stimulus length (in syllables) and stress type affected reading latency and accuracy. Italian pseudowords were named faster and more accurately when they were assigned stress on the antepenultimate than on the penultimate syllable. In experiment 2 (delayed reading) reading aloud of the same stimuli was not affected by length but was still affected by stress type, with shorter latencies for pseudowords stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Experiment 3 replicated the results of the first two experiments with new materials and with a tightly controlled procedure. These results indicate that stress assignment exerts an effect in a processing component where articulation is planned as articulation can not start until stress is assigned. Our results also suggest that, in reading aloud, the minimal planning unit for articulation is smaller than the whole stimulus, including the first syllable up to the stressed unit
Cognitive and linguistic predictors of literacy skills in the Greek language: the manifestation of reading and spelling difficulties in a regular orthography
The aim of this thesis was three-fold: firstly, to examine the development of
reading and spelling abilities in the Greek language; secondly, to identify the cognitive
predictors of reading and spelling skills; and finally, to establish how developmental
dyslexia is manifested in the regular Greek orthography.
An extensive battery of cognitive, linguistic, and literacy tasks was administered
to 132 children: 66 Grade-2 and 66 Grade-4 Greek-speaking children attending
four different schools in Athens, Greece. The battery included: tests of reading,
spelling, and mathematical attainment; a nonword reading task, various phonological
awareness & other phonological processing tests; a non-verbal intelligence test and
various syntactic awareness tasks. Evidence on the manifestation of developmental
dyslexia in Greek was based on a chronological-age and a reading-level matched-pairs
comparison between poor and average readers.
Despite a large number of difficult polysyllabic word stimuli, reading accuracy
was at ceiling for most subjects. Reading speed proved a more effective
measure of individual differences. A high degree of accuracy was also observed on
many phonological awareness tests. Rapid naming, phonological awareness and
speech rate proved the most important predictors of reading ability in the regular
Greek language. The predictive value of many variables/tests, however, appeared
to differ between English and Greek. Phonological awareness - the most powerful
and stable predictor in English - appeared to be a reliable predictor of reading ability
only at the initial stages of literacy development (Grade-2). The most significant predictor at Grade-4 was rapid naming. Speech rate consistently predicted reading
skill in all our analyses. Syntactic awareness proved not a reliable predictor. Its
contribution was significant only for spelling ability at Grade-4. The matched-pair
comparisons supported the above results.
Results are discussed in relation to the existing differences in the orthographic
structure of the English and Greek languages. It is suggested that the examination
of linguistic differences is important, both, from a theoretical and clinical
point of view
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