Developing formulaicity: memorisation and production of formulaic expressions in L2 speakers of English

Research suggests that the use of formulaic language is a key feature of fluent and ‘natural sounding’ speech, but it is not used extensively by second language (L2) speakers, despite the potential benefits. To provide further insight into the acquisition and use of such language in L2 speakers, this thesis explores the operational and psycholinguistic processes by which targeted expressions become formulaic for the speaker. Building on ideas by Myles and Cordier (2017), formulaic expressions are here defined from a psycholinguistic perspective as multi-word strings that are either stored holistically in the mental lexicon or processed automatically as a single unit. This approach recognises that a target sequence, even if considered formulaic ‘in the language’, may not be immediately formulaic for the individual learner. A series of experiments is undertaken, focussing on the speech of intermediate/advanced Japanese speakers of English. The first set of studies explores the use of formulaic expressions in speech, using samples collected from semi-structured interviews and a longitudinal case study. Subsequent studies concern the memorisation and reproduction of targeted multi-word expressions. The effect of various factors is investigated, including the memorisation process (whether it encourages a unitary or reconstructive approach to recall), the sentential context in which expressions are delivered and the degree and type of repetition and retrieval. Formulaicity in the target sequences is identified principally on the basis of fluency, but the analyses also incorporated measures of accuracy and ease of recall. Various methods (natural speech, cued responses and psycholinguistic methods) are used to extract and analyse output. The extent to which fluency is a sufficient indicator of processing advantage in formulaic expressions is also explored. Building on this, a further psycholinguistic method for assessing formulaicity is introduced for the final study and compared with fluency to give a fuller picture of the stages of acquisition. The overall findings suggest that targeted expressions may become internally formulaic in different ways depending on the learner, specific characteristics of the expressions and the method of memorisation. Two particular routes are identified: the ‘fusion’ over time of component words and sub-sequences, and ‘holistic acquisition’, where an expression is internalised as a single unit from the start. In the former case, expressions appear to go through stages of initial reconstruction, via fluent (but not necessarily formulaic) production, to full holistic processing. With holistic acquisition, the development stages are more associated with strengthening semantic and contextual links to the expression and improving recall. Drawing on existing models of speech production, particularly the ‘superlemma’ model of Sprenger, Levelt, and Kempen (2006), a tentative model for how target sequences may be stored and processed at different stages of acquisition is proposed. Key implications of this for the acquisition of formulaic expressions in L2 speakers are discussed

Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions for Biomedical Applications

The Models and Analysis of Vocal Emissions with Biomedical Applications (MAVEBA) workshop came into being in 1999 from the particularly felt need of sharing know-how, objectives and results between areas that until then seemed quite distinct such as bioengineering, medicine and singing. MAVEBA deals with all aspects concerning the study of the human voice with applications ranging from the neonate to the adult and elderly. Over the years the initial issues have grown and spread also in other aspects of research such as occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. MAVEBA takes place every two years always in Firenze, Italy

Theories and methods

The notion of formulaicity has received increasing attention in disciplines and areas as diverse as linguistics, literary studies, art theory and art history. In recent years, linguistic studies of formulaicity have been flourishing and the very notion of formulaicity has been approached from various methodological and theoretical perspectives and with various purposes in mind. The linguistic approach to formulaicity is still in a state of rapid development and the objective of the current volume is to present the current explorations in the field. Papers collected in the volume make numerous suggestions for further development of the field and they are arranged into three complementary parts. The first part, with three chapters, presents new theoretical and methodological insights as well as their practical application in the development of custom-designed software tools for identification and exploration of formulaic language in texts. Two papers in the second part explore formulaic language in the context of language learning. Finally, the third part, with three chapters, showcases descriptive research on formulaic language conducted primarily from the perspectives of corpus linguistics and translation studies. The volume will be of interest to anyone involved in the study of formulaic language either from a theoretical or a practical perspective

Formulaic language

The notion of formulaicity has received increasing attention in disciplines and areas as diverse as linguistics, literary studies, art theory and art history. In recent years, linguistic studies of formulaicity have been flourishing and the very notion of formulaicity has been approached from various methodological and theoretical perspectives and with various purposes in mind. The linguistic approach to formulaicity is still in a state of rapid development and the objective of the current volume is to present the current explorations in the field. Papers collected in the volume make numerous suggestions for further development of the field and they are arranged into three complementary parts. The first part, with three chapters, presents new theoretical and methodological insights as well as their practical application in the development of custom-designed software tools for identification and exploration of formulaic language in texts. Two papers in the second part explore formulaic language in the context of language learning. Finally, the third part, with three chapters, showcases descriptive research on formulaic language conducted primarily from the perspectives of corpus linguistics and translation studies. The volume will be of interest to anyone involved in the study of formulaic language either from a theoretical or a practical perspective

Automatic Detection of Dementia and related Affective Disorders through Processing of Speech and Language

In 2019, dementia is has become a trillion dollar disorder. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a type of dementia in which the main observable symptom is a decline in cognitive functions, notably memory, as well as language and problem-solving. Experts agree that early detection is crucial to effectively develop and apply interventions and treatments, underlining the need for effective and pervasive assessment and screening tools. The goal of this thesis is to explores how computational techniques can be used to process speech and language samples produced by patients suffering from dementia or related affective disorders, to the end of automatically detecting them in large populations us- ing machine learning models. A strong focus is laid on the detection of early stage dementia (MCI), as most clinical trials today focus on intervention at this level. To this end, novel automatic and semi-automatic analysis schemes for a speech-based cogni- tive task, i.e., verbal fluency, are explored and evaluated to be an appropriate screening task. Due to a lack of available patient data in most languages, world-first multilingual approaches to detecting dementia are introduced in this thesis. Results are encouraging and clear benefits on a small French dataset become visible. Lastly, the task of detecting these people with dementia who also suffer from an affective disorder called apathy is explored. Since they are more likely to convert into later stage of dementia faster, it is crucial to identify them. These are the fist experiments that consider this task us- ing solely speech and language as inputs. Results are again encouraging, both using only speech or language data elicited using emotional questions. Overall, strong results encourage further research in establishing speech-based biomarkers for early detection and monitoring of these disorders to better patients’ lives.Im Jahr 2019 ist Demenz zu einer Billionen-Dollar-Krankheit geworden. Die Alzheimer- Krankheit (AD) ist eine Form der Demenz, bei der das Hauptsymptom eine Abnahme der kognitiven Funktionen ist, insbesondere des Gedächtnisses sowie der Sprache und des Problemlösungsvermögens. Experten sind sich einig, dass eine frühzeitige Erkennung entscheidend für die effektive Entwicklung und Anwendung von Interventionen und Behandlungen ist, was den Bedarf an effektiven und durchgängigen Bewertungsund Screening-Tools unterstreicht. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu erforschen, wie computergest ützte Techniken eingesetzt werden können, um Sprach- und Sprechproben von Patienten, die an Demenz oder verwandten affektiven Störungen leiden, zu verarbeiten, mit dem Ziel, diese in großen Populationen mit Hilfe von maschinellen Lernmodellen automatisch zu erkennen. Ein starker Fokus liegt auf der Erkennung von Demenz im Frühstadium (MCI), da sich die meisten klinischen Studien heute auf eine Intervention auf dieser Ebene konzentrieren. Zu diesem Zweck werden neuartige automatische und halbautomatische Analyseschemata für eine sprachbasierte kognitive Aufgabe, d.h. die verbale Geläufigkeit, erforscht und als geeignete Screening-Aufgabe bewertet. Aufgrund des Mangels an verfügbaren Patientendaten in den meisten Sprachen werden in dieser Arbeit weltweit erstmalig mehrsprachige Ansätze zur Erkennung von Demenz vorgestellt. Die Ergebnisse sind ermutigend und es werden deutliche Vorteile an einem kleinen französischen Datensatz sichtbar. Schließlich wird die Aufgabe untersucht, jene Menschen mit Demenz zu erkennen, die auch an einer affektiven Störung namens Apathie leiden. Da sie mit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit schneller in ein späteres Stadium der Demenz übergehen, ist es entscheidend, sie zu identifizieren. Dies sind die ersten Experimente, die diese Aufgabe unter ausschließlicher Verwendung von Sprache und Sprache als Input betrachten. Die Ergebnisse sind wieder ermutigend, sowohl bei der Verwendung von reiner Sprache als auch bei der Verwendung von Sprachdaten, die durch emotionale Fragen ausgelöst werden. Insgesamt sind die Ergebnisse sehr ermutigend und ermutigen zu weiterer Forschung, um sprachbasierte Biomarker für die Früherkennung und Überwachung dieser Erkrankungen zu etablieren und so das Leben der Patienten zu verbessern

The Processing of Emotional Sentences by Young and Older Adults: A Visual World Eye-movement Study

Carminati MN, Knoeferle P. The Processing of Emotional Sentences by Young and Older Adults: A Visual World Eye-movement Study. Presented at the Architectures and Mechanisms of Language and Processing (AMLaP), Riva del Garda, Italy

Primary progressive aphasia : neuropsychological analysis and evolution

Tese de doutoramento, Ciências Biomédicas (Neurociências), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Medicina, 2015Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is the second leading cause of early-onset ( 2) revealed some clusters composed mostly by nonfluent or by semantic PPA cases. However, we could not evidence any group chiefly composed of logopenic PPA cases. Hence, findings obtained with the application of unsupervised data mining approaches do not clearly support a logopenic PPA. However further, supervised learning studies may indicate distinct results. Behaviour changes may occur early in PPA but the frequency of these symptoms across the three variants is still controversial. In the third study, 94 consecutive PPA patients (26 nonfluent, 36 semantic, 32 logopenic) underwent language and neuropsychological assessments. The presence of behavioural changes was ascertained by semi-structured informant-based interviews using the Blessed Dementia Rating Scale. Eighty-two percent of the cases endorsed at least one behaviour change. Nonfluent patients presented significantly more behaviour changes and scored more often (46.2%) the item “hobbies relinquished” when compared to logopenic patients. These differences in behaviour symptoms probably reflect distinct underlying neurodegenerative diseases. PPA is a neurodegenerative disorder with no effective pharmacological treatment. Cognition-based interventions are adequate alternatives, but their benefit has not been thoroughly explored. The aim of this last investigation was to study the effect of speech and language therapy (SLT) on naming ability in PPA. An open parallel prospective longitudinal study involving two centers was designed to compare patients with PPA submitted to SLT (1 h/week for 11 months, on average) with patients receiving no therapy. Twenty patients were enrolled and undertook baseline language and neuropsychological assessments; among them, 10 received SLT and 10 constituted an age- and education-matched historical control group. The primary outcome measure was the change in group mean performance on the Snodgrass and Vanderwart Naming Test between baseline and follow-up assessments. Intervention and control groups did not significantly differ on demographic and clinical variables at baseline. A mixed repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of therapy (F(1,18) = 10.763; p = 0.005) on the performance on the Snodgrass and Vanderwart Naming Test. Although limited by a non-randomized open study design with a historical control group, the present study suggests that SLT may have a benefit in PPA, and it should prompt a randomized, controlled, rater-blind clinical trial. Conclusion: Despite the recent harmonization efforts, the delineation of certain PPA variants is still controversial. The present results show that neuropsychology is a key instrument not only for the clear definition of PPA subtypes but also for the study of the abnormal mechanisms and features underlying the main forms of PPA. Moreover, a neuropsychological approach to disease management seems to be feasible. Specifically, SLT emerges as an alternative and adequate approach to tackle the increasing language deficits experienced in all PPA phenotypes for some time. The emergence of promising disease-modifying therapies in the context of FTLD, in association with these cognitive-based interventions, will certainly be the future of PPA disease management

Phonological encoding in adults who clutter and adults who stutter

Background: Stuttering and cluttering are related but contrasting disorders of fluency. Whilst stuttering has received a great deal of attention in the research literature over the last 100 years, cluttering has remained relatively neglected. There is ongoing debate regarding whether there is a language/phonological component to cluttering or whether it is solely a motoric and/or rate-based disorder. The following thesis aims to investigate the phonological encoding skills of both adults who stutter (AWS) and adults who clutter (AWC) in contrast to fluent controls. Method: Three groups were used, comprising 14 AWS, 14 AWC and 15 matched controls. A variety of phoneme monitoring and syllable detection tasks designed to eliminate possible motor influences were used. Results: It was found that AWS and AWC performed in a similar manner; they were both less accurate in detecting phonemes in real words than controls and in detecting phonemes in silent picture naming. There were no differences (between AWS, AWC and controls), however, in syllable detection accuracy or in time taken to make judgments on monitoring for phonological differences, nor were there any differences in phoneme monitoring in non-words or in the accuracy of phoneme monitoring in silent reading. Discussion: Findings lend some support to the notion that phonological encoding may be impaired in both AWS and AWC. Findings are discussed in relation to phonological theories such as the covert repair hypothesis. Alternative interpretations, wider implications and the impact on participants accuracy of factors such as the type of phoneme being monitored for and the length of the word used are all discussed in greater depth