Catalan Morphology and Low-level Patterns in a Network Model

The fact that more specific or low-level morphological patterns may coexist with the most general or abstract ones is a characteristic insight of Cognitive Morphology. According to the bottom- up approach of the model, it is even to be expected that low-level patterns may have a more relevant role than the most inclusive and abstract ones. On the basis of the analysis of an aspect of Catalan inflection (velar verbs of the second conjugation) and one aspect of Catalan wordformation (complex words with the prefixoid radio-), we will show the advantages of incorporating to the model salient low-level patterns and the local paradigmatic relations in which they are based

What does semantic tiling of the cortex tell us about semantics?

Recent use of voxel-wise modeling in cognitive neuroscience suggests that semantic maps tile the cortex. Although this impressive research establishes distributed cortical areas active during the conceptual processing that underlies semantics, it tells us little about the nature of this processing. While mapping concepts between Marr's computational and implementation levels to support neural encoding and decoding, this approach ignores Marr's algorithmic level, central for understanding the mechanisms that implement cognition, in general, and conceptual processing, in particular. Following decades of research in cognitive science and neuroscience, what do we know so far about the representation and processing mechanisms that implement conceptual abilities? Most basically, much is known about the mechanisms associated with: (1) features and frame representations, (2) grounded, abstract, and linguistic representations, (3) knowledge-based inference, (4) concept composition, and (5) conceptual flexibility. Rather than explaining these fundamental representation and processing mechanisms, semantic tiles simply provide a trace of their activity over a relatively short time period within a specific learning context. Establishing the mechanisms that implement conceptual processing in the brain will require more than mapping it to cortical (and sub-cortical) activity, with process models from cognitive science likely to play central roles in specifying the intervening mechanisms. More generally, neuroscience will not achieve its basic goals until it establishes algorithmic-level mechanisms that contribute essential explanations to how the brain works, going beyond simply establishing the brain areas that respond to various task conditions

The knowing ear : an Australian test of universal claims about the semantic structure of sensory verbs and their extension into the domain of cognition

In this paper we test previous claims concerning the universality of patterns of polysemy and semantic change in perception verbs. Implicit in such claims are two elements: firstly, that the sharing of two related senses A and B by a given form is cross-linguistically widespread, and matched by a complementary lack of some rival polysemy, and secondly that the explanation for the ubiquity of a given pattern of polysemy is ultimately rooted in our shared human cognitive make-up. However, in comparison to the vigorous testing of claimed universals that has occurred in phonology, syntax and even basic lexical meaning, there has been little attempt to test proposed universals of semantic extension against a detailed areal study of non-European languages. To address this problem we examine a broad range of Australian languages to evaluate two hypothesized universals: one by Viberg (1984), concerning patterns of semantic extension across sensory modalities within the domain of perception verbs (i .e. intra-field extensions), and the other by Sweetser (1990), concerning the mapping of perception to cognition (i.e. trans-field extensions). Testing against the Australian data allows one claimed universal to survive, but demolishes the other, even though both assign primacy to vision among the senses

Extra argumentality - affectees, landmarks, and voice

This article investigates sentences with additional core arguments of a special type in three languages, viz. German, English, and Mandarin. These additional arguments, called extra arguments in the article, form a crosslinguistically homogeneous class by virtue of their structural and semantic similarities, with so-called "raised possessors" forming just a sub-group among them. Structurally, extra arguments may not be the most deeply embedded arguments in a sentence. Semantically, their referents are felt to stand in a specific relation to the referent of the/a more deeply embedded argument. There are two major thematic relations that are instantiated by extra arguments, viz. affectees and landmarks. These thematic role notions are justified in the context of and partly in contrast to, Dowty's (1991) proto-role approach. An affectee combines proto-agent with proto-patient properties in eventualities that are construed as involving causation. A landmark is a ground with respect to some spatial configuration denoted by the predication at hand, but a figure at the highest level of gestalt partitioning that is relevant in a clause. Thereby, both affectees and landmarks are inherently hybrid categories. The account of extra argumentality is couched in a neo-Davidsonian event semantics in the spirit of Kratzer (1996, 2003), and voice heads are assumed to introduce affectee arguments and landmark arguments right above VP

Direct and Indirect Treatment Effects in Multilingual People with Aphasia

Background: Successfully assessing and treating aphasia in multilingual people requires a detailed understanding of the mechanisms underlying language processing in the multilingual population, and the potential impairments to those mechanisms. The balance between spreading activation of language processes via treatment and controlling interference of competing items within the lexico-semantic networks appears to be a key factor in determining whether treatment effects generalise within and across languages in multilingual people with aphasia (Kiran, Sandberg, Gray, Ascenso, & Kester, 2013). This balance can be exploited through treatment, which, if carefully chosen, should maximise potential within- and cross-language generalisation. One treatment that has been shown to consistently result in within-language generalisation, to varying degrees, is Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST), in which thematic role assignment to given verbs is repeatedly trained, thus strengthening semantic verb networks (Edmonds, 2016). Due to the shared semantic network across languages of multilingual people (e.g., Paradis, 1993), VNeST should result in generalisation across languages of multilingual individuals with aphasia, in addition to within-language generalisation, especially when trained verbs share argument structure across languages, and when basic sentence structure is similar across languages. To date, conflicting evidence has been observed in multilingual individuals with aphasia regarding within-language and cross-language generalisation relative to the underlying and competing mechanisms of spreading activation and interference control. Aim: We investigated under which conditions generalisation is likely to occur in multilingual individuals with aphasia, using a treatment with high potential for generalisation (VNeST), in a language pair with overlapping basic word order and mostly overlapping verb argument structure. Furthermore, we investigated whether any treatment gains were maintained after treatment was discontinued. Method: Three multilingual participants with aphasia whose first-acquired language was English, and who all acquired Modern Hebrew in elementary school and reached moderate-high pre-stroke proficiency in adulthood, participated in this study. All participants received VNeST in each of their languages, in consecutive treatment blocks. English and Hebrew abilities were tested before and after each treatment block, and 4-5 weeks after treatment was discontinued, using a large battery of language tests that included comprehension and production tasks for single-words, sentences, oral connected speech and written narratives. Functional communication skills in each language were also assessed via questionnaire. Results: We found that direct treatment effects were measured in both languages, for all participants with moderate-severe aphasia in any given language, but not in mild aphasia. Within-language generalisation was also observed for all participants, but not equally for both languages. Rather, the amount and type of generalisation was qualified by order of acquisition, relative proficiencies, attrition, aphasia type and severity, and motivational factors. Cross-language generalisation was observed in each participant in one direction only, with contradictory patterns across participants. For two participants with pre-stroke high proficiency in both languages, we found support for the strong suppression of interference in the less impaired English during treatment of the more impaired Hebrew, resulting in either no cross-language generalisation to English, or a decrease in post-treatment English language performance, which we attribute to the involvement of damage to the language control network (Ansaldo & Saidi, 2014). Conversely, in the same two participants, cross-language generalisation was observed in the more impaired Hebrew after treatment in the less impaired English, likely due to a weak suppression of interference of the more impaired Hebrew, and therefore a stronger effect of spreading activation from treatment in English (Kiran et al., 2013). We observed the opposite pattern in a participant whose attrited Hebrew had never reached full proficiency pre-stroke, with treatment in his more impaired Hebrew demonstrating cross-language generalisation to his less impaired English. We attribute this to strong spreading activation of an attrited language, both generally through exposure as well as specifically through treatment. Conversely, a decrease in performance in the more impaired Hebrew after treatment in the less impaired English was attribute to rarely using Hebrew in the environment once treatment in English began, together with fluctuating motivation. Treatment gains began to decline for all participants after treatment was discontinued, with the most widespread decline in the least communicative participant, in his rarely-used language (Hebrew). Conclusion: Our study supports the competing mechanisms theory of Kiran et al. (2013), relative to factors such as order of acquisition, damage to the language control network, language of the environment, attrition, and motivational factors. Clinically, we found that VNeST is a valuable treatment option in multilingual participants with aphasia, resulting in direct treatment effects and within-language generalisation, including for a moderately proficient language that had undergone attrition for many years. Notably, we found that when treating a multilingual participant with aphasia in one language only, not only can cross-language generalisation occur or not occur, but treatment in one language can also result in a decrease in performance in the untreated language, especially if (a) the language control network is damaged, and (b) treatment is provided to the more impaired language only. Therefore, carefully monitoring language gains and losses throughout treatment is essential, in order to modify treatment plans as therapy progresses. Finally, it is necessary to consider a low dosage maintenance treatment plan relative to participants’ language and communicative environment, so that treatment gains can be appropriately maintained allowing multilingual patients with aphasia to maximise their potential in each language

Developing Signalong Indonesia: issues of happiness and pedagogy, training and stigmatisation

Signalong Indonesia (SI), a key word signing approach, was created to support the development of Indonesian inclusive schools. A mixed methods approach collected data about teacher’s beliefs and experiences regarding SI from the first two schools to pilot it. Thirty-two teachers completed questionnaires, followed by interviews with nine teachers. Three themes emerged: understanding the nature of SI, the stigmatisation of signers and its reporting by teachers, and the nature of happiness in inclusive pedagogy. The latter reveals, for the first time, the importance of Suka as a culturally mediated intrinsic part of Indonesian inclusive pedagogy. The findings suggest recommendations about SI materials and training, and indicate a new research area regarding inclusive pedagogies within different cultures

Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo