Morphological Analysis of the Dravidian Language Family

The Dravidian family is one of the most widely spoken set of languages in the world, yet there are very few annotated resources available to NLP researchers. To remedy this, we create DravMorph, a corpus annotated for morphological segmentation and part-of-speech. Also, we exploit novel features and higher-order models to achieve promising results on these corpora on both tasks, beating techniques proposed in the literature by as much as 4 points in segmentation F1.Postprint (published version

Letter chunk frequency does not explain morphological masked priming: Affix frequency in masked priming

Research on visual word identification has extensively investigated the role of morphemes, recurrent letter chunks that convey a fairly regular meaning (e.g., lead-er-ship). Masked priming studies highlighted morpheme identification in complex (e.g., sing-er) and pseudo-complex (corn-er) words, as well as in nonwords (e.g., basket-y). The present study investigated whether such sensitivity to morphemes could be rooted in the visual system sensitivity to statistics of letter (co)occurrence. To this aim, we assessed masked priming as induced by nonword primes obtained by combining a stem (e.g., bulb) with (i) naturally frequent, derivational suffixes (e.g., -ment), (ii) non-morphological, equally frequent word-endings (e.g., -idge), and (iii) non-morphological, infrequent word-endings (e.g., -kle). In two additional tasks, we collected interpretability and word-likeness measures for morphologically-structured nonwords, to assess whether priming is modulated by such factors. Results indicate that masked priming is not affected by either the frequency or the morphological status of word-endings, a pattern that was replicated in a second experiment including also lexical primes. Our findings are in line with models of early visual processing based on automatic stem/word extraction, and rule out letter chunk frequency as a main player in the early stages of visual word identification. Nonword interpretability and word-likeness do not affect this pattern

Optional Elements In Indonesian Morphosyntax

This dissertation investigates the syntax and morphology of several functional morphemes that display surface optionality in Indonesian. Three case studies consider how syntactic environments constrain optional realization. Chapter 2 investigates the declarative complementizers bahwa and kalau, which are disallowed in case of A-bar movement; I show that bahwa is also disallowed in wh-in situ questions that do not involve movement. These facts are developed into an analysis of wh phrases and the structure of wh questions in Indonesian. I also propose that the morpheme yang, as well as the null form of the complementizer, constitute a pattern of morphological wh-agreement on C. Chapter 3 discusses the verbal prefixes meN- and ber-, which have received varied analyses in the literature. I argue that meN- and ber- participate in wh-agreement resulting from A-bar movement, and argue against previous analyses that assume that A-movement results in a similar deletion. In addition, I differentiate between deterministic properties that are relevant in the syntax, and non-deterministic properties of meN- and ber- that are extra-syntactic. This distinction accounts for a number of puzzling properties that have been observed for these prefixes. Chapter 4 discusses possessor sub-extraction in Indonesian, with additional data from similar constructions in Javanese and Madurese. I pursue a novel analysis of the nominal suffix -nya, which is optional is possessive DPs: in possessor extraction, this suffix is a pronunciation of the head D. The analysis of wh-agreement is extended to the DP domain, where -nya marks A-bar movement on phase heads; the consequence is that DP is a phase for syntactic movement. One language-specific finding in this dissertation is that morphological wh-agreement applies across three domains: complementizers, verbs and possessive nominals. This has cross-linguistic implications for the phasehood of DP and wh-agreement patterns. More broadly, the dissertation contributes a syntactic approach to the analysis of variable morphemes, revealing how multiple factors constrain surface optionality

An HCI Speech-Based Architecture for Man-To-Machine and Machine-To-Man Communication in Yorùbá Language

Man communicates with man by natural language, sign language, and/or gesture but communicates with machine via electromechanical devices such as mouse, and keyboard.  These media of effecting Man-To-Machine (M2M) communication are electromechanical in nature. Recent research works, however, have been able to achieve some high level of success in M2M using natural language, sign language, and/or gesture under constrained conditions. However, machine communication with man, in reverse direction, using natural language is still at its infancy. Machine communicates with man usually in textual form. In order to achieve acceptable quality of end-to-end M2M communication, there is need for robust architecture to develop a novel speech-to-text and text-to-speech system. In this paper, an HCI speech-based architecture for Man-To-Machine and Machine-To-Man communication in Yorùbá language is proposed to carry Yorùbá people along in the advancement taking place in the world of Information Technology. Dynamic Time Warp is specified in the model to measure the similarity between the voice utterances in the sound library. In addition, Vector Quantization, Guassian Mixture Model and Hidden Markov Model are incorporated in the proposed architecture for compression and observation. This approach will yield a robust Speech-To-Text and Text-To-Speech system. Keywords: Yorùbá Language, Speech Recognition, Text-To-Speech, Man-To-Machine, Machine-To-Ma

The Predictive Role of Grapho-Morphological Knowledge in Reading Comprehension for Beginning-Level L2 Chinese Learners

Reading comprehension entails a set of distinct, yet interdependent cognitive, linguistic, and nonlinguistic processes. Previous second language (L2) Chinese studies have identified significant and positive impacts of grapho-morphological knowledge at the character and subcharacter (radical) levels on passage reading comprehension; however, little is known regarding how early L2 grapho-morphological knowledge at the character and radical levels jointly predict later L2 reading comprehension. This study aimed to fill this gap. One hundred and five beginning-level L2 Chinese collegiate learners were recruited, and completed two character-related and two radical-related tasks in Week 8, as well as one reading comprehension tasks in Week 18. The main findings, based on correlational and path analyses, suggested that L2 Chinese learners’ early character-level and radical-level grapho-morphological knowledge significantly predicted later reading comprehension, yet the interrelations among grapho-morphological knowledge at the character and radical levels were complex. Path analyses identified direct and indirect paths from early character-level grapho-morphological knowledge to later reading comprehension, as well as indirect paths from early radical-level grapho-morphological knowledge to later reading comprehension. Methodological and pedagogical implications for L2 Chinese reading research and practices are discussed

Brain bases of morphological processing in Chineseâ English bilingual children

Can bilingual exposure impact children’s neural circuitry for learning to read? To answer this question, we investigated the brain bases of morphological awareness, one of the key spoken language abilities for learning to read in English and Chinese. Bilingual Chineseâ English and monolingual English children (N = 22, ages 7â 12) completed morphological tasks that best characterize each of their languages: compound morphology in Chinese (e.g. basket + ball = basketball) and derivational morphology in English (e.g. re + do = redo). In contrast to monolinguals, bilinguals showed greater activation in the left middle temporal region, suggesting that bilingual exposure to Chinese impacts the functionality of brain regions supporting semantic abilities. Similar to monolinguals, bilinguals showed greater activation in the left inferior frontal region [BA 45] in English than Chinese, suggesting that young bilinguals form languageâ specific neural representations. The findings offer new insights to inform bilingual and crossâ linguistic models of language and literacy acquisition.The study investigated the impact of bilingual exposure on children’s language and reading abilities. During auditory morphological awareness tasks, young Chineseâ English bilinguals showed monolingualâ like competence as well as languageâ specific patterns of brain activation in left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). This activation was greater for English than for Chinese in left IFG BA 45, but similar across languages in left IFG BA 47. Relative to English monolinguals, the bilinguals showed greater activation in left MTG region and this activation was significantly correlated with bilingualsâ English literacy. The findings suggest that bilingual exposure to a language with rich lexical morphology, such as Chinese, impacts the functionality of bilingualsâ left temporal regions typically associated with lexicoâ semantic processing and the ability to link word meanings to their orthographic forms.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138272/1/desc12449_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138272/2/desc12449.pd