Does Turkish child-directed speech predict the acquisition order of wh-questions?

Does Turkish child-directed speech predict the acquisition order of wh-questions? The very early studies about children’s acquisition of questions have provided a cognition-based rationale. They claimed that “why” and “when” are acquired later than “what” and “where” because of their cognitive constraints (Bloom et al. 1982) However; in the follow-up studies, it is found that as well as cognitive perspective, there are two other explanations. One of these is the syntactic function of the wh-word, whereas the other is about the semantic generality of the main verb (Bloom et al. 1982). This point of view has highlighted the role of complexity on children’s acquisition of question. According to this; “what” and “where” are firstly acquired through the copula. Secondly, they are used with semantically general verbs. Then, wh-sententials along with descriptive verbs are used. However, this account based on that order has been challenged by Clancy’s explanation (1989). It is claimed that frequency of wh-word and verbs in child-directed speech can be a significant factor on acquisition of question (Rowland et al. 2003). In a longitudinal study with 12 English children and their mothers, it was found that input frequency of wh-questions and verb combinations was a powerful predictor when compared to linguistic complexity (Rowland et al. 2003). In the light of these discussions, the study aims at investigating Turkish child-directed speech in terms of its role on children’s acquisition of questions and at evaluating the role of cognitive/linguistic complexity account on acquisition of questions. This research was based on the naturalistic data of 9 one- to three-year old children and their mothers. References Bloom, L., Merkin, S. & Wootten, J. (1982). Wh-questions: linguistic factors that contribute to the sequence of acquisition. Child Development, 53, 1084-1092. Clancy, P. (1989). Form and function in the acquisition of Korean wh-questions. Journal of Child Language, 16, 323-347. Rowland, C., & Pine, J. (2000). Subject-auxiliary inversion errors and wh- question acquisition: what children do know? Journal of Child Language, 27, 157-181. Rowland, C., Pine, J. Lieven, E. Theakston, A. (2003). Determinants of acquisition order in wh- questions: re-evaluating the role of caregiver speech. Journal of Child Language, 30, 609-63

Building a semantically annotated corpus of clinical texts

In this paper, we describe the construction of a semantically annotated corpus of clinical texts for use in the development and evaluation of systems for automatically extracting clinically significant information from the textual component of patient records. The paper details the sampling of textual material from a collection of 20,000 cancer patient records, the development of a semantic annotation scheme, the annotation methodology, the distribution of annotations in the final corpus, and the use of the corpus for development of an adaptive information extraction system. The resulting corpus is the most richly semantically annotated resource for clinical text processing built to date, whose value has been demonstrated through its use in developing an effective information extraction system. The detailed presentation of our corpus construction and annotation methodology will be of value to others seeking to build high-quality semantically annotated corpora in biomedical domains

Verb similarity: comparing corpus and psycholinguistic data

Similarity, which plays a key role in fields like cognitive science, psycholinguistics and natural language processing, is a broad and multifaceted concept. In this work we analyse how two approaches that belong to different perspectives, the corpus view and the psycholinguistic view, articulate similarity between verb senses in Spanish. Specifically, we compare the similarity between verb senses based on their argument structure, which is captured through semantic roles, with their similarity defined by word associations. We address the question of whether verb argument structure, which reflects the expression of the events, and word associations, which are related to the speakers' organization of the mental lexicon, shape similarity between verbs in a congruent manner, a topic which has not been explored previously. While we find significant correlations between verb sense similarities obtained from these two approaches, our findings also highlight some discrepancies between them and the importance of the degree of abstraction of the corpus annotation and psycholinguistic representations.La similitud, que desempeña un papel clave en campos como la ciencia cognitiva, la psicolingüística y el procesamiento del lenguaje natural, es un concepto amplio y multifacético. En este trabajo analizamos cómo dos enfoques que pertenecen a diferentes perspectivas, la visión del corpus y la visión psicolingüística, articulan la semejanza entre los sentidos verbales en español. Específicamente, comparamos la similitud entre los sentidos verbales basados en su estructura argumental, que se capta a través de roles semánticos, con su similitud definida por las asociaciones de palabras. Abordamos la cuestión de si la estructura del argumento verbal, que refleja la expresión de los acontecimientos, y las asociaciones de palabras, que están relacionadas con la organización de los hablantes del léxico mental, forman similitud entre los verbos de una manera congruente, un tema que no ha sido explorado previamente. Mientras que encontramos correlaciones significativas entre las similitudes de los sentidos verbales obtenidas de estos dos enfoques, nuestros hallazgos también resaltan algunas discrepancias entre ellos y la importancia del grado de abstracción de la anotación del corpus y las representaciones psicolingüísticas.La similitud, que exerceix un paper clau en camps com la ciència cognitiva, la psicolingüística i el processament del llenguatge natural, és un concepte ampli i multifacètic. En aquest treball analitzem com dos enfocaments que pertanyen a diferents perspectives, la visió del corpus i la visió psicolingüística, articulen la semblança entre els sentits verbals en espanyol. Específicament, comparem la similitud entre els sentits verbals basats en la seva estructura argumental, que es capta a través de rols semàntics, amb la seva similitud definida per les associacions de paraules. Abordem la qüestió de si l'estructura de l'argument verbal, que reflecteix l'expressió dels esdeveniments, i les associacions de paraules, que estan relacionades amb l'organització dels parlants del lèxic mental, formen similitud entre els verbs d'una manera congruent, un tema que no ha estat explorat prèviament. Mentre que trobem correlacions significatives entre les similituds dels sentits verbals obtingudes d'aquests dos enfocaments, les nostres troballes també ressalten algunes discrepàncies entre ells i la importància del grau d'abstracció de l'anotació del corpus i les representacions psicolingüístiques