Biological and Cognitive Plausibility in Connectionist Networks for Language Modeling

If we want to explain cognitive processes with means of connectionist networks, these networks have to correspond with cognitive systems and their underlying biological mechanisms in different respects. The question of biological and cognitive plausibility of connectionist models arises from two different aspects – first, from the aspect of biology – on one hand, one has to have a fair understanding of biological mechanisms and cognitive mechanisms in order to represent them in a model, and on the other hand there is the aspect of modeling – one has to know how to construct a model to represent precisely what we are aiming at. Computer power and modeling techniques have improved dramatically in recent 20 years, so the plausibility problem is being addressed in more adequate ways as well. Connectionist models are often used for representing different aspects of natural language. Their biological plausibility had sometimes been questioned in the past. Today, the field of computational neuroscience offers several acceptable possibilities of modeling higher cognitive functions, and language is among them. This paper brings a presentation of some existing connectionist networks modeling natural language. The question of their explanatory power and plausibility in terms of biological and cognitive systems they are representing is discussed

The assumptions of sustainable development of rural tourism in Ivanec area in Varaždin county

U današnje vrijeme turisti izbjegavaju odredišta masovnog turizma, čije posljedice su negativne za prirodni i kulturni okoliš, nego traže područja s očuvanim okolišem i tradicijom. „Novi turisti“ su obrazovaniji, žele iskusiti život lokalne zajednice i doživjeti autentičnost, stoga se vidi šansa u ruralnim područjima Republike Hrvatske čija turistička ponuda može odgovoriti na njihove potrebe. Odgovoran odnos lokalne zajednice prema prirodi i kulturnoj tradiciji temelj je održivog razvoja ruralnog turizma. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati mišljenja lokalne zajednice o razvoju ruralnog turizma u Ivanečkom području Varaždinske županije. U istraživanju se koristila metoda intervjua. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da ruralni turizam u Ivanečkom području Varaždinske županije sve više počinje dobivati na važnosti kao gospodarska grana. Lokalno stanovništvo je svjesno da se u Ivanečkom području Varaždinske županije može odgovoriti na nove turističke zahtjeve u vidu ruralnog turizma te iskazuju mišljenja o novim perspektivama i mogućnostima za razvoj ruralnog turizma, no svjesni su i brojnih prepreka od kojih je najveća nedovoljna angažiranost i suradnja lokalne samouprave s lokalnim stanovništvom koje se bavi turizmom.Nowadays, tourists are avoiding destinations of mass tourism, whose consequences have a negative impact on the natural and cultural enviroment, instead they are looking for destinations with preserved environment and tradition. "New tourists" are well educated, want to experience life of the local community and authenticity and because of that there is a chance for rural areas in Republic of Croatia, that can satisfy the needs of these tourists. A responsible relationship of the local community towards nature and cultural tradition is the foundation of sustainable development of rural tourism. The purpose of this research is to examine the opinions of the local community about the development of rural tourism in the Ivanec area in Varaždin county. In research were used interview method.. The results of this research indicate that rural tourism in Ivanec area in Varaždin county is starting to increace the importance as the industry. Local population is aware of the new needs in the world of tourism and that they can answer those needs in Ivanec area in Varaždin county. Local population also have the perspective and visions for the development of the rural tourism, but they are aware of many obstacles, of which the main is lack of involvement and cooperation between local government and local popuatio

Towards cognitively plausible data science in language research

Over the past 10 years, Cognitive Linguistics has taken a Quantitative Turn. Yet, concerns have been raised that this preoccupation with quantification and modelling may not bring us any closer to understanding how language works. We show that this objection is unfounded, especially if we rely on modelling techniques based on biologically and psychologically plausible learning algorithms. These make it possible to take a quantitative approach, while generating and testing specific hypotheses that will advance our understanding of how knowledge of language emerges from exposure to usage

Acquisition of verbs in Croatian, French and Austrian German - an outline of a comparative analysis

Research of child language acquisition, i. e. comparisons of acquisition in typologically different languages, play a significant role in shedding some light on universal linguistic features. The aim of our paper is to compare acquisition of verbal morphology in three languages belonging to different branches of IndoEuropean languages and to compare developing verbal systems in children as well as the order of emergence of verbal forms in each of them. Furthermore, the results on regularities occurring in all three languages have been discussed. The analysis of process of developing verbal system within each particular language is based on tense and mood. Provided error analysis gave us some further insights into the linguistically active role that child takes at certain stage of its linguistic development. The intention of this paper is to point to relevant aspects of developing linguistic system common to all three analysed languages, but at the same time drawing the attention to those language segments that need to be taken into consideration due to the limitations imposed by the language variations

The Linking of Prepositional Meanings in the Mental Lexikon of Croatian High School Students Learning German and English

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Interferenzerscheinungen im Bereich der Präpositionen untersucht. Als Versuchspersonen wurden die Schüler eines Zagreber Gymnasiums zu ihren Kenntnissen im Gebrauch von Präpositionen im Deutschen, Englischen und Kroatischen befragt. Die Muttersprache Kroatisch zeigte sich stabil und weist erwartungsgemäß keine Einflüsse aus den Fremdsprachen auf. Obwohl Deutsch meistens als die 'schwächere' und 'weniger beliebte' Fremdsprache gilt, und, wie angenommen, einige interferenzbedingte Einflüsse aus dem Englischen und Kroatischen empfängt, wurden in der vorliegenden Analyse auch wesentliche übertragungen aus dem Deutschen ins Englische entdeckt, wodurch die Position des Englischen als der 'stärkeren' und 'besser bewältigten' Fremdsprache in Frage gestellt wird.The following article studies interference phenomena in the field of prepositions and presents the results of a survey conducted among students of one grammar high school in Zagreb, who were tested for their knowledge of Croatian, English and German prepositions. As expected, there could not be found any examples of foreign influence in their native language – Croatian. In spite of the fact that German is often perceived as the "weaker" and "less popular" language in comparison to English and that there was some interference of German prepositions with those from English and Croatian, the analysis of the results also shows that there have been significant transfers of meanings from German to English, which undermines the status of English as the "better" and "easily acquired" foreign language