Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language

A new theoretical approach to language has emerged in the past 10–15 years that allows linguistic observations about form–meaning pairings, known as ‘constructions’, to be stated directly. Constructionist approaches aim to account for the full range of facts about language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged ‘core’. Researchers in this field argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and can illuminate what is required for a complete account of language. Constructions – form and meaning pairings – have been the basis of major advances in the study of grammar since the days of Aristotle. Observations about specific linguistic constructions have shaped our understanding of both particular languages and the nature of language itself. Bu

Input effects on the acquisition of a novel phrasal construction in five year olds

The present experiments demonstrate that children as young as five years old (M = 5;2) generalize beyond their input on the basis of minimal exposure to a novel argument structure construction. The novel construction that was used involved a non-English phrasal pattern: VN1N2, paired with a novel abstract meaning: N2 approaches N1. At the same time, we find that children are keenly sensitive to the input: they show knowledge of the construction after a single day of exposure but this grows stronger after three days; also, children generalize more readily to new verbs when the input contains more than one verb

Modeling the Acquisition of Words with Multiple Meanings

Learning vocabulary is essential to successful communication. Complicating this task is the underappreciated fact that most common words are associated with multiple senses (are polysemous) (e.g., baseball cap vs. cap of a bottle), while other words are homonymous, evoking meanings that are unrelated to one another (e.g., baseball bat vs. flying bat). Models of human word learning have thus far failed to represent this level of naturalistic complexity. We extend a feature-based computational model to allow for multiple meanings, while capturing the gradient distinction between polysemy and homonymy by using structured sets of features. Results confirm that the present model correlates better with human data on novel word learning tasks than the existing feature-based model

Social context modulates the effect of physical warmth on perceived interpersonal kindness:a study of embodied metaphors

Physical contact with hot vs. iced coffee has been shown to affect evaluation of the personal warmth or kindness of a hypothetical person (Williams & Bargh, 2008). In 3 studies, we investigated whether the manipulation of social context can modulate the activation of the metaphorical mapping, KINDNESS as WARMTH. After priming participants with warm vs. cold temperature, we asked them to evaluate a hypothetical ad-hoc ally or adversary on the kindness dimension, as well as on other qualities used as a control. We expected more extreme evaluations of kindness in the adversary than in the ally condition, and no effects on other ratings. We thus replicated the classical effect of physical warmth on kindness ratings and generalized it to a German-speaking population. In addition, when the two German studies were combined, we found evidence suggesting a contextual modulation of the temperature effect: only out-group members, namely adversaries, were judged as more kind when participants had experienced physical warmth; the effect was not evident in the ally (i.e., in-group) condition. These studies suggest that context can modulate metaphorical activation; they therefore represent an initial attempt to add nuance to our understanding of when embodied metaphors affect our decisions

Formulating Update Messages

This paper presents a method with which we can generate update messages for use with Smalltalk's dependency mechanism. The basic idea is that any messages which cause an object to change are forwarded to the object's dependants. The method is perfectly general and future-proofs objects against changes in their dependants. © 1995, ACM. All rights reserved

It Can't Go Down the Chimney Up: Paths and the English Resultative

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Grammar of Event Structure (1991), pp. 368-37

A Unified Account of the Semantics of the English Ditransitive

Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1989), pp. 79-9

Infrared imaging microscopy of bone: Illustrations from a mouse model of Fabry disease

AbstractBone is a complex tissue whose composition and properties vary with age, sex, diet, tissue type, health and disease. In this review, we demonstrate how infrared spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopic imaging can be applied to the study of these variations. A specific example of mice with Fabry disease (a lipid storage disease) is presented in which it is demonstrated that the bones of these young animals, while showing typical spatial variation in mineral content, mineral crystal size, and collagen maturity, do not differ from the bones of age- and sex-matched wild type animals