Contact points between lexical retrieval and sentence production

Speakers retrieve words to use them in sentences. Errors in incorporating words into sentential frames are revealing with respects to the lexical units as well as the lexical retrieval mechanism; hence they constrain theories of lexical access. We present a reanalysis of a corpus of spontaneously occurring lexical exchange errors that highlights the contact points between lexical and sentential processed

Dissociation between regular and irregular in connectionist architectures: Two processes, but still no special linguistic rules

Dual-mechanism models of language maintain a distinction between a lexicon and a computational system of linguistic rules. In his target article, Clahsen provides support for such a distinction, presenting evidence from German inflections. He argues for a structured lexicon, going beyond the strict lexicon versus rules dichotomy. We agree with the author in assuming a dual mechanism; however, we argue that a next step must be taken, going beyond the notion of the computational system as specific rules applying to a linguistic domain. By assuming a richer lexicon, the computational system can be conceived as a more general binding process that applies to different linguistic levels: syntas, morphology, reading, and spelling

What do English speakers know about gera-gera and yota-yota?: A cross-linguistic investigation of mimetic words for laughing and walking

The relation between word form and meaning is considered arbitrary; however, Japanese mimetic words, giseigo and gitaigo , are exceptions. For giseigo (words mimicking voices), there is a direct resemblance(‘iconicity’) between the sound of the word and the sound it refers to; for gitaigo (words that mimic manners/states) there is a symbolic relationship (‘sound symbolism’) between the sound and the manner/state to which the word refers. While native speakers intuitively recognize these relationships, it is questionable whether speakers of other languages are able to access the meaning of Japanese mimetic words from their sounds. In the current study, we asked native English speakers with no prior experience with the Japanese language to listen to Japanese mimetic words for laughing (giseigo) and for walking (gitaigo), and rate each word’s meaning on semantic differential scales (e.g.,“GRACEFUL-VULGAR”(laughing,“GRACEFUL-CLUMSY”(walking). We compared English and Japanese speakers’ ratings and found that English speakers construed many of the features of laughing in a similar manner as Japanese native speakers (e.g., words containing /a/ were rated as more amused, cheerful, nice and pleasant laughs). They differed only with regard to a few sound-meaning relationships of an evaluative nature (e.g., words for laughing containing /u/ were rated as more feminine and graceful, and those containing /e/ were rated as less graceful and unpleasant). In contrast, for the words referring to walking, English speakers’ ratings differed greatly from native Japanese speakers’. Native Japanese speakers rated words beginning with voiced consonants as referring to a big person walking with big strides, and words beginning with voiceless consonants as more even-paced, feminine and formal walking; English speakers were sensitive only to the relation between voiced consonants and a big person walking. Hence, some sound-meaning associations were language-specific. This study also confirmed the more conventional and lexicalized nature of the mimetic words of manner

El espacio construido

Hace referencia a. la ciudad, sin dudas, la obra más grande realizada por el hombre. La ciudad es espacio construido, tanto hacia afuera como hacia adentro, expresando las dos dimensiones de la vida urbana. La ciudad es el ayuntamiento de las familias que se reúnen en un espacio común para compartir acciones y perfeccionar su cometido. Hay así en la ciudad dos dimensiones que encierran el doble aspecto de lo urbano: una dimensión doméstica y otra dimensión cívica. Una tendencia actual en urbanismo tiende a privilegiar a esta última dimensión excluyentemente, como la única urbana, reflejada en el espacio público. Se expresa así que sólo el espacio público (calles, plazas, paseos etc.) constituyen la ciudad y se enfatiza en el diseño de estos espacios, pero son las viviendas familiares, individuales o colectivas las que les dan forma. La calle no es el espacio residual que queda entre edificio y edificio, sino un espacio adaptado con sentido propio a la que las fachadas dan forma. Como señala jordi Borja: “Las áreas urbanas sin vivienda no son ciudad, expresan la alineación urbana”

I don’t see what you’re saying: The maluma/takete effect does not depend on the visual appearance of phonemes as they are articulated

In contrast to the principle of arbitrariness, recent work has shown that language can iconically depict referents being talked about. One such example is the maluma/takete effect: an association between certain phonemes (e.g., those in maluma) and round shapes, and other phonemes (e.g., those in takete and spiky shapes). An open question has been whether this association is crossmodal (arising from phonemes’ sound or kinesthetics) or unimodal (arising from phonemes’ visual appearance). In the latter case, individuals may associate a person’s rounded lips as they pronounce the /u/ in maluma with round shapes. We examined this hypothesis by having participants pair nonwords with shapes in either an audio-only condition (they only heard nonwords) or an audiovisual condition (they both heard nonwords and saw them articulated). We found no evidence that seeing nonwords articulated enhanced the maluma/takete effect. In fact, there was evidence that it decreased it in some cases. This was confirmed with a Bayesian analysis. These results eliminate a plausible explanation for the maluma/takete effect, as an instance of visual matching. We discuss the alternate possibility that it involves crossmodal associations

Reading Sky and Seeing a Cloud: On the Relevance of Events for Perceptual Simulation

Previous research has shown that processing words with an up/down association (e.g., bird, foot) can influence the subsequent identification of visual targets in congruent location (at the top/bottom of the screen). However, as facilitation and interference were found under similar conditions, the nature of the underlying mechanisms remained unclear. We propose that word comprehension relies on the perceptual simulation of a prototypical event involving the entity denoted by a word in order to provide a general account of the different findings. In 3 experiments, participants had to discriminate between 2 target pictures appearing at the top or the bottom of the screen by pressing the left versus right button. Immediately before the targets appeared, they saw an up/down word belonging to the target’s event, an up/down word unrelated to the target, or a spatially neutral control word. Prime words belonging to target event facilitated identification of targets at a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 250 ms (Experiment 1), but only when presented in the vertical location where they are typically seen, indicating that targets were integrated in the simulations activated by the prime words. Moreover, at the same SOA, there was a robust facilitation effect for targets appearing in their typical location regardless of the prime type. However, when words were presented for 100 ms (Experiment 2) or 800 ms (Experiment 3), only a location nonspecific priming effect was found, suggesting that the visual system was not activated. Implications for theories of semantic processing are discussed