1,720,957 research outputs found
How children acquire adjectives: Evidence from three eye-tracking studies on Italian
Full text linkWhile the literature on early language acquisition has mainly focused on nouns and verbs, studies on adjectives are comparatively scarce and have thus far provided contrasting evidence on the timing and mode of acquisition of adjectival meaning in children younger than 4. This thesis presents three eye-tracking studies exploring the online processing of adjectives by children (2;4 – 5;3 years) in comparison to adult controls, providing insights on how linguistic information and visual context interact during real-time comprehension. Experiment 1 investigated potential differences in the interpretation of three classes of adjectives, intersective (e.g., red), relative (e.g., big) and absolute (e.g., full). 38 Italian monolingual children (2;4 – 5;3) were tested in a visual-world task, where they listened to noun-adjective combinations in a four-picture scenario. Results showed that children as young as 28 months were slower than adults when interpreting noun-adjective combinations, while their looking pattern in the interpretation process was essentially the same. Furthermore, the computation of intersective adjectives was faster than that of absolute and, especially, relative adjectives, showing that children are sensitive to the different ways in which each adjective class is interpreted within different contexts. In Experiment 2 the complexity of Experiment 1 was reduced by lowering the processing load associated with both the different semantic classes of adjectives and the four-picture scenario. 28 Italian-native children (2;4 – 5;2) were presented with a two-picture display while listening to nouns combined with color-adjectives. In Experiment 2, the visual conditions varied according to the informativeness of the noun or the adjective with respect to the target referent. Results showed evidence that adjective processing develops over time. When the computation of the noun was insufficient and the integration with the adjective was necessary to resolve reference, the youngest children, unlike 3- and 4-year-olds, failed to interpret adjectives correctly and, consequently, task resolution. Experiment 3 investigated children’s incremental processing of prenominal adjectives and their ability to predict the following noun based on the lexical meaning of the adjective. 39 Italian children (2;4 – 5;3) were tested in the online 3 interpretation of Italian predicative yes/no questions (e.g., È morbido il cuscino?, lit. ‘Is soft the pillow?’) while looking at two pictures on the screen. Here, the informativeness of the adjective was manipulated. Results showed that, when informative (e.g., soft, upon looking at a pillow and a bone), the adjective was processed incrementally, i.e., before the noun was heard, indicating that children as young as 28 months are able to predict the upcoming noun based on adjective meaning. Furthermore, children were successful independently of whether the interpretation of the adjective required world knowledge (e.g., being soft for a pillow) or the exploration of the visual scene (e.g., being open for a window). Taken together, the three studies provided compelling evidence of a continuous process in children’s development of sophisticated, adult-like processing skills. By means of eye-tracking, we were able to reveal that the overall difference between children and adults is mostly attributable to toddlers younger that 36 months of age, whose processing skills are still limited when it comes to the meaning computation of noun-adjective combinations. However, from the age of 3, children’s processing abilities improve rapidly and, within a few months, they become successful parsers
Processing adjectives in development: Evidence from eye-tracking
Full text linkCombining adjective meaning with the modified noun is particularly challenging for children under three years. Previous research suggests that in processing noun-adjective phrases children may over-rely on noun information, delaying or omitting adjective interpretation. However, the question of whether this difficulty is modulated by semantic differences among (subsective) adjectives is underinvestigated.A visual-world experiment explores how Italian-learning children (N=38, 2;4-5;3) process noun-adjective phrases and whether their processing strategies adapt based on the adjective class. Our investigation substantiates the proficient integration of noun and adjective semantics by children. Nevertheless, alligning with previous research, a notable asymmetry is evident in the interpretation of nouns and adjectives, the latter being integrated more slowly. Remarkably, by testing toddlers across a wide age range, we observe a developmental trajectory in processing, supporting a continuity approach to children's development. Moreover, we reveal that children exhibit sensitivity to the distinct interpretations associated with each subsective adjective
L2 learners take more time to catch the rhyme: An eye-tracking study on predictive processing
No full textAims and objectives: This study investigates the role of prediction in language comprehension for both native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers of English, focusing on phonological and semantic cues. In addition, it examines whether higher proficiency in the L2 enhances predictive abilities.
Methodology: Using the Visual World Paradigm, we explore how Italian learners of English (L2) employ semantic and phonological cues during sentence parsing and compare these findings to
native English speakers. Participants viewed images while hearing sentences in English, allowing us to analyze their eye movements and cue responses in real time.Data and analysis: Eye-tracking data from 61 Italian participants at B1, B2, and C1 English proficiency levels, as well as 23 native English speakers, were collected. Visual and auditory stimuli prompted participants to focus on specific items, and their eye movements were recorded. We applied generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) to assess how phonological and semanticcues and varying English proficiency levels influenced the proportion of looks at the target before
and after sentence offset.Findings: Results show that across all proficiency levels, participants fixated on the target faster
when semantic cues were present in the lexical verb. However, B1 speakers showed a delayed response compared to more advanced groups. Native English speakers also demonstrated a heightened phonological effect in rhyme conditions compared to the L2 learners.Originality: This study is the first to examine whether the presence of multiple cues can enhance
L2 predictive processing in relation to the learner’s language proficiency.Significance: The findings advance research on predictive processing in language comprehension, highlighting the importance of understanding the differences between L1 and L2 processing and
the role of cue integration in facilitating prediction. Understanding these differences and the role of cue integration in facilitating prediction is crucial for improving language learning outcomes
Experimental evidence for the interpretation of definite plural articles as markers of genericity : How Italian can help
Full text linkIn the Romance languages, definite plural articles (e.g., le rane ‘the frogs’) are generally ambiguous between a generic and a specific interpretation, and speakers must reconstruct the intended interpretation through the linguistic or extra-linguistic context. Following the “polar bear” paradigm implemented in Czypionka & Kupisch (2019)’s investigation on German, the goal of the present study is to check the suitability of their test on article semantics, by establishing to what extent native speakers of Italian interpret ambiguous definite plural DPs as generic or specific in the presence of a nonlinguistic picture context. We present judgment and reaction time data monitoring the preferred reading of sentences introduced by different kinds of noun phrases (e.g., Le rane/Queste rane/Le rane di solito sono verdi/gialle ‘The/These/Usually frogs are green/yellow’), while looking at pictures showing prototypical or non-prototypical properties (e.g., green vs. yellow frogs). Our results show that both possible interpretations of definite plural articles are routinely considered in Italian, despite the presence of a picture with specific referents, validating the “polar bear” paradigm as a suitable test of article semantics.publishe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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