1,721,007 research outputs found
A quantitative investigation of the imperative-and-declarative construction in English
No full textThe imperative-and-declarative (IaD) construction in English (e.g. Study hard and you will pass the class) has two distinct readings: one that has the semantics of a conditional and additionally the meaning of an imperative, and one that has only the semantics of a conditional, with no imperative meaning. There are two general kinds of syntactic approaches in the literature for analyzing this construction: one that treats the two interpretations as underlyingly syntactically the same, and one that treats them as two distinct syntactic constructions. This short report presents the results of an acceptability-judgment experiment that was designed to inform the debate between the two kinds of approaches. The two types of IaDs were observed to behave differently with respect to two phenomena we evaluated, suggesting either that they should be treated as grammatically distinct, or that a theory that treats them as grammatically the same must give a pragmatic account of the differences. Furthermore, because the pattern of data that we observed was a statistical interaction between two factors—a pattern of data that is not detectable without quantitative measurements—the results provide compelling evidence for the need for quantitative evaluations of linguistic hypotheses
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Investigation of Cognitive Mechanisms and Factors in Bilingual Lexical Entrainment
Full text linkThis dissertation investigates how bilinguals behave in lexical entrainment, a phenomenon in which speakers align their word choices with those of their conversational partners. By examining individual differences and production modality in shaping this behavior, this dissertation discusses variability in cognitive processing during lexical selection. In particular, I focus on bilinguals' lexical entrainment behavior to explore the individual differences related to language proficiency in this behavior. I find that bilinguals who are less proficient/dominant in English exhibit more entrainment, challenging prior assumptions that speakers' proficiency has a limited influence on their entrainment behavior. To investigate cognitive mechanisms underlying lexical entrainment, I develop a computational model within a Rate-Distortion of Control (RDC) framework, which integrates both automatic priming and rational control processes, and implement reinforcement learning to simulate the empirical findings. The model successfully predicts the empirical results and supports the hypothesis that both automatic priming and rational control processes are engaged in lexical entrainment. I also explore the effect of production modality in lexical entrainment. Empirical results demonstrate that bilinguals entrain more in typing compared to speaking, though no interaction effect with proficiency was observed. These findings contribute to our understanding of the selection stage in language production in bilinguals and provide insight into how cognitive processes may vary across modalities
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Disambiguating Information in Speech and Context
Full text linkIn this dissertation, I investigate how people navigate ambiguity in everyday speech, with a focus on quantifier-negation sentences. Combining corpus analysis, behavioral experiments, and computational modeling in the Rational Speech Act framework, I explore preferred interpretations of quantifier-negation and examine the contexts and prosodies that shape these interpretations. In particular, to address a knowledge gap on naturalistic ambiguity use, I analyze every-negation uses in two large-scale corpora. I find that certain expectations about the world, made salient in context, predict interpretations; in general, listeners try to align their interpretations with what they already know about the world. I also find that certain pausing and pitch patterns predict interpretations, including the use of pitch to emphasize the quantifier. Altogether, despite the inherent variability in context and prosody, by integrating different methodologies, it is possible to identify specific ways in which context and prosody shape meaning
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
Accounting for counting: A unified semantics for measure terms and classifiers
Full text linkThis paper develops and extends the semantic account of morphological number marking in the presence of numerals from Scontras (2013). The account handles variation in patterns of number marking along two dimensions: cross-linguistically, between languages that either necessitate or prohibit singular morphology in the presence of numerals greater than \u27one\u27, and within one and the same language: English. The proposed semantics accounts for both sorts of variation by assuming flexibility in the selection of the measure relevant to the one-ness presupposition of the morphological singular form. The system also provides an explanation for the Slobin-Greenberg-Sanches Generalization, which states that no classifier language has obligatory number marking: by aligning the semantics of counting in both number marking and classifier languages, and by assuming that nouns in classifier languages denote kinds, the semantic contribution of number marking is necessarily redundant in classifier languages. A system of obligatory number marking only surfaces in languages where it delivers otherwise unrecoverable information about the number of intended referents
Amount semantics
Full text linkThis paper presents a case study of the English noun amount, a word that ostensibly relies on measurement in its semantics, yet stands apart from other quantizing nouns on the basis of its EXISTENTIAL interpretation. John ate the apples that Bill ate does not mean John and Bill ate the same apples, but rather that they each ate apples in the same quantity. Amount makes reference to abstract representations of measurement, that is, to degrees. Its EXISTENTIAL interpretation evidences the fact that degrees contain information about the objects that instantiate them. Outside the domain of nominal measurement, the noun kind exhibits behavior strikingly similar to that of amount; both yield an EXISTENTIAL interpretation (Carlson 1977b). This observation motivates re-conceiving of degrees as nominalized quantity-uniform properties – the same sort of entity as kinds. Thus, the semantic machinery handling kinds also handles degrees (e.g., Derived Kind Predication; Chierchia 1998): As nominalized properties, degrees are instantiated by objects that hold the corresponding property; when instantiated by real-world objects, degrees (and kinds) deliver the EXISTENTIAL interpretation
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