1,720,978 research outputs found
On vision and language interaction in negation processing. The real-time interpretation of sentential negation in typically developed and dyslexic adults.
Full text linkThis dissertation has a two-fold aim. First, it intends to contribute to the broad theoretical debate on the processing of sentential negation by providing new relevant insights on how visual and linguistic sources of information jointly determine the real-time sentence comprehension of negative sentence. Second, it aims to deepen the relationship between working memory resources, developmental dyslexia, and negative sentence interpretation. The work includes a robust critical review of the psycholinguistic literature on negation and on developmental dyslexia, as well as a thorough discussion of the various experimental methodologies that have been used over the last decades to investigate language comprehension. The core part of the dissertation consists in the implementation and running of two eye-tracking studies to study negation processing in Italian speaking adults with and without a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia. The final outcomes of this work provide significant insights into core aspects of the processing of sentential negation, and shed light on which aspects of language comprehension dyslexics do experience greater limitations
Object relatives with postverbal subject in Italian-speaking children and adults: The role of encyclopedic knowledge in detecting sentence ambiguity
No full texttalian relative clauses like Il bambino che bacia la mamma ‘the child that kisses the mom’ are ambiguous between a subject reading and an object reading with postverbal subject. However, the latter is scarcely accessible for word order and theory-internal considerations. This study aims at investigat- ing the role of semantic (im)plausibility in processing these ambiguous constructions. Italian children’s (7;01–10;00 years old) and adults’ (21;08–- 31;02 y.o.) comprehension is tested through a picture selection task. The test sentences contain lexical verbs whose interpretation can be modulated by encyclopedic knowledge (e.g., to spoon-feed). In the ambiguous sentence Il bambino che imbocca la mamma ‘the child that spoon-feeds the mom,’ the object reading is more plausible: Moms rather than children are expected agents of the spoon-feeding. Nonetheless, word order and morphosyntactic and prosodic cues prompt the subject interpretation. Results indicate that semantic plausibility cues alone are not robust enough to discard the subject reading. However, adults are sensitive to these cues, which can modulate their comprehension of ambiguous relatives. Conversely, children are unable to exploit encyclopedic knowledge in sentence processing. This can be explained with children’s reluctance to integrate contextual and encyclope- dic semantic cues during processing, and with their limited processing resources, which could constrain their capacity of sentence reanalysis
The cycle in language change: Insights from diachronic phonology and syntax of negation
No full textLanguage change can be conceptualized as a cyclical process of continuous renewal of the involved elements which somehow change their nature, with respect to phonological or lexico-grammatical features. A crucial aspect of such diachronic evolution is that cyclical change takes place systematically and follows regular and unidirectional patterns of development. Once the change is complete, the same developmental path will be undertaken by new linguistic items in the same cyclical fashion. In this paper, we illustrate the concept of cyclical change by discussing two examples of linguistic cycles. A first instance of cyclical development is displayed at the phonological level by the diachronic changes in the obstruent consonant system taking place from Indo-European to German through the First and the Second Sound Shift: the cycle is completed in the Cimbrian dialects. A second instance is provided by the diachronic process known as Jespersen’s cycle ([1917] 1966): sentential negation, initially expressed through a single negative marker, is later reinforced by an additional one; eventually, this second element becomes the only negative marker available in the sentence while the original marker is deleted. The discussion of the negative cycle takes also into consideration the results of an empirical research conducted on two varieties of an Italo-Romance dialect spoken in northern Italy
The VinKo Corpus. Oral data from Romance and Germanic local varieties of Northern Italy
Full text linkThe VinKo corpus is a parallel corpus with audio recordings from German and Italian dialects and minority languages spoken in the Italian regions Trentino-South Tyrol and Veneto. The data has been crowdsourced via the online platform of the VinKo project and was produced in response to a pronunciation and translation task targeted at eliciting phonological and morpho-syntactic phenomena for language contact studies. The VinKo corpus V1.1 contains over 125.000 audio files from 11 language varieties. The project strives towards a ‘open science’ approach with an integral ‘citizen science’ component by active collaboration with local institutions and freely sharing the data with different stakeholders, e.g. speech communities, scientific community. All collected data can be accessed via the admin interface of the VinKo website or downloaded from the online repository, and a selection of the data is represented via an online map targeted at a non-specialist audience
Introduction to Humanities: approaches, contamination and perspectives. Conference proceedings, Verona 17-18th October 2019
No full textIntroduction to the volume of the Conference proceeding
On the interaction between implicit statistical learning and the alternation advantage: Evidence from manual and oculomotor serial reaction time tasks
Full text linkIn this study, we examine how implicit statistical learning (ISL) interacts with the cognitive bias of the alternation advantage in serial reaction time (SRT) tasks. Our aim was to disentangle perceptual from motor aspects of learning, as well as to shed light on the cognitive sources of this alternation effect. We developed a manual (Study 1) and an oculomotor (Study 2) two-choice SRT task, with visual stimuli following the regularities of two binary artificial grammars (Fibonacci and its modification Skip). While these grammars share some deterministic transitional regularities, they differ in their probabilistic transitional regularities and distributional properties. The pattern of manual RTs in Study 1 provide evidence for ISL, showing that subjects learned the deterministic and probabilistic transitions in the two grammars. We also found a bias toward alternation (vs. repetition) in correspondence to non-deterministic points, regardless of their statistical properties in the grammars. Study 2 provides further evidence for both ISL and the alternation advantage, in terms of shorter manual RTs and higher accuracy rates of anticipatory eye movements. Saccadic responses preceding stimulus onset allow us to argue for the perceptual nature of ISL: participants detected regularities in the string by forming S-S associations based on the sequence of the perceived stimuli. Moreover, we propose that shifts in visuospatial attention preceding oculomotor programming play a role in the occurrence of the alternation advantage, and that such an effect is driven by the spatial location of the stimulus. These findings are also discussed with respect to the presence of two (possibly interacting) parsing strategies: statistical generalizations on the string vs. local hierarchical reconstruction
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
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
DEA—An innovative technological tool for personalized linguistic training for Italian children with developmental dyslexia.
No full textIn this paper, we illustrate a research project using advanced technological tools to improve the linguistic and reading skills of Italian children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia (DD) aged between 8 and 11. Besides the well-known reading and spelling difficulties, DD is characterized by marked linguistic deficits especially at phonological and morphological level, negatively impacting the child’s reading abilities and directly affecting text comprehension. Recent studies have shown the effectiveness of linguistic interventions in enhancing phonological and morphological awareness in DD children and improving their reading skills. However, access to such linguistic programs is not free from important barriers; in particular, high costs and difficulties in customizing training programs make it imperative to implement new accessible technological tools. In this context, we developed the DEA (Dyslexia Exercises Application) training program, a modular web application that offers interactive and highly personalized linguistic activities. The ongoing study involves 30 DD Italian children who participate in a 10-week training three times a week for 20-minute sessions. The program includes phonological and morphological exercises with increasing difficulty created with AI support. It allows the therapist to monitor the child’s progress and provide a tailored reinforcement program based on their needs. DEA provides individualized and highly accessible training programs to support reading development in children with DD, helping the therapist create specific learning tracks based on the participant’s linguistic and cognitive skills
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