Language and Linguistics Compass最新文献

This article introduces micro-prosody as the study of the duration and timing of speech events. We present a descriptive framework, formalising micro-prosody in terms of gestural landmarks and coordination relations between them, and we use the framework to illustrate different patterns of micro-prosody across languages. We show that potential ambiguity between coordination relations can be resolved by considering how they structure natural variation in speech. The framework presented here is intended to offer effective tools for phonetic documentation. We end with some considerations for a theory of micro-prosody, including how micro-prosody relates to other levels of phonological structure, and a brief discussion of different data types that can be used to infer aspects of micro-prosody.

This paper introduces Match Theory, an Optimality-Theoretic approach to the syntax–phonology interface proposed by Selkirk (2011). The theory states that a family of Match constraints favor syntax–prosody isomorphism, but that these can be outranked by constraints on prosodic wellformedness and/or information structure, resulting in certain principled mismatches. We compare Match Theory to previous OT approaches involving edge-alignment, and discuss several outstanding issues for Match Theory such as the proper treatment of asymmetries in syntax–prosody matching.

Infant-directed speech (IDS), a speaking style distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation, has been documented in speech directed towards infants across many cultures and languages. Previous research shows that IDS in the context of parent-infant interactions is associated with advances in children's language learning. While we have long known that fathers, like mothers, produce IDS, most research on IDS to this day has focussed exclusively on female (maternal) speech. In light of the recent societal changes which have increased fathers' time spent in hands-on activities with children, I argue that the research on IDS needs to move away from using the maternal template. I first describe why IDS plays a central role in language development. I then outline known similarities and differences between paternal and maternal IDS, and point to potential biases and challenges within the research that has been conducted so far. Finally, I outline why investigators should strive to include fathers in research on IDS, and conclude with recommendations for follow-up work that can help advance our understanding of fathers' contributions to children's linguistic development.

Research on language use has become increasingly interested in the multimodal and interactional aspects of language – theoretical models of dialogue, such as the Communication Accommodation Theory and the Interactive Alignment Model are examples of this. In addition, researchers have started to give more consideration to the relationship between physiological processes and language use. This article aims to contribute to the advancement in studies of physiological and/or multimodal language use in naturalistic settings. It does so by providing methodological recommendations for such multi-speaker experimental designs. It covers the topics of (a) speaker preparation and logistics, (b) experimental tasks and (c) data synchronisation and post-processing. The types of data that will be considered in further detail include audio and video, electroencephalography, respiratory data and electromagnetic articulography. This overview with recommendations is based on the answers to a questionnaire that was sent amongst the members of the Horizon 2020 research network ‘Conversational Brains’, several researchers in the field and interviews with three additional experts.

For decades word frequency has been one of the most important variables in psycholinguistics. Frequent words are more easily recognized and processed more efficiently than rare words. In the fields of word recognition and psycholinguistics, all researchers are reminded to statistically control for word frequency. But is that advice still correct? Are other variables which are correlated with word frequency more important for human language processing? These questions have arisen because of the recent construction of text corpora of billions of words. Also important is the growing practice of archiving word recognition data in databases accessible for anyone to mine. A key result is that words that typically appear in restricted contexts are processed less efficiently than words appearing in diverse contexts. But the new variable of contextual diversity hasn't simply replaced word frequency. This paper traces the history of contextual diversity findings, including the twists and turns towards a more sophisticated understanding of what makes words easy to learn and process. Myriad findings of the last 20 years are discussed: the rational theory of memory, spacing effects in learning, phrase frequency effects, the neural basis of repetition suppression, and why reverse frequency effects are observed in semantic aphasia. Methods reviewed include artificial language learning, event-related potentials, and eye movement studies. The result is a new appreciation that word processing skills emerge from complex brain networks which include information about words' typical contexts of occurrence.

Count data is prevalent in many different areas of linguistics, such as when counting words, syntactic constructions, discourse particles, case markers, or speech errors. The Poisson distribution is the canonical distribution for characterising count data with no or unknown upper bound. Given the prevalence of count data in linguistics, Poisson regression has wide utility no matter what subfield of linguistics is considered. However, in contrast to logistic regression, Poisson regression is surprisingly little known. Here, we make a case for why linguists need to consider Poisson regression, and give recommendations for when Poisson regression is more appropriate compared to logistic regression. This tutorial introduces readers to foundational concepts needed to understand the basics of Poisson regression, followed by a hands-on tutorial using the R package brms. We discuss a dataset where Catalan and Korean speakers change the frequency of their co-speech gestures as a function of politeness contexts. This dataset also involves exposure variables (the incorporation of time to deal with unequal intervals) and overdispersion (excess variance). Altogether, we hope that more linguists will consider Poisson regression for the analysis of count data.

Second language (L2) aptitude has been broadly defined as the rate and ease of initially acquiring a second language. Historically, L2 aptitude has been understood as a stable trait that predetermined L2 achievement, regardless of individual learners’ efforts to acquire an L2. This traditional view of L2 aptitude as fixed and stable has led to it being a relatively neglected area of research within second language acquisition (SLA) studies. The little research that was in fact conducted was diagnostic in nature, and mostly used tests such as the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) to select potentially gifted L2 learners. Given that six decades have passed since the publication of the MLAT, now is a good time to revisit the literature and investigate whether L2 aptitude continues to be viewed as an individual difference of little interest to SLA research. While summative literature reviews of L2 aptitude research have been written, few systematic reviews exist. This article conducts a systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) to provide a principled, comprehensive and reproducible synthesis of research into L2 aptitude published over the last 60 years (1959–2019). In this SQLR, close to one hundred journal articles and PhD dissertations were examined to discern generalisations and limitations in the field. This SQLR identifies a shift in the rationale for L2 aptitude testing, in which a diagnostic focus has been replaced by an explanatory perspective. Furthermore, our article points to a renewed interest in L2 aptitude research, which has come to be characterised by a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the concept and its components.

The starting point of this work is the notion of explanatory adequacy. After summarising and analysing the presentation that Chomsky gives of this notion in the first works of generative grammar, I consider the role that such notion has been playing in the construction of the theory of generative grammar and in the foundation of the Universal Grammar research program, focussing, in particular, on the last phase of generative grammar, that is, minimalism.

As online false information continues to grow, automated fact-checking has gained an increasing amount of attention in recent years. Researchers in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) have contributed to the task by building fact-checking datasets, devising automated fact-checking pipelines and proposing NLP methods to further research in the development of different components. This article reviews relevant research on automated fact-checking covering both the claim detection and claim validation components.