Search results for "animacy"
showing 10 items of 20 documents
Perspective in the Processing of the Chinese Reflexive ziji: ERP Evidence
2011
We investigated the comprehension of the Chinese reflexive ziji, which is typically subject to long-distance binding. However, this preference can be overridden by verb semantics (some verbs require local binding) as well as by subtle feature combinations of intervening noun phrases (NPs) (e.g., 1st/2nd person pronouns block dependencies with more distant 3rd person antecedents). The processing of ziji was examined in sentences containing two verb types (local/self-oriented, distant/other-oriented) and three different intervening NPs (1st, 2nd , 3rd person). The event-related potential data revealed an early interaction of verb and intervener: other-oriented verbs showed more processing eff…
The Role of Prominence Information in the Real-Time Comprehension of Transitive Constructions: A Cross-Linguistic Approach
2008
Approaches to language processing have traditionally been formulated with reference to general cognitive concepts (e.g. working memory limitations) or have based their representational assumptions on concepts from generative linguistic theory (e.g. structure determines interpretation). Thus, many well-established generalisations about language that have emerged from cross-linguistic/typological research have not as yet had a major influence in shaping ideas about online processing. Here, we examine the viability of using typologically motivated concepts to account for phenomena in online language comprehension. In particular, we focus on the comprehension of simple transitive sentences (i.e…
The role of animacy in online argument interpretation in Mandarin Chinese
2011
The present event-related brain potential (ERPs) study demonstrates that online argument interpretation in verb-final structures in Mandarin Chinese is modulated by two factors: a preference for Undergoer-before-Actor orders and a preference for animate Actor arguments. Participants listened to sentences with NP(animate)-NP(inanimate)-verb or NP(inanimate)-NP(animate)-verb orders embedded in minimal contexts. Sentences were disambiguated towards either an Actor-initial or an Undergoer-initial order by the clause-final verb. Between 450 and 700 ms post verb onset, we observed an anterior negativity for sentences violating both preferences (inanimate-Actor-initial structures) vs. sentences fu…
The Independent Partitive as an Eastern Circum-Baltic isogloss
2015
The paper claims that the independent partitive case in Finnic languages and the independent partitive genitive case in Baltic and East Slavic (henceforth: ip(g)) show considerable correlations that cannot be accounted for but by language contact. Given that both the ip(g) in Baltic and East Slavic as well as the ip(g) in Finnic are inherited from the respective proto-languages, the paper also offers a methodological discussion of how inherited categories may also be shown to be subject to language contact. A typologically not infrequent category must be individualized on the basis of a list of properties. Thus, 13 semantic and 5 morphosyntactic properties have been discussed. While the stu…
“It is alive!” Evidence for animacy effects in semantic categorization and lexical decision
2019
AbstractAnimacy is one of the basic semantic features of word meaning and influences perceptual and episodic memory processes. However, evidence that this variable also influences lexicosemantic processing is mixed. As animacy is a semantic variable thought to have evolutionary roots, we first examined its influence in a semantic categorization task that did not make the animacy dimension salient, namely, concrete-abstract categorization. Animates were categorized faster (and more accurately) than inanimates. We then assessed the influence of animacy in two lexical decision experiments. In Experiment 2, we mostly used legal nonwords, whereas in Experiment 3, we varied the context of the non…
A cross-linguistic comparison of reference across five signed languages
2022
AbstractDo signers of different signed languages establish and maintain reference the same way? Here we compare how signers of five Western deaf signed languages coordinate fully conventionalized forms with more richly improvised semiotics to identify and talk about referents of varying agency. The five languages (based on a convenience sample) are Auslan, Irish Sign Language, Finnish Sign Language, Norwegian Sign Language, and Swedish Sign Language. Using ten retellings ofFrog, Where Are You?from each language, we analyze tokens of referring expressions with respect to: (a) activation status (new vs. maintained vs. re-introduced); (b) semiotic strategy (e.g., pointing sign, fingerspelling,…
Electrophysiology Reveals the Neural Dynamics of Naturalistic Auditory Language Processing: Event-Related Potentials Reflect Continuous Model Updates.
2016
The recent trend away from ANOVA-based analyses places experimental investigations into the neurobiology of cognition in more naturalistic and ecologically valid designs within reach. Using mixed-effects models for epoch-based regression, we demonstrate the feasibility of examining event-related potentials (ERPs), and in particular the N400, to study the neural dynamics of human auditory language processing in a naturalistic setting. Despite the large variability between trials during naturalistic stimulation, we replicated previous findings from the literature: the effects of frequency, animacy, word order and find previously unexplored interaction effects. This suggests a new perspective …
Novel approach to study the perception of animacy in dogs.
2017
Humans tend to perceive inanimate objects as animate based on simple motion cues. So far this perceptual bias has been studied mostly in humans by utilizing two-dimensional video and interactive displays. Considering its importance for survival, the perception of animacy is probably also widespread among animals, however two-dimensional displays are not necessarily the best approach to study the phenomenon in non-human species. Here we applied a novel method to study whether dogs recognize a dependent (chasing-like) movement pattern performed by inanimate agents in live demonstration. We found that dogs showed more interest toward the agents that demonstrated the chasing-like motion, compar…
Adaptative memory and animacy effect
2017
According to the adaptive memory view, human memory was shaped in the distant past to remember fitness relevant information (e.g., finding food, protecting ourselves from predators). An increasing number of studies favor this view, by showing that information related to to survival is memorized better than information not related to survival (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Recently, a new type of findings further supports this functional approach of memory: animacy effects, that is to say the observation that animates (living things able of independent movements; e.g., baby, grasshopper) are remembered better than inanimates (non-living things e.g., teakettle, rope). One account of …
Two routes to actorhood: Lexicalized potency to act and identification of the actor role
2015
The inference of causality is a crucial cognitive ability and language processing is no exception: recent research suggests that, across different languages, the human language comprehension system attempts to identify the primary causer of the state of affairs described (the “actor”) quickly and unambiguously (Bornkessel-Schlesewsky and Schlesewsky, 2009). This identification can take place verb-independently based on certain prominence cues (e.g., case, word order, animacy). Here, we present two experiments demonstrating that actor potential is also encoded at the level of individual nouns (a king is a better actor than a beggar). Experiment 1 collected ratings for 180 German nouns on 12 …