An image is worth a thousand words: why nouns tend to dominate verbs in early word learning

Nouns are generally easier to learn than verbs (e.g., Bornstein, 2005; Bornstein et al., 2004; Gentner, 1982; Maguire, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2006). Yet, verbs appear in children's earliest vocabularies, creating a seeming paradox. This paper examines one hypothesis about the difference between noun and verb acquisition. Perhaps the advantage nouns have is not a function of grammatical form class but rather related to a word's imageability. Here, word imageability ratings and form class (nouns and verbs) were correlated with age of acquisition according to the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) (Fenson et al., 1994). CDI age of acquisition was negatively correlated with words' imageability ratings. Further, a word's imageability contributes to the variance of the word's age of acquisition above and beyond form class, suggesting that at the beginning of word learning, imageability might be a driving factor.     

Finding words in a language that allows words without vowels

Across many languages from unrelated families, spoken-word recognition is subject to a constraint whereby potential word candidates must contain a vowel. This constraint minimizes competition from embedded words (e.g., in English, disfavoring win in twin because t cannot be a word). However, the constraint would be counter-productive in certain languages that allow stand-alone vowelless open-class words. One such language is Berber (where t is indeed a word). Berber listeners here detected words affixed to nonsense contexts with or without vowels. Length effects seen in other languages replicated in Berber, but in contrast to prior findings, word detection was not hindered by vowelless contexts. When words can be vowelless, otherwise universal constraints disfavoring vowelless words do not feature in spoken-word recognition.     

Proficiency in a second language influences the processing of number words

We evaluated whether proficiency in a second language (L2) influenced the processing of numerical information. In Experiment 1, two groups of German/English bilinguals, one less proficient in English (L2) and the other more proficient in L2, performed two-digit number comparison tasks while the unit–decade compatibility was evaluated. All participants presented compatibility effect with Arabic digits regardless of their L2 proficiency. However, when bilinguals with less proficiency in L2 performed verbal number comparison tasks they showed regular compatibility effect in German and reverse compatibility effect in English, whereas more proficient bilinguals did not show compatibility effects in either German or English. In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was obtained with highly proficient bilinguals after controlling their working memory span. These results indicate that L2 proficiency influences the processing of two-digit number words.     

Effects of chronic non-clinical depression on the use of positive and negative words in language contexts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic non-clinical depression (ChD) on the use of ambiguous and unambiguous emotional words in language contexts. Participants with ChD and normal non-depressed (ND) participants' responses to positive and negative stimulus words on a free association word test were compared using the Hyperspace Analogue to Language (HAL) model of memory's context density metric, a measure of the range of contexts in which a word is used in language. ChD participants generated negative words that were used in more restricted contexts than ND participants. However, ND and ChD participants used positive words in a similar range of contexts. The results suggest that people with ChD tend to use negative words that are probably more negative in connotation, yet they are not impaired with respect to using words in contexts where positive words are required.     

When words do not mean what they say. Self-agency and the coercive use of language

Abstract :  This paper explores the relationship between language and the development of self-agency. I suggest that a child discovers that he or she actually exists as a person with a mind and desires through the mirroring response he or she creates in the parent. This developmental stage of 'teleological' level of self-agency is related to Terrence Deacon's concept of indexical communication. The coercive effect this has on others is explored and the way language may become subverted from its symbolic function and used in the service of indexical communication is discussed, illustrated by examples from the plays of Harold Pinter.     

Isolated words enhance statistical language learning in infancy

Infants are adept at tracking statistical regularities to identify word boundaries in pause-free speech. However, researchers have questioned the relevance of statistical learning mechanisms to language acquisition, since previous studies have used simplified artificial languages that ignore the variability of real language input. The experiments reported here embraced a key dimension of variability in infant-directed speech. English-learning infants (8-10 months) listened briefly to natural Italian speech that contained either fluent speech only or a combination of fluent speech and single-word utterances. Listening times revealed successful learning of the statistical properties of target words only when words appeared both in fluent speech and in isolation; brief exposure to fluent speech alone was not sufficient to facilitate detection of the words' statistical properties. This investigation suggests that statistical learning mechanisms actually benefit from variability in utterance length, and provides the first evidence that isolated words and longer utterances act in concert to support infant word segmentation.     

Analyzing spoken language into words,syllables, and phonomes: A developmental study

Fifty children aged 3–7 years were asked to repeat spoken sentences and then to divide up these sentences into words, the words into syllables, and the syllables into speech sounds. There was a clear developmental progression in the ability to analyze spoken language in this way. The skills of analyzing sentences into words and words into syllables were highly related. Items requiring analysis of syllables into phonemes were highly correlated with each other and somewhat independent of sentence and word analysis items. The results are related to Gibson's model of reading, in which the acquisition of grapheme-phoneme correspondences is a crucial process.     

Shedding light on words and sentences: near-infrared spectroscopy in language research

Investigating the neuronal network underlying language processing may contribute to a better understanding of how the brain masters this complex cognitive function with surprising ease and how language is acquired at a fast pace in infancy. Modern neuroimaging methods permit to visualize the evolvement and the function of the language network. The present paper focuses on a specific methodology, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), providing an overview over studies on auditory language processing and acquisition. The methodology detects oxygenation changes elicited by functional activation of the cerebral cortex. The main advantages for research on auditory language processing and its development during infancy are an undemanding application, the lack of instrumental noise, and its potential to simultaneously register electrophysiological responses. Also it constitutes an innovative approach for studying developmental issues in infants and children. The review will focus on studies on word and sentence processing including research in infants and adults.     

Acquisition of new "words" in normal subjects: a suggestion for the treatment of anomia

The study explores the efficacy of three learning methods in normal controls. Thirty subjects, randomly assigned to the repetition, reading aloud, or orthographic cueing method, were asked to learn 30 new "words" (legal nonwords arbitrarily assigned to 30 different pictures); 30 further new "words" were used as controls. Number of trials to criterion was significantly lower, and number of words remembered at follow-up was significantly higher for the orthographic cueing method. Two aphasic patients with damage to the output lexicons were also rehabilitated with the same three methods. In both patients the orthographic cueing method was significantly more efficacious. The differences in learning efficacy of the three methods are discussed.     

Women in the Ottoman World: A bibliographical essay

Although research on women's history in the Ottoman Empire made a late start, the field has over the past few years expanded so rapidly that a bibliographical survey is an urgent desideratum. This essay is an introduction to important and representative monographs, edited volumes and articles which have appeared in Turkish, English, German and French. The selection may serve as a research tool, at the same time pointing out obvious lacunae in our knowledge of sources and our understanding of historical and social contexts.     

Actually,a picture is worth less than 45 words: Narratives produce more false memories than photographs do

Most memory “implantation” studies have elicited false memories by using fake narratives. Recently, Wade, Garry, Read, and Lindsay (2002) showed that doctored photographs can be used to create false childhood memories in adults. Fifty percent of Wade et al.’s sample reported details of taking a childhood hot air balloon ride, although they had never been in a balloon. In this experiment, we investigated whether photos or narratives influence memory more than the other. We exposed subjects to either a fake photograph or a fake narrative of a childhood hot air balloon ride. Subjects tried to remember the false event and three real events over 1 week. Narratives were more likely to produce false memory reports than were photos. We offer a fluency-based account of our results and suggest that narratives promote more familiarity in subjects than do photographs.     

Primary or "specific" language impairment and children learning a second language

We review empirical findings from children with primary or "specific" language impairment (PLI) and children who learn a single language from birth (L1) and a second language (L2) beginning in childhood. The PLI profile is presented in terms of both language and nonlinguistic features. The discussion of L2 learners emphasizes variable patterns of growth and skill distribution in L1 and L2 which complicate the identification of PLI in linguistically diverse learners. We then introduce our research program, designed to map out common ground and potential fault lines between typically developing children learning one or two languages, as compared to children with PLI.     

Explicit memory for unattended words: the importance of being in the "no"

Recognition tests in which participants indicate whether they recognize items using binary yes/no response options have typically yielded "yes" responses at equal rates for unattended old items and new items. Because most responses to unattended stimuli in such tests are "no" responses, we reasoned that a closer examination of "no" responses might reveal memory for unattended items. We modified a classic paradigm to allow participants to indicate high and low levels of confidence in their responses. As in earlier studies, the overall proportion of "yes" responses did not differ between unattended old items and new items. However, there was a crossover effect in the "no" responses: More high-confidence "no" responses were given for new items than for unattended old items, whereas more low-confidence "no" responses were given for unattended old items than for new items. These results indicate explicit memory for unattended material presented under high perceptual load. Our findings suggest that the null effects obtained in previous studies may not have stemmed from failures of perception or memory, but rather may have been due to insufficiently sensitive memory assessment.     

The discovery of a miniature linguistic system: Function words and comprehension of an unfamiliar language

Two experiments investigated two complementary hypotheses: (a) The presence of semantically unimportant function words in sentences will not slow down the way subjects, unfamiliar with the language, extract the meaning of those sentences, provided suprasegmental cues are present, and conversely (b) the omission of such function words—as in native speakers' simplified speech to nonnative speakers—will not necessarily facilitate the task of meaning extraction, contrary to popular belief. In Experiment I, Dutch adult subjects were exposed to sentences in a miniature artificial language (MAL). In Experiment II, Greek adult subjects were exposed to sentences in an unfamiliar natural language (Dutch). In both experiments, the sentences contained eight words constituting a miniature linguistic system (mls), a system that subjects discovered through an audiovisual, concept-indentification task. The rate by which subjects performed this task was investigated as a function of two linguistic variables: (a) the presence or absence of semantically unimportant function words, and (b) the presence or absence of suprasegmental cues, in the input sentences, respectively. Results from both experiments confirmed the hypotheses (p<.001) The findings are discussed with reference to the linguistic versus cognitive simplicity issue, and to the comprehension versus production issue in language acquisition research. The methodological potential of the experimental paradigm for psycholinguistic research is also discussed.This paper forms part of a doctorate research project concerned with the comprehensibility of foreigner talk, and was supported by the Foundation for Linguistic Research, which is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO.     

Alexithymia and interpersonal problems: A study of natural language use

The concept of alexithymia refers to difficulties in experiencing, verbalizing and regulating emotions. The relationship between alexithymia and interpersonal style is investigated by means of lexical content analysis. It is hypothesized that alexithymia is related to less frequent and less varied use of communication words and references to others. Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia. The Clinical Diagnostic Interview was administered to 50 psychiatric inpatients, transcribed verbatim, and computer-analysed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count-dictionary. Results showed that alexithymia is related to a less complex vocabulary for communication words. Contradictory results for some subscales of the TAS-20 and the TSIA however compromise their construct validity.     

"Long before short" preference in the production of a head-final language

A tendency for speakers to produce short phrases before long phrases has been attributed to the accessibility of short phrases, and thought to reflect universal mechanisms of production. However, recent corpus analyses in Japanese suggest that long phrases tend to be shifted ahead of short ones (Hawkins, J. (1994). A performance theory of order and constituency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Yamashita, in press). Two on-line experiments confirmed that speakers shifted long arguments to earlier positions more than short arguments, exhibiting a "long before short" preference. We reconcile these contradictory data from English and Japanese by a competition between different factors in an incremental production system.     

Sounds, words, sentences: age-related changes across levels of language processing

Age-related changes in sensory, lexical, and sentence processing were examined and compared using event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded as young and elderly participants listened to natural speech for comprehension. Lexically associated and unassociated word pairs were embedded in meaningful or syntactically legal but meaningless sentences. Early, general sensory, and attention-related responses (N1, P2) were delayed by about 25 ms for older participants, but later components indexing semantic processing (N400) were not delayed. There were no differences in the size, timing, or distribution of lexical associative effects for the two groups. In contrast, message-level context effects were delayed by more than 200 ms in the elderly group. The results support models that posit age-related changes primarily in higher order language processes.