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| 2. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Do dialect-specific prosodic properties shape the path to contrastive focus? - Production and comprehension data from 3-5 year-old children acquiring Stockholm or Scania Swedish
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cuing information structure (IS) is a fundamental function of prosody in many languages. For instance, in English or Dutch, a contrastive focus on the color adjective in a phrase like ‘the green boat’ is marked by a pitch accent on GREEN and, crucially, a lack of post-focal accent on BOAT: ‘the GREEN boat’. Listeners infer from this prosodic structure that ‘boat’ represents already activated (given) information and that the color that is specially mentioned represents one out of a set of alternatives.According to research findings, children achieve proficiency in the production of prosodic IS encoding within the age range of 4 to 8 years, displaying considerable variability. This variability is suggested to result from structural prosodic differences between languages. For instance, Stockholm Swedish speaking children mark (non-contrastive) focus using the Swedish prominence cuing H(igh) tone in an adult-like manner already at 4-5 years, while Dutch speaking children handle Dutch intonational pitch accents only after the age of 7-8 years. One hypothesis is that this relates to the presence of lexical pitch accents in Swedish, which could make Swedish speaking children more sensitive to prosodic contrasts; in addition, the combination of lexical accent + prominence H results in a complex contour which is particularly salient. However, studies investigating this have usually had a strict focus on speech production.The few previous studies that have conducted parallel production and comprehension experiments have typically used offline methods to assess comprehension. More recent studies using online methods such as eye tracking have usually not included children younger than 6 years of age and have not been complemented by production data. In this study we combine production and comprehension experiments, using eye tracking, to study contrastive focus prosody in 3- to 5-year-old children speaking either Scanian or Stockholm Swedish. In Scanian, instead of adding the prominence H-tone for focus, phrase-level prominence is encoded through phonetic adjustments of the (lexical) HL accent patterns. By comparing these two Swedish varieties we can thus control for phonological features (incl. lexical tone), as well as grammar and lexicon, when exploring effects of prosodic-typological differences.In our production experiment we elicit adjective-noun phrases in three different focus conditions (broad, contrast on adjective, contrast on noun), using an interactive video/card game. Production data are analyzed acoustically and auditorily.As for comprehension, our visual-word eye-tracking experiment makes use of the same pictures of colored objects to investigate whether and how children rely on prosody for reference resolution (e.g., Where is the yellow boat? And where is the GREEN boat?). The time course of eye movements will be analyzed using growth curves. Both production and eye-tracking data will be analyzed as a function of dialect, age and standardized measures of language production and comprehension (The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales), as well as compared to data from adult controls. Data are currently being collected. A preliminary analysis of eye-tracking data from 24 Scanian children (ages 3-5 years collapsed) and a subset of adults from both dialects suggests similar comprehension of focus prosody as in adults (as a mismatched focus prosody in the adjective successfully elicits looks at the foil item in all groups), although processing appears to be slower, and anticipatory strategies differ slightly from those of adults (as the color of the first-mentioned adjective in a trial elicits looks at the color-matched distractor in adults, but not in children). An analysis contrasting comprehension data for both dialects, as well as a preliminary analysis of production data will be presented at the conference.
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| 3. |
- Ambrazaitis, Gilbert, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Språkutveckling och prosodisk typologi: Produktion och perception av den dialektspecifika fokusmarkeringen hos 3- till 5-åriga barn från Stockholm och Skåne
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Att lägga satsbetoningen på ordet som bör fokuseras utifrån en given informationsstruktur är något som barn enligt tidigare internationell forskning verkar bemästra relativt sent i utvecklingen av sitt förstaspråk. Förmågan att uppfatta och tolka satsbetoning verkar barn enligt vissa studier utveckla ännu senare, men få tidigare studier har genomfört parallella produktions- och perceptionstest, och få perceptionsstudier har i detta sammanhang använt sig av online metoder (så som ögonrörelsemätning) med barn yngre än sex år. En del tidigare studier har påvisat typologiska skillnader; till exempel verkar svenska barn kunna producera en vuxenlik fokusbetoning tidigare än nederländska barn.Med vår studie ämnar vi bidra till en bättre förståelse av hur barn utvecklar sin förmåga att producera och uppfatta kontrastiva fokusbetoningar (t. ex. en röd BIL, en RÖD bil), hur produktionen och perceptionen hänger ihop, och vilken roll prosodisk språktypologi kan spela i sammanhanget. Vi undersöker dessa förmågor hos (totalt ca 120) förskolebarn med stockholmsvenska respektive skånska som förstaspråk – två dialekter som representerar motpoler i en prosodisk typologi när det gäller hur satsbetoning kodas intonationsfonologiskt. I vår produktionsstudie eliciterar vi adjektiv-substantiv fraser med varierad kontrastiv fokus, och i perceptionsstudien mäter vi barnens bearbetning av prosodin i liknande fraser med hjälp av ögonrörelsemätning. Datainsamling pågår i skrivande stund, och prelimära resultat kommer att presenteras på workshopen.
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| 5. |
- Gärdenfors, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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What is a domain? Dimensional structures versus meronomic relations
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cognitive Linguistics. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 1613-3641 .- 0936-5907. ; 24:3, s. 437-456
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Within cognitive linguistics, the notion of domain is central. In the literature, the notion of domain has been interpreted in an all-encompassing way, which has led to conceptual confusion. The article proposes to distinguish between a more psychologically oriented description of domains based on dimensional structures, on the one hand; and meronomic relations, on the other. It is shown how Langacker's notion of a configurational domain can be analyzed as higher-level dimensional structures. An added benefit of the distinction between dimensional domains and meronomic relations is that it generates a natural account of the difference between metaphors and metonymies.
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| 6. |
- Hansson, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Quantifying Semantic Linguistic Maturity in Children
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0090-6905 .- 1573-6555. ; 45:5, s. 1183-1199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We propose a method to quantify semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) based on a high dimensional semantic representation ofwords created from the co-occurrence of words in a large text corpus. The method was applied to oral narratives from 108 children aged 4;0–12;10. By comparing the SELMA measure with maturity ratings made by human raters we found that SELMA predicted the rating of semantic maturity made by human raters over and above the prediction made using a child’s age and number of words produced. We conclude that the semantic content of narratives changes in a predictable pattern with children’s age and argue that SELMA is a measure quantifying semantic linguistic maturity. The study opens up the possibility of using quantitative measures for studying the development of semantic representation in children’s narratives, and emphasizes the importance of word co-occurrences for understanding the development of meaning.
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| 8. |
- Löhndorf, Simone
(författare)
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Development of Adjectival Use and Meaning Structures in Swedish Students' Written production
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about the development of adjective use and meaning structures examined from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Adjectives modify nominal meanings and it is in context, in the interaction with the noun that the adjective meaning and configuration is determined. Nearly 13,000 adjective-noun combinations from texts written by Swedish students in grades 3, 5, 9, and 11/12 were analysed according to the LOC model (Ontologies and Construals in Lexical Semantics, Paradis, 2005) with regard to domains, noun ontology, adjective gradability, adjective position, and adjective function. Furthermore, the use of figurative language was studied. The results show a development from adjectives predominantly modifying concrete nouns to increasingly abstract meanings from a broad range of adjective and noun domains. The younger students use adjectives predominantly in the predicative position but there is a gradual shift towards attributive use, and attributive uses are the most common in the highest grade. Adjectives are primarily used in a descriptive function, but in the highest grade approximately one third of all adjectives are used in a classifying function. Scalar adjective construal is the most common in all grades, but the proportion of scalar uses decreases in favour of an increase in non-gradable uses. Figurative language is rare in all grades, but there is an increase in metaphorical language over the school years.
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| 10. |
- Löhndorf, Simone, et al.
(författare)
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Produktion och perception av kontrastiv fokus hos 3- till 5-åriga barn från Stockholm och Skåne
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Att lägga satsbetoningen på ordet som bör fokuseras utifrån en given informationsstruktur är något som barn enligt tidigare internationell forskning verkar bemästra relativt sent i utvecklingen av sitt förstaspråk. Förmågan att uppfatta och tolka satsbetoning verkar barn enligt vissa studier utveckla ännu senare, men få tidigare studier har genomfört parallella produktions- och perceptionstest, och få perceptionsstudier har använt sig av online metoder (så som ögonrörelsemätning) med barn yngre än sex år. En del tidigare studier har påvisat typologiska skillnader; till exempel verkar svenska barn kunna producera en vuxenlik fokusbetoning tidigare än nederländska barn.Med vår studie ämnar vi bidra till en bättre förståelse av hur barn utvecklar sin förmåga att producera och uppfatta kontrastiva fokusbetoningar (t. ex. en röd BIL, en RÖD bil), hur produktionen och perceptionen hänger ihop, och vilken roll prosodisk språktypologi kan spela isammanhanget. Vi undersöker dessa förmågor hos (totalt ca 120) förskolebarn med stockholmsvenska respektive skånska som förstaspråk – två dialekter som representerar motpoler i en prosodisk typologi när det gäller hur satsbetoning kodas intonationsfonologiskt. I vår produktionsstudie eliciterar vi adjektiv-substantiv fraser med varierad kontrastiv fokus, och i perceptionsstudien mäter vi barnens bearbetning av prosodin i liknande fraser med hjälp av ögonrörelsemätning. Datainsamling pågår i skrivande stund, och prelimära resultat kommer att presenteras på konferensen.
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| 11. |
- Löhndorf, Simone
(författare)
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Utvecklingen av adjektivets användning och dess betydelsestrukturer i svenska elevers textproduktion
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Adjektivinlärning kommer senare i barns språkutveckling än förståelsen och produktionen av substantiv, verb och pronomen. Adjektiv bestämmer substantivbetydelser och det är i kontext med substantivet som adjektivets betydelse och konfiguration avgörs. Komplexiteten som finns när betydelser ska skapas med adjektiv präglar adjektivanvändningen i skrivna texter under hela skolgången. Cirka 13000 adjektiv-substantivkombinationer från svenska elevtexter har analyserats. Texterna är skrivna under de nationella proven i svenska (2009) i årskurserna 3, 5, 9 och på gymnasiet. Adjektiv-substantivkombinationerna analyserades enligt LOC-modellen (Ontologies and Construals in Lexical Semantics, Paradis, 2005), med avseende på betydelsedomäner, substantivontologi, adjektivets gradering, adjektivets position, adjektivets funktion och figurativ användning. Resultaten visar en utveckling från att adjektiven mest bestämmer konkreta betydelser i de lägre årskurserna till att i allt högre grad bestämma abstrakta betydelser från många olika betydelsedomäner i de äldre årskurserna. De yngre eleverna använder adjektiv mest i predikativ position, men det sker en gradvis utveckling mot attributiv användning och i gymnasiet är det den vanligaste positionen. Adjektiven är oftast graderbara och den vanligaste funktion är beskrivande, men i gymnasietexterna används cirka en tredjedel av adjektiven i klassificerande funktion. I samband med det ökar även antalet ograderbara adjektiv, eftersom klassificerande adjektiv alltid är ograderbara. Figurativt språk är ovanligt alla årskurser, men det sker en gradvis ökning av metaforer i texterna under skolåren.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Paradis, Carita, et al.
(författare)
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Semantic profiles of antonymic adjectives in discourse
- 2015
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Ingår i: Linguistics. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 1613-396X .- 0024-3949. ; 53:1, s. 153-191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study has two goals: Firstly, to give an account of the semantic organization of individually used antonymic adjectives in discourse, and secondly, based on these finding, and previous work on antonymic meanings, contribute to a comprehensive theoretical account of their representation within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. The hypothesis is that the members of the pairs are used in the same contexts and in the same type of constructions, not only when they co-occur and are used to express binary opposition as shown in previous work, but also otherwise. The manually coded corpus data from the BNC are analyzed along four semantic parameters: (i) the configuration of the adjectives in terms of gradability, (ii) the way they modify the nominal meanings, i.e. attributively or predicatively (iii) the meaning type of the modified nouns, and (iv) the status of the constructions with respect to whether their meanings are what we refer to as ‘basic’, metaphorical or metonymical. Multi-dimensional correspondence analysis technique is used to identify similarity spaces on the basis of the totality of the data. As predicted, our findings confirm a high degree of pairwise similarity – and some differences. On the basis of these results, it can be argued that the long-standing controversy within Structuralism between proponents of the co-occurrence hypothesis and the substitutability hypothesis in antonym research is a non-issue.
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