Introduction to Syntax and Parsing
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Questions and Answers

What is the primary function of parsing in language comprehension?

  • To identify the most common word in a sentence
  • To pronounce words correctly in any language
  • To create new sentences using uncommon vocabulary
  • To analyze the grammatical structure of sentences (correct)

    • Which term refers to the smallest meaningful units of a linguistic expression?

  • Syntax
  • Pragmatics
  • Inflection
  • Morpheme (correct)

    • What distinguishes globally ambiguous sentences from locally ambiguous sentences?

  • Global ambiguity involves uncertain meaning of the entire sentence. (correct)
  • Global ambiguity occurs only in spoken language.
  • Local ambiguity refers to meanings developed after reading the sentence.
  • Local ambiguity can only occur in informal conversations.

    • What aspect does pragmatics study in language use?

    <p>The contextual factors that influence meaning (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Why is it challenging for researchers to study parsing directly?

    <p>Parsing is generally a quick and automatic process. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which group of participants showed almost no agreement in describing odors?

    <p>American participants (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What type of description do English speakers typically use when they want to assign fault in an accident?

    <p>Agentive description (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How do Guugu Yimithirr speakers identify locations?

    <p>In absolute terms (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the study involving vase breaking, which group recalled fewer details about unintentional actions?

    <p>Only Spanish speakers (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a key difference in spatial perception between English & Dutch speakers and Guugu Yimithirr speakers?

    <p>Using absolute terms vs. relative terms (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the weaker version of the Whorfian hypothesis suggest about language and thought?

    <p>Language forces individuals to consider certain ideas. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How many color terms does the Dani language have?

    <p>Two (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a distinctive feature of languages that have four color terms?

    <p>They include words for black, white, red, and green or yellow. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following reflects the structure of languages with six color terms?

    <p>They include black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a shared characteristic of the focal points in color categories across language groups?

    <p>They are largely similar among language groups. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is one way metaphor comprehension is facilitated according to Kintsch's model?

    <p>By inhibiting irrelevant semantic properties (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which brain activity is associated with understanding metaphorical sentences referring to body parts?

    <p>Increased activity in areas responsive to body parts (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Why is the statement 'My lawyer is a shark' harder to understand when literal properties of sharks are activated?

    <p>Because it activates irrelevant literal meanings (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the predication model suggest about metaphor comprehension?

    <p>It involves selecting relevant predicate features (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was speculated about the activation of numerous semantically similar words in metaphor comprehension?

    <p>It hinders finding shared meanings between nouns (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Flashcards

    Syntax

    The set of rules governing word order in a language, crucial for creating well-formed sentences.

    Morphology

    The study of how words are formed from smaller units of meaning (morphemes).

    Parsing

    The process of analyzing the grammatical structure of a sentence. It helps us understand who did what to whom.

    Ambiguous Sentences

    Sentences with multiple interpretations, causing uncertainty during parsing.

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    Pragmatics

    The study of how language is used and understood in real-world contexts, considering intended meaning and the impact of surroundings.

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    Inhibition in Metaphor Comprehension

    The process of understanding metaphors involves inhibiting irrelevant semantic features of the predicate.

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    Complexity of Semantic Relationships in Metaphors

    Metaphors that link concepts with strong semantic relationships to many other words (e.g., "Lawyers are sharks") are not necessarily easier to understand.

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    Perceptual Grounding of Metaphors

    The brain areas involved in understanding body parts are more active when processing metaphorical sentences that refer to body parts (e.g., "He had to foot the bill.")

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    Predication Model of Metaphor Comprehension

    Kintsch's predication model of metaphor comprehension explains how we understand metaphors by processing the semantic relationships between the two concepts, activating relevant features and inhibiting irrelevant ones.

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    Inhibitory Processes and Metaphor Comprehension

    Individuals with better inhibitory processes, the ability to suppress irrelevant information, tend to have better comprehension of metaphors.

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    Weak Linguistic Relativity

    The idea that the language we speak influences how we think, but not to the extent of preventing us from thinking about things not directly represented by our language. It suggests that language may "oblige" us to think about certain concepts in specific ways.

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    Strong Whorfian Hypothesis

    A hypothesis suggesting that language entirely determines how we think. This strong version has been largely rejected, as it implies a complete lack of thinking ability in the absence of relevant words.

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    Linguistic Relativity and Color Perception

    The concept that language influences how we perceive and categorize colors. Different languages divide the color spectrum in distinct ways, but there are recognizable patterns.

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    Van den Broek & Helder's Framework

    The proposal put forth by van den Broek and Helder, suggesting that reading processes can be both passive (following the writer's direction) and active, driven by the reader's own background knowledge and goals.

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    Linguistic Relativity

    The idea that language can influence our thoughts and perception of the world. It suggests that different languages may lead people to think and perceive things differently.

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    Agentive Description

    The tendency to describe events in a way that emphasizes the actions and intentions of individuals, often used in English when assigning blame.

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    Non-Agentive Description

    Describing an event without highlighting who caused it, focusing on the state of things instead of the actions.

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    Relativistic Spatial Perception

    Using terms like left, right, front, and back to identify locations relative to oneself, common in languages like English and Dutch.

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    Absolute Spatial Perception

    Identifying locations based on absolute directions like north, south, east, and west, used in languages like Guugu Yimithirr.

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    Study Notes

    Introduction

    • Syntax is a set of rules for word order to create well-formed sentences.
    • Grammar governs language structure, including syntax and inflections.
    • Inflections are grammatical changes to words (e.g., adding -s for plural nouns, -ed for past tense verbs).
    • Parsing involves analyzing the grammatical structure of sentences.
    • Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units of language; morphology studies their formation.
    • Many languages have richer morphology than English.

    Parsing: Overview

    • Parsing helps determine who did what to whom.
    • Morphemes can be broken down, like "incoming" into "in," "come" and "-ing."
    • Syntax and grammar are productive; we can create infinitely many well-formed sentences.
    • Sentences can be ambiguous, which means they have multiple interpretations.
    • Ambiguity arises from effort-saving tendencies and how context clarifies meaning.
    • Researchers study parsing by presenting ambiguous sentences and analyzing understanding difficulties.

    Pragmatics

    • Pragmatics studies how language is used and understood in real-world situations, considering intended meaning.
    • Sentence comprehension involves syntactical analysis and semantic analysis.
    • Intended meaning often differs from literal meaning (e.g., "The weather's great" when raining).
    • Context influences sentence meaning and is not captured by dictionaries.
    • Figurative language includes metaphors, irony, and idioms and uses similar brain regions as literal language.
    • Individuals with autism may have problems understanding figurative language, possibly due to weak central coherence.
    • Children with Asperger's often show normal language development but have pragmatic comprehension challenges.

    Figurative Language: Metaphors

    • Metaphor comprehension can be complex.
    • Working memory capacity impacts how quickly metaphors are comprehended.
    • Traditional pragmatic model involves several sequential stages for processing figurative language.
    • This model hypothesizes that people first interpret literal meaning, assess its relevance to the context, and then search for figurative meaning.

    Metaphor Interference Effect

    • Studies on metaphor interference suggest that finding a literal meaning takes more time than a literal one, and literal and figurative meaning are processed simultaneously.

    Kintsch's Predication Model

    • Predicates (such as "sharks") have relevant semantic components, inhibiting irrelevant features (like swimming).
    • Metaphor comprehension involves inhibiting meanings irrelevant to meaning.
    • Comprehension is facilitated by similar meanings between words in the metaphor.

    Common Ground

    • Common ground refers to shared knowledge and beliefs between speaker and listener.

    • People expect conversational partners to use common ground.

    • The egocentric heuristic involves judging messages based on personal knowledge, which might cause misunderstandings.

    • Listeners will often attempt correcting their interpretation if it differs from the speaker’s intended one.

    Discourse Processing: Inferences

    • Discourse is language spanning multiple sentences.
    • Discourse processing often requires making inferences to fully understand meaning.
    • Logical inferences are based on identifying implied meanings through word and sentence interpretation.
    • Bridging and elaborative inferences add details to enhance the text's coherence.
    • Predictive inferences build on expected events or descriptions present within a discourse.

    Theoretical Perspectives

    • Readers construct mental models of situations.
    • Inferences, automatic or strategic, are made to achieve coherence.
    • Minimalist hypothesis suggests fewer inferences than the constructionist approach.

    Bridging Inferences: Anaphors

    • Anaphors are words or phrases referring to earlier words or phrases (pronouns).
    • Anaphor resolution involves coordinating inferences with earlier references in a text.
    • Working memory processing helps accurately determine referents of anaphorical pronouns.

    Linguistic Relativity

    • The Whorfian hypothesis suggests language structure influences thought.

    • A weaker form suggests language can affect perception and conceptualization.

    • Studies examining color perception across languages show that different color categorizations exist, and these differences affect perception of colors.

    Linguistic Relativity and Order Perception

    • People using absolute spatial markers (e.g., Guugu Yimithirr) understand space differently from those using relative locations.
    • Speakers of industrialized cultures often use relative-position references for spatial understanding.
    • Researchers exploring the relationship between space, time, and language use argue for culture and language being interconnected in spatial understanding.

    Numerical Cognition

    • Societies with limited number terms (like the Piraha) show some number understanding abilities with limited numbers.
    • Number words may guide how concepts are linked.

    Language Processing and Decision-Making

    • Using a foreign language might impact intuitive decisions.
    • The foreign-language effect involves altering system 1 and system 2 processes when language changes.
    • Differences can arise in decision-making processes and risks-benefit evaluations when using different languages to make similar decisions.
    • Non-linguistic cues might influence interpretation and cognitive organization more than language.
    • Language can affect cognitive function.
    • Language and culture interplay to construct cognition.
    • Culture and language can shape perception, behavior, and categorization.
    • Culture, as cultural values, influence how beliefs and information processing strategies are used to construct knowledge.
    • Cognitive processes are shaped by cultural and linguistic environments to reflect common beliefs that may influence interpretation and processing of events and information.

    Interaction between Culture and Language

    • Studies have shown that culture may shape the way language operates.
    • Language is fundamental for cognitive development.

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    Related Documents

    Task 9 - Common Ground PDF

    Description

    Explore the foundations of syntax and grammar in this quiz. Understand the essential concepts of morphemes, parsing, and the role of ambiguity in sentences. Test your knowledge on how well-formed sentences are created and analyzed.

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