Browsing by Subject "Lexicon"
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Item Dependency based CCG derivation and application(2010-12) Brewster, Joshua Blake; Baldridge, Jason; Erk, KatrinThis paper presents and evaluates an algorithm to translate a dependency treebank into a Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG) lexicon. The dependency relations between a head and a child in a dependency tree are exploited to determine how CCG categories should be derived by making a functional distinction between adjunct and argument relations. Derivations for an English (CoNLL08 shared task treebank) and for an Italian (Turin University Treebank) dependency treebank are performed, each requiring a number of preprocessing steps. In order to determine the adequacy of the lexicons, dubbed DepEngCCG and DepItCCG, they are compared via two methods to preexisting CCG lexicons derived from similar or equivalent sources (CCGbank and TutCCG). First, a number of metrics are used to compare the state of the lexicon, including category complexity and category growth. Second, to measures the potential applicability of the lexicons in NLP tasks, the derived English CCG lexicon and CCGbank are compared in a sentiment analysis task. While the numeric measurements show promising results for the quality of the lexicons, the sentiment analysis task fails to generate a usable comparison.Item Lexical influence on phonological processing in adults with and without stuttering(2011-05) Moriarty, Kirsten Elizabeth; Byrd, Courtney T.; Hampton, ElizabethPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how phonetic complexity influences the accuracy and rate of speech production in adults who do (AWS, N=15) and do not stutter (AWNS, N=15). Target words were characterized according to high phonetic complexity (HIPC) and low phonetic complexity (LIPC), and were controlled for lexical influences such as word frequency and neighborhood density. It was hypothesized that if phonetic complexity influenced speech production, there would be a difference in reaction time and accuracy for AWS during the HIPC condition. Method: Participants produced two rounds of 40 target words corresponding to specific line drawings, during a confrontational naming task. Speech reaction time (SRT) was recorded from initial presentation of picture, and fluency and accuracy of production were coded for each target. Results: There was no significant difference in SRT according to HIPC and LIPC for either AWS or AWNS. AWS participants had slower SRT recorded compared to AWNS for all conditions tested. There was no relationship found between HIPC and increased moments of disfluency. Accuracy of target word production decreased during LIPC words. Conclusion: Phonetic complexity does not affect rate or fluency of speech production for either AWS or AWNS. While there is no difference in phonetic complexity measures, AWS are consistently slower than AWNS across both groups of target productions. Increased errors for both groups on LIPC target words may indicate a motor component to accuracy of speech production.Item Segmental/lexical influences on tone accuracy in Mandarin-speaking children(2012-05) Yang, Jie, doctor of communication sciences and disorders; Davis, Barbara L. (Barbara Lockett); Diehl, Randy L.; Liu, Chang; MacNeilage, Peter F.; Sheng, LiEmergence of accuracy is a first step toward acquiring adult-like phonological abilities. Mandarin Chinese is a tone language where speakers employ both tonal and segmental properties to code lexical meanings. Study of this dual-level complexity of tone and segment enables a broader view of how phonology is acquired than the view afforded by study of Indo-European languages. Understanding the interaction between phonatory properties for tone and articulatory adjustments for segments in emergence of early words helps to understand more generally the first steps toward the complex system embodied in phonology. The present study investigated tone acquisition in relation to segmental and lexical development in Mandarin-speaking children in the earliest word stages. Spontaneous speech samples were collected longitudinally from 12 to 24 months from four Mandarin-speaking children. The relationships between tone accuracy, segmental accuracy, and word-level variables were examined quantitatively over time. Results indicated that tone accuracy is not always higher than segmental accuracy. The relationship between these two seems to be influenced by the physiological complexity of tonal shapes and children’s developmental age. Autonomy of control over phonatory adjustments for tone and articulatory adjustments for segments was already apparent. Children were not sensitive to the contrastivity (characterized by Productive Tone Neighborhood Density) involved in tonal categories with a vocabulary of less than 50 words. Associations between production accuracy and word-level variables (articulatory complexity, neighborhood density and word frequency) established based on later developmental periods were not found in younger Mandarin-speaking children. Findings suggest that tonal acquisition at the onset of speech development is not a passive process where innate phonological knowledge is revealed solely through children’s maturation. Rather, phonological knowledge is established on the basis of children’s pre-linguistic motor capacities in concert with cognitive learning occurring via the expansion of their lexicon. Tones and segments may be produced as holistic entities in early words. Tone acquisition at the onset of word learning is more child-centered in that availability of tonal forms to the child’s production system underlies accuracy. Influences from lexical properties of word would only be apparent when phonological knowledge of tonal categories is established with vocabulary expansion.Item The effects of exposure type on lexical processing in low-level bilinguals(2008-05) Locke, Eileen; Farley, Andrew P.; Elola, Idoia; Vanpatten, BillThis study examines how first-semester L2 learners of Spanish process lexical items. Ninety-three participants who made up two groups, each with a different amount of exposure to the target words, read familiar words and category names in English or Spanish. Reaction times were recorded for the categorization of words during two intra-lingual and two inter-lingual conditions. Statistical analyses revealed no difference between the two exposure groups. The data from the four language conditions showed no difference between English-English and Spanish-English conditions and no difference between English-Spanish and Spanish-Spanish conditions. The results suggest that first-semester learners were able to conceptually mediate to some degree while categorizing familiar L2 words even with only a limited exposure time to the words. This study lends support to a more finely tuned view of the progression from word association to concept mediation as proposed in Farley and Keating (2004) and Farley and Locke (2008). Instead of viewing the nature of lexical access in terms of less-proficient and more-proficient bilinguals, the author suggests that the nature of lexical access is driven by recent exposure to individual lexical items regardless of proficiency level.Item Tož, tak to bylo, anyway : the borrowing and adaptation of the discourse marker 'anyway' in Texas Czech(2011-05) Tomeček, John Michael; Rappaport, Gilbert C.; Boas, Hans C.This thesis addresses the borrowing and adaptation of the English discourse marker (DM) anyway into the speech of the Czech-speaking diaspora in Texas, known widely as Texas Czechs (TC). The primary goal of the thesis is to assess which subtypes of 'anyway', according to the schema of Ferrara (1997), are borrowed into TC, and to what extent. Chapter one addresses the sociolinguistic history of the TC community. The historical origins of the people and cultural background are provided. Late in the chapter, I provide a discussion of previous scholarship in the field of TC linguistics over the last half-century. Chapter two addresses the theories of borrowing and code-switching in language. The two are disambiguated, and a basic set of conditions which define the two are proposed. From this, I address Serra's (1998) theory of a mixed-code system, which relies on the knowledge of two separate codes for understanding, but also utilizes borrowings. The works of Fuller (2001) and Weilbacher (2007) in Pennsylvania and Texas German communities are addressed, as is Johnson's (1995) work on Tejano. The chapter concludes with a brief description of DMs. Chapter three describes the subtypes and features of 'anyway' in English according to Ferrara's (1997) schema, as well as surveys a number of possible counterparts for 'anyway' in standard European Czech. Chapter four analyzes borrowed 'anyway' in TC speech as a Ferraran subtype. I disambiguate the uses of various types of anyway, proposing that only anyway, Ferrara's only true DM, is borrowed in TC. I demonstrate that possible functions of native TC DMs similar to 'anyway' function inherently differently than those of Ferrara. I show that 'anyway' is borrowed into TC to fulfill a pragmatic gap in the form of 'anyway', whereas the two adverbial subtypes are not borrowed. In older data, these two were borrowed, but no examples exist in modern speech. I propose that this is indicative of the TC's existence as a mixed-code system, in that knowledge of both English and TC are required to properly choose the appropriate DM and to understand borrowed DMs from the other code.