Source/Goal (a)symmetry

This study investigated how Talmy’s typological framework and Slobin’s (1996) ‘thinking for speaking’ hypothesis affect Korean-English bilinguals’ verbal expression of the motion events in L1 and L2. Based on the cross-linguistic differences in conflation of motion between English and Korean, this study determines whether and how monolingual English speakers and bilinguals (Korean L1, English L2) who reside in the USA differ in the lexicalization of motion events in L1 and L2. The bilingual speakers differed in length of residence (LoR) in the L2 environment: bilingual speakers with relatively longer LoR were categorized as high-proficiency; those with shorter LoR as low-proficiency. Materials were video animation clips that depict goal-oriented motion events; participants were asked to describe verbally what had happened in each animation. English monolinguals produced more manner verbs than path verbs in English, whereas Korean-English bilinguals (both long and short LoR) produced more path verbs than manner verbs in Korean. The event conceptualization patterns of their L1 Korean remained intact regardless of their L2 proficiency. However, bilinguals with long LoR successfully switched toward the patterns of English monolinguals, whereas bilinguals with short LoR did not; this result shows an L1 transfer effect. Typological differences between L1 and L2 instantiated in thinking for speaking in bilingualism is discussed as a function of different LoR of bilingual speakers.

The Aspectual Deictic Verbs with the Path Verbs in Korean

The mechanism of anaphora resolution is subject to large cross-linguistic differences. The most likely reason for this is the different sensitivity of pronouns to the range of factors that determine their reference. In the current study, we explored the mechanism of anaphora resolution in Polish. First, we explored preferences in the interpretation of null and overt pronouns in ambiguous sentences. More specifically, we investigated whether Polish speakers prefer to relate overt pronouns to subject or object antecedents. Subsequently, we tested the consequences of violating this bias when tracing the online sentence-interpretation process using eye-tracking. Our results show that Polish speakers have a strong preference for interpreting null pronouns as referring to subject antecedents and interpreting overt pronouns as referring to object antecedents. However, in online sentence interpretation, only overt pronouns showed sensitivity to a violation of the speaker's preference for a pronoun-antecedent match. This suggests that null pronoun resolution is more flexible than overt pronoun resolution. Our results indicate that it is much easier for Polish speakers to shift the reference of a null pronoun than an overt one whenever a pronoun is forced to refer to a less-preferred antecedent. These results are supported by naturalness ratings, which showed that null pronouns are considered equally natural regardless of their reference, while overt pronouns referring to subject antecedents are rated as considerably less natural than those referring to object antecedents. To explain this effect, we propose that the interpretation of null and overt pronouns is sensitive to different factors which determine their reference.

Cross-linguistic differences in gender congruency effects: Evidence from meta-analyses

This paper examines whether cross-linguistic differences in motion encoding affect event processing, specifically memory performance. We compared speakers of two languages which differ strikingly in how they habitually encode MANNER and PATH of motion (Talmy in Toward a cognitive semantics: typology and process in concept structuring, 2nd edn, vol 2. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2000). We tested French and English adult native speakers across three tasks that recruited and/or suppressed verbal processing to different extents: verbal event descriptions elicited on the basis of dynamic motion stimuli, a verbal memory task testing the impact of prior verbalisation on target recognition, and a non-verbal memory task, using a dual-task paradigm to suppress internal verbalisation. Results showed significant group differences in the verbal description task, which mirrored expected typological tendencies. English speakers more frequently expressed both MANNER and PATH information than French speakers, who produced more descriptions encoding either PATH or MANNER alone. However, these differences in linguistic encoding did not significantly affect speakers' memory performance in the memory recognition tasks, neither in the verbal nor in the non-verbal condition. The findings contribute to current debates regarding the conditions under which language effects occur and the relative weight of language-specific and universal constraints on spatial cognition.

This study investigates the semantic role of the regular plural morpheme in the modifiers of English compounds (e.g., publications catalogue, weapons inspection), specifically examining whether this morpheme functions solely as a grammatical connector or also contributes semantic meaning. Sixty-seven monolingual native English speakers rated the acceptability of 80 sentences containing novel compounds with a medial regular plural morpheme. The compounds were divided into two types: those referring to many tokens of the same entity, such as *cars collection, and those referring to multiple types within a category, such as vehicles exhibition. The results revealed a statistically significant preference for compounds referring to multiple types, with participants rating these compounds as more acceptable than those indicating many tokens of the same entity. Such results provide evidence that the regular plural morpheme inside compounds contributes to semantic distinctions when it denotes categorical diversity. The findings have important implications for linguistic theory, demonstrating that the regular plural morpheme within compounds is not simply a grammatical linking element observed in noun compounds of other Germanic languages, but rather one that carries morphosemantic weight. In conclusion, the study argues that the regular plural within compounds operates similarly to lexical plurals, contributing semantic distinctions beyond its function as an inflectional marker.

Although previous research has shown that there exist individual and cross-linguistic differences in planning strategies during language production, little is known about how such individual differences might vary depending on which language a speaker is planning. The present series of studies examines individual differences in planning strategies exhibited by speakers of American English, French, and German. Participants were asked to describe images on a computer monitor while their eye movements were monitored. In addition, we measured participants' working memory capacity and speed of processing. The results indicate that in the present study, English and German were planned less incrementally (further in advance) prior to speech onset compared to French, which was planned more incrementally (not as far in advance). Crucially, speed of processing predicted the scope of planning for French speakers, but not for English or German speakers. These results suggest that the different planning strategies that are invoked by syntactic choices available in different languages are associated with the tendency for speakers to rely on different cognitive support systems as they plan sentences.

ABSTRACTThe typological contrast between verb‐ and satellite‐framed languages (Talmy, 1985) has set the basis for many empirical studies on L2 acquisition. The current analysis goes beyond this typology by looking in detail at the conceptualization of the path of motion in a motion event. We take as a starting point the cognitive salience of specific elements of motion events that are relevant when conceptualizing space. When expressing direction in French, specific spatial relations involving the entity in motion (its alignment and its distance toward a [potential] endpoint) are relevant, given a variety of path verbs in the lexicon expressing this information (e.g., se diriger vers, avancer ‘to direct oneself toward,’ ‘to advance’). This is not the case in German (manner verbs in the lexicon mainly). In German, spatial information is packaged in adjuncts and particles and the path of motion is typically structured via features of the ground (entlanglaufen/fahren ‘to walk/drive along’) or endpoints (‘to walk/drive to/toward’). We investigate those fundamental differences in spatial conceptualization in French and German, as reflected in pre‐articulatory patterns of attention allocation (measured with eye tracking) to moving entities and endpoints in motion scenes in an event description task. Our focus is on spatial conceptualization in an L2 (French L2 users of German), analyzing the extent to which these L2 users display target‐like patterns or traces of L1 conceptualization transfer.Findings show that, in line with directional concepts expressed in verbs, L1 French speakers allocate more attention to entities in motion and endpoints, before utterance onset, than L1 German speakers do. The L2 German speakers pattern with L1 German speakers in the use of manner verbs, but they have not fully acquired the spatial concepts and means that structure the path of motion in the L2. This is reflected in pre‐articulatory attention allocation patterns, according to which the L2 speakers pattern with native speakers of their L1 (French). The findings show a continued deep entrenchment of L1‐based processing patterns and spatial frames of reference when speakers prepare for speech in an L2.

Currently, a new perspective is highlighted in the methodology of teaching German as a foreign language, based on the pluricentric nature of the German language. The recognition of pluricentricity as a result of the independent historical, political, economic, and cultural development of each German-speaking country has determined the need to teach German as a foreign language, taking into account the linguistic and pragmatic differences existing in national variants. The article considers an approach to teaching German as a foreign language in higher education, taking into account the linguistic features of the Austrian version. The appeal to the topic is caused by the need for understanding and interpretation by students of literary texts of modern Austrian literature, as well as fruitful interaction with partners in the Austrian Reading Room project of Magnitogorsk State Technical University. The aim of the study is to develop a training module that includes the lexical and grammatical features of the Austrian version. The main research methods are the theoretical analysis of scientific literature on the subject under study, observation, text analysis and generalization of experience. In the course of the study, a typology of structural and semantic differences in the vocabulary of the German language and the Austrian version of the German language was developed, as well as grammatical differences that can lead to negative interference were highlighted. A training module was created on the basis of this linguistic material. The obtained practical results can be used when reading fiction for its deeper interpretation, as well as when teaching students German as a foreign language, interpretation and translation. The theoretical results of the conducted research can be recommended to teachers of the German language of language specialties.

In the focus of the article there is the problem of hidden mythological seman- tics of lexical (more broadly — phraseological) units in the Slavic and Germanic (English) languages. Often the lack of proper attention to this problem leads to inaccurate, inappropriate, superficial translation or to incorrect assessment of certain fragments of folklore texts of various genres in their ethnolinguistic study. Being «erased» on the surface of linguistic consciousness, which in the course of evolution has developed new stereotypes, the structures of mythological think- ing are often preserved at the level of lexical semantics and in the semantics of phraseological units. The mythological plane of the semantics of linguistic units is an important level of such a complex object of linguistics as the linguistic picture of the world, since it largely determines the specificity and originality of linguistic thinking, while remaining implicit, hidden behind the everyday, habitual meaning. On the example of microtexts (established figurative phrases) with two oppo- site ancient concepts «the moon» and «the sun», the commonality and difference in the mythological semantics of the units of the Slavic and English languages are shown. The relevant differential features of the Slavic and Germanic worldviews are emphasized.

In research on information structure and discourse cohesion, contrast has been defined in different ways, depending on the pragmatic/semantic relation established between the propositions involved in the contrast, on the text types and on other discourse conditions. As a whole, despite – or possibly because of – its vagueness, contrast has proved to be a useful heuristic tool for characterizing discourse cohesion phenomena. This paper focuses on results from our research concerning cohesion phenomena in elicited discourse in Romance (Italian, French) and Germanic (German, Dutch) languages and aims to offer a more precise characterization of contrast against several variation parameters. We take into consideration earlier work on three tasks (Finite Story, Polarity-Switch Dialogues, Map Task) and add a new one (Spot the Difference). The comparison between the results allows us to disentangle the following variables: information units involved in the contrast relation; discourse conditions (monologue vs. dialogue); speakers’ access to information (shared vs. non-shared); effect of contrast on information in the common ground (alternative maintained vs. rejected). The aim is to achieve a more fine-grained definition of contrast relations, which allows us to identify and characterize the divergent behavior of Romance and Germanic languages, and to relate intra- and crosslinguistic differences revealed by speakers’ preferences in speech with structural specificities of the two language groups.

To investigate whether language rules the visual features that can be discriminated (a radical assumption of linguistic relativity), we examined crosslinguistic differences between native Korean and German speakers during liminal perception of a target disk that was difficult to perceive because its visibility suffered from masking by a ring that followed and enclosed the target disk (metacontrast-masking). Target-mask fit varied, with half of the masks tightly and the other half loosely encircling the targets. In Korean, such tight versus loose spatial relations are semantically distinguished and thus highly practiced, whereas in German, they are collapsed within a single semantic category, thus are not distinguished by language. We expected higher sensitivity and greater attention to varying spatial target-mask distances in Korean than in German speakers. This was confirmed in Experiment 1, where Korean speakers consistently outperformed German speakers in discriminating liminal metacontrast-masked stimuli. To ensure that this effect was not attributable to generic differences in attention capture or by language-independent differences between participant groups, we investigated stimulus-driven attention capture by color singletons and conducted a control experiment using object-substitution masking, where tightness of fit was not manipulated. We found no differences between Korean and German speakers regarding stimulus-driven attention capture or perceptual sensitivity. This was confirmed in Experiment 3, where we manipulated types of masking within participants. In addition, we validated the tightness-of-fit manipulation in a language-related task (Experiment 4). Overall, our results are consistent with linguistic relativity, namely its assumed generalized language influences in nonlinguistic perceptual tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

This paper studies the reliability and validity of naturalistic speech errors as a tool for language production research. Possible biases when collecting naturalistic speech errors are identified and specific predictions derived. These patterns are then contrasted with published reports from Germanic languages (English, German and Dutch) and one Romance language (Spanish). Unlike findings in the Germanic languages, Spanish speech errors show many patterns which run contrary to those expected from bias: (1) more phonological errors occur between words than within word; (2) word-initial consonants are less likely to participate in errors than word-medial consonants, (3) errors are equally likely in stressed and in unstressed syllables, (4) perseverations are more frequent than anticipations, and (5) there is no trace of a lexical bias. We present a new corpus of Spanish speech errors collected by many theoretically naïve observers (whereas the only corpus available so far was collected by two highly trained theoretically informed observers), give a general overview of it, and use it to replicate previous reports. In spite of the different susceptibility of these methods to bias, results were remarkably similar in both corpora and again contrary to predictions from bias. As a result, collecting speech errors "in the wild" seems to be free of bias to a reasonable extent even when using a multiple-collector method. The observed contrasting patterns between Spanish and Germanic languages arise as true cross-linguistic differences.

Few-shot relation classification (RC) aims to determine the labeled relation between two entities in a given sentence using only a few training instances. Previous studies integrate models with explicit triple knowledge, using the inherent concepts of entities to improve the instance representation. However, these studies neglect the implicit structural knowledge present in the knowledge graph (KG). In this paper, we present SKProto, a knowledge-enhanced prototypical network that leverages deep structured semantic knowledge from the multi-hop neighbors of entity-linked concepts. Specifically, we propose a concept-guided hybrid attention mechanism to learn implicit structural semantic knowledge for enhancing the context-aware instance representation. To further distinguish subtle semantic differences among the concepts, the multi-granularity semantic distinction approach is proposed to construct the negative samples with various difficulties (i.e. hard, medium, and easy) based on the conceptual hierarchical structure. Experimental results on the FewRel 2.0 benchmark show that SKProto outperforms state-of-the-art models. We also demonstrate that SKProto has better robustness than other competitive models in low-shot scenarios.

Glottalization is often associated with low pitch in intonation languages, but evidence from many languages indicates that this is not an obligatory association. We asked speakers of German, English and Swedish to compare glottalized stimuli with several pitch contour alternatives in an AXB listening test. Although the low F0 in the glottalized stimuli tended to be perceived as most similar to falling pitch contours, this was not always the case, indicating that pitch perception in glottalization cannot be predicted by F0 alone. We also found evidence for cross-linguistic differences in the degree of flexibility of pitch judgments in glottalized stretches of speech.