The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theor... more The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theoretical literature to license the use of Hungarian pre-verbal focus. These factors are: (i) identification, (ii) contrast, (iii) availability of a set on which the focus operates and (iv) whether this set is explicit or implicit. We tested the effects of these factors using online surveys in which respondents read short texts describing a context and saw a cloud of randomly arranged words. The experimental task was to create sentences that naturally fit the context by clicking the words in the cloud. Results show that narrow identification and contrast reliably predict the use of pre-verbal focus as does the availability of a set regardless of explicitness.
A tanulmány óvodáskorú gyermekek pragmatikai tudásának fejlődését tárgyalja kognitív pszichológia... more A tanulmány óvodáskorú gyermekek pragmatikai tudásának fejlődését tárgyalja kognitív pszichológiai megközelítésben. Áttekinti különböző pragmatikai jelenségek megértésének alakulását, és a fejlődési folyamatok összefüggéseit nem-nyelvi információfeldolgozási képességekkel. Négy téma kap különös figyelmet: (1) a társalgási implikatúrák kikövetkeztetésének képessége és az ehhez szükséges kognitív erőforrások, (2) az átvitt értelmű, metaforikus jelentések megértése és ennek összefüggései a kognitív rugalmassággal, (3) a társas kogníció és szándéktulajdonítási képességek szerepe a beszédaktusok megértésében és (4) a mások ismereteinek, vélekedésének felismerése és a metapragmatikai tudás hozzájárulása az irónia megértéséhez.
Készült NKFI K115544 A pragmatikai kompetencia fejlődésének kognitív alapjai pályázat támogatásáv... more Készült NKFI K115544 A pragmatikai kompetencia fejlődésének kognitív alapjai pályázat támogatásával (kutatásvezető: Babarczy Anna). Hálásak vagyunk a kísérletben részt vevő óvodák vezetőinek, dolgozóinak és a gyerekeknek, akik nélkül ez a kutatás nem jöhetett volna létre. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT) hension of linguistic constructions. In conclusion we can state that while well-developed receptive grammatical competence facilitates the processing of speech acts in general, the exact deciphering of the illocutionary force of a speech act occurring in an everyday situation represents an inferential task that requires the possession of non-language-specific cognitive skills, too.
Jelen tanulmány a konkrét–absztrakt (vagy metaforikus) nyelvhasználat korpuszalapú elemzésének se... more Jelen tanulmány a konkrét–absztrakt (vagy metaforikus) nyelvhasználat korpuszalapú elemzésének segítségével arra keresi a választ, hogy a fogalmi metafora hipotézis milyen mértékben járulhat hozzá a metaforikus jelentések értelmezéséhez természetes nyelvi szövegekben. A kutatás céljaira egy 300 ezer szavas magyar nyelv korpuszt hoztunk létre különböz szövegtípusokból. [3] és [2] metaforaindexébl 12 ismert fogalmi metaforát választottunk ki, melyek mindegyikéhez két kifejezéslistát állítottunk össze – az egyik a forrástartományra, a másik a céltartományra jellemz kifejezéseket foglalta magában. A metaforák automatikus azonosításához Martin módszerét [17] alkalmaztuk, vagyis olyan mondatokat kerestünk, amelyekben mindkét tartomány kifejezései szerepeltek egyazon mondaton belül. A hipotézis alapján azt feltételeztük, hogy ha egy mondat tartalmaz egy forrás- és egy céltartományi kifejezést is, akkor az metaforikus lesz. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy egy forrás–cél tartománypároson be...
*** File "011002.cha": line 544. Keywords: bírom, bírom, bírom, bírom *CHI: várj csak , Barna bác... more *** File "011002.cha": line 544. Keywords: bírom, bírom, bírom, bírom *CHI: várj csak , Barna bácsi (.) várj csak. @New Episode *CHI: nagy (.) indulás (.) (.) alig bírom (.) elszakadok (.) alig bírom (.) alig bírom (.) elszakadok (.) alig bírom (.) elszakadok. *UNK: hadd nézzem ezt a halacskát. *CHI: jó itt (.) elromlott a +...
Abstract Focus is a linguistic device that marks a piece of information within an utterance as mo... more Abstract Focus is a linguistic device that marks a piece of information within an utterance as most relevant, as when emphasis is placed by the speaker on a word using phonological stress, special intonation, or prosodic prominence. The question addressed in the present study is whether the use of linguistic focus is best seen as a means of directing the listener’s attention. We investigated attention allocation on the part of the listener to linguistically focused elements in working memory in a series of eye-tracking experiments. We concentrated on two processes: the encoding of the focused element and its retention. Attentional load during encoding was measured by pupil dilation, and attention allocation during retention was estimated from fixations to locations of previously present visual stimuli on a blank screen. It was found that i) more attention was allocated during the processing of sentences with linguistic focus and ii) linguistically focused elements received more attention during memory retention. However, when the task demanded the sharing of attention, the advantage of the focused element during retention disappeared. Further experiments showed that when verbal stimuli whose prominence was not linguistically marked were presented, the patterns of attention allocation associated with linguistic focus during retention replicated. These results lend further support to the claim that linguistic focus is a grammaticalized means of expressing prominence, and as such, functions as an attention capturing device.
The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theor... more The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theoretical literature to license the use of Hungarian pre-verbal focus. These factors are: (i) identification, (ii) contrast, (iii) availability of a set on which the focus operates and (iv) whether this set is explicit or implicit. We tested the effects of these factors using online surveys in which respondents read short texts describing a context and saw a cloud of randomly arranged words. The experimental task was to create sentences that naturally fit the context by clicking the words in the cloud. Results show that narrow identification and contrast reliably predict the use of pre-verbal focus as does the availability of a set regardless of explicitness.
Research on the automatic acquisition of lexical knowledge has recently gained increased attentio... more Research on the automatic acquisition of lexical knowledge has recently gained increased attention in computational linguis tics. Certain linguistic phenomena (e.g., ambiguity) pose computational prob lems that can only be solved if the system has access to lexical knowledge in ge eral and to verb subcategorization frames in particular. Automatic s ubcategorization learning systems have been developed for most European langu ages. In the present paper a Hungarian adaptation of successful models construct ed for other languages is discussed. The key approach adopted for our model i s a statistical learning mechanism originally devised by Brent [6] and appli ed n a number of systems. In addition to, and in parallel with, the development of a system for the automatic acquisition of subcategorization frames, our projec t in progress has the broader aim of modelling the mechanisms of child language a cquisition, specifically the process of learning argument structures (subcategor ization...
This study asked whether contextual abstractness would affect productive locative case marking in... more This study asked whether contextual abstractness would affect productive locative case marking in 3to 6year-old Hungarian-speaking children. A narrative elicitation task examined locative case production in both concrete (e.g., IN the garden) and abstract (e.g., IN trouble) contexts. We found that 3-year-olds were less accurate in the abstract condition than controls. By contrast, there was no effect of age in the concrete condition. These results suggest that at 3 years of age children do not yet have a fully generalized rule or schema for locative case marking in Hungarian.
The present work investigates the memory accessibility of linguistically focused elements and the... more The present work investigates the memory accessibility of linguistically focused elements and the representation of the alternatives for these elements (i.e., their possible replacements) in Working Memory (WM) and in delayed recognition memory in the case of the Hungarian pre-verbal focus construction (preVf). In two probe recognition experiments we presented preVf and corresponding focusless neutral sentences embedded in five-sentence stories. Stories were followed by the presentation of sentence probes in one of three conditions: (i) the probe was identical to the original sentence in the story, (ii) the focused word (i.e., target) was replaced by a semantically related word and (iii) the target word was replaced by a semantically unrelated but contextually suitable word. In Experiment 1, probes were presented immediately after the stories measuring WM performance, while in Experiment 2, blocks of six stories were presented and sentences were probed with a 2-minute delay measurin...
The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theor... more The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theoretical literature to license the use of Hungarian pre-verbal focus. These factors are: (i) identification, (ii) contrast, (iii) availability of a set on which the focus operates and (iv) whether this set is explicit or implicit. We tested the effects of these factors using online surveys in which respondents read short texts describing a context and saw a cloud of randomly arranged words. The experimental task was to create sentences that naturally fit the context by clicking the words in the cloud. Results show that narrow identification and contrast reliably predict the use of pre-verbal focus as does the availability of a set regardless of explicitness.
A tanulmány óvodáskorú gyermekek pragmatikai tudásának fejlődését tárgyalja kognitív pszichológia... more A tanulmány óvodáskorú gyermekek pragmatikai tudásának fejlődését tárgyalja kognitív pszichológiai megközelítésben. Áttekinti különböző pragmatikai jelenségek megértésének alakulását, és a fejlődési folyamatok összefüggéseit nem-nyelvi információfeldolgozási képességekkel. Négy téma kap különös figyelmet: (1) a társalgási implikatúrák kikövetkeztetésének képessége és az ehhez szükséges kognitív erőforrások, (2) az átvitt értelmű, metaforikus jelentések megértése és ennek összefüggései a kognitív rugalmassággal, (3) a társas kogníció és szándéktulajdonítási képességek szerepe a beszédaktusok megértésében és (4) a mások ismereteinek, vélekedésének felismerése és a metapragmatikai tudás hozzájárulása az irónia megértéséhez.
Készült NKFI K115544 A pragmatikai kompetencia fejlődésének kognitív alapjai pályázat támogatásáv... more Készült NKFI K115544 A pragmatikai kompetencia fejlődésének kognitív alapjai pályázat támogatásával (kutatásvezető: Babarczy Anna). Hálásak vagyunk a kísérletben részt vevő óvodák vezetőinek, dolgozóinak és a gyerekeknek, akik nélkül ez a kutatás nem jöhetett volna létre. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT) hension of linguistic constructions. In conclusion we can state that while well-developed receptive grammatical competence facilitates the processing of speech acts in general, the exact deciphering of the illocutionary force of a speech act occurring in an everyday situation represents an inferential task that requires the possession of non-language-specific cognitive skills, too.
Jelen tanulmány a konkrét–absztrakt (vagy metaforikus) nyelvhasználat korpuszalapú elemzésének se... more Jelen tanulmány a konkrét–absztrakt (vagy metaforikus) nyelvhasználat korpuszalapú elemzésének segítségével arra keresi a választ, hogy a fogalmi metafora hipotézis milyen mértékben járulhat hozzá a metaforikus jelentések értelmezéséhez természetes nyelvi szövegekben. A kutatás céljaira egy 300 ezer szavas magyar nyelv korpuszt hoztunk létre különböz szövegtípusokból. [3] és [2] metaforaindexébl 12 ismert fogalmi metaforát választottunk ki, melyek mindegyikéhez két kifejezéslistát állítottunk össze – az egyik a forrástartományra, a másik a céltartományra jellemz kifejezéseket foglalta magában. A metaforák automatikus azonosításához Martin módszerét [17] alkalmaztuk, vagyis olyan mondatokat kerestünk, amelyekben mindkét tartomány kifejezései szerepeltek egyazon mondaton belül. A hipotézis alapján azt feltételeztük, hogy ha egy mondat tartalmaz egy forrás- és egy céltartományi kifejezést is, akkor az metaforikus lesz. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy egy forrás–cél tartománypároson be...
*** File "011002.cha": line 544. Keywords: bírom, bírom, bírom, bírom *CHI: várj csak , Barna bác... more *** File "011002.cha": line 544. Keywords: bírom, bírom, bírom, bírom *CHI: várj csak , Barna bácsi (.) várj csak. @New Episode *CHI: nagy (.) indulás (.) (.) alig bírom (.) elszakadok (.) alig bírom (.) alig bírom (.) elszakadok (.) alig bírom (.) elszakadok. *UNK: hadd nézzem ezt a halacskát. *CHI: jó itt (.) elromlott a +...
Abstract Focus is a linguistic device that marks a piece of information within an utterance as mo... more Abstract Focus is a linguistic device that marks a piece of information within an utterance as most relevant, as when emphasis is placed by the speaker on a word using phonological stress, special intonation, or prosodic prominence. The question addressed in the present study is whether the use of linguistic focus is best seen as a means of directing the listener’s attention. We investigated attention allocation on the part of the listener to linguistically focused elements in working memory in a series of eye-tracking experiments. We concentrated on two processes: the encoding of the focused element and its retention. Attentional load during encoding was measured by pupil dilation, and attention allocation during retention was estimated from fixations to locations of previously present visual stimuli on a blank screen. It was found that i) more attention was allocated during the processing of sentences with linguistic focus and ii) linguistically focused elements received more attention during memory retention. However, when the task demanded the sharing of attention, the advantage of the focused element during retention disappeared. Further experiments showed that when verbal stimuli whose prominence was not linguistically marked were presented, the patterns of attention allocation associated with linguistic focus during retention replicated. These results lend further support to the claim that linguistic focus is a grammaticalized means of expressing prominence, and as such, functions as an attention capturing device.
The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theor... more The study uses a novel experimental method to investigate contextual factors claimed in the theoretical literature to license the use of Hungarian pre-verbal focus. These factors are: (i) identification, (ii) contrast, (iii) availability of a set on which the focus operates and (iv) whether this set is explicit or implicit. We tested the effects of these factors using online surveys in which respondents read short texts describing a context and saw a cloud of randomly arranged words. The experimental task was to create sentences that naturally fit the context by clicking the words in the cloud. Results show that narrow identification and contrast reliably predict the use of pre-verbal focus as does the availability of a set regardless of explicitness.
Research on the automatic acquisition of lexical knowledge has recently gained increased attentio... more Research on the automatic acquisition of lexical knowledge has recently gained increased attention in computational linguis tics. Certain linguistic phenomena (e.g., ambiguity) pose computational prob lems that can only be solved if the system has access to lexical knowledge in ge eral and to verb subcategorization frames in particular. Automatic s ubcategorization learning systems have been developed for most European langu ages. In the present paper a Hungarian adaptation of successful models construct ed for other languages is discussed. The key approach adopted for our model i s a statistical learning mechanism originally devised by Brent [6] and appli ed n a number of systems. In addition to, and in parallel with, the development of a system for the automatic acquisition of subcategorization frames, our projec t in progress has the broader aim of modelling the mechanisms of child language a cquisition, specifically the process of learning argument structures (subcategor ization...
This study asked whether contextual abstractness would affect productive locative case marking in... more This study asked whether contextual abstractness would affect productive locative case marking in 3to 6year-old Hungarian-speaking children. A narrative elicitation task examined locative case production in both concrete (e.g., IN the garden) and abstract (e.g., IN trouble) contexts. We found that 3-year-olds were less accurate in the abstract condition than controls. By contrast, there was no effect of age in the concrete condition. These results suggest that at 3 years of age children do not yet have a fully generalized rule or schema for locative case marking in Hungarian.
The present work investigates the memory accessibility of linguistically focused elements and the... more The present work investigates the memory accessibility of linguistically focused elements and the representation of the alternatives for these elements (i.e., their possible replacements) in Working Memory (WM) and in delayed recognition memory in the case of the Hungarian pre-verbal focus construction (preVf). In two probe recognition experiments we presented preVf and corresponding focusless neutral sentences embedded in five-sentence stories. Stories were followed by the presentation of sentence probes in one of three conditions: (i) the probe was identical to the original sentence in the story, (ii) the focused word (i.e., target) was replaced by a semantically related word and (iii) the target word was replaced by a semantically unrelated but contextually suitable word. In Experiment 1, probes were presented immediately after the stories measuring WM performance, while in Experiment 2, blocks of six stories were presented and sentences were probed with a 2-minute delay measurin...
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