Providing evidence for the universal tendencies of patterns in the world's languages can be difficult, as it is impossible to sample all possible languages, and linguistic samples are subject to interpretation. However, experimental techniques, such as artificial grammar learning paradigms, make it possible to uncover the psychological reality of…

A common characteristic of subject-predicate agreement errors (usually termed attraction errors) in complex noun phrases is an asymmetrical pattern of error distribution, depending on the inflectional state of the nouns comprising the complex noun phrase. That is, attraction is most likely to occur when the head noun is the morphologically…

Semantic roles are a critical aspect of linguistic knowledge because they indicate the relations of the participants in an event to the main predicate. Experimental studies on children and adults show that both groups use associations between general semantic roles such as Agent and Theme, and grammatical positions such as Subject and Object, even…

To examine the neural correlates of spoken idiom comprehension, we conducted an event-related functional MRI study with a "rapid sentence decision" task. The spoken sentences were equally familiar but varied in degrees of "idiom figurativeness". Our results show that "figurativeness" co-varied with neural activity in the left ventral dorsolateral…

Two-year-olds assign appropriate interpretations to verbs presented in two English transitivity alternations, the causal and unspecified-object alternations (Naigles, 1996). Here we explored how they might do so. Causal and unspecified-object verbs are syntactically similar. They can be either transitive or intransitive, but differ in the semantic…

Discusses the importance, validity, and implications of the identity thesis that the P600 component of the scalp-recorded event-related potential is identical with the P3b, a domain-general component elicited by improbable task-related events. Explores epistemological complexities of the issue and discusses what the identity thesis does and does…

Addresses how phonological regularities of the native language are mastered. Explores consequences of the assumption that the architecture of the speech perception system includes a fast phonological prepossessor that uses language specific prosodic and phonotactic patterns to chunk the speech stream. Shows that as vocabulary size increases, more…

Compared responses of English-French bilinguals performing semantic categorization and lexical decision tasks using translation-priming stimuli. Using the same stimuli, priming effects were significantly stronger in semantic categorization than in lexical decision, suggesting the translation-priming effect in the former is mediated by semantic…

This article explores a model of lexicalisation based upon the constraints that lexicalisation is an interactive process and that it takes place in two stages. The article examines in depth the time-course of normal lexicalisation, speech error data, and the cognitive neuropsychology of speech production. (16 references) (CK)

Develops a psychologically plausible model of the development of word-naming skills in children in order to verify psychological evidence indicating the importance of children's underlying phonological skills as determinants of the ease with which they learn to read. This model is highly successful in learning the pronunciations of single-syllable…

A study investigated patterns of neurological event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by morphosyntactic violations in 16 right-handed, English-speaking subjects. Manipulation of stimulus grammaticality and block probability led to ERP effects consistent with those in previous research on syntactic and semantic processing. Results also provide…

Presents model describing adult learning of morphosyntax in a novel language where frequency and regularity are factorially combined. Accuracy and latency data show frequency effects for both regular/irregular forms early in acquisition process; as learning progresses, frequency effect on regular items diminishes but remains for irregular items.…

Shows that incorporation of units for syllable CV structures in a connectionist model of phonological encoding enables explanation of empirical patterns of speech errors. The model accounts for the finding of a bias toward additions of segments. Corpus analysis in Dutch and Spanish showed an addition bias in both languages. Showed that in…

Through experimentation, concurrent articulation was demonstrated to impair native English subject's ability to compare the internal stress patterns of written words. It was determined that the articulators' movements specifically affected stress analysis of words and this reflected postlexical, off-line processing. (25 references) (JL)

A study investigated whether the phonological properties of visually represented words routinely influenced the process of lexical access. Subjects were 40 college students and 40 fourth graders. Results provide little support for the claim that the phonological attributes of words are used standardly to achieve lexical access. (Author/MSE)