scholarly journals Aspect and Narrative Event Segmentation

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel P. Feller ◽  
Anita Eerland ◽  
Todd R. Ferretti ◽  
Joseph P. Magliano
Keyword(s):  
Human Cognition ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Event Duration ◽  
Event Segmentation ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Structure Information ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Segmentation Task ◽  
Narrative Event

Time is central to human cognition, both in terms of how we understand the world and the events that unfold around us as well as how we communicate about those events. As such, language has morphological systems, such as temporal adverbs, tense, and aspect to convey the passage of time. The current study explored the role of one such temporal marker, grammatical aspect, and its impact on how we understand the temporal boundaries between events conveyed in narratives. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants read stories that contained a target event that was either conveyed with a perfective (e.g., watched a movie) or imperfective aspect (e.g., was watching a movie) and engaged in an event segmentation task. Events described in the perfective aspect were more often perceived as event boundaries than events in the imperfective aspect, however, event duration (long vs. short) did not impact this relationship in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 demonstrated that readers were sensitive to grammatical aspect and event duration in the context of a story continuation task. Overall this study demonstrates that grammatical aspect interacts with world knowledge to convey event structure information that influences how people interpret the end and beginning of events.

Grammatical aspect and world knowledge in second language reading

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun-Sook Kang ◽  
Nayoung Kim ◽  
Kiel Christianson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
First Language ◽  
Second Language Reading ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Event Duration ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
L2 Learners

Abstract During normal reading, readers’ perceptions of time in a narrative shift according to grammatical and semantic cues. This study investigated the extent to which second-language (L2) readers’ interpretations of situations depicted in narratives are influenced by the grammatical aspect (perfective/progressive) and temporal duration (short/long) of intervening events. The study further examined whether reading fluency and L2 proficiency modulated how readers’ mentally constructed the depicted situations. Thirty-one L2 learners of English and 37 English-first-language (L1) controls completed a reading comprehension task in which each of 40 stories contained a target event with an inherent endpoint, with accomplishment verbs that were described as completed or in progress, followed by a short- or long-duration event. A reading-fluency task and a cloze test were administered. While grammatical marking played a significant role for both groups of participants, grammatical aspect and event duration showed an interaction only for L2 learners. The construction of a situation was modulated for both groups by reading fluency.

scholarly journals Interactions Between Viewpoint Aspect and Situation Aspect: A Case Study of Alternating Intransitive Constructions in Thai

MANUSYA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-79
Author(s):  
Kachen Tansiri
Keyword(s):  
Causal Chain ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Dynamic Phase ◽  
Viewpoint Aspect ◽  
Situation Aspect ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Aspect Markers ◽  
The One ◽  
Verb Meaning

This paper aims at analyzing an internal temporal constituency of situations denoted by alternating intransitive constructions (AIC) in Thai in order to subclassify them, and investigating interactions between two viewpoint-aspect markers, namely kamlaƞ and jùu, and each subtype of AICs. According to the scope of a profile on the causal chain, the AICs in Thai are arranged into two main groups, i.e., the AICs denoting a simplex causal situation and the AICs denoting a complex causal situation. In each group, they are further subclassified according to the situation aspect of the denoted situations. In analyzing the interactions between viewpoint aspect and situation aspect, I show that kamlaƞ and jùu both function as imperfective viewpoint-aspect markers because they interact with situation aspect at the phase of the situation without any reference to the boundaries. However, they are distinguished in terms of the semantics of the forms themselves and the semantics of the phase they profile. On the one hand, kamlaƞ functions as a dynamic imperfective viewpoint-aspect marker in that it profiles the dynamic phase of the situations and construes them as on-going processes. On the other hand, jùu functions as a stative imperfective aspect marker. Unlike kamlaƞ , jùu can profile either a static or a dynamic phase. If jùu co-occurs with a static situation, the situation will be construed as a persistent state. If jùu co-occurs with a dynamic one, it refers to the progressive situation, which is viewed as stative. Since the grammatical aspect marker jùu is grammaticalized from the lexical verb meaning ‘to exist,’ there is a remnant of that meaning when jùu functions as a grammatical aspect marker. Consequently, the grammaticalized viewpoint-aspect marker jùu conveys the meaning that there exists a static or dynamic situation on the time line at the reference time or the speech-act time.

Frames at the Interface of Language and Cognition

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Löbner
Keyword(s):  
Research Group ◽  
Basic Mechanism ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Formal Definitions ◽  
Language And Cognition

This article reviews the work on frames in the last decade by a Düsseldorf research group. The research is based on Barsalou's notion of frames and the hypothesis that the frame is the general format of categorization in human cognition. The Düsseldorf frame group developed formal definitions and interpretations of Barsalou frames and applied the theory in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. This review focuses on applications of the theory in semantics. The Düsseldorf approach grounds the analysis of composition in deep decomposition of lexical meanings with frames. The basic mechanism of composition is unification, which has deep repercussions on semantic theory and practice: Composition produces structured meanings and is not necessarily deterministic. The interaction of semantic and world knowledge can be modeled in an overall frame model across levels of linguistic analysis. The review concludes with a brief report on the development of hyperframes for dynamic verbs and for cascades, a model for multilevel categorization of action. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 7 is January 14, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Being up front: narrative context and aspectual choice

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSHUA C. FEDDER ◽  
LAURA WAGNER
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Situation Model ◽  
Location Information ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Reading Text ◽  
Representational Models

abstractReaders actively construct representational models of meaning when reading text, and they do so by drawing on a range of kinds of information, from the specific linguistic forms of the sentences to knowledge about how the world works (Ferretti, Kutas, & McRae, 2007; Madden & Zwaan, 2003). The present set of studies focused on how grammatical aspect is integrated into a situation model and how it is connected to other dimensions of model construction. In three experiments, participants were asked to complete sentences with a choice of grammatical aspect form (perfective or imperfective). The test sentences systematically varied four dimensions of the sentence that were linked to grammatical aspect in different ways: telicity and transitivity (both linked through their semantic representations), subject animacy (linked through an inference over semantic representations), and related location information (linked through an inference grounded in world knowledge). In addition, to examine the influence of discourse function (backgrounding vs. foregrounding) on aspectual choice different construction types were varied across experiments – specifically a fronted locative construction and the presence of a generic narrative opener (Once upon a time). The results found that aspectual choice depends on information linked to the semantic representation of grammatical aspect; however, in contrast to previous work (e.g., Ferreti et al., 2007) information grounded in world knowledge (location information) did not influence aspectual choice except when it was integrated in a specialized discourse construction.

scholarly journals Measuring Events: An Investigation into the Stability of Event Segmentation Patterns Across Groups

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sasmita ◽  
Khena M. Swallow
Keyword(s):  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Sample Sizes ◽  
Event Segmentation ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
Boundary Identification ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Segmentation Task

People spontaneously divide everyday experience into smaller units (event segmentation). To measure event segmentation, studies typically ask participants to explicitly mark the boundary between events as they watch a movie (segmentation task). Their data may then be used to infer how others are likely to segment the same movie. However, significant variability in performance across individuals could undermine the ability to generalize across groups, especially as more research moves online. To address this concern, we used several widely employed and novel measures to quantify segmentation agreement across different sized groups (n=2-32) using data collected on different platforms and movie types (in-lab & commercial film vs. online & everyday activities). All agreement measures captured non-random and video-specific boundary identification with sample sizes as small as 2, though with notable between sample variability. As sample size increased, agreement values improved and eventually stabilized. Stabilization occurred at smaller sample sizes when measures reflected (1) agreement between two groups versus agreement between an individual and group, (2) boundary identification between small (fine-grained) rather than large (coarse-grained) events, and (3) segmentation of everyday activities online versus commercial film in-lab. These analyses inform the tailoring of sample sizes based on the comparison of interest, materials, and data collection platform. In addition to demonstrating the reliability of online as well as in-lab segmentation performance at moderate sample sizes, this study supports the use of these data as a means of inferring when everyday activities and commercial films are likely to be segmented.

Event Segmentation Deficits in ADHD

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-363
Author(s):  
Julia Ryan ◽  
Maria Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Neurocognitive Deficits ◽  
Functional Impairments ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Event Segmentation ◽  
Event Segmentation Theory ◽  
Event Model ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Segmentation Task

Event segmentation is the automatic cognitive process of chunking ongoing information into meaningful events. Event segmentation theory (EST) proposes that event segmentation is a grouping process fundamental to normal, everyday perceptual processing, taking a central role in attention and action control. The neurocognitive deficits observed among individuals with ADHD overlap those involved in event segmentation, but to date no research has examined event segmentation in the context of ADHD. Objective: The goal of this study was to document the event segmentation deficits of individuals with ADHD. Method: Seventy-five undergraduates with ADHD and seventy-nine without ADHD performed an event segmentation task. Results: Results revealed that undergraduates with ADHD identify significantly more large events. Conclusion: These findingssuggest explicit disturbances in the event model and updating system among those with ADHD. Future research directions include further elucidating these deficits with more varied stimuli and establishing associations with functional impairments.

scholarly journals Narrative event segmentation in the cortical reservoir

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. e1008993
Author(s):  
Peter Ford Dominey
Keyword(s):  
Time Constant ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Fixed Time ◽  
Discourse Comprehension ◽  
Event Segmentation ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Time Constants ◽  
Hierarchical Segmentation ◽  
Narrative Event

Recent research has revealed that during continuous perception of movies or stories, humans display cortical activity patterns that reveal hierarchical segmentation of event structure. Thus, sensory areas like auditory cortex display high frequency segmentation related to the stimulus, while semantic areas like posterior middle cortex display a lower frequency segmentation related to transitions between events. These hierarchical levels of segmentation are associated with different time constants for processing. Likewise, when two groups of participants heard the same sentence in a narrative, preceded by different contexts, neural responses for the groups were initially different and then gradually aligned. The time constant for alignment followed the segmentation hierarchy: sensory cortices aligned most quickly, followed by mid-level regions, while some higher-order cortical regions took more than 10 seconds to align. These hierarchical segmentation phenomena can be considered in the context of processing related to comprehension. In a recently described model of discourse comprehension word meanings are modeled by a language model pre-trained on a billion word corpus. During discourse comprehension, word meanings are continuously integrated in a recurrent cortical network. The model demonstrates novel discourse and inference processing, in part because of two fundamental characteristics: real-world event semantics are represented in the word embeddings, and these are integrated in a reservoir network which has an inherent gradient of functional time constants due to the recurrent connections. Here we demonstrate how this model displays hierarchical narrative event segmentation properties beyond the embeddings alone, or their linear integration. The reservoir produces activation patterns that are segmented by a hidden Markov model (HMM) in a manner that is comparable to that of humans. Context construction displays a continuum of time constants across reservoir neuron subsets, while context forgetting has a fixed time constant across these subsets. Importantly, virtual areas formed by subgroups of reservoir neurons with faster time constants segmented with shorter events, while those with longer time constants preferred longer events. This neurocomputational recurrent neural network simulates narrative event processing as revealed by the fMRI event segmentation algorithm provides a novel explanation of the asymmetry in narrative forgetting and construction. The model extends the characterization of online integration processes in discourse to more extended narrative, and demonstrates how reservoir computing provides a useful model of cortical processing of narrative structure.

Moving on and off the timeline in narratives of personal experience written in three languages: A form-function developmental study

Linguistics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy R. Kupersmitt
Keyword(s):  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Developmental Study ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Narrative Temporality ◽  
Linguistic Means

AbstractThis paper explores the construal of temporality in personal narratives written in English, Spanish, and Hebrew, three languages that differ in their morphological marking of tense-aspect. Participants were native speakers of each language in four different age groups from middle childhood across adolescence into adulthood, so taking into account developmental facets of narrative temporality in each language. Focus is on distribution of situations on and off the timeline of the story from the point of view of the linguistic configurations employed by narrators to express the temporal domains of tense and aspect in the three languages at both the intra-clausal and inter-clausal levels. Hebrew was found to differ from Spanish and English, both of which have more enriched system of grammaticized aspect, in the distribution of situations on and off the timeline both developmentally across age groups and in the linguistic means conflated in expression of temporality. The more impoverished system of grammatical aspect in Hebrew led narrators writing in Hebrew to prefer a more linear temporal organization than their counterparts in Spanish and English. The study distinguishes between shared versus language-particular patterns of narrative-embedded temporality from the point of view of linguistic forms and their temporal functions in the context of extended discourse. Results of the study shed light on the interrelations between local linguistic means and the discourse-embedded expression of temporality in narrative development.

scholarly journals The Neurocognitive Correlates of Human Reasoning: A Meta-analysis of Conditional and Syllogistic Inferences

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1061-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Wertheim ◽  
Marco Ragni
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Reasoning ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Form Complex ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Conditional Statements ◽  
Left Middle

Inferring knowledge is a core aspect of human cognition. We can form complex sentences connecting different pieces of information, such as in conditional statements like “if someone drinks alcohol, then they must be older than 18.” These are relevant for causal reasoning about our environment and allow us to think about hypothetical scenarios. Another central aspect to forming complex statements is to quantify about sets, such as in “some apples are green.” Reasoning in terms of the ability to form these statements is not yet fully understood, despite being an active field of interdisciplinary research. On a theoretical level, several conceptual frameworks have been proposed, predicting diverging brain activation patterns during the reasoning process. We present a meta-analysis comprising the results of 32 neuroimaging experiments about reasoning, which we subdivided by their structure, content, and requirement for world knowledge. In conditional tasks, we identified activation in the left middle and rostrolateral pFC and parietal regions, whereas syllogistic tasks elicit activation in Broca's complex, including the BG. Concerning the content differentiation, abstract tasks exhibit activation in the left inferior and rostrolateral pFC and inferior parietal regions, whereas content tasks are in the left superior pFC and parieto-occipital regions. The findings clarify the neurocognitive mechanisms of reasoning and exhibit clear distinctions between the task's type and content. Overall, we found that the activation differences clarify inconsistent results from accumulated data and serve as useful scaffolding differentiations for theory-driven interpretations of the neuroscientific correlates of human reasoning.

scholarly journals The Blame Game: An investigation of Grammatical Aspect and Blame Judgments

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Eerland ◽  
Andrew M. Sherrill ◽  
Joseph P. Magliano ◽  
Rolf A. Zwaan
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
New Finding ◽  
Influence Perceptions

Imperfective aspect (i.e., Mark was punching John) is interpreted by the language processing system as a dynamic, unfolding sequence of actions, whereas perfective aspect (i.e., Mark punched John) is interpreted as a complete whole. A recent study showed that grammatical aspect can influence perceptions of intentionality for criminal actions (Hart & Albarracín, 2011). The current study builds on this finding. Five experiments examine whether grammatical aspect can also influence perceptions of blame, a concept related to intentionality. There were no effects of grammatical aspect on judgments of blame but the results showed an effect of narrated order (Experiments 1–3). First-mentioned actions made the agent more to blame for the outcomes than last-mentioned actions. This effect was not due to the order of the blame questions (Experiment 2) or influenced by the chronological order of the events (Experiment 3). Experiments 4 and 5 showed strong effects of grammatical aspect on temporal dynamics and revealed an interesting new finding. Grammatical aspect can influence the mental representation of a non-mentioned action. We discuss our results in light of the current literature on grammatical aspect effects.

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