Showing papers by "John N. Williams published in 2015"

The Bilingual Lexicon

Abstract: Psycholinguistic research provides a wealth of evidence that when performing tasks in one language bilinguals and proficient second language learners cannot avoid activating orthographic, phonological, lemma, and semantic representations in their other languages. These other-language influences are evident in performance measures such as reaction time, eye movements, and brain potentials. Representations in a bilingual’s different languages continuously compete with each other for selection, suggesting that they are stored within compound systems. This is the case both for early simultaneous acquirers and adult second language learners. With regard to mapping form onto meaning, less proficient second language learners tend to rely on direct connections to L1 translations, whilst acquiring direct language-specific mappings from form to meaning requires a large amount of experience. Bilinguals rely on domain-general control mechanisms to manage the activation levels of their different languages.

Semantic generalization in implicit language learning.

Abstract: Despite many years of investigation into implicit learning in nonlinguistic domains, the potential for implicit learning to deliver the kinds of generalizations that underlie natural language competence remains unclear. In a series of experiments, we investigated implicit learning of the semantic preferences of novel verbs, specifically, whether they collocate with abstract or concrete nouns. After reading sentences containing the verbs, participants were required to judge the familiarity of pairs of novel verbs and nouns and to indicate their confidence or the basis of their judgment (i.e., guess, intuition, memory). Although all of the words had occurred in the texts, none of the critical items had actually occurred together. However, endorsement rates were significantly higher for pairs that respected the semantic preference rules than those that did not. Through analysis of subjective measures and verbal report, we argue that, for the majority of participants, this effect was based on unconscious knowledge. We argue that implicit learning of the kind of generalizations underlying semantic preferences is possible even after limited exposure.

Implicit Learning of Semantic Preferences of Verbs.

Abstract: Previous studies of semantic implicit learning in language have only examined learning grammatical form-meaning connections in which learning could have been supported by prior linguistic knowledge. In this study we target the domain of verb meaning, specifically semantic preferences regarding novel verbs (e.g., the preference for a novel verb to take abstract objects). Using a reaction time methodology we show that, after exposure to correct verb-noun combinations, reaction times to incorrect combinations are slowed down even for participants who are unaware of the semantic regularity. This effect was obtained on a decision that was irrelevant to the actual underlying regularity, suggesting that the knowledge that has been acquired exerts its influence automatically, hence satisfying one criterion for implicitness. Combined with a lack of verbalizable knowledge, these experiments provide strong evidence for semantic implicit learning in language.

Semantic implicit learning

Abstract: Much previous research on implicit learning has examined form-based sequential regularities over letters and syllables. Recently, however, researchers have begun to examine implicit learning of systems in which the regularities are described at the level of meaning. We review existing work in this area, primarily from vision research and natural language. These studies suggest that meaning-based generalisations can be learned without intent and without awareness of what those generalisations are. In the case of language we review work on learning semantic constraints on determiner usage, and the acquisition of semantic preferences of verbs. We discuss outstanding issues: whether noticing of meaning, as well as form, is necessary, whether the effects reflect learning of new form-meaning connections as opposed to tuning of existing ones, and whether some semantic distinctions are more available to the implicit learning process than others.

A distributional semantics approach to implicit language learning.

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