Showing papers on "Head (linguistics) published in 2021"

The Ups and Downs of Head Displacement

Abstract: We propose a theory of head displacement that replaces traditional Head Movement and Lowering with a single syntactic operation of Generalized Head Movement. We argue that upward and downward head displacement have the same syntactic properties: cyclicity, Mirror Principle effects, feeding upward head displacement, and being blocked in the same syntactic configurations. We also study the interaction of head displacement and other syntactic operations, arguing that claimed differences between upward and downward displacement are either spurious or follow directly from our account. Finally, we show that our theory correctly predicts the attested crosslinguistic variation in verb and inflection doubling in predicate clefts.

Move like everyone is watching: Social context affects head motion and gaze in string quartet performance

Abstract: Ensemble musicians engage with each other visually through glances and body motion. We conducted a case study to test how string quartet musicians would respond to playing conditions that were meant to discourage or promote visually communicative behaviour. A quartet performed in different seating configurations under rehearsal and concert conditions. Quantity of head motion was reduced when musicians' gaze was constrained. Differences in gaze and body motion between musicians reflected their musical roles in the ensemble. Overall, our findings suggest that gaze and motion dynamics vary within and between performances in response to changing musical, situational and social factors.

Neural representation of words within phrases: Temporal evolution of color-adjectives and object-nouns during simple composition

Abstract: In language, stored semantic representations of lexical items combine into an infinitude of complex expressions. While the neuroscience of composition has begun to mature, we do not yet understand how the stored representations evolve and morph during composition. New decoding techniques allow us to crack open this very hard question: we can train a model to recognize a representation in one context or time-point and assess its accuracy in another. We combined the decoding approach with magnetoencephalography recorded during a picture naming task to investigate the temporal evolution of noun and adjective representations during speech planning. We tracked semantic representations as they combined into simple two-word phrases, using single words and two-word lists as non-combinatory controls. We found that nouns were generally more decodable than adjectives, suggesting that noun representations were stronger and/or more consistent across trials than those of adjectives. When training and testing across contexts and times, the representations of isolated nouns were recoverable when those nouns were embedded in phrases, but not so if they were embedded in lists. Adjective representations did not show a similar consistency across isolated and phrasal contexts. Noun representations in phrases also sustained over time in a way that was not observed for any other pairing of word class and context. These findings offer a new window into the temporal evolution and context sensitivity of word representations during composition, revealing a clear asymmetry between adjectives and nouns. The impact of phrasal contexts on the decodability of nouns may be due to the nouns' status as head of phrase-an intriguing hypothesis for future research.

How to apply the numbered head together learning model to improve indonesian learning outcomes of middle school students

Abstract: This research is a classroom action research that aims to determine whether the cooperative learning Numbered Head Together (NHT) can improve students’ learning outcome in Indonesian course. The subjects of this study were 45 students of class VII A of SMP Negeri 8 Palopo in the even semester of the 2018/2019 academic year. This research was carried out in two cycles, and each cycle consists of six meetings. Data collection was carried out using learning outcomes tests and observations. The data collected were analyzed using quantitative analysis, and the observation data were analyzed using qualitative analysis. The results showed that the average score of students in the first cycle was 40.02, with a standard deviation of 20.21. while in the second cycle, the average score was 68.26, with a standard deviation of 12.00. It shows that classical student learning outcomes have been achieved. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that with the implementation of cooperative learning NHT in the learning process, the learning outcomes, attendance, readiness, and activeness of students can increase.

A preceding head turn increases the head-fake effect in basketball

Abstract: In many kinds of sports, deceptive actions are frequently used to hamper the anticipation of an opponent. The head fake in basketball is often applied to deceive an observer regarding the direction of a pass. To perform a head fake, a basketball player turns the head in one direction, but passes the ball to the opposite direction. Several studies showed that reactions to passes with head fakes are slower and more error-prone than to passes without head fakes (head-fake effect). The aim of a basketball player is to produce a head-fake effect for as large as possible in the opponent. The question if the timing of the deceptive action influences the size of the head-fake effect has not yet been examined systematically. The present study investigated if the head-fake effect depends on the temporal lag between the head turn and the passing movement. To this end, the stimulus onset asynchrony between head turn, and pass was varied between 0 and 800 ms. The results showed the largest effect when the head turn precedes the pass by 300 ms. This result can be explained better by facilitating the processing of passes without head fake than by making it more difficult to process passes with a head fake. This result is discussed regarding practical implications and conclusions about the underlying mechanism of the head–fake effect in basketball are drawn.

Clause Structure and Word Order in Ákè

Abstract: Ake is by historical and linguistic facts a dialect of Edo which has not received significant linguistic attention. This neglect informs an inquiry into the in ternal structure and organization of its basic clause. This paper studies data of everyday usage of competent speakers of Ake and argues that it displays a subject-verb-object order. The study provides a not too elaborate description of the nominal and verbal constructions in Ake and reduces the description to analysis using the X-bar theory as conceived within the Minimalist Program. It therefore states that nominal phrases can be analysed as a projection of Determiner Phrase (DP) because independent existence is not a requirement for considering an element as the head of a projection. The variable position which the head D occupies in the superficial syntax of Ake is analysed as the effect of movement for feature checking. In the spirit of the Minimalist Program, this study recognizes the head of the clause as Tense (T), which could be overt or null and predicts that it dominates Negative Phrase (NegP) as Neg is assumed to c-select the Verb Phrase (VP).

What's in Your Head? Emergent Behaviour in Multi-Task Transformer Models.

Abstract: The primary paradigm for multi-task training in natural language processing is to represent the input with a shared pre-trained language model, and add a small, thin network (head) per task. Given an input, a target head is the head that is selected for outputting the final prediction. In this work, we examine the behaviour of non-target heads, that is, the output of heads when given input that belongs to a different task than the one they were trained for. We find that non-target heads exhibit emergent behaviour, which may either explain the target task, or generalize beyond their original task. For example, in a numerical reasoning task, a span extraction head extracts from the input the arguments to a computation that results in a number generated by a target generative head. In addition, a summarization head that is trained with a target question answering head, outputs query-based summaries when given a question and a context from which the answer is to be extracted. This emergent behaviour suggests that multi-task training leads to non-trivial extrapolation of skills, which can be harnessed for interpretability and generalization.

Head and eyes: Looking behavior in 12- to 24-month-old infants.

Abstract: This study demonstrates evidence for a foundational process underlying active vision in older infants during object play. Using head-mounted eye-tracking and motion capture, looks to an object are shown to be tightly linked to and synchronous with a stilled head, regardless of the duration of gaze, for infants 12 to 24 months of age. Despite being a developmental period of rapid and marked changes in motor abilities, the dynamic coordination of head stabilization and sustained gaze to a visual target is developmentally invariant during the examined age range. The findings indicate that looking with an aligned head and eyes is a fundamental property of human vision and highlights the importance of studying looking behavior in freely moving perceivers in everyday contexts, opening new questions about the role of body movement in both typical and atypical development of visual attention.

Scalar Constraints on Anticausative SE: The Aspectual Hypothesis Revisited

Abstract: This chapter addresses the co-existence of two morphological mechanisms to express the causative-unaccusative alternation in Spanish: se and O. It has been observed that the choice between these patterns seems to be related to aspect in Romance. However, a detailed study of Spanish data will allow us to refine this hypothesis by claiming that aspect itself is determined by scale structure. Se and O will be analyzed as two lexical items competing to spell out the same head, v[BECOME], related to unaccusativity and located above AspP. Therefore, scale structure and, eventually, aspect will be the relevant grammatical factors determining the competition to spell out v[BECOME] in Spanish.

A comprehensive player types model: player head

Abstract: Almost in every aspect of life, classification and categorization make it easier for humans to analyze complex structures and systems. In games, the classification of the players based on their dem...

Adverbial reinforcement of demonstratives in dialectal German

Abstract: In the German dialects of Rhine and Moselle Franconian, demonstratives are reinforced by locative adverbs do/lo ‘here/there’ in order to emphasize their deictic strength. Interestingly, these adverbs can also appear in the intermediate position, i.e., between the demonstrative and the noun (e.g. das do Bier ‘that there beer’), which is not possible in most other varieties of European German. Our questionnaire study and several written and oral sources suggest that reinforcement has become mandatory in demonstrative contexts. We analyze this grammaticalization process as reanalysis of do/lo from a lexical head to the head of a functional Index Phrase. We also show that a functional DP-shell can better cope with this kind of syntactic change and with certain serialization facts concerning adjoined adjectives.

Metacognitive Skills for the Integrated Problem Based Numbered Head Together Learning

Abstract: This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the effectiveness of four learning models, namely Problem Based Learning; Numbered Heads Together; their combination; and conventional in improving students’ metacognitive skills. The study employed a pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group with the design of a 4 x 2 factorial pattern. The study population consisted of 1.050 tenth graders from all public senior high schools spread in Jeneponto Regency. A random sampling method was used to select 198 students: 87 (43.94%) were males, and 111 (56.06%) were females. Students’ metacognitive skills were measured by performance on an essay test conducted in the beginning and at the end of research activities. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that students’ metacognitive skills could vary when they were exposed to different learning models. The students’ metacognitive skills were also affected by their academic abilities. Findings of the present study suggested that the integrated PBL and NHT was the best combination of learning models that can be used to improve upper academic ability students’ metacognitive skills.

Relativized Prosodic Domains: A Late-Insertion Account of German Plurals

Abstract: In late-insertion, realizational models of morphology such as Distributed Morphology (DM), the insertion of Vocabulary Items (VIs) is conditioned by cyclic operations in the syntax. This paper explores whether an isomorphic relationship can be established between cyclic operations such as phases and prosodic domains. In the spirit of D’Alessandro and Scheer’s (2015) proposal of a Modular Phase Impenetrability Condition (MPIC), we strive to provide an analysis in which prosodic boundaries in even smaller, word-level-like syntactic structures—the ‘lexical domain’—can be identified solely within the syntax. We propose a DM-account for the distribution of nominal plural exponency in German, which reveals a dominant trend for a trochaic-foot structure for all but -s-plural exponents (Wiese 2001, 2009). Inspired by Gouskova’s (2019) and Svenonius’ (2016) work concerning the prosody–morphology interface, we argue that the index of a Prosodic Word ω in non-s-plurals is associated with a specific feature configuration. We propose that only a n[+pl(ural)] configuration, in which the nominalizing head n hosts the SynSem-feature Num(ber)[+pl(ural)], rather than a general cyclic categorizing phase head such as n, indexes a Prosodic Word ω for nominal plural exponents in (Standard) German. Based on this empirical evidence from German plural exponency, we argue that (i) prosodic boundaries can be established directly by syntactic structures, (ii) these prosodic boundaries condition VI insertion during the initial stages of Spell-Out, and (iii) prosodic domains are based on individual languages’ syntactic structures and feature configurations, and are thus relativized and language-specific in nature.

Predicate Clefting and Long Head Movement in Finnish

Abstract: Head movement constitutes a controversial topic in linguistic theory. Finnish long head movement exhibits an unusual combination of predicate clefting with A-bar movement instead of V-copying. An analysis is developed on the basis of Roberts (1993, 2010) and Chomsky (2008) that relies on a minimal top-down search algorithm that exists as part of a comprehension-based, reverse-engineered minimalist architecture. Exceptional properties of Finnish head movement are explained as arising from its lexicon which furnishes the language with an extensive catalogue of left peripheral discourse-motivated C-features participating in predicate formation. The analysis was formalized and tested by computational tools.

Implementing Stylistics in IELTS Writing Preparation Focusing on Noun Phrases

Abstract: In the IELTS writing preparation class, the teacher can facilitate the students by integrating the stylistic approach in building writing students’ style. Not only achieving the primary goals in English proficiency by focusing on the writing style, but students can also comfortably share their ideas in their style. The paper examined the stylistics integrated material in IELTS writing through noun phrase construction. This study employed a qualitative method and a descriptive design. The data were collected using structured observation sheets as the instrument and were analyzed stylistically. Writing materials and the writing results of 12 students at an English course were collected. Results showed that stylistics was used in phrase complexity and ambiguity as a part of writing strategies. It was supported by the three dominant types of noun phrases produced by the students in their writing: determiner + head, determiner + pre-modifier + head, and pre-modifier + head, as the evidence of the implementation of integrated material in IELTS writing. For the noun phrase uses, the students could vary the noun phrases in their complexity, function, and type in their tests, though the variations in each of those aspects were still low. Implications of the results are stylistics could be implemented in language learning-teaching activities in general. It could encourage students to develop their writing style for self-expression and more explicit writing products.

Pre-schoolers use head gestures rather than prosodic cues to highlight important information in speech.

Abstract: Previous evidence suggests that children's mastery of prosodic modulations to signal the informational status of discourse referents emerges quite late in development. In the present study, we investigate the children's use of head gestures as it compares to prosodic cues to signal a referent as being contrastive relative to a set of possible alternatives. A group of French-speaking pre-schoolers were audio-visually recorded while playing in a semi-spontaneous but controlled production task, to elicit target words in the context of broad focus, contrastive focus, or corrective focus utterances. We analysed the acoustic features of the target words (syllable duration and word-level pitch range), as well as the head gesture features accompanying these target words (head gesture type, alignment patterns with speech). We found that children's production of head gestures, but not their use of either syllable duration or word-level pitch range, was affected by focus condition. Children mostly aligned head gestures with relevant speech units, especially when the target word was in phrase-final position. Moreover, the presence of a head gesture was linked to greater syllable duration patterns in all focus conditions. Our results show that (a) 4- and 5-year-old French-speaking children use head gestures rather than prosodic cues to mark the informational status of discourse referents, (b) the use of head gestures may gradually entrain the production of adult-like prosodic features, and that (c) head gestures with no referential relation with speech may serve a linguistic structuring function in communication, at least during language development.

BiGRU-Multi-Head Self-Attention Network for Chinese sentiment classification

Abstract: The rapid development of Internet and the extensive user base have led to a significant increase in the propagation speed of information and public opinion. Quick and accurate sentiment analysis of public opinion can help analyze and manage public opinion. Since BiGRU can simplify network parameters, and the Multi-Head Self-Attention(MHSA) mechanism can learn long-distance features more accurately and quickly. In this study, we propose a BiGRU-MHSA network to perform Chinese sentiment classification. The innovation of the model lies in the combination of BiGRU and MHSA in order to focus on several semantic centers and comprehend the whole text more precisely and efficiently. At the same time, we use the Chinese comment datasets on Weibo to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the model. From the experimental results, we find that our proposed model improves the accuracy by about 1% on different comments datasets without consuming too much computing resources.

Double evidential morphology in Turkish

Abstract: Turkish and Bulgarian both have “double evidential” constructions, which seem to contain reiterated evidential morphemes. This paper, focusing on Turkish data, shows that despite the morphological similarity between the indirect evidential -mIs and the “second” - mIs , double evidentials are not an instance of reduplication. Instead, I propose based on morphological evidence (separability of suffixes, morphological spell-out of related Turkic languages) and semantic evidence (the “second” - mIs introduces a new indexical, the Evaluator) that the second - mIs is the spell-out of a distinct syntactic head, which I call Dubitative.

The syntax of PP-adverbs within English determiner phrases

Abstract: The current article explores the distribution of PP-adverbs, such as this month, this year etc., within English determiner phrases. Examples extracted from English newspapers show that PP-adverbs surprisingly separate head nouns from their PP-complements (i.e. of-phrases), e.g. the election this month of the first female president. At other times, PP-adverbs follow PP-complements, e.g. the election of the first female president this month. Assuming that these PP-adverbs have a null preposition (Larson 1985; McCawley 1988; Caponigro & Pearl 2008, 2009; Shun'ichiro 2013), I put forward three possible syntactic analyses to account for the examples above: (i) adjunction of both the PP-complement and the PP-adverb; (ii) leftward movement of the head noun or the noun phrase; and (iii) rightward movement of the PP-complement. Following Stowell (1981), Higginbotham (1983) and Anderson (1984), the adjunction proposal argues that both PP-adverbs and of-phrases are adjuncts, thus being freely ordered in the nominal hierarchy (Bresnan 1982; Svenonius 1994; Stroik & Putnam 2013). In contrast, the leftward movement analysis respects Kayne's (1994) Antisymmetric Theory of Linearization and argues that the of-phrase in the examples above is still a genuine complement, but the head noun, or sometimes the noun phrase, moves leftwards to a position higher than spec,FP where PP-adverbs are situated. As for the rightward movement account, it follows the leftward movement in treating the of-phrase as a complement but differs in that it extraposes the PP-complement outside PP-adverbs and right-adjoins it inside the DP. The article shows that the first two proposals are untenable, and sometimes cannot derive the wanted data. The third account is superior in that it accounts for the required data as well as other island-sensitive facts.

In defense of disjointism

Abstract: Disjointism is the view that co-located objects do not share any parts. A human-shaped statue is composed from a torso, head and limbs; the co-located lump of clay is only composed from chunks of c...

Light-headed relative clauses in Teramano

Abstract: We investigate an unstudied, rich component of the relative clause system in Teramano, one of the Upper Southern Italian languages. We focus on light-headed relative clauses – relative clauses that lack a full nominal head and are introduced by only a Determiner-like or pronominal “light head”. We also briefly describe headed relative clauses in Teramano since the morphosyntactic features they exhibit are relevant for the investigation of light-headed relative clauses. Last, we highlight commonalities and differences between light-headed relative clauses in Teramano and Italian. Our paper provides the first systematic in-depth description of light-headed relative clauses in an Upper Southern Italian language that we are aware of, contributes to the knowledge of Teramano, the study of light-headed relative clauses crosslinguistically, and the ongoing investigation of microvariation among Italian and Italian languages.

Overt speakers in syntax

Abstract: This paper focuses on a type of direct address in Sason Arabic that fails to behave like a regular vocative phrase. In particular, unlike regular vocative phrases, this form of address spells out both the speaker and the addressee, and it is conditioned by the speaker’s expression of affection towards the addressee. A DP and its adjacent invariable clitic (i.e., a frozen 3rd person singular form of a possessive pronoun) are the constituents of this form of direct address, and either of them can equally spell out the speaker or the addressee; hence, the label mutable direct address (MDA) for this construction. Coordination, constituency, pluralization and substitution tests indicate that the derivation of MDAs does not involve the left periphery of DPs (as vocative phrases do) but the left periphery of clauses. In this respect, we adopt the cartographic representation of speech act phrases (SAP) (e.g., as in Haegeman & Hill 2013) and argue that MDAs instantiate a possible variation within SAP structures. That is, while a regular SAP field is split (over speaker and hearer heads), the SAP underlying MDAs remerges the two heads, so the speech act functional features are bundled and associated with a single SA head. Thus, MDAs provide new evidence for the extent of derivational variations that may arise on the basis of the feature inventory currently accepted for SAP domains.

The semi-complementizer shuō and non-referential CPs in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract: The empirical focus of this paper is the syntactic status of the semi-complementizer shuō grammaticalized from verbs of saying, in Mandarin Chinese. Such elements have been shown to exhibit atypical patterns compared to that in English, which triggers discussions of whether shuō should be analyzed as a complementizer (Paul, 2014; Huang, 2018). This paper presents novel data surrounding the distributional patterns of shuō and argues that shuō is a C head that introduces a subtype of CPs called non-referential CPs, following de Cuba (2017).

Estimating Attention Level from Blinks and Head Movement

Abstract: In this paper, we develop a real-time method for estimating the level of attention while performing a task. This method uses only a low frame rate video from a standard camera so that it can be available even on a small computer. Eye blinks and head movements are calculated from a video by using landmarks. Existing blink detection methods use standard frame rate videos, making them difficult to process on a computer with low processing performance. One obvious solution is to use videos with a reduced frame rate. We investigate the error caused by reducing the frame rate, and then to overcome the error, we further develop a new method that uses the head movements calculated from the reduced frame rate videos. Then we demonstrate the error is within acceptable ranges by using the method, and show it is effective to estimate the attention level. Since this method uses only landmark information obtained from facial images, it reduces the mental burden on the user, and also partially protects personal information. In this paper, we explain the details of the method and report the experimental results.