Learning Individual Talkers' Structural Preferences

Autor/in	Kamide, Yuki
Titel	Learning Individual Talkers' Structural Preferences
Quelle	In: Cognition, 124 (2012) 1, S.66-71 (6 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0277
DOI	10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.001
Schlagwörter	Sentences; Attachment Behavior; Foreign Countries; Language Processing; Phonology; Speech Communication; Syntax; Language Styles; Interpersonal Communication + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Attachment; Bindungsverhalten; Ausland; Sprachverarbeitung; Fonologie; Sprachstil; Interpersonale Kommunikation
Abstract	Listeners are often capable of adjusting to the variability contained in individual talkers' (speakers') speech. The vast majority of findings on talker adaptation are concerned with learning the contingency between "phonological" characteristics and talker identity. In contrast, the present study investigates representations at a more abstract level--the contingency between "syntactic attachment style" and talker identity. In a "visual-world" experiment, participants were exposed to semi-realistic scenes depicting several objects (e.g., an adult man, a young girl, a motorbike, a carousel, and other objects) accompanied by a spoken sentence with a structurally ambiguous relative clause (e.g., "The uncle of the girl who will ride the motorbike/carousel is from France." In the context of the scene, "motorbike" suggested the uncle as the agent of the riding, whereas "carousel" suggested the girl as the agent). For half the experimental items, one version of the sentence was read by one talker, who "always" uttered sentences that resolved, pragmatically, to the high attachment (the uncle as the agent), and the other by another talker, who "always" uttered sentences resolving to the low attachment (the girl as the agent). For the other half of the experimental items, both versions were read by a third talker who produced both high and low attachments. It was found that, after exposure to these stimuli, and for new sentences not heard previously, participants learnt to anticipate the "appropriate" attachment depending on talker identity (with no attachment preference for the talker who produced both attachment types). The data suggest that listeners can learn the relationship between talker identity and abstract, structural, properties of their speech, and that syntactic attachment decisions in comprehension can reflect sensitivity to talker-specific syntactic style. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10