Second Language Comprehensibility Revisited: Investigating the Effects of Learner Background Dustin Crowther The current study investigated first language (L1) effects on listener judgment of comprehensibility and accentedness in second language (L2) speech. The participants were 60 university-level adult speakers of English from four L1 backgrounds (Chinese, Romance, Hindi, Farsi), with 15 spe...

Do visual representations contribute to spoken word recognition? We examine, using MEG, the effects of sublexical and lexical variables at superior temporal (ST) areas and the posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) compared with that of word imageability at visual cortices. Embodied accounts predict early modulation of visual areas by imageability--concurrently with or prior to modulation of pM...

Linguistic/cultural differences of learners’ native language with English as a foreign language, gender and English proficiency level are among those numerous variables which affect English learning and its quality in Iranian context. The present study was an attempt to illuminate the effects of these variables on performing integrative approach of general English tests (cloze test and recall t...

When a fractional criterion is to be described by linguistic variables two kinds of approaches are possible: to treat it as a unity (nominator/denominator) and to construct a classic membership function or to aggregate the membership functions separately associated to nominator and denominator respectively. In the paper, two propositions are formulated related to choosing possibilities of aggre...

The concepts of Soft Computing introduced by Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1991 has integrated different methodologies and approaches, as: fuzzy set theory, fuzzy logic, approximate reasoning, linguistic expression of knowledge, probabilistic reasoning, and others for solving problems of complex systems in the way similar to human perception, recognition and solving problem methods. Linguistic fuzzy modell...

Exemplar-based models of language assert that linguistic processing involves analogy to past linguistic experiences stored in the mental lexicon. This study explores how three factors influence the predictions made by exemplar-based simulations of linguistic phenomena. Three questions are posed as they relate to such simulations: (1) Is type frequency or token frequency a better predictor of ou...

BACKGROUND Although memory impairment is the main symptom of Alzheimer's disease (AD), language impairment can be an important marker. Relatively few studies of language in AD quantify the impairments in connected speech using computational techniques. OBJECTIVE We aim to demonstrate state-of-the-art accuracy in automatically identifying Alzheimer's disease from short narrative samples elicit...

Machine learning methods are frequently used to create rule-based classifiers. For continuous features linguistic variables used in conditions of the rules are defined by membership functions. These linguistic variables should be optimized at the level of single rules or sets of rules. Assuming the Gaussian uncertainty of input values allows to increase the accuracy of predictions and to estima...

'Organisation' as a linguistic construct. " As the idea of an ultimate foundation for moral and political beliefs has become increasingly implausible, theorists have turned to 'discourse' to provide a basis on which to defend the legitimacy of social and political practices. The turn to discourse, which includes but is not limited to communicative ethics, is in part a move from a substantive to...

Previous studies havt demonstrated that certain differences in speech behavior can be related to the social characteristics of speakers. However, these studies have not explicitly examined the effect of level of linguistic analysis on correlations observed between language variables and status variables. Three levels of analysis of a linguistic construction were selected for study: grammatical ...