Is human thought fully embedded in language, or do some forms of thought operate independently? To directly address this issue, we focus on inference-making, a central feature of human cognition. In a 3T fMRI study we compare logical inferences relying on sentential connectives (e.g., not, or, if ... then) to linguistic inferences based on syntactic transformation of sentences involving ditrans...

The authors of this paper have used the assessment of competence as a fuzzy discrete set consisting of essential capacities. There has been proposed a procedure of competence quantitative estimation on the basis of discrimination index of discrete fuzzy sets fixed on one totality. A linguistic variable “Competency coefficient” has been used here for making appropriate decisions on the grounds o...

In this paper the underlying knowledge model and architecture of IPETER (Intelligent Personalised English Tutoring EnviRonment) are presented. This system has been designed for the on-line distance learning of English where too many students restrict the teacher’s possibilities to provide individualised guidance. I-PETER is made up of four domain models that represent linguistic and didactic kn...

In this chapter we explore the possibility that within Optimality Theory, a single syntactic grammar directly yields not only competence theoretic results on the grammatical distributions of elements, but also performance theoretic results on relative preferences when processing sentences with various syntactic ambiguities. Whereas the competence theory applies the grammar at the level of an en...

An adult of above normal intelligence, BL, underwent left hemispherectomy at age five, and subsequently graduated from college and has been regularly employed. Using standardized neuropsychological instruments, previous extensive testing had revealed optimal performance for a hemispherectomized subject. To probe communicative abilities in greater detail, and to examine current questions about l...

In this chapter we present the initial stages of work that attempts to assess the ‘psychological reality’ of one of the more subtle grammatical principles of Optimality Theory (‘OT’; Prince and Smolensky 1993), Richness of the Base. Within the OT competence theory, we develop several of this principle’s empirical predictions concerning the grammar’s final state (Section 1) and initial state (Se...

Is human thought fully embedded in language, or do some forms of thought operate independently? To directly address this issue, we focus on inference making, a central feature of human cognition. In a 3T fMRI study we compare logical inferences relying on sentential connectives (e.g., not, or, if..then..) to linguistic inferences based on syntactic transformation of sentences involving ditransi...