MORPHOLOGY NOV 4, 2015 – DAY 29 Brain & Language LING NSCI Fall 2015

Course organization Schedule: topics topics Today's chapter: Fun with Quiz before Thanksgiving will be in class & on Blackboard. 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 2

Grades Q1Q2Q3Q4Q5Q6 MIN AVG MAX 10 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 3

THE LEXICAL INTERFACE 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 4

The lexical interface 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 5

Areas ~ hubs ~ effects = sensorimotor semantics 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 6

Hypotheses 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 7 STS phonological net p(MTG+ITS) lexical interface a(MTG+ITS) combinatorial net 1 aIFG combinatorial net 2 STS phonological net action words, tools motor + somato cortex a(MTG+ITS) combinatorial net 1 ??? aIFG combinatorial net 2 ??? imageable words medial temporal gyrus imageable words medial temporal gyrus Hickok & Poeppel, symbolic? Pülvermüller, sensorimotor or embodied

11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 8 Results

Two types of semantic processing Convergent semantic processing i. … in linguistic tasks which elicit a limited number of responses. ii. In such tasks, subjects must suppress alternate meanings or select a single best item from many choices. iii. For instance, a subject may be presented with a noun such as ‘hammer’ and be asked to supply a verb, giving the response ‘(to) pound’. Divergent semantic processing i. … in linguistic tasks which elicit a wide number of responses. ii. In such tasks, subjects must produce alternate meanings or list as many items as possible. iii. For instance, the experiment just mentioned can be continued by asking the subject to supply yet another verb, resulting in a response such as ‘(to) throw’. 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 9

Summary of lateralization of word semantics LHRH a. Slowly selects multiple meanings (divergent processing) that are weakly associated. b. Primes words that share few semantic features > loosely associated words. c. Primes the less frequent meaning of an ambiguous word. d. Primes category, but not others. e. Priming stays same with more words. f. Priming is same for unstructured sentences. g. Priming is same for incongruent sentences. 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 10 a. Quickly selects most familiar or dominant meaning (convergent processing) while suppressing other less closely related meanings. b. Primes words that share many semantic features > closely associated words. c. Primes the most frequent meaning of an ambiguous word. d. Primes function, collectives, goal- oriented classes. e. Priming is faster with more words. f. Priming is slower for unstructured sentences. g. Priming is slower for incongruent sentences.

11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 11 Associations for “pig” in LH/RH terms

A conversion to resolution Left hemisphere, fine coding: 9 neurons index 9 regions of space Right hemisphere, coarse coding: 4 neurons index 12+ regions of space 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 12

Summary of lateralization of phonology LH fine grained, small window of temporal integration high temporal frequency: rapid cues, like stops high spectral frequency: formants categorical distinctions: lexical, phrasal, clausal stress; lexical tone in Thai/Chinese RH coarse grained, large window of temporal integration low temporal frequency: slow cues, like vowels low spectral frequency: fundamental graded/coordinate distinctions: emotional intonation, sentence type? 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 13

Summary of lateralization of word semantics LH fine grained, small window of temporal integration RH coarse grained, large window of temporal integration a. Slowly selects multiple meanings (divergent processing) that are weakly associated. b. Primes words that share few semantic features > loosely associated words. c. Primes the less frequent meaning of an ambiguous word. d. Primes category, but not others. e. Priming stays same with more words. f. Priming is same for unstructured sentences. g. Priming is same for incongruent sentences. 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 14 a. Quickly selects most familiar or dominant meaning (convergent processing) while suppressing other less closely related meanings. b. Primes words that share many semantic features > closely associated words. c. Primes the most frequent meaning of an ambiguous word. d. Primes function, collectives, goal- oriented classes. e. Priming is faster with more words. f. Priming is slower for unstructured sentences. g. Priming is slower for incongruent sentences.

MORPHOLOGY 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 15

What is a word? Phonologically a spike in the level of uncertainty as to what the next sound will be d o g ? Semantically that is the topic of this chapter 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 16

Morphological decomposition Recall that words can be analyzed in terms of inflection & derivation inflection: cats > cat+s, sleeping > sleep+ing derivation: government > govern+ment argument detriment department 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 17

Form-frequency relations in English past tense Table 1.9 Basic formPast tenseOccurrence in speechMorphological type gowenthigh token frequencysuppletive leaveleftmid token frequencypartially regular departdepartedlow token frequency(fully) regular 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 18 These relations generalize to other morphemes and other languages, eg. tack~tacks, knife~knives, ox~oxen. Can one learning model account for all three, or is a dual-route model necessary, or perhaps even a triple-route model?

Dual-route model 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 19 phonological input /di.pa ɹ.t ɪ d//w ɪ nt/ meaning verb + past tense morphological analysis /di.pa ɹ.t + ɪ d/ compositional route lexical route

Priming in psychology ‘the facilitatory effect that presentation of an item can have on the response to a subsequent item’ usually measured in terms of reaction time 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 20

An example of priming Table 9.2 Conditionsprime ~ probePriming effect [+morph, +phon]friendly ~ friendyes [+morph, –phon]elusive ~ eludeyes [+morph, –phon]serenity ~ sereneyes [–morph, +phon]tinsel ~ tinno 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 21

What causes the priming effect? Table 9.3 Conditionsprime ~ probePriming effect [–sem, +morph]casualty ~ casualno [+sem, +morph]punishment ~ punishyes [+sem, –morph, –phon]idea ~ notionyes [–sem, –morph, +phon]bulletin ~ bulletno 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 22 Answer: The semantic relationship.

What causes the priming effect? Table 9.4 Conditionsprime ~ probePriming effect 1.[–sem, +morph]casualty ~ casualno 2.[+sem, +morph]punishment ~ punishyes 3.[–sem, +morph]successful ~ successorno 4.[+sem, +morph]confession ~ confessorno 5.[–sem, +morph]restrain ~ strainno 6.[+sem, +morph]insincere ~ sincereyes 7.[–sem, +morph]depress ~ expressno 8.[+sem, +morph]unfasten ~ refastenyes 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 23

A little too early The previous experiment suggests that prefixes and suffixes are processed differently. Next time, we look at more recent neuroimaging research. 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 24

Final project Improve a Wikipedia article about any of the topics mentioned in class or any other topic broadly related to neurolinguistics. Write a short essay explaining what you did and why you did it. Print the article before you improve it, highlighting any subtractions. Print the article after you improve it, highlighting your additions. 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 25

NEXT TIME Morphology/syntax 11/04/15Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University 26