1. Combinatorial net 2 Syntax 5 Nov 17, 2017 – DAY 34
Brain & Language
LING
NSCI
Harry Howard
Tulane University

2. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Course organization
TODAY:
Fun with

3. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Quiz stats P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9
P10
P11
tot
MIN 4 5 6
AVG
7.7
8.2
8.4
9.1
9.0
8.8
MAX 10

4. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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.

5. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Combinatorial net 2

6. Procedural vs declarative memory in the combinatorial nets
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Procedural vs declarative memory in the combinatorial nets
t11-HickokPoeppelHoward2

7. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Data
Attachment ambiguities
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
the house on the hill by the sea
John told the girl that Bill liked the story.
Joe carried the package for Susan.
Joe included the package for Susan.
Garden-path sentences
The old man the boat.
The man whistling tunes pianos.
The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.
The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.
The author wrote the novel was likely to be a best-seller.
The tomcat curled up on the cushion seemed friendly.
The horse raced past the barn fell.

8. Models of sentence processing
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Models of sentence processing
Traditional generative model
More recent interactive model
A separate mental module parses sentences just like we just did.
Lexical access happens first.
Then one syntactic hypothesis is considered at a time.
There is no influence of meaning.
There is no separate module for parsing
Lexical access, syntactic structure assignment, and meaning assignment happen at the same time (in parallel).
Several syntactic hypotheses can be considered at a time.
How to decide?
On-line processing

9. Two types of processing
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Two types of processing
on-line
off-line
Happens in real time.
Instructions for an experiment to test it:
You will read a sentence, one word at a time.
Push a key after each word.
Happens after the fact.
Instructions for an experiment to test it:
You will read a sentence.
Point to the picture that describes it best.

10. Working memory & syntax
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Working memory & syntax
Left-to-right solution of arithmetic
= ?
(1 + 1) + 1 = ?
2 + 1 = 3
Left-to-right parsing of a sentence.
[S [NP a cat] [VP is [PP on [NP the couch]]]] S NP
a cat VP V is PP
on the couch

11. Working memory span or capacity
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Working memory span or capacity
The amount of material that you can keep on your ‘scratch pad’ is known as your working memory span or capacity.
How much is it?
Miller’s number: 7 ± 2
It varies a little from person to person and even from domain to domain in the same person.
That’s the meaning of the “± 2”
Working memory span can be impaired in brain injury.
It has recently been shown to be correlated with fluid intelligence.

12. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
syntax 5
Ingram I, §13 On-line processing, working memory and modularity
Sentence comprehension and syntactic parsing

13. The working memory needed for parsing …
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
The working memory needed for parsing …
… is part of a general purpose working memory
… or constitutes its own specialized store of working memory.
Individual differences in working memory are implicated in strategies for understanding complex spoken sentences.
Some patients who share severe deficits of general purpose working memory are still able to understand complex spoken sentences.
Individual differences in working memory are usually not implicated in on-line language understanding.
HH: does #2 mean that language is more an aspect of crystalized intelligence than fluid intelligence?

14. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Some relevant tasks
Sentence processing
Self-paced reading:
A sentence is presented as a series of words on a computer monitor, and the subject presses a key on the keyboard after each word.
The horse raced past the barn fell.
Working memory
Attention span
How many digits can the subject remember and recall in normal or reverse sequence?
Verbal working memory ~ reading/listening span
The subject reads/hears a series of sentences presented as a block.
How many sentences can the subject recall the last word of?
This span correlates highly with verbal SAT scores.

15. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Syntax vs. pragmatics: Ferreira & Clifton Self-paced reading (on-line) task
Sentence
Relative clause
Subject
Latency at by
1. The evidence examined by the lawyer shocked the jury.
reduced
inanimate
same as 3
2. The evidence that was examined by the lawyer shocked the jury.
unreduced
quicker than 1
3. The defendant examined by the lawyer shocked the jury.
animate
same as 1
4. The defendant that was examined by the lawyer shocked the jury.
quicker than 3
Modified from Ingram p. 271; see Figure 13.1
The fact that there is no garden path at by in (3) shows that syntax can perform the parse without access to pragmatics.

16. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Just & Carpenter
Low reading span
Latency at by
High reading span
Latency at by
unreduced
relative clause
reduced
inanimate
subject
~450 ms
~500 ms
animate
unreduced
relative clause
reduced
inanimate
subject
~350 ms
~400 ms
animate
~425 ms
~475 ms
Ingram see Figure 13.2
Same as before: no competition from pragmatics to confuse (and slow down) syntactic parse
Different: latency is indeed longer in bottom cell than top cell of reduced relative clause > pragmatics creates a garden path

17. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Why?
‘Cognitive capacity’
Low span readers only have enough capacity to process syntactic cues; nothing is left over to process pragmatics > modular processing (syntax first).
High span readers have enough capacity to process syntactic cues and pragmatics > interactive processing (all cues considered simultaneously).

18. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Syntactic complexity
How about these sentences?
8a) The dog chased the cat.
8b) The cat hunted the rat.
8c) The rat nibbled the cheese.
9) The rat the cat hunted nibbled the cheese.
10) The rat the cat the dog chased hunted nibbled the cheese.

19. Center embedding 9) The rat the cat hunted nibbled the cheese.
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Center embedding
9) The rat the cat hunted nibbled the cheese.
The rat which the cat hunted nibbled the cheese.
10) The rat the cat the dog chased hunted nibbled the cheese.
The rat which the cat which the dog chased hunted nibbled the cheese.

20. How might this be processed?
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
How might this be processed?
The parser encounters …
the rat > look for a predicate to supply a thematic role …
the cat > wait, put the previous search on hold & look for another predicate to supply a thematic role …
the dog > wait, put the previous search on hold & look for yet another predicate to supply a thematic role …
push-down stack
thematic role for ‘the dog’
Ok, now I am lost.
thematic role for ‘the cat’
thematic role for ‘the rat’

21. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Interim conclusion
The limit on center embedded is 2.
Given that Miller’s number is much larger, it would appear that there is a working memory specialized for parsing.

22. ‘Edge’ embedding does not create this problem
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
‘Edge’ embedding does not create this problem
i) The dog chased the cat that hunted the rat that nibbled the cheese.
ii) The dog that chased the cat that hunted the rat that nibbled the cheese was a dachshund.

23. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
NEXT TIME P9
More syntax

24. Thinking about sentences, and science
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Thinking about sentences, and science
Mary bought a book for John.
The direct object THEME follows the verb in English.
Which book did Mary buy for John?
The direct object THEME follows the verb in English or precede its clause when it is introduced by which.
John asked Mary about a student.
TOPIC is the object of the preposition about.
Which student did John ask Mary about?
TOPIC is the object of the preposition about, or it precedes its clause when it is introduced by which.
Is adding "it precedes its clause when it is introduced by which" a good idea?

25. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Generalization
You should have gotten the idea that every statement that is made about NPs in English must be duplicated to take into account questions with which.
But clefting requires a tripling of statements about NPs:
This book is what Mary bought for John.
Leprechauns is what John asked Mary about.
And there are even more constructions that require even more duplication.
Is this a good way to describe the grammar of English?
NO! because we lose track of perfectly good generalizations like
the direct object follows the verb or
THEME is usually the direct object.
Is there a principle of science that can help us out here?

26. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Leprechauns!
Think of an explanation for something:
The Earth spinning on its axis makes day and night.
The Earth spinning on its axis or leprechauns pushing it, makes day and night.
Rain falls when water condenses in the atmosphere.
Rain falls when water condenses in the atmosphere or leprechauns piss from clouds.
Does adding leprechauns to all our explanations make them better?

27. Ockham’s razor, simplicity, economy lex parsimoniae
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Ockham’s razor, simplicity, economy lex parsimoniae
Ockham’s razor is a principle that generally recommends selecting from among competing hypotheses the one that makes the fewest new assumptions.
Einstein-ish: “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

28. Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Back to our sentences
The sentences and their leprechauns
Mary bought a book for John.
Which book did Mary buy for John?
John asked Mary about a student.
Which student did John ask Mary about?
How to get rid of the leprechauns
Which booki did Mary buy ____i for John?
Which studenti did John ask Mary about ____i ?
(b, d) are called filler-gap constructions, though the gap is also called a trace.

29. Experiments & conclusions next time
17-Nov-17
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Experiments & conclusions next time