IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-06-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103998

Myung Hye Yoo , Sanghoun Song

{"title":"Dynamics of scope ambiguities: comparative analysis of human and large language model performance in Korean","authors":"Myung Hye Yoo , Sanghoun Song","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103998","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103998","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how native Korean speakers and large language models (LLMs) resolve scope ambiguities and integrate them with discourse information, focusing on interactions between negation and quantificational phrases (QPs). The objectives were twofold: (i) to determine whether the general preference for surface scope interpretations and integration with discourse information persists in complex syntactic constructions in Korean, which require refined processing, and (ii) to assess how well LLMs comprehend and integrate semantic structures compared with human performance. The results showed a preference for surface scope among Korean speakers but did not rigidly hold against the inverse scope, particularly influenced by object QPs or long-form negation, even when contexts favor an inverse scope. LLMs developed by OpenAI—GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4 Turbo, and GPT-4o—align with human judgments, mainly favoring surface scope interpretations when contexts favor the inverse scope. However, when the context supports an inverse scope, discrepancies in the handling of syntactic nuances are evident. This model tends to overgeneralize the inverse scope in specific configurations in which humans typically find the inverse scope more accessible. These findings highlight the challenges of mimicking human linguistic processing and the need for further refinement of language models to improve their interpretive accuracy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103998"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144322914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Perspective-taking in referential discourse among Mandarin-speaking children during three-party conversations 普通话儿童三方对话中指称语篇的换位思考

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-06-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104002

Xiaobei Zheng , Yageng Li

{"title":"Perspective-taking in referential discourse among Mandarin-speaking children during three-party conversations","authors":"Xiaobei Zheng , Yageng Li","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.104002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During conversations, individuals continuously need to take others’ perspectives to constrain the referential domain. The present study specifically investigates how 3-year-old Mandarin-speaking children take the visual perspectives of two partners in three-party communications. In two experiments, two speakers took turns instructing children to identify objects on a shelf, using critical nouns that semantically matched two identical referents from the child’s visual perspective. However, one of these referents might not be visible to the speakers. The critical nouns were presented in the form of bare nouns, allowing for definite or generic interpretations in the Mandarin context, leading to a competition between single and dual references. In Experiment 1, when both speakers only saw one shared candidate object, children preferred definite interpretations, using their partners’ perspectives to narrow the referential domains. However, in Experiment 2, one of the speakers could see both candidate objects while the other could see only the shared one. Results showed that children tended to interpret both partners’ discourse similarly and preferred generic interpretations. Additionally, eye-tracking data indicated that children implicitly processed each partner’s visual perspective. This research sheds light on visual perspective-taking strategies among 3-year-old children in a Mandarin context and provides insight into how children integrate multiple perspectives in communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 104002"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The semantic typology of expressive interjections: colexifications in pain, disgust and joy interjections across languages 表达感叹词的语义类型：痛苦、厌恶和快乐感叹词的跨语言共化

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-06-18 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103979

Maïa Ponsonnet

{"title":"The semantic typology of expressive interjections: colexifications in pain, disgust and joy interjections across languages","authors":"Maïa Ponsonnet","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103979","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103979","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Expressive interjections are most likely a universal feature of human languages, yet for the moment we know very little about their typology. This article presents the first broad-scale cross-linguistic study on the semantic typology of expressive interjections. Specifically, the study examines colexification patterns, i.e. which experiences tend to be expressed by the same interjections. Based on lexicographic sources, we assembled a data set of 523 interjections expressing pain, disgust or joy in a diverse sample of 144 languages. We then inventoried which other meanings (or ‘colexifications’) associate with these three experiences. The analysis revealed that pain, disgust and joy all associate with a large and diverse set of experiences, with significant overlap. However, there are strong contrasts regarding the most prevalent colexifications, delineating a number of experience clusters. Pain interjections often express generic negative emotions, sorrow, fear, and compassion. Disgust interjections often express dislike or disapproval, contempt, and to some extent irritation. Joy interjections often express admiration, approbation and congratulations. Pain and disgust associate preferentially with negative experiences, and joy with positive experiences. At the same time, disgust and joy share a preference for socially-oriented experiences, which is not matched by pain. Importantly, all three experiences frequently associate with surprise, presumably because it is neutral in valence. The pivotal role of surprise in the semantic networks delineated by interjections is a question for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103979"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The acquisition of grammatical gender in German as an additional language: A comparison of L1 English and L1 Polish learners with and without knowledge of other gendered languages 德语作为一种附加语言的语法性别习得：具有和不具有其他性别语言知识的L1英语和L1波兰语学习者的比较

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-06-07 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103989

Kamil Długosz , Megan Brown-Bousfield

{"title":"The acquisition of grammatical gender in German as an additional language: A comparison of L1 English and L1 Polish learners with and without knowledge of other gendered languages","authors":"Kamil Długosz , Megan Brown-Bousfield","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103989","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103989","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the acquisition of lexical and syntactic knowledge of grammatical gender in German as an additional language (Ln) among L1 Polish speakers (whose native language has grammatical gender) and L1 English speakers (whose native language lacks grammatical gender), both with and without proficiency in other non-native gendered languages (primarily Spanish). We tested learners of German as an additional language at lower to upper-intermediate proficiency levels using two tasks: a gender decision task and an acceptability judgment task with correction. Our findings provide consistent evidence for a significant advantage of L1 Polish learners over L1 English speakers in both gender assignment and gender agreement, regardless of German proficiency. Notably, L1 Polish learners do not exhibit lexical gender congruency effects, suggesting that their advantage is not due to gender overlaps between Polish and German. Instead, our results indicate that the mere presence of a grammatical gender feature in L1 facilitates Ln gender acquisition. Additionally, knowledge of other gendered languages heightens learners’ sensitivity to gender agreement violations in German. Finally, participants’ performance varies by case, showing higher judgment accuracy for definite phrases in the nominative but no defaulting to a specific gender.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103989"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144242215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Introduction to the Special Issue: Non-standard morphosyntactic variation in L2 Englishes world-wide: corpus-based studies 特刊导论：世界范围内第二语言英语非标准形态句法变化：基于语料库的研究

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-06-04 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103978

Peter Collins , Bernd Kortmann

{"title":"Introduction to the Special Issue: Non-standard morphosyntactic variation in L2 Englishes world-wide: corpus-based studies","authors":"Peter Collins , Bernd Kortmann","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103978","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103978","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the last few decades, a good deal of empirical research has been conducted on the distribution in the English-speaking world of morphosyntactic features considered to be non-standard (in the sense of not being part of the common core of standard written English). Insights have been achieved using elicitation methods (interviews and questionnaires), dialect corpora and open-access online atlases. There is, however, a dearth of large-scale corpus-based research, one that the present special issue seeks to address, with contributors drawing data from corpora – mainly derived from recordings of spoken English, and in some cases recently-compiled – representing mostly “New Englishes” (indigenised national L2 varieties, spoken in “outer circle” countries where English is established as an important language, even though it is not the native language of the majority of the population). Most contributions adopt a macro approach, investigating a set of features in a wide range of L2 English varieties, but some adopt a micro approach, zeroing in on a single feature or a small number of features.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103978"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144204656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Italian verbal groups: A systemic functional perspective 意大利语语言群：系统功能视角

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-06-03 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103963

Lorenzo Logi , James R. Martin

引用次数: 0

Syntax, scope, and semantic identity: a genuine-sluicing approach to multiple sluicing in Mandarin Chinese 句法、范围与语义同一性：普通话多重分流的真分流方法

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-05-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103961

Tianyu Zhao, Ye Yuan

{"title":"Syntax, scope, and semantic identity: a genuine-sluicing approach to multiple sluicing in Mandarin Chinese","authors":"Tianyu Zhao, Ye Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103961","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103961","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates multiple sluicing in Mandarin Chinese (MC), proposing a syntactic analysis that integrates <em>wh</em>-movement and TP deletion within a dual-probe system for <em>wh</em>-fronting. We argue that <em>wh</em>-probing in MC sluicing is sensitive to two kinds of features—[+topic] and [+focus]—of TopP and FocP in the left periphery of CP. Complex <em>wh</em>-phrases are privileged in movement due to their additional [+topic] feature, distinguishing them from bare <em>wh</em>-phrases. This dual-feature analysis is demonstrated to provide a unified account of the intricate distribution of <em>shi</em> in MC sluicing: <em>shi</em> is obligatory before bare <em>wh</em>-arguments but optional with complex <em>wh</em>-phrases. We further examine two asymmetric cases of pair-list (PL) multiple sluicing. To explain how different scope interpretations capture PL readings in multiple sluicing, we adopt a semantic approach based on implicit Question under Discussion (QuD)-equivalence. Finally, we address the unacceptability of PL multiple sluicing in <em>wh-</em>questions containing universal quantifiers. We attribute this to the costly process of super quantifier raising, required to ensure that the quantifier phrase takes a wider scope. The findings suggest that MC sluicing constitutes a ‘genuine’ clausal ellipsis operation rather than a ‘pseudo’ one.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103961"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144170678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Verbal group complexes in Norwegian 挪威语的言语群复合体

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-05-27 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103971

Hilde Hasselgård

引用次数: 0

How does language shape formation of concepts? Empirical investigation of generics and conditionals in French 语言如何塑造概念的形成？法语泛型句和条件句的实证研究

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-05-27 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103959

Joanna Blochowiak , Cristina Grisot , Emmanuel Sander

{"title":"How does language shape formation of concepts? Empirical investigation of generics and conditionals in French","authors":"Joanna Blochowiak , Cristina Grisot , Emmanuel Sander","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103959","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103959","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores how language influences concept formation, specifically how linguistic expressions signal what is central or essential to forming concepts of kinds. Prior research on preschool children suggests that generics (e.g., “Birds fly”) create strong associations between a kind and its properties, signaling essential features. To gain a deeper understanding of how language influences concept formation and its developmental trajectory, we examined two linguistic expressions—generics and conditionals—and compared them to a third type: demonstrative sentences, i.e., sentences with the pronoun <em>this</em> (e.g., “This bird flies”). We hypothesize that, beyond generics, conditionals may also act as a cue indicating that certain information is essential in concept formation. Three French-speaking groups—late adolescents, young adults, and adults—participated in an elicitation task. While Experiment 3 (adults) confirmed the importance of both generics and conditionals in concept formation, Experiments 1 and 2 (late adolescents and young adults) found no significant differences between the linguistic expressions. These results indicate that conditionals, generics, and demonstratives influence the conceptualization of kinds in a comparable way in late adolescents and young adults whereas at adulthood conditionals and generics are strongest cues for considering a given property as essential to a kind.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"324 ","pages":"Article 103959"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144139329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The typology of degree marking 学位标记的类型

IF 1.1 3区文学

Lingua Pub Date : 2025-05-26 DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103938

Bei Zhou, Matthias Gerner

{"title":"The typology of degree marking","authors":"Bei Zhou, Matthias Gerner","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103938","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103938","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Most languages involve up to seven degree constructions in which adjectives can occur: <em>bare</em>, <em>intensified</em>, <em>mitigative</em>, <em>superlative</em>, <em>superior</em>, <em>inferior,</em> and <em>equative</em>. In a sample of 157 languages, we classify and quantify the lexical, synthetic, and analytic marking strategies of each degree construction. From this classification, we derive an implicational hierarchy (Bare < Equative < Superior < Superlative < Intensified < Inferior < Mitigative) which predicts the relative markedness of individual degree forms. If a language employs a degree form for a particular position on the hierarchy, it will also exhibit a degree form that is equally or less marked for any position ranking lower. The hierarchy is motivated by two cognitive factors: firstly, by a <em>discourse principle,</em> which rates a subject characterized by an inferior/mitigative adjectival degree as pragmatically marked since it conveys information in an atypical manner, and secondly by a <em>quantity</em> (or <em>informativeness</em>) <em>principle,</em> which tracks degree forms as quantifiers with increasingly complex profiles. Finally, we introduce two new concepts, <em>à priori</em> and <em>à posteriori</em> hierarchies, and demonstrate that the degree hierarchy is <em>à posteriori in nature</em>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":"323 ","pages":"Article 103938"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144139694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

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