Erwin M. Segal

The role of interclausal connectives in narrative structuring: Evidence from adults' interpretations of simple stories

This study explores the role of interclausal connectives as a set of linguistic devices which help the reader interpret a narrative text. We show that: (a) even simple narrative texts have a range of interpretations; (b) the variability of the interpretations decreases with the presence of the interclausal connectives; (c) the role of two connectives, then and and, serve primarily to identify variations in continuity between information in the incoming clause and previously known events; (d) so, because, and but signal causality or adversity and do so primarily from a subjective perspective; and (e) the interpretation of a particular clause in the text may be affected by story events whether or not they are actually expressed in the text. We compare four possible views of how interclausal connectives function in narratives: an empty view, a local cohesion view, a global marker view, and a mental model‐deictic shift view. The data support the fourth view, in which readers use interclausal connectives to si...

Discourse comprehension of synthetic speech delivered at normal and slow presentation rates

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of the quality and speech presentation rate (SPR) of synthetic speech and textual characteristics (length, complexity, genre) on a listeners ability to summarize paragraph-length texts. Forty able-bodied students and staff members were individually tested over a 3-day period, listening to eight texts produced by one of two synthesizers (DECtalk, Echo+) at a normal SPR or with 10-second intervals of silence interspersed between individual words. Using a discourse summarization taxonomy developed for this study, subjects listening to DECtalk speech produced more accurate summaries than did ECHO speech listeners, and synthetic speech presented at a slow rate was summarized more accurately than synthetic speech presented at a normal SPR. Additionally, a significant three-way interaction effect was noted for voice × SPR × text complexity. Echo listeners performed more poorly at normal versus slow SPRs regardless of text complexity level. However, ...

Reference and comprehension: A topic-comment analysis of sentence-picture verification

Abstract A sentence often contains two components: a topic, which refers to a nonlinguistic object whose existence is presupposed; and a comment, which asserts some thought about this object. In addition, a sentence will often repeat (or refer back to) information that was expressed earlier in a text or conversation. The purpose of this article is to propose a single theoretical framework to describe the mechanisms that relate a sentence to its nonlinguistic environment as well as those that relate a sentence to its linguistic context. The theory developed in this article suggests that sentences can strongly influence the representation of visible nonlinguistic events and that this representation is sensitive to the distinction between presupposed and asserted information. To evaluate this theory, a sentence-picture verification priming task was developed. In this task, subjects were presented with pairs of sentence-picture displays, and were asked to verify whether or not the sentence in each display correctly applied to an accompanying picture. The relationship between pairs of sentence-picture displays was varied systematically. Across five experiments, three hypotheses were supported: (a) The processes which evaluate presupposed information and the processes which evaluate asserted information are differentially affected by nonlinguistic factors, (b) only those aspects of the picture which are referred to by the sentence are encoded for future use, and (c) coherence between successive sentences is in part a function of the referential continuity of the presupposed information.

The influence of frequency of exposure on the learning of a phrase structural grammar

Letter pairs generated by an elementary grammar were presented to college student Ss for recall. Ss were given 14 trials to learn 18 pairs, using a free recall technique. These Ss did not reach learning asymptote. Another group of Ss was given 12 pairs for 20 trials. Most Ss did not learn the pairs in these trials. The intrusions in the recall protocols suggest that the Ss did not learn the grammar from which the pairs were generated, but they learned the position of the letters in the pairs and generated sequences accordingly. Some Ss seem to have learned the presented pairs directly and these Ss tended to learn the pairs presented better. The authors concluded that mere exposure with intent to learn is not sufficient for the learning of grammatical structure.

Learning of letter pairs as a prototype of first language learning

Twenty-four letter pairs generated by elementary grammars formally similar to a child’s first grammars were presented to 3 groups of adult Ss for recall. The first grammar had a simple structure, the second a more complex structure, and the third, random pairings. In all of these groups, the Ss responded as if they had been presented the simple grammar. They learned neither the pairs nor their underlying structure.

Person and tense in narrative interpretation

This study investigated the pragmatic role of two grammatical devices, tense and person, in narrative. These devices normally serve deictic functions in nonfictional discourse which are inappropriate in fiction. We present data which support the notion of shifting deictic markers from the world of the reader to that of the story world, and a pragmatic analysis of the possible roles of vanations of tense and person in fiction. Three short stories were modified to generate four versions of each story. The versions differed in that the primary foregrounded states and events were written in either first or third person, and past or present tense. Each subject read one version of one story and was then asked questions about her interpretive stance toward the story. The results show that getting involved with a story is the primary dimension of story appreciation, and that different readers interact with the same story in different ways. One role of the first person is to invite the reader to identify with the ...

Comment on “The insufficiency of a finite state model for verbal reconstructive memory”

Braine (1965) has contended that, in the acquisition of a certain miniature language, what is learned cannot be represented by a finite state model because it requires the assumption that S invented some of its rules. It is argued that any grammatical description of what S learned requires this assumption, and that the finite state model is inadequate instead because it poorly represents what S does invent.

Structure and Function of Verbal Conflicts among Adults with Mental Retardation.

The discourse competence of mentally retarded residents of a group home was studied by examining their arguments. Tape recordings of naturally occurring speech were collected by a participant observer; the arguments therein were transcribed for analysis. Arguments among the residents gave evidence of being an acceptable and sought after discourse genre, and residents were able to participate in them successfully regardless of their linguistic ability. These arguments often exhibited a pragmatically useful assertion/contradiction pattern in relation to an original statement, extending over many turns. The results showed that: (a) the majority of arguments exhibited a constrained discourse pattern; (b) many of the residents’ arguments did not, and were not designed to, resolve conflicts; (c) residents were able to maintain extended interactions during arguments; (d) arguments observed were neither disruptive nor dysfunctional; and (e) augments functioned as a positive source of social interaction.

Life Expectancy of Major League Baseball Umpires

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: The on-field death 4 years ago of a veteran Major League Baseball (MLB) umpire raised questions regarding the mortality risks ot this profession. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the life expectancy of MLB umpires differs from that of the general population. DESIGN: Ages of death of MLB umpires were determined, and the differences between the ages of death and age-adjusted life expectancies were calculated. T-score analysis was performed on these differences. Correlational analysis was also done on many different factors, including umpire debut year, debut age, life expectancy at debut, and length of career. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between the age at death of MLB umpires and their age-adjusted life expectancy. Correlational analyses showed that only length of career correlated with age at death. CONCLUSION: MLB umpiring is not associated with a shortened life expectancy. While this is most likely attributable to the profession having no inherent risk, it could also be explained by inherent risks being overcome by yet unidentified, unique factors.