Frank Wijnen

The (Non)Realization of Unstressed Elements in Children's Utterances: Evidence for a Rhythmic Constraint.

In this study it is argued that the omission of closed class morphemes and of unstressed syllables within words is related to their common characteristic, viz. that they are unstressed, rhythmically weak parts of utterances. Several strands of evidence indicate that it is unlikely that children are unable to perceive these elements in the input speech. The pattern of (non)realization of unstressed syllables within content words and the class of determiners, was analysed in two Dutch children from 1;6 to 2;11. It appeared that polysyllabic words were quite generally truncated in such a way that they fitted a trochaic (strong-weak) pattern, particularly in the early samples. Some observations with respect to the (non)realization of determiners are suggestive of an influence of an SW-constraint on the realization of noun phrases. These findings support the hypothesis that in the course of utterance preparation, words and phrases are mapped onto S(W) templates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the dissolution of the SW-constraint coincides with the acquisition of specific aspects of stress assignment in Dutch, such as quantity sensitivity.

Storage and Computation in the Language Faculty

Contributing authors. Preface. Acknowledgment. 1. Minimising or maximising storage? An introduction. S. Nooteboom, et al. Part I: Setting the stage. 2. Whats in the lexicon? R. Jackendoff. Part II: Accessing regular and irregular word forms. 3. Dutch inflection: The rules that prove the exception. H. Baayen, et al. 4. Words, rules and stems in the Italian mental lexicon. T. Say, H. Clahsen. Part III: Changing the rules. 5. The balance between storage and computation in phonology. G. Booij. 6. Computation and storage in language contact P. Muysken. Part IV: Pronouncing spoken words. 7. Storage and computation in spoken word production. A. Roelofs. Part V: Buffering and computing. 8. Effects of short-term storage in processing rightward movement P. Ackema, A. Neeleman. 9. Storage and computation in sentence processing. A neuroimaging perspective. E. Kaan, L. Stowe. Part VI: Computing and storing aspects of discourse. 10. Computation and storage in discourse interpretation. N. Asher. Subject Index. Author Index.

Phonological priming effects in stutterers

Abstract It is hypothesized that stuttering is caused by a perturbation of phonological encoding , i.e., the construction of the fully specified articulatory program on the basis of word form information stored in the mental lexicon. Nine stutterers and nine nonstutterers participated in a phonological priming experiment. In each trial, they were required to utter one word from a set of five as fast as possible upon visual presentation of a related cue word. In the so-called homogeneous conditions, the response words shared initial segments, either the initial consonant or the initial consonant and the subsequent vowel. In the heterogeneous conditions, the response words were phonemically unrelated. Nonstutterers had shorter speech onset latencies in the homogeneous conditions than in the heterogeneous conditions, and the difference was larger for the words sharing both consonant and vowel than for the words sharing the initial consonant only. In most stutterers, a reduction of speech onset occured only when the words shared both consonant and vowel. These results are taken to indicate that in stutterers the encoding of noninitial parts of syllables, particularly the (stressed) vowel, is delayed. The primary symptoms of stuttering—repetition or prolongation of syllable-initial segments—are argued to result from attempts at executing a syllable prior to the incorporation of correct vowel information in the articulatory plan.

Phonological encoding and word stress in stuttering and nonstuttering subjects

Abstract One of the main reasons for conducting this priming experiment was to test the hypothesis that stuttering is caused by a phonological encoding deficit. Evidence for this hypothesis was found by Wijnen and Boers (1994) ( J Fluency Dis 19 , 1–20). Stutterers and nonstutterers were required to utter one response word from a set of five as fast as possible upon visual presentation of a related cue word. In the homogeneous condition, the response words shared the initial consonant or the initial consonant and subsequent vowel. In the heterogeneous condition, response words from different sets were mixed and, as a result, phonemically unrelated. In Wijnen and Boers’ study, the difference between these two conditions (the priming effect) was larger in the CV prime condition than in the C prime condition for nonstutterers. For stutterers, priming occurred only when the response words shared both consonant and vowel. These results were taken to indicate that in stutterers the encoding of the stress-bearing part of the syllable is delayed. In the present study, stutterers responded on average slower than nonstutterers, but the crucial effect, i.e., an interaction of prime type (C versus CV) and subject group (stutterers versus nonstutterers) was not reliable. Another purpose of this experiment was to examine the influence of stress upon phonological encoding in nonstutterers and stutterers. The mean reaction time for words stressed on the second syllable was significantly longer than for words stressed on the first syllable, but no significant interaction between subject group and stress position was found. In conclusion, these results do not support the hypothesis that stuttering is specifically related to a difficulty in the phonological encoding of the stress-bearing part of the syllable.

Non-word repetition and literacy in Dutch children at-risk of dyslexia and children with SLI: results of the follow-up study.

This study related the non-word repetition (NWR) abilities of 4-year-old children at-risk of dyslexia and children with specific language impairment (SLI) to their reading abilities at age eight. The results show that the SLI group obtained the lowest NWR score and the at-risk group performed in-between the control and SLI group. Approximately half of the at-risk and SLI group showed reading difficulties. Literacy and NWR abilities were correlated for the at-risk group, but not for the SLI group. The findings point toward differences between the groups and suggest that dyslexia and SLI should not be treated as a similar disorder.

Differential diagnostic characteristics between cluttering and stuttering--part one.

UNLABELLED Speech-language pathologists generally agree that cluttering and stuttering represent two different fluency disorders. Differential diagnostics between cluttering and stuttering is difficult because these disorders have similar characteristics and often occur in conjunction with each other. This paper presents an analysis of the differential diagnostic characteristics of the two disorders, and a proposal for distinguishing between the two in clinical settings. The main goal of this two-part article is to set objective norms for differential diagnostic assessment of cluttering and stuttering symptoms, based on the three main characteristics of cluttering indicated/identified by St. Louis, Raphael, Myers & Bakker [St. Louis, K. O., Raphael, L. J., Myers, F. L., & Bakker, K. (2003). Cluttering updated. The ASHA leader. ASHA, 4-5, 20-22]: a fast and/or irregular articulatory rate together with errors in syllable, word or sentence structure and or a high frequency of normal disfluencies (not being stuttering). In the first half of the article objective measures are compared to the subjective clinical judgement made by fluency experts. In other words, which characteristics can be found in the speech profiles of persons who were diagnosed as people who clutter or stutter? In the second part of the article results on the Predictive Cluttering Inventory [Daly, D. A., & Cantrell, R. P. (2006). Cluttering characteristics identified as diagnostically significant by 60 fluency experts. Proceedings of second world congress on fluency disorders] are discussed in relationship to the subjective and objective measurements studied in the first half of the article. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will learn about and be able to (1) describe obligatory characteristics of cluttering, (2) plan cluttering assessment on speech characteristics and (3) use and interpret a checklist on possible cluttering characteristics.

Gapping: Electrophysiological evidence for immediate processing of "missing" verbs in sentence comprehension.

In the present study we use event related potentials (ERPs) to explore the time course of identification and resolution of verb gaps. ERPs were recorded while participants read sentences that contained a verb gap like Ron took/sanded the planks, and Bill Ø the hammer... Plausibility of the critical words (hammer) that followed the verb gap was manipulated. Relative to the plausible control (preceded by took), ERPs to the critical word in the implausible condition (preceded by sanded) showed an N400, followed by a positivity (P600). ERPs to determiners following gapped verbs showed a negativity between 100 and 300 ms, and a positivity between 300 and 500 ms compared to determiners in non-gapping constructions. These results suggest that the sentence processor recognizes a verb gap and reconstructs the verb information at the earliest possible occasion, and that this reconstruction process is different from the reconstruction of antecedents in other filler-gap constructions (e.g., WH gaps).

Dynamics of semantic processing: The interpretation of bare quantifiers

A bare cardinal, such as “four” in the fragment “Five ships sailed out. Four…”, can be interpreted in at least three ways: (1) as four of the five ships mentioned (a “forward directional” reading); (2) as four other ships (a parallel reading); or (3) as four different entities (a non-anaphoric reading). The first reading is preferred, although this preference can be influenced by various factors. In the present study, we investigated at which point during on-line processing bare cardinals are interpreted. Results from a completion task, a difficulty rating task, and an on-line incremental acceptability judgement task suggest that there is an immediate preference to interpret bare cardinals as forward directional, leading to processing difficulty at the cardinal when it is not compatible with such an interpretation (as in “Five ships sailed out. Six…”). However when later information at the verb contradicts a forward directionality reading, revision into a parallel reading is almost effortless.

Prediction and integration in native and second-language processing of elliptical structures

According to recent views of L2-sentence processing, L2-speakers do not predict upcoming information to the same extent as do native speakers. To investigate L2-speakers’ predictive use and integration of syntactic information across clauses, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from advanced L2-learners and native speakers while they read sentences in which the syntactic context did or did not allow noun-ellipsis (Lau, E., Stroud, C., Plesch, S., & Phillips, C. (2006). The role of structural prediction in rapid syntactic analysis. Brain and Language, 98, 74–88.) Both native and L2-speakers were sensitive to the context when integrating words after the potential ellipsis-site. However, native, but not L2-speakers, anticipated the ellipsis, as suggested by an ERP difference between elliptical and non-elliptical contexts preceding the potential ellipsis-site. In addition, L2-learners displayed a late frontal negativity for ungrammaticalities, suggesting differences in repair strategies or resources compared with native speakers.

Language planning disturbances in children who clutter or have learning disabilities

The primary objective of this paper is to determine to what extent disturbances in the fluency of language production of children who clutter might be related to, or differ from difficulties in the same underlying processes of language formulation seen in children with learning disabilities. It is hypothesized that an increase in normal dysfluencies and sentence revisions in children who clutter reflect different neurolinguistic process to those of children with learning disabilities. To test this idea, 150 Dutch speaking children, aged 10;6 to 12;11 years, were divided in three groups (cluttering, learning difficulties and controls), and a range of speech and language variables were analysed. Results indicate differences in the underlying processes of language disturbances between children with cluttered speech and those with learning disabilities. Specifically, language production of children with learning disabilities was disturbed by problems at the conceptualizator and formulator stages of Levelts language processing model, whilst language planning disturbances in children who clutter were considered to arise due to insufficient time to complete the editing phase of sentence structuring. These findings indicate that children who clutter can be differentiated from children with learning disabilities by both the number of main and secondary story plot elements and by the percentage of correct sentence structures.