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Previous research has shown that when domain‐general transitional probability (TP) cues to word segmentation are in conflict with language‐specific stress cues, English‐learning 5‐ and 7‐month‐olds rely on TP, whereas 9‐month‐olds rely on stress. In two artificial languages, we evaluated English‐learning infants' sensitivity to TP cues to word segmentation vis‐a‐vis language‐specific vowel phonotactic (VP) cues—English words do not end in lax vowels. These cues were either consistent or conflicting. When these cues were in conflict, 10‐month‐olds relied on the VP cues, whereas 5‐month‐olds relied on TP. These findings align with statistical bootstrapping accounts, where infants initially use domain‐general distributional information for word segmentation, and subsequently discover language‐specific patterns based on segmented words. Research Highlights: Research indicates that when transitional probability (TP) conflicts with stress cues for word segmentation, English‐learning 9‐month‐olds rely on stress, whereas younger infants rely on TP.In two artificial languages, we evaluated English‐learning infants' sensitivity to TP versus vowel phonotactic (VP) cues for word segmentation.When these cues conflicted, 10‐month‐olds relied on VPs, whereas 5‐month‐olds relied on TP.These findings align with statistical bootstrapping accounts, where infants first utilize domain‐general distributional information for word segmentation, and then identify language‐specific patterns from segmented words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefits of self-testing for learning have been consistently shown for simple materials such as word lists learned by rote memorization. Considerably less evidence for such benefits exists for complex, more educationally relevant materials and its application to new situations. The present study explores the mechanisms underlying this transfer. To this end, a typical retrieval-practice-effect paradigm was applied to foster the learning of an artificial language. Participants either repeatedly studied grammatically correct exemplar sentences of the artificial language or engaged in a cloze test as the interim test after learning. To assess far transfer, participants in both groups of restudy and retrieval practice engaged in a grammaticality judgment test after a delay of 5 min and 1 week. In addition, participants in both groups completed a final memory test (i.e., a cloze test identical to the initial test) 1 week after learning. In addition to a long-term memory benefit of retrieval practice, results revealed also a retrieval-practice benefit in the far-transfer test after the 1-week delay. The findings further support the view that far transfer is supported by learning the underlying grammatical rules as opposed to memorizing the material. Thus, retrieval practice is also effective for fostering learning of complex materials and, even more importantly, for promoting transfer of learning—a crucial goal in modern educational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Benefits of self-testing for learning have been consistently shown for simple materials such as word lists learned by rote memorization. Considerably less evidence for such benefits exists for complex, more educationally relevant materials and its application to new situations. The present study explores the mechanisms underlying this transfer. To this end, a typical retrieval-practice-effect paradigm was applied to foster the learning of an artificial language. Participants either repeatedly studied grammatically correct exemplar sentences of the artificial language or engaged in a cloze test as the interim test after learning. To assess far transfer, participants in both groups of restudy and retrieval practice engaged in a grammaticality judgment test after a delay of 5 min and 1 week. In addition, participants in both groups completed a final memory test (i.e., a cloze test identical to the initial test) 1 week after learning. In addition to a long-term memory benefit of retrieval practice, results revealed also a retrieval-practice benefit in the far-transfer test after the 1-week delay. The findings further support the view that far transfer is supported by learning the underlying grammatical rules as opposed to memorizing the material. Thus, retrieval practice is also effective for fostering learning of complex materials and, even more importantly, for promoting transfer of learning—a crucial goal in modern educational practices.

This study investigates the initial incidental acquisition of two L2 morphosyntactic rules and their immediate usage in production. Using a miniature artificial language paradigm, multiple exposure sessions, realistic exposure, non-salient linguistic features, as well as multiple outcome measures, we demonstrate that adult learners can learn animacy with low levels of awareness, but not case. Forty adult native speakers of English participated in the experiment. Participants were exposed to audio sentences in the artificial language paired with pictures on the computer screen for three sessions. Knowledge of animacy and case was measured with production and grammaticality judgment tests. Results demonstrated that concrete, contiguous and easily trackable L2 properties that lend themselves to distributional learning, such as animacy marking, can benefit from incidental exposure. However, more abstract L2 properties, like the morphological paradigm of case, seem not to be learnable by incidental means, and opportunities for explicit learning must be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the historical dimension, usage patterns, notation, and communication methods of Jean François Sudre's "Langue Musicale Universelle" ("Sol Re Sol"), an artificial musical language, have been discussed. The aim of the research is to bring this forgotten musical language back into the spotlight, while also exploring Sudre's idea of the universality of music and evaluating the benefits and limitations of this musical language. A qualitative method was used in the study, and a literature review was conducted. In the findings section, it is indicated that the "Langue Musicale Universelle" ("Sol Re Sol") musical language consists of seven notes that are all part of the major scale. This musical language can be expressed in writing, by reading solfège, through singing, playing musical instruments, encoding with codes, hand gestures, drawings, colors, and other communication tools. Furthermore, it is observed that there exists a universal musical language accessible to individuals with visual, speech, or hearing impairments. Sudre posited the idea that music is a universal language, and a critical evaluation of this notion is presented in the conclusion section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: The central theme in Klara and the Sun is that of Artificial Intelligence. To study it, Julia Kristeva’s semantalysis was useful. The theorist proposes not to be limited to purely textual phenomena so as to be interested in the decryption of analytical categories. Thus, Kazuo Ishiguro under the pivots of pheno-text and geno-text conceptualized his novel as a maieutic of soul of artificial Human. RÉSUMÉ : Le thème central dans Klara et le Soleil est celui de l’Intelligence Artificielle. Pour en faire l’étude, la sémanalyse de Julia Kristeva a été utile. La théoricienne propose de ne pas se limiter aux phénomènes purement textuels de sorte à s’intéresser au plus haut point au décryptage des catégories analytiques. Ainsi, Kazuo Ishiguro sous les pivots du phéno-texte et du géno-texte a conceptualisé son roman comme une maïeutique de l’âme de l’Homme artificiel.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the translation of the artificial language «nadsat» in the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. A sci-fi novel written in 1962 and set in a near-dystopian future, A Clockwork Orange revolves around a violent youth subculture and, in particular, 15-year-old delinquent Alex and his friends. Based on the predilection of young people for the creation and use of informal words and slang, the author of the novel, British linguist and writer A. Burgess, uses fictitious vocabulary, i.e., the artificial language «nadsat». The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the problem of understanding and correct interpretation of words in fictional and artificial languages has not been sufficiently studied. The purpose of the study is to identify common features of the translation of the artificial language «nadsat» from English into Russian, French and Chinese. The research methods are method of theoretical analysis translation analysis of the text from the original language into Russian, French and Chinese. The results of the study showed that an adequate translation of «Nadsat» will help the reader understand the main idea expressed by the author of the novel.

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In a globalized society, effective communication across linguistic boundaries is essential. This paper explores the advantages and challenges of multilingualism, emphasizing its role in shaping societies and relationships. It contrasts the use of dominant natural languages with the development of artificial languages like Esperanto and Unish, highlighting their potential in promoting linguistic equality and neutrality. While acknowledging their limitations, these artificial languages offer promising avenues for more equitable and inclusive multilingual communication, contributing to the ongoing discourse on linguistic diversity and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The learning and generalisation of grammatical regularities isfundamental to successful language acquisition and use.Research into statistical learning has started to consider howthis process occurs through the implicit detection andassimilation of grammatical regularities. This study focuses onhow adults and children generalise regularities and explores therole of explicit knowledge in this process. Across threeexperiments, adults and children learnt an artificial languagecontaining two semantic categories denoted by a co-occurringdeterminer and suffix. Explicit knowledge of the regularitieswas associated with generalisation performance in adults butnot children, even when adult word level knowledge wassimilar to children’s. The implications of these results fordevelopmental theories of grammatical generalisation arediscussed.

Though communicative goals clearly drive word choice inlanguage production, online demands suggest that accessibilitymight play a role, too. If the benefits of accessibility areimportant enough to communication, more accessible words(high-frequency words) might be chosen over more accurate,less accessible ones. We used a novel artificial languagelearning paradigm to test whether high-frequency words arepreferred over low-frequency words at a cost of meaningaccuracy. Participants learned eight words which correspondedto precise angles on a compass. On test trials, participantsviewed angles lying in-between two trained angles and wereasked to produce a word for the angle. Across two experiments,we showed that participants extended their use of high-frequency words to more distal angles compared to low-frequency words. In cases of competition between high- andlow-frequency words, the former tended to win out even whenless accurate, suggesting that accessibility can compromisesome accuracy.

We examined neural mechanisms associated with the learning of novel morphologically derived words in native Hebrew speakers within the Complementary Learning Systems (CLS) framework. Across four sessions, 28 participants were trained on an artificial language, which included two types of morphologically complex words: linear (root + suffix) with a salient structure, and non-linear (root interleaved with template), with a prominent derivational structure in participants' first language (L1). A third simple monomorphemic condition, which served as baseline, was also included. On the first and fourth sessions, training was followed by testing in an fMRI scanner. Our behavioural results showed decomposition of both types of complex words, with the linear structure more easily learned than the non-linear structure. Our fMRI results showed involvement of frontal areas, associated with decomposition, only for the non-linear condition, after just the first session. We also observed training-related increases in activation in temporal areas specifically for the non-linear condition, which was correlated with participants' L1 morphological awareness. These results demonstrate that morphological decomposition of derived words occurs in the very early stages of word learning, is influenced by L1 experience, and can facilitate word learning. However, in contrast to the CLS framework, we found no support for a shift from reliance on hippocampus to reliance on cortical areas in any of our conditions. Instead, our findings align more closely with recent theories showing a positive correlation between changes in hippocampus and cortical areas, suggesting that these representations co-exist and continue to interact with one another beyond initial learning., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (© 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

Language acquisition requires infants’ ability to track dependencies between distant speech elements. Infants as young as 3 months have been shown to successfully identify such non-adjacent dependencies between syllables, and this ability has been related to the maturity of infants’ pitch processing. The present study tested whether 8- to 10-month-old infants (N = 68) can also learn dependencies at smaller segmental levels and whether the relation between dependency and pitch processing extends to other auditory features. Infants heard either syllable sequences encoding an item-specific dependency between non-adjacent vowels or between consonants. These frequent standard sequences were interspersed with infrequent intensity deviants and dependency deviants, which violated the non-adjacent relationship. Both vowel and consonant groups showed electrophysiological evidence for detection of the intensity manipulation. However, evidence for dependency learning was only found for infants hearing the dependencies across vowels, not consonants, and only in a subgroup of infants who had an above-average language score in a behavioral test. In a correlation analysis, we found no relation between intensity and dependency processing. We conclude that item-specific, segment-based non-adjacent dependencies are not easily learned by infants and if so, vowels are more accessible to the task, but only to infants who display advanced language skills.

Two classes of cognitive mechanisms have been proposed to explain segmentation of continuous sensory input into discrete recurrent constituents: clustering and boundary-finding mechanisms. Clustering mechanisms are based on identifying frequently co-occurring elements and merging them together as parts that form a single constituent. Bracketing (or boundary-finding) mechanisms work by identifying rarely co-occurring elements that correspond to the boundaries between discrete constituents. In a series of behavioral experiments, I tested which mechanisms are at play in the visual modality both during segmentation of a continuous syllabic sequence into discrete word-like constituents and during recognition of segmented constituents. Additionally, I explored conscious awareness of the products of statistical learning—whole constituents versus merged clusters of smaller subunits. My results suggest that both online segmentation and offline recognition of extracted constituents rely on detecting frequently co-occurring elements, a process likely based on associative memory. However, people are more aware of having learnt whole tokens than of recurrent composite clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of second and third language acquisition studies have been conducted on the acquisition of articles in order to examine the learnabilities of the feature from various L1 backgrounds, such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Turkish among many others. Numerous studies have revealed ongoing difficulties of acquiring (in)definite articles by L2 and L3 language learners even at the most advanced stages of acquisition. Considering the issue of learnabilities of articles, it would be interesting and meaningful to investigate how (in)definiteness is realized in natural languages and figure out whether using articles to denote (in)definiteness is a predominant phenomenon or not. Therefore, the current paper examined the typologlogical database--World Atlas of Linguistic Structures and presented descriptions of (in)definitenesses in natural languages. It was shown that more than half of existing natural languages do not have (in)definite articles and it is realized in other linguistic means. The current study also reviews article uses in artificial languages, such as Esperanto and Unish, concluding that in order for the language learners to be able to acquire a linguistic feature most efficiently, it should be as typologically neutral as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of cultural variants, such as dress or speech pat-terns, may be promoted or inhibited by different types of bias.In model-based bias, variants are differentially adopted accord-ing to characteristics of individuals exhibiting them. A surpris-ing case of cross-group adoption comes from sociolinguisticfieldwork in which White speakers were observed exhibiting afeature of African-American Vernacular English, in spite of ex-pressing aggressively negative attitudes towards their African-American neighbors. A likely explanation for this is that thefeature in question had become dissociated for these speakersfrom the inalienable trait Blackness, but had retained associa-tions with the more alienable trait of being “street” or tough.We tested this by conducting an artificial-language experimentin which groups of four participants played a computer gamethat involved typing instant messages to each other, tradingresources, and fighting. Participants were assigned to one oftwo mutually antagonistic “alien species” (weaker Wiwos andtougher Burls) and learned an alien language with two species-specific dialects. In one condition, the Wiwos were told thatthat Burl dialect was mainly used by Burls; in the other con-dition they were told it was mainly used by “tougher aliens”.Burl variants were significantly more likely to be used by Wi-wos in the latter condition than in the former, even though theywere associated with tougher aliens in both conditions. Thissuggests that cultural variants linked to more alienable traitsare more likely to be adopted than those linked to inalienableones, even if the practical implications of the two traits are verysimilar.

During language acquisition, children must learn when togeneralize a pattern – applying it broadly and to new words(‘add –ed’ in English) – and when to restrict generalization,storing the pattern only with specific lexical items. One effortto quantify the conditions for generalization, the TolerancePrinciple, has been shown to accurately predict children’sgeneralizations in dozens of corpus-based studies. Thisprinciple hypothesizes that a general rule will be formedwhen it is computationally more efficient than storing lexicalforms individually. It is formalized as: a rule R will generalizeif the number of exceptions does not exceed the number ofwords in the category N divided by the natural log of N(N/lnN). Here we test the principle in an artificial language of9 nonsense nouns. As predicted, children exposed to 5 regularforms and 4 exceptions generalized, applying the regular formto 100% of novel test words. Children exposed to 3 regularforms and 6 exceptions did not extend the rule, even thoughthe token frequency of the regular form was still high in thiscondition. The Tolerance Principle thus appears to capture abasic principle of generalization in rule formation.

Copyright of Journal for Languages & Literatures of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad / Zbornik za Jezike i Knjizevnosti Filozofskog Fakulteta u Novom Sadu is the property of Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of PISMO: Journal for Linguistics & Literary Studies / Zeitschrift für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft is the property of Bosnian Philological Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of the article is to investigate some of the possible sources of inspiration for Orwell’s concept of the artificial language called Newspeak, which, in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, is shown as an effective tool of enslavement and thought control in the hands of a totalitarian state. The author discusses, in this context, the putative links between Newspeak and really existing artificial languages, first of all Esperanto, and also between Orwell’s notion of “doublethink”, which is an important feature of the totalitarian mentality, and Czesław Miłosz’s notion of “ketman”, developed in his book The Captive Mind. But the main emphasis is on the connection between Orwell’s book and the slightly earlier novel by C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength. It is well known that Orwell knew Lewis’s book and expressed his mixed feelings about it. There are many specific, though far from obvious, similarities between the two books, but what seems to have been particularly inspiring for Orwell was Lewis’s vision of a thoroughly degenerate language that is used for political manipulation rather than for communication.

In our article, we explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in oculo-oncology, focusing on the diagnosis and management of ocular adnexal tumors. Delving into the intricacies of adnexal conditions such as conjunctival melanoma and squamous conjunctival carcinoma, the study emphasizes recent breakthroughs, such as Artificial Intelligence-driven early detection methods. While acknowledging challenges like the scarcity of specialized datasets and issues in standardizing image capture, the research underscores encouraging patient acceptance, as demonstrated in melanoma diagnosis studies. The abstract calls for overcoming obstacles, conducting clinical trials, establishing global regulatory norms and fostering collaboration between ophthalmologists and Artificial Intelligence experts. Overall, the article envisions Artificial Intelligence's imminent transformative impact on ocular and periocular cancer diagnosis., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

Colexification refers to the phenomenon of multiple meanings sharing one word in a language. Cross‐linguistic lexification patterns have been shown to be largely predictable, as similar concepts are often colexified. We test a recent claim that, beyond this general tendency, communicative needs play an important role in shaping colexification patterns. We approach this question by means of a series of human experiments, using an artificial language communication game paradigm. Our results across four experiments match the previous cross‐linguistic findings: all other things being equal, speakers do prefer to colexify similar concepts. However, we also find evidence supporting the communicative need hypothesis: when faced with a frequent need to distinguish similar pairs of meanings, speakadjust their colexification preferences to maintain communicative efficiency and avoid colexifying those similar meanings which need to be distinguished in communication. This research provides further evidence to support the argument that languages are shaped by the needs and preferences of their speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research investigates how humans learncomplex hierarchical structures with center-embeddedrecursion (Bahlmann, Schubotz, & Friderici, 2008; Poletiek &Lai, 2012). Increasing evidence indicates that properties of thelearning input have an impact on learning this type ofrecursion. For instance, recent studies found that staged input,fewer unique exemplars and unequal repetition facilitatelearning (e.g. Lai, Krahmer, & Sprenger, 2014; Lai &Poletiek, 2011, 2013). Most of these studies investigatedlearning center-embedded recursion through visual input,whereas few studies examined the processing of auditoryinput. In the current study, we test: 1) whether participants areable to learn center-embedded recursive structure fromexclusively auditory input; 2) whether the facilitative cues(ordering and frequency distribution) are attuned to theauditory modality. Our results successfully demonstrate thelearning of auditory sequences with center-embeddedrecursion, and replicated the effect with visual input in theprevious study (Lai et al., 2014).

Many studies of human sequential pattern learningdemonstrate that learners detect adjacent and non-adjacentdependencies in many kinds of sequences. However, it isoften assumed that the computational mechanisms behindextracting these dependencies are the same. We replicate theseminal finding that adults are capable of learningdependencies between non-adjacent words (Gómez, 2002).When we eliminate the positional information about thestatistical structures by embedding the structure in phrases,learners can no longer learn the dependencies. Our methodsallow us to study the learning mechanisms that are morerepresentative of the patterns in natural languages, and showthat when directly compared, adjacent and non-adjacentdependencies are not equally learnable. We suggest thatlearning non-adjacent dependencies in language involves adifferent computational mechanism from learning adjacentdependencies

Three experiments investigated adult learners' acquisition of a novel adjective. In English and other languages, meanings of some gradable adjectives are said to include an absolute standard of comparison (e.g., full means completely filled with content). However, actual usage is often imprecise, where a maximum absolute standard of comparison, strictly speaking, does not apply (e.g., a 90% full cup can be full depending on how it will be used). This creates problems for learners who acquire the absolute meaning from variable mappings between word forms and observations. We demonstrated that adult learners infer a maximum standard of comparison when they receive information about agents' intended goals that lie behind imprecise word usage. Results suggested these inferences are conditioned on the amount of visually ambiguous observations made during learning. We conclude that access to agents' intended goals allows learners to explain contextual sources of imprecision and helps the learning of a maximum absolute meaning from primarily nonabsolute observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the remaining hindrances for natural language processing technologies in achieving open and natural (human-like) interaction between humans and computers. Although artificially intelligent (AI) systems have been making great strides in this field, particularly with the development of deep learning architectures that carry surface-level statistical methods to greater levels of sophistication, these systems are yet incapable of deep semantic analysis, reliable translation, and generating rich answers to open-ended questions. I consider how the process may be facilitated from our side, first, by altering some of our existing language conventions (which may occur naturally) if we are to proceed with statistical approaches, and secondly, by considering possibilities in using a formalised artificial language as an auxiliary medium, as it may avoid many of the inherent ambiguities and irregularities that make natural language difficult to process using rule-based methods. As current systems have been predominantly English-based, I argue that a formal auxiliary language would not only be a simpler and more reliable medium for computer processing, but may also offer a more neutral, easy-to-learn lingua franca for uniting people from different linguistic backgrounds with none necessarily having the upper hand.

This study investigates the effects of three types of instruction on the acquisition of foreign /s/-initial onset clusters (/sl/, /sn/, and /st/-sC clusters), a process characterized by a developmental sequence in which /sl/ is acquired before /sn/ and /st/. 118 native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese participated in a 4-week language course to learn a set of vocabulary and associated pronunciation of Taki, a self-constructed miniature linguistic system. The participants were divided into three groups, each corresponding to one of the hypotheses that characterize three types of explicit second language instruction: Teachability, Projection of Markedness (Projection), and a combination of the two (Mixed). A mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis of the participants’ production of sC clusters revealed that, in one of the tasks employed (read aloud), the group that focused exclusively on the more marked/st/ (Projection Group) had the best overall performance in the acquisition of the three clusters: this group was able to generalize their knowledge to the sC clusters they were not taught. In general, the results support Zobl’s Projection Model of Markedness for explaining the phonological development of syllable structure, wherein the instructional effect of a focus on the most marked /st/ projects to knowledge of the less marked structures.

There is profound and long-standing debate over the role of explicit instruction in reading acquisition. In this research, we investigated the impact of teaching regularities in the writing system explicitly rather than relying on learners to discover these regularities through text experience alone. Over 10 days, 48 adults learned to read novel words printed in two artificial writing systems. One group learned spelling-to-sound and spelling-to-meaning regularities solely through experience with the novel words, whereas the other group received a brief session of explicit instruction on these regularities before training commenced. Results showed that virtually all participants who received instruction performed at ceiling on tests that probed generalization of underlying regularities. In contrast, despite up to 18 hr of training on the novel words, less than 25% of discovery learners performed on par with those who received instruction. These findings illustrate the dramatic impact of teaching method on outcomes during reading acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical learning (SL), the process of extracting regularities from the environment, is a fundamental skill of our cognitive system to structure the world regularly and predictably. SL has been studied using mainly behavioral tasks under implicit conditions and with triplets presenting the same level of difficulty, i.e., a mean transitional probability (TP) of 1.00. Yet, the neural mechanisms underlying SL under other learning conditions remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the neurofunctional correlates of SL using triplets (i.e., three-syllable nonsense words) with a mean TP of 1.00 (easy "words") and 0.50 (hard "words") in an SL task performed under incidental (implicit) and intentional (explicit) conditions, to determine whether the same core mechanisms were recruited to assist learning. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants listened firstly to a continuous auditory stream made of the concatenation of four easy and four hard "words" under implicit instructions, and subsequently to another auditory stream made of the concatenation of four easy and four hard "words" drawn from another artificial language under explicit instructions. The stream in each of the SL tasks was presented in two consecutive blocks of ~3.5-min each (~7-min in total) to further examine how ERP components might change over time. Behavioral measures of SL were collected after the familiarization phase of each SL task by asking participants to perform a two-alternative forced-choice (2-AFC) task. Results from the 2-AFC tasks revealed a moderate but reliable level of SL, with no differences between conditions. ERPs were, nevertheless, sensitive to the effect of TPs, showing larger amplitudes of N400 for easy "words," as well as to the effect of instructions, with a reduced N250 for "words" presented under explicit conditions. Also, significant differences in the N100 were found as a result of the interaction between TPs, instructions, and the amount of exposure to the auditory stream. Taken together, our findings suggest that triplets' predictability impacts the emergence of "words" representations in the brain both for statistical regularities extracted under incidental and intentional instructions, although the prior knowledge of the "words" seems to favor the recruitment of different SL mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1668), John Wilkins (1614–1672) invented a real character, an artificial language, to express his philosophical language. The Essay was a culmination of Wilkins' long-term analyses of the interrelationships among language, communication, science, and learning. His lesser known publication on language, Mercury: or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641), was Wilkins' earliest published study of these interrelationships. The real character and the philosophical language that Wilkins presented in his Essay were far more advanced than any artificial language he surveyed in Mercury. His was the most comprehensive real character and philosophical language published to date as Wilkins attempted to represent and communicate the ever-expanding knowledge emerging from the new science. Moreover, he intended that his philosophical language remedy the imperfection of natural languages that he believed were caused by the Biblical 'confusion of tongues.' Mercury provides Wilkins' initial published observations regarding the nature of language as well as the types and roles of artificial languages from antiquity to his day. It reflects his forward-thinking understanding of language early in his career; and it foreshadows his continuing development of a philosophical language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals shift their language to converge with interlocutors. Recent work has suggested that convergence can target not only observed but also expected linguistic behavior, cued by social information. However, it remains uncertain how expectations and observed behavior interact, particularly when they contradict each other. We investigated this using a cooperative map task experiment, in which pairs of participants communicated online by typing messages to each other in a miniature "alien" language that exhibited variation between alien species. The overall task comprised three phases, in each of which participants were told that they would be paired with a different partner. One member of the pair was given explicit linguistic expectations in each phase, while the software controlled whether or not observed behavior from their partner would be consistent or inconsistent with these expectations. The other participant was given no such expectations, allowing us to control for the role of expectation. Participants converged to both observed and expected linguistic behavior, and convergence was boosted when observation and expectation were aligned. When expected and observed behavior were misaligned, participants updated their expectations, though convergence levels did not drop. Furthermore, participants generalized what they learned about one partner to apparent novel partners of the same alien species. We also discuss individual variation in convergence patterns and the lack of a relationship between linguistic convergence and success at the map task. Findings are consistent with observations outside the laboratory that language users converge toward expected linguistic behavior. They also have broader implications for understanding linguistic accommodation and the influence of social information on linguistic processing and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial linguistic systems can offer researchers test tube-like models of second language (L2) acquisition through which specific questions can be examined under tightly controlled conditions. This paper examines what research with artificial linguistic systems has revealed about the neural mechanisms involved in L2 grammar learning. It first considers the validity of meaningful and non-meaningful artificial linguistic systems. Then it contextualizes and synthesizes neural artificial linguistic system research related to questions about age of exposure to the L2, type of exposure, and online L2 learning mechanisms. Overall, using artificial linguistic systems seems to be an effective and productive way of developing knowledge about L2 neural processes and correlates. With further validation, artificial linguistic system paradigms may prove an important tool more generally in understanding how individuals learn new linguistic systems as they become bilingual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews work that has employed artificial languages to investigate the learning and processing of additional language grammar in bilinguals, with a focus on morphosyntactic processing in sentence contexts. The article first discusses research that has utilized artificial languages to elucidate two central issues in research on bilingual third language learning and processing: the role of prior language-learning experience and cross-linguistic transfer from the native and second languages to the third. Then, research that has compared bilingual third language to monolingual second language grammar processing is discussed, with specific consideration of hypothesized bilingual advantages at language learning. Finally, future directions in artificial language learning research on bilingual morphosyntactic processing are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have focused on the Aramaic of the Zohar, and to this day, only one of these presents a completed grammatical analysis. Scholars have dealt at large, however, with the question of whether the Aramaic of the Zohar is artificial or not. I briefly review the history of the literature around this question, then propose my own criteria to examine whether a language of a given text is indeed artificial. Finally, I put this methodology into practice, as I investigate the nature of Zoharic Aramaic by examining specific linguistic phenomena in the relevant corpus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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One of the first problems in language learning is to segment words from continuous speech. Both prosodic and distributional information can be useful, and it is an important question how the two types of information are integrated. In this paper, we propose that the distinction between input (the statistical properties of the syllable sequence), and intake (how learners perceptually represent the syllable sequence) is a useful framework to integrate different sources of information. We took a novel approach, observing how a large number of syllable sequences were segmented. These sequences had the same transitional probability information for finding word boundaries but different syllables in them. We found large variability in the performance of the segmentation task, suggesting that factors other than the statistical properties of sequences were at play. This variability was explored using the input/intake asymmetry framework, which predicted that factors that shaped the representation of different syllable sequences could explain the variability of learning. We examined two factors, the saliency of the rhythm in these syllable sequences and how familiar the novel word forms in the sequence were to the existing lexicon. Both factors explained the variance in the learnability of different sequences, suggesting that processing of the sequences shaped learning. The implications of these results to computational models of statistical learning and broader implications to language learning were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

He necessity of language that would be spoken by all the people in the world, has existed in all times. As a common language that has developed naturally, does not exist, then the world developed the idea of creating an artificial international language, which, among other things, could perform a unifying function. The article discusses the concept of “language" and “artificial language", provides definitions of these concepts, also considers the causes of these concepts and provides an overview of the various artificial languages. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that at the moment of development of our society there is a need to create common language, the purpose of which would be international negotiations or settlement of international conflicts and other political, economic and cultural activities. It is also possible to increase interest in such science of language as interlinguistics, and as a result, further development of linguistics as a whole thing. At the moment there are about five hundred artificial languages, but only a few of them are more or less suitable for real communication. The aim of this work is to investigate the role of artificial international languages within the framework of modern culture and modern society. The objectives of this article: to reveal the very notion of language; to select the types of artificial languages; to give the description of each of the most well-known international artificial languages. In the article we have used the following research methods: analysis, synthesis, and abstracting.