Journal

Volume 9, Issue 1 (January 31, 2008)

4 articles

• An Experimental Syntactic Study of Binding of Multiple Anaphors in Korean
  by Ji-Hye Kim & James Hye Suk Yoon
  J. CS. 2008, 9(1), 1-30;
  Abstract In this paper we investigated the binding behavior of three Korean reflexives - caki, casin, and caki-casin - through a Truth Value Judgment Task with pictures and found that while caki and caki-casin pattern as claimed in the theoretical literature, as a long-distance and a local anaphor respective... [Read more].
  Abstract In this paper we investigated the binding behavior of three Korean reflexives - caki, casin, and caki-casin - through a Truth Value Judgment Task with pictures and found that while caki and caki-casin pattern as claimed in the theoretical literature, as a long-distance and a local anaphor respectively, native Korean speakers differ in how they treat casin. While the speakers as a group treat casin as an LDA, individual results revealed a bimodal distribution, with one group of speakers consistently treating casin as an LDA and another,smaller, group consistently treating it as a local anaphor. This distribution is puzzling in that the grammar of speakers who treat casin as a strictly local anaphor appears to violate the cross-linguistic generalization that morphologically simple reflexives are long-distance anaphors. We show that this problem is only apparent, since the bare form casin lends itself to two different structural analyses. In addition, we show that the greater percentage of speakers who treat casin as an LDA reflects an ongoing change in the grammar of Korean, where casin is both increasing in frequency and taking on more longdistance antecedents. This assessment is supported by the sociolinguistic profiles of speakers we tested as well as the frequency and distribution of casin in Bible translations. [Collapse]
• Perceptual Priming and Structural Choice in Russian Sentence Production
  by Andriy Myachykov & Russell Tomlin
  J. CS. 2008, 9(1), 31-48;
  Abstract We report the results of a study that used perceptual priming paradigm to investigate how attentional focus on a referent influences structural choice in Russian sentence production. Experimental hypotheses were based on two previously reported findings. First, some sentence production studies using... [Read more].
  Abstract We report the results of a study that used perceptual priming paradigm to investigate how attentional focus on a referent influences structural choice in Russian sentence production. Experimental hypotheses were based on two previously reported findings. First, some sentence production studies using English demonstrated that perceptually priming a referent of a visual event improves its chances of assignment as the Subject of a sentence about this event and triggers the resulting choice between active and passive voice (Gleitman, et al., 2007; Tomlin, 1995, 1997). Second, a study by Ferreira (1996) showed that English speakers alternate between the structures easier and faster when they have a wider battery of structural alternatives available to them. Our data confirmed both findings with important detalization. First, Russian speakers were more likely to assign the sentential starting point but not the Subject to the perceptually primed referent alternating between the agent-initial and the patient-initial structural alternatives. This finding suggests that perceptual priming leads to the positional but not the preferential assignment of grammatical roles in Russian. Second, Russian speakers having a seemingly wider inventory of structural options than their English counterparts were more reluctant to alternate structure as a function of the perceptual prime. This tendency may result form the necessity to maintain early commitments to the case-marked noun forms, which effectively binds structural selection to a much smaller number of available alternatives than the normative grammar of Russian suggests. [Collapse]
• Grammaticality Judgment of Garden Path Sentences in Persian
  by Hamideh Marefat & Ali Arabmofrad
  J. CS. 2008, 9(1), 49-69;
  Abstract Garden path sentences have been shown to predict difficulty in language processing, but no study has been conducted on Persian language. This study tested the prediction for Persian ambiguous sentences having two DPs in which the second DP functions as either the modifier of the first DP or the subj... [Read more].
  Abstract Garden path sentences have been shown to predict difficulty in language processing, but no study has been conducted on Persian language. This study tested the prediction for Persian ambiguous sentences having two DPs in which the second DP functions as either the modifier of the first DP or the subject/object of the next clause. No significant effects were obtained for grammaticality judgment times but results of the analysis of accuracy of judgments for garden path sentences from 41 Persian native speakers by the use of RSVP technique revealed that there is a garden path effect in such sentences in Persian, and the distance of the critical word from the verb as the disambiguating word affects the comprehension of Persian garden path sentences. Moreover, the results showed that the location of the disambiguating word has an influential impact on processing garden path sentences. The results are discussed in the framework of the late closure principle. [Collapse]
• Effects of Structural Factors on TV Commercial Processing
  by Maki Sakamoto, Koichi Yamamoto, & Tetsuya Hayashida
  J. CS. 2008, 9(1), 71-88;
  Abstract Metrics such as understanding of the ad or purchase intent are widely used as a benchmark of effectiveness in TV commercial testing. However, it is quite rare that we are able to clearly understand why the benchmarks scores are high or low. This study investigates how structural variables relating t... [Read more].
  Abstract Metrics such as understanding of the ad or purchase intent are widely used as a benchmark of effectiveness in TV commercial testing. However, it is quite rare that we are able to clearly understand why the benchmarks scores are high or low. This study investigates how structural variables relating to salience asymmetries in the visual presentation of TV commercials affect the processing of TV commercials. Asymmetries of cognitive salience suggest that brand information, which tends to be non-human, inanimate, and abstract, has difficulty in gaining TV commercial viewers' attention. In this study we seek for effective ways to lead viewers to process brand information within TV commercial. The commercials examined for this purpose are those for products in two cosmetic product categories, namely lipstick and foundation. Based on the hierarchy of cognitive salience we present the hypothetical structural factors which appeal to the reference point ability and effectively lead consumers to process brand information. We tested these hypotheses by psychological experiments. Each commercial was tested among 51 to 54 participants. A total sample of 211 usable questionnaires was obtained. Results suggest that when celebrities are effectively used as a salient reference point accompanied by structural factors that successively shift the attention to brand information, understanding of product benefits is enhanced. An example of such a structural factor that showed significant contribution to understanding of product benefits (p <. 01) was the structural factor The last half of the commercial does not have consecutive cuts showing full views of celebrities. [Collapse]