The Cognitive Plausibility of Statistical Classification Models: Comparing Textual and Behavioral Evidence

Usage-based linguistics abounds with studies that use statistical classification models to analyse either textual corpus data or behavioral experimental data. Yet, before we can draw conclusions from statistical models of empirical data that we can feed back into cognitive linguistic theory, we need to assess whether the text-based models are cognitively plausible and whether the behavior-based models are linguistically accurate. In this paper, we review four case studies that evaluate statistical classification models of richly annotated linguistic data by explicitly comparing the performance of a corpus-based model to the behavior of native speakers. The data come from four different languages (Arabic, English, Estonian, and Russian) and pertain to both lexical as well as syntactic near-synonymy. We show that behavioral evidence is needed in order to fine-tune and improve statistical models built on data from a corpus. We argue that methodological pluralism and triangulation are the keys for a cognitively realistic linguistic theory

KATSELISED MEETODID TÄHENDUSE UURIMISEL

Käesolev artikkel on lühike ja ülevaatlik sissejuhatus katselistesse meetoditesse tähenduse uurimisel. Artiklis tuuakse välja põhjuseid, miks katselisi meetodeid tähenduse uurimisel kasutada ja miks ainult ühel viisil kogutud andmetest ei piisa. Artikli esimene pool käsitleb katselisi meetodeid võrdlevalt introspektsiooni ja korpusanalüüsiga. Artikli teises pooles kirjeldatakse eri tüüpi katseid, mida võib laias laastus jagada moodustuskatseteks (vaba moodustuse katse, sunnitud valiku katse, väljamõeldud stiimuliga moodustuskatse) ja arusaamiskatseteks (klassifitseerimiskatse, sobituskatse, vastuvõetavuse hindamise katse, ajaliselt mõõdetud verifitseerimine) ning loetleb vastavaid Eestis ja mujal tehtud (ruumi)semantika uurimusi

Cognitive Linguistics: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Since its conception, Cognitive Linguistics as a theory of language has been enjoying ever increasing success worldwide. With quantitative growth has come qualitative diversification, and within a now heterogeneous field, different – and at times opposing – views on theoretical and methodological matters have emerged. The historical “prototype” of Cognitive Linguistics may be described as predominantly of mentalist persuasion, based on introspection, specialized in analysing language from a synchronic point of view, focused on West-European data (English in particular), and showing limited interest in the social and multimodal aspects of communication. Over the past years, many promising extensions from this prototype have emerged. The contributions selected for the Special Issue take stock of these extensions along the cognitive, social and methodological axes that expand the cognitive linguistic object of inquiry across time, space and modalit

The alternation between exterior locative cases and postpositions in Estonian web texts

Abstract. A probabilistic grammar approach to language assumes that grammatical knowledge has a probabilistic component and that this probabilistic knowledge of language is derived from language experience. It is assumed that the extent and nature of grammatical knowledge is reflected in language variation. In the present paper, the probabilistic variation patterns of the Estonian exterior locative cases and the corresponding postpositions are determined by exploring a large, manually annotated dataset of Estonian web texts. It is proposed that there are both similarities and differences in the morphosyntactic knowledge on the part of Estonian speakers as pertains to the three alternations: allative ~ peale ‘onto’, adessive ~ peal ‘on’, ablative ~ pealt ‘off’. The study points towards the stability and direction of the factors that have been found significant in the previous studies. Multivariate analysis of corpus data shows that the grammatical knowledge of Estonian exterior cases and the corresponding postpositions is probabilistic and regulated by both morphosyntactic and semantic factors. Kokkuvõte. Jane Klavan: Eesti keele väliskohakäänete ja kaassõnade peal, peale, pealt kasutus eestikeelses veebis. Tõenäosusliku grammatika raamistikus eeldatakse, et grammatiline teadmine hõlmab endas tõenäosuslikku komponenti ja et see tõenäosuslik komponent pärineb suures osas keele kasutuse kogemusest. Sellistelt põhimõtetelt lähtuvate uurimuste eesmärgiks on mõõta grammatilise teadmise ulatust ja olemust nagu see peegeldub keelelises varieeruvuses. Esitan suuremahulise korpusuurimuse eesti keele väliskohakäänete ja nendega rööpselt tarvitatavate kaassõnade (peale, peal, pealt) paralleelsest kasutusest eestikeelsetel veebilehtedel. Korpusandmete multifaktoriaalne analüüs näitab, et grammatiline teadmine sellest rööpsest kasutusest on tõenäosuslik ja et seda reguleerivad nii morfosüntaktilised kui semantilised tegurid

Kuhu suundub püsivus? Verbidega jääma ja jätma väljendatud sündmuste kujutamine katses

Kokkuvõte. Uurimus põhineb autorite välja töötatud joonistamise ja häälega mõtlemise katse tulemustel. Katses paluti katseisikutel (21 eesti keelt emakeelena kõnelejat) kujutada ja selgitada katse läbiviijale 24 verbi suunda (näiteks nooltega). Selles artiklis esitame täpsemalt neist kahe – jääma ja jätma – analüüsi. Verb jätma on jääma kausatiivtuletis. See mõjutab ka nende tähenduserinevust – jääma on passiivsem, jätma aga aktiivsem ja agenti rõhutav. Katseisikute kujutiste ja selgituste põhjal kirjeldame, milline oli noolte suund kujutistel ja millistest elementidest koosneb mõlema uuritava verbi skeem. Selgus, et katseisikud kujutasid verbi jätma suunda nooltega, verbi jääma oli kujutatud pigem punktide, täppide, ringide või kaarjate joontega. Kujutistel ja selgitustes avaldusid ka tüüpilised skeemi osalised: JÄÄJA, JÄTJA ja JÄETU. Mõlema verbi tegevuse aega kujutati ja selgitati minevikulisusega. Sarnane on ka nende verbide mõistemetafoorsus: mõlemad kajastavad pigem negatiivset hinnangut. Verbi jääma tähenduses on olulisel kohal see, et potentsiaalne muutus ei toimu. Verb jätma väljendab aga seda, et potentsiaalse muutuse mittetoimumine põhjustatakse. Abstract. Ilona Tragel, Jane Klavan: The direction and participants of the events expressed by the verbs jääma and jätma: a drawing experiment. We use an innovative experimental design to extract the regularities of the general conceptual structure from the speakers’ mind: a drawing task with a thinkaloud protocol. 21 native speakers of Estonian provided schematic representations of 20 experimental verbs and 4 control verbs. Our discussion focuses on jääma ‘stay, remain’ and jätma ‘leave something somewhere’. jääma typically expresses intransitive events and jätma transitive events. We zoom in on the following topics: transitivity and causativity, the positive/negative evaluation of the activity, the schematic representation of the direction of verbs and the elements belonging to the verb schema. Our study shows that the differences in the transitivity of the two verbs are reflected in the drawings and explanations given by the participants. Our results confirm the general prediction that abstract verbs have an image-schematic direction, but the specifics of the direction vary according to the type of verb

Finding Our Way Back Home: Reintroducing Mythology into the Lives of Children

Mythology is present in almost all aspects of modern life. Though many books, movies, video games and advertisements make reference to ancient myths, the myths themselves are no longer readily accessible to children. This thesis provides a rationale for writing a children\u27s book which retells an ancient Greek myth. An outline for the book, entitled Perseus, as well as two sample chapters, are included. The thesis deals with mythology\u27s relevance to the modern child asserting that it can help him/her deal with issues such as step-parents, separation anxiety and the need for individuation. The thesis also discusses the ways in which mythology appears in modern culture such as Nike shoes, the God of War video game and books like Harry Potter. Sources where children can access Greek mythology today are also discussed and compared to Perseus. Finally, the thesis discusses how, and why, Perseus was written and compares it to other worthwhile books for children

Martem Accendere Cantu: The meaning of music on the battlefield

This paper examines in detail an under-appreciated passage from Philodemus of Gadara’s On Music in order to elucidate several important controversies in Hellenistic musical philosophy. The Stoic Diogenes of Babylon claimed that the emotional impact of trumpet tunes can inspire soldiers to fight. But the Epicurean Philodemus believed that the meaningful words (λόγοι) which stimulate our actions are utterly distinct from meaningless musical sound (µουσική). Philodemus therefore framed an alternative theory in which trumpet calls on the battlefield function not as music but as a kind of makeshift language, using conventional signifiers to communicate instructions. I show how both philosophers’ views arise logically out of doctrines from their respective schools. I then argue that the trumpet’s dual status as both performance instrument and communications device makes it a natural philosophical flashpoint: it raises central questions about what music is, how it affects listeners, and whether it can convey meaning

Melody and meaning: the semiotics of ancient Greek music in the late classical and early Hellenistic eras

Melody and Meaning asks what music can communicate, and how, according to critics and philosophers from the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods. What can melody express, if anything, and how does it exert its powerful emotional force on those who listen to it? These are among the most enduring and difficult questions in aesthetics – they have been subjects of lively debate among modern scholars such as (to name just a few) Eduard Hanslick, Susanne Langer, Kofi Agawu, Jenefer Robinson, and Roger Scruton. Much of this modern thought is rooted in theories of musical affect articulated by Plato and by others, such as Aristotle and Diogenes of Babylon, who took Plato’s work forward. The ideas which underlay such theories – ideas such as representation (μίμησις) and ethical disposition (ἦθος) – are issues of longstanding interest in Classical scholarship. But there has not yet been a monograph devoted directly to musical representation in the Hellenic tradition, despite the centrality of the subject to the subsequent philosophy of art. This dissertation fills that gap in the literature by offering an intellectual history of musical representation and expression in Greek thought from its seminal description in Plato until its fulsome rejection in the 1st century BC by Philodemus of Gadara

Korpuslingvistilised ja eksperimentaalsed meetodid grammatilise sünonüümia uurimisel

Doktoriväitekiri käsitleb alalütleva käände ja kaassõnaga peal keelekonstruktsioonide paralleelset kasutust kohasuhete markeerimisel tänapäeva eesti kirjakeeles. Mõlema konstruktsiooniga on võimalik väljendada ruumilist suhet, kus mingi figuur (nt vaas) asub tausta (nt laua) pealmisel pinnal: vaas on laual ja vaas on laua peal. Väitekirjal on kaks eesmärki. Esimeseks eesmärgiks on välja selgitada, millised semantilised ja morfosüntaktilised variaablid mõjutavad alalütleva ja kaassõna peal kasutust. Väitekiri on esimene suuremahuline kvantitatiivne uurimus grammatilisest sünonüümiast sünteetiliste ja analüütiliste vormide vahel, mis erineb tüpoloogiliselt inglise keele sõnajärje alternat¬sioonidest. Töö teiseks eesmärgiks on hinnata erinevate meetodite kasulikkust grammatilise sünonüümia uurimisel. Väitekirjas on rakendatud erinevaid meetodeid, rõhuasetus on empiirilisel kvantitatiivsel lähenemisel. Töös on esitatud kahe korpusuuringu ja kahe keelelise katse tulemused. Põhijärelduseks on, et parima tulemuse annab erinevate meetodite (introspektsioon, korpusanalüüs, keelelised katsed) kooskasutamine. Analüüsist ilmneb, et semantilised variaablid, mis puudutavad erinevaid tausta omadusi (nt tausta liik ja liikuvus/liigutatavus), ja lauses kasutatud verb mõjutavad oluliselt valikut kahe konstruktsiooni vahel. Suurte, staatiliste taustadega (nt turg) eelistatakse pigem kohakäänet ja väiksemate, liikuvate/liigutatavate taustadega (nt kapp) kaassõna. Morfosüntaktilistest variaablitest mängivad rolli taustobjekti fraasi pikkus ja komplekssus, figuuri ja tausta sõnaliik ja sõnajärg. Pikemate ja komplekssemate tausta fraasidega (nt kirjutuslaud) kasutatakse lühemat ja ökonoomsemat alalütlevat käänet. Lühemate ja vähem komplekssemate taustaobjekti fraasidega, eriti asesõnadega (nt see) kasutatakse kohakaassõna peal. Väitekirjas leiab kinnitust eeldus, et eesti keele alalütleva käände ja kaassõna peal vahel ei esine täissünonüümiat, ja et nende kahe konstruktsiooni kasutust mõjutavad mitmed semantilised ja morfosüntaktilised variaablid.The dissertation studies the alternation between the adessive case and the adposition peal ‘on’ in present-day written Estonian. Both constructions can be used to describe a spatial scene, where, a Figure (e.g. a vase) is placed on top of a Ground (e.g. a table): vaas on laual (the adessive construction) and vaas on laua peal (the peal-construction), both meaning “The vase is on the table”. The thesis has two aims: first, to examine which semantic and morphosyntactic variables play a role in the choice between the two constructions; and second, to assess the usefulness of different methodologies in studying grammatical synonymy. The dissertation is a first large-scale quantitative study that looks at an alternation phenomenon which is typologically different from the English word order alternations and employs a combination of both corpus and experimental methodologies with an emphasis on advanced statistical analysis. The main conclusion is that the theoretical description of any linguistic phenomenon benefits from methodological pluralism. The results of two corpus studies and two experimental studies are reported. The results indicate that the various semantic properties of the Ground play a role (e.g. type and mobility). In addition, the morphosyntactic variables of length and complexity of the Ground phrase, word class of the Ground and Figure, and word order affect the choice. The adessive case construction is preferred with large, static Grounds (e.g. turg ‘market’) and with Ground phrases that are longer and more complex (e.g. kirjutuslaud ‘writing desk’). The peal-construction is preferred with smaller, movable Grounds (e.g. kapp ‘cupboard’) and with Ground phrases that are shorter and less complex, especially with pronouns (e.g. see ‘this’). The results reported in the dissertation confirm the prediction that the Estonian adessive case and the adposition peal ‘on’ are not absolute synonyms and that several semantic and morphosyntactic variables play a role in the alternation between the two constructions in present day written-Estonian