Dataset Information

The acceptability judgment of Chinese pseudo-modifiers with and without a sentential context.

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates a particular type of non-canonical construction in Mandarin Chinese displaying an apparent semantics-syntax mismatch. We conducted an acceptability judgment experiment on native Mandarin speakers to evaluate whether such sequences could stand out of context as acceptable fragments. Analyses on experimental results revealed that: both semantic and syntactic acceptability of these sequences were significantly lower than those of canonical nominal classifier phrases; whereas if contextualized, the syntactic acceptability of those sequences became similar to that of canonical nominal phrases. This suggests that the non-canonical sequences are grammatically not on the same footing as canonical expressions; and it is the sentential context that makes these sequences appear structurally well-formed. These findings contribute to general discussions on relationship between constituency and grammaticality by demonstrating the gradient nature of grammaticality, and advocate a dynamic perspective in linguistic analysis that looks at a sequence of words in interaction with other elements in a sentence.

SUBMITTER: Gong T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6638940 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The acceptability judgment of Chinese pseudo-modifiers with and without a sentential context.

Gong Tao T Shuai Lan L Wu Yicheng Y

PloS one 20190718 7

This paper investigates a particular type of non-canonical construction in Mandarin Chinese displaying an apparent semantics-syntax mismatch. We conducted an acceptability judgment experiment on native Mandarin speakers to evaluate whether such sequences could stand out of context as acceptable fragments. Analyses on experimental results revealed that: both semantic and syntactic acceptability of these sequences were significantly lower than those of canonical nominal classifier phrases; whereas ...[more]

PMID: 31318934

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Project description:To adapt teaching to the prerequisites of students, teachers have various options at their disposal to gather and process information as the basis to form a judgment, such as carrying out tests, talking to and observing the behavior of students, or administering tasks. The complexity of such a judgment arises from the multitude of observations and their different possible explanations. This complexity might be reduced when teachers focus on one hypothesis instead of considering multiple hypotheses, interpret information in a confirmatory way, and not collect diagnostically relevant information. However, in this way, they run the risk of undesirable biased judgments. It therefore seems important to improve diagnostic judgments by selecting and processing information in a more reflective way. Research indicates that if information on a student is not easily available but restricted (e.g., by time pressure, difficult access to the student or high effort), a teacher who wants to make a careful decision is forced to rely on more reflective processes in the selection of tasks and in the interpretation of solutions. The present experimental study therefore investigates how the restricted availability of information in a specific diagnostic situation-when diagnostically inexperienced prospective mathematics teachers determine misconceptions in decimal fractions-influences the underlying cognitive processes. We assume that restricting the availability of information on student behavior augments the attentional focus and therefore reduces cognitive biases. Such more reflective processing can be observed by an increased time spent per piece of information, which should lead to the processing of relevant information and further increase judgment accuracy. To investigate these hypotheses, prospective teachers without prior knowledge in diagnosing misconceptions (N = 81) were asked to diagnose misconceptions on decimal fractions of virtual students by collecting information on students' solutions. Data concerning the effects of restricting the availability of information on teachers' cognitive processes were analyzed. The results show that with restricted information, participants indeed select a greater proportion of diagnostically relevant tasks, which positively influences judgment accuracy. These results are discussed with respect to their significance for framing teacher training and for further research.

Project description:BackgroundEvidence of global heterochromatin decay and aberrant gene expression in models of physiological and premature ageing have long supported the "heterochromatin loss theory of ageing", which proposes that ageing is aetiologically linked to, and accompanied by, a progressive, generalised loss of repressive epigenetic signatures. However, the remarkable plasticity of chromatin conformation suggests that the re-establishment of such marks could potentially revert the transcriptomic architecture of animal cells to a "younger" state, promoting longevity and healthspan. To expand our understanding of the ageing process and its connection to chromatin biology, we screened an RNAi library of chromatin-associated factors for increased longevity phenotypes.ResultsWe identified the lysine demethylases jmjd-3.2 and utx-1, as well as the lysine methyltransferase mes-2 as regulators of both lifespan and healthspan in C. elegans. Strikingly, we found that both overexpression and loss of function of jmjd-3.2 and utx-1 are all associated with enhanced longevity. Furthermore, we showed that the catalytic activity of UTX-1, but not JMJD-3.2, is critical for lifespan extension in the context of overexpression. In attempting to reconcile the improved longevity associated with both loss and gain of function of utx-1, we investigated the alternative lifespan pathways and tissue specificity of longevity outcomes. We demonstrated that lifespan extension caused by loss of utx-1 function is daf-16 dependent, while overexpression effects are partially independent of daf-16. In addition, lifespan extension was observed when utx-1 was knocked down or overexpressed in neurons and intestine, whereas in the epidermis, only knockdown of utx-1 conferred improved longevity.ConclusionsWe show that the regulation of longevity by chromatin modifiers can be the result of the interaction between distinct factors, such as the level and tissue of expression. Overall, we suggest that the heterochromatin loss model of ageing may be too simplistic an explanation of organismal ageing when molecular and tissue-specific effects are taken into account.

Dataset Information

The acceptability judgment of Chinese pseudo-modifiers with and without a sentential context.

Publications

The acceptability judgment of Chinese pseudo-modifiers with and without a sentential context.

Similar Datasets

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