Revista de Estudos da Linguagem

971-1010

Authors: Thiago Oliveira da Motta Sampaio

Nos últimos anos, diversos softwares foram criados para auxiliar a elaboração de experimentos em ciências cognitivas. A oferta de softwares de simples utilização deveria facilitar o trabalho dos iniciantes, porém, acabou trazendo novos problemas e dúvidas. Que software usar? Qual deles é o mais adequado ao meu estudo e por quê? Através de uma revisão sobre computação, linguagem de programação e técnicas de apresentação de estímulos visuais,1 este artigo pretende fomentar a discussão a respeito (i) dos diversos tipos de softwares para estimulação, (ii) da importância de conhecer os detalhes técnicos do hardware utilizado e (iii) da compatibilização hardware-software-método como uma variável a ser controlada durante o desenvolvimento do protocolo experimental.

1011-1042

Authors: Andrew Ira Nevins, Mário André Coelho da Silva

The challenges in verifying vowel nasalization acoustically are well-known, and for this reason many researchers have opted for the use of nasal airflow masks. Such equipment, however, is not always affordable for recordings or projects conducted in the field. In the present article, we apply the recently developed technology of earbud recordings in Stewart & Kohlberger (2017) to the study of nasality in Maxakalí as a new method in experimental fieldwork phonology. This language has several phenomena related to nasality such as nasal spreading, prenasalization at the beginning of words, and glottal transparency in morphologicallyalternating ‘long forms’. One goal in using methodology with affordable equipment is to make it easier to generate a visual representation of the timing of the nasal profile of a word, thereby yielding possibilities for experimental linguistics to show increased integration with language description and pedagogy.

1075-1103

Authors: Wellington da Silva, Plinio Almeida Barbosa

Emotional phenomena can be described according to various psychological approaches, the most adopted being the discrete (basic) and the dimensional ones. This study aimed at investigating the relation between the perception of some basic emotions and emotional dimensions in speech, as well as determining which acoustic cues are related to their perception. We conducted two perception experiments with utterances selected from a foreign language (Swedish) of which the listeners had no knowledge. In the first one, Brazilian subjects rated on 5-point scales the expressivity of four basic emotions: joy, anger, sadness, and calmness. In the second, a distinct group of Brazilian subjects rated the expressivity of five emotional dimensions: activation, fairness, valence, motivation, and involvement. The perception of the basic emotions and of the emotional dimensions was then compared by means of the Spearman’s correlation coefficient. The five emotional dimensions were significantly correlated to some extent with the basic emotions, and these correlations were, in general, consistent with the literature and with the hypotheses that guided this study. We also performed an acoustic analysis, in which twelve acoustic parameters were automatically computed for the utterances evaluated by the listeners. The parameters which correlated better with the listeners’ judgments were fundamental frequency (median, interquantile semi-amplitude, 99.5% quantile), spectral tilt (mean and standard deviation), and LTAS slope. We concluded that it is possible to describe the perception of basic emotions in speech as a combination of emotional dimensions and that emotional dimensions may be better for describing the expression of emotions in speech.

1105-1142

Authors: Leticia Rebollo Couto Couto, Carolina Gomes da Silva, Luma da Silva Miranda

This work aims at describing differences between the dialectal varieties of Portuguese spoken at Salvador, Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in both the declarative and interrogative modalities. Analyses of prosodic parameters (fundamental frequency, duration, intensity) are made on the final nucleus of oxytonic, paroxytonic and proparoxytonic sentences. There are systematic prosodic changes between modalities – with a higher / rising F0 in interrogative nucleus where it is lower / decreasing for declaratives. The interrogative nucleus are also longer and stronger than the declaratives. Dialectal variations are also observed. The accentual patterns H + L*L% for declaratives and L + H*L% for interrogatives proposed by Moraes (2008) are observed in Rio de Janeiro speakers – the latter being truncated or compressed in oxytonic sentences due to lack of post-tonic material. Meanwhile, in the Salvador and Fortaleza varieties, interrogatives may also be performed with a L + H*H% pattern. More syllable elisions are also observed in Fortaleza speakers.

1143-1182

Authors: Melanie Campilongo Angelo, Raquel Santana Santos

This article discusses the comprehension of syllable duration in Brazilian Portuguese as a prosodic cue in ambiguous sentences with a NP1-V-NP2-attribute structure (e.g. ‘The mother has found her daughter sweating’). Phonologically, interpretations of the above-mentioned structure can be explained by the fact that attributes may or may not join the head in the construction of the phonological phrase domain (NESPOR; VOGEL, 1986), and because lengthening is expected when there is a boundary (FOUGERON; KEATING, 1997). We suggest that lengthening exists in BP as an optional phenomenon. We ran a picture matching experiment, with versions of structures with high and low attachment of 9 sentences. Overall results showed significant differences for type of syntactic structure. The different sentences also played a role in the results, indicating that although lengthening is optional in production, once it has been performed, it leads to a high attachment reading. The Low Attachment Principle (FRAZIER, 1979) seems to play a role in the results for sentences with low attachment. Finally, the findings signal also that sentences which allow small clause constructions may interfere with the lengthening process; and we argue that this happens because restructuring is blocked in this kind of structure.

1225-1254

Authors: Renê Forster, Letícia Maria Sicuro Corrêa

This paper investigates the possibility of an effect of contextual information during the processing of sentences containing subject relative clauses (SRCs) and object relative clauses (ORCs) in Brazilian Portuguese. The predictions from one-stage models and from syntaxoriented approaches to sentence processing are outlined. An eye-tracking experiment is reported in which SRCs and ORC were presented when preceded by narrative contexts that could either favor a subject or an object relative clause analysis. The results suggest that ORCs are harder to process when compared to SRCs, no matter what discourse contexts they are inserted in. The contextual effect obtained here can be ascribed to a pre-syntactic priming, ie. a priming effect which arises during lexical access. The possibility of pre- and post-syntactic contextual effects in the processing of RCs is discussed.

1255-1290

Authors: Flávia Gonçalves Calaça Souza, Rosana Costa Oliveira, Judithe Genuíno Henrique

This study sought to investigate whether these structures are acceptable or not for the speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Both syntactic and semantic approaches have been used to explain the logophoricity and a strong theoretical discussion is about what kind of best approach to account for the phenomenon. Much of the literature on the subject Reinhart and Reuland (1993) points out that logophoric anaphora exists separately from syntactic anaphora in Universal Grammar. The syntactic anaphora is guided by syntactic factors such as location and c-command. Already logophor may or may not notice these syntactic conditions. These studies also demonstrate that where there logophoricity, the pronoun and anaphora are interchangeable, so, either one or the other can be used in the same position in the sentence. Based on these theoretical assumptions, we examine the acceptability of logophorics buildings in PB in order to know if they are present in the grammar of the speakers of that language. An offline experiment judgment of acceptability since that according to Gibson and Fedorenko (2013) the linguistics intuition is not enough to verify such acceptability. The following experiment showed the results were significant for logophoric anaphora, which shows that a degree I anaphora and logophoric pronoun as different. There was no significant result for the pronoun, which does not allow us to point out that are not licensed in PB.

1291-1325

Authors: Mercedes Marcilese, Erica dos Santos Rodrigues, Marina Rosa Ana Augusto, Késsia da Silva Henrique

This paper investigates the role of linear distance between subject and verb and number marking for the processing of Brazilian Portuguese variable subject-verb agreement (e.g. Policiais Militares, após denúncia, prendeØ/ prendem traficante). On the basis of production and comprehension studies about attraction errors (E.g. O tecido das cortinas rasgaram) and the findings of Sociolinguistics, we conducted a reading experiment making use of a maze task. The results suggest that distance has an impact on the computation of the number features on the verb: with shorter reaction times under longer distance conditions. Results concerning number marking (singular/plural) were also significant: plural subjects representations appear to be more persistent in memory and impose heavier constraints on agreement computation in comparison to singular subjects, even for speakers in the context of linguistic variation concerning non-redundant marking.

1367-1395

Authors: Natália Carolina Alencar Resende, Mailce Borges Mota

In this paper, we present a behavioral study aimed at investigating whether inanimate grammatical gender transparent nouns (feminine nouns ending in -a and masculine nouns ending in -o) and inanimate grammatical gender opaque nouns (other endings) in Brazilian Portuguese are processed by the same or by distinct cognitive mechanisms. To this purpose, 19 subjects participated in a grammatical gender agreement task in two conditions: between a determiner (definite article) and a noun (condition 1), and a noun and an adjective (condition 2). Factors such as frequency of the nouns and adjectives (high vs. low) as well as their phonological form (gender transparent vs. gender opaque) were manipulated. Results show that, in both conditions, frequency is a strong predictor of faster reaction times, suggesting that gender transparent and gender opaque forms can be stored in memory. This pattern holds for both conditions. We interpret this finding as evidence for the single-mechanism view of language processing.

1397-1431

Authors: Gitanna Brito Bezerra, Márcio Martins Leitão, Lorrane da Silva Neves Medeiros

In this paper we report two experiments that were conducted to investigate the influence of referentiality on the processing of relative clauses associated with complex noun phrases of substance reading (like “the bag of (the) leather”). The self-paced reading task showed an immediate preference for high-attachment, revealing a strong influence of N1 referentiality on relative clause processing. The eyetracking study, in turn, revealed an immediate effect of N2 referentiality: low attachment is favored when the N2 is referential and high attachment is preferred when the N2 is non-referential. Our data are in tune with the general proposal of the Construal Hypothesis (FRAZIER; CLIFTON, 1996).

1463-1500

Authors: Diogo Pinheiro, Lilian Ferrari, Maria Clara Pimenta, Joabe de Souza, Márcia Viegas, Wanderson Lucas Ohenes

Este artigo se debruça sobre dois padrões de SNs singulares genéricos do português brasileiro – com artigo definido e com determinante zero – com um objetivo duplo: de um lado, caracterizar as estruturas conceptuais associadas a cada um desses padrões; de outro, testar experimentalmente a validade dessa caracterização. À luz da Gramática Cognitiva (LANGACKER, 1987, 1991, 2009, 2013), assumimos que ambos os padrões designam um tipo (em oposição a uma instância particular) inserido em um domínio conceitual abstrato (em oposição ao espaço físico). Com base nisso, sugerimos que (i) o esquema com artigo pressupõe a disponibilidade prévia do domínio de instanciação e evoca a conceitualização implícita de tipos não perfilados, ao passo que (ii) o esquema com determinante zero não pressupõe acesso prévio ao domínio de instanciação e não faculta a conceitualização de tipos não perfilados. Para testar essas hipóteses, foi realizado um experimento de julgamento de aceitabilidade no qual trinta estudantes de graduação avaliaram sentenças contendo SNs singulares genéricos definidos em duas condições: com sequência contrastiva (condição plenamente compatível com a hipótese (i)) e sem sequência contrastiva (condição menos compatível com a hipótese (i)). Os resultados revelaram a existência de diferença significativa na distribuição dos graus de aceitabilidade entre as duas condições (p = .043), fornecendo evidências em favor da proposta desenvolvida aqui.

1501-1536

Authors: Antonio João Carvalho Ribeiro, Adiel Queiroz Ricci

Um estudo experimental do processamento psicolinguístico de metáforas nominais do português brasileiro (X é um Y), p. ex., “Irene é um furacão”, foi realizado com o objetivo de evidenciar, a partir de tempos de leitura (RTs), a compreensão de expressões familiares, highapt (“bem construídas”) e cujo veículo se acha convencionalizado. Na primeira fase da pesquisa, realizaram-se dois norming studies (“estudos normativos”) com vistas ao ranqueamento de metáforas nominais (p. ex. “Algumas mulheres são furacões”) em relação a familiaridade, aptness (“adequação”) e convencionalidade. Na segunda fase da pesquisa, um experimento de leitura automonitorada (self-paced, non-cumulative, moving-window reading) foi conduzido, recorrendo, para a composição dos estímulos, às metáforas, p. ex., “Irene é um furacão”, que alcançaram, nos estudos normativos da primeira fase, ratings (ou “classificações”) de “muito familiares”, “very high-apt’’ e “altamente convencionalizadas”. Evidências do português brasileiro em favor do processamento direto de metáforas foram obtidas, conforme preconiza o modelo de Class-inclusion, de Glucksberg e Keysar (1990), pois não se revelaram diferenças significativas entre os RTs médios nas três condições: “metáfora”, “literal” e “declaração literal de inclusão em classe”, em contraposição aos achados de Janus e Bever (1985), que observaram tempos de leitura de metáforas novas significativamente maiores do que os de expressões literais, conforme as predições do Modelo Pragmático Padrão de processamento indireto.

1537-1566

Authors: Marília Uchôa Cavalcanti Lott de Moraes Costa

A medição da ativação cerebral por meio da técnica de potenciais relacionados a eventos (ERP) tem sido valiosa para lançar luz sobre diversas cognições humanas. A linguagem é uma das cognições que têm sido estudadas com essa técnica de grande resolução temporal entre o estímulo apresentado e a ativação observada decorrente desse estímulo. A área de aquisição da linguagem tem se beneficiado especialmente dessa técnica, dado que é possível investigar relações entre dados linguísticos e a ativação cerebral sem a necessidade de uma resposta explícita, como apertar um botão ou apontar para uma imagem. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar o estado da arte sobre o processamento de frases em crianças utilizando a técnica de ERP.

1567-1611

Authors: Fernanda Mendes

Este estudo testa a aquisição de estruturas de posse inalienável em português brasileiro e inglês americano, assumindo que crianças falantes nativas de inglês americano teriam disponível, num primeiro momento, a mesma gramática disponível para crianças falantes nativas de português brasileiro, em que a leitura inalienável poderia ser vinculada tanto na presença de pronomes possessivos quanto na presença de determinantes definidos com nomes de parte do corpo. Aplicando a Tarefa de Julgamento de Valor de Verdade observou-se que a distinção entre as gramáticas das duas línguas apareceu por volta dos seis anos de idade, quando crianças falantes de inglês americano restringiram o uso do determinante definido de acordo com a gramática alvo, não permitindo o seu uso nas estruturas contendo nomes de partes do corpo, quando foi veiculada a interpretação inalienável. Neste caso, o determinante definido foi substituído pelo pronome possessivo.

1613-1646

Authors: Suzi Lima

This paper explores the acquisition of distributivity in Yudja (Tupi, Brazil) based on a study with children and adults. In this paper, we explore experimentally the hypothesis discussed in previous work (LIMA, 2008) that verbal reduplication is a pluractional marker (LASERSOHN, 2005) that also conveys distributivity. Two preference tasks were performed with 11 adults and 17 children. Adults’ results show that the interpretation of ambiguous sentences is affected by the form of the noun phrase (conjoined nouns, pluralized nouns or bare nouns). Children’s results suggest that they have an overall preference for a distributive interpretation of sentences regardless of the verb form and the NP type.

1647-1684

Authors: Cristiane Oliveira da Silva

The aim of this paper is to investigate the processing of the reduplicated numeral sohoji-sohoji formed by the reduplication of the numeral one in Karajá, under a transdisciplinary approach, bringing together formal linguistic and neurobiology. The neuroscience of language experiment conducted sheds new light into the quantification processing complexity of sohoji-sohoji when different quantitative scenarios were previously presented. We use the ERPs extraction technique (Event-Related Brain Potential) to observe and to extract the wave’s amplitude in order to conduct statistical analysis from the chronometric data monitored online by the electroencephalogram (EEG). The results from statistical analysis conducted (ANOVA and t test) suggest that the event-distributive interpretation is the first activated because the violation of event items exhaustiveness was more complex than violation of subject exhaustiveness. Plurality, cardinality and event differentiation also displayed significant effects during Karaja distributive sentence comprehension.

1717-1766

Authors: Marije Soto, Aline Gesualdi Manhães

In this study, we aimed to investigate how late bilinguals of Dutch and Brazilian Portuguese (BP) engage in morphological processing in L2. Morphologically related and unrelated word pairs combined with cross-linguistic and cross-modal variations were presented in a lexical decision experiment in order to compare morphological priming effects in L2 and L1. We collected both reaction times and Event Related Potentials (ERPs). In L2, morphological priming effects were observed in lower amplitudes for the N400 component, but no effect was observed for RT measures. This can be explained under the assumption that the N400 component is more sensitive to lexical properties of roots (e.g.√friend) than to lexical properties of full word forms (e.g. friendliness). We consider that difficulties in L2 morphological processing are not necessarily due to a lack of parsing of morphemic units, but because of the difficulty in the semantic interpretation of derivational morphemes in L2. This occurs via compositional mechanisms that are grammatically constrained, which are especially difficult to acquire in adult life. This is in line with what is suggested by the Superficial Processing Hypothesis (CLAHSEN et al., 2010). Moreover cross-linguistic priming showed that although morphological priming occurred for switching from L2 to L1, it caused the opposite effect for switching from L1 to L2. These results confirm predictions made by the Revised Hierarchical Model (KROLL et al., 2010), which explains this type of data in terms of the relative weakness of concept to word form mapping in L2 as compared to word form to concept mapping.

1767-1799

Authors: Kátia Nazareth Moura de Abreu, Daniela Cid de Garcia, Katharine da Hora, Cristiane Ramos de Souza

The aims of this article are to present a review of the literature concerning the use of the Cloze test as a tool to measure reading performance, discussing its limits and possibilities, access the sensibility of the test for linguistic and non linguistic variables, and present a research agenda that considers the use of original qualitative designs to access different aspects of reading. To verify the sensibility of the test, we manipulated the variables word type (function words and content words), text length (short and long) and reading experience (measured in terms of level of schooling). We observed the performance of students from Elementary level and from High School. The results show that Elementary-level students had more difficulty with function words and with long texts, which indicates that the test is sensible to linguistic and non-linguistic factors. From the results and analyses, we draw a discussion of how the cloze test can be useful to evaluate different cognitive processes involved in reading.

1801-1830

Authors: Délia Ribeiro Leite, José Olímpio de Magalhães

This study aims to investigate the reading processing of professional revisers comparing their eye movement with subjects who do not work professionally in revising (non revisers). In the reading and error detection task proposed and performed by 14 revisers and 14 non revisers, the participants had to read and edit short journalistic texts displayed on a computer, by clicking on the errors and/or inadequacies they found using the mouse. There were two types of errors: a) suppression of preposition and b) incoherence generated by an incorrect nominal anaphora. In the statistic analysis, when normality was ensured, mixed models were carried out; otherwise, the analysis was carried out by means of non-parametric tests. Considering the eye movement analysis, the general perspective indicate that revisers presented the highest values, meaning they were slower in reading than non revisers, which occurred concerning the measures of the text, sentence and local levels. This research contributes to a characterization of reading processes involved in revisions of texts by professional reviewers.