The comprehension and production of non-literal language

非文字语言的理解和产生

• 批准号: 7040-2012
• 负责人: Katz, AlbertNorman
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=506318
• 关键词: comprehension; production; non; literal; language

The research program examines the comprehension and production of non-literal language. In this form of language the surface message alone is inconsistent with canonical knowledge held about the world and/or the intention of the speaker. Although such tropes pervade natural language they are problematic for computational models of language comprehension or production, and often prove difficult for people with brain injuries. Moreover, there is little consensus on the processes involved in comprehension and even less known about the contextual factors (linguistic and paralinguistic) used in production to invite a successful communication of intent. In our work to date we suggest that a specialized linguistic processor is not required to understand non-literal language, that a set of linguistic and social cues play an important role in comprehension and that, in general, constraint satisfaction models appear to have the flexibility to explain the somewhat apparently conflicting data found in the archival literature. We intend to systematically examine whether pragmatic factors such as gender, age, or social status play a role in the comprehension and production of metaphor, sarcasm and proverbial language, and how these factors interact with more commonly studied non-pragmatically based aspects of discourse processing (such as semantic overlap, and explicit markers /expectations of the upcoming text). We will employ a set of quite diverse measures: ratings, reading times, constrained production tasks and ERPs (brainwaves linked to specific input). These data, taken with others already obtained in my laboratory will: (1) permit for independent tests of alternative theories of sarcasm processing and production and, (2) permits a direct test of a constraint satisfaction explanation of sarcasm, and (3) permit for the development of a computational model of sarcasm comprehension, based on constraint satisfaction principles. The data will have implications for people with brain injuries unable to "get" the point of non-literal language

该研究项目考察了非文字语言的理解和产生。在这种语言形式中，表面信息本身与关于世界和/或说话者意图的规范知识不一致。尽管这些比喻在自然语言中普遍存在，但它们对于语言理解或产生的计算模型来说是有问题的，而且对脑损伤的人来说往往是困难的。此外，人们对理解过程几乎没有共识，对生产中用于诱导意图成功沟通的语境因素（语言和副语言）的了解就更少了。在我们迄今为止的工作中，我们建议不需要专门的语言处理器来理解非文字语言，一组语言和社会线索在理解中起着重要作用，并且一般来说，约束满足模型似乎具有灵活性，可以解释在档案文献中发现的有些明显冲突的数据。我们打算系统地研究诸如性别、年龄或社会地位等语用因素是否在隐喻、讽刺和谚语语言的理解和产生中发挥作用，以及这些因素如何与更常见的基于非语用的话语处理方面（如语义重叠和即将到来的文本的明确标记/期望）相互作用。我们将采用一系列相当多样化的衡量标准：评分、阅读时间、受限生产任务和erp（与特定输入相关联的脑电波）。这些数据，与我实验室已经获得的其他数据一起，将：(1)允许对讽刺加工和产生的替代理论进行独立测试，(2)允许对讽刺的约束满足解释进行直接测试，(3)允许基于约束满足原则开发讽刺理解的计算模型。这些数据将对那些无法“理解”非字面语言的脑损伤患者产生影响