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Keywords = Croatian language

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15 pages, 1134 KiB  
Article
Is the Prosodic Structure of Texts Reflected in Silent Reading? An Eye-Tracking Corpus Analysis
by Marijan Palmović and Kristina Cergol
J. Eye Mov. Res. 2025, 18(3), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/jemr18030024 - 18 Jun 2025
Viewed by 374
Abstract
The aim of this study was to test the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis using a reading corpus, i.e., a text without experimental manipulation labelled with eye-tracking parameters. For this purpose, a bilingual Croatian–English reading corpus was analysed. In prosodic terms, Croatian and English are [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to test the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis using a reading corpus, i.e., a text without experimental manipulation labelled with eye-tracking parameters. For this purpose, a bilingual Croatian–English reading corpus was analysed. In prosodic terms, Croatian and English are at the opposite ends of the spectrum: English is considered a time-framed language, while Croatian is a syllable-framed language. This difference served as a kind of experimental control in this study on natural reading. The results show that readers’ eyes lingered more on stressed syllables than on the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables for both languages. This is especially pronounced for English, a language with greater differences in the duration of stressed and unstressed syllables. This study provides indirect evidence in favour of the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis, i.e., the idea that readers are guided by their inner voice with its suprasegmental features when reading silently. The differences between the languages can be traced back to the typological differences in stress in English and Croatian. Full article
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27 pages, 3907 KiB  
Article
Detecting Disinformation in Croatian Social Media Comments
by Igor Ljubi, Zdravko Grgić, Marin Vuković and Gordan Gledec
Future Internet 2025, 17(4), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17040178 - 17 Apr 2025
Viewed by 688
Abstract
The frequency with which fake news or misinformation is published on social networks is constantly increasing. Users of social networks are confronted with many different posts every day, often with sensationalist titles and content of dubious veracity. The problem is particularly common in [...] Read more.
The frequency with which fake news or misinformation is published on social networks is constantly increasing. Users of social networks are confronted with many different posts every day, often with sensationalist titles and content of dubious veracity. The problem is particularly common in times of sensitive social or political situations, such as epidemics of contagious diseases or elections. As such messages can have an impact on democratic processes or cause panic among the population, many countries and the European Commission itself have recently stepped up their activities to combat disinformation campaigns on social networks. Since previous research has shown that there are no tools available to combat disinformation in the Croatian language, we proposed a framework to detect potentially misinforming content in the comments on social media. The case study was conducted with real public comments published on Croatian Facebook pages. The initial results of this framework were encouraging as it can successfully classify and detect disinformation content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Collection Information Systems Security)
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27 pages, 624 KiB  
Article
Graph-Based Lexical Sentiment Propagation Algorithm
by Tajana Ban Kirigin, Sanda Bujačić Babić and Benedikt Perak
Mathematics 2025, 13(7), 1141; https://doi.org/10.3390/math13071141 - 31 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 435
Abstract
In the rapidly developing field of sentiment analysis, it is a challenge to create sentiment dictionaries with broad coverage, especially for languages with limited resources. To address this problem, we propose innovative methodologies that automate the creation of comprehensive sentiment dictionaries, utilising both [...] Read more.
In the rapidly developing field of sentiment analysis, it is a challenge to create sentiment dictionaries with broad coverage, especially for languages with limited resources. To address this problem, we propose innovative methodologies that automate the creation of comprehensive sentiment dictionaries, utilising both traditional linguistic approaches and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies. The methodologies are characterised by their universal applicability to different languages. The proposed ConGraCNet Sentiment Propagation algorithm uniquely combines existing sentiment dictionaries and corpus-based syntactic–semantic embedding graphs to reliably capture and propagate sentiment values in lexical networks. To demonstrate the particular benefit for underrepresented languages with scarce sentiment resources, such as Croatian, we used the ConGraCNet Sentiment Propagation algorithm to create the Sentiment-hr dictionary and the AI tool GPT to generate the Sentiment-hr-AI dictionary. The two open-source sentiment dictionaries created are the largest and most comprehensive resources for the Croatian language to date, being at least ten times larger than the second-largest sentiment dictionary available. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the methods presented, which significantly expand the toolkit of sentiment analysis for the Croatian language and provide researchers with valuable insights and resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section E1: Mathematics and Computer Science)
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24 pages, 362 KiB  
Review
Three Decades of Digital Media and Journalism in Croatia and Slovenia: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies Published in Local Languages
by Tijana Vukić and Jelena Jurišić
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(3), 161; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030161 - 6 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1423
Abstract
Through the lens of the theory of mediamorphosis, the authors intend to demonstrate scientific contributions in the native languages of Croatian and Slovenian scholars to the study of digital journalism. This paper provides an insight into the common points but also similarities and [...] Read more.
Through the lens of the theory of mediamorphosis, the authors intend to demonstrate scientific contributions in the native languages of Croatian and Slovenian scholars to the study of digital journalism. This paper provides an insight into the common points but also similarities and differences in the evolution of interests and approaches of these scientific communities, which are special in that they are the only two members of the European Union that also share the legacy of the socio-political system of the former Yugoslavia. The central goal of this study was to identify, evaluate, and synthesize all the relevant empirical research, categorized only as original scientific papers that had been published from 1994 to 2024, together with scientific monographs on digital media and journalism, in order to contribute to filling the gap in regard to the review of local literature and internationalized local research. The primary search on the following terms and keywords: digital media, digital journalism, electronic publications, Internet, Internet journalism, Internet portals, new media, online media, online journalism, online portals, and web portals was conducted via several local databases (HRČAK, CEEOL, SCIndex, and COBISS). Using a systematic literature review strategy and content analysis methods, this study deeply explored several aspects of the empirical studies (N = 24) it found: metadata, theoretical background, research objects, methodology, and results. The articles were, in principle, published in local journals with high international impact and included in major databases WOS and SCOPUS. The findings show the first articles in Croatia date only from 2007 and from 2010 in Slovenia. With some interruptions, they are published relatively regularly. In the corpus analyzed, two scientific monographs from Croatia and one from Slovenia were included. The research confirms that the topics studied in this region and the methodologies used are characteristic of the contemporary trends in digital journalism studies. Although the thematic focuses are somewhat similar—journalistic texts and writing; editorial protocols; practices; policies; division of labor; organization; platform regulations and preferences; and audience behavior—there is a significant difference in the methodological approach; Croatian scholars rely on output manifestation and the analysis of media content; while Slovenian colleagues mainly research media organizations from the inside; through interviews. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Digital Journalism: Issues and Challenges)
23 pages, 5944 KiB  
Article
Examining Sentiment Analysis for Low-Resource Languages with Data Augmentation Techniques
by Gaurish Thakkar, Nives Mikelić Preradović and Marko Tadić
Eng 2024, 5(4), 2920-2942; https://doi.org/10.3390/eng5040152 - 7 Nov 2024
Viewed by 2133
Abstract
This investigation investigates the influence of a variety of data augmentation techniques on sentiment analysis in low-resource languages, with a particular emphasis on Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovak, and Slovene. The following primary research topic is addressed: is it possible to improve sentiment analysis efficacy [...] Read more.
This investigation investigates the influence of a variety of data augmentation techniques on sentiment analysis in low-resource languages, with a particular emphasis on Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovak, and Slovene. The following primary research topic is addressed: is it possible to improve sentiment analysis efficacy in low-resource languages through data augmentation? Our sub-questions look at how different augmentation methods affect performance, how effective WordNet-based augmentation is compared to other methods, and whether lemma-based augmentation techniques can be used, especially for Croatian sentiment tasks. The sentiment-labelled evaluations in the selected languages are included in our data sources, which were curated with additional annotations to standardise labels and mitigate ambiguities. Our findings show that techniques like replacing words with synonyms, masked language model (MLM)-based generation, and permuting and combining sentences can only make training datasets slightly bigger. However, they provide limited improvements in model accuracy for low-resource language sentiment classification. WordNet-based techniques, in particular, exhibit a marginally superior performance compared to other methods; however, they fail to substantially improve classification scores. From a practical perspective, this study emphasises that conventional augmentation techniques may require refinement to address the complex linguistic features that are inherent to low-resource languages, particularly in mixed-sentiment and context-rich instances. Theoretically, our results indicate that future research should concentrate on the development of augmentation strategies that introduce novel syntactic structures rather than solely relying on lexical variations, as current models may not effectively leverage synonymic or lemmatised data. These insights emphasise the nuanced requirements for meaningful data augmentation in low-resource linguistic settings and contribute to the advancement of sentiment analysis approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Eng 2024)
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10 pages, 719 KiB  
Article
Early Symptoms and Treatment Outcomes in Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis Type 2: Croatian Experience
by Jelena Radić Nišević, Ivana Kolić, Marija Kostanjski, Franka Kovačević and Igor Prpić
J. Pers. Med. 2024, 14(8), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm14080783 - 24 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1844
Abstract
Background: Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2 (CLN2) is a rare neurodegenerative disease that generally appears in children between 2 and 4 years old, leading to seizures and a progressive loss of language and motor functions. As the disease progresses, affected individuals [...] Read more.
Background: Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2 (CLN2) is a rare neurodegenerative disease that generally appears in children between 2 and 4 years old, leading to seizures and a progressive loss of language and motor functions. As the disease progresses, affected individuals typically experience blindness and ultimately pass away in late childhood. Treatment with intracerebroventricular cerliponase alfa has been shown to slow the deterioration of motor and language functions compared to the natural progression of the disease. We aim to highlight the early symptoms of CLN2 which help with early diagnosis and timely treatment initiation in children with specific medical indications, as well as identify medical contraindications for enzyme replacement therapy. Methods: We describe five Croatian patients and one Bosnia and Herzegovinian patient with CLN2 disease, analyzing the clinical characteristics, neuroimaging findings, electroencephalogram results, genetic analysis, treatment indications and contraindications, and disease progression. Results: All six patients presented with seizures: focal seizures (n = 1), myoclonic–atonic seizures (n = 1), febrile seizures (n = 2), and tonic–clonic seizures (n = 2), along with language delay (n = 6). Despite this, one patient refused treatment, two were initially included in the clinical trial and then continued treatment, one did not indicate starting treatment, and three continued treatment. One patient, after 4.5 years of treatment, no longer had medical indications for the therapy, which was discontinued. The other two patients who received treatment had a significant slowing of disease progression. Conclusions: The early onset of seizures between ages 2 and 4, alongside delayed language development, is a defining characteristic of CLN2 disease. Enzyme replacement therapy using cerliponase alfa represents the initial treatment for neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2, targeting the underlying cause of the disease. It effectively delays the progression of language and motor decline in patients diagnosed with this condition. Full article
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29 pages, 826 KiB  
Article
Practices and Attitudes of the Research and Teaching Staff at the University of Split about the Online Encyclopedia Wikipedia
by Mirko Duić
Publications 2024, 12(3), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications12030020 - 11 Jul 2024
Viewed by 2039
Abstract
The goal of this study was to investigate the practices and attitudes of the research and teaching staff at the University of Split (Croatia) about the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The method of a questionnaire-based survey was used to gain insights related to this [...] Read more.
The goal of this study was to investigate the practices and attitudes of the research and teaching staff at the University of Split (Croatia) about the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The method of a questionnaire-based survey was used to gain insights related to this topic. During February 2024, the survey was completed by 226 respondents. The results show that almost all respondents read Wikipedia articles and believe that the level of their accuracy is quite high. Almost half of the respondents strongly agree with the statement that it would be desirable for faculty staff to write Wikipedia articles with the aim of spreading knowledge about topics from their professional fields. However, a very small number of respondents participated in writing articles for Wikipedia. Also, the respondents answered that to them, the greatest motivations to write articles on Wikipedia would be if this activity were evaluated for the advancement to a higher work position and the correction of errors in Wikipedia articles. It was also found that most respondents are not very familiar with how Wikipedia works or how to add new content to it. These and other insights from this study can be used to conceive and initiate various activities that can contribute to greater participation of scientific and teaching staff of higher education institutions in writing quality content on Wikipedia, as well as activities that can contribute to a better familiarization with the principles and procedures to write and enhance its content. Other research methods, such as interviews with scientific and teaching staff of higher education institutions, could be used to acquire further, more detailed answers related to this topic. Full article
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24 pages, 8284 KiB  
Article
Hybrid Natural Language Processing Model for Sentiment Analysis during Natural Crisis
by Marko Horvat, Gordan Gledec and Fran Leontić
Electronics 2024, 13(10), 1991; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13101991 - 20 May 2024
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3060
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel natural language processing (NLP) model as an original approach to sentiment analysis, with a focus on understanding emotional responses during major disasters or conflicts. The model was created specifically for Croatian and is based on unigrams, but it [...] Read more.
This paper introduces a novel natural language processing (NLP) model as an original approach to sentiment analysis, with a focus on understanding emotional responses during major disasters or conflicts. The model was created specifically for Croatian and is based on unigrams, but it can be used with any language that supports the n-gram model and expanded to multiple word sequences. The presented model generates a sentiment score aligned with discrete and dimensional emotion models, reliability metrics, and individual word scores using affective datasets Extended ANEW and NRC WordEmotion Association Lexicon. The sentiment analysis model incorporates different methodologies, including lexicon-based, machine learning, and hybrid approaches. The process of preprocessing includes translation, lemmatization, and data refinement, utilized automated translation services as well as the CLARIN Knowledge Centre for South Slavic languages (CLASSLA) library, with a particular emphasis on diacritical mark correction and tokenization. The presented model was experimentally evaluated on three simultaneous major natural crises that recently affected Croatia. The study’s findings reveal a significant shift in emotional dimensions during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly a decrease in valence, arousal, and dominance, which corresponded with the two-month recovery period. Furthermore, the 2020 Croatian earthquakes elicited a wide range of negative discrete emotions, including anger, fear, and sadness, with the recuperation period much longer than in the case of COVID-19. This study represents an advancement in sentiment analysis, particularly in linguistically specific contexts, and provides insights into the emotional landscape shaped by major societal events. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Theory and Applications in Natural Language Processing)
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16 pages, 908 KiB  
Article
Croatian Translation and Validation of the Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire (PSNCQQ)
by Marin Mamić, Hrvoje Vidić, Tihomir Jovanović, Slavka Galić, Ivana Jelinčić, Štefica Mikšić, Božica Lovrić, Ivanka Zirdum, Kristijan Matković, Goran Zukanović, Goranka Radmilović, Zrinka Puharić, Mirela Frančina, Robert Lovrić and Ivan Vukoja
Healthcare 2024, 12(9), 888; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12090888 - 25 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2457
Abstract
Patient satisfaction is a crucial measure of the quality of healthcare, especially with regard to nursing services in hospital settings. Understanding and increasing patient satisfaction with nursing care is critical to improving overall healthcare and ensuring positive patient experiences during their hospital stay. [...] Read more.
Patient satisfaction is a crucial measure of the quality of healthcare, especially with regard to nursing services in hospital settings. Understanding and increasing patient satisfaction with nursing care is critical to improving overall healthcare and ensuring positive patient experiences during their hospital stay. The aim of this research was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Croatian version of the Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire (PSNCQQ), test the reliability and validity of the tool after translation, and investigate differences in patient satisfaction based on demographic variables, as well as their contribution to satisfaction with the quality of nursing care. After translation and adaptation, the Croatian version of the PSNCQQ was applied to 350 hospitalized patients (average age 51.19 years (range: 18–87)), of whom 194 (55.4%) were men and 156 (44.6%) were women. The results showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.977) and confirmed the one-factor structure of the questionnaire, explaining 70.64% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensional model, showing strong fit indices (χ2 = 583.047, df = 149, p < 0.001, GFI = 0.861, AGFI = 0.818, NFI = 0.936, TLI = 0.946, CFI = 0.955, RMSEA = 0.080, PCLOSE < 0.001). In conclusion, the validation of the PSNCQQ in the Croatian language increases resources for evaluating and improving the quality of nursing care. This research lays the foundation for future studies and practical applications aimed at improving patient satisfaction and nursing care outcomes in Croatia, but there are also limitations to this study, including its one-institution scope, the possible influence of factors outside the current treatment on satisfaction, and the lack of comparison with objective clinical indicators. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Nursing Research)
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23 pages, 1225 KiB  
Article
Error Pattern Discovery in Spellchecking Using Multi-Class Confusion Matrix Analysis for the Croatian Language
by Gordan Gledec, Mladen Sokele, Marko Horvat and Miljenko Mikuc
Computers 2024, 13(2), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/computers13020039 - 29 Jan 2024
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2558
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel approach to the creation and application of confusion matrices for error pattern discovery in spellchecking for the Croatian language. The experimental dataset has been derived from a corpus of mistyped words and user corrections collected since 2008 using [...] Read more.
This paper introduces a novel approach to the creation and application of confusion matrices for error pattern discovery in spellchecking for the Croatian language. The experimental dataset has been derived from a corpus of mistyped words and user corrections collected since 2008 using the Croatian spellchecker available at ispravi.me. The important role of confusion matrices in enhancing the precision of spellcheckers, particularly within the diverse linguistic context of the Croatian language, is investigated. Common causes of spelling errors, emphasizing the challenges posed by diacritic usage, have been identified and analyzed. This research contributes to the advancement of spellchecking technologies and provides a more comprehensive understanding of linguistic details, particularly in languages with diacritic-rich orthographies, like Croatian. The presented user-data-driven approach demonstrates the potential for custom spellchecking solutions, especially considering the ever-changing dynamics of language use in digital communication. Full article
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21 pages, 346 KiB  
Article
“Beauty Ideals” from a Christian, Educational and Media Perspective: Dangers, Challenges and Opportunities in the Croatian Educational System
by Danijel Labaš, Lana Ciboci Perša and Ivan Uldrijan
Religions 2024, 15(1), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010029 - 23 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2348
Abstract
Today’s children are growing up and spending most of their free time with media, especially social networks, on which various lifestyles are imposed every day, including ideals of beauty that are often based on physical appearance and far from authentic images of the [...] Read more.
Today’s children are growing up and spending most of their free time with media, especially social networks, on which various lifestyles are imposed every day, including ideals of beauty that are often based on physical appearance and far from authentic images of the observed object. In this paper, it is shown how the topic of beauty is presented throughout the history of art, with a special focus on the presentation of beauty in theology. Additionally, the paper investigates how much the topic of beauty is treated within the Croatian formal education system, with a particular emphasis on the representation of beauty and to what extent children are prepared to critically evaluate the representation of beauty in different types of media, but also to reflect on the potential impact of such content on themselves. Research has shown that most such content is present in the subjects of Visual Culture, Visual Arts, Croatian Language and Informatics. The paper also presents such contents in the Catholic religious education curricula. In addition to imposed media ideals of beauty affecting childrens’ self-confidence, they are often the subject of peer violence, especially in the virtual world. Specifically, humiliation based on physical appearance is a common form of cyberbullying. To determine how physical appearance is used in such unacceptable behavior among children, all the posts that have arrived on UHO, the first online platform for the prevention of cyberbullying in Croatia, were analyzed. Research has shown that girls report such forms of abuse more often than boys, that cyberbullying based on appearance most often occurs inside closed groups or private messages rather than publicly on social networks, and that children rarely report to adults that they are the victims of such forms of violence. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religious Education and Via Pulchritudinis)
16 pages, 275 KiB  
Article
Interactive Alignment in L2 Learning: The Link between Social Interaction and Psycholinguistic Phenomena
by Nadia Mifka-Profozic
Educ. Sci. 2023, 13(8), 792; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080792 - 3 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2606
Abstract
To engage successfully in conversational activities, participants need to coordinate and synchronise their talk with the talk of their interlocutors. Apart from a set of social strategies and natural routines involved in sequence organisation, a significant contributor to this goal is a psycholinguistic [...] Read more.
To engage successfully in conversational activities, participants need to coordinate and synchronise their talk with the talk of their interlocutors. Apart from a set of social strategies and natural routines involved in sequence organisation, a significant contributor to this goal is a psycholinguistic mechanism identified as interactive alignment. The present study set out to examine whether interactive alignment occurs in L2 speech of upper intermediate second language users who have been learning English at school for around 11 years. The participants were a group of twenty Croatian students in their second year of university study, majoring in English. They worked on two collaborative tasks: one carried out in dialogues and the other one in groups of four. Their interactions were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, to closely examine how interaction evolves in unscripted task-based L2 production. With a significantly larger number of alignment occurrences recorded in dialogues than in groups of four, both between speaker and within speaker, this study demonstrates that processes in L2 learning and use are interconnected and interdependent at all levels, involving cognitive, psychological, psycholinguistic, and social dimensions. Full article
11 pages, 1288 KiB  
Data Descriptor
A Comprehensive Dataset of Spelling Errors and Users’ Corrections in Croatian Language
by Gordan Gledec, Marko Horvat, Miljenko Mikuc and Bruno Blašković
Data 2023, 8(5), 89; https://doi.org/10.3390/data8050089 - 12 May 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4775
Abstract
This paper presents a unique and extensive dataset containing over 33 million entries with pairs in the form “spelling error → correction” from ispravi.me, the most popular Croatian online spellchecking service, collected since 2008. The dataset, compiled from the contribution of nearly 900,000 [...] Read more.
This paper presents a unique and extensive dataset containing over 33 million entries with pairs in the form “spelling error → correction” from ispravi.me, the most popular Croatian online spellchecking service, collected since 2008. The dataset, compiled from the contribution of nearly 900,000 users, is a valuable resource for researchers and developers in the field of natural language processing (NLP), improving spellcheck accuracy, and language learning applications. The dataset may be used to accomplish several goals: (1) improving spellchecking accuracy by incorporating common user corrections and reducing false positives and negatives; (2) helping language learners identify common errors and learn correct spelling through targeted feedback; (3) analyzing data trends and patterns to uncover the most common spelling errors and their underlying causes; (4) identifying and evaluating factors that influence typing input; (5) improving NLP applications such as text recognition and machine translation. Tasks specific to the Croatian language include the creation of a letter-level confusion matrix and the refinement of word suggestions based on historical usage of the service. This comprehensive dataset provides researchers and practitioners with a wealth of information, opening the path for advancements in spellchecking, language learning, and NLP applications in the Croatian language. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Information Systems and Data Management)
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24 pages, 454 KiB  
Article
Main Concepts in the Spoken Discourse of Persons with Aphasia: Analysis on a Propositional and Linguistic Level
by Jelena Kuvač Kraljević, Ana Matić Škorić and Karolina Lice
Languages 2023, 8(2), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8020120 - 28 Apr 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2864
Abstract
Individuals produce discourse for various purposes as part of their daily functioning. Therefore, the ability to form a discourse should be one of the main goals of functional speech-language therapy for persons with aphasia (PwA). In addition to assessing the language skills required [...] Read more.
Individuals produce discourse for various purposes as part of their daily functioning. Therefore, the ability to form a discourse should be one of the main goals of functional speech-language therapy for persons with aphasia (PwA). In addition to assessing the language skills required to form a discourse, it is important to analyse how PwA form general ideas that need to be narrated. This study had two specific aims: (1) to investigate the ability of PwA, with special consideration to the stage of their recovery—the acute and the chronic phase—to form main concepts in a discourse, and (2) to examine the relationship between the number of main concepts and different types of language measures related to productivity, informativeness, and grammaticality in all tested groups. Participants included a total of 38 persons with mild and moderate aphasia (19 in the acute and 19 in the chronic phase of recovery) and 38 healthy speakers (HS) who were matched in age, gender, and level of education. In order to effectively compare the discourse produced by the groups, a single structured stimulus was used, whereby all participants were asked to orally describe a picture from the Croatian version of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test. Compared to the HS, the main concepts produced by PwA were different in number, as well as in terms of their accuracy and completeness. However, when analysing the success in the production of the main concepts with regard to the time post-stroke—acute and chronic—the difference was not confirmed, indicating great individual differences between PwA that undermine the differences on a group level. Linguistic measures of informativeness (CIUs and CIU/words) and only one measure of grammaticality (number of clauses) showed a significant correlation with the number of main concepts in PwA. When analysing correlations for PwA in the acute and chronic phases, only CIU showed a significant association with MC, confirming it as a robust measure of discourse production in PwA. PwA did not produce long and complex sentences, and they showed difficulties in the use of verbs and the marking of argument structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Linguistics and Adults with Language Disorders: Modelling the Theory)
14 pages, 1310 KiB  
Article
Gender Congruency Effects in Spanish: Behavioral Evidence from Noun Phrase Production
by Ruixue Wu and Niels O. Schiller
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(4), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13040696 - 21 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2560
Abstract
Grammatical gender as a lexico-syntactic feature has been well explored, and the gender congruency effect has been observed in many languages (e.g., Dutch, German, Croatian, Czech, etc.). Yet, so far, this effect has not been found in Romance languages such as Italian, French, [...] Read more.
Grammatical gender as a lexico-syntactic feature has been well explored, and the gender congruency effect has been observed in many languages (e.g., Dutch, German, Croatian, Czech, etc.). Yet, so far, this effect has not been found in Romance languages such as Italian, French, and Spanish. It has been argued that the absence of the effect in Romance languages is due the fact that the gender-marking definite article is not exclusively dependent on the grammatical gender of the head noun, but also on its onset phonology (e.g., lo zucchero is ‘the sugar’ in Italian, not il zucchero, il being the default masculine determiner in Italian). For Spanish, this argument has also been made because feminine words starting with a stressed /a/ take the masculine article (e.g., el água is ‘the water’, not la água). However, the number of words belonging to that set is rather small in Spanish, and it may be questionable whether or not this feature can be taken as an argument for the absence of a gender congruency effect in Spanish. In this study, we investigated the gender congruency effect in native Spanish noun phrase production. We measured 30 native Spanish speakers’ naming latencies in four conditions via the picture–word interference paradigm by manipulating gender congruency (i.e., gender-congruent vs. gender-incongruent) and semantic relatedness (i.e., semantically related vs. semantically unrelated). The results revealed significantly longer naming latencies in gender-incongruent and semantically related conditions compared to gender-congruent and semantically unrelated conditions. This result suggests that grammatical gender as a lexico-syntactic feature in Spanish is used to competitively select determiners in native Spanish speakers’ noun phrases. Our findings provide an important behavioral piece of evidence for the gender congruency effect in Romance languages. Full article
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