Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing,
Journal Year:
2023,
Volume and Issue:
unknown, P. 12120 - 12135
Published: Jan. 1, 2023
Animacy—whether
an
entity
is
alive
and
sentient—is
fundamental
to
cognitive
processing,
impacting
areas
such
as
memory,
vision,
language.
However,
animacy
not
always
expressed
directly
in
language:
English
it
often
manifests
indirectly,
the
form
of
selectional
constraints
on
verbs
adjectives.
This
poses
a
potential
issue
for
transformer
language
models
(LMs):
they
train
only
text,
thus
lack
access
extralinguistic
information
from
which
humans
learn
about
animacy.
We
ask:
how
does
this
impact
LMs’
processing—do
still
behave
do?
answer
question
using
open-source
LMs.
Like
previous
studies,
we
find
that
LMs
much
like
when
presented
with
entities
whose
typical.
also
show
even
stories
atypically
animate
entities,
peanut
love,
adapt:
treat
these
animate,
though
do
adapt
well
humans.
Even
context
indicating
atypical
very
short,
pick
up
subtle
clues
change
their
behavior.
conclude
despite
limited
signal
through
can
animacy,
are
indeed
sensitive
relevant
lexical
semantic
nuances
available
English.
Journal of Cognition,
Journal Year:
2024,
Volume and Issue:
7(1)
Published: Jan. 1, 2024
Studies
on
short-term
memory
have
repeatedly
demonstrated
the
beneficial
effect
of
semantic
similarity.
Although
seems
robust,
aspects
semantics
targeted
by
these
studies
(e.g.,
categorical
structure,
associative
relationship,
or
dimension
meaning)
should
be
clarified.
A
recent
meta-regression
study
inspired
Osgood's
view,
which
highlights
affective
dimensions
in
semantics,
introduced
a
novel
index
for
quantifying
similarity
using
values.
Building
results
past
studies'
data
with
that
index,
this
predicts
is
deleterious
to
if
it
manipulated
dimensions,
after
controlling
other
confounding
factors.
This
prediction
was
directly
tested.
The
experimental
immediate
serial
recall
task
(Study
1)
and
reconstruction
order
2)
indicated
null
effects
thus
falsified
prediction.
These
suggest
based
negligible.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour,
Journal Year:
2024,
Volume and Issue:
54(2), P. 136 - 166
Published: Jan. 6, 2024
Abstract
Animacy
is
an
important
framework
through
which
humans
view
and
categorize
the
world,
but
many
objects
do
not
easily
fit
within
this
scale.
Plants
are
unique
because
they
very
familiar
to
humans,
yet
features
traits
relevant
for
placement
animacy
scale
generally
poorly
understood
by
public.
occurs
at
three
levels,
with
inherent
attributes
of
object
(biology),
how
perceived
(cognition),
expressed
in
languages
(linguistics).
dependent
on
qualification
perception
as
alive,
mobile,
intentional.
In
absence
visible
movement,
classification
featural
indicating
mobility
or
a
group
recognized
animate
(animalness).
have
complicated
bodies
whose
forms
structures
frequently
clear
representations
their
life
history
function
(plantness),
more
than
animals,
these
signs
movement
activity
rarely
recognized.
The
may
be
closely
based
human
similarity
(humanness)
peak
life,
mobility,
intentionality.
As
we
can
anthropocentric
viewpoint,
rendering
plants
scenery
utility,
use
anthropomorphic
interaction
better
understand
recognize
dynamic
lives
plants.
goal
review
compare
current
evidence
adjacent
scales
biology
habit
land
plants,
behaviour,
work
process
educate
inform
people
about
complex
PLoS ONE,
Journal Year:
2023,
Volume and Issue:
18(8), P. e0289755 - e0289755
Published: Aug. 4, 2023
Animacy
plays
an
important
role
in
cognition
(e.g.,
memory
and
language).
Across
languages,
a
processing
advantage
for
animate
words
(representing
living
beings),
comparatively
to
inanimate
(i.e.,
non-living
things),
has
been
found
mostly
young
adults.
Evidence
older
adults,
though,
is
still
unclear,
possibly
due
the
use
of
stimuli
not
properly
characterised
this
age
group.
Indeed,
whereas
several
animacy
word-rating
studies
already
exist
these
are
non-existent
This
work
provides
ratings
500
British
English
224
European
Portuguese
words,
rated
by
adults
from
corresponding
countries.
The
comparisons
across
languages
ages
revealed
high
interrater
agreement.
Nonetheless,
samples
provided
higher
mean
than
samples.
Also,
assigned,
on
average,
Age
X
Language
interaction
was
non-significant.
These
results
suggest
inter-age
inter-language
consistency
whether
word
represents
or
thing,
although
with
some
differences,
emphasising
need
age-
language-specific
rating
data.
available
via
OSF:
https://osf.io/6xjyv/.
Cognitive Linguistics,
Journal Year:
2024,
Volume and Issue:
unknown
Published: Oct. 1, 2024
Abstract
Events
can
be
perceived
from
different
perspectives.
Langacker,
Ronald
W.
(1990.
Subjectification.
Cognitive
Linguistics
1.
5–38)
typologically
categorised
the
perspectives
in
event
construal
as
subjective
and
objective
based
on
how
egocentric
a
perspective
is.
Compared
with
Western
languages,
such
English,
Japanese
is
argued
to
language
that
favours
construal.
However,
little
empirical
work
has
tested
this
assumption
directly.
We
investigated
whether
English
construe
events
by
focusing
linguistic
encodings
of
roles
“agent”
“patient”.
Our
findings
show
when
selecting
sentence
subjects,
speakers
prioritised
animacy
over
agency
whereas
emphasised
(while
also
considering
animacy).
This
attributed
preferences
two
languages
for
degree
egocentricity
Furthermore,
we
explored
L1-based
conceptualisation
influences
expressions
L2.
results
demonstrate
learners
had
difficulty
reconceptualising
L2
English.
study
adds
piece
quantitative
evidence
cognitive
linguistics
theory
questions
universality
agent-first
hypothesis
Thematic
Hierarchy.
