Projects / Programmes
RECLING - Rekurzija in hierarhija kot temeljna načela človekovega jezikovnega znanja (Slovene)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
Researchers (2)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
31176 |
PhD Penka Stateva |
Linguistics |
Researcher |
2011 - 2013 |
0 |
| 2. |
31177 |
PhD Artur Stepanov |
Linguistics |
Head |
2011 - 2013 |
0 |
Organisations (1)
| no. |
Code |
Research organisation |
City |
Registration number |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
1540 |
University of Nova Gorica |
Nova Gorica |
5920884000 |
0 |
Significance for science
Over the past several decades, the theoretical and experimental branches of the study of natural language traditionally proceeded in a parallel, but unfortunately rarely intersecting manner, each providing its own level of data description and analysis. The main reason for this is the ontological discrepancy between theoretical concepts devised in order to address the fundamental questions about what constitutes knowledge of human language, and the actually observable behavioral artifacts of language-related psychology which, as a result, do not directly correspond to postulated theoretical constructs. The importance of our study is that it has reconciled the two domains of language investigations into a coherent whole, in one important domain of investigations, namely, recursion in language. In particular, we have found that the major concept characterizing a hierarchical structure, namely self-similarity (and related notions, e.g. domination, c-command) has psycholinguistic relevance in that the human brain is sensitive (and responds) to it during processing linguistic information. Another innovative aspect of our study is that by showing the brain’s sensitivity to recursive markers in language we demonstrate that language is a natural object alongside recursive manifestations of other parts of the natural world, and general cognition (e.g. the structure of snowflakes, systems of blood vessels). We expect that the ultimate characterization of recursion in language should follow from the same basic principles of nature that involve recursion in other domains of nature. This study is a step towards understanding these principles. The study also contributes to the young field of Slavic psycholinguistics which, in contrast to experimental studies focusing on other language families, has only recently seen its dawn in the framework of cognitive science. It establishes a context for further studies of Slavic languages from this perspective, and also reinforces the much needed cross-linguistic dimension in the studies of language and cognition. In a larger picture, this project contributes to a long-term goal of advancing our understanding of how humans use their language to structure their thoughts. More importantly, to the extent language is part of general cognition, this study contributes to understanding of the creative capacity of humans, a truly unique trait that distinguishes us from other animals, and thus to a greater appreciation of human values. Beside its obvious theoretical value, the gained knowledge will be instrumental in developing commercial applications of modern language technologies such as machine translation and human-computer interaction, understanding language pathologies in adult and early age and setting up better educational practices.
Significance for the country
The interdisciplinary cognitive science approach to language which sees language performance data as part of the domain of natural phenomena is a new and rapidly developing area of scientific investigations in Europe and the rest of the world. It is informed by the success in cognitive science and experimental disciplines (e.g. modern brain imaging), on the one hand, and by the advances in formal linguistic theorizing, on the other. At the moment it is gaining momentum which will determine its development for the future to come. This project is thus a response to the current situation that calls for new questions, given the progress in the above mentioned individual fields of study, and serves as a means to establish and sustain the leading role of Europe in this domain. With this project, Slovenian researchers stake out their position in this emerging field at the cutting edge of science and set a high standard for similar investigations in the future. Disseminating the results of our project within the Slovenian academic community has been one of our important goals as part of the group’s effort for field popularization and a means to open wider perspectives for local interdisciplinary collaborations. Part of our results were reported in the 2013 Slovenian Slavic Congress with a talk on “Agreement errors in Bulgarian: a corpus study” which brings together researchers from different humanistic fields and research institutions in the country. Project results have also been incorporated in our pedagogical work in regularly taught classes in Syntax and Psycholinguistics at the UNG’s first and second level programs in Slovenian studies. We have been successful in attracting student interest into contributing to original research work. One of the investigations reported here, namely “Attachment preferences in full vs. reduced relative clauses in Slovenian” involves a participation of Franci Vaupotič, a first-year student at the UNG second level program in Slovenian studies. One student from the University of Ljubljana (Jasna Čakarun, a double major in the programs in Russian language and Literature and English language and Literature), and one student from UNG (Calum Riach, a student in the second-level program in Slovenian studies) are currently in the final stages of completing their diploma works under the mentorship of the project’s PI. Both of their topics, ‘Psycholinguistic markers of wh-adjunct movement: a case of Russian’ and ‘Processing non-argument wh-phrases under the active gap strategy’ are in essence related to the effects of processing recursive structures in the domain of syntactic movement, and are indicative of the impact that this project has on the younger academic community. This project has also contributed to establishing the Language and Cognitive Science group of the Research Center in Humanities at UNG, and Slovenia in general, as a partner in international research collaborations in psycholinguistics which have the potential to participate in academic policy making. The project has enhanced professional networking and possibilities for its participants to present results of their work. We believe that the first psycholinguistic ARRS-funded project at the UNG has been instrumental in establishing the UNG as the only Slovenian partner within an international linguistic consortium which has recently been awarded a €5 mil. collaborative grant “ATHEME: Advancing the European Multilingual Experience” within the 7th framework program of EU.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2012,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Final report,
complete report on dLib.si
