How Do Understand Speech

8/4/2019 How Do Understand Speech

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PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITYGRADUATE SCHOOL

URDANETA C ITY

A REPORT INSOCIO-PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

A presentation in Socio-Psycholinguistics

Discussant: Mariciele Z. Dagdag

Professor: Dr. Leticia B. Ursua


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HOWDOWEUNDERSTANDSPEECH?

Sentence comprehension is like riding a

bicycle- a feat far easier performed than

described (Cutler 1976)

Is there a link

between speechcomprehension

and production?


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The four possibilities:

1. Comprehension and production are totally different.

2. Comprehension is production in reverse.

3. Comprehension is the same as production; that is,

comprehenders reconstruct the message for

themselves in the same way as they would constructit if they were speakers.

4. Comprehension and production are partially the

same and partially different.


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I. Hearing what we expect to hear

Passive Secretary Approach Fingerprints Approach


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First of all, it is clear that hearers cannot take down

or match sounds one by one.

4 sounds/English word w/ a speed of 5 words/sec =

the ear and brain can cope around 20 sounds/sec

Humans cannot process this number of separate signals inthe that time Liberman et. al. 1967

Reasons why the passive secretary and fingerprintsapproach was disproved:


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A second reason is that: (a)there is no fixed acousticrepresentation of a sound parallel to the fixed typewritersymbol.

Ex. T in the typewriter symbol T

(b) each sound varies considerably depending on what comesbefore or after it.

Ex. T in TOP

T in STOP

T in BOTTLE

(c) sound varies from speaker to speaker

Reasons why the passive secretary and fingerprints

approach was disproved:


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A third related problem is that sounds are acoustically on

a continuum.

Reasons why the passive secretary and fingerprints

approach was disproved:

There is no sure way in which a human can

fingerprint a sound or match it to a single

mental symbol, because the acoustic patterns of

sounds are not fixed and distinct. And even if

they were, people would not have time to

identify each one positively.


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A. COHORT MODEL

Ex. HAVE YOU SEEN MY P?

PACK, PAD, PADLOCK, PAN, PANDA, PANSY

Words beginning with the same sounds areenvisaged as lining up like soldiers in a cohort, adivision of the Roman army. The hearer theneliminates those that do not fit in with the soundor meaning of the rest of the sentence.

BLEASANT to PLEASANT

The model was amended to allow for morethan just the initial sound, even though itwas widely recognized that initial sounds, ifheard properly, are very. important for wordidentification.


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B. SPREADING ACTIVATION MODEL

OR INTERACTIVE ACTIVATIONMODEL

CONNECTIONISM

Words and sounds are working somewhat likeelectricity circuitry, in which the current flowsbackwards and forwards, rushing between the initialsounds heard and the words aroused. The sounds

will activate multiple meanings, then the othermeanings triggered will arouse further sounds.

BLEASANT -> PLEASANT -> PHEASANT,PLEASURE etc.

Words which fitted in with other aspects of thesentence, the meaning and the syntax, would getmore and more activated and those which seemedunlikely would fade away.


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C. SHORTLIST MODEL

A lexical lookup process identifies all the words thatcorrespond to sequences of phonemes in the input.

Ex. CATALOG -> CAT, CATTLE, A , LOG, CATALOG

SOUNDSEGMENTS

[Kaetalog]

LEXICONCOMPETING

WORDS

Catalogue

a

Cattle

Cat Log

WORDREORGANIZED

Catalog


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Phoneme monitoring

THE SEAMEN STARTED TO DRILL BEFORE THEY WERE

ORDERED TO DO SO.

THE SEAMEN STARTED TO MARCH BEFORE THEYWERE ORDERED TO DO SO.


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THE MAN FOUND SEVERAL SPIDERS, ROACHES AND OTHERBUGS IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM

Lexical decision task

Faster response on:

ANT and SPY

Slower response on:

SEW


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THEY BOUGHT A ROSE.

THEY BOUGHT A SHIRT.THEY ALL ROSE.THEY ALL STOOD.

Veiled controlled process


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II. Versatile verbs

Theyve temper some of them particularly verbs,

theyre the proudest adjectives you can doanything with, but not verbs. (Humpty Dumpty to Alice inLewis CarrollsThrough the Looking Glass)

Example:

KICK + NP HE KICKED THE BALL

EXPECT + NP HE EXPECTED A LETTER+ TO HE EXPECTED TO ARRIVE AT SIX OCLOCK+ THAT HE EXPECTED THAT HE WOULD BE LATE.

Verbs associated with multiple constructions

verbal complexity hypothesis


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Tests on Versatile verbs

THE LETTER WHICH THE SECRETARY MAILED WA S LATE.

THE LETTER WHICH THE SECRETARY EXPECTED WAS LATE.

I THINK THAT (e.g. I THINK THAT MAVIS IS A FOOL.)

I THINK AS (e.g. I THINK AS I WALK TO WORK).

THE PERSON WHO COOKS DUCKS OUT OF WASHING THE DISHES.

THE PERSON [WHO COOKS] DUCKS OUT OF WASHING THE DISHES.

SHELDON SENT DEBBIE THE LETTER.


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IV. Informed guesses

top-down approach bottom-up approach

Hearers imposetheir expectationson what they arehearing.

Hearers listen tothe words said tothem then try toassemble them insome type of order


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The 4 Assumptions

Assumption 1Every sentence consist of one or more sentoids

(sentence-like chunks) and each sentoid normally includes a

noun-phrase followed by a verb, optionally followed by another

noun-phrase.

DO YOU LIKE CURRY?

TADPOLES TURN INTO FROGS.

DONT TOUCH THAT WIRE.

IT IS NOT SURPRISING THAT THE FACT THAT PETERSINGS IN HIS BATH UPSETS THE LANDLADY.


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IT IS NOT SURPRISING

THAT THE FACT UPSETS THE LANDLADY

THAT PETER SINGS IN HIS BATH

THE LARGE GORILLA GROWLED.

COWS CHEW THE CUD.

Divide each sentence up into sentoids by looking for noun

phrase verb ( - noun phrase) sequences.

CANONICAL SENTOID STRATEGY


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The 4 Assumptions

Assumption 2 In noun phrase verb noun phrase sequence,

the first noun is usually the actor and the second the object.

ACTOR ----------- ACTION ----------- OBJECTGIRAFFES EAT LEAVES.DIOGENES BOUGHT A BARREL.

interpret an NP V NP sequence as actor action object

unless you have a strong indications to the contrary.

NP V NP

actor action object

PENGUINS EAT FISH

H ?


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The 4 Assumptions

Assumption 3 When a complex sentence is composed of amain clause and one or more subordinate clauses, the main

clause usually comes first.

NERO FIDDLED [WHILE ROME BURNED].

than:

[WHILE ROME BURNED] NERO FIDDLED.

PETRONILLA EXPECTED [THAT PERICLES WOULD

SCRUB THE FLOOR].than

[THAT PERICLES WOULD SCRUB THE FLOOR]

PETRONELLA EXPECTED.


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The 4 Assumptions

Assumption 4 Sentences usually make sense.

HAVE YOU DONE THE WASHING UP?THE TRAIN GOES AT EIGHT OCLOCK.

rather than:

HAPPINESS SHOOTS LLAMAS.THE HONEY SPREAD MOTHER WITH AKNIFE.

Use your knowledge of the world to pick the most likely

interpretation of the sentence you are hearing.


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Perceptual Strategies

1. Divide each sentence up into sentoids by looking for NP V (- NP)sequences (canonical sentoid strategy).

2. Interpret an NP V NP sequence as actor action object.

3. Interpret the first clause as the main clause.4. Use your knowledge of the world to pick the most likely

interpretation


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V. Word-by word

Automatic parser a.k.a. left-to-right model or incremental parser


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VI. Further difficulties psychological limits

A. Length

B. StructureC. Memory loadD. InterruptionsE. Compression of informationF. Repetition of terms and structure


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Conclusion:

1. We can explore the lexicon, looking in particular at how words

are identified, at the treatment of ambiguous words and at therole of the verbs.

2. We can build up a list of basic assumptions that hearers makeabout their language and the strategies which they utilize whenthey understand sentences.

3. We can explore both the step-by-step stages and the multiple

actions which are taking place as a human tries to interpret whathe hears.

4. We can assess the general psychological difficulties which affectspeech processing.

5. In the future, we can integrate all these various strands into acoherent model of comprehension.


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The human mind is an amazingly powerful machine, capableof multiple parallel processing. The major question for the

future is how it manages to amalgamate everything togetherinto a manageable whole, instead of getting lost in theumpteen possibilities which are inherent in the data.

Thank you and have a great day ^ __ ^


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How Do Understand Speech

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