Merel C.J. Scholman

Department of Languages, Literature and Communication · Utrecht University · the Netherlands
Language Science and Technology · Saarland University · Germany

I am an assistant professor at Utrecht University. I am also affiliated with Saarland University as a researcher in Prof. Vera Demberg's lab, and as co-PI in the DFG-funded project 1102 B2.

I'm interested in cognitive models of language understanding, focusing on discourse coherence in particular. I use a combination of offline and online methodologies - corpus-based investigations, crowdsourced studies, and reading time experiments - to investigate questions related to the interpretation and processing of discourse.

My current projects focus on individual differences in the processing and comprehension of discourse-level phenomena (ERC-funded project IDDISC), and information-theoretic explanations for discourse production and comprehension (DFG-funded project SFB 1102).

Contact: m.c.j.scholman [at] uu.nl · m.c.j.scholman [at] coli.uni-saarland.de


Publications

Publications (peer-reviewed)

Laparle, S., Ferre, G., & Scholman, M.C.J. (to appear). More than one gesture but less than two? Inter-stroke dependencies in gesture form and meaning. Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Lin, P., Saeed, M., Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (to appear). Modeling Orthographic Variation Improves NLP Performance for Nigerian Pidgin. The 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024).

Scholman, M.C.J., Marchal, M., & Demberg, V. (to appear). Connective comprehension in adults: The influence of lexical transparency, frequency, and individual differences, Discourse Processes.

Yung, F., Ahmad, M., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (to appear). Prompting Implicit Discourse Relation Annotation. Proceedings of Linguistic Annotation Workshop of European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (LAW-ACL).

Yung, F., Scholman, M.C.J., Zikanova, S., & Demberg, V. (to appear). DiscoGeM 2.0: A parallel corpus of English, German, French and Czech implicit discourse relations. The 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024).

Lin, P., Saeed, M., Chang, E. & Scholman, M.C.J. (2023). Low-Resource Cross-Lingual Adaptive Training for Nigerian Pidgin. Proceedings of the 24th INTERSPEECH conference. [paper]

Hoek, J. & Scholman, M.C.J. (2023). Expressing non-volitional causality in English. In L. Jedrzejowski, & C. Fleczoreck (Eds.), Micro- and Marcro-variation of Causal Clauses. Synchronic and Diachronic Insights (p. 167–183). Amsterdam: Benjamins. [chapter]

Marchal, M., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2023). How statistical correlations influence discourse-level processing: Clause type as a cue for discourse relations, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. Advance online publication. [paper]

Pyatkin, V., Yung, F., Scholman, M.C.J., Dagan, I., Tsarfaty, R., & Demberg, V. (2023). Design Choices for Crowdsourcing Implicit Discourse Relations: Revealing the Biases introduced by Task Design. Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 11: 1014–1032. [paper]

Sanders, T.J.M., Hoek, J. & Scholman, M.C.J. (2023). Experimental methods in discourse studies. In S. Zufferey, & P. Gygax (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics (p. 120-138). London: Routledge. [chapter]

Yung, F., Scholman, M.C.J., Lapshinova-Koltunksi, E., Pollklasener, C., & Demberg, V. (2023). Investigating Explicitation of Discourse Connectives in Translation Using Automatic Annotations. Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of the Special Interest Group on Discourse and Dialogue (SIGDial 2023). [paper]

Marchal, M., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2022). The effect of domain knowledge on discourse relation inferences: Relation marking and interpretation strategies. Dialogue & Discourse, 13(2), 49-78. [paper]

Marchal, M., Scholman, M.C.J., Yung, F., & Demberg, V. (2022). Establishing annotation quality in multi-label annotations. Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Computational Linguistic (COLING), 3659–3668. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Blything, L., Cain, K., Hoek, J., & Evers-Vermeul, J. (2022). Discourse rules: The effects of clause order principles on the reading process. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 37:10, 1277-1291. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Demberg, V., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2022). Descriptively adequate and cognitively plausible? Validating distinctions between types of coherence relations. Discours, 30, 1-30. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Dong, T., Yung, F., & Demberg, V. (2022). DiscoGeM: A Crowdsourced Corpus of Genre-Mixed Implicit Discourse Relations. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 22), Marseille, France. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Pyatkin, V., Yung, F., Dagan, I., Tsarfaty, R., & Demberg, V. (2022). Design Choices in Crowdsourcing Discourse Relation Annotations: The Effect of Worker Selection and Training. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 22), Marseille, France. [paper]

Yung, F., Anuranjana, K., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2022). Label distributions help implicit discourse relation classification. Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Computational Approaches to Discourse (CODI), 48–53. [paper]

Marchal, M., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2021). Semi-automatic discourse annotation in a low-resource language: Developing a connective lexicon for Nigerian Pidgin. Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Computational Approaches to Discourse (CODI), 84-94. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Dong, T., Yung, F., & Demberg, V. (2021). Comparison of methods for explicit discourse connective identification across various domains. Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Computational Approaches to Discourse (CODI), 95-106. [paper]

Yung, F., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2021). A practical perspective on connective generation. Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Computational Approaches to Discourse (CODI), 72-93. [paper]

Hoek, J., Scholman, M.C.J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2021). Is there less agreement when the discourse is underspecified? Annotation of coherence relations in TED talks. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Integrating Perspectives on Discourse Annotation, 1-6. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Demberg, V. & Sanders, T.J.M. (2020). Individual differences in expecting coherence relations: Exploring the variability in sensitivity to contextual signals in discourse. Discourse Processes, 57(10), 844-861. [paper]

Demberg, V., Scholman, M.C.J., & Asr, F.T. (2019). How compatible are our discourse annotation frameworks? Insights from mapping RST-DT and PDTB annotations. Dialogue & Discourse, 10(1), 87-135. [paper]

Yung, F., Demberg, V., & Scholman, M. (2019). Crowdsourcing discourse relation annotations by a two-step connective insertion task. Proceedings of the 13th Linguistic Annotation Workshop, Florence, Italy. [paper]

Sanders, T.J.M., Demberg, V., Hoek, J., Scholman, M.C.J., Asr, F.T., Zufferey, S., & Evers-Vermeul, J. (2018). Unifying dimensions in coherence relations: How various annotation frameworks are related. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 17(1), 1-57. [paper]

Evers-Vermeul, J., Hoek, J. & Scholman, M.C.J. (2017). On temporality in discourse annotation: Theoretical and practical considerations. Dialogue & Discourse, 8(2), 1-20. [paper]

Hoek, J. & Scholman, M.C.J. (2017). Evaluating discourse annotation: Some recent insights and new approaches. Proceedings of the 13th Joint ACL - ISO Workshop on Interoperable Semantic Annotation, Montpellier, France. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). Crowdsourcing discourse interpretations: On the influence of context and the reliability of a connective insertion task. Proceedings of the 11th Linguistic Annotation Workshop, Valencia, Spain. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). Examples and specifications that prove a point: Identifying elaborative and argumentative discourse relations. Dialogue & Discourse, 8(2), 56-83. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Rohde, H. & Demberg, V. (2017). ''On the one hand'' as a cue to anticipate upcoming discourse structure. Journal of Memory and Language, 97, 47-60. [paper]

Rehbein, I., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2016). Annotating discourse relations in spoken language: A comparison of the PDTB and CCR frameworks. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 16), Portoroz, Slovenia. [paper]

Scholman, M.C.J., Evers-Vermeul, J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2016). A step-wise approach to discourse annotation: Towards a reliable categorisation of coherence relations. Dialogue & Discourse, 7(2), 1-28. [paper]

Ph.D. Dissertation

Scholman, M.C.J. (2019). Coherence relations in discourse and cognition: Mapping approaches, annotations, and interpretations. (Doctoral thesis). [electronic copy]

Presentations and Invited Talks

Scholman, M.C.J., Marchal, M., & Demberg, V. (2022). The Influence of Individual Differences and Connective Features on Connective Comprehension. Talk presented at ST&D, virtual conference. 19-21 July 2022.

Scholman, M.C.J., Dong, T., Yung, F., & Demberg, V. (2022). DiscoGeM: A Crowdsourced Corpus of Genre-Mixed Implicit Discourse Relations. Talk presented at LREC, Marseillie, France. 20-25 June 2022.

Scholman, M.C.J., Pyatkin, V., Yung, F., Dagan, I., Tsarfaty, R., & Demberg, V. (2022). Design Choices in Crowdsourcing Discourse Relation Annotations: The Effect of Worker Selection and Training. Talk presented at LREC, Marseillie, France. 20-25 June 2022.

Marchal, M., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2021). Semi-automatic discourse annotation in a low-resource language: Developing a connective lexicon for Nigerian Pidgin. Talk presented at CODI, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 10-11 November 2021.

Scholman, M.C.J., Dong, T., Yung, F., & Demberg, V. (2021). Comparison of methods for explicit discourse connective identification across various domains. Talk presented at CODI, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 10-11 November 2021.

Yung, F., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2021). A practical perspective on connective generation. Talk presented at CODI, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 10-11 November 2021.

Hoek, J., Scholman, M.C.J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2021). Is there less agreement when the discourse is underspecified? Talk presented at the Discann Workshop, Tuebingen, Germany. 4-5 October 2021.

Scholman, M.C.J., Demberg, V., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2018). Descriptively adequate and cognitively plausible? Defining tangible criteria for the justification of coherence relational categories. Talk presented at the international workshop Making sense of discourse, Utrecht, the Netherlands. 20 September 2018.

Scholman, M.C.J., Demberg, V., & Rohde, H. (2018). Signalling with one hand: A cross-linguistic comparison of the facilitative effect of ''On the one hand''. Talk presented at XPRAG workshop Implicit and explicit marking of discourse relations, Osnabrueck, Germany. 24-25 May 2018.

Scholman, M.C.J., Demberg, V., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2018). For example, specifically, or because; Individual differences in coherence relation interpretation biases? Talk presented at TextLink Final Action Conference, Toulouse, France. 19-21 March 2018.

Sanders, T.J.M., Demberg, V., Evers-Vermeul, J., Hoek, J., Scholman, M.C.J., & Zufferey, S. (2018). Unifying dimensions in coherence relations: How various annotation frameworks are related. Talk presented at TextLink Final Action Conference, Toulouse, France. 19-21 March 2018.

Scholman, M.C.J. (2017). Crowdsourcing interpretations of multi-functional discourse relations. Invited talk, ELiTU, Utrecht University. 11 December 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J. (2017). Examples and specifications that prove a point: Interpreting multi-functional discourse relations. Invited talk, Department of Psychology, Lancaster University. 19 October 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). Crowdsourcing discourse relation annotations: The influence of context on readers' interpretations. Talk presented at SLE, Zurich, Switzerland. 10-13 September 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). Examples and specifications that prove a point: Identifying elaborative and argumentative discourse relations. Talk presented at ST&D, Philadelphia, USA. 31 July - 2 August 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). Crowdsourcing discourse interpretations: On the influence of context and the reliability of a connective insertion task. Talk presented at Linguistic Annotation Workshop, Valencia, Spain. 3 April 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). The influence of context on the interpretation of the segments in a discourse relation. Talk presented at DGfS, Saarbrücken, Germany. 8-10 March 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J. & Demberg, V. (2017). Distinguishing between causal and additive Instantiations and Specifications: A crowdsourcing experiment. Talk presented at CogLing7, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. 5-6 January 2017.

Scholman, M.C.J., Rohde, H. & Demberg, V. (2016). Predictions of upcoming discourse structure based on 'On the one hand'. Poster presented at 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Kassel, Germany. 18-20 July 2016.

Rehbein, I., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2016). Annotating discourse relations in spoken language: A comparison of the PDTB and CCR frameworks. Poster presented at Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 16), Portoroz, Slovenia.

Evers-Vermeul, J., Hoek, J. & Scholman, M.C.J. (2016). On temporality in discourse annotation. Talk at TextLink Second Action Conference, Budapest, Hungary. 11-13 April 2016.

Scholman, M.C.J., Mak, W.M., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2016). Expecting the unexpected: Do contextual signals guide the processing of coherence relations? Poster presented at TextLink Second Action Conference, Budapest, Hungary. 11-13 April 2016.

Sanders, T.J.M., Demberg, V., Evers-Vermeul, J., Hoek, J., Scholman, M.C.J., & Zufferey, S. (2016). How can we relate various annotation schemes? Unifying dimensions in discourse annotation. Talk presented at TextLink Second Action Conference, Budapest, Hungary. 11-13 April 2016.

Scholman, M.C.J., Rohde, H. & Demberg, V. (2016). Predictions of upcoming discourse structure based on 'On the one hand'. Poster presented at Linguistic and Psycholinguistic Approaches to Text Structuring (LPTS 2016), Valencia, Spain. 24-26 January 2016.

Rehbein, I., Scholman, M.C.J., & Demberg, V. (2015). Annotating discourse relations in spoken language: A comparison of the PDTB and CCR frameworks. Poster presented at International Workshop: Identification and Annotation of Discourse Relations in Spoken Language (DiSpoL 2015), Saarbrücken, Germany. 1-2 October 2015.

Scholman, M.C.J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2015). Annotating coherence relations in corpora of language use. Talk presented at International Pragmatics Conference, Antwerp, Belgium. 26-31 July 2015.

Demberg, V., Rohde, H., Scholman, M.C.J., Cummins, C., & Nicolet, E. (2015). "On the one hand" as a cue in the comprehension of discourse structure. Talk presented at First Conference of the TextLink COST Action Network on "Structuring Discourse in Multilingual Europe". Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. 26-28 January 2015.

Scholman, M.C.J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2014). How to annotate coherence relations in corpora of language use. Talk at Vereniging Interuniversitair Overleg Taalbeheersing (VIOT 2014), Leuven, Belgium. 16-18 December 2014.

Scholman, M.C.J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2014). Annotating coherence relations in corpora of language use. Poster presented at CLARIN Annual Conference 2014, Soesterberg, the Netherlands. 23-25 October 2014.

Scholman, M.C.J., & Sanders, T.J.M. (2013). Categories of coherence relations in discourse annotation. Talk presented at International Workshop on Discourse Annotation, Utrecht, the Netherlands. 21-22 June 2013.


Mini-bio

Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Assistant professor
2022-now

Saarland University, Germany

Principal Investigator; Postdoctoral researcher
2021-now

MDC Africa market research, Nigeria

Operations Manager
2019-2020

Saarland University, Germany

PhD, Language Science and Technology; summa cum laude
2015-2019

Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Visiting Researcher; Host: Prof. Kate Cain
10/2017

Utrecht University, Netherlands

Research Master Linguistics; cum laude
2013-2015

University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Visiting Researcher; Host: Dr. Hannah Rohde
11/2014-2/2015

Utrecht University, Netherlands

Bachelor Language and Culture Studies; cum laude
2010-2013