Papers reviewed and determined not to be word norm studies. Use the flag icon to report errors or suggest re-inclusion.
16504 papers
Abstract This study examines high sensitivity (HS) in canine units of the Spanish State Security Forces, assessing its psychological, operational, and decision-making impact. A mixed-methods design combined HS screening in handlers and dogs with a qualitative phase of 13 in-depth interviews, coded into 23 categories and analysed through co-occurrence, Jaccard index, and prosodic analysis on a subsample of 11 audio recordings. Results depict a pattern of multisensory hyper-reactivity, fast learning, high correction sensitivity, and strong emotional attunement to the handler. Performance follows a biphasic pattern, vulnerable to overstimulation but outstanding when management is aligned with the dog’s sensory threshold. The handler’s perception of HS emerges as a critical factor shaping the entire operational cycle: from puppy selection and potential identification to role assignment, performance evaluation, and adult dog dismissal. Institutional norms emphasizing emotional control may contribute to under-recognition of sensitivity traits, potentially affecting the identification and retention of high-potential individuals. We conclude HS is a context-sensitive trait and propose incorporating psychological, sensory, and behavioural indicators into selection and training, complemented by lexical–semantic and prosodic metrics as diagnostic tools when classical tests are unsuitable for specialised populations.
<p class="ql-align-justify">The aim of this research was to identify lexical, grammatical, stylistic, and cultural changes that have occurred under the influence of digital discourse, as well as to explore the specifics of these processes in different language systems. The study’s methodology was based on a comprehensive analysis of digital texts in English, Ukrainian, Albanian, and Uzbek. A comparative method was used to establish common and distinct features in the transformation of language norms under the influence of digital media. Content analysis was also applied to examine lexical and stylistic changes in various types of texts, including news articles, blogs, analytical materials, and entertainment content. The results of the study showed that digital media has caused significant changes in the language environment, such as the expansion of vocabulary through the borrowing of Anglicisms, simplification of grammatical structures, modification of stylistic norms, and the adaptation of written communication to digital formats. Languages integrated digital changes differently: English via natural spread; Ukrainian by preserving unadapted borrowings; Albanian through partial morphological integration; and Uzbek by retaining Anglicisms (especially, in tech/media), alongside phonetic/morphological adaptations.</p>
This study explores the construction and translation of the paradoxical identity in Sahar Khalifeh&rsquo;s novel &ldquo;The End of Spring&rdquo; and its English translation. Adopting a Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) framework, the paper applies Gideon Toury&rsquo;s (1995) norm-based model to analyze how the inherent contradictions of Palestinian life under occupation are negotiated during translation. The analysis is conducted in two distinct phases: a micro-linguistic level focusing on operational norms, such as dialectal dissonance, semantic oxymorons, and lexical paradoxes, and a macro-conceptual level addressing preliminary and initial norms related to socio-political contradictions and religious ambivalence. Findings show a tension between Adequacy and Acceptability. Since the translator often employs Standardization to handle dialectal dissonance and uses titular oxymorons to improve target-culture fluency, the translation largely maintains the intense, authentic essence of internal stereotypes and metaphysical despair. According to Polysystem Theory, the study concludes that the English translation occupies a peripheral but innovative position within the Anglophone polysystem. By preserving the sharpest edges of Khalifeh&rsquo;s internal critiques and religious ambivalence, the text resists binary simplification and functions as a Primary Model of Paradox, presenting a multilayered, contradictory Palestinian identity within the Anglophone literary system, bridging the gap between the &ldquo;humanity&rdquo; experience and the &ldquo;labels&rdquo; imposed by conflict.
The aim of the study is to gain a systematic understanding of the linguocultural aspects of the linguistic mechanisms that construct social norms, power relations, and models of sociality in the folk song texts of the village of Krasny Yar, Ufa District, Republic of Bashkortostan, revealing their connection to the discursive and social practices of the local community. The article examines the specifics of critical discourse analysis (CDA) in the tradition of N. Fairclough as a tool for linguistic analysis that links the linguistic features of a text with its sociocultural context. The subject of the study comprises lexical-semantic, syntactic, and discursive means involved in the representation of social hierarchies and identities. The novelty of the research lies in the first attempt to integrate the classical methodology of CDA and linguocultural tools with the corpus of folk songs from a specific local tradition, which allows moving from a philological and ethnographic description to an analysis of folklore as an active discursive practice that transmits social reality. As a result, the key discourses represented in the songs have been systematized: the discourse of patriarchal power, the discourse of social stratification, and the discourse of the community’s interaction with external institutions; the role of folk songs as a tool for the symbolic maintenance of order and the articulation of latent social tensions has been determined.
This preregistration describes a secondary analysis of existing public lexical, affective, sensorimotor, corpus, and bodily-sensation norm datasets. The project examines whether the association between interoceptive grounding and estimated age of acquisition is specific to emotion words, beyond general abstract-word effects. The primary confirmatory analysis tests whether Lancaster interoception ratings show a stronger negative association with age of acquisition for emotion words than for matched non-emotion abstract words. A secondary confirmatory analysis tests competing predictions about interoceptive differentiation among emotion words, using a prototype-margin index derived from corpus-based body-term co-occurrence vectors and Nummenmaa/world_emBODY bodily-sensation prototypes. All analytic sample sizes, feasibility checks, index-construction decisions, and design simulations were fixed before running any main age-of-acquisition outcome models. The registration package includes the preregistered analysis plan, pre-outcome scripts, configuration files, provenance records, feasibility outputs, design-analysis outputs, and checksum manifest. No new data are collected, and no main RQ-A or RQ-B AoA–predictor outcome model has been run before registration.
This article analyzes the relationship between gender linguistics and slang in English and Uzbek languages, focusing on how gender influences speech styles, lexical choices, and the formation of informal language. It examines the sociolinguistic factors that shape gendered communication patterns and explores how slang functions as a marker of identity, group belonging, and social interaction, particularly among younger speakers. The study also considers the impact of globalization, digital technologies, and social media platforms on the development and spread of slang in both linguistic contexts. Special attention is given to how traditional gender norms influence language use in Uzbek society, while English demonstrates comparatively more flexible and less rigid gender distinctions in informal communication. Furthermore, the article highlights the increasing convergence of slang usage across genders due to the influence of online communication, where linguistic boundaries are becoming more fluid. The comparative analysis reveals both similarities and differences in how gender and slang interact in English and Uzbek, showing that while cultural and social factors continue to shape language use, modern digital environments are gradually reducing traditional linguistic constraints.
We analyze the current annotation of reflexive constructions, i.e. verbal constructions marked by a reflexive clitic, across five Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish) in several Universal Dependencies treebanks (version 2.17).We discuss the morphologic, syntactic and semantic characteristics of such constructions in each of the languages considered, both from a theoretical perspective and from that of existing annotation.To address inconsistencies in the data and strengthen Universal Dependencies as a scaffold for the automatic conversion of morphosyntactic annotation into semantic representations (Uniform Meaning Representation), we propose a clear distinction between argumental and non-argumental uses of the reflexive clitic, and outline systematic ways to implement this distinction in the annotation guidelines.We also examine how some of the reported inconsistencies can be handled in the treebanks under study and discuss the extent to which these practices can be extended to other treebanks, within the same or across different languages.
Introduction: Blood flow restriction (BFR) walking elicits improved fitness, but participants often report higher ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and pain during BFR walking compared to non-BFR walking. The primary aim was to investigate how multiple BFR walking exposures might affect RPE and pain. Methods: 14 healthy, trained participants completed three BFR walking sessions on separate days. The treadmill speed that elicited 3/10 RPE while BFR was not applied was determined and that same speed was used during all BFR walking sessions. Participants walked for 15 minutes at the predetermined speed while 60% limb occlusion pressure was applied bilaterally to the thighs. RPE (0-10) and pain (0-10) were recorded during each minute of exercise. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance determined if session (1-3) and/or time (1-15 minutes) affected RPE or pain. Statistical significance was established at p<0.05. Results: RPE was higher during session 1 compared to session 2 (minutes 8-15, 4.4±1.4 versus 3.6±0.8). RPE was higher during session 1 compared to session 3 (minutes 3-5, 3.5±0.7 versus 2.9±0.6; minutes 7-15, 4.3±1.3 versus 3.5±1.1). No significant differences were observed for pain. Conclusion: Participants might tolerate BFR walking better after completing two BFR walking sessions as lowered RPE responses were observed.
In this paper we introduce an example-based method for exploring dependency treebanks that is based on principles of vector symbolic architectures.It leverages key properties of this framework to provide fast and flexible search capabilities, since all combinations of query parameters can be compared with a given parse tree in parallel via a single vector operation.The framework also allows for graded similarity and the natural integration of various kinds of information, such as word embeddings.After some background on the framework and an explanation of our implementation, we provide a few examples of the system's output and draw comparisons to similar applications.
The review is devoted to the analysis of the textbook by O. Mykytiuk and I. Farion «Language and Linguists: The Establishment of the Norm», which corresponds to the curriculum of the course «Ukrainian Language for Professional Purposes», currently studied by students of all specialties. It is demonstrated that, by virtue of its content, systematically implemented through the general didactic principle of scientific rigour, this publication meets the standards of a scholarly educational edition. Particular attention is paid to the main object of the scholarly and didactic exposition – the phenomenon of the language norm in its multifunctional representation. The textbook justifiably prioritises a multidirectional interpretation of orthographic norms through a diachronic-synchronic lens. Emphasis is placed on the conceptual dominants of fifteen thematic units and their specific informational content, which enables the tracing of key stages of Ukrainian glottogenesis – from ancient times to the present – as well as significant milestones in lexicographic and terminological studies. The authors also reveal the lexical, phraseological, and word-formation richness of the Ukrainian language, highlight the specificity of its phonetic and grammatical structure, and outline the development of its stylistic system. The originality of the work is further determined by its linguo-personalised component, represented by narratives about precedent linguistic (linguistic-scholarly) personalities, including P. Berynda, M. Smotrytskyi, O. Potebnia, P. Zhytetskyi, B. Hrinchenko, O. Syniavskyi, A. Krymskyi, O. Kurylo, I. Ohiienko (Metropolitan Bishop Ilarion), B. Antonenko-Davydovych, O. Tykhyi, O. Horbach, S. Karavanskyi, O. Ponomariv and V. Nimchuk. High praise is also due to the linguodidactic support materials, through which the authors – employing both traditional and innovative educational methods – promote the development of life and professional competences of future specialists, as well as the cultivation of an intellectually mature, spiritually rich, educated, linguistically cultured, patriotic, and Ukraine-centred personality.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26565/2074-8922-2026-86-15 Relevance of the problem. The conditions of martial law in Ukraine have caused profound transformations in national education in general and higher education in particular. Legislative changes have allowed the education system to adapt to the new realities of martial law: the digitalization of education, accelerated by global crises and war, has revealed the need to adapt to distance learning methods, which have changed the structure of communications, assessment mechanisms and the nature of interaction between participants in the educational process. The current stage of development of higher education in Ukraine is characterized by the reorientation of the educational process from the reproductive acquisition of knowledge to the formation of competencies necessary for future professional activity. A special role in this process is played by the language training of students, in particular within the course "Ukrainian Language (for Professional Purposes)", providing the formation of professional oral and written speech skills. In this regard, the problem of selecting effective teaching and assessment methods that would combine control, self-control and the development of speech skills is becoming more relevant. One of such methods is cloze testing, which allows diagnosing the level of language competence of students and at the same time promoting its development. Purpose of the study. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the didactic potential of cloze tests in the process of teaching the course "Ukrainian Language (for Professional Purposes)" in higher education institutions. The essence of cloze testing as a formative assessment tool is revealed, its place in the system of modern methods of language training of future specialists is outlined. A classification of cloze tests is proposed, methodological conditions for their effective application are determined, examples of professionally oriented tasks are given. Research methods. In preparing the article, the method of analysis of psychological, pedagogical and methodological literature was used, devoted to the issues of goals, organization, methods, techniques and technologies of teaching and control of the level of learning at all levels of language learning. To achieve the goal and solve the tasks set, a complex of empirical and general scientific methods was also used: observation, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, analogy, comparison, generalization, terminological, functional, systemic, cognitive analysis, as well as the method of linguodidactic text analysis. Research results. The article carries out a comprehensive analysis of the didactic potential of cloze tests in the process of teaching the course "Ukrainian Language (for Professional Purposes)" in higher education institutions: the essence of cloze testing as a formative assessment tool is revealed, its place in the system of modern methods of language training of future specialists is outlined, a classification of cloze tests is proposed, methodological conditions for their effective application are determined, examples of tasks of a professionally oriented direction are given. Grammatical cloze tests in the course "Ukrainian Language (for Professional Purposes)" perform formative, diagnostic and correctional functions, ensuring the assimilation of normative grammatical models in professional speech and contributing to the improvement of the language culture of future specialists. Stylistic cloze tests in the course "Ukrainian Language (Professional Orientation)" perform formative and corrective functions, contribute to the awareness of the norms of functional styles and prepare students for normative professional communication in academic and business environments. Lexical cloze tests perform the function of a tool for the formation and control of lexical competence, ensuring the assimilation of terminological and general scientific vocabulary in the context of professional speech and contributing to the development of conscious, rather than reproductive, word mastery. Contextual-semantic cloze tests in the course "Ukrainian Language (Professional Orientation)" perform integrative and diagnostic functions, ensuring the formation of skills for the holistic understanding of professional texts and the development of students' academic and professional communicative competence. Conclusions. It has been proven that the main advantages of cloze tests include objectivity, versatility, and the ability to adapt to different specialties and forms of learning. At the same time, the effectiveness of this method depends on the quality of the selection of texts and the clear formulation of tasks. It can be concluded that the cloze test replaces a whole series of narrowly focused tasks, saving time and effort. The advantages of cloze tests over traditional tests are their ability to comprehensively test language competence, and not just reproduce isolated knowledge. The main advantages include the following: cloze tests are based on a holistic text, therefore they test the understanding of language units in context, while traditional tests are often focused on individual rules or facts; one cloze test simultaneously activates lexical, grammatical, syntactic, and stylistic competence, unlike traditional tests, which usually measure them separately; unlike multiple-choice tests, cloze tests significantly reduce the randomness factor, since the correct answer must correspond to several parameters at the same time (content, form, style); the results of cloze tests make it possible to identify the depth of understanding of the text, the level of formation of professionally oriented speech and typical language difficulties of students; cloze tests are effective not only as a control, but also as a teaching tool, since they promote reflection, self-correction and the development of language competence. Thus, cloze tests, unlike traditional test forms, provide a contextually conditioned, integrated and diagnostically significant assessment of language competence, which increases their validity in the process of professionally oriented language learning.
This study has investigated how teachers at a rural school and an urban school perceive the interplay between dialect, dialect levelling and linguistic norms in teaching. The researcher also observed four Swedish language lessons in grade 4 and 6 at each school. In addition, one lesson in each grade was observed in other subjects, such as mathematics, history, geography and home and consumer studies, resulting in a total of eight observed lessons. To explore the teachers’ perceptions, four semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers who teach Swedish. The semi-structured interviews, in combination with participant observations, complemented each other well and contributed to strengthening, problematizing, and nuancing the findings. The results show that students’ spoken language varies between a Västerbotten dialect, a more standard variety of Swedish, and a form of language influenced by social media, including slang, abbreviations, informal chat language, and English words and expressions. It emerged that the teachers perceived the influence of social media on language as relatively strong, and that words becoming popular on social media spread quickly and become a natural part of students’ spoken language. The observations also revealed variations in how students’ spoken language was expressed depending on the teaching situation and context. Furthermore, the results show that different forms of dialect are still present in students’ speech through dialectal words and expressions, as well as features such as stress, prosody, and pronunciation. Signs of dialect levelling were also identified, as some students used a more standardized form of language in different situations and contexts.
Gendered language use in professional contexts continues to shape how authority, expertise, collaboration, and inclusion are enacted in everyday organizational life. Workplace communication operates within structured institutional environments where linguistic choices are constrained by genre conventions, hierarchical positioning, and expectations of professionalism. This study presents a corpus-based investigation of gender-indexed variation in English workplace discourse across multiple communicative genres, including emails, meeting transcripts, and internal reports. The research examines whether systematic differences emerge in lexical selection, grammatical patterning, and pragmatic strategies, and how these differences interact with organizational roles and power relations. Drawing on principles from register analysis, functional communication theory, and computational corpus linguistics, the study adopts a quantitative design that integrates frequency analysis, keyness statistics, collocation patterns, and multivariate modeling. Gender is treated not as a fixed linguistic determinant but as a socially mediated variable shaped by institutional norms and discursive expectations. Particular attention is given to how hierarchical status may amplify, neutralize, or reconfigure gender-associated tendencies in language use. The methodology is presented as a single integrated framework detailing corpus construction, annotation procedures, statistical modeling, and analytical validation. The findings demonstrate that while certain lexical and stance-related patterns display measurable gender-linked variation, these differences are significantly moderated by role, communicative purpose, and organizational power structures. In several instances, professional register constraints reduce divergence, suggesting that institutional discourse exerts a normalizing effect on linguistic expression. The study contributes a structured reporting model for large-scale corpus research on gender in workplace communication and offers implications for fostering inclusive and critically aware language practices within professional environments.
This paper presents a direct framework for sequence models with hidden states on closed subgroups of U(d). We use a minimal axiomatic setup and derive recurrent and transformer templates from a shared skeleton in which subgroup choice acts as a drop-in replacement for state space, tangent projection, and update map. We then specialize to O(d) and evaluate orthogonal-state RNN and transformer models on Tiny Shakespeare and Penn Treebank under parameter-matched settings. We also report a general linear-mixing extension in tangent space, which applies across subgroup choices and improves finite-budget performance in the current O(d) experiments.
During the recent years, the use of linguistic data for language processing increased progressively. Such data are now commonly called language resources. Most of the language resources used for this purpose are collections of texts as the Brown Corpus and the Penn Treebank, but electronic lexicons (WordNet, FrameNet, VerbNet, ComLex, Lexicon-Grammar...) and formal grammars (TAG...) developed recently. Most processes of construction of lexicons and grammars are manual, whereas the construction of corpora has always been highly automated. However, more and more specialists of language processing realize that the information content of lexicons and grammars is richer than that of corpora, and hence the former make more elaborate processing possible. The difference in construction time is likely to be connected with the difference in information content: the handcrafting of lexicons and grammars by linguists would make them more informative than automatically generated data. This situation can evolve into two directions: either specialists of language technology get progressively used to handling manually constructed resources, which are more informative and more complex, or the process of construction of lexicons and grammars is automated and industrialized, which is the mainstream perspective. Both evolutions are already in progress, and a tension exists between them. The relation between linguists and computer scientists depends on the future of these evolutions, since the first implies training and hiring numerous linguists, whereas the other depends essentially on solutions elaborated by computer engineers. The aim of this article is to analyse practical examples of the language resources in question, and to discuss about which of the two trends, handcrafting or generating industrially, or a combination of both, can give the best results or is the most realistic.
This study examines multilingual neural machine translation (MNMT) for a diverse group of low-resource Asian languages-Bengali, Filipino, Indonesian, Japanese, Khmer, Malay, and Vietnamese-which differ substantially in linguistic families, writing systems, and typology. This paper evaluates state-of-the-art MNMT systems and introduces a Compact & Language-Sensitive MNMT model designed to improve translation performance while reducing computational cost. The proposed approach shares parameters through a compact multilingual representation, and enhances language discrimination using language-sensitive embeddings, a language-sensitive discriminator, and an adaptive cross-attention mechanism that selects attention parameters based on specific language pairs. Integrated with a multi-stage fine-tuning strategy, this model effectively strengthens cross-lingual transfer while maintaining robust language-specific representations. Experiments on the ALT multi-parallel corpus and the KFTT English-Japanese dataset demonstrate that multilingual models significantly outperform single-language NMT baselines. Despite its smaller size, the proposed Compact & Language-Sensitive MNMT achieves competitive or superior BLEU scores compared to Google’s MNMT, confirming the effectiveness of guided parameter sharing and language-sensitive training. These results highlight the value of compact multilingual architectures and multi-parallel datasets for advancing low-resource Asian machine translation.
This study examines Uzbek EFL learners’ preferences for British English and American English vocabulary and relates these choices to classroom norms and everyday exposure. In Uzbekistan, many English textbooks and teaching materials are based on British English, but learners often encounter American English through social media and entertainment. A voluntary online questionnaire was completed by 167 English major undergraduates at Kokand University. The vocabulary section included 20 paired items, and participants selected the word they use most often. Across 3,340 selections, American English forms were chosen slightly more often (1,812; 54.25%) than British English forms (1,528; 45.75%), although preferences differed sharply by item. A paired-samples t-test was applied to the multiple-choice vocabulary task at the item level (20 pairs) and did not show a significant overall difference across items, t(19) = 0.92, p =.371. Attitude items showed moderate agreement that students hear American English more often on social media (M = 3.14) and that teachers mostly use British English (M = 3.31), while perceived ability to notice differences was closer to neutral (M = 2.89). Overall, the findings point to hybrid lexical use shaped by parallel input streams. Pedagogical implications focus on raising awareness of lexical variation and teaching practical strategies for maintaining consistency in assessed academic writing.
Supplementary materials for manuscript Location-scale models improve within-participant held-out trial prediction in Stroop interference and attractiveness and dominance ratings
Despite their linguistic diversity and global significance, African languages remain underrepresented in research and resources to support NLP. We aim to bridge this gap by introducing AfriSUD, the first large-scale collection of syntactically annotated treebanks for nine diverse African languages spanning major language families and regions across Sub-Saharan Africa. Using the Surface-Syntactic Universal Dependencies (SUD) framework, our community-led effort provides high-quality, native-speaker verified data that capture typological key features such as agglutination and tone. We evaluate a range of models on AfriSUD for part-of-speech tagging and dependency parsing including non-transformer baselines, multilingual pretrained encoders, and LLMs. Our results reveal a significant syntax gap, where models still show clear limitations across the nine languages, suggesting that existing architectures may not fully capture the structural diversity of African-language syntax.
Spelling is a foundational literacy skill that supports both word reading and written expression. For students with or at risk of a learning disability (LD), difficulties in spelling often constrain the fluency and complexity of writing, making effective interventions essential. Yet, the conclusions drawn about intervention efficacy depend heavily on how outcomes are measured. This review synthesizes outcome measurement practices across 59 spelling intervention studies conducted over the past five decades. All outcome measures ( n = 233) were coded by type (researcher-developed vs. norm-referenced) and by linguistic level (sublexical, lexical, sentence, discourse) using the Interactive Dynamic Literacy (IDL) framework. Descriptive analyses revealed that nearly four out of five outcomes were lexical, most often researcher-developed lexical-level spelling probes, with comparatively few outcomes at the sentence or discourse levels. Standardized assessments were similarly concentrated at the word level, with the Wide Range Achievement Test–Spelling subtest and Test of Written Spelling most commonly used. Finally, the pairing of proximal and standardized outcomes was inconsistent, particularly among group designs. Taken together, findings highlight a measurement bottleneck: spelling interventions are evaluated primarily through lexical-level accuracy, offering limited insight into whether gains transfer to the higher-level writing processes for students with or at risk for LD.
This record contains the Grade 4 evidence package for the latent-space-shift-research project. This upload includes curated Markdown reports, generated metric summaries, manifests, selected CSV/JSON result files, and ZIP archives for experiments on context-induced latent-state shifts, hidden-state geometry, axis decomposition, shuffled-content controls, SAE-assisted readouts, and component-causal residual-stream interventions in language models. The central object of measurement is not the final visible answer alone, but inference-time movement in hidden states / residual-stream geometry before and during answer generation. The current Grade 4 package documents that dense coherent target context can move Gemma-3-12B-IT into a measurably different internal hidden-state regime during inference, without modifying model weights. The main descriptive result is that the target/control difference is not reducible to simple lexical overlap, topic similarity, text length, or shuffled content. Coherent target text and shuffled-content controls separate along different internal components: sentence-shuffled content loads primarily onto a content-like component, while coherent target context loads strongly onto an orthogonalized order/structure component. In the Grade 4 decomposition, the order/structure component x_order_orth is constructed by comparing coherent target context against sentence-shuffled target content and then removing the projection onto the content-like direction. This component is therefore intended to capture the residual discourse-order / structural part of the target-induced hidden-state shift after controlling for content-like signal. The evidence package also includes a norm-controlled component-causal run. In this run, component directions such as x_order_orth and x_content are normalized before residual-stream intervention, so that causal comparisons are not confounded by raw vector length. The causal results support the narrower claim that these component directions are not merely passive readout coordinates: interventions along them can produce measurable changes in generation-time hidden-state trajectories. However, the norm-controlled causal run does not establish x_order_orth as a stable bidirectional steering axis or a complete behavioral-control handle. The scientific status represented by this package is therefore: Supported: coherent target context induces a measurable inference-time latent-state shift in Gemma-3-12B-IT; the shift is visible in hidden-state / residual-stream geometry, not only in final text; the effect is separable from naive content or lexical-overlap explanations through shuffled-content controls; the Grade 4 decomposition identifies a substantial order/structure component beyond the content-like direction; controlled residual-stream interventions along component directions can alter generation-time hidden-state trajectories. Not claimed: permanent model weight change; universal model-independent failure; formal attractor-basin proof; complete behavioral control; stable bidirectional steering through x_order_orth; demonstrated behavioral class flips as the main result. (x_order_orth is an orthogonalized discourse-order / structure component: the residual target-vs-sentence-shuffle hidden-state direction after removing the content-like direction x_content. It is used to test whether coherent target context induces a latent-state shift beyond lexical/content overlap.)Note: “Grade 4” is an internal experiment label in this project. It names this specific stage of the experimental pipeline and should not be read as an external benchmark, official grade, or standardized evaluation category. The evidence represented here concerns temporary inference-time state movement measured relative to experimentally constructed latent axes, component decompositions, projection metrics, generation trajectories, and causal intervention readouts. The actively maintained codebase and repository history are available at:https://github.com/ngscode23/latent-space-shift-research License:Research reports, generated metric artifacts, metric reference files, manifests, documentation, figures, and data artifacts in this evidence package are released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), unless otherwise noted. Code and software scripts, where included, follow the repository code license:Apache-2.0 unless otherwise noted.
Grapheme-to-phoneme (G2P) conversion for Modern Hebrew is needed for applications like text-to-speech (TTS), but is challenging due to the language's abjad writing system, which leaves vowels largely unwritten, creating substantial ambiguity. Standard approaches first predict vowel diacritics (nikud) to produce International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions, but this is limited: vocalization data is scarce and laborious to produce, it does not specify features such as lexical stress, and it reflects formal grammatical rules rather than everyday spoken pronunciation. Direct sequence-to-sequence IPA prediction, meanwhile, struggles on limited data and fails to exploit the character-level alignment characteristic of abjads. Our method, ReNikud, overcomes these limitations with two key insights: (1) Weak audio supervision via a phoneme-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) pseudo-labeling pipeline on thousands of hours of unlabeled Hebrew audio, yielding phonemic transcriptions that reflect natural spoken norms without manual annotation. (2) A pseudo-vocalization architecture that predicts IPA phonemes at each character position, enforcing character-level alignment as an inductive bias. Results on existing Hebrew G2P benchmarks and the new targeted MILIM benchmark for spoken Hebrew show that ReNikud surpasses previous state-of-the-art methods. We will release our code and trained models to support further work on Hebrew TTS and speech technologies.
Czech has been part of Universal Dependencies since its first release in 2015. It has also been one of the best represented languages, with the Prague Dependency Treebank being order of magnitude larger than most other UD treebanks. More recently, three other datasets from the Prague family were added and the annotations thoroughly revisited, forming the "Prague Dependency Treebank-Consolidated" (PDT-C). In comparison to the original PDT, PDT-C is more than twice as large, but it is also much more diverse in terms of genres and domains. In this paper, we describe the conversion of the new resource to Universal Dependencies. While the two annotation schemes are relatively similar at the first sight, there are numerous small differences in topology of the dependency structures and in granularity of the POS and relation type inventories. We demonstrate a selection of such differences on examples, discuss the diverging motivations, as well as ways to overcome the differences during conversion. We argue that while PDT is less "universal" and more tightly bound to one language, its multi-layer annotation is rich and provides all information needed for basic UD trees, and much more.
This article explores the communicative-pragmatic parameters of online communication and examines the processes of language transformation within the digital environment. In recent years, the rapid development of information and communication technologies has significantly influenced the ways individuals interact, leading to the emergence of new discourse forms and linguistic practices. The study focuses on how pragmatic factors such as intention, context, audience, and interaction strategies are reshaped in virtual communication spaces. Special attention is given to features such as brevity, multimodality, interactivity, and the use of non-verbal elements (emojis, abbreviations, and symbols), which contribute to meaning-making in digital discourse. Furthermore, the research highlights how digital platforms facilitate the transformation of language at lexical, syntactic, and stylistic levels, resulting in hybrid linguistic forms and innovative communicative norms. The paper adopts a descriptive and analytical approach, drawing on examples from social media, messaging applications, and online forums. The findings suggest that online communication not only modifies traditional pragmatic structures but also creates new conventions that reflect the dynamic nature of language in the digital age. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of modern linguistic changes and offers insights into the evolving relationship between language, technology, and communication.
The use of Standard Indonesian in academic presentations is an important competency for students, including students of the English Language and Literature Study Program whose academic activities often use foreign languages. The ability to speak Standard Indonesian accurately reflects academic proficiency and a positive attitude towards the national language in formal situations. This study aims to analyze the level of Standard Indonesian use in students' academic presentations and identify non-standard language forms in spoken discourse. The method used is descriptive qualitative with classroom presentation observation techniques, audio recording, and transcription of student speech. Data were analyzed based on Standard Indonesian rules in phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical aspects. The results of the study indicate that the use of Standard Indonesian is still relatively low. Students often mix Indonesian and English, use non-standard vocabulary, construct ineffective sentences, and use pronunciation that does not conform to norms. Contributing factors include language habits, the dominance of English, minimal formal language practice, and low awareness of the importance of Standard Indonesian in formal academic contexts.
Social media platforms, particularly TikTok, have become primary arenas for linguistic experimentation among adolescents, yet systematic analyses of how platform-specific affordances shape lexical and semantic innovation remains limited. This study investigated lexical and semantic variations in adolescent digital communication on TikTok, addressing three research questions concerning the types of lexical innovations, processes of semantic change, and the role of platform affordances in shaping language evolution. Methods: A mixed-methods design integrated quantitative corpus linguistics with qualitative discourse analysis. A corpus of 2,848 TikTok comments was compiled across four major trends (September–December 2024). Lexical analysis identified neologisms, graphical variations, and acronyms; semantic analysis documented broadening, narrowing, metaphoric extension, and pejoration/amelioration; platform affordances analysis examined meme-driven language and intertextual policing. Analysis revealed 15 lexical innovations with 63 occurrences across semantic categories. Neologisms (fr, bestie, delulu) and graphical variations (tryna, cuz, ion) served dual functions of efficiency and identity performance. Semantic shifts included ameliorative broadening (slay, fire), pejoration (basic, cringe), metaphoric extension (era, main character), and reclamatory usage (ghetto). Platform analysis identified 11 meme-driven phrases generating 2,848 occurrences with near-neutral sentiment, and 347 policing instances (12.2%) concentrated during rising and peak trend phases, demonstrating active semantic negotiation through definition, debate, and correction. TikTok functions as an accelerated laboratory for language change where adolescents deploy multiple mechanisms of linguistic innovation simultaneously. Platform affordances fundamentally reshape traditional sociolinguistic processes, with intertextual policing serving as the mechanism by which communities enforce emerging semantic norms. The findings extend communities of practice frameworks to algorithmically-mediated digital environments. Educators should recognize digital language as systematic innovation; lexicographers should develop protocols for documenting ephemeral platform-specific terms; platform designers should account for in-group reclamation practices; and researchers should prioritize cross-platform longitudinal studies to track whether observed innovations represent enduring change or age-graded phenomena.
This article analyzes the regional vocabulary of the Provence region found in regional print media focusing on sports. The subject of the study is the regional lexical units characteristic of the Provence region. The object of the research is the functioning of regional vocabulary in the texts of print media on sports. The author examines in detail how the most significant sporting events in the region are described and which lexical units are used. The author's attention is directed solely to lexical units, as an analysis of language units at other levels (phonetic and grammatical) based on written texts is not possible for a number of reasons: a detailed study of the phonetic features of the regional language requires a corpus of audio and video texts. At the grammatical level, no differences between the literary and regional languages are identified, as the texts of print media are composed in accordance with literary norms, while the researcher's focus is not on colloquial forms but on the spoken language of educated speakers of this region's language. For comparison, texts from the most popular national and regional publications covering the same sporting events were selected and the lexical units used in their descriptions were analyzed. A method of complete sampling and contextual analysis was employed for this purpose. The novelty of this research is due to the fact that texts from print media are a very important source for analyzing the national and cultural features of the regional variant of the French language. Existing lexicographic sources at this stage do not provide reliable information about the functioning of linguistic units in everyday speech. Therefore, studying regional language features based on media material has become relevant. It is not by chance that sports themes were chosen for the analysis of lexical units, as they are the most akin to colloquial speech. The conducted analysis showed that regional print media texts on sports are characterized by a wide integration of regional lexical units. This leads to the conclusion that these lexical units are indeed used in the written language of educated speakers and serve as a cultural marker of the French language variant in the Provence region.
This article examines transformations in the context of globalization.It notes that globalization has a profound impact on language, transforming not only vocabulary but also discursive structures, communicative practices, and linguistic identity.It is established that language functions as a social and cultural construct reflecting ideology, power relations, and global interconnectedness.This study examines how discourse develops in the context of globalization and how these transformations alter linguistic identity.Using qualitative discourse analysis of digital media texts and online communications, the study identifies key processes, including lexical borrowing, hybridization, code-switching, syntactic simplification, and multimodal integration.The results demonstrate that global linguistic elements are incorporated alongside local structures, creating context-dependent, multilayered identities.It is demonstrated that people balance between global and local norms, adapting language to express modernity, cultural affiliation, and social status.Thus, discourse has been shown to serve as a mechanism for identity reconstruction, demonstrating how language systems dynamically respond to social, technological, and cultural change.Language, as both a medium and a symbol of social interaction, is particularly affected by these global forces: beyond simple lexical borrowing or codeswitching, globalization reshapes discourse patterns, pragmatic norms, and stylistic conventions across multiple communicative domains.This study contributes to philology by linking discourse transformations to identity formation in contemporary societies and highlighting the importance of integrating sociolinguistic and digital perspectives in the study of language evolution.These findings are relevant for scholars in sociolinguistics, discourse studies, and applied philology, demonstrating that globalization alters rather than erases local linguistic practices.
INTRODUCTION: The experience of emotions is accompanied by distinct bodily sensations, consistent across cultures. Irritable bowel syndrome is characterized by altered interoceptive and affective processing, suggesting that individuals with IBS may experience emotions differently in their bodies. This study investigated whether so-called bodily maps of emotions differ between individuals with IBS and healthy controls (HC). METHODS: Forty-three individuals with IBS (Rome IV) and 54 HC used the topographical mapping tool EmBODY to color bodily silhouettes marking where sensations were perceived during 13 emotions and a neutral negative affective state. Region-based (abdomen, head, thorax) and whole-body pixel-wise analyses were performed on the resulting body maps to compare emotion-evoked sensations between individuals with IBS and HC using non-parametric one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: IBS participants showed consistently elevated abdominal sensations across emotional states, and emotional state only modulated abdominal sensations in HC (p < 0.001) but not in IBS (p = 0.17). After correcting for neutral activation, positive emotions (love, happiness) elicited smaller increases in abdominal activation in IBS than in HC (p < 0.03). IBS participants did not show greater abdominal activation during negative emotions relative to HC. Several positive emotions were associated with reduced head-region activation in IBS (p < 0.041), while no group differences emerged in the thorax region. CONCLUSION: Individuals with IBS demonstrate altered embodiment of emotional states, characterized by persistent abdominal sensations, limited emotional differentiation, and blunted emotion-specific modulation for positive emotions. Future studies should incorporate concurrent affect ratings and physiological measures to clarify emotion-body interactions in IBS.
This paper presents a novel treebank-driven approach to comparing syntactic structures in speech and writing using dependency-parsed corpora. Adopting a fully inductive, bottom-up method, we define syntactic structures as delexicalized dependency (sub)trees and extract them from spoken and written Universal Dependencies (UD) treebanks in two syntactically distinct languages, English and Slovenian. For each corpus, we analyze the size, diversity, and distribution of syntactic inventories, their overlap across modalities, and the structures most characteristic of speech. Results show that, across both languages, spoken corpora contain fewer and less diverse syntactic structures than their written counterparts, with consistent cross-linguistic preferences for certain structural types across modalities. Strikingly, the overlap between spoken and written syntactic inventories is very limited: most structures attested in speech do not occur in writing, pointing to modality-specific preferences in syntactic organization that reflect the distinct demands of real-time interaction and elaborated writing. This contrast is further supported by a keyness analysis of the most frequent speech-specific structures, which highlights patterns associated with interactivity, context-grounding, and economy of expression. We argue that this scalable, language-independent framework offers a useful general method for systematically studying syntactic variation across corpora, laying the groundwork for more comprehensive data-driven theories of grammar in use.
Abstract Quranic Arabic has motivated sustained morphological and syntactic annotation, yet Quranic treebanks remain hard to compare and reuse in modern natural language processing (NLP) because they diverge in clitic segmentation, feature inventories, and syntactic formalisms. We present UD-Quran, a Universal Dependencies (UD) v2 conversion of the Extended Quranic Treebank with hybrid syntactic annotations (EQTB). The conversion treats EQTB morpho-syntactic segments as UD tokens, maps EQTB part-of-speech (POS) categories to 12 UD universal part-of-speech (UPOS) tags, derives UD features from explicit EQTB columns, and collapses EQTB dependency labels into a compact UD relation inventory with deterministic normalization aligned to UD content-head conventions. Two releases are provided: a surface variant aligned to the observable Quranic string by excluding analytically inserted nodes, and an augmented variant that retains inserted material to preserve EQTB’s modeling of ellipsis and implied pronominals. The surface release contains 11,693 sentences and 128,219 UD tokens; the augmented release contains 139,376 tokens. Conversion coverage is quantified by restricting unspecified dependency (dep) to 1,129 tokens (0.881% of surface tokens). UD-Quran includes fixed training/development/test (train/dev/test) splits (seed 42) and lightweight Stanza baselines scored with the CoNLL (Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning) 2018 UD evaluation script. On the test sets, parsing with gold tags reaches labeled attachment score (LAS) 80.66 (surface) and 82.47 (augmented), while the end-to-end pipeline reaches LAS 64.52 and 68.54. UD-Quran is intended as an interoperability layer that supports standard UD tooling while preserving sentence-level traceability to EQTB.
This article evaluates the integration of data extracted from a French syntactic lexicon, the Lexicon-Grammar (Gross, 1994), into a probabilistic parser. We show that by applying clustering methods on verbs of the French Treebank (Abeillé et al., 2003), we obtain accurate performances on French with a parser based on a Probabilistic Context-Free Grammar (Petrov et al., 2006).
This article provides a thorough examination of the critical role that intercultural pragmatic competence plays in contemporary English language instruction. This sophisticated construct extends beyond traditional linguistic knowledge to encompass the nuanced understanding of how language functions within diverse cultural frameworks to convey meaning, intent, and social relationships. Contemporary English Language Teaching (ELT) methodologies have undergone a significant paradigmatic transformation, characterized by growing acknowledgment of the complex interdependence between linguistic structures, communicative intentions, and the sociocultural contexts that shape their interpretation. This comprehensive perspective deliberately moves beyond conventional pedagogical approaches that prioritized grammatical accuracy and lexical acquisition in relative isolation. Rather, it actively promotes a more profound comprehension of target cultures, recognizing that successful communication depends substantially on understanding culturally conditioned expectations regarding appropriateness, politeness, and discourse organization. Central to this evolving pedagogical framework is the systematic integration of communicative language teaching principles. This approach provides substantial theoretical foundations for investigating how cultural norms, social conventions, and contextual factors fundamentally influence language learners’ interpretation and production of meaning in authentic communicative situations. Ultimately, the findings presented herein compellingly demonstrate the imperative of equipping language learners not merely with structural accuracy and lexical diversity, but fundamentally with the pragmatic awareness essential for genuinely effective, contextually appropriate, and mutually comprehensible cross-cultural communication, thereby enabling them to navigate the complexities of international discourse with competence and cultural sensitivity.
BACKGROUND: L. (caraway) essential oils (EOs) on aging. First, we assessed, in 402 participants, the age-related changes in olfactory functions (odor threshold, discrimination, and identification), gustatory perceptions (sweet, sour, salty, and bitter taste), cognitive functions (focusing on attention, memory, language, and visuospatial/executive functions), and their possible correlations with aging. To achieve this, olfactory function, gustatory perception, and cognitive abilities were evaluated in healthy participants across different age groups. Then, to evaluate the age-related decrease in trigeminal function (59 participants), we used rosemary and caraway EOs that contain carvone, limonene, and 1,8-cineole, all of which are considered typical trigeminal stimuli. METHODS: Olfactory function was assessed with the Sniffin' Sticks test, gustatory function by the Taste Strips test, and rosemary and caraway EOs by the ratings of odor pleasantness, intensity, and familiarity using a labeled hedonic Likert-type scale. RESULTS: Olfactory function could be a potential early indicator of attentional, memory, language, and visuospatial/executive dysfunctions. Our data indicated that rosemary and caraway EOs were perceived without any significant decrease in odor pleasantness, intensity, and familiarity ratings in relation to aging. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest the potential bioactive effects of rosemary and caraway natural EOs as a new strategy to promote healthy aging.
As of 2025, more than 5.2 billion people in the world use social media, which is about 63.9% of the world’s population, with a growth rate of 4.1% over the past 12 months. The most popular platforms are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and WhatsApp. The average time spent on social media is about 2 hours and 26 minutes per day, and the average user has access to seven different platforms. Speech on social media is based on the same language norms (lexical, spelling, grammar, syntax) as live speech. The purpose of the article is to provide an extended analysis of lexical innovations in the language space under the influence of social media and digital communication tools. The object of this study is the modern vocabulary of several languages used within social platforms (Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram). Particular attention is paid to modern English, which is the most widespread language in communication practice – approximately 1.5 billion people speak English, and 52% of the world’s most popular websites contain English-language content. The article uses scientific and linguistic analysis to investigate the peculiarities of the transformative impact of social media communication on language at all structural and functional levels: lexical, phonetic, grammatical, syntactic and graphic. The article analyzes the characteristic lexical changes by groups – memes, neologisms, abbreviations and acronyms, phraseological units, hashtags. The functions of different categories of lexical innovations of social networks are determined, in particular: hashtags form the basis for unimpeded communication in an intercultural context, neologisms are means of constructing the identity of certain social groups, memes have the functionality of entertainment and information, disseminating precedent information in the format of textual and graphic expression. The negative aspects of the impact of social networks on language are identified: excessive simplification of language and loss of its individual nuances, the emergence of inaccuracies and grammatical errors due to the spontaneous nature of communication on social networks, as well as potential negative consequences for mental health. The study proves that the modern space of innovative language practices reflects new concepts of social media communication culture, interactive upgrading and visualization, which transforms religious and cultural aspects and promotes sustainable language changes.
This study reveals a critical paradox in social media privacy communication: Although platforms like Meta (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, and X have evolved their policies in an effort towards simpler, standardized disclosures, the language remains cognitively inaccessible to their core adolescent audience. Our analysis demonstrates that these disclosures, benchmarked against the developmental norms of 13–17‐year‐olds, are written at a university‐level complexity, calling into question the validity of informed consent for minors. We use a triangulated method to assess the accessibility of platform policies for teens. Structural mapping shows consistent topic coverage, but readability indices indicate a college‐level reading requirement. Lexical analysis confirms high rates of difficult words, exceeding the threshold for adolescent understanding. Our findings lead to a sobering conclusion: The prevailing model of using a single, text‐based privacy policy is caught in an inherent tension between legal completeness and adolescent comprehension, making it fundamentally unworkable. This research provides evidence that calls for the need for a redesign of privacy communication for minors or a reconsideration of the current minimum age for digital consent.
This study examines the impact of social media on the linguistic behavior of Jordanian Gen Z (born 1997–2012) through the lens of their daily use of colloquial speech as a reflection of sociocultural change. It delineates the dominant linguistic features of the language they use and attempts to address how these linguistic practices reflect the construction of identity and socio-cultural shifts among Jordanian Generation Z. Social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat heavily influence Generation Z's vernacular. This study employs a qualitative research approach to analyze pertinent data on code-switching, meme-driven expressions, and abbreviation combinations. Two primary methods of data collection were employed: social media data collection for discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews aimed at identifying the most frequently used expressions among Generation Z. Findings show that the vernacular of Jordanian Gen Z is dynamic, hybrid, and highly integrative in terms of global linguistic resources. This new digital Arabic sociolect poses numerous linguistic and cultural challenges for individuals. These include the necessity for extensive code-switching, the establishment of distinct online linguistic norms, the adaptation to cultural hybridity in language use, and the confrontation of linguistic divergence between generations.
This article presents a comparative analysis of the means of emotional expression in English and Uzbek from both linguistic and cultural perspectives. Emotional expression plays a crucial role in human communication, as it reflects speakers’ attitudes, feelings, and cultural values. The study examines how emotions are conveyed through lexical choices, phraseological units, intonation, and stylistic devices in both languages. Special attention is paid to similarities and differences in expressing emotions such as joy, anger, sadness, and respect. The research also explores the influence of cultural norms and social conventions on emotional expressiveness, highlighting how English tends to favor more restrained and indirect emotional expression, while Uzbek often demonstrates greater emotional openness and expressiveness. By analyzing examples from everyday speech and written texts, the article aims to show how language and culture interact in shaping emotional communication. The findings of this study may be useful for linguistics students, language teachers, translators, and learners who are interested in cross-cultural communication and comparative linguistics.
Facial expressions are powerful signals of human emotion, shaping both human–human and human–computer interaction. As interactive technologies, from adaptive interfaces to emotion-aware agents, become more pervasive, systems are increasingly expected to recognize and respond to users’ emotions naturally. But what if a system misreads your face? Such misinterpretation is particularly likely when cultural differences in emotion perception are overlooked. This problem may be compounded by the fact that most facial emotion recognition (FER) models are trained on datasets that reflect the norms of a particular cultural group that assume universality, limiting their reliability in multicultural contexts. Surprise, in particular, is an emotion whose valence can be either positive or negative depending on context, making it a critical case for investigating cultural bias in FER. To address this, we examined how cultural background shapes the recognition and valence interpretation of surprise facial expressions among South Korean (N=36) and American (N=34) participants. Participants labeled 200 facial expressions (surprise and fear), rated their perceived valence, and described personal experiences of surprise. Results show that South Korean-labeled surprise expressions exhibited stronger negative Action Unit (AU) activation and lower valence ratings, whereas American-labeled ones showed more balanced or positive facial cues. Qualitative accounts further revealed that South Koreans framed surprise as tense or socially cautious, while Americans viewed it as open and situationally flexible. These findings bridge recognition and interpretation in cross-cultural emotion research and highlight the need for culturally adaptive FER systems that can interpret ambiguous emotions like surprise more inclusively.
Mobile augmented reality (AR) games offer a novel and unexplored context for situated language learning. In these games, players engage in authentic communication influenced by game mechanics, community norms, and shared objectives. This study employs Engeström’s (1987) Activity Theory (AT) framework to analyze language production and learning within the Pokémon Go gaming community. By conducting content analysis of a gameplay vlog and first-person observations of the game application, the study investigates how the six components of the activity system—subject, object, mediating artifacts, rules, community, and division of labor—interact to create conditions for language use and learning. The analysis reveals that language functions as both a mediating artifact and an outcome of participation. Game-specific lexical items emerge from and reinforce the activity system’s structure, while contradictions between components, particularly between game-imposed rules and community-driven knowledge-sharing practices, generate opportunities for language development. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on game-based language learning and extend the application of Activity Theory to mobile AR gaming environments.
This dataset contains imageability and familiarity ratings for Ukrainian and English work-related proverbs collected from Ukrainian university students. The data were gathered as part of a cross-linguistic study examining how bodily grounding influences the mental imagery associated with proverbial expressions in a first language (L1) and a second language (L2). The participants (N = 49) were students at Vasyl’ Stus Donetsk National University. Ukrainian was their first language (L1), and English was their second language (L2). Participants evaluated Ukrainian and English work-related proverbs using 7-point Likert scales measuring imageability and familiarity. The stimulus set consisted of two proverb categories: body-based (BOD) proverbs containing explicit references to bodily actions, body parts, or sensorimotor experiences, and abstract (ABS) proverbs expressing work-related meanings without direct bodily imagery. Ratings were collected separately for Ukrainian and English proverb sets. The dataset includes raw participant responses, worksheet-level calculations, category means, language-specific means, and derived variables used for hypothesis testing. Statistical calculations included comparisons between BOD and ABS proverb categories as well as between L1 and L2 proverb processing. All participant data are fully anonymized. No personally identifiable information is included. The dataset may be useful for research on embodied cognition, conceptual metaphor theory, psycholinguistics, figurative language processing, proverb comprehension, imageability, familiarity, and cross-linguistic studies of language representation. File contents • Raw imageability ratings for Ukrainian proverbs • Raw imageability ratings for English proverbs • Raw familiarity ratings for Ukrainian proverbs • Raw familiarity ratings for English proverbs • Calculated category means (BOD and ABS) • Derived variables for hypothesis testing (H1–H3) • Statistical summary tables Variables Participant_ID – anonymous participant identifier Proverb_Rating – participant rating assigned to a proverb Imageability – perceived ease of forming a mental image (1–7) Familiarity – perceived familiarity with the proverb (1–7) Language – Ukrainian (L1) or English (L2) Category – Body-Based (BOD) or Abstract (ABS) Mean_Score – average score calculated for a participant, proverb category, or language condition License CC BY 4.0
This article investigates the linguo-culturological parameters of herb names (phytonyms) in English, Russian, and Kazakh, focusing on their general and nationally specific characteristics. The study is grounded in linguocultural theory and examines plant names as linguistic units that reflect both botanical knowledge and culturally marked meanings. Phytonyms are analyzed as components of the lexical system that encode cognitive, semantic, and symbolic representations shaped by historical experience and national worldview. This research is based on a comparative analysis of dictionary definitions, phraseological units, proverbs, folklore texts, and works of fiction in three different languages. At the definitional level, English and Russian dictionaries tend to include not only botanical descriptions but also figurative and evaluative meanings. In contrast, Kazakh lexicographic sources primarily emphasize conceptual and functional characteristics. The study identifies common semantic features in phytonyms, such as classification, habitat, physical attributes, and practical uses (including medicinal, culinary, and decorative), while also revealing differences in metaphorization and symbolic associations. Phraseological units containing plant components demonstrate both shared conceptual meanings and nationally specific imagery. Although equivalent expressions exist across languages, their figurative bases and lexical composition often differ. Proverbs and sayings similarly reflect universal themes; family resemblance, moral education, and life difficulties—while preserving distinct cultural codes and value systems. Folklore and literary texts further illustrate how phytonyms function as metaphors, symbols of beauty, morality, abundance, or danger, and as markers of ethnic identity. The findings confirm that phytonyms constitute an important part of the linguistic worldview in each culture. Through comparative linguo-cultural analysis, the study demonstrates how plant names embody collective memory, mythological beliefs, aesthetic ideals, and social norms, thereby highlighting both universal patterns and culturally specific conceptualizations of nature in English, Russian, and Kazakh linguistic traditions.
The computational intractability of modern neural network architectures arises predominantly from the continuous optimization of massively parameterized dense continuous manifolds. This paper presents a radically divergent mathematical paradigm developed by Sapiens Technology®, which bypasses continuous gradient descent in favor of dynamically adjusted numerical tensors formulated within discrete metric spaces. We model the system as a surjective mapping from a topologically normalized lexical space to a deterministically partitioned quotient space of embeddings. By indexing tensors strictly through the topological boundaries of selective attention mechanisms (token types), we reduce the memory access complexity bounded essentially by O(1) for routing and O(log N) for inference search. Furthermore, we provide rigorous mathematical proofs regarding the convergence of probabilistic subsequence matching, L1-norm bounded sequence relaxations, and iterative generalization operators. This theoretical foundation explains the empirical phenomenon wherein both training and inference exhibit hyper-accelerated operational velocity on minimal, non-GPU hardware constraints.
The article examines the significance of using audiovisual Internet resources in the development of foreign language lexical competence among students of art specialties. It explores the theoretical foundations of forming foreign language lexical competence, which includes mastery of general and professional vocabulary, the ability to perceive, reproduce, and appropriately use lexical units in professional and social communicative situations. Lexical competence is understood as a component of communicative competence, encompassing knowledge of lexical units and the ability to apply them in relevant communicative contexts. Special attention is given to the use of authentic audiovisual Internet resources, particularly the YouTube platform, which provides students with access to videos with subtitles, interviews, and practical demonstrations, promoting listening skills, vocabulary expansion, and the acquisition of cultural norms of the target language environment. In the context of teaching students of art specialties, especially in the performative arts, the importance of mastering professional vocabulary is emphasized, including terms, styles, techniques, and culturally marked expressions, as well as the development of visual-auditory thinking. At the practical level, the use of video materials in the textbook “English for Specific Purposes (Choreography)” is substantiated. These materials help choreography students acquire professional vocabulary, observe its use in real situations, develop audiovisual thinking, and integrate knowledge from other disciplines. Types of exercises for video materials are proposed: pre-viewing (lexical-predictive), while-viewing, post-viewing, lexico-grammatical, and contextually communicative tasks, which contribute to the systematic development of both receptive and productive language skills.
running affective responses interaction synchronizationMusic is frequently utilized to enhance emotional states during physical exercise, potentially increasing engagement.Its influence may arise independently or through the interaction with exercise.However, the relative contributions of music's independent versus interactive effect on affective responses to exercise remain underexplored.To address this gap, fifty participants performed three tasks in a within-subjects design: a 35 minute affect-regulated intensity running with (C2) or without music (C1), and a seated control condition involving listening to the same music used in C2 without physical exercise (C3).We compared in-task affective responses (arousal and valence) and post-task emotional states.Results showed significantly higher arousal and valence ratings in C2 compared to C1.In these effects, only arousal ratings were influenced by the independent presence of music.Most of the observed differences, particularly enhanced valence, were attributed to the interaction between music and exercise.These findings suggest that self-selected music primarily enhances affective responses during affect-regulated intensity running through its interaction with exercise.
The article examines the phenomenon of youth slang as a form of linguistic variability and as one of the factors in the evolution of the Russian language. Based on the analysis of lexical, morphological, and syntactic aspects of youth speech, the mechanisms of its interaction with the literary norm are identified. The study employs methods of corpus analysis, observation, and comparative description. The results show that youth slang not only reflects sociocultural changes but also enables the renewal of the language system by introducing new words, forms, and stylistic devices. At the same time, tension remains between the innovative potential of slang and the requirements of linguistic normativity. Keywords: youth slang, linguistic variability, language evolution, sociolinguistics, Russian language, lexical innovations, language norm.
Individuals with hearing loss, even when using hearing aids, often perceive pleasant environmental sounds as less pleasant than do those with normal hearing. This bias in emotional response may negatively impact well-being, leading to decreased social participation and increased loneliness. The present study examined whether the Positive Focus intervention-encouraging hearing aid users to focus on positive listening experiences-could influence emotional response to environmental sounds. Thirty participants were randomly assigned to either a Positive Focus or a Control group. At the initial laboratory visit, all participants were fitted with study hearing aids and performed affective ratings of 120 environmental sounds. Over 3 weeks, both groups wore the hearing aids; the Positive Focus group additionally reported daily positive listening experiences via a text message. At the end of the three-week period, participants completed questionnaires on hearing aid outcomes and repeated the affective ratings. The Positive Focus intervention did not alter emotional responses to environmental sounds in a laboratory setting. However, regression analyses revealed that valence ratings of typically pleasant sounds moderated the effectiveness of Positive Focus on hearing aid benefit; the intervention was more effective for individuals less naturally inclined to respond positively to such sounds. These findings suggest that valence screening may help identify individuals most likely to benefit from Positive Focus, supporting more personalized hearing care strategies.
This study investigates the influence of three biophilic interior design variables: natural light, interior vegetation (vertical green wall), and biomorphic form (biomorphic wall panel) on affective and physiological responses in a design studio interior utilizing immersive virtual reality (IVR) and wearable biofeedback technology. This study was a within-participant 23 factorial design that included one baseline and eight IVR studio conditions. Participants experienced all conditions while reporting affects using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) valence and arousal scales, electrodermal activity (EDA), and skin temperature (ST). Cybersickness was measured with the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and presence was assessed using the Igroup Presence Questionnaire and Slater-Usoh-Steed presence measures (IPQ, SUS), while baseline anxiety (STAI) was controlled. The results demonstrated a significant primary influence of natural light on SAM valence ratings: conditions with natural light were evaluated as more pleasant than the non-variable and baseline condition, whereas interior vegetation and biomorphic form had smaller, context-dependent effects that were most evident when layered with natural light. Differences in SAM arousal ratings were modest and non-systematic. EDA did not differentiate, and ST showed only small shifts, indicating that during calm exploratory monitoring, subjective affect was more responsive. The circumplex findings guided to an activity-specific zoned interior rather than a single uniform design studio.
This paper examines the ability of language models to capture semantic relations between words in a low-resource language. We describe experiments on automatic prediction of lexical-semantic relations in Belarusian using models of Word2Vec, BERT, and LLM families which differ in neural architecture, feature types and NLP applications. Training and f ine-tuning of the models was carried out on the datasets compiled for our study: Belarusian corpora with UD POS tagging and a database of synonyms and antonyms extracted from Belarusian dictionaries. Model performance was evaluated by pseudo-disambiguation test (Word2Vec CBOW and skip-grams) as well as by expert assessments (roberta-small-Belarusian, Gemini 2.5 Pro). The results proved to be valid and can be applied to create and enrich lexical databases, to analyse word co-occurrence, to improve machine translation, paraphrasing, summarization, and other systems related to automatic processing of the Belarusian language.