Papers reviewed and determined not to be word norm studies. Use the flag icon to report errors or suggest re-inclusion.
16504 papers
Artikeln presenterar en ny och framväxande genre vid svenska myndigheter, nämligen värdegrunder. Värdegrundstexterna ses här som en del i en förändrad diskurs, där det blir allt viktigare att presentera den egna myndigheten positivt. I så måtto liknar värdegrunderna marknadsföringstexter, men de kan också betraktas som styrinstrument. Eftersom texterna artikulerar ett förväntat beteende, till exempel att myndigheten är effektiv och engagerad, erbjuder de ett subtilt sätt att reglera beteende hos de anställda. Artikelns fokus är värde-grundstexternas relation till klarspråksnormen. Analyser av tre värdegrundstexter visar att texterna knappast innebär begriplighetsproblem, även om de många abstrakta orden kan innebära problem. Andra problematiska aspekter med värdegrunderna är att de bidrar till att utöka myndigheternas textrepertoar, och därmed kostar arbetstid och pengar. De har också en tendens att vara kommunikativt oklara, och kan i värsta fall dölja problem, eftersom de är skrivna som påståenden (vi är effektiva) snarare än som uppmaningar (vi ska vara effektiva). Ur språkvårdsperspektiv innebär texterna en möjlighet att diskutera vilka texter som ska om-fattas av kravet på klarspråk, och kan på så sätt möjligen bidra till att begreppet klarspråk blir snävare och skarpare.Abstract:This article presents a relatively new and evolving genre at public authorities, the platform of values (värdegrund). The platform of values is presented as part of a changing discourse, where presenting the public authority in question in a positive manner is getting increasingly more important. In this respect, the platforms of values resemble marketing texts, but they are also regarded as tools for governing. Since the texts articulate an expected manner of behaviour, for example that the authority is efficient and committed, they offer a subtle way of imposing a code of conduct on employees. The main focus in the article is on the relation between plain language norms and the genre of platform of values. Textual analysis of three platforms of values reveals that there are not many problems of comprehensibility, but that the level of lexical abstraction might pose a problem for readers. There are also other problems related to the platforms of values. They increase the amount of texts and genres within the public authorities, which increases costs in time and money. They also tend to be unclear communicatively, and might gloss over problems of behaviour, since they are written in a declarative mode. From a language policy perspective, they offer an opportunity to discuss the boundaries of plain language, and possible sharpen the concept of plain language practice.
Drawing on phonology research within the generative linguistics tradition, stochastic methods, and notions from complex systems, we develop a modelling paradigm linking phonological structure, expressed in terms of syllables, to speech movement data acquired with 3D electromagnetic articulography and X-ray microbeam methods. The essential variable in the models is syllable structure. When mapped to discrete coordination topologies, syllabic organization imposes systematic patterns of variability on the temporal dynamics of speech articulation. We simulated these dynamics under different syllabic parses and evaluated simulations against experimental data from Arabic and English, two languages claimed to parse similar strings of segments into different syllabic structures. Model simulations replicated several key experimental results, including the fallibility of past phonetic heuristics for syllable structure, and exposed the range of conditions under which such heuristics remain valid)
Background: Evidence is required as to when and where to focus resources to achieve the greatest gains for children’s language development. Key to these decisions is the understanding of individual differences in children’s language trajectories and the predictors of those differences. To determine optimal timing we must understand if and when children’s relative language abilities become fixed. To determine where to focus effort we must identify mutable factors, that is those with the potential to be changed through interventions, which are associated with significant differences in children’s language scores and rate of progress. Methods: Uniquely this study examined individual differences in language growth trajectories in a population sample of children between 4 and 7 years using the multilevel model for change. The influence of predictors, grouped with respect to their mutability and their proximity to the child (least-mutable, mutable-distal, mutable-proximal), were estimated)
How do speakers tease apart a simple generic sentence ( les instituteurs ne gagnent pas beaucoup d’argent “school teachers do not make much money”) and a proverb ( les cordonniers sont les plus mal chaussés, “shoemakers are always the worst shod”, eng. The cobbler’s children go barefoot )? From a formal viewpoint, these two utterance types are very close. Yet, only the latter is used in fields other than shoemaking. I account for this property, which I call ‘transposability’, by means of the following hypothesis, which also applies to proverbs and semantically transparent fixed expressions: a proverb correspond to a semantic form that consisting of a few semantic features organized as a semantic network. I adopt Sowa’s (1984) formalism and represent this network as a semic molecule (Rastier, 1989). To explain the transposability of the molecule, I use a notion from Gestaltheorie, namely the ‘strong form’. A proverb is freely transposable providing it lexicalizes a strong form, the strong form being a molecule with a high degree of internal coherence. Semantically speaking, I show that this coherence is a factor of both (a) an inherent or socially normed relational architecture and (b) an articulation without rests.
Six decades ago the DI*A allele of the Diego blood group system was instrumental in proving Native American populations originated from Siberia. Since then, it has received scant attention. The present study was undertaken to reappraise distribution of the DI*A allele in 144 Native American populations based on current knowledge. Using analysis of variance tests, frequency distribution was studied according to geographical, environmental, and cultural parameters. Frequencies were highest in Amazonian populations. In contrast, DI*A was undetectable in subarctic, Fuegian, Panamanian, Chaco and Yanomama populations. Closer study revealed a correlation that this unequal distribution was correlated with language, suggesting that linguistic divergence was a driving force in the expansion of DI*A among Native Americans. The absence of DI*A in circumpolar Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene speakers was consistent with a late migratory event confined to North America. Distribution of DI*A in subtropical)
Abstract The Article aims to describe that social criticism not only can be yelled through protest, but also through the lyrics of the song. Social criticism lyrics of the song, in general, addressed to the government, state officials, and Indonesia politicians. The issues discussed in this paper is the social behavior of state officials and politicians in the Orde Baru and Era Reformasi, as well as the vocabulary used by the composer to encode the events that occurred at that time. The data of this paper were collected through listening methods using downloading technique and recording. The data were analyzed with the theory of dynamic model of meaning (Kecskes, 2007), which states that a person’s knowledge of the world may be encoded in the lexical item as a mixture of general knowledge associated with the provision concept, the wordspecific semantic properties (lexicalization knowledge of the world), and culture-specific conceptual properties. It is something new because during the analysis of social criticism lyrics of the song are dominated by semiotic theory and discourse theory. This paper found four types of behavior of state officials encoded in the lyrics of social criticism, namely (a) the behavior of enriching themselves by corruption the country money, (b) behavior of justifying a variety of ways to get the desired positions, (c) the behavior of being dared to violate religious norms to get the treasure, and (d) the behavior of being happy to commit fornication. Keywords: social critics, behavior, encode, song lyrics, state officials Abstrak Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan bahwa kritik sosial tidak hanya dapat dilakukan melalui demonstrasi, tetapi dapat juga dilakukan melalui lirik lagu. Lirik lagu kritik sosial, pada umumnya, ditujukan kepada pemerintah, pejabat negara, dan para politisi Indonesia. Masalah yang dibahas dalam tulisan ini adalah perilaku sosial para pejabat negara dan para politisi pada masa Orde Baru dan Era Reformasi, serta kosakata yang digunakan oleh pencipta lagu untuk menyandikan berbagai peristiwa yang terjadi pada masa itu. Data tulisan ini dikumpulkan melalui metode simak dengan teknik pengunduhan dan teknik pencatatan. Data dianalisis dengan Teori Model Makna Dinamis. Hal itu merupakan sesuatu yang baru karena selama ini analisis lirik lagu kritik sosial didominasi oleh teori semiotik dan teori wacana. Temuan tulisan yaitu empat jenis perilaku pejabat negara yang tersandi dalam lirik lagu kritik sosial, yakni (a) perilaku memperkaya diri dengan cara mengorupsi uang negara, (b) perilaku menghalalkan berbagai cara untuk mendapatkan jabatan yang dinginkan,(c) perilaku berani melanggar norma agama demi mendapatkan harta, dan (d) senang melakukan perbuatan zina. Kata kunci: kritik sosial, perilaku, tersandi, lirik lagu, pejabat negara
The researcher explored the socio-morphophonetic characteristics of English as a second language lexical prosodic competence. One hundred participants from Midwest USA (29), Saudi Arabia (38), and China (33) were recorded producing English lexical stress (ELS) in tokens containing seven different stress-moving suffixes—[-ic], [-ical], [-ity], [-ian], [-ify], [-ial], and [-ious]. Fundamental frequency, duration, and intensity productions were analyzed using Praat. In total, 2125 vowels in 800 spectrograms were analyzed (excluding stress placement and pronunciation errors). Statistical sampling techniques were used to evaluate acquisition of accurate ELS production versus native language and language proficiency. Speech samples of native-speakers were analyzed to provide norm values for cross-reference and to provide insights into the proposed Salience Hierarchy of the Acoustic Correlates of Stress (SHACS). The results support the notion that a SHACS does exist in the L1 sound system and that native-like command is attainable for English language learners through increased study/L2 input. Saudi English speakers, who often do not fully reduce vowels, produced durational contrasts more accurately when they had studied English for longer. Similarly, proficient Chinese learners of English seemed to be able to overcome negative transfer from their tonal system as they produced pitch in a more native-like manner.
We highlight the main changes recently undergone by the Italian Dependency Treebank in the transition to an extended and revised edition, compliant with the annotation schema of Universal Dependencies. We explore how these changes affect the accuracy of dependency parsers, performing comparative tests on various versions of the treebank. Despite significant changes in the annotation style, statistical parsers seem to cope well and mostly improve.
People greatly differ in the size of their social circle. In general, interacting with more people should lead one to receive more variable linguistic input. Variability has been shown to facilitate learning of new phonological categori es (e.g., Bradlow & Bent, 2009). Variability, however, might also be beneficial at other linguistic levels. Additionally, it may boost performance even in one's native language. We ex amined whether having a larger social circle improves individuals' lexical and sema ntic skills in their native language. In Study 1, we tested whether individuals' social circle size influences their linguistic skills at the lexical and semantic levels. In Study 2 we replicated the results of Study 1 using an experimental manipulation of social circle si ze, thus showing the causality of this effect. Study 1 tested the influence of social circle size on lexical and semantic skills using a lexical prediction task. We recruited 226 part icipants and asked them with how many people they interact in a typical week. We then pr esented them with a forced choice sentence completion task, and asked them to select the most common way that others would complete the sentence. The response choices were based on common responses in norms for these sentences (Lahar, Tun & Wingfield, 2004) and then further normed in a multiple choice format (N=70) to verify the dominant response. There were two types of items: (1) Lexical items, in which responses are synonymous in the context, e.g., She calls her husband at his ____ (a) job (b) office (c) work (d) workplace, and (2) semantic items, in which responses differ in meaning, e.g., Few nations are now ruled by a ____ (a) dictator (b) ki ng (c) president (d) woman. Results revealed an interaction between so cial circle size and linguistic level, such that larger social circle size predicted higher accuracy on the semantic items, but not on the lexical items. Study 2 used an experimental ma nipulation of social circle size. First, we elicited short reviews of chairs from 8 speakers. We then replaced the words horrible, bad, ok, good, and great in these reviews with 5 novel words (e.g., noral ). In total, we had a set of 160 reviews (4 reviews x speaker x rating level). We manipulated social circles size by assigning each participant (N=76) to one of two sampling conditions: receiving all the reviews from 2 randomly selected reviewers, or receiving 5 randomly selected reviews from each of the 8 reviewers (1 per rating level). In both cases, participants we re exposed to 40 reviews in total. Each review had an equal probability of appearing in each sampling condition. Reviews appeared with a cartoon that represented the reviewer, so participants could track the reviewer's identity. After this exposure stage, we tested participants on their semantic comprehension of new reviews with these novel words, and on their lexical choi ce prediction for these words (when meaning is held constant). Both tests used new reviews from new reviewers. Results replicated Study 1, showing that those in the large social circle condition (8 reviewers) did better than those in the small circle condition (2 review ers) on the semantic task, but worse on the lexical task. These studies show that individuals' social circle size influences their linguistic skills. Specifically, having a larger social circle improves semantic, but not lexical, skills. We hypothesize that the differential effect of social ci rcle size is due to properties of the linguistic level, such as the number of competitors and the ratio of intra- to inter-individual variability
espanolBasandonos en ejemplos especificos del espanol de Chile, proponemos que las estructuras del tipo mas perdido que el teniente Bello son instancias de una construccion intensificadora de forma comparativa, las que pueden manifestarse en tres tipos caracterizados por diferentes propiedades y correspondientes a distintas etapas de un proceso de lexicalizacion. En este proceso, las estructuras van progresivamente fijandose en la norma (en sentido coseriano), difundiendose en la comunidad de habla y perdiendo sus restricciones combinatorias. Tambien van perdiendo su efecto humoristico, junto con desligarse de su dependencia del conocimiento de mundo y de su valor comparativo original. Destacamos que la particularidad de las instancias que caracterizan especificamente al espanol de Chile se debe a la importancia que el conocimiento enciclopedico, dependiente del contexto cultural, tiene en las instancias del primer tipo, lo cual podria extrapolarse a otras variedades dialectales. Es decir, ponemos enfasis en el rol del contexto cultural como factor de diferenciacion dialectal en la fraseologia hispanica. EnglishOn the basis of examples that are specific to Chilean Spanish, we propose that structures such as mas perdido que el teniente Bello are instances of an intensifying construction of comparative form, which may occur as one of three types of instances, each characterized by different properties and corresponding to different stages of a process of lexicalization. In this process, structures are progressively fixed on the level of the ‹‹norm›› (in Coseriu´s sense); they spread in the speaking community, and lose their combinatorial constraints. They also lose their humorous effect as they detach from their dependence on worldview and their original comparative value. We note that the particularity of the instances that characterize specifically to the Chilean Spanish might be explained by the role that the encyclopedic and context-dependent knowledge plays on instances of the first type, and we argue that this explanation could be extrapolated to other dialects of Spanish. In summary, we emphasize on the role of the cultural context as an essential element of dialect differentiation in the Spanish phraseology. francaisSur la base d’exemples specifiques a l’espagnol-chilien, nous proposons l’idee selon laquelle des structures telles que « mas perdido que el teniente Bello » sont des exemples d’une construction intensifiee de forme comparee, qui peut apparaitre comme l’un des trois types d’exemple, chacune caracterisee par des proprietes differentes et correspondant a des etapes differentes du processus de lexicalisation. Nous remarquerons que la specificite des exemples qui caracterisent l’espagnol-chilien pourrait s’expliquer par le role que le savoir encyclopedique et intrinseque au contexte joue sur les exemples du premier type. Nous verrons que cette explication peut egalement etre extrapolee a d’autres dialectes espagnols.
The cognitive and communicative processes involved in situations of unequal encounters between non-western supplicants (i.e., African immigrants and asylum seekers) and western experts in authority shall be explored in this paper through a number of case studies aimed at illustrating that the variations of English as a 'lingua franca' (ELF) whicheach contact group uses obey different linguacultural conventions entailing a detachment of ELF from the norms of English as a native language (ENL), since ELF is seen as developing from non-native speakers' processes of transfer into their English uses of their respective L1 typological, logical, textual, lexical-semantic and pragmatic structures. A number of case studies will illustrate how the lack of acknowledgement of other ELF variations-due to the fact that they are often perceived in intercultural communication as formally deviating and socio-pragmatically inappropriate may have serious consequences in contexts involving social, legal, or health matters, thus giving rise to misunderstandings that often raise ethical issues about social justice. It is therefore argued that principled pedagogic initiatives aimed at making western experts in authority aware of the mediating strategies for achieving a 'mutual accommodation' of ELF variations could, on the one hand, protect the social identities of the participants in unequal encounters and, on the other, facilitate the conveyance of the irrespective culturally-marked knowledge. This would foster effective communication in cross-cultural immigration encounters with the ultimate aim of developing a 'hybrid ELF mode' of cross-cultural specialized communication that can be acknowledged and eventually shared by both interacting groups.
This paper introduces <tiger2/>, an XML format developed to serialise the object model defined by the ISO Syntactic Annotation Framework SynAF. Based on widespread best practices we adapt a popular XML format for syntactic annotation, TigerXML, with additional features to support a variety of syntactic phenomena including constituent and dependency structures, binding, and different node types such as compounds or empty elements. We also define interfaces to other formats and standards including the Morpho-syntactic Annotation Framework MAF and the ISOCat Data Category Registry. Finally a case study of the German Treebank TueBa-D/Z is presented, showcasing the handling of constituent structures, topological fields and coreference annotation in tandem.
Paraphrase corpora annotated with the types of paraphrases they contain constitute an essential resource for the understanding of the phenomenon of paraphrasing and the improvement of paraphrase-related systems in natural language processing. In this article, a new annotation scheme for paraphrase-type annotation is set out, together with newly created measures for the computation of inter-annotator agreement. Three corpora different in nature and in two languages have been annotated using this infrastructure. The annotation results and the inter-annotator agreement scores for these corpora are proof of the adequacy and robustness of our proposal.
The accurate and early identification of individuals with pervasive conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is crucial to ensuring that they receive appropriate and timely assistance and treatment. Heretofore, identification of such individuals has proven somewhat difficult, typically involving clinical decision making based on descriptions and observations of behavior, in conjunction with the administration of cognitive assessments. The present study reports on the use of a sensory motor battery in conjunction with a recursive partitioning computer algorithm, boosted trees, to develop a prediction heuristic for identifying individuals with ADHD. Results of the study demonstrate that this method is able to do so with accuracy rates of over 95 %, much higher than the popular logistic regression model against which it was compared. Implications of these results for practice are provided.
The Legal Language of Scottish Burghs: Standardization and Lexical Bundles 1380-1560. Joanna Kopaczyk. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013. ISBN 9780199945153, 51 [pounds sterling], 368pp. The subject-matter of this book is so distinctive and unexpected as to arouse a potential reader's interest from the start: the language of the Scottish burgh records in the period from the first use of Scots as their medium to the Reformation. Yet the fact that this topic is unusual at once points to a glaring lacuna in the historical study of the Scots language. Poetry in Early and Middle Scots has, deservedly and most rewardingly, provided extensive material which has been the basis of many excellent studies: to this extent, pre-modern Scots has been fertile soil for historical linguists. With the development of corpus linguistics, other literary genres, notably correspondence, have been opened to fruitful investigations. But though the socio-historical and linguistic interest of prose texts, particularly utilitarian ones, may be great, it is not hard to understand that the works of Dunbar should be more enticing to many researchers than the Peebles burgh records of 1499; and the enormous field of Early and Middle Scots prose writing is still under-examined. And since the field of legal writings in particular has a linguistic dimension, given the long-standing tradition of Scots law and the distinctive lexical and stylistic features associated with it, some of which survive to the present day, the surprising thing is not that we now have a full-length monograph on the topic but that we have had to wait so long for one. This is particularly true in view of the fact, amply demonstrated in the preliminary chapters of the book, that legal language as a general subject has received extensive and detailed examination; much of which is summarily discussed in this section. The present study of the legal register of Middle Scots is thus an important contribution to a flourishing branch of linguistics. The author has an established reputation as a historical linguist, with several groundbreaking works on Scots already to her credit; and the range and depth of her reading on the topic is impressively shown here. An important distinction introduced in this section is that between language standardisation and linguistic standardisation, the former being the elevation of one particular dialect, because of extra-linguistic factors such as demographic strength or social prestige, to the status of a supra-regional norm; the latter, the settling of specific phonological, orthographic and grammatical features as the norms within a dialect. Examination of linguistic standardisation in Scots, the author points out, has always focused on the Anglicisation which took place in the post-Reformation period; the linguistic standardisation which was proceeding prior to this having so far received almost no attention. Having placed her study precisely in its academic context, Kopaczyk proceeds with a historical examination of the burghs and their place in Scottish history. As often, a widespread and long-term process common to all of northern Europe, in this case the evolution of areas where the population happened to be denser than in their hinterlands to legally-defined communities with formally established privileges and responsibilities binding on the community and its individual members, is shown to have taken a distinctive form in Scotland. …
Tswana, a Bantu language in the Sotho group, is characterised by an agglutinative morphology and a disjunctive orthography, which mainly affects the verb category. In particular, verbal prefixes are usually written disjunctively, while suffixes follow a conjunctive writing style. Therefore, Tswana tokenisation cannot be based solely on whitespace, as is the case in many alphabetic, segmented languages, including the conjunctively written Nguni group of South African Bantu languages. This paper shows how a combination of two finite state tokeniser transducers and a finite state morphological analyser are combined to solve the Tswana (verb) tokenisation problem. The approach has the important advantage of bringing the processing of Tswana, beyond the morphological analysis level, in line with what is appropriate for the Nguni languages. This means that the challenge of the disjunctive orthography is met at the tokenisation/morphological analysis level and does not in principle propagate to subsequent levels of analysis such as POS tagging and shallow parsing, etc. The tokenisation approach is novel and, when implemented and evaluated, yields an F1-score of 95 % with respect to a hand tokenised gold standard.
This paper presents Xigt, an extensible storage format for interlinear glossed text (IGT). We review design desiderata for such a format based on our own use cases as well as general best practices, and then explore existing representations of IGT through the lens of those desiderata. We give an overview of the data model and XML serialization of Xigt, and then describe its application to the use case of representing a large, noisy, heterogeneous set of IGT.
Rhythms, or patterns in time, play a vital role in both speech and music. Proficiency in a number of rhythm skills has been linked to language ability, suggesting that certain rhythmic processes in music and language rely on overlapping resources. However, a lack of understanding about how rhythm skills relate to each other has impeded progress in understanding how language relies on rhythm processing. In particular, it is unknown whether all rhythm skills are linked together, forming a single broad rhythmic competence, or whether there are multiple dissociable rhythm skills. We hypothesized that beat tapping and rhythm memory/sequencing form two separate clusters of rhythm skills. This hypothesis was tested with a battery of two beat tapping and two rhythm memory tests. Here we show that tapping to a metronome and the ability to adjust to a changing tempo while tapping to a metronome are related skills. The ability to remember rhythms and to drum along to repeating rhythmic sequences)
A number of studies on network analysis have focused on language networks based on free word association, which reflects human lexical knowledge, and have demonstrated the small-world and scale-free properties in the word association network. Nevertheless, there have been very few attempts at applying network analysis to distributional semantic models, despite the fact that these models have been studied extensively as computational or cognitive models of human lexical knowledge. In this paper, we analyze three network properties, namely, small-world, scale-free, and hierarchical properties, of semantic networks created by distributional semantic models. We demonstrate that the created networks generally exhibit the same properties as word association networks. In particular, we show that the distribution of the number of connections in these networks follows the truncated power law, which is also observed in an association network. This indicates that distributional semantic models c)
Abstract This article is devoted to the functioning of Russian language in the modern world and raises a few issues: What are the regions of Russian diasporas nowadays? Under what conditions can Russian language survive in the foreign countries? How does Russian language change in its mother country and outside? It is also under discussion how language norms transform in modern Russian. It is stated that liberalization in lexical and register choice is opposed to the requirements of grammatical accuracy. Grammar is still considered as a marker of good education and culture of a person.
Facing the Daunting Task of Assessing (Deaf) Bilinguals Wolfgang Mann (bio) and Tobias Haug (bio) Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals. Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole (Ed.). Multilingual Matters, 2013. 256pp. $49.95 (papercover). Over the last two decades, there has been increasing movement in the area of signed language assessment for different groups of learners. This is a promising trend, as it has made signed language tests more available to researchers and practitioners in different countries. However, it has also brought new challenges, including the question of whom these instruments should be normed on—for example, deaf children with deaf parents, who have early access to signed language, or deaf children with hearing parents, who represent the majority of the deaf population (i.e., children with hearing losses ranging from slight to profound). It is well known that the (signing) deaf population is heterogeneous, not only with regard to degree of hearing loss, onset of language, and type of amplification, but also in relation to home language and culture and the existence of any additional needs. This heterogeneity, along with the small size of the population (particularly in countries other than the United States or the larger European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany), poses a number of limitations for test developers when it comes to applying common statistical procedures to establish psychometric properties of a test to assure its reliability and validity. In addition, the state of research on most signed languages is still underdeveloped, a situation that has resulted in limited availability of resources to researchers, practitioners, and others interested in signed language acquisition and assessment. In light of the paucity of available literature on signed language assessment or access to standardized and commercially available signed language tests, it seems necessary to cast a wider net in the search for information. In this context, Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals makes an excellent choice for anyone interested in language assessment of members of minority groups. The first of a set of two volumes edited by Virginia Mueller Gathercole (the second is Solutions for the Assessment of Bilinguals, also published in 2013 by Multilingual Matters), it offers a comprehensive picture of the issues involved in assessing bilingual children or adults, including one of many important messages, that assessments should be normed “against similar populations with similar experience with the languages(s) in question” (Mueller Gathercole, p. 232). Mueller Gathercole, who is no stranger to bilingual matters, due to her own work with monolingual and bilingual populations at Florida International University and Bangor University (Wales), brings as editor a unique combination of internationally renowned experts in the field, along with new researchers and practitioners, all of whom contribute to the success of this book. Organization of the Book The presented research includes consideration of a variety of bilingual populations from around the world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a number of common themes across countries, which render the issues discussed applicable to bilingual populations anywhere, including deaf populations. For instance, one main area focuses on the realistic expectations used to evaluate performance of children who grow up as bilinguals. [End Page 484] Within its 256 pages, Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals covers several important aspects of the assessment of different bilingual populations. These aspects, the driving forces behind the need for improvement in many existing assessments, include the identification of language impairment, ways to monitor children’s progress in language or education, and ways to measure second-language (L2) learners’ abilities in childhood or adulthood. They highlight the multifaceted issues related to obtaining information on the bilingual abilities of children and adults and determining the best way of assessing these abilities. Important Aspects Related to Assessment The edited volume comprises 10 chapters covering a wide breadth of topics, ranging from measuring bilinguals’ reaction time on lexical tasks and assessing writing skills to a retrospective on the policies under the No Child Left Behind legislation in the United States. Apart from the first couple of chapters, which provide excellent introductions to the subject and to the importance of language exposure to language assessment, the rest of the volume can be read in any given order. While some chapters may...
In this article, the R package LSAfun is presented. This package enables a variety of functions and computations based on Vector Semantic Models such as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) Landauer, Foltz and Laham (Discourse Processes 25:259–284, 1998), which are procedures to obtain a high-dimensional vector representation for words (and documents) from a text corpus. Such representations are thought to capture the semantic meaning of a word (or document) and allow for semantic similarity comparisons between words to be calculated as the cosine of the angle between their associated vectors. LSAfun uses pre-created LSA spaces and provides functions for (a) Similarity Computations between words, word lists, and documents; (b) Neighborhood Computations, such as obtaining a word’s or document’s most similar words, (c) plotting such a neighborhood, as well as similarity structures for any word lists, in a two- or three-dimensional approximation using Multidimensional Scaling, (d) Applied Functions, such as computing the coherence of a text, answering multiple choice questions and producing generic text summaries; and (e) Composition Methods for obtaining vector representations for two-word phrases. The purpose of this package is to allow convenient access to computations based on LSA.
Corpus-based semantic space models, which primarily rely on lexical co-occurrence statistics, have proven effective in modeling and predicting human behavior in a number of experimental paradigms that explore semantic memory representation. The most widely studied extant models, however, are strongly influenced by orthographic word frequency (e.g., Shaoul & Westbury, Behavior Research Methods, 38, 190–195, 2006). This has the implication that high-frequency closed-class words can potentially bias co-occurrence statistics. Because these closed-class words are purported to carry primarily syntactic, rather than semantic, information, the performance of corpus-based semantic space models may be improved by excluding closed-class words (using stop lists) from co-occurrence statistics, while retaining their syntactic information through other means (e.g., part-of-speech tagging and/or affixes from inflected word forms). Additionally, very little work has been done to explore the effect of employing morphological decomposition on the inflected forms of words in corpora prior to compiling co-occurrence statistics, despite (controversial) evidence that humans perform early morphological decomposition in semantic processing. In this study, we explored the impact of these factors on corpus-based semantic space models. From this study, morphological decomposition appears to significantly improve performance in word–word co-occurrence semantic space models, providing some support for the claim that sublexical information—specifically, word morphology—plays a role in lexical semantic processing. An overall decrease in performance was observed in models employing stop lists (e.g., excluding closed-class words). Furthermore, we found some evidence that weakens the claim that closed-class words supply primarily syntactic information in word–word co-occurrence semantic space models.
The present research investigates semantic priming with an adapted version of the word fragment completion task. In this task, which we refer to as the speeded word fragment completion task, participants need to complete words such as lett_ce (lettuce), from which one letter was omitted, as quickly as possible. This paradigm has some interesting qualities in comparison with the traditionally used lexical decision task. That is, it requires no pseudowords, it is more engaging for participants, and most importantly, it allows for a more fine-grained investigation of semantic activation. In two studies, we found that words were completed faster when the preceding trial comprised a semantically related fragment such as tom_to (tomato) than when it comprised an unrelated fragment such as guit_r (guitar). A third experiment involved a lexical decision task, to compare both paradigms. The results showed that the magnitude of the priming effect was similar, but item-level priming effects were inconsistent over tasks. Crucially, the speeded word fragment completion task obtained strong priming effects for highly frequent, central words, such as work, money, and warm, whereas the lexical decision task did not. In a final experiment featuring only short, highly frequent words, the lexical decision task failed to find a priming effect, whereas the fragment completion task did obtain a robust effect. Taken together, these results suggest that the speeded word fragment completion task may prove a viable alternative for examining semantic priming.
In the author recognition test (ART), participants are presented with a series of names and foils and are asked to indicate which ones they recognize as authors. The test is a strong predictor of reading skill, and this predictive ability is generally explained as occurring because author knowledge is likely acquired through reading or other forms of print exposure. In this large-scale study (1,012 college student participants), we used item response theory (IRT) to analyze item (author) characteristics in order to facilitate identification of the determinants of item difficulty, provide a basis for further test development, and optimize scoring of the ART. Factor analysis suggested a potential two-factor structure of the ART, differentiating between literary and popular authors. Effective and ineffective author names were identified so as to facilitate future revisions of the ART. Analyses showed that the ART is a highly significant predictor of the time spent encoding words, as measured using eyetracking during reading. The relationship between the ART and time spent reading provided a basis for implementing a higher penalty for selecting foils, rather than the standard method of ART scoring (names selected minus foils selected). The findings provide novel support for the view that the ART is a valid indicator of reading volume. Furthermore, they show that frequency data can be used to select items of appropriate difficulty, and that frequency data from corpora based on particular time periods and types of texts may allow adaptations of the test for different populations.
Multilevel linguistic features have been proposed for discourse analysis, but there have been few applications of multilevel linguistic features to readability models and also few validations of such models. Most traditional readability formulae are based on generalized linear models (GLMs; e.g., discriminant analysis and multiple regression), but these models have to comply with certain statistical assumptions about data properties and include all of the data in formulae construction without pruning the outliers in advance. The use of such readability formulae tends to produce a low text classification accuracy, while using a support vector machine (SVM) in machine learning can enhance the classification outcome. The present study constructed readability models by integrating multilevel linguistic features with SVM, which is more appropriate for text classification. Taking the Chinese language as an example, this study developed 31 linguistic features as the predicting variables at the word, semantic, syntax, and cohesion levels, with grade levels of texts as the criterion variable. The study compared four types of readability models by integrating unilevel and multilevel linguistic features with GLMs and an SVM. The results indicate that adopting a multilevel approach in readability analysis provides a better representation of the complexities of both texts and the reading comprehension process.
At every level of the language (phonetic, lexical, morphological and syntactic), Mateiu Caragiale's prose and poetry display features of the standard norm of the epoch (often dialectal) as well as to the dominant norm of the epoch, the author oscillating permanently between the two of them. To adequately interpret the language peculiarities of the author's works, one needs to distinguish clearly between the epoch norm (the literary norm of a certain period, subsequently turned into archaism) and the dominant norm.
Abstract This study explores the extent to which first language (L1) versus second language (L2) use and attachments to native versus majority language and culture influence the proficiency in the L2 Dutch among the Turkish-Dutch bilinguals. The community under investigation is of particular significance because it represents the largest non-Western ethnic group in the Netherlands and it has often been discussed in the context of the group members’ ethnic and linguistic attachments as opposed to their perceived unwillingness to adopt the cultural norms of the Dutch society. What makes this immigration setting interesting is that the shift from tolerance to startling levels of restrictiveness in policies of cultural and linguistic integration has nowhere been as fast as in the Netherlands. Data are collected from the first generation Turkish immigrants (n = 45) who migrated to the Netherlands after the age of 15 and lived there for 10 years or longer and native Dutch speakers (n = 39) via an elicited speech task, a lexical naming/recognition task and a sociolinguistic background questionnaire. The first set of analyses reveals several links between the individual variables (i.e., L1 use in the family and with friends, L2 use at work, level of education, length of residence and cultural preference) and different aspects of L2 proficiency. However, the effect sizes of these correlations are weak to moderate. The second set of analyses applies a discriminant analysis where proficiency in the L2 has been established as one integrated score. In this analysis, only preferred language emerges as the best predictor of language development.
У статті розглянуто випадки порушень лексичних норм у мові сучасної української преси. Подано види порушень лексичних норм та способи їх усунення, проаналізовано причини їх виникнення та запропоновано шляхи подолання цієї проблеми. (Ukrainian language has had the status of the state language for more than 20 years but its equal functioning in all spheres of our people’s life is not ensured yet. In particular, this is true for the Ukrainian press. Percentage of Ukrainian-language newspapers is extremely small and those ones that are still published in Ukrainian can, unfortunately, serve only as material for collections of linguistic errors. As early as in 1928 there appeared a monograph by the Ukrainian linguist M. Hladkyi «Our Newspaper Language». The author wanted to help the Ukrainian newspapers employees get rid of imitation of Russianlanguage samples, develop their own style, and learn how to use the wealth of the popular Ukrainian language. M. Hladkyi puts an emphasize on the return to popular Ukrainian-language models at the lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phraseological levels, since the content of newspaper articles should be clear to any reader. Today there is also a need for such works. In spite of considerable number of Ukrainian language culture handbooks, articles, and even theses (O. Ponomariv «Problem of Ukrainian Language Standardization in Mass Media») that are devoted to the modern Ukrainian-press language standardization, the materials of our mass media are littered with a great number of arbitrary foreign words and awkward morphological and syntactic structures. Why is mass media broadcasting standardization so important? Because readers take it as a model. Very often when people are remarked to be saying something in a wrong way, the one who remarked may hear in response: «But it was written so in the newspaper (on the Internet)». «They said so in the news on the radio (on TV)». Let us notice that first of all these are lexical errors that become evident in any newspaper texts. The authors of articles should follow the correct word usage because an infelicitous word can distort, obscure the content of the communicated information, and prevent the press from carrying out its main functions: to shape public opinion and communicate information. The suggested article deals with violations of lexical norms in modern Ukrainian-language press. The types of violation of lexical norms and ways for their elimination are provided, their causes are analyzed, and the ways to overcome this problem are developed.)
Abstract The predicative word bylo in contemporary Russian. The norm of expression and the boundaries of the norm The norm constitutes a real indication of the language system and of the place and function of a unit in the structure of the language, which manifests itself in each unit in its immanent essence as fundamental feature of the sign. To a typological series of signs the question where and how the differences between a norm and its absence manifest themselves remains open. The boundaries of the norm are defined as the scope limit of a language unit and a sign. Attention has been paid at the aspects of the norm. Predicates with the complicating word bylo demand special consideration as an important object in respect of the expansion of thought and development of coherent speech. Lexical, morphological and syntactic features specific of predicative expressions are analyzed in their different connections. The linguistic changes of bylo and their systemic-structural foundations are accounted for. The norm of the language system, innovations and the boundaries of norm are defined. Key words System of language, language use, language norm, speech structure, word 'bylo'. Резюме Норма есть действительный показатель системы языка и место и роль единицы в языковой организации, воплощающейся каждой единицей в ее имманентной сущности и данности как фундаментальных качеств знака. Для типологического ряда знаков актуален вопрос о том, где и в чем именно отличие нормы языкового явления от неормы. Границы нормы определяются как сфера действия языковой единицы и пределы знака. Отмечаются аспекты нормы. В языковой структуре предикаты с осложняющим словом «было» и парадигматически соотнесенные средства выражения выдвигаются как объект специального рассмотрения, важный в плане pазвертывания мысли и развития связной речи. Анализируется лексическая, морфологическая и синтаксическая специфика предикативного выражения в их взаимосвязи. Фиксируются речевые изменения и их системно-структурные основания. Определяется норма языковой системы, новообразования и границы нормы. Ключевые слова Языковая система, употребление языка, языковая норма, языковая структура, предикативное слово 'было'.
У статті проаналізовано роль сучасної української преси у поповненні лексикону\nскладними словами, описано їхні дериваційні типи. З’ясовано, що преса як кодифікатор сучасної української літературної мови водночас і засвідчує лексичні та дериваційні зрушення в мові, і віддзеркалює функційно-стилістичні норми писемної комунікації, і\nвпливає на сучасні загальномовні тенденції. Встановлено, що ЗМІ та преса зокрема – головний чинник збагачення та оновлення українського лексикону, формування мовних норм. Під впливом екстра- й інтралінгвальних чинників мова мас-медіа й українська мова загалом активно поповнюється складними словами. Мовну основу преси становлять загальновживані композити, юкстапозити, абревіатури. На їхньому тлі вирізняються кількаосновні терміни, неологічні й оказіональні складні деривати, запозичені та гібридні одиниці, позитивно й негативно забарвлені складні лексеми. The paper deals with the role of modern Ukrainian press in extending the lexical\nsystem with compound words. Their derivative types are also described here. Press as a representative of modern Ukrainian literary language simultaneously performs various functions, such as: it shows lexical and derivative changes in the language, and represents functional and stylistic standards of writing communication, and influences modern common tendencies. The author argues that the mass-media and the press in particular is a factor enriching and renewal Ukrainian vocabulary, formation of linguistic norms. Mass-media language and Ukrainian language itself is actively added with compound words under external and internal linguistic factors. Common used composite, juxtapositional and\nabbreviated words compose the language base of the press. Neologisms and occasional compound derivatives, hybrid elements, compound words with positive or negative meaning distinguish on their background.
Different text types determines different language forms,which are reflected by special lexical features,styles,writing norms and rhetorical devices,etc. that establish different language functions,different text focuses,translation text purposes and translation strategies. Consequently,different criteria and principles which are based on these differences will contribute to further development and implementation of the evaluation model to evaluate the translation quality in the context of business English.
Faroese is known to lie grammatically between Icelandic and the Mainland Scandinavian languages and dialects. One example of this is that, on the one hand, Faroese is like Icelandic in having a basically intact morphological four case system. On the other hand case-marking in Faroese is linked to clause function to a greater degree than in Icelandic – but to a lesser degree than in the Mainland Scandinavian standard languages. In Scandinavian Linguistics, it has long been an axiom that in the longer term the aforementioned four case system will be reduced in all varieties of the Scandinavian languages. The present thesis investigates if, and if so how, this expected development manifests itself in Senior High School graduation essays in Faroese from the period 1940–1999. A quantitative study forms the core of the thesis. The choice between the dative and other cases is related to eight syntactic variables whose effect on the choice of case is compared using methods from the variationist framework, among others. The results are partly surprising: the dative did not reduce in frequency from the 1940s to 1990s. There certainly is a tendency, however not a statistically significant one, that the dative is more often replaced by another case in contexts where the norm is to use the dative. On the other hand it also seems to become more common for the dative to be used hypercorrectly. Furthermore, the development is not linear, in that around the middle of the investigation period, the dative is used far more according to norms than otherwise. As expected, clause function is an important variable, but by the end of the period under investigation the placement of the nominal phrase within the clause becomes a surprisingly strong factor. It also becomes more important if the phrase takes the form of a first/second-person pronominal or not. The results are theoretically interpreted in the light of, firstly, Generative Grammar, and secondly Construction Grammar. The modification of certain terms is discussed, such as lexical case in Generative Grammar or usage-based model in Construction Grammar. The conclusion is that the linguistic descriptive models of these theories can only partly cover the tendencies to change that are observed. Other parts of the results are best explained using aspects of sociolinguistics. The conclusion is that case studies on a micro-level are valuable in order to evaluate and develop theories of linguistic variation and change at a macro-level.
Contemporary Polish and Russian numerals. A contrastive studyNumerals have always been a matter of great interest among linguists, because since pre-Slavic times this lexical category and its inflections have undergone many changes, which has usually meant simplification. Contrastive studies of Polish and Russian numerals have shown that this grammatical category is one of the most difficult categories to acquire and master. Numerals are the only category that has undergone such profound unifications in its declension paradigm. Currently, there are many innovations regarding the grammatical forms of numerals occurring in the language use as well as in descriptive norms. Among these changes, the following are the most significant: the grammatical forms of cardinal numerals have replaced these of ordinal numerals; numeral inflections are gradually disappearing; collective numerals have dropped their inflections. What is more, difficult case inflections are being supplanted by “simple” inflections, and the initial parts of collective numerals are no longer inflected. Another tendency observed is that syntactic placements characteristic for inflected numerals are being replaced by ones characteristic for other “simple” inflections. The abovementioned innovations are present in the synthetic linguistic systems of Polish and Russian to a different extent. The changes exhibit strong analytic tendencies in both languages. These changes manifest themselves predominantly in the lack of inflection in most forms, which is characteristic for analytic languages.
The in every standard language there are phonetic, morphologic, syntactic and lexical norms at work. In the process of standardization of a language, the rules of orthography occupy a central role. Orthography is not an independent system of rules which stands alone by and of itself. To grasp the essence of the main features and problems concerning the orthography of a language it is not enough to learn by heart the basic rules and principles, but also to respect and observe these rules and orthographic norms. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the several violations of the standard of the Albanian language committed by several television channels. Such violations concern not only the written form (subtitles), but also the spoken one. Based on the concrete observations carried out in different mass media, we can say that such violations represent not only a serious problem, but also a grave threat to Standard Albanian. In every instance, we have tried to juxtapose every possible violation with the norm and the respective rule, and we have also given the correct version according to the principles of the Albanian language.
This article is focused upon the analysis of the implementation of elements of English speech etiquette system on lexico-phraseological, grammar and intonation levels in native and non-native speech. Non-native speech manifests fewer formulas of politeness than that of native speakers, presenting, however, all kinds of phrases traditionally used in rhetorical practice. In some cases, formulas of politeness used by Russian-speaking bilinguals have different lexical and intonation patterns compared to formula used by native speakers. The level of formality and lexico-grammatical content directly influence the intonation formulas of politeness, both in native and non-native speech. The accent in the use of formulas of politeness by Russian bilinguals (as a result of language interference) is revealed in deviations from the norm associated with the use of qualitatively different phonetic, lexical and grammatical means of expression, not always consistent with communicative situation.
У статті наголошується, що, у зв’язку з розширенням міжнародних економічних зв’язків, виникла необхідність удосконалення методики навчання професійного економічного перекладу. Запропоновано елективний курс «Економічний переклад», що передбачає поглиблену підготовку перекладачів у сфері професійної комунікації. Охарактеризовано основні завдання, принципи та етапи навчання. Визначаються параметри, що характеризують сформованість перекладацьких умінь студентів. (The author of the article emphasizes that due to intense globalization, introduction of different innovations, expansion of economic connections, the interest to economy becomes an issue of primary importance. This causes the necessity to expand intercultural communication in this sphere, develop the methods of teaching economic texts translation. The author states that the students cannot successfully understand and use any terminology if it is not ordered and contrasted with the analogues of these terms in commonly used lexics and other terminological systems. The mistakes in understanding and not sufficient adequacy of a term translation can lead to essential communicative failures. The author’s position consists in stating that teaching the translation of economic texts should be based on the achievements of psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, text linguistics, cultural linguistics and translation studies. The author offers an elective course «Economic translation» which supposes more profound preparation of translators in the sphere of professional communication. According to the aim of the course, we have offered a series of tasks: 1) developing the students’ knowledge in the sphere of Ukrainian and English grammatical norms in the process of economic translation; 2) developing the students’ knowledge in the sphere of Ukrainian and English stylistical norms in the process of economic translation; 3) teaching the economic terminology; 4) developing the skills of conveying the meaning of the original text in the process of economic translation. Within the limits of the course we have developed the topics, which are studied according to a uniform structure. When analysing the maturity of the students’ translation skills four main parameters are taken into account: 1) knowledge of the Ukrainian/English grammatical norms; 2) knowledge of the Ukrainian/English stylistical norms; 3) knowledge of the economic terminology; 4) conveying of the original text meaning. To each of the parameters corresponds a low, average or high level. The article states that high-quality specialized translation requires the knowledge of the subject sphere, basic terminology, realia and national-cultural peculiarities. While teaching the students the translation of specialized texts the teacher should adequately choose the material, taking into account translation studies, linguistic and methodical factors.)
Subject matter of the research: cognitive communicative discourse properties of a bilingual. The objective was to characterize a bilingual’s capacities of forming the types of knowledge and skills during several stages of formation of his/her competence. Methodology: in the article there were used as a methodological basis the cognitive and anthropocentric principles, competence approach, focusing on the study of the ways of formation and representation of knowledge, skills, and competencies of man in his cognitive activity. Methods of work: a conceptual analysis, dialingual analysis (identification and description of the types of interference), the competence analysis, discourse method. Results: 1) the author studied the bilingual personality as one of the types of language personality; 2) the author described in a cognitive aspect types of knowledge a bilingual acquires at various stages of formation of his/her competence; 3) identified the types of knowledge phonetic, lexical, grammatical (linguistic) and cultural at the first and second stages of a bilingual’s competence formation arising from a personality’s insufficient competence in the second language and culture of the nation of the target language; 4) clarified a bilingual’s cases of misunderstandings the connotative meanings of words and idioms in the second language; 5) proved the necessity of forming the communicative pragmatic competence, recognizing the speakers’ intentions, for regulating the communication. In conclusion it should be noted that the issue of competence building of a bilingual in the second language is one of the problems that is not completely solved. The main way to solve this issue is to take into account the need to master not only the knowledge (cognitive aspect), but discursive properties of a speech in the second language (knowledge of the speaker’s intentions, mastering the pragmatic norms, pragmatic value, the ability to model frames, to conceptualize the notion (cognitive and discursive aspects).
The article deals with psychological peculiarities of a language person forming in the process of foreign texts translation and interpretation. Foreign language competence comprises the level of the person’s professionalism and skills within the scope of the competence. It is stated that the processes of foreign texts translation and interpretation are characterized by the translator’s subjective vision of the language norms, as well as his intuition and lexical sensitivity, active participation in creative communication with the author. It is established that during a foreign text translation language conscience and the language personality of the reader are formed and his own language field and his picture of the world are developed.
In Goldbergian Construction Grammar (CxG), phrasal verb-independent Argument Structure Constructions (ASCs) take center stage. These ASCs account for novel uses of verbs and CxG thereby elegantly dispenses with implausible verb senses, and even keeps the number of verb senses to a minimum, often positing single lexical entries. This view of language representation emphasizes the importance of generalizations, while item-specific knowledge is largely downplayed. It has however been shown that such generalizations (1) fail to predict the difference in syntactic patterning of semantically related verbs (e.g. Iwata, 2008), and (2) cannot always account for the intended semantic interpretation (e.g. Boas, 2008). Boas (2003) therefore posits mini-constructions, which are lexically bound verb-specific constructions that account for the idiosyncratic syntactic behavior and semantic interpretation of verbs. To establish such mini-constructions, Boas calls for a fine-grained bottom-up identification of all the argument realization patterns of a verb according to the verb’s different senses. Such an approach would “[result] in a much more detailed lexicon in which verbs are associated with a number of conventionalized senses, each of which forms its own mini-construction that is a pairing of a form with a meaning” (2003: 37). Against this backdrop, this study takes a step forward in answering this call by adopting a corpus-based bottom-up approach to the formal and semantic patterning of the high-frequency verb make. High-frequency verbs represent an interesting case as on the one hand they are considered pathbreaking verbs for particular ASCs (Goldberg, 2006), while on the other they enter a wide range of syntactic configurations. This study analyzes all 1,975 occurrences of make in the one million-word British component of the International Corpus of English. In a first step, each occurrence is assigned a broad ASC. In a second step, the patterning of each occurrence is analyzed from a lexical verb-based perspective, largely drawing on Hanks’ lexically based methodology of Corpus Pattern Analysis (Hanks, 2013): form is annotated by assigning a valency structure to each instance, while meaning is annotated by assigning a semantic value to each valency-slot and an overall meaning to the pattern, thereby arriving at verb-specific form-meaning mappings, i.e. mini-constructions, bottom-up. Subsequently, it is possible to flesh out each ASC for mini-constructions that have narrower and verb-specific meanings, but that still inherit features from the ASC. Results suggest that (1) from a verb-based perspective, rather than being reduced to single lexical entries, verbs display rich patterns of polysemy that are needed to account for their syntactic patterning and (2) from a construction-based perspective, ASCs have lexically-bound patterns of polysemy with narrower meanings. This study hereby hopes to make a case for lexically-bound mini-constructions and, by extension, for the recognition of the importance of item-specificity alongside verb-independent generalizations. References Boas, H. C. (2003). Towards a lexical-constructional account of the locative alternation. In Carmichael, L., C.-H. Huang, and V. Samiian (eds.), Proceedings of the 2001 Western Conference in Linguistics vol. 13, 27-42. Boas, H. C. (2008). Resolving form-meaning discrepancies in Construction Grammar. In Leino, J. (ed.), Constructional reorganization. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 11-36. Goldberg, A. E. (2006). Constructions at work. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hanks, P. (2013). Lexical analysis: norms and exploitations. Cambridge MIT press. Iwata, S. (2008). Locative alternation – a lexical-constructional approach. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
The methods and procedures of task solving in the field of semantics are inevitably influenced by the paradigm change. In particular, using text corpora, it is possible to re-examine problems that are traditional for lexical semantics, such as polysemy, the unity of meaning as well as opportunities for interpretation of units provided by a context or an intertext. Moreover, on analyzing the uses of words registered in corpora, one can realize that together with the system of language social norms are additional coding systems that also play a decisive role in meaning determination. Thus, the Russian Language National Corpus reveals that the notion of «high moral character» which is defined as «dignity» in dictionaries may imply quite different properties depending on the distribution of roles that are customary for the given culture. For males it can imply intellect, fidelity to duty, poise or stalk; for an unmarried woman it can mean comeliness, good reputation and the art to dress with elegance; when applied to a wife, the notion can imply conjugal fidelity, debonnaire and homemaking; a maiden should be smooth-tempered and of rosy disposition; a subordinate is expected to be obedient and able to execute orders. The author comes to the conclusion that it is social norms that may have modulative influence on the word meaning in every case of its actualization in speech.
In this report we present the results obtained analysing the use, frequency of use and the position of adverbial clauses. This analysis has been performed in the Basque Dependency Treebank (BDT). We also have used the descriptive grammars of Euskaltzaindia, the Royal Academy of the Basque.
The aim of this study is to give a modest presentation of sociolinguistic’state of the female speech in the South Parts of Albania. The difference of gender, as an important factor between people in global studies especially in the last 2 centuries, has risen a great interes. Although, the studies in Albanian language in this direction are fewer. For this study are exploited theoric materials in foreign languages and Albanian. The theoric datas are associated with concret examples taken from the Albanians speakers of this region. Through the extending of many social-linguistic’s issues that are related to the speaker with the communication’s situation, with social classes, with the semantic-lexical and morfo-syntactic selection have tried to describe the social-linguistic’s difference that happen during the organization of generally life (exp. the birth of a child, the wedding, the death, ect.) and the special elements of daily life (exp. The conversations in families, the games, the joking words, ect. Female sex adhere to certain norms, which in the course of cultural history, has become a discipline rather well protected by stringent sanctions. The repertoire of conduct norms in a feminine discourse, according to scales that exist in Albanian society which express respect, friendly or formal addressing enables the interlocutors. Apart from the theoretical research of the twentieth century, especially foreign and local people, this work is based on the elements of (South regions) and Albanian folk lyrics. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p168
Abstract The tension in the sixteenth century between Christian institutions, viewed as corrupt, and the Scriptures, taken to be the unsullied source of spiritual renewal, gives rise to an energetic biblical erudition intended to transmit this clarity--an effort that ironically ends up obscuring that supposedly limpid source. Spinoza subjects the Book to norms of reason that distinguish sharply between the intended meaning (sensus) and truth (veritas). The truth of the text, for Erasmus, is either above it (in a philosophy of the revelation) or below (in lexical, historical and grammatical knowledge). In the seventeenth century, the logic of Port-Royal sunders the text into pre-existent concepts or ideas, and signifiants, or phonetic signs that are meaningless in themselves. The distinction between metaphor (and musicality) and strict meaning (stripped of rhetoric and affect) makes translation a battlefield between beauty and truth. The remainder of the chapter gives a detailed account and assessment of the two major seventeenth-century biblical translators: Sacy, whose focus is the intended meaning of the Author (the spirit of God); and Simon, who treats the text as an object. The text itself must first be "established," and then its obscurities elucidated by compared versions and an abundant critical apparatus.
This research has been carried out within the context of linguopoetics. results of linguopoetics research of small prose of T. Tolstaya are presented in the article. These stories were written at the end of the 20th century. T. Tolstaya is known as a representative of neo-Baroque, one of the branches of Russian postmodernism. small prose of T. Tolstaya is characterized by a very complex and expressive speech art form. complexity of the speech art form is shown by the active use of artistic foregrounding elements (words and word combinations). Artistic foregrounding (J. Mukarovsky's term) is a deviation (artistically motivated deviation) from the linguistic or communicative norm that increases the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic goal in itself and has to be prolonged. High concentration of artistic foregrounding elements arthemes (G.I. Klimovskaya's term) creates interaction of speech art devices, i.e. their convergence (M. Riffater's term). paper presents an analysis of the convergence of metaphorical and metonymical transfer and semantic syncretism. speech artistic device of semantic syncretism is simultaneous updating of several lexical meanings of a polysemantic word in the literary text. As a result of the convergence of the above-mentioned speech artistic devices, within a single phrase a new level of arthemes is formed: convergent arthemes. main method of the analysis of linguopoetics of speech art form units in the research is the application of the experiment of L.V. Shcherba, A.M. Peshkovsky and L.C. Vygotsky, the procedural kernel of which consists of two separate methodological stages: 1) comparison of semantic volumes of an artheme and its stylistically neutral equivalent, a separate word which does not have stylistic marks in dictionaries or a free (non-phraseological) word combination; 2) linguopoetic interpretation of dissimilarity in the semantic volumes of these units taking into account the local context of the phrase and the global context of the book. method proves to be highly effective in analyzing texts with a complicated speech art form because of high density of arthemes, in solving one of the tasks of linguopoetics identification of art devices used by author. In this article, the convergence of artistic devices is examined by the linguopoetic analysis of separate fragments from T. Tolstaya's stories On the Golden Porch (Na zolotom kryl'tse sideli..., 1983), Most Beloved (Samaya lubimaya, 1986), The Moon came out of the Fog (Vyshel mesyats is tumana, 1987), Sweet Shura (Milaya Shura, 1985), Me, Loves Me Not (Lubish ne lubish, 1984), Sonya (1984), Fakir (1986), Circle (Krug, 1987).
The overall aim of this dissertation is to generate a theory explaining the variation in the way the Spaniards, particularly the Spanish women, designate female professionals. Three different studies are included, the first one a quantitative survey on how the use of the three main strategies for referring to female professionals (the feminine: la abogada; the common gender: la abogado; lexical modification: mujer abogado) is determined by the sex, the age and the educational level of the speakers. The material consists of 40 professions and includes job titles of various types, representing different socioeconomic levels in the Spanish society.\nThe results show that 18 of the 40 professsions are used in the feminine, 22 in the common gender and, consequently, no profession is used in the third variant by the majority of the informants. The conclusions regarding the impact of the social factors confirm a majority use of feminine designations by the women, the oldest age group and the speakers with the highest level of education, respectively. However, the differences between the groups are marginal counted in absolute numbers.\nThe analysis of the extent to which the informants are ready to accept the feminine of the professions demonstrate the highest values in the following groups: the women, the youngest age group and the informants with the lowest educational level. \nThe results of the qualitative study show that several factors influence the election of variant in the 22 cases not used in the feminine according to the first study, which indicates the predomination of idiosyncrasy in this field.\nDue to the small differences between the groups concerning the feminine use, the aim of the third study is to find out what factors determine the female use. In 31 in-depth interviews, cards illustrating different professions, practised by both men and women, are presented and discussed. The analysis of this study is couched within the Grounded Theory framework, according to which the aim is to generate a new theory, not to confirm an existing one. Such a theory is entirely grounded in the empiric data that emerge throughout the analysis, when data are compared for similarities and formed into categories. The core category – existence in our study – is the one which accounts for most of the variation around the concern. Thus, the prerequisite of the use of a feminine title is its approval by the Royal Spanish Academy. However, its power is twofold. The academic norm is prescriptive only in non-existing cases, since nobody uses, unless in very specific contexts, a feminine title that is not accepted. In the opposite case, the use of the feminine is optional and determined by the factors awareness, presence, habit, aesthetics, attitude and idiosyncrasy.\nTo ensure the highest degree of reliability and validity of our final conclusions, the last step consists of triangulating the three studies. \nKeywords: Female professional designations, European Spanish, gender, linguistic sexism, sociolinguistics, survey, in-depth interviews, Grounded Theory, triangulation.