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16504 papers
The eight articles in this Research Topic touch upon the many disruptions to people's lives caused the COVID-19 pandemic, from the ways mandated lockdowns constrained their mobility and forced them to formulate new ways of interacting with friends and loved ones, to the new practices that they had to incorporate into their daily lives such as mask wearing and contract reporting, to the altered relations of power and (dis)trust that developed between citizens and their governments. They talk about how very space they inhabited changed around them-cities becoming silent, the spaces in which they operated shrinking, and the space between bodies suddenly becoming something to be measured and monitored. They also discuss they ways time became distorted as the routines that people had previously used to order their movements through life were suddenly interrupted, and their ability to plan for the future was curtailed.All of these social and material disruptions, as these articles illustrate, also involved disruptions in discourse: new terminology had to be learned, new conversational routines had to be mastered, new regulations had to be communicated and complied with, and new forms of storytelling had to be called upon to help people explain to themselves and to one another what they were going through. Closely related to these discursive disruptions, however, were more fundamental disruptions to agency. On the one hand, the new discursive regimes that developed around the pandemic, with their terminology and regulations and routines, played a major part in robbing people of their sense of agency. On the other hand, as their ability to control what was happening in their environments seemed to dwindle with each new media report and each new government policy-the words they used, the conversations they had, the ways they responded to official discourses, and the stories they told become even more central in helping them to maintain some sense of autonomy and authority over their affairs.The pandemic did not just transform the ways in which people affected and were affected by other people and things around them, but raised more fundamental questions about the very nature of action, autonomy and accountability, as well as questions about the role of discourse in making sense of and navigating a world of shifting power relations and shrinking possibilities. In this brief commentary I would like to explore the different perspectives on the relationship between discourse and agency reflected in these eight articles and what they can teach us as individuals and as societies about how to have (and not to have) agency during a pandemic. Some of these articles address issues of agency explicitly. Robinson and her colleagues (2023), for example, examine how agency the loss of agency was lexically and grammatically encoded in the way people talked about regulation; Wilding and her colleagues (2023) show how older adults in isolation negotiated their loss of agency through their use of metaphors, and Cowie and her colleagues (2023) describe the ways people coped with the disrupted relationship between structure and agency that came from forced immobility through the production of chronotopic discourse. In others, attention to the issue of agency is more implicit, though no less central, Tragel and Pikksaar (2023), for instance, focusing on how relationships of authority and solidarity were constructed in regulatory discourses about mask wearing, Bafor and her colleagues (2023) addressing mediatized debates about personal freedom and privacy associated with Covid-19 telephone contact tracing, Kania (2023) discussing how practices of naming COVID-19 in media discourse revealed underlying ideological projects to assign responsibility for the pandemic to racialised others, Giorgis and her colleagues (2023) documenting the ways metaphors of warfare used by the governments functioned both as calls to action and constraints on agency in different countries, and Bagna and Bellinzona (2023) exploring how municipal spaces became arenas in which negotiations among regulatory and transgressive discourses played out. In all of these treatments of the pandemic, discourse is presented as the primary means through which agency was claimed and constrained, power was exercised and resisted, and responsibility was assigned and denied. At the same time, across these different treatments of the pandemic, agency is not always conceptualised in exactly the same way. Sometimes the political dimensions of power and resistance are emphasised, sometimes psychological aspects of selfefficacy are the focus, and sometimes the ways agency emerged as an interactional accomplishment are highlighted.Agency, of course, is itself a highly contested concept within the social sciences, with scholars debating whether it is necessarily 'human, individual, collective, intentional, or conscious' (Ahern, 2001:130), about the that and it such as material to and other forms of or discursive regimes of and the to which it with other such as and I with not of the dimensions of agency in these is as the of that have some of control over their in the world other (and sometimes their and are the of in of their responsibility for a is about this is that it on agency as an to it to such as freedom and as a social individuals and are affected by other other and as the for the production of or what is for or of it is from such that to how to are and in the is also from these that to or a also a for the relationship between and agency. is related to agency in it is a for the of agency. by into the is also in the way use to the and relationships between people and in the way things and of course, as is also one of the have to things others to through and to to action through to through of as is role in agency. about and how agency can be assigned to different in the world is encoded in different with different for agency. is also the means by which and others by which and all of the other associated with however, as be a to these relationships between and agency as They in of into on and the action is through a that is in a of the in this from the way the of agency on people with the means to social relationships and or to the ways the of agency in people's talk can sometimes as a means of agency or to us Cowie on however, is not to the negotiations of agency by the of these of more with discourse in which agency is not just something that is encoded in and not just a of an to but is an interactional accomplishment that is as and in social practices and on relationships of which in and through discourse is by more of agency as to is this in things like government of and life that these are the same time, is also a way to the of these through more and new perspectives in which agency is not through the of and but through of and perspectives us to agency as among and as and in action and They also us to and such as and and with agency more as a of the for bodies to and be affected by one another what I on all of these perspectives on agency to explore what these have to teach us about to have agency in a In the I what these us about how agency is encoded and in and discourse for example, the and metaphors use to talk about and In the that I explore how these formulate the relationship between structure and agency though their of such as resistance and In the I the ways these more into the more and dimensions of agency. I by each of these perspectives on agency a on how people and were upon during the COVID-19 pandemic, they to a for to have in the pandemic in ways that more address the and in these I to to new of agency that are within in which agency is less a of and more a of the for action, less a of and more a of and less a of and more a of to by to and to around us in ways that are and role of in both and agency is it to talk of and the that are are are not as of and that are by of and power and that are in to through discourse practices of and is the way that to agency over things them from other things and them that can be sometimes naming can and the of what are to is itself different to the same or to be assigned to different dimensions of that about called of that as and people to sense of the new and a with which to talk about about as it to is that it is ideological the way the world and assign to the in it and for action, but naming is also the central through which assign responsibility or for that have In other naming is always to some a political is the that Kania in her of the used to to COVID-19 and the that it in is is of the that the associated with that are by the they are to or though the way they or assign agency such as or agency to the and such as or that responsibility with a of more is the way practices of naming can themselves become of the use of as ways to political or of Kania for that were in as well as in is use of the and on called on agency is sometimes and is not in practices of naming but in discourse about naming the part of the and In this can be in the way some naming practices to others as a way of making them others naming practices as a way to these practices of or course, words not in is the way words are into relationships with other words the ways they are in of and discourses, that them such for and agency. is Robinson and her colleagues (2023) of to be such a way to the relationship between and agency in the of the pandemic. of a of 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and to issues of control and of metaphors of in the discourse the pandemic, that from official and these have that the relationship between such metaphors and people's sense of agency can be the one hand, metaphors can people's sense of agency by the of on the other hand, they can also of and and people more to their freedom and of the aspects of metaphors is the way they an which they a of talk of can people more it can also the more and is the between the and people associated with it as to be Giorgis and her colleagues to this is their which that the ways metaphors were used, and the ways they affected the of the pandemic, in different political and In for example, use of metaphors by the government of from a sense of the was to with the and a to of during the In the of the pandemic by the government by and metaphors to and metaphors associated with the pandemic were not in the an was going both how the use of metaphors as a to power or the can have and the between the and of during 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different of people different of the and lives associated with their as and the was as a of and which them to their as of the the was also associated with agency and an ability to as many social were suddenly to the however, the a loss of freedom and just us that the pandemic were not by as a loss of but also how different ways of can sometimes new for social with them, new for social of the the and of agency in a of as individuals to maintain or their and autonomy in the of on that is a of the way agency is in these with this the in also with the of agency in the of social practices In this more agency is always within the constraints of or the of but the of structure is in of structure and agency sometimes as an not different from the way is constructed by the in the by Robinson and her In the that agency are not just and but of other and with in and different dimensions of which is of of and with the they upon individuals and which is of social relations with others, authority and the of and that to these which is of the and people that them to or and to this the structure by the in spaces within which are and within which a in the of about around the COVID-19 The way and agency is as about how in these different dimensions of and how these different dimensions of structure into with one it is about freedom and autonomy or interactional of agency is in the ways the in formulate their naming practices in both with the by the and the practices of other and can be in the way the in the by Robinson and her colleagues the of their the of their and their relationships with friends in order to things it can be in the different ways the different of and and in the by Cowie and her the of these it is not just the way people but the way they structure which dimensions of structure that they to to can how they their to was during the pandemic for such as the by Giorgis and her the was of a power governments and the resistance the of action to them to agency. structure as 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In many of course, media the role of and that came from the government and from and and even to and of were of course, media (and social that a more official discourses and even a for media in however, a of between these of their to both from and to maintain their role as government and or to the were to a in in of debates about government on agency and autonomy and government are in the by and her in which they media of COVID-19 contact to the that between contact and of the they contact tracing, in which citizens have for were to report to the of people with they had into contact during the time they were was a of that many in the were not with, as well as a issues of control and autonomy were is about and her of contact and the and that the of contact is how attention was to on agency and to and In their of media of the however, they on what in contact to on the power of the and to about privacy and was this discursive resistance to the the but to contract in of a I how issues of agency were in these through the of like and treatments of agency in social however, have the of agency as a of individuals or that agency is across of and the of this is which that agency is not something that but something they though the way they themselves in relationship to other and of agency that questions the of the is which agency as something that from the relationships between and material and of which have through are among these they are to to as In the more of agency which have agency is political as it from of the political of and of agency are even more the very of as to agency is an which not just or what but also or what or is from At the same time, is also more for within these the to is not within the but across more are not just for but for social of these articles with this of are of it in for example, the ways the in the by Robinson themselves as navigating and even of as people and in order to things the way the in the by Cowie and her colleagues with the material and dimensions of their the way the contract in the by and her colleagues as of of discourses as and and in the ways the in Wilding agency to the and even to their in the of more about such of agency to are as from the of of the in this they be not as more but also as space for people to agency in with other it as a that people and something that can be from in her discourse of of people that a way to a on through their and people are to or their and material and in the of what calls of these these more perspectives on agency be is the way they with the of in the of also agency as and they to this is the that the way to how agency in the among is through the of which they as to and be affected and to also and this agency is from the ways bodies and each from and from and and from and of these have the to us to some and others for example, of the ways the in the by Wilding and her colleagues describe their as that to on and them in different or of the and sometimes the in Robinson about or of the way the in Cowie the of during also of the way can be by others to agency by or such as metaphors of or such as become of the discursive a the that with of agency and is the of the pandemic of by and in which they in a of the dimensions of from the in which they to other such as and In their of the of different of the pandemic, and Bellinzona show not just how the became a upon which the of was but also came to itself as an the and of individuals and in just agency as and constrained by and is a sense in the they of the of of agency of which are from the of the that have material on people's and sense of space for of solidarity and or of people with of and of agency as an on the and of and is different from the of agency presented in the other in this and in some ways more that it is sometimes in people the for autonomy and control and to themselves with others with their material that for action, responsibility and what can from these that can teach us how to have agency in a pandemic, a that that to a very of it time of to action the of the and that not the of the but the to how to action, a on the of and of time and seemed to be and and many of the by governments seemed not just to us but to us discourses of and responsibility the that these teach us about how to have agency in a pandemic is that that the way talk about things official in the and in with one another have on ability and The ways that assign agency and responsibility to different through things like metaphors and as well as the ways use to different of and different of people as or friends or to the psychological and social environments in which are out. The way use can of isolation and but it can also for with others and spaces for and came in the articles which the of people stories about their lives in the of or Cowie and her colleagues just the action of a for an of the future is of responsibility and a of that to in their and that to different and and in new of and also new of social In this it that the questions to be about the relationship between and agency to questions about how agency is encoded and in to questions like by, in a of the role of in the ability to people from one to to and new the I can from these is how for action are not but of (and with other people and with not have to be as a in which individuals and for and it is not always in of resistance to with more and to agency can help us new perspectives on how people and talk about the different and that to the in which they They can also us to the that the of are not by the of individuals and governments but by the ways individuals and government themselves in relationship with a of other a pandemic is a that a but how to have agency during a pandemic, however, and to the in the that to not just with how agency with issues of and but also how it with of responsibility and from in which the that agency is to and of not to not that is in or that agency is more for action are and from within the action that of about talk about In order to for action as they by however, a in from of to power and to of the ability to to just the that in social and material both to the ability of governments and to to as well as to ability to to the and of others, to for for even in ways of are the from that the of is to help people to the to and be responded not just to and but to also to and be to others, to and for of in to is their on with people how to how to one of in the to and agency is their on with the discursive that people use to agency for themselves the discursive they use to action with the way it among the revealed the of the in which the for many seemed to be to to to and to ways to on to it At the same time, it also revealed the and of and it that the to and it us that sometimes agency is less about freedom and more about less about over and more about from
This journal, Global Business Languages, resides in the dynamic realm of Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP), a field that lies at the intersection of language use, cultural competence, and professional communication.Through a meticulous examination of three distinct, yet, on another level, interconnected studies, this volume illuminates the multifaceted dimensions of LSP and its pivotal role in fostering intercultural understanding and language proficiency within professional settings.The first article, "Exploring the Speech Act of Requesting by German-English Bilinguals in Workplace Scenarios," by Hyoun-A Joo, delves into the sociolinguistic intricacies of requestmaking within multinational workplaces.Drawing attention to the ever increasingly globalized workforce and crosscultural communicative competence in the workplace, Joo examines communication strategies used by proficient German-English bilinguals in the context of making requests, a recurrent feature in work-related contexts.The-scenario-based study measures the extent to which pragmatic factors motivate intercultural sensitivity involved in the choice of the request strategy when using English or German.It concludes that based on the studied German-English bilingual strategies for making work-related requests, a unique blend of "non-target-like communicative strategies" is at play.The findings not only highlight the blending of sociopragmatic norms, but also underscore the heightened awareness of intercultural nuances among bilingual professionals, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of effective communication strategies in diverse professional settings.Complementing this exploration, Alyssia Miller De Rutt's article, "High Frequency Medical Spanish Terminology: A Corpus-based Study of Textbooks and Reference Materials," offers valuable insights into the lexical landscape of Spanish in healthcare fields.Using a corpusbased analysis, Miller De Rutt analyzes the most frequently recurrent 3,000 words in medical Spanish textbooks, with respect to their semantic range and categorization in the medical field and dissects them according to the degree of specificity and generality of their semantic denotations.The assembled wordlists, she notes, should serve an aide or guide to curriculum developers who design medical Spanish courses, when considering which lexical items to include in their designed course or textbook.This comprehensive lexical analysis, thus, equips educators and curriculum designers with the tools needed to tailor medical Spanish courses to the specific linguistic needs of aspiring healthcare professionals, helping to bridge the gap between language proficiency and specialized discourse competence.The third contribution to volume 24, "Undergraduate Medical Spanish: The Role of Assessment in Teaching and Learning," by co-authors Andrea Nate, Diana Galarreta-Aima, and Alyssia Miller De Rutt, expands medical Spanish to assessment practices within undergraduate medical Spanish education.In the absence of a clear, agreed upon standard for learning and assessment of medical Spanish, varied approaches emerged in the field.Through interviews with instructors across the United States, the authors explore the multifaceted challenges and opportunities in assessing students' linguistic and cultural skills.Nate et al. present a study
Орфография хакасского языка с момента становления хакасского литературного языка до сегодняшнего дня претерпевала определенные изменения. Последний выпуск свода орфографических правил, подготовленный Д. Ф. Патачаковой, был издан в 1988 году совместно с орфографическим словарем хакасского языка Д. И. Чанкова. С тех пор прошло 35 лет, за этот период произошли определенные изменения в лексике и структуре хакасского языка, назрела необходимость в выпуске обновленного свода правил и орфографического словаря. В связи с этим сотрудники сектора языка Хакасского научно-исследовательского института языка, литературы и истории в 2023 году разработали предложения по обновлению свода правил орфографии Д. Ф. Патачаковой, расширили словник орфографического словаря Д. И. Чанкова. В процессе работы сектор опирался на следующие принципы: орфография стабильна, консервативна, исторически обусловлена, объединяет весь народ, относится к каждому члену сообщества. По этим причинам были произведены минимальные изменения в правила. Орфографические нормы, наряду с орфоэпическими, акцентными, лексическими, морфологическими, синтаксическими, входят в нормы литературного языка, стабилизируя его. Цель данной статьи состоит в систематизированном представлении предложений и обновлений к правилам орфографии, выполненных сотрудниками сектора языка Хакасского научно-исследовательского института языка, литературы и истории. Ими были дополнены 10 правил, представленные в сборнике правил Д. Ф. Патачаковой, и разработано 1 новое (написание сокращенных слов). The orthography of the Khakass language has undergone certain changes since the formation of the Khakass standard language until today. The last issue of the Set of Spelling Rules, prepared by D. F. Patachakova, was published in 1988 along with the Spelling Dictionary of the Khakass Language by D. I. Chankov. 35 years have passed since then; during this period there have been certain changes in the vocabulary and structure of the Khakass language, there is a need to publish an updated set of rules and an orthographic dictionary. In this regard in 2023, the staff of the Department of Language of Khakass Research Institute for Language, Literature, and History (KhRILLH) developed proposals to update the Set of Spelling Rules of D. F. Patachakova, enriched the Spelling Dictionary of D. I. Chankov. In the course of work, the Department relied on the following principles: spelling is stable, conservative, historically conditioned, unites all the people, refers to each member of the community. For these reasons, minimal changes were made in the rules. Orthographic norms, along with ortho-epic, accentual, lexical, morphological, syntactic ones, are included in the norms of the standard language, stabilizing it. The purpose of this article is the systematized representation of suggestions and updates to the spelling rules made by the staff of the Department of Language of KhRILLH. They supplemented 10 rules, presented in the Set of Rules by D.F. Patachakova, and developed 1 new rule (spelling of abbreviated words).
Abstract Investigating how infants first establish relationships between words is a necessary step towards understanding how an interconnected network of semantic relationships develops in the adult lexical-semantic system. Stimuli selection for these child studies is critical since words must be both familiar and highly imageable. However, there has been a reliance on adult word association norms to inform stimuli selection in English infant studies to date, as no resource currently exists for child-specific word associations. We present three experiments that explore the strength of word–word relationships in 3-year-olds. Experiment 1 collected children’s word associations (WA) ( N = 150; female = 84, L1 = British English) and compared them to adult associative norms (Moss & Older, 1996; Nelson et al., 2004 ( Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(3), 402–407)). Experiment 2 replicated WAs from Experiment 1 in an online adaptation of the task ( N = 24: 13 female, L1 = British English). Both experiments indicated a high proportion of child-specific WAs not represented in adult norms (Moss & Older, 1996; Nelson et al., 2004 ( Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(3), 402–407)). Experiment 3 tested noun–noun WAs from these responses in an online semantic priming study ( N = 40: 19 female, L1 = British English) and found that association type modulated priming ( F (2.57, 100.1) = 13.13, p <. 0001, generalized η 2 =.19). This research presents a resource of child-specific imageable noun–noun word pair stimuli suitable for testing young children in word recognition and semantic priming studies.
The article is dedicated to the study of pragmatic presuppositions in the headlines of English-language business media and their role as an element of manipulative rhetoric. The aim of the research is to identify and systematize the types of pragmatic presuppositions used in these headlines, as well as to analyze their impact on audience perception. To reach this aim, the authors conducted a content analysis of 200 headlines from leading business publications. The analysis identified three types of pragmatic presuppositions: factive, evaluative, and axiological. Factive presuppositions (n=85) create an illusion of factual objectivity, evaluative presuppositions (n=73) influence emotional perception through implicit judgments, and axiological presuppositions (n=42) appeal to cultural and social values, guiding the reader toward specific moral and ethical conclusions. Factive presuppositions imply the existence of certain facts or events that are presented as indisputable, although they may actually be subject to interpretation. Evaluative presuppositions elicit emotional responses from the reader by employing lexical means with strong evaluative connotations. Axiological presuppositions appeal to sociocultural norms and values, shaping the reader’s moral and ethical judgments. One of the key aspects of the study is the emphasis on the fact that while lexical means can play a significant role in the realization of pragmatic presuppositions, they do not serve as its only source. Pragmatic presuppositions are also formed based on a broader context, which includes the common background knowledge, social norms, and expectations of the participants in communication. This means that presuppositions can be either strengthened or weakened depending on how information is presented in the headline and what cultural and social expectations it engages. The authors also emphasize that pragmatic presuppositions play an important role in shaping the cognitive frameworks through which readers perceive information. These frameworks guide the interpretation of the text, creating conditions where the information is perceived as obvious or inevitable, which in turn reduces the likelihood of critical analysis. The findings of the study demonstrate that English-language business media headlines actively use pragmatic presuppositions to manipulate audience perception. This makes them a powerful tool for influence, capable of shaping biased attitudes and supporting certain social and political narratives. The authors conclude that further study of pragmatic presuppositions in media texts, particularly in the context of their manipulative potential, is essential. The research opens up new perspectives for analyzing how media rhetoric can covertly influence public opinion and shape the perception of information, which calls for more in-depth and systematic exploration in the future. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.
BACKGROUND: People with aphasia (PWA) typically exhibit deficits in spoken discourse. Discourse analysis is the gold standard approach to assess language deficits beyond sentence level. However, the available discourse assessment tools are biased towards English and European languages and Western culture. Additionally, there is a lack of consensus on which discourse measures to use and limited evidence of the psychometric properties of published discourse measurements. AIMS: (1) To develop a standardized, norm-referenced, culturally and linguistically appropriate Arabic Discourse Assessment Tool (ADAT); and (2) to examine the psychometric properties of content and construct validity and interrater reliability of different discourse measures elicited using three discourse genres (descriptive, narrative and procedural) in neurotypical control adults and matched PWA. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Discourse samples were collected using three novel discourse stimuli that are sensitive to the Arabic language and culture from 70 neurotypical control adults and a matched group of 50 PWA. Transcription agreement was assessed. A standard approach was used to evaluate construct validity and interrater reliability for 16 discourse measures that assess fluency, language productivity, information content, lexical-semantics, lexical diversity, grammatical category, grammatical structure and syntactic complexity. Strong measures were identified based on their psychometric properties, and normative data were established on these measures. Discourse performance of PWA was then examined using the newly developed tool (ADAT). OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Transcription agreement was extremely high for all discourse stimuli in both groups. Eight discourse measures were proven to have consistently very high construct validity and consistently very good to excellent reliability across the three stimuli in both neurotypical control and aphasia groups: lexical information units, content information units, words per minute, discourse duration, number of different words, number of complete sentences and proportion of open and closed class words. Norms were established on these measures, and cut-off scores of impairments were determined. Other measures showed low construct validity and variable or poor reliability across the two groups. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The newly developed, standardized, and norm-referenced tool (ADAT) consist of three discourse stimuli and eight high-quality discourse measures that assess multiple aspects of spoken discourse and were able to differentiate PWA from neurotypical adults consistently. ADAT also includes normative data and cut-off impairment scores. The tool has great potential to enhance clinical practice and research with Arabic speakers. Evidence was provided that not all discourse measures are of high quality, as some are vulnerable to differences between raters, discourse stimuli and groups. Clinicians and researchers can use ADAT for accurate aphasia assessments, better management plans and to monitor therapy effectiveness. ADAT can be further validated in other clinical populations with language impairments. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject Discourse analysis is the gold standard approach to assess language deficits beyond sentence level. However, existing discourse assessment tools are biased towards English and European languages and Western culture. Additionally, there is a lack of consensus on which discourse measures to use in aphasia, and limited evidence of the psychometric properties of published discourse measurements. What this paper adds to existing knowledge A novel, standardized, norm-referenced Arabic Discourse Assessment Tool (ADAT) was developed and validated in this study. ADAT was further validated among PWA. The study provides evidence that not all discourse measures are of high quality and thus should not be used with confidence. Specific measures are vulnerable to the type of stimuli, the rater and/or the tested group. On the other hand, eight discourse measures were identified to be reliable between different raters and across different stimuli for the two groups, and they were able to differentiate the discourse performance of PWA from neurotypical control adults. Normative data derived from neurotypical control adults were established on these strong measures, and the performance of PWA was classified as impaired based on these norms. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The present study provides a novel, standardized, norm-referenced, validated discourse assessment tool that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for use by Arabic speakers (ADAT). ADAT holds immense potential to enhance clinical practice and research with Arabic speakers. The study also identified strong discourse measures that can be used to assess language productivity, information content, lexical-semantics, lexical diversity, grammatical category, and syntactic complexity for accurate and comprehensive assessments. This will lead to better rehabilitation management by guiding the development of tailored client-centred interventions. ADAT can be utilized in clinical and research settings in PWA and has the potential to be further validated with other clinical populations.
Introduction. In the article, we tried to demonstrate the main reasons for the emergence of communicative deviations in social discourse against the background of the war in Ukraine. The most famous communicative trends of the wartime are analyzed. Radical changes taking place in communicative relations form a new reality for the country and its citizens. We are all participants in communicative formal acts, and if the communicative act is created incorrectly, in violation of the norms relevant to structuring, we get deviations in terms of understanding, and therefore in creating another block of communicative information.The purpose. Forms of communicative deviation have a wide range of manifestations in connection with the variety of social and linguistic norms that may be violated. With such complexity and diversity of deviations, researchers consider it necessary to pay attention to the need to clearly define the boundary of what is normal, and what is illegal, pathological and exceeds the socially established “limit of tolerance” of communication.Main results of the study. Under the influence of the war on the consciousness of Ukrainians, the entire modern world is experiencing a communication revolution, Internet communication is globalizing, the phenomenon of virtuality, behavioral and communication models are being modified. In this reality, a person is restructured, acquires new knowledge, his perception of the world changes, a new way of thinking about language appears, a kind of neologization of the Ukrainian language takes place, linguistic terminology is developed, linguistic creativity is updated. It is on this basis that communicative deviations are formed.Originality. The concept of “deviation” is understood as a sociological, philosophical and psychological concept. A classic example of social deviance can be legal idealism and legal nihilism, which contain deviations from the generally accepted norm of behavior.Conclusions and specific suggestions of the author. Linguistic deviations are based on the conflict between cognitive and linguistic, that is, a flexible, changing way of thinking and a formalized, visualized way of its expression by means of idio-ethnic language. Communication is considered successful and effective if it is adequate, that is, sufficient understanding must be achieved, from the point of view of the communicators. Deviations related to language competence are largely determined by the specifics of lexical and grammatical semantics, and deviations related to communicative competence are determined by communicative semantics and “properly” pragmatic factors. The current political and social situation signals the emergence of more and more deviant communicative situations.
Arguing that heteronormative framing of student identities in language classrooms is problematic (Liddicoat, 2009), scholars have made significant effort in challenging heteronormative and even homonormative practices in English language teaching (Bollas, 2021a). Moreover, publications (e.g., Barabas & Jiang, 2022; Lawrence & Nagashima, 2021a; Moore, 2016; Paiz, 2020; Trinh, 2022) that help instructors bring queer topics into classrooms are increasing. For instance, ELT Journal has published a series of articles on diverse pedagogies, including a diversity-focused approach (Bollas, 2021a), the use of well-chosen queer texts (Gray, 2021), and the explicit and implicit integration of LGBTQ+ issues into lesson content (Lawrence & Nagashima, 2021a). Additionally, the journal features critiques of some of the pedagogies (e.g., Moore, 2021) and the responses from the authors (Bollas, 2021b; Lawrence & Nagashima, 2021b). Arguably, queer pedagogy is not merely aware of queer people, but a pedagogy which radically deconstructs normalcy—sexuality as well as gender itself (Alexander, 2005). Despite relentless effort, much more work is still needed (Macdonald et al., 2014; Paiz, 2019), particularly in the creation of nuanced investigative narratives and pedagogical cases. This study enriches the ongoing discussion of queer pedagogy by delving into the exploration of queer issues within an English as a second language (ESL) undergraduate class in the United States. The students were mostly from China, the home of a large but often invisible queer population (Li & Zheng, 2013; Wang et al., 2020). In line with Wadell et al.'s (2012) argument that discussions of queer issues can benefit all students, in this study explicit discussions of queer issues were shown to empower the students to more agentively co-construct their own multilingual and multicultural identities in English language class. The class, including 17 Chinese students, was taught by the first author, who has been explicitly implementing queer pedagogies for several years, and observed by the second author, who interviewed 16 of the Chinese students to elicit their responses to the course and its materials. For these students, their new educational setting allowed and even required them to question and interrogate their own evolving identities—that is, the way each student practiced their linguistic, social, cultural, and gender identities in their new context (Gergen, 2015, pp. 145–164). This process of identity construction involved discussion and debate using abstract reasoning and complex language skills and created an authentic need for language use while also being personally significant. De-essentializing identities can aid identity construction through encouraging queer individuals and language learners to break away from preconceived, fixed notions about themselves or others and allowing for a more fluid and dynamic understanding of identity (Gergen, 2015, pp. 53–57). Aligned with Alexander's (2005) definition of queer pedagogy, the selected materials needed to include identities relatable to the students. At the same time, teacher explanations might impose on the students' expressions and, in turn, development of language and identity. Therefore, the materials should also require minimal teacher explanation. While students' misconceptions about queerness were breaking down, language development took many forms, and students needed space to construct their understanding without being confined to U.S. cultural norms. In one example, a student asked if it was bad that she thought that being a mother was the most important thing a woman can be, and this led to a discussion with the instructor about how that can be true for her but does not have to be true for other women. Meanwhile, though the need for marriage equality may have become accepted in much of the United States, gay students from other cultures may understandably view marriage for them as unnecessary or pernicious. In this regard, effective materials must represent these real-life concerns realistically enough to allow different perspectives. Ideal materials chosen for this situation were non-lexical and relevant to Chinese culture while presenting a real, evocative example for the students to react to, relate to, and discuss. For example, pictures or videos largely without dialogue allow student discussion before explanation, unlike with materials such as texts. With this more student-centered, co-constructive approach, the students consider how to represent themselves, and then the instructor may further extend the conversation according to how the students have already begun the construction process. For example, if upon reflection they do not feel terms like gay or transgender fit their experience, students may shape their own way of expressing themselves in English, perhaps by introducing a non-English or invented term, or by challenging the cultural conventions of words like feminine or gay (Kumashiro, 1999). In this case, the instructor used a video released by Rela, a Chinese queer advocacy group, in which a person on a Shanghai street stood, blindfolded, arms outstretched, with a shirt labeled in English and Chinese: “I am gay. Will you hug me?” (Rela, 2017). Throughout the video, numerous individuals initially walked by. However, as time passed, one person after another stopped to offer a hug and often words of encouragement. This trend continued to increase as more people joined in. Students were encouraged to make their own observations and discuss what they saw first, not merely about queer rights, but also social activism in general. The pictures allowed students to experience and discuss in English different approaches to gender, and after that encounter ideas popular in the United States. When interviewed, the students reflected positively about explicit discussions of queer issues. Nine out of 16 students reported that they appreciated the opportunity to share their opinions on issues taboo in China, and most students commented that the discussions allowed them to reflect upon their own stereotypes toward diversity, specifically gender diversity. This opportunity also led to greater self-awareness and acceptance and increased confidence in their own English, as one student commented: “I appreciated that [the instructor] discussed LGBTQ+ and native–nonnative speakers, these kinds of topics in class; otherwise, I would not know so much in English and learn to accept who we are.” Paranational classrooms are characterized by having students from different cultures and transitioning (or not) into other different cultures rather than being from or assimilating into any one culture as a point of reference (McGuire & Weng, 2023); thus, for paranational students, many ideas may seem to only exist in a culture they are learning about rather than within a culture they are familiar with or seeking to participate in. This problem can be mitigated through strategic instruction and selection of materials. Queerness can seem like a U.S. experience, and for some students to embrace their own queerness comes at the expense of their larger cultural identities, if not becoming a kind of betrayal (Kumashiro, 1999). In this case, for Chinese students coming from a culture where queer people are numerous but struggling, the need to participate in conversations about queerness with real agency in ways relevant to them represented an opportunity for developing their own voice and identity while using a target language. Non-lexical materials and open discussion questions can allow ESL students to explore queer identities for themselves, thereby avoiding the feeling that they are silenced by U.S. or queer voices, and instead, perhaps, allowing the feeling that the words of queer people may echo their own. Mark A. McGuire is a doctoral candidate at The Ohio State University. He has been teaching university English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL) courses for more than 10 years, in China and in the United States. His interests include the identity and pragmatic development of English users according to usage-based theories of language. Zhenjie Weng is an assistant professor in English language in the Language and Culture Center at Duke Kunshan University. Her research focuses on second language writing, language teacher education, queer pedagogy in ELT, and translanguaging.
The author discusses the latest book by Magdalena Abadżiewa, published in 2024, Книжнината на българите католици от XIX век и банатската книжнина, referring to some threads from the history of Bulgarian Catholics and their writings. She devotes particular attention to emigration themes – the works of Banat Bulgarians and the connections between their writing and the literature created in the country. Following Abadżiewa’s research, she writes about lexical parallels and similarities in terms of graphics and spelling, i.e. the assumptions of the linguistic norm developed at the end of the 18th century, common to the country and emigration.
Проводится анализ положительных и отрицательных изменений, которые система высшего педагогического образования в России накопила с момента присоединения к Болонской системе высшего образования. Перечислены основные проблемы, с которыми столкнулась система высшего образования в связи с принятием европейских норм законодательного регулирования. Дано обоснование необходимости учета методических рекомендаций по подготовке кадров по программам педагогического бакалавриата на основе единых подходов к их структуре и содержанию. Определена сущность и содержательная характеристика требований «Ядра высшего педагогического образования» при формировании программ дисциплин на уровне двухпрофильного педагогического бакалавриата. Основная цель исследования заключается в разработке и представлении модельной рабочей учебной программы дисциплины «Иностранный язык» для студентов первого и второго курсов двухпрофильного педагогического бакалавриата с учетом требований «Ядра высшего педагогического образования». Образовательная программа составлена на основе единых подходов к структуре и содержанию предлагаемых Министерством просвещения РФ базовыми темами для изучения, соотнесенными со средствами оценивания. Предлагаемая программа включает в себя тематический план, соотносимое с ними лексическое содержание, изучаемую грамматику, а также соответствующие целям и задачам оценочные средства. Для каждого раздела определены аспекты рассмотрения темы и проблемы для обсуждения, а также типичные ситуации для устного и письменного речевого общения. Рекомендуемая рабочая учебная программа может быть внедрена во всех педагогических вузах России, обучающих студентов-бакалавров по двух профилям подготовки, так как полностью соответствует требованиям «Ядра высшего педагогического образования». Программа может быть дополнена и расширена за счет увеличения зачетных единиц в рамках допустимых академических свобод вуза. Introduction. The article analyzes the positive and negative changes that the system of the higher pedagogical education in Russia has accumulated since joining the Bologna Process. The author lists the main problems faced by the higher education system in connection with the adoption of the European Higher Education Area norms of legislative regulation. The article shows the need of taking into account the methodological recommendations for the future teachers training in pedagogical bachelor’s programs based on unified approaches to their structure and content. The author describes the requirements’ content characteristics of the Higher Pedagogical Education Core while formation of training curriculum creating at the two-profile pedagogical bachelor’s degree level. Aim and objectives. The purpose of the study is to develop and present a sample of training curriculum program for the «Foreign Language» discipline for the first and second year students of a two-profile pedagogical bachelor’s degree according to the requirements of the Higher Pedagogical Education Core. Material and methods. The educational program is compiled on the basis of unified approaches proposed by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation to its structure and content. The training curriculum program consists of basic lexical and grammar topics that are correlated with the given assessment tools. For each theme, the author suggests aspects for discussion, as well as typical situations for oral and written speech communication. Results and discussion: the given training curriculum program can be used while teaching bachelor students (with two training profiles) at all pedagogical universities in Russia, as it fully complies with the requirements of the Core of higher pedagogical education. It can be supplemented and expanded by the credits increase within the limits of the allowed universities academic freedom.
Актуальность исследования лексических ошибок при русско-китайской интерференции и их преодоления обусловлена ростом межкультурного общения и числа китайских студентов, изучающих русский язык. Анализ лексических ошибок, вызванных интерференцией, необходим для улучшения процесса обучения русскому языку и повышения эффективности межкультурной коммуникации ввиду возросших экономических и образовательных связей между Россией и Китаем. Статья посвящена изучению вопроса лексической интерференции в рамках обучения китайских студентов русскому языку. В исследовании лексических интерферентов применялись системный, контрастивный и сравнительный анализы для оценки отклонений от языковых норм, а также описательный метод, метод наблюдения и статистический анализ. Рассматриваются типичные нарушения норм словоупотребления, на основе которых автор предлагает собственную классификацию лексических несоответствий, выделяя следующие категории ошибок, исходя из их происхождения и характера интерференции: межъязыковые и комбинированные (имеющие черты как межъязыковой, так и внутриязыковой интерференции). В статье предлагаются способы преодоления и профилактики лексических ошибок при русско-китайской интерференции, подчеркивается важность многоплановых подходов, таких как иммерсивное обучение, контрастивный анализ, работа с идиоматикой, использование мультимедийных ресурсов, лексическая насыщенность, специализированные учебные программы, регулярная рефлексия и самоанализ, проектно-ориентированное обучение, максимально адаптированные под потребности учащихся. The relevance of studying lexical errors in Russian-Chinese interference and overcoming them is due to the growth of intercultural communication and the number of Chinese students studying Russian. The study of lexical errors caused by interference is necessary to improve the process of teaching the Russian language and increase the effectiveness of intercultural communication in view of the increased economic and educational ties between Russia and China. The article is devoted to the study of the issue of lexical interference in the framework of teaching Russian to Chinese students. In the study of lexical interferents, systematic, contrastive and comparative analyses were used to assess deviations from language norms, as well as the descriptive method, observation method and statistical analysis. Typical lexical errors are considered, based on the analysis of which the author proposes his own classification of lexical inconsistencies, highlighting the following categories of errors based on the origin and nature of interference: interlingual and combined (having features of both interlingual and intralingual interference). The article suggests ways to overcome and prevent lexical errors in Russian-Chinese interference, emphasizing the importance of multifaceted approaches, such as immersive learning, contrastive analysis, working with idioms, using multimedia resources, lexical richness, specialized training programs, regular reflection and self-analysis, project-based learning, maximally adapted to the needs of students.
The purpose of this article is to identify the basic linguistic markers of text authenticity, which is important when studying dialects and literary language. The content and form of the authentic text is determined by the narrator’s dialect transmission and the collector’s recording process. When a text is realized through language, differences appear in the lexical composition of the version of the source epic and the literary form of the language of the person recording it. As part of the observation, it was established that there is a connection between the authenticity of the text and the choice of lexical means, language norms, meaning, and function of the original source. Lexical units show differences in semantics and material sound shell.
Introduction. The article analyzes the factors causing the spread of barbarism in the Ukrainian literary language, in particular in the texts of the media environment. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to update the theoretical foundations of the normalization of the Ukrainian literary language, to understand the challenges of the linguistic present, in particular the Latinization of book practice - officialbusiness, scientific-educational, media and private communication. It is emphasized that barbarization is one of the manifestations of globalization processes of communication and information exchange between institutions, organizations, media, communities, individuals, as well as a consequence of the hybridization of certain linguistic phenomena. It is not new and has been covered in numerous studies on the history of the Ukrainian literary language. One of the aspects of this direction of studying dynamic changes in book language practice is the mixing of Cyrillic and Latin graphics, and accordingly, the lexicons of specific languages. Factors of the genesis of the Ukrainian literary graphic-orthographic-lexical tradition are the extra- and intralingual prerequisites for convergence and distancing of languages.The purpose. The purpose of the research is to outline the range of problems of the culture of the Ukrainian language, media stylistics and sociolinguistics, which in close interaction determine the latest theoretical and practical aspects of mixing Cyrillic and Latin in the modern media space; outline the directions of actualization of barbarization.The methods. The main research method is descriptive and methods of observation, generalization, and comparison.Main results of the study. Based on the material of the texts of the media sphere from 2020 to 2024, conclusions are made about the effectiveness of the digitalization of communication, the strengthening of transculturality in communication, about the polythematism of information from multilingual sources, which requires its unification, general accessibility to consumers, which together affect the establishment of norms regarding Latin-language or mixed writing in Usus names and unadapted phrases. As a result, it was noted that there are manifestations of dynamic chaos in the graphic and orthographic norm of the Ukrainian literary language. This phenomenon is caused by the search for a self-organized system of symbolic norms that would reflect both the literary book-writing tradition and reflect the modern perception of rapidly emerging proper names, words-terms, the rapid introduction and graphic adaptation of neologisms-borrowings in the Ukrainian linguistic system.Originality. For the first time in Ukrainian linguistics, the concepts of the dynamics of the language norm in the 21st century were formulated.Conclusions and specific suggestions of the author. The need to study the barbarization of Ukrainian book practice, taking into account extra- and intralingual factors affecting stylistics, graphics, orthography, and grammar of the Ukrainian literary language, is outlined as a perspective for further research.
This study investigates the historical origins, linguistic diffusion, and socioeconomic impacts of cotton (Gossypium spp.) in the Indo-Pacific region. By reviewing secondary data from historical texts, linguistic databases, and archaeological reports, the research explores how Gossypium species, domesticated in both the Old and New Worlds, spread through complex trade networks and cultural exchanges. The study analyzes the dissemination patterns of cotton-related terminology across various language families and examines the socioeconomic effects of cotton cultivation and trade, including its influence on labor systems, economic structures, and cultural practices. While the findings highlight cotton’s significant role in shaping global markets and cultural inter-actions, the study’s limitations – such as its reliance on secondary sources, a two-month research duration, and a focus on a specific geographical area – warrant cautious interpretation. These constraints may limit the comprehensiveness and depth of the analysis, suggesting the need for future research to incorporate primary data collection, a broader geographical scope, and an extended study period. Despite these limitations, the study contributes to a nuanced understanding of cotton’s historical, economic, and cultural significance, emphasizing the need for sustainable agricultural practices in contemporary cotton production.
Semantic change is a universal phenomenon in human language. This article analyzes the trends of semantic change and the possible reasons behind them from a lexical perspective. By illustrating the five different types of changes that happen on the lexicon, the study finds that factors like language contacts, cultural trends and social norms significantly impact semantic changes. Besides, people’s cognitive mode and their concept of collocations also contribute to the changes in the lexicon.
Kljub porastu jezikoslovnih raziskav govorjene slovenščine, ki si prizadevajo za popis številnih doslej prezrtih posebnosti govorjenega jezika v primerjavi s pisnim, metodologija tovrstnih razprav večinoma temelji na kvalitativni analizi razmeroma majhnih ter zvrstno ali demografsko omejenih vzorcev jezikovne rabe, kar omejuje ponovljivost raziskav in možnost posploševanja spoznanj na govorjeno slovenščino kot celoto. Kot eno izmed možnosti za premostitev tega problema v prispevku predstavljamo drevesnico govorjene slovenščine SST (angl. Spoken Slovenian Treebank), prostodostopni oblikoslovno in skladenjsko označeni reprezentativni vzorec referenčnega korpusa govorjene slovenščine Gos, in ponazarjamo njen metodološki potencial za nadaljnje korpusne raziskave govorjene slovenščine. Na primeru treh tipično govorjenih pojavov (samopopravljanja, diskurzni členki in dodani ujemalni pridevniški prilastki) prikažemo uporabo drevesnice SST za enostaven priklic številnih avtentičnih primerov rabe, na primeru analize pogostosti samopopravljanj glede na različne sporazumevalne okoliščine pa ponazorimo tudi njeno uporabnost za raznolike statistične analize jezikovne rabe. Poleg najpomembnejših prednosti drevesnice SST, kot so uravnoteženost, odprta dostopnost, ročna slovnična označenost in neposredna primerljivost z drugimi tovrstnimi korpusi po svetu, v sklepnem delu izpostavimo tudi nekaj omejitev, kot sta razmeroma majhna velikost ter robustna, v pisni jezik usmerjena označevalna shema.
The sense of agency varies as a function of arousal in negative emotional contexts. As yet, it is unknown whether the same is true for positive affect, and how inter-individual characteristics might predict these effects. Temporal binding, an implicit measure of the sense of agency, was measured in 59 participants before and after watching either an emotionally neutral film clip or a positive film clip with high or low arousal. Analyses included participants' individual differences in subjective affective ratings, physiological arousal (pupillometry, skin conductance, heart rate), striatal dopamine levels via eye blink rates, and psychopathy. Linear mixed models showed that sexual arousal decreased temporal binding whereas calm pleasure had no facilitation effect on binding. Striatal dopamine levels were positively linked whereas subjective and physiological arousal may be negatively associated with binding towards actions. Psychopathic traits reduced the effect of high arousal on binding towards actions. These results provide evidence that individual differences influence the extent to which the temporal binding is affected by high arousing states with positive valence.
The increasing volume of online reviews and tweets poses significant challenges for sentiment classification because of the difficulty in obtaining annotated training data. This paper aims to enhance sentiment classification of Twitter data by developing a robust model that improves classification accuracy and computational efficiency. The proposed method named Tree Hierarchical Deep Convolutional Neural Network optimized with Sheep Flock Optimization Algorithm for Sentiment Classification of Twitter Data (SCTD-THDCNN-SFOA) utilizes the Stanford Sentiment Treebank dataset. The process begins with pre-processing steps including Tokenization, Stop words Elimination, Filtering, Hashtag Removal, and Multiword Grouping. The Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix Window Adaptive Algorithm is employed to extract features, such as emoticon counts, punctuation counts, gazetteer word existence, n-grams, and part of speech tags. These features are selected using Entropy-Kurtosis-based Feature Selection approach. Finally, the Tree Hierarchical Deep Convolutional Neural Network enhanced by the Sheep Flock Optimization Algorithm is used to categorize the Twitter data as positive, negative, and neutral sentiments. The proposed SCTD-THDCNN-SFOA method demonstrates superior performance, achieving higher accuracy and lesser computation time than the existing models, respectively. The SCTD-THDCNN-SFOA framework significantly improves the accuracy and efficiency of sentiment classification for Twitter data.
Abstract Translation shift which can be categorized as either “obligatory” or “optional” have been studied extensively in translation studies. When such shift occur at the macro-level, that is above the sentence level, a translation can then be said to have transitioned into what Stetting (1989, p. 374) described as “transediting”. Where transediting in journalism has received a considerable amount of attention in translation studies, examples of transedited literature are comparatively rare, and research on such transedited works is proportionate. This article analyzes the translation of the award-winning Uzbek novel The Eternal Wanderer as a notable example of a transedited work. Written by Isajon Sulton, a prolific Uzbek novelist, and translated by Christopher Fort, The Eternal Wanderer represents a notable example of a transedited work that is the product of a collaborative effort between author and translator. The novel is rich in its references to Islam as well as the native language, history, and culture of Uzbekistan, none of which are readily accessible for a Western audience that is not familiar with these things. As such, the translator, in his introduction to the book, notes that he worked with the author to edit as much as five to ten percent of the novel. The product of such a collaborative effort presents a unique opportunity for textual analysis in order to gain insights into literary transediting. A paratextual and qualitative content analysis was conducted to determine the types and levels of optional shift present in the translation in order to determine the extent of transediting and the motivations that underpinned each instance of transediting. The findings of the article indicate that at the word/phrase and sentence level, the translator opted to use shifts such as annotations, modifications, additions, and deletions to address disparate cultural and linguistic norms. At the paragraph and chapter level, large segments were deleted as part of the translator’s strategy to adapt the source material and produce a translation that is more accessible for its intended audience.
Literature in music theory and psychology shows that, even in isolation, musical sounds can reliably encode gender-loaded messages. Musical material can be imbued with many ideological dimensions and gender is just one of them. Nonetheless, studies of the gendering of music within multimodal communicative events are sparse and lack an encompassing theoretical framework. The present study attempts to address this literature gap by employing a critical quantitative analysis of music in gendered toy marketing, which integrated a content analytical approach with multimodal affective and music-focused perceptual responses. Ratings were collected on a set of 606 commercials spanning a ten-year time frame and strong gender polarization was observed in nearly all of the collected variables. Gendered music styles in toy commercials exhibit synergistic design choices, as music in masculine-targeted adverts was substantially more abrasive-louder, more inharmonious, and more distorted-than in feminine-targeted ones. Thus, toy advertising music appeared deliberately and consistently in line with traditional gender norms. In addition, music perceptual scales and voice-related content analytical variables explain quite well the heavily polarized affective ratings. This study presents a empirical understanding of the gendering of music as constructed within multimodal discourse, reiterating the importance of the sociocultural underpinnings of music cognition. We provided a public repository with all code and data necessary to reproduce the results of this study on github.com/marinelliluca/music-role-gender-marketing.
In the context of computational models of dependency syntax, most dependency treebanks have the restriction that any valid dependency tree must have exactly one edge coming out of the root node in addition to respecting the spanning tree constraints.Many algorithms for dependency tree sampling were recently proposed, both for sampling with and without replacement.In this paper we propose a new algorithm called Wilson Reject SWOR for the case of sampling without replacement by adapting the Wilson Reject algorithm originally created for sampling with replacement and combining it with a Trie data structure.Experimental results indicate the efficiency of our approach in the scenario of sampling without replacement from dependency graphs with random weights.
Abstract Semantic representation is the task of conveying the meaning of a natural language utterance by converting it to a logical form that can be processed and understood by machines. It is utilised by many applications in natural language processing (NLP), particularly in tasks relevant to natural language understanding (NLU). Due to the widespread use of semantic parsing in NLP, many semantic representation schemes with different forms have been proposed; Universal Conceptual Cognitive Annotation (UCCA) is one of them. UCCA is a cross-lingual semantic annotation framework that allows easy annotation without requiring substantial linguistic knowledge. UCCA-annotated datasets have been released so far for English, French, German, Russian, and Hebrew. In this paper, we present a UCCA-annotated Turkish dataset of 400 sentences that are obtained from the METU-Sabanci Turkish Treebank. We provide the UCCA annotation specifications defined for the Turkish language so that it can be extended further. We followed a semi-automatic annotation approach, where an external semantic parser is utilised for the initial annotation of the dataset, which is manually revised by two annotators. We used the same semantic parser model to evaluate the dataset with zero-shot and few-shot learning, demonstrating that even a small sample set from the target language in the training data has a notable impact on the performance of the parser (15.6% and 2.5% gain over zero-shot for labelled and unlabelled results, respectively).
Abstract The subjective experience of emotions is linked to the contextualized perception and appraisal of changes in bodily (e.g., heart) activity. Increased emotional arousal has been related to attenuated high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), lower EEG parieto-occipital alpha power, and higher heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) amplitudes. We studied emotional arousal-related brain- heart interactions using immersive virtual reality (VR) for naturalistic yet controlled emotion induction. 29 healthy adults (13 women, age: 26±3) completed a VR experience that included rollercoasters while EEG and ECG were recorded. Continuous emotional arousal ratings were collected during a video replay immediately after. We analyzed emotional arousal-related changes in HF-HRV as well as in BHIs using HEPs. Additionally, we used the oscillatory information in the ECG and the EEG to model the directional information flows between the brain and heart activity. We found that higher emotional arousal was associated with lower HEP amplitudes in a left fronto- central electrode cluster. While parasympathetic modulation of the heart (HF-HRV) and parieto- occipital EEG alpha power were reduced during higher emotional arousal, there was no evidence for the hypothesized emotional arousal-related changes in bidirectional information flow between them. Whole-brain exploratory analyses in additional EEG (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma) and HRV (low-frequency, LF, and HF) frequency bands revealed a temporo-occipital cluster, in which higher emotional arousal was linked to decreased brain-to-heart (i.e., gamma→HF-HRV) and increased heart-to-brain (i.e., LF-HRV→gamma) information flow. Our results confirm previous findings from less naturalistic experiments and suggest a link between emotional arousal and brain-heart interactions in temporo-occipital gamma power.
Social mediator robots have shown potential in facilitating human interactions by improving communication, fostering relationships, providing support, and promoting inclusivity. However, for these robots to effectively shape human interactions, they must understand the intricacies of interpersonal dynamics. This necessitates models of human understanding that capture interpersonal states and the relational affect arising from interactions. Traditional affect recognition methods, primarily focus on individual affect, and may fall short in capturing interpersonal dynamics crucial for social mediation. To address this gap, we propose a multimodal, multi-perspective model of relational affect, utilizing a conversational dataset collected in uncontrolled settings. Our model extracts features from audiovisual data to capture affective behaviors indicative of relational affect. By considering the interpersonal perspectives of both interactants, our model predicts relational affect, enabling real-time understanding of evolving interpersonal dynamics. We discuss our model's utility for social mediation applications and compare it with existing approaches, highlighting its advantages for real-world applicability. Despite the complexity of human interactions and subjective nature of affect ratings, our model demonstrates early capabilities to enable proactive intervention in negative interactions, enhancing neutral exchanges, and respecting positive dialogues. We discuss implications for real-world deployment and highlight the limitations of current work. Our work represents a step towards developing computational models of relational affect tailored for real-world social mediation, offering insights into effective mediation strategies for social mediator robots.
In the ever-evolving landscape of language education, this sociolinguistic study covers the discursive positioning of Indonesian adolescents in the intricate process of learning English. Language acquisition is a multifaceted phenomenon, often intertwined with complex social, cultural, and identity dynamics. This study covers the linguistic and sociocultural aspects of how Indonesian adolescents position themselves and are positioned by others within the discourse of English language learning. It used a qualitative design and conducted in-depth interviews with a diverse group of Indonesian adolescents aged 14-18 from various socio-economic backgrounds and educational settings. The analysis is rooted in positioning theory, a theoretical framework to examine how individuals construct their identities through language and interaction. The findings reveal a multifaceted picture of how Indonesian adolescents position themselves within the context of English language learning. Participants often engage in discursive practices that reflect their aspirations and struggles in mastering English. These practices are influenced by their social backgrounds, the role of English in their lives, and the educational settings they are part of. Furthermore, the study found distinct patterns of positioning, such as the "striver" positioning, where participants actively seek to align themselves with proficient English speakers, and the "resistant" positioning, where they push back against the pressure to conform to English language norms. The analysis also highlights the role of English language materials and classroom dynamics in shaping the discursive positioning of Indonesian adolescents. The materials often perpetuate certain linguistic norms and ideologies, impacting how students perceive themselves as language learners. Classroom interactions, on the other hand, provide a platform for students to negotiate their identities in relation to English. There is a need for a more nuanced and culturally sensitive approach to English language education in Indonesia.
Bidirectional transformers excel at sentiment analysis, and Large Language Models (LLM) are effective zero-shot learners. Might they perform better as a team? This paper explores collaborative approaches between ELECTRA and GPT-4o for three-way sentiment classification. We fine-tuned (FT) four models (ELECTRA Base/Large, GPT-4o/4o-mini) using a mix of reviews from Stanford Sentiment Treebank (SST) and DynaSent. We provided input from ELECTRA to GPT as: predicted label, probabilities, and retrieved examples. Sharing ELECTRA Base FT predictions with GPT-4o-mini significantly improved performance over either model alone (82.50 macro F1 vs. 79.14 ELECTRA Base FT, 79.41 GPT-4o-mini) and yielded the lowest cost/performance ratio (\$0.12/F1 point). However, when GPT models were fine-tuned, including predictions decreased performance. GPT-4o FT-M was the top performer (86.99), with GPT-4o-mini FT close behind (86.70) at much less cost (\$0.38 vs. \$1.59/F1 point). Our results show that augmenting prompts with predictions from fine-tuned encoders is an efficient way to boost performance, and a fine-tuned GPT-4o-mini is nearly as good as GPT-4o FT at 76% less cost. Both are affordable options for projects with limited resources.
Abstract The exact nature of French liaison as a phonological or morphological alternation is still debated. Under the phonological analysis, liaison is allophony: liaison consonants are special phonemes that alternate between a consonant allophone and zero (e.g., [t] ∼ ∅), the zero allophone being derived from the consonant phoneme through deletion (/t/ → ∅). Under the morphological analysis, liaison is allomorphy: liaison words have two underlyingly listed allomorphs, a consonant-final allomorph and a shorter allomorph that lacks this consonant (e.g., grand ‘great’ /gʁɑ̃t, gʁɑ̃/). This paper uses evidence from lexical statistics to arbitrate between these two analyses. The form without liaison consonant (and with deletion, under the phonological analysis) has been found in previous research to become less likely with increasing lexical frequency. The paper shows that this is problematic for the phonological analysis of French liaison, as deletion typically applies more frequently in high-frequency words across languages. The paper further shows, using evidence from a large lexical database, that words involved in liaison alternations generally have lower type frequency but higher token frequency than non-liaison words when phonotactic and morphological effects on lexical frequency are controlled for. This result is in line with the predictions of the morphological analysis, as allomorphy typically involves a relatively small number of words that occur frequently. Due to its empirical nature, this argument constitutes to date one of the strongest arguments in favor of the morphological analysis.
Social power can activate behavior toward goal attainment. In the context of romantic and sexual relationships, social power may facilitate competitor derogation tactics and self-promotion tactics to attract a partner. We hypothesized that perceived invulnerability to harm would provide a pathway linking social power to competitor derogation, whereas self-perceived mate value would provide a pathway linking social power to self-promotion. Findings from 218 participants (Mage = 38 years) revealed that experimentally manipulated social power enhanced perceived invulnerability, which in turn was positively associated with competitor derogation. Social power did not affect ratings of self-perceived mate value. Women more strongly endorsed self-promotion in pursuit of a short-term (vs. long-term) relationship, whereas men’s ratings did not vary by relationship goal. Our findings suggested that social power may influence goal-directed thinking and behavior in the context of romantic and sexual relationships.
The (inter-)dental non-sibilant fricatives, consonants articulated with the tongue tip or blade against or between the front teeth, are rare among the world’s languages but, nevertheless, are present in the sound inventories of some of the most spoken languages in existence. Here we try to shed light on the reason(s) for their distribution using multiple approaches, ranging from examining large cross-linguistic databases and phylogenetic reconstructions to the analysis of speech production data and anatomical measurements of rigid oral cavity structures obtained using intraoral 3D optical scanning. With these, we don’t only confirm that dental fricatives are rare among the present-day languages, but also that they have likely been so as far back as language families can be reconstructed, and that they are rarely borrowed between languages. The experimental data from L2 English speakers seem to suggest that details of the anatomy of the anterior vocal tract may play a role in the success of their acquisition. Therefore, dental fricatives are rare speech sounds for a multitude of reasons touching upon their articulation, acoustics, and confusability with other speech sounds, including the difficulty to produce in both L1 and L2 acquisition, the difficulty to perceive in L2 and in borrowing situations, and the rarity of attested sound changes producing them. Nevertheless, their frequent loss and merging with other phonemes in language change. Moreover, our data suggest that tiny, continuous, and overlapping patterns of variation in the anatomy of the anterior oral vocal tract may help explain their instability and geographic patterning.
This paper introduces the Cosine-Gated Long Short-Term Memory (CGLSTM), a novel architecture that integrates a cosine similarity-based gate with the vailla LSTM framework to improve sequence prediction accuracy. It addresses long-term dependencies in sequence data. Through experiments across multiple datasets and tasks such as the adding problem, MNIST and Fashion-MNIST classification, IMDB sentiment analysis, and language modelling on the Penn Treebank, the CGLSTM's performance is evaluated against LSTM, Gated recurrent unit, Recurrent Attention Unit, and Transformer models. Additionally, its effectiveness is demonstrated in the SocNavGym environment, highlighting its potential for real-world applications. Results show the CGLSTM model's superior capability in complex sequences, providing evidence that the integration of cosine similarity into LSTM leads to a 17% improvement in predictive accuracy and efficiency, offering a promising solution for various deep learning applications.
The expression of an association between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) can be attenuated by presenting the CS by itself (i.e., extinction, Ext). Though effective, Ext is susceptible to recovery effects such as renewal, spontaneous recovery, and reinstatement. Dunsmoor et al. (2015, 2019) have proposed that pairing the CS with a neutral outcome (novelty-facilitated Ext [NFE]) could offer better protection against recovery effects than Ext. Though NFE has been compared to Ext, it has rarely been compared to counterconditioning (CC), a similar procedure except that the CS is paired with a US having a valence opposite to the US used in initial training. We report two aversive conditioning experiments using the rapid-trial streaming procedure with human participants that compare the efficacies and susceptibilities to ABA renewal of Ext, CC, and NFE. Associative learning was assessed through expectancy learning and evaluative conditioning. CC and NFE equally decreased anticipation of the US in the presence of the CS (i.e., expectancy learning). Depending on how the CS-US association was probed, they were either as or more effective at doing so than Ext. All three interference treatments were equally susceptible to context manipulations. Only CC clearly altered the valence of the CS (i.e., evaluative conditioning). Valence ratings after Ext, CC, and NFE, as well as a no-interference control condition, were all equally susceptible to context effects. Overall, the present study does not support the assertion that NFE is consistently more resistant to recovery effects than Ext. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Math anxiety poses significant challenges for university psychology students, impacting career choices and well-being. This study introduces a framework based on behavioral forma mentis networks (i.e., cognitive models mapping how individuals structure their associative knowledge and emotional perceptions of concepts) to explore individual and group-differences in the perception and association of concepts related to math and anxiety. We conducted 4 experiments involving psychology undergraduates from 2 samples (n1 = 72, n2 = 79) compared against GPT-simulated students (n3 = 300). Experiments 1, 2, and 3 employ individual-level network features to predict psychometric scores for math anxiety and its facets (observational, social and evaluational) from the Math Anxiety Scale. Experiment 4 focuses on group-level perceptions extracted from students’ and GPT-3.5’s networks. Results indicate that, in students, positive valence ratings and higher network degree for “anxiety” together with negative ratings for “math” can predict higher total and evaluational math anxiety. In contrast, human models do not work on GPT-based data because of differences in simulated networks and psychometric scores compared to humans. These results were reconciled also with differences found in the ways that high/low subgroups of simulated and real students framed semantically and emotionally STEM concepts. High math-anxiety students collectively framed “anxiety” in an emotionally polarizing way, absent in the negative perception of low math-anxiety students. “Science” was rated positively but contrasted against the negative perception of “math”. These findings underscore the importance of understanding concept perception and associations in managing students’ math anxiety.
The modulation of Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) dynamics is a fundamental aspect of emotional response. However, the dynamics of the interplay between ANS activity and subjective perception of emotional states are still an open question. In this preliminary study, we explored the causal relationship between continuously annotated emotional ratings and physiological time series. We used a subset of the publicly-available Continuously Annotated Signals of Emotions (CASE) dataset, focusing our analysis on time-varying self-assessed arousal ratings (AR), electrocardiographic signals, and electrodermal activity (EDA), simultaneously acquired from 30 healthy participants during two different video-based emotional stimuli, i.e. scary and relaxing. We applied the Convergent Cross Mapping (CCM) approach to investigate the causal links between EDA, AR, and heart rate variability (HRV) time series. The results were compared against surrogate series, generated using the Amplitude Adjusted Fourier Transform, to assess their significance. Regardless of the stimulation type, a statistically significant <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\mathbf{p}-\mathbf{value} < \mathbf{1}\mathbf{e}-\mathbf{14})$</tex> causal inference was found between the HRV and both the EDA and AR signals, and a statistically significant <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\mathbf{p}-\mathbf{value} < \mathbf{1}\mathbf{e}-\mathbf{18})$</tex> bidirectional coupling was observed between EDA and AR. Our findings support previous literature about physiologically-driven emotional processes, testing, for the first time, this hypothesis on the three-variable system of real-time arousal, HRV, and EDA recordings.
The objective of this study is to analyze the strategies employed in translating English movie titles into Thai within the Monomax Application. A total of 501 English movie titles spanning the decade of 2011 and 2020 were examined because a decade provides clear guidelines for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The strategies for translating film titles into Thai conducted by Thongwan (2012) served as a framework for this study. The findings revealed that all 10 translation strategies were employed as follows respectively: 1) naming a new name regardless of the old name, 2) naming a new name based on the original name, 3) partial translation and adding Thai language, 4) partial transliteration and adding Thai language, 5) all translation and adding Thai language, 6) all transliteration and adding Thai language, 7) all transliteration without adding Thai, and 8) all translation without adding Thai language. Meanwhile, the last two which are 9) partial transliteration without adding the Thai language and partial translation without adding the Thai language were found used only once per each. Notably, the translated movie titles in Thai often featured distinctive and attractive elements, such as rhyme and alliteration. These findings corresponded to Nida & Taber (1974) translation theory that translation process is related to purpose and cultural linguistic norms. Future studies could explore the reception and perception of these translated titles among Thai audiences, shedding light on which strategies resonate most effectively and why.
In this paper, we present a study of transformerbased Named Entity Recognition (NER) as applied to Ancient Greek texts, with an emphasis on retrieving personal names.Recent research shows that, while the task remains difficult, the use of transformer models results in significant improvements.We, therefore, compare the performance of four transformer models on the task of NER for the categories of people, locations and groups, and add an out-of-domain test set to the existing datasets.Results on this set highlight the shortcomings of the models when confronted with a random sample of sentences.To be able to more straightforwardly integrate domain and linguistic knowledge to improve performance, we narrow down our approach to the category of people.The task is simplified to a binary PERS/MISC classification on the token level, starting from capitalised words.Next, we test the use of domain and linguistic knowledge to improve the results.We find that including simple gazetteer information as a binary mask has a marginally positive effect on newly annotated data and that treebanks can be used to help identify multi-word individuals if they are scarcely or inconsistently annotated in the available training data.The qualitative error analysis identifies the potential for improvement in both manual annotation and the inclusion of domain and linguistic knowledge in the transformer models.
Abstract The management of severe hoarding is often highly challenging due to lack of collaboration and the need to coordinate a large team of professionals. Although numerous strategies have been developed to manage severe hoarding, the most effective approach has not been established. To evaluate and compare three different approaches to the management of severe hoarding in non-voluntary clients. Naturalistic study of clients treated involuntarily by a Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) team for severe hoarding. Three management strategies were compared: (1) case management approach with full and part-time staff (HLH), (2) case management approach based on interprofessional networking collaboration (ICN), and (3) routine social service care with non-specific hoarding management led by a social worker (RSW). The Clutter Image Rating scale (CIR) was used to assess hoarding severity at baseline and at 6-, 12-, and 24-months. The main outcome measure was “case resolution” (CIR score < 4). Of the 271 cases referred to the CRHT, 214 completed all follow-up measures. Resolution was achieved in 84.5%, 36.6%, and 36.4% of cases managed by the HLH, RSW, and ICN strategies, respectively ( p < 0.001). The HLH strategy resulted in the greatest improvement in hoarding behaviour. In this study, the most effective strategy to resolve severe hoarding in non-voluntary clients was the case management approach with a full-time team. These findings suggest that centralizing case management in a team of specialized, highly autonomous professionals using a collaborative approach involving motivational interviewing could be the best strategy to resolve severe hoarding.
Recent advances in deep learning and Vision-Language Models (VLM) have enabled efficient transfer to downstream tasks even when limited labelled training data is available, as well as for text to be directly compared to image content. These properties of VLMs enable new opportunities for the annotation and analysis of images. We test the potential of VLMs for landscape scenicness prediction, i.e., the aesthetic quality of a landscape, using zero- and few-shot methods. We experiment with few-shot learning by fine-tuning a single linear layer on a pre-trained VLM representation. We find that a model fitted to just a few hundred samples performs favourably compared to a model trained on hundreds of thousands of examples in a fully supervised way. We also explore the zero-shot prediction potential of contrastive prompting using positive and negative landscape aesthetic concepts. Our results show that this method outperforms a linear probe with few-shot learning when using a small number of samples to tune the prompt configuration. We introduce Landscape Prompt Ensembling (LPE), which is an annotation method for acquiring landscape scenicness ratings through rated text descriptions without needing an image dataset during annotation. We demonstrate that LPE can provide landscape scenicness assessments that are concordant with a dataset of image ratings. The success of zero- and few-shot methods combined with their ability to use text-based annotations highlights the potential for VLMs to provide efficient landscape scenicness assessments with greater flexibility.
The influence of prescriptivism on nineteenth-century English has been a moot point since the last century, where two extreme positions are noted.Traditional history of the English language handbooks, on the one hand, often consider prescriptivism as a pervasive phenomenon in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, because of a belief that the English language was for some time reluctant to variation and change (Finegan 1998: 545; Anderwald 2014: 13-14).Modern approaches, on the other hand, contend that prescriptivism did not have actual effects on the language of the period, with the assumption that language change was effective as a result of continuous developments from below (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2009: 79).The issue, however, is now taken to be far from this polarization as there is evidence that prescriptivism certainly helped shape nineteenth-century English (and present-day English), even though the influence 'may have been only partially successful, i.e. on only certain text-types, only on written language but not spoken, or only for a certain period, not for others' (Anderwald 2019: 88-89).The nineteenth century was actually the century of prescriptivism as a result of the common awareness of the need for correctness to have access to a higher social scale.This explains the proliferation of grammar books and usage guides throughout the century which, using a normative approach, 'taught readers that social advancement through language was in principle within reach of everyone and could be obtained with the help of proper guidance' (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2009: 3).The number of such publications increased notably from the beginning of the century, reaching its peak towards the second half of the century (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2008: 4).Importantly enough, this intense rate of publication derived from the creation of a discourse community of grammarians who contributed to the development of homogeneous norms eventually accepted on the grounds of the continuous copying and re-writing of previous sources (Anderwald 2012: 29; also Watts 1999;2008).The effects of prescriptivism on language have been hitherto overestimated in some publications.Therefore it is necessary to investigate the development of individual features to evaluate, if any, the likely relationship between linguistic norms and the rise or decline of a particular form in Late Modern English.The present issue thus stems from Anderwald's proposal now two decades ago to combine historical grammaticographythe study of historical grammar books of English -with historical corpus linguistics as the only means to confirm 'with some confidence which features of language were subject to prescriptive influence, and where prescriptivists' attempt at changing (or preserving) the language had little or no effect' (2014: 1).Anderwald's desideratum implies that a detailed
Accurate terminology translation is crucial for the global dissemination and comprehension of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This study addresses the pressing issue of inconsistent TCM terminology, which has led to significant confusion and misinterpretation among scholars and practitioners worldwide. The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of Hu Gengshen’s theoretical framework in ensuring precise and culturally appropriate translations of TCM diagnostic method terms. Hu Gengshen’s framework emphasizes three essential dimensions of translation: communicative, linguistic, and cultural. The communicative dimension focuses on aligning translations with the target audience’s linguistic norms, ensuring the translated terms are accessible and understandable. The linguistic dimension preserves the original structure and style of TCM terminology while adapting it to the target language, maintaining technical accuracy. The cultural dimension guarantees that translations respect and reflect the original cultural context, enhancing cultural sensitivity and relevance. This study employs Hu Gengshen’s framework to assess translations from authoritative TCM sources. The analysis reveals that 146 out of 152 evaluated terms meet the rigorous standards set by the framework across all three dimensions. This finding demonstrates the framework’s effectiveness in producing accurate and culturally sensitive translations. The implications of this research are significant. By validating Hu Gengshen’s framework, the study provides a practical tool for improving the clarity and precision of TCM terminology in international academic and clinical contexts. This enhancement facilitates better global engagement with TCM practices, bridging communication gaps and fostering a deeper understanding of TCM principles and methodologies. The study highlights the framework’s value in addressing translation challenges and advancing the global dissemination of TCM.
Pre-trained Language Models (PLM) have enabled a cost-effective approach to handling various downstream applications via Parameter-Efficient-Fine-Tuning (PEFT) techniques. In this context, service providers have introduced a popular fine-tuning-based product service known as Model-as-a-Service (MaaS). This service offers users access to extensive PLMs and training resources. With MaaS, users can fine-tune, deploy, and utilize their customized models seamlessly, leveraging a one-stop platform that allows them to work with their private datasets efficiently. However, this service paradigm has recently been exposed to the possibility of leaking user private data. To this end, we identify the data privacy leakage risks in MaaS-based PEFT and propose a Split-and-Privatize (SAP) framework, mitigating the privacy leakage by integrating split learning and differential privacy into MaaS PEFT. Furthermore, we propose Contributing-Token-Identification (CTI), a novel method to balance model utility degradation and privacy leakage. As a result, the proposed framework is comprehensively evaluated, demonstrating a 65% improvement in empirical privacy with only a 1% degradation in model performance on the Stanford Sentiment Treebank dataset, outperforming existing state-of-the-art baselines.
The subject of this study is the functioning of English-language borrowings (Anglicisms) in the Ecuadorian national version of the Spanish language based on examples of their use in the texts of local mass media. The object of the study is the texts of the Ecuadorian media, in particular news articles published on the websites of the most widely read newspapers in Ecuador. The paper examines such issues as the sociolinguistic influence of English on Ecuadorian Spanish, the frequency and nature of the use of Anglicisms in it, as well as their dissemination through the media. Special attention is paid to the analysis of specific examples of the use of Anglicisms in journalistic texts, which allows us to identify key trends in their functioning. In this study, Anglicisms are considered as one of the factors influencing the development of the Spanish language in Ecuador. The study uses methods of content analysis and qualitative analysis of examples of the use of Anglicisms in Ecuadorian journalistic texts, which revealed the frequency of their use and their role in the formation of modern linguistic norms. The relevance of the chosen topic is dictated by the fact of the increasing influence of Anglicisms on Ecuadorian Spanish. The Spanish language variant, which is widespread in the territory of the Republic of Ecuador, currently seems to be less studied in comparison with the neighboring Latin American variants. Thus, there is a need to conduct a study of the main trends in its development. It follows from this that the novelty of the work lies in the implementation of a comprehensive sociolinguistic analysis of English-language borrowings used in the Ecuadorian media, which contributes to the formation of a deeper understanding of the processes underlying the formation and functioning of the Ecuadorian national version of the Spanish language. The results of the study showed that Anglicisms are actively penetrating into various spheres of Ecuadorian society, acting as a social marker and reflecting the influence of Western culture on the local population.
Exposure-based therapy is effective in treating anxiety, but a return of fear in the form of relapse is common. Exposure is based on the extinction of Pavlovian fear conditioning. Both animal and human studies point to increased arousal during immediate compared to delayed extinction (>+24 h), which presumably impairs extinction learning and increases the subsequent return of fear. Impaired extinction learning under arousal might interfere with psychotherapeutic interventions. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether arousal before extinction differs between extinction groups and whether arousal before extinction predicts the return of fear in a later (retention) test. As a highlight, both the time between fear acquisition and extinction (immediate vs. delayed) and the time between extinction and test (early vs. late test) were systematically varied. We performed follow-up analyses on data from 103 young, healthy participants to test the above hypotheses. Subjective arousal ratings and physiological arousal measures of sympathetic and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis activation (tonic skin conductance and salivary cortisol) were collected. Increased pre-extinction arousal in the immediate extinction group was only confirmed for subjective arousal. In linear regression analyses, none of the arousal measures predicted a significant return of fear in the different experimental groups. Only when we aggregated across the two test groups, tonic skin conductance at the onset of extinction predicted the return of fear in skin conductance responses. The overall results provide little evidence that pre-extinction arousal affects subsequent extinction learning and memory. In terms of clinical relevance, there is no clear evidence that exposure could be improved by reducing subjective or physiological arousal.