4th International Conference on Corpus Linguistics (CILC2012) 22.–24. března 2012
http://www.cilc2012.es
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http://www.cilc2012.es
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The greatly examined story of A Lost Lady usually depicts Mrs. Forrester’s success in meeting and adapting to the challenges of a changing world, a world characterized by materialism and self-fulfilment. However, the overlooked story, one far more disturbing than the privileged story in the text, is the narrative of oppressed groups of people of other races and the lower class. Drawing on some aspects of postcolonial theory, this paper explores Willa Cather’s own reactions to real changes in her society, to the waning power of imperialism, and of her nostalgic longing for the western prairies of her youth, without showing any sympathy for the dispossessed Native Americans and other oppressed races. It will also disclose the unmistakable colonial overtones, which remarkably resonate with the common discourse of “Manifest Destiny” during the time period of American expansion to the Wild West.
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In this paper we present a mixed-principle rule-based approach to the automatic syllabification of Serbian, based on prescriptive rules from traditional grammar in combination with the Sonority Sequencing Principle. We explore the problems and limitations of the existing rule set and sonority-based approaches, introduce an algorithm that utilizes both means in an attempt to produce a more accurate segmentation of words into syllables that is better aligned with the intuition of the native speakers, and present the statistical data related to the distribution of syllables and their structure in Serbian.
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Zero anaphora is an element of the coreference resolution task that has not yet been directly addressed in Polish and, in most studies, it has been left as the most challenging aspect for further investigation. This article presents an initial study of this problem. The preparation of a machine learning approach, alongside engineering features based on linguistic study of the KPWr corpus, is discussed. This study utilizes existing tools for Polish coreference resolution as sources of partial coreferential clusters containing pronoun, noun and named entity mentions. They are also used as baseline zero coreference resolution systems for comparison with our system. The evaluation process is focused not only on clustering correctness, without taking into account types of mentions, using standard CoNLL-2012 measures, but also on the informativeness of the resulting relations. According to the annotation approach used for coreference to the KPWr corpus, only named entities are treated as mentions that are informative enough to constitute a link to real world objects. Consequently, we provide an evaluation of informativeness based on found links between zero anaphoras and named entities. For the same reason, we restrict coreference resolution in this study to mention clusters built around named entities.
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In the beginning World Wide Web was syntactic and the content itself was only readable by humans. The modern web combines existing web technologies with knowledge representation formalisms. In this sense, the Semantic Web proposes the mark-up of content on the web using formal ontology that structure essential data for the purpose of comprehensive machine understanding. On the syntactical level, standardization is an important topic. Many standards which can be used to integrate different information sources have evolved. Beside the classical database interfaces like ODBC, web-oriented standard languages like HTML, XML, RDF and OWL increase in importance. As the World Wide Web offers the greatest potential for sharing information, we will base our paper on these evolving standards.
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This paper addresses the poorly understood patterning in the presence vs. absence of the accusative resumptive pronoun in the Czech relative clauses (RC) introduced by the absolutive relativizer co. Using both qualitative and frequency-based quantitative ana-lysis, I investigate the distribution of the resumptive pronoun in authentic usage as at-tested in the Czech National Corpus. The study leads to the conclusion that the criteria that determine the distribution of the accusative resumptive pronoun go well beyond the traditionally invoked need for expressing agreement categories (gender, number) and grammatical relations (accusative object) or that the presence vs. absence of the pronoun should depend exclusively on the animacy of the relativized noun. Instead, the distribution appears to depend on the semantic compatibility between the relativized noun and the proposition expressed by the RC, reflecting a functional distinction be-tween a determinative and non-determinative (explicative) interpretation of the RC; the former is unambiguously signaled by the bare relativizer co, the latter is available with the analytic co + resumptive pronounACC pattern as one of the interpretive options.
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In the third century one part of elite of the ancient Japanese society adopted Chinese writing and began to learn it. It is assumed that at the beginning Japanese read Chinese characters following the sound patterns of the ancient Japanese language approximating the Chinese sounds. However, Japanese sounds applied the Chinese characters, and at the same time the word order was changed into Japanese word order. This was the beginning of kanbun kundoku, or Chinese writing with Japanese readings. The term ‘Japanese readings’ is used here in the sense of both: to read each individual character as a Chinese character, or, to read them replacing the word order of Chinese writing into a Japanese translation. When Chinese characters were adopted for use in Japan, they were at first read as Chinese sounds with a Japanese pronunciation approximating that of the Chinese reading. Thereafter, this type of Japanese translation for individual readings of Chinese characters known as ‘kundoku’ began. ‘Kundoku’ (reading characters with their Chinese pronunciations) is still used today along with ‘ondoku’ for reading Chinese characters used in Japanese, i.e. in ‘kanbun kundoku’. This first reading is important in the history of modern Japanese translation. The reason is that when Japanese first encountered western languages, this method of Chinese translation readings was used for English translation, French translation, and so on. In short, Japanese people created another style of written Japanese for translation, dating back to Chinese writing system, apart from the traditional ancient Japanese language system. In Japan, however, after Chinese characters were introduced from China, Japanese created a style of native Japanese readings. Japanese translators have translated naturally according to their own logic and style.
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In this study we examine the occurrences and correspondences of terms for affinal kinship in a Bulgarian–Ukrainian parallel corpus of fiction. All instances of the terms selected for study, matching and non-matching, were located and counted, and the frequencies compared. Some of the asymmetries found may have roots in culture and history whilst others reflect diverse features of language and the practice of literary translation.
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The paper presents the development, within a research project, of an interactive system of grammatical analysis for texts written in Romanian. The two products realised as practical applications are presented here: a grammar checker for Romanian and an educational application with functions of assistance in teaching/ learning Romanian (as a foreign language).
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Stylometric techniques are usually applied to a limited number of typical tasks, such as authorship attribution, genre analysis, or gender studies. However, they could be applied to several tasks beyond this canonical set, if only stylometric tools were more accessible to users from different areas of the humanities and social sciences. This paper presents a general idea, followed by a fully functional prototype of an open stylometric system that facilitates its wide use through to two aspects: technical and research flexibility. The system relies on a server installation combined with a web-based user interface. This frees the user from the necessity of installing any additional software. At the same time, the system offers a variety of ways in which the input texts can be analysed: they include not only the usual lexical level, but also deep-level linguistic features. This enables a range of possible applications, from typical stylometric tasks to the semantic analysis of text documents. The internal architecture of the system relies on several well-known software packages: a collection of language tools (for text pre-processing), Stylo (for stylometric analysis) and Cluto (for text clustering). The paper presents: (1) The idea behind the system from the user’s perspective. (2) The architecture of the system, with a focus on data processing. (3) Features for text description. (4) The use of analytical systems such as Stylo and Cluto. The presentation is illustrated with example applications.
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The problem of Lithuanization of Ancient names was and still is relevant and not fully resolved. It is manifested by varied spelling of names as well as by ongoing discussions and considerations of this matter in the media. Translated books are often subject to criticism: the translators and editors do not have the competences necessary to understand the patterns of ancient languages so that they could Lithuanize the names properly themselves, nor have they a unified reference. Development of the Digital Database of Ancient Names may be a solution to the problem. The tradition of spelling Latin and Greek ancient names is not stable or prevalent in Lithuanian writings. It is obvious from various cases of use in Lithuanian writings, collected in the Digital Database of Ancient Names.In fact, there are no grounds for speaking about traditions of Lithuanization, because such tradition was not formed or established. This is particularly true for transcription of proper names of Greek origin. We can only note certain tendencies and influences of other languages in different periods.
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The paper describes the up-to-date methods of teaching or learning foreign languages, which are conditioned by the integration of information technologies in the teaching process. Internet gives a perfect opportunity to enliven the lectures of foreign languages, to improve their quality and effectiveness. The main advantage of internet is its authentic material in an authentic context. The examples of such authentic material can be Web 2.0 (website of second generation), Wiki, blogs and podcasts. The second advantage of internet is that it helps the learners to cooperate together. The teachers can lead the learners more effectively, consult each learner individually. It diversifies the teaching process, encourages the activity of students, who have learning difficulties.
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L’articolo propone la discussione di un corso sperimentale e innovativo per gli studenti di secondo livello in italianistica insegnando nuovi approcci alla traduzione di testi specialistici. Prendendo in considerazione i principi, i processi e gli approcci proposti da numerosi linguisti (ad es. Wills; Hause; Erdman et al.), il corso ha inizialmente introdotto gli studenti all’analisi testuale prima della traduzione proseguendo con l’esplorazione delle possibilità offerte dalle nuove tecnologie come l’utilizzo dei corpora e degli strumenti di traduzione assistita (CAT), proposti da un certo numero di linguisti dei corpora (ad es. Laviosa; Gavioli; Boulton; Zanettin e Fantinuoli). Gli studenti sono stati introdotti all’uso degli strumenti CAT con il compito di tradurre un documento ufficiale dallo sloveno all’italiano e sono stati in seguito guidati attraverso tutte le fasi di preparazione ed esecuzione della traduzione. I partecipanti dovevano infatti inizialmente analizzare il testo in considerazione sull’acquisizione dei titoli accademici, dopodiché sono state presentate le varie opzioni fornite da dispositivi IT come dizionari online, glossari, database terminologici e corpora linguistici che possono aiutare a esplorare le principali risorse lessicali e problemi di collocazione. Al fine di raffinare ulteriormente le scelte lessicali ed esaminare la principale terminologia specialistica, sono stati introdotti i principi di compilazione di corpora comparativi su piccola scala insieme agli strumenti software per l’esplorazione dei corpora di tale dimensione. I risultati di tale ricerca scientifica sono stati confrontati con le soluzioni di traduzione proposte dai dispositivi di traduzione automatica, nonché con le traduzioni proposte da traduttori professionisti e madrelingua italiani. Le conclusioni tratte dal corso sperimentale hanno implicazioni per le pratiche di insegnamento e soluzioni di traduzione.
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Reliable language corpus implies a text sample of size n that provides stable probability distributions of linguistic phenomena. The question is what is the minimal (i.e. the optimal) text size at which probabilities of linguistic phenomena become stable. Specifically, we were interested in probabilities of grammatical forms. We started with an a priori assumption that text size of 1.000.000 words is sufficient to provide stable probability distributions. Text of this size we treated as a "quasi-population". Probability distribution derived from the "quasi-population" was then correlated with probability distribution obtained on a minimal sample size (32 items) for a given linguistic category (e.g. nouns). Correlation coefficient was treated as a measure of similarity between the two probability distributions. The minimal sample was increased by geometrical progression, up to the size where correlation between distribution derived from the quasi-population and the one derived from an increased sample reached its maximum (r=1). Optimal sample size was established for grammatical forms of nouns, adjectives and verbs. General formalism is proposed that allows estimate of an optimal sample size from minimal sample (i.e. 32 items).
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Knowledge of people’s health information needs and information behaviour can be used in planning health interventions in a way that they would meet people’s needs as accurately as possible and reflect how health information is acquired and processed. Aim. The aim of the study presented in this paper was to analyze the usefulness of online forums as a source of scientific knowledge about people’s health needs and information behaviour, which could then be actively used in the area of public health. Method. The content, a total of 1,575 entries, derived from two open forums devoted to depression in the years 2012–2015 was analysed using a set of mixed methods, including: a formal (quantitative) analysis of the material using the tools of computational linguistics (QDAMiner Simsat), inductive theme analysis EMIC, in the so-called hard variety, reinforced by elements of Awdiejew’s conversational grammar, and comparative method. Results. Both health information needs and behaviour can be identified on Internet forums dedicated to health problems. Linguistic analysis of online forums can give very interesting results and clues that cannot be obtained using questionnaires or personal interviews. It seems, however, that it should never be the only method used in investigating this matter. Since there are several intervening factors that may distort reliability of findings, determining whether we are dealing with real or created needs or behaviour requires confirming the results of the linguistic analysis of the forums using other methods.
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This article looks into tendencies of the last decade in computational paralinguistics: ascertaining of speaker traits and states in voice, and the requirements set for the related speech corpora. It introduces the Estonian voice corpus and the ability to acoustically characterize voice likability and identify it automatically, using the expanded Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (eGeMAPS) for voice research and affective computing.
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Significance of the research problem: In their communication outside school, students often come across multimodal texts in forums, sites, blogs or texts integrating visual, sound, and animation components. The ever-increasing interest in communication, not only through language but also through multimodal texts, raises the question about studying the second type of texts in first language teaching and about their influence on the first key competence under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In order to find an answer we seek the productive link between multimodal texts and digital competence. For this purpose we examine the attitudes of Bulgarian language teachers from secondary school to digital competence and its relation to Bulgarian language education. Theoretical Ideas: They are based on the Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe.Research question: What is the attitude of Bulgarian language specialists to the digital literacy of secondary school students?Participants in the Survey: Bulgarian language teachers, linguists, BA, MA and PhD students, teaching Bulgarian language trainers.Procedures: We make an expert assessment of criteria and indicators for digital literacy through Google forms assigning values related to Bulgarian language teaching by the following scale: very important (2), important (1), minor (0) ), insignificant (-1).Working hypothesis: There exist criteria and indicators for digital literacy in direct relation with Bulgarian language teaching and the first key competence that can be explicitly explained. Zero hypothesis - there are no criteria and indicators for digital literacy in direct relation with Bulgarian language teaching.
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The paper deals with possibilities and problems of automatic Lithuanian term extraction. Specifically, linguistic methods are discussed in the domain of Education and Science. Other researchers have shown that it is almost impossible to have language-independent term extraction tools; this is especially true for tools which are based on linguistic rules. Therefore a linguistic term extraction tool should incorporate methods that would deal with a language’s grammatical system. This paper presents a tool developed at the Centre of Computational Linguistics of Vytautas Magnus University that employs linguistic rules for extracting domain-specific terminology. In order to extract domain-specific terms automatically, some preparatory work should be completed: compilation of domain-specific corpus (a corpus of four million words has been compiled for this research), morphological annotation of the corpus, formulation of appropriate linguistic rules, and creation of methodology for filtering out irrelevant word combinations. The paper presents the linguistic rules that have been used for the extraction of Education and Science terms and the results of the extraction procedure. The identified terms are contrasted with approved terms in the Term Bank of the Republic of Lithuania.
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Professional and administrative communication requires the creation of different types of texts. While some of them merely serve the purpose of preserving information, others are intended to influence people’s actions. In this article, I will explore applications as a textual genre based on 19 applications presented to Sauga Municipality. My goal is to find out what kind of generic structure these applications have and by what linguistic means the applicants aim to direct the actions of those who receive them. Since the applicants are citizens and the receiver is a state authority, the analysis of textual strategies also sheds light on practices between citizens and local authorities as well as on possible power relations between them. The structural analysis of the applications reveals that they have a somewhat rigid generic structure stemming from the tradition of the genre, the particular communicative situation, and the relations between the applicants and the receiver. Applications, in general, are based on two obligatory moves (presenting background information and naming the desired action) and an optional move (expressing one’s point of view). In addition, in presenting the background information, we can distinguish between three steps: one can elaborate when and where the problem occurred, how the applicant is related to the problem, and what in fact is the problem. While the general structure of the analyzed applications is fairly standardized, some differences can be detected in the particular order of moves and steps. The choices of strategies in applications appear in certain textual patterns. The content of an application is usually either a request or wish and expressed as I request, I wish, and wish. In some rare cases, citizens also use propositions or orders in communicating with their local government. Since the application is in the applicant’s own best interest, a direct obligating or coercive approach is usually found inappropriate. The citizen’s demand or order would come across as harsh and as violating the traditions of the genre, and in doing so would create unnecessary opposition from state authorities and thereby undermine the communicative purpose of the application: influencing the receiver to perform the act desired by the applicant.
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I argue that indefinite (in particular bare quantifiers such as ‘something’, ‘somebody’, etc.) which are neither existentially presupposed nor in the restriction of a quantifier over situations, can undergo topicalization in a number of Romance languages (Catalan, Italian, Romanian, Spanish), but only if the sentence contains “verum” focus, i.e. focus on a high degree of certainty of the sentence. I analyze these indefinite as contrastive topics, using Büring’s (1999) theory (where the term ‘S-topic’ is used for what I call ‘contrastive topic’). I propose that the topic is evaluated in relation to a scalar set including generalized quantifiers such as {P x P(x), P MANYx P(x), P MOSTx P(x), P xP(x)} or {P xP(x), P P(a), P P(b) ...}, and that the contrastive topic is the weakest generalized quantifier in this set. The verum focus, which is part of the “comment” that co-occurs with the “Topic”, introduces a set of alternatives including degrees of certainty of the assertion. The speaker asserts that his claim is certainly true or highly probable, contrasting it with stronger claims for which the degree of probability is unknown. This explains the observation that in downward entailing contexts, the fronted quantified DPs are headed by ‘all’ or ‘many’, whereas ‘some’, small numbers or ‘at least n’ appear in upward entailing contexts. Unlike other cases of non-specific topics, which are property topics, these are quantifier topics: the topic part is a generalized quantifier, the comment is a property of generalized quantifiers. This explains the narrow scope of the fronted quantified DP.
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