scholarly journals Do You Feel Me?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Physical Environment ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Developmentally Appropriate ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Emotional Displays ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
Relevant Word ◽  
Grounded Semantics ◽  
Human Teacher

In working towards accomplishing a human-level acquisition and understanding of language, a robot must meet two requirements: the ability to learn words from interactions with its physical environment, and the ability to learn language from people in settings for language use, such as spoken dialogue. The second requirement poses a problem: If a robot is capable of asking a human teacher well-formed questions, it will lead the teacher to provide responses that are too advanced for a robot, which requires simple inputs and feedback to build word-level comprehension. In a live interactive study, we tested the hypothesis that emotional displays are a viable solution to this problem of how to communicate without relying on language the robot doesn't--indeed, cannot--actually know. Emotional displays can relate the robot's state of understanding to its human teacher, and are developmentally appropriate for the most common language acquisition setting: an adult interacting with a child. For our study, we programmed a robot to independently explore the world and elicit relevant word references and feedback from the participants who are confronted with two robot settings: a setting in which the robot displays emotions, and a second setting where the robot focuses on the task without displaying emotions, which also tests if emotional displays lead a participant to make incorrect assumptions regarding the robot's understanding. Analyzing the results from the surveys and the Grounded Semantics classifiers, we discovered that the use of emotional displays increases the number of inputs provided to the robot, an effect that's modulated by the ratio of positive to negative emotions that were displayed.

Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Pragmatics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Istvan Kecskes
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Communicative Process ◽  
First Languages ◽  
Intercultural Pragmatics ◽  
Intercultural Interactions ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Cultural Pragmatics

This chapter discusses the differences between cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics. While cross-cultural pragmatics compares different cultures, based on the investigation of certain aspects of language use, such as speech acts, behaviour patterns, and language behaviour, intercultural pragmatics focuses on intercultural interactions and investigates the nature of the communicative process among people from different cultures, speaking different first languages. Cross-cultural pragmatics analyses the differences and similarities in the language behaviour of people representing different languages and cultures. Intercultural pragmatics, however—a relatively new discipline—is interested in what happens when representatives of different first languages and cultures communicate using a common language.

A sociolinguistic perspective on Arabisation and language use in Algeria

2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hind Amel Mostari
Keyword(s):  
Physical Environment ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
The Status ◽  
Main Medium ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Classical Arabic

The Algerian National Constitution stipulates that Classical Arabic is the only official language of the nation, which is supposedly used by all members of the speech community. French is regarded as a foreign language and is taught starting from the fourth year of the primary level. The Algerian diglossic situation is characterized by the use of Classical Arabic and French as high varieties used in formal and public domains, and colloquial dialects, namely Algerian Arabic and Berber, as low varieties for informal and intimate situations. In public domains, Classical Arabic is present virtually everywhere and used (especially at the written level) in varying degrees. In some domains, such as education or the physical environment, Classical Arabic dominates; in other domains such as the economy, Classical Arabic is used in parallel with French. This linguistic reality is primarily the outcome of many years of intensive campaigns of Arabisation and major political and even financial decisions, beginning right after independence, aimed at promoting the status of Classical Arabic and giving to Algeria its Arabo-Muslim identity. The present paper examines the process and outcomes of Arabisation and its effects on language use, providing a brief historical sketch of the Arabisation process in various domains, including its application in public life, notably in administration, the physical environment and education. The Arabisation process has touched practically all spheres of public life previously characterized by the sole use of the French language. Also discussed is the impact of Arabisation on language use at the institutional and individual levels. The impact of Arabisation has been significant in some domains, namely education and the physical environment, but less evident in others, such as in university studies, especially in scientific and medical departments, where French remains the main medium of instruction and communication. The paper also encompasses a brief survey of the linguistic rights of Berbers under the Arabisation process, and at the same time it also attempts to address the issue of the Arabisation process in relation to other concepts, notably Islam and Islamism; ‘Arabisation’ does not mean ‘Islamisation.’ Finally, the results of the Arabisation campaigns are analyzed and critiqued. Arabisation has faced many criticisms, among them paucity of human and financial means, as well as the lack of a coherent strategy of implementation in which the political and sociolinguistic realities of the Algerian speech community are taken into consideration.

scholarly journals Cultural Integration and Export Variety Overlap across Countries

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Egger ◽  
Andrea Lassmann
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Cultural Proximity ◽  
Export Variety ◽  
The One

This chapter assesses the role of a larger degree of common language use between the populations of two countries on the so-called extensive product margin of trade. We focus on the overlap of products exported or imported between any pair of countries. The results suggest that the effect of varying aspects of sharing a common language on the variety overlap is both positive and important. The effect of sharing a common spoken language exceeds the one of common native language, implying that a larger overlap in language proficiency is quantitatively more important than a higher cultural proximity.

scholarly journals Regionality – Language – Internet

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Mária Pásztor-Kicsi
Keyword(s):  
Strong Influence ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Regional Features ◽  
The World ◽  
Regional Cultures

Abstract The Internet has a strong influence on our daily communication and language use. Its continuous growing makes us face the world characterized by networks of connections that span multi-continental distances. The metaphor of global village seems to be not merely a futuristic theory, but pure reality. People can communicate worldwide with each other, reach all kinds of information to get up-to-date, as long as they respect the basic demand of globalization, which means the use of a common language (i.e. English). But this tendency hides a serious issue if we try to observe globalization from the aspect of local and regional cultures and languages, especially those in minority position. The study deals with the language use of the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, with special focus on Netspeak and the regional features of language forms used on the Internet. It also analyses the attitudes of a group of students towards the influence of the Internet on speech and language. This part of the survey is based on questionnaires.

scholarly journals Maxi-Min Language Use A Critical Remark on a Concept by Philippe van Parijs

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Jan Kruse
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Critical Remark ◽  
Normative Concept ◽  
Linguistic Justice ◽  
The World

Abstract Philippe van Parijs explains in Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World the concept of maxi-min language use as a process of language choice. He suggests that the language chosen as a common language should maximize the minimal competence of a community. Within a multilingual group of people, the chosen language is the language known best by a participant who knows it least. For obvious reasons, only English would qualify for having that status. This article argues that maxi-min is rather a normative concept, not only because the process itself remains empirically unfounded. Moreover, language choice is the result of complex social and psychological structures. As a descriptive process, the maxi-min choice happens in the reality fairly seldom, whereas the max-min use of languages seen as a normative process could be a very effective tool to measure linguistic justice.

scholarly journals Main stages of effective transport management system modernization in Russian agglomerations

2018 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 05003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Schwetsov ◽  
Andrey Burmistrov ◽  
Vsevolod Morozov
Keyword(s):  
Transport System ◽  
Management System ◽  
Language Use ◽  
System Development ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Effective Transport ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Transport Management

This article presents main problems typical for the transport management system in Russia. Characteristics of the barriers hampering the infrastructure projects implementation are described; possibilities for overcoming these barriers are indicated. An approach is proposed for effective modernization of transport management systems, including such components as formation of a ‘common language’, use of ‘systems laws’ and system engineering methods. The importance of the first stage including comprehension and formulation of shared values by all participants has been emphasized. The necessity of consistent coordination of the participants’ interests in the transport system development is presented: from the definition of shared values to shared goals and to the general conceptual project guaranteeing achievement of these goals.

scholarly journals Pashto-English Contact: The Role of Suffixation in Hybridizing Lexical Items

2019 ◽  
Vol IV (IV) ◽  
pp. 629-637
Author(s):  
Nisar Ahmad ◽  
Liaqat Iqbal ◽  
Muhammad Atif
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
New Variety ◽  
Hybridization Data ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Research Show ◽  
Hybrid Forms

The study investigates the role of suffixation in Pashto-English hybridization at the word level and the sociolinguistic significance of such hybridization. Data from electronic media, including programmes from Khyber News, representing both formal and informal domains of language use, is used for the study. The programmes selected include Top Stories, News Hour, Mohim Repotuna, Naway Sahar and Sports Mag. Employing content analysis as a research method, a quantitative approach for the investigation of hybridized English lexical category and a qualitative approach for its sociolinguistic significance have been used. The present study employs the framework presented by Kachru (1978), as adapted by Rasul (2006). The findings of the research show that noun is frequently hybridized both in formal and informal domains of language used mostly by the addition of Pashto inflectional suffixes. It is concluded that suffixation got an important role in Pashto-English hybridization that leads to the creation of hybrid forms predicting language shift and the emergence of a new variety of Pashto.

scholarly journals Grounded Semantic Composition for Visual Scenes

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 429-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Gorniak ◽  
D. Roy
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Large Percentage ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Visual Context ◽  
Referring Expressions ◽  
Language Understanding ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Individual Word ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Grounded Semantics

We present a visually-grounded language understanding model based on a study of how people verbally describe objects in scenes. The emphasis of the model is on the combination of individual word meanings to produce meanings for complex referring expressions. The model has been implemented, and it is able to understand a broad range of spatial referring expressions. We describe our implementation of word level visually-grounded semantics and their embedding in a compositional parsing framework. The implemented system selects the correct referents in response to natural language expressions for a large percentage of test cases. In an analysis of the system's successes and failures we reveal how visual context influences the semantics of utterances and propose future extensions to the model that take such context into account.

Understanding the language of entrepreneurship

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Philip T. Roundy ◽  
Arben Asllani
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Word Use ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Methodological Procedures ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Level Analysis ◽  
Significant Attention

Purpose Entrepreneurship is an activity with far-reaching economic and cultural implications. Research seeking to understand the cognition and behavior of entrepreneurs is devoting increasing attention to how entrepreneurs construct and utilize discourse. However, word-level analysis of the specific language used by entrepreneurs has not received significant attention. The purpose of this paper is to identify the words that comprise entrepreneurship discourse and describe how word-usage has changed over time. Design/methodology/approach To examine the language of entrepreneurship, the authors use modified MapReduce algorithms in conjunction with text mining techniques to construct a longitudinal corpus of approximately 2.5m words. The authors identify the most frequently used words in the entrepreneurship lexicon and then use content analysis to chart the evolution of word-use. Findings The findings reveal that entrepreneurs’ lexicon is complex and fluid. The most commonly used words suggest new trends in entrepreneurship. Originality/value The findings and methodological procedures contribute to research on entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process and, specifically, to work on entrepreneurial discourse, language-use and new venture communication. The findings also have implications for entrepreneurs and policymakers.

Critical Discourse Analysis Of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Speech

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Md. Yudyantara Risadi ◽  
◽  
Putu Suyasa Ariputra ◽  
Ni Luh Putu Uttari Premananda ◽  
I Nengah Alit Nuriawan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Sentence Level

This study aimed at descrsibing language, power and ideology of SBY’s speech about receiving Doctor Honoris Cause degree from SOKA University, Japan. In someone’s speech, there is a relationship among language, power, and ideology which can be seen through the language use by the speaker. The analysis used was Critical Discourse Analysis method presented by Thomas N. Huckin. It was started form analyzing the features in the text as whole, in sentence-level, word-level and it was continued by doing contextual interpretation. The result showed that through the language use in SBY’s speech, there was a power and the purpose of the speaker in which the power was felt to increase from the beginning, it was felt a weak power and in the middle of the speech it was felt a strong power. The power was increased because it was based on who was aimed at and the ideology is clearly seen in the last part of the speech given in which SBY wanted to be more appreciated

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