On nonce echo constructions expressing disapproval and annoyance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A. Sánchez Fajardo
Keyword(s):  
Soap Operas ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
And Gender

Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore and contrast the morphosyntactic and semantic features of two equivalent nonce echo constructions (NECs) expressing disapproval and annoyance (i.e. don’t (you) X me and ni X ni Y) in colloquial English and Spanish. A NEC is defined as a reactive clause containing duplicated words of the initiative, showing the property of nonceness, and having a communicative goal. Two types of NECs are found in both languages: an attitudinal echo construction and a referential one, the former being more idiomatic than the latter. Based on the premise that texts are necessarily dialogic, two sets of examples are obtained from English corpora (The Movie Corpus, The TV Corpus, and the Corpus of American Soap Operas); and from two Spanish corpora and a dataset (CREA, CORPES XXI, and the Dataset of Spanish Dialogic Texts Online). Findings suggest that both languages show negative and restricted syntactic templates. Variables are coinages that originate from the processes of conversion in English (e.g. don’t you John me) and gender polarity in Spanish (e.g. ni luna ni *luno). Hence, although both types of variables are morphologically novel and contextually meaningful, Spanish variables are generally ungrammatical and unlikely to exist outside the discursive frame under study.

Constructing the stereotype: Indexes and performance of a stigmatised local dialect in Egypt

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-253
Author(s):  
Reem Bassiouney
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Soap Operas ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
The South ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Local Dialect ◽  
The Media ◽  
And Performance

Abstract ‘Saʿidi dialect’ is a general phrase used by Egyptians to refer to a group of dialects spoken in an area that stretches from the south of Cairo to the border of the Sudan. Of all the dialects found throughout Egypt and the Arab world, Saʿidi Arabic is one of the most ridiculed, stigmatised and stereotyped in the media. Salient phonological and semantic features of Saʿidi are associated with undesirable attributes such as ignorance, stupidity and a lack of sophistication. These negative indexes are often emphasised by the media. However, some Saʿidi intellectuals and public figures employ these very features to perform their identity, thus creating a positive stance and highlighting the favourable traits of Saʿidis. This article examines data from the media, including soap operas, poetry – both written and performed – postcards and songs. It utilises the concepts of indexicality and stance-taking to explore the metalinguistic discourse of Saʿidis and non-Saʿidis in the media. In addition, the article examines indexes of Saʿidi features that are considered second order indexes, but that are used by performers who employ a Saʿidi dialect to create a stance that is remarkably distinct from the rest of Egypt.

The role of familiarity in the assessment of Turkey’s country/destination image: going beyond soap operas

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Durdana Ozretic-Dosen ◽  
Jozo Previsic ◽  
Zoran Krupka ◽  
Vatroslav Skare ◽  
Tanja Komarac
Keyword(s):  
Destination Image ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Soap Operas ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Predominantly Female ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The One

Purpose This paper aims to further enhance the understanding of elements relevant to creating affection for a country’s identity, culture and values. Design/methodology/approach An overview of theoretical contributions is followed by a description of exploratory research on the overall image of Turkey. Survey-based empirical data (a convenience sample consisting of 838 Croatian citizens) are analysed using Statistica v7; mean values and a t-test are applied. The importance-performance Analysis (IPA) is also performed. The level of the respondent’s actual knowledge of Turkey is analysed by examining the content of their associations. Findings Research findings support a proven multidimensionality of the country/destination image construct. Turkey has become an appealing tourist destination; its image consists of positive associations that point to the effectiveness of soap operas broadcast abroad and promotional investments into the creation of the country image in foreign markets. Negative perceptions are related to human rights and gender inequalities. Limitations implications The use of a convenience sample (with predominantly female respondents) places a clear constraint on generalising the findings. Consequently, the results should be treated only as indicative. Furthermore, the one-country nature of the study limits the implications to theory. Practical implications Findings that soap operas might be a valuable source for Turkey’s image formation, and as such affect subsequent consumer behaviour, provide valuable insights for tourism and international marketing professionals who are either already in business or who are planning to internationalise future activities. Originality/value The study adds to the existing knowledge suggesting that popular culture, i.e. soap operas, is an interesting dimension of country/destination image deserving of further research.

scholarly journals Automatic Radiographic Bone Age Assessment Using Deep Joint Learning with Attention Modules

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Tang ◽  
Gang Wu ◽  
Gang Shen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Bone Age ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Age Assessment ◽  
Joint Learning ◽  
Bone Age Assessment ◽  
Network Backbone ◽  
And Gender

Hand and wrist skeletal radiographs serve as an important medium for diversified medical and forensic tasks involving bone age assessment. As an alternative to traditional atlas-based bone age identification techniques, deep learning algorithms automatically classify the radiographs into predefined bone age classes, provided that the deep neural networks (DNN) have been well trained with large scale annotated datasets. Most of the current bone age classification DNNs directly explore the existing network models developed for other computer vision representations and understanding applications, such as VGG, Inception, and ResNet. In this work, we present a multi-scale attention-enhanced classifier with a convolutional neural network backbone, specifically designed for bone age prediction and trained to learn a subject’s bone age and gender jointly. The proposed classifier is trained with the dataset provided by the RSNA machine learning challenge, and the low-level semantic features are then transferred to a smaller Tongji dataset collected from a hospital in China. As demonstrated by the experiments, the proposed classifier achieves the MADs of 0.41 years over RSNA data and 0.36 years on Tongji data, outperforming other single model state-of-the-art and baseline algorithms for the same test. It illustrates that joint learning of gender information plays a critical role in refining the bone age assessment, while the convolution-based attention mechanism helps retrieve the key features.

Variable D-marking on proper naming expressions: A typological study

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-580
Author(s):  
Iker Salaberri
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Perspective Drawing ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Recent studies have argued that proper naming expressions cross-linguistically display distinct morphosyntactic behavior, i.e., naming-specific marking for case, definiteness, number and gender, among other categories. This study aims to contribute to the discussion by analyzing the marking of definiteness and specificity (D-marking) on naming expressions and common nouns from a comparative perspective, drawing on a sample of 50 areally, genetically and typologically diverse languages. The results present little support for D-marking being part of a cross-linguistically special onymic grammar: rather, the data suggest that there are different ways in which splits between common nouns and proper naming or between naming classes can materialize. Moreover, it is argued that the variability in D-marking of naming expressions correlates not just with animacy but with other semantic features as well, only some of which are integrated into the Animacy Hierarchy, including agentivity, individuation, identifiability and augmentation.

scholarly journals The occidental otaku: Portuguese audience motivations for viewing anime

2020 ◽  
pp. 135485652092396
Author(s):  
João Gonçalves ◽  
Catarina Navio ◽  
Pedro Moura
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Soap Operas ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Japanese Animation ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Global Reach

Japanese animation, widely known as anime, has a global reach. It is simultaneously broadcasted by traditional media and easily distributed and discussed among fans in the digital and online realms. However, non-Japanese audiences’ motivations for watching this kind of content remain almost unstudied in some countries, with Portugal being one of them. This article presents and discusses the outcomes of an online survey completed by 568 respondents, most of them young and regular watchers of anime. A scale by Rubin and Perse (1987), originally used in regard to the audiences of soap operas, was adapted in the scope of this article. Five main motivations were found for anime viewing, with entertainment being the strongest. Age and gender are relevant predictors for the sample’s motivations and also influence audience preferences regarding genres. The survey’s outcomes are complemented by nine in-depth interviews conducted during an anime convention, further exploring the motivations derived from the survey.

(A few) psycholinguistic properties of the NP

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Acuña-Fariña
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Conceptual Information ◽  
Morphological Component ◽  
The Cross ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Formal Information ◽  
Formal Features

Essentially, noun phrases are beams of formal features, like case or arbitrary gender, and semantic features, like number, animacy, or biologically-based gender. This means that when such nominal elements are embedded in the structure of the sentence, their features interact with that structure in many ways. The main purpose of this work is to explore some of those interactions psycholinguistically, as well as to provide a set of explanatory principles that account for a substantial number of results reported in the psycholinguistic literature. It will focus mostly on agreement. Towards that goal, firstly a distinction will be made between the storing of nominal features and the computation of those features; secondly a comparison of the features of number and gender will be made; thirdly, it will be seen how the processing and the production of featural information interacts with the strength of a language’s morphological component; fourthly, the cross-linguistically different degrees of semantic interfacing (such as agreement ad sensum) will also be seen to correlate with morphological strength; finally, it will be argued that processing systems behave quite opportunistically when it comes to using either the formal information or the conceptual information coded in their NPs. This opportunism very often translates into a timing strategy: use first whatever information is available first.

Self-Compassion and Quality of Life in Adults Who Stutter

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2097-2108
Author(s):  
Robyn L. Croft ◽  
Courtney T. Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Adults Who Stutter ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify levels of self-compassion in adults who do and do not stutter and to determine whether self-compassion predicts the impact of stuttering on quality of life in adults who stutter. Method Participants included 140 adults who do and do not stutter matched for age and gender. All participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale. Adults who stutter also completed the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering. Data were analyzed for self-compassion differences between and within adults who do and do not stutter and to predict self-compassion on quality of life in adults who stutter. Results Adults who do and do not stutter exhibited no significant differences in total self-compassion, regardless of participant gender. A simple linear regression of the total self-compassion score and total Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering score showed a significant, negative linear relationship of self-compassion predicting the impact of stuttering on quality of life. Conclusions Data suggest that higher levels of self-kindness, mindfulness, and social connectedness (i.e., self-compassion) are related to reduced negative reactions to stuttering, an increased participation in daily communication situations, and an improved overall quality of life. Future research should replicate current findings and identify moderators of the self-compassion–quality of life relationship.

Effects of Gender, Parental Role, and Time on Infant- and Adult-Directed Read and Spontaneous Speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 4001-4014
Author(s):  
Melanie Weirich ◽  
Adrian Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Parental Involvement ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
First Year ◽  
Space Size ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Description Task

Purpose The study sets out to investigate inter- and intraspeaker variation in German infant-directed speech (IDS) and considers the potential impact that the factors gender, parental involvement, and speech material (read vs. spontaneous speech) may have. In addition, we analyze data from 3 time points prior to and after the birth of the child to examine potential changes in the features of IDS and, particularly also, of adult-directed speech (ADS). Here, the gender identity of a speaker is considered as an additional factor. Method IDS and ADS data from 34 participants (15 mothers, 19 fathers) is gathered by means of a reading and a picture description task. For IDS, 2 recordings were made when the baby was approximately 6 and 9 months old, respectively. For ADS, an additional recording was made before the baby was born. Phonetic analyses comprise mean fundamental frequency (f0), variation in f0, the 1st 2 formants measured in /i: ɛ a u:/, and the vowel space size. Moreover, social and behavioral data were gathered regarding parental involvement and gender identity. Results German IDS is characterized by an increase in mean f0, a larger variation in f0, vowel- and formant-specific differences, and a larger acoustic vowel space. No effect of gender or parental involvement was found. Also, the phonetic features of IDS were found in both spontaneous and read speech. Regarding ADS, changes in vowel space size in some of the fathers and in mean f0 in mothers were found. Conclusion Phonetic features of German IDS are robust with respect to the factors gender, parental involvement, speech material (read vs. spontaneous speech), and time. Some phonetic features of ADS changed within the child's first year depending on gender and parental involvement/gender identity. Thus, further research on IDS needs to address also potential changes in ADS.

Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Naturalness in Speakers of Varying Gender Identities

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 2054-2069
Author(s):  
Brandon Merritt ◽  
Tessa Bent
Keyword(s):  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Rating Task ◽  
Gender Identification ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Perceptual Evaluation ◽  
Speech Training ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Speech Naturalness

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how speech naturalness relates to masculinity–femininity and gender identification (accuracy and reaction time) for cisgender male and female speakers as well as transmasculine and transfeminine speakers. Method Stimuli included spontaneous speech samples from 20 speakers who are transgender (10 transmasculine and 10 transfeminine) and 20 speakers who are cisgender (10 male and 10 female). Fifty-two listeners completed three tasks: a two-alternative forced-choice gender identification task, a speech naturalness rating task, and a masculinity/femininity rating task. Results Transfeminine and transmasculine speakers were rated as significantly less natural sounding than cisgender speakers. Speakers rated as less natural took longer to identify and were identified less accurately in the gender identification task; furthermore, they were rated as less prototypically masculine/feminine. Conclusions Perceptual speech naturalness for both transfeminine and transmasculine speakers is strongly associated with gender cues in spontaneous speech. Training to align a speaker's voice with their gender identity may concurrently improve perceptual speech naturalness. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12543158

Sex and Gender

ASHA Leader ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-4
Keyword(s):  
Sex And Gender ◽  
And Gender
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