Dispersal patterns shape areal typology

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Johanna Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Dispersal Patterns ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Different Levels

The sociolinguistics of language contact is known to effect levels of phonological and grammatical complexity of the languages involved, and linguistic features are known to have different levels of stability and different propensities of borrowing and diffusion. This chapter lays out basic taxonomies of demographic and geographical histories of areas, stability or instability or linguistic variables, and ages of areas, and raises hypotheses about correlations among them. Pilot studies of ten areas worldwide support the expected correlations.

scholarly journals Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Allassonnière-Tang ◽  
Olof Lundgren ◽  
Maja Robbers ◽  
Sandra Cronhamn ◽  
Filip Larsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Geographic Proximity ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Worldwide Distribution ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Lexical Content ◽  
And Diffusion

AbstractLanguages of diverse structures and different families tend to share common patterns if they are spoken in geographic proximity. This convergence is often explained by horizontal diffusibility, which is typically ascribed to language contact. In such a scenario, speakers of two or more languages interact and influence each other’s languages, and in this interaction, more grammaticalized features tend to be more resistant to diffusion compared to features of more lexical content. An alternative explanation is vertical heritability: languages in proximity often share genealogical descent. Here, we suggest that the geographic distribution of features globally can be explained by two major pathways, which are generally not distinguished within quantitative typological models: feature diffusion and language expansion. The first pathway corresponds to the contact scenario described above, while the second occurs when speakers of genetically related languages migrate. We take the worldwide distribution of nominal classification systems (grammatical gender, noun class, and classifier) as a case study to show that more grammaticalized systems, such as gender, and less grammaticalized systems, such as classifiers, are almost equally widespread, but the former spread more by language expansion historically, whereas the latter spread more by feature diffusion. Our results indicate that quantitative models measuring the areal diffusibility and stability of linguistic features are likely to be affected by language expansion that occurs by historical coincidence. We anticipate that our findings will support studies of language diversity in a more sophisticated way, with relevance to other parts of language, such as phonology.

The Logical and Compositional Organization of the Lecture (Based on a Lecture from M. Mamardashvili’s Course “Lectures on Proust”)

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
Aleksandra A. Talanina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Basic Function ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Teaching Process ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Spatiotemporal Coordination ◽  
Different Levels

Functional and stylistic studies give us an idea of linguistic features of speech products, thus enabling style identification. These specific features become most recognizable when comparing styles. Discourse studies, on the contrary, are mainly focused on understanding and describing basic factors of creating a form of a literary language (style) and factors that determine the characteristics of speech products in individual situations within a socially significant sphere. This article presents an analysis of the logical and compositional organization of the lecture as a genre of academic discourse, taking a university lecture from M. Mamardashvili’s course on M. Proust as an example. The specific nature of the lecture genre in academic discourse is determined by its basic function in the teaching process implemented in direct dialogue with the audience. The research is based on the thesis that a lecture is an event that can be analysed using the concept of chronotope. The use of this concept beyond the analysis of fiction is relevant since spatiotemporal coordination is mandatory for any speech product, regardless of the sphere it is created in or the functions it performs. The main feature of the lecture chronotope is multi-level organization, since a lecture has its own internal spatiotemporal coordinates. The lecture chronotope is explicated at different levels of the text (compositional, lexical and grammatical), which are interconnected. Considering this, two interconnected frameworks of the lecture – structural and semantic – are singled out; they provide the logical and compositional organization of the material, which is important to ensure students’ understanding.

Null Direct Object Clitics in Basque Spanish: A Study Across Four Generations

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-384
Author(s):  
Ager Gondra
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Acceptance Rate ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Differential Behavior ◽  
Generational Effects ◽  
Object Clitics ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract The null direct object clitic is described as one of the distinctive morphosyntactic features of Basque Spanish (e.g., compré el libro i , pero se me ha olvidado traer øi). However, no study to date has explored the variable usage of this form in cross-generational terms. The present inquiry aims to fill this void by analyzing and contrasting the results of two studies by four generations of Spanish-Basque bilinguals with the following age ranges: 85–96 (Generation 1), 55–75 (Generation 2), 35–45 (Generation 3), 18–25 (Generation 4). The education level of the participants was also taken into consideration. The first study consisted of an acceptability judgment task, in which the participants rated the acceptability of sentences with a null direct object using a 5-point Likert scale. The independent linguistic variables in this study were the semantic features [+/-definiteness] and [+/-specificity]. The acceptance rate of null direct object clitics was significantly higher among Generation 1 and 2 speakers than among those of Generation 3 and 4, with no effect of definiteness or specificity. In the second study, based on an elicitation task, older speakers (Generation 1 and 2) produced significantly more null direct object clitics than their younger counterparts (Generation 3 and 4). By contrasting the differential behavior of the participants across and within the same generation, it is shown that the generational effects observed are mainly due to the participants’ different levels of formal education.

A Novel GS1 Data Standard Adoption Roadmap for Healthcare Providers

2013 ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Nebil Buyurgan ◽  
Ronald L. Rardin ◽  
Raja Jayaraman ◽  
Vijith M. Varghese ◽  
Angelica Burbano
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Healthcare Industry ◽  
Data Standards ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Standards Adoption ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
Flexible Foundation ◽  
Different Levels

The use of GS1 Data Standards is envisioned to improve the efficiency of the healthcare supply chain as it did for the retail supply chain. The healthcare industry, especially providers, acknowledges their potentials; however, there are misconceptions and lack of understanding the associated costs and expected benefits. This study presents an adoption roadmap for GS1 Data Standards at the provider level in healthcare industry. The developed roadmap is a result of systematic efforts at conducting extensive studies, examining the best practices, and interacting with industry leaders. The adoption roadmap includes different levels and sublevels to provide a flexible foundation for healthcare providers where alternative adoption paths will be available for their immediate needs and requirements. Sublevels have a recommended precedence structure to realize maximum gains from the adoptions. The feasibility and practicality of the developed roadmap has been validated by two pilot studies, which were conducted in collaboration with two hospital provider partners. The pilot studies helped identify potential benefits as well as roadblocks and barriers for different levels of GS1 Data Standards adoption. The results indicate that the adoption is not an easy process and may require many workarounds; however, the potential gains are significant.

scholarly journals Passive Voice Transformation

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Shpresë Qamili
Keyword(s):  
Charles Dickens ◽  
George Eliot ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Modest Contribution ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
External Development ◽  
Different Levels

It is well known that the differences between the languages and the different levels of relationship between them and the use of the English passive voice in Albanian language are complex achievements of hypotheses given by language thinkers, because the language first of all is a process and processes change from time to time as a result of new language achievements and transformations and as a result of changes in people's worldview. The English and Albanian passive voice do not have a single grammatical structure and that this should be related to numerous legalities that follow the languages in their internal and external development. The studies carried out in terms of linguistic features, even of the passive voice according to the comparative method, have opened new paths to see similarities and differences even in the passive voice structure. This study is intended to give our modest contribution to notice the similarities and differences in the use of the passive voice as well as its structure in both languages. This contrastive analysis tries to facilitate the acquisition of English as a foreign language for students, pupils, to make the translation from English into Albanian and vice versa easier, to provide linguistic information to language researchers. The comparison is supported by the following English novels and their translated versions in Albanian such as: “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens and translated by Skënder Luarasi and “Silas Marner” by George Eliot and translated by Ramazan Hysa, where similar as well as different features have been found.

scholarly journals Grammatical Intricacy in EFL Textbooks

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinh To
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Lexical Density ◽  
English Textbooks ◽  
Different Levels

Grammatical intricacy is an important concept in charactering complexity of language (Halliday, 2008). However, this concept has not yet been fully investigated in the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (TEFL), particular in English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks in higher education. This paper aims to examine grammatical intricacy across textbook levels in a book series used in tertiary education in the Vietnamese context. This is part of a larger research project looking at linguistic complexity of English textbooks in the TEFL setting. The research employed Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the main theoretical framework and Halliday’s method as a measure of grammatical intricacy to look at how this language feature was used in reading comprehension texts in four textbooks at different levels including elementary, pre-intermediate, inter-mediate and upper-intermediate. The findings revealed that grammatical intricacy increased in accordance with the book levels. Particularly, the mean scores of grammatical intricacy showed a gradual increase from the elementary to the intermediate book level; though they were not different significantly and the upper-intermediate textbook did not show the topmost grammatical complexity. These findings suggest that the use of grammatical intricacy in the investigated textbooks was appropriate for EFL learners across levels; however, the use of other linguistic features such as lexical density and nominalisation may potentially impact the use of simple clauses in the textbooks at a higher level. Thus, further investigations are recommended to fully explore the complexity of textbook language.      

scholarly journals Some Dissimilarity Measures of Branching Processes and Optimal Decision Making in the Presence of Potential Pandemics

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 874
Author(s):  
Niels B. Kammerer ◽  
Wolfgang Stummer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Branching Processes ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Information Distance ◽  
General Power ◽  
Leibler Information ◽  
Optimal Decision Making ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Different Levels

We compute exact values respectively bounds of dissimilarity/distinguishability measures–in the sense of the Kullback-Leibler information distance (relative entropy) and some transforms of more general power divergences and Renyi divergences–between two competing discrete-time Galton-Watson branching processes with immigration GWI for which the offspring as well as the immigration (importation) is arbitrarily Poisson-distributed; especially, we allow for arbitrary type of extinction-concerning criticality and thus for non-stationarity. We apply this to optimal decision making in the context of the spread of potentially pandemic infectious diseases (such as e.g., the current COVID-19 pandemic), e.g., covering different levels of dangerousness and different kinds of intervention/mitigation strategies. Asymptotic distinguishability behaviour and diffusion limits are investigated, too.

CONVERGENCE AND THE FORMATION OF AFRIKAANS

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Roberge
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Important Case ◽  
General Idea ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
History Of

As a phenomenon to be explained, convergence in historical linguistics is substantively no different than in creolistics. The general idea is that accommodation by speakers of “established” languages in contact and the formation of new language varieties both involve a process of leveling of different structures that achieve the same referential and nonreferential effects. The relatively short and well-documented history of Afrikaans presents an important case study in the competition and selection of linguistic features during intensive language contact.

scholarly journals Discourse exponents of standing orders on board ship

Pomorstvo ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Milena Dževerdanović
Keyword(s):  
Structure Analysis ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Teaching Model ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Graphical Layout ◽  
Genre Knowledge ◽  
Maritime English ◽  
Board Ship ◽  
Different Levels

Deck officers must be very familiar with the content of the Standing Orders. This peculiar genre, which is usually written on one page of text and with a distinguishable graphical layout, combines administrative and legal discourse. The subtle interrelation between linguistic features on different levels of the analysis implies the ship’s hierarchy and organization which is a precondition for the safety of the ship. Analysis in this paper relies on discourse and genre knowledge and represents a continuation of the author’s research on maritime written genres in terms of both their structure an interpretation of language facts. Structure analysis in the paper is based on Bhatia’s (1993) model. After the moves of Standing Orders were established, the analysis focused on discursive characteristics of each move. As Standing Orders as genre for the most part belong to legal discourse (apart from commercial and merchant discourse), the analysis tends to show correlation between discourse exponents of this legal genre and crew members’ position and duties on board ship. Findings of this paper can be pedagogically useful in terms of providing a teaching model that will aid Maritime English teachers to convey knowledge of this genre to students, especially future deck officers and ship masters.

scholarly journals More than a biomarker: could language be a biosocial marker of psychosis?

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Palaniyappan
Keyword(s):  
Digital Tools ◽  
Patient Specific ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Automated Extraction ◽  
Linguistic Features

AbstractAutomated extraction of quantitative linguistic features has the potential to predict objectively the onset and progression of psychosis. These linguistic variables are often considered to be biomarkers, with a large emphasis placed on the pathological aberrations in the biological processes that underwrite the faculty of language in psychosis. This perspective offers a reminder that human language is primarily a social device that is biologically implemented. As such, linguistic aberrations in patients with psychosis reflect both social and biological processes affecting an individual. Failure to consider the sociolinguistic aspects of NLP measures will limit their usefulness as digital tools in clinical settings. In the context of psychosis, considering language as a biosocial marker could lead to less biased and more accessible tools for patient-specific predictions in the clinic.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document