scholarly journals ASPM-lexical tone association in speakers of a tone language: Direct evidence for the genetic-biasing hypothesis of language evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (22) ◽  
pp. eaba5090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick C. M. Wong ◽  
Xin Kang ◽  
Kay H. Y. Wong ◽  
Hon-Cheong So ◽  
Kwong Wai Choy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variants ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Statistical Studies

How language has evolved into more than 7000 varieties today remains a question that puzzles linguists, anthropologists, and evolutionary scientists. The genetic-biasing hypothesis of language evolution postulates that genes and language features coevolve, such that a population that is genetically predisposed to perceiving a particular linguistic feature would tend to adopt that feature in their language. Statistical studies that correlated a large number of genetic variants and linguistic features not only generated this hypothesis but also specifically pinpointed a linkage between ASPM and lexical tone. However, there is currently no direct evidence for this association and, therefore, the hypothesis. In an experimental study, we provide evidence to link ASPM with lexical tone perception in a sample of over 400 speakers of a tone language. In addition to providing the first direct evidence for the genetic-biasing hypothesis, our results have implications for further studies of linguistic anthropology and language disorders.

Discourse, Context, and Coherence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Una Stojnić
Keyword(s):  
Prima Facie ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Pure Indexicals

On the received view, the resolution of context-sensitivity is at least partly determined by non-linguistic features of utterance situation. If I say ‘He’s happy’, what ‘he’ picks out is underspecified by its linguistic meaning, and is only fixed through extra-linguistic supplementation: the speaker’s intention, and/or some objective, non-linguistic feature of the utterance situation. This underspecification is exhibited by most context-sensitive expressions, with the exception of pure indexicals, like ‘I.’ While this received view is prima facie appealing, I argue it is deeply mistaken. I defend an account according to which context-sensitivity resolution is governed by linguistic mechanisms determining prominence of candidate resolutions of context-sensitive items. Thus, on this account, the linguistic meaning of a context-sensitive expression fully specifies its resolution in a context, automatically selecting the resolution antecedently set by the prominence-governing linguistic mechanisms.

scholarly journals Linguistic feature of anorexia nervosa: a prospective case–control pilot study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittoria Cuteri ◽  
Giulia Minori ◽  
Gloria Gagliardi ◽  
Fabio Tamburini ◽  
Elisabetta Malaspina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Pathological Process ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Clinical Conditions

Abstract Purpose Attention has recently been paid to Clinical Linguistics for the detection and support of clinical conditions. Many works have been published on the “linguistic profile” of various clinical populations, but very few papers have been devoted to linguistic changes in patients with eating disorders. Patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) share similar psychological features such as disturbances in self-perceived body image, inflexible and obsessive thinking and anxious or depressive traits. We hypothesize that these characteristics can result in altered linguistic patterns and be detected using the Natural Language Processing tools. Methods We enrolled 51 young participants from December 2019 to February 2020 (age range: 14–18): 17 girls with a clinical diagnosis of AN, and 34 normal-weighted peers, matched by gender, age and educational level. Participants in each group were asked to produce three written texts (around 10–15 lines long). A rich set of linguistic features was extracted from the text samples and the statistical significance in pinpointing the pathological process was measured. Results Comparison between the two groups showed several linguistics indexes as statistically significant, with syntactic reduction as the most relevant trait of AN productions. In particular, the following features emerge as statistically significant in distinguishing AN girls and their normal-weighted peers: the length of the sentences, the complexity of the noun phrase, and the global syntactic complexity. This peculiar pattern of linguistic erosion may be due to the severe metabolic impairment also affecting the central nervous system in AN. Conclusion These preliminary data showed the existence of linguistic parameters as probable linguistic markers of AN. However, the analysis of a bigger cohort, still ongoing, is needed to consolidate this assumption. Level of evidence III Evidence obtained from case–control analytic studies.

scholarly journals Transactional and Interpersonal Conversation Texts in English Textbook

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Ulin Nuha
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Junior High ◽  
School Grade ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Functional Literacy ◽  
Units Of Analysis ◽  
High School Grade ◽  
Literacy Level

In this study, The researcher analyzed the transactional andinterpersonal conversation texts found in grade VIII English textbookentitled ―EOS English on Sky 2‖ and I also analyzed the linguisticfeatures of the transactional and interpersonal conversations in theEnglish textbook. This study focuses on the issues of structuralfunctionalapproach which analyzes the speech function, structuralapproach which analyzes linguistic features. This is a qualitative study.In calculating the data and the final result of data percentage,quantification was used to support this study. Units of analysis in thisstudy are moves and clauses. The conversation texts are presented in 8units. The moves were analyzed functionally and the clauses wereanalyzed structurally. The result shows that the speech functions of thetransactional conversation texts are 54.5% matching the standard ofcontent, the speech functions of the interpersonal conversation texts are2.1% matching the standard of content. The linguistic feature applied inthe transactional and interpersonal conversation texts uses the linguisticfeature in functional literacy level. The speech functions of conversationtexts introduced in EOS English on Sky 2 for junior high school grade VIII are less compatible with the standard of content based on thecompatibility levels. Keywords: Transactional and interpersonal conversation texts; Speech function; linguistic feature. 

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Performance and Efficiency of the Automated Linguistic Features for Author Identification in Short Text Messages Using Different Variable Selection Techniques

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Refat Aljumily
Keyword(s):  
Variable Selection ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Short Text ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Author Identification ◽  
Type Frequency

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the efficiency of automated linguistic features to test its capacity or discriminating power as style markers for author identification in short text messages of the Facebook genre. The corpus used to evaluate the automated linguistics features was compiled from 221 Facebook texts (each text is about 2 to 3 lines/35-40 words) written in English, which were written in the same genre and topic and posted in the same year group, totaling 7530 words. To compose the dataset for linguistic features performance or evaluation, frequency values were collected from 16 linguistic feature types involving parts of speech, function words, word bigrams, character tri grams, average sentence length in terms of words, average sentence length in terms of characters, Yule’s K measure, Simpson’s D measure, average words length, FW/CW ratio, average characters, content specific key words, type/token ratio, total number of short words less than four characters, contractions, and total number of characters in words which were selected from five corpora, totalling 328 test features. The evaluation of the 16 linguistic feature types differ from those of other analyses because the study used different variable selection methods including feature type frequency, variance, term frequency/ inverse document frequency (TF.IDF), signal-noise ratio, and Poisson term distribution. The relationships between known and anonymous text messages were examined using hierarchical linear and non-hierarchical nonlinear clustering methods, taking into accounts the nonlinear patterns among the data. There were similarities between the anonymous text messages and the authors of the non-anonymous text messages in terms function word and parts of speech usages based on TF.IDF technique and the efficiency of function word usages (=60%) and the efficiency of parts of speech frequencies (=50%). There were no similarities between the anonymous text messages and the authors of the non-anonymous text messages in terms of the other features using feature type frequency and variance techniques in this test and the efficiency of these features in the corpus (< 40%). There was a positive effect on identification performance using parts of speech and function word frequency usages and applying TF.IDF technique as the length of text messages increased (N≥ 100). Through this way, the performance and efficiency of syntactic features and function word usages to identify anonymous authors or text messages is improved by increasing the length of the text messages using TF.IDF variable selection technique, but decreased as feature type frequency and variance techniques in the selection process apply.

Tunes and Tones: Music, Language, and Inhibitory Control

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 104-123
Author(s):  
Robert E. Graham ◽  
Usha Lakshmanan
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Pitch Contour ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Cognitive Benefits ◽  
Pitch Contours ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Stroop Tasks

Abstract A debate is underway regarding the perceptual and cognitive benefits of bilingualism and musical experience. This study contributes to the debate by investigating auditory inhibitory control in English-speaking monolingual musicians, non-musicians, tone language bilinguals, and non-tone language bilinguals. We predicted that musicians and tone language bilinguals would demonstrate enhanced processing relative to monolinguals and other bilinguals. Groups of monolinguals (N = 22), monolingual musicians (N = 19), non-tone language bilinguals (N = 20) and tone language bilinguals (N = 18) were compared on auditory Stroop tasks to assess domain-transferable processing benefits (e.g. auditory inhibitory control) resulting from potentially shared underlying cognitive mechanisms (Patel, 2003; Bialystok & DePape, 2009). In one task, participants heard the words “high” and “low” presented in high or low pitches, and responded regarding the pitch of the stimuli as quickly as possible. In another task, participants heard the words “rise” or “fall” presented in rising or falling pitch contours, and responded regarding the contour of the stimuli as quickly as possible. Results suggest transferable auditory inhibitory control benefits for musicians across pitch and contour processing, but any possible enhanced processing for speakers of tone languages may be task-dependent, as lexical tone activation may interfere with pitch contour processing.

scholarly journals From key words to key semantic domains

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Rayson
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Automatic Tagging ◽  
Data Driven Approach ◽  
Democratic Parties

This paper reports the extension of the key words method for the comparison of corpora. Using automatic tagging software that assigns part-of-speech and semantic field (domain) tags, a method is described which permits the extraction of key domains by applying the keyness calculation to tag frequency lists. The combination of the key words and key domains methods is shown to allow macroscopic analysis (the study of the characteristics of whole texts or varieties of language) to inform the microscopic level (focussing on the use of a particular linguistic feature) and thereby suggesting those linguistic features which should be investigated further. The resulting ‘data-driven’ approach presented here combines elements of both the ‘corpus-based’ and ‘corpus-driven’ paradigms in corpus linguistics. A web-based tool, Wmatrix, implementing the proposed method is applied in a case study: the comparison of UK 2001 general election manifestos of the Labour and Liberal Democratic parties.

Native and nonnative processing of Japanese pitch accent

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIANGHUA WU ◽  
JUNG-YUEH TU ◽  
YUE WANG
Keyword(s):  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Pitch Accent ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Tone Language ◽  
Hemisphere Dominance ◽  
Nonnative Listeners ◽  
Prosodic Processing ◽  
Japanese Pitch Accent

ABSTRACTThe theoretical framework of this study is based on the prevalent debate of whether prosodic processing is influenced by higher level linguistic-specific circuits or reflects lower level encoding of physical properties. Using the dichotic listening technique, the study investigates the hemispheric processing of Japanese pitch accent by native Japanese listeners and two groups of nonnative listeners with no prior pitch accent experience but differing in their native language experience with linguistic pitch: native listeners of Mandarin (a tone language with higher linguistic functional use of pitch) and native listeners of English (a stress language with lower functional use of pitch). The overall results reveal that, for both native and nonnative listeners, the processing of Japanese pitch accent is less lateralized (compared to lexical tone processing, which has been found to be a left hemisphere property). However, detailed analysis with individual pitch accents across groups shows a right hemisphere preference for processing the high–accent–low (H*L) pattern, a left hemisphere preference for LH*, and no hemisphere dominance for LH, indicating a significant reliance on the acoustic cues. These patterns are particularly prominent with the English listeners who are least experienced with linguistic pitch. Together, the findings suggest an interplay of linguistic and acoustic aspects in the processing of Japanese pitch accent by native and nonnative listeners.

scholarly journals GENDER DIFFERENCES OF STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Muhammad Saibani Wiyanto ◽  
Panji Wisnu Asmorobangun
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
School Students ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Significant Research

Language has an important role for every member of the speech community. The connection between language and society is recognized as the main interest of sociolinguistics. Nowadays, sociolinguistic has involved many significant research topics. One of them is the relationship between gender and language. Studies about gender differences have been conducted for many years, which also deals with the use of a language as a foreign language. For instance, studying English as a foreign language (EFL) among the nonnative speakers and its gender-sensitive investigation. The current article provides insights on gender differences among senior high school students with a focus on their writing ability. The purposes of this article were to find the linguistic feature that male and female students tend to use and to find out the gender differences reflected on the students writing ability. The article used a qualitative design with document analysis as the approach. The subject of this article was one class of X MIPA 2 at MAN 6 Jombang. The source of the data was students’ writings, while the data were all linguistics components of the students’ works. The data contain some types of linguistic features based on Mulac’s theory. This article found four linguistic features used by the students. It can be concluded that males often used locative feature and females often used a reference to quantity feature and “I” reference feature. 

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