scholarly journals Constructional ‘scene encoding’ and acquisition: Mothers’ use of argument structure constructions in English child-directed speech

Author(s):  
Arne Zeschel

AbstractConstruction-based language models assume that grammar is meaningful and learnable from experience. Focusing on five of the most elementary argument structure constructions of English, a large-scale corpus study of child-directed speech (CDS) investigates exactly which meanings/functions are associated with these patterns in CDS, and whether they are indeed specially indicated to children by their caretakers (as suggested by previous research, cf. Goldberg, Casenhiser and Sethuraman 2004). Collostructional analysis (Stefanowitsch and Gries 2003) is employed to uncover significantly attracted verb-construction combinations, and attracted pairs are classified semantically in order to systematise the attested usage patterns of the target constructions. The results indicate that the structure of the input may aid learners in making the right generalisations about constructional usage patterns, but such scaffolding is not strictly necessary for construction learning: not all argument structure constructions are coherently semanticised to the same extent (in the sense that they designate a single schematic event type of the kind envisioned in Goldberg’s [1995] ‘scene encoding hypothesis’), and they also differ in the extent to which individual semantic subtypes predominate in learners’ input

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-48
Author(s):  
Zuchao Li ◽  
Hai Zhao ◽  
Shexia He ◽  
Jiaxun Cai

Abstract Semantic role labeling (SRL) is dedicated to recognizing the semantic predicate-argument structure of a sentence. Previous studies in terms of traditional models have shown syntactic information can make remarkable contributions to SRL performance; however, the necessity of syntactic information was challenged by a few recent neural SRL studies that demonstrate impressive performance without syntactic backbones and suggest that syntax information becomes much less important for neural semantic role labeling, especially when paired with recent deep neural network and large-scale pre-trained language models. Despite this notion, the neural SRL field still lacks a systematic and full investigation on the relevance of syntactic information in SRL, for both dependency and both monolingual and multilingual settings. This paper intends to quantify the importance of syntactic information for neural SRL in the deep learning framework. We introduce three typical SRL frameworks (baselines), sequence-based, tree-based, and graph-based, which are accompanied by two categories of exploiting syntactic information: syntax pruningbased and syntax feature-based. Experiments are conducted on the CoNLL-2005, 2009, and 2012 benchmarks for all languages available, and results show that neural SRL models can still benefit from syntactic information under certain conditions. Furthermore, we show the quantitative significance of syntax to neural SRL models together with a thorough empirical survey using existing models.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (04) ◽  
pp. 701-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
LIVNAT HERZIG SHEINFUX ◽  
NURIT MELNIK ◽  
SHULY WINTNER

Existing approaches to the representation of argument structure in grammar tend to focus either on semantics or on syntax. Our goal in this paper is to strike the right balance between the two levels by proposing an analysis that maintains the independence of the syntactic and semantic aspects of argument structure, and, at the same time, captures the interplay between the two levels. Our proposal is set in the context of the development of a large-scale grammar of Modern Hebrew within the framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Consequently, an additional challenge it faces is to reconcile two conflicting desiderata: to be both linguistically coherentandrealistic in terms of the grammar engineering effort. We present a novel representation of argument structure that is fully implemented in HPSG, and demonstrate its many benefits to the coherence of our Hebrew grammar. We also highlight the additional dimensions of linguistic generalization that our proposal provides, which we believe are also applicable to grammars of other languages.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Andrew Jackson

One scenario put forward by researchers, political commentators and journalists for the collapse of North Korea has been a People’s Power (or popular) rebellion. This paper analyses why no popular rebellion has occurred in the DPRK under Kim Jong Un. It challenges the assumption that popular rebellion would happen because of widespread anger caused by a greater awareness of superior economic conditions outside the DPRK. Using Jack Goldstone’s theoretical expla-nations for the outbreak of popular rebellion, and comparisons with the 1989 Romanian and 2010–11 Tunisian transitions, this paper argues that marketi-zation has led to a loosening of state ideological control and to an influx of infor-mation about conditions in the outside world. However, unlike the Tunisian transitions—in which a new information context shaped by social media, the Al-Jazeera network and an experience of protest helped create a sense of pan-Arab solidarity amongst Tunisians resisting their government—there has been no similar ideology unifying North Koreans against their regime. There is evidence of discontent in market unrest in the DPRK, although protests between 2011 and the present have mostly been in defense of the right of people to support themselves through private trade. North Koreans believe this right has been guaranteed, or at least tacitly condoned, by the Kim Jong Un government. There has not been any large-scale explosion of popular anger because the state has not attempted to crush market activities outright under Kim Jong Un. There are other reasons why no popular rebellion has occurred in the North. Unlike Tunisia, the DPRK lacks a dissident political elite capable of leading an opposition movement, and unlike Romania, the DPRK authorities have shown some flexibility in their anti-dissent strategies, taking a more tolerant approach to protests against economic issues. Reduced levels of violence during periods of unrest and an effective system of information control may have helped restrict the expansion of unrest beyond rural areas.


Author(s):  
Marisa Abrajano ◽  
Zoltan L. Hajnal

This book provides an authoritative assessment of how immigration is reshaping American politics. Using an array of data and analysis, it shows that fears about immigration fundamentally influence white Americans' core political identities, policy preferences, and electoral choices, and that these concerns are at the heart of a large-scale defection of whites from the Democratic to the Republican Party. The book demonstrates that this political backlash has disquieting implications for the future of race relations in America. White Americans' concerns about Latinos and immigration have led to support for policies that are less generous and more punitive and that conflict with the preferences of much of the immigrant population. America's growing racial and ethnic diversity is leading to a greater racial divide in politics. As whites move to the right of the political spectrum, racial and ethnic minorities generally support the left. Racial divisions in partisanship and voting, as the book indicates, now outweigh divisions by class, age, gender, and other demographic measures. The book raises critical questions and concerns about how political beliefs and future elections will change the fate of America's immigrants and minorities, and their relationship with the rest of the nation.


Author(s):  
Aysegul Altunkeser ◽  
Zeynep Ozturk Inal ◽  
Nahide Baran

Background: Shear wave electrography (SWE) is a novel non-invasive imaging technique which demonstrate tissue elasticity. Recent research evaluating the elasticity properties of normal and pathological tissues emphasize the diagnostic importance of this technique. Aims: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which is characterized by menstrual irregularity, hyperandrogenism, and polycystic overgrowth, may cause infertility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the elasticity of ovaries in patients with PCOS using SWE. Methods: 66 patients diagnosed with PCOS according to the Rotterdam criteria (PCOS = group I) and 72 patients with non-PCOS (Control = group II), were included in the study. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants were recorded. Ovarian elasticity was assessed in all patients with SWE, and speed values were obtained from the ovaries. The elasticity of the ovaries was compared between the two groups. Results: While there were statistically significant differences between the groups in body mass index (BMI), right and left ovarian volumes, luteinizing hormone and testosterone levels (p<0.05), no significant differences were found between groups I and II in the velocity (for the right ovary 3.89±1.81 vs. 2.93±0.72, p=0.301; for the left ovary 2.88±0.65 vs. 2.95±0.80, p=0.577) and elastography (for the right ovary 36.62±17.78 vs. 36.79±14.32, p=0.3952; for the left ovary 36.56±14.15 vs. 36.26±15.10, p=0.903) values, respectively. Conclusion: We could not obtain different velocity and elastography values from the ovaries of the patients with PCOS using SWE. Therefore, further large-scale studies are needed to elucidate this issue.


2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110176
Author(s):  
Anna Sturman ◽  
Natasha Heenan

We introduce a themed collection of articles on approaches to configuring a Green New Deal as a response to the current capitalist crisis marked by ecological breakdown, economic stagnation and growing inequality. The Green New Deal is a contested political project, with pro-market, right-wing nationalist, Keynesian, democratic socialist and ecosocialist variants. Critiques of the Green New Deal include pragmatic queries as the feasibility of implementation, and theoretical challenges from the right regarding reliance on state forms and from the left regarding efforts to ameliorate capitalism. They also include concerns about technocratic bias and complaints about lack of meaningful consultation with Indigenous peoples on proposals for large-scale shifts in land use. Debates over the ideological orientation, political strategy and implementation of the Green New Deal must now account for the economic and employment impacts of COVID. JEL Codes: Q43, Q54, Q56, Q58


Author(s):  
Junshu Wang ◽  
Guoming Zhang ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Ka Zhang ◽  
Yehua Sheng

AbstractWith the rapid development of hospital informatization and Internet medical service in recent years, most hospitals have launched online hospital appointment registration systems to remove patient queues and improve the efficiency of medical services. However, most of the patients lack professional medical knowledge and have no idea of how to choose department when registering. To instruct the patients to seek medical care and register effectively, we proposed CIDRS, an intelligent self-diagnosis and department recommendation framework based on Chinese medical Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) in the cloud computing environment. We also established a Chinese BERT model (CHMBERT) trained on a large-scale Chinese medical text corpus. This model was used to optimize self-diagnosis and department recommendation tasks. To solve the limited computing power of terminals, we deployed the proposed framework in a cloud computing environment based on container and micro-service technologies. Real-world medical datasets from hospitals were used in the experiments, and results showed that the proposed model was superior to the traditional deep learning models and other pre-trained language models in terms of performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mwawi Ng'oma ◽  
Tesera Bitew ◽  
Malinda Kaiyo-Utete ◽  
Charlotte Hanlon ◽  
Simone Honikman ◽  
...  

Africa is a diverse and changing continent with a rapidly growing population, and the mental health of mothers is a key health priority. Recent studies have shown that: perinatal common mental disorders (depression and anxiety) are at least as prevalent in Africa as in high-income and other low- and middle-income regions; key risk factors include intimate partner violence, food insecurity and physical illness; and poor maternal mental health is associated with impairment of infant health and development. Psychological interventions can be integrated into routine maternal and child healthcare in the African context, although the optimal model and intensity of intervention remain unclear and are likely to vary across settings. Future priorities include: extension of research to include neglected psychiatric conditions; large-scale mixed-method studies of the causes and consequences of perinatal common mental disorders; scaling up of locally appropriate evidence-based interventions, including prevention; and advocacy for the right of all women in Africa to safe holistic maternity care.


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