Generalized Convolutions of Functions and their Application to Syntactic Analysis of Distorted Sequences

The article deals with natural language processing, namely that of an English sentence. The article describes the problems, which might arise during the process and which are connected with graphic, semantic, and syntactic ambiguity. The article provides the description of how the problems had been solved before the automatic syntactic analysis was applied and the way, such analysis methods could be helpful in developing new analysis algorithms. The analysis focuses on the issues, blocking the basis for the natural language processing — parsing — the process of sentence analysis according to their structure, content and meaning, which aims to analyze the grammatical structure of the sentence, the division of sentences into constituent components and defining links between them.

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Taking time with the tough-construction

Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s002222672100013x ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-36

Author(s):

JOHN GLUCKMAN

Keyword(s):

Movement Analysis ◽

Main Clause ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

English Syntax ◽

Insight Into ◽

The Way

I provide a syntactic analysis of the take-time construction (It took an hour to complete the test). The investigation provides insight into well-known issues concerning the related tough-construction. Using a battery of standard syntactic diagnostics, I conclude that the take-time construction and the tough-construction require a predication analysis of the antecedent-gap chain, not a movement analysis. I also conclude that the nonfinite clause is in a modificational relationship with the main clause predicate, not a selectional relationship. Broadly, this study expands the class of tough-constructions, illustrating crucial variation among predicates, and pointing the way to a unified analysis. The investigation also reveals undiscussed aspects of English syntax, including the fact that English has a high applicative position.

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Comparing ten WCAG tools for accessibility evaluation of websites

Technology and Disability ◽

10.3233/tad-210329 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Shashank Kumar ◽

Jeevitha Shree DV ◽

Pradipta Biswas

Keyword(s):

User Interaction ◽

Web Accessibility ◽

User Profile ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

Color Contrast ◽

Careful Evaluation ◽

Accessibility Issues ◽

Web Developers ◽

Compare And Contrast ◽

Common User

BACKGROUND: Web accessibility is one of the most important aspects of building a website. It is important for web developers to ensure that their website is accessible according to WCAG standards for people with different range of abilities. There is plethora of tools for ensuring conformance to WCAG standards but not many studies compared performance of automatic WCAG tools. OBJECTIVE: This paper compares a set of ten WCAG tools and their results in terms of ease of comprehension and interpretation by web developers. We proposed a Common User Profile format to help personalize contents of website making it accessible to people with different range of abilities. METHODS: We selected ten WCAG tools from World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to evaluate landing pages of two popular websites. For each webpage, we identified accessibility issues and recommended alternate suggestions to help developers improve accessibility. Further, we highlighted accessibility issues that cannot be captured only through conformance to WCAG tools; and proposed additional methods to evaluate accessibility through an Inclusive User Model. We then demonstrated how simulation of user interaction can capture usability and accessibility issues that are not detected through only syntactic analysis of websites’ content. Finally, we proposed a Common User Profile format that can be used to compare and contrast accessibility systems and services, and to simulate and personalize interaction for users with different range of abilities. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: After careful evaluation of two websites using the ten tools, we noted that, both websites lacked color contrast between background and foreground; lack of sign language alternatives; opening of pop-ups without proper warnings and so on. Further, results from comparative analysis of selected web accessibility tools noted that, there is no single tool that can be found ideal in all aspects. However, from our study, Utilitia Validator by Utilitia SP. z O.O was considered the most feasible tool. By rectifying and incorporating issues and alternate suggestions by simulation study and Common User Profile format respectively, developers can improve both websites making it accessible to maximum audience.

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The expression of number in Jamaican Creole

Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages ◽

10.1075/jpcl.26.2.05ste ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 363-385 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Michele M. Stewart

Keyword(s):

Functional Structure ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

True Number ◽

Number Of Individuals ◽

Jamaican Creole ◽

Expected Outcomes

In this paper I argue that there is no true number morphology in Jamaican Creole (JC). Instead, I show that dem, traditionally taken to be a plural marker, is more properly analyzed as a marker of inclusiveness, a defining characteristic of definiteness. These are expected outcomes of JC being in the class of languages which are claimed to have set nouns, i.e. nouns which, when combined with a numeral X, refer to an X-numbered set of individuals rather than to X number of individuals (Rijkhoff 2004). Since JC does not mark plurality in the same way as its lexifier English, individuation and number in JC cannot be analysed in the same way as is done for English. The proposal for a syntactic analysis of number in JC, given the above, is that functional structure above the NP provides for optional individuation via Cl(assifier)Phrase, and additionally for optional number specification, via Num(ber)Phrase.

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When Heuristics Clash with Parsing Routines: ERP Evidence for Conflict Monitoring in Sentence Perception

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2006.18.7.1181 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 1181-1197 ◽

Cited By ~ 129

Author(s):

Marieke van Herten ◽

Dorothee J. Chwilla ◽

Herman H. J. Kolk

Keyword(s):

Event Related Potential ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

Conflict Monitoring ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Word Meanings ◽

Late Positivity ◽

Error Related Negativity ◽

Monitoring Process ◽

Outcome Monitoring

Monitoring refers to a process of quality control designed to optimize behavioral outcome. Monitoring for action errors manifests itself in an error-related negativity in event-related potential (ERP) studies and in an increase in activity of the anterior cingulate in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Here we report evidence for a monitoring process in perception, in particular, language perception, manifesting itself in a late positivity in the ERP. This late positivity, the P600, appears to be triggered by a conflict between two interpretations, one delivered by the standard syntactic algorithm and one by a plausibility heuristic which combines individual word meanings in the most plausible way. To resolve this conflict, we propose that the brain reanalyzes the memory trace of the perceptual input to check for the possibility of a processing error. Thus, as in Experiment 1, when the reader is presented with semantically anomalous sentences such as, “The fox that shot the poacher…,” full syntactic analysis indicates a semantic anomaly, whereas the word-based heuristic leads to a plausible interpretation, that of a poacher shooting a fox. That readers actually pursue such a word-based analysis is indicated by the fact that the usual ERP index of semantic anomaly, the so-called N400 effect, was absent in this case. A P600 effect appeared instead. In Experiment 2, we found that even when the word-based heuristic indicated that only part of the sentence was plausible (e.g., “…that the elephants pruned the trees”), a P600 effect was observed and the N400 effect of semantic anomaly was absent. It thus seems that the plausibility of part of the sentence (e.g., that of pruning trees) was sufficient to create a conflict with the implausible meaning of the sentence as a whole, giving rise to a monitoring response.

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Goal, source, and route preverbs in Latin: their interaction with spatial datives

The Linguistic Review ◽

10.1515/tlr-2021-2064 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Víctor Acedo-Matellán

Keyword(s):

Spatial Relation ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

Syntactic Analysis ◽

Dative Case ◽

Configurational Theory

Abstract Prefixed verbs in Latin may take an argument in the dative case, interpreted as the ground of the spatial relation codified by the preverb. This phenomenon is constrained by the semantics of that spatial relation: while preverbs encoding a location, a goal, or a source of motion generally accept the dative argument, preverbs encoding a route do not. I propose a syntactic analysis of this phenomenon, framed within the Spanning framework. I assume an analysis of the spatial dative as an applied argument interpreted as a possessor of the final location of motion. Developing a configurational theory of spatial relations, I show how only the syntax-semantics of the preverbs interpreted as encoding a location, be this final (a goal), initial (a source), or unrelated to motion (a static location), is compatible with the projection of an Appl(icative)P integrating the dative argument. By the same token, pure route preverbs, involving a path but not a location, are correctly predicted to disallow the projection of ApplP, and hence the spatial dative.

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