scholarly journals Exploring the effects of phrase-final lengthening in Italian Sign Language (LIS) noun phrases

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-273
Author(s):  
Lara Mantovan

Phrase-final lengthening is a quite common prosodic phenomenon, previously accounted for in several spoken and signed languages. This study aims at investigating the prosodic cues produced in correspondence with the final boundary of noun phrases in Italian Sign Language (LIS), analyzing corpus data from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The quantitative analysis confirms that noun phrases in LIS are affected by phrase-final lengthening (i.e. in noun phrases including one nominal modifier, on average, postnominal modifiers are longer than prenominal ones) and reveals that the various modifier classes show different degrees of sensitivity to this phenomenon. Building on these results, the qualitative analysis explores in detail those modifier classes that show lengthening effects in the corpus: the main consequences in the phonological makeup of signs are insertion of movement repetition, prolonged path movement, final hold accompanied by head nod, and weak prop. The study also offers possible explanations for the fact that quantifiers, ordinals, and determinerlike pointing signs are less sensitive to lengthening effects in the phrase-final boundary, suggesting that particular morphosyntactic factors may come into play.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------EXPLORANDO OS EFEITOS DO ALONGAMENTO EM FINAL EM SINTAGMAS NOMINAIS DA LÍNGUA DE SINAIS ITALIANA (LIS)O alongamento final é um fenômeno prosódico comum, que já foi observado em diversas línguas orais e de sinais. Este estudo tem por objetivo investigar as pistas prosódicas produzidas em correspondência com os limites do sintagma nominal na língua de sinais italiana (LIS), analisando dados quantitativos e qualitativos oriundos de corpus. A análise quantitativa confirma que os sintagmas nominais em LIS são afetados pelo alongamento final (ex: em sintagmas nominais que incluem um modificador nominal, em média, modificadores pós-nominais são mais longos em comparação com os pré-nominais) e revela que as várias classes de modificadores exibem diferentes graus de sensitividade a este fenômeno. A partir dos resultados, a análise qualitativa explora em detalhes as classes de modificadores que demonstram os efeitos do alongamento no corpus: as principais consequências para a constituição fonológica dos sinais são a adição de uma repetição do movimento, um prolongamento da trajetória do movimento, suspensão final acompanhada por um aceno de cabeça e a sustentação fraca do sinal. O estudo traz também possíveis explicações para o fato de que os sinais quantificadores, ordinais e as apontações com função de determinante são menos sensíveis aos efeitos de alongamento nos limites fronteiriços entre os sintagmas, sugerindo que alguns fatores específicos de ordem morfossintática possam estar também em jogo.---Original em inglês.

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sáfár ◽  
Vadim Kimmelman

In this paper, we provide a quantitative analysis of weak hand holds based on corpus data. We include both a cross-linguistic analysis of these holds in narrative data from Russian Sign Language (RSL) and Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), and a language-internal, cross-genre analysis comparing NGT narrative and conversational data. We classified the functions of all holds found in two corpora of RSL and NGT, and analyzed their formal characteristics. We found that holds in RSL and NGT have similar functions. However, holds are significantly more frequent in RSL than in NGT. In addition, we found that the distribution of holds across different functions varies between different genres in NGT. The similarities between RSL and NGT in the domain of holds may be attributed to modality effects. The differences in frequency of holds ask for a language-specific explanation, and we discuss several possible scenarios.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1602
Author(s):  
Ya-Ping Guo ◽  
Hong Yang ◽  
Ya-Li Wang ◽  
Xiao-Xiang Chen ◽  
Ke Zhang ◽  
...  

Crataegi folium have been used as medicinal and food materials worldwide due to its pharmacological activities. Although the leaves of Crataegus songorica (CS), Crataegus altaica (CA) and Crataegus kansuensis (CK) have rich resources in Xinjiang, China, they can not provide insights into edible and medicinal aspects. Few reports are available on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of flavonoids compounds of their leaves. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient methods to determine qualitative and quantitative flavonoids compounds in leaves of CS, CA and CK. In the study, 28 unique compounds were identified in CS versus CK by qualitative analysis. The validated quantitative method was employed to determine the content of eight flavonoids of the leaves of CS, CA and CK within 6 min. The total content of eight flavonoids was 7.8–15.1 mg/g, 0.1–9.1 mg/g and 4.8–10.7 mg/g in the leaves of CS, CA and CK respectively. Besides, the best harvesting periods of the three species were from 17th to 26th September for CS, from 30th September to 15th October for CA and CK. The validated and time-saving method was successfully implemented for the analysis of the content of eight flavonoids compounds in CS, CA and CK for the first time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 666-689
Author(s):  
Carl Börstell ◽  
Tommi Jantunen ◽  
Vadim Kimmelman ◽  
Vanja de Lint ◽  
Johanna Mesch ◽  
...  

AbstractWe investigate transitivity prominence of verbs across signed and spoken languages, based on data from both valency dictionaries and corpora. Our methodology relies on the assumption that dictionary data and corpus-based measures of transitivity are comparable, and we find evidence in support of this through the direct comparison of these two types of data across several spoken languages. For the signed modality, we measure the transitivity prominence of verbs in five sign languages based on corpus data and compare the results to the transitivity prominence hierarchy for spoken languages reported in Haspelmath (2015). For each sign language, we create a hierarchy for 12 verb meanings based on the proportion of overt direct objects per verb meaning. We use these hierarchies to calculate correlations between languages – both signed and spoken – and find positive correlations between transitivity hierarchies. Additional findings of this study include the observation that locative arguments seem to behave differently than direct objects judging by our measures of transitivity, and that relatedness among sign languages does not straightforwardly imply similarity in transitivity hierarchies. We conclude that our findings provide support for a modality-independent, semantic basis of transitivity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Cristina Biguetti ◽  
Joel Ferreira Santiago Junior ◽  
Matthew William Fiedler ◽  
Mauro Toledo Marrelli ◽  
Marco Brotto

AbstractThe aim of this systematic review was to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis on the toxic effects of chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on skeletal muscles. We designed the study according to PRISMA guidelines. Studies for qualitative and quantitative analyses were selected according to the following inclusion criteria: English language; size of sample (> 5 patients), adult (> age of 18) patients, treated with CQ/HCQ for inflammatory diseases, and presenting and not presenting with toxic effects on skeletal muscles. We collected data published from 1990 to April 2020 using PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and SciELO. Risk of bias for observational studies was assessed regarding the ROBIN-I scale. Studies with less than five patients (case reports) were selected for an additional qualitative analysis. We used the software Comprehensive Meta-Analysis at the confidence level of 0.05. We identified 23 studies for qualitative analysis (17 case-reports), and five studies were eligible for quantitative analysis. From case reports, 21 patients presented muscle weakness and confirmatory biopsy for CQ/HCQ induced myopathy. From observational studies, 37 patients out of 1,367 patients from five studies presented muscle weakness related to the use of CQ/HCQ, and 252 patients presented elevated levels of muscle enzymes (aldolase, creatine phosphokinase, and lactate dehydrogenase). Four studies presented data on 34 patients with confirmatory biopsy for drug-induced myopathy. No study presented randomized samples. The chronic use of CQ/HCQ may be a risk for drug-induced myopathy. There is substantiated need for proper randomized trials and controlled prospective studies needed to assess the clinical and subclinical stages of CQ/HCQ -induced muscle myopathy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Velia Cardin ◽  
Eleni Orfanidou ◽  
Lena Kästner ◽  
Jerker Rönnberg ◽  
Bencie Woll ◽  
...  

The study of signed languages allows the dissociation of sensorimotor and cognitive neural components of the language signal. Here we investigated the neurocognitive processes underlying the monitoring of two phonological parameters of sign languages: handshape and location. Our goal was to determine if brain regions processing sensorimotor characteristics of different phonological parameters of sign languages were also involved in phonological processing, with their activity being modulated by the linguistic content of manual actions. We conducted an fMRI experiment using manual actions varying in phonological structure and semantics: (1) signs of a familiar sign language (British Sign Language), (2) signs of an unfamiliar sign language (Swedish Sign Language), and (3) invented nonsigns that violate the phonological rules of British Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language or consist of nonoccurring combinations of phonological parameters. Three groups of participants were tested: deaf native signers, deaf nonsigners, and hearing nonsigners. Results show that the linguistic processing of different phonological parameters of sign language is independent of the sensorimotor characteristics of the language signal. Handshape and location were processed by different perceptual and task-related brain networks but recruited the same language areas. The semantic content of the stimuli did not influence this process, but phonological structure did, with nonsigns being associated with longer RTs and stronger activations in an action observation network in all participants and in the supramarginal gyrus exclusively in deaf signers. These results suggest higher processing demands for stimuli that contravene the phonological rules of a signed language, independently of previous knowledge of signed languages. We suggest that the phonological characteristics of a language may arise as a consequence of more efficient neural processing for its perception and production.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-97
Author(s):  
Sema Üstün Külünk

Retranslations of the Qur’an constitute an intriguing site of research with particular premises governing their production, dissemination and/or reception in Turkey. Its inherently religion-oriented context is accompanied by discussions on the sacred status of the source text, arguments on its untranslatability, translatorial human agency vis-à-vis the Holy creator, acknowledged Arabicity of the source text, etc. In this regard, each new translation of the Qur’an in Turkish is released with a motivation to justify its necessity amid abundant retranslations available in the target repertoire. Various approaches towards the conceptualization and instrumentalization of these Qur’anic translations create a meta-narrative on its own right. This study aims at exploring this particular discourse on the retranslations of the Qur’an with a bi-faceted study design composed of quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative analysis focuses on the numeric changes of Qur’anic retranslations in respective decades, whereas the qualitative analysis concentrates on the statements of the translatorial agents on the motives behind their translational production. By shedding light on the discursive narrative postulated upon these retranslations, it is claimed that social, political, cultural and financial concerns have prevailingly governed the reproductions of this canonical work in Turkey. Keywords: Qur’an translation, religious-text translation, retranslation, discourse analysis.  


2017 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Erika Jasionytė-Mikučionienė ◽  
Jolanta Šinkūnienė

The focus of the paper is on the frequency, distribution patterns and semantic profile of the necessitive impersonal reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in old and contemporary Lithuanian texts. The study employs corpus based quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the patterns of use of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in the Database of Old Writings (16th-17th centuries) as well as the fiction sub-corpus of the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language and the humanities and biomedical sciences sub-corpora of the Corpus of Academic Lithuanian (CorALit). The study follows van der Auwera and Plungian’s (1998) modality framework. The quantitative analysis shows that the present tense form reikia ‘need.PRS.3’ is the dominating one across all the sub-corpora analysed. The results of the qualitative study indicate that the deontic sub-type of participant external modality is prevailing in the old Lithuanian texts as well as in the fiction sub-corpus and in the biomedical sciences texts of the contemporary Lithuanian. The discourse of the humanities displays a fairly frequent employment of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ for discourse organising functions alongside the deontic uses. Although the usage patterns of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in the biomedical sciences and the humanities share certain common features, they also point to discipline specific trends of argumentation. It is also important to observe that the objective deontic reik(ė)ti ‘need’ seems to gradually acquire the features of subjective deontic modality over time, which corresponds to the typical subjectification cline (cf. Traugott 1989).


Author(s):  
Geilson Rodrigues Da Silva ◽  
Talina Meirely Nery Dos Santos ◽  
Griscele Souza De Jesus ◽  
Lucas Pereira Gandra

Resumo: A Química é uma Ciência com poucos sinais específicos em Língua Brasileira de Sinais para o ensino de pessoas com surdez. Essa barreira de linguagem pode ocasionar obstáculos de aprendizagem aos estudantes surdos. Sendo assim, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivos catalogar verbetes e criar sinais para a utilização em aulas práticas de Química. Para coleta de dados foram levantados os termos na literatura no dicionário ilustrado trilíngue que possuíssem relações com a disciplina de Química, ao qual foram categorizados a partir da Análise de Conteúdo, em função do seu emprego e utilização. Realizou-se a análise quantitativa dos termos mais presentes em roteiros de aulas experimentais, usadas na disciplina de Química Geral e Experimental Ida Licenciatura em Química do IFMS campus Coxim. Sendo elaborados quatro sinais de instrumentos do laboratório de Química que apresentam potencial para serem utilizados em práticas bilíngues, no ensino superior e médio.Palavras-chave: Educação Bilíngue; Formação de Conceitos Científicos; Práticas Experimentais. Experimentation in chemical education: elaboration signals in libras for laboratory practicesAbstract: Chemistry is a Science with few specific signs in Brazilian Sign Language for teaching deaf people. This language barrier can lead to learning obstacles for deaf students. Thus, the present research had as objectives to catalog entries and to create signals for the use in practical classes of Chemistry. In order to collect data, the terms in the literature in the trilingual illustrated dictionary that had relations with the discipline of Chemistry were categorized from the Content Analysis, according to their use and use. A quantitative analysis of the most present terms was carried out in experimental classes, used in the General Chemistry and Experimental I subject of the Chemistry Degree of the IFMS campus Coxim. Four signs of chemistry laboratory instruments are being developed, which have the potential to be used in bilingual practices in higher and secondary education.Keywords: Bilingual Education; Formation of Scientific Concepts; Experimental Practices. 


Author(s):  
Sylvie Doré

The goal of this pre-study was to prescribe a solution to a perceived decrease in student engagement in an elective course on additive manufacturing. The objectives were to:identify in what activities the students are engaging; identify causes for lack of engagement in their studies, if any;identify possible changes to the additive manufacturing course.A mixed (quantitative and qualitative) triangulation interpretivist approach was used to address the first two objectives. Approximately half (1/2) the students stated that their studies was not their priority, two thirds (2/3) reported that they attended university primarily to earn a diploma rather than to learn and again two thirds (2/3) said that they had difficulty concentrating, signs that most students are not fully engaged in learning. The qualitative analysis provided insight and nuance to the quantitative analysis. It made it possible to identify sources for lack of engagement. Apart from the presence of electronic devices which distract attention, teaching methods, course content and evaluation modalities were often cited. Based on the findings, three changes are suggested to the course


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