scholarly journals Interlocutors’ Age Impacts Teenagers’ Online Writing Style: Accommodation in Intra- and Intergenerational Online Conversations

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Hilte ◽  
Walter Daelemans ◽  
Reinhild Vandekerckhove
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Intergenerational Communication ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Poisson Models ◽  
Conversation Partner ◽  
Intragenerational Communication ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon ◽  
Large Corpus

The present study examines how teenagers adapt their language use to that of their conversation partner (i.e., the linguistic phenomenon of accommodation) in interactions with peers (intragenerational communication) and with older interlocutors (intergenerational communication). We analyze a large corpus of Flemish teenagers’ conversations on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, which appear to be highly peer-oriented. With Poisson models, we examine whether the teenage participants adjust their writing style to older interlocutors. The same trend emerges for three sets of prototypical markers of the informal online genre: teenagers insert significantly fewer of these markers when interacting with older interlocutors, thus matching their interlocutors’ style and increasing linguistic similarity. Finally, the analyses reveal subtle differences in accommodation patterns for the distinct linguistic variables with respect to the impact of the teenagers’ sociodemographic profiles and their interlocutors’ age.

scholarly journals A Diary-Based Study of Language Use During Cognitive Decline

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 575-575
Author(s):  
Katharina Pabst ◽  
Sali Tagliamonte
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Basic Writing ◽  
Daily Diary ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Aging Research ◽  
Longitudinal Effects ◽  
Systematic Reduction ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon

Abstract Although the effects of dementia on language have been examined in a variety of ways, there is relatively little data available showing longitudinal effects. In the present study, we examined the effect of cognitive decline on an individual’s language use over time (from age 60-91) by assessing daily diary entries. We focused on a linguistic phenomenon commonly associated with diaries and other informal registers, i.e. subject omission, as in “∅ Made cranberry muffins.” Quantitative analysis revealed a drastic decline in the use of this feature, which is correlated with the stages of the individual’s cognitive decline. We argue that the patterns reflect a systematic reduction in complexity that affects a writing style based on literacy and acquired at a later stage than more basic writing. This corroborates previous findings, showing later-acquired linguistic features are disproportionately affected in cognitive decline and highlights the importance of linguistic analysis in aging research.

The role of information structure in the instantiation of objects: Evidence from Amazonian Spanish

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-245
Author(s):  
Rosa Vallejos ◽  
Evelyn Fernández-Lizárraga ◽  
Haley Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Role Of Information ◽  
Activation Status

AbstractThis study analyzes the instantiation of objects in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish (PAS) discourse in two communities with distinct linguistic contexts. We examine the impact of two social variables (gender and place) and nine linguistic variables (transitivity, animacy, definiteness, anaphora function, anaphora expression, cataphora function, cataphora expression, activation, topic persistence) on the speech of eight participants. Our findings indicate that null instantiation in PAS is pervasive, occurring with a range of verb lexemes. While neither gender nor place are significant predictors of null objects, various linguistic variables contribute to the instantiation of objects. The five significant variables as determined by a mixed model regression analysis include the following: animacy, definiteness, anaphora expression, cataphora expression, and activation status. Several findings are consistent with previous research (e. g. human and definite referents disfavor null objects), while other results differ (e. g. PAS propositions disfavor null objects). Activation status and anaphora expression are the most significant predictors of null objects in PAS. In particular, highly accessible referents in discourse and anaphoric null objects favored null objects in subsequent clauses. Thus, the results in the present study demonstrate the pivotal role of information structure in object instantiation, furthering the discussion on syntax-discourse interplay phenomena.

English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

scholarly journals Language and translation practices of Spanish-language newspapers published in the U.S. borderlands between 1808 and 1930

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Gasca Jiménez ◽  
Maira E. Álvarez ◽  
Sylvia Fernández
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Hispanic American ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Abstract This article examines the impact of the anglicizing language policies implemented after the annexation of the U.S. borderlands to the United States on language use by describing the language and translation practices of Spanish-language newspapers published in the U.S. borderlands across different sociohistorical periods from 1808 to 1930. Sixty Hispanic-American newspapers (374 issues) from 1808 to 1980 were selected for analysis. Despite aggressive anglicizing legislation that caused a societal shift of language use from Spanish into English in most borderland states after the annexation, the current study suggests that the newspapers resisted assimilation by adhering to the Spanish language in the creation of original content and in translation.

The Concept of Explanatory Adequacy

2016 ◽  
pp. 96-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Rizzi
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Parametric Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
History Of ◽  
Explanatory Adequacy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon

This chapter illustrates the technical notion of ‘explanatory adequacy’ in the context of the other forms of empirical adequacy envisaged in the history of generative grammar: an analysis of a linguistic phenomenon is said to meet ‘explanatory adequacy’ when it comes with a reasonable account of how the phenomenon is acquired by the language learner. It discusses the relevance of arguments from the poverty of the stimulus, which bear on the complexity of the task that every language learner successfully accomplishes, and therefore define critical cases for evaluating the explanatory adequacy of a linguistic analysis. After illustrating the impact that parametric models had on the possibility of achieving explanatory adequacy on a large scale, the chapter addresses the role that explanatory adequacy plays in the context of the Minimalist Program, and the interplay that the concept has with the further explanation ‘beyond explanatory adequacy’ that minimalist analysis seeks.

The Impact of Language Use and Academic Integration for International Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Michelle L. Amos ◽  
Rachel C. Plews
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
International Student ◽  
Language Use ◽  
International Study ◽  
Transformative Learning Theory ◽  
Online Activity ◽  
Culturally Based ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the prevalence of online activity and preferred language use in these tasks. A survey was administered to students enrolled at three institutions to determine the frequency of their engagement in different online tasks in addition to the language(s) that they used. This work uses Transformative Learning Theory as a lens to examine how these students use language to navigate their transition into their new roles as college students and members of new communities. Several differences were noted among the study sites, reflecting the culture of the region and the varied student populations. The authors suggest minor revisions of the measure and continued investigation with additional international study sites to broaden data and allow for specific, culturally-based suggestions for improved student support. Increases in both international student enrollment and technology use require exploration of how these students use the Internet. This work is unique addressing the need to balance student emotional support needs and their need for language acquisition.

Teenage mothers’ language use during shared reading: An examination of quantity and quality

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-74
Author(s):  
Amy Scott ◽  
Brigid McNeill ◽  
Anne van Bysterveldt
Keyword(s):  
Emergent Literacy ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Teenage Mothers ◽  
Shared Reading ◽  
Literacy Intervention ◽  
Control Comparison ◽  
Language Quality ◽  
At Risk Populations ◽  
Word Classes ◽  
The Impact

This study investigated the impact of an emergent literacy intervention on the language quality and quantity used during shared reading interactions of 14 teenage mothers (M = 19;9, SD = 1;3) and their young children (M = 2;1, SD = 0;8). Mothers participated in a seven-week emergent literacy intervention focused on a range of behaviours they could use to enhance shared reading interactions with their children. A pre-post single group (no control/comparison group) research design was used to evaluate intervention effects on language use. Results demonstrated a significant intervention effect on most aspects of language quality and quantity measured. Number of total words, total utterances and number of different words demonstrated a statistically significant increase for both mothers and children; mothers used more rare-sophisticated words; and children used more different types of word classes. Context of talk for mothers also showed significant growth in areas of description and prediction/explanation. Results provide considerations for designing parent-focused interventions to effectively target both literacy and language development in children from at-risk populations.

scholarly journals Improving Distantly Supervised Relation Extraction with Neural Noise Converter and Conditional Optimal Selector

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 7273-7280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanchan Wu ◽  
Kai Fan ◽  
Qiong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Transition Matrix ◽  
Noisy Data ◽  
Relation Extraction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Neural Noise ◽  
Distant Supervision ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Large Corpus

Distant supervised relation extraction has been successfully applied to large corpus with thousands of relations. However, the inevitable wrong labeling problem by distant supervision will hurt the performance of relation extraction. In this paper, we propose a method with neural noise converter to alleviate the impact of noisy data, and a conditional optimal selector to make proper prediction. Our noise converter learns the structured transition matrix on logit level and captures the property of distant supervised relation extraction dataset. The conditional optimal selector on the other hand helps to make proper prediction decision of an entity pair even if the group of sentences is overwhelmed by no-relation sentences. We conduct experiments on a widely used dataset and the results show significant improvement over competitive baseline methods.

Dynamicity and dialogue

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-76
Author(s):  
J. Lachlan Mackenzie
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Functional Grammar ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Communicative Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Discourse Grammar ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Static Nature

The article surveys how Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG; Hengeveld & Mackenzie 2008) has responded to Simon Dik’s call for a functional grammar to have ‘psychological adequacy’ and draws parallels to similar initiatives from other approaches. After a brief history of what has later come to be known as cognitive adequacy, the impact of psycholinguistic notions on the architecture of FDG is discussed and exemplified with emphasis on how FDG confronts the tension between the static nature of a pattern model of grammar and the dynamicity of the communicative process. The article then turns to four ways in which FDG has responded in recent years to ongoing work in psycholinguistics. The first concerns how the incrementality of language production, i.e. the gradual earlier-to-later build-up of utterances, has inspired FDG’s coverage of fragmentary discourse acts and its Depth-First Principle. The second, pertaining to the role of prediction in language comprehension, is reflected in the countdown to a clause-final position PF. The third is priming, involving the reuse of elements of structure at all levels of analysis: this interferes with the mapping of function onto form in ways that have been explored in FDG. The fourth is dialogical alignment, the manner in which participants in dialogue mutually accommodate their language use; this has led to new understandings of the respective roles of FDG’s Conceptual and Contextual Components. Taken together, these developments have moved FDG towards modelling dialoguing interactants rather than an isolated speaker.

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