scholarly journals Linguistic Feature Analyses of Chinese Learners of English and Contributions of Discrete Features to Perceptual Judgment

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Hsueh Chu Chen
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Perceptual Judgment ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Perceptual Judgments ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Positive Correlations

This study (a) conducted a feature analysis of the spoken data of Chinese university students in pronunciation, grammar, and discourse, (b) investigated the contributions of the discrete linguistic features to the perceptual ratings on foreign accent, comprehensibility, delivery, and general language use. Ten university learners were selected from the Spoken Corpus of the English of Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese learners (http://corpus.ied.edu.hk/phonetics/), in which two speakers were paired up to conduct a five minutes interview. Three-level analyses were done to investigate Chinese learners’ linguistic features. Forty listeners from four L1 language backgrounds were recruited to rate the speech samples. The results show that strongly negative correlations were found between the production and perceptual rating scores for “omission of consonant(s) in final position” “redundant article ‘the’”, “silent pauses” and “discourse markers,” suggesting that the four features can be perceived and exert strong negative influences on perceptual judgments. Pronunciation rating had the strongest positive correlations with “foreign accentedness”; grammar rating had the strongest positive correlations with “general language use”; discourse rating had the strongest positive correlations with “general delivery”, and “general language use.” Regarding the rating of comprehensibility, “misuse of conjunctions” “redundant article ‘the’”, “silent pauses”, “lengthening”, and “stressing” showed strong negative correlations whereas “filled pauses” had strong positive correlations with it. Regarding the rating of foreign accentedness, strong negative correlations were found between “omission of consonant(s) in final position”, “lengthening”, “discourse markers”, and “stressing” and the rating of “foreign accentedness”.

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.

Deutsch als schwächere Sprache bei deutsch-polnisch bilingualen Kindern: Studie zur Negation- und Verbstellung

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-297
Author(s):  
Aldona Sopata ◽  
Kamil Długosz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Use ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Development Characteristic ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
Constrained Input

AbstractThis article examines the acquisition of German as the weaker language in the cases of German-Polish bilingual children. Focusing on negation and verb position, phenomena that have frequently been taken as diagnostic when distinguishing between the course of language development characteristic for first (L1) and second language acquisition (L2), we analyse experimental and productive data from six simultaneously bilingual children. Due to the constrained input, German is their weaker language. The results in Forced Choice and Grammaticality Judgements tasks are compared with the results of monolingual children. We show that in the area of negation the acquisition of German as the weaker language resembles L1, and in the area of inversion and verb final position the development of the weaker language is delayed. The striking difference between bilinguals’ results in the experimental vs. productive tasks points to specific processing mechanisms in bilingual language use. In narrative contexts of the production tasks the language of the performance is activated, while the other is inhibited, which leads to a target-like performance. Structural properties of the stronger language tend to be activated, however, in the experimental tasks involving the weaker language, resulting in non-target-like responses.

Investigating Language Use Through Corpusbased Analyses of Association Patterns

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Association Patterns ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Empirical Approaches

The present paper argues that analyses of language use provide an important complementary perspective to traditional linguistic descriptions, and that empirical approaches are required for such investigations. Corpus-based techniques are particularly well suited to these research purposes, enabling investigation of research questions that were previously disregarded. Specifically, the paper discusses the use of corpus-based techniques to identify and analyze complex "association patterns": the systematic ways in which linguistic features are used in association with other linguistic and non-linguistic features. Several illustrative analyses are discussed, investigating the use of lexical features, grammatical features, and the overall patterns of variability among texts and registers.

scholarly journals Analysing the Nature of Meaning in Modal Auxiliary Use in Standard Six English in Nakuru County, Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-62
Author(s):  
Njuguna Jane Ngoiri
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
School Level ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Written Composition ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Mind

The objective of the study was to describe appropriateness of modal auxiliary verbs in class six written English. The study focused on the use of English modal auxiliary verbs by class six pupils from diverse language backgrounds in Kenyan primary schools. Modal auxiliary verbs are difficult as their use entails syntactic and semantic appropriateness. As such, most pupils often find themselves unable to use this complex linguistic feature in written English. In spite of this, there is no known documentation that focuses on modal auxiliary verbs among children. It is this gap that the current study sought to fill. Forty pupils were randomly selected from four primary schools in Nakuru County. Data was elicited by means of written composition and grammar exercises. Further, it was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively and presented in the form of graphs and tables. The Representational Theory of The Mind was used to explain the research findings. The findings revealed that modal auxiliary verbs are indeed difficult and their appropriate use present difficulties in pupils' written work. It was therefore recommended that learning of English should be meaningful. In order to enrich pupil's mental representations pupils should be exposed to a linguistically rich environment to enhance acquisition and learning. It is hoped that these findings will be of benefit to school stakeholders in ensuring that appropriate learning environment is created for pupils. Additionally, it could be a reference for researchers interested in language use at the school level.

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.

scholarly journals Colors and Handles: How Action Primes Perception

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello Costantini ◽  
Davide Quarona ◽  
Corrado Sinigaglia
Keyword(s):  
Priming Effect ◽  
Perceptual Judgment ◽  
Motor Training ◽  
Perceptual Judgments ◽  
Object Features

How deeply does action influence perception? Does action performance affect the perception of object features directly related to action only? Or does it concern also object features such as colors, which are not held to directly afford action? The present study aimed at answering these questions. We asked participants to repeatedly grasp a handled mug hidden from their view before judging whether a visually presented mug was blue rather than cyan. The motor training impacted on their perceptual judgments, by speeding participants’ responses, when the handle of the presented mug was spatially aligned with the trained hand. The priming effect did not occur when participants were trained to merely touch the mug with their hand closed in a fist. This indicates that action performance may shape the perceptual judgment on object features, even when these features are colors and do not afford any action. How we act on surrounding objects is therefore not without consequence for how we experience them.

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