Added Alternatives in Spoken Interaction: A Corpus Study on German Auch

Particles such as German auch (‘also’) establish an additive relation between expressions in their scope (added constituent, AC) and context alternatives against the background of shared information (common denominator). In spoken interaction, however, explicit alternatives are not necessarily present and expressions can be construed as alternatives against different variants of a common denominator. It is the aim of the present paper to investigate to what extent the presence of alternatives influences the construction of utterances containing an additive particle. This is particularly relevant for German, where speakers can choose between an unstressed and stressed version of auch. We ask whether properties of the alternatives and their common denominators influence the choice to use stressed or unstressed auch. In a corpus study on spoken language, we classified the versions of auch, the particles AC, the alternatives in the preceding context and their common denominator. The results show that the speaker’s choice is influenced by the relation of the utterance to context alternatives. Specifically, the degree of explicitness of alternatives, the number of alternatives, and the degree of abstractness of the common denominator influence the continuation of the discourse, measured by the preference for one of the two variants of the particle auch.

Semantic relations and prosodic features of ranhou in spontaneous Mandarin conversation

Ranhou ‘then’ is traditionally defined as a conjunction, indicating succession of two events. Adopting the methodology of Interactional Linguistics, this study explores semantic relations of ranhou in Mandarin face-to-face and telephone conversations. An examination of the data shows that besides succession, ranhou can express other nine semantic relations, including causality, progression relation, coordinating relation, adversative relation, additive relation, enumeration, hypothesis, alternative relation, concession and be no practical meaning as well. Meanwhile, prosodic features of ranhou are explored with the help of software Praat and Audacity. It is suggested that eleven semantic relations vary in mean pitch range and mean length. Although each token of ranhou differs from each other in prosody, with respect to loudness, ranhou can be stressed on ran, or hou and also be articulated without loudness. But in a whole, loudness of ranhou is mostly put on hou.

Coherence relations across speech and sign language

This paper provides the first contrastive analysis of a coherence relation (viz. addition) and its connectives across a sign language (French Belgian Sign Language) and a spoken language (French), both used in the same geographical area. The analysis examines the frequency and types of connectives that can express an additive relation, in order to contrast its “markedness” in the two languages, that is, whether addition is marked by dedicated connectives or by ambiguous, polyfunctional ones. Furthermore, we investigate the functions of the most frequent additive connective in each language (namely et and the sign SAME), starting from the observation that most connectives are highly polyfunctional. This analysis intends to show which functions are compatible with the meaning of addition in spoken and signed discourse. Despite a common core of shared discourse functions, the equivalence between et and SAME is only partial and relates to a difference in their semantics.

An Analysis of Conjunctive Relations Found on Oprah Winfrey’s Speech at Spelman University

This study is focused on the Conjunctive Relations found in Oprah Winfrey's speech. In this case, conjunctive relations were analyzed through how Oprah Winfrey realized them. The objectives of this study were (1) to find out types of conjunctive relations found on Oprah Winfrey's speech (2) to find out the dominant type of conjunctive relations found on Oprah Winfrey's speech and what is that mean. To reach those two objectives, the writer used both Halliday and J. R. Martin's theory. There are two categories of conjunction namely external and internal conjunction. Later on, those two categories classified themselves into four types of relations namely additive relation, adversative relation, causal relation, and temporal relation. This study used qualitative design because it is framed in terms of using words instead of numbers. The result showed that there were 106 clauses with conjunctions in Oprah's speech. The internal conjunction found were about 52 clauses, while the external conjunction found were about 16 clauses. Both external and internal conjunction was dominated by the causal relation. The causal relation indicated that Oprah Winfrey used a lot of reasoning because causal relations made her able to convince the audience to believe with her statements. Furthermore, causal relation made her speech seems natural, influential, and emotionally convincing to the hearer.

An Analysis of Conjunctive Relations Found on Oprah Winfrey’s Speech at Spelman University

This study is focused on the Conjunctive Relations found in Oprah Winfrey's speech. In this case, conjunctive relations were analyzed through how Oprah Winfrey realized them. The objectives of this study were (1) to find out types of conjunctive relations found on Oprah Winfrey's speech (2) to find out the dominant type of conjunctive relations found on Oprah Winfrey's speech and what is that mean. To reach those two objectives, the writer used both Halliday and J. R. Martin's theory. There are two categories of conjunction namely external and internal conjunction. Later on, those two categories classified themselves into four types of relations namely additive relation, adversative relation, causal relation, and temporal relation. This study used qualitative design because it is framed in terms of using words instead of numbers. The result showed that there were 106 clauses with conjunctions in Oprah's speech. The internal conjunction found were about 52 clauses, while the external conjunction found were about 16 clauses. Both external and internal conjunction was dominated by the causal relation. The causal relation indicated that Oprah Winfrey used a lot of reasoning because causal relations made her able to convince the audience to believe with her statements. Furthermore, causal relation made her speech seems natural, influential, and emotionally convincing to the hearer.

Distribution of additive relation word problems in South African early grade Mathematics workbooks

Background: Workbooks were introduced by the South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) in 2011. Although the workbooks were designed as supplementary materials, in some schools they are used as the sole teaching text. Therefore, an analysis of the content coverage of the workbooks is warranted. This article provides such an analysis in terms of additive relation word problems.Aim: This article aims firstly to expound on the existing literature to propose a comprehensive additive relation word problem typology and secondly to analyse the prevalence of particular word problem types in the foundation phase Mathematics workbooks.Setting: This research was conducted in South Africa, focusing on additive relation word problems in foundation phase Mathematics workbooks.Methods: A comprehensive typology of additive relation word problem types was developed based on typologies used in previous studies. All the additive relation word problems in the 2017 Grades 1–3 foundation phase Mathematics workbooks were categorised according to this typology.Results: In total there were 61 single-step additive relation word problems with numerical answers across the three grades. This is a small number in comparison to other countries. There was also an uneven distribution of problem types, with more problems in the easier subcategories and fewer or no problems in the more difficult subcategories.Conclusion: This article provides evidence for the need to revise the word problems in the DBE workbooks. It also provides a theoretical framework to use in the revision of the workbooks and in any supplementary teaching material developed for teachers.

Weaving in connections: Studying changes in early grades additive relations teaching

In this article, we present aspects of teaching that draw attention to connections – both within and between examples – in order to explore the potential objects of learning that are brought into being in the classroom space and thus what is made available to learn. Our focus is on exploring differences in teaching over time, in the context of learning study style development activity of additive relation problems in three Grade 3 classes in South Africa. In a context where highly-localised and fragmented instruction has been noted, this study reports on the nature and extent of changes in connections in instruction over time. The application of a coding framework focused on simultaneity and connections in teaching points to a richer range of structural relationships within examples, and more connecting work between examples in the second year in comparison to the first year.

Does the model of additive effect in placebo research still hold true? A narrative review

Personalised and contextualised care has been turned into a major demand by people involved in healthcare suggesting to move toward person-centred medicine. The assessment of person-centred medicine can be most effectively achieved if treatments are investigated using ‘with versus without’ person-centredness or integrative study designs. However, this assumes that the components of an integrative or person-centred intervention have an additive relationship to produce the total effect. Beecher’s model of additivity assumes an additive relation between placebo and drug effects and is thus presenting an arithmetic summation. So far, no review has been carried out assessing the validity of the additive model, which is to be questioned and more closely investigated in this review. Initial searches for primary studies were undertaken in July 2016 using Pubmed and Google Scholar. In order to find matching publications of similar magnitude for the comparison part of this review, corresponding matches for all included reviews were sought. A total of 22 reviews and 3 clinical and experimental studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The results pointed to the following factors actively questioning the additive model: interactions of various effects, trial design, conditioning, context effects and factors, neurobiological factors, mechanism of action, statistical factors, intervention-specific factors (alcohol, caffeine), side-effects and type of intervention. All but one of the closely assessed publications was questioning the additive model. A closer examination of study design is necessary. An attempt in a more systematic approach geared towards solutions could be a suggestion for future research in this field.

Yields of perennial grasses in the summer and at the end of the growing season

The paper deals with the yields of Festulolium, Dactylis glomerata, Arrhenatherum elatius and Festulolium-Dactylis glomerata mixture during the growing season and at the end of the growing season. The yields were assessed in the Bohemian-Moravian upland at 560 m a.s.l. A small-plot experiment was established in three repetitions. The assessment was made in three subsequent years. The experiment was annually fertilized with 50 kg . ha−1 N, 30 kg . ha−1 P and 60 kg . ha−1 K. Evaluated were dry matter yields and RYT values (Relative Yield Total) in the mixture of Festulolium and Dactylis glomerata. In summer, the sward was used either for one cut (harvest in early June) or two cuts (harvests in early June and late July). At the end of the growing season, the stand was harvested in October or in November or in December. Yields of the first cut in early June ranged from 5.90 to 9.12 t . ha−1. Yields of the second cut in late July ranged from 1.05 to 4.60 t . ha−1. Statistic difference between the species was significant (P < 0.05) in the respective cuts. Total yields of dry matter in the growing season ranged from 7.51 to 10.05 t . ha−1. Number of cuts and year showed a statistically highly significant influence (P < 0.01) on DM yields. The mixture of Festulolium and Dactylis glomerata exhibited an additive relation (RYT = 1) in the first cut and an antagonistic relation (RYT < 1) in the second cut. At the end of the growing season, the yields ranged from 0.71 to 2.27 t . ha−1. Average yields of one-cut swards (harvested in summer in early June) were at the end of the growing season 2.27 t . ha−1 and average yields of two-cut swards (harvested in summer in early June and late July) were 0.79 t . ha−1. From October to December, the yields were decreasing from 1.78 to 1.32 t . ha−1. Species, number of cuts in summer, harvest date at the end of the growing season and year showed a statistically highly significant influence (P < 0.01) on dry matter yields. In the first two production years, the mixture of Festulolium and Dactylis glomerata exhi­bi­ted an antagonistic relation (RYT < 1) at the end of the growing season. In the third production year, the relation between Festulolium and Dactylis glomerata as expressed by the RYT value could be identified as synergic (RYT > 1).