Assertion Language Research Articles

‘Assertive + machine-written’ and ‘non-assertive + human-written’ just feel right: how do language assertiveness and typeface interact to impact environmental messaging persuasiveness in tourism?

The application of assertive language in environmental persuasion has produced mixed results. Besides the language content intensity such as assertiveness, this research proposes that a congruency of language content and visual presentation format such as typeface could be achieved to increase message persuasiveness of pro-environmental behaviors in the tourism domain. With three scenario-based experiments focusing on a garbage sorting initiative at a tourist attraction, a food waste reduction program in a restaurant, and an animal protection donation advocacy in a national park, respectively, the research demonstrated that matching assertive language with machine-written typeface, or non-assertive language with handwritten format, could enhance tourists’ compliance behaviors. The research also uncovered perceived fit and a subjective experience of feeling right as the underlying mechanism, and tourist involvement as a boundary condition for such a congruency effect. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Axiomatising an information flow logic based on partial equivalence relations

We present a relational program logic for reasoning about information flow properties formalised in an assertion language based on partial equivalence relations. We define and prove the soundness of the logic, a proof technique for precise, logic-based information flow properties. The logic extends Hoare logic and its unary state predicates to binary PER-based predicates for relating observationally equivalent states. A salient feature of the logic is that it is capable of reasoning about programs that test on secret data in a secure manner.

VST-A: A Foundationally Sound Annotation Verifier

Program verifiers for imperative languages such as C may be annotation-based, in which assertions and invariants are put into source files and then checked, or tactic-based, where proof scripts separate from programs are interactively developed in a proof assistant such as Coq. Annotation verifiers have been more automated and convenient, but some interactive verifiers have richer assertion languages and formal proofs of soundness. We present VST-A, an annotation verifier that uses the rich assertion language of VST, leverages the formal soundness proof of VST, but allows users to describe functional correctness proofs intuitively by inserting assertions. VST-A analyzes control flow graphs, decomposes every C function into control flow paths between assertions, and reduces program verification problems into corresponding straightline Hoare triples. Compared to existing foundational program verification tools like VST and Iris, in VST-A such decompositions and reductions can nonstructural, which makes VST-A more flexible to use. VST-A's decomposition and reduction is defined in Coq, proved sound in Coq, and computed call-by-value in Coq. The soundness proof for reduction is totally logical, independent of the complicated semantic model (and soundness proof) of VST's Hoare triple. Because of the rich assertion language, not all reduced proof goals can be automatically checked, but the system allows users to prove residual proof goals using the full power of the Coq proof assistant.

The Principle of Cooperation in Service Communication Conversations

This research aims to (1) describe the form of compliance and language function of the principle of cooperation in service communication conversations at the Muhammadiyah University of Malang Library, 2) describe violations and factors that influence the principle of cooperation in service communication conversations at the Muhammadiyah University of Malang Library. This type of research method is qualitative with a case study research approach. The research data is about the principles of cooperation in service communication conversations at the Muhammadiyah University of Malang Library. The data source comes from primary data sources in the form of dialogue text fragments in recorded service communication conversations that occurred between students and library staff at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang. The data collection technique was carried out using the note-taking method. Then, the data analysis technique is carried out by analyzing the data by reducing the data, presenting the data, and drawing conclusions. The results of the research analysis show (1) there are four forms of compliance with the maxims of cooperation principles, which include the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relevance, and the maxim of manner. There are two language functions found in compliance with these maxims, including assertive and directive language functions. The function of assertive language, namely stating, is found in the maxim of quantity and the maxim of quality, while the function of directive language, namely commanding, is found in the maxim of relevance and the maxim of manner, (2) there are two forms of violation of the maxim of the principle of cooperation which include the maxim of quantity and the maxim of relevance. There are also factors that influence the occurrence of violations of these maxims. Violations that occur in the maxim of quantity are influenced by situational factors and conditions that are being experienced. Meanwhile, violations of the maxim of relevance are influenced by the lack of known information.

Mixing Linters with GUIs: A Color Palette Design Probe.

Visualization linters are end-user facing evaluators that automatically identify potential chart issues. These spell-checker like systems offer a blend of interpretability and customization that is not found in other forms of automated assistance. However, existing linters do not model context and have primarily targeted users who do not need assistance, resulting in obvious-even annoying-advice. We investigate these issues within the domain of color palette design, which serves as a microcosm of visualization design concerns. We contribute a GUI-based color palette linter as a design probe that covers perception, accessibility, context, and other design criteria, and use it to explore visual explanations, integrated fixes, and user defined linting rules. Through a formative interview study and theory-driven analysis, we find that linters can be meaningfully integrated into graphical contexts thereby addressing many of their core issues. We discuss implications for integrating linters into visualization tools, developing improved assertion languages, and supporting end-user tunable advice-all laying the groundwork for more effective visualization linters in any context.

“You Must Try Our Taco!”: Advancing the Power of Language Assertiveness in Food Advertising

Assertive advertising messages, such as “You must try our taco!” are ubiquitous in the hospitality industry. However, the effectiveness of assertive language as a food advertising strategy is not well understood. Drawing on language expectancy theory, this research examines how language assertiveness shapes consumers’ responses to food advertisements featuring organic versus conventional food. Findings reveal that assertive (vs. nonassertive) language boosts consumers’ intentions to purchase organic food, whereas nonassertive (vs. assertive) language increases consumers’ intentions to purchase conventional food. Furthermore, our mediation analysis reveals that brand competence inference serves as the psychological mechanism underlying the impact of language assertiveness and food type on purchase intention.

한국과 중국 부모의 자녀가치 인식과 유아 발달기대 비교연구

Objectives The purpose of this study was to find out whether there is a difference between Korean and Chinese parents' perceptions of their children's value and their children's developmental expectations during early childhood in Korea and China.
 Methods The purposes of a questionnaire survey was conducted with parents of 3-5 year olds in Korean and Chinese early childhood education institutions. Frequency analysis, t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Scheffé's validation were conducted on the basis of the response data of 344 Korean parents and 535 Chinese parents, totaling 879 respondents.
 Results First, there is a significant difference between Korean and Chinese parents in the level of child value perception in terms of instrumental value and affordable value, with Chinese parents having a slightly higher perception of instrumental value and Korean parents having a higher perception of affordable value. Second, among the variables of Korean and Chinese parents' demographic backgrounds, significant differences in child value perceptions emerged in terms of parents' gender, age, and education level. Third, Korean and Chinese parents showed significant differences in the level of expectations for early childhood development in all domains except social norms. Korean parents showed the highest developmental expectations in academic ability, and Chinese parents showed the highest level of language assertiveness. Fourth, there was a significant difference between Korean and Chinese parents' socio-demographic factors in the level of expectations for early childhood development with respect to parents' gender, age, and education level. However, Korean and Chinese parents did not show any meaningful differences in the gender of their children.
 Conclusions The changes and differences in perceptions of young parents in modern Korean and Chinese societies regarding the value of their children and the level of expectations for their development. In addition, we will gain insights into the relationship between parents and children in the two countries, in order to understand the social problems related to low birth rate and early childhood development from an international perspective, and to provide basic information that will help us to find out the significance of improvement programs.

Defining Anonymity Properties of Datasets with the Compliance Assertion Language (COMPASS)

Organizations that manage Personally Identifiable Information cannot share this information directly due to legal restrictions. Meanwhile, there are several solutions that support the anonymization of these types of data to make these available to a wider audience. For these solutions, it is important that the corresponding anonymization modules guarantee legal properties. In general, due to the scale and complexity of the software, it is difficult to prove that it does not violate these properties in some cases. This article proposes a new approach that addresses this challenge. The approach provides a software component that checks the output of an anonymization module against editable legal constraints—the Privacy-Enhancing Verification Component (PE-VC). An organization can formulate these constraints separately from the software using the new Compliance Assertion Language. Because the PE-VC is a carefully developed and verified module that can be used without modification for different anonymization modules, an auditor only needs to check the specified assertions and not the software itself. This approach ensures a much higher level of confidence in the correctness of the output of an anonymization software.

Women's Patterns of Talk in The Third Wife Movie Script (Application in Family Environment)

In this study, Deborah Tannen's theory is used to explain how women talk in The Third Wife. To examine the data, a qualitative descriptive method was adopted in this study. The Third Wife script serves as the main source of data for this study. From the analysis, the researchers notified there are three ways to demonstrate the women's speaking patterns in context, notably those related to mother dynamics, connection and control, and metamessage. These are present in polygamous homes, particularly in the context of this film. Nonetheless, there is an exchange of positions in which women fill the void since the absence of a husband figure influences how they interact with one another, as the first wife. This happens because there is a special relationship that is formed between the wives which makes the pattern of talk create itself between them. The lack of a husband figure impacts how they interact with each other, as the first wife (Ha), is in control and holds the most important rank in the family, followed by the second wife (Xuan), and the last one the third wife (May). The status of the family heavily impacts the wives’ talk to each other and the style of their speech. In the family setting of this movie, women with higher status may use more assertive language and dominate conversations.

Monadic second-order incorrectness logic for GP 2

Program logics typically reason about an over-approximation of program behaviour to prove the absence of bugs. Recently, program logics have been proposed that instead prove the presence of bugs by means of under-approximate reasoning, which has the promise of better scalability. In this paper, we present an under-approximate program logic for GP 2, a rule-based programming language for manipulating graphs. We define the proof rules of this program logic extensionally, i.e. independently of fixed assertion languages, then instantiate them with a morphism-based assertion language able to specify monadic second-order properties on graphs (e.g. path properties). We show how these proof rules can be used to reason deductively about the presence of forbidden graph structure or failing executions. Finally, we prove our ‘incorrectness logic’ to be sound, and our extensional proof rules to be relatively complete.

The right touch of pitch assertiveness: Examining entrepreneurs' gender and project category fit in crowdfunding

Scholars have devoted significant attention to the role of entrepreneurs' communication, and gender in crowdfunding. Yet, how female and male entrepreneurs can effectively configure their assertive communication style and the role gender norms within project categories play in shaping crowdfunders' evaluations of entrepreneurs' communication style remains unanswered. To address this, we conduct an exploratory qualitative comparative case analysis (QCA) of 1600 entrepreneurs who pitched their ventures on Kickstarter. From prior research, we identified four distinct kinds of assertive language (certain, power, social, tentative) and explore how female and male entrepreneurs' configurations of assertive language relate to crowdfunding success and failure in male-dominated and female-dominated contexts. We found six pitch assertiveness themes, two associated with success, two associated with failure, and two where success versus failure depends on nuanced considerations of the entrepreneur's gender and the gendering of the context. Our study extends our understanding of communication and gender in crowdfunding.

When and why Language Assertiveness Affects Online Review Persuasion

Recent research suggests that not only what is said (i.e., opinions) but also how it is said (i.e., language styles) can affect persuasion. Extending this stream of work, the current research aims to understand how language assertiveness affects online review persuasion. Study 1 explores consumers’ general perceptions of assertive versus nonassertive language and opinions about their relative persuasiveness in online reviews. Study 2 utilizes an experimental design to examine the congruency effects between language assertiveness and temporal distance on consumer responses. We find that online reviews containing assertive (vs. nonassertive) language engender higher perceived review helpfulness and more favorable attitudes toward the reviewed business for consumers whose travel time is in the distant future, whereas nonassertive (vs. assertive) language is more effective for consumers whose travel time is in the near future. Furthermore, mediation analysis results suggest that psychological comfort is the underlying mechanism explaining such effects.

Eliciting positive emotion through strategic responses to COVID-19 crisis: Evidence from the tourism sector

While social media are effective means of communicating with adverse customer emotions during a crisis, it remains unclear how tourism organisations can respond to pandemic crisis on social media to prevent negative aftermaths. Using a set-theoretical approach, we investigate how COVID-19 response strategies and linguistic cues of responses are intertwined to evoke positive emotions among consumers. This study entails a qualitative content analysis of tourism organisations' COVID-19 announcements and a social media analytics approach that captures consumers’ emotional reactions to these announcements via their Twitter replies. Our results extend some well-established findings in the tourism crisis literature by suggesting that combining innovative response strategy, argument quality, and assertive language can reinforce positive emotions during the COVID-19 crisis. Taking organisational characteristics into consideration, we suggest that young established hotels utilise innovative response strategies, whereas retrenchment response strategies for all types of restaurants should be avoided during the COVID-19 crisis.

An adaptation-complete proof system for local reasoning about cloud storage systems

The rapid growth of data presents a significant challenge to the capability of traditional storage technologies to collect and manage data. Cloud storage systems (CSSs) have been proposed as a method to improve storage capacity. To safely and effectively manage cloud storage data and improve data service quality, it is necessary to verify the correctness of CSS management programs. However, the complexity of these systems renders program verification difficult. In this paper, we propose a Hoare-style proof system, in conjunction with two languages, to analyze and verify CSS management programs. The first is a modeling language that describes the program execution. The second is an assertion language based on Separation Logic (SL), used to describe the properties of the CSS file-block-location storage structure. The proof system supports modular local reasoning for CSS programs by a set of adaptation rules, which enable the condition of specifications to be applied to broader contexts. A key question that arises is whether the proof system can meet adaptation completeness. If so, arbitrary satisfiable specifications can be adjusted using the adaptation rules. To this end, we developed local predicate transformers and used their domain to interpret all types of commands. By finding the smallest local predicate transformer, we established adaptation completeness. In summary, this work provides a formalization of automatic modular reasoning patterns and lays a theoretical foundation for the compositional program verification of CSSs.

Labelled cyclic proofs for separation logic

Abstract Separation logic (SL) is a logical formalism for reasoning about programs that use pointers to mutate data structures. It is successful for program verification as an assertion language to state properties about memory heaps using Hoare triples. Most of the proof systems and verification tools for ${\textrm{SL}}$ focus on the decidable but rather restricted symbolic heaps fragment. Moreover, recent proof systems that go beyond symbolic heaps are purely syntactic or labelled systems dedicated to some fragments of ${\textrm{SL}}$ and they mainly allow either the full set of connectives, or the definition of arbitrary inductive predicates, but not both. In this work, we present a labelled proof system, called ${\textrm{G}_{\textrm{SL}}}$, that allows both the definition of cyclic proofs with arbitrary inductive predicates and the full set of SL connectives. We prove its soundness and show that we can derive in ${\textrm{G}_{\textrm{SL}}}$ the built-in rules for data structures of another non-cyclic labelled proof system and also that ${\textrm{G}_{\textrm{SL}}}$ is strictly more powerful than that system.

A logical and graphical framework for reaction systems

Reaction Systems (RSs) are a successful computational framework inspired by biological systems. A RS pairs a set of entities with a set of reactions over them. Entities can be used to enable or inhibit each reaction, and are produced by reactions. Entities can also be provided by an external context sequence to simulate in silico biological experiments. In this paper we define an extension of RSs considering nondeterministic and recursive context operators, and give an original labelled transition system (LTS) for extended RSs in the structural operational semantics (SOS) style. Thanks to extended contexts, a single LTS can now account for several biological experiments. The rich information recorded in transition labels is useful to guarantee the compositionality of SOS inference rules as well as to define an assertion language to tailor behavioural and logical equivalences on some specific properties or entities. The SOS rules have been also exploited to design a flexible prototype implementation in logic programming that allows to inspect the LTS and to extract useful information when performing experiments on a RS. Our implementation provides a rapid prototyping tool for (extensions of) RSs, with a user friendly online interface to our interpreter. A parser allows to introduce the logical formulas and the contexts using the usual comfortable concrete syntax. The user can visualise and inspect the LTS for a RS and make some analysis of its underlying computation patterns, can check if the main RS satisfies a given property and if it is equivalent to a second adversarial RS. Finally, the SOS approach is suited to drive additional enhancements of RSs.

Follow My Lead: Assertive Cheap Talk and the Gender Gap

A person’s success often depends on whether others believe what they say. Growing evidence suggests that people are less likely to believe statements made by women rather than men. We consider whether assertive cheap talk, an important and widely used tool for increasing credibility, is a mechanism for this gender gap. If women face negative returns to assertive cheap talk, then they have less access to an effective tool for increasing their credibility. We provide evidence using a laboratory experiment and an online replication, both with real stakes, in an advice-following setting. We study whether assertive cheap talk affects advice following, whether subjects discriminate based on advisor gender, and whether there are differential returns to assertive cheap talk by gender. Subjects were randomly assigned to an unseen male or female team leader who were otherwise identical and to different types of prescripted, increasingly assertive written communication from the leader. Assertive language significantly increased advice following, but we find no evidence for gender discrimination. We also find that assertive language had positive returns for both male and female leaders, despite subjects perceiving this language as more masculine. However, female subjects were still less likely to choose the self-promotional language. Thus, even in the absence of discrimination, this choice would reduce adherence to advice provided by women, generating a gender gap. Greater use of assertive language could be an effective strategy for women to increase their influence and credibility in the labor market. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.

Message assertiveness and price discount in prosocial advertising: differences between Americans and Koreans

PurposeProsocial advertisers widely use assertive messages to encourage prosocial attitudes and behaviors, but ironically, assertive messages may cause reactance. By applying cultural theories and the reciprocity principle, this study aims to observe whether consumers’ responses to assertive messages hold across culturally different audiences (Americans vs South Koreans) and different consumption situations (price discount vs no discount).Design/methodology/approachAmerican and Korean participants take part in three experimental studies examining the interactions of nationality, price discounts and assertive messaging for influencing consumer responses, first to a prosocial ad encouraging recycling (Study 1), the second for a campaign requesting donations for disadvantaged children (Study 2) and the third to prosocial messages encouraging water conservation (Study 3).FindingsThe three experiments strongly support the moderating role of price discounts and cultural backgrounds in the persuasiveness of assertive prosocial messages. American consumers generally dislike assertive messages, but feel reciprocal obligations if marketers include price discounts, whereas South Korean consumers accept both assertive and nonassertive messages without resistance, and discounts have no effects on persuasion.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings make two key contributions to the literature and to prosocial advertising practices. First, although many corporations have adopted philanthropic strategies, few researchers have examined how specific consumption contexts determine the effectiveness of prosocial persuasion. The findings show how price discounts and message framing potentially alter the effectiveness of prosocial messages across Eastern and Western cultures. Second, assertive language evokes reactance, but the findings suggest that reactive responses to prosocial advertising are culture-specific.Practical implicationsInternational nonprofit organizations and brands using philanthropic strategies might use the guidelines of this study for tailoring strategic, practical prosocial messages that will appeal to consumers from diverse cultural backgrounds. In particular, pro-environmental and charity campaigns targeting North American or Western European populations may consider bundling discounts into promotions to evoke reciprocity.Originality/valueFindings provide novel implications for social marketers regarding on how to couple message assertiveness and price discounts to maximize the success of prosocial messages in different cultures.

La deformación del lenguaje

The purpose of this article is to carry out an analysis of the triggering elements in the process of deformation and development of vices in language. Determine the influence of smartphones, social networks and the use of foreign words in its transformation. The analysis is important because it is part of the factors that reduce the development of an assertive language among young people who are currently in professional training. This research is carried out from a direct observation of case studies in order to analyze the social networks of a group of people (volunteers) to evaluate their communication processes, the development of language vices or the generation of spelling mistakes. In addition, the application of a survey to evaluate the behavior of people in the face of the elements that are considered triggers for the problem. The main contribution of the research is the approach taken to the analysis of the factors that trigger the deformation of language and its incorrect use, which allows the generation of bases on which to work future research, for the correction of the current problems generated in spelling as a result of this, and that allows to expand the knowledge about future action strategies.

A process algebraic approach to reaction systems

In the area of Natural Computing, Reaction Systems (RSs) are a qualitative abstraction inspired by the functioning of living cells, suitable to model the main mechanisms of biochemical reactions. RSs interact with a context, and pose challenges for modularity, compositionality, extendibility and behavioural equivalence. In this paper we define a modular encoding of RSs as processes in the chained Core Network Algebra (cCNA), which is a new variant of the link-calculus. The encoding represents the behaviour of each entity separately and preserves faithfully their features, and we prove its correctness and completeness. Our encoding provides a Labelled Transition System (LTS) semantics for RSs. Based on the LTS semantics, we adapt the classical notion of bisimulation to define a novel equivalence, called bio-similarity, for studying properties of RSs. In particular, we define a new assertion language based on regular expressions, which allows us to specify the properties of interest, and use it to extend Hennessy-Milner logic to our setting. We prove that our bio-similarity relation and the logical equivalence, that are defined parametrically on some assertion of interest, coincide. Finally, we claim that our encoding contributes to increase the expressiveness of RSs, by exploiting the interaction among different RSs.