Linguistic Categories Research Articles

Dialect classification using acoustic and linguistic features in Arabic speech

<span lang="EN-US">Speech dialects refer to linguistic and pronunciation variations in the speech of the same language. Automatic dialect classification requires considerable acoustic and linguistic differences between different dialect categories of speech. This paper proposes a classification model composed of a combination of classifiers for the Arabic dialects by utilizing both the acoustic and linguistic features of spontaneous speech. The acoustic classification comprises of an ensemble of classifiers focusing on different frequency ranges within the short-term spectral features, as well as a classifier utilizing the ‘i-vector’, whilst the linguistic classifiers use features extracted by transformer models pre-trained on large Arabic text datasets. It has been shown that the proposed fusion of multiple classifiers achieves a classification accuracy of 82.44% for the identification task of five Arabic dialects. This represents the highest accuracy reported on the dataset, despite the relative simplicity of the proposed model, and has shown its applicability and relevance for dialect identification tasks. </span>

Evidential meanings in native and learner Japanese and English

Abstract Evidentiality is a linguistic category that comprises forms and meanings related to the source of information in utterances, the use of which may impact judgments about the degree of certainty expressed by a speaker. The main dichotomy is first-hand (direct) vs. second-hand (indirect) evidence. This distinction is grammaticalised in Japanese only, though certain related meanings can be expressed in English lexically or constructionally. The relevant forms in both languages also function as indirectness-for-politeness markers. We used a judgments elicitation task and found that statements with Japanese evidentials (both first- and second-hand) and with English markers of uncertainty lead to judgments of lower certainty than the statements without the evidential forms and meanings for the majority, but not for all speakers. In addition, monolingual and bilingual usage in both languages has parallels such that these two typologically distinct languages appear closer and certainty judgments by their speakers similar.

Linguistic Inference Framing: A Linguistic Category Approach to Framing Crisis

ABSTRACT This study proposes Linguistic Inference Framing, a linguistic category approach to framing, which can be used to understand the effects of implicit inference language frames on audience perceptions. Study 1, a 2 (language inference frame: low vs. high) x 2 (replication) experiment, demonstrated that high inference language frame leads to higher attribution perceptions in a corporate crisis. Study 2, a 2 (language inference frame: low vs. high) x 3 (social identity: out-group vs. in-group vs. control) experiment in a political crisis, found main effects of high inference (vs. low) language frame and of social identity on higher attribution, future crisis occurrence and unethical perceptions.

Introduction: the crosslinguistic application of grammatical categories in the history of linguistics

ABSTRACT In the present introduction, I aim to provide some general context for the case studies in this special issue by introducing some recent developments in linguistics that inspired them (in particular the Haspelmath – Newmeyer debate) and by roughly sketching tendencies in the long history of linguistic description. I argue that the crosslinguistic application of linguistic categories is an old phenomenon, going back two millennia, that offers an entire array of research opportunities. This introduction also surveys the papers in the special issue, embedded in the aforementioned historical sketch, and the principal questions to which they offer some first tentative answers. I lay particular emphasis on the interplay between linguistic historiography and linguistics, advocating the view that conceptual-historical criticism should be part and parcel of the linguist’s modus operandi.

ERGONOMICS AS A BRANCH OF ONOMASTICS

This article is devoted to the linguistic research and classification of ergonims in the Uzbek language. The article talks about the term ergonim and the scientific name ergonimics based on it, the classification of onomastic units, the place, description and classification of the micro-scale of ergonims, the analysis of research conducted in the field in world linguistics.

Detecting Narcissism From Older Adults' Daily Language Use: A Machine Learning Approach.

Narcissism has been associated with poorer quality social connections in late life, yet less is known about how narcissism is associated with older adults' daily social interactions. This study explored the associations between narcissism and older adults' language use throughout the day. Participants aged 65-89 (N = 281) wore electronically activated recorders which captured ambient sound for 30 s every 7 min across 5-6 days. Participants also completed the Narcissism Personality Inventory-16 scale. We used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count to extract 81 linguistic features from sound snippets and applied a supervised machine learning algorithm (random forest) to evaluate the strength of links between narcissism and each linguistic feature. The random forest model showed that the top 5 linguistic categories that displayed the strongest associations with narcissism were first-person plural pronouns (e.g., we), words related to achievement (e.g., win, success), to work (e.g., hiring, office), to sex (e.g., erotic, condom), and that signal desired state (e.g., want, need). Narcissism may be demonstrated in everyday life via word use in conversation. More narcissistic individuals may have poorer quality social connections because their communication conveys an emphasis on self and achievement rather than affiliation or topics of interest to the other party.

Inside the treaty interpreter’s mind: An experimental linguistic approach to international law

AbstractOne particularly intense critical debate over interpretation in international law concerns the role of moral factors – specifically, the degree to which such factors influence legal interpretation, and how the law should deal with them. A formalist approach argues that moral considerations should be excluded as non-legal; a critical legal studies approach suggests they are an inevitable part of the functioning of international law and must therefore be acknowledged; and an inclusivist approach would suggest their influence is permissible, albeit only under certain circumstances. In this article, we are concerned with the question of whether moral factors influence interpretation at all, taking international treaties as the object of study. To address this question, we take a novel approach, proposing an experimental linguistic framework to test whether linguistic categorizations (originally developed for the analysis of everyday language) can be successfully applied to treaty interpretation, relying on both laypersons and experts as participants. Although some caveats must be made, the experiments deliver clear results: both groups are influenced by morals in their interpretation of international treaty norms. On this basis, we draw conclusions regarding (i) how the process of interpretation of international law operates; and (ii) what the institutions managing that process, such as courts, should factor-in when deliberating their decisions. By adopting this novel perspective, we also contribute to linguistic and experimental approaches to international law at the methodological level.

Мотивированность языка как проявление тенденциозности когниции (на примере знаков для номинации результата депозиционирования объекта в паре языков «русский-китайский»)

Introduction. The article demonstrates the logical vulnerability of the opinion that ‘language categorizes the world in different ways’, and considers the existing idea of language motivation as interrelation and interdependence of various phenomena — and as proof of inseparability of the cognizer, what can/is to be cognized, and what has been cognized. Goals. Based on the fact that the common beginning of cognition for various linguistic collectives is neither some objective external world nor the inner world of a person, but rather the presence of the cognitive ability inherent in all humankind, the work articulates and tests a hypothesis that cognitive bias be a predetermining factor of linguistic categorization and incomplete interlanguage equivalence. Materials and methods. The paper provides comparative insights into groups of situations involving the use of signs denoting a result of an object’s position shift in Russian and Chinese. The main research method is deduction. Results. The non-equivalence of the considered signs from the two languages is predetermined by that Russian is characterized by the strategy of a person who ACTS and concentrates directly on the dynamics of his/her movement. The signs associated with the preliminary assessment of the initial arrangement of objects and the selection of an appropriate direction of movement become significant. Chinese is dominated by the strategy of a person who OBSERVES, which includes the latter’s own position in the coordinate system and shows much more interest in the relocated object’s position to the subject proper. The two strategies can be sometimes compatible and sometimes contradictory. Accordingly, there is both a zone of conditional equivalence and a zone of lacunarity for the examined signs. Conclusions. The paper shows that language categorizes no world independent of a person but rather — the person’s experience from interacting with the environment. And since at the moment of interaction with the environment a person necessarily performs a certain role, cognitive bias proves inevitable. Awareness of the features underlying linguistic categorization depends on the role of the individual in this interaction.

Linguistic and emotional responses evoked by pseudoword presentation: An EEG and behavioral study

When the semantic properties of words are turned off, such as in pseudowords, the grammatical properties of the stimuli indicated through suffixes may provide cues to the meaning. The application of electroencephalography (EEG), combined with the pseudoword paradigm, allows for evaluating the effects of verbs and nouns as linguistic categories within the time course of processing. To contribute to the ongoing discussion regarding the functional processing of words from different grammatical classes, we conducted an EEG experiment, followed by a behavioral lexical decision task (LDT). The EEG and LDT indicated different neural and behavioral reactions to the presented grammar classes, allowing for a deeper understanding of the neuro- and psycholinguistic dimensions of grammar.

Taboo Language as a Means of the Category of Impoliteness
 in the English Language

The article considers means of the linguistic category of impoliteness, and the research is based on the pragmatic approach in linguistics. Impoliteness is associated with the so-called communicative sabotage, behavior violating communicative norms. To interpret the speaker’s verbal behavior one should judge not only by the wording, but take into consideration the communicative situation, which, in some cases, is of paramount importance. In the research, impoliteness
 is understood as a language used to offend or / and is perceived as offensive. But the analysis touches upon the instances with marked vocabulary, which cause damage to the addressee. All the tabooed words in English are classified into four big semantic groups. The first group includes the semes related to the Christian
 religion that used to be associated with blasphemy but now have lost their initial capacity, especially among teenagers. The second group embraces roots with the meaning ‘sexual relations,’ ‘excretion’ but nowadays they lack their original status in most contexts and mostly perform the function of catharsis. The third group is mentioned as zoovocatives and, according to the research, are used to diminish the addressee’s importance, to rise in the estimation of the public. The last group comprises the words with the seme ‘blood’ which no longer refers to Jesus’s blood and has undergone desemantization. It mostly performs expletive function – emphasizes the speaker’s negative emotions.

Error Analysis: Types and Causes of EFL Learners’ Errors in Writing Analytical Exposition Text

Abstract. This research looked at errors made by the sophomores majoring in English Education of Tadulako University in writing analytical exposition text. It intends to (1) identify the kinds of errors committed by the students in writing the text, and (2) determine the causes of the errors. This is a-qualitative research, employing 20 students enrolled in Text Type Writing course in the Academic Year 2020. Results of the data analysis indicated that there were 421 cases of errors which were then classified into five major categories: orthographic errors, word forms and grammar (morpho-syntactic errors), errors on words and meanings (lexico-semantic), errors in punctuation and errors in capitalization. These errors are caused by influence of the students’ first language (L1) (interlingual errors), lack of target language knowledge (intralingual errors), and communication strategies. This paper addresses error analysis using Dulay’s 1982 Linguistic Category Taxonomy, which so far lack considerably in scientific literature. Previous studies have almost exclusively focused on using Surface Structure Taxonomy, another taxonomy is therefore needed for investigation. Keywords: Analytical Exposition Text, Error Analysis, Writing Skills

Communicative Category of Alterity: Linguocultural and Linguoecological Properties

The aim of the article is to give an in-depth insight into alterity as a communication category in the cognitive and discursive aspects. Being an indispensable part of communication and cognition, the category has its own meaning presenting the communicative interaction within the frame "I – the Other". The category of alterity has its own set of category properties, which are specified uniquely in different languages. Alterity as a linguistic category may express an outlook on the reality (similar, i.e. familiar, devoid of risk: other, different, vague, evidently evoking fear or curiosity). In the Russian language, it is linked to the emotional clusters of curiosity, fear, suspense, whereas in the English language it is associated with curiosity, admiration, surprise and novice. Alterity is characterized similarly in English and Russian through maintaining such features as dissimilarity, variety, multifariousness, belonging to different classes/groups, distinct opposition. As well as common features, alterity manifests culturally specific meanings in English (being eccentric, revolutionary, new, fresh) and Russian (being funny and incongruous). The article includes a description of the linguistic means and communicative strategies and tactics, with the help of which the category of alterity is realized in fiction. The category content is variable in the discourse and it serves ground for the ecological and non-ecological mode of communication.

DBATES: Dataset for Discerning Benefits of Audio, Textual, and Facial Expression Features in Competitive Debate Speeches

In this work, we present a database of multimodal communication features extracted from debate speeches in the 2019 North American Universities Debate Championships (NAUDC). Feature sets were extracted from the visual (facial expression, gaze, and head pose), audio (PRAAT), and textual (word sentiment and linguistic category) modalities of raw video recordings of competitive collegiate debaters (N=716 6-minute recordings from 140 unique debaters). Each speech has an associated competition debate score (range: 67-96) from experienced judges as well as competitor demographic and per-round reflection surveys. We observe the fully multimodal model performs best in comparison to models trained on various compositions of individual modalities. We also find that the weights of some features (such as the expression of \textit{joy} and the use of the word "we") change in direction between the aforementioned models. We use these results to highlight the value of a multimodal dataset for studying competitive, collegiate debate.

Emotivity Category as a Way to Popularize Scientific Knowledge in Edutainment

The purpose of our research is to study the category of emotivity in the Russian popular science text. The main research methods in this case are descriptive method, content analysis and emotive analysis. The linguistic category of emotivity is the subject of the study, and the popular science video "The Russian Language in 18 minutes" is the object. Special attention is paid to the function of the category of emotivity in a popular science text related to the popularization of scientific knowledge. In our work, we have shown that popular science text involves not only emotion-neutral components, but also emotive components, which include, for example, emotive-potentiative, rhetorical question, emojis and emoticons. It is also proved that with the help of emotive components, rigorous scientific information turns into accessible even for non-specialists. The novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the representation of the category of emotivity in a strict scientific style. As a result, it is proved that the category of emotivity can systematically manifest itself in a scientific style as a means of popularizing scientific knowledge, in particular in a popular scientific text. Russian in 18 Minutes, the material we have chosen, can be used as a good example in the class of Russian as a foreign language, the results of our research can also be used in the course of stylistics.

A Sociolinguistics Analysis of Address Terms in Sasak Language

This research falls under the broad category of linguistics, i.e., sociolinguistics, which investigates the relationship between language and society. The objective of this research is to examine the sociolinguistic phenomenon known as "address terms" as performed by the native speakers of the Sasak language. This research employed a mix of descriptive, qualitative, and quantitative methods to describe a social phenomenon that occurs in the midst of society and is closely related to the address terms used by native Sasak speakers on Lombok Island. The data displayed in this research are the results of classified participatory and non-participatory observations, in-depth interviews, and online questionnaires. Based on the results of the findings and discussions, the researcher found several conditions. First, the address terms of native Sasak speakers are divided into eight patterns: 1. the nobility pattern; 2. the general pattern; 3. the intimacy pattern; 4. the borrowing pattern; 5. the kinship pattern; 6. the religious pattern; 7. the cultural pattern; and 8. the personal pronoun pattern. Secondly, the address terms serve the following functions: 1. to demonstrate intimacy; 2. to draw attention; 3. to demonstrate politeness; 4. to reflect identity; and 5. to demonstrate power differential. And last, the social factors affecting the use of address terms are: 1. social status; 2. age; 3. family relationship; 4. occupational hierarchy; and 5. degree of intimacy.

Coreference Delays in Psychotic Discourse: Widening the Temporal Window.

Any form of coherent discourse depends on saying different things about the same entities at different times. Such recurrent references to the same entity need to predictably happen within certain temporal windows. We hypothesized that a failure of control over reference in speakers with schizophrenia (Sz) would become manifest through dynamic temporal measures. Conversational speech with a mean of 909.2 words (SD: 178.4) from 20 Chilean Spanish speakers with chronic Sz, 20 speakers at clinical high risk (CHR), and 20 controls were collected. Using directed speech graphs with referential noun phrases (NPs) as nodes, we studied deviances in the topology and temporal distribution of such NPs and of the entities they denote over narrative time. The Sz group had a larger density of NPs (number of NPs divided by total words) relative to both controls and CHR. This related to topological measures of distance between recurrent entities, which revealed that the Sz group produced more recurrences, as well as greater topological distances between them, relative to controls. A logistic regression using five topological measures showed that Sz and controls can be distinguished with 84.2% accuracy. This pattern indicates a widening of the temporal window in which entities are maintained in discourse and co-referenced in it. It substantiates and extends earlier evidence for deficits in the cognitive control over linguistic reference in psychotic discourse and informs both neurocognitive models of language in Sz and machine learning-based linguistic classifiers of psychotic speech.

Continuum of Fuzzy Emotions

The article deals with the current trends in the field of linguistic categorization of emotions. The emotional spectrum is much wider than the experiences that possess stable verbal explications. Fuzzy emotions include mixed, blended, complex, and other emotional experiences. They are primary, but they have never been subjected to independent linguistic research. This article focuses on the cultural particularities of emotions that reflect the ability of language consciousness to actualize the boundless emotional and semantic potential of the word to express the inner world. The research relied on the National Corpus of the Russian language to describe the process of creating emotional endoconcepts, i.e., emotional experiences that go beyond the traditional classification of emotive words. The authors believe that the controversial nature of the basic emotional paradigm is argued by the class of emotive words formed from basic emotions, e.g., sad emotions. Their dominant remains fuzzy, and only the evaluative meaning is clear. The approach that the linguistics of emotions adopts to categorize emotive words has a number of advantages because it takes into account the poly-ambivalence, discursivity, and flexibility of emotions that depend on the communicative situation.

LEXpander: Applying colexification networks to automated lexicon expansion

Recent approaches to text analysis from social media and other corpora rely on word lists to detect topics, measure meaning, or to select relevant documents. These lists are often generated by applying computational lexicon expansion methods to small, manually curated sets of seed words. Despite the wide use of this approach, we still lack an exhaustive comparative analysis of the performance of lexicon expansion methods and how they can be improved with additional linguistic data. In this work, we present LEXpander, a method for lexicon expansion that leverages novel data on colexification, i.e., semantic networks connecting words with multiple meanings according to shared senses. We evaluate LEXpander in a benchmark including widely used methods for lexicon expansion based on word embedding models and synonym networks. We find that LEXpander outperforms existing approaches in terms of both precision and the trade-off between precision and recall of generated word lists in a variety of tests. Our benchmark includes several linguistic categories, as words relating to the financial area or to the concept of friendship, and sentiment variables in English and German. We also show that the expanded word lists constitute a high-performing text analysis method in application cases to various English corpora. This way, LEXpander poses a systematic automated solution to expand short lists of words into exhaustive and accurate word lists that can closely approximate word lists generated by experts in psychology and linguistics.

Hebrew stance-taking gasps: From bodily response to social communicative resource

This paper describes 'gasps' – ingressive vocoids, ingressive nasal stops, and certain sharp inbreaths – expressing stance in Hebrew conversation. A sharp inbreath can be part of a startle reflex, but sequential analysis shows gasps used as carefully coordinated interactional resources. Gasps in themselves express high arousal only; valence and specific affective categories must be gathered from context. Gasps’ liminal status, blurring the lines between body and language, self and other, informs their expressive power, making them potent ways to redirect attention, display emotion, and express empathy. Despite their liminal status, gasps fit the usage patterns of established linguistic categories of affective expressions, such as response cries, prompting reconsideration of the limits of linguistic categories.

Editor’s Message

Editor’s Message Benjamin Fraser We begin this new year with sincere gratitude for all the collective work behind the scenes that has been contributed by our editorial board members and our peer reviewers from 2022. Behind the articles that are published in each quarterly issue of Hispania there are numerous peer reviewers who have given generously of their time and expertise. Many times, articles that reach the acceptance stage have passed through multiple rounds of peer evaluation, and we are particularly thankful that our reviewers are ready to take a second (or third!) look at a revision along the way. Our aim in all cases is to provide authors of submissions with rigorous, detailed, and meaningful feedback. It is our pleasure to include these reviewer names in our March issue as a way of saying thanks. The anonymity of the review process is essential to the work we do, and so individual reviewers are never connected with a particular submission. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, please create a reviewer profile in the Scholar One system and make sure to include your areas of expertise!! This issue’s contents are just one batch of contributions to our continuing commitment toward reaching members of the association at K-20 levels and including all research specializations pertaining to the broad categories of literature, linguistics, and pedagogy. The short-form articles section of the journal was formed to provide readers with access to shorter pieces (1,500–3,000 words) that promise to be of interest to K-12 members of the association in particular. Here we include Jerry L. Parker’s “Racial Inclusivity in the Spanish Curriculum: A Case for Afro-Hispanic Literature,” which outlines the impact of diversity equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts in an intermediate Spanish II course. The research articles run the gamut. In “Re-Conceptualizing Affricate Variation in Caracas Spanish,” Manuel Díaz-Campos, Molly Cole and Matthew Pollock tie frication duration to social and linguistic factors in the Venezuelan capital. In “Teaching Special Questions: The Role of Semantics and Pragmatics in Colloquial Interrogative Structures in Spanish,” Javier Fernández-Sánchez and Alfredo García-Pardo assert the special interpretative functions of questions in which evidentiality and irony play a crucial role. Ana Cecilia Iraheta’s article, “Reclaiming the Power of Bilingualism: Spanish Heritage Learners Using Bilingual Skills in a Critical Service-Learning Project,” finds linguistic and affective gains are strengthened through community engagement. Rob A. Martinsen and Gregory L. Thompson discuss the current state of computer-mediated communication in their “Virtual Language Exchanges in Lower-level Language Classes: Promise and Practice.” Two of this issue’s articles blend the study of literature in both Portuguese- and Spanish-language texts. In “Heterotopías decoloniales y subversiones de la sexualidad en ‘A menor mulher do mundo’ de Lispector y en ‘El informe de Brodie’ de Borges,” Gustavo Faverón Patriau revisits two canonical authors from the perspective of the colonial encounter. Jordan B. Jones casts resistance in social, economic and narrative terms in “From Próximos to Prójimos: Discursive Redlining, Autoconstruction, and Crossing in Estação terminal and Angosta.” Finally, Yoel Villahermosa Serrano’s article, “El videojuego queer en el aula: Una alternativa pedagógica española a la cisheteronormatividad,” asserts the value of including LGTBIQ-themed videogames as pedagogical tools in the classroom. [End Page 1] Benjamin Fraser Editor of Hispania Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc