Word Choice Research Articles

High frequency post-pause word choices and task-dependent speech behavior characterize connected speech in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by progressive cognitive decline, including impairments in speech production and fluency. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a prodrome of AD, has also been linked with changes in speech behavior but to a more subtle degree. This study aimed to investigate whether speech behavior immediately following both filled and unfilled pauses (post-pause speech behavior) differs between individuals with MCI and healthy controls (HCs), and how these differences are influenced by the cognitive demands of various speech tasks. Transcribed speech samples were analyzed from both groups across different tasks, including immediate and delayed narrative recall, picture descriptions, and free responses. Key metrics including lexical and syntactic complexity, lexical frequency and diversity, and part of speech usage, both overall and post-pause, were examined. Significant differences in pause usage were observed between groups, with a higher incidence and longer latencies following these pauses in the MCI group. Lexical frequency following filled pauses was higher among MCI participants in the free response task but not in other tasks, potentially due to the relative cognitive load of the tasks. The immediate recall task was most useful at differentiating between groups. Predictive analyses utilizing random forest classifiers demonstrated high specificity in using speech behavior metrics to differentiate between MCI and HCs. Speech behavior following pauses differs between MCI participants and healthy controls, with these differences being influenced by the cognitive demands of the speech tasks. These post-pause speech metrics can be easily integrated into existing speech analysis paradigms.

Word Choice Affects Social Judgments: Relational Messages Containing Low-Frequency Words Get Low Evaluations.

Prior research found a word complexity effect: Authors who use complex words are less favorably received when writing academic essays, business letters, and other relatively formal communications. The present study tested if word choice affects evaluations of messages between friends (Experiments 1-2) and spoken messages (Experiment 2). Three widespread dimensions of social judgments were studied - namely, persuasiveness, competence, and sincerity. Participants read/heard messages that varied (between-participants) by ordinary versus low-frequency words (sad vs. forlorn). Messages containing low-frequency words (mostly) received lower evaluations. Most importantly, word choice effects in messages between friends were consistently found - for both written and spoken language. Feedback analysis (Experiment 2) revealed that the overuse of "big vocabulary" conflicts with conscious social beliefs regarding ways to communicate, showing that social judgments spring from a combination of conscious social beliefs and the relatively unconscious influence of fluency.

Exploring of Canva in Improving Writing Skills in English Subjects

The advancement of technology and information has brought significant changes in various aspects of life, including education. One of the impacts of globalization is the advancement of technology and information. Globalization cannot be separated from the rapid development of information and communication technology, the primary supporting factor. Appropriate technology can increase student learning motivation, increase interaction between students and teachers, and facilitate access to information. Educators must consider technology in learning. To present engaging and innovative education, teachers are required to follow technological developments. The intention is to use technology to facilitate the learning process. This study aims to describe the implementation of Canva and analyze its impact on improving writing skills in English subjects at SMP PGRI Saptosari. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method. Data was obtained through observation, questionnaire completion, and documentation. Observations were carried out twice. The study's results indicate improved writing skills, particularly in creating procedure texts for English learning. The obtained data concluded that the creativity assessment indicator increased from the previous average of 64.68 to 85.10. The score jumped from the lesser to the excellent category by 20.42 points. The second increase in diction or word choice resulted in an average value increase from 61.31 to 78.4, moving from the less category to the sufficient one. The last is in the organizational text, which was initially 71.81 and increased to 79.40.

Plural Elohim as anyame in Psalm 82 of The Asante Twi Bible: A colonial imposition

Postcolonial theoretical examinations on the translation of the Bible in Africa have revealed the systematic process of domination and restructuring of the worldview of Africans. The colonial agenda that coloured the missiological thrust influenced the choice of words and concepts used to translate the Scriptures. By examining the word Elohim in Psalm 82, this article highlights how this development is realised in the translation of the Asante Twi Bible. For instance, in Psalm 82, the plural Elohim has been translated as anyame in the Asante Twi Bible, a translation that is not only inappropriate but alters the religious worldview of the Asante people. As a mission agenda, the term anyame was coined to redefine the religion of the Akan people as polytheism. This redefinition has had a profound and longstanding impact on the language and religious thinking of the people. At the least, this article recommends a constructive reading of Psalm 82 in the Asante Twi Bible in order to decolonise it from colonial impositions that sought to wrongly qualify the life and thought of the people. At the most, the article calls on African biblical scholars to pay more attention to the impact of colonialism in their interpretation of the Bible in order to draw attention to changes in structure of the indigenous language and thought patterns, and to look for creative ways to redeem traditions of the African people.Contribution: The study demonstrates the continuous need to decolonise the Bible in Africa in order to help recover some of Africa’s religio-cultural identity lost during the missionary drive.

How Do Trauma and Identity Unfold Through Dialogue? A Psychoanalytic and Linguistic Analysis of Netflix's Slasher Solstice

This study aims to explore the relationship between trauma, desire, and identity through language patterns in the Netflix series Slasher: Solstice. Using a psychoanalytic and linguistic analysis approach, the research delves into how characters' dialogues and speech styles reflect their psychological states, particularly in confronting past traumas. The study employs a qualitative method with observational analysis of the interactions and dialogues of the main characters within the series. The results reveal that speech patterns, word choice, and intonation provide deep insights into the characters' psychological conditions. For instance, the character Connor displays aggressive and fragmented speech patterns as a defense mechanism against trauma, while the character Sadia exhibits emotional control through structured and formal language. This research offers a new perspective by combining psychoanalytic and linguistic approaches to understand character development within the horror genre. The analysis reveals that shifts in language style, as the narrative unfolds, indicate a transformation in the characters' identities, increasingly shaped by trauma and internal conflict.

Effects of MOOC and video conferencing deliveries on vocabulary usage and learning strategies

While vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) have primarily been taught in physical classroom settings, the potential for applying strategy training in an online environment remains under-explored. With the rising acceptance of remote education, there is a need to investigate the impacts of applying strategy training in online contexts. Hence, this study explores the effects of online deliveries on VLSs and vocabulary usage in writing among adult English as second language (ESL) learners via massive open online course (MOOC) and video conferencing platforms. A total of 50 pre-intermediate ESL learners completed a 5-week VLSs course on a MOOC while 44 students learnt from the instructor synchronously using Microsoft Teams. The data comprised questionnaires and learners’ compositions, which were collected before and after treatment. The data analysis procedures involved Lextutor’s version of lexical frequency profiling (LFP), descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that there was a significant increase of usage in all categories of the VLSs after the course for both groups. Additionally, the effects of VLSs instruction on vocabulary usage could be reflected in both groups’ writing though the choice of words might have been task-influenced. The findings from this study could yield useful insights on online vocabulary learning for ESL instructors and learners.

Enhancing cross-domain recommendations: Leveraging personality-based transfer learning with probabilistic matrix factorization

The conventional method of computing personality scores through extensive questionnaire-based surveys poses practical challenges in real-world scenarios. An alternate route is to predict personality scores from user reviews by analyzing various linguistic features such as writing style, word choices, and specific phrases. However, the reviews are domain-dependent and classification models trained on one domain cannot be readily applied to other domains. To mitigate this challenge, we propose a cross-domain recommendation framework called PEMF-CD which leverages a novel mixing strategy to integrate user reviews from multiple domains with common joint embedding space and predict user personality scores using a transformer model. By capturing the underlying semantics and latent representations within the textual data, the transformer architecture can effectively model the linguistic cues to infer users’ personality traits, and the learning is transferred across domains. To further enhance the recommendation process, our model integrates personality-wise and rating pattern-based similarities of users into a probabilistic matrix factorization method that fosters user neighborhoods based on similarity scores among users. Comprehensive experiments were conducted using five real-world datasets from TripAdvisor and Amazon with varied numbers of users, items, and reviews of up to 44187, 26386, and 426791, respectively. The performance has been benchmarked against thirteen baseline algorithms and the experimental results demonstrate a significant improvements of up to 24.72%, 64.28%, 48.79%, and 61% in RMSE, and 55.9%, 76.7%, 67.6%, and 71.5% in MAE for a 90:10 train-test split with Digital Music, Fashion, Magazine Subscriptions and Video Games datasets from Amazon, respectively. Similar results have been observed for the 80:20 train-test split.

Studi Sosiolinguistik pada Nadhoman Terjemah Kitab Syu’abul Iman Karya KH. A Wahab Muhsin

Sociolinguistic studies are part of modern linguistic studies which cover all linguistic phenomena and their communities. This study can explain word preferences or language structures that differentiate one literary work from another based on the relationship between individuals, populations, periodization and people's lifestyle patterns. The source of sociolingistics research is all types of communication that use language, both spoken and written in all varieties of languages ​​in the world. This research aims to describe sociolinguistic relationships and traces of their application in Nadhoman's "Translation of Syu'abul Iman". The data used in this research are all aspects of perspective studies which include figurative sentences in the form of symbols, images, figurative language or figures of speech, as well as diction or choice of words as well as expressions in the form of loanwords, theme idioms, diction, language style, imagination and messages that describe the influence sociological and linguistic aspects of the translation of the book Syu'abul Iman by KH.A Wahab Muhsin in the form of a translation of the book Syu'abul Iman which was compiled in 1967. Researchers indicate that there are linguistic values ​​related to the situation and social relations in it. To prove this, the author analyzes it using descriptive qualitative methods. The data collection technique in this research is a reading-note technique. The technique is carried out by reading, taking notes for analysis based on the perspective study. The research results obtained prove that sociolinguistics is very influential on the building blocks of the translation of the book Syu'abul Iman.Keywords: Sociolinguistics, Sundanese Nazhoman, Translation.

THE ANALYSIS OF DARK TRIAD CONCEPT IN THE SONG LYRICS OF METALLICA’S “MASTER OF PUPPETS” AND “SAD BUT TRUE”

The dark triad personality is commonly understood in the field of psychological studies. However, the analysis of the dark triad is still relatively new in the realm of literary studies. This article presents the dark triad in the lyrics of Metallica’s songs “Master of Puppets” and “Sad but True”. The selection of these two songs is based on the popularity of the song and the choice of words that cause multiple interpretations among Metallica fans. The findings of this research show that there are three traits of the dark triad found in both song lyrics. Machiavellianism represents manipulation; narcissism represents self-admiration; psychopathy represents anti-social and cruelty. This article can hopefully provide in-depth understanding to listeners as the music from previous decades keeps making comebacks.

Too many numbers and worse word choice: Why readers find data-driven news articles produced with automation harder to understand

The production of data-driven journalism is becoming increasingly automated, impacting its composition and comprehensibility. Given the importance of data-driven reporting for democratic participation, this study investigates, firstly, how readers evaluate the composition of data-driven articles produced with and without the help of automation and, secondly, how these evaluations affect readers’ perceptions of the articles’ comprehensibility. In an online survey experiment, 3135 online news consumers evaluated 24 articles produced with or without automation using criteria developed in prior research. Our factor analysis reduced those criteria to five categories that matter in readers’ evaluations of the articles’ composition: numeric features, writing style, sentence and paragraph length, descriptive language, and word choice. Our results show, firstly, that although the perception of news stories produced with automation did not differ significantly from that of news stories produced without automation regarding sentence and paragraph length and writing style, the stories produced with automation were evaluated as significantly less comprehensible; and, secondly, that this can be explained partly by readers’ perceptions of some of the other article composition categories, which were rated significantly worse in automated articles. Our findings suggest that using automation to produce data-driven news articles changes their perceived composition in ways that negatively impact comprehensibility. However, this study also suggests how such articles could be made more comprehensible. Specifically, when ‘post-editing’ automated articles, journalists should aim to further reduce the quantity of numbers, better explain words that readers are unlikely to understand and change inappropriate wording.

Perceived effective and ineffective dental terminology when treating paediatric patients: a cross-sectional survey.

Aims To determine the words that paediatric dental team members perceive to be effective and ineffective for describing dental procedures and instruments to children and to assess if these are influenced by the age and gender of the child.Methods A voluntary, anonymous questionnaire was distributed to paediatric dental staff in NHS Scotland. Questions included participants' demographics, which words they perceive to be effective and ineffective for describing 11 dental procedures and instruments, and whether word choice was affected by the gender and/or age of the patient.Results From the 209 responses, a variety of job roles were represented across 11 different health boards in Scotland. A variety of alternative words and phrases for dental terms were identified, including those considered ineffective. The age of patients was shown to influence the language used by 42.8% of dental team members on average. Patients' gender did not tend to influence word choice.Conclusions This study has collected the most popular euphemisms for common dental procedures and instruments as well as perceived ineffective terminology in paediatric dentistry in Scotland. The study showed that the age of a child frequently influences the choice of language used, while gender plays less of a role.

Exploration of Lexical Collocations Employed in EFL Students’ Essay Writing

This study investigates the use of different types of lexical collocations and common errors made related to these collocations in essay writing. The participants included EFL students who wrote an essay as a class writing test in 60 minutes. A 5-level Likert close-ended survey questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative data regarding students’ perceptions of the categories of lexical collocations they have used and the difficulties they have encountered in using these. To get qualitative data for the study, students’ essays were then analyzed to identify errors related to different categories of lexical collocations. The results revealed that adjective-noun collocations were the most frequently used by the participants while lexical collocations related to adverbs were used least frequently. Errors related to the morpheme -s such as the omission of morpheme -s in plural nouns and overuse of morpheme -s in singular or uncountable nouns were most commonly made by students, followed by the wrong choice of component words and non-existent lexical collocations. Pedagogical implications are then discussed to assist students in enhancing collocational use in essay writing.

Sprache als Brücke: die Kunst der Übersetzung

The present article reveals the intricate art of conveying meaning across languages, surpassing linguistic barriers in order to promote global communication. Translation is not merely an automated task; it is a nuanced skill that involves apprehending the essence of one culture and transferring it into another. Culture plays an essential role in translation, influencing the choice of words and expressions used to ensure that the message is rendered genuinely in the target language. Despite its importance, translation has its own challenges, ranging from linguistic nuances and cultural subtleties to the complexities of maintaining the same meaning. However, as technology advances and global connections expand, the future of translation holds promise for modern solutions, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, which may transform the way we bridge languages and cultures in the digital era.

Analisis Kalimat Efektif Pada Teks Opini Dalam Laman “Harian Jogja” Edisi Agustus 2023 Sebagai Bacaan Edukasi

Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies phrases, clauses and sentences. This article focuses more on analyzing sentences in a text, where the sentence itself is a language unit that is relatively independent, has final intonation, and actually or potentially consists of clauses. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of sentences in opinion texts on the August 2023 edition of “Harian Jogja” as educational reading in terms of sentence structure and word choice. The type of research method used is descriptive qualitative research method and syntactic approach. The research data are the results of identifying ineffective sentences used in opinion texts on the “Harian Jogja” August 2023 Edition as Educational Reading. The data collection technique used is the syntactic approach in the form of listening and note-taking techniques. The informal method is used as a data presentation technique in this research. The data presentation is written in the form of a table containing some ineffective sentences and their improvements. From the analysis, 121 sentences were found consisting of 58 effective sentences and 63 ineffective sentences. In the opinion text titled “Peubahan Iklim dan Peran Masyarakat Memilah Sampah” there are 17 effective sentences and 22 ineffective sentences. In the opinion text titled “Mencermati Arsitektur RAPBN 2024,” there are 19 effective sentences and 18 ineffective sentences. In the opinion text titled “Peluang dan Tantangan Pertukaran Karbon,” there are 22 effective sentences and 23 ineffective sentences. This research produces several ineffective sentences which are classified into 3 namely waste in the use of words, inaccuracy in the use of words, and the last is the incompatibility of the information provided. In this analysis, the researcher uses one of the opinion texts as an example or sample, namely the opinion text entitled “Perubahan Iklim dan Peran Masyarakat dalam Memilah Sampah”. From the analysis of the opinion text which is composed of 39 sentences, there are 22 ineffective sentences. This study is useful as a guideline for writing effective sentences, besides that writers can pay more attention to writing in an opinion text that is by the rules of language.

Analisis Kesalahan Berbahasa Teks Berita Dalam Website "Detiknews" Edisi Februari 2024 Sebagai Kalayakan Bahan Ajar Membaca Kritis Siswa Kelas X SMA Terhadap Perilaku Sosial Remaja

The development of the times is accompanied by progress in various fields of life, such as science, technology, and economics. Progress is also felt in the scientific field of journalism. One of the terms in the field of journalism that is commonly known by the general public is print mass media, such as newspapers. Today's newspapers are not only printed on paper, but many newspapers have created their own blogs or pages so that news can be read online. The aim of this research is to analyze language errors based on the classification of linguistic categories, namely syntax, which includes the areas of spelling and sentence effectiveness. The data source is several news stories published on the detikNews website in the February 2024 edition. The data was then analyzed using the listening method and note-taking techniques. The results of the research showed that there were 52 errors in the use of spelling and punctuation, which were described as follows: a) there were 11 errors in writing foreign words; b) there were 8 errors in writing numbers; c) there were 13 errors in writing capital letters; d) there were 15 errors in the use of punctuation marks; e) there were 5 errors in writing pronouns. Apart from that, there were 44 errors in the use of ineffective sentences, which are described as follows: a) there were 14 errors in choosing diction; b) there are 10 sentences with no subject or predicate; c) there are 9 sentences with overlapping words; d) there are 11 long-winded sentences. It is hoped that the results of the analysis in this article will increase understanding and deeper knowledge regarding linguistics, namely syntax, including the areas of spelling and word choice and their use, knowledge about the types, as well as providing suitable teaching materials for class X high school students for them to carry out assessments and considerations. about adolescent social behavior critically.

Online Plain Language Tool and Health Information Quality

Complex and ineffective health communication is a critical source of health inequity and occurs despite repeated policy directives to provide health information that is easy to understand and applies health literacy principles. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab Health Literacy Editor, an easy-to-use online plain language tool that supports health information providers to apply health literacy guidelines to written health information. This randomized clinical trial, conducted online in Australia from May 2023 to February 2024, included a convenience sample of health information providers with no previous experience using the Health Literacy Editor. Analysts were blinded to study group. Participants were randomized 1:1 to the intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention group were provided access to the Health Literacy Editor and a 30-minute online training program prior to editing 3 prespecified health texts. The Health Literacy Editor gives objective, real-time feedback on words and sentences. Control participants revised the texts using their own standard health information development processes. The preregistered primary outcome was the text school grade reading score (using a validated instrument, the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook). Secondary outcomes were text complexity (percentage of text using complex language), use of passive voice (number of instances), and subjective expert ratings (5-point Likert scale corresponding to items on the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool). A total of 211 participants were randomized, with 105 in the intervention group and 106 in the control group. Of 181 participants in the intention-to-treat analysis (mean [SD] age, 41.0 [11.6] years; 154 women [85.1%]), 86 were in the intervention group and 95 in the control group. Texts revised in the intervention group had significantly improved grade reading scores (mean difference [MD], 2.48 grades; 95% CI, 1.84-3.12 grades; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.99), lower text complexity scores (MD, 6.86; 95% CI, 4.99-8.74; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.95), and less use of passive voice (MD, 0.95 instances; 95% CI, 0.44-1.47 instances; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.53) compared with texts revised in the control group in intention-to-treat analyses. Experts rated texts in the intervention group more favorably for word choice and style than those in the control group (MD, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25-0.63; P < .001; Cohen d, 0.63), with no loss of meaning or content. In this randomized clinical trial, the Health Literacy Editor helped users simplify health information and apply health literacy guidelines to written text. The findings suggest the tool has high potential to improve development of health information for people who have low health literacy. As an online tool, the Health Literacy Editor is also easy to access and implement at scale. ANZCTR Identifier: ACTRN12623000386639.

Caregiver's Word Choices, Definitions, Roles, and Functions in Peritoneal Dialysis Caregiving: A Systematic Scoping Review

Caregiver's Word Choices, Definitions, Roles, and Functions in Peritoneal Dialysis Caregiving: A Systematic Scoping Review

Speaker Demographics Modulate Listeners' Neural Correlates of Spoken Word Processing.

In language comprehension, listeners expect a speaker to be consistent in their word choice for labeling the same object. For instance, if a speaker previously refers to a piece of furniture as a "couch," in subsequent references, listeners would expect the speaker to repeat this label instead of switching to an alternative label such as "sofa." Moreover, it has been found that speakers' demographic backgrounds, often inferred from their voice, influence how listeners process their language. The question in focus, therefore, is whether speaker demographics influence how listeners expect the speaker to repeat or switch labels. In this study, we used ERPs to investigate whether listeners expect a child speaker to be less likely to switch labels compared to an adult speaker, given the common belief that children are less flexible in language use. In the experiment, we used 80 pictures with alternative labels in Mandarin Chinese (e.g., yi1sheng1 vs. dai4fu, "doctor"). Each picture was presented twice over two experimental phases: In the establishment phase, participants listened to an adult or a child naming a picture with one of the labels and decided whether the label matched the picture they saw; in the test phase, participants listened to the same speaker naming the same picture by either repeating the original label or switching to an alternative label and, again, decided whether the label matched the picture they saw. ERP results in the test phase revealed that, compared to repeated labels, switched labels elicited an N400 effect (300-600 msec after label onset) and a P600 effect (600-1000 msec after label onset). Critically, the N400 effect was larger when listeners were exposed to the child speaker than to the adult speaker, suggesting that listeners found a switched label harder to comprehend when it was produced by a child speaker than an adult speaker. Our study shows that the perceived speaker demographic backgrounds influence listeners' neural responses to spoken words, particularly in relation to their expectations regarding the speaker's label switching behavior. This finding contributes to a broader understanding of the relationship between social cognition and language processing.

Exploratory Study of gendered-linked differences in word choice in a popular Panamanian talk show

Differences between men's and women's word choices have always motivated sociolinguistic studies that correlate these variations to the gender roles or stereotypes that generate social judgments about people's expressions. This exploratory study examined gendered-linked differences in word choices when discussing daily life issues. The data was collected using a descriptive statistics table that compiled all the euphemisms, diminutives, descriptive adjectives, and politeness markers used by four conductors (two men and two women) of a popular Panamanian TV show in six discussion forums. The information was later analyzed for response patterns, similarities, and differences within and across the two groups. Our findings indicate remarkable gendered-linked differences in the use of these words, evidence of word choice variation across genders. We conclude that these variations are part of daily life communication and illustrate the effect of social behaviors and ideologies on the use of language.

Academic vocabulary for L2 argumentative writing: Perspectives from Chinese university EFL learners

Academic vocabulary plays a critical role in L2 argumentative writing. Recent studies have specifically examined the importance of academic vocabulary and academic word lists for EAP and ESP learning and research. However, it is unclear how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners perceive academic vocabulary and the challenges they face using this vocabulary in university argumentative essays. The present study adopted a case study approach to investigate Chinese university EFL learners’ perceptions of, and problems with, academic vocabulary in an argumentative writing task. Five fourth-year advanced EFL learners were assigned to write an IELTS essay before participating in a one-on-one interview. The results indicated that while participants had a heightened awareness of the importance of academic vocabulary, they lacked a comprehensive understanding of this construct. More specifically, they knew little about the academic register, and their academic vocabulary size was small. Consequently, various problems arose in relation to the use of academic words in their argumentative writing, including word choice and the over-reliance on Chinese word meaning and word spelling knowledge. The EFL learners also reported that the biggest challenge to their academic writing was the lack of academic collocation knowledge. These findings have pedagogical implications for understanding the academic lexical problems facing Chinese EFL learners in their academic writing.