Language Components Research Articles

Improving Intent Classification Using Unlabeled Data from Large Corpora

Intent classification is a central component of a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) pipeline for conversational agents. The quality of such a component depends on the quality of the training data, however, for many conversational scenarios, the data might be scarce; in these scenarios, data augmentation techniques are used. Having general data augmentation methods that can generalize to many datasets is highly desirable. The work presented in this paper is centered around two main components. First, we explore the influence of various feature vectors on the task of intent classification using RASA’s text classification capabilities. The second part of this work consists of a generic method for efficiently augmenting textual corpora using large datasets of unlabeled data. The proposed method is able to efficiently mine for examples similar to the ones that are already present in standard, natural language corpora. The experimental results show that using our corpus augmentation methods enables an increase in text classification accuracy in few-shot settings. Particularly, the gains in accuracy raise up to 16% when the number of labeled examples is very low (e.g., two examples). We believe that our method is important for any Natural Language Processing (NLP) or NLU task in which labeled training data are scarce or expensive to obtain. Lastly, we give some insights into future work, which aims at combining our proposed method with a semi-supervised learning approach.

Paralanguage Influences in Intercultural Communication of Foreign Nationals in Cebu, Philippines

Paralanguage is a vital component of metacommunication in human interaction that allows people to convey nuanced meaning and emotion and add layers of meaning to their spoken utterances through manipulation of the manner of speech. This is why paralanguage is suggested to be considered as the primary facet of communicative competence in effective communication. However, this is adversely hampered by the challenges between people with different cultural backgrounds. This is because cultural differences have many effects on communication since people from different cultures communicate using distinct styles of their language, words, gestures, phrases, and other non-lexical components of speech, such as diction, pitch, and tone. Intercultural communication also includes low and high context cultures. Hence, the need to conduct this study is crucial to explore the influence of paralanguage on communication among speakers from different cultures and understand the influence of culture on the communication experiences of people coming from varied speech communities. The study employed narrative analysis as a lens to collect and analyze the data gathered from the participants. The foreign nationals were interviewed as study participants to deliberately examine the intercultural challenges in paralanguage. Data were deduced using Miles and Huberman’s thematic analytical framework. Findings revealed that paralanguage greatly influenced the communication engagements of foreign nationals with the local people and that this influence is also associated with the existing cultural background of the foreign and local communicators involved.

Design and Validity of Student Worksheet Integrated Scientific Literacy for The Use of Physics Practicum KIT

The 2013 curriculum contains 4 components, one of which is literacy skills. One of the important literacy skills in learning physics is scientific literacy. Physics learning is always closely related to practicum which requires practicum tools such as the physics practicum KIT. The reality found in the field is the KIT for physics practicum in schools is available but has not been utilized optimally by teachers and the worksheets used have not been integrated with scientific literacy. This study aims to determine the validity value of the student worksheet integrated scientific literacy for the use of physics practicum KIT. The type of research carried out was research and development on Sugiyono's book which consisted of 10 stages, but in this study it was only limited to the design revision stage. The object that is the focus of research is the student worksheets used in schools. The data analysis technique used in this research is descriptive statistics, namely validity analysis. Based on the research, it can be concluded that the validity score of the LKS integrated with scientific literacy for the use of KIT practicum was obtained from an analysis of content eligibility with a value of 0.87; language component with a value of 0.85; clarity component with a value of 0.87 and a graphic component with a value of 0.89. The average validity value of the integrated scientific literacy worksheet for the use of the physics practicum KIT is 0.87 which is classified as very valid.

Intersecting distributed networks support convergent linguistic functioning across different languages in bilinguals

How bilingual brains accomplish the processing of more than one language has been widely investigated by neuroimaging studies. The assimilation-accommodation hypothesis holds that both the same brain neural networks supporting the native language and additional new neural networks are utilized to implement second language processing. However, whether and how this hypothesis applies at the finer-grained levels of both brain anatomical organization and linguistic functions remains unknown. To address this issue, we scanned Chinese-English bilinguals during an implicit reading task involving Chinese words, English words and Chinese pinyin. We observed broad brain cortical regions wherein interdigitated distributed neural populations supported the same cognitive components of different languages. Although spatially separate, regions including the opercular and triangular parts of the inferior frontal gyrus, temporal pole, superior and middle temporal gyrus, precentral gyrus and supplementary motor areas were found to perform the same linguistic functions across languages, indicating regional-level functional assimilation supported by voxel-wise anatomical accommodation. Taken together, the findings not only verify the functional independence of neural representations of different languages, but show co-representation organization of both languages in most language regions, revealing linguistic-feature specific accommodation and assimilation between first and second languages.

Teaching Reading Comprehension at Senior Secondary School Level of Education: An Exploration of its Importance and Problems in Classroom Delivery

This paper takes a cursory look at the concept of reading comprehension – one of the basic components in English language as enshrined in the curriculum of senior secondary school level of Education in Nigeria. It identifies the advantages and roles played by reading comprehension in enhancing academic performance in virtually all school subjects among senior secondary school students in Nigeria. It explores some of the strategies to teaching reading comprehension and highlights practical problems associated with delivery of lessons in the teaching and learning of reading comprehension in typical classrooms of senior secondary schools in Nigeria. These problems include: lack of proper implementation of curriculum; unsuitable choice of language teaching strategies; inadequate instructional resources; and so on. The paper contends that to provide possible solutions to the identified problems, qualified English language teachers must be employed to handle reading comprehension; and the use of modern technology in lesson delivery by teachers should be encouraged. The educational implication which aims at stimulating students' academic performance in all school subjects may be ineffective if the issues are not handled wisely. The paper concludes that senior secondary school students must acquire the reading comprehension abilities, as it forms the basis for all learning activities. Finally, the paper suggests that teachers of English language should be exposed to more training so as to acquire knowledge of different language strategies. This could go a long way in ameliorating the problems in teaching reading comprehension at senior secondary school in Nigeria.

Semantic arrangement of navigational safety management terminology

Ensuring ship navigational safety is a complex, multi-faceted problem that can only be solved while considering the human factor and, consequently, the language component of this problem. Terms in general, and navigational terms in particular, comprising the concepts of navigational safety and acting as tools of knowledge, are very important components of the professional communication verbal aspect. Although extensive, the English terminology of navigation is not described systematically enough in its more specific sections, which leads to terminological synonymy and a variative interpretation of some terms. These problems prevent maritime transport from becoming safer. This study of semantic correlations in the space of navigation safety provides a deeper insight into the nature of the phenomenon. It also enables maritime English instructors to develop an effective mechanism for students to master, based on the awareness of the correlation between term subjects and concept structures. Highlights The subject world of navigational safety management and the corresponding cognitive space are unique areas of professional activity at sea The complex nature of maintaining safety of navigation determines the hierarchical structure of its terminological system The concepts within the area of sea safety navigation categorize and systematize knowledge which forms an integral part of professional navigation at sea The methods of the study involve field approach, as well as hierarchical term classification, as some of the most effective ways to describe the lexical and semantic structures of specialized terminological systems The systematization of such units is relevant for the process of training navigators for work in mixed crews

Future Database Engine Development: You Will Only Need One Programming Language

Database systems must make good use of the hardware for high performance. This is usually done by implementing their core components (storage engine, optimizer and query execution engine) in a low-level programming language (PL) such as C/C++ that can directly "talk to the hardware." But these PLs traditionally lacked high-level abstractions, lowering DBMS developer productivity. Some systems [18, 16, 10] then mix different PLs to balance productivity and performance. For example, Presto [16] and Spark [18] originally used Java but are now replacing their query engines with new ones [12, 1] built in C++ for higher performance. However, doing so brings such non-trivial challenges as interacting with different PL runtimes [1].

LSD and language: Decreased structural connectivity, increased semantic similarity, changed vocabulary in healthy individuals

Language has been explored as a window into the mind. Psychedelics, known to affect perception and cognition, seem to change language, but a systematic, time-dependent exploration is lacking. Therefore, we aimed at mapping the psychedelic effects on language over the time course of the acute and sub-acute effects in an explorative manner. For this, 24 healthy volunteers (age [mean±SD, range]: 35±11, 25–61 years; 33% women) received 50 μg lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or inactive placebo in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. We assessed different language productions (experience reporting, storytelling), components (structure, semantics, vocabulary) and time points (+0 h to +24 h). Language productions included 5-min experience reporting (+1.5 h, +6.5 h) and 1-min storytelling (+0 h, +2 h, +4 h, +6 h, +24 h). Language structure was assessed by computing speech topology (SpeechGraphs), semantics by semantic distances (FastText), vocabulary by word categories (LIWC). LSD, compared to placebo, changed language structure, including decreased verbosity, lexicon, global and local connectivity (+1.5 h to +4 h); decreased semantic distances between neighbouring words and overall words (+2 h to +24 h); and changed vocabulary related to grammar, persons, time, space and biological processes (+1.5 h to +24 h). In conclusion, low to moderate LSD doses changed language over diverse production types, components and time points. While simpler and disconnected structure and semantic similarity might reflect cognitive impairments, changed vocabulary might reflect subjective perceptions. Therefore, language under LSD might provide a window into the psychedelic mind and automated language quantifications should be better explored as valuable tools to yield more unconstrained insights into psychedelic perception and cognition.

Identity, language socialization, and family language policies in dialect contact: the case of Argentinean immigrants in Malaga, Spain

AbstractThis paper explores from a qualitative and quantitative approach, the complex interactions between second dialect accommodation or acquisition, language socialization, ideologies, family language policies, and identity, among Argentinean immigrants living in Malaga, Spain (n = 72). We found that family language policies – and more specifically mothers’ language policies and their stances towards both varieties in contact – shape their children’s development, connect with their formal school success, determine D1 maintenance, and even affect identity projection. We also found discrepancies between conservative family language policies and linguistic production: what families try to do with language does not always match their own linguistic performance. Through the analysis of different language components – phonological, morpho-syntactic, and lexical – we conclude that linguistic accommodation or second dialect acquisition does not always follow a linear path to assimilation, but it is related to early stages of exposure and formal education in the D2 community (optimal age acquisition period), takes place to improve mutual intelligibility, derives from both unconscious and conscious decisions to change D1, and allows speakers to showcase different identities through accommodation or divergence.

Scaffolding via Group-dynamic Assessment to Positively Affect Motivation, Learning Anxiety, and Willingness to Communicate: A Case Study of High School Students.

Although a mass of studies has demonstrated the effectiveness of scaffolding through group-dynamic assessment (G-DA) in fostering English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language skills and components, its contributions to developing psychological constructs, such as motivation, learning anxiety (LA), and willingness to communicate (WTC) have remained largely unexplored in the context of Iranian high schools. Thus, this study purported to disclose the contributions of G-DA to Iranian high school students' motivation, LA, and WTC. For these purposes, 124 grade 11 students were chosen through a random sampling method at Shahed High School in Borujerd City, Iran, homogenized through the Oxford Quick Placement test (OQPT), and randomly allocated as a control group (CG) (n = 23) and an experimental group (EG) (n = 23). Afterward, a pre-test, interventions (for 16 one-hour sessions held two times a week as an extra-curricular program), and a post-test were implemented. The results of the independent samples t-tests evidenced that EG's motivation significantly improved compared to CG after the interventions. Additionally, the findings revealed that the G-DA-based instruction significantly contributed to relieving EG's LA. Further, the results uncovered that a statistically significant difference existed between EG and CG concerning the gains in WTC. The findings gained in this study are anticipated to contribute significantly to the various EFL settings, as well as they offer a variety of recommendations and implications for relevant stakeholders.

CONSIDERATION OF SOCIAL SEMIOTICS IN THE SELECTION OF LEARNING MATERIAL AS PRINTED-BASED LITERACY FOR ELT TEACHER IN 21ST CENTURY SKILL

Social semiotics is the study of a group of objects, events, culture, and so on in society as a sign with a specific meaning. This is extremely beneficial when it comes to the selection and production of educational materials in schools for 21st century skill. This study aims to describe the urgency of social semiotic considerations in the selection of learning material as printed-based literacy in English language teaching in schools for 21st century skill. This study used a qualitative method research. The subjects of this study were English language teachers in Riau. The data obtained in the form of the results of filling out a questionnaire in the form of choices and short answers in accordance with the objectives of this study. The data collection technique used is a questionnaire via Google form. This study uses qualitative in analyzing the data obtained. Based on this research, the researcher found that the need for consideration of social semiotics in the selection of learning material as printed-based literacy in English language teaching is very necessary. The biggest difficulty is applying social semiotics as a way of making learning material as printed-based literacy in learning English later. However, the textbook still does not use social semiotics learning material as printed-based literacy in English learning. Therefore, the six language components in social semiotics are needed. With the existence of the six language components in the study of social semiotics, it is hoped that teachers will find it easier to select and make learning material as printed-based literacy in the school environment

Native-speakerism in ELT in Morocco: A Study of Students’ Attitudes and Teachers’ Self-perceptions

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it aims to discuss the concept of native-speakerism in English language teaching and how such an ideology is still manifested in the discriminatory practices between native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs). Second, the study seeks to explore Moroccan EFL students’ (MEFLSs) attitudes towards NESTs and non-NESTs. Finally, the study endeavours to measure Moroccan EFL teachers’ (MEFLTs) self-perceptions regarding their own proficiency and their level of comfort teaching different skills, language components and levels, along with their beliefs about and perceptions of other non-NESTs. To this end, a total of 119 participants took part in the present study (76 MEFLSs and 43 MEFLTs). The findings of the study show that MEFLSs’ attitudes towards NESTs and non-NESTs are positive and MEFLTs’ self-perceptions about their own proficiency or level of comfort teaching different skills or levels are high.

Evaluating the effectiveness of joint attention training program on speech skills and receptive and expressive language components of children with autism spectrum disorder

Aim: Determining the effectiveness of the joint attention program on expressive, receptive and spoken language components of children with autism spectrum disorder 3 to 5 years has been implemented. Methods: The statistical population includes all children with autism spectrum disorder aged 3 to 5 years who had visited special preschools for children with autism spectrum disorders and clinics in Tehran. The research sample was accessible, which included 5 children who were randomly selected. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of Nyusha's growth assessment tools program, Gilliam's Autism Spectrum Disorder scoring scale (GARS 3) and the set of false belief tasks were used. Descriptive statistics, observational analysis, effect size and recovery percentage methods were used to analyze the data. Results: After the analysis, the results of the research also showed the average scores in the expressive and receptive language components after the implementation of the joint attention training program compared to the baseline, the trend of relative growth and overall improvement. Conclusion: The results of this research indicate the effectiveness of the joint attention training program on improving the expressive, receptive and spoken language components of children with autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, it is suggested to use this educational program to improve the language skills of these children.

Towards Modular Development of Reusable Language Components for Domain-Specific Modeling Languages in the MagicDraw and MontiCore Ecosystems.

Towards Modular Development of Reusable Language Components for Domain-Specific Modeling Languages in the MagicDraw and MontiCore Ecosystems.

Muzhnyaa Zhena and Divo Divnoe: From the History of Pleonastic Combinations in Russian Language

The problematics of the article lies in the field of studying the linguistic phenomena of pleonasm and tautology in diachronic aspect. The unified interpretation of these notions is absent in the modern linguistic tradition. The study of linguistic redundancy is effective on the basis of the non-standardized lexical semantic system of the language of the pre-national period. The article deals with stable combinations that reveal semantic duplication in the semantic relations of their components in the Russian language of the 16th-17th centuries. In the texts of this period various types of pleonastic constructions can be distinguished: 1) tautological phraseological units consisting of single-root words; 2) proper pleonastic combinations with a semantically redundant component; 3) dissected-descriptive constructions that have a one-word synonym of the same root, including expressions with broad-valued nouns; 4) conditionally synonymous constructions, including homogeneous components that are close in meaning. The article describes the features of the structure, semantics, functioning of various pleonastic stable combinations, as well as their further fate in Russian language. Some, used with amplifying semantics as etiquette formulas, remained markers of the business language of the 16th-17th centuries, others are known in texts of different epochs, acting as a sign that the context belongs to the folklore or stylization, the third ones are actively used as phraseological units in modern language.

COMPUTER METAPHORS IN UKRAINIAN BIOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY

The article focuses on the metaphorical use of computer terminology in the biological term system of the Ukrainian language in the process of transterminization. The analyzed phenomenon is rooted in the strengthening of integrative processes within modern science, as has been established. The synthesis of scientific fields involves not only the harmonious coexistence or exchange of scientific methods and concepts, but also active interaction at the level of terminology. Transterminization of terms refers to the process of naming a new concept in biology, whereby term units from other scientific fields undergo semantic evolution. In modern linguistics, a metaphor is considered a regular and organic component of scientific language. A term metaphor is a mechanism of recoding a linguistic unit, which makes it possible to represent a new special concept through known objects, realities of another field of knowledge. Metaphorization ensures the emergence of new terms and promotes the development of creative mechanisms of interaction for various industries. The rapid development of information technologies has caused an active growth of the so-called computer metaphors in many fields of science, in particular in biology. Computer vocabulary has become an attribute of communication not only for experts in the computer industry, but also, losing its narrow-branch nature, deeply penetrates the national speech and affects nominative processes in other scientific spheres. Computer realities, well known to modern speakers, help to describe complex biological processes and phenomena. The paper also considers the transformations that occur in the semantic structure of the term as a result of migration to another term system. Metaphorization of computer terminology consists in changing the initial meaning by including new components into its semantics, in particular, term semes, which modify the meaning and project it onto the biological term system. In the system of biological terms, computer terms are metaphorized to denote devices, executors of actions, and terms with a procedural meaning. It is noted that at the same time biological terminology becomes a donor for computer terminology.

May the illocutionary force be with you: the anaphora rule in english-spanish voice-over translation

"This paper explores the rendition possibilities of English deaccenting by anaphora rule (given information) in Spanish voice-over translation by means of a study of 9 unscripted programmes, including documentaries, reality shows and news interviews. The intonational component of source languages in translation has barely gained any attention in Audiovisual Translation (AVT), even when English prosody is immensely rich from a communicative and pragmatic perspective. In addition, we cannot expect to find a one-to-one relationship between the intonational systems of source and target languages, nor consider all parts of the source text equally relevant. For this reason, the deaccenting of old information in oral English and the pragmatic and illocutionary load that it carries need to be properly rendered in the target language, in our case Spanish, by means of the resources available in this language, which may not only be prosodic, but also syntactic and semantic."

Комплексная модель системы иноязычного обучения в высшей военной школе

To build a system of foreign language education in military universities using the modeling method, it is necessary to take into account all the key aspects of professionally-oriented subject training. A model of the system of foreign language education at the higher military school, including interrelated modules, is proposed: resource-normative (prerequisites, regulatory framework); axiological-target (concepts, goals, functions); theoretical-methodological (approaches and principles); content-technological (educational and professional communicative situations, content, technologies); procedural and evaluative (stages, levels of language proficiency, assessment indicators). The main structural elements of the model are described: functions (communicative, educational, ideological, informational, social, cultural, integrating, developing); approaches (competence, communicative, personal-activity, socio-cultural and others); content (language, speech, thematic and competence components); technologies (mnemonic circuits, design, gaming, problem-search, digital); language proficiency levels (low, elementary, basic, high advanced), etc. This model allows us to comprehensively consider the process of foreign language learning as a single set of interrelated elements and, based on this, manage the learning process.

The carving & healing of a wound: linguistic homelessness and disidentification as survival

Building on the work of chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa and queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz this paper analyses and discusses the affective component of language for those whose first language has been overshadowed by a second language. I ask how language affects the self’s sense of identity/belonging, the possibility for communicating/accessing queerness, and what linguistic or poetic tools can be employed to empower the self. Following the tradition of feminist thought that assumes that the personal is political, I write from personal experiences. As a Colombian-born migrant in Sweden, I explore how the overshadowing of my mother tongue (Spanish) by Swedish (as the language with the perceived highest social and cultural value in Swedish society) has impacted on my self-image, sense of identity, self-worth and queerness. Gloria Anzaldúa inspires me to mix languages and push the boundaries of the academic text format. Confronting it with a poetic, violent and desbordado language, I challenge normative ideas of academic writing, but I also hope that others might find beauty in the decisive ambiguity and the mixing of languages. I engage with what Gloria Anzaldúa (2012, 1984) and Cherrie Moraga (1984) call theorizing from the flesh and turn to concepts such as linguistic terrorism, while also approaching José Esteban Muñoz’s brown feelings (2020). Furthermore, I build on Torres (2017) who argues that the emotional bonds bilinguals have to different languages intersect with their sense of identity and place, thus evoking various emotions and memories. From here, I conclude that having one’s first language be overshadowed by a second one creates ambiguity and confusion about the self’s identity. Feeling homeless in language translates into an uncertainty about one’s claim to any citizenship or cultural identity, thus leading to anxiety, sadness and sense of non-belonging. I contrast this with the concept of disidentification (Muñoz 1999), which opens practices of survival through entering queer temporality and embracing ambiguity. Accordingly, the confusion about a defined identity (going along with a particular language) can become useful for negotiating the self’s queerness. For Muñoz, neither opting for assimilation nor counteridentification, but disidentifying allows the self to (re)construct a sense of identity and belonging.

Coevolution of language and tools in the human brain: An ALE meta-analysis of neural activation during syntactic processing and tool use.

Language and complex tool use are often cited as behaviors unique to humans and may be evolutionarily linked owing to the underlying cognitive processes they have in common. We executed a quantitative activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis (GingerALE 2.3) on published, whole-brain neuroimaging studies to identify areas associated with syntactic processing and/or tool use in humans. Significant clusters related to syntactic processing were identified in areas known to be related to language production and comprehension, including bilateral Broca's area in the inferior frontal gyrus. Tool use activation clusters were all in the left hemisphere and included the primary motor cortex and premotor cortex, in addition to other areas involved with sensorimotor transformation. Activation shared by syntactic processing and tool use was only significant at one cluster, located in the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus. This minimal overlap between syntactic processing and tool use activation from our meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies indicates that there is not a widespread common neural network between the two. Broca's area may serve as an important hub that was initially recruited in early human evolution in the context of simple tool use, but was eventually co-opted for linguistic purposes, including the sequential and hierarchical ordering processes that characterize syntax. In the future, meta-analyses of additional components of language may allow for a more comprehensive examination of the functional networks that underlie the coevolution of human language and complex tool use.