Profane Research Articles

First-language acquisition in a multimodal language framework: Insights from speech, gesture, and sign

Children across the world acquire their first language(s) naturally, regardless of typology or modality (e.g. sign or spoken). Various attempts have been made to explain the puzzle of language acquisition using several approaches, trying to understand to what extent it can be explained by what children bring to language-learning situations as well as what they learn from the input and the interactive context. However, most of these approaches consider only speech development, thus ignoring the inherently multimodal nature of human language. As a multimodal view of language is becoming more widely adopted for the study of adult language, a multimodal approach to language acquisition is inevitable. Not only do children have the capacity to learn spoken and sign language equally easily, but spoken language acquisition consists of learning to coordinate linguistic expressions in both modalities, that is, in both speech and gesture. To provide a step forward in this direction, this article aims to synthesize findings from research studies that take a multimodal perspective on language acquisition in different sign and spoken languages, including the development of speech and accompanying gestures. Our review shows that while some aspects of language acquisition seem to be modality-independent, others might differ according to the affordances of each modality when used separately as well as together (either in sign, speech, and/or gesture). We argue that these findings need to be integrated into our understanding of language acquisition. We also identify which areas need future research for both spoken and sign language acquisition, taking into account not only multimodal but also cross-linguistic variation.

Linguistic models of abusive language

ABSTRACT Abusive language and hate speech that incites violence is a growing problem for governments trying to manage social media posts on the internet. Such language incites civil disorder by angering target individuals and groups, and tends to reinforce the identity and cohesiveness of those who use it. Abusive language is an intelligence target because it can be a leading indicator of violence. Black box predictors can achieve high accuracy but they reveal nothing about the structures, both social and technical, that underlie abusive language. We build a set of abusive language predictors leveraging both social constructs such as otherness, and linguistic properties. A stacking predictor then determines the most significant component predictors. We achieve prediction accuracy of 96.5%, with an 88% accuracy for abusive documents. This is an improvement of more than 16% points in detecting abusive documents compared to a popular empirically derived predictors, and provides insights into the mechanics of abusive language.

Using Deep Learning Techniques to Detect Hate and Abusive Language in Arabic Tweets

Using Deep Learning Techniques to Detect Hate and Abusive Language in Arabic Tweets

Reading Comprehension Activities in the Ugandan English as a Foreign Language Classroom

The study examines the reading comprehension activities in the Ugandan English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. It particularly analyses the activities that the learners of EFL participate in as part of their reading comprehension lessons. The study focusses on EFL learners from countries such as Congo, Eritrea, South Sudan, and Ethiopia, among others studying in Ugandan adult language schools. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the reading comprehension activities in the Ugandan EFL classroom and to establish the learners’ response to the reading comprehension activities used in the EFL class. Drawing on the transactional theory, the study analyses the reading comprehension activities and the learners’ response to them. The findings indicate that the most profound activities in the classes were pre-reading activities. In their order of frequency, pre-reading activities were the most profound in the classes observed, followed by while-reading and the post-reading activities, which were the least used. In the classes where reading activities were used, they excited the majority of the EFL learners and they paid attention to the lesson. The learners’ response to the activities was diverse with the majority expressing interest in the activities as others chose not to participate at all. The study recommends the use of more reading comprehension activities especially at the while- and post-reading comprehension stages of the lessons which were lacking in most of the classes observed. It further recommends involving the learners and putting into consideration their views during the identification and selection of reading comprehension activities to ensure their maximum participation in the reading comprehension activities

Drivers of hate speech in political conversations on Twitter: the case of the 2022 Italian general election

We study the prevalence and characteristics of toxic speech on Twitter in the run-up to the 2022 Italian General election. We analyzed over 8.5 M tweets shared by 450k unique users and employed a machine learning classifier to estimate the toxicity score of their messages. We found that supporters of different political coalitions exhibit varying levels of toxic speech, sending between 6-8% of toxic messages overall. Notably, Centre-Left politicians received more toxic messages on average, with the largest target of hate receiving over 15,000 toxic replies. We employed Generalized Linear Models to study factors that drive hate speech to political targets, finding that, importantly, politicians employing more abusive and harmful language are also more likely to attract more inflammatory speech. Our findings underscore the critical need for targeted interventions to address hate speech online, fostering healthier dialogue and safeguarding democratic discourse.

Sentiment Analysis of Arabic Tweets: Detecting Revilement

Social media systems play an necessary function in shaping public opinion and reflecting societal sentiments. This study focuses on sentiment analysis in Arabic tweets with a particular focus on offensive or offensive content. The aim of this research is to boost a dependable sentiment evaluation model that can accurately classify Arabic tweets as positive or negative, with a particular focus on identifying offensive language. A multinomial Naive Bayes classifier is trained on pre-processed data to perform sentiment classification. The classifier is fine-tuned to differentiate between positive and negative emotions, with a particular focus on identifying offensive or swearing language. The model is evaluated the usage of a complete set of metrics along with precision, precision, recall, and F1score. Experimental consequences point out promising overall performance of the developed sentiment evaluation model. The model achieved an accuracy of 93%, effectively classifying Arabic tweets into effective and bad sentiments. The precision, recall, and F1-score metrics similarly validate the model's capacity to precisely become aware of revilement and offensive language. These outcomes spotlight the conceivable of the proposed strategy in successfully examining Arabic tweets for sentiment and offensive content, contributing to higher grasp on line behaviors and sentiments in the context of revilement.

"Death Is Not a Dirty Word:" A Qualitative Study of Emergency Clinician End-of-Life Communication.

Pediatric patients with life-limiting diagnoses frequently seek care in the pediatric emergency department (PED) during times of acute illness, or at end-of-life (EOL) . Although the population of patients with life-limiting diagnoses is heterogenous, clinician expertise in EOL communication is essential to providing family-centered care. In this study, we explored PED physician and nurse experiences with communication when eliciting EOL values, including factors specified to the PED environment, clinician perceptions of family supports and preferences, and clinicians' self-reflection of their skills and challenges in this sphere. We performed a prospective qualitative study using semistructured interviews of PED physicians and nurses recruited from a quaternary care center. Thematic content analysis was performed on the transcribed interviews to identify codes and, ultimately, themes. We interviewed 17 emergency department clinicians, including 10 physicians and 7 nurses. Thematic content analysis revealed 6 salient themes. The first theme related to contextual factors of the emergency department environment. Two additional themes related to patient and family characteristics, including unique patient and family factors and clinician interpretation of parental/family needs. Lastly, we found 3 clinician-focused themes including knowledge gaps in EOL communication, communication styles and priorities in EOL conversations with families, and coping with ethical challenges. PED clinicians report communication-related challenges to providing optimal care for families and patients with life-limiting diagnoses. Participants self-identified gaps in communication skills in this area. Future studies should focus on clinician educational interventions on the basis of this needs assessment and include family perspectives to develop best practice.

Swedish L2 teacher cognitions of the initial assessment of students' L1 literacy resources

In this paper, we explore second language (L2) teachers’ cognitions regarding the initial assessment of adult learner literacy in their strongest language. Instruction can thus be adapted according to what is stipulated in the curriculum and syllabus. The literacy assessment is conducted in the student’s strongest language with assistance from an interpreter, translated decoding and reading comprehension tasks and concerns assessment of learners with little or no prior education. Questionnaires and interviews with L2 teachers reveal great variation based on four categories of teacher knowledge, namely, Subject matter knowledge, Knowledge of students, Pedagogical knowledge, and Knowledge of educational contexts. These four categories were partly intertwined with each other and both a resource and a deficit perspective emerged. The teachers’ cognitions regarding the concept of literacy, the value of initial L1 literacy assessment and students’ prior literacy and multilingual resources, as well as its potential for instruction planning were diverse. This may have significant implications for what emerges in initial assessments of a student's L1 literacy. In turn, this affects the validity of the assessment and, ultimately, the quality of education.

Usage Sphere and Recognition Rate of Vulgarisms

The article scrutinizes vulgarisms used in swear words, slangs, jargons, proverbs, sayings and idioms. Besides, the study made a survey on vulgarisms used in these lexical units by different age group respondents. While analyzing the article, it turned out that vulgarisms do not emerge as a result of anger or fury, so they can appear as a result of pampering or cuddling, too. After a rigid analysis, it became known that elderly respondents know more proverbs and sayings rich in vulgarity due to longer life experience while middle-aged people know more sexual slangs due to access to porn sites and adult videos. Teenagers do not know any proverbs or sayings containing vulgar words because of lack of life experience. After a profound investigation, it turned out that swear words host the most vulgarity while it is followed by slangs and jargons. Sexual slangs contain the second biggest vulgarity. Vulgarisms are sometimes euphemized in slangs or jargons while it is impossible in swear words.

Disfemisme Ungkapan Umpatan pada Terjemahan Arab-Indonesia Cerpen “طبلية من السماء” Karya Yusuf Idris

This article examines the use of dysphemism in swear words in the translation of Yusuf Idris's short story “Thobaliyyah Min As-Sama'” into Herpin Nopiandi Khurosan's short story “Tray from Heaven”. Dysfeminism refers to the use of language that is designed to emphasize negative connotations and make a statement sound worse or harsher. This study aims to determine the form of swear word dysphemism in the Arabic-Indonesian translation of the short story “Thobaliyyah Min As-Sama'”, knowing the function of swear word dysphemism in the Arabic-Indonesian translation of the short story “Thobaliyyah Min As-Sama”. The theory used in this research is Allan and Burridge's theory of dysphemism. The method of this research is descriptive qualitative, with 2 data collection techniques, namely reading the entire contents of the short story and recording the data in accordance with the theory. Then the data were analyzed using the Miles and Huberman method, namely by collecting data, reducing data, presenting data, and conclusions. The results of this study show that there are some data that show the existence of dysphemism in swear words. Among them have functions, namely, to vent the speaker's emotions, to joke, to demean the listener, and to swear. This research makes an important contribution to the understanding of how dysphemisms are translated and how shifts in language can affect the meaning and emotional impact of literary texts. For future research, it is hoped that other researchers can explore the comparison of dysphemisms in various literary genres or in the context of translation between different languages.

Understanding hate speech: the HateInsights dataset and model interpretability

The persistence of hate speech continues to pose an obstacle in the realm of online social media. Despite the continuous evolution of advanced models for identifying hate speech, the critical dimensions of interpretability and explainability have not received proportional scholarly attention. In this article, we introduce the HateInsights dataset, a groundbreaking benchmark in the field of hate speech datasets, encompassing diverse aspects of this widespread issue. Within our dataset, each individual post undergoes thorough annotation from dual perspectives: firstly, conforming to the established 3-class classification paradigm that includes hate speech, offensive language, and normal discourse; secondly, incorporating rationales that outline specific segments of a post supporting the assigned label (categorized as hate speech, offensive language, or normal discourse). Our exploration yields a significant finding by harnessing cutting-edge state-of-the-art models: even models demonstrating exceptional proficiency in classification tasks yield suboptimal outcomes in crucial explainability metrics, such as model plausibility and faithfulness. Furthermore, our analysis underscores a promising revelation concerning models trained using human-annotated rationales. To facilitate scholarly progress in this realm, we have made both our dataset and codebase accessible to fellow researchers. This initiative aims to encourage collaborative involvement and inspire the advancement of the hate speech detection approach characterized by increased transparency, clarity, and fairness.

Voice of Empowerment: Debunking Gendered Language in Emma Watson’s Advocacy

For nearly five decades, Robin Lakoff’s women’s language features have been well examined. These features such as hedges, intensifiers, and rising intonation have traditionally positioned women as powerless language users due to their less-assertive nature. However, few have highlighted how these features can serve as rhetorical strategies that can effectively utilized to argue confidently without appearing overly assertive, in line with social expectations. This study examines women’s language features used by Emma Watson at the HeForShe Campaign 2014. By using a descriptive qualitative method, we collected data from Emma’s speech to identify the features of the women’s language that she used to address gender equality issues. The study found six of Lakoff’s (1975) women’s language features, with lexical hedges being the most frequently used to represent politeness and caution in speaking as well as expressing respect for the interlocutor. Notably, tag questions, precise color terms, hypercorrect grammar, and avoiding strong swear words were not found, likely due to their irrelevance to the feminism-focused topic in the campaign. Instead of highlighting the perceived weaknesses of women’s language, this study emphasizes that women’s language can be a means to empower women’s voices. Emma effectively and persuasively delivered her campaign by using her mastery of language, storytelling techniques, and rhetoric to engage the audience. Overall, Emma strategically utilized women’s language to demonstrate her linguistic capability and even persuade the audience effectively rather than showing the weakness of women’s language as commonly perceived by previous studies.

Solidarity is not a dirty word: exploring and locating solidarity as a theory and model for a radical community social work practice

Within this article we highlight that social work is both a political as well as a professional practice. Despite years of technical specialisation and a policy context that has focused social work on risk management and resource allocation, there remains a deep commitment to care, compassion, and solidarity within contemporary social work practice. The article and its analysis make the case for a more politically informed social work practice, one that is based on solidarity; in opposition to a system that isolates individuals and internalises complex social problems. We posit that the application of solidarity within social work delivers a practice that promotes social inclusion and is based on the provision of practical social support. It is from this perspective that we will present evidence from ethnographic research, drawn from community social work practice, to highlight the importance of social solidarity and provide an insight into different ways of working.

Police Avoidance Among Black Youth

ObjectivesPolice violence is a public health crisis that disproportionately impacts youth of color, particularly Black youth. These disparities may also compel Black youth to engage in police avoidance (i.e., efforts to circumvent police contact and surveillance). Even so, research on Black youths’ engagement in police avoidance is lacking. The present study is the first to investigate factors that may underpin police avoidance among Black youth. MethodsData come from the Survey of Police-Adolescent Contact Experiences (SPACE), a recent, cross-sectional, non-probability survey of Black youth (~52% male) aged 12-21 in Baltimore City (n = 345). ResultsFindings indicate that youth 1) identifying as bisexual or queer, 2) perceiving lower safety at home and in their neighborhoods, 3) reporting more negative attitudes about police, and 4) engaging in delinquent behaviors reported significantly greater police avoidance. Furthermore, youth who reported a greater number of known persons stopped by the police (e.g., family members, friends, neighbors) and had personally experienced officer intrusion during direct or witnessed stops (e.g., harsh language, threats of force, use of force) also exhibited greater police avoidance. ConclusionsLGBQ identity, reduced perceptions of environmental safety, negative attitudes about police, delinquent behaviors, and multiple types of police exposure may shape police avoidance among Black youth. Findings have the potential to inform targeted strategies to mitigate racial and LGBQ disparities in adolescent well-being. Clinical Trial RegistrationNone.

БҮГІНГІ БҰҚАРАЛЫҚ АҚПАРАТ ҚҰРАЛДАРЫ КЕҢІСТІГІНДЕГІ ЛИНГВОЭКОЛОГИЯ МӘСЕЛЕЛЕРІ

The number of mass media outlets in the information space is growing every year, with a particular increase in TV channels, websites, and portals disseminating information in the Kazakh language. A key issue today is not only to expand the quantity of Kazakh-language media but also to enhance the quality of their content. The aim of this research is to analyze the language culture within Kazakh-language media, particularly in the social sphere, to identify shortcomings, and to develop examples that align with the norms of the literary language. This article provides a detailed analysis of the issues related to linguoecology as reflected in the media, offering a comprehensive review of linguistic and stylistic errors, the use of inappropriate language, and the creation of artificial proverbs and sayings. The analysis is grounded in the principles of language culture and literary norms. Examples frequently encountered in media publications and television broadcasts are examined. Furthermore, the article suggests ways to improve the linguistic environment by addressing the influence of extralinguistic factors and provides scientific recommendations for enhancing language use. The research methods employed include analysis, control, and review. The conclusions and insights are particularly relevant for authors, journalists, and broadcasters who produce content in the Kazakh language.

EXPERIENCE OF APPLYING NEUROSCIENCE IN TEACHING KAZAKH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Teaching and learning the Kazakh language as a second language are one of the main state issues in Kazakhstan. In the modern realities we need very efficient and sufficient approaches and methods of teaching the Kazakh language to non-natives living in Kazakhstan. Teachers and educators are looking for different ways to teach Kazakhas a second language. Nowadays there are not many researches related to the application of the advanced methods of teaching it. This article aims to establish the connection between neuroscience and the teaching of Kazakh as a second language. The articlepresents the theoretical basis of neuroscience and its basic concepts. This article represents results of conducting an experiment of teaching Kazakh as a second language to adults. Based on these neuroscientific concepts and strategies for teaching Kazakh as a second language, we designed and applied a Kazakh language course as a second language for adults. At the end of the course adult learners passed a final test according to the Kaztest system. During and at the end of the experiment course there was not any special preparation for the final test. The results of the experiment showed that implementation of the neuroscientific concepts and strategies was efficient. According to the results of the experiment course we state that we can effectively construct the Kazakh language teaching course by having a thorough understanding of the brain function that neuroscience studies. Using the results of this experiment, educators and teachers of the Kazakh language can improve their methodology and contribute to the effective learning of the language by learners.

Expressing Anger with Robot for Tackling the Onset of Robot Abuse

Service robots in public spaces can sometimes become victims of ‘abuse’, manifesting as persistent blocking of the robot’s path, physical violence such as pushing or pulling, or abusive language. This kind of abuse can be a serious obstacle to the deployment of robots. We studied the possibility of mitigating obstructive behaviour towards the robot, which is known to happen in the early stages of robot abuse, by having the robot express anger-like emotions. We identified and implemented three distinct anger behaviours: furious, quiet, and scolding anger. Through an online video survey, we confirmed that all three designed robot behaviours were perceived as expressions of anger. Finally, we ran an in-lab experiment with child participants to study the influence of the robot’s expressions of anger on children’s obstructive behaviours. The results show that ‘furious anger’ was effective in reducing the frequency of obstructions, whereas the other two anger types were not.

Theoretical and Empirical Justifications for The Development of the Questionnaire “Subjective Evaluation of Lukism in Humor”

Introduction. The paper deals with the problem of lookism (discrimination based on appearance) on the example of evaluating humorous posts and memes, which in various social situations can act as triggers of lookism. In order to diagnose sensitivity to Lukism in jokes, we attempted to prepare a basic description of the future structure of the methodology by testing a number of statements obtained by other authors in relation to different types of jokes. The novelty of the study lies in the description of the stages of preparation of the stimulus material, which allows us to study the peculiarities of perception of humor that ridicules the features of appearance and sensitivity to such jokes depending on the respondent’s experience (as a victim or a witness). Objective. To test a number of assumptions that are essential for the development of a questionnaire to examine the subjective evaluation of Lukism in humor. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted in five stages, a total of 410 participants (54 men, 356 women), aged 19 to 46 years, each stage included consideration of different components of perception and evaluation of humor in terms of the perception of it as offensive/containing lukism. Results. At each stage the peculiarities of perception of humorous posts that are distributed in social networks were revealed. It was revealed that the way of design (textual, textual-visual, as well as peculiarities of using different visual components), as well as the personal experience of respondents who faced situations of Lukism and self-assessment of respondents’ appearance influence the perception of a joke as containing or not containing Lukism, as well as the prediction of its assessment by other people as “offensive”. Discussion. Considering memes as complex, multilevel texts of identity, we see in them a significant potential for studying social norms, stereotypes and attitudes about appearance and sensitivity to the assessment of it as “non-standard” and a target for jokes. At the empirical level, we have identified a number of requirements for the selection of jokes to be included in the questionnaire: uniformity of design, use of “swear words”, visual content (images of “realistic people”), etc. An approximate structure of the future questionnaire is also presented.

Lost in subtitling: do Arabic satellite TV channels and DVDs speak the same language?

Subtitling taboo comedy has recently emerged as one of the most complex issues in audiovisual translation in the Arab world. Translating this genre across language and cultural barriers demands meticulous attention to the norms and expectations of the target viewers’ culture. However, despite the growing interest in this area, further research is necessary to understand this phenomenon and its mechanisms. Therefore, this paper delves into this thorny issue and investigates the various levels of censorship and their frequency in the Arabic subtitles displayed on satellite TV channels and DVDs. The corpus analysed consists of 16 episodes from seasons 9, 10, and 11 of the American sitcom Two and a Half Men aired on MBC4, one of the most prominent Arabic TV channels, and the DVD version of these episodes. A comparative linguistic analysis was conducted on the original dialogues of the selected episodes and their Arabic subtitles, highlighting instances of censorship and identifying the strategies employed. The results of the analysis indicate that Arab subtitlers have implemented a more rigorous censorship approach in rendering taboo language, such as sexual references and swear words on TV channels compared to DVDs. Based on descriptive translation studies, the analysis reveals that Arab subtitlers working for MBC4 relied on three main strategies of censorship: euphemisation, semantic mistranslation, and omission. Furthermore, it is observed that the satellite channel has implemented rigorous censorship protocols pertaining to homosexuality, leading to the omission of certain scenes altogether. This action was taken to avoid any potential discomfort or offence to Arab viewers. It is evident that dominant ideologies and relevant censorship practices play a significant role in modifying the linguistic and visual content of the original sitcom, hindering the target viewers from following the storyline of the episodes and grasping the intended humour.

ANALYSING WOMEN'S LANGUAGE FEATURES IN ESHA CHHABRA'S TED TALK ON ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS

This research, titled "Women's Language Features of Environmental Business Journalist Esha Chhabra Video on TED YouTube Channel," aims to identify the characteristics of women's language used by Esha Chhabra. The data was collected from her spoken words in the video. The study identified 41 instances of women's language features, including lexical hedges, tag questions, rising intonation, empty adjectives, intensifiers, hypercorrect grammar, super polite forms, and emphatic stress. The most frequently used feature was the intensifier, which the speaker employed to reinforce her statements and persuade the audience. While the least encountered features are tag question, hypercorrect grammar, and emphatic stress. Notably, two features—precise color terms and strong swears words—was absent. This absence is attributed to the video's business context, where strong swear words are inappropriate, and precise color terms are unnecessary. This research contributes to understanding how women's language features are utilized in professional and public speaking contexts.