Frequency Of Word Usage Research Articles

UK Labour Party Leaders' Attitudes to Conventional Threats to National Security, 2023-2024

Introduction. The article focuses on the securitisation of power threats in the public speeches of the UK Labour Party leaders (Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Defence Minister John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy) during the 2023-2024 election campaign. An attempt has been made to highlight the commonalities and peculiarities in the approach of the current and previous British governments to countering the main threats to national security. Materials and methods. The paper combines qualitative and quantitative approaches: a critical content analysis of sources and discourse analysis in an electoral context (using data from sociological surveys) are conducted, while the frequency of word usage in the public speeches of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is analysed using the tools of quantitative analysis of big data (R programming language). The methodological basis of the work is the theory of securitisation proposed by the Copenhagen School of the theory of international relations.Research results. It is concluded that the main change in London's foreign policy after Labour's victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections will be the prioritisation of security cooperation with European states. Labour Party leaders do not question the need for ‘dual containment’ of Russia and China, but they give the ‘China threat’ secondary importance: there are noticeable differences within the party on this issue. On the other hand, Labour's position on the ‘special relationship’ with the United States is characterised by a steady continuity with the Conservative government's approach. The need to deepen cooperation in Euro-Atlantic security structures (primarily NATO) and continental formats (EI2, JEF) is stated.Discussion and conclusion. On the basis of qualitative examination of policy documents and statements of the Labour Party leaders, as well as quantitative analysis of big data, conclusions are drawn about the key elements of potential continuity and variability in the foreign policy of London before and after the parliamentary elections on July 4, 2024. The results of the work can be useful in forecasting changes in the foreign policy of Great Britain after the victory of Labour in the parliamentary elections of 2024. The theoretical importance of the work lies in the fact that the article proposes a new methodology for quantitative analysis of the foreign policy of the UK.

Frequency of Hebrew word usage by children with intellectual and developmental disabilities: implications for AAC core vocabulary

Appropriate vocabulary selection for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention is crucial to support communication and language development in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Core vocabulary lists are commonly used to guide this process, and there is a need for language-specific consideration. This paper aimed to develop a wordlist for selecting the core vocabulary for AAC intervention for young Hebrew-speaking children with IDD. Five children (age 3;5–8;4) were audio-recorded in naturalistic interactions with an interviewer and family members. Using Levy’s clinical corpus in the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) and Child Phonology Analyzer (CPA) tools and preestablished codes, wordlists with usage frequencies were extracted and coded for lexeme, lexical categories and functions or content. The percentages of the 20, 50, 100, and 200 most frequent lexemes were calculated for each child and for the five children combined. The top 200 most frequently used lexemes constituted 85% of the composite lexicon. A comparison was made between this study list and a previous list derived from language samples of typically developing (TD). Lexemes representing function words dominated, albeit with a slight preference for content words in children with IDD. Among the content words, children with IDD used more adverbs, while children with TD used more verbs. Implications for AAC core vocabulary are discussed.

Examining the relationship between parents' self-reported mindfulness and observed language use in attachment-relevant communication.

Parents' language use is an important context for early socialization. We examined the relationship between parents' self-reported mindfulness and observed language use in two forms of attachment-relevant communication. Sixty-three parents of 6-18-month-old infants from Australia (n=32) and New Zealand (n=31) completed the five facets of mindfulness-short form (FFMQ-SF) questionnaire, the adult attachment interview (AAI), and a 10-min play session with their infant. We examined parents' frequency of word usage within the categories of the linguistic inquiry word count (LIWC) text analysis program to explore the relationship between mindfulness and language use. Mindfulness was associated with cognitive, affective, perceptual, and time orientation language use in the AAI. However, fewer associations were identified between mindfulness and language use in the parent-infant play session. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to mindfulness and attachment.

Semantic Fields and Castilianization in Galician: A Comparative Study with the Loanword Typology Project

This study examines the correspondence between the borrowability indices from the Loanwoard Typology (LWT) project and Castilianization indices from the Atlas Lingüístico Galego (ALGa) across seven semantic fields. To this end, we identified all Castilianisms in the ALGa and conducted a quantitative analysis to compare these indices. Results obtained indicate a mismatch between the rankings of the LWT project and the ALGa. For example, the field ‘The body’ has the highest level of Castilianization according to the ALGa but the lowest borrowed score in the LWT project. Moreover, Castilianization levels in the ALGa show greater dispersion than borrowability levels from the LWT project. In fact, in each semantic field, many concepts (52.2%) have low levels of Castilianization, between 0% and 10%, and only a few concepts have high levels. A more detailed analysis of three semantic fields (‘The body’, ‘Agriculture and vegetation’, and ‘The physical world’) suggests that explanations based solely on semantic criteria (such as the existence of an unalterable central lexicon) are insufficient; other factors such as prestige, urbanization, cultural modernity, frequency of word usage, and perhaps other intralinguistic factors should be taken into account.

Associations between lyric and musical depth in Chinese songs: Evidence from computational modeling.

Musical depth, which encompasses the intellectual and emotional complexity of music, is a robust dimension that influences music preference. However, there remains a dearth of research exploring the relationship between lyrics and musical depth. This study addressed this gap by analyzing linguistic inquiry and word count-based lyric features extracted from a comprehensive dataset of 2372 Chinese songs. Correlation analysis and machine learning techniques revealed compelling connections between musical depth and various lyric features, such as the usage frequency of emotion words, time words, and insight words. To further investigate these relationships, prediction models for musical depth were constructed using a combination of audio and lyric features as inputs. The results demonstrated that the random forest regressions (RFR) that integrated both audio and lyric features yielded superior prediction performance compared to those relying solely on lyric inputs. Notably, when assessing the feature importance to interpret the RFR models, it became evident that audio features played a decisive role in predicting musical depth. This finding highlights the paramount significance of melody over lyrics in effectively conveying the intricacies of musical depth.

Examining trends in epidemic typhus using historical texts.

Although associated with conflict, epidemic typhus was endemic across Europe into the modem period. The extent of the problem it caused is uncertain as record keeping in the most affected socioeconomic groups was rare. Google Ngram Viewer details the frequency of word usage in written language over time. The objective was to examine whether use of the word typhus reflected potential patterns in epidemic typhus. The frequency of the word 'typhus' was used in British English was studied between 1800 and 2019 and trends were examined. Clear differences in word usage were apparent; use increased throughout the 19 th century corresponding to increasing industrialization. Peaks coinciding with World Wars 1 and 2 were apparent. Strong correlations with the words "conflict", "warfare" and "industry" were seen. Mean shifts corresponded to public health legislation in the UK and the introduction of antibiotics. This study illustrates how examination of word usage can illuminate aspects of disease occurrence where official data sources are lacking.

FUNCTIONS OF THE SUFFIX –MOST IN ENGLISH

This paper explored the functions of the suffix –most in English and the formation of new categories of the suffix -most by analyzing the words containing it. This quantitative descriptive study collected the data from Wordbyletter.com and the online Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The text-based document analysis examined 40 words having the suffix -most. Results showed that four functions of the suffix –most, namely to form: a noun into an adjective (25%), an adjective into an adjective (45%), an adverb into an adjective (15%), and a preposition into an adjective (15%). It was analyzed that the usage frequency of several words represents all the grammatical categories of the suffix –most based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). Firstly, foremost functioning as noun formation occurred 7,078 times. Secondly, lowermost functioning as adjective formation occurred 40 times. Thirdly, the uppermost functioning as adverb formation appeared 532 times. Lastly, aftermost functioning as preposition formation occurred twice only.

Phonological Variation in Child-Directed Speech is Modulated by Lexical Frequency.

We investigate whether child-directed speech (CDS) contains a higher proportion of canonical pronunciations compared to adult-directed speech (ADS), focusing on Korean noun stem-final obstruent variation. In a word-teaching task, we observed that mothers use a higher rate of canonical pronunciation when addressing infants than when addressing adults. In a follow-up experiment, adults exhibited a higher rate of canonical pronunciation for high- than low-frequency words. Additional analyses conducted with only the high-frequency monosyllabic words from the two experiments found no evidence for simplified phonology in CDS when lexical frequency was controlled for. Our findings suggest that the higher rate of canonical forms in CDS, with respect to Korean morphophonological rules, is mediated by the frequency of word usage. Thus, the didactic function of CDS phonology appears to be a byproduct of mothers using familiar words with children. These results highlight the importance of considering word usage in investigating the nature of CDS.

Semantic adaptation of germanisms in the conceptual field: Sports, entertainment and games

Semantic adaptation refers to the process of adjusting the meaning of a foreign word to the linguistic system of the recipient. When a word is "borrowed" from a foreign language, its original meaning may be lost or changed to better fit the new linguistic environment. This usually happens through prolonged use of the word in the target language, during which a new connotation of the word may gradually develop. In this study, the semantic adaptation of German-origin words in the Bosnian language system refers to the adjustment of the meanings of words integrated into the Bosnian language. Specifically, we examine how German-origin words related to sports and games are adapted to the Bosnian language system and what changes in their semantics are noticed after integration into the Bosnian language. This paper will also analyze the prevalence of German words in the field of sports and games and investigate how often they are used in the Bosnian language. By combining the analysis of semantic adaptation of words and research on the frequency of word usage in the Bosnian language, this paper will provide insight into the influence of the German language on the Bosnian language in the field of sports and games.

The Association Between Emotional Expressivity in Autobiographies from Early Adulthood and the Risk of Dementia in the Context of Written Language Skills.

Risk factors for dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease, are complex and span a lifetime. Exploring novel factors, such as characteristics of writing, may provide insight into dementia risk. To investigate the association between emotional expressivity and risk of dementia in the context of a previously identified risk factor, written language skills. The Nun Study recruited 678 religious sisters aged 75 + years. Of these, 149 U.S.-born participants had archived autobiographies handwritten at a mean age of 22 years. The autobiographies were scored for frequency of emotion word usage and language skills (e.g., idea density). The association of emotional expressivity and a four-level composite variable (combining high/low emotional expressivity and high/low idea density) with dementia was assessed using logistic regression models adjusted for age, education, and apolipoprotein E. Within the composite variable, odds of dementia increased incrementally, with opposing effects of emotional expressivity across the two idea density levels. Compared to the referent category (low emotional expressivity/high idea density), the risk of dementia increased in those with high emotional expressivity/high idea density (OR = 2.73, 95% CI = 1.05-7.08), while those with low emotional expressivity/low idea density had the highest risk (OR = 18.58, 95% CI = 4.01-86.09). Dementia risk is better captured by inclusion of multiple measures relating to characteristics of writing. Emotional expressivity may be protective when individuals are at increased risk due to poor written language skills (i.e., low idea density), but detrimental when not at risk (i.e., high idea density). Our findings indicate that emotional expressivity is a contextually-dependent novel risk factor for dementia.

Frequency of word usage by Hebrew preschoolers: implications for AAC core vocabulary

This study’s goal was to inform the selection of the most frequently used words to serve as a reference for core vocabulary selection for Hebrew-speaking children who require AAC. The paper describes the vocabulary used by 12 Hebrew-speaking preschool children with typical development in two different conditions: peer talk, and peer talk with adult mediation. Language samples were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System) tools to identify the most frequently used words. The top 200 lexemes (all variations of a single word) in the peer talk and adult-mediated peer talk conditions accounted for 87.15% (n = 5008 tokens) and 86.4% (n = 5331 tokens) of the total tokens produced in each language sample (n = 5746, n = 6168), respectively. A substantially overlapping vocabulary of 337 lexemes accounted for up to 87% (n = 10411) of the tokens produced in the composite list (n = 11914). The results indicate that a relatively small set of words represent a large proportion of the words used by the preschoolers across two different conditions. General versus language-specific implications for core vocabulary selection for children in need of AAC devices are discussed.

Linguistic analysis of phone interviews of Nobel laureates reveals differences in communication styles between economists and scientists

Language styles used by academics working in disciplines are different, possibly reflecting how different types of knowledge are conceived, communicated and taught. Most of the studies on the communication style of academics are based on analyses of pre-prepared academic writings and formal speeches. It is not known whether such differences in language styles are also practised in informal, colloquial communications. In this paper, we report a Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) analysis of the telephone interviews given by 82 Nobel Prize laureates in the fields of natural sciences (chemistry, physics, physiology, or medicine) and economic sciences. LIWC analysis identifies differences in usage frequency of words in various language categories. The result shows a higher use of money- and power-related words by economic laureates and a higher use of second-person pronouns among science laureates. When second-person pronouns were used, economic laureates tended to use them as a general reference, while scientists tended to use them as courtesy sentences or discourse markers. These observations indicate that different language styles are used by scholars of different research fields even in their impromptu verbal communications. It is possible that word choices by economists are influenced by the content of economic studies, which are concerned with influencing the external environment and by their preference in describing processes and actions. A more involved and high level of cautions, alertness, and precision in conversion may be indicated in the speaking style of natural scientists.

Valence-dependent mutation in lexical evolution.

A central goal of linguistics is to understand how words evolve. Past research has found that macro-level factors such as frequency of word usage and population size explain the pace of lexical evolution. Here we focus on cognitive and affective factors, testing whether valence (positivity-negativity) explains lexical evolution rates. Using estimates of cognate replacement rates for 200 concepts on an Indo-European language tree spanning six to ten millennia, we find that negative valence correlates with faster cognate replacement. This association holds when controlling for frequency of use, and follow-up analyses show that it is most robust for adjectives ('dirty' versus 'clean'; 'bad' versus 'good'); it does not consistently reach statistical significance for verbs, and never reaches significance for nouns. We also present experiments showing that individuals are more likely to replace words for negative versus positive concepts. Our findings suggest that emotional valence affects micro-level guided variation, which drives macro-level valence-dependent mutation in adjectives.

What makes domain knowledge difficult? Word usage frequency from SUBTLEX and dlexDB explains knowledge item difficulty

The quality of tests in psychological and educational assessment is of great scholarly and public interest. Item difficulty models are vital to generating test result interpretations based on evidence. A major determining factor of item difficulty in knowledge tests is the opportunity to learn about the facts and concepts in question. Knowledge is mainly conveyed through language. Exposure to language associated with facts and concepts might be an indicator of the opportunity to learn. Thus, we hypothesize that item difficulty in knowledge tests should be related to the probability of exposure to the item content in everyday life and/or academic settings and therefore also to word frequency. Results from a study with 99 political knowledge test items administered to N = 250 German seventh (age: 11–14 years) and tenth (age: 15–18 years) graders showed that word frequencies in everyday settings (SUBTLEX-DE) explain variance in item difficulty, while word frequencies in academic settings (dlexDB) alone do not. However, both types of word frequency combined explain a considerable amount of the variance in item difficulty. Items with words that are more frequent in both settings and, in particular, relatively frequent in everyday settings are easier. High word frequencies and relatively higher word frequency in everyday settings could be associated with higher probability of exposure, conceptual complexity, and better readability of item content. Examining word frequency from different language settings can help researchers investigate test score interpretations and is a useful tool for predicting item difficulty and refining knowledge test items.

The Emergence of Gender Associations in Child Language Development.

Gender associations have been a long-standing research topic in psychological and social sciences. Although it is known that children learn aspects of gender associations at a young age, it is not well understood how they might emerge through the course of development. We investigate whether gender associations, such as the association of dresses with women and bulldozers with men, are reflected in the linguistic communication of young children from ages 1-5. Drawing on recent methods from machine learning, we use word embeddings derived from large text corpora including news articles and web pages as a proxy for gender associations in society, and we compare those with the gender associations of words uttered by caretakers and children in children's linguistic environment. We quantify gender associations in childhood language through gender probability, which measures the extent to which word usage frequencies in speech to and by girls and boys are gender-skewed. By analyzing 4,875 natural conversations between children and their caretakers in North America, we find that frequency patterns in word usage of both caretakers and children correlate strongly with the gender associations captured in word embeddings through the course of development. We discover that these correlations diminish from the 1970s to the 1990s. Our work suggests that early linguistic communication and social changes may jointly contribute to the formation of gender associations inchildhood.

On differences between the Russian scientific and artistic idiostyles in the usage frequency of transition words

The article proposes a method for characterisation of an author’s idiostyle that relies on the estimated usage frequency of transition words or phrases (TW). The whole of Russian scientific idiostyle can be treated as a combination of usage frequencies of transition words that defines scientific texts in Russian. It is typical of Russian scientific idiostyle to feature high usage frequency of TW that denote the cause-and-effect relationship and summarise and specify information, whereas TW for describing comparison, location and certain aspects of time relationship are used infrequently.

Parenting a newborn baby during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative survey

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic caused long periods of lockdown, social isolation and intense challenges for parents. This study examines parenting in an infant cohort born at the pandemic onset.MethodsThe CORAL study...

Do players communicate differently depending on the champion played? Exploring the Proteus effect in League of Legends

We investigate how the Proteus effect, which is players changing their way of communication based on characters with which they play, is associated with players’ champion usage in the popular online game League of Legends, where champions are the characters that the players control. First, we create two sets of variables: (a) objective champion characteristics based on information from the game developer, which we further enrich by semiotic coding, and (b) subjective champion characteristics based on crowdsourced opinions about the champions. Then, we analyze 13.6 million in-game chat messages to measure whether the players’ vocality (character counts of messages), valence (negative versus positive scores of language use), and toxicity (frequency of toxic word usage) change depending on the characteristics of the champions they employ. We find that champions’ body type, role, and gender are associated with players’ higher vocality, toxicity, and negative valence. We also find that the players’ communication significantly changes in toxicity and valence when they play using different champions. We discuss our methodology and results in detail and propose design directions and other implications based on them.

Studies in the analysis of the epic word: O.‑Icel. hel ‘world of the dead; the dead-goddess Hel’ in the Elder Edda

The article is devoted to the study of the epic word on the example of O-Icel. hel ‘world of the dead; the dead-goddess’ in the Old Icelandic Elder Edda, used to nominate one of the most important loci of the mythopoetic model of the world, as well as its personification. The author focuses on the analysis of the context, on the basis of which it is possible to realize the main goal — to understand the principles of distribution of this lexeme in the Elder Edda. A multi-component analysis is used, taking into account statistical data (primarily the frequency of word usage), grammar (the case paradigm of the corresponding forms), morphology (types of combination of composite components), syntax (predicates that perform a number of functions), etymology capable of actualization in certain situations, mythology (attraction to certain mythologems, motives, plots or myths), poetics (alliteration, sound repetitions, anagrams) and extralinguistic aspect — connection with the “world of things.” Particular attention is paid to composites, which include O-Icel. hel as the first or second components, since it is in compound words that the semantic potential of this lexeme can be realized. It was found that O.-Icel. hel is opposed to the “world of the living” (O.-Icel. heimr), associated with the bottom, indicating the localization of hel, the way to get into the lower world (to kill) and the subjects that inhabit it (people), mainly performs the function of direction, combined with verbs of movement. A hypothesis is put forward about semantic evolution: locus (the underworld) > character (its owner), and the various stages of this process found in the Elder Edda are reconstructed. To determine the semantics of O.-Icel. hel, the anthropocentric factor acquires special significance, since the starting point is the “middle world” inhabited by people, in relation to which spatial reference points are used underneath and from here. Based on the Eddic facts, the extralinguistic specificity of the corresponding denotation as a fenced space with a gate is established. The affiliation of O.-Icel. hel with the sphere of funeral ritual and sacral terminology is verified.

Using machine learning analysis to interpret the relationship between music emotion and lyric features.

Melody and lyrics, reflecting two unique human cognitive abilities, are usually combined in music to convey emotions. Although psychologists and computer scientists have made considerable progress in revealing the association between musical structure and the perceived emotions of music, the features of lyrics are relatively less discussed. Using linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC) technology to extract lyric features in 2,372 Chinese songs, this study investigated the effects of LIWC-based lyric features on the perceived arousal and valence of music. First, correlation analysis shows that, for example, the perceived arousal of music was positively correlated with the total number of lyric words and the mean number of words per sentence and was negatively correlated with the proportion of words related to the past and insight. The perceived valence of music was negatively correlated with the proportion of negative emotion words. Second, we used audio and lyric features as inputs to construct music emotion recognition (MER) models. The performance of random forest regressions reveals that, for the recognition models of perceived valence, adding lyric features can significantly improve the prediction effect of the model using audio features only; for the recognition models of perceived arousal, lyric features are almost useless. Finally, by calculating the feature importance to interpret the MER models, we observed that the audio features played a decisive role in the recognition models of both perceived arousal and perceived valence. Unlike the uselessness of the lyric features in the arousal recognition model, several lyric features, such as the usage frequency of words related to sadness, positive emotions, and tentativeness, played important roles in the valence recognition model.