Text Genres Research Articles

Automatic sentence segmentation for classical Chinese: The Spring and Autumn Annals as an example

Abstract There exists no sentence boundary in most classical Chinese literature texts. Since it is difficult to read literature of this kind, experts in literature or linguistics would segment the sentence manually. This article explores the effectiveness of classical Chinese sentence segmentation method so as to provide a reference for classical Chinese punctuation. On the basis of the machine learning methods, we chose three components of machine learning, namely models, tagging schemes, and features, to compare the learning results. The models include conditional random field (CRF) models, long short term memory (LSTM) models, BiLSTM–CRF models, and three Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers (BERT) models. There are five tagging schemes in this article and three features including the statistical feature, Guangyun, and Fanqie. Finally, the performance of the combined feature template is evaluated by ten-fold cross-validation on four classical Chinese texts in different genres. The SikuBERT model is proved to be the most effective model for sentence segmentation at present. Different tagging schemes and various features are introduced. The results show that 5-tag-J tagging schemes can improve performance. Statistical feature, as an important clue for classical Chinese sentence segmentation, is useful in related tasks, but Guangyun and Fanqie have little impact. Other important factors of sentence segmentation are genres and writing styles.

Scrutinizing Mentor Text in Virtual EFL Writing Course: A Text Modeling Approach during ERT in Indonesia

Writing English argumentative essays has brought suffering and constraints for EFL university students since it requires relevant argumentativeness and knowledge of text genre knowledge and grammar and vocabulary mastery. Mentor text can be an effective scaffold for them to understand the essay. Little is known about university students' perspectives on writing an argumentative essay and the mentor texts given to them. To fill the void, this present study was carried out in a qualitative framework. Twenty-nine university students who attended and were exposed to four selected mentor texts during the virtual writing course voluntarily took part in this study by filling out the online questionnaire. The findings show that the students experienced and felt various positive and negative emotional expressions, such as challenge, difficulty, and enjoyment. The students perceived that the selected mentor texts were beneficial and very helpful for learning, understanding, and producing argumentative essays. Those mentor texts contain clear structure, effective thesis, and good writer's delivery so that the students can easily emulate and adapt them into their writing.<p> </p>

Naming and Challenging Rape Culture in English Curriculum: A Framework for Teaching Canonical Texts with Contemporary Adaptations

ABSTRACT Acts of sexual violence and rape, as well as the ensuing treatment of survivors and those who perpetuate the crimes, are pervasive in canonical texts that populate mandated reading lists in secondary English classrooms. Given the outsized role the literary canon places in English curriculum, we believe English teachers must develop practices that grapple with rape culture and sexual violence in their classrooms. A practice we advocate for and develop in this article places canonical texts in conversation with young adult adaptations of the canonical source material. We draw on scholarship that positions young adult literature as a vehicle for addressing rape culture and sexual violence and scholarship that illustrates critical canonical teaching to demonstrate how both genres of text can work together to push against ideologies that normalise sexual violence.

Memnon in the Middle Ages: The Reception of a Homeric Hero

AbstractMemnon, the mythic king of Ethiopia killed by Achilles during the Trojan War, had a double or fused identity in classical antiquity: both Asian and African for Greek and Roman writers because of his parentage and because of the geographical indeterminacy of ‘Aithiopia’ and of ‘India’, but definitely black-skinned for Roman writers. How was this figure received in medieval texts and images? This paper tracks Memnon through three textual genres from the twelfth to the fifteenth century – commentaries on Ovid, catalogues of famous men, histories of the Trojan War – and charts the ways in which his classical identity was overlaid and transformed by pro-Trojan sentiment, chivalric heroization and Christian sacrificial thinking.

Speech Сulture in the Professional Activities of a Lawyer: Methodological Techniques for Teaching Legal Writing

The article describes the experience of teaching the course "Fundamentals of Legal Writing" to students of the training program "Jurisprudence". The teaching is based on the analysis of grammatical errors made by compilers of texts of jurisdictional genres. The undertaken functional approach to learning made it possible to establish that, depending on the type of speech generated (narration, reasoning, description), writers experience various difficulties. Thus, the learning tasks of the course are divided into three groups. The first is aimed at mastering the rules for constructing grammatical models inherent to official business speech (nominal, semi-predicative and passive constructions). The second is aimed at mastering effective ways of narrating about the circumstances of the offense. The skills being formed are focused on compiling interrogation protocols. The third group of exercises is aimed at mastering models of reasoning about the causal relationship of facts and the relationship between the event of an offense and legal norms. This skill is necessary when issuing decisions, sentences, judicial acts, etc. It is noted that the description as a type of speech is found in drawing up protocols of inspecting objects or documents and accounts for mainly speech errors associated with the selection of lexical means.

Gilayon and “Apocalypse”: Reconsidering an Early Jewish Concept and Genre

AbstractThis paper examines various ways in which apocalyptic studies can benefit from the introduction of the term and concept of gilayon, a reconstructed Hebrew counterpart of the Judeo-Greek apocalypse. The term gilayon, which combines the meanings of “revealed book” and “book of revelation,” refers to a central image of early Jewish revealed literature and could serve to define an important corpus, the boundaries of which might well overlap with (but still differ from) what is understood by the “genre apocalypse” in modern research. Moreover, this reconstructed concept uncovers additional meanings and associations, which shed light on texts known as “apocalyptic,” and has explanatory power for many phenomena associated with them. The introduction of gilayon may modify the entire paradigm of our understanding of early Jewish mysticism and help to divert the discussion of textual genres associated with it from a phenomenological to a historical route.

The Idea of Asia in British Geographical Thought, 1652–1832

AbstractThis article explores popular British ideas about Asia from the mid-seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century, using largely neglected sources: geography books. Thanks to their popularity and focus on conventional knowledge, this genre of texts – geographical reference works, gazetteers, encyclopaedias and schoolbooks – allows us to glimpse the commonplace mentalities of the period, and consequently to understand how Asia was perceived by ordinary literate Britons and not just by prominent intellectuals. Geography books typically regard Asia as a ‘place of origin’ for the cultural and societal achievements of Europe. They also assume that Asia possesses plentiful natural resources and is thus ripe for economic exploitation. At the same time, however, Asia is understood to be degenerate and corrupt, usually due to a combination of climactic decay, religious failings and government mismanagement. Asia is thus alien and entirely distinct from Europe, and, simultaneously, it is intimately connected to Europe's rise and future imperial progress. British geography books can tell us a great deal about how ordinary literate people understood Asian peoples and places in the formative age of British empire-building.

«WEDDING IN SONGS AND RITES (IN KOSTROMA COUNTY)» (ABOUT ONE MANUSCRIPT FROM THE STATE ARCHIVE OF THE KOSTROMA REGION)

This article is devoted to the presentation of the manuscript stored in the State Archive of the Kostroma Region. The topicality of this work is explained, firstly, by the importance of introducing unpublished archival materials into scientific circulation and their critical analysis; secondly, by the need to assess the painstaking work of collectors of folklore and ethnographic materials in the XIX – beg. XX century – folklorists, ethnographers, correspondents of regional scientific societies, representatives of rural intelligentsia (teachers, priests), etc. The author’s focus is the manuscript “Wedding in Songs and Rites (in Kostroma County)” compiled from materials of the Kostroma Scientific Society for the Study of the Local Territory and the Kostroma Scientific Archival Commission; physical, graphic, and meaningful features of the manuscript are analyzed. Folklore material mainly a spoken repertoire – speeches and rhymes of wedding ranks and participants of the ritual (groomsman, brother of the bride, girls – friends of the bride, natives) is characterized, the proportion of which exceeds the number of texts of other genres (lamentations and songs). The latter circumstance distinguishes the manuscript from a large number of handwritten materials stored in different archives of Russia. The stylistic features of folklore texts are analyzed, some of these texts are rare and have no analogues in published collections and archival materials.

Argumentation models and their use in corpus annotation: Practice, prospects, and challenges

AbstractThe study of argumentation is transversal to several research domains, from philosophy to linguistics, from the law to computer science and artificial intelligence. In discourse analysis, several distinct models have been proposed to harness argumentation, each with a different focus or aim. To analyze the use of argumentation in natural language, several corpora annotation efforts have been carried out, with a more or less explicit grounding on one of such theoretical argumentation models. In fact, given the recent growing interest in argument mining applications, argument-annotated corpora are crucial to train machine learning models in a supervised way. However, the proliferation of such corpora has led to a wide disparity in the granularity of the argument annotations employed. In this paper, we review the most relevant theoretical argumentation models, after which we survey argument annotation projects closely following those theoretical models. We also highlight the main simplifications that are often introduced in practice. Furthermore, we glimpse other annotation efforts that are not so theoretically grounded but instead follow a shallower approach. It turns out that most argument annotation projects make their own assumptions and simplifications, both in terms of the textual genre they focus on and in terms of adapting the adopted theoretical argumentation model for their own agenda. Issues of compatibility among argument-annotated corpora are discussed by looking at the problem from a syntactical, semantic, and practical perspective. Finally, we discuss current and prospective applications of models that take advantage of argument-annotated corpora.

The Challenges of Using Machine Translation While Translating Polysemous Words

The disparities between machine translation and human translation have shown to be quite challenging when translating polysemous words. This study examines the challenges of translating polysemous words between French and English by finding an easy way to translate the polysemous terms which is the key objective. It would also help in dealing with the most effective method of translating polysemous terms, while a few succeed in translating the contexts and others struggle to come up with the right interpretations. As many words or phrases have numerous meanings, a machine translator is still unable to handle the ambiguity issues that arise and determine what the given context means. One issue that machine translators have yet to solve is the phenomena of polysemy, or numerous meanings, though it certainly isn't the only one. In this paper, instances of these machine translations of texts from several text genres—including texts from the journalistic, medical, legal, and dictionary definition genres—are examined. To clear up any misunderstanding, one must consider the situation’s background. One must also acknowledge that the situation makes sense. In the concluding section of this study, we will be shown some examples of significant issues that have arisen as a result of a lack of understanding of the term, including misunderstanding, lack of comprehension, ambiguity, and limitations on the heedless use of technical definitions in favour of common ones.

Introduction

This volume derives from a small symposium, “He Tuhinga nō Neherā”, held at the Hocken Collections in November 2018.[i] The event’s title, which may be translated as “Writings from the Past”, defined the subject of the meeting, that is, historical texts written by Māori. We have changed the name slightly for this publication; “He Tuhinga Tuku Iho”, playing with the kīwaha, “he taonga tuku iho” (treasures handed down), writings that pass on the language of earlier generations, and the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of tūpuna. Nine authors contribute to this collection, all but one of whom presented at the symposium. We encouraged them to consider various textual genres, such as petitions, newspaper articles, wills, pamphlets, letters, and speeches, although they could be interpret the term “text” as broadly as they wished.
 
 We would like to thank Megan Pōtiki as a co-convenor of the symposium, the Hocken Library for hosting the event, and the University of Otago’s Centre for Research on Colonial Culture for its financial support of the symposium and subsequent publication. We hope that this volume aligns with the Centre’s stated goal of producing “critical histories of the present”.

Assessing students’ writing skills in virtual classroom: strategies and challenges in EFL context

The massive implementation of online learning is seen as a great movement in EFL learning during pandemic COVID-19. However, it has complexities in its practices, especially in conducting online assessment. This descriptive qualitative study aimed at exploring online assessment strategies used to assess writing and the challenges encountered by the teachers during the assessment. The data were collected through an online open-ended questionnaire administration to 16 EFL teachers. Thematic data analysis method was applied in analyzing the data by identifying themes and sub-themes from the data obtained. The result indicated that several online assessment strategies were utilized by the EFL teachers to assess writing, namely writing report, writing genre text, writing short story, writing summary, and answering essay-based test. Those strategies were done through learning management system (LMS) in which the delivery and submission of the assessment were done online. Some prominent challenges encountered by EFL teachers in conducting online assessment to assess writing skills included academic integrity, time allocation, punctuality, Internet access, and guidance and feedback. It implies that the online assessment strategy chosen by the teachers to assess students’ writing skills needs to consider the challenges that might be encountered.

An eco-linguistic analysis of conservation news published by mass media in Indonesia

This research aims to analyze the eco-lexicon meanings contained in the conservation news texts published by mass media in Indonesia. The data sources are mass media found at www.unnes.ac.id, Suara Merdeka, and Kompas. The data are collected through listening, documentation, and interview techniques and analyzed using distributional and referential analysis techniques. The novelty of this study is the dimension of cultural meaning in the eco-collection of conservation news texts in the mass media in Indonesia. The findings of this study enrich the theory of Lindo and Bundsgaard in 2000 which stated that the dynamics and changes that occur at the lexicon level are influenced by three dimensions, namely ideological, sociological, and biological dimensions. Simply put, conservation news text needs to be utilized as teaching material by teachers and lecturers in language learning or other learning types in schools or universities to enrich the text genre and foster the value of love for the environment.

THE USE OF CORPUS IN TEACHING RUSSIAN AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE: THE REVIEW OF THE EXPERIENCE OF ITALIAN AND OF BELARUSIAN STUDIES AND NEW "SEAH" RESOURCES

The article provides a detailed overview of the development of corpus linguistics applied to Russian language and a review of the most significant Italian and Belarusian publications on the use of corpora for the descriptive analysis of the Russian language and the teaching of Russian as LS. In this panorama, the author emphasises the innovative character and potential that the Ru_Seah corpus constitutes both on the Russian corpus linguistics front and for teaching Russian as a foreign language. The paper considers the experience of creating a professionally oriented Russian-language text corpus for students of Architecture and Construction using the Sketch Engine corpus manager as part of the SEAH project. It describes the aims and objectives of the project and the approach to the selection of material for the corpus. The paper explains the balance of the corpus, the inclusion of texts of different genres and styles in the corpus. It also deals with the elements of the search engine in relation to the annotation of the text corpus. The structure of educational modules compiled using the SEAH linguistic corpus is considered.

Transmedia educommunication method for social sustainability in low-income communities

In the post-pandemic world, we see the exacerbation of digital connections but also inequalities between countries with higher or lower degrees of access to fast Internet services. Digitization processes enable and intensify global exchanges and yet expand disconnections as they globalize debates and solutions without considering the different levels of accessibility, digital literacy, and Internet infrastructure in less privileged communities. Such discrepancies are reflected in learning levels and, consequently, in the development of social sustainability. As a theoretical-methodological contribution, this paper draws on the concepts of transmedia logic, educommunication, and social sustainability. The original transmedia educommunication method discussed here consists of a week-long gamified intervention in schools with students between 11 and 14 years old, in Portuguese speaking countries. The objective is to give them the tools to distinguish between textual genres and their purposes. The results obtained by the transmedia educommunication projects highlight the importance of thinking about methodologies based on the reality of each community, with their respective cultures and levels of accessibility to different on- and offline technologies.

ОТНОШЕНИЕТО НА СЪВРЕМЕННИЯ НОСИТЕЛ НА БЪЛГАРСКИЯ ЕЗИК КЪМ ДЕМИНУТИВИТЕ

This paper aims to investigate the attitude of native speakers towards the use of diminutives. To achieve this goal, the author has extracted evaluations of diminutives from texts of various genres written in the last two decades, which have then been systematised and classified as negative or positive. The ways in which these evaluations are expressed (explicitly and implicitly) have been analysed, with particular attention to expressive vocabulary, ironic strategies and the reciprocal use of diminutives.

Museum communication: the current state of research and challenges for linguistics

This paper deals with communication processes taking place in the museum, collectively referred to as museum communication, from the point of view of contemporary linguistics. Based on previous research, museum communication is defined as a kind of interplay of multiple communicative practices multimodally organised within a museum and activated in communication with the museum’s external partners. Linguistics has so far looked at museum communication mainly in terms of language use, including other semiotic systems, with particular attention to the related communicative strategies and practices, genres of texts, and their functions, both in internal and external communication. However, the paper argues that the scope of tools used to study museum communication should be broadened. The key determinants of museum communication include multimodality, multisensoriality, hybridity, and digitality. The paper provides a review of linguistic models of analysis with a variety of tools and solutions that have been developed for the study of multimodal texts with similar attributes in different communicative fields. The review is thenused to develop a catalogue of linguistic analytical categories that can be applied to detailed analyses of particular aspects of museum communication.

(English-Spanish) Glossary of the Teaching Innovation Project “INNOVAtio Translationis: Science and Law”

Lecturing Scientific-Technical Translation entails a range of difficulties, especially when the aforementioned is the first specialised translation course taken by our students from the Undergraduate Course on Translation and Interpreting. Due to the relevance of implementing highly innovative and practical lecturing materials, we applied for an Innovative Teaching Project (“Proyecto de Innovación Docente INNOVAtio Translationis: Science and Law”), granted by Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Upon its awarding, the Project was set up, gathering a significant number of innovative lecturing materials. Among these, we generated a 15-texts’ glossary on the most prevalent translation errors and mistakes identified within the Scientific-Technical Translation classroom, which introduced the translation solutions available for each of them. Undoubtedly, scientific-technical textual genres may be subject to the commission of translation errors and mistakes, both in lexical and in phraseological units. By producing the foregoing unpublished glossary, we aim at providing the lecturer, the student, and the professional translator with real examples of both lexical and phraseological units prone to calques and anglicisms. To help these communities, we will introduce the most feasible translation solutions (considering both the textual genres and their relevant contexts).

In der Wirtschaft vernetzt kommunizieren – Hypertextstrukturen bei der Mitarbeiteranwerbung im deutsch-polnischen Kontrast

By dissolving the linear reception of texts, the recipient becomes a co-author intervening in the textual process (cf., Hess-Lüttich 1997: 134), who creates intertextual links, according to his or her reading strategy. This is how hypertexts and text networks arecreated, which still represent a linguistically under-researched area. What seems to be interesting here is the question of the differences between the two phenomena. The new trends can be particularly observed in business communication. For this reason, the present paper focuses on business-related texts to better illustrate the new linguistic phenomenon of text networking. The analysis is based on the Internet career pages of selected Polish and German public companies. The author attempts to find an answer to the question of the linguistic status of these websites, whether they should be defined as hypertexts or as components of larger networks of texts (textual genres). Furthermore, the aim of the paper is to point out relevant cultural and industryrelateddifferences based on the analysis of the frequency and specificity of text linking in the context of employee recruitment in Polish and German professional contexts.

ФОРМУВАННЯ СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ МАЙБУТНІХ МОЛОДШИХ СПЕЦІАЛІСТІВ З ЖУРНАЛІСТИКИ НА ЗАНЯТТЯХ З УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МОВИ

У статті акцентовано увагу на важливості формування соціокультурної компетентності студентів спеціальності 061 Журналістика у процесі вивчення української мови у вищих навчальних закладах І-ІІ рівнів акредитації. Окреслено сутність соціокультурної компетентності майбутніх молодших спеціалістів з журналістики, що сприяє усвідомленню себе як носія національних цінностей; формуванню загальної культури, загальнолюдських цінностей, відповідальності за майбутнє Батьківщини; опануванню етики та етичних норм; принципів діалогу з представниками різних поглядів, націй, культур, релігій; формуванню широкого спектру мовленнєвих навичок і умінь; умінь управляти інноваційними процесами та інноваційною діяльністю. Зосереджено увагу на формах і методах навчання, які уможливлюють соціокультурний розвиток української мовної особистості студента.