Specific Language Research Articles

A Socio-Pragmatic Analysis of Arabic Formulaic Expressions in Literary Texts with Reference to the Difficulties in Translating them into English

Formulaic expressions are strings of words commonly co-occur in natural discourse, they are typically characterized by their high expressivity in holding out intents and their highlighted effects in verbalizing targets. Most formulaic expressions in Arabic have variance interpretations that deliberately assume the intents of the text or the context in which they are accompanied, this is because, they are utilized in combinations with other texts which put them into practice. This, however, constitutes a problem pertaining to their interpretations as the same language formula can be relatedly vitalized and verbalized in terms of the interchangeable accompanied texts which are stemmed in a context. This problem also arguably raises a debatable issue: what would happen in the interpretation when two opposite texts; namely formulaic text and non–formulaic text are met together successively in one textual framework/ setting? Another problem majorly encounters Arabic translators who are non–native to the English language as formulaic expressions are conventionalized sequences of words that belong to a specific language community; whereof achieving a formulaic knowledge via translation would be unattainable for those who belong to another discourse community. Therefore, this study is an attempt to: 1) identify the intent of the formulaic structure in relation to the accompanied text and the role of the formulaic structure in constructing both of the texts' significations. 2) outlining the role of pragma-societal factors in shaping the designation of the texts under the analysis .3) Explicating the challenges faced by Arabic translators in their renditions of formulaic expressions into English; how they deal with these socio-cultural words; and to what extent, they succeed in achieving socio-pragmatic equivalency in replicating these formulaic statuses into English. 4) proposing appropriate pragma-translational neutral procedures for neutralizing these formulas preserving their formulaic statuses into English. Procedurally (6) texts from Arabic drama (قابل للقتل) are chosen to be the data of the study. Participants of this study are (4) Arabic translators who are non–natives to English live in the U.S.A. The study sums up that most of the Arabic formulaic expressions realized inaccurate renditions by socio-pragmatic breakdown, deviation, formulaic loss, nonsenses in English due to socio-pragmatic and cultural incompetency of the translators.

Maude2Lean: Theorem proving for Maude specifications using Lean

Maude is a specification language based on rewriting logic whose programs can be executed, model checked, and analyzed with other automated techniques, but not easily theorem proved. On the other hand, Lean is a modern proof assistant based on the calculus of inductive constructions with a wide library of reusable proofs and definitions. This paper presents a translation from the first formalism to the second, and the maude2lean tool that predictably derives a Lean program from a Maude module. Hence, theorems can be proved in Lean about Maude specifications.

Genome-Wide Mapping of Consanguineous Families Confirms Previously Implicated Gene Loci and Suggests New Loci in Specific Language Impairment (SLI).

Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental disorder with substantial genetic contributions. A genome-wide linkage analysis and homozygosity mapping were performed in five consanguineous families from Pakistan. The highest LOD scores of 2.49 at 12p11.22-q11.21 in family PKSLI-31 and 1.92 at 6p in family PKSLI-20 were observed. Homozygosity mapping showed a loss of heterozygosity on 1q25.3-q32.2 and 2q36.3-q37.3 in PKSLI-20. A loss of heterozygosity mapped, in PKSLI-31 and PKSLI-34 flanks, NFXL1 and CNTNAP2, which are genes previously identified in SLI. Our findings report novel SLI loci and corroborate previously reported SLI loci, indicating the utility of a family-based approach.

Language Politics in Sri Lanka: Linguistic Purism, Cultural Pluralism and Identity

This study, based partly on archival research, tackles a number of interrelated issues regarding the sociolinguistic dynamics of language politics in Sri Lanka from the colonial era to the present. In colonial Ceylon, such politics initially manifested as resistance against foreign elements, but later evolved into internal conflicts when majoritarian Sinhala-focused linguistic purism movements appropriated Sinhala as a national identity marker. The resulting civil war until 2009 indicated that misguided prospects of linguistic purism in the name of ethnic nationalism have been a costly mistake for this small state, threatening to tear the nation apart. Regarding more recent issues of language planning and policy reforms, which also concern the place of English, the focus turns specifically to the rapid digitalisation of communication and related impacts of global virtual language environments. These substantially reduce the significance of any specific language or local vernacular, while individual and group identity is strengthened through inclusive use of linguistic registers within multilingual digital spaces.

Language ability in 5–12-year-old children with new-onset epilepsy

Purpose This clinically based study aimed to explore and describe language ability in 5–12-year-old children with new-onset epilepsy. Participants and methods: Twenty-one consecutively recruited children (eleven boys, ten girls) with new-onset epilepsy, were assessed using Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, fourth edition (CELF-4) and additional tests for verbal fluency/word retrieval and phonology. In addition, caregivers rated their child’s speech, language, and communication in everyday context. Based on available tests and clinical observation, an overall evaluation of language ability was made to distinguish children with language disorders and children with language difficulties from those with language abilities within the normal range. Language disorder was diagnosed following the ICD-10 criteria. The cutoff for language difficulties was set at 1 standard deviation below the normative mean on the CELF-4 Core Language Score and additional indices. Results Out of twenty-one children, ten (47.5%) met the criteria for a language disorder diagnosis according to ICD-10. Another five (24%) had language difficulties but did not meet the criteria for a language disorder diagnosis according to ICD-10. Hence a total of fifteen (71.5%) children had an impaired language ability affecting different domains of language, including receptive language, language memory, and semantic processing. The remaining six (28.5%) children had average language ability. Conclusion In this group of children with new-onset epilepsy, a large over-representation of co-existing language disorder and language difficulties was found. The findings suggest that specific language assessments for children with new-onset epilepsy are needed, to ensure that adequate interventions and support can be offered.

A combined AraBERT and Voting Ensemble classifier model for Arabic sentiment analysis

For sentiment analysis of short texts (e.g. movie reviews, tweets, etc.), one approach is to build machine learning models that can determine their tones (positive, negative, neutral). However, these natural language processing (NLP) studies are missing when there is a lack of high-quality and large-scale training data for specific languages such as Arabic. In this paper, we present three machine learning models designed to classify sentiment Arabic tweets developed for a Kaggle competition. We present a Voting Ensemble classifier taking advantage of both character-level and word-level features. We also propose an AraBERT (Arabic Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) model with preprocessing using Farasa Segmenter. Finally, we combine these first two approaches as a third approach (Voting Ensemble classifier using AraBERT embeddings). Performance measures of results show improvement over previous efforts for all models. The third model exhibits strong performance with a 73.98% F-score score. The work presented here could be useful for future studies and for new Arabic sentiment analysis online services or competitions.

Aligning extracurricular school activities with physical literacy: pilot evaluation through self-study of practice.

Although several important documents of education and health promotion on the international level favor practices geared toward physical literacy (PL), not all countries have yet gained experience with this holistic concept. Therefore, numerous stakeholders and practitioners who intend to align their interventional activities with PL will soon face the situation that there are no recommendations for their specific culture and language for how to design such programs. Given that such recommendations are also lacking for Germany, the goal of the present study within the uncontrolled pilot cycles of the PLACE study was (a) to describe the process of a female pedagogue (27 years old, previously unexperienced with PL) initially familiarizing herself with the PL concept and its implementation opportunities for the school setting, and (b) to retrace the process of developing and refining a PL-driven intervention for extracurricular physical education (60-90 min) of children in grades three and four at primary schools in Bremen. Adopting a self-study design, this endeavor emphasized continuous reflexivity involving: (a) session protocols; (b) biweekly discussions with another coach; (c) weekly discussions between scientists and stakeholders of youth development ("multi-perspective panel"); (d) weekly observations and impressions during field work; and (e) summative group interviews with children (n = 17, age range: 8-9 years, 17.6% boys). Written documents underwent qualitative content analysis with inductively generated categories. Despite explicit links between the theoretical PL domains and the intervention content, the character of how PL informed the intervention level was dominated by the stance and atmosphere implemented by the deliverer (e.g., participatory attitude, open mindset). Accordingly, the team revised the intervention primarily on the levels of organization (temporal schedule and sequences), instruction, and materials. After initial stages of didactically "surviving" within classes, the deliverer could increasingly integrate tasks of cognitive engagement and provide choice for students enabling individual autonomy for nurturing a person-centered approach. This study encourages teachers and stakeholders of physical education to seek exchange with scholars or other practitioners while simultaneously demonstrating patience in comprehensively internalizing PL and efficiently translating the concept into routines in line with individual's quality standards.

Perceptual Benefits of Linguistic Diversity and Language Background: Evidence from Auditory Free Classification of English Dialect Accents and Asian-Accented English

Non-linguistic factors leave a distinct thumbprint on our speech production that is perceptible to listeners. A steadily growing line of research demonstrates that listeners can perceive a contrast between native and non-native (L2) speakers based on accents and further classify these speakers according to dialectal variation, even when they are not native speakers of a language. Most of these studies have focused on dialectal variation within US English speakers, a combination of US and International English dialects, or L2 speakers representing a wide range of languages. Most have also featured listeners who are monolingual native speakers of the target language coming from a homogenous background, or a contrast between these and a targeted set of L2 speakers. We therefore lack knowledge of how exposure to, or familiarity with, diverse accents and languages, or specific native language competence of the native language of L2 speakers, can guide listeners’ accent perception and categorization. In this research, we employed a free classification task, presenting listeners with speech samples of native speakers with accents representing multiple English dialects, and L2 speakers of nine Asian languages across three geographic regions speaking Asian-accented English. There were six groups of listeners: monolingual US English listeners in a diverse linguistic context, monolingual US English listeners in a homogeneous linguistic context, native speakers of a non-Asian language and English (bilinguals), and native speakers of each of the three target Asian language groups who are L2 speakers of English. The results reveal that nearly all listeners are sensitive to accents capturing native/L2 contrasts and dialectal variation in English. While regular exposure to a diversity of accents results in increased classification accuracy, classification of Asian L2-accented English speakers is best performed when there is alignment of similar language family and geographic area, as demonstrated by South Asian listeners.

Scaling Globalization: The Circulation of Language Resources in Two Indonesian Global Social Movements

This study explores two social movements in Indonesia to measure the extent to which the locals mobilize towards the center. This objective departs from two contradictory statements, namely 'Global Language' (Crystal, 2003; see also the issue of Linguistic Imperialism) which argues that globalization always moves towards the center and produces uniformity, and another statement which argues that globalization results in varieties and differences (Blommaert, 2007, 2010; Machin & van Leeuwen, 2003; Pennycook, 2006). Therefore, two significant global social movements in Indonesia were chosen in this article. The first one is the social movement of Tragedi Kanjuruhan which started from specific local issues and narratives, and the second one is Global Climate Strike social movement which started from global issues shared by people worldwide. Both social movements have a specific language rhetoric. It is shown through the languages used in each social movement which reflects locality and globality. To examine this mobilization, this study employs scaling or scale measurement as a method (see sociolinguistic scales from Blommaert, 2010; scalar practice from Canagarajah & De Costa, 2016), focusing on scope and value (horizontal and vertical measurement). From the analysis, it is known that the differences in linguistic resources contribute to different elements of locality and mobility which circulates with different motives. In the end, this study can offer valuable insights into understanding how global and local are mobilized in one example of globalization.

Perceptions of disposal options for unused opioid analgesics among people who have been prescribed an opioid analgesic in North Carolina

ABSTRACT Background: Medication disposal programs have been promoted as one solution to the opioid crisis, but uptake by community members has been minimal. Objectives: To clarify perceptions of medication disposal options among people who have been prescribed an opioid analgesic in North Carolina to inform interventions that can facilitate the disposal of unused opioids. Methods: In 2022, we conducted focus groups with participants who received an opioid medication in the past year to gain information to develop an intervention related to the disposal of unused opioid medication (12 focus group discussions (FGDs); total N = 37; 30 identified as female, 6 as male, and 1 as another gender). Participants were shown a slide with the Food and Drug Administration’s recommended disposal options and asked about their perceptions of each option. Themes were derived using an inductive, thematic, qualitative approach. Results: Seven themes about perceptions of medication disposal programs emerged from the data. Four of the themes reflect potential barriers to medication disposal: failed disposal attempts, lack of sufficient education on proper disposal, unclear meaning of specific disposal language, and concerns about existing disposal options. Three of the themes provide insight on potential facilitators of medication disposal: preference of low-cost disposal options, ease and accessibility among disposal methods, and preferred disposal methods. Conclusion: Patients should be provided clear and consistent guidance from prescribers and dispensing pharmacists on when and how to dispose of unused medications and opportunities to dispose of medications at no cost to the patient.

A formal specification language and automatic modeling method of asset securitization contract

Asset securitization is an important financial derivative involving complicated asset transfer operations. Therefore, digitizing traditional asset securitization contracts will improve efficiency and facilitate reliability verification. Furthermore, accurate and verifiable requirement description is essential for collaborative development between financial professionals and software engineers. A domain specific language for writing asset securitization contract has been proposed. This solves the problem of difficulty for financial professionals to directly write smart contract by simplifying writing rules. However, due to existing design of the language focused on some simple scenarios, it is insufficient and informal to describe various detailed scenarios. What is more, there are still many reliability issues, such as verifying the correctness of the logical properties of the contract and ensuring the consistency between the contract text and the contract code, within the language in the generation and execution of smart contracts. To overcome the challenges stated above, we extend, simplify and innovate the syntax subset of the domain specific language and name it AS-SC (Asset Securitization – Smart Contract), which can be used by financial professionals to accurately describe requirements. Besides, because formal methods are math-based techniques that describe system properties and can generate programs in a more formal and reliable manner, we propose a semantic consistent code conversion method, named AS2EB, for converting from AS-SC to Event-B, a common and useful formal language. AS2EB method can be used by software engineers to verify requirements. The combination of AS-SC and AS2EB ensures consistency and reliability of the requirements, and reduces the cost of repeated communications and later testing. Taking the credit asset securitization contract as case study, the feasibility and rationality of AS-SC and AS2EB are validated. In addition, by carrying out experiments on three randomly selected real cases in different classic scenarios, we show high-efficiency and reliability of AS2EB method.

Factors of Language Dominance Chosen by Young Self-Learning Bilinguals on X Platform

This study aims to explore the patterns of English language dominance among young self-learning bilinguals on platform X, while also uncovering the factors that affect their ability to communicate with others in English. Additionally, it examines how the use of English as the dominant language impacts these young bilingual learners. The research employs a qualitative approach, gathering data through in-depth interviews with participants and focusing on the social media accounts of bilingual youth engaged in independent learning on platform X. The collected data is analyzed through a data condensation process leading to conclusions. The findings indicate that specific languages play a significant role in fostering emotional connections and enhancing language proficiency, which in turn influences the dominant language usage among young self-learning bilinguals on X by creating meaningful connections through language. Furthermore, the study discusses how a language can develop linguistic skills through patterns of communicative interaction, which can affect each individual's language preferences and proficiencies. It highlights the positive correlation between proficiency in one language and proficiency in another, emphasizing the various interaction dynamics among factors such as language skills, personal backgrounds, language delivery, and the ability to interpret and understand communication outcomes.

English Verbs of Directional Vision:Compatibility with Designations of a Qualitative Attribute

This article addresses the challenges of constructing a semantic model of verbs related to the concept of ‘directed vision process and its qualitative attribute’ based on English collocations. The authors examine the structure of meaning of these lexical items through the analysis of the collocational patterns of look, watch, glance, stare, and gaze. This classification can be seen as a step towards creating a typological semasiology of specific languages. The structure of the complex lexical meaning ‘directed vision process and its attribute’ can be broken down into the following components: the invariant meaning, i.e., the core sememe (directed vision process), and an additional semantic component, i.e., the subordinate sememe (qualitative attribute of the vision process). A comprehensive sample was taken from 8000 pages of text from 24 works of fiction, describing 927 collocations. The first group includes collocations expressing various negative emotions associated with directed vision process: bad mood, nervousness, distrust, unfriendliness, fear, hatred, contempt, cruelty, etc. The second group consists of collocations expressing attentiveness, steadfastness, surprise, curiosity, wonder in characterizing directed gaze. The third group combines collocations expressing activity, speed, brevity, stealth of a brief glance. The authors came to the conclusion that all vision lexemes, except the verb ‘to look’, have a complex meaning structure.

Local Dynamics of Intersectional Stigma for Black LGBTQ People in Montreal, Quebec

ABSTRACT Much academic literature on intersectional stigma is limited by a focus on relatively static and “universal” identity traits, such as ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. This paper addresses local dynamics of intersectional stigma for Black LGBTQ people in Montreal, QC, Canada. Findings draw from fourteen semi-structured, virtual interviews with key informants providing critical services to Black LGBTQ people living in Montreal. Findings suggest intersectional stigmatization via social identity and local power dynamics converge. Specifically, language and immigration are two domains determining intersectional stigma challenges and ameliorative opportunities for Black LGBTQ people in the city. Specific immigration-related challenges included (1) insecurity (e.g. concerning Canadian residency), (2) barriers to resource access (e.g. social and legal services), and (3) stressful identity challenges. Specific language issues included (1) Francophone limitations for expressing gender and sexual diversity and (2) exclusionary linguistic divisions (i.e. Franco/Anglo, Franco/non-Franco, and Western/non-Western). Local, place-based power inequities may determine black LGBTQ experiences of intersectional stigma.

A Sentiment Analysis Approach for Exploring Customer Reviews of Online Food Delivery Services: A Greek Case

The unprecedented production and sharing of data, opinions, and comments among people on social media and the Internet in general has highlighted sentiment analysis (SA) as a key machine learning approach in scientific and market research. Sentiment analysis can extract sentiments and opinions from user-generated text, providing useful evidence for new product decision-making and effective customer relationship management. However, there are concerns about existing standard sentiment analysis tools regarding the generation of inaccurate sentiment classification results. The objective of this paper is to determine the efficiency of off-the-shelf sentiment analysis APIs in recognizing low-resource languages, such as Greek. Specifically, we examined whether sentiment analysis performed on 300 online ordering customer reviews using the Meaning Cloud web-based tool produced meaningful results with high accuracy. According to the results of this study, we found low agreement between the web-based and the actual raters in the food delivery services related data. However, the low accuracy of the results highlights the need for specialized sentiment analysis tools capable of recognizing only one low-resource language. Finally, the results highlight the necessity of developing specialized lexicons tailored not only to a specific language but also to a particular field, such as a specific type of restaurant or shop.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Specification and Design Languages (FDL 2021)

Introduction to the Special Issue on Specification and Design Languages (FDL 2021)

Text Summarization in the Shona Language using Natural Language Processing

The rise of digital information in many languages, including Shona, highlights the significance of developing effective text summarizing techniques to promote information accessibility and usability. This work fills a major gap in the natural language processing (NLP) for the Shona language, which is widely spoken in Zimbabwe and its surrounding areas but has received little attention. The lack of pre-trained language models specifically designed for Shona, the intricacy of Shona's morphology, and the scarcity of annotated datasets provide the main obstacles to Shona text summarization.[1] The goal of this research is to create and modify contemporary machine learning methods for efficient Shona text summarizing in order to address these issues. By gathering and analyzing texts from a variety of sources, such as news stories, scholarly papers, and social media, we produced large annotated corpora. These datasets were utilized to fine-tune existing NLP models, such as Transformer-based architectures, ensuring they account for Shona’s specific language traits. To address the morphological and syntactic complexities of Shona, our solution combines statistical and rule-based techniques. When compared to baseline methods, the results show a significant improvement in the relevancy and accuracy of Shona text summaries. In addition to serving as a starting point for further NLP research in underrepresented languages, the generated models help Shona-speaking people in the areas of business, education, and media. By encouraging inclusivity and linguistic variety, showcasing the possibility for cross- lingual breakthroughs, and emphasizing the ethical development of technology, this research adds to the larger area of NLP.

Development and validation of coreLang: A threat modeling language for the ICT domain

ICT infrastructures are getting increasingly complex, and defending them against cyber attacks is cumbersome. As cyber threats continue to increase and expert resources are limited, organizations must find more efficient ways to evaluate their resilience and take proactive measures. Threat modeling is an excellent method of assessing the resilience of ICT systems, for example, by building Attack Graphs that illustrate an adversary’s attack vectors. Previously, the Meta Attack Language (MAL) was proposed, which serves as a framework to develop Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) and generate Attack Graphs for modeled infrastructures. coreLang is a MAL-based threat modeling language that utilizes Attack Graphs to enable attack simulations and security assessments. In this work, we present the first release version of coreLang in which MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques are mapped onto to serve as a validation and identify strengths and weaknesses to benefit the development cycle. Our validation showed that coreLang does cover 46% of all the techniques included in the matrix, while if we additionally exclude the tactics that are intrinsically not covered by coreLang and MAL, the coverage percentage increases to 64%.

Whole Genome Analysis in Consanguineous Families Reveals New Loci for Speech Sound Disorder (SSD).

Speech is the most common means of communication in humans. Any defect in accurate speech production ability results in the development of speech sound disorder (SSD), a condition that can significantly impair an individual's academic performance, social interactions, and relationships with peers and adults. This study investigated the genetic basis of SSD in three Pakistani families. We performed family-based genome-wide parametric linkage analysis and homozygosity mapping in three consanguineous families with SSD from the Punjab province of Pakistan. The Test for Assessment of Articulation and Phonology in Urdu (TAAPU) was used to analyze the speech articulation data and determine the Percentage Correct Consonants (PCC) score. The PCC score defined the affected and unaffected individuals in each family. Parametric linkage analysis revealed a linkage to chromosome 5 (5q21.3-5q23.1) with a significant logarithm of the odds (LOD) score of 3.13 in a Pakistani family with specific language impairment-97 (PKSLI-97) under an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. The other two families showed a suggestive linkage at 6p22.1, 14q12, and 16q12.1 under the recessive mode of inheritance. Interestingly, homozygosity mapping showed a loss of heterozygosity in the linkage region at 5q15-5q23.1, shared among seven affected (mostly in the younger generation) and one unaffected individual of PKSLI-97. Our analysis identified the 6p22 locus previously implicated in dyslexia, childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), and language impairment, confirming the role of KIAA0319 and DCDC2 in this locus. These findings provide statistical evidence for the genomic regions associated with articulation disorder and offer future opportunities to further the role of genes in speech production.

Social Media Co-pilot: Designing a chatbot with teens and educators to combat cyberbullying

Teens often encounter cyberbullying on social media. One promising way to reduce cyberbullying is through empowering teens to stand up for their peers and cultivating prosocial norms online. While there is no shortage of bystander interventions that have shown potential, little research has explored designing chatbots with users to provide a contextualized and embedded “learning at the moment” experience for bystanders. This study involved teens and educators in two design sessions: an in-depth interview to identify the barriers that prevent upstanding behaviors, and interaction with the “social media co-pilot'' chatbot prototype to identify design guidelines to empower teens to overcome these barriers. Qualitative analysis on the conversations from the two design sessions revealed three factors that curb teens' upstanding behaviors: a) inadequate knowledge about social norms, appropriate language, and consequences, b) inhibitive emotions such as fear of retaliation and confrontation; c) lack of empathy toward their peers. Key parameters were also identified to shape chatbot responses to encourage upstanding behaviors, such as a) adopting voices representing multiple roles, b) empathetic, friendly and encouraging tone, c) reflective, specific and relatable language and d) appropriate length. These insights inform the design of personalized and scalable education programs and moderation tools to combat cyberbullying.