Levels Of Linguistic Analysis Research Articles

Persuasion Strategies in Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 Document: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

By adopting a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach, this paper explores the strategies of persuasion employed in the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 document. More specifically, the paper attempts to identify the various persuasion strategies used in the document of the 2030 Vision, the way through which these persuasion strategies are linguistically manifested, and the different modes of persuasion used in the document. The primary research questions of this study are: first, what are the different modes of persuasion employed in the Saudi Arabia 2030 Vision? Second, what are the strategies of persuasion used in the document under investigation? Third, how are these strategies linguistically manifested in the document at hand? Findings reveal that there are five strategies that are highly representative as persuasion conduits in the Saudi Arabia 2030 Vision. These include lexical choices, the inclusive ‘we’, religionization, future promises, and compositional summarization. The five strategies accentuate the assumption that the process of persuasion is successfully communicated at the various levels of linguistic analysis: lexically, semantically, pragmatically, and stylistically.

Contrasting Relativization in some Naomi Alderman’s Novels and their French Translation from a Syntactic and a Semantic Perspectives

Language in usage is the result of various operations. Linguistic operations are worth studying so as to uncover the subtleties which make languages to be unique in their inner organization. These operations occur within various linguistic units (words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and texts) and can be studied at various levels of linguistic analysis (Dutoit, 2000). Provided the wide range of such operations, the notion of clause operations is therefore the subject of this article; more specifically, this study intends to contrast relativization from a syntactic and semantic point of view based on an English-French translation corpus (extracted from three novels by Naomi Alderman and their French translations). With the aid of the Meaning-Text Theory (MTT), the findings suggest that there are convergent and divergent syntactic properties, shared syntactic processes, and common syntactic functions related to the translational renderings of relative markers. Moreover, the contrastive analysis of relativization from a semantic viewpoint reveals some semantic functions undertaken by relative markers, some correspondence types between relatives of different versions of the corpus, and some translation procedures used by translators while rendering the overall meaning of the source text.

Creating an information security policyin a bank

Abstract Information security policies are particularly important when it comes to maintaining information security within an organization. As a result, creating an information security policy is an invaluable process that cannot be undermined. This study aims at investigating how these information security policies are created, specifically in banks, from a linguistic perspective. The study employed the use of corpora and analyzed ten information security policies of banks randomly collected online. The analyses were categorized under five levels of linguistic analysis which included: the mode, lexis, grammar, speech acts, and discourse. Some statistical analyses which involved clustering were also performed at the level of discourse in order to find similar patterns in the information security policies. The results show that banks use the same linguistic features when writing their information security policies. The results also reveal how these linguistic features are used to develop a comprehensive and effective information security policy.

Rhetorical Strategies in Selected Nigerian Print Media Advertisements

The study “Rhetorical strategies in selected Nigerian print media advertisements” sought to investigate the interconnectedness between rhetoric and advertising. Privileging Aristote’s theory of rhetoric (1991), Halliday’s (2014) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and van Dijk’s (1993) Socio-Cognitive Approach (SCA) as theoretical frameworks, the study which adopted a descriptive qualitative case study research design and a purposive data collection method carried out a linguistic stylistic analysis as well as a critical discourse analysis of the selected data. The findings from the linguistic stylistic analysis showed that advertisers deploy various attractive and attention-seeking rhetorical strategies at the different levels of linguistic analysis in order to grab the interest and attention of the listener, while the critical discourse analysis revealed that the rhetorical strategies are employed as persuasive devices to cause a change in the buying choices and behaviour of customers. The critical discourse analysis further revealed that the advertisements aside selling a product also communicate socio-cultural values and ideologies. The study concluded amongst other things that rhetoric is a significant component of advertising and that the rhetorical strategies prevalent in the linguistic analysis of the advertisements function as persuasive elements that inform about the availability of goods and services as well as function in transmitting the socio-cultural values and ideologies of the environment in which they are created.

ON METALINGUISTIC LABELLING IN ENGLISH-SERBIAN CONTRASTIVE STUDIES

The paper provides an overview of current issues concerning the metalinguistic inventory used in contrastive investigations of contemporary English and Serbian. Modern contrastive linguistics (CL) has largely shifted its methodological focus from the elaboration of theoretical prerequisites towards matters connected with the electronic processing of large amounts of linguistic data. Consequently, a need to revisit the problems of terminological discrepancies found in different frameworks used for the description of the compared languages is deemed appropriate. Problems arise on at least four levels: 1. restrictions imposed by the structure of the two languages com- pared; 2. the model-specific use of particular terms; 3. a semantically associative, but potentially misleading interpretative potential of linguistic terms; 4. the inconsistent or underspecified use of the metalinguistic units pertaining to a particular level of linguistic analysis or respective linguistic traditions. Having investigated the observed pitfalls, a conclusion about the necessity for a more precise determination of CL metalinguistic apparatus and a possible meeting ground to overcome the obstacles by means of corpus linguistics is presented.

Heritage Languages: Language Acquired, Language Lost, Language Regained

A heritage language is a sociopolitically minority and/or minoritized language acquired as the first or one of the first languages in a bilingual or multilingual context. Heritage languages are typically acquired under conditions of reduced exposure and are often used less than the majority language during late childhood and adolescence. Heritage languages show structural differences and changes at all levels of linguistic analysis from baseline grammars that arise from the complex interaction between the nature and quantity of input and the age of bilinguals. Although many situations give rise to heritage languages, this article focuses on immigrants and their children and reviews foundational studies of the linguistic properties of heritage languages; studies of age effects that have shed light on critical differences between first, second, and heritage language acquisition; and recent studies of heritage language relearning and reactivation. The implications of the study of heritage languages for bilingualism and society and for the language and cognitive sciences are discussed.

Order of adjectives and adverbs in L2 English: Evidence from L1 Acholi speakers of Ugandan English

L2 Englishes are quintessentially characterized by cross-linguistic influence at all levels of linguistic analysis as a result of contact phenomena. This study examines the contribution of the syntax of a Ugandan indigenous language (Acholi) to how its L1 speakers speak English and the extent of variability observed among them, taking into account two grammatical aspects, i.e. how multiple attributive adjectives are sequenced in a noun phrase and the placement of adverbs in a sentence. The findings of the study show notable differences from L1 English (e.g. Standard British English), as L1 Acholi speakers of English do not necessarily pay attention to the prescribed L1 English order of adjectives. At the same time, the position of adverbs in a sentence also seems to be modeled, to some extent, on what takes place in Acholi syntax insofar as some legitimate L1 English structures are rejected by L1 Acholi speakers of English (as L2). Crucially, the study also reveals interspeaker variability among L1 Acholi speakers of English in Uganda based on occupation, with students being the closest to L1 English norms (as opposed to teachers and the business community), most likely due to exonormative orientation imposed on students in Ugandan schools.

Meaning and Alternatives

Alternatives and competition in language are pervasive at all levels of linguistic analysis. More specifically, alternatives have been argued to play a prominent role in an ever-growing class of phenomena in the investigation of natural language meaning. In this article, we focus on scalar implicatures, as they are arguably the most paradigmatic case of an alternative-based phenomenon. We first review the main challenge for theories of alternatives, the so-called symmetry problem, and we briefly discuss how it has shaped the different approaches to alternatives. We then turn to two more recent challenges concerning scalar diversity and the inferences of sentences with multiple scalars. Finally, we describe several related alternative-based phenomena and recent conceptual approaches to alternatives. As we discuss, while important progress has been made, much more work is needed both on the theoretical side and on understanding the empirical landscape better.

The Implications of the Levels of Linguistic Analysis in the Hadith of the Victorious Sect

This study deals with the hadith of the Victorious Sect, which is considered an important principle of loyalty and disavowal in Islam and a testimony of the Prophet Mohammed's (SWS) prophecy. This is a Mutawatir (consecutive) hadith narrated by nearly twenty companions. Using an analytical descriptive method, the present study examines the hadith's words and phrases at different linguistic levels: phonetic, morpho-syntactic, and semantic. Results at the phonetic level show that there is a prevalence of voiced, unaspirated, and explosive sounds that have strong impact on the listener. At the morphosyntacticlevel, results show a prominent presence of the nominal structures that indicate stability and permanence, with some use of verb phrases that indicate renewal, continuity and interactiveness. It seems that the morphosyntactic structures play a great role in determining the semantic interpretations of this hadith with its multiple narrations. This is evident not only through theuse of structures indicating eternal existence and presence across times to confirm meaning and to engrave it in the minds of listeners, but also through the connotations of generalization, specification, focus, emphasis, contrast, and others. All are intertwined in a linguistic harmony in which all linguistic levels - sound, form and structure - perform their function in the fullest and most meaningful way.

The Implications of the Levels of Linguistic Analysis in the Hadith of the Victorious Sect

This study deals with the hadith of the Victorious Sect, which is considered an important principle of loyalty and disavowal in Islam and a testimony of the Prophet Mohammed's (SWS) prophecy. This is a Mutawatir (consecutive) hadith narrated by nearly twenty companions. Using an analytical descriptive method, the present study examines the hadith's words and phrases at different linguistic levels: phonetic, morpho-syntactic, and semantic. Results at the phonetic level show that there is a prevalence of voiced, unaspirated, and explosive sounds that have strong impact on the listener. At the morphosyntacticlevel, results show a prominent presence of the nominal structures that indicate stability and permanence, with some use of verb phrases that indicate renewal, continuity and interactiveness. It seems that the morphosyntactic structures play a great role in determining the semantic interpretations of this hadith with its multiple narrations. This is evident not only through theuse of structures indicating eternal existence and presence across times to confirm meaning and to engrave it in the minds of listeners, but also through the connotations of generalization, specification, focus, emphasis, contrast, and others. All are intertwined in a linguistic harmony in which all linguistic levels - sound, form and structure - perform their function in the fullest and most meaningful way.

Deception detection in text and its relation to the cultural dimension of individualism/collectivism

AbstractAutomatic deception detection is a crucial task that has many applications both in direct physical and in computer-mediated human communication. Our focus is on automatic deception detection in text across cultures. In this context, we view culture through the prism of the individualism/collectivism dimension, and we approximate culture by using country as a proxy. Having as a starting point recent conclusions drawn from the social psychology discipline, we explore if differences in the usage of specific linguistic features of deception across cultures can be confirmed and attributed to cultural norms in respect to the individualism/collectivism divide. In addition, we investigate if a universal feature set for cross-cultural text deception detection tasks exists. We evaluate the predictive power of different feature sets and approaches. We create culture/language-aware classifiers by experimenting with a wide range of n-gram features from several levels of linguistic analysis, namely phonology, morphology and syntax, other linguistic cues like word and phoneme counts, pronouns use, etc., and token embeddings. We conducted our experiments over eleven data sets from five languages (English, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, and Romanian), from six countries (United States of America, Belgium, India, Russia, Mexico, and Romania), and we applied two classification methods, namely logistic regression and fine-tuned BERT models. The results showed that the undertaken task is fairly complex and demanding. Furthermore, there are indications that some linguistic cues of deception have cultural origins and are consistent in the context of diverse domains and data set settings for the same language. This is more evident for the usage of pronouns and the expression of sentiment in deceptive language. The results of this work show that the automatic deception detection across cultures and languages cannot be handled in unified manners and that such approaches should be augmented with knowledge about cultural differences and the domains of interest.

Frames at the Interface of Language and Cognition

This article reviews the work on frames in the last decade by a Düsseldorf research group. The research is based on Barsalou's notion of frames and the hypothesis that the frame is the general format of categorization in human cognition. The Düsseldorf frame group developed formal definitions and interpretations of Barsalou frames and applied the theory in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. This review focuses on applications of the theory in semantics. The Düsseldorf approach grounds the analysis of composition in deep decomposition of lexical meanings with frames. The basic mechanism of composition is unification, which has deep repercussions on semantic theory and practice: Composition produces structured meanings and is not necessarily deterministic. The interaction of semantic and world knowledge can be modeled in an overall frame model across levels of linguistic analysis. The review concludes with a brief report on the development of hyperframes for dynamic verbs and for cascades, a model for multilevel categorization of action.

Language Awareness in Italian Secondary Schools How Do Students Approach Language Awareness Tasks and What Kind of Language Awareness Emerges from Their Reflections?

The present paper aims to explore how students of Italian secondary schools approach linguistic tasks and what sort of knowledge about language emerges from their analyses. These questions arise from the observation of the results of the Invalsi tests. In order to examine how students construct their answers to a sample of language awareness questions, they were asked to explain how to answer them by making a tutorial video. The videos were discussed during a semi-structured interview. The data were transcribed and analysed by means of Qualitative Content Analysis. The results indicate that the principal difference between students relates to the stability of their “engagement with language” and their ability to switch their attention between different levels of linguistic analysis.

Shell-noun use in disciplinary student writing: A multifaceted analysis of problem and way in third-year undergraduate writing across three disciplines

Despite the growth of interest in the phenomenon of shell-nounhood in academic discourse, research has been primarily concerned with published research articles. This contrasts with the limited attention that it has received in the study of disciplinary student writing. This study explores discipline specificity in student writing through an in-depth multifaceted analysis of two frequent shell nouns, problem and way, in a sample of Year 3 undergraduate native writing from the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus in three disciplines: Sociology, Business and Engineering. The lexical, syntactico-semantic and textual variables coded yield results that conform to the divide between the more experimental approach of the Physical Sciences and the more interpretive one taken in the Social Sciences. The examination of data in this paper helps identify distinctive disciplinary trends at various levels of linguistic analysis, many of which could then be further inspected through more automated pattern-driven investigations of larger datasets.

Controvérsias na patologização e contradiscursos na afasia e na infância

O objetivo do texto é dar continuidade ao estudo da relação entre afasia e linguagem infantil, analisando, por um lado, controvérsias disponíveis na Internet sobre afasia e infância, e propondo, por outro, contradiscursos para avaliar e acompanhar afásicos e crianças com dificuldade de entrar na leitura/escrita. Os dados de fala e escrita, de afásicos e crianças, confirmam a hipótese clássica de Roman Jakobson e mostram que o encontro entre afasia e linguagem infantil se dá nos vários níveis de análise linguística, guiado pelo sentido e pelo contexto discursivo. Por fim, apresentamos experimentos com a linguagem, específicos para as modificações da linguagem na afasia e para crianças às voltas com a patologização, logo em sua escrita inicial.

Dimensions and levels of linguistic analysis

Dimensions and levels of linguistic analysis

Knowledge of Language Transfers From Speech to Sign: Evidence From Doubling.

Does knowledge of language transfer across language modalities? For example, can speakers who have had no sign language experience spontaneously project grammatical principles of English to American Sign Language (ASL) signs? To address this question, here, we explore a grammatical illusion. Using spoken language, we first show that a single word with doubling (e.g., trafraf) can elicit conflicting linguistic responses, depending on the level of linguistic analysis (phonology vs. morphology). We next show that speakers with no command of a sign language extend these same principles to novel ASL signs. Remarkably, the morphological analysis of ASL signs depends on the morphology of participants' spoken language. Speakers of Malayalam (a language with rich reduplicative morphology) prefer XX signs when doubling signals morphological plurality, whereas no such preference is seen in speakers of Mandarin (a language with no productive plural morphology). Our conclusions open up the possibility that some linguistic principles are amodal and abstract.

The Discriminatory Power of Lexical Context for Alternations: An Information-theoretic Exploration

This paper makes a very exploratory, tentative, and thinking-aloud kind of suggestion for the corpus-based analysis of alternation data. I start from the observation that studies of alternations/choices in particular in corpus linguistics have become increasingly sophisticated in terms of the statistical methods they employ and the number of predictors they involve. While the predictors employed come from many different levels of linguistic analysis – phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics/ discoursal, textual, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and others – they are usually contextual in nature, meaning they characterize the context of the choice the language user needs to make or has just made. However, one aspect of the context seems to be crucially underutilized when it comes to modeling speakers’ choices: the lexical context. In this paper, I build on recent work in computational psycholinguistics to: (a) define a lexical-distribution prototype of each of the (typically, but not necessarily, two) alternants of an alternation; and (b) compute the degree to which each instance of the alternation in question diverges from each of the prototypes. Then, (c) the values that all choices score on the divergences from each of the prototypes are entered as predictors to all others in statistical models to, minimally, serve as a variable that controls for whatever information is contained in the lexical context of an instance of speaker’s choice. I exemplify the approach and its sometimes amazing predictive power on the basis of a choice between near synonyms, two morphosyntactic alternations (preposition stranding vs. pied-piping and of- vs. s genitives), and a distinction between the functions of well.

«Adjetividad» en ocaina (familia Witoto, Amazonia noroccidental): adverbios, nombres y un adjetivo

A través de la descripción del ocaina exploramos fenómenos a menudo confundidos con la clase léxica adjetival, que remitirían más bien a un concepto amplio que se ha llamado «adjetividad» o a los que simplemente debería aludirse con denominaciones alternativas. La metodología propuesta para diferenciar tales fenómenos, comprender su escopo y demarcarlos del adjetivo, es definir este último a partir de su especificidad en cada nivel de análisis lingüístico. En el nivel sintáctico, hablamos, de un lado, de la función modificadora o epíteto del adjetivo, que distinguimos de los empleos adjetivales de nombres y adverbios; por otro lado, tenemos la función atributo o predicativa (no exclusiva del adjetivo), que en ocaina no es desempeñada por el único adjetivo de la lengua. En cuanto a la semántica, constatamos que los conceptos descriptivos o de propiedad (llamados «adjetivales») son expresados en ocaina mayormente por lexemas adverbiales, así como por nombres y por el paradigma de morfemas clasificatorios de discretización nominal.

Sentiment analysis for Polish

Abstract This article is a comprehensive review of freely available tools and software for sentiment analysis of texts written in Polish. It covers solutions which deal with all levels of linguistic analysis: starting from word-level, through phrase-level and up to sentence-level sentiment analysis. Technically, the tools include dictionaries, rule-based systems as well as deep neural networks. The text also describes a solution for finding opinion targets. The article also contains remarks that compare the landscape of available tools in Polish with that for English language. It is useful from the standpoint of multiple disciplines, not only information technology and computer science, but applied linguistics and social sciences.