Lexical Choices Research Articles

A corpus-based study of native speakers’ and Taiwanese EFL learners’ use of the adverb just

The polysemous adverb just is frequently used by efl learners, but many learners are still unaware of how just should be used. The aim of this study is to examine how frequently different meanings of the adverb just are employed by native speakers and Taiwanese efl learners in their essays and to identify the differences in the lexico-grammatical patterns. Drawing data from one native-speaker corpus and two Taiwanese efl learner corpora, we investigated ( i) the overall frequencies of just, ( ii) the frequencies of just by meaning categories, and ( iii) the lexico-grammatical patterns of the different meanings of just, as well as their semantic and syntactic features. Results showed that the overall frequencies of just were similar in the native speaker and learner corpora, but there was a smaller variety of the use of adverbial just in the learner corpora. By examining the lexico-grammatical patterns, we found that the meanings of the adverbial just were induced in the following patterns: first, when it modified different syntactic structures; secondly, when it co-occurred with specific contextual clues; and, thirdly, when it interacted with particular tense/aspect of a verb. In addition, semantic features and lexical choices had a pivotal role in determining whether the use of a particular sense of just was acceptable in a sentence. By providing corpus-based teaching material for the uses of adverbial just, it is hoped that our study will shed light on the perplexing issue of adverb acquisition.

Using natural language processing to automatically classify written self-reported narratives by patients with migraine or cluster headache

BackgroundHeadache medicine is largely based on detailed history taking by physicians analysing patients’ descriptions of headache. Natural language processing (NLP) structures and processes linguistic data into quantifiable units. In this study, we apply these digital techniques on self-reported narratives by patients with headache disorders to research the potential of analysing and automatically classifying human-generated text and information extraction in clinical contexts.MethodsA prospective cross-sectional clinical trial collected self-reported narratives on headache disorders from participants with either migraine or cluster headache. NLP was applied for the analysis of lexical, semantic and thematic properties of the texts. Machine learning (ML) algorithms were applied to classify the descriptions of headache attacks from individual participants into their correct group (migraine versus cluster headache).ResultsOne-hundred and twenty-one patients (81 participants with migraine and 40 participants with cluster headache) provided a self-reported narrative on their headache disorder. Lexical analysis of this text corpus resulted in several specific key words per diagnostic group (cluster headache: Dutch (nl): “oog” | English (en): “eye”, nl: “pijn” | en: “pain” and nl: “terug” | en: “back/to come back”; migraine: nl: “hoofdpijn” | en: “headache”, nl: “stress” | en: “stress” and nl: “misselijkheid” | en: “nausea”). Thematic and sentiment analysis of text revealed largely negative sentiment in texts by both patients with migraine and cluster headache. Logistic regression and support vector machine algorithms with different feature groups performed best for the classification of attack descriptions (with F1-scores for detecting cluster headache varying between 0.82 and 0.86) compared to naïve Bayes classifiers.ConclusionsDifferences in lexical choices between patients with migraine and cluster headache are detected with NLP and are congruent with domain expert knowledge of the disorders. Our research shows that ML algorithms have potential to classify patients’ self-reported narratives of migraine or cluster headache with good performance. NLP shows its capability to discern relevant linguistic aspects in narratives from patients with different headache disorders and demonstrates relevance in clinical information extraction. The potential benefits on the classification performance of larger datasets and neural NLP methods can be investigated in the future.Trial registrationThis study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov with ID NCT05377437.

Negative Projection: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Women’s Portrayal in Pakistani News Channel

The main purpose of this research is to highlight the news discourse about women’s depiction in Pakistani broadcast news. Women are still depicted in traditional roles in broadcast media. The research is qualitative in nature. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of CDA was applied to effectively evaluate how women are portrayed in the news Representation of women in Pakistan was analyzed by collecting news items from the official news channel “Geo News”. Sampled news items were analyzed by identifying the lexical and grammatical choices, interpreting in the local context of Pakistani society, and then lastly checking the ideological position. The results show that women are portrayed as weak, lacking freedom of movement, and subjugated because of the patriarchal culture in society. This study highlights the pessimistic aspects, the future researchers can explore the bright side of women’s discourse by focusing on the achievements, rights, and honor gained by modern Pakistani women.

Semiotic and Critical Discourse Analysis of the Editorial Caricatures on Covid-19 Vaccine

This paper aims to study some selected caricatures from selected editorial sources undertaking COVID-19 vaccine to signify how they are assembled to expose the messages and donate the social and political practices in the context. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic. A worldwide, systematic initiative is required in order to avoid even more dissemination of the virus which has been occurring over a large geographical region and affecting an exceedingly high percentage of the population. The caricatures which are going to be analysed are related to the lack of covid vaccine and the worldwide citizens’ negative reactions agaist the authorities. Depending on the CDA and Semiotic models, the caricatures will be analysedbased on the linguistic messages (to cover the portrayal of the verbal descriptions relating to lexical choices), the literal denoted messages (to describe the non-linguistic features) and the symbolic connoted messages (to interpret the link between the textual and denoted elements).

A chimpanzee by any other name: The contributions of utterance context and information density on word choice

An important feature of language production is the flexibility of lexical selection; producers could refer to an animal as chimpanzee, chimp, ape, she, and so on. Thus, a key question for psycholinguistic research is how and why producers make the lexical selections that they do. Information theoretic approaches have argued that producers regulate the uncertainty of the utterance for comprehenders, for example using longer words like chimpanzee if their messages are likely to be misunderstood, and shorter ones like chimp when the message is easy to understand. In this work, we test for the relative contributions of the information theoretic approach and an approach more aligned with psycholinguistic models of language production. We examine the effect on lexical selection of whole utterance-level factors that we take as a proxy for register or style in message-driven production accounts. Using a modern machine learning-oriented approach, we show that for both naturalistic stimuli and real-world corpora, producers prefer words to be longer in systematically different contexts, independent of the specific message they are trying to convey. We do not find evidence for regulation of uncertainty, as in information theoretic approaches. We offer suggestions for modification of the standard psycholinguistic production approach that emphasizes the need for the field to specify how message formulation influences lexical choice in multiword utterances.

An Empirical Study of Near-synonym Choice: A Comparison of Advanced EFL Learners to L1 English Speakers

Near-synonyms are words which share certain semantic similarities, yet differ in their contextual usage (e.g. acquire vs obtain, evaluate vs judge). The current study compares lexical preferences and rationalizations for choosing near-synonyms of advanced C1 level non-native speakers of English (n = 45) to those given by native speakers of English (n = 58). The data has been collected using a forced-choice questionnaire which also included a justification section meant to explore respondents’ reasoning behind their lexical choices. The findings of the study suggest that EFL students may lack the depth of vocabulary knowledge necessary to choose the most suitable word from a pair of near-synonyms. Insufficient knowledge of target words resulted in EFL learners’ lexical choices and justifications being statistically different from those given by native speakers. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that EFL teachers increase students’ exposure to various contexts as well as focus on vocabulary depth.

Gender and Olds’ Advice in Written Signs: A Pragmatic Study

Giving advice refers to an attempt by the speaker to express what the addressee should do in a particular situation or what is good for him/her. It is also a feature of making social relations and communications move smoothly and become stronger. The current study aims to investigate the strategies of the speech act of advice by old females and males for the younger generation in written signs. Comparison is made between old females and males regarding their pragmatic use of advice and the way they are manifested in expressing gender identity differences. The sample of the study consists of (30) written signs of advice divided equally between the two gender groups. Hinkel’s (1997) classification of the strategies for perceiving the speech act of advice is adopted to code the data of the current study. The results show that females’ advice-giving strategies are more varied than males although the two gender groups rely heavily on one basic strategy. Besides, age, as another social variable, appears to have a major role in shaping the strategy used by old people in giving advice and that gender identity is best reflected in lexical choices of emotional words, especially by females.

Science advocacy in political rhetoric and actions

‘Science’ is a proportionately small but recurring constituent in the rhetorical lexicon of political leaders. To evaluate the use of science-related content relative to other themes in political communications, we undertake a statistical analysis of keywords in U.S. Presidential State of the Union (SOTU) addresses and Presidential Budget Messages (PBM) from Truman (1947) to Trump (2020). Hierarchical clustering and correlation analyses reveal proximate affinities between ‘science’ and ‘research’, ‘space’, ‘technology’, ‘education’, and ‘climate’. The keywords that are least correlated with ‘science’ relate to fiscal (‘inflation’, ‘tax’) and conflict-related themes (‘security’, ‘war’, ‘terror’). The most ubiquitous and frequently used keywords are ‘economy’ and ‘tax’. Science-related keywords are used in a positive (promotional) rhetorical context and thus their proportionality in SOTU and PBM corpora is used to define fields of science advocacy (public perception advocacy, funding advocacy, advocacy) for each president. Monte Carlo simulations and randomized sampling of three elements: language (relative frequency of usage of science-related keywords), funding (proposed funding and allocated discretionary funding of science agencies), and actions (e.g. expediency of science advisor appointments, (dis-) establishment of science agencies) are used to generate a science advocacy score (SAS) for each president. The SAS is compared with independent survey-based measures of political popularity. A myriad of political, contextual, and other factors may contribute to lexical choices, policy, and funding actions. Within this complex environment ‘science’ may have political currency under certain circumstances, particularly where public and political perceptions of the value of science to contribute to matters of priority align.

An Analysis of Students’ Lexical Choice in Writing Descriptive Text

Writing is become the one of difficult skill to learn especially in EFL context. Students have problems when formulating words while doing writing assignments. This very important to investigate student problem while do writing especially on lexical choice that student utilize in writing descriptive. The corpus can also be used for examines sentence writing structure and word selection that can be seen and synchronized very effectively. The importance of this research is to be able to know the capacity of students when doing writing task and how their writing product can be better. it can be ascertained that from student writing samples that have been analyzed, there are 10.2% high frequency, 2.5% mid frequency, and 87.3% low frequency. This identifies that in writing students still tend to use familiar words to make a sentence. Based on the aspects of discovery that have been mentioned, students' ability to write still needs to be improved again, especially in the selection of several adjectives and pronouns.

Euphemism and contextual beliefs in gender-related issues in Helon Habila’s Measuring Time

This study examined how euphemism and contextual beliefs are deplored in discourse to characterise gender issues in Helon Habila’s Measuring Time in order to determine the contextual beliefs associated with such euphemistic expressions. Euphemism and contextual beliefs are essential in understanding the ways by which literary writers depict social issues through lexical and stylistic choices. The study adopts aspects of politeness theory, and the contextual beliefs (CBs) model. Excerpts from the novel that are related to widowhood/widowerhood experiences are subjected to lexical and discourse analyses. Two CBs are categorised as widowhood/widowerhood issues in the novel: Shared Knowledge of Patriarchal Laxity (SKPL) and Shared Knowledge of Loneliness/Companionship Search (SKL/CS). These CBs projected the euphemistic expressions with different underlying structures for widowhood and widowerhood practices respectively. The study found that euphemism and contexts are correlated because context could influence the interpretation of euphemism or restrict its application. Evidently, euphemism and contextual beliefs transform into a significant whole which novelists use in the gendered construction of widowhood/widowerhood.

Fascism and the classics: ideological manipulation and targeted translations of the Aeneid

Abstract A major aspect of Fascist manipulation of classical culture is the tendentious practice of translating texts in order to emphasize the points apparently consistent with the regime’s ideology: this process goes so far as to distort the meaning of the texts, which are used as means of political propaganda. This happened to the Aeneid, the most translated and probably the most misinterpreted poem in Italy during the Fascist period. I outline an overview of the translations made by Giuseppe Albini (1921), Francesco Vivona (1926), Giuseppe Lipparini (1928), Emilio Pratellesi (1930), and Guido Vitali (1930). I describe and illustrate with some examples the criteria followed by each author, with respect to lexical choice, sentence structure, and stylistic devices. Thus, I show how these translations (with the sole exception of that by Albini) are enslaved to their political purpose and betray the deep and complex message of the poem.

Comparative Analysis of the Mind Style: Child Narrators in Mark Haddon’s <em>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</em> and Ismail Kadare’s <em>Chronicle in Stone</em>

This study compares the stylistic markers of the thinking style of the child narrators in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) by British writer Mark Haddon and Chronicle in Stone (1971) by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. The paper analyzes the language of the narrators to identify the foregrounded linguistic elements in the narrative and consequently their reliability and impact on the reader. The linguistic features that characterize the child narrators of these novels are considered as features of their thinking style that indicate the limitations of their age and create the effect of unreliability. The analysis of the narrators’ stylistic features points to the foregrounded patterns that differ slightly in both narrators and are demonstrated at different linguistic levels such as lexical choices, coordinated syntactic patterns, juxtapositions of literal and figurative meanings, and the inclusion of other elements that mark the distinction of their idiosyncrasies and social background. By reflecting the child’s genuine naiveté, the narrative device of unreliability evokes empathy and enhances the reader’s interpretive power.

Najnowsze metodologie badawcze w lingwistyce kontaktu i automatyczna ekscerpcja anglicyzmów

The paper presents the newest research methodologies used in the analysis and description of foreign lexical loans, such as the usage-based approach, experimental set-ups, as well as corpus-assisted research that includes automatic identification and excerption of unassimilated loanwords. The usage-based approach and experimental design spring from the revised perception of linguistic borrowing in contact linguistics, seen now as a social act, in which the recipient language speakers play the main role by fulfilling their nominal and expressive needs through conscious lexical choices. This type of research is also possible due to large electronic corpora equipped with the latest data processing tools that enable the analysis of borrowed material in authentic contexts. Rooted in the onomasiological-cognitive theoretical background and assuming a socio-pragmatic perspective, the presented methodologies allow for the analysis of those areas within linguistic borrowing that in structural and systemic research were neglected or unanalysable

Variation in Word Formation and Lexical Choice: A Stylistic Translation of “Asahan Dalam Angka 2015” Text

In case of recent global and social changes, academic fields under language and communication pay their interests in various forms of translation, for instance, official text. Translating official text very often meets a gap, that is, inappropriate meanings in the target text. Therefore, the aims of the study are to identify the stylistic approaches that contribute to the translation of the ST into the TT in terms of stylistic qualified translation and to identify the translation accepted by the native speakers of TT. Equivalence in meaning which is a central meaning-focused in the translation work has not been done well by the translator. The farther its equivalence is the farther the gap is. The gap, however, leads to a misunderstanding of the text. Misunderstanding of the text will either spoil the ideas or loosen the information of the source text. Word Formation Variation (WFV) 19 data (14.61 %), and Lexical Choice Variation (LCV) 28 data (21.53%).

The Translation of Economic Terms in the Book The Psychology of Money

Translating economic terms is a challenging task since the translator needs to understand economics and be able to convey the concepts to the target language. In translating economic books for lay readers, the translator also needs to consider the lexical choice so that the target readers can understand the translation easily. This study aims to analyze the translation procedures applied in the translation of economic terms in the book The Psychology of Money written by Morgan Housel and to find out whether the translation is oriented to the source language or the target language. The data in this study were analyzed qualitatively by using the taxonomy of translation procedures by Vinay and Darbelnet. The results showed that there were seven translation procedures applied in the translation of economic terms: borrowing, calque, literal translation, a combination of borrowing and literal translation, transposition, equivalence, and combination of transposition and borrowing. The literal translation is the most dominant translation procedure applied to translate economic terms. Based on the analysis of the translation procedures, it can be concluded that the translation of economic terms in this study is oriented to the source language.

The Detailed Analysis of 'the Black Cat' by Edgar Allan Poe in Stylistic Perspective

As a discipline embracing both language and literature works, stylistics has been a great focus to many researches for many years. Dating back to rhetoric, stylistics paves the way for having different views in analyzing literary works. In its broadest sense, stylistics could be defined as a scientific branch to analyze the style of a literary figure within a linguistic framework. Situated within this field, the present paper sets out to investigate the style of Edgar Allan Poe as reflected in his short story “The Black Cat”. The method followed in the study is Leech and Short (1981) method that focuses on lexical, grammatical, figurative, contextual and cohesive aspects in the literary works. Findings obtained through the careful analysis of the texts have potential to contribute to the understanding of Poe’s style as a literary figure. Accordingly, his deliberate choices in punctuations, his lexical choices mostly reflecting his gift in writing, his repetitive use of words arousing fear and dread in the reader, and his skillful use of figures of speech could be considered as among the distinctive aspects of Poe’s style.

Political Discourse Analysis: Analyzing Building Tasks in Trump’s Speech in Saudi Arabia

This study aimed to investigate how the tasks of significance and identities are built in President Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia to find how President Trump employs language to perform these two building tasks. President Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia was analyzed qualitatively according to Gee’s (2011) building tasks model. It has been found that President Trump enacts and builds the significance task by carefully selecting lexical items, cooperative patterns, lexical choice, and compliments. Furthermore, President Trump enacts particular identities and attributes specific identities to others in his speech, such as political, social, and cooperative identities. The analysis shows that President Trump shifts between the identities such as President of the U.S., a representative of the American People, a fighter and defender of American citizens and the world’s safety and security, a businessman, a well-educated and knowledgeable person. This study recommends that future research investigate other political speeches delivered by President Trump based on any of the seven-building tasks of language that did not cover in this study.

VIRTUAL RAPPORT WITH EXPRESSIONS OF GRATITUDE IN RESPONDING ONLINE REVIEWS

The development of web-based technologies has increased the popularity of an online type of word-of-mouth, known as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). With the proliferation of online platforms, online reviews as eWOM have significantly influenced consumers’ purchase decisions in various industries. Given that eWOM can be immensely influential in businesses, engaging in digital platforms is crucial in rapport building with customers. Responding to online reviews can have a positive impact on both customer relationships and online reputation management. Expressing gratitude can create rapport and build trust with customers as a sense of appreciation can be kindled. Building on Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management Model, this study examines expressing gratitude strategies in the hotel responses to positive online reviews on TripAdvisor. Using purposeful sampling, particularly intensity sampling, the hotel responses were collected from Malaysian five-, four- and three-star hotels, which are situated in popular tourist destinations. The study findings show that four-star hotels accounted for the highest frequency of expressing gratitude strategies, followed by five- and three-star hotels. The five- and four-star hotels tend to vary their expressing gratitude strategies. It was also found that there was a significant relationship between the hotel star rating categories, the strategies of gratitude expression and lexical choice in those strategies. This study will establish an understanding of digital rapport management strategies from a linguistic perspective.

CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES ABOUT GENDERED ROLES IN TED TALKS

This study is designed to explicate how the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationship of language is the embodiment of gender differences. The present research deals with data taken from TEDx videos of both male and female speakers to find out how the speech varies between both sexes; what lexical choices and grammatical patterns are used by the speakers to make their speech stand out. The data, after being transcribed according to the Jeffersonian system of transcription, are analysed in the light of multiple parameters of Lakoff’s Deficit Model (1975). The paper mainly focuses on how men and women exploit various linguistic choices in terms of topics, empty adjectives, hedges, intensives, super-polite adjectives, telling jokes and intonation in their talks. The results implicate that both men and women have reshaped their linguistic choices over time and, as opposed to Lakoff’s findings, women’s talk is getting subject-oriented, shaded with lesser use of intensifiers, empty adjectives and intonations; whereas men are using these parameters with conviction. This represents a negation of internalised stereotypes by both sexes.

Appraisals Analysis on the Argumentation Structure of Indonesian Undergraduate Students’ Research Articles

This research aims to analyze the argument structure of undergraduate students’ research articles that focus on the introduction section. The data collection was conducted by analyzing the proceedings in the "Background" section written by undergraduate students at university in Indonesia. The data were then analyzed by using a corpus. This research found type of argument of this study were proclaim, disclaim, entertain, and attribute. The lexical choice that was used proclaim with a total of 46. The lexemes entertain a total of 37. The next lexical choice that was used is disclaim with a total of 33. Finally, attribute a total of 26 as the lowest engagement in appraisal.