Lexico-syntactic Features Research Articles

Lexico-syntactic analysis of antonyms in some speeches of John Dramani Mahama

Language and politics are intertwined. This is because in order to champion political interest, politicians rely on some powerful linguistic resources to communicate with their audience. Available literature suggests that one of such linguistic resources is antonyms. However, researchers have not paid attention to the use of antonyms in political discourse, especially, in Ghana. On account of this, the present study investigated the lexico-syntactic features of antonyms in some speeches of John Dramani Mahama, a former President of the Republic of Ghana. The study is an interface between cognitive semantics and political discourse which sought to discover the lexico-syntactic features and the functional implications of the antonym pairs used in the speeches of John Dramani Mahama. The study was conducted within the framework of the Lexical Field Theory and the speeches were analysed, using the qualitative research method. Through the use of purposive sampling method, sixteen (16) political speeches of John Dramani Mahama were selected for the analysis. The study relied on Cruse’s (1986) outlined features of antonymy and Murphy’s (2003) theoretical view on context-derived antonymy to identify the antonym pairs in the speeches. The study discovered one hundred and seventy-three (173) antonym pairs in the sixteen (16) selected speeches. The outcome of the study further revealed the noun phrase pair as the largest grammatical category in the selected speeches. The study again showed that John Dramani Mahama usually uses noun antonymic pairs and the coordinated frame X and Y in his political speeches. The study concluded that John Dramani Mahama uses antonyms in his speeches to persuade his audience, establish association, inspire hope and confidence, call for patriotism and hardworking towards national development, and finally, to present his political vision to Ghanaians.

Exploring the Connect between Language and Literature: A Stylistic Analysis of Ademola Omobewaji Dasylva’s GOLOBA

It is noted that scholars of linguistics have argued and proved that stylistics is a two-faced sub-linguistic field. In essence, stylistics is relevant in the study of both linguistic and literary texts which serves as the basis for distinguishing linguistic stylistics from literary stylistics. Literary texts are usually analysed to bring to fore the essence of focusing on the language of literature but to also demonstrate the concerns of literary-stylisticians as they set definite boundaries in analysing literary texts. In this paper, a poem titled “Goloba” by Ademola Dasylva is analysed to justify the claim that linguistic stylistics is a veritable approach for analysing and interpreting literary texts, by looking into the graphological features, phonological features, lexico-syntactic features and lexico-semantic features inherent in the poem. These linguistic features are distinctive in interpreting literary texts and the distinctions between linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics have been highlighted. Thus, the paper concludes that literary texts are not only the subject of literary critics but stylisticians.

Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease from Spoken and Written Language Using Fusion-Based Stacked Generalization

The importance of automating the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) towards facilitating its early prediction has long been emphasized, hampered in part by lack of empirical support. Given the evident association of AD with age and the increasing aging population owing to the general well-being of individuals, there have been unprecedented estimated economic complications. Consequently, many recent studies have attempted to employ the language deficiency caused by cognitive decline in automating the diagnostic task via training machine learning (ML) algorithms with linguistic patterns and deficits. In this study, we aim to develop multiple heterogeneous stacked fusion models that harness the advantages of several base learning algorithms to improve the overall generalizability and robustness of AD diagnostic ML models, where we parallelly utilized two different written and spoken-based datasets to train our stacked fusion models. Further, we examined the effect of linking these two datasets to develop a hybrid stacked fusion model that can predict AD from written and spoken languages. Our feature spaces involved two widely used linguistic patterns: lexicosyntactics and character n-gram spaces. We firstly investigated lexicosyntactics of AD alongside healthy controls (HC), where we explored a few new lexicosyntactic features, then optimized the lexicosyntactic feature space by proposing a correlation feature selection technique that eliminates features based on their feature-feature inter-correlations and feature-target correlations according to a certain threshold. Our stacked fusion models establish benchmarks on both datasets with AUC of 98.1% and 99.47% for the spoken and written-based datasets, respectively, and corresponding accuracy and F1 score values around 95% on spoken-based dataset and around 97% on the written-based dataset. Likewise, the hybrid stacked fusion model on linked data presents an optimal performance with 99.2% AUC as well as accuracy and F1 score falling around 97%. In view of the achieved performance and enhanced generalizability of such fusion models over single classifiers, this study suggests replacing the initial traditional screening test with such models that can be embedded into an online format for a fully automated remote diagnosis.

Classifiers in Mandarin Chinese: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence regarding their representation and processing

In Chinese, when objects are named with their quantity, a numeral classifier must be inserted between the quantifier and the noun to produce a grammatically correct quantifier + classifier + noun phrase. In this study, we adopted the picture-word interference paradigm to examine participants’ naming latencies for multiple objects and their electroencephalogram in four conditions by manipulating two factors, i.e. semantic relatedness and classifier congruency. Results show that in noun phrase production, naming latencies are significantly longer in classifier-incongruent and semantically related conditions than in classifier-congruent and semantically unrelated conditions. Also, an N400-like effect was observed and found to be stronger in classifier-incongruent and semantically unrelated conditions. Together, the behavioral data and event-related potential analyses suggest that the use of classifiers as lexico-syntactic features in Mandarin Chinese takes place via a competitive selection process in noun phrase production.

Evidence for syntactic feature transfer between two languages

In this commentary, I would like to support Goad and White’s (2019, henceforth G&W) claim that the morphosyntactic feature system in the L2 does not have to be defective due to certain syntactic features not being activated in the L1. I will base my point on the example of grammatical gender. Moreover, I would like to stress the importance of developing processing models for lexico-syntactic features in bilingual speakers. Processing models may be able to account for why L2 learners behave in a particular way. For instance, G&W (p. 791) refer to a study by Goad et al. (2011), suggesting that “beginners fl uctuate between deletion of the plural and resorting to the structure for verbal in fl ection”. However, they do not provide an answer as to why L2 learners behave in that way. In other words, a processing account is missing. A comprehensive (neuro-)cognitive model of grammatical feature representation and processing may help understand error patterns in L2 production.

Go constructions in Modern Standard Arabic

AbstractThis paper investigates the constructional behaviour of three of the most frequentgoverbs in Modern Standard Arabic:ḏahaba, maḍā, andrāḥa. These verbs are considered somewhat synonymous according to many classical and modern dictionaries of Arabic. Nevertheless, each verb has a distinctive profile manifested in its constructional behaviour, which explains why these verbs are not easily interchangeable in various contexts of use. In this paper, I will examine the prototypical uses of the three MSAgoverbs based on corpus data (extracted fromarabicorpus.byu.edu) by highlighting the lexico-syntactic frames they each associate with. This is achieved by annotating a large number of contextualized uses (per verb) for a variety of lexico-syntactic features. The data frame is subsequently probed with the help of Hierarchical Configural Frequency Analysis (von Eye 1990;Gries 2004) as a means of highlighting recurring and significant patterns of variable co-occurrences. The quantitative analysis is followed by a qualitative analysis that further explores the lexico-syntactic frames that pertain to different aspects of a deictic motion event. The results obtained from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses highlight the idiosyncratic constructional properties that characterize the use of each verb in various physical and figurative motion event construals.

Transitivity, paradigmatic choices, and thought presentation: A stylistic analysis of Joyce’s Eveline

This paper shows how analyzing styles in fiction can be achieved in three ways: an in-depth examination of the role assignment of lexico-syntactic features, categorization of the choices in combining words, and examination of strategies in presenting characters’ perspectives. It offers ways on how to guide students in English as a second language (ESL) in analyzing and appreciating English fiction. It aims to equip them with language tools in evaluating a writer’s intended and desired aesthetic effects by using chosen linguistic features. To achieve this objective, this paper applies M.A.K. Halliday’s systemic-functional grammatical model illustrating how language works in Joyce’s Eveline, a short story. Specifically, this paper shows how EFL or ESL students can acquire a deeper appreciation of the worldview, perspective, or point of view of the author and his characters. Also, it illustrates how they may have a deeper appreciation of the craft, originality, and ingenuity of an author. Moreover, it demonstrates how using different techniques in speech and thought presentation could be made accessible by showing how rendering thoughts, feelings, and expressions can offer new perceptions and appreciations of what seems to be habitualized and ineffectual.

Morpho-syntactic variations in English and Spanish clipped words: a contrastive study

Abstract Clipping and linguistic variation are inexorably interconnected. Shortened or elliptical words reflect a great deal of variability of the language, especially in the morphological and phonological levels. The object of this study is precisely to explore the phono-graphemic and grammatical variations occurred in the visible changes undergone by clipped words in Spanish and English. A contrastive analysis of this type reveals both expectedly different correspondences in terms of gender and number, and surprisingly parallel lexico-syntactic features. This suggests that clipped or elliptical units are not only necessarily dependent on intrinsic morpho-grammatical and phonological traits, but they are also characterized by regularities and universal patterns that might show disruptive or “corrupted” constructs. This analysis confirms the peculiarities of clipping and linguistic variations in both languages, in an attempt to comprehend the interconnection between functional motivations, and morphological and phonological changes.

Narrative in support of an end-state statement

This study examines Chinese learners' use, and acquisition, of a specialized genre of English narrative: narrative in support of an end-state statement (NIE). It uses a comparative assessment of English and Chinese NIE to understand learner text at three levels of proficiency. The study identifies differences between English and Chinese NIE in the backdrop of broad configurational commonality: unlike English, Chinese allows for less definition in thematic delimitation, formal marking of developmental design, and narrative texture, as well as the distinctive feature of a linguistic separation of crucial from subsidiary elements of the narrative development. These differences, together, suggest the accommodation of a less explicit, more implicational style of narration. The influence of this difference is apparent in the acquisition of both NIE-specific and more general lexico-syntactic features. But learning follows a linear progression across the two lower levels of proficiency, in the direction of the target configuration. At the highest level of proficiency, when students are both most fluent and most confident, however, this very advantage makes them 'break free', and, so, they deviate from expected practice, in a reversion to internalized first-language (L1) discoursal practice. Pedagogical implications arising from the study findings are considered.

Lexico-syntactic features are activated but not selected in bare noun production: Electrophysiological evidence from overt picture naming

To produce a word, speakers need to retrieve the lexico-syntactic representation of the word and encode the phonological form for articulation. It is not precisely known yet if a word's syntactic features (e.g., number, gender, etc.) are automatically activated and selected in bare noun production. Cubelli, Lotto, Paolieri, Girelli, and Job (2005) proposed that only in languages that have a complex morphological structure (e.g., Italian), the selection of grammatical gender is required. In languages with a relatively simpler morphological structure, the selection of grammatical gender is by-passed. Here, we investigated this issue further by employing a language with an extremely simple morphological structure, i.e., Mandarin Chinese. Using the picture-word interference paradigm, we manipulated the congruency of the lexico-syntactic classifier feature (comparable to grammatical gender) between the target picture and the superimposed distractor word. We measured participants' naming latencies and their electroencephalogram (EEG). As a result, relative to the classifier-congruent condition, classifier incongruency elicited a stronger N400 effect in the ERP analyses, suggesting the automatic activation of lexico-syntactic features in bare noun production. However, classifier congruency did not affect naming latencies, suggesting that the lexico-syntactic feature is not selected in bare noun naming when it is irrelevant for production.

Do Persian Native Speakers Prosodically Mark Wh-in-situ Questions?

It has been shown that prosody contributes to the contrast between declarativity and interrogativity, notably in interrogative utterances lacking lexico-syntactic features of interrogativity. Accordingly, it may be proposed that prosody plays a role in marking wh-in-situ questions in which the interrogativity feature (the wh-phrase) does not move to sentence-initial position, as, for example, in Persian. This paper examines whether prosody distinguishes Persian wh-in-situ questions from declaratives in the absence of the interrogativity feature in the sentence-initial position. To answer this question, a production experiment was designed in which wh-questions and declaratives were elicited from Persian native speakers. On the basis of the results of previous studies, we hypothesize that prosodic features mark wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives at both the local (pre- and post-wh part) and global level (complete sentence). The results of the current study confirm our hypothesis that prosodic correlates mark the pre-wh part as well as the complete sentence in wh-in-situ questions. The results support theoretical concepts such as the frequency code, the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other, the relation between prosody and pragmatics, and the relation between prosody and encoding and decoding of sentence type.

Lexico-syntactic features of beauty-product warnings in the Philippines

Lexico-syntactic features of beauty-product warnings in the Philippines

Rhetorical structure and Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACTBackground: Language is one of the first faculties afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A growing body of work has focussed on leveraging automated analysis of speech to accurately predict the onset of AD. Previous work, however, did not address the effects of AD on the structure of discourse in spontaneous speech and literature.Aims: Our goal is to identify the effects of AD on the structure of discourse, both in spontaneous speech and in literature.Methods & Procedures: We use two existing data sets, DementiaBank and the Carolina Conversations Collection, to explore how AD manifests itself in spontaneous speech. This is done by automatically extracting discourse relations according to Rhetorical Structure Theory. We also study written novels, comparing authors with and without dementia using the same tools.Outcomes & Results: Several discourse relations, especially those involving elaboration and attribution, are significant indicators of AD in speech. Indicators of the disease in written text, by contrast, involve relations of logical contingency.Conclusions: Our work highlights how AD can alter discourse structures in both spontaneous speech and written text. Future work should combine discourse analysis with previously studied lexico-syntactic features.

Differences in Translation by Translation Specialized and Non-Specialized Students in Terms of Accuracy of Pragmatic Equivalence and Lexico-Syntactic Properties

The present study is an investigation into translation accuracy in terms of pragmatic and lexicosyntactic features of translators who know English and have specialized in translation studies as their major and those who studied chemistry but know English well. Based on an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), thirty homogenized participants were selected with regard to their language proficiency. Both groups of participants i.e., translation specialized and chemistry students, were asked to translate a chemistry text. Afterwards, their productions were assessed with respect to the accuracy of the translations in terms of lexical and pragmatic features. Results showed that there were significant differences between the translation accuracy of lexical and pragmatic features in the two groups and chemistry students outperformed translation students. However, translation students were shown to be better translators in terms of syntactic features.

Minimal Semantics and Word Sense Disambiguation

Abstract Emma Borg has defined semantic minimalism as the thesis that the literal content of well-formed declarative sentences is truth-evaluable, fully determined by their lexico-syntactic features, and recoverable by language users with no need to access non-linguistic information. The task of this article is threefold. First, I shall raise a criticism to Borg’s minimalism based on how speakers disambiguate homonymy. Second, I will explore some ways Borg might respond to my argument and maintain that none of them offers a conclusive reply to my case. Third, I shall suggest that in order for Borg’s minimalism to best accommodate the problem discussed in this paper, it should allow for semantically incomplete content and be converted into a claim about linguistic competence.

Data-driven models for timing feedback responses in a Map Task dialogue system

Traditional dialogue systems use a fixed silence threshold to detect the end of users’ turns. Such a simplistic model can result in system behaviour that is both interruptive and unresponsive, which in turn affects user experience. Various studies have observed that human interlocutors take cues from speaker behaviour, such as prosody, syntax, and gestures, to coordinate smooth exchange of speaking turns. However, little effort has been made towards implementing these models in dialogue systems and verifying how well they model the turn-taking behaviour in human–computer interactions. We present a data-driven approach to building models for online detection of suitable feedback response locations in the user's speech. We first collected human–computer interaction data using a spoken dialogue system that can perform the Map Task with users (albeit using a trick). On this data, we trained various models that use automatically extractable prosodic, contextual and lexico-syntactic features for detecting response locations. Next, we implemented a trained model in the same dialogue system and evaluated it in interactions with users. The subjective and objective measures from the user evaluation confirm that a model trained on speaker behavioural cues offers both smoother turn-transitions and more responsive system behaviour.

Parallel and nested decomposition for factoid questions

AbstractTypically, automatic Question Answering (QA) approaches use the question in its entirety in the search for potential answers. We argue that decomposing complex factoid questions into separate facts about their answers is beneficial to QA, since an answer candidate with support coming from multiple independent facts is more likely to be the correct one. We broadly categorize decomposable questions as parallel or nested, and we present a novel question decomposition framework for enhancing the ability of single-shot QA systems to answer complex factoid questions. Essential to the framework are components for decomposition recognition, question rewriting, and candidate answer synthesis and re-ranking. We discuss the interplay among these, with particular emphasis on decomposition recognition, a process which, we argue, can be sufficiently informed by lexico-syntactic features alone. We validate our approach to decomposition by implementing the framework on top of IBM Watson™, a state-of-the-art QA system, and showing a statistically significant improvement over its accuracy.

Fact-based question decomposition in DeepQA

Factoid questions often contain more than one fact or assertion about their answers. Question-answering (QA) systems, however, typically do not use such fine-grained distinctions because of the need for deep understanding of the question in order to identify and separate the facts. We argue that decomposing complex factoid questions is beneficial to QA systems, because the more facts that support an answer candidate, the more likely it is to be the correct answer. We broadly categorize decomposable questions into two types: parallel and nested. Parallel decomposable questions contain subquestions that can be evaluated independent of each other. Nested questions require decompositions to be processed in sequence, with the answer to an inner subquestion plugged into an Bouter[ subquestion. In this paper, we present a novel question decomposition framework capable of handling both decomposition types, built on top of the base IBM Watsoni QA system for Jeopardy!™. The framework contains a suite of decomposition rules that use predominantly lexico-syntactic features to identify facts within complex questions. It also contains a question-rewriting component and a candidate re-ranker, which uses machine learning and heuristic selection strategies to generate a final ranked answer list, taking into account answer confidences from the base QA system. We apply our decomposition framework to the particularly challenging domain of Final Jeopardy! questions, which are found to be difficult even for qualified Jeopardy! players, and we show a statistically significant improvement in the performance of our baseline QA system.

Introduction: Developing discourse stance in different text types and languages

Abstract This article introduces the theme of ‘discourse stance’, the unifying focal point for this special issue, and delineates the three dimensions involved in this notion, as described in the position paper [Berman, Ruth A., Ragnarsdottir, Hrafnhildur, Stromqvist, Sven, 2002. Discourse stance.Written Language and Literacy 5, 255–290] that forms the source study to the articles in this volume: orientation, attitude, and generality. It then summarizes predictions proposed there for how discourse stance will be realized in relation to the variables of development (four levels of age and schooling), genre (personal-experience narrative versus expository discussion), modality (written versus spoken texts), and target language (Dutch, English, French, Hebrew, Icelandic, Spanish, and Swedish). The article concludes by comparing common themes with language-particular findings that emerge from the analyses presented here. These analyses, conducted on directly comparable data-sets for the different languages, reveal certain shared trends across the sample. A range of lexico-syntactic features of linguistic structure and thematic content interact to express discourse stance; these differ markedly as a function of text type; and more mature speaker–writers express a less monolithic stance than younger schoolchildren. On the other hand, devices for agent downgrading or distancing of the speaker–writer from the contents of the text (such as impersonal use of 2nd person pronouns; generic pronouns like English we, French on, or Dutch men; and middle and passive voice compared with active voice) change in both amount and range both as a function of text type and of age and literacy level, and also cross-linguistically, reflecting different rhetorical options favored by speaker–writers of different languages.

On the representation of Portuguese gender-inflected words in the mental lexicon

This study aims at verifying whether Portuguese gender-inflected nouns and adjectives are represented as full forms as suggested by Spanish data ( Dominguez, Cuetos, & Segui, 1999). A series of lexical decision experiments is reported. Grammatical gender, frequency dominance, and grammatical category are manipulated and cumulative frequency is controlled. The results do not provide support for a full form representation of gender-inflected words. They suggest that grammatical category, or the nature of the inflectional process involved (lexical or syntactic), affects the way words are represented and accessed. Shorter recognition latencies were obtained for nouns drawn from Feminine dominant gender-inflected pairs than from Masculine dominant pairs whereas a tendency in the opposite direction was observed in adjectives. The effect of frequency dominance appears, nevertheless, to be restricted to feminine nouns. The data are compatible with the view that masculine nouns and adjectives are represented as gender-unmarked forms. These results are discussed in relation to current dual-access models of word recognition and to the notion of “interpretability” of lexico-syntactic features, as put forward in the Minimalist Program of Generative Linguistics.