Linguistic Characterization Research Articles

"To Suggest the Sound": Impressibility and the Language of Whiteness in Charles W. Chesnutt's Long Fiction

Abstract: Charles W. Chesnutt constructs the sound of whiteness in The House Behind the Cedars and The Marrow of Tradition by situating character language within emerging frameworks of racial "impressibility." House explores the lives of two siblings, John and Rena, whose racial passing Chesnutt registers, in part, through the siblings' language practices. Marrow , on the other hand, introduces a different type of "passing" character, the cruel Colonel McBane, whose speech patterns Chesnutt associates with, and uses to critique, anti-black violence perpetrated by the "po' white" class. Both novels critique the color line by participating in the popular nineteenth-century racial discourse of sentimental biopower and impressibility, as identified by Kyla Schuller. In the biopower regime Schuller describes, racial hierarchies rest on differing capacities of bodies to absorb sensations and stimuli and adapt. In Marrow and House , these capacities are underscored through language metaphor and linguistic characterization, part of Chesnutt's complex, longstanding inquiry into the relationship between language and race.

Лингвопрагматическая характеристика аннотаций массовых открытых онлайн-курсов (на материале немецкого языка)

The aim of the research is to provide a linguistic-pragmatic characterization of annotations of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a type of text. The article analyzes the semantic and linguistic content of the elements comprising MOOC annotations. The scientific novelty of the study lies in offering a comprehensive linguistic characterization of MOOC annotations in the German language for the first time. The research findings establish that MOOC annotations are secondary reproductive texts that provide a recipient with brief information about the content and structure of the primary MOOC text. They are hybrid formations, combining features of academic and popular scientific discourses, as well as techniques typical of advertising and hospitality discourse practices. The substantive structure of MOOC annotations is more diverse than their compositional structure. Not all content components are strictly tied to specific compositional elements; they may be repeated in different variations within the same text. The choice of linguistic means in MOOC annotations largely depends on the communication style preferred by the course creators and the intended target audience.

Text Value and Linguistic Characterization in Chinese Language Literature Based on Text Mining Techniques

Abstract This study applies text mining techniques to deeply analyze Chinese language and literature’s text value and linguistic features. The study adopts the methods of textual disambiguation, vector space modeling, semantic network and Labeled-LDA model. Taking the novels of Yu Hua and Ge Fei as an example, it reveals the differences between the two writers in linguistic features such as using punctuation, average word length, and sentence discrete degree. The study provides a comprehensive heat score for the novels based on three dimensions: reading base group, reading gain, and reading discussion. The results show that the frequency of period use in Yu Hua’s works is decentralized, while Ge Fei’s works are more concentrated. Ge Fei’s average word length is slightly higher, showing a tendency to use multi-syllabic words. The novel popularity and heat scores conform to a power law distribution, reflecting the Pareto rule that 80% of the popularity is concentrated on 20% of the hot novels. This study provides a new perspective on Chinese language and literature through the application of text mining technology, and its methods and tools can effectively enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching.

A Comprehensive Analysis of Text Value and Linguistic Characteristics of Chinese Language Literature Based on Text Mining Technology

Abstract In this paper, webpage information is extracted by the directed crawling method in data crawling technology so as to obtain a collection of Chinese language literature, which is processed by data cleaning, Chinese word splitting, and de-duplication. Text mining techniques such as machine learning, the LDA model, and semantic networks are used to perform operations such as sentiment analysis, theme extraction, and linguistic association analysis on the acquired text. Based on the mined text, text value assessment and linguistic characterization of literary works written in Chinese are carried out. The text value is quantified and graded using the PMC index model, and the linguistic features of the text, including punctuation, vocabulary, and sentences, are analyzed by constructing a linguistic feature model. Eight of the 10 Chinese literary works selected in this paper, including Alive, have text values at an excellent level. The frequently used punctuation mark in works is the period. The average word length is around 2.75, and the degree of discreteness of sentences is small.

The Particle bal in Qur’anic Arabic

This paper provides a linguistic characterization of the particle bal, roughly translated as ‘rather’ in English, in Qur’anic Arabic. In the Qur’an corpus, which includes 77880 words, the particle occurs 121 times, and in its various occurrences, the particle does not have the same syntactic categorization nor the same semantic meaning or function. Therefore, the present paper explores the syntactic and semantic features of the particle alongside its uses in its varying positions. It examines the positions, distributions, semantic meaning and functions of the particle in different contexts. The paper also sheds light on the recurrent linguistic aspects that characterize the structures in which the particle occurs. The method employed involves distributional and qualitative descriptive techniques. The study shows that, in terms of positions, the particle either introduces a clause or occurs between two equal elements. In terms of functions, the study highlights that the use of the particle involves transitioning from and, in certain instances, invalidating the proposition expressed by the preceding clause as well as affirmation of and, in certain instances, an intensification of the proposition expressed by the following clause. The study also indicates the polysemy of the particle and that it can be synonymous with e.g. lakin ‘but’, bi-l-2aHra: ‘rather’, Haqqan ‘indeed’, badalan min ‘instead of’ and the emphatic particles 2inna and 2innama:. Moreover, based on the investigation of the features of the particle bal in its varying contexts, the study proposes a number of categories through which the particle can be analyzed, which include: an adversative coordinator, a conjunctive adverb, and a complementizer. The findings thus highlight the diversity in the syntax and semantics of a single particle that is realized as bal in the contexts of Qur’anic Arabic, and the paper makes a contribution to literature in the understudied area of the syntax and semantics of Qur’anic Arabic.

Neuropsycho‐linguistic study of agraphia and aphasia in Moroccan Arabic in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

AbstractBackgroundAgraphia and aphasia are common symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While most studies were carried out in English, to our knowledge no study has been conducted in Arabic, to characterize these neuro‐psycholinguistic impairments in AD.MethodOur sample included 14 patients (4 with mild and 10 with moderate AD). They met the clinical criteria for AD (McKhann, 2011). The average age is 68.2 years (SD 6; 57‐77). The average number of years of education is 13 years (SD 2.9; 6‐16). The average duration of the disease is 4.2 years (SD 1.97; 1‐8) . The neurolinguistic assessment was used with Mini‐Linguistic State Examination test (MLSE, Patel et al., 2020; Taiebine et al, 2021) for the screening of language disorders. Furthermore, an exhaustive neuropsychological assessment has been carried out (global cognitive functions, memory, attention, verbal fluency, executive, praxis, and visuo‐constructional functions). The writing samples were analyzed using the MMSE sentence writing and MLSE writing subtests.ResultStatistical analysis showed that MLSE scores were influenced by disease severity and duration, whereas education level and age had no effect. As AD progresses, additional impairments become apparent in other cognitive domains. However, the marked syntactic deterioration in MLSE, compared to other linguistic domains, is an atypical pattern, whereas syntax is generally preserved in AD. (Taiebine et al, 2021). Neurolinguistic assessment showed impairment at the macro‐ and micro‐linguistic levels in terms of functional words, verbs, cohesion, and coherence. The analysis of paragraphias showed that the most frequent errors were literal omissions with missing diacritics (36%), followed by graphomotor errors (30%) and allographic errors (10%). The allographic errors are mainly graphemic simplifications that share visuospatial similarities with target letters.ConclusionThis study offers a new perspective on the linguistic characterization of AD. Moreover, it confirms the hierarchical decline in language. The pattern of post‐graphemic disorders found in our patients was consistent with the impairment of peripheral writing buffers in Arabic: graphemic, graphomotor, and allographic.

Exploring Cultural Dynamics: Comparative Analysis of Argumentative English Essays Among Pakistani and Chinese Learners using Multidimensional Analysis

This study aims at exploring comparative linguistic variation across Pakistani and Chinese learners’ English argumentative essays using a multidimensional analysis (MDA) approach. This study uses a quantitative approach to describing co-occurring linguistic features. The corpus comprising 400 Pakistani and Chinese learners’ essays used in this study has been electronically derived from an online source, ICNALE. The representative corpus has been tagged and analysed through MAT tagger. This study addresses how the language of Pakistani and Chinese learners vary comparatively linguistically; it also explores their linguistic characterization which distinguishes their variety through their co-occurring linguistic features using MD analysis by utilizing five dimensions. The study is restricted to only two countries i.e., Pakistan and China, and the size of the data is considerably more restricted to one sub-register of essay writing, namely, argumentative essays. The results indicate that the language of Pakistani learners’ essays is informational but Chinese learners’ essays are involved in dimension 1 Chinese learners’ essays are narrative whereas Pakistanis learners’ essays are non-narrative on dimension 2. Dimension 3 specifies that Pakistani learners’ essay writings implement that the text is independent of context and contains significant nominalizations while Chinese learners’ essay writings are context-dependent in nature. Dimension 4 indicates that Chinese learners’ essay writings are more explicit and persuasive specifying extensive use of modal verbs than Pakistani learners’ writings. The nature of Chinese learners’ essays is abstract, formal, and technical while Pakistani learners’ essays are non-abstract, objective, and natural on Dimension 5. This study has shed light on how learners acquire new words and expressions from reading different texts that identify various lexical grammatical aspects writers employ and serve as the fundamental source of variety in their language. The categories of dimensions are developed based on particular linguistic features that are over- or under-utilized by assessing the statistical data.

Morphosyntactic Changes and Sociolinguistic Variation in the Language of Kyōgen A Corpus-Based Analysis of Toraakirabon (1642)

The aim of this paper is to analyse morphosyntactic structures in the language of kyōgen – a traditional form of Japanese comic theatre developed in the fourteenth century – from a sociolinguistic perspective, i.e. by highlighting differences in usage across various categories of characters, using the Corpus of Historical Japanese (CHJ). This paper will focus on the use of the particles ga and no with nominative and attributive functions and on the decline of kakari-musubi with koso in Toraakirabon (1642). The analysis will reveal that linguistic characterization is rendered not only through the lexicon, but also, as in the case of female characters, through a particular use of morphosyntactic structures, which appears less influenced by linguistic innovations.

Translanguaging in Brazilian bilingual education: analyzing attitudes and perceptions of translanguaging practices in fifth-grade students and their teachers

Grounded in the translanguaging theory, which as a decolonial theory and pedagogy frames languages as a unified semiotic repertoire, this study explores participants’ attitudes and perceptions toward their translanguaging practices. The investigation examines the answers to Questionnaires for Linguistic Characterization and Use completed by fourteen students and three of their teachers at a bilingual school in Southern Brazil. The teachers also answered a written interview. Results showed a solid stance for language separation in formal contexts, contrasting with a positive attitude toward multilingual behavior. Despite students and teachers prioritize the use of the target language, translanguaging practices are clearly manifested in class. Considering these results, translanguaging pedagogy seems to be valid for minority language development contexts, in which educators are committed to promoting the translanguaging corriente to promote biliteracy by valuing bilinguals’ repertoire to create fluid and dynamic spaces allowing learners to critically convey their thinking.

Rey que non tiene vasallos nunca bien puede regnar: usos fraseológicos al servicio de la legitimación regia en el Poema de Alfonso XI

After the publication of the different studies carried out by Carolina Michaëlis (1902 and 1909), Menéndez Pidal (1914 and 1924), Diego Catalán (1953 and 1977) or Yo Ten Cate (1956), there is not much research concerning the Poema de Alfonso XI (c. 1344-1348). The defective state of the only preserved testimony, characterized by metrical alterations as well as by rhymes that seem to have been modified by the alleged textual «dialectalization», presents difficulties to ensure its linguistic ascription. The most current studies on historical phraseology have contributed to clarify the process of textual construction of the preserved late medieval testimonies; therefore, it seems pertinent to analyze the phraseological units which configure the Poema de Alfonso XI in order to shed light not only on its constitutive process, but also on its linguistic characterization.

Lexical and Grammatical Features of Direct Speech of the Trickster-Character in Fiction Discourse (Based on the Material of Neil Gaiman's Collection "Scandinavian Mythology")

The article is devoted to the analysis of lexical and grammatical features of direct speech of a trickster character in literary discourse. The material for the study was taken from Neil Gaiman's collection of short stories "Scandinavian Mythology". This article includes an analysis of previous studies with the aim of forming the theoretical basis for studying the direct speech of a trickster character, analysis of lexical and grammatical constructions used in the character's direct speech, consideration of the results obtained and drawing conclusions. The subject of the article is the lexical and grammatical features of the direct speech of the trickster character, Loki, being one of the main characters of Neil Gaiman's collection "Norse Mythology". The object of the article is the trickster character and his direct speech, in particular his lexical and grammatical features. Summarizing the analysis of lexical and grammatical features of the direct speech of the trickster character in Neil Gaiman's collection "Norse Mythology", we can determine that this character uses mainly neutral vocabulary in order to simplify communication and increase his influence on other characters. However, it is important to note that the linguistic characterization of a trickster is formed not only by vocabulary, but also by grammar, syntax, and morphology. In his direct speech, Loki uses simple sentences and narrative structures, and actively uses verbs to indicate dynamic actions. This makes his speech lively and expressive. This style of speech helps to emphasize the character's temper and role in a literary text, to create a unique image of the trickster that attracts the reader's attention and reflects his cheerful and energetic nature. In general, the lexical and grammatical features of the trickster character's speech play an important role in creating an artistic image and the dynamics of action in the text of the collection.

Savior or Villain? A Corpus Stylistic Approach to the Linguistic Construction of Victim-Survivors of Sexual Violence in Westworld

This paper explores how the identity of victim-survivors of sexual violence is portrayed in the dystopian TV series Westworld (2016-present) by analyzing the linguistic characterization of the lead female character, Dolores Abernathy. To do so, this paper adopts a mixed methodology which combines corpus stylistics and Appraisal Theory with a feminist critical reading of the results in order to examine the textual cues in Dolores’ dialogue which characterize her journey from being a victim to becoming an empowered being. The results of the analysis show that the series features a misappropriation of female empowerment and liberation since Dolores presents a masculinization of her fictional identity which mirrors patriarchal practices and attitudes against women.

Linguistic Characterization of Divisive Topics Online: Case Studies on Contentiousness in Abortion, Climate Change, and Gun Control

As public discourse continues to move and grow online, conversations about divisive topics on social media plat-forms have also increased. These divisive topics prompt both contentious and non-contentious conversations. Although what distinguishes these conversations, often framed as what makes these conversations contentious, is known in broad strokes, much less is known about the linguistic signature of these conversations. Prior work has shown that contentious content and structure can be a predictor for this task, however,most of them have been focused on conversation in general,very specific events, or complex structural analysis. Additionally, many models used in prior work have lacked interpretability, a key factor in online moderation. Our work fills these gaps by focusing on conversations from highly divisive topics (abortion, climate change, and gun control), operationalizing a set of novel linguistic and conversational characteristics and user factors, and incorporating them to build interpretable models. We demonstrate that such characteristics can largely improve the performance of prediction on this task, and also enable nuanced interpretability. Our case studies on these three contentious topics suggest that certain generic linguistic characteristics are highly correlated with contentiousness in conversations while others demonstrate significant contextual influences on specific divisive topics.

Comparative study of caucasian languages

The authors explore the Avar language, which has not yet been sufficiently studied and is waiting for a detailed linguistic characterization by specialists. Following the scientific tradition of reconstruction of the protolanguage, this question is relevant for the Avar language: the language on which Avar is based is not historically attested, unlike in the case of French, whose development can be traced back over the centuries. Comparative study of Caucasian languages has become especially popular in recent years. The choice of French, one of the most scrutinized languages of global cultural significance, as the external etalon is explained not only by the lack of similar works in Avar linguistic literature but also by the fact that French linguists, who have long been researching Caucasian languages, particularly Avar, regrettably, neglect the comparative aspect of research.

A data-driven linguistic characterization of hallucinated voices in clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers

BackgroundAuditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are heterogeneous regarding phenomenology and etiology. This has led to the proposal of AVHs subtypes. Distinguishing AVHs subtypes can inform AVHs neurocognitive models and also have implications for clinical practice. A scarcely studied source of heterogeneity relates to the AVHs linguistic characteristics. Therefore, in this study we investigate whether linguistic features distinguish AVHs subtypes, and whether linguistic AVH-subtypes are associated with phenomenology and voice-hearers' clinical status. MethodsTwenty-one clinical and nineteen non-clinical voice-hearers participated in this study. Participants were instructed to repeat verbatim their AVHs just after experiencing them. AVH-repetitions were audio-recorded and transcribed. AVHs phenomenology was assessed using the Auditory Hallucinations Rating Scale of the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales. Hierarchical clustering analyses without a priori group dichotomization were performed using quantitative measures of sixteen linguistic features to distinguish sets of AVHs. ResultsA two-AVHs-cluster solution best partitioned the data. AVHs-clusters significantly differed in linguistic features (p < .001); AVHs phenomenology (p < .001); and distribution of clinical voice-hearers (p < .001). The “expanded-AVHs” cluster was characterized by more determiners, more prepositions, longer utterances (all p < .01), and mainly contained non-clinical voice-hearers. The “compact-AVHs” cluster had fewer determiners and prepositions, shorter utterances (all p < .01), more negative content, higher degree of negativity (both p < .05), and predominantly came from clinical voice-hearers. DiscussionTwo voice-speech clusters were recognized, differing in syntactic-grammatical complexity and negative phenomenology. Our results suggest clinical voice-hearers often hear negative, “compact-voices”, understandable under Broca's right hemisphere homologue and memory-based mechanisms. Conversely, non-clinical voice-hearers experience “expanded-voices”, better accounted by inner speech AVHs models.

Early Productive Vocabulary Composition as Precursor of Dyslexia.

The aim of this study was to gain more insight into the linguistic characterization of dyslexia by investigating vocabulary acquisition. In a previous study, vocabulary at 17 months of age appeared to be related to familial risk (FR) of dyslexia. The aim of this study was to investigate how the differences in lexical composition further develop up to 3 years (35 months) of age and, more importantly, to what extent these differences can be considered specific precursors of dyslexia later on. In a total number of 262 children from the Dutch Dyslexia Program, 169 with and 93 without FR for dyslexia, productive vocabulary was assessed with the Dutch version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories at ages 17, 23, 29, and 35 months. Reading tests were administered in Grades 2 and 3, resulting in dyslexia diagnosis in 60 FR children (FR-dys), leaving 109 FR children who developed normal reading skills (FR-nondys) and 93 control children. Children's expressive vocabulary was scored according to the total number of words produced and according to the different major linguistic word categories: nouns, predicates, and closed-class words. The analyses comprised a comparison of total productive vocabulary and the number of words per grammatical category at four different ages for the three groups (FR-dys, FR-nondys, and control). Also, correlations were calculated between vocabulary scores and reading scores. Up to 29 months of age, the total numbers of nouns, predicates, and closed-class words are significantly lower for the FR-dys group as compared with the FR-nondys and control groups; for closed-class words at 23 and 35 months of age, the FR-nondys group's mean values are in between the mean of the FR-dys and control groups. Weak correlations were found between total vocabulary size, number of verbs, number and proportion of predicates at 23 months of age, and word and pseudoword reading fluency in Grades 2 and 3. These results indicate that development of vocabulary is a significant though weak predictor of reading fluency and dyslexia; vocabulary size and proportion of verbs at 23 months of age, as well as proportion of closed-class words up to 35 months of age, seem to be the most sensitive indicators of delayed vocabulary development and later reading difficulties. There is no indication that FR for dyslexia by itself is related to vocabulary development.

Ar. Nu. 889–1114: Linguistic characterization of characters

Ar. Nu. 889–1114: Linguistic characterization of characters

Foreign accent as a means of creating the language features of a character

The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of the actor's linguistic characterization using a foreign accent in the process of working on the role and to establish the dependence of the actor's ideas about the character's personal characteristics and social status on the degree of accent color. The methodology of researching a foreign accent as a means of creating a linguistic characteristic of a character is complex. The method of theoretical-conceptual and theoretical-linguistic analysis of special literature on accent issues, features of comparison of intonation systems of different languages are applied; typological method and method of system analysis, which contributed to the study of acting tools in the process of working on the linguistic characteristics of the character, etc. Scientific novelty. The foreign language accent in the context of the specifics of the actor's work on the creation of the image is studied; it is stated that the actor's imitation of a foreign accent involves the use of special phonetic tools with the addition of grammatical and/or lexical factors in order to enhance the effect; the complexes of articulation-acoustic features inherent in the Ukrainian language with French, English, British, Italian, Estonian, Jewish and Caucasian accents, as well as the peculiarities of the actor's work on their imitation are analyzed. Conclusions. Foreign language accent as a linguistic characteristic of a character is one of the most important means of identifying his personality because a person's speech skills create an idea of ​​the environment to which he belongs, can provide information about his origin. In stage speech, a foreign accent is used to give the character's language a sharp character, vivid imagery, and truthfulness and realism of his behavior - the accent is part of the character's "I", a familiar form of expression related to national and family life. Foreign accent, as well as the territorial type of pronunciation, is perceived by the viewer stereotypically and is an indicator not only of personal characteristics, but also a marker of his social status, and its level is associated with education, intelligence, leadership, and self-confidence. The actor’s strategies for developing foreign accents in the process of working on the linguistic characteristics of the character are to use appropriate deviations from the phonetic, lexical, and grammatical norms of the Ukrainian language.&#x0D; Keywords: stage speech, foreign accent, actor, artistic image, character, linguistic characteristic.

Expertise Detection in Crowdsourcing Forums Using the Composition of Latent Topics and Joint Syntactic\u2013Semantic Cues

We develop an NLP method for inferring potential contributors among multitude of users within crowdsourcing forums (CSFs). The method basically provides a way to predict expertise from their structures (syntax–semantic patterns) when crowdsourced votes are unavailable. It primarily deals with tackling core adverse conditions, which hinder the identification of crowds’ expertise levels, and standardization of measuring linguistic quality of crowdsourced text. To solve the former, an expertise estimation and linguistic feature annotation algorithm is developed. To approach the later, a comprehensive linguistic characterization of crowdsourced text, along with extensive joint syntax–punctuation analyses, have been carried out. The entire corpora are comprised of approximately 8 different domains, 3 million and 50,000 sentences, and 32 million and 90,000 words, contributed by a crowd of 50,000 users. The analyses revealed six major linguistic patterns, identified on the basis of ordered lists of structural (syntactic) categories, learned from grammatical constructions, practiced by major groups of experts. In addition, nine different text-oriented expertise dimensions are identified, as crucial steps towards establishing standard linguistic-based expertise-framework for most CSFs. Potentially, the resulting framework simplifies the measurement of crowds’ proficiency, in those particular forums, where crowds’ tasks (e.g., answering questions, technically discerning deep features within images of galaxies for classifying them into certain categories) are intimately connected with their writing (e.g., describing answers illustratively, expressing complex phenomena observed in classified images). Moreover, wide varieties of linguistic annotations: latent topic annotations, named entities, syntactic and punctuation annotations, semantic and character set annotations, word and character n-grams (n = 2 and 3) annotations, are extracted. That is for building baseline and enhanced versions of expertise models (about 20 different models built). The successive achievements of enhancing baseline models, with iteratively adding linguistic feature annotations in a two-stage enhancement process, indicate the adaptability of the learned models.

Reactive power and harmonic compensation in a grid-connected photovoltaic system using fuzzy logic controller

Abstract This work investigates the performance of a single-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system under non-ideal source voltage conditions using a fuzzy logic controller. The single-phase instantaneous reactive power theory has been modified to explore the harmonic and reactive power compensation with distorted grid voltage excitation while transferring active and reactive power to the grid and the non-linear load. Instead of a traditional Proportional-Integral (PI) controller, the proposed method implements a fuzzy logic controller for the extraction of the reference compensating current. This method is compared with the traditional single-phase instantaneous reactive power theory. The advantage associated with a fuzzy logic controller is that it does not need accurate mathematical modeling of the system, instead, it is based upon the linguistic characterization of the input and output variables. Besides, care has been taken to provide uninterrupted compensation throughout the variation of the solar irradiation level. The proposed method has also been verified through a laboratory-developed prototype using a DS1103 processor.