Linguistic Forms Research Articles

Verbal Symbols Support Concrete but Enable Abstract Concept Formation: Evidence From Brain‐Constrained Deep Neural Networks

AbstractConcrete symbols (e.g., sun, run) can be learned in the context of objects and actions, thereby grounding their meaning in the world. However, it is controversial whether a comparable avenue to semantic learning exists for abstract symbols (e.g., democracy). When we simulated the putative brain mechanisms of conceptual/semantic grounding using brain‐constrained deep neural networks, the learning of instances of concrete concepts outside of language contexts led to robust neural circuits generating substantial and prolonged activations. In contrast, the learning of instances of abstract concepts yielded much reduced and only short‐lived activity. Crucially, when conceptual instances were learned in the context of wordforms, circuit activations became robust and long‐lasting for both concrete and abstract meanings. These results indicate that, although the neural correlates of concrete conceptual representations can be built from grounding experiences alone, abstract concept formation at the neurobiological level is enabled by and requires the correlated presence of linguistic forms.

Dynamism of context: A case of joke interpretation

Abstract While the recognition of context as a dynamic construct is pervasive, the process of selecting context during utterance comprehension in real time remains largely unexamined. This paper addresses this issue by exploring the dynamism of context as part of joke interpretation. We assume a relevance-theoretic definition of context understood as a set of mental representations involved in inferential processes that operate on a propositionally incomplete linguistic form and yield a speaker-intended meaning, consisting of the explicit and implicit import. We also adopt a model of joke comprehension combining the standard notion of incongruity resolution with that of weak communication, positing that when the punchline comes there is a broad array of assumptions that suddenly become manifest to the hearer, as a result of which he experiences an effect of inferential overload. This effect hinges on the ability to obtain access to, or to inferentially construct contextual assumptions that were previously not immediately accessible to the hearer or not represented in their cognitive resources at all. By analysing jokes of various structure (with or without a build-up, one-liners) we explore details of the dynamism of context selection and construction, in which the hearer’s encyclopaedic knowledge is essential. We provide arguments in favour of the view of context as an entity dependent on the hearer’s mental representations, inferential abilities and the universal drive to maximize relevance in utterance comprehension.

Observation-Based Ozone Formation Rules by Gradient Boosting Decision Trees Model in Typical Chemical Industrial Parks

Ozone pollution in chemical industrial parks is severe and complicated and is significantly influenced by pollutant emissions and meteorological parameters. In this study, we innovatively investigated the formation rules of ozone by using observation-based analyses and a gradient-boosting decision tree (GBDT) model, focusing on a typical chemical industrial park located in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The results revealed that ozone concentration was positively correlated with temperature while negatively correlated with NO2 concentration and relative humidity (RH). Ozone pollution was predominantly observed from April to October (M4–10). The optimized GBDT model was subsequently utilized to establish a specific and quantifiable relationship between each single dominant impact factor (RH, NO2, temperature, and PM2.5) and ozone within a complex and uncertain multi-factor context during M4–10. Detailed discussions were conducted on the reaction rate of ozone-related to different levels of RH and temperature. The accumulation of ozone was favored by high temperature and low RH, with the maximum ozone concentration observed at the RH of 50% and the temperature of 35 °C. The NO2-O3 change curve exhibited distinct phases, including a period of stability, gradual increase, rapid increase, and equilibrium. During the second and third periods, the ratio of ozone production to NO2 consumption was 0.10 and 2.73, respectively. Furthermore, there was a non-monotonic relationship between variations in ozone concentration and PM2.5 concentration. Hence, it is imperative to implement fine control strategies in the park, such as adopting seasonal production strategies, implementing targeted measures for controlling NOx and active VOCs, and employing special control methods during periods of high temperature. This study provides aid in achieving effective management of localized ozone pollution and ensuring compliance with air quality standards.

Improving Translation Quality: A Chinese-English Translation Study on the Profiles of Tourist Attraction in China Based on Cultural Awareness

The bilingual profiles of tourist attraction are used ubiquitously and seen everywhere in China. Whether foreign tourists can have an accurate understanding of and keen interest in a particular tourist attraction hinges directly on the quality of translation. However, various translation studies in this area focus on meaning equivalence of language as a symbol, whose function remains at the level of linguistic symbols’ equivalence transformation. This article is mainly concerned with the profiles of tourist attraction enormously adopted in China and their cultural translation from Chinese to English as well as the improved translation output based on data analysis from the perspective of cultural awareness, in an attempt to explore a cultural translation strategy, namely, liberal translation integrated with cultural awareness. Based on examples personally gathered from Mainland China, it is found that the translation of tourist attraction profiles is mainly studied in a linguistically descriptive way, without enunciating the deep culture beneath the surface of linguistic forms. Through detailed analysis of these examples, the study also shows that using liberal translation integrated with cultural awareness in tourism translation is more explicable and intelligible to foreign tourists. The article concludes that cultural awareness must be considered in the liberal translation of tourist attraction profiles so as to communicate clearer and more accurate meaning to the target audience.

Incorporating knowledge for joint Chinese word segmentation and part-of-speech tagging with SynSemGCN

PurposeRecent trends have shown the integration of Chinese word segmentation (CWS) and part-of-speech (POS) tagging to enhance syntactic and semantic parsing. However, the potential utility of hierarchical and structural information in these tasks remains underexplored. This study aims to leverage multiple external knowledge sources (e.g. syntactic and semantic features, lexicons) through various modules for the joint task.Design/methodology/approachWe introduce a novel learning framework for the joint CWS and POS tagging task, utilizing graph convolutional networks (GCNs) to encode syntactic structure and semantic features. The framework also incorporates a pre-defined lexicon through a lexicon attention module. We evaluate our model on a range of public corpora, including CTB5, PKU and UD, the novel ZX dataset and the comprehensive CTB9 dataset.FindingsExperimental results on these benchmark corpora demonstrate the effectiveness of our model in improving the performance of the joint task. Notably, we find that syntax information significantly enhances performance, while lexicon information helps mitigate the issue of out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words.Originality/valueThis study introduces a comprehensive approach to the joint CWS and POS tagging task by combining multiple features. Moreover, the proposed framework offers potential adaptability to other sequence labeling tasks, such as named entity recognition (NER).

Incorporating syntax information into attention mechanism vector for improved aspect-based opinion mining

Incorporating syntax information into attention mechanism vector for improved aspect-based opinion mining

The Application of English Grammar Teaching Based on the Thematic Contexts in Junior High Schools

Grammar is an important part of the language. It directly affects the accuracy and appropriateness of language comprehension and expression. English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2022 Edition) offers suggestions for grammar teaching. Students are encouraged to explore grammar in the context based on their understanding of the theme. However, teachers may neglect the role of thematic meaning in grammar teaching, also they fail to create the context in teaching practice. As a result, students have difficulty applying grammar properly in their lives. Based on the concept of three-dimensional dynamic grammar and teaching examples, the paper explores the strategies and specific methods of grammar teaching in thematic contexts. Through relevant literature on the thematic context and the application of some progressive activities in thematic contextualization, it is made clear that the connotation of grammar learning is to perceive grammar forms, explore grammar rules, understand grammatical meanings and further express them in correct ways. The conclusions are summarized as follows. English grammar teaching based on the thematic contexts helps to stimulate students' interest in grammar learning, while students’ ability to transfer knowledge, their cultural awareness and the quality of thinking are all enhanced.

Robust models to infer flexible nondeterministic finite automata

Grammatical inference involves learning a formal grammar as a finite state machine or a set of rewrite rules. This paper focuses on inferring nondeterministic finite automata (NFA) from a given sample of words: the NFA must accept some words, and reject the others. To address this task we construct several over-constrained inference models capable of finding NFA of size k+1, which are directly convertible to NFA of size k. Additionally, we propose an NFA evaluation method based on random walks along with two methods used to enhance the acceptance rates of the inferred NFA. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated through the results of comprehensive experiments conducted on several benchmark sets. This paper is an extended version of the ICCS 2023 paper entitled “Inference of over-constrained NFA of size k+1 to efficiently and systematically derive NFA of size k for grammar learning” (Jastrzab et al., 2023 [1]).

Syntax and Relation Enhanced Query Generation for Text to SQL Parsing

Text-to-SQL parsing is the task of converting natural language questions into executable SQL queries, a significant branch of semantic parsing, which has gained increasing attention in recent years. This technology lowers the barrier for people to access databases, enhancing the convenience and availability of data. However, the primary challenge for text-to-SQL parsing lies in domain adaptation, which concerns whether the model can be applied to new databases and effectively align natural language questions with the corresponding tables or columns within the database. To address these issues, research has introduced SRSQL (Syntax and Relation-Augmented Query Generation), which incorporates syntax information and predefined relationships into the model, effectively utilizing syntactic dependencies and pattern linking to improve performance. Using a Transformer-based decoder, SRSQL generates SQL queries in the form of Abstract Syntax Trees (AST), significantly boosting prediction accuracy. Experimental results show that SRSQL outperforms comparative models, particularly on challenging benchmarks like Spider and Spider-SYN.

EXPLORING LEXICAL COMPLEXITY IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY ACROSS DISCIPLINES

This study examines the lexical complexity of scientific writing. It specifically focuses on the degree of lexical density and lexical diversity in the results and discussion sections of research articles. Using a qualitative approach with quantification to back it up, this study scrutinized 60 results and discussion sections of research articles written by Tunisian linguistics and engineering scholars. The analysis was conducted using the lexical complexity analyzer developed by Lu (2010). Moreover, descriptive analysis and the independent T-test were conducted to ascertain the statistical distinctions between the discussion and results sections of linguistics and engineering disciplines. The findings suggest that engineering scholars wrote in a more concise and information-dense style, with a greater lexical density, while linguistics scholars used a broader range of linguistic forms, resulting in more diverse and richer expressions. The differences in writing style can be attributed to the nature of the disciplines and the types of research conducted within each field. The results obtained from this study may offer valuable implications for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing instructions.

SWEAR WORDS IN KPOPMINTON TREND AMONG BADMINTON LOVERS IN TWITTER: A STUDY ON LANGUAGE AND GENDER

The phenomenon of the Kpopminton trend among badminton lovers on Twitter lately is very fascinating to discuss. This phenomenon has drawn a lot of criticism from badminton lovers because it combines the worlds of different things, namely K-pop and badminton. The aim of this research is to investigate the forms and references of swearing, as well as differences in gender forms of swearing in Kpopminton trends that occur on Twitter among badminton fans. This research uses a descriptive approach with qualitative methods. Data collection was carried out using the notetaking and listening method. The results of this research show that comments on the Kpopminton trend among badminton fans on Twitter contain a lexicon of swear words, where the male gender is wider and more varied. Swearing is classified based on its morphological and syntactic lingual form, as well as its linguistic form. Referents of swear words used by men are conditions, animals, activities, objects, and body parts. Meanwhile, women use more polite referents, although they still tend to be rude, namely referents related to objects and animals. Lastly, men tend to use more swear words than women with a harsher choice of curse words as can be seen from the level. The level of swear words shows that in terms of extreme levels the curses are spoken by men. At high levels, it is spoken by both men and women. Meanwhile, at the standard level it is spoken by women.

SEMANTIC CONTENT OF CONCEPT HELP CATEGORIZED AS PROPERTY IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH

The article raises the issue of conceptual-semantic analysis of units of different lexical-grammatical classes to indicate rivalry. The referent of objective reality represented by the RIVALRY concept is a certain situation as a set of its interdependent elements. The analysis of the semantic structure of nominative units contributes to the establishment of deep patterns of interaction between the structures of human consciousness and linguistic forms. Nominative possibilities of the linguistic picture of the world are implemented by lexical units that are subject to conceptual analysis to achieve the goal of linguistic-cognitive research - reconstruction of the content of the concept. Dictionary definitions of words of different lexical-grammatical classes to indicate rivalry contain generic and specific semes as lexical units that implement the corresponding cognitive characteristics and are called slot terminals. The frame acts as a classifier of lexical units in which the components of the reference situation of rivalry are actualized. The semantic-cognitive analysis of lexemes that form the primary and secondary synonymous series and most adequately reflect the studied conceptual category precedes the modeling of the prototypical informative structure of the concept of rivalry in terms of frame semantics. Slot ACTION, which captures information about the actions of direct participants, is represented by units of the lexical-grammatical category to indicate the rivalry process. The studied slots reflect knowledge about the causal, instrumental, location and time components of the frame model. The studied slots are correlated with a group of cognitive features that represent knowledge about the characteristics of actions.Thus, the causal set activates data on the reasons for entering into a rival interaction, options for ending it. The instrumental set accumulates information about the nature of the action, tactics, strategic goal; the quantity and quality of the means of action, about the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the goal, its varieties. The location and time of the frame captures knowledge about the type of the place and spheres of action, the duration of the rivalry and the time of its implementation.

A novel methodology for assessing the potential for formation bridging in coal seam gas fields: A case study from southern Queensland

The substantial growth in the development of coal seam gas (CSG) – also known as coal bed methane – fields in southern Queensland, Australia, over the past decade has been associated with various impacts on the environment and human activities. Of particular concern is the potential impact of CSG-induced subsidence on farming operations. Previous research in underground coal mining has shown that overlying competent formations can function as bridges over mined-out areas, effectively preventing subsurface deformation from fully or partially reaching the ground surface. Formation bridging can also occur in CSG producing areas. Modelling formation bridging is essential for understanding and predicting the historical and future impact of CSG production on the surface, respectively. This paper introduces a novel modelling methodology based on the elastic plate theory that helps in assessing the potential for formation bridging in overlying formations during CSG production. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated through a case study in the Surat Basin of southern Queensland. This study shows that excluding bridging for a particular formation rules it out for that formation when overlain by other formations or when it is thinner. Results of this study indicate that formation bridging in the study area may only occur during the very early phase of a CSG well's life cycle. Where the diffusivity of the coal seam is low, leading to a slower expansion of the influence area, there is also an increased likelihood of bridging taking place and persisting for an extended duration. Although the methodology introduced in this paper is mainly analytical, it offers an initial evaluation of the formation bridging probability across extensive basins where conducting detailed three-dimensional numerical modelling is challenging, if not impractical. This preliminary analysis may assist in deciding whether, and where, more comprehensive and detailed assessment of formation bridging is necessary.

GRAPH FRACTALS WITH THE VARIABILITY OF THE FORMATION PROCESS

Fractals, which are characterized by their self-similarity at different scales, are complex geometric entities created using recursive algorithms. They are widely used in computer graphics to create complex visual effects and to model natural phenomena such as river networks and mountain landscapes. Graph fractals combine the properties of fractals and graph structures and can be used for research in fields such as computer networks or medicine. This work presents the approach of constructive-production modeling, based on formal grammars, for the generation of graph fractals with the variability of the formation process.

Exploring the Feasibility and Efficacy of ChatGPT3 for Personalized Feedback in Teaching

This study explores the feasibility of using AI technology, specifically ChatGPT-3, to provide reliable, meaningful, and personalized feedback. Specifically, the study explores the benefits and limitations of using AI-based feedback in language learning; the pedagogical frameworks that underpin the effective use of AI-based feedback; the reliability of ChatGPT-3’s feedback; and the potential implications of AI integration in language instruction. A review of existing literature identifies key themes and findings related to AI-based teaching practices. The study found that social cognitive theory (SCT) supports the potential use of AI chatbots in the learning process as AI can provide students with instant guidance and support that fosters personalized, independent learning experiences. Similarly, Krashen’s second language acquisition theory (SLA) was found to support the hypothesis that AI use can enhance student learning by creating meaningful interaction in the target language wherein learners engage in genuine communication rather than focusing solely on linguistic form. To determine the reliability of AI-generated feedback, an analysis was performed on student writing. First, two rubrics were created by ChatGPT-3; AI then graded the papers, and the results were compared with human graded results using the same rubrics. The study concludes that e-Learning arning certainly has great potential; besides providing timely, personalized learning support, AI feedback can increase student motivation and foster learning independence. Not surprisingly, though, several caveats exist. It was found that ChatGPT-3 is prone to error and hallucination in providing student feedback, especially when presented with longer texts. To avoid this, rubrics must be carefully constructed, and teacher oversight is still very much required. This study will help educators transition to the new era of AI-assisted e-Learning by helping them make informed decisions about how to provide useful AI feedback that is underpinned by sound pedagogical principles.

Japanese and Chinese Lexical Borrowing as an Outcome of Language Contact and Influence

As a commonly observed phenomenon, no language has not borrowed lexical items from some other language(s), just as no culture has developed with no influence from some other culture(s). There have been numerous studies of linguistic borrowing to explore why a particular language incorporates some linguistic elements from another language into its linguistic repertoire. This is known as a phenomenon of linguistic transference. Abundant research findings provide strong evidence that such a transference most commonly occurs in the realm of vocabulary because the borrowing language (i.e., the recipient language) incorporates some cultural items or conceptual elements and the names along with them from some external source. More specifically, this particular linguistic phenomenon is recognized as lexical borrowing. From some cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspectives, this study describes and explains lexical borrowing in terms of linguistic transformation as an outcome of language contact. Linguistic transformation is defined as adaptation of one linguistic form in one language to another linguistic form in another language. Language contact is defined as the phenomenon where two languages come into contact at various cross-linguistic and cross-cultural levels. Based on the representative examples as observed in contemporary Japanese and Chinese lexical borrowing, this paper presents a case study of such a particular language contact phenomenon by categorizing the borrowed lexical items into several areas of language contact. It describes linguistic transformation in terms of phonological/morphological adaptation and semantic transfer/creation/substitution. Thus, this study presents a model of lexical borrowing through language contact and its linguistic outcome.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ФУНКЦИОНИРОВАНИЯ СЛЕНГИЗМОВ В СФЕРЕ ВОЕННОЙ АВИАЦИИ

The article is devoted to the sociolinguistic study of slang in the field of military aviation. The relevance of the study is determined by the interest in issues related to the theoretical study of slangisms and their use in the language of military aviation. The purpose of the study is to study the distinctive features of slangisms in the field of military aviation in the lexical and semantic aspect.The research material was slangisms denoting the names of various aircraft, words and expressions that are used to designate certain objects, concepts or actions. As a result of the study: it has been proven that slang is a complex linguistic formation that reflects in the language the linguistic, sociological and cultural characteristics of an individual, manifested in the verbalization of his speech. A thematic classification of slang expressions is presented, based on their lexical and semantic analysis, conclusions are drawn about the peculiarities of the mentality of military aviation specialists.

Body-centered cubic phase stability in cobalt-free refractory high-entropy alloys

Cobalt-free refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) are strong contenders for structural materials in nuclear reactors because they do not exhibit cobalt activity under irradiation. The mechanical properties and thermal stability of RHEAs are primarily attributed to the solid solution phase, which is essentially the body-centered cubic (BCC) phase. The BCC phase formation rules thus became the basic criterion in the compositional design of RHEAs. In this paper, the BCC phase formation rules in cobalt-free RHEAs were determined via the calculation of six semiempirical parameters, namely, the entropy of mixing, enthalpy of mixing, atomic size difference, Ω-parameter, d-orbital energy level and valance electron concentration. The mixing enthalpy and atomic size differences are more effective than other semiempirical parameters for predicting BCC phase stability in cobalt-free RHEAs. The presence of aluminum is found to cause a notable alteration in the range of phase stability in cobalt-free RHEAs.

About the same thing in a different way: wording and experienced emotions in the understanding of official letters

Abstract Reading official letters and being able to react to them appropriately is part of the daily life of every adult in many countries. Although the history of the plain language movement dates to the past century, it is only now that efforts are being made in Poland to adapt official documents to their audience. In this paper, we describe the results of a study (N = 685) in which we examined how particular linguistic forms and text structure affect the reception of an official-looking text – comprehension as well as emotions experienced, trust in the office, feelings of helplessness in the situation of reading the writing, and many other variables. Based on Imbir’s (2016, New Ideas in Psychology, 43, 39–49), two-system theory of emotions, we aim to examine how emotions – triggered by these complex stimuli – affect their processing. We hope that the results of our interdisciplinary research will answer the questions and hypotheses posed by researchers and find application in the reforms currently underway. We believe that by linking findings from cognitive psychology, the psychology of emotions and linguistics, we will also expand knowledge in the broad discussion on overcoming barriers between administrative offices and target audiences.

What is a Chinese word? Lexical constructionalization in Chinese

Abstract The Chinese language is defined on the basis of Chinese characters, which stabilize monosyllabic root morphemes across the countless varieties. As subsyllabic linguistic forms such as derivational morphology can hardly be represented by Chinese characters, compounding is preferred over derivation in Chinese. Compounds do not have fixed word boundaries. The wordhood of compounds pertains to the level of conventionality in language use, which is a continuum instantiated by synchronic gradience and diachronic gradualness. A perennial archaizing aesthetics further complicates the determination of Chinese words by preserving classical linguistic forms in formal and literary writing, thus making every synchronic stratum heterogeneous by blurring the distinction between historical strata. Therefore, the boundaries of words have always been fluid in native speakers’ mental lexicon.