Number Of Nouns Research Articles

Параметрическая таксономия учебных текстов

The article is aimed at considering the issue of the discursive text typology and developing a parametric model of the elementary school texts for the ontological domain by employing a corpus-based approach and methods of linguistic statistics. The research corpus of over 90,000 tokens comprises texts of 13 textbooks acknowledged in the 2 nd grade of Russian schools. The applied multifactor discriminant analysis enabled identification and validation of typological characteristics of the texts under study, offering the formula for referring educational texts to a subject domain on Philology, Mathematics, and Natural Sciences. The discriminant analysis results confirmed the hypothesis that each type of text corresponds to a parametric model, which includes six constants: the average number of words in a sentence, the average number of nouns, the average number of verbs and the average number of adjectives per sentence, local noun overlap, global argument overlap. The assessment of linguistic parameters was performed by an automatic Russian text analyzer RuLingva. The classification accuracy of the parametric model was identified as 80%, which ensures its high reliability and allows for the data obtained to be employed in linguistic expertise, as well as for in automated linguistic profiling of texts. The prospect of the research implies installation of the model in RuLingva and development of similar models for texts of other subject domains.

Changes in the grammatical norms of the number in proper and foreign names of shoes

Footwear and its various models are primarily the subject of study in merchandising; however, for linguistics, it is an equally interesting object of research in synchronous and diachronic aspects. In particular, the grammatical characteristics of footwear nouns have not yet been the subject of separate research. The plural form of the noun ʻfootwearʼ is more commonly used in modern linguistic practice, determined by the significance, for human existence, of the semantics of a com- plete pair of footwear. The singular form of the noun name ʻfootwearʼ is less common, as it disrupts the integrity of the concept of a ʻfootwear pairʼ with the semantics of an ʻindi vi- dualizedʼ object. The choice of the number form of footwear nouns as a register is deter- mined by different principles of compiling lexicographical publications and their distinct purposes: explanatory dictionaries prioritize the meaning of an unanalyzed plural, while re- gis ters prioritize the plural form of the noun expressing the semantics of a type of footwear. In orthographic dictionaries, the indication of another numerical form represents the inflec- tional component of the number category of fixed nouns in this semantic group. The grammatical significance of the number in the core of footwear names consists of nouns with a numeral pair, where the codification of the singular form is conditioned by the proportional origin of lexemes and the completion of the grammatical assimilation of foreigh lexemes. Lexicographical sources inconsistently record the singular form of footwear nouns from the core sphere. The change in the grammatical qualification of some footwear names from ʻpluralia tantumʼ to ʻgrammatical significance of singular and pluralʼ attests to the dynamics of morphological norms in contemporary Ukrainian language in general and the process of grammatical adaptation of predominantly foreigh lexemes in particular. However, more often, discrepancies in the printed and ele ctronic dictionaries regarding the grammatical number of nouns from the core sphere of footwear (either plural nouns or nouns with a numeral pair) are caused by subjective factors. The periphery consists of ʻpluralia tantumʼ nouns, most of which are of foreign origin and only make up a part of the lexical composition of the Ukrainian language. The infre- quent functioning of singular forms of nouns from the peripheral sphere in modern speech indicates the incompleteness of their grammatical adaptation. Predominantly foreigh foot- wear names that are not represented in any of the analyzed dictionaries reside outside the delineated spheres, and their use in the plural form in the texts of the 16th version of the Ukrainian National Corpus (HRAK) and in advertising posts on the social network ʻInstagramʼ illustrate the beginning of grammatical adaptation to the morphological norms of the modern Ukrainian language. We see the perspective of research in studying the dynamics of grammatical assimila- tion primarily of those footwear names that are only included in the lexical system of the Ukrainian language and have the grammatical status of ʻpluralia tantumʼ nouns, predomi- nantly used in modern speech either exclusively or mostly in the plural form, with the sin- gular form of these nouns not recorded in any lexicographical publication. The observa- tion of changes in the grammatical number of those footwear names whose singular form is not codified, as it is inconsistently represented in dictionaries, also remains relevant. Keywords: number category, noun, footwear name, pluralia tantum, nu me ral pair, parsed plu- ral, unparsed plural, dynamics, dictionary.

Categorizing possession in Zuanga-Yuanga and other Kanak languages (New Caledonia): a typological perspective

Abstract Like many other Oceanic and Kanak languages of New Caledonia, Zuanga-Yuanga [ZY] has classifiers restricted to the possession of nouns denoting food, drink, animals and plants; it also has dichotomous direct and indirect adnominal possessive constructions, which are generally labeled inalienable or alienable in the Oceanic literature. These terms refer to a distinction between close versus distant structural marking, which do not strictly correlate with lexical-semantic categories. For instance, kinship nouns are split over the two types of constructions, distinguishing reference from address kinship terms, not in terms of semantic distinctions between close versus distant kinship types. The split for body-part nouns is between directly possessed dedicated terms and indirectly possessed metaphorical body terms, not in terms of permanent versus removable parts, or temporary body properties. In ZY possessive constructions correlate with fairly strict possessee noun classes belonging to one single structural class (directly or indirectly marked). Only a limited number of nouns denoting parts-of-whole have alternate constructions expressing different semantic relations to the possessed noun.

Cognitive complexity measures for educational texts: Empirical validation of linguistic parameters

The article presents a study conducted within the framework of discourse complexology - an integral scientific domain that has united linguists, cognitive scientists, psychologists and programmers dealing with the problems of discourse complexity. The issue of cognitive complexity of texts is one of the central issues in discourse complexology. The paper presents the results of the study aimed to identify and empirically validate a list of educational texts’ complexity predictors. The study aims to identify discriminant linguistic parameters sufficient to assess cognitive complexity of educational texts. We view text cognitive complexity as a construct, based on the amount of presented information and the success of reader-text interactions. The idea behind the research is that text cognitive complexity notably increases across middle and high schools. The research dataset comprises eight biology textbooks with the total size of 219,319 tokens. Metrics of text linguistic features were estimated with the help of automatic analyzer RuLingva (rulingva.kpfu.ru). Linguistic and statistical analysis confirmed the hypothesis that text syntactic and lexical parameters are discriminative enough to classify different levels of cognitive complexity of educational texts used in middle and high schools. Text parameters that manifest variance in cognitive complexity include lexical diversity (TTR); local argument overlap; abstractness index; number of polysyllabic words, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level; number of nouns and number of adjectives per sentence. Empirical evidence indicates that the proposed approach outperforms existing methods of text complexity assessment. The research results can be implemented in the system of scientific and educational content expertise for Russian school textbooks. They can also be of some use in the development of educational resources and further research in the field of text complexity.

Performance of Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and DeepL Translator: Error Analysis of Translation Result

This research simulates the use of Google Translate and Microsoft Translator in translating Indonesian into English abstract and analyzes errors of translation results in the aspect of grammar and spelling using Grammarly Premium. This research is descriptive qualitative. The result analysis shows several writing issues (errors) of translation results using Microsoft Translator (MT), Google Translate (GT), and DeepL Translator (DT) in the aspect of clarity, correctness (correction), and delivery. First, there are 26 writing issues from MT including 1) 4 clarity (4 unclear sentences), 2) 21 correctness (2 comma misuse within clauses, 4 punctuation in compound/complex sentences, 5 wrong or missing prepositions, 3 incorrect verb forms, 2 determiner use, 2 conjunction use, 2 confusing words, 1 improper formatting), 3) 1 delivery (1 incomplete sentences). Second, there are 25 writing issues from GT including 1) 6 clarity (4 unclear sentences and 2 wordy sentences), 2) 17 correctness (1 misplaced word or phrase, 1 text inconsistencies, 1 comma misuse within clauses, 4 punctuation in compound/complex sentences, 3 wrong or missing prepositions, 3 incorrect verb forms, 2 conjunction use, 1 confusing word, and 1 determiner use.). 3) 2 delivery (2 incomplete sentences). Third, there are 10 writing issues from DT including 3 comma misuse within clauses, 1 incorrect noun number, 1 faulty subject-verb agreement, 1 wrong or missing preposition, 1 improper formatting, 1 misuse of modifiers, 1 conjunction use, and 1 confused word. Online translator including MT, GT, and DT may help in translating foreign language texts, but it does not always provide accurate translations. Thus, whether consciously or unconsciously, each translation machine contains its traits, whether directly or indirectly, human participation cannot be separated from machine translation technology. However, no computer translator can provide translations with the same precision as humans. It means that they are still a machine that is not able to match human capabilities equipped with feelings and thinking processes that describe them.

The nonuse of the definite article the in referencing definite nouns in research writing: An empirical study using both corpus and survey data and its implications

Using both corpus and survey data, this study examines a hitherto uninvestigated issue: the use of the null article (i.e., the nonuse of the definite article the in referencing definite/specific nouns) in academic research writing. Specifically, the study consisted of three parts: a small corpus analysis of research articles (RAs) written by well published L1 English scholars in applied linguistics, a survey of members of the academic community, and a large corpus analysis of RA abstracts. Results of the study indicate that null article use is fairly common in RAs, but the number of nouns used with the null article is very limited, restricted to only three small groups of nouns commonly found in empirical studies involving human subjects. Furthermore, null article use is confined almost exclusively to the abstract, methodology, and results/discussion sections. Also, null article use is quite well accepted by members of the academic community across all ranks, ranging from well-published professors to instructors and graduate students. However, there are variations in null article use across-/within writers and across academic disciplinary divisions. Pedagogical and research implications are also discussed.

Towards the feature identity for ellipsis in Russian: Evidence from noun phrases with coordinated adjectives

This paper deals with the problem of feature identity in Russian noun phrases with coordinated modifiers. The data from various languages shows that ellipsis allows mismatch of some morphological features for the elided and the spelled-out constituents while other features must match. The studies of Russian noun phrases with coordinated modifiers propose ellipsis analysis but does not determine the constraints on feature identity for the elide and the spelled-out noun. In this paper, we analyze the identity of such noun features as number and case by conducting a corpus study and a selfpaced acceptability experiment. The results demonstrate that the difference in number is unacceptable for conjuncts without numerals (singular vs. plural nouns) but acceptable with paucal and other numerals (numberless vs. plural nouns according to D. Pesetsky’s analysis). The noun number features mismatch in noun phrases without numeral, but number features in numeral phrases do not conflict. The coordination of a noun phrase without numeral and a numeral phrase is also unacceptable. While the nouns in both conjuncts are plural, the case is different (external case vs. genitive). Thus, the ellipsis in Russian noun phrases with coordinated modifiers requires the lack of number

One or many? The grammatical number of suffixed nouns as a text-critical problem

One of the most frequent cases of textual variance in the Hebrew Bible concerns the grammatical number of nouns with suffixes (e.g. ידך‎ ‘your hand’ versus ידיך‎ ‘your hands’). First, this article demonstrates the significant textual instability of the letter yod in the plural or dual morphemes of suffixed nouns and traces some reasons for that. Then, it presents exemplary cases of this variance and discusses some interpretive conclusions drawn from conspicuous grammatical numbers in the research literature. For instance, a widespread theory that distinguishes two kinds of hand imposition rites according to the number of hands used by the performing subject proves to be problematic for text-critical and philological reasons. Finally, the article discusses the appropriate text-critical handling of the problem in general, suggests some guidelines, promotes awareness of ambiguity, and pleads for restraint in drawing far-reaching interpretive conclusions from a specific grammatical number of suffixed nouns.

Associations between early lexical composition and pre-reading skills at 5 years – A longitudinal study

BackgroundAt the end of the second year, children's lexical compositions (LexC) differ significantly in terms of variety of lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, closed-class words). The aim of this study was to investigate whether this variation is associated with acquisition of pre-reading skills (PreRS) at 5;0. AimsTo study the associations between LexC at 2;0 and PreRS at 5;0 and to examine the possible explaining value of LexC and lexicon size for PreRS. Participants and methodsParticipants were 66 healthy, monolingual Finnish speaking children. LexC was measured at 2;0 using the standardized Finnish long form version of the MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventory (FinCDI). Raw scores and percentages of words were used in the analysis. At 5;0, PreRS variables of letter knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), lexical ability and phonological processing were collected. ResultsThe number of social terms, nouns, verbs, adjectives and closed class words associated significantly with all PreRS except RAN. The percentages of predicates and closed class words were positively associated with PreRS. All LexC variables and lexicon size at 2;0 had significant predictive values for the composite pre-reading score, explaining 19–32 % of the variation. The best model to explain PreRS included the number of nouns as the linguistic variable. A high percentage of social terms at 2;0 proposed weak PreRS at 5;0. ConclusionsLexC at 2;0 is a significant predictor of PreRS at 5;0. Closer examination of lexical composition is important, when assessing lexical skills at the end of the second year.

Representation of the Green Color in Journalistic Texts by English and German Nouns and Verbs

The purpose of the proposed work is to identify similarities and differences in the manifestation of green symbolism in English and German journalistic texts, the sources of which were online media. The subject of the study is the semantics of English and German nouns and verbs representing the green color in the compared languages. The symbolism of this color designation was chosen due to its insufficient study in the framework of comparative linguistics. In this article, based on the material of lexicographic sources, the dictionary meanings of these lexemes are determined, which can display the symbolism of the studied color in journalistic texts in English and German. The scientific novelty of this study is that for the first time it establishes similarities and differences in the transmission of green symbolism through nouns and verbs on the material of modern English and German journalistic texts. It was found that in English texts, in comparison with German texts, a greater number of nouns denoting green are used. In the course of the study, the comparative method, the method of semantic analysis, the modeling method, the quantitative method and the method of component analysis were used. As a result of the conducted research, it was revealed that in English journalistic texts, the symbolism of the green color, represented by nouns and verbs, is used to neutralize the green color of objects of material reality. In addition, the green color is able to display the positive symbolism of the permission of the requested action, environmental protection. In German journalistic texts, the symbolism of the green color can be both positive and negative. Basically, there is a positive symbolism of green when it comes to environmental protection. The symbolism can also be negative when the political activity of the Green Party in Germany is sharply criticized.

Synonyms as the Semantic Component of Conversion

Conversion is very common in modern English. The main condition for the formation of a new language unit through conversion is the change of the syntactic function of the word, which is observed by the change of meaning. It is sometimes necessary to change the basic syntactic environment that is needed for conversion. A word formed by the conversion takes all the inflectional forms of the part of the language to which it belongs. Conversion, as a means of forming verbs and nouns, has become one of the characteristic features of the English language since the XIII century. The conversion formed as a result of the collapse of the inflectional system at the beginning of the Central Asian period. From 1150, a number of derivative verbs formed by conversion from adjectives appeared, and from the 13th-15th centuries, verbs derived from adverbs and participles appeared. In the Middle English period, until about the 15th century, the formation of verbs from nouns and adjectives significantly decreased due to the emergence of a large number of nouns and verbs borrowed from French. The grammatical homonymy of many English verbs and nouns resulting from the loss of inflection was only one of the prerequisites for the emergence of conversion as a new way of word formation.

Multilingual evaluation of interpretable biomarkers to represent language and speech patterns in Parkinson's disease.

Motor impairments are only one aspect of Parkinson's disease (PD), which also include cognitive and linguistic impairments. Speech-derived interpretable biomarkers may help clinicians diagnose PD at earlier stages and monitor the disorder's evolution over time. This study focuses on the multilingual evaluation of a composite array of biomarkers that facilitate PD evaluation from speech. Hypokinetic dysarthria, a motor speech disorder associated with PD, has been extensively analyzed in previously published studies on automatic PD evaluation, with a relative lack of inquiry into language and task variability. In this study, we explore certain acoustic, linguistic, and cognitive information encoded within the speech of several cohorts with PD. A total of 24 biomarkers were analyzed from American English, Italian, Castilian Spanish, Colombian Spanish, German, and Czech by conducting a statistical analysis to evaluate which biomarkers best differentiate people with PD from healthy participants. The study leverages conceptual robustness as a criterion in which a biomarker behaves the same, independent of the language. Hence, we propose a set of speech-based biomarkers that can effectively help evaluate PD while being language-independent. In short, the best acoustic and cognitive biomarkers permitting discrimination between experimental groups across languages were fundamental frequency standard deviation, pause time, pause percentage, silence duration, and speech rhythm standard deviation. Linguistic biomarkers representing the length of the narratives and the number of nouns and auxiliaries also provided discrimination between groups. Altogether, in addition to being significant, these biomarkers satisfied the robustness requirements.

ERROR ANALYSIS IN TRANSLATING INDEFINITE ARTICLE ON MODIFIED AND NON-MODIFIED NOUN

Indefinite article in the surface may seem unimportant but it has uniqueness. Indefinite article “a” or “an” in a noun phrase can differentiate the number of noun without using plural mark. Besides, it cannot be used with certain nouns. Regarding this rule, it should be easy because there is a clear border. However, students of this research still could not acknowledge the rule of use of indefinite article. In another word, the goal of this research is to reveal the translation of indefinite article followed by noun or noun phrase and the classification of errors they make. The respondents are the fifth semester students of English Education Department in IAIN Bone. The sample of this research is 20 students from English education department who have been taught the material of article as registered in 2019/2020 academic year. The sentences translated by respondents are retrieved from book A Practical English Grammar (Thomson Martinet, 1986) and from website https://www.vedantu.com/english/omission-of-article. Sentences are shared through Whatsapp text as well as the answers from the students. The data are analyzed by using descriptive qualitative method. The result of this research is that students still make error in translating the noun phrase in which they are still not able to differentiate the translation of noun or noun phrase with article or they should omit it.

MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF THE GERMAN SUBLANGUAGE OF AGROTRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The article is aimed at studying the morphological and stylistic features of German sub-language of agro-transportation technologies. The study of these features is an important step towards a better understanding of the technical vocabulary and grammar used in professional texts. The analysis reveals the linguistic landscape of this specialized field. The justification of the morphological and stylistic differences of GATECH will not only reveal the unique features of this language subfield, but will also provide a valuable contribution to modern linguistics and linguistic research. This analysis can serve as a basis for improving the perception of technical information and the effective use of linguistic means in the field of agro-transportation technologies. In the present study, the morphological and syntactic features of texts related to GATECH were analyzed in order to reveal their influence on the perception of this specific language area. When analyzing the morphological features of professional GATECH texts, special attention was paid to nouns, adjectives, pronouns and other parts of speech. The study showed that in these texts, a large number of nouns are used to specify objects and processes in the field of agrotransportation. Adjectives and verbs are also used, but to a lesser extent compared to nouns. In terms of syntactic structures, the most common constructions in these texts include nominal phrases and simple sentences. Compound sentences that include subordinate clauses are less common in professional GATECH texts. The findings emphasize the peculiarities and key features of linguistic expression in this field. This helps translators and specialists working in the field of agrotransportation technologies to understand and accurately reproduce specific terms and concepts in translation. This knowledge is essential for creating high-quality and understandable translations in this specific field.

Number Attraction in EFL Learners’ Subject-Verb Agreement and the Effect of Distance

The present study aims to investigate Korean EFL learners’ sensitivity to subject-verb agreement violation and to examine effects of local number attraction, plural markedness, and distance on their agreement computation. Sixty-six Korean adult learners of English at mid- and high proficiencies participated in an experiment which combined self-paced reading and timed acceptability judgement. They were asked to read sentences region by region and rate their acceptability. All sentences contained a local noun that disagreed with the subject noun in number. They varied in terms of (i) grammaticality (i.e., agreement-violating vs. non-violating) and (ii) noun number (i.e., singular subject N/plural local N vs. plural subject N/singular local N). Half of the items had a short-distance condition and half had a long-distance condition. Analyses of participants’ responses showed that learners were generally sensitive to agreement violation when judging acceptability. In addition, proficient learners exhibited biased sensitivity to noun plurality, resulting in mismatch asymmetry in both acceptability judgment and self-paced reading, showing native-like response patterns. Distance between the subject and the verb resulted in reduced sensitivity to agreement violation. These findings suggest that learners can gradually become more sensitive to agreement violation and process subject-verb agreement in a nativelike pattern even when relevant morpho-syntactic features are not instantiated in their L1.

Usvajanje jezika kod djece uzrasta dvije i tri godine / Language Acquisition in Children Aged Two and Three

This paper discusses language acquisition in children aged two and three. The analysis was carried out on a corpus of child language compiled during research conducted at a kindergarten in Sarajevo among children aged two and three who acquire their native language in the area of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in the corpus analysis. The development of child language production was measured by the Mean Length of Utterance, based on the number of words per utterance (MLUw). The distribution of parts of speech was established for both age groups. A special emphasis was placed on the ratio between the number of nouns and the number of verbs. The results have confirmed the nativist natural partitions hypothesis, according to which nouns are predominant in children’s early speech over verbs and other parts of speech. MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI) was applied in the semantic analysis of nouns. The analysis confirmed the hypothesis that nouns denoting animate beings have a higher prevalence over nouns denoting inanimate objects at the early stages of language acquisition. In addition, the presence of complex and abstract concepts was detected, which supports the theory of the existence of an innate language acquisition device in humans. The creative aspect of child language was also analysed, along with differences between the language of children and the language of adult speakers.

The Myth of Women's Advantage in Using Child-Directed Speech: Evidence of Women Versus Men in Single-Sex-Parent Families.

Differences between child-directed speech (CDS) by women and men are generally explained by either biological-evolutionary or gender-social theories. It is difficult to tease these two explanations apart for different-sex-parent families because women are usually also the main caregivers. Thus, this study aims to examine the influence of parental sex on CDS by investigating men and women who are in same-sex-parent families. Twenty same-sex-parent families participated in the study-10 families in which the parents were two men and 10 families in which the parents were two women. The families were matched for toddler age (range: 9-24 months) and sex. CDS was recorded using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) device for 16 hr during a day. Each parent was also audio-recorded during a 30-min play session with his or her child. No difference was found between men and women across all the LENA measures, namely, adult word count, conversational turns count, and child vocalization count. The analysis of speech samples during parent-child play showed no difference between men and women in mean length of utterance and number of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Pragmatic speech acts of initiations, responses to infants' actions, or vocalizations were similar in both sexes. Women used more "teaching" utterances than men, and men who were main caregivers used more "teaching" utterances than men who were secondary caregivers. Across both sexes, secondary caregivers used more "requests for actions" compared to main caregivers. The present findings support a functional-social approach and not a biological approach for explaining the use of CDS by men and women. These findings have clinical implications on the involvement of men in early intervention programs.

Effectiveness of intervention focused on vocational course vocabulary in post-16 students with (developmental) language disorder.

People with language disorders (including developmental language disorder-DLD) often struggle to learn new words and, for young adults, this could affect their success in future work. Therefore, it is crucial to support their learning of career-specific vocabulary. However, little published evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of speech and language intervention for older adolescents and young adults with (developmental) language disorder (D)LD within a post-16 provision. To investigate whether for students with (D)LD in a post-16 environment, the addition of direct individual intervention from a speech and language therapist (SLT) teaching course-specific vocabulary leads to more progress than just in-course teaching on bespoke vocabulary measures. A total of 28 college-aged students (11 female and 17 male) with (D)LD (aged 16.0-19.9) participated in a within-participant study comparing progress with explicit vocabulary intervention plus in-course teaching versus in-course teaching alone. The participants were assessed at four time points (3 months pre-intervention, immediately pre- and post-intervention, 3.5 months after intervention) using bespoke vocabulary assessments with an equal number of nouns, verbs and adjectives. All participants received one-to-one vocabulary intervention from their usual SLT for 30 min per week for 9 weeks. The intervention had four main components: (1) to identify intervention focus, (2) to recap previously taught terms (using an online flashcard program), (3) to explicitly teach new words using word maps to help with: creating definition and pictorial representation, identification of word class and investigation of phonological and morphological properties, and (4) to add new words, with their definition and pictorial representation to online flashcard program. The results showed a stable baseline, then during the intervention term significant progress on words targeted only in lessons and significantly greater progress on words targeted both in lessons and SLT sessions. Progress was maintained for 14 weeks. Individuals with initially lower scores showed smaller intervention effects. In general, performance was higher on verbs and on the definition recognition task and lower on the production tasks, but all tasks improved with intervention. Direct one-to-one vocabulary intervention with an SLT can lead to significant gains in knowledge of course-specific terminology for college-aged students with (D)LD. The effectiveness of speech and language therapy services for this age group in a wider range of areas of language and social communication should also be investigated. What is already known on this subject Very few services exist for young adults with DLD, despite their persisting language difficulties and the detrimental impact of these on their academic attainment and employment prospects. Most careers involve specific vocabulary which is crucial to executing a role successfully and these need to be learned by those looking to move into these careers. However, children, adolescents and adults with DLD struggle to learn new words and may need help in this area. What this study adds to existing knowledge The young adults with (D)LD received 9 weeks of intervention targeting individualized course-specific vocabulary (nouns, verbs and adjectives), using word maps to focus on word forms, definitions, morphologically related words and syntactic information such as word class and how to use the word in a sentence. An online learning tool provided regular spaced retrieval practice of previously taught words and their definitions. The participants showed significant progress with learning course-specific vocabulary from attending lessons. However, they made significantly greater progress on those words which were also targeted in individual SLT sessions, regardless of word class. Progress was maintained over 14 weeks. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Direct one-to-one vocabulary intervention with an SLT can lead to significantly greater gains in the acquisition of targeted course-specific terminology for young adults with (D)LD than the vocabulary teaching available in lessons. Individual intervention delivered by SLTs should therefore be offered to this age group of students with (D)LD to maximize their ability to access the academic curriculum and their future careers. Indeed, the broader role of SLTs in helping these young adults to access the world of work and independent living should be further investigated and supported.

Corpus-Based Investigation of S-V Concord Patterns of Nouns with Latin Plural Endings

English subject-verb concord can pose problems to learners such as omission of third person singular inflection and overextension due to linguistic typology, phonological and perceptual factors, syntax, and the number of nouns acting as the subject of the sentence, among others. A group of nouns that invites confusion is what Huddleston and Pullum (2002) call nouns with Latin plural endings whose singular forms are uncommon compared to their plural counterparts. This investigation aims to provide teachers with guidance on the general and genre-based agreement patterns of these nouns using the balanced Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). This study found that based on their agreement patterns these nouns can be classified into three groups: 1) nouns whose tendencies are line with prescriptive rules; 2) noun whose tendencies are ambivalent; and 3) nouns which might have already been “reclassified” by speakers. By genres, there was a strong preference to use “plural” verbs with these nouns in the written and the academic components of the corpus while “singular” verbs are preferred in the spoken components. The implications of the study for teaching and research were also provided.

ReaderBench: Multilevel analysis of Russian text characteristics

This paper introduces an adaptation of the open source ReaderBench framework that now supports Russian multilevel analyses of text characteristics, while integrating both textual complexity indices and state-of-the-art language models, namely Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT). The evaluation of the proposed processing pipeline was conducted on a dataset containing Russian texts from two language levels for foreign learners (A - Basic user and B - Independent user). Our experiments showed that the ReaderBench complexity indices are statistically significant in differentiating between the two classes of language level, both from: a) a statistical perspective, where a Kruskal-Wallis analysis was performed and features such as the “nmod” dependency tag or the number of nouns at the sentence level proved the be the most predictive; and b) a neural network perspective, where our model combining textual complexity indices and contextualized embeddings obtained an accuracy of 92.36% in a leave one text out cross-validation, outperforming the BERT baseline. ReaderBench can be employed by designers and developers of educational materials to evaluate and rank materials based on their difficulty, as well as by a larger audience for assessing text complexity in different domains, including law, science, or politics.