Semantic Density Research Articles

Strategy and creativity in the use of political slogans: A study of the elections held in Spain in 2019

The unquestionable predominance of slogans in political communication versus their declining relevance in the commercial kind underpins the objective of this study, which is to gain further insight into the strategies and creative discourses employed by political parties in their campaigning before the general, regional and local elections held in Spain in 2019, whereby the results are compared with those obtained in previous research. The aim is thus to determine the attributes of electoral slogans regarding such aspects as their semantic density, complexity, use of rhetorical devices, core focus or communication efficiency. Accordingly, this study is framed in the field of research on political advertising, employing content analysis. To this end, an analysis was performed on an extensive corpus of 197 slogans, selected according to the criteria of comprehensiveness, relevance and representativeness. In short, it can be claimed that the tendencies noted in previous studies have stabilized, albeit with some new developments in relation to briefness, the use of double or triple slogans, expressive focus, bilingualism, the use of visual resources (such as emoticons) or digital language (contractions), the presence of rhetorical devices, and the relevance of voters and candidates versus political parties, among other factors. Besides the specific evolution of their formal and content-related aspects, we argue that the relevance of political slogans still prevails, and rather than undermining their essence and uses, the advent of social media has instead enhanced them.

Conceptualizing a Radical Visible Pedagogy

This paper contributes to the theorization of radical visible pedagogy by building upon Basil Bernstein’s initial conceptualization and previous efforts to develop it. Alongside Bernstein’s “classification” and “framing” we suggest that incorporating the concepts of “semantic gravity” and “semantic density” from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT)—concepts that were not available to those engaged in earlier efforts to theorize radical visible pedagogy—adds an important dimension to this theorization. Outlining the principles of radical visible pedagogy has the potential to inform equitable classroom practice in a manner that eschews the tendency toward dichotomous conceptions of pedagogy as either “traditional” or “progressive.”

Schoenberger, Melissa. Cultivating Peace: The Virgilian Georgic in English, 1650–1750.

Schoenberger, Melissa. <i>Cultivating Peace: The Virgilian Georgic in English, 1650–1750</i>.

Comparative Componential Analysis of Semantic Density of Selected Lexical Items in Surah al Fatiha (the Holy Quran) with Special Reference to Various Translations in English

This study using a qualitative paradigm, investigates certain lexical items of the Holy Quran, employing Newmark's model of Componential Analysis. No two translations of the selected lexical items are the same in the 62 English-translated versions. The Holy Quran, being the language of ALLAH Almighty,has a special semantically loaded vocabulary which is hard for other languages to be completely encompassed, transferred or transmitted. Generally, the Target Language (English) tends to miss the semantic core or only marginally related to these items in a narrow sense, which results in a translation.It is worth noting that the gap between the semantic content of the Source and the Target codes is not due to extra-linguistic factors (e.g., cultural, religious, political); rather, it is due largely to the vast expanse of semantic components encompassed by these items as used in the Holy Quran.

Linking Linguistic and Geographic Distance in Four Semantic Domains: Computational Geo-Analyses of Internal and External Factors in a Dialect Continuum.

Dialectometry studies patterns of linguistic variation through correlations between geographic and aggregate measures of linguistic distance. However, aggregating smooths out the role of semantic characteristics, which have been shown to affect the distribution of lexical variants across dialects. Furthermore, although dialectologists have always been well-aware of other variables like population size, isolation and socio-demographic features, these characteristics are generally only included in dialectometric analyses afterwards for further interpretation of the results rather than as explanatory variables. This study showcases linear mixed-effects modelling as a method that is able to incorporate both language-external and language-internal factors as explanatory variables of linguistic variation in the Limburgish dialect continuum in Belgium and the Netherlands. Covering four semantic domains that vary in their degree of basic vs. cultural vocabulary and their degree of standardization, the study models linguistic distances using a combination of external (e.g., geographic distance, separation by water, population size) and internal (semantic density, salience) sources of variation. The results show that both external and internal factors contribute to variation, but that the exact role of each individual factor differs across semantic domains. These findings highlight the need to incorporate language-internal factors in studies on variation, as well as a need for more comprehensive analysis tools to help better understand its patterns.

The Use of Narrative Resources in a Career-counselling Course

In this paper, we analyse the communication codes in two consecutive meetings of a postgraduate class on career counselling held at the Department of Philosophy-Pedagogy-Psychology of the University of Athens in winter semester of 2017. The basic idea in these meetings was to discuss real-world situations with the help of a teaching framework and short films produced within the context of a European project, called &amp;lsquo;Narrative Resources for Socio-Professional Inclusion&amp;rsquo; (NARSPI). The dialogs that followed the presentations were analysed with the help a sociolinguistic framework known as &amp;lsquo;Legitimation Code Theory&amp;rsquo; (LCT). The analysis showed that the verbal communication moved from the particularities of the videotaped stories to discipline-specific vocabularies. According to LCT proponents, such moves in the use of language create wavelike forms of communication codes based on different levels of semantic gravity and semantic density. Such &amp;lsquo;sematic waves&amp;rsquo; allow new ideas to be integrated into existing ideas and finally legitimise membership and scholarship in an academic field.

Trying not to get Paradise Lost in Translation

The author of a recently published translation of Milton's Paradise Lost into Slovak here gives an account of his approach. His version is in a form of blank verse and has a line count matching Milton's, whereas other Slavic translators (Czech, Polish, Russian) tend towards expansion both in line length and overall line-count. Structural differences between English and Slovak, and the different ‘semantic density’ of the languages, do not, it is argued, preclude the attempt. The core concern is how to construct iambic pentameters while also preserving Milton's meanings in a language to which blank verse does not come easily. Milton's language and the translator's handling of Milton's biblical references are more briefly considered.

BILOGÍA FÍLMICA MACHADIANA: LA SOMBRA DE CAÍN SOBRE LA ¡HERMOSA TIERRA DE ESPAÑA!

Resumen: Ya superado el octogésimo aniversario del fallecimiento de Antonio Machado, volvemos nuestra mirada hacia dos películas cuyos discursos gravitan sobre una honda inmersión en su obra y su personalidad. Dirigidas por Arturo Ruiz-Castillo entre el verano de 1952 y la primavera de 1953, La laguna negra surge como transposición de un romance del poeta sevillano, mientras que el relato posbélico de Dos caminos parece nutrirse de una tupida invocación alegórica del pensamiento machadiano. Escasamente conocidos y apenas considerados por la historiografía cinematográfica, ambos filmes conforman una inconfesa bilogía dotada de una insólita densidad semántica que urge reivindicar.Abstract: Just after the eightieth anniversary of death of Antonio Machado, we turn our attention to two films whose speeches gravitate a deep immersion in his work and his personality. Directed by Arturo Ruiz- Castillo between the summer of 1952 and the spring of 1953, La laguna negra emerges as transposition of a romance of the Sevillian poet, while the post-war account Dos caminos seem to be nourished by a dense allegorical invocation of Machadian thought. Scarcely known and barely considered by historiography film, both films make up an unmistakable biology with an unusual semantic density that needs to be vindicated urgently.

Problem-based learning training and implementation: An analysis using semantics in Legitimation Code Theory

This article focuses on Problem-based Learning (PBL) training within a Teaching Development Programme (TDP) and the subsequent application of PBL by candidates, as respondents in this study. An analysis of the training, which followed a medical model approach, is provided, as is the implementation of PBL within the various disciplinary contexts of the respondents. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), specifically semantics, was applied as a conceptual tool in the analyses. The data for the study was gathered through: face-to-face interviews with alumni of the TDP; document analysis and reflective journal entries of the researcher. The findings are explained in terms of strengthening and weakening of semantic density (SD) and semantic gravity (SG). It was found that the adoption of the medical model for training academics, who came from various disciplines, might have resulted in over-contextualisation, which could have compromised the re-contextualisation of knowledge within the various disciplines. The findings also showed that respondents found it challenging to implement PBL in its pure form and needed to adapt the application of PBL to meet the unique requirements of their discipline. Therefore, it is important to consider the diverse nature of disciplines when implementing PBL.

The Use of Different Translation Devices to Analyze Knowledge-Building in a University Chemistry Classroom

This research draws on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to understand the epistemic dimension of the higher education classroom discourse of a professor who is well evaluated by his students. In expository science classroom discourse, concepts are loaded with different meanings, a process that is called “condensation of meanings” in LCT, and are expressed using the concept of epistemic semantic density (ESD). The ESD can vary in classroom discourse, generating what is called a semantic wave in the LCT context. In this work, we initially compare two different translation devices, which are ways of systematically exploring the characteristics of the knowledge expressed in the classroom and how they vary, generating semantic waves. We were able to observe the strengths and weaknesses of both devices. They proved to be powerful tools in revealing how the complexity of science knowledge varies in a lesson. However, neither one demonstrates how meanings are connected in the lesson or how the semantic density of a particular concept changes over time. In this sense, we explore how everyday words at times become loaded with technical meaning when other concepts are connected to them. To achieve that, we use third device based on network science, an approach that analyzes and represents the systems of interactions of a wide range of physical and social phenomena. This allows us to evaluate how a term commonly used in everyday language, such as “lamp,” can play a central role in the construction of meanings related to the episteme of chemistry. In addition, while LCT assumes that semantic waves necessarily optimize learning, the results obtained herein revealed that constellation of meanings does not directly relate to semantic waves.

Метод оценки дидактической сложности школьных учебников по различным дисциплинам

The article discusses the problem of evaluating the differential didactic complexity (DDC) of educational texts, which characterizes the difficulty of their perception and assimilation by pupil. It is shown that DDC is determined by: 1) the density of semantic information, depending on the abstraction degree of the terms used and their presence in the pupil’s thesaurus; 2) the complexity level of mathematical, chemical and other formulas; 3) the structural complexity of the text, depending on the average length of its constituent words and sentences. Multiplying the DDC of the text by its volume, you can find the integral didactic complexity of the text. For the evaluation of the textbook DDC expert selects one page fragments of text randomly, identifies the key concepts, “measures” their average information content, determines the share of formulas and their average complexity. In this case, the classification of concepts according to the abstraction degree is used, which takes into account the occurrence of a particular word in the thesaurus of a preschool, fifth-grader, ninth-grader and school graduate. The structural complexity of the text is also taken into account, depending on the average length of words and sentences. The analysis of textbooks for school graduates has shown that the most difficult disciplines to understand are biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics. As a result of evaluating computer science textbooks for 3rd, 5th, 9th and 11th grades it was found that their semantic information density and differential semantic complexity monotonically increase from 5.3 to 8.1 and from 5.7 to 10.4 respectively.

Vector-Type Two-Tuple Semantic Density Weighted Operator and Its Application

Vector-Type Two-Tuple Semantic Density Weighted Operator and Its Application

A Linguo-Cultural Analysis of COVID-19 Related Facebook Jokes

This research aimed to get an insight into Pakistani people’s thought patterns and matters of concern through social media humor. The data collected through online crowdsourcing have been analyzed, adapting the Linguo-Cultural Approach by Petrova. The ‘culturemes’ have been arranged based on their 'semantic density' in a descending order. The highest dense ‘cultureme’ consists of the memes about gender, reinforcing the traditional notions of patriarchal tendencies. The second and third categories target the people's non-seriousness about the precautionary measures and the 'online classes', respectively. Satirical posts about political figures and governmental decisions are in the fourth position. The aggressive role of police, coupled with the expected population increase, has taken the fifth position in the hierarchy. The sixth category is about the masses' tendency to shop carelessly. The seventh category comprises self-deprecating memes, followed by the eighth category about over-eating and getting fat during the stay at home. Memes about China being labeled as the creator of the virus have taken the ninth position, and the posts about the ethnic slur come next. The least dense category consists of the posts about the hype created by news channels. This hierarchical arrangement of the semantic densities has revealed real-life situations and concerns and doubts and belief systems of the current social media users in Pakistan. The need of the hour is to employ content creators to come up with the comic, but creative memes and jokes to condition people's subconscious to be more careful about their health.

Mixing and crossing disciplines: Leonardo da Vinci's holistic approach to knowledge

AbstractThere is unanimous consensus on the interdisciplinary nature of Leonardo da Vinci's work due to his holistic vision of the world. Our study aims to point out that da Vinci created links and bridges among concepts belonging to exact and human sciences, revealing not only the interdisciplinary but also the transdisciplinary nature of his approach. This is shown in his notes that reflect the philosophical thoughts and social implications of his observations.More specifically, in order to highlight da Vinci's unique approach to knowledge, we analyse two significant examples never cited nor commented on. The first concerns how da Vinci used quantitative law to deduce and apply fluid dynamics of crowded people flux in surprising ways; the second is related to the architectural study of the arch that suggests da Vinci had some deep thoughts on the world.From this analysis, we conclude that, considering the huge number of relevant “case studies” provided by da Vinci and their semantic density, his approach to knowledge can be framed within innovative philosophical studies on interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.

Liberal and vocational education: the Gordian encounter

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how liberal higher education can strengthen vocational higher education.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses Shay's (2013) framework of curriculum differentiation to articulate how the strengths and shortcomings of liberal education differ from those of vocational education and to allow the differences highlighted to inform a resolution to each other's shortcomings.FindingsThere is nothing new in the findings that liberal education differs from vocational education and that both have shortcomings. What the paper presents is a viewpoint that the differences are not confirmation that these two approaches to education are in opposition but rather that they complement each other. The strength of one is the weakness of the other.Originality/valueThe perspective taken in this paper is developed using the language of semantic density (SD) and semantic gravity (SG). Using Shay's semantic field of recontextualized knowledge, this paper suggests that liberal and vocational education inhabit two sides of contexts and concepts continua. The paper further proposes that both are alike in a meaningful way because both have unsuccessfully managed the role of context in their curricula.

Clause complexing and characterisation: Joyce’s ‘Two Gallants’ revisited

The application of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics to analyse literary texts has been a prevalent approach in the field of stylistics. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the three metafunctions, that is the experiential, the interpersonal and the textual metafunctions, on the level of the clause, ignoring the logical metafunction on the level of the clause complex. Therefore, the present study seeks to examine the composition of clause complexes and explicate how clause complexing is related to the reader’s interpretation of literary meaning, especially that of characterisation. To achieve this, a comparative method is adopted to explain in what sense the author’s actual choices of clause complexes differ from alternatives that could have been chosen and also in what sense the choices shape into a coherent pattern throughout the text. My case study is James Joyce’s short story ‘Two Gallants’, a text that has already been successfully investigated from the Hallidayan approach. My main findings suggest that the deceptively simple style of clause complexing in Joyce’s text is in fact loaded with semantic density and incongruity that serve the purpose of characterisation. The study aims to show that we would miss many subtle details in the text in terms of characterisation if we skip the construction of clause complexes. Accordingly, the reading of nuances between the clauses might offer us a new perspective not just to interpret Joyce’s short story and but also to better understand his writing style.

Investigation into the Semantic Density and Semantic Gravity Wave Profile of Teachers When Discussing Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution (SEAr).

Language in chemistry is highly specialized, and for students, transitions in language complexity from high school to university can be extremely challenging. With an increasingly diverse cohort of students enrolled in UK chemistry degree programs, better understanding the linguistic challenges students face is becoming a greater pedagogical priority. Spoken language plays a central role when learning chemistry, and any misunderstandings can lead to misconceptions that can impede students’ success in this demanding subject. This small-scale study sought to compare the complexity of spoken-language explanations of the same chemical process within UK secondary (high school) and university contexts. The study involved seven organic chemistry educators/teachers, four based in a UK university and three in a UK high school, discussing electrophilic aromatic substitution (SEAr) via a lecture or screencast. The participants’ spoken discourse was transcribed and coded according to the concepts of semantic gravity (the degree to which meaning relates to context) and semantic density (the degree to which meaning is condensed within symbols) drawn from Legitimation Code Theory, and then it was analyzed for semantic waves. When considering semantic gravity, there were some similarities and some differences. In all cases, semantic gravity was weaker, but participants based in a university environment generally tended to exhibit relatively weaker semantic gravity than their school-based counterparts. The school-based participants usually added further explanations to clarify what was meant during an explanation and exhibited semantic waves by unpacking and repacking a concept, whereas the university-based participants tended to show a flatter semantic profile. Findings showed that, across the levels of study investigated, semantic density was stronger: a similar complexity of chemistry-specific vocabulary used by all seven participants, regardless of the audience. Findings have pedagogical implications and suggest that a larger-scale study of semantic waves in oral chemistry discourse could usefully inform specific-purposes language teaching.

How Complex or Abstract Are Science Learning Outcomes? A Novel Coding Scheme Based on Semantic Density and Gravity

There has been a longstanding interest in the kinds of scientific knowledge that primary science learners must know and be able to do, which comprise the intellectual demands in this subject. These prescriptions chiefly take guidance from national curriculum documents, especially in the form of their learning outcomes (LO) or learning standards. Using the concepts of semantic density (SD) and semantic gravity (SG), we formulate a novel coding scheme for primary science LO based on Semantics and Legitimation Code Theory. We demonstrate how SD and SG provide insights into the levels of complexity and abstraction respectively from a mix of qualitative and quantitative criteria that we devised. We empirically test the utility of this coding scheme by comparing present reformed primary science LO with their previous versions across three East-Asian regions. It was shown that their LO were not significantly different over versions in terms of SD/SG, had typically one to two learning points, favoured more context-dependent expressions, and were predominantly coded as SD-SG+. This research provides a complementary method of determining the intellectual demands of science curricula in terms of complexity and abstraction of LO that has implications for science teaching as well as the improvement of epistemological access for learners.

The Matter of Aesthetic Experience

The Matter of Aesthetic Experience

Vertentes da análise sistêmico-funcional no texto: a construção discursiva em foco

A conferência proferida pelo professor Carlos Gouveia tratou das articulações teóricas entre pressupostos da Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional (LSF) e as bases da Teoria dos Códigos de Legitimação. Em sua abordagem inicial, o conferencista apresenta os principais aspectos dos modelos teóricos adotados. Por isso, são discutidos os conceitos de função, contexto social, registro e gênero, subjacentes à LSF, bem como as noções de discurso horizontal, discurso vertical, gravidade semântica, densidade semântica, estruturas de conhecimento e estruturas de conhecedores, no âmbito dos códigos de legitimação. Como procedimento de análise, tomou-se um texto jornalístico, em que se observou a estruturação textual a partir dos quadros teóricos destacados. Os resultados da análise observam que as amostras textuais se constroem a partir do entrecruzamento entre relações epistêmicas de conhecimento e relações sociais (instâncias e hierarquias) que definem quais sujeitos estão aptos a legitimar o seu discurso.