Slovenian Language Research Articles

The Role and Effect of Profanity in Children’s Literature

The controversy about using inappropriate language in children’s literature is constantly debated and repeatedly attracts the attention of the public. In Slovenia, this happened when the novel Na zeleno vejo by Andrej Predin was assigned as the text for the Cankar competition, a Slovenian language competition. Several reading mentors and other readers, specifically adults, were bothered by its use of profanity and vulgar phrases. However, no literature is immune from the use of profanity and cursing, not even children’s literature. As seen in various picture books and short illustrated stories, there are instances of adults, children, and even animals using profanity. Through the analysis, synthesis, and comparative method of mostly modern literary Slovenian texts, suitable for the first six years of Slovenia’s nine-year primary school, it was found that profanity and expletives are stylistically and semantically diverse, and their pragmatic nature must be considered. It was established that, in most cases, profanity and insults are justifiably placed in Slovenian literary works for children. Most often, they appear as a motif; less often, they are used as the central theme (or motif) in the text. A significant role is played by the reading mentor, who must alert the readers to the function of profanity in the text.

Frailty in community-dwelling older people and nursing home residents: An adaptation and validation study.

The aim of this was to psychometrically adapt and evaluate the Tilburg Frailty Indicator to assess frailty among older people living in Slovenia's community and nursing home settings. A cross-cultural adaptation and validation of instruments throughout the cross-sectional study. Older people living in the community and nursing homes throughout Slovenia were recruited between March and August 2021. Among 831 participants were 330 people living in nursing homes and 501 people living in the community, and all were older than 65 years. All items were translated into the Slovene language, and a slight cultural adjustment was made to improve the clarity of the meaning of all items. The average scale validity index of the scale was rated as good, which indicates satisfactory content validity. Cronbach's α was acceptable for the total items and subitems. The Slovenian questionnaire version demonstrated adequate internal consistency, reliability, and construct and criterion validity. The questionnaire is suitable for investigating frailty in nursing homes, community dwelling and other settings where older people live. The Slovenian questionnaire version can be used to measure and evaluate frailty among older adults. We have found that careful translation and adaptation processes have maintained the instrument's strong reliability and validity for use in a new cultural context. The instrument can foster international collaboration to identify and manage frailty among older people in nursing homes and community-dwelling homes. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist for reporting cross-sectional studies was used. No patient or public involvement in the design or conduct of the study. Head nurses from nursing homes and community nurses helped recruit older adults. Older adults only contributed to the data collection and were collected from nursing homes and community dwelling.

Authorship Attribution on Short Texts in the Slovenian Language

The study investigates the task of authorship attribution on short texts in Slovenian using the BERT language model. Authorship attribution is the task of attributing a written text to its author, frequently using stylometry or computational techniques. We create five custom datasets for different numbers of included text authors and fine-tune two BERT models, SloBERTa and BERT Multilingual (mBERT), to evaluate their performance in closed-class and open-class problems with varying numbers of authors. Our models achieved an F1 score of approximately 0.95 when using the dataset with the comments of the top five users by the number of written comments. Training on datasets that include comments written by an increasing number of people results in models with a gradually decreasing F1 score. Including out-of-class comments in the evaluation decreases the F1 score by approximately 0.05. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using BERT models for authorship attribution in short texts in the Slovenian language.

»LE VSTANI, VBÔRNI NÁROD MOJ, DO DÁNES V PRAH TEPTÁN«: O NASTAJANJU DIPLOMATSKE TERMINOLOGIJE NA SLOVENSKEM IN NJENIH ZAGONETKAH

The article presents the starting points for forming the language of diplomacy as expert language. It focuses on the question of the development of diplomatic language in Slovenia, its characteristics as well as the challenges that emerge in its formation. The author presents the meaning of the formation of terms in diplomacy in the Slovenian language, which not only enrich and create the expert diplomatic language, but also determine the degree of linguistic authenticity and statesmanship in Slovenia. The key finding of the article is that two steps are required for the development of expert diplomatic language. First, the state (i.e., the competent ministries, the Assembly, the president of the Republic etc.) should become aware that the diplomatic language in Slovenia has been relatively overlooked and is due special attention. Second, establishment of a working group is required which would connect different state actors with the aim of forming a modern linguistic corpus of terms of expert diplomatic language that would not only enrich the expert language of diplomacy and its everyday use among its practitioners, but also position the language of diplomacy among the state-building components. Keywords: diplomacy, language, Slovenia, word formation, terminological agreement

Translation and validation of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) into the Slovenian language

BackgroundThe European Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) is a self-assessment tool for standardised measurement of health literacy.AimTo translate HLS-EU-Q47 into the Slovenian language and to investigate its reliability and validity in Slovenia.MethodHLS-EU-Q47 was translated into Slovenian, back-translated, and subjected to a pilot test. The accepted Slovenian version of the questionnaire was mailed to 2500 randomly selected adult residents of the Republic of Slovenia. Reliability was examined using Cronbach’s alpha for the 1-, 3-, 4-, and 12-factor models addressing health literacy, three main health contexts, four health information processing competencies, and 12 combinations, respectively. Validity was explored with confirmatory factor analysis, univariate analysis, and multiple linear regression.ResultsA total of 517 responses were collected (21% response rate). The highest Cronbach’s alpha was obtained for the 1-factor model (0.950), followed by the 3-, 4-, and 12-factor models. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the 12-factor model provided the most valid results (CFI 0.812; RMSEA 0.067, CI 0.065 to 0.070), followed by the 3-, 4-, and 1-factor models. In the multiple regression model, only the association between self-assessment of health and the health literacy index was statistically significant (p < 0.001).ConclusionThe Slovenian version of HLS-EU-Q47 is a reliable instrument for measuring health literacy. All models of the questionnaire showed reasonable model fit, but none fully satisfied all validity criteria. Respondents differentiated better between the three main health contexts (health care, disease prevention, and health promotion) than the four health information processing competencies (access, understand, appraise, and apply).

Skupno etično odločanje zdravstvenih delavcev

Introduction: Making shared ethical decisions about patients' further healthcare involves coordinating the opinions of healthcare professionals, and patients and their relatives. The purpose of the research was to examine the joint ethical decision-making of healthcare professionals.Methods: A review of the scientific literature performed in the COBISS, Springer Link and PubMed databases was used. To search for literature in the Slovenian language, the following words were used: "etika", "zdravstveni delavci", "skupne odločitve" and in the English language: "ethics", "health professionals", "shared decision making". The literature review was carried out using the PRISMA diagram. Results were synthesized using thematic analysis.Results: 19 articles were included in the final analysis. We created three thematic categories: (1) ethical competence of healthcare workers, (2) problems in the area of joint ethical decision-making and (3) new approaches to joint ethical decision-making to improve outcomes in clinical practice. In the field of joint ethical decision-making of healthcare professionals, the importance of ethical competence, issues in the field of joint ethical decision-making and new approaches to joint ethical decision-making for improving results in clinical practice is demonstrated.Discussion and conclusion: The findings of the research contribute to illuminating the importance of joint ethical decision-making and giving an insight into the factors of joint ethical decision-making. The end result of certain ethical decisions that affect the interaction of healthcare professionals and all levels in healthcare are important.

Slovenian Language Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Introducing Comics in Literature Lessons in Primary School

The present article highlights the views of Slovenian language teachers on the introduction of comics in literature lessons in primary school. We were interested in Slovenian language teachers’ views on the introduction of comics as an art-literary type of text as part of the literature curriculum as well as the use of comics as a literary-didactic method in literature classes. This was investigated via a questionnaire, which was fully completed by 121 Slovenian language teachers of the first to the ninth grade. The results show that factors such as gender, educational period taught, professional experience, field of study, highest level of completed education, source of skills related to the introduction of comics in the classroom, teachers’ reading habits and attitudes towards reading comics, and agreement with stereotypical claims about comics per se have no influence on teachers’ attitudes towards the use of comics in the forms studied. However, their attitudes towards the use of comics in the classroom are influenced by certain stereotypical attitudes of teachers towards comics. The most important limitation of our research was also the most important finding: teachers are neither empowered to introduce and use comics as an art-literary type of text in the literary curriculum, nor are they able to use comics as a literary didactic method in literature classes. There is a great need for teacher training and teachers should be empowered to use and introduce comics in all forms.

Slovenian Version of the Drug-Induced Extrapyramidal Symptoms Scale: Evaluation of Interrater and Test-Retest Reliability.

The Drug-Induced Extrapyramidal Symptom Scale (DIEPSS) is a multidimensional rating scale for the assessment of drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), developed in 1994. It is suitable for evaluating EPS considering the degree of influence EPS has on daily activities and the subjective distress that it causes. This study to evaluate the interrater and test-retest reliability of the DIEPSS Slovenian version conducted at the University Medical Center Maribor in Slovenia in November 2018. Six raters performed the interrater assessment of 135 DIEPSS video clips with recordings of patients with EPS. A second assessment was then performed by 2 raters to evaluate the test-retest reliability, which was high (interclass correlation coefficients from 0.743 to 0.936). The results for the Slovenian language version of the DIEPSS show high interrater and test-retest reliability, with high concordance rates for all evaluated items (interclass correlation coefficient > 0.8).

The Compilation of the English–Slovene Dictionary of Criminal Justice and Security Abbreviations

Abstract The article highlights the compilation of specialised dictionaries, focusing mainly on the characteristics of dictionary entries of abbreviations in terminological dictionaries for Slovene. Special attention is given to the compilation and characteristics of the dictionary entries of abbreviations in the Slovene terminological dictionaries published by the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian language. The paper presents an overview of the characteristics of the terminological dictionaries for Slovene and provides examples of good practice that were used in the compilation of the English–Slovene Dictionary of Criminal Justice and Security Abbreviations. The paper presents the microstructure of the dictionary, and selected examples of Slovene and English–Slovene dictionary entries, as well as the overall compilation process, the selection of terms and the inclusion of related subfields. The English–Slovene Dictionary of Criminal Justice and Security Abbreviations is a growing dictionary compiled in the freely available dictionary mask Termania, and freely accessible on the portal Slovarji.si. The dictionary is the first Slovene terminological dictionary of abbreviations for the field of criminal justice and security.

Sequence-to-sequence pretraining for a less-resourced Slovenian language.

Large pretrained language models have recently conquered the area of natural language processing. As an alternative to predominant masked language modeling introduced in BERT, the T5 model has introduced a more general training objective, namely sequence to sequence transformation, which more naturally fits text generation tasks. The monolingual variants of T5 models have been limited to well-resourced languages, while the massively multilingual T5 model supports 101 languages. We trained two different-sized T5-type sequence-to-sequence models for morphologically rich Slovene language with much fewer resources. We analyzed the behavior of new models on 11 tasks, eight classification ones (named entity recognition, sentiment classification, lemmatization, two question answering tasks, two natural language inference tasks, and a coreference resolution task), and three text generation tasks (text simplification and two summarization tasks on different datasets). We compared the new SloT5 models with the multilingual mT5 model, multilingual mBART-50 model, and with four encoder BERT-like models: multilingual BERT, multilingual XLM-RoBERTa, trilingual Croatian-Slovene-English BERT, and monolingual Slovene RoBERTa model. Concerning the classification tasks, the SloT5 models mostly lag behind the monolingual Slovene SloBERTa model. However, these models are helpful for generative tasks and provide several useful results. In general, the size of models matters, and currently, there is not enough training data for Slovene for successful pretraining of large models. While the results are obtained on Slovene, we believe that they may generalize to other less-resourced languages, where such models will be built. We make the training and evaluation code, as well as the trained models, publicly available.

Word Game Modeling Using Character-Level N-Gram and Statistics

Word games are one of the most essential factors of vocabulary learning and matching letters to form words for children aged 5–12. These games help children to improve letter and word recognition, memory-building, and vocabulary retention skills. Since Uzbek is a low-resource language, there has not been enough research into designing word games for the Uzbek language. In this paper, we develop two models for designing the cubic-letter game, also known as the matching-letter game, in the Uzbek language, consisting of a predefined number of cubes, with a letter on each side of each six-sided cube, and word cards to form words using a combination of the cubes. More precisely, we provide the opportunity to form as many words as possible from the dataset, while minimizing the number of cubes. The proposed methods were created using a combination of a character-level n-gram model and letter position frequency in words at the level of vowels and consonants. To perform the experiments, a novel dataset, consisting of 4.5 k 3–5 letter words, was created by filtering based on child age groups for the Uzbek language, and three more datasets were generated, based on the support of experts for the Russian, English, and Slovenian languages. Experimental evaluations showed that both models achieved good results in terms of average coverage. In particular, the Vowel Priority (VL) approach obtained reasonably high coverage with 95.9% in Uzbek, 96.8% in English, and 94.2% in the Slovenian language in the case of eight cubes, based on the five-fold cross-validation method. Both models covered around 85% of five letter words in Uzbek, English, and Slovenian datasets, while this coverage was even higher (99%) in three letter words in the case of eight cubes.

Slovenian Version of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott Paradigm: A Normative and Exploratory Study

The research with the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm has accumulated substantial evidence for the reliable cross-cultural false memory effect. However, only a limited set of languages has had the benefit of receiving their own version of the DRM paradigm, let alone the corresponding normative data. In this study, we used 728 participants (594 women) to create the first Slovenian version of the DRM paradigm, and another 90 participants (66 women) to test its effectiveness in inducing false memories and conduct exploratory analyses. We are the first one to conduct a normative DRM study entirely online and among the few that measured reaction times (RTs) besides commonly employed accuracy measures. Overall, the participants recalled 69% of the list items and 14% of the critical lures, and additionally recognised 79% of the list items and 45% of the critical lures. The participants recalled and recognised list items as fast as critical lures and significantly faster than unrelated words. The study shows that false memories can be effectively explored by using the online format of the DRM paradigm. Future studies should investigate the relationship between RTs and accuracy measures, the relationship between recall and recognition, as well as the effects of the experimental environment on the results of the DRM studies in more detail. We hope that the provided material and its scrutiny will contribute to the progress in false memory research, especially in the Slovenian language environment.

Psychometric Properties of the Slovenian Version of the Cardiac Depression Scale.

The aim of this study was to translate the Cardiac Depression Scale into the Slovenian language and test its validity and reliability on Slovenian patients with heart disease. A total of 272 patients with heart disease who underwent elective coronary angiography at Celje General Hospital participated in this study. We used the Slovenian Cardiac Depression Scale (S-CDS), the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-20 (CES-D) to collect data. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity were performed. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.92 and the test-retest reliability was 0.71. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed six factors, accounting for 61% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a two- and one-factor solution had acceptable goodness-of-fit measures. However, we kept a more parsimonious one-factor method, given a high correlation between the two factors and the theoretical background in previous studies. Concurrent validation against the CES-D and the STAI-S showed moderate to strong correlations. The S-CDS is a reliable and valid instrument for screening for depression in Slovenian patients with heart disease.

Slovene language from word to sign. An example of the use of the Slovene Sign Language in school

Both language systems, spoken Slovene and Slovene Sign Language, are composed of basic word formation or sign formation elements, which act as cornerstones for compounded words and signs. The formation of new words in Slovene language is realised by adding suffixes after the base or stem of a word, linking together two or more bases with infixes, or adding prefixes before the base or stem of a word. To express these word formation types, sign formation adopts visual elements: facial expression, hand- and finger shape, signing speed, signing orientation and signing space.

MINORITY EDUCATION DURING THE PANDEMIC: THE CASE OF THE SLOVENE MINORITY IN ITALY

Much research has been done on the first quarantine period in 2020, however little is known for what it concerns distance learning in Italian schools with Slovene as language of instruction. No extensive research explored teachers’ and students’ perceptions of this distance learning period, nor analyzed their opinion about positive and negative aspects of online learning, especially those related to the teaching material in Slovene language, which should address the Italian program. The present article presents the analysis of online semi-structured interviews that involved 15 high school teachers and 15 students who teach or attend Italian high schools with Slovene as teaching language, and it aims to answer these questions. We found that teachers and students preferred face-to-face classes, since they faced several issues connected with distance learning, such as a lack of interaction during distance learning, technology and connection problem, health issues and psychological distress. High school teachers and students faced less problems than those reported by primary schools’ pupils and teachers, since they are older and more independent than primary school pupils. High school students did also communicate through several social applications and peers might have helped them to overcome the language obstacles.

The Implementation of Visual Grammar in Slovene Classes to Mother Tongue Speakers

The discussion focuses on the implementation of visual grammar in the study program for primary school teachers in the course Slovene language 1 - basics of text. It points out the theoretical premises of the Systemic Functional and Visual Grammar as the basis for discussing the multimodal texts, and along with a case study (34 student exam solutions) and findings from practice, presents the more challenging areas of student acquisition of theory and metalanguage. It justifies the need and shows the possibility of teaching multimodal textual analysis in school education.

Gender Sensitive Language Perspective in Textbooks for Slovene Language

In the discussion, we are dealing with a sample of textbooks for Slovene language as school subject in elementary school from the point of view of critical discourse analysis and the visual grammar of Kress and van Leeuwen (2020), focusing primarily on the use of gender sensitive language. Despite the fact that in the Slovene (school subject) the emphasis is on the verbal, school texts are multimodal. It means that they consist of verbal and pictorial codes, and make meaning in the interaction of both. The signs of both semiotic codes connect with each other and the reader of the school texts can easily undersand the meaning and the message. The analysis focuses on the concept of genders and the relationship between them.

Issues in Treating Determinologized Lexemes in the eSSKJ General Explanatory Dictionary of Slovenian

This paper presents the treatment of determinologized lexemes in the most recent growing monolingual general explanatory dictionary for Slovenian—Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika, 3. izdaja (Dictionary of the Slovenian Standard Language, 3rd Edition), or eSSKJ—while also drawing attention to conceptual differences in the understanding of the status of this vocabulary compared to previous editions of the dictionary (SSKJ and SSKJ2) and according to the treatment of terminology in the terminological dictionaries of the ZRC SAZU Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language. It focuses on specific lexicographic issues that arise due to determinologization when dealing with this relatively extensive and hybrid segment of vocabulary in eSSKJ, addressing it from two points of view. It draws attention to the issues that editors face due to lexicographic requirements. At the same time, it presents issues and reservations external terminology consultants have as experts in individual subject fields when reviewing dictionary entries for determinologized vocabulary. Due to the specific nature of the work, both types of issues sometimes overlap.

Decision-making style structure of Slovenian sports managers

Purpose: Decisions that we make are always burdened with consequences, which are the inevitable result of our decision-making. The decision-making style (DMS) is the way in which managers acquire, process and use information in decision-making processes. The goals of the present research are to define the factor structure of DMS for a sample of Slovenian sports managers and to determine the characteristics of their DMS structure. Methods: 80 managers of Slovenian sports organizations filled in an anonymous internet survey. The DMS was measured with the use of the General Decision-Making Style Inventory (GDMS), which was translated into the Slovenian language. The GDMS questionnaire measures five different decision-making styles: rational, intuitive, dependent, avoidant and spontaneous. The factor analysis (FA) method was used to test the assumption about the structure of the DMS. The internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to study the relationship between the DMS. Results: After three successive implementations of FA, we developed an optimized DMS model with 20 items confirming that when making decisions, sports managers use a combination of all five DMS. Slovenian sports managers mostly use the rational and dependent DMS, indicating that they are mostly rational decision-makers. We also recognized the correlation between the rational and the dependent style, but since the structure of the DMS in our sample is dominated by the rational DMS, we could conclude that this is a dependent-rational DMS, where mangers seek advice, opinions and knowledge from colleagues when making decisions to increasing their rationality. Conclusions: We can conclude that the recognized average structure of the DMS is functional and healthy; furthermore, Slovenian sports managers are on average rational decision-makers who, due to the specific organizational characteristics of sports organizations, look for confirmation and opinions on future decisions in the broader environment of the organizations' stakeholders.

School Dictionary of the Slovenian Language on the Franček Web Portal

This article presents the concept of the School Dictionary of the Slovenian Language (ŠSSJ), which is being made as part of the project Spletni portal Franček, Jezikovna svetovalnica za učitelje slovenščine in Šolski slovar slovenskega jezika (Franček Web Portal, Language Counselling for Slovenian Teachers and School Dictionary of the Slovenian Language). The School Dictionary of the Slovenian Language, which is a part of The Franček portal, the first specialized educational lexicographic-grammatic portal for Slovenian, brings a lexicographically informed, simplified display of information adapted to the abilities and knowledge of its youngest users. This article describes in greater detail the typology of explanations of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, which also includes explanations of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs’ phraseological and non-phraseological multi-word lexemes, the source for dictionary materials (together with the principles of including dictionary entries), the dictionary labels and grammatical information. Individual adjustments and simplifications are partly shown through comparison with the Dictionary of the Slovenian Standard Language (SSKJ).