Syntactic Differences Research Articles

SignifAI: French sign language translation based on deep learning and large language models

In this project, we propose SignifAI which is an AI-powered software that translates French Sign Language into spoken French. The goal of SignifAI is to remove the language barrier that separates the deaf and hearing communities. The translation process proves to be a major challenge for existing methods, as most of them rely on traditional Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods which solve the task in a similar way as spoken languages (e.g., paying more attention to the logics and reasoning). The drastic syntactical difference between sign and spoken languages, however, makes such approaches not as effective and efficient. In SignifAI, we propose to leverage a combination of deep learning models for sign gesture recognition and large language models (LLM) for sentence generation from recognized words. The former allows for precise detection of individual words, while the latter takes the recognized words as inputs and returns a fluently reformulated translated sentence. With extremely limited data available for French sign language, we created our own enhanced dataset through synthetically augmenting existing videos. Utilizing the SlowFast model for this task, we have achieved a maximum test accuracy of 98.9%, and a fluid translation process after implementing ChatGPTs API. The potential applications of SignifAI range from aiding communication between the deaf and the hearing, to helping the deaf place phone calls in numerical services. Ultimately, SignifAI strives to improve all aspects of a deaf persons life, and compensates for their speaking disabilities.

Complex meanings shape early noun and verb vocabulary structure and learning.

Verbs and nouns vary in many ways-including in how they are used in language and in the timing of their early learning. We compare the distribution of semantic features that comprise early acquired verb and noun meanings and measure their effect on learning. First, couched in prior literature, we use semantic feature data to establish that features pattern on a hierarchy of complexity, with perceptual features being less complex than other features like encyclopaedic features. Second, given overall semantic and syntactic differences between nouns and verbs, we hypothesize that the preference for directly perceptible features observed for nouns will be attenuated for verbs. Building on prior work using semantic features and semantic networks in nouns, we find that compared to early learned nouns (N = 359), early learned verbs (N = 103) have meanings disproportionately built from complex information inaccessible to the senses. Third, we find that 16- to 30-month-old children's early noun and verb vocabularies (N = 3,804) show semantic relationships that differ in their use of this complex information from the beginning of vocabulary development. Last, we find that the complexity of nouns' and verbs' meanings affects their typical order of learning in early vocabulary development. Complexity differs in early noun and verb meanings, affects the semantic structure of children's vocabularies, and shapes the course of word learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Challenges of Translating Idiomatic Expressions: A Cross-Linguistic Analysis at a University in Hanoi, Vietnam

This study investigates the challenges students face when translating idiomatic expressions between English and Vietnamese and explores how linguistic and cultural factors influence the translation process. Utilizing a combination of translation task analysis and focus group discussions, the research reveals that students frequently rely on literal translations, resulting in inaccurate or nonsensical outcomes due to their inability to grasp the figurative meanings of idioms. Cultural mismatches, particularly the absence of equivalent expressions in Vietnamese, further complicate translation efforts, leading to significant misunderstandings. Additionally, linguistic barriers, such as syntactic differences between English and Vietnamese, hinder students' ability to produce natural and accurate translations of idiomatic expressions. The findings emphasize the critical role of cultural knowledge and syntactic flexibility in effective idiomatic translation. To address these challenges, the study recommends that translation training programs place greater emphasis on idiomatic understanding and cross-cultural competence. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on idiomatic translation by highlighting the interplay of linguistic and cultural factors and suggesting strategies to enhance translation accuracy.

Syntactic and semantic variations in negative interrogatives: Contracted vs. uncontracted forms

This study investigates the forms and uses of negative interrogatives with auxiliary verb contractions in English, focusing on syntactic and semantic differences. Data was drawn from conversations in an English class at a university in Lhokseumawe, Indonesia, between a lecturer and students and students and students. The aim was to examine three types of negative interrogatives: Yes-No questions, negative rhetorical questions, and both marked (n’t) and unmarked (not) forms. The research employs a descriptive method with a synchronic time frame, utilizing distributional analysis, including immediate constituent analysis and mark reading techniques, to categorize and analyze the data. The findings reveal that negative interrogatives involving auxiliary verbs exhibit positive and negative presuppositions, with adjectival negative interrogatives showing variations between contracted and uncontracted forms. Adverbial negative interrogatives were found across all three types, indicating their versatility in forming questions. The study highlights that the choice between ‘not’ and ‘n’t’ affects the tone and emphasis of negative interrogatives, influencing the interpretation of responses. Contracted forms often carry a rhetorical or presumptive tone, while uncontracted forms are more formal and explicit. These variations show the importance of auxiliary verbs and negative markers in shaping the structure and meaning of negative interrogatives. This research contributes to the understanding of how negative interrogatives function in English, revealing the nuanced ways in which they impact communication and interpretation.

Increased Breathiness in Adolescent Kiezdeutsch Speakers: A Marker of Multiethnolectal Group Affiliation?

Kiezdeutsch is a multiethnolectal variety of German spoken by young people from multicultural communities that exhibits lexical, syntactic, and phonetic differences from standard German. A rather salient and pervasive feature of this variety is the fronting of the standard palatal fricative /ç/ (as in ich "I") to [ɕ] or [ʃ]. Previous perception work shows that this difference is salient and carries social meaning but dependent on the listener group. Further investigations also point to the significance of /ɔɪ/-fronting in production; however, whether this is salient in perception has not yet been investigated. In several (multi)ethnolectal varieties, differences in voice quality compared to the standard have been identified. Therefore, in this study, we present an acoustic comparison of voice quality in adolescent speakers of Kiezdeutsch and standard German, with results showing that Kiezdeutsch speakers produce a breathier voice quality. In addition, we report on a perception test designed to examine the social meaning of voice quality in combination with two segmental cues: coronalization of /ç/ and /ɔɪ/-fronting. The results indicate perceptual gradience for phonetic alternations detected in Kiezdeutsch with coronalization of /ç/ being a highly salient and reliable marker, whereas fronting of /ɔɪ/ and breathy voice do not appear to be clearly enregistered features of Kiezdeutsch by all listeners. Thus, even though we find differences in production, these may not necessarily be relevant in perception, pointing toward enregisterment- like sound change-being a continuous process of forming learned associations through tokens of experiences.

Cross-lingual dependency parsing for a language with a unique script

Abstract Syntactic parsing is one of the areas in Natural Language Processing. The development of large-scale multilingual language models has enabled cross-lingual parsing approaches, which allows us to develop parsers for languages that do not have treebanks available. However, these approaches rely on the assumption that languages share orthographic representations and lexical entries. In this article, we investigate methods for developing a dependency parser for Xibe, a low-resource language that is written in a unique script. We first investigate lexicalized monolingual dependency parsing experiments to examine the effectiveness of word, part-of-speech, and character embeddings as well as pre-trained language models. Results show that character embeddings can significantly improve performance, while pre-trained language models decrease performance since they do not recognize the Xibe script. We also train delexicalized monolingual models, which yield competitive results to the best lexicalized model. Since the monolingual models are trained on a very small training set, we also investigate lexicalized and delexicalized cross-lingual models. We use six closely related languages as source language, which cover a wide range of scripts. In this setting, the delexicalized models achieve higher performance than lexicalized models. A final experiment shows that we can increase performance of the cross-lingual model by combining source languages and selecting the most similar sentences to Xibe as training set. However, all cross-lingual parsing results are still considerably lower than the monolingual model. We attribute the low performance of cross-lingual methods to syntactic and annotation differences as well as to the impoverished input of Universal Dependency Part-of-Speech tags that the delexicalized model has access to.

PREDICATIVE POSITION OF ADJECTIVES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS WHEN TRANSLATING INTO ALBANIAN

Predicative adjectives play a crucial role in language by providing additional information about the subject of a sentence. This paper explores the significance and characteristics of predicative adjectives in linguistic analysis. The paper examines the syntactic structures and patterns governing the translation of predicative adjectives from English into Albanian language. Through a comparative analysis, this paper investigates how syntactic differences between the two languages influence the placement and construction of predicative adjectives in Albanian language sentences. Furthermore, the paper explores the impact of word order, agreement, and syntactic hierarchy on the translation process. Drawing on linguistic theories and principles, this research clarifies the syntactic adjustments required to maintain grammatical coherence and preserve the intended meaning when rendering predicative adjectives into Albanian. Predicative adjectives in English typically exhibit a relatively minor difference from Albanian translation, with exceptions found among adjectives whose predicative only usage is specific to the English language. Adjectives falling into this category necessitate substantial adjustments during translation, often resulting in their representation not solely as adjectives but also as nouns, verbs, or adverbs within the translated context. By shedding light on the syntactic complexities of translation, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges and strategies involved in conveying predicative adjectives across linguistic boundaries.

PARAFJALE SHQIPE /ME/ DHE EKUIVALENTËT E SAJ NË GJUHËN FRËNGE

The use of prepositions is one of the most challenging aspects of grammar in any language. Translating them poses much greater difficulty than translating other parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc., so often the sentence structure needs to be entirely changed to accurately translate a specific preposition. Given the reality that studies on Albanian prepositions, especially from a contrastive perspective, are not plentiful, we have decided to dedicate this work to the study of Albanian prepositions to highlight their semantic characteristics, examining their uses and meanings, and comparing Albanian structures containing these prepositions with their equivalents in French. Therefore, the primary focus of this research is to identify equivalence and understand the syntactic differences that may exist between these two languages.

Differences in the structure of scientific discourse with individual and collaborative authorship of publications

Within the framework of scientific discourse, the article occupies a central place in the construction and dissemination of knowledge in the scientific community. At the same time, collaborative authorship is becoming increasingly widespread in the scientific community. The syntactic and semantic differences between the texts of collaborations and individual authors present an urgent problem and remain poorly understood. This determines the purpose of the study — to identify differences in the structure of scientific discourse with individual and collaborative authorship of publications. At the preliminary stage of the study, an unstructured research interview was conducted on the specifics of writing scientific articles individually and as part of author teams. The main research is devoted to the analysis of the semantic and syntactic structure of texts using the method of relational situational analysis (RSA), which allows you to automatically identify the correspondence of the syntaxemic structure of a sentence to the logical structure of the actions described in this sentence. The study compared the texts of 201 scientific articles in Russian from the leading psychological journals included in WoS and Scopus, divided into corpora by type of authorship (individual-collaborative) and genres (theoretical articles and reviews vs empirical methodological articles). During the study, it was revealed that the articles written in collaboration have higher lexical coherence, they are more syntactically correct. The volume of the text of a scientific article on psychology is on average 9% more with individual authorship compared with collaborative writing. The semantic and syntactic differences between the texts of articles by individual authors and collaborations have a genre differentiation. In theoretical articles and reviews of collaborations, the syntactic complexity and semantic coherence of the text are higher, the traditional structure of the statement prevails: the thesis is briefly postulated and then fully justified. With individual authorship, the main idea is more often formulated after the context, while reformulation is more often used in the texts of individual authors. The meta-discourse in theoretical articles also differs significantly: the author’s position is more represented by individual authors, and “reader involvement” is in the case of co-authorship. In empirical and methodological articles, the main differences are revealed in the specifics of meta-discourse: the author’s position, unlike the genre of theoretical articles, is more inherent in the texts of collaborations.

Analysis of Shift in Translation on The Usage Instruction of Skincare Products

This research examines the translation of instructions for using skin care products from English into Indonesian, focusing on translation shifts as defined by Catford (1965). These shifts include level shifts and category shifts (structure, class, unit and intra-system shifts). This research analyzes how these shifts occur and adapt to the Indonesian linguistic and cultural context. Data from brands including Wardah, Avoskin, and Garnier were collected and analyzed using a qualitative descriptive method. The findings highlight common shifts, like structural changes due to syntactic differences and word class shifts to maintain meaning. Understanding these shifts can improve translation strategies, ensuring that bilingual packaging is clear, accurate, and culturally appropriate, thus increasing consumer understanding and satisfaction.

EXPLORING GRADE 7 STUDENTS’ SECOND LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

This study investigated the second language difficulties of Grade 7 students in one national high school in Sorsogon province, Philippines, S.Y. 2023-2024. Specifically, it identified the grammatical errors of students in their narrative essays along with subject-verb agreement and verb tenses. It determined the second language difficulties leading to their grammatical errors and their implications for language teaching and learning. Based on the 45 essays analyzed by the 15 students, the results showed that the grammatical errors identified were along the verb tense, which ranked highest (66%), and subject-verb agreement (42%), indicating a high level of students’ writing difficulty. Several linguistic difficulties that contributed to these errors were vocabulary gaps, limited knowledge of grammatical rules, syntactic differences between the students’ local language (L1) and English language (L2), the challenging learning environment, lack of resources, distractions, and insufficient family support. The students’ L2 difficulties may have implications for teaching and learning, particularly in terms of communicative effectiveness, reading comprehension, shift in teaching approach, and balancing formal and communicative activities.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0977/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Resuming topics and foci: Anyi, Baule and microvariation in Kwa languages

Abstract Left peripheral topics and foci often differ with respect to resumption: in languages such as Italian, Tzotzil Maya, and Warlpiri, while fronted topics may be co-indexed with a pronominal form in the corresponding argument position, fronted foci correspond to a gap. However, this contrast does not universally apply. In languages such as Anyi and Baule, two Kwa languages of Côte d’Ivoire, subjects and animate objects must be resumed by a pronoun whenever they appear in the left periphery – independent of information structure. The question is whether this instance of cross-linguistic variation arises through differences in the syntax of left peripheral positions in various languages or in the conditions of resumption. The present study examines data from Kwa languages and concludes that the difference lies in the conditions of resumption, which are orthogonal to the syntactic differences between topics and foci. Resumptives have a dual nature in these languages, serving as anaphoric constants (true resumptives) in topicalization and as bound variables (apparent resumptives) in focus constructions. A survey of the relevant facts in further Kwa languages reveals that resumption is determined by factors that are independent from information structure and relate to the recoverability of empty argument positions.

Transcription Decisions of Conjoined Independent Clauses Are Equitable Across Dialects but Impact Measurement Outcomes.

Transcription of conjoined independent clauses within language samples varies across professionals. Some transcribe these clauses as two separate utterances, whereas others conjoin them within a single utterance. As an inquiry into equitable practice, we examined rates of conjoined independent clauses produced by children and the impact of separating these clauses within utterances on measures of mean length of utterance (MLU) by a child's English dialect, clinical status, and age. The data were archival and included 246 language samples from children classified by their dialect (African American English or Southern White English) and clinical status (developmental language disorder [DLD] or typically developing [TD]), with those in the TD group further classified by their age (4 years [TD4] or 6 years [TD6]). Rates of conjoined independent clauses and the impact of these clauses on MLU varied by clinical status (DLD < TD) and age (TD4 < TD6), but not by dialect. Correlations between the rate of conjoined clauses, MLU, and language test scores were also similar across the two dialects. Transcription decisions regarding conjoined independent clauses within language samples lead to equitable measurement outcomes across dialects of English. Nevertheless, transcribing conjoined independent clauses as two separate utterances reduces one's ability to detect syntactic differences between children with and without DLD and document syntactic growth as children age. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25822675.

Scope assignment in quantifier-negation sentences in early Korean-Chinese bilinguals’ grammars

Quantifier-negation sentences allow an inverse scope reading in many languages, but this phenomenon is not observed in Chinese. Building on the work of Chen and Huan (2023), this study investigates whether early Korean-Chinese bilinguals can make a distinction between Korean and Chinese in terms of the inverse scope. Employing the sentence-picture matching truth value judgment experiment from Chen and Huan (2023), we recruited a group of 23 early Korean-Chinese bilinguals and 15 monolingual Korean speakers. The experimental results aligned with those of Chen and Huan (2023), which identified three distinct groups of bilinguals. The first group permits an inverse scope reading in both Korean and Chinese, the second group prohibits it in both languages, and the third group successfully distinguishes between Korean and Chinese regarding inverse scope. These findings suggest that early bilinguals may experience long-lasting crosslinguistic influence that extends into adulthood. They may adopt either of two opposite strategies when constructing sentences, both of which can potentially minimize syntactic differences between their two languages.

Investigating Lexical and Syntactic Differences in Written and Spoken English Corpora

This paper presents an analysis of the differences between written text and the transcription of spoken text using current Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods. The purpose of the study is to investigate the long and rich history of attempts to differentiate spoken and written text in fields such as linguistics, communication, and rhetoric, which date back to the early 20th century. Given the availability of large quantities of machine-readable data and machine learning algorithms that can handle them, it is possible to use a large number of derived features. The research focuses on syntactic and lexical differences in written books and transcriptions of speeches by United States presidents. The analysis investigates morphological, lexical, syntactical, and text-level aspects. In this process, multiple features have been considered including lexical diversity, syllable count, frequency of parts of speech, and features relating to the parse tree, like the average length of noun phrases, and the use of interrogative sentences, among others. This study will enhance our understanding of the difference between written text and the transcription of spoken text in various disciplines including computer science, applied linguistics, communication, and similar fields.

Subject‐Object Asymmetries and the Development of Relative Clauses between Late Middle English and Early Modern English

AbstractThis paper presents the results of a corpus study on the Wycliffe Bible and the King James Bible, examining the distribution of the pronouns who(m)/which and the complementiser that in relative clauses with a personal referent. The data indicate that the decisive factor in both periods was the function of the gap (subject vs. non‐subject): wh‐pronouns are preferred in object relative clauses, while that is preferred in subject relative clauses. In addition, the paper argues that the subject/non‐subject distinction was decisive not only regarding the major wh/that distribution but also regarding the who(m)/which distinction. While in the case of the wh/that distinction, a syntactic difference (relative pronoun versus relative complementiser) underlies the attested asymmetry, the pronouns who(m) and which do not differ in their core syntactic properties. The data clearly indicate that both the wh‐strategy in general and the pronoun who(m) in particular started to spread from the lower functions of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy, whereby the spread of who(m) was one step behind the general spread of the wh‐strategy. The findings thus suggest that asymmetries along the lines of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy are not necessarily paired up with syntactic asymmetries.

A Contrastive Study of the Comparative and Superlative Inflectional Morphemes of English and Yoruba Languages

This paper analyses and contrasts the comparative and superlative inflectional morphemes of the English and Yoruba Languages with the aim of identifying the morphological and syntactic structural differences, which may pose some difficulties to the Yoruba learners of English as a second language. The study adopted the Contrastive Analysis (CA) theory as its theoretical framework as well as the qualitative descriptive design with a content analysis approach, while using a textual data collection method. The study revealed that while the English language uses the inflectional markers “-er” to mark the comparatives and “-est” to mark the superlatives of adjectives and adverbs; the Yoruba language on the other hand employs lexical items “-ju…lo” as comparative marker and “-julo” for the superlative marker through partial reduplication. The paper further discovered that while the inflectional morphemes of the English language are all suffixes, the Yoruba language lends itself to both, but majorly prefixation. However, the comparative and superlative markers of both English and Yoruba languages are suffixes. In addition, the English language in its grammatical rules contains some exceptions or irregularities, which may further pose some challenges to the second language learner. The study therefore recommends that second language learners, whose first language is Yoruba, should ensure proper learning and acquisition of the correct formation and usage of all the comparative and superlative markers of the English language, in order to improve their proficiency in the language.

The Intersection of Language Impairment and Rehabilitative Language Immersion in Autism: A Comprehensive Analysis

This paper discusses the literature on language acquisition in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), highlighting rapid changes in the field. Researchers in psycholinguistics are exploring language acquisition theories due to ASD’s significant differences across language, social, and cognitive domains. The study highlights areas where knowledge is lacking and explores potential future directions. While pragmatic deficits are commonly associated with ASD, clinicians and researchers should consider phonological, morph syntactic differences and rehabilitation to change the condition of phonological errors, which impact language comprehension and production.

Reconsidering Python Syntax to Enhance Programming Productivity

Abstract: Data analytics plays a crucial role in today's society across various domains, driven by technological advancements and exponential data growth. Handling large-scale data poses a challenge due to increased computational and storage requirements. The heterogeneity of tasks in data analytics programming languages complicates integration and interaction, necessitating effective cross-language integration for productivity and extended capabilities. This paper proposes a generalized interpreter accepting various language syntaxes, primarily based on Python and MATLAB, with comparisons to R and Julia. Findings reveal Python's beginner-friendly learning curve and rich resources, Julia's high-performance computing, MATLAB’s numerical prowess and specialized toolbox, and Python and R's focus on flexibility. Both Python and R boast active communities, while Python offers extensive portability, and Julia emphasizes interoperability. Despite syntactic differences, a common interpreter offers flexibility and efficiency, benefiting developers by enabling language selection based on project needs. Challenges can be mitigated through good design and technical solutions. Encouragement for research and innovation in universal interpreter development fosters collaboration, enhancing opportunities in data analysis and scientific computing. Active participation from developers and researchers is encouraged for continual improvement and advancement in the field.

Investigating Syntactic and Morphological Differences in the Written Productions of Turkish Learners Based on the Learning Context

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the potential impact of the learning context on learners’ written production. Comparing the syntactic and morphological errors, the study tries to find out whether there are differences between written language productions of learners learning Turkish in Turkey and the ones outside the target community. Design/Methodology/Approach: Following descriptive research method, the study adopted qualitative design through systematic content analysis to analyse the data gathered from 78 learners of Turkish at A2 proficiency level, in Turkey (N=42) and outside of Turkey (N=36). The statistical analyses were then carried out to identify the ratios and the categorical distributions of errors determined through error analysis. Findings: The results reveal that learning a language in the target context impacts writing performances significantly at syntactic and morphological level. Based on the findings, instructional implications are provided to enhance effective language input. Highlights: Writing, an important and functional skill in multiple domains, is one of the most challenging skills to master and requires receive sufficient and meaningful authentic language input. As Turkish possesses distinct characteristics compared to Germanic or Semitic Languages, learners of Turkish have additional challenges at language production level. Learners of Turkish display significant differences in the types of syntactic and morphological errors in their writing depending on their learning contexts. The learning context has impacts on the writing productions of learners. The results suggest that educators and program developers in the field of Turkish Language teaching need to consider the role of the context in learning a foreign language while incorporating the special linguistic characteristics of Turkish in designing their teaching programs, materials and lessons.