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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Linguistics

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Brigham Young University

2008

Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Developing Writing Fluency Through Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Rossana Camacho Dec 2008

Developing Writing Fluency Through Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Rossana Camacho

Theses and Dissertations

Drawing from sociocultural theory, this research investigated the effects of synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in the development of writing fluency. Likewise, the study aimed at confirming previously cited affective benefits linked to SCMC. Measuring fluency in words per 30 minutes, the study compared pre and post-test essay scores of two groups of ESL learners (a control group and a SCMC group) in two intermediate levels. Two evaluation questionnaires were also administered to the SCMC group in order to obtain students' opinions of this technology-based medium, and to analyze change in their perceptions. The SCMC group outperformed the control group in …

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The Effects Of Homography On Computer-Generated High Frequency Word Lists, Athelia Graham Nov 2008

The Effects Of Homography On Computer-Generated High Frequency Word Lists, Athelia Graham

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the significance of semantics in computer-generated word frequency counts in response to a call for new word lists (Read, 2000; Gardner, 2007). Read claims that no corpus projects to date have produced any "definitive, stand-alone word-frequency lists" (p. 226). Many researchers are wary of the fact that the concept of a word is never clearly defined in most studies that have dealt with word frequency counts. It is clear from the research that one universally acceptable construct for the concept of word does not exist. In fact, many past word frequency counts only examine word forms without …

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Effects Of Lexical Simplification And Elaboration On Esl Readers' Local-Level Perceived Comprehension, Beth Ann Brewer Nov 2008

Effects Of Lexical Simplification And Elaboration On Esl Readers' Local-Level Perceived Comprehension, Beth Ann Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of single word modification on the perceived comprehension of individual sentences. A test was created by randomly selecting sentences from a college level American history textbook. Each sentence was analyzed using Nation's Range program, and the lowest frequency verbs were selected for modification. Each target verb was simplified (replaced with a higher frequency equivalent) or elaborated (left in the sentence, but followed by a parenthetical definition). Subjects received both treatment types and unmodified control items in a fifty-sentence test. Each sentence was rated by the subjects, as it was read, according to the amount of …

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The Influence Of Production Accuracy On Suprasegmental Listening Comprehension, Adriana Romanini Nov 2008

The Influence Of Production Accuracy On Suprasegmental Listening Comprehension, Adriana Romanini

Theses and Dissertations

One of the major questions in second language (L2) phonological learning is whether perception precedes (and therefore guides) production. This question is important for knowing what types of training most benefit L2 learners. While most theories assume that perception always precedes production (e.g., Best, 1995; Flege, 1995), several recent studies have found that production may precede perception (e.g., Baker & Trofimovich, 2006; Beach, Brunham, & Kitamura, 2001; Goto, 1971; Sheldon & Strange, 1982; Underbakke, 1993), demonstrating that this complex relationship may differ depending on how and when the L2 is learned. The current study seeks to further explore this relationship …

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Semantic Role Agency In Perceptions Of The Lexical Items Sick And Evil, Nathan G. Simmons Nov 2008

Semantic Role Agency In Perceptions Of The Lexical Items Sick And Evil, Nathan G. Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by an ongoing debate in the clinical sciences concerning the value of evil as a label for human behavior (Mowrer 1960, Staub 1999, Wellman 2000, Williams 2004 etc.), this thesis examines the semantic role of AGENT in the lexical items sick and evil. Williams makes the argument that the label evil removes responsibility from the doctor, whereas, the label sick empowers the doctor in bringing about a cure. While this view is not universally accepted in the field, it does bring to light an interesting question in applied linguistic semantics as to the assignment of agency with respect to …

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Semantic Role Labeling With Analogical Modeling, Warren C. Casbeer Jul 2008

Semantic Role Labeling With Analogical Modeling, Warren C. Casbeer

Theses and Dissertations

Semantic role labeling has become a popular natural language processing task in recent years. A number of conferences have addressed this task for the English language and many different approaches have been applied to the task. In particular, some have used a memory-based learning approach. This thesis further develops the memory-based learning approach to semantic role labeling through the use of analogical modeling of language. Data for this task were taken from a previous conference (CoNLL-2005) so that a direct comparison could be made with other algorithms that attempted to solve this task. It will be shown here that the …

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Religious Networks As A Sociolinguistic Factor: The Case Of Cardston, Benjamin Joseph Chatterton Jul 2008

Religious Networks As A Sociolinguistic Factor: The Case Of Cardston, Benjamin Joseph Chatterton

Theses and Dissertations

Religious affiliation and its inherent membership in an associated social network as a sociolinguistic factor is examined in the community of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Cardston, Alberta. Building on Meechan's 1998 findings that the LDS community in the area used Canadian Raising in a different set of phonotactic environments than the surrounding non-LDS English speakers, the study aims to determine if the LDS community uses other Canadian speech features differently or less frequently and if any Utah features (defined as Utah English in the literature, being the language of LDS English speakers in Utah) have continued from the settling of …

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The Effects Of Second Language Status On The Comprehension And Perception Of Direct And Indirect Speech In Written Teacher Feedback, Rachel E. Hansen Jul 2008

The Effects Of Second Language Status On The Comprehension And Perception Of Direct And Indirect Speech In Written Teacher Feedback, Rachel E. Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how native and nonnative English speakers understand and perceive directness types in written teacher feedback (WTF). Currently research suggests that indirect speech in WTF will encourage students to think and maintain politeness between teacher and student (Benkendorf, 2001; Riley, 2003; Thonus, 1999; Vassileva, 2000). However, research also indicates that indirect speech may be more difficult to interpret than direct speech (Champagne, 2001; Holtgraves, 1999), which suggests that indirect speech used in WTF may be difficult for students to interpret and use to improve their compositions (Ferris, 2007; Hyland & Hyland, 2001). This difficulty may be even more …

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Elicited Imitation As An Oral Proficiency Measure With Asr Scoring, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Ray Graham, Casey Kennington, Aaron W. Johnson, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee Jan 2008

Elicited Imitation As An Oral Proficiency Measure With Asr Scoring, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Ray Graham, Casey Kennington, Aaron W. Johnson, Jeremiah Lane Mcghee

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses development and evaluation of a practical, valid and reliable instrument for evaluating the spoken language abilities of second-language (L2) learners of English. First we sketch the theory and history behind elicited imitation (EI) tests and the renewed interest in them. Then we present how we developed a new test based on various language resources, and administered it to a few hundred students of varying levels. The students were also scored using standard evaluation techniques, and the EI results were compared to more traditionally derived scores. We also sketch how we developed a new integrated tool that allows …

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Japanese Vocabulary Acquisition By Learners In Three Contexts, Dan P. Dewey Jan 2008

Japanese Vocabulary Acquisition By Learners In Three Contexts, Dan P. Dewey

Faculty Publications

This study is an investigation of the development of vocabulary knowledge during study abroad (SA), intensive domestic immersion (IM) and academic-year formal classroom (AY) learning. Its focus was the growth of vocabulary knowledge in Japanese--a language where little SA research has been conducted to date. Unlike most studies addressing vocabulary development, it was centered strictly on vocabulary acquisition. Following the example of one of the most insightful comparative studies of vocabulary learning abroad and at home to date (Laufer & Paribakht, 1998), it included multiple measures of vocabulary knowledge to assess possible subtle differences in vocabulary acquisition between the SA, …

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Assessing Clinical Trial Eligibility With Logic Expression Queries, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Tutison, Craig G. Parker, David W. Embley Jan 2008

Assessing Clinical Trial Eligibility With Logic Expression Queries, Deryle W. Lonsdale, C. Tutison, Craig G. Parker, David W. Embley

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a system that processes clinical trials using a combination of natural language processing and database techniques. We process web-based clinical trial recruitment pages to extract semantic information reflecting eligibility criteria for potential participants. From this information we then formulate a query that can match criteria against medical data in patient records. The resulting system reflects a tight coupling of web-based information extraction, natural language processing, medical informatic approaches to clinical knowledge representation, and large-scale database technologies. We present an evaluation of the system and future directions for further system development.

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The Phonetic Context Of American English Flapping: Quantitative Evidence, Dirk Elzinga, David Eddington Jan 2008

The Phonetic Context Of American English Flapping: Quantitative Evidence, Dirk Elzinga, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

The phonetic context in which word-medial flaps occur (in contrast to [th]) in American English is explored. The analysis focuses on stress placement, following phone, and syllabification. In Experiment 1, subjects provided their preference for [th] or [ɾ] in bisyllabic nonce words. Consistent with previous studies, flaps were preferred before stressless syllables and [th] before stressed syllables, but the following phone also exerted a small degree of influence. Experiments 2 and 3 tested whether [th] or [ɾ] are associated with a particular syllable position in bisyllabic words. They demonstrate that [th] is favored in onsets, while [ɾ] is not consistently …

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Assessing The Costs Of Machine-Assisted Corpus Annotation Through A User Study, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Eric K. Ringger, Marc A. Carmen, Robbie A. Haertel, Kevin Seppi, Peter J. Mcclanahan, James Carroll, Noel Ellison Jan 2008

Assessing The Costs Of Machine-Assisted Corpus Annotation Through A User Study, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Eric K. Ringger, Marc A. Carmen, Robbie A. Haertel, Kevin Seppi, Peter J. Mcclanahan, James Carroll, Noel Ellison

Faculty Publications

Fixed, limited budgets often constrain the amount of expert annotation that can go into the construction of annotated corpora. Estimating the cost of annotation is the first step toward using annotation resources wisely. We present here a study of the cost of annotation. This study includes the participation of annotators at various skill levels and with varying backgrounds. Conducted over the web, the study consists of tests that simulate machine-assisted pre-annotation, requiring correction by the annotator rather than annotation from scratch. The study also includes tests representative of an annotation scenario involving Active Learning as it progresses from a naïve …

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Deictic Selves And Others In Pastaza Quichua Evidential Usage, Janis B. Nuckolls Jan 2008

Deictic Selves And Others In Pastaza Quichua Evidential Usage, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

This article clarifies the perspectival, deictic nature of evidentiality in Pastaza Quichua, a dialect of Quechua spoken in Amazonian Ecuador. I examine the discourse patterning of what have been called the direct and in direct experience morphemes and argue that a source-based characterization of these morphemes cannot be supported by the data. Using insights from liana Mushin's notion of epistemological stance, I outline the Quechua evidential system, identifying perspectives that may be divided into three main categories: the speaking self of a speech event, the speaking self of a narrated event, and a variety of stances that may categorized by …

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