Digital Commons Network^™

A Robust System For Natural Spoken Dialogue, Eric K. Ringger, James F. Allen, Bradford W. Miller, Teresa Sikorski

Faculty Publications

This paper describes a system that leads us to believe in the feasibility of constructing natural spoken dialogue systems in task-oriented domains. It specifically addresses the issue of robust interpretation of speech in the presence of recognition errors. Robustness is achieved by a combination of statistical error post-correction, syntactically- and semantically-driven robust parsing, and extensive use of the dialogue context. We present an evaluation of the system using time-to-completion and the quality of the final solution that suggests that most native speakers of English can use the system successfully with virtually no training.

Council Activities, Doris Seely, Hideyuki Morimoto, Yasuko Makino

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Error Correction Via A Post-Processor For Continuous Speech Recognition, Eric K. Ringger, James F. Allen

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a new technique for overcoming several types of speech recognition errors by post-processing the output of a continuous speech recognizer. The post-processor output contains fewer errors, thereby making interpretation by higher-level modules, such as a parser, in a speech understanding system more reliable. The primary advantage to the post-processing approach over existing approaches for overcoming SR errors lies in its abilityto introduce options that are not available in the SR module’s output. This work provides evidence for the claim that a modern continuous speech recognizer can be used successfully in “black-box” fashion for robustly interpreting spontaneous utterances …

On Being Mormon In Canada And Canadian In Utah, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher

BYU Studies

Peter Gzowski, a name unpronouncable to Americans, is a byword to Canadians. Weekday mornings, CBC radio listeners hear his wry comments and sage interviews reflecting Canadian life on Morningside. In the mid-seventies, when Morningside was still This Country in the Morning, Gzowski ran a contest asking listeners to finish this sentence: "As Canadian as..." Entries poured in: "As Canadian as a toboggan" or "As Canadian as Diefenbaker." But the grand-slam winner was unforgettable: "As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances."

Rendering The Ineffable Effable: Treating Joseph Smith's First Vision In Imaginative Literature, Richard H. Cracroft

BYU Studies

The historical and imaginative renderings of the First Vision suggest individual patterns for seeking divine direction and drawing believers closer to the ultimate goal of knowing God.

Librarians, Yasuko Makino, Sachie Noguchi, Karen T. Wei, Tom Havens

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

The Year 1995: Questions About The Development Of Automation In Sinological Librarianship, Thomas H. Hahn

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Looking Over Vs. Overlooking: Native American Languages: Let's Void The Void, Brian D. Stubbs

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

The time-depth of the Romance language family (ca. 2,000 years) yields an abundance of similarities among languages descended from Latin: Spanish, French, Italian, and so forth. The time-depth of Lehi is not much greater (2,600 years), yet no similar abundance of accepted linguistic evidence for Lehi’s presence in the Americas has emerged. Is this because of a lack of evidence or a lack of looking? We cannot know until we look. The relative absence of effort in Native American languages relevant to Book of Mormon research is a huge void in Latter-day Saint scholarly endeavor. This paper discusses the value …

About The Contributors, Journal Of Book Of Mormon Studies

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

No abstract provided.

From Presence To Practice: Jesus, The Sacrament Prayers, The Priesthood, And Church Discipline In 3 Nephi 18 And Moroni 2-6, John W. Welch

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

This paper explores several relationships between the texts in Moroni 2–6 and the words and deeds of Jesus in 3 Nephi 18. The opening chapters of Moroni contain the words that Jesus Christ spoke to the twelve when he ordained them to the high priesthood, the words used by the Nephites in administering the sacrament, and also a few words by Moroni about baptism, church membership, congregational worship, and ecclesiastical discipline. This study demonstrates that these instructions and procedures were rooted in the words and deeds of the resurrected Jesus in 3 Nephi 18 as he administered the sacrament, gave …

Historical Narrative, Literary Narrative—Expelling Poetics From The Republic Of History, Alan Goff

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Positivist historiography has always maintained an impermeable boundary between history and literature. But positivism is itself a historical sediment whose time is now past. Recent literary theory and historiography emphasize the continuities between history and literature. Under the domination of historiography by a positivist epistemology (from about 1880 to 1960), history attempted to free itself from its literary heritage. More recently theorists from a number of disciplines have recognized that history, both ancient and modern, has been informed by literary motifs, themes, and strategies. The repetition of the exodus literary pattern, for example, through the Bible, the Book of Mormon, …

Journal Of Book Of Mormon Studies Volume 5 Issue 1, Neal A. Maxwell Institute For Religious Scholarship

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

F. M. Brodie—“The Fasting Hermit And The Very Saint Of Ignorance”: A Biographer And Her Legend, Louis Midgley

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet (1995), by Fawn McKay Brodie

“Joseph Smith's Use Of The Apocrypha”: Shadow Or Reality?, John A. Tvedtnes, Matthew Roper

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of “Joseph Smith's Use of the Apocrypha” (1995), by Jerald and Sandra Tanner

A Listing Of Points And Counterpoints, John Wm. Maddox

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology (1993), edited by Brent Lee Metcalfe. The claimes of Metcalfe's New Approaches to the Book of Mormon appear to have been adequately responded to in the Review.

A Comprehensive Annotated Book Of Mormon Bibliography, Donald W. Parry, Jeanette W. Miller, Sandra A. Thorne

Maxwell Institute Publications

A.

A.001 “Aaron Teaches Lamoni’s Father.” Friend 23 (March 1993): 32-33. Scenes from Aaron’s conversion of King Lamoni’s father illustrated in color for children. [S.H.]

A.002 Abbott, John S. C. The History of the State of Ohio. Detroit: Northwestern, 1875. Brie y discusses Mormonism and the Book of Mormon. The author accepts the Spaulding theory for the origin of the Book of Mormon. He also discusses the 1834 Anthon denial regarding the “sealed book” incident. [M.R.]

Kurt Van Gorden, Mormonism, Daniel C. Peterson

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of Mormonism (1995) by Kurt Van Gorden.

Historical Roots Of Structural Ambiguities In English: A Survey Of Some Selected Grammatical Features, Dallin D. Oaks

Faculty Publications

English is a language with many possibilities for wordplay, and word lay has been exploited by entertainers and advertisers. At times it involves simple puns, and at other times complex structural plays on words. Important developments in the history of the English language contribute to the current possibilities for word play. This article will examine some of these developments that have contributed specifically to wordplay involving structural ambiguities.

Diphthongization In Spanish Derivational Morphology: An Empirical Investigation, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

The alternation between the mid-vowels / e/, /o/ and the diphthongs /je/ and /we/ is widespread in Spanish, and several rule-based analyses claim to account for it. However, they are founded on a small body of evidence. These analyses are evaluated against data from a large corpus, and cannot account for the non-discrete nature of diphthongization as evidenced in the corpus. The corpus data suggest that diphthongization has a gradient relationship to the derivational suffixes. · A nonderivational account, based on Bybee's model (1985, 1988, 1991), better embodies the scalar relationship between diphthongization and the suffixes. This relationship was tested …

The Psychological Status Of Phonological Analyses, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

This paper casts doubt on the psychological relevance of many phonological analyses. There are four reasons for this: 1) theoretical adequacy does not necessarily imply psychological significance; 2) most approaches are nonempirical in that they are not subject to potential spatiotemporal falsification; 3) phonological analyses are established with little or no recourse to the speakers of the language via experimental psychology; 4) the limited base of evidence which most analyses are founded on is further cause for skepticism.

Annotated Bibliography Of Resources For Researching Danish-American Folklife, Gregory Hansen

The Bridge

Danish-American folklife consists of the expressions of

traditional culture that identify Americans of Danish heritage

as belonging to this small ethnic group.

Encompassing a full range of expressive behavior, ranging

from building and decorating immigrant homes to crafting

intricate patterns with knitting needles, scissors, hammer

and anvil, Danish-American folklife includes any form of

knowledge or skill that is learned by observation or imitation

within a community context (Hansen 1988:23)

The Crisis Of Switzerland On The Threshold Of The European Union, H. Dwight Page

Swiss American Historical Society Review

During the fifty years since the conclusion of World War II in 1945, Europe has undergone more radical changes than during the three preceding millennia. The Treaty of Maastricht, prepared by the twelve members of the European Community in December, 1991, legalizes a process of European social, economic and political unification and homogenization contradicting the evolution of European politics and societies since the fall of the Roman Empire. The majority of the nation states of Western Europe have been generated by a concerted struggle against amalgamation into large transnational empires. Notable examples are France, formed by the dissolution of its …

Book Review: Literary Freedom And Social Constraints In The Works' Of Gertrud Leutenegger., Laura Villiger

Swiss American Historical Society Review

In and around Switzerland Gertrud Leutennegger ranks among the wellknown contemporary Swiss writers. As yet, however, her work has not been translated and its reception has therefore been limited to German-speaking countries. Margrit Zinggeler' s study thus comes as a welcome introduction to Leutenegger' s writings that is designed for a general as well as specialized readership. As Zinggeler makes clear at the outset of her investigation, when Gertrud Leutenegger first started to write in the early 1970's, her artistic independence signaled a turning point in Swiss women writing. Luckily, the author has never since compromised her inner vision and …

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Geneva, Zurich, Basel: History, Culture And National Identity, Marion S. Miller

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The idea of identity with Europe is central to the studies of the cities in the two volumes under review. As Carl Schorske suggests in his introduction to Geneva, Zurich, Basel: while Switzerland voted against European unity, these three cities, despite diverse but strong local identities, endorsed the unity concept when a referendum was undertaken in 1992. In a similar vein, James Cracraft, in an essay which surveys the historical background of Peter the Great' s rationale for the building of St. Petersburg in the eighteenth century, is hopeful that the city, reclaiming its original name after the demise of …

The Bibliographical Control Of English-Language Writings About Japan With Particular Focus On The Social Sciences And Area Studies, Frank Joseph Shulman

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Comparative Civilizations Review

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

A Vision For The World: The Life And Work Of Marija Gimbutes, Joan Marler

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Language And Civilization: Contributions Of Lingistics To The Comparison Of Cultures, Roger Williams Wescott

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Non-Native English Speakers' English Proficiency And Their Callings In The Lds Church In The United States, Dena Marie Wright Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

As part of BYU's Distance Learning Project to teach English for gospel purposes, a committee created a survey to assess the English needs of LDS non-native English speakers in native-language units in the United States. This thesis uses several sections of the survey to correlate proficiency, callings in the Church, and demographic information. In addition to survey data, this thesis uses qualitative information from focus groups, and interviews to illustrate the statistical findings. The theory underlying this research is that learning precedes involvement in a community. Although learning in the LDS Church community is multi-faceted, this study examines the learning …