Linguistics Commons^™

Review Of The Software "Dans Un Quartier De Paris", Lara Lomicka, Hélène Gresso

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of The Auap Study Abroad Experience On The Students' Cultural Perceptions, K. James Hartshorn

Faculty Publications

As the Asia University America Program (AUAP) commences its second decade, those who have closely observed this unique study abroad experience are aware of a variety of ways the students seem to benefit from their participation. Some of these benefits are academic and can be seen in the development and improvement of specific language skills, gains in standardized test scores and earned university credit applied toward graduation. However, there seem to be a variety of other valuable benefits that may be a little more difficult to measure. such benefits could include the enlargement of the students' international perspective as world …

Fronting And Palatalization In Two Dialects Of Shoshoni, Dirk Elzinga

Faculty Publications

In Western Shoshoni, a Uto- Aztecan language spoken in northern Nevada, coronal obstruents are found in distributional patterns which depend on the presence or absence of a preceding front vowel ([i] or [e]). In the pattern I refer to as FRONTING, alveolar stops alternate with dental stops - dental stops occur following front vowels (la), while alveolar stops occur elsewhere (lb); this pattern is common to all dialects:

Leveraging Analysis Operators In Incremental Generation, Deryle W. Lonsdale

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the integration of an operator-based generation component with a similarly-designed natural-language comprehension system. It begins by sketching the cognitive theory and modeling system that frame both systems. A brief summary of the comprehension system and its characteristics follows, including the relevant operators. The generation system with its own operators and processing stages is then introduced. The degree to which these two systems exhibit shared functionality is then explored, and ongoing work is mentioned.

Review Of The Book "New Ways Of Learning And Teaching: Focus On Technology And Foreign Language Education", Travis Bradley, Lara Lomicka

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Demonstration: A Robust Web Data-Extraction Technique With High Recall And Precision, Deryle W. Lonsdale, D. M. Campbell, Yihong Ding, David W. Embley, K. Hewett, D. L. Jackman, S. S. Jeffries, Y. S. Jiang, D. Lewis, Stephen W. Liddle, Y. K. Ng, A. L. Peacock, D. J. Seer, R. D. Smith, S. H. Yau, M. Xu, L. Xu

Faculty Publications

Our demo shows how to extract and structure data found in data-rich, unstructured, multiple-record Web documents. Users may either apply pre-built extraction applications or build and apply their own. The demo is significant because it (1) attacks an important data-centric problem and (2) uses database technology to produce good results with minimal effort.

About The Leading For Diversity Research Project, Rosemary C. Henze

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Curricular Approaches To Developing Positive Interethnic Relations, Rosemary C. Henze

Faculty Publications

This article examines whether and in what ways curricular approaches can be helpful in building positive interethnic relations in a large, ethnically diverse high school. Through this case study of curricular reform, the author documents four curricular approaches teacher leaders used to explicitly address issues of race and ethnicity and explores the impact of these approaches on student learning. By tracing the process of curricular change, the case illuminates how teacher leaders and administrators created the conditions for these curricular reforms to be sustainable.

The Case For Sound Symbolism, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

proposal that linguistic sounds such as phonemes, features, syllables, or tones can be meaningful, or sound-symbolic, contradicts the principles of arbitrariness and double articulation that are axiomatic to structural linguistics. Nevertheless, a considerable body of research that supports principles of sound symbolism has accumulated. This review discusses the most widely attested forms of sound symbolism and the research programs linked to sound symbolism that have influenced linguists and anthropologists most. Numerous reports of magnitude sound symbolism in the form of experimental studies and comparative surveys have been integrated into a biologically based theory of its motivation. Magnitude sound symbolism also …

Integrating Translation Technologies Using Salt, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Gerhard Budin, Alan K. Melby, Sue Ellen Wright, Arle R. Lommel

Faculty Publications

The acronym SALT stands for Standards-based Access to multilingual Lexicons and Terminologies. The objective of the SALT project is to develop and promote a range of tools that will be made available on the World Wide Web to various user groups, in particular translators, terminology managers, localizers, technical communicators, but also tools developers, database managers, and language engineers. The resulting toolkit will facilitate access and re-use of heterogeneous multilingual resources derived from both NLP lexicons and human-oriented terminology databases.

Epithets As Antilogophoric Pronouns, Stanley William Dubinsky, Robert Hamilton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Changes In Patterns Of Thinking About Motion With L2 Acquisition, Gale Stam

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"To Gloss Or Not To Gloss": An Investigation Of Reading Comprehension Online, Lara Lomicka

Faculty Publications

This pilot study investigated the effects of multimedia reading software on reading comprehension. Specifically, the study aimed to explore how multimedia annotations influence the level of comprehension. Twelve college students enrolled in a second semester French course were instructed to think aloud during the reading of text on the computer screen. Participants read the text under one of three conditions: full glossing, limited glossing, or no glossing. In addition, a tracker was set up in the software to record the amount and type of glosses, and length of time that each was consulted. The raw data clearly indicate an increase …

“Are We Doing Multicultural Education Yet?” Review Article Of Timothy’S Reagan’S Non-Western Educational Traditions, Rosemary C. Henze

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Spanish Diphthongization As A Non-Derivational Phenomenon, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

In a previous study on derivational morphology (Eddington 1996), the alternation between the unstressed mid-vowels /e/ and lo/, and the stressed diphthongs /je/ and /we/ was seen to escape straigh tforward explanation in rule-based a nalyses. Diphthongization in Spanish was instead attributed to the influence of other lexical items which contain the same derivational suffix.

The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, an experiment was carried out to test the validity of the findings of the previous study. Spanish speakers completed a questionn aire in which they decided between neologisms containing mid-vowels or diphthongs (e.g. hielo 'ice'+ -azo …

Predicate Union And The Syntax Of Japanese Passives, Stanley Dubinsky

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a relational account of the Japanese constructions that are commonly referred to as ‘passives’. They are shown to all be multipredicate, monoclausal constructions, with the differences between them primarily attributable to optionality in the lexical argument structure of the ‘passive’ predicate. The proposed analysis explains the differences between passives and causatives, despite their sometimes identical case-marking. Further, evidence from the interaction of unaccusative verbs and passive is shown to lead to a formal revision of the 1-Advancement Exclusiveness law. Finally, the differences between Japanese and Korean with respect to passives is reduced to a simple lexical difference …

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.

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.

The Psychological Relevance Of Phonological Generalizations In Spanish: An Experiment, David Eddington

Faculty Publications

A psycholinguistic experiment aids in determining if the phonological generalizations which appear in the literature on Spanish phonology are psychologically significant for Spanish speakers. The experiment focuses on whether common phonological alternations play a role in native speakers' perceptions of whether two words share a morpheme. The results indicate that they are a significant factor in speakers' perceptions of morphemic relatedness. Therefore, these findings provide some evidence that these phonological generalizations are psychologically valid, and not merely descriptive in nature.

Quechua Texts Of Perception, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

Recent work by anthropologists, folklorists, and semioticians has made significant strides in our understanding of the dynamics and poetics of spoken utterances. Such work has been motivated, generally, by the goal of understanding verbal expression in terms of its own unique structures and expressive modalities. The following paper will contribute to this line of inquiry. It offers an analysis of a form of expression, sound symbolism, that is widely used by people whose languages have not been written down. The main advantage of this analysis is that it rescues sound symbolism from the irrational abyss into which it has often …

Structural Ambiguities And Written Advertisements: An Inventory Of Tools For More Resourceful Advertisements In English, Dallin D. Oaks

Faculty Publications

Competent writers usually avoid ambiguity, but there are some types of writing tasks such as advertising in which a writer might actually want to create ambiguous wordplays. Among the most interesting of the wordplays are those which involve structural ambiguities. In the natural course of brainstorming, advertisers will occasionally generate structural ambiguities, but a more conscious understanding of the structure of a language could make the generation of such ambiguities easier. The English language contains some characteristics and patterns which contribute significantly toward creating structural ambiguities. And if ad writers know where to focus their attention, structurally ambiguous wordplays can …

Predicate Union And The Syntax Of Japanese Causatives, Stanley Dubinsky

Faculty Publications

This paper presents a monoclausal, multipredicate analysis of Japanese causatives, adopting the fundamental assumptions of Relational Grammar. Evidence is provided for the existence of two distinct classes of causatives, distinguished on the basis of the agentivity of the matrix subject. It is also demonstrated that the surface case marking of the causee is constrained by its relative status to the matrix subject with respect to a set of Proto-Agent entailments (as proposed in Dowty 1991).

Variability In Negation In African American Vernacular English, Tracey L. Weldon

Faculty Publications

For quantitative sociolinguists, one of the goals of investigating variability in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is to understand better the nature of the grammar. Specifically, researchers have been interested in whether the variation observed in AAVE is inherent to a single system or the result of interaction between two separate systems of AAVE and Standard English (SE). Variability in negation is an area of the AAVE grammar that has received minimal attention, but one that may offer some interesting insights into the nature of the system or systems at work. This article provides a framework to describe the variability …

Extraction D'Un Vocabulaire Bilingue: Outils Et Methodes, Deryle W. Lonsdale

Faculty Publications

Cet articele presente les efforts lics a l'elaboration d'un vocabulaire bilingue pour un systeme de traduction. Nous presentons la methodologic suivie pour identifier, normaliser et mettre en correspondance les vocabulaires anglais et francais, puises dans un corpus de textes prealablement traduites: analyse du texte source, compilation d'un index (mots simples et syntagmes), identification et traitement des composes nominaux, integration des ressources terminologiques du client, alignement atomatique des textes source et cible, extraction des traductions du vocabulaire source, redaction du vocabuleire et son recodage en forme de donnees lexicales. Nouse decrivons aussi les outils que nous avons concus et developpes pour …

A Reasoned Interlingua For Knowledge-Based Machine Translation, Deryle W. Lonsdale, John R. R. Leavitt, Alexander M. Franz

Faculty Publications

Research in machine translation (MT) has resulted in a number of Machine Translation systems that are based on the interlingua approach. This paper reports the results of designing an interlingua for a large-scale, practical MT system designed to translate technical information from English into a number of target languages. After an analysis of the main features of the translation problem faced by this system we describe the principles underlying our design decisions. We address issues such as the design and development methodology, the grain size of the representation, and our efforts to endow the interlingua representation with the ability to …

Large-Scale Machine Translation: An Interlingua Approach, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Alexander M. Franz, John R. R. Leavitt

Faculty Publications

In this paper we discuss the design and development of an interlingua for a large-scale MT project. We also discuss how the resulting KANT interlingua constrains complexity, supports staged development, evolves in a balanced fashion, and seeks maximal coverage. We address issues such as granularity of the data representation, its specification, the types of information it encodes, and how it supports a modular system architecture. Our experience shows that through a careful, reasoned design and implementation effort, it is possible to achieve multilingual target-language generation for extensive technical domains.

The Semantics Of Certainty In Quechua And Its Implications For A Cultural Epistemology, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

This article contributes to attempts on the part of Quechua scholars to understand the evidential system of this language family, and thereby paves the way for a more complex understanding of Quechua speakers' language and culture. The author opposes the position that the most general meaning of the -mi suffix is to indicate a direct or first-hand experience; and she holds that specific claims about Quechua speakers' epistemological orientations, based on such an analysis, cannot be supported. Evidence from speakers' use of -mi indicates that it encodes two paradigmatic contrasts: one is status-like or modal, the other evidential. The patterning …

"Good Heavens!": An Old English Euphemism?, Dallin D. Oaks

Faculty Publications

It is commonly assumed that the expression good heavens! is a euphemistic one, originally coined to avoid a more direct reference to God. The OED, for example, seems to regard the word heavens as a "substituted expression" for God in the exclamation good heavens! While this substitution may in fact characterize how speakers use the expression now, it may not reflect the original meaning behind this expression.

Sound Symbolic Involvement, Janis B. Nuckolls

Faculty Publications

This article examines an iconic form of communication, sound symbolism, which has been associated with oral cultures and implicated in paradigms of primitive mentality, I argue that Lowland Ecuadorean Quechua speakers use sound symbolic iconicity to create interlocutionary involvement. A speaker's performative foregrounding of a sound symbolic form simuhtes the salient qualities of an action, event, or process, and thereby invites a listener to project into an experience. This projected involvement, in turn, points the listener to deeper kinds of imaginative, intellectual, and emotional engagement with the narrative. The argument is based on an analysis of the formal and semantic …