Linguistics Commons^™

Two Questions About Interpretive Effects, Robert Stainton, Christopher Viger

Philosophy Publications

We discuss central themes in Lepore and Stone's Imagination and Convention. We begin by laying out their view, and then pose both empirical and methodological criticisms.

Introduction To Discourse, Structure And Linguistic Choice By T. Price Caldwell, Robert Stainton

Philosophy Publications

No abstract provided.

Pedagogical Approaches To The Teaching And Learning Of Formulaic Language, Ana Pellicer-Sánchez, Frank Boers

Education Publications

No abstract provided.

Detecting Clickbait: Here’S How To Do It, Christopher Brogly, Victoria Rubin

Data and Test Instruments

Automatic clickbait detection is a relatively novel task in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML). “Clickbait” is a hyperlink created primarily to attract attention to its target content. This article introduces a binary classifier, the Language and Information Technology Research Lab (LiT.RL, pronounced “literal”) Clickbait Detector, which automatically distinguishes clickbait from nonclickbait. We used NLP and ML for 38 textual features, contrasting clickbait with “headlinese.” When tested on 11,000 hyperlinks, it achieves 94 per cent accuracy using a support vector machine. Integrated with the LiT.RL News Verification Browser, a downloadable stand-alone research tool, the Clickbait Detector user interface …

Teaching Writing Through Transformation: Linguistically Diverse Writing Teachers’ Enactments Of Linguistic Diversity, Cristina Sanchez-Martin

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation responds to recent calls for teacher education in a first-year writing context. Studies addressing the intersections between composition and applied linguistics have emphasized the dynamic and situated nature of writing and language practices (Pennycook, 2010; Canagarajah, 2013a, 2013b; Horner, Lu, Royster, Trimbur, 2011; Lorimer-Leonard, 2013; Seloni, 2014); however, it is urgent to investigate how linguistically diverse writing instructors negotiate their teaching strategies across settings to implement pedagogies that accurately reflect writers’ practices in and outside academic contexts and across Englishes. While scholars have proposed terms such as “dialogical pedagogies” (Canagarajah, 2013a) or teaching English as “translingual activism” (Pennycook, …

Documenting Digital Problem Solving: Qualitative Results Strategies And Approaches For Digital Problem Solving, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Data

This document shares qualitative analysis and findings from a 3 year research effort focused on digital problem solving. Key concepts emerging from the analysis are operationally defined. The document describes how individuals engaged in digital problem solving and describes their cognitive and affective strategies. The analysis reveals the vital role of examining digital problem solving through a diversity of contexts. Different contexts require the use of a range of approaches applied in different ways for different purposes. Data suggest that the number, frequency, and complexity of contexts in which an individual is familar plays an important role in how individuals …

Analyzing And Interpreting Data From Piaac’S Problem Solving In Technology Rich Environments (Pstre) Assessment And Library Use Survey: Quantitative Results, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Data

This document contains an explanation of the quantitative analysis conducted using data from a researcher-designed library use survey and PIAAC's PSTRE survey accessed through OECD's Education and Skills Online portal. Data were collected in two phases and are presented using descriptive statistics and through a latent class analysis. The latent class analysis allowed for the examination of the relationship between library activities, library website use, and PSTRE scores. Results indicated that library website use is strong predictor of higher PSTRE scores and competency in digital problem solving.

Defining Digital Problem Solving, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Digital Problem Solving Toolkit

This document introduces the definition of digital problem solving that emerged from a three year long research project. Digital problem solving is described as being related to, but unique from, digital literacies and basic digital skills. Specifically, digital problem solving involves the use of the skills, strategies, and approaches (including mindsets) needed to navigate online in everyday contexts, including the library, and use novel resources, tools, and interfaces in efficient and flexible ways to accomplish personal and professional goals. Authors describe how the definition of digital problem solving was developed and applications within libraries, Adult Education, and Lifelong Learning.

Observing Digital Problem Solving Checklist, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Digital Problem Solving Toolkit

This adaptable tool was developed from research findings from a 3 year research study exploring digital problem solving. It is intended to be used by a librarian/staff/volunteer during an in-person interview and observation context. It is designed to better understand how to shape interactions with a library user when they come into the library for assistance that requires gathering, exploring, and making sense of online resources. The tool can be used to support individual or small group interactions. It contains a series of questions that provide insight into the knowledge and experiences of the library user as well as the …

Digital Problem Solving: Score Report, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Digital Problem Solving Toolkit

This test tries to measure how well you use technology to solve problems. The digital tools in the test might not look familiar. As you get more practice meeting different goals using technology, these tasks will become easier to do.

Executive Summary, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Presentations and Publications

The Advancing Digital Equity in Public Libraries: Assessing Library Patrons’ Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments research project was supported by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant. It was conducted over the course of 3 years in cooperation with the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon. The research was guided by a national advisory group made up of scholars and practitioners in the fields of adult education, digital literacies, online reading and research, and library services.

Digital Problem Solving: The Literacies Of Navigating Life In The Digital Age, Gloria Jacobs, Jill Castek

Presentations and Publications

Digital problem solving reflects an individual’s ability to navigate and use multiple digital resources in order to accomplish goals across domains including work, personal interests, educational pursuits, social or professional networking, civic participation, and for future uses not yet conceptualized. To accomplish these goals, individuals need to enact everyday literacies (Knobel, 1999) that include: “asking questions, constructing meaning from [information and] data, generating [and sharing] creative solutions, and reflecting on how to improve these solutions for different contexts” (Manderino & Castek, 2016, p. 79). As individuals move through daily lives, they are constantly traversing disciplines as they collect information and …

Project Summary, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs, Cindy Gibbon, Tyler Frank, Amy Honisett, Judy Anderson

Presentations and Publications

Summary of the project, Advancing Digital Equity in Public Libraries: Assessing Library Patrons’ Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments.

The purpose of the research was to examine and understand the digital problem solving processes of vulnerable adults.

A Markedly Different Approach: Investigating Pie Stops Using Modern Empirical Methods, Phillip Barnett

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

In this thesis, I investigate a decades-old problem found in the stop system of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). More specifically, I will be investigating the paucity of */b/ in the forms reconstructed for the ancient, hypothetical language. As cross-linguistic evidence and phonological theory alone have fallen short of providing a satisfactory answer, herein will I employ modern empirical methods of linguistic investigation, namely laboratory phonology experiments and computational database analysis. Following Byrd 2015, I advocate for an examination of synchronic phenomena and behavior as a method for investigating diachronic change.

In Chapter 1, I present an overview of the various proposed phonological …

Bursting The Filter Bubble: Information Literacy And Questions Of Valuation, Navigation, And Control In A Digital Landscape, Komysha Hassan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The evolution of social media platforms and other public forums in the digital realm has created an explosion of user-generated content and data as a component of the already content-saturated digital landscape. The distributed, horizontal nature of the internet as a platform makes it difficult to ascertain value and differentiate between texts of varying validity, bias, and purpose. In addition, the internet is not an inanimate interface. As Pariser (2011) argues, content aggregators, such as Google, actively filter, personalize, and therefore limit each individual's access to information, in both range and type. This has created a crisis of information valuation …

Going Gaga: Pop Fandom As Online Community Of Practice, John D. N. Carter

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Among various fan sites dedicated to pop stars, GagaDaily is one prominent online collective that centers around Lady Gaga. This study is a piece of ethnographic research focused on two claims – GagaDaily constitutes a Community of Practice (Eckert, 2006) in an online setting, and the regular use of humor by users fulfills social and pragmatic roles in the discourse. Communicative phenomena (both textual and graphic) that characterize the linguistic repertoire of GagaDaily members were catalogued from the first 100 pages of one thread within the forums. These data were grouped into categories corresponding to different dimensions of language use …

Constraints On Izāfa In Sorani Kurdish, Ali Salehi

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This study examines the distribution and the status of the izāfa particle in Sorani Kurdish (Central Kurdish). It uses a corpus-based analysis to investigate the forms and the pattern of distribution of the izāfa particle in Sorani, a dominant dialect of Kurdish among the Western Iranian languages. The study details an investigation of the appearance of izāfa in various NPs using a variety of data mostly from the corpus but supplemented by the grammaticality judgments of native speakers. I show that next to parallel properties seen in other Western Iranian languages, Sorani Kurdish izāfa shows a form alternation. I examine …

Pedagogy Of Pitch In L2 Blackfoot, Naatosi I. Fish

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Pitch in Blackfoot is characterized by the raising of relative pitch on a syllable in a word. Pitch is not a consciously recognized piece of information among native speakers or teachers. However, pitch is important as it impacts the meaning of words. This study looks at the efficacy of visual guides for Blackfoot pronunciation of pitch by second language learners. I hypothesized that use of visual assistance would improve pitch pronunciation in second language learners.

Subjects were nine Blackfoot learners recruited on campus. Participants were shown 15 words with images and asked to pronounce them. Subjects were then given pitch …

Language Use In Totalistic Social Groups, Emily H. Allen

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

A totalistic social group is defined as a collection of individuals who share similar values and goals and who live together within intensive boundaries enforced by the group’s leadership and/or members themselves (Lifton 1969). The focus of this project is to better understand the effect of language on (I) a totalistic group’s social structure and (II) the ideologies and actions of members. The limited linguistic research on totalistic groups claims that leaders and members use language in order to enforce rules and beliefs, encourage conformity, and maintain as well as increase membership. By examining language practices in the US military, …

Kratylos: A Tool For Sharing Interlinearized And Lexical Data In Diverse Formats, Daniel Kaufman, Raphael Finkel

Publications and Research

In this paper we present Kratylos, at www.kratylos.org/, a web application that creates searchable multimedia corpora from data collections in diverse formats, including collections of interlinearized glossed text (IGT) and dictionaries. There exists a crucial lacuna in the electronic ecology that supports language documentation and linguistic research. Vast amounts of IGT are produced in stand-alone programs without an easy way to share them publicly as dynamic databases. Solving this problem will not only unlock an enormous amount of linguistic information that can be shared easily across the web, it will also improve accountability by allowing us to verify analyses across …