Investigating Rhoticity in Scottish Standard English with Sociolinguistic Interviews and Corpus Data

This paper approaches variable rhoticity in Scottish Standard English (SSE) from a methodological, data‐oriented perspective. The main focus is on how to integrate within a single sociolinguistic framework data that have been elicited under different conditions (sociolinguistic interviews vs. corpus data) and may therefore be incompatible when we take a relatively simplistic approach to stylistic variation. The article first models variation in such an unbalanced ‘patchwork’ dataset in a holistic, unified analysis and then proceeds to deconstruct the results by taking a closer look at the behaviour of the two main components of the data. While previously reported trends in the development of coda‐/r/ in SSE accents are confirmed, it is also shown that, depending on the precise nature of registers (or genres), productions may be considerably more diverse and may go beyond a simple projection of middle‐class identities. The integration of different styles in a single interpretive framework is challenging and far from straightforward.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/50110000165

On Regression Modeling in Varieties Research

One particularly prominent methodological development in linguistics is what has been termed the “quantitative turn”: Not only are more and more studies using statistical tools to explore data and to test hypotheses, the complexity of the statistical methods employed is growing as well. This development is particularly prominent in all kinds of corpus‐linguistic studies: 20 years ago chi‐squared tests, t‐tests, and Pearson's r reigned supreme, but now more and more corpus studies are using multivariate exploratory tools and, for hypothesis testing, multifactorial predictive modeling techniques, in particular regression models (and, increasingly, tree‐based methods). However welcome this development is, it, and especially its pace as well as the fact that few places offer rigorous training in statistical methods, comes with its own risks, chief among them that analytical methods are misapplied, which can lead imprecise, incomplete, or wrong analyses. In this paper, I will revisit a recent regression‐analytic study in the research area of English varieties (on clause‐final also and only in three Asian Englishes) to: highlight in particular three fundamental yet frequent mistakes that it exemplifies; discuss why and how each of these mistakes should be addressed; reanalyze the data (as far as is possible with what is available) and show briefly how that affects the analysis's results and interpretation

Engaging with Mortality in Collaborative Fantasy Narratives

Fictional narrative texts frequently explore concepts of death and dying through their protagonists. Fundamentally, readers understand fictional characters as human consciousnesses that experience the events of the narrative, up to and including death. Fantasy narratives offer writers and readers the opportunity to ask: How would this human consciousness react not only to its own death, but to its resurrection? Moreover, tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) based on fantasy conventions place the reader in the role of the protagonist. This paper argues that TTRPGs bring participants even closer to the experience depicted in the narrative, allowing them to reflect on death from a unique perspective.Fiktive Erzähltexte erkunden durch ihre Protagonist_innen oft Konzepte von Tod und Sterben. Grundsätzlich verstehen Leser_innen eine fiktionale Figur als ein menschliches Bewusstsein, das die Ereignisse in der Erzählung bis hin zum Tod erlebt. Fantasy-Geschichten bieten Autor_innen und Leser_innen die Möglichkeit, zu fragen: Wie würde dieses menschliche Bewusstsein nicht nur auf den eigenen Tod, sondern auch auf sein Wiederauferstehen reagieren? Auf Fantasy-Konventionen basierende Tabletop-Rollenspiele (TTRPGs) versetzen Leser_innen darüber hinaus selbst in die Rolle der Protagonist_innen. Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie TTRPGs Teilnehmer_innen näher an die in der Erzählung dargestellte Erfahrung heranführen und es ihnen ermöglichen, den Tod aus einer einzigartigen Perspektive zu betrachten

Affective, Cognitive, and Contextual Cues in Reddit Posts on Artificial Intelligence

Artificially intelligent technologies have become a common topic in our everyday discussions where arguments about the subject can take different forms from cognitive reasoning to emotional expressions. Utilizing persuasion theories and research on the appeal of content characteristics as the theoretical approach to examine affective–cognitive language, we investigated social media posts on artificial intelligence (AI). We examined Reddit posts from 2005 to 2018 referring to AI (N  = 455,634) using automated content analysis tools. The results revealed that although both the tone positivity and affective–cognitive ratio were dependent on the specific context, the language in AI posts was more analytically than emotionally oriented in general. Other users were more likely to engage with Reddit posts on AI that were high in cognitive and analytic content compared to affective and emotional content. In addition to the practical contribution of public opinion on AI, the results contribute to the theoretical discussions on affective and cognitive language in social media discussions.Open Access funding provided by LUT University (previously Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT)).LUT University (previously Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT)

MAZE, Life on the Swerve

The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women/HIV Circle is a San Francisco institution with an international reputation. The group is made up of formerly incarcerated women, women living with HIV, theater professionals and community women. Founded in 1989 by Rhodessa Jones, based on Jones’ workshops in the San Francisco county jail, Medea Project productions have often used ancient myth as the framework for their modern shows. In the jails, in the clinic for women living with HIV, and in community settings, Rhodessa starts by asking participants to write in response to questions she asks; in some cases, she tells one of the old stories—the “classic” stories—and then asks the women to make connections between these stories and their own lives. Together, they then create a piece for public performance

The Effectiveness of ChatGPT as a Lexical Tool for English, Compared with a Bilingual Dictionary and a Monolingual Learner’s Dictionary

Traditionally, language learners have relied on dictionaries when trying to read or write in a foreign language. However, new LLM-based chatbots may offer an alternative to traditional dictionaries as lexical tools. This study assesses the effectiveness of ChatGPT versus the monolingual Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE, 2024 ) and the bilingual Diki.pl (Diki.pl, 2024 ) online dictionaries in supporting English language learners in receptive and productive lexical tasks. With a sample of 166 university students at B2 to C1 proficiency levels and forty uncommon English phrasal verbs, we investigate whether a leading AI-driven chatbot, a high-quality learners’ dictionary, or a popular free bilingual dictionary offers better support in accurately understanding and producing English. The results reveal ChatGPT to be more effective than either dictionary in production, and better than the monolingual dictionary, but not the bilingual dictionary, in reception

Let’s Talk about Language—and Its Role for Replicability

Science strives towards a credible and comprehensive understanding of the world around us. Across disciplines within the social and behavioural sciences (and beyond), limitations in the implementation of the scientific approach have been identified in recent studies, showing low replicability of many results. This is an issue for knowledge accumulation, theory-building, and evidence-based decision and policy making. Researchers have proposed several solutions to address these issues, focusing mainly on improving statistical methods, data quality, and transparency. However, relatively little attention has been paid to another key aspect that affects replicability: language. Across fields, language plays a central role in all steps of the research cycle and is a critical communication tool among researchers. Neglecting its role may reduce replicability and limit our understanding of theoretically interesting differences and similarities across languages. After identifying these challenges, we provide some recommendations and an outlook on how replicability challenges related to language may be addressed

Frost at Midnight; Negative Capability; Bloomsday

Three poems by David Lehma