Analýza anonymizačních strategií v angličtině

Cílem této práce je identifikovat konkrétní rysy psaného projevu, vychází z analýzy napsaných 10 autory, z . poskytnuty dva dopisy popisující stejnou situaci jeden í, a druhý anonymním dopisem. litativní stylistic kterou dopl krátká prezentace kvantitativních metod. Úvodní kapitola si klade za cíl forenzní analýzy autorství ických studií. e je utím kvantitativní analýzy, a . slovní zásoby, zatímco neupravoval pravopis, a pouze dva v anonymním textu interpunkci. kterými jsou vel , nebo , motivace . anonymiza ní strategie, forenzní lingvistika, ur ení autorství, idiolektThe objective of this thesis is to identify those specific aspects of written style which native speakers of English modify when attempting to anonymize their texts. The conclusions are based on the analysis of 20 texts by 10 authors, all of whom are native speakers of English. Two texts dealing with the same topic were produced by each participant; one was written as an official letter of complaint, and the other was written as an anonymous letter. The bulk of the results are grounded on a qualitative stylistic analysis of the individual texts, with merely a brief survey of quantitative methods.The purpose of the introductory chapter is to familiarize the reader with the subject of forensic authorship analysis, to provide a brief summary of the current state of research, and to introduce a series of empirical studies. The practical part of the thesis presents the qualitative stylistic analysis, provides a shorter summary of the quantitative analysis, and finally ventures to draw meaningful conclusions from the results. The results showed that the majority of authors manipulated with the style/register of the texts and with the specific lexical choices, whereas none of the 10 authors made alterations to spelling and only 2 authors chose to change the punctuation in the anonymous text. However,...Department of the English Language and ELT MethodologyÚstav anglického jazyka a didaktikyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Issues on topics

The present volume contains papers that bear mainly on issues concerning the topic concept. This concept is of course very broad and diverse. Also, different views are expressed in this volume. Some authors concentrate on the status of topics and non-topics in so-called topic prominent languages (i.e. Chinese), others focus on the syntactic behavior of topical constituents in specific European languages (German, Greek, Romance languages). The last contribution tries to bring together the concept of discourse topic (a non-syntactic notion) and the concept of sentence topic, i.e. that type of topic that all the preceding papers are concerned with

Proposition-based summarization with a coherence-driven incremental model

Summarization models which operate on meaning representations of documents have been neglected in the past, although they are a very promising and interesting class of methods for summarization and text understanding. In this thesis, I present one such summarizer, which uses the proposition as its meaning representation. My summarizer is an implementation of Kintsch and van Dijk's model of comprehension, which uses a tree of propositions to represent the working memory. The input document is processed incrementally in iterations. In each iteration, new propositions are connected to the tree under the principle of local coherence, and then a forgetting mechanism is applied so that only a few important propositions are retained in the tree for the next iteration. A summary can be generated using the propositions which are frequently retained. Originally, this model was only played through by hand by its inventors using human-created propositions. In this work, I turned it into a fully automatic model using current NLP technologies. First, I create propositions by obtaining and then transforming a syntactic parse. Second, I have devised algorithms to numerically evaluate alternative ways of adding a new proposition, as well as to predict necessary changes in the tree. Third, I compared different methods of modelling local coherence, including coreference resolution, distributional similarity, and lexical chains. In the first group of experiments, my summarizer realizes summary propositions by sentence extraction. These experiments show that my summarizer outperforms several state-of-the-art summarizers. The second group of experiments concerns abstractive generation from propositions, which is a collaborative project. I have investigated the option of compressing extracted sentences, but generation from propositions has been shown to provide better information packaging

Keys to Play: Music as a Ludic Medium from Apollo to Nintendo

How do keyboards make music playable? Drawing on theories of media, systems, and cultural techniques, Keys to Play spans Greek myth and contemporary Japanese digital games to chart a genealogy of musical play and its animation via improvisation, performance, and recreation. As a paradigmatic digital interface, the keyboard forms a field of play on which the book’s diverse objects of inquiry—from clavichords to PCs and eighteenth-century musical dice games to the latest rhythm-action titles—enter into analogical relations. Remapping the keyboard’s topography by way of Mozart and Super Mario, who head an expansive cast of historical and virtual actors, Keys to Play invites readers to unlock ludic dimensions of music that are at once old and new

Translation Policies in Legal and Institutional Settings

This edited volume documents the state of the art in research on translation policies in legal and institutional settings. Offering case studies of past and present translation policies from several parts of the world, it allows for a compelling comparison of attitudes towards translation in varying contexts. The book highlights the virtues of integrating different types of expertise in the study of translation policy: theoretical and applied; historical and modern; legal, institutional and political. It effectively illustrates how a multidisciplinary perspective furthers our understanding of translation policies and unveils their intrinsic link with topics such as multilingualism, linguistic justice, minority rights, and citizenship. In this way, each contribution sheds new light on the role of translation in the everyday interaction between governments and multilingual populations

Similarity measures and diversity rankings for query-focused sentence extraction

Query-focused sentence extraction generally refers to an extractive approach to select a set of sentences that responds to a specific information need. It is one of the major approaches employed in multi-document summarization, focused summarization, and complex question answering. The major advantage of most extractive methods over the natural language processing (NLP) intensive methods is that they are relatively simple, theoretically sound – drawing upon several supervised and unsupervised learning techniques, and often produce equally strong empirical performance. Many research areas, including information retrieval and text mining, have recently moved toward the extractive query-focused sentence generation as its outputs have great potential to support every day‟s information seeking activities. Particularly, as more information have been created and stored online, extractive-based summarization systems may quickly utilize several ubiquitous resources, such as Google search results and social medias, to extract summaries to answer users‟ queries.This thesis explores how the performance of sentence extraction tasks can be improved to create higher quality outputs. Specifically, two major areas are investigated. First, we examine the issue of natural language variation which affects the similarity judgment of sentences. As sentences are much shorter than documents, they generally contain fewer occurring words. Moreover, the similarity notions of sentences are different than those of documents as they tend to be very specific in meanings. Thus many document-level similarity measures are likely to perform well at this level. In this work, we address these issues in two application domains. First, we present a hybrid method, utilizing both unsupervised and supervised techniques, to compute the similarity of interrogative sentences for factoid question reuse. Next, we propose a novel structural similarity measure based on sentence semantics for paraphrase identification and textual entailment recognition tasks. The empirical evaluations suggest the effectiveness of the proposed methods in improving the accuracy of sentence similarity judgments.Furthermore, we examine the effects of the proposed similarity measure in two specific sentence extraction tasks, focused summarization and complex question answering. In conjunction with the proposed similarity measure, we also explore the issues of novelty, redundancy, and diversity in sentence extraction. To that end, we present a novel approach to promote diversity of extracted sets of sentences based on the negative endorsement principle. Negative-signed edges are employed to represent a redundancy relation between sentence nodes in graphs. Then, sentences are reranked according to the long-term negative endorsements from random walk. Additionally, we propose a unified centrality ranking and diversity ranking based on the aforementioned principle. The results from a comprehensive evaluation confirm that the proposed methods perform competitively, compared to many state-of-the-art methods.Ph.D., Information Science -- Drexel University, 201

Translation Methods and the Notion of the Translator's Visibility: Evaluating the Latest Translations of Alexander Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" into English

The issue of translation methods has been discussed in one way or another since the birth of translation itself. However, shortly before the turn of the 21st century it was promoted as the focus of contemporary translation studies by Lawrence Venuti, with the publication of his book The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation in 1995. In this book Venuti gives names to two translation methods, domesticating and foreignizing, and advocates visibility, or self-positioning, for the translator in his or her work. Venuti’s ideas have triggered various polemical reactions in translation studies, the reverberations from which are still heard today. My thesis is a modest contribution to the development of our understanding of the two translation methods and the notion of the translator’s visibility which is closely linked to them. In terms of the scale, data modalities and methodologies used it is a pioneering study. Pushkin’s novel in verse Eugene Onegin (1830s), one of the key texts of Russian literature, is chosen to provide data for my research based on the following five contemporary translations into English: Douglas Hofstadter (1999), Olivia Emmet and Svetlana Makourenkova (1999), Tom Beck (2004), Henry Hoyt (2008) and Stanley Mitchell (2008). The focus of my investigations is on the novel’s book covers, the translator’s introductory chapters and other supplementary materials, and the text of Chapter Five of the novel. Visual images, paratextual and textual features of Eugene Onegin have been systematically analysed in order to identify several patterns of the translators’ self-positioning in their work and to specify what constitutes domesticating and foreignizing translation. My findings reveal a strong intention on the part of translators to be visible in their work and also point to the lack of indicators for defining the two methods to constitute a simple bi-polar contrast

The translation of fictional particulars in fantasy literature: irrealia in J. R. R. Tolkien’s works and their translation into French and Spanish

Esta tesis doctoral es un trabajo empírico-experimental descriptivo que se inscribe en los estudios de teoría de la traducción y tiene como objetivo la definición y delimitación de las características semánticas y discursivas de los particulares ficcionales (o irrealia) en los textos ficcionales y la descripción de sus posibilidades de formación y de traducción. Para ello, se recurre a un corpus formado por las tres principales obras narrativas de J. R. R. Tolkien y sus respectivas traducciones al español y al francés. Este estudio viene motivado por la escasez de bibliografía académica en los estudios de traducción sobre los particulares ficcionales, así como por las deficiencias metodológicas de los estudios llevados a cabo. De manera indirecta, esta tesis doctoral también pretende resaltar la importancia de los aspectos filológicos en la obra de Tolkien, a menudo relegada al ámbito de la «paraliteratura» por la crítica académica. Por lo que respecta a las hipótesis teóricas en las que nos basamos, pueden resumirse en los siguientes postulados: 1) la ficción y, por tanto, los particulares ficcionales pueden definirse según sus valores pragmáticos y semánticos; 2) la dificultad de traducción de los irrealia está asociada a los tipos de mundos ficcionales en los que aparecen; 3) los irrealia constituyen uno de los principales problemas de traducción de los textos ficcionales, ya que son las unidades léxicas que otorgan «ficcionalidad» al texto y lo configuran semánticamente; 4) dado que se forman a partir de recursos de formación de lenguas reales, es posible establecer una relación entre los irrealia y los neologismos, lo que permite hablar de distintos procedimientos lingüísticos de formación; 5) con respecto a la traducción, la elección de una técnica determinada puede influir en el resultado global (al producir un efecto más «naturalizante» o «extranjerizante») y afectar al grado de equivalencia alcanzado. Para validar estas hipótesis y cumplir con los objetivos propuestos, se recurre a la filosofía del lenguaje para definir y caracterizar discursiva y semánticamente los irrealia. El punto de partida es la teoría de los actos de habla para diferenciar este tipo de discurso de otros según sus condiciones pragmáticas de producción, prestando especial atención al valor de referencialidad como criterio semántico de diferenciación de este tipo de unidades. Asimismo, la teoría de los mundos posibles de la semántica narrativa permite clasificar las obras a las que pertenece el corpus como un tipo de mundo ficcional físicamente imposible, en el que podría incluirse el género de literatura fantástica. Por otro lado, los estudios sobre neología (y, particularmente, aquellos enfocados desde una perspectiva estructuralista) permiten contrastar las unidades léxicas del discurso común y especializado con los irrealia o unidades léxicas del discurso ficcional, así como establecer los procedimientos lingüísticos de formación que pueden emplearse para su creación. Finalmente, se parte de la teoría funcionalista del skopos y del concepto de «negociación» de Umberto Eco para delimitar el grado de equivalencia que es posible alcanzar en la traducción de irrealia y observar sus posibilidades de traducción, estableciendo una clasificación de técnicas de traducción según la oposición entre «naturalizante» y «extranjerizante». Por lo que respecta al corpus de trabajo, está constituido por las tres obras narrativas principales de J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings y The Silmarillion), de las que se han extraído los irrealia según los criterios metodológicos derivados de sus propiedades referenciales y semánticas. En total, se obtuvieron 3343 unidades, que se analizaron en una base de datos según los parámetros de categoría léxica, campo léxico, origen etimológico, procedimiento de formación (en inglés, francés y español), técnica de traducción (en cada obra en francés y en español) y el grado de equivalencia con respecto al texto original. La aplicación práctica del trabajo, por tanto, consistió en el análisis de los datos según cada parámetro y mediante la combinación de pares de parámetros, lo que permitió extraer conclusiones relevantes (de carácter tanto cuantitativo como cualitativo) sobre la naturaleza lingüística de los irrealia en la obra de Tolkien y las posibilidades de traducción en español y en francés. De manera secundaria, permitió a su vez valorar la adecuación de las traducciones y reflexionar sobre la necesidad de la retraducción llevada a cabo en francés en los últimos años, así como sugerir la realización de un proyecto de retraducción similar en español (debido a las numerosas incoherencias denominativas, omisiones y faltas de equivalencia en la traducción de irrealia). De este modo, podría contribuirse también a la consideración de Tolkien como uno de los principales autores del siglo XX por su relevancia en la historia de la literatura.This doctoral thesis is a descriptive empirical-experimental work carried out within the framework of translation studies, whose main objective is the definition and characterisation of the pragmatic and discursive features of fictional particulars (or irrealia) in fictional texts. It also intends to describe the possibilities of creation and translation of these lexical units. For this purpose, a corpus consisting of the three main narrative works of J. R. R. Tolkien and their translations into Spanish and French is compiled. This research is motivated by the lack of sufficient academic bibliography in translation studies about fictional particulars, as well as by the methodological deficiencies of the studies carried out. Indirectly, this doctoral thesis also intends to highlight the importance of philological aspects in Tolkien’s work, which has often been relegated and classified as “paraliterature” by critics. The theoretical hypotheses on which the study is based can be summarized as follows: 1) fiction and fictional particulars can be defined according to their pragmatic and semantic values; 2) the difficulty of translating irrealia is associated with the types of fictional worlds in which they appear; 3) irrealia constitute one of the main translation problems of fictional texts, since they are the lexical units that confer fictionality and semantically configure the text; 4) given that they are created with word-formation processes from real languages, it could be possible to establish a relationship between irrealia and neologisms, which makes it possible to distinguish different types of formation processes; 5) the choice of a certain translation procedure can influence the global result (producing a more domesticating or foreignizing effect) and affect the degree of equivalence attained. In order to validate these hypotheses and accomplish the objectives, the study uses insights into philosophy of language to define and characterise irrealia from a discursive and semantic point of view. The starting point is the speech act theory, which allows to differentiate this type of discourse from others because of its pragmatic conditions, paying special attention to reference values as a semantic criterion of differentiation of this type of units. On the other hand, the possible-world theory in literary studies makes it possible to classify the works from the corpus as a physically impossible fictional world, in which the genre of fantasy literature could be included. Furthermore, linguistic studies on neology (and particularly those with a structuralist approach) allow to compare the lexical units of common and specialised discourse with irrealia or lexical units of fictional discourse, as well as to establish the word-formation processes that can be used for their creation. Finally, the functionalist skopos theory and Umberto Eco’s concept of “negotiation” are used to delimit the degree of equivalence that can be attained in the translation of irrealia and to observe their translation possibilities, establishing a classification of translation procedures according to the opposition between domestication and foreignization. Concerning the corpus, it consists of the three main narrative works of J. R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion), from which a total amount of 3343 irrealia has been extracted according to the methodological criterio derived from their referential and semantic properties. These units were later analysed in a database according to the parameters of lexical category, lexical field, etymological origin, word-formation process (in English, French and Spanish), translation procedure (in French and Spanish) and the degree of equivalence compared to the source text. Therefore, the practical application of the doctoral thesis consisted in the analysis of data according to each parameter and by means of comparing pairs of parameters. The results obtained allowed to draw relevant conclusions on the linguistic nature of irrealia in Tolkien’s work and the possibilities of translation into Spanish and French, both from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. Secondly, several relevant conclusions can be drawn on the adequacy of translations and the need for the new translations in French that have recently been carried out. Also, the results suggest the need for a new translation in Spanish, due to the numerous inconsistencies and denominative variations, omissions and lack of equivalence in the translation of irrealia of the existing versions. This could eventually contribute to a better consideration of Tolkien as one of the main authors of 20th century, given his relevance in the history of literature