Metadiscourse repertoire of L1 Mandarin undergraduates writing in English : a cross-contextual, cross-disciplinary study

This article presents a qualitative, comparative study of metadiscourse in the academic writing of two groups of undergraduate students working in two different disciplines. The groups of students were: 1) Native speakers of Mandarin studying in China through the medium of English; 2) Native speakers of Mandarin studying in the UK through the medium of English. For each group of students, we examined writing undertaken in two undergraduate disciplinary courses: Literary Criticism and Translation Studies. Our aim was to extend research into English writing by L1 Mandarin speakers, and to identify patterns of difference and similarity both between educational contexts and between disciplines. Results suggest that patterns of metadiscourse use in our corpus are associated with both disciplinary and contextual factors, but that contextual factors may have a stronger effect than disciplinary factors. For our data, local institutional culture seems to have a noticeable influence on student writers' use of metadiscourse

Investigating the translation of metaphors used in diagnosis and treatment in Chinese medicine classics Neijing and Shanghan Lun

The language used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) depicts a world of human physiology, pathology, diagnosis and treatment, in which metaphors serve as an essential vehicle for readers to understand fundamental but often abstract concepts in TCM. While previous work has investigated strategies for translating the TCM classics, the metaphors used to describe diagnosis and treatment and their English translations are critical in understanding TCM, and require a more systematic exploration. This study investigates the diagnosis- and treatment-related metaphors selected from two TCM classics, Neijing and Shanghan Lun, and their English renditions by translators from different professional backgrounds. The thesis also focuses on the analysis of the effectiveness of different translation strategies in delivering pertinent health-related information conveyed by the metaphors of the original texts. A multidimensional framework that combines a conceptual approach with linguistic and cultural elements was established to capture the complexity of the metaphors, particularly from the perspective of translation. The linguistic metaphors in this study were first identified from a purpose-built corpus using a CMT-based metaphor identification procedure adapted from Steen (2010). Following the conceptual metaphor inference procedure developed by Steen (2011), various conceptual metaphors were inferred from the linguistic metaphors. Corresponding English translations were also collected to investigate which translation strategies have been used and which strategy can most effectively deliver the health-related information conveyed by the metaphors. Four main strategies were employed in the English translations: 1) equivalent mapping, by which the source domain is retained; 2) using a simile to translate a metaphor; 3) direct narrative equivalence, which abandons the metaphor and narrates the medical knowledge directly; and 4) complemented equivalent translation, whereby the metaphor is explained with additional content. From the perspective of conveying health-related knowledge, equivalent mapping was effective for metaphors universally understood by Chinese and English readers. For culturally specific metaphors, especially when the metaphor relates to an important TCM concept, complemented equivalent translation, which can reconfigure the cognitive context for the reader, was most suitable. For metaphors not related to important concepts, direct narrative equivalence was found to be effective

Comparisons between Chinese and English metaphorical metal words

Uma quantidade abundante de palavras metafóricas em metal pode ser observada tanto em chinês como em inglês, que são bem desenvolvidos, amplamente utilizados, prontos para comparações. Nós aplicamos a simples análise estatística como nosso método principal para revelar caracteres estruturais e semânticos, referindo-se à coagulação, estrutura interna e propriedade para o primeiro, e através de como os sentidos se espalham, como os significados se concentram e a cor dos significados para o segundo. Através da análise, descobrimos que existem semelhanças surpreendentes em ambas as línguas e as semelhanças superam as diferenças, o que é um sintoma geral em relação a todas as comparações aqui realizadas, revelando, em certa medida, a coletividade cognitiva humana. Mas, em regiões mais específicas, verificam-se diferenças que vão ao encontro da diversidade humana.Abundant amount of Metaphorical Metal Words can be observed in both Chinese and English, which are well-developed and widely used, ready for comparisons. We applied to simple statistic analysis as our main research method in revealing structural and semantic characters, referring to coagulation, internal structure, and property for the former, and through the way senses being scattered in dictionaries, the part bearing metaphorical meanings and the concentration of meanings for the latter. Through analysis, we discover that astonishing similarities exist in both languages and similarities outweigh differences, which is an overall symptom concerning all comparisons held, revealing human cognitive collectiveness to a certain extent. But in more specific regions, differences do appear, reflecting the varieties in mankind.

A Survey on Semantic Processing Techniques

Semantic processing is a fundamental research domain in computational linguistics. In the era of powerful pre-trained language models and large language models, the advancement of research in this domain appears to be decelerating. However, the study of semantics is multi-dimensional in linguistics. The research depth and breadth of computational semantic processing can be largely improved with new technologies. In this survey, we analyzed five semantic processing tasks, e.g., word sense disambiguation, anaphora resolution, named entity recognition, concept extraction, and subjectivity detection. We study relevant theoretical research in these fields, advanced methods, and downstream applications. We connect the surveyed tasks with downstream applications because this may inspire future scholars to fuse these low-level semantic processing tasks with high-level natural language processing tasks. The review of theoretical research may also inspire new tasks and technologies in the semantic processing domain. Finally, we compare the different semantic processing techniques and summarize their technical trends, application trends, and future directions.Comment: Published at Information Fusion, Volume 101, 2024, 101988, ISSN 1566-2535. The equal contribution mark is missed in the published version due to the publication policies. Please contact Prof. Erik Cambria for detail

Exploring figurative language recognition: a comprehensive study of human and machine approaches

Treballs Finals de Grau de Llengües i Literatures Modernes. Facultat de Filologia. Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2022-2023. Tutora: Elisabet Comelles Pujadas[eng] Figurative language (FL) plays a significant role in human communication. Understanding and interpreting FL is essential for humans to fully grasp the intended message, appreciate cultural nuances, and engage in effective interaction. For machines, comprehending FL presents a challenge due to its complexity and ambiguity. Enabling machines to understand FL has become increasingly important in sentiment analysis, text classification, and social media monitoring, for instance, benefits from accurately recognizing figurative expressions to capture subtle emotions and extract meaningful insights. Machine translation also requires the ability to accurately convey FL to ensure translations reflect the intended meaning and cultural nuances. Therefore, developing computational methods to enable machines to understand and interpret FL is crucial. By bridging the gap between human and machine understanding of FL, we can enhance communication, improve language-based applications, and unlock new possibilities in human-machine interactions. Keywords: figurative language, NLP, human-machine communication.[cat] El Llenguatge Figuratiu (LF) té un paper important en la comunicació humana. Per entendre completament els missatges, apreciar els matisos culturals i la interacció efectiva, és necessària la capacitat d'interpretar el LF. No obstant això, els ordinadors tenen dificultats per entendre la LF a causa de la seva complexitat i ambigüitat. És crític que els ordinadors siguin capaços de reconèixer el LF, especialment en àrees com l'anàlisi de sentiments, la classificació de textos i la supervisió de les xarxes socials. El reconeixement precís del LF permet capturar emocions i extreure idees semàntiques. La traducció automàtica també requereix una representació precisa del LF per reflectir el significat previst i els matisos culturals. Per tant, és rellevant desenvolupar mètodes computacionals que ajudin els ordinadors a comprendre i interpretar el LF. Fer un pont entre la comprensió humana i màquina del LF pot millorar la comunicació, desenvolupar aplicacions de llenguatge i obrir noves possibilitats per a la interacció home-màquina. Paraules clau: llenguatge figuratiu, processament del llenguatge natural, interacció home-màquina

Gradient Metaphoricity of the Preposition in: A Corpus-based Approach to Chinese Academic Writing in English

In Cognitive Linguistics, a conceptual metaphor is a systematic set of correspondences between two domains of experience (Kövecses 2020: 2). In order to have an extensive understanding of metaphors, metaphoricity (Müller and Tag 2010; Dunn 2011; Jensen and Cuffari 2014; Nacey and Jensen 2017) has been emphasized to address one of the properties of metaphors in language usage: gradience (Hanks 2006; Dunn 2011, 2014), which indicates that metaphorical expressions can be measured. Despite many noteworthy contributions, studies of metaphoricity are often accused of subjectivity (Müller 2008; Jensen and Cuffari 2014; Jensen 2017), this is why this study uses a big corpus as a database. Therefore, the main aim of this dissertation is to measure the gradient senses of the preposition in in an objective way, thus mapping the highly systematic semantic extension. Based on these gradient senses, the semantic and syntactic features of the preposition in produced by advanced Chinese English-major learners are investigated, combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. A quantitative analysis of the literal and other ten metaphorical senses of the preposition in is made at first. In accounting for the five factors influencing image schemata of each sense: “scale of Landmark”, “visibility”, “path”, “inclusion” and “boundary”, the formula of measuring the gradability of metaphorical degree is deduced: Metaphoricity=[[#Visibility] +[#Path] +[#Inclusion] +[#Boundary]]*[#Scale of Landmark]. The result is that the primary sense has the highest value:12, and all other extended senses have values down to zero. The more shared features with proto-scene, the higher the value of the metaphorical sense, and the less metaphorical the sense. EVENT and PERSON are the “least metaphoric” (value = 9-11); SITUATION, NUMBER, CONTENT and FIELD are “weak metaphoric” (value = 6-8); Also included are SEGMENTATION, TIME and MANNER (value = 3-5), and they are “strong metaphoric”; PURPOSE shares the least feature with proto-scene, and it has the lowest value, so it is “most metaphoric” (value = 0-2). Then, a corpus-based approach is employed, which offers a model for employing a corpus-based approach in Cognitive Linguistics. It compares two compiled sub-corpora: Chinese Master Academic Writing Corpus and Chinese Doctorate Academic Writing Corpus. The findings show that, on the semantic level, Chinese English-major students overuse in with a low level of metaphoricity, even advanced learners use the most metaphorical in rarely. In terms of syntactic behaviours, the most frequent nouns in [in+noun] construction are weakly metaphoric, whilst the nouns in the construction [in the noun of] are EVENT sense, which is least metaphorical. Moreover, action verbs tend to be used in the construction [verb+in] and [in doing sth.] in both master and doctorate groups. In the qualitative study, the divergent usages of the preposition in are explored. The preposition in is often substituted with other prepositions, such as on and at. The fundamental reason for the Chinese learners’ weakness is the negative transfer from their mother tongue (Wang 2001; Gong 2007; Zhang 2010). Although in and its Chinese equivalence zai...li (在...里) share the same proto-scene, there are discrepancies: the metaphorical senses of the preposition in are TIME, PURPOSE, NUMBER, CONTENT, FIELD, EVENT, SITUATION, SEGMENTATION, MANNER, PERSON, while those of zai...li (在...里) are only five: TIME, CONTENT, EVENT, SITUATION and PERSON. Thus the image schemata of each sense cannot be correspondingly mapped onto each other in different languages. This study also provides evidence for the universality and variation of spatial metaphors on the ground of cultural models. Philosophically, it supports the standpoint of Embodiment philosophy that abstract concepts are constructed on the basis of spatial metaphors that are grounded in the physical and cultural experience