Semantic Variation in Online Communities of Practice

We introduce a framework for quantifying semantic variation of common words in Communities of Practice and in sets of topic-related communities. We show that while some meaning shifts are shared across related communities, others are community-specific, and therefore independent from the discussed topic. We propose such findings as evidence in favour of sociolinguistic theories of socially-driven semantic variation. Results are evaluated using an independent language modelling task. Furthermore, we investigate extralinguistic features and show that factors such as prominence and dissemination of words are related to semantic variation.Comment: 13 pages, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computational Semantics (IWCS 2017

Аналіз відмінностей тем, якості письма та стилістичного контексту в есеях студентів коледжу на основі комп’ютерної програми Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC).

Machine methods for automatically analyzing text have been investigated for decades. Yet the availability and usability of these methods for classifying and scoring specialized essays in small samples–as is typical for ordinary coursework–remains unclear. In this paper we analyzed 156 essays submitted by students in a first-year college rhetoric course. Using cognitive and affective measures within Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), we tested whether machine analyses could i) distinguish among essay topics, ii) distinguish between high and low writing quality, and iii) identify differences due to changes in rhetorical context across writing assignments. The results showed positive results for all three tests. We consider ways that LIWC may benefit college instructors in assessing student compositions and in monitoring the effectiveness of the course curriculum. We also consider extensions of machine assessments for instructional applications.Машинні методи автоматичного аналізу тексту та їхні можливості вивчалися впродовж десятиліть. Однак питання доступності та зручності використання цих методів для класифікації та оцінки спеціалізованих есеїв у невеликих зразках, як, наприклад, курсових роботах, залишається досі малодослідженим питанням. У статті проаналізовано 139 есеїв із курсу стилістики, написаних студентами першого курсу. На основі використання когнітивних та афективних категорій програми Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) було перевірено здатність машинного аналізу: а) розмежовувати теми есеїв, б) розрізняти високу та низьку якість письма та в) виявляти відмінності через зміни стилістичного контексту написаних завдань. Дослідження засвідчило позитивні результати для всіх трьох тестових перевірок. Увагу авторів зосереджено на тому, як LIWC може полегшити роботу університетських викладачів під час оцінки ними студентських творів та моніторингу ефективності навчальної програми курсу. Крім того, у статті розглянуто питання перспектив машинного оцінювання викладацьких застосунків

Econometrics meets sentiment : an overview of methodology and applications

The advent of massive amounts of textual, audio, and visual data has spurred the development of econometric methodology to transform qualitative sentiment data into quantitative sentiment variables, and to use those variables in an econometric analysis of the relationships between sentiment and other variables. We survey this emerging research field and refer to it as sentometrics, which is a portmanteau of sentiment and econometrics. We provide a synthesis of the relevant methodological approaches, illustrate with empirical results, and discuss useful software

The Self-Organization of Meaning and the Reflexive Communication of Information

Following a suggestion of Warren Weaver, we extend the Shannon model of communication piecemeal into a complex systems model in which communication is differentiated both vertically and horizontally. This model enables us to bridge the divide between Niklas Luhmann's theory of the self-organization of meaning in communications and empirical research using information theory. First, we distinguish between communication relations and correlations among patterns of relations. The correlations span a vector space in which relations are positioned and can be provided with meaning. Second, positions provide reflexive perspectives. Whereas the different meanings are integrated locally, each instantiation opens global perspectives--"horizons of meaning"--along eigenvectors of the communication matrix. These next-order codifications of meaning can be expected to generate redundancies when interacting in instantiations. Increases in redundancy indicate new options and can be measured as local reduction of prevailing uncertainty (in bits). The systemic generation of new options can be considered as a hallmark of the knowledge-based economy.Comment: accepted for publication in Social Science Information, March 21, 201

Escaping the Trap of too Precise Topic Queries

At the very center of digital mathematics libraries lie controlled vocabularies which qualify the {\it topic} of the documents. These topics are used when submitting a document to a digital mathematics library and to perform searches in a library. The latter are refined by the use of these topics as they allow a precise classification of the mathematics area this document addresses. However, there is a major risk that users employ too precise topics to specify their queries: they may be employing a topic that is only "close-by" but missing to match the right resource. We call this the {\it topic trap}. Indeed, since 2009, this issue has appeared frequently on the i2geo.net platform. Other mathematics portals experience the same phenomenon. An approach to solve this issue is to introduce tolerance in the way queries are understood by the user. In particular, the approach of including fuzzy matches but this introduces noise which may prevent the user of understanding the function of the search engine. In this paper, we propose a way to escape the topic trap by employing the navigation between related topics and the count of search results for each topic. This supports the user in that search for close-by topics is a click away from a previous search. This approach was realized with the i2geo search engine and is described in detail where the relation of being {\it related} is computed by employing textual analysis of the definitions of the concepts fetched from the Wikipedia encyclopedia.Comment: 12 pages, Conference on Intelligent Computer Mathematics 2013 Bath, U