87 research outputs found

    Semantic Network Manual Annotation and its Evaluation

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    ïżœe present contribution is a brief extract of (NovĂĄk, 2008). ïżœe Prague Dependency Treebank (PDT) is a valuable resource of linguistic information annotated on several layers. ïżœese layers range from morphemic to deep and they should contain all the linguistic information about the text. ïżœe natural extension is to add a semantic layer suitable as a knowledge base for tasks like question answering, information extraction etc. In this paper I set up criteria for this representation, explore the possible formalisms for this task and discuss their properties. One of them, Multilayered Extended Semantic Networks (Multi-Net), is chosen for further investigation. Its properties are described and an annotation process set up. I discuss some practical modifications of MultiNet for the purpose of manual annotation. MultiNet elements are compared to the elements of the deep linguistic layer of PDT. ïżœe tools and problems of the annotation process are presented and initial annotation data evaluated. 1

    Addenda to the Bibliography of Prague School Typology

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    Doplƈky k bibliografii praĆŸskĂ© typologie

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    This text supplements the Bibliography of Prague School Typological Theory, which contained entries up to 2006 and was published in the same year. After a brief reminder of the main principles and the most important representatives of this approach, there follows a list of works published after 2006 and those that appeared during that year, or previously, but were not included in the original Bibliography. The present inventory is divided into four parts, according to authorship: works written by Vladimír Skalička, by Petr Sgall, by Jaroslav Popela, and by other authors

    The Prague School and Theories of Structure

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    Diese Reihe untersucht Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede von Natur- und Geisteswissenschaftlichen. Das Konzept des »Einflusses« bzw. des »gegenseitigen Einflusses« soll zugunsten eines dynamischeren Konzepts des »Interfacing« (Verbindung/Vernetzung) hinterfragt werden. Ein grundlegender Ausgangspunkt ist die Erkenntnis, dass die beiden WissenssphĂ€ren, die geistes- und die naturwissenschaftliche, hĂ€ufig zur gleichen Zeit neue Untersuchungsmodelle entwickeln und damit auf komplexe wissenschaftliche und kulturelle PhĂ€nomene reagieren. Das Konzept des »Interfacing« impliziert eine integrierte Sicht neuer Wissensgebiete in neuen Kontexten. Nicht lĂ€nger an der traditionellen Vorstellung von »Ursache und Wirkung« gebunden, impliziert der Isomorphismus Gleichzeitigkeit statt KonsequentialitĂ€t. Nicht immer beeinflusst die eine SphĂ€re die andere; Isomorphismus impliziert gemeinsame Entdeckungen, durch die beide Bereichen zur gleichen Zeit neue investigative Modelle und Darstellungssysteme entwickeln. Dialog und gegenseitiges VerstĂ€ndnis zwischen den beiden sogenannten »zwei Kulturen« werden so stimuliert. Wichtige Forschungsbereiche sind Interfacing-Modelle und Paradigmen in den Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften, kulturell bedingte Darstellungen von Naturwissenschaft und Technologie, wissenschaftliche Entdeckungen und narrative Diskurse, Lebenserinnerungen von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern, das Überschreiten von Grenzen zwischen Natur- und Geisteswissenschaft durch Lernen sowie die Bereicherung der Geisteswissenschaften durch angewandte Naturwissenschaften, einschließlich der Informationstechnologien. Die Reihe umfasst sowohl Monographien als auch Essaysammlungen in englischer, deutscher, französischer und italienischer Sprache. Das Nebeneinander verschiedener Sprachen zeugt von der Intention von Herausgeberschaft und wissenschaftlichem Beirats, ein integriertes Wissen aus europĂ€ischer Perspektive herauszubilden

    The Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics: A transnational perspective

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    This paper seeks to situate the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics of the 1960– 1980s within the larger European intellectual-historical context from which it sprang, and in which it played a vital role. Analysing the school members’ engagement with their peers throughout Europe, we outline an “entangled history” (histoire croisĂ©e) of multi-directional scientific and philosophical influence. In this perspective, we discuss the most productive concepts and methods of Tartu-Moscow semiotics in the fields of general verse theory, intertextual theory and cultural theory

    The Syntax of givenness

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    Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-208).The goal of this thesis is to account for distributional patterns of given and new items in Czech, especially their word order. The system proposed here has four basic components: (i) syntax, (ii) economy, (iii) interpretation, and (iv) reference set computation. The approach belongs to the family of interface driven approaches. The syntactic part of the thesis introduces a free syntactic movement (G-movement). The movement causes very local reordering of given elements with respect to new elements in the structure. G-movement is licensed only if it creates a syntactic structure which leads to a semantic interpretation that would not otherwise be available. The economy condition interacts with the way givenness is interpreted. I introduce a recursive operator that adds a presupposition to given elements. The distribution of the operator is regulated by the Maximize presupposition maxim of Heim (1991). The reference set for purposes of this evaluation is defined as the set of derivations that have the same numeration and the same assertion. Finally, I argue that the licensing semantic conditions on givenness in Czech are not identical to the licensing conditions on deaccenting in English. The givenness licensing conditions are stronger in that they require that for an element to be given it must not only have a salient antecedent but also satisfy an existential presupposition.by Ivona Kučerová.Ph.D

    Selected aspects of language contact in the case of Czech, with a particular focus on lexical borrowing and changing attitudes to the self and others

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    The work selected for this portfolio comprises two language-specific case studies (‘Russian and Soviet loanwords and calques in the Czech lexicon since the beginning of the twentieth century’ and ‘ČeĆĄi a slovenĆĄtina’ [The Czechs and the Slovak language]), two publications on the critical reception of foreign vocabulary in Czech (‘The legacy and limitations of Czech purism’ and Attitudes to lexical borrowing in the Czech Republic), and a detailed article on the implications of naming practices for perceptions of the self and others (‘The Czech-speaking lands, their peoples and contact communities: titles, names and ethnonyms’). Extensive use is made of original material, including two nationwide quantitative surveys conducted on my behalf by the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CVVM), and two small-scale questionnaires carried out for me by Dr Miroslav RĆŻĆŸička of the Czech University of Life Sciences (Prague), as well as a range of other empirical data, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, electronic corpora, and additional sources of lexical and historical information. My commentary employs a thematic approach, which aims both to acquaint the reader with the main findings of each of my publications, and to indicate the broad direction of my output. Supplementary information is provided in the commentary, where required, to contextualize and synthesize my arguments, to shed light on recent scholarship in cognate fields, and to ensure narrative continuity. The ‘new’ knowledge thus complements and frames the discussion of my selected publications, thereby helping to guide the reader through the exposition of my writings. The principal unifying themes of the chosen pieces are their emphasis on (1) the role of language in the national consciousness and self-perception, (2) the influence of external forces on the shaping of the Czech lexicon, and people’s reactions to those forces, (3) public perceptions of lexical borrowing, and (4) changing attitudes to the notion of ‘foreign’, as reflected in the national idiom. The commentary is divided into eight chapters, as listed in the Table of Contents. My study begins with a general introduction to my academic background, and to the content and themes of this thesis, as summarized above. Chapter 2 is based principally on my article ‘The legacy and limitations of Czech purism’, and provides a combination of historical setting and statistical analysis. The next chapter presents a rĂ©sumĂ© of the overall impact of foreign languages and cultures on the historical development of Czech, with the aim of contextualizing the findings of subsequent chapters. Chapter 4, which draws mainly on ‘Russian and Soviet loanwords and calques in the Czech lexicon since the beginning of the twentieth century’, reevaluates the impact of Russian and ‘Soviet speak’ on the Czech lexicon. In chapter 5, I consider in detail the asymmetrical nature of Czech–Slovak language relations, with reference to the views of over 1,400 informants interviewed for ‘ČeĆĄi a slovenĆĄtina’ and Attitudes to lexical borrowing in the Czech Republic. Chapter 6 compares the results of my survey for the latter publication, referred to as ‘Perceptions’, with a series of other questionnaires, including Tejnor’s groundbreaking 1970 study of foreign words. ‘The Czech-speaking lands, their peoples and contact communities: titles, names and ethnonyms’ provides the substance of much of chapter 7, which focuses on the Czechs’ tendency to see themselves in terms of opposition to outsiders, and on the depiction of ‘foreignness’ in the Czech lexicon. The commentary concludes with a summary of my principal observations relating to aspects of language contact and lexical borrowing in Czech, and to their implications for the self and others. Taken collectively, the eight chapters provide a framework for the discussion of my published work and for the thematic and conceptual links that validate their consideration as a corpus of cognate research activity.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

    Moravians in Prague : a sociolinguistic study of dialect accommodation in the Czech Republic.

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    The thesis reports on the linguistic accommodation of 39 university students from Moravia (the eastern half of the Czech Republic) living in Prague, Bohemia (the western part of the Czech Republic). In Bohemia, the informants' highly-localized native dialects and Standard Czech (SC) - a semi-artificial, archaic and primarily nonspoken standard with no native speakers - are both stigmatized, although for different reasons. Consequently, it has been 'hypothesized' that speakers of Moravian dialects living in Bohemia quickly reduce the frequency of or avoid stigmatized variants of their localized vernaculars and converge towards the host dialect, Common Czech (CC). Although a non-standard variety, CC is a semi-prestigious koine that is socially unrestricted throughout Bohemia and parts of western Moravia and is, according to some linguists, assuming the role of a national vernacular. However, the 'contact hypothesis' is based solely on introspective data and is ideologically driven, insomuch as it is the product of linguists who promote the social and geographical spread of CC. The present study is the first attempt to systematically describe the results of dialect contact between speakers of CC and Moravian dialects and to test the above hypothesis. To my knowledge, it is the first systematic variationist account of language variation in the Czech Republic. The study combines a quantitative analysis of six linguistic variables with both qualitative and ethnographic research and it identifies to what extent speakers of Moravian dialects living in Prague assimilate CC forms, what route their accommodation takes, and which variants of the host variety are most likely to acquired or rejected. A primary aim of the study is to describe the impact of a set of independent social variables on speakers' assimilation of CC forms. Special attention is accorded to speakers' sex, region of origin, length of residence in the host community and network integration
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