An Iterative Polishing Framework based on Quality Aware Masked Language Model for Chinese Poetry Generation

Owing to its unique literal and aesthetical characteristics, automatic generation of Chinese poetry is still challenging in Artificial Intelligence, which can hardly be straightforwardly realized by end-to-end methods. In this paper, we propose a novel iterative polishing framework for highly qualified Chinese poetry generation. In the first stage, an encoder-decoder structure is utilized to generate a poem draft. Afterwards, our proposed Quality-Aware Masked Language Model (QAMLM) is employed to polish the draft towards higher quality in terms of linguistics and literalness. Based on a multi-task learning scheme, QA-MLM is able to determine whether polishing is needed based on the poem draft. Furthermore, QAMLM is able to localize improper characters of the poem draft and substitute with newly predicted ones accordingly. Benefited from the masked language model structure, QAMLM incorporates global context information into the polishing process, which can obtain more appropriate polishing results than the unidirectional sequential decoding. Moreover, the iterative polishing process will be terminated automatically when QA-MLM regards the processed poem as a qualified one. Both human and automatic evaluation have been conducted, and the results demonstrate that our approach is effective to improve the performance of encoder-decoder structure.Comment: accepted by AAAI-202

Film policy and the emergence of the cross-cultural: exploring crossover cinema in Flanders (Belgium)

With several films taking on a cross-cultural character, a certain ‘crossover trend’ may be observed within the recent upswing of Flemish cinema (a subdivision of Belgian cinema). This trend is characterized by two major strands: first, migrant and diasporic filmmakers finally seem to be emerging, and second, several filmmakers tend to cross the globe to make their films, hereby minimizing links with Flemish indigenous culture. While paying special attention to the crucial role of film policy in this context, this contribution further investigates the crossover trend by focusing on Turquaze (2010, Kadir Balci) and Altiplano (2009, Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth)

Language Politics and the Constitution of Racialized Subjects in the Corinthian Church

This study examines the phenomenon of speaking in tongue(s) in the Corinthian church from the point of view of the politics of language. Instead of seeing tongue(s) as a problem of unintelligible-ecstatic speech, it reconsiders this phenomenon as a linguistic struggle. Tongue(s), in this sense, is a multilingual social dynamic that Paul perceives as chaotic. Special attention is given to the role of language as one of the crucial markers of the ancient Greeks’ collective identity. The barbarians are their imaginative and discursive ‘others’ who do not share their language. It is within this sociopolitical context that the employment of the term βάρβαρος in 1 Cor. 14:11 can be understood as a performative act of constituting racialized subjects. Such discourse is Paul’s political strategy of bringing a monolingual order into the Corinthian church

The Duplex World: Keizaburo Maruyama’s Elaboration on Saussure’s Principle of the Arbitrariness of Linguistic Sings

This paper has two objectives. It intends, first, to elucidate Ferdinand de Saussure’s discourse on the arbitrariness of linguistic signs and, second, to expound Keizaburo Maruyama’s unique, epistemological thesis developed based on Saussure’s ideas. The argumentation goes as follows. After illustrating that the Swiss linguist’s case, having been understood too diversely, requires an accurate recapitulation and Maruyama’s texts have received little heed, the first section which proves Saussure’s original opinion entails that not only the relationship between a linguistic sign’s signifier and signified but a language’s classification system itself is absolutely contingent. The second section, scrutinizing Maruyama’s theory about our interpreting the world, shows its gist is humans construe the universe through the duplex articulation structure. The third, concluding section describes his view on music as another attribute of his thought, and closes the discussion by indicating that his texts, albeit written decades ago, can help us address today’s conundrums

Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money

Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money is a groundbreaking study covering a range of contemporary authors and issues, from Haizi to Yin Lichuan and from poetic rhythm to exile-bashing. Its rigorous scholarship, literary sensitivity and lively style make it eminently fit for classroom use