The Online LexiCOIN: Exploring the formation and use of English slang blends

This thesis aims to explore the manner in which English slang lexical blends are formed and used in computer-mediated communication. The focus is particularly on how blends are used on the social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Portmanteau words, also referred to as lexical blends, are a common process by which new words are formed and introduced into a language, particularly regarding slang. The introduction of the Internet and its growing availability has acted as a catalyst for the introduction of new slang words to the English language, especially since language usage on the Internet is not moderated in the same way that printed texts have previously been. This allows linguists to study the changes in word creation and word formation as it is progressing, using the tools that have thus far been unavailable. Since there is a lack of consensus among linguists, this thesis explores the various definitions of the term ‘blend’. While substantial research efforts have been made to categorize and systematize blends, the blends that appear online and enter colloquial exchanges are hardly ever formally recorded and analyzed in detail. The aim of the study is to conduct a thorough investigation of online dictionaries and sources for lexical blends, and 220 of them are assembled in a list in the appendix. These were analyzed in terms of the formation process according to Lehrer's taxonomy. The investigation consists of 12 highlighted examples analyzed in-depth, which are classified as the ‘final sample’. The ‘final sample’ showcases the variety of different blend structures, domains and social media sources (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit) that have been consulted. Blends online are typically formed via merging of two words into one single word, usually with some degree of overlap. It is also common to create online slang blends from words that are already in slang usage. The thesis also concludes with the three main motivating factors as to why language users create new blends, recognizing the most commonly used online domains for lexical blend proliferation, and the potential of these domains to inspire further blend proliferation. These factors include effectiveness, or blends that are used online for the sake of quick delivery of information or for a quick punchline in humorous exchanges. The second factor listed is creativity and entertainment, the difference being that creativity is an aspect most commonly user-generated, while entertainment is more likely to be mass-produced for vast audiences. The final factor is the creation of identity online, or establishing a brand, which is commonly done by constructing a blend that would attract attention and serve the purpose of further distinguishing one’s online presence

Linguistic-based Patterns for Figurative Language Processing: The Case of Humor Recognition and Irony Detection

El lenguaje figurado representa una de las tareas más difíciles del procesamiento del lenguaje natural. A diferencia del lenguaje literal, el lenguaje figurado hace uso de recursos lingüísticos tales como la ironía, el humor, el sarcasmo, la metáfora, la analogía, entre otros, para comunicar significados indirectos que la mayoría de las veces no son interpretables sólo en términos de información sintáctica o semántica. Por el contrario, el lenguaje figurado refleja patrones del pensamiento que adquieren significado pleno en contextos comunicativos y sociales, lo cual hace que tanto su representación lingüística, así como su procesamiento computacional, se vuelvan tareas por demás complejas. En este contexto, en esta tesis de doctorado se aborda una problemática relacionada con el procesamiento del lenguaje figurado a partir de patrones lingüísticos. En particular, nuestros esfuerzos se centran en la creación de un sistema capaz de detectar automáticamente instancias de humor e ironía en textos extraídos de medios sociales. Nuestra hipótesis principal se basa en la premisa de que el lenguaje refleja patrones de conceptualización; es decir, al estudiar el lenguaje, estudiamos tales patrones. Por tanto, al analizar estos dos dominios del lenguaje figurado, pretendemos dar argumentos respecto a cómo la gente los concibe, y sobre todo, a cómo esa concepción hace que tanto humor como ironía sean verbalizados de una forma particular en diversos medios sociales. En este contexto, uno de nuestros mayores intereses es demostrar cómo el conocimiento que proviene del análisis de diferentes niveles de estudio lingüístico puede representar un conjunto de patrones relevantes para identificar automáticamente usos figurados del lenguaje. Cabe destacar que contrario a la mayoría de aproximaciones que se han enfocado en el estudio del lenguaje figurado, en nuestra investigación no buscamos dar argumentos basados únicamente en ejemplos prototípicos, sino en textos cuyas característicasReyes Pérez, A. (2012). Linguistic-based Patterns for Figurative Language Processing: The Case of Humor Recognition and Irony Detection [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/16692Palanci

Microblogging as a Facilitator of Online Community in Graduate Education

Part-time and distance-learning students can experience a sense of isolation from their peers and the university. Concern about this isolation and resulting student attrition has increased in the midst of explosive growth in online course enrollments. One possible solution: building a stronger sense of community within the online graduate classroom using microblogging technology such as Twitter. Unfortunately, scholars across disciplines define community in different ways with some rejecting the concept altogether in favor of other theoretical constructs. And, few scholars have examined the notion of online classroom community from an English Studies perspective exploring the rhetorical exigencies that underpin this concept. Scholars often write about online community in aspirational terms and fail to demonstrate its existence empirically (Kling and Courtright, 2003). Through the application of two existing pedagogical theories (Rovai\u27s (2002) concept of classroom community and the well-established Community of Inquiry framework) this dissertation empirically documents the existence of online classroom community in two cases studies of graduate distance-learning summer sessions. This mixed-methods research study then demonstrates that microblogging technology is capable of both supporting and facilitating the growth of that sense of online classroom community. Because it stands at the convergence of a student\u27s academic and personal interests, social media software such as Twitter—whether used as a front- or backchannel to the course—is uniquely positioned to serve both as a virtual third place and as a venue for exercising Brooke\u27s (1999) writing underlife activities and extending Mueller\u27s (2009) notions of where and how these activities can be played out in a digital context. Finally, this dissertation also offers a five-part alternative definition of online classroom community that strongly links the digital space itself with the affective/emotional concerns addressed in some other theoretical constructions of community

Berne, Indiana Swiss German: Lessons Learned From A Small-Scale Documentation Project

This thesis presents a case study of a small-scale language documentation project carried out in Berne, Indiana. The goal of this project was to capture, through audio recording, samples of the Swiss German language that could be presented to the Berne community and preserved for future use. As much as possible, this project was carried out according to best practices for language documentation, so that the data will be accessible to the academic community for further research after there are no more living speakers of the Berne, Indiana Swiss dialect. The history of the Swiss Mennonites who settled the Berne, Indiana, area is presented, situating the dialect geographically, historically, and linguistically. An assessment of past and present patterns of language use within the community suggests that the time for documentation is now, while there are still a few remaining speakers of the language. Project goals and design are presented, along with four models of linguistic field work, arguing that it is possible to work within several of these models simultaneously in order to conduct a project that focuses on community values, even under less than ideal circumstances. Methodology for collecting, organizing, and archiving the data is discussed, evaluating effectiveness and suggesting changes for future work. An assessment of the data collected, in light of sociolinguistic issues related to language shift, shows that through language documentation valuable insights into the culture of a community can be gained. Obstacles encountered during the documentation project are discussed so that researchers working on similar projects in the future can benefit from lessons learned in this project. Finally, this thesis concludes by discussing potential benefits of this project for both the Berne community and the academic community

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (NLG), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of NLG is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past decade or so, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of NLG technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in NLG and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of relatively recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between NLG and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in NLG evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of Natural Language Processing, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.Comment: Published in Journal of AI Research (JAIR), volume 61, pp 75-170. 118 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Subtitling Humour from the Perspective of Relevance Theory: The Office in Traditional Chinese

Subtitling the scenes containing humorous utterances in cinematic-televisual productions encounters a myriad of challenges, because the subtitler has to face the technical constraints that characterise the professional subtitling environment and the cultural barriers when reproducing humorous utterances for viewers inhabiting another culture. Past studies tend to explore more limited humour-related areas, which means that a more comprehensive picture of this specialised field is missing. The current research investigates the subtitling of humour, drawing on the framework of relevance theory and the British sitcom The Office, translated from English dialogue into Traditional Chinese subtitles. This research enquires into whether or not relevance theory can explain the subtitling strategies activated to deal with various humorous utterances in the sitcom, and, if so, to what extent. The English-Chinese Corpus of The Office (ECCO), which contains sample texts, media files and annotations, has been constructed to perform an empirical study. To enrich the corpus with valuable annotations, a typology of humour has been developed based on the concept of frame, and a taxonomy of subtitling strategies has also been proposed. The quantitative analysis demonstrates that the principle of relevance is the main benchmark for the choice of a subtitling micro-strategy within any given macro-strategy. With the chi-square test, it further proves the existence of a statistically significant association between humour types/frames and subtitling strategies at the global level. The qualitative analysis shows that the principle of relevance can operate in a subtle way, in which the subtitler invests more cognitive efforts to enhance the acceptability of subtitles. It also develops three levels of mutual dependency between the two variables, from strong, weak to null, to classify different examples. Overall, this study improves our understanding of humour translation and can facilitate a change in the curricula of translator training

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian Proceedings of the Final Workshop

Editor of the proceedings of EVALITA 2016