640 research outputs found

    Discourse Cohesion in Chinese-English Statistical Machine Translation

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    In discourse, cohesion is a required component of meaningful and well organised text. It establishes the relationship between different elements in the text using a number of devices such as pronouns, determiners, and conjunctions. In translation a well translated document will display the correct cohesion and use of cohesive devices that are pertinent to the language. However, not all languages have the same cohesive devices or use them in the same way. In statistical machine translation this is a particular barrier to generating smooth translations, especially when sentences in parallel corpora are being treated in isolation and no extra meaning or cohesive context is provided beyond the sentential level. In this thesis, focussing on Chinese 1 and English as the language pair, we examine discourse cohesion in statistical machine translation looking at ways that systems can leverage discourse cues and signals in order to produce smoother translations. We also provide a statistical model that improves translation output by adding additional tokens within text that can be used to leverage extra information. A significant part of this research involved visualising many of the results and system outputs, and so an overview of two important pieces of visualisation software that we developed is also included

    Language history on fast forward: Innovations in heritage languages and diachronic change

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    There has been a substantial amount of research on heritage language acquisition and diachronic change. Although recent work has increasingly pointed to parallels between those two areas, it remains unclear how systematic these are. In this paper, we provide a bird's eye view, illustrating how patterns of diachronic change are mirrored in heritage language grammars. In doing so, we focus on one of the best-described grammaticalization processes – namely, the formation of articles from demonstratives and numerals, reviewing studies on heritage varieties which mirror those processes. Based on this review, we make two main points: that change in heritage language can be predicted based on established diachronic scenarios, and that heritage languages often amplify incipient changes in the baseline. After discussing a number of attested changes in a bilingual context, we identify directions for future research in the domain of determiners in heritage languages

    Typological diversity in New Englishes

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    Linguistic and cultural impacts on English medium instruction : Chinese teacher-researchers’ cases

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    This research investigates linguistic and cultural impacts on English medium instruction (EMI) of a group of Chinese teacher–researchers who teach Mandarin in Australian public schools. Due to fast growing internationalisation, EMI has gained unprecedented prevalence across subjects and significant numbers of non-English background countries adopt it to face global market. After a literature review on EMI study through linguistic, pedagogical and cultural lenses, different factors that impede teacher development are found. Linguistically, lack of English proficiency hinders EMI teachers’ overall progress from the language base. Pedagogically, insufficient understanding of teaching strategies results in unfavourable outcomes and training shortage obstructs consistent improvement. Culturally, EMI teachers struggle with finding their identity and power in foreign environment. There is scarce study on linguistic and cultural background influence of EMI teachers on their teaching practice and development. Therefore, this research seeks to contribute in this aspect. To obtain in-depth data for exploration of linguistic and cultural background impacts on Chinese Mandarin teachers’ EMI in Australian classes, case study was applied. Through classroom observation and semi-structured interview, three cases with nine participants and three research sites were involved. Data were coded and categorised after transcription and further reduced based on relevance and manageability. Four main themes emerged from data analysis, which fell into places of four respective evidentiary chapters. The theoretical framework for this research was constructed through a combination and synthesis of theories and concepts from resources of both Western and Chinese origin. It covers Western concepts of culture (e.g., cultural universality, cultural commonality, and cultural difference), concepts of intercultural capabilities (e.g., cultural sensitivity, cultural adaptability, and cultural tolerance), Chinese concepts (e.g., bǎihuāqífàng, bǎijiāzhēngmíng and héshíshēngwù, tóngzébújì), incarnations of culture (e.g., cultural subjects, their identity, and language) as well as biological concepts (e.g., symbiosis and mutualism). This framework was named the theoretical framework of wénhuàgòngshēng, which was used for data analysis and yet tested by the data. Significant findings are revealed from data analysis. First, the teacher–researchers’ native language influences their EMI. Language patterns and grammatical forms of Chinese root are uncovered in interactions with students. Second, the teacher–researchers’cultural background exerts influence on their EMI. Embodiment of cultural patterns permeates the process of instruction and demonstrates extensive impact. Third, identity dilemma caused by a range of reasons such as environmental unfamiliarity leads to uncertainty to both teaching and their self-cognition. Fourth, coming from a culture where teacher “authority” is assumed, these teacher–researchers struggle in Australian classes claiming power. In many cases, they find themselves caught on the horns of a dilemma between being authoritativeanddemocratic. Based on the findings of this research, it is salubrious to be cross-cultural teachers with competence of wénhuàgòngshēng that explore and utilise both background and targeted linguistic and cultural elements instead of avoiding them. Comprehensive awareness of relationship amongst culture, language, identity and power is conducive to appropriate selfappreciation and connection recognition. For these teacher–researchers, their background resources could be strategically accommodated and applied to facilitate their Australian classroom. Through wénhuàgòngshēng valuable ingredients from both Chinese and Australian culture is suggested to be integrated to generate inclusive associations

    A spoken Chinese corpus : development, description, and application in L2 studies : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

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    This thesis introduces a corpus of present-day spoken Chinese, which contains over 440,000 words of orthographically transcribed interactions. The corpus is made up of an L1 corpus and an L2 corpus. It includes data gathered in informal contexts in 2018, and is, to date, the first Chinese corpus resource of its kind investigating non-test/task-oriented dialogical interaction of L2 Chinese. The main part of the thesis is devoted to a detailed account of the compilation of the spoken Chinese corpus, including its design, the data collection, and transcription. In doing this, this study attempts to answer the question: what are the key considerations in building a spoken Chinese corpus of informal interaction, especially in building a spoken L2 corpus of L1–L2 interaction? Then, this thesis compares the L1 corpus and the L2 corpus before using them to carry out corpus studies. Differences between and within the two subcorpora are discussed in some detail. This corpus comparison is essential to any L1–L2 comparative studies conducted on the basis of the spoken Chinese corpus, and it addresses the question: to what extent is the L1 corpus comparable to the L2 corpus? Finally, this thesis demonstrates the research potential of the spoken Chinese corpus, by presenting an analysis of the L2 use of the discourse marker 就是 jiushi in comparison with the L1 use. Analysis considers mainly the contribution就是 jiushi makes as a reformulation marker to utterance interpretation within the relevance theoretic framework. To do this, it seeks to answer the question: what are the features that characterise the L2 use of the marker 就是 jiushi in informal speech? The results of this study make several useful contributions to the academic community. First of all, the spoken Chinese corpus is available to the academic community through the website, so it is expected the corpus itself will be of use to researchers, Chinese teachers, and students who are interested in spoken Chinese. In addition to the obtainable data, this thesis presents transparent accounts of each step of the compilation of both the L1 and L2 corpora. As a result, decisions and strategies taken with regard to the procedures of spoken corpus design and construction can provide some valuable suggestions to researchers who want to build their own spoken Chinese corpora. Finally, the findings of the comparative analysis of the L2 use of the marker 就是 jiushi will contribute to research on the teaching and learning of interactive spoken Chinese

    Variation, norms and prescribed standard in the Mandarin Chinese spoken in Singapore

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    Variation, norms and prescribed standard in the Mandarin Chinese spoken in Singapore

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    Relatório de estágio do mestrado em Economia, apresentado à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra, sob a orientação de Carlos Carreira e Edgar Silva.No decorrer do estágio curricular, verificou-se o incremento do número de processos de insolvência de empresas-clientes da My Business, a entidade de acolhimento do presente estágio curricular. A recessão económica de 2008-2012 teve um grande impacto na economia portuguesa, refletindo-se na dinâmica das empresas, onde se observam variações significativas das taxas de entrada e saída de empresas e de criação e destruição de emprego nos diversos sectores. Este trabalho tem um duplo objetivo: primeiro, apresentar e enquadrar sectorialmente e regionalmente a entidade de acolhimento; segundo, analisar os efeitos da crise económica na dinâmica da indústria transformadora portuguesa. Na sua concretização adotou-se uma abordagem não experimental, delineando uma via descritiva e exploratória. Entre 2008 e 2012, observou-se um aumento substancial na destruição de emprego relativamente ao período de pré-crise e um pico na taxa de saída de empresas do mercado em 2011, coincidindo com a aplicação do Memorando de Entendimento. A saída de empresas parece ser influenciada negativamente por variáveis como o nível de produtividade e a dimensão da empresa. A entrada de empresas não apresenta qualquer impacto estatisticamente significativo na taxa de risco de saída das empresas. Durante o período de crise, as restrições financeiras das empresas são preponderantes sobre a produtividade no risco de saída

    An investigation of the maintenance and attrition of the ba-construction by native speakers of Chinese in the UK

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    This thesis investigates first language (L1) attrition effects in unbalanced Mandarin bilingual speakers at their early stages of migration in the UK. These bilingual speakers had very short second language (L2) immersion experience (with length of residence (LoR) 0.5-6 years) and self-rated less proficient in L2. They reported using both Mandarin and English frequently for daily life. This thesis examines whether their L1 Mandarin undergoes any attrition effect at such early stages of migration. The unbalanced Mandarin bilinguals were compared to native speakers of Mandarin from their homeland in the perception of different properties of a Mandarin-specific linguistic structure. Results showed the bilingual speakers exhibited more uncertainty in selecting contextually felicitous construction and less accepting of the more marked condition of ba as differential object maker (DOM) as well as the more marked construction of expressions of displacement. These findings suggest that attrition effects can be detected in unbalanced bilingual speakers who are less proficient in L2 and immersed in the L2 environment fairly for just a very short period. In terms of the potential triggers for their norm-divergent performance, results from this thesis indicate a process of simplification of a linguistic phenomenon rather than cross-linguistic influence (language transfer) from English

    Intercultural discourse: a study of language and culture in Chinese-American narrative writing

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    This thesis examines the relationship between language and culture in narrative writing by focusing on a specific group of texts: published narratives written in English by Chinese American authors. These narratives tend to focus on the minority experience and the use of English to depict the ethnic culture magnifies the intricacies of cultural representation. The intimate relationship between language and culture in these texts is underscored by the fact that language is repeatedly singled out as a primary marker of cultural difference.The concept of intercultural communication provides a useful platform from which to study the interconnections between language and culture in narrative writing. Although the concept is mainly applied to spoken discourse, it highlights a number of important aspects of the narratives in this study. Analysis of the texts reveals that intercultural communication is not only a common feature in the narrative worlds as characters from different cultural groups interact but that the texts also become sites of intercultural discourse by foregrounding those characteristics that make them culturally distinctive.The role of language in these texts is closely related to the way they communicate as intercultural narratives. Thus, this research examines how language is used to establish cultural identity and signify cultural difference. It also describes the various ways in which language is stylistically exploited to express ethnicity. In analyzing the relationship between language and culture in these narratives, an approach combining the resources of both stylistics and sociolinguistics is adopted. The cultural significance of discourse patterns and language representation in the narratives can only be fully appreciated with the aid of sociolinguistic knowledge
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