Where are you talking about? Advances and Challenges of Geographic Analysis of Text with Application to Disease Monitoring

The Natural Language Processing task we focus on in this thesis is Geoparsing. Geoparsing is the process of extraction and grounding of toponyms (place names). Consider this sentence: "The victims of the Spanish earthquake off the coast of Malaga were of American and Mexican origin." Four toponyms will be extracted (called Geotagging) and grounded to their geographic coordinates (called Toponym Resolution). However, our research goes further than any previous work by showing how to distinguish the literal place(s) of the event (Spain, Malaga) from other linguistic types/uses such as nationalities (Mexican, American), improving downstream task accuracy. We consolidate and extend the Standard Evaluation Framework, discuss key research problems, then present concrete solutions in order to advance each stage of geoparsing. For geotagging, as well as training a SOTA neural Location-NER tagger, we simplify Metonymy Resolution with a novel minimalist feature extraction combined with an LSTM-based classifier, matching SOTA results. For toponym resolution, we deploy the latest deep learning methods to achieve SOTA performance by augmenting neural models with hitherto unused geographic features called Map Vectors. With each research project, we provide high-quality datasets and system prototypes, further building resources in this field. We then show how these geoparsing advances coupled with our proposed Intra-Document Analysis can be used to associate news articles with locations in order to monitor the spread of public health threats. To this end, we evaluate our research contributions with production data from a real-time downstream application to improve geolocation of news events for disease monitoring. The data was made available to us by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which operates one such system called MediSys that processes incoming news articles in order to monitor threats to public health and make these available to a variety of governmental, business and non-profit organisations. We also discuss steps towards an end-to-end, automated news monitoring system and make actionable recommendations for future work. In summary, the thesis aims are twofold: (1) Generate original geoparsing research aimed at advancing each stage of the pipeline by addressing pertinent challenges with concrete solutions and actionable proposals. (2) Demonstrate how this research can be applied to news event monitoring to increase the efficacy of existing biosurveillance systems, e.g. European Commission’s MediSys.I was generously funded by DREAM CDT, which was funded by NERC of UKRI

A direct comparison of metonymic and metaphoric relations in adjective–noun pairs

Theories on metaphor and metonymy make different claims about the nature of the underlying processes in the computation of these two types of language use, i.e., whether they differ or not. Experimental investigations of metonymy and metaphor have generally not compared these two phenomena in a straightforward manner among others due to structural variability. To overcome this shortcoming, we conducted a study in German that used adjective–noun combinations to contrast metaphor and metonymy directly in an ERP-study during reading for comprehension. By combining three different nouns with one adjective in predicative position we construed adjective–noun pairs with literal (the baby was lively), metonymic (the eyes were lively) or metaphoric (the speed was lively) relations. The data revealed a more pronounced N400 for the metaphoric relations in comparison to the literal controls. We argue that the enhanced cost for metaphors reflects the activation process of two unrelated domains via mapping or extended predication. The metonymic adjective–noun pairs only showed a small trend to differ from the other two conditions. This might indicate that metonymies require mapping processes or shifts only within a single domain or domain matrix. Moreover, in contrast to previous studies, we did not find a Late Positivity. We explain this result with regard to different discourse representational consequences arising during combinatorial processing

Stylistic Use of Phraseological Units in Discourse

This interdisciplinary study presents the cutting-edge state of theoretical and applied research in phraseology. The author elaborates key terminology and theoretical concepts of phraseology, while challenging some prevailing assumptions. Exploration of phraseological meaning across sentence boundaries is supported by ample textual illustrations of stylistic use ranging from Old English to Modern English. The book contains innovative research in the discourse-level features of phraseological units from a cognitive perspective, along with creative use of phraseological metaphor, metonymy and allusion, including multimodal discourse. The author argues for the need to raise stylistic awareness among teachers and learners, translators, lexicographers and advertisers. This is the revised and extensively expanded new edition of 'Phraseological Units in Discourse: Towards Applied Stylistics' (2001). It received honourable mention at the ESSE Book Award 2012

The plasticity of race : microaggressions and derridean postracism

This essay explores Jacques Derrida's nonteleological conception of postracism, which he elucidated in his unpublished response to Etienne Balibar's keynote address at the tRACEs conference held at UC Irvine in 2003. Racism, for Derrida, is intrinsically "plastic," which predisposes it to future metonymic forms even if racism stricto sensu were to end. Building on his observations, I argue that these metonymies also extend historically backward. The metaphysical distinction between physis and nomos that he identifies as the condition of racism also provides the basis for family: the most ancient and familiar form through which racism expresses itself. Racism is originarily plastic. In conjunction with my reading of Derrida, I critique the contemporary conflation of racism and white supremacy; the doctrinaire view that racism is only institutional (prejudice plus power); and the discourse of microaggressions, whose outsized political currency arguably transforms them into quasi-macroaggressions by conceiving them as expressions of white supremacy

Referential metonymy: Cognitive bases and communicative functions

Referential metonymy is a variety of figurative usage wherein our apprehension of relations of contiguity (e.g. the ‘distinctive property-individual’ relation) is exploited in order to pick out a specific target referent in the communicative context: The green trousers (= man wearing green trousers) is doing the Macarena with gusto. This thesis begins by providing an in-depth theoretical treatment of referential metonymy, exploring (i) the conceptual basis of the phenomenon, and how ‘contiguity’ may best be understood; (ii) the relationship between referential metonymy and other ‘contiguity-based’ usages of language (e.g. noun-noun compounds and conversions); (iii) current theoretical approaches to metonymy, namely Bowerman’s (2019) ‘repurposing’ account and Wilson and Falkum’s (2015, 2020, forthcoming) ‘neologism’ account; (iv) both metonymically-derived nicknames (e.g. ‘Red Shirt’) and the metonymic usage of established proper names (e.g. ‘a Picasso’ = a painting by Picasso); and (v) the relationship between metonymy and ellipsis. The theoretical claims I develop are then empirically examined, with an acquisition focus. First, I present a corpus study of two young children’s spontaneous production, in a naturalistic setting, of referential metonymy and other related phenomena (noun-noun compounds, conversions, metaphor, etc.) (Eleanor: 2;6-2;12, Thomas: 2;6-3;12). Key findings include: examples of referential metonymy and contiguity-based naming from 2;6, and striking evidence of metalinguistic awareness before age four. Second, I report a series of experiments into metonymy comprehension and production in Japanese adult learners of English as an additional language. Key findings include: support for the claim that metonym is a useful ‘gap-filling’ strategy during acquisition. Finally, directions for future research are indicated; in particular, examining metonymy comprehension and production in atypical development (e.g. ASD), and systematically comparing referential metonymy with referential metaphor (e.g. ‘the helmet’ = metonymy: woman wearing a cycle helmet/metaphor: woman with a lacquered bouffant resembling a military helmet)

Can the Undead Speak?: Language Death as a Matter of (Not) Knowing

This text studies how language death and metaphor algorithmically collude to propagate our intellectual culture. In describing how language builds upon and ultimately necessitates its own ruins to our frustration and subjugation, I define dead language in general and then, following a reading of Benjamin’s “The Task of the Translator,” explore the instance of indexical translation. Inventing the language in pain, a de-signified or designated language located between the frank and the esoteric language theories in the mediaeval of examples of Dante Alighieri and Hildegaard von Bingen, the text acquires the prime modernist example of dead language appropriation in ἀλήθεια and φύσις from the earlier fascistic works of Martin Heidegger. It synthesizes the mood of language death underpinning intellection generally and the linguistic functions of nomination, necessitation, and equation, in particular. These functions are drawn from the tension located between significance and designificance and expounded in the mapping of Daseinlichkeit

Teaching language as metaphor:: the potential of current research into metaphor and cognition for classroom practice

Recent developments in cognitive linguistics have revealed how abstract meaning in language is shaped by bodily experience. We understand and express such concepts as time, causation, direction or love through metaphors that are shaped out of our sense of ourselves as embodied creatures (Lakoff 1987, Johnson 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993). The diachronic analysis of syntax also shows how metaphor shifts lexical meaning towards grammatical meaning (Heine 1997). For example, in English and other Indo-European languages, we use what Heine (1993) identifies as a propositional schema of possession to express how in having taken hold of an action, we have completed it. Thus we grammaticalise a possessive 'have' (haber, avoir, etc.) or 'ter' (hold in Portuguese) to express an immediate past, or finally, as in modem French, the past itself Applied linguists are now asking how this cognitivist re-examination of the nature of meaning creation should impact upon language teaching (e.g. Low 1988, Lindostromberg 1991, Dudley Evans and St John 1998, and Boers 2000). One suggestion is that conceptual metaphors might prove an effective mechanism to help learners of specialist language group some forms of specialist lexis, using a conceptual metaphor such as 'cash is liquid', for example, to help students understand the language of finance, clustering and organising such terms as 'capital liquidity' and 'company floatation’. This thesis carries forward this exploration in a more comprehensive manner. It first examines the nature of metaphor in order to produce a useable construct. This construct differs from some mainstream cognitive views (e.g. Gibbs 1994 and Lakoff and Johnson 1999) in that it follows Glucksberg and Keysar (1993) in relating metaphor construction to class inclusion, and Glucksberg and McClone (1999) in affording similarity a role in metaphor interpretation. It treats metaphor as holding together three aspects of pedagogy: the nature of what is taught, the mechanisms through which it is learnt, and the learner's affective relationship to both. The picture of language and the language learner's mind that is produced rejects notions of adult acquisition and focuses upon the role of conscious learning through metaphor-based techniques. In the role of a participant observer, the author recounts how they implemented this in the classroom

Representation and processing of semantic ambiguity

One of the established findings in the psycholinguistic literature is that semantic ambiguity (e.g., “dog/tree bark”) slows word comprehension in neutral/ minimal context, though it is not entirely clear why this happens. Under the “semantic competition” account, this ambiguity disadvantage effect is due to competition between multiple semantic representations in the race for activation. Under the alternative “decision-making” account, it is due to decision-making difficulties in response selection. This thesis tests the two accounts by investigating in detail the ambiguity disadvantage in semantic relatedness decisions. Chapters 2-4 concentrate on homonyms, words with multiple unrelated meanings. The findings show that the ambiguity disadvantage effect arises only when the different meanings of homonyms are of comparable frequency (e.g., “football/electric fan”), and are therefore initially activated in parallel. Critically, homonymy has this effect during semantic activation of the ambiguous word, not during response selection. This finding, in particular, refutes any idea that the ambiguity disadvantage is due to decision making in response selection. Chapters 5 and 6 concentrate on polysemes, words with multiple related senses. The findings show that the ambiguity disadvantage effect arises for polysemes with irregular sense extension (e.g., “restaurant/website menu”), but not for polysemes with regular (e.g., “fluffy/marinated rabbit”) or figurative sense extension (e.g., “wooden/authoritative chair”). The latter two escape competition because they have only one semantic representation for the dominant sense, with rules of sense extension to derive the alternative sense on-line. Taken together, this thesis establishes that the ambiguity disadvantage is due to semantic competition but is restricted to some forms of ambiguity only. This is because ambiguous words differ in how their meanings are represented and processed, as delineated in this work