Nominalization and Alternations in Biomedical Language

Background: This paper presents data on alternations in the argument structure of common domain-specific verbs and their associated verbal nominalizations in the PennBioIE corpus. Alternation is the term in theoretical linguistics for variations in the surface syntactic form of verbs, e.g. the different forms of stimulate in FSH stimulates follicular development and follicular development is stimulated by FSH. The data is used to assess the implications of alternations for biomedical text mining systems and to test the fit of the sublanguage model to biomedical texts. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined 1,872 tokens of the ten most common domain-specific verbs or their zerorelated nouns in the PennBioIE corpus and labelled them for the presence or absence of three alternations. We then annotated the arguments of 746 tokens of the nominalizations related to these verbs and counted alternations related to the presence or absence of arguments and to the syntactic position of non-absent arguments. We found that alternations are quite common both for verbs and for nominalizations. We also found a previously undescribed alternation involving an adjectival present participle. Conclusions/Significance: We found that even in this semantically restricted domain, alternations are quite common, and alternations involving nominalizations are exceptionally diverse. Nonetheless, the sublanguage model applies to biomedica

Dialogicity in Individual and Institutional Scientific Blogs

The paper focuses on variation across institutional and individual scientific blogs, i.e., blogs that are managed by journals, magazines or associations involved in the dissemination of scientific information and blogs that are managed by individual researchers. Using comparable corpora of posts from different scientific disciplines, look in particular at markers of dialogicity, i.e., the representation of participants (markers of self-reference, reader-reference, as well as representation of the scientific community and markers of attribution), markers of communicative action (organizational units and metastatements), and evaluative dialogue (evaluative lexis and dialogic contraction or expansion). Concordance analysis of keywords and key-phrases (as calculated by Wordsmith Tools 8.0) shows that blogs managed by individual scientists emphasize personal voice and interpersonal elements, while institutional blogs are comparatively more informational. Dialogicity markers are shown to contribute to defining how bloggers manage subjective and intersubjective positioning and construct their credibility, thus defining the nature of their relation to the audience and ultimately the functions of blogging

Scientific and Parascientific Communication

There is an increasing need for scholars and scientists to not only conduct research that has a significant impact on society but also to communicate that research widely. Such research outreach also contributes to engaging wide, diverse audiences. As such, the discursive practices have become more and more complex, multimodal, and multimedia-based for scholars and scientists. Scientific communication is currently shared to a great extent with peers in technology-mediated contexts, which allows formal scientific publications to be opened to public viewing. Alongside this so-called “primary output” (Puschmann 2015), new ways, modes, and discourses are being used to bring science closer to a lay audience and promote citizen participation. The affordances of existing and emergent platforms are fostering a change in audience roles, and with it, the erosion of boundaries between scientific communities and the general public, entailing the dissemination of scientific information and knowledge beyond the former (Trench 2008). We are thus witnessing the development of discursive practices which may be referred to as instances of “parascientific communication”. These practices transcend previously well-delimited communities and spheres of communication. Parascientific genres are evolving based on authoritative or expert knowledge (communicated through conventional, sanctioned scientific genres) but not subjected to the filters of internal, formal science communication (Kelly and Miller 2016). This Special Issue seeks to gain a better understanding of the purposes and specific features of these new scientific communication practices

The influence of neo-liberal assumptions on media treatment of political economy in Ireland

This thesis examines how neo-liberal assumptions frame the way in which matters of political economy are represented and discussed in Irish media The structure of the thesis is fourfold. The first part gives an overview of what is meant by neo-hberalism and drawing, in particular, on the work of neo-liberals Hayek and Friedman outlines its significance in terms of political economy, political practice and ideology. The second part presents an overview of analytical approaches to media analysis, and describes this study’s theoretical and methodological application of a sociologically engaged, critical discourse analysis framework. The third, and most substantive, part analyses, and compares, the print, radio and television content of different Irish media. This section examines print media coverage of two European Union summits, print media coverage of the launch of the National Development Plan and the Special Savings Incentive Scheme, editorial comment about the privatisation of Telecom Eireann, and radio and television discussion (from November 2001) about the “downturn” in the economy. Based on the empirical findings, part four offers a theoretically informed account of neo-liberal influence in an Irish media and socio-political context

Time, events and temporal relations: an empirical model for temporal processing of Italian texts

The aim of this work is the elaboration a computational model for the identification of temporal relations in text/discourse to be used as a component in more complex systems for Open-Domain Question-Answers, Information Extraction and Summarization. More specifically, the thesis will concentrate on the relationships between the various elements which signal temporal relations in Italian texts/discourses, on their roles and how they can be exploited. Time is a pervasive element of human life. It is the primary element thanks to which we are able to observe, describe and reason about what surrounds us and the world. The absence of a correct identification of the temporal ordering of what is narrated and/or described may result in a bad comprehension, which can lead to a misunderstanding. Normally, texts/discourses present situations standing in a particular temporal ordering. Whether these situations precede, or overlap or are included one within the other is inferred during the general process of reading and understanding. Nevertheless, to perform this seemingly easy task, we are taking into account a set of complex information involving different linguistic entities and sources of knowledge. A wide variety of devices is used in natural languages to convey temporal information. Verb tense, temporal prepositions, subordinate conjunctions, adjectival phrases are some of the most obvious. Nevertheless even these obvious devices have different degrees of temporal transparency, which may sometimes be not so obvious as it can appear at a quick and superficial analysis. One of the main shortcomings of previous research on temporal relations is represented by the fact that they concentrated only on a particular discourse segment, namely narrative discourse, disregarding the fact that a text/discourse is composed by different types of discourse segments and relations. A good theory or framework for temporal analysis must take into account all of them. In this work, we have concentrated on the elaboration of a framework which could be applied to all text/discourse segments, without paying too much attention to their type, since we claim that temporal relations can be recovered in every kind of discourse segments and not only in narrative ones. The model we propose is obtained by mixing together theoretical assumptions and empirical data, collected by means of two tests submitted to a total of 35 subjects with different backgrounds. The main results we have obtained from these empirical studies are: (i.) a general evaluation of the difficulty of the task of recovering temporal relations; (ii.) information on the level of granularity of temporal relations; (iii.) a saliency-based order of application of the linguistic devices used to express the temporal relations between two eventualities; (iv.) the proposal of tense temporal polysemy, as a device to identify the set of preferences which can assign unique values to possibly multiple temporal relations. On the basis of the empirical data, we propose to enlarge the set of classical finely grained interval relations (Allen, 1983) by including also coarse-grained temporal relations (Freska, 1992). Moreover, there could be cases in which we are not able to state in a reliable way if there exists a temporal relation or what the particular relation between two entities is. To overcome this issue we have adopted the proposal by Mani (2007) which allows the system to have differentiated levels of temporal representation on the basis of the temporal granularity associated with each discourse segment. The lack of an annotated corpus for eventualities, temporal expressions and temporal relations in Italian represents the biggest shortcomings of this work which has prevented the implementation of the model and its evaluation. Nevertheless, we have been able to conduct a series of experiments for the validation of procedures for the further realization of a working prototype. In addition to this, we have been able to implement and validate a working prototype for the spotting of temporal expressions in texts/discourses

Framing Covid-19: how fact-checking circulate on the Facebook far-right

This research focus on how fact-checking links circulate on Facebook groups/pages that also shared disinformation, particularly, the ones affiliated with the far-right. Through a three-step method that included content analysis, discursive analysis and social network analysis, we analyzed public 860 posts and found out that: while fact-checking does circulate on these groups, they tend to be framed as disinformation through posts on far-right ones, which we call “explicit framing”; the far-right groups tend to cluster around specific fact-checking links that are mostly shared without a framing text, but whose theme support their own ideological narrative (which we call “silent framing”) and; both explicit and silent framing tend to happen through populist discourse connections

Climate in the news: The British press and the discursive construction of the greenhouse effect.

The media have a crucial role in the production, reproduction and change of ideas and are a central marketplace of arguments for the public and political construction of climate change. The thesis aims to analyse the various representations of this complex issue in the British 'quality' press, more specifically in the Guardian, The Independent and The Times. Using an innovative framework for discourse analysis, the thesis deconstructs the ways the science and the politics of climate change were reported and debated in the press between 1985 and 1997. Critically reading media discourse in order to understand how the interpretations advanced by various social actors are amplified or challenged by newspapers, to shed light on to how scientific knowledge is presented to the public in the news and how this relates to value systems in the media, as well as to evaluate the role of the media in consolidating or contesting political options and ideological standings are the thesis' main goals. My analytical approach to discourse integrates various dimensions and tools of analysis, with highlight to discursive strategies and discursive effects, and ideological standpoints. Such framework has both a synchronic and diachronic scope. Discourse analysis indicates the existence of important differences between the three newspapers' depictions of climate change - they truly promoted alternative versions of reality. I suggest that such differences are associated to ideological cultures that are sustained by media institutions and by the individuals they give voice to (journalists and other contributors). In fact, together with the news medium, the author of the article seems to be a central factor explaining variations in the framing and portrayal of climate change. The thesis helps us know the extent to which the British 'quality' press legitimates certain political options, positions and values, or promotes a valuable critique of various alternatives

Case-linking : a theory of case and verb diathesis applied to classical Sanskrit.

Thesis. 1979. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES.Vita.Bibliography: leaves 424-432.Ph.D