Analyzing Prosody with Legendre Polynomial Coefficients

This investigation demonstrates the effectiveness of Legendre polynomial coefficients representing prosodic contours within the context of two different tasks: nativeness classification and sarcasm detection. By making use of accurate representations of prosodic contours to answer fundamental linguistic questions, we contribute significantly to the body of research focused on analyzing prosody in linguistics as well as modeling prosody for machine learning tasks. Using Legendre polynomial coefficient representations of prosodic contours, we answer prosodic questions about differences in prosody between native English speakers and non-native English speakers whose first language is Mandarin. We also learn more about prosodic qualities of sarcastic speech. We additionally perform machine learning classification for both tasks, (achieving an accuracy of 72.3% for nativeness classification, and achieving 81.57% for sarcasm detection). We recommend that linguists looking to analyze prosodic contours make use of Legendre polynomial coefficients modeling; the accuracy and quality of the resulting prosodic contour representations makes them highly interpretable for linguistic analysis

Juncture prosody across languages: Similar production but dissimilar perception

How do speakers of languages with different intonation systems produce and perceive prosodic junctures in sentences with identical structural ambiguity? Native speakers of English and of Mandarin produced potentially ambiguous sentences with a prosodic juncture either earlier in the utterance (e.g., “He gave her # dog biscuits,” “他给她#狗饼干 ”), or later (e.g., “He gave her dog # biscuits,” “他给她狗 #饼干 ”). These productiondata showed that prosodic disambiguation is realised very similarly in the two languages, despite some differences in the degree to which individual juncture cues (e.g., pausing) were favoured. In perception experiments with a new disambiguation task, requiring speeded responses to select the correct meaning for structurally ambiguous sentences, language differences in disambiguation response time appeared: Mandarin speakers correctly disambiguated sentences with earlier juncture faster than those with later juncture, while English speakers showed the reverse. Mandarin-speakers with L2 English did not show their native-language response time pattern when they heard the English ambiguous sentences. Thus even with identical structural ambiguity and identically cued production, prosodic juncture perception across languages can differ

Exploring the prosodic and syntactic aspects of Mandarin-English Code switching

L’alternance codique (Code-switching, CS) est l’un des comportements naturels les plus courants chez les bilingues. Les linguistes ont exploré les contraintes derrière l’alternance codique (CS) pour expliquer ce comportement. Au cours des dernières décennies, la recherche a plutôt été axée sur les contraintes syntaxiques et ce n’est que récemment que les contraintes prosodiques ont commencé à attirer l’attention des linguistes. Puisque la paire de langues choisie est moins étudiée dans le domaine de recherche sur la CS, les études sur la CS mandarin-anglais sont limitées en ce qui concerne les deux contraintes. Ainsi, cette étude explore à la fois les contraintes prosodiques et les schémas syntaxiques de cette paire de langues grâce à une base de données naturelle sur l’alternance codique. Prosodiquement, l’étude applique une approche fondée sur l’information (information-based approach) et utilise une unité fondamentale, l’unité d’intonation (Intonation Unit, IU), pour mener l’analyse. Le résultat de 10,6 % d’IU bilingue (BIU) se révèle fiable et offre des preuves solides que l’alternance codique a tendance à avoir lieu aux frontières de l’IU chez les bilingues. Les résultats soutiennent le travail précurseur de Shenk (2006) à partir d’une paire de langues inexplorée (mandarin-anglais). De plus, cette étude développe des solutions au problème de subjectivité et au problème d’adéquation de la base de données afin de renforcer la fiabilité des résultats. D’un point de vue syntaxique, l’étude examine les schémas syntaxiques aux points de CS de la paire de langues mandarin-anglais en utilisant des données recueillies auprès d’une communauté bilingue rarement étudiée. Un schéma syntaxique spécifique à cette paire de langues a été observé en fonction des résultats, mais l’étude suggère que ce schéma ait perturbé les résultats finaux. L’étude comporte une analyse avec les résultats de l’aspect prosodique et de l’aspect syntaxique. Lorsque les résultats divergents sont éliminés, on peut observer un résultat plus solide qui soutient davantage l’argument de la contrainte prosodique.Code-switching (CS) is one of the most common natural behaviors among bilinguals. Linguists have been exploring the constraints behind CS to explain this behaviour, and while syntactic constraints have been the focus for decades, prosodic constraints were only studied more in depth recently. As a less common language pair in CS research, studies on Mandarin-English CS are limited for both constraints. Thus, this study explores the prosodic constraints and syntactic patterns of this language pair with a natural CS database. Prosodically, this study applies the information-based approach and its fundamental unit, Intonation Unit (IU), to conduct the analysis. The result of 10.6% bilingual IU (BIU) proves to be reliable and offers solid evidence that bilinguals tend to code-switch at IU boundaries. This supports the pioneer work of Shenk (2006) from the unexplored Mandarin-English language pair. In addition to this, the study develops solutions to deal with the subjectivity problem and the database appropriateness problem in this approach to strengthen the validity of the results. Syntactically, this study investigates the syntactic patterns at switching points on the Mandarin-English language pair using data collected from a rarely investigated bilingual community. Based on the results, a syntactic pattern specific to this language pair was observed and this study suggests it disrupted the final results. This study conducts an analysis with the results of both the prosodic aspect and the syntactic aspect. When the interfering results are eliminated, a more solid outcome can be observed which provides greater support to the prosodic constraint argument

Proceedings 2016: Selected papers from the twentieth college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature

"Celebrating Voices - past • present • future": Selected papers from the annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature at the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (2016).Selected papers from the annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature at the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.Support for the conference was provided by the UH College of Language, Linguistics & Literature and the National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Negative vaccine voices in Swedish social media

Vaccinations are one of the most significant interventions to public health, but vaccine hesitancy creates concerns for a portion of the population in many countries, including Sweden. Since discussions on vaccine hesitancy are often taken on social networking sites, data from Swedish social media are used to study and quantify the sentiment among the discussants on the vaccination-or-not topic during phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of all the posts analyzed a majority showed a stronger negative sentiment, prevailing throughout the whole of the examined period, with some spikes or jumps due to the occurrence of certain vaccine-related events distinguishable in the results. Sentiment analysis can be a valuable tool to track public opinions regarding the use, efficacy, safety, and importance of vaccination