103 research outputs found
Complex systems and the history of the English language
Complexity theory (Mitchell 2009, Kretzschmar 2009) is something that historical linguists not only can use but should use in order to improve the relationship between the speech we observe in historical settings and the generalizations we make from it. Complex systems, as described in physics, ecology, and many other sciences, are made up of massive numbers of components interacting with one another, and this results in self-organization and emergent order. For speech, the “components” of a complex system are all of the possible variant realizations of linguistic features as they are deployed by human agents, speakers and writers. The order that emerges in speech is simply the fact that our use of words and other linguistic features is significantly clustered in the spatial and social and textual groups in which we actually communicate. Order emerges from such systems by means of self-organization, but the order that arises from speech is not the same as what linguists study under the rubric of linguistic structure. In both texts and regional/social groups, the frequency distribution of features occurs as the same pattern: an asymptotic hyperbolic curve (or “A-curve”). Formal linguistic systems, grammars, are thus not the direct result of the complex system, and historical linguists must use complexity to mediate between the language production observed in the community and the grammars we describe. The history of the English language does not proceed as regularly as like clockwork, and an understanding of complex systems helps us to see why and how, and suggests what we can do about it. First, the scaling property of complex systems tells us that there are no representative speakers, and so our observation of any small group of speakers is unlikely to represent any group at a larger scale—and limited evidence is the necessary condition of many of our historical studies. The fact that underlying complex distributions follow the 80/20 rule, i.e. 80% of the word tokens in a data set will be instances of only 20% of the word types, while the other 80% of the word types will amount to only 20% of the tokens, gives us an effective tool for estimating the status of historical states of the language. Such a frequency-based technique is opposed to the typological “fit” technique that relies on a few texts that can be reliably located in space, and which may not account for the crosscutting effects of text type, another dimension in which the 80/20 rule applies. Besides issues of sampling, the frequency-based approach also affects how we can think about change. The A-curve immediately translates to the S-curve now used to describe linguistic change, and explains that “change” cannot reasonably be considered to be a qualitative shift. Instead, we can use to model of “punctuated equilibrium” from evolutionary biology (e.g., see Gould and Eldredge 1993), which suggests that multiple changes occur simultaneously and compete rather than the older idea of “phyletic gradualism” in evolution that corresponds to the traditional method of historical linguistics. The Great Vowel Shift, for example, is a useful overall generalization, but complex systems and punctuated equilibrium explain why we should not expect it ever to be “complete” or to appear in the same form in different places. These applications of complexity can help us to understand and interpret our existing studies better, and suggest how new studies in the history of the English language can be made more valid and reliable
Language in the Common Core
In elementary education, we continue to work towards making the demands of language use (oral or written) explicit to students, especially linguistically and culturally diverse pupils. States\u27 adoption of the English Language Arts (ELA) Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will not support us in improving practices unless teachers\u27 linguistic knowledge is developed. Teachers are the catalyst for change in teaching and learning not standards. Developing teachers\u27 understanding of language can be supported using systemic functional linguistics (SFL). This theory provides the necessary lens for examining how language functions in texts to make meaning. This approach to language should be applied in teaching students the content of the ELA CCSS. Research shows that school-university partnerships using SFL can develop teachers\u27 linguistic knowledge, which transfers to their instruction with students in the classroom
Performance-based Design of Tall Building Envelopes using Competing Wind Load and Wind Flow Criteria
© 2017 The Authors. This paper investigates performance-based tall building design and the development of a combined architectural-urban design method focusing on the effects of wind loads on- and wind flows around tall buildings. The paper provides an overview of related buildings codes and city development design guidelines that define requirements for structural façade wind loading and urban ventilation. A review of performance-based design methods for the generation, analysis and optimization of buildings is also presented. Within this frame, an approach to performance-based tall building envelope design is proposed. The approach is aimed at addressing wind loading and wind impact requirements based on generative parametric modelling and performance analysis that integrates physical parameters at the architectural and urban scales and performance criteria can support filtering and optimization relative to prevailing wind conditions
On becoming a physicist of mind
In 1976, the German Max Planck Society established a new research enterprise in psycholinguistics, which became the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I was fortunate enough to be invited to direct this institute. It enabled me, with my background in visual and auditory psychophysics and the theory of formal grammars and automata, to develop a long-term chronometric endeavor to dissect the process of speaking. It led, among other work, to my book Speaking (1989) and to my research team's article in Brain and Behavioral Sciences “A Theory of Lexical Access in Speech Production” (1999). When I later became president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, I helped initiate the Women for Science research project of the Inter Academy Council, a project chaired by my physicist sister at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. As an emeritus I published a comprehensive History of Psycholinguistics (2013). As will become clear, many people inspired and joined me in these undertakings
Mechanical Translation
Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GN-244
Content-based discovery of multiple structures from episodes of recurrent TV programs based on grammatical inference
International audienceTV program structuring is essential for program indexing and retrieval. Practically, various types of programs lead to a diversity of program structures. In addition, several episodes of a recurrent program might exhibit different structures. Previous work mostly relies on supervised approaches by adopting prior knowledge about program structures. In this paper, we address the problem of unsupervised program structuring with minimal prior knowledge about the programs. We propose an approach to identify multiple structures and infer structural grammars for recurrent TV programs of different types. It involves three sub-problems: i) we determine the structural elements contained in programs with minimal knowledge about which type of elements may be present; ii) we identify multiple structures for the programs if any and model the structures of programs; iii) we generate the structural grammar for each corresponding structure. Finally, we conduct use cases on real recurrent programs of three different types to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed approach
Linguistic meta-theory the formal and empirical conditions of acceptability of linguistic theories and descriptions
Most linguists acknowledge, explicitly or implicitly,
the relevance of epistemological questions in
linguistics but relatively few have given more than a
cursory, ad hoc or incomplete consideration to them.
The work of one of those few, Jan Mulder, forms the
starting point for much of the present discussion.
Epistemological considerations arise in many contexts
in linguistics and in many guises. It is an epistemological
matter whenever we test the adequacy of a
description or the acceptability of a theory. Epistemological
considerations are latent whenever we discuss
the form or the content of linguistic theories
and descriptions or their interrelations. The comparison
of different approaches to linguistics inevitably
raises epistemological questions concerning our
approach to linguistics or our presuppositions about it.
These questions are of a general nature and transcend
questions about particular linguistic theories and descriptions.
These epistemological questions force us to
consider what we take linguistics to be. In considering
questions of the type mentioned we are forced, for
example, to analyse what we mean by a "linguistic
theory", a "linguistic description" and what phenomena
we are aiming to understand. We are, furthermore,
forced to analyse the constraints which a scientific
attitude places upon linguistic theorising
and description-building. It is these questions concerning
the acceptability of linguistic theories and
descriptions which we call linguistic meta-theory.
This thesis falls into five main parts. Firstly,
in Chapter One, we consider the nature and scope of
linguistic meta-theory. Secondly, in Chapter Two, we
look at a number of previous approaches to the subject.
Other important contributions are discussed as they
arise in the text. Thirdly, in Chapters Three and
Four, we consider in detail the major meta-theoretical
distinctions in linguistics and their consequences.
In particular, we distinguish linguistic theories
from linguistic descriptions and discuss the nature of
linguistic phenomena. The view is put forward that
linguistics is a scientific subject. The meaning of
this assertion is analysed and the interrelations of
linguistic theories, descriptions and phenomena are
considered in the light of this analysis. The main
epistemological requirement that is put forward and
defended is that of the empiricism of linguistics.
Certain changes in our view of the philosophy of science
and in our view of the form of linguistic theories
and descriptions follow from the conjunction of
these major meta-theoretical positions.
Fourthly, we consider the main meta-theoretical
considerations concerning theories (Chapter Five) and
reject a widespread view of linguistic theory as a
non-empirical study (Chapter Six) and we consider the
main meta-theoretical conditions relating to linguistic
descriptions and some practical examples of description
-building consonant with the general positions adopted
in Chapter Seven. In Chapter Eight, we look at a concrete
example of theory-building in the light of the
meta-theoretical conditions of acceptability previously
set up. We are especially concerned to show how a
theory can meet the condition of being "applicable" or
"indirectly scientific" through the establishment of
acceptable empirical descriptions consonant with the
meta-theoretical conditions on descriptions considered
earlier.
The view that linguistics is a science implies
that we must be concerned with the empirical testing of
descriptions and, so, the fifth part of the work is
devoted to methodology. In Chapter Nine, we defend
the role and necessity of methodology in linguistics
and set up the logical framework of relations between
the methodology and theory descriptions and phenomena.
In Chapter Ten, we examine two of the known types of
empirical testing and their shortcomings. Finally, in
Chapter Eleven, we give an example of the successful
and correct application of a methodology in order to
bring out the nature of empirical testing and to demonstrate
its feasibility within a scientific linguistics
of the sort we imagine
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