Seeking systematicity in variation : theoretical and methodological considerations on the “variety” concept

One centennial discussion in linguistics concerns whether languages, or linguistic systems, are, essentially, homogeneous or rather show “structured heterogeneity.” In this contribution, the question is addressed whether and how sociolinguistically defined systems (or ‘varieties’) are to be distinguished in a heterogeneous linguistic landscape: to what extent can structure be found in the myriads of language variants heard in everyday language use? We first elaborate on the theoretical importance of this ‘variety question’ by relating it to current approaches from, among others, generative linguistics (competing grammars), sociolinguistics (style-shifting, polylanguaging), and cognitive linguistics (prototype theory). Possible criteria for defining and detecting varieties are introduced, which are subsequently tested empirically, using a self-compiled corpus of spoken Dutch in West Flanders (Belgium). This empirical study demonstrates that the speech repertoire of the studied West Flemish speakers consists of four varieties, viz. a fairly stable dialect variety, a more or less virtual standard Dutch variety, and two intermediate varieties, which we will label ‘cleaned-up dialect’ and ‘substandard.’ On the methodological level, this case-study underscores the importance of speech corpora comprising both inter- and intra-speaker variation on the one hand, and the merits of triangulating qualitative and quantitative approaches on the other

LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION ON JAVANESE: A SHIFT TOWARDS RECOGNIZING AND CELEBRATING COLLOQUIAL VARIETIES

Javanese has benefitted from a long history of linguistic study. To focus on grammars, Javanese boasts grammars in French by Favre (1866); in Dutch by Kiliaan (1919), Prijohoetomo (1937), Arps et al. (2000); in Indonesian by Suharno (1982), Sudaryanto (1991; ed), Wedhawati et al. (2006); in English by Horne (1961), Keeler (1992), Robson (2014); among others. Although Javanese already has a stable scholarly tradition, the focus has been almost exclusively on the Standard variety, spoken in the principalities of Yogyakarta and Solo, constituting a small sliver of the attested language. Given its vast dialectal variation, there is still a huge need for linguistic research on Javanese. With the advent of establishing language documentation as a branch of linguistics (Himmelmann 1991), some progress has been made in the documentation and description of colloquial varieties: for example, Suwadji (1981) on Javanese varieties on the north coast of Central Java; Conners (2008) on Tengger Javanese; Hoogervorst (2010) on Surabayan Javanese; Vander Klok (2012) on Paciran Javanese. These works represent a shift towards the recognition and validation of non-standard varieties of Javanese, which were unnoticed in the past. We advocate for the continuation of this trend. In particular, we present our work on the documentation of two colloquial varieties of Javanese, Malang Javanese and Semarang Javanese, for which the outcome of this project is a reference grammar. We end by highlighting the importance of such documentation, especially of non-standard varieties, for language maintenance: even large languages are susceptible to language endangerment, and Javanese is no exception (e.g. Kurniasih 2006; Smith-Hefner 2009; Cohn et al. 2013)

Towards an implementable dependency grammar

The aim of this paper is to define a dependency grammar framework which is both linguistically motivated and computationally parsable. See the demo at http://www.conexor.fi/analysers.html#testingComment: 10 page

Meaningfulness, the unsaid and translatability. Instead of an introduction

The present paper opens this topical issue on translation techniques by drawing a theoretical basis for the discussion of translational issues in a linguistic perspective. In order to forward an audience- oriented definition of translation, I will describe different forms of linguistic variability, highlighting how they present different difficulties to translators, with an emphasis on the semantic and communicative complexity that a source text can exhibit. The problem is then further discussed through a comparison between Quine's radically holistic position and the translatability principle supported by such semanticists as Katz. General translatability — at the expense of additional complexity — is eventually proposed as a possible synthesis of this debate. In describing the meaningfulness levels of source texts through Hjelmslevian semiotics, and his semiotic hierarchy in particular, the paper attempts to go beyond denotative semiotic, and reframe some translational issues in a connotative semiotic and metasemiotic perspective

ATMS-Based architecture for stylistics-aware text generation

This thesis is concerned with the effect of surface stylistic constraints (SSC) on syntactic and lexical choice within a unified generation architecture. Despite the fact that these issues have been investigated by researchers in the field, little work has been done with regard to system architectures that allow surface form constraints to influence earlier linguistic or even semantic decisions made throughout the NLG process. By SSC we mean those stylistic requirements that are known beforehand but cannot be tested until after the utterance or — in some lucky cases — until a proper linearised part of it has been generated. These include collocational constraints, text size limits, and poetic aspects such as rhyme and metre to name a few. This thesis introduces a new NLG architecture that can be sensitive to surface stylistic requirements. It brings together a well-founded linguistic theory that has been used in many successful NLG systems (Systemic Functional Linguistics, SFL) and an exist¬ ing AI search mechanism (the Assumption-based Truth Maintenance System, ATMS) which caches important search information and avoids work duplication. To this end, the thesis explores the logical relation between the grammar formalism and the search technique. It designs, based on that logical connection, an algorithm for the automatic translation of systemic grammar networks to ATMS dependency networks. The generator then uses the translated networks to generate natural language texts with a high paraphrasing power as a direct result of its ability to pursue multiple paths simultaneously. The thesis approaches the crucial notion of choice differently to previ¬ ous systems using SFL. It relaxes the choice process in that choosers are not obliged to deterministically choose a single alternative allowing SSC to influence the final lexical and syntactic decisions. The thesis also develops a situation-action framework for the specification of stylistic requirements independently of the micro-semantic input. The user or application can state what surface requirements they wish to impose and the ATMS-based generator then attempts to satisfy these constraints. Finally, a prototype ATMS-based generation system embodying the ideas presented in this thesis is implemented and evaluated. We examine the system's stylistic sensitivity by testing it on three different sets of stylistic requirements, namely: collocational, size, and poetic constraints