Inclusion, Contrast and Polysemy in Dictionaries: The Relationship between Theory, Language Use and Lexicographic Practice

This paper explores the lexicographic representation of a type of polysemy that arises when the meaning of one lexical item can either include or contrast with the meaning of another, as in the case of dog/bitch, shoe/boot, finger/thumb and animal/bird. A survey of how such pairs are represented in monolingual English dictionaries showed that dictionaries mostly represent as explicitly polysemous those lexical items whose broader and narrower readings are more distinctive and clearly separable in definitional terms. They commonly only represented the broader readings for terms that are in fact frequently used in the narrower reading, as shown by data from the British National Corpus

ForestHash: Semantic Hashing With Shallow Random Forests and Tiny Convolutional Networks

Hash codes are efficient data representations for coping with the ever growing amounts of data. In this paper, we introduce a random forest semantic hashing scheme that embeds tiny convolutional neural networks (CNN) into shallow random forests, with near-optimal information-theoretic code aggregation among trees. We start with a simple hashing scheme, where random trees in a forest act as hashing functions by setting `1' for the visited tree leaf, and `0' for the rest. We show that traditional random forests fail to generate hashes that preserve the underlying similarity between the trees, rendering the random forests approach to hashing challenging. To address this, we propose to first randomly group arriving classes at each tree split node into two groups, obtaining a significantly simplified two-class classification problem, which can be handled using a light-weight CNN weak learner. Such random class grouping scheme enables code uniqueness by enforcing each class to share its code with different classes in different trees. A non-conventional low-rank loss is further adopted for the CNN weak learners to encourage code consistency by minimizing intra-class variations and maximizing inter-class distance for the two random class groups. Finally, we introduce an information-theoretic approach for aggregating codes of individual trees into a single hash code, producing a near-optimal unique hash for each class. The proposed approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art hashing methods for image retrieval tasks on large-scale public datasets, while performing at the level of other state-of-the-art image classification techniques while utilizing a more compact and efficient scalable representation. This work proposes a principled and robust procedure to train and deploy in parallel an ensemble of light-weight CNNs, instead of simply going deeper.Comment: Accepted to ECCV 201

Defining Law Terms: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

The translation practice trends towards legal definitions seem to be more and more informed by the globalization and ‘Europeanisation’ processes now constituting a still broader context of legal communication rather than confined to the text of a legal instrument itself

The Southern Dutch dialect dictionaries

The article on the three dictionaries of the southern Dutch dialects is divided into two parts. In the first part Joep Kruijsen (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) treats the history of the Woordenboek van de Brabantse Dialecten (Dictionary of the Brabant Dialects), the Woordenboek van de Limburgse Dialecten (Dictionary of the Limburg Dialects) and the Woordenboek van de Vlaamse Dialecten (Dictionary of the Flemish Dialects), three dictionaries which together record the vocabulary of the southern Dutch dialects. He describes the plan and method of collection and presentation. Because of the systematic arrangement (introduced by Weijnen) the three dictionaries are unique in Dutch and international lexicography. They combine a dictionary with a word atlas.In the second part of the article Jacques van Keymeulen (University of Ghent, Belgium) deals with a number of new methodological developments which were introduced following the start of the publication of part III General Vocabulary (apart from Part I Agricultural Terminology and Part II Nonagricultural Terminologies). After the institution of REWO (Regionale Woordenboeken), a coordinating body for the three dictionaries within the Dutch Language Union, and because of the introduction of sophisticated software, the databases can be combined to give a survey of the whole of the southern Dutch language area.Keywords: lexicography, onomasiology, dialect geography, language variation, phonology, historical linguistics, dictionary, regional dictionary, word atlas, cartography, general vocabulary, agrarian terminology, terminology of traditional crafts, dialect, traditional dialect, flemish, brabant dialect, limburg dialect, dutch, the netherlands, belgium, french flanders, methodology, systematical arrangement, automation, database, user groups, usefulnes

The erhu and its role as a vehicle for syncretic music performance in Singapore : a thesis presented in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Music at Wellington Conservatorium of Music, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

This thesis examines the erhu, a bowed lute from China and its development as a vehicle for syncretic music-making in Singapore. Chapter One considers the erhu's status in Chinese culture and focuses on the differences between how the erhu was perceived by the "proletariat" of the early twentieth century contrasted with the imperialists of that time. A central assumption in this study is that erhu music-making in Singapore is inextricably bound with the traditions of both Western and Chinese culture. This concept is introduced in Chapter Two, with a discussion on musical syncretism. The erhu is a member of the huqin string family and is one instrument in the new ensemble idiom of the Singapore Huqin Quartet. This ensemble is the first to have huqin set up together in the manner of a Western string quartet. This ensemble has been influential on and contributes to a broad range of musical happenings in Singapore. It also represents one development of erhu as "world music". Phoon Yew Tien, who writes for the Singapore Huqin Quartet, is introduced. Chapter Three encompasses the different instruments that make up the huqin family, as played by the Singapore Huqin Quartet (which will be referred to as the SHQ in abbreviation). It also looks at the development of the modern Chinese orchestra. Chapter Four provides the descriptions and characteristics of the erhu and its performance techniques. In Chapter Five, eminent musical figures such as Liu Tian Hua and Hua Yan Jun (also known as Abing) will be discussed. Their music composed for the erhu has become an important part of the repertoire of the SHQ. The concluding chapter outlines differences between Western and Chinese music and looks at the merging of the two. A product of this merger is the compositions of distinguished Singapore composer, Phoon Yew Tien. His works are a fine example of the erhu's musical qualities and demonstrate the compositional potential of the SHQ's syncretic idiom with the merging of the Chinese and Western art-music forces. A musical composition by Phoon viewed in a compositional perspective summarizes the possibilities of further development of this style

"Buszel", "kombajner", and "rels": Fisiak’s 1961 corpus of English borrowings in Polish fifty five years later

The onset of Professor Jacek Fisiak’s scholarly career is marked by his 1961 Ph.D. dissertation devoted to the lexical influence of English upon Polish. This study, conducted 55 years ago, offers a multilayered analysis and sets the standards of studies on lexical transfer from English to Polish for the years to come. The present article is a tribute to Fisiak’s first scholarly endeavor; it examines the fate of lexical items comprising Fisiak’s corpus in the second decade of the 21st century. More specifically, by conducting searches in the National Corpus of Polish as well as a Google search, the paper checks which borrowings to the Polish language listed and scrutinized by Fisiak gained popularity, which fell out of use, and which underwent semantic changes

Enlightened Romanticism: Mary Gartside’s colour theory in the age of Moses Harris, Goethe and George Field

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the work of Mary Gartside, a British female colour theorist, active in London between 1781 and 1808. She published three books between 1805 and 1808. In chronological and intellectual terms Gartside can cautiously be regarded an exemplary link between Moses Harris, who published a short but important theory of colour in the second half of the eighteenth century, and J.W. von Goethe’s highly influential Zur Farbenlehre, published in Germany in 1810. Gartside’s colour theory was published privately under the disguise of a traditional water colouring manual, illustrated with stunning abstract colour blots (see example above). Until well into the twentieth century, she remained the only woman known to have published a theory of colour. In contrast to Goethe and other colour theorists in the late 18th and early 19th century Gartside was less inclined to follow the anti-Newtonian attitudes of the Romantic movement