Феномен синкретизма в украинской лингвистике

У сучасній лінгвістиці вивчення складних системних зв’язків та динамізму мови навряд чи буде завершеним без урахування синкретизму. Традиційно явища транзитивності трактуються як поєднання різних типів утворень як результат процесів трансформації або відображення проміжних, синкретичних фактів, що характеризують мовну систему в синхронному аспекті.In modern linguistics, the study of complex systemic relations and language dynamism is unlikely to be complete without considering the transitivity. Traditionally, transitivity phenomena are treated as a combination of different types of entities, formed as a result of the transformation processes or the reflection of the intermediate, syncretic facts that characterize the language system in the synchronous aspect.В современной лингвистике изучение сложных системных отношений и языкового динамизма вряд ли будет полным без учета синкретизма. Традиционно явления транзитивности трактуются как совокупность различных типов сущностей, сформированных в результате процессов преобразования или отражения промежуточных синкретических фактов, которые характеризуют языковую систему в синхронном аспекте

A FORMAL REPRESENTATION OF MECHANICAL FUNCTIONS TO SUPPORT PHYSICS-BASED COMPUTATIONAL REASONING IN EARLY MECHANICAL DESIGN

The lack of computational support to the conceptual phase of mechanical engineering design is well recognized. Function-based modeling and thinking is widely recommended in design texts as useful means for describing design concepts and using them in tasks such as solution search, problem decomposition, and design archival. Graph-based function structure models that describe a product as a network of transformative actions of material, energy, and information, are discussed as a potential tool for this purpose, but in the current state of the art, function structures are not formalized as a computational representation. Consequently, no computer tool exists with which a designer can construct grammatically controlled function structure models, explore design ideas by model editing, and perform automated reasoning on the model against the laws of nature to draw analytical inferences on the design. This research presents, verifies, and validates a formal representation of mechanical functions that supports consistent computer-aided modeling of early design and reasoning on those models based on two universal principles of physics: (1) conservation and (2) irreversibility. The representation is complete in three layers. The first layer--the Conservation Layer--is defined with nine entities, five relations, five attributes, and 33 grammar rules that together formalize the construction of function structure graphs and support conservation-based qualitative validation of design concepts. The second layer--the Irreversibility Layer--includes three additional attributes that support both conservation-based and irreversibility-based reasoning at qualitative and quantitative levels. The third layer--the Semantic Layer--is an extension of the previous two, where a vocabulary of nine verbs that describe mechanical devices and physical principles as functions is proposed. This layer supports feature-based modeling and semantic reasoning of function structures. The internal consistency of the representation is verified by logical examination and ontological consistency checking using Protégé-OWL. The coverage of the verbs is examined by constructing descriptive function structure models of a variety of existing physical principles and devices. The research is validated by incorporating the representation in a software tool using an object-oriented language and graphic user-interface, and by using the tool to construct models and demonstrate conservation-based and irreversibility-based reasoning

Need for learning management systems in higher education in subject that involve programming languages

Subjects that are teaching programming languages may contain different approaches\ud to learning, depending on the level of preparedness of students and the methodology used by\ud the teaching staff in the lectures and exercises. Because of the need for practical work in\ud programming, the introduction of e-learning support system for students can be as useful as it\ud is for them and for teachers. Attaching the materials to a local system (intranet) and the\ud possibility of accessing them and the program codes of classes, lessons and ancillary\ud materials for exercises can bring increased efficiency and increased degree of control of the\ud organization and behavior of students in class.\ud With the ability to simultaneous usage of necessary materials from the system,\ud explanations of the professor and the opportunity for practical work, students very quickly\ud can recognize the effects of learning and become more motivated for learning more content\ud during class. The professor, who had previously set the material to the system has a feedback\ud of student achievements in class, the problems that occurred and the way they were solved,\ud and the time they spent to solve the problem. Students themselves have the opportunity to see\ud whether they learned and can evaluate their knowledge through questions that are posed at\ud the end the lesson

Interpretation of Natural-language Robot Instructions: Probabilistic Knowledge Representation, Learning, and Reasoning

A robot that can be simply told in natural language what to do -- this has been one of the ultimate long-standing goals in both Artificial Intelligence and Robotics research. In near-future applications, robotic assistants and companions will have to understand and perform commands such as set the table for dinner'', make pancakes for breakfast'', or cut the pizza into 8 pieces.'' Although such instructions are only vaguely formulated, complex sequences of sophisticated and accurate manipulation activities need to be carried out in order to accomplish the respective tasks. The acquisition of knowledge about how to perform these activities from huge collections of natural-language instructions from the Internet has garnered a lot of attention within the last decade. However, natural language is typically massively unspecific, incomplete, ambiguous and vague and thus requires powerful means for interpretation. This work presents PRAC -- Probabilistic Action Cores -- an interpreter for natural-language instructions which is able to resolve vagueness and ambiguity in natural language and infer missing information pieces that are required to render an instruction executable by a robot. To this end, PRAC formulates the problem of instruction interpretation as a reasoning problem in first-order probabilistic knowledge bases. In particular, the system uses Markov logic networks as a carrier formalism for encoding uncertain knowledge. A novel framework for reasoning about unmodeled symbolic concepts is introduced, which incorporates ontological knowledge from taxonomies and exploits semantically similar relational structures in a domain of discourse. The resulting reasoning framework thus enables more compact representations of knowledge and exhibits strong generalization performance when being learnt from very sparse data. Furthermore, a novel approach for completing directives is presented, which applies semantic analogical reasoning to transfer knowledge collected from thousands of natural-language instruction sheets to new situations. In addition, a cohesive processing pipeline is described that transforms vague and incomplete task formulations into sequences of formally specified robot plans. The system is connected to a plan executive that is able to execute the computed plans in a simulator. Experiments conducted in a publicly accessible, browser-based web interface showcase that PRAC is capable of closing the loop from natural-language instructions to their execution by a robot

Event extraction from biomedical texts using trimmed dependency graphs

This thesis explores the automatic extraction of information from biomedical publications. Such techniques are urgently needed because the biosciences are publishing continually increasing numbers of texts. The focus of this work is on events. Information about events is currently manually curated from the literature by biocurators. Biocuration, however, is time-consuming and costly so automatic methods are needed for information extraction from the literature. This thesis is dedicated to modeling, implementing and evaluating an advanced event extraction approach based on the analysis of syntactic dependency graphs. This work presents the event extraction approach proposed and its implementation, the JReX (Jena Relation eXtraction) system. This system was used by the University of Jena (JULIE Lab) team in the "BioNLP 2009 Shared Task on Event Extraction" competition and was ranked second among 24 competing teams. Thereafter JReX was the highest scorer on the worldwide shared U-Compare event extraction server, outperforming the competing systems from the challenge. This success was made possible, among other things, by extensive research on event extraction solutions carried out during this thesis, e.g., exploring the effects of syntactic and semantic processing procedures on solving the event extraction task. The evaluations executed on standard and community-wide accepted competition data were complemented by real-life evaluation of large-scale biomedical database reconstruction. This work showed that considerable parts of manually curated databases can be automatically re-created with the help of the event extraction approach developed. Successful re-creation was possible for parts of RegulonDB, the world's largest database for E. coli. In summary, the event extraction approach justified, developed and implemented in this thesis meets the needs of a large community of human curators and thus helps in the acquisition of new knowledge in the biosciences

The information design of ecological cycle network diagrams in science textbooks

Network diagrams of ecological cycles, eg, carbon and nitrogen cycles, are a common feature in science textbooks for 14-18 years age groups. From an information design perspective these diagrams raise a particularly interesting challenge; that of categorising up to six types of biological information using two graphic syntactic roles – nodes and connecting arrows – whilst ensuring an efective and unambiguous message. This practice-led thesis reviews the precision of information categorisation in 209 network diagrams collected from UK and Danish science textbooks (1935-2009). Visual content analysis and graphic syntax theory (Engelhardt, 2002) is applied to review the existing information categorisation in relation to four types of graphic inefectiveness: 1) implicit nodes, 2) imprecise relative spatial positioning of graphic objects, 3) polysemy, and 4) inconsistent visual attributes or verbal syntax. This review finds 29 types of ineffective graphic tactics, which may result in ambiguous messages due to illogical linking sequences, implicit circulating elements, and confusion about chemical transfer and transformations. Based on these analysis indings, the design process in educational publishing is investigated. This identifies the rationale informing the transformation of information into network diagrams, based on semi- structured interviews with 19 editors, authors, designers, and illustrators in six publishing houses (3 in UK , 3 in Denmark). The rationale is mapped using phenomenographic analysis method and existing theories on the design process, namely brief development and translation stages (Crilly, 2005), choice points and the problem setting process (Schön, 2006), problem- solution co-evolution (Dorst and Cross, 2001), and design constraints (Lawson, 2006). The curriculum purpose of the ecological cycle network diagram is found to tightly constrain the identiied rationale and the graphic decision-making based mainly on tacit knowledge. In a final discussion the research indings are integrated by identifying models of design activities (Dumas and Mintzberg, 1993) present in investigated professional practice. This reveals how design decisions may inluence the occurrence of inefective graphic tactics. Recommendations for alternative information transformation strategies are then presented, centred on integrating graphic syntax knowledge into the current processes. These recommendations are anchored in suggestions by the interviewed participants

The Christian Body at Work

Ein Großteil der arbeitenden Bevölkerung weltweit gilt als christlich affiliiert, doch was bedeutet Christsein am Arbeitsplatz? Die Studie beleuchtet dazu Forschung aus Management- und Organisationswissenschaften und Theologie, präsentiert Feldforschung zu ManagerInnen in der Schweiz und entwickelt eine Verkörperungsperspektive. Der Autor benennt Schwierigkeiten der vorherrschenden Verwendung von Begriffen wie Glaube, Spiritualität oder Religion am Arbeitsplatz und plädiert dafür, Framing-Praktiken und die Körperhaftigkeit christlicher Existenz zu berücksichtigen. Indem ChristInnen in körperlicher Form an Christi Tod und Auferstehung teilhaben und so Christus verkörpern, finden sie sich an einer existentiellen Schaltstelle für die Gestaltung von Arbeitsaktivitäten. Die Studie zeigt, wie der Fokus auf „Christinnen und Christen“ einen Raum für relevante organisations- und managementbezogene, soziologische, ethische und theologische Aspekte zeitgenössischer Arbeitskontexte eröffnet. Abstract A large part of the global workforce is said to be Christians, but what does it mean to be a Christian at work? This study offers a review of relevant research from management and organisation studies as well as from theology; it reports on fieldwork among business managers in Switzerland and proposes an embodiment perspective on Christians at work. The author identifies difficulties relating to the predominant uses of terms such as faith, spirituality and religion at work, and argues for the importance of taking Christians’ framing practices and bodily forms of existence into account. By participating in a bodily form in Christ’s death and resurrection, and by thus practising Christ’s body, Christians find themselves located at an existential nerve centre for carrying out work activities. This study shows how the notion of ‘Christians’ can open up conceptual space for relevant organisational, managerial, sociological, ethical and theological aspects concerning contemporary work settings

Classical Arabic verb inflection: a WP-grammar, with an introductory phonemic investigation

This work presents a new grammar of the Classical Arabic Verb Inflection, carried out within the system of the WP morphological theory (the Word and Paradigm model of analysis as formalized by Professor P. H. Matthews). It is thus basically an application of this structural theory, rather than an assessment of its merits. Yet a general evaluation of characteristics of this theory, compared with two other interrelated systems, is presented with"particular attention to the concept of adequacy' in relation to Arabic grammar. The thesis consists of six chapters, the first of which represents an elaborated introduction meant to define the implicit questionable points that the title may raise. This is followed by a chapter on phonemic investigation, restricted to the problematic areas where the scholarly dispute over a specific number of Arabic phonemes has been building up since the Classical era. The terminological distinctions between the basic traditional terms of Arabic grammar and their presumed equivalents in modern linguistics is discussed in Chapter III as a prelude to the major body of the work. Chapter IV reviews, first, the three relevant linguistic models of analysis in relation to the morphology of Classical Arabic, which is taken here beyond the restrictive study of the individual language to the domain of the general linguistic theory; and, second, it presents a comprehensive summary of WP: its basic terms, rule system and evaluational procedure, followed by the reasons that made it the ideal choice for the present purpose. Chapter V, which serves as a background to the application in Chapter VI, represents the core of the discussions devoted to the Classical Arabic verbal system. It comprises all the explanations that are possibly needed for the making and understanding of the grammatical rules, and which find no room in the final chapter without interrupting the flow of the rule divisions. The final chapter is merely an application of the WP model to the inflectional system of the Classical Arabic verb. It consists of the verbal grammatical rules, preceded by a minimized group of the required guiding notes, and followed by an exemplary demonstration of the drivational system. The thesis is ended with a Summary and Conclusions that survey the work in general and briefly record its findings. In addition to the original views and postulations distributed over almost all the chapters of this work, and apart from the empirical value regarding the theory adopted, the present grammar represents on the one hand a further step in the evolutional course of the Classical Arabic grammar, and on the other it provides a new link between this classical grammar and the continual evolution of the linguistic theory

Concordancing Software in Practice: An investigation of searches and translation problems across EU official languages

2011/2012The present work reports on an empirical study aimed at investigating translation problems across multiple language pairs. In particular, the analysis is aimed at developing a methodological approach to study concordance search logs taken as manifestations of translation problems and, in a wider perspective, information needs. As search logs are a relatively unexplored data type within translation process research, a controlled environment was needed in order to carry out this exploratory analysis without incurring in additional problems caused by an excessive amount of variables. The logs were collected at the European Commission and contain a large volume of searches from English into 20 EU languages that staff translators working for the EU translation services submitted to an internally available multilingual concordancer. The study attempts to (i) identify differences in the searches (i.e. problems) based on the language pairs; and (ii) group problems into types. Furthermore, the interactions between concordance users and the tool itself have been examined to provide a translation-oriented perspective on the domain of Human-Computer Interaction. The study draws on the literature on translation problems, Information Retrieval and Web search log analysis, moving from the assumption that in the perspective of concordance searching, translation problems are best interpreted as information needs for which the concordancer is chosen as a form of external support. The structure of a concordance search is examined in all its parts and is eventually broken down into two main components: the 'Search Strategy' component and the 'Problem Unit' component. The former was further analyzed using a mainly quantitative approach, whereas the latter was addressed from a more qualitative perspective. The analysis of the Problem Unit takes into account the length of the search strings as well as their content and linguistic form, each addressed with a different methodological approach. Based on the understanding of concordance searches as manifestations of translation problems, a user- centered classification of translation-oriented information needs is developed to account for as many "problem" scenarios as possible. According to the initial expectations, different languages should experience different problems. This assumption could not be verified: the 20 different language pairs considered in this study behaved consistently on many levels and, due to the specific research environment, no definite conclusions could be reached as regards the role of the language family criterion for problem identification. The analysis of the 'Problem Unit' component has highlighted automatized support for translating Named Entities as a possible area for further research in translation technology and the development of computer-based translation support tools. Finally, the study indicates (concordance) search logs as an additional data type to be used in experiments on the translation process and for triangulation purposes, while drawing attention on the concordancer as a type of translation aid to be further fine-tuned for the needs of professional translators. ***Il presente lavoro consiste in uno studio empirico sui problemi di traduzione che emergono quando si considerano diverse coppie di lingue e in particolare sviluppa una metodologia per analizzare i log di ricerche effettuate dai traduttori in un software di concordanza (concordancer) quali manifestazioni di problemi di traduzione che, visti in una prospettiva più ampia, si possono anche considerare dei "bisogni d'informazione" (information needs). I log di ricerca costituiscono una tipologia di dato ancora relativamente nuova e inesplorata nell'ambito delle ricerche sul processo di traduzione e pertanto è emersa la necessità di svolgere un'analisi di tipo esplorativo in un contesto controllato onde evitare le problematiche aggiuntive derivanti da un numero eccessivo di variabili. I log di ricerca sono stati raccolti presso la Commissione europea e contengono quantitativi ingenti di ricerche effettuate dai traduttori impiegati presso i servizi di traduzione dell'Unione europea in un concordancer multilingue disponibile come risorsa interna. L'analisi si propone di individuare le differenze nelle ricerche (e quindi nei problemi) a seconda della coppia di lingue selezionata e di raggruppare tali problemi in tipologie. Lo studio fornisce inoltre informazioni sulle modalità di interazione tra gli utenti e il software nell'ambito di un contesto traduttivo, contribuendo alla ricerca nel campo dell'interazione uomo-macchina (Human-Computer Interaction). Il presente studio trae spunto dalla letteratura sui problemi di traduzione, sull'estrazione d'informazioni (Information Retrieval) e sulle ricerche nel Web e si propone di considerare i problemi di traduzione associati all'impiego di uno strumento per le concordanze quali bisogni di informazione per i quali lo strumento di concordanze è stato scelto come forma di supporto esterna. Ogni singola ricerca è stata esaminata e scomposta in due elementi principali: la "strategia di ricerca" (Search Strategy) e l'"unità problematica" (Problem Unit) che vengono studiati rispettivamente usando approcci prevalentemente di tipo quantitativo e qualitativo. L'analisi dell'unità problematica prende in considerazione la lunghezza, il contenuto e la forma linguistica delle stringhe, analizzando ciascuna con una metodologia di lavoro appositamente studiata. Avendo interpretato le ricerche di concordanze quali manifestazioni di bisogni d'informazione, l'analisi prosegue con la definizione di una serie di categorie di bisogni d'informazione (o problemi) legati alla traduzione e incentrati sul singolo utente al fine di includere quanti più scenari di ricerca possibile. L'assunto iniziale in base al quale lingue diverse manifesterebbero problemi diversi non è stato verificato empiricamente in quanto le 20 coppie di lingue esaminate hanno mostrato comportamenti alquanto similari nei diversi livelli di analisi. Vista la peculiarità dei dati utilizzati e la specificità dell'Unione europea come contesto di ricerca, non è stato possibile ottenere conclusioni definitive in merito al ruolo delle famiglie linguistiche quali indicatori di problemi, rispetto ad altri criteri di classificazione. L'analisi dell'unità problematica ha evidenziato le entità denominate (Named Entities) quale possibile oggetto di futuri progetti di ricerca nell'ambito delle tecnologie della traduzione. Oltre a offrire un contributo per i futuri sviluppi nell'ambito dei supporti informatici alla traduzione, con il presente studio si è voluto altresì presentare i log delle ricerche (di concordanze) quale tipologia aggiuntiva di dati per lo studio del processo di traduzione e per la triangolazione dei risultati empirico-sperimentali, cercando anche di suggerire possibili tratti migliorativi dei software di concordanza sulla base dei bisogni di informazione riscontrati nei traduttori.XXV Ciclo198