5,368 research outputs found

    An investigation of challenges in machine translation of literary texts : the case of the English–Chinese language pair

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    In the absence of a focus on literary text translation in studies of machine translation (MT), this study aims at investigating some challenges of this application of the technology. First, the most commonly used types of MT are reviewed in chronological order of their development, and, for the purpose of identifying challenges for MT in literary text translation, the challenges human translators face in literary text translation are linked to corresponding aspects of MT. In investigating the research questions of the challenges that MT systems face in literary text translation, and whether equivalence can be established by MT in literary text translation, a qualitative method is used. Areas such as the challenges for MT in the establishment of corpora, achieving equivalence, and realisation of creativity in literary texts are examined in order to reveal some of the potential contributing factors to the difficulties faced in literary text translation by MT. Through text analysis on chosen sample literary texts on three online MT platforms (Google Translate, DeepL and Youdao Translate), all based on highly advanced neural machine translation engines, this study offers a pragmatic view on some challenging areas in literary text translation using these widely acclaimed online platforms, and offers insights on potential research opportunities in studies of literary text translation using MT

    Reduktion in natĂŒrlicher Sprache

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    Natural (conversational) speech, compared to cannonical speech, is earmarked by the tremendous amount of variation that often leads to a massive change in pronunciation. Despite many attempts to explain and theorize the variability in conversational speech, its unique characteristics have not played a significant role in linguistic modeling. One of the reasons for variation in natural speech lies in a tendency of speakers to reduce speech, which may drastically alter the phonetic shape of words. Despite the massive loss of information due to reduction, listeners are often able to understand conversational speech even in the presence of background noise. This dissertation investigates two reduction processes, namely regressive place assimilation across word boundaries, and massive reduction and provides novel data from the analyses of speech corpora combined with experimental results from perception studies to reach a better understanding of how humans handle natural speech. The successes and failures of two models dealing with data from natural speech are presented: The FUL-model (Featurally Underspecified Lexicon, Lahiri & Reetz, 2002), and X-MOD (an episodic model, Johnson, 1997). Based on different assumptions, both models make different predictions for the two types of reduction processes under investigation. This dissertation explores the nature and dynamics of these processes in speech production and discusses its consequences for speech perception. More specifically, data from analyses of running speech are presented investigating the amount of reduction that occurs in naturally spoken German. Concerning production, the corpus analysis of regressive place assimilation reveals that it is not an obligatory process. At the same time, there emerges a clear asymmetry: With only very few exceptions, only [coronal] segments undergo assimilation, [labial] and [dorsal] segments usually do not. Furthermore, there seem to be cases of complete neutralization where the underlying Place of Articulation feature has undergone complete assimilation to the Place of Articulation feature of the upcoming segment. Phonetic analyses further underpin these findings. Concerning deletions and massive reductions, the results clearly indicate that phonological rules in the classical generative tradition are not able to explain the reduction patterns attested in conversational speech. Overall, the analyses of deletion and massive reduction in natural speech did not exhibit clear-cut patterns. For a more in-depth examination of reduction factors, the case of final /t/ deletion is examined by means of a new corpus constructed for this purpose. The analysis of this corpus indicates that although phonological context plays an important role on the deletion of segments (i.e. /t/), this arises in the form of tendencies, not absolute conditions. This is true for other deletion processes, too. Concerning speech perception, a crucial part for both models under investigation (X-MOD and FUL) is how listeners handle reduced speech. Five experiments investigate the way reduced speech is perceived by human listeners. Results from two experiments show that regressive place assimilations can be treated as instances of complete neutralizations by German listeners. Concerning massively reduced words, the outcome of transcription and priming experiments suggest that such words are not acceptable candidates of the intended lexical items for listeners in the absence of their proper phrasal context. Overall, the abstractionist FUL-model is found to be superior in explaining the data. While at first sight, X-MOD deals with the production data more readily, FUL provides a better fit for the perception results. Another important finding concerns the role of phonology and phonetics in general. The results presented in this dissertation make a strong case for models, such as FUL, where phonology and phonetics operate at different levels of the mental lexicon, rather than being integrated into one. The findings suggest that phonetic variation is not part of the representation in the mental lexicon.NatĂŒrliche (spontane) Sprache in Dialogen zeichnet sich, im Vergleich zu kanonischer Sprache, vor allem durch das enorme Ausmaß an Variation aus. Diese kann oft dazu fĂŒhren, dass Wörter in der Aussprache massiv verĂ€ndert werden. Trotz einiger BemĂŒhungen, VariabilitĂ€t in natĂŒrlicher Sprache zu erklĂ€ren und theoretisch zu fassen, haben die einzigartigen Merkmale natĂŒrlicher Sprache kaum Eingang in linguistische Modelle gefunden. Einer der GrĂŒnde, warum Variation in natĂŒrlicher Sprache zu beobachten ist, liegt in der Tendenz der Sprecher, Sprache zu reduzieren. Dies kann die phonetische Gestalt von Wörtern drastisch beeinflussen. Obwohl hierdurch massiv Information durch Reduktion verloren geht, sind Hörer oft in der Lage Spontansprache zu verstehen, sogar, wenn HintergrundgerĂ€usche dies erschweren. Diese Dissertation untersucht zwei Reduktionsprozesse: Regressive Assimilation des Artikulationsortes ĂŒber Wortgrenzen hinweg und Massive Reduktion. Es werden neue Daten prĂ€sentiert, die durch die Analysen von Sprachkorpora gewonnen wurden. Außerdem stehen experimentelle Ergebnisse von Perzeptionsstudien im Mittelpunkt, die helfen sollen, besser zu verstehen, wie Menschen mit natĂŒrlicher Sprache umgehen. Die Dissertation zeigt die Erfolge und Probleme von zwei Modellen im Umgang mit Daten von natĂŒrlicher Sprache auf: Das FUL-Modell (Featurally Underspecified Lexicon , Lahiri & Reetz, 2002), und X-MOD (ein episodisches Modell, Johnson, 1997). Aufgrund unterschiedlicher Annahmen machen die zwei Modelle verschiedene Vorhersagen fĂŒr die beiden Reduktionsprozesse, die in dieser Dissertation untersucht werden. Es werden Art und Auswirkungen der beiden Prozesse fĂŒr Sprachproduktion untersucht und die Konsequenzen fĂŒr das Sprachverstehen beleuchtet. Was die Sprachproduktion betrifft, so zeigt eine Korpusanalyse von natĂŒrlich gesprochenem Deutsch, dass der Reduktionsprozess regressive Assimilation des Artikulationsortes nicht obligatorisch statt findet. Gleichzeitig wird eine hervorstechende Asymmetrie deutlich: Abgesehen von einigen wenigen Ausnahmen werden ausschließlich [koronale] Segmente assimiliert, [labiale] und [dorsale] Segmente normalerweise nicht. Außerdem, so legen die Produktionsdaten nahe, gibt es FĂ€lle, in denen die Assimilation des Artikulationsortes an den Artikulationsort des Folgesegmentes komplett ist, also eine vollstĂ€ndige Neutralisierung der Merkmalskontraste vom Sprecher vorgenommen wurde. Phonetische Analysen bestĂ€tigen dieses Resultat. Im Fall von Löschungen und massiven Reduktion demonstrieren die Ergebnisse eindeutig, dass phonologische Regeln – im klassischen generativen Sinne – nicht in der Lage sind, die Reduktionsmuster zu beschreiben, die in Spontansprache vorkommen. Alles in allem zeigen die Analysen von massiven Reduktionen und Löschungen keine eindeutigen Muster auf. Um einzelne Faktoren, die Reduktionen beeinflussen, genauer untersuchen zu können, wurde die Löschung von (Wort) finalem /t/ anhand eines neuen, fĂŒr diesen Zweck kreierten Korpus durchgefĂŒhrt. Die Analyse dieses Korpus unterstreicht, dass, obwohl phonologischer Kontext eine gewichtigen Einfluss darauf hat, ob Segmente (d.h. /t/) gelöscht werden, dieser Einfluss eher als Tendenz verstanden werden muss, nicht als absolute Bedingung. Dieses Resultat trifft auch auf andere Löschungsprozesse zu. Beide Modelle (X-MOD und FUL), die in dieser Dissertation untersucht werden, gehen im Kern der Frage nach, wie Hörer Sprache verstehen. FĂŒnf Experimente untersuchen, wie reduzierte Sprache von menschlichen Hörern wahrgenommen wird. Ergebnisse von zwei Studien zeigen, dass Assimilationen von deutschen Hörern durchaus als komplett neutralisiert wahrgenommen werden. Was die Perzeption von massiv reduzierten Wörtern betrifft, belegen die Resultate von Transkriptionsstudien und Priming-Experimenten, dass solche Wörter nicht als Wortkandidaten fĂŒr die korrekten lexikalischen EintrĂ€ge akzeptiert werden, wenn sie ohne ihren Satz-Kontext dargeboten werden. Insgesamt ist das abstraktionistische FUL-Modell besser in der Lage, die Daten zu erklĂ€ren, die in dieser Dissertation prĂ€sentiert werden. Auf den ersten Blick scheint X-MOD zwar etwas besser geeignet, die Produktionsdaten zu erklĂ€ren, hauptsĂ€chlich jedoch, weil Variation als Grundannahme im Modell verankert ist. FUL ist klar ĂŒberlegen, was die Perzeptionsseite betrifft. Ein weiteres wichtiges Ergebnis dieser Dissertation ist die Rolle, die Phonologie und Phonetik im Allgemeinen zugedacht werden kann. Die Resultate, die hier vorgestellt werden, liefern starke Argumente fĂŒr Modelle – wie z.B. FUL – in denen Phonologie und Phonetik auf verschiedenen Ebenen des mentalen Lexikons aktiv sind und nicht in einem integriert sind. Die Befunde legen nahe, dass phonetische Variation nicht Teil der ReprĂ€sentation im mentalen Lexikon ist

    The role of phonology in visual word recognition: evidence from Chinese

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    Posters - Letter/Word Processing V: abstract no. 5024The hypothesis of bidirectional coupling of orthography and phonology predicts that phonology plays a role in visual word recognition, as observed in the effects of feedforward and feedback spelling to sound consistency on lexical decision. However, because orthography and phonology are closely related in alphabetic languages (homophones in alphabetic languages are usually orthographically similar), it is difficult to exclude an influence of orthography on phonological effects in visual word recognition. Chinese languages contain many written homophones that are orthographically dissimilar, allowing a test of the claim that phonological effects can be independent of orthographic similarity. We report a study of visual word recognition in Chinese based on a mega-analysis of lexical decision performance with 500 characters. The results from multiple regression analyses, after controlling for orthographic frequency, stroke number, and radical frequency, showed main effects of feedforward and feedback consistency, as well as interactions between these variables and phonological frequency and number of homophones. Implications of these results for resonance models of visual word recognition are discussed.postprin

    Interactive effects of orthography and semantics in Chinese picture naming

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    Posters - Language Production/Writing: abstract no. 4035Picture-naming performance in English and Dutch is enhanced by presentation of a word that is similar in form to the picture name. However, it is unclear whether facilitation has an orthographic or a phonological locus. We investigated the loci of the facilitation effect in Cantonese Chinese speakers by manipulating—at three SOAs (2100, 0, and 1100 msec)—semantic, orthographic, and phonological similarity. We identified an effect of orthographic facilitation that was independent of and larger than phonological facilitation across all SOAs. Semantic interference was also found at SOAs of 2100 and 0 msec. Critically, an interaction of semantics and orthography was observed at an SOA of 1100 msec. This interaction suggests that independent effects of orthographic facilitation on picture naming are located either at the level of semantic processing or at the lemma level and are not due to the activation of picture name segments at the level of phonological retrieval.postprin

    An Exploratory Study of Patient Falls

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    Debate continues between the contribution of education level and clinical expertise in the nursing practice environment. Research suggests a link between Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) nurses and positive patient outcomes such as lower mortality, decreased falls, and fewer medication errors. Purpose: To examine if there a negative correlation between patient falls and the level of nurse education at an urban hospital located in Midwest Illinois during the years 2010-2014? Methods: A retrospective crosssectional cohort analysis was conducted using data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) from the years 2010-2014. Sample: Inpatients aged ≄ 18 years who experienced a unintentional sudden descent, with or without injury that resulted in the patient striking the floor or object and occurred on inpatient nursing units. Results: The regression model was constructed with annual patient falls as the dependent variable and formal education and a log transformed variable for percentage of certified nurses as the independent variables. The model overall is a good fit, F (2,22) = 9.014, p = .001, adj. R2 = .40. Conclusion: Annual patient falls will decrease by increasing the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees and/or certifications from a professional nursing board-governing body

    An integrated theory of language production and comprehension

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    Currently, production and comprehension are regarded as quite distinct in accounts of language processing. In rejecting this dichotomy, we instead assert that producing and understanding are interwoven, and that this interweaving is what enables people to predict themselves and each other. We start by noting that production and comprehension are forms of action and action perception. We then consider the evidence for interweaving in action, action perception, and joint action, and explain such evidence in terms of prediction. Specifically, we assume that actors construct forward models of their actions before they execute those actions, and that perceivers of others' actions covertly imitate those actions, then construct forward models of those actions. We use these accounts of action, action perception, and joint action to develop accounts of production, comprehension, and interactive language. Importantly, they incorporate well-defined levels of linguistic representation (such as semantics, syntax, and phonology). We show (a) how speakers and comprehenders use covert imitation and forward modeling to make predictions at these levels of representation, (b) how they interweave production and comprehension processes, and (c) how they use these predictions to monitor the upcoming utterances. We show how these accounts explain a range of behavioral and neuroscientific data on language processing and discuss some of the implications of our proposal

    Emotion in Politics: Envy, Jealousy, and Rulership in Archaic and Classical Greece

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    This dissertation explores the association between the emotions of envy and jealousy and the figure of the sole ruler, which is discernible in even the oldest ancient Greek literary texts. These emotions—most easily identified by the Greek words phthonos and zelos, but in many cases left unnamed on account of an enduring social stigma—are overwhelmingly negative and often dangerous in the works of Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, and Herodotus, and this is especially true when a ruler is involved. When a ruler acts out of envy or jealousy, there are never direct positive effects for others, and the only instance in which envy or jealousy aimed at a ruler can be considered to produce a societal benefit is when it originates from the divine realm. In such circumstances, it reestablishes proper order by punishing the overly arrogant. There are various scenarios in which envy, jealousy, and rulership appear in combination, and the widening range of permutations in the literature of the fifth century B.C. (and beyond) reflects a heightened anxiety about the precariousness of one-man rule. Already in the works of Homer and Hesiod, it is readily apparent that envy and jealousy typically relate to issues of honor. Accordingly, many rulers attract the envy of their subjects (particularly of potential rivals), and conversely, many rulers exhibit jealousy in their attempts to maintain their position or their status. In the classical period, arguments about why specific individuals do not and why people in general should not envy rulers become increasingly prevalent, as does the idea that overly powerful individuals provoke the jealousy of the gods. There are also depictions of rulers who internalize the commonplace that they are wont to incur envy to such a degree that they either become excessively cautious and fearful or they dismiss any opposition on the grounds that it stems from envy. In the world of epic, while envy and jealousy were already regarded as untoward and potentially destabilizing emotions, monarchy was still a perfectly acceptable and widespread form of rule. Over time, however, with the Athenians’ hatred of tyranny burgeoning and their influence growing, the association between the emotions of envy and jealousy and rulership was invoked more and more frequently, as democrats and oligarchs alike could use it to justify their distrust of tyranny, and thus the increasingly negative perceptions of tyranny contributed in turn to the further vilification of envy and jealousy.PHDClassical StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143951/1/mkutter_1.pd

    Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation

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    The Collaborative Research Center 1412 “Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation” (CRC 1412) investigates the role of register in language, focusing in particular on what constitutes a language user’s register knowledge and which situational-functional factors determine a user’s choices. The following paper is an extract from the frame text of the proposal for the CRC 1412, which was submitted to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 2019, followed by a successful onsite evaluation that took place in 2019. The CRC 1412 then started its work on January 1, 2020. The theoretical part of the frame text gives an extensive overview of the theoretical and empirical perspectives on register knowledge from the viewpoint of 2019. Due to the high collaborative effort of all PIs involved, the frame text is unique in its scope on register research, encompassing register-relevant aspects from variationist approaches, psycholinguistics, grammatical theory, acquisition theory, historical linguistics, phonology, phonetics, typology, corpus linguistics, and computational linguistics, as well as qualitative and quantitative modeling. Although our positions and hypotheses since its submission have developed further, the frame text is still a vital resource as a compilation of state-of-the-art register research and a documentation of the start of the CRC 1412. The theoretical part without administrative components therefore presents an ideal starter publication to kick off the CRC’s publication series REALIS. For an overview of the projects and more information on the CRC, see https://sfb1412.hu-berlin.de/
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