Principles for language tests within the 'discourse domains' theory of interlanguage: research, test construction and interpretation

This article considers an alternative framework for handling the language testing enterprise and proposes some tentative theoretical hypotheses concerning principles of language testing. It is the writers' view that taking account of the perspective of interlanguage domain engagement and contextualization in testing research, production and interpretation allows for a richer conceptualization of the language testing process.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69012/2/10.1177_026553228500200208.pd

Not a drop to drink: Emerging meanings in local newspaper reporting of the 1995 water crisis in Yorkshire

This article takes data from the Huddersfield Examiner (HE) and the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) and critically analyzes discourse features of the November 1995 drought as reported in these papers. It suggests that this kind of discourse generates new linguistic categories, which exist between the generalized patterns of language (langue) and the differentiated experience of language in context (parole). Whilst the langue-parole distinction is no longer seen as absolute, if it is seen as a gradable concept it could capture the tension between stability and change characterizing actual linguistic experience of discourse participants. The value of textual analysis is discussed and the article asks how far texts can be described as (re)producing ideologies in a particular context. The research reported here is based on a small, discrete corpus of news texts and concludes that the data in question produce a meaning for the word water that differs from its meaning over larger bodies of data, and yet which maps closely onto the meaning of the word commodity. The general ideological outlook encompassing this view of water as productlike and passive, rather than a natural resource with its own agency, is considered as an ‘explanatory’ mechanism linking this news ‘story’ with a dominant capitalist ideology

Automatic Text Generation: How to Write the Plot of a Novel with NooJ

Automatic Text Generation (ATG) is a Natural Language Processing (NLP) task that aims at writing acceptable and grammatical written text exploiting machine-representation systems, such as for instance knowledge bases, taxonomies and ontologies. In this sense, it is possible to state that an ATG system works like a translator that converts data into a natural-language written representation. The methods to produce the final texts may differ from those used by compilers, due to the inherent expressivity of natural languages. ATG is not a recent discipline, even if commercial ATG technology has only recently become widely available. Today, many software environments cope with ATG, as Text Spinner, DKB Lettere, or textOmatic*Composer, to mention just some of them. As a discipline strictly connected to NLP, ATG should be based strongly on morph-syntax formalization and semantic predicate use. However, in some cases it seems possible to avoid these steps. A simple example of ATG not involving the use of morph-syntactic and semantic rules may be the generation of texts using only simple alphabetic letters. This method can prove itself useful when the text to gener-ate is somehow generic in terms of semantics, and fix in terms of syntax. For in-stance, it can be used to generate a letter to a consumer stating that a credit card spending limit has been reached, or also to generate receipts from an ATM machine, or Social Media notifications. However, in theory and practice the automatic generation of more complex texts can only be based on a complete system of Natural Language Formalization (NLF), as for instance Maurice Gross’ Lexicon-Grammar. Therefore, in order to build an ATG procedure for novel plots, in this paper we will use both Lexicon-Grammar theoretical and practical framework and Max Silberztein’s NooJ NLP Environment , which as it is well known are in a strict connection. Starting from Gross’ definition of semantic predicates [1] and from the NooJ paraphrase generation routine [5,6], our aim will be to write automatically the basic plot of a novel. While achieving our aim, we will take into due account that the novel is a kind of writing difficult to define formally [7], and that the automatic writing of a novel plot is probably one of the most complex challenges an ATG routine can choose to tackle. Finally, in carrying out our research, we will also make extensive references to Text Linguistics (TL) and its theoretical and practical contact points with Formal Linguis-tics (FL)