Cognitive Processing of Verbal Quantifiers in the Context of Affirmative and Negative Sentences: a Croatian Study

Studies from English and German have found differences in the processing of affirmative and negative sentences. However, little attention has been given to quantifiers that form negations. A picture-sentence verification task was used to investigate the processing of different types of quantifiers in Croatian: universal quantifiers in affirmative sentences (e.g. all), non-universal quantifiers in compositional negations (e.g. not all), null quantifiers in negative concord (e.g. none) and relative disproportionate quantifiers in both affirmative and negative sentences (e.g. some). The results showed that non-universal and null quantifiers, as well as negations were processed significantly slower compared to affirmative sentences, which is in line with previous findings supporting the two-step model. The results also confirmed that more complex tasks require a longer reaction time. A significant difference in the processing of same-polarity sentences with first-order quantifiers was observed: sentences with null quantifiers were processed faster and more accurately than sentences with disproportional and non-universal quantifiers. A difference in reaction time was also found in affirmatives with different quantifiers: sentences with universal quantifiers were processed significantly faster and more accurately compared to sentences with relative disproportionate quantifiers. These findings indicate that the processing of quantifiers follows after the processing of affirmative information. In the context of the two-step model, the processing of quantifiers occurs in the second step, along with negations

EXTRACTING ENGLISH WORDS FROM A CORPUS OF CROATIAN

Kao globalni jezik modernoga doba engleski je postao dominantan jezik davatelj. Danas se smatra da hrvatski jezik najviše posuđuje upravo iz engleskoga. Utjecaj engleskoga jezika na hrvatski vidljiv je u različitim funkcionalnim stilovima te na gotovo svim jezičnim razinama, no najizraženiji je na leksičkoj razini. U novije vrijeme, posebice u medijima i na društvenim mrežama, sve se češće javljaju neprilagođene engleske riječi, tj. riječi koje su zadržale izvorni oblik, a kojima se po potrebi dodaju hrvatski afiksi. Za sada još uvijek ne postoje konkretni podaci o takvim riječima u hrvatskome jeziku. U cilju pronalaženja engleskih riječi, u drugim su se jezicima koristile različite metode, od ručnih klasifikacija i korištenja postojećih jezičnih resursa do razvoja novih alata i/ili resursa. Međutim, jezične tehnologije za hrvatski jezik još uvijek su nedostatno razvijene. Stoga je cilj ovoga rada ispitati mogućnosti nekih od postojećih alata i resursa za crpljenje engleskih riječi i stvaranje baze engleskih riječi. U tu svrhu pretraživan je mrežni korpus hrvatskog jezika hrWaC pomoću platforme Sketch Engine. Ovom metodom dobiven je popis od 1217 engleskih riječi. Rezultati su pokazali da se pomoću dostupnih alata i resursa za hrvatski jezik može izraditi popis engleskih riječi i njihovih frekvencija, ali i da postoje brojni problemi zbog kojih se rezultati ne mogu smatrati u potpunosti pouzdanima. Isto tako, sam se postupak i dalje mora kombinirati s ručnim metodama i klasifikacijama. Zaključujemo da je za izradu cjelovite baze engleskih riječi u hrvatskome potrebno razviti nove alate i resurse koji bi omogućili automatsko crpljenje engleskih riječi iz korpusa hrvatskoga jezika.As the lingua franca of the modern age, English has become the dominant donor language for many languages, including Croatian. The influence of English on Croatian is evident across different registers and linguistic levels, especially the lexical one. Recently, more and more English words have started to appear in their unadapted form (e.g., freelancer, chat, e-mail) in Croatian, especially in the news and social media. English words can be extracted from corpora either manually, by using existing corpus linguistics tools or by developing new tools. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the existing tools for Croatian can yield a list of unadapted English words. For that purpose, the web corpus (hrWaC) was analysed using the Sketch Engine platform. A list of 1217 English words was composed using this method. The results showed that it is possible to compile a list of English words and their frequencies with the help of the available tools and resources for the Croatian language, but also that there are many problems due to which the results cannot be considered completely reliable. Moreover, the procedure itself still has to be combined with other manual methods and classifications, and there is a need for the development of new tools for automatic extraction of English words from a corpus of Croatian

ENGLISH IN CROATIAN SCIENTIFIC MEDICAL DISCOURSE: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY

Engleski je jezik lingua franca današnjice i kao takav dio je šire pojave – engleskoga kao internacionalnog jezika. Njegov je utjecaj na druge jezike, pa i na hrvatski, prisutan u gotovo svim funkcionalnim stilovima. Cilj je ovoga rada istražiti utjecaj engleskoga jezika na hrvatski u znanstvenom području biomedicine i zdravstva. Istraživanjem se ispituje uporaba anglizama i engleskih riječi na leksičkoj razini te pasiva, dvočlanih predikata i jukstapozicije na sintaktičkoj razini. Prikupljena se građa temelji na uvodnom dijelu znanstvenih i stručnih članaka iz časopisa Acta Stomatologica Croatica, Gynaecologia et Perinatologia, Medicina Fluminensis i Paediatria Croatica. Rezultati pokazuju da je utjecaj engleskoga jezika najizraženiji na leksičkoj razini, što se očituje u čestoj uporabi anglizama – 1,55% od ukupnog broja riječi su anglizmi. Na sintaktičkoj se razini najučestalijom pokazala jukstapozicija.English as a lingua franca is a part of the more general phenomenon of “English as an international language”. Its influence on other languages, Croatian being one of them, is evident across different functional styles. This study presents findings from a corpus-based qualitative and quantitative analysis of anglicisms and English words on the lexical level, and the passive, light verbs and noun compounds on the syntactic level. The corpus, consisting of texts published in four journals, Acta Stomatologica Croatica, Gynaecologia et Perinatologia, Medicina Fluminensis and Paediatria Croatica, is based on the introductory parts of the papers. The results indicate that the influence of English is most evident on the lexical level – 1.55% of all words are anglicisms. On the syntactic level, the use of noun compounds is significant

Strategije studenata za prevođenje najfrekventnijih engleskih posuđenica u hrvatskome

English has become the dominant donor language for many languages, including Croatian. Its prestigious status reduces the likelihood of borrowed words to adapt to a recipient language. As a result, some English loanwords occur in an unadapted form. Recent computational linguistic resources have given the necessary corpus-based data on the frequency and use of English loanwords in Croatian. This paper investigates the strategies employed by 116 students of the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka when asked to translate 392 most frequent, corpus-derived English loanwords into Croatian. The results were then compared with the available corpus-based data. The results show that single-word Croatian equivalents were preferred over adapted forms of English loanwords and multi-word expressions. When no such equivalent was available, unadapted English forms were used more frequently compared to adapted forms and multi-word expressions. The co-existence of loanwords and their native equivalents is reflected in responses to loanwords that have and those that do not have single-word equivalents. The results highlight the need for creating semantically precise single-word native equivalents, at the same time illustrating the resistance to accept novel native words.Status stranog jezika kao prestižnog, izloženost stranomu jeziku te neusklađenost postojećih istovrijednica s komunikacijskim potrebama govornika među najvažnijim su razlozima leksičkog posuđivanja. Zbog prestižnog statusa engleskog jezika prihvaćanje engleskih posuđenica u obliku tuđih riječi izglednije je nego njihova prilagodba jeziku primatelju. Hrvatski govornici, unatoč načelnoj otvorenosti prema uporabi hrvatskih istovrijednica, nerijetko ih smatraju neprikladnom zamjenom za posuđenice iz engleskog, te radije rabe potonje. Razvoj računalnih lingvističkih alata tijekom posljednjih godina učinio je podatke o uporabi engleskih posuđenica u hrvatskome dostupnima i omogućio uvid u stvarno stanje na terenu. Cilj ovog rada bio je ispitati pristup studenata Pomorskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci zadatku prevođenja engleskih posuđenica s obzirom na postojanje ili nepostojanje hrvatske jednorječne istovrijednice za riječi. Zadatak ispitanika bio je prevesti 392 engleske riječi izabrane prema kriteriju čestotnosti pojavljivanja u neprilagođenom obliku u mrežnom korpusu suvremenoga hrvatskog jezika. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 116 studenata Sveučilišta u Rijeci. Odgovori ispitanika sadržavali su hrvatske jednorječne istovrijednice, hrvatske višerječne istoznačne izraze te prilagođene ili neprilagođene engleske posuđenice. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da su hrvatski govornici pri prevođenju engleskih riječi najskloniji uporabi jednorječnih istovrijednica. Engleske riječi za koje takve istovrijednice ne postoje ispitanici su preveli neprilagođenim oblikom posuđenice znatno češće no prilagođenim oblikom ili višerječnim hrvatskim izrazom. Izbjegavanje uporabe višerječnih prijevoda najvjerojatnije je posljedica niže komunikacijske ekonomičnosti takvih izraza u odnosu na jednorječne izraze ili pak prirode samog zadatka, dok je nesklonost prilagođenim oblicima posuđenica odraz složenosti fonetskog zapisa riječi iz engleskog jezika, visoke čestotnosti izabranih engleskih riječi u hrvatskome kao i prestižnog statusa engleskog jezika. Rezultati ovog istraživanja, kao i mnogih prethodnih, upućuju na nužnost osmišljavanja jednorječnih istovrijednica, ali i na otpor kojim ih govornici dočekuju

The Role of Informal Activities in Incidental Language Acquisition: The Relationship Between Language Use and Proficiency

U Hrvatskoj se engleski uči kao strani jezik, a osim u formalnom obrazovanju, prisutan je i u svakodnevnom životu od najranije dobi. Dnevna izloženost engleskome jeziku mjeri se u satima, a istraživanja su pokazala da mnoge neformalne aktivnosti omogućuju nenamjerno usvajanje jezika. Cilj ovog rada je utvrditi u kojim aktivnostima studentska populacija u Hrvatskoj provodi najviše vremena služeći se engleskim jezikom, te postoji li povezanost između izloženosti engleskome jeziku i njegove uporabe s jezičnim znanjem. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 93 ispitanika, studenata Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci. Za utvrđivanje razine jezičnog znanja korišten je Oxford Placement Test, a na temelju rezultata ispitanici su podijeljeni u tri grupe. Izloženost engleskome jeziku i njegova uporaba ispitani su upitnikom u kojemu su ispitanici procjenjivali koliko vremena provode u ponuđenim aktivnostima služeći se engleskim jezikom. Rezultati su pokazali da ispitanici najviše vremena provode na internetu, a najmanje u usmenoj komunikaciji. Razlike između grupa s najvišom i najnižom razinom znanja bile su značajne u svim kategorijama osim čitanja za zabavu, pisane i usmene komunikacije. Rezultati istraživanja upućuju na povezanost između uporabe jezika i jezičnog znanja, kao i na činjenicu da se status engleskog kao stranoga jezika mijenja.The English language is studied as a foreign language in Croatia, and, apart from being included in formal education, it is also present in everyday life. Daily exposure to English is measured in hours and research has shown that many informal activities allow for incidental language acquisition. This paper is aimed at identifying the activities in which the Croatian student population spends most of their time using English as well as at investigating whether a connection between exposure to English, its use and prior knowledge of language can be established. Ninety-three participants were included in the study, all students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka. The level of English knowledge was determined by administering the Oxford Placement Test. Three groups were formed based on the results obtained in the testing. Exposure to English and the students’ use of the language were tested by means of a questionnaire in which the participants were asked to approximate how much time they spent using English in the activities listed in the questionnaire. The results showed that the participants spent most of their time online and least in spoken communication. The differences between groups with the lowest and the highest levels of knowledge were found to be significant across all activities apart from reading for leisure, written, and spoken communication. On the one hand, this study has managed to corroborate the connection between language use and the level of language proficiency, and on the other, it has indicated that the status of English is slowly changing on both the global and individual level

Effects of Biochar and Sugar Factory Lime Application on Soil Reaction in Acidic Soils

Soil reaction, expressed as a pH value, is an indicator of acidity or alkalinity. The soil acidic reaction causes increased mobility of aluminium in the soil and can have negative effects on root growth. Plants grow and develop in soils of different soil reactions, but the optimum soil reaction is between slightly alkaline and slightly acidic. The aim of this research was to determine the impacts differences between the effects of biochar and sugar factory waste lime on soil reaction in acid soils. The research was carried out on stationary field trials at two locations on acid soils in Osijek-Baranja and Virovitica-Podravina County, Croatia. The treatments were: C - control, B1 - 5 t ha-1, B2 - 10 t ha-1, B3 - 15 t ha-1 of biochar and L optimal dose of sugar factory waste lime that was calculated for each field trial location. Two steps of sub factors were also applied, F0 - without fertilization and F1 – with recommended fertilization. Soil samples were taken in V3 and silking stages of maize growth from 0-25 cm. The average soil pH value in V3 stage of maize growth was 5.42 and in silking was 5.93. The highest pH values in both stages of maize growth were measured in treatment with liming. The lowest hydrolytic acidity was measured at the liming treatment, while all other treatments had a significantly higher value compared to lime. sugar factory lime is optimal conditioner if we want fast and cheap raise in soil pH values, but it must be noted that together with liming we usually must implement many other soil restauration measures, like humization, especially in degraded soils. Key words: biochar, sugar factory waste lime, acid soil, soil restauration measures, soil reactio

Effects of Biochar and Sugar Factory Lime Application on Soil Reaction in Acidic Soils

Soil reaction, expressed as a pH value, is an indicator of acidity or alkalinity. The soil acidic reaction causes increased mobility of aluminium in the soil and can have negative effects on root growth. Plants grow and develop in soils of different soil reactions, but the optimum soil reaction is between slightly alkaline and slightly acidic. The aim of this research was to determine the impacts differences between the effects of biochar and sugar factory waste lime on soil reaction in acid soils. The research was carried out on stationary field trials at two locations on acid soils in Osijek-Baranja and Virovitica-Podravina County, Croatia. The treatments were: C - control, B1 - 5 t ha-1, B2 - 10 t ha-1, B3 - 15 t ha-1 of biochar and L optimal dose of sugar factory waste lime that was calculated for each field trial location. Two steps of sub factors were also applied, F0 - without fertilization and F1 – with recommended fertilization. Soil samples were taken in V3 and silking stages of maize growth from 0-25 cm. The average soil pH value in V3 stage of maize growth was 5.42 and in silking was 5.93. The highest pH values in both stages of maize growth were measured in treatment with liming. The lowest hydrolytic acidity was measured at the liming treatment, while all other treatments had a significantly higher value compared to lime. sugar factory lime is optimal conditioner if we want fast and cheap raise in soil pH values, but it must be noted that together with liming we usually must implement many other soil restauration measures, like humization, especially in degraded soils. Key words: biochar, sugar factory waste lime, acid soil, soil restauration measures, soil reactio

Corpus of Croatian News Portals ENGRI (2020-2024)

Korpus hrvatskih novinskih portala ENGRI (2020-2024) nadogradnja je postojećeg korpusa ENGRI (https://repository.pfri.uniri.hr/islandora/object/pfri%3A2156), koji je obuhvaćao tekstove s najpopularnijih mrežnih stranica u Hrvatskoj u razdoblju 2014.-2020. (http://www.digitalnewsreport.org), a ovisno o dostupnosti i pristupu skidanja podataka. Oba su korpusa prikupljena u svrhu provedbe znanstveno-istraživačkog projekta Hrvatske zaklade za znanost ("Engleske riječi u hrvatskome jeziku: identifikacija, afektivno-semantičko normiranje i ispitivanje kognitivne obrade bihevioralnim i neuroznanstvenim metodama", UIP-2019-04-1576).Koristila se ista metoda pretraživanja mrežnih izvora i povlačenja podataka (engl. web crawling), kao i u sastavljanju prvog ENGRI korpusa, a obuhvaćeni izvori uključuju Hrt, Direktno, Novi list, 24sata, Večernji, Jutarnji, Indeks.hr, Dnevno, Slobodnu Dalmaciju i Telegram. Dobiveni podaci pohranjeni su u .json formatu

Corpus of Croatian News Portals ENGRI (2020-2024)

Korpus hrvatskih novinskih portala ENGRI (2020-2024) nadogradnja je postojećeg korpusa ENGRI (https://repository.pfri.uniri.hr/islandora/object/pfri%3A2156), koji je obuhvaćao tekstove s najpopularnijih mrežnih stranica u Hrvatskoj u razdoblju 2014.-2020. (http://www.digitalnewsreport.org), a ovisno o dostupnosti i pristupu skidanja podataka. Oba su korpusa prikupljena u svrhu provedbe znanstveno-istraživačkog projekta Hrvatske zaklade za znanost ("Engleske riječi u hrvatskome jeziku: identifikacija, afektivno-semantičko normiranje i ispitivanje kognitivne obrade bihevioralnim i neuroznanstvenim metodama", UIP-2019-04-1576).Koristila se ista metoda pretraživanja mrežnih izvora i povlačenja podataka (engl. web crawling), kao i u sastavljanju prvog ENGRI korpusa, a obuhvaćeni izvori uključuju Hrt, Direktno, Novi list, 24sata, Večernji, Jutarnji, Indeks.hr, Dnevno, Slobodnu Dalmaciju i Telegram. Dobiveni podaci pohranjeni su u .json formatu

PUP_ENGRI_HRZZ_UIP-2019-04-1576_49_60

Plan upravljanja istraživačkim podacima za projekt ENGRI (ENGLESKE RIJEČI U HRVATSKOME JEZIKU: IDENTIFIKACIJA, AFEKTIVNO-SEMANTIČKO NORMIRANJE I ISPITIVANJE KOGNITIVNE OBRADE BIHEVIORALNIM I NEUROZNANSTVENIM METODAMA), financiran od strane Hrvatske zaklade za znanost, za 5. projektno razdoblje (49-60)