German Demonstrative Pronouns in Contrast

German has two demonstrative pronouns: the der, die, das paradigm and the dieser, diese, dies(es) paradigm. Previous studies mainly compared the anaphoric use of der with the personal pronoun er and observed that der refers to less prominent antecedents. However, there are only very few studies that have investigated the differences between these two demonstrative pronouns. We hypothesize that they differ in signaling topic persistence and in accessing contrastive antecedents. We tested these hypotheses in short texts that manipulated the contrast of the antecedent by inducing the expression ‘in contrast to’ vs. ‘together with’ (e.g., the cellist in contrast to the flautist vs. the cellist together with the flautist). Results from our eye-tracking reading Experiment (Experiment 1), in which participants’ eye- movements were monitored while reading sentences, show that (i) readers preferred dieser when referring to the topic of a sentence, and (ii) dieser caused less processing difficulties than der in both contrast and no-contrast contexts. Our sentence completion Experiment (Experiment 2) also confirmed that der and dieser are both used for anaphoric reference to a topical antecedent. Collectively, our experiments provide evidence that dieser functions as inducing topic persistence. These results suggest that there is a need for further experimental investigation into the semantic factors and informational structures influencing the usage of demonstrative pronouns in German.

To let hair be, or to not let hair be? Gender and body hair removal practices in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Research and anecdotal evidence suggest women continue to remove body hair, and there is some evidence for cultural changes in men’s hair removal practices. This paper reports on data collected using an online mix-methods survey from 584 New Zealanders between the ages of 18-35 (mean age 26, 48.9% male, 50.6% female). The data demonstrated that substantial proportions of both women and men in Aotearoa/New Zealand remove body hair from many sites. However, gendered differences remain, and a key dimension of gendered difference appears in the concept of flexible choice around body hair removal or retention. This was seen in the difference between perceived acceptability of having body hair (81% for men, 11% for women). These findings suggest that although men, like women, are now coming under some pressure to remove body hair, there is still a great difference in men and women’s capacity to choose whether to bow to it

Good Books about Terrible Things: Edgy Material for Teen Readers

Although teenagers are exposed to the seamiest sides of life in violent video games and sexy television programming, when it comes to what teens read, many adults have tried to protect some idea of an innocent childhood. Well-intentioned moms and teachers write indignant letters and Amazon reviews if a novel contains sex, rough language, or raw violence … even if the overall merits of the book make it both appealing to young readers and likely to endure. So how do sex, violence, and cruelty fit into the literary canon for teens? How do they work together with the sense of hopefulness that many tastemakers say is the hallmark of literature for young readers? Books discussed may include Justine Larbalestier’s Razorhurst, Sally Gardner’s Maggot Moon, Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, and Meg Medina’s Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. I’ll also discuss my experience publishing The Kingdom of Little Wounds, which deals frankly with rape and medical practices in the sixteenth century

Conversational Repair in Foreign Language Classrooms: A Case Study in a Turkish Context

Problem Statement: A speaker's language proficiency level can be determined by observing the repair types employed during conversation. When a non-native speaker of English performs self-initiated self-repair, this means that s/he has attained native-like proficiency. However, when other-initiated other-repair is performed, the non-native speaker of English has achieved less native-like proficiency in the interaction. Thus, repairs are significant signs indicating the proficiency level of the language user and have significant roles in the achievement of native-like norms. Nearly all existing studies focus on repair strategies used in the interaction between native-native speakers of English and native-nonnative speakers of English. The number of studies on repair strategies in the repertoire of nonnative speakers of English is limited. When studies in Turkey are investigated, to the best knowledge of the writer, there is no study that focuses on the types of conversational repair or repair strategies employed by Turkish learners of English. Therefore, this paper can be regarded as the first investigation of conversational repairs by Turkish learners of English

Development of an image processing system for a special purpose mobile robot navigation

IEEEProceedings of the 1997 4th Annual Conference on Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice, MViP -- 23 September 1997 through 25 September 1997 -- Toowoomba, Aust -- 47155In this study, a complete image processing and analysis system is developed for a special purpose mobile robot. The aim of this mobile robot is to recognize open doors and move through the open door with narrow clearance. The output of image processing is used as input data file to a Neural Network (NN) based pattern recognition software. The NN inform the greater system about the existence of a door. Further process is to interpret the door status by using some knowledge based algorithms. If the door is open, next process determines position of the mobile robot with respect to the open door. This paper includes related image processing algorithms for image analysis stages. Selection criteria and modification algorithms of the implemented algorithms are presented to some extend. Some test results are also presented

L2 Speakers’ Reference Resolution in Processing and Production

This study reports one eye-tracking and one sentencecompletion study investigating the antecedent biases ofTurkish-speaking L2 speakers of English, for anaphor it anddeixis this. Our results show L2 speakers displayed native-like sensitivity to the type of antecedents while using it andthis in sentence completion, but this sensitivity was notreplicated in our online reading experiment. This showslimitations in L2 speakers’ use of information in onlinereading, and poor performance in making use of pragmaticchanges in context to track the antecedents of it and this