The Minimal Language Approach: Foundations, Contributions, and Practice

The “minimal language” approach is an adaptation of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, designed to address communicative challenges in fields where effective communication is crucial. A minimal language vocabulary consists of the 65 semantic primes of NSM, 200–300 semantic molecules, and a small number of context-specific words (Goddard 2021a). It is a research-based take on simplified language for heightened accessibility and cross- translatability. Minimal language promotes the idea that easily translatable texts are also easy to understand, because cross- translatable words represent the concepts most “basic” to human language (Wierzbicka 2020). The approach has gained traction over the last few years, with application in fields such as language teaching (cf. Sadow 2021), science communication (cf. Wierzbicka 2018) and health (cf. Goddard et al. 2021)

Conceptual Semantics and Public Messaging: "Risk-Benefit" Discourse around COVID-19 Vaccination

This study explores the conceptual semantics of risk–benefit discourse about COVID-19 vaccination and the implications for public health messaging. The underlying methodology is the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) approach. The study proposes a semantic explication of the English word risk in one of its most frequently used frames in COVID-19 vaccine discourse (i.e. the risk of ...), as well as an “advice script” for the complex task of “weighing the risks and benefits” of a vaccination decision. Drawing on COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Australia and Denmark, the study stresses the difficulties of communicating public health messages using conceptually complex and culture-specific words such as risk. Though the issues are complex, it is argued that adopting a minimal languages approach may provide a way forward, by enabling the creation of texts that are both easier to understand and more easily translated.

Isospin-breaking interactions studied through mirror energy differences

Background: Information on charge-dependent (i.e., isospin-non-conserving) interactions is extracted from excited states of mirror nuclei. Purpose: Specifically, the purpose of the study is to extract effective isovector (Vpp 12Vnn) interactions which, in general, can either be of Coulomb or nuclear origin. Methods: A comprehensive shell-model description of isospin-breaking effects is used to fit data on mirror energy differences in the A = 42\u201354 region. The angular-momentum dependence of isospin-breaking interactions was determined from a systematic study of mirror energy differences. Results: The results reveal a significant isovector term, with a very strong spin dependence, beyond that expected of a two-body Coulomb interaction. Conclusions: The isospin-breaking terms that are extracted have a J dependence that is not consistent with the known CSB properties of the bare nucleon-nucleon interaction

Impact of pairing correlations on the chemical composition of the inner crust of a neutron star

We investigate the impact of the role of pairing correlation on the energy per particles of Wigner-Seitz cells in the inner crust of a neutron star. In particular, we compare some common approximations done to treat pairing effects and we estimate the possible error. To reduce the computational cost of the calculations required to determine the chemical composition of the crust, we present a new numerical method based on Gaussian Emulator Process

Decay of low-lying 12C resonances within a 3alpha cluster model

We compute energy distributions of three $\alpha$-particles emerging from the decay of $^{12}$C resonances by means of the hyperspherical adiabatic expansion method combined with complex scaling. The large distance continuum properties of the wave functions are crucial and must be accurately calculated. The substantial changes from small to large distances determine the decay mechanisms. We illustrate by computing the energy distributions from decays of the $1^{+}$ and $3^-$-resonances in $^{12}$C. These states are dominated by direct and sequential decays into the three-body continuum respectively.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the Clusters '07 conference held in Stratford-upon-Avon in September 200