Measuring Lexical Richness through Type-Token Curve: a Corpus-Based Analysis of Arabic and English Texts

WordSmith Tools (5.0) is used to analyze samples from texts of different genres written by eight different authors. These texts are grouped into two corpora: Arabic and English. The Arabic corpus includes textual samples from the Qur'an, Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya ( a prayer manual), Modern Standard Arabic (Mistaghanmy's novel Chaos of Sensations) and Imam Ali's Nahjul-Balagah (Peak of Eloquence). The English Corpus comprises The New Testament, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Dickens' David Copperfield, and Eliot's Adam Bede. Each textual sample is statistically analyzed to find about its lexical richness or vocabulary size. The number of tokens (total number of words) and the number of types (distinct vocabulary words) are counted for each sample. Then both numbers are plotted against each other using Microsoft Office Excel diagrams. The resulted curves in both corpora give a vivid idea about the lexical richness of each textual sample. They open an active avenue to compare between the different authors in terms of their vocabulary size and the range at which they begin to exhaust their linguistic repertoire by repetition. The curves for Imam Ali's Nahjul-Balagah (Arabic corpus) and Conrad's Heart of Darkness (English corpus) rise up high reaching the maximum. By contrast, Qur'anic Verses and The New Testament have the lowest curve for the ritualistic quality of their texts. Keywords: corpus stylistics, type-token curve, lexical richnes

Authorship Verification in Arabic using Function Words: A Controversial Case Study of Imam Ali's Book Peak of Eloquence

This paper addresses the viability of two multivariate methods (Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analysis) in verifying the disputed authorship of a famous Arabic religious book called (Nahjul-Balagha/ Peak of Eloquence). This book occupies an exceptional position in the history of the huge debates held between the two basic Islamic sectors: Sunni'e and Shia. Therefore, it represents a serious challenge to the viability of the multivariate techniques in resolving certain types of historical and sectarian conflicts and controversies. Furthermore, verifying the authorship of this book could be a good opportunity to find out whether there are certain quantitative techniques of attribution that hold for different languages such as English and Arabic. Function words have been targeted in this paper as possible indicators of the author's identity. Accordingly, a set of Arabic function words would be tested using WordSmith Tools (version 5). It turned out that the multivariate techniques are most likely robust for addressing the type of issues raised about Nahjul-Balagha. Besides, it appeared that the statistical patterns of function word usages are quite sensitive to genre in Arabic. Keywords: authorship attribution, authorship verification, stylometrics, computational stylistics

An Experiment in Plagiarism Detection in Academic Research Articles Using Attributional Techniques

There are certain overlapping aspects that brings plagiarism detection and authorship attribution together in one basket. Suspected cases of plagiarism can be interpreted as special cases of disputed or misattributed  authorship. Being so, the same techniques used to resolve doubtful cases of attribution can be used to investigate any potential existence of plagiarism. Principal components analysis and cluster analysis (henceforth PCA and CA) are among the popular statistical techniques used to proceed with various  attributional scenarios. These two techniques are used throughout this paper to explore the patterns of function words displayed in seventeen samples of one specific genre (academic research articles). A survey is conducted over various cases of academic attribution: academic writing in English as a First Language and as a Second Language, and even cases of research articles with mixed authorship. Function words have been targeted in this paper as possible indicators of the author's identity. Accordingly a set of English function words is tested using WordSmith Tools (version 5.0). It turned out that the multivariate techniques (represented by PCA and CA) are most likely robust for addressing the type of issues raised about plagiarism and authorship attribution. Besides, it appeared that the statistical patterns of function words usage are rather relevant markers to deal with various scenarios of potential cases of plagiarism. This could explain the three different clusters plotted in the data environment for Halliday's samples, the Phillippine's samples together with his collaboratively authored ones, and the Iraqi's suspected samples that represented a highly potential case of plagiarism. Keywords: Authorship Attribution, Plagiarism Detection, Authorship Verificatio

A Functional Analysis Of The Nominal Group Structures In "There Was A Saviour"

This paper is an attempt to explore the ways in which a close analysis of linguistic features can show how some key literary meanings are made. In the poem "There was a Saviour" by Dylan Thomas there are careful shifts in the religious representation of "the Saviour", and these shifts can be associated with certain parallel changes or developments in the structure of the nominal groups used throughout the five stanzas of the poem.The nominal group structure is analyzed carefully into five elements: Head, Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, and Qualifier. Dylan Thomas employed them in different degrees in relation to the structural complexity of the nominal groups; he relies heavily on the Qualifier, and the Epithet to increase the structural complexity of the nominal groups in the poem

Plagiarism and Patchwriting Detection in EFL Students' Graduation Research Writing

This study aims at detecting plagiarism and patchwritting in Iraqi EFL students' graduation research papers. To accomplish this aim, five graduation research papers were analyzed. Findings indicate that Iraqi EFL students when writing from sources commit extensive copying from the source (plagiarsism) or stitching sentences together to form a paragraph (patchwriting). So instead of  writing about the source they find themselves coping from it. The researchers find that this misuse of sources is due to many reasons that were revealed in a questionnaire conducted throughout the study on 20 Iraqi fourth stage University students, exploring why they commit direct coping from their sources. Figures indicate evidently that (60%) of the students expressed their  lack of knowledge in the possible techniques that could be used when writing from sources like summarizing and paraphrasing. This lack of knowledge plays an essential role in the difficulty students face in their research writing process. To avoid plagiarism and patchwriting, further research is most definitely urgent so that the Iraqi students might be more aware of their misuses of sources and of the misconducting techniques they employ in writing their graduation research papers. Keywords: Plagiarism, Patchwriting, Writing from sources, Paraphrasing, Summarizing

Inflammatory and bone biomarkers/composites as a predictive tool for clinical characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis patients

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is related to alterations in different inflammatory and connective tissue biomarkers. The diagnostic values and the factors affecting these biomarkers are conflicting. In the present study, a bone-related composite (B-composite), made from the z-score of stromelysin-1 (MMP3), colony-stimulating factor 2 (CSF2), and osteopontin (OPN), and I-composite, reflecting immune activation, made from the z-score of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), interferon-γ (INFγ), and vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF) were examined in RA patients. The biomarkers were measured by ELISA technique in 102 RA patients and 58 age-matched healthy control subjects. Serum MMP3, TNFα, IFNγ, and CSF2 showed significant elevation in RA patients. Multivariate general linear model (GLM) analysis revealed a significant high effect of diagnosis on biomarkers' level (partial η2 = 0.415). Duration of disease is significantly associated with VEGF, OPN, and B-composite and negatively correlated with TNFα. B-composite is significantly associated with CRP. A significant fraction of the DAS28 score variance can be explained by the regression on zlnINFγ. The variance in the CRP was explained by zlnOPN and B-composite. More than half of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) variation can be explained by the regression on serum MMP3 and I-composite. The top 3 sensitive predictors for RA disease are INFγ, MMP3, and TNFα. B-composite is associated with the duration of disease and CRP. At the same time, I-composite is negatively associated with the ACPA level. The biomarker composites have potential use as RA disease characteristic biomarkers

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

The Comparative Power of Type/Token and Hapax legomena/Type Ratios: A Corpus-based Study of Authorial Differentiation

This paper presents an attempt to verify the comparative power of two statistical features: Type/Token, and Hapax legomena/Token ratios (henceforth TTR and HTR). A corpus of ten novels is compiled. Then sixteen samples (each is 5,000 tokens in length) are taken randomly out of these novels as representative blocks. The researchers observe the way TTR and HTR behave in discriminating four novelists: Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner and Hemingway. When compared to the traditional statistical features (e.g. word length average, Sentence length average, etc.), TTR and HTR are by far more competent in comparing the distinctive quantitative behavior of each novelist. It turns out that TTR and HTR contribute more or less in creating a sort of statistical identity which can be used in giving a vivid comparison and discrimination of the four novelists involved in this paper. Nevertheless, HTR sounds more viable in achieving the discriminating task than TTR.   

The Comparative Power of \u3cem\u3eType\u3c/em\u3e/\u3cem\u3eToken\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eHapaxlegomena\u3c/em\u3e/\u3cem\u3eType\u3c/em\u3e Ratios: A Corpus-based Study of Authorial Differentiation

Highly technical linguistic study testing the power of two statistical measurements in discerning authorial style. Samples brief passages from The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms

A Corpus-based Stylistic Analysis of Body-Soul and Heaviness-Lightness Metaphors in Kundera's Novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being

This paper represents an attempt to conduct a corpus-based stylistic analysis of  two conceptual metaphors in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which is a novel written by Milan Kundera. Soul-body and lightness-heaviness metaphors are foregrounded as being central themes all through the novel. The way such metaphors are used in the novel indicates an insightful employment of metaphor as a cognitive tool which empowers language users with a capacity of conceptualizing different experiences. The researcher adopts conceptual metaphor theory to produce a sort of conceptual analysis incorporating Leech's semantic componential analysis within the overall analytic procedure. Different techniques are figured out in relation to the creative ways of manipulating the cognitive level of language, such as conceptual switching, conceptual extension, and conceptual fusion. These creative techniques are carefully used in the novel under investigation with different ranges of metaphorical creativity. Conceptual switching might be simple but very active in deviating from the conventional conceptual system. Conceptual extension marks certain minute elaborations conventional metaphors undergo extending the limits of cognitive conceptualization. As for conceptual fusion, it proves to be interestingly powerful in producing certain aggregations of metaphorical mappings. Keywords: Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Metaphorical Creativity, Metaphorical Mappings, Corpus Stylistics