Cross-Language Poetics: Proposal for an Interdisciplinary Research Program

For creative writers and for readers, opportunities to work with language in ways that engage two linguistic systems and/or two writing systems continue to expand with the growing influence of international and regional lingua francas. At the same time, we have witnessed the continuing development of literary creation in languages with fewer speakers, even in communities facing the outright erosion and replacement of their language. Alongside the tendencies of globalization, literature has also become more diverse, a new recognition of multilingualism and multiculturalism emerging among writers and readers alike. The special circumstances of composition and understanding that the different kinds of language and cultural interaction highlight also present us with an opportunity to study what it is that is fundamental in verbal art. After reviewing three historical examples of European origin (in Section 2) we will turn our attention to problems of language, writing system and poetry in East Asia (in Section 3). The examples from history will help us to put the current situation of multilingual and multicultural contexts for literature into a broader perspective. This is will allow us to return to consider a proposal for research on cross-language poetics

Music contact and language contact: A proposal for comparative research

The concept of convergence, from the study of language contact, provides a model for better understanding interactions between cognitive systems of the same type (for example, in bilingualism, subsystem instantiations of the same kind of knowledge representation and its associated processing mechanisms). For a number of reasons, musical ability is the domain that allows for the most interesting comparisons and contrasts with language in this area of research. Both cross-language and cross-musical idiom interactions show a vast array of different kinds of mutual influence, all of which are highly productive, ranging from so-called transfer effects to total replacement (attrition of the replaced subsystem). The study of music contact should also help investigators conceptualize potential structural parallels between separate mental faculties, most importantly, it would seem, between those that appear to share component competence and processing modules in common. The first part of the proposal is to determine if the comparison between the two kinds of convergence (in language and in music) is a useful way of thinking about how properties of each system are similar, analogous, different and so forth. This leads to a more general discussion about the design features of mental faculties, what might define them “narrowly,” for example

Applications of cloze procedure to reading assessment in special circumstances of literacy development

This study forms part of an on-going investigation of second language reading development of elementary school children from a bilingual, indigenous, community where high levels of proficiency in both languages are common among all age groups. Modifications were applied to the standard rational deletion cloze procedure to adapt assessment to the special sociolinguistic circumstances of reading in an indigenous language, and for the purpose of exploring practical classroom applications of the cloze procedure for instruction

Las transferencias e interacciones entre el español y las lenguas indígenas americanas

En la presente evaluación de la investigación sobre el contacto del español con las lenguas autóctonas de América proponemos una mayor integración entre las disciplinas que han enfocado el tema. En particular, falta incorporar plenamente los avances en los estudios sobre la adquisición y aprendizaje de segundas lenguas y el desarrollo bilingüe. Estudiar las diferentes condiciones y trayectorias del bilingüismo también implica llegar a entender los procesos del desplazamiento, del olvido. El español en América ofrece la oportunidad ideal para lograr esta conciliación por contar con el campo más importante de su adquisición como primera lengua y su aprendizaje como segunda, en contacto desde el siglo XVI con cientos de otros idiomas. Abordaremos dos casos divergentes de intercambio entre lengua nacional y lengua indígena. Como hipótesis, en el primero, el intercambio ha resultado en el mantenimiento de la autonomía de las dos lenguas, apesar de una amplia gama de influencias mutuas; en el segundo, los investigadores debaten la posibilidad de una convergencia.En la presente evaluación de la investigación sobre el contacto del español con las lenguas autóctonas de América proponemos una mayor integración entre las disciplinas que han enfocado el tema. En particular, falta incorporar plenamente los avances en los estudios sobre la adquisición y aprendizaje de segundas lenguas y el desarrollo bilingüe. Estudiar las diferentes condiciones y trayectorias del bilingüismo también implica llegar a entender los procesos del desplazamiento, del olvido. El español en América ofrece la oportunidad ideal para lograr esta conciliación por contar con el campo más importante de su adquisición como primera lengua y su aprendizaje como segunda, en contacto desde el siglo XVI con cientos de otros idiomas. Abordaremos dos casos divergentes de intercambio entre lengua nacional y lengua indígena. Como hipótesis, en el primero, el intercambio ha resultado en el mantenimiento de la autonomía de las dos lenguas, apesar de una amplia gama de influencias mutuas; en el segundo, los investigadores debaten la posibilidad de una convergencia.En la presente evaluación de la investigación sobre el contacto del español con las lenguas autóctonas de América proponemos una mayor integración entre las disciplinas que han enfocado el tema. En particular, falta incorporar plenamente los avances en los estudios sobre la adquisición y aprendizaje de segundas lenguas y el desarrollo bilingüe. Estudiar las diferentes condiciones y trayectorias del bilingüismo también implica llegar a entender los procesos del desplazamiento, del olvido. El español en América ofrece la oportunidad ideal para lograr esta conciliación por contar con el campo más importante de su adquisición como primera lengua y su aprendizaje como segunda, en contacto desde el siglo XVI con cientos de otros idiomas. Abordaremos dos casos divergentes de intercambio entre lengua nacional y lengua indígena. Como hipótesis, en el primero, el intercambio ha resultado en el mantenimiento de la autonomía de las dos lenguas, apesar de una amplia gama de influencias mutuas; en el segundo, los investigadores debaten la posibilidad de una convergencia.In the present assessment of research on the contact of Spanish with the autochthonous languages of the Americas we propose a greater integration of the disciplines that have focused on this topic. In particular, it is still necessary to fully incorporate the advances from the fields of second language acquisition and learning and of bilingual development. Studying the different conditions and trajectories of bilingualism also implies coming to an understanding of the processes of language shift, loss. Spanish in America offers the ideal opportunity to achieve this consilience because the New World represents the most important realm of its acquisition as first language and its learning as second language, in contact since the 16th Century with hundreds of other languages. We will take up two contrasting cases of indigenous language-national language interaction. By hypothesis, in the first instance the interchange has resulted in themaintenance of mutual autonomy, despite widespread mutual influence; in the second, researchers are debating the possibility of a convergence

Documentation and Language Learning: Separate Agendas or Complementary Tasks?

In the indigenous communities of the Malintzin volcano highlands in Mexico, in the border region of the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala, speakers of Nahuatl have responded variously to the displacement of their language. In a few localities, evidence of a significant erosion appears to have sparked increased interest in both documentation (e.g., preserving a record of extant traditional narrative) and second language learning of the indigenous language by first language speakers of Spanish, and by speakers of Spanish who were once fluent speakers of Nahuatl. Modest interest has been expressed in bilingual instructional models for public schooling for children who are first language speakers of Nahuatl. Even though a small number of towns in this region have maintained high levels of Nahuatl language proficiency across the population (approaching ninety percent in two cases) continued and most likely accelerated erosion in the coming years appears to be inevitable. All demographic and sociolinguistic indicators point in this direction. We report on advances that have been made in a project that seeks to combine the tasks of Documentation and Language Learning. The following argument is presented for wider discussion: that in fact there are no inherent conflicts of interest between scientists (internal and external to the speech community) and indigenous communities as a whole regarding the goals of language maintenance, language use, and research projects related to recording and preserving an archive of the language and its various discourse forms.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Morris ROSSABI: China and the Uyghurs: A Concise Introduction

An account of the history of the Uyghur people is indispensable for understanding the current crisis in Xinjiang province. This is where China and the Uyghurs begins. As a historian of East Asia, Professor Rossabi approaches the problem of understanding by applying an objective procedure of fact-finding, as is required of researchers in his field. Objective, here, first implies the gathering of evidence and other reliable information from historical sources and from reports of events, also from reliable sources, as they unfold in real time. Secondly, it implies examining the available information critically, from more than one point of view

Particles and p−p-adic integrals of Spin(12)\left(\frac{1}{2}\right): spin Lie group, R(ρ,q)−\mathcal{R}(\rho,q)-gamma and R(ρ,q)−\mathcal{R}(\rho,q)- beta functions, ghost and applications

In this work, we address the $p$-adic analogues of the fermion spin Lie algebras and Lie groups. We consider the extension of the fermion spin Lie groups and Lie algebras to the $p-$adic Lie groups and investigate the way to extend their integral to the zeta function as well. We show that their groups are ghost friendly. In addition, we develop the $\mathcal{R}(p,q)-$deformed calculus for the Bernoulli, Volkenborn, Euler and Genocchi polynomials, and establish related definitions. Finally, we perform a $p-$adic generalization of beta and gamma functions and exhibit some physical applications

Cross-Modal Health State Estimation

Individuals create and consume more diverse data about themselves today than any time in history. Sources of this data include wearable devices, images, social media, geospatial information and more. A tremendous opportunity rests within cross-modal data analysis that leverages existing domain knowledge methods to understand and guide human health. Especially in chronic diseases, current medical practice uses a combination of sparse hospital based biological metrics (blood tests, expensive imaging, etc.) to understand the evolving health status of an individual. Future health systems must integrate data created at the individual level to better understand health status perpetually, especially in a cybernetic framework. In this work we fuse multiple user created and open source data streams along with established biomedical domain knowledge to give two types of quantitative state estimates of cardiovascular health. First, we use wearable devices to calculate cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), a known quantitative leading predictor of heart disease which is not routinely collected in clinical settings. Second, we estimate inherent genetic traits, living environmental risks, circadian rhythm, and biological metrics from a diverse dataset. Our experimental results on 24 subjects demonstrate how multi-modal data can provide personalized health insight. Understanding the dynamic nature of health status will pave the way for better health based recommendation engines, better clinical decision making and positive lifestyle changes.Comment: Accepted to ACM Multimedia 2018 Conference - Brave New Ideas, Seoul, Korea, ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5665-7/18/1

Ecotoxicological Effects of Imidacloprid and Lambda-Cyhalothrin (Insecticide) on Tadpoles of the African Common Toad, Amietophrynus Regularis (Reuss, 1833) (Amphibia: Bufonidae)

Agriculture is the main activity carried out in Cameroon and pesticide use is believed to be a common rule for its success. Most of the farms are situated close to water bodies, thus constituting a potential risk to non-target aquatic organisms. Declines of amphibian populations have been a worldwide issue of concern for the scientific community during the last several decades. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of an insecticide used by local farmers in Buea on amphibians. Parastar 40WP® which is constituted of imidacloprid + lambda-cyhalothrin a commonly used insecticide was applied on tadpoles of the African common toad Amietophrynus regularis (Reuss, 1833) in a static renewal experiment. The acute toxicity test was carried out after a range finding test from which seven test concentrations were selected. These concentrations were 0.0025mg/l, 0.005mg/l, 0.01mg/l, 0.05mg/l, 0.1mg/l, 0.5mg/l and 0.2mg/l. Signs of toxicity such as hyperactive symptoms, loss of balance, motionlessness and death were recorded. A varying degree of mortality (dose-dependent) was noticed during the test. On the contrary, no such toxicity signs and mortality occurred in the control, indicating that they were caused by the test substance. The 24h LC50 was 3.66mg/l, which is less than the recommended application dose (125mg/l). Products constituted of imidacloprid and lambda-cyhalothrin should therefore be handled with care and far from water bodies because of their potential to cause harm to non-target aquatic biota