Hey, You! The importance of pragmatics in localisations of Mass Effect in French and Spanish

The localisation of video game dialogue for diverse audiences is challenging because of differences in linguistic features between languages and pragmatic norms between cultures. For example, localisers must decide how to translate the English second person singular pronoun 'you' into languages that have a pragmatic distinction between formal and informal pronouns (e.g. "vous" and "tu" in French). These distinctions are used in social interaction to signal politeness, respect, and social distance, which are important elements that shape player experience in role-playing games. We analyse the dialogue from French and Spanish localisations of Mass Effect and show they have strikingly different strategies for translating pronouns. French mostly uses formal pronouns while Spanish mostly uses informal pronouns. We explain how these differences affect player experience and argue that effective localisation requires a clear strategy for dealing with pragmatics. We conclude by making practical suggestions for how game creators can better support localisation.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Hey, You! The importance of pragmatics in localizations of 'Mass Effect' in French and Spanish

The localization of video game dialog for diverse audiences is challenging because of differences in linguistic features between languages and pragmatic norms between cultures. For example, localizers must decide how to translate the English second-person singular pronoun “you” into languages that have a pragmatic distinction between formal and informal pronouns (e.g., “vous” and “tu” in French). These distinctions are used in social interaction to signal politeness, respect, and social distance, which are important elements that shape player experience in role-playing games. We analyze the dialog from French and Spanish localizations of Mass Effect and show they have strikingly different strategies for translating pronouns. French mostly uses formal pronouns while Spanish mostly uses informal pronouns. We explain how these differences affect player experience and argue that effective localization requires a clear strategy for dealing with pragmatics. We conclude by making practical suggestions for how game creators can better support localization

An analysis of the internal conditions of galaxies at z≈0.1 and the identifying features of galaxy sub-types

We have utilised the eighth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), in combination with cloudy photo-ionisation models, to investigate the physical condi- tions of local galaxies at z ≈ 0.1. This was done by separating our selected data into active and passive galaxies, and identifying star-forming, starburst and active galactic nucleus (AGN) sources. We found that stellar mass is a key predictor of galaxy type: most (80%) low mass galaxies are starburst galaxies, while the most massive galaxies are passive, with these being ≈ 100% of the population at z ∼ 0.1 for stellar masses in excess of 1011.8 M⊙. We find that AGN are overall rare, but they become fractionally more important at higher stellar masses. cloudy photo-ionisation models reveal that star-forming galaxies have a strong linear relationship between temperature, metallic- ity and stellar mass, recovering the well studied mass-metallicity relation in the local Universe. AGN in SDSS are relatively metal rich at all stellar masses and we find that they are found at density peaks within the cosmic web. Overall, our results reveal a picture in which the most metal poor, lower mass galaxies are still actively assembling their stellar mass, while the most massive sources have assembled the bulk of their mass at higher redshift

Traces of trauma – a multivariate pattern analysis of childhood trauma, brain structure and clinical phenotypes

Background: Childhood trauma (CT) is a major yet elusive psychiatric risk factor, whose multidimensional conceptualization and heterogeneous effects on brain morphology might demand advanced mathematical modeling. Therefore, we present an unsupervised machine learning approach to characterize the clinical and neuroanatomical complexity of CT in a larger, transdiagnostic context. Methods: We used a multicenter European cohort of 1076 female and male individuals (discovery: n = 649; replication: n = 427) comprising young, minimally medicated patients with clinical high-risk states for psychosis; patients with recent-onset depression or psychosis; and healthy volunteers. We employed multivariate sparse partial least squares analysis to detect parsimonious associations between combinations of items from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and gray matter volume and tested their generalizability via nested cross-validation as well as via external validation. We investigated the associations of these CT signatures with state (functioning, depressivity, quality of life), trait (personality), and sociodemographic levels. Results: We discovered signatures of age-dependent sexual abuse and sex-dependent physical and sexual abuse, as well as emotional trauma, which projected onto gray matter volume patterns in prefronto-cerebellar, limbic, and sensory networks. These signatures were associated with predominantly impaired clinical state- and trait-level phenotypes, while pointing toward an interaction between sexual abuse, age, urbanicity, and education. We validated the clinical profiles for all three CT signatures in the replication sample. Conclusions: Our results suggest distinct multilayered associations between partially age- and sex-dependent patterns of CT, distributed neuroanatomical networks, and clinical profiles. Hence, our study highlights how machine learning approaches can shape future, more fine-grained CT research

La structure prosodique du quenya

The Quenya language, a conlang invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, has received very little linguistic study, which is not entirely surprising given the fact that Quenya is not a living language, the focus of most linguists. Despite its artificial nature and under-studied position, Quenya is a very interesting language to study; it displays a variety of (morpho)phonological, prosodic and grammatical processes that also appear in living languages today. This paper attempts to present an introduction to Quenya prosodic features, including syllables, primary stress and non-metrical secondary stress. I use an Optimality Theory (OT) framework to analyze two posited phonological processes that occur in the language, namely syllable shortening and prosodic lengthening. This paper suggests that through OT, both processes can reasonably be summed up and conflated into one overarching principle, which is the avoidance of ultimate stress assignment. I outline an OT analysis that captures this generalization and attempts to exhibit morphology’s overt interaction with phonology

Hey, You! The importance of pragmatics in localisations of mass effect in French and Spanish

The localisation of video game dialogue for diverse audiences is challenging because of differences in linguistic features between languages and pragmatic norms between cultures. For example, localisers must decide how to translate the English second person singular pronoun ‘you’ into languages that have a pragmatic distinction between formal and informal pronouns (e.g. “vous” and “tu” in French). These distinctions are used in social interaction to signal politeness, respect, and social distance, which are important elements that shape player experience in role-playing games. We analyse the dialogue from French and Spanish localisations of Mass Effect and show they have strikingly different strategies for translating pronouns. French mostly uses formal pronouns while Spanish mostly uses informal pronouns. We explain how these differences affect player experience and argue that effective localisation requires a clear strategy for dealing with pragmatics. We conclude by making practical suggestions for how game creators can better support localisation