11 research outputs found
SciE-Lex Report: Building up a Collocational Database to Assist the Production of Biomedical Texts in L2 English
This paper aims to describe the building-up of SciE-Lex (http://www.ub.edu/grelic/eng/scielex2/scielex.html), a collocational database of non-specialized terms in biomedical English, which was primarily conceived as a response to the lack of reference tools accounting for the lexicogrammatical patterning associated with non-technical terms frequently used in the health science discourse. SciE-Lex thus serves the purpose of assisting L2 English writers from the health science discourse community in their production of biomedical texts in English. This collocational database is the result of a lexicographic project carried out by the GreLiC research group at the University of Barcelona, and as such it has undergone various developmental stages since its inception. In order to evaluate its adequacy as a writing tool addressed to the Spanish biomedical community and confirm the appropriateness of the combinatorial patterning and phraseological information included in each entry, a group of language experts were asked to assess the dictionary by stressing both its weaknesses and strengths. Their feedback has stressed the suitability of SciE-Lex as a lexicographic resource and yielded significant improvement of the tool. Last but not least, SciE-Lex has also been successfully tested with targeted users in a series of "Writing for publication" workshops held at the University of Barcelona, and taught by the author, the results of which have corroborated the usefulness of this lexical database to enhance Spanish users' biomedical English published writing
The CPDB: a learning and teaching corpus-based methodological tool
Corpus-based methodological tools and NTICs have recently become a commonplace in the teaching-learning of SL and FL, as they allow the language learner to become aware of the complexities of real language in use. As part of a teaching innovation project, GReLiC has recently developed a database of English clause patterns.
This study shows the lexico-grammatical information provided in the database as well as some of its pedagogical applications in the linguistics classroom
Joint Playback Delay and Buffer Optimization in Scalable Video Streaming
This paper addresses the problem of the transmission of scalable video streams to a set of heterogeneous clients through a common bottleneck channel. The packet scheduling policy is typically crucial in such systems that target smooth media playback at all the receivers. In particular, the playback delays and the transmission strategy for the packets of the different layers have to be chosen carefully. When the same video is sent simultaneously to multiple clients that subscribe to different parts of the stream, the playback delay cannot be jointly minimized for all the clients. We therefore propose delay optimization strategies along with low complexity solutions for a fair distribution of the delay penalty among the different receivers. Once the delays are selected, we show that there exists a unique scheduling solution that minimizes the buffer occupancy at all the receivers. We derive an algorithm for computing the optimal sending trace, and we show that optimal scheduling has to respect the order of the packets in each media layer. Interestingly enough, solving both delay and buffer optimization problems sequentially leads to a jointly optimal solution when the channel is known. We finally propose a simple rate adaptation mechanism that copes with unexpected channel bandwidth variations by controlling the sending rate and dropping layers when the bandwidth becomes insufficient. Experimental results shows that it permits to reach close to optimal performances even if the channel knowledge is reduced. Rate adaptation provides an interesting alternative to conservative scheduling strategies, providing minor and controllable quality variations, but with a higher resulting average quality
Elaboració d’un glossari sintà ctico-semà ntic
En projectes anteriors havĂem desenvolupat una base de dades de patrons sintĂ ctics, la Clause Pattern DB (CPDB), als quals havĂem associat estructures d’arbre i de la qual hem pogut extreure Ă gilment informaciĂł directament relacionada amb els continguts de la matèria. Quant als beneficis pedagògics, cal destacar que aquest recurs docent estĂ contribuint, d'una banda, a la millora i ampliaciĂł dels tipus d’exercicis dissenyats en anteriors projectes i, d'una altra, a la creaciĂł de materials didĂ ctics, ja sigui des de la perspectiva de l'alumnat (models d’exercicis diversos com per exemple, l’ús de bases de dades, anĂ lisis sintĂ ctiques amb estructures d’arbre, etc.) com des de la del professorat (eines d'avaluaciĂł d'aprenentatge i il•lustraciĂł de continguts). Arran d'aquesta innovaciĂł, vĂ rem detectar que l'alumnat de GramĂ tica descriptiva I, II i III i Lexicologia i morfologia anglesa (totes quatre assignatures sĂłn obligatòries en el grau d’Estudis anglesos) mostrava certes confusions terminològiques, derivades de la manca d’homogeneĂŻtzaciĂł terminològica en aquestes assignatures. Érem conscients que aquesta confusiĂł terminològica incidia negativament en l'assimilaciĂł de conceptes clau, aixĂ com en les anĂ lisis sintĂ ctiques que l’alumnat ha de produir a les esmentades assignatures. Ens vĂ rem proposar, doncs, elaborar un glossari terminològic i pilotar-lo a l’aula per determinar la seva incidència en l’aprenentatge de l’alumnat
ElaboraciĂł d'un glossari sintĂ ctico-semĂ ntic
En projectes anteriors havĂem desenvolupat una base de dades de patrons sintĂ ctics, la Clause Pattern DB (CPDB), als quals havĂem associat estructures d’arbre i de la qual hem pogut extreure Ă gilment informaciĂł directament relacionada amb els continguts de la matèria. Quant als beneficis pedagògics, cal destacar que aquest recurs docent estĂ contribuint, d'una banda, a la millora i ampliaciĂł dels tipus d’exercicis dissenyats en anteriors projectes i, d'una altra, a la creaciĂł de materials didĂ ctics, ja sigui des de la perspectiva de l'alumnat (models d’exercicis diversos com per exemple, l’ús de bases de dades, anĂ lisis sintĂ ctiques amb estructures d’arbre, etc.) com des de la del professorat (eines d'avaluaciĂł d'aprenentatge i il•lustraciĂł de continguts).
Arran d'aquesta innovació, detectà rem que l'alumnat de Gramà tica descriptiva I, II i III i Lexicologia i morfologia anglesa (totes quatre assignatures són obligatòries en el grau d’Estudis anglesos) mostrava certes confusions terminològiques, derivades de la manca d’homogeneïtzació terminològica en aquestes assignatures. Érem conscients que aquesta confusió terminològica incidia negativament en l'assimilació de conceptes clau, aixà com en les anà lisis sintà ctiques que l’alumnat ha de produir a les esmentades assignatures. Ens và rem proposar, doncs, elaborar un glossari terminològic i pilotar-lo a l’aula per determinar la seva incidència en l’aprenentatge de l’alumnat
A corpus-based study of the phraseological behaviour of abstract nouns in medical English. A Needs Analysis of a Spanish medical community
[eng] It has been long acknowledged (Carter 1998, Williams 1998; Biber 2006; Hyland 2008) that writing a text not only entails the accurate selection of correct terms and grammatical constructions but also a good command of appropriate lexical combinations and phraseological expressions. This assumption becomes especially apparent in scientific discourse, where a precise expression of ideas and description of results is expected. Several scholars (Gledhill 2000; Flowerdew 2003; Hyland 2008) have pointed to the importance of mastering the prototypical formulaic patterns of scientific discourse so as to produce phraseologically competent scientific texts. Research on specific-domain phraseology has demonstrated that acquiring the appropriate phraseological knowledge (i.e. mastering the prototypical lexicogrammatical patterns in which multiword units occur) is particularly difficult for non-native speakers, who must gain control of the conventions of native-like discourse (Howarth 1996/1998; Wray 1999; Oakey 2002; Williams 2005; Granger & Meunier 2008). The present dissertation aims to analyse native and non-native speakers' usage of five abstract nouns, i.e. agreement, comparison, conclusion, contribution and decision, in medical English. In order to explore non-native speakers' lexical and phraseological command of the five selected nouns, a Worksheet of four exercises was distributed among a community of twenty-four Spanish doctors, who were practising medicine in three different Spanish hospitals; namely, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro and Hospital de Navarra. With the aim of assessing non-native speakers' phraseological competence regarding the use of abstract nouns, their written production will be compared against a native corpus. Thus, it can be claimed that this investigation also attempts to contribute to the linguistic characterisation of the discourse of medical science. More precisely, this thesis project intends to explore native speakers' prototypical lexico-grammatical patterns around the five abstract nouns under investigation. This analysis is based entirely on corpus evidence, since all collocational patterns discussed have been extracted from the Health Science Corpus (HSC), compiled by the Grup de Recerca en Lexicologia i LingĂĽĂstica de Corpus (GReLiC), University of Barcelona. The HSC consists of a 4 million word collection of health science (i.e. medicine, biomedicine, biology and biochemistry) texts, specifically compiled for the current research study. The exploration of the collocational behaviour of abstract nouns in medical English will serve as a benchmark against which to measure non-native speakers' production.[spa] Diversos estudios (Carter 1998, Williams 1998; Biber 2006; Hyland 2008) han constatado que la producciĂłn de un texto no sĂłlo implica una adecuada selecciĂłn de tĂ©rminos lĂ©xicos y estructuras gramaticales, sino tambiĂ©n un buen dominio de combinaciones lĂ©xicas y expresiones fraseolĂłgicas. Este hecho se hace particularmente evidente en el discurso cientĂfico, en el que se espera que tanto la expresiĂłn de ideas como la descripciĂłn de resultados sea lo más precisa posible. Numerosos especialistas (Gledhill 2000; Flowerdew 2003; Hyland 2008) han señalado la importancia de dominar las estructuras formulaicas propias del discurso cientĂfico para producir textos fraseolĂłgicamente aceptables. El estudio de la fraseologĂa caracterĂstica de registros especĂficos ha demostrado que la correcta utilizaciĂłn de estructuras fraseolĂłgicas; es decir, el dominio de los patrones lĂ©xico-gramaticales en los que aparecen las estructuras prefabricadas propias del lenguaje cientĂfico supone una gran dificultad para los hablantes no nativos, quienes deben familiarizarse con las convenciones del discurso producido por nativos (Howarth 1996/1998; Wray 1999; Oakey 2002; Williams 2005; Granger & Meunier 2008). La presente tesis doctoral pretende analizar el uso que tanto hablantes nativos como no nativos hacen de cinco nombres abstractos (agreement, comparison, conclusion, contribution y decisiĂłn) en su producciĂłn de textos mĂ©dicos. Con el objetivo de examinar el dominio lĂ©xico y fraseolĂłgico que los hablantes no nativos muestran de los mencionados nombres abstractos, cuatro fichas de ejercicios se repartieron entre una comunidad de 24 doctores que ejercen la medicina en alguno de los siguientes centros hospitalarios: Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro y Hospital de Navarra. Con la intenciĂłn de investigar la competencia fraseolĂłgica de los mĂ©dicos españoles participantes en el estudio por lo que respecta al uso de nombres abstractos, su producciĂłn escrita se ha comparado con un corpus nativo, el "Health Science Corpus "(HSC), compilado por el "Grup de Recerca en Lexicologia i LingĂĽĂstica de Corpus" (GReLiC) de la Universidad de Barcelona. Por lo tanto, la presente investigaciĂłn pretende, por un lado, contribuir a la caracterizaciĂłn lingĂĽĂstica del discurso propio del inglĂ©s mĂ©dico. Más concretamente, este trabajo analiza la producciĂłn escrita de cientĂficos nativos en relaciĂłn a los patrones lĂ©xico-gramaticales más frecuentemente utilizados con los cinco nombres abstractos sometidos a estudio. Todos los patrones colocacionales tratados en el presente trabajo han sido extraĂdos del HSC, el cual consiste en una colecciĂłn de textos, de aproximadamente 4 millones de palabras, procedentes de revistas cientĂficas de las áreas de la medicina, la biomedicina, la biologĂa y la bioquĂmica. Por otro lado, el análisis del HSC con respecto al comportamiento colocacional de los nombres abstractos en inglĂ©s mĂ©dico servirá tambiĂ©n de corpus de referencia para comparar el uso que de ellos hacen los mĂ©dicos no nativos
Une étude sur corpus du comportement phraséologique de noms abstraits en anglais médical: Une analyse des besoins d'une communauté médicale espagnole
ISBN 9788469301043It has been long acknowledged (Carter 1998, Williams 1998; Biber 2006; Hyland 2008) that writing a text not only entails the accurate selection of correct terms and grammatical constructions but also a good command of appropriate lexical combinations and phraseological expressions. This assumption becomes especially apparent in scientific discourse, where a precise expression of ideas and description of results is expected. Several scholars (Gledhill 2000; Flowerdew 2003; Hyland 2008) have pointed to the importance of mastering the prototypical formulaic patterns of scientific discourse so as to produce phraseologically competent scientific texts.Research on specific-domain phraseology has demonstrated that acquiring the appropriate phraseological knowledge (i.e. mastering the prototypical lexico-grammatical patterns in which multiword units occur) is particularly difficult for non-native speakers, who must gain control of the conventions of native-like discourse (Howarth 1996/1998; Wray 1999; Oakey 2002; Williams 2005; Granger & Meunier 2008).The present dissertation aims to analyse native and non-native speakers' usage of five abstract nouns: 'agreement', 'comparison', 'conclusion', 'contribution' and 'decision', in medical English. In order to explore non-native speakers' lexical and phraseological command of the five selected nouns, a Worksheet of four exercises was distributed among a community of twenty-four Spanish doctors, who were practising medicine in three different Spanish hospitals; namely, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro and Hospital de Navarra.With the aim of assessing non-native speakers' phraseological competence regarding the use of abstract nouns, their written production will be compared against a native corpus. Thus, it can be claimed that this investigation also attempts to contribute to the linguistic characterisation of the discourse of medical science. More precisely, this thesis project intends to explore native speakers' prototypical lexico-grammatical patterns around the five abstract nouns under investigation. This analysis is based entirely on corpus evidence, since all collocational patterns discussed have been extracted from the Health Science Corpus (HSC), compiled by the Grup de Recerca en Lexicologia i LingĂĽĂstica de Corpus (GReLiC), University of Barcelona. The HSC consists of a 4 million word collection of health science (i.e. medicine, biomedicine, biology and biochemistry) texts, specifically compiled for the current research study.The exploration of the collocational behaviour of abstract nouns in medical English will serve as a benchmark against which to measure non-native speakers' production.Diversos estudios (Carter 1998, Williams 1998; Biber 2006; Hyland 2008) han constatado que la producciĂłn de un texto no sĂłlo implica una adecuada selecciĂłn de tĂ©rminos lĂ©xicos y estructuras gramaticales, sino tambiĂ©n un buen dominio de combinaciones lĂ©xicas y expresiones fraseolĂłgicas. Este hecho se hace particularmente evidente en el discurso cientĂfico, en el que se espera que tanto la expresiĂłn de ideas como la descripciĂłn de resultados sea lo más precisa posible.Numerosos especialistas (Gledhill 2000; Flowerdew 2003; Hyland 2008) han señalado la importancia de dominar las estructuras formulaicas propias del discurso cientĂfico para producir textos fraseolĂłgicamente aceptables.El estudio de la fraseologĂa caracterĂstica de registros especĂficos ha demostrado que la correcta utilizaciĂłn de estructuras fraseolĂłgicas; es decir, el dominio de los patrones lĂ©xico-gramaticales en los que aparecen las estructuras prefabricadas propias del lenguaje cientĂfico supone una gran dificultad para los hablantes no nativos, quienes deben familiarizarse con las convenciones del discurso producido por nativos (Howarth 1996/1998; Wray 1999; Oakey 2002; Williams 2005; Granger & Meunier 2008).La presente tesis doctoral pretende analizar el uso que tanto hablantes nativos como no nativos hacen de cinco nombres abstractos (agreement, comparison, conclusion, contribution y decisiĂłn) en su producciĂłn de textos mĂ©dicos. Con el objetivo de examinar el dominio lĂ©xico y fraseolĂłgico que los hablantes no nativos muestran de los mencionados nombres abstractos, cuatro fichas de ejercicios se repartieron entre una comunidad de 24 doctores que ejercen la medicina en alguno de los siguientes centros hospitalarios: Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro y Hospital de Navarra.Con la intenciĂłn de investigar la competencia fraseolĂłgica de los mĂ©dicos españoles participantes en el estudio por lo que respecta al uso de nombres abstractos, su producciĂłn escrita se ha comparado con un corpus nativo, el "Health Science Corpus "(HSC), compilado por el "Grup de Recerca en Lexicologia i LingĂĽĂstica de Corpus" (GReLiC) de la Universidad de Barcelona. Por lo tanto, la presente investigaciĂłn pretende, por un lado, contribuir a la caracterizaciĂłn lingĂĽĂstica del discurso propio del inglĂ©s mĂ©dico. Más concretamente, este trabajo analiza la producciĂłn escrita de cientĂficos nativos en relaciĂłn a los patrones lĂ©xico-gramaticales más frecuentemente utilizados con los cinco nombres abstractos sometidos a estudio. Todos los patrones colocacionales tratados en el presente trabajo han sido extraĂdos del HSC, el cual consiste en una colecciĂłn de textos, de aproximadamente 4 millones de palabras, procedentes de revistas cientĂficas de las áreas de la medicina, la biomedicina, la biologĂa y la bioquĂmica. Por otro lado, el análisis del HSC con respecto al comportamiento colocacional de los nombres abstractos en inglĂ©s mĂ©dico servirá tambiĂ©n de corpus de referencia para comparar el uso que de ellos hacen los mĂ©dicos no nativos.Il est reconnu depuis longtemps (Carter 1998, Williams 1998 ; Biber 2006 ; Hyland 2008) que la rĂ©daction d’un texte implique non seulement une sĂ©lection prĂ©cise de termes et constructions grammaticales corrects, mais Ă©galement une bonne maĂ®trise des combinaisons lexicales et des expressions phrasĂ©ologiques appropriĂ©es. CetteidĂ©e devient particulièrement pertinente dans le discours scientifique, oĂą l’on attend une expression prĂ©cise des concepts et une description des rĂ©sultats. Plusieurs chercheurs (Gledhill 2000 ; Flowerdew 2003 ; Hyland 2008) ont soulignĂ© l’importance d'une maĂ®trise des modèles prototypiques du discours scientifique pour la production de textes scientifiques phrasĂ©ologiquement compĂ©tents.La recherche sur la phrasĂ©ologie d'un domaine spĂ©cifique a dĂ©montrĂ© que l'acquisition des connaissances phrasĂ©ologiques appropriĂ©es (c'est-Ă -dire la maĂ®trise des modèles lexico-grammaticaux prototypiques dans lesquels apparaissent des unitĂ©s polylexicales) est particulièrement difficile pour les locuteurs non natifs, qui doivent maĂ®triser les conventions du discours des locuteurs natifs (Howarth 1996/1998 ; Wray 1999 ; Oakey 2002 ; Williams 2005 ; Granger & Meunier 2008).La prĂ©sente thèse vise Ă analyser l'usage par les locuteurs natifs et non natifs de cinq noms abstraits : « accord », « comparaison », « conclusion », « contribution » et « dĂ©cision », en anglais mĂ©dical. Afin d'explorer la maĂ®trise lexicale et phrasĂ©ologique de ces cinq noms par des locuteurs non natifs, une feuille de quatre exercices a Ă©tĂ© distribuĂ©e parmi une communautĂ© de vingt-quatre mĂ©decins espagnols, qui exerçaient la mĂ©decine dans trois hĂ´pitaux espagnols diffĂ©rents : Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Albacete, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro et Hospital de Navarra.Dans le but d'Ă©valuer la compĂ©tence phrasĂ©ologique des locuteurs non natifs dans l'utilisation de noms abstraits, leur production Ă©crite sera comparĂ©e Ă un corpus natif. Ainsi, on peut affirmer que cette enquĂŞte tente Ă©galement de contribuer Ă caractĂ©riser linguistiquement le discours de la science mĂ©dicale. Plus prĂ©cisĂ©ment, ce projet de thèse vise Ă explorer les modèles lexico-grammaticaux prototypiques pratiquĂ©s par les locuteurs natifs autour des cinq noms abstraits Ă©tudiĂ©s. Cette analyse est entièrement basĂ©e sur des attestations en corpus, puisque tous les modèles de collocations discutĂ©s ont Ă©tĂ© extraits du Health Science Corpus (HSC), compilĂ© par le Grup de Recerca en Lexicologia i LingĂĽĂstica de Corpus (GReLiC), UniversitĂ© de Barcelone. Le HSC se compose d'une collection de 4 millions de mots de textes sur les sciences de la santĂ© (c'est-Ă -dire mĂ©decine, biomĂ©decine, biologie et biochimie), spĂ©cialement compilĂ©s pour la prĂ©sente recherche.L'exploration du comportement collocationnel des noms abstraits en anglais mĂ©dical servira de rĂ©fĂ©rence pour Ă©valuer la production de locuteurs non natifs
Immigration metaphors in a corpus of legal English: an exploratory study of EAL learners' metaphorical production and awareness
Metaphor is central to human understanding and communication. It pervades our everyday language and also abounds in specialized discourse, with legal language not being an exception. This is particularly relevant since metaphors are powerful framing tools able to affect our worldview With the aim of exploring the use that EAL law undergraduate students make of metaphorical expressions as well as their awareness of their connotations, a learner corpus was compiled and qualitatively analyzed. Results have shown that learners, like native speakers, rely on the use of conceptual metaphors such as MIGRATION IS A NATURAL FORCE, STATES ARE CONTAINERS or IMMIGRANTS ARE A THREAT to describe immigration issues. The study has also revealed that learners are not always conscious of the negative slant that metaphors may convey and that raising their awareness is key to enhance critical thinking
The CPDB: a learning and teaching corpus-based methodological tool
Corpus-based methodological tools and NTICs have recently become a commonplace in the teaching-learning of SL and FL, as they allow the language learner to become aware of the complexities of real language in use. As part of a teaching innovation project, GReLiC has recently developed a database of English clause patterns.
This study shows the lexico-grammatical information provided in the database as well as some of its pedagogical applications in the linguistics classroom
The CPDB: a learning and teaching corpus-based methodological tool
Corpus-based methodological tools and NTICs have recently become a commonplace in the teaching-learning of SL and FL, as they allow the language learner to become aware of the complexities of real language in use. As part of a teaching innovation project, GReLiC has recently developed a database of English clause patterns.
This study shows the lexico-grammatical information provided in the database as well as some of its pedagogical applications in the linguistics classroom