The choice associated with words is a fundamental property of natural languages. It lies at the heart of quantitative linguistics, computational linguistics, and language sciences more generally. Information-theory gives us tools at hand to measure precisely the average amount of choice associated with words—the word entropy. Here we use three parallel corpora—encompassing ca. 450 million words in 1916 texts and 1259 languages—to tackle some of the major conceptual and practical problems of word entropy estimation: dependence on text size, register, style and estimation method, as well as non-independence of words in co-text. We present three main results: 1) a text size of 50K tokens is sufficient for word entropies to stabilize throughout the text, 2) across languages of the world, word entropies display a unimodal distribution that is skewed to the right. This suggests that there is a trade-off between the learnability and expressivity of words across languages of the world. 3) There is a strong linear relationship between unigram entropies and entropy rates, suggesting that they are inherently linked. We discuss the implications of these results for studying the diversity and evolution of languages from an information-theoretic point of view.

This paper provides a systematic review of the research around teaching English as a second or foreign language over the last ten years. The review aims to help second and foreign language researchers to recognize the trends that have impacted English teaching and learning research. More than 400 articles from four leading journals (TESOL Journal, TESOL Quarterly, ELT Journal, and Second Language Research) were reviewed to examine the trends and method that were used. The findings suggested that the research interests in the TESOL field have changed as many topics and trends have risen based on students’ academic and social needs. Topics such as teaching methodology, digital literacy, and using technology to teach English have dominated the research during the last decade.

Studies in the area of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) have attracted the focus of multi-linguistic learners. However, little research on CLI deals with Asian learners, particularly Chinese-speaker with knowledge of two or more foreign languages. The present study explores CLI in L1 Chinese learners with both English (L2) and Spanish (L3) as foreign languages who are studying in Madrid, a Spanish-speaking community; their studies coincided with data collection. English learners were instructed to speak for analysis purposes, with the following aims: (i) to observe the most frequent category (functional transfer, code-switching, borrowing and coinage) in the CLI instances; (ii) to determine the source language of CLI; (iii) to investigate whether CLI factors, including language distance, L2 status, proficiency and recency of use, intervene in the appearance of CLI instances in the participants. Data was gathered from 16 female Chinese students at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). These were master students aged 22 to 26, who visited Spain for more than 5 months when they participated in the present study. The instrument used was an English semi-structured interview. Results primarily reveal that (a) borrowing is the most prevalent category, accounting for 70% of the CLI instances; (b) Spanish is the main source language of CLI while Chinese plays a functional role in the transfer process; (c) language distance proves to be the strongest predictor of CLI.

The combination of increased pressures for high-volume, high-impact publications in English language with the high rejection rates of submitted manuscripts for publications presents an often unsurpassable obstacle for (early career) researchers. At the same, the register requirements of peer-reviewed journals -that can contribute to whether a paper is accepted for publication- has received little attention. This paper redresses this gap, by investigating the linguistic choices in 60 published manuscripts in four journals, with impact factor (IF) above 2; all 4 journals, publish original research papers in the field of chemical engineering science and specifically focus on wastewater treatment. Our survey shows that chemical engineering research publications tend to comply to a set of unwritten requirements: multidisciplinarity, brevity, co-authorship, focus on the description of practical results (rather than methods), and awareness of non-specialised audiences. It is found that less discipline-specific vocabulary was used in higher IF journals and this is interpreted within the current context of manuscript publication and consumption. Also, a complex relationship between the advertised scope of each journal and the actual published papers exists, indicating that guide for authors and aims and objective published by the journal's editorial office should be critically evaluated.

Research has shown that second language reading is the bridge that leads to developing otherlanguage skills such as speaking, writing, and vocabulary acquisition. Hence, the present studyaimed to explore adult language learners’ perspectives regarding the most effective andbeneficial reading strategies that can be used to develop their reading competency. Using aqualitative research method, the study examined what specific reading strategies languagelearners believe is effective in developing their reading skills. Analysis of the focus groupsrevealed five different reading strategies mentioned by the participants. These strategies were:Reading Aloud, Silent Reading, Shared Reading, Scanning or Skimming, and Timed Reading. Findings suggest that understanding the use of different reading strategies is important, solanguage teachers need to devote more learning time to introduce reading strategies during ESL classes.

Conversational spoken dialogue systems that interact with the user rather than merely reading text can be equipped with hesitations to manage the dialogue flow and the users' attention. Based on a series of empirical studies, we built an elaborated hesitation synthesis strategy for dialogue systems that inserts hesitations of scalable extent wherever needed in the ongoing utterance. So far, evaluations of hesitating systems have shown that synthesis quality is affected negatively by hesitations, but that there is improvement in interaction quality. We argue that due to its conversational nature, hesitation synthesis needs interactive evaluation rather than traditional MOS-based questionnaires. To prove this point, we dually evaluate our system’s speech synthesis component: on the one hand, linked to the dialogue system evaluation, on the other hand, in the traditional MOS way. This way we are able to analyze and discuss differences that arise due to the evaluation methodology. Our results suggest that MOS scales are not sufficient to assess speech synthesis quality, which has implications for future research that are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, our results indicate that hesitations work well to increase task performance and that an elaborated strategy is necessary to avoid likability issues.

When using computer-aided translation systems in a typical, professional translation workflow, there are several stages at which there is room for improvement. The SCATE (Smart Computer-Aided Translation Environment) project investigated several of these aspects, both from a human-computer interaction point of view, as well as from a purely technological side. This paper describes the SCATE research with respect to improved fuzzy matching, parallel treebanks, the integration of translation memories with machine translation, quality estimation, terminology extraction from comparable texts, the use of speech recognition in the translation process, and human computer interaction and interface design for the professional translation environment. For each of these topics, we describe the experiments we performed and the conclusions drawn, providing an overview of the highlights of the entire SCATE project.

Within the fields of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP), there is an unquestioned orthodoxy that scholars with English as an Additional Language (EAL) are particularly disadvantaged by the pressure to publish in English (though see Kuteeva 2015 and debate between Hyland 2016a, 2016b and Politzer-Ahlesa et al. 2016). In this paper, I challenge this orthodoxy, raising questions about the evidence upon which it is based. Within a framework of ‘verbal hygiene’ (Cameron 1995, 2012), I will argue that the attention accorded to ‘non-nativeness’ may be disproportionate to its significance for publication success. I conclude by proposing some reorientations for researchers and practitioners in the field that centre on broadening the scope to encompass non-linguistic structures of inequity.

One of the most pivotal challenges that learners may face, during foreign language learning, is building a reliable lexicon. Insufficient vocabulary knowledge may put serious obstacles in the foreign language learning process. Thus, students need to equip themselves with different strategies to cope with these difficulties. Translation equivalence (TE) is one of these strategies. Since the success or failure of any vocabulary learning strategy depends on two main factors: developing the learners’ vocabulary knowledge and the extent of difficulty or ease with which the learner acquires new words, this research aims at investigating the impact of this strategy on EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and word learnability. 258 Tunisian 9^th graders participated in this project. Two vocabulary recognition tests, one using translation equivalence and the other using only-English strategies, were used to test the hypotheses. Different statistical tests and techniques were employed to analyze data. Findings showed that TE has a positive impact on learners’ vocabulary knowledge and revealed that students, at this level of proficiency, learn vocabulary through translation better than any other strategy using only English.

This paper discusses the metonymic uses of the greek deictic adverbs εδώ [here] and εκεί [there] in the language of politics. The paper draws examples from political speeches which taken place in the Hellenic Parliament during 2011 and discussed the financial situation of Greece during that time. The paper discusses the multiple senses of these deictic adverbs and suggests that the temporal and spatial denotations of εδώ and εκεί are subject to image schemas. It is argued that the image schemas in which εδώ and εκεί are rooted have a metonymic basis. The paper also suggests that the spatio-temporal senses of εδώ and εκεί go beyond their deictic function due to their metonymic basis.

This paper provides the solution to understanding the hitherto unknown writing system used for the manuscript listed as MS 408 at the Beinecke Library, Yale University. The writing system uses symbols, punctuation, grammar and language that are each unique. The manuscript is not encrypted, in the sense that its author made an effort to conceal the contents of the manuscript, as has been presumed by some scholars. Instead, it is code only in the sense that the modern reader needs to be versed in the calligraphic and linguistic rules to be able to translate and read the texts. Furthermore, in discovering its writing system, it became apparent that the manuscript is of invaluable importance to the study of the evolution of the Romance languages and the scheme of Italic letters and associated punctuation marks now commonplace in those and other modern languages. In short; it is revealed to be the only known document both written in Vulgar Latin, or proto-Romance, and using proto-Italic symbols. The original title for the manuscript, given by its female author, is: What one needs to be sure to acquire for the evils set in one’s fate. It is a book offering homeopathic advice and instruction to women of court on matters of the heart, of sexual congress, of reproduction, of motherhood and of the physical and emotional complications that can arise along the way through life. The manuscript has now been dated to the year 1444 and the location of its creation has been pinpointed to the court of Castello Aragonese, on the island of Ischia: as expounded in the companion paper Linguistically Dating and Locating Manuscript MS408: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003808.

The paper investigates the issues of transliteration of Russian toponyms in a city environment and studies the efficiency of the Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names published by the United Nations group of experts. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of the UN and Russian official transliteration standards and compares the suggested theoretical models with the practical applications found on the street signs, labels, maps, and other sources of navigation. The author presents a comprehensive account of practical transcription methods used in Moscow and offers a solution to a number of issues and discrepancies between popular transliteration models and their real-life application.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of discoursal approach on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension ability. Quick Placement Test (QPT) was used to select 60 intermediate EFL learners as the participants of this study. Then, they were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Each consisted of 30 learners. Prior to the treatment, the participants of both groups were given a pretest to ensure their reading comprehension. The experimental group was exposed to the Hymes’ model. In the control group the researcher used placebo for teaching reading skill. Then a posttest was administered to both groups. An Independent samples t-test between posttests of the study and a paired-samples t-test between the pretest and posttest of the groups of the study were run. The results of the study revealed and emphasized that the Hymes’ model improved the learners’ reading comprehension.

Humanity, culture, societal development and language issues are mutually reinforcing much as they are intricately interwoven in a non-ceasing dynamic interrelationships within the matrix defined by language standardization or development, acquisition and use that mostly take up central place as unifying and propelling forces in language discourse. Within the confines of globalization which is neither homogenization nor convergence; but the beginning of drawing on the strength of indigenous capabilities to create knowledge ecology that would enliven socio-economic and scientific development of the world in far reaching interconnectivities and relationships across every clime, issues pertaining to language development, acquisition and use become imperative. It is against this background that this paper examines the development/standardization, acquisition and use of Esan language as one of several Nigerian indigenous languages to promote scientific and technological development through knowledge creation, preservation and dissemination. The obsession of using western model and epistemological outlook to achieve appropriate scientific and technological development to the utter neglect of home grown and culturally distilled efforts were also examined. In the light of the dare consequences and the harsh conditions globalization imposes on developing nations, this paper highlights standardization and use of indigenous languages in chatting appropriate trajectory for effectual developmental efforts in fast shrinking contemporary world.

This work describes the orthographic content in grammars of European languages in the 17th and the 18th century. Reviewed were 17 grammars for 7 languages in Rationalism, 15 grammars for 11 languages in the Enlightenment, and 12 Latin orthographies. As for orthographic entities in the broader sense (orthography as a way to write down speech), our starting point were orthographic grapheme units which are contrasted to meaning (i.e. orthographic entities in the narrower sense, e.g. punctuation). Contrary to the traditional description which focused on spelling, this work observes the beginnings of orthographic content in grammars and its development into an autonomous language phenomenon and norm. The strong connection between orthography and grammar is described and it is established that, from the diachronic point of view, orthography cannot be integrally reviewed without studying the grammatical teachings.

This short paper raises and answers a question related to orthographic lexicography in general and its reference to efforts in making contemporary dictionary portals. As orthographic dictionaries have not yet been researched as a specialized lexicographic variety, part of their metalexicographic description in those European languages that have online normative orthographic dictionaries is presented. Metalexicographic elements that are analyzed were chosen from the perspective of casual and professional users and online dictionary visitors. Regardless of the fact that this is a specific kind of dictionary, as well as of the fact that European orthographic tradition and practice is quite heterogeneous, the belief that the European Dictionary Portal should also include available online orthographic dictionaries is defended. An argument in favor of this could contribute to an awareness of the importance of orthography for online dictionary users, even in those languages whose written form greatly corresponds to the spoken form.

Statistics of languages are calculated by counting characters, words, sentences, word rankings. Some of these random variables are also the main “ingredients” of classical readability formulae. Revisiting the readability formula of Italian, known as GULPEASE, shows that of the two terms that determine the readability index G – the semantic index G_C, proportional to the number of characters per word, and the syntactic index G_F, proportional to the reciprocal of the number of words per sentence −, G_F is dominant because G_C is, in practice, constant for any author throughout seven centuries of Italian Literature. Each author can modulate the length of sentences more freely than he can do with the length of words, and in different ways from author to author. For any author, any couple of text variables can be modelled by a linear relationship y=mx, but with different slope m from author to author, except for the relationship between characters and words, which is unique for all. The most important relationship found in the paper is, in author’s opinion, that between the short−term memory capacity, described by Miller’s “7∓2 law”, and the word interval, a new random variable defined as the average number of words between two successive punctuation marks. The word interval can be converted into a time interval through the average reading speed. The word interval is spread in the same of Miller’s law, and the time interval is spread in the same range of short−term memory response times. The connection between the word interval (and time interval) and short−term memory appears, at least empirically, justified and natural, and should further investigated. Technical and scientific writings (papers, essays etc.) ask more to their readers. A preliminary investigation of these texts shows clear differences: words are on the average longer, the readability index G is lower, word and time intervals are longer. Future work done on ancient languages, such as Greek or Latin, could bring us a flavor of the short term−memory features of these ancient readers.

This paper researches the as yet unstudied topic of orthographic content in antique, medieval, and Renaissance grammar books in European languages, as part of a wider research of the origin of orthographic standards in European languages. As a central place for teachings about language, grammar books contained orthographic instructions from the very beginning, and such practice continued also in later periods. Understanding the function, content, and orthographic forms in the past provides for a better description of the nature of the orthographic standard in the present. The evolution of grammatographic practice clearly shows the continuity of development of orthographic content from a constituent of grammar studies through the littera unit gradually to an independent unit, then into annexed orthographic sections, and later into separate orthographic manuals. 5 antique, 22 Latin, and 17 vernacular grammars were analyzed, describing 19 European languages. The research methodology is based on distinguishing orthographic content in the narrower sense (grapheme to meaning) from the broader sense (grapheme to phoneme). In this way, the function of orthographic description was established separately from the study of spelling. As for the traditional description of orthographic content in the broader sense in old grammar books, it is shown that orthographic content can also be studied within the grammatographic framework of a specific period, similar to the description of morphology or syntax. We found that 4 out of 5 antique, 11 out of 22 Latin and 5 out of 17 vernacular grammarians describe orthographic content in the narrower sense.

This paper discusses the impact of orthographic manuals on the state of literacy, i.e. the relation of orthographic literacy and orthographic standardisation. The established hypothesis claims that frequent changes of orthographic rules during the pupils’ primary and secondary education do not have any considerable impact on their orthographic habits. In other words, the quantity of orthographic mistakes observed during a longer period of time and in conditions of changed orthographic rules would not show significant oscillations in their spelling. In order to confirm the hypothesis, a questionnaire was conducted encompassing 41 tests among 526 students of a technical study programme during four consecutive academic years, pursuant to whose results a writing uniformity index and a categorisation of orthographic controversy into six classes is established. The Croatian language has been selected for the observation due to multiple orthographic changes in the last 30 years in the three major orthographic points: writing of the covered r, writing of d and t in front of c and č in declination of words ending in -tak, -tac, -dak and -dac, and the issue of compound or separate spelling of the negation particle and the auxiliary biti (to be). Moreover, the paper methodologically and quantitatively establishes criteria according to which the second established hypothesis on evolutionary orthographic literacy can be confirmed. The conclusions are expected to be able to contribute to the better understanding of orthographic planning and application of orthographic norms in schools.

As a behavior of bilingual individuals and an indispensable part of bilingual speech, code-switching has been investigated by many researchers. However, there are many variables influencing code-switching, and each variable has the potential to be a confounding variable. Among these variables is the gender; however, whether there are significant gender differences and what are the gender differences in code-switching remains unknown for Mandarin Mandarin-English child bilinguals, as previous literature diverse on the existence of gender differences. Therefore, this paper seeks potential code-switching and distribution of code-switching by quantitative analysis of speech data in Singapore Bilingual Corpus. The results indicate that gender differences are significant in the amount of intra code-switching. However, neither considerable gender difference is observed in the amount of inter nor the code-switching related environment.

One of the most pivotal challenges that learners may face, during foreign language learning, is building a reliable lexicon. Insufficient vocabulary knowledge may put serious obstacles in the foreign language learning process. Thus, students need to equip themselves with different strategies to cope with these difficulties. Translation equivalence (TE) is one of these strategies. Since the success or failure of any vocabulary learning strategy depends on two main factors: developing the learners’ vocabulary knowledge and the extent of difficulty or ease with which the learner acquires new words, this research aims at investigating the impact of this strategy on EFL learners’ vocabulary knowledge and word learnability. 258 Tunisian 9^th graders participated in this project. Two vocabulary recognition tests, one using translation equivalence and the other using only-English strategies, were used to test the hypotheses. Different statistical tests and techniques were employed to analyze data. Findings showed that TE has a positive impact on learners’ vocabulary knowledge and revealed that students, at this level of proficiency, learn vocabulary through translation better than any other strategy using only English.

Aim: The paper aims at defining the role of abductive reasoning in the reader’s interpretation of English fiction narrative text. Three research questions are defined as follows: (1) what is the nature of sign interpretation in its application to textual analysis? (2) what linguistic factors determine the use of abduction in the interpretation of signs? (3) how to apply abductive reasoning in the process of reading and interpretation in EFL teaching practice? Abduction is viewed here as a type of reasoning in the three-componential semiotic model of argument and as a deductive hypothesis, responsible for implicit meaning processing (Charles Peirce). Materials and Methods: The paper states the four-stage process of abduction to be a basic inquiry method of the reader on his way to fiction world interpretation. By providing a step-by-step analysis of patterns of abductive reasoning in a short story “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, the paper conducts a textual analysis of narratives in terms of subjectivity theory of communication, reflecting the mechanisms of reader’s manipulation with information as a dynamic semiotic process of interpretation, limited by habit (final interpretant). Results: of the research of the mental operations employed by the reader while processing textual information proved a strong interrelation of reading with writing, and mental sub-processes and operations. As the empirical research shows, the process of conceptualization demands a higher level of cognitive maturity on the part of the reader/writer, as it presupposes “knowledge transforming” operations as opposed to “knowledge telling” strategy (Paltridge et. al. 2009: 20). To represent this process schematically, scholars assign the reader/interpretant the central role in the process of triadic sign interpretation, as he makes the further interpretation possible by a reference to the environment (Scheibmayer 2004: 305). The interpretant (I) and Representamen (R1) refer to the same object (O); as Representamen (R2) stands in the same relation to object, represented by Representamen (R1) and to the system (O2), where it acquires the functions of the observer (Sonnenhauser, 2008: 331). Conclusions: The conclusions coming from this research lead to the recognition of the second-level (or third level) observer as a source of subjectivity. And subjectivity, in its turn, arises from the difference in interpretation of signs recognized and established by the observer (Maturana & Varela, 1980). Thus, the process of differentiation by the observer is expected to fix the possible existence of other meanings, produced by the relations of the interpretant to the environment. This is the notion of thirdness. And, therefore, “sign situation”, plays the role of marking the pairs of differentiation in semiotic interpretation of signs. And it is this differential potential of indexical components of signs, and not their relatedness of meaning, which makes communication dynamic.

The chapter presents the current state of research concerning the development of the BE + past participle constructions from Latin to Spanish. Starting from the description in Rosemeyer (2014) and the theoretical background collated in Kailuweit & Rosemeyer (2015), it will be shown that the functional change does not follow traditional grammaticalisation paths. Several concepts that deal with cases contradicting traditional grammaticalisation theory will be discussed. ‘Exaption’ (Lass 1990, 1997) focussing on total defunctionalisation does not account for the fact that the resultative value of the BE + past participle construction, marginal in Latin, becomes central in Mediaeval Spanish. ‘Refunctionalisation’ Smith (2008) captures this aspect in a more appropriate way. However, the development of the construction could be also conceived as the opposite of what Pountain (2000) describes as ‘capitalisation’: a process of ‘decapitalisation’ by which a feature is exploited not for wider, but for more restricted purposes.

This study attempts to classify compound words on the basis of Cognitive Linguistics and compares their usage trends using Computational Linguistics. Using Noam Chomsky’s concept of deep and surface structures of a sentence, Lees treated compound words, not as separate units but as a kind of embedded sentences and hinted for possible presence of deep and surface structures in compound words, which this study tries to investigate. Then on the basis of the Idealized Cognitive Model proposed by Lakoff and Fauconnier, compound words have been classified into transparent, opaque and counterintuitive compound words. Using Google Books Corpus, this study also compares their usage trends. This is done using usage frequency, defined in this work, which is analogous to productivity for affixed words calculated by G.E.Booij. Each class of compound word formed on the basis of ICM is found to have different usage frequency. The possible reasons for this are discussed.

This theoretical paper continues a spectrum of research on sign character of narrative discourse on the background of modern post-classical theory of narrativity. It aims to uncover the relationships between the meaning of the narrative text and a sign signitication, assuming an intentional character of the narrative discourse governed by telic aspects (global semiotics). Global semiotic approach (Thomas Sebeok, 2001) views a narrative discourse as a self-organizing entity with purposeful (telic) character of all its constituent parts which turn a static text into a dynamic whole in the process of reading/perception/interpretation. The key notion for analysis of emergency is the term Umwelt (Jakob von Uexküll) to denote the perceptional world in which an organism (and a human) exists and acts as a subject. Therefore, Umwelt represents human’s perceptual boundary, which modifies the surrounding in accordance with the human’s subjective perspective. As Umwelt can be attributed to both biological and abiotic texts, meaning creation in the narrative discourse is compared to a semiotic study of comparative Umwelten (Cobley, 2014) where narrative is defined as a modeling device for the world creation through embodied subjectivity. It has been confirmed, that stressing on the subjective sphere of information eхchange and processing from the position of global semiotics necessitates introduction of basic principles of biosemiotics (i.e. semiotic scaffolding etc.) and teleology (i.e. cause, purpose, result) to analysis of narrative discourse and it constitutes the perspectives for further research in this domain.

We present a novel approach for adapting text written in standard Finnish to different dialects. We experiment with character level NMT models both by using a multi-dialectal and transfer learning approaches. The models are tested with over 20 different dialects. The results seem to favor transfer learning, although not strongly over the multi-dialectal approach. We study the influence dialectal adaptation has on perceived creativity of computer generated poetry. Our results suggest that the more the dialect deviates from the standard Finnish, the lower scores people tend to give on an existing evaluation metric. However, on a word association test, people associate creativity and originality more with dialect and fluency more with standard Finnish.