1,721,034 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Rapid Prosodic Change in Beginning Spanish Learners
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/7871faaf-2e5e-43bc-9fd8-457035669694/thumb/128.jpgLanguage education is a process that can bring large changes to a speaker’s entire linguistic system. Past research has found that the language learning process has the capability to change features in one’s native language, transferring features from the new language onto the native language. Most of this research has been focused on segmental features, and little attention has been paid to the transference of prosodic features. This thesis looks at the prosodic changes in beginning Spanish learners’ speech in both English and Spanish. Specifically, I looked at the realization of informational and corrective focus utterances in both languages with respect to intonational contour and syllable duration. To collect data, I gave speakers enrolled in a beginning Spanish class at Reed College reading passages and a game designed to elicit corrections in both English and Spanish. This was done multiple times over the course of a month. I found no significant differences between the production of intonational contours with respect to language or focus type. However, the results indicated the speakers had initially begun with different average syllable durations in each language, which merged over the course of the study regardless of focus type. Speakers began with distinct English and Spanish realizations that merged in the middle. Instead of Spanish speech approximating a more native-like syllable duration, Spanish durations became more similar to English durations while English durations became more similar to Spanish durations. This indicates that through the process of language learning, certain features were changed in the L1 and L2
/s/tylizing the /s/elf: A First Look into the Concurrent Fluidity of Gender and Language
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/d8648616-e033-4e74-b3f1-abd6628b53f6/thumb/128.jpgIdentity, especially gender, is understood to be constructed through a variety of semiotic processes (Gratton, 2016). Extensive research has been done on how women and men construct their genders through their language, both trans (e.g., Zimman, 2017) and cis (e.g., Podesva & van Hofwegen, 2016), while research is generally lacking on people of other gender identities (see Gratton, 2016; Rechsteiner & Sneller, 2021). Further, research on style-shifting has departed from the assumption that identity is static (e.g., Podesva, 2007). This queer sociophonetics research fills these gaps in the literature, investigating style-shifting in genderfluid speakers. The analysis focused on a phonetic feature associated with binary gender identities in American English: /s/ articulation. I hypothesized that genderfluid people use the variable in ways that align with cis people and the hegemonic norms of gender. For example, if they are feeling more feminine, they will use the variables associated with femininity (increased /s/ center of gravity (COG)), making use of the semiotic process of highlighting (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004).Six genderfluid speakers were asked to record themselves speaking extemporaneously and reading the Rainbow Passage while at various genders. After each recording, they filled out a survey that captured information on how they were feeling in that moment, both in regard to gender and to other aspects of their identity and overall emotional state (Gratton, 2016). The speakers were recruited from Reed College, a gender-diverse college in the Pacific Northwest.Each recording was transcribed and forced-aligned. The variable of interest is the COG of /s/, which has been found to correlate with femininity in both binary gender and sexuality (see Calder, 2019b; Campbell-Kibler, 2011; Podesva & van Hofwegen, 2016). Because the label “genderfluid” can mean different things to different people, primarily within-speaker analysis was used to see what ways, if any, a speakers’ language changes as they experience, construct, and express their different genders.Gender was quantified on a variety of scales, most of which were devised by the participants themselves through an initial interview. There were Likert scales (0-6) for several different properties including masculine, feminine, and others, with each participant contributing two scales that accurately and affirmingly reflect their personal range of gender.Using the frameworks of indexicality (Ochs, 1992; Silverstein, 2003) and tactics of intersubjectivity (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004), this study investigated if and how genderfluid speakers use /s/ articulation in the indexing and construction of their own genders. The hypothesis was partially supported, in that one of the six speakers did this, but three of the participants did the reverse, and increased feelings of masculinity resulted in a raised /s/ COG. For some participants, their devised gender scales did correlate with /s/ COG, and for others it did not. For two of my speakers, there was no correlation between /s/ COG and any independent measures I considered. The main conclusion is that genderfluid speakers are not a monolith, and use /s/ differently, though there are patterns in the way in which it is used
Modulated Signal Filtering: Wouldn’t it be Noise?
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/d358fc20-1365-48a0-b923-375bb0c8d023/thumb/128.jp
Ancestral Contact and Modern Loans: Nawat-Influenced ʃ Production of Modern Loanwords In Salvadoran Spanish
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/1c0530ab-20f6-4c9d-9c34-6e09e13d7b85/thumb/128.jpgThe impact of learning a second language on a speaker's phonology has been well researched, including for bilingual speakers. Many studies posit the existence of a shared phonological space, the basis for phonological models of how speakers assimilate non-native sounds into their phonology (Best, McRoberts, & Sithole, 1988; Best & Tyler, 2007; Flege, 1995; Flege, Schirru, & MacKay, 2003). However, it is not only bilinguals that have a shared phonological space in which multiple linguistic systems are integrated. Even monolinguals can be influenced by other languages (Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015; MacSwan, 2017) via language contact, whether through linguistic features brought by speakers shifting to a language historically or through loanwords from other languages. This thesis explores the integrated phonological space via an analysis of the status of the /ʃ/ “sh" sound in Salvadoran Spanish. A history of language contact between Nawat, the critically endangered indigenous language spoken in El Salvador prior to Spanish colonization, and Spanish seemed a promising beginning to investigate why Salvadoran Spanish speakers sometimes changed the /ʃ/ sound to a /tʃ/ “ch" sound and other times did not when loaning words that had the “sh" sound (Quintanilla-Aguilar, 2013). Thus, an empirical fieldwork study was conducted with both Spanish and Nawat speakers in El Salvador. This study consisted of speaking and listening tasks in order to determine how this sound was organized in the sound system of both sample groups. The results showed that, Salvadoran Spanish speakers had partially assimilated the Nawat /ʃ/ sound into their phonology, such that it is the best option for fixing non-native sounds in loanwords if replacing it with /tʃ/ is not allowed by Spanish grammar. The changes made in their grammars to allow this, which were evaluated with an Optimality Theory analysis (Prince & Smolenski, 1993), resulted in a more Nawat-like grammar. This suggests that it was through Nawat influence that Salvadoran speakers have gained access to this sound. Additionally, the speakers' contrasting manners of perceiving and producing /ʃ/, as well as their partial integration of Nawat grammar, suggest that we must adapt our existing models of non-native sound assimilation, as well as our theories of how several linguistic systems fit together in an individual speaker, to better address speakers who deviate from assumed blanket universals
Hearing Across Languages: Bilinguals’ Perception of (Not-So-)Non-Native Stop Contrasts
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/2b1f9b5c-2a0e-4e9a-83ac-556ffa184354/thumb/128.jpgIt is well known that monolingual speakers often have difficulty discriminating phonological contrasts (sounds that speakers of a language perceive to belong to different speech categories) that do not exist in their native language (Best & Strange, 1992; Hallé, Best, & Levitt, 1999; Werker, Gilbert, & Humphrey, 1981). While research has shown that bilinguals are subject to similar perceptual constraints (Antoniou, Best, & Tyler, 2013; Sebastián-Gallés & Soto-Faraco, 1999), the question of whether bilinguals have simultaneous access to both their L1 and L2 phonologies in discriminating a non-native contrast has not been systematically examined. This study attempted to do so by comparing the ability of Chinese-English and Spanish-English bilinguals to discriminate non-native phonological contrasts consisting of sounds that exist in either their L1 or L2 (but not in both). Findings showed that while bilinguals are sensitive to phonetic differences between such sounds, they were unable to discriminate them any better than a monolingual English control group
Does This Sound Pointy to You? Word Memorization through Sound-Symbolic Mappings of Tone and Segments
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/007fb1a3-d4d6-408f-a426-d76f3e688003/thumb/128.jpgSound symbolism is a phenomenon in which sounds seem to be inherently associated with an otherwise unrelated concept. Examples of sound symbolism have been recognized in various linguistic studies between sounds and images, tastes, textures, and emotions; they are also found within the vocabulary of numerous languages. To investigate the effects of sound symbolic segments (consonants and vowels), and lexical tone, I executed a language learning and memory task via an online survey. Languages composed of nonce words were created, with varying combinations of congruous and incongruous segmental and tonal sound symbolism. A word with congruous sound symbolism would be made up of sounds whose sound-symbolic associations line up with the word's actual definition. A word with incongruous sound symbolism would have sounds that do not line up with the word's connotation. Of the four languages used in analysis, Language A contained sound-symbolically incongruous words in both tone and segments, Language B had segmentally congruous but tonally incongruous sound symbolic words, Language C had segmentally incongruous but tonally congruous sound symbolic words, and Language D was fully sound-symbolically congruous. Results showed that Language D, with both segmental and tonal sound symbolism, was significantly easier to learn than any other nonce language. Languages A, B, and C had statistically similar accuracy. I also found that confidence in one's memorization did not change statistically between languages, implying that the memorization aid of sound symbolism tends to go unnoticed by language learners. Based off of my findings, I propose that English speakers are able to process sound symbolism through both segments and tone. Furthermore, I argue that sound symbolic segments and tone are able to aid in word memorization, acting as a type of mnemonic device, but only in cases in which a word is sound symbolically congruous in \textit{both} tone and segments
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