1,720,994 research outputs found
First language lexical attrition in Chinese teachers of English in China: A psycholinguistic study
No full textFull Text is available to authenticated members of The University of Auckland only.Language attrition, defined here as a non-pathological loss of a language in a bilingual
individual due to ceased or reduced language use, often results from linguistic, socio-cultural,
and psychological factors. First language (L1) attrition, its sub-field, has attracted much
attention. Most studies on L1 attrition have focused on immigrants in their second language
environment, yet scant research exists on L1 attrition in the L1 setting. Lexicon is often the
first and most vulnerable linguistic component to be disappearing, thus studies on L1 lexical
attrition abound. For China-based studies, L1 attrition mainly focuses on minority languages,
not Mandarin. To fill this research gap, this project used two lexical tasks to test L1 attrition, a
time-sensitive word decision task and a video retelling. 25 Chinese teachers of English
(experimental group) and 25 non-English Chinese teachers (control group) were recruited at a
secondary school in China. The aim was to provide an exploratory basis of the L2 influence
on L1 lexical attrition in the L1 environment, both on the level of lexical comprehension and
production. Linear mixed-effects models in R were used to analyze (a) response accuracy
and reaction times in comprehension, and (b) lexical diversity, density, sophistication,
accuracy, and variation in production. The results showed Chinese teachers' L1 lexical
attrition in the form of longer response time to correctly decide high-frequency Chinese words
compared to non-English Chinese teachers, Chinese teachers tended to use significantly
fewer sophisticated words and more codeswitching in their retellings. Also, Chinese teachers
were faster and more accurate in making correct decisions about Chinese borrowings from
English, suggesting L2-driven influence on their mental lexicon. Considering background
information, the data showed that increased L2 exposure and frequency of use can predict
the degree of L1 lexical attrition
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Tracing Linguistic Effects in Odor Categorization and Recognition Ability
No full textThe present thesis investigated the complex relationship between language and olfactory cognition, focusing on two critical aspects: odor categorization and odor recognition. The study employed a series of experiments to explore the effects of linguistic familiarity on odor categorization and the impact of verbalization on odor recognition memory.
Experiment 1 examined the role of linguistic familiarity in odor categorization among bilingual participants proficient in English (L2) and Chinese (L1). The results revealed numerical trends suggesting that the presence of verbal labels, particularly those that sound less familiar, might have facilitated odor categorization to some extent. However, the differences between the groups did not reach statistical significance, indicating that variations in linguistic familiarity may not have created sufficiently strong contextual changes to significantly impact the formation of odor categories.
Experiments 2-5 focused on the verbal overshadowing effect in odor recognition, breaking through traditional research centered on face recognition in the visual domain. The study successfully replicated the verbal overshadowing effect in the olfactory domain and highlighted the malleability of verbal overshadowing across different modes of verbal interference (Experiment 3). Furthermore, the findings highlighted the importance of the congruency between the target and described odors in modulating the verbal overshadowing effect (Experiment 4). Notably, Experiment 5 revealed a reversal of the verbal overshadowing effect, showing a verbal facilitation effect in long-term odor recognition. This finding suggested that verbal descriptions and re-reading can enhance odor recognition after a long delay, emphasizing the potential for language to support olfactory memory processes.
The thesis also explored the role of odor description quality in odor recognition, revealing that the complexity and multifaceted nature of odor perception poses challenges for translating olfactory experiences into words. The findings suggested that the influence of odor description quality on subsequent recognition is limited, likely due to the generally low accuracy of odor descriptions and the absence of a standardized vocabulary for olfactory experiences.
The results of this thesis contributed to the theoretical understanding of the relationship between language and olfactory cognition, providing new insights into the role of linguistic familiarity, verbal overshadowing, and verbal facilitation in odor categorization and recognition. The findings were interpreted within the frameworks of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, the Label-Feedback Hypothesis, and the Dual Coding Theory, highlighting the complex interactions between language and perceptual processes in olfactory cognition
Language Planning in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Analysis of the Role of Translators as Agents in Language Change
No full textLanguage planning and policy (LPP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been constructed on the basis of a standard language ideology that has often excluded the speakers from the language legitimisation process. The LPP efforts for the Bosnian language have led to conflicting covert and overt language policies that have resulted in linguistic insecurity
among speakers and a failure to build a supranational identity through top-down language
planning.
By considering the processing, production and attitudes towards doublets this study
examines the understudied role of speakers in language change driven by LPP in BiH.
Specifically, it focuses on how translators as model speakers navigate top-down constraints of standard language ideology and exert bottom-up pressure to influence the diffusion of lexical innovations in the Bosnian language. To investigate this dialectical relationship, I conducted two experiments integrating acceptability ratings, processing, and production measures.
The first experiment, an acceptability ratings task with translator trainees and foreign
language students, examined systematic preferences for lexical innovations, potential
processing advantages of established items, and the influence of individual differences
on doublet evaluation. The second experiment, an interpretation task with professional
translators and foreign language students, explored lexical selection patterns and the
cognitive representation of doublets through response time and entropy analyses.
The results show a preference for long-established items in both production and
acceptability, although the relative distribution of established and innovative items varies across doublets, ranging from near-equal usage to complete dominance of one form.
Sociolinguistic receptivity emerged as a key predictor of item acceptance, with translators showing higher ratings and more stable response times across entropy levels, which implies that expertise may enhance efficiency and receptivity to variation.
This speaker-centred research challenges the views held by language planners in BiH
whereby language is considered a tool for ethnic self-indexing. Rather, this study demonstrates that for speakers of the Bosnian language doublets are associated with complex patterns of competition that extend beyond simple ideology-driven choices. Ultimately, the results of this study show that language change in BiH is not primarily driven by top-down language policy and underlying ideologies, but by speaker agency, receptivity to innovation and the strength of entrenchment of the doublet items in speakers’ mental lexicons
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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