Search results for "RAM"

Foreign language teaching – Integrationism vs. MGM

2018

Abstract Modern language teaching is no longer grammar based, but based on authentic real life dialogues (dialogic speech acts) which enable learners to communicate or rather to interact verbally and nonverbally competent with native speakers. The conception of language teaching curricula, especially with regard to the development of textbooks, is in need of an applicable model of communication, based on regularities or principles of language-usage. Both, Integrationism and the Mixed Game Model (MGM) opt against segregational static approaches of linguistic analysis and – at first glance – could be considered suitable approaches within the field of language teaching. Yet, I will argue that …

In nomine patris: Discursive strategies and ideology in the Cosa Nostra family discourse

2017

Abstract The article investigates how Cosa Nostra family discourse is characterized by a series of discursive strategies that give shape to specific ideological structures. By analysing a TV interview to the son of Bernardo Provenzano, boss of Cosa Nostra, it is possible to understand how the criminal values and practices are maintained and reproduced within the father–son relationship. Specifically, we show how the son justifies, legitimises or denies the criminal actions of his father. The ideology of Cosa Nostra seems to be based on the inter-generational cultural continuity of its members, on the family as main locus of adherence, reductionism of its mediatic image, amoralism as father–…

Deriving Enhanced Universal Dependencies from a Hybrid Dependency-Constituency Treebank

2018

The treebanks provided by the Universal Dependencies (UD) initiative are a state-of-the-art resource for cross-lingual and monolingual syntax-based linguistic studies, as well as for multilingual dependency parsing. Creating a UD treebank for a language helps further the UD initiative by providing an important dataset for research and natural language processing in that language. In this paper, we describe how we created a UD treebank for Latvian, and how we obtained both the basic and enhanced UD representations from the data in Latvian Treebank which is annotated according to a hybrid dependency-constituency grammar model. The hybrid model was inspired by Lucien Tesniere’s dependency gram…

Improving Online Interaction Among Blended Distance Learners at Makerere University

2017

This article reports on a study done to improve interaction among distance learners offering the blended Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programme at Makerere University. The study attempts to answer the question: How can a Learning Management System be used to improve learner interaction on the blended B.Ed. programme at Makerere University? The study adopted the Affordance eLearning Design Framework. This study was done among 54 students studying a Policy Planning and Implementation course on the B.Ed. programme. The study employed qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis. These included semi-structured interviews and observation of the interaction logs within the groups and o…

MOF-VM: Instantiation Revisited

2016

The Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) is based on an understanding of a hierarchy of levels that are placed on top of each other and that are connected with instantiation. For practical MDA use, it is important to be clear about the kinds of objects that reside on the different levels and the relations between them as well as relations to objects outside of the MDA domain. This article aims at enhancing the understanding of these objects and relations by relating them to a virtual MOF machine.

Comparing formulaicity of learner writing through phrase-frames: a corpus-driven study of Lithuanian and Polish EFL student writing

2018

Learner corpus research continues to provide evidence of how formulaic language is (mis)used by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). This paper deals with less investigated multi-word units in EFL contexts, namely, phrase-frames (Fletcher 2002–2007), i.e. sets of n-grams identical except for one word (it is * to, in the * of). The study compares Lithuanian and Polish learner writing in English in terms of phrase-frames and contrasts them with native speakers. The analysis shows that certain differences between Lithuanian and Polish learners result from transfer from their native languages, yet both groups of learners share many common features. Most importantly, the phrase-frame…

Totally new and pretty awesome : Amplifier–adjective bigrams in GloWbE

2017

Abstract Previous work on adjectival intensification (e.g. very good , so glad , really great ) has mostly focussed on the adverbs in question, showing that different (native) varieties of English display distinctive preferences concerning intensifier choice. However, little is known so far about the role that intensifier-adjective units (bigrams) play. The present paper offers a first contribution to fill this research gap by focussing on a data-driven approach to (mostly) high-frequency bigrams and their collocational behaviour in the Corpus of Global Web-based English (GloWbE). Asymmetric and symmetric measures are employed to establish attraction and repulsion between adverb and adjecti…

ΔP as a measure of collocation strength

2018

AbstractThis paper explores the proposed benefits of ΔP (delta P) as a measure of collocation strength. Its focus is on contrasting ΔP with other, more commonly used, association measures, particularly transitional probabilities, but also mutual information and Lexical Gravity G. To this end, first the strong correlation between ΔP and transitional probability is illustrated with the help of two exemplary corpora. This is followed by an analysis of hesitation placement in spontaneous spoken English, based on the assumption that hesitations will not be placed within strong collocations. Results show that, despite their strong similarity, in some contexts ΔP is more predictive of hesitation p…

Mark Baker (2015),Case: Its principles and parameters

2018

The Loss of Grammatical Gender and Case Features Between Old and Early Middle English: Its Impact on Simple Demonstratives and Topic Shift

2017

AbstractIn this paper we examine the relation between the loss of formal gender and Case features on simple demonstratives and the topic shifting property they manifest. The examination period spans between Old English and Early Middle English. While we argue that this loss has important discourse-pragmatic and derivational effects on demonstratives, we also employ the Strong Minimalist Hypothesis approach (Chomsky 2001) and feature valuation, as defined in Pesetsky & Torrego (2007), to display how their syntactic computation and pragmatic properties have come about. To account for the above innovations yielding the Early Middle Englishϸe(‘the’), we first discuss the formal properties o…