Feature Selection for Speech Emotion Recognition in Spanish and Basque: On the Use of Machine Learning to Improve Human-Computer Interaction

Study of emotions in human-computer interaction is a growing research area. This paper shows an attempt to select the most significant features for emotion recognition in spoken Basque and Spanish Languages using different methods for feature selection. RekEmozio database was used as the experimental data set. Several Machine Learning paradigms were used for the emotion classification task. Experiments were executed in three phases, using different sets of features as classification variables in each phase. Moreover, feature subset selection was applied at each phase in order to seek for the most relevant feature subset. The three phases approach was selected to check the validity of the proposed approach. Achieved results show that an instance-based learning algorithm using feature subset selection techniques based on evolutionary algorithms is the best Machine Learning paradigm in automatic emotion recognition, with all different feature sets, obtaining a mean of 80,05% emotion recognition rate in Basque and a 74,82% in Spanish. In order to check the goodness of the proposed process, a greedy searching approach (FSS-Forward) has been applied and a comparison between them is provided. Based on achieved results, a set of most relevant non-speaker dependent features is proposed for both languages and new perspectives are suggested.

Régimen jurídico de las lenguas y reconocimiento de la diversidad lingüística en el Tratado por el que se establece una Constitución para Europa

The territory of the European Union is made up of a rich and wide-ranging universe of languages, which is not circumscribed to the «State languages». The existence of multilingualism is one of Europe’s defining characteristics and it should remain so in the constantly evolving model of Europe’s political structure. Nonetheless, until now, the official use of languages has been limited to the «State languages» and has been based on a concept of state monolingualism that has led to a first level of hierarchization among the languages of Europe. This has affected the very concept of European language diversity. The draft of the treaty establishing a European Constitution contains various language-related references that can be grouped in two major categories: on the one hand, those references having to do the constitutional status of languages, and on the other, those regarding the recognition of European language diversity. Both issues are dealt with in this article. In analyzing the legal regime governing languages set forth in the draft of the constitutional treaty, we note that the draft is not based on the concept of the official status of languages. The language regulation contained in the draft of the constitutional treaty is limited in character. The constitutional language regime is based on the concept of Constitutional languages but the official status of languages is not governed by this rule. The European Constitution merely enunciates rights governing language use for European citizens vis-à-vis the languages of the Constitution and refers the regulation of the official status of languages to the Council, which is empowered to set and modify that status by unanimous decision. Because of its broad scope, this constitutes a regulatory reservation. In the final phase of the negotiation process a second level of constitutional recognition of languages would be introduced, linked to those that are official languages in the member states (Catalan, Basque, Galician, etc.). These languages, however, would be excluded from the right to petition; they would constitute a tertium genus, an intermediate category between the lan guages benefiting from the language rights recognized under the Constitution and those other languages for which no status is recognized in the European institutional context. The legal functionality of this second, intermediate category will depend on the development of standards, i.e., it will depend on the entrée provided such languages in future reforms of the institutional language regime. In a later section, the article reflects on European Union language policy with regard to regional or minority languages, concluding that the Union has not acted in accordance with defined language policy guidelines when it has been confronted, in the exercise of its powers, with regional or minority languages (or domestic legislation having to do with language demands). The Court of Justice has endeavoured to resolve on a case by case basis the conflicts raised between community freedoms and the normative measures that protect languages. Thus, using case law, the Court has set certain language boundaries for community freedoms. The article concludes by reflecting on the legal scope of the recognition of European language diversity referred to in Article II-82 of the European Constitution and the possible measures to implement the precept that might constitute the definition of a true European language policy on regional or minority languages. Such a policy has yet to be defined.

Literaturaren zertarakoa, itzulpenak eta hizkuntzaren auzia Orixerengan

Ejemplar dedicado a: Beñat Oihartzabali gorazarre - Festchrift for Bernard Oyharçabal/ Ricardo Etxepare, Ricardo Gómez, Joseba Andoni Lakarra ( eds.)

Word frequency cues word order in adults: cross-linguistic evidence

[EN] One universal feature of human languages is the division between grammatical functors and content words. From a learnability point of view, functors might provide entry points or anchors into the syntactic structure of utterances due to their high frequency. Despite its potentially universal scope, this hypothesis has not yet been tested on typologically different languages and on populations of different ages. Here we report a corpus study and an artificial grammar learning experiment testing the anchoring hypothesis in Basque, Japanese, French, and Italian adults. We show that adults are sensitive to the distribution of functors in their native language and use them when learning new linguistic material. However, compared to infants’ performance on a similar task, adults exhibit a slightly different behavior, matching the frequency distributions of their native language more closely than infants do. This finding bears on the issue of the continuity of language learning mechanism.

Augmented Peter Pan: un cuento multilingüe con Realidad Aumentada

[SPA] El objetivo de este Trabajo de Fin de Grado ha sido diseñar un cuento multilingüe que incorpora una innovación tecnológica, la Realidad Aumentada, para favorecer el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje lingüístico en la escuela. Para ello, hemos analizado algunos cuentos con Realidad Aumentada que se pueden encontrar en el mercado. Al no encontrar ningún cuento que cumpliese nuestras expectativas, hemos creado un cuento multilingüe con Realidad Aumentada adaptando el cuento clásico “Peter Pan”, que cumple los objetivos de fomentar el aprendizaje de diferentes idiomas y el gusto por la lectura, valorar las lenguas inmigrantes en las aulas y promover el uso de las TIC.

Hizkuntza komunikaziorako gaitasuna lantzeko ikuspegi berriak: teoriatik praktikara

[EUS] Gure gaur egungo gizarte globalizatuak, internazionalki komunikatzeko beharra areagotu du, eta horregatik atzerriko hizkuntzak ikastea ezinbestekoa bihurtu da. Eskola errealitatearen isla denez, behar horri aurre egiteko, gero eta gehiago dira irakaskuntza eleaniztuna garatzeko ikuspegi metodologikoak. Ikuspegi metodologiko hauen artean, CLIL/HEBI eta HTB dira garrantzitsuenetarikoak. HEBIk hizkuntzak eta edukiak batera ikasteari egiten dio erreferentzia, eta HTBk curriculumeko hizkuntzen programazio adostuari. Lan honetan metodologia hauen nondik norakoak aztertzen dira, baita hauek ikastetxe batean nolako ibilbidea izan duten eta nola lantzen diren ere. Azken honetan ikastetxearen eta ikasleen aldetik HEBIrekiko dagoen jarrera aztertzen da, galdetegi batzuen bitartez.

"Erran nahi baita" birformulatzaile esplikatiboa gaurko euskaran

[EN] This article presents a detailed study of the present-day use of the Basque discourse marker "erran/esan nahi baita" (‘that is to say’). This is an explanatory reformulator by means of which the speaker presents a reformulation of something said in the previous utterance (either a clause that forms part of the current sentence, or the preceding sentence) in order to express it more clearly or explain it. In the article I will examine the marker’s values; literary tradition; form and origin; present-day variants; equivalent expressions; position; punctuation; syntax; frequency, medium (written or spoken), register and text type; equivalents in other languages; and discourse value.