Emphatic Polarity from Latin to Romance

This paper offers an analysis of some emphatic polarity constructions in Spanish and Catalan from a diachronic and comparative perspective. We focus on the syntactic processes involved in the verbalization of this polarity, in both its positive and negative expression. Our main proposal is that the markers used in Spanish and Catalan (as well as other Romance languages) to reinforce polarity have acquired their status as the consequence of a focalization process. It will be argued that these elements have undergone leftward movement from their base-generated hierarchically low position to a prominent position in the left periphery of the sentence (see Rizzi 1997) and subsequently experienced a progressive bleaching of their original value (which is related to a verbal denotation) to end up being reanalyzed / grammaticalized as polarity markers

Incidència de l’entorn educatiu, familiar i social en les actituds lingüístiques i identitàries dels joves d’origen xinès i llatinoamericà a Catalunya

From an interdisciplinary perspective, the present investigation undertaken by the GREILI-UPF research group has expanded a previous study aiming at explaining how young secondary school students of Latin American and Chinese origin in Catalonia construct their linguistic and cultural identity. Here we analyze the relationship between these youngsters and their social environment in order to determine how these relationships and the socialization process that derives from them influence language attitudes and practices. We focus on two spaces of socialization: (1) the school, where youngsters from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds coexist and interact, and (2) the neighborhood, a geographic and symbolic space where social identity is constructed and, consequently, where young newcomers construct their perceptions regarding the host society, including its linguistic reality. We have collected several sets of data in three public secondary schools and three neighborhoods from Barcelona’s metropolitan area with a high index of immigrant population: (1) interviews with secondary school students, (2) interviews with teachers, (3) social discourses in newspapers that consolidate the social image of the neighborhood, (4) narratives from immigrant families in relation to their neighborhood, (5) participant observation in schools, and (5) observation in the neighborhood. The results of the thematic and, when appropriate, discursive analysis of the data allow us to reach conclusions regarding: (a) the social image of the neighborhoods, (b) the socialization of young newcomers in the schools and the neighborhoods, (c) the identity games, and (d) the language and cultural practices and attitudes of young people, in relation to their countries and languages of origin as well as the school and the neighborhood investigated.

NQL, Natural Query Language

Desarrollo de un sistema capaz de procesar consultas en lenguaje natural introducidas por el usuario mediante el teclado. El sistema es capaz de responder a consultas en castellano, relacionadas con un dominio de aplicación representado mediante una base de datos relacional.

Platform for Automatic, Normalized Annotation and Cost-Effective Acquisition of Language Resources for Human Language Technologies: PANACEA

El objetivo de PANACEA es engranar diferentes herramientas avanzadas para construir una fábrica de Recursos Lingüísticos (RL), una línea de producción que automatice los pasos implicados en la adquisición, producción, actualización y mantenimiento de los RL que la Traducción Automática y otras tecnologías lingüísticas, necesitan.

PANACEA (Platform for Automatic, Normalised Annotation and Cost-Effective Acquisition of Language Resources for Human Language Technologies)

The objective of PANACEA is to build a factory of LRs that automates the stages involved in the acquisition, production, updating and maintenance of LRs required by MT systems and by other applications based on language technologies, and simplifies eventual issues regarding intellectual property rights. This automation will cut down the cost, time and human effort significantly. These reductions of costs and time are the only way to guarantee the continuous supply of LRs that MT and other language technologies will be demanding in the multilingual Europe.

Towards the automatic merging of language resources

Language Resources are a critical component for Natural Language Processing applications. Throughout the years many resources were manually created for the same task, but with different granularity and coverage information. To create richer resources for a broad range of potential reuses, nformation from all resources has to be joined into one. The hight cost of comparing and merging different resources by hand has been a bottleneck for merging existing resources. With the objective of reducing human intervention, we present a new method for automating merging resources. We have addressed the merging of two verbs subcategorization frame (SCF) lexica for Spanish. The results achieved, a new lexicon with enriched information and conflicting information signalled, reinforce our idea that this approach can be applied for other task of NLP.

Towards a User-Friendly Platform for Building Language Resources based on Web Services

This paper presents the platform developed in the PANACEA project, a distributed factory that automates the stages involved in the acquisition, production, updating and maintenance of Language Resources required by Machine Translation and other Language Technologies. We adopt a set of tools that have been successfully used in the Bioinformatics field, they are adapted to the needs of our field and used to deploy web services, which can be combined to build more complex processing chains (workflows). This paper describes the platform and its different components (web services, registry, workflows, social network and interoperability). We demonstrate the scalability of the platform by carrying out a set of massive data experiments. Finally, a validation of the platform across a set of required criteria proves its usability for different types of users (non-technical users and providers).

From a pattern-language to a pattern ontology approach for CSCL script design

Collaborative activities, in which students actively interact with each other, have proved to provide significant learning benefits. In Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), these collaborative activities are assisted by technologies. However, the use of computers does not guarantee collaboration, as free collaboration does not necessary lead to fruitful learning. Therefore, practitioners need to design CSCL scripts that structure the collaborative settings so that they promote learning. However, not all teachers have the technical and pedagogical background needed to design such scripts. With the aim of assisting teachers in designing effective CSCL scripts, we propose a model to support the selection of reusable good practices (formulated as patterns) so that they can be used as a starting point for their own designs. This model is based on a pattern ontology that computationally represents the knowledge captured on a pattern language for the design of CSCL scripts. A preliminary evaluation of the proposed approach is provided with two examples based on a set of meaningful interrelated patters computationally represented with the pattern ontology, and a paper prototyping experience carried out with two teaches. The results offer interesting insights towards the implementation of the pattern ontology in software tools.

The development of intercultural awareness and changes of beliefs: the effects of studying abroad on learners of English as a second language

The present study examines the development of interculturality and changes of beliefs, by analyzing 106 compositions produced by 53 advanced level university students of translation studies at a university in Spain before and shortly after a stay-abroad (SA) period. The study draws on data collected at two different times: before (T1) and after the SA (T3). In addition, we compared the results with the writings produced by a control group of 10 native English speakers on SA too. Data were collected by means of a composition which tried to elicit the learners’ opinion about cultural habits maintenance. The results reveal significant changes between T1 and T3 in the degree of better attitudes and intercultural acquisition.

8-month non-use of a language. A case tudy. A longitudinal study of the effects on non use of one of the languages (Spanish) of a German L1 multilingual

Under the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism multilinguals are especially vulnerable to language attrition. It was the aim of the present study to verify if this was the case and to observe whether the different linguistic skills (receptive vs. descriptive) and the different linguistic levels (syntactic, lexical, morphological, etc.) would be affected equally.Data were gathered longitudinally by means of a language test for the subject’s reading, writing, listening and speaking skills as well as her knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. Although the overall accuracy remained intact and no proof for attrition in the receptive skills was found, the productive skills - mainly fluency - were shown to have suffered from language attrition. This was demonstrated by an increase in the number of pauses, hesitations, repetitions and self-corrections among others and decrease in the percentage of error-free clauses and decrease in the clause length, in oral and written fluency respectively.

Late bloomer or language impaired? Screening the speech of a Spanish-English bilingual toddler for early signs of language impairment

This case study presents corpus data gathered from a Spanish-English bilingual child with expressive language delay. Longitudinal data on the child’s linguistic development was collected from the onset of productive speech at age 1;1 until age 4 over the course of 28 video-taped sessions with the child’s principal caregivers. A literature review focused on the relationship between language delay and persisting disorders—including a discussion of the frequent difficulty in distinguishing between the two at early stages of bilingual development—is followed by an analysis of the child’s productive development in 2 distinct phases. An attempt is made to assess the child’s speech at age 4 for preliminary signs of SLI and to consider techniques for identifying ‘at risk’ bilingual children (that is, those with productive language delay, poor oral fluency, and family history of language problems) based on samples of recorded and transcribed speech.

Language acquisition during a stay abroad period following formal instruction: temporal effects on oral fluency development

This study investigates the development of fluency in 30 advanced L2 learners of English over a period of 15 months. In order to measure fluency, several temporal variables and hesitation phenomena are analyzed and compared. Oral competence is assessed by means of an oral interview carried out by the learners. Data collection takes place at three different times: before (T1) and after (T2) a six-month period of FI (80 hours) in the home university, and after a three-month SA term (T3). The data is analyzed quantitatively. Developmental gains in fluency are measured for the whole period, adopting a view of complementarity between the two learning contexts. From these results, a group of high fluency speakers is identified. Correlations between fluency gains and individual and contextual variables are executed and a more qualitative analysis is performed for high fluency speakers' performance and behavior. Results show an overall development of students' oral fluency during a period of 15 months favored by the combination of a period of FI at home followed by a 3-months SA.

Actituds lingüístiques i identitats en construcció de joves immigrants xinesos i llatinoamericans a l’escola catalana

Aquest projecte ha investigat el procés de construcció de la identitat lingüística i cultural dels joves llatinoamericans i xinesos a partir de l’anàlisi de les seves actituds lingüístiques i percepcions respecte a la identitat cultural i els usos lingüístics propis. Hem escollit joves d’ensenyament secundari procedents de dos contextos diferenciats: (a) llatinoamericans que entren en el sistema educatiu amb ple domini d’una de les llengües oficials, el castellà, i (b) xinesos que inicien estudis als centres sense dominar cap llengua romànica. La recerca s’ha dut a terme amb una perspectiva etnogràfica en dos centres escolars on conviuen joves d’orígens lingüístics i culturals diferents. Gràcies als vincles creats amb docents dels centres, hem pogut posar en pràctica una metodologia d’observació participant en diversos espais escolars. També hem realitzat entrevistes a joves llatinoamericans i xinesos durant les quals hem investigat pràctiques lingüístiques i experiències quotidianes al centre relacionades amb l’aprenentatge de llengües, així com actituds vers les llengües oficials i les llengües de l’entorn familiar i vers la pluralitat d’identitats a Catalunya. Tot i que en un inici teníem la intenció d’entrevistar joves autòctons, finalment ens hem concentrat només en joves immigrants amb l’objectiu de maximitzar els recursos humans i pressupostaris. Mitjançant observacions i entrevistes amb docents, hem esbrinat com interpreten i aborden els reptes de la diversitat. En el cas d’un centre, també hem entrevistat la mediadora social que facilita les relacions entre els progenitors i el centre. Mitjançant entrevistes amb progenitors dels joves, hem investigat usos i actituds lingüístiques d’ells i dels seus fills, així com actituds al nucli familiar vers la pluralitat cultural i identitària a Catalunya. Les entrevistes han estat transcrites, traduïdes i analitzades en relació a les observacions de camp, tot tenint en compte estudis i marcs teòrics previs.

Poverty and children's work in Spain and Latin America. Some preliminary remarks.

In the first part of this paper we try to test the relationship between mothers earnings, fertility and children's work in the Spanish (Catalan) context of the first third of the 20th century. Specific human capital investment of adult working women had as an outcome the sharp increase of their real wage and also the increase of the opportunity cost of time devoted to house work including child rearing. Fertility evolution is endogenous to the model and decreases as a result of women real wage increases. Human capital investment of labouring women and mandatory schooling of children shift the labour supply function to a new steady state in which the slope is steeper. According to recent papers this model applies to 20th century Spain and it causes the abolition of children's work. Nonetheless the model do not apply to 20th century Latin America. Despite the positive evolution of literacy and life expectancy in this region, other factors involved poor results of the educational human capital investment. In this paper we remark the role of the increasing share of the informal sector of the economy ruled on the bases of women's and children's work. Second we stress the role of high income inequality evolution and endogamic school supplies to explain the limits of increasing literacy on more remarkable human capital improvements.

The electric revolution in Latin America

Latin America participated in the electric revolution which profoundly transformed the most developed Western economies between 1880 and 1930. The electrification of Latin America began relatively soon after these economies, but it was incapable of keeping up with them. Public electric lighting was introduced early in the big Latin American cities, where electric trams started running at almost the same time as in Europe, and electricity spread rapidly in the mining sector. In the most advanced countries or areas in the region, the manufacturing industry substituted the steam engine with the electric motor, following the example of industry in the United States and Europe. Nevertheless, towards 1930 electricity consumption per inhabitant for Latin America was far below that of the more advanced economies, and only the Latin American countries which lead the process of electrification had reached levels of electric consumption that were similar to those of the late industrialised European countries. One of the most striking features of the electric revolution in Latin America is rooted precisely in the enormous national differences. These differences are indicative of the great economic inequalities existing in the heart of the region and these nations highly diverse capacity for economic modernisation.