Candidate knowledge? Exploring epistemic claims in scientific writing:a corpus-driven approach

In this article I argue that the study of the linguistic aspects of epistemology has become unhelpfully focused on the corpus-based study of hedging and that a corpus-driven approach can help to improve upon this. Through focusing on a corpus of texts from one discourse community (that of genetics) and identifying frequent tri-lexical clusters containing highly frequent lexical items identified as keywords, I undertake an inductive analysis identifying patterns of epistemic significance. Several of these patterns are shown to be hedging devices and the whole corpus frequencies of the most salient of these, candidate and putative, are then compared to the whole corpus frequencies for comparable wordforms and clusters of epistemic significance. Finally I interviewed a ‘friendly geneticist’ in order to check my interpretation of some of the terms used and to get an expert interpretation of the overall findings. In summary I argue that the highly unexpected patterns of hedging found in genetics demonstrate the value of adopting a corpus-driven approach and constitute an advance in our current understanding of how to approach the relationship between language and epistemology.

La référence temporelle au futur dans les bulletins météo en France et au Québec:regard variationniste sur l’oral préparé

The distribution of variants used to express future temporal reference has been the object of many studies, focused on conversational speech or on written data. This article sheds new light on the issue by studying future markers in a communicative setting which consists of prepared speech (the televised weather forecast) from a diatopic perspective (comparison of French and Québécois corpora). The distributional analysis points to a distribution of variants specific to this discursive setting. Furthermore, the Goldvarb X multivariate analysis reveals diatopic variation and the influence of some linguistic factors, most notably the type of verb, as well as the effect of constraints specific to the two speech communities under study.

Duppying yoots in a dog eat dog world, kmt:determining the senses of slang terms for the Courts

I describe and discuss a series of court cases which focus upon on decoding the meaning of slang terms. Examples include sexual slang used in a description by a child and an Internet Relay Chat containing a conspiracy to murder. I consider the task presented by these cases for the forensic linguist and the roles the linguist may assume in determining the meaning of slang terms for the Courts. These roles are identified as linguist as naïve interpreter, lexicographer, case researcher and cultural mediator. Each of these roles is suggestive of different strategies that might be used from consulting formal slang dictionaries and less formal Internet sources, to collecting case specific corpora and examining all the extraneous material in a particular case. Each strategy is evaluated both in terms of the strength of evidence provided and its applicability to the forensic context.

Quantification of white matter abnormalities in neurodegenerative disease

Degeneration of white matter fibre tracts occurs in several neurodegenerative disorders and results in various histological abnormalities including loss of axons, vacuolation, gliosis, axonal varicosities and spheroids, corpora amylacea, extracellular protein deposits, and glial inclusions (GI). This chapter describes quantitative studies that have been carried out on white matter pathology in a variety of neurodegenerative disease. First, in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), axonal loss quantified in histological sections stained with toluidine blue, occurs in several white matter fibre tracts including the optic nerve, olfactory tract, and corpus callosum. Second, in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), sections of cerebral cortex stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H/E) or immunolabelled with antibodies against the disease form of prion protein (PrPsc), reveal extensive vacuolation, gliosis of white matter, and deposition of PrPsc deposits. Third, GI immunolabelled with antibodies against various pathological proteins including tau, -synuclein, TDP-43, and FUS, have been recorded in white matter of a number of disorders including frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), multiple system atrophy (MSA), and neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease (NIFID). Axonal varicosities have also been observed in NIFID. There are two important questions regarding white matter pathology that need further investigation: (1) what is the relative importance of white and gray matter pathologies in different disorders and (2) do white matter abnormalities precede or are they the consequence of gray matter pathology?

Characterization of Juvenile Hormone Biosynthetic Enzymes in the Mosquito, Aedes aegypti

The juvenile hormones (JHs) are sesquiterpenoid compounds that play a central role in insect reproduction, development and behavior. They are synthesized and secreted by a pair of small endocrine glands, the corpora allata (CA), which are intimately connected to the brain. The enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of JH are attractive targets for the control of mosquito populations. This dissertation is a comprehensive functional study of five Aedes aegypti CA enzymes, HMG-CoA synthase (AaHMGS), mevalonate kinase (AaMK), phosphomevalonate kinase (AaPMK), farnesyl diphosphate synthase (AaFPPS) and farnesyl pyrophosphate phosphatase (AaFPPase). The enzyme AaHMGS catalyzes the condensation of acetoacetyl-CoA and acetyl-CoA to produce HMG-CoA. The enzyme does not require any co-factor, although its activity is enhanced by addition of Mg2+. The enzyme AaMK is a class I mevalonate kinase that catalyzes the ATP-dependent phosphorylation of mevalonic acid to form mevalonate 5-phosphate. Activity of AaMK is inhibited by isoprenoids. The enzyme AaPMK catalyzes the cation-dependent reversible reaction of phosphomevalonate and ATP to form diphosphate mevalonate and ADP. The enzyme AaFPPS catalyzes the condensation of isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP) to form geranyl diphosphate (GPP) and farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP). The enzyme AaFPPS shows an unusual product regulation mechanism, with chain length final product of 10 or 15 C depending on the metal cofactor present. The enzymes AaFPPase-1 and AaFPPase-2 efficiently hydrolyze FPP into farnesol, although RNAi experiments demonstrate that only AaFPPase-1 is involved in the catalysis of FPP into FOL in the CA of A. aegypti. This dissertation also explored the inhibition of the activity of some of the JH biosynthesis enzymes as tools for insect control. We described the effect of N-acetyl-S-geranylgeranyl-L-cysteine as a potent inhibitor of AaFPPase 1 and AaFPPase-2. In addition, inhibitors of AaMK and AaHMGS were also investigated using purified recombinant proteins. The present study provides an important contribution to the characterization of recombinant proteins, the analysis of enzyme kinetics and inhibition constants, as well as the understanding of the importance of these five enzymes in the control of JH biosynthesis rates.

Orações relativas no português brasileiro em perspectiva histórica

In this study, we focus on the relativization strategies, in diachronic corpus of Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Generally speaking, we aim to investigate the use of the relative in a historical perspective on BP, focusing on semantic-cognitive and discursive-pragmatic motivations involved and the correlation with the discursive traditions. The theoretical perspective underlying our study is the North-American Functional Linguistics, inspired by Talmy Givón, Sandra Thompson, Paul Hopper, Joan Bybee, Elizabeth Traugott, Mario Martelotta, Angelica Furtado da Cunha, among others, combined with contributions of Discursive Traditions, based on authors such as Kabatek, Koch and Oesterreicher. As for the methodology, our research is eminently qualitative, in the sense that it seeks to elucidate semantic-cognitive and discursive-pragmatic motivations related to the use of relativization strategies in BP; and it has quantitative support, with respect to measurable data aspect and characterization of the object of study and its frequency of use. For this investigation, we use the corpora of the project Para a História do Português Brasileiro (PHPB), more specifically, the particular, official, reader and redactor letters written between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, from four states: Minas Gerais, Paraná, Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro. The results of this research reveal the variation in relativization strategies, in view of the increase in the relativa cortadora (prepositional chopping strategy) percentage in the corpus of this investigation, even though the occurrence of this strategy is more restricted to private letters. In addition, we found factors of cognitive nature such as reduction in cognitive cost and economy related to the occurrence of that relative strategy, principally in private letters; aspects such as the need for expressiveness and clearness related to the use, even if infrequent, of the relativa copiadora (resumptive strategy), especially in official letters; and factors of communicative order such as the public sphere of circulation of the sample letters, as in the redactor and reader letters, and the gap between the parties most directly involved in the use of the standard relative of our sample.

Estudo contrastivo da interlíngua em corpus oral e escrito de aprendizes de ele

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo hacer una representación de los “errores” producidos por los aprendices de español del Curso de Letras (Habilitación en Español de la Universidad Federal de Uberlândia. Para este fin, fue compilado un corpus lingüístico a partir de las producciones orales y escritos de los alumnos del segundo, cuarto, sexto y octavo semestre. Los principales temas y autores que dieron sustento teórico a nuestro estudio, en cuanto a los análisis descriptivos fueron: Interlengua (CORDER, 1967; SELINKER, 1972; BARALO, 1999, 2004; DURAO, 2007), Lingüística Contrastiva (SÖHRMAN, 2007), Modelo para Análisis de Errores (DURAO, 2004; ANDRADE, 2011; SANTOS GARGALLO, 2004), entre los principales. Cabe destacar que adoptamos una perspectiva de análisis de base empírica, apoyados en los subsidios que propicia la Lingüística de Corpus (BERBER SARDINHA, 2004). Otro componente importante en esta tesis fue la metodología. Se detalla paso a paso desde el levantamiento y lectura del referencial teórico, hasta la finalización del proceso de escritura del trabajo. Presentándose de esta manera como un futuro referencial para investigaciones que se basan en la utilización de LC como abordaje metodológica, y en el análisis de errores de aprendices. Los análisis desarrollados en el transcurso de este trabajo, comprendieron primeramente el dimensionamiento de los corpora utilizados, seguido de listas de las palabras más recurrentes, análisis cuantitativos y cualitativos, los cuales constituyeron un mapeo de los “errores”, otorgando de esta manera, un valor potencial al tratarse de un estudio que podrá ser utilizado como referente para una eventual elaboración de material didáctico, pensado especialmente para las clases de español que ofrece el Curso de Letras/Habilitación en Español de la Universidad Federal de Uberlândia.

Improving cross language information retrieval using corpus based query suggestion approach

Users seeking information may not find relevant information pertaining to their information need in a specific language. But information may be available in a language different from their own, but users may not know that language. Thus users may experience difficulty in accessing the information present in different languages. Since the retrieval process depends on the translation of the user query, there are many issues in getting the right translation of the user query. For a pair of languages chosen by a user, resources, like incomplete dictionary, inaccurate machine translation system may exist. These resources may be insufficient to map the query terms in one language to its equivalent terms in another language. Also for a given query, there might exist multiple correct translations. The underlying corpus evidence may suggest a clue to select a probable set of translations that could eventually perform a better information retrieval. In this paper, we present a cross language information retrieval approach to effectively retrieve information present in a language other than the language of the user query using the corpus driven query suggestion approach. The idea is to utilize the corpus based evidence of one language to improve the retrieval and re-ranking of news documents in the other language. We use FIRE corpora - Tamil and English news collections in our experiments and illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed cross language information retrieval approach.

Diálogos culturales entre ayer y hoy : Ecos lucrecianos en la ciencia actual

Teniendo en cuenta que el motivo convocante de estos "diálogos culturales" es la naturaleza, el texto lucreciano insta a interrogarnos sobre los principios y "la naturaleza de las cosas". A partir de la consideración de Duncan Kennedy (2007: 376-377) en cuanto a la significación de la obra de Lucrecio, "haciendo un texto del universo" (Making a Text of the Universe), resulta pertinente analizar las hipótesis que el epicúreo latino expone acerca de la Física atomista. La evocación de los axiomas nullam rem e nilo gigni divinitus umquam (I.150: "ninguna cosa se engendra jamás de la nada por obra divina") y quicque in sua corpora rursum / dissolvat natura neque ad nilum interemat res (I.215-216: "la naturaleza inversamente disuelve cada cosa en sus elementos y no reduce las cosas a la nada") constituye la idea transversal del sistema, que busca contemplar la Naturaleza y obtener un saber surgido de ese acto de pensamiento. Es por ello que, según D. Sedley (2004: 37), el meollo temático del texto reside en el estudio del aspecto y la racionalidad de lo natural, procedimientos especulativos que están comprendidos en el término epicúreo physiología. Este fue el comienzo de un derrotero que, para P. de la Llosa (2000: 10-11), significó "una intuición genial" de los atomistas griegos, completándose más tarde con un segundo impulso a partir de los fundamentos "físicos" de los epicúreos. Lucrecio, sin encajar en el establishment romano, sentó las bases de este labor científico atomista que, eclipsado por varias centurias, se reavivó en el s. XIV para continuar con altibajos hasta el presente. Desde la perspectiva de esta perduración, los objetivos de esta comunicación residen en comprobar la aproximación de los postulados lucrecianos y su veracidad en relación con algunas de las concepciones científicas-físico-químicas-actuales

The Narrative Value of Dance Communication: "habitus", musicality and emotion

The richness of dance comes from the need to work with an individual body. Still, the body of the dancer belongs to plural context, crossed by artistic and social traditions, which locate the artists in a given field. We claim that role conflict is an essential component of the structure of collective artistic creativity. We address the production of discourse in a British dance company, with data that spawns from the ethnography ‘Dance and Cognition’, directed by David Kirsh at the University of California, together with WayneMcGregor-Random Dance. Our Critical Discourse Analysis is based on multiple interviews to the dancers and choreographer. Our findings show how creativity in dance seems to be empirically observable, and thus embodied and distributed shaped by the dance habitus of the particular social context.

¿Alessandro Geraldini antiquitatum indagator? Su papel en los estudios epigráficos de inicios del s. XVI

El interés del humanista italiano Alessandro Geraldini (1455-1524) por los monumenta antiquitatis (y especialmente por las inscripciones romanas) se pone de manifiesto en su Itinerarium ad regiones sub aequinoctiali plaga constitutas, compuesto al final de su vida. Analizamos aquí la información anticuaria contenida en su obra; señalamos por primera vez las fuentes epigráficas utilizadas como hipotexto en su Itinerarium, identificamos la síloge epigráfica de donde conoció dichos textos y, finalmente, valoramos su participación efectiva en los estudios epigráficos llevados a cabo durante su larga permanencia en España (ante 1475-1519).

La enseñanza de las construcciones pasivas e impersonales con "se" en español como L2. ¿Cuántas distinciones son necesarias?

Este artículo sugiere un enfoque nuevo a la enseñanza de las dos estructuras gramaticales la pasiva refleja y el “se” impersonal para las clases universitarias de E/LE. Concretamente, se argumenta que las dos se deberían tratar como construcciones pasivas, basada en un análisis léxico-funcional de ellas que enfoca la lingüística contrastiva. Incluso para la instrucción de E/LE, se recomienda una aproximación contrastiva en la que se enfocan tanto la reflexión metalingüística como la competencia del estudiante en el L2. Específicamente, el uso de córpora lingüísticos en la clase forma una parte integral de la instrucción. El uso de un corpus estimula la curiosidad del estudiante, le expone a material de lengua auténtica, y promulga la reflexión inductiva independiente.

"Ad nostram scientiam referatur": la supervisión administrativa imperial de la aplicación de las leyes durante la dinastía constantiniana

Constantino y sus sucesores, Constancio II, Constante y Juliano, expresaron su particular interés por supervisar la aplicación de determinadas leyes imperiales mediante el uso de la fórmula ad nostram scientiam referatur y de otras similares. Constantino fue el príncipe que la empleó con más frecuencia, especialmente durante el período de 313-324, exceptuando el intervalo de 315-316, cuando la confrontación con Licinio le obligó a renunciar a atender directamente las cuestiones administrativas. La progresiva disminución de la inclusión de estas cláusulas en los textos legales imperiales a partir de la unificación del Imperio en 324 se debe poner en relación con la aparición de los curiosi y luego de los agentes in rebus, como oficiales encargados de vigilar la observancia de las normas vigentes.

Telenovela’s orality: from medium to a linguistic-discursive construction

Telenovela’s orality: from medium to a linguistic-discursive construction. Studies about telenovelas usually highlight their "orality". However, a literature review, specifically for Latin American telenovelas, shows that the term "orality" has been used with varying senses. In contrast with those devoted to telenovelas, literary studies have addressed the question by conceptualizing it as fictional orality. This paper takes fictional orality as a key concept to explain telenovela’s discursive peculiarities, and on that base, it distinguishes several dimensions of linguistic and discursive variation, in which such orality is being portrayed.

Who is in charge? An L2 Discourse Intonation Study on Four Prosodic Parameters to Exert the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in the Context of L2 Non-specialist Public Speaking

This paper reports the findings from a study of the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers within the discourse mode of L2 oral presentation. The purpose of this experiment is, firstly, to compare four prosodic parameters before and after an L2 discourse intonation training programme and, secondly, to confirm whether subjects, after the aforementioned L2 discourse intonation training, are able to match the form of these four prosodic parameters to the discourse-pragmatic function of dominance and control. The study designed the instructions and tasks to create the oral and written corpora and Brazil’s Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English was adapted for the pedagogical aims of the present study. The learners’ pre- and post-tasks were acoustically analysed and a pre / post- questionnaire design was applied to interpret the acoustic analysis. Results indicate most of the subjects acquired a wider choice of the four prosodic parameters partly due to the prosodically-annotated transcripts that were developed throughout the L2 discourse intonation course. Conversely, qualitative and quantitative data reveal most subjects failed to match the forms to their appropriate pragmatic functions to express dominance and control in an L2 oral presentation.