Cerebral organization for language in deaf and hearing subjects: Biological constraints and effects of experience

Cerebral organization during sentence processing in English and in American Sign Language (ASL) was characterized by employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 4 T. Effects of deafness, age of language acquisition, and bilingualism were assessed by comparing results from (i) normally hearing, monolingual, native speakers of English, (ii) congenitally, genetically deaf, native signers of ASL who learned English late and through the visual modality, and (iii) normally hearing bilinguals who were native signers of ASL and speakers of English. All groups, hearing and deaf, processing their native language, English or ASL, displayed strong and repeated activation within classical language areas of the left hemisphere. Deaf subjects reading English did not display activation in these regions. These results suggest that the early acquisition of a natural language is important in the expression of the strong bias for these areas to mediate language, independently of the form of the language. In addition, native signers, hearing and deaf, displayed extensive activation of homologous areas within the right hemisphere, indicating that the specific processing requirements of the language also in part determine the organization of the language systems of the brain.

Applying semantic knowledge to the automatic processing of temporal expressions and events in natural language

This paper addresses the problem of the automatic recognition and classification of temporal expressions and events in human language. Efficacy in these tasks is crucial if the broader task of temporal information processing is to be successfully performed. We analyze whether the application of semantic knowledge to these tasks improves the performance of current approaches. We therefore present and evaluate a data-driven approach as part of a system: TIPSem. Our approach uses lexical semantics and semantic roles as additional information to extend classical approaches which are principally based on morphosyntax. The results obtained for English show that semantic knowledge aids in temporal expression and event recognition, achieving an error reduction of 59% and 21%, while in classification the contribution is limited. From the analysis of the results it may be concluded that the application of semantic knowledge leads to more general models and aids in the recognition of temporal entities that are ambiguous at shallower language analysis levels. We also discovered that lexical semantics and semantic roles have complementary advantages, and that it is useful to combine them. Finally, we carried out the same analysis for Spanish. The results obtained show comparable advantages. This supports the hypothesis that applying the proposed semantic knowledge may be useful for different languages.

The power of language and the language of power in M. T. Anderson’s Feed and Gary Stheyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story. A comparative analysis

The aim of my dissertation is to analyze how selected elements of language are addressed in two contemporary dystopias, Feed by M. T. Anderson (2002) and Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (2010). I chose these two novels because language plays a key role in both of them: both are primarily focused on the pervasiveness of technology, and on how the use/abuse of technology affects language in all its forms. In particular, I examine four key aspects of language: books, literacy, diary writing, as well as oral language. In order to analyze how the aforementioned elements of language are dealt with in Feed and Super Sad True Love Story, I consider how the same aspects of language are presented in a sample of classical dystopias selected as benchmarks: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921), Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932), Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1952), and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1986). In this way, I look at how language, books, literacy, and diaries are dealt with in Anderson’s Feed and in Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, both in comparison with the classical dystopias as well as with one another. This allows for an analysis of the similarities, as well as the differences, between the two novels. The comparative analysis carried out also takes into account the fact that the two contemporary dystopias have different target audiences: one is for young adults (Feed), whereas the other is for adults (Super Sad True Love Story). Consequently, I also consider whether further differences related to target readers affect differences in how language is dealt with. Preliminary findings indicate that, despite their different target audiences, the linguistic elements considered are addressed in the two novels in similar ways.

An historical Greek grammar, chiefly of the Attic dialect as written and spoken from classical antiquity down to the present time : founded upon the ancient texts, inscriptions, papyri and present popular Greek /

"Principal modern works consulted": p. xxiii-xxxii.

An English grammar for classical schools, with questions, and a course of exercises; being a practical introduction to English prose composition

Mode of access: Internet.

Grammaticae quaestiones, or, A grammatical examination by question only : for the use of schools, particularly those where the Eton grammar is taught : humbly offered to the public as the most effectual way of laying a solid classical foundation and obviating the many inconveniences arising from a superficial knowledge of the grammar /

Mode of access: Internet.

Erekʼlezowean barḫagirkʼ tacḫkerēn - hayerēn - gaghghierēn handerdz hamarhōt kʼerakanowtʼeamb ōsmanean barbarḫoy.

Turkish (in Armenian script) with classical Armenian and French equivalents.

A critical pronouncing dictionary, and expositor of the English language ... : to which are prefixed, principles of English pronunciation ... : the whole interspersed with observations, etymological, critical, and grammatical /

Incluye: "A key to the classical pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and scripture proper names: with terminational vocabularies of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin proper names, and observations on the Greek and Latin accent and quantity."

An elementary dictionary for common schools with pronouncing vocabularies of classical, scripture, and modern geographical names /

Mode of access: Internet.

Farrand's course of Latin studies, or, Classical selections : with notes to facilitate the progress of learners ... for the use of American schools.

"Published in a cheap, correct and improved form, comprised of five parts".

The classical student's manual; containing an index to every page, section, and note, in Matthiae's Greek grammar, Hermann's Annotations to Vigerus on idioms, Bos on ellipses, Hoogeveen on the particles, and Kuster on the middle verb: in which Thucydides, Herodotus, Æschylus, Sophocles, Pindar, Homer's Iliad, Xenophon's Anabasis, and the four plays of Euripides edited by Professor Porson, are illustrated. With philological and explanatory observations.

Mode of access: Internet.

The classical student's manual : containing an index to every page, section, and note, in Matthiae's Greek grammar, Hermann's Annotations to Vigerus on idioms, Bos on ellipses, Hoogeveen on the Greek particles, and Kuster on the middle verb : in which Thucydides, Herodotus, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and the four plays of Euripides edited by Professor Porson, are illustrated and explained /

Mode of access: Internet.

An abridgement of the last quarto edition of Ainsworth's dictionary, English and Latin : the English part being enriched with an addition of some thousand words from good authority, and the Latin part consisting only of such words as are purely classical, designed for the use of schools /

Mode of access: Internet.