Developing and evaluating language courseware

The paper sets out twenty proposals for the development and evaluation of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs. These proposals emerge from special characteristics of language instruction and of the use of computers to assist in language instruction. We combine theoretically-based assumptions with empirical findings drawn from investigation of language courseware for Hebrew speakers in Israel. We first list four unique features of language instruction: (1) the object-language-meta-language distinction; (2) computer as written medium vs. language as primary spoken medium; (3) teaching of second language skills vs. linguistics; (4) the computer as an electronic tool vs. the computer as a cognitive entity simulating the speaker. We then show how these unique characteristics of language instruction (mother-tongue and foreign language) impose special proposals on language courseware. These proposals should be observed in the development of language courseware and in the evaluation of such programs. Clearly, these proposals integrate with general courseware proposals. Michal Ephratt (Ph.D., computational linguistics) completed post-doctoral studies at the University of Rochester. She has been on the staff of the Dept. of Hebrew Linguistics, University of Haifa, since 1988. Some of her publications include Root-Pattern Array: The Main Tool of Hebrew Word Formation (Hebrew University, 1985); and What's in a Joke? in Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language and Knowledge-based Systems (Springer-Verlag, 1990).This paper is based on work the author did as a consultant in the National Courseware Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Education. I wish to thank Esther Diamant, head of the department, for making the study possible.     

《论语》《世说新语》判断句比较浅析

《论语》用先秦时期的汉语写成,它在语言学方面有很大影响。从语言学的角度来说,南朝刘义庆的《世说新语》对研究汉语从上古到中古的演变具有很重要的价值。本文考查了《论语》和《世说新语》中判断句,通过对二书中判断句结构形式方面的比较,观察由《论语》到《世说新语》判断句的发展变化,希望展示判断句从上古到中古的演变情况。     

自然语言生成综述

自然语言生成（NLG）技术利用人工智能和语言学的方法来自动地生成可理解的自然语言文本。NLG降低了人类和计算机之间沟通的难度,被广泛应用于机器新闻写作、聊天机器人等领域,已经成为人工智能的研究热点之一。首先,列举了当前主流的NLG的方法和模型,并详细对比了这些方法和模型的优缺点;然后,分别针对文本到文本、数据到文本和图像到文本等三种NLG技术,总结并分析了应用领域、存在的问题和当前的研究进展;进而,阐述了上述生成技术的常用评价方法及其适用范围;最后,给出了当前NLG技术的发展趋势和研究难点。     

简论转换生成语言学的创新及走向

转换生成语言学自从其诞生起便因其科学性质而受到广大语言学者以及其他研究领域学者们的关注。其理论内部在不断修正和完善。在生物语言学的背景下,转换生成语言学已成为生物语言学的重要组成部分,转换生成语言学的新阶段,即最简方案思想的形成和发展,尤其是语段理论的设想为建立自然科学的语言学进行了有益的探索。     

A Proposal for Implementing Multi-User Data Base (MUD) Technology in and Academic Library

Multi-user Data base (MUD) technology, and its object-oriented descendant (MOO), is one of the most exciting tools to surface on the Internet, and offers libraries and librarians a unique opportunity to participate in creating user-friendly standardized interfaces to many of our most frequently used resources. These resources include those we access through the Internet already, using gopher, telnet, WWW, and FTP, and also those proprietary databases that we currently access through leased lines such as OCLC First Search, Prism, DIALOG, and many others. MOO technology is already being used successfully to create user-extensible collaborative professional environments for educators, astronomers, and computer network systems administrators. With the growing relevance of the Internet for libraries and other information professionals, it behooves the library community to engage those emerging technologies which will aloow us to interface most effectively with the Internet and its many resources, with the proprietary databases which we depend on, and with one another.     

Towards Japanese corpus-based semantic accessibility scale

A detailed analysis of semantic accessibility scale （SAS） based on Japanese corpus has been performed in this paper. Firstly, the method of systematic random sampling is devised for quicker comparison among six groups in きくに . Secondly, according to the direct result of comparison, different sampling ratios （SR） in groups show regular deviation. The more pages are extracted, the higher SR is involved. Thirdly, the values of SAS in groups are calculated and then contrasted with SR. The regular deviation of SR fails to bring fundamental variation of SAS even though minor difference of SAS in groups may be reflected. The irrelevance to SAS establishes the fact that SR can be used for literary critics to extract and analyze SAS in corpus-involved texts from semantic perspective.     

Improving ESL writing using an online formulaic sequence word‐combination checker

Writing correct English sentences can be challenging. Furthermore, writing correct formulaic sequences can be especially difficult because accepted combinations do not follow clear rules governing which words appear together in a sequence. One solution is to provide examples of correct usage accompanied by statistical feedback from web‐based applications for learners to emulate. The goal of the study was to investigate whether such a dedicated web‐based program that provides instant examples of correct word combinations and detailed results of who used these examples, where and when, can improve students' writing. Data were collected from 74 ESL (English as a Second Language) undergraduate students divided into control and experimental groups, who performed formulaic sequence tests, wrote passages in English, followed by interviews with members of the experimental group. The results show that students who used the software outperformed those who did not, on the tests and the overall grades for their writing. Implementing formulaic sequence check programs in writing classes to help students decide which words can appear together, under which circumstances, and in which context is recommended.     

From the field to the web: implementing best-practice recommendations in documentary linguistics

New methods of documenting languages with digital technologies has led to a multitude of different formats that are difficult to reuse over time. To overcome the problems surrounding the portability of digital language documentation, linguists are in the process of formulating best-practice recommendations to increase the likelihood of their work's long-term survival. This paper describes the implementation of a comprehensive set of current best-practice recommendations pertaining to content, format, discovery, access, citation, preservation, and rights in the context of the language documentation efforts of the Texas German Dialect Project. This project is different from others in that it is not primarily concerned with digitizing and archiving existing recordings. Instead, the archive it is creating is the end-result of a research project whose workflow begins with data-collection in the filed and ends with depositing digitized and annotated language materials in a web-accessible digital archive of Texas German. This paper shows how a number of conflicting best-practice recommendations can be resolved, thereby satisfying the diverse needs of academic research, teaching, and outreach to the community. As such, the results reported here are an important contribution to the search for strategies guaranteeing the long-term survival of digital language documentation resources.

批评话语分析的认知视角

批评话语分析对话语加工过程中认知因素的忽视-直为人所诟病,这一情况目前正在逐步改善,越来越多的学者开始将认知科学领域的研究成果应用于批评话语分析。在探讨“社会-认知法”的基础上,分析总结隐喻理论和进化心理学对批评话语分析的贡献,进而提出-个以“社会-认知法”为主体、认知语言学和进化心理学理论为补充的批评话语分析框架。     

认知语言学的解构思维

解构主义,是从结构主义中演化出来的一个哲学概念。作为一种哲学思潮,它对现代语言学理论的形成以及研究范式产生了深远的影响。认知语言学作为语言研究新范式具有某些解构主义特征。对认知语言学中的解构主义思维进行探讨分析,有助于理解认知语言学的众多观点。