This book is concerned with the structure and status of the Celtic languages. At fi rst
glance this may appear to give the work a very defi nite focus. However, the question of
what constitutes a ...‘Celtic’ language is not as straightforward as linguists may suppose.
This is because there are at least three different approaches to defi ning what is meant by
such terms as ‘Celtic’, ‘Romance’ or ‘Slavic’. Historically all three approaches have been
applied to the Celtic languages, each successive view further refi ning and narrowing the
scope of enquiry. These are: an ethnological approach; a genetic approach; and a typological approach.
The syntactic definition of "head" as the governing node of a constituent can be contrasted with the semantic definition based on the cognitive notions of autonomy & salience. It is the latter ...definition that appears to best explain the function & behavior of two adjectival constructions in Welsh. In a process referred to as decapitation, from a semantic viewpoint, the primary effect of these structures is to remove the head constituent & substitute a different (core-complement) construction format. As a syntactic approach does not encompass the semantic difference between heads & cores, it fails to account for the differences between the canonical & decapitated adjectival structures in Welsh. In this way the semantics-based definition provides a more unified explanation of these two formations. 4 Figures, 18 References. Adapted from the source document
The e‐rater® automated scoring engine used at Educational Testing Service (ETS) scores the writing quality of essays. In the current practice, e‐rater scores are generated via a multiple linear ...regression (MLR) model as a linear combination of various features evaluated for each essay and human scores as the outcome variable. This study evaluates alternative scoring models based on several additional machine learning algorithms, including support vector machines (SVM), random forests (RF), and k‐nearest neighbor regression (k‐NN). The results suggest that models based on the SVM algorithm outperform MLR models in predicting human scores. Specifically, SVM‐based models yielded the highest agreement between human and e‐rater scores. Furthermore, compared with MLR, SVM‐based models improved the agreement between human and e‐rater scores at the ends of the score scale. In addition, the high correlation between SVM‐based e‐rater scores with external measures such as examinee's scores on the other parts of the test provided some validity evidence for SVM‐based e‐rater scores. Future research is encouraged to explore the generalizability of these findings.
Report Number: ETS RR‐16–04
This study emphasizes the methodology of linguistic resistance in Eldridge Cleaver's best-known work, Soul on Ice. Through a process of signification, Cleaver works to redefine key words and concepts ...that form a web of racialist and racist thinking called normative whiteness. By emptying key terms, like those of "life," "liberty," and "property," Cleaver's text attempts to offer a new, less biased foundation on which a more inclusive and pluralistic American narrative can be written, a move that both makes his rhetoric significantly different from that of many contemporary resistance writers and positions him as an important link in a larger genealogy of resistance and African American literature.
A recent increase in studies on Welsh word-order patterns has focused on prior historical periods rather than on the modern language. Here, statistics are provided for constituent order in Modern ...Welsh. Two corpora - one spoken & one literary - are examined & show a significant consistency of options that are very different from the chaotic nature of Middle Welsh patterns. Classical Welsh can be shown to be a middle stage in the development of Welsh word-order patterns. Modern Welsh is strongly verb-initial although other orders can be used to serve particular purposes of the information structure in a sentence. 15 Tables, 2 Figures, 29 References. Adapted from the source document
The "e-rater"® automated scoring engine used at Educational Testing Service (ETS) scores the writing quality of essays. In the current practice, e-rater scores are generated via a multiple linear ...regression (MLR) model as a linear combination of various features evaluated for each essay and human scores as the outcome variable. This study evaluates alternative scoring models based on several additional machine learning algorithms, including support vector machines (SVM), random forests (RF), and "k"-nearest neighbor regression (k-NN). The results suggest that models based on the SVM algorithm outperform MLR models in predicting human scores. Specifically, SVM-based models yielded the highest agreement between human and e-rater scores. Furthermore, compared with MLR, SVM-based models improved the agreement between human and e-rater scores at the ends of the score scale. In addition, the high correlation between SVM-based e-rater scores with external measures such as examinee's scores on the other parts of the test provided some validity evidence for SVM-based e-rater scores. Future research is encouraged to explore the generalizability of these findings.
In this paper I discuss some considerations which enter into the definition of a linguistic period, i.e. a particular phase in the history of a language. I propose that historical varieties of a ...language be treated more on a par with synchronic variation. Our definition of a period must therefore avoid employment of arbitrary, extra-linguistic boundary-markers and should recognize and allow for graded types of categorization to supplement the usual metaphor of periods as discrete entities. What I am proposing is to bring our studies of historical variation closer to what has long been recognized as necessary in synchronic variation work. In what follows I will show how synchronic and diachronic variation have been treated differently by linguists. Then I put forward some programmatic suggestions on how to revise our definition of linguistic periods in the light of this comparison. Finally I provide a brief illustration of how this all works by considering a problem of periodization in the history of Welsh.
An account of the semantic structure of the impersonal verb construction in Modern Welsh, using notions from the theory of cognitive grammar to explain the grammatical behavior of the form. The ...conflicting characteristics of the impersonal are introduced & some basic features of cognitive grammar discussed. These concepts are applied to the Welsh construction, & an analysis viewing the Welsh constructions as partially autonomized verb forms is offered. This analysis accounts for the canonical behavior of the impersonals. The autonomy analysis is then applied to account for the noncanonical behavior, particularly the lack of agreement & mutation of the direct object. It is argued that only an analysis making use of an unspecified subject can explain the agreement facts, & only an analysis using the semantic notion autonomy can properly handle the mutation evidence. An unspecified subject analysis utilizing autonomy as its defining feature accounts for these & several other observed traits of the impersonal verbs. It is shown that the impersonals are best understood as being grammatically active in voice. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 28 References. Adapted from the source document
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