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Digital Humanities has an increasing need for widely applicable and easy-to-use methods across disciplinary boundaries. We believe that the cross-disciplinary methods we have developed for the study of the ancient Near East are useful for the study of other research questions outside the field of "Digital Assyriology". The article presents an overview of automated language processing for lexical-semantic analysis, social network analysis, and content analysis. We draw on the work in our research group, which aims to address how changing empires affect social group identities and lifeways in the first millennium BCE in Mesopotamia. The article places the methods our research team has developed into the larger methodological context of Digital Humanities (DH). The article presents an overview of the tools our research group has found useful in our study of ancient social groups. Sections 1 and 2 give the necessary background for the reader to understand the particular challenges related to the study of ancient Mesopotamia and how we have overcome them. The concrete case studies presented in Sections 3 and 4, however, are kept as general as possible, to facilitate similar approaches in adjacent fields of study. Our methodology and approaches are well documented and openly available, and in our view can be used on similar text materials, by other groups interested in DH approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of συνοικέω in LXX Deut 22:13 does not account for the verb in the MT (‮ בּוֹא אֶל ‬‎), especially given how systematic Greek translators were in rendering this Hebrew expression, even in its sexual meaning, into verbs of MOVEMENT. The existing scholarly literature has tended to overlook this discrepancy between the LXX and the MT. Attention has been paid primarily to the disagreement between the latter and the corresponding quotation in the Temple Scroll (11Q19). This article refutes the arguments that take for granted the deliberate change of MT ‮ וּבָא אֵלֶיהָ ‬‎ into ‮ ובעלה ‬‎ by the author of the Temple Scroll and proves that the oddity of the Greek translation is preferably explained by the hypothesis of a Hebrew Vorlage common to the LXX and the Temple Scroll and distinct from the MT. Additionally, this article offers another case of textual variation—albeit in postbiblical literature—between sexual ‮ בּוֹא אל ‬‎ and ‮ בָּעַל ‬‎. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. The paper deals with the equivalence of program schemes. According to A.A. Lyapunov and Yu.I. Yanov, the founders of this theory, a program scheme is understood as a program model wherein abstraction from contensive values of operators and expressions is performed. In this case, the program structure containing symbolic notation of operators and expressions remains unchanged while maintaining their execution sequence. The programming language model presented in the paper contains basic constructs of sequential languages and is the core of the existing sequential programming languages. The paper aimed at developing an effective algorithm for studying equivalence (nonequivalence) of program schemes of sequential programming languages.Methods. An algebraic approach to specifying semantics of programming languages was used for studying the equivalence of program schemes.Results. A process semantics being the new algebraic approach to specifying the formal semantics of sequential programming languages was proposed. The process semantics was specified by matching programs (program schemes) with a set of computation sequences. The computation sequence was understood as the execution sequence of actions (commands and tests) of the program. Two types of concatenation operations (test–command and command–command) and the merge operation, which properties are given by axiomatic systems, were defined in the introduced semantic domain. The finiteness of the semantic value representation in the form of systems of recursive equations was proved. The algorithm for proving the equivalence (nonequivalence) of systems of recursive equations characterizing semantic values for a pair of program schemes was proposed, which implies the equivalence (nonequivalence) of programs in the strong sense.Conclusions. The paper demonstrates the efficient use of the proposed algorithm for proving the equivalence of sequential program schemes excluding side effects when calculating expressions, i.e., sequential computation of the expression more than once does not change anything. The example of proving the equivalence of program schemes by two methods—the well-known de Bakker–Scott fixed-point induction method and the method proposed by the author—is given. Comparison of the above methods testifies not only to the new method′s effectiveness but also to its significant simplicity, proved in practice by students who performed corresponding tasks when studying the Semantics of Programming Languages at the Institute of Information and Computing Technologies at the National Research University Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Moscow, Russia).

The article presents the discussion on supporting the development of the discipline-specific writing skills needed for careers in academia and industry. Topics include explore the authorial self-positioning being constructed in the finance industry workplace and the academic field of finance; and construction being oriented towards the anticipated audiences and serving the dual purposes of public self-promotion and workplace internal socialization.

This study presents a corpus-based comparison of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) statements between annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Using a corpus of 209 CEO statements from annual reports and CSR reports of Chinese companies, this study employs the Discourse-Historical Approach of critical discourse analysis to investigate the nomination strategies and key topics in these two related reports. The results showed that corporate leaders tend to have different priorities in annual reports and CSR reports. In annual reports, corporate leaders highlight the economic and pragmatic concerns of stakeholders to create a professionally capable and objective corporate image. In CSR reports, corporate leaders highlight the ethical concerns of stakeholders to create a socially responsible corporate image and adopt a more engaging and affiliative voice through the use of first-person pronouns. This study has significance in understanding the differences in the related genres of annual reports and CSR reports for the stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a corpus-based comparison of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) statements between annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Using a corpus of 209 CEO statements from annual reports and CSR reports of Chinese companies, this study employs the Discourse-Historical Approach of critical discourse analysis to investigate the nomination strategies and key topics in these two related reports. The results showed that corporate leaders tend to have different priorities in annual reports and CSR reports. In annual reports, corporate leaders highlight the economic and pragmatic concerns of stakeholders to create a professionally capable and objective corporate image. In CSR reports, corporate leaders highlight the ethical concerns of stakeholders to create a socially responsible corporate image and adopt a more engaging and affiliative voice through the use of first-person pronouns. This study has significance in understanding the differences in the related genres of annual reports and CSR reports for the stakeholders.

This study investigated if learning a foreign language like English, French or Arabic was effective on the learners' use of first language (Persian) taboos in their daily written and spoken discourse. More than the possible effect of learning a foreign language, the gender of learners, the language they were learning and the semantic domain to which the employed taboos belonged were scrutinized. To this end, a control group (46 Iranians unfamiliar with foreign languages) and three experimental groups (advanced learners of English, French & Arabic) were selected randomly and recruited for a researcher-made questionnaire and a set of Persian speaking and formal/informal writing tasks. Participants believed that language learning affects L1 taboo words usage; this was attested in their oral and written productions. It was found that control participants and Arabic learners had the highest and the lowest rate of taboo words usage, respectively. Moreover, participants used more taboos in their written than spoken productions. The absolute forbidden words and neutral taboo words were the most common semantic domains for English/French and Arabic learners, respectively. Male participants used more taboos compared with females while English and Arabic learners had the highest and the lowest taboo usage rates, respectively.

Copyright of Panamerican Journal of Neuropsychology / Cuadernos de Neuropsicología is the property of Cuadernos de Neuropsicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract Collocation networks provide important information on the semantic relatedness of linguistic features and their co-texts. Previous studies on collocations have largely been limited to the descriptive examination of particular lexical items or phrases, while the statistical analysis of collocational relationships of phrases performing similar functions remains underexplored. This study investigates the collocation networks of stance phrases in cross-disciplinary academic discourse from a quantitative perspective. We used GraphColl to identify the collocates of stance phrases in two purpose-built corpora consisting of agriculture and economics research articles, and we then generated the collocation networks of different categories of stance phrases in the two corpora. The findings show a complex and intricate collocation network which displays both the within-stance category collocations and the collocational patterns between stance phrases and other semantic domains. Significant discipline-specific features were identified in the collocation networks of stance phrases. These findings contribute to our knowledge of how different categories of stance operate with their surrounding linguistic domains to assist writers to develop convincing arguments, construct coherent texts and communicate effectively with envisaged readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This corpus-based study focuses on the alternation between progressive and non-progressive constructions in native and non-native varieties. We adopt a quantitative-qualitative approach starting with a collostructional analysis of the two constructions to assess association strengths between lexical verbs, semantic domains and Aktionsart categories on the one hand, and progressive and non-progressive constructions on the other hand. We then explore the constructions semantically and qualitatively. Overall, associations between the two constructions and Achievements and Accomplishments on the one hand, and semantic domains other than Activity or Existence on the other, do not unanimously influence writers' constructional choices. Further, there may not be one single core meaning of the progressive, but rather a complex of meanings activated by the use of the progressive construction. Ultimately, we paint a multifaceted picture of the meanings of the progressive and show the benefit of combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore constructional semantics across Englishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates media representations of same-sex marriage debates in the UK using a combination of corpus linguistics tools and close reading, and drawing on Queer Linguistics. Following related work by Bachmann (2011), Baker (2004), and Love and Baker (2015), we analyse a 1.3 million-word corpus of UK national newspaper texts compiled for the Discourses of Marriage Research Group. Our corpus stretches from September 2011 and the announcement of a government consultation on same-sex marriage, to April 2014 when the first same-sex marriages took place. Using a top-down approach we investigate the discourses drawn upon in same-sex marriage debates (as indexed by keywords and key semantic fields) and uncover the binary social categories used to normalise social structures and hold the same-sex marriage debate in place. We also consider which social actors are (not) given a voice and/or agency and discuss how (same-sex) marriage is constituted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Semiotica is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates face-to-face interaction among Taiwanese, Indonesian, and Indian speakers utilizing a multimodal corpus linguistics approach to examine semantic categories of speech that most frequently co-occur with gestures, and whether the gesture-speech relationship is to a certain extent influenced by language/culture backgrounds or English proficiency levels of a speaker. The analysis of the semantic categories of the co-gesture speech demonstrates that speech most commonly co-occurs with gestures in the categories of moving, coming and going, general objects, numbers, location and direction, and time. The findings demonstrate similar preferences of gesture-speech production by speakers despite different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The gesture-speech relationship was shown to fall into six discrete categories: reinforcing , integrating , supplementary , complementary , contradictory , and others . While results show that the gesture-speech relationship is not significantly influenced by different language backgrounds of a speaker, speakers at a high proficiency level tended to use significantly more gestures that serve reinforcing and integrating functions, whereas less proficient speakers produced more gestures as complements and other gestures that have no obvious relationship to the conceptual content of their accompanying speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the linguistic means used to express predicative possession in the languages of the Circum-Baltic area. The domain of possession is considered here as a prototypically organized domain, where the prototype is the notion of ownership. It is shown that most languages of the area do not provide evidence of splits in their possession systems: rather, they extend the scope of use of their ownership constructions to include all other non-prototypical possessive notions. The linguistic expression of notions that belong to domains neighboring possession, namely experience, location and attribution, is also analyzed. The results show that these notions are rarely coded by means of possessive constructions: exceptions are explained by invoking semantic causes as well as language contact. A comparison of the functions fulfilled by "have"-verbs in the Indo-European languages of the area and by adessive constructions in the Finnic languages is provided, too, and their different scopes of use are explained with reference to their diachronic development and to processes of areal convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to employ one of the corpus stylistic methods to analyze Thomas Harris's novel, The Silence of the Lambs. Recently, technology has invaded our lives. To put it differently, researchers depend highly on computers to access and gain information about certain data. Thus, it is crucial to keep up with the up-to-date developments concerning computational methodologies and toolkits. Corpus stylistics helps to find certain features that cannot be understood without using the techniques of computers. In order to achieve this goal, a quantitative and qualitative methodology is applied. Corpus stylistics helps to analyze lengthy texts more efficiently. This is not to say that it substitutes the manual stylistic one. In fact, both the corpus and manual stylistic analyses work hand in glove, and they complement each other. The tool that is used to conduct the analysis by examining keywords and key semantic domains is Wmatrix3. In addition to the previous tool, AntConc is a complementary tool to investigate n-grams in the novel and to point out their significance to the overall interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a unified approach to the semantics of prepositions based on the theory of conceptual spaces. Following the themes of my recent book The Geometry of Meaning, I focus on the convexity of their meanings and on which semantic domains are expressed by prepositions. As regards convexity, using polar coordinates turns out to provide the most natural representation. In addition to the spatial domain, I argue that for many prepositions, the force domain is central. In contrast to many other analyses, I also defend the position that prepositions have a central meaning and that other meanings can be derived via a limited class of semantic transformations.

The classical Bourbaki–Alaoglu theorem asserts that the polar U ∘ of a neighborhood of 0 in a locally convex topological vector space V is a weak ⁎ compact subset of the dual space V ⁎ . G. Plotkin has proved an analogous theorem in the framework of continuous d-cones, a kind of asymmetric version of topological vector spaces in Domain Theory. In this paper we extend Plotkin's results. We consider topological spaces X with a finitary continuous algebraic structure in the sense of universal algebra instead of a cone structure. Linear functionals are replaced by continuous algebra homomorphisms into a test algebra R replacing the reals. Our main result, Theorem 5.8 , concerns the compactness of the space C ⁎ of continuous homomorphisms from X to R under appropriate hypotheses. We exhibit conditions under which C ⁎ is not only a space but also an algebra, as in the classical situation. This leads us to the notion of entropicity in the sense of universal algebra. The background for our investigation is Domain Theory and its use in denotational semantics (see [8] ). Thus our spaces are strongly non-Hausdorff. This paper can be seen as a contribution to asymmetric topology and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The task of providing dictionaries for all the world's languages is prodigious, re-quiring efficient techniques. The text corpus method cannot be used for minority languages lacking texts. To meet the need, the author has constructed a list of 1 600 semantic domains, which he has successfully used to collect words. In a workshop setting, a group of speakers can collect as many as 17 000 words in ten days. This method results in a classified word list that can be efficiently expanded into a full dictionary. The method works because the mental lexicon is a giant web or-ganized around key concepts. A semantic domain can be defined as an important concept together with the words directly related to it by lexical relations. A person can utilize the mental web to quickly jump from word to word within a domain. The author is developing a template for each domain to aid in collecting words and in de-scribing their semantics. Investigating semantics within the context of a domain yields many in-sights. The method permits the production of both alphabetically and semantically organized dic-tionaries. The list of domains is intended to be universal in scope and applicability. Perhaps due to universals of human experience and universals of linguistic competence, there are striking simi-larities in various lists of semantic domains developed for languages around the world. Using a standardized list of domains to classify multiple dictionaries opens up possibilities for cross-lin-guistic research into semantic and lexical universals.Keywords: SEMANTIC DOMAINS, SEMANTIC FIELDS, SEMANTIC CATEGORIES, LEX-ICAL RELATIONS, SEMANTIC PRIMITIVES, DOMAIN TEMPLATES, MENTAL LEXICON, SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS, MINORITY LANGUAGES, LEXICOGRAPHYOpsomming: Samestelling van woordeboeke deur gebruikmaking van se-mantiese domeine. Die taak van die voorsiening van woordeboeke aan al die tale van die wêreld is geweldig en vereis doeltreffende tegnieke. Die tekskorpusmetode kan nie gebruik word vir minderheidstale waarin tekste ontbreek nie. Om in die behoefte te voorsien, het die skrywer 'n lys van 1 600 semantiese domeine opgestel wat hy suksesvol gebruik het om woorde te versamel. In 'n werksessie-omgewing kan 'n groep sprekers tot soveel as 17 000 woorde in tien dae versamel. Hierdie metode lei tot 'n geklassifiseerde woordelys wat doeltreffend uitgebrei kan word tot 'n volledige woordeboek. Die metode werk omdat die mentale leksikon 'n groot web is wat rondom sleutelbegrippe gestruktureer is. 'n Semantiese domein kan gedefinieer word as 'n belangrike kon-sep saam met die woorde wat direk daarmee verband hou vanweë leksikale verwantskappe. 'n Persoon kan die mentale web gebruik om vinnig van woord tot woord binne 'n domein te spring. Die skrywer is besig om vir elke domein 'n profiel te ontwikkel om te help met die versameling van woorde en met die beskrywing van hul semantiek. 'n Ondersoek van semantiek binne die konteks van 'n domein lewer baie insigte. Die metode laat die totstandbrenging van sowel alfabeties as semanties gerangskikte woordeboeke toe. Die lys domeine is bedoel om univer-seel in omvang en toepassing te wees. Moontlik as gevolg van universalia van menslike ervaring en universalia van taalkundige vermoë, is daar treffende ooreenkomste tussen verskillende lyste semantiese domeine wat ontwikkel is vir tale oor die hele wêreld. Die gebruik van 'n gestandaardi-seerde lys domeine om veelsoortige woordeboeke te klassifiseer, skep moontlikhede vir kruislin-guistiese navorsing oor semantiese en leksikale universalia. Sleutelwoorde: SEMANTIESE DOMEINE, SEMANTIESE VELDE, SEMANTIESE KATE-GORIEË, LEKSIKALE VERWANTSKAPPE, SEMANTIESE PRIMITIEWES, DOMEINPROFIELE, MENTALE LEKSIKON, SEMANTIESE UNIVERSALIA, MINDERHEIDSTALE, LEKSIKOGRAFIE

Kinship is a fundamental feature and basis of human societies. We describe a set of computational tools and services, and the logic that underlies these, developed to improve how we understand both the fundamental facts of kinship and how people use kinship as a resource in their lives. Mathematical formalism applied to cultural concepts is more than an exercise in model building, as it provides a way to represent and explore their logical consistency and implications. Not surprisingly, kinship terminologies are particularly amenable to formal representation. Researchers throughout the history of kinship studies have noted the logicality of kinship terminology systems. The logic is explored here through the kin term computations made by users of a terminology when computing the kinship relation one person has to another by referring to a third person for whom each has a kin term relationship. Kinship Algebra Modeler provides a set of tools, services, and an architecture to explore kinship terminologies and their properties in an accessible manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examines the cohesive thrust of opening shots in different film trailer genres. • Identifies highly frequent lexical expressions (and semantic domains) in film trailers. • Illustrates how multimodal patterns form genre-specific cohesive links. • Shows how semiotic patterns maximize the effective cognitive uptake of information. Recent years have seen a growing number of studies explore the narrative, persuasive and multimodal design of film trailers (Maier, 2009, 2011; Wildfeuer and Pollaroli, 2017). While such work has primarily looked at the ways in which trailers realize persuasive functions (Hediger, 2001; Maier, 2011 ; Krebs, 2020), this paper examines how the (audio-visual) representational choices made by trailer editors can provide narrative orientation for the film audience. Inside a self-compiled corpus of 150 genre-stratified US-American film trailers, recurring audio-visual, cohesive patterns are elicited. It will be shown that the visual effects of this cohesive thrust can be tied to the cinematographic choices editors make in the opening shots of the trailer, by using specific shot scales, (types of) settings and (non-)human represented participants. To capture the verbal dynamics of trailer cohesion, the study explores the key semantic domains to which all lexical expressions in the trailer dialogues can be linked (Rayson et al., 2004). Results of this study confirm that both visual and verbal elements form recurring genre-specific patterns. They unleash their multimodal potential of film trailers by tapping into the previous (genre) knowledge of trailer audiences, facilitating the cognitive uptake of audiovisual information for the audience as the trailer unfolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we discuss procedures for comparing the cultural salience of semantic domains and their constitutive signifiers between groups of respondents based on free-list data. These methods allow us to assess the relative similarity and difference of the cognitive salience of elements within o domain across groups of respondents. We argue that cultural salience is an important but often overlooked variable in the structure of semantic domains. Comparing cultural salience provides one grounds for claims of cultural difference (or lack thereof) between different socially defined groups (e.g., national, ethnic, gender, academic). We use data collected on the cultural salience of countries in a project on perceptions of Southeast Asia as an example of the methods described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The article criticizes the negative influence of modern analytic, anti-semantic and anti-phenomenological thinking on cognitive semantics, and the errors or weaknesses of analysis it induces in current Mental Space Theory (MST). It also shows how a less inhibited theory of meaning, mental spaces and blending could develop more useful analyses of empirical occurrences, such as the artifacts called ‘material anchors’ and works of art — here exemplified by a painting by Matisse. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A simple abstract model of Eiffel is introduced, and its denotational semantics is defined using VDM style. A static analysis approach is presented to treat multiple inheritance and renaming mechanism. Within the framework of denotational semantics introduced in this paper, the key features of Eiffel, such as identification, classification, multiple inheritance, polymorphism and dynamic binding, can be adequately characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributional semantic representations were used to investigate crossmodal correspondences within language, offering a comprehensive analysis of how sensory experiences interconnect in linguistic constructs. By computing semantic proximity between words from different sensory modalities, a crossmodal semantic network was constructed, providing a general view of crossmodal correspondences in the English language. Community detection techniques were applied to unveil domains of experience where crossmodal correspondences were likely to manifest, while also considering the role of affective dimensions in shaping these domains. The study revealed the existence of an architecture of structured domains of experience in language, whereby crossmodal correspondences are deeply embedded. The present research highlights the roles of emotion and statistical associations in the organization of sensory concepts across modalities in language. The domains identified, including food, the body, the physical world and emotions/values, underscored the intricate interplay between the senses, emotion and semantic patterns. These findings align with the embodied lexicon hypothesis and the semantic coding hypothesis, emphasizing the capacity of language to capture and reflect crossmodal correspondences’ emotional and perceptual subtleties in the form of networks, while also revealing opportunities for further perceptual research on crossmodal correspondences and multisensory integration.