This study investigates how meaning is constructed through embodied cognitive processes when EFL learners engage with The Old Man and the Sea. Grounded in Barsalou’s Embodied Cognition Theory (1999, 2008), which conceptualizes language comprehension as the reactivation of perceptual, motor, bodily, and affective systems rather than abstract symbol manipulation, the study examines reader responses to a literary text characterized by narrative restraint and minimal explicit emotional description. The participants were undergraduate students from the English Literature Study Program at Universitas Negeri Makassar enrolled in the History of English Language and Literature course (2024 cohort). 142 students across five intact classes (A–E), 57 students (40.1%) selected The Old Man and the Sea as their preferred final-test novel and constituted the focal participant group. Data were collected through an open-ended reflective questionnaire eliciting emotional reactions, imagined experiences, reflective pauses, and lingering thoughts after reading. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis with theory-driven coding, guided by embodied cognition categories including sensorimotor imagery, bodily state, action simulation, and affective response. The findings reveal that students consistently relied on embodied simulation to construct meaning, reporting strong experiences of empathy, loneliness, sadness, and admiration derived from imagining Santiago’s physical struggle, pain, fatigue, and isolation. Meaning emerged through experiential inference, as understanding developed from felt bodily and affective engagement rather than explicit textual cues. The study demonstrates the pedagogical potential of literary reading in EFL contexts to foster affective engagement, empathy development, and reader-centred meaning construction, while extending embodied cognition research to authentic classroom-based literary experiences.
A categorial grammar assigns one of several syntactic categories to each symbol of the alphabet, and the category of a string is then deduced from the categories assigned to its symbols using two simple reduction rules. This paper investigates a special class of categorial grammars, in which only one category is assigned to each symbol, thus eliminating ambiguity on the lexical level (in linguistic terms, a unique part of speech is assigned to each word). While unrestricted categorial grammars are equivalent to the context-free grammars, the proposed subclass initially appears weak, as it cannot define even some regular languages. It is proved in the paper that it is actually powerful enough to define a homomorphic encoding of every context-free language, in the sense that for every context-free language $L$ over an alphabet $Σ$ there is a language $L'$ over some alphabet $Ω$ defined by categorial grammar with unique category assignment and a homomorphism $h \colon Σ\to Ω^+$, such that a string $w$ is in $L$ if and only if $h(w)$ is in $L'$. In particular, in Greibach's hardest context-free language theorem, it is sufficient to use a hardest language defined by a categorial grammar with unique category assignment.
Cynthia A. Huang, Mitchell O'Hara-Wild, Rob J. Hyndman
et al.
Visualizing changes over time is fundamental to learning from the past and anticipating the future. However, temporal semantics can be complicated, and existing visualization tools often struggle to accurately represent these complexities. It is common to use bespoke plot helper functions designed to produce specific graphics, due to the absence of flexible general tools that respect temporal semantics. We address this problem by proposing a grammar of temporal graphics, and an associated software implementation, 'ggtime', that encodes temporal semantics into a declarative grammar for visualizing temporal data. The grammar introduces new composable elements that support visualization across linear, cyclical, quasi-cyclical, and other granularities; standardization of irregular durations; and alignment of time points across different granularities and time zones. It is designed for interoperability with other semantic variables, allowing navigation across the space of visualizations while preserving temporal semantics.
The paper applies Juri Lotman’s theory of the semiosphere to utopian studies with the aim of identifying the principal components and mode of functioning of classic utopian discourse. Without questioning the ultimate result of any interaction within a utopian dialogic situation, which necessarily demonstrates the superiority of the ideal world (no-place/ou-topos) over the external world of imperfection (e.g. Europe or America), it is argued that the encounter between the utopian and non-utopian semiospheres offers an interesting starting point for a discussion of intercultural translation and dialogicity involving two different mechanisms of sign production. Contrary to its ‘real-world’ counterpart, where the sign production is governed by asymmetry, binarism, replacement, and diversification, the utopian semiosphere relies on the truthfulness of signs, all-encompassing semioticity, unifying enhancement, and homogeneity. The hyperbolization of the opposition between the ideal state and the external world is metonymically reflected in the construction of the utopian state itself, with its centre and periphery radically polarized and separated by the impassable internal boundary. Although typical representations of the external utopian boundary foreground its distinctly separative function, multiple acts of the intercultural exchange between representatives of the two semiospheres expose the boundary’s translatory function.
We provide an algorithm for deciding simple grammar bisimilarity whose complexity is polynomial in the valuation of the grammar (maximum seminorm among production rules). Since the valuation is at most exponential in the size of the grammar, this gives rise to a (single) exponential running time. Previously only a double-exponential algorithm was known. As an application, we provide a conversion from context-free session types to simple grammars whose valuation is linear in the size of the type. In this way, we provide the first polynomial-time algorithm for deciding context-free session type equivalence.
The objective of this research is to connect Arabic theoretical linguistics with modern linguistics, not by disregarding the present and attributing the later theories solely to Arab grammarians and rhetoricians, as has often been assumed. Rather, this research aims to qualitatively explore the linguistic accomplishments of ancient Arab scholars from a contemporary perspective and identify commonalities and controversies between past and present perspectives. Specifically, this study focuses on Sibawayh's interpretation of functional linguistics and its final formulation by Jakobson. Additionally, the study aims to analyse and compare the principles of language and grammar advocated by ancient Arab linguists and contemporary linguists to deepen our understanding of language and its role in human society. The results of this study reveal that while Sibawayh concentrated on the analysis of structure and function in Arabic grammar, modern linguists such as Jakobson have broadened their approach to include a wider range of perspectives including sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. Therefore, it is essential to acknowledge the contributions of Sibawayh as his work formed the foundation for language theories in general and linguistics in particular.
This study examines how codas of Urhobo-English loanwords are adapted and shows that the strategies adopted in repairing loanword coda in Urhobo are driven by syllabification constraints and universal conventions. Syllabification conditions in languages that forbid filled coda will require that all the consonant sounds in a phonological word that are to be found in the phonetic string are parsed as onsets. Assuming this is true, it has implications for loanword adaptation. Urhobo exclusively permits the open syllable type. Implicitly, all the coda elements of loanwords are likely to be licensed as onsets, which may result in a possible ‘illicit’ onset cluster given the onset condition requirement of the language. Accordingly, this study examines the attested patterns of adaptation of English coda in Urhobo loanwords and their motivations as well as implications. The discussion is built around the theory of constraints and repair strategies.
Eric Andersson, Johanna Björklund, Frank Drewes
et al.
We introduce Lovelace, a tool for creating corpora of semantic graphs. The system uses graph expansion grammar as a representational language, thus allowing users to craft a grammar that describes a corpus with desired properties. When given such grammar as input, the system generates a set of output graphs that are well-formed according to the grammar, i.e., a graph bank. The generation process can be controlled via a number of configurable parameters that allow the user to, for example, specify a range of desired output graph sizes. Central use cases are the creation of synthetic data to augment existing corpora, and as a pedagogical tool for teaching formal language theory.
When completing a comparative judgment (CJ) exercise, judges are asked to make holistic decisions about the quality of the work they are comparing. A key consideration is the validity of expert judgements. This article details a study where an aspect of validity, whether or not judges are attending to construct-irrelevant features, was investigated. There are a number of potentially construct-irrelevant features indicated in the assessment literature, and we focused on four features: appearance; handwriting; spelling, punctuation, and grammar (SPaG); and missing response vs. incorrect answer. This study explored this through an empirical experiment supplemented by judge observation and survey. The study was conducted within an awarding organisation. The particular context was within a programme of work trialling, a new method of maintaining examination standards involving the comparative judgement of candidates’ examination responses from the same subject from two different years. Judgements in this context are cognitively demanding, and there is a possibility that judges may attend to superficial features of the responses they are comparing. It is, therefore, important to understand how CJ decisions are made and what they are or are not based on so that we can have confidence in judgements and know that any use of them is valid.
Classroom-based language assessment (CBLA) in the Indonesian context has become more significant since the shift of the assessment model from summative based assessment (Ujian Nasional or the final exam) to formative-based assessment (Asesmen Kompetensi Minimum (AKM); therefore, teachers need to develop their classroom-based language assessment literacy (CBLAL). The model places a greater emphasis on students' learning outcomes in class rather than final test scores. This study aims to examine the CBLAL level of experienced and novice EFL teachers, their perceptions of CBLAL, and their needs for CBLAL training. Quantitative and qualitative data were used in conjunction with a case study research design. The CBLAL questionnaire, adopted from Lan and Fan's work (2019), collected quantitative data from 55 EFL teachers. Meanwhile, the qualitative data were collected from four of them (novice and experienced) in the interview sessions. The CBLAL levels of 55 teachers are between functional and procedural-conceptual literacy levels. Both experienced (ETs) and novice teachers (NTs) could grasp fundamental principles in language assessment and can use them in the classroom. Although the ETs have higher levels, there is no significant difference in CBLAL levels between ETs and NTs. The study also revealed that the teachers' understandings of technical skills and language pedagogy were among the highest compared to their knowledge of theories and principles on language assessments. However, they indicated that still require professional development (PD) in CBLAL, despite their functional and procedural-conceptual literacy. The current study has pedagogical implications for both ETs and NTs. They should actively participate in various professional development activities, focusing on classroom evaluation.
Special aspects of education, Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
We present a grammar for expressing hypotheses in visual data analysis to formalize the previously abstract notion of "analysis tasks." Through the lens of our grammar, we lay the groundwork for how a user's data analysis questions can be operationalized and automated as a set of hypotheses (a hypothesis space). We demonstrate that our grammar-based approach for analysis tasks can provide a systematic method towards unifying three disparate spaces in visualization research: the hypotheses a dataset can express (a data hypothesis space), the hypotheses a user would like to refine or verify through analysis (an analysis hypothesis space), and the hypotheses a visualization design is capable of supporting (a visualization hypothesis space). We illustrate how the formalization of these three spaces can inform future research in visualization evaluation, knowledge elicitation, analytic provenance, and visualization recommendation by using a shared language for hypotheses. Finally, we compare our proposed grammar-based approach with existing visual analysis models and discuss the potential of a new hypothesis-driven theory of visual analytics.
This article reports a pre–post comparative study investigating whether the data-driven learning (DDL) approach has different pedagogical effects on grammar students of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different levels of English proficiency. The study entailed a treatment group (TG) of 95 first-year undergraduates who learned grammar using DDL and a control group (CG) of 84 students who received no grammar treatment. Most of the participants were 18 or 19 years old, with only a few outliers, aged 17 or 20. The grammar performance and learning attitudes in both groups (their motivation and self-efficacy) were quantitatively examined through grammar achievement tests and a questionnaire. The data obtained from the groups were then compared at three proficiency levels: high, intermediate, and low. The results of an analysis of covariance show that in grammar performance, the proficiency levels in all the TG students rose significantly and in the posttest they outperformed their counterparts in the CG. However, neither the members of the TG nor those of the CG made any statistically significant improvement in their learning attitudes; no significant differences were found between the groups at any proficiency level. The mixed findings make an important contribution to the field, confirming that DDL is pedagogically suitable for enhancing the linguistic knowledge of university-level grammar learners, regardless of their proficiency, but warning that practitioners who treat the development of learner attitudes (e.g., motivation and self-efficacy) as important should be cautious with this approach.
Abstract:This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax, which use either the comparative-historical method or implicational typology. We find that our reconstruction yields strong support for a canonical model (synthetic, nominative-accusative, head-final) of the protolanguage and low support for any alternative model. Observing the evolutionary dynamics of features in our data set, we conclude that morphological features have slower rates of change, whereas syntactic traits change faster. Additionally, more frequent, unmarked traits in grammatical hierarchies have slower change rates when compared to less frequent, marked ones, which indicates that universal patterns of economy and frequency impact language change within the family.
ABSTRACT In this paper, I present a comparative analysis of caused-motion events (involving placement, removal, causation and transfer) in Spanish and German within an emerging Cognitive Construction Grammar theory of mind and language. The aim of this article is to offer a syntactic account by which argument structure information is required to understand the encoding of transferred object/target path in these languages. The core theoretical observation is that the spatial representation of events of transfer and placement is reliant on embodied patterns of constructional attachment (constructional attachment patterns) that are not attributable to typological differences such as particle or monomorphemic verbal encoding of target path. This insight can be summarized as follows: typologically different languages encode caused-motion information in an argument structure construction, while the specific semantics of verbs encode stance, object, shape, weight and target path structure. In Spanish, verbal object–path encoding does not require the use of specific placement markers, since speakers identify the form and shape of objects encoded by specific verbs. In German, object shape and form, as well as path, are encoded by specific particles, prefixes and base verbs. The conclusion is that both argument structure and verbal meaning are required to understand the way speakers perceive and further conceptualize reality through language.
This article reports on an empirical investigation into language-specific factors and strategies pertaining to syntactic asymmetry in English>Arabic simultaneous interpreting. It discusses the disparity between subject-verb-object (S-initial) and verb-subject-object (V-initial) structures when complicated by long and/or complex initial subjects in the source language (SL). These types of complex initial structures in the subject position significantly delay the verb that is normally needed to start sentences in Arabic. I hypothesise that professionals are more likely to follow SL structures to cope with complex initial subjects and avoid memory overload, information loss or failure. I propose that they do so using what I refer to as the strategy of not waiting for the verb, utilising Arabic word-order flexibility which offers nominal clause structures similar to the English S-initial structure. Three English speeches from real-life conference settings were analysed. The analysis focused on English sentences with complex initial subjects and their different renditions in multiple authentic Arabic simultaneous interpretations. The results of the analysis and fidelity assessment supported my hypothesis in relation to strategy and “language-pair specificity”, indicating a preference for “form-based processing”. The analysis also supported the difficulty of interpreting complex initial subjects. The strategy of not waiting for the verb was found to contribute to greater completeness and accuracy, albeit the latter to a lesser extent. It can be proposed as a complementary strategy to ‘waiting’, ‘lagging’, ‘restructuring’, ‘anticipation’, and so on. This approach could enhance (would-be) interpreters’ repertoire of potentially useful options, particularly when other approaches may lead to memory overload, omission or information failure.
The run-length compressed Burrows-Wheeler transform (RLBWT) used in conjunction with the backward search introduced in the FM index is the centerpiece of most compressed indexes working on highly-repetitive data sets like biological sequences. Compared to grammar indexes, the size of the RLBWT is often much bigger, but queries like counting the occurrences of long patterns can be done much faster than on any existing grammar index so far. In this paper, we combine the virtues of a grammar with the RLBWT by building the RLBWT on top of a special grammar based on induced suffix sorting. Our experiments reveal that our hybrid approach outperforms the classic RLBWT with respect to the index sizes, and with respect to query times on biological data sets for sufficiently long patterns.
We generalize intuitionistic tense logics to the multi-modal case by placing grammar logics on an intuitionistic footing. We provide axiomatizations for a class of base intuitionistic grammar logics as well as provide axiomatizations for extensions with combinations of seriality axioms and what we call "intuitionistic path axioms". We show that each axiomatization is sound and complete with completeness being shown via a typical canonical model construction.