Audio Description for Educational Videos on COVID-19 Response:A Corpus-Based Study on Linguistic and Textual Idiosyncrasies

Audio description(AD),unlike interlingual translation and interpretation,is subject to unique constraints as a spoken text.Facilitated by AD,educational videos on COVID-19 anti-virus measures are made accessible to the visually disadvantaged.In this study,a corpus of AD of COVID-19 educational videos is developed,named“Audio Description Corpus of COVID-19 Educational Videos”(ADCCEV).Drawing on the model of Textual and Linguistic Audio Description Matrix(TLADM),this paper aims to identify the linguistic and textual idiosyncrasies of AD themed on COVID-19 response released by the New Zealand Government.This study finds that linguistically,the AD script uses a mix of complete sentences and phrases,the majority being in Present Simple tense.Present participles and the“with”structure are used for brevity.Vocabulary is diverse,with simpler words for animated explainers.Third-person pronouns are common in educational videos.Color words are a salient feature of AD,where“yellow”denotes urgency,and“red”indicates importance,negativity,and hostility.On textual idiosyncrasies,coherence is achieved through intermodal components that align with the video’s mood and style.AD style varies depending on the video’s purpose,from informative to narrative or expressive.

A Corpus-based Study on "However" in Chinese Learners' Writing

The use of "however" by Chinese learners' writing is studied through a comparison of its use in CLEC and in BROWN and found that "however" is overused in the front of a sentence,underused in the middle of a sentence and misused as a disjunctive conjunction,as is followed by the analysis of three attributable factors,i.e.the writing style,confusion with "but" and negative L1 transfer.

Corpus-Based Approach on Stylistic Features in Mark Twain's Novel——Taking The Man That Corrupted Hadlyburg as One Example

Mark Twain, the founder of critical realism in the United States, is a famous master of short story in the world. He experienced the process from American liberal capitalism to imperialism. The writing style is also changed from funny to pessimistic. His works have been translated into many languages and highly praised by readers and media all over the word. One of his novels, the classic novel The Man that Corrupted Hedlyburg by Mark Twain. Its plot is designable and the description of psychology is profound. It is known as the treasure of Mark Twain's works. Various literary critical analyses on this story have been made from different perspectives; however, there is no complete and thorough analysis on it from the perspective of corpus-based stylistics.In order to achieve this target, an observed corpus and a reference corpus are both built. The observed corpus is the electronic text of The Man while the reference corpus consists of four electronic texts of Mark Twain. In this research, three softwares, AntConc,WordSmith Tools and UAM CorpusTool, are applied. This thesis conducts a systemic stylistics analysis to the corpus-based approach of The Man That Corrupted Hadlyburg at three levels, lexical level, syntactic level, discourse level. At last it summarizes theprevious study and points out the main purpose of the thesis. And in the meantime, the limitation exists in the thesis and the suggestions for the subsequent exploration are also concluded. It is hoped that this study will help English learners to better understand and appreciate the meaning and aesthetic value of the text.

A Corpus-based Study on Lexical Analysis of English Tour Guide Commentary

This paper is a corpus-based study which aims at analyzing lexical features of English tour commentary and creating a keyword list as teaching material.

Corpus-based Contrastive Analysis of“Root”Metaphor Translation in Dream of the Red Mansion

Both the study of metaphor and translation has taken an empirical turn in the past decade,corpus-based method has provided a practical and objective way for investigating metaphor translation from a comparative and cognitive perspective.The purpose of this paper is to reveal the cognitive differences in the perception of“root”between English and Chinese through a contrastive analysis of the two English translations of a Chinese classic novel—Dream of the Red Mansion,the two translations are completed by a native Chinese speaker and a native English speaker respectively.The study is divided into two parts,the first part is devoted to a contrastive analysis of typical examples selected from the data acquired from the online English-Chinese parallel corpus with the online corpus analysis tool Wmatrix,two deductions have been drawn through the analysis concerning the cognition difference in root perception:(1)the integral perception of root and a plant in Chinese VS the binary cognition in English;(2)the concreteness of“root”metaphor in Chinese VS the abstractness in“root”metaphor application in English.Then the two deductions are further demonstrated through corpus-assisted study of“root”metaphor in large online corpuses.The differences in root metaphor usage as well as the cognitive reasons behind the differences have been investigated with emphasis not only on the dominant conceptual root metaphors,but also the semantic preference of the collocated words of the metaphors.

A Corpus-Based Contrastive Critical Genre Analysis of Universities’Introductory Discourses

Educational discourses,or to be more specific,universities’introductory discourses have not been studied from the contrastive perspective using critical genre analysis theories.This study uses Fairclough’s framework of discourse analysis to take a corpus-based contrastive study between the Chinese and global universities’introductory discourses from three aspects.Firstly,the textual dimension will be explored using the corpus-based approach.Secondly,it studies from the discursive dimension from intertextuality and interdiscursivity.Finally,the social cultural perspective study will be given about the corresponding social cultural interpretation on the differences between Chinese and global universities’introduction discourses.

The Bibliometric Studies on China’s Corpus-Based Interpreting Studies

Shlesinger (1998) first proposed that corpus-based interpreting studies(CIS) should be regarded as an offshoot of corpus-based translation studies (CTS).In China, owing to the development and compilation of interpreting corpora, CIShas gained momentum since 2007. To review the past achievements in this regard,the present paper first summarizes four readily compiled interpreting corpora. Then,based on the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CKNI), it conducts thestatistics mainly on relevant published papers in Chinese Social Science and Index(CSSCI) journals. Next, it pinpoints a bibliometric analysis on the data by taking intoaccount three parameters, namely, H index, reference citation and their distribution.Then, it makes a detailed review and comments on the background of CIS and itsparadigm, theoretical interpretation of CIS and the research areas of CIS, standardsof developing interpreting corpora and solutions to difficulties in compilation ofinterpreting corpora, research orientations including topics and objects. At present,although CIS have attained preliminary findings and conclusions, it has mainly reliedon the theoretical and analytical frameworks of Systemic Functional Grammar andits utility in CIS, given the fact that it has introduced few interdisciplinary studies.As a result, CIS do not take full advantage of the paradigm of corpus linguistics norexplore into such research topics as features of interpretation, interpreters’ identitiesand interpreting styles. Finally, regarding future studies, the paper proposes that CISshould foreground the relevance of improving the mechanism of interpreting corpuscompilation in order to gain ground in new research methods and perspectives.

A Corpus-Based Comparative Study of Translation Universals in Two English Translations of Li Sao

The present study chooses Li Sao,one of the representatives of traditional Chinese Chu culture,as the research subject.Through establishing two small monolingual corpora,a comparative analysis of Yang Xianyi’s translation and David Hawkes’translation was made from the perspective of translation universals on three levels,namely lexical level,syntactic level and textual level.The results show that two translations both reflect the translation universals to some extent,but Hawkes’translation is more consistent with the translation universals in comparison with Yang Xianyi’s on the whole.

A Corpus-based Analysis of Keywords in Chinese Government Work Reports and State of the Union from the Perspective of Political Linguistics

This study compared and analyzed the features of keywords and their collocations in corpora:Chinese Government Work Reports and State of the Union(USA).A further comparison and analysis of the collocations of“develop”and“improve”was then conducted from the perspective of political linguistics.Results suggested that China and the United States have their own emphasis of government work.It was also indicated that“we”and“will”are both high-frequency keywords and combinations of“develop”and“improve”,which shows that both countries give the highest priority to narrowing the distance between the government and the public.

A Corpus-based Comparative Study of the Semantic Collocations of English and Chinese THROW Verbs

A verb plays an vital role in a sentence, therefore the study of this perspective attracts numerous scholars. Particularly, corpus-based study has increasing attention in recent years. The present study chooses the THROW verbs in both English and Chi?nese as the subject. The author applies"collocated"function or"pattern query"in two corpus, then analyzes the distinctions of the semantic collocation of the THROW verbs. The findings show that although these verbs belong to the same categorization in a limit?ed range of the specific histories and cultures, there is no one-to-one corresponding relation of these THROW verbs in translation across the two languages.

A Corpus-based Study on Differentiation of English Synonyms:“Conquer”“Overcome”and“Surmount”

Synonym differentiation has always been a difficulty in English learning. Traditionally, definitions and examples from dictionaries are taken to illustrate shades of differences between synonyms, which fails to provide a comprehensive description of these differences for students to differ synonyms. However, with the large volume, authentic materials, fast and convenient retrieval provided by corpus, the corpus-based synonym differentiation method can make a comprehensive description of synonyms in terms of their distinctive features in frequency distribution, collocation, colligation and semantic prosody. A corpus-based method will be employed to analyze the differences among the three English synonyms"conquer""overcome"and"surmount"based on the data collected from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), so as to throw new light on synonym differentiation, offering a new way to study synonyms, and to provide references for lexical teaching and second language acquisition.

A Corpus-based Study of Colloquial Features in English Learners' Written Registers:Taking Quasi-modals as an Example

This article is a corpus-based study of colloquial features, especially quasi-modals in English learners’writings. Via using Longman Learners Corpus, British English 2006 and American English 2006, quasi-modals used in English language learners’ writings are compared with the real uses of quasi-modals in native speakers’ writings. The results show that English languagelearners may have a problem with misusing colloquial-feature phrases, quasi-modals, in written registers.

A Corpus-based Analysis of Noun-verb Collocation of Knowledge

Corpus-based analysis is adopted to study the acceptable noun-verb collocation of the word knowledge. Verbs like acquire, have etc. are found to be frequently collocate with knowledge, and the Chinese students' favorite patterns like learn knowledge, enlarge knowledge are not acceptable. The finding may encourage teachers to consider about the pedagogical value of corpus while teaching languages.

A Corpus-based Study on Writer/reader Visibility in English Writing by Chinese EFL Learners

Writer/reader(W/R) visibility is regarded as an important indicator of personal involvement. Previous studies concluded that EFL learners tend to contains more personal involvement than native speakers in their writing, making it resemble spoken language as a result. Therefore, this paper examines the degree of W/R visibility in English writing by university-level Chinese learners to verify the applicability of the previous findings on Chinese learners. Based on the data collected in the corpora CLEC,WECCL and LOCNESS, the results show that Chinese EFL learners have the tendency to employ more features of W/R visibility than native speakers, for example the high use of first or second person reference and words that represent mental process. Besides, the paper also reveals little distinction on W/R visibility between English and non-English majors, suggesting the inefficiency of the writing ability of today's English majors.

An analysis of Rem Koolhaas’s discourses on architecture and urban design using a corpus-based model

This paper explores the networks of thoughts behind words by reading architectural texts in the context of linguistics.Using a corpus-based model,our main interest is what the collocational data contribute at an architectural level.The notion of“collocation identification in architecture”was drawn from an analysis of the use of the data for Rem Koolhaas.The data for this study were collected from Rem Koolhaas’s articles from 1977 to 2014.An analysis of Koolhaas’s ideas about architecture and urban planning was conducted using the AntConc 3.4.4.0 corpus analysis toolkit.The corpus-based model reduced selected articles to words and lexical bundles using the corpus analysis toolkit.This paper explores Koolhaas’s thoughts on understanding architecture and the metaphors he uses by analyzing articles using the corpus-based analysis model.The discourse codes in the texts of Koolhaas are examined.A corpus-based model proposal tested on architectural texts has the potential to create new areas of knowledge for architectural discourse.Deciphering the texts and analyzing the codes contribute to the development of new models.

Lexical Collocations of “EAT” and “WEAR” in American English from 1800 to 2000:A Corpus-Based Study of Sociolinguistics Approach

Collocations transmit cultural and societal meanings and stereotypes which have built up over time;therefore,research of collocations,especially lexical collocations,provides particular insights into history.The present study examines verb-noun lexical collocations of'eat'and'wear'between 1800 and 2000 through three corpora:Corpus of Historical American English(COHA),Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA)and Google Books(American).Whilst exploring possible semantic changes in the use of these two verbs,the author seeks for the explanation of the alternative of old collocations and the appearance of new ones.It is found that there is not much fluctuation in the meaning of'eat'and'wear'after two centuries.Besides,it also reveals that social changes have had great impacts on language changes which can modify or create new collocations in the verbnoun lexical collocation of'eat'and 'wear'.By means of identifying the syntagmatic and paradigmatic properties of verb-noun lexical collocation of'eat'and 'wear',it is clearly shown that corpus has potential applications in translation studies,language teaching,and other scientific fields.

An Enhanced Automatic Arabic Essay Scoring System Based on Machine Learning Algorithms

Despite the extensive effort to improve intelligent educational tools for smart learning environments,automatic Arabic essay scoring remains a big research challenge.The nature of the writing style of the Arabic language makes the problem even more complicated.This study designs,implements,and evaluates an automatic Arabic essay scoring system.The proposed system starts with pre-processing the student answer and model answer dataset using data cleaning and natural language processing tasks.Then,it comprises two main components:the grading engine and the adaptive fusion engine.The grading engine employs string-based and corpus-based similarity algorithms separately.After that,the adaptive fusion engine aims to prepare students’scores to be delivered to different feature selection algorithms,such as Recursive Feature Elimination and Boruta.Then,some machine learning algorithms such as Decision Tree,Random Forest,Adaboost,Lasso,Bagging,and K-Nearest Neighbor are employed to improve the suggested system’s efficiency.The experimental results in the grading engine showed that Extracting DIStributionally similar words using the CO-occurrences similarity measure achieved the best correlation values.Furthermore,in the adaptive fusion engine,the Random Forest algorithm outperforms all other machine learning algorithms using the(80%–20%)splitting method on the original dataset.It achieves 91.30%,94.20%,0.023,0.106,and 0.153 in terms of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient,Willmot’s Index of Agreement,Mean Square Error,Mean Absolute Error,and Root Mean Square Error metrics,respectively.

Learning Vocabulary in Chinese Intensive Reading Classroom

Drawing on the innovations in current Chinese EFL context, the last decade has witnessed much progress in the filed of vocabulary teaching and learning. Driven by the computer- based teaching mode, more vocabulary learning strategies were promoted to meet demand in the college syllabus. Vocabulary learning has entered a new era. The use, rather than the knowledge of the vocabulary, is highlighted. The aim of vocabulary learning has changed from the enlargement of vocabulary size to the productive use of the vocabulary, which is stressed in the new college syllabus issued in 2007.

Study on the Usage Patterns of Linking Adverbials in Chinese EFL Learn⁃ ers’Writings

This research is a corpus-based study on the usage patterns of linking adverbials(LA)by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels,thus shedding light on problems facing students and analyzing underlying causes based on second language acquisition theories.Results show that Chinese high school students show a lack of richness in using LA,while Chinese undergraduates tend to overuse LA in an attempt to reach a superficial coherence.And in general,Chinese EFL learners have problems of overusing listing LA and underusing contrastive LA compared with their English native counterparts.

A Case Study on Chinese Light Verbs “Nong” and “Gao” in Semantic Prosody

This study focuses on the semantic prosody of Chinese light verbs"Nong"and"Gao". Although both of them have thesame grammatical function as light verbs, they are distributed differently in contexts. The current study proposes that"Nong"and"Gao"are different in semantic prosody, in which the former tend to appear in negative constructions while the later denotes posi-tive meaning. This paper is going to contrast the their performances by corpus searching.