Effects of Topic Structure and Syntax on Boundary Pitch Variations

This paper reported an acoustic experiment examining the effect of topic structure and syntax on boundary pitch parameters. Simple discourses containing three sentences were constructed and the boundary between the first sentence and the second sentence of each discourse varied along the following parameters： （1） topic internal, clause; （2） topic shift, clause; （3） topic internal, sentence; and （4） topic shift, sentence. Seven native speakers of Standard Chinese read the short discourses aloud. The offset f0, f0 Max, and f0 Min of the first sentence and the onset f0, f0 Max, and f0 Min of the second sentence were measured. It was found that relative to topic internal condition, topic shift condition induced higher onset f0 following the boundary. Moreover, this higher onset f0 was caused by the raising of both f0 max and f0 min, suggesting pitch register raising rather than pitch range expansion following the boundary. Syntactic structure as index by clause or sentence was found to have no effect on boundary pitch parameters. These results provide strong evidence for a role of topic strucutre in speech production

The Topic Structure of Small Clauses

To comprehend the syntax and semantics of small clauses(SCs)requires comprehending their topic structure.With bare infinitival complements,the subject of the SC is not the topic,which is in comparison with adjectival SCs,where the subject must be a topic.By comparing raising verbs with adjectival SC complements and raising verbs with infinitival complements,it is quite clear that the differences in the syntax and semantics of such constructions are related to whether or not the subject of the embedded clause must be a topic.Adjectival SCs have individuals as topics,while verbal SCs have events or stages.Because the subject of the adjectival SC is a topic,it can move into the matrix clause under passivization.The subject of a verbal SC is not a topic;this explains why it cannot move into the matrix under passivization.

A Structural Topic Model for Exploring User Satisfaction with Mobile Payments

This study explored user satisfaction with mobile payments by applying a novel structural topic model.Specifically,we collected 17,927 online reviews of a specific mobile payment(i.e.,PayPal).Then,we employed a structural topic model to investigate the relationship between the attributes extracted from online reviews and user satisfaction with mobile payment.Consequently,we discovered that“lack of reliability”and“poor customer service”tend to appear in negative reviews.Whereas,the terms“convenience,”“user-friendly interface,”“simple process,”and“secure system”tend to appear in positive reviews.On the basis of information system success theory,we categorized the topics“convenience,”“user-friendly interface,”and“simple process,”as system quality.In addition,“poor customer service”was categorized as service quality.Furthermore,based on the previous studies of trust and security,“lack of reliability”and“secure system”were categorized as trust and security,respectively.These outcomes indicate that users are satisfied when they perceive that system quality and security of specific mobile payments are great.On the contrary,users are dissatisfied when they feel that service quality and reliability of specific mobile payments is lacking.Overall,our research implies that a novel structural topic model is an effective method to explore mobile payment user experience.

Towards a Semantic Explanation for the(Un)acceptability of(Apparent) Recursive Complex Noun Phrases and Corresponding Topical Structures

This paper presents a semantic explanation for the acceptability-unacceptability contrast between complex noun phrases(NPs) with apparently similar syntax. It also tries to present a corresponding semantic explanation for the acceptability-unacceptability contrast between corresponding topical structures with apparently similar syntax. After showing that the complex NPs must be licensed by the characterization condition and the topical structures must be licensed by the aboutness condition, the paper analyzes the semantic identification of restrictives from nonrestrictives. This is closely related to the(dis)satisfaction of the characterization condition and therefore the(un)acceptability of(apparent) recursive complex NPs, as well as the(dis)satisfaction of the aboutness condition and therefore the(un)acceptability of corresponding topical structures in both English and Chinese.

A bibliometric analysis using machine learning to track paradigm shifts and analytical advances in forest ecology and forestry journal publications from 2010 to 2022

Forest habitats are critical for biodiversity,ecosystem services,human livelihoods,and well-being.Capacity to conduct theoretical and applied forest ecology research addressing direct(e.g.,deforestation)and indirect(e.g.,climate change)anthropogenic pressures has benefited considerably from new field-and statistical-techniques.We used machine learning and bibliometric structural topic modelling to identify 20 latent topics comprising four principal fields from a corpus of 16,952 forest ecology/forestry articles published in eight ecology and five forestry journals between 2010 and 2022.Articles published per year increased from 820 in 2010 to 2,354 in 2021,shifting toward more applied topics.Publications from China and some countries in North America and Europe dominated,with relatively fewer articles from some countries in West and Central Africa and West Asia,despite globally important forest resources.Most study sites were in some countries in North America,Central Asia,and South America,and Australia.Articles utilizing R statistical software predominated,increasing from 29.5%in 2010 to 71.4%in 2022.The most frequently used packages included lme4,vegan,nlme,MuMIn,ggplot2,car,MASS,mgcv,multcomp and raster.R was more often used in forest ecology than applied forestry articles.R software offers advantages in script and workflow-sharing compared to other statistical packages.Our findings demonstrate that the disciplines of forest ecology/forestry are expanding both in number and scope,aided by more sophisticated statistical tools,to tackle the challenges of redressing forest habitat loss and the socio-economic impacts of deforestation.