The study of semantics in the brain explores how the brain represents, processes, and learns the meaning of language. In this thesis we show both that semantic representations can be decoded from electroencephalography data, and that we can detect the emergence of semantic representations as participants learn an artificial language mapping. We collected electroencephalography data while participants performed a reinforcement learning task that simulates learning an artificial language, and then developed a machine learning semantic representation model to predict semantics as a word-to-symbol mapping was learned. Our results show that 1) we can detect a reward positivity when participants correctly identify a symbol's meaning; 2) the reward positivity diminishes for subsequent correct trials; 3) we can detect neural correlates of the semantic mapping as it is formed; and 4) the localization of the neural representations is heavily distributed. Our work shows that language learning can be monitored using EEG, and that the semantics of even newly-learned word mappings can be detected using EEG. / Graduate

Cette thèse traite dela mise en correspondance de séquences appliquée au word spotting (localisation de motsclés dans des images de documents sans en interpréter le contenu). De nombreux algorithmes existent mais très peu d’entre eux ont été évalués dans ce contexte. Nous commençons donc par une étude comparative de ces méthodes sur plusieurs bases d’images de documents historiques. Nous proposons ensuite un nouvel algorithme réunissant la plupart des possibilités offertes séparément dans les autres algorithmes. Ainsi, le FSM (Flexible Sequence Matching) permet de réaliser des correspondances multiples sans considérer des éléments bruités dans la séquence cible, qu’ils se situent au début, à la fin ou bien au coeur de la correspondance. Nous étendons ensuite ces possibilités à la séquence requête en définissant un nouvel algorithme (ESC : Examplary Sequence Cardinality). Finalement, nous proposons une méthode d’appariement alternative utilisant une mise en correspondance inexacte de chaines de codes (shape code) décrivant les mots. / This thesis deals with sequence matching techniques, applied to word spotting (locating keywords in document images without interpreting the content). Several sequence matching techniques exist in the literature but very few of them have been evaluated in the context of word spotting. This thesis begins by a comparative study of these methods for word spotting on several datasets of historical images. After analyzing these approaches, we then propose a new algorithm, called as Flexible Sequence Matching (FSM) which combines most of the advantages offered separately by several other previously explored sequence matching algorithms. Thus, FSM is able to skip outliers from target sequence, which can be present at the beginning, at the end or in the middle of the target sequence. Moreover it can perform one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-one correspondences between query and target sequence without considering noisy elements in the target sequence. We then also extend these characteristics to the query sequence by defining a new algorithm (ESC : Examplary Sequence Cardinality). Finally, we propose an alternative word matching technique by using an inexact chain codes (shape code), describing the words.

No description available.

Les mots sturmiens sont une façon de coder les droites discrètes apériodiques. Ils ont été étudiés depuis la fin du 19ème siècle et disposent de nombreuses caractérisations. L'une d'elles, obtenue par Vuillon, est centrée sur la notion de mot de retour.Cette thèse a pour objet l'étude des mots sturmiens en dimension 2 vus comme codages des plans discrets apériodiques. L'objectif est d'aller vers une caractérisation des mots sturmiens bi-dimensionnels analogue à celle obtenue par Vuillon en dimension 1.Mais des problèmes propres à la dimension 2 rendent cette étude délicate, tels l'absence de concaténation de mots ou la difficulté à localiser un facteur au sein d'un mot. Afin d'y faire face, nous introduisons en dimension 2 les notions de motifs, motifs pointés, mots de localisation et mots de retour. Nous obtenons ainsi un prolongement à la dimension 2 d'un théorème de Morse et Hedlund concernant certains mots de retour dans un mot sturmien.Ce résultat nous permet d'établir un nouvel algorithme de fractions continues et nous permet de proposer, dans un cadre restreint, une notion de suite dérivée. / Sturmian words are a way to encode aperiodic discrete lines. They have been studied since the end of the 19th century and can be characterized in many ways. One of these characterizations, obtained by Vuillon, centers around the notion of return words.This thesis aims to study 2-dimensional Sturmian words as encodings of aperiodic discrete planes. It is a first step towards a characterization of 2-dimensional Sturmian words analogous to that of Vuillon in dimension 1.However, concerns specific to dimension 2, such as the impossibility to concatenate words or the difficulty to locate a factor inside a word make the study much trickier. To tackle this, we introduce in dimension 2 notions of patterns, pointed patterns, localization words and return words.We obtain a 2-dimensional version of a theorem of Morse and Hedlund concerning certain return words in a Sturmian word. This result enables us to establish a new continued-fractions algorithm and to introduce, in a restricted setting, a notion of derived sequence.

The thesis deals with questions of word class and word-forming subject matter in the school teaching of the Czech language at the infant school. It focuses on both course books analysis of three various publishers from the monitored thematic point of view and insight into class practice of the current school. The theoretical part of the thesis specializes in questions from the scientific point of view, the formal part solves problems of existing subject matter at the infant school and gives analysis of the course books of the Czech language for the infant school. The principal of the thesis is a research of knowledge associated with classifying of word class in both 5th and 6th class of the basic school.

This Diploma Thesis (=DT) deals with processes of word-formation which bring about surnames in the English and Czech languages. On the basis of the analysis of the particular amount of surnames it aims to assess, which word-formation processes come into the creation of surnames. The DT is divided in two parts {--} theoretical and practical - and it is completed by the conclusion. The theoretical part investigates and compiles the subjects of word-formation and processes of word-formation in both languages, describes the origin of English and Czech surnames and evokes the subject of the processes of word-formation that come into the creation of surnames in English and Czech. The practical part is based on the analysis of the surnames that were chosen from the Prague and London telephone book by arrangement with the tutor of the DT. In the final part the author presents the conclusions of the research.

A mudança de classe gramatical consiste na criação de uma unidade lexical em uma classe gramatical diferente da classe da base. Para efetuar essa criação, os falantes dispõem de diversos mecanismos, como a derivação sufixal (com diversos sufixos), a derivação parassintética, a derivação regressiva e a conversão. Nosso objetivo, no presente trabalho, é o de descrever tais mecanismos, procurando compreender por que motivo(s) os falantes criam novas unidades lexicais em classes gramaticais diferentes. Buscando a fundamentação teórica da Linguística Cognitiva, procuramos dividir nossa análise em duas perspectivas: a perspectiva onomasiológica, em que analisamos os mecanismos de criação lexical, e a perspectiva semasiológica, em que analisamos os mecanismos de interpretação de uma nova unidade lexical. Seguindo as ideias da Linguística Cognitiva, entendemos que as classes gramaticais devem ser consideradas categorias semânticas, e a mudança de classe, um processo de natureza basicamente semântica. Considerando apenas as classes gramaticais de natureza lexical, os seis tipos de mudança de classe possíveis em português são: adjetivo para substantivo, verbo para substantivo, substantivo para adjetivo, verbo para adjetivo, substantivo para verbo e adjetivo para verbo. Dessa forma, separamos 1.209 neologismos resultantes de mudança de classe gramatical integrantes da Base de neologismos do português brasileiro contemporâneo (que faz parte do Projeto TermNeo Observatório de Neologismos do Português Brasileiro Contemporâneo) e os classificamos em cada um dos seis tipos de mudança de classe. Para cada um dos tipos, analisamos onomasiologicamente os mecanismos de criação e, semasiologicamente, os mecanismos de interpretação desses neologismos. A derivação sufixal é o mecanismo mais empregado, com inúmeros sufixos produtivos no português contemporâneo, muitos deles polissêmicos; no entanto, a derivação parassintética na formação de verbos e a derivação regressiva na formação de substantivos abstratos também são mecanismos produtivos. Há alguns casos importantes de concorrência entre sufixos, como -ice e -(i)dade na mudança de adjetivo para substantivo e -ção e -mento na mudança de verbo para substantivo. Na análise da interpretação dos neologismos, a metonímia revelou-se um processo importante em quase todos os tipos de mudança de classe. Por fim, as análises parecem indicar que os falantes operam a mudança de classe gramatical com a finalidade de exprimir novos conceitos, não apenas por razões meramente morfossintáticas. / Word class change consists on the creation of a lexical unit in a word class different from the bases class. In order to do this, speakers have at their disposal many mechanisms, like suffixal derivation (with many different suffixes), parasynthetic derivation, regressive derivation and conversion. Our goal, in this study, is to describe such mechanisms, trying to figure out why speakers create new lexical units in different word classes. With the theoretical foundations of Cognitive Linguistics, we divide our analysis in two perspectives: the onomasiological perspective, in which we analyse the mechanisms of lexical creation, and the semasiological perspective, in which we analyse the mechanisms of interpretation of a new lexical unit. According to Cognitive Linguistics, we understand that word classes must be considered semantic categories, and word class change, a basically semantic process. Considering only the lexical word classes, the six possible types of word class change in Portuguese are: adjective to noun, verb to noun, noun to adjective, verb to adjective, noun to verb and adjective to verb. Therefore, we collected 1,209 neologisms resulting from a word class change process from the Base de neologismos do português brasileiro contemporâneo (Contemporary Brazilian Portuguese neologism database - part of Project TermNeo Contemporary Brazilian Portuguese Neologism Observer) and classified them into the six types of word class change. For each one of these types, we analysed onomasiologically the creation mechanisms and, semasiologically, the interpretation mechanisms of these neologisms. Suffixal derivation is the most employed mechanism, with many suffixes which are productive in contemporary Portuguese, many of them polysemic; however, parasynthetic derivation in verb creation and regressive derivation in the formation of abstract nouns are also productive mechanisms. There are some important cases of suffix competition, like -ice and -(i)dade in the change from adjective to noun and -ção and -mento in the change from verb to noun. In analyzing neologism interpretation, metonymy revealed itself an important process in almost all types of word class change. Finally, the analyses seem to show that speakers change word class in order to express new concepts, and not only for merely morphosyntactic reasons.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of specialized skill instruction on the ability of sixth-grade students to solve mathematics word problems. Subjects were 578 sixth graders from eight elementary schools. Researcher-developed materials were used based on seven identified content strands. Specific sections of a widely used achievement test were used to identify ability groups in both reading and mathematics and served as the pretest and posttest measures.

As the amount of information increase, the need for automatic textsimplication also increase. There are some strategies for doing thatand this thesis has studied two basic synonym replacement strategies.The rst one is called word length and is about always choosinga shorter synonym if it is possible. The second one is called wordfrequency and is about always choosing a more frequent synonym if itis possible. Three dierent versions of them were tried. The rst onewas about just choosing the shortest or most frequent synonym. Thesecond was about only choosing a synonym if it was extremely shorteror more frequent. The last was about only choosing a synonym if itmet the requirements for being replaced and was on synonym level 5.Statistical analysis of the data revealed no signicant dierence. Butsmall trends showed that always choosing a more frequent synonymthat is of level 5 seemed to make the text a bit easier.

Bakgrund: Vid etableringen av sociala medier utvecklades ett nytt begrepp nämnt eWOM (elektronisk Word-of-Mouth). eWOM handlar om hur konsumenter sprider sina åsikter och ger respons om företag på sociala medier och internet. Det tidigare forskning har bekräftat är att företag vill anstränga sig för att kunna hantera konsumenternas åsikter och respons, däremot visar inte forskning hur företag ska hantera konsekvenserna och påverkan av detn eWOM som konsumenter sprider på sociala medier. Tidigare forskning har kommit fram till att företag inte insett fördelarna som arbeta eWOM kan bidra med. Utifrån den här bakgrunden undersöks våra problemformuleringar.   Syfte: Syftet med det här examensarbetet är att ge en fördjupad kunskap och förståelse om företag inom livsmedelsbranschen påverkas av eWOM och hur de kan hantera konsekvenserna och påverkan av den eWOM som konsumenter sprider på sociala medier. Metod: Examensarbetets empiriska material samlades in genom intervjuer. För att samla det empiriska material genomfördes tio stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med representanter från livsmedelsbutiker runt om Västra Götalands län. Slutsats: Examensarbetet har påvisat att livsmedelsbutiker påverkas av den eWOM som konsumenter sprider på sociala medier. De påverkas positivt i form av bättre kommunikation och effektivitet genom att arbeta med den här typen av kommunikation. Undersökningen belyser att livsmedelsbutiker främst behöver arbeta med att ständigt övervaka de sociala medier som konsumenterna befinner sig på, för att kunna hantera konsekvenserna och påverkan av eWOM. Det här bör livsmedelsbutiker göra för att direkt kunna ge svar och för att återställa eventuella misstag de har gjort. Nyckelord: Sociala medier, Word-of-Mouth, electronic Word-of-Mouth, motivationsteori, påverkan och konsekvenser av eWOM. / Background: In connection with the development of the information communication technology in general and social media in particular, a new concept electronic Word-ofMouth (eWOM) is introduced. eWOM deals with how consumers spread their opinions and responses about companies on social media and the internet. Previous research has confirmed that companies do work hard to manage consumers’ response. However, research does not show how companies deal with the consequences and the impact that consumers spread on social media through eWOM. Earlier research also claims that companies do not realize the benefits that eWOM can contribute. Based on this bakground our problems are investigated. Purpose: The aim of this study is to provide a deeper knowledge and understanding if grocery stores are affected by eWOM and how they can handle the consequences and the impact of the eWOM as consumers spread on social media.  Method: The empirical material of the study was collected through interviews. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with representatives from grocery stores around Västra Götaland. Conclusion: The study has shown that grocery stores are affected by the eWOM that consumers spread on social media. They are affected in ways such as working with this type of communication it is providing benefits such as better customer communication and efficiency. The study shows that grocery stores mainly need to deal with the consequences and the impacts of eWOM are to constantly monitor the social media consumers are on. This should be done by grocery stores to correct and to provide immediate answers to recover any mistakes they made. Keywords: Social media, Word-of-Mouth (WOM), electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), motivations theory, impact and consequences of eWOM.