This work consists of an investigation into the properties of unknown words in HPSG, and in particular into the phenomenon of multi-word unknown expressions consisting of multiple unknown words in a sequence. The work presented consists first of a study determining the relative frequency of multi-word unknown expressions, and then a survey of the efficacy of a variety of techniques for handling these expressions. The techniques presented consist of modified versions of techniques from the existing unknown-word prediction literature as well as novel techniques, and they are evaluated with a specific concern for how they fare in the context of sentences with many unknown words and long unknown sequences. / text

Negatively biased facial affect discernment may prompt socially inhibited behavior. Characterizing normative patterns of facial affect discernment across emotions and expression intensity during middle childhood will help to identify subtle, yet meaningful, deviations that may emerge for individuals and potentially negatively impact their social behavior. Facial affect discernment for happy, sad, and angry expressions across low, medium, and high intensities and parent-reported socially inhibited behavior were measured in this study in a sample of 7-10 year-old children (N = 80; 53% female). Discernment accuracy improved with increased expression intensity for all emotions. Specifically, we found a quartic effect for the association between intensity and accuracy for anger and negative quadratics effects with decelerating positive rates of changes for associations between intensity and accuracy for happiness and intensity and accuracy for sadness. Additionally, discernment accuracy for happiness was generally better than for sadness and anger; discernment accuracy for anger was generally better than for sadness. However, at low intensity, discernment accuracy for sadness was comparable to accuracy for happiness but better than for anger. Neither misidentification of neutral and low intensity faces as negative nor discernment accuracy of happiness at low intensity was significantly associated with socially inhibited behaviors. Although accurate discernment of anger and sadness at low intensity was not significantly related to socially inhibited behavior, better discernment accuracy of anger and sadness at medium intensity was significantly related to more socially inhibited behavior. Overall, these results enhance understanding of normative facial affect discernment and its relation to maladaptive social behaviors in middle childhood, a developmental stage at which intervention efforts may prove effective at heading off detrimental outcomes associated with socially inhibited behavior such as loneliness, low self-esteem, peer victimization, social anxiety, and depression that increase in late childhood and adolescence.

The objectives of this paper are twofold: the first is to illustrate the potential of the World Wide Web as a new or complementary resource for researching various linguistic phenomena, while the second objective is to apply the idea of the “Web as corpus” to a concrete example – in this case, the study of lexical variation in French idiomatic expressions. The first part of this paper examines the idea of using the World Wide Web as an exploitable corpus for linguistic research and provides an overview of related theoretical and practical issues. The major advantages and drawbacks of using the Web as a linguistic corpus are surveyed. Two different approaches to using the Web for corpus linguistics are also described. The latter half of the paper presents results of a small-scale study conducted to investigate lexical variation in seven selected French idiomatic expressions. An online concordancing tool called WebCorp is used to search the Web and generate concordances for analysis. The theory behind the notions of lexical frozenness and variation are also briefly discussed.

No description available.

Background Suicidal behaviour among young people is one of the major public health problems in low-income countries; it is estimated that every year 70,000 young people take their lives and maybe 40 times as many attempt suicide. Nicaragua has the highest suicide rate among young people of all Latin and Central American countries. This thesis aims at examining: (1) suicidal expressions and their determinants among school adolescents in Nicaragua, (2) cross-cultural aspects on suicidal expressions comparing Nicaragua and Cambodia, (3) pathways to suicide attempts among young men, and (4) primary health care professionals’ perceptions of suicidal behaviour and mental health problems among young people. Method Paper I is a cross-sectional study of 368 school adolescents in Nicaragua using self-report instruments (Youth Self Report and Attitudes Towards Suicide). Paper II compares data from Paper I with corresponding data from a study of 316 adolescents in Cambodia using the same methodology. Paper III is a qualitative study based on interviews with 12 young men who have recently attempted suicide. Paper IV is a qualitative study with 12 primary health care professionals. Results Paper I: Among adolescents, suicide ideation during recent year was reported by 22.6%, suicide plans 10.3%, and suicide attempts 6.5%. Girls were significantly more likely to report suicidal ideation. Multivariate analyses showed that anxious/depressed syndrome (YSR), somatic complaints syndrome (YSR) and exposure to attempted or completed suicide in significant others were significantly associated with their own serious suicidal expressions. Paper II: There was no significant difference in serious suicidal expressions (plans and attempts) between countries, but milder suicidal expressions during past year were more common among Nicaraguan young people. Overall, mental health problems were more commonly reported in Cambodia, where adolescents scored significantly higher on almost all YSR-syndromes as compared to Nicaraguan adolescents, except for withdrawn/depressed syndrome among boys. The pattern of association between mental health problems and suicide plans/attempts differed between countries. In Nicaragua, all eight YSR-syndromes were significantly associated with serious suicidal expressions for both genders compared to only one syndrome among girls and two syndromes among boys in Cambodia. Paper III: A model of the pathways leading to suicide attempts among young men was constructed based on the informants’ experiences. Structural conditions such as poverty or single-headed families, along with normative expectations within a framework of hegemonic masculinity, were all involved to create a sense of failure and an inability to cope. Subsequent increased drinking and drug abuse as well as exposure to attempted and completed suicide among friends and family acted as triggers to their own suicide attempt. Paper IV: Primary health care professionals felt themselves that they lacked knowledge and competence when approached by young people with mental health problems. Misconceptions were common. They felt frustrated which made them either ignore signs of mental health problems or reject help-seeking young people. In practice, a common response from health care professionals was to refer the patient over to someone else, the “hot potato” strategy. Conclusions The prevalence of serious suicidal expressions among young people in Nicaragua is within the range reported from Western high-income countries. Health care professionals need to be aware that somatic complaints as such are related to an increased risk of serious suicidal behaviour among young people, and that those who have been exposed to the attempted or completed suicide of someone close are at increased risk of serious suicidal expressions also when there are no warning signs in terms of mental distress. The cross-cultural comparison lends support to the notion that both cultural specificity and universality characterize serious suicidal expressions, as suggested by several researchers. Whereas prevalence shows less variation between cultures, associated factors might behave differently as shown in the present study, calling for different preventive approaches. The interviews with young men who had attempted suicide tell us that not only difficult socio-economic conditions but also the normative expectations on young men need to be addressed to decrease their risk of suicide. Health care professionals need to be alerted that sometimes serious mental health problems are hidden behind help-seeking for more trivial reasons. There is a necessity of a more integral approach towards mental health problems in PHC, including integral training of staff. The continued involvement of the community, family and other institutions would be essential to develop the care further.

Recent evidence has shown that our emotional facial expressions evolved to functionally benefit the expression’s sender, in particular fear increasing and disgust decreasing sensory acquisition. Using schematic eyes only that lack emotional content, but taken from actual participant fear and disgust expressions, we examined the functional action resonance hypothesis that adaptive benefits are also conferred to the expression’s receiver. Participants’ eye gaze discrimination was enhanced when viewing wider, “fear” eyes versus narrower, “disgust” eyes (Experiment 1). Using a gaze cuing paradigm, task facilitation by way of faster responses to target was found when viewing wider versus narrower eyes (Experiment 2). Contrary to our hypothesis, a null attention modulation for wider versus narrower eyes was found (Experiments 2 and 3). Nonetheless, the evidence is argued for the functional action resonance hypothesis.

Recent evidence has shown that our emotional facial expressions evolved to functionally benefit the expression’s sender, in particular fear increasing and disgust decreasing sensory acquisition. Using schematic eyes only that lack emotional content, but taken from actual participant fear and disgust expressions, we examined the functional action resonance hypothesis that adaptive benefits are also conferred to the expression’s receiver. Participants’ eye gaze discrimination was enhanced when viewing wider, “fear” eyes versus narrower, “disgust” eyes (Experiment 1). Using a gaze cuing paradigm, task facilitation by way of faster responses to target was found when viewing wider versus narrower eyes (Experiment 2). Contrary to our hypothesis, a null attention modulation for wider versus narrower eyes was found (Experiments 2 and 3). Nonetheless, the evidence is argued for the functional action resonance hypothesis.

Research in cultural psychology suggests that East Asians are more likely than North Americans to be sensitive to contextual information. By contrast, much evidence suggests that even North Americans judgments are influenced by affective priming information, the effect of which can be seen as another type of contextual cue. However, the magnitude of such priming effect has not been tested in a cross-cultural context. Using the methodology of the affective priming paradigm, we conducted two studies, in which we manipulated (a) the timing of priming information (simultaneous vs. sequential) and (b) the type of affective information (background landscape vs. background human figures), in which European Canadians and Japanese judged either happy or sad facial expressions in the focal area of the scene. The results indicate that the two cultural groups are similar when contextual information is salient, but only Japanese remain sensitive to context with subtle cues.

The objectives of this paper are twofold: the first is to illustrate the potential of the World Wide Web as a new or complementary resource for researching various linguistic phenomena, while the second objective is to apply the idea of the “Web as corpus” to a concrete example – in this case, the study of lexical variation in French idiomatic expressions. The first part of this paper examines the idea of using the World Wide Web as an exploitable corpus for linguistic research and provides an overview of related theoretical and practical issues. The major advantages and drawbacks of using the Web as a linguistic corpus are surveyed. Two different approaches to using the Web for corpus linguistics are also described. The latter half of the paper presents results of a small-scale study conducted to investigate lexical variation in seven selected French idiomatic expressions. An online concordancing tool called WebCorp is used to search the Web and generate concordances for analysis. The theory behind the notions of lexical frozenness and variation are also briefly discussed.

Cette recherche a pour objectif d'étudier le développement des capacités en langage, en théorie de l'esprit et en reconnaissance des émotions dans le syndrome de Williams (SW). Ce syndrome est un trouble génétique rare. Le SW se caractérise par un profil sociocognitif particulier associé à une déficience intellectuelle légère à modérée (Bellugi, Marks, Bihrle, & Sabo, 1988 ; Mervis & Bertrand, 1999). Le profil hypersocial caractéristique des personnes avec SW, en particulier leur attrait pour les visages et leur volonté d'interagir avec autrui, pourrait impacter la mise en place de leurs habiletés sociales et langagières. Ces différentes capacités ont été évaluées via 4 expériences chez un même groupe de 16 participants avec SW. Leurs performances ont été comparées à celles de 16 participants avec syndrome de Down, de 16 enfants typiques de même âge verbal et de 16 enfants typiques de même niveau de raisonnement non-verbal. À partir d'une approche d'appariement et de trajectoires développementales, l'analyse des résultats met en avant des compétences non préservées pour le groupe SW. Le lien entre langage et théorie de l'esprit dans le SW semble similaire à celui existant dans le développement typique. Toutefois, les comparaisons intersyndromiques révèlent des spécificités au niveau du profil sociocognitif du SW, notamment la production excessive d'évaluations sociales et leur bonne capacité à attribuer des émotions. Le comportement hypersociable et la facilité d'interaction des personnes avec SW semblent contribuer à surestimer leurs compétences sociocognitives et globales / This research aims to study the development of language, theory of mind and emotion recognition in Williams syndrome (WS). This syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origins. The WS is characterized by a specific sociocognitive profile including mild to moderate intellectual disability (Bellugi, Marks, Bihrle, & Sabo, 1988 ; Mervis & Bertrand, 1999). The distinctive hypersocial phenotype of people with SW, in particular their attractiveness to the faces and their willingness to interact with others, may affect the development of their social and language skills. These different abilities were evaluated by 4 experiments with the same group of 16 participants with SW. Their performance was compared with that of 16 participants with Down syndrome, that of 16 typical children who were matched for verbal age and that of 16 typical children who were matched for non-verbal reasoning. Using a matching approach and developmental trajectories, the analysis of the results point out impaired skills for the WS group. The link between language and theory of mind in the SW seems similar to that existing in typical development. However, cross-syndrome comparisons reveal specificities in the socio-cognitive profile of WS, especially the excessive production of social engagement devices and their good ability to attribute emotions. The hypersocial behavior and ease of interaction of people with WS seem to contribute to overestimating their sociocognitive and global skills