During the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in social media usage has elevated interestin sentiment analysis, especially for health-related applications. This bachelor thesisexplores the effectiveness of two lexicon-based sentiment analysis techniques, with afocus on enhancing the accuracy of the Valence Aware Dictionary for SentimentReasoning (VADER) algorithm. This bachelor's thesis delves into two lexicon-basedsentiment analysis methods, primarily aiming to enhance the accuracy of the ValenceAware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning (VADER) algorithm. By assessing 5000manually labeled COVID-19-related tweets across four dataset versions, we gauge therelative effectiveness of these methods. The focus lies on understanding the rolepreprocessing techniques play in sentiment analysis and refining the VADER algorithm.The insights drawn can inform the design of more effective public health policies andcommunication approaches by capturing more accurately public sentiment expressed intweets. In health contexts like COVID-19, it's vital to gauge public sentiment, whichhelps identify and manage psychological distress, anxiety, and fear. Through thissentiment exploration, healthcare providers can offer comprehensive care and improvesupport systems and mechanisms during global health crises like COVID-19.

Abstract  The aim of the study is to investigate how the dialect in Ljungby has changed over the last 60 years. This comparative study is based on recordings of two male informants. The first recording was made around 1944 and the second one in 2006. The focus is on lexicon, grammar, syntax and pronunciation.  The study is based on the assumption that dialectal features have decreased and that the language is closer to standard Swedish now than it was 60 years ago. The results of the study show that:  Dialect words and dialectal grammar have decreased.  The dialectal grammar used today is spread over larger geographical areas than before.  The pronunciation is now closer to standard Swedish than it was, regarding both vowels and consonants.  The use of diphthongs has increased.  There are many different reasons for the dialectal decrease, such as improved education, change of social structure and the effect of mass media. It is probably a combination of factors that has led to this result.

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[pt] A presente pesquisa identifica e analisa o significado de 25 colocações com cores. As colocações com cores apresentam diferentes significados conforme sejam utilizadas literal ou metaforicamente; este último uso, em particular, pode diferir de forma acentuada em diferentes culturas; para sua compreensão, portanto, torna-se imprescindível considerar o contexto de uso. Avaliando as pistas cotextuais e contextuais que tornam seu sentido metafórico ou não, são analisadas colocações de estrutura substantivo mais adjetivo de cor, e as cores elencadas são amarelo, vermelho, azul, verde, preto e branco. A análise lança mão de pressupostos teóricos do interculturalismo, do funcionalismo e da lexicultura, a fim de se demonstrar que os aspectos semânticos das metáforas de cor podem revelar características culturais do Brasil. Foram coletadas, analisadas e interpretadas cinquenta ocorrências de cada colocação no Brazilian Portuguese Corpus, propondo-se para cada colocação uma fórmula descritiva que inclui: estrutura, ocorrências encontradas, ocorrências consideradas, ocorrências não metafóricas, e metáfora conceitual. Os resultados revelam que o significado literal do substantivo tende a se manter enquanto as cores perdem seu sentido primário, sofrendo um processo de deslexicalização. Além disso, o cotexto e o contexto demonstram-se fundamentais para a construção e interpretação semântica da colocação metafórica. / [en] This research identifies and analyses the meaning of 25 collocations with color words. Collocations with color words show different meanings, depending on whether its usage is literal or metaphorical. Each culture interprets colors differently, what influences the metaphorical meanings, then, to comprehend them it becomes necessary to considering the communicative context. Evaluating the cotext and the context clues that make their meaning metaphorical or not, analyzed collocations formed by noun plus color adjective have been analyzed. The chosen colors are black, white, yellow, red, blue, green, and purple. The analysis is based on the theoretical concepts of Interculturalism, Functionalism, and Lexicogrammar so as to demonstrate that the semantic aspects of color metaphors can reveal cultural characteristics of Brazil. In order to carry out the study, fifty occurrences of each collocation, retrieved from the Brazilian Portuguese Corpus, are collected, analyzed and interpreted. A descriptive formula for each collocation is then proposed, including structure, found occurrences, considered occurrences, non-metaphorical occurrences, and conceptual metaphor. The results have shown that, in most cases, the literal meaning of the noun is maintained, and the color word suffers delexicalization, losing its literal meaning. Also, the cotext and the context are essential for the semantic interpretation of the metaphor collocation.

Anthropologists claim that people in a variety of human societies differ enormously in how they experience, express and understand emotion (Kalat & Shiota, 2007). Research on emotions, around the world, has become increasingly popular during the past few decades. Emotion is involved in the mainstream of topics in psychology, be it about antecedents, emotional expressions and responses, or about the dimensions underlying the large emotion lexicon (Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O’Connor, 1987). While the study of emotion is of universal interest, emotions are of special interest for South-Africa. By studying the emotion lexicon of the Setswana culture, an evidence-based intervention program could be implemented by the SAPS, which will be relevant and practical to address emotional needs and support for South African Police members to express their emotions more accurately. This will help to ensure a healthy, productive and motivated police service which is an important contributor to the society (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). South Africa, a multi-cultural country, with its eleven official languages, makes an exceptional country for studying emotion as presented in different cultures. The main objective of this study was to investigate emotion and culture in accordance with a literature study, and to identify the different emotion words within the Setswana language group and determine the prototypical emotion words as well as the cognitive structure (different dimensions) of emotion concepts. A survey design with convenience sampling was used to achieve the research objectives in a series of three phases (studies). The study population for the first (N=154) and third (N=140) phases consisted of entry level police applicants (students) from the South African Police Services. The study population (N=51) of the second phase consisted of Setswana language experts. Free Listing questionnaires, Prototypicality questionnaires and Similarity rating questionnaires were administered. Statistical methods and procedures (Multidimensional Scaling and Descriptive Statistics) were used and Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated to analyse the results. Results of the Free Listing task gave a strong indication that basic emotion concepts of joy, sorrow and love readily came to mind in the Setswana group. Most prototypical concepts listed by the Setswana-speaking group were those of: “lela” (cry), “rata” (like), “go tenega” (fed up), “kgalefo” (warning), “lerato” (love), “boitumelo” (joy), “go utlusiswa botloko” (being hurt), “kwata” (anger), “amego maikutlo” (affection), “itumeletse” (elation), “botlhoko” (disappointment) and “itumela” (happiness). In order to determine the cognitive structure of emotion concepts, a multi-dimensional scaling was performed. A five-factorial solution was created with dimensions of Pleasantness, Yearning, Arousal, and Potency with the last dimension, “Go amega maikutlo”, being unique to the Setswana group. Suggestions were made concerning future studies on the emotion lexicon. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010

Anthropologists claim that people in a variety of human societies differ enormously in how they experience, express and understand emotion (Kalat & Shiota, 2007). Research on emotions, around the world, has become increasingly popular during the past few decades. Emotion is involved in the mainstream of topics in psychology, be it about antecedents, emotional expressions and responses, or about the dimensions underlying the large emotion lexicon (Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, & O’Connor, 1987). While the study of emotion is of universal interest, emotions are of special interest for South-Africa. By studying the emotion lexicon of the Setswana culture, an evidence-based intervention program could be implemented by the SAPS, which will be relevant and practical to address emotional needs and support for South African Police members to express their emotions more accurately. This will help to ensure a healthy, productive and motivated police service which is an important contributor to the society (Van der Doef & Maes, 1999). South Africa, a multi-cultural country, with its eleven official languages, makes an exceptional country for studying emotion as presented in different cultures. The main objective of this study was to investigate emotion and culture in accordance with a literature study, and to identify the different emotion words within the Setswana language group and determine the prototypical emotion words as well as the cognitive structure (different dimensions) of emotion concepts. A survey design with convenience sampling was used to achieve the research objectives in a series of three phases (studies). The study population for the first (N=154) and third (N=140) phases consisted of entry level police applicants (students) from the South African Police Services. The study population (N=51) of the second phase consisted of Setswana language experts. Free Listing questionnaires, Prototypicality questionnaires and Similarity rating questionnaires were administered. Statistical methods and procedures (Multidimensional Scaling and Descriptive Statistics) were used and Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated to analyse the results. Results of the Free Listing task gave a strong indication that basic emotion concepts of joy, sorrow and love readily came to mind in the Setswana group. Most prototypical concepts listed by the Setswana-speaking group were those of: “lela” (cry), “rata” (like), “go tenega” (fed up), “kgalefo” (warning), “lerato” (love), “boitumelo” (joy), “go utlusiswa botloko” (being hurt), “kwata” (anger), “amego maikutlo” (affection), “itumeletse” (elation), “botlhoko” (disappointment) and “itumela” (happiness). In order to determine the cognitive structure of emotion concepts, a multi-dimensional scaling was performed. A five-factorial solution was created with dimensions of Pleasantness, Yearning, Arousal, and Potency with the last dimension, “Go amega maikutlo”, being unique to the Setswana group. Suggestions were made concerning future studies on the emotion lexicon. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This study explores semantic analysis of motion verb-hamba in IsiXhosa. In chapter 1 I have stated the aim of the study. I have discussed properties related to the lexical semantic analysis of the verb-hamba as well as Pustejovsky’s theory of the Generative Lexicon. The theoretical framework and the organization of study are also discussed in this chapter. Chapter 2 addresses in more detail the type system for semantics. A generative theory of the lexicon includes multiple levels of representation for different types of lexical information needed. These levels include Argument Structure, Event Structure, Qualia Structure and Lexical Inherent Structure. In this chapter there is a more detailed structure of the qualia and the role they play in distributing the functional behavior of words and phrases in composition. In chapter 3 I have examined the lexical semantic analysis of the verb-hamba to account for the range of selectional properties of the NP phrase subject argument of the verb-hamba and various interpretations that arise in terms of composition with its complement arguments. The polysemous behavior of the verb-hamba is examined in sentence alternation constructions with respect to the properties of the event structure. I have also investigated the lexical representation in terms of argument structure and the event structure of the verb-hamba in different sentences. Chapter 4 is the conclusion, summarizing the findings of all the previous chapters in this study on lexical semantic analysis of the motion verb-hamba in IsiXhosa. This is followed by word lists that contain meanings of words in the context in which they are used.

Ce travail contient une première caractérisation générale du discours de la communauté cubaine à Montréal, avec une attention particulière sur deux aspects: le comportement de certains traits qui caractérisent l'espagnol de Cuba chez les locuteurs migrants, et les possibles variations produites par le contact linguistique. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons les données d'un corpus élaboré par la chercheuse à partir de conversations semi-dirigées enregistrées (registre colloquial) avec 19 Cubains: dix hommes et neuf femmes vivant à Montréal. L'analyse des données nous permet de vérifier que les traits caractéristiques étudiés se sont conservés dans le discours des Cubains résidants dans la ville, mais quelques variations se sont produites, provoquées par le contact avec les langues dominantes (français-espagnol, et moins en anglais-espagnol) et d'autres variétés de l'espagnol, ainsi qu’avec une réalité socio-économique, politique et culturelle très différente de celle d’origine. Les variations morphosyntaxiques ont été détectées principalement dans les mots invariables (prépositions). Au niveau lexico-sémantique, nous avons trouvé essentiellement des emprunts lexicaux. Il existe également des prêts sémantiques, des calques et des changements de fréquence de certains mots. Concernant le niveau pragmatique, nous avons remarqué un ralentissement du rythme dans les conversations de l'échantillon qui pourrait être dû à la situation du bilinguisme fonctionnel. En résumé, le discours des Cubains participants dans cette étude montre quelques-uns des traits caractéristiques à toute situation de contact de langues, mais aussi des particularités relatives aux caractéristiques de la communauté étudiée (les attitudes linguistiques, par exemple), à la distance typologique entre les langues impliquées (espagnol et français) et au contraste entre les sociétés d’origine et d’accueil, entre autres. / This paper presents a first general characterization of the speech of the Cuban community in Montreal, with special attention to two aspects: the behavior of some of the characterizing features of Cuban Spanish in migrant speakers, and the possible contact-induced variations. To do this, we use data from a corpus collected by the researcher through recorded conversations (colloquial speech) with 19 Cubans: ten men and nine women currently living in Montreal. After analyzing the data, we have found that the characterizing features are preserved in the speech of Cuban residents in the city. The data also show some variations induced by the contact with the dominant languages (French-Spanish and, to a lesser extent, English-Spanish) band other varieties of Spanish, as well as with a new reality that is socio-economically, politically and culturally very different from the Cuban one. The detected variations at the morphosyntactic level are mainly in invariable words (prepositions).At the lexical-semantic level, we have found predominantly loanwords. There are also semantic loans, calques and frequency changes of some words. Concerning the pragmatic level, a slower rhythm of speech, possibly due to the condition of functional bilingualism, has been observed. In sum, the speech of the Cuban participants in this study shows some of the characteristic features of any language contact situation, but also has peculiarities relating to the characteristics of the community under study (language attitudes, for example), the typological distance between the languages involved (Spanish-French) and the contrast between the societies, among other factors. / El presente trabajo contiene una primera caracterización general del habla de la comunidad cubana en Montreal, atendiendo especialmente a dos aspectos fundamentales: el comportamiento de algunos de los rasgos tipificantes del español de Cuba en hablantes migrantes, y las posibles variaciones sufridas producto del contacto lingüístico (francés-español, y en menor medida inglés-español). Para ello, empleamos los datos de un corpus confeccionado por la propia investigadora gracias a las conversaciones semidirigidas grabadas (habla coloquial) con 19 cubanos: diez hombres y nueve mujeres residentes en Montreal. El análisis de los datos nos permite comprobar que los rasgos tipificantes objeto de estudio se conservan en el habla de los cubanos residentes en la ciudad, pero esta ha sufrido algunos cambios provocados por el contacto con las lenguas dominantes y con otras variedades del español, así como con una realidad muy diferente a la de origen desde el punto de vista socioeconómico, político y cultural. Las variaciones se han detectado tanto en el nivel morfosintáctico, principalmente en las palabras invariables (preposiciones), como en el nivel léxico-semántico. En este último, predominan los préstamos léxicos. También se observan préstamos semánticos, calcos y cambios de frecuencia de algunas palabras. Desde el punto de vista pragmático, es posible observar una mayor lentitud en el ritmo de habla de los informantes, que podría deberse a la condición de bilingüismo funcional. Con todo, el habla de los cubanos participantes en este estudio presenta algunos de los rasgos característicos de cualquier situación de contacto lingüístico, pero posee también peculiaridades debidas a las características propias de la comunidad objeto de estudio (actitudes lingüísticas, por ejemplo), a la distancia tipológica de las lenguas implicadas (español-francés) y al contraste entre las sociedades de origen y de acogida, entre otros factores.

Les systèmes de traduction statistique à base de segments traduisent les phrases un segment à la fois, en plusieurs étapes. À chaque étape, ces systèmes ne considèrent que très peu d’informations pour choisir la traduction d’un segment. Les scores du dictionnaire de segments bilingues sont calculés sans égard aux contextes dans lesquels ils sont utilisés et les modèles de langue ne considèrent que les quelques mots entourant le segment traduit.Dans cette thèse, nous proposons un nouveau modèle considérant la phrase en entier lors de la sélection de chaque mot cible. Notre modèle d’intégration du contexte se différentie des précédents par l’utilisation d’un ppc (perceptron à plusieurs couches). Une propriété intéressante des ppc est leur couche cachée, qui propose une représentation alternative à celle offerte par les mots pour encoder les phrases à traduire. Une évaluation superficielle de cette représentation alter- native nous a montré qu’elle est capable de regrouper certaines phrases sources similaires même si elles étaient formulées différemment. Nous avons d’abord comparé avantageusement les prédictions de nos ppc à celles d’ibm1, un modèle couramment utilisé en traduction. Nous avons ensuite intégré nos ppc à notre système de traduction statistique de l’anglais vers le français. Nos ppc ont amélioré les traductions de notre système de base et d’un deuxième système de référence auquel était intégré IBM1. / Phrase-based statistical machine translation systems translate source sentences one phrase at a time, conditioning the choice of each phrase on very little information. Bilingual phrase table scores are computed regardless of the context in which the phrases are used and language models only look at few words surrounding the target phrases. In this thesis, we propose a novel model to predict words that should appear in a translation given the source sentence as a whole. Our model differs from previous works by its use of mlp (multilayer perceptrons). Our interest in mlp lies in their hidden layer that encodes source sentences in a representation that is only loosely tied to words. We observed that this hidden layer was able to cluster some sentences having similar translations even if they were formulated differently. In a first set of experiments, we compared favorably our mlp to ibm1, a well known model in statistical machine translation. In a second set of experiments, we embedded our ppc in our English to French statistical machine translation system. Our MLP improved translations quality over our baseline system and a second system embedding an IBM1 model.

Cette étude présente une analyse du discours de la presse écrite avant et après la Révolution égyptienne de 2011 dans deux quotidiens nationaux : un journal d’État, Al Ahram et un journal indépendant, Al Dustûr. Le premier chapitre présente les notions théoriques et approches qui sont pertinentes pour cette étude. Tout d’abord, les travaux de Denis Monière (2009), que nous utilisons pour les analyses lexicale et sémantique. Ensuite, le cadre notionnel développé par Teun Adrianus Van Dijk, qui est important pour notre analyse des stratégies discursives et de l’idéologie. Le second chapitre présente un survol de l’histoire de l’Égypte, du développement de la presse écrite dans ce pays au XXe siècle et de l’histoire des deux journaux d’où sont extraits les textes de notre corpus. Le troisième chapitre présente la méthodologie et les résultats de notre analyse du corpus. Le quatrième chapitre présente enfin les principales stratégies discursives utilisées par ces deux journaux et les conclusions de notre étude, par laquelle nous espérons avoir apporté un éclairage à la compréhension des faits qui ont bouleversé l’histoire récente de l’Égypte. / This study presents an analysis of written press discourse before and after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011in two daily papers with a large diffusion : A national paper, Al Ahram, and an independent paper, Al Dustûr. The first chapter presents the theoretical notions and approaches relevant for this study, mainly those of Denis Monière (2009), in which we found the framework for lexical and semantic analyses, and that of Teun Adrianus Van Dijk (2005), in which we found the material to make the analysis of discourse strategies and ideology. The second chapter presents an overview of Egypt history, of the evolution of written press in this country and especially of the two papers from which our texts come from. The third chapter presents the methodology and results of our analyses. Finally, chapter four presents the most important discursive strategies of both papers and the conclusions of this study, by which we hope having brought some insight to the comprehension of the dramatic episode Egypt came across in his recent history.