The objective of the research presented in this thesis was to systematically investigate the computational structure for cross-database emotion recognition. The research consisted of evaluating the stability of acoustic features, particularly the glottal and Teager Energy based features, and investigating three normalization methods and two data fusion techniques. One of the challenges of cross-database training and testing is accounting for the potential variation in the types of emotions expressed as well as the recording conditions. In an attempt to alleviate the impact of these types of variations, three normalization methods on the acoustic data were studied. Motivated by the lack of large and diverse enough emotional database to train the classifier, using multiple databases to train posed another challenge: data fusion. This thesis proposed two data fusion techniques, pre-classification SDS and post-classification ROVER to study the issue. Using the glottal, TEO and TECC features, of which the stability of emotion distinguishing ability has been highlighted on multiple databases, the systematic computational structure proposed in this thesis could improve the performance of cross-database binary-emotion recognition by up to 23% for neutral vs. emotional and 10% for positive vs. negative.

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-190).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-161).

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-190).

This thesis challenges dualistic human and animal ontologies by interpreting science fiction (sf) literature, and argues that whereas words can equivocate and obscure meaning, bodies do not lie. Linguistics and semiology extend the definition of "language" to include human and nonhuman gestures and movement, and posthumanist theory expands definitions of "human" and "animal" to explore species boundaries. Scrutinizing opposing dualisms ultimately questions Western epistemology and authority, allowing for an exploration of embodied animal communications within the larger discourse on species and speciesism. This perspective results in a more comprehensive understanding of the interdependence of all species: human, animal, and "other." Although the fictional texts I employ use fantastic elements to posit hypothetical realities, current scientific research reveals that communication with nonhuman animals is indeed possible. / by Jennifer K. Cox. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This dissertation presents results from a study on the expression of emotions in a second language in order to address two overarching research questions: 1) What does the acquisition of L2 emotion lexicon and discourse features tell us about the pragmatic and communicative competence of late learners and the internalization of L2-specific concepts, and 2) Knowing that expressing emotions in L2 is one of the most challenging tasks for L2 learners (Dewaele, 2008), what can late L2 learners do at end-state, with regards to ultimate attainment and the possibility of nativelikeness? Narratives of positive and negative emotional experiences were elicited from late L2 learners of English and French at end-state, both in their L1 and L2. First, the acquisition of L2 emotion words was analyzed through the productivity and lexical richness of the emotion vocabulary of the bilinguals. Analysis of L2 emotion concepts was also conducted through the distribution of emotion lemmas across morphosyntactic categories. Lexical choice of emotion words was also investigated. Results showed that although L2 English and L2 French bilinguals' narratives were shorter than the monolinguals' and the proportion of emotion word tokens were fewer than that of monolinguals', bilinguals showed greater lexical richness than the monolinguals. In terms of morphosyntactic categories, bilinguals behaved in a nativelike pattern such that L2 English bilinguals favored adjectives and L2 French bilinguals preferred nouns/verbs. This pattern was held constant across the first languages of the bilinguals. With respect to lexical choice, bilinguals used the same emotion lemmas used the most by monolinguals. On occasion, non-nativelike patterns also emerged, suggesting both L1 transfer on L2 (L2 English bilinguals favoring nouns/verbs) and L2 transfer on L1 (L1 English bilinguals favoring nouns/verbs). However, these rare instances could be explained by individual and typological variability. The findings suggest that late L2 learners can achieve nativelike levels of attainment in L2, providing evidence against the existence of a critical period for the acquisition of L2 pragmatics and culture-specific L2 lexicon. In a separate analysis, the L2 discourse of emotion was investigated under a corpus linguistic framework, in order to shed some light into the ways late L2 learners of English and French talk about emotions in narratives of personal stories. The use of stance lemmas and tokens, and the distribution of these stance markers across categories of certainty and doubt evidentials, emphatics, hedges, and modals, as well as lexical choice of stance were analyzed. This was followed by an analysis of discourse features, such as figurative language, reported speech, epithets, depersonalization, and amount of detail. Results showed that although bilinguals produced significantly less stance lemmas and tokens than monolinguals, in terms of the distribution of stance categories, the French group (L2 French and L1 French bilinguals) behaved in a nativelike pattern, favoring emphatics, certainty evidentials, doubt evidentials, hedges, and modals. The English group's results, on the other hand, were somewhat inconsistent, in that neither L2 English bilinguals, nor L1 English bilinguals followed the distribution pattern of English monolinguals. In terms of nativelike performance, we conclude that the L2 French bilinguals did perform nativelike with regards to stance marking, and that L2 English bilinguals also performed nativelike, but only for certain categories of stance. Also, L2 English transfer on L1 French was evidenced for L1 French bilinguals. Analysis of discourse features revealed between 1 up to 10 bilinguals (L2 English or French) out of 31 who used those features which were only evidenced in native speech in previous research. The findings here, once again suggest that late L2 learners can acquire aspects of L2 discourse to a nativelike degree. / text

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study presents an investigation of basic emotions in Tshivenda: A cognitive Semantics Analysis. The study starts with a literature review which shows what other scholars say about emotions. The study includes mainly the emotion metaphors and force on emotion in Tshivenda. The emotion concepts that receive specific attention in this study are anger, fear, sadness, love, pride and happiness. These concepts are discussed under the “source domains” as postulated. by Zoltan Kövecses in his book (Metaphor and Emotion) (2000) wherein he discusses a number of metaphorical source domains that characterize these emotion concepts.

The primary focus of this research was to investigate the emotion language and emotion narratives of Turkish-English late bilinguals who have been living in the U.S. Previous research has shown that the emotion language and narratives of second language learners and native speakers of English are different. This study focused on late bilinguals who had learnt English in instructed settings in their home country, and came to the U.S. for M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. The study consisted of two parts. In the first part, the elicited personal narratives of Turkish-English late bilinguals in English were compared to those elicited from native speakers of English with regard to both emotion and emotion-laden word production and narrative structure. The results showed that there were differences between the emotion language and narratives of the bilinguals and native speakers in their English narratives. In the second part of the study, personal narratives were elicited from Turkish-English late bilinguals in their first language, Turkish and their emotion language and narrative structure from their English narratives were compared to their narratives produced in Turkish. Similarly, the results showed that the emotion language and emotion narratives of bilinguals in English and Turkish were different. In conclusion, late bilinguals' emotion language and narratives are different in their first and second languages. Furthermore, they are different from the emotion language and narratives of native speakers.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Emotional communication is fundamental to everyday interaction. How well emotions are communicated is crucial to interpersonal relationships and individual well-being. Emotional communication in instant messaging (IM), however, can be challenging because of the absence of visual and aural nonverbal behaviors. Despite the growing number of technologically-focused solutions for supporting emotional communication in IM, limited design research has been done to study the actual users’ behaviors in communicating their emotion in IM and strategies they use to adapt emotional communication in this medium, with the purpose of establishing design solutions to support users' emotional communication. Connecting several bodies of HCI, design, and communication literature in the context of IM, this dissertation critically examines how users communicate emotion in IM and accordingly establishes user-centered multi-touch gesture based design solutions to support emotional communication in this medium. Understanding how users communicate their emotion in IM, the design issues, and corresponding design solutions help researchers and designers to support the user's emotional needs, resulting in the improvement of emotional communication strategies in IM.