Cette etude a une envergure bipartite: outre qu'elle se consacre aux quantificateurs flous avec une forte concentration sur certain(s), diver(s), differents(s), plusieurs et quelque(s), elle compare leurs emplois avec ceux du Dictionnaire des frequences. Avant tout, elle se veut descriptive et synchronique. Dans cette optique, elle se base sur un corpus clos, celui de l'idiolecte de l'anthropologue francais Claude Levi-Strauss. Ce corpus numerise compte dix sous-corpus d'inegale longueur, couvrant cinq decennies de la deuxieme partie du XX[sup e] siecle et totalisant 1 251 792 mots. Par ailleurs, il englobe 3872 occurrences des cinq quantificateurs flous en question. Dans un premier temps, il s'agit d'une analyse distributionnelle a laquelle s'ajoute une analyse componentielle. Nous mettrons en evidence les contextes d'apparition de chacun des cinq quantificateurs flous dans le corpus en plus de leur appliquer une batterie de tests semantiques et syntaxiques pour deceler leur fonctionnement dans la langue francaise. Pour ce qui concerne le semantisme, nous presenterons ce que d'autres linguistes tels Arrive, Gadet & Galmiche, Chevalier, Curat, Damourette & Pichon, Gondret, Grevisse, Gross, Mitterand, Riegel, Pellat & Rioul et Wilmet ont a dire a propos1 de ces cinq quantificateurs flous. Ce chemin parcouru, nous pourrons tester l'hypothese que divers, differents et plusieurs forment un sous-systeme au sein de la classe de quantificateurs flous alors que certains(s) et quelque(s) en forment un autre. La seconde partie de cette etude consiste en une analyse statistique. II s'agit d'une comparaison des frequences relatives des cinq quantificateurs flous dans le corpus de Levi-Strauss avec celles du Dictionnaire des frequences qui livre l'equivalent d'une norme de la langue: il totalise 70 317 234 mots, dont 37 653 685 relevent du XX[sup e] siecle.

This study was designed 1) to reveal the structural characteristics of an electronic discourse text, namely InterChange, and 2) to associate the characteristics with underlying functional factors in comparison with spoken and written discourse. The characteristics of Interchange were examined in terms of frequency and discourse functions.This comparative analysis has revealed that the structure of Interchange is characteristically different from spoken and written discourse. Comparatively speaking, in Interchange electronic discourse, interpersonal involvement is far higher than in written discourse, but slightly lower than in spoken discourse. The fragmentary quality is generally higher than spoken discourse as well as than written. Syntactic and semantic variation falls between spoken and written discourse.Three distinctive feature distribution patterns emerged in the analysis of Interchange features, with which the underlying discourse mechanism of Interchange was interpreted. The linguistic features in Pattern I occur with higher frequency than in written discourse, but lower than in spoken. It was posited that this occurrence pattern of Interchange features reflects the mutual interaction of elements of speaking and writing. The linguistic features in Pattern II occur with higher frequency than in both spoken discourse and written discourse, and the linguistic features in Pattern III occur less often than in both spoken discourse and written discourse. It was suggested that this may be due to functional needs. / Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-43).

Nous nous intéressons à la fois à la modélisation des fréquences des mots dans les collections textuelles et aux modèles probabilistes de recherche d'information (RI). Concernant les modèles statistiques de fréquences de mots, nous portons notre attention sur l'étude du phénomène de rafale (burstiness). Nous établissons une propriété sur les distributions de probabilité caractérisant leur capacité à modéliser ce phénomène et nous étudions ensuite les distributions Beta Negative Binomial et Log-Logistique pour la modélisation des fréquences de mots. Nous portons ensuite notre attention sur les modèles probabilistes de RI et leur propriétés fondamentales. Nous pouvons montrer que les modèles classiques ne reposent pas sur des lois de probabilité en rafale, même si des propriétés fondamentales comme la concavité des modèles permettent implicitement de le prendre en compte. Nous introduisons ensuite une nouvelle famille de modèles probabiliste pour la recherche d'information, fondé sur la notion d'information de Shannon et qui permet d'établir un lien conséquent entre les propriétés importantes des modèles de RI et le phénomène de rafale. Enfin, nous étudions empiriquement et théoriquement les modèles de rétro-pertinence. Nous proposons un cadre théorique qui permet ainsi d'expliquer leurs caractéristiques empiriques et leur performances. Ceci permet entre autres de mettre en avant les propriétés importantes des modèles de retro-pertinence et de montrer que certains modèles de référence sont déficients. / The present study deals with word frequencies distributions and their relation to probabilistic Information Retrieval (IR) models. We examine the burstiness phenomenon of word frequencies in textual collections. We propose to model this phenomenon as a property of probability distributions and we study the Beta Negative Binomial and Log-Logistic distributions to model word frequencies. We then focus on probabilistic IR models and their fundamental properties. Our analysis reveals that probability distributions underlying most state-of-the-art models do not take this phenomenon into account , even if fundamental properties of IR models such as concavity enable implicitly to take it into account. We then introduce a novel family of probabilistic IR model, based on Shannon information. These new models bridge the gap between significant properties of IR models and the burstiness phenomenon of word frequencies. Lastly, we study empirically and theoretically pseudo relevance feedback models. We propose a theoretical framework which explain well the empirical behaviour and performance of pseudo relevance feedback models. Overall, this highlights interesting properties for pseudo relevance feedback and shows that some state-of-the-art model are inadequate.

abstract: Frequency effects favoring high print-frequency words have been observed in frequency judgment memory tasks. Healthy young adults performed frequency judgment tasks; one group performed a single task while another group did the same task while alternating their attention to a secondary task (mathematical equations). Performance was assessed by correct and error responses, reaction times, and accuracy. Accuracy and reaction times were analyzed in terms of memory load (task condition), number of repetitions, effect of high vs. low print-frequency, and correlations with working memory span. Multinomial tree analyses were also completed to investigate source vs. item memory and revealed a mirror effect in episodic memory experiments (source memory), but a frequency advantage in span tasks (item memory). Interestingly enough, we did not observe an advantage for high working memory span individuals in frequency judgments, even when participants split their attention during the dual task (similar to a complex span task). However, we concluded that both the amount of attentional resources allocated and prior experience with an item affect how it is stored in memory. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Speech and Hearing Science 2013

In this thesis we explore the intensity of adjectives and how it can be predicted by different word features. We investigate how to accurately determine intensity between synonymous adjectives. For this, we look at features such as word frequency, number of senses and syllable length. Our study is inspired by life satisfaction and happiness surveys and the possibility that differences in intensity in the translation of the adjectives used for the questionnaires could explain the high degree of satisfaction that some countries show. We base our hypothesis on the theories of grammaticalization and semantic bleaching and the discoveries made by other researches about the relations between these word features and word intensity. We focus on studying Danish, English and French. Our study points to a statistically significant negative correlation between word frequency and word intensity.

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.

Cette etude a une envergure bipartite: outre qu'elle se consacre aux quantificateurs flous avec une forte concentration sur certain(s), diver(s), differents(s), plusieurs et quelque(s), elle compare leurs emplois avec ceux du Dictionnaire des frequences. Avant tout, elle se veut descriptive et synchronique. Dans cette optique, elle se base sur un corpus clos, celui de l'idiolecte de l'anthropologue francais Claude Levi-Strauss. Ce corpus numerise compte dix sous-corpus d'inegale longueur, couvrant cinq decennies de la deuxieme partie du XX[sup e] siecle et totalisant 1 251 792 mots. Par ailleurs, il englobe 3872 occurrences des cinq quantificateurs flous en question. Dans un premier temps, il s'agit d'une analyse distributionnelle a laquelle s'ajoute une analyse componentielle. Nous mettrons en evidence les contextes d'apparition de chacun des cinq quantificateurs flous dans le corpus en plus de leur appliquer une batterie de tests semantiques et syntaxiques pour deceler leur fonctionnement dans la langue francaise. Pour ce qui concerne le semantisme, nous presenterons ce que d'autres linguistes tels Arrive, Gadet & Galmiche, Chevalier, Curat, Damourette & Pichon, Gondret, Grevisse, Gross, Mitterand, Riegel, Pellat & Rioul et Wilmet ont a dire a propos1 de ces cinq quantificateurs flous. Ce chemin parcouru, nous pourrons tester l'hypothese que divers, differents et plusieurs forment un sous-systeme au sein de la classe de quantificateurs flous alors que certains(s) et quelque(s) en forment un autre. La seconde partie de cette etude consiste en une analyse statistique. II s'agit d'une comparaison des frequences relatives des cinq quantificateurs flous dans le corpus de Levi-Strauss avec celles du Dictionnaire des frequences qui livre l'equivalent d'une norme de la langue: il totalise 70 317 234 mots, dont 37 653 685 relevent du XX[sup e] siecle. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Words that deviate in their physical characteristics from their surrounding lead to enhanced recall memory, a pattern known as the Von Restorff effect. Furthermore, common (high frequency; HF) words are more likely to be recalled than uncommon (low frequency; LF) words when they occur in pure lists, while this pattern is reversed in mixed lists of both HF and LF words. This study investigated whether the Von Restorff effect and the reversal of word frequency effects in mixed lists, which may both be explained by enhanced perceived distinctiveness, are associated with common underlying brain processes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants studied and subsequently recalled 70 word lists using rote memorization strategies. The three list types included (1) 14 regular-sized and one larger word, (2) 14 HF words and one LF word, or (3) 14 LF words and one HF word. The behavioral data showed a typical Von Restorff effect, a word frequency effect, as well as a reversal of the word frequency effect for LF words isolated in HF word lists ("LF isolates"). Larger words and LF isolates elicited a P300, an ERP component associated with subjective distinctiveness, whose amplitude was correlated with subsequent recall for both word types. This indicates that LF isolates were perceived as distinctive, and that this perceived distinctiveness aided subsequent recall in a similar way as for physically deviant words. Both larger words and LF isolates also elicited a left-lateralized slow wave which was larger for subsequently recalled than for not recalled words. This ERP component supposedly reflects item-to-item elaborative processes, indicating that such elaborative processes are enhanced when LF words occur in HF word list. HF words isolated in lists of LF words did not elicit comparable ERP subsequent memory effects. Rather, for these "HF isolates", the N400 was negatively correlated with subsequent recall, an ERP component that reflects semantic integration processes. We conclude that the reversal of the word frequency effect in mixed lists can be explained by a combination of enhanced subjective distinctiveness and enhanced inter-item elaborative processes for LF words that occur in lists of HF words.

Word frequency seems to be unknown for many teachers’ and possibly deemed not very important for vocabulary development. We set out to investigate the importance of incorporating word frequency in the EFL classroom. The aim of the study was to conclude if teachers incorporate word frequency into their teaching, as well as how this could be done efficiently. In order to collect data for this study, we used a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Despite a focus on teachers in years 4-6, in an effort to not only expand our potential samplegroup and to take into account the importance of transition between school forms, we reached out to teachers of English in years 4-9. This was accomplished with the help of various teacher forums on Facebook and a convenience sample. The initial results from the questionnaire showed that the majority of teachers were aware of word frequency. However, on closer inspection of the questionnaire, it became clear that several of the teachers did in fact not have sufficient knowledge of word frequency. Previous research has shown the importance of high-frequency words and that the 2,000 most frequent words are a necessary learning goal. Implications of not considering word frequency when teaching vocabulary can have a negative effect on students' progression. Our research has found a discrepancy between steering documents in Sweden, in which word frequency is not explicitly considered, and previous studies analysing the use of word frequency. This could be seen as the explanation for why teachers are not aware of word frequency.