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Linguistic Approach (linguistic + approach)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Learners' Descriptions of German Pronunciation, Vocabulary, and Grammar: A Folk Linguistic Account

DIE UNTERRICHTSPRAXIS/TEACHING GERMAN, Issue 1 2009
Monika Chavez
Following a folk linguistic approach, this investigation of first-, second- and fourth-year learners' accounts of German found that (1) few had held pre-conceived notions about German prior to language study; (2) most pre-conceived notions concerned German pronunciation; (3) pre-conceived notions about vocabulary were most likely to influence the decision to study German; and (4) among current perceptions of German, learners (a) believe German to be more "systematic" than English; (b) are virtually exclusively concerned with rules of "accuracy" (not appropriateness); (c) tend to judge the "merits" of German rules in comparison with English but also the Romance languages; (d) consider grammar more different between English and German than vocabulary and pronunciation; and (e) register no observable differences across different years of study or between German and non-German majors. [source]

Tuning the matching function for a threshold weighting semantics in a linguistic information retrieval system

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 9 2005
E. Herrera-Viedma
Information retrieval is an activity that attempts to produce documents that better fulfill user information needs. To achieve this activity an information retrieval system uses matching functions that specify the degree of relevance of a document with respect to a user query. Assuming linguistic-weighted queries we present a new linguistic matching function for a threshold weighting semantics that is defined using a 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic approach (Herrera F, Martínez L. IEEE Trans Fuzzy Syst 2000;8:746,752). This new 2-tuple linguistic matching function can be interpreted as a tuning of that defined in "Modelling the Retrieval Process for an Information Retrieval System Using an Ordinal Fuzzy Linguistic Approach" (Herrera-Viedma E. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol 2001;52:460,475). We show that it simplifies the processes of computing in the retrieval activity, avoids the loss of precision in final results, and, consequently, can help to improve the users' satisfaction. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 20: 921,937, 2005. [source]

A model of an information retrieval system with unbalanced fuzzy linguistic information

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 11 2007
Enrique Herrera-Viedma
Most information retrieval systems based on linguistic approaches use symmetrically and uniformly distributed linguistic term sets to express the weights of queries and the relevance degrees of documents. However, to improve the system,user interaction, it seems more adequate to express these linguistic weights and degrees by means of unbalanced linguistic scales, that is, linguistic term sets with different discrimination levels on both sides of the middle linguistic term. In this contribution we present an information retrieval system that accepts weighted queries whose weights are expressed using unbalanced linguistic term sets. Then, the system provides the retrieved documents classified in linguistic relevance classes assessed on unbalanced linguistic term sets. To do so, we propose a methodology to manage unbalanced linguistic information and we use the linguistic 2-tuple model as the representation base of the unbalanced linguistic information. Additionally, the linguistic 2-tuple model allows us to increase the number of relevance classes in the output and also to improve the performance of the information retrieval system. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 1197,1214, 2007. [source]

How Far Could Free Religious Thinking Go?

JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 4 2008
The Case of Johann Rudolf Werdmüller, Zurich 165
In 1658, Johann(es) Rudolf Werdmüller, a renowned Zurich general and diplomat, was accused of blasphemy. As it referred to essential religious matters, the accusation had a considerable public impact. The court files of the case provide evidence of wider battles over the desirability and nature of religious tolerance. Instead of narrating a case story this analysis suggests a different approach to the history of religion. The sources are not taken as documents expressing a discursive system of philosophical points of view and their appearance in religious polemics. Rather, the court files stand for specific speech acts, i.e. verbal performances in the linguistic sense. Thus, Werdmüller's example is taken to demonstrate that those considered to be blasphemers in the era of confessionalisation did not simply express religious scepticism in the form of "discourses," nor did they rebel against authority figures or resort to forms of magic. Rather, they provoked their society, discussed religious matters, entertained their audience and competed wittingly with those interested in religious issues. In conclusion, it is proposed that the history of religion should not be confined to a history of ideas and religious doctrines but should integrate linguistic approaches. [source]