Complexity Applications in Language and Communication Sciences

Complexity Applications in Language and Communication Sciences
Author: Àngels Massip-Bonet
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2019-01-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030045986

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This book offers insights on the study of natural language as a complex adaptive system. It discusses a new way to tackle the problem of language modeling, and provides clues on how the close relation between natural language and some biological structures can be very fruitful for science. The book examines the theoretical framework and then applies its main principles to various areas of linguistics. It discusses applications in language contact, language change, diachronic linguistics, and the potential enhancement of classical approaches to historical linguistics by means of new methodologies used in physics, biology, and agent systems theory. It shows how studying language evolution and change using computational simulations enables to integrate social structures in the evolution of language, and how this can give rise to a new way to approach sociolinguistics. Finally, it explores applications for discourse analysis, semantics and cognition.

Research Methods for Complexity Theory in Applied Linguistics

Research Methods for Complexity Theory in Applied Linguistics
Author: Phil Hiver
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2019-12-06
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1788925769

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This book provides practical guidance on research methods and designs that can be applied to Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) research. It discusses the contribution of CDST to the field of applied linguistics, examines what this perspective entails for research and introduces practical methods and templates, both qualitative and quantitative, for how applied linguistics researchers can design and conduct research using the CDST framework. Introduced in the book are methods ranging from those in widespread use in social complexity, to more familiar methods in use throughout applied linguistics. All are inherently suited to studying both dynamic change in context and interconnectedness. This accessible introduction to CDST research will equip readers with the knowledge to ensure compatibility between empirical research designs and the theoretical tenets of complexity. It will be of value to researchers working in the areas of applied linguistics, language pedagogy and educational linguistics and to scholars and professionals with an interest in second/foreign language acquisition and complexity theory.

Languages in Space and Time: Models and Methods from Complex Systems Theory

Languages in Space and Time: Models and Methods from Complex Systems Theory
Author: Marco Patriarca
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2020-10-29
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1108480659

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Demonstrates how complexity theory and statistical mechanics help define the language groups and model the language dynamics.

Communicating Science Effectively

Communicating Science Effectively
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2017-03-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309451051

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Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will be most effective for specific audiences and circumstances are not obvious. Fortunately, there is an expanding science base from diverse disciplines that can support science communicators in making these determinations. Communicating Science Effectively offers a research agenda for science communicators and researchers seeking to apply this research and fill gaps in knowledge about how to communicate effectively about science, focusing in particular on issues that are contentious in the public sphere. To inform this research agenda, this publication identifies important influences â€" psychological, economic, political, social, cultural, and media-related â€" on how science related to such issues is understood, perceived, and used.

Studies in the History of the English Language VIII

Studies in the History of the English Language VIII
Author: Peter Grund
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2020-11-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110643286

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This volume collects essays that approach notions of creating, maintaining, and crossing boundaries in the history of the English language. The concept of boundaries is variously defined within linguistics depending on the theoretical framework, from formal and theoretical perspectives to specific fields and more empirical, physical, and perceptual angles. The contributions to this volume do not take one particular theoretical or methodological approach but, instead, explore how examining various types of boundaries—linguistic, conceptual, analytical, generic, physical—helps us illuminate and account for historical use, variation, and change in English. In their exploration of various topics in the history of English, contributions ask a range of questions: what does it mean to set up boundaries between time periods? When do language varieties have distinct boundaries and when do they overlap? Where do language users draw up clausal, constructional, semantic, phonetic/phonological boundaries? Thus, the chapters explore not only how boundaries illustrate synchronic and diachronic features in the history of the English language but also what we can discover by questioning perceived or actual boundaries.

From language shift to language revitalization and sustainability

From language shift to language revitalization and sustainability
Author: Albert Bastardas-Boada
Publisher: Edicions Universitat Barcelona
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2019-11-25
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 849168316X

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This book aims to contribute to the overall, integrated understanding of the processes of language contact and their evolution, be they the result of political or economic (dis)integrations or migrations or for technological reasons. Via an interdisciplinary, holistic approach, it also aims to support the theoretical grounding of a unified, common sociolinguistic paradigm, based on an ecological and complexity perspective. This approach built on the fact that linguistic structures do not live in isolation from their social functions and must be situated in relation to the sub-and supra-systems that determine their existence if we are to understand their fortunes. It is a useful contribution to understanding and promoting the processes of linguistic revitalization in the world, combining at the same time the maintenance and development of diversity while ensuring the intercommunication of human species.

Communication Complexity

Communication Complexity
Author: Anup Rao
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2020-02-20
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1108776019

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Communication complexity is the mathematical study of scenarios where several parties need to communicate to achieve a common goal, a situation that naturally appears during computation. This introduction presents the most recent developments in an accessible form, providing the language to unify several disjoint research subareas. Written as a guide for a graduate course on communication complexity, it will interest a broad audience in computer science, from advanced undergraduates to researchers in areas ranging from theory to algorithm design to distributed computing. The first part presents basic theory in a clear and illustrative way, offering beginners an entry into the field. The second part describes applications including circuit complexity, proof complexity, streaming algorithms, extension complexity of polytopes, and distributed computing. Proofs throughout the text use ideas from a wide range of mathematics, including geometry, algebra, and probability. Each chapter contains numerous examples, figures, and exercises to aid understanding.

Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society

Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society
Author: Àngels Massip-Bonet
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2012-10-13
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3642328172

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The “language-communication-society” triangle defies traditional scientific approaches. Rather, it is a phenomenon that calls for an integration of complex, transdisciplinary perspectives, if we are to make any progress in understanding how it works. The highly diverse agents in play are not merely cognitive and/or cultural, but also emotional and behavioural in their specificity. Indeed, the effort may require building a theoretical and methodological body of knowledge that can effectively convey the characteristic properties of phenomena in human terms. New complexity approaches allow us to rethink our limited and mechanistic images of human societies and create more appropriate emo-cognitive dynamic and holistic models. We have to enter into dialogue with the complexity views coming out of other more ‘material’ sciences, but we also need to take steps in the linguistic and psycho-sociological fields towards creating perspectives and concepts better fitted to human characteristics. Our understanding of complexity is different – but not opposed – to the one that is more commonly found in texts written by people working in physics or computer science, for example. The goal of this book is to extend the knowledge of these other more ‘human’ or socially oriented perspectives on complexity, taking account of the language and communication singularities of human agents in society. Our understanding of complexity is different – but not opposed – to the one that is more commonly found in texts written by people working in physics or computer science, for example. The goal of this book is to extend the knowledge of these other more ‘human’ or socially oriented perspectives on complexity, taking account of the language and communication singularities of human agents in society.

Complexity in Language

Complexity in Language
Author: Salikoko S. Mufwene
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-05-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781107686625

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The question of complexity, as in what makes one language more 'complex' than another, is a long-established topic of debate amongst linguists. Recently, this issue has been complemented with the view that languages are complex adaptive systems, in which emergence and self-organization play major roles. However, few students of the phenomenon have gone beyond the basic assessment of the number of units and rules in a language (what has been characterized as 'bit complexity') or shown some familiarity with the science of complexity. This book reveals how much can be learned by overcoming these limitations, especially by adopting developmental and evolutionary perspectives. The contributors include specialists of language acquisition, evolution and ecology, grammaticization, phonology, and modeling, all of whom approach languages as dynamical, emergent, and adaptive complex systems.

Catalan Sociolinguistics

Catalan Sociolinguistics
Author: Miquel Àngel Pradilla Cardona
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2022-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027256918

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L’objectiu de l’obra Catalan Sociolinguistics. State of the Art and Future Challenges és donar compte, de manera sumària, dels grans vèrtexs en què s’ha manifestat l’estudi de la relació entre llengua i societat en la comunitat lingüística catalana, la recepció que s’ha fet dels plantejaments internacionals i l’adaptació domèstica. Cada tradició sociolingüística ha interpretat la interacció esmentada amb plantejaments específics. La catalana, per exemple, ha apostat per una visió integradora de tot un seguit de treballs que arriben des d’àmbits temàtics diversos (economia, dret, ciència política, comunicació, ecologia, variació lingüística, antropologia, etc.). Així, en el llibre que el lector té a les mans, els autors dels diferents capítols, reconeguts especialistes en la matèria avaluada, ens han ofert mirades complementàries que ens permetran avançar cap a una anàlisi de conjunt, una tasca que es mostrava peremptòria en el marc d’un horitzó finalista de cohesionar internament la disciplina. The aim of the work Catalan Sociolinguistics. State of the Art and Future Challenges is to give an account, in a summary way, of the major topics dealt with by the study of the relation between language and society in the Catalan language community, and the extent to which international approaches have been received and how they have been adapted to the Catalan domain. Every tradition has interpreted this interaction with specific approaches. The Catalan tradition, for example, has opted for a vision that integrates a wide range of studies on different themes (economy, law, political science, communication, ecology, linguistic variation, anthropology, and so on). So, in the book you are holding, the authors of the various chapters, recognised specialists in their fields, have provided complementary views that will enable us to make an overall analysis, something that was urgently needed in the context of the ultimate aim of bringing internal consistency to the discipline.