The chapter takes a birds-eye view on semantic analysis, as it relates to computer science and engineering. Emanating from observations on linguistic semantics, semantic representation frameworks (metalanguages) and knowledge structures (ontologies) are discussed from a theoretical perspective. The chapter closes with a brief exploration of technologies that are used for semantic modeling and the creation of linked semantic data, and it contents that semantic analysis will be a cornerstone of further developments at said interface.

Is it true that ‘grammars code best what speakers do most’, as Du Bois suggested already in 1985? And do members of different cultures privilege talk about kinship relations to differing degrees? Could this be linked to the differential centrality of kinship to the vastly diverse grammars of the world’s languages? We bring these three questions together in this study. Kinship relationships are central to the organisation of all human societies. Yet, we know little about what influences the frequency of reference to kin in spontaneous language use. In this study, we test factors that potentially associate with frequency of kin-term usage across 22 typologically diverse languages. Using a communicative task involving the description, arrangement and narration of pictures, we establish the proportion of human reference expressions formulated as kin terms in interactive language use and show that it does indeed differ across languages. We then examine candidate predictors for the usage frequency of kin-based lexical formulations (choice of word categories) by looking at (i) a structural variable (‘kintax’, the presence of grammatical means for encoding kinship in the language), (ii) a lexical variable (complexity of a subset of each language’s kinship term system), (iii) a discourse variable (type of interaction a language user engages in at the time of speaking or signing), and (iv) a topicality variable (type of stimulus a language user references at the time of speaking or signing). We find all these to be relevant, but we focus on structural kintax. This provides a way of addressing Du Bois’s hypothesis about the interaction between language structure and language use in human communication: the grammatical imprint of a language correlates with language users’ word-choice patterns. We show that the more grammar you have for this semantic domain, the more you talk about it.

Although verbal expressions of caused motion, such as push and pull, have been extensively studied within linguistics, semantic dimensions beyond path and manner of motion have received less attention. This pilot study aims to identify such dimensions involved in the expression of caused motion in German, focusing on observable properties of pushing and pulling events that determine the selection of verbs to describe events of caused motion. Using 3D graphical modeling, participants were presented with video clips of a computer-animated agent moving a barrel, thereby allowing for a systematic manipulation of properties and hence dimensions. We investigated four dimensions to assess their impact on verb selection: (i) angle of contact, (ii) movement of the agent relative to the barrel, (iii) the agent’s orientation/facing, and (iv) the force employed. Cluster and principal component analyses were conducted on the collected linguistic data. Verbs were represented by five-dimensional vectors capturing correlations with the cosine and sine of the angle, and marginal probabilities in conditions of instantaneous movement, forward facing, and heavy force. Our findings indicate that conceptually distinguishable verb clusters are primarily defined by the movement feature – that is, whether the agent moves together with the barrel or not – and the cosine of the angle. Contrary to theoretical predictions, little evidence was found supporting the categorization of verbs based on the force applied to the barrel. These results suggest that the movement and position of the agent relative to the moved object are key determinants in the production of verbal descriptions of caused motion events.

When children enter school, they are not "blank slates" but come with a set of skills and knowledge. In the case of bilingual children this includes their home languages, which often go unnoticed in Australian schools. This chapter focuses on the role and importance of the home language in children’s development. We first provide an overview of the current situation of home language practices in Australia ("What?"). We discuss both the educational system’s struggle to accommodate the country’s linguistic diversity and the widespread belief - held by parents, the education system, and the mainstream community - that home language maintenance is the parents’ responsibility. We then briefly explore the implications of the resulting compartmentalisation between school and home and the social and affective ramifications for those involved ("So what?"). This leads us to reflect on possible ways forward ("Now what?"), including the introduction of low-cost yet effective initiatives that can help bridge the gap between school and home so that all languages can be supported. We argue for a shift towards a language-as-resource perspective that may allow children to benefit from their existing skills and knowledge, enhancing academic achievement and family well-being as evidenced by research from around the globe. 

This article examines the question of whether complementation structures are cross-linguistically universal by using two different cross-linguistic corpora, each drawing on the same thirteen languages, spanning every continent. One is SCOPIC, the Social Cognition Parallax Interview Corpus, specifically designed to elicit material rich in grammatical categories relevant to social cognition; for each language in our sample this was balanced by a “general corpus” of roughly the same size with no specific targeting of domains. We find that, while complementation is widespread, it is not universal within the languages in our sample: in some it is absent entirely and in others it is extremely rare. Of the structural alternatives used to achieve the same functional goal by far the commonest is quoted speech, suggesting that in the evolution of linguistic structures it is heteroglossia, the embedding of one person’s words in another’s, that is a more basic phenomenon, from which complementation structures then evolve in many but not all languages.

This study presents a corpus-based typological analysis of complementation. Complementation is typically used to frame a nutterance, thought, desire, or immediate perception. However, many alternative constructions are available to express similar meanings, such as nominalization, adverbial clauses, the verbal complex, and parataxis. This study examines multilingual corpora of 14 languages, and explores how frequently languages use complementation vis-à-vis alternative strategies. We show that half the languages investigated prefer complementation, while others favor parataxis or adverbial clauses over complementation. These results suggest that languages can be classified in terms of the extent to which they favor hierarchical or paratactic structures to frame propositions, and that this correlates with the stylistic features of the given languages.

Our team’s long-term project investigating social cognition in a range of languages is based on a corpus typology approach. We use a set of annotation schemata to code particular instances of language use that we see as indicating some aspect of social cognition. We then compare the amounts and types of instances by language or task participant. Much careful consideration went into designing annotation schema to look at various domains of social cognition. This set of guidelines describes our eight coding schemata so that our results are interpretable and to make our scientific process open. The guidelines should also provide enough information for people who are not part of the project to code their own language data.

Sweden is often commended for the inclusion of home languages in the formal education system: both mother tongue instruction (where a pupil's home language is taught as an optional school subject) and study guidance (where a pupil is given content support in their home language or prior language of schooling) are offered. Still, while many national educational policies are supportive of multilingualism, their enactment on the ground is often problematic. The attitudes and beliefs of teacher educators, in-service teachers, and pre-service teachers are crucial here, yet few studies have investigated how these key actors in Sweden perceive their encounters with linguistic diversity. Furthermore, an understanding of the similarities and differences in the perspectives across these three cohorts is lacking. We have analysed interviews with five teacher educators, five in-service teachers, and eight pre-service teachers concerning their attitudes and beliefs on multilingualism. These interviews reveal orientations towards language and language use in teacher education and primary schools. Specifically, language is seen both as a problem and as a resource. Our results uncover tensions in the expressed attitudes and beliefs about multilingualism, as well as about multilingual pre-service teachers in teacher education and multilingual pupils in the Swedish school.

本研究探討移居澳洲的臺灣家庭於假期讓子女回臺接受正規教育，在不同教育制度之間轉換對子女的語言能力和身分認同所產生的影響。本研究以問卷調查旅澳具臺灣背景的家庭家中語言使用情形及維持華語學習環境的原因，再透過訪談形式了解父母對於子女華語教育的看法，探討子女在臺灣澳洲兩地往返過程中的身分認同情形。雖只有母親願意代表受訪，研究結果可見父母輩對於故鄉語言文化和教育理念的執着，也觀察到子女在兩種文化和語言之間自我身分認同的逐漸轉變。父母輩堅持讓子女接收兩種教育制度，其目標不僅為提升子女的華語語言能力，也希望提高子女對臺灣的身分認同。但訪談的結果也發現，子女已經逐步產生個人認同，與父母輩的感受不一致。本文透過探討臺灣家庭往返臺灣與澳洲兩邊教育制度的經驗，希望提供家長和語言教育工作者關於華語學習，來自身分認同觀點的些許建議。

This study investigated the impact of sojourning activity on children in terms of language development and identity awareness for families with Taiwanese background who migrated to Australia and sent their children back to Taiwan to receive formal education during school holidays. The study conducted a survey to explore language usage in the families and the reasons to maintain a bilingual learning environment for Chinese. The study then interviewed the parents about the Chinese language education of the children and explored the social identity of the children during the journey between Taiwan and Australia. Although only mothers were willing to be interviewed, the results showed that parents themselves were persistent in their nostalgia and educational philosophy, but that children gradually changed their self-identity between the two cultures and languages. The goals of the parents with this sojourning activity were not only to improve their children’s Chinese language skills but also to increase and foster children’s identification with Taiwan. However, the results of the interviews revealed that the children had gradually developed their own personal identity, which differed from the one their parents aimed to achieve. By exploring the experiences of Taiwanese families traveling between educational systems to and from Taiwan and Australia, this study aims to provide parents and language educators with some suggestions on foreign language learning from a social identity perspective.