bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oxysterols are agonist ligands of RORγt and drive Th17 cell differentiation
Authors: Soroosh Pejman , Wu Jiejun , Xue Xiaohua , Song Jiao , Sutton Steven W. , Sablad Marciano , Yu Jingxue , Nelen Marina I. , Liu Xuejun , Castro Glenda , Luna Rosa , Crawford Shelby , Banie Homayon , Dandridge Rose A. , Deng Xiaohu , Bittner Anton , Kuei Chester , Tootoonchi Mandana , Rozenkrants Natasha , Herman Krystal , Gao Jingjin , Yang Xia V. , Sachen Kacey , Ngo Karen , Fung-Leung Wai-Ping , Nguyen Steven , de Leon-Tabaldo Aimee , Blevitt Jonathan , Zhang Yan , Cummings Maxwell D. , Rao Tadimeti , Mani Neelakandha S. , Liu Changlu , McKinnon Murray , Milla Marcos E. , Fourie Anne M. , Sun Siquan
Published: August 2014

Significance

Because of its essential role in driving IL-17 production, the orphan nuclear receptor RAR-related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt) represents a potential therapeutic target for autoimmune diseases. Here, we present evidence that 7β, 27-dihydroxycholesterol (7β, 27-OHC) and 7α, 27-OHC are RORγt agonist ligands and may serve as potential endogenous RORγt ligands in promoting the differentiation of mouse and human CD4
+
Th17 cells. These findings may not only facilitate rational design of RORγt modulators but also, provide insights into additional targets for inhibiting IL-17 production.
Dimerization of HIV-1 protease occurs through two steps relating to the mechanism of protease dimerization inhibition by darunavir
Authors: Hayashi Hironori , Takamune Nobutoki , Nirasawa Takashi , Aoki Manabu , Morishita Yoshihiko , Das Debananda , Koh Yasuhiro , Ghosh Arun K. , Misumi Shogo , Mitsuya Hiroaki
Published: August 2014

Significance

Dimerization of HIV-1 protease (PR) plays a critical role in the replication of HIV-1. Darunavir (DRV) inhibits not only proteolytic activity but also PR dimerization. The present study shows that PR dimerization process undergoes two steps and that DRV inhibits the first step of PR dimerization by binding to PR monomers in a one-to-one molar ratio. The present study also demonstrates that DRV binds to a transframe precursor PR protein, indicating that DRV’s monomer binding is involved in the Gag-Pol autoprocessing inhibition. To our knowledge, the present report represents the first demonstration of the two-step PR dimerization dynamics and the mechanism of dimerization inhibition by DRV, which should help design further, more potent novel PR inhibitors.
UBR5-mediated ubiquitination of ATMIN is required for ionizing radiation-induced ATM signaling and function
Authors: Zhang Tianyi , Cronshaw Janet , Kanu Nnennaya , Snijders Ambrosius P. , Behrens Axel
Published: August 2014

Significance

The checkpoint kinase ATM directs the cellular response to ionizing radiation (IR) by localizing to DNA damage sites and actively phosphorylating proteins involved in repair and survival. ATM is recruited and activated at damage sites via an interaction with the Mre11/Rad50/NBS1 (MRN) complex. We have previously shown that an alternative ATM binding partner, ATMIN, competitively inhibits this interaction, suggesting that there must be a mechanism preventing ATMIN from disrupting ATM signaling in IR conditions. Here, we show that ATMIN is ubiquitinated by the E3 ligase UBR5, a modification that is stimulated by IR and favors its dissociation from ATM, freeing ATM to interact with NBS1. This mechanism allows efficient ATM activation at damage sites and promotes cell survival after irradiation.
Fungal negative-stranded RNA virus that is related to bornaviruses and nyaviruses
Authors: Liu Lijiang , Xie Jiatao , Cheng Jiasen , Fu Yanping , Li Guoqing , Yi Xianhong , Jiang Daohong
Published: August 2014

Significance

Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi and replicate in fungi. Previously, no mycoviruses had been discovered with negative-stranded (−)ssRNA genomes. Here, we characterize a (−)ssRNA mycovirus that infects a fungal plant pathogen. Although its genome and organization are significantly different from those of current mononegaviruses, this virus is closely related to viruses in families Nyamiviridae and Bornaviridae that infect animals. This discovery may provide insights into the global ecology and evolution of (−)ssRNA viruses. Furthermore, since many (−)ssRNA viruses are serious human pathogens, this system is likely to provide a less hazardous way to study replication of a (−)ssRNA virus and could be useful in establishing a system to screen antiviral compounds against (−)ssRNA viruses.
Artificial selection for structural color on butterfly wings and comparison with natural evolution
Authors: Wasik Bethany R. , Liew Seng Fatt , Lilien David A. , Dinwiddie April J. , Noh Heeso , Cao Hui , Monteiro Antónia
Published: August 2014

Significance

Despite significant efforts to study structural colors in nature, little is known about how such colors and structures evolved in the first place. To address this key question, we performed the first artificial selection (to our knowledge) on a structural color using butterflies. We demonstrated rapid evolution of violet structural color from ultra-violet brown scales in
Bicyclus anynana
butterflies with only six generations of selection. Furthermore, we identified the structural changes responsible for color evolution, which involve changes in the thickness of a chitin lamina in individual wing scales. By examining other violet-banded species that occur naturally in the
Bicyclus
genus, we found the colors are produced via the same mechanism and thus may have evolved via similar scale modifications.
Competition between recently potentiated synaptic inputs reveals a winner-take-all phase of synaptic tagging and capture
Authors: Sajikumar Sreedharan , Morris Richard G. M. , Korte Martin
Published: August 2014

Significance

Our findings will refine the existing concept of a simple, linear phase model of memory in terms of temporal constraints on associative memory formation. We provide evidence for an in-between situation in which a “winner-take-all” process shapes the process of stable long-term memory storage. We show that when the temporal persistence of plasticity is enabled on one pathway by virtue of the availability of proteins from another earlier or later event, potentiation of a further third pathway around the same time may trigger sufficient competition to prevent persistent potentiation on all pathways. This mimics the daily situation of hippocampal neurons, which have to cope with the learning of new events under conditions of competition that can threaten stabilization.
Temperate origins of long-distance seasonal migration in New World songbirds
Authors: Winger Benjamin M. , Barker F. Keith , Ree Richard H.
Published: August 2014

Significance

Determining where species arose and how they spread across the globe is paramount to understanding geographic patterns of biodiversity. For migratory organisms, this task has been difficult due to the complex geography of seasonal migration. One longstanding hypothesis is that migratory animals originated in the tropics and that migration evolved through shifts of breeding ranges to temperate regions. We tested this hypothesis in the largest radiation of migratory birds in the Americas, the emberizoid passerines. Contrary to expectations, we found that long-distance migration primarily evolved through evolutionary shifts of geographic range south for the winter out of North America, as opposed to north for the summer. Our results further suggest that seasonal migration promoted colonization of the tropics from North America.
Pervasive domestication of defective prophages by bacteria
Authors: Bobay Louis-Marie , Touchon Marie , Rocha Eduardo P. C.
Published: August 2014

Significance

Several molecular systems with important adaptive roles have originated from the domestication of integrated phages (prophages). However, the evolutionary mechanisms and extent of prophage domestication remain poorly understood. In this work, we detected several hundred prophages originating from common integration events and described their dynamics of degradation within their hosts. Surprisingly, we observed strong conservation of the sequence of most vertically inherited prophages, including selection for genes encoding phage-specific functions. These results suggest pervasive domestication of parasites by the bacterial hosts. Because prophages account for a large fraction of bacterial genomes, phage domestication may drive bacterial adaptation.
Large sulfur-isotope anomaly in nonvolcanic sulfate aerosol and its implications for the Archean atmosphere
Authors: Shaheen Robina , Abaunza Mariana M. , Jackson Teresa L. , McCabe Justin , Savarino Joël , Thiemens Mark H.
Published: August 2014

Significance

The highest S-isotope anomaly is observed in a nonvolcanic period, and the magnitude of anomaly is similar to the largest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. S-quadruple isotope data provided the first evidence of how super El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events (1997–1998) have affected the transport and transformation of aerosols to the stratosphere; thus, record of paleo-ENSO events of this magnitude can be traced with the S-isotopic anomaly. High-resolution and high-precision S-isotopic fingerprinting also revealed that the tropospheric sulfate produced during fossil-fuel and biomass burning contributes to the stratospheric sulfate aerosol layer, a contribution previously unrecognized. The distribution of sulfur anomalies mimics the Archean isotope record, which is used to track the origin and evolution of oxygen on earth.
Transient Darwinian selection in
Salmonella enterica
serovar Paratyphi A during 450 years of global spread of enteric fever
Authors: Zhou Zhemin , McCann Angela , Weill François-Xavier , Blin Camille , Nair Satheesh , Wain John , Dougan Gordon , Achtman Mark
Published: August 2014

Significance

The most recent common ancestor of Paratyphi A, one of the most common causes of enteric fever, existed approximately 450 y ago, centuries before that disease was clinically recognized. Subsequent changes in the genomic sequences included multiple mutations and acquisitions or losses of genes, including bacteriophages and genomic islands. Some of those evolutionary changes were reliably attributed to Darwinian selection, but that selection was only transient, and many genetic changes were subsequently lost because they rendered the bacteria less fit (purifying selection). We interpret the history of Paratyphi A as reflecting drift rather than progressive evolution and suggest that most recent increases in frequencies of bacterial diseases are due to environmental changes rather than the novel evolution of pathogenic bacteria.
Socially responsive effects of brain oxidative metabolism on aggression
Authors: Li-Byarlay Hongmei , Rittschof Clare C. , Massey Jonathan H. , Pittendrigh Barry R. , Robinson Gene E.
Published: August 2014

Significance

Despite high energetic demands in the brain, glucose is not always metabolized to produce maximum energy. Aerobic glycolysis, that is, high levels of glucose consumption relative to oxygen use, is connected to cognition and disease, but metabolic plasticity remains challenging to study in vivo owing to the brain’s complexity. We show that decreased oxidative phosphorylation activity, a pattern that resembles aerobic glycolysis, causes increased aggression in honey bees and fruit flies. This effect is specific to neurons and not glia, and the social environment modulates the relationship between metabolism and aggression. The fly–bee system, linking variation in brain metabolism to a natural behavior, could be used to further study the function of brain metabolic plasticity.
Prion-like proteins sequester and suppress the toxicity of huntingtin exon 1
Authors: Kayatekin Can , Matlack Kent E. S. , Hesse William R. , Guan Yinghua , Chakrabortee Sohini , Russ Jenny , Wanker Erich E. , Shah Jagesh V. , Lindquist Susan
Published: August 2014

Significance

Expansion of polyglutamine tracts in at least nine proteins causes neurodegeneration. Although the pathology caused by each protein is different, there must be common features of the polyglutamine expansion that contribute to toxicity. We modeled polyglutamine toxicity in yeast by expressing a 103-glutamine expanded fragment of huntingtin (Htt103Q) and screened the yeast genome to identify proteins that alter this toxicity. Surprisingly, our suppressors were proteins containing glutamine- and asparagine-rich segments typical of prion proteins. When we expressed just these segments with Htt103Q, the two proteins formed large, coaggregated particles, and smaller, more toxic aggregated forms were absent. Proteins with such segments may interact with polyQ-expanded proteins and thereby modulate their toxicity. These interaction partners provide targets for therapeutic intervention.
Modeling host interactions with hepatitis B virus using primary and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocellular systems
Authors: Shlomai Amir , Schwartz Robert E. , Ramanan Vyas , Bhatta Ankit , de Jong Ype P. , Bhatia Sangeeta N. , Rice Charles M.
Published: August 2014

Significance

Major obstacles for using human hepatocytes to study hepatitis B virus (HBV) pathobiology are rapid loss of hepatocyte function after plating and the variability between hepatocyte donors. We show that micropatterning and coculturing of primary human hepatocytes with fibroblasts (MPCC format) maintains prolonged infection that is restricted by the innate immune response, and can be further boosted by suppression of this response. To address the problem of donor variability, we show that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells support HBV infection in a differentiation-dependent manner. Our study opens an avenue for using these systems to study virus–host interactions and test antiviral drugs, and suggests HBV permissiveness as a surrogate reporter to assess the degree of differentiation of candidate iPSC-derived hepatocyte-like cells.
Overexpression of junctophilin-2 does not enhance baseline function but attenuates heart failure development after cardiac stress
Authors: Guo Ang , Zhang Xiaoying , Iyer Venkat Ramesh , Chen Biyi , Zhang Caimei , Kutschke William J. , Weiss Robert M. , Franzini-Armstrong Clara , Song Long-Sheng
Published: August 2014

Significance

Normal cardiac function requires coordinated contraction of working myocytes, which is initiated by a specific communication between Ca
2+
channels on the transverse (T)-tubule membrane and ryanodine receptors on the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) membrane. Junctophilin-2 (JP2) is a structural protein that induces docking of SR to T-tubules to form dyads and that indirectly stabilizes the T-tubule network in ventricular cardiomyocytes. JP2 is frequently down-regulated in heart failure, in parallel with a disruption of the T-tubule network and loss of normal excitation-contraction coupling. Here we show that overexpression of JP2 stabilizes the T-tubule network and attenuates heart failure after cardiac stress. These data suggest that future treatment of heart disease may include strategies to stabilize the architecture of T-tubules and cardiac dyads.
Fibroblastic reticular cells of the lymph node are required for retention of resting but not activated CD8
+
T cells
Authors: Denton Alice E. , Roberts Edward W. , Linterman Michelle A. , Fearon Douglas T.
Published: August 2014

Significance

The balance between the retention of lymphocytes in lymph nodes and their exit is a key factor determining clonal burst size, differentiation, and the efficacy of pathogen clearance. Currently, it is understood that naïve and activated T cells regulate their migration using a similar system, that is, balancing CC chemokine receptor (CCR)7-mediated retention signals against Sphingosine-1 phosphate receptor-1 (S1PR1)-mediated exit signals. This study utilizes a mouse model to selectively deplete the cellular source of CCR7 ligands, the fibroblastic reticular cells, before or during viral infection. The study concludes that while retention of naïve lymphocytes does depend on the fibroblastic reticular cell, it may be a cell-autonomous response of activated T cells that allows them to determine in a cell-intrinsic manner the magnitude of clonal expansion.
Source domains in conceptualizations of the state in Chinese and Hungarian political discourse
Authors: Kou Danyang , Farkas Orsolya
Published: August 2014

In the view of cognitive linguistics, abstract concepts are often understood through more concrete domains of experience, and the resulting conceptual metaphors deeply influence the way people think of and reason about them. Over the past few decades, several interesting studies have been published about this feature in the realm of politics, where the power of speech is greatly felt. One of the most basic concepts of this realm is that of the state, sometimes equated with the country people live in. This paper discusses similarities and differences in the conceptualization of the state in Chinese political discourse on one hand, and Hungarian political discourse on the other, as they are reflected in the source domains used as vehicles of understanding. The discussion is based on corpus research findings, but the analysis relies both on individual intuition of the authors, members of these two cultures (yielding quality analysis), and on frequency counts in the texts of the corpora (quantity analysis). The functions of culture in shaping metaphors and choosing a specific source domain are also taken into consideration in this contrastive study of the two languages.
Patterns of cohesion in spoken text
Authors: Thompson Susan , Thompson Geoff
Published: August 2014

Editors’ introduction

The article by Susan & Geoff Thompson, like several others in this volume, relates to the issue of text chunks and linkages, but in their case the text is a corpus of television advertisements where viewers (and analysts) have to deal with information at various levels simultaneously: written text, voice-over, moving images. In the case of television advertisements, there is great coherence between these three.

However, the strength of the paper lies essentially in the combination of two modes of analysis, of “soundings” and “wordings” (we must look elsewhere for an analysis of “imagings”), an analysis which finds that the two modes operate not only in complement with each other but also with points of contrast.

The chief problem they address is that of cohesion: how do chunks relate to each other? What makes the advert a single audiovisual unit, a text, as opposed to a set of elements? To answer this, they draw upon the notions of repetition and replacement (Winter 1974, 1979). In this view, repetition operates within a text “frame” with “slots”, typically a fairly narrow phrasal context, and serves to signal continuity of aboutness. Darnton’s contribution in this volume presents a fairly similar view, while Scott’s takes repetition at a text level. Replacement puts new words in familiar slots. Conjunction, on the other hand, deals with the signalling of connectedness and can be achieved basically by claiming a Matching relation or a Logical sequence relation. A further pattern enabling linkage is Theme choice, which serves to glue the text together by claiming a relatedness of topic focus. That is, by preserving consistency in what is chosen to start each clause, the television advertiser manages to maintain a continuity of the relevant aspect of “what we’re on about”: namely promoting batteries or deodorants.

Note that parallelism of frames and slots, and conjunction and Theme in this view operate at a fairly local, narrow level in connecting two or more consecutive chunks. That is, they are likely on average to be connecting points of detail rather than major changes of gist. As the Thompsons point out, however, there are also larger-scale operators, such as those in the Problem-Solution discourse pattern, which serve to connect and relate and mark off larger chunks where a major change of emphasis and content may be introduced. Examples of larger chunk linkage operators would be “Meanwhile, back at the ranch” in a novel, or “And finally” in the television news, or “But first” in television announcements of upcoming programmes.

It is particularly interesting that evidence is found that sound linkages may well operate to hold together larger rather than smaller text chunks. The patterns of text are thus complex: some linkages may cluster around detail, and others may relate these to larger text divisions.
Experiential tests of figurative meaning construction
Authors: Gibbs Raymond W.
Published: August 2014

One of the major claims of recent cognitive linguistics research is that metonymy constitutes a fundamental scheme of human cognition and is not just a rhetorical device employed for specific communicative purposes. The work of Klaus-Uwe Panther and others has suggested that certain metonymies are natural inference schemes operating during many aspects of language production and understanding. This chapter explores the relations between cognitive linguistic ideas on conceptual metonymy and recent psycholinguistic experiments examining online meaning construction. I suggest that there is no direct evidence supporting the idea that conceptual metonymies are immediately recruited during metonymic language processing, but that this gap is due to the difficulties in testing whether very abstract schemes are accessed during online meaning construction. Nonetheless, there exists various experimental support for other cognitive linguistic claims about metonymy, including the importance of metonymy for highlighting certain aspects of discourse topics, the interaction of metonymy and grammatical structure in sentence comprehension, and the idea that conceptual metonymies may interact with pragmatic information to constrain specific interpretations of metonymic utterances.
Collocational overlap can guide metaphor interpretation
Authors: Stefanowitsch Anatol
Published: August 2014

In this chapter, I argue that information about properties that are metaphorically projected between semantic domains is accessible in the form of collocational overlap between lexical items representing these domains. This shows that the statistical properties of natural language can guide human language users (and potentially any language-processing device) in constructing metaphorical meaning.
Communication or memory mismatch?
Authors: Schulze Wolfgang
Published: August 2014

Questions are traditionally interpreted as a universal strategy in human language that invites the addressee to share his/her knowledge with the speaker. Hence, questions are seen as a basic property of human communication. However, from a cognitive point of view, it may be asked whether questions (together with their constructional representations) reflect a specific state of cognition, conceptualized in terms of interrogativity. Referring to the framework of Radical Experientialism (Cognitive Typology in linguistic terms), I will propose a model of interrogativity that concentrates on the meaning of questions as such. It will be argued that interrogativity is the immediate reflex of a memory mismatch that may occur when processing outer world stimuli. Its most prototypical (and embodied) expression is that of pitch variation, frequently accompanied by secondary mismatch echoes that can be grammaticalized as question morphemes, particles, tags and so on. The communicative value of questions is viewed as a secondary cognitive hypothesis on mismatch mapping strategies in an interindividual setting.
Categories of desaturated-complex color: Sensorial, perceptual, and cognitive models
Authors: MacLaury Robert E.
Published: August 2014

Over sixty percent of investigated languages name a color category by which speakers combine desaturation and complexity. The category engulfs the grey core of the Munsell color solid to emerge on the least saturated but blended areas of the solid’s surface, commonly brown, lavender, beige, and pale. But people vary in their construction of the category, emphasizing either its desaturation or its complexity. Many reinforce its composition with recognition of dark, light, or blue. A few who favor complexity include very complex colors that are also highly saturated, such as purple, while they still recognize desaturation and include grey as well. The category shows distinct patterns between languages, whence it undergoes various trajectories of development.Many such categories are of basic status, in spite of their variability. Yet individuals elect not to use them more often than they disregard their basic categories of hue or brightness; apprehending color in terms of its desaturation and complexity is an option that crosscuts the alternatives while not precluding them. Statistical differences in the frequency and constitution of the category appear between NewWorld and OldWorld languages. Interlocking models of sensation, perception, and cognition allow clearer understanding of this widely recurrent behavior. Their application here provides opportunity to assess the merits of each. Issues regarding the perceptual model underscore one case in which vision researchers and color ethnographers might pool resources to improve knowledge.
Mien (Yao) color terms
Authors: L-Thongkum Theraphan
Published: August 2014

The aims of this research project are to investigate color terms, the formation of color terms and the evolution of basic color terms in the Mien language, and the attitudes towards colors of the Mien, living in northern Thailand. The data on Mien colors were collected by interviewing 48 female informants, 20–30 years old, in six villages in the provinces of Chiangrai, Phayao, Nan and Lampang, northern Thailand. Two hundred and twenty one color chips cut from a color chart used in the printing business were used for data elicitation. The research results are as follows: there are six basic color terms in the Mien language, pe‘21 WHITE, cia‘45 BLACK, si‘45RED, ja]31 YELLOW, me33 GREEN and bua454 BLUE. The Mien language is thus in Berlin and Kay’s Stage V of color term evolution. It is on its way to reach the sixth stage; that is, the word lua‘ PURPLE is becoming a new basic color term. This finding contradicts the theory that the seventh basic color term in Stage VI should be BROWN.
Linguistic construal of colors: The case of Russian
Authors: Rakhilina Ekaterina V.
Published: August 2014

The paper provides a specific approach to the semantics of color, which differs from the most widespread “psycholinguistic” account – in that it privileges linguistic behavior of color terms. The main object of this investigation is linguistic combinability of color-term adjectives with regards to nouns of “colored” objects. We argue that coexistence of two or more color terms related to the same physical fragment of the color gamut, but whose use is motivated by the need for denoting colors of either natural or artifact objects, is one of the basic grounds for systemic variability in the term meaning.
Colour terms in fashion
Authors: Stoeva-Holm Dessislava
Published: August 2014

The object of this study is an analysis of the lexical means employed in the naming of colors, focusing especially on the form, function, and meaning of these color terms in the German language. Fashion magazines were used as source material for the research. The choice of magazines was determined by the high frequency of color terms. The basic color terms proved to be the most frequently exploited lexical means to describe one color, although it had been hypothetically assumed that there would be a quantitative preponderance of word formation structures, syntactic groups, and transferred designations. The decisive factor in the high frequency of basic color terms is their ability to function in a variety of ways. Not only as they describe a particular color of a garment, they are also increasingly used to express prediction and color trends, which is achieved by nominalization. But the goal has not always been a denotative correctness – rather the conveying of positive connotation.
Gender, age, and descriptive color terminology in some Caucasus cultures
Authors: Samarina Liudmila V.
Published: August 2014

This paper is based on field data (1989–1993) on color vocabulary from representatives of the ethnic groups of the North Caucasus (Kabardins, Circassians, Adygeis, Karachais, Balkars, Ossetians, Noghais, Abazins, Ingushes), Daghestan (Avars, Dargins), Georgia (Georgians, Azerbaijanis). The main results of the study of the differential impact of gender and age on the use of descriptive color terminology in some Caucasus cultures can be summarized as follows. Both factors turn out to be significant: both the elderly people (irrespective of their gender) and the females (irrespective of their age) tend to use significantly more descriptive rather than abstract color terms. On the other hand, the impact of gender factor is considerably stronger than the one of the age factor.
Phraseology and English for academic purposes: Challenges and opportunities
Authors: Coxhead Averil
Published: August 2014

No word is an island. Each word we teach and expect students to learn in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) carries with it many aspects of knowledge including meaning and or meanings, associations, referents, and contexts of use. In recognising that words of a feather seem to flock together, teachers and researchers are exploring new technologies to find out more about words in contexts and in use so as to meet the language needs of an unprecedented number of EAP students worldwide. Whilst this area of study is dynamic and interesting, it is somewhat fraught with doubts and frustrations. This chapter outlines some of the challenges of phraseology in EAP for teachers, researchers, and students. It also discusses some exciting opportunities for the future of phraseology in the teaching and learning of EAP.
Multiword expressions and the digital turn
Authors: Wible David
Published: August 2014

Increasingly the target language input that second language learners are exposed to is digital. This chapter traces some of the implications of this digital turn for the learning of multiword expressions. The underlying question being addressed in the chapter is what sorts of digital resources and tools can foster learners’ mastery of multiword expressions. First, it is shown how multiword expressions pose a fundamentally different acquisition challenge for learners who rely primarily on textual input compared to those who depend mainly on spoken input. Unlike most literature on the acquisition of multiword expressions, the chapter then concentrates on the challenge to the text-oriented learner. The limitations of traditional paper and ink lexical resources are described in terms of three qualities: they are static, centralized, and passive. The significance of the digitalization of these resources (for example, machine-readable dictionaries) is analyzed then through the lenses of these three qualities. Finally, the nature of the Web as a massive, noisy digital archive is taken as an environment for embedding a radically different sort of lexical resource for learning multiword expressions, one that is dynamic, distributed, and active. An existing tool that exemplifies this alternative, called Collocator, is described in terms of these qualities.
Phraseology in learners' dictionaries: What, where and how?
Authors: Siepmann Dirk
Published: August 2014

This chapter raises the question as to whether learners’ dictionaries adequately represent routine formulae in terms of coverage and generativity. Most monolingual learners’ dictionaries are found to concentrate rather too narrowly on traditional non-compositional idioms, while severely neglecting routine formulae which are semantically fully transparent (cf. Siepmann 2005b), thereby failing to conform to semantically-oriented definitions of collocation (e.g. Hausmann 2003; Mel’cuk 2003).
Compilation, formalisation and presentation of bilingual phraseology: Problems and possible solutions
Authors: Pecman Mojca
Published: August 2014

The present chapter explores the many problems that occur in processing bilingual phraseology and strives to offer concrete solutions. The methodological framework and reflection are based on empirical research into English-French phraseology for academic and scientific purposes. The ultimate goal is to offer French academics and scientists a tool for easy access to English routine formulae in that specific genre. After discussing a series of lexicographical issues related to the compilation, formalisation and presentation of bilingual collocations, we illustrate a model we have developed for retrieving English-French general scientific phraseology. The model is based on the semantic component of the language and involves linking every multiword unit to a conceptual condensed representation of its dominant meaning. Ultimately, we demonstrate the ways in which this model could usefully be used to design a flexible electronic dictionary of bilingual phraseology. The unique feature of such a tool would be that it would offer potential users a flexible approach to collocations: one semasiological, allowing them to access the data from their form and one onomasiological, providing an access key to the same data from their meaning.
2. Disentangling the phraseological web
Authors: Granger Sylviane , Paquot Magali
Published: August 2014

Although phraseology has recently begun to establish itself as a field in its own right, this process is being hindered by two main factors: the highly variable and wide-ranging scope of the field and the vast and confusing terminology associated with it. This chapter tackles these two issues successively in an attempt to disentangle the ‘phraseological web’. We first draw up a clear distinction between two major approaches to the study of multi-word units, i.e. the phraseological approach and the distributional or frequency-based approach, which have set quite different boundaries to the field. We then argue that the variations in scope that characterize the field of phraseology are a direct result of its fuzzy borders with four neighbouring disciplines: semantics, morphology, syntax and discourse.We describe some of the most influential typologies of word combinations within the phraseological approach and present a categorization of multi-word units emerging from the distributional approach. We conclude with suggestions regarding both the scope of the field and the terminology used.
4. Processing of idioms and idiom modifications: A view from cognitive linguistics
Authors: Omazić Marija
Published: August 2014

This chapter attempts to establish the role of two cognitive linguistic theories, metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory, in the processing of both conventional and modified phraseological units. It investigates the range of applications and interpretations of the existing cognitive models, furnishing them with attested phraseological material to test their efficiency and applicability as processing templates. It is argued that the two theories can be viewed as complementary: whereas the theory of metaphor is productive in accounting for the processing of a wide range of conventional phraseological units, the theory of conceptual integration can be applied to the analysis of modified phraseological units.
8. Phrasal similes in the BNC
Authors: Wikberg Kay
Published: August 2014

This study focuses on similes, a category of phraseological units that has been amply studied in the phraseology literature but suffers froma lack of corpus-based description. The concept of simile is defined and the differences between similes and comparisons, on the one hand, and similes and metaphors, on the other, are described in some detail with reference to the literature. Then four simile patterns are extracted from the British National Corpus: as Adj/Adv as, is like a(n), is like V-ing a(n) and V like a(n). The selection procedure consists in sifting out literal comparisons using the reversibility test and the degree of figurativeness. This process highlights interesting differences between the patterns in terms of frequency, lexicalization and register. The as Adj/Adv as-pattern is the most frequent but the vast majority of the instances represent literal comparisons. The few per cent similes tend to be lexicalized and there is little innovation. By contrast, the is like a(n)-sequences are much less common but regularly figurative and innovative. The V like a(n)-pattern also proves to contain a high proportion of similes, both lexicalized and innovative.
12. Cross-linguistic phraseological studies: An overview
Authors: Colson Jean-Pierre
Published: August 2014

Cross-linguistic research on phraseology covers a wide range of challenging topics, from the simple comparison of idioms or metaphors in two languages, to the systematic contrastive study of all categories of set phrases across different languages. Current research demonstrates that phraseology in the broad sense is one of the key components of language and is probably universal. However, the theoretical debate on the definition of set phrases and the interaction between culture, meaning, syntax, figurative language and phraseology is not yet completely settled. Two major theoretical approaches have so far yielded promising results: the first is more semantic and is often associated with cognitive linguistics, while the second can be described as cross-linguistic corpus linguistics. The cognitive approach to phraseology across languages lays stress on metaphors and images as the constituent principles of set phrases, and provides interesting information about the intriguing interplay between universal cognitive principles, culture and phraseology. Cross-linguistic studies based on corpora, on the other hand, offer a statistical analysis of the various categories of set phrases as well as a very reliable methodology. Cross-linguistic phraseology is closely linked to translation studies. Active collaboration between multilingual corpus linguistics, contrastive phraseology and natural language processing may offer insightful perspectives on translation practice.
14. Critical observations on the culture-boundness of phraseology
Authors: Sabban Annette
Published: August 2014

This chapter argues for a more rigorous description of the culture-boundness of phrasemes, making a number of terminological proposals; also, for a clear distinction to be made between linguistic analyses and categorizations on the one hand, and claims to modes of thinking of the present-day speaker on the other, the latter generally being seen as belonging to the cognitive dimension of culture. A parallelism with two fundamental modes of existence of a group’s ‘cultural memory’ is identified.
15. Phraseology in a European framework: A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research project on widespread idioms
Authors: Piirainen Elisabeth
Published: August 2014

Widespread idioms (WIs) are idioms that have the same lexical structure (or at least very similar structures) and the same figurative core meaning in various languages, including genetically unrelated and geographically distant languages. The project Widespread Idioms in Europe and Beyond to be outlined here is aimed at systematically investigating into potential WIs. Questionnaires that have been sent back for more than 70 languages are producing first results: different attempts at explaining cross-linguistic similarities of idioms (be it their genetic affiliation, spontaneous metaphorization in various languages, the common cultural European heritage or the increasing influence of English on other languages) can be qualified to a certain extent.
21. A computational lexicography approach to phraseologisms
Authors: Tschichold Cornelia
Published: August 2014

The cycle of lexicographic and linguistic work involved in compiling a computational phraseological database is divided into three phases and described in relation to the specific challenges multi-word expressions (MWEs) pose for a lexical database. Data collection is a process that is far from complete for the MWEs found in English, with the variability of some phrases making identification of all occurrences in large corpora a major challenge. Formalization of the form and variability ofMWEs is an interrelated process which can improve tools for data collection and other applications. Increased use of the phraseological lexical database in NLP applications can ultimately lead to further insights into the nature of MWEs and to improvements in the database. Due to the volume of lexicographic data on MWEs that still needs to be collected, analysed and formalized, and the cyclical nature of the work, the resulting lexical database should be reusable in as many applications as possible. WordManager-PhraseManager, the lexical resource described in the second part of the chapter, can capture the variability ofMWEs in a way that allows for maximum reusability of lexical data.
4. The integrative model of behavioral prediction and message-based HIV-prevention
Authors: Yzer Marco
Published: August 2014

This chapter demonstrates the usefulness of an integrative model of behavioral prediction (IM) for the design of culturally appropriate HIV interventions. The argument builds on three discussions: a delineation of the specific intervention design questions that the IM can address, an illustrative analysis of the types of interventions that are required as a function of the population’s location on an intention – behavior continuum, and lastly, a response to a pervasive concern about the applicability of the IM to non-Western cultures. The chapter’s unifying contention is that the IM is a useful tool for the design of culturally appropriate HIV interventions because it explains behavior as a function of the unique cultural background of the target population.
5. Health education in action in Southern Africa: Soul City
Authors: Goldstein Sue , Perlman Harriete , Smith Caroline Jane
Published: August 2014

This chapter analyses the development and implementation of the Soul City model – using health communication, self efficacy and behaviour change messaging in mass media edutainment materials – to effect positive behaviour change on three levels: the socio-political, the community and the individual. It also analyses some of the results of this model on southern African communities.
African weeks
Authors: McCall Daniel F.
Published: August 2014

Hal Fleming and I were colleagues and friends in the Anthropology Department and the African Studies Center at Boston University for years and remained close after retirement. We had even co-taught a course one year trying to establish a diachronic anthropology. The four fields of American Anthropology are the basis for whatever diachronic dimension is attainable in the study of non-literate peoples. Hal is better steeped in Linguistics and Genetics than I, so I will not try to match him there, but this story of a culture-complex that runs through many millennia is one I know he enjoys. He had heard it before, but it has never been previously published.

The planetary week as a culture-complex is traced from its origins in Babylonia, through the cultures of the Mediterranean Basin, and eventually to its development in the Akan cultures of the Guinea Coast of West Africa.
Riddling in Gidole
Authors: Black Paul
Published: August 2014

This is a brief account of riddling in the Gidole and Konso languages of southwestern Ethiopia, including two examples of Gidole riddling exchanges and ten additional Gidole riddles.
On Kunama ukunkula 'elbow' and its proposed cognates in Nilo-Saharan languages
Authors: Bürgisser Philippe
Published: August 2014

There have been two attempts at reconstructing proto-Nilo-Saharan (pNS), yet they diverge widely. To illustrate the lack of consensus even at the level of cognate recognition among NS languages, I selected the Kunama word ukunkula “elbow” and found it to be included by several scholars in different etymologies which poorly overlap. One major disagreement bears on whether ukunkula consists of a unique duplicated stem or is a compound word. Ukunkula is often considered cognate with Songay haηkoro (honkoro) and Berta k'oηk'oloη “elbow”. I propose here that ukunkula is unrelated and that the real Kunama cognate of the Songay and Berta nouns is ikoηkoro- “to bend”. I could not find convincing cognates of ukunkula or ikoηkoro- in Shabo and the Kadu family, likely affiliated to NS. Nevertheless, I present some other unpublished potential cognates between Shabo, Kadu and NS that may strengthen the case for a genetic relationship among them.
The problem of pan-African roots
Authors: Blench Roger M.
Published: August 2014

A problem of establishing macrophylic relations in Africa is the existence of common lexical items that are shared between the phyla in ways which do not suggest can they be used as evidence for a genetic connection. This suggests that proposals for large-scale language classification in Africa may be flawed by a failure to consider the transphylic distribution of many roots. The paper gives some examples of such lexical items and canvasses possible explanations;

a. they are ancient loanwords

b. they are convergent because of common phonaesthemes

c. African language phyla really are all related

d. they are retained from an early stage of world language diversification

Some roots seem to have a wider distribution in Eurasia, which suggests that (d) may be relevant in some cases.
Some Old World experience of linguistic dating
Authors: Janhunen Juha A.
Published: August 2014

This paper addresses the problem concerning linguistic depth and its measurement on the basis of empirical knowledge from selected Eurasian language families and areal complexes, including Indo-European, Ural-Altaic, and Palaeo-Siberian. There are clear differences between language families and their individual members with regard to the speed of evolution (innovative vs. conservative languages) and lexical openness (open vs. closed languages). Even so, the change of natural languages takes place within certain limits determined by extralinguistic factors, and for assessing these limits the methods of glottochronology and linguistic paleontology retain their relevance. The differentiation of the modern language families of Eurasia is the result of splits which correspond to actual prehistorical and protohistorical periods of cultural innovation, including the Neolithic and the Iron Age. Prospects of identifying deeper-level genetic affiliations are diminished by the relatively restricted comparative corpus available from the oldest reconstructable protolanguages, such as Uralic.
The languages of Northern Eurasia: Inference to the best explanation
Authors: Bengtson John D.
Published: August 2014

This paper discusses the development of hypotheses of classification of the languages of northern Eurasia, from the early “Scythian” hypothesis to the later Nostratic, Eurasiatic, Sino-Caucasian, and Dene-Caucasian proposals. The concept of scientific “proof ” is discussed and contrasted with an alternative concept of “best explanation.” Eurasiatic and Dene-Caucasian can then be viewed as testable and fruitful hypotheses that, so far, provide the best explanations for language diversification in northern Eurasia.
The millennial persistence of Indo-European and Eurasiatic pronouns and the origin of nominals
Authors: Bancel Pierre J. , l'Etang Alain Matthey de
Published: August 2014

In further defense of the Proto-Sapiens antiquity of global kinship etymologies, we illustrate the long-lasting survival of personal pronouns first in the Indo-European family, then in the Eurasiatic macrofamily of languages. We then put forward a conjecture about how the category of 1st and 2nd person pronouns might have originated.