bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chapter 10. Exploring the learning potential of writing development in heritage language education
Authors: Hedgcock John , Lefkowitz Natalie
Published: March 2014

This chapter examines writing-to-learn practices in a U.S. university foreign language (FL) setting that serves both Anglophone learners of Spanish as a FL and heritage language (HL) students. The HL participants in this study, adults with biliterate knowledge in Spanish and English, exhibit skills, needs, and expectations that diverge considerably from those of their (monolingual) FL counterparts. Evidence gathered from interviews with instructors, student surveys, and instructional materials points toward an approach in which writing serves merely as a means of enhancing language proficiency (a writing-to-learn approach). Findings suggest that traditional writing-to-learn practices are ill-suited to addressing HL students’ literacy needs, which include developing rhetorical skills and genre knowledge that have currency beyond the FL classroom. Accordingly, the chapter adds to the theme explored in the book with its analysis of the potential misalignments between the learning-to-write and writing-to-learn dimensions of L2 writing that may exist in a given instructional setting.
Chapter 11. Reflections on the learning-to-write and writing-to-learn dimensions of second language writing
Authors: Ortega Lourdes
Published: March 2014

This final chapter explores main themes in the book and offers readers some critical points to ponder. I first highlight the intellectual and disciplinary influences which converge into the three dimensions that motivate the book – learning to write (LW) and writing to learn content (WLC) or language (WLL) – and which also cohere with broad professional and contextual locations for each. I then turn to possible interconnections among the three dimensions. In some cases, LW, WLC, and WLL can become dividing lines that feed into compartmentalized professional or scholarly cultures and create misalignments between teacher and student understandings of the value and roles of second language (L2) writing. More often than not, however, the present collection demonstrates that the three views of LW, WLC, and WLL are closely related and can synergistically support instruction as well as enhance research insights. I then reflect on the importance of authenticity, needs, and writerly selves in the conceptualizations of LW, WLC, and WLL offered by authors across chapters. I close my reflections with some questions that are likely to spur future research capable of deepening our understanding of capable of deepening our understanding of the roles that L2 writing instruction plays in uniquely supporting the synergistic learning of writing, content, and language.
Multilingualism in a standard language culture
Authors: Vogl Ulrike
Published: March 2014

It is the aim of this chapter to reveal ways in which standard language ideology has been shaping multilingual practices and conceptions of multilingualism across Europe. At the same time, it serves as a resumé of the findings from the regional case studies in this volume, with an attempt to provide a typology of standard languages cultures in Europe.
Myths we live and speak by
Authors: Davies Winifred V.
Published: March 2014

This chapter examines beliefs about language(s), showing how they are rooted in and help maintain a standard language ideology, i.e. the conviction that certain languages exist in uniform standardised forms and that such forms are desirable. Such an ideology is widespread, although not universal, and has influenced lay and expert approaches to the study of language(s), as I show for example in a discussion of the concepts “vernacular” and “variety”. Characteristics of the standard, like uniformity and determinacy, are postulated as ideal characteristics of all varieties. Speakers influenced by standard language ideology often interpret language contact and language “mixing” negatively as incompetent or sloppy language use. I discuss alternative ways of conceptualising language that might encourage a more positive view of multilingualism.
Marching forward into the past
Authors: Peled Yael
Published: March 2014

Our contemporary idea of ‘monolingual multilingualism’ is rooted not only in the policy practices of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe, but also in its intellectual history. The intellectual origins of this conception could be identified in the political writings of three philosophers who sought to reconcile linguistic diversity with social and political unity and the ethical requirements of a democratic polity: Johann Gottfried Herder, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill. Their shared preference for state monolingualism resonates today in recent work on language ethics in contemporary political theory. The chapter explores the link between language ethics in intellectual history and its contemporary theorising, and the problematic interpretation of ‘linguistic’ that guides it.
Multilingual speakers in a monolingual society
Authors: Haselow Alexander
Published: March 2014

The case of Iceland shows that linguistic variation and the formation of a multilingual community are not always seen as an enrichment for speakers that act in an increasingly globalized world, but sometimes suppressed by means of a rigid language policy. The negative attitude towards the use of a linguistic variety that does not conform to the established standard is intimately linked to the history of standardization and the social history of Iceland in general, both of which will be discussed in the present article. It will also be shown that language planning activities have not always been successful in suppressing linguistic variation and that the strictly monolingual policy that has been carried out in Iceland for centuries could not prevent the current development towards multilingual practices.
Multilingualism and standardization in Greece
Authors: Mackridge Peter
Published: March 2014

The chapter traces the various ways in which linguistic diversity in Greece has been superseded by linguistic uniformity. First, it provides an outline of the historic co-existence of Greek with other languages in what is today Greek territory. After touching on regional diversity within the Greek language, it presents an overview of the chief issues and the chief phases in the Greek language controversy, on the grounds that the controversy was fundamentally a conflict between rival standardization projects, a conflict that only came to an end in 1976. The longest section of the chapter is devoted to a survey of these standardization projects. A brief conclusion refers to complaints and fears frequently articulated by members of the Greek public today concerning their language.
Centripetal and centrifugal forces in the sociolinguistic configuration of the Iberian Peninsula
Authors: Anipa Kormi
Published: March 2014

The rise of Castilian-Romance to a national and a standard language status in Spain and its relationship with other languages and its own varieties in the territory have been heavily studied. A close examination of the literature, however, reveals such problems as diachronic segmentation and a subtle polarization into “pro-Castilianist” and “anti-Castilianist” camps; hence the need for a relatively neutral approach. The present study examines the historical sociolinguistic situation in Spain by filtering a number of pertinent facts through classic macro-sociolinguistic (Garvin & Mathiot 1953; Haugen 1966) and socio-political (Fishman 1968, 1972) theoretical parameters. It draws conclusions that point to a more objective understanding of the present-day coexistence of a standard ideology with the practice of multilingualism in Spain.
The Caucasus
Authors: Haarmann Harald
Published: March 2014

Since ancient times, the Caucasus has been the crossroads of peoples, cultures and languages. The oldest permanent populations of Europe, the indigenous peoples of Caucasian ethnic stock, are found here. The Caucasus region is also home to various other peoples, among them Indo-Europeans and Turkic populations. For thousands of years, multilingualism and language contacts have been stable ingredients in interethnic relations. With the conquest of the region by tsarist Russia, forcible unification was imposed on the local population. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Caucasus region has been divided into two major areas. One is the South where the major peoples (Georgians, Armenians and Azeri), in their re-established political sovereignty, have rid themselves of the Russian influence that had overformed their cultures. The northern part of the Caucasus has remained under Russian rule and, here, the Russian impact continues to be felt both linguistically and politically. To this day, there is no political stability, with ethnic conflicts blowing out of proportions and local populations engaging in wars, either with the Russians or among themselves.
Multilingualism and the disputed standardizations of Macedonian and Moldovan
Authors: Ciscel Matthew H.
Published: March 2014

This chapter explores the relatively recent processes of language standardization in two Eastern European countries that emerged from State Communism in the early 1990s. The majority languages in Macedonia and Moldova are shown to come from politicized authoritarian backgrounds and to have been disputed during the transition to independence and democracy, ultimately affecting the types and extent of multilingualism in each context. The central role of language ideologies and politics is emphasized as similarities and differences in the two contexts are examined.
Chapter 1. Multilingual practices in professional settings
Authors: Markaki Vassiliki , Merlino Sara , Mondada Lorenza , Oloff Florence , Traverso Véronique
Published: March 2014

Drawing on naturalistic video and audio recordings of international meetings, and within the framework of conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and interactional linguistics, this chapter studies how multilingual resources are mobilized in social interactions among professionals, how available linguistic and embodied resources are identified and used by the participants, which solutions are locally elaborated by them when they are confronted with various languages spoken but not shared among them, and which definition of multilingualism they adopt for all practical purposes.Focusing on the multilingual solutions emically elaborated in international professional meetings, we show that the participants orient to a double principle: on the one hand, they orient to the progressivity of the interaction, adopting all the possible resources that enable them to go on within the current activity; on the other hand, they orient to the intersubjectivity of the interaction, treating, preventing and repairing possible troubles and problems of understanding. Specific multilingual solutions can be adopted to keep this difficult balance between progressivity and intersubjectivity; they vary according to the settings, the competences at hand, the linguistic and embodied resources locally defined by the participants as publicly available, the multilingual resources treated as totally or partially shared, as transparent or opaque, and as needing repair or not.The paper begins by sketching the analytical framework, including the methodology and the data collected; it then presents some general findings, before offering an analysis of various ways in which participants keep the balance between progressivity and intersubjectivity in different multilingual interactional contexts.
Chapter 2. The practical processing of plurilingualism as a resource in professional activities
Authors: Greco Luca , Renaud Patrick , Taquechel Rodriguez Roxana
Published: March 2014

Our study seeks to go beyond a conception of “multilingualism” overtly attached to a view of language as a closed set of rules over-determining the form of utterances purely defined in terms of grammar. Our study focuses on a diversity of linguistic practices locally elaborated by the participants in the course of their actions – what has been called a “languaging” activity. This invites us to think about language-at-work and the online development of syntactic and pragmatic resources. Adopting the framework of Conversation Analysis inspired by ethnomethodology, on the basis of the analysis of ten extracts of professional exchanges in multilingual settings, this chapter attempts to contribute to the development of a step-by-step examination of the way in which participants process the heterogeneity of their available resources, particularly visible in situations of multilingual interaction.
Chapter 4. Representations of multilingualism and management of linguistic diversity in companies
Authors: Bothorel-Witz Arlette , Tsamadou-Jacoberger Irini
Published: March 2014

Thematic interviews with some twenty executives working in five multinational companies located in the French region of Alsace have allowed us to reveal their representations and perceptions of their linguistic practices at work, of their multilingual skills and, finally, of the actions or measures that the companies (implicitly or explicitly) advocate on language management. Discourse analysis has highlighted certain widely-shared representations, both within a company or among different companies, which indicate support for or submission to a dominant ideology that underlies group identity. However, during interactions, this collective monophony contrasts with more personal positions (individual representations) which alter the interviewees’ attitudes to established representations (support, detachment or rejection). We therefore focus on these differences or tensions, in order to identify more accurately the problematic aspects of multilingualism and of linguistic and cultural diversity management in companies.
Chapter 6. What can Gaelic teach us about effective policy through planning?
Authors: Milligan Lindsay , Chalmers Douglas , O'Donnell Hugh
Published: March 2014

This chapter presents focuses on the area of language policy in business. It discusses the relevance and effectiveness of strategies aiming toward bilingual Gaelic/English practices in workplace environments that address the need for capacity to work in two languages. The strategies under consideration are: translation services, as well as training & development. This chapter concludes with general recommendations for how the example of strategies used in Gaelic language policies can inform the development of policies in other areas.
Chapter 7. Language diversity management on corporate websites
Authors: Yanaprasart Patchareerat , Choremi Thiresia , Gander Filippo
Published: March 2014

The issues addressed in this contribution raise the question of language choices on companies’ websites and their implications for communication and access to information (fairness and equity) in the corporate sector. While the importance of the Internet as a means of communication and marketing for the corporate sector has been acknowledged, little attention has been paid to the linguistic dimension and the implications of this tool for business communication. This chapter examines the way in which companies cope with the linguistic diversity on their websites in order to identify possible models of language management as well as the eventual consequences of such choices for the structure and the content of a website. For the first stage, using a quantitative approach (statistical tools), we try to “map” the websites of fourteen surveyed companies in order to identify their degree of monolingualism/multilingualism, the sections that would be interesting to focus on with regard to understanding the policies of multilingual and multicultural content management, as well as a certain number of recurrent strategies. For the second stage, specific attention is given to conceptualizing the ways monolingual and multilingual resources have been mobilized in two website sections: job offers and the sale of products. On the one hand, job offers, being oriented towards future employees, are aimed at giving information about the company’s requirements. On the other hand, the products’ section is used as a market-oriented tool to accomplish the company’s main objective which is to “sell”.
Chapter 8. Language competence and language choice within EU institutions and their effects on national legislative authorities
Authors: Kruse Jan , Ammon Ulrich
Published: March 2014

The topic of this article is multilingualism and language choice in EU institutions. An analysis of whether the choice of working monolingualism penetrates progressively into the entire community and affects other languages and language use and if so, how this occurs.It comprises different sub-topics and perspectives such as the attitudes of EU officials, external communication of EU institutions with civil society through website presentations, with journalists through press conferences and with the German Parliament by the submission of papers. Also, internal institutional aspects were considered by analysing language choice for contributions in plenary and committee meetings in the EU Parliament and the Commission as well as the commissioners’ language skills. Special attention was paid to the unofficial institutional procedural languages, namely English, French and German, which have emerged in this function. English has gained outstanding prominence in all of the domains analyzed, though this does not seem to be welcome according to the officials’ professed attitudes and EU language policy principles. This research shows, however, that the prominence of English is the political reality, despite the seemingly adverse political will and in spite of the reduction in the number of procedural languages, the extension of interpretation services and the promotion of officials’ foreign language skills. Parliamentarians fear the negative impacts of such a development on the EU’s democracy and legitimacy. In addition, growing monolinguality causes language conflicts with, and within, national parliaments as shown by this research in the case of the German Bundestag. Neither the members of the German Parliament, however, or the EU commissioners seem to consider this a burning issue of EU politics. Finally, this research reveals the potentially positive effects of working plurilingualism in EU institutions as well as the stark discrepancy between the EU’s language policy and its actual language politics. The article is based largely on research planning and guidance by Ulrich Ammon and also research carried out by Jan Kruse and, formerly, Verena Wimmers and Michael Schloßmacher.
Chapter 12. Multilingual higher education between policies and practices
Authors: Veronesi Daniela , Spreafico Lorenzo , Varcasia Cecilia , Vietti Alessandro , Franceschini Rita
Published: March 2014

This paper explores multilingualism at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, an officially trilingual institution of higher education in Italy. By discussing examples of institutional communication and informal student interaction, and relating them to official language policies and social actors’ reported practices, the study aims to provide insights into how institutional trilingualism is viewed and translated into practice in the context under examination, and on how, in more general terms, linguistic diversity can be an advantage rather than a drawback in higher education.The emergence of two different models of multilingual education is discussed, showing how multilingual practices – sometimes in tension with official policies – can enhance participation and knowledge co-construction. Analyses of service encounters document the role played by social actors’ multilingual competence in accomplishing their communicative goals, while the examination of students’ informal peer-interaction highlights the impact of social networks on the development of multilingual repertories.
Chapter 13. Plurilingualisms and knowledge construction in higher education
Authors: Gajo Laurent , Grobet Anne , Serra Cecilia , Steffen Gabriela , Müller Gabriele , Berthoud Anne-Claude
Published: March 2014

This chapter aims to achieve a better understanding of the role of plurilingualism not only in the development of new communicative skills, but also in the construction of knowledge in higher education. On the basis of a theoretical framework at the crossroads between conversation analysis, discourse analysis, studies on second language acquisition and plurilingualism, we develop new analytical tools. We particularly focus here on a class sequence recorded in the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich, which illustrates very well the relevance of language negotiation to the conceptualisation process. Our analysis brings in important distinctions between different linguistic modes (plurilingual vs unilingual) and participation regimes (more or less collaborative) and shows how the plurilingual mode connected to a collaborative participation can stimulate the acquisition process, the discourse activity (for example, a definition sequence) being also relevant to the shaping of knowledge. Furthermore, beyond the practice stage, we underline the role played by social representations in this regard. We conclude on the notion of plurilingualism as an asset.
Chapter 14. Language policies in universities and their outcomes
Authors: Moring Tom , Godenhjelm Sebastian , Haapamäki Saara , Lindström Jan , Östman Jan-Ola , Saari Mirja , Sylvin Jenny
Published: March 2014

This chapter explores multilingualism in higher education in the Nordic countries with a particular focus on the University of Helsinki. It applies policy analysis and discourse analytic approaches in an effort to scrutinize the existence of language policies at different levels (EU, national, and university), their outputs and outcomes. We provide a showcase of how policy input, output and outcomes can be analysed according to a model applicable to the assessment of policy implementation. Our studies stress the importance of making distinctions between both overt and covert language policies, and between explicit and implicit language use. The study illustrates the nature of covert policies in the universities in Northern Europe that we have studied and the concomitant linguistic manifestations of these policies. A general tendency is an increasing internationalisation within higher education. This is supported by EU-level soft policies. Our findings raise questions about the impact that this policy has on multilingualism. The linguistic scene in higher education institutions in Northern Europe appears to be moving towards bilingualism in national languages and English, with the exception of some minority languages with special status. Our research shows that language policies are essential from a minority’s perspective. A general lack of evaluation and follow-up can, however, be seen. A further broadening of the language repertoires is proposed.
Chapter 15. Policies and practices of multilingualism at Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj, Romania)
Authors: Oltean Ştefan , Pop Liana , Cotrău Diana , Marga Delia , Mihăescu Manuela
Published: March 2014

This study focuses on the relationship between multilingual policies and practices and their representations at the Babeş-Bolyai University (BBU) of Cluj, Romania, drawing on a broad theoretical background provided by sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, semantics, cognitive analysis and didactics, within a convergent set of academic contexts: European, Romanian, regional and institutional. We signpost how multilingualism became a seminal entry on the BBU’s political agenda as scaffolded by the three-tiered language policy of this university – the study-lines in regional languages (Romanian, Hungarian, German), the provision of full study programs in widely spoken languages (CLIL), and the teaching of specialized modern languages (LSP). Most importantly, in line with the core questions the Dylan Project has attempted to find answers to, we scrutinize the multilingual practices of the BBU, the attitudes adopted to multilingualism and its representations among students and members of the academic community. Thus, by analyzing the corpora gathered through video-taping LSP and CLIL classes and interpreting the data resulting from a collection of faculty interviews and student questionnaires, we aim to identify the conditions under which multilingualism may become a resource, as well as a problem, for communication and knowledge transmission.
How policies influence multilingual education and the impact of multilingual education on practices
Authors: Van de Craen Piet , Surmont Jill , Ceuleers Evy , Allain Laure
Published: March 2014

In this contribution two questions are addressed namely what is the influence of policy on multilingual education and what is the impact of multilingual education on practices? By multilingual education is meant content and language integrated learning or CLIL. This paper is organized in three parts. In the first part the influence on policy on multilingual education is studied on two levels. First, the local level, i.e. the region of Flanders in Belgium and, second, the European level will be examined. The second part will study the impact of multilingual education on practice by researching two selected secondary schools, one vocational and one elite school by means of a number of tenets that include linguistic and non-linguistic ones. The main task of the Dylan project was to show the importance of multilingualism in a variety of ways. One of the most important aspects is education at both university and secondary level that should ideally be built upon multilingual primary education. Current scientific research has mainly focussed on aspects of language education while we advocate the idea that learning in another language has a major influence on a number of factors that eventually create better learners. In this way this approach is, first, a contribution to the advantages of multilingualism and, second, a plea for educational innovation via language education. Finally, a number of theoretical pathways are identified to illustrate our major conclusion that opens the way toward a new educational paradigm.
Chapter 17. Assessing efficiency and fairness in multilingual communication
Authors: Grin François , Gazzola Michele
Published: March 2014

As shown in several chapters of this book, actors confronted with the need to communicate in a multilingual context use a variety of strategies. These strategies may be more or less directly influenced by the language policies adopted by the public or private sector institutions in which they operate. Such policies may also be extremely diverse. Whether we are referring to actual language practices or explicit language policies, they can prove more or less multilingual. Assessing the relative merits of “more” or “less” multilingual practices and policies presupposes that we have a set of criteria which we can use as a basis for comparing them with each other. This chapter is devoted to the development of such criteria on the basis of the core principles of policy analysis, as it is applied to a host of other questions ranging from education planning to the provision of health services and environmental protection. We first show how the standard criteria of efficiency and fairness can be constructed and used with reference to language. We then infer from this analytical framework a matrix for the generation of a system of indicators of efficiency and fairness in multilingual communication. Examples of indicators, which can be “populated” with data, are provided in the appendix.
Chapter 18. English as a lingua franca in European multilingualism
Authors: Hülmbauer Cornelia , Seidlhofer Barbara
Published: March 2014

In this chapter, we investigate the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in interaction with other languages in linguistically diversified settings and examine the ways in which ELF is employed by plurilingual European speakers. On the one hand, this concerns the speakers’ strategic adaptation of linguistic elements according to their specific communicative purposes. In this respect, we have identified patterns of accommodation techniques and joint negotiation of meaning among ELF users. On the other hand, these processes have themselves proven to be interwoven with speakers’ overall linguistic repertoires and have thus shown ELF to be a multilingual mode. The analysis has shed light on diverse manifestations of this linguistic diversity within ELF and the processes underlying these. On a more general level, two major findings have emerged from the investigation of lingua franca communication: (1) Regardless of differences in first languages, plurilingual speakers share a great deal of skills, knowledge and resources which they mobilise in order to achieve their communicative goals. In other words, there is ‘familiarity in the foreign’ which can be strategically exploited. (2) Intercultural communicators employing a lingua franca mode exhibit considerable flexibility and integration of linguistic resources rather than sticking to stable, strictly demarcated codes. There is thus ‘flexibility beyond the fixed’. We analyse ELF interactions as representative of today’s intercultural communication practices and concluded that there is a need for reconsideration of established categories such as stable speech communities, reified languages and additive multilingualism.
Chapter 19. Europe’s multilingualism in the context of a European culture of standard languages
Authors: Moliner Olivier , Vogl Ulrike , Hüning Matthias
Published: March 2014

Starting from the central DYLAN question as to the conditions under which Europeans consider multilingualism as an advantage or as a drawback, the present chapter primarily discusses the historical aspects of European multilingualism. Methodically, many of the aspects dealt with are based on an analytical grid which illustrates the interrelations between the four research areas: “domains”, “language attitudes”, “language policies” and “contexts”. The fifth area “tranversal issues” (Geneva, Vienna, Berlin) and especially the aims of the Berlin research team run at right angles to this, touching on all four areas and offering a historical retrospective which provides a general overview of past and present forms of European multilingualism. Perhaps surprisingly, we depart from the assumption that the often invisible occurrences and forms of multilingualism in European history can be illuminated by taking a detour into comparative research into European standardisation histories. Thematically, the article uses examples to focus on indexicality and the social aspects of (individual) multilingualism by conducting a comparative analysis of certain periods (16th, 19th/20th and 21st century) and of distinguishable occurrences/forms (prestigious, plebeian) and trends/concepts (territoriality, non-standard, correctness, egalitarian). The mechanisms operative in the fields of linguistic attitudes and usages during the various European standardisation periods are considered from a macro-perspective. One of the focuses here is on the varied and context-specific traditions of foreign language learning from the Middle Ages where multilingualism was part of self-evident practice up to the present day and on the rediscovery of European multilingualism (19th century) which was, for example, accompanied by a fundamental critique (from the late 19th century onwards) of the principle of territoriality and uniformity. Among other things, the final section presents proposals for the periodisation of the different stages of standardisation in Europe.
Introducing artificial Companions
Authors: Wilks Yorick
Published: March 2014

This introductory chapter, like the whole book itself, concerns a range of closely related topics: the possibility of machines having identifiable personalities, the possible future legal responsibilities of such companionable machines, and the design characteristics of such machines, including their technical implementation and the kinds of computational theory they will need to embody. As will become clear, I wish to explore these topics in terms of software entities, rather than robots, and in particular the sort of software agents now being encountered on the web, ranging at present from technical advisers to mere chatbots. I shall call them Companions. This introduction explores the following related aspects of a Companion in more detail: what kind and level of personality should be in a machine agent so as to be acceptable to a human user, more particularly to one who may fear technology and have no experience of it; and what levels of responsibility and legal attribution for responsibility can we expect from entities like complex web agents in the near future?
Artificial Companions and their philosophical challenges
Authors: Floridi Luciano
Published: March 2014

The technology for Artificial Companions is already largely available, and the question is when rather than whether ACs will become commodities (Benyon and Mival (2007). The difficulties are still formidable, but they are not insurmountable. On the contrary, they seem rather well-understood, and the path from theoretical problems to technical solutions looks steep but climbable. cIn the following pages, I wish to concentrate not on the technological challenges, which are important, but on some philosophical issues that a growing population of AC will make increasingly pressing.
Conditions for Companionhood
Authors: Pulman Stephen G.
Published: March 2014

This chapter is an attempt to outline a set of conditions that are jointly necessary and sufficient for any entity, virtual or real, to be regarded as displaying the properties characteristic of our ordinary everyday understanding of the notion of a Companion.
Arius in cyberspace
Authors: O'Hara Kieron
Published: March 2014

The relationship between a Companion and a person will become increasingly problematic as Companion technology improves and as models of users become increasingly sophisticated, and the simple dichotomies that make the Turing Test so plausible as a means of determining intelligence will become harder to maintain. As with any kind of content-storing technology, such as writing, or in more recent years laptops, the amount and quality of cognition that a human can ‘export’ to these outside technologies is significant. The ‘person’ or ‘agent’ can be seen as an extended system including the technologies as well as the human, in which the technologies, among other things, can help in the extension of trust towards the human.
Robots should be slaves
Authors: Bryson Joanna J.
Published: March 2014

Robots should not be described as persons, nor given legal nor moral responsibility for their actions. Robots are fully owned by us. We determine their goals and behavior, either directly or indirectly through specifying their intelligence or how their intelligence is acquired. In humanising them, we not only further dehumanise real people, but also encourage poor human decision making in the allocation of resources and responsibility. This is true at both the individual and the institutional level. This chapter describes both causes and consequences of these errors, including consequences already present in society. I make specific proposals for best incorporating robots into our society. The potential of robotics should be understood as the potential to extend our own abilities and to address our own goals.
Wanting the impossible
Authors: Evans Dylan
Published: March 2014

In a recent book entitled Love and Sex with Robots, the British scholar David Levy has argued that relationships with robot Companions might be more satisfying than relationships with humans, a claim which I call “the greater satisfaction thesis” (GST).  The main reason Levy provides in support of GST is that people will be able to specify the features of robot Companions precisely in accordance with their wishes (which I call the total specification argument or TSA).  In this paper, I argue that TSA is wrong.  In particular, the argument breaks down when we consider certain behavioral characteristics that we desire in our partners. I illustrate my argument with a thought-experiment involving­ two kinds of robot – the FREEBOT, which is capable of rejecting its owner permanently, and the RELIABOT, which is not
Falling in love with a Companion
Authors: Levy David
Published: March 2014

In 1984, in her groundbreaking book The Second Self, Sherry Turkle made us aware of the tendency of some people to develop relationships with their computers. Turkle described one such example, an MIT computer hacker who she called Anthony, who had “tried out” having girlfriends but preferred to relate to computers. I believe that the developments in AI since then have demonstrated a progression in human-computer relationships to the point where we can now say with confidence that, in the foreseeable future, significant numbers of Anthony’s and their female counterparts will be falling in love with software Companions. This position paper summarizes my arguments.
Identifying your accompanist
Authors: Lowe Will
Published: March 2014

What Companions are or should be will depend on what we want them to do for us. And this depends on what they can do for us. In the end, I shall argue that whether Companions should best be thought of, programmed and regulated as others, or as extensions of ourselves, is a tactical question. One path cwill simply be more effective than the other. Either way, it’s going to be all about us. To make a start let us switch to the second person: What can a Companion do for you?
Look, emotion, language and behavior in a believable virtual Companion
Authors: Romano Daniela M.
Published: March 2014

A good friend is the one that make you laugh, shares your deepest emotions and is there to listen and help you when you need it. Can we have we have a synthetic Companion with these qualities? He/she (we assume it has the status of a person at this stage) should be able understand and express emotions, to talk and listen, know who you are and what you feel and like. The Companion considered in this chapter is a synthetic creature living in a virtual world, able to display believable human-like qualities. The concept of believability within virtual environments is also discussed here together with some of the problems connected with the creation of such Companion.
New Companions
Authors: Taylor Alex , Jain Anab , Swan Laurel
Published: March 2014

This chapter draws on advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to question the orthodoxy of artificial Companions research. Two areas of work are outlined and used to suggest artificial Companions need not be restricted to simulacrums of humans or animals. First, it is argued the developments in AI have given rise to the prospect of very different kinds of machines, machines that are unlike humans or animals but that we may still want to form relationships with. Second, details are presented of a project exploring energy autonomous robots. Ecobot, an example of such a robot, is shown to exhibit unique characteristics that may afford new, distinctive forms of Companionship. Finally, a design concept of an autonomously powered, household radio is presented to illustrate how these new kinds of relationships might be investigated further.
On being a Victorian Companion
Authors: Wilks Yorick
Published: March 2014

I have argued or suggested: – English Common Law already, in dogs, has a legal category of entities that are not human but are in some degree responsible for their actions and have “characters” that can be assessed. – Users may not want Companions prone to immediately expressed emotions and a restrained personality, like a Victorian Lady’s Companion, might provide a better model. – Language behavior is a complex repository of triggers for emotion, both expressed and causal, and this is often under-rated in the world of ECA and theories of emotion based on them. – Companion-to-Companion communications will be important and helpful to a user, and there is nothing in principle to make one believe that “secrets” cannot be handled sensitively in such an environment. – It is easy to underestimate the role of a user’s preference in selecting the personality appropriate to a Companion: it is not even clear that users want Companions to be polite or agreeable – it may depend on personal choice or their functional role. – For many it may be appropriate for a Companion to become progressively more like its owner in voice, face, personality, memories etc. – exaggerating the way dogs are believed to adapt to owners – and if and when this becomes possible, for the Companion to become a self-avatar of its owner, there may well be other unseen consequences after the owner’s death
GRETA
Authors: Bevacqua Elisabetta , Prepin Ken , Niewiadomski Radoslaw , Sevin Etienne de , Pelachaud Catherine
Published: March 2014

In this chapter we present our work toward building a conversational Companion. Conversing with partner(s) means to being able to express one’s mental and emotional state, to be a speaker or a listener. One needs also to adapt to ones partner’s reactions to what one is saying. We have developed an interactive ECA platform, Greta (Pelachaud, 2005). It is a 3D virtual agent capable of communicating expressive verbal and nonverbal behaviors as well as listening. It can use its gaze, facial expressions and gestures to convey a meaning, an attitude or an emotion. Multimodal behaviors are tightly tied with each other. A synchronization scheme has been elaborated allowing the agent to display a raised eyebrow or a beat gesture on a given word. According to its emotional or mental state, the agent may vary the quality of its behaviors: it may use a more or less extended gesture, the arms can move at different speeds and with different accelerations (Mancini & Pelachaud, 2008). The agent can also display listener behavior (Bevacqua et al., 2008). It interacts actively with users and/or other agents providing appropriate timed backchannels. Interaction also means the interactants ought to adapt to each others’ behaviors and dynamic coupling between them needs to be considered (Prepin & Revel, 2007).
Companionship is an emotional business
Authors: Cowie Roddy
Published: March 2014

This is written from the perspective of someone who was trained as a psychologist, and has been working for a decade on emotion-oriented/affective computing. That background highlights two kinds of issue: how emotion enters into the Companion scenario, and how computing can relate to emotion. In both areas, there is a difference between the intuitions of people who are not deeply involved, and the realities as they appear to people working in the area. The goal of this paper is to consider how the realities of emotion and emotion-oriented technology impact on the prospects for artificial Companions. The concern behind it is that otherwise, we may misjudge both the prospects and the risks. In particular, ability to address the emotional side of Companionship may play a key part in acceptance; and the necessary resources, conceptual as well as technical, cannot be taken for granted. We should be concerned about inserting Companions into emotionally sensitive roles without engineering them to take that into account.
Artificial Companions in society
Authors: Newell Alan
Published: March 2014

Artificial Companions provide Companionship, and to help people with their daily tasks is an intriguing and exciting concept. In addition to the important technical challenges of providing such systems, it is also clearly important to consider: 1. What facilities they should and should not provide. 2. The characteristics, needs and wants of potential users and 3. The personal and social consequences of such technologies. These are complex, multi-faceted issues and it is necessary consider what are the most effective and beneficial ways of addressing them.
You really need to know what your bot(s) are thinking about you
Authors: Winfield Alan FT
Published: March 2014

The projected ubiquity of personal Companion robots raises a range of interesting but also challenging questions. There can be little doubt that an effective artificial Companion, whether embodied or not, will need to be both sensitive to the emotional state of its human partner and be able to respond sensitively. It will, in other words, need artificial theory of mind – such an artificial Companion would need to behave as if it has feelings and as if it understands how its human partner is feeling. This chapter explores the implementation and implications of artificial theory of mind, and raises concerns over the asymmetry between and artificial Companion’s theory of mind for its human partner and the human’s theory of mind for his or her artificial Companion. The essay argues that social learning (imitation) is an additional requirement of artificial Companion robots, then goes on to develop the idea that an artificial Companion robot will not be one robot but several. A surprising consequence of these ideas is that a family of artificial Companion robots could acquire an artificial culture of its own, and the essay concludes by speculating on what this might mean for human(s) interacting with their artificial Companion robots.
Summary and discussion of the issues
Authors: Peltu Malcom , Wilks Yorick
Published: March 2014

The COMPANIONS project, which inspired this book, is studying conversational software-based artificial agents that will get to know their owners over a substantial period. These could be developed to advise, comfort and carry out a wide range of functions to support diverse personal and social needs, such as to be ‘artificial Companions’ for the elderly, helping their owners to learn, or assisting to sustain their owners’ fitness and health. This chapter summarizes the main issues raised in the workshop that gave rise to this book. Most direct quotes from participants in this chapter come from their own chapters. Appendix 1 contains examples of current artificial Companions and related research projects mentioned at the workshop.
Using morphology to improve Example-Based Machine Translation
Authors: Cavalli-Sforza Violetta , Phillips Aaron B.
Published: March 2014

We describe how morphological information was used in an Example-Based Arabic-to-English Machine Translation system to produce significant improvement in translation quality on both small and large corpora. We experimented with different methods of generalizing morphology to obtain more candidate source-side matches, while retaining information about the specific input to be translated. This information was then used with adaptation rules and a language model to generate context-appropriate target-side fragments, select and combine them. We outline essential differences between Statistical MT (SMT) and Example-based MT (EBMT), compare ourselves to other EBMT systems used with morphologically complex languages, and justify our choice of EBMT over SMT.
Using semantic equivalents for Arabic-to-English
Authors: Bar Kfir , Dershowitz Nachum
Published: March 2014

We explore the effect of using Arabic semantic equivalents in an examplebased Arabic-English translation system. We describe two experiments using single-word equivalents in translation as test cases for broadening the level of similarity and using multi-word Arabic paraphrases in the future. In the first experiment, we used synonymous Arabic nouns, derived from a lexicon, to help locate potential translation examples for fragments of a given input sentence. Not surprisingly, the smaller the parallel corpus, the greater the contribution provided by synonyms. Considering the degree of relevance of the subject matter of a potential match contributes to the quality of the final results. In the second experiment, we used automatically extracted single-word verb paraphrases, derived from a corpus of comparable documents. The experiments were performed within an implementation of a non-structural example-based translation system, using a parallel corpus aligned at the sentence level. The methods developed here should apply to other morphologically-rich languages.