Pseudo-likelihood and contrastive divergence are two well-known examples of contrastive methods. These algorithms trade off the probability of the correct label with the probabilities of other “nearby” instantiations. In this paper we explore more general types of contrastive objectives, which trade off the probability of the correct label against an arbitrary set of other instantiations. We pr...

Pragmatics and Systemic -functional Grammar (SFG) used to ignore each other and lack in communication, however, in certain aspects they are indeed in a position to complement each other. This paper mainly discusses on one hand the bases for the complementary relation between pragmatics and systemic -functional grammar (CR-P&SFG), on the other hand the main aspects concerning the CR-P&SFG. Pragm...

This paper discusses an experiment concerning the assignment of contrastive accents, i.e., accents used to indicate the presence of contrastive information. The experiment tested which of two existing approaches to the determination of contrastive information gives the most natural results. According to one approach the presence of ‘alternative items’ is the only condition for the assignment of...

MOTIVATION Contrasts are useful conceptual vehicles for learning processes and exploratory research of the unknown. For example, contrastive information between proteins can reveal what similarities, divergences and relations there are of the two proteins, leading to invaluable insights for better understanding about the proteins. Such contrastive information are found to be reported in the bio...

This article explores the contrastive function of demonstratives in two languages, Tiriyó (Cariban, northern Brazil) and Lavukaleve (Papuan isolate, Solomon Islands). The contrastive function has to a large extent been neglected in the theoretical literature on demonstrative functions, although preliminary investigations suggest that there are significant di¤erences in demonstrative use in cont...

One source of asymmetry in phonology derives from the contrastive function of features. I assume that feature specifications are driven by considerations of contrast. In order to distinguish between contrastive and redundant specifications, it is necessary to specify the relative scope, or ordering, of each feature. This ordering determines a contrastive hierarchy. Different contrastive hierarc...

This paper aims at studying the speech act of congratulation in Persian and English with regard to semantic formulas. To gather the semantic formulas related to congratulation, the researchers chose 100 movies (50 in Persian and 50 in English) as the instrument of the study. The only model of cross-cultural comparison was related to that of Elwood (2004). Therefore, we used Elwood’s model as th...