Linguistics and English Language

Language evolution seminar

Speaker: William Hamilton (Stanford University)

Title: Negativity and Semantic Change

Abstract: It is often argued that natural language is biased towards negative differentiation, meaning that there is more lexical diversity in negative affectual language, compared to positive language. However, we lack an understanding of the diachronic linguistic mechanisms associated with negative differentiation. In this talk, I will review key concepts related to negative differentiation and discuss how I am using diachronic word embeddings to test whether negative lexical items are more semantically unstable than positive ones. Preliminary results suggest that rates of semantic change are faster for negative affectual language, compared to positive language. I will finish my talk by discussing some practical consequences of this positive/negative asymmetry for sentiment analysis tools.

Contact

Seminars are organised by the Centre for Language Evolution

Svenja Wagner

Centre for Language Evolution

Aug 22 2017 -

Language evolution seminar

22 Aug 2017: Negativity and Semantic Change

Room 1.17, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AD