Chatbots Language Design: The Influence of Language Variation on User Experience with Tourist Assistant Chatbots

Chatbots are often designed to mimic social roles attributed to humans. However, little is known about the impact of using language that fails to conform to the associated social role. Our research draws on sociolinguistic to investigate how a chatbot’s language choices can adhere to the expected social role the agent performs within a context. We seek to understand whether chatbots design should account for linguistic register. This research analyzes how register differences play a role in shaping the user’s perception of the human-chatbot interaction. We produced parallel corpora of conversations in the tourism domain with similar content and varying register characteristics and evaluated users’ preferences of chatbot’s linguistic choices in terms of appropriateness, credibility, and user experience. Our results show that register characteristics are strong predictors of user’s preferences, which points to the needs of designing chatbots with register-appropriate language to improve acceptance and users’ perceptions of chatbot interactions.

Explanations in Sociosyntactic Variation

What explains variation in human language? How are linguistic and social factors related? How do we examine possible semantic differences between variants? These questions and many more are explored in this volume, which examines syntactic variables in a range of languages. It brings together a team of internationally acclaimed authors to provide perspectives on how and why syntax varies between and within speakers, focusing on explaining theoretical backgrounds and methods. The analyses presented are based on a range of languages, making it possible to address the questions from a cross-linguistic perspective. All chapters demonstrate rigorous quantitative analyses, which expose the conditioning factors in language change as well as offering important insights into community and individual grammars. It is essential reading for researchers and students with an interest in language variation and change, and the theoretical framework and methods applied in the study of how and why syntax varies.

English Language Variation of Tourist Guide: A Case Study of Indonesian Context

Individuals frequently speak English differently depending on their native language or the society they live in. A primary goal of our research is to learn more about the unique linguistic characteristics of the Indonesian people. This study aims to discover the language variation of English used by Indonesian tourist guides. Researchers used library and field research to perform the analysis. The researcher gathered data by recording, transcribing, and categorizing it in three separate processes. Furthermore, the researchers utilized a descriptive qualitative method to examine the usual linguistic features of English used by the tour guide. According to the findings of this study, the code choice of the three tour guides is relatively comparable. They used some particular lexical, namely actually, so, this is I and ‘and then’ In addition, they perform code-switching and code-mixing. Keywords: English, Language Variation, Tourist, Guide, Indonesia

Lutsi speakers and rememberers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries

This article describes the language of the last speakers of Lutsi as well as their family background and the sources of their language knowledge, in order to show the paths by which Lutsi language knowledge – even if only of a fragmentary sort – has survived up to the present day. The language knowledge of these last speakers is described using observations taken from the field notes and memories of other researchers as well as from my own encounters with them. This information is placed in a historical and regional context by providing a detailed overview of the historical extent of the Lutsi community, theories about Lutsi origins and how this connects with the memory of Lutsi families and observed language variation within the Lutsi speech area, changes in Lutsi speaker numbers and language use, and the history of Lutsi documentation and the observations of the researchers who documented them. Kokkuvõte. Uldis Balodis: Lutsi keele kõnelejad ja mäletajad 20. ja 21. sajandi vahetusel. Lutsi keelt räägiti mitu sajandit Kagu-Lätis Ludza linna ümbritsevates valdades ja külades. Lutsi keel ja kultuur said tähtsaks osaks nii Latgali kui ka kogu Läti kultuuriajaloost. Lutsi keel on ühendanud Eestit ja Lätit ning saanud nende ühise pärandi sümboliks. Selle artikli esimeses osas kirjeldatakse lutsi keele uurijate (Oskar Kallas, Heikki Ojansuu, Paulopriit Voolaine, August Sang) mälestusi ja tähelepanekuid ajast, kui seda keelt veel räägiti igapäevaselt. Artikli teises osas antakse ülevaate Põlda valla Jaani küla Nikonovide perekonnast, kes olid viimaseid lutsi keele oskajaid. Samuti vaadeldakse viimaseid lutsi keelepärandi kandjaid tänapäeval – nn mäletajaid –, käsitledes nii nende elulugusid kui ka teadmisi lutsi keelest. Kokkovyteq Lutsi kielehn. Uldis Balodis: Lutsi kiele kynelejaq ni mälehäjäq 20. ni 21. sā-āstaga vaihtusel. Mitu sā-āstakka kyneldi lutsi kīlt Ludzi ümbre valdohn ni küllihn. Lutsi kīļ um nī Lätkalihn ku kaq kȳ Lätihn kultūri aolū tähtsä oza. Lutsi kīļ um kaq tähtsä köüdüs Läti ni Ēstimā vaihel ni noide ütidze perändüze tunnismärķ. Sjōl kirotuzel um katș ossa. Edimädzehn ozahn ma selledä lutsi kiele ūŗjide (Oskar Kallas, Heikki Ojansuu, Paulopriit Voolaine, August Sang) mälehüizi ni tähelepandmizi aost, ku tūd kīlt vīl egä päiv kyneldi. Tȳz̦ ehn ozahn tī ülekaehuze Pylda valla Jāni külä Nikonovi perrest, kohn elliq perämädze lutsi kiele myistjaq. Ma ka kynele perämädzist Lutsi inemizist tǟmbädzel pǟväl – nm mälehäjidest –, kiä viļ tīdväq veidüq lutsi kīlt, ni kaq noide elolūst ni kiele tīdmizest.

Third Factors in Language Variation and Change

In this pioneering study, a world-renowned generative syntactician explores the impact of phenomena known as 'third factors' on syntactic change. Generative syntax has in recent times incorporated third factors – factors not specific to the language faculty – into its framework, including minimal search, labelling, determinacy and economy. Van Gelderen's study applies these principles to language change, arguing that change is a cyclical process, and that third factor principles must combine with linguistic information to fully account for the cyclical development of 'optimal' language structures. Third Factor Principles also account for language variation around that-trace phenomena, CP-deletion, and the presence of expletives and Verb-second. By linking insights from recent theoretical advances in generative syntax to phenomena from language variation and change, this book provides a unique perspective, making it essential reading for academic researchers and students in syntactic theory and historical linguistics.