In this paper, a novel chord transition representation (Cambouropoulos 2012), that draws on the interval function between two collections of notes proposed by Lewin (1959), is explored in a harmonic recognition task. This representation allows the encoding of chord transitions at a level higher that individual notes that is transposition-invariant and idiom-independent (analogous to pitch inter...

To help users find popular topics of discussion, Twitter periodically publishes ‘trending topics’ (trends) which are the most discussed keywords (e.g., hashtags) at a certain point of time. Inspection of the trends over several months reveals that while most of the trends are related to events in the off-line world, such as popular television shows, sports events, or emerging technologies, a si...

We describe an algorithm for automatic classification of idiomatic and literal expressions. Our starting point is that words in a given text segment, such as a paragraph, that are highranking representatives of a common topic of discussion are less likely to be a part of an idiomatic expression. Our additional hypothesis is that contexts in which idioms occur, typically, are more affective and ...

The present study examines non-native (L2) and native (L1) listeners' access to figurative idiomatic meaning and literal constituent meaning in two cross-modal priming experiments. Proficient German learners of English (L2) and native speakers of American English (L1) responded to English target words preceded by English idioms embedded in non-biasing prime sentences in a lexical decision task....

Idioms are peculiar linguistic constructions that impose great challenges for representing the semantics of language, especially in current prevailing end-to-end neural models, which assume that the semantics of a phrase or sentence can be literally composed from its constitutive words. In this paper, we propose an idiomaware distributed semantic model to build representation of sentences on th...

Despite the fact that they play a prominent role in everyday speech, the representation and processing of fixed expressions during language production is poorly understood. Here, we report a study investigating the processes underlying fixed expression production. "Tip-of-the-tongue" (TOT) states were elicited for well-known idioms (e.g., hit the nail on the head) and participants were asked to...

Translating idioms is one of the most difficult tasks for human translators and translation machines alike. The main problems consist in recognizing an idiom and in distinguishing idiomatic from non-idiomatic usage. Recognition is difficult since many idioms can be modified and others can be discontinuously spread over a clause. But with the help of systematic idiom collections and special rule...

Native speakers of English use idioms such as put your foot down and spill the beans to label events that are not described literally by the words that compose the idioms. For many such expressions, the idiomatic meanings are transparent; that is, the connection between the literal expression and its figurative meaning makes sense to native speakers. We tested Keysar and Bly's (1995) hypothesis...

Among all common vehicles of Chinese metaphors, “jade” deserves some special attention. The concept of jade has vastly appeared in various contexts of Chinese poetry and idioms. The different references often correlate with specific jaderelated characters and tend to appear in a set of jade-X combinations that are entrenched in four-word-idioms. I believe the correlations are not arbitrary. Acc...

This paper presents “Move, Idioms!”, a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning design that emphasizes learners‟ habit of mind and skills in making meaning with their daily encounters, and associating those with the knowledge learned at the formal classes. The students used smartphones on a 1:1, 24x7 basis to take photos in real-life contexts related to Chinese idioms, made sentences with the idioms, ...