Analyzing chinese‐english mixed language queries in a web search engine

Fu, Hengyi; Wu, Shuheng

doi:10.1002/meet.2014.14505101114

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The analysis of interview data found that Chinese-English mixed language queries are used mainly for four types of search: recreation, work-related, academic and daily life. This is consistent with findings of previous query log analysis (Fu and Wu, 2014). Recreation searching included, but was not limited to, looking for a specific celebrity, place, book, movie, game, brand, recipe, sport, product or company originating in the Anglosphere.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 85%

Mixed language queries in online searches

2019

AJIM

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Purpose With the increasing number of online multilingual resources, cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) has drawn much attention from the information retrieval (IR) research community. However, few studies have examined how and why multilingual searchers seek information in two or more languages, specifically how they switch and mix language in queries to get satisfying results. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Chinese–English bilinguals’ intra-sentential code-switching behaviors in online searches. The scenarios and reasons of code-switching, factors that may affect code-switching, the patterns of mixed language query formulation and reformulation and how current IR systems and other search tools can facilitate such information needs were examined. Design/methodology/approach In-depth semi-structured interviews were used as the research method. In total, 30 participants were recruited based on their English proficiency, location and profession, using a purposive sampling method. Findings Four scenarios and four reasons for using Chinese–English mixed language queries to cover information needs were identified, and results suggest that linguistic and cultural/social factors are of equivalent importance in code-switching behaviors. English terms and Chinese terms in queries play different roles in searches, and mixed language queries are irreplaceable by either single language queries or other search facilitating features. Findings also suggest current search engines and tools need greater emphasis in the user interface and more user education is required. Originality/value This study presents a qualitative analysis of bilinguals’ code-switching behaviors in online searches. Findings are expected to advance the theoretical understanding of bilingual users’ search strategies and interactions with IR systems, and provide insights for designing more effective IR systems and tools to discover multilingual online resources, including cross-language controlled vocabularies, personalized CLIR tools and mixed language query assistants.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 85%

Mixed language queries in online searches

2019

AJIM

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“…However, very few studies have addressed why and how people use mixed language queries in web searching. In our previous studies, we examined the topics and user intents of Chinese-English mixed language queries, and developed a typology of English terms used in those queries [3,4]. In this poster we report the findings about the context (i.e., activities) in which users employed Chinese-English mixed language queries and why they preferred to those queries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Studying Chinese-English Mixed Language Queries from the User Perspectives

2015

Proceedings of the 15th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries

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With the increasing number of multilingual webpages on the Internet, cross-language information retrieval has become an important research issue. Using Activity Theory as a theoretical framework, this study employs semi-structured interviews with key informants who are frequent users of Chinese-English mixed language queries in web searching. The findings present the context of and reasons for using Chinese-English mixed language queries, which can inform the design of cross-language controlled vocabularies and information retrieval systems.

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