In Defense of Quantifier Generalism: Holism and Infinitary Resources

Systems with distributions and viability theorem

Understanding spatially varying survival is crucial for understanding the ecology and evolution of migratory animals, which may ultimately help to conserve such species. We develop an approach to estimate an annual survival probability function varying continuously in geographic space, if the recovery probability is constant over space. This estimate is based on a density function over continuous geographic space and the discrete age at death obtained from dead recovery data. From the same density function, we obtain an estimate for animal distribution in space corrected for survival, i.e., migratory connectivity. This is possible, when migratory connectivity can be separated from recovery probability. In this article, we present the method how spatially and continuously varying survival and the migratory connectivity corrected for survival can be obtained, if a constant recovery probability can be assumed reasonably. The model is a stepping stone in developing a model allowing for disentangling spatially heterogeneous survival and migratory connectivity corrected for survival from a spatially heterogeneous recovery probability. We implement the method using kernel density estimates in the R-package CONSURE. Any other density estimation technique can be used as an alternative. In a simulation study, the estimators are unbiased but show edge effects in survival and migratory connectivity. Applying the method to a real-world data set of European robins Erithacus rubecula results in biologically reasonable continuous heat-maps for survival and migratory connectivity.

Two eye‐tracking experiments investigated how referential expressions, consisting of proper names and pronouns, influence reading comprehension. Experiment 1 showed that repeated names caused elevated reading times compared to pronouns, a finding that has been called the repeated‐name penalty in studies using self‐paced reading (Gordon, Grosz, & Gilliom, 1993). Consistent with these previous studies, Experiment 1 also showed that the repeated‐name penalty occurs for syntactic subjects that corefer with the subject of the preceding sentence, but does not occur for direct objects that corefer with an object of the preceding sentence. These results further serve to localize the repeated‐name penalty within the sentence and to show that it can be associated with an increase in the frequency of regressive saccades out of the text region beyond the repeated name. Experiment 2 showed that the repeated‐name penalty was modulated not only by syntactic factors within a sentence but also by the relationship between successive sentences in a discourse. The results of these experiments provide strong support for the centering theory of discourse and related approaches to the processing of referential and coreferential expressions.

The subject of this study are the referential expressions that encode the O-participant in a transitive clause in the Modern Hebrew language. The goal of this study is to establish the significance of “definiteness” as a factor in asymmetric object marking for different types of referential expressions used by the Modern Hebrew speakers. For this purpose, the author considers the ways of expressing the category "definiteness" in various Modern Hebrew referential expressions that encode the O-participant in a transitive clause, and carries out a quantitative and comparative analysis of the ways of formalizing these expressions, using two research corpuses with a total volume of about 101 000 words. As a result of the analysis, it is concluded that, despite the clear correlation between the “definiteness” and the way noun phrases in the direct object role are constructed, “definiteness” is the only factor licensing asymmetric object marking for only one category out of the four considered, for proper names that are obligatorily marked. The remaining categories (definite noun phrases with other indicators of determination, indefinite noun phrases and pronouns) are all optionally marked within one or more types of referential expressions within each category. Of particular importance are the conclusions about the optional marking of referents encoded with the kol quantifier (55% of referential expressions with a quantifier and a relative pronoun are marked), partitive constructions (75% are marked), demonstrative and relative pronouns (48% and 66-85% are marked, respectively). It is proposed that for these types of referential expressions, there are additional factors that license asymmetric object marking in Modern Hebrew and that to determine them it would require further study of the discourse-pragmatic characteristics of referent-encoding expressions, including their referential status, status of animation, activity in discourse and degree of topicality.

Kripke’s (1980) Naming and Necessity convinced many philosophers that referential expressions like indexicals and demonstratives, proper names and natural kind terms are dejure rigid designators-expressions that designate the same thing with respect to every possible world. This feature distinguishes them from other singular terms like definite descriptions, which might also behave de facto as rigid designators, but de Jure are not so. Kripke was well aware that his proposals created a philosophical puzzle. His view about referential expressions and alethic modalities entails the existence of modal illusions: truths that are in fact necessary appear to be contingent.

According to Millian Descriptivism, while the semantic content of a linguistically simple proper name is just its referent, we often use sentences containing such expressions “to make assertions…that are, in part, descriptive” (Soames 2008). Against this view, I show, following Ted Sider and David Braun, that simple sentences containing names are never used to assert descriptively enriched propositions. In addition, I offer a diagnosis as to where the argument for Millian Descriptivism goes wrong. Once we appreciate the distinctive way in which this account fails, we can better appreciate the very modest role that associated descriptive information plays in the pragmatics of proper names.

Correction of the probabilistic density function of discontinuities spacing considering the statistical error based on negative exponential distribution

We extend the idea of model-based algorithms for deterministic optimization to simulation optimization over continuous space. Model-based algorithms iteratively generate a population of candidate solutions from a sampling distribution and use the performance of the candidate solutions to update the sampling distribution. By viewing the original simulation optimization problem as another optimization problem over the parameter space of the sampling distribution, we propose to use a direct gradient search on the parameter space to update the sampling distribution. To improve the computational efficiency, we further develop a two-timescale updating scheme that updates the parameter on a slow timescale and estimates the quantities involved in the parameter updating on the fast timescale. We analyze the convergence properties of our algorithms through techniques from stochastic approximation, and demonstrate the good empirical performance by comparing with two state-of-the-art model-based simulation optimization methods. The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2017.0771 .

Many species have an essentially continuous distribution in space, in which there are no natural divisions between randomly mating subpopulations. Yet, the standard approach to modelling these populations is to impose an arbitrary grid of demes, adjusting deme sizes and migration rates in an attempt to capture the important features of the population. Such indirect methods are required because of the failure of the classical models of isolation by distance, which have been shown to have major technical flaws. A recently introduced model of extinction and recolonisation in two dimensions solves these technical problems, and provides a rigorous technical foundation for the study of populations evolving in a spatial continuum. The coalescent process for this model is simply stated, but direct simulation is very inefficient for large neighbourhood sizes. We present efficient and exact algorithms to simulate this coalescent process for arbitrary sample sizes and numbers of loci, and analyse these algorithms in detail.

The view that proper names are uniformly predicates (‘predicativism’) has recently gained prominence. I review linguistic evidence against it. Overall, the (cross‐) linguistic evidence suggests that proper names function as predicates when they appear in a grammatically predicative position and as referential expressions when they are grammatically in a referential position. Conceptual grounds on which the predicativist view might nonetheless be upheld include ‘uniformity’, i.e., that a single semantic value be lexically specified for names in all of their occurrences irrespective of differences in their grammar. However, ‘being a predicate’ or ‘being referential’ are not lexical properties of words but indications for how these grammatically function on an occasion of their use. Moreover, the intuitively referential and intuitively predicative uses of proper names precisely covary with grammatical differences. A proper name is therefore a predicate when it is predicatively used, not when its grammar and meaning are different. Given this grammar‐meaning alignment there is no motivation to posit a novel ‘covert syntax’ for names in their referential uses, which breaks this alignment. Cross‐linguistic evidence from languages such as Catalan, which features overt determiners in referential uses of proper names, moreover turns out to strongly support the view that the grammar of human language is systematically sensitive to differences in the referential and predicative uses of names.

Questions of reference in written narratives

Referential expressions include terms such as determiners, proper names, noun phrases, pronouns, and all other expressions that we use to make reference to things, beings, or events. The first of its kind, this book presents a detailed, integrated account of typical and atypical uses of referential expressions, combining insights from discourse, cognitive, and psycholinguistic literature within a functional model of language. It first establishes a foundation for reference, including an overview of key influences in the study of reference, the debates surrounding (in)definiteness, and a functional description of referring expressions. It then draws on a variety of approaches to provide a comprehensive explanation of atypical uses, including referring in an uncollaborative context, indefinite expressions used for definite reference, reference by and for children, and finally metonymic reference with a special focus on metonymy in medical contexts. Comprehensive in scope, it is essential reading for academic researchers in syntax, discourse analysis, and cognitive linguistics.

The choice of the perspectival center of a stretch of discourse is crucial for the interpretation of certain phenomena such as free indirect discourse. It has been argued that the protagonist that is most prominent compared to competing protagonists gets to be the perspectival center. In this paper we discuss grammatical function and referential expression as prominence-lending cues and their impact on perspective-taking. We take the anchoring of free indirect discourse as the indicator for a shift in perspective as free indirect discourse can only be processed correctly if the reader is able to ascribe the utterance or thought to a protagonist. Identifying the perspectival center is particularly crucial for the interpretation of a thought or utterance in free indirect discourse mode that can potentially be ascribed to different protagonists, since in contrast to direct or indirect discourse the respective speaker or thinker is not explicitly marked as such in free indirect discourse. In a series of acceptability rating studies, we tested if anchoring of free indirect discourse to the less prominent of two competing referents is perceived to be unnatural. Further, we take a closer look at the role of subject and object as well as the choice of referential expression (proper name compared to indefinite noun phrase). We find that a protagonist referred to with a proper name in subject position is highly preferred as the anchor for free indirect discourse compared to a protagonist referred to with an indefinite noun phrase in object position. Building on these findings, we present evidence that the prominence of the referent that is established in the sentence preceding a sentence in free indirect discourse mode can be overridden by discourse prominence. That is, a referent that is repeatedly mentioned in a short discourse is preferred as the perspectival center regardless of the prominence of a competing referent in the sentence preceding a sentence in free indirect discourse mode.

The article discusses the pragmatics of using indexicals in communication. I consider the thesis of the indispensability of indexicals from natural languages and the idea that indexicals cannot be reduced to other referential expressions such as descriptions and proper names. Usually, the thesis is supported by the role indexicals play in linguistic communication, making it easier for individuals. I criticize this line of argument by pointing out that indexical expressions can complicate communication as well. The reason for that is using indexicals instead of descriptions reduces the accuracy of information communicated in utterances.

Up to now German idioms have been treated as isolated linguistic units so far as their transformational possibilities and the lexical combinations of their constituants are concerned. This paper deals with the semantics of German idioms as occurrences integrated into text and speech. The semantics of idioms is presented here not in reference to ontology (referential expressions, proper names and definite descriptions no longer have any referential function), but rather as the linguistic expression of human conceptualization (their broadened intension is symbolized by their fixed form) and its disponibility for creative use (predication on multiple extension).