Partitivity across domains

DISCUSSION NOTE Scope, structure, and expert systems: A reply to Kuno et al. Joseph Aoun and Yen-hui Audrey Li University of Southern California This article is a reply to Kuno et al. 1999, which claims that a structural approach to scope should be replaced by an expert system. But the alleged theoretical and empirical problems faced by the structural accounts for scope are based on assumptions or interpretations that are not adopted in the structural accounts. Further, there are problems with the characterization and execution of the expert system, causing difficulty in the understanding and application of the system intra- and interlinguistically; the expert system is not empirically adequate and does not accommodate idiolectal variations. Finally, the expert system misses important correlations between scope and other properties in the grammar, such as binding, that follow straightforwardly from a structural approach. A structural approach to scope should not be abandoned in favor of an expert system.* Introduction. Kuno, Takami and Wu (1999) examine in great detail Aoun and Li's syntactic analysis of quantifier scope interaction (1993), further extending the discussion to other structural approaches, such as May 1977, 1985, Huang 1982, 1995, Hoji 1985, Williams 1986, 1988, Hornstein 1995, Kitahara 1996 and Stroik 1996, and raise the following three issues. (1) a. There are serious theoretical problems with Aoun and Li's syntactic account of scope interpretations for the double object and topicalization constructions b.There are ambiguous sentences that Aoun and Li's and other syntactic analyses predict to be unambiguous. c.There are unambiguous sentences that Aoun and Li's and other syntactic analyses predict to be ambiguous. Kuno et al. proceed to argue that, in order to achieve empirical adequacy, a syntactic account of quantifier scope interactions should be abandoned in favor of their expert system. They further suggest that wide idiolectal variations in quantifier scope interpretations are due to differences among speakers with respect to the relative weights that the relevant principles receive in their respective expert system. In this reply, we first address the issues raised in la and show that they result from some interpretations of Aoun and Li's work that are not necessarily warranted. We then discuss the empirical problems faced by the structural accounts as presented by Kuno et al. (Ib, c) and show that the alleged empirical problems are based on some assumptions that do not necessarily hold within the structural accounts. It is not the case that the expert system, briefly sketched in §2, is indeed more adequate as a theory of scope interactions. The establishment and execution ofthe experts are not as convincing as they are proposed to be. The empirical advantage of this expert system disappears * The writing of this reply would not have been possible without Richard Larson's help. Many of the important points in this paper are Larson's ideas. We are greatly indebted to him. We are also thankful for the comments from the Language referees and the help from the associate editor and the editor of Language. Any errors or misinterpretations are our responsibilities. 133 134LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 1 (2000) when relevant data are more closely examined. Finally, the expert system misses important crosslinguistic correlations between scope and other properties in the grammar that are sensitive to structures, such as binding. Such correlations follow straightforwardly from the structural accounts. 1. Structures of double object and topic constructions. Let us begin with the issues raised in la. Kuno et al. argue that Aoun and Li's analysis of the double object and topicalization structures suffers from theoretical problems. 1.1. Double object constructions. In order to understand the alleged problem with the double object structures, we need to briefly sketch some aspects of Aoun and Li's analysis. Aoun and Li's analysis relies on two principles: the minimal binding requirement (MBR) in 2 and the scope principle in 3: (2)Minimal binding requirement (MBR): Variables must be bound by the most local potential A'-binder. (3)Scope principle: An operator A may have scope over an operator B iff A c-commands B or an A'-element in the chain headed by the operator. In the configuration 4, the quantificational...

Over the pase 20 years, a sizable body of literature has developed which serves to establish that stressful life events are associated with the onset, incidence, and prevalence of a wide range of physical and psychiatric disorders. As measured by the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale, or similar instruments, the stressful life events are fundamentally sociological in nature. Yet, paradoxically, the research has been largely limited in the relevant basic sociological theory and data brought to or yielded from investigation. Recently, however, several prominent researchers have emphasized the importance of studying the role of social support systems as possible buffers or mediators of stress. The most basic objective of this paper is to contribute to the advancement of such studies by clearly identifying key empirical, theoretical and methodological problems and suggesting some approaches to their resolution. Specifically, this paper offers: a) a selective review of the essential status of empirical knowledge; b) an examination of the nature and significance of social support systems; c) clarification of methodological and theoretical problems; and d) detailed proposals for approaching problems of measurement and research design.

Meta-theoretical perspectives on the research problems and activities of (cognitive) scientists often emphasize empirical problems and problem-solving as the main aspects that account for scientific progress. While certainly useful to shed light on issues of theory-observation relationships, these conceptual analyses typically begin when empirical problems are already there for researchers to solve. As a result, the role of theoretical problems and problem-finding remain comparatively obscure. How do the scientific problems of Cognitive Science arise, and what do they comprise, empirically and theoretically? Here, we attempt to understand the research activities that lead to adequate explanations through a broader conception of the problems researchers must attend to and how they come about. To this end, we bring theoretical problems and problem-finding out of obscurity to paint a more integrative picture of how these complement empirical problems and problem-solving to advance cognitive science.

This paper identifies theoretical and empirical problems in a perspective on crime and deviance. We then propose an alternative apposition of and viewpoints. This new approach is grounded in empirical definitions of the conditions under which and can be said to exist, and is used to generate propositions about attitudes toward empirically identified consensus and conflict crimes. The support found for these propositions encourages a shift from regarding attitudes toward deviance as simple instruments of coercion, to a view in which these attitudes are accorded a wider significance in the combined processes of deviance definition, status allocation and, eventually, the cooptive maintenance of political authority. Where sociologists of past decades (e.g., Friedmann) commonly assumed that behaviors designated as criminal reflected a broad among social groups, recent work asserts that such designations are a consequence of between social groupings, particularly social classes. Although a growing literature surrounds this perspective (Chambliss; Platt, b; Quinney, a, b; Taylor et al. a, b), fundamental theoretical and empirical problems remain unresolved. First, orthodox Marxists (e.g., Hirst; Mugford) note that criminologists neither use Marxism's explanatory units nor appreciate Marxism's tendency to see criminals as a . . . 'dangerous class,' the social scum, (and) that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society . . . (Marx and Engels, 44, cited in Hirst, 39). Also neglected by the criminologists are the more recent neo-Marxian and Weberian theoretical innovations of critical (see Mullins and Mullins) and (see Collins, b) sociology. *Order of authorship is alphabetical and does not reflect seniority or priority; the authors share equal responsibility for this paper.

Possible names: The role of syntax-semantics mappings in the acquisition of nominals

How societies can cope with flood risk along coasts and riverbanks is a critical theoretical and empirical problem – particularly in the wake of anthropogenic climate change and the increased severity of floods. An example of this challenge is the growing costs of publicly-funded flood defense in Britain and popular outcries during the regular occasions that the British government fails to protect property and land during heavy rains. Traditional approaches to institutional analysis suggest that flood management is either a public good that only the government is competent to provide or a private good to which individual landowners are ultimately responsible for supplying. We argue that an important cause of failure in flood management is mismatched property rights. This is where the scale of natural events and resources fail to align with the scale of human activities, responsibility and ownership. Moreover, the spatial dimensions of floods mean that their management is often appropriately conceptualized as a common pool resource problem. As a result, commons institutions as conceptualized and observed by Elinor Ostrom are likely to be major contributors to effective flood management. What governance process should decide the size and scope of these institutions? We argue that bottom-up responses to problems of mismatched property rights are facilitated within larger societies that are characterized by market processes. Moreover, the wider presence of price signals delivers to local communities essential knowledge about the cost of maintaining private property and the relative scarcity of the communal goods. We discuss how our theoretical positions align with experience in Britain and what the implications of our theoretical approach are for facilitating the development of better institutions.

Cost and Choice in the Commons: Ostrom and the Case of British Flood Management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate forest fires and their relationship to prevention and mitigation strategies based on the empirical problems raised by this study. Public policy implementation (in this case, the policy of forest fire management) is influenced by the role played by government and by the participation of the public and stakeholders (in this case, companies), as well as the effects of good governance. Thus, from the empirical problems associated with theoretical problems and normative problems, this study raises the influence of the role of central and local government on the implementation of forest fire prevention policy in Indonesia, which is moderated by the good governance variable.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a quantitative approach by adopting survey methodology. The study has aimed to assess both large and small population groups, by selecting and reviewing carefully chosen samples of the population to find the incidence, distribution and relative interrelation of the variables considered (Kerlinger and Lee, 2000). The survey was undertaken in areas of Indonesia that have a high level of vulnerability to forest fires. There are currently six provinces – Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan – that have the highest intensity of forest fires. The study population was taken from 105 villages in those six major provinces experiencing forest fires. Sample size precision was determined by using Slovin’s formula with a precision of 10 percent and, thus, a sample size of 52 was obtained.FindingsThe central government’s activities have no significant effect on regional forest fire prevention. However, the results found that there is a significant effect caused by the interaction between the central and local governments and their governance of forest fire prevention. Even though the direct effect is not significant, the interaction effect significantly influences the forest fire prevention governance variable, which is a pure moderator. This study found that the role of central government has no effect on forest fire prevention. If the role of the central government is high, it will not impact the effectiveness of forest fire prevention, which is reflected in the aspects of prevention and early warning, reward and punishment, the improvement and management of ecosystems by reviewing courts, law enforcement and national and regional synergy.Originality/valueThis is one of the few public administration science studies to have investigated the relationship between good governance and forest fire policy in Indonesia, particularly the combined roles played by central and local governments.

This book offers an in-depth examination of Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework. The book is not just a collection of more or less critical remarks but constitutes a coherent whole, underpinned by an original analytical framework. This conceptual apparatus makes it possible to present some alternative solutions to the theoretical problems under consideration. The book goes largely against the grain of views that are dominant in the literature on Bourdieu. Therefore, its conclusions may be surprising to many a reader. The book demonstrates that Bourdieu's well-known theory of 'capital' forms is untenable, resembling more an illegitimate metaphor rather than a scientific concept. In a similar vein, the Bourdesian class theory should be largely regarded as a variant of social stratification rather than class. There are many theoretical and empirical problems with Bourdieu's theory of social and cultural reproduction as well. There is more to the above criticisms than meets the eye. The point is that many weaknesses of Bourdieu's style of theorising seem to stem from his intellectual dependence upon structuralism, especially in Claude Lévi-Strauss' version. It is this affinity that accounts for such features of Bourdieu's approach as its essentialism, formalism and epistemic idealism. The book will be of interest primarily to students of Bourdieu's many and varied contributions to social theory. In view of Bourdieu's immense influence, it will also hold interest to critical scholars in political science, economic sociology and political philosophy.

Inequality in health—Some theoretical and empirical problems

This article argues that there is a double problem in international research in cultural capital and educational attainment: an empirical problem, since few new insights have been gained within recent years; and a theoretical problem, since cultural capital is seen as a simple hypothesis about certain isolated individual resources, disregarding the structural vision and important related concepts such as field in Bourdieu’s sociology. We (re-)emphasize the role of field theory in cultural capital research in education, taking into consideration current concerns in international quantitative research.

Capital utilisation is extremely difficult to define and measure but, analogous to labour utilisation, it has two essential dimensions: (i) the number of hours that it operates per period; (ii) the intensity that the plant is used for any given length of operating day. The majority of measures combine these two dimensions in a single index of capital utilisation. Indices of this type include the electricity, the ‘all-fuel’ per unit of capital and the output per unit of capital measures.1 All of these have some merit but, equally, all have important theoretical and empirical problems.2 A second group of measures concentrate on the operating hours of capital and, for want of a better title, they are termed ‘time intensity utilisation rates’ (TIUR). Perhaps the most obvious method of collecting information on TIUR is by asking for information about operating hours in business surveys. Such surveys are extremely rare at the present time.3 An alternative method, with associated theoretical problems, is the approximation of operating hours of capital using shiftwork data.4KeywordsShift SystemHoliday PeriodWork PatternPublic HolidayCapital IntensityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Bargaining on price on behalf of price-insensitive downstream consumers

One problem to which we must address ourselves before constructing any deductive model of voting behaviour is why people vote at all. On the face of it at least, this seems to be a stumbling block, given the theoretical problem that, compared with the costs of voting, the benefits to be expected are very small; and given the empirical problem that large numbers of people turn out to vote when they cannot possibly hope to influence the result, while others stay at home on the few occasions when a close result is expected. The most common attempted solution amounts to saying that people like voting, or at least that they feel guilty about not voting. This solution can be traced from the early work of Downs to the more recent and rigorous analyses of Riker and Ordeshook. Motives such as citizen duty, the satisfaction of belonging to a democracy, the satisfaction of supporting a particular party, and so on, are ascribed to voters. Each voter is then assumed to conduct a ‘calculus of voting’ in which he or she weighs up these benefits against any inconvenience involved in going to the polling booth. For many the net effect will be positive and voting will therefore be rational.

The structure of wages and employment has shifted against the low-skilled in many OECD countries over the last decade. Many authors have attributed this shift to the impact of new technologies, and or technical change in general. This paper investigates and structures the growing body of literature on skill-biased technical change (SBTC) by first presenting a model in which SBTC is formalised and decomposed into factor and sector biases of technical change. We show that as we go down to the job level the scope for pure within unit-skill bias decreases and between-unit effects explain the within-unit effects detected at higher aggregation levels. Second, we address some potential sources of skill bias, which are learning, R&D, human capital formation, organisational change and the introduction of new general purpose technologies. Finally we present some conceptual and practical problems we encounter when studying SBTC empirically. We conclude with a survey of selected empirical literature on the subject and discuss the results in light of the empirical and theoretical problems pointed out above.