Causal Meaning Research Articles

Sobre verbos eponímicos

This paper analyses the basic meaning underlying eponymic verbs which are derived from a current politician surname by the sujfixation of -igar, and the way of capturing their diverse lectures. I argue that these verbs share with other denominál verbs an underspecified causative meaning and that their interpretation, like the lectures of denominál verbs in general, is modulated by sublexical or encyclopedic information of the predicate arguments and of the base nouns.

Expressions of causation in Danish Sign Language

The paper presents lexical and syntactic means of expressing causation in Danish Sign Language (DTS). Labile verbs are verbs that can be used both intransitively with an inchoative meaning and transitively with a causative meaning without a change in form and irrespective of the type of classifier predicate that they may relate to. Labile verbs in DTS denote common, well-known types of events, often of direct causation. DTS also has a syntactic causative construction with a general causative verb arbejde ‘make, do’ followed by a stative verb denoting the resulting state. forandre ‘change’ can also be used to express causation, but with a more specific meaning than arbejde and also followed by dynamic verbs. In narrative style signers describe sequences of events without explicitly coding any causal relation between the events. The causal relation is left to pragmatic inference in accordance with the narrative style’s emphasis on vivid representation rather than explanation.

Association of Bilirubin With Cardiovascular Outcomes

The field of epidemiology has seen many parameters enter the arena as risk factors. Many of them left the scene without leaving a mark, which was often caused by chance findings caused by small sample sizes or spurious associations resulting from confounding by other risk factors. Others became firmly established as risk factors, and therefore drug targets, but finally were dethroned by exclusion of causality, as it was recently reported for C-reactive protein.1 Such parameters are then no longer handled as risk factors but as markers of the diseases, which might still be quite helpful for diagnostic purposes. Article see p 340 To prove causality of a parameter with a certain disease is often a hard task. Cross-sectional case-control studies are not evidentary because the demon of the “reverse causation” is omnipresent, and one never knows whether it is spook or reality. Reverse causation means that the parameter of interest is not causing the disease, but the disease itself results secondarily in a change of the parameter. Prospective, observational studies might support a higher probability of causality, especially when they are long-term studies in which individuals are included long before events and subclinical disease develops. If these data are supported by experimental evidence from, for example, animal models, one might consider as the next line of evidence interventional studies to influence the parameter of interest with the goal to bring it to conditions as observed in healthy persons. However, these studies are time-consuming and extremely expensive when it comes to clinical trials in humans. Most importantly, the availability of a substance counteracting the parameter of interest is a prerequisite. Before this risk is taken, one wishes to see stronger evidence for causality that under certain circumstances might be provided by a mendelian randomization approach. The original idea for this …

Is Asthma Caused by Atopy (Positive Skin Prick Tests)? Epidemiologic Evidence Suggests a Negative Answer

In this paper we shortly discuss epidemiological data on the relationship between asthma and atopy according to recent personal and literature epidemiological publications. The coexistence in several subjects of asthma (and of other "atopic" diseases) and IgE hyperproduction generated the dogma that these two biological conditions are mainly genetic in origin and are linked by a strong casual relationship. In the last decades atopy increased at 5-10 % annual rate and at present atopy prevalence, although variable in different countries, reaches somewhere the prevalence of more than 60 %. Similarly, asthma prevalence increased in the last decades, especially so in western and English speaking countries, reaching in certain countries prevalence values higher than 40 %. For these reasons, although certainly dependent on a genetic predisposition, atopy and asthma can nowadays be considered to be largely determined by environmental factors. Moreover, the analysis of epidemiological data derived from studies conducted worldwide, showed that the prevalence of the two conditions were clearly not correlated so that in certain countries with a 50-60% prevalence of atopy asthma prevalence is lower than 2-6 %, while in other countries asthma prevalence is double than atopy prevalence. Further, in countries with high atopy, the prevalence this conditions is high both in asthmatics and in normal subjects and in the places where asthma prevalence reaches high levels this condition is high both in atopic and non atopic people. In conclusion, epidemiological data show that environmental factors affecting asthma prevalence are different from those affecting atopy prevalence and that subjects bearing one of the two conditions don't show any preferential tendency to develop the other one. From aetiological and pathogenetic point of view asthma and atopy appear to be independent conditions We therefore believe that the association between asthma and atopy demonstrated in almost all the "population studies" (atopy prevalence has always been found 20-30 % higher in asthmatics than in non asthmatic subjects) doesn't prove the existence of a "causal" relationship between the two conditions: this could be a kind of association without causative meaning as is the association between blond hair and blue eyes which in no way can be considered a prove that one of the two conditions is the cause of the other.

Fiodor Dostojewski: o ułomności ludzkiego poznania

Fiodor Dostoyevsky in his oeuvre indicates certain attitudes, which are often recognized in the process of man's thinking and behavior. They are conditioned by the manner he perceives reality and they in themselves appoint simultaneously this way of world perception. Some of those occurrences resemble in a great manner the defense mechanisms, which are described in the later literature. A first mechanism that was analyzed is pursue simplification, which causes a man to believe that thanks to the achieved knowledge he will be able to set in order and fix imperfect reality. Such attitude enforces simplified vision of the world, which in turn helps in self-deception. Dostoyevsky's heroes have problems to recognize true motives of their own behaviors or they intentionally attribute nobler incentives to themselves. Therefore the next described attitude is reluctance to acknowledge the truth. The Russian writer rejects generally accepted disjunctivity of the 'truth and false' category and he attributes the final might to acknowledge something as true or false to the man's will. On account of innate laziness and refractoriness, man chooses the simplest solutions, which in point of fact dismiss possibility to see real reasons for all failures. It makes impossible to undertake activities, which could indeed change something. Man is characterized by irresponsibility for his actions and words. A word looses its causative meaning and becomes purely a decoration, an ornament. All these make that learning the truth, as one of the elements propelling development of the philosophy, was not impossible but it was unwanted.

On the Syntax and Semantics of the English Causative Make

This paper is centrally concerned with the syntax and semantics of the English causative make taking an adjective complement (e.g. make the room clean). It is argued that the complement immediately combines with the causative to form a predicate. The resulting complex predicate is a grammatical and semantic unit that is separable at surface for an object. In support of this argument, the paper offers idiomatic expressions (e.g. make sure/certain) and -ing nominals (e.g. the making safe of bombs). It also proposes an analysis of the causative make-plus-adjective (make-A) combination as a lexical construction that denotes the constructional meaning of direct causation. The construction is held in the lexicon as a template with causative-make and is unified with an adjective therein by means of fusion. The proposed model serves as a basis for an analysis of causative make-plus-noun (make-N) combinations (e.g. make Mark Captain) and for a solution to one old problem in the study of causative make-plus-verb (make-V) combinations (e.g. make Eve go).

IS INFORMED CONSENT IN CARDIAC SURGERY AND PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION ACHIEVABLE?

Medical and legal published work regularly discusses informed consent and patient autonomy before medical interventions. Recent discussions have suggested that Cardiothoracic surgeons' risk adjusted mortality data should be published to facilitate the informed consent process. However, as to which aspects of medicine, procedures and the associated risks patients understand is unknown. It is also unclear how well the medical profession understands the concepts of informed consent and medical negligence. The aims of this study were to evaluate patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to assess their understanding of the risks of interventions and baseline level of understanding of medical concepts and to evaluate the medical staff's understanding of medical negligence and informed consent. Patients undergoing CABG or PCI at a tertiary hospital were interviewed with questionnaires focusing on the consent process, the patient's understanding of CABG or PCI and associated risks and understanding of medical concepts. Medical staff were questioned on the process of obtaining consent and understanding of medicolegal concepts. Fifty CABG patients, 40 PCI patients and 40 medical staff were interviewed over a 6-month period. No patient identified any of the explained risks as a reason to reconsider having CABG or PCI, but 80% of patients wanted to be informed of all risks of surgery. 80% of patients considered doctors obligated to discuss all risks of surgery. One patient (2%) expressed concern at the prospect of a trainee surgeon carrying out the operation. Stroke (40%) rather than mortality (10%) were the important concerns in patients undergoing CABG and PCI. The purpose of interventions was only partially understood by both groups; PCI patients clearly underestimated the subsequent need for repeat PCI or CABG. Knowledge of medical concepts was poor in both groups: less than 50% of patients understood the cause or consequence of an AMI or stroke and less than 20% of patients correctly identified the ratio equal to 0.5%. One doctor (2.5%) correctly identified the four elements of negligence, eight (20%) the meaning of material risk and four (10%) the meaning of causation. Thirty doctors (75%) believed that all complications of a procedure needed to be explained for informed consent. Less than 10% could recognize landmark legal cases. Patients undergoing both CABG and PCI have a poor understanding of their disease, their intervention, and its complications making the attaining of true informed consent difficult, despite their desire to be informed of all risks. PCI patients particularly were highly optimistic regarding the need for reintervention over time, which requires specific attention during the consent process. Medical staff showed a poor knowledge of the concepts of material risk and medical negligence requiring much improved education of both junior doctors and specialists.

Mandarin learners use syntactic bootstrapping in verb acquisition

Mandarin Chinese allows pervasive ellipsis of noun arguments (NPs) in discourse, which casts doubt concerning child learners’ use of syntax in verb learning. This study investigated whether Mandarin learning children would nonetheless extend verb meanings based on the number of NPs in sentences. Forty-one Mandarin-speaking two- and three-year-olds enacted sentences with familiar motion verbs. The presence of an extra postverbal NP led the toddlers to extend causative meanings to intransitive verbs, and the absence of a postverbal NP led them to extend noncausative meanings to transitive verbs. The effects of adding or subtracting an NP were statistically indistinguishable. Thus, the number of NPs in a sentence appears to play a role in verb learning in Mandarin Chinese.

Verbes supports sans peine

The paper is aimed at defining the concepts needed in the discussion of so-called ‘support (≈ light) verbs’ and presenting a way of describing them in the lexicon in terms of Lexical Functions [= LFs]. It develops the following six points : 1. A genuine support verb is semantically empty (or ‘emptied’ in the context of its keyword). 2. There are just three types of ‘pure’ support verbs — Oper, Func, and Labor — distinguished according to the syntactic role fulfilled by their keyword. 3. Two sorts of meanings are often combined with support verbs : phasic meanings (‘begin,’ ‘stop,’ ‘continue’) and causative meanings (‘cause’) ; such a meaning plus a support verb form a complex LF. 4. There exist other sorts of meanings (especially, intensification) that can bear on the predicative noun but are expressed together with the support verb : they form, with the latter, a configuration of LFs. 5. A family of semantically full collocational verbs show the same syntactic behavior as support verbs : these are called realization verbs. 6. Using support verbs and their encoding in terms of LFs, it is possible to construct a universal Deep-Syntactic paraphrasing system. Several examples of DSynt-paraphrasing rules are given. The discussion is carried out based on French.

Verbos y construcciones causativas analíticas en portugués y en español

When a causative meaning is expressed by an independent verbal element, we may identify the construction as analytic, periphrastic, or syntactic. Romance languages present greater grammatical elaboration of analytic causative constructions than other languages. Contradicting a long formalist (generative) tradition in general (and Romance) linguistics, the grammatical complexity of the causative constructions becomes explicable in the light of their semantic import and conceptual motivations. This paper offers a conceptual analysis of the analytic causative constructions in Portuguese and in Spanish. We will begin with a survey of the semantic properties of the causative verbs. Based on the Talmy's (1988, 2000) force dynamics model, four force-dynamic patterns are described, which are instantiated in fazer/hacer 'do/make', manter/mantener 'keep' and deixar/dejar 'leave/let'. Other analytic causative verbs such as mandar 'order', forçar/forzar 'force', obrigar/obligar 'oblige', and levar/llevar 'lead', are considered. After that, we go on to analyze the grammar of the four main causative constructions in Portuguese and in Spanish, namely infinitival, finite, reflexive and resultative constructions. The conceptual factors (or imagery, Langacker, 1987, 1991) of the three infinitival complement constructions of Portuguese arc briefly analyzed, which represent a more elaborate continuum of event integration and of causer autonomy and causer control. Finally, we briefly describe the compatibilities between the verbs and constructions, and include a reference to the alternative construction with the finite complement, and to the causative-reflexive and causative-resultative constructions.

Understanding how input matters: verb learning and the footprint of universal grammar

Studies under the heading “syntactic bootstrapping” have demonstrated that syntax guides young children's interpretations during verb learning. We evaluate two hypotheses concerning the origins of syntactic bootstrapping effects. The “universalist” view, holding that syntactic bootstrapping falls out from universal properties of the syntax–semantics mapping, is shown to be superior to the “emergentist” view, which holds that argument structure patterns emerge from a process of categorization and generalization over the input. These theories diverge in their predictions about a language in which syntactic structure is not the most reliable cue to a certain meaning. In Kannada, causative morphology is a better predictor of causative meaning than transitivity is. Hence, the emergentist view predicts that Kannada-speaking children will associate causative morphology (in favor of transitive syntax) with causative meaning. The universalist theory, however, predicts the opposite pattern. Using an act-out task, we found that 3-year-old native speakers of Kannada associate argument number and not morphological form with causativity, supporting the universalist approach.

Explanation And Thought Experiments In History

Although interest in them is clearly growing, most professional historians do not accept thought experiments as appropriate tools. Advocates of the deliberate use of thought experiments in history argue that without counterfactuals, causal attributions in history do not make sense. Whereas such arguments play upon the meaning of causation in history, this article focuses on the reasoning processes by which historians arrive at causal explanations. First, we discuss the roles thought experiments play in arriving at explanations of both facts and contrasts. Then, we pinpoint the functions thought experiments fulfill in arriving at weighted explanations of contrasts.

Factitif français: approche syntaxique, sémantique et contrastive (français-bulgare)

This article proposes a comparison between the French construction faire + Vinf and the structures encoding a causative meaning in Bulgarian. The data are classified according to the scale of compactness of the Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon. If the French uses the construction with faire (Complex Predicate), the Bulgarian uses three other mechanisms: lexical (explode), morphological (affixation: raz-plakvam, faire pleurer), periphrastic constructions with two verbs (a causative verb and a lexical verb) in separate clauses (inciter quelqu’un à faire quelque chose). This typological classification shows the correlation between syntactical and semantic parameters in the analyse of causatives. Some verbs, basically intransitive in French, can be used in a transitive clause and then take on a causative meaning (bouger la banlieue). In this case, there is a concurrence between faire + inf and the intransitive verb in transitive construction. The article attempts to clarify this usage, in comparison with other languages (English, Russian, Bulgarian), and some other specificity of the functioning of the French construction faire + Vinf.

Factitif français: approche syntaxique, sémantique et contrastive (français-bulgare)

This article proposes a comparison between the French construction faire + Vinf and the structures encoding a causative meaning in Bulgarian. The data are classified according to the scale of compactness of the Australian linguist R.M.W. Dixon. If the French uses the construction with faire (Complex Predicate), the Bulgarian uses three other mechanisms: lexical (explode), morphological (affixation: raz-plakvam, faire pleurer), periphrastic constructions with two verbs (a causative verb and a lexical verb) in separate clauses (inciter quelqu’un à faire quelque chose). This typological classification shows the correlation between syntactical and semantic parameters in the analyse of causatives. Some verbs, basically intransitive in French, can be used in a transitive clause and then take on a causative meaning (bouger la banlieue). In this case, there is a concurrence between faire + inf and the intransitive verb in transitive construction. The article attempts to clarify this usage, in comparison with other languages (English, Russian, Bulgarian), and some other specificity of the functioning of the French construction faire + Vinf.

Shipley, B. Cause and correlation in Biology

Shipley, B. Cause and correlation in Biology

Naive causality: a mental model theory of causal meaning and reasoning

This paper outlines a theory and computer implementation of causal meanings and reasoning. The meanings depend on possibilities, and there are four weak causal relations: A causes B, A prevents B, A allows B, and A allows not-B, and two stronger relations of cause and prevention. Thus, A causes B corresponds to three possibilities: A and B, not-A and B, and not-A and not-B, with the temporal constraint that B does not precede A; and the stronger relation conveys only the first and last of these possibilities. Individuals represent these relations in mental models of what is true in the various possibilities. The theory predicts a number of phenomena, and, contrary to many accounts, it implies that the meaning of causation is not probabilistic, differs from the meaning of enabling conditions, and does not depend on causal powers or mechanisms. The theory also implies that causal deductions do not depend on schemas or rules.

Naive causality: a mental model theory of causal meaning and reasoning

AbstractThis paper outlines a theory and computer implementation of causal meanings and reasoning. The meanings depend on possibilities, and there are four weak causal relations: A causes B, A prevents B, A allows B, and A allows not‐B, and two stronger relations of cause and prevention. Thus, A causes B corresponds to three possibilities: A and B, not‐A and B, and not‐A and not‐B, with the temporal constraint that B does not precede A; and the stronger relation conveys only the first and last of these possibilities. Individuals represent these relations in mental models of what is true in the various possibilities. The theory predicts a number of phenomena, and, contrary to many accounts, it implies that the meaning of causation is not probabilistic, differs from the meaning of enabling conditions, and does not depend on causal powers or mechanisms. The theory also implies that causal deductions do not depend on schemas or rules.

Categories within the verb category: learning the causative in Inuktitut

How children learn the category verb as a grammatical construct has been the focus of much research over the past two decades. However, less attention has been paid to acquisition of smaller categories within the verb category. This paper uses data concerning the acquisition of causatives in Inuktitut to address the question of how smaller categories of verbs are learned. Inuktitut has one class of verbs that permits only a morphological causative, and a second class that permits either a morphological or a lexical causative depending on the semantics of the situation. Data from eight Inuktitut-speaking children aged 1;0 through 3;6 indicate that the distinction between these classes is acquired in three stages. During the first stage, the children use only lexical causatives and there is no evidence that they understand that these structures have a causative meaning component. During the second stage, they use the morphological causative indiscriminately across verb categories to issue commands. In addition, they begin to show productivity in their use of lexical causatives in that they alternate between intransitive and lexical-causative uses of the same verb root. By stage three, children have begun to distinguish the two classes of verbs with respect to causative constructions. Across the three stages outlined above, children apparently learn to use linguistic indicators of causation first in a situation-based way (i.e. for issuing commands) and later verb-by-verb, rather than employing a class-based approach to category formation. These results are analyzed in terms of similar studies in English and Hebrew, and in terms of a general phasal approach to cognitive and linguistic development

A preliminary analysis of causative verbs in English

This paper investigates the phenomena that come under the label ‘causative alternation’ in English, as illustrated in the transitive and intransitive sentence pair Antonia broke the vase / The vase broke. Central to our analysis is a distinction between verbs which are inherently monadic and verbs which are inherently dyadic. Given this distinction, much of the relevant data is explained by distinguishing two processes that give rise to causative alternation verbs. The first, and by far more pervasive process, forms lexical detransitive verbs from certain transitive verbs with a causative meaning. The second process, which is more restricted in its scope, results in the existence of causative transitive verbs related to some intransitive verbs. Finally, this study provides further insight into the semantic underpinnings of the Unaccusativity Hypothesis (Perlmutter 1978).

Explaining Helping Relationships Through Learning Theories and the Question of Human Agency

It is argued that counselors too readily accept the mechanistic terminology of learning theories to account for client behavior, when in fact such terminology is not capturing what really takes place in the consulting room. Following a definition of agency, classical causation theory is presented. Psychology has patterned itself after Newtonian precepts, which rely upon material and efficient causation. As an antidote to this narrow usage, the concept of telosponsivity is presented. A telosponse is behavior carried out “for the sake of” purposes, and draws from the meaning of formal and final causation. Oppositional meanings in experience are what makes telosponsivity both possible and, indeed, necessary. A review of one counseling theory is carried out, and it is then shown how the mechanistic biases of psychology have been incorporated into this theoretical account. Corrective theoretical measures, in line with an agential view of behavior, are then recommended.