Formal Distinction Research Articles

Conceptual synonymy in syntactic terminology: semantic variations of the term обставина.

The article reveals a section of terminological units of the variology, the analysis is given in specialized dictionaries and reference books in linguistics, i.e. it deals with the status of synonyms and variants in general variance theory, in particular, synonymy is recognised as a semantic variation and traditional variation is declared as a formal expression of a broader category of variability. The common phenomenon of describing a concept by several names is variability. It distinguishes into synonymy and doubling by such criterion as the interchangeability of terms in contexts. The way to avoid the terminological coincidence of terms which describe the general features of the language system and refer the indicator of the formal distinction of identical units by the meaning is proposed. The phenomenon of the conceptual synonymy on the example of such terms as modifier, adjunct, determinant etc. is analysed. This research is based on the following algorithm: 1) to clarify the definition of the terms; 2) to establish the belonging to the scientific school, theories, concepts; 3) to observe the significative differences of the terms; 4) to reveal the syntagmatic characteristics of these units. The classification of the terminological variants is examined. The features of the semantics of syntactical terms with similar meaning are clarified. In conclusion, the author makes an attempt to solve the problem within the undertaken research. Considering the different approaches to the studying phenomenon, the presence of a diffuse denotatum and common signification, the terms modifier, adjunct, determinant etc. are qualified as conceptual synonyms. In addition, the common shades of meaning of terms denote the varieties of modifiers. It correlates with terms that describe the components of semantic and syntactic structure of sentences.

Industry Lobbying and “Interest Blind” Access Norms at International Organizations

The standard approach of international organizations (IOs) makes no formal distinctions between nonprofit private sector associations, known as trade or industry groups, and public interest groups like Amnesty International or Greenpeace. After all, these groups are all organized as nonprofits; they may all be characterized as nongovernmental organizations representing the interests of their memberships; and the groups all seek to advance the agendas of members by offering ideas and expertise to international officials or bodies—classic lobbying activity. Thus, most IOs offer accreditation and access to both private sector and public interest groups on equal terms, without differentiating between them. I will call this approach “interest blind” and use this essay to examine its origins and consequences.

The Devil's Daughter of Hell Fire: Anger's Role in Medieval English Felony Cases

During the period at issue in this paper–the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when trial juries were first employed in English felony cases–felonious homicide was a catch-all category, with no formal distinction drawn between murder and manslaughter. Nevertheless, juries did distinguish among different types of homicide as they sorted the guilty from the innocent, and the irremediably guilty from those worthy of pardon. Anger was one of the factors that informed this sorting process. This paper builds upon an earlier analysis of the meaning of felony, which posited that the medieval paradigm of felony was an act that involved deliberation and forethought, an exercise of a person's reasoning capacity and volition in the absence of necessity, and moral blameworthiness. Anger complicates this scenario. On the one hand, anger was seen to be a product of an ill-formed conscience. This potentially placed anger within the felonious area of moral blameworthiness. On the other hand, anger in its more extreme manifestations was seen to inhibit a person's ability to reason and to inspire behavior resembling insanity, thereby possibly pointing toward a partial excuse. This paper takes a fresh methodological approach for the study of emotion in the common law, placing legal texts within a broader cultural context in order to illuminate the concerns and priorities of jurors.

Context and Experiencing the Sacred

AbstractThis essay considers how far the original sacred context of a painting or other artefact should be acknowledged in modern galleries and museums. It is argued that such institutions should be concerned with rather more than the fostering of aesthetic experience. An educational role is also important, and this entails that, although nothing should be done to encourage religion, contextualizing painting and artefact will also open up the possibility for concomitant religious experience. Although various formal distinctions are noted, the argument is conducted by means of a large number of specific examples.

Deductively Valid, Inductively Valid, and Retroductively Valid Syllogisms

Charles S. Peirce suggested that a formal distinction between his three types of argumentation, deduction, induction, and retroduction, could be drawn using syllogistic figures. However, he never developed the concept of formal validity for non-deductive arguments beyond that point. His failure to do so may have been due in part to inadequacies in the theory of syllogisms as it was known at the time. Using an expanded syllogistic, with quantifiers between ‘all’ and ‘some’, this paper shows that it is possible to derive distinct groups of deductive, inductive, and retroductive syllogisms.

The distinction between Vulpes zerda and Vulpes pallida using chromosomes test in Korea

Vulpes zerda is a fox that inhabits the desert regions of North Africa and Asia, whereas Vulpes pallida is a fox that inhabits the savannah zones of North Africa and the Sahara desert. Vulpes zerda, which is on the “Red List of Threatened Species” designated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), belongs to the “Appendix II” group drawn up by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and hence its cross-border trade is prohibited. In contrast, Vulpes pallida is classified as being of “Least concern” (LC) by IUCN. However, distinguishing between Vulpes pallida and Vulpes zerda by shape alone is difficult. This study attempted to differentiate between the two species by examining the chromosomes of Vulpe szerda and Vulpes pallida that were raised in Korea. According to the examination, two of eight foxes believed to be Vulpes zerda were Vulpes pallida and one of six foxes believed to be Vulpes pallida was actually Vulpes zerda. Considering the ambiguity of making a formal distinction between Vulpes zerda and Vulpes pallida, a more scientific approach to differentiation will be required.

Echo and the Historiola: Theorizing the Narrative Incantation

Abstract Narrative incantations known as historiolae appear frequently in many magical traditions, but scholarship on the subject is sparse, and current descriptions of the historiola’s mechanism are inadequate. This study addresses this lacuna. It examines and synthesizes the existing scholarly literature and develops a theory of echo in relation to the historiola. It explores two unusual ‘transubstantiative’ historiolae that demonstrate the value of this theory. The concept of echo advanced by this study not only expands upon our current understanding of the historiola but-together with the two case-studies-allows for several conceptual, formal, and pragmatic distinctions to be made within the primary literature.

Quantum cognition and bounded rationality

We consider several puzzles of bounded rationality. These include the Allais- and Ellsberg paradox, the disjunction effect, and related puzzles. We argue that the present account of quantum cognition—taking quantum probabilities rather than classical probabilities—can give a more systematic description of these puzzles than the alternate treatments in the traditional frameworks of bounded rationality. Unfortunately, the quantum probabilistic treatment does not always provide a deeper understanding and a true explanation of these puzzles. One reason is that quantum approaches introduce additional parameters which possibly can be fitted to empirical data but which do not necessarily explain them. Hence, the phenomenological research has to be augmented by responding to deeper foundational issues. In this article, we make the general distinction between foundational and phenomenological research programs, explaining the foundational issue of quantum cognition from the perspective of operational realism. This framework is motivated by assuming partial Boolean algebras (describing particular perspectives). They are combined into a uniform system (i.e. orthomodular lattice) via a mechanism preventing the simultaneous realization of perspectives. Gleason’s theorem then automatically leads to a distinction between probabilities that are defined by pure states and probabilities arising from the statistical mixture of pure states. This formal distinction relates to the conceptual distinction between risk and ignorance. Another outcome identifies quantum aspects in dynamic macro-systems using the framework of symbolic dynamics. Finally, we discuss several ideas that are useful for justifying complementarity in cognitive systems.

Abstraction/Representation Theory for heterotic physical computing.

We give a rigorous framework for the interaction of physical computing devices with abstract computation. Device and program are mediated by the non-logical representation relation; we give the conditions under which representation and device theory give rise to commuting diagrams between logical and physical domains, and the conditions for computation to occur. We give the interface of this new framework with currently existing formal methods, showing in particular its close relationship to refinement theory, and the implications for questions of meaning and reference in theoretical computer science. The case of hybrid computing is considered in detail, addressing in particular the example of an Internet-mediated social machine, and the abstraction/representation framework used to provide a formal distinction between heterotic and hybrid computing. This forms the basis for future use of the framework in formal treatments of non-standard physical computers.

Writing the impossible: Racial, sexual and stylistic expansivity in Nalo Hopkinson’s The Salt Roads (2003)

Nalo Hopkinson’s work holds an important place in the newly emerging and widely contested field of Caribbean queer studies. Yet, to date, her contribution has not been fully theorized. Her 2003 novel The Salt Roads evokes a continuum of loving encounters between women, which correspond to Audre Lorde’s emphasis on the resources provided by the erotic realm and the radical potentiality of shared connection with an other. Hopkinson’s most distinctive intervention, however, comes with her harnessing of racial, sexual and stylistic diversity. The same engagement with generic forms that has hindered critical reception of her work can also be viewed as a tactic through which she inserts a black, female and queer voice. Yet, at the same time as she deploys the genre conventions of speculative fiction, her writing also undermines the politics of empire subtly encoded within much of this oeuvre. Rather than simply providing a Caribbean twist to established genres, Hopkinson’s destabilizing of formal distinctions is itself rooted in the creolization emblematic of the Caribbean. The author’s assertion that speculative fiction allows her to imagine the impossible therefore signals the close connection between her subversion of genre codes and the sexual and racial expansiveness characteristic of her authorial vision.

Free Relatives and "Ever": Identity and Free Choice Readings

This paper explores three questions about the semantics of free relatives (FRs). One, do FRs have a uniform meaning? Two, related to one, what is the contribution of "ever"? And three, perhaps less discussed than the other two, what is the relation between identity and free choice (FC) readings of FRs with "ever"? It claims that FRs are always definite. "Ever" introduces a type of modality that is independent of the verbal system by enforcing universal quantification over epistemic alternatives to the world of evaluation. In so doing, it endows the FR with properties typically associated with universal quantifiers. There is no formal distinction between identity and FC readings of FRs. The crucial distinctions have to do with the interaction of uniqueness requirements typical of definites, NP-internal modality and episodic vs. non-episodic interpretations determined by tense and aspect.

Informal, Non(-)formal, or Free-choice Education and Learning? Toward a Common Terminology for Agriscience and Ag-STEM Educators

Education professionals must re-examine the use of labels for education and learning in diverse settings in light of new understandings of how people learn and updated goals for broader interdisciplinary work. The varied use of the terms informal education, nonformal education, and formal education draw distinctions that serve to divide, not unite, those working to support a wide variety of learners for similar agriscience education goals. What in Extension education is nonformal learning is informal learning in science education. Juxtaposing informal learning or nonformal learning with formal learning also serves, in the eyes of some outside the profession, to devalue the learning that actually predominates human learning, at least in terms of time and opportunity. Education privileges the facilitator, not the learner. One potential new term for consideration is free-choice learning. By breaking down silos, working across disciplinary boundaries, and embracing common terminology that puts the learner at the center, a profession of educators can better leverage resources, increase visibility, and ultimately, support constituents.

El intelecto agente según Ignatio Vincentio / The Agent Intellect According to Ignatio Vincentio

In this work we review the three principal theses that Ignatio Vincentio, a Spanish thinker of the seventeenth century, defends about the agent intellect: 1) it is the same potency as the possible intellect, only with a formal distinction and plurality of names; 2) it has three tasks: a) to illuminate phantasmata, b) to make them intelligible in act, and c) to abstract the intelligible species from them; and 3) it will remain in the separated soul performing the same task as in the present situation [(in this life) ?], but without conversion to phantasmata.

Fear of the Few: John Adams and the Power Elite

The political thought that informed the design of the United States Constitution largely neglected the danger posed by socioeconomic elites. The writings of John Adams, I contend, are exceptional in this regard. Using Adams’s writings as a vantage point, this article exposes two important blind spots in mainstream Founding-era thought and the Constitution it informed. Whereas the likes of Hamilton and Madison insisted that majorities held the clear preponderance of power in republican America, Adams maintained that an elite of wealth, birth, and beauty retained overwhelming power even after the abolition of formal distinctions. And whereas Federalists sought security against the threat of majority tyranny, Adams’s principal fear was of aristocratic tyranny—specifically, the tendency of the elite few to undermine both popular representation and effective government.

Watching language grow in the manual modality: Nominals, predicates, and handshapes

All languages, both spoken and signed, make a formal distinction between two types of terms in a proposition – terms that identify what is to be talked about (nominals) and terms that say something about this topic (predicates). Here we explore conditions that could lead to this property by charting its development in a newly emerging language – Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). We examine how handshape is used in nominals vs. predicates in three Nicaraguan groups: (1) homesigners who are not part of the Deaf community and use their own gestures, called homesigns, to communicate; (2) NSL cohort 1 signers who fashioned the first stage of NSL; (3) NSL cohort 2 signers who learned NSL from cohort 1. We compare these three groups to a fourth: (4) native signers of American Sign Language (ASL), an established sign language. We focus on handshape in predicates that are part of a productive classifier system in ASL; handshape in these predicates varies systematically across agent vs. no-agent contexts, unlike handshape in the nominals we study, which does not vary across these contexts. We found that all four groups, including homesigners, used handshape differently in nominals vs. predicates – they displayed variability in handshape form across agent vs. no-agent contexts in predicates, but not in nominals. Variability thus differed in predicates and nominals: (1) In predicates, the variability across grammatical contexts (agent vs. no-agent) was systematic in all four groups, suggesting that handshape functioned as a productive morphological marker on predicate signs, even in homesign. This grammatical use of handshape can thus appear in the earliest stages of an emerging language. (2) In nominals, there was no variability across grammatical contexts (agent vs. no-agent), but there was variability within- and across-individuals in the handshape used in the nominal for a particular object. This variability was striking in homesigners (an individual homesigner did not necessarily use the same handshape in every nominal he produced for a particular object), but decreased in the first cohort of NSL and remained relatively constant in the second cohort. Stability in the lexical use of handshape in nominals thus does not seem to emerge unless there is pressure from a peer linguistic community. Taken together, our findings argue that a community of users is essential to arrive at a stable nominal lexicon, but not to establish a productive morphological marker in predicates. Examining the steps a manual communication system takes as it moves toward becoming a fully-fledged language offers a unique window onto factors that have made human language what it is.

Editorial: Pedagogical Media Ecologies

Editorial: Pedagogical Media Ecologies

Disputed Rivers: Sovereignty, Territory and State-Making in South Asia, 1948–1951

The construction of territorial sovereignty is key to conceptions of modern states. Yet after the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, when both became independent from Britain, the precise nature of India’s relationship to Pakistan was open to some question. Was Pakistan a foreign country? Was India’s relationship to it international? This article uses the example of a dispute over water resources in the Indus Basin to highlight the process through which Indian officials in New Delhi’s External Affairs and Law ministries came to define Pakistan as constitutionally, as well as geographically, “outside” India between 1948 and 1951. Yet while Indian policy makers manoeuvred into an aggressive stance against Pakistan, both countries’ membership of the British Commonwealth implied an international relationship blurring the formal distinction between “domestic” and “foreign”. Negotiating the contradictions between Commonwealth rules and the desire to assert sovereignty over territory and resources, I argue, made Indian sovereignty contingent on circumstance.

Denuding Surveillance at the Carceral Boundary

To keep drugs and weapons out and to generate security clearance, Ecuador’s prison administrations now demand the visual, digital, or physical strip searching of all adult citizens who establish contact with incarcerated subjects. The prison system may normalize such denuding and voyeuristic surveillance, but prison officers deny any sexual content in these procedures while satisfying their professional gatekeeping tasks—the maintenance of carceral boundaries effectively blurring any formal distinctions between voyeuristic desire and bureaucratic duty. The state’s securitization of the prison in an age of inmate-threat neutralization and administrative segregation expands the carceral boundary of denuding surveillance to include non-incarcerated subjects. Rampant “security sexualization” and its disavowal, I suggest, form a spectral aspect of prison governance currently on the rise across Ecuador and in a cross-hemispheric context.

Das Wissen der Schulden. Recht, Kulturtechnik und Alltagserfahrung im liberalen Kapitalismus

The Knowledge of Debt: Law, Media Technique, and Everyday Experience in Liberal Capitalism. Performing an object such as 'the economy' hinges on practices of formatting knowledge. The article proposes to look at such instituting moments in connection with social conflicts over the legitimate rules of exchange. This is exemplified by way of recounting the story of the codification of Swiss bankruptcy law in 1889. In order to homogenize the legal procedures of debt collection and bankruptcy, two subject categories were instituted: 'merchants' and 'non-merchants'. These different categories were thought to account for the diverging temporalities and spaces of credit exchange in everyday economic life. The introduction of the commercial register, a media-technical apparatus, enabled a formal distinction between 'merchants' and 'non-merchants'. However, this boundary was contested and proved to be porose.

Neo-patrimonial politics in the ANC

Following Jacob Zuma’s ascension to the presidency in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) has been dogged by rumours of escalating corruption and the personalization of power. This article documents these trends and explores three ways of understanding neo-patrimonialism in South Africa’s ruling party. First, the article addresses the possibility that such political habits have a long history within the ANC but were restricted during its years in exile and have begun to resurface now that the armed struggle is over. Second, it considers explanations that relate to the party’s historical ties to criminal networks and pressures arising from the transition to majority rule and contemporary electoral politics. Finally, the article investigates whether neo-patrimonialism is a reflection of broader tendencies within South African political and economic life. All three factors are found to have played a role in the rise of neo-patrimonial politics, and it is the confluence of these trends that explains why these dynamics have taken such a strong hold on the party. WHAT EXPLAINS THE ANC’S apparent transformation from a ruleregulated, mass-based party into an organization in which internal dynamics are mostly shaped by personal interests? Increasingly within the ANC, leadership behaviour appears to be characterized by neo-patrimonial predispositions and, while formal distinctions between private and public concerns are widely recognized, officials nevertheless use their public powers for private purposes. 1 Other symptoms of neo-patrimonial political behaviour have also appeared. There is factionalism, that is, the emergence of internal rival groups constituted by personal loyalty rather than shared ideological beliefs. Another manifestation is the affirmation by the ANC leadership of ‘traditionalist’ representations of indigenous culture, whereby moral legitimation is sought more and more from appeals to ‘Africanist’