Invariant Meaning Research Articles

Editorial: Dynamic systems theory and embodiment in psychotherapy research. A new look at process and outcome.

Editorial: Dynamic systems theory and embodiment in psychotherapy research. A new look at process and outcome.

The Invariant Meaning of the Instrumental Case in Modern Russian

The Invariant Meaning of the Instrumental Case in Modern Russian

El punto de vista del observador como rasgo semántico de los signos descriptivos

Exactamente igual que la significación invariante de los signos primarios mostrativos o pronominales, la significación invariante de los signos primarios descriptivos o léxicos no se construye solamente con rasgos semánticos absolutos, del tipo ‘situación’/ ‘movimiento’, ‘orientado’/ ‘no orientado’, ‘puntualidad’/ ‘extensión’, ‘continuidad’/ ‘discontinuidad’, etc., sino que se construye también con el rasgo semántico relativo de ‘punto de vista del observador’.DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/verba.41.1668

Stylistic Functions of Nominative Parts of Speech in Stereotype Personage Creation

The article is devoted to analysis of lexico-morphological devices used in the process of creation of stereotyped personage image in adventure novels. Such personages are clearly marked by the author's axiological attitude. Both the characteristics and the means of their expression can be constantly used by different authors; thus we deal with the phenomenon of personage stereotype. The choice of our investigation material is determined by the fact that in an adventure novel the ethic opposition is based on the fundamental contrastive conceptions of human morality - evil and goodness, honesty and falsity. The primary contrast which isn't tinted but, inversely, is explicitly emphasized by authors, is the constant feature of adventure poetics. In this paper we concentrate our attention on basic functions of nominative parts of speech (nouns and adjectives) in stereotype personage characterization and their formalized, standardized nature. The quantitative method of analysis of the judgmental lexicon which directly expresses the author's attitude to his characters, allowed us to determine that the most frequent category in the glossary, and in the text, is evaluative adjective (66.5% of the total number of selected lexical units constituting the vocabulary of descriptive fragments). In most cases these words appear in the function of epithets and indicate the principal ethical and external features in portrayals of SP. The fact of adjectives' domination in portrait characteristics of characters in adventure stories certainly reflects their overall dominance in the system of evaluation of the English lexicon, and that is indicated by many researchers (Frenkel, 1982). According to them evaluation as one of the aspects of pragmatics, is a part of many lexical units, combined with the corresponding designative components of meaning, but is most clearly expressed in the system of adjectives. Grammatical invariant meaning of adjectives in modern English is quality, which is associated with the assessment and through it - with emotionality and expressiveness (Morokhovskiy, 1991). The portrait description of a literary personage is characterized by a large number of attributive phrases, where the basic meaning of the adjective is enriched with secondary differential features - qualitative estimates or shades of subjective evaluation (Morokhovskiy, 1991, p. 78). The commonest model of such phrases in the texts under study is a combination of an adjective and a noun - A + N, where a substantive component acts as basic and adjective - as a dependent component in relation to the noun. Stylistic

Redes polisémicas y niveles de interpretación. Representación semántica de unidades lingüísticas complejas: el caso de vamos

La polifuncionalidad de marcadores funcionalmente complejos como vamos no se reduce a la mera variación contextual a partir de un único significado invariante, sino que revela, más bien, su naturaleza heterosémica, esto es, polisémica y policategorial. Estos elementos complejos presentan más de un significado convencional asociado a determinadas funciones discursivo-interactivas con rasgos gramaticales y semántico-pragmáticos estables diferenciados, así como varios sentidos contextuales con distinto grado de prominencia derivados de la interacción de los significados codificados con determinados contextos. Por ello, para el tratamiento semántico-funcional de esta unidad discursiva, en este trabajo proponemos un modelo polisémico radial (Lakoff, 1987; Hansen, 2005; Evans, 2004, 2006). Creemos que un modelo polisémico de este tipo permite describir y explicar adecuadamente (i) la variabilidad categorial, semántica y funcional de unidades discursivas complejas como vamos; (ii) los vínculos que existen entre los distintos usos de estas unidades; y, en definitiva, (iii) la estructura gramático-funcional subyacente de estos elementos.

La gramática de la impersonalidad

The grammar of impersonality is based on the invariant impersonal categorical grammatical meaning subjectless, which is realized in specialized morphological forms and specialized syntactic structures.

Еще раз об инвариантном и частных значениях формы несовершенного вида русского глагола

So far the most diffi cult and complicated question to which traditionally is paid attention in aspectology is the invariant meaning of imperfective aspect of the Russian verb. The article is dedicated to new nontraditional interpretations of it and new approaches to it.

The Conflict Between the Meaning of a Word and Its Form: The Unity of Disunity

This article discusses the identity of a word as a synthetic lexical unit, i.e., a language sign. It also makes an attempt to interpret Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory as presented in his book De l’essence double du langage. According to this theory, a sign of linguistic activity consists of a language sign and a speech sign. The language sign includes an invariant (constant) meaning and an invariant form, while the speech sign is made up of the current meaning (or meanings) as well as the current form. All these elements are interrelated in a way which enables humans to use them in linguistic activity. They constitute a homogeneous, yet non-isomorphic entirety, as they belong to “different worlds.” Despite the complexity of its inner structure, a sign of linguistic activity acquires its identity only due to the coexistence of all its elements (hence the “unity of disunity” of the title). The given theory differs significantly from the bilateral concept of a language sign attributed to Saussure after the publication of A Course in General Linguistics by Albert Sechehaye and Charles Bally. The concept of language sign has developed into the concept of language activity, which includes both invariant elements (of the language system) and current elements (of speech). However, such a concept was first expressed in the unfinished and unedited book De l’essence double du langage by de Saussure. The theory described in de Saussure’s book has been thoroughly analysed by the author of this article. The most important conclusion drawn from this analysis is that a sign of linguistic activity is a complex item, within which the conflict does not result from the connection of mental and physical beings, but rather from the fact that a sign is built of elements belonging to different systems, governed by different laws; the conflict here is neutralized and has a creative rather than a destructive role. The review of the better and less well-known concepts of the language sign proves that this issue has been intriguing philosophers and linguists ever since. In all the theories there are two elements to be noticed: the opposition or conflict, and the attempt to neutralize it, together with the observation that language is an unusual, amazing phenomenon. Surprisingly, it is conflict (no matter what its nature is) that turns out to be the factor that strengthens, if not actively drives, the very existence of a language.

Lifestyle changes – a continuous, inner struggle for women with type 2 diabetes: A qualitative study

Objective. The objective of this study was to describe how women handle necessary lifestyle changes due to a chronic disease using diabetes as a model. Design. Interview study. Setting. Ten women living in western Sweden were interviewed. Method. In-depth interviews and analysis were performed using the phenomenological ideas of Giorgi. Subjects. Ten women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, mean age 65. All were either on disability pension or retired with varying complications ranging from none to stroke. Results. The findings revealed five themes: the ambiguous feeling of others’ involvement, becoming a victim of pressurizing demands, experiencing knowledge deficits, experiencing an urge, and finding reasons to justify not changing. The invariant meaning of a continuous inner struggle illuminates the experience of making lifestyle changes for women with type 2 diabetes. Conclusion. The findings of the present study show that it is vital for health care professionals to treat women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes with great respect and understanding regarding the struggle that they are going through. By being aware of the everyday burden for these women, acknowledging the fact that they want their lives to go on as before, may serve as a “key” to assist women in changing attitudes towards living in accordance with the disease and appreciating the lifestyle changes as a challenge as they become healthier and improve their quality of life.

О взаимодействии перфекта и вида в литовском языке

ON THE INTERACTION OF PERFECT AND ASPECT IN LITHUANIANSummaryThis paper is concerned with the range of meanings of perfect forms determined by the aspect­ual (perfective and imperfective) value of the verb and with the relation of the meanings of perfect forms to the meanings of aspects in Lithuanian. Perfect forms „būti ‘be’ + past participle active” can render the perfect meaning proper of a previous situation with continuing relevance and the resultative meaning of a state of the deep subject resulting from a previous situation. Aspect is the major factor determining the perfect or resultative use of perfect forms. The resultative mean­ing can be rendered by the perfect form of perfective verbs exclusively, the perfect meaning being rendered by the said form of verbs of either aspect. In the perfect use, a verb retains its aspectual value. In the resultative use a verb changes its perfective value to imperfective and therefore it can function as a substitute for a missing imperfective verb in an aspect opposition.The invariant perfect meaning has a number of variants largely determined by the aspectual value of the base verb.

Deictic use as a threshold for imaginative thinking: a Peircean perspective

This investigation traces the ontogeny of the use of “I” and how its symbolic use promotes imaginative thinking. Peirce's triadic system is contrasted with Vygotsky's binary system to highlight the import of Thirdness in characterizing the ontogeny of person deictics within conversational roles. Person deictics, such as “I”, are first indexes. Later when their social function/meaning is apprehended, they serve as symbols as well; still later they are used psychologically in self to self monologues, and acquire distinctive interpretants when used unconventionally. Early indexical uses of “I” are non-symbolic – “I” referring to self only absent recognition of conversational roles. “I” is employed symbolically when its referent shifts and when its invariant meaning (speaker) is apprehended. Person deictics enhance the emergence of imagination when the symbolic use transcends their inter-psychological regulation through human to human conversation to their intra-psychological function in self to self discourse. Extension of functional roles (speaker/listener) to dolls/puppets (in representational play scenarios) constitutes an extended use of the symbolic function because inanimates cannot assume conversational roles; and such use triggers the association of different interpretants to the category of deictic use. The symbolic use of “I” as speaker facilitates apprehension of self as object, which is a major determinant of when in ontogeny children extend the use of person deictics from Dynamic to Final interpretants.

Zur semantisch-pragmatischen Erweiterung der Abtönungsfunktion bei polnischen Modalpartikeln aus kontrastiver Sicht (Deutsch-Polnisch)

The present paper deals with the problem of the pragmatic equivalence between the German and the Polish modal particles. The author focuses on two pairs of particles, which have got an identical invariant meaning, such as the German particle aber and the Polish particle ale(ż) or the German particle ja and the Polish particle no. The correspondence and the no-correspondence of the use of this particles in the same sentence and situations context is considered with reference to their invariant meaning and to the position of the Polish particles in the sentence. The paper shows, that the pragmatic no-equivalence can result from the difference in the positions of the particles in German and Polish. The position of the Polish modal particles can be identical to the position of their homonyms in opposite to the German. The fact means that the position of the modal particles in Polish doesn't have a function of the categorization for speech parts, but it can influence on a semantic-pragmatic extension of the modal function of the particle.

Adaptive, behaviorally gated, persistent encoding of task-relevant auditory information in ferret frontal cortex.

Top-down signals from frontal cortex (FC) are conjectured to play a critical role in cognitive control of sensory processing. To explore this interaction, we compared activity in ferret FC and primary auditory cortex (A1) during auditory and visual tasks requiring discrimination between classes of reference and target stimuli. FC responses were behaviorally-gated, selectively encoded the timing and invariant behavioral meaning of target stimuli, could be rapid in onset, and sometimes persisted for hours following behavior. This mirrors earlier findings in A1that attention triggered rapid, selective, persistent, task-related changes in spectrotemporal receptive fields. Simultaneously recorded local field potentials (LFPs) revealed behaviorally-gated changes in inter-areal coherence, selectively modulated between FC and focal regions of A1 responsive to target sounds. These results suggest that A1 and FC dynamically establish a functional connection during auditory behavior that shapes the flow of sensory information and maintains a persistent trace of recent task-relevant stimulus features.

HELICITY ENTANGLEMENT OF MOVING BODIES

We investigate the Lorentz transformation of the reduced helicity density matrix for a pair of massive spin 1/2 particles. The corresponding Wootters concurrence shows no invariant meaning, which implies that we can generate helicity entanglement simply by the transformation from one reference frame to another. The difference between the helicity and spin case is also discussed.

A Distributional Approach to Conditionally Convergent Series

Whether the car’s gas tank is filled up on Monday and the paycheck is deposited on Tuesday, or vice versa, the contribution of those two transactions to the checkbook’s final balance is the same. By the commutative property, order does not matter for the algebraic addition of a finite number of terms. However, for a super banker who conducts an infinite number of transactions, order may matter. If a series (sum of all transactions/terms) is convergent and the order of term does not matter, then the series is absolutely convergent. If a series is convergent but the order of terms does matter, then it is conditionally convergent. Georg Bernhard Riemann proved the disturbing result that the final sum of a conditionally convergent series could be any number at all or divergent. In two, three and higher dimensions, the matter is even worse, and such series with double and triple sums are not even well-defined without first giving sum interpretation to the (standard) order in which the series is to be summed, e.g., in three dimensions, summing over expanding spheres or expanding cubes, whose points represent ordered triples occurring in the summation. In this note we show using elementary notions from distribution theory that an interpretation exists for conditionally convergent series so they have a precise, invariant meaning.

Potential motion in a geometric setting: presenting differential geometry methods in a classical mechanics course

The standard classical mechanics textbooks used at graduate level mention geometrization of the potential motion kinematics. We show that the complete problem can also be geometrized, presenting the system of equations of geometric origin equivalent to the equations of motion of the potential system. The subject seems to be an excellent opportunity for introducing differential geometry concepts already in the classical mechanics course. After presenting the necessary differential geometry notions, the classical mechanical potential system is described in geometric terms. To the system one associates a Riemann space with an appropriately chosen metric and affine connection, both specified by the potential. In this picture, both dynamics and kinematics acquire invariant geometric meaning.

The Emergence and Evolution of the Expression “Conflict of Interests” in Science: A Historical Overview, 1880–2006

The tendency is strong to take the notion of "conflict of interests" for granted as if it had an invariant meaning and an ethical content independent of the historical context. It is doubtful however, from an historical and sociological point of view, that many of the cases now considered as instances of "conflicts of interests" would also have been conceived and perceived as such in, say, the 1930s. The idea of a "conflict of interests" presupposes that there are indeed interests in conflict. Conversely, as long as there is a consensus among the different groups involved, they will not conceive and even less denounce a given practice as being an instance of a "conflict of interests". In this article we will show that the content of the discussions over conflicts of interests has changed over time in close relation with the transformations of the research system. In other words: there are social conditions for the emergence of "conflicts of interests". The changing meaning of the notion is assessed by analyzing the presence of the expression "conflicts of interests" in the magazine Science over the past century. Three different meanings emerge and their content has evolved in close link with the changing structure of the relations between the scientific community first with the State and then with industry. It moved from a situation external to the scientific community to a debate going on inside the scientific community generated by the growing relations between university and industries.

Bell-state diagonal entanglement witnesses for relativistic and nonrelativistic multispinor systems in arbitrary dimensions

Two kinds of Bell-states diagonal (BSD) entanglement witnesses (EW) are constructed by using the algebra of Dirac $\gamma$ matrices in the space-time of arbitrary dimension $d$, where the first kind can detect some BSD relativistic and non-relativistic $m$-partite multispinor bound entangled states in Hilbert space of dimension $2^{m\lfloor d/2\rfloor}$, including the bipartite Bell-type and iso-concurrence type states in the four-dimensional space-time ($d=4$). By using the connection between Hilbert-Schmidt measure and the optimal EWs associated with states, it is shown that as far as the spin quantum correlations is concerned, the amount of entanglement is not a relativistic scalar and has no invariant meaning. The introduced EWs are manipulated via the linear programming (LP) which can be solved exactly by using simplex method. The decomposability or non-decomposability of these EWs is investigated, where the region of non-decomposable EWs of the first kind is partially determined and it is shown that, all of the EWs of the second kind are decomposable. These EWs have the preference that in the bipartite systems, they can determine the region of separable states, i.e., bipartite non-detectable density matrices of the same type as the EWs of the first kind are necessarily separable. Also, multispinor EWs with non-polygon feasible regions are provided, where the problem is solved by approximate LP, and in contrary to the exactly manipulatable EWs, both the first and second kind of the optimal approximate EWs can detect some bound entangled states. Keywords: Relativistic entanglement, Entanglement Witness, Multispinor, Linear Programming, Feasible Region. PACs Index: 03.65.Ud

Das Zustandspassiv – Pragmatische Beschränkungen und Regelkonflikte

Abstract In constructions of copula + participle II, often called “Zustandspassiv”, we find many unclear restrictions. Maienborn (2007: 83-115) explains these by pragmatics in the following way: One invariant meaning is opposed to different pragmatic readings that are gaining their existence in the pragmatic level only. We explain these restrictions in semantics itself. Restrictions in forming copula + participle II-constructions are due to conflicts between the construction meaning of copula constructions and the construction meanings of participles II. Pragmatics is mediating between the conflicting construction meanings by means of pragmatic implicatures. Due to these accommodations nearly no copula + participle construction is grammatically wrong in a strict sense, but many constructions remain restricted in their acceptability. The construction meaning of Zustandspassiv is opposed to three meaning variants of participle II. The interplay between the construction meaning of copula constructions and the three meaning variants of participles II results in different accomodations between copula-constructions and participle meanings. In some cases participle meanings adapt to copula construction meanings, in other cases the opposite process is going on. On the one hand the construction meaning of copula construction is the predication of a property to the referent of the subject. On the other hand there are a post state (target state) meaning, a present state meaning and a past time meaning of particples II. The interplay with the construction meaning of the copula construction results in four meaning variants of Zustandspassiv: post state (target state) as a property, present state as a property, past time of an event as a property, and past time meaning only. The meaning ‘past time of an event as a property’ is grammaticalizing to a past sein-passive as opposed to past werden-passive with full grammaticality. At least there are constructions that are also not completely wrong, but the accommodation to the construction meaning of copula constructions failed in a way that the only possibility of interpretation is to understand these constructions of sein + participle II as elliptical werden-passives of past tense. In this case the past time meaning of the participle completely has gained superiority to the original copula construction.

Indeterminiertheit, Valenzvariation und Verbbedeutung vom Gesichtspunkt der funktionellen Syntax / Indeterminateness, valency variation and verb meaning from a functional syntax perspective

Abstract This paper deals with the problem of how inherent verb meanings are to be assessed in a synchronic theory of verb valency, given that verbs usually occur in different syntactic patterns and display considerable semantic variation. Moreover, in a recent paper, Fischer (2003) claims that valency is essentially “indeterminate”, because the way verbs build up constructions is subject to various interpretations by different speakers. In the present paper, the variability problem is approached from the point of view of “functional syntax”, a non-generative and non-cognitive theory of grammar developed by Eugenio Coseriu. The paper focuses on the question whether indeterminacy not only holds for valency, but for verb meanings as well. The empirical account is based on a case study of a set of sentences in which the German verb graben occurs in various instantiations, including transparent complex verbal phrases with idiomatic prepositions and metaphorical uses. To adopt the functional approach advanced by Coseriu implies a commitment to account for variability at the level of valency by assuming an invariant general meaning to the verb that licenses all productive occurrences.