Oxford University Press Research Articles

Autistic People's Perspectives on Functioning Labels and Associated Reasons, and Community Connectedness.

Functioning labels have been used in relation to autistic people and differentiating between support needs. The main purpose of our study was to identify perspectives regarding language about being autistic. In regard to themselves and functioning. Furthermore, we investigated the influential factor of community connectedness on use of language acceptability and functioning labels. 516 autistic respondents completed our survey. We asked about demographic characteristics, how respondents would like autistic people to be termed in the survey, and their acceptability (person with autism, Aspergers, disorder, conditions, living with autism, autistic). We also asked about respondents? Autistic Community Connectedness, acknowledging the implicit nature of language and identity (Stets & Serpe in New directions in identity theory and research, Oxford University Press, 2016). The main focus of our survey was whether or not to use functioning labels, and the supporting rationale. 97% of respondents stated that they find the term 'autistic' acceptable. Respondents who did see merit in using functioning labels to describe autistic people also reported not necessarily using them about themselves. Community membership was found to impact the participants' language preferences to describe the support needs of autistic people, including the use of functioning labels. The proposed best option for language preferences is not to find consensus but instead, opt for the optimal choice that people find the least offensive or disagreeable. This means using identity-first language and not using functioning labels.

The interpretation of animate nouns in child and adult Mandarin: from the Universal Grinder to syntactic structure

Abstract Using animate nouns to refer to entities in the world involves a complex interaction of ontology, cognition and language. The present study evaluates two accounts of the use of animate nouns, with Mandarin Chinese as the vehicle for testing between the competing accounts. One account was proposed by Cheng et al. (2008. How universal is the Universal Grinder? In Marjo van Koppen & Bert Botma (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands, 50–62. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins). These researchers contend that the count interpretation is basic for Mandarin animate nouns, due to a lexical blocking effect. To access the alternative, mass interpretation requires some kind of pragmatic coercion. A second account was proposed by Pelletier, based on English (1975. Non-Singular reference: Some preliminaries. Philosophia 5(4). 451–465; 2012. Lexical nouns are both +MASS and +COUNT, but they are neither +MASS nor + COUNT. In Diane Massam (ed.), Count and mass across languages, 9–26. Oxford: Oxford University Press). We extend this account to Mandarin animate nouns, proposing that they are encoded in the mental lexicon with both a count sense and a mass sense. To adjudicate between the accounts, we conducted four experiments that were designed to assess the interpretation assigned to animate nouns by Mandarin-speaking children and adults. The experimental conditions manipulated both the syntactic structures of the sentences and the non-linguistic contexts in which those sentences were presented. The experimental findings support our proposal that both mass and count interpretations of animate nouns are available to children and adults when sentences are presented in contexts that are congruent with these interpretations. The findings also suggest that syntactic structure is an even more critical factor in determining the interpretation that is assigned to animate nouns in Mandarin.

Susan Powell, ed. The Household Accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509): From the Archives of St. John's College, Cambridge Records of Social and Economic History, new series 63. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. 735. $190.00 (cloth).

Susan Powell, ed. The Household Accounts of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509): From the Archives of St. John's College, Cambridge Records of Social and Economic History, new series 63. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. 735. $190.00 (cloth).

Competence or Experience

Competence or Experience

Review of Debating Targeted Killing: Counter-Terrorism or Extrajudicial Execution? By Tamar Meisels and Jeremy Waldron (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Review of Debating Targeted Killing: Counter-Terrorism or Extrajudicial Execution? By Tamar Meisels and Jeremy Waldron (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Religious Minorities at Risk, by Mathhias Basedau, Jonathan Fox, and Ariel Zellman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.

Religious Minorities at Risk, by Mathhias Basedau, Jonathan Fox, and Ariel Zellman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.

Ursula Goodenough, <i>The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Has Emerged and Evolved</i>

Ursula Goodenough, The Sacred Depths of Nature: How Life Has Emerged and Evolved (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2023), 288pp., $29.95 (hardcover), ISBN: 9780197662069.

Kant, race, and racism: Views from somewhere. By HuapingLu‐Adler, Oxford University Press. 2023

<i>Kant, race, and racism: Views from somewhere</i>. By HuapingLu‐Adler, Oxford University Press. 2023

Asia. Transregional trade and traders: Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean from early times to 1900 Edited by Edward A. Alpers and Chhaya Goswami New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 397. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Asia. Transregional trade and traders: Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean from early times to 1900 Edited by Edward A. Alpers and Chhaya Goswami New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 397. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

A Liberal Chronicle in Peace and War: Journals and Papers of J. A. Pease, 1st Lord Gainford, 1911–1915. Edited by CameronHazlehurst and ChristineWoodland(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023) pp. xxiii+572 $AU423.95 (hb)

A Liberal Chronicle in Peace and War: Journals and Papers of J. A. Pease, 1st Lord Gainford, 1911–1915. Edited by CameronHazlehurst and ChristineWoodland(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023) pp. xxiii+572 $AU423.95 (hb)

Profile analysis in the inferior colliculus: physiology and modeling studies

Profile-analysis is a strategy for assessing sensitivity to differences in spectral shape [Green, Oxford University Press, 1988]. Despite extensive behavioral data, the neuronal mechanisms underlying profile-analysis remain elusive. To bridge this gap, extracellular recordings were made in awake rabbit inferior colliculus (IC) and simulated using a computation model. The standard stimulus was a log-spaced, n-component, zero-phase, equal-amplitude complex tone, presented diotically. The central component was incremented in the target stimulus. The discharge rate as a function of characteristic frequency (CF) was inferred by shifting the stimulus spectrum past the CF of each neuron. When the increment frequency was near CF, IC neurons had rates that decreased as the increment increased, contradicting a simple energy-based code. In some cases, the differences between rates for target and standard were largest for stimuli with component spacing that yielded the lowest thresholds in listeners. Responses of IC neurons that were excited by amplitude-modulated stimuli were consistent with model predictions for profile-analysis stimuli [Maxwell et al., JASA 147, 3523 (2020), Guest et al., bioRxiv (2023)]; however, the models did not explain responses of other types of IC neurons. Potential factors contributing to this discrepancy, such as off-CF inhibition and chirp selectivity, will be further explored. Support: NIHR01-DC010813

Lóngyóu tones and tone sandhi

This paper is a descriptive and analytic study of the tones and tone sandhi of the Southern Wu dialect of Lóngyóu (龙游), a city of c. 400,000 inhabitants located about 375 km southwest of Shanghai in Western Zhejiang Province, China. It is based on data collected in 2018 from two female native speakers. Our data is analyzed with Praat (Boersma and Weenick in Praat: doing phonetics by computer, 1992–2021) to document the F0 and duration correlates to the tonal categories and their sandhi changes. Evidence is presented for the representation of the tones in terms of Register and Contour (Bao in On the nature of tone, 1990; The structure of tone, Oxford University Press, 1999). One of the sandhis is analyzed as the conjunction of two Optimality Theoretic (Prince and Smolensky in Optimality theory, MIT Press, 1993, 2004) markedness constraints. A lexically-determined reflex of the Middle Chinese chiuhsheng metatony is also documented.

Constructing economic science: The invention of a discipline 1850–1950 By KeithTribe, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2021. pp. 440. £74.00 (hbk). ISBN: 9780190491741

Constructing economic science: The invention of a discipline 1850–1950 By KeithTribe, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2021. pp. 440. £74.00 (hbk). ISBN: 9780190491741

A range of replies

This is a reply by the author to the contributors to a symposium on the book, The Range of Reasons (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Why is economics the only discipline with so many curves going up and down? There is an alternative

Even the most rudimentary training from Economics 101 starts with demand curves going down and supply curves going up. They are so ‘natural’ that they sound even more obvious than the Euclidian postulates in mathematics. But are they? What do they actually mean? Start with “demand curves”. Are they hypothetical ‘psychological constructs’ on individual preferences? Propositions on aggregation over them? Reduced forms of actual dynamic proposition of time profiles of prices and demanded quantities? Similar considerations apply to “supply curves” The point here, drawing upon the chapter by Kirman and Dosi, in Dosi (Dosi, Foundations of Complex Evolving Economies Innovation, Organization and Industrial Dynamics, Oxford University Press, 2023), is that the forest of demand and supply curves is basically there to populate the analysis with double axiomatic notions of equilibria, both ‘in the head’ of individual agents, and in environments in which they operate. Supply and demand “curves”, I am arguing, are one of the three major methodological stumbling blocks on the way of progress in economics, the other related ones being ‘utility functions’ and ‘production functions’. There is an alternative: represent markets and industries how they actually works, and model them both via fully fledged Agent Based Models and via lower dimensional dynamical systems.

A Primer of Life Histories: Ecology, Evolution, and ApplicationJeffrey A.Hutchings. Published by Oxford University Press. 2021. 240 pages. US$45.99 (paperback)

A Primer of Life Histories: Ecology, Evolution, and ApplicationJeffrey A.Hutchings. Published by Oxford University Press. 2021. 240 pages. US$45.99 (paperback)

On Compulsive Talkers

AbstractThis paper reevaluates Kaplan’s (Themes from Kaplan, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 481–563, 1989b) infamous ‘compulsive talker’ objection to Reichenbach’s (Elements of symbolic logic, AQ1 Macmillan, New York, 1947 ) token-reflexive theory of indexicals. It argues that Kaplan’s objection depends on the modal status of Reichenbachian tokens. On one interpretation, Kaplan’s objection stands. But on another, equally plausible interpretation, the following points hold: (i) Reichenbach’s theory effectively preempts contemporary discussion of rigid definite descriptions, (ii) Kaplan’s own analysis of indexicals in terms of dthat-terms comes extremely close to Reichenbach’s own analysis, and (iii) Kaplan’s ‘compulsive talker’ objection should be rejected.

Defending (perceptual) attitudes

AbstractIn this paper, I defend a tripartite metaphysics of intentional mental states, according to which mental states are divided into subject, content, and attitude, against recent attempts at eliminating the attitude component (e.g., Montague, Oxford studies in philosophy of mind, 2022, 2, Oxford University Press). I suggest that a metaphysics composed of only subject and content cannot account for (a) multisensory perceptual experiences and (b) phenomenological differences between episodes of perception and imagination. Finally, I suggest that some of the motivations behind the rejection of the attitude component can be accommodated within the tripartite framework.

Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia By Enze Han. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 257 pp. £72.00 (cloth), £28.49 (paper)

Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia By Enze Han. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 257 pp. £72.00 (cloth), £28.49 (paper)

An accuracy characterisation of approximate coherence

Accuracy-first epistemologists argue that rational agents have probabilistically coherent credences. But why should we care, given that we can’t help being incoherent? A common answer: probabilistic coherence is an ideal to be approximated as best one can. De Bona (in: Philos Sci 84(2), 189–213, 2017) and Staffel (in: Unsettled thoughts: a theory of degrees of rationality, Oxford University Press, 2019) show how accuracy-firsters can spell out this answer by adopting an appropriate notion of approximate coherence. In this essay, I argue that De Bona and Staffel’s proposal is not entirely satisfactory, because it does not show whether, or why, it’s generally better to be more rather than less approximately coherent from an accuracy-first perspective. To address this point, I give a characterisation of their notion of approximate coherence in terms of accuracy. This shows that accuracy-firsters should maintain that more approximately coherent credences are better than less approximately coherent ones if and only if they accept that it’s better to miss out on less rather than more guaranteed accuracy.