Propositional Functions Research Articles

Comparing automated analysis and human analysis of hedging in academic texts

Hedging is a metadiscourse device employed by academic writers to manage knowledge claims and establish writer-reader interaction in written discourse. Research writing involves a balance of fact and a writer’s personal evaluation and interpretation. This study compared automated analysis of hedging through Authorial Voice Analyzer (AVA) with a more traditional human analysis of hedging, to increase understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the AVA versus human analysis of hedging in academic texts. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used; quantitative analysis (Pearson correlation) was followed by qualitative analysis to understand the reasons for quantitative differences. AVA found a larger number of hedging items than the human analysis in the same academic writing corpus. However, qualitative analysis suggests that the AVA only considers frequency and does not take account of function. Since many hedging devices are multifunctional, AVA seems to overestimate the frequency of hedging by counting hedge markers as hedging even when they are used with propositional functions. Overall, automated analytic tools like AVA are useful for metadiscourse studies. However, unless used in combination with human analysis they are unlikely to effectively operate with multifunctional markers. The findings of this study offer validation of AVA and help raise awareness of how the tool can be used to evaluate hedging in academic texts.

학문 목적 한국어 학습자를 위한 인용절 교육 내용 연구

Objectives The purpose of this paper is to propose new educational content for quotations for Korean language learners, reflecting the logic-semantic types of Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL). Methods Quotation clauses are elucidated as projective clauses within the logic-semantic relationship of SFL. Projection is categorized based on three criteria: projection level (thought, locution), projection mode (parataxis, hypotaxis), and speech function (proposition, proposal). Reflecting these perspectives of projection in the educational content of quotations can improve existing problems observed among Korean language learners for academic purposes. Results First, this paper distinguishes between locution quotation, thought quotation, and fact quotation based on the linguistic content being quoted, and indicates the need to address various sources of quotations such as speaker, listener, the third person and media. Second, it is emphasized that educational content should explicitly cover not only indirect quotation expressions but also direct quotation. Regarding the form of presenting indirect quotation expressions, considering ‘고’ as a particle is effective. This is because regarding ‘고’ as a particle helps to clearly reveal the content of the quotation, explicitly indicate the speech function of propositions or proposals, and above all, because it well represents the nature of quotations, making it accessible for Korean language learners. Third, it is suggested that educational content should be designed to include various quotation verbs to allow learners to express the attitudes and opinions of quoted speakers. To this end, this paper provides a list of quotation verbs for each learning level. Fourth, it is proposed that quotation nouns should be included as grammar items in quotation expression learning to enable learners to skillfully use quotation expressions by also mastering the structure of adjective clause. Conclusions The SFL-based educational content on quotations proposed in this paper can contain sufficient content of quotation expressions required by academic learners after university admission, and it is expected to be effectively applied in cultivating their usage proficiency.

The Public Role of Italian Sociology: Among Institutions, Universities and Social Engagement

AbstractSociology has played an important role in Italy, although its centrality in public debate has fluctuated, and it has been supported or opposed by political power at different historical moments. Contemporary Italian sociology has developed since the 1950s and has been influenced in various ways by European and American sociological theories. Sociology has played an important role in Italian public debate and has offered a critical and scientific perspective on the country’s social reality. However, this role should be understood in the context of the different stages of development that have accompanied the academic growth of the discipline and the presence of sociologists in ‘policy making’ processes. In the latter sense, Italian sociology has played an important role in the formation of public policies, as it offers a scientific analysis of social problems and proposes solutions based on empirical research. Within this framework, the training processes also need to be situated within what has been defined—albeit with conceptual ambiguity—as ‘professional sociology’, which involves important figures such as social workers, psychologists, and health workers. However, sociology has also played an important political role both in supporting the actions of policy makers and in analysing the contradictions of the capitalist system. This article also analyses the emergence of a ‘transformative’ positional sociology alongside the traditional public sociology. The goal of this transformative approach is to counteract the public role of Italian sociology, which seems to have lost its critical-explanatory vocation without ever having truly acquired a propositional function in the social context.

Prolegomena to the Study of Love

Consider this propositional function which includes the dyadic predicate “loves”: “X does not love Y unless Y loves X” (or “if Y does not love X”). This function may be treated in four ways. (1) If universally quantified, it states a (purported) conceptual truth about “love” or the nature or essence of love. Love is necessarily reciprocal. (2) If universally quantified, it may alternatively be a nomological generalization stating an empirical or factual truth about human nature, i.e., about a pattern of reciprocity that occurs among people who are independently identified as lovers. (3) If instantiated with constants, it is an empirical proposition about the attitudes or behaviors of particular individuals (a, b, c). Finally, (4) the function may be treated axiologically; it expresses a normative judgment about what love ought to be or what lovers ought to feel or do. Other propositional functions may be constructed for the constancy, exclusivity, and benevolence of love. This essay investigates the implications of these understandings of the function and how they are logically related to each other.

Transmuted Ailamujia Distribution with Applications to Lifetime Observations

Background of the Study: Quest to extend existing probability distributions to allow for more flexibility in data modelling is never ending.
 Aims: This study extends the Ailamujia distribution using quadratic transmutation map to propose a new 2-paramter lifetime distribution.
 Methodology: Shapes of the density function and the hazard rate function of the new propositions are obtained. Some mathematical properties of the new distribution are also obtained.
 Results: Application of the distribution to four lifetime datasets reveals that the distribution competes favourably with other related distributions.
 Conclusion: The new distribution competes favourably with the existing distributions in data modelling.

“From the Speaker’s Point of View” – Subjectification as Pragmatic-Semantic Language Change

The article demonstrates the importance of subjectification processes in shaping the metatextual layer of language. Using three lexical units (prawda ‘true, right’, pewnie ‘sure, certainly’ and szalenie ‘extremely, madly’) as examples, the author shows how the enrichment of their semantic structure with a subjective component led to the emergence of new propositional functions and ultimately to the establishment of a new meaning. The study is conducted diachronically, drawing on the oldest attestations of the lexemes in question. Based on a contextual analysis, the moment the meanings with a subjective component appeared is identified. The results unequivocally demonstrate that subjectification has its origin in the pragmatic domain, while its consequences are visible on the semantic level. The language material comes from both lexicographic sources and corpora. The analysis shows that subjectification is correlated with formal changes including loss of inflectional endings, loss of morphological properties, recategorization, and syntactic isolation. The paper provides evidence for the need for in-depth comparative diachronic research on subjectification.

L1 and non-L1 perceptions of discourse markers in English

Although critical reception of discourse markers (DMs) such as like and you know has often been noted, surprisingly little research has actually investigated this attitudinal perspective on usage. Moreover, a recent, rapidly expanding body of research on non-L1 speakers’ use of discourse markers in English has suggested that their more or less frequent use of specific markers may be due to familiarity with these markers and positive or negative marker perceptions. The present study presents the results of a survey measuring British English L1 speakers’, English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners’, and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) speakers’ perceptions of the discourse markers so, like, well and you know and their reactions to either abundance or lack of DMs. The survey measured speaker attitudes by asking participants to evaluate the usage of other DMs. We found that L1, EFL, and ELF have varying attitudes about certain markers, and these markers are perceived differently for traits like politeness and friendliness. Generally speaking, L1 speakers were more positively disposed towards markers than either of the other groups, who in their turn rated the propositional functions of the markers as more acceptable than interactional functions.

Superextension, Modal Assertability, and Hypothetical Discernibility:

We argue that Russell’s treatment of propositions containing non-existent denotations is the prelude of a strategy for discerning the predictive content of any proposition with descriptions (and incomplete symbols), insofar as its indeterminacy is classifiable as a possible extension. We argue, further, that Russell’s theory of propositional functions is dedicated to explaining the discernibility of hypothetical propositions, through representing (what we call) the superextension of assertoric modal propositions. The indeterminacy of the truth of hypothetical propositions is thus paired with a second- order classification condition, expressing its conjectural content as the projected scope of instantiation of a propositional function; which in turn is the superextension of a modal predicate. Russell’s theory is his non-pragmatic answer to the problem of assertability in unstable and uncertain conditions. It involves a sophisticated thesis about the discernibility of complex contents, such as those represented by analogical and approximate denotations (descriptions, fictions, etc.), which classify more than one possibility of instantiation in different modal and intensional contexts. We will conclude this article by testing the assumption that Russell’s theory favors a coherentist theory, seeing that as it admits assertability conditions that are super-mapped in a system, or that derive from different orders of referential layers.

Hints for a formal language inspired by Lewis structures

SummaryIn this work we elaborate on the idea of a formal theory for a limited but important part of structural chemistry, that described by Lewis’ methods and VSEPR (Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion). For this purpose, recursive functions and propositional functions are defined, that apply to formal expressions of the structure, based on a finite set of symbols. This approach allows for the expression of numerous questions of chemical interest. The formalization of basic structural chemistry based on Lewis/VSEPR method is potentially useful for the automation of the related procedures, but possibly also of some use as complementary material in teaching and as a heuristic tool in structural chemistry.

A análise do ciclo das políticas: uma ferramenta para Assistentes Sociais

This article aims to present some theoretical concepts and models of public policy analysis. The aim is to provide social workers with a theoretical analysis of the social policy process with special relevance to the model of analysis of the policy cycle in phases or moments. This option is related to the perspective of the social worker as an implementing agent of public policy, following the perspective of Michael Lipsky (1976, 2010), who considers implementers as active agents with influence on policy, as real "policy makers". Thus, the article presents the three phases of the cycle - formulation, implementation and evaluation - in order to present a general framework that can be operationalised and used as a tool to analyse the policies that these professionals implement. Facing the need to analyse the policy one implements contributes to the politicisation of intervention, through the mobilisation of power in the struggle of forces that characterise the social field, to combat inequality and defend rights and social justice. If this challenge is not taken up, the social services profession may be assumed to be merely executive, abdicating its propositional function and its active role in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of social policies.  

New problems for Tennant's definition of harmony

Steinberger proposes as a counterexample to Tennant's harmony criterion a degenerate quantifier that makes it possible to prove consequences such as A ( a ) ⊨ A ( b ) for every propositional function and pair of terms. Tennant suggests an answer that, according to Steinberger, is inadequate for the purpose. In this paper, it is shown that Steinberger's counterexample works only within a finitary framework, and that, moreover, it rests on a controversial interpretation of Tennant's criterion. Another deepened interpretation of the same criterion is suggested and defended. It is then proved that this new reading solves Steinberger's counterexample but leads to an unacceptable weakening of the logical system.

A Simple Theory of Argument Schemes

While there has been in depth discussion of many particular argumentation schemes, some lament that there is little to no theory underpinning the notion of an argumentation scheme. Here I shall argue against the utility of argument schemes, at least as a fundamental part of a complete theory of arguments. I shall also present and defend a minimalist theory of their nature—a scheme is just a set of proposition expressions and propositional functions. While simple, the theory contravenes several typical desiderata of argumentation schemes such as (i) aiding in the identification of enthymemes and (ii) keeping arguments constrained to a manageable taxonomy. So much the worse for the desiderata. Instead, I shall recommend focusing less on schemes and more on the component propositional functions.

Representing Buridan’s Divided Modal Propositions in First-Order Logic

Formalizing categorical propositions of traditional logic in the language of quantifiers and propositional functions is no straightforward matter, especially when modalities get involved. Starting with the formulas for non-modal categoricals, we consider various ways of modalizing the formulas and semantic criteria of their evaluation that can be derived from Buridan. In addition to the logical relations included in the octagon of divided modal propositions, three interrelated aspects are taken into account—existential import, sensitivity to ampliation of terms in modal contexts, and quantification over possibilia. We end by suggesting a representation of Buridan’s divided modal propositions that relies on the use of actualist quantification over variable domains. The formulas adequately capture the truth conditions given by Buridan, and they preserve all relations of the octagon, as well as permissible conversions in modal S5.

The Proper Formulation of the Minimalist Theory of Truth

Abstract Minimalism about truth is one of the main contenders for our best theory of truth, but minimalists face the charge of being unable to properly state their theory. Donald Davidson incisively pointed out that minimalists must generalize over occurrences of the same expression placed in two different contexts, which is futile. In order to meet the challenge, Paul Horwich argues that one can nevertheless characterize the axioms of the minimalist theory. Sten Lindström and Tim Button have independently argued that Horwich’s attempt to formulate minimalism remains unsuccessful. We show how to properly state Horwich’s axioms by appealing to propositional functions that are given by definite descriptions. Both Lindström and Button discuss proposals similar to ours and conclude that they are unsuccessful. Our new suggestion avoids these objections.

Propositional Kernels.

The pervasive presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday life has nourished the pursuit of explainable AI. Since the dawn of AI, logic has been widely used to express, in a human-friendly fashion, the internal process that led an (intelligent) system to deliver a specific output. In this paper, we take a step forward in this direction by introducing a novel family of kernels, called Propositional kernels, that construct feature spaces that are easy to interpret. Specifically, Propositional Kernel functions compute the similarity between two binary vectors in a feature space composed of logical propositions of a fixed form. The Propositional kernel framework improves upon the recent Boolean kernel framework by providing more expressive kernels. In addition to the theoretical definitions, we also provide an algorithm (and the source code) to efficiently construct any propositional kernel. An extensive empirical evaluation shows the effectiveness of Propositional kernels on several artificial and benchmark categorical data sets.

A Value Centred Paradigm to Moderate the Digital Transformation of Manufacturing

Digital transformation affects almost all areas of society and business and is of increasing interest to academics and industry practitioners. New digital technology is expected to enable manufacturing companies to capture competitive and productivity advantages compared to conventional methods. Aggregated information based on production process data represent a new production factor to generate innovative forms of digital value generation. Paradoxically, the implementation of digitalised production in manufacturing companies remains at unexpected low levels as companies’ investment decisions often vote against digitalisation due to uncertainty in judging novel forms of criteria related to digital value. Digital transformation constates a new set of latent structure and relationships to generate, capture and monetise value. A holistic view on heterogenous research disciplines related with digital transformation of production is proposed in this short communication. This research presents a new paradigm which takes the moderation function of value propositions, value architectures and value capture to evaluate projects relative to digitalised manufacturing.

System of Question Sentence in Tontemboan Language

This study aims to describe the question system sentence of Tontemboan language based on its form, propositional function, and the meaning it refers to. This study used a qualitative method with a descriptive design. Based on the results of the research, the form of question sentences in the Tontemboan language can be classified into three types, namely (1) interrogative sentences marked by the use of interrogative words: sapa, sei, kawisya, ambisya, pira, kitu, and kensya, (2) question sentences marked by the use of interrogative intonation, and (3) interrogative sentences marked by the use of question particles re'en and wei. Based on the proposition, Indonesian language question sentences are categorized into: (1) WH-question questions, (2) yes-no questions, and (3) questions commonly called alternatives. The function of the Tontemboan language question sentence, according to the meaning, referred to varied dependence on the form of the question used, question word, intonation, and question particle.

Modal and Discourse Marking in L1 & L2 Spanish: A Comparative Analysis of Oral Narratives

This study analyzes the use of discourse and modal markers by learners of Spanish as a foreign language (FL) in unplanned oral narratives. To do this, we compared two different corpora: narratives produced by native speakers and those produced by intermediate (B2) learners of Spanish (L1 Dutch). Following a functional approach to modal and discourse marking (Cuenca in The rise of modern genomics, Eumo, Vic, 2006; Cuenca, in Discourse markers and modal particles. Categorization and description, 2013), we identified and classified markers according to three macro-functions (propositional, structural, and modal). On the one hand, the total frequency of markers as well as the frequencies of each function were compared in native and learner production. On the other hand, we considered coincidence and divergence in the use of all markers so that forms produced only by native speakers, forms produced only by learners, and forms equally used by both populations are identified. Results show that in the case of markers with a Propositional function, FL learners’ production very much resembles that of native speakers of Spanish. However, for Structural and Modal functions, non-native speakers do not seem to have acquired/incorporated markers that are more specific to informal registers, failing to assign the appropriate discursive values to sentence-level adverbs and connectors (si `yes’, o ‘or’), or resorting to paraphrase strategies (e.g. como decir, como se dice ‘how do you say’). Our results indicate the need to include more instances of informal input in the FL classroom.

Mamdani-Fuzzy Framework for Academic Staff Selection and Placement in Nigerian Universities

Selection and placement of appropriate personnel for the right job leads to great success in any organization. However, this is one of the most important activities carried out by Human Resource (HR). Minimizing imprecision and subjective value judgment in personnel selection processes were taken into consideration in this research by developing personnel selection and placement framework using the Mamdani- fuzzy model. This research work is aimed at developing Mamdani- fuzzy framework for academic staff selection and placement. A model with three levels has been developed to manage the database, and the necessary conditions required from applicants for selection and placement, and the consideration of individual temperament was paramount. Tools: Java script and HTML (for the front end) PHP and MySQL (for the database storage as back end). Experimental results using fuzzy classification membership function defined by the truth value of a fuzzy propositional function would also be used as part of the analysis and design. When the need arise, MathLab would be employed for some analysis and simulations. A graphical user interface (GUI) would be developed for all the relevant forms in order to effectively interact with the users of the system

現代日本語における副詞の感動詞用法をめぐって －｢ちょっと｣の主観化を中心に－

This study focuses on chotto among the adverbs that are interjectionally used and describes the process of how the meaning and function of adverbs has derived from adverbial usage to interjectional usage in case of increased subjectification. (1) Chotto precedes the predication and indicates low degree or small quantity. (2) The acquisition of affective meaning by chotto is probably enabled by contexts in which speaker’s negative feelings or attitude to the addressee. In such uses, it appears to have lost its original meaning, small extent as an adverb. Chotto occurs without a predicate as a response but it is not procedural with interjectional meaning. (3) Chotto is used as an interjection to call someone casually. It occurs in clause-initial position. Moreover, it can stand alone as an utterance. It functions at a discourse expressive level. As addressed above, chotto illustrates increased subjectification; originating in a clause-internal degree modifier (i.e. propositional function), it comes to show the speaker’s emotional involvement as an interjection (i.e. expressive function).