Semantic Principles Research Articles

A Possible Dilemma for Situation Semanticists

This paper examines the concept of information in situation semantics. For this purpose the most fundamental principles of situation semantics are classified into three groups: (1) principles of the more fundamental kind, (2) principles related to regularity, and (3) principles governing incremental information. Fodor’s well-known criticisms of situation semanticists’ concepts of information target the first group. Interestingly, situation semanticists have been anxious to articulate either the principles of the second group or the principles of the third group in order to meet these criticisms. Based on these observations, I will launch a dilemma for situation semanticists. Either they fail to handle information about individuals or they fail to present any acceptable account of the laws of nature. Millikan’s version of situation semantics, I shall argue, is not the exception to the rule.

Convergent networked decision-making using group insights

In this paper, we propose a mechanism for speeding up networked group expertise (e-expertise) and gaining a collective insight, by structuring the information used in the decision-making process in a special convergent way. We have previously proposed the convergent method for structuring information, which is based on the fundamental principles of control thermodynamics, inverse problems, holistic discourse, cognitive modeling, quantum semantics, and artificial intelligence. This paper presents a further development, which considers breakthrough thinking processes and introduces cognitive programming approaches. We use mappings of unformalized cognitive concepts and their connections into mathematical constructions or sets of objects (documents, messages, comments, etc.) as semantic interpretations of the cognitive model. We applied special structural conditions to the set of semantic interpretations. Our techniques can help groups of experts and decision-makers to create simultaneously non-causal and good decisions. The methods have been implemented as software, the e-expertise system, and have been tested on decision-making processes in e-government conditions.

Compositionality Solves Carnap’s Problem

The standard relation of logical consequence allows for non-standard interpretations of logical constants, as was shown early on by Carnap. But then how can we learn the interpretations of logical constants, if not from the rules which govern their use? Answers in the literature have mostly consisted in devising clever rule formats going beyond the familiar what follows from what. A more conservative answer is possible. We may be able to learn the correct interpretations from the standard rules, because the space of possible interpretations is a priori restricted by universal semantic principles. We show that this is indeed the case. The principles are familiar from modern formal semantics: compositionality, supplemented, for quantifiers, with topic-neutrality.

Marginal Modernity: The Aesthetics of Dependency from Kierkegaard to Joyce

Marginal Modernity: The Aesthetics of Dependency from Kierkegaard to Joyce

Conceptual structure of pain in Lithuanian and English

Physical pain is bodily experienced and common for people in their perception. Still, people experience physical pain, conceptualize and encode it in different cultures diversely. The aim of this article is to reveal the conceptual structure of the metaphorical pain expressions of human facial parts in the English (British) and Lithuanian languages. The paper provides an overview of key principles of cognitive semantics, discusses the essence of pain by taking into account physiological and psychological aspects, concentrates on both metaphorical pain expressions and encoded stimuli of pain in Lithuanian and English. Finally, the conceptual structure of pain in the languages is elaborated.

Orzecznictwo Trybunału Praw Człowieka w Strasburgu a stanowienie i stosowanie prawa polskiego

It is essential in the implementation of the main function of constitutional rights have the right to sue, that the scope is wider than the scope of guarantee resulting from the article 6 of the ECHR and the constitutional complaint which is the means of protection entitled directly to an individual. A good example of the impact of the Human Rights Court in Polish law establishment is the issue of preliminary custody and the related problem of violations of the article 5 of the Convention. The process of operative interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights will be of the main focus. Reveal that the validating argumentation of the operative interpretation, specifications of the decision process and the difference between the process and validation procedures in the domestic legal order, the linguistic principles of the legal interpretation, their place in the interpretation, the role of the semantic principles, the systemic principles of the legal interpretation – their place in the interpretation, the role of systemic-structural principles and systemic-axiological arguments role of the syntactic arguments and the principles of the broad and functional interpretations.

Cruzadas audiovisuales: metodología heurística para un análisis semántico–cognitivo del spot electoral

Basado en los saberes recientes de la lingüística cognitiva sobre la actividad semántica del espíritu y las operaciones generales de la construcción del sentido, este artículo propone una reflexión sobre la persuasión mediática, los spots políticos y el sentido audiovisual. Para desplegarla, nos abocamos al examen meticuloso de un spot de la campaña electoral del año 2000 en México. Alejándonos de las proposiciones estructuralistas y otras ópticas de rigor en la materia, este análisis se situará ahí donde la cognición y el poder convergen para proponer, "de manera heurística", algunas herramientas metodológicas de análisis semántico–cognitivo del texto político audiovisual.

Over my fake body: body ownership illusions for studying the multisensory basis of own-body perception.

Which is my body and how do I distinguish it from the bodies of others, or from objects in the surrounding environment? The perception of our own body and more particularly our sense of body ownership is taken for granted. Nevertheless, experimental findings from body ownership illusions (BOIs), show that under specific multisensory conditions, we can experience artificial body parts or fake bodies as our own body parts or body, respectively. The aim of the present paper is to discuss how and why BOIs are induced. We review several experimental findings concerning the spatial, temporal, and semantic principles of crossmodal stimuli that have been applied to induce BOIs. On the basis of these principles, we discuss theoretical approaches concerning the underlying mechanism of BOIs. We propose a conceptualization based on Bayesian causal inference for addressing how our nervous system could infer whether an object belongs to our own body, using multisensory, sensorimotor, and semantic information, and we discuss how this can account for several experimental findings. Finally, we point to neural network models as an implementational framework within which the computational problem behind BOIs could be addressed in the future.

Observations on Collective Numerals in Standard Croatian

In present-day Croatian there is quite a large discrepancy between the actual usage of numerals and their description in major normative works. This discrepancy seems to be most present in the case of collective numerals, which are normally described as quantifiers for the elements making up a group of mixed gender. The actual usage of many instances of declensions and agreement of collective numerals often remains unexplained. In the classic Hrvatska gramatika (Barić et al. 2005: 219), for example, seven different forms are given for the dative as well as the locative case and four different forms for the genitive. When or how exactly a specific form is used remains unclear. Most Croatian grammars pay very little attention to the agreement of collective numerals and give only nominal agreement in the genitive and some remarks on possible verbal agreement in the singular and the plural. Conditions for the choice between the alternatives are generally not discussed. This paper attempts to distinguish between the morphological and semantic principles of classification. Furthermore, it describes and discusses the declension, distribution, and agreement of collective numerals in present-day spoken Croatian. This is done without adopting a theoretical stance: this study is limited to the comparison of the treatment of collective numerals in different grammars, and the investigation of the extent to which this treatment reflects the actual usage as found in hits sampled from the Internet and the Croatian National Corpus (HNK).

A framework for enterprise context analysis based on semantic principles

Context analysis can be a daunting task given the vast amounts of information available and the work required to filter through all of it. Additionally, the process of performing context analysis on a specific company, although it may be done following a specific methodology, it is not a science which set in stone. Different approaches are possible, and the availability of new data sources, ranging from sensor data to web analytics data, can certainly enrich the process. However, there is a need for tools and methods, which can assist in tapping into these new data sources and extract relevant information that can assist enterprises in their context analysis process. The present paper proposes a framework that can assist in obtaining, filtering and processing relevant data from a variety of sources and in performing the necessary processing and reasoning to assist in performing a proper context analysis.

The Concept of Technology and the Russian Cultural Research Tradition.

The Concept of Technology and the Russian Cultural Research Tradition Natalia Nikiforova (bio) Introduction The concept of “technology” embraces a wide range of significance in the humanities in Russia. Besides being used to designate material culture, technical artifacts, and equipment, it is used as a universal metaphorical category and frequently appears in such combinations as “humanitarian technology,” “political technology,” or “technology of education.” In contemporary humanistic parlance the concept has turned into a subtle multidimensional terminological instrument, which is fashionable enough to be used for that reason alone. The semantic plasticity of the term is taken for granted, yet it is worth exploring the history of the term in order to understand what stands behind the present-day connotations and semantic nuances. This essay investigates the history of the concept of “technology” in Russian scholarly schools and traditions, philosophical texts, political rhetoric, and public discourse, addressing the question: How are the meanings of technology interconnected with the problems of society and culture? This methodological approach was inspired by the principles of historical semantics, mainly by Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptual history or Begriffsgeschichte, which recognizes the importance of language in understanding reality. Similar ideas were manifested in various methodological programs, including the history of discourses (Quentin Skinner) and the history of keywords (Raymond Williams). These scholarly traditions may not refer to one another, and they have evolved from different national research traditions and styles, but they all represent species of cultural history focusing on semantic change and the social and political context of ideas; they promise to identify active periods of semantic transformation and correlate them with the specificities of national history. These approaches [End Page 184] are attentive to the establishment of modernity, a critical period roughly estimated as the middle of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. At this time of shaping the scientific and scholarly lexicon, concepts of enduring importance emerged or transformed and acquired new meanings. In Koselleck’s interpretation, the “new time” began when instead of describing the “domain of experience,” the newly emerging concepts became oriented toward a “horizon of expectations.”1 Similarly, Williams characterized this period as a general change in our characteristic ways of thinking about our common life and surrounding social and political institutions.2 Another important focus in the investigation of keywords is the national perspective. In this regard, we may refer to Polish-Australian cultural linguist Anna Wierzbicka. Her works call for a principle linking vocabulary with a particular national culture, represented as a conceptual universe.3 The development of the concept of “technology” in Russian is fascinating because it reveals both national attitudes and transference of foreign cultural meanings. A Prehistory of “Technology”: Cultural Transfer to the Russian Language in the Eighteenth Century The word “technology” was among many loan words introduced into Russian academic parlance during the time of Peter the Great. As in the case of other key cultural concepts, the second half of the eighteenth century marked a rupture between premodern and new meanings of “technology” in the Russian language. The question of Russian modernity is arguable, but the transformation of the semantics of “technology” correlates with the European model. In the Russian case the transformation of terms happened concurrently with the creation of academic and literary language and was incorporated into a deliberate campaign to introduce European terms. The adaptation and usage of foreign linguistic borrowings has played a pivotal part in Russian culture since the eighteenth century. The history of the Russian academic lexicon is to a great extent the history of foreign borrowings and the work of their cultural appropriation. An extremely fruitful period in terms of foreign adoptions and borrowings was the era of Peter the Great, when the Russian linguistic situation was radically transformed. The domestication of words and ideas from other cultures was encouraged by both the administration and Peter I himself, and it was embedded in a major linguistic reform that involved a change of alphabet and typeface, the introduction of new literary styles, and a great many [End Page 185] translations of foreign texts. The orientation of the new language toward the European model embodied the aspiration to break with an obsolete regime and...

A methodological systemic scheme using causal loops for the design and control of organisational change (DCSYM-2)

A key challenge of the modern organisation is to continually align its processes, resources and capabilities to reflect an ever-increasing turbulent environment, while reinforcing its structures and functions so that they continue to support the organisation's purpose. This work will introduce a methodological systemic scheme (MSS) that is derived from the semantic diagramming principles of the design and control systemic methodology (DCSYM) and the causal loop diagramming techniques used in system dynamics, which can be used as an effective means through which the modern organisation can apply a systems approach to its management paradigm for the purpose of embracing change while reinforcing the structural cohesion of the various organisational units of which it is comprised, which will enable them to respond successfully to the diverse conditions emerging from the various internal and environmental influences to which they are subject.

Truthmaker Maximalism defended again

Fil: Barrio, Eduardo Alejandro. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina

A proof-theoretic semantic analysis of dynamic epistemic logic

The present paper provides an analysis of the existing proof systems for dynamic epistemic logic from the viewpoint of proof-theoretic semantics. Dynamic epistemic logic is one of the best known members of a family of logical systems which have been successfully applied to diverse scientific disciplines, but the proof theoretic treatment of which presents many difficulties. After an illustration of the proof-theoretic semantic principles most relevant to the treatment of logical connectives, we turn to illustrating the main features of display calculi, a proof-theoretic paradigm which has been successfully employed to give a proof-theoretic semantic account of modal and substructural logics. Then, we review some of the most significant proposals of proof systems for dynamic epistemic logics, and we critically reflect on them in the light of the previously introduced proof-theoretic semantic principles. The contributions of the present paper include a generalisation of Belnap's cut elimination metatheorem for display calculi, and a revised version of the display-style calculus D.EAK. We verify that the revised version satisfies the previously mentioned proof-theoretic semantic principles, and show that it enjoys cut elimination as a consequence of the generalised metatheorem.

Begging the question: Performativity and studio-based research

The requirement that candidates in studio-based or practice-led higher degrees by research should formulate a research question has been found to be problematic by some writers. The present article argues that this stance, particularly as it is articulated by proponents of the influential category of ‘performative research’ (Haseman, 2006, 2007), is ill-founded and that formulating a research question correctly can instead assist the creative project and prevent it separating into two separate enterprises: one practical and the other theoretical. Drawing on the principles of General Semantics as formulated by Alfred Korzybski, it suggests ways in which the relation of the question to ontological considerations can affect its usefulness for studio-based research.

When Negation and Epistemic Modality Combine: The Role of Information Strength in Child Language

Negative sentences with epistemic modals (e.g., John might not come/John can not come) contain two logical operators, negation and the modal, which yields a potential semantic ambiguity depending on scope assignment. The two possible readings are in a subset/superset relation, such that the strong reading (can not) asymmetrically entails the weak reading (might not). In this situation, a potential learnability issue arises. Based on the Semantic Subset Principle, we anticipated that children’s initial interpretations would sometimes differ from those of adults because children are expected to initially prefer strong (can not) readings for sentences that convey weak (might not) readings for adults. This proposal is investigated in two experiments using Standard Italian, which is an ideal testing ground for child language, in view of its simple modal paradigm. The results of these experiments confirm the predictions of the Semantic Subset Principle. Five-year-old Italian-speaking children were found to strongly favor the scope assignment that generates strong (can not) readings, even in cases where adults strongly favor the weak (might not) scope assignment. This result is discussed in relation to some recent alternative proposals (Gualmini & Schwarz, 2009; Musolino, 2006) that do not assume any initial bias toward the strong readings.

Psycho-Social Variables of Elementary School Children with Spelling Difficulties in relation to their Academic Achievement

Accurate spelling is a complex act that requires cognitive and linguistic knowledge of the phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic principles of language. Students with disabilities frequently exhibit spelling difficulties related to language learning and are inefficient in cognitive processing. These difficulties often are developmental in nature. The present study is conducted on 222 children with spelling difficulties of five Taluks of Kerala State. Remediation of spelling difficulties in children requires comprehensive assessment. In this article, the researchers discuss about the theory related to spelling disabilities, assessment, remediation and psychosocial correlates of spelling difficulties in children. The major findings of the study state that there is a significant positive correlation between psycho-social variables and academic achievement of children with spelling difficulties. The authors also highlighted the need for early intervention and use of various remedial strategies to overcome spelling difficulties in children.

TROPES – FIGURES OF SPEECH IN BOSNIAN TRANSLATIONS OF THE QUR’AN

Translation is a kind of a trial for the target language, a test of its expressive possibilities, but also an exam of the abilities and skills of a translator. Even the best translators refrained from translating “holy books”, due to the challenges of uniqueness of the form and as a precaution of potential sin and (or) blasphemy which translation can cause. However, translating the Word of God, in this case, the Qur’an, is a necessity, and for Bosniaks, it is a national mission, it testifies to their religious tradition written in Bosnian language at a given time. Therefore, translations of the Qur'an deserve a serious scientific analysis and a responsible, multifaceted research approach, about which we have not had a chance to read a lot in linguistics, in particular Bosnistics. The exceptions are the books of Dž. Latić, PhD, and his scientific and professional papers published in the Proceedings of FIS. This study comprises a corpus of four well-known Bosnian translations of the Qur’an, as follows: Besim Korkut, Mustafa Mlivo (whose authenticity is disputed, i.e. its direct translation from the Arabic original), Enes Karić and Esad Duraković. Furthermore, due to the volume of the material, objects of interest are focused on the first and thirtieth juz (first twenty and last twenty pages of translations of the Qur'an) from which all examples of specific linguistic phenomena and regularities have been taken. The main objectives of this paper are: initiation and actualisation of lexicological and general semantic research of translations of the sacred text, which are grammatically interesting and stylogenic, the research of specific lexical-semantic level of linguistic structure of the translations of the Qur'an and a scientific contribution to the study of this kind of discourse. The task of the paper is to describe, or reinterpret the theoretical principles of lexical semantics of Bosnian language by using examples from the corpus, then to affirm the Bosnian language standard by highlighting examples which contribute to the strengthening of linguistic norm in all segments. For the purpose of achieving the objectives and tasks, different methods have been used: monographic, descriptive, comparative, contrastive and lexical-stylistic method. The Qur'anic text is a real repository for stylistic interpretation as well (and not only stylistic, of course) and its literary perfection is a proof of its divine origin. In this paper, a repertoire of semantic figures – tropes, typical contexts in which they operate, their meaning and use have been noted. Stylistics, no matter how successful it is, cannot penetrate into the secret of Qur’anic ijaza (supernatural origin), “as anatomy cannot penetrate into the mystery of creation.” Keywords: tropes, lexical-semantic figures, stylem, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, periphrasis, epithet, personification, simile

Intermediality as a Genre-Specific Factor (Sergii Parajanov’s “Kyiv Frescoes” (“Kyivs’ky Fresky”) Script Specificity)

The purpose of this research is to study intermediality as one of the dominant concepts of literary practice in recent years (N. Tishunina, L. Khaida, O. Profe, N. Mocherniuk, V. Prosalova etc.) by the example of Sergii Parajanov’s “Kyiv Frescoes” (“Kyivs’ky Fresky”) script text. The topicality of this theme emanates from the need to analyze screenplay intermedial codes, including intermedial nature of text architectonic and composition organization, personal sphere and chronotope intermediality, as well as screenplay ekphractic elements and constructive palimpsest. In the text of this screenplay, intermediality appears to be a genre-specific factor. Research methodology is based on complex tools of modern approaches to the separation and analysis of new literary forms for which the state of intermedial contextuality (set of structural and semantic principles, genre studies discourse, and receptive poetics practice).Use of intermediality markers is stipulated by the film author’s desire to return to the art’s original syncretism. In addition, the text intermedial dimension represents the screenwriter’s aesthetic modus, specifically, the Spanish context of the screenplay, as well as the artist’s own receptive and productive needs and the productivity of his impressions of other artists’ works. Intermedial discourse constitutes a specific hermeneutic resource that can not be ignored. Intermedial codes of S. Parajanov’s screenplay reflect the general practice of screenplay text creating. This is the usage of this component that extremely enriches the literary text, thus involving it in an active dialogue with other art forms. “Decoding” of the text intermedial dimension has prime importance for the author's conception disclosure and adequate understanding of the implications. In addition, the role intermedial markers are called for is to awaken creative, associative reader-viewer’s thinking, encourage him/her to adequate creative reflections.

Sobre a semântica cognitiva e suas possíveis contribuições para a geração de paráfrases explanatórias em dicionários de tipo 2

O presente artigo lança bases para a discussão a respeito das possíveis contribuições da Semântica Cognitiva na geração de paráfrases explanatórias em dicionários de Tipo 2. Após uma análise da tipologia de dicionários escolares apresentada pelo MEC, foi concluído que os parâmetros estipulados por este órgão são muito vagos para que se tenha um modelo funcional de dicionário Tipo 2. Uma das grandes consequências desta carência de parâmetros é a falta de adequabilidade dos dicionários frente ao seu público alvo, especialmente no que diz respeito ao comentário semântico dos verbetes. Tendo em vista os diversos problemas verificados nas paráfrases explanatórias de três dicionários de Tipo 2 indicados pelo PNLD 2012 e baseando-se na ideia de que uma teoria da definição deve estar alicerçada em três variáveis, apontamos alguns aspectos da Semântica Cognitiva que podem ser úteis na concepção de definições voltadas para um público infantil.