Simple Semantics Research Articles

Routley Star and Hyperintensionality

We compare the logic HYPE recently suggested by H. Leitgeb as a basic propositional logic to deal with hyperintensional contexts and Heyting-Ockham logic introduced in the course of studying logical aspects of the well-founded semantics for logic programs with negation. The semantics of Heyting-Ockham logic makes use of the so-called Routley star negation. It is shown how the Routley star negation can be obtained from Dimiter Vakarelov’s theory of negation and that propositional HYPE coincides with the logic characterized by the class of all involutive Routley star information frames. This result provides a much simplified semantics for HYPE and also a simplified axiomatization, which shows that HYPE is identical with the modal symmetric propositional calculus introduced by G. Moisil in 1942. Moreover, it is shown that HYPE can be faithfully embedded into a normal bi-modal logic based on classical logic. Against this background, we discuss the notion of hyperintensionality.

Children’s choir in MarkKarminskyi’s creativity

Children’s choir in MarkKarminskyi’s creativity

ON SOME PROPERTIES OF TIMED FINITE STATE MACHINES

Sequential reactive systems are formal models of programs that interact with the environment by receiving inputs and producing corresponding outputs. Such formal models are widely used in software engineering, computational linguistics, telecommunication, etc. In real life, the behavior of a reactive system depends not only on the flow of input data, but also on the time the input data arrive and the delays that occur when generating responses. To capture these aspects, a timed finite state machine (TFSM) is used as a formal model of a real-time sequential reactive system. However, in most of known previous works, this model was considered in simplified semantics: the responses in the output stream, regardless of their timestamps, follow in the same order in which the corresponding inputs are delivered to the machine. This simplification makes the model easier to analyze and manipulate, but it misses many important aspects of real-time computation. In this paper we study a refined semantics of TFSMs and show how to represent it by means of Labelled Transition Systems. This opens up a possibility to apply traditional formal methods for verifying more subtle properties of real-time reactive behavior which were previously ignored.

Making Sense of Form: The Semantic Implications of Structure in Petrarch's Double Sestina

This article demonstrates how interpretation of the narrative arc of Francesco Petrarch’s Rvf governs readings of his double sestina, “Mia benigna fortuna e ’l viver lieto” (Rvf 332). Such readings have cast the poem as a simple self-negating lament, inducing scholars to skim over contradictions in the poem that, when examined closely, reveal radically different sentiments. The article examines how the form of the double sestina, as a trope, combines many of Petrarch’s key concerns, such as happiness, death, and poetic achievement and it concludes that the semantic import of the verse form contributes to a positive and a self-affirming evaluation of Petrarch’s own poetry.

드론 테러에 관한 신문기사 언어 네트워크 분석과 시사점

드론 테러에 관한 신문기사 언어 네트워크 분석과 시사점

Explaining digital humanities by aligning images and textual descriptions

Replicating the human ability to connect Vision and Language has recently been gaining a lot of attention in the Computer Vision and the Natural Language Processing communities. This research effort has resulted in algorithms that can retrieve images from textual descriptions and vice versa, when realistic images and sentences with simple semantics are employed and when paired training data is provided. In this paper, we go beyond these limitations and tackle the design of visual-semantic algorithms in the domain of the Digital Humanities. This setting not only advertises more complex visual and semantic structures but also features a significant lack of training data which makes the use of fully-supervised approaches infeasible. With this aim, we propose a joint visual-semantic embedding that can automatically align illustrations and textual elements without paired supervision. This is achieved by transferring the knowledge learned on ordinary visual-semantic datasets to the artistic domain. Experiments, performed on two datasets specifically designed for this domain, validate the proposed strategies and quantify the domain shift between natural images and artworks.

Hashtag Burnout? A Control Experiment Investigating How Political Hashtags Shape Reactions to News Content

Both hashtag activists and news organizations assume that trending political hashtags effectively capture the nowness of social issues that people care about [20]. In fact, news organizations with growing social media presence increasingly capitalize the use of political hashtags in article headlines and social media news post - a practice aimed to generate new readership through lightweight news consumption of content by linking a particular story to a broader topic [28]. However, response to political hashtags can be complicated as demonstrated with the events surrounding #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. In fact, the semantic simplicity of political hashtags often belies the complexities around the question of who gets to participate [71], what intersectional identities are included or excluded from the hashtag [45], as well as how the meaning of the hashtag expands and drifts [10] depending on the context through which it is expressed. Overtime, reports show increasing backlash [70, 73, 74] and polarization [21, 52, 66, 67, 70] against key issues embodied by political hashtags. In this vein, we assume that political hashtags affect how people make sense of and engage with media content. However, we do not know how the presence of political hashtags -signaling that a news story is related to a current social issue - influences the assumptions potential readers make about the social content of an article. In this work we conducted a randomized control experiment to examine how the presence of political hashtags (particularly the most prevalently used #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter) in social media news posts shape reactions across a general audience (n=1979). Our findings show that compared to the control group, people shown news posts with political hashtags perceive the news topic as less socially important and are less motivated to know more about social issues related to the post. People also find the news more partisan and controversial when hashtags are included. In fact, negative perception associated with political hashtags (partisan bias & topic controversy) mediates people's motivation to further engage with the news content). High-intensity Facebook users and politically moderate participants perceive news with political hashtags as more partisan compared to posts excluding hashtags. There are also significant differences in discourse patterns between the hashtag and control groups around how politically moderate respondents engage with the news content in their comments.

Homoseksual dalam al-Qur'an: Analisis Semantik Frase Ghairu Ulil Irbah dalam Surat An-Nur ayat 31

There is a phrase in the Qur’an called ‘ghairu ulil irbah’ which represents individuals who tend to have a non-hetero sexual orientation. This phrase is also mentioned in Surah An-Nur verse 31, so the researcher review this phrase because some people misunderstand with it. Therefore, this study aims to explain the meaning of ghairu ulil irbah, the semantic implication of ghairu ulil irbah in sexual orientation point of view and the further definition of ghairu ulil irbah based on the context of Surah An-Nur verse 31. There are three steps in this language research: providing data, data analysis; the data will be analyzed by using identity and contextual method, and presentation of analysis result in descriptive report. The result shows that the underlying meaning of the word irbah from the phrase ghairu ulil irbah is “necessity”. In particular cases, the word irbah has narrowed meaning but do not change the meaning itself. Thus, it can be said that the relational meaning of irbah is sexual needs of someone’s sexual desire, specifically, ghairu ulil irbah stays in the context of ‘sexual’. It was different from people’s interpretations several years ago said that ghairu ulil irbah dealt with people who lose their minds. It is interesting to note that this phrase focuses on the various sexual orientations because this term correlates with expressing a sexual desire to the sexual object.

Coloristic Expressive Tools in Prose by Volodymyr Drozd

The paper deals with coloristic means in the works by the well-known Ukrainian writer-Sixtier. It focuses on the functions of colors and color effects in the text, their analogues in painting, and the role of the colors in showing semantic and mood accents or expressing some implicated meanings. The researcher traces accordance of the literary means with expressive resources of painting art as they are recorded in the theory of art.
 Throughout all the periods of the writer’s creative work the prose by V. Drozd shows the author’s attention to the plastic wealth of the outside world and its coloristic potential. The search for the graphic forms of a psychological analysis, as well as the mood dominant, the background of event, the expressive color markers of semantic accents or meaningful image components of exposition, and, after all, the very painting-like modeling of the landscape or interior, stimulated new graphic experiments that renewed and deepened aesthetic impact of a literary work on a reader, due to the culture of visual perception and constructive imagination.
 The first attempts of verbal design and color rendering in V. Drozd’s works still testify to his literary apprenticeship showing excessively decorative nature, unambiguity of semantic associations, bright hues and chromatic saturation that looks rather as adopted from pictures and not taken from nature. Such artistic approach to the theme generates enormous, and at the same time ideologically typical, pathos associated with aesthetics of socialistic realism and therefore with the teaching function of art.
 The development of coloristic culture in the works of the prose writer is rooted in his attention to the rich range of hues, their emotional and expressive potential, and also in the author’s desire to show a psychological action in a more plastic and suggestive way. In order to reproduce the coloristic variety of sensory experience and underline important semantic implications the writer skillfully works on the parameters of achromatic light environment which becomes symbolized or transformed in a fantastic and hyperbolic way due to the expressive function of light markers.
 The light and color contrasts or combinations of hues may underline some essential semantic aspects of the verbal picture components within the reproduction of a landscape. The analysis of figurative and modeling means proves the artistic functionality of the verbal analogues of painting in V. Drozd’s prose, and its consistency with the aesthetic dominants of the Sixtiers.

Different ways to express personal attitudes in Spanish and English engineering papers: An analysis of metadiscourse devices, affective evaluation and sentiment analysis

AbstractThe hypothesis of this paper is that writers with similar academic backgrounds express personal attitudes in English and in Spanish differently in research papers. Thus, the main objectives are, first, to study the differences in the use of attitude devices in Spanish and English academic discourse; second, to compare the results in the different sections of articles; and finally to study the positive or negative semantic implications of the lexical items by carrying out a sentiment analysis. To this end, fifteen Spanish industrial engineering papers were compared with fifteen English industrial engineering papers. The results showed that there are in fact differences in the way academic writers communicate attitude, but the sentiment analysis revealed that neutral lexical items were the most commonly used in engineering research papers. Even though engineering researchers share the knowledge of the specialist content and the academic style of expressing their thoughts, personal attitudes were expressed in different ways in Spanish and in English.

Automated Generation of Synchronous Formal Models from SystemC Descriptions

SystemC is one of the most popular electronic system-level design language and it is embraced by a growing community that seeks to move to a higher level of abstraction. It lacks however a standard way of integrating formal methods and formal verification techniques into a SystemC design flow. In this paper, we show how SystemC descriptions are automatically transformed into the formal synchronous language Signal, while conserving the original structure and enabling the application of formal verification techniques. Signal provides a simple semantics of concurrency and time, and allows verification with an existing theorem prover and model checker. The approach that we propose consists of two steps: the extraction of the structure and the transformation of the behavior. In the first step, SystemC model is analyzed and the structural information is extracted. In the second step, for each SystemC module, the corresponding Signal behavior is generated and filled into the already prepared Signal structure.

The morphosyntax of numerals ʥi33/ʥĩ35 ‘one’ in Shuhi and implications for the semantics of numerals

This paper argues that numerals as single morphemes can be formed from morphological fusion of more basic numerals and classifiers. It reports that such morphological fusion is found in Shuhi, a Qiangic language of the Tibeto-Burman branch, and discusses its theoretical implications for the ontological semantics of numerals. Specifically, we argue that there are two kinds of numerals, deficient numerals and full-fledged numerals, each demonstrating distinctive properties in syntax and semantics, and that data regarding Shuhi supports Krifka's (1995) syntax-semantics interface analysis of numeral-classifier-noun expressions, in which the numerals and classifiers form constituents excluding the nouns. We present empirical data from this language to support the Fregean view that numerals are number-referring terms (deficient numerals), while ʥi33 ‘one’ in Shuhi and possibly liǎ ‘two-Cl’ and sā ‘three-Cl’ in Mandarin Chinese are full-fledged numerals that should be best treated as denoting properties of cardinality.

Strong Extension-Free Proof Systems

We introduce proof systems for propositional logic that admit short proofs of hard formulas as well as the succinct expression of most techniques used by modern SAT solvers. Our proof systems allow the derivation of clauses that are not necessarily implied, but which are redundant in the sense that their addition preserves satisfiability. To guarantee that these added clauses are redundant, we consider various efficiently decidable redundancy criteria which we obtain by first characterizing clause redundancy in terms of a semantic implication relationship and then restricting this relationship so that it becomes decidable in polynomial time. As the restricted implication relation is based on unit propagation—a core technique of SAT solvers—it allows efficient proof checking too. The resulting proof systems are surprisingly strong, even without the introduction of new variables—a key feature of short proofs presented in the proof-complexity literature. We demonstrate the strength of our proof systems on the famous pigeon hole formulas by providing short clausal proofs without new variables.

RoboChart: modelling and verification of the functional behaviour of robotic applications

Robots are becoming ubiquitous: from vacuum cleaners to driverless cars, there is a wide variety of applications, many with potential safety hazards. The work presented in this paper proposes a set of constructs suitable for both modelling robotic applications and supporting verification via model checking and theorem proving. Our goal is to support roboticists in writing models and applying modern verification techniques using a language familiar to them. To that end, we present RoboChart, a domain-specific modelling language based on UML, but with a restricted set of constructs to enable a simplified semantics and automated reasoning. We present the RoboChart metamodel, its well-formedness rules, and its process-algebraic semantics. We discuss verification based on these foundations using an implementation of RoboChart and its semantics as a set of Eclipse plug-ins called RoboTool.

Epilepsy and identity: a linguistic analysis of seizure label semantics

ABSTRACT Background: The stigma of epilepsy still holds fast today, and consequently results in people with epilepsy not seeking the support they require. To date, little research has been conducted into seizure label preferences. This paper contributes new findings to this growing body of research. Methods: Participants with epilepsy completed an online survey stating their preferences for seizure labels: seizure; fit; attack; episode; s/he is having a seizure/fit; and s/he is fitting/seizing. Through a thematic linguistic analysis of the participants’ comments, this paper investigates the influence of semantics and grammatical variation to assess how these linguistic features portray epilepsy. The semantic implications of individuals’ personal seizure labels are also explored. Results: The consensus falls with seizure and s/he is having a seizure, as the alternative choices were comparatively less popular and illustrated many negative connotations. The participants’ explanations their ‘least preferable’ rankings were categorized and thematically aligned. This proposed taxonomy offers insight into how different labels shape identity and contribute to the stigma. The grammatical variations of the phrases appear to contribute to (mis)representing seizure trajectory and imagery. The personalized seizure labels offered by a selection of participants may also be suggestive of the seizure experience itself. Conclusions: The consensus of these results can guide healthcare professionals and the media to opt, in the first instance, for the terms/ phrases that have been thought as the most preferable, and to avoid using those ranked by the majority as least preferable.

Leksemy "obrobliaty" i "zghaduvatysia" v hazetnykh materialakh

This article seeks to develop new avenues for the study of the Ukrainian lexicography, specifically, a correct usage of the verbal lexemes in the journalistic texts. We have analyzed and edited improper usage of the lexemes «obrobliaty» and «zhaduvatysia» in the newspapers’ publications on the basis of the Urkainian reference literature (specifically, the Ukrainian (as well as the Russian-Ukrainian) dictionaries of contemporary Ukrainian language). This article aims to analyze cases of the incorrect use of the Ukrainian verbs «obrobliaty» and «zhaduvatysia» in the «Den’» newspaper. The latter quality daily occupies a particular place in the Ukrainian newspaper journalism and publicism. Our editing expertise (as well as academic normative usage of these lexemes in the multi-volume dictionaries of the renowned contemporary Ukrainian linguists) made us possible to identify the errors during the textual analysis. This study shows numerous examples of incorrect usage of these lexemes as well as others (specifically, in word combinations featured in the publications covering socio-political topics). We argue that the correct usage of the lexemes «obrobliaty» and «zgaduvatysia» depends on many factors, specifically, context, discourse, topical and problem aspects of the publication as well as their semantics. The latter (semantic implications) of these analyzed words is frequently overlooked by the Ukrainian authors (journalists, publicists, contributors) composing the journalistic texts (specifically, those published in the Den’ newspaper). We conclude that the different meanings of these words depending on their contextual (as well as intertextual) placement determine either correct or incorrect usage of the lexemes «obrobliaty» and «zhaduvatysia». Given its importance and significance, this problem requires further research. Keywords: lexeme, newspapers publications, incorrect (improper) usage, dictionaries.

Customizing Semantics for Individuals With Attitudinal HFLTS Possibility Distributions

Linguistic computational techniques based on hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS) have been swiftly advanced on various fronts over the past five years. However, one critical issue in the existing theoretical development is that modeling possibility distribution based semantics involves a relatively strict constraint that linguistic terms are uniformly distributed across an HFLTS. Releasing the constraint of uniform HFLTS through which individual semantics could be customized is challenging yet intriguing for participants interested in this topic. Comparative linguistic expressions (CLEs) generated from context-free grammar facilitate flexible and accurate linguistic elicitation, and in consideration of computational simplicity, are transformed into HFLTSs that are machine manipulatable. It is imperative that the precision of customized individual semantics can be significantly improved with respect to different CLEs. This study proposes a novel possibility computation structure for HFLTS possibility distributions based on the linguistic terms similarity measure. The uniquely established linguistic terms in each and every CLE are initially treated as referential items for comparison. Then, possibilities of linguistic terms in a transformed HFLTS can be calculated as their similarity degrees to the predetermined referential item. Subsequently, the interweaving method in which a consistent inner interweaving matrix needs to be constructed is adopted for attitudinal characters to attain appealing degrees characterized in the unit interval. The generated attitudinal HFLTS possibility distributions provide a solution to the problem of modeling individually the semantic implications of CLEs. Several illustrative examples and comparative analyses further demonstrate that individual semantics endowed with attitudinal character model efficiently individual differences in cognitive styles.

An extended Access Control with Uncertain Context

While new information technology advances have made information access and acquisition methods much more diverse and easier, there are side effects that allow illegal access using diverse and high-performance tools. In order to cope with such threats, there are access control methods in database technology, and various studies are being conducted to extend traditional access control to cope with new computing environments. In this paper, we propose an extended access control with uncertain context-awareness. It enables appropriate security policy enforcement even if the contextual constraints specified by the security policy does not match those accompanied by access request query. We extract semantic implications from context tree, and define the argument that can quantitatively measure the semantic difference between two nodes in the context tree. It is used to semantically enforce the security policy, and to prevent the excessive authorization caused by the implication.

CONTEXTS AND ACTS IN TODAY'S MARRIAGES: A CARTOON DIMENSION TO MARITAL CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA

Marriage is a universal social institution recognised and respected all over the world and it is instrumental to a healthy society. It is nevertheless characterised by conflicts. The literature indicates studies on marital issues such as factors that contribute to social problems, diversities in marriage cultures, rituals, naming and so on. However, language scholars have not focused on the depiction of marriage in cartoons, especially the aspect of conflict among couples in this generation. This study, therefore, examines marital conflicts in the interactions of husbands and wives (Mr and Mrs) in Vanguard newspaper and their pragmatic implications for marital discourse in Nigeria. Mr and Mrs cartoons in the Vanguard newspaper have been identified as channels where conflicts among couples are brought to limelight through humour. The theory of pragmatic act by Jacob Mey was used to analyse pragmatic elements in the texts aided by linguistic features in foregrounding areas of conflict in the interactions. The data comprised 120 cartoons published at different times out of which 25 were purposively selected for analysis because of thematic recurrence. Ten practs: accusing, challenging, concealing, condemning, controlling, discontentment, eliciting, informing, threatening and warning were identified within three contexts, cultural, financial and social to principally interrogate norms and to subtly advocate gender equality. This shows that the cartoons do not merely convey utterances with semantic implications that provoke humour but also rely on contexts to perform acts in addition to understanding linguistic elements. Article visualizations:

Citizenship Act (591) of Ghana as a Logic Theorem and its Semantic Implications

Citizenship Act (591) of Ghana as a Logic Theorem and its Semantic Implications