Syntactic Ambiguity Research Articles

Making sense of clandestine graves: Material epistemology and the political geography of uncertain knowledge

How might we begin to establish meaning, understanding and justice out of something that is meant not to be found? In this article, we approach the growing problem of clandestine graves to ask what can be read from them, including why they matter, why they are found, and how they are becoming an intractable part of life for millions of citizens. Departing from the clandestine graves of São Paulo and Mexico, we argue that these material spaces are produced by ambiguous governance structures, and in turn reproduce them in ways that are unevenly knowable. The characteristics of these spaces that are otherwise shrouded in suspicion and deliberate efforts to make them unknowable reveal patterns and practices of political order while simultaneously creating certainty and fear about the governance they perpetuate. In taking the mass grave as an epistemology, we seek to establish identifiable tenents and patterns for further research and action while recognizing the challenges in asserting a knowledge claim about material spaces that are so intentionally, but unevenly, unknowable.

The Ambiguity of Metaphor: How Polysemy Affords Multivalent Metaphor Use and Explains the Paradox of Metaphor

ABSTRACT This paper explores the suggestion (Steen, 2023a, 2023b) that most metaphor may be structurally ambiguous between deliberate and non-deliberate meanings, which in turn affords multivalent metaphor use. The paper begins by examining a sample of 56 Metaphor-Related Words in 25 examples of language use from corpus research about metaphor in discourse about cancer and the end of life (Semino et al., 2018). These data are analyzed by means of a new method proposed by Deliberate Metaphor Theory (Steen, 2023a; cf.; Reijnierse et al. 2019). Results show that all metaphors in the sample that are both polysemous and conventional can be given two interpretations, one non-deliberate and one deliberate. This ambiguity is largely corroborated by additional analysis of these same data by Wmatrix. Subsequent inclusion of all other cases from the same chapter in Semino et al. (2018) offers additional support. This finding offers a critical perspective on the idea that metaphor is a strong psychological device for figurative framing in discourse, for the structural ambiguity of most metaphor allows for multivalent metaphor use, where, in fact, most metaphor may typically be comprehended non-metaphorically (Steen, 2008, 2023a, 2023b). The ambiguity of metaphor hence also explains the paradox of metaphor.

Evaluation of an Algorithmic-Level Left-Corner Parsing Account of Surprisal Effects.

This article evaluates the predictions of an algorithmic-level distributed associative memory model as it introduces, propagates, and resolves ambiguity, and compares it to the predictions of computational-level parallel parsing models in which ambiguous analyses are accounted separately in discrete distributions. By superposing activation patterns that serve as cues to other activation patterns, the model is able to maintain multiple syntactically complex analyses superposed in a finite working memory, propagate this ambiguity through multiple intervening words, then resolve this ambiguity in a way that produces a measurable predictor that is proportional to the log conditional probability of the disambiguating word given its context, marginalizing over all remaining analyses. The results are indeed consistent in cases of complex structural ambiguity with computational-level parallel parsing models producing this same probability as a predictor, which have been shown reliably to predict human reading times.

Meta-collaboration-based semantic contrast for inductive knowledge representation learning

Inductive knowledge representation learning aims at effectively representing new entities in emerging knowledge graphs based on current ones, providing positive support for reasoning facts with newly emerging entities. It requires a scheme that can derive the instant knowledge to generate rational representations for new entities. Recently, some approaches have been developed for it by capturing logical rules between entities, mining structural information of KGs, or learning multiple structural patterns of entities. However, there are two main challenges that they have yet to overcome. The first is the structural bias-induced semantic ambiguity, where new entities are typically represented in a manner akin to those with analogous structures, during which the identical structures are emphasized while the differences are overlooked. We refer to this as the structural bias, which will lead to the generated representations of new entities being semantically ambiguous. The second is the potential sparsity of new entities. The presence of new entities with low frequencies brings about the insufficient representations for these new entities even training a model from scratch with substantial costs. To this end, we propose a Meta-Collaboration-based Semantic Contrast (MCSC) framework with the aim of addressing both issues above. Following the current meta-task formulation scheme, we first acquire the relation-specific knowledge to produce entity representations through modeling relations as feedback. Then, a multi-layer graph neural network module is developed to aggregate sufficient neighbor information to update entity representations. In the final, a collaborative semantic contrast module is designed on both support and query sets to respectively overcome the structural bias-induced semantic ambiguity and the potential sparsity of new entities challenges. Such a meta-collaboration-based semantic contrast procedure transcends current meta-learning paradigms in inductive knowledge representation learning that fail to learn semantically discriminative entity representations. Experimental results of the inductive link prediction task on 12 benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of MCSC over SOTA baselines.

Ultrasonographic images and correspondence with real color sectioned images of the upper limb.

For basic training in ultrasonography (US), medical students and residents must learn cross-sectional anatomy. However, the present educational material is not sufficient to learn the sectional anatomy for US. This study aimed to provide a criterion for reading ambiguous structures on US images of upper limb through the sectioned images of Visible Korean. US images of the right arm of a volunteer were scanned (28 planes). For comparison with US images, the sectioned images of the right upper limb (24 bits color, 0.5mm intervals, 0.06mm × 0.06mm sized pixel) were used. After the volume model was constructed from the sectioned images using MRIcroGL, new sectioned images of 28 planes corresponding to the US images of 28 planes were created by adjusting the slope of the volume model. In all images, the anatomical terms of 59 structures from the shoulder to the fingers were annotated. In the atlas, which consists of 28 sets of US images and sectioned images of various slope planes, 59 structures of the shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, palm, and fingers were observed in detail. We were able to interpret the ambiguous structures on the US images using the sectioned images with high resolution and actual color. Therefore, to learn the cross-sectional anatomy for US, the sectioned images from the Visible Korean project were deemed to be the suitable data because they contained all human gross anatomical information.

Population genetic characteristics of two crucian carp varieties derived from distant hybridization

The Hefang crucian carp (HFJ) derived from Carassius cuvieri (♀) × C. auratus red var. (♂) and the crucian carp-like homodiploid fish (NCRC) derived from Cyprinus carpio (♀) × Megalobrama amblycephala (♂) are important germplasm resources of crucian carp. To investigate the population characteristics and reveal the current genetic situations of these hybrid varieties, we sequenced one nuclear molecular marker transferrin (Tf) among six Carassius populations, which included two hybrid varieties (HFJ and NCRC), one laboratory variety (red crucian carp, RCC) and three wild populations. A total of 166 distinct Tf alleles (A1∼A166) were identified, with sequence lengths ranging from 1145 bp to 1244 bp. Unexpectedly, the nucleotide diversity of Tf alleles in cultured populations (HFJ, NCRC, and RCC) exceeded that of wild populations. The phylogenetic reconstruction analysis results showed that HFJ and C. cuvieri were closely related, but they could not be separated from C. auratus. Besides, while most Tf alleles of NCRC and other Carassius populations were intermixed in five clades, two Tf alleles, together with Cy. carpio, formed a distinct monophyletic clade. Moreover, network and genetic structure analyses failed to distinguish between wild and cultured populations. Although AMOVA analysis based on Tf alleles indicated genetic differentiation among all six populations, the majority of the genetic variation (92.00 %) was observed within populations. Furthermore, the population dynamics analysis suggested that these populations have maintained relative stability in recent history. Therefore, the elevated nucleotide diversity of Tf alleles in cultured populations, the ambiguous population structure, and the limited genetic divergence among the six Carassius populations highlighted the hybrid genetic characteristics of HFJ and NCRC. These findings, based on Tf alleles, differ from the results obtained using mitochondrial gene markers, providing an alternative perspective for germplasm evaluation of hybrid varieties and crucian carp breeding.

An empirical appraisal of eLife's assessment vocabulary.

Research articles published by the journal eLife are accompanied by short evaluation statements that use phrases from a prescribed vocabulary to evaluate research on 2 dimensions: importance and strength of support. Intuitively, the prescribed phrases appear to be highly synonymous (e.g., important/valuable, compelling/convincing) and the vocabulary's ordinal structure may not be obvious to readers. We conducted an online repeated-measures experiment to gauge whether the phrases were interpreted as intended. We also tested an alternative vocabulary with (in our view) a less ambiguous structure. A total of 301 participants with a doctoral or graduate degree used a 0% to 100% scale to rate the importance and strength of support of hypothetical studies described using phrases from both vocabularies. For the eLife vocabulary, most participants' implied ranking did not match the intended ranking on both the importance (n = 59, 20% matched, 95% confidence interval [15% to 24%]) and strength of support dimensions (n = 45, 15% matched [11% to 20%]). By contrast, for the alternative vocabulary, most participants' implied ranking did match the intended ranking on both the importance (n = 188, 62% matched [57% to 68%]) and strength of support dimensions (n = 201, 67% matched [62% to 72%]). eLife's vocabulary tended to produce less consistent between-person interpretations, though the alternative vocabulary still elicited some overlapping interpretations away from the middle of the scale. We speculate that explicit presentation of a vocabulary's intended ordinal structure could improve interpretation. Overall, these findings suggest that more structured and less ambiguous language can improve communication of research evaluations.

Combining reference-star and angular differential imaging for high-contrast imaging of extended sources

Context. High-contrast imaging (HCI) is a technique designed to observe faint signals near bright sources, such as exoplanets and circumstellar disks. The primary challenge in revealing the faint circumstellar signal near a star is the presence of quasi-static speckles, which can produce patterns on the science images that are as bright, or even brighter, than the signal of interest. Strategies such as angular differential imaging (ADI) or reference-star differential imaging (RDI) aim to provide a means of removing the quasi-static speckles in post-processing. Aims. In this paper, we present and discuss the adaptation of state-of-the-art algorithms, initially designed for ADI, to jointly leverage angular and reference-star differential imaging (ARDI) for the direct HCI of circumstellar disks. Methods. Using a collection of HCI datasets, we assessed the performance of ARDI in comparison to ADI and RDI based on iterative principal component analysis (IPCA). These diverse datasets were acquired under various observing conditions and include the injection of synthetic disk models at various contrast levels. We also considered reference stars with different levels of correlation with the science targets. Results. Our results demonstrate that ARDI with IPCA improves the quality of recovered disk images and the sensitivity to planets embedded in disks, compared to ADI or RDI individually. This enhancement is particularly pronounced when dealing with extended sources exhibiting highly ambiguous structures that cannot be accurately retrieved using ADI alone, and when the quality of the reference frames is suboptimal, leading to an underperformance of RDI. We finally applied our method to a sample of real observations of protoplanetary disks taken in star-hopping mode, and propose to revisit the protoplanetary claims associated with these disks. Among eight proposed protoplanets claimed through velocity kinks or direct imaging, none of them were re-detected in our new processed images.

On Hurwicz Preferences in Psychological Games

The literature on strategic ambiguity in classical games provides generalized notions of equilibrium in which each player best responds to ambiguous or imprecise beliefs about his opponents’ strategic choices. In a recent paper, strategic ambiguity has been extended to psychological games, by taking into account ambiguous hierarchies of beliefs and max–min preferences. Given that this kind of preference seems too restrictive as a general method to evaluate decisions, in this paper we extend the analysis by taking into account α-max–min preferences in which decisions are evaluated by a convex combination of the worst-case (with weight α) and the best-case (with weight 1−α) scenarios. We define the α-max–min psychological Nash equilibrium; an illustrative example shows that the set of equilibria is affected by the parameter α and the larger the ambiguity, the greater the effect. We also provide a result of stability of the equilibria with respect to perturbations that involve the attitudes toward ambiguity, the structure of ambiguity, and the payoff functions: converging sequences of equilibria of perturbed games converge to equilibria of the unperturbed game as the perturbation vanishes. Surprisingly, a final example shows that the existence of equilibria is not guaranteed for every value of α.

Online evidence for pseudo-relative effects on Italian RC attachment resolution

ABSTRACT This study investigates the resolution of relative clause attachment ambiguities, focussing on the availability of Pseudo-Relative Small Clauses (PRs) in Italian. The PR-first hypothesis posits that, when controlling for other factors, PRs are preferred over relative clauses due to their structural simplicity, leading to an apparent preference for “high attachment” in PR-licensing languages. Through a self-paced reading experiment, this study examines how PR availability affects ambiguity resolution in Italian, and how it interacts with locality principles during online sentence processing. We find a significant slowdown in the LA condition with PR-licensing verbs, also tied to lower comprehension accuracy, and unclear evidence for an advantage of LA in non-PR contexts. Overall, our results add support to the PR-first hypothesis for Italian, while opening new questions about the interplay of structural ambiguity, locality, and language-specific properties.

Syntactic engagement of new words: The garden-path method applied to track sensitivity to structural ambiguity

This article proposes an innovative approach to examining garden-path (GP) effects in sentence processing. It applies GP effects as a method to a new domain, specifically to syntactic engagement of recently learned verbs. We tested twenty-seven English native speakers and twenty Spanish learners of English to verify method validity. Three main components characterise the method, namely training of new word meaning through definitions and example sentences, eye-tracking while reading plausible and implausible GP sentences after sleep consolidation, and a meaning recall test. We also examined if participants’ phonological working memory and vocabulary size play a role in how they syntactically engage new words. Results showed that recently learned verbs can elicit syntactic engagement in both native and nonnative readers. Both vocabulary size and phonological working memory capacity could predict ambiguity reprocessing, irrespective of language group. These results indicate that garden pathing can reliably signal effort to detect and resolve subject-object ambiguities in both first language (Frazier & Rayner, 1982; Pickering & Traxler, 1998) and second language readers (Chen et al., 2021, Jegerski, 2012). This feasibility study is a pioneering attempt to map new vocabulary knowledge as a window into emergent structural representations. The significance of this method lies in its potential to track syntactic engagement of new lexis, while accounting for individual differences, and following the principle that to know a word entails knowing its form, meaning, as well as its grammatical use (Nation, 2001).

Exploring the Te(II)/Te(IV) Redox Couple of a Tellurorosamine Chromophore: Photophysical, Photochemical, and Electrochemical Studies.

A tellurorosamine dye [Te(II)] undergoes aerobic photooxidation. Although Te(IV) species have been used in a number of oxidations, key Te(IV)-oxo and Te(IV)-bis(hydroxy) intermediates are challenging to study. Under aerobic irradiation with visible light, Te(II) (λmax = 600 nm) transforms into a Te(IV) species (λmax = 669 nm). The resultant Te(IV) species is not stable in the dark or at -20 °C, decomposing back to Te(II) and other byproducts over many hours. To eliminate the structural ambiguity of the Te(IV) photoproduct, we used spectroelectrochemistry, wherein the bis(hydroxy) Te(IV)-(OH)2 was electrochemically generated under anaerobic conditions. The absorption of Te(IV)-(OH)2 matches that of the Te(IV) photoproduct. Because isosbestic points are maintained both photochemically and electrochemically, the oxo core formed photochemically must rapidly equilibrate with Te(IV)-(OH)2. Calculations on the bis(hydroxy) versus oxo species further corroborate that the equilibration is rapid and the spectra of the two species are similar. To further explore Te(IV) cores, two novel compounds, Te(IV)-Cl2 and Te(IV)-Br2, were synthesized. Characterization of Te(IV)-X2 was simplified because these cores have no analogue to the Te(IV)-(O)/Te(IV)-(OH)2 equilibrium. This work provides insights into the photophysical and electrochemical behavior of Te analogues of chalcogenoxanthylium dyes, which are relevant for a broad range of photochemical applications.

Multi-View Knowledge Ensemble With Frequency Consistency for Cross-Domain Face Translation.

Cross-domain face translation aims to transfer face images from one domain to another. It can be widely used in practical applications, such as photos/sketches in law enforcement, photos/drawings in digital entertainment, and near-infrared (NIR)/visible (VIS) images in security access control. Restricted by limited cross-domain face image pairs, the existing methods usually yield structural deformation or identity ambiguity, which leads to poor perceptual appearance. To address this challenge, we propose a multi-view knowledge (structural knowledge and identity knowledge) ensemble framework with frequency consistency (MvKE-FC) for cross-domain face translation. Due to the structural consistency of facial components, the multi-view knowledge learned from large-scale data can be appropriately transferred to limited cross-domain image pairs and significantly improve the generative performance. To better fuse multi-view knowledge, we further design an attention-based knowledge aggregation module that integrates useful information, and we also develop a frequency-consistent (FC) loss that constrains the generated images in the frequency domain. The designed FC loss consists of a multidirection Prewitt (mPrewitt) loss for high-frequency consistency and a Gaussian blur loss for low-frequency consistency. Furthermore, our FC loss can be flexibly applied to other generative models to enhance their overall performance. Extensive experiments on multiple cross-domain face datasets demonstrate the superiority of our method over state-of-the-art methods both qualitatively and quantitatively.

TRANSITIONAL AREAS OF DIGITAL GAME ART

Digital games, which constitute a part of new media studies, offer different reality experiences and new expressive environments to a player with multimodal interactions and hybrid reality practices offered by game engines. The alternative environments offered by digital game art create a kind of ‘transitional space’ in the participant’s experience process with ambiguous structures such as reality-fiction. The phenomenon of the transitional area, discussed by Donald W. Winnicott, is the cultural manoeuvring space in which the subject experiences both internal and external reality while constructing the initial fiction of the self, and is closely related to Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulation in which fiction and reality are mixed. In contemporary art, where the artistic image becomes a virtual reality, phantasmagoria, in which meaning and reality are reconstructed and staged in new media works referencing digital game practices, takes place in the transitional areas that Winnicott sees as a dynamic and experiential playground. This research focuses on digital game art works of different artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Hesam Jalili, Theo Triantafyllidis, Ian Cheng, and Joon Yong Moon, who create a transitional space in their work with practices such as ‘gamification of space’ and ‘counter gaming’.

Compromise in multilateral negotiations and the global regulation of artificial intelligence

ABSTRACT As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies spread worldwide, international discussions have increasingly focused on their consequences for democracy, human rights, fundamental freedoms, security, and economic and social development. In this context, UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, adopted in November 2021, has emerged as the first global normative framework for AI development and deployment. The intense negotiations of every detail of the document brought forth numerous controversies among UNESCO member states. Drawing on a unique set of primary sources, including written positions and recorded deliberations, this article explains the achievement of global compromise on AI regulation despite the multiplicity of UNESCO member-state positions representing a variety of liberal and sovereignist preferences. Building upon Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology, it conceptualizes the practice of multilateral negotiations and attributes the multilateral fragile agreements to two embedded therein compromises: Structural normative hybridity and situated normative ambiguity allowed to accomplish a compromise by linking macro-normative structures with situated debates of multilateral negotiations.

Enhanced prosody adds to morpho-syntactic cues in the interpretation of structural ambiguities in German

ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of syntactically marked and enhanced prosody on local ambiguity resolution in German SVO and OVS sentences. In a visual-world experiment, thirty younger and thirty elderly healthy participants performed a sentence-picture matching task. Response accuracy, reaction times and fixations proportions to the target picture were analysed using linear mixed models. We found no support for beneficial effects of syntactically marked prosody, however, results suggested a facilitative role of enhanced prosodic cues (i.e. increased f0 maximum) prior to the point of disambiguation in SVO structures, as well as the beneficial effects of enhanced prosody adding to morpho-syntactic cues in OVS structures. Both age groups showed comparable cue use but inter-individual variability in prosodic cue processing. Overall, our study replicates and extends previous findings demonstrating the importance of examining variability in prosodic cue processing in future research.

The impact of inversions across 33,924 families with rare disease from a national genome sequencing project

Detection of structural variants (SVs) is currently biased toward those that alter copy number. The relative contribution of inversions toward genetic disease is unclear. In this study, we analyzed genome sequencing data for 33,924 families with rare disease from the 100,000 Genomes Project. From a database hosting >500 million SVs, we focused on 351 genes where haploinsufficiency is a confirmed disease mechanism and identified 47 ultra-rare rearrangements that included an inversion (24bp to 36.4 Mb, 20/47 de novo). Validation utilized a number of orthogonal approaches, including retrospective exome analysis. RNA-seq data supported the respective diagnoses for six participants. Phenotypic blending was apparent in four probands. Diagnostic odysseys were a common theme (>50 years for one individual), and targeted analysis for the specific gene had already been performed for 30% of these individuals but with no findings. We provide formal confirmation of a European founder origin for an intragenic MSH2 inversion. For two individuals with complex SVs involving the MECP2 mutational hotspot, ambiguous SV structures were resolved using long-read sequencing, influencing clinical interpretation. A de novo inversion of HOXD11-13 was uncovered in a family with Kantaputra-type mesomelic dysplasia. Lastly, a complex translocation disrupting APC and involving nine rearranged segments confirmed a clinical diagnosis for three family members and resolved a conundrum for a sibling with a single polyp. Overall, inversions play a small but notable role in rare disease, likely explaining the etiology in around 1/750 families across heterogeneous clinical cohorts.

What prosody does when morphosyntax is absent: The case of Korean relative clauses

This study investigates the role of prosodic information in linguistic interpretation in the absence of an explicit linguistic marker to resolve ambiguity. We particularly focus on the impact of prosody on comprehension of restrictive relative clauses (RRC) and non-restrictive relative clauses (NRC) in Korean, a language that lacks morphosyntactic or orthographic markers that distinguish between RRC and NRC. We hypothesize that narrow focus prosody may be associated with RRC, while broad focus prosody with NRC, which we test in two experiments through a picture selection task (Experiment 1) and an audio selection task (Experiment 2). Results showed that Korean listeners associated narrow focus prosody more often with RRC-biased pictures than NRC-biased pictures, suggesting that prosodic information has an impact on the resolution of syntactic ambiguity in the absence of any explicit linguistic marker. Further investigation suggests that there is variation in the impact of prosody across individuals and their sensitivity to prosody seems to be affected differently depending on the type of task.

Centimeter-scale sedimentary structures in a lacustrine delta front, northern China: Ripples or Froude supercritical-flow bedforms?

Sedimentary strata are a significant record of the Earth and planetary history, and accurate recognition of sedimentary structures and their link to environmental conditions is a key component in deciphering past surface processes. Centimeter-scale sedimentary structures are commonly acknowledged as ripple cross-laminations, but here we document ambiguous centimeter-scale structures from a lacustrine delta front in northern China, that at careful look do not seem to fit with the known ripple cross-lamination criteria. The here documented sedimentary structures range from scour-and-fill, irregular lenses with structureless or low- and high-angle, up- and downstream dipping, concave and convex laminations. These centimeter-scale sedimentary structures thus considerably differ from ripple cross-laminations in their outer shape, internal organization, and morphometric parameters. Detailed comparison of these centimeter-scale structures with Froude supercritical-flow structures suggests that they were likely produced by Froude supercritical flows. Such centimeter-scale supercritical structures are not unique in the Bantanzi delta, as they have been also documented in a variety of settings ranging from rivers to deepwater turbidites. In light of this finding, we expand the Froude supercritical-flow sedimentary structures to centimeter scale, and advocate caution in interpreting centimeter-scale sedimentary structures axiomatically as ripple laminations.

Dolimandro’s ‘Turkish Knife’: Geopolitics and Narrative Style in Mary Wroth’s Urania

Abstract This essay examines Lady Mary Wroth’s engagement with early seventeenth-century Anglo-Ottoman relations in The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania. The Urania follows a group of rulers who create an international Christian coalition in what was historically part of the Ottoman Empire. Besides Bernadette Andrea, no other critic has seriously considered the Urania’s allusions to Ottoman peoples, places, and objects. I propose that Wroth’s prose, filled with interpretive cruxes resulting from syntactical and pronominal ambiguities, resonates with England’s ambiguously identificatory relationship with the Ottoman Empire to create a geopolitically inflected narrative style. Following critical work on early modern race as a measure of ‘proximity’, I identify English desires both to identify with and differentiate themselves from the Ottoman Empire within literary and diplomatic discourses. I demonstrate how members of the Sidney-Herbert circle negotiated overlaps in English and Ottoman political, legal, religious, and racial identity markers. I then argue that these overlaps synergize with Wroth’s use of what I term syntactical and pronominal ‘severalty’ of character voices, particularly those of her narrator and characters identified with Ottoman regions. I conclude by demonstrating how Wroth experiments with her narrative style to imagine a Christian empire that surpasses Ottoman authority. In identifying a dialectic between contemporary Anglo-Ottoman relations and Wroth’s narrative style, this essay expands critical approaches to the politics of the Urania beyond more global narratological analysis.