The Puzzle of Anaphoric Bare Nouns in Mandarin: A Counterpoint to Index!

Linguistic Inquiry ◽

10.1162/ling_a_00433 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-42

Author(s):

Veneeta Dayal ◽

Li Julie Jiang

Keyword(s):

Empirical Work ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Bare Nouns ◽

Empirical Generalizations

Abstract Jenks (2018) argues that Mandarin bare NPs cannot be classified as definites simpliciter. Adopting the distinction between weak and strong article definites in Schwarz (2009), he proposes that Mandarin makes a lexical distinction between the two types of definites: bare nouns are weak definites, demonstratives are strong definites. He further proposes that their distribution is regulated by a principle called Index!. In this article we first point out some problems with the empirical generalizations presented in Jenks’ description of Mandarin and then sketch out an alternative approach to the distinction between Mandarin demonstratives and bare nouns. We end with some comments about the kind of further empirical work that needs to be done before definitive claims can be made about the competition between demonstratives and other types of definites.

Download Full-text

What can ESL offer to the data collector? Describing, defining, designing and deploying an alternative ESL approach

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly ◽

10.53386/nilq.v65i3.220 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 65 (3) ◽

pp. 345-355

Author(s):

Clare Fisher Williams

Keyword(s):

Sri Lanka ◽

World Bank ◽

Foreign Investment ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Good Governance ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Investment Climate ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

The Social ◽

The World

For the World Bank, the importance of the legal climate for attracting foreign investment is axiomatic and the legal and political aspects of an investment climate are measured in the World Bank’s ‘good governance’ programme. However, the assumptions underlying this rely on quantitative research setting out correlation and highlighting a narrow range of voices. An ESL-inspired approach to empirical work can question what investors want from a host state legal system while also addressing criticisms of existing literature. As a case study, Sri Lanka is set out as a country actively engaged in attracting foreign investment through the creation of an ideal investment climate. The discussion first describes the empirical by setting out the role of World Bank rationalities in shaping Sri Lanka’s investment climate. It then defines the analytical, locating ESL in the social sciences and outlining the debates surrounding the central concept of embeddedness. It goes on to design an alternative approach by combining elements of three frames, both addressing existing criticisms and avoiding embeddedness. This is then deployed and the applications and implications for framing relations of foreign investors in Sri Lanka are set out.

Download Full-text

The Contagion of Sentiments during the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis: The Case of Isolation in Spain

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17165918 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (16) ◽

pp. 5918 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Patricia P. Iglesias-Sánchez ◽

Gustavo Fabián Vaccaro Witt ◽

Francisco E. Cabrera ◽

Carmen Jambrino-Maldonado

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Emotional Health ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Point Of View ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Basic Emotions ◽

Public Sentiment ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

The Impact

This study examines how confinement measures established during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis affected the emotions of the population. For this purpose, public sentiment on social media and digital ecosystems in Spain is analyzed. We identified affective tones towards media and citizens published on social media focusing on six basic emotions: anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust and uncertainty. The main contribution of this work is the evidence of contagious sentiments and, consequently, the possibility of using this new dimension of social media as a form of a “collective therapy”. This paper contributes to understanding the impact of confinement measures in a pandemic from the point of view of emotional health. This analysis provides a set of practical implications that can guide conceptual and empirical work in health crisis management with an alternative approach, especially useful for decision-making processes facing emergency responses and health crises, even in an unprecedented global health crisis such as the traumatic events caused by the COVID-19 disease.

Download Full-text

Platforms and Institutions in the Post-Pandemic University: a Case Study of Social Media and the Impact Agenda

Postdigital Science and Education ◽

10.1007/s42438-021-00269-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Carrigan ◽

Katy Jordan

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Social Media ◽

Best Practice ◽

Research Evaluation ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Digital Platforms ◽

Research Excellence Framework ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

The Impact

AbstractIn this paper, we argue that digital platforms play an important role within higher education, not least of all when Covid-19 has made remote working the norm. An increasingly rich field of theoretical and empirical work has helped us understand platforms as socio-technical infrastructures which shape the activity of their users. Their insertion into higher education raises urgent institutional questions which necessitate dispensing with the individualised mode of analysis and instrumentalised conception of technology which often accompany these topics. We outline an alternative approach through a case study of social media in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, exploring the incorporation of platforms into research evaluation. Our findings suggest social media is invoked differently across disciplinary groupings, as well as platform metrics being cited in a naive and problematic matter. We offer a neo-institutionalist analysis which identifies a tendency towards isomorphism, with perceived ‘best practice’ being seized upon in response to uncertainty. We suggest such an approach is urgently needed given the role which digital platforms will play in building the post-Pandemic university.

Download Full-text

A Spatial Perspective on the Econometrics of Program Evaluation

International Regional Science Review ◽

10.1177/0160017619869781 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 43 (1-2) ◽

pp. 128-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marynia Kolak ◽

Luc Anselin

Keyword(s):

Causal Inference ◽

Treatment Effect ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Spatial Effects ◽

Effect Analysis ◽

Spatial Panel ◽

Treatment Variation ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Drinking Age

Empirical work in regional science has seen a growing interest in causal inference, leveraging insights from econometrics, statistics, and related fields. This has resulted in several conceptual as well as empirical papers. However, the role of spatial effects, such as spatial dependence (SD) and spatial heterogeneity (SH), is less well understood in this context. Such spatial effects violate the so-called stable unit treatment value assumption advanced by Rubin as part of the foundational framework for empirical treatment effect analysis. In this article, we consider the role of spatial effects more closely. We provide a brief overview of a number of attempts to extend existing econometric treatment effect evaluation methods with an accounting for spatial aspects and outline and illustrate an alternative approach. Specifically, we propose a spatially explicit counterfactual framework that leverages spatial panel econometrics to account for both SD and SH in treatment choice, treatment variation, and treatment effects. We illustrate this framework with a replication of a well-known treatment effect analysis, that is, the evaluation effect of minimum legal drinking age laws on mortality for US states during the period 1970–1984, a classic textbook example of applied causal inference. We replicate the results available in the literature and compare these to a range of alternative specifications that incorporate spatial effects.

Download Full-text

Challenges in Conducting Empirical Work Using Structuration Theory: Learning from IT Research

Organization Studies ◽

10.1177/0170840605054621 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 26 (9) ◽

pp. 1353-1376 ◽

Cited By ~ 116

Author(s):

Marlei Pozzebon ◽

Alain Pinsonneault

Keyword(s):

Research Method ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Empirical Work ◽

Structuration Theory ◽

Research Strategies ◽

Patterns Of Use ◽

Time Space ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

High Level ◽

Duality Of Structure

Giddens’s structuration theory is increasingly used as an alternative approach to studying numerous organizational phenomena. However, the applicability of Giddens’s concepts is not without difficulties because of two main challenges. First, structuration theory is complex, involving concepts and general propositions that operate at a high level of abstraction. Second, structuration theory is not easily coupled to any specific research method or methodological approach, and it is difficult to apply empirically. Arguing that structuration theory is a valuable framework for a rich understanding of management, organization and related subjects of inquiry, this paper aims to improve the application of structuration theory in empirical work by drawing on the experience in information technology (IT) research. It identifies patterns of use of Giddens’s theory in publications in the domain of IT, and then describes how IT researchers have attempted to address its major empirical challenges. The paper presents a repertoire of research strategies that might guide students of organization in dealing with three elements that are central to structuration theory: duality of structure, time/space and actors’ knowledgeability.

Download Full-text