Future obligations

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-628
Author(s):  
PABLO FUENTES
Keyword(s):  
Speech Time ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Contextual Change

This article reflects on a double interpretation of English constructions containing the combined expression will have to. As I will show, illocutions involving sentences of the type ‘NP will have to VP’ can be interpreted as either (i) predicting future enforcing circumstances that trigger a future obligation or (ii) reporting such circumstances as currently in force at speech time. Once I sketch the different semantic elements at play in a Kratzerian framework, I cast doubt on some current views on the so-called modal–tense interaction. As I will show, one way to fully account for the availability of both readings is by assuming a semantic temporal underspecification as to when the triggering circumstances in the conversational background are initially in force. This raises important theoretical caveats for semantic analyses in the field, particularly for those that equate the semantics of the future with prediction. As the article shows, such a widespread assumption can be contended by a dynamic account of obligational ascriptions, according to which their different illocutionary forces can be derived from the contextual change potential of its primitive (and admittedly underspecified) future semantics. Ultimately, the paper voices support for the view that future semantics must not be equated with prediction.

Fictions of Migration and Refuge from the Anthropocene

2019 ◽  
pp. 175-217
Author(s):  
John Patrick Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Shared Humanity ◽  
Scientific Debates ◽  
Key Questions

The chapter treats a set of writers, Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Gary Victor, and Néhémy Pierre-Dahomey, whose fictions imagine experiences of migration and refuge in the wake of political and natural disaster. Their texts are meditations on the stakes of social and political institutions that support life in common in an age of ecological reckoning. The first part of the chapter returns to key questions of the Anthropocene, raised in the introduction, in order to demonstrate the ways that Caribbean thinkers have long anticipated scientific debates about the links between political violence and the future of the planet. Literary eco-archives contribute to these debates with stories about social worlds migrating and colliding. The chapter argues that Dalembert’s Ballade d’un amour inachevé, Victor’s Maudite éducation and its sequel L’Escalier de mes désillusions, and Pierre-Dahomey’s Rapatriés cast doubt on the future of a shared humanity with portraits of Haitian lives that foreground an ethics of vulnerability amidst widespread inequality. Through poetic representations of time and space, each writer ponders the ephemeral beauty of the present, always in flux between past and present, and each imagines the frailty of human lives in increasingly inhospitable climes.

scholarly journals Tempos do passado e tempos do futuro em confronto: diferenças e paralelismos

2021 ◽  
pp. 105-120
Author(s):  
Luís Filipe Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Common Property ◽  
The Past ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Speech Time ◽  
The Future ◽  
Final Interpretation ◽  
Temporal Boundary ◽  
The Common ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Past Tenses

This paper deals with the main similarities and differences that arise between past and future tenses. In particular, we argue that, while the propositions associated with past tenses are completely settled and their truth-value can be evaluated at the speech time, the propositions described by future tenses cannot be seen as true or false at the utterance time since these linguistic forms are ramifying, in that they typically point to a variety of inertia histories or inertia worlds. Nevertheless, if we consider more closely some particular tenses in European Portuguese – namely the Pretérito Imperfeito (Imperfect) and the Pretérito Perfeito do Indicativo (simple past), as representatives of the past tenses, and the Futuro Simples (simple future) and the structure ir (‘go’) + Infinitive, as representatives of the future ones, we conclude that there are also some important parallels across the two temporal domains. We claim that both the Imperfeito and the Futuro Simples merely locate the situations in a past or future interval, respectively, and that the final interpretation of the sentences in which they occur is the result of the interaction of their temporal characteristics with aspectual and modal features. The Pretérito Perfeito and the structure ir (‘go’) + Infinitive, on the other hand, share the common property of imposing an additional temporal boundary beyond which the eventualities cannot take place; as a result, aspectual effects and modal readings are much more conditioned and pure temporal interpretations – both in the past and in the future – become greatly predominant.

The Information Wave of Civilization

2009 ◽  
pp. 184-217
Author(s):  
Andrew Targowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Information Ecology ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Survival And Development ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Information

This chapter will attempt to analyze the cumulative evolution of labor, intellect (information & knowledge), and politics. In pursuit of this aim, it will analyze the role of information throughout civilization history. Whereas historians reveal the myriad dimensions of social order that remained uncontrollable in the past, modern analysts consciously initiate designs that are not a product of chance—but do so in webs of dispute, ambivalence, and fuzziness of language. There are questions concerning the relevance of history (Henry Ford’s famous aphorism was that history is “bunk”) and the objectivity of information (to the postmodernist philosophers, there is no such thing). These cast doubt on the use of historical data for predicting the future, and also suggest its limitations. In this section, we shall analyze the architectural relationships between intellect, politics, and labor in a historical context, in order to understand the relationships, rules, and eventually laws that govern civilization development. Through such a structural understanding of the past, it may be possible to better predict the future of civilization. Even though this may not be optimal, it is at the very least a satisfactory place and role for historians and our institutions. The architectural approach to a history of civilization is a new layer over quantitative history based on statistical data. In an architectural history of civilization, we seek a “big picture” of “civilization ages and revolutions” to develop some criteria-oriented views of the world and its future predictability. To understand how crises and conflicts of civilization have been driven by technology in recent centuries, such analysis must be undertaken with some optimism about human proactive adaptation, survival, and development. This approach to civilization development should allow humans eventually to “reinvent the future” in a continuous manner. In due course, we should be able to predict the “rate of change” and provide “civilization-bridging solutions” based on original thinking. In the last several centuries, civilization has been driven by its infrastructures (such as bureaucracy, electrical power, vehicle engines). Therefore, we shall look more at the role of information infrastructure, which secures the vitality of the information ecology. The information ecology (environment) is a holistic, human-centered management of information to control development and operations of info-materiel-energy-oriented processes. The first who applied this term are Bruce W. Hasenyager (1996) and Thomas H. Davenport (1997), who emphasize people over machines in the role of handling information.

The United Nations in West Irian: A Critique

1964 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. van der Veur
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Severe Handicaps ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cost

UNTEA served the important function of buffer between contending forces and in general accomplished a remarkably smooth transfer. In this regard the United Nations operation was a major success. The smooth transfer was achieved, however, at the cost of rights specifically guaranteed in the agreement—the rights of free speech and assembly. Furthermore, the United Nations preparatory task and responsibility in the future “act of self-determination” was minimized.It may be argued that UNTEA policy in West Irian merely reflects the weakness of the United Nations in a nation-state world. Lack of UNTEA power certainly was an important aspect. The explanation, however, is more complex. It is significant to recall that the United Nations assumed its task under severe handicaps: It was given no time for adequate recruitment and preparation; from the start it was confronted with the legitimized presence of Indonesian troops; the status of the “Papuan flag” was never mentioned in the agreement; and general Papuan primitivity along with political naïveté and schisms among the small and newly created Papuan élite influenced UNTEA's approach.UNTEA also met continuous Indonesian pressure aimed at shortening the period of its administration and weakening its authority in general. Statements by Indonesian officials cast doubt on Indonesia's willingness to adhere to the wording of the agreement. In trying to interpret Indonesian feelings it might be conceded that most Dutch-Indonesian agreements have imposed conditions which could be considered obnoxious to Indonesia. The rights of self-determination for the Papuan inhabitants—stipulated in the August 15 agreement—fall into this category.

Rulings give Torres clear run at Guatemalan presidency

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
First Lady ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
International Response ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Controversial Nature

Subject Barred presidential candidates. Significance Two separate constitutional court rulings in May have barred two of Guatemala’s leading presidential candidates from standing in the June 15 elections. This leaves former First Lady Sandra Torres with a clear lead in the polls. The controversial nature of the judicial rulings will cast doubt over the legitimacy of the electoral process, as well as raising concerns about the future government’s commitment to maintaining much-needed anti-corruption investigations. Impacts The CICIG is now almost certain to leave Guatemala in October as Aldana was the only candidate in favour of restoring its mandate. Social unrest is becoming increasingly likely around the elections as voters protest the barring of their preferred candidates. The international response has been muted so far; countries may wait until after the elections to comment.

International determination of the total motion of the pole

1961 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Wm. Markowitz
Keyword(s):  
Secular Motion ◽  
The Future

A symposium on the future of the International Latitude Service (I. L. S.) is to be held in Helsinki in July 1960. My report for the symposium consists of two parts. Part I, denoded (Mk I) was published [1] earlier in 1960 under the title “Latitude and Longitude, and the Secular Motion of the Pole”. Part II is the present paper, denoded (Mk II).

Status of the Lick Proper Motion Program

1978 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 387-388
Author(s):  
A. R. Klemola
Keyword(s):  
Proper Motion ◽  
The Future

Second-epoch photographs have now been obtained for nearly 850 of the 1246 fields of the proper motion program with centers at declination -20° and northwards. For the sky at 0° and northward only 130 fields remain to be taken in the next year or two. The 270 southern fields with centers at -5° to -20° remain for the future.

Some Structural Features of Metaphase Chromosomes of Mice and Men

1967 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 190-191
Author(s):  
Godfrey C. Hoskins ◽  
Betty B. Hoskins
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Electron Micrographs ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Metaphase Chromosomes ◽  
The Future ◽  
Of Mice And Men ◽  
Mouse Cells ◽  
Human And Mouse

Metaphase chromosomes from human and mouse cells in vitro are isolated by micrurgy, fixed, and placed on grids for electron microscopy. Interpretations of electron micrographs by current methods indicate the following structural features.Chromosomal spindle fibrils about 200Å thick form fascicles about 600Å thick, wrapped by dense spiraling fibrils (DSF) less than 100Å thick as they near the kinomere. Such a fascicle joins the future daughter kinomere of each metaphase chromatid with those of adjacent non-homologous chromatids to either side. Thus, four fascicles (SF, 1-4) attach to each metaphase kinomere (K). It is thought that fascicles extend from the kinomere poleward, fray out to let chromosomal fibrils act as traction fibrils against polar fibrils, then regroup to join the adjacent kinomere.

Freeze-fracture cytochemistry: A goal set by Russell Steere in 1957

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
Nicholas J Severs
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Nature ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Freeze Fracture ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Membrane Biology ◽  
Routine Application ◽  
The Future ◽  
Freeze Etching

In his pioneering demonstration of the potential of freeze-etching in biological systems, Russell Steere assessed the future promise and limitations of the technique with remarkable foresight. Item 2 in his list of inherent difficulties as they then stood stated “The chemical nature of the objects seen in the replica cannot be determined”. This defined a major goal for practitioners of freeze-fracture which, for more than a decade, seemed unattainable. It was not until the introduction of the label-fracture-etch technique in the early 1970s that the mould was broken, and not until the following decade that the full scope of modern freeze-fracture cytochemistry took shape. The culmination of these developments in the 1990s now equips the researcher with a set of effective techniques for routine application in cell and membrane biology.Freeze-fracture cytochemical techniques are all designed to provide information on the chemical nature of structural components revealed by freeze-fracture, but differ in how this is achieved, in precisely what type of information is obtained, and in which types of specimen can be studied.

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