scholarly journals Extending further and refining Prince’s taxonomy of given/new information

Pragmatics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudy Loock

The aim of this article is to complement and refine Ellen Prince’s well-known taxonomy of given/new information (Prince 1981, 1992), which distinguishes between discourse-related and assumed familiarity-related newness/givenness. What we suggest is that a new category should be added to the existing hearer new, hearer old, and inferrable information categories, so as to include cases where the informational status of an entity or a propositional content cannot be determined with certainty. We call this new category ‘the (hearer) indeterminables’, and we justify its existence through a case study on nonrestrictive, relevance-oriented constructions (appositive relative clauses, non-restrictive pre-modifiers, apposition). We also argue that it is possible for speakers/writers to simulate informational statuses for politeness considerations, and that such simulation should be included in the definition of assumed familiarity.

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 179-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laure Lansari

This paper aims at reexamining the notion of commitment through a case study: the comparison of the periphrases be going to and aller + inf. in contemporary English and French in a variety of texts and syntactic environments. Three cases are examined: the occurrence of the two periphrases in conditional si / if-clauses, their use in narratives and their predictive use in news texts. This study is based on authentic translated data drawn from literary and journalistic texts and relies on an enunciative definition of commitment: commitment is defined as a ‘direct mode of enunciation’ where the speaker is the subjective origin validating or contemplating the future validation of the propositional content. The three cases under scrutiny show that be going to and aller + inf. are not strictly equivalent and I argue that the absence of equivalence can be linked to the fact that they behave differently as far as commitment is concerned.


2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
SILKE BRANDT ◽  
HOLGER DIESSEL ◽  
MICHAEL TOMASELLO

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the development of relative clauses in the speech of one German-speaking child aged 2 ; 0 to 5 ; 0. The earliest relative clauses we found in the data occur in topicalization constructions that are only a little different from simple sentences: they contain a single proposition, express the actor prior to other participants, assert new information and often occur with main-clause word order. In the course of the development, more complex relative constructions emerge, in which the relative clause is embedded in a fully-fledged main clause. We argue that German relative clauses develop in an incremental fashion from simple non-embedded sentences that gradually evolve into complex sentence constructions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Saida Parvin

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.


Author(s):  
Michael C. Medlock

This chapter begins with a discussion of the philosophy and then definition of the RITE method. It then delves into the benefits of this method and provides practical notes on running RITE tests effectively. The chapter concludes with an overview of the original case study behind the 2002 article documenting this method.


Author(s):  
Emron Esplin

This essay explores Edgar Allan Poe’s extraordinary relationships with various literary traditions across the globe, posits that Poe is the most influential US writer on the global literary scene, and argues that Poe’s current global reputation relies at least as much on the radiance of the work of Poe’s literary advocates—many of whom are literary stars in their own right—as it does on the brilliance of Poe’s original works. The article briefly examines Poe’s most famous French advocates (Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Valéry); glosses the work of his advocates throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas; and offers a concise case study of Poe’s influence on and advocacy from three twentieth-century writers from the Río de la Plata region of South America (Quiroga, Borges, and Cortázar). The essay concludes by reading the relationships between Poe and his advocates through the ancient definition of astral or stellar influence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4186
Author(s):  
Abdulhakeem Raji ◽  
Abeer Hassan

This paper adopted a case study approach to investigate the sustainability practices of a Scottish university in order to understand if sustainability forms part of its central policy agenda. As such, the paper focuses on the levels of awareness and disclosure of their sustainable practices, measuring the impacts and effectiveness of those initiatives. This paper introduces signaling theory to explore the idea that appropriate communication via integrated thinking can close the gap between the organization and its stakeholders. We believe that the provision of this relevant information will lead to better communication between the organization and its stakeholders, supporting a signaling theory interpretation. Therefore, we are suggesting that integrated thinking is an internal process that organizations can follow to increase the level of disclosure as a communication tool with stakeholders. From the literature reviewed, four themes were identified (definition of university sustainability, sustainability awareness, disclosure framework within universities, and level of accountability). The research adopted a pragmatic view and conducted individual interviews with participants belonging to three stakeholder groups (members of the university’s senior management, the governing council, and the student union executive). Although this study focused on just one Scottish university, it should still provide some insight for the better understanding of the underpinning issues surrounding the sustainability accountability practices of Scottish universities in general. The research findings indicated that the university prioritized only two sustainability dimensions—economic and environmental—and that the university still perceived sustainability as a voluntary exercise. Additionally, it is evident that the university had no framework in place for measuring its sustainability delivery—and therefore had no established medium of communicating these activities to its stakeholders. Moreover, research findings showed that the social and educational context of sustainability was lacking at the university. The university has done little or nothing to educate its stakeholders on sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Hoang Nguyen ◽  
Jeffrey T. Paci ◽  
Subramanian K. R. S. Sankaranarayanan ◽  
Jose L. Mendoza-Cortes ◽  
...  

AbstractThis investigation presents a generally applicable framework for parameterizing interatomic potentials to accurately capture large deformation pathways. It incorporates a multi-objective genetic algorithm, training and screening property sets, and correlation and principal component analyses. The framework enables iterative definition of properties in the training and screening sets, guided by correlation relationships between properties, aiming to achieve optimal parametrizations for properties of interest. Specifically, the performance of increasingly complex potentials, Buckingham, Stillinger-Weber, Tersoff, and modified reactive empirical bond-order potentials are compared. Using MoSe2 as a case study, we demonstrate good reproducibility of training/screening properties and superior transferability. For MoSe2, the best performance is achieved using the Tersoff potential, which is ascribed to its apparent higher flexibility embedded in its functional form. These results should facilitate the selection and parametrization of interatomic potentials for exploring mechanical and phononic properties of a large library of two-dimensional and bulk materials.


2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2020-056145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ollie Ganz ◽  
Mary Hrywna ◽  
Kevin R J Schroth ◽  
Cristine D Delnevo

In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products, although initially this only included cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. In 2016, the deeming rule extended regulatory authority to include all tobacco products, including cigars. The deeming rule prohibited the introduction of new tobacco products into the marketplace without proper marketing authorisation and laid out pathways for tobacco companies to follow. The deeming rule should have frozen the cigar marketplace in 2016. In this paper, we describe how the cigarillo marketplace, nevertheless, continues to diversify with new brands, flavors, styles and packaging sizes entering the market regularly. As an example, we highlight recent promotional efforts by Swedish Match North America (Swedish Match) for their popular cigarillo brands, including White Owl, Night Owl and Garcia y Vega’s Game brand. We argue that ambiguities in the TCA make it unclear whether Swedish Match’s seemingly new cigarillos fit the definition of new tobacco products and, if so, whether they are on the market legally. Swedish Match and other cigarillo companies may be taking advantage of these ambiguities to promote a variety of cigarillo flavors and styles in innovative ways. Given that cigars are combustible tobacco products that pose many of the same risks as cigarettes, this business practice raises significant concerns regarding the protection of public health, particularly among young people.


1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Stein ◽  
Marylou M. Glasier ◽  
Stuart W. Hoffman

It is only within the last ten years that research on treatment for central nervous system (CNS) recovery after injury has become more focused on the complexities involved in promoting recovery from brain injury when the CNS is viewed as an integrated and dynamic system. There have been major advances in research in recovery over the last decade, including new information on the mechanics and genetics of metabolism and chemical activity, the definition of excitotoxic effects and the discovery that the brain itself secretes complex proteins, peptides and hormones which are capable of directly stimulating the repair of damaged neurons or blocking some of the degenerative processes caused by the injury cascade. Many of these agents, plus other nontoxic naturally occurring substances, are being tested as treatment for brain injury. Further work is needed to determine appropriate combinations of treatments and optimum times of administration with respect to the time course of the CNS disorder. In order to understand the mechanisms that mediate traumatic brain injury and repair, there must be a merging of findings from neurochemical studies with data from intensive behavioral testing.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3366
Author(s):  
Daniel Suchet ◽  
Adrien Jeantet ◽  
Thomas Elghozi ◽  
Zacharie Jehl

The lack of a systematic definition of intermittency in the power sector blurs the use of this term in the public debate: the same power source can be described as stable or intermittent, depending on the standpoint of the authors. This work tackles a quantitative definition of intermittency adapted to the power sector, linked to the nature of the source, and not to the current state of the energy mix or the production predictive capacity. A quantitative indicator is devised, discussed and graphically depicted. A case study is illustrated by the analysis of the 2018 production data in France and then developed further to evaluate the impact of two methods often considered to reduce intermittency: aggregation and complementarity between wind and solar productions.


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