scholarly journals Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ivano Ciardelli ◽  
Jeroen Groenendijk ◽  
Floris Roelofsen
Keyword(s):  
Information Exchange ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Inquisitive Semantics ◽  
Satisfactory Analysis

The first chapter discusses why a framework like inquisitive semantics is needed for a satisfactory analysis of information exchange. In particular, it argues that neither declarative nor interrogative sentences can be fully understood in isolation. Further, it is argued that semantic theories which aim to cover both declarative and interrogative sentences should not employ two different notions of semantic content, one for declaratives and one for interrogatives, but should rather be based on a single notion of semantic content that is general enough to capture both the information that sentences convey and the issues that they may raise.This requires a new formal notion of issues, which forms the cornerstone of inquisitive semantics.

scholarly journals The economic benefits of health information exchange interoperability for Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Sprivulis ◽  
Jan Walker ◽  
Douglas Johnston ◽  
Eric Pan ◽  
Julia Adler-Milstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Steady State ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Level 3

Objective: To estimate costs and benefits for Australia of implementing health information exchange interoperability among health care providers and other health care stakeholders. Design: A cost?benefit model considering four levels of interoperability (Level 1, paper based; Level 2, machine transportable; Level 3, machine readable; and Level 4, machine interpretable) was developed for Government-funded health services, then validated by expert review. Results: Roll-out costs for Level 3 and Level 4 interoperability were projected to be $21.5 billion and $14.2 billion, respectively, and steady-state costs, $1470 million and $933 million per annum, respectively. Level 3 interoperability would achieve steadystate savings of $1820 million, and Level 4 interoperability, $2990 million, comprising transactions of: laboratory $1180 million (39%); other providers, $893 million (30%); imaging centre, $680 million (23%); pharmacy, $213 million (7%) and public health, $27 million (1%). Net steady-state Level 4 benefits are projected to be $2050 million: $1710 million more than Level 3 benefits of $348 million, reflecting reduced interface costs for Level 4 interoperability due to standardisation of the semantic content of Level 4 messages. Conclusions: Benefits to both providers and society will accrue from the implementation of interoperability. Standards are needed for the semantic content of clinical messages, in addition to message exchange standards, for the full benefits of interoperability to be realised. An Australian Government policy position supporting such standards is recommended.

ellipsis in inquisitive semantics

2018 ◽  
pp. 232-252
Author(s):  
Scott AnderBois
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Inquisitive Semantics ◽  
Differential Behavior

Work in inquisitive semantics has developed an alternative-rich notion of semantic content which is uniform across questions and assertions. This chapter explores the ramifications of this view for the theory of ellipsis. It examines these issues primarily by focusing on the analysis of a particular ellipsis process in English: sluicing. Empirically, it reviews a number of arguments in favor of an account of sluicing incorporating inquisitive semantics, most notably cases where truth-conditionally equivalent sentences have differential behavior for sluicing. Theoretically, the chapter demonstrates how a theory of ellipsis building on Merchant (2001) but based on an inquisitive semantics helps address this data. Beyond this, it briefly discusses motivations for extending this sort of approach to other ellipsis processes and compares the proposed account with other potential ways of incorporating inquisitive semantics into a theory of ellipsis.

scholarly journals Inquisitive Semantics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivano Ciardelli ◽  
Jeroen Groenendijk ◽  
Floris Roelofsen
Keyword(s):  
Information Exchange ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Logical Framework ◽  
Truth Conditions ◽  
Inquisitive Semantics ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Philosophical Investigations ◽  
Exchange Of Information ◽  
Primary Function ◽  
Detailed Exposition

There is an age-old tradition in linguistics and philosophy to identify the meaning of a entence with its truth-conditions. This can be explained by the fact that linguistic and philosophical investigations are usually carried out in a logical framework that was originally designed to characterize valid reasoning. Indeed, in order to determine whether an argument is valid, it suffices to know the truth-conditions of the premises and conclusion. However, argumentation is neither the sole, nor the primary function of language. One task that language more widely and ordinarily fulfils is to enable the exchange of information between conversational participants. Inquisitive semantics is a new logical framework for the analysis of this fundamental usage of language. Information exchange can be seen as a process of raising and resolving issues. Inquisitive semantics provides a new formal notion of issues, which makes it possible to model various concepts that are crucial for the analysis of linguistic information exchange in a more refined and more principled way than has been possible in previous frameworks. This book provides a detailed exposition of inquisitive semantics, and demonstrates its benefits with a range of applications in the semantic analysis of questions, coordination, modals, conditionals, and intonation.

scholarly journals Propositional attitudes

2018 ◽  
pp. 143-162
Author(s):  
Ivano Ciardelli ◽  
Jeroen Groenendijk ◽  
Floris Roelofsen
Keyword(s):  
Information Exchange ◽  
Propositional Attitudes ◽  
Inquisitive Semantics ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Semantic Treatment ◽  
New View

In Chapter 8 it is shown that inquisitive semantics gives rise to a new view on propositional attitudes, especially those that are relevant for information exchange. Namely, besides the familiar informationdirected attitudes like knowing and believing, it allows us tomodel issuedirected attitudes like wondering and being curious as well. This also leads to a semantic treatment of the verbs that are used to express such attitudes. Among other things, this treatment explains the selectional restrictions of verbs like wonder, i.e. why they only take interrogative complements, while verbs like know take both declarative and interrogative complements.

scholarly journals Semantic Theories of Questions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floris Roelofsen
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alternative Semantics ◽  
Inquisitive Semantics ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
Survey Article ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Semantic Properties

This survey article discusses two basic issues that semantic theories of questions face. The first is how to conceptualize and formally represent the semantic content of questions. This issue arises in particular because the standard truth-conditional notion of meaning, which has been fruitful in the analysis of declarative statements, is not applicable to questions. This is because questions are not naturally construed as being true or false. Instead, it has been proposed that the semantic content of a question must be characterized in terms of its answerhood or resolution conditions. This article surveys a number of theories which develop this basic idea in different ways, focusing on so-called proposition-set theories (alternative semantics, partition semantics, and inquisitive semantics). The second issue that will be considered here concerns questions that are embedded within larger sentences. Within this domain, one important puzzle is why certain predicates can take both declarative and interrogative complements (e.g., Bill knows that Mary called / Bill knows who called), while others take only declarative complements (e.g., Bill thinks that Mary called / *Bill thinks who called) or only interrogative complements (e.g., Bill wonders who called / *Bill wonders that Mary called). We compare two general approaches that have been pursued in the literature. One assumes that declarative and interrogative complements differ in semantic type. On this approach, the fact that predicates like think do not take interrogative complements can be accounted for by assuming that such complements do not have the semantic type that think selects for. The other approach treats the two kinds of complement as having the same semantic type, and seeks to connect the selectional restrictions of predicates like think to other semantic properties (e.g., the fact that think is neg-raising).

A Longitudinal Posthumous Study of Letter Writing in a Late Elderly Case

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Angel Ball ◽  
Jean Neils-Strunjas ◽  
Kate Krival
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Elderly Woman ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Linguistic Performance ◽  
Errors Analysis ◽  
Normal Status

This study is a posthumous longitudinal study of consecutive letters written by an elderly woman from age 89 to 93. Findings reveal a consistent linguistic performance during the first 3 years, supporting “normal” status for late elderly writing. She produced clearly written cursive form, intact semantic content, and minimal spelling and stroke errors. A decline in writing was observed in the last 6–9 months of the study and an analysis revealed production of clausal fragmentation, decreasing semantic clarity, and a higher frequency of spelling, semantic, and stroke errors. Analysis of writing samples can be a valuable tool in documenting a change in cognitive status differentiated from normal late aging.

A Developmental Study of Intonation Recognition

1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn M. Corlew
Keyword(s):  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Choice Test ◽  
Developmental Study ◽  
Multiple Choice Test ◽  
The Third ◽  
Matching Test ◽  
Better Than

Two experiments investigated the information conveyed by intonation from speaker to listener. A multiple-choice test was devised to test the ability of 48 adults to recognize and label intonation when it was separated from all other meaning. Nine intonation contours whose labels were most agreed upon by adults were each matched with two English sentences (one with appropriate and one with inappropriate intonation and semantic content) to make a matching-test for children. The matching-test was tape-recorded and given to children in the first, third, and fifth grades (32 subjects in each grade). The first-grade children matched the intonations with significantly greater agreement than chance; but they agreed upon significantly fewer sentences than either the third or fifth graders. Some intonation contours were matched with significantly greater frequency than others. The performance of the girls was better than that of the boys on an impatient question and a simple command which indicates that there was a significant interaction between sex and intonation.

Semantic Conflict Processing in the Color-Word Stroop and the Emotional Stroop

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Zurrón ◽  
Marta Ramos-Goicoa ◽  
Fernando Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Color Word ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Emotional Stroop ◽  
Semantic Equivalence ◽  
Incongruent Color ◽  
Semantic Conflict ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Temporal Locus

With the aim of establishing the temporal locus of the semantic conflict in color-word Stroop and emotional Stroop phenomena, we analyzed the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited by nonwords, incongruent and congruent color words, colored words with positive and negative emotional valence, and colored words with neutral valence. The incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral stimuli produced interference in the behavioral response to the color of the stimuli. The P150/N170 amplitude was sensitive to the semantic equivalence of both dimensions of the congruent color words. The P3b amplitude was smaller in response to incongruent color words and to positive, negative, and neutral colored words than in response to the congruent color words and colored nonwords. There were no differences in the ERPs induced in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence. Therefore, the P3b amplitude was sensitive to interference from the semantic content of the incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral words in the color-response task, independently of the emotional content of the colored words. In addition, the P3b amplitude was smaller in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence than in response to the incongruent color words. Overall, these data indicate that the temporal locus of the semantic conflict generated by the incongruent color words (in the color-word Stroop task) and by colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence (in the emotional Stroop task) appears to occur in the range 300–450 ms post-stimulus.

On the Semantic Content of Grammatical Gender and Its Impact on the Representation of Human Referents

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 367-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Irmen ◽  
Julia Kurovskaja
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Gender Information ◽  
Masculine Role ◽  
Feminine Role ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Categories ◽  
Open Question

Grammatical gender has been shown to provide natural gender information about human referents. However, due to formal and conceptual differences between masculine and feminine forms, it remains an open question whether these gender categories influence the processing of person information to the same degree. Experiment 1 compared the semantic content of masculine and feminine grammatical gender by combining masculine and feminine role names with either gender congruent or incongruent referents (e.g., Dieser Lehrer [masc.]/Diese Lehrerin [fem.] ist mein Mann/meine Frau; This teacher is my husband/my wife). Participants rated sentences in terms of correctness and customariness. In Experiment 2, in addition to ratings reading times were recorded to assess processing more directly. Both experiments were run in German. Sentences with grammatically feminine role names and gender incongruent referents were rated as less correct and less customary than those with masculine forms and incongruent referents. Combining a masculine role name with an incongruent referent slowed down reading to a greater extent than combining a feminine role name with an incongruent referent. Results thus specify the differential effects of masculine and feminine grammatical gender in denoting human referents.

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