A puzzle about narrative progression and causal reasoning

2021 ◽  
pp. 255-276
Author(s):  
Daniel Altshuler
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Default Logic ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Coherence Relations ◽  
Narrative Progression

This chapter argues that key to an analysis of narrative progression are aspectual constraints imposed by coherence relations. This argument is based on a discourse like “A cat bit into a mouse while it was wiggling its tail. It was dead”. The fact that it’s infelicitous is remarkable given that the following is fine: “A mouse was dead. A cat bit into it while it was wiggling its tail”. The chapter explains these data in two steps. First, it proposes definitions for the coherence relations, RESULT and EXPLANATION, in which the former, but not the latter, rules out stative arguments. Second, it provides axioms in a default logic which predict the conditions under which these and competing coherence relations are typically inferred. It provides independent evidence for the proposed analysis from discourses involving exclamatives, temporal indexicals, and deverbals. It also considers discourses that challenge the analysis involving perspectival expressions.

scholarly journals No explanation for the historical present: temporal sequencing and discourse

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Pranav Anand ◽  
Maziar Toosarvandani
Keyword(s):  
Reference Time ◽  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
Coherence Relations ◽  
Temporal Sequencing ◽  
Salient Event ◽  
Narrative Progression

Discourses in the historical (or narrative) use of the simple present in English prohibitbackshifting, though they allow forward sequencing. Unlike both reference time theories anddiscourse coherence theories of these temporal inferences, we propose that backshifting hasa different source from narrative progression. In particular, we argue that backshifting arisesthrough anaphora to a salient event in the preceding discourse.Keywords: tense, discourse coherence, coherence relations, perspective.

Further explorations of causal reasoning in autoshaping

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert I. Bowers ◽  
William D. Timberlake
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning

Independent commissions and labour migration: The British MAC

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin ◽  
Martin Ruhs
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Labour Immigration ◽  
British Labour ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
The Uk

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) was created in 2007 after a decade in which the share of foreign-born workers in the British labour force doubled to 13 per cent. The initial core mandate of the MAC was to provide “independent, evidence-based advice to government on specific skilled occupations in the labour market where shortages exist which can sensibly be filled by migration.” The MAC's answers to these 3-S questions, viz, is the occupation for which employers are requesting foreign workers skilled, are there labour shortages, and is admitting foreign workers a sensible response, have improved the quality of the debate over the “need” for foreign workers in the UK by highlighting some of the important trade-offs inherent in migration policy making. The MAC can clarify migration trade-offs in labour immigration policy, but cannot decide the ultimately political questions about whose interests should be prioritised and how competing policy objectives should be balanced.

Kekoherensian Wacana Iklan Komersial dalam Website Softbank: Kajian Analisis Wacana

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Desi Damayanti
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Coherence Relations ◽  
Coherence Factors

ABSTRAKJepang merupakan negara dengan tiga perusahaan telekomunikasi ternama didunia, salah satunya SoftBank, sehingga perusahaan tersebut menggunakan berbagaicara kreatif untuk mempromosikan produknya, termasuk melalui media iklankomersial. Sells dan Gonzalez (dalam Astuti, 2005:3) menyatakan bahwa bahasa dalamiklan sedikit menyimpang dari kaidah tata bahasa, yang mempengaruhi keterpaduanmaknanya (koherensi). Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasipenanda kekoherensian, hubungan kekoherensian serta faktor penyebab terjadinyakekoherensian pada wacana iklan komersial dalam website SoftBank yang dianalisisberlandaskan pada teori struktur iklan Bolen (1984), struktur retorika Mann danThompson (1988) serta koherensi Ramlan (1993). Penulis menggunakan metodedeskriptif analisis dalam penelitian ini. Dari hasil analisis data, teridentifikasi bahwapenanda kekoherensian yang sering muncul berjenis perturutan, contohnya seperti“maka dari itu”. Kemudian terdapat tiga jenis hubungan koherensi yang sering munculdalam kedua belas wacana iklan komersial tersebut, yakni uraian, latar belakang danurutan. Faktor penyebab kekoherensian adalah adanya pengetahuan yang dibagibersama (shared knowledge) dari pengiklan kepada konsumen, sehingga konsumendapat mengetahui dan ingin tahu lebih lanjut mengenai isi iklan.Kata kunci: wacana, iklan komersial, koherensi, struktur iklan, struktur retorikaABSTRACTJapan is a country with top three telecommunication brand companies in theworld, one of them is Softbank. This company uses a variety of methods to promote theirproducts, including the use of commercial ads. Sells and Gonzalez (from Astuti, 2005:3)declare that ads have a bit linguistic deviation that affecting the unity of meaning(coherence). The aim of this research is to identify the coherence markers, coherencerelations and coherence factors of SoftBank’s commercial adverting discourse (CAD)analyzed based on advertising theory from Bolen (1984) and rhetorical structure theoryfrom Mann and Thompson (1988) and Ramlan (1984). The writers use descriptivemethod in this research. The results of data analysis, it is identified that coherencemarkers like continuation are often used, for example “therefore”.Then, the twelve CADshave three kinds of coherence relations that often come in the CAD, such as elaboration,background, and sequence. The factor of the coherence is a sharing a knowledge fromadvertiser to consumer, so that consumer can be informed and want to know more aboutthe content of the ads.Keywords: discourse, commercial ads, coherence, ad’s structure, rhetorical structure

The Argument from (A) to (Y)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Poston
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Strength Of Evidence ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Simple Summation

This chapter provides a Bayesian model of strength of evidence in cases in which there are multiple items of independent evidence. The author uses this Bayesian model to evaluate the strength of evidence for theism if, as Plantinga claims, there are two dozen or so arguments for theism. The model turns questions of the overall strength of multiple arguments into a simple summation problem. Moreover, it provides a clear framework for advancing questions about how relationships between the arguments bear on the overall strength of evidence for theism. The Bayesian model developed in this chapter has a wide-range of applications for modeling strength of evidence in cumulative case arguments.

Twelfth Century AD

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lonnie G. Thompson ◽  
Alan L. Kolata
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Lake Titicaca ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Paleoclimate Records ◽  
Past Climate Change

Climate is a fundamental and independent variable of human existence. Given that 50 percent of the Earth’s surface and much of its population exist between 30oN and 30oS, paleoenvironmental research in the Earth’s tropical regions is vital to our understanding of the world’s current and past climate change. Most of the solar energy that drives the climate system is absorbed in these regions. Paleoclimate records reveal that tropical processes, such as variations in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have affected the climate over much of the planet. Climatic variations, particularly in precipitation and temperature, play a critical role in the adaptations of agrarian cultures located in zones of environmental sensitivity, such as those of the coastal deserts, highlands, and altiplano of the Andean region. Paleoclimate records from the Quelccaya ice cap (5670 masl) in highland Peru that extend back ~1800 years show good correlation between precipitation and the rise and fall of pre-Hispanic civilizations in western Peru and Bolivia. Sediment cores extracted from Lake Titicaca provide independent evidence of this correspondence with particular reference to the history of the pre-Hispanic Tiwanaku state centered in the Andean altiplano. Here we explore, in particular, the impacts of climate change on the development and ultimate dissolution of this altiplano state.

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