Modality and Mood in Formal Syntactic Approaches

Author(s):  
Katrin Axel-Tober ◽  
Remus Gergel

The chapter discusses a selection of major approaches to modality and mood in generative syntax. The primary focus lies on the representation of modal auxiliaries and verbs. Key issues relating to modal adverbs and a selection of aspects pertaining to mood are reviewed. Central points addressed are the structural options for different types of modality including the raising vs control debate and the possible structural correlates of epistemic modality addressed in the literature. The chapter incorporates a discussion of “coherent constructions” following a tradition established for German modals. The latter serves as an illustration of a different type of possible syntactic analysis and, in virtue of its data coverage, also of points of variation even between closely related languages like English and German.

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ton Nu My Nhat ◽  
Nguyen Thi Dieu Minh

This paper aims to investigate the epistemic markers in TED talks. The data for the study is 100 TED talks on education. The mixed method of both the quantitative and qualitative approaches was manipulated to capture the use of the linguistic means to convey epistemic modality in terms of degrees of certainty and range of devices. The findings indicate that epistemic modality is pervasive in this genre, with approximately one-tenth of the sentences in the data being epistemically modalized by TED speakers via a range of linguistic means of different types and epistemic strength. The analysis unveils a clear tendency to select the middle level of commitment and make use of epistemic modal auxiliaries to frame their statements with personal attitudes and opinions. The examination of epistemic devices in the data also suggests speakers’ preference to use epistemic adverbials to realize certainty and employ epistemic modals to denote probability and possibility. The study yields pedagogical implications for developing an efficient use of epistemic modality in oral presentation of academic discourse.


Author(s):  
Gianluca Pontrandolfo ◽  
Sara Piccioni

 This paper aims at investigating some discursive features of blawgs, namely legal blogs in which legal experts disseminate and popularise their expertise. More specifically, it involves a corpus-assisted discourse study of the ways in which situational contexts affect the practices and strategies used to represent, construct and communicate legal knowledge. A comparison is drawn between two corpora representative of two different types of communication: a selection of posts written by legal experts for other experts (symmetrical communication) and posts written by legal experts for laypersons (asymmetrical communication). Combining qualitative and quantitative observations, the analysis shows that, in symmetrical communication, the emphasis is on the blogger’s subjective interpretation of legal texts and on his role as knowledge disseminator, as indicated by the predominance of epistemic modality. In asymmetrical communication, on the other hand, the prevalence of deontic modality shifts the focus on to the reader as addressee of the advice, instructions and information provided by the legal expert.


Virittäjä ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saara Huhmarniemi

Suomen tunnekausatiivilause muodostuu tunnetta ilmaisevasta verbistä, johon liittyy tyypillisesti partitiivimuotoinen kokija, aiheuttaja tai kumpikin. Aiheuttaja voi olla paitsi nominatiivimuotoinen NP myös lausemainen, kuten ­A-infinitiivi, kun-lause, että-lause tai alisteinen kysymyslause. Tämän artikkelin tavoitteena on osoittaa generatiivisen syntaksin työkaluja käyttäen, että A-infinitiivi ja että-lause sijoittuvat tunnekausatiivi­lauseen argumenttirakenteessa komplementti­positioon, kun taas aiheut­tajana toimiva kun-lause voi sijoittua joko adjunkti- tai komplementti­positioon. Lisäksi artikkelissa esitetään Suomi24-korpusaineiston perusteella, että tunne­kausatiivien luokittelu tunne- ja tuntemusverbeihin korreloi lausemaisen aiheuttaja-argumentin yleisyyden kanssa. Artikkeli on toinen osa kahden artikkelin sarjasta. Ensimmäisessä osassa esitettiin, että aiheuttajana toimiva NP asettuu rakenteessa tyypillisesti ylemmäs kuin kokija. Koska lausemainen aiheuttaja asettuu välttämättä komplementtiin ja alemmas kuin kokija, tunnekausatiivilauseen argumenttirakenne näyttää siis vaihtelevan ainakin aiheuttaja-­argumentin tyypin mukaan.   The argument structure of the Finnish experiencer construction II: An embedded clause as a causer argument This paper investigates the Finnish experiencer construction, which involves a psychological predicate and two optional arguments: the nominative causer and the partitive experiencer. The causer argument can be clausal, such as the A infinitive, the kun clause, a finite clause headed by the complementizer että, or an embedded interrogative clause. Mua    jännittää                      kertoa   tämä         sulle. (colloquial) I.par   excite.caus.pres.3sg   tell.inf   this.nom   you.to ‘I’m excited to tell you about this.’ The aim of this paper is to show within the framework of generative syntax that the A infinitive and the finite complement clause occupy the complement position in the experiencer construction, while the kun clause may occupy either the adjunct or complement position. The syntactic analysis is complemented with a corpus analysis of a corpus taken from the Suomi24 online messaging site. The comprehensive Finnish grammar divides experiencer verbs into two classes: those that express emotion and those that express sensation. The corpus analysis shows that verb type correlates with the frequency of a clausal causer. This article is the second in a series of two. The first article investigated constructions in which the causer argument was an NP. It demonstrated that the causer NP -occupies a higher position in the argument structure than the experiencer NP. In this -article, the author argues that a clausal causer occupies a lower position than the experiencer. This means that the experiencer construction has alternating argument structures for different types of causers.


2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirian C. Davies

This paper attempts to outline a model for the semantic interpretation of mood and modality in constructions of knowledge or belief, as realized in the finite verb in English. It does so in terms of the attitude(s) which the speaker is seen as presenting him/herself to hold towards the proposition expressed in the clause. The account of such attitudes is based on an epistemic logic, extended to take probabilities into account, and is presented in terms of set theory.The approach takes epistemic mood to be realized either by marking (overt or covert) on the stem of the lexical verb or by the choice of an auxiliary verb. Semantic distinctions between different modal auxiliaries of knowledge/belief are analysed in the same terms as the contrast between the epistemic subjunctive and indicative moods of the finite full verb. One effect of this approach is that the semantics of epistemic mood and epistemic modality is treated as an integrated continuum. Some benefits are claimed to derive from this approach in the conclusion, including that of establishing different types, as well as degrees, of certainty.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2146
Author(s):  
Anik Gupta ◽  
Carlos J. Slebi-Acevedo ◽  
Esther Lizasoain-Arteaga ◽  
Jorge Rodriguez-Hernandez ◽  
Daniel Castro-Fresno

Porous asphalt (PA) mixtures are more environmentally friendly but have lower durability than dense-graded mixtures. Additives can be incorporated into PA mixtures to enhance their mechanical strength; however, they may compromise the hydraulic characteristics, increase the total cost of pavement, and negatively affect the environment. In this paper, PA mixtures were produced with 5 different types of additives including 4 fibers and 1 filler. Their performances were compared with the reference mixtures containing virgin bitumen and polymer-modified bitumen. The performance of all mixes was assessed using: mechanical, hydraulic, economic, and environmental indicators. Then, the Delphi method was applied to compute the relative weights for the parameters in multi-criteria decision-making methods. Evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS), technique for order of the preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) were employed to rank the additives. According to the results obtained, aramid pulp displayed comparable and, for some parameters such as abrasion resistance, even better performance than polymer-modified bitumen, whereas cellulose fiber demonstrated the best performance regarding sustainability, due to economic and environmental benefits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Knowles ◽  
Dawn Allen ◽  
Ailsa Donnelly ◽  
Jackie Flynn ◽  
Kay Gallacher ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Knowledge mobilisation requires the effective elicitation and blending of different types of knowledge or ways of knowing, to produce hybrid knowledge outputs that are valuable to both knowledge producers (researchers) and knowledge users (health care stakeholders). Patients and service users are a neglected user group, and there is a need for transparent reporting and critical review of methods used to co-produce knowledge with patients. This study aimed to explore the potential of participatory codesign methods as a mechanism of supporting knowledge sharing, and to evaluate this from the perspective of both researchers and patients. Methods A knowledge mobilisation research project using participatory codesign workshops to explore patient involvement in using health data to improve services. To evaluate involvement in the project, multiple qualitative data sources were collected throughout, including a survey informed by the Generic Learning Outcomes framework, an evaluation focus group, and field notes. Analysis was a collective dialogic reflection on project processes and impacts, including comparing and contrasting the key issues from the researcher and contributor perspectives. Results Authentic involvement was seen as the result of “space to talk” and “space to change”. "Space to talk" refers to creating space for shared dialogue, including space for tension and disagreement, and recognising contributor and researcher expertise as equally valuable to the discussion. ‘Space to change’ refers to space to adapt in response to contributor feedback. These were partly facilitated by the use of codesign methods which emphasise visual and iterative working, but contributors emphasised that relational openness was more crucial, and that this needed to apply to the study overall (specifically, how contributors were reimbursed as a demonstration of how their input was valued) to build trust, not just to processes within the workshops. Conclusions Specific methods used within involvement are only one component of effective involvement practice. The relationship between researcher and contributors, and particularly researcher willingness to change their approach in response to feedback, were considered most important by contributors. Productive tension was emphasised as a key mechanism in leading to genuinely hybrid outputs that combined contributor insight and experience with academic knowledge and understanding.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5235
Author(s):  
Nikita Andriyanov

The article is devoted to the study of convolutional neural network inference in the task of image processing under the influence of visual attacks. Attacks of four different types were considered: simple, involving the addition of white Gaussian noise, impulse action on one pixel of an image, and attacks that change brightness values within a rectangular area. MNIST and Kaggle dogs vs. cats datasets were chosen. Recognition characteristics were obtained for the accuracy, depending on the number of images subjected to attacks and the types of attacks used in the training. The study was based on well-known convolutional neural network architectures used in pattern recognition tasks, such as VGG-16 and Inception_v3. The dependencies of the recognition accuracy on the parameters of visual attacks were obtained. Original methods were proposed to prevent visual attacks. Such methods are based on the selection of “incomprehensible” classes for the recognizer, and their subsequent correction based on neural network inference with reduced image sizes. As a result of applying these methods, gains in the accuracy metric by a factor of 1.3 were obtained after iteration by discarding incomprehensible images, and reducing the amount of uncertainty by 4–5% after iteration by applying the integration of the results of image analyses in reduced dimensions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 3949
Author(s):  
Lidia Wlodarczyk ◽  
Rafal Szelenberger ◽  
Natalia Cichon ◽  
Joanna Saluk-Bijak ◽  
Michal Bijak ◽  
...  

Several key issues impact the clinical practice of stroke rehabilitation including a patient’s medical history, stroke experience, the potential for recovery, and the selection of the most effective type of therapy. Until clinicians have answers to these concerns, the treatment and rehabilitation are rather intuitive, with standard procedures carried out based on subjective estimations using clinical scales. Therefore, there is a need to find biomarkers that could predict brain recovery potential in stroke patients. This review aims to present the current state-of-the-art stroke recovery biomarkers that could be used in clinical practice. The revision of biochemical biomarkers has been developed based on stroke recovery processes: angiogenesis and neuroplasticity. This paper provides an overview of the biomarkers that are considered to be ready-to-use in clinical practice and others, considered as future tools. Furthermore, this review shows the utility of biomarkers in the development of the concept of personalized medicine. Enhancing brain neuroplasticity and rehabilitation facilitation are crucial concerns not only after stroke, but in all central nervous system diseases.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shabir ◽  
Rimsha Mushtaq ◽  
Munazza Naz

In this paper, we focus on two main objectives. Firstly, we define some binary and unary operations on N-soft sets and study their algebraic properties. In unary operations, three different types of complements are studied. We prove De Morgan’s laws concerning top complements and for bottom complements for N-soft sets where N is fixed and provide a counterexample to show that De Morgan’s laws do not hold if we take different N. Then, we study different collections of N-soft sets which become idempotent commutative monoids and consequently show, that, these monoids give rise to hemirings of N-soft sets. Some of these hemirings are turned out as lattices. Finally, we show that the collection of all N-soft sets with full parameter set E and collection of all N-soft sets with parameter subset A are Stone Algebras. The second objective is to integrate the well-known technique of TOPSIS and N-soft set-based mathematical models from the real world. We discuss a hybrid model of multi-criteria decision-making combining the TOPSIS and N-soft sets and present an algorithm with implementation on the selection of the best model of laptop.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 956
Author(s):  
Florian Mouret ◽  
Mohanad Albughdadi ◽  
Sylvie Duthoit ◽  
Denis Kouamé ◽  
Guillaume Rieu ◽  
...  

This paper studies the detection of anomalous crop development at the parcel-level based on an unsupervised outlier detection technique. The experimental validation is conducted on rapeseed and wheat parcels located in Beauce (France). The proposed methodology consists of four sequential steps: (1) preprocessing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and multispectral images acquired using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, (2) extraction of SAR and multispectral pixel-level features, (3) computation of parcel-level features using zonal statistics and (4) outlier detection. The different types of anomalies that can affect the studied crops are analyzed and described. The different factors that can influence the outlier detection results are investigated with a particular attention devoted to the synergy between Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Overall, the best performance is obtained when using jointly a selection of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 features with the isolation forest algorithm. The selected features are co-polarized (VV) and cross-polarized (VH) backscattering coefficients for Sentinel-1 and five Vegetation Indexes for Sentinel-2 (among us, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and two variants of the Normalized Difference Water). When using these features with an outlier ratio of 10%, the percentage of detected true positives (i.e., crop anomalies) is equal to 94.1% for rapeseed parcels and 95.5% for wheat parcels.


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