The ontological turn revisited: Theoretical decline. Why cannot ontologists fulfil their promise?

2021 ◽  
pp. 146349962110506
Author(s):  
Martin Palecek

Holbraad and Pedersen have revisited the ontological turn, suggesting that it is strictly concerned with methodology only. Holbraad goes even further, accepting an aesthetic criterion for ethnography only. This is a sign of theoretical decline. In my paper, I claim that ontologists’ tendency to overestimate the significance of ethnographic experience causes theoretical confusion. I claim that neo-pragmatic analysis can eliminate this confusion. I also argue that there is only one remaining issue from the ontological turn that is not entirely lost. A careful evaluation of all folk categories, with all its possible consequences, can boost the robustness of all competitive theories, Cognitive Evolutionary Science included.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan DeVore

This article analyzes ritualized prescriptions for harvesting oleoresin or “oil” from the copaíba tree in Brazil. These harvesting prescriptions involve increasingly complex attributions of mind to the copaíba tree itself. The copaíba tree is widespread throughout the Americas, and for centuries has been well-known for the medicinal oil that can be extracted from its trunk. In Brazil, contemporary knowledge of the copaíba tree is bound up with colonial history and what were often destructive extractivist economies. Whereas historical accounts of the copaíba tree are often limited to mechanistic descriptions for extracting oil, this article examines attributions of mind that harvesters make to the copaíba tree. These attributions can be read from procedures for extracting oil. Such procedures are concerned with moon cycles, tree marking, sexual activity, and gaze. The article shows that such prescriptions have a wide transregional and interethnic distribution, from the Amazon Basin in northern Brazil to the Atlantic Forest on Bahia’s southern coast. New evidence from southern Bahia also involves prescriptions concerning speech and naming, which presuppose that the copaíba tree is sensitive to intentionality and human language. These mind attributions are inferred through pragmatic analysis of the (ontological) presuppositions that are embedded by harvesting prescriptions. The contribution concludes with reflections on the implications of this presuppositional analytic approach for debates concerned with animism and the “ontological turn.”


1976 ◽  
Vol 35 (03) ◽  
pp. 553-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Allain

SummaryTwo important factors concerning the management of hemophilia in France are considered.The supply of factors VIII and IX for replacement therapy meets the current demand but as the demand increases with the development of self-infusion programs, the production will also have to increase. This can only be done through more effective use of all of the blood components and will require careful evaluation of the needs of each patient.Programs which teach self-infusion and the other aspects of home care are gradually allowing the hemophiliac and his family better understanding of the disease. These programs are developing slowly in France but must be expanded to improve the general care of all French hemophiliacs.


2016 ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
Razzaq Nayif Mukheef ◽  
Ibtihal Abdul-Aziz Yousif
Keyword(s):  

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-315
Author(s):  
Juraj Dolník

Abstract Asking first about how the lexical meaning manifests itself as we experience it in a communicative event, the author explores the background of the ways in which we are able to perceive the meaning of words in texts. One useful way of thinking about how recipients react to the words in utterances is in terms of behavioural and actional lexical meaning. The first refers to the understanding of meaning, the second corresponds to interpretations of words when the recipient does not succeed in the process of natural understanding of words. These terms lead to questions about the rationality of language. One aspect of this rationality is the function of the intentional­emergent mechanism that adjusts the interplay of automatic and deliberate use of language. This mechanism has its roots in the fundamental human nature: we are behavioural­actional beings. Pragmatic analysis sheds light on how hearers understand and interpret what they hear with regard to their conceptual knowledge associated with words.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-81
Author(s):  
Sayyora Azimova ◽  

This article is devoted to the pragmatic interpretation of the illocutionary action of the speech act “expression of refusals”. The article discusses different ways of reflecting cases of denial. This article was written not only for English language professionals, but also for use in aggressive conflicts and their pragmatic resolution, which naturally occur in the process of communication in all other languages


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-231
Author(s):  
Sayyora Azimova ◽  

This article is devoted to the pragmatic interpretation of the illocutionary action of the speech act“expression of refusals”. The article discusses different ways of reflecting cases of denial. This article was written not only for English language professionals, but also for use in aggressive conflicts and their pragmatic resolution, which naturally occur in the process of communication in all other languages


2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-306
Author(s):  
Lorena Núñez Pinero

This paper offers a pragmatic analysis of a rarely used construction in Classical Spanish: an emphatic comparison of equality with optative illocution A comparative sentence such as Así me ayude Dios como fue buena mi intención (’May God help me just as my intention was good‘) is used for emphasizing the assertion fue buena mi intención (’my intention was good‘) This construction is probably a Latinism It occurs in Latin, especially in Plautus and Terence, and is mostly attested in Spanish in humanistic comedy and in the Celestinesque tradition of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries The first member of the construction is interpreted at the pragmatic level as a reinforcer of the illocutionary force of the comparative construction as a whole, which expresses an indirect assertive speech act Speakers perform this type of act by satisfying its sincerity condition: they believe that the event of the second member is true, because if it were not, they would run a risk, i.e. the optative would entail a curse for themselves By contrast, when the event is true, the optative entails a good wish for themselves This paper also analyzes how the pragmatic properties of the construction are reflected in its semantic and morphosyntactic properties


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 135-142
Author(s):  
E. Görgün ◽  
N. Artan ◽  
D. Orhon ◽  
R. Tasli

Effective nitrogen removal is now required to protect water quality in sensitive coastal areas. This involves a much more difficult treatment process than for conventional domestic sewage as wastewater quantity and quality exhibits severe fluctuations in touristic zones. Activated sludge is currently the most widely used wastewater treatment and may be upgraded as a predenitrification system for nitrogen removal. Interpretation of nitrification and denitrification kinetics reveal a number of useful correlations between significant parameters such as sludge age, C/N ratio, hydraulic retention time, total influent COD. Nitrogen removal potential of predenitrification may be optimized by careful evaluation of wastewater character and the kinetic correlations.


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