scholarly journals Extreme classification

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Fedden ◽  
Greville G. Corbett
Keyword(s):  
Classification Systems ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Lexical Structure ◽  
Category Assignment ◽  
Great Progress ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
And Linguistics

AbstractCategorization retains its key importance in research on human cognition. It is an intellectual area where all disciplines devoted to human cognition – psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and linguistics – intersect. In language, categorization is not only a central part of lexical structure but is also salient in systems of nominal classification, notably gender and classifiers. Recent years have seen great progress in the description and analysis of nominal classification systems, so that we are now in a position to offer an account of such systems which brings cognition and typology together, providing the essential parameters for the calibration of experiments for investigating cognition. To this end, we establish the extremes of nominal classification systems, from the surprisingly simple to the surprisingly complex. We analyse the two essential components of nominal classification systems: (i) assignment, i.e. the principles (semantic or formal) which govern category assignment and (ii) exponence, i.e. the morphological means by which systems of nominal classification are expressed. We discuss extreme configurations of assignment and exponence in individual languages and extreme multiple pairings of assignment and exponence in languages with two or even more concurrent classification systems.

Resource-rational analysis: Understanding human cognition as the optimal use of limited computational resources

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Falk Lieder ◽  
Thomas L. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Cognitive Modeling ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Architectures ◽  
Rational Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Rational Models ◽  
And Linguistics

Abstract Modeling human cognition is challenging because there are infinitely many mechanisms that can generate any given observation. Some researchers address this by constraining the hypothesis space through assumptions about what the human mind can and cannot do, while others constrain it through principles of rationality and adaptation. Recent work in economics, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics has begun to integrate both approaches by augmenting rational models with cognitive constraints, incorporating rational principles into cognitive architectures, and applying optimality principles to understanding neural representations. We identify the rational use of limited resources as a unifying principle underlying these diverse approaches, expressing it in a new cognitive modeling paradigm called resource-rational analysis. The integration of rational principles with realistic cognitive constraints makes resource-rational analysis a promising framework for reverse-engineering cognitive mechanisms and representations. It has already shed new light on the debate about human rationality and can be leveraged to revisit classic questions of cognitive psychology within a principled computational framework. We demonstrate that resource-rational models can reconcile the mind's most impressive cognitive skills with people's ostensive irrationality. Resource-rational analysis also provides a new way to connect psychological theory more deeply with artificial intelligence, economics, neuroscience, and linguistics.

Canonical gender

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
GREVILLE G. CORBETT ◽  
SEBASTIAN FEDDEN
Keyword(s):  
Classification Systems ◽  
Single Type ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Single Gender ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
The World ◽  
Canonical Ideal ◽  
Typological Approach ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Gender System

Nominal classification remains a fascinating topic but in order to make further progress we need greater clarity of definition and analysis. Taking a Canonical Typology approach, we use canonical gender as an ideal against which we can measure the actual gender systems we find in the languages of the world. Building on previous work on canonical morphosyntactic features, particularly on how they intersect with canonical parts of speech, we establish the distinctiveness of gender, reflected in the Canonical Gender Principle: In a canonical gender system, each noun has a single gender value. We develop three criteria associated with this principle, which together ensure that canonically a noun has exactly one gender value; we give examples of non-canonicity for each criterion, thus gradually building the typology. This is the essential groundwork for a comprehensive typology of nominal classification: the Canonical Typological approach allows us to tease apart clusterings of properties and to characterize individual properties with respect to a canonical ideal, rather than requiring us to treat the entire system as belonging to a single type. This approach is designed to facilitate comparisons of different noun classification systems across languages.

scholarly journals Single versus concurrent systems: Nominal classification in Mian

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greville G. Corbett ◽  
Sebastian Fedden ◽  
Raphael Finkel
Keyword(s):  
Concurrent Systems ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Single System ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Canonical Approach ◽  
Precise Measure ◽  
Semantic Compositionality ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Single Versus

AbstractThe Papuan language Mian allows us to refine the typology of nominal classification. Mian has two candidate classification systems, differing completely in their formal realization but overlapping considerably in their semantics. To determine whether to analyse Mian as a single system or concurrent systems we adopt a canonical approach. Our criteria – orthogonality of the systems (we give a precise measure), semantic compositionality, morphosyntactic alignment, distribution across parts of speech, exponence, and interaction with other features – point mainly to an analysis as concurrent systems. We thus improve our analysis of Mian and make progress with the typology of nominal classification.

scholarly journals Modern Intentions in Lesia Ukrainka’s Drama Cassandra

2021 ◽  
pp. 2-14
Author(s):  
Taras Pastukh
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Diffi Cult ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
The Common ◽  
Real Language ◽  
Personal Interests ◽  
World Development

In her drama Cassandra (1903–1907) Lesia Ukrainka pays considerable attention to language and demonstrates its two defi ning forms and functional paradigms. One of them is language that appeals to the essential components of being. It is language that refl ects human existence in all its acuity and fullness of appearance. This language is complex and diffi cult to understand, but is the only real language of the age of modernism. Another language is superfi cial, appealing not to the depths of life and universal categories, but to temporary human needs and aspirations. Its task is to identify the ways and means of achieving a desired goal. Such language is manipulative, because its speakers tend to hide their personal interests under claims of the common good. Also, in the drama, Lesia Ukrainka innovatively raises a number of questions related to the internal laws of world development, the processes of human cognition, the functioning of language, and the understanding and interpretation of the word. The formulation and presentation of these issues demonstrate the clear modern attitude that the writer professed and embodied in her drama.

scholarly journals Beyond the classifier/gender dichotomy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Singer
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Constructing Meaning ◽  
The Way

The entrenched nature of the gender/classifier dichotomy stands in the way of better typologies of nominal classification. How can we move beyond it to a more integrated view of nominal classification? Looking at a range of kinds of data from the Australian language Mawng, it is clear that our understanding of many less well-known nominal classification systems reflects a lack of data on how the system is used. Mawng has what seems like a well-behaved system of five genders, including gender agreement in the verb. However, the genders, like classifiers, play a crucial role in constructing meaning in discourse, often in the absence of nouns. Nominal classification systems must be contextualized in terms of their roles in constructing meaning in discourse, in order to do them justice in typologies. Greater emphasis on the flexibility of nominal classification systems and less on the role of nouns will also move efforts forward.

scholarly journals Flexible Concepts

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Pecher ◽  
Rolf Antonius Zwaan
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Conceptual System ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Insight Into

This is a commentary on Kemmerer (2016), Categories of object concepts across languages and brains: The relevance of nominal classification systems to Cognitive Neuroscience. The consequences of nominal classification systems for the organization of the conceptual system are consistent with several theories and findings in cognitive psychology. Concepts are flexible; they are categorized in various ways and change across contexts. Languages with nominal classification systems provide an interesting source of data that can give further insight into the mechanisms of flexible concepts.

The Status, Predicament and Countermeasures of Global Ecological Crisis

2013 ◽  
Vol 807-809 ◽  
pp. 835-838
Author(s):  
Li Jiang ◽  
Xiang Lin He ◽  
Erkki Hiltunen
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Development ◽  
Population Expansion ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
Great Progress ◽  
The Status ◽  
Human And Nature

With the rapid development of science and technology, human cognition towards the nature has obtained great progress. They have created abundant wealth and caused serious damage to nature as well. The extent of environmental pollution has never been serious than ever before. Bad behaviors from human have initiated a series of global problems, such as natural resources shortage, ecology imbalance, population expansion, air pollution, water pollution, desertification, species extinction, acid rain, global warming, climate change, and so on. These problems have conversely threatened the existence and development of contemporary human beings and deeply influenced the development of society and its future generations. The aim for this paper is to analyze the roots of ecological crisis and explore the roadmap of harmonious development of human and nature in order to achieve sustainable development.

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