Through the prototypes of through: A corpus-based cognitive analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Gaëtanelle Gilquin ◽  
Andrew McMichael
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Cognitive Analysis ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Historical Origin ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
L1 Acquisition

Abstract This paper empirically tests a number of criteria proposed in the literature to identify the prototype of a linguistic category in order to see how they compare with each other - and what this can tell us about the concept of prototypicality. The item under investigation is through, and the starting point is an intuition-based definition of prototypical through. The different criteria are frequency of use, ease of elicitation, historical origin, patterns in L1 acquisition and patterns in L2 use. All instances of through retrieved for testing each of these criteria are classified according to a taxonomy couched in Construction Grammar terms. The findings confirm the special status of the intuition-based prototype of through (the [X moves through Y] construction) according to some of the criteria, but also reveal divergent results, in particular a central use of the instrumental prepositional phrase with through. Conclusions are drawn about the theoretical concept of prototypicality and its possible multi-faceted nature, and more generally about the place of empirical evidence in Cognitive Linguistics.

DEFINIRANJE KONCEPTOV NA PRIMERU VOJAŠKE STRATEGIJE

2018 ◽  
pp. 47-69
Author(s):  
PAVEL VUK
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Military Strategy ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Concept Definition ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Mental Constructs

Povzetek Koncepti ali pojmi kot miselni konstrukti realnega sveta so temeljni sestavni elementi teorij, v katerih so prisotni skozi svoje definicije. Bolj enoznačno in jasno so definirani, bolj nedvoumne so komunikacija med znanstveniki in raziskovalci, opredelitev oziroma zamejitev področja raziskovanja ter konceptualizacija oziroma razčlenitev teoretskega pojma ali koncepta. V prispevku smo tako definiranje koncepta izvedli na primeru vojaške strategije. Metodološki okvir za definiranje koncepta vojaške strategije temelji na Sartorijevi metodi analiziranja konceptov in Goertzevi metodi dodajanja oziroma odvzemanja pridevnikov konceptu. Z analitičnim pristopom razvitja definicije vojaške strategije smo spoznali, da lahko tudi v vojaškem slovenskem pomenoslovju bistveno pripomoremo k omejitvi tako količinske kot tudi kakovostne raznolikosti vojaških terminov, ki se pogostokrat brez jasne konotacije pojavljajo in uporabljajo v strokovnih in znanstvenih delih. Empirični koncept je lahko tudi dobro izhodišče za nadaljnje razmišljanje o smotrnosti pristopa k morebitnemu oblikovanju vojaške strategije v slovenskem prostoru. Ključne besede: koncept, strategija, vojaška strategija. Abstract Concepts as mental constructs of the real world are the fundamental components of theories where they are present through their definitions. The more the concepts are unambiguously and clearly defined, the more explicit are the communication between scientists and researchers, the definition or limitation of the object of research, and the conceptualization or analysis of the theoretical concept. In the article, we used the concept definition in the case of a military strategy. The methodological framework for defining the concept of a military strategy is based on Sartori's method of concept analysis and Goertz’s method of attaching or removing adjectives to and from the concept. With the analytical approach to the development of the definition of a military strategy, we found that in the Slovenian military semantics, too, we can significantly contribute to the limitation of both quantitative and qualitative diversity of military terms, which often appear and are used in professional and scientific works without clear connotations. The empirical concept can also serve as a good starting point for further reflection on the rationality of the approach to the possible formation of a military strategy in the Republic of Slovenia. Key words: Concept, strategy, military strategy.

scholarly journals Against arbitrariness: An alternative approach towards motivation of the sign

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-31
Author(s):  
Hubert Kowalewski
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
General Definition ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Peircean Semiotics

The aim of the article is to propose an account of the motivated nature of the sign, with special attention devoted to motivation in language. The starting point for the discussion is a cursory critique of the classic Saussurean model of arbitrariness and motivation. The account proposed in this article is in the spirit of broadly understood cognitive linguistics and Peircean semiotics. The model of motivation is comprehensive and specific. It is comprehensive in the sense that it provides a general definition of the term “motivation,” which attempts to cover all instances of its use discussed in modern semiotics. The model is specific in the sense that it proposes parameters of motivation, which allow for investigating different facets of the phenomenon. The article includes case studies which illustrate how the approach can used in actual analysis of semiotic data.

Holism, Chinese Medicine and Systems Ideologies: Rewriting the Past to Imagine the Future

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Scheid
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Medical Humanities ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
Shared Objective ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.

‘[T]his world is now thy pilgrimage’: William Michael Rossetti's Cognitive Maps of France and Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-99
Author(s):  
Eleonora Sasso
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Venice Lagoon ◽  
Cognitive Map ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Mental Picture ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Cognitive Semantic ◽  
St Helena

This paper takes as its starting point the conceptual metaphor ‘life is a journey’ as defined by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) in order to advance a new reading of William Michael Rossetti's Democratic Sonnets (1907). These political verses may be defined as cognitive-semantic poems, which attest to the centrality of travel in the creation of literary and artistic meaning. Rossetti's Democratic Sonnets is not only a political manifesto against tyranny and oppression, promoting the struggle for liberalism and democracy as embodied by historical figures such as Napoleon, Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi; but it also reproduces Rossetti's real and imagined journeys throughout Europe in the late nineteenth century. This essay examines these references in light of the issues they raise, especially the poet as a traveller and the journey metaphor in poetry. But its central purpose is to re-read Democratic Sonnets as a cognitive map of Rossetti's mental picture of France and Italy. A cognitive map, first theorised by Edward Tolman in the 1940s, is a very personal representation of the environment that we all experience, serving to navigate unfamiliar territory, give direction, and recall information. In terms of cognitive linguistics, Rossetti is a figure whose path is determined by French and Italian landmarks (Paris, the island of St. Helena, the Alps, the Venice Lagoon, Mount Vesuvius, and so forth), which function as reference points for orientation and are tied to the historical events of the Italian Risorgimento. Through his sonnets, Rossetti attempts to build into his work the kind of poetic revolution and sense of history which may only be achieved through encounters with other cultures.

Our words matter: acceptability, grammaticality, and ethics of research on singular 'they'-type pronouns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Marie Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Singular Form ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Ethics Of Research ◽  
Formal Properties

Until now, there has been little experimental work investigating the processing and formal properties of the singular they suite of pronouns. As scientific and popular attention to singular they increases, it will be critical for research to acknowledge theoretical and ethical issues regarding discussion of this phenomenon. This commentary uses the recent paper by Doherty & Conklin (2017) as a starting point to discuss issues surrounding work on the various forms of singular they. It concludes that there is sufficient theoretical and empirical evidence to claim they has a grammatically singular form (at least in colloquial English). It also recommends care be taken in academic discussions of the grammaticality and acceptability of terms which are associated with marginalised communities.

scholarly journals What is Salience?

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 713-722
Author(s):  
Vincent Boswijk ◽  
Matt Coler
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractA commonly used concept in linguistics is salience. Oftentimes it is used without definition, and the meaning of the concept is repeatedly assumed to be self-explanatory. The definitions that are provided may vary greatly from one operationalization of salience to the next. In order to find out whether it is possible to postulate an overarching working definition of linguistic salience that subsumes usage across linguistic subdomains, we review these different operationalizations of linguistic salience. This article focuses on salience in sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, second-language acquisition (SLA), and semantics. In this article, we give an overview of how these fields operationalize salience. Finally, we discuss correlations and contradictions between the different operationalizations.

scholarly journals Beneficial and harmful explanatory machine learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lun Ai ◽  
Stephen H. Muggleton ◽  
Céline Hocquette ◽  
Mark Gromowski ◽  
Ute Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Human Learning ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Self Learning

AbstractGiven the recent successes of Deep Learning in AI there has been increased interest in the role and need for explanations in machine learned theories. A distinct notion in this context is that of Michie’s definition of ultra-strong machine learning (USML). USML is demonstrated by a measurable increase in human performance of a task following provision to the human of a symbolic machine learned theory for task performance. A recent paper demonstrates the beneficial effect of a machine learned logic theory for a classification task, yet no existing work to our knowledge has examined the potential harmfulness of machine’s involvement for human comprehension during learning. This paper investigates the explanatory effects of a machine learned theory in the context of simple two person games and proposes a framework for identifying the harmfulness of machine explanations based on the Cognitive Science literature. The approach involves a cognitive window consisting of two quantifiable bounds and it is supported by empirical evidence collected from human trials. Our quantitative and qualitative results indicate that human learning aided by a symbolic machine learned theory which satisfies a cognitive window has achieved significantly higher performance than human self learning. Results also demonstrate that human learning aided by a symbolic machine learned theory that fails to satisfy this window leads to significantly worse performance than unaided human learning.

Digital competences of the workforce – a research topic?

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 721-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Murawski ◽  
Markus Bick
Keyword(s):  
Research Topic ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Digital Competence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Considering working in the digital age, questions on the consequences for the individual workers are, so far, often neglected. The purpose of this paper is to deal with the question of whether the digital competences of the workforce is a research topic. The authors argue for the thesis that it is indeed a research topic. Design/methodology/approach In addition to a literature analysis of the top IS, HR, and learning publications, non-scientific sources, as well as the opinions of the authors, are included. The authors’ thesis is challenged through a debate of corresponding pros and cons. Findings The definition of digital competences lacks scientific depth. Focussing on the workforce is valid, as a “lifelong” perspective is not mandatory for research. Digital competence research is a multidisciplinary task to which the IS field can make a valuable contribution. Research limitations/implications Although relevant references are included, some aspects are mainly driven by the opinions of the authors. The theoretical implications encompass a call for a scientific definition of digital competences. Furthermore, scholars should focus on the competences of the workforce, including occupations, roles, or industries. The authors conclude by providing a first proposal of a research agenda. Practical implications The practical implications include the alignment of multiple stakeholders for the design of “digital” curricula and the integration by HR departments of the construct of digital competences, e.g. for compensation matters and job requirements. Originality/value This paper is one of very few contributions in the area of the digital competences of the workforce, and it presents a starting point for future research activities.

On the Description and Definition of Human Factors/Ergonomics

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (10) ◽  
pp. 671-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Wogalter ◽  
Peter A. Hancock ◽  
Patrick G. Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
Human Factors ◽  
Engineering Science ◽  
Human Factors Engineering ◽  
Lay Persons ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Technical Report ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Engineering Psychology

This work examines the terms most frequently used to describe our field, which has variously been named Ergonomics, Human Factors, Human Factors Engineering, and Engineering Psychology. A large number of definitions were collected, including those assembled in an earlier technical report by Licht, Polzella, and Boff (1990). First, the definitions were stripped of connector words. Second, the prefix root terms that had the same meaning were combined and third, the words were tabulated and sorted to reveal the content terms most frequently employed. These data may be used to develop core, concise definitions or longer more expository descriptions of the field. The list of terms could also be used as a starting point for the development of definitions oriented for different target audiences (e.g., lay persons vs. other engineering/science experts) as a method of disseminating information concerning what we do.

scholarly journals A History of Fluid Management—From “One Size Fits All” to an Individualized Fluid Therapy in Burn Resuscitation

Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Dorothee Boehm ◽  
Henrik Menke
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Therapy ◽  
Point Of Care ◽  
Fluid Management ◽  
Point Of Care Ultrasound ◽  
Burn Patients ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Burn Resuscitation

Fluid management is a cornerstone in the treatment of burns and, thus, many different formulas were tested for their ability to match the fluid requirements for an adequate resuscitation. Thereof, the Parkland-Baxter formula, first introduced in 1968, is still widely used since then. Though using nearly the same formula to start off, the definition of normovolemia and how to determine the volume status of burn patients has changed dramatically over years. In first instance, the invention of the transpulmonary thermodilution (TTD) enabled an early goal directed fluid therapy with acceptable invasiveness. Furthermore, the introduction of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) has triggered more individualized schemes of fluid therapy. This article explores the historical developments in the field of burn resuscitation, presenting different options to determine the fluid requirements without missing the red flags for hyper- or hypovolemia. Furthermore, the increasing rate of co-morbidities in burn patients calls for a more sophisticated fluid management adjusting the fluid therapy to the actual necessities very closely. Therefore, formulas might be used as a starting point, but further fluid therapy should be adjusted to the actual need of every single patient. Taking the developments in the field of individualized therapies in intensive care in general into account, fluid management in burn resuscitation will also be individualized in the near future.

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