Language change as a scientific construct of a probabilistically organized information system

Glottotheory ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike U. Decker
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Probability Distribution ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Collective Levels

AbstractThe present paper discusses language change from an information and systems theoretical point of view, taking on a diachronic perspective. It is argued that human language has to be regarded as a probabilistically organized information system in which synchronizations of linguistic systems of individuals create unstable (dynamic, ever-changing) collective levels (“language systems”). Therefore, probabilistic organization of language processing on an individual level leads – via bottom-up structure – to probabilistic organization of language systems as a whole. If we thus regard linguistic objects like e.g. a Saussurean sign as generally unstable and defined by probability distributions even from a synchronic point of view, we must understand language change (diachronic developments) as probabilistic as well. Therefore, language change in its “classical sense” (a change in linguistic objects) has to be reinterpreted as a change in probability distribution. Nevertheless, the term language change and its meaning then still lack exactness regarding some details; so we have to use this term carefully and be aware of its weaknesses. With a close look at language as an information system with both a synchronic as well as a diachronic dimension, we finally have to admit that language change is a scientific construct serving as a – sometimes quite useful – simplification within the linguistic field.

scholarly journals Individual-Level and Population-Level Lateralization: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Symmetry ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Frasnelli ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategy ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable Strategies ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Social Species ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Evolutionarily Stable

Lateralization, i.e., the different functional roles played by the left and right sides of the brain, is expressed in two main ways: (1) in single individuals, regardless of a common direction (bias) in the population (aka individual-level lateralization); or (2) in single individuals and in the same direction in most of them, so that the population is biased (aka population-level lateralization). Indeed, lateralization often occurs at the population-level, with 60–90% of individuals showing the same direction (right or left) of bias, depending on species and tasks. It is usually maintained that lateralization can increase the brain’s efficiency. However, this may explain individual-level lateralization, but not population-level lateralization, for individual brain efficiency is unrelated to the direction of the asymmetry in other individuals. From a theoretical point of view, a possible explanation for population-level lateralization is that it may reflect an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) that can develop when individually asymmetrical organisms are under specific selective pressures to coordinate their behavior with that of other asymmetrical organisms. This prediction has been sometimes misunderstood as it is equated with the idea that population-level lateralization should only be present in social species. However, population-level asymmetries have been observed in aggressive and mating displays in so-called “solitary” insects, suggesting that engagement in specific inter-individual interactions rather than “sociality” per se may promote population-level lateralization. Here, we clarify that the nature of inter-individuals interaction can generate evolutionarily stable strategies of lateralization at the individual- or population-level, depending on ecological contexts, showing that individual-level and population-level lateralization should be considered as two aspects of the same continuum.

Élaboration d’outils méthodologiques pour décrire les prédicats du français

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aude Grezka ◽  
Pierre-André Buvet
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Satisfactory Description

A satisfactory description of the predicates from the theoretical point of view is necessary when elaborating electronic dictionaries meant for natural language processing. We focus on the methodology and descriptors we use within the framework of the classes of objects. At the same time, we put forward complementary descriptors so as to deal with predicative polysemy. Our analysis is illustrated by means of perception predicates.

scholarly journals No clear association emerges between intergenerational relationships and COVID-19 fatality rates from macro-level analyses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Arpino ◽  
Valeria Bordone ◽  
Marta Pasqualini
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Intergenerational Ties ◽  
Robust Evidence

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, originated in Wuhan (China) at the end of 2019, rapidly spread in more than 100 countries. Researchers in different fields have been working on finding explanations for the unequal impact of the virus, and deaths from the associated disease (COVID-19), in different geographical areas. Demographers and other social scientists, have hinted at the importance of demographic factors, such as age structure and intergenerational relationships. The goal of this article is to reflect on the possible link between intergenerational relationships and COVID-19 cases in a critical way. We show that with available aggregate data it is not possible to draw robust evidence to support such a link. In fact, at the country-level higher prevalence of intergenerational co-residence and contacts is broadly positively associated with number of COVID-19 cases (per 100,000 persons), but the opposite is generally true at the sub-national level. While this inconsistent evidence neither demonstrates the existence nor the inexistence of a causal link between intergenerational relationships and the prevalence of COVID-19 cases, we warn against simplistic interpretations of the available data which suffer from many shortcomings. Only retrospective individual level data will provide robust evidence on the role of intergenerational ties. We conclude arguing that intergenerational relationships are not only about physical contacts between family members. From a theoretical point of view, different forms of intergenerational relationships may have causal effects of opposite sign on the diffusion of COVID-19. Policies devoted at fighting the spread of COVID-19 should also take into account that intergenerational ties are a source of instrumental and emotional support, which may favor compliance to the lockdown and “phase-2” restrictions and may buffer their negative consequences on mental health.

scholarly journals Neutral change

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENRI KAUHANEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Random Drift ◽  
Language Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Demographic Noise ◽  
Theories Of Change

Language change is neutral if the probability of a language learner adopting any given linguistic variant only depends on the frequency of that variant in the learner’s environment. Ruling out non-neutral motivations of change, be they sociolinguistic, computational, articulatory or functional, a theory of neutral change insists that at least some instances of language change are essentially due to random drift, demographic noise and the social dynamics of finite populations; consequently, it has remained little investigated in the historical and sociolinguistics literature, which has generally been on the lookout for more substantial causes of change. Indeed, recent computational studies have argued that a neutral mechanism cannot give rise to ‘well-behaved’ time series of change which would align with historical data, for instance to generate S-curves. In this paper, I point out a methodological shortcoming of those studies and introduce a mathematical model of neutral change which represents the language community as a dynamic, evolving network of speakers. With computer simulations and a quantitative operationalization of what it means for change to be well-behaved, I show that this model exhibits well-behaved neutral change provided that the language community is suitably clusterized. Thus, neutral change is not only possible but is in fact a characteristic emergent property of a class of social networks. From a theoretical point of view, this finding implies that neutral theories of change deserve more (serious) consideration than they have traditionally received in diachronic and variationist linguistics. Methodologically, it urges that if change is to be successfully modelled, some of the traditional idealizing assumptions employed in much mathematical modelling must be done away with.

Non-movement-based approaches

2020 ◽  
pp. 156-202
Author(s):  
Rui P. Chaves ◽  
Michael T. Putnam
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Models ◽  
Sentence Structure ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Unbounded Dependency

This chapter compares movement-based conceptions of grammar and of unbounded dependency constructions with their construction- and non-movement-based antithesis. In particular, the focus of this chapter is on how unification and construction-based grammar provides not only a better handle on the phenomena than the MP from a linguistic perspective, but also from a psycholinguistic point of view. The flexibility of non-movement-based accounts allows a much wider and much more complex array of unbounded dependency patterns because it rejects the basic idea that extracted phrases start out as being embedded in sentence structure, and instead views the propagation of all information in sentence structure as a local and distributed (featural) process. The grammatical theory discussed in this chapter is also more consistent with extant models of human language processing than the MP, and demonstrably allows for efficient incremental and probabilistic language models of both comprehension and production.

scholarly journals Ensaio de operacionalização de Indicadores de Desenvolvimento Sustentável por modelação geográfica

Finisterra ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (75) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Morgado
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Information System ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Sustainable Development Indicators ◽  
Development Concept ◽  
Geographic Modeling

PRACTICE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS BY GEOGRAPHIC MODELING. This article presents a proposal of how to put in practice the concept of sustainable development - that as been strictly seeing in a theoretical point of view, as well a tribune speech and with very imprecise conceptual boundaries – supported by the use of Geographic Information System (GIS). The exercise mentioned here it’s only the technical part of a more extensive project, it could be resume in three steps: 1) research – definition and enlightening of sustainable development concept, indicators definition, determination of theorist and methodological frame. 2) practice – identification and acquisition of important information, editing and validating information, creating a GIS project, definition and construction of sustainable development indicators, adaptation and conception of geographic model. 3) Analysis – collect and interpretation of geographic model results by confronting it to some theories claimed by important researchers. For the exercise setting up, as well to develop the conceptual methodology of casual model, GIS as been a fundamental instrument to acquire, integrate, manipulate, manage and visualize geographic information

In Search of a Human Language Processing System

1985 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 529-531
Author(s):  
Patrick Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Human Language

Timber Auctions in the Context of the Modern Auction Theory

2007 ◽  
pp. 86-94
Author(s):  
A. Manakov
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Auction Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
English Auction ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation

The article provides theoretical analysis and evaluation of the timber auctions reforms in Russia. The author shows that the mechanism of the "combined auctions", which functioned until recently, is more appropriate from the theoretical point of view (and from the point of view of the Russian practice) as compared to the officially approved format of the English auction.

A novel cryptosystem based on abstract automata and Latin cubes

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-232
Author(s):  
Pál Dömösi ◽  
Géza Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Block Cipher ◽  
Finite Automata ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Transition Matrices ◽  
Encryption And Decryption ◽  
Secret Keys ◽  
Automata Network ◽  
Fully Functioning

In this paper we introduce a novel block cipher based on the composition of abstract finite automata and Latin cubes. For information encryption and decryption the apparatus uses the same secret keys, which consist of key-automata based on composition of abstract finite automata such that the transition matrices of the component automata form Latin cubes. The aim of the paper is to show the essence of our algorithms not only for specialists working in compositions of abstract automata but also for all researchers interested in cryptosystems. Therefore, automata theoretical background of our results is not emphasized. The introduced cryptosystem is important also from a theoretical point of view, because it is the first fully functioning block cipher based on automata network.

Graffiti als Version und Subversion–Praxen kultureller Re-Regulierung und die Möglichkeit von Gratiforschung

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Dollinger
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Wird Eine ◽  
Multiple Perspectives

Der Beitrag geht von Versuchen aus, integrative Perspektiven einer überaus heterogenen Graffitiforschung zu bestimmen. In Auseinandersetzung insbesondere mit Bruno Latours Ansatz des »Iconoclash« wird eine kulturtheoretische Referenz bestimmt, die Graffiti als Version identifiziert, d. h. als semiotisch orientierte Veränderung räumlich situierter Ordnungs- und Regulierungspraxen. Ihnen kann, wenn auch nicht zwingend, eine subversive Qualität zukommen. Durch die Ausrichtung am Konzept einer Version wird beansprucht, Forderungen einer normativ weitgehend abstinenten, nicht-essentialistischen und für komplexe Fragen der Identitäts- und Raumpolitik offenen Forschungspraxis einzulösen.<br><br>The contribution attempts to integrate multiple perspectives of current largely heterogeneous graffiti scholarship. Referring to Bruno Latour’s concept »iconoclash«, we discuss graffiti from a cultural-theoretical point of view as a »version«. It appears as a semiotically oriented modification of spatially situated practices that regulate social life. Often, but not necessarily, these practices involve subversive qualities. The concept of »version« facilitates a non-normative and non-essentialist strategy of research. This enables an explorative research practice in which the complex matters of identity and space politics that are associated with graffiti can be addressed.

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