On Phrase Structure building and labeling algorithms: towards a non-uniform theory of syntactic structures

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Gabriel Krivochen

AbstractThis paper argues that the theory of phrase structure a certain linguistic approach assumes implies taking a stance on the formal nature of the computational procedures that generate that phrase structure. We will proceed by critically evaluating theories of phrase structure and labeling -which implies taking a structure as a unit for the purposes of further computations-, and building on and opposing to the proposals we review, we will claim that syntactic objects are not computationally uniform, and therefore the computational system in charge of establishing dependencies between symbolic objects within the mind is not uniform as well. We argue in favor of a linguistic-cognitive model which dynamically chooses different grammars based on the complexity of the input, and is capable of assigning a mixed phrase marker to an object that presents more than one computational pattern. Empirical evidence is provided in favor of our approach to phrase structure building, and further implications for a theory of labeling and predication are discussed as prolegomena to further research.

Author(s):  
Victor Nuovo

Although Locke’s Essay is primarily a discourse in logic, he says enough about the physical nature of things to construct a theory of the nature of things. As a virtuoso, physics replaces metaphysics in his philosophical system. His ontology, however, includes not only bodies, but God and finite spirits, and its major achievement is to prove the existence of God and demonstrate his immateriality. Perhaps encouraged by reading Cudworth, Locke was confident that our faculty of reason is sufficient to refute materialism and atheism. As to the nature of bodies, Locke finds empirical evidence that solidity or impenetrability is their most evident quality. The idea of superaddition is central to Locke’s speculative or divine physics. But although such insights may elevate the mind to God, Locke’s physics is theoretically sterile, although it may have beneficial practical uses.


Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Kurt Feyaerts ◽  
Geertrui Heyvaert

This paper focuses on the way in which small and medium-sized businesses in Flanders adapted communication with their customers during the economic lockdown in March–May 2020. It documents, more specifically, how shops tried to maintain, re-establish, or even re-invent communication with their customers during this two-month period. Based on pictures of shop windows in a Flemish city, we analyze the (semi-)commercial messages that appeared in this setting during this period. This analysis adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, in which a cognitive linguistic approach is integrated with analyses and practical advices by marketing agencies. Despite their orientation towards distinct, theoretical and practical goals, both approaches share an analytical interest in mapping participants and their mutual relationship as part of a communicative interaction. In the period of economic lockdown, marketers urged shop owners to ‘humanize’ their business strategy by downplaying content-related issues in favor of maximal social outreach towards customers. Considering this advice, it was hypothesized that under these circumstances participants in commercial transactions would be construed much more prominently, presenting themselves and each other as unprecedented empathetic business personas. Much of our data comply with this expectation, thus providing empirical evidence of a subjectified communicative ground, in which both buyer and seller personas figure with augmented prominence as parts of the object of conceptualization. Messages include, among other things, expressions of empathy, solidarity, combativity, but also creativity and humor thus incorporating a new type of humanized business communication. With respect to the analysis of marketing strategies, the collected data at the same time instantiate and legitimize marketers’ communication advice about humanizing one’s business exchange.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyu Hu ◽  
Yuting Xu

The economic media discourse depends upon a complex web of metaphors, among which WAR metaphor is worthy of special attention. The data used in this study is comprised of 2566 articles (about 1.2 million words) under the Economy column of China Daily published in 2014. Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) is used as the analytical framework to investigate WAR metaphor in the economic media discourse. This study is governed by the three steps of CMA including metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation and metaphor explanation. The results show that among the selected 62 lemmas, 40 of them have metaphorical instantiations and more than half of all the metaphorical expressions are nouns. Both social resources and individual resources influence metaphor choice. WAR metaphor has the rhetorical function as persuasion, which constructs the cognitive model of competition in the mind of the readers and arouses their emotions; on the other hand, it hides the cooperative principle of economic activities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (122) ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Ihor Vsevolodovych Baklan ◽  
Tetiana Viktorivna Shulkevych

Using a hybrid linguistic approach to model numerical images in the form of time series using probabilistic grammars based on hidden time series and implement information technology to build sets of linguistic models and their hybrids that describe the dynamics of selected time series of processes of different nature.In the article the results of computational experiments are considered, the quality of forecasting of time series of diverse nature at various parameters was proved. The goal of the current research is to provide empirical evidence of the suitability of using a hybrid linguistic approach for predicting time series.Experimental way to find the optimal parameters of the algorithm. The algorithm was applied to a variety of time series (social, medical, financial and economic), calculated the statistical accuracy of the forecast. Experiments have shown that the algorithm consistently performs the forecast of values in a range of 3-4 steps forward and forecasts the trend change by 3-5 steps.


2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard A. Nijstad ◽  
Wolfgang Stroebe

A model called search for ideas in associative memory (SIAM) is proposed to account for various research findings in the area of group idea generation. The model assumes that idea generation is a repeated search for ideas in associative memory, which proceeds in 2 stages (knowledge activation and idea production), and is controlled through negative feedback loops and cognitive failures (trials in which no idea is generated). We show that (a) turn taking (production blocking) interferes with both stages of the process; (b) ideas suggested by others aid the activation of problem-relevant knowledge; and (c) cognitive failures are important determinants of brainstorming persistence, satisfaction, and enjoyment. Implications for group decision making and group recall are discussed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Asael Y. Sklar ◽  
Kentaro Fujita

This chapter presents an analysis of self-control from a motivational perspective, modeling it as the resolution of a conflict between proximal and distal concerns. It briefly reviews “divided-mind” models that suggest that self-control entails competition between opposing elements of the mind, and discusses some of the empirical and conceptual challenges to these conceptual frameworks. The authors then propose an alternative account that addresses these challenges, suggesting that coordination of (rather than competition between) elements of the mind is key to self-control. They review empirical evidence for the new model, and then conclude by outlining some of its implications for future research and theory.


1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-158
Author(s):  
Sonia Colina

Translating by factors (henceforth TBF) is an attempt at systematizing the multiplicity of factors affecting the translation process, in particular those relevant to the translation of the modals between English and German. TBF is an example of the so-called linguistic approach to translation and an illustration of why such an approach has often been criticized by translation scholars and professionals. Although it is useful to linguistics engaged in descriptive and contrastive studies of modals, the predominantly formal, sentence-based, contrastive-analysis approach embraced by the authors (who adopt, without discussion, formal equivalence as the goal to strive for in translation activity) will not be of as much use to those engaged in the teaching and practice of translation for purposes of communication. This is especially true in light of mounting empirical evidence in the translation competence literature that supports functional considerations as a dominant factor in professional translator processes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren Berg Grimstad ◽  
Brita Ramsevik Riksem ◽  
Terje Lohndal ◽  
Tor A Åfarli

Abstract This article presents empirical evidence that disfavors using highly lexicalist minimalist models, such as the one presented in Chomsky (1995), when analyzing language mixing. The data analyzed consist of English – Spanish mixed noun phrases discussed in Moro (2014) as well as English – Norwegian mixed noun phrases and verbs taken from the Corpus of American Norwegian Speech. Whereas the lexicalist model in Chomsky (1995) only can explain a subset of the mixing patterns attested in both authentic English – Spanish mixed noun phrases and the American Norwegian corpus, we show that an alternative exoskeletal model can account for all of them. Such a model would entail that rather than assuming lexical items with inherent, functional features that determine the derivation, syntactic structures are generated independently from the lexical items that come to realize them.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 387-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Mitch Hodge

AbstractThis article presents arguments and evidence that run counter to the widespread assumption among scholars that humans are intuitive Cartesian substance dualists. With regard to afterlife beliefs, the hypothesis of Cartesian substance dualism as the intuitive folk position fails to have the explanatory power with which its proponents endow it. It is argued that the embedded corollary assumptions of the intuitive Cartesian substance dualist position (that the mind and body are different substances, that the mind and soul are intensionally identical, and that the mind is the sole source of identity) are not compatible with cultural representations such as mythologies, funerary rites, iconography and doctrine as well as empirical evidence concerning intuitive folk reasoning about the mind and body concerning the afterlife. Finally, the article suggests an alternative and more parsimonious explanation for understanding intuitive folk representations of the afterlife.


2000 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Granfeldt

This study deals with the acquisition of Functional Categories in the French Determiner Phrase. The development of determiners and prenominal adjectives in three bilingual Swedish–French children is compared with that of four Swedish second language learners of French. It is argued that acquisition is crucially different in these two cases. The bilingual children initially have restrictions on phrase structure, resulting at one stage in a complementary distribution of determiners and adjectives. These results support a structure building view of L1 acquisition. For L2 acquisition of the same structure, there is no evidence for an initially reduced phrase structure. This finding is explained in terms of a transfer effect. A preliminary comparison with the acquisition of finiteness suggests that, whereas there is some correlation over time in the L1B subjects, no such correlation is found in the L2 learners.


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