scholarly journals The Entropy of Words—Learnability and Expressivity across More Than 1000 Languages

Author(s):  
Christian Bentz ◽  
Dimitrios Alikaniotis ◽  
Michael Cysouw ◽  
Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho

The choice associated with words is a fundamental property of natural languages. It lies at the heart of quantitative linguistics, computational linguistics, and language sciences more generally. Information-theory gives us tools at hand to measure precisely the average amount of choice associated with words—the word entropy. Here we use three parallel corpora—encompassing ca. 450 million words in 1916 texts and 1259 languages—to tackle some of the major conceptual and practical problems of word entropy estimation: dependence on text size, register, style and estimation method, as well as non-independence of words in co-text. We present three main results: 1) a text size of 50K tokens is sufficient for word entropies to stabilize throughout the text, 2) across languages of the world, word entropies display a unimodal distribution that is skewed to the right. This suggests that there is a trade-off between the learnability and expressivity of words across languages of the world. 3) There is a strong linear relationship between unigram entropies and entropy rates, suggesting that they are inherently linked. We discuss the implications of these results for studying the diversity and evolution of languages from an information-theoretic point of view.

Utilitas ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McNaughton ◽  
Piers Rawling

In recent years the distinction between agent-relative and agent-neutral reasons has been taken by many to play a key role in distinguishing deontology from consequentialism. It is central to all universalist consequentialist theories that value is determined impersonally; the real value of any state of affairs does not depend on the point of view of the agent. No reference, therefore, to the agent or to his or her position in the world need enter into a consequentialist understanding of what makes an action right or wrong or morally permissible. Consequentialism thus provides an agent-neutral account of both the right and the good.


1985 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-91
Author(s):  
William Michelsen

Grundtvig TodayThe Land of the Living, 1984. Edited by Flemming Ettrup and Johannes H. Christensen.Reviewed by William MichelsenThe main content of this book is a series of lectures given at Skovshoved Church in Copenhagen in 1983. It is published by the Danish Library Society and contains important contributions to the current debate on Grundtvig. This is particularly true of the three lectures by the three professors, Christian Thodberg, Leif Grane and Aage Henriksen. Thodberg discovers the background for the poem The Land of the Living in Grundtvig’s sermons and biblical poetry. Leif Grane applies a present-day theological point of view to defend Grundtvig’s standpoint in The Church’s Retort (Kirkens Gienm.le), while Aage Henriksen maintains that Grundtvig himself cannot be bounded by the world of ideas represented by the Church. He is answered by Ejvind Larsen, and adds a “preliminary” reply himself.The reviewer points out that Aage Henriksen’s lecture was also given in a Danish church, and that the Danish Church is more open than most, thanks not least to Grundtvig’s great contribution to Church freedom from 1832 onwards. His greatness lies in the fact that at one and the same time he maintained the sharp distinction between Christianity and non-Christianity and the right for people of a different persuasion to speak with the same freedom as he himself and every other Christian.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1381
Author(s):  
Jagoda Żurek ◽  
Mariusz Rudy ◽  
Magdalena Kachel ◽  
Stanisław Rudy

Social pressure on increased protection and welfare of animals results mainly from the initiative of people living in the urbanized parts of the world. The respect for the right to freedom of religion, which is indisputably one of the fundamental liberal rights, must be taken into account. The right to freedom to religion also includes the right to follow a religion’s dietary recommendations. The aim of the literature analysis was to systematize the knowledge on the ethical aspects and quality of meat obtained from carcasses of animals subjected to conventional and ritual slaughter. Consistent with the importance of ritual slaughter for humans of two major faiths (Islam and Judaism), it is important that scientists be objective when evaluating these practices from an animal welfare and meat quality point of view. To evaluate the welfare of the slaughtered animal, it is necessary to openly discuss ritual slaughter and the improvement of its methods. The quality of meat and the degree of bleeding of animals do not always correlate with the ritual slaughter method used.


Author(s):  
Denis Jamet ◽  
Adeline Terry

Manipulation implies a conscious choice from speakers to trigger a change of opinion in the interlocutors and to make them accept their own point of view, i.e. their own vision of the world. As pointed out by Goatly [2007], Charteris-Black [2005, 2014] or Van Dijk [1998], metaphors can be used as manipulative tools. Metaphors have traditionally been considered as figures of speech used by rhetoricians to convince crowds; cognitivists have demonstrated that they are figures of thought as well, which partly accounts for their manipulative potential. The three underlying reasons to this are, among others, the highlighting-hiding process, the existence of asymmetrical metaphors, and the multivalency of metaphors. The manipulative potential of metaphors is examined in twelve speeches from pro-life supporters, ranging from 2006 to 2019. One of the main ideological debates going on in the US has been on abortion, as the pro-life movement has grown stronger in recent years and has been threatening the right to abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. The study of the metaphors in those speeches has enabled us to highlight how pro-lifers manipulate people regarding the apprehension of reality by systematically using a limited number of conceptualizations.


Al-Duhaa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
pp. 95-112
Author(s):  
Dr. Burhan Uddin ◽  
Arsala Khan ◽  
Abdur Rahim Khan

The history of slavery is very old. In which three types are very famous. Sell a freelance person, making slavery to a person resulting in a loss, and the prisoners arrested in the war were enslaved. Islam eliminated the first two types and the third case as an option left. On December 10th, 1948 UN passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the right to human rights with other rights. Any type of slavery was prohibited. In the light of this universal charter, objections to Islam's concept of slavery began to be raised. What is the validity of the objections in the light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948  raised against the Islamic concept of slavery? the methodology adopted for this research is to examine the contents of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from an Islamic point of view. In the same way, a true Islamic, rational and logical examination of the concept of slavery of Islam has been presented. There is also a wise law about slaves in the universal system that Islam has given to the world. Slavery in the name is left, otherwise, all their rights are in no way less than free human beings.   In case of any kind of abuse, they could have approached the Islamic court and got justice.


10.26458/1824 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Anca MAGIRU ◽  
Mihaela Lavinia CIOBANICA ◽  
Daniel DANECI-PATRAU ◽  
Octav NEGURITA

The paper is focused on the authors’ opinion, based on deep research, that religion and education go side by side and could help a lot and should be the basic law for the development, rural or urban, against the background of the nowadays European challenges. Europe confronts today with oncoming waves of immigrants from all over the world who have been invading it for several years, bringing with them cultures, customs, observances, different in many ways from ours. Under these circumstances, the authors would like to highlight their point of view, mainly the idea that the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Hate paralyzes life; love releases it. Hate confuses life; love harmonizes it”, are much more true than ever. To keep an open mind on religious education, to be flexible, loving and understanding should be of vital importance in developing rural communities against the background of the European competitiveness.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 84-101
Author(s):  
Nerijus Čepulis

Šiuo straipsniu siekiama permąstyti tradicinę tapatumo sąvoką. Į tapatumą Vakarų mąstymo istorijoje buvo žiūrima visų pirma ontologiniu požiūriu. Moderniųjų laikų posūkis į subjektą susitelkia į Aš kaip bet kokio tapatumo centrą, pagrindą ir gamintoją. Fenomenologinė analizė tapatumo ištakas pagilina iki Aš santykio su išore, su pasauliu, su kitybe. Tačiau kitybė, tapdama sąmonės turiniu, nėra absoliuti kitybė. Būdas, kuriuo tapatumas, įsisavindamas savinasi pasaulį ir naikina kitybę, yra reprezentacija, siekianti akivaizdumo. Reprezentacija kaip intencionalus įžvalgumas bet kokį objektą lokalizuoja sąmonės šviesoje. Šviesa ir regėjimas – tai paradigminės Vakarų mąstymo tradicijos metaforos. Straipsnyje siekiama parodyti, kodėl ir kaip šviesa bei akivaizdumas netoleruoja absoliučios kitybės. Iš akivaizdumo kerų tapatumas atsitokėti gali tik per atsakingą santykį su Kitu, tai yra etiką. Čia tapatus subjektas praranda pirmumo teisę kito asmens imperatyvo atžvilgiu. Begalybės idėja, draskydama totalų tapatumą iš vidaus, neleidžia jam nurimti ir skatina atsižvelgti į transcendenciją, į kitybę, idant ji būtų laisva nuo prievartinio tapimo egocentrinio tapatumo turiniu ir manipuliacijos auka. Atsakomybė kito žmogaus veido akivaizdoje eina pirma akivaizdaus suvokimo ir įteisina jį.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: tapatumas, akivaizdumas, kitybė, socialumas.Charms of Evident IdentityNerijus Čepulis SummaryIn this article I seek to rethink the traditional notion of identity. In the tradition of Western thought identity was viewed first and foremost from an ontological point of view. After the turn toward the subject, the I is thought of as the centre, the base and the producer of any identity. Phenomenological analysis deepens the origin of identity to the relation of the I to the world, i.e. to the alterity. Yet the alterity, by becoming the content of consciousness, is not an absolute alterity. The way, in which identity assimilates, possesses the world and annihilates alterity, is representation. Representation seeks evidence. Representation as intentional perceptivity localizes every object in the light of consciousness. Light and vision are paradigmatic metaphors of the traditional Western thought. Hence in this article I seek to show why and how light and evidence do not tolerate absolute alterity. Identity can be sobered from the charms of evidence only by responsible relation to the Other, i.e. by ethics. Here identical subject loses the right of priority in front of the imperative of the other person. Idea of infinity worries total identity from within. Infinity does not permit identity to quiet down and induces to heed transcendence and alterity. Only in this way alterity can escape the violence to become a content of egocentrical identity and the victim of manipulation. Responsibility in the face of the other person precedes evident perception and legitimates the latter.Keywords: identity, evidence, alterity, sociality.


Author(s):  
I. N. Timofeev

The problems of the world order is often seen through the interaction of the leading centers of power. Nevertheless there is another approach, locating actorhood in the state, which forms the world order. State acts in international affairs, it has the right of legitimate violence, it also has the ability to concentrate the economic and human resources. Obviously, the nature of the state as part of the international system has an effect on the system itself, defining its key parameters. From that point of view, some questions arise: what happens to the state? What is the effect of its transformation on the contemporary world order? Why the state is changing? What hierarchy of states exists in the contemporary world order? The author proceed from the following theses. First, the nation state is no longer a universal formula of nation building. However, there is no balance between two key foundations of a legitimate order - fairness and efficiency. Second, the current world order is a mosaic of fundamentally different states. Each state is trying to find a formula for the combination of a fairness and efficiency. These formulas do not always coincide with each other, and it underlays the stability in international relations. Third, a small group of major powers still play the key role in the world order. The issue of sovereignty of many countries remains open. World order, as well as a state, is characterized by imbalance between equity and efficiency. The awaited harmony of these two principles may be spoofed again the triumph of efficiency oover justice -maintenance of order through the balance of power and a rigid hierarchy.


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