Von Humboldt on Language, Contemporary Linguistics, and the Mission of a Linguist

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-56
Author(s):  
Ekaterina V. Vostrikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Biological Feature ◽  
Perspective View ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Underlying Basis ◽  
Generative Approach

This article examines the ideas of W. von Humboldt on language and their simi­larities and differences with the fundamental ideas about the nature of natural languages within the generative framework founded by N. Chomsky. Chomsky famously argued that von Humboldt expressed and defended some of the key ideas of the generative approach. This paper relates Chomsky’s idea of the innate universal grammar and idea of generative rules as the underlying basis of the lan­guage creativity to the similar ideas of W. von Humboldt. The paper also dis­cusses Humboldt’s problematic from the generative perspective view that natural languages can have a primitive or an advance grammar. The paper considers a possible explanation for the fact that this idea seemed consistent to Humboldt with the idea of the innate universal grammar. The contemporary linguistics views all grammars of all languages as equal because a natural language is con­sidered to be a biological feature of our species developed in the process of evo­lution. This idea was not present in Humboldt’s philosophy, which made it possi­ble for him to think that some natural languages have not fully developed a potential hidden in its speakers. In this regard, the author considers the ques­tion of the social mission of the linguist; emphasizes that this is a fight against prejudices based on unscientific understanding of languages and dialects.

Poetry, language, and ritual performance

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Haverkort ◽  
Jan H. de Roder
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
Structural Principles ◽  
New Perspective

In line with the proposal of de Roder (1999), we will draw an analogy between the structure of ritual, poetic language and natural language, exploiting Frits Staal’s conception of ritual as a set of recursively applicable formal procedures, and the biological ramifications of the Chomskyan postulate of Universal Grammar. The central hypothesis is that, in terms of evolution, poetry takes a position between age-old rituals and natural languages, as a sort of missing link. We will argue that the building blocks and mechanisms of natural language developed out of ritual acts and the associated rhythmic sound sequences. The formal principles underlying rituals turned out to be useful for communication and thus natural language could evolve, an example of exaptation in the sense of Gould and Vrba (1982). Under this view, the rhythmic layer of poetry — like syntactic structure — is a semantically empty, autonomous pattern, going back to the structural principles underlying ritual. Rhythmic patterns in poetry are thus instances of pure acts in the ritual sense, and as a consequence poetry is a form of language use in which the ritual basis of language is experienced. This puts T.S. Eliot’s famous dictum “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood” in a new perspective. The paper thus focuses on the ritualistic substrate of language, not on the synchronic role of ritual in language. We will also discuss neurological evidence which independently supports this idea: Broca’s area — an area in the left hemisphere of the brain that has traditionally been associated with language comprehension and production — is activated when syntactically complex sentences are being processed, but it is also activated in tasks involving the perception of rhythmic patterns in music, thus supporting the idea that both (and by implication ritual too) have the same origins evolutionarily.

Linguistic Data Model for Natural Languages and Artificial Intelligence. Part 5. Introduction to Logic

Discourse ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-117
Author(s):  
O. M. Polyakov
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Mathematical Logic ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
General View ◽  
World Model ◽  
Semantic Approach ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
The World ◽  
Linguistic Aspect

Introduction. The article continues the series of publications on the linguistics of relations (hereinafter R–linguistics) and is devoted to an introduction to the logic of natural language in relation to the approach considered in the series. The problem of natural language logic still remains relevant, since this logic differs significantly from traditional mathematical logic. Moreover, with the appearance of artificial intelligence systems, the importance of this problem only increases. The article analyzes logical problems that prevent the application of classical logic methods to natural languages. This is possible because R-linguistics forms the semantics of a language in the form of world model structures in which language sentences are interpreted.Methodology and sources. The results obtained in the previous parts of the series are used as research tools. To develop the necessary mathematical representations in the field of logic and semantics, the formulated concept of the interpretation operator is used.Results and discussion. The problems that arise when studying the logic of natural language in the framework of R–linguistics are analyzed. These issues are discussed in three aspects: the logical aspect itself; the linguistic aspect; the aspect of correlation with reality. A very General approach to language semantics is considered and semantic axioms of the language are formulated. The problems of the language and its logic related to the most General view of semantics are shown.Conclusion. It is shown that the application of mathematical logic, regardless of its type, to the study of natural language logic faces significant problems. This is a consequence of the inconsistency of existing approaches with the world model. But it is the coherence with the world model that allows us to build a new logical approach. Matching with the model means a semantic approach to logic. Even the most General view of semantics allows to formulate important results about the properties of languages that lack meaning. The simplest examples of semantic interpretation of traditional logic demonstrate its semantic problems (primarily related to negation).

A UNIFIED AND SYNCHRONOUS GENERATING SYSTEM FOR MULTIPLE NATURAL LANGUAGES BASED ON CFG AND SEMANTIC LANGUAGE

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 1250033
Author(s):  
LI LI ◽  
HONGLAI LIU ◽  
QINGSHI GAO ◽  
PEIFENG WANG
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Generating System

The sentences in several different natural languages can be produced congruously and synchronous by the new generating system USGS = {↔, GI|GI = (TI, N, B-RISU, C-treeI, S, PI, FI), I = 0, 1, 2, …, n}, based on Semantic Language(SL) theory, all are legitimate and reasonable, where, B-RISU is the set of basic-RISU, C-treeI is the set of category-trees, and FI is the set of functions in I-natural language. The characteristic of this new generating system is unified, synchronous and one by one corresponding, based on semantic unit theory and that the number of rules is several millions.

scholarly journals Corporate social responsibility, social and financial performance: The case study of the loan appraisal process of the Rwanda Development Bank

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Gianfranco A. Vento ◽  
Helen Chiappini ◽  
Giuseppe Lia
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Development Bank ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Appraisal Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Development Banks ◽  
Corporate Social

Development banks play an active role in smoothing growth of world’s disadvantaged areas. The social mission of development banks requires that they pay attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to the social outcome of financing activities. However, like any other financial institution, they must consider the business sustainability and the financial stability over time. Thus, a comprehensive loan appraisal process should include financial and social aspects. Literature does not properly investigate development banks loan appraisal process, thus the aim of this paper is to contribute to this stream of literature, analysing how development banks can include the evaluation of social and environmental variables within their loan appraisal process. For the purpose of the research, we employed a case study of the Rwanda Development Bank (BRD). The BRD loan appraisal process combines the evaluation of typical aspects of corporate social responsibility – like the firms or projects compliance to health and safety regulations or the implementation of the code of ethics including diversity policies – with the evaluation of social and environmental impact, as well with financial aspects. The BRD social impact assessment is also valuable because it follows the criteria of proportionality of loans evaluation, balancing completeness of information with the cost of the assessment.

scholarly journals Natural Language Processing by Enhanced Honey Encryption Technique

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12S) ◽  
pp. 159-163
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cyber Attacks ◽  
Binary Form ◽  
Brute Force ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Cipher Text ◽  
The Right ◽  
Binary Strings

Traditional encryption systems and techniques have always been vulnerable to brute force cyber-attacks. This is due to bytes encoding of characters utf8 also known as ASCII characters. Therefore, an opponent who intercepts a cipher text and attempts to decrypt the signal by applying brute force with a faulty pass key can detect some of the decrypted signals by employing a mixture of symbols that are not uniformly dispersed and contain no meaningful significance. Honey encoding technique is suggested to curb this classical authentication weakness by developing cipher-texts that provide correct and evenly dispersed but untrue plaintexts after decryption with a false key. This technique is only suitable for passkeys and PINs. Its adjustment in order to promote the encoding of the texts of natural languages such as electronic mails, records generated by man, still remained an open-end drawback. Prevailing proposed schemes to expand the encryption of natural language messages schedule exposes fragments of the plaintext embedded with coded data, thus they are more prone to cipher text attacks. In this paper, amending honey encoded system is proposed to promote natural language message encryption. The main aim was to create a framework that would encrypt a signal fully in binary form. As an end result, most binary strings semantically generate the right texts to trick an opponent who tries to decipher an error key in the cipher text. The security of the suggested system is assessed..

scholarly journals Analysis of Genres of the BBC One TV Programs

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-122
Author(s):  
Alexey V. Gorobiy
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Public Broadcasting ◽  
Global Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Sign Systems ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Forms ◽  
Flexible Programming ◽  
Tabloid Press

The relevance of the study is based on the fact that the BBC One channel is interesting as an example of a public service broadcaster which retains its image and competitiveness on the global media market. The goal of the research is to analyze the BBC One programming with regard to its forms of journalists and cameramens work. The semiotic methodology is chosen for interpreting sign systems, i. e. journalists texts or TV frames, as interconnected phenomena of culture. As a result, important sociocultural and philosophical elements integrated into the BBC One programming and determining its genre profile have been revealed. The social mission of the public broadcasting, combination of regional and metropolitan grounds, the prevalence of serious news genres are among them. Moreover, the programs are open for entertaining content including a foreign-made one. There is also a visual and aesthetic adaptation of pre-TV cultural forms of theater and the tabloid press, etc. Therefore, we can speak of a rather flexible programming policy of the BBC One, which can be a good model to develop strategies for public service broadcasters in other countries.

scholarly journals Las políticas supranacionales de educación superior ante la «tercera misión» de la Universidad: el caso del aprendizaje-servicio

2020 ◽  
pp. 256
Author(s):  
Juan García-Gutiérrez ◽  
Carlos Corrales Gaitero
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Third Mission ◽  
Social Commitment ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

The constant transformation that the institutions of higher education experiment and, particularly, the university assumes a re-consideration of their shapes, methodology, and missions, as well as the relationships established with society. Therefore, we shall consider that a “social mission” of the university or their “third mission” constitutes an umbrella that shelters a wide diversity of reflex conceptions, and at the same time, the relationship university – society. Additionally, take into consideration that this civic and social commitment in higher education should incorporate an integrator approach, involved with an idea of European or Latin-American citizenship, in any case, incorporated in the development of their supranational policies. Therefore, the objective of our work is double. On one side, to meet and analyze the notion of a “social mission” or “third mission” of the university and their conceptual network, to clarify the language and in which sense the different denominations are used, according to the different economical, sustainability or civic approaches to be adopted. Secondly, the treatment of these ideas will be addressed at the supranational policies of higher education both in Europe and Ibero America, according to what had been structured at the Higher Education European State and whether it has been promoted by the OEI. Also, it will be attended the way that this supranational policy aboard the civic and identity components, that linked to the social mission cooperate for the promotion of common citizenship. As a result of the analysis made we can affirm that the approach of the learning-service constitutes an emergent tendency on a global scale, appropriate to develop effectively the third mission or social mission of the university.

scholarly journals Modelos híbridos de indexação social: análise do repositório de fanfictions Archive of Our Own (AO3)

2021 ◽  
pp. 30-51
Author(s):  
Bruna Daniele de Oliveira Silva ◽  
Deise Maria Antonio Sabbag
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid System ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Social Web ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semantic Dimension ◽  
Participatory Model

The digital environment has enabled new forms of production, consumption and organization of digital content, such as social indexing. This indexing consists onthe attribution of free tags by users or communities. Fanfictions are fictional stories created by fans, they are deposited in repositories and their indexing is performed by the authors themselves, using a hybrid system of controlled and natural languages. The research aimed to describe qualitatively the social indexing implemented in the fanfictions repositor,Archive of Our Own, in order to make some reflections about the new modes of production and user participation in the representation of content onthe social web. It is concluded that the indexing performed in the analyzed repository adds a curated folkonomy through a team of volunteers trained to follow specific norms. The repository establishes a hybrid and participatory model for indexing itscontent, adding a semantic dimension while ensuring the recovery.

How to build a constructicon in five years

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Janda ◽  
Anna Endresen ◽  
Valentina Zhukova ◽  
Daria Mordashova ◽  
Ekaterina Rakhilina
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Electronic Database ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Searchable Database ◽  
Qualitative Level ◽  
Syntactic Properties

Abstract We provide a practical step-by-step methodology of how to build a full-scale constructicon resource for a natural language, sharing our experience from the nearly completed project of the Russian Constructicon, an open-access searchable database of over 2,200 Russian constructions (https://site.uit.no/russian-constructicon/). The constructions are organized in families, clusters, and networks based on their semantic and syntactic properties, illustrated with corpus examples, and tagged for the CEFR level of language proficiency. The resource is designed for both researchers and L2 learners of Russian and offers the largest electronic database of constructions built for any language. We explain what makes the Russian Constructicon different from other constructicons, report on the major stages of our work, and share the methods used to systematically expand the inventory of constructions. Our objective is to encourage colleagues to build constructicon resources for additional natural languages, thus taking Construction Grammar to a new quantitative and qualitative level, facilitating cross-linguistic comparison.

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