scholarly journals A phrase structure approach to argument cluster coordination

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Mouret
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Structure Approach ◽  
Alternative Approach

It has often been argued that Non-Constituent Coordinations involve ellipsis. Focussing in this paper on so-called 'Argument Cluster Coordination', we provide empirical evidence drawn from French against such elliptical analyses. We then sketch an alternative approach within HPSG, allowing non-standard constituents to be conjoined in the scope of some shared predicate. While such non-standard constituents are generally obtained by relaxing phrase structure, we propose analyzing them as non-headed constructions, deriving their unusual properties from the interplay of two different sets of constraints: those imposed by coordination and those imposed by predicates that select such clusters as arguments.

scholarly journals The Power of the Multitude: Answering Epistemic Challenges to Democracy

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 891-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMUEL BAGG
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
State Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

Recent years have witnessed growing controversy over the “wisdom of the multitude.” As epistemic critics drawing on vast empirical evidence have cast doubt on the political competence of ordinary citizens, epistemic democrats have offered a defense of democracy grounded largely in analogies and formal results. So far, I argue, the critics have been more convincing. Nevertheless, democracycanbe defended on instrumental grounds, and this article demonstrates an alternative approach. Instead of implausibly upholding the epistemic reliability of average voters, I observe that competitive elections, universal suffrage, and discretionary state power disable certain potent mechanisms of elite entrenchment. By reserving particular forms of power for the multitude of ordinary citizens, they make democratic states more resistant to dangerous forms of capture than non-democratic alternatives. My approach thus offers a robust defense ofelectoraldemocracy, yet cautions against expecting too much from it—motivating a thicker conception ofdemocracy, writ large.

The Case for a Multiple-Utility Conception

1986 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amitai Etzioni
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Utility Maximization ◽  
Individual Behavior ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Will Force

In recent decades, neoclassical economists have made heroic efforts to accommodate within the confines of the concept of rational utility maximization the fact that individual behavior is significantly affected by moral considerations. This article argues the merits of using an alternative approach: recognizing that individuals pursue at least two irreducible sources of value or “utility”, pleasure and morality. The possibility that some additional utilities may have to be recognized is explored. This raises the concern that conceptual anarchy will break out, which in turn will force a search for a common denominator, and thus a return to one overarching utility. Arguments are presented to show that this concern is unfounded. The main focus of the article is a criticism of the monoutility conception and a brief for separating the sense of discharging one's moral obligations from all other satisfactions. The article first deals with general conceptual points, and then cites both everyday observations and empirical evidence in support of this position.

Critical Evaluation of Locus of Control: Towards a Reconceptualization of the Construct and its Measurement

1984 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 683-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Palenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Conceptual Problems ◽  
Conceptual Confusion

The construct of locus of control at present poses certain problems. It is defined in different ways by various investigators, and at times its definition is analogous to other concepts. The expectancy of locus of control is confused with the attributions of past success-failure experiences and recent approaches have proposed conflicting solutions. There is also terminological-conceptual confusion. Locus of control scales are used for the measurement of other constructs. The dimensionality of locus of control is still lacking in coherence, is confusing, and some scales also seem to measure several different concepts. The present article discusses such problems in two sections: (a) conceptual problems and (b) problems with the measurement of the locus of control. A third section describes some possible solutions; empirical evidence is presented on the first steps of an alternative approach.

Notes on English used as a lingua franca as an object of study

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janus Mortensen
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
The Voice

AbstractThis article discusses how English used as a lingua franca (ELF) can be defined as an object of study. It offers a critical appraisal of a high-profile definition of ELF (the VOICE/Seidlhofer definition), and argues that definitions of this kind, whether purposely or not, in effect invite conceptualizations of ELF as a reified entity. This kind of reification is shown to entail a number of problems, the main one being that reified conceptualizations of ELF as an object of study are at odds with the available empirical evidence. On the basis of this critique, the article suggests an alternative approach to the conceptualization of ELF where ELF is defined in straightforward functional terms as the use of English in a lingua franca language scenario. This definition underscores the complexity and breadth of ELF as an object of study, and highlights that researchers in the field of ELF studies need to acknowledge this complexity and adopt structured methods in dealing with it. Using well-known examples from the literature, the article shows that Dell Hymes's SPEAKING heuristic may be employed as one such tool.

A Syntactic Universal and Its Consequences

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Biberauer ◽  
Anders Holmberg ◽  
Ian Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Relativized Minimality ◽  
Extended Projection ◽  
Standard Models ◽  
Initial Category

This article investigates the Final-over-Final Constraint (FOFC): a head-initial category cannot be the immediate structural complement of a head-final category within the same extended projection. This universal cannot be formulated without reference to the kind of hierarchical structure generated by standard models of phrase structure. First, we document the empirical evidence: logically possible but crosslinguistically unattested combinations of head-final and head-initial orders. Second, we propose a theory, based on a version of Kayne’s (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom, where FOFC is an effect of the distribution of a movement-triggering feature in extended projections, subject to Relativized Minimality.

scholarly journals Floristic evidence for alternative biome states in tropical Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (45) ◽  
pp. 28183-28190
Author(s):  
J. C. Aleman ◽  
A. Fayolle ◽  
C. Favier ◽  
A. C. Staver ◽  
K. G. Dexter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Tree Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Alternative Stable States ◽  
Stable States ◽  
Generalist Species ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Species Lists ◽  
Environmental Limits ◽  
Structural Aspects

The idea that tropical forest and savanna are alternative states is crucial to how we manage these biomes and predict their future under global change. Large-scale empirical evidence for alternative stable states is limited, however, and comes mostly from the multimodal distribution of structural aspects of vegetation. These approaches have been criticized, as structure alone cannot separate out wetter savannas from drier forests for example, and there are also technical challenges to mapping vegetation structure in unbiased ways. Here, we develop an alternative approach to delimit the climatic envelope of the two biomes in Africa using tree species lists gathered for a large number of forest and savanna sites distributed across the continent. Our analyses confirm extensive climatic overlap of forest and savanna, supporting the alternative stable states hypothesis for Africa, and this result is corroborated by paleoecological evidence. Further, we find the two biomes to have highly divergent tree species compositions and to represent alternative compositional states. This allowed us to classify tree species as forest vs. savanna specialists, with some generalist species that span both biomes. In conjunction with georeferenced herbarium records, we mapped the forest and savanna distributions across Africa and quantified their environmental limits, which are primarily related to precipitation and seasonality, with a secondary contribution of fire. These results are important for the ongoing efforts to restore African ecosystems, which depend on accurate biome maps to set appropriate targets for the restored states but also provide empirical evidence for broad-scale bistability.

towards a new approach of the elections-to-policy nexus

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Emiliano Grossman ◽  
Isabelle Guinaudeau
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Policy Relevance ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Core Requirements ◽  
Issue Competition

This introduction briefly presents the central debates, challenges and puzzles addressed in the book. The focus is on the policy relevance of election campaigns, approached through the lens of two core requirements, i.e. differentiation in the electoral supply and mandate responsiveness. The chapter describes the climate of scepticism that prevails as to how contemporary democracies meet these principles. It points to current approaches limitations’ in conceptual and empirical terms. It then delineates the main arguments of the book’s alternative approach. Based on an agenda-setting perspective, our theoretical framework bridges studies of policy and issue competition, relying on unique empirical evidence covering five West European countries since the 1980s. Finally, the chapter provides an outline of the remaining chapters.

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

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Gabriel Krivochen
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Computational System ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Structure Building ◽  
Labeling Algorithms ◽  
Computational Procedures ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Linguistic Approach

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.

Challenges to the social motivation theory of autism: The dangers of counteracting an imprecise theory with even more imprecision

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Uljarević ◽  
Giacomo Vivanti ◽  
Susan R. Leekam ◽  
Antonio Y. Hardan
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Motivation Theory ◽  
The Social

Abstract The arguments offered by Jaswal & Akhtar to counter the social motivation theory (SMT) do not appear to be directly related to the SMT tenets and predictions, seem to not be empirically testable, and are inconsistent with empirical evidence. To evaluate the merits and shortcomings of the SMT and identify scientifically testable alternatives, advances are needed on the conceptualization and operationalization of social motivation across diagnostic boundaries.

Integrating perspectives: How the development of second-personal competence lays the foundation for a second-personal morality

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Corbit ◽  
Chris Moore
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Personal Competence ◽  
Triadic Interactions ◽  
Personal Morality ◽  
Integrative Process

Abstract The integration of first-, second-, and third-personal information within joint intentional collaboration provides the foundation for broad-based second-personal morality. We offer two additions to this framework: a description of the developmental process through which second-personal competence emerges from early triadic interactions, and empirical evidence that collaboration with a concrete goal may provide an essential focal point for this integrative process.

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