scholarly journals The geometry vs. the algebra of meaning

Jezikoslovlje ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98
Author(s):  
Joško Žanić
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Geometric Approach ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Concept Acquisition ◽  
Lexical Decomposition ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
Semantic Internalism

In this paper Gärdenfors’s geometric approach to meaning in natural language is compared to Jackendoff's algebraic one, and this is done against the backdrop of formal semantics. Ultimately, the paper tries to show that Jackendoff's framework is to be preferred to all others. The paper proceeds as follows. In Section 2, the common theoretical commitments of Gärdenfors and Jackendoff are outlined, and it is attempted to argue briefly that they are on the right track. In Section 3, the basics of the two frameworks to be compared are laid out, and it is assessed how they deal with some central issues in semantic theory, namely reference and truth, lexical decomposition, and compositionality. In Section 4, we get into the nitty-gritty of how Gärdenfors and Jackendoff actually proceed in semantic analysis, using an example of a noun and a verb (embedded in a sentence). In Section 5, the merits of Gärdenfors's empiricism when it comes to word learning and concept acquisition are assessed and compared to the moderate nativism of Jackendoff, and it is argued that Jackendoff's nativism is to be preferred. In the sixth section, the semantic internalism common to both frameworks is commented on.

The Elimination of Carnap’s Critical Arguments Against Metaphysics Through Formal Semantic Analysis of Natural Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-98
Author(s):  
Ekaterina V. Vostrikova ◽  
Petr S. Kusliy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Formal Semantic ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
The One

The authors explore Carnap’s (1931) famous critique of Heidegger’s metaphysics and argue that, from the perspective of contemporary formal semantics of natural language, Carnap’s criticism is not convincing. Moreover, they provide direct empirical objections to Carnap’s criticism. In particular, using empirical evidence from languages like Russian that have negative concord, they show that Heidegger cannot be accused of assigning illegitimate logical forms to his sentences about Nothing because terms like “Nothing” can be used non-quantificationally and the fact that it is not clear how their reference is established cannot be the reason why the corresponding sentences are ungrammatical (as Carnap seemed to suggest). The authors also critically discuss the view that natural language is insensitive to meaninglessness or contradiction. With reference to the work of J. Gajewsky, they show that this view is not true either. As a result of this investigation, they arrive at a position that an appeal to ungrammaticality like the one proposed by Carnap does not provide legitimate evidence against metaphysics. This conclusion relates to some recent criticism of the so-called non-analytical philosophers that can be traced back to Carnap’s paper.

scholarly journals THE RIGHT THRESHOLD VALUE: WHAT IS THE RIGHT THRESHOLD OF COSINE MEASURE WHEN USING LATENT SEMANTIC ANALYSIS FOR EVALUATING STUDENT ANSWERS?

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (05) ◽  
pp. 767-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHANNI PENUMATSA ◽  
MATTHEW VENTURA ◽  
ARTHUR C. GRAESSER ◽  
MAX LOUWERSE ◽  
XIANGEN HU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Latent Semantic Analysis ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Intelligent Tutoring System ◽  
Threshold Value ◽  
Subject Matter Experts ◽  
Language Understanding ◽  
Discriminative Ability ◽  
Cosine Measure ◽  
The Right

AutoTutor is an intelligent tutoring system that holds conversations with learners in natural language. AutoTutor uses Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) to match student answers to a set of expected answers that would appear in a complete and correct response or which reflect common but incorrect understandings of the material. The correctness of student contributions is decided using a threshold value of the LSA cosine between the student answer and the expectations. In previous work LSA has shown to be effective in detecting good answers of students. The results indicate that the best agreement between LSA matches and the evaluations of subject matter experts can be obtained if the cosine threshold is allowed to be a function of the lengths of both student answer and the expectation being considered. Based on some of our experiences with LSA and AutoTutor, we are developing a new mathematical model to improve the precision of AutoTutor's natural language understanding and discriminative ability.

scholarly journals The Science of Meaning

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Natural Language Semantics ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Current State ◽  
Language Semantics ◽  
Theoretical Reflection

Semantics is the systematic study of linguistic meaning. The past fifty years have seen an explosion of research into the semantics of natural languages. There are now sophisticated theories of phenomena that were not even known to exist mere decades ago. Much of the early work in natural language semantics was accompanied by extensive reflection on the aims of semantic theory, and the form a theory must take to meet those aims. But this meta-theoretical reflection has not kept pace with recent theoretical innovations. The aim of this volume is to re-address these questions concerning the foundations of natural language semantics in light of the current state-of-the-art in semantic theorizing. The volume addresses a range of foundational questions about formal semantics: what is the best methodology for semantic theorizing, and should experimental techniques play a crucial role? How should we understand the use of formal tools such as model theory, and are there better formal alternatives? How should we think about compositionality? What does semantic theory tell us about the language faculty or linguistic competence? What are the advantages of dynamic semantics? How do formal semantic theories relate to philosophical notions of context, content, interpretation, and propositions?

Our Bodies, Whose Property?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Labor Markets ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Human Organs ◽  
Property Owners ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right

No one wants to be treated like an object, regarded as an item of property, or put up for sale. Yet many people frame personal autonomy in terms of self-ownership, representing themselves as property owners with the right to do as they wish with their bodies. Others do not use the language of property, but are similarly insistent on the rights of free individuals to decide for themselves whether to engage in commercial transactions for sex, reproduction, or organ sales. Drawing on analyses of rape, surrogacy, and markets in human organs, this book challenges notions of freedom based on ownership of our bodies and argues against the normalization of markets in bodily services and parts. The book explores the risks associated with metaphors of property and the reasons why the commodification of the body remains problematic. The book asks what is wrong with thinking of oneself as the owner of one's body? What is wrong with making our bodies available for rent or sale? What, if anything, is the difference between markets in sex, reproduction, or human body parts, and the other markets we commonly applaud? The book contends that body markets occupy the outer edges of a continuum that is, in some way, a feature of all labor markets. But it also emphasizes that we all have bodies, and considers the implications of this otherwise banal fact for equality. Bodies remind us of shared vulnerability, alerting us to the common experience of living as embodied beings in the same world. Examining the complex issue of body exceptionalism, the book demonstrates that treating the body as property makes human equality harder to comprehend.

Ameloblastic Fibroma Associated With Impacted 3rd Molar: A Case Report

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (7) ◽  
pp. 18-21
Author(s):  
K Indira Priyadarshini ◽  
Karthik Raghupathy ◽  
K V Lokesh ◽  
B Venu Naidu
Keyword(s):  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Posterior Region ◽  
Radiographic Examination ◽  
Dental Eruption ◽  
Ameloblastic Fibroma ◽  
Odontogenic Origin ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Right ◽  
Slow Growing

Ameloblastic fibroma is an uncommon mixed neoplasm of odontogenic origin with a relative frequency between 1.5 – 4.5%. It can occur either in the mandible or maxilla, but predominantly seen in the posterior region of the mandible. It occurs in the first two decades of life. Most of the times it is associated with tooth enclosure, causing a delay in eruption or altering the dental eruption sequence. The common clinical manifestation is a slow growing painless swelling and is detected during routine radiographic examination. There is controversy in the mode of treatment, whether conservative or aggressive. Here we reported a 38 year old male patient referred for evaluation of painless swelling on the right posterior region of the mandible associated with clinically missing 3rd molar. The lesion was completely enucleated under general anesthesia along with the extraction of impacted molar.

A Machine Learning Application for Raising WASH Awareness in the Times of COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Pandey ◽  
Vaibhav Gautam ◽  
Ridam Pal ◽  
Harsh Bandhey ◽  
Lovedeep Singh Dhingra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
User Feedback ◽  
Who Guidelines ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Right ◽  
Local Languages

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered the potential of digital misinformation in shaping the health of nations. The deluge of unverified information that spreads faster than the epidemic itself is an unprecedented phenomenon that has put millions of lives in danger. Mitigating this ‘Infodemic’ requires strong health messaging systems that are engaging, vernacular, scalable, effective and continuously learn the new patterns of misinformation. OBJECTIVE We created WashKaro, a multi-pronged intervention for mitigating misinformation through conversational AI, machine translation and natural language processing. WashKaro provides the right information matched against WHO guidelines through AI, and delivers it in the right format in local languages. METHODS We theorize (i) an NLP based AI engine that could continuously incorporate user feedback to improve relevance of information, (ii) bite sized audio in the local language to improve penetrance in a country with skewed gender literacy ratios, and (iii) conversational but interactive AI engagement with users towards an increased health awareness in the community. RESULTS A total of 5026 people who downloaded the app during the study window, among those 1545 were active users. Our study shows that 3.4 times more females engaged with the App in Hindi as compared to males, the relevance of AI-filtered news content doubled within 45 days of continuous machine learning, and the prudence of integrated AI chatbot “Satya” increased thus proving the usefulness of an mHealth platform to mitigate health misinformation. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that a multi-pronged machine learning application delivering vernacular bite-sized audios and conversational AI is an effective approach to mitigate health misinformation. CLINICALTRIAL Not Applicable

The Dynamic Free Speech Clause

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Zick
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Free Exercise ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Common ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Right ◽  
Speech Clause

This book examines the relational dynamics between the U.S. Constitution’s Free Speech Clause and other constitutional rights. The free speech guarantee has intersected with a variety of other constitutional rights. Those intersections have significantly influenced the recognition, scope, and meaning of rights ranging from freedom of the press to the Second Amendment right to bear arms. They have also influenced interpretation of the Free Speech Clause itself. Free speech principles and doctrines have facilitated the recognition and effective exercise of constitutional rights, including equal protection, the right to abortion, and the free exercise of religion. They have also provided mediating principles for constructive debates about constitutional rights. At the same time, in its interactions with other constitutional rights, the Free Speech Clause has also been a complicating force. It has dominated rights discourse and subordinated or supplanted free press, assembly, petition, and free exercise rights. Currently, courts and commentators are fashioning the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in the image of the Free Speech Clause. Borrowing the Free Speech Clause for this purpose may turn out to be detrimental for both rights. The book examines the common and distinctive dynamics that have brought free speech and other constitutional rights together. It assesses the products and consequences of these intersections, and draws important lessons from them about constitutional rights and constitutional liberty. Ultimately, the book defends a pluralistic conception of constitutional rights that seeks to leverage the power of the Free Speech Clause but also to tame its propensity to subordinate, supplant, and eclipse other constitutional rights.

Textbook Popery

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra L. Yacovazzi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public School ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Female Teachers ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
School Movement

By the 1840s, convent narratives gained more middle-class, respectable readers, moving away from descriptions of sex and sadism and focusing instead on convent schools and the education of young women. Popular works such as Protestant Girl in a French Nunnery described "tricks" used by nuns to convert female pupils and lure them into convents. Such literature warned that as neither wives nor mothers, nuns could not train the right kind of women for America. The focus on convent schools converged with the common or public school movement. At the same time, teaching became an acceptable occupation for women, prompting more women to seek opportunities for higher education. This chapter compares the approach to education among nuns and other female teachers alongside the caricatures of convent schools in anti-Catholic print culture. I seek to answer why convent schools faced such heightened animosity even as teaching became feminized.

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