scholarly journals Causal Reasoning and Event Cognition as Evolutionary Determinants of Language Structure

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 843
Author(s):  
Peter Gärdenfors
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Mental Event ◽  
Event Representation ◽  
Event Cognition ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
External Forces ◽  
Event Representations ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Causal Cognition

The aim of this article is to provide an evolutionarily grounded explanation of central aspects of the structure of language. It begins with an account of the evolution of human causal reasoning. A comparison between humans and non-human primates suggests that human causal cognition is based on reasoning about the underlying forces that are involved in events, while other primates hardly understand external forces. This is illustrated by an analysis of the causal cognition required for early hominin tool use. Second, the thinking concerning forces in causation is used to motivate a model of human event cognition. A mental representation of an event contains two vectors representing a cause as well as a result but also entities such as agents, patients, instruments and locations. The fundamental connection between event representations and language is that declarative sentences express events (or states). The event structure also explains why sentences are constituted of noun phrases and verb phrases. Finally, the components of the event representation show up in language, where causes and effects are expressed by verbs, agents and patients by nouns (modified by adjectives), locations by prepositions, etc. Thus, the evolution of the complexity of mental event representations also provides insight into the evolution of the structure of language.

scholarly journals A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away: How temporal are episodic contents?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Mahr ◽  
Joshua D. Greene ◽  
Daniel L. Schacter
Keyword(s):  
Time Of Day ◽  
Temporal Orientation ◽  
Mental Event ◽  
Event Representation ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Human Adults ◽  
Successful Recall ◽  
Event Representations

A prominent feature of mental event (i.e. ‘episodic’) simulations is their temporality: human adults can generate episodic representations directed towards the past or the future. The ability to entertain event representations with different temporal orientations allows these representations to play various cognitive roles. Here, we investigated how the temporal orientation of imagined events relates to the contents (i.e. ‘what is happening’) of these events. Is the temporal orientation of an episode part of its contents? Or are the processes for assigning temporality to an event representation distinct from those generating its contents? In three experiments (N = 360), we asked participants to generate and later recall a series of imagined events differing in (1) location (indoors vs. outdoors), (2) time of day (daytime vs. nighttime), (3) temporal orientation (past vs. future), and (4) weekday (Monday vs. Friday). We then tested to what extent successful recall of episodic content (i.e. (1) and (2)) would predict recall of temporality and/or weekday information. Results showed that while recall of temporal orientation was predicted by content recall, weekday recall was not. However, temporal orientation was only weakly integrated with episodic contents. This finding suggests that episodic simulations are unlikely to be intrinsically temporal in nature. Instead, similar to other forms of temporal information, temporal orientation might be determined from such contents by reconstructive post-retrieval processes. These results have implications for how the human ability to ‘mentally travel’ in time is cognitively implemented.

Do you investigate word order in detail or do you investigate in detail word order? On word order and headedness in the recent history of English

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Pérez-Guerra
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Text Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Modern

AbstractThis paper examines the design of verb phrases and noun phrases, focusing on the diachronic tendencies observed in the data in Middle English, Early Modern, and Late Modern English. The approach is corpus-based and the data, representing different periods and text types, is taken from the

scholarly journals Changing Minds ― Epistemic Interventions in Causal Reasoning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Kirfel ◽  
David Lagnado
Keyword(s):  
Allergic Reaction ◽  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Epistemic State ◽  
Counterfactual Reasoning ◽  
Epistemic States ◽  
Epistemic Actions ◽  
Causal Action ◽  
Epistemic Context ◽  
Future Outcomes ◽  
Causal Cognition

Did Tom’s use of nuts in the dish cause Billy’s allergic reaction? According to counterfactual theories of causation, an agent is judged a cause to the extent that their action made a difference to the outcome (Gerstenberg, Goodman, Lagnado, & Tenenbaum, 2020; Gerstenberg, Halpern, & Tenenbaum, 2015; Halpern, 2016; Hitchcock & Knobe, 2009). In this paper, we argue for the integration of epistemic states into current counterfactual accounts of causation. In the case of ignorant causal agents, we demonstrate that people’s counterfactual reasoning primarily targets the agent’s epistemic state – what the agent doesn’t know –, and their epistemic actions – what they could have done to know – rather than the agent’s actual causal action. In four experiments, we show that people’s causal judgment as well as their reasoning about alternatives is sensitive to the epistemic conditions of a causal agent: Knowledge vs. ignorance (Experiment 1), self-caused vs. externally caused ignorance (Experiment 2), the number of epistemic actions (Experiment 3), and the epistemic context (Experiment 4). We see two advantages in integrating epistemic states into causal models and counterfactual frameworks. First, assuming the intervention on indirect, epistemic causes might allow us to explain why people attribute decreased causality to ignorant vs. knowing causal agents. Moreover, causal agents’ epistemic states pick out those factors that can be controlled or manipulated in order to achieve desirable future outcomes, reflecting the forward-looking dimension of causality. We discuss our findings in the broader context of moral and causal cognition.

scholarly journals WUJUD CAMPUR KODE POSTINGAN AKUN FACEBOOK MEME MANADO BASUDARA

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matrona Mamudi ◽  
Golda J. Tulung ◽  
Mariam Pandean
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Mixed Code ◽  
English Verb ◽  
English Noun

AbstractThis researchaims to describe mixing code form of the post of facebook account Meme Manado Basudara. The object of this research mixing code form of the post of facebook account Meme Manado Basudara. The research method used is descriptive qualitative method. Data analysis techniques in this research are descriptive analysis and data collection techniques with 2 techniques, namely reading and note taking. Based on the analysis of the research, it was found that the forms of words consisting of nouns (nouns), adjectives (adjectives), verbs (verbs), adverbs (adverbs). The various forms of phrase codes were also found in this research, namely noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases.There are mixing code form of words consisting of mixed forms of noun code (nouns) instead of 7 nouns consisting of 6 Indonesian nouns and 1 English noun. The mixing code form of adjective found 8 adjectives consisting of 6 Indonesian adjectives, 6 Indonesian adjectives and 2 English adjectives. The mixing code form of verbs (11 verbs), 11 verbs consisting of 6 Indonesian verbs, 5 verbs in English. The form of a mixture of adverb code that is 3 Indonesian adverb languages. The results of the research mixing code form of the post of facebook account Meme Manado Basudaraalso found mixed forms of phrase codes including 1 English noun phrase, 1 English verb phrase and 1 English adjective phrase.Keywords : mixed code, social media, ,meme

Evaluation of the epistemic state of the speaker/author

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 1482-1492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Clifton ◽  
Lyn Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Epistemic State ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Linguistic Input

Language users are sensitive to their language’s grammatical requirements, the plausibility of the situation described and the information shared by speaker and listener. We propose that they are also sensitive to whether an author is likely to be in a state of knowledge that actually supports the assertion being made. Failure to be in such a state reduces the naturalness of the assertion. Consistent with this proposal, sentences with a disjoined noun phrase are judged to be less natural than their conjunctive counterparts, presumably because the author of a disjunctive sentence must know that an event took place but not know which of the two individuals was the agent. This unlikely state of knowledge reduces the naturalness of the sentence. The results of three experiments indicate that providing evidence that the speaker could be in an unlikely epistemic state reduces the disjunction penalty; a fourth extends the demonstration of the penalty from coordinated noun phrases to coordinated verb phrases. We also present one experiment that explores the possibility that disjunction penalty is due to the unexpectedness of a disjunction. These findings demonstrate that language users evaluate linguistic input in light of the epistemic state of its author.

scholarly journals Measuring and publishing quality improvement

2021 ◽  
pp. rapm-2020-102201
Author(s):  
Greg Ogrinc
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Case Vignette ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Statistical Process ◽  
Measurement And Analysis ◽  
System Functioning ◽  
External Forces ◽  
Ongoing Assessment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Misalignment of measures, measurement and analysis with the goals and methods of quality improvement efforts in healthcare may create confusion and decrease effectiveness. In healthcare, measurement is used for accountability, research, and quality improvement, so distinguishing between these is an important first step. Using a case vignette, this paper focuses on using measurement for improvement to gain insight into the dynamic nature of healthcare systems and to assess the impact of interventions. This involves an understanding of the variation in the data over time. Statistical process control (SPC) charting is an effective and powerful analysis tool for this. SPC provides ongoing assessment of system functioning and enables an improvement team to assess the impact of its own interventions and external forces on the system. Once improvement work is completed, the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) guidelines is a valuable tool to describe the rationale, context, and study of the interventions. SQUIRE can be used to plan improvement work as well as structure a manuscript for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

scholarly journals The Psychology of Causal Perception and Reasoning

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Danks
Keyword(s):  
Causal Reasoning ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Causal Beliefs ◽  
Causal Knowledge ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Causal Perception ◽  
The World ◽  
Causal Cognition

Causal beliefs and reasoning are deeply embedded in many parts of our cognition. We are clearly ‘causal cognizers’, as we easily and automatically (try to) learn the causal structure of the world, use causal knowledge to make decisions and predictions, generate explanations using our beliefs about the causal structure of the world, and use causal knowledge in many other ways. Because causal cognition is so ubiquitous, psychological research into it is itself an enormous topic, and literally hundreds of people have devoted entire careers to the study of it. Causal cognition can be divided into two rough categories: causal learning and causal reasoning. The former encompasses the processes by which we learn about causal relations in the world at both the type and token levels; the latter refers to the ways in which we use those causal beliefs to make further inferences, decisions, predictions, and so on.

scholarly journals Conceptual Manipulation and Semantic Distinctions in Mandarin Verb Complements: The Contrast between shàng and dào

2004 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Hui-Chen Sabrina Hsiao
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Spatial Concepts ◽  
Prepositional Phrases ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
Directional Complements

This study investigates the lexicalization of spatial and aspectual components incorporated in Mandarin verb complements (VCs hereafter) shàng ‘up’ and dào ‘arrive’. The verb complement in Mandarin is well-known as the second verbal element in VV construction. Traditionally, V-shàng and V-dào are categorized as ‘directional complements’ and ‘phase complements’ respectively (Chao 1968; Li and Thompson 1981). Both VCs shàng and dào, originally functioning as a main verb (Gao 1995), are similar to the counterpart ‘up/on/above/over’ and ‘arrive/ reach’ in English; they have various usages, such as in verb phrases, and prepositional phrases, for example. Although there is no doubt that shàng and dào are poly-functional, it seems that there is no agreement on to what extent particular uses are related to one another. Most of the previous studies focus on the spatial meanings lexicalized in noun phrases and postpositions; they provide explanations based on a metaphorical approach or cultural values. However, such accounts cannot entirely explain the main function of the post-verbal comple- ments shàng and dào in VV construction. In this paper, I explore the subtle distinctions between the satellites shàng and dào, and provide an explanatory account for their seemingly diverse functions from a cognitive approach. Moreover, this paper aims to offer another perspective on the conceptual properties of spatial and aspectual notions embodied in these two verb complements, and verify evidence that Mandarin treats five framing events as a single conceptual entity. The organization of this paper is as follows. A brief literature review and the theoretical framework are presented in section 1. In section 2, the data involved the verb complements shàng and dào are introduced. In section 3, based on Talmy’s (2000) framework and framing event types, I discuss several examples and account for how aspectual and spatial concepts are explicitly expressed in shàng and dào regarding different framing event types. Section 4 shows a summary of findings and conclusion.

scholarly journals Fachkommunikation, Popularisierung, Übersetzung: Empirische Vergleiche am Beispiel der Nominalphrase im Englischen und Deutschen

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Hansen-Schirra ◽  
Sandra Hansen ◽  
Sascha Wolfer ◽  
Lars Konieczny
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Structure Information ◽  
Comparable Corpora ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
The One ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Empirical Insight

This article examines the contrasts and commonalities between languages for specific purposes (LSP) and their popularizations on the one hand and the frequency patterns of LSP register features in English and German on the other. For this purpose corpora of expert-expert and expert-lay communication are annotated for part-of-speech and phrase structure information. On this basis, the frequencies of pre- and post-modifications in complex noun phrases are statistically investigated and compared for English and German. Moreover, using parallel and comparable corpora it is tested whether English-German translations obey the register norms of the target language or whether the LSP frequency patterns of the source language Ñshine throughì. The results provide an empirical insight into language contact phenomena involving specialized communication.

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