Impact of Commercial Decision Making in the Cost at the Pre-Tendering Stage

The Indian construction industry has the cognitive frame of operating in the cost-based approach rather than the value-based approach, and the project process and strategies are framed in such a manner to increase the profitability of the project by the organization. Nevertheless, the profitability margin of the construction project is very comparatively low compared to the other Industrial sectors. There is much reason for not attaining a higher profitability margin in the construction sector. Some of the reasons are the low innovative business plan, ineffective data-driven decision-making, ineffective management of the transaction, and construction risks.The responsibilities of increasing profitability and managing the transactional flow in the project are given to the commercial manager. The roles and responsibilities of the commercial manager vary globally. The quantity surveyor's job role further enhanced the commercial manager, where the latter can take the commercial decisions about the project.This research paper's primary outcome is the framework model for making effective decisions by the commercial manager, which increases the project's profitability. The systematic decisions, which are made in the projects by the commercial manager are studied. Considering the external factors like the COVID-19 outbreak, market condition, and existing factors affecting the decision-making process, the tools and techniques for making efficient decisions in the construction project are suggested. The synergies between these tools and techniques are studied, and a decision-making model is framed to reduce the cost and time overrun, and the benefits associated with implementing the model in the project are detailed.

NOMEN PROPRIUM UND METONYMIE

When language change phenomena have repercussions in various social areas at the same time, they are worth an analysis. One of the well documented occurrences of this kind is the discursive history of the metonymic proper name Bologna as a designation of an education reform. As Johannes Angermüller und Ronny Scholz stated in their remarkable study (2013), its mere introduction had made some political processes easier. In this paper the question is put whether some distinctions of the notable metonymy theory by Peter Koch (2004) are able to deliver categories to clarify this phenomenon. In doing so, I point out some deficiencies of Kochs approach concerning his conception of metonymy as such and demonstrate that these are to be ascribed to its “cognitive” frame and that the remedy lies implicitly in an elementary consideration by Saussure and in an explicit passage by Husserl whom Koch himself invokes. As a result of this, I come to the conclusion that Saussure and, particularly, Husserl could have elucidated the most crucial feature of the metonymic proper name more appropriately.

Comparative Analysis of the Coronavirus Metaphorical Projections in the Chinese and Russian Mass Media

This research focuses on a comparative analysis of the coronavirus metaphorical image in the Chinese and Russian mass media. The discursive theory of metaphor serves as a theoretical basis for our study. Within the framework of this theory metaphor is referred to as a cognitive frame, which operates in the discursive space for a certain period of time. J. Charteris-Black’s Metaphor Critical Analysis has been used for the practical part of this paper. Linguistic analysis is based upon headlines and leads of Chinese and Russian news reports on the coronavirus pandemic. A total of 750 units of analysis in Chinese and 1,000 units of analysis in Russian have been examined. The authors arrive at the conclusion that media projections of the coronavirus image in the PRC and Russia are similar. Among the most widespread metaphorical models are «Virus is Enemy/Antagonist,» «Virus is Natural Disaster/Phenomenon,» «Virus is Living Creature,» and «Virus is Cause of Fear.» Despite overall homogeneity of metaphorical images, quantitative indicators of the distribution of metaphors and metaphorical implications (entailments) show significant differences. Critical analysis of Chinese and Russian media metaphors has made it possible to scrutinize public opinion within two different political systems

Comparative Analysis of Coronavirus Metaphoric Representation in Chinese and Russian Online Media

This article aims at comparing the coronavirus metaphorical image in the online media of China and the Russia. Metaphor is viewed as a cognitive frame within the discourse. The study was conducted on 750 and 1000 headlines and leads of news reports about the coronavirus for the Chinese and Russian language. The results show that the virus image is based on similar metaphorical models, but the quantitative analysis of metaphors and metaphorical entailments indicate significant differences in the virus image that media creates. The coronavirus image in the PRC media mainly represents as an enemy which should be fought, and can be defeated, what helps to cool down public opinion. The Russian media discourse treats the coronavirus as a surprise enemy that is dangerous, and it is not clear “how it can be won”.

Cognitive frames held by supply chain managers: implications for the management of sustainability in supply chains

Purpose Despite the growing importance and complexity of modern supply chains, little scholarly attention has been devoted to cognitive processes in supply chain management (SCM). In particular, we know little about the structure of supply chain managers’ cognitive frames and how differences between frames affect sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). Design/methodology/approach Given the relative scarcity of the topic, this paper uses a conceptual approach. Building on prior literature from cognitive psychology and related areas, it develops ideal types of cognitive frames with which supply chain managers approach sustainability-related decisions. Findings This study first develops three ideal-type cognitive frames – unidimensional, hierarchical and paradoxical. This paper then shows that it makes a difference which one of these a supply chain manager holds when addressing issues related to sustainable supply. Thereafter, this study discusses the antecedents that can explain why a manager holds a particular cognitive frame. Research limitations/implications This paper represents one of the first analyses of how the structure of a supply chain manager’s cognitive frame impacts their firm’s sustainable supply initiatives. Although developed with regard to SSCM, the arguments have implications for other management areas too, not least for the education of future SCM professionals. Originality/value Given their boundary-spanning role, attention to the cognitive processes of supply chain managers is crucial to understanding the conditions under which firms can address sustainability challenges in their supply chains.

Afterword

The Afterword reframes this volume’s questions by arguing in favour of an emphasis on the communicative properties of song as an amalgam of words and music: the functions of song and of ordinary language overlap and coalesce in human practices. In place of the polar opposites that characterise nineteenth-century theory, what is proposed is a spectrum account of the language–music relation as an embodied cognitive event: how does human cognition manage the complex territory opened up by the synchronicities of music and language? This cognitive frame rests on the assumption that human activity, however far it reaches beyond the material ecology it arose from, is essentially local and situated. Songs are artefacts, special kinds of cognitive objects which have evolved within given cultural ecologies. Such artefacts are not one-way acts of human ‘intelligence’ doing things to the world, but the material form of an ecological relationship.

On the Actualization of Peripheral Zones of Conceptual-Cognitive Frame “Woman”

The relevance of this article is determined by the increasing interest of linguists in the results and principles of actualization of gender-inclusive concepts. Theoretical basis of the study of conceptual-frame mapping of knowledge, the structure of the conceptual cognitive frame “WOMAN” and its peripheral zones: subframes “Mother”, “Wife”, “Girl”, “Daughter”, “Sister” have been outlined in this article. Each subframe has been considered separately with the reliance on the analysis of narrow distribution of taxon lexemes of conceptual-cognitive subframes as a part of collocation models with prepositive and postpositive adjuncts taken by continuous sampling from the British National Corpus of the English language. Three semantic categories in the frame structure have been distinguished in the process of the categorization of data taken by continuous sampling: physical, mental, and social parameters. A number of subcategories has been identified in each category: physical parameters – age, physical conditions and abilities; appearance, mental parameters – character, behavior, knowledge, mental abilities, emotions and feelings, sociocultural parameters – origin, nationality, race, etc. Taking into consideration their density, we were able to find out what information is prominent in the consciousness of native speakers when peripheral zones of the frame are activated. The summary data of the analysis allow us to present a general picture of actualization of the peripheral zones in the conceptual-cognitive frame “WOMAN”.

Modal Difficulty in Medieval Literature Analysis: the Frame-Notation Correlation in Dante’s Quotations of Fibonacci

The investigation of medieval literature poses a number of challenges, even to native speaker researchers. Such difficulties are related to (a) linguistic – syntactical and lexical – obstacles, (b) to the ability to recognise dense networks of interdisciplinary references and, (c) mainly to the cognitive challenges posed by “unfamiliar modes of expression”. The aim of this research is to discuss a methodological approach to deal with these unusual manners of composition, technically known as modal difficulty, in medieval literature. The theoretic setting is represented by Davide Castiglione’s monographic study Difficulty in Poetry (2018) and the specific definition of modal difficulty elaborated by James E. Vincent in the premise of his treatise on American poetry (2003). A study case illustrative of challenges in medieval literature analysis has been chosen to illustrate the speculative reasoning: the references to the celebrated mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170–1242) – known for having introduced the Arabic numbers to the Europeans – in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Preliminarily, the author discusses unfamiliar mathematical notations implemented from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Subsequently, adopting cognitive linguistics principles and hermeneutic as methodological tools, several veiled citations of the mathematician’s cogitations – such as the chess comparison in Paradise XXVIII, 91–93 and the quadratic expression in Paradise XXVII, 115–117 – are deciphered and illustrated. The analysis of Dante’s cognitive frame indicates that the recourse to Fibonacci’s formulas is functional to depict the incommensurable multitude of the divine in words. In the conclusions, the case studied is adopted as a model to illustrate how the reflection on unusual forms of expression could be employed to investigate ancient literary texts. A preliminary analysis of the frame-notation relation could help, as an example, to recognise mathematical formulas that were expressed in a verbal and non-symbolic notation.

Fikcja jako „dybuk”

Fiction as a „dybbuk”. Remarks about the „Adherence” of the Past to the Present in the Context of the Film Titled Demon Directed by Marcin Wrona The article remarks about the „adherence” of the past to the present in the context of the film, Demon directed by Marcin Wrona showing that the influence of fiction on memory brings about a lot of changes in the cognition of the relations between the past and the present. The author of the paper suggests that we could or should treat fiction as the cognitive frame of the relations between the past and the present. To be able to strengthen his hypothesis, he analyzes and interprets the film created in the horror genre, which shows complicated Jewish-Polish relations. The article is a short introduction to the theory of fiction as the cognitive frame of memory.

Frame Restructuration: The Making of an Alternative Business Incubator amid Detroit’s Crisis

Adaptive responses to crisis rely on effective cognitive frames: understanding what is going on amid unfolding crisis and what should be done to address it. Research has shown that failing to drop a routine cognitive frame exacerbates crises, while nimbly adopting a novel frame enhances resilience. This suggests that actors in crisis have an urgent dual mission: to simultaneously destroy and construct frames. Existing research offers little guidance on how actors can accomplish this in the midst of their struggles to survive threatening and disruptive circumstances. I address this shortcoming by drawing from a 22-month ethnography of a Detroit business incubator, analyzing how it gradually developed a novel diagnostic and prognostic frame of the city’s unfolding crisis. I propose and show that actors amid crisis construct a novel frame—while dismantling an old one—through a process of frame restructuration: the novel frame emerges from and co-evolves with unconventional actions that pragmatically address the exigencies of the crisis. Mutual constitution between pragmatic actions and the emergent frame can be critically propelled by the use of metaphor, which helps actors instantly reframe the context.