Sense Structure of Modal Units “Probabilmente” (“Probabile”, “Probabilità”) (in the Italian Language)

The article focuses on appropriateness’s of quantifying of information in microtext of functioning of modal units “probabilmente” (“probabile”, “probabilità”) in the Italian language. Modal units probabilmente” (“probabile”, “probabilità”) determine quantifying of information in microtext beeing nucleus and forming modal structures together with joined components. The modal structure is formed by joined components in according to the regularity rules in the pre-nuclear zone (components combined with modal units probabilmente” (“probabile”, “probabilità”) and the near-peripheral zone (components used in the modal sentence with these modal units or in adjacent sentences). The modal units “probabilmente” (“probabile”, “probabilità”) beeing prototypes of the modal meaning of epistemic probability serves as marker of modal evaluation of probability by epistemic vector based on precedent or background knowledge. The sense structure of “probabilmente” (“probabile”, “probabilità”) spread in microtext reflects measuring approach to reality made by subject of modal evaluation. In their pre-nuclear zone are used quantors, approximators, existential predicate, verbs of action semantics “avvenire”, “accadere”, “succedere”, causative connectors. The near periphery zone is characterized by sense relations of associativeness and causality between parts of modal annunciation. In their near periphery zone are used causative connectors of consequence “perché”, “poiché” and mental predicates of point of view “credere”, “supporre”. Verbs of action semantics “avvenire”, “accadere”, “succedere”, “provare”, “argumentare” are combined with verbs of processual mental activity “spiegare”, “capire”. Such parameters of microtext as spread of perceptive, emotive, volitive, evaluative vectors are not determined because there is no explicit contradiction between situational information and precedent or background knowledge of the subject of modal evaluation. The modal units “poco probabile” (“poco probabilmente”, “poca probabilità”) are markers of diminishing of grade of probability by epistemic, volitive and evaluative vector; microtext usually verbalizes partial contradiction between subjective idea and real situation. The using of quantor “poco” in their pre-nuclear zone that determines low grade of epistemic probability make these modal units to be modal structures and causes parameters of microtext to be more determined in comparison with prototypical modal units. In such case volitive and evaluative vectors of microtext are often verbalized and contain binary causal antonymic structures. In the near periphery zone are used lexical units meaning incapacity, fallacy of proofs, unsuccess, uncontrollability, negative evaluation. The modal units “molto probabile” (“molto probabilmente”, “moltа probabilità”) are markers of increasing of grade of probability by epistemic, volitive and evaluative vector; microtext usually verbalizes concordance between subjective idea and real situation. The using of quantor “molto” in their pre-nuclear zone that determines high grade of epistemic probability make these modal units to be modal structures. In such case volitive and evaluative vectors of microtext are often verbalized and contain binary causal complemental structures including information about proofs of modal evaluation of the point of view of probability. In their near periphery zone are used verbs of choose (“scegliere”, “optare”, “preferire”) often in Conditional Mood, lexical units meaning effectiveness and positive evaluation. The volitive vector of microtext beeing verbalized contains information about capability, effectiveness, advisability. The evaluative vector of microtext beeing verbalized contains lexical units of positive evaluation and Conditional Mood. The annunciations with modal units containing high degree of probability express epistemic state of the subject of modal evaluation that approaches to knowledge. The hypothesis introduced in such annunciation has tendency to be proved and is based not on a precedent or background knowledge but on a system of values.

On the Boundaries between Decision and Action: Effector-selective Lateralization of Beta-frequency Power Is Modulated by the Lexical Frequency of Printed Words

Current computational and neuroscientific models of decision-making posit a discrete, serial processing distinction between upstream decisional stages and downstream processes of motor-response implementation. We investigated this framework in the context of two-alternative forced-choice tasks on linguistic stimuli, words and pseudowords. In two experiments, we assessed the impact of lexical frequency and action semantics on two effector-selective EEG indexes of motor-response activation: the lateralized readiness potential and the lateralization of beta-frequency power. This allowed us to track potentially continuous streams of processing progressively mapping the evaluation of linguistic stimuli onto corresponding response channels. Whereas action semantics showed no influence on EEG indexes of motor-response activation, lexical frequency affected the lateralization of response-locked beta-frequency power. We argue that these observations point toward a continuity between linguistic processing of word input stimuli and implementation of corresponding choice in terms of motor behavior. This interpretation challenges the commonly held assumption of a discrete processing distinction between decisional and motor-response processes in the context of decisions based on symbolic stimuli.

Teaching semantics and skills for human-robot collaboration

Recent advances in robotics allow for collaboration between humans and machines in performing tasks at home or in industrial settings without harming the life of the user. While humans can easily adapt to each other and work in team, it is not as trivial for robots. In their case, interaction skills typically come at the cost of extensive programming and teaching. Besides, understanding the semantics of a task is necessary to work efficiently and react to changes in the task execution process. As a result, in order to achieve seamless collaboration, appropriate reasoning, learning skills and interaction capabilities are needed. For us humans, a cornerstone of our communication is language that we use to teach, coordinate and communicate. In this paper we thus propose a system allowing (i) to teach new action semantics based on the already available knowledge and (ii) to use natural language communication to resolve ambiguities that could arise while giving commands to the robot. Reasoning then allows new skills to be performed either autonomously or in collaboration with a human. Teaching occurs through a web application and motions are learned with physical demonstration of the robotic arm. We demonstrate the utility of our system in two scenarios and reflect upon the challenges that it introduces.

Library of actions: Implementing a generic robot execution framework by using manipulation action semantics

When a robot has to imitate an observed action sequence, it must first understand the inherent characteristic features of the individual actions. Such features need to reflect the semantics of the action with a high degree of invariance between different demonstrations of the same action. At the same time the machine needs to be able to execute the action sequence in any appropriate situation. In this study, we introduce a new library of actions, which is a generic framework for executing manipulation actions on robotic systems by combining features that capture action semantics with a framework for execution. We focus on manipulation actions and first create a generic representation consisting of symbolic and sub-symbolic components. To link these two domains we introduce a finite state machine allowing for sequential execution with error handling. The framework is developed from observing humans which provides us with a high degree of grounding. To quantitatively evaluate the scalability of the proposed approach, we conducted a large set of experiments involving different actions performed either individually or sequentially with various types of objects in different scene contexts.

Scenario Based Test Case Generation Using Activity Diagram and Action Semantics

Scenario is an account of description of user interaction with the system, presented in a sequence. They can be represented using unified modeling language (UML) diagrams such as use case diagram, state charts, activity diagrams etc. Scenario-based testing can be performed at higher abstraction level using the design diagrams. In this work activity diagrams are used which are annotated with action semantics to test scenario dependencies. The action semantics make activity diagram executable and the dependencies between multiple scenarios can be seen at execution level. The authors intend to propose an approach for scenario dependency testing. Dependency graphs will be then generated against all the dependencies present on activity diagram under test. The test paths extracted from these dependency graphs help in testing.