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In this paper I examine the foundations of physical externalism and social externalism and argue that these foundations are incompatible. Physical externalism is based on a direct reference theory of natural-kind terms, while social externalism is based on a description theory of natural-kind terms. Thus, physical externalism and social externalism are incompatible just in the same way that the direct reference theory of proper names is incompatible with the description theory of proper names. My argument will proceed as follows. In Section One, I shall explain what the two theses say and spell out my suspicion. In Section Two, I shall take a look at the initial setups for physical externalism and social externalism by examining Putnam's and Burge's original arguments. Finally in Section Three, I shall explain that the real incompatibility comes to lie in the different assumptions on which the two theories are based. I will present some thought experiments to highlight this incompatibility.

Cohesive devices play a significant role in shaping the meaning of written and oral messages. Many researchers have analysed such devices in English. On the other hand, the need to explore them in Urdu still exists. This paper aims to juxtapose devices used to achieve cohesion in Urdu and English texts by tracking down the affinities and differences between them. Moreover, it points out the issues and difficulties which arise on account of cohesive devices while translating Urdu into English or conversely. The paper contains the study of reference and ellipsis in short stories of Urdu and English using Halliday frame work of cohesive devices in English. Apart from the qualitative analysis of the selected texts of Urdu and English, a quantitative research has also been carried out to gauge the problems encountered by the translators for the differences in reference and ellipsis in English and Urdu text. The results show that reference system in Urdu text is more intricate than the English text. Moreover, the quantitative research reveals that most of the students translated the source text poorly where ellipsis and reference appeared. The research is significant for it would set the directions for further empirical researches in the area of translation studies. Moreover, it may be helpful in drawing the attention of teachers and students towards the role of cohesive devices in translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical construct of functional reference is the main tool used by animal communication researchers to explore how animals refer to the world in the absence of a language. Functionally referential signals are commonly defined as signals elicited by a specific class of stimuli and capable of causing behaviors adaptive to such stimuli in the absence of contextual cues. I will argue that this definition is conceptually flawed and propose an alternative definition according to which signals can functionally refer to things that rarely cause them while relying on the essential contribution of contextual cues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, building reference speech corpora was an important part of the activities which provided the necessary linguistic infrastructure in many European countries, for languages with many speakers (e.g., French, German, Spanish, Italian) as well as for those with smaller numbers of speakers (e.g., Swedish, Dutch, Czech, Slovak). This paper describes the process of the creation of a reference speech corpus and its distribution to potential users, as it was done in the case of the Slovene corpus GOS. The corpus structure and fieldwork experiences with recording, labelling system, and two levels of transcription (pronunciation-based and standardized) are described, as well as the main characteristics of the corpus interface (web concordancer) and the availability of the original corpus files. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to discuss the narrative as a methodological device within a clinical setting for psychological intervention. The authors present the narrative as a process of meaning of the experiences. It is always achieved within a cultural context and generates a specific relational proposal towards the interlocutor. From the psychological and clinical point of view, the interest of this contribute concerns the several possibility of transformation of the narrative process, as the goal is not the production of coherent and well packaged narratives. In order to understand complexity and dynamics of the narrative process is necessary to assume perspectives able to capture aspects, specific processes and dynamics of signification. In the light of these intentions, directions for study and use of narratives as a clinical tool are presented in this work. Starting from the contribution of the semiotic disciplines, narrative is observed through different axes of signification (paradigmatic, syntagmatic, pragmatic, pathemic axis) along which it is possible to observe the meaning making through the organization of the text. Furthermore, the distinction between history, telling and narrative/discourse is used in psychological terms to distinguish between different hermeneutics frames and the activating of specific psychological functions (referential, plot and enunciation). This distinction is used to grasp and discuss the reflexive processes and the processes of transformation of the relation between continuity/discontinuity in order to mean experiences and subjective implication within relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This squib aims to show that the acceptability status of sluicing examples with an implicit antecedent in islands varies and discusses what is responsible for this variability. After investigating two representative structural approaches to sluicing that posit unpronounced structure in ellipsis sites, namely, Chung et al.’s (Nat Lang Semant 3:239–282, 1995 ; in Mikkelsen et al. (eds) Representing language: Essays in honor of Judith Aissen, 2010 ) LF-recovery analysis and Merchant’s ( The syntax of silence: Sluicing, islands, and identity in ellipsis. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001 ) PF-deletion analysis, we demonstrate that the acceptability data presented are challenging for both of them. Acceptable sluicing examples with implicit correlates in islands cast doubt on Chung, Ladusaw, and McCloskey’s strict locality requirement, while unacceptable or degraded sluicing examples necessitate additional constraints for Merchant, who employs E-type anaphora as an escape hatch for island violations in sluicing. The gradient nature of the acceptability status of the examples under discussion calls for a non-structural factor that controls their acceptability. We speculate that it is discourse activation of implicit correlates that plays this crucial role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philologica is the property of Charles University Prague, Karolinum Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Highlights: [•] Locations are specified in memory by intrinsic structures of a spatial layout. [•] We showed that this is also the case when the layout is learned solely by touch. [•] The role of intrinsic structures is likely universal in spatial learning and memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The possibility and utility of the use of the Russian term, referensnyi, in Russian texts in metrology as an equivalent of the English term, reference, are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları is the property of Turk Dunyasi Arastirmalari Vakfi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study deals with the analysis of certain aspects regarding the issue of referents in evolving context. The focus is on the extent to which referential phrases 'evolve' at the same time as the referent does - in other words, on whether the use of a linguistic expression in relation to a referent that underwent various modifications points at its ontological changes or, in some situations, the discursive linguistic context selects certain 'evolving' phrases. The verbal strategies by means of which the evolving referent is emphasised either maintain the state it had prior to its transformation, or highlight the new state of the referent by means of anaphoric phrases. The corpus consists of excerpts from fictional texts or injunctive texts (culinary recipes), textual types that best mirror the linguistic processes involved in building evolving referents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] How French-speaking children with SLI take into account the degree of shared knowledge when first mentioning a referent. [•] We both study linguistic units and their position in syntactic constructions used for first mentions. [•] Children with SLI produce less appropriate first mentions than typical children. [•] Children with SLI produce more left dislocations and less presentational constructions than typical children. [•] Children with SLI present morphosyntactic and pragmatic deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Two studies investigated the role of the number of referents and of animacy in children's use of referential expressions. [•] English-speaking four-year-olds are sensitive to both the number of previously mentioned and linguistically available referents. [•] Animacy congruency leads to the use of repeated Noun Phrases even in the absence of gender congruency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Participates in the debate about a possible “East-West divide” in politeness. [•] Finds Chinese requests not to be as direct as has been argued in the literature. [•] Finds Chinese requests to be similar to Japanese and American English requests. [•] Proposes that East and West are not as different in politeness as it has been argued in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a critical discussion of Putnam's early work on the analytic-synthetic distinction, this article discusses seven contributions that Putnam has made to the philosophy of language. These contributions are (1) to understanding the role of definitions in science and in ordinary discourse; (2) to recognizing the role of stereotypes in explaining meaning; (3) to acknowledging the minimal role of explicative understanding in having linguistic competence with natural kind words; (4) to distinguishing sharply between identifying natural kinds and determining their more fundamental natures; (5) to exploring a division of linguistic labour - a role for social interaction in determining reference, especially of natural kind terms; (6) to establishing a broadly unified causal account of the reference of ordinary natural kind terms and scientific physical magnitude terms; and (7) to reviving a conception of scientific language that allows for trans-theoretical reference and one sort of trans-theoretical meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lady Victoria Welby was born to an era when women were challenging their station as summarily subject to the discretion of the dominant male proprietors. The furtive soil of women's liberation had been enriched by the quill and fountain of epic female figures such as Abigail Adams (1744-1818, First Lady of the United States of America between, 1797-1801, promoted property rights for women), Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797 - Vindication on the Rights of Women, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters), and Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935 - The Home: Its Work and Influence). The Victorian period witnessed the burgeoning of a female authority in public consciousness with vigorous support from public figures such as John Stewart Mill (1806-1873 - The Subjection of Women), who openly rejected inequality between sexes, and John Ruskin (1819-1900), who urged women to 'abandon trivial feminine pursuits in order to act as a moral force in countering the ills of society' (Ruskin, Of Queen's Gardens, Sesame and Lillie, 1865). It is, therefore, not astonishing that Lady Victoria Welby's authority among semioticians emerged from her endeavours interpreting scriptures. Moral gatekeeping was fast becoming a female authority widely respected, though most prominently within the confines of the private sphere. Women were socially groomed to manage the family's moral code, shape children's character, and nurture the husband's honorable conduct (Meyrowitz 1985: 200). However, respect for women's particular authority and power within the private sphere was limited and remained ancillary to the dominance of the masculine paradigm. Though common sensibility has changed toward women's mobility within the public sphere, the socio-operative dynamics of power between genders remains asymmetrical, the scale tipped decidedly in favour of the masculine domain. Given that the social world operates to a significant degree within the ambit of symbolic elocutions, there has never been a better moment in history to apply Lady Victoria Welby's theory of significs to examine the contemporary subordination of women, and Susan Petrilli's publication of Welby's correspondence is nothing short of timely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate citation practices are important, from both an ethical and a scientific point of view. Using an easily reproducible, previously published method, we assess citation accuracy in 120 articles published in the first half of 2011 and listed under ‘Physical Geography’ in Thomson Reuters’ ISI Web of Knowledge Science Citation Index. Our results indicate that at least 19% of citations in physical geography do not provide clear support for the statements they are meant to support. These results are in line with previously published findings for ‘field-orientated’ sciences. We propose that both authors and editors help remedy this problem, by employing more rigorous writing and editing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new view on switch-reference, a phenomenon commonly taken to involve a morphological marker on a verb indicating whether the subject of this verb is coreferent with or disjoint from the subject of another verb. I propose a new structural source of switch-reference marking, which centers around coordination at different heights of the clausal structure, coupled with distinct morphological realizations of the syntactic coordination head. Conjunction of two VPs has two independent consequences: First, only a single external argument is projected; second, the coordinator head is realized by some marker A (the 'same subject' marker). Conjunction of two vPs, by contrast, leads to projection of two independent external arguments and a different realization of the coordination by a marker B (the 'different subject' marker). The hallmark properties of this analysis are that (i) subject identity or disjointness is only indirectly tied to the switch-reference markers, furnishing a straightforward account of cases where this correlation breaks down; (ii) switch-reference does not operate across fully developed clauses, which accounts for the widely observed featural defectiveness of switch-reference clauses; (iii) 'same subject' and 'different subject' constructions differ in their syntactic structure, thus accommodating cases where the choice of the switch-reference markers has an impact on event structure. The analysis is mainly developed on the basis of evidence from the Mexican language Seri, the Papuan language Amele, and the North-American language Kiowa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that, as an empty category, the null object in the null object construction in Mandarin Chinese is subject to a number of factors, such as the classification of verbs, thematic roles the null object bears, and the referentiality of the object. It is further contented that the null object construction should not be the same as the sentences derived from VP-ellipsis with the verb shi (be), from which interesting properties of the null object construction are scrutinized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to investigate the relationship of self-reference to other-reference in the discourse of institutional press releases focusing on headlines. For the purposes of the study, two key political actors were selected – the European Commission and the British government, namely their environmental departments. Corpora of more than 70 press releases from each organization have been compiled to compare the degree of self-centredness as demonstrated by foregrounding and backgrounding linguistic techniques, with particular focus on how syntactic-semantic structures are allocated to social actors. The analysis shows that while there is a significant level of similarity as far as allocation of agency and prominent linguistic structures related to self-reference is concerned, there are stark differences in terms of the space and prominence of linguistic structures allocated to the other social actors, personality and directness of reference, and the intensity of self-promotion by frequent repetition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Neohelicon is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article borrows from the German scholar Gottlob Frege the idea of linguistic meaning as a combination of sense and reference and attempts to put it to work in the translation of several excerpts from English into Romanian, with the twofold purpose of verifying its usefulness in the practice of translation and its status as a potential point of departure for a semantic model of the translation process. After presenting the content of a previous article dealing with the application of Frege's idea in the translation of noun phrases, this article continues the same research direction with two other linguistic categories identified by Frege, predicates and sentences, and concludes by stating that a modified version of the Fregean notions of sense and reference can be useful in the theory and practice of translation and should be further researched. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the interplay of aspect and quantity in the Finnish system of object-marking the opposition between the partitive object and the (morphologically heterogeneous) total object plays a central role. The received view holds that the partitive object indicates incompleteness of the event in one way or another: it is used if the event does not take place at all (negation); if the aspect is unbounded; or if the quantity of the object referent is open (unbounded). The total object is used in affirmative sentences that indicate bounded aspect together with a closed quantity affected in full. Recent grammars have crystallized the three conditions of the partitive into a hierarchy of decreasing strength: negation > aspect > quantity: negation triggers the partitive irrespective of both aspect and quantity, and unbounded aspect triggers it irrespective of quantity. The article elaborates the hierarchy and argues that the aspectual function of the partitive is in fact not monolithic but consists of three different sub functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multimodal documents, different types of cohesive or cross-reference link (i.e., signaling) are used in the text to link verbally coded content with the graphical material. In this study, we identify three types of reference, within the framework of previous work on cohesion (Halliday & Hasan, 1976): directive signaling, descriptive signaling, and no signaling in the text to introduce the figure. In an experimental study, we use eye tracking to investigate how those three reference types influence the processing of the material by humans. The results reveal differences between the reference types both in terms of eye movement parameters and retention of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Switch-reference is commonly regarded as a typologically special, and structurally isolated, mechanism of clause linkage. This view, however, is challenged by the data on clause linkers in Lakota, which have previously been analyzed either as coordinators or as switch-reference markers. The corpus-based investigation of their functional and semantic features conducted in this study reveals that Lakota clause linkers exhibit characteristics of both coordinators and switch-reference markers. The hybrid status of these elements is best accounted for in a model in which switch-reference is redefined as one of several subcomponents of the principle of discourse cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Body parts have played an important role in the development of theories describing grammaticalization processes (Heine and Kuteva, 2002, pp. 62–63 and 165–171). Within Uralic linguistics, this particular area of study has not yet received a great deal of attention, although the agglutinative character of most of these languages is known to have resulted in a large number of postpositions that are derived from a nominal basis. This paper will focus on body parts as the basis of grammaticalization processes in Mordvin, and compare these findings with expected development paths. For in a recent study, (Suutari, 2006) it is argued that Finno-Ugric languages in some respects do not follow the standard grammaticalization paths. An important part of this paper will therefore be to see whether the developments in Mordvin are in line with these recent findings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the analysis of the two versions of narrative that chronicles the prankster stories of Zimmerman using interactional sociolinguistics. It compares performative version with one that feels is more like a summary, with particular focus on the differences in narrative evaluation using reference, deixis and contextualization cues. The author argues that both versions work to construct and negotiate identity as a person that values cleverness.

The immediate purpose of this note is to provide counterexamples to Francois Recanati's claim in Direct Reference that descriptive names (a name whose reference is fixed by an attributive definite description) are created with the expectation that we will be able to think of the referent nondescriptively at some point in the future. The larger issue is how to reconcile the existence of descriptive names with the theoretical commitments Recanati takes direct reference to have. The point of the claim about the expectation of future knowledge of the referent is to make it plausible that uses of descriptive names are not literal, since a literal use ought to express a singular proposition rather than one involving a descriptive mode of presentation; it is argued that this route to reconciliation will not work.

The article presents the results of a research project aimed at evaluating the role of reader response and the use of examples in the writing procedures used by university students. Two sessions were held. In the first one, 36 writers described a figure and a route on a map; in the second, the writers were divided into three groups: DM: 12 writers modified their descriptions on the basis of examples of similar procedures and of drawings made by 12 readers; D: 12 writers modified their texts on the basis of the drawings made by 12 readers; and SDSM: 12 writers made changes without having seen either drawings or examples. Groups DM and D produced more precise descriptions. The paper discusses the relevance of analyzing writing interactions with respect to the purpose and complexity of the task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes how contemporary referencing software, a tablet device and speech-recognition software were used to improve the traditional research workflow, referring primarily to the process of finding journal articles, downloading the bibliographical details with full text, then reading and annotating them in an as efficient way as possible. This was done using Third Street's Sente referencing software on an Apple Mac to manage the bibliographical database and to automatically synchronise with its companion application on the iPad, then using the built-in tools of the Sente application on the iPad to highlight any text in the article that is of particular interest. The highlighted passages were automatically synced back to the Apple Mac application, and the researcher then used Nuance's Dragon Dictate on the Apple Mac to dictate a summary of the article directly into the notes field in Sente or into the notepad of Dragon Dictate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two recent lines of research suggest that explicitly naming objects at study influences subsequent memory for those objects at test. Lupyan (2008) suggested that naming impairs memory by a representational shift of stored representations of named objects toward the prototype (labeling effect). MacLeod, Gopie, Hourihan, Neary, and Ozubko (2010) and MacLeod, Ozubko, Forrin, and Hourihan (submitted for publication) suggested that naming enhances memory by influencing the distinctiveness of named objects (production effect). However, these studies cannot be directly compared because they differ in several procedural details such as the format of the naming task, composition of study objects from different categories, control task, and type of lures used at test. Here we systematically manipulate those factors to better understand how using object names influences visual recognition memory. When objects belonged to unique categories, vocal naming (as used in the production effect) produced comparable memory as a non-naming task (preference rating) and both produced significantly better memory than key-press naming (as used in the labeling effect). Naming objects at study only impaired memory relative to preference rating when objects belonged to one of two categories, a condition in which names have little or no distinctiveness. Theoretically, our results pose challenges to the representational shift account that proposes special mechanisms tied to the use of object names. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper we combine topological and dynamicity analysis with other parameters like reference frames, animacy, and function, in order to depict the polysemy of two prepositions that express spatial relationships along the horizontal axis, namely, "opposite" and "in front of". Our method consists of manual corpus analysis of 200 examples of each one of these particles from the COCA and BNC. The sense of each preposition in context has been classified according to a network of senses which includes a proto-concept, from which other senses are cognitively derived. In addition, frames of reference and degrees of animacy provide semantic contrasts between the prepositions under analysis. Finally, metaphorical senses can be described as cognitively derived from the previous parameterized senses, by means of mappings across domains (Lakoff, 1993). A first approximation to different senses is based on standard dictionaries. We claim that our analysis provides both native speakers and foreign learners with a coherent explanation of the polysemy of these items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the beginning was the triangle, the apostles of semiology say. In arguing for a semiological approach to literature, this paper highlights first that the consecrated semiotic triangle seen in perspective proves to be a pyramid, with its faces consisting of minimal semiotic triads; it then suggests that the pyramidal semiotic constructs within a given context project the figure of infinite semiosis; finally, it proposes an illustration of the literal, process of signification using the alchemical image of the clepsydra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the expression of past temporal reference in a highly conservative variety of Acadian French spoken in the Baie Sainte-Marie region of Nova Scotia, Canada. Variationist analysis of data from a sociolinguistic corpus for the village of Grosses Coques reveals a split between narrative and conversational discourse, with variation mainly between use of the passé simple and the imparfait in the former and between the passé composé and the imparfait in the latter. The passé simple remains in robust use in this variety and is constrained in a manner similar to that found in 17th-century representations of colloquial speech involving narration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper studies the metaphorical time orientation in Chinese along its horizontal and vertical axes. It will focus, however, on the controversy over its horizontal axis, readdressing the issue regarding whether the Chinese ego faces toward the future or past in metaphorical orientation of time. It is interesting to note that there exist three different views on this issue. To reinforce the view that future is in front of ego and past is behind ego in Chinese, the paper argues that in analyzing data it is important to make two crucial distinctions. The first distinction, extensively discussed in the literature, is between Ego-Reference-Point (Ego-RP) and Time-Reference-Point (Time-RP). The second related distinction, which has been largely ignored, is between Time-Referent (Time-R) and Human-Referent (Human-R). The study shows that once these two distinctions are made, the seemingly contradictory linguistic data will fall into places that form a coherent metaphorical system. The purpose of making these distinctions is to avoid confusion between past and future on the one hand and anteriority and posteriority on the other. It is hoped that this study contributes to the recent efforts to build a comprehensive framework of temporal reference frames applicable to the study of spatial construal of time in languages and cultures in general. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Variation in language reception and production is one of the enduring problems of second language acquisition research. There are a number of sources of variation in L2 production. The present study addresses gender-prompted variation in the use of reference terms. Reference deals with the links between words and objects or events in the world. In discourse analysis, reference is use to tackle the links between words (or phrases) and other words (or phrases) in discourse. Reference terms are operationalized by using lexical noun phrases, common nouns, personal pronouns, indefinite articles, propositional phrases and the like. For the purpose of data collection forty EFL intermediate students (20 male students and 20 female students) participated in the preset study. Each participant transacted the narrative task in monologic condition with the second researcher. The results of the statistical analyses revealed that there have been significant differences between the mean of male group and female group in the use of reference terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examines the effects of body-object interaction (BOI) on eye gaze behaviour in a reading task. BOI measures perceptions of the ease with which a human body can physically interact with a word's referent. A set of high BOI words (e.g. cat) and a set of low BOI words (e.g. sun) were selected, matched on imageability and concreteness (as well as other lexical and semantic variables). Facilitatory BOI effects were observed: gaze durations and total fixation durations were shorter for high BOI words, and participants made fewer regressions to high BOI words. The results provide evidence of a BOI effect on non-manual responses and in a situation that taps normal reading processes. We discuss how the results (a) suggest that stored motor information (as measured by BOI ratings) is relevant to lexical semantics, and (b) are consistent with an embodied view of cognition (Wilson 2002). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial amount of recent work in natural language generation has focused on the generation of ''one-shot'' referring expressions whose only aim is to identify a target referent. Dale and Reiter's Incremental Algorithm (IA) is often thought to be the best algorithm for maximizing the similarity to referring expressions produced by people. We test this hypothesis by eliciting referring expressions from human subjects and computing the similarity between the expressions elicited and the ones generated by algorithms. It turns out that the success of the IA depends substantially on the ''preference order'' (PO) employed by the IA, particularly in complex domains. While some POs cause the IA to produce referring expressions that are very similar to expressions produced by human subjects, others cause the IA to perform worse than its main competitors; moreover, it turns out to be difficult to predict the success of a PO on the basis of existing psycholinguistic findings or frequencies in corpora. We also examine the computational complexity of the algorithms in question and argue that there are no compelling reasons for preferring the IA over some of its main competitors on these grounds. We conclude that future research on the generation of referring expressions should explore alternatives to the IA, focusing on algorithms, inspired by the Greedy Algorithm, which do not work with a fixed PO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This response discusses the experiment reported in Krahmer et al.'s Letter to the Editor of Cognitive Science. We observe that their results do not tell us whether the Incremental Algorithm is better or worse than its competitors, and we speculate about implications for reference in complex domains, and for learning from ''normal' (i.e., non-semantically-balanced) corpora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article published in this journal (van Deemter, Gatt, van der Sluis, & Power, 2012), the authors criticize the Incremental Algorithm (a well-known algorithm for the generation of referring expressions due to Dale & Reiter, 1995, also in this journal) because of its strong reliance on a pre-determined, domain-dependent Preference Order. The authors argue that there are potentially many different Preference Orders that could be considered, while often no evidence is available to determine which is a good one. In this brief note, however, we suggest (based on a learning curve experiment) that finding a Preference Order for a new domain may not be so difficult after all, as long as one has access to a handful of human-produced descriptions collected in a semantically transparent way. We argue that this is due to the fact that it is both more important and less difficult to get a good ordering of the head than of the tail of a Preference Order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and knowledge organization in Brazil has been historically influenced by theoretical linguistics. However, some aspects related to language theory and its interface with philosophy need to be further investigated, particularly the semiotic interpretation of information and knowledge organization processes. In order to advance a dialogue with the philosophy and semiotics of Charles Peirce (1839-1914), a theoretical and bibliographical study was carried out so as to understand and evaluate the contributions of the Peircean thought to information organization. It was found that several aspects of Peirce's work, viewed as a whole and not just semiotic concepts, suggest fundamental points to explain issues in information and knowledge organization. Basing on the analysis of Thellefsen's studies, this research presents some arguments aimed at reframing Peirce's pragmatism, which should no longer be mistakenly considered as a doctrine of practical results, but as a useful methodological approach for professionals dealing with knowledge organization in the field of Information Science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the ways through which semiosis in general and cinematic semiosis in particular reach toward the "exo-semiotic" realm. It attempts a meta-semiotic and epistemological approach, based on Ferdinand de Saussure's tradition of semiotics, and particularly on Louis Hjelsmlev's model of the sign-function, as introduced in his 1954 essay "La stratification du langage". It investigates the sign-function's relations to its referent and to its expressive materials, and then attempts to apply Hjelmslev's model to cinema. 1 hope to achieve the double aim of re-situating some lingering debates in cinema theory, while also exemplifying some questions regarding semiosis in general. The paper starts by summarizing the main axes of Saussure's definition ot the sign and its formalisation by Hjelmslev. It then shows how the de-essential isation of semiosis leads to significant re-arrangements of the traditional premises with regards to the sign's relation to both the referent and the expressive medium. Finally, it surveys the central issues that formed the discipline of the semiotics of cinema, stressing the conventionality of the cinema sign-function and the heterogeneity of its expression-plane. The paper thus shows that Saussure's and Hjelmslev's insights with regard to general semiotics can assist in untangling theoretical misunderstandings with regard to how cinema functions, while understanding cinematic semiosis can contribute to deepening and enriching our understanding of the function of semiosis in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Employing the morphosemantic identity approach of Inkelas and Zoll (2005) and Inkelas (2008), this paper presents data from Yoruba showing that morphological reduplication is compounding, and that this compound structure is primarily governed by semantics, which may require similarity, near-similarity or dissimilarity of compound members. On this view, several cases of reduplication patterns that have been treated as separate and unrelated in Yoruba can be seen as a unitary phenomenon. The analysis of these patterns is shown to naturally extend to the analysis of a special class of reduplicated homonym-synonyms, an extremely common pattern seen in poetic word play. In spite of the general success of the morphological approach, some patterns still require a prosodic rather than a morphological analysis. These patterns counter-exemplify the theory's strong claim that partial and total reduplication are morphologically constrained. They show that morphologically induced reduplication must be distinguished from prosodically induced reduplication (Pulleyblank 2009). By keeping these two entities distinct, reduplication can target either or both simultaneously. Finally, specifying the context of reduplication requires direct reference to phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and thus demonstrates the multidimensionality of reduplication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examined the impact of various components of rater training on the accuracy of rating behavior using Direct Behavior Rating-Single Item Scales (DBR-SIS). Specifically, the addition of frame-of-reference and rater error training components to a standard package involving an overview and then modeling, practice, and feedback was investigated. In addition, amount of exposure to the direct training component (i.e., number of practice and feedback opportunities) was evaluated, and the rates at which behavior was displayed were carefully manipulated to control for and evaluate training impact by target and rate of behavior. The sample consisted of undergraduate students assigned to one of 6 possible conditions. Overall findings suggested that completion of a training package did result in enhanced accuracy when using DBR-SIS to rate academic engagement and disruption. However, results also supported that the most comprehensive package of DBR training may not always result in greater improvements over a standard package involving direct training. In general, a more intensive training package appeared beneficial at improving ratings for targets that had previously been difficult to rate accurately (e.g., medium rate disruptive behavior). Limitations and implications for future research are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This article contributes to the recently arising CA-for-SLA (Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition) inquiry by demonstrating how an understanding of interactional practices may inform our understanding of language learning. The target interactional practice examined in this article is a set of referential practices, particularly for establishing initial recognitional reference of a third person or object when the name or a relevant lexical item for the target referent is not available to the speaker. Based on close examination of sequential organization of a set of practices for achieving mutually understood reference in casual conversations between L1 and L2 English speakers, the study shows how structural opportunities for language learning are generated in interaction, which serves to broaden our understanding of the relationship between certain interactional practices and learning opportunities afforded in such practices. The issue of participants’ orientation to such sequential environments as learning opportunities is also discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Within the Givenness Hierarchy framework of Gundel, Hedberg, and Zacharski (1993), lexical items included in referring forms are assumed to conventionally encode two kinds of information: conceptual information about the speaker's intended referent and procedural information about the assumed cognitive status of that referent in the mind of the addressee, the latter encoded by various determiners and pronouns. This article focuses on effects of underspecification of cognitive status, establishing that, although salience and accessibility play an important role in reference processing, the Givenness Hierarchy itself is not a hierarchy of degrees of salience/accessibility, contrary to what has often been assumed. We thus show that the framework is able to account for a number of experimental results in the literature without making additional assumptions about form-specific constraints associated with different referring forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]