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The contrasting differences that exist in the English and Cantonese phonological systems result in divergent articulatory production between them. This article aims to investigate the negative transfer of Cantonese EFL learners in acquiring English consonant clusters and the constraint rankings of Cantonese and English syllable systems by comparing syllable structures and analyzing experimental statistics. The objective is to elucidate the reasons behind their negative transfer in English syllable acquisition. The research results demonstrated that Cantonese EFL learners found it easier to acquire consonant clusters in the onset position compared to the coda position. Additionally, an increase in consonants in the coda position posed greater difficulties for Cantonese EFL learners. The results also indicated that participants encountered the most problems with deletion, followed by substitution and epenthesis. The OT analysis reveals that the different rankings of faithfulness and markedness constraints in Cantonese and English led to transfer errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 'Must We Mean What We Say?', Stanley Cavell defends the method of ordinary language philosophy while arguing that the special status of philosophical claims about language arises from the fact that these statements are expressions of self-knowledge. Recently, Nat Hansen (2017) has explored Cavell's position in relation to empirical research on linguistic usage. This paper challenges Hansen's reading of Cavell, and presents an alternative interpretation that withstands some of Hansen's objections. For Cavell, claims about 'what we say' are claims about observable matters of fact, but nevertheless they are not, and cannot ever be, observation-based claims. The point of observing ordinary usage is to remind the philosopher of what is contained within the practical mastery that she already possesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been growing interest in methodological issues of non-ideal theoretical philosophy. While some explicitly commit to non-ideal theorising, others doubt that there is anything useful about the ideal/non-ideal distinction in theoretical philosophy. The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, I propose a way of doing non-ideal theoretical philosophy, once we realise how limited certain idealised projects are. Since there is a big overlap between projects that are called non-ideal and applied, the second aim is to distinguish between these categories in order to show that applied theoretical philosophy is only worth pursuing if it operates in a non-ideal framework. I argue that we should be pluralistic about possible non-ideal theories and view the ideal/non-ideal differences as a matter of degree, rather than kind. As an example, I show how my version of non-ideal theory is useful to a concrete debate in philosophy of language. My proposal allows us to identify already existing non-ideal approaches to linguistic meaning and encourages us to further engage in the debate on non-ideal theoretical philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polysemy has recently emerged as a popular topic in philosophy of language. While much existing research focuses on the relatedness among senses, this article introduces a novel perspective that emphasizes the continuity of sense individuation, sense regularity, and sense productivity. This new perspective has only recently gained traction, largely due to advancements in computational linguistics. It also poses a serious challenge to semantic minimalism, so I present three arguments against minimalism from the continuous perspective that touch on the minimal concept, the distinction from homonymy, and the quasi‐rule‐like nature of polysemy. Last, I provide an account of polysemy that incorporates this continuous perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by heritage language and translanguaging theory, this ethnographic case study explores how a young second-generation Chinese American student used Mandopop lyrics to enhance her heritage language learning at home. Over six months, the mother, also the researcher collected 61 audio recordings of the student’s readings and singing of Mandopop, as well as translingual conversations between them. Supplemented with the researcher’s field notes, the analysis revealed significant improvements in the student’s pronunciation, Mandarin word recognition, oral language skills, and vocabulary. These improvements subsequently increased her oral translingual practices. Additionally, discussions about Mandopop lyrics enhanced the student’s higher-level thinking and understanding of her heritage culture. Overall, Mandopop lyrics effectively promote the student’s bilingual and biliteracy development. This study underscores the role of Mandopop lyrics in incorporating deep cultural elements, fostering bilingualism, and enhancing biliteracy. By engaging with Mandopop, the student connects with her heritage culture and improves her linguistic abilities in a meaningful and enjoyable way, highlighting the potential of music as a valuable tool in heritage language education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trans/Form/Ação is the property of Trans/Form/Acao 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.)

Assertive advertising messages, such as "You must try our taco!" are ubiquitous in the hospitality industry. However, the effectiveness of assertive language as a food advertising strategy is not well understood. Drawing on language expectancy theory, this research examines how language assertiveness shapes consumers' responses to food advertisements featuring organic versus conventional food. Findings reveal that assertive (vs. nonassertive) language boosts consumers' intentions to purchase organic food, whereas nonassertive (vs. assertive) language increases consumers' intentions to purchase conventional food. Furthermore, our mediation analysis reveals that brand competence inference serves as the psychological mechanism underlying the impact of language assertiveness and food type on purchase intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend the theory of profinite algebras, as it is used in the algebraic theory of regular languages, to the more general setting of Stone topological algebras with the ultimate goal of going beyond classes of regular languages. We introduce Stone pseudovarieties, that is, classes of Stone topological algebras of a fixed topological signature that are closed under taking Stone quotients, closed subalgebras and finite direct products. Looking at the dual Stone spaces of Boolean algebras of subsets of a given topological algebra, we find a simple characterization of when the dual space admits a natural structure of topological algebra; the characterization is given in terms of how the Boolean algebra behaves under the inverses of the operation evaluation mappings of each arity. This provides an alternative, which is presented in the form of an equivalence of categories, to the duality theory of M. Gehrke. As an application, a Stone quotient of a Stone topological algebra that is residually in a given Stone pseudovariety is shown to be also residually in it, thereby extending the corresponding result of M. Gehrke for the Stone pseudovariety of all finite algebras over discrete signatures, which was recently extended to topological signatures jointly by the authors and H. Goulet-Ouellet. The residual closure of a Stone pseudovariety is thus a Stone pseudovariety, and these are precisely the Stone analogues of varieties. A Birkhoff type theorem for Stone varieties is also established and it is shown how Reiterman's theorem can be derived from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of paradigm has been used extensively in many areas of linguistics throughout the past century, such as language education or historical linguistics. It is therefore quite surprising that paradigms have mostly been disregarded when it comes to cognitive language theories. Recently however, more and more researchers have started to advocate for the introduction of paradigms into cognitivist frameworks to be able to account for certain phenomena in language that would be hard to explain otherwise. But whilst there is agreement on which phenomena could best be explained through the notion of paradigm, there is a lot of disagreement regarding the way in which paradigms would be mentally represented, and how they would relate to the rest of the mental lexicon. This paper will discuss a few reasons to believe that paradigms are part of our grammar, present two previously proposed examples for modelling paradigms from a cognitivist perspective, highlight possible issues regarding their psychological plausibility, and explore how further research on modelling paradigms could be aided through an alternative domain-general approach which proposes that paradigms are cognitively equivalent to non-linguistic categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review synthesizes the literature (involving 62 empirical studies) regarding the effectiveness of cognitive linguistics‐inspired language pedagogies (CL‐ILPs) on second language (L2) learning. It begins with an overview of the main theoretical tenets of cognitive linguistics followed by a description of the data selection, coding, and analysis. Then, besides noting a sharp increase of research on CL‐ILPs in the past 20 years, the review presents four main findings: (a) While various language features have been taught in CL‐ILPs, the teaching targets of CL‐ILPs have been mainly low‐schematic constructions, such as phrasal verbs and prepositions, but a few recent studies have explored the teaching of clause‐ or sentence‐level structures including conditional clauses, (b) conceptual metaphor, cognitive grammar, construction grammar, and cognitive semantics have been the main guiding cognitive linguistics theories applied in language teaching, and the hallmark teaching practices of CL‐ILPs include the use of technology‐supported or technology‐delivered visuals, schemas, and diagrams; embodied activities; and group and/or pair work, (c) methodologies used in CL‐ILP research have become increasingly sophisticated, and (d) CL‐ILPs have been found to be effective in 93.5% (i.e., 58) of the 62 reviewed studies covering learners of different age groups, first languages, and learning contexts. These findings are discussed to uncover insights concerning CL‐ILP research. Pedagogical implications and future research directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes new knowledge about how, prior to formal education, young children can develop ‘translingual practice' – dispositions, assumptions, and strategies for achieving shared understandings despite interlocutors’ linguistic differences. It engages with linguistic perspectives from the Global South to explore translingual practice in ‘Dovubaravi', a small, rural, Indo-Fijian community in Fiji. Eleven young Dovubaravi children, their mothers and extended families participated across two years. Qualitative ethnographic data included semi-structured conversations with mothers about their goals for their children’s language learning, photograph elicitation, audio- and video-recordings of naturalistic interactions, and field notes. The findings indicate the mothers hope their children will become adept translingual practitioners, and that Dovubaravi speakers demonstrate translingual dispositions, assumptions, and strategies in familial interactions with and around young children. The article draws on language socialisation theory to explain how young Dovubaravi children develop their translingual practice by observing and actively participating in routine familial interactions with translingual features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Is This (Becoming) a Theory of Second Language Acquisition?: A Commentary on 'Complexity and Difficulty in Second Language Acquisition: A Theoretical and Methodological Overview'" by Jonas Granfeldt from Lund University discusses the concepts of complexity and difficulty in second language acquisition research. The author argues that while focusing on difficulty may enhance the research agenda in second language acquisition, the concept itself may not be helpful. The article explores how complexity and difficulty relate to development and proficiency in language acquisition, highlighting the need for clear definitions and further research in this area. [Extracted from the article]

This paper investigates the complexity of real functions through proof techniques inspired by formal language theory. Productiveness, which is a stronger form of non-recursive enumerability, is employed to analyze the complexity of various problems related to real functions. Our work provides a deep reexamination of Hilbert's tenth problem and the equivalence to the identically 0 function problem, extending the undecidability results of these problems into the realm of productiveness. Additionally, we study the complexity of the equivalence to the identically 0 function problem over different domains. We then construct highly efficient many-one reductions to establish Rice-style theorems for the study of real functions. Specifically, we show that many predicates, including those related to continuity, differentiability, uniform continuity, right and left differentiability, semi-differentiability, and continuous differentiability, are as hard as the equivalence to the identically 0 function problem. Due to their high efficiency, these reductions preserve nearly any level of complexity, allowing us to address both complexity and productiveness results simultaneously. By demonstrating these results, which highlight a more nuanced and potentially more intriguing aspect of real function theory, we provide new insights into how various properties of real functions can be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explored teacher–student interactions in foreign language teaching classes in China, aiming to identify ways to improve these interactions. Data were collected through 180 min of unstructured observations in two teaching classes. The study found that the frequency of interactions varied among teachers. After analysing the data with a language socialisation theory, the study revealed the factors that affected teacher–student interactions in foreign language classes in China: firstly, the concept of an equal teacher–student relationship is the precondition of teacher–student interactions; secondly, paying attention to both language acquisition and culture acquisition is the foundation of teacher–student interactions; thirdly, a good English acquisition context is one of the critical elements of conducting teacher−student interactions. The study delivered suggestions to promote teacher–student interactions based on English education in China. As there are many similarities in the English education policy and pedagogy between countries in Asia, the findings of the current study can be referenced by other Asian countries as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset and progression of a neurological disease can often be explained in terms of brain-network alteration. They can be formalized as the action of an operator representing the disease, the so-called /C-operator, acting on the network. The healing process can thus be seen as the inverse of the disease mechanism. However, perfect healing is often impossible to achieve. Here, we formalize the ideal healing in terms of perturbative variation of the possible partial healing. The modeling and analytical strategy is based on techniques from theoretical physics, with the language of matrix operators. In addition, using the language of category theory, we also formalize the progressive abstraction from the reality of diseased patients to the definition of a disease and the comparison between different diseases as a natural transformation between colimits. This theoretical presentation can provide a new, interdisciplinary perspective on neurological investigation and possibly foster new theoretical-experimental developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this text I briefly describe the main trends in the analytic philosophy of language in the 21st century. Among the most important developments that influenced the way in which the philosophy of language is done I mention experimental philosophy and conceptual engineering. Among the new topics I highlight the social and political turn of the analytic philosophy of language with its focus on gender terms, slurs, fig leaves, dog whistles and other linguistic phenomena that have significant societal impact. I also mention the debate between semantic minimalism, contextualism and relativism, which has its roots in earlier philosophy but which has been very lively in the first quarter of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poetry and philosophy have had a close but uneasy relationship in the western tradition. Both share an eschewal of the discovery of novel facts, but are somewhat opposed in that discovery is a central aim of poetry, but not at all the aim of philosophy. Through a close reading of W.H. Auden's 'In Memory of W.B. Yeats' and a versification of part of G.E. Moore's 'A Defence of Common Sense', I argue that what poetry shows corresponds, in a broadly symbolist sense, to Wittgenstein's understanding of the miraculous nature of the world. In this regard, poetry can offer philosophy clarity, in the form of its tonal architecture, value, and ethics, and may also constitute a perspicuous representation. Poetry remains in a perpetual mode of potential, as well as being possessed of a vatic autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of a study of the difference between political actors and ordinary citizens as language users, and based on three moral arguments (consequence-based, recognition-based, and complicity-based), we propose that democratic representatives have an imperfect duty to use gender-fair-language in their public communication.In the case of members of the executive, such as ministries, prime ministries, and presidents, such an imperfect duty could also be justified on democratic grounds. Their choice of using a gender-unfair language, we argue, can cast doubts on the fundamental democratic commitment to respect the agency of all present and future citizens as potential participants in the law-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the text reviewer's beliefs about the use of the expression "já que" in academic genres. The analysis is based on Spolsky's Language Management Theory (2004, 2009, 2021). Regarding methodological approach, this research is qualitative in nature and fits into an interpretive paradigm, as described by Angel Lin (2015). An online questionnaire was prepared and answered by ten Brazilian textual reviewers. As the results, the following two main beliefs regarding this expression were identified: first, it is understood as less formal, and consequently less suitable for the academic genres than other cohesive elements; second, it is understood as semantically imprecise or generalizing, being suggested to be replaced in academic texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite abundant scholarship on Theodor W. Adorno's theoretical writings, his musical compositions have been largely overlooked. This article uses the example of his 1944 song cycle Vier Lieder nach Gedichten von Stefan George to argue that Adorno's music stands in dialectical relation to his philosophy. The German symbolist poet Stefan George is given pride of place not only in Adorno's compositions but also in his writings: he returned to George as a subject four times over the course of three decades. It is argued here that Adorno brought two seminal aspects of his work together musically decades before he rendered them in prose, placing George at their intersection: his theory of the relationship between music and language, and his theory of the lyric. Answering Adorno's call for the listener to become a "compositional partner" in making sense of his music, I use his own methods of interpretation to examine how music serves as an alternative means of cognition to philosophical. I begin with an immanent analysis, examining the structure of each song and its relationship to the cycle as a whole without recourse to Adorno's philosophy. I then outline his theoretical explanation of both music and lyric before reinterpreting the cycle in light of the dialectic between subject and object that he discusses. Finally, I propose that the sociological critique that Adorno did not fix in prose arises from the interplay between music and language within the 1944 cycle, giving voice to the social context from which it arose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originally formulated as a theory of perception, ecological psychology has shown in recent decades an increasing interest in language. However, a comprehensive approach to language by ecological psychology has not yet been developed, as there is neither a naturalist philosophy of language nor one that takes ecological psychology as its scientific background. Our goal here is to argue that a subject naturalist and non-factualist framework can open the possibility of an expressivist analysis of perceptual judgments that is compatible with the ecological understanding of perception, showing that such utterances do not work as descriptions of facts or states-of-affairs, but rather say something about the practical requirements necessary to display a perceptual vocabulary. We will also argue that this approach allows an understanding of perceptual content as clusters of socially-mediated affordances. If our proposal is sound, it would constitute a first and fruitful approximation toward establishing a naturalist link between embodied cognitive science and philosophy of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current social and technological scenario, the term digital is abundantly used with an apparently transparent and unambiguous meaning. This article aims to unveil the complexity of this concept, retracing its historical and cultural origin. This genealogical overview allows to understand the reason why an instrumental conception of digital media has prevailed, considering the digital as a mere tool to convey a message, as opposed to a constitutive conception. The constitutive conception places the digital phenomenon in the broader ground of media studies, and it considers digital technologies as an interface between the subject and the world. In this perspective, the media is not added to the experience of the person, but it shapes it from within on a cognitive, expressive and communicative level. The article makes use of two powerful examples to show the shortcomings of an instrumental conception of the digital, and to affirm the value of a constitutive conception for current media studies regarding digital interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combinatorial properties of Fibonacci words and arrays are now a popularly studied concept in formal language theory. One such property is the palindromic property of words and arrays. In this paper, we construct algorithms to generate the involutive Fibonacci words and involutive Fibonacci arrays and to check, if a given word is involutive Fibonacci or not. We verify the algorithms using python programming. And we investigate the number of palindromes present in the sequences of involutive Fibonacci words and involutive Fibonacci arrays which has various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trans/Form/Ação is the property of Trans/Form/Acao 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.)

Construal level theory states that the psychological distance to events and objects affects their construal level. But how do humans get to the psychological distance in the first place? We argue that language plays a key role. Communicating a distance typically requires a particular measurement unit, and the distance and its resolution affect the perceived psychological distance. There is an important difference between an invitation to a wedding on August 3rd and next summer. To substantiate our claims, we replicate the BIF task (n = 358) and the open-ended activity descriptions (n = 357) from Liberman and Trope (1998), and the concreteness in New York Times articles (n = 15,075) from Bhatia and Walasek (2016). We show the added value in understanding the effect of communicating distances, spotlighting its relevance for academic work that studies construal based on language or uses construal to explain further social situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the role of input in bilingual phonological acquisition is revealing for deciphering the workings of language acquisition processes. Input and usage distributional frequencies guide and differentiate speech sound acquisition patterns cross-linguistically. Such processes are operant in first- and second-language acquisition. There is an under-representation of investigations on how context-specific input in bilingualism influences the early acquisition of rhotics in child developmental speech longitudinally. This study addresses the gap by tracing a Greek/English bilingual girl's rhotic development between ages 2;7 and 3;11, utilizing naturalistic data during daily interactions with an adult interlocutor. The study reports and schematically illustrates the child's bilingual usage frequencies, informing language choice in her production variables, which demonstrate, quantitatively and qualitatively, the effects of context-specific input on rhotic accuracy levels and substitution patterns in both languages. Specifically, distributional frequencies in the input govern the child's phonemic and phonetic tendencies in the languages. Findings are compared with previous reports in the literature and enhance language acquisition theory, revealing the pivotal role of input in the dynamic interplay with developmental universals, language-specific tendencies, transfer, and individual variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While translanguaging has gained significant traction as a theory of language that holds implications for educational settings with students from various language backgrounds, its viability in content assessment remains an unresolved issue. Students in English-medium instruction (EMI) programs at a private university in Türkiye participated in content exams that did not impose any language constraints, and follow-up interviews were conducted to probe into the participants' language-related EMI experiences and the factors that affected their language use in their responses. Student reports showed that L1 was used by instructors to explain complex concepts or when students' comprehension was challenged. Students used both English and L1 materials for studying, and in group and individual work, a mix of English and L1 was common, driven by the aim of cognitive efficiency and overcoming language barriers. In the content exams, both monolingual and translingual practices were employed by the participants, and their language use was mainly associated with relative proficiency in L2, encoding-retrieval match, and compartmentalization of languages. The study demonstrates that students encounter challenges in L2 comprehension and production in lessons and exams and that offering language flexibility in content exams may serve as a temporary accommodation that allows fuller expression of content knowledge, particularly in time-constrained exams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tabayyun is the property of Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies 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.)

Says-based definitions of lying require a notion of what is said. I argue that a conventions-based notion of utterance content inspired by Korta and Perry's (in: Tsohatzidis (ed), John Searle's philosophy of language: Force, meaning, and thought, Cambridge University Press, 2007a) locutionary content and Devitt's (Overlooking conventions. The trouble with linguistic pragmatism, Springer, 2021) what is said meets the desiderata for that theoretical role. In Sect. 1 I recall two received says-based definitions of lying and the notions of what is said that have been proposed for them. In Sect. 2 I recall the desiderata that a notion of content must fulfil in order to cover the role of what is said in says-based definitions of lying. In Sect. 3 I discuss the points that Korta and Perry's locutionary content and Devitt's what is said have in common with respect to the centrality that linguistic conventions have for the constitution of utterance contents. In Sect. 4 I argue that a conventions-based notion of utterance content meets the desiderata for the role of what is said in says-based definitions of lying and has some important advantages over the notions of what is said that have been so far proposed. In Sect. 5 I point out the impact that the debate over the definition of lying has on the semantics/pragmatics divide in philosophy of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study examines preschool educators’ language ideologies and use in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) classrooms for young emergent multilinguals labeled with disabilities (EMLWDs). EMLWDs require services supporting both their linguistic and disability needs; however, current policies either address their linguistic or disability needs. One equity-oriented approach for preparing EMLWDs is through inclusive DLBE. Educators’ language ideologies can enhance or constrain EMLWDs’ access to equitable multilingual spaces. For example, educators’ misconceptions regarding the bilingualism of EMLWDs restrict their access to DLBE. Therefore, there is limited research concerning EMLWDs conducted in preschool DLBE settings. This study aims to fill this literature gap by focusing on educators’ language ideologies and use for EMLWDs in preschool DLBE classrooms, using language ideology and language policy theories, as well as Disability Studies in Education perspective. As an ethnographic study, the data were collected via participant observations, interviews, and recording classroom interactions. The interview data were analyzed using a constant-comparative method, and the video data were analyzed following Erickson’s five-step inductive approach. The findings revealed educators’ three primary language ideologies: multilingual language ideologies, heteroglossic language ideologies, and ideologies that reinforced English dominance. Educators’  language use revealed English as the dominant language and translanguaging for several purposes, such as to scaffold children’s understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strong predictor of children's language is performance on non‐word repetition (NWR) tasks. However, the basis of this relationship remains unknown. Some suggest that NWR tasks measure phonological working memory, which then affects language growth. Others argue that children's knowledge of language/language experience affects NWR performance. A complicating factor is that most studies focus on school‐aged children, who have already mastered key language skills. Here, we present a new NWR task for English‐learning 2‐year‐olds, use it to assess the effect of NWR performance on concurrent and later vocabulary development, and compare the children's performance with that of an experience‐based computational model (CLASSIC). The new NWR task produced reliable results; replicating wordlikeness effects, word‐length effects, and the relationship with concurrent and later language ability we see in older children. The model also simulated all effects, suggesting that the relationship between vocabulary and NWR performance can be explained by language experience‐/knowledge‐based theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a review of "Language, Mind and Value" by Severin Schroeder, a book that delves into various topics in philosophy, particularly those related to Wittgenstein's philosophy. The book contains fifteen papers that cover areas such as language, mind, action, aesthetics, ethics, and religion. The reviewer highlights the concept of "nonsense" in philosophical criticism and the discussion of aspect-perception as particularly interesting points in the book. They also mention some criticisms of Schroeder's arguments and interpretations. The article references three academic articles that explore the concept of seeing aspects and its significance in philosophy, providing valuable insights for researchers interested in this topic. [Extracted from the article]

The categorical concepts, tools, and techniques advanced not only the theory of automata and languages but also developed the theory of fuzzy automata and languages and played a significant role in many other branches of theoretical computer science. Unlike theory of classical/fuzzy automata with output and their languages, this paper aims to incorporate the concept of fuzziness and roughness together in the theory of automata with output and their languages, to introduce the concepts of crisp deterministic automata with fuzzy rough output, and fuzzy rough language and study their categorical aspects. We have shown that the crisp deterministic automata with fuzzy rough outputs and fuzzy rough languages, along with their morphisms, respectively, form categories CDAFRO and FRL. We have also shown the existence of a functor between the categories CDAFRO and FRL. The categorical concepts of product and coproduct of a subfamily of object-class, equalizer, and coequalizer of a pair of parallel morphisms in category CDAFRO are studied. Finally, for a given fuzzy rough language, a minimal crisp deterministic automaton having fuzzy rough output recognizing it is constructed using the fuzzy generalization of foremost Myhill–Nerode's theory of automata and languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holmberg (Holmberg, Anders. 2005. Is there a little pro? Evidence from Finnish. Linguistic Inquiry 36(4). 533–564) and its revised version in Holmberg et al. (Holmberg, Anders, Aarti Nayudu & Michelle Sheehan. 2009. Three partial null-subject languages: A comparison of Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, and Marathi. Studia Linguistica 63(1). 59–97) derive the availability of null subjects in a given language from the interaction between T with/without a D(efiniteness)-feature and the features of subject pronouns. Their theory predicts the existence of consistent null subject languages, whose T has the D-feature, and partial null subject languages, whose T lacks the D-feature. This paper examines this D-feature approach to null subjects against the empirical evidence provided by Brazilian Portuguese, a partial null subject language, and European Portuguese, a consistent null subject language, showing that it cannot account for the range of microvariation observed with respect to different null subject pronouns and the type of T (finite vs. participle vs. gerund). We argue that, in comparison, the ellipsis account of null subject licensing put forward in Martins and Nunes (Martins, Ana Maria & Jairo Nunes. 2021. Brazilian and European Portuguese and Holmberg's 2005 typology of null subject languages. In Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen & Luisa Meroni (eds.), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2018. Selected papers from "Going Romance" 32, Utrecht, 171–190. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins) fares better. It retains from Holmberg (Holmberg, Anders. 2005. Is there a little pro? Evidence from Finnish. Linguistic Inquiry 36(4). 533–564 et seq.) the insight that the licensing of null subjects depends on the interaction between the features of T and the features of subject pronouns but resorts only to ϕ-features and Case. Crucially, it relies on the (theoretically and empirically) plausible assumption that the relation between abstract ϕ-features and verbal agreement morphology need not be transparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to explore the linguistic "pragmatic" awareness in Wittgenstein, particularly since his perspective on language embodies a philosophical, linguistic, and communicative consciousness of great significance. Wittgenstein's thinking about language has taken a long trajectory throughout his life, actively engaging with the nature of form, image, and content as articulated in his early and later theories. His awareness and interests in language have manifested in various ways according to specific usage contexts. Based on this central observation, this study aims to define the framework of the approach we wish to develop between linguistics and philosophy, taking into account the effects of influence and functional interaction within the conceptual and productive apparatus of each. Contemporary analytical philosophy, by assigning language an active role as a method for analyzing various philosophical, linguistic, and intellectual texts and issues, and linguistics, as a critical turning point in contemporary studies, crystallizes communication and interaction through its foundational structure based on various fields of knowledge, particularly philosophy, as a conceptual key for any possible linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge. Wittgenstein's analytical philosophy of "ordinary language" serves as an excellent title for this philosophical-linguistic overlap, emphasizing the spoken linguistic expression as the sole or prominent evidence that reveals meaning solely through it, due to the mediation of the triadic relationship between (text - usage - understanding). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the notion of positive strong amalgamation property and we investigate some universal forms and properties of this notion. Considering the close relationship between the amalgamation property and the notion of complete theories, we explore the fundamental properties of positively complete theories, and we illustrate the behaviour of this notion by bringing changes to the language of the theory through the groups theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Nietzsche’s theory of language, which has an essential connection with other epistemological, aesthetic, and social claims present in his work. It is argued that language is the result of perspectival and relative constructions of human beings. For this reason, one cannot speak of absolute or universally valid truths within language, but only of conventional forms and interpretations: accounts of reality, but not objective facts. It is shown that this Nietzschean claim takes important elements from the philosophy of Friedrich Lange, a famous 19th-century philosopher of science and founder of neo-Kantianism in Germany. Nietzsche takes Lange’s concepts of Organisation and Dichtung for some central developments of his own theory of language in the early stages of his thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spoken sentences have parts. Therefore they take time to speak. For instance, when you say, 'Socrates is running', you begin by uttering the subject term Socrates, before carrying on to the predicate. But are the corresponding thoughts also composite? And are such thoughts extended across time, like their spoken counterparts? Peter Abelard gave an affirmative response to both questions. Alberic of Paris denied the first and, as a corollary, denied the second. Here, I first set out Abelard's account. I then present a series of arguments against Abelard, reconstructed from (sometimes fragmentary) manuscripts associated with Alberic's school. I conclude with an observation about present philosophy of language: this twelfth-century debate points to some undefended (and largely unstated) assumptions common to more recent thinking about propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Wittgenstein's theory of ordinary language use and Lamin Sanneh's insights into the effects of biblical translations in vernacular languages, this essay examines how the translation process in Niu Tireni (New Zealand/Aotearoa) in the 1830s contextualized or indigenized Christian concepts of the sacred/holy (tapu), the price (utu) paid by Christ for the sin of the world, and God's forgiveness (muru) due to that sacrifice (utu). Through translation, therefore, Christian scripture was changed, or acquired new cultural referents. On the Māori side of the translation process, the result of reapplying fundamental Māori concepts to Christian narratives and theological categories was to re-map the Māori mental universe—so that it, also, was not the same as it was before the translation came into being. Through translating the scriptures into the indigenous tongue, they had become a Māori (native/indigenous) possession. In so doing, however, the original cultural framework had flexed towards—if not become drastically reformed by—a biblical understanding of sacred and redemptive time and the actions of a Supreme Creator/Te Atua acting within human history but neither identical with that history nor with creation itself. Nevertheless, we are also presented with a picture of intersecting but not always corresponding meanings as the result of cross-cultural translation—with creative misunderstandings or an epistemic "middle ground" (following Richard White) of multiple meanings being one of the inevitable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do language models (LMs) do with language? They can produce sequences of (mostly) coherent strings closely resembling English. But do those sentences mean something, or are LMs simply babbling in a convincing simulacrum of language use? We address one aspect of this broad question: whether LMs' words can refer, that is, achieve "word-to-world" connections. There is prima facie reason to think they do not, since LMs do not interact with the world in the way that ordinary language users do. Drawing on the externalist tradition in philosophy of language, we argue that those appearances are misleading: Even if the inputs to LMs are simply strings of text, they are strings of text with natural histories, and that may suffice for LMs' words to refer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linguistic meaning of a word in a language is what fully competent speakers of the language have a grasp of merely in virtue of their semantic competence. The meanings of words sometimes change over time. 'Meat' used to mean 'solid food', but now means 'animal flesh eaten as food'. This type of meaning change comes with change of topic, what we are talking about. Many people interested in conceptual engineering have claimed that there is also meaning change where topic is retained. For example, they claim that the meanings of 'fish' and 'pasta' have undergone such change, and that the meaning of 'marriage' would change this way after gay marriages become legal and widely accepted. In this paper, I relate two sets of relatively independent literatures: mainstream philosophy of language and conceptual engineering to argue that on a plausible and widely accepted Minimalist view of meaning that is part and parcel of anti‐descriptivism, none of the above sorts of cases involve meaning change with topic retention. I do this by showing how to distinguish minimalism about meaning from the related theses of externalism and anti‐individualism about intension and how to separate meaning from intension in a way that allows meaning and topic to remain the same despite changes in intension. The larger lesson is that much like we should not disregard the boundary between the narrowly meaning‐related ('semantics') and the more broadly communication‐related ('pragmatics'), and we should not disregard the boundary between the former and the more broadly thought‐related, conceptual or cognitive ('cognition'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our ordinary assertions are often imprecise, insofar as the way we represent things as being only approximates how things are in the actual world. The phenomenon of assertoric imprecision raises a challenge to standard accounts of both the norm of assertion and the connection between semantics and the objects of assertion. After clarifying these problems in detail, I develop a framework for resolving them. Specifically, I argue that the phenomenon of assertoric imprecision motivates a rejection of the widely held belief that a semantic theory for a language associates a single semantic value with each of the simple and complex expressions of that language, relative to the contexts in which they occur. Instead, I propose that we adopt a framework I call semantic pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amie Thomasson's Norms and Necessity offers a non-factualist theory of the language of metaphysical necessity, centering on the idea that statements of necessity express semantic norms. This article identifies a potential problem for the view by distinguishing two kinds of conditional necessity, investigates a solution derived from a well-known parallel pair of conditional necessities in deontic logic, but finds it is not up to the job. The last part of the paper suggests a different route, largely in keeping with the underlying ideas behind Thomasson's approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The irrationalist and vitalist options in the philosophy of the early twentieth century find in María Zambrano a liminal proposal. The author proposes a double movement: archaizing in order to renew the model of a philosophy saturated with formulas and without experiential content. To do so, she reads Plato, the father of Greek rationalism, through her acute hermeneutics to demonstrate that the birth of philosophy is methodologically congruent with mystical experience. Both philosophy and mysticism are models of liberation of the soul in search of truth, understood as transcendent reality. Both start from the multiplicity of being to coincide in the unity of the permanent. Both are also sources of knowledge for the common man who can approach the divine by means of his decision and will. Thus, in her main texts we find the arguments to recover the lost spirituality and to move into the experience of the sacred through the articulation of poetic reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore a set of convergence points between Foucault's and Wittgenstein's perspectives on philosophy and language, integrating them into a mutually complementary approach that I term 'practical critique.' The concept of 'practical critique' is founded on three pillars: the understanding of philosophy and language as critical practices, the public nature of language, and confessional subjectivity. I examine these three areas of convergence across three subsequent sections. In the concluding section, I discuss how this perspective can be fertile for understanding democratic politics today. I argue that all three pillars predominantly support democratic politics over any other political form. To explain that, I engage with the debate on the language of democratic theory and the potential expansion of the understanding of the public sphere. The notion of the public that emerges from this perspective offers an alternative or supplementation to the classical Habermasian view of the public sphere and democratic theory. It is envisioned as an open space of discursive multiplicity and diversity, where practices of exclusion or oppression can be made visible, challenged, and resisted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language is crucial for adapting to society, and learning different languages enhances human efficiency. Learning a second language involves acquiring any language in addition to one's native language. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has two meanings, generally, it describes the process of learning a second language, and more specifically, it refers to the theory of how a second language is acquired or picked up. Second language learning demands considerable effort and practice. Stephen Krashen, a prominent linguist, has conducted extensive research on non- English and bilingual language acquisition. Krashen's theory of second language learning is founded on five major hypotheses, the Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis, the Natural Order Hypothesis, the Monitor Hypothesis, the Input Hypothesis, and the Affective Filter Hypothesis. Given its broad scope and significant impact on language teaching approaches, Krashen's Second Language Acquisition theory is better described as a theory rather than merely a hypothesis. However, like all scientific theories, it continues to be refined and debated in scholarly circles. This article explores Krashen's theories of Second Language Acquisition and provides justifications for referring to them as theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disruption of contemporary representative democracies in the reflection of the public will in legal-political systems has led to the rotation of the formal system of transfer of power to the informal system, depleting democracy and confronting contemporary societies with numerous crises, including the crisis of legitimacy. This article examines the concept of constitutional Power and the constitutional form in Jürgen Habermas's legal philosophy in order to determine the ideal system of exercising power. The paper argues that the concept of the constitutional Power must be embedded in a constitutional theory that can explain the difference between legitimate law and the mere use of power. Accordingly, Habermas a participatory democracy based on structural principles including a world life outside control of government and market, a public sphere based on communicative actions and the principles of behavior including legitimate law that has passed the filter of public discourse, realization of the ethics of discourse including freedom, equality and absorption and the backgrounda of modern society with Self- founded Reason prescribe foundation as a solution to crises of contemporary societies. Habermas's theory can convincingly state the general conditions of constitutionalism and legitimate legislation that exercise private and public autonomy in the legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the long-lingering question of the truth value of certain propositions in the modern philosophy of language, Rudolf Carnap has shed light on it from a Pragmatic point of view. The perspective of Pragmatics proposed by Jef Verschueren coincides with Carnap's theory. It's true that all aspects of language use reflect the pragmatic considerations of language users, especially when it comes to the use of multi-modality verbs. Revealing the pragmatical essence and principles of the use of multi-modality verbs will contribute to fullfilling the requirements of usefulness, fruitfulness, and simplicity. Ultimately, through the variability and negotiability of language, the adapted pragmatical effect can surely be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food Is Heaven, written by Ge Liang (2022), has achieved phenomenal success since its publication. The innovative use of vernacular and classical Chinese, vivid narration of food, and multilingual interactions among characters have introduced readers to translanguaging aesthetics. Translanguaging, as a methodological and theoretical framework of language communication and human cognition (Li, 2011a, 2011b, 2018, 2022a), is regarded as a literary device in Food Is Heaven. The lens of translanguaging emphasizes multisensory, multimodal, multisemiotic, and multilingual communication, fostering creative and critical approaches to meaning-making by transcending the boundaries of semiotic and linguistic divides. Literary works, serving as imaginative reflections of daily practices, bridge the gap between reality and imagination, embracing creative and aesthetic narrations in their meaning-making. However, few studies have explored literary works in light of translanguaging. This article aims to explore how translanguaging is employed as a literary device through a case study of the phenomenal Chinese book Food Is Heaven, written by Ge Liang (2022). Through the lens of translanguaging, we examine the creativity and criticality of the writer’s innovative language philosophy, exploring how translanguaging is employed to break linguistic and semiotic boundaries, offering readers an embodied reading experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of »realism« has resurged in contemporary literary debates, driven by calls for literature and theater to engage more deeply with its political responsibilities. Following its prominence in the 1930s and 1960s, the past two decades have seen renewed calls for a more realistic approach in German literature. Authors like Matthias Politycki have advocated for »relevant realism« in novel writing, while Milo Rau has called for »global realism« in theater and Bernd Stegemann has extolled the virtues of realism. But what exactly makes it the case that words and performances can impact or change reality? In these old and new literary debates there is usually no recourse to advanced linguistic theories, no spelling out, at least not in detail, of how the influence of literature or theater on the world and our reality should or is taking place. All these approaches are, of course, based on a certain idea of what language is, can, and should be but it remains, in most cases, implicit. I propose making them explicit and expanding our conceptual repertoire when discussing the relationship between language and reality to better understand how particular authors and theorists believe literature should fulfill its political role. Specifically, I suggest complementing the post-structuralist view of language, which is prevalent in literary theory, with categories from analytic philosophy of language, including the positions of Quine, Davidson, and Rorty. Notably, I introduce the concepts of representationalism, antirepresentationalism, dualism, and holism. These categories, I argue, provide a more effective framework for understanding both post-structural and analytic approaches to the relationship between language and reality. I illustrate my claim by referring to the debate between Searle and Derrida over Derrida's »Il n'y a pas de hors-texte« and the debate in analytic philosophy of language over dualism vs. holism as prominently exposed by Quine, Davidson, and Rorty. Furthermore, employing these categories reveals significant aspects of past and present literary debates that were previously hidden and are worth understanding. I analyze the implicit assumptions about the intersection of language and reality in Bernd Stegemann's approach and in the debate over realism between György Lukács and Bertolt Brecht, to which Stegemann refers. Brecht and Lukács differ not only in their interpretations of Marxism and their aesthetic beliefs but also fundamentally in their views on language and its connection to epistemology and political action. Understanding this additional layer of differences offers valuable insights also for contemporary analysis and theory-making. The primary goal of this article is to uncover perspectives that have been previously obscured in literary debates by applying concepts from analytic philosophy. Importantly, I am not suggesting a direct historical influence or connection between these fields. Rather, I am offering a systematic lens claiming that by using my proposed categories, we can enhance our understanding of the nexus between language and reality at large and improve our ability to critically engage with historical and contemporary literary debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]