The lepidopteral imaginary that animates Nabokov's relationship to translation can be understood in light of Deleuze and Guattari's notions of ‘apparatus of capture’ and ‘rhizomatic becomings’. On the one hand, Nabokov's scientific fascination with butterflies frames his radically literal approach to translation. The scientific dissection of texts and butterflies ‘captures’ an original and singular content as it flutters, reducing it to the homogenised content of a target source. On the other hand, in Speak, Memory's engagement with ‘multiple metamorphoses, familiar to (...) butterflies’, Nabokov as both literary artist and autobiographical personage becomes-butterfly with translation itself, entering into affective intensities with butterflies that include lepidopteral relations of movement and rest, speed and slowness. (shrink)

Current textbooks in formal semantics are all versions of, or introductions to, the same paradigm in semantic theory: Montague Grammar. Knowledge of Meaning is based on different assumptions and a different history. It provides the only introduction to truth- theoretic semantics for natural languages, fully integrating semantic theory into the modern Chomskyan program in linguistic theory and connecting linguistic semantics to research elsewhere in cognitive psychology and philosophy. As such, it better fits into a modern graduate or undergraduate program in (...) linguistics, cognitive science, or philosophy. Furthermore, since the technical tools it employs are much simpler to teach and to master, Knowledge of Meaning can be taught by someone who is not primarily a semanticist. Linguistic semantics cannot be studied as a stand-alone subject but only as part of cognitive psychology, the authors assert. It is the study of a particular human cognitive competence governing the meanings of words and phrases. Larson and Segal argue that speakers have unconscious knowledge of the semantic rules of their language, and they present concrete, empirically motivated proposals about a formal theory of this competence based on the work of Alfred Tarski and Donald Davidson. The theory is extended to a wide range of constructions occurring in natural language, including predicates, proper nouns, pronouns and demonstratives, quantifiers, definite descriptions, anaphoric expressions, clausal complements, and adverbs. Knowledge of Meaning gives equal weight to philosophical, empirical, and formal discussions. It addresses not only the empirical issues of linguistic semantics but also its fundamental conceptual questions, including the relation of truth to meaning and the methodology of semantic theorizing. Numerous exercises are included in the book. (shrink)

The way language as a human faculty has evolved is a question that preoccupies researchers from a wide spread of disciplines. In this book, a team of writers has been brought together to examine the evolution of language from a variety of such standpoints, including language's genetic basis, the anthropological context of its appearance, its formal structure, its relation to systems of cognition and thought, as well as its possible evolutionary antecedents. The book includes Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch's seminal and (...) provocative essay on the subject, 'The Faculty of Language,' and charts the progress of research in this active and highly controversial field since its publication in 2002. This timely volume will be welcomed by researchers and students in a number of disciplines, including linguistics, evolutionary biology, psychology, and cognitive science. (shrink)

By accepting the above proposals for translating tenses it appears possible to achieve a very general account of the interpretation of Warlpiri adjoined clauses. Moreover, if the analysis is correct it would provide an interesting example of natural language generalizing across tenses and NPs, since what we would have is a single syntactic construction whose interpretation varied according to whether an NP or a tense were translated with a distinguished variable. These results thus serve to pose once again the question (...) of where precisely the common features of tenses and NPs reside. Recent work applying model-theoretic techniques to natural language semantics may well provide an answer. Thus in Dowty (1979) and Larson and Cooper (1980) NPs and tenses both denote the same sort of set-theoretic object, viz., sets of sets. Within generalized quantification theory this is just to say that both NPs and tenses denote quantifiers (cf. Barwise and Cooper, 1981, for much illuminating information on quantifiers and natural language). It may thus be possible to view the interpretation of Warlpiri adjoined clauses as a case of natural language generalizing across the semantic type of quantifiers. (shrink)

Highly accessible and intelligently composed textbook introduction to the field of semantics with suggested readings.

Growing literature has linked attention bias variability to the experience and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Unlike assessments of attention bias in only one direction, A...

Legal, medical, and public health professionals have been complicit in creating and maintaining systems that drive health inequities. To ameliorate this, current and future leaders in law, medicine, and public health must learn about racism and its impact along the life course trajectory and how to engage in antiracist practice and health equity work.

S. Ulam asked about the number of nonisomorphic projective algebras with k generators. This paper answers his question for projective algebras of finite dimension at least three and shows that there are the maximum possible number, continuum many, of nonisomorphic one-generated structures of finite dimension n, where n is at least three, of the following kinds: projective set algebras, projective algebras, diagonal-free cylindric set algebras, diagonal-free cylindric algebras, cylindric set algebras, and cylindric algebras. The results of this paper extend earlier (...) results to the collection of cylindric set algebras and provide a uniform proof for all the results. Extensions of these results for dimension two are discussed where some modifications on the hypotheses are needed. Furthermore for α |geq 2, the number of isomorphism classes of regular locally finite cylindric set algebras of dimension α of the following two kinds are computed: ones of power κ for infinite $\kappa \geq|\alpha|$ , and ones with a single generator. (shrink)

For ages one phase of Indian thought has grappled with exactly this problem. To be in the world is to be subject to limitations--conditionings--of power, of knowledge, and of freedom. So man's suffering is a result of his being in the world--of his being a link in this chain of becomings. His suffering is tied up with temporality and illusion--with mäyä. Suffering is a cosmic necessity; it is one of the modes of reality, a law of worldly existence. If so, (...) what are the limits of the various forces that condition man--that bind and fetter him? If we know this, then man can be deconditioned, freed from suffering and temporality and taken into another mode of existence, where he enjoys spontaneity and freedom. Thus universality of suffering need not lead to a philosophy of pessimism, for realization of it is a necessary condition for emancipation. The quest for the beyond, for transcendence, will start only when this world and this mode of life are depreciated and rejected. The quest presupposes that there is something beyond becoming, temporality, and suffering; and that it is possible for man to decondition and free himself completely. The immemorial experience of the sages who have gone beyond and reached "the other shore," after discovering the ford and the ferry which will sail them across this ocean of suffering and becoming, testifies to the reality of transcendence and complete freedom. Such was the conclusion reached by one trend of Indian thought. (shrink)

Previous work suggests that threat-related stimuli are stored to a greater degree in working memory compared to neutral stimuli. However, most of this research has focused on stimuli with physically salient threat attributes, failing to account for how a “neutral” stimulus that has acquired threat-related associations through differential aversive conditioning influences working memory. The current study examined how differentially conditioned safe and threat stimuli are stored in working memory relative to a novel, non-associated stimuli. Participants completed a differential fear conditioning (...) task followed by a change detection task consisting of three conditions across two loads. Results revealed individuals successfully learned to distinguishing CS+ from CS– conditions during the differential aversive conditioning task. Our working memory outcomes indicated successful load manipulation effects, but no statistically significant differences in accuracy, response time, or Pashler’s K measures of working memory capacity between CS+, CS–, or N conditions. However, we observed significantly reduced RT difference scores for the CS+ compared to CS– condition, indicating greater RT differences between the CS+ and N condition vs. the CS– and N condition. These findings suggest that differentially conditioned stimuli have little impact on behavioral outcomes of working memory compared to novel stimuli that had not been associated with previous safe of aversive outcomes, at least in healthy populations. (shrink)

Scholars have often criticized Hinduism for being an ecologically unfriendly religion, due to being too “other worldly” and “indifferent” toward the natural world. According to Hindus, they argue that the natural world is simply māyā—“ephemeral,” “illusory,” and “unreal.” The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, for example, features over 60 passages that reduce the material world to nothing more than a passing dream. ). Meanwhile, other scholars have tried to correct this image by pointing to passages in Indian sacred literature that highlight the divinity (...) of nature, as well as Hindu rituals that involve worshiping the earth, plants, animals, trees, water, sun, and sky. This paper will argue, however, that both the scholarly criticisms and responses are problematic for two reasons. First, these discussions often assume that a religious practitioner’s beliefs concerning the world and environment directly correspond to her attitude toward, and treatment of, the environment. Second, the scholarly criticisms and responses are based on a narrow interpretation and understanding of the concept of māyā. The word “māyā” has held a variety of meanings in Indian sacred literature. This paper focuses on conceptions of māyā found within the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and explores resources in the Bhāgavata that may be useful for developing a Vaiṣṇava ecotheology. (shrink)

This is a doctoral thesis in the Department of Philosophy of the Madras University. Central to Indian philosophical thought is Mukti or liberation from the present state of ignorance and bondage. But the positive meaning of this liberation is not conceived in the same way by all Indian schools. In the first part of the book the author examines the opinions of various Indian schools other than Vedanta, including Buddhism and Jainism. The second part explains the point of Advaita Vedanta, (...) the chief exponent of which is Sankara. For Advaita or Non-Dualism Brahman is the unique, infinite and immutable reality; Finite beings are maya or unreal beside the absolute reality of Brahman. They have only a relative and practical reality for human life until Mukti or liberation is attained in the realization that Brahman is the real self of all and the world of finite beings ceases to have any further meaning. All religious exercises are only means towards this final realization. On the whole the book is a synthesis of metaphysics from the Indian, especially non-dualistic, point of view. Twelve pages of Errata at the end of the book do little honor to the printers and publishers of the Madras University Philosophical Series.—J. K. (shrink)

Among the dubious theses "proved" by the author of this classic example of pseudo-scientific literature are: relativistic physics is incorrect, the quantum theory is incorrect, "the success of quantum theory is purely mathematical," time, like space, has three dimensions, inductance and mass are equivalent, there is such a thing as absolute motion, and "All properties which are possessed by either space or time individually are.... properties of both space and time." What makes this book unusual is the fact that the (...) immense number of citations and footnotes refer to almost all of the important books and articles in the field of the philosophical foundations of physics. Larson therefore has accomplished one outstanding task: he has succeeded in immersing himself in some of the most philosophically and scientifically compelling literature of recent times and has emerged unscathed by a single intelligible idea.—H. P. K. (shrink)

Toward the end of the twentieth century, Highland Maya intellectuals and activists in Guatemala began to argue for the recognition of indigenous customary law, rooted in traditional Maya moral and ritual discourse. Such law is often in tension with the Western notion of rights that undergirds national and international treatises regarding indigenous peoples. This essay identifies three distinct but mutually engaged pairs of moral concepts—hot/cold, left/right, and favorable/not favorable—articulated through K'iche' Maya quotidian and ceremonial practices and speech. (...) It also identifies the extent to which they do not necessarily align with Western notions of good and bad. These three pairs of moral terms, specifically as conserved through the high-register of Maya discourse used by traditional ceremonial specialists, illustrate a normative means by which Highland Maya discern understandings of justice, and ground their advocacy for restorative justice. (shrink)

This album brings together photos from a documentary trip I made in December 2008-January 2009 in Central America (Guatemala and Honduras), to discover the old Maya civilization. In one of those blurry days caused by Pacaya volcano’s debris and ash, along the ruins of Petén, I believe I must have had an encounter with the Maya deity Kʼawiil….

Consuelo Meza y Aída Toledo son dos reconocidas investigadoras y especialistas en la literatura escrita por mujeres, quienes, en su obra publicada en México, La escritura de poetas mayas contemporáneas producida desde excéntricos espacios identitarios (Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, 2015), han apostado por visibilizar la poesía de las mujeres mayas de Guatemala. Esta obra contribuye al diálogo intercultural, así como a la encarnación -más allá del papel-, de los discursos sobre descolonización, empoderamiento e igualdad de género, tan invocados en la (...) actualidad y tan poco materializados en la práctica. Si bien, en el libro se realiza un estado de la cuestión de 29 autoras y un análisis de la obra de 12 de ellas, en este espacio solamente se reproduce una pequeña selección que incluye a algunas de las primeras escritoras mayas, cuya poesía todavía vibra en las letras centroamericanas, pues como afirma en su capítulo primero el Popol Vuh: “Ta xpe k´ut u tzij waral”, es decir, “llegó aquí entonces la palabra…”. (shrink)

In addition to the standard ellipsis process known as VP-ellipsis, another ellipsis process, known as pseudo-gapping, was first brought to the fore-front in the 1970’s by Sag (1976) and N. Levin (1986). This process elides subparts of a VP, as in (1): (1) Although I don’t like steak, I do___pizza. Developing ideas of K.S. Jayaseelan (Jayaseelan (1990)), Howard Lasnik has developed an analysis in which pseudo-gapping, which, in some instances, looks as though it is simply deleting a verb, is in (...) fact deletion of a verb phrase, so that pseudo-gapping is really a probe into the structure of the verb phrase. I will examine pseudo-gapping in detail, and will show that it truly is a gold mine of insight into a number of fundamental issues in syntax. More concretely, I will demonstrate that a careful, detailed analysis of this process will bear on the derivational level at which Principle A of the binding theory applies, as well as the amount of explicit encoding within syntactic representations of informational structure, particularly focus. The paper will also re-assess Lasnik’s conclusion that pseudo-gapping provides evidence for Larson’s (1988) V-raising to a higher empty V position, a case of head movement, and will show that the movement involved is actually a case of remnant movement, or XP-movement. (shrink)

An attractive semantic theory presented by Richard K. Larson and Peter Ludlow takes a report of propositional attitudes, e.g 'Tom believes Judy Garland sang', to report a believing relation between Tom and an interpreted logical form constructed from 'Judy Garland sang'. We briefly outline the semantic theory and indicate its attractions. However, the definition of interpreted logical forms given by Larson and Ludlow is shown to be faulty, and an alternative definition is offered which matches their intentions. This (...) definition is then shown to imply that Tom does not know his own mind, a result without intuitive support. A third definition is offered to deal with this problem. (shrink)

Quite often the compatibility of the EPR correlations with the relativity theory has been questioned; it has been stated that “the first in time of two correlated measurements instantaneously collapses the other subsystem”; it has been suggested that a causal asymmetry is built into the Feynman propagator. However, the EPR transition amplitude, as derived from the S matrix, is Lorentz andCPT invariant; the correlation formula is symmetric in the two measurements irrespective of their time ordering, so that the link of (...) the correlations is the Feynman zigzag, and that causality isCPT invariant at the microlevel; finally, although the Feynman propagator has theP andCT symmetries, no causal asymmetry follows from that. As for Stapp's views concerning “process” and “becoming,” and his Whiteheadean concept of an advancing front, I object that they belong to “factlike macrophysics,” and are refuted at the microlevel by the EPR phenomenology, which displays direct Fokker-like space-time connections. The reason for this is a radical one. The very blending of a space-time picture and of a probability calculus is a paradox. The only adequate paradigm is one denying objectivity to space-time—but this, of course, is also required by the complementary of the x and the k pictures, which only “look” compatible at the macrolevel. Therefore, the classical “objectivity” must yield in favor of “intersubjectivity.” Only the macroscopic preparing and measuring devices have “factlike” objectivity; the “transition” of the “quantal system” takes place beyond both thex and thek 4-spaces. Then, the intrinsic symmetries between retarded and advanced waves, and statistical prediction and retrodiction, entails that the future has no less (but no more) existence than the past. It is the future that is significant in “creative process,” the “elementary” forms of which should be termed “precognition” or “psychokinesis”—respectively symmetric to the factlike taboos that “we can neither know into the future nor act into the past.” It is gratifying that Robert Jahn, at the Engineering School of Princeton University, is conducting (after others) conclusive experiments demonstrating “low level psychokinesis”—a phenomenon implied by the very symmetry of the negentropy-information transition. So, what pierces the veil of “maya” is the (rare) occurrence of “paranormal phenomena.” The essential severance between “act” and “potentia” is not a spacelike advancing front, but the “out of” and the “into” factlike space-time. Finally, I do not feel that an adequate understanding of the EPR phenomenology requires going beyond the present status of relativistic quantum mechanics. Rather, I believe that the potentialities of this formalism have not yet been fully exploited. (shrink)

Eski Arap şiiri, Atlâl göç edilen yurt veya sevgiliden geride kalan kalıntılar olarak adlandırılan sanatsal bir olgu ile belirginleşmiş olup Arap edebiyatı alanlarındaki yazarlar ve eleştirmenlerin ilgisini çekecek kadar çarpıcı bir şekilde yayılmıştır. Bu olgu, Batı Afrika şairleri tarafından yazılan Arap şiirlerde de bariz olmuştur. Zira Afrikalı şair, geçmişte yaşadığı değerli hatıra ve anıları hatırlatarak ağlayıp sevgilisinin atlâlleri ve onun evlerinin kalıntılarının üzerinde durmuştur. Bu itibarla çalışmam, bu bölgenin şiirinde yer alan emsal kaside mukaddimeleri, örnekler sunarak bu şiirdeki özelliklerini, tezahürlerini (...) ve anlamlarını öğrenmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Aynı şekilde bölge şairlerinin ilkel tanıtımlarına yansıyan duygusal deneyimlerinde özetledikleri psikolojik ve sosyal nedenlerin açıklamaya hedeflemektedir. Bu araştırmanın önemi, Batı Afrika edebiyatçılarını tanımaya yardımcı olan çalışmalardan biri olması, Arap dili ve ilimlerine, özellikle şiir sanatına ne ölçüde ilgili olduklarını göstermektedir. Bununla birlikte, klasik Arapça şiir yazma becerilerini ve kabiliyetlerini de ortaya koymaktadır. Araştırmanın sınırlarına gelince, mekânsal olarak Batı Afrika bölgesiyle (Mali, Gine, Senegal, Nijerya, Gambiya) ve zamansal olarak ise on dokuzuncu yüzyılın şairleriyle sınırlıdır. Araştırmada Batı Afrika Arap şiirindeki atlâl konusuyla ilgili kasideleri toplamak, önemini ve özelliklerini açıklayıp tahlil etmek için betimsel analitik yöntemini kullanıldı. Yapılan bu araştırma sonucunda bir takım bilimsel sonuçlara ve bulgulara ulaşılmıştır. Bunların en önemlileri ve öne çıkanları şu şekilde sıralayabiliriz: Afrika Arap şiirinden seçmiş olduğumuz şiir örneklerinin değerlendirilmesi sonucunda, Batı Afrika Arap şiirleri, klasik edebiyatında bilinen “قفوا ”, “عوجوا”, “ لمن الظعن” ve “ لمن الطلول” gibi geleneksel atlâl şiir kalıplarını içerdiği de tespit edilmiştir. Batı Afrika şairlerinin klasik Arap kasidesinin girizgâhı ve usule bağlı kalmalarının yanı sıra, bazıları onun yerine konunun özüne girmeden önce besmele ile, Allah'ı övme ve peygamberimize salavat getirme gibi dini nitelikli kalıpları kullanmak suretiyle kasidelerinin girizgâhını oluşturduklarını saplanmıştır. Batı Afrika şairleri, sevgilinin terk ettiği diyardaki kalıntılar üzerinde durmak yerine; kültürlerine uygun türbe ve deniz gibi yerleri üzerinde durmayı tercih etmişlerdir. Ayrıca Câhiliye dönemindeki şiirinde geçen Suad, Hind, Mayya, Leyla vb. gibi isimleri de bırakarak yerlerine; Zeynep, Meryem ve Havva gibi kendi sosyal çevrelerinde öne çıkan bayan isimlerini kullanmayı uygun görmüşlerdir. Böylece şiirlerinde bu anlamda yenilikler yaşandığı söylemek mümkündür. el-Âmidî gibi Edebiyat eleştirmenlerin bahsettiği mukaddime talaliyye’nin farklı anlamları, sevgilinin terk ettiği diyardaki kalıntılar üzerinde durmak, hakkında soru sormak, sevgilinin adı, oturduğu diyarı ve onu çevreleyen yerler, şairin durduğu vakti, terkedilen yeri hayvanalar, yağmur ve rüzgâr tarafından tahrip edilmesi, şair terkedilen eve hitap edip onunla konuşmak ve ona soru sorup sorguya çekmek, ona selam vermek ve dua etmek ve benzer anlamlar Batı Afrika şairlerinin Atlâl şiirlerinde de bulunmaktadır. Bahsi geçen bu mukaddimeler beyit sayısı bakımından farklılık gösterebileceği, ancak bu beyitler genellikle az sayıda olduğu bu çalışmadan anlaşılmaktadır. Şairler, amaçlarına ulaşmak için bu mukaddimeler vazgeçilmez bir giriş olarak görmektedirler. Ayrıca, atlâl şiiri söyleyen bölge şairleri durumu yaşadıklarını ya da sevdikleri tarafından terk edilmeleri şart değil, ancak atlâl şiiri birçok şair arasında kabul görmüş bir sanat geleneğidir. Bu çalışma aracılığıyla Batı Afrika Arap şiirindeki mukaddime talaliye, şairlerin yaratıcılık ihtiyacına bir yanıt ve onların şiirsel yeteneklerini geliştirmek için bir gerekçe temsil ettiği da açıkça görülmektedir. Son olarak mukaddime talaliye şairlerin şiirsel malzemeleri için gerekli bir sanatsal üslubu olduğunu da söylenebilir. (shrink)

Following the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions the term paradigm became ubiquitous. It is now commonplace in academic writing across the disciplines. Though much has been written about Kuhn’s use of the term and its impact on other fields, there has not yet been a systematic study of how frequently Kuhn used the term in Structure. My aim in this paper is to provide such an analysis. I aim to answer the following questions: (1) How many times (...) does Kuhn actually use the term in the book?; (2) What is the most number of times that he uses the term on a single page?; and (3) Is the term used evenly throughout the book or is it mentioned more often in some chapters than in others? (shrink)

A partir de son apparemment étrange observation d'une influence cachée des étoiles sur l'action humaine une attentive reconsidération du concept de l'actus humanus de Saint Thomas dans la Prima Secundae révèle une vue plus ample des processus internes à l'agent humain qui contribuent à la spécification individuelle de l'action humaine et, donc, de la liberté humaine. Il semble que parmi les adeptes de la théorie thomiste de l'action, l'influence importante que l'appétit sensible peut exercer en cette direction, tout en restant (...) entièrement caché aux actes conscients de l'intellect et de la volonté de la personne, n'a pas été reconnue jusqu'aujourd'hui. Dans sa théorie de l'action Saint Thomas fournit un cadre solide pour une réflexion ultérieure sur l'influence de l'inconscient dynamique sur la liberté et pour une intégration critique interdisciplinaire des intuitions valides de la psychologie des profondeurs. En plus, il semble que la redécouverte de son concept plus large de l'actus humunus rende possible de repenser à profit certains éléments classique de son éthique. (shrink)