Language And Scientific Explanation

Author : Eran Asoulin
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 98 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2020-06-19
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783961102648

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Language and scientific explanation by Eran Asoulin Pdf

This book discusses the two main construals of the explanatory goals of semantic theories. The first, externalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of a hermeneutic and interpretive explanatory project. The second, internalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of the psychological mechanisms in virtue of which meanings are generated. It is argued that a fruitful scientific explanation is one that aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which the observable phenomena are made possible, and that a scientific semantics should be doing just that. If this is the case, then a scientific semantics is unlikely to be externalist, for reasons having to do with the subject matter and form of externalist theories. It is argued that semantics construed hermeneutically is nevertheless a valuable explanatory project.

Author : Eran Asoulin
Publisher : Language Science Press
Page : 96 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783961102631

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Language and scientific explanation by Eran Asoulin Pdf

This book discusses the two main construals of the explanatory goals of semantic theories. The first, externalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of a hermeneutic and interpretive explanatory project. The second, internalist conception, understands semantic theories in terms of the psychological mechanisms in virtue of which meanings are generated. It is argued that a fruitful scientific explanation is one that aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which the observable phenomena are made possible, and that a scientific semantics should be doing just that. If this is the case, then a scientific semantics is unlikely to be externalist, for reasons having to do with the subject matter and form of externalist theories. It is argued that semantics construed hermeneutically is nevertheless a valuable explanatory project.

Author : Morteza Dehghani,Ryan L. Boyd
Publisher : Guilford Publications
Page : 650 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2022-03-02
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781462548439

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Handbook of Language Analysis in Psychology by Morteza Dehghani,Ryan L. Boyd Pdf

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the use of computerized text analysis methods to address basic psychological questions. This comprehensive handbook brings together leading language analysis scholars to present foundational concepts and methods for investigating human thought, feeling, and behavior using language. Contributors work toward integrating psychological science and theory with natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. Ethical issues in working with natural language data sets are discussed in depth. The volume showcases NLP-driven techniques and applications in areas including interpersonal relationships, personality, morality, deception, social biases, political psychology, psychopathology, and public health.

Author : Maya Honda,Wayne O'Neil
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2007-11-05
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781405108317

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Thinking Linguistically by Maya Honda,Wayne O'Neil Pdf

Thinking Linguistically is a unique and clearly written introduction to the nature of linguistic analysis and issues in language acquisition. The book is for undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics, education, and psychology. Through twenty problem sets, based in languages not only from the Americas but from other continents as well, Thinking Linguistically: • Initiates students to the linguists’ way of observing and analyzing data by making the methods and the process of inquiry visible and accessible. • Engages students in analyzing the breadth and depth of two phenomena in a variety of languages—the expression of noun phrase plurality and the formation of questions. • Integrates analysis of these phenomena with results from first and second language acquisition research. • Emphasizes the interface between phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. • Exemplifies how linguistic analysis can be used for the teaching of critical thinking, problem solving, and the nature of scientific inquiry in general. • Is ideal for future language teachers for understanding acquisition and linguistic phenomena

Author : Yulia Zinova
Publisher : Language Science Press
Page : 396 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2024-06-02
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783961102983

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Russian verbal prefixation by Yulia Zinova Pdf

This book addresses the complexity of Russian verbal prefixation system that has been extensively studied but yet not explained. Traditionally, different meanings have been investigated and listed in the dictionaries and grammars and more recently linguists attempted to unify various prefix usages under more general descriptions. The existent semantic approaches, however, do not aim to use semantic representations in order to account for the problems of prefix stacking and aspect determination. This task has been so far undertaken by syntactic approaches to prefixation, that divide verbal prefixes in classes and limit complex verb formation by restricting structural positions available for the members of each class. I show that these approaches have two major drawbacks: the implicit prediction of the non-existence of complex biaspectual verbs and the absence of uniformly accepted formal criteria for the underlying prefix classification. In this book the reader can find an implementable formal semantic approach to prefixation that covers five prefixes: za-, na-, po-, pere-, and do-. It is shown how to predict the existence, semantics, and aspect of a given complex verb with the help of the combination of an LTAG and frame semantics. The task of identifying the possible affix combinations is distributed between three modules: syntax, which is kept simple (only basic structural assumptions), frame semantics, which ensures that the constraints are respected, and pragmatics, which rules out some prefixed verbs and restricts the range of available interpretations. For the purpose of the evaluation of the theory, an implementation of the proposed analysis for a grammar fragment using a metagrammar description is provided. It is shown that the proposed analysis delivers more accurate and complete predictions with respect to the existence of complex verbs than the most precise syntactic account.

Author : Ladislav Tondl
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 403 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1981
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:243918710

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Problems of Semantics by Ladislav Tondl Pdf

Author : Jay L. Lemke
Publisher : Praeger
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 1990
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780893915667

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Talking Science by Jay L. Lemke Pdf

Talking Science discusses the role of language in teaching and in communication of scientific and technical subjects. It identifies and analyzes the many strategies teachers and students use to communicate about science and to influence one another's beliefs and behavior. Special emphasis is placed on analyzing patterns of social interaction, the role of language and semantics in communicating scientific concepts, and the social values and interests which lie behind these patterns of communication. Working from transcripts of recordings made in real science classrooms, this volume goes beyond previous work on the organization of classroom discourse to show how the conceptual content of a specialized subject is actually communicated through the semantic patterns that teachers and students weave with language. Modern techniques of discourse analysis are used to place the communication of science in the context of classroom lessons, debates, and disruptions. Critical analysis further shows how a mystique of science is perpetuated in classrooms and identifies the hidden social interests it serves.

Author : Guido Küng
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789401035149

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Ontology and the Logistic Analysis of Language by Guido Küng Pdf

It is the aim of the present study to introduce the reader to the ways of thinking of those contemporary philosophers who apply the tools of symbolic logic to classical philosophical problems. Unlike the "conti nental" reader for whom this work was originally written, the English speaking reader will be more familiar with most of the philosophers dis cussed in this book, and he will in general not be tempted to dismiss them indiscriminately as "positivists" and "nominalists". But the English version of this study may help to redress the balance in another respect. In view of the present emphasis on ordinary language and the wide spread tendency to leave the mathematical logicians alone with their technicalities, it seems not without merit to revive the interest in formal ontology and the construction of formal systems. A closer look at the historical account which will be given here, may convince the reader that there are several points in the historical develop ment whose consequences have not yet been fully assessed: I mention, e. g. , the shift from the traditional three-level semantics of sense and deno tation to the contemporary two-level semantics of representation; the relation of extensional structure and intensional content in the extensional systems of Wittgenstein and Carnap; the confusing changes in labelling the different kinds of analytic and apriori true sentences; etc. Among the philosophically interesting tools of symbolic logic Lesniewski's calculus of names deserves special attention.

Author : Miles MacLeod,Rocío G. Sumillera,Jan Surman,Ekaterina Smirnova
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2016-01-29
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317327493

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Language as a Scientific Tool by Miles MacLeod,Rocío G. Sumillera,Jan Surman,Ekaterina Smirnova Pdf

Language is the most essential medium of scientific activity. Many historians, sociologists and science studies scholars have investigated scientific language for this reason, but only few have examined those cases where language itself has become an object of scientific discussion. Over the centuries scientists have sought to control, refine and engineer language for various epistemological, communicative and nationalistic purposes. This book seeks to explore cases in the history of science in which questions or concerns with language have bubbled to the surface in scientific discourse. This opens a window into the particular ways in which scientists have conceived of and construed language as the central medium of their activity across different cultural contexts and places, and the clashes and tensions that have manifested their many attempts to engineer it to both preserve and enrich its function. The subject of language draws out many topics that have mostly been neglected in the history of science, such as the connection between the emergence of national languages and the development of science within national settings, and allows us to connect together historical episodes from many understudied cultural and linguistic venues such as Eastern European and medieval Hebrew science.

Author : Wenceslao J. Gonzalez
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 286 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2021-04-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030605377

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Language and Scientific Research by Wenceslao J. Gonzalez Pdf

This book analyzes the role of language in scientific research and develops the semantics of science from different angles. The philosophical investigation of the volume is divided into four parts, which covers both basic science and applied science: I) The Problem of Reference and Potentialities of the Language in Science; II) Language and Change in Scientific Research: Evolution and Historicity; III) Scientific Language in the Context of Truth and Fiction; and IV) Language in Mathematics and in Empirical Sciences. Language plays a key role in science: our access to the theoretical, practical or evaluative dimensions of scientific activity begins with the mastery of language, continues with a deepening in the use of language and reaches the level of contribution when it creates new terms or changes them in sense and reference. This reveals the compatibility between objectivity in semantic contents and historicity in the progress of science. This volume is a valuable enrichment to students, academics and other professionals interested in science in all its forms, who seek to deepen the role that language plays in its structure and dynamics.

Author : Victor Preller
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2005-05-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781597521987

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Divine Science and the Science of God by Victor Preller Pdf

In this book, Victor Preller examines the logical status of religious language in the light of recent developments in American analytic philosophy. The problem inherent in religious language is presented in terms of the referential status of the word God. The author argues that the significance of any referential term is dependent upon the ability of that term to play a significant role 'within' a unified conceptual system. The problem is shown to transcend the epistemological dogmas of Positivism and Conceptual Empiricism and to be inherent in any intelligible epistemology, including that of Thomas Aquinas, whose theological treatises serve as a model of religious language for the thesis of this book. According to Professor Preller, Divine Science (Aquinas' term for what we now call Natural Theology) results from a reflection upon the limitations encountered by the intellect in its attempt to render intelligible the objects of human experience. In the Science of God (Aquinas' term for that mode of knowing engendered by faith), the unknown meta-empirical referent of Divine Science becomes the object of the human intellect. While this study develops out of the discussions inaugurated by Flew and McIntyre in 'New Essays in Philosophical Theology', it rejects the excessively empirical approach of most other studies in that tradition. It applies post-positivistic analysis to specifically Catholic theological language, but it obviously applies to the theological language involved in any form of theism.

Author : Gregory Hickok,Steven L. Small
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 1188 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2015-08-15
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780124078628

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Neurobiology of Language by Gregory Hickok,Steven L. Small Pdf

Neurobiology of Language explores the study of language, a field that has seen tremendous progress in the last two decades. Key to this progress is the accelerating trend toward integration of neurobiological approaches with the more established understanding of language within cognitive psychology, computer science, and linguistics. This volume serves as the definitive reference on the neurobiology of language, bringing these various advances together into a single volume of 100 concise entries. The organization includes sections on the field's major subfields, with each section covering both empirical data and theoretical perspectives. "Foundational" neurobiological coverage is also provided, including neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, genetics, linguistic, and psycholinguistic data, and models. Foundational reference for the current state of the field of the neurobiology of language Enables brain and language researchers and students to remain up-to-date in this fast-moving field that crosses many disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries Provides an accessible entry point for other scientists interested in the area, but not actively working in it – e.g., speech therapists, neurologists, and cognitive psychologists Chapters authored by world leaders in the field – the broadest, most expert coverage available

Author : L. Tondl
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789400983649

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Problems of Semantics by L. Tondl Pdf

Ladislav Tondl's insightful investigations into the language of the sciences bear directly upon some decisive points of confrontation in modern philos ophy of science and of language itself. In the decade since his Scientific Procedures was published in English (Boston Studies 11), Dr Tondl has enlarged his original monograph of 1966 on the promise, problems and achievements of modern semantics: the main topic of his later work has been semantic information theory. A Russian translation, considerably expanded as a second edition, was published in 1975 (Moscow, Progress Publishers) with an appreciative critical commentary, in the form of a conclusion, by Professor Avenir I. Uemov of Odessa. Indeed many Soviet studies in the problems of the semantics of science show the same sort of philosophical curiosity about the relationship of meanings in scientific language to pro cedures in scientific epistemology that characterizes Tondl's work, as in the work of Mirislav Popovich (Kiev) and Vadirn Sadovsky (Moscow) and their colleagues. But we know that interest in these matters is world-wide, ranging from such classical topics as sense and denotation, empiricist reduction, vagueness and denotational opacity, to the new and equally exciting topics of the semantics of non-unique preference choices, the nuances of informational synonymity, and the semantics of a picture shape (so briefly but beautifully sketched in Tondl's dense and promising last chapter). We are pleased to have had Tondl's kind cooperation in producing this English edition, actually a third edition, of his research about semantics.

Author : Ángel J. Gallego,Aritz Irurtzun
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2020-12-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9782889636686

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Approaches to Language: Data, Theory, and Explanation by Ángel J. Gallego,Aritz Irurtzun Pdf

The study of language has changed substantially in the last decades. In particular, the development of new technologies has allowed the emergence of new experimental techniques which complement more traditional approaches to data in linguistics (like informal reports of native speakers’ judgments, surveys, corpus studies, or fieldwork). This move is an enriching feature of contemporary linguistics, allowing for a better understanding of a phenomenon as complex as natural language, where all sorts of factors (internal and external to the individual) interact (Chomsky 2005). This has generated some sort of divergence not only in research approaches, but also in the phenomena studied, with an increasing specialization between subfields and accounts. At the same time, it has also led to subfield isolation and methodological a priori, with some researchers even claiming that theoretical linguistics has little to offer to cognitive science (see for instance Edelman & Christiansen 2003). We believe that this view of linguistics (and cognitive science as a whole) is misguided, and that the complementarity of different approaches to such a multidimensional phenomenon as language should be highlighted for convergence and further development of its scientific study (see also Jackendoff 1988, 2007; Phillips & Lasnik 2003; den Dikken, Bernstein, Tortora & Zanuttini 2007; Sprouse, Schütze & Almeida 2013; Phillips 2013).

Author : Andy Weir
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2022-10-04
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780593135228

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Pdf

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.