Intonation and discourse : biased questions

This paper surveys a range of constructions in which prosody affects discourse function and discourse structure.We discuss English tag questions, negative polar questions, and what we call “focus” questions. We postulate that these question types are complex speech acts and outline an analysis in Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT) to account for the interactions between prosody and discourse

Self-Mastery In Plato

This dissertation addresses an interpretive puzzle involving Plato’s apparently incompatible accounts of psychic conflict. I argue that a better understanding of the soul helps to resolve this puzzle, and that we can properly understand Plato’s conception of the soul by focusing on his account of self-mastery (τὸ κρείττω ἑαυτοῦ). Self-mastery is a concept well-suited to this project because it is treated consistently across Plato’s dialogues and features centrally in discussions of psychic conflict

Forgotten Bravery: The San Patricio Battalion and the Irish Experience

The San Patricio Battalion was a group of predominantly Irish immigrants who defected from the United States Army and went to fight for the Mexican Army during the Mexican-American War. The reasons and motivations involved in the men\u27s defection, which include nativism and the large component of anti-Catholicism, that was largely present and practiced in the U.S. during that period and beyond, will be discussed. The important Irish history and heritage of these men, along with results of this unique event and gradual recognition of the San Patricios\u27 narrative also will be analyzed

A Mutual Charge: the Shared Mission of Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman to Alleviate Global Hunger in a Postwar World

Famine and destitution stemming from the Second World War had spread across the European continent and parts of Asia by mid-1945. Recognizing the need for recovery and survival in those regions, President Harry S. Truman at the recommendation of several Cabinet members, summoned ex-President Herbert Hoover for advice on how the United States should proceed in offering aid beyond the earlier efforts of the United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief Administration and other relief sources. After an absence from the White House and official government participation for many years, Hoover readily provided crucial advice on addressing famine relief in Europe and Asia based on his previous humanitarian leadership during and after the First World War. Recognizing that further action needed to be taken, Truman asked Hoover, as Honorary Chairman of the Famine Emergency Committee (FEC), to go to Europe and Asia to personally assess the famine relief needs. Hoover and several colleagues travelled 50,000 miles to thirty-eight different nations from March and into June 1946 to witness and evaluate famine needs in the afflicted nations, or arrange for food supply resources from various other countries; making a second trip to a struggling Germany and Austria in 1947. This thesis initially examines the narrative of the period between Hoover\u27s reentry into public service, as requested by Truman, and the chronicle of the FEC missions. At the same time, it considers the purposes of the FEC missions, from both Hoover\u27s and Truman\u27s perspectives, and despite differing political viewpoints, the efforts of the two leaders to merge their activities into a common goal. The aim, amid early Cold War challenges, was to encourage both freedom and democracy in Europe and elsewhere, while sustaining free market economies and guarding against the spread of communism. As Hoover focused his efforts on American based humanitarian aid through the mechanism of food relief to promote economic prosperity, stability, and political freedoms, Truman endeavored to protect democracy as expressed in the Truman Doctrine. Both standpoints coalesced in a synthesis of anti-communism, global stability, and U.S. geopolitical interests. This thesis also will analyze the friendship that developed between Hoover and Truman during the FEC missions. This helped lead to further collaboration between the two leaders, as the President asked the ex-President to assist in the creation of the First Hoover Commission, leading to a Second Hoover Commission under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Despite ongoing political dissimilarities and occasional disagreements, the friendship of Hoover and Truman strengthened and endured for the remainder of the lives

Presuppositions, probabilities and belief

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Parenthetical "I'm telling you" as a marker of private evidence

We present an analysis of parenthetical uses of the English expression I'm telling you as a discourse particle, i.e., an expression that conveys information about the epistemic states of discourse participants with respect to the propositional content of an utterance (Zimmermann 2011). The analysis connects I'm telling you to other discourse particles that mark the speaker's assumptions about whether the (evidence for the) asserted proposition is shared knowledge between the speaker and addressee and whether or not the (evidence for the) proposition is ``verifiable on the spot'', e.g. German ja (Kratzer 1999, 2004), Mandarin de (Soh 2018)

Photometric Decomposition of Barred Galaxies

We present a non-parametric method for decomposition of the light of disk galaxies into disk, bulge and bar components. We have developed and tested the method on a sample of 68 disk galaxies for which we have acquired I-band photometry. The separation of disk and bar light relies on the single assumption that the bar is a straight feature with a different ellipticity and position angle from that of the projected disk. We here present the basic method, but recognise that it can be significantly refined. We identify bars in only 47% of the more nearly face-on galaxies in our sample. The fraction of light in the bar has a broad range from 1.3% to 40% of the total galaxy light. If low-luminosity galaxies have more dominant halos, and if halos contribute to bar stability, the luminosity functions of barred and unbarred galaxies should differ markedly; while our sample is small, we find only a slight difference of low significance.Comment: Accepted to appear in AJ, 36 pages, 9 figures, full on-line figures available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~sellwood/Reese.htm

Book Reviews

Understanding Biblical Theology: A Comparison of Theory and PracticeEdward W. Klink III and Darian R. Lockett Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2012, 193 pp. paper, $17.99 ISBN: 978-0310-49223-8Reviewed by Ruth Anne Reese Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New TestamentMurray J. Harris Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2012, 304 pp. cloth,$42.99 ISBN: 978-0310-49392-1 Reviewed by Dale F. Walker The New Testament: A Historical and Theological IntroductionDonald Alfred Hagner Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2012, 896 pp. cloth, $49.99 ISBN: 978-0-8010-3931-7 Reviewed by Randall Hardman Contextualization in World Missions: Mapping and Assessing Evangelical ModelsA. Scott Moreau Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications 2012, 429 pp. paper,$28.99 ISBN: 978-0-8254-3389-4 Reviewed by Robert A. Danielson The Right Church: Live Like the First ChristiansCharles E. Gutenson Nashville: Abingdon Press 2012, 194 pp. paper, $14.99ISBN: 978-1-4267-4911-7Reviewed by Brian Yeich Interfaith Dialogue in PracticeDaniel S. Brown, Jr., ed. Kansas City: Rockhurst University Press 2012, 160 pp. paper,$30.00 ISBN: 978-1-886761-32-2 Reviewed by Robert A. Danielso