Presenting Arguments as Fictive Dialogue

Presentation of an argument can take many different forms ranging from a monologue to advanced graphics and diagrams. This paper investigates the presentation of one or more arguments in the form of a fictive dialogue. This technique was already employed by Plato, who used fictive conversations between Socrates and his contemporaries to put his arguments forward. Ever since, there have been influential authors – including Desiderius Erasmus, Sir Thomas More and Mark Twain – that have used dialogue in this way. In this paper, we define the notion of a fictive dialogue, motivate it is as a topic for investigation, and present a qualitative and quantitative study of five fictive dialogues by well-known authors. We conclude by indicating how our preliminary and ongoing investigations may inform the development of systems that automatically generate argumentative fictive dialogue

A new population of Darwin's fox (Lycalopex fulvipes) in the Valdivian Coastal Range

Indexación: Web of Science; Scielo.Darwin's fox (Lycalopex fulvipes Martin, 1837) is an endemic of the temperate forests of the Coastal Range of southern Chile, that was reported by Charles Darwin in 1834 in southern Chiloé Island (42° S, 74° W; Martin 1837). Initially known exclusively from that island, it was considered both an insular subspecies of the chilla fox (Lycalopex griseus Gray, 1837) (Housse 1953; Clutton-Brock et al. 1976) and a valid species (Martin 1837; Gay 1947; Osgood 1943). In 1990, a mainland population was reported at Nahuelbuta National Park (ca. 450 km north of Chiloé Island, 37° 47′ S, 72° 59′ W; Figure 1a) in sympatry with the chilla and culpeo foxes (Lycalopex culpaeus Molina, 1782) (Jaksic et al. 1990; Medel et al. 1990; Jiménez et al. 1991). This supported its status as a valid species, later confirmed through genetic studies (Yahnke et al. 1996).http://ref.scielo.org/z7mmt

Notes on rabbinic epitaphs: I

Jüdische Grabsteinepigraphik: R. Yosef Trani (1568-1639), R. Akiva Eger (d. 1837), R. David Hoffmann (d. 1921

The Reflected (Un)Real: Space in Ingeborg Bachmann’s “Probleme Probleme”

In her 1977 short story “Probleme Probleme,” Ingeborg Bachmann plays with space and representations of reality in a way that reflects the disillusionment of Austria’s post-war generation. Beatrix’s two desires in the short story – to look at herself in the mirror and to sleep – both suggest a resistance to living in the real world and a dependence on the illusions of her dreams, mirrors, and the beauty salon. Although the older patrons of the salon and Beatrix try to hide from the responsibility for the past and present, the mirrors and the salon prove to be temporary illusions that are unsustainable. Sleep and mirrors become ways to avoid reality rather than coming to terms with it, which, for Bachmann, is ultimately unproductive and naïve

The Frank Norris Farm Site (41RR2) on the Red River in East Texas

The Frank Norris Farm site (41RR2) was an ancestral Caddo settlement and mound center, with an associated cemetery, on the bank of the Red River, about five miles northeast of the community of Manchester, Texas, and just southeast of the Sam Kaufman/Roitsch site (41RR16). The site was reported by B. B. Gardner of the University of Texas to have three earthen mounds. Apparently the site eroded into the Red River in 1936. The three mounds at the site were located east of a local farm road, and the bank of the Red River was a short distance to the east. Mound No. 1 was ca. 27 m in length, 23 m in width, and 3 m in height; Mound No. 2 was ca. 33.5 m in length, 24 m in width, and 3.7 m in height; and Mound No. 3 was ca. 18 m in length, 12 m in width, and 1.8 m in height. Gardner trenched Mound No. 1 in the summer of 1930 but found only a few sherds and no obvious features. A low alluvial ridge not far south of Mound No. 3 was also trenched by Gardner, and he recovered sherds from archaeological deposits there. Gardner also noted that in the Red River cut bank was an ca. 46-61 cm thick archaeological deposit with black sediments and ceramic sherds. Although Gardner’s 1930 notes are not specific, he apparently excavated at least one burial at the Frank Norris Farm. Correspondence in the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) files stated that Gardner found burials that were from 1.2-1.5 m in depth and scattered across the site. Local diggers began to search out and excavate Caddo burials at the Frank Norris Farm site in 1934 and 1935, and these diggers sold the ceramic vessels and other funerary offerings (including a spatulate celt, arrow points, and shell beads) they found to local collectors like George T. Wright. According to W. A. Rikard, an interested avocational archaeologist from the region, at least nine burials had been found and dug by collectors at the site, not including the one or more burials he excavated there. He did mention in 1935 correspondence to A. T. Jackson that one burial he excavated was in a 1.2 m deep pit and had a shell-tempered neck banded jar as an associated funerary offering. He also noted that other Caddo burials were being exposed in the eroding cut bank of the Red River, where they were easily looted