A classification of grammar-infused templates for ontology and model verbalisation

Involving domain-experts in the development, maintenance, and use of knowledge organisation systems can be made easier through the introduction of easy-to-use interfaces that are based on natural language. Well resourced languages make use of natural language generation techniques to provide such interfaces. In particular, they often make use of templates combined with computational grammar rules to generate grammatically complex text. However, there is no model of pairing templates and computational grammar rules to ensure suitability for less-resourced languages. These languages require a modular design that ensures grammar detachability so as to allow grammar re-use across domains and applications. In this paper, we present a model and classification scheme for grammar-infused templates suited for less-resourced languages and classify existing systems that make use of them. We have found that of the 15 systems that pair templates and grammar rules, and their 11 distinct template types, 13 have support for detachable grammars

ToCT: A task ontology to manage complex templates

Natural language interfaces are a well-known approach to grant non-experts access to semantic web technologies. A number of such systems use simple templates to achieve that for English and more elab-orate solutions for other languages. They keep being designed from scratch in an ad hoc manner, since there is no shared conceptualisation of simple templates and there is no model that is formalised using a Semantic Web language to apply the techniques to itself. We aim to address this by proposing a general-purpose solution in the form of a novel model for templates, formalised as a task ontology in OWL,calledToCT. We used it to develop an ontology-driven text generator for isiZulu, a morphologically-rich language, to test its capabilities. The generator verbalises the TBox of an ontology as validationq uestions. This evaluation showed that the task ontology is sufficiently expressive for the template design, which was subsequently verified with user evaluations who judged the texts positivel

Surface realization architecture for low-resourced African languages

There has been growing interest in building surface realization systems to support the automatic generation of text in African languages. Such tools focus on converting abstract representations of meaning to text. Since African languages are low-resourced, economical use of resources and general maintainability are key considerations. However, there is no existing surface realizer architecture that possesses most of the maintainability characteristics (e.g., modularity, reusability, and analyzability) that will lead to maintainable software that can be used for the languages. Moreover, there is no consensus surface realization architecture created for other languages that can be adapted for the languages in question. In this work, we solve this by creating a novel surface realizer architecture suitable for low-resourced African languages that abide by the features of maintainable software. Its design comes after a granular analysis, classification, and comparison of the architectures used by 77 existing NLG systems. We compare our architecture to existing architectures and show that it supports the most features of a maintainable software product.Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering through the HPI Research School at UCT and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africahttps://dl.acm.org/journal/tallipInformatic

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music by Steven Jan is a comprehensive account of the relationships between evolutionary theory and music. Examining the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and musical-cultural evolution, the book provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding of Darwin’s famous theory, and vice-versa. Comprised of seven chapters, with several musical examples, figures and definitions of terms, this original and accessible book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the relationships between music and evolutionary thought. Jan guides the reader through key evolutionary ideas and the development of human musicality, before exploring cultural evolution, evolutionary ideas in musical scholarship, animal vocalisations, music generated through technology, and the nature of consciousness as an evolutionary phenomenon. A unique examination of how evolutionary thought intersects with music, Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music is essential to our understanding of how and why music arose in our species and why it is such a significant presence in our lives

Modelling religious signalling

The origins of human social cooperation confound simple evolutionary explanation. But from Darwin and Durkheim onwards, theorists (anthropologists and sociologists especially) have posited a potential link with another curious and distinctively human social trait that cries out for explanation: religion. This dissertation explores one contemporary theory of the co-evolution of religion and human social cooperation: the signalling theory of religion, or religious signalling theory (RST). According to the signalling theory, participation in social religion (and its associated rituals and sanctions) acts as an honest signal of one's commitment to a religiously demarcated community and its way of doing things. This signal would allow prosocial individuals to positively assort with one another for mutual advantage, to the exclusion of more exploitative individuals. In effect, the theory offers a way that religion and cooperation might explain one another, but which that stays within an individualist adaptive paradigm. My approach is not to assess the empirical adequacy of the religious signalling explanation or contrast it with other explanations, but rather to deal with the theory in its own terms - isolating and fleshing out its core commitments, explanatory potential, and limitations. The key to this is acknowledging the internal complexities of signalling theory, with respect to the available models of honest signalling and the extent of their fit (or otherwise) with religion as a target system. The method is to take seriously the findings of formal modelling in animal signalling and other disciplines, and to apply these (and methods from the philosophy of biology more generally) to progressively build up a comprehensive picture of the theory, its inherent strengths and weaknesses. The first two chapters outline the dual explanatory problems that cooperation and religion present for evolutionary human science, and surveys contemporary approaches toward explaining them. Chapter three articulates an evolutionary conception of the signalling theory, and chapters four to six make the case for a series of requirements, limitations, and principles of application. Chapters seven and eight argue for the value of formal modelling to further flesh out the theory's commitments and potential and describe some simple simulation results which make progress in this regard. Though the inquiry often problematizes the signalling theory, it also shows that it should not be dismissed outright, and that it makes predictions which are apt for empirical testing

'Schizomorphic visions': visuality and dissenting subjectivities in the poetry of the Italian neoavanguardia

This dissertation examines the role of literary visuality in the construction of cultural categories of madness, delirium, schizophrenia, and trauma in the poetry of the Italian neoavanguardia. In addition to exploring configurations of madness and delirium in theoretical and critical writings produced by members of various interrelated literary movements in the 1960s, this dissertation centres on close readings of a selection of lesser known ekphrastic, visual, concrete, and collage poetic works, produced between 1961-1977, by Giulia Niccolai, Edoardo Sanguineti, Adriano Spatola, and Patrizia Vicinelli. I look also to more recent thought outside of the immediate historical Italian-language context in order to illuminate and inform my readings of the strategies of these literary figures. As part of my analysis of the renegotiation of these fraught themes in the experimental poetry of the neoavanguardia, I investigate how the theoretical category of schizomorfismo as described by Alfredo Giuliani, a key figure in the literary group known as the Novissimi, provides an illuminating paradigm for reading the discontinuous, discordant and febrile literary forms found within this poetry. I draw attention to the underexamined visual dynamics at play in both theoretical and poetic writings of this period, expanding on the fluid relations between visuality and madness, and their invocation as dissenting, countercultural literary entities. As examples of a scrittura altra, invocations of ‘other’ subjectivities are, I argue, embedded in these mostly non-representational texts, which draw on the rich capacities of visual, typographic and concrete experimental forms to raise questions of normativity, marginalisation, and subjugation, as well as interrogate epistemologies of logic and logocentrism. Accordingly, this dissertation interrogates what it means to invoke cultural-clinical categories in the context of poetic experimentation and as literary tools of social critique at a historical moment, in Italy and beyond, when the relationship between clinical and cultural understandings of non-normative mental states were being fundamentally renegotiated

Using stories to facilitate the development of metacognitive awareness of young learners in the Intermediate Phase

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2016.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A fundamental goal of education is to promote the development of self-regulated learning. Although the importance of metacognition has been established by various researchers, metacognitive knowledge and strategies are seldom explicated in schools, and especially in the early years of education. This design-based research study presents the findings of an intervention aimed at developing metacognitive awareness among early Intermediate Phase learners. Self-reflection, the language of thinking and metacomprehension strategy use in the content areas were modelled using storytelling. The aim of the intervention was twofold: Firstly, at the design level, the main objective was to develop and refine a learner-centred intervention in the form of a series of stories engaging learners in learning about and reflecting on themselves as learners and how they learn. Secondly, at the practice level, the main aim was to assess the feasibility and influence of the intervention on learner self-knowledge, metacognitive strategy awareness and comprehension performance. The research was conducted among two intact Grade 4 class groups, along with their teachers from two public schools that differed in terms of socioeconomic context. The study comprised iterative cycles of design, implementation, analysis and review. A case study research methodology was employed and a pragmatic paradigm supported the use of a mixed-methods, non-experimental design. During the second iteration pre- and post-intervention data gained from metacognitive strategy awareness questionnaires, focus group interviews, self-reflective tasks and reading comprehension tests, were compared. The primary contribution of this research study is the set of design principles accompanying the conceptualised intervention, providing insight into the function and key characteristics of the story-based intervention, as well as the procedural conditions guiding implementation. The results obtained were encouraging, with most learners showing a marked improvement in terms of metacognitive awareness on most measuring instruments. The questionnaire testing learners’ knowledge of metacomprehension strategies, for instance, revealed an improvement after the intervention of between 41 and 94%. The data gathered by means of the qualitative measures, however, indicated that the learners in both groups particularly struggled to verbalise their thoughts. Even after the intervention, only a slight improvement in terms of frequency of metacognitive elements mentioned was noticed, although the variety increased. In the school that serves a very poor community, low literacy rates had a significant impact on both data collection and the outcome of the intervention. The results clearly show a correlation between reading ability and overall scholastic performance. Those learners struggling with reading comprehension also seem to struggle to develop effective metacognitive learning strategies such as self-questioning, summarising and applying fix-up strategies. From the study it is clear that the story-based intervention is a feasible and effective learning tool to develop metacognitive awareness, within the context described in the present study. Strengths and limitations are discussed, and future prospects that could result from the study are considered.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ʼn Grondliggende doelwit van onderwys is die bevordering van die ontwikkeling van selfgereguleerde leer. Alhoewel die belangrikheid van metakognisie deur verskeie navorsers bevestig is, word metakognitiewe kennis en strategieë selde eksplisiet in skole ontwikkel, veral in die vroeë onderrigjare. Hierdie ontwerpgebaseerde navorsingstudie bied die bevindinge van ʼn intervensie gemik op die ontwikkeling van metakognitiewe bewustheid onder leerders in die vroeë Intermediêre Fase. Selfbesinning, die taal van denke en die gebruik van metabegripstrategieë in die inhoudsareas is aan die hand van storievertelling gemoduleer. Die doel van die intervensie was tweeledig: Eerstens, op ontwerpvlak, was die hoofdoel om ʼn leerdergesentreerde intervensie in die vorm ʼn reeks stories te ontwikkel en te verfyn. Hierdie stories moedig leerders aan om meer te leer van hulself as leerders asook van die manier waarop hulle leer, en om daaroor te besin. Tweedens, op die praktiese vlak, was die hoofdoel om die uitvoerbaarheid en invloed van die intervensie op leerders se selfkennis, bewustheid van metakognitiewe strategieë en begripsprestasie te assesseer. Die navorsing is uitgevoer onder twee volledige graad 4-klasgroepe en hul onderwysers van twee publieke skole wat met betrekking tot sosio-ekonomiese konteks verskil. Die studie het bestaan uit iteratiewe siklusse van ontwerp, implementering, ontleding en evaluering. ʼn Gevallestudienavorsingsmetodologie is ingespan en ʼn pragmatiese paradigma het die gebruik van ‘n nieeksperimentele ontwerp, met sowel kwalitatiewe as kwantitatiewe metodes ondersteun. Gedurende die tweede siklus is die data wat voor en na die intervensie met behulp van vraelyste oor bewustheid van metakognitiewe strategieë, fokusgroeponderhoude, selfbesinningstake en leesbegripstoetse ingesamel is, vergelyk. Die vernaamste bydrae van hierdie studie is die stel ontwerpbeginsels wat met die gekonseptualiseerde intervensie gepaard gaan, wat insig bied in die funksie en hoofeienskappe van die storiegebaseerde intervensie, asook die prosedurele toestande wat implementering rig. Die resultate van die studie is baie bemoedigend, aangesien die meeste leerders ʼn duidelike verbetering met betrekking tot metakognitiewe bewustheid aan die hand van die meerderheid meetinstrumente getoon het. Die vraelys wat die leerders se kennis van metabegripstrategieë toets, het byvoorbeeld ʼn verbetering van tussen 41 en 94% ná die intervensie getoon. Die data wat met behulp van die kwalitatiewe metodes gegenereer is, het egter getoon dat die leerders in albei groepe veral gesukkel het om hul gedagtes te verbaliseer. Selfs ná die intervensie is slegs ʼn geringe verbetering met betrekking tot frekwensie van die betrokke metakognitiewe elemente opgemerk, alhoewel die verskeidenheid toegeneem het. In die skool wat ʼn behoeftige gemeenskap bedien, het lae geletterdheidsvlakke ʼn aanmerklike impak op sowel data-insameling as die uitkoms van die intervensie gehad. Die resultate toon ʼn duidelike korrelasie tussen leesvermoë en algehele akademiese prestasie. Die leerders wat met leesbegrip sukkel, blyk ook te sukkel om doeltreffende metakognitiewe leerstrategieë soos selfondervraging, opsomming en toepassing van herstelstrategieë te ontwikkel. Op grond van die studie is dit duidelik dat die storiegebaseerde intervensie ʼn uitvoerbare en doeltreffende instrument is om metakognitiewe bewustheid, in die konteks wat in die studie beskryf is, te ontwikkel. Die sterk punte en beperkinge van die studie word bespreek, asook toekomstige ondersoeke wat uit die studie kan spruit

Emerging peoples : Marubo myth-chants

This thesis explores the ontological grounds of the interrelations between music and myth among the Marubo, one of the several native peoples of the Pano linguistic family who live not far from the adventitious border between Brazil and Peru, in South Western Amazonia. The thesis lies within the disciplinary boundaries of social anthropology but, inasmuch as it focuses on myth and music, its theoretical and methodological limits overlap any discipline that may relate to these two themes. In brief, it portrays the Marubo as they express themselves and are themselves expressed in their saiti festivals and myth-chants. In their native language, saiti designates a specific festival where myths are performed in a specific musical and choreographic form, the form that establishes the ontological origins of these peoples and those of the world where they live

The Language of Paul Muldoon

This book interprets the multifarious writing of the Irish-American word wizard, Paul Muldoon, who has been described by The Times Literary Supplement as ‘the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War’. Readership: All interested in poetry and writing from Ireland and the English-speaking world, and in the enigma of language

On the foundations of legal reasoning in international law

Issues pertaining to the "foundations" of legal reasoning in international law break down into several discrete questions: what do statements about law mean; how do they get their meaning: to what do legal terms refer; in what does knowledge of law consist; how do we reason with legal concepts; what constitutes a criterion for argumentative success; how do bodies of legal concepts combine to form systems; is the conceptual organisation of different types of legal system, such as municipal law and international law, necessarily (or even factually) the same at some fundamental level?... This thesis is concerned with some measure with all of these questions, but the focus throughout is on those of the meaning of what we say about law, of legal knowledge, and of topological issues regarding legal systems (that is, how various types of legal system stand, conceptually, to one another). The thesis falls into two parts. The first, which is critical in nature, looks at some of the ways in which modern positivism has attempted to supply answers to these questions. It shall be argued that underlying those attempts is a particular view about the foundations of legal reasoning which has remained fairly constant in modern legal theory, not only among the positivists but also commonly among their sceptic rivals. Several difficulties with this view are raised and explored, all of which have contributed to the notion that international law is, when viewed through the spectacles of a municipal lawyer, at best a primitive system of law. The heart of Part I is a discussion of the character of legal knowledge. This takes place in the context of an account of the "Institutional Theory of Law" (ITL), as propounded by Neil MacCormick and Ota Weinberger. The argument that emerges is one broadly in favour of ITL, though critical of the methodological and philosophical assumptions on the basis of which the main edifice of the theory rests. It is submitted that such assumptions are the result of misplaced views about semantics and the nature of reference. Part I ends with the suggestion of an alternative, and hopefully more stable, strategy for generating the account of legal knowledge for which ITL strove. Part II comprises a positive thesis about the foundations of legal reasoning in international law, developed on the back of the strategy in Part I