Deverbal semantics and the Montagovian generative lexicon

We propose a lexical account of action nominals, in particular of deverbal nominalisations, whose meaning is related to the event expressed by their base verb. The literature about nominalisations often assumes that the semantics of the base verb completely defines the structure of action nominals. We argue that the information in the base verb is not sufficient to completely determine the semantics of action nominals. We exhibit some data from different languages, especially from Romance language, which show that nominalisations focus on some aspects of the verb semantics. The selected aspects, however, seem to be idiosyncratic and do not automatically result from the internal structure of the verb nor from its interaction with the morphological suffix. We therefore propose a partially lexicalist approach view of deverbal nouns. It is made precise and computable by using the Montagovian Generative Lexicon, a type theoretical framework introduced by Bassac, Mery and Retor\'e in this journal in 2010. This extension of Montague semantics with a richer type system easily incorporates lexical phenomena like the semantics of action nominals in particular deverbals, including their polysemy and (in)felicitous copredications.Comment: A revised version will appear in the Journal of Logic, Language and Informatio

Online reverse discourses? Claiming a space for trans voices

In recent years, online media have offered to trans people helpful resources to create new political, cultural and personal representations of their biographies. However, the role of these media in the construction of their social and personal identities has seldom been addressed. Drawing on the theoretical standpoint of positioning theory and diatextual discourse analysis, this paper discusses the results of a research project about weblogs created by Italian trans women. In particular, the aim of this study was to describe the ways online resources are used to express different definitions and interpretation of transgenderism, transsexuality and gender transitioning. We identified four main positioning strategies: \u201cTransgender\u201d, \u201cTranssexual before being a woman\u201d, \u201cA woman who was born male\u201d and \u201cJust a normal woman\u201d. We conclude with the political implications of the pluralization of narratives about gender non-conformity. Specifically, we will highlight how aspects of neoliberal discourses have been appropriated and rearticulated in the construction of gendered subjectivities

Medical Moral Liability between Islamic Republic of Iran and Italy

Nowadays, medical malpractice is considered to be a current topic in law; however, there`s no unanimity as to its definition among different countries. Therefore in this article a comparative study of moral responsibility and medical malpractice laws in Iran and Italy is presented. The goal of this article is comparing medical malpractice laws in Iran and Italy. It will study moral and civil and criminal liabilities of the practitioner, the foundations of liability, the basics of practitioner’s liability, patient’s consent, practitioner’s duty in disclosing information regarding the illness and the side effects of treatments. The study shows that in both countries, the Theory of Commitment is considered as the criterion for causing liability, and the practitioner’s commitment in monetary matters is an obligation of means. Keywords: Practitioner’s liability, civil liability, moral responsibility, foundations of liability, basics of liability, patient’s consent

Language

Of all the social and cultural institutions created by the inhabitants of the Maltese Islands on their long and eventful path to nationhood, their language, Maltese, is without doubt one of the most striking and original. It is, in fact, not easy for the historical linguist to account for the remarkable survival of this island -vernacular in the face of the numerous socio-political upheavals that have characterized the history of this small archipelago, which 'since it was first colonised ... has never been very far from the centre of events and has often played a critical part in the making of history' (Blouet 1981: 11). Throughout most of their medieval and modern history, these strategically located islands have been administered and culturally dominated by a succession of foreign regimes associated with linguistic power symbols of incomparably greater prestige and utility than the indigenous rural vernacular of Malta, which achieved the status of a literary medium as late as the 19th century.peer-reviewe

The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa, edited by Graziano Krätli and Ghislaine Lydon

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Beyond the ‘other’ as constitutive outside: : The politics of immunity in Roberto Esposito and Niklas Luhmann

This article re-conceptualises the ‘constitutive outside’ through Roberto Esposito’s theory of immunity to detach it from Laclau and Mouffe’s political antagonism. It identifies Esposito’s thought as an innovative epistemological perspective to dissolve post-ontological political theories of community from the intertwinement with a foundational self/other dialectic. Esposito shows how a community can sustain its relations through introversive immunisation against a primarily undefined outside. But it is argued that his theory of immunity slips back to a vitalist depth ontology which ultimately de-politicises the construction of the communal outside. This article draws on Niklas Luhmann’s immunity theory to resituate immunisation in the political production of social connectivity. Following Luhmann, politics relies on immunisation through contradictions to reproduce its functional role as a decision-making institution, but is at the same time constantly exposed to potential rupture through the political openness immunity introduces. Through Esposito and Luhmann, this article identifies the relationship between a social inside and its outside as open-ended and secondary to an introversive process of socio-political self-differentiation. It can involve, but does epistemologically necessitate, the construction of an external otherPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Expanding the Lexicon

The book series is dedicated to the study of the multifaceted dynamics of wordplay as an interface phenomenon. The contributions aim to bring together approaches from various disciplines and present case studies on different communicative settings, including everyday language and literary communication, and thus offer fresh perspectives on wordplay in the context of linguistic innovation, language contact, and speaker-hearer-interaction