Corpora of Non-Linguistic Symbol Systems

See PDF

Publication practices in motion: The benefits of open access publishing for the humanities

The changes we have seen in recent years in the scholarly publishing world - including the growth of digital publishing and changes to the role and strategies of publishers and libraries alike - represent the most dramatic paradigm shift in scholarly communications in centuries. This volume brings together leading scholars from across the humanities to explore that transformation and consider the challenges and opportunities it brings

Theoretical reflections on ethnobiology in the third millennium

Com en d'altres camps de l'activitat científica, l'etnobiologia s'ha diversificat considerablement al tombant del nou mil·lenni. A pesar dels esforços fets durant els últims anys, la disciplina encara dóna la impressió de trobar-se en la necessitat d'establir la seva identitat respecte camps d'estudi millor definits. Amb la intenció de reduir aquestes mancances, la present revisió analitza breument els fonaments multidisciplinaris de l'etnobiologia i la seva diversificació paradigmàtica, teòrica i conceptual en dècades recents. Aquest camp d'estudi és caracteritzat en aquest text com a “la investigació de les interrelacions materials i simbòliques entre els humans i la resta d'organismes vius”. Es proposen i delimiten bàsicament les principals perspectives etnobiològiques, possibles subdivisions, principals focus de recerca, i temes preponderants, així com també les aproximacions paradigmàtiques primordials i les finalitats polièdriques comunes en aquesta branca del coneixement. Les relacions i hibridacions entre l'etnobiologia i l'ecologia política amb una perspectiva crítica conclouen la revisió, oferint unes conjectures finals sobre els passos i reptes futurs entre els professionals de l'etnobiologia.As in several other scientific endeavors, ethnobiology has greatly diversified around the turn of the millennium. Despite several efforts being made during recent years, the discipline still gives the impression of being in needs to establish its identity among better defined fields of study. Trying to contribute to fill this gap, this review succinctly discusses the multidisciplinary foundations of ethnobiology and its paradigmatic, theoretical and conceptual diversification during recent decades. This field of study is characterized along these lines as “the investigation of the material and symbolic interrelationships between human beings and the rest of existing organisms.” Major ethnobiological perspectives, putative subdivisions, main research foci, and preponderant subjects are proposed and roughly outlined, in addition to the foremost dualistic paradigmatic approaches and multifaceted aims common in this branch of knowledge. The relationships and hybridizations between ethnobiology and political ecology in a critical perspective conclude the review, with a final speculation on supplementary future steps and challenges amongst ethnobiology practitioners. [Contrib Sci 10:49-64 (2014)

Digital and Spatial Humanities Mapping: Eurasia-Pacific Early Trade and Belief Linkages

The Eurasia-Pacific is a dynamic region of rapid economic growth, cultural awareness, natural resource exploration, and military buildup. The concept of the region is relatively new, featuring contested vast areas of geo-resource space of numerous cultures and languages. The current findings in anthropology and archaeology and even its more specific subfields such as folklore are important contribution to the understanding of periodic environmental changes and technical innovations were the main forces of transformations in social structures that have determined the mechanisms and levels of cross-cultural trade activity across the region. We have traced early trade and belief linkages across Eurasia-Pacific regions as research in the digital humanities from the Neolithic to early history. It’s about antecedents leading up to an outcome of ‘Silk Roads’ producing a dynamic time map. Recently demonstrating digital and spatial humanities mapping, the Atlas of Maritime Buddhism research project was displayed as visualized 3D virtual exhibitions in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Buddhist artifacts and archaeological sites were presented as integrated narratives for the public to explore. Viewers witnessed accumulated researched data for the spreading linkages of Buddhism from South Asia to Korea through the seaports of Southeast Asia

A cognitive model of fiction writing.

Models of the writing process are used to design software tools for writers who work with computers. This thesis is concerned with the construction of a model of fiction writing. The first stage in this construction is to review existing models of writing. Models of writing used in software design and writing research include behavioural, cognitive and linguistic varieties. The arguments of this thesis are, firstly, that current models do not provide an adequate basis for designing software tools for fiction writers. Secondly, research into writing is often based on questionable assumptions concerning language and linguistics, the interpretation of empirical research, and the development of cognitive models. It is argued that Saussure's linguistics provides an alternative basis for developing a model of fiction writing, and that Barthes' method of textual analysis provides insight into the ways in which readers and writers create meanings. The result of reviewing current models of writing is a basic model of writing, consisting of a cycle of three activities - thinking, writing, and reading. The next stage is to develop this basic model into a model of fiction writing by using narratology, textual analysis, and cognitive psychology to identify the kinds of thinking processes that create fictional texts. Remembering and imagining events and scenes are identified as basic processes in fiction writing; in cognitive terms, events are verbal representations, while scenes are visual representations. Syntax is identified as another distinct object of thought, to which the processes of remembering and imagining also apply. Genette's notion of focus in his analysis of text types is used to describe the role of characters in the writer's imagination: focusing the imagination is a process in which a writer imagines she is someone else, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, and syntax. It is argued that a writer's story memory, influences his remembering and imagining; Todorov's work on symbolism is used to argue that interpretation plays the role in fiction writing of binding together these two processes. The role of naming in reading and its relation to problem solving is compared with its role in writing, and names or signifiers are added to the objects of thought in fiction writing. It is argued that problem solving in fiction writing is sometimes concerned with creating problems or mysteries for the reader, and it is shown how this process applies to events, scenes, signifiers and syntax. All these findings are presented in the form of a cognitive model of fiction writing. The question of testing is discussed, and the use of the model in designing software tools is illustrated by the description of a hypertextual aid for fiction writers

A New Paradigm for Punctuation

This is a comprehensive study of punctuation, particularly the uses to which it has been put as writing developed over the centuries and as it gradually evolved from an aid to oral delivery to its use in texts that were read silently. The sudden need for standardization of punctuation which occurred with the start of printing spawned some small amount of interest in determining its purpose, but most works after printing began were devoted mainly to helping people use punctuation rather than try to discover why it was being used. Gradually, two main views on its purpose developed: it was being used for rhetorical purposes or it was needed to reveal the grammar in writing. These views are still somewhat in place. The community of linguists took little notice of writing until the last few centuries and even less notice of punctuation. The result was that few studies were done on the underlying purpose for punctuation until the twentieth century, and even those were few and far between, most of them occurring only in the last thirty years. This study argues that neither rhetoric nor grammar is directly the basis for punctuation. Rather, it responds to a schema that determines the order of the words in spoken and written English, and it is a linguistic concept without question. The special uses of the features of punctuation are discussed, as well as some anomalies in its use, some ideas for more studies, and some ideas for improving the teaching of punctuation

Atti del IX Convegno Annuale dell'Associazione per l'Informatica Umanistica e la Cultura Digitale (AIUCD). La svolta inevitabile: sfide e prospettive per l'Informatica Umanistica

Proceedings of the IX edition of the annual AIUCD conferenc