123,923 research outputs found
Meaning and uselessness: how to think about derogatory words
Williams explains why there might have been some point to a linguistic approach in ethics. I suggest that there might be some point to paying attention to an ethical dimension in philosophy of language. I shall consider words that I label âderogatoryâ, and questions they raise about linguistic meaning
Nixon's âfull-speechâ: imaginary and symbolic registers of communication
Communicative interchanges play a foundational role in establishing the social. This being said, communicative behaviour can also lead to stalemates and conflict in which demands of recognition outweigh the prospect of hearing or saying anything beyond what is thought to be known. This paper foregrounds a dimension of communication often neglected by approaches prioritizing mass communications and new media technologies, namely the psychical and inter-subjective aspects of communicative exchange. More directly, this paper introduces and develops a Lacanian psychoanalytic theory of two interlinked registers of communicative behaviour. The first of these is the imaginary: the domain of one-to-one inter-subjectivity and behaviour that serves the ego and functions to consolidate the images subjects use to substantiate themselves. The second - far more disturbing and unpredictable - is the symbolic. It links the subject to a trans-subjective order of truth, it provides them with a set of socio-symbolic co-ordinates, and it ties them into a variety of roles and social contracts. In an elaboration of these two registers, illustrated by brief reference to Nixonâs admission of guilt in his interviews with David Frost, I pay particular attention to both the potentially transformative symbolic aspect of communicative behaviours and the ever-present prospect that such relations will ossify into imaginary impasses of mis-knowing (mĂ©connaissance) and aggressive rivalry
Think about language dialogically â Understand action dialogically
Asking for the possibility of a dialogical approach to spoken as well as to written language on the basis of the founding text by Jakubinskij Ăber die dialogische Rede (On Dialogical Speech), (1923)
Contact, the feature pool and the speech community : The emergence of Multicultural London English.
In Northern Europeâs major cities, new varieties of the host languages are emerging in the multilingual inner cities. While some analyse these âmultiethnolectsâ as youth styles, we take a variationist approach to an emerging âMulticultural London Englishâ (MLE), asking: (1) what features characterise MLE? (2) at what age(s) are they acquired? (3) is MLE vernacularised? (4) when did MLE emerge, and what factors enabled its emergence? We argue that innovations in the diphthongs and the quotative system are generated from the specific sociolinguistics of inner-city London, where at least half the population is undergoing group second-language acquisition and where high linguistic diversity leads to a feature pool to select from. We look for incrementation (Labov) in the acquisition of the features, but find this only for two âglobalâ changes, BE LIKE and GOOSE-fronting, for which adolescents show the highest usage. Community-internal factors explain the age-related variation in the remaining features
The Pragmatics of Person and Imperatives in Sign Language of the Netherlands
We present new evidence against a grammatical distinction between second and third person in Sign Language of The Netherlands (NGT). More precisely, we show how pushing this distinction into the domain of pragmatics helps account for an otherwise puzzling fact about the NGT imperative: not only is it used to command your addressee, it can also express ânon-addressee-oriented commandsâ
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Ex Nihilo (2017-2018)
Table of Contents: Sex is About Power: Dissecting Pornographyâs Role in the Sexual Language Game / by Hitaxhe Kupa; The University of Pennsylvania (p. 8-14) -- "Point and Proclaim": Possible Response to the Grounding Problem / by Eli Barrish; The University of Texas at Austin (p. 15-21) -- Choosing Eudaemonic Emotions: Aristotle and the Proto-Stoic Theory of Emotions / by Abdulwausay I. Ansari; The University of Houston (p. 22-29) -- Affirming Neo-Aristotelian Teleology And its Applications in Normative Medical Ethics / by Nathan Wong; The University of Texas at Austin (p. 30-40)Philosoph
Explorations in engagement for humans and robots
This paper explores the concept of engagement, the process by which
individuals in an interaction start, maintain and end their perceived
connection to one another. The paper reports on one aspect of engagement among
human interactors--the effect of tracking faces during an interaction. It also
describes the architecture of a robot that can participate in conversational,
collaborative interactions with engagement gestures. Finally, the paper reports
on findings of experiments with human participants who interacted with a robot
when it either performed or did not perform engagement gestures. Results of the
human-robot studies indicate that people become engaged with robots: they
direct their attention to the robot more often in interactions where engagement
gestures are present, and they find interactions more appropriate when
engagement gestures are present than when they are not.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
Defining 'Speech': Subtraction, Addition, and Division
In free speech theory âspeechâ has to be defined as a special term of art. I argue that much free speech discourse comes with a tacit commitment to a âSubtractive Approachâ to defining speech. As an initial default, all communicative acts are assumed to qualify as speech, before exceptions are made to âsubtractâ those acts that donât warrant the special legal protections owed to âspeechâ. I examine how different versions of the Subtractive Approach operate, and criticise them in terms of their ability to yield a substantive definition of speech which covers all and only those forms of communicative action that â so our arguments for free speech indicate â really do merit special legal protection. In exploring alternative definitional approaches, I argue that what ultimately compromises definitional adequacy in this arena is a theoretical commitment to the significance of a single unified class of privileged communicative acts. I then propose an approach to free speech theory that eschews this theoretical commitment
Speaking and Mourning: Working Through Identity and Language in Chang-rae Leeâs Native Speaker
In my essay entitled âSpeaking and Mourning: Working Through Identity and Language in Chang-rae Leeâs Native Speaker,â I argue that the novelâs protagonist Henry Park finds himself at a critical juncture in his life at the novelâs beginning. I analyze the protagonistâs relationship to language acquisition and identity, which have been developed by Lee to be associated as traumas. Furthermore, these topics are complicated by the death of his son, Mitt. This loss is a trauma of the heart and of the self for the main character who sees a successful navigation of language and immigration lost by his sonâs accidental passing. Lelia and Dr. Luzan are characters that help to promote Henryâs change and working through of the traumas he has encountered. By the novelâs conclusion, Henry has begun to work through his psychological insecurities with language and identity and begins to mourn his sonâs death. I find that Lee leaves the reader with a hopeful outlook for the protagonistâs future. This essay theoretically frames Asian American identity and the concept of âworking through.
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