Semántica y pragmática del inglés

This manual covers the basic contents of 'Semántica y pragmática del inglés' (‘English semantics and pragmatics’), an optional subject in the Degree in English Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The manual is divided into the following chapters: 1. Introduction 2. Reference and sense 3. Deixis 4. Presupposition and entailment 5. Politeness 6. Cognitive semantics The manual also includes final exercises, orientations for the final exam of this subject, key to the exercises, and bibliographical referencesEste manual aborda los contenidos básicos de "Semántica y pragmática del inglés", asignatura optativa del Grado en Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. El manual, escrito en inglés, se divide en los siguientes capítulos: 1. Introducción 2. Referencia y sentido 3. Deixis 4. Presuposición e implicación 5. Cortesía 6. Semántica cognitiva El manual también contiene ejercicios finales, orientaciones para el examen final de la asignatura, solucionario de los ejercicios, y referencias bibliográficas.Depto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de FilologíaThis manual is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students, and academics in general, in the area of English language and linguistics.unpubThis course will enable students to familizarize themselves with a number of phenomena of semantics and pragmatics applied to English, and to analyze these phenomena in authentic linguistic expressions and connected spoken and written language, independently of context or in different communicative situations

Vijjādhammakāya: Presentation of the essential elements and core doctrines through the translation of its five primary texts

This dissertation aims to contribute significant knowledge in particular to the field of Buddhist Studies regarding ‘Vijjādhammakāya (abbr., Vd)’ taught by Sot Chanthasaro Bhikkhu (1884-1959 CE) in Thailand which had been thought to be lost some time 500 years after the Buddha passing. As its method of meditation teachings diverges from what is now considered orthodox Theravada teaching on meditation, it is sometimes considered as the esoteric meditation within the mainstream tradition. The core doctrines of Vd have not been subjected to academic study before. This therefore research focuses on presenting its core doctrines and other important elements utilizing the translation into English of its five primary pedagogical texts: the Path and Result (Thang Mak Phon), Manual of the Abbot (Khumue Somphan) and Extraordinary Path and Result Volume 1-3, complied during the lifetime of its founder. Due to the vast amount of material and limitation of space and time a systematic comparison of Vd doctrines with traditional Theravada Buddhism has been beyond the scope of this thesis. For the same reasons, the translation is presented in an English version only

\u3cem\u3eVALUES IN THE AIR\u3c/em\u3e: COMMUNITY AND CAPITAL CONVERSION IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL

Values in the Air argues that nineteenth-century authors attempted to challenge the individualizing and atomizing effects of the increasingly powerful and abstract investment economy by portraying the necessity of other fields of capital (cultural, social, domestic) to the formation and maintenance of local, knowable communities. I first look at the depiction of a successful integration of diverse capitals embodied in the figure of the male mill owner, wherein the idea of land stewardship is repurposed to include factories. Chapter 2 depicts an encroaching pessimism about tradition’s ability to answer the demands of the modern industrial economy even as the possibility of bringing women into the center of industrial capital as equal participants is foreclosed. With chapter 3, I turn my attention to the way that the abstract nature of the investment economy obscures the value of—and relationships between—different fields of capital. The focus of chapter 3 is how land becomes implicated in the abstract economy, revealing the country estate to be little more than a bargaining chip, and reducing its ability to act as a foil for capitalism. Finally, the relationship between women and the country bank depicts the clash of the myth of separate spheres and the myth of a logical economy. While the scales of Victorian studies generally emphasize the novel’s development of the individual, or its representation of uncountable populations, Values in the Air plots a middle stratum wherein novels model networks and relationships that structure local, knowable communities. Within these communities, it is possible to imagine individual women in positions of financial power even as it is unclear how multiple forms of value can be gendered and exchanged

Commonsense knowledge acquisition and applications

Computers are increasingly expected to make smart decisions based on what humans consider commonsense. This would require computers to understand their environment, including properties of objects in the environment (e.g., a wheel is round), relations between objects (e.g., two wheels are part of a bike, or a bike is slower than a car) and interactions of objects (e.g., a driver drives a car on the road). The goal of this dissertation is to investigate automated methods for acquisition of large-scale, semantically organized commonsense knowledge. Prior state-of-the-art methods to acquire commonsense are either not automated or based on shallow representations. Thus, they cannot produce large-scale, semantically organized commonsense knowledge. To achieve the goal, we divide the problem space into three research directions, constituting our core contributions: 1. Properties of objects: acquisition of properties like hasSize, hasShape, etc. We develop WebChild, a semi-supervised method to compile semantically organized properties. 2. Relationships between objects: acquisition of relations like largerThan, partOf, memberOf, etc. We develop CMPKB, a linear-programming based method to compile comparative relations, and, we develop PWKB, a method based on statistical and logical inference to compile part-whole relations. 3. Interactions between objects: acquisition of activities like drive a car, park a car, etc., with attributes such as temporal or spatial attributes. We develop Knowlywood, a method based on semantic parsing and probabilistic graphical models to compile activity knowledge. Together, these methods result in the construction of a large, clean and semantically organized Commonsense Knowledge Base that we call WebChild KB.Von Computern wird immer mehr erwartet, dass sie kluge Entscheidungen treffen können, basierend auf Allgemeinwissen. Dies setzt voraus, dass Computer ihre Umgebung, einschließlich der Eigenschaften von Objekten (z. B. das Rad ist rund), Beziehungen zwischen Objekten (z. B. ein Fahrrad hat zwei Räder, ein Fahrrad ist langsamer als ein Auto) und Interaktionen von Objekten (z. B. ein Fahrer fährt ein Auto auf der Straße), verstehen können. Das Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es, automatische Methoden für die Erfassung von großmaßstäblichem, semantisch organisiertem Allgemeinwissen zu schaffen. Dies ist schwierig aufgrund folgender Eigenschaften des Allgemeinwissens. Es ist: (i) implizit und spärlich, da Menschen nicht explizit das Offensichtliche ausdrücken, (ii) multimodal, da es über textuelle und visuelle Inhalte verteilt ist, (iii) beeinträchtigt vom Einfluss des Berichtenden, da ungewöhnliche Fakten disproportional häufig berichtet werden, (iv) Kontextabhängig, und hat aus diesem Grund eine eingeschränkte statistische Konfidenz. Vorherige Methoden, auf diesem Gebiet sind entweder nicht automatisiert oder basieren auf flachen Repräsentationen. Daher können sie kein großmaßstäbliches, semantisch organisiertes Allgemeinwissen erzeugen. Um unser Ziel zu erreichen, teilen wir den Problemraum in drei Forschungsrichtungen, welche den Hauptbeitrag dieser Dissertation formen: 1. Eigenschaften von Objekten: Erfassung von Eigenschaften wie hasSize, hasShape, usw. Wir entwickeln WebChild, eine halbüberwachte Methode zum Erfassen semantisch organisierter Eigenschaften. 2. Beziehungen zwischen Objekten: Erfassung von Beziehungen wie largerThan, partOf, memberOf, usw. Wir entwickeln CMPKB, eine Methode basierend auf linearer Programmierung um vergleichbare Beziehungen zu erfassen. Weiterhin entwickeln wir PWKB, eine Methode basierend auf statistischer und logischer Inferenz welche zugehörigkeits Beziehungen erfasst. 3. Interaktionen zwischen Objekten: Erfassung von Aktivitäten, wie drive a car, park a car, usw. mit temporalen und räumlichen Attributen. Wir entwickeln Knowlywood, eine Methode basierend auf semantischem Parsen und probabilistischen grafischen Modellen um Aktivitätswissen zu erfassen. Als Resultat dieser Methoden erstellen wir eine große, saubere und semantisch organisierte Allgemeinwissensbasis, welche wir WebChild KB nennen

Representing and Redefining Specialised Knowledge: Medical Discourse

This volume brings together five selected papers on medical discourse which show how specialised medical corpora provide a framework that helps those engaging with medical discourse to determine how the everyday and the specialised combine to shape the discourse of medical professionals and non-medical communities in relation to both long and short-term factors. The papers contribute, in an exemplary way, to illustrating the shifting boundaries in today’s society between the two major poles making up the medical discourse cline: healthcare discourse at the one end, which records the demand for personalised therapies and individual medical services; and clinical discourse the other, which documents research into society’s collective medical needs

2016-2017 Boise State University Graduate Catalog

The graduate catalog describes the graduate programs offered by Boise State University and the policies, procedures, and requirements that govern those programs. Other pertinent university publications are the Boise State University Student Handbook, and the Boise State University Policy Manual. All of these publications are available online at www.boisestate.edu along with the online schedule of classes. Prospective students are also encouraged to contact the graduate program coordinator of the program of interest for additional information

An experimental study on the use of music and the performing arts in EFL teaching

openQuesta tesi è il risultato di uno studio sperimentale che esamina l'uso della musica e delle arti performative nell'insegnamento dell'Inglese Lingua Straniera, con riferimento all'insegnamento dell'inglese in Paesi non anglofoni. In particolare, il canto e il teatro vengono proposti come strumenti didattici per migliorare l'acquisizione dell'Inglese Lingua Straniera partendo dai dati raccolti durante un esperimento didattico condotto in un liceo linguistico italiano. Nell'ambito della Ricerca Azione, la letteratura esistente sull'argomento viene analizzata criticamente alla luce dei dati raccolti durante l'esperimento didattico in classe, svoltosi presso il liceo linguistico l'IIS P. Scalcerle di Padova con 26 studenti del primo anno. Le teorie che sostengono l'uso glottodidattico di materiali autentici di tipo artistico in attività legate al canto e al teatro sono supportate dai dati raccolti durante l'esperienza pratica in classe, che indicano che le arti performative hanno favorito l’acquisizione dell’Inglese Lingua Straniera durante l'unità. Questa corrispondenza tra teoria e pratica conferma che la didattica dell’inglese basata sul teatro e sul canto può produrre effetti positivi in termini motivazionali, comportamentali e cognitivi. Di conseguenza, questa tesi incoraggia gli insegnanti di Inglese Lingua Straniera a includere la formazione artistica nei loro programmi, sostenendo e migliorando così l'acquisizione linguistica.The present dissertation is the result of an experimental study examin ing the use of music and the performing arts in English Foreign Language teaching , thus referring to English being taught in non English speaking countries . In particular, song and drama are explored as pedagogical tools to enhance EFL acquisition bas ing on a practical teaching exper iment conducted in an Italian high school. Within the framework of Action Research, existing literature on the subject is critically analyzed in light of the data gathered during th e in class teaching experiment, which took place at IIS P. Scalcerle, a high school in Padua, Italy, and was conducted with 26 first year students. The theories arguing for a pedagogical use of art based authentic materials and song and drama related activities in EFL teaching settings are backed up by the data gathered during in class practical experience , which indicate that song and drama enhanced EFL acquisition during the unit . This theory practice congruency confirms that EFL pedagogy based on drama and singing can produce beneficial effects in motivational, behavioral and cognitive terms. As a consequence EFL teachers are encouraged to include art training in their curricula, thus sustaining and enhancing English Foreign Language acquisition

Commonsense knowledge acquisition and applications

Computers are increasingly expected to make smart decisions based on what humans consider commonsense. This would require computers to understand their environment, including properties of objects in the environment (e.g., a wheel is round), relations between objects (e.g., two wheels are part of a bike, or a bike is slower than a car) and interactions of objects (e.g., a driver drives a car on the road). The goal of this dissertation is to investigate automated methods for acquisition of large-scale, semantically organized commonsense knowledge. Prior state-of-the-art methods to acquire commonsense are either not automated or based on shallow representations. Thus, they cannot produce large-scale, semantically organized commonsense knowledge. To achieve the goal, we divide the problem space into three research directions, constituting our core contributions: 1. Properties of objects: acquisition of properties like hasSize, hasShape, etc. We develop WebChild, a semi-supervised method to compile semantically organized properties. 2. Relationships between objects: acquisition of relations like largerThan, partOf, memberOf, etc. We develop CMPKB, a linear-programming based method to compile comparative relations, and, we develop PWKB, a method based on statistical and logical inference to compile part-whole relations. 3. Interactions between objects: acquisition of activities like drive a car, park a car, etc., with attributes such as temporal or spatial attributes. We develop Knowlywood, a method based on semantic parsing and probabilistic graphical models to compile activity knowledge. Together, these methods result in the construction of a large, clean and semantically organized Commonsense Knowledge Base that we call WebChild KB.Von Computern wird immer mehr erwartet, dass sie kluge Entscheidungen treffen können, basierend auf Allgemeinwissen. Dies setzt voraus, dass Computer ihre Umgebung, einschließlich der Eigenschaften von Objekten (z. B. das Rad ist rund), Beziehungen zwischen Objekten (z. B. ein Fahrrad hat zwei Räder, ein Fahrrad ist langsamer als ein Auto) und Interaktionen von Objekten (z. B. ein Fahrer fährt ein Auto auf der Straße), verstehen können. Das Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es, automatische Methoden für die Erfassung von großmaßstäblichem, semantisch organisiertem Allgemeinwissen zu schaffen. Dies ist schwierig aufgrund folgender Eigenschaften des Allgemeinwissens. Es ist: (i) implizit und spärlich, da Menschen nicht explizit das Offensichtliche ausdrücken, (ii) multimodal, da es über textuelle und visuelle Inhalte verteilt ist, (iii) beeinträchtigt vom Einfluss des Berichtenden, da ungewöhnliche Fakten disproportional häufig berichtet werden, (iv) Kontextabhängig, und hat aus diesem Grund eine eingeschränkte statistische Konfidenz. Vorherige Methoden, auf diesem Gebiet sind entweder nicht automatisiert oder basieren auf flachen Repräsentationen. Daher können sie kein großmaßstäbliches, semantisch organisiertes Allgemeinwissen erzeugen. Um unser Ziel zu erreichen, teilen wir den Problemraum in drei Forschungsrichtungen, welche den Hauptbeitrag dieser Dissertation formen: 1. Eigenschaften von Objekten: Erfassung von Eigenschaften wie hasSize, hasShape, usw. Wir entwickeln WebChild, eine halbüberwachte Methode zum Erfassen semantisch organisierter Eigenschaften. 2. Beziehungen zwischen Objekten: Erfassung von Beziehungen wie largerThan, partOf, memberOf, usw. Wir entwickeln CMPKB, eine Methode basierend auf linearer Programmierung um vergleichbare Beziehungen zu erfassen. Weiterhin entwickeln wir PWKB, eine Methode basierend auf statistischer und logischer Inferenz welche zugehörigkeits Beziehungen erfasst. 3. Interaktionen zwischen Objekten: Erfassung von Aktivitäten, wie drive a car, park a car, usw. mit temporalen und räumlichen Attributen. Wir entwickeln Knowlywood, eine Methode basierend auf semantischem Parsen und probabilistischen grafischen Modellen um Aktivitätswissen zu erfassen. Als Resultat dieser Methoden erstellen wir eine große, saubere und semantisch organisierte Allgemeinwissensbasis, welche wir WebChild KB nennen

An Academic Writing Curriculum and Materials for A1-B2-Level Learners in a Turkish University’s English Language Preparatory Program

This IPP combines a literature review and a materials development project. The literature review outlines and supports the approach taken throughout the curriculum and the materials that were developed. First, it lays out the nature of Turkish universities’ ELPP’s; then, it deals with the basic philosophy of the curriculum including individualization and standardization, the role of joy in education, the necessity for an integration of skills in teaching academic writing, the use of models, and the necessity and purpose of feedback. In the second half of the literature review, the key features of academic writing are discussed in advance of showing how to teach them. Recommendations are also given for testing the validity of the approach taken and for additional areas that should be studied. These are followed by a demonstration lesson where the principles are shown in action. Finally, the entire 32-week curriculum is presented, showing how this philosophy can be actualized in lesson planning, materials, and handouts

Metasemantics and fuzzy mathematics

The present thesis is an inquiry into the metasemantics of natural languages, with a particular focus on the philosophical motivations for countenancing degreed formal frameworks for both psychosemantics and truth-conditional semantics. Chapter 1 sets out to offer a bird's eye view of our overall research project and the key questions that we set out to address. Chapter 2 provides a self-contained overview of the main empirical findings in the cognitive science of concepts and categorisation. This scientific background is offered in light of the fact that most variants of psychologically-informed semantics see our network of concepts as providing the raw materials on which lexical and sentential meanings supervene. Consequently, the metaphysical study of internalistically-construed meanings and the empirical study of our mental categories are overlapping research projects. Chapter 3 closely investigates a selection of species of conceptual semantics, together with reasons for adopting or disavowing them. We note that our ultimate aim is not to defend these perspectives on the study of meaning, but to argue that the project of making them formally precise naturally invites the adoption of degreed mathematical frameworks (e.g. probabilistic or fuzzy). In Chapter 4, we switch to the orthodox framework of truth-conditional semantics, and we present the limitations of a philosophical position that we call "classicism about vagueness". In the process, we come up with an empirical hypothesis for the psychological pull of the inductive soritical premiss and we make an original objection against the epistemicist position, based on computability theory. Chapter 5 makes a different case for the adoption of degreed semantic frameworks, based on their (quasi-)superior treatments of the paradoxes of vagueness. Hence, the adoption of tools that allow for graded membership are well-motivated under both semantic internalism and semantic externalism. At the end of this chapter, we defend an unexplored view of vagueness that we call "practical fuzzicism". Chapter 6, viz. the final chapter, is a metamathematical enquiry into both the fuzzy model-theoretic semantics and the fuzzy Davidsonian semantics for formal languages of type-free truth in which precise truth-predications can be expressed