Eastern Borderlands as Europe-Makers: (How) Can neighbours redefine the EU?

A general and strategic effect of EU’s Association Agreements and DCFTAs with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine has been the extension of the concept of Europe and its wider opening to neighborhoods and margins. It is on this basis that a European normative order can be differentiated from both the ‘Russian world’ and Eurasian geopolitical space. However this paper argues that the process of association is not a unilateral move, but a multilateral and reciprocal development; it is a way for Europe to know more about itself, and to politically redefine itself. The neighbourhood policy causes controversial effects on the EU. On the one hand, it consolidates the liberal minded groups within European societies eager to see the EU as a promoter of values of freedom and civic liberties to be projected eastwards and defended in EU’s neighborhood. On the other hand, the problems of practical implementation tend to solidify sceptical groups in both the EU and its associated neighbours that contest not only the deepening of EU’s engagement with Ukraine, but EU ’s normative project as a whole. The implementation of the joint strategy of the EU and its close neighbours faces a challenge of finding a proper balance between two dominant – yet to a large extent contradictory – approaches. One consists of capitalizing on these countries’ status as victims of Russia’s policies, countries whose very existence is under threat, which implies support and help from the EU. Another, requiring much more consistent efforts, is for the associated neighbouring states to emerge as positive showcases of transition, and useful partners contributing not only to the transformation process in post-Soviet area, but also to EU’s and NATO’s security. The recent three years made clear that the former alone does not guarantee to Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova a fully-fledged European voice

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICT

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Purpose for Context Sensitivity

This thesis has two parts. In Part I there is an argument for the conclusion that a linguistic phenomenon known as (radical) context-sensitivity is to be expected given the limitations of those who use language to reason about empirical states of affairs. The phenomenon arises as a consequence of a process that must be performed to use language to reason validly. In Part II it is explained why the phenomenon, understood in light of the discussion of Part I, does not threaten the possibility of communication. Some potential readers might be interested to know that in Part I there's a fair amount of exegesis of arguments for the existence of (radical) context-sensitivity put forward by Charles Travis. Some potential readers might be interested to know that in Part II use is made of work by Erving Goffman and some conversation analysts

Inference processing and error recovery in sentence understanding

Solving the mysteries of human language understanding inevitably requires an answer to the question of how the language understander resolves ambiguity, for human language is certainly ambiguous. But ambiguity leads to choices between possible explanations, and choice opens the door for mistakes. Unless we are willing to believe that the human language understander always makes the correct choice, any explanation of ambiguity resolution must be considered incomplete if it does not also account for recovery from an incorrect decision.This dissertation describes a new approach to lexical ambiguity resolution during sentence understanding which is implemented in a program called ATLAST. Many computational models of natural language understanding have dealt with lexical ambiguity resolution, but ATLAST is one of the few models to address the associated problem of error recovery. ATLAST's ability to recover from an incorrect lexical inference decision stems from its ability to retain unchosen word meanings for a period of time after it selects the apparently context-appropriate meaning of an ambiguous word. The short-term retention of possible lexical inferences permits ATLAST to recover from incorrect decisions without backtracking and reprocessing text, and without keeping a record of possible choices indefinitely.The principle of retention provides a solution to the problem of error recovery which is compatible with current psycholinguistic theories of lexical disambiguation. Furthermore, the existence of some form of retention in lexical disambiguation is supported by the results of experiments with human subjects. This dissertation includes a discussion of these results and speculation on how the principle of retention might be extended to account for recovery from erroneous higher-level inference decisions

Ill-Formed Text and Conceptual Processing

In this paper, we discuss the problem of ill-formed (or incorrectly processed) text in the context of conceptual analysis text processing systems. We show that syntactically ill-formed text is not a major problem for such systems. Conceptually ill-formed text and conceptually ill-formed representations of text do cause interesting problems. We define conceptual ill-formedness and then present ideas for how it can handled in the context of two text processing systems, IPP and RESEARCHER

Ill-Formed Text and Conceptual Processing

In this paper, we discuss the problem of ill-formed (or incorrectly processed) text in the context of conceptual analysis text processing systems. We show that syntactically ill-formed text is not a major problem for such systems. Conceptually ill-formed text and conceptually ill-formed representations of text do cause interesting problems. We define conceptual ill-formedness and then present ideas for how it can handled in the context of two text processing systems, IPP and RESEARCHER

Recognizing promises, advice, threats and warnings in natural language discourse

Not Include

The role of the Globe theatre in shaping Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2012Abstract : This study assesses the impact of a specific theatre space on Shakespeare's work along two broad lines of inquiry. The sociopolitical environment and the structural features and resources of the Globe theatre are examined in turn, in an effort to ascertain the extent to which they may have shaped the conception and enactment of Julius Caesar in 1599. The social, religious, and political concerns of contemporary London are elucidated by the identification of relevant evidence from the play text. Likewise, discussions of the Globe's structure and staging conditions are informed by the analysis of several key scenes from the play. The study relates the attributes of the Globe theatre and the Shakespearean stage in general to the concepts of Holy and Rough Theatre found in Peter Brook's The Empty Space, and employs Andrew Gurr's notion of the "Shakespearean Mindset" as well as J. L. Styan's theories concerning the imaginative neutrality of the stage space and the creative collaboration of the audience, to apprehend the connection between the language of Julius Caesar and the specific theatre space in which it was first enacted. The metaphorical potential of the stage space and theatre structure as a whole are discussed with reference to discernable metatheatrical moments in the play. The study verifies a complex connection between Julius Caesar and the Globe theatre and its surroundings, allowing for an improved understanding of the play's layered contextual significance, as well as informing of staging practices at the Globe that brought Shakespeare's words to life.Este trabalho avalia o impacto de um espaço de teatro específico sobre a obra de Shakespeare ao longo de duas amplas linhas de investigação. O ambiente sócio-político e as características estruturais e recursos do teatro Globe são analisados sucessivamente, em um esforço para determinar a medida em que eles podem ter formado a concepção e encenação de Julius Caesar em 1599. As questões sociais, religiosas e políticas da Londres contemporânea são elucidadas pela identificação de evidências relevantes no texto. Da mesma forma, as discussões sobre a estrutura do Globe e as condições de encenação são esclarecidas pela análise de várias cenas-chave da peça. O estudo relaciona os atributos do teatro Globe e do teatro Shakespeareano em geral aos conceitos de "Holy and Rough Theatre" de Peter Brook, e utiliza a concepção de Andrew Gurr chamada "Shakespearean Mindset", assim como as teorias de J. L. Styan relativas à neutralidade imaginativa do espaço do palco e à colaboração criativa do público, para compreender a conexão entre a linguagem de Julius Caesar e do espaço teatral em que foi inicialmente encenada. O potencial metafórico do espaço do palco e da estrutura do teatro como um todo é discutido no que tange a momentos metateatrais discerníveis na peça. O estudo verifica uma relação complexa entre Julius Caesar e o teatro Globe e os seus arredores, permitindo uma melhor compreensão da significância contextual multifacetada da peça, bem como registro de práticas de encenação no Globe que trouxeram as palavras de Shakespeare à vida

Constraints on metalinguistic anaphora

The focus of this paper is on a subset of heteronymous mention, namely those cases in which the mentioning expression is, roughly speaking, anaphorically linked to the string it mentions. I will distinguish two subclasses. In the first one, the antecedent of the metalinguistic anaphor is a quotation. This means that both the antecedent and the anaphor refer to a linguistic entity (the same one, it turns out; these expressions are co-referential). In the second subclass, the antecedent is not a quotation; it is a string in ordinary use. Here we have no co-reference: whereas the anaphor refers metalinguistically, the antecedent either refers to an object in the world or does not refer at all. This second subclass is especially interesting because it instantiates a shift in the universe of discourse, from extralinguistic reality to language. Where such a shift occurs, I will speak of ‘world-to-language' anaphora. I will argue that metalinguistic anaphora is best described in terms of a theory that assumes that various anaphoric expressions encode various degrees of salience of referents. But I will also show that salience is built in the context of utterance. It is not necessarily an acquired feature of the referent by the time the anaphor is processed: there is adjustment between the anaphor and its immediate linguistic environment. Besides, we will see that other factors may also affect anaphora resolution, which suggests that the best account must, in essence, be pragmatic