Comments on the Morphology of Nouns in Mishnaic Hebrew: Nouns attested and unattested in Biblical Hebrew

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A formal approach to reanalysis: The case of a negative counterfactual marker

This paper proposes a formal definition of reanalysis, while emphasizing the importance of the distinction between two different kinds of reanalysis: those in which the change is confined to the grammatical level, and those in which it is confined to the semantic level. After tracing the history of a negative counterfactual conditional marker in Hebrew and Aramaic which underwent both syntactic and semantic reanalyses, the paper assesses the concept of reanalysis with focus on the following questions: Is reanalysis a single, clearly-defined phenomenon, and if so, what is its nature? Is it merely a descriptive label for a certain observable state of affairs, or does it explain diachronic changes? Alternatively, perhaps it is a theoretical constraint, a theoretical requirement that linguistic change must be associated with specific environments where reanalysis can take place? A detailed analysis of the marker and its evolution yields the following broad hypothesis: Reanalysis of a linguistic form does not change the truth conditions of the proposition that contains it, regardless of whether the reanalysis is on the grammatical level or on the semantic level

Direct Causation: A New Approach to an Old Question

Causative constructions come in lexical and periphrastic variants, exemplified in English by Sam killed Lee and Sam caused Lee to die. While use of the former, the lexical causative, entails the truth of the latter, an entailment in the other direction does not hold. The source of this asymmetry is commonly ascribed to the lexical causative having an additional prerequisite of “direct causation , such that the causative relation holds between a contiguous cause and effect (Fodor 1970, Katz 1970). However, this explanation encounters both empirical and theoretical problems (Nelleman & van der Koot 2012). To explain the source of the directness inferences (as well as other longstanding puzzles), we propose a formal analysis based on the framework of Structural Equation Models (SEMs) (Pearl 2000) which provides the necessary background for licensing causal inferences. Specifically, we provide a formalization of a \u27sufficient set of conditions\u27 within a model and demonstrate its role in the selectional parameters of causative descriptions. We argue that “causal sufficiency” is not a property of singular conditions, but rather sets of conditions, which are individually necessary but only sufficient when taken together (a view originally motivated in the philosophical literature by Mackie 1965). We further introduce the notion of a “completion event” of a sufficient set, which is critical to explain the particular inferential profile of lexical causatives

Le Coran et son exégèse chez les Ismaéliens, les Druzes et les Nuṣayrites/ʻAlaouites

Cette série de quatre cours fait suite à la précédente intitulée « L’exégèse coranique shi‘ite non-imamite » délivrée ici-même en 2012. Les cours ont commencé par deux séances d’introduction portant sur des aspects majeurs : les débuts de l’exégèse ismaélienne du Coran ; une description et analyse des écrits ismaéliens doctrinaux comportant des éléments exégétiques. L’accent a été mis sur les traits communs entre cette exégèse et celles d’autres courants du shi‘isme tout en insistant sur les ..

L’exégèse coranique shi‘ite non imamite

L’objectif principal des quatre séances de mon séminaire a été de traiter certains aspects précis de l’exégèse shi‘ite non-imamite. Le sujet étant peu connu, il était important de présenter au préalable quelques caractéristiques exégétiques de l’ismaélisme et des mouvements hétérodoxes

Causal selection – the linguistic take

Causal Selection is a widely discussed topic in philosophy and the cognitive sciences, concerned with characterizing the choice of "the cause" among the many individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions on which any effect depends on. In this paper, we argue for an additional selection process underlying causal statements: Causative-Construction Selection, which pertains to the choice of linguistic constructions used to express causal relations. By exploring this phenomenon, we aim to answer the following question: given that a speaker wishes to describe the relation between one of the conditions and the effect, which linguistic constructions are available? We take CC-selection to be more crucial than causal selection, since the latter is in fact restricted by the linguistic options resulting from the former. Based on a series of experiments, we demonstrate that factors taken previously as contributing to causal selection should, in fact, be considered as the parameters that license the various linguistic constructions under given circumstances, based on previous knowledge about the causal structure of the world (the causal model). These factors are therefore part of the meaning of the causative expressions

Matthew 5:22 : The Insult “Fool” and the Interpretation of the Law in Christian and Rabbinic Sources

The use of sources outside the New Testament, from the writings of Qumran to those of the rabbis, can help clarify the semantic and theological field in which Matthew 5:22 should be understood. This article claims that the correct interpretation of the Law stood at the center of arguments between different groups in the late Second Temple period and later; that the insults raka “empty” and mōre “fool” are connected to this polemical environment; and that it is within this setting that the Sermon on the Mount should be understood.Le recours à des sources extérieures au Nouveau Testament, depuis les manuscrits de Qumrân jusqu’à la littérature rabbinique, peut permettre de clarifier la nature du champ sémantique et théologique au sein duquel le verset 5 : 22 de l’Évangile selon Matthieu doit être compris. Cet article affirme que l’interprétation correcte de la Loi (mosaïque) figurait au cœur de disputes entre différents groupes juifs de la fin de la période du Second Temple et au-delà ; que les insultes raka (« vide ») et mōre (« insensé ») sont liées à ces polémiques ; et que c’est dans ce contexte que le Sermon sur la Montagne doit être replacé

Excitatory and inhibitory hippocampal neurons differ in their homeostatic adaptation to chronic M-channel modulation

A large body of studies has investigated bidirectional homeostatic plasticity both in vitro and in vivo using numerous pharmacological manipulations of activity or behavioral paradigms. However, these experiments rarely explored in the same cellular system the bidirectionality of the plasticity and simultaneously on excitatory and inhibitory neurons. M-channels are voltage-gated potassium channels that play a crucial role in regulating neuronal excitability and plasticity. In cultured hippocampal excitatory neurons, we previously showed that chronic exposure to the M-channel blocker XE991 leads to adaptative compensations, thereby triggering at different timescales intrinsic and synaptic homeostatic plasticity. This plastic adaptation barely occurs in hippocampal inhibitory neurons. In this study, we examined whether this homeostatic plasticity induced by M-channel inhibition was bidirectional by investigating the acute and chronic effects of the M-channel opener retigabine on hippocampal neuronal excitability. Acute retigabine exposure decreased excitability in both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Chronic retigabine treatment triggered in excitatory neurons homeostatic adaptation of the threshold current and spontaneous firing rate at a time scale of 4–24 h. These plastic changes were accompanied by a substantial decrease in the M-current density and by a small, though significant, proximal relocation of Kv7.3-FGF14 segment along the axon initial segment. Thus, bidirectional homeostatic changes were observed in excitatory neurons though not symmetric in kinetics and mechanisms. Contrastingly, in inhibitory neurons, the compensatory changes in intrinsic excitability barely occurred after 48 h, while no homeostatic normalization of the spontaneous firing rate was observed. Our results indicate that excitatory and inhibitory hippocampal neurons differ in their adaptation to chronic alterations in neuronal excitability induced by M-channel bidirectional modulation

Discourse update at the service of mirativity effects: the case of the Discursive Dative

The classic model of conversation based on the Common Ground (CG), introduced by Karttunen (1974), Lewis (1979) and Stalnaker (1978), was shown to be insufficient for accounting for various conversational phenomena (inter alia Portner 2004, 2007, Farkas & Bruce 2009, Murray 2014). This paper further strengthens this line by analyzing a type of non-truth conditional non-core dative termed the Discursive Dative (DD) as a discourse management device (Krifka 2008, Repp 2013). The DD signals that the asserted proposition p constitutes an exception to a normative generalization believed by the speaker to be shared by the speech event participants. In order to capture the notion of exception we propose to divide the CG into two sets of worlds, those consistent with previous assertions and their presuppositions (CGA) and those consistent with generalizations (CGG). The DD signals a non-inclusion relation between the asserted proposition and the CGG. This enables us to distinguish between different types of mirativity effects, by drawing a distinction between adding a proposition p that was not previously in the speaker's expectation-set (inter alia DeLancey 1997, 2001, Rett 2009, Peterson 2013, Rett & Murray 2013) and the present case of the DD, where p can very well be in the speaker's expectation-set, but objectively expected that ~p