87,462 research outputs found
On answering accusations in controversies
Accusations are a very frequent type of speech act both in everyday life and in formal controversies, and answering accusations is a sophisticated type of linguistic practice well worth analysing from a pragmatic point of view. In my paper I shall first describe some basic properties of accusations and characteristic types of reactions to accusations, i. e. denying the alleged fact, making excuses, and giving justifications. I then go on to describe some fundamental functions of accusations in controversies. Using the basic patterns of accusations and reactions to accusations as an object of comparison, I then analyse some relevant exchanges from historical controversies (l6th to 18th century), among them famous polemical interactions like the Hobbes-Bramhall controversy, but also less well-known debates from the fields of medicine and theology. The present paper is both a contribution to the theory of controversy and to the pragmatic history of controversies. Keywords: historical pragmatics, theory of controversy, ad hominem moves, dynamics of controvers
Remarks on the structure of the verbal complex in early 17th century German
Speakers of various Southern german dialects may be heard to use two syntactic variants of subordinate clauses which are represented by the following Swabian examples: (1) daß er den net will komme lasse (2) daß er den net komme lasse will Of these two variants of the three-element verbal complex, only the non-dialect counterpart of (2) is accepted as standard modern written German: (3) daß er ihn nicht kommen lassen will In earlier periods of the German language, however, both variants were used by authors of written texts
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A generalization of Strassen's Positivstellensatz
Strassen's Positivstellensatz is a powerful but little known theorem on
preordered commutative semirings satisfying a boundedness condition similar to
Archimedeanicity. It characterizes the relaxed preorder induced by all monotone
homomorphisms to in terms of a condition involving large powers.
Here, we generalize and strengthen Strassen's result. As a generalization, we
replace the boundedness condition by a polynomial growth condition; as a
strengthening, we prove two further equivalent characterizations of the
homomorphism-induced preorder in our generalized setting.Comment: 24 pages. v6: condition (d) in Theorem 2.12 has been correcte
Towards a Re-definition of the Second Based on Optical Atomic Clocks
The rapid increase in accuracy and stability of optical atomic clocks
compared to the caesium atomic clock as primary standard of time and frequency
asks for a future re-definition of the second in the International System of
Units (SI). The status of the optical clocks based on either single ions in
radio-frequency traps or on neutral atoms stored in an optical lattice is
described with special emphasis of the current work at the
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). Besides the development and
operation of different optical clocks with estimated fractional uncertainties
in the 10^-18 range, the supporting work on ultra-stable lasers as core
elements and the means to compare remote optical clocks via transportable
standards, optical fibers, or transportable clocks is reported. Finally, the
conditions, methods and next steps are discussed that are the prerequisites for
a future re-definition of the second
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