Space as an invention of biological organisms

The question of the nature of space around us has occupied thinkers since the dawn of humanity, with scientists and philosophers today implicitly assuming that space is something that exists objectively. Here we show that this does not have to be the case: the notion of space could emerge when biological organisms seek an economic representation of their sensorimotor flow. The emergence of spatial notions does not necessitate the existence of real physical space, but only requires the presence of sensorimotor invariants called `compensable' sensory changes. We show mathematically and then in simulations that na\"ive agents making no assumptions about the existence of space are able to learn these invariants and to build the abstract notion that physicists call rigid displacement, which is independent of what is being displaced. Rigid displacements may underly perception of space as an unchanging medium within which objects are described by their relative positions. Our findings suggest that the question of the nature of space, currently exclusive to philosophy and physics, should also be addressed from the standpoint of neuroscience and artificial intelligence

Global English, so English for All?

Since the end of the Second World War, English has developed into a global language of communication which is used in international institutions, transnational corporations, international centres of finance, international business, hospitality and services industries, and in global academia. It is taught as a foreign language to millions of learners in classrooms across the world, and is more generally used as a lingua franca and means of intercultural communication between speakers of different first languages in global as well as local contexts. English has reached this position due to the rise to global dominance of the world economies of first Britain and then the United States in the modern world-system. This is an economic and geopolitical system which dates from the sixteenth century and which Britain initially came to dominate from the mid-eighteenth century to be followed by the United States in the early twentieth century. The consequence of the global spread of English within the modern world-system has been the development of a pluricentric world of multiple Englishes and realizations of English. Applied linguistics and ELT scholars engaging with these diverse Englishes have referred to them, amongst other things, as world Englishes, ELF, translingualism, translanguaging and superdiversity. The scholarly debates have in turn given rise to controversies about the continued relevance of standard ‘inner circle’ models of English and the kinds of English that should be taught, with implications for English language teacher training, teacher classroom practice, and language policy. In a world of diverse Englishes and realizations of English, it seems useful to overview what is occurring in applied linguistics in order that teachers of English in diverse world contexts may decide how they wish to respond to these developments

Critical realism, critical discourse analysis, and the aporetics of a critical ontology

This paper considers the theoretical intersections between critical realism (CR) and the field of applied linguistics known as critical discourse analysis (CDA). CDA is the study of discourse as a social practice (Fairclough, 2001). The paper identifies six distinctive approaches to CDA and to these correlates the six ‘moments’ or principles of critical realist theory: transcendental realism, critical naturalism, explanatory critique, emancipatory axiology, dialectical critical realism, and the philosophical discourse of modernity (Hartwig, 2007). As part of this mapping process the paper considers the varied meanings of the term ‘critical’ as it exists between and within both fields and attempts to locate the critical realist ‘kernel’ in the critical discourse ‘shell’. Of particular interest is how and whether the turn to discourse in the social sciences and in CDA can be reconciled with the insistence in CR of an accessible ontological reality. The paper argues that the epistemic and linguistic fallacies, by which in CR the ontologically real is reduced to the epistemological and to discourse respectively, misconstrue the turn to discourse as a denial of the real and offers an alternative view. The paper also problematises the ‘trade off’ between epistemic and judgemental relativism in CR (Bhaskar, 1998, 2002) and in more recent versions of CDA (Chouliaraki and Fairclough, 1999), arguing that an aporetic contradiction appears to exist in accepting one and rejecting the other. The paper opens for discussion the nature of this aporia and asks if there is a way to resolve it. The paper concludes by outlining a framework of critical discourse analysis which meshes CDA with the critical inquiry of CR

Linguistic Landscapes, Western Deathscapes

This paper concerns the role of the foreign ‘deathspace’ as a linguistic and cultural marker of western identity amongst English-speaking sojourners residing in China in the nineteenth century. They included diplomats, soldiers, naval personnel, merchants, missionaries and their families. Between 1800 and 1860 a number of cemeteries were established in China for the burial of foreigners, particularly at centres of commerce and/or foreign occupation. These included cemeteries at Guangzhou, Macau, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai and Tianjin. These burial grounds have now almost all disappeared. The few that remain are principally to be found in Hong Kong and Macau. The foreign cemetery in China – through the inscriptional texts which appear upon its tombs – is representative of a peculiarly English-speaking linguistic landscape. This landscape interpellated the nineteenth century cemetery visitor as a rational and Christian subject by projecting upon the reader certain cultural injunctions, concerning western ideals such as Christian faith, fidelity and personal duty. The layout and iconography of the foreign cemetery also presented to the visitor a culturally-western ‘deathscape’ of linearly-ordered memorial structures in a characteristic design – as for example headstones, pillars, slabs and chest tombs – which were often decorated with the recognisable, if simultaneously opaque, symbolic motifs of the deathspaces of home, such as the urn, the anchor and the all-seeing eye. The paper will present an overview of the foreign cemetery in China as a linguistic landscape and a western deathscape with particular reference to the Old Protestant Cemetery (1821-1859) in colonial Macau. References O’Regan, J. P. (2008). Foreign death in China: symbolism, ritual and belief in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau. Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, 47, 127-164. O’Regan, J. P. (2009). The tombstones of the English East India Company cemetery in Macao: a linguistic analysis. Markers XXVI. Journal of the Association of Gravestone Studies, 88-119

Ligand Discrimination in Myoglobin from Linear-Scaling DFT+U

Myoglobin modulates the binding of diatomic molecules to its heme group via hydrogen-bonding and steric interactions with neighboring residues, and is an important benchmark for computational studies of biomolecules. We have performed calculations on the heme binding site and a significant proportion of the protein environment (more than 1000 atoms) using linear-scaling density functional theory and the DFT+U method to correct for self-interaction errors associated with localized 3d states. We confirm both the hydrogen-bonding nature of the discrimination effect (3.6 kcal/mol) and assumptions that the relative strain energy stored in the protein is low (less than 1 kcal/mol). Our calculations significantly widen the scope for tackling problems in drug design and enzymology, especially in cases where electron localization, allostery or long-ranged polarization influence ligand binding and reaction.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. Supplementary material 8 pages, 3 figures. This version matches that accepted for J. Phys. Chem. Lett. on 10th May 201