Two levels of blending with Homophonic Compounds in Japanese

This study states that discourse serves as a crucial factor for a precise understanding of Japanese puns i.e. a word play with homophones, and argues that the double meanings of a pun can be processed at the lexical/phonological level and the discourse level in this order. Homophonic compounds provide speakers of Japanese with a chance to create newly derived meanings from an unexpected use of a given homophonic compound; however, such derived meanings blend right in with the immediate discourse. Such information processing in mind and discourse can be accounted for by Blending Theory (Fauconnier, 1997).El presente artículo muestra que el discurso es un factor crucial para poder interpretar de forma precisa los juegos de palabras japoneses, es decir, homófonos con dobles sentidos. Se defiende que el doble sentido de un juego de palabras se puede procesar al nivel léxico-fonológico y al nivel discursivo por este orden. Los compuestos homofónicos ofrecen a los hablantes japoneses la oportunidad de crear significados derivados novedosos de un uso inesperado de un determinado compuesto homofónico; sin embargo, tales sentidos derivados se integran en el discurso inmediato. Este procesamiento de la información en la mente y el discurso se puede explicar mediante la Teoría de la Integración Conceptual (Blending Theory)

Growth-induced stability in modified SLE curve

In this study, the non-equilibrium free energy corresponding to the curve generated by a modified stochastic Loewner evolution (SLE), which is driven by the Langevin equation, is theoretically investigated. Under certain conditions, we prove that the time derivative of the (generalized) free energy expressed by Kullback-Leibler divergence between the probability distributions of the curve and driving function has a positive value, indicating the negativity of Gibbs entropy production. In addition, it was implied that, in a certain restriction, the free energy can be expressed as a function of a Lyapunov-type exponent of the driving function. These results show a dissipative nature of conformal dynamics, and indicate the growth-induced stability of the modified SLE curve