Ambiguity Tests and How to Fail Them

A number of tests used by linguists to distinguish ambiguity from lack of specification are described and illustrated, with brief critical commentary. The tests appeal to semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic principles. Special attention is given to tests using transformations whose applicability depends upon identity of sense; these tests can help to decide the status of examples for which other tests give no evidence. But there is a class of cases where the identity tests predict ambiguity, even though common sense (and tests not involving identity of sense) says that these cases involve special uses of sentences, not meaning proper, and other tests for ambiguity agree. These cases are characterized, and their anomalous behavior is explained on the grounds that they require suspension of the sincerity principle of conversation (that one means what one says)

Some , And Possibly All, Scalar Inferences Are Not Delayed: Evidence For Immediate Pragmatic Enrichment

Scalar inferences are commonly generated when a speaker uses a weaker expression rather than a stronger alternative, e.g., John ate some of the apples implies that he did not eat them all. This article describes a visual-world study investigating how and when perceivers compute these inferences. Participants followed spoken instructions containing the scalar quantifier some directing them to interact with one of several referential targets (e.g., Click on the girl who has some of the balloons). Participants fixated on the target compatible with the implicated meaning of some and avoided a competitor compatible with the literal meaning prior to a disambiguating noun. Further, convergence on the target was as fast for some as for the non-scalar quantifiers none and all. These findings indicate that the scalar inference is computed immediately and is not delayed relative to the literal interpretation of some. It is argued that previous demonstrations that scalar inferences increase processing time are not necessarily due to delays in generating the inference itself, but rather arise because integrating the interpretation of the inference with relevant information in the context may require additional time. With sufficient contextual support, processing delays disappear

‘Eating a Ripe Banana with Its Skin On’: Health Education Campaigns against STDs and HIV/AIDS in Mbozi District, Tanzania, 1980-2010

This historical study assesses health education campaigns against sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS in Mbozi District, Tanzania, between 1980 and 2010. Archival and oral data collected in Mbozi from 2008 to 2010 reveal that the campaigns have not had the intended impact of preventing the spread of the diseases. This is in part because the campaigns do not take into account the prevailing socio-economic and cultural contexts. Nevertheless, there is an increase of public awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and a slight change of sexual behaviour. Thus, to improve on the current campaigns, the stakeholders who are involved in intervention campaigns against sexually transmitted diseases should take into account the socio-economic and cultural environment

THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION? THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EFFORTS TO MITIGATE GRAND CORRUPTION IN THE HEALTHCARE AND MINING SECTORS IN TANZANIA

The efforts to fight against corruption portrayed by international and domestic actors are crucial in addressing measures to alleviate corruption in the mining and healthcare sectors. Several experts in social science research argue that transparency, public awareness, and oversight are practical approaches to fighting corruption in the mining and healthcare sectors when they receive the needed support from a working legal system and strong political will. This research body has provided information on how transparency, public awareness, and oversight are helpful to fight corruption, but principal-agent theory and collective action theory suggest different ideas of how these approaches can work and why they may not work. This thesis applies these theoretical ideas to understand anti-corruption efforts in two sectors: mining and healthcare. The research study was conducted based on a qualitative approach with specific use of interviews and document analysis as a data-gathering method. The research findings indicate that both mining and healthcare sectors have developed openness through online service provision, an effort to increases corruption risk knowledge to the public, expanded corruption reporting mechanisms, and improved auditing tactics that help detect corruption allegations. The mining sector has recently made progress in fighting corruption due to a good legal framework supported by the implementation of the laws. In comparison, the healthcare sector has little progress in fighting grand corruption due to rather minor expansion of controlling mechanisms to detect corrupt allegations, such as camera installation in the public medical stores. There is also little control of forgery documents made to the NHIF sheet by health personnel and external medical owners. The findings have implications for improving effective governance to fight corruption in these sectors by informing us that transparency and public wareness have a practical impact on reducing corruption through oversight. Because effective oversight means the ability to audit and suggest punishment to law violators, and it helps to strengthen enforcement of the law

Approximating the limit: the interaction between 'almost' and some temporal connectives in Italian

International audienceThis paper focuses on the interpretation of the Italian approximative adverb 'almost' by primarily looking at cases in which it modifies temporal connectives, a domain which, to our knowledge, has been largely unexplored thus far. Consideration of this domain supports the need for a scalar account of the semantics of (close in spirit to Hitzeman's semantic analysis of , in: Canakis et al. (eds) Papers from the 28th regional meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 1992). When paired with suitable analyses of temporal connectives, such an account can provide a simple explanation of the patterns of implication that are observed when modifies locational (e.g. 'when'), directional (e.g. 'until' and 'since'), and event-sequencing temporal connectives (e.g. 'before' and 'after'). A challenging empirical phenomenon that is observed is a contrast between the modification of and by , on the one hand, and the modification of and by the same adverb, on the other. While and behave symmetrically, a puzzling asymmetry is observed between and . To explain the asymmetry, we propose an analysis of and on which the former has the meaning of the temporal comparative 'earlier', while the latter is seen as an atomic predicate denoting temporal succession between events (Del Prete, Nat Lang Semantics 16:157-203, 2008). We show that the same pattern of implication observed for is attested when modifies overt comparatives, and propose a pragmatic analysis of this pattern that uniformly applies to both cases, thus providing new evidence for the claim that is underlyingly a comparative. A major point of this paper is a discussion of the notion of scale which is relevant for the semantics of ; in particular, we show that the notion of Horn (entailment-based) scale is not well-suited for handling modification of temporal connectives, and that a more general notion of scale is required in order to provide a uniform analysis of as a cross-categorial modifier

La communication publique dans le monde arabe. Essai d’analyse de son émergence et de son développement

Ce texte examine l’émergence et le développement de la communication publique dans le monde arabe. L’essor de la communication publique est lié à une série de dynamiques : construction et crise de l’Etat postcolonial, transformations des organisations publiques et mutations de la sphère des médias. Situé dans son contexte sociétal, l’essor de la communication publique nous renseigne sur les changements des modes de gestion politique et sur le statut des organisations publiques dans des sociétés de plus en plus ouvertes et des économies désormais soumises aux effets de la mondialisation. Le processus d’émergence en cours d’un espace public qui favorise de nouvelles formes de pluralité, de visibilité, d’expressions médiatiques explique le recours croissant de l’Etat et de ses organisations à la communication. L’analyse révèle ainsi le nouveau statut de la communication dans des sociétés arabes et l’évolution de l’Etat autoritaire.This article examines the emergence and development of public communication in the Arab world. The rise of public communication is linked to a series of dynamics: construction and crisis of postcolonial state, transformation of public organizations and changes in media sphere. In terms of the societal context, the rise of public communication tells us about the changing modes of political management and the status of public organizations in societies that are affected by free economies due to the globalization process. The emergence of a public space that promotes new forms of plurality, visibility, and expression media explains the increasing use of the communication by the state and its organizations. The current analysis reveals that the new status of communication in the Arab societies and the future of the authoritarian state. state

EVALUATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES PROVIED IN A UNIVERSITY-BASED PRIMARY CARE CLINIC

Primary care clinics are increasingly integrating psychological services into their service programs; however few studies have provided quantitative data to support these services. This study served as a program evaluation of the psychological services provided at the Ambulatory Care Clinic at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. It includes: 1) a description of the program, including types of patients served, their presenting problems, and treatments administered and 2) evidence of the impact of mental health services on primary care patients’ emotional adjustment and progress on behavioral goals. Data on exposure to stressful life events and intake and follow-up measures of depression, anxiety, smoking, insomnia, chronic pain, and weight loss were collected on 452 adult primary care patients. Although inferences are limited by the lack of a control or comparison group, preliminary findings indicate that the mental health services provided were effective. Implications and future directions are discussed

Building resistance: ethnography of a self-managed social centre in Lisbon

O Covil é um centro social autogerido em Lisboa. Anarquista, ligado à cena punk e localizado numa zona da cidade que abriga dinâmicas sociais próprias de resistência coletiva, contrasta com a cidade hegemónica da gentrificação. Polo de resistência, é vivido como um espaço de desenvolvimento e emancipação coletiva e pessoal. Através de pesquisa etnográfica, este artigo analisa o Covil, permitindo compreender e problematizar como nele se entrecruzam anarquismo, punk e gentrificação.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Construindo resistência: um centro social autogerido em Lisboa

O Covil é um centro social autogerido em Lisboa. Centro anarquista e ligado à cena punk lisboeta, é um espaço singular, situado numa zona da cidade ainda pouco estudada e com características particulares e dinâmicas de resistência coletiva. É uma outra Lisboa - geograficamente no centro, mas ao mesmo tempo nas margens. Uma Lisboa suja e contra-hegemónica, em contraste com a Lisboa da gentrificação e da estética asséptica. Através de pesquisa etnográfica, será desvendado o que é o Covil e o que ele representa na cidade e para as pessoas que o constroem e lhe dão vida quotidianamente. A análise teórica terá um duplo foco nas vertentes urbana e cultural, procurando enquadrar as dinâmicas de resistência que se manifestam no Covil e sobre as quais a pesquisa incide. Na vertente urbana, olhar-se-á para a gentrificação e as suas complexidades e para alguns conceitos relevantes relativos à resistência e às culturas urbanas. Na vertente cultural, propondo um olhar crítico e construindo também sobre o conhecimento existente acerca das subculturas de forma mais geral, importa olhar para o punk e a sua ligação com o anarquismo e movimentos sociais. O Covil serve como um excelente espaço para compreender e problematizar diferentes fenómenos urbanos, culturais e políticos que nele se entrecruzam. Pólo de resistência, ainda que com obstáculos, é um espaço de desenvolvimento e emancipação coletiva e pessoal de grande importância e vitalidade.Covil is a self-managed social centre in Lisbon. An anarchist centre and connected to Lisbon's punk scene, it is a singular space, located in a still understudied area of the city, one with particular characteristics and dynamics of collective resistance. It is another Lisbon - geographically in the centre, but at the same time in the margins. A dirty and counter-hegemonic Lisbon, in contrast with the Lisbon of gentrification and aseptic aesthetics. Through ethnographic research, we will unveil what Covil is and what it represents in the city and to the people who build it and make it come to life on a daily basis. The theoretical analysis will have a double focus on the urban and cultural strands, seeking to frame the dynamics of resistance which manifest themselves at Covil and on which the research focuses. In the urban strand, we will look at gentrification and its complexities and at some relevant concepts related to urban resistance and cultures. In the cultural strand, proposing a critical outlook and building upon the existing knowledge on subcultures in a more general way, it is important to look at punk and its connection with anarchism and social movements. Covil serves as an excellent space to understand and problematize different urban, cultural and political phenomena which intertwine in it. An epicentre of resistance, albeit with obstacles, it is a space of collective and personal development and emancipation of great importance and vitality

Investigation the Effect of Fee Free Education on Education Quality in Tanzania.

The study concerning with the effect of fee free education on education quality in Tanzania. Specifically, the study looked on the students to book ratio, student to teacher’s ratio and student to class ratio. 45 secondary schools were used as sample size these were selected in five districts of Dar es Salaam.Quantitative research approach was employed as the method of data collection, Descriptive analysis and independent samples t-test were employed. The study found that before free fee education program was introduced, one student was able to access two books at any time in the visited schools. But after introduction of this program, one student was able to access three books at school at any time. This indicated that there was slightly improvement of students to book ratio following introduction of free fee education program. Moreover, ratio of students to teacher was observed to be within the recommended ratio of 20 to 30 students per one teacher at any time. In which it was noted that student to teachers ratio was 22:1 before this program was introduced and 24:1 after it was introduced. The slightly increase of this ratio was attributed by limited employment of new teachers in the public schools. Further, the ratio of students to class was noted to be 47:1 before the program was introduced and 52:1 after it was introduced. Since the recommended number of students per class was 40-50; the program came with increase demand of more classrooms in the visited schools. The study concluded that there was no significant changes have been brought by free fee education policy in Dar es Salaam. Therefore, the study recommended for further similar studies to be conducted in other regions. However, more classrooms should be constructed in the lower secondary schools in Dar es Salaam and other parts of the country