A Semantic Browser for Linked Open Data

Although the Semantic Web was originally designed as a "web for machines", the growing wealth of information in Linked Open Data has become interesting for human users as well. Consequently, quite a few browsers for Linked Open Data have recently been developed. However, despite being developed for the semantic web, those browsers often present alphabetically ordered lists of facts, without respecting the semantics of the data. In our submission to the Semantic Web Challenge, we present a semantic browser for the semantic web 1, which aims at presenting facts from Linked Open Data in semantically coherent groups. This paper introduces the main algorithms as well as an evaluation of the browser with end users

Mobility in a Globalised World

The term mobility has different meanings in the following academic disciplines. In economics, mobility is the ability of an individual or a group to improve their economic status in relation to income and wealth within their lifetime or between generations. In information systems and computer science, mobility is used for the concept of mobile computing, in which a computer is transported by a person during normal use. Logistics creates, by the design of logistics networks, the infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods. Electric mobility is one of today’s solutions from engineering perspective to reduce the need of energy resources and environmental impact. Moreover, for urban planning, mobility is the crunch question about how to optimize the different needs for mobility and how to link different transportation systems. The conference “Mobility in a Globalised World” took place in Iserlohn, Germany, on September 14th – 15th, 2011. The aim of this conference was to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas among practitioners, researchers, and government officials regarding the different modes of mobility in a globalised world, focusing on both domestic and international issues. The proceedings at hand document the results of the presentations and ensuing discussions at the conference

Mobility in a Globalised World 2012

The term mobility has different meanings in the following science disciplines. In economics, mobility is the ability of an individual or a group to improve their economic status in relation to income and wealth within their lifetime or between generations. In information systems and computer science, mobility is used for the concept of mobile computing, in which a computer is transported by a person during normal use. By designing logistics networks, logistics creates the infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods. Electric mobility is one of today’s solutions from an engineering perspective to the problem of reducing the need for energy resources and environmental impact. Finally, for urban planning, mobility is the crunch question as to how to optimise the different needs for mobility and how to link different transportation systems. In this publication we have collected the ideas of practitioners, researchers, and government officials about the different modes of mobility in a globalised world, focusing on both domestic and international issues

Für | For Manfred from his Students

Dieses Buch enthält Beiträge von Personen, die ihre Magister- oder Doktorarbeit unter der Betreuung von Manfred Krifka geschrieben haben. Es ist als kleines Abschiedsgeschenk für Manfred Krifka zum Ende seiner Amtszeit als Direktor des Leibniz-Zentrums für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft gedacht. Die Herausgeberin und der Herausgeber haben Beiträge zu sprachwissenschaftlichen und nicht-sprachwissenschaftlichen Themen in einer Vielzahl von Genres gesammelt. Diese Vielfalt spiegelt die Interessen und Forschungsthemen von Manfred Krifka wider. Sie spiegelt auch die Vielfalt der Menschen wider, denen Manfred Krifka geholfen hat

Swedish and German Rejecting Questions

Diese Arbeit untersucht eine Klasse von tendenziösen Fragen, die mindestens im Schwedischen und Deutschen existieren: Rejecting Questions (RQs). RQs unterscheiden sich von anderen Fragen mit deklarativer Syntax u.a. darin, dass die kontextuelle Evidenz, die solche Fragen lizensiert, von umgekehrter Polarität (relativ zur Polarität der Frage selber) ist - positive RQs benötigen Evidenz für eine negierte Proposition, positive deklarative Fragen benötigen Evidenz für eine positive Proposition. In drei Experimenten wird gezeigt, dass i) schwedische negative RQs sich in ihren Lizensierungsbedingungen von negativen deklarativen Fragen unterscheiden, ii) schwedische negative RQs sich in ihrer Intonation von Zurückweisungen unterscheiden, iii) schwedische und deutsche RQs tendenziell unmarkierter zu sein scheinen, wenn sie Negation enthalten. Das dritte Experiment liefert außerdem einen Beitrag zur Analyse der Bedeutung der schwedischen Modalpartikel väl. Ich argumentiere, dass RQs sprecherindizierte Präferenzen für einen eingebetteten Sprechakt ausdrücken. Dieser eingebettete Sprechakt unterscheidet sich im unmarkierten Fall zwischen negativen RQs, welche i.d.R. hypothetische Zurückweisungen sind, und positiven RQs, welche immer hypothetische Assertionen sind. Mit dieser Asymmetrie erkläre ich die Auffälligkeiten in den Lizensierungsbedingungen von RQs, die sowohl im Schwedischen als auch im Deutschen nachgewiesen werden können.This thesis investigates a class of biased questions that exists at least in Swedish and German: rejecting questions (RQs). RQs differ from other questions with declarative syntax i.a. in that the contextual evidence that licenses such questions is of the opposite polarity relative to the polarity of the question itself - positive RQs require evidence for a negated proposition; positive declarative questions require evidence for a positive proposition. The results of three experiments show that i) Swedish negative RQs differ in their licensing conditions from negative declarative questions, ii) Swedish negative RQs differ in their intonation from rejections, iii) Swedish and German RQs tend to be less marked if they contain negation. The third experiment also contributes to the analysis of the meaning of the Swedish modal particle väl. I argue that RQs express speaker-indexed preferences for embedded speech acts. In the unmarked case, this embedded speech act differs between negative RQs, which are usually hypothetical rejections, and positive RQs, which are always hypothetical assertions. By way of this asymmetry, I explain the peculiarities in the licensing conditions of RQs that can be shown to exist both in Swedish and German

The diverse landscape of negative polarity items: On the use of German NPIs as experimental diagnostics

The goal of this study is to provide better empirical insight into the licensing conditions of a large set of NPIs in German so that they can be used as reliable diagnostics in future research on ne¬gation-related phenomena. Experiment 1 tests the acceptability of 60 NPIs under semantic operators that are expected to license superstrong, strong, weak, and nonveridicality-licensed NPIs, respectively: antimorphic (not), anti-additive (no), downward entailing (hardly), nonveridical (maybe, question). Controls were positive assertions. Cluster analysis revealed seven clusters of NPIs, some of which con¬firm the licensing categorization from the literature (superstrong and weak NPIs). Other clusters show unclear patterns (overall high or medium ratings) and require further scrutiny in future research. One cluster showed high acceptability ratings only with the antimorphic and the question operator. Exper¬iment 2 tested whether the source of this unexpected distribution was a rhetorical interpretation of the questions. Results suggest that rhetoricity was not the sole source. Overall, the results show grad¬ual rather than categorical differences in acceptability, with higher acceptability corresponding to stronger negativity. The paper provides the detailed results for the individual NPIs as a preliminary normed acceptability index