Knowledge and News

Este artículo explora algunas relaciones entre el conocimiento y las noticias en la prensa. Dentro del marco de la psicología del procesamiento del discurso, se proponen sugerencias para el estudio del papel del conocimiento en la producción y la comprensión de las noticias, por ejemplo una tipología de conocimientos, basada sobre las comunidades que comparten ese conocimiento. El discurso de las noticias contiene estrategias que combinan conocimiento general (nacional), con nuevos conocimientos de eventos, representados en modelos mentales.This article explores some of the relations between knowledge and news in the press. Within the framework of the psychology of discourse processing some new proposals are made for the study of the role of knowledge in news production and comprehension, for instance a typology of knowledge, e.g., based on which communities share such knowledge. News discourse features strategies that combine general (national) presupposed “common ground” knowledge with new event knowledge represented in event models

Algunos princípios de una teoria del contexto

This paper formulares some general principles of a theory of context. Despite some attempts, especially in functional linguistics, linguistic anthropology and social psychology, such a theory of context is still on the agenda. The central claim of my theory of context is that it is not a social situation that determines language use, and not even only the relevant properties of such a social situation, but rather the mental model of these relevant properties, that is, a context model, stored in episodic memory. Such context models are special cases of more general experience models that define our consciousness and control all actions and discourses of our everyday lives. Since context models constantly adapt themselves to a changing social situation as well as the ongoing discourse, they are dynamic and not static. They combine social knowledge about social events and situations with personal experiences, memories and opinions, and hence are subjective and individual. They explain how each participant has her or his own interpretation of the situation. Such context models feature global categories such as global domain and action, as well as local categories such as setting, local actions, as well as cognitive properties of participants, such as their aims and especially their knowledge. The contextual knowledge device Controls many of the aspects of discourse pròcessing, especially what Information may or must be left implicit.En este trabajo se formulan algunos princípios generales de una teoria del contexto. A pesar de los intentos, especialmente de la lingüística funcional, de la antropologia y de la psicologia social, la teoria del contexto todavia está por definirse. El argumento central de mi teoria del contexto es que no es la situación social la que determina el uso del lenguaje, sino más bien el modelo mental de estas propiedades relevantes, es decir, un modelo del contexto, almacenado en la memória episódica. Tales modelos son casos especiales de modelos de experiencia más generales que definen nuestra conciencia y controlan todas las acciones y los discursos de la vida cotidiana. Dado que los modelos del contexto se adaptan constantemente a una siuación social cambiante al igual que al flujo del discurso, son dinâmicos y no estáticos. Ellos combinan el conocimiento social sobre los eventos y las situaciones sociales con las experiencias personales, los recuerdos y las opiniones, y por ende son subjetivos e individuales. Ellos explican cómo cada participante tiene su propia interpretación de la situación. Estos modelos de contexto presentan categorias globales tales como el dominio y la acción global, al igual que categorias locales como el escenario, las acciones locales, las propiedades cognitivas de los participantes, sus metas y, especialmente, su conocimiento. El conocimiento contextual controla muchos de los aspectos del procesamiento del discurso, especialmente la información que puede o debe ser dejada implícita.Neste trabalho se formulam alguns princípios gerais de uma teoria do contexto. Salvo alguns avances, especialmente no campo da linguística funcional, da antropologia linguística e da psicologia social, essa teoria ainda não existe. O argumento central da minha teoria do contexto é que nem a situação social, nem as suas propriedades relevantes, determinam o uso da linguagem. Quem o faz é o modelo mental dessas propriedades relevantes, ou seja, um modelo de contexto, armazenado na memória episódica. Esses modelos de contexto são casos especiais de modelos de experiência mais amplos, que definem a nossa consciência e controlam todas as nossas ações e discursos quotidianos. Se adaptam constantemente tanto a uma situação social cambiante como ao fluxo do discurso; são dinâmicos e não estáticos. Combinam o conhecimento social sobre os eventos e as situações sociais com as experiências pessoais, as recordações e as opiniões, sendo, portanto, subjetivos e individuais. Explicam como cada participante tem a sua própria interpretação da situação. Os modelos de contexto apresentam categorias globais -como o domínio e a ação global-, assim como categorias locais -como o cenário, as ações locais, as propriedades cognitivas dos participantes-, ou seja, os seus objetivos e, especialmente, o seu conhecimento. O mecanismo do conhecimento contextual controla muitos dos aspectos do processamento do discurso, especialmente a informação que pode ou deve manter-se implícita

Discurso, conocimiento e ideología Reformulación de viejas cuestiones y propuesta de algunas soluciones nuevas

El articulo analiza las relaciones entre las cogniciones y modos de conocimiento necesarios para la vida social, los discursos informativos y la ideologia. Muestra la estrecha dependencia entre los tres campos, y estudia en un ejemplo de analisis practico como muchos de los elementos necesarios presupuestos en la escritura y comprensión de un articulo de opinion mezclan conocimiento e ideologia.This article analyses the relation between cognition and necessary knowledge forms in social life, information discourse and ideology. It shows the dependency between these three domains and studies in a practical discourse analysis how many of the necessary elements presupposed to write and to understand the information intermingle knowledge and ideology

Stock Selection, Style Rotation, and Risk

Using US data from June 1984 to July 1999, we show that the impact of firm-specific characteristics like size and book-to-price on future excess stock returns varies considerably over time. The impact can be either positive or negative at different times. This time variation is partially predictable. We investigate whether the partial predictability signals security mispricing or risk compensation by formulating alternative modeling strategies. The strategies are compared empirically, In particular, we allow for a state-dependent choice of investment styles rather than a once-and-for-all choice for a particular style, for example based on high book-to-price ratios or small market cap values. Using alternative ways to correct for risk, we find significant and robust excess returns to style rotating investment strategies. Business cycle oriented approaches exhibit the best overall performance. Purely statistical models for style rotation or fixed investment styles reveal less robust behavior

Real bad grammar: realistic grammatical description with grammaticality

Sampson (this issue) argues for a concept of “realistic grammatical description” in which the distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences is irrelevant. In this article I also argue for a concept of “realistic grammatical description” but one in which a binary distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences is maintained. In distinguishing between the grammatical and ungrammatical, this kind of grammar differs from that proposed by Sampson, but it does share the important property that invented sentences have no role to play, either as positive or negative evidence