55 research outputs found
Grammar, Ontology, and the Unity of Meaning
Words have meaning. Sentences also have meaning, but their meaning is different in kind from any collection of the meanings of the words they contain. I discuss two puzzles related to this difference. The first is how the meanings of the parts of a sentence combine to give rise to a unified sentential meaning, as opposed to a mere collection of disparate meanings (UP1). The second is why the formal ontology of linguistic meaning changes when grammatical structure is built up (UP2). For example, the meaning of a sentence is a proposition evaluable for truth and falsity. In contrast, a collection of the meanings of its parts does not constitute a proposition and is not evaluable for truth. These two puzzles are closely related, since change in formal ontology is the clearest sign of the unity of meaning. The most popular strategy for answering them is taking the meanings of the parts as abstractions from primitive sentence meanings. However, I argue that, given plausible psychological constraints, sentence meanings cannot be taken as explanatory primitives.
Drawing on recent work in Generative Grammar and its philosophy, I suggest that the key to both unity questions is to distinguish strictly between lexical and grammatical meaning. The latter is irreducible and determines how lexical content is used in referential acts. I argue that these referential properties determine a formal ontology, which explains why and how formal ontology changes when grammatical structure is built up (UP2). As for UP1, I suggest that, strictly speaking, lexical meanings never combine. Instead, whenever grammar specifies a formal ontology for the lexical meanings entering a grammatical derivation, further lexical (or phrasal) meanings can only specify aspects of this recursive grammatical process. In this way, contemporary grammatical theory can be used to address old philosophical problems
White-handed gibbons discriminate context-specific songs compositions
This research project has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Research Leadership Award F/00268/AP), the European Research Council (grant number FP7; PRILANG GA283871) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (310030_185324).White-handed gibbons produce loud and acoustically complex songs when interacting with their neighbours or when encountering predators. In both contexts, songs are assembled from a small number of units although their composition differs in context-specific ways. Here, we investigated whether wild gibbons could infer the âmeaningâ when hearing exemplars recorded in both contexts (i.e. âduet songsâ vs. âpredator songsâ). We carried out a playback experiment by which we simulated the presence of a neighbouring group producing either its duet or a predator song in order to compare subjectsâ vocal and locomotor responses. When hearing a recording of a duet song, subjects reliably responded with their own duet song, which sometimes elicited further duet songs in adjacent groups. When hearing a recording of a predator song, however, subjects typically remained silent, apart from one of six groups which replied with its own predator song. Moreover, in two of six trials, playbacks of predator songs elicited predator song replies in non-adjacent groups. Finally, all groups showed strong anti-predator behaviour to predator songs but never to duet songs. We concluded that white-handed gibbons discriminated between the two song types and were able to infer meaning from them. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of the current debate on the evolutionary origins of syntax.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Optical microvariability properties of BALQSOs
We present optical light curves of 19 radio quiet (RQ) broad absorption line
(BAL) QSOs and study their rapid variability characteristics. Systematic CCD
observations, aided by a careful data analysis procedure, have allowed us to
clearly detect any such microvariability exceeding 0.01--0.02 mag. Our
observations cover a total of 13 nights (~72 hours) with each quasar monitored
for about 4 hours on a given night. Our sample size is a factor of three larger
than the number of radio-quiet BALQSOs previously searched for
microvariability. We introduce a scaled F-test statistic for evaluating the
presence of optical microvariability and demonstrate why it is generally
preferable to the statistics usually employed for this purpose. Considering
only unambiguous detections of microvariability we find that ~11 per cent of
radio-quiet BALQSOs (two out of 19 sources) show microvariability for an
individual observation length of about 4 hr. This new duty cycle of 11 per cent
is similar to the usual low microvariability fraction of normal RQQSOs with
observation lengths similar to those of ours. This result provides support for
models where radio-quiet BALQSO do not appear to be a special case of the
RQQSOs in terms of their microvariability properties.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS main
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The domestic garden: its contribution to urban green infrastructure
Domestic gardens provide a significant component of urban green infrastructure but their relative contribution to eco-system service provision remains largely un-quantified. âGreen infrastructureâ itself is often ill-defined, posing problems for planners to ascertain what types of green infrastructure provide greatest benefit and under what circumstances. Within this context the relative merits of gardens are unclear; however, at a time of greater urbanization where private gardens are increasingly seen as a âluxuryâ, it is important to define their role precisely. Hence, the nature of this review is to interpret existing information pertaining to gardens /gardening per se, identify where they may have a unique role to play and to highlight where further research is warranted. The review suggests that there are significant differences in both form and management of domestic gardens which radically influence the benefits. Nevertheless, gardens can play a strong role in improving the environmental impact of the domestic curtilage, e.g. by insulating houses against temperature extremes they can reduce domestic energy use. Gardens also improve localized air cooling, help mitigate flooding and provide a haven for wildlife. Less favourable aspects include contributions of gardens and gardening to greenhouse gas emissions, misuse of fertilizers and pesticides, and introduction of alien plant species. Due to the close proximity to the home and hence accessibility for many, possibly the greatest benefit of the domestic garden is on human health and well-being, but further work is required to define this clearly within the wider context of green infrastructure
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Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas
The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenonÂčâ»Âł. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stressesâŽâ»âč. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the worldâs major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve âhealthâ: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.Keywords: Ecology, Environmental scienc
Brandomâs Pragmatist Inferentialism and the Problem of Objectivity
Brandomâs philosophical programme can be seen as a reversion of the traditional order of explanation in semantics. Whereas traditional semantic theories start with a grip on a notion like truth or reference, Brandom argues that it is also possible to begin with an analysis of the speech acts of what one is doing by making a claim in order to explain representational notions like truth and objectivity. Evaluating the explanatory values of Brandomâs theory, it therefore is necessary to ask to what extent Brandomâs analysis of our linguistic practices is able to explain what other theories start with. That is, can linguistic practices in Brandomâs sense give an account of why we are capable of referring to language-external objects? And can they make evident why we take truth and falsity not to depend upon our beliefs or claims but upon an extra-linguistic reality? After a short discussion of Brandomâs answer to the first question, I argue that Brandomâs answer to the second is not sufficient and that it does not seem to be possible to give a sufficient answer within his theory
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