Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics

2010-04-06
 |  Philosophy
Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics

Author: Alex Barber

Publisher: Elsevier

ISBN: 0080965016

Category: Philosophy

Page: 836

View: 931

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The application of philosophy to language study, and language study to philosophy, has experienced demonstrable intellectual growth and diversification in recent decades. Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics comprehensively analyzes and evaluates many of the most interesting facets of this vibrant field. An edited collection of articles taken from the award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, this volume acts as a single-stop desk reference resource for the field, comprising contributions from the foremost scholars of philosophy of linguistics in their various interdisciplinary specializations. From Plato's Cratylus to Semantic and Epistemic Holism, this fascinating work authoritatively unpacks the diverse and multi-layered concepts of meaning, expression, identity, truth, and countless other themes and subjects straddling the linguistic-philosophical meridian, in 175 articles and over 900 pages. Authoritative review of this dynamic field placed in an interdisciplinary context Approximately 175 articles by leaders in the field Compact and affordable single-volume format

Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language

1997-12-17
 |  Language Arts & Disciplines
Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language

Author: P. Lamarque

Publisher: Pergamon

ISBN: STANFORD:36105110657413

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 632

View: 954

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Philosophers have had an interest in language from the earliest times but the twentieth century, with its so-called 'linguistic turn' in philosophy, has seen a huge expansion of work focused specifically on language and its foundations. No branch of philosophy has been unaffected by this shift of emphasis. It is timely at the end of the century to review and assess the vast range of issues that have been developed and debated in this central area. The distinguished international contributors present a clear, accessible guide to the fundamental questions raised by the philosophers about language. Contributions include Graeme Forbes on necessity, Susan Haack on deviant logics, Paul Horwich on truth, Charles Travis on Wittgenstein, L.J. Cohen on linguistic philosophy, Ruth Kempson on semantics and syntax and Christopher Hookway on ontology, to name but a few. A wide range of topics are covered from the metaphysics and ontology of language, language and mind, truth and meaning, to theories or reference, speech act theory, philosophy of logic and formal semantics. There are also articles on key figures from the twentieth century and earlier. Based on the foundation provided by the award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics this single volume provides a collection of articles that will be an invaluable reference tool for all those interested in the area of philosophy of language, and also to those in cognitive science and psychology. All the articles have been thoroughly revised and updated. This volume gives a unique survey of topics that are at the very core of contemporary philosophy.

Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics

2010-04-06
 |  Language Arts & Disciplines
Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics

Author: Keith Allan

Publisher: Elsevier

ISBN: 0080959695

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 1102

View: 604

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Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics is a comprehensive new reference work aiming to systematically describe all aspects of the study of meaning in language. It synthesizes in one volume the latest scholarly positions on the construction, interpretation, clarification, obscurity, illustration, amplification, simplification, negotiation, contradiction, contraction and paraphrasing of meaning, and the various concepts, analyses, methodologies and technologies that underpin their study. It examines not only semantics but the impact of semantic study on related fields such as morphology, syntax, and typologically oriented studies such as ‘grammatical semantics’, where semantics has made a considerable contribution to our understanding of verbal categories like tense or aspect, nominal categories like case or possession, clausal categories like causatives, comparatives, or conditionals, and discourse phenomena like reference and anaphora. COSE also examines lexical semantics and its relation to syntax, pragmatics, and cognitive linguistics; and the study of how ‘logical semantics’ develops and thrives, often in interaction with computational linguistics. As a derivative volume from Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, it comprises contributions from 150 of the foremost scholars of semantics in their various specializations and draws on 20+ years of development in the parent work in a compact and affordable format. Principally intended for tertiary level inquiry and research, this will be invaluable as a reference work for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as academics inquiring into the study of meaning and meaning relations within languages. As semantics is a centrally important and inherently cross-cutting area within linguistics it will therefore be relevant not just for semantics specialists, but for most linguistic audiences. The first encyclopedia ever published in this fascinating and diverse field Combines the talents of the world’s leading semantics specialists The latest trends in the field authoritatively reviewed and interpreted in context of related disciplines Drawn from the richest, most authoritative, comprehensive and internationally acclaimed reference resource in the linguistics area Compact and affordable single volume reference format

Africans and Globalization

2017-11-22
 |  Literary Criticism
Africans and Globalization

Author: Akinloye Ojo

Publisher: Lexington Books

ISBN: 9781498534314

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 212

View: 273

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This book considers some of the substance and dissatisfaction of globalization on Africa. It illustrates globalization as a complex set of processes that involve shifting influence from local societies and countries in some areas while simultaneously endowing local societies and countries with influence in other areas.

Language and Imaginability

2014-03-25
 |  Philosophy
Language and Imaginability

Author: Horst Ruthrof

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

ISBN: 9781443858526

Category: Philosophy

Page: 270

View: 450

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Language and Imaginability pursues the hypothesis that natural language is fundamentally heterosemiotic, combining as it does the symbolicity of word sounds with the iconicity of motivated signifieds conceived as socially organized mental events. Viewed phenomenologically, language is regarded as an ontically heteronomous construct performed by speakers within the boundaries of sufficient semiosis under the control of the speech community. From both angles, a commitment to some form of intersubjective mentalism appears unavoidable. This, the author argues, forces us to conclude that imaginability plays a central role in the constitution of linguistic meanings as indirectly public phenomena. The book argues this case by comparing two main avenues along which the theorization of language has been pursued in the Western tradition since Aristotle, via resemblance relations and propositional accounts. Locke, Kant, Peirce, Husserl and cognitive linguistics are invoked on the side of resemblance and iconicity; Frege, Wittgenstein, Davidson and other analytical philosophers up to intensional semantics are interpreted in terms of their relation to imaginability. The book also addresses the ambivalence vis-à-vis iconicity which we find in much of linguistics, in brain research and evolutionary accounts, as well as in pragmatics. The study ends on a series of redefinitions of concepts at the heart of the theorization of language.

The Theory of Problem-Solution Dualities and Polarities

2022-04-25
 |  Technology & Engineering
The Theory of Problem-Solution Dualities and Polarities

Author: Kofi Kissi Dompere

Publisher: Springer Nature

ISBN: 9783030902797

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 270

View: 773

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This book is concerned with the development of the understanding of the relational structures of information, knowledge, decision–choice processes of problems and solutions in the theory and practice regarding diversity and unity principles of knowing, science, non-science, and information–knowledge systems through dualistic-polar conditions of variety existence and nonexistence. It is a continuation of the sequence of my epistemic works on the theories on fuzzy rationality, info-statics, info-dynamics, entropy, and their relational connectivity to information, language, knowing, knowledge, cognitive practices relative to variety identification–problem–solution dualities, variety transformation–problem–solution dualities, and variety certainty–uncertainty principle in all areas of knowing and human actions regarding general social transformations. It is also an economic–theoretic approach in understanding the diversity and unity of knowing and science through neuro-decision–choice actions over the space of problem–solution dualities and polarities. The problem–solution dualities are argued to connect all areas of knowing including science and non-science, social science, and non-social-science into unity with diversities under neuro-decision–choice actions to support human existence and nonexistence over the space of static–dynamic dualities. The concepts of diversity and unity are defined and explicated to connect to the tactics and strategies of decision–choice actions over the space of problem–solution dualities. The concepts of problem and solution are defined and explicated not in the space of absoluteness but rather in the space of relativity based on real cost–benefit conditions which are shown to be connected to the general parent–offspring infinite process, where every solution generates new problem(s) which then generates a search for new solutions within the space of minimum–maximum dualities in the decision–choice space under the principle of non-satiation over the space of preference–non-preference dualities with analytical tools drawn from the fuzzy paradigm of thought which connects the conditions of the principle of opposites to the conditions of neuro-decision–choice actions in the zone of variety identifications and transformations. The Monograph would be useful to all areas of Research, Learning and Teaching at Advanced Stages of Knowing and Knowledge Production.

A General Theory of Entropy

2019-08-02
 |  Technology & Engineering
A General Theory of Entropy

Author: Kofi Kissi Dompere

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783030181598

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 247

View: 330

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This book presents an epistemic framework for dealing with information-knowledge and certainty-uncertainty problems within the space of quality-quantity dualities. It bridges between theoretical concepts of entropy and entropy measurements, proposing the concept and measurement of fuzzy-stochastic entropy that is applicable to all areas of knowing under human cognitive limitations over the epistemological space. The book builds on two previous monographs by the same author concerning theories of info-statics and info-dynamics, to deal with identification and transformation problems respectively. The theoretical framework is developed by using the toolboxes such as those of the principle of opposites, systems of actual-potential polarities and negative-positive dualities, under different cost-benefit time-structures. The category theory and the fuzzy paradigm of thought, under methodological constructionism-reductionism duality, are used in the fuzzy-stochastic and cost-benefit spaces to point to directions of global application in knowing, knowledge and decision-choice actions. Thus, the book is concerned with a general theory of entropy, showing how the fuzzy paradigm of thought is developed to deal with the problems of qualitative-quantitative uncertainties over the fuzzy-stochastic space, which will be applicable to conditions of soft-hard data, fact, evidence and knowledge over the spaces of problem-solution dualities, decision-choice actions in sciences, non-sciences, engineering and planning sciences to abstract acceptable information-knowledge elements.

The Theory of Info-Dynamics: Rational Foundations of Information-Knowledge Dynamics

2017-12-06
 |  Technology & Engineering
The Theory of Info-Dynamics: Rational Foundations of Information-Knowledge Dynamics

Author: Kofi K. Dompere

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319638539

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 192

View: 752

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This book focuses on the development of a theory of info-dynamics to support the theory of info-statics in the general theory of information. It establishes the rational foundations of information dynamics and how these foundations relate to the general socio-natural dynamics from the primary to the derived categories in the universal existence and from the potential to the actual in the ontological space. It also shows how these foundations relate to the general socio-natural dynamics from the potential to the possible to give rise to the possibility space with possibilistic thinking; from the possible to the probable to give rise to possibility space with probabilistic thinking; and from the probable to the actual to give rise to the space of knowledge with paradigms of thought in the epistemological space. The theory is developed to explain the general dynamics through various transformations in quality-quantity space in relation to the nature of information flows at each variety transformation. The theory explains the past-present-future connectivity of the evolving information structure in a manner that illuminates the transformation problem and its solution in the never-ending information production within matter-energy space under socio-natural technologies to connect the theory of info-statics, which in turn presents explanations to the transformation problem and its solution. The theoretical framework is developed with analytical tools based on the principle of opposites, systems of actual-potential polarities, negative-positive dualities under different time-structures with the use of category theory, fuzzy paradigm of thought and game theory in the fuzzy-stochastic cost-benefit space. The rational foundations are enhanced with categorial analytics. The value of the theory of info-dynamics is demonstrated in the explanatory and prescriptive structures of the transformations of varieties and categorial varieties at each point of time and over time from parent–offspring sequences. It constitutes a general explanation of dynamics of information-knowledge production through info-processes and info-processors induced by a socio-natural infinite set of technologies in the construction–destruction space.

The Theory of Info-Statics: Conceptual Foundations of Information and Knowledge

2017-07-06
 |  Technology & Engineering
The Theory of Info-Statics: Conceptual Foundations of Information and Knowledge

Author: Kofi K. Dompere

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319616391

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 197

View: 625

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This book discusses the development of a theory of info-statics as a sub-theory of the general theory of information. It describes the factors required to establish a definition of the concept of information that fixes the applicable boundaries of the phenomenon of information, its linguistic structure and scientific applications. The book establishes the definitional foundations of information and how the concepts of uncertainty, data, fact, evidence and evidential things are sequential derivatives of information as the primary category, which is a property of matter and energy. The sub-definitions are extended to include the concepts of possibility, probability, expectation, anticipation, surprise, discounting, forecasting, prediction and the nature of past-present-future information structures. It shows that the factors required to define the concept of information are those that allow differences and similarities to be established among universal objects over the ontological and epistemological spaces in terms of varieties and identities. These factors are characteristic and signal dispositions on the basis of which general definitional foundations are developed to construct the general information definition (GID). The book then demonstrates that this definition is applicable to all types of information over the ontological and epistemological spaces. It also defines the concepts of uncertainty, data, fact, evidence and knowledge based on the GID. Lastly, it uses set-theoretic analytics to enhance the definitional foundations, and shows the value of the theory of info-statics to establish varieties and categorial varieties at every point of time and thus initializes the construct of the theory of info-dynamics.

The Oxford Dictionary of Pragmatics

2012-09-13
 |  Computers
The Oxford Dictionary of Pragmatics

Author: Yan Huang

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

ISBN: 9780199539802

Category: Computers

Page: 348

View: 304

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A comprehensive guide to the terms, concepts, and theories of pragmatics - the study of language in use - from the traditional to the most recent, showing how they originated and how they are used. A vital resource for students and researchers in linguistics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and computational linguistics.

Indirect Reports and Pragmatics

2015-12-01
 |  Language Arts & Disciplines
Indirect Reports and Pragmatics

Author: Alessandro Capone

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 9783319213958

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 648

View: 649

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This volume offers the reader a singular overview of current thinking on indirect reports. The contributors are eminent researchers from the fields of philosophy of language, theoretical linguistics and communication theory, who answer questions on this important issue. This exciting area of controversy has until now mostly been treated from the viewpoint of philosophy. This volume adds the views from semantics, conversation analysis and sociolinguistics. Authors address matters such as the issue of semantic minimalism vs. radical contextualism, the attribution of responsibility for the modes of presentation associated with Noun Phrases and how to distinguish the indirect reporter’s responsibility from the original speaker’s responsibility. They also explore the connection between indirect reporting and direct quoting. Clearly indirect reporting has some bearing on the semantics/pragmatics debate, however, there is much controversy on “what is said”, whether this is a minimal semantic logical form (enriched by saturating pronominals) or a much richer and fully contextualized logical form. This issue will be discussed from several angles. Many of the authors are contextualists and the discussion brings out the need to take context into account when one deals with indirect reports, both the context of the original utterance and the context of the report. It is interesting to see how rich cues and clues can radically transform the reported message, assigning illocutionary force and how they can be mobilized to distinguish several voices in the utterance. Decoupling the voice of the reporting speaker from that of the reported speaker on the basis of rich contextual clues is an important issue that pragmatic theory has to tackle. Articles on the issue of slurs will bring new light to the issue of decoupling responsibility in indirect reporting, while others are theoretically oriented and deal with deep problems in philosophy and epistemology.

Pragmatics

2014
 |  Language Arts & Disciplines
Pragmatics

Author: Yan Huang

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

ISBN: 9780199577767

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 491

View: 998

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Pragmatics is one of the rapidly growing fields in contemporary linguistics. Huang provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the central topics in pragmatics - implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and deixis.