Quotational Mixing of Use and Mention

Quotation is employed in mentioning linguistic items, with varying degrees of specificity depending upon context, occasionally in the service of multiple purposes. It is also often employed in cases where the mentioned items are simultaneously being used in their ordinary roles. I argue that, despite appearances to the contrary, the recently proposed formal disambiguation approach to quotation fails to account for this quotational mixing of use and mention, and that given the ubiquity of the mixing in question the demonstrative theory, in its ability to accommodate such cases, fares better than its rivals. I also show that the phenomenon in question extends far beyond the paradigmatic cases of mixed quotation, where grammatical form forces us to recognize the mixing of use and mention, to cases where even whole sentences are being simultaneously used and mentioned.
email : simchen@fas.harvard.edu     

Rules and Mention

Lewis Carroll's well-known parable 'What the Tortoise Said to Achilles' gives rise to a recalcitrant and general form of normative scepticism. I argue that the sceptical position inspired by the story is indeed a distinct form of scepticism, engendered by refusal to recognize that any rule reflected upon may possibly retaining its action-guiding force. I show that the sceptic's attitude builds upon the familiar fact that our reflection upon sources of psychological influence on us may loosen their grip by affording us reflective distance. I conclude by showing how the equally familiar phenomenon that reflection upon a rule does not automatically drain it of its force can be exploited in a satisfactory response to the sceptic.     

汉语高功能自闭症儿童代词加工:利用提及顺序和重读线索的表现

采用句子理解任务分别探究了5~7岁的汉语高功能自闭症儿童在单独提及顺序线索,提及顺序线索和重读线索共现两种条件下代词加工的表现。研究结果表明,汉语高功能自闭症儿童不像智商和工作记忆广度匹配的同龄典型发展儿童一样能够单独利用提及顺序线索加工代词,即倾向于选择首先提及的实体作为代词的指称对象,而表现为随机选择代词所指。当提及顺序线索和重读线索共现时,典型发展儿童在两条线索一致和冲突时都倾向于依靠重读线索加工代词,而汉语高功能自闭症儿童对两条线索都不敏感,表现为随机选择代词所指。这表明5~7岁的汉语高功能儿童不能够利用这两条线索加工代词,在利用语篇突显性线索加工代词方面存在困难。     

A Note on Harmony

In the proof-theoretic semantics approach to meaning, harmony, requiring a balance between introduction-rules (I-rules) and elimination rules (E-rules) within a meaning conferring natural-deduction proof-system, is a central notion. In this paper, we consider two notions of harmony that were proposed in the literature: 1. GE-harmony, requiring a certain form of the E-rules, given the form of the I-rules. 2. Local intrinsic harmony: imposes the existence of certain transformations of derivations, known as reduction and expansion. We propose a construction of the E-rules (in GE-form) from given I-rules, and prove that the constructed rules satisfy also local intrinsic harmony. The construction is based on a classification of I-rules, and constitute an implementation to Gentzen’s (and Pawitz’) remark, that E-rules can be “read off” I-rules.     

A Research Note on Adolescent Steroid Use: An Examination of Social Learning Theory and Self-Control Theory

This study compared the criminological theories social learning theory and low self-control to determine their effects on adolescent steroid use. The data for this study came from the 12th-grade survey of the 2009 Monitoring the Future Project Form 6 that is a nationally representative sample. We found that social learning theory and the sex (i.e., male) of the adolescent are all significant predictors of adolescent steroid use.     

A Note on Comparative Probability

A possible event always seems to be more probable than an impossible event. Although this constraint, usually alluded to as regularity, is prima facie very attractive, it cannot hold for standard probabilities. Moreover, in a recent paper Timothy Williamson has challenged even the idea that regularity can be integrated into a comparative conception of probability by showing that the standard comparative axioms conflict with certain cases if regularity is assumed. In this note, we suggest that there is a natural weakening of the standard comparative axioms. It is shown that these axioms are consistent both with the regularity condition and with the essential feature of Williamson’s example.     

A Note on Neat Reducts

SC, CA, QA and QEA denote the class of Pinter’s substitution algebras, Tarski’s cylindric algebras, Halmos’ quasi-polyadic and quasi-polyadic equality algebras, respectively. Let . and . We show that the class of n dimensional neat reducts of algebras in K _m is not elementary. This solves a problem in [2]. Also our result generalizes results proved in [1] and [2]. Presented by Robert Goldblatt