Reviews

Books reviewed:
Robert A. Segal, Theorizing About Myth
Christopher Southgate, Celia Deane-Drummond, Paul D. Murray, Michael Robert Negus, Lawrence Osborn, Michael Poole, Jacqui Stewart, and Fraser Watts, (eds.) God, Humanity and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion
Bryan S. Rennie, Reconstructing Eliade: Making Sense of Religion     

A methodological review of “method skeptic” reports

The literature purporting to demonstrate that clinical neuropsychology is of limited validity in the forensic setting is reviewed critically and alternative interpretations are discussed. The methodological, procedural, conceptual, data analytical and survey/research design limitations are evaluated.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1992 annual meeting of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.     

家庭研究新观点述评

文章概述了家庭研究观点的变化;概括并评论了家庭研究中三个新观点或新原则：双向互动原则,系统化原则和中介原则;提出了进一步开展家庭研究的一些设想。     

Whorf and Wittgenstein. Language, world view and argumentation

Whorf and Wittgenstein are perhaps the most famous names in linguistics and philosophy associated with the assumption that language plays a decisive role in shaping our view of reality. After a critical discussion of Whorf's linguistic relativity principle I conclude that it is not language as a system, but the use of language according to the rules of language games which connects language thought and world view, especially if some particular usage becomes the commonly accepted norm. This traditional norm also enters argumentative discourse in the form of background assumptions occuring in the premises of arguments. Thus, traditional points of view and prevailing ideologies in a society, even if challenged in discussions, can become reinforced and stabilized. This is illustrated with a critical analysis of the role and function of tautological utterances in argumentative discourse, which only apparently are compelling means of argumentation.     

传染病大暴发期间的临床研究：理论合理性和实践可行性

试图从治疗和研究在伦理基础及政策导向上的差异入手,分析在流行病大暴发期间扩大临床试验性治疗和缩短研究进程等策略的不足,指出其局限性及不可行性;阐明知情同意的伦理原则和预警的监管原则是衡量临床研究规范化和安全性的基准。论文得出结论,阶梯式群试验是流行病大暴发期间较为合宜的研究性治疗策略,它可以确保知情同意的伦理原则和预警的监管原则在不动摇的前提下,使研究性治疗及时为患者所得。     

仁与天理通而为一视域下的程颢易学

置身由汉唐经学向宋明理学转型过程中的程颢,对易学的天人之学作出了创造性诠释与转化,建构起仁与天理通而为一视域下的崭新易学天人之学,推出了他的理学体系。程颢的易学,首先开示了一个充满盎然生机、生意的有机整体宇宙图景,继之揭示了此一生机、生意之所自来的终极宇宙根基、根据,即天理,并指出天理是一终极的令物生生之理,即是一最高的绝对之善本身,由此天理即仁体。天理与仁通而为一,可名之日天理—仁体。此一天理—仁体令天地万物涵具并彰显出盎然生机、生意,且一体无隔。人禀受它而具备了存在的所以然的终极宇宙根基和充足的价值根据与资源,应据之一则珍视自己生命的内在价值,令其原发性畅然舒展、展现与实现,再则珍视并善待他人他物的内在价值,视天地人物一体无隔的有机宇宙整体中的一切皆为我生命的有机组成部分,期其亦皆能原发性畅然舒展、展现与实现自我,从而成就起一宇宙式大我,达到成为天理—仁体自觉圆融化身的最高的生命境界,即天地境界。为此,尚需作识仁与定性的工夫。     

Processing ambiguous Spanish se in a minimal chain

The recovery of pieces of information that are not linguistically expressed is a constant feature of the process of language comprehension. In the processing literature, such missing information is generally referred to as “gaps”. Usually, one resolves gaps by finding “fillers” in either the sentence or the context. For instance, in Peter seemed to be upset, Peter is really the subject of being upset but appears as surface subject of seems. Sometimes constituents move, leaving gaps behind. Various Romance languages such as Spanish or Italian have a grammatical particle se/si, which, as it is extremely ambiguous, licenses different sorts of gaps. In Spanish, se can encode at least reflexive, impersonal, and passive meanings. In an eye-tracking experiment we contrast reflexive structures containing postverbal subjects with impersonal structures with no subjects (GAP se vendó apresuradamente el corredor/“the runner bandaged himself hurriedly” vs. GAP se vendó apresuradamente al corridor/“(someone) bandaged the runner hurriedly”). In a second manipulation we contrast the presence of an extra argument with se-passives (GAP se vendó el tobillo el corredor/“the runner bandaged his ankle” vs. GAP se vendó el tobillo al corridor/“the runner's ankle was bandaged”). Our comparisons involve contrasting standard transitive structures with nonstandard word order (postverbal subject and a preverbal subject gap) against inherently complex and less habitual structures such as impersonals (with no subject) or se-passives (with subjects in canonical object position). We evaluate the minimal chain principle (de Vincenzi, 1991 De Vincenzi, M. 1991. Syntactic parsing strategies in Italian, Dordrecht, , The Netherlands: Kluwer. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), according to which displacement is costly because it entails complex (derivational) “chains” that must be undone before phrasal packaging can commence. We show the minimal chain principle to be essentially correct when contrasting more complex but more frequent structures with less complex but less frequent structures. A noteworthy feature of this research is that the gaps appear before the fillers in the structures that we analyse.