上古医书“五色”概念的认知语义新探

采用语料库研究法,对上古时期中医颜色域1744例词汇进行频次和组合方式的考察,重点讨论《黄帝内经》484例颜色词在“中医药概念域”中的分布情况和语义组合模式。上古医书颜色域以“赤”为核心,顺序为“赤”＞“青”＞“白”＞“黄”＞“黑”,该顺序与Berlin和 Kay发现的人类普遍认知结构中基本颜色词的先后顺序不同,体现出中医语言文化特性。《黄帝内经》颜色词以描述病理之色为主,兼及生理之色,较少直接描述颜色元概念、天地和五行之色。“五色”最多关联28个概念域,包含6类概念整合下的14类概念域组合模式,有88.97%的颜色词属“复合语义组合模式”。

     

Finite basis problems and results for quasivarieties

Let be a finite collection of finite algebras of finite signature such that SP( ) has meet semi-distributive congruence lattices. We prove that there exists a finite collection ₁ of finite algebras of the same signature, , such that SP( ₁) is finitely axiomatizable.We show also that if , then SP( ₁) is finitely axiomatizable. We offer new proofs of two important finite basis theorems of D. Pigozzi and R. Willard. Our actual results are somewhat more general than this abstract indicates.While working on this paper, the first author was partially supported by the Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research (OTKA) grant no. T37877 and the second author was supported by the US National Science Foundation grant no. DMS-0245622.Special issue of Studia Logica: Algebraic Theory of Quasivarieties Presented by M. E. Adams, K. V. Adaricheva, W. Dziobiak, and A. V. Kravchenko     

Learning in context: linguistic and attentional constraints on children's color term learning

Three experiments investigated whether linguistic and/or attentional constraints might account for preschoolers' difficulties when learning color terms. Task structure and demands were equated across experiments, and both speed and degree of learning were compared. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds who were matched on vocabulary score were taught new secondary color terms by corrective, semantic, or referential linguistic contrast. Corrective contrast produced more rapid and more extensive learning than did either semantic or referential contrast, supporting the hypothesis that targeted linguistic feedback facilitates learning. Experiment 2 replicated and extended the first experiment with Italian children and found cross-cultural differences in the amount learned about colors named differently in the two languages. In Experiment 3, some of the children were introduced to the new terms within a context of enhanced perceptual salience. These children learned as fast and performed as accurately as those given corrective linguistic feedback in Experiment 1.     

Pedagogical cliff‐jumping

This article chronicles how Introduction to the Study of Religion has become my favorite course to teach. In it, I narrate my process of pedagogical reinvention and syllabus redesign. Framed by professional and personal backstories, I share my pedagogical desires, list some pedagogical cues I took, and articulate pedagogical decisions and associated wagers. (Along the way, I draw on a range of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and pedagogical materials as guides.) Then I tell how my Intro course realized these elements in its design and its execution. By doing so, I make a case for taking pedagogical risks and for reinventing Intro courses as performative responses to the practical and disciplinary question “how might we study religion?”     

"以生言性"的传统与孟子性善论

This article analyses the tradition of “articulating xing in terms of sheng” and related other expressions, and also examines the debate between Mencius and Gaozi concerning “xing is known by sheng.” It claims that while Mencius’ “human nature is good” discourse is influenced by the interpretive tradition of “articulating xing in terms of sheng”, Mencius also transcends and develops this tradition. Therefore it is only when Mencius’ views about the goodness of human nature are understood in the context of this interpretive tradition that his ideas can be fully understood. Utilizing this framework, the Confucian understanding of rights is then explored. Translated by Andrew Lambert from Zhexue yanjiu 哲学研究 (Philosophical Researches), 2007, (7): 36–42     

语言和文化对空间认知的影响 ——汉族和纳西族大学生空间词相似性分类的比较研究

以纳西族和汉族大学生为被试,对Yi-Fu Tuan归纳的17对空间词进行了相似性分类,并用多维标度法和分层聚类法进行了分析。结果表明,汉族大学生的空间认知围绕着4个主题：⑴三维方位;⑵边界;⑶空间饱和程度;⑷视觉距离。汉族大学生空间词的概念结构有两个维度：⑴方位/状态;⑵以观察者为参照/以物为参照。纳西族大学生的空间认知围绕着5个主题：⑴垂直方位;⑵水平方位;⑶边界;⑷空间饱和度;⑸视觉距离。纳西族大学生空间词的概念结构也有两个维度：⑴水平/垂直;⑵状态/方位。汉族大学生和纳西族大学生空间认知的差异主要表现在“水平/垂直”维度上,这与汉族和纳西族的语言和文化差异相一致。整个研究表明,语言和文化对空间认知主题和空间概念结构有着重要的影响     

Catachrestic Plural Forms. Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore Abū Qurrah on Naming and Counting Essences

The fourth-century thinker and theologian Gregory of Nyssa was a convinced realist about universals. According to him, there is just one substance man for all the individuals of the species man and this universal substance is completely instantiated by each individual. In two of his treatises – the Ad Ablabium and the Ad Graecos – he draws linguistic consequences from this realist position. This enquiry results in the thesis according to which it is incorrect to use natural kind terms (such as names of species) in the plural form, because that would involve stating a plurality of substances, when in fact there is just one substance for all the individuals of a given kind. In consequence, since the substance of all individual human beings is the same, the word ‘man’ can only be used adequately in the singular form. In this contribution, Gregory's reasoning is reconstructed. In the second part of the paper, the posterity of his theory and its endorsement by Theodore Abū Qurrah at the turn of the eighth and ninth centuries are examined.     

Skepticism revisited: Chalmers on The Matrix and brains-in-vats

Thought experiments involving The Matrix, brains-in-vats, or Cartesian demons have traditionally thought to describe skeptical possibilities. Chalmers has denied this, claiming that the simulations involved are real enough to at least sometimes defeat the skeptic. Through an examination of the meaning of kind terms in natural language I argue that, though the Chalmers view may be otherwise attractive, it is not an antidote to skepticism.     

Curry-Howard Terms for Linear Logic

In this paper we 1. provide a natural deduction system for full first-order linear logic, 2. introduce Curry-Howard-style terms for this version of linear logic, 3. extend the notion of substitution of Curry-Howard terms for term variables, 4. define the reduction rules for the Curry-Howard terms and 5. outline a proof of the strong normalization for the full system of linear logic using a development of Girard's candidates for reducibility, thereby providing an alternative to Girard's proof using proof-nets.     

Salient Color Terms in Four Languages

Elicited lists of color terms were used to investigate the relative salience of basic and nonbasic color terms in four languages. Salience was operationalized in terms of frequency of mention and mean rank sequence of appearance on the lists. Primary basic terms were generally found to be the most salient, followed by derived basic and nonbasic terms, in that order. However, in some of the group lists the nonbasic terms beige, turquoise, navy blue and sky blue were found to have higher frequencies of mention and/or higher mean sequence ranks than some derived basic terms. The possible basicness of these terms is discussed.