Search results for " semantics"

Graph-grammar semantics of a higher-order programming language for distributed systems

1994

We will consider a new tiny, yet powerful, programming language for distributed systems, called DHOP, which has its operational semantics given as algebraic graph rewrite rules in a certain category of labeled graphs. Our approach allows to separate actions which affect several processes from local changes such as variable bindings. We also sketch how to derive an implementation from this specification.

The term “political oeconomy” in Adam Smith

2020

This article analyses the use of the term “‘political oeconomy” in the Wealth of Nations, considered by many the founding text of the discipline of Political Economy. It shows that Adam Smith could not accept the use of the term “political oeconomy” that had been made by other authors to indicate the subject matter of his scientific inquiry, devoted to the nature and causes of the wealth of nations; he used the term “political oeconomy” as a synonym for economic policy, especially in the fourth book of the Wealth of Nations. In order to understand this statement, it is necessary to keep in mind the methodological and epistemological perspective developed by Smith; in his view, the inquiry i…

From Thinking to Raging: Reflexes of Indo-European *men- Polysemy in Homer

2020

This paper aims at investigating the semantic value of the verb μαίνομαι “to rage, to be furious” in Homeric Greek, in order to clarify the striking semantic relationship between the common ‘irrational’ meaning of the verb and the original ‘rational’ meaning of the Indo-European root *men- “to think”, to which the verb traces back. The corresponding words for μαίνομαι in other Indo-European languages (e.g. OInd. mányatē; Av. mainyeite; OIr. (do)moiniur; OCS mъnjo; Lit. miniu) can be translated as “to think”, thus showing an opposite meaning. From a textual analysis of all the occurrences of μαίνομαι in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the study aims at finding semantic traces of the original mean…

Jason Intentional Learning: An Operational Semantics

2013

This paper introduces an operational semantics for defining Intentional Learning on Jason, the well known Java-based implementation of AgentSpeak(L). This semantics enables Jason to define agents capable of learning the reasons for adopting intentions based on their own experience. In this work, the use of the term Intentional Learning is strictly circumscribed to the practical rationality theory where plans are predefined and the target of the learning processes is to learn the reasons to adopt them as intentions. Top-Down Induction of Logical Decision Trees (TILDE) has proved to be a suitable mechanism for supporting learning on Jason: the first-order representation of TILDE is adequate t…

Joint Drafting of Legal Provisions in Multilingual Systems: an Analysis of the Swiss COVID-19 Regulations from a Legal Linguistic and Translational P…

2020

International audience; Legal language is known for its various technicalities and subtleties that often insulate legal translation from other specialized fields. In addition to the mere linguistic transfer of the text, along with the lexical, syntactical and pragmatic features specifically inherent in a Language for Legal Purpose (cf. Cao 2007), a comparison of two different legal systems becomes imperative in most cases (cf. Sandrini 1999). Even in light of the current pandemic that has forced governments to quickly lay down measures aimed at containing the spread of the virus, fundamental legal principles continue to apply.One might argue that a rapidly spreading virus can affect legisla…

Frame-Semantics meets Multilingual Legal Terminology. Theoretical Principles Based on a German-French Case Study

2021

International audience; Terminology aims primarily at elaborating standardized notions for the various complex concepts within specialized fields, intending to separate clearly defined technical terms from general lexical units that are used in every-day situations, with yet a wide range of vocabulary, that is specialized to some extent but cannot be delimited by terminological standards, emerging in between (ten Hacken 2010, 2015). For legal experts, for instance, the elaboration of precisely determined legal terms contributes to an overall specific understanding of legal concepts regardless of the possible ambiguities the same term may have in a general setting. At the same time, a variet…

Belief reports and pragmatic intrusion: the case of null appositives

2008

Evaluative meaning

2012

Linguistic evaluation has become an important area of inquiry in recent years. In the traditions of, e.g., lexical semantics, phraseology, corpus linguistics, and interactional linguistics, a large inventory of linguistic means have been identified by which speakers can express evaluative meanings. However, the class of German sentential idioms, e.g., Das kannst du dir in die Haare schmieren (lit. ‘You can smear that into your hair’, fig. ‘That is useless’), has not gained much attention. This paper explores how the evaluative meaning of German sentential idioms is constructed syntactically, semantically, and pragmatically. In particular, it is investigated how the meaning of these idioms i…

Semantic Models and Translating

1994

Abstract: This paper examines the relevance of three semantic models for translation. Structural semantics, more specifically semantic feature analysis, has given rise to the maxim that we should translate "bundles of semantic features". Prototype semantics suggests that word-meanings have cores and fuzzy edges which are influenced by culture. For translation this means that we do not necessarily translate bundles of features but have to decide whether to focus on the core or the fuzzy edges of the meaning of a particular word. Scenes-and-frames semantics suggests that word meaning is influenced by context and the situation we are in. Word-meaning is thus not static but dynamic, and it is t…

Crossing Modalities: A Cognitive Semantics Perspective on Quoting

2015

Elaborating on Talmy (2007a, forthcoming) and Lampert (2013, 2014), this follow- up study probes into quoting as an attention-and modality-sensitive phenomenon at the interface of speech and writing, taking inaugural addresses from Kennedy to Obama as cases in point. Lexicalized to redirect some attention from a quotation’s referential content to concomitants closely associated with it, quotatives medium-specifically prime speech-internal properties of their targets, animating the ‘other voice’ through prosodic and gestural prompts in face-to-face interactions, while figural prompts demarcate verbatim citations in print. Quotations from pre-scripted videotaped presidential inaugurals reveal…