1,720,976 research outputs found
The Discourse Semantics of Long-Distance Reflexives
No full textThis dissertation presents a semantic analysis of long-distance reflexives (LDRs), reflexive pronouns with antecedents outside of their minimal clause. The study is based on Latin data, but in also includes cross-linguistic considerations. The analyses are framed in Partial Compositional Discourse Representation Theory (Haug 2013).
Latin LDRs are frequent in indirect discourse in Latin as well as in other languages, and they refer to the author of the indirect discourse. Given this pattern, an analysis based on the modal semantics of indirect discourse easily comes to mind. However, LDRs are also attested in non-reported environments, which are often treated in terms of perspective shift. To capture the different uses, I argue that LDRs are anaphors with a presuppositional restriction to shifted perspective holders. Perspective shift is analyzed using events and thematic roles. This approach to perspective shift correctly captures the antecedents of LDRs in indirect discourse, but it can also account for other uses of LDRs.
When indirect discourse containing an LDR is embedded within indirect discourse, the LDR becomes ambiguous. By modeling LDR binding as anaphora, this ambiguity is immediately captured, without having to resort to covert structural differences.
Latin LDRs are widely attested in so-called unembedded indirect discourse (UID; Bary and Maier 2014), multi-sentence stretches of indirect discourse. In such cases, the LDR is often several sentences away from its antecedent. I show how UID can be analyzed in terms of event anaphora. When paired with the event-semantics of perspective shift, it is possible to capture the discourse antecedents of LDRs in UID.
Finally, I discuss the antecedents of Latin LDRs in indirect discourse conveyed by a messenger, which have previously been seen as problematic. I present a new corpus study of such cases and show how they can be explained
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Perspectival reflexives and event semantics
Full text linkThis paper presents a unified semantic theory of long-distance reflexivity inside and outside of indirect discourse. Long-distance reflexives are argued to be discourse anaphors with presuppositional restrictions to (shifted) perspective holders. Perspective-shift is analyzed in the event semantics: In indirect discourse, the perspective is assigned to the agent/experiencer of the attitudinal event. By modelling the analysis in the event semantics instead of the modal semantics of indirect discourse, it is possible to generalize it to non-attitudinal cases of long distance binding, using other event types and thematic roles
Long-distance anaphora in Latin
Full text linkThis thesis investigates the distribution of long-distance anaphors (LDAs) in Latin and proposes an analysis which takes into account both syntactic and pragmatic factors. It is generally assumed in the grammatical literature that complement clauses of reported speech/thought constitute a relevant domain for long-distance anaphora in Latin. This claim has been challenged in Benedicto (1991), as there are examples of LDAs in non-reported environments. I show that reported speech/thought is relevant for long-distance anaphora in Latin, and that LDAs outside of reported environments need a separate treatment. The LDAs in reported complements, which I have called the normal Latin LDAs, obligatorily take as an antecedent the noun referring to the person whose thought the clause expresses. This happens regardless of the syntactic position of this noun. The group of LDAs which occur outside of reported contexts, the special Latin LDAs in my terminology, have their own domain restrictions and binding properties.
Giorgi (2006) and (2007) propose a syntactic account of long-distance anaphora which links long-distance binding to the temporal anchoring of complement clauses expressing propositional attitudes. The predictions this theory makes are in part borne out in Latin: The distribution of the normal LDAs seem to be sensitive to the syntactic distinction between complements and adjuncts. It might also be correct that the relevant complement clauses are those which express propositional attitudes. It is probably not correct, however, that long-distance anaphora is related to temporal anchoring in Latin. Moreover, the special LDAs are unexpected in this approach. A discourse approach to long-distance anaphora based on Sells (1987) can account for the attested patterns in a descriptively better way. While Sells theory makes empirically good predictions, it needs to be adapted in some way to a modular view of language. Syntax should play a part in such an adaption, as the complement/adjunct distinction is relevant to long-distance anaphora in Latin. I have therefore suggested an approach to long-distance anaphora in Latin which combines insights from both theories. In this approach, LDAs are indexical pronouns anchored to internally specified contextual coordinates. Certain verbs, notably those which take reported complements, specify a new set of contextual coordinates, referring to the speech or thought event. The normal LDAs are anchored to internally specified agent-coordinates in such complements. I also tentatively suggest that the space-coordinates can be internally specified in certain non-reported environments, and that the special LDAs refer to such coordinates
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
