scholarly journals Listeners use descriptive contrast to disambiguate novel referents and make inferences about novel categories

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Claire Bergey ◽  
Daniel Yurovsky

In the face of unfamiliar language or objects, description is one cue people can use to learn about both. Beyond narrowing potential referents to those that match a descriptor, listeners could infer that a described object is one that contrasts with other relevant objects of the same type (e.g., “The tall cup” contrasts with another, shorter cup). This contrast may be in relation to other objects present in the environment or to the referent’s category. In two experiments, we investigate whether listeners use descriptive contrast to resolve reference and make inferences about novel referents’ categories. While participants use size adjectives contrastively to guide novel referent choice, they do not reliably do so using color adjectives (Experiment 1). Their contrastive inferences go beyond the current referential context: participants use description to infer that a novel object is atypical of its category (Experiment 2). Overall, people are able to use descriptive contrast to resolve reference and make inferences about a novel object’s category, allowing them to infer new word meanings and learn about new categories’ feature distributions.

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Epongse Nkealah ◽  
Olutoba Gboyega Oluwasuji

Ideas of nationalisms as masculine projects dominate literary texts by African male writers. The texts mirror the ways in which gender differentiation sanctions nationalist discourses and in turn how nationalist discourses reinforce gender hierarchies. This article draws on theoretical insights from the work of Anne McClintock and Elleke Boehmer to analyse two plays: Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon by Bole Butake and Gilbert Doho and Hard Choice by Sunnie Ododo. The article argues that women are represented in these two plays as having an ambiguous relationship to nationalism. On the one hand, women are seen actively changing the face of politics in their societies, but on the other hand, the means by which they do so reduces them to stereotypes of their gender.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-557
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Waters
Keyword(s):  
The Face ◽  

In what ways are the Johannine Epistles a response to empire ideology and propaganda? These Epistles proclaim a more complete and correct cosmology, a greater Savior and soteriology, a better pedagogy, a truer doctrine, a sounder koinōnia, and a more nurturing paterfamilias; moreover, they do so while indicting schismatics, who, in the view of the elder, represent the face of the empire. Although the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ drive the elder’s witness and ministry, he must still shape his message to counter the encroachment of empire in the church and on the mission field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (Suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Denis Horgan ◽  
Walter Ricciardi

In the world of modern health, despite the fact that we've been blessed with amazing advances of late - the advent of personalised medicine is just one example - “change” for most citizens seems slow. There are clear discrepancies in availability of the best care for all, the divisions in access from country to country, wealthy to poor, are large. There are even discrepancies between regions of the larger countries, where access often varies alarmingly. Too many Member States (with their competence for healthcare) appear to be clinging stubbornly to the concept of “one-size-fits-all” in healthcare and often stifle advances possible through personalised medicine. Meanwhile, the legislative arena encompassing health has grown big and unwieldy in many respects. And bigger is not always better. The health advances spoken of above, an increased knowledge on the part of patients, the emergence of Big Data and more, are quickly changing the face of healthcare in Europe. But healthcare thinking across the EU isn't changing fast enough. The new technologies will certainly speak for themselves, but only if allowed to do so. Acknowledging that, this article highlights a positive reform agenda, while explaining that new avenues need to be explored.


Author(s):  
Susan Sleeper-Smith

A network of Indian trading villages dominated the tributary rivers of the Ohio and fostered Indian control over the exchange process. The face-to-face exchange process that characterized these villages ushered in a golden age of Indigenous prosperity as Indian women sought new types of cloth, incorporated silks and calicoes into their wardrobes, and demanded silver ornaments to highlight and decorate their clothing. Kin-based networks controlled trade as well as social relations in the region. Traders who sought a share of this prosperity resided in these Indian trading villages and carefully observed Indigenous trade protocols. Those who failed to do so found themselves unwelcome in Indian villages. Change was ongoing: newcomers were incorporated, populations multiplied, and village life was defined by evolving kin relations. These changes occurred within the framework of an Indian world, one that was increasingly shaped by Miami hegemony over the Wabash region. Intermarriage blurred social borders and simultaneously created pathways to authority and power.


As regards written and signed contracts, the usual view is that the Divisional Court’s decision in L’Estrange v Graucob Ltd is conclusive. If so, the rule is that a person is bound by any contract to which they have appended their signature. The effect of signature (in the absence of fraud, duress, misrepresentation or a possible plea of non est factum) is seen as indicating assent to the terms proposed in the contract. In this case, the buyer of cigarette vending machine for use in a seaside café had signed a sales agreement (printed on brown paper!) in the presence of the representative of the seller. The machine did not work satisfactorily, and the buyer (Mrs L’Estrange) claimed damages for (inter alia) breach of an implied warranty that the machine was not fit for the purpose for which it was sold. The principal defence of the seller was that the sales agreement contained a clause expressly providing for the exclusion of all implied warranties. The buyer agreed that she had not read the agreement, and knew nothing of its content. Moreover, the clause excluding warranties could not easily be read, owing to the smallness of the print. The Divisional Court (Scrutton and Maugham LJJ) found in favour of the seller. In the words of Scrutton LJ (at p 404): ‘In this case, the plaintiff has signed a document headed “Sales Agreement”, which she admits had to do with an intended purchase and which contained a clause excluding all conditions and warranties. That being so, the plaintiff, having put her signature to the document and not having been induced to do so by any fraud or misrepresentation, cannot be heard to say that she is not bound by the terms of the document because she has not read them.’ The decision is often cited as an extreme instance of the courts’ refusal to countenance any solution which limits parties’ freedom to contract, however unjust the results. It has been argued that the decision flies in the face of a

1995 ◽  
pp. 127-127
Keyword(s):  
The Face ◽  

2021 ◽  
pp. 163-194
Author(s):  
Sara E. Gorman ◽  
Jack M. Gorman

This chapter evaluates uncertainty and why people feel the need to fill the ignorance gap. The tendency to want to know why things are as they are and figuring out what caused what often leads people to incorrect or even dangerous scientific conclusions. The chapter argues that it is highly adaptive to know how to attribute causality but that people are often too quick to do so. This is another instance in which adaptive, evolutionary qualities have done people a disservice in the face of complex debates and rational thinking. In particular, people have a difficult time sitting with uncertainty and an especially hard time accepting coincidence. The chapter then considers the evidence from decades of psychological research showing people’s misunderstanding of cause and effect and the elaborate coping mechanisms they have developed as a result. It also suggests some ways to help people better comprehend true causality, without diminishing their ability to attribute cause when it is in fact appropriate.


1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 436-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rex

The names of Dr. Thomas Vavasour and of his wife Dorothy are not uncommon in the chronicles of English Catholic recusancy and in related studies. The poignancy of their story—of a husband and wife practising their religion in the face of persecution and ending their lives in different prisons after a long period of enforced separation—and the relative richness of the relevant sources have together assured them at least a passing mention in such diverse works as Aveling’s studies of Yorkshire recusancy, Cliffe’s account of the Yorkshire gentry, and Claire Cross’ biography of Henry Hastings, third earl of Huntingdon. Although Thomas Vavasour has been described as ‘a very shadowy figure’, he and his wife are in fact among the best documented of the early lay recusants. It is all the more surprising, then, that no attempt has previously been made to bring together the disparate sources to give a reasonably full and coherent account of Thomas Vavasour’s career and family. This article aims to fill that gap. Its attempt to do so is greatly facilitated by the availability in print of much of the basic documentation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Ghthaith Almutairi ◽  
Hilal Al Shamsi

BACKGROUND: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is a developing nation with significant resources to improve the nations population health and a planned objective to do so with its Vision 2030 plan. Nonetheless to achieve national strategic goals in health policy and outcomes, the structures and methods necessary to do so must first be elucidated, and outcomes of proposed actions must be appropriately predicted. The primary purpose of this literature review is to compare and critically analyse the structural and policy aspects of the Australian and KSA health systems to offer insights into the potential mechanics of developing further health system accessibility within the KSA. Importantly, this review addresses the issue of accessibility in the context of the recently proposed privatisation of hundreds of services throughout the KSA as a major component of the Vision 2030 plan.METHOD: 43 peer-reviewed articles were identified using the PRISMA approach and systematically analysed to determine the effects of policy changes in the 2030 Vision to the accessibility of healthcare, in particular the effect of privatisation, as observed in other nations such as Australia.FINDINGS & DISCUSSION: the literature review demonstrated that privatisation can, but does not always, lead to productivity and efficiency gains, however privatisation also leads to increasing administrative costs and service cost inflation. Health outcomes or service quality indicators are not significantly affected by privatisation. It is probable that privatising health services will reduce accessibility to health services in some subsets of the population.CONCLUSION: according to the international evidence, the proposed plan to privatise health services in the KSA will probably have a negative effect on the accessibility of health services and downstream improvement in population health outcomes. If inappropriate governance is not implemented, the plan to privatise services also carries the risk of decreasing access to vulnerable populations and threatens health equity and needs-based health care.


1994 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuwa Wong

This article approaches the current global environmental crisis from an evolutionary perspective. It identifies two features in contemporary states' behavior: impotence and intransigence in the face of global crisis. These traits stem from humanity's evolutionary past, in which groups had to maintain their integrity while surviving intergroup competition. Contemporary sovereign states are groups that have survived this process, and they guard their sovereignty vigilantly. They do so by instituting coercive measures on the one hand and cultivating members' loyalty on the other. A belief of common descent must be articulated successfully in order for members to feel group solidarity. Hence, states are intransigent in maintaining that they truly represent the welfare of their members. To the extent that states are successful in inculcating a belief of common descent and identity, they are also constrained in acting altruistically—hence, their impotence in the face of deepening global crisis. To find a way out of this dilemma, strategic alternatives are explored. The emerging role of nongovernment organizations, with certain caveats, is seen as promising.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-177
Author(s):  
Paul Fearon

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a particular set of challenges for health services. Some of these are common across all services (e.g. strategies to minimise infections; timely testing for patients and staff; and sourcing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)) and some are specific to mental health services (e.g. how to access general medical services quickly; how to safely deliver a service that traditionally depends on intensive face to face contact; how to isolate someone who does not wish to do so; and how to source sufficient PPE in the face of competing demands for such equipment). This paper describes how St Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) chose to address this unfolding and ever-changing crisis, how it developed its strategy early based on a clear set of objectives and how it adapted (and continues to adapt) to the constantly evolving COVID-19 landscape.


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