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Linguistic Expressions (linguistic + expression)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences42%

Selected Abstracts

On the semantics of perception-based fuzzy logic deduction

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 11 2004
Vilém Novák
In this article, we return to the problem of the derivation of a conclusion on the basis of fuzzy IF,THEN rules. The so-called Mamdani method is well elaborated and widely applied. In this article, we present an alternative to it. The fuzzy IF,THEN rules are here interpreted as genuine linguistic sentences consisting of the so-called evaluating linguistic expressions. Sets of fuzzy IF,THEN rules are called linguistic descriptions. Linguistic expressions derived on the basis of an observation in a concrete context are called perceptions. Together with the linguistic description, they can be used in logical deduction, which we will call a perception-based logical deduction. We focus on semantics only and confine ourselves to one specific model. If the perception-based deduction is repeated and the result interpreted in an appropriate model, we obtain a piecewise continuous and monotonous function. Though the method has already proved to work well in many applications, the nonsmoothness of the output may sometimes lead to problems. We propose in this article a method for how the resulting function can be made smooth so that the output preserves its good properties. The idea consists of postprocessing the output using a special fuzzy approximation method called F-transform. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 19: 1007,1031, 2004. [source]

2. PRESENCE ACHIEVED IN LANGUAGE (WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION GIVEN TO THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST)

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2006
HANS ULRICH GUMBRECHT
ABSTRACT The aim of this essay is to ask whether what it calls the "presence" of things, including things of the past, can be rendered in language, including the language of historians. In Part I the essay adumbrates what it means by presence (the spatio-temporally located existence of physical objects and events). It also proposes two ideal types: meaning-cultures (in which the interpretation of meaning is of paramount concern, so much so that the thinghood of things is often obscured), and presence-cultures (in which capturing the tangibility of things is of utmost importance). In the modern period, linguistic utterance has typically come to be used for, and to be interpreted as, the way by which meaning rather than presence is expressed, thereby creating a gap between language and presence. Thus, in Part II the essay explores ways that this gap might be bridged, examining seven instances in which presence can be "amalgamated" with language. These range from instances in which the physical dimensions of language itself are made manifest, to those through which the physicality of the things to which language refers is supposed to be made evident. Of particular note for theorists of history are those instances in which things can be made present by employing the deictic, poetic, and incantatory potential of linguistic expression. The essay concludes in Part III with a reflection on Heidegger's idea that language is the "house of being," now interpreted as the idea that language can be the medium through which the separation of humans and the (physical) things of their environment may be overcome. The hope of achieving presence in language is no less than a reconciliation of humans with their world, including,and of most interest to historians,the things and events of their past. [source]

The Shaman's Song and Divination in the Epic Tradition

ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 2 2010
KURT CLINE
ABSTRACT Evidence of the intimate linkage of the shaman's song and divinatory procedures may be viewed in the ancient epics. These narrative poems contain structural and thematic elements recognizable from the shaman's song,in particular his or her voyage to the Otherworld and the guidance of oracular powers. In this paper, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Euripedes' Ion, and The Ozidi Saga (a living epic from West Africa) are examined as recuperations of the orally composed and transmitted song of the shaman. I argue that the epics,the origins of which predate their composition in literary form,bear witness to these most ancient and mysterious forms of linguistic expression. As depictions of Otherwordly journeys, they can be viewed through a metaphysic outside of time, rendering divination not only possible but inevitable, and necessitating a language of abstraction, allusion, and ambiguity. Today's experimental poetries may not all partake of a conscious recuperation of shamanic themes and forms, but they share an imaginary (yet not imagined) repositioning of reality, an open questioning of consensus forms of awareness, and an aesthetic shaping of what Jean Gebser calls "Integral Consciousness" (15), the simultaneous integration-disintegration of archaic, mythic, magic, and mental paradigms in an intensification of awareness which sees time as diaphanous, and Mind as a doorway between possibilities. [source]

A framework for linguistic logic programming

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 6 2010
Tru H. Cao
Lawry's label semantics for modeling and computing with linguistic information in natural language provides a clear interpretation of linguistic expressions and thus a transparent model for real-world applications. Meanwhile, annotated logic programs (ALPs) and its fuzzy extension AFLPs have been developed as an extension of classical logic programs offering a powerful computational framework for handling uncertain and imprecise data within logic programs. This paper proposes annotated linguistic logic programs (ALLPs) that embed Lawry's label semantics into the ALP/AFLP syntax, providing a linguistic logic programming formalism for development of automated reasoning systems involving soft data as vague and imprecise concepts occurring frequently in natural language. The syntax of ALLPs is introduced, and their declarative semantics is studied. The ALLP SLD-style proof procedure is then defined and proved to be sound and complete with respect to the declarative semantics of ALLPs. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Fuzzy quantification in two real scenarios: Information retrieval and mobile robotics

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 6 2009
Félix Díaz-Hermida
Fuzzy quantification supplies powerful tools for handling linguistic expressions. Nevertheless, its advantages are usually shown at the theoretical level without a proper empirical validation. In this work, we review the application of fuzzy quantification in two application domains. We provide empirical evidence on the adequacy of fuzzy quantification to support different tasks in the context of mobile robotics and information retrieval. This practical perspective aims at exemplifying the actual benefits that real application can get from fuzzy quantifiers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

On the semantics of perception-based fuzzy logic deduction

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 11 2004
Vilém Novák
In this article, we return to the problem of the derivation of a conclusion on the basis of fuzzy IF,THEN rules. The so-called Mamdani method is well elaborated and widely applied. In this article, we present an alternative to it. The fuzzy IF,THEN rules are here interpreted as genuine linguistic sentences consisting of the so-called evaluating linguistic expressions. Sets of fuzzy IF,THEN rules are called linguistic descriptions. Linguistic expressions derived on the basis of an observation in a concrete context are called perceptions. Together with the linguistic description, they can be used in logical deduction, which we will call a perception-based logical deduction. We focus on semantics only and confine ourselves to one specific model. If the perception-based deduction is repeated and the result interpreted in an appropriate model, we obtain a piecewise continuous and monotonous function. Though the method has already proved to work well in many applications, the nonsmoothness of the output may sometimes lead to problems. We propose in this article a method for how the resulting function can be made smooth so that the output preserves its good properties. The idea consists of postprocessing the output using a special fuzzy approximation method called F-transform. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 19: 1007,1031, 2004. [source]

Children's understanding of certainty and evidentiality: Advantage of grammaticalized forms over lexical alternatives

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD & ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, Issue 125 2009
Tomoko Matsui
In verbal communication, the hearer takes advantage of the linguistic expressions of certainty and evidentiality to assess how committed the speaker might be to the truth of the informational content of the utterance. Little is known, however, about the precise developmental mechanism of this ability. In this chapter, we approach the question by elucidating factors that are likely to constrain young children's understanding of linguistically encoded certainty and evidentiality, including the types of linguistic form of these expressions, namely, grammaticalized or lexical forms. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]