text:
Language and Evolution: Homepage Robin Allott
NOTES FOR DELMENHORST
"As I understand it, minimalism currently is an expression of a move back to lexicon and away from syntax in isolation as the dominant aspect of language."
1. Minimalism:
In Hale, Kenneth and Samuel J. Keyser eds. 1993. The View from Building 20:
Chapter 1 Chomsky, Noam 1993. A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory.
approach, assumed here, takes language to be a part of the natural world Another recurrent theme has been the role of 'principles of economy' ... Another standard assumption is that a language consists of two components, a lexicon and a computational system. The lexicon specifies the items that enter into the computational system, with their idiosyncratic properties. We are led to dispense with the level of D-structure ... S-structure, another level that has only theory-internal motivation ... the implications of the theory that syntax is projected from the lexicon
From Hornstein, Norbert 1995. Logical Form: From GB to Minimalism: One truism is that sentences are pairings of sounds with meanings ... Since the earliest days of generative grammar, a central concern of linguistic theory has been to elucidate how it is that a natural language sentence expresses its meaning. Broadly speaking, Minimalism differs from GB theories in not according DS or SS any grammatical significance. Chomsky (1993) offers a substantial revision of the principles of Universal Grammar (UG). The general aim is to develop a theory of grammar based exclusively on natural concepts, as is required by 'virtual conceptual necessity'. The idea is to develop as conceptually economical a theory as possible ... Natural language sentences are pairings of sound and meaning. PF and LF are the theoretical reflexes A central aim of the Minimalist program is to show that the grammatical levels DS [Deep Structure] and SS [Surface Structure] do not exist.
The theoretical direction outlined by Chomsky (11993) requires a wholesale revision of previous GB approaches to LF if consistently pursued. It is clear (to me) that if Minimalism is roughly correct then the earlier GB analyses will have to be abandoned and radically rethought. The fundamental notions, constructs and principles are different. If the analyses above are correct, there is no place in Minimalism for the (antecedent government part of the) ECP, A'movement, or theories based solely on output constraints. This is a fundamental reorientation of grammatical theory. [ See Hornstein's list of 71 technical aspects of GB theory]
Extracts from: Chomsky, Noam. 2000. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge University Press.
Publisher's Blurb: "This book is an outstanding contribution to the philosophical study of language and mind, by one of the most influential thinkers of out time. In a series of penetrating essays, Noam Chomsky cuts through the confusion and prejudice which has infected the study of language and mind, bringing new solutions to traditional philosophical puzzles and fresh perspectives on issue of general interest, ranging from the mind-body problem to the unification of science.
Using a range of imaginative and deceptively simple linguistic analyses, Chomsky argues that there is no coherent notion of "language" external to the human mind, and that the study of language should take as its focus the mental construct which constitutes our knowledge of language. Human language is therefore a psychological, ultimately a "biological object", and should be analysed using the methodology of the natural sciences. His examples and analyses come together in this book to give a unique and compelling perspective on language and the mind.
Foreword by Neil Smith:
A number of consequences follow from his naturalistic thesis: there is no justification for the common assumption that natural languages ought to be treated like the invented formal languages of logic or mathematics Chomsky has cut the Gordian knot by emphasizing a more fundamental difficulty: the mind-body problem cannot even be formulated. Trying to reduce linguistics to neurology in the current state of our understanding is then unlikely to be productive. The theory of Principles and Parameters which has been developed over the past two decades is probably the first really novel approach to language over the last two and a half thousand years ... What is impressive about Chomsky's writing is not just its awesome breadth and considerable scope, but that after half a century he still has the power to surprise: Everything combines to give a unique and compelling view of language and mind.
[The book is actually a collection of previously published articles - 1997, 1992, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995. The last chapter is the only new one]
One domain in which there has been substantial progress is the study of language, particularly in the past 20 years. . . . Some have plausibly termed it "biolinguistics". . . . Biolinguistic inquiry seeks unification with other approaches to the properties of the brain, in the hope that some day the slash "/" in the phrase "mind/brain" will gain more substantive content. . . . this "naturalistic" approach.
Chapter 1 New Horizons in the study of language [January 1997]
About 15 years ago . . . a much more radical departure from the tradition than earlier generative grammar had been. This "Principles and Parameters " approach . . . . rejected the concept of rule and grammatical construction entirely; . . . The familiar grammatical constructions are taken to be taxonomic artifacts, useful for informal description perhaps but with no theoretical standing. What has come to be called "the Minimalist Program" is an effort to explore these questions . . . The minimalist program requires that we subject conventional assumptions to careful scrutiny. the most venerable of these is that language has sound and meaning. . . . . Are there levels "internal" to language, particular, the levels of deep and surface structure that have been postulated in modern work. The minimalist program seeks to show that everything that has been accounted for in terms of these levels has been misdescribed and is as well or better understood in terms of legibility conditions at the interface; for those of you who know the technical literature, that means the projection principle, binding theory, Case theory, the chain condition and so on. The computational system that generates expressions has two basic operations: one assembles features into lexical items, the second forms larger syntactic objects out of those already constructed beginning with lexical items. We can think of the first operation as essentially a list of lexical items. In traditional terms, this list - called the lexicon - is the list of "exceptions", arbitrary associations of sound and meaning and particular choices among the inflectional properties made available by the faculty of language that determine how we indicate that nouns and verbs are plural or singular, that nouns have nominative or accusative case, and so on. These inflectional features turn out to play a central role in computation. Optimal design would introduce no new features in the course of the computation. There should be no indices or phrasal units and no bar levels (hence, no phrase-structure rules or X-bar theory. . . We exclude government, binding relations internal to the derivation of expressions, and a variety of other relations and interactions. A core assumption of the work within the Parameters-and Principles framework . . . is that everything I have just proposed is false. Languages plainly differ . . . in inflectional systems: case systems, for example. . . . it seems that much of the variety of language can be reduced to properties of inflectional systems. If this is correct, then language variation is located in a narrow part of the lexicon. There is a fair amount of hand-waving in this brief description [words] "on the meaning side there are profound disagreements. . . . referentially dependent elements . . . observe some distinctions and ignore others, in ways that vary for different types of words in curious ways. . . . What we discover is surprisingly intricate and . . . known in advance of any evidence. . One theory [minimalism] holds that . . . the properties of an expression that enters into language are completely drawn from the lexicon; the computation organises these in very restricted ways, but adds no further features
Extracts from: SILENT CHILDREN, NEW LANGUAGE Interview with Professor Noam Chomsky MIT:
INTERVIEWER: What are the features of language that must be, at least partly, innate? CHOMSKY: Every feature of language from the articulatory gestures to the meanings of words, to the ways sentences are constructed.
INTERVIEWER: What you're saying is that in no case is the child's input anywhere near rich enough for them to infer the language. How does this relate to the children in Nicaragua and their experience. CHOMSKY Here's a case where a language like system was created on the basis of, it seems, no input just by interaction. The Nicaraguan case appears to be a very rich example, the richest yet known, of a natural experiment in which a language like system, maybe an actual human language, was developed on the basis of no external input as far as we know and that's intriguing. In the case of humans, one fundamental part of their nature is a language organ and they plainly are designed, somehow, to develop this organ.
Comments on Chomsky's Minimalism:
[a comment on the Internet] On the subject of GB and Minimalism, does anybody understand better than I do what the relationship between them, if any, is supposed to be? And if there is no relationship, in what sense is GB still the "standard" theory of syntax, if it has been abandoned by Chomsky?
Franks: Paradigms in generative syntax don't die--they collapse under their own weight. They start as simple structures, designed to provide the basic needs of syntactic description. Slowly, inexorably, they become adumbrated with special fixtures for special purposes. Eventually,sporting gargoyles, they transcend the baroque. By the time a paradigm has evolved to such a degree that the original simple structure is so obscured by rococo ornamentation that it cannot be discerned, it is usually time to dismantle and begin anew. In the history of generative grammar we have cycled through this process several times. In the early 1980's the revised extended standard theory was refreshingly replaced by government-binding theory. Within ten years GB too had become encumbered by many otiose frills and decorations, culminating in its replacement with the "minimalist" approach to grammar.The leading idea of minimalism is the rejection of all devices and constructs except those that are absolutely necessary on conceptual grounds.
[See Working Minimalism S.D. Epstein and N. Hornstein (eds.) For similar over-elaboration of Minimalism] and also:
Extracts from: 1997 O'Neil III J.H. Means of Control: Deriving the Properties of PRO in the Minimalist Program.
The Minimalist Program grew out of the efforts of researchers in the Principles and Parameters framework. Earlier theories in the Principles and Parameters framework, such as Government and Binding Theory as presented in Chomsky (1981, 1982, 1986a, 1986b), include a rich set of principles from which it is possible to deduce logically the grammaticality of an utterance. In the Minimalist Program, as presented in Chomsky (1993), it was attempted to simplify the theory of the syntax of natural language to the greatest possible extent.
Chomsky (1993) assumes that syntactic structures are built iteratively, by taking smaller structures and combining them by a computational procedure, starting with a multiset of items drawn from the lexicon. This computational procedure takes lexical items � atomic syntactic structures � in addition to more complex structures and combines them into larger structures.
The GB arguments concerning the distribution and interpretation of PRO depend on theoretical tools which in the Minimalist Program are no longer available, including the Projection Principle, D-structure and S-structure, the notion of government, and the Binding Theory itself (bringing the PRO theorem into even greater doubt).]
Alternatives to Minimalism:
Dependency grammars: the approach to the explanation of language and its structure where the accent is on hierarchical relations between words. [For example: 1997 Melc'uk, Igor. 1997. Vers une linguistique Sens-Texte. 1998 Polgu�re, A. La th�orie Sens-Texte. ]
[From Richard Hudson:
There are a dozen or so theories of language in general, and of grammar in particular (and even more particularly, of syntax with or without semantics). Dependency and cognitive grammars include:
Autolexical Grammar Cognitive Grammar Construction Grammar Functional Grammar Categorial Grammar Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar Integrational Linguistics Lexical Functional Grammar Link Grammar Systemic Functional Grammar Transformational Grammar (was Government-Binding or Principles-and-Parameters, now the Minimalist Program) Tree Adjoining Grammar
[Richard Hudson: The main ideas of Word Grammar [Language as a cognitive network]:
It is monostratal - only one structure per sentence, no transformations. It uses word-word dependencies - e.g. a noun is the subject of a verb. It does not use phrase structure - e.g. it does not recognise a noun phrase as the subject of a clause, though these phrases are implicit in the dependency structure. It views concepts as prototypes rather than `classical' categories that can be defined by necessary and sufficient conditions. It presents language as a network of knowledge In this network there are no clear boundaries between different areas of knowledge - e.g. between `lexicon' and `grammar'
Optimality Theory
"Optimality Theory has revolutionized phonological theory, and its insights are now being applied to other central aspects of language. With contributors that include the leading researchers in the field, this book presents the first fruits of such research as applied to syntax and to language acquisition, as well as considering the main lines of attack on OT by rule-based grammarians." (OUP 1999)
2. Lexicon in the Brain
"In the brain different categories of words, content words, function words, vision words, action/motor words, are associated with topographically different patterns of excitation; the brain seems to be categorising the perception of words in ways very similar to the standard analyses of the lexicon."
Function words and content words
The class of function words (including subwords eg. morphemes such as terminations of abstract nouns, verb inflections etc) is of special importance for syntax. The class is closed; function words and subwords in any language can be enumerated in a way that is not possible for nouns or verbs; the number of function words and subwords is quite small. Evidence of a neurological distinction between function words and other words comes from clinical treatment of the aphasias over a long period; many aphasiologists have noted that in certain types of aphasia, content and function words are differentially affected.
Psycholinguistic theories propose that words of the 2 major vocabulary classes, content (open-class) and function (closed-class) words, are computationally distinct and have different neuronal generators. This predicts distinct EEG patterns elicited by words of the 2 classes.(Pulvermuller 1995) Evidence from studies of sentence production and comprehension points to a distinction between the open and closed class vocabularies. Data from the neurologically impaired suggest the left hemisphere selectively supports this distinction. (Shapiro & Jensen 1986)
In Luria's 'efferent aphasias' the selection of content words is unimpaired, but the combination of words and their serial order may be severely disturbed. Speech may degenerate to a succession of telegraph- style utterances. Grammatical words such as conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns and articles disappear; roots of words are preserved better than grammatical endings, tense or gender. The nominative may be the only case that survives. (Sommerhoff 1974).
One of the more remarkable observations was where patients were asked to read a list of homophone-pairs where one member of the pair was a content word and the other a function word. "H.T. was able to read 'four' but not 'for'; V.S. read 'sum' but not 'some'; and J.D. read 'for' and 'some' but not 'four' or 'sum'. (Marin et al. 1976)
In languages with well-developed inflectional systems, agrammatism is particularly striking. Nouns tend to appear only in the nominative case, verbs in the infinitive, auxiliary verbs and other words from closed classes are omitted. (Howard 1985)
There are also where electrically induced changes are confined to closed class words. At a few sites, only conjunctions, prepositions and verb endings were altered during stimulation. (Ojemann 1983)
Content words correspond to neuronal assemblies equally distributed over both hemispheres, while assemblies corresponding to function words are strongly lateralized to the left hemisphere and primarily located in the perisylvian region. (Pulvermuller , Lutzenberger , Birbaumer 1995)
Electrophysiological and metabolic imaging studies provide evidence that not only the language cortices in the left hemispheres, but additional cortical areas outside the left perisylvian areas play a role in word processing. indicate that both hemispheres are strongly involved in processing concrete content words, whereas predominantly left-lateralized activity in or close to perisylvian regions appear to be related to processing of highly abstract function words.(Pulvermuller 1999)
The child quickly acquires a closed class vocabulary, a relatively small set of frequently used function words (Levelt, Roelofs & Meyer 1999)
Exchange of stuttering from function words to content words with age. For the 2-6-year-old speakers that stutter, there was a higher percentage of dysfluencies on initial function words than content words. (Howell, Au-Yeung, Sackin 1999)
Nouns and Verbs
Nouns and Verbs, with the dependent categories of Adjectives and Adverbs, together form the open class of content words.
Selective impairment of word categories such as nouns vs verbs has suggested a regional representation of lexical knowledge in the human brain. (Dehaene 1995)
Performance of two brain-damaged subjects with modality-specific deficits restricted principally (H.W.) or virtually only (S.J.D) to verbs in oral and written production, respectively. (Caramazza and Hillis 1991)
Sparing of verbs and preserved, but ineffectual reading in a patient with impaired word production. This pattern of deficits suggests two functional lesions, one affecting the connections between the semantic store and the phonological lexicon and the other damaging the sublexical route that converts sound to sound and sound to print. It also implies that words are independently organized in the phonological lexicon, based on their grammatical class and have discrete connections with the semantic store. However, CT scan evidence does not support the hypothesis that this functional dissociation finds its anatomical correlate in the specialization of the frontal premotor cortex for verbs and the antero-medial temporal cortex for nouns.(De Renzi , di Pellegrino 1995 )
The neural correlates of verb and noun processing. A PET study. The hypothesis that categorical information, distinguishing among word classes, such as nouns, verbs, etc., is an organizational principle of lexical knowledge in the brain, is supported by the observation of aphasic subjects who are selectively impaired in the processing of nouns and verbs. These findings are compatible with the view that lexical-semantic processing of words is mediated by an extensive, predominantly left hemispheric network of brain structures. Additional brain activations appear to be related to specific semantic content, or, in the case of verbs, may be associated with the automatic access of syntactic information. (Perani et al.1999)
Nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems. In agreement with recent evidence from brain-damaged subjects, these results provide evidence that (1) nouns and verbs have distinct neural generators and that (2) these generators involve areas outside the classical language regions of the brain. (Damasio and Tranel 1993)
Brain processing of grammatical word class was studied analyzing event-related potential (ERP) brain fields. The results indicate that different neural populations represent different grammatical word classes in language processing, in agreement with clinical observations. This word class differentiation as revealed by the spatial-temporal organization of neural activity occurred at a time after word input compatible with speed of reading. (Perani et al.1999)
Nouns and verbs in the intact brain: evidence from event-related potentials and high-frequency cortical responses. Lesion evidence indicates that words from different lexical categories, such as nouns and verbs, may have different cortical counterparts. As soon as approximately 200 ms after stimulus onset, event-related potentials disclosed electrocortical differences between nouns and verbs over widespread cortical areas. Our results are consistent with a neurobiological model of language representation postulating cell assemblies with distinct cortical topographies as biological counterparts of words. (Pulvermuller, Lutzenberger, Preissl 1999)
Grammatical differences alone, e.g. between two lexical classes such as action verbs and action-related nouns, are not sufficient for eliciting differential brain responses. In contrast, semantic differences between items from the same lexical category can be sufficient for changing the topography of cortical processes induced by word stimuli. (Pulvermuller, Mohr, Schleichert 1999)
Category-specific ERP differences began to appear around 260 ms. There was a left temporo-parietal negativity for animal names and verbs, a left inferior temporal negativity for proper names, and a bilateral positivity for numerals. These results provide a bilateral parietal positivity evidence for timing and coarse localization of category-specific word processing in the normal human brain. (Dehaene 1995)
Lexical processing of visually and auditorily presented nouns and verbs: evidence from reaction time and N400 priming data. We found that the temporal patterns of primed RTs and N400 latencies differed for nouns and verbs indicating a functional difference in processing. However, the absence of topographic differences in N400 between nouns and verbs did not support anatomically distinct representations of these word classes. (Gomes et al. 1997)
Concrete and abstract words
Neural pathways involved in the processing of concrete and abstract words. A direct comparison between the abstract and concrete stimuli epochs yielded a significant area of activation in the right anterior temporal cortex. The results are consistent with recent positron emission tomography work showing right hemisphere activation during processing of abstract representations of language. The results are interpreted as support for a right hemisphere neural pathway in the processing of abstract word representations. (Kiehl et al.1999)
Abstract content words: One may argue that the postulated difference in semantic meaning between content and function words does not apply for all members of these vocabulary classes. Rather, it appears that there is a continuum of meaning complexity between the "simple" concrete content words that have clearly defined entities they can refer to (so-called referents), more abstract items that may or may not be used to refer to objects and actions, and function words that cannot be used to refer to objects. If semantic criteria are crucial for intra-cortical representation, the suggested gradual differences in the correlation between word form and meaning-related stimuli or actions should be reflected in gradual differences in cortical lateralization and distributedness of assemblies. An abstract content word, such as "philosophy", may therefore have an assembly somewhat in-between typical content and function word assemblies: It may exhibit an intermediate degree of laterality mainly consisting of perisylvian neurons but including a few neurons clusters outside perisylvian areas. Among the abstract content words are words referring to emotional states, for example "anger" and "joy". For these words, it is not difficult to find characteristic visual stimuli related to their meaning - for example angry or a joyful faces. In addition, there are characteristic meaning-related patterns of muscle activity - namely the contraction of the respective face muscles - and autonomic nervous system activity . Although these words do not refer to objects and actions in the sense in which the word "house" refers to an object, the likely co-occurrence of body movements and visual stimuli and patterns of muscle contractions with the word forms may nevertheless lead to the formation of widely distributed cortical cell assemblies representing these words. These considerations should make it clear that the degree of abstractness of an item is not the only factor influencing assembly topographies. According to the present proposal, the important criterion is the strength of the correlation of the occurrences of a given word form and a class of non-linguistic stimuli or actions. In the clear cases, this likelihood is related to abstractness, but there are exceptions. (Pulvermuller 1999)
Animate and inanimate words
Word and picture matching: a PET study of semantic category effects: We report two positron emission tomography (PET) studies of cerebral activation during picture and word matching tasks, in which we compared directly the processing of stimuli belonging to different semantic categories (animate and inanimate) in the visual (pictures) and verbal (words) modality. These results are compatible with different brain networks subserving the identification of living and non-living entities; in particular, they indicate a crucial role of the left fusiform gyrus in the processing of animate entities and of the left middle temporal gyrus for tools, both from words and pictures. The activation of other areas, such as the dorsolateral frontal cortex, appears to be specific for the semantic access of tools only from pictures. These results are compatible with different brain networks subserving the identification of living and non-living entities; in particular, they indicate a crucial role of the left fusiform gyrus in the processing of animate entities and of the left middle temporal gyrus for tools, both from words and pictures. The activation of other areas, such as the dorsolateral frontal cortex, appears to be specific for the semantic access of tools only from pictures.(Perani et al. 1999)
Patients with cerebral lesions offer a unique opportunity to investigate the organization of meaning systems in the brain. Clinical neurologists have long been aware that knowledge of particular classes or categories of information may be selectively impaired in some cases and selectively spared in others. For example knowledge of letters, colours, objects, or people may be lost as a consequence of damage to the left hemisphere of the brain. (McCarthy and Warrington 1988)
The analysis of neuropsychological disorders of lexical processing has provided important clues about the general organization of the lexical system and the internal structure of the processing components. Reports of patients with selective dysfunction of specific semantic categories such as abstract versus concrete words, living things versus inanimate objects, animals, fruits and vegetables, proper names and so forth, support the hypothesis that the neural organization of the semantic processing component is organized in these categories. (Caramazza and Hillis 1991)
The evidence for knowledge of living things as compared with inanimate objects is particularly striking. Such observations have suggested that our semantic knowledge base is categorical in its organization.(McCarthy and Warrington 1988)
Evidence for selective impairments in knowledge of living and nonliving things. Beginning in the 1980's, Warrington and her colleagues began to report the existence of patients with selective impairments in knowledge of either living or nonliving things. Warrington and Shallice (1984) described four patients who were much worse at identifying living things (animals, plants) than nonliving things (inanimate objects). All four of these patients had recovered from Herpes encephalitis, and all had sustained bilateral temporal lobe damage. Two of the patients were studied in detail, and showed a selective impairment for living things across a range of tasks, both visual and verbal. One of these subjects was also tested with a completely nonverbal matching task, in which different-looking depictions of objects or animals were to be matched to one another in an array, and showed the same selective preservation of knowledge of animals relative to inanimate objects. (Farah 1994)
However, Warrington and colleagues have suggested an alternative interpretation, according to which semantic memory is fundamentally modality-specific. They argue that selective deficits in knowledge of living and nonliving things may reflect the differential weighting of information from different sensorimotor channels in representing knowledge about these two categories. They have pointed out that living things are distinguished primarily by their sensory attributes, whereas nonliving things are distinguished primarily by their functional attributes. For example, our knowledge of an animal such as a leopard, by which we distinguish it from other similar creatures, is predominantly visual. In contrast, our knowledge of a desk, by which we distinguish it from other furniture, is predominantly functional (i.e., what it is used for.) Thus, the distinctions between impaired and preserved knowledge in the cases reviewed earlier may not be "living/nonliving" distinctions per se, but "sensory/functional" distinctions. The modality-specific hypothesis seems preferable to a strict semantic hypothesis for two reasons. First, it is more consistent with what is already known about brain organization. It is well known that different brain areas are dedicated to representing information from specific sensory and motor channels. Functional knowledge could conceivably be tied to the motor system. (Farah 1994)
Vision and action words
Words may be encoded in areas of the brain that correspond to their meaning, say scientists in Germany. Neuroscientists have suggested half a dozen possible sites in the brain where semantic processing occurs. But Friedemann Pulverm�ller and his colleagues at the University of Konstanz thought there may be more than one region. Words referring to movement could be coded in the motor cortex, while hearing-related words may be coded in the auditory cortex. They recruited nine volunteers whose right motor cortex had been damaged by a stroke, leaving their left arm paralysed. The patients were asked to quickly decide whether certain words were real or not. Some words, such as "write", were associated with movement, while others, such as "tiger", provoked images. None of the volunteers had obvious language disorders. But with action words, they made more mistakes than people with normal brains. On visual words they did as well as healthy people. Pulverm�ller thinks the difficulties occur because action words are stored in the motor cortex. He believes other brain regions that deal with different stimuli--from hearing to emotions--may also deal with relevant words. "All cortical areas can be relevant," he says. He believes this is not surprising since we learn words by association. For instance, we often remember words after seeing, hearing or doing what the words describe. (New Scientist 1998)
Based on the studies summarized, it appears likely that motor, premotor and/or prefrontal cortices and possibly additional areas in middle temporal gyrus contribute to the processing of action words, whereas inferior temporal and/or occipital areas close to the primary visual cortex can be involved in processing vision words. The observed physiological double dissociations provide additional support for the idea that semantic characteristics of words determine the loci of their cortical processing. (Pulvermuller 1999)
Content words are used to refer to odors, tastes, somatic sensations, sounds, visual perceptions, and motor activities. During language learning, word forms are frequently produced when stimuli the words refer to are perceived or actions they refer to are carried out by the infant. If the cortex is an associative memory, the modalities and processing channels through which meaning-related information is being transmitted must be important for formation of cortical assemblies. This has inspired recent models of word processing in the brain postulating distinct cortical representations for word classes that can be distinguished based on semantic criteria. If the modality through which meaning-related information is transmitted determines the cortical distribution of cell assemblies, a fundamental distinction between action and perception words can be made. Action words would refer to movements of the own body and would, thus, be frequently used when such actions are being performed. In this case, a perisylvian assembly representing the word form would become linked to neurons in motor, premotor and prefrontal cortices related to motor programs. Perception words whose meaning can best be explained using prototypical stimuli would consist of a perisylvian assembly plus neurons in posterior cortex. In many cases, visual stimuli are involved and the respective word category may therefore be labelled vision words. The argument made above for action and vision words can be extended to words referring to stimuli perceived through other modalities. For those, additional word categories - odor, taste, pain, touch, and sound words - can be postulated. Members of these word classes should be represented in assemblies with specific cortical topographies. Neuroimaging studies were used to evaluate the hypothesis that words are cortically represented in distributed cell assemblies with defined topographies that vary with semantic word properties. Electrophysiological and metabolic imaging studies provide evidence that not only the language cortices in the left hemispheres, but additional cortical areas outside the left perisylvian areas play a role in word processing. Comparison of ERP responses to content and function words indicate that both hemispheres are strongly involved in processing concrete content words, whereas predominantly left-lateralized activity in or close to perisylvian regions appear to be related to processing of highly abstract function words. PET, fMRI and ERP studies revealed that cortical areas devoted to motor programming or visual perception are activated when words with strong motor or visual associations are being processed.(Pulvermuller 1999)
Thus grammatical classes arise which have a probabilistic relation to semantic classes rather than an exact correlation. Of course this example is an oversimplification of the actual processes involved; in particular it might be asked: where has the class labelled verb come from? The answer is that it arises by a similar process from the semantic class of action words. If the where-in-the-brain question can be answered in the case of content, function, action and vision words, the Hebbian approach also provides a tentative answer to the question of why these different localizations develop and why they involve the cortical lobes and gyri they probably do. Perception words whose meaning can best be explained using prototypical stimuli would consist of a perisylvian assembly plus neurons in posterior cortex. In many cases, visual stimuli are involved and the respective word category may therefore be labelled vision words. Assemblies representing words of this category would be distributed over perisylvian and visual cortices in parietal, temporal and/or occipital lobes.
Examples of words whose meaning is related to the visual modality are concrete nouns with well-imaginable referents, such as animal names. The best examples of action words are in the category of action verbs. While verbs referring to body movements are likely to be action words, and many concrete nouns (such as animal names) are almost certainly vision words, other word groups - for example nouns referring to tools - probably lead to both visual and motor associations. When evaluating the present ideas about word class-differences related to word meaning in neuroscientific experiments, it is, therefore, most important to quantitatively assess semantic associations elicited by word stimuli. The only way to do this is by asking study participants. Based on the studies summarized, it appears likely that motor, premotor and/or prefrontal cortices and possibly additional areas in middle temporal gyrus contribute to the processing of action words, whereas inferior temporal and/or occipital areas close to the primary visual cortex can be involved in processing vision words. The observed physiological double dissociations provide additional support for the idea that semantic characteristics of words determine the loci of their cortical processing. It is not yet clear, however, to which degree primary, secondary and higher-order association cortices, respectively, participate in word processing. The results (ERPs and PET) summarized here would suggest that both lower- and higher-order sensory and motor cortices, as well as multimodal association areas can play a role. A further open question concerns the contribution of the right hemisphere to word class-specific processes. Most ERP and fMRI investigations advocate such right-hemispheric contributions whereas most PET studies available at present do not.(Pulvermuller 1999)
In earlier studies, distinct neural systems were found to be required for the retrieval of words denoting actions versus those denoting objects. (Damasio & Tranel 1993). A double dissociation was found where some patients with lesions in one area of the brain could not access action words but had no problem with objects, and other patients with lesions in non-overlapping areas showed the reverse problem. Such converging evidence argue in support of a lexicon in which words are organized or connected according to semantic categories, but not necessarily limited to such an organization, since we have other evidence for phonologically connected words, and for syntactic categories, as well as for a separation, as shown above, of lexical and grammatical categories.(Fromkin 1997)
[A comment on the Internet] "But isn't it interesting that a person can lose the ability to name round fruits (apples, oranges, plums) when shown them (though he can call them "fruit"), but has no trouble with bananas? And, that the same individual has problems with many other categories of nouns (can't name any birds, members of the cat family, or of the horse family--nor raccoons; can name elephants and giraffes)"
3. Syntax in the brain
From Bates 1994:
More recent studies of language breakdown in aphasia have forced investigators to abandon the idea of a "grammar box", i.e. neural tissue that is devoted exclusively to grammar, and contains the representations that are necessary for grammatical processing. There are (1) numerous studies showing that so-called agrammatic aphasics can make remarkably fine-grained judgments of grammaticality and (2) a host of cross-linguistic studies showing differences in the symptoms displayed by agrammatic patients in different language communities -- differences that can only be explained if we acknowledge that the patient still retains detailed knowledge of his/her grammar. It begins to look as though linguistic knowledge is broadly represented in the adult brain -- a conclusion that is also supported by studies of brain activity during normal language use. So what is localized? The classic sensorimotor view of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia has fallen by the wayside, and now the grammar/semantics view has fallen as well. But their successor is still unnamed. Some investigators have argued that left frontal regions are specialized for the rapid processes required for fluent use of grammar, while posterior regions play a more important role in controlled, strategic choice of words and sentence frames. These ideas are still distressingly vague. In contrast with the best-known examples of innate and domain-specific brain systems, the systems that support languages also show an extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented degree of neural plasticity. Research on the long-term effects of early focal brain injury suggests that children with large lesions to the classic language zones go on, more often than not, to attain levels of language ability that are indistinguishable from normal. Although it is difficult to compare apples and oranges, it looks as though there may be more plasticity for language than we observe in other perceptual and cognitive systems. Arbitrariness of form-meaning mapping. . A defining characteristic of language (indeed, one of its few universals) is the arbitrariness of the relationship between sound and meaning. ). The words "dog", "chien", "perro", "cane", "Hund", etc. do not in any way resemble the fuzzy four-legged creatures that they signify. The same is true for the relationship between grammatical forms and the communicative work that those forms carry out. For example, depending on the language that one speaks, basic information about "who did what to whom" can be signalled through word order (as it is in English), case inflections on nouns (e.g. Latin, Russian, Hungarian), agreement marking between subject and verb (a major source of information in Italian, but only a minor source in English), and a range of other cues. (Bates 1994)
From Grodzinsky 2000:
A new view of the functional role of left anterior cortex in language use is proposed. The experimental record indicates that most human linguistic abilities are not localized in this region. In particular, most of syntax (long thought to be there) is not located in Broca's area and its vicinity. Linguistic theory evolves, at times even rapidly, and terms tend to change with theoretical perspective. Certain generalizations remain stable, however, because they deal with basic syntactic phenomena. The relationship between traces and their antecedents in movement operations plays a central role in a large class of theories. In the main, then, the presentation here is compatible with most current theoretical frameworks, including the Minimalist Program. The current neuroimaging literature makes only tenuous connections to the lesion-based body of knowledge, and focuses, for the most part, on semantic and phonological aspects of the mental lexicon. Fewer works concentrate on the most salient aspect of language - its combinatory nature. Lesions to Broca's area and its vicinity do not affect semantic abilities, nor do they disrupt basic syntactic abilities. Most notably, Broca's aphasics combine lexical meaning into propositions, create and analyze sentences of considerably complex structure, and are also able to synthesize and analyze words morphophonologically. It thus follows that most human linguistic abilities, including most syntax, are not localized in the anterior language areas - Broca's area and deeper white matter, operculum, and anterior insula.
From Deacon 1997:
Neither grammar, nor syntax, nor articulate sound production, nor a huge vocabulary have kept other species from evolving languages. Just the simple problem of figuring out how combinations of words refer to things. The structure of syntax often only vaguely conceals its pragmatic roots in pointing gestures. The theory of deep structures paints itself into an evolutionary corner ... Chomsky's abandonment of Darwinian explanations for innate language knowledge is at least consistent. But what is left? Only certain structural features of language could have become internalised as part of a 'language instinct', and these turn out not to be those that are most often cited as the core of a Universal Grammar. Language areas [Broca Wernicke] are simply not the repositories of linguistic skill and knowledge that they were once thought to be. ... do not support any simple localisation of language functions.
From Fromkin 1997:
A more telling case can be made if there are individuals who have acquired the highly complex system which we call grammar, without parallel abilities of equal complexity. There are now a number of such studies of children who have few cognitive skills and virtually no ability to utilize language in sustained meaningful communication and yet have extensive mastery of linguistic structure. Yamada (1990) reports on one severely retarded young woman, named Laura with a nonverbal IQ of 41-44, lacking almost all number concepts including basic counting principles, drawing at a preschool level, and processing an auditory memory span limited to three units, who at the age of 16 produced syntactically complex sentences like 'She does paintings, this really good friend of the kids who I went to school with last year and really loved.' Although Laura produces sentences with multiple embeddings, can conjoin verb phrases, produce passives, inflect verbs for number and person to agree with the grammatical subject, and forms past tenses when the time adverbial structurally refers to a previous time, she can not add 2 + 2, read nor write nor tell time. She does not know who the president of the US is or what country she lives in and does not know her own age. Her drawing of humans resemble potatoes with stick arms and legs. Yet, in a sentence imitation task she both detected and corrected surface syntactic and morphological errors, but is unable to tie her shoes. One of their cases, Anthony, at the age of 5 yrs 2 months is reported to have had a Leiter IQ of 50 and a mental age of 2 years 9 months. His non-linguistic cognitive tests scored below all the norms/and or below the 2-year old level, contrasting sharply with his high scores on language tests and his spontaneous speech in which he used 61 of the 68 different elements and structures analyzed, including infinitival and sentential complements, relative clauses and other subordinate clauses. They conclude: "His ability to use a wide range of syntactic devices...to encode his limited and confused thoughts, illustrates the discrepancy between Anthony's grammatical knowledge and his conceptual/cognitive knowledge." [Another subject]She has been unable to learn to read and write in her late teenage years and cannot add or handle money, yet D.H. performs almost without error on grammaticality judgments. A similar and perhaps even more dramatic case is reported on by Smith and Tsimpli (1995) of Christopher, a 34 year old man, who is institutionalized because he is unable to take care of himself. As Smith and Tsimpli report, he finds the tasks of buttoning a shirt, cutting his finger-nails or vacuuming the carpet too difficult. Yet when given written texts in some 15 or 16 languages he translates them immediately into English. The languages include Germanic languages like Danish, Dutch, and German, Romance languages like French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, as well as Polish, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Turkish, and Welsh.
In 1980, John Marshall stated: "Biologists...have accumulated a vast body of knowledge concerning the gross anatomy of those parts of the central and peripheral nervous system which seem to be implicated in the acquisition and exercise of linguistic abilities. Some knowledge is even available about the slightly less gross physiology of the relevant brain areas....Psycholinguists...have amassed alarming amounts of data of the progression from the birth cry to the multiply embedded relative clause. The problem is...found in the simple fact that no one .. has the slightest idea how to relate these two domains of inquiry to each other....We have so far failed ... to construct ... models ...that could mediate between noun phrases and neurons." We have come a long way in the sixteen years since this statement appeared in print. We still are unable to connect the noun phrase to a neuron, but we have already some idea of the neural architecture underlying different lexical categories and the neural modules underying different cognitive systems.
From Levelt 1999:
Clearly driven by a genetic endowment, children restructure their system of lexical concepts by a process of syntactization. Lexical concepts acquire syntactic category and subcategorization features, verbs acquire specifications of how their semantic arguments (such as agent or recipient) are to be mapped onto syntactic relations (such as subject or object), nouns may acquire properties for the regulation of syntactic agreement, such as gender, etc. More technically speaking, the child develops a system of lemmas[1], packages of syntactic information, one for each lexical concept. At the same time, the child quickly acquires a closed class vocabulary, a relatively small set of frequently used function words. These words mostly fulfill syntactic functions; they have elaborate lemmas but lean lexical concepts. This system of lemmas is largely up and running by the age of four. From then on, producing a word always involves the selection of the appropriate lemma.
From Pulvermuller 1990:
A word on syntax: For many language scientists, the question of how words are represented and processed in the brain is only a very basic one. Even substantial improvements in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying word processing may therefore be acclaimed only if the theoretical framework they are based on can offer perspectives on the solution of more complex problems known to be crucial for language. The question of how serial order is achieved in syntactic word strings has long been considered to aim at the heart of our language faculty, and, from a theoretical point of view, it appears important to make clear whether a neurobiological model of word processing can offer perspectives on the biological reality of grammar. Although it is not possible to discuss syntactic issues in more detail here, these remarks on center-embedding may suffice to show that neurobiological models of language are not necessarily restricted to the single word level. In fact, they can offer perspectives on the problem of serial order in behavior that meet linguists' claims that language mechanisms cannot be understood without considering brain mechanisms.


text:
Dear Young Parliamentarians
Text: Ncedisa Mpemnyama Artwork: Supplied Culture
Firstly, I must congratulate you all for making it into the 6th parliament. We were starting to think that parliament is a glorified retirement home.
Secondly, it would be remiss of me to not speak of the mammoth task ahead of you all. One thing I want to address before anything is the issue of what is referred to as the Sankara Oath. For those of you who are not familiar with Sankara, allow me to put a few lines on him. Thomas Sankara was the president of a country called Burkina Faso in this continent from 1983 to 1987. He is one of the shining lights in how parliamentary power and privilege can be used to change the socio-economic situation of the people on the ground.
generated a food surplus in a country with an economy smaller than ours, he got rid of backward customs that oppressed women and he kick-started a massive nationwide literacy campaign that resulted in increases in literacy rates. What eternally endeared him with the masses was his desire to see public servants leading a normal life like normal citizens. It is said that he went to work in a bicycle sometimes and worked hard to keep a corrupt free cabinet.
In this vein, my view is that things like the Ministerial Handbook must go. It is an affront to young black people at the receiving end of unemployment, racial inequality and economic exclusion. Can public servants like yourselves use public services to inspire change in the different sectors (health care, transport, housing etc.)? We must think of this in terms of African custom which says, if I make umqombothi for a ceremony and I intend to serve it to the masses, I must drink first to make sure it's good for everyone. In the same vein, why can't parliamentarians use public services in order for them to improve owing to their status as public servants? Is that impossible?
Now that we are done with issues of servant leadership, let's move to what the youth have been agitating for, for years.
In 2015, we dodged bullets, got injured and saw prison as part of the #FeesMustFall protests which were calling for free decolonised education. Some of us even went further to say we want free education from Early Childhood Development (ECD) to the first degree. After a sustained push from the student movement, Former President Jacob Zuma announced free education. To our surprise, when we arrived back on campuses the following year, we were still subjected to a stubborn layer of reactionary administration that blocked the policy deliberately and further the judiciary has now criminalised us. Today, Bonginkosi Khanyile serves three years under house arrest, Khaya Cekeshe serves an eight-year prison sentence, amongst others who are either still on trial, or have already received sentences and thus criminal records.
Can you, Fallists and young parliamentarians, assist to intensify the roll out of free education, decriminalization of those who fought for the noble struggle, and equally ensure no black child falls through the cracks?
Equally, the issues of land has nationwide consensus. Can it be expedited? No more commissions and long policy discussions on the feasibility of land return. Black people are land hungry and need the land pronto. No politicking is needed, just the roll out of land expropriation without compensation! Can this be prioritised?
The issue of youth unemployment is also another one which can't wait. We want you to put pressure on the president and his cabinet. It can't be correct that black youth in the best years of their lives are excluded from the economy and remain languishing in the townships getting high on nyaope, while their white counterparts live comfortably and are shielded and absorbed into the workforce. A living wage is needed. Young black men and women can't be called "grootman" or "sisteri" at home, but they struggle to even buy themselves roll-ons and sanitary products. That is degrading. The 6th parliament must mean an end to young black people being degraded and humiliated.
Moreover, with the likes of Penny Sparrow, Vicky Momberg as well as Adam Kantzavelos still roaming among us, can the issue of the criminalisation of racism be pushed with seriousness and ideological clarity.
The law on racism must not fall into what the black existentialist author, Lewis R Gordon, calls "equal opportunity racism", wherein every race has an equal opportunity to be racist. This way of looking at the problem when tied with legislation will summarily abuse the victims of racism – black people. The position must be that blacks can't be racist owing to an understanding that racism is a historically evolved social issue which is governed by power relations. In that case, blacks can't be racist because they don't possess (and have never possessed) the societal power to be racist to whites and each other.
The fight for youth representation in parliament was not to replicate the bureaucratic, stale soliloquy of the aged, but rather to see a fresh energetic layer of leadership who would cut through the bureaucracy which keeps us poor, undereducated and landless, and take the fight to the chambers of parliament so to see material gains for our people.
Below are five basic demands which must be met in 6 months, if we are to believe that you have not sold out the youth:
1) Embrace Sankara: You and your family must use public services, including healthcare and education. What's good for the people is good for the politician.
2) Land Now! No new motions until implementation of land expropriation without compensation. All stolen land in the hands of the white minority must be expropriated (not only state-owned land).
3) Release political prisoners: All political prisoners, including those arrested for the fight for free education must be released now!
4) Jobs for all graduates: Failing which government must pay equitable industry related wages until a graduate is placed in a quality job.
5) Free training for ALL unemployed: Train the unemployed for work and pay all a living wage. Nobody must be outcasts from society, skills to build the society and a wage to sustain the society must be provided.
Failing to implement the above within 6 months will force the mobilisation of the youth to come to parliament and demand answers from you! Most importantly, we won't go to ministers, you must account because we the youth have sent you to the 6th parliament.
*Ncedisa Mpemnyama is BLF Secretary for Political Education, Policy and Research. Member of Black Peoples National Crisis Committee.
Ncedisa Mpemnyama
The Oxymoron Of Being A Black Academic
Ama-Piece – Piece – Nyana

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Passing in a new value to each key using Python's `dict.fromkeys` How can I get around this limitation:
>>> test_dict = dict.fromkeys(['k1', 'k2'], dict())
>>> test_dict['k1']['sub-k1'] = 'apples'
>>> test_dict
{'k2': {'sub-k1': 'apples'}, 'k1': {'sub-k1': 'apples'}}

I want each of the keys k1 and k2 to have a new dictionary instance, not the same one.

A: Then don't give them the same instance of the object.
test_dict = dict((x, dict()) for x in ['k1', 'k2'])

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


On April 14, 2008, ROWENA SMITH. Friends may call at the family-owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST INC., 4300 Wabash Avenue, on Friday after 8:30 AM. The family will receive friends on Saturday at the New Mt. Hebron Baptist Church, 2016 W. North Avenue at 10:30 AM followed by funeral services at 11AM.


text:
Un balcon (de l'italien balcone, lui-même peut-être issu du persan بالكانه , signifiant « pièce en hauteur ») est un élément d'architecture consistant en une plate-forme se dégageant du mur d'un édifice. Il est dans la plupart des cas à l'extérieur de l'édifice. Il peut cependant être à l'intérieur, dans une grande pièce (une salle de spectacle ou une galerie), ou encore se situer dans une cour fermée et peut ne pas communiquer directement avec une pièce.

Constitution

La plate-forme en construction ancienne se compose de dalles de pierres taillées posées sur les voussoirs d'une voûte, ou bien en entablement sur une corniche (avec des corbeaux), un cul-de-lampe, ou bien sur des poutres en bois ou des profils en fer (en ajout ultérieur à la construction initiale possible) sortant en porte-à-faux du mur en continuation de la structure reprise du plancher, elle se compose de dalles ou carreaux céramiques sur un appareillage de briques formant des voûtains.

En construction moderne en béton armé, la plate-forme est faite en encorbellement, son armature se situe dans sa partie face supérieure et se prolonge en accroche par tirants sur la dalle intérieure qu'elle continue (dalle dont la propre armature se situe, elle, dans sa partie face inférieure, côté sous-face).

La plate-forme peut reposer sur des colonnes, des piliers, des consoles, des atlantes ou bien être suspendue par des tirants à la charpente du toit. Elle est enclose de balustrades de pierres, d'une rambarde en serrurerie de métal, d'un garde-corps en verre acrylique ou d'une lisse basse en béton.

Typologie

Balcon filant
Si le balcon unit les baies de plusieurs travées de deux façades, à étage intermédiaire, en corniche classique munie d'un garde-corps en serrurerie, ou en fonte moulée formant un bandeau de façade transparent, les architectes parlent d'un « balcon filant », qui se distingue du « balcon semi-filant » (unissant les baies de plusieurs travées d'une seule façade) et du « balcon isolé » ou « balcon individuel » (pour chaque baie d'une seule travée). Les appartements y sont séparés par des herses ou garde-cocus. En architecture moderne, le balcon filant peut être plus profond avec marques de séparation d'appartement par des cloisons de verre acrylique ; certaines plates-formes peuvent être soutenues par les refends porteurs ou des consoles en prolongation de ceux-ci.

Loggia

Le balcon peut également ne pas saillir hors du bâtiment mais être un espace ouvert sur l'extérieur à l'étage : on ne compte dans ce cas qu'un seul garde-corps à l'avant, avec des murs sur les côtés et un couvert au-dessus : dans ce cas, on parle alors plutôt de loggia (loge).

Oriel

Lorsqu'il s'agit d'un espace appartenant sans cloisonnement à une pièce et qui est clos de fenêtres en saillie de façade, on parle d'oriel (ou bow-window), ce qui n'est pas à proprement parler un balcon, même s'il est en encorbellement.

Balcon sur trompe

Typique de l'architecture rocaille du , le balcon peut reposer sur une voûte tronquée appelée trompe.

Balconnet
Balcon à très petite plateforme, ou garde-corps surmontant une allège basse.

Mezzanine

Lorsqu'il s'agit d'un espace à mi-étage d'une pièce de grande hauteur, il s'agit d'une mezzanine.

Balcon d'opéra
Le balcon d'opéra est une galerie surplombant le parterre, et qui s'étend sur les côtés, jusqu'à l'avant-scène. Le dernier balcon, situé le plus haut, est surnommé "poulailler" ou "paradis".

Usages spécifiques
Les balcons sont parfois utilisés à des fins cérémonielles, comme celui de la cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Rome, d'où le pape nouvellement élu prononce la bénédiction Urbi et orbi.

Dans l'habitat moderne résidentiel, le balcon est souvent confondu avec la loggia et la terrasse. Ces éléments de l'architecture ont été très utilisés par Le Corbusier, avec un double but : celui de minimiser le rayonnement solaire estival et celui de profiter de l'extérieur (il utilisait les toits plats en terrasses solarium). De plus en plus, le balcon est utilisé pour le jardinage et permet d'avoir un jardin dans les zones urbaines.

Risques et accidents
Effondrement
Il arrive que des balcons s'effondrent, blessant ou tuant les personnes supportées.

Par ordre de fréquence en France, les accidents concernent des balcons en béton armé ; puis en pierre et enfin en bois. Les causes les plus fréquentes sont les infiltrations et défaut d'étanchéité, le défaut de solidité, une dégradation du revêtement de sol et/ou des bords…

Dans ce pays où il n'existe pas encore de guide de règles professionnelles de construction ou de restauration de balcons, en 2018-2019, en lien avec la DHUP, le service Observatoire et évaluation des risques de l'Agence qualité construction (AQC) a été chargé de préparer un rapport sur les risques liés aux balcons. Sur la base de l'étude de sinistres, d'audition d'experts (judiciaires et professionnels), ce travail vise à proposer un état des lieux et des pistes d'amélioration pour le secteur de la construction. Un autre rapport, plus axé sur des recommandations, pourrait éventuellement suivre (exemple : contrôle périodique des balcons).

Chute d'un balcon
Une pratique à risque récente consiste à sauter depuis un balcon dans une piscine ou de chuter en passant  d'un balcon à autre.

Références littéraires
Charles Baudelaire écrivit un poème ayant pour titre Le Balcon et connu grâce au chiasme :

Notes et références

Annexes

Article connexe
 Glossaire de l'architecture
 Garde-cocu

Élément d'architecture en saillie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The two-horse race to 10 Downing Street has unexpectedly resulted in a hung parliament. What do the Conservatives have in store for UK consumers?
Neither the Conservatives nor Labour were able to secure a majority victory in last night's General Election, meaning UK voters are now in the midst of uncertainty given the hung parliament outcome.
The Conservatives have secured 318 seats compared with Labour's 261 (one seat is left to be counted) and Theresa May has now said her party "will continue to work with friends and allies" in the form of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which secured 10 seats.
While a hung parliament leaves no party with a mandate to deliver their agendas, below we outline the Conservative manifesto pledges 'for a stronger Britain and a prosperous future' which sealed its fate with a 42% share of the vote, and what could happen to the pre-election promises.
Since 2010, the state pension has risen annually by whichever is highest out of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5%. The triple lock guarantee applies to the old state pension (currently £122.30 a week) and the new flat rate state pension (currently £159.55 a week).
The Tories then plan to introduce a new double lock where pensions will rise in line with the earnings that pay for them, or in line with inflation – whichever is highest.
Tom McPhail, head of policy at Hargreaves Lansdown, says the Triple Lock is undoubtedly here to stay until 2020 and possibly for longer now as the Conservatives were alone in campaigning for its abolition after 2020.
About 7.5 million people have started contributing to a workplace pension under the success of auto-enrolment. However, a major criticism is that it didn't extend to self-employed workers.
The Tory's social care plans received much backlash from the electorate. Under the current system care costs deplete an individual's assets, including in some cases the family home, down to £23,250 or even less.
May announced the value of the family home will be taken into account along with other assets and income, whether care is provided at home, or in a residential or nursing care home.
In order to ensure this is "fair", a £100,000 'single capital floor' would be introduced so that people will always retain at least £100,000 of their savings and assets, including value in the family home.
Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, says the social care funding turned out to be one of thorniest issues of the election campaign with opposing views on how to solve this growing crisis of an ageing society.
"While politicians might now be keen to avoid this emotive and for many unpalatable topic, it would be politically irresponsible to kick it into the long grass. A long term, sustainable 'deal' between individuals and the state is needed to give people certainty and ideally would be set by cross-party agreement. Importantly, capping the maximum an individual will ever pay is essential to allow people to plan ahead while also protecting their inheritance aspirations," he says.
Winter Fuel Payments help older people pay for their energy and it's paid regardless of need, meaning even wealthier pensioners receive the money.
The Tories said if they get elected they will means test Winter Fuel Payments, "focusing assistance on the least well-off pensioners, who are most at risk of fuel poverty".
The DUP committed to maintaining Winter Fuel Payments, at odds with the Tory promise of means-testing the benefit.
The Tories reiterated their commitment to raise the personal allowance – the amount of income you can earn before you start paying income tax – to £12,500 and the higher rate will climb from £45,000 to £50,000 by 2020.
Corporation Tax is due to fall to 17% by 2020 and May confirmed the party will stick to that plan, because "it will help to bring huge investment and many thousands of jobs to the UK".
Those aged 25+ receive a minimum of £7.50 an hour. A new Conservative government promised to continue to increase the National Living Wage to 60% of median earnings by 2020 and then by the rate of median earnings, "so that people who are on the lowest pay benefit from the same improvements in earnings as higher paid workers".
May said millions of people are enjoying the flexibilities of working in the sharing or gig economy, but these workers face challenges such as fewer pension entitlements, reduced access to benefits, and no qualification for sick pay and holiday pay. The government is awaiting a report reviewing the changing labour market, but in its manifesto, the Conservatives said it "will act to ensure that the interests of employees on traditional contracts, the self-employed and those people working in the 'gig' economy are all properly protected".
If re-elected the Tories will adopt a "Breathing Space" scheme, with the right safeguards to prevent abuse, so that someone in serious debt problems may apply for legal protection from further interest, charges and enforcement action for a period of up to six weeks. Where appropriate, they will be offered a statutory repayment plan to help them pay back their debts in a manageable way. This will give eligible debtors time to seek advice and help to apply for a sustainable solution to their debt problem.
During the pre-election period, May said the Tories "will pay immediate attention to the retail energy market" and as such it will ensure that smart meters will be offered to every household and business by the end of 2020, as well as introduce a "safeguard tariff cap" which will protect customers who do not switch against abusive price increases.
May said the party will meet its 2015 commitment to deliver a million homes by the end of 2020 and aims to deliver half a million more by the end of 2022. The Tories will also free up more land for new homes and it wants to build new fixed-term social houses, which will be sold privately after 10 to 15 years with an automatic Right to Buy for tenants, the proceeds of which will be recycled into further homes.
Will not impose an increase in income tax for those earning below £80,000.
Earnings above £80,000 will be taxed at 45% and earnings above £123,000 will be taxed at 50%.
Guarantee that personal National Insurance Contributions and VAT will not go up.
Keep the Help to Buy shared ownership scheme in place until 2027.
Boost the living wage to £10 an hour by 2020.
Stop all planned state pension age rises beyond age 66 and retain the triple-lock.
Introduce a care cost cap, increase the asset threshold below which people are entitled to state support, and provide free end of life care.


Your data is one of the most important assets at your business' disposal. It's really indispensable. Not only are large amounts of it the result of successful operations, it also can help your organization better understand the intricacies of its own operations, and where you want it to go in the future. Does your business have a process for collecting, storing, and sorting vital data so that your organization can figure out where to go next?
At CompuTech City our technicians come to work every day to help organizations like yours make full use of your technology. Moreover, we are just starting to realize the potential of data ourselves. By having our certified technicians build a dedicated data warehouse, you are creating a construct that embraces the future of data analytics. This analysis may just be the key that allows your staff to strategically plan the next initiative that will take your business to the next level. Here are some of the types of data a comprehensive data warehouse will hold.
Your business depends on the patronage of many clients--people who buy your product or service on a varying basis. However, all of your clients will have information that you want to keep on-hand in the event that you lose it. This includes contact information (like email addresses and mailing addresses) as well as phone numbers and otherwise. You should also include any information about services that you've rendered for them so that you're not caught unaware should you lose records of what type of relationship you have.
Similarly, your organization also depends on contact with vendors who provide the resources required in order for your business to succeed. This could be in the form of software solutions provided by a developer, or hardware issued by a distributor. Utilities, like your Internet, electricity, HVAC, etc. are equally as important, as they make your office an environment suited for work. In the event the information about your vendors is compromised or lost in any way, you will want to be ready to recover it so that your business relationships can continue to function properly.
While storing data and backing up any data related to your vendors and clients can help your business recover in the event of a disaster, you also want to use this information to learn more about your consumer base and create a profitable future for your organization. Doing this is called analytics. Leveraging analytics is a great way to take seemingly arbitrary numbers and find trends that mean something for your business. There are applications that can help your organization find new markets, target the best client base, and identify inefficiencies that compromise your organization's ability to turn a profit.
If your business truly wants to take advantage of data during the new year, now is the time to take the initiative and invest in data warehousing and corresponding analysis. To learn more about these solutions, reach out to CompuTech City at 407 - 745 - 1848.


text:
Q: How to reduce delay in directing user to home Activity if he is connected? I am using Firebase for my Android Studio project.
In order to direct user from MainActivity which is the login activity to home Activity, I check if there is a current user, and in this case I make an intent to home Activity. The problem is, this takes a few seconds during which MainActivity is on screen, I know it takes time to connect to Firebase and check, but I don't notice this problem in other apps, so I was wondering if there is a way to avoid this time delay or there is some kind of trick.
this is the code I use :
FirebaseUser user = FirebaseAuth.getInstance().getCurrentUser();

    if (user != null){
        startActivity(new Intent(MainActivity.this, AdminHome.class));
      }

A: I would recommend implementing this code in your AdminHome activity instead of your MainActivity. In AdminHome activity, check if the current user is null. If it is, redirect the user to the MainActivity.
Also as another user suggested, I would recommend renaming your MainActivity to SignInActivity and AdminHome to MainActivity


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An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough. Such works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field. An inventor may be taking a big step toward success or failure.
"Invented" redirects here. For other uses, see Invention (disambiguation).
Further information on inventions throughout history: Timeline of historic inventions
Some inventions can be patented. A patent legally protects the intellectual property rights of the inventor and legally recognizes that a claimed invention is actually an invention. The rules and requirements for patenting an invention vary by country and the process of obtaining a patent is often expensive.
Another meaning of invention is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviours adopted by people and passed on to others.[1] The Institute for Social Inventions collected many such ideas in magazines and books.[2] Invention is also an important component of artistic and design creativity. Inventions often extend the boundaries of human knowledge, experience or capability.
Three areas of invention
Inventions are of three kinds: scientific-technological (including medicine), sociopolitical (including economics and law), and humanistic, or cultural.
Scientific-technological inventions include railroads, aviation, vaccination, hybridization, antibiotics, astronautics, holography, the atomic bomb, computing, the Internet, and the smartphone.
Sociopolitical inventions comprise new laws, institutions, and procedures that change modes of social behavior and establish new forms of human interaction and organization. Examples include the British Parliament, the US Constitution, the Manchester (UK) General Union of Trades, the Boy Scouts, the Red Cross, the Olympic Games, the United Nations, the European Union, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as movements such as socialism, Zionism, suffragism, feminism, and animal-rights veganism.
Humanistic inventions encompass culture in its entirety and are as transformative and important as any in the sciences, although people tend to take them for granted. In the domain of linguistics, for example, many alphabets have been inventions, as are all neologisms (Shakespeare invented about 1,700 words). Literary inventions include the epic, tragedy, comedy, the novel, the sonnet, the Renaissance, neoclassicism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Aestheticism, Socialist Realism, Surrealism, postmodernism, and (according to Freud) psychoanalysis. Among the inventions of artists and musicians are oil painting, printmaking, photography, cinema, musical tonality, atonality, jazz, rock, opera, and the symphony orchestra. Philosophers have invented logic (several times), dialectics, idealism, materialism, utopia, anarchism, semiotics, phenomenology, behaviorism, positivism, pragmatism, and deconstruction. Religious thinkers are responsible for such inventions as monotheism, pantheism, Methodism, Mormonism, iconoclasm, puritanism, deism, secularism, ecumenism, and Baha'i. Some of these disciplines, genres, and trends may seem to have existed eternally or to have emerged spontaneously of their own accord, but most of them have had inventors. [3]
Process of invention
Practical means of invention
Ideas for an invention may be developed on paper or on a computer, by writing or drawing, by trial and error, by making models, by experimenting, by testing and/or by making the invention in its whole form. Brainstorming also can spark new ideas for an invention. Collaborative creative processes are frequently used by engineers, designers, architects and scientists. Co-inventors are frequently named on patents.
In addition, many inventors keep records of their working process - notebooks, photos, etc., including Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.[4][5][6][7]
In the process of developing an invention, the initial idea may change. The invention may become simpler, more practical, it may expand, or it may even morph into something totally different. Working on one invention can lead to others too.[8]
History shows that turning the concept of an invention into a working device is not always swift or direct. Inventions may also become more useful after time passes and other changes occur. For example, the parachute became more useful once powered flight was a reality.[9]
Conceptual means
Invention is often a creative process. An open and curious mind allows an inventor to see beyond what is known. Seeing a new possibility, connection or relationship can spark an invention. Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be put together. Sometimes inventors disregard the boundaries between distinctly separate territories or fields. Several concepts may be considered when thinking about invention.
Play may lead to invention. Childhood curiosity, experimentation, and imagination can develop one's play instinct. Inventors feel the need to play with things that interest them, and to explore, and this internal drive brings about novel creations.[10][11]
Sometimes inventions and ideas may seem to arise spontaneously while daydreaming, especially when the mind is free from its usual concerns.[12] For example, both J. K. Rowling (the creator of Harry Potter)[13] and Frank Hornby (the inventor of Meccano)[14] first had their ideas while on train journeys.
In contrast, the successful aerospace engineer Max Munk advocated "aimful thinking".[15]
Re-envision
To invent is to see anew. Inventors often envision a new idea, seeing it in their mind's eye. New ideas can arise when the conscious mind turns away from the subject or problem when the inventor's focus is on something else, or while relaxing or sleeping. A novel idea may come in a flash—a Eureka! moment. For example, after years of working to figure out the general theory of relativity, the solution came to Einstein suddenly in a dream "like a giant die making an indelible impress, a huge map of the universe outlined itself in one clear vision".[16] Inventions can also be accidental, such as in the case of polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).
Insight can also be a vital element of invention. Such inventive insight may begin with questions, doubt or a hunch. It may begin by recognizing that something unusual or accidental may be useful or that it could open a new avenue for exploration. For example, the odd metallic color of plastic made by accidentally adding a thousand times too much catalyst led scientists to explore its metal-like properties, inventing electrically conductive plastic and light emitting plastic-—an invention that won the Nobel Prize in 2000 and has led to innovative lighting, display screens, wallpaper and much more (see conductive polymer, and organic light-emitting diode or OLED).[17]
Invention is often an exploratory process with an uncertain or unknown outcome. There are failures as well as successes. Inspiration can start the process, but no matter how complete the initial idea, inventions typically must be developed.
Inventors may, for example, try to improve something by making it more effective, healthier, faster, more efficient, easier to use, serve more purposes, longer lasting, cheaper, more ecologically friendly, or aesthetically different, lighter weight, more ergonomic, structurally different, with new light or color properties, etc.
Implementing Inventions
In economic theory, inventions are one of the chief examples of "positive externalities", a beneficial side effect that falls on those outside a transaction or activity. One of the central concepts of economics is that externalities should be internalized—unless some of the benefits of this positive externality can be captured by the parties, the parties are under-rewarded for their inventions, and systematic under-rewarding leads to under-investment in activities that lead to inventions. The patent system captures those positive externalities for the inventor or other patent owner so that the economy as a whole invests an optimum amount of resources in the invention process.
Invention vs. innovation
Main article: Innovation
In the social sciences, an innovation is something that is new and better, and has been adopted and proven to create positive value. This is a key distinction from an invention which may not create positive value but furthers progress in a given area of development. The theory for adoption of an innovation, called diffusion of innovations, considers the likelihood that an innovation is adopted and the taxonomy of persons likely to adopt it or spur its adoption. This theory was first put forth by Everett Rogers.[18][19] Gabriel Tarde also dealt with the adoption of innovations in his Laws of Imitation.[20]
Purposes of invention
An invention can serve many purposes, and does not necessarily create positive value. These purposes might differ significantly and may change over time. An invention or its development may serve purposes never envisioned by its inventors. Plastic is a good example.[10][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
Invention as defined by patent law
See also: Patentability
The term invention is also an important legal concept and central to patent law systems worldwide. As is often the case for legal concepts, its legal meaning is slightly different from common usage of the word. Additionally, the legal concept of invention is quite different in American and European patent law.
In Europe, the first test a patent application must pass is, "Is this an invention?" If it is, subsequent questions are whether it is new and sufficiently inventive. The implication—counter-intuitively—is that a legal invention is not inherently novel. Whether a patent application relates to an invention is governed by Article 52 of the European Patent Convention, that excludes, e.g., discoveries as such and software as such. The EPO Boards of Appeal decided that the technical character of an application is decisive for it to represent an invention, following an age-old Italian and German tradition. British courts don't agree with this interpretation. Following a 1959 Australian decision ("NRDC"), they believe that it is not possible to grasp the invention concept in a single rule. A British court once stated that the technical character test implies a "restatement of the problem in more imprecise terminology."
In the United States, all patent applications are considered inventions. The statute explicitly says that the American invention concept includes discoveries (35 USC § 100(a)), contrary to the European invention concept. The European invention concept corresponds to the American "patentable subject matter" concept: the first test a patent application is submitted to. While the statute (35 USC § 101)[32] virtually poses no limits to patenting whatsoever, courts have decided in binding precedents that abstract ideas, natural phenomena and laws of nature are not patentable. Various attempts have been made to substantiate the "abstract idea" test, which suffers from abstractness itself, but none have succeeded. The last attempt so far was the "machine or transformation" test, but the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2010 that it is merely an indication at best.
In India, invention means a new product or process that involves an inventive step, and capable of being made or used in an industry. Whereas, "new invention" means any invention that has not been anticipated in any prior art or used in the country or any where in the world.[33]
Invention in the arts
Invention has a long and important history in the arts. Inventive thinking has always played a vital role in the creative process.[34] While some inventions in the arts are patentable, others are not because they cannot fulfill the strict requirements governments have established for granting them. (see patent).
Some inventions in art include the:
Collage and construction invented by Picasso
Readymade invented by Marcel Duchamp
mobile invented by Alexander Calder
Combine invented by Robert Rauschenberg
Shaped painting invented by Frank Stella
Motion picture, the invention of which is attributed to Eadweard Muybridge[35][36]
Likewise, Jackson Pollock invented an entirely new form of painting and a new kind of abstraction by dripping, pouring, splashing and splattering paint onto un-stretched canvas lying on the floor.
Inventive tools of the artist's trade also produced advances in creativity. Impressionist painting became possible because of newly invented collapsible, resealable metal paint tubes that facilitated spontaneous painting outdoors. Inventions originally created in the form of artwork can also develop other uses, e.g. Alexander Calder's mobile, which is now commonly used over babies' cribs. Funds generated from patents on inventions in art, design and architecture can support the realization of the invention or other creative work. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's 1879 design patent on the Statue of Liberty helped fund the famous statue because it covered small replicas, including those sold as souvenirs.[37]
The Timeline for invention in the arts lists the most notable artistic inventors
Bayh-Dole Act
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Necessity (Invention's mother)
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Proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions - it was rejected
Scientific priority
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The Illustrated Science and Invention Encyclopedia
Timeline of historic inventions
Science and invention in Birmingham - The first cotton spinning mill to plastics and steam power.
Artificial Mythologies: A Guide to Cultural Invention by Craig J. Saper (1997); Review of Artificial Mythologies. A Guide to cultural Invention, Kirsten Ostherr (1998)
Nicholas Albery, Matthew Mezey, Mary McHugh and Marie Papworth (editors). "Best Ideas: A Compendium of Social Inventions". The Institute for Social Inventions, London, 1995.
Mikhail Epstein. Inventive Thinking in the Humanities. Common Knowledge (Duke UP), Winter 2017, Vol.23, No. 1: 1-18
The Inventor's Notebook by Fred Grissom and David Pressman (2005)
Leonardo da Vinci: Artist, Scientist, Inventor by Simona Cremante (2005)
"Jefferson's Papers at the Library of Congress". Memory.loc.gov. Retrieved 2013-07-17.
about Albert Einstein
"Continuation Patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offices". Uspto.gov. Retrieved 2013-07-17.
White, Lynn: The Invention of the Parachute, Technology and Culture, Vol. 9, Nremante (2005)
"Lemelson Centers Invention at Play : Inventors Stories". Inventionatplay.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors (2004), p.14-15 by Evan I. Schwartz.
Claxton, Guy. "Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why intelligence increases when you think less". Fourth Estate, London, 1997.
Smith, Sean. "J. K. Rowling: A Biography." Michael O'Mara Books Limited, 2001.
Jack, Ian. "Before the Oil Ran Out: Britain 1977-87". Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, 1987.
"Engines of our Ingenuity No. 1990: Max Munk". Retrieved 2017-03-05.
Einstein: A Life by Denis Brian p.159 (1996)
Nobelprize.org, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000 Archived October 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition by Everett Rogers (2003)
"ciadvertising.org". ciadvertising.org. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
Les lois de l'imitation Gabriel Tarde (1890)
"Explore invention at the Lemelson Center :: Smithsonian Lemelson Center". Invention.smithsonian.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
Talk of the Nation (2004-12-24). "Exploring the Process of Inventing". NPR. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
Archived January 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
"United States Patent and Trademark Office". Uspto.gov. 1994-12-01. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
"Glossary". Uspto.gov. 2004-08-22. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2008-05-06. CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
"at Directnic". Packagingtoday.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-10. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
"Plastic Materials (Aar - ACN)". Ides.com. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
"Plastipedia: The Plastics Encyclopedia - Plastics Processes". Bpf.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
"The Plastics Historical Society - Home". Plastiquarian.com. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
Archived September 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
"35 U.S.C. 1 Establishment". United States Patent and Trademark Office. United States Patent and Trademark OFfice. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
"Indian Patent Act 1970-Sections". ipindia.nic.in. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi by Howard Gardner (1993)
Encyclopedia.com and Muybridge
"Eadweard Muybridge (British photographer) - Encyclopædia Britannica". Britannica.com. 1904-05-08. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
1879, F. Auguste Bartholdi U.S. Patent D11,023
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, Harper & Row, 1989. ISBN 0-06-015612-0
Fuller, Edmund, Tinkers and Genius: The Story of the Yankee Inventors. New York: Hastings House, 1955.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inventions.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Invention
Look up invention in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
List of PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) Notable Inventions at WIPO
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