Michael Garman, Psycholinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. xx+512.

Abstract

SHORTER NOTICES conditional content is considerably underdetermined by linguistic form. She argues that baa has two rather different non-truth-conditional uses. It may be a semantic constraint on relevance, or, alternatively, it may function as a modifier of an implicit higher predicate. This idea is developed further in Wilson & Sperber (1990). In Chapter 6, Blass provides a Relevance-theoretic analysis of a number of what she calls 'defining particles', which have some of the functions of determiners. Then, in Chapter 7, she discusses the word wuu, which translates as 'all', 'each', 'every' or 'the whole'. With some singular nouns, it can be translated as either 'every' or 'the whole'. Hence, the same phrase corresponds to both 'every brook' and 'the whole brook'. Blass suggests that this is further evidence that a single form with a single meaning can be enriched into a variety of more specific meanings for pragmatic reasons. She also argues in this chapter that it is considerations of relevance and not considerations of coherence that determine what domain a quantifier ranges over. Finally, in Chapter 8, she provides an interesting discussion of the effects associated in Sissala with different choices of coordinating conjunction. In particular, she shows how Relevance theory can explain the implications of 'unexpectedness' that attach to certain cases of sentential coordination. This, then, is a work of considerable interest, which deserves to be widely read. It provides a good advertisement for Relevance theory, and it could contribute to a major shift of focus in discourse analysis.

Simultaneous detection of lane and pavement boundaries using model-based multisensor fusion

“…Given a , its fidelity to the observed radar image is assessed by how homogeneous the corresponding three (road, left, and right) regions are. A log normal probability law [29] is used to derive the homogeneity criteria.…”

Dynamic scaling of the width distribution in Edwards-Wilkinson type models of interface dynamics

“…Now we turn to the description of the short-time limit of Φ(x, τ ) in case of a flat initial condition. The description is based on an earlier observation [11] that the fluctuations of chemical reaction fronts which are supposed to belong to the EW universality class produce a Φ(x, τ ) which is rather well approximated by log-normal distribution [12] Φ…”

“…Lognormal-like distributions tend to emerge more often in biological and social sciences than in physics [12,13] and they are usually understood in terms of the 'law of proportionate effect' or on the basis of the assumption that an event occurs only if a large number of independent 'sub-events' take place. In our case, the lognormal distribution is produced by EW dynamics and it appears as a characteristic of the initial roughening of an interface.…”

Estimacion de la biomasa de langostino amarillo (Cervimunida johni), aplicando Modelo Lineal Generalizado a registros de captura por area barrida en la zona central de Chile

“…Por otra parte, es sabido que en las operaciones de pesca puede existir una importante proporción de lances sin capturas y el resto, suelen estar determinadas por valores que siguen una distribución de probabilidad asimétrica (Maunder & Starr, 2003, entre otros). Stefansson (1996), Welsh et al (1996) y Fletcher et al (2005 sugieren que los lances sin capturas deberían ser modelados de manera independiente a los lances con capturas, siguiendo el modelo Delta (Aitchison & Brown, 1957). Sin embargo, en este estudio, dicho procedimiento no es considerado debido a tres razones fundamentales: a) la CPUA empleada en el cálculo de la biomasa proviene de las agregaciones (polígonos) donde predominan los lances con capturas; b) la superficie de estas agregaciones son dinámicas en el tiempo en respuesta al desempeño espacial de los lances con capturas; y c) los distintos diseños de muestreo tienen influencia directa en la proporción de lances con y sin captura.…”