Saint Mathew Law and Bonini Paradox in Textual Theory of Complex Models

The mathematical models of the complex reality are texts belonging to a certain literature that is written in a semi-formal language, denominated L(MT) by the authors whose laws linguistic mathematics have been previously defined. This text possesses linguistic entropy that is the reflection of the physical entropy of the processes of real world that said text describes. Through the temperature of information defined by Mandelbrot, the authors begin a text-reality thermodynamic theory that drives to the existence of information attractors, or highly structured point, settling down a heterogeneity of the space text, the same one that of ontologic space, completing the well-known law of Saint Mathew, of the General Theory of Systems and formulated by Margalef saying: “To the one that has more he will be given, and to the one that doesn't have he will even be removed it little that it possesses.

Una propuesta de estudio para el humor en la conversación coloquial

En el grupo de investigación GRIALE hemos desarrollado un método teórico que aplicamos a los enunciados irónicos con humor en diferentes géneros textuales, a partir de la violación de principios conversacionales. Además, tendremos en cuenta para el análisis la Teoría General del Humor Verbal propuesta por Attardo. Así pues, estudiamos la ironía y el humor en ejemplos de conversaciones extraídos de corpus de muestras reales del español peninsular (COVJA y Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales). En este trabajo, nos centramos en la aplicación de dichas teorías a los enunciados irónicos humorísticos que se producen en la conversación y estudiaremos los efectos que desarrollan; y comprobaremos que ironía y humor conviven en un mismo intercambio conversacional con un fin comunicativo.

An approach to verbal humor in interaction

I propose a method to study interactional ironic humorous utterances in Spanish. In GRIALE research group consider this method can be applied to humorous ironic utterances in different textual genres, from the violation of conversational principles. Futhermore, we present the General Theory of Verbal Humor proposed by Attardo that it will be taken in our analysis. Therefore, I study irony and humor in examples of conversations from Peninsular Spanish real sample corpuses (COVJA, Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales [Corpus of Colloquial Conversations] and CREA, Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual [Reference Corpus of Present-Day Spanish]). In this article, I will focus on the application of this theory to humorous ironic statements which arise in conversation and examine the effects caused by them, which will additionally verify if irony and humor coexist in the same conversational exchange with a communicative aim and conversational strategies.

Humour in colloquial conversation

Researchers from the GRIALE group (Irony and Humour Research Group) have developed a theoretical method that can be applied to humorous ironic utterances in different textual genres, depending on the degree of the violation of conversational principles in conversation. In addition to this, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo and Raskin, 1991) will be taken into account in the analysis. Therefore, I will study irony and humour in conversational utterances in real examples of Peninsular Spanish obtained from the COVJA, (Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales [Corpus of Colloquial Conversations]) and CREA, (Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual [Reference Corpus of Present-Day Spanish]). The focus of this paper is then the application of the aforementioned theories to humorous ironic statements which arise in conversation. I will also examine the positive or negative effects caused by them, which will additionally verify if irony and humour coexist in the same conversational exchange, and if this has a communicative goal.

Testing prospect theory in students’ performance

This paper tests the existence of ‘reference dependence’ and ‘loss aversion’ in students’ academic performance. Accordingly, achieving a worse than expected academic performance would have a much stronger effect on students’ (dis)satisfaction than obtaining a better than expected grade. Although loss aversion is a well-established finding, some authors have demonstrated that it can be moderated – diminished, to be precise–. Within this line of research, we also examine whether the students’ emotional response (satisfaction/dissatisfaction) to their performance can be moderated by different musical stimuli. We design an experiment through which we test loss aversion in students’ performance with three conditions: ‘classical music’, ‘heavy music’ and ‘no music’. The empirical application supports the reference-dependence and loss aversion hypotheses (significant at p < 0.05), and the musical stimuli do have an influence on the students’ state of satisfaction with the grades (at p < 0.05). Analyzing students’ perceptions is vital to find the way they process information. Particularly, knowing the elements that can favour not only the academic performance of students but also their attitude towards certain results is fundamental. This study demonstrates that musical stimuli can modify the perceptions of a certain academic result: the effects of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ surprises are higher or lower, not only in function of the size of these surprises, but also according to the musical stimulus received.

On terminological figurativeness: From theory to practice

Terminologists’ interest in studying the role of metaphor and metaphorical terms in specialized communication has proliferated since the first papers addressing this issue appeared in the 1990s. However, we believe that some facets of terminological meaning still remain overlooked or merit further analysis. This paper attempts to contribute to the study of one of these facets: the figurative meaning of some compound terms used in the domain of luxury marketing and business. In order to present a systematized view of this phenomenon we will adopt some theoretical tools from the Conventional Figurative Language Theory, in order to confirm the validity of some of its postulates for compound term analysis. Next, a contrastive approach between English, Spanish and Russian compound terms will put the theoretical ideas into practice with the aim of illustrating their applied and metalinguistic potential. Some basic conclusions will be offered at the end of the paper.