The notion of equivalence and lexical cohesion in the translation of political speeches

Abstract This dissertation investigates the notion of equivalence with particular reference to lexical cohesion in the translation of political speeches. Lexical cohesion poses a particular challenge to the translators of political speeches and thus preserving lexical cohesion elements as one of the major elements of cohesion is undoubtedly crucial to their translation equivalence. We rely on Halliday’s (1994) classification of lexical cohesion which comprises: repetition, synonymy, antonymy, meronymy and hyponymy. Other traditional models of lexical cohesion are examined. We include Grammatical Parallelism for its role in creating textual semantic unity which is what cohesion is all about. The study shed light on the function of lexical cohesion elements as rhetorical device. The study also deals with lexical problems resulting from the transfer of lexical cohesion elements from the SL into the TL, which is often beset by many problems that most often result from the differences between languages. Three key issues are identified as being fundamental to equivalence and lexical cohesion in the translation of political speeches: sociosemiotic approach, register analysis, rhetoric, and poetic function. The study also investigates the lexical cohesion elements in the translation of political speeches from English into Arabic, Italian and French in relation to ideology, and its control, through bias and distortion. The findings are discussed, implications examined and topics for further research suggested.

Constraint handling rules. Compositional semantics and program transformation

This thesis intends to investigate two aspects of Constraint Handling Rules (CHR). It proposes a compositional semantics and a technique for program transformation. CHR is a concurrent committed-choice constraint logic programming language consisting of guarded rules, which transform multi-sets of atomic formulas (constraints) into simpler ones until exhaustion [Frü06] and it belongs to the declarative languages family. It was initially designed for writing constraint solvers but it has recently also proven to be a general purpose language, being as it is Turing equivalent [SSD05a]. Compositionality is the first CHR aspect to be considered. A trace based compositional semantics for CHR was previously defined in [DGM05]. The reference operational semantics for such a compositional model was the original operational semantics for CHR which, due to the propagation rule, admits trivial non-termination. In this thesis we extend the work of [DGM05] by introducing a more refined trace based compositional semantics which also includes the history. The use of history is a well-known technique in CHR which permits us to trace the application of propagation rules and consequently it permits trivial non-termination avoidance [Abd97, DSGdlBH04]. Naturally, the reference operational semantics, of our new compositional one, uses history to avoid trivial non-termination too. Program transformation is the second CHR aspect to be considered, with particular regard to the unfolding technique. Said technique is an appealing approach which allows us to optimize a given program and in more detail to improve run-time efficiency or spaceconsumption. Essentially it consists of a sequence of syntactic program manipulations which preserve a kind of semantic equivalence called qualified answer [Frü98], between the original program and the transformed ones. The unfolding technique is one of the basic operations which is used by most program transformation systems. It consists in the replacement of a procedure-call by its definition. In CHR every conjunction of constraints can be considered as a procedure-call, every CHR rule can be considered as a procedure and the body of said rule represents the definition of the call. While there is a large body of literature on transformation and unfolding of sequential programs, very few papers have addressed this issue for concurrent languages. We define an unfolding rule, show its correctness and discuss some conditions in which it can be used to delete an unfolded rule while preserving the meaning of the original program. Finally, confluence and termination maintenance between the original and transformed programs are shown. This thesis is organized in the following manner. Chapter 1 gives some general notion about CHR. Section 1.1 outlines the history of programming languages with particular attention to CHR and related languages. Then, Section 1.2 introduces CHR using examples. Section 1.3 gives some preliminaries which will be used during the thesis. Subsequentely, Section 1.4 introduces the syntax and the operational and declarative semantics for the first CHR language proposed. Finally, the methodologies to solve the problem of trivial non-termination related to propagation rules are discussed in Section 1.5. Chapter 2 introduces a compositional semantics for CHR where the propagation rules are considered. In particular, Section 2.1 contains the definition of the semantics. Hence, Section 2.2 presents the compositionality results. Afterwards Section 2.3 expounds upon the correctness results. Chapter 3 presents a particular program transformation known as unfolding. This transformation needs a particular syntax called annotated which is introduced in Section 3.1 and its related modified operational semantics !0t is presented in Section 3.2. Subsequently, Section 3.3 defines the unfolding rule and prove its correctness. Then, in Section 3.4 the problems related to the replacement of a rule by its unfolded version are discussed and this in turn gives a correctness condition which holds for a specific class of rules. Section 3.5 proves that confluence and termination are preserved by the program modifications introduced. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes by discussing related works and directions for future work.

Mathematical models of cognitive processes

The research activity carried out during the PhD course was focused on the development of mathematical models of some cognitive processes and their validation by means of data present in literature, with a double aim: i) to achieve a better interpretation and explanation of the great amount of data obtained on these processes from different methodologies (electrophysiological recordings on animals, neuropsychological, psychophysical and neuroimaging studies in humans), ii) to exploit model predictions and results to guide future research and experiments. In particular, the research activity has been focused on two different projects: 1) the first one concerns the development of neural oscillators networks, in order to investigate the mechanisms of synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity during cognitive processes, such as object recognition, memory, language, attention; 2) the second one concerns the mathematical modelling of multisensory integration processes (e.g. visual-acoustic), which occur in several cortical and subcortical regions (in particular in a subcortical structure named Superior Colliculus (SC)), and which are fundamental for orienting motor and attentive responses to external world stimuli. This activity has been realized in collaboration with the Center for Studies and Researches in Cognitive Neuroscience of the University of Bologna (in Cesena) and the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA). PART 1. Objects representation in a number of cognitive functions, like perception and recognition, foresees distribute processes in different cortical areas. One of the main neurophysiological question concerns how the correlation between these disparate areas is realized, in order to succeed in grouping together the characteristics of the same object (binding problem) and in maintaining segregated the properties belonging to different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). Different theories have been proposed to address these questions (Barlow, 1972). One of the most influential theory is the so called “assembly coding”, postulated by Singer (2003), according to which 1) an object is well described by a few fundamental properties, processing in different and distributed cortical areas; 2) the recognition of the object would be realized by means of the simultaneously activation of the cortical areas representing its different features; 3) groups of properties belonging to different objects would be kept separated in the time domain. In Chapter 1.1 and in Chapter 1.2 we present two neural network models for object recognition, based on the “assembly coding” hypothesis. These models are networks of Wilson-Cowan oscillators which exploit: i) two high-level “Gestalt Rules” (the similarity and previous knowledge rules), to realize the functional link between elements of different cortical areas representing properties of the same object (binding problem); 2) the synchronization of the neural oscillatory activity in the γ-band (30-100Hz), to segregate in time the representations of different objects simultaneously present (segmentation problem). These models are able to recognize and reconstruct multiple simultaneous external objects, even in difficult case (some wrong or lacking features, shared features, superimposed noise). In Chapter 1.3 the previous models are extended to realize a semantic memory, in which sensory-motor representations of objects are linked with words. To this aim, the network, previously developed, devoted to the representation of objects as a collection of sensory-motor features, is reciprocally linked with a second network devoted to the representation of words (lexical network) Synapses linking the two networks are trained via a time-dependent Hebbian rule, during a training period in which individual objects are presented together with the corresponding words. Simulation results demonstrate that, during the retrieval phase, the network can deal with the simultaneous presence of objects (from sensory-motor inputs) and words (from linguistic inputs), can correctly associate objects with words and segment objects even in the presence of incomplete information. Moreover, the network can realize some semantic links among words representing objects with some shared features. These results support the idea that semantic memory can be described as an integrated process, whose content is retrieved by the co-activation of different multimodal regions. In perspective, extended versions of this model may be used to test conceptual theories, and to provide a quantitative assessment of existing data (for instance concerning patients with neural deficits). PART 2. The ability of the brain to integrate information from different sensory channels is fundamental to perception of the external world (Stein et al, 1993). It is well documented that a number of extraprimary areas have neurons capable of such a task; one of the best known of these is the superior colliculus (SC). This midbrain structure receives auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs from different subcortical and cortical areas, and is involved in the control of orientation to external events (Wallace et al, 1993). SC neurons respond to each of these sensory inputs separately, but is also capable of integrating them (Stein et al, 1993) so that the response to the combined multisensory stimuli is greater than that to the individual component stimuli (enhancement). This enhancement is proportionately greater if the modality-specific paired stimuli are weaker (the principle of inverse effectiveness). Several studies have shown that the capability of SC neurons to engage in multisensory integration requires inputs from cortex; primarily the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (AES), but also the rostral lateral suprasylvian sulcus (rLS). If these cortical inputs are deactivated the response of SC neurons to cross-modal stimulation is no different from that evoked by the most effective of its individual component stimuli (Jiang et al 2001). This phenomenon can be better understood through mathematical models. The use of mathematical models and neural networks can place the mass of data that has been accumulated about this phenomenon and its underlying circuitry into a coherent theoretical structure. In Chapter 2.1 a simple neural network model of this structure is presented; this model is able to reproduce a large number of SC behaviours like multisensory enhancement, multisensory and unisensory depression, inverse effectiveness. In Chapter 2.2 this model was improved by incorporating more neurophysiological knowledge about the neural circuitry underlying SC multisensory integration, in order to suggest possible physiological mechanisms through which it is effected. This endeavour was realized in collaboration with Professor B.E. Stein and Doctor B. Rowland during the 6 months-period spent at the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (NC, USA), within the Marco Polo Project. The model includes four distinct unisensory areas that are devoted to a topological representation of external stimuli. Two of them represent subregions of the AES (i.e., FAES, an auditory area, and AEV, a visual area) and send descending inputs to the ipsilateral SC; the other two represent subcortical areas (one auditory and one visual) projecting ascending inputs to the same SC. Different competitive mechanisms, realized by means of population of interneurons, are used in the model to reproduce the different behaviour of SC neurons in conditions of cortical activation and deactivation. The model, with a single set of parameters, is able to mimic the behaviour of SC multisensory neurons in response to very different stimulus conditions (multisensory enhancement, inverse effectiveness, within- and cross-modal suppression of spatially disparate stimuli), with cortex functional and cortex deactivated, and with a particular type of membrane receptors (NMDA receptors) active or inhibited. All these results agree with the data reported in Jiang et al. (2001) and in Binns and Salt (1996). The model suggests that non-linearities in neural responses and synaptic (excitatory and inhibitory) connections can explain the fundamental aspects of multisensory integration, and provides a biologically plausible hypothesis about the underlying circuitry.

Studi sull'immaginario musicale in Euripide

La dissertazione è suddivisa in due capitoli più tre appendici. Nel I capitolo, Musica e dolore, si indagano i casi di metamusicalità in riferimento al dolore, che si intensificano in Euripide: si nota lo sviluppo di una riflessione sul ruolo della mousike rispetto al dolore, espressa attraverso un lessico medico e musicale. Si dimostra che in Euripide si pone il problema di quale scopo abbia la musica, se sia utile, e in quale forma lo sia. Nella prima produzione si teorizza una mousa del lamento come dolce o terapeutica per chi soffre. Molti personaggi, però, mostrano sfiducia nel potere curativo del lamento. Nell’ultima produzione si intensificano gli interrogativi sulla performance del canto, che si connotano come casi metamusicali e metateatrali. Nell’Elena, nell’Ipsipile e nelle Baccanti, E. sembra proporre una terapia ‘omeopatica’ del dolore attraverso la musica orgiastico-dionisiaca. Nel II capitolo, Natura e musica, si sceglie l’Ifigenia Taurica come esempio di mimetismo orchestico-musicale fondato – oltre che su casi di autoreferenzialità – su un immaginario naturale che, ‘facendo musica’, contribuisce all’espressività della choreia e della musica in scena. Si ipotizza inoltre un accompagnamento musicale mimetico rispetto ai suoni della natura e movimenti di danza lineari accanto a formazioni circolari, che sembrano richiamare la ‘doppia natura’ del ditirambo. L’Appendice I, Gli aggettivi poetici ξουθός e ξουθόπτερος: il loro significato e la loro potenzialità allusiva, affronta un caso particolare e problematico di ‘mimetismo lessicale’, innescato dal termine ξουθός e dal composto euripideo ξουθόπτερος. Si dimostra che l’aggettivo indica originariamente un movimento vibratorio, ma sviluppa anche un senso sonoro, ed è quindi un termine evocativo rispetto alla performance. Nell’Appendice II, Il lessico musicale in Euripide, è raccolto il lessico euripideo coreutico-musicale. Nell’Appendice III, La mousike nei drammi euripidei, sono raccolti i riferimenti alla mousike in ogni dramma.

Il vocabolario del potere fra intento etico-morale e tutela sociale. I lemmi dei Capitolari Carolingi nel Regnum Italicum (774-813)

Il vocabolario del potere fra intento etico-morale e tutela sociale. I lemmi dei Capitolari Carolingi nel Regnum Italicum (774-813), costituisce il risultato di una ricerca condotta sul lessico della legislazione carolingia promulgata per il Regno Italico dal momento della conquista dei Franchi sino alla morte di Carlomagno. L’analisi ha preso in esame tutti i lemmi, soprattutto sostantivi e aggettivi, riconducibili alla sfera etica e morale, e alla concezione della libertà della persona. Il lavoro si è giovato delle analisi più specifiche in merito ai concetti giuridico-istituzionali che fonti normative come quelle prese in esame portano inevitabilmente in primo piano. La ricerca, partita da una completa catalogazione dei lemmi, si è concentrata su quelli che maggiormente consentissero di valutare le interazioni fra la corte intellettuale dei primi carolingi – formata come noto da uomini di chiesa – e le caratteristiche di pensiero di quegli uomini, un pensiero sociale e istituzionale insieme. Il lavoro ha analizzato un lessico specifico per indagare come la concezione tradizionale della societas Christiana si esprimesse nella legislazione attraverso lemmi ed espressioni formulari peculiari: la scelta di questi da parte del Rex e della sua cerchia avrebbe indicato alla collettività una pacifica convivenza e definito contestualmente “l’intento ordinatore e pacificatore” del sovrano. L’analisi è stata condotta su un periodo breve ma assai significativo – un momento di frattura politica importante – per cogliere, proprio sfruttando la sovrapposizione e talvolta lo scontro fra i diversi usi di cancelleria del regno longobardo prima e carolingio poi, la volontarietà o meno da parte dei sovrani nell’uso di un lessico specifico. Questo diventa il problema centrale della tesi: tale lessico impone con la sua continuità d’uso modelli politici o invece è proprio un uso consapevole e strumentale di un determinato apparato lessicale che intende imporre alla società nuovi modelli di convivenza?

Non-normal modal logics, quantification, and deontic dilemmas. A study in multi-relational semantics

This dissertation is devoted to the study of non-normal (modal) systems for deontic logics, both on the propositional level, and on the first order one. In particular we developed our study the Multi-relational setting that generalises standard Kripke Semantics. We present new completeness results concerning the semantic setting of several systems which are able to handle normative dilemmas and conflicts. Although primarily driven by issues related to the legal and moral field, these results are also relevant for the more theoretical field of Modal Logic itself, as we propose a syntactical, and semantic study of intermediate systems between the classical propositional calculus CPC and the minimal normal modal logic K.

Ricerche sul lessico della provvidenza in Agostino

Questa ricerca è un’indagine semasiologica del lessico agostiniano della provvidenza divina, costituito dalle parole-chiave prouidentia, prouideo, prouidens, prouidus, prouisio, prouisor, prouisus, e dai lessemi in relazione logico-sintattica diretta con esse. La prospettiva è sia sincronica (si considerano tutte le attestazioni delle parole-chiave presenti nel corpus agostiniano), sia diacronica: si soppesano di volta in volta analogie e differenze agostiniane rispetto agli antecedenti, nell’intento di arricchire il panorama dei possibili modelli lessicali latini (pagani, biblici, patristici) di Agostino. I dati lessicali sono stati raccolti in una banca dati appositamente costituita, selezionati secondo i criteri di frequenza e pregnanza semantica, e analizzati per nuclei tematici, coincidenti in parte con i capitoli della tesi. Si studiano dapprima i lessemi che esprimono il governo della provvidenza (le famiglie lessicali di administro, guberno e rego, e altri lessemi che designano l’azione della provvidenza); sono poi analizzati lessemi e iuncturae in cui prevale l’idea del mistero della provvidenza. Gli ultimi due capitoli sono dedicati al tema della cura divina, e a quello della cosiddetta “pedagogia divina”: attraverso i segni esteriori, la provvidenza ‘richiama’ l’uomo a rientrare in se stesso. Un’appendice approfondisce infine l’uso agostiniano di Sap 6,16 e Sap 8,1. L’apporto di Agostino al lessico filosofico latino va individuato a livello semantico più che nell’innovazione lessicale. Accanto a suffissazione, composizione, calco, la metafora svolge un ruolo essenziale nella formazione del lessico dell’Ipponate, e proviene spesso da altre lingue tecniche oppure è radicata nel patrimonio di immagini tradizionali della religione pagana. Il debito di Agostino è indubbiamente verso Cicerone, ma anche verso Seneca, per l’uso in ambito esistenziale-biografico di alcuni lessemi. Agostino li trasferisce però dal piano umano a quello divino, come nel caso del concetto di admonitio: parte integrante del programma filosofico senecano; ‘richiamo’ della provvidenza per Agostino, concetto che risente anche dell’apporto di retorica ed esegesi.

Ad summum bonum iter: revisione testuale e commento di Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium XLVIII, CXI.

Questa tesi di dottorato “Ad summum bonum iter. Revisione testuale e commento di Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium XLVIII, CXI” (relatore Prof. F. Citti), si propone di fornire un commento scientifico al testo latino di alcune Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (48 e 111), corredato da traduzione, note esegetiche di carattere lessicale, stilistico-retorico e storico-letterario e discussione delle principali problematiche testuali (testo di riferimento l'edizione critica di Reynolds, Oxonii 1965). Scopo della ricerca è approfondire e completare lo studio delle lettere 48 e 111 del carteggio, esaminato solo episodicamente e non sistematicamente, soffermandosi sugli aspetti filosofici salienti e sui motivi conduttori più significativi, come la critica senecana alla nimia subtilitas (tema presente soprattutto nelle cosiddette epistole dialettiche, connesse alle diverse forme di sillogismi e alle modalità di contestazione degli stessi), con particolare riferimento alle ambiguità derivanti dall'uso di termini in senso proprio e metalinguistico riflessivo e non riflessivo; la ricerca si sofferma inoltre sul linguaggio colloquiale, vicino a quello della commedia e della satira, utilizzato da Seneca per ridicolizzare i sillogismi stoici; sul tema dell'amicizia; sull'uso di citazioni e/o allusioni poetiche (virgiliana e non virgiliana), decontestualizzate e risemantizzate in funzione educativa e psicagogica, piegate ad esprimere il personale messaggio etico; sull'uso del lessico specialistico, proveniente da diversi ambiti semantici (giuridico, economico, militare, medico), applicato da Seneca alla parenesi filosofica e, soprattutto, sul rapporto tra lessico filosofico latino e modelli greci. Infine, oltre ad approfondire il motivo delle egestas temporis e i riferimenti diatribici contenuti nelle epistole, sono stati individuati e approfonditi alcuni topoi presenti.

Developing a large scale FrameNet for Italian - The IFrameNet experience

In this thesis we present the development and the current status of the IFrameNet project, aimed at the construction of a large-scale lexical semantic resource for the Italian language based on Frame Semantics theories. We will begin by contextualizing our work in the wider context of Frame Semantics and of the FrameNet project, which, since 1997, has attempted to apply these theories to lexicography. We will then analyse and discuss the applicability of the structure of the American resource to Italian and more specifically we will focus on the domain of fear, worry, and anxiety. We will finally propose some modifications aimed at improving this domain of the resource in relation to its coherence, its ability to accurately represent the linguistic reality and in particular in order to make it possible to apply it to Italian.