Reflexão sobre o significado do significado

Este artigo constitui uma reflexão sobre os modelos teóricos que atualmente problematizam as conceções de significado e de referência. Na sequência desta reflexão, referimos as implicações metodológicas que a atual conceção de significado imprime à semântica, acarretando a observação do uso real das expressões linguísticas e daí a importância dos métodos quantitativos baseados no corpus. Decorrente da afirmação da dimensão pragmática da linguagem e da anulação das tradicionais oposições entre sintaxe, semântica e léxico, em linguística, na segunda metade do século XX, assiste-se a uma renovação teórica e metodológica e à criação de novas áreas disciplinares. Nos anos 80 do século XX, estabelece-se um vínculo entre a linguística, a informática e a psicologia cognitiva, que instaura o que atualmente designamos por ciências cognitivas. A linguística alia-se a este movimento, num momento em que é necessário obter respostas para as questões com que se depara a inteligência artificial e a linguística computacional. Neste ambiente de mutação, a problemática do significado equacionado numa perspetiva geral e do significado entendido numa perspetiva particular ganha relevância. Com a afirmação de uma nova conceção de semântica nos anos 80 e com o desenvolvimento pleno da mesma nos anos 90, as teorias dinâmicas do significado atingem grande relevância. Segundo estas teorias, a interpretação do discurso é processual, ou seja, interpretamos as frases uma a uma em sequência e analisamos cada uma das mesmas como uma ampliação da informação construída. Com as abordagens dinâmicas do significado, assistimos a uma conceção de semântica em que o significado é concebido de forma incremental, quer isto dizer que o significado decorre de uma relação estabelecida entre condições de input e de output. De modo que se descentra da produção e concentra-se na receção. Neste sentido, a maneira como se constrói o discurso constitui como que um guia para o alocutário o interpretar. A problemática associada ao significado, em linguística, revela-se verdadeiramente complexa, considerando a multiplicidade de abordagens teóricas e a pluralidade de áreas disciplinares que abordam a questão.

Crowdfunding for non-commercial initiatives

Organizations and individuals dealing with non-commercial initiatives are in permanent search for funding. Crowdfunding is an alternative way of collecting funds from general public through Internet-based platforms, which is currently gaining popularity all over the world. There are several research initiatives in that field that show the influence of different factors on the success of campaigns, both with commercial and non-commercial objectives. Non-profit nature of the project is named among key predictors of positive outcome. In this context, the purpose of this work is to check whether the tendencies detected by scholars are valid for non-commercial initiatives, especially those having socially aware objectives, posted on the Belarusian crowdfunding platform Ulej. The method used for validation of the research hypotheses is binary logistic regression and statistical test. The results showed that the dependent variable success is influenced by such independent variables as the funding goal, the sum collected, the number of sponsors and the average pledge. On the other hand, the effect of the duration period is not significant. Inferential analysis shows that there is no difference in the level of success between commercial and non-commercial projects and that social orientation does not increase the likelihood of meeting financial goals. The findings are opposite to those provided in literature. However that could be explained by the short period of functioning of platform and the small number of projects.

Crowdfunding for entrepreneurship: an exploratory multivariate analysis concerning kickstarter and indiegogo platforms

The general purpose of this work is to describe and analyse the financing phenomenon of crowdfunding and to investigate the relations among crowdfunders, project creators and crowdfunding websites. More specifically, it also intends to describe the profile differences between major crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The findings are supported by literature, gathered from different scientific research papers. In the empirical part, data about Kickstarter and Indiegogo was collected from their websites and also complemented with further data from other statistical websites. For finding out specific information, such as satisfaction of entrepreneurs from both platforms, a satisfaction survey was applied among 200 entrepreneurs from different countries. To identify the profile of users of the Kickstarter and of the Indiegogo platforms, a multivariate analysis was performed, using a Hierarchical Clusters Analysis for each platform under study. Descriptive analysis was used for exploring information about popularity of platforms, average cost and the most popular area of projects, profile of users and future opportunities of platforms. To assess differences between groups, association between variables, and answering to the research hypothesis, an inferential analysis it was applied. The results showed that the Kickstarter and Indiegogo are one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms. Both of them have thousands of users and they are generally satisfied. Each of them uses individual approach for crowdfunders. Despite this, they both could benefit from further improving their services. Furthermore, according the results it was possible to observe that there is a direct and positive relationship between the money needed for the projects and the money collected from the investors for the projects, per platform.