Mirror neurons, the representation of word meaning, and the foot of the third left frontal convolution

Previous neuroimaging research has attempted to demonstrate a preferential involvement of the human mirror neuron system (MNS) in the comprehension of effector-related action word (verb) meanings. These studies have assumed that Broca's area (or Brodmann's area 44) is the homologue of a monkey premotor area (F5) containing mouth and hand mirror neurons, and that action word meanings are shared with the mirror system due to a proposed link between speech and gestural communication. In an fMRI experiment, we investigated whether Broca's area shows mirror activity solely for effectors implicated in the MNS. Next, we examined the responses of empirically determined mirror areas during a language perception task comprising effector-specific action words, unrelated words and nonwords. We found overlapping activity for observation and execution of actions with all effectors studied, i.e., including the foot, despite there being no evidence of foot mirror neurons in the monkey or human brain. These "mirror" areas showed equivalent responses for action words, unrelated words and nonwords, with all of these stimuli showing increased responses relative to visual character strings. Our results support alternative explanations attributing mirror activity in Broca's area to covert verbalisation or hierarchical linearisation, and provide no evidence that the MNS makes a preferential contribution to comprehending action word meanings.

Negative priming in naming of categorically related objects: An fMRI study

Ignoring an object slows subsequent naming responses to it, a phenomenon known as negative priming (NP). A central issue in NP research concerns the level of representation at which the effect occurs. As object naming is typically considered to involve access to abstract semantic representations, Tipper 1985 proposed that the NP effect occurred at this level of processing, and other researchers supported this proposal by demonstrating a similar result with categorically related objects (e.g., Allport et al., 1985; Murray, 1995), an effect referred to as semantic NP. However, objects within categories share more physical or structural features than objects from different categories. Consequently, the NP effect observed with categorically related objects might occur at a structural rather than semantic level of representation. We used event related fMRI interleaving overt object naming and image acquisition to demonstrate for the first time that the semantic NP effect activates the left posterior-mid fusiform and insular-opercular cortices. Moreover, both naming latencies and left posterior-mid fusiform cortex responses were influenced by the structural similarity of prime-probe object pairings in the categorically related condition, increasing with the number of shared features. None of the cerebral regions activated in a previous fMRI study of the identity NP effect (de Zubicaray et al., 2006) showed similar activation during semantic NP, including the left anterolateral temporal cortex, a region considered critical for semantic processing. The results suggest that the identity and semantic NP effects differ with respect to their neural mechanisms, and the label "semantic NP" might be a misnomer. We conclude that the effect is most likely the result of competition between structurally similar category exemplars that determines the efficiency of object name retrieval.

A functional MRI study of the relationship between naming treatment outcomes and resting state functional connectivity in post-stroke aphasia

Background: The majority of studies investigating the neural mechanisms underlying treatment in people with aphasia have examined task-based brain activity. However, the use of resting-state fMRI may provide another method of examining the brain mechanisms responsible for treatment-induced recovery, and allows for investigation into connectivity within complex functional networks Methods: Eight people with aphasia underwent 12 treatment sessions that aimed to improve object naming. Half the sessions employed a phonologically-based task, and half the sessions employed a semantic-based task, with resting-state fMRI conducted pre- and post-treatment. Brain regions in which the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF) correlated with treatment outcomes were used as seeds for functional connectivity (FC) analysis. FC maps were compared from pre- to post-treatment, as well as with a group of 12 healthy older controls Results: Pre-treatment ALFF in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) correlated with greater outcomes for the phonological treatment, with a shift to the left MTG and supramarginal gyrus, as well as the right inferior frontal gyrus, post-treatment. When compared to controls, participants with aphasia showed both normalization and up-regulation of connectivity within language networks post-treatment, predominantly in the left hemisphere Conclusions: The results provide preliminary evidence that treatments for naming impairments affect the FC of language networks, and may aid in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the rehabilitation of language post-stroke.

New graph-based algorithms to efficiently solve large scale open pit mining optimisation problems

In the mining optimisation literature, most researchers focused on two strategic-level and tactical-level open-pit mine optimisation problems, which are respectively termed ultimate pit limit (UPIT) or constrained pit limit (CPIT). However, many researchers indicate that the substantial numbers of variables and constraints in real-world instances (e.g., with 50-1000 thousand blocks) make the CPIT’s mixed integer programming (MIP) model intractable for use. Thus, it becomes a considerable challenge to solve the large scale CPIT instances without relying on exact MIP optimiser as well as the complicated MIP relaxation/decomposition methods. To take this challenge, two new graph-based algorithms based on network flow graph and conjunctive graph theory are developed by taking advantage of problem properties. The performance of our proposed algorithms is validated by testing recent large scale benchmark UPIT and CPIT instances’ datasets of MineLib in 2013. In comparison to best known results from MineLib, it is shown that the proposed algorithms outperform other CPIT solution approaches existing in the literature. The proposed graph-based algorithms leads to a more competent mine scheduling optimisation expert system because the third-party MIP optimiser is no longer indispensable and random neighbourhood search is not necessary.

Business process management as the 'killer app' for Petri nets

Since their inception in 1962, Petri nets have been used in a wide variety of application domains. Although Petri nets are graphical and easy to understand, they have formal semantics and allow for analysis techniques ranging from model checking and structural analysis to process mining and performance analysis. Over time Petri nets emerged as a solid foundation for Business Process Management (BPM) research. The BPM discipline develops methods, techniques, and tools to support the design, enactment, management, and analysis of operational business processes. Mainstream business process modeling notations and workflow management systems are using token-based semantics borrowed from Petri nets. Moreover, state-of-the-art BPM analysis techniques are using Petri nets as an internal representation. Users of BPM methods and tools are often not aware of this. This paper aims to unveil the seminal role of Petri nets in BPM.

Transformation of public space in contemporary urban neighbourhoods of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: An investigation of changing provision, use and meaning

This research examined the transformation of public space in contemporary urban neighbourhoods of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The development of neighbourhood public space remains a considerable challenge in the present changing context, with significant consequences for public life and social interaction. The findings will aid policy makers, urban planners and designers in addressing the adverse effects of the current urban growth and change, and in winning back public space for the well-being of the local community.

Untersuchungen zur Fachsprache der Ökologie und des Umweltschutzes im Deutschen und Finnischen : Bezeichnungsvarianten unter einem geschichtlichen, lexikographischen, morphologischen und linguistisch-pragmatischen Aspekt

The work integrates research in the language and terminology of various fields with lexicography, etymology, semantics, word formation, and pragmatics. Additionally, examination of German and Finnish provides the work with perspective of contrastive linguistics and the translation of texts in specialized fields. The work is an attempt to chart the language, vocabulary, different textual types, and essential communication-connected features of this special field. The study is primary concerned with internal communication within the field of ecology, but it also provides a comparison of the public discussion of environmental issues in Germany and Finland. The work attempts to use textual signs to provide a picture of the literary communication used on the different vertical levels in the central text types within the field. The dictionaries in the fields of environmental issues and ecology for the individual text types are examined primarily from the perspective of their quantity and diversity. One central point of the work is to clarify and collect all of the dictionaries in the field that have been compiled thus far in which German and/or Finnish ware included. Ecology and environmental protection are closely linked not only to each other but also to many other scientific fields. Consequently, the language of the environmental field has acquired an abundance of influences and vocabulary from the language of the special fields close to it as well as from that of politics and various areas of public administration. The work also demonstrates how the popularization of environmental terminology often leads to semantic distortion. Traditionally, scientific texts have used the smallest number of expressions, the purpose of which is to appeal to or influence the behavior of the text recipient. Particularly in Germany, those who support or oppose measures to protect the environment have long been making concerted efforts to represent their own views in the language that they use. When discussing controversial issues competing designations for the same referent or concept are used in accordance with the interest group to which the speaker belongs. One of the objectives of the study is to sensitize recipients of texts to notice the euphemistic expressions that occur in German and Finnish texts dealing with issues that are sensitive from the standpoint of environmental policy. One particular feature of the field is the wealth and large number of variants designating the same entry or concept. The terminological doublets formed by words of foreign origin and their German or Finnish language equivalents are quite typical of the field. Methods of corpus linguistics are used to determine the reasons for the large number of variant designations as well as their functionality.

Primestoimenno-otnositel'nye konstrukcii v sovremennom russkom jazyke

Relative Constructions with Pronominal Heads in Contemporary Russian Chapter 1 introduces the distinctive syntactic and semantic properties of Russian relative constructions (RCs), which are then divided into two main classes according to the type of the head phrase. The study concentrates on RCs with pronominal heads, which are systematically compared with noun-headed RCs. Chapter 2 clarifies the categorization of pronouns in Russian. The conclusion is that Russian pronouns include only personal, reflexive and wh-pronouns. The remaining words that are traditionally seen as pronouns are actually functional equivalents of determiners. This idea leads to the suggestion that RCs with these determiner-like words as the only constituent of the head phrase are actually headed by zero pronouns. In the other type of RCs with pronominal heads, the head position is occupied by wh-pronouns with clitics expressing different types of indefiniteness and quantification. Comparison of the two types of pronoun-headed RCs shows that the wh-heads and zero-heads share a number of common properties with respect to the grammatical gender, number and person as well as to the semantic distinction between animates and inanimates. The rest of Chapter 2 gives an overview of various uses of wh-pronouns in Russian and an experimental analysis of RCs headed by pronominal adverbs. Chapter 3 discusses fundamental differences between RCs with noun and pronominal heads. One of the main findings is that the choice of the relative pronoun (kto 'who' and chto 'what' versus kotoryj 'which') is motivated by a tendency to reproduce maximally the essential grammatical and semantic properties of the antecedent. Chapter 4 gives a detailed description of the determiner-like words and wh-based heads used in the two types of RCs with pronominal heads. In addition, several issues related to the syntax and semantics of free relatives are discussed. The conclusion is that there is no need to establish a separate category of free relatives in Russian. Chapter 5 discusses the syntax and semantics of correlative and free concessive constructions. They share a number of properties with pronoun-headed RCs and the two are often confused in Russian linguistics. However, a detailed analysis shows that these constructions must be distinguished from RCs. The study combines the methods of functionally-oriented Russian structuralism with some insights from generative syntax.

Zur Sättigung der Valenz in den Kleinen Meldungen des Typus Notiz : Eine pragmatisch fundierte Analyse

Valency Realization in Short Excerpts of News Text. A Pragmatics-funded analysis This dissertation is a study of the so-called pragmatic valency. The aim of the study is to examine the phenomenon both theoretically by discussing the research literature and empirically based on evidence from a text corpus consisting of 218 short excerpts of news text from the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In the theoretical part of the study, the central concepts of the valency and the pragmatic valency are discussed. In the research literature, the valency denotes the relation among the verb and its obligatory and optional complements. The pragmatic valency can be defined as modification of the so-called system valency in the parole, including non-realization of an obligatory complement, non- realization of an optional complement and realization of an optional complement. Furthermore, the investigation of the pragmatic valency includes the role of the adjuncts, elements that are not defined by the valency, in the concrete valency realization. The corpus study investigates the valency behaviour of German verbs in a corpus of about 1500 sentences combining the methodology and concepts of valency theory, semantics and text linguistics. The analysis is focused on the about 600 sentences which show deviations from the system valency, providing over 800 examples for the modification of the system valency as codified in the (valency) dictionaries. The study attempts to answer the following primary question: Why is the system valency modified in the parole? To answer the question, the concept of modification types is entered. The modification types are recognized using distinctive feature bundles in which each feature with a negative or a positive value refers to one reason for the modification treated in the research literature. For example, the features of irrelevance and relevance, focus, world and text type knowledge, text theme, theme-rheme structure and cohesive chains are applied. The valency approach appears in a new light when explored through corpus-based investigation; both the optionality of complements and the distinction between complements and adjuncts as defined in the present valency approach seem in some respects defective. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that the adjuncts outside the valency domain play a central role in the concrete realization of the valency. Finally, the study suggests a definition of pragmatic valency, based on the modification types introduced in the study and tested in the corpus analysis.

Konstrukcija mnimosti : K poètike "Voskovoj persony" Ju. Tynjanova

The subject of this work is the poetics of «The Wax Effigy», a short novel or novella by Jurii Tynianov, Russian writer, literary critic, historian of literature and prominent literary theoretician. The plot structure of the novel is based upon a real event, the creation by Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1725 of a wax sculpture of the first Russian emperor, Peter the Great. «Construction of the Sham» consists of three chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. Due to the fact that Tynianov was at the same time a prose writer and theoretician of literature it seemed important to consider the reception of his prose and his works on literary theory in relationship to each other. The introduction is devoted to this task. The first chapter is about the history of the creation of the novel and its reception. Tynianov stopped writing one short story in order to write the novel; these two works have some common traits. It seems almost obvious that his work on the first text was a real step toward the creation of the second. In the first story there is an opposition of dead/alive which is semantic prefiguring of a central motif in «The Wax Effigy». An analysis of the reception of the novel demonstrated that almost every critic writing about the novel has described it as nonsense. Critics considered Tynianov's work in terms of «devices» and «content» and could not understand how devices are related to the content of the novel: the novel was thought as a signifier without any signified. Implicitly, critics thought the signified of the novel as a traditional one of the historical novel, as the historiosophical «idea», embodied in the system of literary devices. In this case literature becomes something instrumental, a kind of expression of extraliterary content. In contradistinction to that Tynianov considered literary semantics as an effect of the literary structure. From his point of view the literary sense is immanent to the process of signification accomplished inside the literary text. The second chapter is devoted to a rhetorical analysis of the opposition dead/alive. Tynianov systematically compares both terms of the opposition. As a result of this strategy the wax effigy of the dead emperor becomes «as if» alive and the world of living people «as if» dead. The qualifier «as if» refers to the fact that Tynianov creates an ambiguous semantic system. This rhetoric is related to European Romanticism and his «fantastic literature» (Merimé, Hoffmann, Maupassant etc.). But Tynianov demonstrates a linguistic origin of the strange fantoms created by romantics; he demystifies these idols by parodying the fantastic literature, that is, showing «how it was done». At the same time, the opposition mentioned above refers to his idea of «incongruity» which plays a prominent role in Tynianov s theory but has never been conceptualised. The incongruity is a inner collision of the literary text; from Tynianov's point of view the meaning of the work of literature is always a dynamic collision of semantically heterogeneous elements struggling with each other. In «The Wax Effigy» Tynianov creates a metalevel of the work demonstrating the process of creation of the literary sense. The third chapter is a reconstruction of Tynianov's conception of the historical prose, specifically of the mechanisms by which historical facts are transformed into literary events. Tynianov thought that the task of the historical novelist is to depict his hero as an actor, to demonstrate that as a wearer of many masks he is a creator of appearances, ambiguities. Here, in the «figure of fiction» (Andrei Belyi), the very idea of the historical prose and rhetoric employed in «The Wax Effigy», history and literature meet each other. In his last theoretical work, «On parody» Tynianov writes about the so-called sham structure of parody. In his opinion every parody is a text about other texts and «serious» work which could be read at the same time as a text about «reality». This twofold structure of parody is that of «The Wax Effigy»: that text speaks about ambiguities of the history and about ambiguities of the literary sense, about social reality of the past and - about the working of the literature itself. «The Wax Effigy» is written as a autoreflective text, as an experiment in literary semantics, as a system of literary ambiguities - of hero, rhetoric and the text itself. The meaning of the novel is created not by the embodiment extraliterary idea, but by the process of signification accomplished inside the work of literature. In this sense Tynianov's novel is parody, a break with the tradition of the historical novel preceding «The Wax Effigy».

Robustness of NIR calibrations for assessing fruit quality

Predictive models based on near infra-red spectroscopy for the assessment of fruit internal quality attributes must exhibit a degree of robustness across the parameters of variety, district and time to be of practical use in fruit grading. At the time this thesis was initiated, while there were a number of published reports on the development of near infra-red based calibration models for the assessment of internal quality attributes of intact fruit, there were no reports of the reliability ("robustness") of such models across time, cultivars or growing regions. As existing published reports varied in instrumentation employed, a re-analysis of existing data was not possible. An instrument platform, based on partial transmittance optics, a halogen light source and (Zeiss MMS 1) detector operating in the short wavelength near infra-red region was developed for use in the assessment of intact fruit. This platform was used to assess populations of macadamia kernels, melons and mandarin fruit for total soluble solids, dry matter and oil concentration. Calibration procedures were optimised and robustness assessed across growing areas, time of harvest, season and variety. In general, global modified partial least squares regression (MPLS) calibration models based on derivatised absorbance data were better than either multiple linear regression or `local' MPLS models in the prediction of independent validation populations . Robustness was most affected by growing season, relative to the growing district or variety . Various calibration updating procedures were evaluated in terms of calibration robustness. Random selection of samples from the validation population for addition to the calibration population was equivalent to or better than other methods of sample addition (methods based on the Mahalanobis distance of samples from either the centroid of the population or neighbourhood samples). In these exercises the global Mahalanobis distance (GH) was calculated using the scores and loadings from the calibration population on the independent validation population. In practice, it is recommended that model predictive performance be monitored in terms of predicted sample GH, with model updating using as few as 10 samples from the new population undertaken when the average GH value exceeds 1 .0 .

Kaukainen rakkaus : Saavuttamattomuuden semantiikka Kaija Saariahon oopperassa

L Amour de loin: The semantics of the unattainable in Kaija Saariaho s opera Kaija Saariaho (born 1952) is one of the most internationally successful Finnish composers there has ever been. Her first opera L Amour de loin (Love from afar, 1999-2000) has been staged all over the world and has won a number of important prizes. The libretto written for L Amour de loin by Amin Malouf (born 1949) sets the work firmly in the culture of courtly love and the troubadours, which flourished in Occitania in the South of France during the Middle Ages. The male lead in the opera is the troubadour Jaufré Rudel, who lived in the twelfth century and is known to have taken part in the Second Crusade in 1147-1148. This doctoral thesis L Amour de loin: The semantics of the unattainable in Kaija Saariaho s opera, which comes within the field of musicology and opera research, examines the dimensions of meaning contained in Kaija Saariaho s opera L Amour de loin. This hermeneutic-semiotic study is the first doctoral thesis dealing with Saariaho to be completed at the University of Helsinki. It is also the first thesis-level study of Saariaho s opera to be completed anywhere in the world. The study focuses on the libretto and music of the opera, that is to say the dramatic text (L Amour de loin 1980), and examines on the one hand the dimensions of meaning produced by the dramatic text and on the other, the way in which they fix the dramatic text in a historical and cultural context. Thus the study helps to answer questions about the dimensions of meaning contained in the dramatic text of the opera and how they can be interpreted. The most important procedural viewpoint is Lawrence Kramer s hermeneutic window (1990), supplemented by Raymond Monelle s semiotic theory of musical topics (2000, 2006) and the philosophical concept of Emmanuel Levinas (1996, 2002) in which the latter acts as an instrument for semantic interpretation to build up an analysis. The analytical section of the study is built around the three characters in the opera, Jaufré Rudel, Clémence the Countess of Tripoli, and the Pilgrim. The study shows that the music of Saariaho, who belongs to the third generation of Finnish modernists, has become distanced from the post-serial aesthetic towards a more diatonic form of expression. There is diatonicity, for instance, in the sonorous individuality of the male lead, which is based on the actual melodies of the historical Jaufré Rudel. The use of outside material in this context is exceptional in the work of Saariaho. At the same time, Saariaho s opera contains a wealth of expressive devices she has used in her earlier work. It became apparent during the study that, as a piece of music, L Amour de loin is a many layered and multi-dimensional work that does not unambiguously represent any single stylistic trend or aesthetic. Despite the composer s post-serial background and its abrasive relationship with opera, L Amour de loin is firmly attached to the tradition of western opera. The analysis based on the theory of musical topics that was carried out in the study, shows that topics referring to death and resurrection, used in opera since the seventeenth century, appear in L Amour de loin. The troubadour topic, mainly identified with the harp, also emerges in the work. The study also shows that the work is firmly attached to the tradition of western opera in other aspects, too, such as the travesti or trouser role played by the Pilgrim, and the idea of deus ex machina derived from Ancient Greek theatre. The study shows that the concept of love based on the medieval practices of courtly love, and the associated longing for another defined by almost 1,000 years of western culture, are both manifested in the semantics of Kaija Saariaho s opera which takes its place in the contemporary music genre.

"Secoituxesta järjettömäin luondocappalden canssa" : Perversiot, oikeuselämä ja kansankulttuuri 1700-luvun Suomessa

Bestiality was in the 18th century a more difficult problem in terms of criminal policy in Sweden and Finland than in any other Christian country in any other period. In the legal history of deviant sexuality, the phenomenon was uniquely widespread by international comparison. The number of court cases per capita in Finland was even higher than in Sweden. The authorities classified bestiality among the most serious crimes and a deadly sin. The Court of Appeal in Turku opted for an independent line and was clearly more lenient than Swedish courts of justice. Death sentences on grounds of bestiality ended in the 1730s, decades earlier than in Sweden. The sources for the present dissertation include judgment books and Court of Appeal decisions in 253 cases, which show that the persecution of those engaging in bestial acts in 18th century Finland was not organised by the centralised power of Stockholm. There is little evidence of local campaigns that would have been led by authorities. The church in its orthodoxy was losing ground and the clergy governed their parishes with more pragmatism than the Old Testament sanctioned. When exposing bestiality, the legal system was compelled to rely on the initiative of the public. In cases of illicit intercourse or adultery the authorities were even more dependent on the activeness of the local community. Bestiality left no tangible evidence, illegitimate children, to betray the crime to the clergy or secular authorities. The moral views of the church and the local community were not on a collision course. It was a common view that bestiality was a heinous act. Yet nowhere near all crimes came to the authorities' knowledge. Because of the heavy burden of proof, the legal position of the informer was difficult. Passiveness in reporting the crime was partly because most Finns felt it was not their place to intervene in their neighbours' private lives, as long as that privacy posed no serious threat to the neighbourhood. Hidden crime was at least as common as crime more easily exposed and proven. A typical Finnish perpetrator of bestiality was a young unmarried man with no criminal background or mental illness. The suspects were not members of ethnic minorities or marginal social groups. In trials, farmhands were more likely to be sentenced than their masters, but a more salient common denominator than social and economical status was the suspects' young age. For most of the defendants bestiality was a deep-rooted habit, which had been adopted in early youth. This form of subculture spread among the youth, and the most susceptible to experiment with the act were shepherds. The difference between man and animal was not clear-cut or self-evident. The difficulty in drawing the line is evident both in legal sources and Finnish folklore. The law that required that the animal partners be slaughtered led to the killing of thousands of cows and mares, and thereby to substantial material losses to their owners. Regarding bestiality as a crime against property motivated people to report it. The belief that the act would produce human-animal mongrels or that it would poison the milk and the meat horrified the public more than the teachings of the church ever could. Among the most significant aspects in the problems regarding the animals is how profoundly different the worldview of 18th century people was from that of today.

Constructive Perspectives on Inductive Logic

Constructive (intuitionist, anti-realist) semantics has thus far been lacking an adequate concept of truth in infinity concerning factual (i.e., empirical, non-mathematical) sentences. One consequence of this problem is the difficulty of incorporating inductive reasoning in constructive semantics. It is not possible to formulate a notion for probable truth in infinity if there is no adequate notion of what truth in infinity is. One needs a notion of a constructive possible world based on sensory experience. Moreover, a constructive probability measure must be defined over these constructively possible empirical worlds. This study defines a particular kind of approach to the concept of truth in infinity for Rudolf Carnap's inductive logic. The new approach is based on truth in the consecutive finite domains of individuals. This concept will be given a constructive interpretation. What can be verifiably said about an empirical statement with respect to this concept of truth, will be explained, for which purpose a constructive notion of epistemic probability will be introduced. The aim of this study is also to improve Carnap's inductive logic. The study addresses the problem of justifying the use of an "inductivist" method in Carnap's lambda-continuum. A correction rule for adjusting the inductive method itself in the course of obtaining evidence will be introduced. Together with the constructive interpretation of probability, the correction rule yields positive prior probabilities for universal generalizations in infinite domains.

Tarskin totuus : Totuuden määrittelemisen taustaehtoja ja seurauksia

Tutkielma esittelee Alfred Tarskin formalisoitujen kielien totuusmääritelmän filosofisia ja loogisia taustaehtoja ja seurauksia. Tutkimuksen keskeisimmät menetelmät ovat filosofinen analyysi ja matemaattinen logiikka. Keinona on myös aatehistoriallinen tutkimus. Keskeisin tutkimuksen kohde on Alfred Tarskin artikkeli "Der Wahrheitsbegriff in den formalisierten Sprachen", 1935 (julkaistu käännöksenä teoksessa Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics, Papers from 1923 to 1938, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1956). Tarskin alkuperäinen totuusmääritelmä formalisoiduille kielille ja totuuden määrittelemättömyystulos ovat esitetty nykyaikaisella notaatiolla. Analyyttisen ja historiallisen lähestymisen kautta Tarskin totuusmääritelmän ja malliteorian suhteita selvennetään absoluuttisen ja suhteellisen totuuskäsityksen avulla. Ajatusta formaalisista kielistä ennalta annetusti tulkittuina kielinä esitellään ja sen historiallisia taustoja selvitetään. Tämän idean olennaisuus todetaan Tarskin 1930-luvun totuusmääritelmän muodostumiselle. Eräiden käännöksen käsitteeseen liittyvien epäselvyyksien esiin nostaminen ja aksiomaattisten totuusteorioiden ja totuusmääritelmän suhteen esitteleminen ovat osa tutkielman loogista osuutta. Näiden lisäksi tutkielma esittelee S. Shapiron ja J. Ketlandin totuusteoreettisen deationismin kritiikkiä, jossa käytetään Tarskin totuusmääritelmää vastaavaa totuusteoreettista aksiomatisointia.