This study mainly focuses on the emergence and utilization of communication systems in the context of joint action where collective cognitive activity is required. Dyads are given an instant messaging medium of communication where only a limited number of characters and symbols can be used for information exchange in order to collaborate on common tasks of finding objects, in a network-based interactive virtual environment (ActiveWorlds), a 3D, multi-agent, virtual reality platform. The restrictions on communication and the requirement of collaboration facilitated the creation of a lexical inventory and a minimalistic communication system, a compressed version of dyads&rsquo / shared Natural Languages (NLs). Across eight experimental sessions, two manipulations are made in order to study their effects on parameters on 4 levels of analysis: (1) Quantitative, (2) Syntactic Complexity, (3) Lexical Category and (4) Speech Act Category. The two interventions are (1) increasing the number of targets from one to two after the first three experiments, and (2) administering a two months break between the 6th and 7th-8th experiments. Increased number of target objects influenced the quantitative parameters that are related to the amount of communication as well as the use scores of lexical, syntactic, and speech act categories / however, the use ratios of several parameters were resilient under this manipulation and rather showed different trends of change characterizing the development of the system towards a more mature state in accordance with the demands of the task structure. The opposing trends of increasing use ratio of Assertive and decreasing use ratio of Directive Speech Acts and decreasing use ratios of the Type/Token Number of Lexical Items in a session, the Number of New Lexical Items in a session and increasing ratio of Turn Success are also characteristics of this maturation. The break administered between the 6th and 7th experimental session did not cause any decay in the acquired skills of using the emerged communication system. The previously negotiated strategies and acquired skills of communication as well as the trends of the use ratios of parameters were resilient. The qualitative analysis of the developing communication system revealed several strategies, including compression of NL words into new lexical items, exploiting the redundancy of characters of written words, and iconicity and indexicality of given symbols. The main drivers of the development of the new communication system appeared to be the processes of integration of communicative with behavioral action. The cognitive capacities enabling this integration and the comprehension of the utterances in the new system is explained by the Cognitive and Communicative Principles of Relevance that are attributed to a comprehension sub-module of a mind-reading module of the human cognitive system.

This thesis aims at investigating the grammatical relations in Turkish Sign Language (TiD). For this aim, word order, nominal morphology, and agreement morphology of verbs are examined. TiD lacks morphological case, but it has a very rich pronominal system like other sign languages. Verbs are classified according to their morphosyntactic features. With this classification, we can observe the effect of word order and agreement morphology on the grammatical relations. Combinatory Categorial Grammar as a lexicalized grammar encodes word order, morphological case, and agreement features in the lexicon. Hence, it has the tools for testing any lexicalized basic word order hypothesis for a language based on the gapping data. Gapping data based on grammatical judgments of native signers indicate that TiD is a verb final language. Syntactic ergativity seems to be prevailing in coordination of a transitive sentence and an intransitive sentence where the single argument of the intransitive clause or one of the arguments of the transitive clause is missing. TiD also shows a tendency for ergativity in lexical properties such as agreement and pro-drop.

This study analyzes the representation of women and modernization in Tunisian society by looking at Tunisian films produced in Tunisia after 1980. Study aims to develop a new concept to understand modernization process of women in a non-western, Muslim, and North African society through representations in films. Women&rsquo / s modernization process has been analyzed through the qualitative analyses of five Tunisian films by focusing on conceptualization of women issue as one of the main elements of Tunisian modernization. More presicely, the study examines stages of women&rsquo / s modernization on the one side, and representation of this process in films on the other. In conclusion, I argue that examining written literature alone is not enough to understand women&rsquo / s modernization process in a non-western society. Expansion of modernization is not rapid and equal in the Tunisian society. If taking place in the public sphere, having a paid job and having education are taken as the indicators of women&rsquo / s modernization, it is seen that lower class women face with problems in every stage of Tunisian modernization. At that point, attending to visual sources like cinema which has the ability to reflect the society can give us convenient information about this process.

Turkish, along with many other languages, marks its direct objects in two distinct ways: overt accusative marking (Acc) versus no marking (&empty / ). The research on the grammar and interpretation of Turkish inde

The thesis aims to provide a comprehensive experimental analysis of the processing and acquisition of Turkish relative clauses in Turkish monolingual and Turkish-English bilingual children at the ages of 5-8. The study combines of

In the TDB[1]-like corpora annotation efforts, which are constructed by the intuitions of the annotators, the reliability of the corpus can only be determined via correct interannotator agreement measurement methodology (Artstein, &amp / Poesio, 2008). In this thesis, a methodology was defined to measure the inter-annotator agreement among the TDB annotators. The statistical tests and the agreement coefficients that are widely used in scientific communities, including Cochran&rsquo / s Q test (1950), Fleiss&rsquo / Kappa (1971), and Krippendorff&rsquo / s Alpha (1995), were examined in detail. The inter-annotator agreement measurement approaches of the various corpus annotation efforts were scrutinized in terms of the reported statistical results. It was seen that none of the reported interannotator agreement approaches were statistically appropriate for the TDB. Therefore, a comprehensive inter-annotator agreement measurement methodology was designed from scratch. A computer program, the Rater Agreement Tool (RAT), was developed in order to perform statistical measurements on the TDB with different corpus parameters and data handling approaches. It was concluded that Krippendorff&rsquo / s Alpha is the most appropriate statistical method for the TDB. It was seen that the measurements are affected with data handling approach preferences, as well as the used agreement statistic methods. It was also seen that there is not only one correct approach but several approaches valid for different research considerations. For the TDB, the major data handling suggestions that emerged are: (1) considering the words as building blocks of the annotations and (2) using the interval approach when it is preferred to weigh the partial disagreements, and using the boundary approach when it is preferred to evaluate all disagreements in same way.

Ένα κεντρικό πρόβλημα της φιλοσοφίας ήταν πάντοτε το πρόβλημα της κατάκτησης του εαυτού μας. Πότε είμαι πραγματικά ο εαυτός μου; Ποιο είναι το οντολογικό νόημα της κατάκτησης του εαυτού μας; Αυτό το πρόβλημα έγινε ο άξονας γύρω από τον οποίο περιστρέφονται και άλλα προβλήματα με τα οποία χρειάστηκε να καταπιαστούμε: πώς θεμελιώνεται οντολογικά η γνώση και πώς είναι δυνατή η κατάκτησή της; Τι είναι η γνώση; Ποιο είναι το νόημα του χωρισμού της ψυχής από το σώμα; Ποιο είναι το νόημα του θανάτου; Αν στόχος είναι η έξοδος από το σπήλαιο, τότε υπάρχει κάτι που να με υποχρεώνει να επιστρέψω; Τελικά, στέκει αθεμελίωτο το αίτημα της δίκαιης πράξης; Καθώς προσπαθούμε να βρούμε τις απαντήσεις σε αυτά τα ερωτήματα, προτείνουμε τις δικές μας προσεγγίσεις σε σημαντικά πλατωνικά ζητήματα: τη σχέση της χειρωνακτικής και διανοητικής εργασίας, το νόημα της σωματικότητας, το νόημα του άλλου, το νόημα της μεθόδου, τη διαφορά και τη σχέση του φιλοσόφου και του πολιτικού. Μέσα από όλα αυτά τα προβλήματα, προσφέρουμε στο τέλος τη δική μας προσέγγιση γύρω από το πλατωνικό νόημα της κατάκτησης του εαυτού μας και ανοίγουμε ένα δρόμο για μία στέρεη προσέγγιση του πλατωνικού ευ πράττειν. Τον τελευταίο λόγο τον έχει ο τίμιος αναγνώστης μας, ο οποίος θα κρίνει την ποιότητα του αποτελέσματος. Εμπνευσμένοι από μία στιγμιαία σκέψη του Πλάτωνα στον Θεαίτητο, αφήνουμε στον επίλογο μία υπόθεση εργασίας: την θεμελίωση μιας ηθικής χωρίς a priori και χωρίς σχετικισμό: τις δύο συμπληγάδες κάθε προσπάθειας ηθικής θεμελίωσης. Και υποστηρίζουμε ότι μία τέτοια θεμελίωση μπορεί να αντληθεί από τη μαρξιστική σκέψη. / A basic problem of philosophy was always the problem of the conquest of ourselves. When am I really myself? What is the ontological meaning of the conquest of ourselves? This problem became the axle around which rotate more platonic problems we had to undertake: how is knowledge ontologically grounded on and how is it possible to acquire it? What is knowledge? What is the meaning of the soul-body separation? What is the meaning of death? If the exit from the cave is the final aim, then is there something that makes me to return? Eventually, is the request of the justice act without ontological foundation? As we are trying to find the answers for all this questions, we offer our one approach on important platonic issues: the relation between the manual and the mental labor, the meaning of corporality, the meaning of the other, the meaning of the method, the difference and the relation between the philosopher and the statesman. Through all this problems, we are finally offering our approach about the platonic meaning of the conquest of ourselves and we are opening a path for a solid understanding of the platonic just act. The last word is on our fair reader, who will judge the quality of the result. Inspired from an instantaneous thought of Plato in Theaetetus, we are offering a working hypothesis: the foundation of an ethic without apriori or relativism: those two symplegades of every attempt for an ethical foundation. And we are claiming that such a foundation can be derived from Marx’s thought.

La biologie de synthèse (BS) est une discipline scientifique qui se propose d'être à la biologie ce que la chimie synthétique est à la chimie analytique. La BS adopte des approches de l'ingénierie et vise à élaborer des systèmes biologiques fonctionnels réalisant des tâches techniques. Elle peut donc être qualifiée de technoscience, au sens où la technique est pour elle un débouché de ses recherches mais également une condition de ses découvertes. La BS ne se laisse cependant pas réduire à sa dimension intentionnelle. Elle est une discipline complexe, tant quant à son épistémologie qu'à son ontologie. Son inscription dans la société n'est pas moins complexe : les technosciences mettent toujours en jeu un grand nombre de dimensions de notre existence collective. Les enjeux éthiques de la BS sont donc majeurs, mais les crispations autour des nouvelles technologies rendent les débats difficiles, les positions se radicalisant entre utopies technophiles et dystopies technophobes.L'objectif de cette étude est de clarifier le contexte éthique, sans le simplifier, et d'apporter des éléments d'analyse des problèmes éthiques de la BS par-delà le simplisme rhétorique et le futurisme,qui minent les débats autour de cette technoscience. Il s'agit donc de se confronter à la complexité de la BS, de sa définition à son épistémologie et son ontologie, en passant par ses dimensions sociales et par le statut des êtres qu'elle produit. Les théories de W.V.O. Quine permettent d'éclairer les aspects épistémologiques et leurs conséquences ontologiques ; la philosophie des processus et des relations de Gilbert Simondon permet quant à elle de décrire la complexité des modes d'existence des êtres biosynthétiques entre contraintes techniques et devenir biologique. / Synthetic biology (SB) is a scientific field that aims at being to biology what syntheticchemistry is to analytic chemistry. SB adopts engineering approaches in order to develop functionalbiological systems carrying out technical tasks. It can thus be described as a technoscience, in the sensethat technic is both an outlet for its research and a material condition for its discoveries.However, SB does not let itself be reduced to that intentional dimension. It is a complexdiscipline, considering both its epistemology and its ontology. How SB is inscribed in society is notless complex: technosciences always involve several dimensions of our collective existence. SB's ethicalissues are thus crucial, but tensions about new technologies make the debates difficult, the positionsbeing often split between technophilic utopias and technophobic dystopias.The objective of this study is to clarify the ethical context without simplifying it, and to giveelements of analysis of the ethical problems in SB beyond the rhetorical simplism and the futurismthat undermine the debates about SB. SB's complexity must thus be confronted, from its definition toits epistemology and ontology, and through its social dimensions as well as the status of the beings itproduces. The theories of W.V.O. Quine enable the understanding of the epistemological aspects andtheir ontological consequences; the process and relations philosophy of Gilbert Simondon enables thedescription of the modes of existence of biosynthetic beings caught between their technical constraintsand their biological development.

Ce travail contient une investigation sur la théorie phénoménologique de la signification. L'idée-clé du projet est d'expliquer la constitution de la signification au moyen des analyses de l'intentionnalité. Nous avons étudié différents actes intentionnels qui fonctionnent dans l'expression et dans la construction des significations. Nous avons étudié à cet égard, d'abord, l'acte d'expression primordiale, dans lequel le contenu d'une intuition est élevé au domaine de l'idéal, puis les actes de synthèse catégorielle, dans lesquels d'autres significations se constituent en absence de leur propre intuition. Nous avons puis étudié les effets de la théorie de la signification à la conception de la logique pure. En conséquence, nous avons discuté que la sémantique dialogique est un cadre adéquat, selon le phénoménologie, pour interpréter le raisonnement logique et pour expliquer la signification des constantes logiques. Nous avons également discuté la signification de certains connecteurs logiques, et leurs formalisations, en utilisant notre méthode phénoménologique-dialogique. / This work contains an investigation on the phenomenological theory of meaning. The key idea of the project is to explain the constitution of the meaning by means of the analyses of the intentionality. We have investigated different intentional acts which are functioning in expression and in constructing the meanings. In this regard we have studied, first, the act of primordial expression, in which a content of an intuition is raised to the realm of the ideal, and then the acts of categorial synthesis, in which further meanings are constituted in the absence of their proper intuition. We have investigated the effects of the theory of meaning to the conception of pure logic. Dialogical semantic is shown to be an adequate framework to interpret logical reasoning and to explain the meaning of the logical constants as well. We have also discussed the meaning of some logical connectives, and their formalizations, using our phenomenologico-dialogical method.

This thesis discusses the central ideas that surround Michael Dummett's claim that there is an incompatibility between a truth-conditional conception of meaning and a minimalist conception of truth. These ideas are brought into relation to the work of John McDowell and Donald Davidson, as all three philosophers can be better understood by locating them within Dummett's dialectic regarding the incompatibility. Dummett's argument crucially depends upon the assumption that a meaning-theory should be full-blooded in nature, against McDowell's insistence that a meaning-theory can only ever be modest. The main contention of this thesis is that neither Dummett nor McDowell is successful in establishing their strong contentions regarding the form that a meaning-theory should take. McDowell only wants to provide trivial answers to questions about the constitutive nature of the meanings and competency of particular items in a language. Dummett, on the other hand, wants to provide a reductive account of the central concepts that concern the philosophy of language. What this thesis will argue is that once both of these claims have been rejected, the position Dummett and McDowell jointly dictate is in fact the position that we should read Davidson as occupying, who lies in a conceptual space between the extremes of maximal full-bloodedness and modesty. This is an understanding of Davidson that is contrary to how McDowell reads him, who has been an influential commentator of Davidson. How Davidson should actually be interpreted is achieved by understanding how he has the resources to avoid Dummett's claim of an incompatibility between a truth-conditional conception of meaning and a minimalist conception of truth.