Title from title page of PDF (University of Missouri--St. Louis, viewed February 8, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-50).

Kant famously claims his table of judgments is complete. However, Kant does not provide a demonstration of his claim of completeness. In fact, he does not seem to think that a proof of completeness is necessary. I argue that we can reconstruct a demonstration that Kant would accept once we reflect upon his notion of a disjunctive judgment.

Only thirty known species have populations at high latitudes in both hemispheres, this is, a bipolar distribution. Five of them belong to the genus Carex. Before attempting to elucidate the origins of such distributions, we need to resolve taxonomical problems that are typically encountered in such species. We focus on the Carex capitata complex, which includes Carex arctogena as a bipolar species, in worldwide scope sampling. A morphometric study and phylogenetic analyses based on maximum parsimony, Bayesian inference and Statistical Parsimony have revealed: a) C. capitata and C. arctogena are different species; b) C. anctarctogena is a synonym of C. arctogena and c) a great biodiversity previously undetected in western North America that could lead to the description of three new taxa (“Carex cayouetteana”, Carex sp. nov. 1 and 2) comprised in the so called “C. cayouetteana” lineage. More studies are needed in some C. capitata samples from Russia that appears in the molecular analyses in a strongly supported clade.

A disjunction is an expression using ‘or’, such as ‘Anne has a Ford or a Tesla’. From such a statement, we cannot usually infer either disjunct, for example, that ‘Anne has a Ford’. However, in choice situations like ‘You may have coffee or tea’ we can infer either option. The problem of free choice disjunction is to determine why these choice inferences are legitimate (von Wright 1968, Kamp 1973, Meyer 2016). Central to this discussion is the observation that a modal possibility operator ranging over a disjunction sometimes implies a conjunction of possibilities. In the case of permission, we express this as the choice principle ‘May (P or Q)’ entails ‘May P and May Q’ (Zimmerman 2000). Unfortunately, this inference cannot hold in a logical language without significant modification of the systems involved. I explore the history of proposed solutions to this problem, including semantic solutions that assign a distinctive meaning to free choice disjunctions and pragmatic solutions that use features of their utterance to solve the problem. I draw connections between semantics and pragmatics and, using the tools of dynamic logic (Baltag et al. 1998, van Benthem 2010), I present a formal account of one major (Gricean) approach to the problem (Kratzer & Shimoyama 2002). Ultimately, I explore the role of logic in this debate and argue that we should formally represent the meaning of these expressions directly as conjunctions of possibilities. Thus, rather than trying to account for the choice principle within a logical system, we must instead account for the fact that, in choice situations, the meaning of ‘May (P or Q)’ translates into logical formalism as (May P & May Q). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / A disjunction is a statement using ‘or’, like ‘Anne has a Ford or a Tesla’. From such a statement, we cannot infer either disjunct—e.g. ‘Anne has a Ford’. In choice situations like ‘You may have coffee or tea’ we can infer either option. Why this choice inference is legitimate is the problem of free choice disjunction. I explore the history of solutions to the problem, including semantic solutions that propose a special meaning to choice disjunctions and pragmatic solutions that appeal to the circumstances in which they are uttered. I draw connections between semantics and pragmatics and present a formal account of one major pragmatic approach to the problem. Where others have sought to explain how 'May(P or Q)' entails 'May P and May Q', I argue instead that the meaning of ‘May (P or Q)’ in choice scenarios translates directly into logical formalism as ‘May P & May Q’.

"Timing diagrams are used in industrial practice as a specification language of circuit components. They have been formalized for efficient use in model checking. This formalization is often more succinct and convenient than the use of temporal logic. We explore the relationship between timing diagrams and temporal logic formulas by showing that closure under disjunction does not hold for timing diagrams. We give an algorithm that returns a disjunction (if any) of two given timing diagrams. We also give algorithms that decide satisfiability of a timing diagram and return exact time separations between events in a timing diagram. An Alloy specification for timing diagrams with one waveform has also been built."

Social disjunction is one of main problems discussed at national level and mentioned in various programs, as well as in debates on poverty and unemployment. Most painfully it affects children, since they are not able to control or influence circumstances determining social disjunction. Behavioral disorders in children who experienced social disjunction were taken as an object for this study. A hypothesis to say that social disjunction and behavioral disorders are closely related and interacting phenomena proved to be true. Persons who suffer various social difficulties such as low living, poor lodgment, broken social relations and ties, non-participation in political life of society etc. very often have behavioral disorders. The object of this study - behavioral disorders in children who experienced social disjunction - was secured by reviewing scientific, pedagogical, psychological and other literature from the point of view of the problem under discussion. Causes and structure of social disjunction were discussed; phenomenon of social disjunction, as well as behavior typical to children who experienced social disjunction was analyzed. Afterwards the recommendations were presented for work with children who experienced social disjunction. After analysis of conceptions of social disjunction and comparison of them with those of poverty, one can maintain that the latter emphasize more prominently the shortage of material resources, meanwhile the conception of social disjunction... [to full text]

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, August 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

In the theory of open quantum systems, a quantum Markovian master equation, the Lindblad equation, reveals the most general form for the generators of a quantum dynamical semigroup. In this thesis, we present the derivation of the Lindblad equation and several examples of Lindblad equations with their analytic and numerical solutions. The graphs of the numerical solutions illuminate the dynamics and the stabilization as time increases. The corresponding von Neumann entropies are also presented as graphs. Moreover, to illustrate the difference between the dynamics of open and isolated systems, we prove two theorems about the conditions for stabilization of the solutions of the von Neumann equation which describes the dynamics of the density matrix of open quantum systems. It shows that the von Neumann equation is not satisfied for modelling dynamics in the cognitive contextin general. Instead, we use the Lindblad equation to model the mental dynamics of the players in the game of the 2-player prisoner’s dilemma to explain the irrational behaviors of the players. The stabilizing solution will lead the mental dynamics to an equilibrium state, which is regarded as the termination of the comparison process for a decision maker. The resulting pure strategy is selected probabilistically by performing a quantum measurement. We also discuss two important concepts, quantum decoherence and quantum Darwinism. Finally, we mention a classical Neural Network Master Equation introduced by Cowan and plan our further works on an analogous version for the quantum neural network by using the Lindblad equation.

Dans sa première partie, cette thèse se propose d’éclairer la portée du terme d’hyperbate chez rhéteurs et grammairiens romains. L’examen montre que ce concept est utilisé dans deux sens distincts : d’abord, l’hyperbate au sens restreint qui n’inclut que l’anastrophe, et la transiectio – disjonction d’un syntagme, en particulier d’un syntagme nominal. Ensuite, l’hyperbate au sens large est utilisée par les grammairiens romains pour désigner cinq espèces qui concernent l’inversion de l’ordre des mots. Chez Julien de Tolède, on rencontre l’emploi du terme d’« hyperbate » aussi pour désigner de longues parenthèses interposées. La première partie du chapitre II de la thèse propose une brève présentation des réflexions sur l’hyperbate dans la tradition philologique et linguistique. Traditionnellement, l’hyperbate est présentée comme une figure de style ; les études modernes se concentre sur l’hyperbate représentant un moyen pragmatique de « mise en relief ». La deuxième partie du chapitre II a pour l’objectif de présenter l’encadrement et le champ médian (séquence de mots insérés) décrits par la linguistique allemande. Le chapitre III propose une étude typologie des mots insérés dans le champ médian et de l’ordre dans lequel ils sont linéarisés. L’étude est fondée sur un corpus de syntagmes nominaux disjoints comportant un génitif et un nom, relevés en particulier chez César, chez Cicéron et dans l’Histoire Auguste. Le champ médian peut être représenté par des mots et des groupes de mots variés, dont le nombre va d’un mot jusqu’à trois ou plus. Les résultats sont résumés dans des tableaux synoptiques. / This dissertation, devoted to hyperbaton in Latin, is divided into three chapters. The aim of chapter I is to examine the concept of hyperbaton used by Roman rhetoricians grammarians. It shows that this term is used in two distinct ways. Firstly, hyperbaton in the narrow sense covers anastrophe and transiectio, i.e. a discontinuous phrase, especially a discontinuous noun phrase. Secondly, Roman grammarians conceive hyperbaton in a broad sense for designating five types of inversion of word order. Furthermore, Julian of Toledo adds a type of “long hyperbaton”, i.e. long inserted parentheses. The first part of chapter II provides an overview of reflections about hyperbaton in philological and linguistic literature. Hyperbaton is traditionally regarded as a stylistic figure; however, Modern studies on this topic focus on pragmatic implication of the use of discontinuous phrases. The second part of chapter II presents the concept of framing and median field (sequence of inserted words), developed by German linguistics. Chapter III provides a typology of words inserted into a discontinuous noun phrase formed by a genitive and its head noun. Attention is paid to the order in which inserted elements are linearised. The research is based on a corpus of discontinuous noun phrases collected mainly in Caesar, Cicero, and Historia Augusta. The median field can be formed by various words or groups of words. Examples of median fields with two, three, and more words and their ordering are presented in synoptic tables.

This thesis investigates the implications of positive polarity for grammar. The empirical focus is on two positive polarity particles in Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Sri Lanka. Sinhala has two particles -hari and -da that systematically appear across disjunction, indefinite and question constructions. Traditionally, these particles have been called Q-particles (i.e. Hagstrom (1998); Cable (2010); Slade (2011); a.m.o). They have so far been analyzed in terms of either Q-question/-uantifier operators (Kishimoto (2005)) or choice function variables (cf. Hagstrom (1998); Cable (2010); Slade (2011)). This thesis presents new data pertaining to the distribution and interpretation of disjunctions and indefinites formed with the two particles in contexts of negation, modals, quantifiers and intensional operators, that none of the previous accounts has captured. It proposes to analyze the grammar of the two particles based on their positive polarity character associated with exhaustivity (cf. Spector (2014); Nicolae (2017)). It claims that we can account for a wide range of grammatical phenomena such as ignorance inferences, scope or non/specificity effects, free/no choice implicatures and de re/dicto readings of -hari and -da disjunctions/indefinites in matrix and overt modal/quantifier contexts based on a distribution requirement (DR) derived by way of exhaustification with respect to alternatives of a disjunction or indefinite. The thesis casts its proposal in a hybrid system of lexical (cf. Levinson (2000); Chierchia (2004)) and grammatical (cf. Fox (2007); Chierchia et al. (2012)) approaches borrowing insights from both approaches. It also utilizes a hybrid framework of Hamblin semantics (cf. Hamblin (1973); Kratzer and Shimoyama (2002); Alonso-Ovalle (2006)) to keep domain alternatives separated and application of an alternative sensitive exhaustivity (Exh) operator (cf. the grammatical approach) to derive implicatures. Obligatory exhaustivity is treated as a morphological requirement/ lexical property of the particles -hari and -da represented by an uninterpretable exhaustivity [unExh] feature. Then, this lexical property is factored into the grammar by way of the Exh operator carrying an equivalent interpretable exhaustivity [inExh] feature placed in the syntactic structure of a -hari and -da disjunction/indefinite construction at LF. “Inclusivity” and “exclusivity” components of the particles -hari and -da that have consequences for distribution requirements are derived by way of different morpho-syntactic requirements of the particles -hari and -da. Thus, this thesis proposes a fully compositional/grammatical account all the way from the bottom to the top in the derivations.