O objetivo desta dissertação é demonstrar que a responsabilidade civil aquiliana, no ordenamento jurídico brasileiro, tem como pressuposto fundamental a causação de dano injusto. Esse objetivo justifica-se porque existem posições doutrinárias, conhecidas como direito de danos, que defendem a desnecessidade do dano injusto para que seja deflagrada a estrutura de responsabilização civil. Analisam-se, para tanto, a estrutura e a finalidade da responsabilidade civil, bem como o seu enquadramento no sistema jurídico brasileiro. / The aim of this dissertation is to show that the non-contractual civil liability in the Brazilian legal order has as a fundamental presupposition the causation of the unfair damage. This aim is justifiable because there are doctrinaire opinion, known as damage law, that advocate the unnecessariness of the unfair damage to be triggered the structure of civil liability. It analyzes, therefore, the structure and the goal of the civil liability, as well as its fitting into the Brazilian legal system.

In this thesis, I discuss John Searles account of Intentionality which includes his theory of the Background as something which is necessary, in some sense, to there being such a thing as Intentionality. In chapter one I briefly introduce the notions of both background and normativity. In chapter two, I discuss the motives and initial rationale of Searles theory. In chapter three I discuss the philosophers he has had contact with who anticipated the Background. In chapter four I claim that Searle has always been conflicted about his theory and I diagnose the root of his conflict, namely that the original rationale required the Background to be normative in nature, but over time it was additionally conceived neurophysiologically, causally, and thus non-normative in nature. I argue that his conflict is inevitable given the irreducibility of the intentional to the non-intentional, and more generally of the normative to the non-normative.

In this thesis, I discuss John Searles account of Intentionality which includes his theory of the Background as something which is necessary, in some sense, to there being such a thing as Intentionality. In chapter one I briefly introduce the notions of both background and normativity. In chapter two, I discuss the motives and initial rationale of Searles theory. In chapter three I discuss the philosophers he has had contact with who anticipated the Background. In chapter four I claim that Searle has always been conflicted about his theory and I diagnose the root of his conflict, namely that the original rationale required the Background to be normative in nature, but over time it was additionally conceived neurophysiologically, causally, and thus non-normative in nature. I argue that his conflict is inevitable given the irreducibility of the intentional to the non-intentional, and more generally of the normative to the non-normative.

The present study aims to redeem social indexical meanings of language choice and language alternation in the light of indexical order, a notion proposed by Silverstein (2003). Many researchers have agreed that language varieties are indexical of certain macro-social relations and that code-switching even within a speech event can also be socially meaningful. Nonetheless, some issues such as how the indexical associations have been formed and how the associations are dynamically transformed into indexical effects have been less extensively discussed. Based on the framework of indexical order, together with some code-switching approaches and concepts, this thesis examines two opening speeches made for two international sports events held in Taiwan. The two speeches were delivered by the mayors of the host cities. Each speech involved more than one language, including cases of both code-switching and crossing (Rampton, 1998). The notion of indexical order has helped unveil the dialectical nature of how the indexical meanings are produced in code-switching or language-choice practices. Besides, the analyses of this study will demonstrate how the framework of indexical order may enrich the code-switching approaches and general code-switching studies.

The process of communication involves two types of meaning: explicit and implicit. An attempt is made to draw a distinction between two carriers of implicit meaning- presupposition and implicature. It is argued that presupposition is what the speaker assumes before making an utterance, and implicature is what the addressee infers from a linguistic structure used in an appropriate linguistic context. Implicature is of two types: non-contextual (or non-situational) and contextual (or situational). Although both types of implicature are determined by the context, they are generated using different types of context. Non-contextual implicature arises in contexts which are familiar to the addressee, while contextual implicature arises in contexts (situations) which are new to the addressee. Pragmatic competence is the ability to discover implicit meaning. Thus, of great importance is the description of the mechanism that carries implicit meaning. There are two such mechanisms: 1) linguistic structures used in appropriate linguistic contexts and 2) linguistic structures used in appropriate situations. The first mechanism is responsible for the generation of non-contextual implicature while the second mechanism is responsible for the generation of contextual implicature. Both types of implicature contribute to the economy of language. However, of the two types of implicature, the more important in the respect is contextual implicature- it makes possible to use one and the same... [to full text]

In the framework of new stylistics as developed by Roger Fowler, this scientific work researches the impact of the background knowledge of the reader on the interpretation of the beginning of a literary text. The functioning of pragmatic presuppositions in poetry and non-poetic fiction (novels) is explored; 437 poems and 223 novels are analyzed, and the obtained data is compared with the statistical values of the development of pragmatic presuppositions in six genres of non-fictional texts, 300 texts in total. All the sample of the thesis represents works of the twentieth century English-writing authors. Development of pragmatic presuppositions is sought to be quantified by employing the strategy of the research of pragmatic values as developed by van Rooij and Potts. Four main ways of triggering pragmatic presuppositions are singled out in the thesis: non-standard use of (1) verb forms, (2) articles and (3) deictic elements as well as (4) the mixed method represented by combinations of the first three methods or non-standard use of lexical elements. The research strives to verify whether fictional texts of different genres maintain the same trends of triggering pragmatic presuppositions or the genre of a text imposes upon the choice of pragmatic elements. / Šiame moksliniame darbe Rogerio Fowlerio naujosios stilistikos mokslinėje perspektyvoje nagrinėjama, kaip pamatinės skaitytojo žinios įtakoja literatūrinio kūrinio teksto pradžios interpretaciją. Darbe tiriamas pragmatinių prielaidų veikimas poezijoje ir prozoje (romanuose); ištirti 437 eilėraščiai ir 223 romanai, o gauti duomenys lyginami su šešių žanrų trijų šimtų neliteratūrinių kūrinių pragmatininių prielaidų kūrimo duomenimis. Visi tyrimui atsitiktinai parinkti tekstai buvo sukurti anglakalbių dvidešimtojo amžiaus autorių. Pragmatinių prielaidų kūrimą siekiama kvantifikuoti, naudojantis Van Rooijaus ir Pottso pragmatinių verčių tyrimo strategija. Išskiriami keturi pagrindiniai pragmatinių prielaidų iššaukimo būdai – nestandartinis (1) veiksmažodžių formų, (2) artikelių ir (3) deiktinių elementų vartojimas bei (4) mišrus metodas – pirmųjų trijų metodų kombinacija arba nestandartinis leksinių priemonių vartojimas. Tyrimu siekiama patikrinti, ar skirtingų žanrų literatūriniuose tekstuose pastebimi bendri pragmatinių prielaidų iššaukimo dėsningumai, ar teksto žanras esmingai įtakoja pragmatinių elementų parinkimą.

This study is a partial replication of Davison & Lutz's (1984) experiment. It was designed to test if L1 word order and English proficiency are involved in non-native speakers' sentence processing. This study concentrates on the roles of syntax and pragmatics/semantics in sentence processing. By comparing two corresponding syntactic structures with similar meanings but different forms in context, we can detect the different degrees of the salient property of a certain NP. The perception of the salient NP is related to the definition of the sentence topic, which functions as the link between the sentence and the discourse. The salient NP can be identified by applying our linguistic knowledge, syntactic rules, and our real world knowledge, pragmatic principles,. The choice of syntactic structure is conditioned heavily by pragmatic principles. It is believed that response times correspond to the degrees of salience.Sixty international students participated in the experiment. Stimulus sentences were presented with a computer program and response times were recorded in seconds by the computer automatically. A cloze test was given for the measuring of English proficiency.The data collected were analyzed with SPSS-X. The MANOVA was carried out to compare the differences between VO/OV language types, target sentences (transformed and untransformed ones), five types of syntactic constructions, and the interactions ofword order by target sentences, target sentences by syntactic constructions, and L1 word order by target sentences by syntactic constructions. The response times for English proficiency were used as a post hoc variable. Significance was set at .05.The results revealed that there was a significant difference across five syntactic constructions (p < .05). The other tests were not significant. Two important limitations on this study are problems arising out of randomization parameters in the experiment, and the lack of lower level English proficiency subjects. / Department of English

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-272).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1997. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85).

Thesis (M.A.)--Calvary Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Mo., 1998. / [Abstract]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-87).