Self-help counselling is an important industry that not only influences its immediate users’ behavior but also society and social behaviors more generally. Since New Ageis a main branch of self-help, and since positivity is a dominant concept in (New Age) self-help discourse, it is worth analyzing how positivity might be achieved in terms of language use. The present study investigates whether the adjectives in a couple of New Age publications contribute to communicating positivity and, if yes, how. What adjectives are used and how can they be categorized in terms of positive, negative, neutral or undetermined connotations as well as semantic prosody? The findings support the hypothesis that the use of “positive adjectives” (Rozin, Berman & Royzman, 2010, p. 536) is what helps to make New Age self-help books convey a positive spirit.

This licentiate thesis investigates the case and the syntactic position of the direct object in South Saami. The focus is on plural direct objects, which have Differential Object Marking, a phenomenon in which the case alternates between different types of direct objects. In South Saami, some direct objects carry the accusative case form in the plural, while others only carry the plural marker. This variation of suffix displayed on the direct object is contingent on definiteness; definite direct objects consistently display the accusative case form in the plural while indefinite direct objects, specific and nonspecific alike, lack accusative morphology. In addition to case marking, the study presents an analysis of the alternation of the syntactic position of some direct objects. Definite and indefinite specific direct objects can be realized in two positions: as the complement of the verb or in a position as specifier of the light verb projection. By contrast, indefinite nonspecific direct objects obligatorily surface in the complement position of the verb. This variability in syntactic position of some direct objects is analyzed by means of a Specificity Operator, adjoined to the DP-level of every specific NP, definite and indefinite. The operator moves as an instance of quantifier raising in order to take scope over Existential Closure (EC). EC binds NPs in its domain and give them an existential reading. Therefore, when the Specificity Operator raises, it anchors the DP it is adjoined to in a domain, which is unbound by EC and therefore facilitates a specific interpretation. The operator, void of phonological content, can raise alone to the specifier of vP as an instance of covert movement. The operator can also Pied-pipe the DP it is adjoined to, which results in overt movement of the DP. Indefinite nonspecific direct objects lack the Specificity Operator and therefore they remain in-situ in the VP, where they are bound by EC. In addition to its theoretical value, the thesis will be of use for teachers, students and others with an interest in a better understanding of the case form and the position of the direct object in South Saami. / Daennie licentiaatetjaalegisnie gïehtjedem guktie Åarjelsamien direkte objeekth gelliengiertesne kaasushgïetjieh åadtjoeh. Manne gelliengiertem veeljeme juktie åarjelaemien gïele Differential Object Marking åtna. Naakenh direkte objeekth dam giehtjiem -idie guedtieh, mij ackusatijvem gelliengïertesne muana. Jeatjah direkte objeekth barre låhkoegiehtjiem -h guedtieh, mij ajve gelliengïertem muana, menh ij kaasusem. Dan åvteste direkte objeekti kaasushaamoeh molsedieh. Mov gïehtjidimmie vuesehte ahte definijte direkteobjeekth gelliengiertesne dam ackusatijvegïehtjiem. Eah indefinijte direkte objeekth dam gïethjiem utnieh, valla barre gelliengierehaamoem utnieh. Manne vielie gïehtjedem gusnie, dennie raaje- sisnie, leah dej direkte objeekti sijjieh. Gaavneme ahte joekehtsh leah aaj ovmessie direkte objeekti gaskoeh. Definijte jïh indefinijte specifijke direkte objeekth utnieh göökte sijjieh gusnie maehtieh jïjhtedh, valla indefinite ovspecifijke direkte objeekth utnieh ajve aktem sijjiem gusnie maehtieh årrodh. Gaajhkh dah golme ovmessie direkte objeekth maehtieh maadthsijjesne årrodh goh verben komplemeente, valla definijte jïh indefinijte specifijke direkte objeekth maehtieh aaj aktene vP:n specificeerijisnie jïjhtedh. Manne daam joekehtehtem jïh vuesehtem mannasinie naemhtie jis. Mov innovasjovne lea akte specifijkeoperatovre. Dïhte lea adjungeradamme fïerhten DP:se mij lea definijte jallh indefinijte specifijke. Dïhte operatovre iktesth bæjjene DP:n sistie vP specificeerijen sïjse, men dïhte maahta aaj dam DP:m buektedh Pied-pipingen tjïrrh. Dïhte specifijkeoperatovre bæjjene juktie edtja baataridh Existential Closuren (EC) jaksoste. Gosse operatovre bæjjene, dïhte dan sov DP:m dïbrehte akten domeenese, gusnie specifijke guarkoe daerpies sjædta. Dah direkte objeekt mah eah specifijkeoperatovrem utnieh tjoerieh baetsedh VP:n sijse, jïh dannasinie EC dejtie veadta. Dannasinie existentielle guarkoem åadtjoeh. Daate tjaalege vihkeles lingvistihke teorijese, valla aaj lohkehtæjjide, learoehkidie jïh jeatjide guhth sïjhth buerebe guarkedh mij kaasusidie lea direkte objeekten jïh gusnie, dennie raajesisnie, dïhte objeekte jæjhta. / I den här licentiatavhandling undersöks kasusformen hos de direkta objekten och deras syntaktiska position i sydsamiskan. Fokus ligger på direkta objekt i pluralis, vilka uppvisar fenomenet differentiell objektsmarkering, som innebär att vissa direkta objekt bär ackusativsuffixet i plural medan andra endast bär pluralsuffixet. Denna variation i objektsmarkering är känslig för definithet. Definita direkta objekt har accusativändelsen medan indefinita, både specifika och icke-specifika direkta objekt, saknar den. Utöver själva realiseringen av kasussuffix undersöks också de direkta objektens syntaktiska position. En analys presenteras som definierar olika typer av nominalfraser och skiljer definita och specifika direkta objekt från icke-specifika direkta objekt. Den första typen uppvisar variation i sin syntaktiska placering och har möjligheten att dyka upp både i komplementställning till verbet och i en den lilla verbfrasens specificerare, det vill säga vid gränsen för den lexikala fasen. Indefinita icke-specifika direkta objekt, som utgör den andra typen, kan bara uppträda i en position som komplement till verbet. På basis av den analys som inkluderar min innovation Specifikhetsoperatorn, vilken är adjungerad till alla definita och specifika direkta objekts DP-nivå, kan de två positionerna förklaras. Specifikhetsoperatorn flyttar alltid till vP:s specifierare som en kvantifierarinteraktion, där Specifikhetstoperatorn får räckvidd över Existential Closure (EC) och förankrar sin DP i en domän där en specifik tolkning blir nödvändig. Detta är en typ av osynlig flytt. Flytten kan också vara synlig. I det fallet sker medfraktning (Pied-piping) när Specifikhetsoperatorn tar med sig den DP den är adjungerad till när den flyttar till vPs specifierare. Direkta object som saknar Specifikhetsoperatorn stannar i positionen som komplement till verbet och binds därför av EC, vilket leder till att de får en existentiell tolkning. Bortom sitt värde för lingvistisk teoribildning kommer avhandlingen också att bli viktig för lärare, studenter och elever såväl som för andra med ett intresse av att bättre förstå vilket kasus som uppträder på sydsamiska direkta objekt och dessa objekts position i satsen.

Low-grade gliomas (LGGs) constitute a major challenge for health care because of their location and nature. LGGs are often found in eloquent areas, and their infiltrative growth cause neurological reorganization, which complicates the mapping of important functions. Awake surgery in combination with direct electrical stimulation (DES) and intraoperative tests is a relatively new method for mapping the brain's functional limits, thus eliminating as much of the tumor as possible while maintaining important functions. At present there is no available intraoperative test for semantic processing in Swedish. Tests of specific linguistic abilities improves the specificity of mapping which reduces post-operative linguistic impairments. Intraoperative tests can thus contribute to increased quality of life in the patient group. This study was based on the Dutch Lingusistic Intraoperative Protocol (DuLIP) test battery to create a Swedish version of the subtest semantic odd word out (SOWO). SOWO tests semantic processing via lexical reading. The adjusted and extended version of SOWO was tested during a pilot trial on 26 standard-language people. The study has resulted in a new semantic intraoperative test in Swedish that will be clinically examined at University Hospital in Uppsala. Hopefully, the new test contributes to better treatment options for patients with LGG. / Lågmaligna tumörer (LGG) utgör en stor utmaning för vården på grund av deras lokalisation och karaktär. LGG återfinns ofta i elokventa områden och deras infiltrativa växtsätt orsakar neurologisk omorganisering, vilket komplicerar kartläggning av viktiga funktioner. Vakenkirurgi i kombination med direkt elektrisk stimulering (DES) och intraoperativa tester är en relativt ny metod för att kartlägga hjärnans funktionella gränser och därmed kunna avlägsna så stor del av tumören som möjligt samtidigt som viktiga funktioner kan bevaras. I dagsläget finns det inget tillgängligt intraoperativt test för semantisk bearbetning på svenska. Tester av specifika lingvistiska förmågor förbättrar specificiteten av kartläggningen vilket minskar postoperativa språkliga nedsättningar. Intraoperativa tester kan därmed bidra till ökad livskvalitet hos patientgruppen. Denna studie har utgått från det nederländska testbatteriet Dutch Lingusistic Intraoperative Protocol (DuLIP) för att skapa en svensk version av deltestet semantic odd word out (SOWO). SOWO testar semantisk bearbetning via lexikal läsning. Den anpassade och utökade versionen av SOWO pilottestades på 26 normalspråkiga personer. Studien har resulterat i ett nytt semantiskt intraoperativt test på svenska som ska prövas kliniskt på Akademiska sjukhuset i Uppsala. Förhoppningsvis bidrar det nya testet till bättre behandlingsmöjligheter för patienter med LGG.

In Swedish dialects we find the terms ris, skäver and skärva referring to illnesses in children. The words are also parts of various compounds which refer to variants of the illnesses. The terms are linguistic expressions denoting two folk categories of illnesses, RIS and SKÄVER/SKÄRVA. These categories are investigated from a cognitive semantic perspective. The cognitive perspective argues that we organize our understanding of reality by using Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM) based on our physical, mental and emotional experiences of the world. The aim is twofold: to demonstrate the bases on which an experienced illness is placed in a certain category, and to show how a folk conception of illness is reflected in the word formation strategies. The word formation strategies emanate from notions of characteristic symptoms, and from notions of causes of illnesses. Both categories, RIS and SKÄVER/SKÄRVA, are based on a number of ICM's. The category RIS is a radial structure, which means that the category is held together although its members have no structural criteria in common. The category SKÄVER/SKÄRVA is a concentrating structure, meaning that all members share all structural criteria. There is a strong connection between word formation strategies and the structures of the categories. Terms related to symptoms refer to members of a category which are part of a radial structure, while terms related to causes refer to members of a category which are part of a concentrating structure. This can be explained by two of the basic assumptions of cognitive semantics: semantic content is structred and symbolized overtly on the surface form of a language and categories are conventional, based on cultural assumptions about the world. / digitalisering@umu

Abstract This thesis discusses the Veps indefinite pronoun system and its development. I show how the long lasting contact effect of Russian can be perceived in the Veps indefinite pronoun system. The approach I have adopted in this study combines insights from multilingualism and linguistic typology. The study is concerned mainly with the synchronic level of the language, but I have also examined the diachrony of the system. The data of this study consist of both sociolinguistic and language data, quantitative and qualitative data, old and new data, and data representing both written as well as spoken registers. The study consists of four separate publications. The first of them is a collaborative publication, Veps in Russia: ELDIA Case-Specific Report. The publication has a sociolinguistic viewpoint: it enlightens the linguistic situation of the Vepsians. In the article The Implicational Semantic Map for Veps Indefinite Pronouns, I describe the Veps indefinite pronouns by means of the semantic map methodology. I show that, despite the numerous similarities between the Russian and Veps pronominal series, the Veps indefinite pronouns actually constitute a distinctive system. In the article Borrowing Morphology: The Influence of Russian on the Veps System of Indefinite Pronouns, I classify the Veps indefiniteness markers as MAT (morpheme transfer) loans or PAT (morphological pattern transfer) loans, according to the manner in which they have been acquired from Russian. I show that the Veps indefinite pronominal system has undergone obvious contact-induced morphological changes. In the article Vepsän kielen paljaiden interrogatiivien indefiniittinen käyttö, I show that in addition to the interrogative-derived indefinite pronouns the use of bare interrogatives as indefinites is common in Veps. I have divided this use into nine different clause and phrase structures. In the study, I show that the diachronically unstable system of indefinite pronouns has undergone many changes in Veps, due to language contact with Russian. From the individual speaker’s mind and speech, the effect of Russian has gradually spread as a part of the linguistic system of the Veps speech community. Thus, the contacts of the Veps and Russian speech communities have resulted in changes in the Veps indefinite pronoun system. / Tiivistelmä Tarkastelen tutkimuksessani vepsän kielen indefiniittipronominijärjestelmää ja sen kehitystä. Osoitan, miten venäjän vuosisatoja jatkunut kontaktivaikutus näkyy vepsän indefiniittipronominien järjestelmässä. Tarkastelun näkökulmat olen omaksunut kontaktilingvistiikasta, monikielisyystutkimuksesta ja typologisesta kielentutkimuksesta. Tutkimus koskee pääosin kielen synkronista tasoa, mutta olen ottanut kantaa myös järjestelmän diakroniseen kehitykseen. Tutkimuksen aineistokokonaisuuteen kuuluu sekä sosiolingvististä että kieliaineistoa, kvantitatiivista ja kvalitatiivista aineistoa, uutta ja vanhaa aineistoa sekä niin kirjoitettua kuin puhuttuakin kieltä. Tutkimus koostuu neljästä erillisestä osajulkaisusta. Ensimmäinen niistä on yhteisjulkaisu, Veps in Russia: ELDIA Case-Specific Report. Julkaisu on näkökulmaltaan sosiolingvistinen: se valottaa vepsäläisten kielellistä tilannetta. Artikkelissa The Implicational Semantic Map for Veps Indefinite Pronouns kuvaan vepsän indefiniittipronomineja semanttisten karttojen metodologian avulla. Osoitan, että lukuisista venäjän ja vepsän kielen pronominisarjojen yhtäläisyyksistä huolimatta vepsän indefiniittipronominit muodostavat omaleimaisen järjestelmänsä. Artikkelissa Borrowing Morphology: The Influence of Russian on the Veps System of Indefinite Pronouns luokittelen vepsän venäjän kielestä lainatut indefiniittisyyden tunnukset niiden lainaustavan mukaan joko MAT- tai PAT-lainoiksi. MAT-lainoissa kielelliset segmentit toisinnetaan toisessa kielessä, PAT-lainoissa funktionaaliset mallit. Osoitan, että vepsän indefiniittipronominien järjestelmässä on tapahtunut selviä kontaktilähtöisiä morfologisia muutoksia. Artikkelissa Vepsän kielen paljaiden interrogatiivien indefiniittinen käyttö osoitan, että tunnuksisten indefiniittipronominien lisäksi käytetään vepsässä yleisesti myös paljaita interrogatiiveja. Olen jaotellut niiden esiintymisympäristöt yhdeksäksi erilaiseksi lause- ja lausekerakenteeksi. Tutkimuksessa osoitan, että indefiniittipronominien diakronisesti epästabiili järjestelmä on vepsässä kokenut venäjän kontaktivaikutuksesta monia muutoksia. Yksittäisen kielenpuhujan mielestä ja puheesta venäjän vaikutus on vähitellen levinnyt osaksi vepsäläisen kieliyhteisön kielen järjestelmää. Näin vepsäläisen ja venäläisen puhujayhteisön kontaktit ovat johtaneet vepsän kielen indefiniittipronominien systeemin muutokseen. / Lühenduz Ičein dissertacijas minä tarkištelen vepsän kelen indefinitižiden pronominoiden sistemad i sen kehitoitust. Ozutan, kut äjad voz’sadad olijad kontaktad tuleba sil’mnägubale vepsän kelen indefinitižiden pronominoiden sistemas. Tedotön perspektivaks olen otnu ičelein kontaktkel’oppindan, äikeližuz’oppindan i tipologižuz’oppindan pirdoid. Tedotö om tobjimalaz sinhronine, no olen tarkištanu mugažo erasid problemoid diahronižen kehitoitusen sistemaspäi. Tedotön lähtematerialoihe mülüb sociolingivistižid materialoid, kel’materialoid, kvantitativižid i kvalitativižid materialoid, uzid i vanhoid materialoid paginkelespäi i kirjutadud kelespäi. Neciš tedotös om nel’l’ erilašt kirjutest. Ezmäine niišpäi, Veps in Russia: ELDIA Case-Specific Report, om ühthižkirjutez. Necen kirjutesen nägemuz om sociolingvistine. Sen päazj om tedištada i ezitada vepsän kelen i vepsläižiden oloid nügüd’aigas. Kirjuteses The Implicational Semantic Map for Veps Indefinite Pronouns kuvadan vepsän indefinitižid pronominoid semantižiden kartoiden metodologian abul. Ozutan, miše hot’ venän i vepsän kelen indefinitižiden pronominoiden affiksoiden kogomused oma karthižed, vepsän indefinitižiden pronominoiden sistem om kaiken-se originaline. Kirjuteses Borrowing Morphology: The Influence of Russian on the Veps System of Indefinite Pronouns tarkištan venäkelespäi vepsän kel’he ottud affiksad MAT- i PAT- velgmaneran mödhe. MAT-velg znamoičeb, miše ühten kelen kel’material kopiruidas toižehe kel’he, a PAT-velgoiš kopiruidas vaiše znamoičendoid. Ozutan, miše vepsän indefinitižiden pronominoiden sistemas om sündunu morfologižid vajehtesid, miččed oma sel’ktad kel’kontaktoiden jäl’ged. Kirjuteses Vepsän kielen paljaiden interrogatiivien indefiniittinen käyttö ozutan, miše indefinitižiden pronominoiden ližaks vepsän keles voib kävutada interrogativižid pronominoid indefinitižiden pronominoiden sijas. Olen tarkištanu virkehid, kus nene azjad ezineba i olen mülütanu niid ühesandehe erazvuiččehe gruppaha. Indefinitižiden pronominoiden sistem ei ole diahronijan polespäi seižui. Ičein oppindas ozutan, miše vepsän kelen sistem om lujas vajehtanus venäkelen kontaktpainandan tagut. Ühten kelen pagižijan melespäi i paginaspäi om venäkelen painastuz aigan sirttes levitanus vepsän kelen sistemaha. Muga oma vepsän i venän pagižijoiden keskeižed kosketused vajehtanuded vepsän kelen indefinitižiden pronominoiden sistemad.

Results of psychological experiments have shown that humans make assumptions, which are not necessarily valid, that they are influenced by their background knowledge and that they reason non-monotonically. These observations show that classical logic does not seem to be adequate for modeling human reasoning. Instead of assuming that humans do not reason logically at all, we take the view that humans do not reason classical logically. Our goal is to model episodes of human reasoning and for this purpose we investigate the so-called Weak Completion Semantics. The Weak Completion Semantics is a Logic Programming approach and considers the least model of the weak completion of logic programs under the three-valued Łukasiewicz logic. As the Weak Completion Semantics is relatively new and has not yet been extensively investigated, we first motivate why this approach is interesting for modeling human reasoning. After that, we show the formal correspondence to the already established Stable Model Semantics and Well-founded Semantics. Next, we present an extension with an additional context operator, that allows us to express negation as failure. Finally, we propose a contextual abductive reasoning approach, in which the context of observations is relevant. Some properties do not hold anymore under this extension. Besides discussing the well-known psychological experiments Byrne’s suppression task and Wason’s selection task, we investigate an experiment in spatial reasoning, an experiment in syllogistic reasoning and an experiment that examines the belief-bias effect. We show that the results of these experiments can be adequately modeled under the Weak Completion Semantics. A result which stands out here, is the outcome of modeling the syllogistic reasoning experiment, as we have a higher prediction match with the participants’ answers than any of twelve current cognitive theories. We present an abstract evaluation system for conditionals and discuss well-known examples from the literature. We show that in this system, conditionals can be evaluated in various ways and we put up the hypothesis that humans use a particular evaluation strategy, namely that they prefer abduction to revision. We also discuss how relevance plays a role in the evaluation process of conditionals. For this purpose we propose a semantic definition of relevance and justify why this is preferable to a exclusively syntactic definition. Finally, we show that our system is more general than another system, which has recently been presented in the literature. Altogether, this thesis shows one possible path on bridging the gap between Cognitive Science and Computational Logic. We investigated findings from psychological experiments and modeled their results within one formal approach, the Weak Completion Semantics. Furthermore, we proposed a general evaluation system for conditionals, for which we suggest a specific evaluation strategy. Yet, the outcome cannot be seen as the ultimate solution but delivers a starting point for new open questions in both areas.

The coherent semantics of the sowing imagery (1Cor 15,36–44) suggest that heavenly bodies (v. 40–41) emerge from a process of body transformation, analogous to plants and animate beings (v. 37–39). The idea that the deceased are transformed into stars and thereby obtain a particular form of existence is widely attested in the mythography and in epitaphs of antiquity. In contrast to pagan conceptions about the dead permanently returning into celestial spheres, the heavenly bodies according to Paul represent a postmortem, albeit a pre-resurrection, stage in the development of human bodies. Accordingly, the heavenly body represents an intermediary ontological mode between the animated body of earthly creatures and the spiritual body of resurrection.

Denna uppsats ämnar att undersöka den språkliga och visuella utformningen av White Guide- restaurangers menyer med avsikt att få en djupare förståelse för vissa återkommande drag som kan kopplas till restauranger med denna höga kvalitetsklassificering. Forskningsfrågorna för studien lyder: Vilka visuella skillnader och likheter, när det kommer till typografi, färgsättning, användning av ikoner samt placering av text, finns det mellan de utvalda restaurangernas menyer? Finns det några språkliga skillnader och likheter ifråga om beskrivningar av tillagningsmetod, sensoriska uttryck samt uttryck för ursprung, mellan menyerna? Materialet som analyseras har avgränsats till sex olika menyer tillhörande restauranger inom kategorin mycket god klass i White Guide 2020. Menyerna analyseras dels genom en visuell analys med hjälp av sociosemiotisk teori samt genom en språklig analys som bygger på traditionell lexikal taxonomisk semantik. I den visuella analysen undersöks typografi, färgsättning, ikoner samt textens placering i menyerna och i den språkliga analysen undersöks olika uttryck för tillagningsmetoder, sensoriska uttryck samt uttryck för ursprung i menyernas maträttsbeskrivningar. Resultatet visar att menyer inom denna kategori i White Guide skiljer sig mycket åt både språkligt och visuellt även om vissa likheter har påfunnits. Alla analyserade menyer innehåller ord som betecknar tillagningsmetoder och trots att antalet skiljer sig mycket åt mellan menyerna är tillagningsmetoderna ändå flest till antalet bland samtliga språkliga analyskategorier. Många typsnittsvarianter förekommer i de olika menyerna även om typsnittsantalet inom en meny vanligen är mellan ett till tre. Marginaljusterad eller centrerad text är det absolut vanligaste i menyerna och en stor majoritet av alla menyer har en ljus bakgrund med en mörk text, där få färger och dova färger är vanligast. Att använda ikoner som fotografier eller andra symboler förekommer även om det sker sparsamt.

This paper concerns the semantic branch of meta-ethics, and examines a version of so called semantic pluralism advocated by Michael Gill. Briefly put, Gill suggests that ordinary people’s usage of moral terms is rather messy in the sense that the meaning of moral terms can vary not only between different people, but also for one and the same person in different contexts. Such variability in word-meaning is explained by his assumption that people’s meta-ethical commitments are part of their moral thought and language, which is to say that their meta-ethical commitments have implications for the meaning of moral terms. In this paper I pursue two objectives. The first is exegetical and aim to clarify how Gill’s semantic pluralism in general, and his Indeterminacy- and Variability theses in particular, are intended to be understood—specifically in relation to the cognitivist/non-cognitivist debate. The second objective is argumentative. I first present and evaluate an objection to Gill’s semantic pluralism from Walter Sinnott-Armstrong who argue that Gill’s Variability thesis implies that interlocutors with different meta-ethical commitments are talking past each other rather than having genuine first order moral agreements and disagreements. I then argue that a similar problem occurs also for certain second order moral disagreements, particularly those in which moral terms are used rather than mentioned. I then argue that this is problematic not only on independent grounds, but also because it is inconsistent with the very assumptions Gill makes to support his view. My argument therefore appears forceful by Gill’s own lights. Combined, Sinnott-Armstrong’s objection and my own leads me to conclude that Gill’s semantic pluralism does not look promising.

Results of psychological experiments have shown that humans make assumptions, which are not necessarily valid, that they are influenced by their background knowledge and that they reason non-monotonically. These observations show that classical logic does not seem to be adequate for modeling human reasoning. Instead of assuming that humans do not reason logically at all, we take the view that humans do not reason classical logically. Our goal is to model episodes of human reasoning and for this purpose we investigate the so-called Weak Completion Semantics. The Weak Completion Semantics is a Logic Programming approach and considers the least model of the weak completion of logic programs under the three-valued Łukasiewicz logic. As the Weak Completion Semantics is relatively new and has not yet been extensively investigated, we first motivate why this approach is interesting for modeling human reasoning. After that, we show the formal correspondence to the already established Stable Model Semantics and Well-founded Semantics. Next, we present an extension with an additional context operator, that allows us to express negation as failure. Finally, we propose a contextual abductive reasoning approach, in which the context of observations is relevant. Some properties do not hold anymore under this extension. Besides discussing the well-known psychological experiments Byrne’s suppression task and Wason’s selection task, we investigate an experiment in spatial reasoning, an experiment in syllogistic reasoning and an experiment that examines the belief-bias effect. We show that the results of these experiments can be adequately modeled under the Weak Completion Semantics. A result which stands out here, is the outcome of modeling the syllogistic reasoning experiment, as we have a higher prediction match with the participants’ answers than any of twelve current cognitive theories. We present an abstract evaluation system for conditionals and discuss well-known examples from the literature. We show that in this system, conditionals can be evaluated in various ways and we put up the hypothesis that humans use a particular evaluation strategy, namely that they prefer abduction to revision. We also discuss how relevance plays a role in the evaluation process of conditionals. For this purpose we propose a semantic definition of relevance and justify why this is preferable to a exclusively syntactic definition. Finally, we show that our system is more general than another system, which has recently been presented in the literature. Altogether, this thesis shows one possible path on bridging the gap between Cognitive Science and Computational Logic. We investigated findings from psychological experiments and modeled their results within one formal approach, the Weak Completion Semantics. Furthermore, we proposed a general evaluation system for conditionals, for which we suggest a specific evaluation strategy. Yet, the outcome cannot be seen as the ultimate solution but delivers a starting point for new open questions in both areas.