Varieties of Continua


Book Description

Hellman and Shapiro explore the development of the idea of the continuous, from the Aristotelian view that a true continuum cannot be composed of points to the now standard, entirely punctiform frameworks for analysis and geometry. They then investigate the underlying metaphysical issues concerning the nature of space or space-time.




The History of Continua


Book Description

Mathematical and philosophical thought about continuity has changed considerably over the ages, from Aristotle's insistence that a continuum is a unified whole, to the dominant account today, that a continuum is composed of infinitely many points. This book explores the key ideas and debates concerning continuity over more than 2500 years.




Creole and Dialect Continua


Book Description

Although there is a substantial amount of linguistic research on standard language acquisition, little attention has been given to the mechanisms underlying second dialect acquisition. Using a combination of function-based grammar and sociolinguistic methodology to analyze topic marking strategies, the unguided acquisition of a standard by speakers of nonstandard varieties is examined in two distinct linguistic and geographical situations: in a Caribbean creole situation (Belize), with special attention to the acquisition of acrolects by native speakers of basilects, and in a noncreole situation (PRC), documenting the acquisition of standard Chinese (Putonghua) by speakers of nonstandard varieties represented in Cultural Revolution literature, Wuhan Chinese, and Suzhou Wu story-telling style. In both cases psychosocial factors, linguistic bias toward nonnative renderings of the standard varieties, the social status of their speakers, and related political and educational consequences play an important role in the development of second dialects. The broad-ranging analysis of a single feature of oral discourse leads to the formulation of cross-linguistic generalizations in acquisition studies and results in an evaluation of the putative uniqueness of creole languages. Related issues addressed include the effect of linguistic bias on the development and use of language varieties by marginalized groups; the interaction of three major language components — semantics, syntax, and pragmatics — in spontaneous communication; and the development of methods to identify discourse units. The ultimate goal underlying the comparison of specific discourse variables in Belizean and Chinese standard acquisition is to evaluate the relative merits of substratal, superstratal, and universal explanations in language development.




Forty Types of PROOFS of Actual Totality


Book Description

The one world problem has been central to knowledge for ages. Of many approaches none has resolved the problem. With great increases in knowledge there is now sufficient ideas, concepts and means to show a unified ultimate totality. Actual Totality is a book whose proofs and detail provide the needed resolution. The approach to unity is by forty types of proof from non-existence to their combined sum. It features those universals, qualities, continua, kinds, and varieties of actual totality whose proofs are most certain. Certainty of proofs produces axioms that are most recognizable as laws. Each type of proof has different laws whose integration and representation give excellent proof of actual totality. Dependence on the observer observed relationship is the basis for relativity. Dependence on the definite absolute quality of the human mind and person is the basis for the absoluteness seen in identity and self-preservation. Mind and matter are part of a continuum that is the basis and proof of actual totality. Many other continuums make up actual totality, including general and special, mass energy, length, time, static and dynamic. The continua are dualities whose spectra form gradients. It is these gradients that make up much of the detail and differential whose vertical integration proves actual totality. The physical universe and the relative universe of civilization, best human life and mind are large components of the general to special spectrum and varieties of actual totality. There is massive interaction and potential to actual existence in and out of actual totality. This occurs with increasing time. In the near to mid-term actual totality is stable, and can be treated as a closed set. In the far term both the actual and potential of actual totality undergo adaptation and alteration that best suits their existence with change. With good representation an overview of the difference between actual totality as a stable and relatively exclusive world and potential changes in the long term become clear. The many revolutions that accompany change and the role of language, math, proportions, geometry, design, propelling and compelling forces that determine creation and evolution of life all reveal proofs of actual totality. The core of actual totality, or actual totality proper, is centered on the here and now that proves unity in totality. The individual, groups, and lives of all people more or less contribute to the whole depending on productivity that is most beneficial to the whole. This is largely dependent on knowledge, and its kinds. Universal knowledge of the highest kind is the great dynamo of advancing actual totality. How well actual totality supplies this need is the most important problem and solution of the next hundreds to thousands of years. It is survival over extinction whose success will depend largely on proactive planning, prevention, preparation, management and control. They can be used to guide each and all persons to a better unified world, by actual totality.







World Englishes


Book Description




Theories and Methods


Book Description

The dimensions of time and space fundamentally cause and shape the variability of all human language. To reduce investigation of this insight to manageable proportions, researchers have traditionally concentrated on the “deepest” dialects. But it is increasingly apparent that, although most people still speak with a distinct regional coloring, the new mobility of speakers in recently industrialized and postindustrial societies and the efflorescence of communication technologies cannot be ignored. This has given rise to a reconsideration of the relationship between geographical place and cultural space, and the fundamental link between language and a spatially bounded territory. Language and Space: An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation seeks to take full account of these developments in a comprehensive, theoretically rich way. The introductory volume examines the concept of space and linguistic approaches to it, the structure and dynamics of language spaces, and relevant research methods. A second volume offers the first thorough exploration of the interplay between linguistic investigation and cartography, and subsequent volumes uniformly document the state of research into the spatial dimension of particular language groupings. Key features: comprehensive coverage of the field in terms of theory and methods the unique volume stands alone, since it neither is a handbook of dialectology or of areal linguistics, nor a handbook on language variation alone gathers together a great number of distinguished scholars and experts in the field




Dimensions of a Creole Continuum


Book Description

A Stanford University Press classic.




Real Numbers, Generalizations of the Reals, and Theories of Continua


Book Description

Since their appearance in the late 19th century, the Cantor--Dedekind theory of real numbers and philosophy of the continuum have emerged as pillars of standard mathematical philosophy. On the other hand, this period also witnessed the emergence of a variety of alternative theories of real numbers and corresponding theories of continua, as well as non-Archimedean geometry, non-standard analysis, and a number of important generalizations of the system of real numbers, some of which have been described as arithmetic continua of one type or another. With the exception of E.W. Hobson's essay, which is concerned with the ideas of Cantor and Dedekind and their reception at the turn of the century, the papers in the present collection are either concerned with or are contributions to, the latter groups of studies. All the contributors are outstanding authorities in their respective fields, and the essays, which are directed to historians and philosophers of mathematics as well as to mathematicians who are concerned with the foundations of their subject, are preceded by a lengthy historical introduction.




Language and Space


Book Description

This series of HANDBOOKS OF LINGUISTICS AND COMMUNICATION SCIENCE is designed to illuminate a field which not only includes general linguistics and the study of linguistics as applied to specific languages, but also covers those more recent areas which have developed from the increasing body of research into the manifold forms of communicative action and interaction. For "classic" linguistics there appears to be a need for a review of the state of the art which will provide a reference base for the rapid advances in research undertaken from a variety of theoretical standpoints, while in the more recent branches of communication science the handbooks will give researchers both an verview and orientation. To attain these objectives, the series will aim for a standard comparable to that of the leading handbooks in other disciplines, and to this end will strive for comprehensiveness, theoretical explicitness, reliable documentation of data and findings, and up-to-date methodology. The editors, both of the series and of the individual volumes, and the individual contributors, are committed to this aim. The languages of publication are English, German, and French. The main aim of the series is to provide an appropriate account of the state of the art in the various areas of linguistics and communication science covered by each of the various handbooks; however no inflexible pre-set limits will be imposed on the scope of each volume. The series is open-ended, and can thus take account of further developments in the field. This conception, coupled with the necessity of allowing adequate time for each volume to be prepared with the necessary care, means that there is no set time-table for the publication of the whole series. Each volume will be a self-contained work, complete in itself. The order in which the handbooks are published does not imply any rank ordering, but is determined by the way in which the series is organized; the editor of the whole series enlist a competent editor for each individual volume. Once the principal editor for a volume has been found, he or she then has a completely free hand in the choice of co-editors and contributors. The editors plan each volume independently of the others, being governed only by general formal principles. The series editor only intervene where questions of delineation between individual volumes are concerned. It is felt that this (modus operandi) is best suited to achieving the objectives of the series, namely to give a competent account of the present state of knowledge and of the perception of the problems in the area covered by each volume.