Constructions marking information structure in French have been widely documented within the constructionist framework. C’est ‘it is’ clefts have been demonstrated to express the focus of the sentence. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how children are able to acquire clefts, and how they develop information structure categories. The aim of this study is to investigate the acquisition of clefts in French through the usage-based framework, to understand whether IS categories emerge gradually like other linguistic categories, and how children (...) build IS categories. For this, I analysed 256 c’est-clefts produced by three children between age 2 and 3. I show that most early clefts are produced by children with the chunk c’est moi associated with the concrete function of requesting to perform an action themselves. This chunk then becomes a frame with slot, extending the function to other human referents and discourse participants with the function of requesting adults to perform an action. Another large portion of early clefts seems to belong to a frame with slot c’est X whose function is to identify the agent who carried out an action. These findings suggest that the information structure category of focus emerges gradually. (shrink)

The improvement of ultrasound scan techniques is enabling ever earlier prenatal diagnosis of developmental anomalies. In France, apart from cases where the mother’s life is endangered, the detection of “particularly serious” conditions, and conditions that are “incurable at the time of diagnosis” are the only instances in which a therapeutic abortion can be performed, this applying up to the 9th month of pregnancy. Thus numerous conditions, despite the fact that they cause distress or pain or are socially disabling, do not (...) qualify for therapeutic abortion, despite sometimes pressing demands from parents aware of the difficulties in store for their child and themselves, in a society that is not very favourable towards the integration and self-fulfilment of people with a disability. Cleft lip and palate (CLP), although it can be completely treated, is one of the conditions that considerably complicates the lives of child and parents. Nevertheless, the recent scope for making very early diagnosis of CLP, before the deadline for legal voluntary abortion, has not led to any wave of abortions. CLP in France has the benefit of a exceptional care plan, targeting both the health and the integration of the individuals affected. This article sets out, via the emblematic instance of CLP, to show how present fears of an emerging “domestic” or liberal eugenic trend could become redundant if disability is addressed politically and medically, so that individuals with a disability have the same social rights as any other citizen. (shrink)

The article applies selected concepts from the writings of Julia Kristeva to the analysis of a novel by Doris Lessing entitled The Cleft. Published in 2007, The Cleft depicts the origin of sexual difference in the human species. Its emergence is fraught with anxiety and sexually specific violence, and invites comparison with the primal separation from the mother and the emancipation of the subject in process at the cost of relegating the maternal to the abject in the writings of Julia (...) Kristeva. Lessing creates an ahistorical community of females from which the male community eventually evolves. The growing awareness of sexual difference dovetails with the emotional and intellectual development, as the nascent human subject gradually enters linear time viewed from perspective by the narrator of the novel, a Roman senator who hoards ancient manuscripts with the story of Clefts and Squirts. The article juxtaposes the ideas of Lessing and Kristeva, who have both cut themselves off from feminism, and have both been inspired by psychoanalysis. Primarily, Lessing’s fictional imaginary can be adequately interpreted in light of Kristeva’s concept of abjection as an element that disturbs the system. My interpretation of abjection is indebted to Pamela Sue Anderson’s reading of Kristeva, notably her contention that violence as a response to sexual difference lies at the heart of collective identity. Finally, the imaginary used by Lessing and Kristeva is shown to have stemmed from the colonial imaginary like the concepts of Freud and Jung. (shrink)

Some presuppositions are easier to cancel than others in embedded contexts. This contrast has been used as evidence for distinguishing two fundamentally different kinds of presuppositions, ‘soft’ and ‘hard’. ‘Soft’ presuppositions are usually assumed to arise in a pragmatic way, while ‘hard’ presuppositions are thought to be genuine semantic presuppositions. This paper argues against such a distinction and proposes to derive the difference in cancellation from inherent differences in how presupposition triggers interact with the context: their focus sensitivity, anaphoricity, and (...) question–answer congruence properties. The paper also aims to derive the presuppositions of additive particles such as too, also, again, and of it-clefts. (shrink)

The debate surrounding human embryonic stem cell research plays a crucial role in the culture wars. Those who embrace post-traditional morality not only see no ethical problem with the destruction of human embryos for research and therapies, but press for their use despite the greater potential for risk from the totipotent cells that are harvested from the destruction of human embryos as opposed to other kinds of stem cells. Indeed, there have been foreseeable negative consequences from such attempts at treatment. (...) Nonetheless, from the standpoint of traditional Christianity, the destruction of human embryos is expressly forbidden regardless of any potential positive outcomes. There is a fundamental cleft within the culture on such issues. (shrink)

In a series of experiments, Bott and Noveck (2004) found that the computation of scalar inferences, a variety of conversational implicature, caused a delay in response times. In order to determine what aspect of the inferential process that underlies scalar inferences caused this delay, we extended their paradigm to three other kinds of inferences: free choice inferences, conditional perfection, and exhaustivity in “it”‐clefts. In contrast to scalar inferences, the computation of these three kinds of inferences facilitated response times. Following (...) a suggestion made by Chemla and Bott (2014), we propose that the time it takes to compute a conversational implicature depends on the structural characteristics of the required alternatives. (shrink)

Makale feminizmin genel olarak insan dışı hayvanların, özel olarak da tarımda kullanılan insan dışı hayvanların özgür ve özerk yaşama haklarını savunması gerektiğini savlamaktadır. Tarımda kullanılan insan dışı hayvanlardan elde edilen ürünlerin üretim süreçleri sadece onların bedenlerinin insanların arzuları uyarınca üretilip tüketilmelerini değil, ömürleri boyunca doğalarına aykırı şartlarda yaşayarak, sürekli eziyete maruz bırakılmalarını kapsamaktadır. Üstelik mevcut pratikler dişi insan dışı hayvanları, özellikle süt ve yumurta endüstrilerinde, biyolojik üreme yetilerinden faydalanmak adına ek eziyetlere maruz bırakmaktadır. Bu temel savı desteklemek için bell hooks (...) ve Carol J. Adams gibi yazarların eserlerinden faydalanılarak dört argüman öne sürülmüştür. Cinsiyeti biyolojik parametrelerle tanımlamanın sorunlu olacağına dair bir eleştiri de değerlendirilip, bu eleştiriye Wittgensteincı düşünceden yola çıkan bir yanıt önerilmiştir: Her ne kadar tarımda kullanılan insan dışı hayvanların cinsiyetini biyolojik parametrelerle tanımlıyor olsak da bu, biyolojinin genel olarak kadınlığı ve dişiliği tanımlamanın yeterli veya tek kriteri olduğu anlamına gelmemektedir. (shrink)