Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Automatic Measurements Of Prosodic Accommodation And Its Dynamics In Social Interaction, Celine De Looze, Stefan Scherer, Brian Vaughan, Nick Campbell

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Spoken dialogue systems are increasingly being used to facilitate and enhance human communication. While these interactive systems can process the linguistic aspects of human communication, they are not yet capable of processing the complex dynamics involved in social interaction, such as the adaptation on the part of interlocutors. Providing interactive systems with the capacity to process and exhibit this accommodation could however improve their efficiency and make machines more socially-competent interactants.

At present, no automatic system is available to process prosodic accommodation, nor do any clear measures exist that quantify its dynamic manifestation. While it can be observed to be …

Complex Predicates And Light Verb Constructions In Modern Irish, Brian Nolan

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This paper characterises complex predicates and light verb constructions in Modern Irish. Light verbs are attested in many of the world’s languages (Alsina, Bresnan & Sells, 2001; Butt, 1995, 2003). Cross linguistically, there appears to be a common class of verbs involved in these constructions and generally there is agreement that light verbs contribute to the formation of complex predicates. Light verbs seem have a non-light or ‘heavy’ verb counterpart. In this paper we discuss the light verb constructions (LVC) as found in modern Irish and how they form complex predicates. We claim that the light verb (LV) encodes the …

Making An Impact: New Directions For Arts And Humanities Research, Ellen Hazelkorn

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The severity of the global economic crisis has put the spotlight firmly on measuring academic and research performance and productivity, and assessing its contribution, value, impact and benefit. While traditionally, research output and impact was measured by peer-publications and citations, there is increased emphasis on a “market-driven approach”, which favours the bio-, medical and technological sciences, and helped reinforce a disciplinary hierarchy in which arts and humanities research (A&HR) has struggled for attention. This article charts the changing policy environment across Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway. It draws on evidence from the HERAVALUE project which studied how different stakeholders value …

The Changing Discourse Of The Supreme Court, Stephen M. Johnson

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In addition to exploring whether the Court’s opinions have become less readable, this Article also examines whether factors identified in other studies, such as the opinion type or the subject matter in dispute, correlate to the readability of the Court’s opinions, either in the 1930's or today, and whether that has changed over time.

Part I outlines the criticisms that have been leveled at the Supreme Court’s opinions and some of the possible reasons for the obfuscation of the opinions. Part II explores the purposes of, and intended audiences for, Supreme Court opinions and considers whether it really matters whether …

Beyond Textualism: Why Originalist Theory Must Apply General Principles Of Interpretation To Constitutional Law, Richard A. Epstein

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No abstract provided.

Remedial And Preventive Responses To The Unauthorized Practice Of Immigration Law, Monique C. Lillard

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No abstract provided.

Repetition In History: Anglo-American Legal Debates And The Writings Of Walter Bagehot, Kunal Parker

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No abstract provided.

Downsides Of Social Capital, Alejandro Portes

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No abstract provided.

After Recess: Historical Practice, Textual Ambiguity, And Constitutional Adverse Possession, Curtis A. Bradley, Neil S. Siegel

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The Supreme Court’s decision last Term in NLRB v. Noel Canning contains an especially strong and sustained endorsement of the relevance of historical practice to discerning the Constitution’s distribution of authority between Congress and the President.¹ In interpreting the scope of the Recess Appointments Clause,² the Court gave significant attention to how governmental actors had understood and applied the Clause throughout history.The Court did so, moreover, as part of a self-conscious approach to constitutional interpretation.When construing“constitutional provisions regulating the relationship between Congress and the President,” the Court explained, “great weight” should be given to “‘[l]ong settled and established …

Statutory Reading Of Opaque Constructions - Errors And Purposes, Brian H. Bix

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In her excellent article, Misreading Like a Lawyer: Cognitive Bias in Statutory Interpretation,1 Professor Jill Anderson explains an intri- cacy of sentence meaning that is well known by linguists, generally handled adequately by most of us in normal conversation, but appar- ently misunderstood and badly handled by lawyers and judges. The misreading in question is based on what linguists call “opaque con- structions”: texts whose structural ambiguity creates alternative read- ings. These alternative readings are generally known (as Anderson points out) as “de re” and “de dicto” interpretations. As the article clearly explains, opaque constructions differ from other sentences by …

Gastro-Topogrophy: Exploring Food-Related Placenames In Ireland, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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Most Irish people likely have little or no knowledge of the richness and variety of their ancestor’s diet before the arrival of the potato. For generations, food was considered far too common to be considered a field of study. Considering the primacy of food in people’s lives generally throughout history, it is logical that food be reflected in toponymic references to environment and landscape. This article taps into a wide range of material including poetry, prose, travellers’ reports, mythology, folklore, letters, shipping records, and archaeological evidence, both to contextualize the food-related placenames of Ireland, and to explore what Irish placenames …

The Three Phases Of Mead, Kristin Hickman

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No symposium entitled ―Chevron at 30‖ would be complete without some consideration of the U.S. Supreme Court‘s subsequent decision in United States v. Mead Corp.3 As Thomas Merrill and I documented years ago, in the years leading up to Mead, courts were in substantial disarray over which agencies and actions were eligible for Chevron‘s requirement of strong, mandatory deference.4 Some disagreements concerned the nature and scope of agency authority. For example, the federal circuit courts were divided over whether an agency that lacked the power to adopt legislative rules could claim Chevron deference for its statutory interpretations.5 Other questions focused …

Phenomenology And Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy, The Methodologies And Using Hermeneutic Phenomenology To Investigate Lecturers' Experiences Of Curriculum Design, Arthur Sloan, Brian Bowe

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This article investigates the philosophy of phenomenology, continuing to examine and describe it as a methodology. There are different methods of phenomenology, divided by their different perspectives of what phenomenology is: largely grouped into the two types of descriptive and interpretive phenomenology. The focal methodology is hermeneutic phenomenology – one type of phenomenological methodology among interpretive phenomenological methodologies. The context for phenomenology and the location of hermeneutic phenomenology is explained through its historic antecedents. When using phenomenology as a methodology there are criteria for data gathering and data analysis and examples of these are cited in this paper. Also in …

Effects Of Clergy Reporting Laws On Child Maltreatment Report Rates, Frank E. Vandervort, Vincent J. Palusci

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Child maltreatment (CM) reporting laws and policies have an important role in the identification, treatment, and prevention of CM in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2012). Abuse by a member of the clergy “is not only a personal and emotional betrayal, but [also] a spiritual betrayal, with secrecy amplified by the unprecedented and systemic cover-up committed by the Church hierarchy” (Coyne, 2011, p. 15). Recent controversies have resulted in the consideration of changes in mandated U.S. reporting laws that include increasing requirements for clergy and extension to additional professions (Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan, …

Lawyers Beware: You Are What You Post - The Case For Integrating Cultural Competence, Legal Ethics, And Social Media, Jan L. Jacobowitz

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No abstract provided.

The Margin Of Appreciation In International Investment Law, Julian Arato

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Investment treaties tend to say nothing, or only very little, about the appropriate standard of review for arbitrating disputes between sovereign states and foreign investors. Most treaties do not address whether states should be afforded any deference in their own assessment of their treaty obligations. Neither do they specify the converse, that state action must be strictly reviewed. They are simply silent – and their silence has been interpreted in innumerable ways by different tribunals. This interpretive chaos has generated calls for a unified approach – one that would resolve the uncertain and fragmented status quo, while being sufficiently flexible …

Beyond Contrastive Rhetoric: Helping International Lawyers Use Cohesive Devices In U.S. Legal Writing, Elizabeth R. Baldwin

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This Article attempts to use linguistics, specifically text analysis and pragmatics, to help explain how and why lawyers who are non-native speakers of English (NNS) struggle with cohesion in their U.S. legal writing. Then in light of that discussion, it offers a four-step, receptive and productive exercise to engage students in contrastive analysis of cohesive features across languages and cultures.

It begins by distinguishing coherence (top-down flow related to rhetorical preferences and organization of content and argument) from cohesion (bottom-up flow related to the surface features that exhibit connections between clauses). As background, it explores the role of cohesion in …

Perception Based Misunderstandings In Human-Computer Dialogues, Niels Schütte, John D. Kelleher, Brian Mac Namee

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In a situated dialogue, misunderstandings may arise if the participants perceive or interpret the environment in different ways. In human-computer dialogue this may be due the sensor errors. We present an experiment system and a series of experiments in which we investigate this problem.

Duty In The Litigation-Investment Agreement: The Choice Between Tort And Contract Norms When The Deal Breaks Down, Anthony J. Sebok, W. Bradley Wendel

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The article proposes a framework for regulating commercial litigation investment by drawing analogies to existing legal norms in similar economic activities. It argues that contract law, rather than tort law, is better suited to address the risks and challenges inherent in this growing market. The analysis emphasizes the importance of aligning legal norms with the economic realities of litigation investment, particularly in the commercial sector, where the stakes and dynamics differ significantly from consumer litigation. The authors advocate for a regulatory approach that balances protection against opportunism with the need to maintain efficient outcomes.

The Boundaries Of The Moral (And Legal) Community, Brian Leiter

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No abstract provided.

What Would Congress Want? If We Want To Know, Why Not Ask?, Danieli Evans

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Judges often disagree about which interpretation of a statute is most faithful to 'legislative intent.' If judges are concerned about adhering to democratic preferences when interpreting statutes, why not ask Congress what it would prefer? I propose a procedure that would enable the Court, in a case where Justices are divided over the meaning of a statute, to submit both sides' reasoning to Congress, and Congress may choose to vote on its preferred of the alternative rulings the Court puts before it. Congress's preferences would be evidentiary only; they would not bind the Court to make one decision or another. …

Towards Engaged Scholarship, Jessica Owley, John R. Nolon, Keith Hirokawa, Sean Nolon

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No abstract provided.

Towards A Structured Approach To Reading Historic Cookbooks, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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This article discusses the methodology Barbara Ketchum Wheaton uses in her Reading historic Cookbook Seminars in Harvard and elsewhere and discusses from a participants perspective the strenghts of using this methodology to unlock hidden secrets of historic cookbooks.

The Hidden Costs Of Terrorist Watch Lists, Anya Bernstein

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No abstract provided.

Professional Skills Portfolio For A Progressive Engineering Education, Dermot Mcgarthy, David Kennedy

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At the 2013 launch of the return to work scheme, “Springboard” in Dublin, it was stated that employers were seeking staff with enhanced language, presentation, communication, coping, and team-working skills. Graduates without these skills were finding it more difficult to gain permanent employment and were more likely to find themselves out of work unless they developed these skills. Enhancing personal development skills in education requires a revision of existing programmes. Not alone will these skills open new doors of opportunity for those who have lost their jobs during the recession, but should help sustain them going forward. The education of …

Identifying Subjective Statements In News Titles Using A Personal Sense Annotation Framework, Polina Panicheva, John Cardiff, Paolo Rosso

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Subjective language contains information about private states. The goal of subjective language identification is to determine that a private state is expressed, without considering its polarity or specific emotion. A component of word meaning, “Personal Sense,” has clear potential in the field of subjective language identification, as it reflects a meaning of words in terms of unique personal experience and carries personal characteristics. In this paper we investigate how Personal Sense can be harnessed for the purpose of identifying subjectivity in news titles. In the process, we develop a new Personal Sense annotation framework for annotating and classifying subjectivity, polarity, …

A Textualist Approach To Purposivism In The Regulatory Arena, Linda Jellum

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No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Resource Access, Lee Anne Fennell

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The Coasean insight that transaction costs stand between the world as we know it and an ideal of perfect efficiency has provided generations of law and economics scholars with an analytic North Star But for legal scholars interested in the efficiency implications of property arrangements, transaction costs turn out to constitute an unhelpful category. Transaction costs are related to property rights in unstable and contested ways, and they comprise a heterogeneous set of impediments, not all of which are amenable to cost-effective reduction through law. Theating them as focal confuses the cause of our difficulties in structuring access to resources …

Predictive Coding: Emerging Questions And Concerns, Charles M. Yablon, Nick Landsman-Roos

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Technology-assisted review-also referred to as "predictive coding," "computer-aided review," and "content-based advanced analytics"-is the most important development in e-discovery to have occurred in some time. While technical characterizations of the process vary largely because of differences across software platforms, basically predictive coding is a process whereby computers are programmed to search large quantities of documents using complex algorithms to mimic the document selection process of a knowledgeable, human document review. It is said to do such a review faster and without many of the dangers of human error. Because of its speed and accuracy, it has been described as a …

Policy Preferences And Legal Interpretation, Anup Malani, Ward Farnsworth, Dustin F. Guzior

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No abstract provided.