This paper focuses on the interpretation of metaphor in discourse. We build on previous work (Agerri, Barnden, Lee, & Wallington, 2007) to offer a formalization in a computationally-oriented formal semantic framework of a set of mappings that we claim are required for the interpretation of map-transcending metaphor. Such mappings are domain-independent and are identified as invariant adjuncts t...

Classical constraint systems require that the set of variables which exist in a problem be known ab initio. However, there are some applications in which the existence of certain variables is dependent on conditions whose truth or falsity can only be determined dynamically. In this paper, we show how this conditional existence of variables can be handled in a mathematically well-founded fashion...

This article discusses the ways in which London was represented and navigated in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Belgravia, a shilling monthly magazine, during the ten years of her editorship between 1866 and 1876. Using Braddon’s serialised novels and the diverse articles over which she had editorial control as evidence, I argue that by deploying a sensational discourse to represent London -in contra...

Vector space models of word meaning typically represent the meaning of a word as a vector computed by summing over all its corpus occurrences. Words close to this point in space can be assumed to be similar to it in meaning. But how far around this point does the region of similar meaning extend? In this paper we discuss two models that represent word meaning as regions in vector space. Both re...

Discourse analysis may be performed in different ways, but all of the procedural variations share some philosophical underpinnings. This article will describe the theoretical antecedents for the Foucaultian version of this useful method of inquiry.

In this paper, we present an analysis method, a set of rules, lexical resources dedicated to discourse relation identification, in particular for explanation analysis. The following relations are described with prototypical rules: instructions, advice, warnings, illustration, restatement, purpose, condition, circumstance, concession, contrast and some forms of causes. Rules are developed for Fr...

The research in this paper was carried out as part of a research project funded by Swansea University and directed by professors Stuart Macdonald and Nuria Lorenzo-Dus. The project examined jihadist propaganda from different disciplinary perspectives, including Terrorism Studies and Linguistics. All available online publications of five jihadist magazines released between January 2009 and the e...

About 110 years ago, Iran experienced a revolution, which was known to be an attempt for development and modernization. The revolutionary roots had been established by new-coming social forces named as intellectuals. Since studying the past highlights the future, the necessity of intellectuals’ discourse as well as understanding their discourse strategies on the road to development and modernit...