The Analysis of Ambiguity Found in Emily Dickinson's Poems
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Hermaphrodite Edited by Renée Bergland and Gary Williams
Philosophies of Sex Etching of Julia Ward Howe. By permission of The Boston Athenaeum hilosophies of Sex PCritical Essays on The Hermaphrodite EDITED BY RENÉE BERGLAND and GARY WILLIAMS THE OHIO State UNIVERSITY PRESS • COLUMBUS Copyright © 2012 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Philosophies of sex : critical essays on The hermaphrodite / Edited by Renée Bergland and Gary Williams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8142-1189-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8142-1189-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8142-9290-7 (cd-rom) 1. Howe, Julia Ward, 1819–1910. Hermaphrodite. I. Bergland, Renée L., 1963– II. Williams, Gary, 1947 May 6– PS2018.P47 2012 818'.409—dc23 2011053530 Cover design by Laurence J. Nozik Type set in Adobe Minion Pro and Scala Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American Na- tional Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction GARY Williams and RENÉE Bergland 1 Foreword Meeting the Hermaphrodite MARY H. Grant 15 Chapter One Indeterminate Sex and Text: The Manuscript Status of The Hermaphrodite KAREN SÁnchez-Eppler 23 Chapter Two From Self-Erasure to Self-Possession: The Development of Julia Ward Howe’s Feminist Consciousness Marianne Noble 47 Chapter Three “Rather Both Than Neither”: The Polarity of Gender in Howe’s Hermaphrodite Laura Saltz 72 Chapter Four “Never the Half of Another”: Figuring and Foreclosing Marriage in The Hermaphrodite BetsY Klimasmith 93 vi • Contents Chapter Five Howe’s Hermaphrodite and Alcott’s “Mephistopheles”: Unpublished Cross-Gender Thinking JOYCE W. -
Two-Dimensionalism: Semantics and Metasemantics
Two-Dimensionalism: Semantics and Metasemantics YEUNG, \y,ang -C-hun ...:' . '",~ ... ~ .. A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy In Philosophy The Chinese University of Hong Kong January 2010 Abstract of thesis entitled: Two-Dimensionalism: Semantics and Metasemantics Submitted by YEUNG, Wang Chun for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in July 2009 This ,thesis investigates problems surrounding the lively debate about how Kripke's examples of necessary a posteriori truths and contingent a priori truths should be explained. Two-dimensionalism is a recent development that offers a non-reductive analysis of such truths. The semantic interpretation of two-dimensionalism, proposed by Jackson and Chalmers, has certain 'descriptive' elements, which can be articulated in terms of the following three claims: (a) names and natural kind terms are reference-fixed by some associated properties, (b) these properties are known a priori by every competent speaker, and (c) these properties reflect the cognitive significance of sentences containing such terms. In this thesis, I argue against two arguments directed at such 'descriptive' elements, namely, The Argument from Ignorance and Error ('AlE'), and The Argument from Variability ('AV'). I thereby suggest that reference-fixing properties belong to the semantics of names and natural kind terms, and not to their metasemantics. Chapter 1 is a survey of some central notions related to the debate between descriptivism and direct reference theory, e.g. sense, reference, and rigidity. Chapter 2 outlines the two-dimensional approach and introduces the va~ieties of interpretations 11 of the two-dimensional framework. -
Found in the Public Domain
H E R O N T R E E Found in the Public Domain abyss bones confinement door family forager grace handwork head herbs hollow indigo instructions jaws lid mosses practice road shape shiver shoes storms thought towns twins vowel voyager war well yew HERON TREE EDITED BY Chris Campolo Rebecca Resinski This issue collects the poems published on the HERON TREE website from October 2016 through February 2017 as part of the Found in the Public Domain special series. herontree.com / [email protected] Issue originally published in February 2017; revised to include process notes in March 2018. All rights revert to individual authors upon publication. © 2018 by Heron Tree Press HERON TREE FOUND IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN HERON TREE PRESS CONWAY, ARKANSAS HERON TREE : FOUND IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SOURCE TEXTS In the table of contents author names are linked to contributor information and titles are linked to poems. In the issue titles are linked to notes on source and process. 1 DEBORAH PURDY : Where It May Be “A Lament for S. B. Pat Paw,” Louisa May Alcott “Morning Song” and “A Song Before Grief,” Rose Hawthorne Lathrop [As imperceptibly as grief], Emily Dickinson “Ode to Silence” and “Journey,” Edna St. Vincent Millay [Not knowing when the dawn will come], Emily Dickinson 2 SARAH ANN WINN : Nature, Chrome Painted The Land of Little Rain, Mary Hunter Austin 3 HOWIE GOOD : How to Create an Unreliable Narrator titles of artworks by Lee Kit, Leslie Hewitt, and Brent Birnbaum 4 MELISSA FREDERICK : [32] AND [43] sonnets 32 and 43, William Shakespeare 6 CAREY VOSS : Henry Banner AND Emma Barr interviews of Henry Banner (with Samuel S. -
Scope Ambiguity in Syntax and Semantics
Scope Ambiguity in Syntax and Semantics Ling324 Reading: Meaning and Grammar, pg. 142-157 Is Scope Ambiguity Semantically Real? (1) Everyone loves someone. a. Wide scope reading of universal quantifier: ∀x[person(x) →∃y[person(y) ∧ love(x,y)]] b. Wide scope reading of existential quantifier: ∃y[person(y) ∧∀x[person(x) → love(x,y)]] 1 Could one semantic representation handle both the readings? • ∃y∀x reading entails ∀x∃y reading. ∀x∃y describes a more general situation where everyone has someone who s/he loves, and ∃y∀x describes a more specific situation where everyone loves the same person. • Then, couldn’t we say that Everyone loves someone is associated with the semantic representation that describes the more general reading, and the more specific reading obtains under an appropriate context? That is, couldn’t we say that Everyone loves someone is not semantically ambiguous, and its only semantic representation is the following? ∀x[person(x) →∃y[person(y) ∧ love(x,y)]] • After all, this semantic representation reflects the syntax: In syntax, everyone c-commands someone. In semantics, everyone scopes over someone. 2 Arguments for Real Scope Ambiguity • The semantic representation with the scope of quantifiers reflecting the order in which quantifiers occur in a sentence does not always represent the most general reading. (2) a. There was a name tag near every plate. b. A guard is standing in front of every gate. c. A student guide took every visitor to two museums. • Could we stipulate that when interpreting a sentence, no matter which order the quantifiers occur, always assign wide scope to every and narrow scope to some, two, etc.? 3 Arguments for Real Scope Ambiguity (cont.) • But in a negative sentence, ¬∀x∃y reading entails ¬∃y∀x reading. -
On the Logic of Two-Dimensional Semantics
Matrices and Modalities: On the Logic of Two-Dimensional Semantics MSc Thesis (Afstudeerscriptie) written by Peter Fritz (born March 4, 1984 in Ludwigsburg, Germany) under the supervision of Dr Paul Dekker and Prof Dr Yde Venema, and submitted to the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MSc in Logic at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Date of the public defense: Members of the Thesis Committee: June 29, 2011 Dr Paul Dekker Dr Emar Maier Dr Alessandra Palmigiano Prof Dr Frank Veltman Prof Dr Yde Venema Abstract Two-dimensional semantics is a theory in the philosophy of language that pro- vides an account of meaning which is sensitive to the distinction between ne- cessity and apriority. Usually, this theory is presented in an informal manner. In this thesis, I take first steps in formalizing it, and use the formalization to present some considerations in favor of two-dimensional semantics. To do so, I define a semantics for a propositional modal logic with operators for the modalities of necessity, actuality, and apriority that captures the relevant ideas of two-dimensional semantics. I use this to show that some criticisms of two- dimensional semantics that claim that the theory is incoherent are not justified. I also axiomatize the logic, and compare it to the most important proposals in the literature that define similar logics. To indicate that two-dimensional semantics is a plausible semantic theory, I give an argument that shows that all theorems of the logic can be philosophically justified independently of two-dimensional semantics. Acknowledgements I thank my supervisors Paul Dekker and Yde Venema for their help and encour- agement in preparing this thesis. -
EMILY DICKINSON's POETIC IMAGERY in 21ST-CENTURY SONGS by LORI LAITMAN, JAKE HEGGIE, and DARON HAGEN by Shin-Yeong Noh Submit
EMILY DICKINSON’S POETIC IMAGERY IN 21ST-CENTURY SONGS BY LORI LAITMAN, JAKE HEGGIE, AND DARON HAGEN by Shin-Yeong Noh Submitted to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor of Music Indiana University May 2019 Accepted by the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music Doctoral Committee ______________________________________ Andrew Mead, Research Director ______________________________________ Patricia Stiles, Chair ______________________________________ Gary Arvin ______________________________________ Mary Ann Hart March 7, 2019 ii Copyright © 2019 Shin-Yeong Noh iii To My Husband, Youngbo, and My Son iv Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without many people who aided and supported me. I am grateful to all of my committee members for their advice and guidance. I am especially indebted to my research director, Dr. Andrew Mead, who provided me with immeasurable wisdom and encouragement. His inspiration has given me huge confidence in my study. I owe my gratitude to my teacher, committee chair, Prof. Patricia Stiles, who has been very careful and supportive of my voice, career goals, health, and everything. Her instructions on the expressive performance have inspired me to consider the relationship between music and text, and my interest in song interpretation resulted in this study. I am thankful to the publishers for giving me permission to use the scores. Especially, I must thank Lori Laitman, who offered me her latest versions of the songs with a very neat and clear copy. She is always prompt and nice to me. -
The Ambiguous Nature of Language
International J. Soc. Sci. & Education 2017 Vol.7 Issue 4, ISSN: 2223-4934 E and 2227-393X Print The Ambiguous Nature of Language By Mohammad Awwad Applied Linguistics, English Department, Lebanese University, Beirut, LEBANON. [email protected] Abstract Linguistic ambiguity is rendered as a problematic issue since it hinders precise language processing. Ambiguity leads to a confusion of ideas in the reader’s mind when he struggles to decide on the precise meaning intended behind an utterance. In the literature relevant to the topic, no clear classification of linguistic ambiguity can be traced, for what is considered syntactic ambiguity, for some linguists, falls under pragmatic ambiguity for others; what is rendered as lexical ambiguity for some linguists is perceived as semantic ambiguity for others and still as unambiguous to few. The problematic issue, hence, can be recapitulated in the abstruseness hovering around what is linguistic ambiguity, what is not, and what comprises each type of ambiguity in language. The present study aimed at propounding lucid classification of ambiguity types according to their function in context by delving into ambiguity types which are displayed in English words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. converges in an attempt to disambiguate English language structures, and thus provide learners with a better language processing outcome and enhance teachers with a more facile and lucid teaching task. Keywords: linguistic ambiguity, language processing. 1. Introduction Ambiguity is derived from ‘ambiagotatem’ in Latin which combined ‘ambi’ and ‘ago’ each word meaning ‘around’ or ‘by’ (Atlas,1989) , and thus the concept of ambiguity is hesitation, doubt, or uncertainty and that concept associated the term ‘ambiguous’ from the first usage until the most recent linguistic definition. -
Did a Woman Write “The Great American Novel”? Judging Women’S Fiction in the Nineteenth Century and Today
Did a Woman Write “The Great American Novel”? Judging Women’s Fiction in the Nineteenth Century and Today Melissa J. Homestead University of Nebraska A JURY OF HER PEERS: AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS FROM ANNE BRADSTREET TO ANNIE PROULX, by Elaine Showalter. New York: Knopf, 2009. 608 pp. $30.00 cloth; $16.95 paper. In the fall of 2009, as I was preparing to teach a senior capstone course for English majors on the nineteenth-century American novel and ques- tions of literary value and the canon, I went trolling for suggestions of recent secondary readings about canonicity. The response came back loud and clear: “The canon wars are over. We all teach whatever we want to teach, and everything is fine.” My experiences with students suggest that, at least in American literary studies before 1900, the canon wars are not over, or, perhaps, they have entered a new stage. Most of my students had heard of James Fenimore Cooper, and a few had read him, but none (with the exception of one student who had previously taken an early American novel class with me) had even heard of his contemporary Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Most had heard of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and a few had previously read Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). Although some aspiring fiction writers initially objected to what they felt was an overly intrusive narrator, I succeeded in persuading the class to read Stowe’s novel with respectful attention. All of them had heard of Mark Twain, and all but a tiny minority had read his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). -
Anne Bradstreet Exhibits the Puritan “Plain Style” in Her Poetry
• Anne Bradstreet exhibits the Puritan “plain style” in her poetry • Mary Rowlandson’s account of her 11week captivity encouraged antiIndian sentiment in the colonies • From her writings, Abigail Adams shows early feminist causes • Meriwether Lewis contributed vast knowledge of botany, geology, and geography in his journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition • In his poem “Thanatopsis”, William Cullen Bryant exhibits both transcendental and Calvinist elements • Show how Concord, Massachusetts was the first rural American artist’s colony offering a spiritual and cultural alternative to American materialism • Ralph Waldo Emerson reveals his transcendentalist beliefs in his essay “Self Reliance” • Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “From Nature” reflects the 19th Century romantic thought • Ralph Waldo Emerson took much of his spiritual insight from readings of Eastern religions as seen in his poem, “Brahma” • Transcendentalists like Bronson Alcott and Robert Owens and George and Sophia Ripley created experimental utopian colonies to counteract the attitudes created by the Industrial Revolution • Transcendentalism was a philosophical, literary, social, and theological Movement • Civil disobedience and peaceful resistance used today by activists had their base from Henry David Thoreau’s beliefs • Edgar Allan Poe was culturally informed, not isolated, as a writer during his time • Sojourner Truth encouraged abolitionism and women’s suffrage in her evangelistic preaching • Walt Whitman’s greatest legacy is the invention of American free verse • Walt Whitman -
Fuzziness-Vagueness-Generality-Ambiguity. Journal of Pragmatics (Elsevier Science B.V
Fuzziness-vagueness-generality-ambiguity. Journal of Pragmatics (Elsevier Science B.V. in New York & Amsterdam), 1998, 29 (1): pp 13-31. Fuzziness---Vagueness---Generality---Ambiguity1 Qiao Zhang Published by Journal of Pragmatics (Elsevier Science B.V. in New York & Amsterdam), 1998, 29(1): pp 13-31. Contact: Dr Grace Zhang Department of Languages and Intercultural Education Curtin University of Technology GPO Box 1987 Perth, Western Australia 6845 Australia Tel: +61 8 9266 3478 Fax: +61 8 9266 4133 Email: [email protected] Abstract In this paper, I attempt to distinguish four linguistic concepts: fuzziness, vagueness, generality and ambiguity. The distinction between the four concepts is a significant matter, both theoretically and practically. Several tests are discussed from the perspectives of semantics, syntax and pragmatics. It is my contention that fuzziness, vagueness, and generality are licensed by Grice's Co-operative Principle, i.e. they are just as important as precision in language. I conclude that generality, vagueness, and fuzziness are under-determined, and ambiguity is over-determined. Fuzziness differs from generality, vagueness, and ambiguity in that it is not simply a result of a one-to- many relationship between a general meaning and its specifications; nor a list of possible related interpretations derived from a vague expression; nor a list of unrelated meanings denoted by an ambiguous expression. Fuzziness is inherent in the sense that it has no clear-cut referential boundary, and is not resolvable with resort to context, as opposed to generality, vagueness, and ambiguity, which may be contextually eliminated. It is also concluded that fuzziness is closely involved with language users' judgments. -
Emily Dickinson - Poems
Classic Poetry Series Emily Dickinson - poems - Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive Emily Dickinson(10 December 1830 – 15 May 1886) Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence. Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends. Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. -
Maya Angelou
MAYA ANGELOU AND THE FREEDOM POETRY OF ADVENT MAYA ANGELOU AND THE FREEDOM POETRY OF ADVENT “I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‘I’m a Christian.’ I think, ‘Already? You already got it?’ I’m working at it, which means that I try to be kind and fair and generous and respectful and courteous to every human being.” + Maya Angelou Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928. In 1965, working as a journalist in Ghana, she met Malcolm X, and decided to return to the United States to help him establish his Organization of African-American Unity – but only a few days after she arrived, he was assassinated. A few years later, she agreed to work with Martin Luther King Jr. – but then he, too, was killed, on her 40th birthday. Angelou fell into a depression. Some friends recommended her to an editor at Random House, saying she should write an autobiography – but Angelou repeatedly refused. Then her friend, the writer James Baldwin, suggested a creative strategy to the editor: call her one more time, Baldwin said, and say you’re calling to tell her that you’ll stop bothering her, and that it’s probably just as well that she’s refused, because it’s terribly difficult to write an autobiography that’s also good literature. The plan worked like a charm: Angelou immediately agreed to take on the challenge. On writing the book, she later said, “Once I got into it I realized I was following a tradition established by Frederick Douglass – the slave narrative – speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying ‘I’ meaning ‘we.’” That first autobiography became I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969.