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In this interview, conducted via email during August 2016, Dr. Arlene G. Taylor discusses her career as a cataloger, professor of cataloging and classification, and her work in professional associations. Topics include her early cataloging and teaching experiences, changes in both cataloging practice and the teaching of cataloging, subject analysis, and “aboutness” as compared with form/genre access, professional experiences outside the United States, and the future of MLIS programs.

This qualitative project draws from the experiences of homeless young adults in nonprofit organizations in an effort to deepen our understanding of compassionate communication and improve human services. The young adults identify four communication practices as particularly compassionate: presence, nonverbal immediacy, organizational immediacy, and acts of service. Together, this set of practices constitutes “embodied aboutness,” which I define as making one’s body about the other. These practices broaden our understanding of compassion by highlighting the way bodies are interpreted in service delivery. Embodied aboutness informs us how to communicate compassionately in social justice contexts and beyond.

The aim of this paper is to develop a Cognitive Grammar-based analysis of English Copy-raising (CR) constructions such asRichard seems like he is dancing. We argue that the notion of reference-point plays a crucial role in licensing the matrix-subject of the construction. In CR, with the epistemic verbsseemandappear, the matrix-subject functions as a reference-point in relation to the pronominal copy (if a copy exists) in the embedded clause. The aboutness topicality of the matrix-subject in CR is expected, owing to its reference-point property. The epistemic CR construction is acceptable without a pronominal copy if the matrix-subject functions as a reference-point in relation to the complement clause. The same type of analysis is applied to the CR construction with perceptual resemblance (PR) verbs –sound,look,feel, andsmell– leading to the conclusion that the strong dichotomy between epistemic and PR verbs is illusory. It is further demonstrated that expletivethere-raising in CR is motivated by the same reference-point phenomenon. The difference betweenthere-raising and other CR examples stems from the role ofthereas a setting subject. Our reference-point-based analysis predicts a metonymic interpretation of the matrix-subject, which we attribute to the connection between reference-point and metonymy.

The framework, DPNF, seamlessly combines faceted browsing and tag-based navigation.DPNF integrates experts' subject headings and social tags.DPNF offers a more efficient, effective, and user-oriented interface than single ones. With the increasing volume of digital images, improving techniques for image findability is receiving heightened attention. The cultural heritage sector, with its vast resource of images, has realized the value of social tags and started using tags in parallel with controlled vocabularies to increase the odds of users finding images of interest. The research presented in this paper develops the Dual-Perspective Navigation Framework (DPNF), which integrates controlled vocabularies and social tags to represent the aboutness of an item more comprehensively, in order that the information scent can be maximized to facilitate resource findability.DPNF utilizes the mechanisms of faceted browsing and tag-based navigation to offer a seamless interaction between experts' subject headings and public tags during image search. In a controlled user study, participants effectively completed more exploratory tasks with the DPNF interface than with the tag-only interface. DPNF is more efficient than both single descriptor interfaces (subject heading-only and tag-only interfaces). Participants spent significantly less time, fewer interface interactions, and less back tracking to complete an exploratory task without an extra workload. In addition, participants were more satisfied with the DPNF interface than with the others. The findings of this study can assist interface designers struggling with what information is most helpful to users and facilitate searching tasks. It also maximizes end users' chances of finding target images by engaging image information from two sources: the professionals' description of items in a collection and the crowd's assignment of social tags.

A lightning fast summary of Yablo, Aboutness, cutting many corners in the interests of brevity. The emphasis is on “ways.” Substituting “ways for S to be true” in for “worlds in which S is true” improves a number of philosophical explanations. The subject matter of S is identified with S’s ways of holding in a world, or failing, as the case may be. S contains T iff T is implied by S, and T’s ways of being true (false) are implied by ways for S to be true (false); this kind of way-implication is the same as subject matter inclusion. S’s surplus content over T is explained as that portion of the content of S that is not about whether T. Subject matter is cast throughout as a full partner in meaning.

This discussion of Yablo’s book Aboutness focuses on the way partial content and partial truth are reflected in natural language. It argues that natural language reflects a content-based notion of part structure for a much greater range of entities than Yablo acknowledges. Moreover, it argues that some of those entities involve a notion of partial satisfaction rather than partial truth as well as, to an extent, a notion of partial existence or validity.

Intentionality and the Myths of the Given (Sachs, 2014; hereafter IMOG) addresses the problem of how best to understand ‘intentionality’, or the aboutness of thought and language, especially in the...

In the era of enormous information production human capabilities have reached their limits. The need for automatic information processing which would not be incommensurate to human sophistication seems to be more than imperative. Information scientists have focused on the development of techniques and processes that would assist human contribution while improve, or at least guarantee, information quality. Automatic indexing techniques may lay on various approaches offering different results in information retrieval. In this paper we introduce an automated methodology for subject analysis, including both the determination of the aboutness of the documents and the translation of the related concepts to the terms of a knowledge organization system. Focusing on a corpus consisting of articles related to the Digital Library Evaluation domain, topic modeling algorithms are utilized for the aboutness of the documents, while the context of the words in topics, as captured by Word Embeddings, are used for the assignment of the extracted topics to the concepts of the EuroVoc thesaurus.

Volunteering is an activity with a wide range of positive outcomes, particularly for the target of the effort. Still, volunteers can benefit from their activities as well. This is interesting, because the very essence of engaging in an activity voluntarily means that volunteers act “without expectation of reward” (Snyder & Omoto in Social Issues and Policy Review 2, p. 2, 2008) for themselves. But the by-catch of benefits for the volunteers is reported too structurally to be marginalized as mere incidents. Further, the volunteers are often surprised when they reflect on the positive outcomes of their volunteering activities for themselves. As they start with a focus on making a difference for others, they do not expect the richness of differences volunteering activities make in their own lives. This chapter presents a phenomenological study of volunteering experiences in India and what it means to engage in volunteering, with the aim to propose an intervention for experiencing meaning in life. In line with phenomenology’s accent on uncovering experiences and meanings, this chapter yields insights into concrete volunteering actions, unintended effects of volunteering and what engaging in volunteering means for the volunteers themselves. Data were collected by means of 37 semi-structured interviews. Embodied compassionate actions formed the core of volunteers’ work experiences. The frameworks of Embodied Aboutness and Meanings of Life were used as means to structure the embodied compassionate actions and the meaningful outcomes of volunteering. Seven embodied compassionate actions and seven meaningful outcomes were identified. The CARE-protocol (Context, Aboutness, Reflect and Engage) is proposed as an intervention for those who want to experience meaningfulness as well. From our study it appears to be valuable to conduct additional studies on embodied psychology.

This article investigates the loss of aboutness topics in preverbal position in the history of French, using a corpus-based research on preverbal accusative objects. A comparison of Old and Middle French with Modern French reveals that new-information focalization had disappeared by the 14th century, whereas aboutness topicalization had in turn vanished by the end of the 16th century, along with other marked constructions. Combined with the generative premise that independent pragmatic factors should not trigger syntactic change, the results of this study suggest the reanalysis of the grammar as V-to-I in Renaissance French is responsible for blocking the derivation of aboutness topicalization. An alternative proposal based on phase extension and on Relativized Minimality, in a version affecting some types of A′-movement, relates those two diachronic shifts. The article concludes with the idea that the study of marked constructions may be recast as offering diagnostics on broader syntactic changes. Resume: Cet article examine la perte des topiques d'a-propos (aboutness topics) en position preverbale dans l'histoire du francais, a partir d'un corpus de complements accusatifs preverbaux. Une comparaison des donnees de l'ancien et du moyen francais avec ceux du francais moderne revele que la focalisation informative avait disparu au 14e siecle, alors que la topicalisation d'a-propos ne disparait qu'a la fin du 16e siecle, en meme temps que d'autres constructions marquees. Combines a la premisse generative selon laquelle des facteurs pragmatiques independants ne devraient pas declencher de changement syntaxique, les resultats de cette etude suggerent que la reanalyse du mouvement V-a-I, dans la grammaire du francais de la Renaissance, est responsable de la perte de la topicalisation d'a-propos. Une proposition alternative basee sur l'extension de phase et une version de la contrainte de minimalite relativisee visant certains types de mouvement A′ relie ces deux changements diachroniques. Ceci permet de supposer que l'etude des constructions marquees peut acquerir un nouveau role, et offrir ainsi des diagnostics sur des changements syntaxiques plus larges.

Recent work has revealed that raising-to-object (RTO) constructions across languages impose two common constraints. Constructions that involve an actual movement of the “raised” phrase (XP) invariably impose a “Subject-only” constraint on XP, whereas those that contain an XP base-generated in its spell-out position require a coindexed pronoun in the embedded clause. This paper investigates an understudied type of RTO construction in the Philippine-type Austronesian language Puyuma, in which a “Subject-only” constraint on the XP is absent, and the construction need not contain an embedded pronoun coindexed with the XP. I demonstrate that the absence of these constraints follows from an embedded hanging topic analysis of the XP, whereby the XP is base-generated at the left periphery of a finite embedded clause, whose relation with the embedded CP is established through the aboutness condition. I discuss how this construction enriches the current understanding of the microvariation found in non-movement-type RTO constructions. Finally, I show that the XPs, in instances of RTO that have been analyzed as embedded topic constructions, exhibit variation in behavior parallel to topics in root clause environments, which calls for further investigation of the correlation between topics and XPs in RTO constructions.

An account of the distinction between singular and general propositions should reflect the core ideas that have motivated the distinction. Those core ideas can be appreciated independently of many commitments regarding the metaphysics of propositions, but theorists with differing views on the latter have given quite different explanations of what it is for a proposition to be singular or general. Many of those explanations turn out not to reflect the core ideas adequately after all, either by misclassifying certain propositions or by failing to be sufficiently informative. A more satisfactory account can be formulated by more directly elaborating on the background ideas motivating the distinction. The resulting account not only does better than its competitors, but is compatible with various views on the metaphysics of propositions. Postprint

The Theistic Argument from Intentionality (TAI) is a venerable argument for the existence of God from the existence of eternal truths. The argument relies inter alia on the premises that (i) truth requires representation, and that (ii) non-derivative representation is a function of, and only of, minds. If propositions are the fundamental bearers of truth and falsity, then these premises entail that propositions (or at least their representational properties) depend on minds. Although it is widely thought that psychologism—the view that the fundamental truth-bearers are mind-dependent—was refuted by Frege, a psychologistic view of propositions has been undergoing a revival. However, this new psychologism suffers from a problem of scarcity—finite minds cannot generate enough thoughts to play the role of fundamental truth-bearers. This objection paves the way for a revised version of the TAI: only an infinite mind can furnish enough thoughts to play the role of propositions.

International audience; This paper presents first steps towards a formalization of beliefs. It argues for the multiple nature of beliefs: the term “belief” can refer to a mental process of taking something to be the case, or to a disposition realized by such a mental process. The categorical basis of a disposition-belief has as part the concretization of an information content entity, which is in a relation of aboutness with the entities concerned by this belief

Nowadays, the efficient access of enormous amounts of information has become more difficult due to the rapid growth of the Internet. To manage the vast information, we need efficient and effective methods and tools. In this paper, a graph-based text summarization method has been described which captures the aboutness of a text document. The method has been developed using modified TextRank computed based on the concept of PageRank defined for each page in the Web pages. The proposed method constructs a graph with sentences as the nodes and similarity between two sentences as the weight of the edge between them. Modified inverse sentence frequency-cosine similarity is used to give different weightage to different words in the sentence, whereas traditional cosine similarity treats the words equally. The graph is made sparse and partitioned into different clusters with the assumption that the sentences within a cluster are similar to each other and sentences of different cluster represent their dissimilarity. The performance evaluation of proposed summarization technique shows the effectiveness of the method.

Frey (2000; 2004) assumes that German is discourse-configurational regarding aboutness topics, namely that there is a special syntactic position for topics within the German middle field, directly above the base position of sentence adverbials. In this paper we will present two acceptability judgment studies and two reading time studies that provide support for a designated topic position in German. Based on assumptions regarding (non-)topicable noun phrases, i.e. phrases that are (not) able to serve as an aboutness topic (see e.g. Frey 2004; Endriss 2009), we manipulated the subject type (referential, quantified, non-referential) and the position of the subject (preceding and following a sentence adverbial). In a further experiment, we varied whether the referential subject is marked as a topic or not. In sum, we found convincing evidence for a syntactic topic position. We do not think that our results affirm the assumption of a TopP (topic phrase), but they at least suggest the existence of a topic position in a descriptive sense.

EDITOR'S SUMMARY For his book Indexing It All: The Subject in the Age of Documentation, Information, and Data, Ronald E. Day was honored with the 2015 ASIS&T Best Information Science Book award. In this afterword, Day explains that the book examines the concept of “aboutness” in the modern documentary tradition covering information science and data science. In writing the book, Day wanted to sort out the relationship between subject and object, between user and document, the core of information science and prelude to information retrieval. He considers the transition of a text serving a group audience to a document serving individual user needs, facilitated by an array of digital technologies. Referencing historical precursors Paul Otlet and Suzanne Briet, he considers documentation as evidence that, depending on the viewpoint chosen, may be a construction or a representation of a concept. Day considers his book a dystopian work, asserting that information technology has been charged with answering both information and cultural needs and has given rise to users’ addiction to technology. He anticipates data and documents to both influence and be influenced by evolving technologies, cultural forms and social norms with the document form persisting, though transformed.

In this article, I explore Stuart court masques that in some way represent London, and I examine court masques that were performed in London itself: “about” meaning subject matter and performance space. I argue that the masque on occasion violated its ordinary boundaries and reached into the city, thematically or practically. Paradoxically, by blurring boundaries, masques heighten the bonds between court and London. Stuart masques by Jonson and, in 1613, by Campion, Chapman, and Beaumont offer civic subject matter or have a city origin. They therefore pave the way for James Shirley’s The Triumph of Peace (1634), which becomes the perfect example of the “aboutness” of court masques. It had two performances: one at court and another, ten days later, at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London. Processions through London’s streets preceded both performances. Even though court masques underscore royal power and complements to that power, the masques on occasion also serve as complements to London, the urban focus of the kingdom and its economic and cultural center. The masques studied here offer a series of unprecedented interplay between court and city, expanding the common view of their exclusively royal focus.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a new framework for representing music for information retrieval that emphasizes socio-cultural aspects of music.Design/methodology/approach– Philosophical and theoretical concepts related to the nature of music, aboutness, musical works are explored as they inform how music is represented. Multidisciplinary perspectives on music information representation, classification, and retrieval provide insight into how information science can better accommodate music information within its disciplinary boundaries.Findings– A new term, music information object (MIO), is presented and defined. Downie’s (2003) theoretical statements are reconceptualized into a theory of representational incompleteness and three meta-classes for music information object representation.Practical implications– This new framework incorporates more dimensions of music representation than existing frameworks allow and can facilitate comparisons between classifications of MIO representations by music practitioners, scholars, and system developers.Originality/value– The meta-classes form a much-needed theoretical framework for classifying and defining MIOs from any musical tradition for retrieval. This fills a gap in music information retrieval research, which lacks a theoretical framework that can accommodate musics from all traditions without attempting to organize them according to a western-centered understanding.

In this essay, I argue that we ultimately need to re-ground biosemiotic theory on natural science principles and abandon the analogy with human level semiotics, except as this provides clues for guiding analysis. But, to overcome the implicit dualism still firmly entrenched in the biological sciences requires a third approach that is neither phenomenologically motivated nor based on a code analogy. This approach must preserve the centrality of the concept of interpretation (that is ubiquitous in the phenomenological domain) and yet base it in biophysics and mathematical information theory. To accomplish this, we must undertake a thorough re-examination of information theory to determine how it can be extended to deal with issues of real reference and functional significance. I argue below that this requires showing how the concept of entropy (as it is differently defined in thermodynamics and in the information sciences) can be used to explain the relationship between information, meaning and work. Additi...

In this article, we review the capacity of adverbs ending in -mente to influence in the representation of actors, events and historical processes, understood as the aboutness (Lambrecht 1998) or the referential base of the sentence, in two Chilean official human rights violation reports. The starting point of analysis is adverbial meanings described in the traditional bibliography (Kovacci 1999; Rodriguez Ramalle 2003; NGLE 2009), where alethics -supposedly-, domaines -juridically-, manner -terribly-, enunciatives -unfortunately-, evidentials -empirically-, focals -especially-, quantifiers -entirely-, metatextuals -literally- and temporals -immediately- are featured. These meanings are enquired as part of the strategies that allow historians to evaluate linguistically the social experience and to organize valorative prosodies (Martin & White 2005).DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/verba.42.1376

Physical law and the teleonomy of living beings are difficult to reconcile: a stone rolls downhill because of the force of gravity, not because it wants to reach the bottom. Mental content exhibits the curious property of intentionality—of being directed at, concerned with, or simply about entities external to itself. Such ‘aboutness’ is arguably a prerequisite to goal-directed behavior; yet, following Brentano (Psychologie vom Empirischen Standpunkte. Duncker & Humbblot, Berlin, 1874, [1]), it is often alleged that no physical system exhibits this kind of other-directedness.

Corpus keywords have been found to be useful indicators of “aboutness” of a text and are extensively applied to explore specialized corpora. However, little research has been conducted to apply keywords analysis into ESP teaching, especially in Business English instruction, which entails both acquisition of language and mastery of subject-matter knowledge. This study extracts keywords and KW clusters from Business English Textbook Corpus by use of WordSmith 6.0 and designs engagement activities to facilitate learners’ reading comprehension of an individual text, to develop their subject-matter knowledge and help them acquire domain-specific keywords deeply.

In a recent paper Berto introduces a semantic system for a logic of imagination, intended as positive conceivability, and aboutness of imaginative acts. This system crucially adopts elements of both the semantics of conditionals and the semantics of analytical implications in order to account for the central logical traits of the notion of truth in an act of imagination based on an explicit input. The main problem left unsolved is to put forward a complete set of axioms for the proposed system. In the present paper I offer a solution to this problem by providing a complete axiomatization of a generalization of the original semantics. The difficulty in proving completeness lies in the fact that the modalities that capture the notion of truth in an act of imagination are neither standard nor minimal, so that the construction of the canonical model and the proof of the truth lemma are to be substantially modified.

It is not rare to find students of language interested in the many ways in which speakers talk about Fred or about the weather, assert of Fred or of the weather that he is fat or that it is fine. Many philosophers, logicians, and linguists share an interest in what words or phrases designate or describe, and what speakers refer to, mention, and say things about. But it is also notable that the Grammarian and the Philosopher, especially the Metaphysician, have looked at intentionality in different ways. In this lecture I sketch the ways that the Philosophers Nelson Goodman and W.V.O Quine and by contrast the Grammarians have analyzed and used the notion of Aboutness, in Quine’s case in his famous argument against Quantifying Into intensional sentences. Goodman’s and Quine’s analyses are motivated by different intellectual goals from the Linguists’. By contrast Linguists have the notion of Topic Noun Phrase. I shall argue that the Linguists’ notion of Topic Noun Phrase offers clarification and an intellectual advance over Goodman’s and Quine’s notions, especially in the treatment of propositional attitude sentences.

Cognition A general concept of psychology referring to all processes and structures of the mind. These comprise the processing of stimulus “input” (i.e., perception) and the internal processing of represented information (e.g., memory functions, thinking, problem solving); the latter processes presuppose the intentional features of the mind. Cognitive structures include knowledge, categories, memory, attitudes, and schemata, again intentional concepts. Dynamical systems theory A system is any set of things (components, elements) that stand in relation to one another. If a rule or description exists that defines how the systems change over time (such as a differential equation or a mapping algorithm), the system is a dynamical system. Dynamical systems theory is a structural science, open to be applied to problems of the natural sciences or of the humanities. Intentionality A characterizing property of the mind. In contrast to physical systems, mental states have content, i.e., they “are about something” in the sense that they contain a reference to an object or the representation of an object. In addition to aboutness, intentionality demands a functional reference to the intentional object. Mind-body problem The philosophical question as to if and how mind and brain/body interact; analogously, the question whether mental processes and physical processes are ontologically different or not. Naturalization Explaining mental phenomena using concepts and models derived from the natural sciences. Naturalization efforts may be viewed as tools in order to develop viable simulation models of mental processes.

This chapter describes what emotions are and why they are important in climate change education. It discusses the specific aspects of climate change that elicit emotional expressions are important to understanding learners' and teachers' emotional connections to the phenomena. Identifying what counts as emotional expressions in science classrooms requires teachers and researchers to attend to the norms of participating and the ways in which opportunities for emotional expressions are constructed. There are multiple features of emotional expressions, each contributing to a nuanced understanding of emotional engagement with climate change: aboutness, emotion type, ownership of expression, and frequency within a discourse event. The chapter concludes with a set of recommendations for climate change educators around valuing emotional expressions. In order for climate educators to make space for learners to make sense of climate change emotionally, teacher educators must also address emotions in teacher learning settings.

Proper names play an important role in our understanding of linguistic ‘aboutness’ or reference. For instance, the name-bearer relation is a good candidate for the paradigm of the reference relation: it provides us with our initial grip on this relation and controls our thinking about it. For this and other reasons proper names have been at the center of philosophical attention. However, proper names are as controversial as they are conceptually fundamental. Since Kripke’s seminal lectures Naming and Necessity the controversy about proper names has taken the form of a debate between two main camps, descriptivists and non-descriptivists like Kripke himself. Descriptivists hold that there is a close connection between proper names and definite descriptions: the meaning or sense of a proper name can be given by a (bundle of) definite description(s). The satisfier, if any, of the definite description(s) that provide(s) the meaning of a proper name is its referent. Descriptivists can allow for empty proper names that are meaningful. They also have an initially plausible account of true informative identity statements (‘Marilyn Monroe is no one other person than Norma Jean Baker’). Their informativity is grounded in a difference in meaning-giving descriptions.

Intrinsicality is a central notion in metaphysics that can do important work in many areas of philosophy. It is not widely appreciated, however, that there are in fact a number of different notions of intrinsicality, and that these different notions differ in what work they can do. This paper discusses what these notions are, describes how they are related to each other, and argues that each of them can be analysed in terms of a single notion of intrinsic aboutness that relates states of affairs to the things they are intrinsically about.

1. Preliminaries1.1 Quine's criterionIn explicit opposition to Quine's (1948) view of the quantifiers, a number of philosophers have recently denied that ontological commitment is expressed via the quantificational structure of our language. Negating Quine's criterion, strictly speaking, only yields the neutral interpretation of quantifiers-both of natural language quantifiers and of formal ones.1 Such quantifiers intrinsically only encode inferential relations (by virtue of die specific quantifiers they are). The neutral interpretation of the quantifiers, however, allows that (all) quantifiers, regardless of the semantics they are endowed with, are open to being additionally supplemented with various metaphysical conditions.2Quine's criterion has played an extremely significant role in metaphysics for the last sixty years or so (and, implicitly, for eons earlier). It still does for many metaphysicians. For them, to indispensably say something prefixed by "There are As," or something similar in natural language that's best transliterated into a formula prefixed by "(3x)Ax," is to inherit a commitment to As unless one can paraphrase away that prefix-usage. The neutral-quantifier option levels the argumentative playing field: the form of one's language-expressions can't-all by itself-force an ontological commitment of any sort. Quantifiers have only an inferential role-one that (all by itself) introduces no ontological content into the statements they appear within.1.2 Aboutness considerationsThe majority tradition in metaphysics, in contrast to quantifier neutralists, has fully accepted Quine's criterion. A minority tradition, however, one predating Quine and his explicit criterion, is Meinongianism.3 As a metaphysical stance, Meinongianism is hard to analyze because there are a number of differing ontological (and language-based) moves that have historically been adopted by its many protagonists. One of these delineates different ontological statuses: being is distinguished from existence, for example. But more subtilized Meinongianisms are possible: the Meinongian can deny that the nonexistent items she is committed to exist (or have being) in any sense at all. In attributing properties to such nonbeings, furthermore, the Meinongian can describe them as only possessing representation-dependent properties.4 Still, on this view, expressions of language are about these nonbeings, and quantifiers range over them-just as with existing beings. Indeed, these nonbeings are what we think about. Mickey Mouse (to choose a relatively uncontroversial example) is the nonbeing that our thought is about (is directed towards) when we think: Mickey Mouse is cute.Quantifier neutralism allows into logical space, however, a position that describes our use of quantifiers (and our accompanying thought) as operating in a more pure metaphysically-deflated way. This is that, despite appearances, there is nothing that terms and the quantifiers linked to those terms are about. The Meinongianism of the last paragraph and this pure metaphysical deflationism disagree over aboutness.In this paper, I explore the knife-edge differences over aboutness between the version of Aboutness Meinongianism just described, one that retains aboutness assumptions about thought and language with respect to nonexistent beings and the-metaphysically thinner-Pure Metaphysical Deflationism that rejects aboutness assumptions about thought and language with respect to nonexistent beings. The latter position is held by deflationary nominalists5 who claim that certain terms in our language, and certain quantifier expressions, refer to things that don't exist in the strongest sense, that there is nothing that these terms and quantifier expressions are about. Aboutness phenomena-and what they reveal about our cognitive faculties-are crucial to understanding the differences between these metaphysical positions.2. Aboutness2. …

We bring out syntactic and semantic similarities of two types of conditionals with fronted antecedents [normal indicative conditionals (NCs) and biscuit conditionals (BCs)] and two types of left dislocation constructions in German (German left dislocation and hanging topic left dislocation), which mark two types of topicality (aboutness topicality and relevance topicality). On the basis of these similarities we argue that (the antecedent if-clauses of) NCs and BCs are aboutness topics and relevance topics, respectively. Our analysis extends the approach to aboutness topicality of Endriss (Quantificational topics. A scopal treatment of exceptional wide scope phenomena, 2009) to relevance topics to derive the semantic and pragmatic contribution of left-dislocated DPs and applies it to an analysis of conditionals as (maximal) pluralities of possible worlds. We show how this uniform approach to the interpretation of topicality accounts for the nominal left dislocation constructions as well as for the semantic and pragmatic effects observed in connection with the two types of conditionals. We furthermore discuss the potential of our proposal to deal with subjunctive biscuit conditionals, if-clauses modifying speech acts different from assertions, conditionals with right-dislocated if-clauses, and nested conditionals.

This study analyse the real uses of the fixed construction en este sentido from a polyfunctional approach. The most frequent function consists of marking the continuation of topic and indexing the unit in a special frame, so en este sentido is linked with connectives and also with topic markers. In addition, en este sentido reduces its scope and works as a topic operator and as a contrastive focal particle., Este estudio muestra el análisis de los usos de la construcción fijada en este sentido realizado desde una perspectiva polifuncional. Su función más frecuente consiste en indicar continuación temática y en insertar la unidad discursiva en un marco, de ahí que esté emparentada tanto con los conectores de continuación como con los topicalizadores. Asimismo, en algunos usos reduce el ámbito sobre el que actúa y funciona como operador de tópico y como focalizador contrastivo.

Philosophical logic defined a metalanguage as a language about a language. After that, the word ‘‘metapicture’’ was used by Mitchell to identify a picture about a picture. Once we are not dealing with language, we may think that we are not dealing with signification. However, the word ‘‘meta’’ and its aboutness may assume that a picture has to be interpreted and has a meaning. We think that this is not accurate in order to understand the meta. The present article proposes to define the meta as an aesthetic category and not as a logical one. The analysis takes into account viewers’ attention to self-referential works of art so as to propose an embodied aesthetic analysis. We want to show that the experience of meta in art is a reflective experience. A picture is seen as a metapicture relative to the attention that viewers have on it: they can or cannot see it as a metapicture. Obviously, activating the meta quality changes the perception of the picture. One might think that the meta quality is due to paradoxes. In fact, self-reference often leads to paradoxes. We precisely want to show that paradoxes are not a necessary ingredient to induce the meta specific feeling. Why? Probably because the mere work is not reflective; it is not a speech. The reflexivity that is supposed to be in the work is actually the reflexivity of the cognition of spectators projected in the work. Similarly to Kant’s definition of the sublime, the structure ‘‘meta’’ lies in the subject, not in the picture. The experience of the metapicture should actually be named as the metaexperience of the picture. Keywords: reflexivity; embodied aesthetic; meta-cognitive; representation; sublime; attention; paradox (Published: 17 April 2014) Citation: Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, Vol. 6 , 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/jac.v6.23009

Objective – This paper explores the concept of “aboutness”, its related terms, and the process of aboutness determination as found in the Library and Information Science Literature. Methods – A review of the literature pertaining to aboutness determination and related terms specific to Library and Information Science was undertaken, borrowing extensively from the literature review of Daniel Joudrey’s (2005) dissertation, Building puzzles and growing pearls: A qualitative exploration of determining aboutness, as well as examining a small selection of research and articles not discussed by Joudrey. In addition, a concept map was developed to outline many of the concepts and theories found. Results – The LIS literature demonstrates conflicting positions surrounding the term aboutness and its correlates. Despite the lack of firm agreement on terminologies, the notion of subject is explored because it featured prominently in the literature. As well, intensional and extensional aboutness are explored in contrast to a more subjectivist perspective which asserts that a document's aboutness cannot be separated from its reader. Aboutness determination is also examined through the lens of theme and rheme, that is what is presupposed in a document versus what is new. Aboutness from the user perspective featured considerably in the literature, with many authors asserting both the importance and the challenge of mediating knowledge on behalf of the user. The stage of aboutness determination in the complete process of subject indexing is also presented here, and the findings demonstrate that the stages are anything but linear and sequential. Conclusion – While the findings are more expositional than conclusive, they demonstrate the complexities and challenges surrounding the concept of “aboutness” and the process of its determination. The value of this review is in its ability to present the ways in which scholars and practitioners have attempted to grapple with this conundrum. Although indexers may find temporary solace in cataloguing manuals that outline aboutness determination procedures, underneath these “safe surfaces” is an ambiguous concept further complicated by obscure and incomplete processes. This review provides an opportunity to reflect on those challenges and to further the discussion.

A major module of rational advice taking consists in the metacognitive ability to distinguish between credible advice and arbitrary anchors. Accordingly, we investigated the extent to which framing the very same information as either advice or anchor exerts a differential influence on quantitative judgments. Four experiments showed that although arbitrary anchors were given lower weight than advice, they nevertheless exerted a systematic impact on final judgments. Degree of integration was related to subjective confidence only in the advice condition, but not in the anchoring condition, suggesting that arbitrary anchors were not considered informative. Framing the source of advice as a human being versus as a computer did not affect our results. Only the aboutness of advice, that is, whether it targeted the focal judgment item, determined its influence on final judgments and on confidence. On the one hand, these findings speak to the (partial) sensitivity of human judges to the source and validity of advice under uncertainty. On the other hand, the persevering effect of arbitrary anchors demonstrates the dependence of judgments on unauthorized influences. Both findings together highlight the need to study advice taking from a metacognitive perspective.

Aboutness ranks amongst our field’s greatest bugbears. What is a work about? How can this be known? This mirrors debates within the philosophy of language, where the concept of representation has similarly evaded satisfactory definition. This paper proposes that we abandon the strong sense of the word aboutness, which seems to promise some inherent relationship between work and subject, or, in philosophical terms, between word and world. Instead, we seek an etymological reset to the older sense of aboutness as “in the vicinity, nearby; in some place or various places nearby; all over a surface.” To distinguish this sense in the context of information studies, we introduce the term episemantics. The authors have each independently applied this term in slightly different contexts and scales (Hauser 2018a; Tennis 2016), and this article presents a unified definition of the term and guidelines for applying it at the scale of both words and works. The resulting weak concept of aboutness is pragmatic, in Star’s sense of a focus on consequences over antecedents, while reserving space for the critique and improvement of aboutness determinations within various contexts and research programs. The paper finishes with a discussion of the implication of the concept of episemantics and methodological possibilities it offers for knowledge organization research and practice. We draw inspiration from Melvil Dewey’s use of physical aroundness in his first classification system and ask how aroundness might be more effectively operationalized in digital environments.