Modal semantic universals optimize the simplicity/informativeness trade-off

Evolutionary motivations for semantic universals

Most work in ‘evolutionary linguistics’ seeks to motivate the emergence of linguistic universals. Although the search for universals never played a major role in semantics, a number of such universals have been proposed concerning connectives, property and preposition denoting expressions, and quantifiers. In this paper we suggest some evolutionary motivations for these proposed universals usin...

Semantic Universals and Universal Semantics

This series of books on the semantics of natural language contains collections of original research on selected topics as well as monographs in this area. computer-scientists and cognitive psychologists are brought together to promote interdisciplinary and international research. ® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within in the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. S...

Screening for prostate cancer: Can randomized studies optimize the trade-off between over - and under-diagnosis?

Objectives: The outcome from the screening trials on prostate cancer published in recent years may at a first glance seem contradictory. A review of all randomized controlled trials was undertaken in order to explore these divergences. Methods: PubMed was searched for all publications on prostate cancer screening trials. Results: Five randomized controlled trials were found. The only trial that...

Semantic Universals and Choice Function Theory

Signal Design to Optimize Trade-Off between Bandwidth Efficiency and Power Efficiency in Uplink CDMA Systems

In this paper, we compare two signal designs for uplink quasi-synchronous code division multiple access (CDMA) channels in order to optimize the trade-off between bandwidth efficiency and power efficiency. The design we call band-limited DS/CDMA design, is based on the time-domain assignment of Gold sequences, just as in the ordinary DS/CDMA, but with band-constrained cyclic chip interpolation ...