Privative constructions in Mesoamerica: How do languages without ‘without’ actually function?

How do we get negation without symbols?

Traditionally, negation has been viewed as a symbolic process. In this two-step account, a negation operator is applied to the affirmative version of a sentence to construct the negated form. However, a recent model (Huette and Anderson 2012) has demonstrated that negation can be processed by a simple recurrent network trained to simulate sensory information when given linguistic input. While t...

Embedding Languages without Breaking Tools

Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are increasingly used as embedded languages within general-purpose host languages. DSLs provide a compact, dedicated syntax for specifying parts of an application related to specialized domains. Unfortunately, such language extensions typically do not integrate well with the development tools of the host language. Editors, compilers and debuggers are either unaw...

Land without Plea Bargaining: How the Germans Do It

Perception without a Thalamus How Does Olfaction Do It?

The olfactory system has generated considerable interest in recent years, mainly focused on receptor genes and early olfactory processing. In this issue of Neuron, Mori et al. focus centrally, providing evidence for slow- and fast-wave states in olfactory cortex that appear to gate the inflow of information underlying conscious smell perception.

How Do We See With and Without a Camera ?

This brief essay compares the three· main methods of 'picturing people' the still camera, the film camera and the human eye. As an anthropologist, I asked myself two linked questions: First, do the images recorded by each of these instruments reflect 'reality', if only in the limited sense of _grasping and binding a tiny fragment of the world out there? And second, to what extent are the images...