Propagating scattered context grammars, introduced in [3], represent an important type of semi-parallel rewriting systems. Since their introduction, however, the exact relationship of the family of languages they generate to the family of context-sensitive languages is unknown. The language family generated by these grammars is included in the family of context-sensitive languages; on the other...

The literature on predicates of personal taste (PPTs) has focused on a surprisingly limited range of expressions. This narrow focus has led to problematic theoretical conclusions about the syntax and semantics. I argue that PPTs are an instance of a more interesting general category of (what I call) evaluational predicates. Like other gradable adjectives, PPTs are sensitive to a relevant degree...

We study the dipole-dipole coupling between two fluorescent molecules in the presence of a chain of metallic nanoparticles. We analyze the spectral behavior of the coupling strength and its dependence on the molecular orientation. Our results show that for certain resonant wavelengths the coupling strength between the molecules is greatly enhanced and is strongly polarization sensitive. We also...

Theoretical results on HTN planning are mostly related to the plan existence problem. In this paper, we study the structure of the generated plans in terms of the language they produce. We show that such languages are always context-sensitive. Furthermore we identify certain subclasses of HTN planning problems which generate either regular or context-free languages. Most importantly we have dis...

This tutorial will describe the use of a factored probabilistic sequence model for parsing speech and text using a bounded store of three to four incomplete constituents over time, in line with recent estimates of human shortterm working memory capacity. This formulation uses a grammar transform to minimize memory usage during parsing. Incremental operations on incomplete constituents in this t...

Starting from a question by Dan Sperber, we analyze the expressive power of massively modular systems from a computational point of view. The key operation is introducing a non-computational component, a limited amount of resources to be shared among the modules. A case study is provided showing that such systems are flexible and context-sensitive, also having interesting cognitive features suc...

A challenging task in using pedestrian navigation and guidance services indoors is to determine the correct floor of a user in a multi-storey building because most indoor location techniques only provide 2-D information. In this case it can be recommended to augment the position determination system with a barometric pressure sensor for direct observation of height differences. In the research ...

Recently Hájek prophesied that “as fans of the Friday the 13th series know, you should never be surprised if Jason suddenly reappears in a new guise – and the same is true for Stalnaker’s Thesis” (Hájek, 2011, p. 14). So what better day to pick for a plea for the thesis than today? Obviously, a new guise is also needed for the thesis; it cannot live on in the way as it is understood in the triv...

This paper addresses context-dependent asymmetries between the perception and production of consonant length in three distinct languages: Russian, American English, and Italian. These asymmetries are argued to present evidence of the perceptual advantage for consonant length identification in certain phonetic environments and play an important role in defining the crosslinguistic distribution o...