An ethnographic approach to language aims at explaining the organization of a verbal culture, understood as the result of speakers’ practices and agency. The instrument of this research is fieldwork. For the verbal cultures of bygone societies, only examination of written records helps us to guess how speaking worked at the time. This general issue is addressed by scrutinizing a medieval Catala...

The way we speak can reveal much about what we intend to communicate, but the words we use often only indirectly relate to the meanings we wish to convey. Verbal irony is a commonly studied form of indirect speech in which a speaker produces an explicit evaluative utterance that implicates an unstated, opposing evaluation. Producing and understanding ironic language, as well as many other types...

In his article "Indirect Discourse in German, Russian, and English" Henry Whittlesey Schroeder analyzes the different tenses of indirect discourse in these three languages. Indirect discourse in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century adopts a different time in English, German and Russian. English indirect discourse reports in the preterit; German indirect discourse hovers in the subjunctiv...

Background Mepolizumab is a human monoclonal antibody against interleukin-5 (IL-5), the main cytokine involved in the activation of eosinophils, which in turn causes airway inflammation. Recent studies have suggested these agents may have a role in reducing exacerbations and improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There are no recommendations for the use of mepolizumab in adults or ch...

Patient-centered care (PCC) is a popular movement among health services researchers, health policy analysts, and health professionals. PCC requires that patient needs, preferences, and beliefs be respected at all times. The PCC movement is an outgrowth of macrosocial trends, including the aging of the population, the growth of chronic illness, the focus on quality, the advent of managed care, a...

Several behavioral studies have suggested that rarity is critical for enabling irrelevant, salient objects to capture attention. We tested this hypothesis using the N2pc, thought to reflect attentional allocation. A cue display was followed by a target display in which participants identified the letter in a specific color. Experiment 1 pitted rare, irrelevant abrupt onset cues (appearing on on...

Existing sociological and other literature on digital inequalities in the United States has given little specific attention to the potential roles of cognitive ability and personality, especially in terms of how effects of these variables may vary in predictable ways depending on individuals’ social position. We consider the matter specifically with regard to whether late midlife adults have be...