In this essay I propose a semantic analysis of impersonal uses of ‘you’, and related uses of other indexical expressions. The framework I employ is Kaplan’s classic analysis of indexical languages, enriched with independently motivated hypotheses about the identification of the semantically relevant context, and about the employment of generic expressions. Consider an utterance of (1) you get i...

In this paper we present a first approximation to the automatic detection of zero subjects and impersonal constructions in Brazilian Portuguese. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt of approaching such task using machine learning in Portuguese. We compiled a corpus containing more than 5,600 instances annotated with the classes to be identified: explicit subjects, zero subjec...

In this paper, we adopt two views, personal and impersonal views, and systematically employ them in both supervised and semi-supervised sentiment classification. Here, personal views consist of those sentences which directly express speaker’s feeling and preference towards a target object while impersonal views focus on statements towards a target object for evaluation. To obtain them, an unsup...

This study tested whether general causality orientations explained unique variance in subjective wellbeing (SWB). That is, whether autonomy and impersonal orientations predicted SWB above trait dispositions. Hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling (SEM) of data from a large sample (N = 1181). Results showed that a higher autonomy orientation predicted increased SWB above neurotic...

When in search of an explanation for the nature of philosophy, a good starting point is to inquire as to its origins. As is commonly known, Occidental philosophy originated in Ancient Greece as a substitute for mythological and religious explanations. Instead of accepting explanations of the foundations and origins of reality based on the anthropomorphic projections of mythology, the early Gree...

Passive and impersonal constructions have a strikingly different status in current theoretical and descriptive studies. All formal approaches recognize passive constructions and provide some means of relating their properties to those of corresponding actives. Any framework that did not would be considered fundamentally deficient or incomplete. Many descriptive grammars likewise apply a broad n...

Institutional economists concerned with rules often focus on the trade-off between individuals and social incentives. This paper argues that the real trade-off that individuals face is between the organizations they belong to in contrast to social rules, and asks when do individuals find it in their interests to act in the interests of their organizations and when do they support impersonal rul...