One major motivation for nominalism, at least according to Hartry Field, is the desirability of intrinsic explanations: explanations that don’t invoke objects that are causally irrelevant to the phenomena being explained. There is something right about the search for such explanations. But that search must be carefully implemented. Nothing is gained if, to avoid a certain class of objects, one ...

SAlthough different theoretical models are complementary, functional models in general, andSystemic Functional Linguistics in particular lend themselves to the analysis of text. This is so atthe level of register, in terms of Field, Tenor and Mode, as well as at the level of semantics interms of ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunction. This paper will consider two...

A 50-year-old woman was seen in the emergency department at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), affiliated with this hospital, because of pain and decreased hearing in the left ear. The patient had been in her usual state of health until 6 weeks earlier, when she noted decreased hearing, discomfort, and a sensation of blockage in her left ear. She saw an otolaryngologist at another hosp...