Brogan Geurts
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 312913 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Brogan Geurts |
| NOMBRES | Brogan |
| APELLIDO | Geurts |
| FIRMA | GEURTS B |
| AFILIACIONES | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6709-9517 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 40 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 74 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 38 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1985 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Strengthening health system resilience during Covid-19
INTRODUCTION: 4 years after the Ebola outbreak, the arrival of COVID-19 presented West Africa with a new shock. Despite widespread disruptions, malaria service continuity remained a priority in both countries. In Sierra Leone, the proportion of pregnant women receiving at least three doses of intermittent preventive treatment increased from 36% in 2018 to 50% in 2021. Similarly, insecticide-treated net ownership in Guinea rose from 44% to 63%, re…
The malaria care cascade and factors associated with receiving a malaria test in children under 5 years of age and pregnant women with fever
INTRODUCTION: Malaria remains a significant global health issue, particularly among children under 5 years of age and pregnant women. In Guinea and Sierra Leone, malaria care in these vulnerable groups remains suboptimal and may have deteriorated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, evidence on the state of the malaria care cascade is urgently needed to guide public health interventions after the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted a cross-se…
On the grammar and pragmatics of self-talk
Having sounded a cautionary note on the precarious empirical basis that all theories of self-talk have to build on, I suggest that self-talk often involves some sort of pretence and that pragmatics may have a bigger role to play in accounting for Wiltschko’s data than she allows for
Capacity-building during public health emergencies
Introduction: Upon the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Health Laboratory Support Unit (ZIG4) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German National Public Health Institute, developed and delivered an online training on SARS-CoV-2 qPCR diagnostics to 17 partner countries in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). This article analyses the usefulness and cost savings of this training. Methods: The authors performed a concurrent mixed-m…
Responding to fluctuations in public and community trust and health seeking behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic
Lessons from the Ebola epidemic enabled response actors to consider maintaining and rebuilding trust as a core aim of the pandemic response which helped to ensure continuity of care and mitigate secondary impacts of the pandemic. Monitoring and maintaining trust in health systems is a key consideration for health systems resilience during public health emergencies
Barriers and facilitators to viral hepatitis testing in Uzbekistan
A multi-pronged approach is recommended to achieve VH testing goals among the general population, focusing on raising awareness and health literacy and creating an enabling environment that ensures easy accessibility and minimizing VH testing-associated costs
Listening to the Voices of Health Care Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic
In their daily practice, health care workers (HCWs) experience the effects of tensions between professional ethos and work realities, which can lead to ethical dilemmas. We aim to explore the ethical dilemmas that affected HCWs in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand these in the context of the German health system. Between April and December 2022, we interviewed HCWs from various levels of care and key informants responsible fo…
Communicating risk during early phases of Covid-19
Background: Emergency risk communication (ERC) is key to achieving compliance with public health measures during pandemics. Yet, the factors that facilitated ERC during COVID-19 have not been analyzed. We compare ERC in the early stages of the pandemic across four socio-economic settings to identify how risk communication can be improved in public health emergencies (PHE). Methods: To map and assess the content, process, actors, and context of ER…
A comparative analysis of experienced uncertainties in relation to risk communication during Covid19
BACKGROUND: During outbreaks, uncertainties experienced by affected communities can influence their compliance to government guidance on public health. Communicators and authorities are, hence, encouraged to acknowledge and address such uncertainties. However, in the midst of public health crises, it can become difficult to define and identify uncertainties that are most relevant to address. We analyzed data on COVID-19-related uncertainties from…
Evolutionary pragmatics
First saying, then believing
Linguistic research has revealed several pathways of language change that may guide our understanding of the evolution of mental‐state attribution. In particular, it turns out that, in many languages, quotative verbs have been exapted for attributing a variety of mental states, including beliefs and intentions. In such languages, the literal translation of, “Betty said: ‘There will be war’”, may be used not only to quote Betty's words, but also t…
Joint attention and perceptual experience
Joint attention customarily refers to the coordinated focus of attention between two or more individuals on a common object or event, where it is mutually “open” to all attenders that they are so engaged. We identify two broad approaches to analyse joint attention, one in terms of cognitive notions like common knowledge and common awareness, and one according to which joint attention is fundamentally a primitive phenomenon of sensory experience. …
Communication as commitment sharing
The main tenet of this paper is that human communication is first and foremost a matter of negotiating commitments, rather than one of conveying intentions, beliefs, and other mental states. Every speech act causes the speaker to become committed to the hearer to act on a propositional content. Hence, commitments are relations between speakers, hearers, and propositions. Their purpose is to enable speakers and hearers to coordinate their actions:…
Commitments continued
n Contains fulltext :\n 206383.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics
The best one-volume overview of the field ever published, The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics brings together the world’s most distinguished scholars to present an authoritative, comprehensive, thorough, and yet accessible state-of-the-art survey of current original research in pragmatics—the study of language use in context, one of the most vibrant and rapidly growing fields in linguistics and the philosophy of language. Covering a wider range of …
Fictional Commitments
n Contains fulltext :\n 195851.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
Scalar Diversity
We present experimental evidence showing that there is considerable variation between the rates at which scalar expressions from different lexical scales give rise to upper-bounded construals. We investigated two factors that might explain the variation between scalar expressions: first, the availability of the lexical scales, which we measured on the basis of association strength, grammatical class, word frequencies and semantic relatedness, and…
Embedded scalars
For over a decade, the interpretation of scalar expressions under embedding has been a much debated issue, with proposed accounts ranging from strictly pragmatic, on one end of the spectrum, to lexico-syntactic, on the other. There has been some confusion as to what exactly the controversy is about, and we argue that what is at stake is the division of labour between pragmatic and truth-conditional mechanisms. All parties to the debate agree that…
Quantity Implicatures
In recent years, quantity implicatures - a type of pragmatic inference - have been widely debated in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology, and have been subject to an enormous variety of analyses, ranging from lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, to various hybrid accounts. In this first book-length discussion of the topic, Bart Geurts presents a theory of quantity implicatures that is resolutely pragmatic, arguing that the orthodox Gr…
Background Materials for "Embedded implicatures?!?"
Background materials for "Embedded implicatures?!?"
Embedded implicatures
Over the last decade, various proposals have been made for supplanting the classical Gricean theory of scalar implicature with conventionalist (i.e. lexicalist or syntax-based) treatments. In contradistinction to the classical view, conventionalist theories predict that scalar inferences occur systematically and freely in embedded positions. We present experimental evidence that disproves this prediction, arguing along the way that there are rath…
Free choice for all
Chemla (2009) presents experimental data purporting to show that speakers’ intuitions about so-called “embedded implicatures” cause trouble for globalist and localist theories alike. We explain, to begin with, that the way Chemla frames the debate between localists and globalists fails to do justice to the latter. Then we turn to his experimental data, and argue that, while of half of them strengthen our own case against localism (Geurts & Pousco…
Really fucking brilliant
The title of this note has a two-tiered interpretation. On the “use” level, it expresses my admiration for the ingenuity and elegance of Christopher Potts's paper, which is not diminished by the fact that I disagree with him practically across the board. On the “mention” level, my title denotes the key phrase in Potts's example (2), which will figure rather prominently in the following remarks
At least et al
On the naive account of scalar modifiers like more than and at least, At least three girls snored is synonymous with More than two girls snored, and both sentences mean that the number of snoring girls exceeded two (the same, mutatis mutandis, for sentences with at most and less/fewer than). We show that this is false and propose an alternative theory, according to which superlative modifiers (at least/most) are quite different from comparative o…
Monotonicity and Processing Load
Starting out from the assumption that monotonicity plays a central role in interpretation and inference, we derive a number of predictions about the complexity of processing quantified sentences. A quantifier may be upward entailing (i.e. license inferences from subsets to supersets) or downward entailing (i.e. license inferences from supersets to subsets). Our main predictions are the following: If the monotonicity profiles of two quantifying ex…
The Mechanisms of Denial
Normally, the negation of a sentence S serves to reverse the assertion that S would have made, and does not affect other types of information S would have conveyed, such as presuppositions, implicatures, and so on. Occasionally, however, it seems as if negation is directed precisely at presuppositions, implicatures, or even at purely formal aspects of a sentence (such as intonation, pronunciation, and so on). The following are cases in point: Mar…
Entertaining Alternatives
At least et al
On the naive account of scalar modifiers like more than and at least, At least three girls snored is synonymous with More than two girls snored, and both sentences mean that the number of snoring girls exceeded two (the same, mutatis mutandis, for sentences with at most and less/fewer than). We show that this is false and propose an alternative theory, according to which superlative modifiers (at least/most) are quite different from comparative o…
Indefinites and Choice Functions
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 31, Number 4, Fall 2000
Evolutionary pragmatics
Explaining grammaticalization (the standard way)
Since nobody knows how to draw the line between lexical expressions and grammatical devices, it is natural to suppose that, in some sense, the tran-sition from lexicon to grammar is a gradual one. There is a continuum, it seems, bounded by purely lexical items on one end and purely grammatical items on the other, with many expressions lying somewhere between these opposites. This, at any rate, is the view that underlies the notion of gram-matical…
Listening to the Voices of Health Care Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic
In their daily practice, health care workers (HCWs) experience the effects of tensions between professional ethos and work realities, which can lead to ethical dilemmas. We aim to explore the ethical dilemmas that affected HCWs in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand these in the context of the German health system. Between April and December 2022, we interviewed HCWs from various levels of care and key informants responsible fo…
Generics
There is a fairly general tendency to analyse generic statements as referring to the entities that are commonly identified as “kinds”. Apart from the fact that, thus far, none of these analyses have proven to be satisfactory, there always remains the problem of explaining what a kind is. I propose, instead, to do away with kinds altogether, and to regard generics as expressing stereotypical assumptions. Although, at the moment, I have just the br…
Cleft and Pseudo-Cleft Constructions in English
Dynamic semantics vs DRT
L'A. propose une etude critique de la semantique dynamique, en se referant plus particulierement a l'approche developpee par Heim, Barwise, Groenendijk et Stokhof. Sa critique se base sur le fait que l'un des principaux tenants de la semantique dynamique, selon lequel certains effets de l'ordre lineaire sont encodes dans la signification lexicale des conjonctions de coordination, et notamment dans celle de et, est peu plausible et conduit a faire…
The Mechanisms of Denial
Normally, the negation of a sentence S serves to reverse the assertion that S would have made, and does not affect other types of information S would have conveyed, such as presuppositions, implicatures, and so on. Occasionally, however, it seems as if negation is directed precisely at presuppositions, implicatures, or even at purely formal aspects of a sentence (such as intonation, pronunciation, and so on). The following are cases in point: Mar…
Semantics in Generative Grammar
Buoyancy and Strength
The chief characteristic of presuppositions is that they tend to take wide scope, yet most theories of presupposition, the author's not excepted, fail to provide an explanation of this fact. Recently, however, it has been suggested that a principled explanation can be given in terms of informativeness: the idea is that presuppositions simply prefer stronger readings to weaker ones. This proposal is studied in some depth, and is shown to lack soli…
Function or fashion? Reply to Martin Haspelmath
n Contains fulltext :\n 131009.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
Explaining grammaticalization (the standard way)
Since nobody knows how to draw the line between lexical expressions and grammatical devices, it is natural to suppose that, in some sense, the tran-sition from lexicon to grammar is a gradual one. There is a continuum, it seems, bounded by purely lexical items on one end and purely grammatical items on the other, with many expressions lying somewhere between these opposites. This, at any rate, is the view that underlies the notion of gram-matical…
Indefinites and Choice Functions
Linguistic Inquiry - Volume 31, Number 4, Fall 2000
Specifics
In all these examples there appears to be mismatch between the position at which an indefinite appears and its preferred interpretation. Following many of the more recent contributions to the literature, I will assume that this is the hallmark of specificity (e.g. Ahusch 1994, Reinhart 1997, Winter 1997, van Geenhoven 1998). Such mismatches are not the norm: indefinites are often interpreted in situ, and there is some reason for taking this to be…
Discussion Note
Journal Article Discussion Note: Bad News for Anyone?—A Reply to Abbott Get access Bart Geurts Bart Geurts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semantics, Volume 19, Issue 2, May 2002, Pages 203–207, https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/19.2.203 Published: 01 May 2002
Semantics as lexicography
Over the past few decades, the interpretation of language has gradually come to be accepted as a subject deserving its own academic regalia, such as conferences, journals, and university chairs. The definition of the emerging field of inquiry is, as yet, very moot. It is not even decided that it is a single field, rather than several related ones, and whether it (or they) should be subsumed under linguistics, psychology, or somewhere else. But th…
Interpreting focus
n Contains fulltext :\n 59973.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)\n
Interpreting focus again
Monotonicity and Processing Load
Starting out from the assumption that monotonicity plays a central role in interpretation and inference, we derive a number of predictions about the complexity of processing quantified sentences. A quantifier may be upward entailing (i.e. license inferences from subsets to supersets) or downward entailing (i.e. license inferences from supersets to subsets). Our main predictions are the following: If the monotonicity profiles of two quantifying ex…
Entertaining Alternatives
Really fucking brilliant
The title of this note has a two-tiered interpretation. On the “use” level, it expresses my admiration for the ingenuity and elegance of Christopher Potts's paper, which is not diminished by the fact that I disagree with him practically across the board. On the “mention” level, my title denotes the key phrase in Potts's example (2), which will figure rather prominently in the following remarks
At least et al
On the naive account of scalar modifiers like more than and at least, At least three girls snored is synonymous with More than two girls snored, and both sentences mean that the number of snoring girls exceeded two (the same, mutatis mutandis, for sentences with at most and less/fewer than). We show that this is false and propose an alternative theory, according to which superlative modifiers (at least/most) are quite different from comparative o…
Background Materials for "Embedded implicatures?!?"
Background materials for "Embedded implicatures?!?"
Embedded implicatures
Over the last decade, various proposals have been made for supplanting the classical Gricean theory of scalar implicature with conventionalist (i.e. lexicalist or syntax-based) treatments. In contradistinction to the classical view, conventionalist theories predict that scalar inferences occur systematically and freely in embedded positions. We present experimental evidence that disproves this prediction, arguing along the way that there are rath…
Free choice for all
Chemla (2009) presents experimental data purporting to show that speakers’ intuitions about so-called “embedded implicatures” cause trouble for globalist and localist theories alike. We explain, to begin with, that the way Chemla frames the debate between localists and globalists fails to do justice to the latter. Then we turn to his experimental data, and argue that, while of half of them strengthen our own case against localism (Geurts & Pousco…
Quantity Implicatures
In recent years, quantity implicatures - a type of pragmatic inference - have been widely debated in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology, and have been subject to an enormous variety of analyses, ranging from lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, to various hybrid accounts. In this first book-length discussion of the topic, Bart Geurts presents a theory of quantity implicatures that is resolutely pragmatic, arguing that the orthodox Gr…
Embedded scalars
For over a decade, the interpretation of scalar expressions under embedding has been a much debated issue, with proposed accounts ranging from strictly pragmatic, on one end of the spectrum, to lexico-syntactic, on the other. There has been some confusion as to what exactly the controversy is about, and we argue that what is at stake is the division of labour between pragmatic and truth-conditional mechanisms. All parties to the debate agree that…
Scalar Diversity
We present experimental evidence showing that there is considerable variation between the rates at which scalar expressions from different lexical scales give rise to upper-bounded construals. We investigated two factors that might explain the variation between scalar expressions: first, the availability of the lexical scales, which we measured on the basis of association strength, grammatical class, word frequencies and semantic relatedness, and…
The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics
The best one-volume overview of the field ever published, The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics brings together the world’s most distinguished scholars to present an authoritative, comprehensive, thorough, and yet accessible state-of-the-art survey of current original research in pragmatics—the study of language use in context, one of the most vibrant and rapidly growing fields in linguistics and the philosophy of language. Covering a wider range of …
Philosophy (24 obras) · Computer Science (23 obras) · Linguistics (23 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (18 obras) · Epistemology (13 obras) · Psychology (12 obras) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (9 obras) · Mathematics (8 obras) · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (7 obras) · Medicine (7 obras)