Pragmatique (linguistique) | EPFL Graph Search

La pragmatique est une branche de la linguistique qui s'intéresse aux éléments du langage dont le sens ne peut être compris qu'en connaissant le contexte de leur emploi. Introduction La pragmatique est née au aux États-Unis mais elle a commencé à se développer surtout après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Dès le , , s’appuyant sur le "scepticisme spéculatif" de la réalité, ont soutenu l’idée que la pensée ne saurait jamais aller au-delà d’une connaissance pratique. Sur cette base, William James (1842-1910) a développé une doctrine qu’il a appelée pragmatique (du grec pragma « action »). Son ami Charles S. Peirce (1834-1914) a, lui, employé le terme voisin de pragmaticisme, et il a mis l’accent sur l’activité sémiotique de l’homme, donc sur l’emploi des signes. Tout naturellement, sa réflexion a rencontré les signes linguistiques et leur emploi. Histoire de la pragmatique Objet de la pragmatique linguistique

The political economy of climate policy

Alexandra Quandt

Implementation of policies and measures is an important feature of effective climate policy design. In the political decision process, implementation depends to some extent on interest group influence. This project deals with business interest groups influencing climate policy making in Switzerland and the European Union. The public choice literature provides multiple reasons for organizations to become active as ‘institutional entrepreneurs’ (1). Firms may develop non-market strategies in order to dilute or postpone stringent legislation, or penalize competitors, e.g. by lobbying for ambitious technology standards. Voluntary approaches have become known as possible strategy for pre-emptive behaviour (2). In Switzerland, one famous example is the implementation of the climate cent in 2005, replacing the CO2 tax on transport fuels until present (3). The first part of the analysis deals with the positions of firms on climate policy. Document analysis of the consultation on the Swiss CO2 law in 2009 shows a pluralist landscape of industry positions. We find that the business community is no solid block opposing climate legislation but a broad field of firms with multiple positions on climate policy, including opponents and proponents. Economic sectors opposing climate legislation are oil and refineries, the heavy industries, and road transport. Proponents of climate policy are renewable energies, forestry and timber production, finance and insurance, building services and manufacturing, and Swiss retailers. Peak business associations and road transport associations tend to overestimate the costs of climate policies and measures for their businesses, whereas firms that are not owned by shareholders tend to show more environmental responsibility. The second part of the analysis compares the arguments provided in the consultation documents with the parliamentary discourse in Switzerland. We assess the degree of interest group representation as proxy for political power of business actors in political decision making. It turns out that peak industry associations, the oil industry, and road transport associations seem to have considerable influence on Swiss climate policy making. Finally, a case study on the voluntary agreement, signed by the Swiss car importers and the Swiss Federal Council in 2002, illustrates our theoretical propositions on non-market strategies in climate policy for Swiss road transport. The findings are likewise reflected in the case of the voluntary agreement signed by the association of European car manufacturers in 1998.

2010

Business interest in Swiss climate policy

Alexandra Quandt

Successful implementation of policies and measures is key for effective climate legislation. In the political decision process, implementation depends to some extent on interest group influence. This project deals with the questions of why, how and what business interest groups lobby climate policy making in Switzerland and in the European Union. The public choice literature provides multiple reasons for organizations to become active as ‘institutional entrepreneurs’, based on rational behaviour. Firms may develop non-market strategies in order to dilute or postpone stringent legislation; or penalize competitors, e.g. by lobbying for ambitious technology standards. Voluntary approaches have become known as possible strategy for pre-emptive behaviour. One famous example, for Switzerland for instance, is the implementation of the climate cent in 2005, which successfully replaces the CO2 tax on transport fuels until present. The qualitative analysis deals with the positions of firms on climate policy. Document analysis of the consultation on the Swiss CO2 law in 2009 shows a pluralist picture of industry positions. We find that the business community is no solid block opposing climate legislation but a broad field of multiple positions including opponents and proponents to climate legislation. Economic sectors opposing climate legislation are oil and refineries, the heavy industries and road transport associations. Proponents of climate policy are renewable energies, forestry and timber production, finance and insurance, building services and manufacturing, and Swiss retailers. Peak business associations and road transport associations tend to overestimate the costs of climate policies and measures for their businesses. In the case of peak industry associations, this raises the question of appropriate representation of present and future members. Firms that are not owned by shareholders tend to show more environmental responsibility. The second part of the analysis compares the arguments provided in the consultation documents with the parliamentary discourse in Switzerland. We assess the degree of interest group representation as proxy for political power of business actors in political decision making. It turns out that peak industry associations, the Oil Union and road transport associations seem to have considerable influence on Swiss climate policy making. The results are combined with a social network analysis of the Swiss Parliament.

2010

Mapping Active Site Geometry to Activity in Immobilized Frustrated Lewis Pair Catalysts

Jacob Terence Blaskovits, Shubhajit Das, Rubén Laplaza Solanas

The immobilization of molecular catalysts imposes spatial constraints on their active site. We reveal that in bifunctional catalysis such constraints can also be utilized as an appealing handle to boost intrinsic activity through judicious control of the active site geometry. To demonstrate this, we develop a pragmatic approach, based on nonlinear scaling relationships, to map the spatial arrangements of the acid–base components of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) to their performance in the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2. The resulting activity map shows that fixing the donor–acceptor centers at specific distances and locking them into appropriate orientations leads to an unforeseen many-fold increase in the catalytic activity of FLPs compared to their unconstrained counterparts.

2022

Business interest in Swiss climate policy

Alexandra Quandt

2010

The political economy of climate policy

Alexandra Quandt

2010