Our actions are influenced not only by our own intentions and expectations but also by circumstances, feelings, and norms. Language provides a window into how we conceptualize opposing and congruent influences; moreover, different languages reveal different ways minds can package these concepts. Yet state-of-the-art formal semantic frameworks do not permit a rich representation of influences. Instead, this project's starting point will be a formal framework (causal models) that originated outside of linguistics.

Africa is an important continent in the twenty-first century in terms of demographics and economic growth but also, significantly, in terms of promoting environmental justice and revitalizing the culture of democracy from the grassroots up. Whereas culture is a crucial aspect of African citizen-led movements, this is often overlooked or inadequately addressed in political science and human rights research.

Africa is an important continent in the twenty-first century in terms of demographics and economic growth but also, significantly, in terms of promoting environmental justice and revitalizing the culture of democracy from the grassroots up. Whereas culture is a crucial aspect of African citizen-led movements, this is often overlooked or inadequately addressed in political science and human rights research.

Certain languages are particularly vulnerable to climate change and associated trends like migration and globalization. For related reasons, these languages resist treatment using "big data" techniques. There nevertheless exist cutting-edge methods for describing and analyzing the language of these small linguistic communities. The resulting scientific and cultural contribution of these languages Is consequently outsized relative to the size of the communities that use them. Our particular focus is the study of meaning.