Construction Grammar offers several assets that foster the learning and teaching of foreign languages. The constructionist approach focuses on well-entrenched form–meaning mappings of different degrees of complexity and abstraction. Thus, if learners have acquired the syntax and semantics of specific foreign constructions, they should be able to understand the semantic motivation behind the syntactic forms and infer the meaning of new instantiations. Moreover – an economical principle in the learning process – these units can be learned as part of a network of semantically related constructions. In learning L2-constructions, construction-based teaching strategies can be implemented, that is, the scaffolding strategy, structural priming and embodied construction practice. The scaffolding strategy elaborates on the semantic link between constructions of different degrees of syntactic complexity and on the family resemblance concept. Structural priming focuses on the creative repetition of similar structures with different slot-fillers. Finally, embodied practice applies to constructions referring to concrete events which can be represented with pictures or objects or can be enacted.

This chapter presents simple and reachable coalgebras and constructions of the simple quotient of a coalgebra and the reachable part of a pointed one. It introduces well-pointed coalgebras: those which are both reachable and simple. Well-pointed coalgebras constitute a coalgebraic formulation of minimality of state-based systems. For set functors preserving intersections, we prove that the terminal coalgebra is formed by all well-pointed coalgebras, and the initial algebra by all well-founded, well-pointed coalgebras (both considered up to isomorphism) with canonical structures.

While all four canonical gospels present Jesus performing astonishing deeds – healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding multitudes, exercising dominance over winds and waves, casting out demons, and more – the Fourth Gospel artistically stands apart from its gospel neighbors.

Chapter 4 examines the body of Whig propaganda in which the government was congratulated for having succeeded in establishing a free civil society within a free state. A large number of Anglican writers joined the spokesmen for the government in arguing that Britain had by now established a constitution that made her the envy of Europe. Everyone was now equally subject to the law; the law alone ruled, with no incursions of arbitrary power; and the law was at last being expertly administered, without any corruption or incompetence. As a result, the life, liberty and property of every subject was now fully secure, including the property that (as Locke had said) everyone may be said to possess in their own person. No one is any longer condemned to live in a state of subjection to the mere will and power of anyone else. The consequence is said to be a civil society in which everyone can hope to find their own pathway to prosperity and happiness. The chapter concludes with an examination of Whig celebrations of urban life as the best setting in which to lead a flourishing and happy life.

The rise of the European Union elicits both theoretical and practical questions about notions of citizenship, and citizens’ duties, that transcend nation-state boundaries. Indeed, its supranational nature invites reevaluation of the concepts of citizenship and political community more generally. In a similar vein, this chapter considers the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) practice of horizontal application in light of republican theory. The fact that the ECJ has introduced horizontal application in EU law at all is itself a point of interest, given the debatable status of the Union as a political community in the republican sense. This book’s republican framework points toward a conceptual relationship between the development of horizontal application and the fate of the European Union as, in fact, something more than a loose union of nation-states. Put differently, a full flowering of horizontal application is theoretically tied to wider acceptance of the European Union as a fully fledged political community, complete with citizens’ duties to one another and a common good of which to speak.

The first ladies of the United States are often not thought about as activists. But in fact, many used their political position strategically to advocate for important reforms that benefited minorities and other underrepresented groups. Their activism from the White House helped social and political causes in different eras. Their unsung work contributed to their administration’s public profile and legacy. It also aided larger social justice campaigns going on throughout US history. This chapter explores the frequently unsung efforts of US first ladies in the realm of social advocacy to shed greater light on the significant work done by these women. It challenges the notion that first ladies were simply ornaments or companions for their husbands and highlights the actions that they took to create change.

Citing contemporary issues, this introduction situates horizontal application as one potential response to political-legal questions involving private actors. It makes the case for renewed scholarly attention to horizontal application as an increasingly common practice in constitutional politics. More specifically, examining horizontal application through the lens of republican political theory uncovers new significance in the discourses surrounding this constitutional practice. This theoretical perspective also elucidates how horizontal application is different from traditional constitutional understandings. After introducing the book’s republican framework, Chapter 1 explains the rationale underlying the choice of contexts examined in subsequent chapters. It concludes with an explanation of the stakes, as well as the potential benefits and drawbacks of horizontal application considered in the following chapters. Finally, it previews the concluding chapter’s argument that horizontal application may be further supported with certain political and institutional adjustments to make this practice even more republican.