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104-463: Thomas Albert Sebeok ( Hungarian : Sebők Tamás , pronounced [ˈʃɛbøːk ˈtɒmaːʃ] ; November 9, 1920 – December 21, 2001) was a Hungarian-born American polymath , semiotician , and linguist . As one of the founders of the biosemiotics field, he studied non-human and cross-species signaling and communication. He is also known for his work in the development of long-term nuclear waste warning messages , in which he worked with

208-615: A Turkic language continued to be a matter of impassioned political controversy throughout the 18th and into the 19th centuries. During the latter half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian, or, alternatively, that both the Uralic and the Turkic families formed part of a superfamily of Ural–Altaic languages . Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború ("the Ugric-Turkic war"),

312-417: A circumfix , to change a word's meaning and its grammatical function. Hungarian uses vowel harmony to attach suffixes to words. That means that most suffixes have two or three different forms, and the choice between them depends on the vowels of the head word. There are some minor and unpredictable exceptions to the rule. Nouns have 18 cases , which are formed regularly with suffixes. The nominative case

416-636: A "media watchdog" group that would direct public and media attention to egregious media exploitation of the supposed paranormal wonders. An underlying principle of action was to use the mainline media's thirst for public-attracting controversies to keep our activities in the media, hence the public eye. As a media watchdog, CSI has "mobilized thousands of scientists, academics and responsible communicators" to criticize what it regards as "media's most blatant excesses". Criticism has focused on factual TV programming or newspaper articles offering support for paranormal claims, and programs such as The X-Files and Buffy

520-594: A Candle in the Dark . The council is made up of scientists, media and academics, all concerned with the "balanced portrayal of science". The Candle in the Dark Award is presented to those who show "outstanding contributions to the public's understanding of science and scientific principles" and to "reward sound science television programming". The Snuffed Candle Award is awarded to those "for encouraging credulity, presenting pseudoscience as genuine, and contributing to

624-625: A brief stint at Cambridge University (Magdalene College) in England, he moved to the United States at the age of 17 and became a naturalized citizen in 1944. Sebeok earned a bachelor's degree in 1941 at the University of Chicago . He earned a master's degree in anthropological linguistics , under the external guidance of Roman Jakobson , at Princeton University in 1943 and, in 1945, a doctorate at Princeton University ; his dissertation

728-707: A high proportion of words specific to agriculture and livestock are of Chuvash origin. A strong Chuvash influence was also apparent in Hungarian burial customs. The first written accounts of Hungarian date to the 10th century, such as mostly Hungarian personal names and place names in De Administrando Imperio , written in Greek by Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII . No significant texts written in Old Hungarian script have survived, because

832-489: A linguist, publishing several articles and books analyzing aspects of the Mari language (referring to it by the name "Cheremis"). His transdisciplinary work and professional collaborations spanned the fields of anthropology, biology, folklore studies, linguistics, psychology, and semiotics. Sebeok was the editor-in-chief of the journal Semiotica , the leading periodical in the field, from its establishing in 1969 until 2001. He

936-399: A millennium. These include tehén 'cow' (cf. Avestan daénu ); tíz 'ten' (cf. Avestan dasa ); tej 'milk' (cf. Persian dáje 'wet nurse'); and nád 'reed' (from late Middle Iranian ; cf. Middle Persian nāy and Modern Persian ney ). Archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between

1040-812: A million additional people scattered in other parts of the world. For example, there are more than one hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in the Hungarian American community and 1.5 million with Hungarian ancestry in the United States . Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Serbian province of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia : Hodoš , Dobrovnik and Lendava , along with Slovene . Hungarian

1144-872: A priori convictions. A 1992 article in The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research , an organ for the Parapsychological Association , suggests that CSI's aggressive style of skepticism could discourage scientific research into the paranormal. Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote on this in 1995: Have I ever heard a skeptic wax superior and contemptuous? Certainly. I've even sometimes heard, to my retrospective dismay, that unpleasant tone in my own voice. There are human imperfections on both sides of this issue. Even when it's applied sensitively, scientific skepticism may come across as arrogant, dogmatic, heartless, and dismissive of

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1248-406: A process of nyelvújítás ( language revitalization ). Some words were shortened ( győzedelem > győzelem , 'victory' or 'triumph'); a number of dialectal words spread nationally ( e.g. , cselleng 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced ( dísz , 'décor'); a wide range of expressions were coined using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding

1352-458: A quarterly newsletter for associate members. CSI conducts and publishes investigations into Bigfoot and UFO sightings, psychics , astrologers , alternative medicine , religious cults , and paranormal or pseudoscientific claims. CSICOP has held dozens of conferences between 1983 and 2005, two of them in Europe, and all six World Skeptics Congresses so far were sponsored by it. Since 2011,

1456-1069: A similarly dramatic way over these three centuries. After the arrival of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin , the language came into contact with a variety of speech communities , among them Slavic , Turkic , and German . Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians , who settled in Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries: e.g. koboz " cobza " (cf. Turkish kopuz 'lute'); komondor "mop dog" (< * kumandur < Cuman ). Hungarian borrowed 20% of words from neighbouring Slavic languages : e.g. tégla 'brick'; mák 'poppy seed'; szerda 'Wednesday'; csütörtök 'Thursday'...; karácsony 'Christmas'. These languages in turn borrowed words from Hungarian: e.g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hungarian ásó 'spade'. About 1.6 percent of

1560-511: A special roster honoring deceased fellows of the Committee who have made the most outstanding contributions to the causes of science and skepticism. This roster is part of an ongoing effort to provide a sense of history about the modern skeptical movement. According to the Jan/Feb 2021 Skeptical Inquirer the role of a CSI fellow is to "promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and

1664-514: A system of signs aimed at warning future civilizations from entering geographic areas contaminated by nuclear waste. The report proposed a "folkloric relay system" and the establishment of an "atomic priesthood" of physicists, anthropologists, and semioticians to create and preserve a common cultural narrative of the hazardous nature of nuclear waste sites. In addition to his academic work, Sebeok organized hundreds of international conferences and institutes, held leadership roles in organizations such as

1768-400: Is subject–verb–object (SVO). However, Hungarian is a topic-prominent language , and so has a word order that depends not only on syntax but also on the topic–comment structure of the sentence (for example, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasized). A Hungarian sentence generally has the following order: topic, comment (or focus), verb and the rest. The topic shows that

1872-518: Is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide, especially in North America (particularly the United States and Canada ) and Israel . With 14 million speakers, it is the Uralic family's largest member by number of speakers. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family . Linguistic connections between Hungarian and other Uralic languages were noticed in the 1670s, and

1976-589: Is always on the first syllable of a word, as in Finnish and the neighbouring Slovak and Czech . There is a secondary stress on other syllables in compounds: viszontlátásra ("goodbye") is pronounced /ˈvisontˌlaːtaːʃrɒ/ . Elongated vowels in non-initial syllables may seem to be stressed to an English-speaker, as length and stress correlate in English. Hungarian is an agglutinative language . It uses various affixes , mainly suffixes but also some prefixes and

2080-549: Is expressed by a possessive suffix on the possessed object, rather than the possessor as in English (Peter's apple becomes Péter almája , literally 'Peter apple-his'). Noun plurals are formed with –k ( az almák 'the apples'), but after a numeral, the singular is used ( két alma 'two apples', literally 'two apple'; not *két almák ). Unlike English, Hungarian uses case suffixes and nearly always postpositions instead of prepositions. There are two types of articles in Hungarian, definite and indefinite, which roughly correspond to

2184-621: Is given in recognition of distinguished contributions in the use of critical inquiry, scientific evidence, and reason in evaluating claims to knowledge." This is the highest award presented by CSI and is often presented at the CSIcon conferences. Founded at the 1996 World Skeptics Congress in Buffalo, New York, the Council for Media Integrity gives these awards that were named in inspiration by Carl Sagan's book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as

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2288-516: Is given to the "creator of the published work that best exemplifies healthy skepticism, logical analysis, or empirical science". Robert P. Balles, "a practicing Christian", established this permanent endowment fund through a Memorial Fund. Center for Inquiry's "established criteria for the prize include use of the most parsimonious theory to fit data or to explain apparently preternatural phenomena." CSICOP seeking to acknowledge and encourage "fair and balanced reporting of paranormal claims" established

2392-442: Is marked with boldface. Hungarian has a four-tiered system for expressing levels of politeness. From highest to lowest: The four-tiered system has somewhat been eroded due to the recent expansion of " tegeződés " and " önözés ". Some anomalies emerged with the arrival of multinational companies who have addressed their customers in the te (least polite) form right from the beginning of their presence in Hungary. A typical example

2496-494: Is needed; convenes conferences and meetings; publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal; does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examines them objectively and carefully". An axiom often repeated among CSI members is the quote "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", which Carl Sagan made famous and adapted from an earlier quote by Marcello Truzzi: "An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof". (Truzzi in turn traced

2600-623: Is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria , Croatia , Romania , Zakarpattia in Ukraine , and Slovakia . In Romania it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%. The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian. These dialects are, for

2704-399: Is sometimes described as having free word order, different word orders are generally not interchangeable, and the neutral order is not always correct to use. The intonation is also different with different topic-comment structures. The topic usually has a rising intonation, the focus having a falling intonation. In the following examples, the topic is marked with italics, and the focus (comment)

2808-482: Is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer , which dates to the 1190s. Although the orthography of these early texts differed considerably from that used today, contemporary Hungarians can still understand a great deal of the reconstructed spoken language, despite changes in grammar and vocabulary. A more extensive body of Hungarian literature arose after 1300. The earliest known example of Hungarian religious poetry

2912-700: Is the 14th-century Lamentations of Mary . The first Bible translation was the Hussite Bible in the 1430s. The standard language lost its diphthongs , and several postpositions transformed into suffixes , including reá "onto" (the phrase utu rea "onto the way" found in the 1055 text would later become út ra ). There were also changes in the system of vowel harmony . At one time, Hungarian used six verb tenses , while today only two or three are used. In 1533, Kraków printer Benedek Komjáti published Letters of St. Paul in Hungarian (modern orthography: A Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven ),

3016-532: Is the Swedish furniture shop IKEA , whose web site and other publications address the customers in te form. When a news site asked IKEA—using the te form—why they address their customers this way, IKEA's PR Manager explained in his answer—using the ön form—that their way of communication reflects IKEA's open-mindedness and the Swedish culture. However IKEA in France uses the polite ( vous ) form. Another example

3120-485: Is the communication of Yettel Hungary (earlier Telenor, a mobile network operator) towards its customers. Yettel chose to communicate towards business customers in the polite ön form while all other customers are addressed in the less polite te form. During the first early phase of Hungarian language reforms (late 18th and early 19th centuries) more than ten thousand words were coined, several thousand of which are still actively used today (see also Ferenc Kazinczy ,

3224-407: Is unmarked ( az alma 'the apple') and, for example, the accusative is marked with the suffix –t ( az almát '[I eat] the apple'). Half of the cases express a combination of the source-location-target and surface-inside-proximity ternary distinctions (three times three cases); there is a separate case ending – ból / –ből meaning a combination of source and insideness: 'from inside of'. Possession

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3328-770: The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal ( CSICOP ), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." Paul Kurtz proposed the establishment of CSICOP in 1976 as an independent non-profit organization (before merging with CFI as one of its programs in 2015 ), to counter what he regarded as an uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims by both

3432-556: The Human Interference Task Force (established 1981) to create methods for keeping the inhabitants of Earth away from buried nuclear waste that will still be hazardous 10,000 or more years in the future. Thomas Sebeok was born on November 9, 1920, in Budapest , Hungary . He attended secondary school at the famous Fasori Gimnázium , which educated notables such as John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner . After

3536-668: The Independent Investigations Group (IIG), a volunteer-based organization in January 2000. The IIG investigates fringe science , paranormal , and extraordinary claims from a rational, scientific viewpoint and disseminates factual information about such inquiries to the public. IIG has offered a $ 50,000 prize "to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural , or occult power or event", to which 7 people applied from 2009 to 2012. "The In Praise of Reason Award

3640-536: The Linguistic Society of America , International Association for Semiotic Studies , Committee for Skeptical Inquiry , and the Semiotic Society of America , and supported the creation of linguistic and semiotics teaching programs and scholarly associations throughout the world. Sebeok's personal library on semiotics, comprising more than 4,000 volumes of books and 700 journals, is preserved at

3744-631: The Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin. In the 21st century, studies support an origin of the Uralic languages, including early Hungarian, in eastern or central Siberia , somewhere between the Ob and Yenisei rivers or near the Sayan mountains in the Russian – Mongolian border region. A 2019 study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics, found that early Uralic speakers arrived in Europe from

3848-845: The Volga River and the Ural Mountains . The Onoğurs (and Bulgars ) later had a great influence on the language, especially between the 5th and 9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied (e.g. szó ' word ' , from Turkic ; and daru ' crane ' , from the related Permic languages ), and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic ; e.g. borjú ' calf ' (cf. Chuvash păru , părăv vs. Turkish buzağı ); dél 'noon; south' (cf. Chuvash tĕl vs. Turkish dial. düš ). Many words related to agriculture, state administration and even family relationships show evidence of such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in

3952-892: The 2011 Hungarian census, 9,896,333 people (99.6% of the total population) speak Hungarian, of whom 9,827,875 people (98.9%) speak it as a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as a second language . About 2.2 million speakers live in other areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania , the western half of present-day Romania , where there are approximately 1.25 million Hungarians . There are large Hungarian communities also in Slovakia , Serbia and Ukraine , and Hungarians can also be found in Austria , Croatia , and Slovenia , as well as about

4056-539: The CFI Summit in Tacoma, Washington, in 2013 calling her a "Champion of Evolution Education". Established to acknowledge the contributions to humanity and science by Isaac Asimov . This award is given to those who has "shown outstanding commitment and ability in communicating the achievements, methods, and issues of science to the public". In April 2011, the executive council of CSI created The Pantheon of Skeptics,

4160-751: The Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu in Estonia. His correspondence and research files are held by the Indiana University Archives. Sebeok married Mary Eleanor Lawton (1912–2005) in 1947. They had one child, Veronica C. Wald, and later divorced. Sebeok married Donna Jean Umiker (born 1946, now D. Jean Umiker-Sebeok), a fellow semiotic scholar and his frequent collaborator and co-author, in 1973, and they had two children, Jessica A. Sebeok and Erica L. Sebeok. Sebeok retired from Indiana University in 1991, but he contributed to

4264-575: The Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, mainly based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz . Hungarians did, in fact, absorb some Turkic influences during several centuries of cohabitation. The influence on Hungarians was mainly from the Turkic Oghur speakers such as Sabirs , Bulgars of Atil , Kabars and Khazars . The Oghur tribes are often connected with

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4368-463: The Hungarian lexemes collected from technical texts, dialects etc. would total up to 1,000,000 words. Parts of the lexicon can be organized using word-bushes (see an example on the right). The words in these bushes share a common root, are related through inflection, derivation and compounding, and are usually broadly related in meaning. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ( CSI ), formerly known as

4472-534: The Hungarian language contains 75,000 words, and the Comprehensive Dictionary of Hungarian Language (to be published in 18 volumes in the next twenty years) is planned to contain 110,000 words. The default Hungarian lexicon is usually estimated to comprise 60,000 to 100,000 words. (Independently of specific languages, speakers actively use at most 10,000 to 20,000 words, with an average intellectual using 25,000 to 30,000 words. ) However, all

4576-514: The Hungarians whose exoethnonym is usually derived from Onogurs (> (H)ungars), a Turkic tribal confederation . The similarity between customs of Hungarians and the Chuvash people , the only surviving member of the Oghur tribes, is visible. For example, the Hungarians appear to have learned animal husbandry techniques from the Oghur speaking Chuvash people (or historically Suvar people ), as

4680-735: The Internet. In September 2022, Kenny Biddle was announced as CSI's Chief Investigator. Biddle is a CSI Fellow and writes a column for Skeptical Inquirer called A Closer Look (2018–present), which focuses on his use of scientific skepticism to investigate paranormal claims, including ghost photography and video, ghost hunting equipment, UFOs and psychic ability. Biddle credits his previous careers as an auto mechanic, helicopter mechanic, and X-ray technician for building his skills in attention to detail, problem-solving, testing, and critical thinking. Biddle also has co-written articles with Joe Nickell about ghost and miraculous photography. Biddle

4784-587: The Resources for the Scientific Evaluation of the Paranormal (RSEP), a fledgling group with objectives similar to those CSI would subsequently adopt. RSEP disbanded and its members, along with Carl Sagan , Isaac Asimov , B.F. Skinner , and Philip J. Klass , then joined Kurtz, Randi, Gardner, and Hyman to formally found the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). Kurtz, Randi, Gardner, and Hyman took seats on

4888-680: The Responsibility in Journalism Award in 1984. Frazier stated that "There are many responsible reporters who want to do a good job in covering these kinds of controversial, exotic topics." Beginning in 1991, CSI began awarding in two categories, "print" and "broadcast". In recognition of distinguished contributions to the testing of scientific principles and to the public understanding of science. Presented to founder and chairman of CSICOP, Paul Kurtz "In recognition of your wisdom, courage, and foresight in establishing and leading

4992-687: The Samoyed branch of the family, but that is now frequently questioned. The name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian , and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove (sg. Ǫgrinŭ ) seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onoğur (which means ' ten arrows ' or ' ten tribes ' ). There are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and

5096-452: The Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular. The traditional view holds that the Hungarian language diverged from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC, in western Siberia east of the southern Urals . In Hungarian, Iranian loanwords date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over

5200-516: The Vampire Slayer , which its members believe portray skeptics and science in a bad light and help to promote belief in the paranormal. CSI's website currently lists the email addresses of over ninety U.S. media organizations and encourages visitors to "directly influence" the media by contacting "the networks, the TV shows, and the editors responsible for the way [they portray] the world." CSI

5304-488: The changing popularity and prominence of what it considers to be pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs. For example, as promoters of intelligent design increased their efforts to include it in school curricula in recent years, CSI stepped up its attention to the subject, creating an "Intelligent Design Watch" website publishing numerous articles on evolution and intelligent design in Skeptical Inquirer and on

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5408-546: The claims, saying that CSICOP took a "debunking stance". Gardner, on the other hand, "opposed 'believers' in the paranormal becoming CSICOP members", which Truzzi supported. Gardner felt that Truzzi "conferred too much respectability to nonsense". CSICOP was funded in part with donations and sales of their magazine, Skeptical Inquirer . The formal mission statement, approved in 2006 and still current, states: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry promotes science and scientific inquiry, critical thinking , science education, and

5512-551: The conference is known as CSICon. Two conventions have been held in conjunction with its sister and parent organizations, CSH and CFI, in 2013 and 2015. The conferences bring together some of the most prominent figures in scientific research, science communication, and skeptical activism, to exchange information on all topics of common concern and to strengthen the movement and community of skeptics. CSI has also supported local grassroot efforts, such as SkeptiCamp community-organized conferences. Many CSI activities are oriented toward

5616-457: The critical value at seven would make it difficult to detect a true effect. On the other hand, I did not want to set the critical value at four because this would be treating the hypothesis that she could see into people's bodies as if it were highly plausible. The compromise was to set the value at five. On a more general level, proponents of parapsychology have accused CSI of pseudoskepticism , and an overly dogmatic and arrogant approach based on

5720-920: The detriment of public health and safety. The Center for Inquiry is the transnational non-profit umbrella organization comprising CSI, the Council for Secular Humanism , the Center for Inquiry – On Campus (national youth group) and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. These organizations share headquarters and some staff, and each has their own list of fellows and their distinct mandates. CSI generally addresses questions of religion only in cases in which testable scientific assertions have been made (such as weeping statues or faith healing ). The Center for Inquiry West, located in Hollywood, California Executive Director Jim Underdown founded

5824-465: The east, specifically from eastern Siberia. Hungarian historian and archaeologist Gyula László claims that geological data from pollen analysis seems to contradict the placing of the ancient Hungarian homeland near the Urals. Today, the consensus among linguists is that Hungarian is a member of the Uralic family of languages. The classification of Hungarian as a Uralic/Finno-Ugric rather than

5928-630: The equivalents in English. Adjectives precede nouns ( a piros alma 'the red apple') and have three degrees: positive ( piros 'red'), comparative ( pirosabb 'redder') and superlative ( a legpirosabb 'the reddest'). If the noun takes the plural or a case, an attributive adjective is invariable: a piros almák 'the red apples'. However, a predicative adjective agrees with the noun: az almák piros ak 'the apples are red'. Adjectives by themselves can behave as nouns (and so can take case suffixes): Melyik almát kéred? – A piros at . 'Which apple would you like? – The red one'. The neutral word order

6032-452: The executive board. CSICOP was officially launched at a specially convened conference of the AHA on April 30 and May 1, 1976. According to the published correspondence between Gardner and Truzzi, disagreements over what CSICOP should show how volatile the beginnings of the organization were. Truzzi accused CSICOP of "act[ing] more like lawyers" taking on a position of dismissal before evaluating

6136-690: The family itself was established in 1717. Hungarian has traditionally been assigned to the Ugric branch along with the Mansi and Khanty languages of western Siberia ( Khanty–Mansia region of North Asia ), but it is no longer clear that it is a valid group. When the Samoyed languages were determined to be part of the family, it was thought at first that Finnic and Ugric (the most divergent branches within Finno-Ugric) were closer to each other than to

6240-423: The feelings and deeply held beliefs of others ... CSICOP is imperfect. In certain cases [criticism of CSICOP] is to some degree justified. But from my point of view CSICOP serves an important social function – as a well-known organization to which media can apply when they wish to hear the other side of the story, especially when some amazing claim of pseudoscience is judged newsworthy ... CSICOP represents

6344-602: The field of semiotics until his death in 2001. The Sebeok Fellow Award "recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of the doctrine of signs" and is the highest honor given by the Semiotic Society of America . It is awarded every 2 to 4 years. Recipients have included David Savan (1992), John Deely (1993), Paul Bouissac (1996), Jesper Hoffmeyer (2000), Kalevi Kull (2003), Floyd Merrell (2005), Susan Petrilli (2008), Irmengard Rauch (2011), Paul Cobley (2014), Vincent Colapietro (2018), Nathan Houser (2019), Marcel Danesi (2020). Hungarian language It

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6448-419: The first Hungarian-language book set in movable type . By the 17th century, the language already closely resembled its present-day form, although two of the past tenses remained in use. German, Italian and French loans also began to appear. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the period of Ottoman rule (1541 to 1699). In the 19th century, a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy , spearheaded

6552-516: The first two decades is available in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal published in 1998 by S.I. editor Kendrick Frazier . In 2018, Frazier reemphasized the importance of the committee's work by saying that "[w]e need independent, evidence-based, science-based critical investigation and inquiry now more than perhaps at any other time in our history." Paul Kurtz was inspired by the 1949 Belgian organization Comité Para , whose full name

6656-556: The idea back through the Principle of Laplace to the philosopher David Hume .) According to CSI member Martin Gardner, CSI regularly puts into practice H. L. Mencken 's maxim "one horse-laugh is worth a thousand syllogisms ." CSI publishes the magazine Skeptical Inquirer , which was founded by Truzzi, under the name The Zetetic . The journal was under Truzzi's editorship for the first year, until August 1977. The magazine

6760-482: The language holds official status nationally in Hungary and regionally in Romania , Slovakia , Serbia , Austria and Slovenia . In 2014 The proportion of Transylvanian students studying Hungarian exceeded the proportion of Hungarian students, which shows that the effects of Romanianization are slowly getting reversed and regaining popularity. The Dictate of Trianon resulted in a high proportion of Hungarians in

6864-436: The language were utilized. This movement produced more than ten thousand words, most of which are used actively today. The 19th and 20th centuries saw further standardization of the language, and differences between mutually comprehensible dialects gradually diminished. In 1920, Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon , losing 71 percent of its territory and one-third of the ethnic Hungarian population along with it. Today,

6968-489: The leading figure of the Hungarian language reforms.) Kazinczy's chief goal was to replace existing words of German and Latin origins with newly created Hungarian words. As a result, Kazinczy and his later followers (the reformers) significantly reduced the formerly high ratio of words of Latin and German origins in the Hungarian language, which were related to social sciences, natural sciences, politics and economics, institutional names, fashion etc. Giving an accurate estimate for

7072-509: The media and society in general. Its philosophical position is one of scientific skepticism . CSI's fellows have included notable scientists, Nobel laureates , philosophers , psychologists , educators, and authors. It is headquartered in Amherst, New York . The committee was officially launched on April 30, 1976, and was co-chaired by Paul Kurtz and Marcello Truzzi . In the early 1970s, scientific skeptics were concerned that interest in

7176-503: The media or by the Committee. They may be asked to support statements issued by CSI and contribute commentary or articles to CSI outlets. ... Election to the position of fellow is a lifetime appointment. However, if in the opinion of the CSI Executive Council an individual's behavior or scholarship renders that person unable to continue to qualify for the position of fellow under the criteria listed or to effectively fulfill

7280-426: The media. As CSI's former executive director Lee Nisbet wrote in the 25th-anniversary issue of the group's journal, Skeptical Inquirer : CSICOP originated in the spring of 1976 to fight mass-media exploitation of supposedly "occult" and "paranormal" phenomena. The strategy was twofold: First, to strengthen the hand of skeptics in the media by providing information that "debunked" paranormal wonders. Second, to serve as

7384-448: The medium of writing used at the time, wood, is perishable. The Kingdom of Hungary was founded in 1000 by Stephen I . The country became a Western -styled Christian ( Roman Catholic ) state, with Latin script replacing Hungarian runes . The earliest remaining fragments of the language are found in the establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany from 1055, intermingled with Latin text. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian

7488-574: The most part, mutually intelligible . The Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people , and therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian. Hungarian has 14 vowel phonemes and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowel phonemes can be grouped as pairs of short and long vowels such as o and ó . Most of

7592-553: The name of the country, " Magyarország " (Hungary), pronounced /ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ/ . It is one of three palatal consonants, the others being ⟨ty⟩ and ⟨ny⟩ . Historically a fourth palatalized consonant ʎ existed, still written ⟨ly⟩ . A single 'r' is pronounced as an alveolar tap ( akkora 'of that size'), but a double 'r' is pronounced as an alveolar trill ( akkorra 'by that time'), like in Spanish and Italian . Primary stress

7696-615: The name, and to reflect more accurately the actual scope of the organization with its broader focus on critical thinking, science, and rationality in general, and because "it includes the root words of our magazine's title, the Skeptical Inquirer ". In order to carry out its mission, the committee "maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education ; prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims;encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it

7800-417: The negative. Josephson, the director of the University of Cambridge 's Mind–Matter Unification Project , questioned the researchers' motives, saying: "On the face of it, it looks as if there was some kind of plot to discredit the teenage claimed psychic by setting up the conditions to make it likely that they could pass her off as a failure." Ray Hyman , one of the three researchers who designed and conducted

7904-407: The new information for the listeners that may not have been known or that their knowledge must be corrected. For example, "Én vagyok az apád". ('I am your father'. Literally, 'It is I who am your father'.), from the movie The Empire Strikes Back , the pronoun I ( én ) is in the focus and implies that it is new information, and the listener thought that someone else is his father. Although Hungarian

8008-583: The organization's attention. Television celebrity and claimed psychic Uri Geller , for example, was formerly in open dispute with the organization, filing a number of unsuccessful lawsuits against them. Some criticism has also come from within the scientific community and at times from within CSI itself. Marcello Truzzi , one of CSICOP's co-founders, left the organization after only a short time, arguing that many of those involved "tend to block honest inquiry, in my opinion. Most of them are not agnostic toward claims of

8112-443: The other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, and Hungarian /h/ corresponds to Khanty /x/ , while Hungarian final /z/ corresponds to Khanty final /t/ . For example, Hungarian ház [haːz] ' house ' vs. Khanty xot [xot] ' house ' , and Hungarian száz [saːz] ' hundred ' vs. Khanty sot [sot] ' hundred ' . The distance between

8216-485: The pairs have an almost similar pronunciation and vary significantly only in their duration. However, pairs a / á and e / é differ both in closedness and length. Consonant length is also distinctive in Hungarian. Most consonant phonemes can occur as geminates . The sound voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ , written ⟨gy⟩ , sounds similar to 'd' in British English 'duty'. It occurs in

8320-509: The paranormal was on the rise in the United States, part of a growing tide of irrationalism. In 1975, Kurtz, a secular humanist , initiated a statement, "Objections to Astrology ", which was co-written with Bart Bok and Lawrence E. Jerome, and endorsed by 186 scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates. The statement was published in the American Humanist Association (AHA)'s newsletter The Humanist , of which Kurtz

8424-409: The paranormal; they are out to knock them. [...] When an experiment of the paranormal meets their requirements, then they move the goal posts." Truzzi coined the term pseudoskeptic to describe critics in whom he detected such an attitude. An early controversy concerned the so-called Mars effect : French statistician Michel Gauquelin 's claim that champion athletes are more likely to be born when

8528-616: The planet Mars is in certain positions in the sky. In late 1975, prior to the formal launch of CSICOP, astronomer Dennis Rawlins , along with Paul Kurtz , George Abell and Marvin Zelen (all subsequent members of CSICOP) began investigating the claim. Rawlins, a founding member of CSICOP at its launch in May 1976, resigned in early 1980 claiming that other CSICOP researchers had used incorrect statistics, faulty science, and outright falsification in an attempt to debunk Gauquelin's claims. In an article for

8632-429: The pro-paranormal magazine Fate , he wrote: "I am still skeptical of the occult beliefs CSICOP was created to debunk. But I have changed my mind about the integrity of some of those who make a career of opposing occultism." CSICOP's Philip J. Klass responded by circulating an article to CSICOP members critical of Rawlins' arguments and motives; Klass's unpublished response, refused publication by Fate , itself became

8736-411: The proposition is only for that particular thing or aspect, and it implies that the proposition is not true for some others. For example, in " Az almát János látja". ('It is John who sees the apple'. Literally 'The apple John sees.'), the apple is in the topic, implying that other objects may be seen by not him but other people (the pear may be seen by Peter). The topic part may be empty. The focus shows

8840-581: The public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry." The council urges TV "producers to label documentary-type shows depicting the paranormal as either entertainment or fiction". The council also provides the media with contact information of experts who would be willing and able to answer questions and be interviewed for paranormal topics. CSI awards the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking annually. The $ 2,500 award

8944-465: The role of ambassador or science and skepticism, CSI may choose to remove them from the list of fellows." This is a list of current CSI fellows; an asterisk denotes the person is also a member of the CSI Executive Council. This is a list of former CSI fellows not included in the Pantheon of Skeptics. CSI's activities have garnered criticism from individuals or groups which have been the focus of

9048-414: The surrounding 7 countries, so it is widely spoken or understood. Although host countries are not always considerate of Hungarian language users, communities are strong. The Szeklers , for example, form their own region and have their own national museum, educational institutions, and hospitals. Hungarian has about 13 million native speakers, of whom more than 9.8 million live in Hungary. According to

9152-536: The target for further criticism. In 1977, an FBI raid on the offices of the Church of Scientology uncovered a project to discredit CSICOP so that it and its publications would cease criticism of Dianetics and Scientology . This included forging a CIA memo and sending it to media sources, including The New York Times , to spread rumors that CSICOP was a front group for the CIA. A letter from CSICOP founder Paul Kurtz

9256-476: The test, published a response to this and other criticisms. CSI's Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health also published a detailed response to these and other objections, saying that the choice of critical level was appropriate, because her claims were unlikely to be true: I decided against setting the critical level at seven because this would require Natasha to be 100% accurate in our test. We wanted to give her some leeway. More important, setting

9360-517: The total word count is difficult, since it is hard to define a "word" in agglutinating languages, due to the existence of affixed words and compound words. To obtain a meaningful definition of compound words, it is necessary to exclude compounds whose meaning is the mere sum of its elements. The largest dictionaries giving translations from Hungarian to another language contain 120,000 words and phrases (but this may include redundant phrases as well, because of translation issues) . The new desk lexicon of

9464-616: The use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. Fellows are elected for their distinguished contributions to science and skepticsim as well as their ability to provide practical advice and expertise on various issues and projects deemed important to the work of the Committee. Election as a fellow is based upon the following criteria, approved by the CSI Executive Council: Fellows of CSI serve as ambassadors of science and skepticism and may be consulted on issues related to their area of expertise by

9568-427: The use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." A previous mission statement referred to "investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims", but the 2006 change recognized and ratified a wider purview for CSI and its magazine, Skeptical Inquirer , that includes "new science related issues at the intersection of science and public concerns, while not ignoring [their] core topics". A history of

9672-434: The use of reason in examining important issues. It encourages the critical investigation of controversial or extraordinary claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community, the media, and the public. A shorter version of the mission statement appears in every issue: "... promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and

9776-618: The world's first public education organization devoted to distinguishing science from pseudoscience". Award was given April 26, 1986 at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Awarded to author and entertainer Steve Allen at the First World Skeptic Congress held in Buffalo, New York, in 1996. Allen was recognized for his lifetime achievement "in cultivating the public appreciation of critical thinking and science". Presented to Eugenie Scott by Ronald Lindsay at

9880-426: Was Comité Belge pour l'Investigation Scientifique des Phénomènes Réputés Paranormaux ("Belgian Committee for Scientific Investigation of Purported Paranormal Phenomena"). In 1976, the proposed name was "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and Other Phenomena" which was shortened to "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal". The initial acronym , "CSICP"

9984-647: Was a speaker at CSICon in 2019 and 2022. CSI is concerned with paranormal or pseudoscientific claims that may endanger people's health or safety, such as the use of alternative medicine in place of science-based healthcare. Investigations by CSI and others, including consumer watchdog groups, law enforcement, and government regulatory agencies, have shown that the sale of alternative medicines, paranormal paraphernalia, or pseudoscience-based products can be enormously profitable. CSI says this profitability has provided various pro-paranormal groups large resources for advertising, lobbying efforts, and other forms of advocacy, to

10088-444: Was also the chair of the university's Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies. As a professor at Indiana University, Sebeok studied both human and non-human systems of signaling and communication, as well as the philosophy of mind . He was among the founders of biosemiotics , and coined the term " zoosemiotics " in 1963 to describe the development of signals and signs by non-human animal species. He also continued his work as

10192-600: Was also the editor of several book series and encyclopedias, including Approaches to Semiotics (over 100 volumes), Current Trends in Linguistics , and the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics . In the early 1980s, Sebeok composed a report for the US Office of Nuclear Waste Management titled Communication Measures To Bridge Ten Millennia , discussing solutions to the problem of nuclear semiotics ,

10296-419: Was difficult to pronounce and so was changed to "CSICOP". According to James Alcock , it was never intended to be "Psi Cop", a nickname that some of the group's detractors adopted. In November 2006, CSICOP further shortened its name to "Committee for Skeptical Inquiry" (CSI), pronounced C-S-I. The reasons for the change were to create a name that was shorter, more "media-friendly", to remove "paranormal" from

10400-511: Was forged to discredit him in the eyes of parapsychology researchers. In 2004, CSICOP was accused of scientific misconduct over its involvement in the Discovery Channel 's test of the "girl with X-ray eyes", Natasha Demkina . In a self-published commentary, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Brian Josephson criticized the test and evaluation methods and argued that the results should have been deemed "inconclusive" rather than judged in

10504-472: Was quoted to consider pseudoscience topics to include yogic flying , therapeutic touch , astrology , fire walking , voodoo , magical thinking , Uri Geller , alternative medicine , channeling , psychic hotlines and detectives, near-death experiences , unidentified flying objects (UFOs), the Bermuda Triangle , homeopathy , faith healing , and reincarnation . CSI changes its focus with

10608-529: Was retitled to Skeptical Inquirer with Kendrick Frazier , former editor of Science News , serving as its editor. In June 2023, Stephen Hupp was named as the magazine's editor. Hupp replaced Stuart Vyse, who was the interim editor in November 2022 following the passing of Kendrick Frazier. In 1987, Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope called Skeptical Inquirer "one of the nation's leading antifruitcake journals". In addition, CSI publishes Skeptical Briefs ,

10712-427: Was then editor. According to Kurtz, the statement was sent to every newspaper in the United States and Canada. It received a positive reaction, which encouraged Kurtz to invite skeptical researchers to a 1976 conference with the aim of establishing a new organization to critically examine a wide range of paranormal claims. Attendees included Martin Gardner , Ray Hyman , James Randi , and Marcello Truzzi, all members of

10816-561: Was titled Finnish and Hungarian case systems: their form and function . In 1943, Sebeok started work at Indiana University in Bloomington , assisting the Amerindianist Carl Voegelin in managing the country's largest Army Specialized Training Program in foreign languages. He then created the university's department of Uralic and Altaic Studies, covering the languages of Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. He

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