Reviewed Work - Psycholinguistics - A New Approach by David McNeill
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Linguistic Society of merica
Psycholinguistics: A New Approach by David McNeillReview by: Samuel FillenbaumLanguage, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Jun., 1990), pp. 388-392Published by: Linguistic Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/414898.
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LANGUAGE,
VOLUME
66,
NUMBER
2
(1990)ANGUAGE,
VOLUME
66,
NUMBER
2
(1990)
SIDMAN,
RICHARD,
and
MURRAY
SIDMAN.
1965.
Neuroanatomy:
A
programmed
text.
Boston:
Little,
Brown.
Program
in
Speech
and
Hearing
Sciences
[Received
20 November
1989.]
City University of New York
Box
365,
Graduate
Center
33
West 42nd Street
New
York,
NY 10036-8099
Psycholinguistics:
A
new
approach.
By
DAVID
MCNEILL.
New York:
Harper
&
Row,
1987.
Pp.
xi,
290.
Reviewed
by
SAMUEL
ILLENBAUM,
University of
North
Carolina
at
Chapel
Hill
'Psycholinguistics
s the science
of how
individual
hinking,
which is
private
and flows
continuously,
relates to
a
social
institution
that is
public
and
the
product
of
tradition-that
is,
language
tself
(2).
The task McNeill
sets himself
is to
lay
out
(what
he
regards
as)
the basics
of
that
science,
of the
dialectic
between individual
and
socially
constituted
sources
of value. This
synthesis
he
hopes
to
accomplish
by
bringing
together
a
synchronic
viewpoint
with
a
diachronic
one.
The
spontaneous
gestures
that
accompany speech
are to
be
the
principal
source of
information
bout
mental
processes
during
hinking
and
speaking.
In McN's
words,
'by
examininggesture production
we
can see in
comparativelypure, undistortedform, the mental operations of speakers as
they
utilize
the
linguistic
code'
(210).Indeed,
his account
of
speech-concurrent
gestures
and the
use of gesture
data
to
infer
'intrinsic
value' represents
what
is most
important
and
distinctive
about
this book.
Let me
say something
about
the general
ayout
of the book.
An
introductory
chapter
sketches out the
two approaches
to language
that
he proposes
to
unify-the
Saussurean
inguistic
paradigm
and the
Vygotskian
psychology
of
language
approach-and
indicates
the
crucial
role
that gesture
data
will
play
in
that endeavor. This
is followed
by a
chapter
on
the 'Linguistics
of
language',
which seeks 'to presentmodern inguisticsin termsof Saussure'sconception
of
language
as
a
synchronic-contrastive
etwork
of symbols'
(22). Then there
are
two
chapters
on the
'Context
of speaking',
responsive
to
the fact
that
what
is said is
always situated
and context-sensitive.
The
first of
these
deals with
the
social context of speaking,
and
considers
deas
originating
romphilosophy
and
sociology,
ranging
from
a consideration
of
aspects
of speech-act
theory
(in
particular
ookingat
the notion
of illocutionary
orce) to
an
account
of turn-
taking.
The
second
of
these chapters
deals
with the
informational
ontext
of
speaking
and is
principally
concerned
with
matters
of
cohesiveness
and
deixis
or
pointing,
where
'cohesiveness
connects
sentences
together,
whereas point-
ing connects sentences to a vantagepoint' (52). These first four chapterspro-
vide a
setting
for Ch.5,
'Producing
ndunderstanding
peech',
which,
together
with
Ch.
7, on
'Gestures
and
signs',
constitutes
the
maincontent
and
contri-
bution
of the
book.
I wantto
make
one or
two comments
on these
background
chapters.
While much that is presented
here
is of importance
n
its own
right
SIDMAN,
RICHARD,
and
MURRAY
SIDMAN.
1965.
Neuroanatomy:
A
programmed
text.
Boston:
Little,
Brown.
Program
in
Speech
and
Hearing
Sciences
[Received
20 November
1989.]
City University of New York
Box
365,
Graduate
Center
33
West 42nd Street
New
York,
NY 10036-8099
Psycholinguistics:
A
new
approach.
By
DAVID
MCNEILL.
New York:
Harper
&
Row,
1987.
Pp.
xi,
290.
Reviewed
by
SAMUEL
ILLENBAUM,
University of
North
Carolina
at
Chapel
Hill
'Psycholinguistics
s the science
of how
individual
hinking,
which is
private
and flows
continuously,
relates to
a
social
institution
that is
public
and
the
product
of
tradition-that
is,
language
tself
(2).
The task McNeill
sets himself
is to
lay
out
(what
he
regards
as)
the basics
of
that
science,
of the
dialectic
between individual
and
socially
constituted
sources
of value. This
synthesis
he
hopes
to
accomplish
by
bringing
together
a
synchronic
viewpoint
with
a
diachronic
one.
The
spontaneous
gestures
that
accompany speech
are to
be
the
principal
source of
information
bout
mental
processes
during
hinking
and
speaking.
In McN's
words,
'by
examininggesture production
we
can see in
comparativelypure, undistortedform, the mental operations of speakers as
they
utilize
the
linguistic
code'
(210).Indeed,
his account
of
speech-concurrent
gestures
and the
use of gesture
data
to
infer
'intrinsic
value' represents
what
is most
important
and
distinctive
about
this book.
Let me
say something
about
the general
ayout
of the book.
An
introductory
chapter
sketches out the
two approaches
to language
that
he proposes
to
unify-the
Saussurean
inguistic
paradigm
and the
Vygotskian
psychology
of
language
approach-and
indicates
the
crucial
role
that gesture
data
will
play
in
that endeavor. This
is followed
by a
chapter
on
the 'Linguistics
of
language',
which seeks 'to presentmodern inguisticsin termsof Saussure'sconception
of
language
as
a
synchronic-contrastive
etwork
of symbols'
(22). Then there
are
two
chapters
on the
'Context
of speaking',
responsive
to
the fact
that
what
is said is
always situated
and context-sensitive.
The
first of
these
deals with
the
social context of speaking,
and
considers
deas
originating
romphilosophy
and
sociology,
ranging
from
a consideration
of
aspects
of speech-act
theory
(in
particular
ookingat
the notion
of illocutionary
orce) to
an
account
of turn-
taking.
The
second
of
these chapters
deals
with the
informational
ontext
of
speaking
and is
principally
concerned
with
matters
of
cohesiveness
and
deixis
or
pointing,
where
'cohesiveness
connects
sentences
together,
whereas point-
ing connects sentences to a vantagepoint' (52). These first four chapterspro-
vide a
setting
for Ch.5,
'Producing
ndunderstanding
peech',
which,
together
with
Ch.
7, on
'Gestures
and
signs',
constitutes
the
maincontent
and
contri-
bution
of the
book.
I wantto
make
one or
two comments
on these
background
chapters.
While much that is presented
here
is of importance
n
its own
right
38888
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and
revealingly
and
pertinently
discussed-see,
e.g.,
the section on illocu-
tionary
orce orthediscussionof deixis-there is also muchthat s
very
difficult
and
mysterious, especially
in the
chapter
on the
'Linguistics
of
Language'
(Montaguegrammar, or instance, is presented in a page or so), or that is
unmotivated
at
least to
me);
see,
e.g.,
the
couple
of
pages
on
'experiments
on
pronoun interpretation'.Equally important,
could not see
any
close
connec-
tion
between
most
of what is discussed
in
these
chapters
and the
content of
the
central
chapters
(5
and
7),
to be considered
presently.
Ch. 6
('Linguistic
determinism:The Whorfian
hypothesis')
is a
fascinating
but
in
the end inconclusive
mix
of critical
analysis
of
experimental
work and
suggestions
as to conditionsthat need to be met for work
really
to be relevant
to the issue
(which
conditions
have
hardly
ever
been
met),
together
with
some
very open-ended speculations regarding'examples of linguistic forms that
(might)
embody
cultural
models'-where,
of
course,
the
critical word is
'might'.
All this comes with some brilliant
f
tangential
omments
using
a 'Goe-
thean
hypothesis'
to
try
to account for
the
sequence
of
color
categories
dis-
covered
by
Berlin &
Kay
(1969),
viz.,
that this
sequence 'corresponds
o how
the colors of
objects change
when the
intensity
of
light falling
on
them
changes'
(188). Notwithstanding
the
rationale
provided
in
the first
paragraph
of this
chapter,
I am
still not sure of
its
role or
place
in
the
book,
for all its
intrinsic
interest.
The last
chapter('Action, thought
and
language')asks, again, why linguistic
actions are carriedout simultaneouslywith two differentforms of thought:
'Why
is
imagistic thinkingupacked by syntactic thinking?' 251).
McN offers
a
numberof
suggestions
or
'reasons',
but
I think
the central
claim is that im-
agistic
and
syntactic thinking
must be
synthesized
so
as to make
thinking
n-
tersubjective
and thus to make
communication
possible.
The
linguistic
act is
a
synthesis
of
the
analogical(global
and
imagistic)and
the
synthetic (segmented
and
linear).
Ch.
5
asks how this
'synthesis
of indi-
vidually
constituted
(intrinsic)
and
socially
constituted
(pure inguistic)
values'
(84)
is
accomplished.
McN assumes
that,
with
regard
o 'internal
psychological
computations', production
and
understanding
nvolve
virtually
the
same
pro-
cesses
and
so can
be handled
together,
and that the
'referential
gestures
that
spontaneously
occur
with
speech' provide
critical
information
about the 'in-
ternal
structureof
linguistic
acts'.
As
mentioned
before, symbols
have
intrinsic value and
linguistic or con-
trastive
value;
in
addition,they
'are
affected
by
the
contextual
whole' of
which
they
are
part, and, centrally
for
McN, 'symbols
have
spontaneousgenerativ-
ity-the ability
to occur
without
inputs
that
trigger
them'
(84).
As he
puts it,
'spontaneity
of inner
speech symbols
is the
key
to
generativity,
the
ability of
surface sentences
to occur without
nputs. Thinking
s
not the
input
to some
other process that evokes the inner speech symbol. Rather, the symbols of
inner
speech
are
what, along
with
imagery,
CONSTITUTE
thinking'(100). In ap-
propriate environments,
the
'symbols
of
inner
speech appear
to be
self-acti-
vating',
it
is not a matterof
responses
to
inputs.
Words that are
self-activating
McN calls 'smart'
words:
'the
hypothesis
is that
smart
symbols
tend
to be
REVIEWS 389
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LANGUAGE,
VOLUME
66,
NUMBER
2
(1990)
inner
speech symbols'
(100).
Smart
words
or
symbols
have
two critical
(and
defining)
properties:
a)
they
are
'self-activating
n
appropriate
nvironments',
which
requires
that
they
be sensitive to
thought
patterns
not
yet
linguistically
coded; and (b) they 'can select other symbols'. Smartsymbols thereforeare
doubly
context-sensitive-sensitive
'to the
evolving thought
environment
not
yet
coded
linguistically
and to the
potentiallinguistic
environment'
100).
Above I
have tried
to use McN's own
language
as much
as
possible
for
two
reasons.
First,
because
I think
that these ideas
regarding
he
spontaneity
of
inner
speech
symbols
and self
activation
and self
organization
n
speech
are
central to
his
account,
and
second,
because
I
am not secure
enough
in
my
understanding
of what he is
getting
at to
attempt any
substantial
rephrasing.
Of the
two
properties characterizing
smart'
words,
the
second-'sensitivity
to linguistic potentialand abilityto select otherwords'-has been considered
before
in
the frame
notion
(and
its
congeners),
as McN notes. But
the first-
'sensitivity
to not
yet categorized magistic
hinking'-which
is
also
absolutely
necessary
to his
account,
has not been
investigated,
at least in
any guise
that
I
know.
Indeed,
McN himself is hard
put
to
find
supporting
vidence,
and the
three
experiments
he does cite can
hardly
bear the
interpretive
burden
put
upon
them.
In
effect,
McN
has
two
difficult,
if
related,
tasks
before
him. He
needs
to
spell
out
much
more
fully
what he
means
by
'self
activating
in
ap-
propriate[nonlinguistic] nvironments',and, given
such an
elaborate
and en-
riched
account,
he needs to
indicatewhat
kindof
supporting
vidence is
already
available andespeciallywhat sorts of experimentsmightbe conductedto pro-
vide
further
relevant
evidence.
This
is
essential,
because the
notion of
'self
activating symbols'
is
central
to the
theoretical
analysis
he
offers of the
'various
majorphenomena
of
psy-
cholinguistics'.
It
is also
important, ritically,
because he
argues
that
the dom-
inant
class
of models in
current
psycholinguistics,viz., information-processing
models,
cannot
'explain
or even
formulateas a
problem spontaneousgenera-
tivity:
the
ability
of
linguistic
structuresto
take
shape
in
speech production
without
inputs
that
trigger
them'
(133).
In
McN's
words,
'Information-pro-
cessing
[IP]
models all
PRESUPPOSE
input
from
the
outside.
This
input is not
explained by
the
model
and, apart
from
triggering,
t
plays
no role
in
the op-
erations
of
the
model
(145)
... in
all
these
theories
there is
necessarily a
PRE-
SUPPOSED
ultimate
input
of
informational
or
cognitive phenomena, that is
meaning
or
thought' (146).
On
McN's
account, however,
there
is
no
sharp
separation
of
'computational perations
rom
interpretation'.
A
smart
symbol
'selects
and
classifies an
environment
f
thinking
not
yet linguistically
oded
...
it
also takes
in its
environment,
ltering
tself as it
alters he
environment
..
Whereas
an IP
input riggers
an
operation
but
does not
further
participate
n
it,
an
appropriate
nvironment
becomes
part
of
the
mental
operation
arried
out
by
the
symbol.
The
environment
s
the
setting n which
the
smart
symbol
self
activates,
but
in turn
the
environments alteredby the symbol and
the
symbol
is
altered
by
the
environment'
147).
McN is
surely exhibiting
a
basic
problem
hat
faces IP
models, namely, how
to
articulate he
computational
and
interpretiveaspects
of
the
theory (and the
nature
of the
latter).
But
his
own
solution,
which
denies
any such in-principle
390
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REVIEWS
separation
or
distinction,
can
only provide
a viable alternative
f it can
spell
out much more
fully
what is entailed
by
thenotions of self activationand
mutual
interaction
between different orms of
thinking.
Finally, I turn to the issue of gestures (mainlypresentedin Ch. 7, but really
pervading
and
permeating
he
book).
Spontaneousgestures,
movements of
the
hands and
arms,
are
used
by
McN 'to
open
a second channel of
observation
onto mental
processes
(the
first
being speech
itself)',
allowing
us
to
'see,
in
comparatively
pure
undistorted
orm,
the mental
operations
of
speakers
as
they
utilize the
linguistic
code'
(210).
Why
this
privileged
status for
gestures?
McN
offers two
arguments.
First,
gestures
and
sentences 'share a
stage
of devel-
opment
before
speech
takes on
its
socially
constitutedform' and
contrastive
value-since
gestures synchronize
with
speech
and
anticipatespeech.
This is
to establish 'the likelihood that gestures and speech have a common mental
source'
(213).
Second and
crucially, 'gestures
exhibit
this
stage
without dis-
tortionbecause
they
lack direct social
regulation'
210)
.. The
'privileged
tatus
of
gestures
derives
from
the
absence of social standards
or
the
performance
of
gestures'
(213).
Why
should
gestures
be so
revealing
with
regard
o intrinsicvalue?
Because
'gestures
are
non-arbitrary
with a natural
basis
in
thinking
..
[Thus]
in
iconic
gestures
the hands are
nonarbitrary ymbols: shape
and movement
are
deter-
mined
by
the
meanings
the
hands
convey' (16),
and in
metaphorics gestures
exhibit
images
of
abstract
concepts
... a
picturable
vehicle
of
a
metaphor
or
the abstract meaning' (231) '... Not having a level of socially constituted pho-
nological
or
morphological tructure,
conic
gestures
can
directly
exhibit mental
operations' (214). Gestures,
while
concurrent with
speech,
show
something
different
from
speech; they convey meaning
in a
'fundamentally
different
form-global
and
synthetic
rather than linear
and
segmented'.
These
global
and
synthetic properties
are the
'properties
of
the
imagistic thinking
behind
gestures' (19).
Obviously
this is
playing
for
very high stakes,
and
McN
presents
a
rich,
valuable
typology
of
gesture types (this description
and
analysis
of
gestures is
followed
up
and
further
developed
in
McNeill et al.
1990.
Just
because the
stakes
are so
high,
a
number
of
questions
need
to be
raised. McN
claims that
gesture
data
provide
a
direct
access to the mental
operations
of
speakers,allow
us to
get
at
the
global imagisticunderlying
natureof
thought.
But
we
have no
other
independentaccess,
and
because of that
lack
there
is
always the danger
of
reading
back
or
translating
he data
of
gesture simply
into the
data
of un-
derlying analogical, imagisticthought. Second,
for the
moment
grantingMcN
his
argument,
he natural
question
is: what
do
gesture
data
reveal in
a
general
SYSTEMATIC
way
about the
nature
of mind and
intrinsic
value? While McN
discusses with
insight
a
(small)
numberof
examples,
he
does not
really
in
any
explicit way lay out the generalyield of the gesturalwork-if gestures provide
us
such a
wonderful
window,
what
is the
world like
when we
look
through hat
window?
Finally,
and
perhaps
most
important,
McN
argues that gestures can
provide
the
revealing illuminating
nondistorted
nformation
hey
do
'because
they
lack
direct social
regulation'.
But if
this is
so,
then
how
can the watcher
391
This content downloaded from 130.209.6.61 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:28:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/9/2019 Reviewed Work - Psycholinguistics - A New Approach by David McNeill
6/6
LANGUAGE,
VOLUME
66,
NUMBER2
(1990)ANGUAGE,
VOLUME
66,
NUMBER2
(1990)
or audience
decode, or,
better,
understand
hem?
(The
very inappropriateness
of
the term 'decode' here
signals
the
problem.)
While McN
deals
at
length
with
gestures
from the
point
of
view of the
speaker
or
actor,
he
says very
little
indeed on this from the perspective of the listener or watcher, and he says
almost
nothing
about how the latter
can
come to
interpretspeech-concurrent
gestures
appropriately.
This
problemdesperately
needs to be addressed.
This
book is
often
difficult,
even
opaque.
I
have reservations and concerns
about the
way
it
phrases problems
and the solutions it offers.
Nevertheless,
I
think it well worth while to
struggle
with
it,
because McNeill worries
in
dif-
ferent,
unique ways
about
basic,
important
matters,
such as the relation be-
tween
thinking
and
anguage,
and
because
he
looks
at
sources
of
evidence about
language
hatare
usually
neglected, particularly
estures.
He
forces
significant
issues to our attention n a provocativeway.
REFERENCES
BERLIN, BRENT,
and
PAUL
KAY. 1969. Basic color terms: Their
universality
and
evo-
lution.
Berkeley: University
of California
Press.
MCNEILL,
DAVID;
ELENA
T.
LEVY;
and LAURA
L.
PEDELTY.
1990.
Speech
and
gesture.
Advances in
Psychology:
Cerebral
control of
speech
and limb
movements,
ed.
by
Geoffrey
Hammond. New York:
Elsevier North
Holland,
to
appear.
L. L. Thurstone
PsychometricLaboratory [Received 12 January1990.]
CB #3270 Davie Hall
The University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270
Informal ectures on
formal
semantics.
By
EMMONACH.State
University of
New York
Press,
1989.
Pp. x,
150. Cloth
$29.50, paper $9.95.
Reviewed
by
M. J.
CRESSWELL, niversity of Massachusetts and
Victoria University of Wellington
Those
of us who work
in
model-theoreticsemantics are sometimes
asked
what
we
do. Usually
a few
platitudes
will
quickly
halt
further
questioning,
but
for
a
serious
enquirer
one would like
a
little
book
that does
not demand
any
previous experienceof logic, linguistics,
or
philosophy. EmmonBach has writ-
ten such
a
book.
Within
ts
short
length
we
have
a
nontechnicalpresentation
of the
syntax
and semantics of the first-order
predicatecalculus,
an
indication
of how to
supplement
t
by
the addition
of
times and
possible worlds, gener-
alized
quantifiers
and
other such
devices;
and a
discussion of what
sorts of
entities are needed in
the semantics of
natural
anguage.
The book is based on a series
of lectures
given
at
Tianjin
Normal
University
in the
summer
of
1984.
The
first
lecture,
on the
semantics
of
standardpredicate
logic, will be quite straightforwardo those familiarwith the material.I suspect
that
someone without a
knowledge
of
logic who would like a good understand-
ing
of these matters
would
need
to look
at
a more technical introduction,but
Bach
is
pretty explicit
that the
purpose of
the
lectures is motivational,and I
or audience
decode, or,
better,
understand
hem?
(The
very inappropriateness
of
the term 'decode' here
signals
the
problem.)
While McN
deals
at
length
with
gestures
from the
point
of
view of the
speaker
or
actor,
he
says very
little
indeed on this from the perspective of the listener or watcher, and he says
almost
nothing
about how the latter
can
come to
interpretspeech-concurrent
gestures
appropriately.
This
problemdesperately
needs to be addressed.
This
book is
often
difficult,
even
opaque.
I
have reservations and concerns
about the
way
it
phrases problems
and the solutions it offers.
Nevertheless,
I
think it well worth while to
struggle
with
it,
because McNeill worries
in
dif-
ferent,
unique ways
about
basic,
important
matters,
such as the relation be-
tween
thinking
and
anguage,
and
because
he
looks
at
sources
of
evidence about
language
hatare
usually
neglected, particularly
estures.
He
forces
significant
issues to our attention n a provocativeway.
REFERENCES
BERLIN, BRENT,
and
PAUL
KAY. 1969. Basic color terms: Their
universality
and
evo-
lution.
Berkeley: University
of California
Press.
MCNEILL,
DAVID;
ELENA
T.
LEVY;
and LAURA
L.
PEDELTY.
1990.
Speech
and
gesture.
Advances in
Psychology:
Cerebral
control of
speech
and limb
movements,
ed.
by
Geoffrey
Hammond. New York:
Elsevier North
Holland,
to
appear.
L. L. Thurstone
PsychometricLaboratory [Received 12 January1990.]
CB #3270 Davie Hall
The University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270
Informal ectures on
formal
semantics.
By
EMMONACH.State
University of
New York
Press,
1989.
Pp. x,
150. Cloth
$29.50, paper $9.95.
Reviewed
by
M. J.
CRESSWELL, niversity of Massachusetts and
Victoria University of Wellington
Those
of us who work
in
model-theoreticsemantics are sometimes
asked
what
we
do. Usually
a few
platitudes
will
quickly
halt
further
questioning,
but
for
a
serious
enquirer
one would like
a
little
book
that does
not demand
any
previous experienceof logic, linguistics,
or
philosophy. EmmonBach has writ-
ten such
a
book.
Within
ts
short
length
we
have
a
nontechnicalpresentation
of the
syntax
and semantics of the first-order
predicatecalculus,
an
indication
of how to
supplement
t
by
the addition
of
times and
possible worlds, gener-
alized
quantifiers
and
other such
devices;
and a
discussion of what
sorts of
entities are needed in
the semantics of
natural
anguage.
The book is based on a series
of lectures
given
at
Tianjin
Normal
University
in the
summer
of
1984.
The
first
lecture,
on the
semantics
of
standardpredicate
logic, will be quite straightforwardo those familiarwith the material.I suspect
that
someone without a
knowledge
of
logic who would like a good understand-
ing
of these matters
would
need
to look
at
a more technical introduction,but
Bach
is
pretty explicit
that the
purpose of
the
lectures is motivational,and I
39292
This content downloaded from 130.209.6.61 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:28:21 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
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