Cui, Xizhen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-46). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; some questionnaires in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) --- p.i / ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Research Overview --- p.5 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Attitude Polarization and Dissatisfaction Aggravation --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Attitude Polarization --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Explanations of Attitude Polarization --- p.7 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Attitude Polarization and Consumer Dissatisfaction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Downward Comparison and Dissatisfaction Alleviation --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Downward Comparison --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Downward Comparison and Dissatisfaction Alleviation --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Content of Negative WOM and Research Hypotheses --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Evaluative Focus of Attitude Polarization Research --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The Experiential Focus of Downward Comparison Research --- p.13 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Hypotheses --- p.14 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- EXPERIMENTS --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1 --- Experiment 1 --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Participants and Design --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Procedure --- p.17 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Manipulations --- p.18 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Dependent Variable --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1.5 --- Results --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1.6 --- Post Hoc Analysis --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1.7 --- Discussion --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2 --- Experiment 2 --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Overview --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Participants and Design --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Procedure --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Results --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Discussion --- p.29 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- GENERAL DISCUSSION --- p.30 / Chapter 4.1 --- Theoretical Contribution --- p.30 / Chapter 4.2 --- Managerial Implications --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3 --- Limitations and Future Research --- p.33 / REFERENCES --- p.35 / APPENDIX / Chapter I --- Questionnaire for Experiment 1 --- p.47 / Chapter II --- Questionnaire for Experiment 2 --- p.52 / Chapter III --- Samples of Thoughts for Experiment 2 --- p.59 / LIST OF TABLES / CHAPTER THREE / EXPERIMENT 1 / Table 1: Study 1 AD Means Across Two Groups --- p.20 / Table 2: Study 1 AD Gender Difference in Alleviation Condition --- p.21 / EXPERIMENT 2 / Table 3: Study 2 Hypothesized Predictions Across Four Groups --- p.24 / Table 4: Study 2 AD Means Across Two Groups --- p.26 / Table 5: Study 2 AD Means Across Four Groups --- p.27

Infants' characteristics, including temperament and cognitive ability, contribute to individual differences in language development. However, the process through which such traits influence language learning remains unclear. One possibility is that temperament and cognitive capacities affect the way in which infants learn words by influencing their ability to successfully use contextual referential cues. Social cues, such as eyegaze, pointing and gesturing, and emotional expressions, are one important type of referential cue. The present study explored the role of such social cues in the relation between infant characteristics and vocabulary in 71 18-month-olds. It was hypothesized that infants' characteristics would be associated with both their vocabulary and their use of such social cues, and that social cue use would be related to overall vocabulary. Further, it was predicted that infants' ability to use social cues effectively would mediate the relation between infants' temperament and cognitive ability, and their vocabulary. Participants watched six word-learning videos on a Tobii 1760 Eyetracker. In each video, a speaker labeled a novel object using one social referential cue. Infants' ability to use that cue to learn the object label was assessed by tracking the time spent looking toward the target object. Infants' cognitive and language abilities were assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition. Both parents and observers provided ratings of child temperament, and parents also completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences form. Both correlation and bias-corrected bootstrap mediation analyses were conducted. Temperament did not make a unique contribution to infants' vocabulary, but both cognitive ability and social cue use did. Mediation analyses indicated that social cue use did mediate the relation between early cognitive ability and vocabulary, but only for infants with lower than average cognitive ability. These results indicate that social cues may be especially important for language development in infants and young children with low IQ, possibly because they provide additional supports for word learning. This has important implications for both typically developing infants as well as young children with language disorders.

People talk about coherent episodes of their experience, leading to strong dependencies between words and the contexts in which they appear. Consequently, language within a context is more repetitive and more coherent than language sampled from across contexts. In this dissertation, I investigated how patterns in infant-directed speech differ under context-sensitive compared to context-independent analysis. In particular, I tested the hypothesis that cues to word boundaries may be clearer within contexts. Analyzing a large corpus of transcribed infant-directed speech, I implemented three different approaches to defining context: a top-down approach using the occurrence of key words from pre-determined context lists, a bottom-up approach using topic modeling, and a subjective coding approach where contexts were determined by open-ended, subjective judgments of coders reading sections of the transcripts. I found substantial agreement among the context codes from the three different approaches, but also important differences in the proportion of the corpus that was identified by context, the distribution of the contexts identified, and some characteristics of the utterances selected by each approach. I discuss implications for the use and interpretation of contexts defined in each of these three ways, and the value of a multiple-method approach in the exploration of context. To test the strength of statistical cues to word boundaries in context-specific sub-corpora relative to a context-independent analysis of cues to word boundaries, I used a resampling procedure to compare the segmentability of context sub-corpora defined by each of the three approaches to a distribution of random sub-corpora, matched for size for each context sub-corpus. Although my analyses confirmed that context-specific sub-corpora are indeed more repetitive, the data did not support the hypothesis that speech within contexts provides richer information about the statistical dependencies among phonemes than is available when analyzing the same statistical dependencies without respect to context. Alternative hypotheses and future directions to further elucidate this phenomenon are discussed. / 2019-02-17

Studiens syfte är att undersöka om uppmätt sentiment på Twitter kan vara en förutsägande faktor för priset på Bitcoin. En kvantitativ undersökning genomförs med regressionsmodeller där data inhämtas från Twitter i realtid. Resultatet indikerar ett svagt samband där bäst resultat erhölls med en tidsfördröjning av sentiment på 16 timmar, vilket tyder på att det kan finnas möjligheter att använda Twitter för att förutspå förändringar av priset på Bitcoin. Variationen av resultat för olika tidsperioder gör dock att det är svårt att dra generella slutsatser av studien.

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This study examines the role of voiceless and voiced fricatives as the first consonant in word-initial true consonant clusters and adjunct clusters. Specifically, this study sought evidence to determine whether the lack of voiced fricatives, such as /z/ and /v/, in English word-initial true and adjunct clusters is due to an active ban or an accidental gap in the language's phonotactics. This study also looked into whether the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ is the only fricative that can play the role of adjunct segment in word-initial adjunct clusters, or whether other fricatives, such as the voiced alveolar fricative /z/, or the voiceless and voiced labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ could also be adjunct segments in word-initial adjunct clusters. Fourteen native English speakers were asked to pronounce a list of non-words containing word-initial clusters with /s/, /f/, /z/, and /v/ as the first consonant and /r/, /l/, /n/, /k/, and /g/ as the second consonant. The clusters were chosen to represent different voicing statuses and places of articulation for the first consonant in the cluster, in addition to differing sonority distances between the first consonant and the second consonant of the word-initial cluster. The native English speaker productions were recorded and acoustically analyzed in order to determine the exact pronunciations each speaker used for each target cluster. The results were then statistically analyzed to reveal patterns. Results showed that the lack of voiced fricatives as the first consonant in word-initial position of true clusters in English is due to an accidental gap, due to the relatively numerous correct productions of such clusters. The the lack of voiced fricatives as the first consonant in word-initial position of adjunct clusters in English, however, is due to an active ban, due to the difficulty that the native English speakers had in correctly producing such clusters. This study also concluded that while /s/ is the only adjunct segment in English, /f/ could also play that role.

This study provides a syntactic analysis of the Senufo Nafara Determiner Phrase. It aims at investigating two major questions that are the status of definite markers, and the underlying structure and derivations leading to the surface word order [N AP Def Dem Num] observed in the language. I argue that the (indefinite) markers occurring in DPs are clitics attaching to the rightmost AP element, and spelling out the fused heads of several functional categories (gender, number, definiteness, and possibly others). In a cartographic approach to DP structure, I argue in favor of multiple Functional Projections occurring above NP. More particularly, I consider AP, DemP, and NumP as their own FPs in which adjectives, demonstratives, and numerals are all functional heads. While A and Dem show overt agreement in definiteness, gender, and number, cardinals do not. I argue that the surfacing word order is the result of roll-up movement with pied-piping, motivated and limited by agreement. Phrasal movement only occurs when required for agreement purposes, and more particularly in order to check uPhi features (and therefore EPP features). For that reason, numerals do not participate in movement, and surface in phrase-final position.

Este trabalho investiga o estatuto de palavra a partir da análise da palavra gráfica. Por meio da investigação de casos de hipo e hipersegmentações, respectivamente concerteza e da quela, procuramos observar o que está por trás da distribuição dos espaços em branco em um texto. Tais segmentações alternativas podem ser oriundas do conceito de palavra que subjaz a palavra gráfica e seriam indicativas dos expedientes de que um escrevente lança mão nessa decisão. Muitos pesquisadores já investigaram segmentações não convencionais (Silva, 1991; Abaurre, 1991; Cunha, 2004, 2010a, 2010b; Tenani, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011; Capristano, 2007; Cunha & Miranda, 2005, 2007, 2009; Miranda, 2008, 2012; Chacon, 2004, 2005, 2006; entre outros). Nesses trabalhos, há uma tendência bastante marcada por aproximar a escrita da fala e analisar dados de segmentações equivocadas pelo viés da Fonologia Prosódica (cf. Nespor & Vogel, 1986). Esta pesquisa diferencia-se dos trabalhos sobre a escrita (i) por não assumir como seu objeto a escrita, mas apoiar-se na palavra gráfica a fim de observar o estatuto de palavra; (ii) pelo nível de escolaridade dos informantes (Ensino Médio); e (iii) por não avaliarmos apenas os constituintes prosódicos, mas a complexa relação entre competência linguística e norma gramatical. O predomínio de hipersegmentações nos dados coletados guia nossa reflexão sobre o percurso da escrita e a concepção de palavra subjacente à palavra gráfica. Propomos interpretar a escrita como um processo que se movimenta da fala (língua) para a norma, o que implica uma concepção de palavra que perpassa todos os níveis da gramática e que também se define por assentamentos da ordem da língua escrita. / This work investigates the status of the word from the analysis of the graphical word. Through the investigation of cases of hypo and hypersegmentation, “concerteza” (surely) and “da quela” (that), respectively, we try to observe what is behind the distribution of the blank spaces in a text. Such alternative segmentations can be derived from the concept of word that underlies the graphical word and would be indicative of the expedients a writer disposes of in that decision. Many researchers have investigated unconventional segmentations (Silva, 1991; Abaurre, 1991; Cunha, 2004, 2010a, 2010b; Tenani, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011; Capristano, 2007; Cunha & Miranda, 2005, 2007, 2009; Miranda, 2008, 2012; Chacon, 2004, 2005, 2006; among others). In these works, there is a very marked tendency to approximate writing to the speech and analyze mistaken segmentations data by the bias of Prosodic Phonology (as Nespor & Vogel, 1986). The present research differs from other works on writing since (i) the writing is not its study object, but it relies on the graphical word in order to observe the status of the word; (ii) because of the educational level of the informants (High School); and (iii) considering that it does not only evaluate the prosodic constituents, but the complex relationship between linguistic competence and grammar rules. The predominance of hypersegmentation on the collected data guides our ponderation on the course of writing and on the conception of word which underlies the graphical word. We propose to interpret writing as a process that moves from speech (language) to the norm, which implies a conception of the word that permeates all levels of grammar and also defines itself by settlements of the order of the written language.

O tema central desta Tese é a problematização dos modos de circulação da palavra na escola. Para tanto, a pesquisa fundamenta-se teoricamente na Psicanálise freudo-lacaniana, basicamente afirmando que a palavra é a revelação do sujeito, o meio por excelência de este ser reconhecido. As questões que o sujeito se faz e, ao mesmo tempo, endereça ao Outro: “Quem sou? O que desejo? O que me move?” atrela-se à pergunta “O que o Outro quer de mim?”, pois o sujeito deposita nesse Outro sua verdade e o constitui como um lugar de suposto saber sobre ele, saber desconhecido de nós mesmos. Essa interrogação endereçada ao Outro marca um enigma e uma falta, já que aponta para incompletude, inclusive, desse Outro. Ao mesmo tempo em que é o Outro que permite a função simbólica e apóia o sujeito, oferecendo um fundamento aos seus discursos e uma nomeação, também é essa falta do Outro que abre a possibilidade de uma certa liberdade do sujeito, num eterno deslizamento entre significantes, sem nenhuma garantia e sempre na busca pelo seu ser no desejo – e na falta – do Outro, numa impossibilidade de encontro e, também, numa permanência de movimento. Com tal referencial teórico de base, investigamos nesta pesquisa de que modo se configuram os espaços e as experiências na escola, quanto à circulação da palavra e à própria “tomada” da palavra, no sentido de propiciar o advento do sujeito e a construção de uma experiência coletiva. Partimos do pressuposto de que a escola se constitui como um espaço social fundamental, no qual circulam diferentes formas assumidas pelo discurso social contemporâneo. Nossas indagações referem-se, também, às formas pelas quais estaria se dando a circulação dos discursos vigentes, nesse espaço específico. Os dados foram coletados em situação de trabalho, no Colégio de Aplicação da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, no qual atuei como orientadora escolar das séries iniciais, nos anos de 2008 e 2009. Para a análise dos dados, centrei minha atenção a respeito daquilo que experienciei – a partir do que vi ou ouvi e a partir do circuito de transferência que se criou entre mim, as crianças e os professores. Para tanto, valho-me dos conceitos freudo-lacanianos, e narro histórias que colocam a “palavra em movimento”, em experiência, de forma a produzir uma possibilidade de reflexão em torno das práticas escolares e do lugar do sujeito. Por fim, elaboro novos questionamentos, buscando problematizar tanto as minhas certezas como diferentes enunciados do senso comum, a respeito da criança em situação escolar. Para além de afirmar verdades e conclusões, acrescento ao final, outros pontos de interrogação. E, a partir da dúvida, sugiro o instigante caminho do movimento permanente, na procura de outras possibilidades de trabalho com crianças em idade escolar. / The central theme of this thesis is the problematization of modes of circulation of the word in school. To this purpose, the research is theoretically based on the Freudian- Lacanian psychoanalysis, basically affirming that the word is the revelation of the subject, the means par excellence for his recognition. The questions that the subject asks himself and, at the same time, addresses to the Other: "Who am I? What do I want? What makes me function?" are connected to the question "What does the Other want from me?", for the subject deposits his truth in the Other and constitutes it a place of supposed knowledge about himself, a knowledge unknown to ourselves. This question addressed to the Other exposes an enigma and a lack, as it refers to incompleteness, including that in the Other. While it is the Other that yields the symbolic function and supports the subject, offering a foundation for his speeches and a nomination, it is also this lack in the Other that opens the possibility of a certain liberty of the subject, in a perpetual shifting among signifiers with no guarantees and always in search for his being in the Other’s desire - and lack, in an impossibility of encounter and also in a permanence of movement. With this theoretical base, this research investigated how the spaces and experiences in school are configured, regarding the circulation of the word and the assumption of the word, in order to promote the advent of the subject and the construction of a collective experience. We presuppose that the school is a fundamental social space in which different forms created by the contemporary social discourse circulate. Our questions also refer to the ways the existing discourses circulate, in this specific space. The data were collected at the Colégio de Aplicação school of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), in which I worked as school counselor for the early grades, in the years 2008 and 2009. In respect to data analysis, I focused my attention on what I experienced – what I saw or heard and the transference circuit created among the children, the teachers and me. For that, I utilize Freudian-Lacanian concepts, and I narrate stories that put the word “in movement”, in experience, in order to produce a possibility of reflection on the school practices and the role of the subject. Finally, I formulate new questionings, seeking to problematize both my certainties and different common sense statements regarding the child in the school situation. In addition to asserting truths and conclusions, I present other question marks, in the end. And, stemming from doubt, I suggest the intriguing path of constant movement in search of other opportunities to work with school-age children.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-08-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:54:48Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_ab_me_assis.pdf: 1297340 bytes, checksum: 45de1c32a26013a400b6a9bddeee5c5a (MD5) / Para além da tríade prensa, papel e tinta, o jornal “A Voz da Raça” se constituíra em bastião simbólico no universo da cultura letrada e da experiência política e cultural dos afrodescendentes no decênio de 1930. Dimensionar as lides da palavra impressa do grupo em questão é, em linhas gerais, o escopo deste trabalho. / Further beyond the paper, ink, and printing triad, São Paulo City the “A Voz da Raça” press has established itself as a symbolic landmark in the universe of both the literate culture and the political and cultural experience of afro-descendants in the 1930 decade. Verifying some dimensions of that group's printed word battle is the overall scope of this work.