MSc (Med), Dept of Pathology, Division of Human Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Keratolytic winter erythema (KWE) or Oudtshoorn skin disease is a rare monogenic autosomal dominant condition with an unknown cause. KWE is a disorder of epidermal keratinisation that involves the necrobiosis of the Malpigihian layer of the palmoplantar skin with the consequent dissection of the stratum corneum. This cutaneous disorder was first described by Findlay et al. (1977) and occurs with a high prevalence of 1/7200 in the South African Afrikaans-speaking white population and with a lower, but unspecified prevalence in the Coloured population. The primary objective of this study was to identify and characterise the causative gene for KWE, by examining plausible positional candidate genes. The KWE gene has been localized to chromosome 8p23.1-p22 in a region of 1.2 Mb. In order to identify a potentially causative KWE mutation, the coding regions of each candidate gene was sequenced from genomic DNA. Each of the genetic variants identified was also observed in the control group or had previously been shown to be polymorphic, eliminating them all from causing KWE. The cDNA of the two most likely candidates, FDFT1 and CTSB, was sequenced in order to identify deep intronic variants that might affect splicing and that would not be identified at a genomic DNA level. No such variation was observed. The relative expression profiles of CTSB and FDFT1 in affected and non-affected palmoplantar skin was analysed using real-time RT-PCR. The relative expression of CTSB in the skin of patients did not differ significantly from controls (p=0.68). However, a trend was observed towards increased expression of FDFT1 in the skin of KWE affected individuals (p=0.063). This observation prompted the analysis of the FDFT1 promoter region through genomic sequencing. No genetic variants identified within the promoter region segregated with the KWE phenotype. The increased FDFT1 expression is therefore unlikely to result from a mutation within the promoter region of this gene and may be in response to the disruption of the epidermal barrier in affected skin. There is a strong correlation between the severity of the KWE phenotype and the level of FDFT1 expression. Although none of the chosen positional candidate genes appear to harbour the KWE-causing mutation, they can be excluded from the list of possible positional candidates for KWE, taking us one step closer to discovering the molecular cause of KWE.

This dissertation investigates the argument structure of verb phrases by identifying the syntactic roles and locations of the functional heads it consists of. Since the early 1990s, it has been widely accepted that the basic verb phrase consists of two distinct projections of a functional layer v/VoiceP, and a lexical layer √/VP (Chomsky 1995, Hale & Keyser 1993, Harley 1995; 2008a, Kratzer 1996, Marantz 1997). Recent developments in generative grammar, however, suggest that it may comprise of three projections (Pylkkanen 2002; 2008, Cuervo 2003, Collins 2005, Alexiadou et al. 2006, Harley 2013a, Merchant 2013): two functional projections – Voice, which introduces the external argument and licenses accusative Case; verbalizing v, which marks the eventuality type be/do/become/cause – and an acategorial lexical root (Cuervo 2003, Harley 2013a). In this dissertation, I explore the consequences of adopting the tripartite theory of verb phrases with two particular foci: (i) the structure of applicative and causative constructions and the interactions between the two; (ii) languages where the applicative and causative constructions are formed by attaching affixes to the verbal root. The main proposal of this dissertation is that various morpho-syntactic behaviors of applicatives and causatives and their cross-linguistic variation can be captured with two tools: (i) the hypothesis of the tripartite verb structure; and (ii) an understanding of the selectional criteria of the functional heads – Voice, Appl, and v – and their head-specific properties. The tripartite assumption solves for us some empirical puzzles and raises some new questions. I show that the three major achievements of the tripartite hypothesis are that it provides a syntactic account of the constraints on applicative and causative affix ordering, the distinct patterns of functional heads in their ability to introduce arguments, and the disparate morpho-syntactic behaviors of the three causative types due to the size of their complements. I then provide answers to some new questions that follow from the transition to the tripartite hypothesis. I elaborate the selectional mechanisms of the Voice, Appl, and v heads involved in applicatives and causatives. I reinterpret previously established facts about applicatives and causatives within the updated verbal structure.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-172).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-172) Also available in print.

This thesis reexamines causative constructions found in Marshallese; an Austronesian language spoken in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Both Bender, Capelle & Pagotto (2016) and Willson (2008) hint that lexical aspect is a necessary predictor of causative behaviors in Marshallese, but offer no explanations. The primary focus of this thesis is to examine lexical aspect's influence on causative derivations. This project shows that Marshallese stative verbs display two distinct causative constructions: stative causatives and causative abstract nouns. The Marshallese causative prefix, ka-, tends to exhibit common crosslinguistic patterns of causative constructions as laid out by Dixon and Aikenvald (2000). However, contra Dixon and Aikenvald's typology, Willson (2008) suggests that the causative prefix in stative causative constructions in Marshallese does not license an additional argument (undergoer). This is argued to be different than non-stative causative constructions. Through data collection from six native Marshallese speakers and further analysis based on lexical aspect features (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997), this thesis provides a refreshed perspective on the morphosyntactic differences of Marshallese causative constructions. The findings confirm that stative causative constructions do license an additional undergoer argument while causative abstract nouns, another causative construction derived from stative verbs, do not. These findings are typologically significant as they showcase the complexity of causative constructions.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with the syntax of productive morphological causatives in the Finno-Ugric language North Sami, within the theoretical setting of the Chomskian Principles and Parameters/Minimalist framework. Providing rich and novel data, the thesis situates North Sami in the general typology of causative constructions, demonstrating that causatives in this language invariably are of the so-called Faire Par-variety. The issues treated in this thesis are directly concerned with the anatomy of the verb phrase and the fine-grained details of its syntactic decomposition. Specifically, it is argued that the syntactic head that introduces the external argument and which provides the locus of agentivity must be distinct from the head hosting the Cause component of an agentive verb. It is shown that the Faire Par causative selects as its complement a truncated verbal projection corresponding to this Cause component. This captures a long-standing observation that the Base Verb in a Faire Par construction is restricted to a class that can descriptively be characterized as agentive. We thus take issue with other proposals that seek to constrain the formation of Faire Par causatives on other grounds. Furthermore, it is shown that the Base Object in a Faire Par causative is an argument of the causative formative, and not of the Base Verb. This conclusion is based on a number of selectional asymmetries that depend on whether the verb has undergone Faire Par-causativization or not.

The present work provides a comprehensive overview of causativity - its definition, classification and characteristics - in a typological perspective. It outlines the development of causativity in English, from Indo-European to Present Day English with main emphasis on the Old English period and the factors that had led to the state of causative verbs at that time. In Research Part, it inquires into the possible competition between morphological and syntactic causatives and its future after- effects with respect to the described typology. Key words: causation, causativity, causative verb, causative opposition, morphological causative verb, syntactic causative expression, labile causative opposition, Old English

The aim of the present paper is to present the componential analysis of English deverbal causative phrasal verbs with the postverb OUT as well as classify them according to classeme and into LSG. The research material used in the paper is 130 verbs containing the postverb OUT selected from 4 dictionaries involving the Internet sources. The structure of the paper consists of an Introduction, 5 parts (taking into consideration the theoretical and practical parts), Conclusions and references. The subject of the research, aim, objectives, research methods and relevance are defined in the Introduction. The 5 parts include linguistic status of English phrasal verbs, word formation and phrasal verbs, sememe, lexical meaning, the componential structure of sememe: the hierarchy of semes, classeme, the components Cause, Become, Be, archiseme, differential semantic components as well as paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. The Conclusions generalize the attained results from both the theoretical and practical backgrounds. The references provide with the list of all the sources which were used while writing and analyzing the bachelor thesis. / Darbo tikslas yra diverbinių, kauzatyvinių, frazinių anglų kalbos veiksmažodžių su postverb OUT komponentinė analizė ir jų klasifikacija pagal klasemą ir leksinę semantinę grupę. Tikslui pasiekti surinkta 130 frazinių veiksmažodžių su postverbu OUT iš 4 skirtingų žodynų pasitelkiant ir interneto šaltinius. Darbo struktūra susideda iš įvado, 5 dalių (teorinė ir praktinė dalys), išvadų ir literatūros sąrašo. Darbo tikslas, uždaviniai, tyrimo metodai ir aktualumas yra aptariami įvade. 5 dalys aprašo lingvistinį anglų kalbos frazinių veiksmažodžių statusą, žodžių darybą ir frazinius veiksmažodžius, sememą, leksinę reikšmę, sememos komponentinę struktūrą: semų hierarchiją, klasemą, komponentus Cause, Become, Be, archisemą, diferencinius sematinius komponentus ir paradigminius bei syntagminius ryšius. Išvados apibedrina gautus teorinės ir praktinės dalių rezultatus. Literatūros sąrašas pateikia šaltinių sąrašą, kuris buvo panaudotas rašant ir analizuojant bakalauro darbą.

Notre thèse se donne pour objectif d’analyser les facteurs de l’expression du déplacement, de la causativité et de la polarité locative dans une sous-classe de verbes du français, les verbes causatifs de déplacement à polarité initiale. Le corpus de nos verbes puisés dans les exemples des LADL est de 250 verbes environ. Nous partons du constat que les verbes de cette sous-classe ne peuvent être identifiés en dehors de constructions particulières et nous tentons de vérifier que la notion de déplacement qu’ils sont susceptibles de dénoter est, selon le cas, ou bien centrale par rapport au sémantisme du verbe, ou bien périphérique ou bien encore favorisée par le contexte immédiat. Nous tentons également de montrer que, ces verbes ne sont pas nécessairement causatifs ou de polarité initiale dans tous leurs emplois.Nous commençons par identifier les verbes causatifs de notre corpus en portant à jour leurs propriétés définitoires et nous émettons une première hypothèse sur leur statut de verbes de verbes de déplacement (centraux, périphériques, occasionnels, étant entendu que dans le type de construction retenu initialement ils sont toujours causatifs et de polarité initiale. Nous vérifions ensuite cette hypothèse fondée sur un seul emploi de nos verbes en analysant leurs autres emplois au regard des notions de déplacement, de causativité et de polarité initiale. Cette analyse s’appuie sur le principe qu’en général les verbes de déplacement centraux sont de vrais de déplacement en ce sens que leurs valeurs sémantiques / Our thesis aims to analyze the factors of the expression of displacement, causativity and locative polarity in a subclass of French verbs, the causative verbs of displacement at initial polarity. The corpus of our verbs, drawn from the LADL examples, is about 250 verbs. We start from the observation that the verbs of this subclass can not be identified outside of particular constructions and we try to verify that the notion of displacement that they are likely to denote is, as the case may be, or central with respect to semantism of the verb, either peripheral or even favored by the immediate context. We also try to show that, these verbs are not necessarily causative or of initial polarity in all their jobs.We begin by identifying the causative verbs of our corpus by updating their defining properties and we emit a first hypothesis on their status as verbs of displacement verbs (central, peripheral, occasional, it being understood that in the type of construction initially chosen they are always causative and of initial polarity, and then we test this hypothesis based on a single use of our verbs by analyzing their other jobs with respect to the notions of displacement, causativity and initial polarity. This analysis is based on the principle that in general the central displacement verbs are real displacement in the sense that their semantic values.