Elicitation of embedded clauses

published_or_final_version / English Studies and Comparative Literature / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

 The processing of relative clauses has been a subject of recurrent interest in psycholinguistics. While a consistent processing preference for subject relative clauses has been found in English (e.g. Just & Carpenter, 1992; King & Just, 1991; King & Kutas, 1995; Traxler, Morris, & Seely, 2002), studies in Mandarin Chinese have not yielded consistent results in the processing asymmetry between subject and object relative clauses (e.g. Hsiao & Gibson, 2003; Lin, 2006). On the other hand, human cognitive preferences have been found to play a role in parsing (Gibson & Pearlmutter, 1998; Tanenhaus & Trueswell, 1995). This dissertation is interested in relating memory with syntactic structures in the course of syntactic parsing, in the hope that it could resolve the conflicting findings in Chinese. We address this by studying Cantonese relative clauses from a processing and working memory perspective. Two experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 involved a self-paced reading task together with an n-back memory task. We found some evidence, although not very conclusive, that object relative clauses were more difficult to comprehend, as reflected in poor comprehension accuracy and response latency. There was significant memory intervention in reading times, though its role in syntactic processing was not clear. Experiment 2 reported a maze task together with an n-back memory task. A processing disadvantage for object relative clauses was evident from a significantly longer reading time on a whole and in the post-relative clause region. A memory effect was found only at the post-relative clause region, possibly indicating that memory capacity as measure by n-back was not influencing the syntactic processing of relative clauses. This dissertation addresses a heavy task effect between Experiment 1 and 2, and the possible discrepancy between processing performance and production preferences. Processing models emphasizing the role of memory and syntactic structures as well as the “cooperation” of the two models were also discussed. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Erlangen.

Thesis (LLM) --University of Pretoria, 2008. / No abstract available. Includes bibliographical references .

Zulu is a language of the Nguni group of the South-Eastern Zone of Bantu languages and is spoken by approximately 5 400 000 people. As far back as 1848, the Zulu language was investigated by a missionary of the American Board in Natal, James C. Bryant. In that year his ideas on the language were put on paper under the title, The Zulu Language, and this valuable contribution of some 13 pages was published in the following year in the Journal of the Oriental Society . Bryant's work heralded the beginning of a tradition of analysis in Zulu that was to capture the interest of a number of investigators over a period stretching up until the present day.

<p>This paper argues that there is a finiteness distinction in Hdi and that the notion is of value for a description of the language. The definition of finiteness suitable for the language has been suggested to be the one given by Anderson (2007) combined with Bisang (2007). The finite clauses are argued to be the pragmatically independent ones while the non-finite clauses are argued to be the pragmatically dependent. However, no morphological reductions were found in the non-finite clauses relative to the finite ones. What is more, negation in Hdi shows a nontypical behaviour regarding finiteness properties as there are aspectual distinctions made for dependent clauses that are not made for independent. Verbless clauses and imperatives may be viewed as finite and non-finite depending on their capacity to licence independent predication or, alternatively, they may be viewed as not displaying finiteness properties at all. The latter is argued to be preferred in order to avoid a redundant definition of finiteness.</p>

L’expression de sortie de contrat renvoie naturellement aux mécanismes légaux permettant la sortie, aux hypothèses de résolution judiciaire et aux cas de révocation par mutuus dissensus. Pourtant, il existe une autre voie possible, sans doute moins spontanément envisagée : celle offerte par les clauses de sortie de contrat. Cette discrétion s’explique sans doute par le fait que la systématisation de ces mécanismes contractuels a fait l’objet de peu d’écrits. En effet, si l’existence de chaque clause de sortie de contrat prise isolément est aujourd’hui incontestable, l’ordonnancement de ces solutions éparses au sein d’un ensemble cohérent semble toujours faire défaut. La présente étude se propose donc d’aborder la question des clauses de sortie de contrat dans sa diversité, en partant du constat que les parties ont bien la capacité d’organiser dès l’origine, c’est-à-dire dès la conclusion, la sortie éventuelle du contrat qu’elles ont pourtant souhaité conclure. Cette anticipation se traduit ainsi par l’insertion d’un mécanisme de libération, lequel pourra produire effet du fait de la seule volonté du contractant bénéficiaire et sans recours préalable au juge.Plus encore, les contractants qui souhaiteraient anticiper la sortie en prévoyant ce mécanisme de libération sont confrontés à une myriade de choix. Il n’y a pas une mais des clauses de sortie de contrat. L’intérêt de l’étude de ces clauses est alors double : d’une part, si l’existence de ces mécanismes est aujourd’hui incontestable, le constat est celui du foisonnement et de ce qui s’impose a priori comme une irréductible diversité. Or la démonstration de l’existence des clauses de sortie de contrat permet d’ordonner cette diversité en contemplation de l’objet et donc de proposer une grille de lecture nouvelle des différentes clauses ayant pour fonction de permettre la sortie. D’autre part, une fois ces clauses identifiées et classifiées, l’exposé du fonctionnement de celles-ci permet de mettre en lumière l’existence d’un socle commun de règles mais aussi de règles propres à certaines clauses. L’analyse permet à cet égard également de revenir sur le rôle du juge, de facto écarté par l’insertion même de la clause, et qui pourtant conserve une place certes plus réduite que dans d’autres hypothèses, mais néanmoins réelle et parfois déterminante. / The term of “exit of contract” naturally refers to legal mechanisms enabling to exit, judicial resolution and revocation by mutuus dissensus. Yet there is another possible way, maybe less spontaneously considered: the one offered by the contract exit clauses. This discretion can be explained by the fact that very few studies have been made on this topic. While the existence of each exit clause taken separately is now indisputable, the ordering of solutions in a consistent set still seems to be lacking. The aim of this study is to look at this question of the exit clauses in the broadest way, based on the observation that the parties to a contract have the ability to organize from the beginning – that is to say when concluding – the eventual exit of the contract they nevertheless wished to conclude. This anticipation is thus reflected by the insertion of a release mechanism, which can product the intended effect because of the only will of the contracting party beneficiary, without prior recourse to the courts.Moreover, the parties who would wish to anticipate the exit by providing this freedom mechanism are faced with multiple choices. There is no one but many contract exit clauses. The purpose of the present study is therefore twofold: firstly, the existence of these mechanisms is now indisputable, but this observation leads to a proliferation and an irreducible diversity. In this regard, the demonstration of the existence of the contract exit clauses allows to organize this diversity in contemplation of the object and thus to propose a new reading grid of the various clauses that anticipate the exit. Secondly, once these clauses identified and classified, the presentation of their working allows to highlight the existence of a common set of rules, simultaneously with rules which are specific to certain clauses. From that point of view, the analysis also allows to reconsider the judge’s place, who is de facto removed by the insertion of the clause in the contract, but yet retains a real and sometimes decisive part, even if his place is more reduced than in other assumptions.