This dissertation is a study of the syntactic structure of noun phrases. In particular, this study focuses on the Pronoun-Noun Construction (PNC) which is composed of a non-possessive pronoun and a common noun as in We Tucsonans love rain. The core theme of this thesis lies in the idea that the PNC forms a natural class with the Demonstrative-Noun Construction (DNC). Though this idea is not radical (Giusti 1997, 2002), neither this claim nor its consequences has been adequately recognized or explored. This study advances this idea by demonstrating the existence of syntactic and semantic parallels between the PNC and the DNC. This hypothesis leads to a unified analysis of the two constructions: the pronoun merges in the specifier of an extended nominal projection and moves to [Spec, DP], on analogy with previous analyses of the structure of the DNC (Giusti 1997, 2002; Panagiotidis 2000; Rosen 2003). This proposed analysis necessitates reconsideration of important theoretical issues in syntax. In particular, the current analysis of the PNC implies a novel view of the DP-internal locus of person, which demarcates pronominal DPs from non-pronominal DPs. That is, the source of the valued person feature is the pronoun embedded in the DP, rather than the D head of the DP. This view of the locus of person leads in turn to a proposal of the agreement between PNC subject and predicate in which DP-internal agreement feeds DP-external agreement. Third, the proposed analysis of agreement provides a straightforward account for the optionality of the pronoun in the PNC across languages, if coupled with a pro-drop theory in which an empty category is postulated (e.g., Rizzi 1986). I justify the particular choice of a pro-drop theory by showing that the competing head-movement-based approaches to pro-drop (e.g., Alexiadou and Anagnostopoulou 1998) not extendable to pro-drop in the PNC. Lastly, I show that the dislocation of demonstratives and pronouns to the left periphery of DP patterns with the wh-movement to the left periphery of CP in a given language. This constitutes a new piece of evidence for the parallelism between DP and CP. Evidence used in this thesis is primarily drawn from Modern Greek and English, with additional data from Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Hebrew Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of English

Cette thèse a pour objectif l’étude des démonstratifs déclinables et indéclinables en espagnol du Mexique, dans une approche synchronique. Le traitement statistique d’un corpus de 205600 mots a permis de décrire l’emploi actuel des démonstratifs, dans la pratique orale et écrite, de déterminer l’état actuel du système et d’évaluer le risque de disparition de certains démonstratifs caractérisés par leur faible fréquence d’emploi [aquel, aquello, acá, allí]. Le travail aborde certains phénomènes propres au Mexique, tels que la difficulté de distinguer ahí de allí et les conséquences qui en découlent, telles que la tendance à la substitution de allí par ahí et l’opposition fréquente de aquí à allá. L’analyse a été réalisée à partir des approches théoriques de Maurice Molho et Jean-Louis Bénézech, fondées, pour l’essentiel, sur l’observation des signifiants. Les opérations de référenciation accomplies au moyen des deux sous-systèmes décrits sont analysées en fonction de trois approches qui, en fait, sont complémentaires. Les emplois déictiques et endophoriques [anaphoriques et cataphoriques] sont étudiés dans le cadre de l’approche traditionnelle. L’approche cognitive tient compte de la manière dont le « nouveau » et le « connu » influencent le choix du démonstratif par le locuteur. L’approche pragmatique offre une vision plus complète du fonctionnement des expressions référentielles ; elle tient compte non seulement de l’interlocuteur mais de la situation de communication dans son entier. / The objective of this thesis is to study the declinable and non-declinable demonstrative words in Mexican Spanish within a synchronic framework. The result of the statistical study consisting of a corpus of 205, 600 words allowed for a description of the current use of the demonstratives in the spoken and the written word, for an analysis of the existing system of demonstrative usage, and an evaluation of the risk of certain demonstrative pronouns and adverbs [aquel, aquello, acá, allí] disappearing totally from Mexican Spanish, given their infrequent use. The work deals with certain linguistic phenomena particular to Mexico, such as the difficulty of distinguishing ahí from allí and the consequences thereof, as well as the tendency to substitute allí with ahí and the frequent establishment of the relationship between aquí and allá. The analysis has been carried out within the context of the theories of Maurice Molho and Jean-Louis Bénézech that are essentially based on the observation of signifiers. The referential functioning carried out by the declinable and non-declinable demonstratives are analyzed in function of the three approaches that are, in fact, complementary. The deictic and endophoric uses [anaphoric and cataphoric] are studied within the framework of the traditional approach. The cognitive approach takes into account the way in which « the new » and « the known » influence the speaker’s choice of demonstrative pronoun. The pragmatic approach offers a more complete vision of the working of the referential expressions, as it takes into account not just the interlocutor but the communication situation in its entirety.

The goal of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it investigates the actual, native use of spatial-deictic demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish. Secondly, it investigates and elucidates the interlanguage of Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking learners of Japanese regarding their use of Japanese spatial-deictic demonstratives in the light of respective native use and, in comparison to the descriptions of demonstratives in the teaching materials used. Thus, the present study deals with analyses of two sets of empirical data: data produced by native-speaking informants (L1 data) and data produced by language learners (L2 data). These were elicited by Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) designed, collected and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods by the author. The results showed that the actual use of demonstratives by the native informants was not always in accordance with the way described in grammars. The typological similarities between Japanese and Finnish were in this study not reflected in the native use of demonstratives, and some uses were not solely based on the spatial relations between the referent, the speaker and the addressee, but rather on social-interactional factors. The main findings regarding the learner data revealed some differences in the usage rate of the demonstratives between the two Finnish-speaking groups and the one Swedish-speaking learner group studied. There were, however, no particular differences found between them regarding the type of demonstrative used. It is suggested that these differences are first and foremost connected both with the teaching materials used and the more or less heterogeneous linguistic environment in which the learners reside, and only thereafter with the typological similarities or differences between their respective native languages, Finnish and Swedish, and the target language, Japanese. It is further argued that the learners’ use of the different Japanese demonstratives, that is the type of demonstrative used, could be explained in terms of familiarity with the grammar. That is, when the situations used in the DCTs were exemplified in teaching materials and were familiar to them, the learners seemed to use Japanese demonstratives as they are described in the teaching materials and as the native Japanese speakers use them. When the situations used in the DCTs were not exemplified in the teaching materials, the learners seem to rely more on their native language. The results, thus, suggest that the learners’ interlanguage is influenced by the grammar of the target language known to the learners, but also by the number of languages (or varieties) that the learners have contact with at the time of learning. The results of the present study have implications for the teaching of Japanese in at least two ways. Firstly, the importance of grammar instruction must be emphasized since its effect on the learners’ language is apparent. Secondly, the contents of teaching materials should be revised on the basis of the native speakers’ actual use of the grammar.

Cohesive devices such as anaphoric reference play an important role in written discourse. This thesis investigates the extent to which the anaphoric demonstratives this and these are used as determiners (‘attended’) or pronouns (‘unattended’) by first-year undergraduate students from four different academic disciplines. Data extracted from the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus were analysed quantitatively to determine the frequency of use of attended and unattended this/these across disciplines, as well as qualitatively to examine the types of nominal and verbal structures that follow the demonstratives. When compared to findings from previous studies, novice student writers were found to employ this/these as pronouns to a larger extent than both students at a more advanced level and research article writers. It was also observed that the determiners this and these pattern differently, selecting distinct attending nouns to a great extent. In addition, comparison of the results for each subcorpus shows that even though there are some differences between the four disciplines, these differences are not as great as might be expected and do not indicate a clear distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ sciences. While the influence of genre has not been scrutinised, other possible explanations proposed relate to the educational context and level of study in association with the range of lexical choices available to novice student writers.

This paper focuses on two spatial Kiswahili demontratives. In Kiswahili, demonstratives have been traditionally treated as morphosyntactic elements that modulate various elements and realize emphatic function. Demonstratives have also been studied as elements that express and facilitate cohesive relations and elements that realize deictic functions in discourse. In this paper we look at Kiswahili demonstratives as used in the standard Kiswahili language in Nairobi city. We argue that besides the traditionally recognized functions, demonstratives in standard Kiswahili are also used to pass subtle discourse messages which can only be explained by taking into account the pragmatic strategies employed in the use of demonstratives in specific discourse settings.

O presente estudo de caso tem o objetivo de estudar um método de avaliação da performance através da implantação das ferramentas de Business Intelligence do software Qlik Wiew para gestão de desempenho da produção da Fagundes Construção e Mineração Ltda. O trabalho apresenta a caracterização do processo utilizado na empresa na busca de dados de produção para gerar informações, bem como, elabora uma sugestão dos demostrativos e indicadores relacionados a produção para implantação na empresa. Da mesma forma, é realizada uma descrição do banco de dados e desenvolvida uma demonstração, como sugestão, de gráficos e tabelas para monitoramento dos demostrativos e indicadores sugeridos. / This case study examines a performance evaluation method through the deployment of the QlikView software Business Intelligence tools for production performance management at Fagundes Construção e Mineração Ltda. It describes the process used by the company to search for production data to generate information. It also elaborates a plan for the production-related demonstratives and indicators to be deployed in the company. Similarly, the work describes the database and develops a demonstration plan of charts and tables to monitor the suggested demonstratives and indicators.

O presente estudo de caso tem o objetivo de estudar um método de avaliação da performance através da implantação das ferramentas de Business Intelligence do software Qlik Wiew para gestão de desempenho da produção da Fagundes Construção e Mineração Ltda. O trabalho apresenta a caracterização do processo utilizado na empresa na busca de dados de produção para gerar informações, bem como, elabora uma sugestão dos demostrativos e indicadores relacionados a produção para implantação na empresa. Da mesma forma, é realizada uma descrição do banco de dados e desenvolvida uma demonstração, como sugestão, de gráficos e tabelas para monitoramento dos demostrativos e indicadores sugeridos. / This case study examines a performance evaluation method through the deployment of the QlikView software Business Intelligence tools for production performance management at Fagundes Construção e Mineração Ltda. It describes the process used by the company to search for production data to generate information. It also elaborates a plan for the production-related demonstratives and indicators to be deployed in the company. Similarly, the work describes the database and develops a demonstration plan of charts and tables to monitor the suggested demonstratives and indicators.