This study investigates the acquisition of grammatical gender and number agreement in Italian as a second language (L2). The theoretical framework is based on a functional approach that stresses the importance of form function mappings, cues, frequency effects and the statistical properties of the language input. The Competition Model is of particular importance and the Italian oral corpus LIP is used to make calculations that measure the validity, availability and reliability of the Italian noun endings. The data consists of 71 transcribed teacher-student dialogues with Swedish learners of Italian at Stockholm University. The results show that learners have problems with feminine gender in the plural and with ambiguous noun endings, i.e. cases where one form is connected to more than one function. These findings can be explained by cue competition and frequency effects and to some extent by a markedness effect.  A second study with time (longitudinal development) and reliability of the noun endings (high or low) as independent variables and degree of accuracy as dependent variable showed a positive increase in accuracy rates over time, both for low and high reliability noun endings. There was also a significant interaction effect between the two independent variables according to which cases of agreement with low validity noun endings showed a higher increase in accuracy rates than high validity noun endings. This could be explained by the power law of practice, i.e. cases of agreement with high reliability noun endings soon reach a very high level of accuracy from which it is difficult to make further progress.

This study investigates second language (L2) acquisition of word orders and markers of collectivity in Chinese and Thai. One of the differences between Chinese and Thai is that Chinese nominal phrases appear with a “numeral + classifier + noun” word order while Thai phrases appear as “noun + numeral + classifier”. Another difference is that men, the Chinese collective marker, cannot be used with nouns referring to animals or indefinite nouns, while phûak, the Thai collective marker, can do so. Based on the cross-linguistic differences, an empirical study was conducted to answer whether Thai learners of Chinese and Chinese learners of Thai would be able to acquire target language (TL) structures that are different from those in their native language (L1) and whether they could reject incorrect TL structures. One hundred and forty-four participants were recruited to complete an acceptability judgment task and a self-paced reading task. It is found that both Chinese and Thai learners could perform native-like in their acceptance of TL word orders since early stages of acquisition. However, it took them until an advanced level to be able to completely reject incorrect TL word orders that resembled structures in their L1. Thai learners also faced difficulty rejecting the use of men with animal and indefinite nouns in their L2 Chinese. In contrast, Chinese learners tended to be successful in their acquisition of phûak. The results are interpreted in terms of roles of positive evidence and form-function transparency. In general, L2 learners tend to acquire a TL structure earlier when they can receive positive evidence in TL input and when a form-function connection of the structure is transparent. Nonetheless, these factors do not have an absolute effect on acquisition outcome since some learners may be able to use a probabilistic learning strategy to successfully acquire L2 knowledge even when positive evidence is unavailable.

<p>Based on the interlanguage hypothesis and with reference to skill learning and central concepts of connectionist language-acquisition theory, this study develops an explanatory model, with the help of which untutored acquisition of grammatical gender in German is shown to be a sequence of meta-individual developmental phases. The empirical evidence consists of linguistic data compiled from interviews with Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish foreign workers carried out within the framework of the ZISA- Cross-Sectional Study. </p><p>The acquisition process is promoted by a combination of two cognitive procedures, one analytic (restructuring) and the other reproductive (automation). Both contribute to the construction of a network of associative <i>form-function mappings</i> which, in the course of the process, assume the character of prefabricated linguistic elements or chunks, thus enabling automatic processing. Accordingly, the gender of a noun is not acquired separately as such, but rather as an integral component of an automatic form-function mapping. </p><p><i>Formula</i> and <i>routine</i> are central concepts. They denote the norm-language (formula) and interlanguage (routine) chunks used by the learner and thereby the subsumed forms of the respective determiners, that is, gender markers. Their creation and substitution, as well as the sequence of their acquisition, are described and elucidated by means of cognitive mechanisms and psycholinguistic principles. </p><p>For the interlanguage routine in particular, but to some extent for the norm-language formula as well, it was possible to confirm the fundamental concept of the interlanguage hypotheses, according to which the learner sets up provisional hypotheses about the perceived elements and gradually approaches the form of the target language, albeit with the assistance of a concept of language acquisition that does not primarily center on any rule-defined morphology of the target language but rather on the phonetic surface-level form of concrete linguistic communication. </p><p>Against this background some key concepts of previous language-acquisition research, such as <i>explicit/implicit, rules, chunks, simplification, omission, </i>and<i> over-generalization</i>, are discussed and partially reassessed.</p>

Based on the interlanguage hypothesis and with reference to skill learning and central concepts of connectionist language-acquisition theory, this study develops an explanatory model, with the help of which untutored acquisition of grammatical gender in German is shown to be a sequence of meta-individual developmental phases. The empirical evidence consists of linguistic data compiled from interviews with Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish foreign workers carried out within the framework of the ZISA- Cross-Sectional Study. The acquisition process is promoted by a combination of two cognitive procedures, one analytic (restructuring) and the other reproductive (automation). Both contribute to the construction of a network of associative form-function mappings which, in the course of the process, assume the character of prefabricated linguistic elements or chunks, thus enabling automatic processing. Accordingly, the gender of a noun is not acquired separately as such, but rather as an integral component of an automatic form-function mapping. Formula and routine are central concepts. They denote the norm-language (formula) and interlanguage (routine) chunks used by the learner and thereby the subsumed forms of the respective determiners, that is, gender markers. Their creation and substitution, as well as the sequence of their acquisition, are described and elucidated by means of cognitive mechanisms and psycholinguistic principles. For the interlanguage routine in particular, but to some extent for the norm-language formula as well, it was possible to confirm the fundamental concept of the interlanguage hypotheses, according to which the learner sets up provisional hypotheses about the perceived elements and gradually approaches the form of the target language, albeit with the assistance of a concept of language acquisition that does not primarily center on any rule-defined morphology of the target language but rather on the phonetic surface-level form of concrete linguistic communication. Against this background some key concepts of previous language-acquisition research, such as explicit/implicit, rules, chunks, simplification, omission, and over-generalization, are discussed and partially reassessed.

Se déplacer dans l’eau ou sur terre implique de faire face à des contraintes mécaniques extrêmement différentes. L’eau est sensiblement plus dense et visqueuse que l’air et, par le fait, la locomotion aquatique est dominée par la traînée et la poussée d’Archimède alors que la locomotion terrestre est dominée par la gravité et l’inertie. Si les adaptations les plus extrêmes à la locomotion dans chacun de ces milieux sont bien documentées, les espèces semi-aquatiques qui se déplacent fréquemment dans ces deux milieux restent peu étudiées.Les mustélidés présentent une large diversité de spécialisations locomotrices tant du point de vue du type de milieu fréquenté que du point de vue du degré de spécialisation.Cela inclut trois événements indépendants d’apparition d’un mode de vie semi-aquatique avec pour représentants actuels : le vison d’Europe, le vison Américain et les loutres. En utilisant la morphométrie géométrique pour quantifier l’ensemble de la forme de l’humérus, du radius, de l’ulna, du fémur, du tibia et de la fibula, j’ai étudié les différences morphologiques de l’appareil locomoteur des mustélidés terrestres et semi-aquatiques. Étant donné que les visons et les loutres font face aux mêmes contraintes fonctionnelles liées à une locomotion à la fois terrestre et aquatique, j’ai testé si leur morphologie convergeait. Enfin, étant donné la différence de contraintes fonctionnelles induites par les deux milieux, j’ai testé si le milieu de locomotion avait un impact homogène sur l’appareil locomoteur ou si une spécialisation de certains os pouvait être observée.Si les visons diffèrent peu de leurs parents terrestres, les loutres montrent d’importantes différences en termes de taille, forme et proportions relatives des os. Les visons présentent une morphologie similaire à celle observée chez tous les Mustelinae.Néanmoins, la morphologie de l’humérus est convergente entre les deux visons, avec une courbure plus grande que chez leurs parents terrestres. La morphologie des visons résulte de spécialisations récentes de la morphologie versatile propre aux Mustelinae, leur mode de nage est similaire à celui des Mustelinae terrestres et ils ne montrent que de subtiles différenciations morphologiques.A l’opposé, les loutres présentent des os longs dont la forme diffère nettement de celle de leurs parents terrestres. De plus, elles montrent une grande diversité de formes, en opposition avec l’hypothèse qui voudrait que de fortes contraintes fonctionnelles, telles que celles induites par la locomotion aquatique, devraient conduire à un nombre limité de réponses évolutives possibles. Les loutres montrent un ensemble de caractéristiques morphologiques en lien avec la locomotion aquatique: des os robustes, avec de larges épiphyses, un stylopode court relativement au zeugopode et un grand bras de levier pour les extenseurs du coude. Seule la loutre de mer (Enhydra lutris) montre une spécialisation différente entre les pattes avant et arrière. Les pattes arrière sont dédiées à la locomotion aquatique avec un grand bras de levier pour les muscles de la hanche et un pied transformé en palette natatoire. La patte avant, en revanche, présente une ulna gracile, avec un processus olécrane court et un radius courbé cranialement, produisant un patronde co-variation unique. Ces particularités permettent de plus grands degrés de liberté dans les mouvements de l’avant-bras, et de fait, les capacités de manipulation uniques chez cette espèce.Ainsi les mustélidés semi-aquatiques présentent une diversité qui n’était pas attendue étant donné la différence de contraintes mécaniques imposées par la locomotion dans l’eau et sur terre. Les mustélidés semi-aquatiques semblent avoir évolué depuis une morphologie ancestrale versatile jusqu’à des formes très spécialisées,où la réduction progressive de la locomotion terrestre a permis une spécialisation différente entre les membres antérieurs et postérieurs. / Moving in water and on land implies coping with drastically different mechanicalconstraints. Water is substantially more dense and viscous than air and thus aquaticlocomotion is dominated by drag and buoyancy when terrestrial locomotion is dominatedby gravity and inertia. If extreme adaptations to locomotion in each of thesetwo media are well described, semi-aquatic species that move extensively in bothmedia remain poorly studied.Mustelids presents a large diversity of locomotor specializations involving differentkinds of locomotor environments and different degrees of specialization. It encompassthree independent evolutions of a semi-aquatic lifestyle: the European mink,the American mink, and the otters. Using geometric morphometrics to quantify theshape of the entire humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia, and fibula I investigated morphologicaldifferences in the locomotor apparatus of terrestrial and semi-aquaticmustelids. As both minks and otters face functional pressures resulting from bothaquatic and terrestrial locomotion, I tested whether their morphology converged.Finally, considering the differences in the functional requirements of the two media,I explored whether the locomotor ecology has a homogeneous impact on thelocomotor apparatus or whether a functional specialization of certain parts can beobserved.Whereas minks show low morphological differentiation from their terrestrial relatives,otters diverged a lot in both shape, size, and the relative proportions of thelimb bones. Minks present a morphology that is similar to the one observed in otherMustelinae. Nevertheless, the shape of the humerus is convergent between thetwo minks, and shows a greater curvature than in their terrestrial relatives. Minksresult from recent specializations of the versatile morphology of Mustelinae witha swimming mode similar to the one of the terrestrial Mustelinae and only subtlemodifications of their long bone morphology.Conversely, otters present a long bone shape that is strongly divergent from theone of their terrestrial relatives. Additionally, they show very diverse long boneshapes in opposition to the hypothesis stating that strong functional requirements,as the ones induced by aquatic locomotion, should induce a limited number of potentialevolutionary responses. Otters show morphological features that are related to aquatic locomotion: robust bones with broad epiphyses, a short stylopodrelative to the zeugopod, and a long in-lever for elbow extensors. Only the sea otter(Enhydra lutris) presents a functional specialization that differs between hind andforelimb. The hind limb is dedicated to aquatic locomotion with a strong in-lever forthe hip muscles, and the feet that are modified into swimming paddles. Meanwhile,the forelimb presents a relatively gracile ulna with a short olecranon process and aradius that is curved more cranially, resulting in a drastic change in the pattern ofco-variation. These features are interpreted as providing greater degrees of freedomin the movements of the forearm, which allows the unique manipulative skillsof this species.Thus semi-aquatic mustelids present a diversity that was not expected given thestrong differences in the mechanical constraints imposed during locomotion in waterversus on land. Semi-aquatic mustelids appear to have evolved from the versatileancestral locomotor apparatus to highly specialized forms, where the progressivereduction of terrestrial locomotion allowed differential adaptation of the foreandhind limbs.

Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company- SKB has conducted measurement campaigns at the Swedish central interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel- CLAB over the years, extending from year 2003 to 2019 where the gamma energy escape was acquired. At CLAB the spent nuclear fuel assembly is inserted into the calorimeter; device intended to measure temperature increase due to decay heat from the fuel assembly. The calorimetric construction is surrounded by water the medium in which the temperature deviations occur and thus are also measured by the calorimeter. However, there is some leakage of gamma energy from the calorimetric construction and does not contribute to the heating of the water. Therefore, only considering the calorimetric measurements is not enough to estimate the total decay heat in the fuel assembly since these measurements fail to account for the gamma escape. Measurements of gamma energy escape acquired over the years at CLAB were observed to have some tendencies that where questionable, mainly some stochastic behavior indicating that their uncertainty was profound. In the scope of the thesis a computational method was developed to calculate the gamma energy escape and thus assist in determining which measurements to discard. Combination of two programs were used one being Spent Nuclear fuel- SNF and the second Monte Carlo N particle Simulator- MCNP, to obtain the computational gamma energy escape for different fuel assemblies and cooling times- CTs. It was established that the escape had a range between 1-3,5% and that it had a dependency on CT, fuel assembly type and operational history. Calculated radial exponential decay coefficient for fuel assemblies of the medium; water had also a clear dependency on CT where values of the coefficient increased over CT. Normalized gamma energy distribution over a rotation around the fuel assembly was calculated and it showed that the assembly tended to have the highest radiation coming from its corner rods. The verification of the computational gamma escape results with corresponding measurements yielded that the agreement was quite good for the earlier measurement campaigns. However, deviation became evident after the 2007 campaign where the calculated values were underestimated compared to the measured.

本研究旨在探討以中文為母語之人士如何學習英語條件句，及其在習得時所遭遇之困難及相關原因。本文除對英語條件句之分類方式做詳盡介紹外，並嘗試以形式功能對應之理論架構，研究其習得之順序，並利用『錯誤分析』區分出條件句之動詞各類錯誤的誤用形式及原因。本研究語料來源為包含一百萬字，以電腦輔助建立錯誤標記之『中國學習者英語語料庫』。 研究結果發現，外語學習者之習得順序為一形式功能對應之過程，具較多形式或功能內涵者愈晚且愈難習得，符合功能認知模式的預測。 中文學習者的錯誤特徵為添加及省略，原因為過度矯正(hypercorrection)及過度類化(overgeneralization)。學習者最大的困難來自對條件句動詞變化規則不熟悉、形式及功能的複雜性、以及對應失敗的結果。本論文建議未來研究方向可深入探討時間指涉與假設程度對條件句使用之影響。 / Issues of conditionals have been highlighted for a long time, but the focus was seldom fixed on acquisition, particularly for L2. The determinate features of tense, mood and modality are interwoven in the conditional construction, thus resulting in an insurmountable obstacle for L2 learners. However, the factors impede acquisition have never been satisfactorily treated. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the L2 developmental sequence, and to probe the error characteristics of acquiring if-conditionals. Disengaging the expression of conditionality into two dimensions: temporality and hypotheticality, we identified the features of syntactic forms and semantic functions of different conditional types, and created a new scheme to account for their mapping, on which the difficulty levels of acquisition were inferred. In contrast to the previous studies on the grounds of markedness theories, this research described the acquisition of conditionals in a Functional-Cognitive Model. Furthermore, the factors of difficulties were examined via an error analysis. The targets are Chinese English learners, who were well-known to face great problems in expressing conditionals. The data was searched from CLEC (Chinese Learner English Corpus), a big-scale corpus consisting of roughly 1,000,000 words with error tags. The investigation on the acquisition sequence and error patterns shows: (1) the acquisition order parallels to the prediction on the form-function mapping underpinnings: those with heavy content load and complex lexical shapes are acquired later (2) the two prominent misuses of the Chinese learners are addition and omission, resulted from hypercorrection and oversimplification. It was concluded that their difficulties could be ascribed to unfamiliarity of rules, complexities of forms and functions, and their mapping failure. Hence, this present work serves to provide some explanatory accounts, in a hope to unveil the mystery of the arduousness of acquiring conditionals, contribute to the tightening of acquisition theorizing and shed new insights into pedagogical growth.

No description available.

Shetland boasts exceptionally well-preserved, but largely overlooked, field systems spanning a period of approximately 4000 years (Neolithic/Bronze Age – Viking/Norse). These have the potential to vastly increase our understanding of past agricultural practices and life styles. This study uses topographical survey, Shape Analysis, GIS, soil survey and micromorphology to answer questions relating to their location, form and function/management, pioneering the use of new tools and testing current models. An holistic landscape approach to the field systems is developed and tested against a multi-period site. Previously unknown types and periods of field systems are identified through survey and shape analysis, tools demonstrated to be valuable in refining the emerging model of field classification. GIS has illuminated pre-, during and post- construction factors influencing boundary form. New insights into location arise from the survey and GIS. Soils work has demonstrated that existing models of soil management over-simplify a complex situation, that thin acidic soils retain cultural information and that accretion was important to the sustainability of these peaty soils. While soils were sustainable over extended periods, the cultural inheritance of managed land appears to be limited. This thesis therefore presents the most holistic and comprehensive understanding of Shetland field systems which has so far been attempted.

Cieľom tejto práce je návrh analýzy tvaru haldy vhodnej pre potreby analyzátora 2LS. 2LS je nástroj pre analýzu C programov založený na automatickom odvodzovaní invariantov s použitím SMT solvera. Navrhované riešenie obsahuje spôsob reprezentácie tvaru programovej haldy pomocou logických formulí nad teóriou bitových vektorov. Tie sú následne využité v SMT solveri pre predikátovú logiku prvého rádu na odvodenie invariantov cyklov a súhrnov jednotlivých funkcií analyzovaného programu. Náš prístup je založený na ukazateľových prístupových cestách, ktoré vyjadrujú dosiahnuteľnosť objektov na halde z ukazateľových premenných. Informácie získané z analýzy môžu byť využité na dokázanie rôznych vlastností programu súvisiacich s prácou s dynamickýcmi dátovými štruktúrami. Riešenie bolo implementované v rámci nástroja 2LS. S jeho použitím došlo k výraznému zlepšeniu schopnosti 2LS analyzovať programy pracujúce s ukazateľmi a dynamickými dátovými štruktúrami. Toto je demonštrované na sade experimentov prevzatých zo známej medzinárodnej súťaže vo verifikácii programov SV-COMP a iných experimentoch.