Despite the plethora of SLA research conducted on the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations in L2 Arabic and English (e.g., Sarko, 2007; Master, 1997; Collier, 1987; Anderson, 1984; Kharma, 1981), there is as yet no definitive description of how noun phrases are acquired and why errors persist after advanced stages in L2 learning. Results, as shown by Butler (2002), are inconclusive, and the primary causes of difficulties in the acquisition of the definite marker in noun phrase configurations remain unclear. Recently, the internal syntax-semantics interface (Cuza & Frank, 2011; Montrul, 2010; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006; Sorace, 2003, 2004) and the specificity-definiteness distinction (Ionin, 2003; Ionin et al., 2004; Ionin et al., 2008) have been considered as appropriate frameworks for exploring the acquisition of noun phrases and other structural features. The structure of noun phrase configurations in Arabic and English offers a complex interface between form and meaning for L2 learners with multiple cases of matches and mismatches between specificity and definiteness. In this three-article dissertation project, two of which were conducted in a bidirectional methodological framework with L1 Arabic-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Arabic learners, I explored the acquisition of three cases of noun phrase configurations. In the first study, I investigated the acquisition of plural noun phrase configurations that carry generic and specific readings at the initial state of L2 learning. Using three data collection instruments: written translation; error detection and correction; and forced choice elicitation, I tested the predictions made by the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the Full Transfer (FT) Hypothesis. Results showed that L2 learners in both directions tend to transfer noun phrase configurations from L1 into L2, a result that I took to support the FT hypothesis. In addition, it took L1 English-L2 Arabic learners two years of instruction to recover from this L1 effect. The second study aimed at confirming the result of the first study, but in the acquisition of the definite marker in generic singular noun phrase configurations in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. The behavior of generic singular noun phrases in L2 Arabic offers a good testing ground since it has numerous similarities and differences with English. Two conditions were established: a matching condition and a mismatching condition. Both conditions were tested in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction. Results showed a similar pattern to the one recorded in the first study. Typological proximity and distance were found to be important determiners of language acquisition of the in/definiteness configurations of singular noun phrases. In the third study, I shifted to the exploration of a more complex type of noun phrases; namely the definite Iḍāfah construction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and its equivalent noun phrase configurations in English in the two directions. I started with a common difference between MSA and English. Whereas in MSA there is a canonical configuration in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness, English is tolerant of more than one permissible configuration. I operationalized the acquisition of these noun phrases in terms of head-complement ordering and head-complement definiteness. Results showed a clear effect of L1 transfer in both directions; knowledge of L1 noun phrase configurations acts as the initial step in L2 learning. I concluded that both communities of L2 learners face problems that vary according to the L1 noun phrase configuration at hand. However, in the L1 English-L2 Arabic direction, learners reached a satisfactory level of performance in the Iḍāfah construction after two years of instruction. I approached this finding as a result of intensive Focus-on-Form Episodes (Loewn, 2005) that the Iḍāfah construction receives in MSA instruction. At the conclusion of this research project I highlighted some implications for the second language acquisition and teaching of noun phrases. The overall results were couched in a broader perspective that characterizes the initial state of L2 learning of noun phrases in + article and – article languages, the effects of typological proximity and distance, and the effects of Instructed SLA. For the pedagogical implications, I called for the integration of the semantics of the definite marker while presenting noun phrases in textbooks. I also recommended the use of explicit instruction and structured-input activities (VanPatten, 2004; Marsden & Chen, 2011) as effective pedagogical tools that foster form-meaning mapping in the acquisition of L2 Arabic and English noun phrases.

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La dynamique d'un difféomorphisme d'une variété compacte est essentiellement concentrée sur l'ensemble récurrent par chaînes, qui est partitionné en classes de récurrence par chaînes, disjointes et indécomposables. Le travail de Bonatti et Crovisier [BC] montre que, pour les difféomorphismes C¹-génériques, une classe de récurrence par chaînes ou bien est une classe homocline, ou bien ne contient pas de point périodique. Une classe de récurrence par chaînes sans point périodique est appelée classe apériodique.Il est clair qu'une classe homocline hyperbolique ni contient d'orbite périodique faible ni supporte de mesure non hyperbolique.Cette thèse tente de donner une caractérisation des classes homoclines non hyperboliques en montrant qu'elles contiennent des orbites périodiques faibles ou des mesures ergodiques non hyperboliques. Cette thèse décrit également les décompositions dominées sur les classes apériodiques.Le premier résultat de cette thèse montre que, pour les difféomorphismes C¹-génériques, si les orbites périodiques contenues dans une classe homocline H(p) ont tous leurs exposants de Lyapunov bornés loin de zéro, alors H(p) doit être (uniformément) hyperbolique. Ceci est dans l'esprit des travaux sur la conjecture de stabilité, mais il y a une différence importante lorsque la classe homocline H(p) n'est pas isolée. Par conséquent, nous devons garantir que des orbites périodiques "faibles'', crées par perturbations au voisinage de la classe homocline, sont contenues dans la classe. En ce sens, le problème est de nature "intrinsèque'', et l'argument classique de la conjecture de stabilité est impraticable.Le deuxième résultat de cette thèse prouve une conjecture de Díaz et Gorodetski [DG]: pour les difféomorphismes C¹-génériques, si une classe homocline n'est pas hyperbolique, alors elle porte une mesure ergodique non hyperbolique. C'est un travail en collaboration avec C. Cheng, S. Crovisier, S. Gan et D. Yang. Dans la démonstration, nous devons appliquer une technique introduité dans [DG], et qui améliore la méthode de [GIKN], pour obtenir une mesure ergodique comme limite d'une suite de mesures périodiques.Le troisième résultat de cette thèse énonce que, génériquement, une décomposition dominée non-triviale sur une classe apériodique stable au sens de Lyapunov est en fait une décomposition partiellement hyperbolique. Plus précisément, pour les difféomorphismes C¹-génériques, si une classe apériodique stable au sens de Lyapunov a une décomposition dominée non-triviale Eoplus F, alors, l'un des deux fibrés est hyperbolique: soit E contracté, soit F dilaté.Dans les démonstrations des résultats principaux, nous construisons des perturbations qui ne sont pas obtenues directement à partir des lemmes de connexion classiques. En fait, il faut appliquer le lemme de connexion un grand nombre (et même un nombre infini) de fois. Nous expliquons les méthodes de connexions multiples dans le Chapitre 3. / The dynamics of a diffeomorphism of a compact manifold concentrates essentially on the chain recurrent set, which splits into disjoint indecomposable chain recurrence classes. By the work of Bonatti and Crovisier [BC], for C¹-generic diffeomorphisms, a chain recurrence class either is a homoclinic class or contains no periodic point. A chain recurrence class without a periodic point is called an aperiodic class.Obviously, a hyperbolic homoclinic class can neither contain weak periodic orbit or support non-hyperbolic ergodic measure.This thesis attempts to give a characterization of non-hyperbolic homoclinic classes via weak periodic orbits inside or non-hyperbolic ergodic measures supported on it. Also, this thesis gives a description of the dominated splitting on Lyapunov stable aperiodic classes.The first result of this thesis shows that for C¹-generic diffeomorphisms, if the periodic orbits contained in a homoclinic class H(p) have all their Lyapunov exponents bounded away from 0, then H(p) must be (uniformly) hyperbolic. This is in spirit of the works of the stability conjecture, but with a significant difference that the homoclinic class H(p) is not known isolated in advance. Hence the "weak'' periodic orbits created by perturbations near the homoclinic class have to be guaranteed strictly inside the homoclinic class. In this sense the problem is of an "intrinsic" nature, and the classical argument of the stability conjecture does not pass through.The second result of this thesis proves a conjecture by Díaz and Gorodetski [DG]: for C¹-generic diffeomorphisms, if a homoclinic class is not hyperbolic, then there is a non-hyperbolic ergodic measure supported on it. This is a joint work with C. Cheng, S. Crovisier, S. Gan and D. Yang. In the proof, we have to use a technic introduced in [DG], which developed the method of [GIKN], to get an ergodic measure by taking the limit of a sequence of periodic measures.The third result of this thesis states that, generically, a non-trivial dominated splitting over a Lyapunov stable aperiodic class is in fact a partially hyperbolic splitting. To be precise, for C¹-generic diffeomorphisms, if a Lyapunov stable aperiodic class admits a non-trivial dominated splitting Eoplus F, then one of the two bundles is hyperbolic: either E is contracted or F is expanded.In the proofs of the main results, we construct several perturbations which are not simple applications of the connecting lemmas. In fact, one has to apply the connecting lemma several (even infinitely many) times. We will give the detailed explanations of the multi-connecting processes in Chapter 3.

This thesis documents the grammatical processes and semantic impact of innovative ways to pejoratively reference individuals through adjectival nominalization. Research on nominalized adjectives suggests that when meanings shift from having one property (1) to becoming a kind with associated properties (2), the noun form often encodes stereotypical attributes: [1] "Her hair is blonde." (hair color); [2] "He married a blonde." (female, sexy, dumb). Likewise, the linguistic phenomenon of genericity refers to classes or kinds and different grammatical structures reflect properties in different ways. In 1 and 2 above, the shift from adjectival blonde to indefinite NP a blonde moves the focus from the definitional characteristic to the prototypical. Similarly, adjectival gay [3] is definitional, but the marked, nominal form [4] adds socially-based conceptions of the "average" gay (example from Twitter): [3] jesus christ i make a joke and now im a gay man? (sexuality) [constructed]; [4] jesus christ i make a joke and now im a gay? … (flamboyant, abnormal). To investigate innovative reference via nominalization, two corpus studies based in human judgment were conducted. In the first study, a subset of the corpus (N=121) was annotated for pejoration by five additional linguists following the same guidelines as the original annotator. In the second study, 800 instances were annotated by non-experts using crowd-sourcing. In both studies we find a correspondence between nominal status and pejorative meaning.

La figure de l’épouse fait partie intégrante du genre épique, dont les œuvres homériques ont élaboré le modèle pour la littérature gréco-romaine. L’importance accordée à l’eros féminin, et particulièrement conjugal, est l’un des aspects sur lesquels repose l’évolution de la généricité épique, d’œuvre en œuvre. À l’époque flavienne, Valérius Flaccus et Stace confèrent un rôle déterminant à deux figures féminines, celle de Médée dans les Argonautiques et celle d’Argie dans la Thébaïde, et présentent, tous deux, d’autres facettes de l’eros conjugal dans leur épisode lemnien, dont Hypsipyle est l’héroïne centrale. Cette présence accentuée du féminin peut être rapprochée de la réflexion contemporaine sur l’éthique conjugale menée dans le domaine philosophique, notamment par Musonius Rufus. Sur le plan littéraire, dans le contexte de la latinité d’argent, elle manifeste un questionnement des normes du genre, qui se traduit par une représentation de l’épouse selon des modèles autres qu’épiques : celui du genre tragique et de l’élégie romaine, particulièrement des Héroïdes d’Ovide. À la confluence de trois traditions littéraires, épique, tragique et élégiaque, le rôle des figures féminines témoigne d’un renouvellement de l’épopée, dont l’élaboration de critères d’analyse portant sur les notions de genre, de généricité et d’intergénéricité permet de donner l’entière mesure. / The character of the wife is a central feature of the epic genre, for which Homer's poems stand as a model in Greek and Latin literature. The major role the feminine eros, especially towards a husband, plays in those works is one of the aspects on which the evolution of epic genericity relies, evolving from one poem to another. During the Flavian Age, Valerius Flaccus and Statius gave two feminine characters a major part in their poems : one is Medea in The Argonautics, the other Argia in Statius' Thebaid. Besides, both poets also illustrate other aspects of husband and wife eros in the Lemnian episode, which stages Hypsipyle as its heroine. From a philosophical point of view, we can see how this emphasized presence of feminine characters matches contemporary philosophers' theories on ethics within marriage, such as Musonius Rufus' thoughts. From the point de view of literature however, considering its setting in the Age of Silver latinity, we can consider this presence as a questioning of epic generic codes, which shows in the way wives are represented, according to the patterns of tragedy and of the Roman elegy, particularly of Ovid's Heroids. Therefore in the wake of three literary traditions - epic, tragedy, elegy -, the role of feminine characters shows the renewal of the epic, which we can fully study by creating criteria of analysis bearing on the notions of genre, genericity and intergenericity.