<p> <i>Subjectivity</i> is the phenomenon of the apparent truth of a predicate depending on a perspective of evaluation, such that one person may sincerely assert a proposition <i>p</i> while another may sincerely assert <i>not-p</i>. Among the numerous analyses of the semantics of subjective predicates (Lasersohn 2005, Stojanovic 2007, Stephenson 2007, MacFarlane 2014, Barker 2002, a.o.), few consider what makes them differ from objective ones: what makes <i>delicious</i> allow faultless disagreement while <i>wooden</i> or <i>red</i> do not? Assumptions that subjective and objective predicates differ In their semantics (do not have truth conditions as per expressivism, have another index or argument as per relativism or contextualism) ignore the fact that the same predicate may be subjective in a context where it is loosely defined and objective in a context where it is stringently defined. E.g. the truth of <i>good figure</i> skater is objective to trained figure skating judges but subjective to casual TV watchers. </p><p> I provide a relatively theory-neutral analysis of what makes subjective predicates what they are. I argue that objective predicates are precisely those for which there is a reliable consensus of what evidence matters (to distinguish from a reliable consensus as to whether propositions containing them are true: we do not know whether there is life on other planets, but we know what it would take to prove it). For subjective predicates, and propositions containing them, there is no reliable and socially enforced consensus as to what evidence matters, and how much, and what does not, and for some predicates, there cannot be. Thus, speakers are allowed, in a pragmatic context, to perceive the evidence differently (to have different taste perceptions due to genetic differences in smell receptors) or to classify it differently (looking at a painting, to judge whether it is excellent or poor based on differing prior expertise in painting). If we allow differing perceptions or different categorizations to be valid, we have a subjective predicate. </p><p> As a follow-up, I explain the selection criteria of find (<i>NP </i>) (<i>Predicate</i>) - `I find the soup disgusting/wonderful&rsquo; - which is known (Saebo2009 a.o.) to select for subjective constructions. I argue that <i>find</i> actually selects for direct experience of its object, as was proposed by Stephenson (2007), and I address subsequent criticisms of that analysis and extend it to modal expressions such as `I find the Cubs winning unlikely,&rsquo; which had not been previously considered in the literature. I conclude by showing how my analysis fits into different theories (expressivism, relativism, contextualism, metalinguistic negotiation) by providing them with clearer selection criteria for not only what a subjective predicate is, but why it is so.</p><p>

<p> Automatic summarization involves finding the most important information in a text in order to create a reduced version of that text that conveys the same meaning as the original. In this dissertation, I present a method for using topic information to influence which content is selected for a summary. </p><p> This dissertation addresses questions such as how to represent the meaning of a document for automatic tasks. For tasks such as automatic summarization, there is a tradeoff between using sophisticated linguistic methods and using methods that can easily and efficiently be used by automatic systems. This research seeks to find a balance between these two goals by using linguistically-motivated methods that can be used to improve automatic summarization performance. Another question addressed in this work is the balance between summary coverage and length. A summary must be long enough to convey the information from the original text but short enough to be useful in place of the original document. This dissertation explores the use of topics to increase coverage while reducing redundancy.</p><p> There are several issues that affect summary quality. These include information coverage, redundancy, and coherence. This dissertation focuses on achieving coverage of all distinct concepts in a text by incorporating topic structure. During the summarization process, emphasis is placed on including information from all topics in order to produce summaries that cover the range of information present in the original documents. In this work, several notions of what constitutes a topic are explored, with particular focus on defining topics using information from Rhetorical Structure Theory (Mann and Thompson 1988). The results of incorporating topics into a summarization system show that topic structure improves automatic summarization performance.</p><p> The contributions of this dissertation include demonstrating that focusing on coverage of the different topics in a text improves summaries, and topic structure is an effective way to achieve this coverage. This research also shows the effectiveness of a simple modular method for incorporating topics into summarization that allows for comparison of different notions of topic and summarization techniques.</p><p>

This thesis investigated the event argument, an abstract linguistic element proposed by Davidson (1967), and the light verb (VP-shell) construction, first proposed by Larson (1988). Recent theories regarding the location of the event argument in syntax range from claims that it is not represented syntactically, to locating it in lexical projections, to proposals assigning two functional projections for the syntactic representation of events. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the relationship between the event argument and the light verb construction. The thesis is based on the Minimalist approach (Chomsky 1995). Different approaches to the event argument and the light verb construction were compared to determine their similarities and differences. A proposal was made regarding the relationship between the event argument and the light verb construction. This thesis claimed that the location of the event argument in syntactic structure is in the head of the light verb projection.

abstract: This study offers a critical discourse analysis of four Saudi newspapers, examining their coverage of two particular incidents relating to the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Following van Dijk’s framework, the study examines the ideological role of language within media discourse. The tools of analysis include headlines, leads, lexical choices, reported speech, unnamed sources, and silenced texts. The findings of the study show that there are differences between the four newspapers in the coverage of the two incidents. The analysis also reveals different ideological attitudes among writers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

abstract: The study of Spanish instructors’ beliefs is a recent development and the body of work is small with little research conducted on their insights on the acquisition of any grammar form. Still, Spanish grammar includes the notoriously difficult subjunctive, a grammatical irrealis mood that is affixed to verbs. A national survey was conducted on Spanish professors and instructors (N=73) who teach at institutions randomly selected from a representative sample of American institutions of higher education. The survey was conducted to inquire on their beliefs regarding the most complex forms in Spanish, the causes of the subjunctive difficulty, and their preferred methods of teaching the form. The results first indicate that participants rated the subjunctive the most difficult grammar form. They attributed the cause of difficulty to be primarily interference from the first language and its abstractness. For instructing the subjunctive, participants generally supported form-oriented instruction with a metalanguage approach that focuses on forms. However, the participants disagreed greatly on whether meaning-focused instruction was valuable and dismissed drilling instruction of the subjunctive. Data from the participants provides a distribution of overextended tense, moods, and aspects in lieu of the Spanish subjunctive. However, instructors indicated that their students’ competence of the subjunctive was higher than their performance and that comprehension was not necessarily reliant on correct usage of the subjunctive as it was for proficiency. Moreover, they provided qualitative data of effective methods and pedagogical challenges of the subjunctive. This study illuminates some of the contributing factors of subjunctive difficulty and preferred pedagogical approaches for teaching it. It also has implications that meaning may not be obstructed if students do not use subjunctive. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Linguistics and Applied Linguistics 2018

abstract: For this dissertation, teacher linguistic awareness (TLingA) involves teacher linguistic knowledge, teacher language awareness (TLA), and teacher cognition for second language (L2) teachers. Teacher linguistic knowledge is an understanding of how language functions and is compiled within the different areas of linguistics. And TLA is the knowledge that educators possess of the structural and fundamental system of language. Both help L2 teachers with different aspects of teaching. Additionally, teacher cognition involves what teachers know, their beliefs, and thought processes. Lastly, TLingA includes the conscious application of teacher linguistic knowledge. In order to understand how strong of a role linguistics plays in language instruction, I evaluate how language teachers use their linguistic knowledge, and what factors affect the application of that knowledge. This paper aims to fill this gap in understanding how much and what factors affect L2 teachers’ application of linguistic knowledge by interviewing L2 teachers at an intensive English program at a university in the Southwestern United States. To do so, the study uses interviews with open-ended questions involving hypothetical teaching scenarios that probe different areas of linguistics: phonology, grammar, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics. The general findings suggest that teachers use their linguistic knowledge and awareness in their teaching: such as, with sociolinguistics, in how they control the classroom and interact with students; with phonology, in how they teach pronunciation; with grammar, in how they edit students’ writing and meet with students about their writing; and with pragmatics, in how they teach vocabulary usage and formal requests. Additionally, the results suggest that years of experience appear to be the largest factor in the application of linguistic knowledge and that contextual factors, like time and curriculum goals, also play a role. Moreover, in relation to teacher cognition, how a L2 teacher conceptualizes or defines linguistic terms also seemed to affect their awareness of the application of linguistic knowledge. In conclusion, it appears that L2 teachers’ linguistic knowledge and TLingA help them to evaluate their students’ needs and influence their lesson planning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Applied Linguistics 2018

abstract: Previous research (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig & Reynolds, 1995; Cadierno, 2000; Camps, 2002; Robison, 1990, 1995; Salaberry, 1999, 2003, 2011) has tested the validity of the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis (LAH), developed by Andersen and Shirai (1994), which proposes that in beginning stages of the L2 acquisition process, the inherent lexical (meaning-based or semantic) aspect of a verb determines the selection of tense and aspect verbal morphology (preterit vs. imperfect) rather than the grammatical aspect, which is related to the viewpoint of the speaker (e.g., whether s/he wants to highlight the beginning, middle or end of an action or event). These studies analyzed written and oral data from personal and story retell learner narratives in classroom contexts. While many studies have found support for the association of lexical aspect with L2 verbal morphology, the claim of the LAH that such association is highest during beginning stages of learning has been questioned. For instance, Salaberry (1999, 2003) found evidence for the preterit acting as a past tense default marker across all lexical aspectual classes, while the association of lexical aspect with verbal morphology increased with L2 proficiency; both of these findings contradict the LAH. Studies have also investigated the influence of task type on tense and aspect morphology. Salaberry's (1999, 2003) beginning L2 learners utilized the preterit as a past tense default marker in a story retell (SR) task whereas the imperfect was used as a default marker in a personal narrative (PN) (2003). To continue testing the validity of LAH, the present study analyzed SR and PN data from twenty two university-level intermediate and advanced L2 Spanish learners. This study also explored the relationship between task type (SR vs. PN) and verb morphology. Results show that both intermediate and advanced learners appear to be using the preterit as a past tense default marker across all lexical aspectual classes, corroborating Salaberry's (1999, 2003) findings with beginning learners, and contradicting the LAH. Results of the present study also reveal that narrative task type (SR vs. PN) appears to play a role in the distribution of tense and aspect morphology among intermediate and advanced classroom L2 Spanish learners. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Spanish 2013

<p> This dissertation investigates the processing of two types of meaning and context interactions, vagueness and imprecision, through the case study of gradable adjectives and round numerals. The first half of the dissertation, asks the question of whether vagueness and imprecision should be collapsed into one single category, or whether they should be treated as fundamentally different types of meaning and context interactions. I investigate this question through two experiments (a Visual World eye-tracking study and a judgment task study) that focus on the processing of Relative and Absolute adjectives. Existing accounts of the relative vs. absolute distinction agree in that the context-sensitivity displayed by Relative adjectives is due to vagueness. More specifically, vagueness results from the fact that these adjectives have highly flexible lexical thresholds, whose value is generally fixed by accessing contextual information. There is however less consensus about whether context-sensitive interpretations of Absolute adjectives result from threshold variability in the sense described above, or from pragmatic reasoning about imprecision. The results reported in the dissertation converge to show that participants recruit and integrate information from the visual context differently during the processing of Relative and Absolute adjectives, suggesting that the context-sensitivity of these two classes of adjectives is indeed of a different nature. I argue that these findings constitute support for theories that claim that Absolute adjectives are not lexically context-sensitive &ndash;and therefore have fixed, context-insensitive, adjectival thresholds&ndash;, and that variable interpretations of Absolute adjectives involve imprecision.</p><p> In the second half of the dissertation, I investigate the processing of imprecision in more detail. It has been claimed that comprehenders favor imprecise interpretations over precise ones whenever possible. One of the explanations that has been put forth to explain this alleged preference is that imprecise representations might be less costly to process for the comprehender. The few existing studies that have sought to empirically substantiate this claim focus on the numeral domain, and use the round vs. non-round distinction (i.e. 100 vs. 101) as a proxy for imprecise vs. precise interpretations of the numerals. The logic behind this choice is that non-round numbers usually give rise to precise interpretations, while round numbers (by assumption) tend to be interpreted imprecisely. I argue that approaching this question from this perspective introduces the confound that non-round numerals might be independently difficult to process for reasons that are orthogonal to (im)precision calculation. I suggest that the relevant comparison should therefore be between precise and imprecise interpretations of round numbers. With these goals in mind, I conducted a series of three self-paced reading studies, where I tested (im)precise interpretations of the same round numbers. Contra previous claims, the results show that imprecise interpretations are not faster to process than their precise counterparts, but rather the opposite: imprecise interpretations incur a processing penalty compared to precise interpretations, independently of whether (im)precision is signaled explicitly by means of a slack regulator (e.g. <i>about</i> or <i>exactly</i>), or through pragmatic cues (e.g. reasoning about conversational goals).</p><p>

<p> This dissertation is a grammar of Yeri, an endangered Torricelli language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. The language is still spoken, to at least some degree, by approximately 100&ndash;150 speakers, most of whom live in Yapunda village. This grammar is based on primary data collected from Yeri speakers during the author&rsquo;s eleven months of fieldwork, which was spread out over the course of three field trips. The primary data on which this grammar is founded can be accessed at The Language Archive. This grammar constitutes the first description of the Yeri language.</p>

Since the 1970s, two distinct leadership styles have been recognised in the fields of business and organisational research - transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership is seen to resemble managerial-type leadership where followers fulfil their duties in return for rewards that satisfy their self-interest, such as pay or promotion. Transformational leadership, as the label suggests, is leadership that is seen to transform followers from their everyday selves to their better selves (Yukl 1998). Transformational leaders motivate followers by appealing to their higher-order needs, offering incentives for compliance such as feelings of personal empowerment, a sense of moral self-actualisation and an emphasis on the individual's contribution to the community at large (Harvey 2004). These leaders have been observed to emerge and thrive within contexts fraught with socio-political and economic turbulence, where they maximise the uncertainty of the environment to instigate change. Transformational leaders are seen to be especially adept at using discourse to foster strong, persuasive interpersonal relations with their followers. This research reports on, particularly, the interpersonal dimension of Clem Sunter's transformational discourse; he being a prominent South African scenario planner and business leader. It is essentially a qualitative study that describes Sunter's discourse in three of his texts written in 1996. The end to Apartheid in 1994 and transition from White to Black governance meant that the socio-political climate of 1996 South Africa was conducive to the rise of a transformational leader like Sunter. Although the country was, ostensibly, a democracy in 1996, much social transformation was still needed at the time Sunter produced his texts. The analysis are grounded mainly in Systemic Functional Linguistics, specifically APPRAISAL theory and, to some extent, Critical Discourse Analysis theory. However, the analyses do not follow a classic CDA analysis approach, but draw rather from more recent CDA work (cf. Fairclough 2003), such as the analysis of value assumption types within the texts. This analysis clearly demonstrates that Sunter's discourse is congruent 11 with the principal insights of transformational leadership. More than this, it is argued that these findings suggest a close link between transformational leadership and the goals of the latest social order of new capitalism, a link not made in the relevant research to date. The analysis of modes of operation of ideology in the texts (cf. Thompson 1990), also deriving from CDA, reinforces this, indicating that Sunter's transformational discourse promotes and maintains the kinds of power inequalities that underpin new capitalism. The APPRAISAL analysis of Affect choices in the text reveals a high frequency of disquiet, i.e. Sunter's discourse is seen to generate feelings of insecurity and fear. This feature, interestingly, is completely inconsistent with current transformational leadership theory, but would have been an effective motivational technique given the instability of the South African socio-political context in 1996. In addition, the APPRAISAL analysis of Judgement reveals that Sunter evokes high levels of tenacity and appeals to readers' morality, ethics and feelings of group-efficacy - all higher-order needs. The argument here too is that the socio-political context enabled Sunter to stimulate disquiet and tenacity in an effective configuration to mobilise change in his reader and promote the goals of new capitalism. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the limitations of the study and makes various recommendations for future research.