The obligation to maintain and develop professional competence throughout an individual’s career is a fundamental requirement of a maintaining a professional accounting designation. Accountants can select their continuing professional development (CPD) from a number of modalities. The study was a cross sectional sample created by self selection from a researchers' email invitation to accountants in Canada to determine which modalities accountants preferred, and the selection factors they used in making those selections. A total of 428 accountants from across Canada completed the online survey. The results found that the accountants had taken courses in all modalities presented with live seminar and live webinar being the most popular modalities. Accountants preferred synchronous over asynchronous courses. The factors most important to accountants are content, cost and CPD hour requirements. Generally, the differences found in selection factors for distance versus face-to-face modalities related to the flexibility of the distance course to reduce time away from work. The ranking of selection factors for synchronous courses in general did not differ from those for asynchronous courses with the exception of self-paced courses where the pace and time away from work were ranked higher than for other courses. Further research is suggested to determine the value of both live and recorded seminars and webinars, as well as potential opportunities for mobile modality use for CPD courses. Additional research should be conducted to determine why differences were found in ranking in demographics in order to ensure that future CPD courses are offered in modalities that provide benefits for all respondents. / 2012-06

Graduate / 0290

Graduate / 0290

Research into the usability of multi-modal systems has tended to be device-led, with a resulting lack of theory about multi-modal interaction and how it might differ from more conventional interaction. This is compounded by a confusion over the precise definition of modality between the various disciplines within the HCI community, how modalities can be effectively classified, and their usability properties. There is a consequent lack of appropriate methodologies and notations to model such interactions and assess the usability implications of these interfaces. The role of expertise and craft skill in using HCI techniques is also poorly understood. This thesis proposes a new definition of modality, and goes on to identify issues of importance to multi-modal usability, culminating in the development of a new methodology to support the identification of such usability issues. It additionally explores the role of expertise and craft skill in using usability modelling techniques to assess usability issues. By analysing the problems inherent in current definitions and approaches, as well as issues relevant to cognitive science, a clear understanding of both the requirements for a suitable definition of modality and the salient usability issues are obtained. A novel definition of modality, based on the three elements of sense, information form and temporal nature is proposed. Further, an associated taxonomy is produced, which categorises modalities within the sensory dimension as visual, acoustic and haptic. This taxonomy classifies modalities within the information form dimension as lexical, symbolic or concrete, and classifies the temporal form dimension modalities as discrete, continuous, or dynamic. This results in a twenty-seven cell taxonomy, with each cell representing one taxon, indicating one particular type of modality. This is a faceted classification system, with the modality named after the intersection of the categories, building the category names into a compound modality name. The issues surrounding modality are examined and refined into the concepts of modality types, properties and clashes. Modalities are identified as belonging to either the system or the user, and being expressive or receptive in type. Various properties are described based on issues of granularity and redundancy. The five different types of clashes are described. Problems relating to the modelling of multi-modal interaction are examined by means of a motivating case study based on a portion of an interface for a robotic arm. The effectiveness of five modelling techniques, STN, CW, CPM-GOMS, PUM and Z, in representing multi-modal issues are assessed. From this, and using the collated definition, taxonomy and theory, a new methodology, Evaluating Multi-modal Usability (EMU), is developed. This is applied to a previous case study of the robotic arm to assess its application and coverage. Both the definition and EMU are used by students in a case study to test the definition and methodology's effectiveness, and to examine the leverage such an approach may give. The results shows that modalities can be successfully identified within an interactive context, and that usability issues can be described. Empirical video data of the robotic arm in use is used to confirm the issues identified by the previous analyses, and to identify new issues. A rational re-analysis of the six approaches (STN, CW, CPM-GOMS, PUM, Z and EMU) is conducted in order to distinguish between issues identified through craft skill, based on general HCI expertise and familiarity with the problem, and issues identified due to the core of the method for each approach. This is to gain a realistic understanding of the validity of claims made by each method, and to identify how else issues might be identified, and the consequent implications. Craft skill is found to have a wider role than anticipated, and the importance of expertise in using such approaches emphasised. From the case study and the re-analyses the implications for EMU are examined, and suggestions made for future refinement. The main contributions of this thesis are the new definition, taxonomy and theory, which significantly contribute to the theoretical understanding of multi-modal usability, helping to resolve existing confusion in this area. The new methodology, EMU, is a useful technique for examining interfaces for multi-modal usability issues, although some refinement is required. The importance of craft skill in the identification of usability issues has been explicitly explored, with implications for future work on usability modelling and the training of practitioners in such techniques.

This thesis investigates the internal structure and the computational representation of the lexical entries in Combinatory Categorial Grammar (CCG). A restricted form of typed feature structures is proposed for representing CCG categories. This proposal is combined with a constraint-based modality system for basic categories of CCG. We present some linguistic evidence to explain why both a unication-based feature system and a constraint-based modality system are needed for a lexicalist framework. An implementation of our system is also presented.

本論文藉由系統性地闡述情態語意詮釋與情態動詞連用結構之間的關係來解釋限制漢語多義情態動詞(應該、要、會、可以、能)連用詞序的機制。首先本文作者指出以Lyons (1977)及Palmer (2001)為首的描述性導向分析方法無法全面性地解釋所有漢語多義情態動詞連用的可能性，於是本文採用Klinge (1993)的語意與語用互動分析方法並認為所有情態動詞本身只含有單一核心語意而且共享「潛在性」(POTENTIALITY)語意來預測未證實的情狀描述(SITUATION REPRESENTATION)是否說明實際語境形勢(WORLD SITUATION)的可能性，而此未證實的情狀描述所身處的語境主要分為兩大情狀類型：事件型情狀描述(WORLD-EVENT)和主語型情狀描述(AGENT-EVENT)。此外，經由逐一定義每個多義情態動詞的核心語意之後作者發現情態動詞說明未證實的情狀描述與實際語境形勢之間關係的預測強度是影響漢語多義情態動詞連用結構中詞序限制的主要因素；作者也舉出英語方言中的情態助動詞連用情形來證明本研究中所採用的語意與語用互動分析方法之下的概括性結論在跨語言間可以獲得普遍性支持。 / The purpose of this study is to formulate a schematic representation of modal form-meaning correspondence to explicate what mechanism governs the ordering constraint of Chinese polysemous modal verbs – YINGGAI應該, YAO要, HUI會, KEYI可以, NENG能– in one utterance. We first point out the traditional descriptive-oriented approach argued by Lyons (1977) and Palmer (2001) cannot comprehensively explain all possible Chinese modal co-occurrence. Hence, the alternative semantics-pragmatics approach suggested by Klinge (1993) in this study argues that various modal interpretations are not encoded in modal lexemes but induced by the following inference process: the modal verbs which share the same semantic field of POTENTIALITY specify the correspondence between the unverified SITUATION REPRESENTATION of two major situation types, i.e. WORLD-EVENT and ANGENT-EVENT, and the referential situation in real world, i.e. WORLD SITUATION. Besides, according to the systematic account for different core meanings of each Chinese polysemous modal verb, we also claim that the STRENGTH of prediction represented by each polysemous modal verb to the POTENTIAL correspondence between SITUATION REPRESENTATION and WORLD SITUATION governs the ordering restriction in Chinese multiple-modal construction. This generalization of our alternative methodology in this study is also supported by the English double-modal construction in several English dialects, in which it implies our present framework is universal across languages.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-239).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Alfred Mele, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Philosophy. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 20, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 166 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: This study examines the effect that the modality (volition, doubt, emotion, belief, knowledge, etc.) of matrix noun clauses has on the ability of intermediate (second-year) Spanish L2 students (n=56) to properly produce the subjunctive and indicative moods, the relative order in which students tend to most accurately produce the subjunctive in response to the modalities of volition, doubt, and emotion, and students' level of syntactic ability and mood development. Each participant took a test consisting of twenty questions containing various modalities intended to elicit either the subjunctive or indicative mood. Participants also filled out a questionnaire that was designed to ascertain the participants' level of formal and informal experience with Spanish. The results of this study show that a) when the subjunctive was the target response most participants favored the unmarked indicative mood significantly more than the marked subjunctive mood, b) students most accurately produced the subjunctive to the modality of volition (VL), followed by doubt (DT), and emotion (EM), which is consistent with Collentine's study, and c) students were able to process complex syntax when producing the unmarked indicative mood but not when they were prompted to produce the marked subjunctive mood. The results of this study show that pedagogical expectations regarding the acquisition of the subjunctive mood by second-year Spanish students may be unrealistic as these students were operating somewhere between the pre-syntactic and syntactic stages. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Applied Linguistics 2011