The goal of the following project is to probe into the early knowledge of the syntactic and the pragmatic components of language at the syntax-pragmatics interface, as exemplified by discourse-related elements such as object clitics. Object clitics, in addition to allowing for cross-linguistic generalizations, provide an insight into the early clause structure and the mechanisms which constrain the syntax-pragmatics interface. Cross linguistic variation has been found to be limited and well-governed, and has been attributed to the underlying syntactic mechanism, such as the Unique Checking Constrain or a number of pragmatic constraints operative in the child's grammar such as inability to mark referentiality. In addition, this study explores a theory which attempts to integrate the acquisition of syntax and pragmatics by attributing early non-finite structures in child grammar to a maturational discourse linking mechanism. The present project seeks to validate the claims of the above theories by offering new data and a novel perspective. The empirical part presents the results of one pilot study based on naturalistic language production by a monolingual Polish child age 2;1 - 2;9, and three data elicitation experiments conducted with 53 monolingual Polish children age 2;9 - 5;10. the clitic production experiment composed of two types of data. The pilot study establishes the relative age of clitic production. The data elicitation experiments focus on clitic production, clitic comprehension and knowledge of Principle B, as well as clitic referentiality resolution in pragmatically infelicitous contexts. It is shown that Polish children do not produce clitics from the beginning. It is concluded based on group and individual results that comprehension of objects clitic precedes production and that production is unlikely without comprehension. It is shown that age is a significant factor in clitic comprehension, production and referentiality resolution. It is demonstrated that Polish children exhibit early knowledge of Principle B. Also, it is suggested that children who produce object clitics are more likely to resolve clitic referentiality in pragmatically infelicitous contexts.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate three pertinent aspects of the relative clause in Korean: the form-function of the relative clause, the processing of the head-final relative clause and the acquisition of relative clauses as a second language. Based on universal typology, this study proposes that the linguistic category of the descriptive verb lies between the attributive adjective and the verb. With this identification, the study claims that the modifying ending -(u)n has the prototypical semantic function of the perfective aspect. The perfective aspect is, however, interpreted differently according to the verb types and this provides a solution to the form-function distinction: when the descriptive verb is suffixed by -(u)n, the attributive adjective expresses a permanent state; with the processive verb the relative clause denotes the completion of action or process. The analysis of the linear ordering of elements in the verb phrase reveals that grammatical morphemes are related in the strict grammatical rules, which progressively build up conceptualisation. Contrary to the views presented in previous studies, this study argues that incremental and left-to-right processing, the relative clause has semantic constraints on the head noun. The overall order of difficulty in the acquisition of relative clauses determined by a completion task, a combination task and a grammaticality judgment 'Oh OP>IO>SU>DO>GE, which does not accord with the Noun Phrase Hierarchy (NPAH). / The study finds that markedness theory and configurational analysis are also unable to explain the order exhibited in this study due to the head-final at characteristics of the relative clause. The processing ease is the main contributing factor for learners successfully performing the tasks by utilizing the mental lexicon, SOV canonical word order, case particles and temporal adverbs in sentence initial position. The study also evaluates the effectiveness of instruction and the merits of pedagogical grammar. Incorporating findings from the present study, some suggestions are made for the development of a pedagogical grammar for the relative clause in Korean.

Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is an appealing technique for developing intelligent systems. Besides its psycho- logical plausibility and a substantial body of research during recent years, building a good CBR system remains still a difficult task. The main problems remaining are the development of suitable case retrieval and adaptation mechanisms for CBR. The major issues are how and when to capture the necessary knowledge for both of the above aspects. As a contribution to knowledge this thesis proposes a new approach to address the experienced difficulties. The basic framework of Ripple Down Rules (RDR) is extended to allow the incremental development of a knowledge base for each of the two functions: case retrieval and case adaptation, during the use of the system while solving actual problems. The proposed approach allows an expert-user to provide explanations of why, for a given problem, certain actions should be taken. Incrementally knowledge is acquired from the expert-user in which the expert refines a rule which performs unsatisfactorily for a current given problem. The approach facilitates both, the rule acquisition as well as its validation. As a result the knowledge maintenance task of a knowledge engineer is overcome. This approach is effective with respect to both, the development of highly tailored and complex retrieval and adaptation functions for CBR as well as the provision of an intuitive and feasible approach for the expert. The approach has been implemented in a CBR system named MIKAS (Menu Construction using Incre- mental Knowledge Acquisition Systems) for the design of menus (diets) according to dietary requirements. The experimental evidence indicates the suitability of the approach to address the retrieval and adaptation problems of the menu construction domain. The experimental evidence also indicates that the difficulties of developing retrieval and adaptation functions for CBR can be effectively overcome by the proposed new approach. It is expected that the approach is likely to be useful in other problem solving domains where expert intervention is Required to modify a solution.

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This study examines Vietnamese language learning in New South Wales primary schools. Five major influences on Vietnamese language learning were studied: parents' competence in Vietnamese, parents' attitudes to Vietnamese language learning, parental involvement in their children's school, children's attitudes to Vietnamese language learning, and school factors such as teaching strategies and teacher qualities. The survey was conducted by means of questionnaires for children and parents, the Vietnamese language Basic Skills Tests, and interviews with teachers. A series of recommendations is offered to all those involved in teaching the Vietnamese language. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) have been actively investigated since the early period of AI. There are four common methods of building expert systems: modeling approaches, programming approaches, case-based approaches and machine-learning approaches. One particular technique is Ripple Down Rules (RDR) which may be classified as an incremental case-based approach. Knowledge needs to be acquired from experts in the context of individual cases viewed by them. In the RDR framework, the expert adds a new rule based on the context of an individual case. This task is simple and only affects the expert???s workflow minimally. The rule added fixes an incorrect interpretation made by the KBS but with minimal impact on the KBS's previous correct performance. This provides incremental improvement. Despite these strengths of RDR, there are some limitations including rule redundancy, lack of intermediate features and lack of models. This thesis addresses these RDR limitations by applying automatic learning algorithms to reorganize the knowledge base, to learn intermediate features and possibly to discover domain models. The redundancy problem occurs because rules created in particular contexts which should have more general application. We address this limitation by reorganizing the knowledge base and removing redundant rules. Removal of redundant rules should also reduce the number of future knowledge acquisition sessions. Intermediate features improve modularity, because the expert can deal with features in groups rather than individually. In addition to the manual creation of intermediate features for RDR, we propose the automated discovery of intermediate features to speed up the knowledge acquisition process by generalizing existing rules. Finally, the Ripple Down Rules approach facilitates rapid knowledge acquisition as it can be initialized with a minimal ontology. Despite minimal modeling, we propose that a more developed knowledge model can be extracted from an existing RDR KBS. This may be useful in using RDR KBS for other applications. The most useful of these three developments was the automated discovery of intermediate features. This made a significant difference to the number of knowledge acquisition sessions required.

Current attention in L2 acquisition research has been given to the integration of message-focused and form-focused instruction. One way to accomplish this is through the incidental focus on form during meaning-focused activities. Some studies have investigated incidental focus on form in different contexts and provided evidence that this incidental focus on form exists in L2 classes and that it facilitates L2 acquisition.The present study conducted further research into the effects of interactional patterns (Teacher-learner and Learner-learner) and learners' proficiency levels (Advanced and Elementary) on the features of incidental focus on form (types of focus on form; types of feedback; linguistic forms focused on and types of immediate uptake). Over 10 hours of interactions with meaning-focused communication tasks were audio recorded in two interactional patterns and in two classes. The 336 focus on form episodes (FFEs) were transcribed and analyzed for four features of FFEs.The results revealed a significant difference in frequencies of FFE types between the two interactional patterns. Teachers were more active in responding to learners' errors, but they were less active in initiating preemptive FFEs. No significant difference was found between the two proficiency levels.In terms of feedback, no significant difference was found between the two interactional patterns. Both teachers and learners were using similar types of feedback in the FFEs. Learners were as able as their teachers in 'providing solutions'. Thus, Learner-learner interactions appear to be equally beneficial for L2 learning. Equally, there was no difference between the two proficiency levels. In terms of linguistic focus, there was no significant difference between the two interactional patterns or between the two proficiency levels.In terms of overall uptake responses, there was a significant difference between the two interactional patterns, mainly in terms of 'no uptake', 'no opportunity for uptake' and 'no need for uptake'. However, there was no significant difference in terms of frequencies of 'occurrence of uptake'. Thus, Learner-learner interactions appear to be equally beneficial for L2 learning from the perspective of producing successful uptake. No significant difference in terms of immediate uptake was found between the two proficiency levels.The results of this study suggest that in both Teacher-learner and Learner-learner interactions at both Advanced and Elementary levels of proficiency, incidental FFEs occur frequently, and the high frequency of immediate uptake in these FFEs can be considered effective for L2 learning. Because learners were able to work as a knowledge source for each other, spoken interactions should be encouraged between learners.