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This dissertation investigates syntax and semantics of copular clauses containing two NPs. Since Higgins (1973) four semantically distinct types of copular clauses have been recognized in the literature, i.e. predicational, equative, specificational, and identificational clauses. There are many proposals aiming to reduce the number of copular clause types via collapsing certain types into others. This dissertation contributes to the debate by providing novel evidence from Czech that identificational clauses are predicational and specificational clauses are inverted predicational or equative clauses. Czech provides an excellent tool to investigate copular clauses for three reasons: (i) rich phi-feature agreement, (ii) case alternation, (iii) analytical verbal morphology. Using the three properties Czech offers, I argue that specificational clauses are derived via scrambling of a structurally lower NP over a structurally higher NP. Consequently, I support the inversion analysis of specificational clauses (Moro, 1997; Den Dikken, 2006; Mikkelsen, 2006; Heycock, 2012, a.o.). I also argue that specificational clauses may be derived from both, predicational and equative clauses. In contrast, identificational clauses, despite their initial resemblance to specificational clauses, are argued not to involve inversion, therefore providing empirical support for Heller and Wolter (2008). I also present novel empirical data from Czech that show that the interpretation of the pronoun in identificational clauses is restricted by the copular agreement. In order to account for the restriction, I argue that both NPs in identificational clauses Agree with the copula via a Multiple-Agree chain (see Hiraiwa (2005)). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

As a process designed to collect information about jobs, job analysis is one of the most fundamental aspects of personnel psychology. It forms the foundation upon which almost every other human resource management component is built, including selection, compensation, performance appraisal, and training program development. Despite the considerable evidence of human fallibility in other judgment processes, many have followed the implicit assumption that job analysis information is accurate without actually examining this proposition. This study considers two potential sources of job analysis rating inaccuracy — the source of the ratings and the type of instrument utilized to collect ratings. By utilizing less job-familiar job analysis raters and shorter, more holistic job analysis instruments, industrial-organizational psychologists have attempted to attenuate the time and costs associated with the job analysis process; however, findings regarding the reliability and accuracy of such practices are questionable. Hypotheses tested in the current study indicated that decomposed measures of job behavior converged to a greater degree with an external job analysis than did holistic measures. Interrater agreements for all types of raters and across all types of instruments are concluded to be inadequate. Potential explanations from the cognitive and social psychological domains for these findings are conjectured and directions for future research are noted. / Ph. D.

This work catalogues the verbal agreement paradigm of Kanyen'keha in greater detail than has previously been done. The cataloguing includes the complete intransitive, transitive, and reflexive paradigms, and description of all argumental contrasts to which the verbal agreement is sensitive. It also describes in detail the contexts where feature sensitivity is blunted, and the patterns of syncretism in the verbal agreement. Based off of this descriptive work, this work evaluates the accuracy with which previous analyses treat verbal agreement in Kanyen'keha. Finding room for improvement in these analyses, this work proposes a new analysis of Kanyen'keha, which claims all verbal agreement in transitive contexts to be realized from one agreement probe, which enters into Multiple Agree with subjects and objects. This style of analysis allows for many aspects of the agreement to be accounted for, including person hierarchy effects, distribution of portmanteau morphology, and complex dependency between the multiple morphemes which comprise the agreement / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / This thesis describes the verbal agreement of Kayen'keha in greater detail than has previously been done. This thesis also evaluates the claims of previous work done on verbal agreement of Kanyen'keha, describing where such work accurately accounts for the agreement and where it does not. Finally, this thesis proposes a novel analysis of Kanyen'keha verbal agreement.

This study concerns simultaneous bilingual acquisition (2L1) of Swedish-Brazilian children growing up in mixed-lingual families in Stockholm, with Swedish as their dominant language. Earlier studies on this language combination were not found. Not even were there any studies considering 2L1 children of the same age group as our main subjects (Anna 7;7,3–9;1,30, Maria 6;1,16–6;11,11). An analysis of their acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) as a weaker language (WL) was carried out in a Generative Grammar approach, mainly through the selective theory of language acquisition. The corpus consists of interviews with 2L1 children in a semi-longitudinal registration of their production. The focus of this analysis lies on the observation of three domains of BP grammar that differ morpho-syntactically from Swedish: verb inflection; VP as minimal responses; NP number and gender agreement. Three main research questions were formulated: 1) Are the simple and robust structures, provided by domestic input enough for triggering the functional categories (FC) of their WL? 2) If the FCs are activated, do they develop in the same sequence as a WL as they would in BPL1? 3) If the 2L1 children show any deviations in acquiring the grammar of their WL, is it possible to distinguish any influence from Swedish? To answer these questions a contrastive study was carried out, comparing the acquisition of BPWL with studies on 2L1 and BPL1 acquisition. The results show that the domestic input is enough for triggering the grammar of the WL, and that it was triggered and developed through a similar procedure to that of BPL1, although delayed. Contact with BPL1 input in Brazil was necessary to activate the children’s oral production. When using VPs for minimal responses it requires more than domestic input, and the influence of Swedish was reflected in the subjects’ use of sim ‘yes’ instead of VPs, as in this case grammar enters the domain of discourse at the syntax/pragmatics interface.

This thesis examines the comprehensive Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) that was signed in 2006 by the governments of Alberta and British Columbia. The central objective is to examine why two successive Saskatchewan governments chose not to sign the TILMA. This thesis also examines the TILMAs influence on subsequent developments in internal trade policy reform in Canada. The three central research questions are: What is the TILMA, and how does it fit within the existing internal trade regulatory regime established under the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)? Why did Saskatchewan not sign the TILMA? What effect, if any, has the TILMA had on establishing a new model or paradigm for internal trade policy in Canada? The key findings are that Saskatchewan did not sign the TILMA because Alberta and British Columbia would not accede to its demands to make exemptions for the procurement practices of municipalities and the subsidiaries of crown corporations. Another factor was the decision by the Saskatchewan government to launch a public consultation process before ratifying the agreement. The public consultation process provided the opponents of the agreement (i.e., municipal government, labour and non-governmental organizations) with an opportunity to organize and express their opposition to the agreement. Their strong opposition to the agreement during those consultations led both the NDP Government and subsequently a cautious Saskatchewan Party Government, which only had a slim majority in the legislature to walk away from what was being portrayed in the media as a very contentious policy decision. Their choice stands in contrast to that of the Liberal and Conservative Governments of British Columbia and Alberta respectively, that chose to sign the TILMA prior to undertaking consultations with the public and community stakeholders. In 2010 the Saskatchewan Party government would sign the New West Partnership Trade Agreement that included almost all of the provisions of the TILMA without public or stakeholder consultation. This thesis reveals that the TILMA has had modest but important effects on establishing a new model or paradigm for internal trade policy in Canada by enhancing the utility and scope of binding enforcement mechanisms and comprehensive interprovincial agreements. It was more comprehensive in scope than interprovincial agreements that had been signed previously to supplement the AIT. Contrary to what some had envisioned or proclaimed, the TILMA did not have substantial transformative effects either in addressing internal trade barriers in Canada or in supplanting the existing framework of internal trade policy established under the AIT.

This thesis examines the comprehensive Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) that was signed in 2006 by the governments of Alberta and British Columbia. The central objective is to examine why two successive Saskatchewan governments chose not to sign the TILMA. This thesis also examines the TILMAs influence on subsequent developments in internal trade policy reform in Canada. The three central research questions are: What is the TILMA, and how does it fit within the existing internal trade regulatory regime established under the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)? Why did Saskatchewan not sign the TILMA? What effect, if any, has the TILMA had on establishing a new model or paradigm for internal trade policy in Canada? The key findings are that Saskatchewan did not sign the TILMA because Alberta and British Columbia would not accede to its demands to make exemptions for the procurement practices of municipalities and the subsidiaries of crown corporations. Another factor was the decision by the Saskatchewan government to launch a public consultation process before ratifying the agreement. The public consultation process provided the opponents of the agreement (i.e., municipal government, labour and non-governmental organizations) with an opportunity to organize and express their opposition to the agreement. Their strong opposition to the agreement during those consultations led both the NDP Government and subsequently a cautious Saskatchewan Party Government, which only had a slim majority in the legislature to walk away from what was being portrayed in the media as a very contentious policy decision. Their choice stands in contrast to that of the Liberal and Conservative Governments of British Columbia and Alberta respectively, that chose to sign the TILMA prior to undertaking consultations with the public and community stakeholders. In 2010 the Saskatchewan Party government would sign the New West Partnership Trade Agreement that included almost all of the provisions of the TILMA without public or stakeholder consultation. This thesis reveals that the TILMA has had modest but important effects on establishing a new model or paradigm for internal trade policy in Canada by enhancing the utility and scope of binding enforcement mechanisms and comprehensive interprovincial agreements. It was more comprehensive in scope than interprovincial agreements that had been signed previously to supplement the AIT. Contrary to what some had envisioned or proclaimed, the TILMA did not have substantial transformative effects either in addressing internal trade barriers in Canada or in supplanting the existing framework of internal trade policy established under the AIT.

The purpose of this Master's degree thesis is to deal with preparatory institute of private contractual law pactum de contrahendo. This institute passed through to contemporary legislative conception long progress, currently it is in Czech Republic simultaneously regulated in two codes and at the present time performed re-codification of the Czech private law is in submission of the new Czech Civil Code its explicit regulation also contained. The thesis focuses on preliminary agreement being concluded according to valid Czech Civil Code, on its purpose, utilization and function. The thesis characterises its subjects, subject- matter, content and the process between entering into the preliminary agreement and the future agreement. In several cases the thesis provides with alternative approaches to a particular issue, presents judicial opinions of legal experts and pursues case law. The thesis also describes the development of regulation of agreement to make a contract in the context of Czech law within the range, which was appropriate to the subject, the thesis refers to similar legal institutes and compares current valid parallel regulation of preliminary agreements among themselves and with newly suggested regulation with the aim to find advantages and disadvantages of particular regulation....

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The current socio-economic and political landscape of Sudan and South Sudan can be described as one that is war-ridden and deeply divided by religion, culture, ethnicity and ownership over oil. It has been more than twelve months since the secession of Southern Sudan from the North (See Map 1). Despite the secession, general instability continues. To deal with this turmoil, Sudan declared a so-called “state of emergency” in 2012 along its border with South Sudan. The reason for this was the on-going tension between North Sudan and South Sudan over ownership of the oil-rich Abyei area. This conflict over oil is furthermore fuelled by diverse internal divisions among the Sudanese population (North and South). Sudanese diversity is characterized by two opposing antagonistic religious groupings, namely the Arabic North, whose main religious belief is Islam, and the so-called “black Africans” in the South, whose religious belief is mainly Christianity or Animist. In addition to this primary division there are also over 570 ethnic groups in Sudan (North and South). Conflicts and tension between the different ethnic groups is furthermore caused by disputes over natural resources such as water, livestock and land as well as political power and economic gains. Despite the continued conflict the assumption in this study was that the signing and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) (2005–2011) represented a potential step towards eventual stability. This dissertation therefore focuses, as a case study, on an analytical description of the CPA and its outcomes. Specific reference was made to the role and impact of political mobilization by using an instrumental approach as a framework for analysis. In the above regard, research centred on the following three themes: *Ethnic mobilization as a factor in the political destabilization of Sudan since independence and towards the implementation of the CPA; *Ethnic mobilization as a guideline in the structuring of the CPA; and *Ethnic mobilization and the eventual outcome of the CPA. By addressing the above themes, the study attempted firstly to provide a balanced perspective on the causes of continued instability and conflict in Sudan. Secondly, an attempt was made to provide a future scenario for the possible unfolding of socio-economic and political developments in Sudan and South Sudan. / MA (Political studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013