L’objectif de ce travail est de présenter les résultats d’un projet de documentation linguistique sur la langue siwi (langue berbère parlée dans l’oasis de Siwa, en Egypte, par environ 25.000 locuteurs) à travers l’analyse de certains aspects de syntaxe et de sémantique intéressants pour la typologie et les études berbères, issus de l’exploitation d’un corpus de données orales, enregistré auprès de locuteurs hommes et femmes. La thèse est divisée en dix chapitres (1. L’aspect et la modalité dans le système verbal du siwi ; 2. La grammaticalisation verbale ; 3. La négation ; 4. Le suffixe -a et l’accompli résultatif ; 5. La préposition n ; 6. Les démonstratifs ; 7. La proposition relative ; 8. Les propositions subordonnées ; 9. L’accent nominal ; 10. L’ordre des mots et la structure informationnelle). Dans chaque chapitre, on commence par introduire la thématique au niveau typologique, puis dans la branche berbère, pour ensuite l’aborder en détail en siwi. Plusieurs phénomènes encore non décrits ou analysés sont traités dans ce travail de recherche. Les annexes à la fin de la thèse sont composées par des textes issus du corpus (enregistrés, transcrits et traduits pendant les missions de terrain) et leurs métadonnées. Ils donnent un échantillon plutôt varié (deux contes et trois narrations de locuteurs, hommes et femmes, d’âges différents) de la langue en question. / This work aims to present the results of a documentation project on the Siwi language (a Berber language spoken in the Siwa oasis, Egypt by 25,000 speakers) through the analysis of selected aspects of the language, concerning mainly syntax and semantics, that come from the exploitation of a corpus composed of oral data, recorded by both male and female speakers. The thesis is divided into ten chapters (1. Aspect and Mood in the Verbal System of Siwi; 2. Verbal Grammaticalisation; 3. Negation; 4. The -a Suffix and the Resultative Perfect; 5. Preposition n; 6. Demonstratives; 7. Relative Clauses; 8. Other Subordinated Clauses; 9. Accent on Nouns; 10. Word Order and the Information Structure). In each chapter, the linguistic issue is introduced in a typological perspective, then within Berber, before it is analyzed in details in Siwi. Several phenomena that had hitherto remained undescribed, or had not been analyzed, are studied in this research thesis. The appendices at the end are composed of five texts (transcribed and translated during fieldwork) and their metadata. They provide a varied sample (two folktales and three narrations by male and female speakers of different ages) of the language under examination.

Relatively little is known about the vocal repertoire of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and a categorization of basic call types and modifications of these call types by quantitative acoustic parameters is needed to examine acoustic variability within and among call types, to examine individuality, to determine communicative function of calls via playback, to compare species and populations, and to develop rigorous call recognition algorithms for monitoring populations. This study defines an acoustic repertoire of Asian elephants based on acoustic parameters, compares repertoire usage among groups and individuals, and validates structural distinction among call types through comparison of manual and automated classification methods. Recordings were made of captive elephants at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, OR, USA, and of domesticated elephants in Thailand. Acoustic and behavioral data were collected in a variety of social contexts and environmental noise conditions. Calls were classified using perceptual aural cues plus visual inspection of spectrograms, then acoustic features were measured, then automated classification was run. The final repertoire was defined by six basic call types (Bark, Roar, Rumble, Bark, Squeal, Squeal, and Trumpet), five call combinations and modifications with these basic calls forming their constituent parts (Roar-Rumble, Squeal-Squeak, Squeak train, Squeak-Bark, and Trumpet-Roar), and the Blow. Given the consistency of classifications results for calls from geographically and socially disparate subject groups, it seems possible that automated call detection algorithms could be developed for acoustic monitoring of Asian elephants.

Captive populations of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in North America are not self-sustaining, and increasing reproductive success within captive populations is a high priority. The ability to accurately predict parturition can have a direct impact on elephant welfare. Elephants in captivity often require significant preparation and management throughout the birthing process, and complications during labor and delivery can necessitate immediate intervention, including stillbirth, protracted labor, maternal aggression towards a newborn calf, and dystocia. Being able to predict when parturition will commence can ensure appropriate staff is available and adequate monitoring is performed. Routine endocrine sampling can be used to predict parturition in Asian elephants, with a drop in progesterone (P4) to baseline levels signaling parturition in 2-5 days. However, we determined this method is not without limitations, and it is not used in all institutions that house elephants. As changes in hormones regulate and alter behaviors, we investigated behavioral indicators as an additional management tool for predicting parturition, a time of drastic hormone changes. We conducted a study of five pregnancies in Asian elephants at the Oregon Zoo, U.S.A, and Taronga Zoo, Australia, between 2008 and 2012. In Chapter 2, I evaluated progesterone (P4) and cortisol levels across three time periods: Baseline; Pre, (the week preceding the drop in P4); and Post, (the period after the P4 drop). Levels of P4 were significantly lower, and levels of cortisol were significantly higher in the days just prior to parturition. I found considerable intra- and inter-individual variation in both endocrine profiles, which can make endocrine assessments difficult to interpret in real time. In Chapter 3, I investigated whether behaviors in the preparturition period could be predictive of impending parturition in the Asian elephant. ANOVA results indicated a significant difference in the amount of time that elephants spent walking backwards across three time periods (F(2) = 3.723, p = 0.033), with the behavior increasing as parturition approached. These results were supported by a non-parametric Kruskal- Wallis. Using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), I found that as P4 levels decrease, walking backwards behavior significantly increases. In Chapter 4, I evaluated investigative trunk behaviors, or "trunk checks", directed towards the temporal gland near the ear, mammary glands, vulva and anus of the pregnant dam. Investigative behaviors included both self-directed behaviors and those sent from herd mates towards the pregnant dam. Self-directed behaviors are most likely associated with physical changes in the pregnant dam, such as using the trunk to pull on swollen teats. Other-directed behaviors may stem from chemo-sensory signaling or other types of communication between herd mates, such as detecting changes in progesterone or cortisol. I ran GLMM and found that four trunk-check behaviors varied significantly with P4 and/or cortisol profiles. These were: self-checks of mammary glands increased with decreasing P4 levels; herd-mate-checks of mammary glands increased with decreasing P4 levels; self-checks of vulva increased with decreasing P4 levels and increasing cortisol levels; herd-mate-checks of anus increased with increasing cortisol levels. In Chapter 5, I evaluated activity budget behaviors in the pregnant elephants. Generalized comparisons were made to published activity budgets of typical captive Asian elephants. I report that activity budgets are within the range of normal activity, though I note a high level of inter-individual variation. In addition, I compared two sampling techniques, including one-zero and instantaneous sampling, that were used for activity budget data collection. I discuss the different results obtained by each sampling technique. These results are a very promising indication that behaviors, including walking backwards and multiple trunk-check behaviors, are changing over time or with parturition-related hormone profiles. We recommend that keepers, veterinary staff, and other observers that are familiar with the regular behavioral repertoire of a pregnant female should pay close attention to these highlighted behaviors. Keeping track of these behaviors, especially in conjunction with P4 and cortisol tracking, can help staff refine existing windows of expected parturition.

The 10th volume of the working paper series contains two papers contributed by SFB-members. The first paper “Single prosodic phrase sentences” by Caroline Féry (A1) and Heiner Drenhaus (C6, University of Potsdam) investigates the prosody of Wide Focus Partial Fronting in a series of production and perception experiments. The second paper “Focus Asymmetries in Bura” by Katharina Hartmann, Peggy Jacob (B2, Humboldt University Berlin) and Malte Zimmermann (A5, University of Potsdam) explores the strategies of marking focus in Bura (Chadic).

(Chadic), which exhibits a number of asymmetries: Grammatical focus marking is obligatory only with focused subjects, where focus is marked by the particle án following the subject. Focused subjects remain in situ and the complement of án is a regular VP. With nonsubject foci, án appears in a cleft-structure between the fronted focus constituent and a relative clause. We present a semantically unified analysis of focus marking in Bura that treats the particle as a focusmarking copula in T that takes a property-denoting expression (the background) and an individual-denoting expression (the focus) as arguments. The article also investigates the realization of predicate and polarity focus, which are almost never marked. The upshot of the discussion is that Bura shares many characteristic traits of focus marking with other Chadic languages, but it crucially differs in exhibiting a structural difference in the marking of focus on subjects and non-subject constituents.

The Asiatic black bear, or 'moon bear', has inhabited Japan since pre-historic times, and is the largest animal to have roamed Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu since mega-fauna became extinct on the Japanese archipelago after the last glacial period. Despite this, the bear features only rarely in the folklore, literature and arts of Japan's mainstream culture. This relative cultural invisibility in the lowland agrarian-based culture of Japan contrasts markedly with its cultural significance in many upland regions where subsistence lifestyles based on hunting, gathering and beliefs centred on the mountain deity (yama no kami) have persisted until recently. However, in recent decades the bear has been propelled from its position of relative cultural obscurity into the forefront of mainstream society's attention. As more and more of the bear's habitat is destroyed or degraded through forestry and development, the bear is increasingly encroaching onto human territory in its search for food, leading to pestilence and bear attacks. This thesis examines the nature of the contemporary human-bear relationship in Japan, dominated by human-bear conflict, or the so-called 'bear problem'. To better understand the contemporary response to the bear, the thesis explores the historical relationship of the Japanese with both the bear and its habitat, the forested uplands. The thesis further seeks to understand how cultural, historical, social and geographic factors influence a society's response to wildlife conflict and what can be learnt from the Japanese example which can be applied to the understanding of human society's response to wildlife conflict elsewhere.

Cette étude est la toute première tentative de description complète de la grammaire du hamar, une langue parlée par environ 46.500 personnes dans le sud-ouest de l'Ethiopie (Lewis 2009). L'étude est basée sur des données collectées pendant 9 mois de travail sur le terrain entre 2013 et 2014 dans les territoires des Hamar. Les données sur la langue ont été recueillies auprès de 14 locuteurs natifs dans les villages hamar, et sont composées de 50 textes de longueurs et de genres différents. Cette grammaire décrit la phonologie, la morphologie, la syntaxe et certains aspects de la pragmatique et du discours du hamar et est organisée en 13 chapitres suivis par trois annexes : l'annexe A et B se composent d'un lexique sélectionné d’environ 1 400 entrées, l’annexe C contient trois textes hamar annotés. L'analyse qui sous-tend cette monographie grammaticale suit le cadre théorique Basic Linguistic Theory (la théorie linguistique de base - Dixon 1997, 2010, 2012). / This study is the first-ever attempt at a comprehensive grammatical description of Hamar, a language spoken in South West Ethiopia by approximately 46.500 people (Lewis 2009). The study is based on 9 months of fieldwork carried out between 2013and 2014 in Hamar territories. Language data was gathered from 14 native speakers in Hamar villages, and it amounts to 50 texts of varying lengths and genres. The grammar investigates the phonology, the morphology, the syntax and somepragmatic and discourse-related features of Hamar and it is organized in 13 chapters followed by three appendices: appendix A and B consist of a selected lexicon of circa 1400 entries, appendix C includes three annotated Hamar texts.The analysis underlying this monograph grammar follows the theoretical framework of Basic Linguistic Theory (Dixon 1997, 2010, 2012).

“Jazz-Shaped Bodies” addresses representations of the city in black transnational literature, with a focus on sonic schemas and mapping. Drawing on cultural geography, posthumanist thought, and the discourse of diaspora, the thesis examines the extent to which the urban landscape is figured as a panoptic structure in twentieth and twenty-first century diasporic texts, and how the mimetic function of artistic performance challenges this structure. Through comparative analysis of works emerging from and/or invested with sites in American, Canadian, and Caribbean landscapes, the study develops accretively and is structured thematically, tracing how selected texts: map the socio-spatial dialectic through visual and sonic schemas; develop the metaphorical use of the phonograph in the folding of space and time; revive ancestral memory and renew an engagement with the landscape; negotiate and transcend shifting national, cultural, and geographical borderlines and boundaries that seek to encode and enclose black subjectivity. The project focuses on literary works such as James Baldwin’s intimate cartographies of New York in Another Country (1962), Earl Lovelace’s carnivalising of city space in The Dragon Can’t Dance (1979), Toni Morrison’s creative blending of the sounds of black music in Jazz (1992), and the postbody poetics of Wayde Compton’s Performance Bond (2004), among other texts that enact crossings of, or otherwise pierce, binaries and borderlines, innovating portals for alternative interpellation and subverting racially hegemonic visual regimes concretised in the architecture of the city. An examination of the specificity of the cityscape against the wider arc of transnationalism establishes how African American, AfroCaribbean, and Black Canadian texts share and exchange touchstones such as jazz, kinesis, liminality, and hauntedness, while remaining sensitive to the distinct sociohistorical contexts and intensities at each locus, underscoring the significance of rendition — of body, space, time, and sound — to black transnational writing.

Man is a social animal. Without participating in social activities and enjoying the social privileges, man cannot live but physically. He has something in common with the rest of the human race and a particular interest in his own community which imposes on and shares with him the same cultural pattern. The different cultures have a universal cultural pattern common to mankind, but in the same time there are many traits which prohibit the different groups from understanding each other, not because of languages, but because of the existence of the cultural barriers. To cross the barriers of cultural islands and the cultural lags, or to be able to narrow the margin of the differences in cultural determination, for the purpose of achieving acquaintance and understand, the world needs an effective communication system. “The process of communication is the web of signals, expectations, and understanding that makes living together possible….”.

The dhole (Cuon alpinus) is one of the least studied endangered top predators inhabiting the Asian jungle. Today, dholes population are estimated fewer than 2500 mature individuals remain in the wild and the declining population trend is expected to continue. These facts lead the IUCN to classify this species as an endangered species. In order to protect this species, the Indonesian government declared the dhole as a protected species through Act No. 5 in 1990 with respect to the law on the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems as well as in the Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia No. 7 in 1999 with respect to the law on the conservation of flora and fauna. Nevertheless, the efforts to conserve this species are not as intensive as other large predator such as tiger (Panthera tigris) and leopard which are listed as high priority mammals to conserve in the Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia No. P.57/Menhut-II/2008 with respect to the strategic direction of the national species conservation 2008-2018. Not only conservation action is absent in the field, but basic data on the population status of this species are hard to find in many protected areas including the national parks of Sumatra and Java. These limitations are critical constraints for the conservation and management of dholes in Indonesia and if no significant immediate action is taken soon, this species will face extinction in a number of its natural range. In order to support the conservation and management of this species we established a first systematic research concerning dhole’s ecology in Baluran National Park (BNP), East Java, Indonesia. The research attempted to answer four basic questions concerning dhole’s ecology including the actual status of dhole’s population and prey, dhole’s respond against the gradients of environment conditions anthropogenic disturbance, activity and movement pattern during the denning season, and the feeding habit of this species. The dynamics of dhole populations and its prey populations are fundamental for the successful management and conservation of the dhole. Therefore, estimates of the dhole’s abundance as well as its prey are critical information for management. Distance sampling based on a 287.5 km line transect was applied to estimate the density of dholes and their prey. In addition, a camera trap survey was conducted to detect the presence of this cryptic species and its prey. The dhole population was recorded for two consecutive dry seasons in 2013 and 2014 respectively. We were able to identify at least 4 packs that were frequently sighted at different locations: Bama, Balanan, Merak and Watu Numpuk. However, only two packs were found breeding in 2013 / 2014. In total, 15 prey species were identified during the field survey, consisting of small mammals (6 species), medium-large mammals (5 species), birds (2 species), and primates (2 species). The occurrence of at least four dhole packs with evidence of two of the packs reproducing successfully and the availability of prey in various sizes and from a range of taxa are evidence that BNP provides essential habitat for the dhole and plays a major role in the conservation of dholes on Java in Indonesia. An understanding of the response of the species under various environmental conditions in its natural habitat is critical for its conservation and management. The negative influence of anthropogenic activities on dhole distribution has also been reported in India at the landscape level as well as at the reserve scale. Nevertheless, the evidence of the dhole’s response to anthropogenic activities and the extent of environmental factors beyond site-specific studies are needed to support the management and conservation of dholes at the local scale, which might be associated with different habitat types and environmental conditions. In this research, the impacts of human activities as well as environmental factors on the presence of dholes were studied on 755 plots, which were distributed systematically across the park and their relationships were analysed using a binomial generalized linear model. We found that the presence of dholes was negatively associated with anthropogenic activities and positively associated with the presence of prey. This suggests that reducing anthropogenic activities and ensuring the availability of natural prey are crucial factors for maintaining the long term survival of this species in their natural habitat. It is also important to have a good understanding of their ecology during the denning season (including information about denning ecology and home ranges) if one is to support the management and conservation of this species. Knowledge about den ecology is crucial for understanding the denning strategies of targeted species in given environments, ultimately leading to reproductive success, while knowledge about home ranges on the other hand is also crucial to understand how much space is required, which kind of habitat is necessary, and the effects of various factors (e.g. food resources and breeding requirements) on spacing behaviour and movements during the denning season. Camera traps and radio telemetry surveys were employed to observe dhole activity patterns and movement over the denning period. The dholes showed crepuscular and diurnal activity patterns with most activities intensifying at dawn and dusk, and becoming less intense in the middle of the day. The dhole’s home range comprised of hunting grounds, water resources, and a den in the centre. The home range size was estimated at 744.86 ha (using the 95% Minimum Convex Polygon/MCP method), at 1418.28 ha (using the 80% Kernel Utilization Distribution/KUD analysis), and at 479.59 ha (using 90% Local Convex Hull/LoCoH), whereas the core area was estimated to be 636.36 ha (50% KUD) and 67.37 ha (50% LoCoH), and the size of the most greatly used area at 231.57 ha (25% KUD) comprising of the den sites and the hunting grounds. The dhole’s den ecology strategy was to use other animal’s burrows on steep slopes with dense vegetation cover and located on the opposite side of the hill to where human activity occurred. Den switching occurred every 2 weeks. These results indicate that dholes selected a den site that fulfilled their needs for food, water, cover, and predator evasion. As carnivore, the dhole’s life history strategy depend upon various factors like food, spacing pattern, habitat selection, distribution, social structure and movement pattern. Among those factors, food is the most essential resources for carnivore, because the evolutionary fitness of any predator depends on the quality and quantity of its diet. Therefore, information concerning food habits is important consideration in formulating management strategies, both in species and ecosystem levels. In this research, we studied the dhole’s feeding habit using scat analysis. In total, 54 scats were collected across the park during the dry season 2013 and analyzed to identify the food habits of this species. At least 20 prey species were identified during the scat analysis. Ungulates are the most important prey which was estimated to contribute more than 95 % of the biomass consumed by dholes in BNP. This result implies that as the major preys, ungulates have essential role to the dholes foraging ecology and survival in BNP. Efforts to ensure ungulates availability and to secure habitat will be the key for the dhole’s conservation in Java. Understanding the biology and ecology of managed species is the key to achieve the management success. However, most of wildlife management decision were made based more on the emotion and political agenda than on scientific data. As the result, the impact of management process become far from the expectation and in some occasion raise the new problem. We found that lethal control is an approach which mostly used along the history of dhole’s management and resulting the dramatic dhole’s population decline and explosion of wild ungulates population. Although the dhole’s received protected status from the most countries of its natural ranges, the conservation actions focused in this species have never been reported. The lack of baseline data for dhole’s conservation is still the common phenomenon in the most of dhole’s range. In Java, from 6 national parks which are identified as dhole’s habitat, only 1 national park which have baseline data on dhole’s ecology. This fact has hampered the conservation this species and has placed the future of this species survival into uncertainty. Gathering scientific data related to the dhole’s conservation by multidisciplinary team become the first priority which must be conducted. These will benefit to the management in resolving the problem arises during the management process. The reliable information can also be used improve public understanding to the biology and ecology of dholes and to shape public attitude to be more tolerance to existing of this species.