Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-05-19T15:26:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 lucianadeoliveirafariaazevedo.pdf: 2448500 bytes, checksum: eaee6df3b32bee6f42619f40a226e17f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-05-19T15:55:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lucianadeoliveirafariaazevedo.pdf: 2448500 bytes, checksum: eaee6df3b32bee6f42619f40a226e17f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-19T15:55:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lucianadeoliveirafariaazevedo.pdf: 2448500 bytes, checksum: eaee6df3b32bee6f42619f40a226e17f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-29 / Esta dissertação aborda o processo de aquisição lexical por crianças brasileiras e investiga, particularmente, a relação entre categoria conceitual e categoria lingüística, e propriedades morfofonológicas do adjetivo. A hipótese que orienta esta dissertação é a de que a nomeação dos objetos e a presença de morfemas característicos de adjetivos são pistas robustas usadas pelas crianças no processo de aquisição de novos adjetivos. Adota-se uma perspectiva psicolingüística da aquisição da linguagem que pretende a conciliação de um modelo de processamento lingüístico (modelos de Bootstrapping Fonológico e Sintático), com um modelo de língua proposto pela Teoria Gerativa. A conciliação entre os modelos visa a explicar, satisfatoriamente, a forma pela qual a criança se torna capaz de, uma vez exposta a uma língua natural, extrair do material lingüístico ao qual é apresentada os elementos formadores do léxico de sua língua. Foram desenvolvidas duas atividades experimentais, usando-se a técnica de identificação de objeto, com crianças de dois e três anos. A primeira avalia o reconhecimento de novos adjetivos, comparando-se a apresentação de objetos nomeados (uma flor tapoja) ou com nomes vagos (uma coisa tapoja). No segundo experimento, foram acrescentados aos pseudo-adjetivos os sufixos -oso/a e –ado/a (uma casa jufosa) / uma coisa jufosa), em vista de investigar o papel do sufixo juntamente com a nomeação dos objetos como facilitadores na identificação do adjetivo pela criança. Adjetivos acompanhados de nome (Exper. 1) são mais facilmente identificados, mas quando acrescidos de sufixo (Exper. 2) são reconhecidos mesmo na presença de nomes vagos. Os resultados são compatíveis com nossa hipótese, pois sugerem que a nomeação e a marca morfofonológica são pistas robustas usadas pelas crianças para identificar novos adjetivos. / This dissertation approaches the process of lexical acquisition for Brazilian children and it investigates, particularly, the relationship among conceptual category and linguistic category, and properties morphophonological of the adjective. The hypothesis that guides this dissertation is the one that the nomination of the objects and the presence of morphemes characteristic of adjectives are robust tracks used by the children in the process of acquisition of new adjectives. A perspective psycholinguistic of the acquisition of the language is adopted that intends the conciliation of a model of linguistic processing (models of Phonological and Syntactic Bootstrapping), with a language model proposed by the Generative Theory. The conciliation among the models seeks to explain, satisfactorily, the form for the which the child becomes capable of, once exposed to a natural language, to extract of the linguistic material to which is presented the elements that form the lexicon of your language. Two experimental activities were developed, being used the technique of object identification, with two three year-old children. The first evaluates the recognition of new adjectives, being compared the presentation of nominated objects (a tapoja flower) or with vague names (a tapoja thing). In the second experiment, they were increased to the pseudo-adjectives the suffixes -oso/a and -ado/a (a jufosa house) / a jufosa thing), in view of investigating the paper of the suffix together with the nomination of the objects as facilitators in the identification of the adjective for the child accompanied Adjectives of name (Exper. 1) they are more easily identified, but when added of suffix (Exper. 2) they are recognized even in the presence of vague names. The results are compatible with our hypothesis, because they suggest that the nomination and the mark morphophonological are robust tracks used by the children to identify new adjectives.

Arbetslösheten i Sverige uppgick under 2017 års första månad till 7,3 procent. En aktuell faktor för att minska arbetslösheten är entreprenörskap. Entreprenörskap är en viktig del i utvecklingen för att driva småföretag. Småföretagen svarar för en betydande del av Sveriges sysselsättning, men lider av låg överlevnadsgrad. För att öka sannolikheten för överlevnad använder många småföretag olika bootstrappingmetoder. Syftet med bootstrapping är att finna lösningar på resursbehov och kan därför ses som ett alternativ till externa finansieringsmedel. Förutsättningarna för användning av finansiella bootstrappingmetoder varierar utefter vart i företagslivscykeln företagen befinner sig. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är således att förklara vilka bootstrappingmetoder svenska småföretag använder utifrån företagens livscykel. För att kunna uppnå studiens syfte och skapa en generell bild över forskningsområdet har studien genomförts med en kvantitativ forskningsansats genom ett positivistiskt forskningssynsätt. Studien har undersökt 115 småföretag i Sverige genom en enkätundersökning. Genom att studera teorier kring småföretagens kapitalstruktur samt resursanskaffning skapades en grund för att utforma studiens huvud- samt underhypoteser kring finansiell bootstrapping och företagslivscykeln. Det huvudsakliga resultatet från studien är att användningen av finansiella bootstrappingmetoder förändras genom företagslivscykeln. Studien kan även påvisa att vissa bootstrappingmetoder används mer relativt andra i respektive livscykelstadier. / During the first month of 2017 the unemployment in Sweden amounted to 7,3 percent. An important factor for reducing unemployment is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is an important part of the development of small businesses. Small businesses account for a significant part of Sweden's employment, but suffer from low survival rates. To increase the likelihood of survival, many small businesses use different type of bootstrapping methods. The aim of Financial bootstrapping is to find solutions for resource needs and can therefore be seen as an alternative to external funding. The conditions for using Financial bootstrapping methods vary according to the business lifecycle. The purpose of this essay is to explain witch bootstrapping methods Swedish small businesses are using based on the business lifecycle. In order to achieve the purpose of the study and to create a general view of the research area, the study has been conducted which a quantitative research approach through a positivist research philosophy. The study examined 115 small businesses in Sweden by a survey. By examining theories about small business capital structure and resource needs, a foundation was created for designing the studies main and under hypothesis regarding financial bootstrapping and the business lifecycle. The main result of the study is that the use of financial bootstrapping methods is changing throughout the business lifecycle. The study can also demonstrate that some bootstrapping methods are used more relative to others in their respective lifecycle stages.

[pt] Este estudo tem como foco a passagem da percepção fônica para a representação morfofonológica de elementos funcionais, mais precisamente os afixos verbais, bem como a realização do parsing linguístico no processo inicial de aquisição da linguagem. Nesta tese a aquisição da linguagem é abordada em uma perspectiva psicolingüística de forma integrada com a Teoria Linguística Gerativa, em sua versão Minimalista (Corrêa, 2006). A hipótese que orienta este trabalho é a de que os elementos de classe fechada são percebidos pela criança de forma diferenciada e que há uma distinção entre a percepção inicial desses elementos no nível fonético/fonológico e a sua posterior representação morfofonológica. Esses elementos, uma vez representados em termos de categorias funcionais do léxico, contribuem para a realização do parsing lingüístico pela criança. Uma análise de histórias infantis demonstrou que determinantes e afixos tendem a ocorrer em fronteiras de frases fonológicas e que propriedades fonéticas, como o acento, podem favorecer a percepção inicial de afixos verbais. Foram conduzidos três experimentos, sendo que os dois primeiros fizeram uso da Técnica de Escuta Preferencial e o terceiro utilizou a Técnica de Fixação Preferencial do Olhar. O primeiro experimento teve como objetivo avaliar a sensibilidade das crianças (de 9 a 15 meses) adquirindo o Português Brasileiro a distinções fônicas que afetam o padrão silábico da língua, independentemente do ambiente morfológico em que estas ocorrem (afixos flexionais e raízes de Nomes). O segundo experimento visou a verificar se o ambiente morfológico (afixos flexionais e raízes de Nomes) afeta o modo como crianças (de 9 a 18 meses) adquirindo o PB percebem alterações fônicas que não afetam o padrão silábico, o que indicaria que estas percebem afixos verbais como uma classe morfológica. O terceiro experimento pretendeu verificar se as crianças com idades entre 17 e 23 meses realizam o parsing de enunciados linguísticos, diferenciando elementos lexicais homófonos em função da natureza de elementos funcionais. Os resultados sugerem que crianças com média de 11 meses são capazes de perceber alterações fônicas independentemente do ambiente morfofonológico em que estas ocorrem. Também foi constatado que crianças entre 9 a 12 meses percebem alterações fônicas que não afetam o padrão silábico da língua em elementos de classe fechada, sugerindo que esses elementos são percebidos pelas crianças como uma classe morfológica em uma fase inicial no processo de aquisição da linguagem. Além disso, foi verificado que as crianças com média de 21 meses respondem diferencialmente a palavras homófonas em classes gramaticais diferentes (Nome e Verbo), com base na distinção entre projeções mínimas e máximas do Determinante, no parsing linguístico. A marcação do afixo verbal não afeta o reconhecimento do verbo, mas formas marcadas em relação a tempo adicionam dificuldade à condução da tarefa. Os resultados encontrados são compatíveis com as hipóteses testadas e permitem que se reconstrua a passagem da percepção do estímulo linguístico em um nível fônico para a representação morfofonológica de elementos de classe fechada, e finalmente para a representação dos mesmos como elementos de categorias funcionais, os quais são essenciais na condução do parsing linguístico. / [en] This study focuses on the passage from speech perception to the morphophonological representation of functional elements, verbal affixes in particular, and on the early parsing of linguistic utterances in language acquisition. A psycholinguistic perspective to language acquisition is adopted together with a minimalist conception of language (Corrêa, 2006). The working hypothesis is that closed class elements are distinctively perceived by children initially at a phonetic/phonological level and subsequently at a morphophonological one. Their representation as functional elements at a later stage contributes to the parsing of linguistic utterances. An analysis of a set of tales for children has demonstrated that determiners and verbal affixes occur at the edges of phonological phrases and phonetic properties such as the accent may contribute to their early perception by children. Three experiments were conducted, the first two in Head-turn Paradigm and the latter in the Intermodal Preferential Looking paradigm. Experiment 1 aimed at assessing 9-15 month infants sensibility to phonetic distinctions in the linguistic stimulus, which affect the syllabic pattern of the language (Brazilian Portuguese), independently of the morphological context in which they occur (verbal affixes and nominal roots). Experiment 2 aimed at verifying whether these morphological contexts affect infants perception of phonetic alterations that do not affect the phonological pattern of the language. The perception of such distinctions in the verbal affixes, but not in the nominal roots, was considered to indicate sensibility to the morphophonological patterns of these closed class elements. The third experiment aimed at verifying the extent to which children by the age of 21 months would rely on functional information in the parsing of linguistic utterances, thereby ascribing different categorical features to homophonous words (nouns and verbs). The results of Experiment 1 suggest that 9-15 month infants do perceive phonetic alterations that affect the syllabic pattern of language, regardless of the morphological context in which they occur. The results of the Experiment 2 suggest that infants are sensitive to phonetic alterations that do not affect the syllabic pattern of the language by the end of their first year of life (9-12 months). The results of Experiment 3 suggest that take into account different syntactic projections of the determiner in ascribing homophonous words to different classes (noun and verb). These results also indicate that verbs are analyzed as such regardless of the type of morphological affix they present (marked or unmarked for Tense). However, tensed marked forms seem to add processing costs in the accomplishment of the task. These results are compatible with the hypotheses that guided the present thesis and enable a theory of language acquisition to reconstruct the passage from the phonetic perception of the linguistic stimulus to the morphophonological representation of closed class elements (verbal affixes) and from this level of representation to children s reliance on functional elements in the parsing of linguistic utterances.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-04-05T13:59:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 azussamatsuoka.pdf: 3758292 bytes, checksum: 774cb991b0c5692d75381aa929113ca5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-04-24T03:40:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 azussamatsuoka.pdf: 3758292 bytes, checksum: 774cb991b0c5692d75381aa929113ca5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-24T03:40:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 azussamatsuoka.pdf: 3758292 bytes, checksum: 774cb991b0c5692d75381aa929113ca5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-18 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta tese investiga a contribuição das propriedades prosódicas da fala dirigida à criança (FDC) para a aquisição do adjetivo no Português Brasileiro (PB). No PB, os adjetivos constituem uma categoria sem marca morfológica obrigatória de gênero e sem posição sintática fixa. Além disso, adjetivos e nomes compartilham marcas morfofonológicas de gênero e número e podem aparecer imediatamente após o Determinante (DET) no DP, o que poderia dificultar a distinção entre essas duas categorias lexicais pela criança no processo de aquisição. Assim, esta tese busca, como objetivo geral, investigar o papel das pistas prosódicas de ADJ(etivo) na fala dirigida à criança brasileira para a aquisição lexical. Assumimos a perspectiva gerativista e o modelo de língua proposto pelo Programa Minimalista (CHOMSKY, 1995 e anos seguintes). Assumimos a Hipótese do Bootstrapping Prosódico (CHRISTOPHE et al.,1997; MORGAN & DEMUTH, 1996) como explicação do modo pelo qual a criança procede à formação do seu léxico inicial e à aquisição da sintaxe de sua língua, pela exploração de habilidades perceptuais. Como objetivos específicos, a presente tese busca: (i) em situação de interação mãe-criança, caracterizar propriedades prosódicas de N(ome) e ADJ no DP pleno na FDC; (ii) investigar a sensibilidade de bebês, em seu primeiro ano de vida, a pistas prosódicas da FDC brasileira, relativas ao posicionamento de ADJ no DP pleno; (iii) verificar o papel das pistas prosódicas de ADJ no PB no mapeamento de palavras novas a propriedades de objetos por crianças em torno de 2 e 3 anos. Na primeira atividade experimental, observamos que os parâmetros prosódicos de ADJ são realçados, se comparados aos de N, em FDC produzida em situação de interação semiespontânea. Na segunda atividade experimental, bebês em seu primeiro ano de vida parecem ser sensíveis às distinções de ordem prosódica dos DPs plenos, nos quais a posição do ADJ foi manipulada. Na terceira atividade experimental, crianças de 2 e 3 anos exploraram pistas prosódicas de ADJ para o mapeamento de pseudopalavras em função de adjetivos. Em conjunto, os resultados obtidos são compatíveis com a hipótese de que as pistas prosódicas são fonte robusta para a distinção dos elementos lexicais de N e ADJ na FDC brasileira e sustentam a tese de que o uso dessas pistas pode ser relevante para a aquisição de ADJ e para o desencadeamento do processo de aquisição lexical pela criança brasileira. / This thesis investigates the role of prosodic properties of infant directed speech (IDS) for the acquisition of adjectives in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In BP, adjectives constitute a category that does not present fixed morphological mark or syntactic position. Besides, adjectives and nouns share mopho-phonological morphemes, and either one can follow DET- in the DP. This study aims at investigating the role of prosodic cues of ADJ(ective) in Brazilian IDS for distinguishing lexical elements of ADJ(adjectivs) and N(ouns) and for the process of language acquisition. The generative language model proposed by Chomsky (1995, and subsequent works), Minimalism Program is assumed. We also assume the Prosodic/Phonological Bootstrapping Hypothesis (MORGAN & DEMUTH, 1996; CHRISTOPHE et al., 1997) that explains how children acquire their lexicon exploring perceptual abilities. Our specific objectives are: (i) characterize prosodic properties of N and ADJ in the DP, in a mother-child interactive situation; (ii) investigate infants sensitivity to prosodic cues of Brazilian IDS, related to the position of ADJ in the DP; (iii) verify the role of prosodic properties of the adjective in BP for the mapping of pseudo words to object properties by 2- and 3- year-old children. In the first experiment, we observed that ADJ is accented, in comparison to N, when IDS was produced in a semi-spontaneous environment. In the second experiment, infants were sensitive to prosodic distinctions in DPs, in which the position of ADJ was manipulated. In the third experiment, 2- and 3- year-old used prosodic cues of ADJ to map novel words to properties. Our results are compatible with the hypothesis that prosodic cues are reliable sources of information for the distinction of the lexical elements of N and ADJ in Brazilian IDS and indicate that prosodic cues might be relevant for the acquisition of ADJ and for the bootstrapping of the process of lexical acquisition by Brazilian children.

[pt] A presente dissertação se insere em uma teoria da aquisição da linguagem que concilia uma abordagem psicolingüística com uma concepção minimalista de língua. As hipóteses de trabalho que a nortearam foram: o que é gramaticalmente relevante tem de estar expresso na interface fônica; a interpretação semântica do complexo TAM (Tempo, Aspecto, Modo) acarreta dificuldade na identificação da morfologia de modo; distinções conceptuais fundamentais, como a oposição realis/irrealis, são expressas pela criança, independentemente de a morfologia da língua ter sido totalmente identificada (Hipótese da Oposição Semântica). Um estudo da produção espontânea de duas crianças de 1;5 a 2;5 de idade e 4 experimentos foram conduzidos. Na análise dos dados da fala espontânea, constatou-se que a oposição realis/irrealis é expressa pela criança por meio da distinção entre formas verbais flexionadas e não-flexionadas, sendo que o chamado Infinitivo Raiz (IR) aparece como alternativa ao subjuntivo para expressão do modo irrealis. Os resultados de dois experimentos de produção eliciada sugerem que a distinção indicativo/subjuntivo é percebida por crianças de 3 anos, embora aos 5 anos de idade a expressão do subjuntivo ainda apresente dificuldade. Um experimento de compreensão com perguntas SIM/NÃO com crianças de 5-7 anos, e seu follow-up, sugerem que o contraste indicativo/subjuntivo em completivas é reconhecido, ainda que respostas negativas imponham dificuldades que independem do modo, particularmente aos 5 anos. Os resultados são compatíveis com as hipóteses e sugerem que a presença do IR no português brasileiro é indicativa da alteração paramétrica em curso (de sujeito nulo para preenchido). / [en] This dissertation is in the context of a theory which reconciles a psycholinguist approach to language acquisition and a minimalist conception of language. The working hypotheses were: grammatically relevant information has to be legible at the phonetic interface; the semantic interpretation of the TAM complex (Tense, Aspect, Mood) poses difficulty to the identification of the verbal mood morphology; basic conceptual distinctions, such as the realis/irrealis contrast, are expressed by the child, no matter whether or not his/her language morphology has been totally identified (The Semantic Opposition Hypothesis). A study of the spontaneous speech production of two children, aged 1;5 to 2;5, and 4 experiments were carried out. The analysis of the production data revealed that the realis/irrealis opposition is expressed by the child by means of the distinction between inflected/uninflected verbal forms and the Root Infinitive (RI) represents an alternative form to the subjunctive for the expression of the irrealis mood. The results of two elicited production experiments suggest that the indicative/subjunctive distinction is perceived by 3-year-olds, although the expression of the subjunctive mood still poses difficulty even for 5-year-olds. A comprehension experiment involving YES/NO questions with 5-7-year-olds, and its follow-up, suggest that the indicative/subjunctive opposition in subordinate clauses is recognized, even though negative answers pose difficulties that are not related to verbal mood, particularly at 5 years of age. The results are compatible with the hypotheses, suggesting that the presence of RIs in Brazilian Portuguese indicates a parametric shift in course (from null subject to non-null subject).

[pt] Esta tese diz respeito à identificação do sistema de gênero, focalizando a atribuição de um valor particular ao traço de gênero de nomes [- animado] por crianças. A hipótese de trabalho assumida é de que o valor do traço de gênero do Nome é identificado a partir da concordância no DP, com base em informação morfo-fonológica nos elementos da Categoria D. A perspectiva teórica adotada visa a conciliar um tratamento psicolingüístico para a aquisição da linguagem com uma teoria lingüística. O tipo de operação de concordância que viabilizaria a transferência do valor do gênero de D para N é considerado e 4 experimentos são relatados, nos quais são avaliadas a sensibilidade de crianças aos itens da Categoria D e sua habilidade de processar concordância de gênero. Os resultados são compatíveis com a hipótese e sugerem acesso precoce à categoria funcional D. / [en] This thesis is concerned with the identification of the gender system by focusing on the ascription of a particular value to the gender feature of [-animate] nouns by children. The working hypothesis assumed here is that the value of the gender feature of the Noun is identified due to DP agreement on the basis of morpho-phonological information provided by the elements of the D Category. The theoretical approach adopted here aims at reconciling a procedural account to language acquisition with a theory of language. The sort of agreement operation that would allow gender value transferring from D to N is considered and 4 experiments are reported, which aimed at evaluating children`s sensibility to the elements of the D category and their ability to process gender agreement. The results provide support to the hypothesis and suggest early access to the functional category D.

L'objectif général de cette thèse est d'explorer comment les enfantes perçoivent des traits de surface du langage à différents niveaux. Plus spécifiquement, on a examiné dans une population typique et atypique 1) la perception des traits acoustiques de bas-niveau et sa relation avec le développement du vocabulaire, et 2) la sensibilité à la fréquence des mots pour générer la représentation linguistique abstraite des catégories lexicales et de leur ordre relatif. Selon les modèles de bootstrapping, il est possible d'extraire des informations structurelles et abstraites de la langue à partir de traits acoustiques disponibles dans l'input et corrélés avec la structure linguistique sous-jacente (p. ex. grammaire et syntaxe). Pour examiner le lien entre la perception de bas niveau, les traits de surfaces et les connaissances grammaticales plus abstraites, cette thèse s'articule en deux parties principales. Dans la première partie, deux études longitudinales sont présentées. Chaque enfant était testé sur son seuil de discrimination auditive (avec un paradigme de traitement rapide) et sur une tâche de reconnaissance visuelle pour contrôler les compétences cognitives. Le seuil acoustique était évalué en utilisant des sons non-linguistiques (tons) dans un groupe d'enfants et linguistiques (syllabes) dans un autre groupe d'enfants à 9 mois pour déterminer si l'impact du traitement auditif est spécifique au langage. Enfin, le niveau de vocabulaire a été mesuré à 12, 14, 18 et 24 mois et un test cognitif (Mullen Scale) a été réalisé entre 18 et 20 mois comme supplémentaire contrôle cognitif. Les résultats montrent que les capacités mesurées sont prédictives du développement du vocabulaire chez les enfantes typiques. De plus, les enfants atypiques ont montré des capacités de traitement moins efficaces dans les modalités visuelle et acoustique. Dans la deuxième partie, le rôle de la fréquence des mots dans l'amorçage des catégories lexicales des mots de fonction et de contenu et leur ordre relatif est explorée. Les deux catégories lexicales sont différentes dans leur fonction linguistique, leurs caractéristiques phonologiques et leur fréquence dans la parole. Ainsi, leur catégorisation basée sur la fréquence pourrait constituer un mécanisme initial robuste pour acquérir les constructions de base de la langue. Comme les mots de fonction constituent une classe fermée, alors que les mots de contenu constituent de classes ouvertes, nous avons examiné si les nourrissons français âgés de 8 mois étaient sensibles à la fréquence des mots pour catégoriser les mots de fonction et pour les traiter comme des éléments non-remplaçables dans des classes fermées, et les mots de contenu comme des éléments librement remplaçables dans des classes ouvertes. Les cinq expériences de grammaire artificielle menées ont confirmé cette hypothèse. De plus, les nourrissons associent l'ordre relatif de ces catégories avec l'ordre des mots de base de leur langue maternelle, le français. Les participants atypiques ont montré des capacités de discrimination, de codage et de mémoire inférieures à leurs pairs typiques. En conclusion, ce travail a permis une meilleure compréhension des capacités de perception contribuant au développement du langage. De plus, cette thèse a identifié de potentiels marqueurs comportementaux pouvant servir à l'identification précoce des apprenants atypiques. / The purpose of this work is to explore how infants perceive surface features of language at different levels of processing. Specifically, in both typical and atypical populations, we examined 1) the processing of low-level auditory cues and its relationship with later language outcomes and 2) the sensitivity to word frequency to create abstract linguistic representations of lexical categories and their relative word order. Accordingly to bootstrapping models learners are able to extract abstract, structural and hence directly unobservable properties of the target language from perceptually available surface cues in the input that correlate with the underlying structure. Indeed, infants are sensitive to certain acoustic and phonological properties of the speech input, which in turn correlate with specific grammatical/syntactic structures. In order to map the link between the perception of these low-level, surface cues and more abstract grammatical knowledge, this work is organized in two main parts. In the first part, two longitudinal studies are reported. Each infant received an auditory discrimination threshold task (using the rapid auditory processing paradigm) followed by a habituation/visual novelty detection task used as a control for general cognitive skills. The auditory discrimination threshold was evaluated using non-linguistic (tones) sounds in one cohort of infants and linguistic sounds (syllables) in another cohort of infants at 9 months in order to investigate the language-specificity of the process within the auditory modality. Subsequently, infants' vocabulary was assessed at 12-14-18 and 24 months and a cognitive test (Mullen scale) was performed at 18-20 months as another control measure for early processing competence. Results show that early processing abilities are predictive of later vocabulary size in typical infants. Importantly, atypical participants exhibited slower and less efficient processing abilities in both visual and acoustic modality. In the second part, the role of word frequency in bootstrapping the basic lexical categories of function and content words and their relative order is explored. The two lexical categories differ in their linguistic functions, phonological makeup and frequency of occurrence. Thus, their frequency-based discrimination could constitute a powerful initial mechanism for infants to acquire the basic building blocks of language. As functors constitute closed classes, while content words come in open classes, we examined whether 8 month-old French monolinguals relied on word frequency to categorize and track functors as non-replaceable items in a closed class, and content words as freely replaceable items in open classes. In five artificial grammar-learning experiments we have found that infants treat frequent words as belonging to closed classes, and infrequent words as belonging to open classes and they map the relative order of these categories onto the basic word order of their native language, French, a functor-initial language. Importantly, atypical participants showed lower ability of discrimination, encoding and memory when compared to typically developing peers. Overall this work contributes to a better understanding of the perceptual abilities that directly contribute to language development. Moreover, it proposes possible behavioural markers that can be potentially useful in the early identification of atypical learners.

The focus of this thesis is on index tracking that aims to replicate the movements of an index of a specific financial market. It is a form of passive portfolio (fund) management that attempts to mirror the performance of a specific index and generate returns that are equal to those of the index, but without purchasing all of the stocks that make up the index. Additionally, we consider the problem of out-performing the index - Enhanced Indexation. It attempts to generate modest excess returns compared to the index. Enhanced indexation is related to index tracking in that it is a relative return strategy. One seeks a portfolio that will achieve more than the return given by the index (excess return). In the first approach, we propose two models for the objective function associated with choice of a tracking portfolio, namely; minimise the maximum absolute difference between the tracking portfolio return and index return and minimise the average of the absolute differences between tracking portfolio return and index return. We illustrate and investigate the performance of our models from two perspectives; namely, under the exclusion and inclusion of fixed and variable costs associated with buying or selling each stock. The second approach studied is that of using Quantile regression for both index tracking and enhanced indexation. We present a mixed-integer linear programming of these problems based on quantile regression. The third approach considered is on quantifying the level of uncertainty associated with the portfolio selected. The quantification of uncertainty is of importance as this provides investors with an indication of the degree of risk that can be expected as a result of holding the selected portfolio over the holding period. Here a bootstrap approach is employed to quantify the uncertainty of the portfolio selected from our quantile regression model.

This thesis examines banking efficiency and the productivity of thirteen transition Central and Eastern European banking systems during 1998-2003 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It proposes a non-parametric methodology for non-radial Russell output efficiency measure of banking firms, incorporating risk as an undesirable output. In addition, the proposed efficiency measure handles unrestricted data, i. e. both positive and negative. The Luenberger productivity index is suggested, which is applicable to technology where the desirable and undesirable outputs are jointly produced, and are possibly negative. Furthermore, the thesis addresses the main issue in the literature on banking performance measurement, which concerns the lack of consistency in the conceptual and theoretical considerations in describing the banking production process. Consequently, a metaanalysis tool, to examine the choice of inputs and outputs definitions in the banking efficiency literature, is suggested. In addition, the performance measures are estimated using three alternative definitions of the banking production process focusing on the risk and environmental dimensions of bank efficiency and productivity, with further comparative analysis using bootstrapping and kernel density techniques. Overall, the empirical results suggest that in Central and Eastern Europe Czech, Hungarian and Polish banks were the most technical efficient banks and the banking risk was mainly affected by external environmental factors during the analyzed period. Productivity analysis implies that the main driver of productivity change in the Central and Eastern European banks is the technological improvement. As meta-analysis revealed, the choice of particular approach of describing the banking production process is determined not by the availability of particular input or output variable information but the concepts of researcher's theoretical considerations. Statistical tests and density analysis indicate that efficiency scores, returns parameters and productivity indexes are sensitive to the choice of particular approaches.

Energy efficiency measures in buildings and alternative heating methods have led to a decreased demand for district heating (DH). Furthermore, due to a recent increase in extreme weather events, it is harder for DH providers to maintain a steady production leading to increased costs. These issues have led DH companies to change their price models. This thesis investigated such a price model change, made by Mälarenergi (ME) on the 1st of August 2018. The aim was to compare the old price model (PM1) with the new price model (PM2) by investigating the choice of base and peak loads a customer can make for the upcoming year, and/or if they should let ME choose for them. A prediction method, based on predicting the hourly DH demand, was chosen after a literature study and several method comparisons were made from using weather parameters as independent variables. Consumption data from Mälarenergi for nine customers of different sizes were gathered, and eight weather parameters from 2014 to 2018 were implemented to build up the prediction model. The method comparison results from Unscrambler showed that multilinear regression was the most accurate statistical modelling method, which was later used for all predictions. These predictions from Unscrambler were then used in MATLAB to estimate the total annual cost for each customer and outcome. For PM1, the results showed that the flexible cost for the nine customers stands for 76 to 85 % of the total cost, with the remaining cost as fixed fees. For PM2, the flexible cost for the nine customers stands for 46 to 61 % of the total cost, with the remaining as fixed cost. Regarding the total cost, PM2 is on average 7.5 % cheaper than PM1 for smaller customer, 8.6 % cheaper for medium customers and 15.9 % cheaper for larger customers. By finding the lowest cost case for each customer their optimal base and peaks loads were found and with the use of a statistical inference method (Bootstrapping) a 95 % confidence interval for the base load and the total yearly cost with could be established. The conclusion regarding choices is that the customer should always choose their own base load within the recommended confidence interval, with ME’s choice seen as a recommendation. Moreover, ME should always make the peak load choice because they are willing to pay for an excess fee that the customer themselves must pay otherwise.