The preferential looking paradigm was used to investigate how toddlers integrate recently learned grammatical cues with well-established social cues in a novel word-learning scenario. To test this we examined children’s ability to decipher the referent of a novel noun using the grammatical information from a plural cue and social information from an eye-gaze cue. Experiment 1 is the first study showing that children as young as 24 months of age can rely on plural markings alone to infer the referent of a novel noun. Preliminary results of Experiment 2 suggest that when the plural cue is presented alongside contradicting information from a gaze direction cue, children still map the novel word to the grammatically cued object. Taken together, these results suggest that by the time children reach their second birthday, even newly learned grammatical information, such as plural markings, might already outweigh established social cues.

The preferential looking paradigm was used to investigate how toddlers integrate recently learned grammatical cues with well-established social cues in a novel word-learning scenario. To test this we examined children’s ability to decipher the referent of a novel noun using the grammatical information from a plural cue and social information from an eye-gaze cue. Experiment 1 is the first study showing that children as young as 24 months of age can rely on plural markings alone to infer the referent of a novel noun. Preliminary results of Experiment 2 suggest that when the plural cue is presented alongside contradicting information from a gaze direction cue, children still map the novel word to the grammatically cued object. Taken together, these results suggest that by the time children reach their second birthday, even newly learned grammatical information, such as plural markings, might already outweigh established social cues.

This thesis investigates the function of number marking in Persian, within the framework of principles and parameters (P&P), and its relationship to inflectional and derivational number marking. Following the assumption in Distributed Morphology that inflectional and derivational morphology are not distinct, the distribution and properties of number marking in Persian provide evidence for both inflectional and derivational number marking. Assuming the two parameters of number marking (Wiltschko, 2007, 2008), number marking as a functional head and number marking as a modifier, I propose that number marking in Persian is mainly inflectional while number functions as a functional head; moreover, I propose that number marking in Persian can be derivational while number functions as a modifier. This explains that number morphology in Persian is not split to either inflectional or derivational. Rather, following Booij’s (1993, 1995) claim that inflectional morphology can be used contextually as well as inherently, I propose that number morphology in Persian is inflectional while number is a functional head; however, it has inherent residues as a modifier. Considering the functions of inflectional plural morphology in Persian, I argue that the functional category Number Phrase (NumP) is projected in Persian, and number is generated in the head of this functional category. Besides, Persian is a classifier language in which classifiers are in complementary distribution with plural marking. Following Borer’s (2005) discussion of the complementary distribution of plural marking and classifiers in Armenian, I argue that the head of NumP in Persian is either occupied by the plural maker or by full/empty classifiers. Moreover, I show that the presence of bare singulars/plurals in certain syntactic positions in Persian is related to the projection/non-projection of NumP.

Moral realism is the view that there are such things as moral facts. Moral realists have attempted to combat the skeptical problem of relativism, which is that the truth of an ethical value judgment is often, or always, subjective, that is, relative to the parties it involves. This essay presents, discusses, and criticizes Hilary Putnam’s attempt at maintaining moral realism while at the same time maintaining a degree of epistemological relativism. Putnam’s positive account originates in moral epistemology, at the heart of which lies truth, as idealized rational acceptability or truth under ideal conditions. The bridge between moral epistemology and normative ethics stems from Putnam’s disintegration of facts and values. His theory is finalized in the construction of a normative moral theory, in which the central notion is incessant self-criticism in order to maintain rationality. After presenting Putnam’s core thesis, the criticism raised by Richard Rorty, is deliberated upon. Rorty is critical of Putnam’s attempt at holding on to objectivity, because he does not understand how objective knowledge can be both relative to a conceptual scheme, and at the same time objective. The conclusion is that Putnam is unable to maintain his notion of truth as idealized rational acceptability and is forced into epistemological relativism. Putnam’s normative ethics has characteristics in common with virtue ethics, and is of much interest regardless of whether it can be grounded epistemologically or not.

Uppsatsen syftar till att belysa de sociala drivkrafter som påverkar kvinnor att söka sig till managementkonsultbranschen. Ett grundläggande antagande i uppsatsen är att det är det sociala som primärt formar en individs upplevelse av mening i sin tillvaro. Mening definieras här utifrån ett weberianskt och socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv, d.v.s. att mening är den subjektiva innebörd som socialt har framförhandlats mellan aktörer i samhället. Fem kvinnors karriärval studeras genom ett empiriskt fenomenologiskt angreppssätt, vilket har används i syfte att nå fram till studiedeltagarnas meningsstrukturer och därmed komma närmre ”kärnan” i deras subjektiva upplevelser av vad som påverkat deras karriärval. För att fånga in de externa motivationsfaktorer som påverkar en individs yrkesval, har Bourdieus handlingsteori använts. De begrepp som används i störst utsträckning för att förklara deltagarnas karriärval är ”socialt rum”, ”kapital”, ”habitus” och ”distinktion”. Resultaten visar att tre teman av externa faktorer påverkar studiedeltagarna i hög utsträckning, nämligen: familj och bakgrund, vänner, kurskamrater och kollegor samt status, prestige och pengar. En majoritet av deltagarna kommer från ”priviligerade” familjer med akademisk bakgrund vilket av deltagarna anses ha socialiserat, och i viss utsträckning indoktrinerat, dem till att göra en viss typ av utbildnings- och yrkesval. Deltagarnas vänner, kurskamrater och kollegor har påverkat i den bemärkelsen att de har inspirerat och motiverat deltagarna. De har också utgjort en jämförelsepunkt och för i alla fall en deltagare har det varit viktigt att kunna växa i deras ögon. Status, prestige och pengar anses rent generellt påverka individer i branschen eftersom många anses värdesätta möjligheten att kunna göra vissa val i livet, exempelvis relaterat till bostad och kläder. Uppsatsens diskussionsavsnitt ger slutligen förslag på fortsatt forskning och framför allt lyfts teorier inspirerade av symbolisk interaktionism och/eller nätverksteori samt mer kritiskt orienterade teoribildningar fram. Dessa teorier tros med fördel kunna användas i framtida studier av de drivkrafter som påverkar individer att söka sig till managementkonsultbranschen.

This dissertation aims to scrutinize the fractions of the Turkish middle class, based on Bourdieu&rsquo / s theory of social, cultural, economic capitals and habitus. Distinction among the fractions was identified through lifestyles and tastes via home furnishing and decoration. A quantitative field research was conducted in two towns of Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, namely Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren and &Ccedil / ankaya, and the data was collected by applying a detailed questionnaire on a sample that is not representative. The data was analysed with SPSS. The outcomes of factor and multiple correspondence analyses were formulated as four fractions of the Turkish middle class: Lower/bitter, Middle/resentful, Upper/contemptuous, and Well-off/happy middle class. The structural and material conditions, social-psychological utterances of the respondents and interviewees, survey results, field notes and observations as well as insights collected from furniture/decoration magazines provided the basis for defining and naming these subcategories. This categorization is an important step for further studies of lifestyles and tastes of the fractions. Lifestyles were defined as everyday habits/routines/activities, and tastes as selections/arrangements of furniture/accessories of everyday life objects. The finding of the dissertation is that the middle class(es) in Ankara is stratified within itself and these fractions have different lifestyles and tastes of their own: The well-off/happy fraction has an &lsquo / outgoing&rsquo / lifestyle, and &lsquo / legitimate/highbrow taste&rsquo / the upper/contemptuous fraction has a &lsquo / shopping mallcentred&rsquo / lifestyle, and &lsquo / middlebrow taste&rsquo / the middle/resentful fraction has an &lsquo / emulationcentred&rsquo / lifestyle and &lsquo / popular taste&rsquo / finally, the lower/bitter fraction has a &lsquo / &lsquo / stuck to home, family and neighbors&rsquo / lifestyle and &lsquo / taste of necessity&rsquo / .

The effect of grammar instruction on second language acquisition continues to be a source of debate in SLA research. Previous studies have shown that input-based instruction such as Processing Instruction (PI) is more effective than traditional grammar instruction (TI) for the acquisition of grammatical structures such as object pronouns in Spanish, the Spanish preterite, the simple present vs. the present progressive in English, and the ser/estar contrast in Spanish (VanPatten and Cadierno, 1993; Cadierno, 1995; Buck, 2000; Cheng, 2004). This quasi-experimental, classroom-based study examines the effects of output-based instruction (OB) and PI on the acquisition of the perfective/imperfective aspectual distinction in French, shown to be difficult to master by English-speaking learners due to its linguistic and pragmatic complexity. Specifically, the research design investigates whether OB instruction and PI have significant effects on the learners' performance involving the interpretation and production of the passé composé and the imparfait in narration. Two second semester university level French classes at the University of Texas at Austin were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: an output-based instruction group (n=18) and a processing instruction group (n=17). A distinct instructional treatment was developed for both groups, and a pretest/posttest procedure was used to assess the effect of instruction. The two posttests were administered one day and one month after instruction. All tests except the pretest included a written interpretation task, a controlled written production task, and a written composition. The findings show that both the OB and the PI groups improved their performance significantly on the assessment tasks and that there was no statistical difference between the groups on any of the tasks. These results differ from those of previous PI research and suggest that either type of instruction, output-based or processing, may have had a significant impact on the learners' developing system. The type of output-based instruction used in this study differs from TI in that it does not include a mechanical component. The results of the present study are consistent with Farley (2004b) in showing that approaches to grammar instruction that are meaning-oriented may bring about significant effects on SLA. / text

This dissertation argues that there is a set of assumptions--or a picture, in Wittgenstein's language--that influences our thinking about who we are as human beings and our relationships to the rest of the world. These assumptions have their origins in Cartesianism and function as unrecognized, unacknowledged foundations on which all of the rest of our thinking and acting takes place. My argument is that these assumptions are deeply problematic and that we need to both examine the impact of those assumptions and beginning building alternative perspectives. I draw primarily from scholars who build upon a Wittgensteinian perspective that draws upon the Philosophical investigations, On certainty, and other volumes of Wittgenstein's work that have been published since the Philosophical Investigations. These scholars include Taylor (2007), Williams (2002), Mulhall (2007), Canfield (2004, 2007), Moyal-Sharrock (2004), Travis (2006, 2007), Schatzki (1996, 2001), and Stroll (2002, 2004). Of particular interest to me is the inner-outer distinction--or in Taylor's terms, dualist sorting--of Cartesian dualism, whereby all mental processes are contained within individual human minds that are separate and distinct from the rest of the reality. Taylor, Williams, Schatzki, and other Wittgensteinian scholars argue that this assumption continues to be relatively unacknowledged and unchallenged despite a long history of philosophical challenges to the Cartesian perspective. These scholars argue that the inner-outer distinction is deeply mistaken and yet continues to have an impact on contemporary life that is both pervasive and negative. A key part of my approach builds on Taylor's (2007) argument about the connection between ontology and epistemology within the Cartesian picture. Taylor argues that we get to a new picture only by carefully investigating the influences of the Cartesian picture and then building a new perspective out of alternatives to each piece of the Cartesian picture. Canfield (2004) argues similarly, referring to this as a bottom-up approach. In this work, I look at both theoretical and applied issues within the social sciences. I investigate how a few concrete practices play out within specific contexts when considered from an alternative perspective that takes unmediated knowledge and embodied practices (Taylor, 2007), a social conception of mind (Williams, 2002), and a relational ontology (Slife, 2004) as foundational. And finally, I present specific examples drawn from the applied practices of the social sciences with a focus on the delivery of psychological services (including psychology, psychotherapy, and counseling) and the teaching of communication (including writing, speaking, and interpersonal communication). The purpose of these examples is to bring out some of the contradictions and problems that occur because of the unacknowledged assumptions of the Cartesian picture and to show the kinds of solutions that an alternative perspective can provide. My goal is to provide concrete suggestions for thinking and acting within the context of particular practices using psychotherapy and teaching as the primary sources for examples. / text

Code-switching (CS) between French and Arabic is common across North Africa and in parts of the Middle East. Many researchers have examined this phenomenon in Tunisia (Belazi 1991, Lawson & Sachdev 2000, Belazi et. al 1994) and Morocco (Abbassi 1977, Bentahila 1983, Bentahila & Davies 1983, Lahlou 1991, Redouane 2005.) Corpus and elicited data from these two countries has helped form the basis of proposed universal constraints on code-switching, specifically the Functional Head Constraint (FHC) (Belazi et al 1994) and the Complement Adjunct Distinction (CAD) (Mahootian and Santorini 1996). However, CS between French and Moroccan and Tunsian dialects has not been directly investigated within a single study. This study is a step in filling that gap. Using a web-based survey, the present study examines native dialect speakers’ ratings of authenticity of sentences that contain both French and Arabic with a switch occurring in the Determiner Phrase (DP). The syntactic structure of the DP in the dialects examined is the same, (DP = D (D) N (A)). This is similar to the DP in French (DP = D (A) N (A)) with a few key differences that make it possible to test the FHC and CAD within the DP alone. An example of one of the eight possible switch types, between an Arabic Demonstrative Determiner and a French Definite Determiner, is seen here between Moroccan Arabic and French: Men dima had l’homme n’aime pas les chiens. (Since always this the man doesn’t like dogs.) A mixed-model ANOVA performed on the participants’ ratings reveals main effects for dialect, sex and switch type. Significant interactions also exist, including an interaction between switch type, sex and dialect. While further research is needed, the results indicate that syntactic constraints may not be the only way to understand the practice of CS. Instead, a typological approach, as suggested by Muysken (2000), may lead to a more complete understanding of why and how communities use multiple languages. / text

This thesis investigates the function of number marking in Persian, within the framework of principles and parameters (P&P), and its relationship to inflectional and derivational number marking. Following the assumption in Distributed Morphology that inflectional and derivational morphology are not distinct, the distribution and properties of number marking in Persian provide evidence for both inflectional and derivational number marking. Assuming the two parameters of number marking (Wiltschko, 2007, 2008), number marking as a functional head and number marking as a modifier, I propose that number marking in Persian is mainly inflectional while number functions as a functional head; moreover, I propose that number marking in Persian can be derivational while number functions as a modifier. This explains that number morphology in Persian is not split to either inflectional or derivational. Rather, following Booij’s (1993, 1995) claim that inflectional morphology can be used contextually as well as inherently, I propose that number morphology in Persian is inflectional while number is a functional head; however, it has inherent residues as a modifier. Considering the functions of inflectional plural morphology in Persian, I argue that the functional category Number Phrase (NumP) is projected in Persian, and number is generated in the head of this functional category. Besides, Persian is a classifier language in which classifiers are in complementary distribution with plural marking. Following Borer’s (2005) discussion of the complementary distribution of plural marking and classifiers in Armenian, I argue that the head of NumP in Persian is either occupied by the plural maker or by full/empty classifiers. Moreover, I show that the presence of bare singulars/plurals in certain syntactic positions in Persian is related to the projection/non-projection of NumP.