Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sheffield. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 360-378).

The first part of this thesis addresses the following questions: where in the syntactic tree, and at what representational level is an NP Case-checked. To this end, it presents converging data from French, Welsh and Irish, which suggest (i) that Case-checking may be accomplished under a variety of functional projections (subject to parametric variation); and (ii) that Case positions are--at least partially--independent of the A/A$ sp prime$-distinction. It furthermore presents evidence from Irish and Welsh--VSO languages in which NPs typically raise to their Case position only at LF--that NPs are, under certain conditions, Case-checked at S-structure. / Chapter 2 investigates word order and cliticisation in Standard French and Quebec French interrogatives and proposes a typology of interrogatives. Chapter 3 and 4 account for complementizer variation, pre-verbal particles and agreement patterns in Welsh and Irish under a Case-theoretic approach. / The second part of this thesis concerns the conditions on the availability of structural accusative Case. A theory of structural Case is proposed according to which accusativity is a configurational rather than a lexical property--i.e., resulting from syntactic geometry and not from lexical feature specifications on verbs. To this end, a comparison between the syntactic mapping of stative and perfective predicates in Irish and English is undertaken.

On the basis of an investigation of a corpus of 5.5 million words, this thesis analyses the use of the present perfect in modem American and British English. The investigation traces the development of the present perfect from its origins as a structure with adjectival meaning to its modern-day use as an aspectual verb form. A frequency analysis tests the claims of various writers that the present perfect is losing ground against the preterite and is less frequent in American than in British English. Neither claim is supported by the results of this analysis. A temporal specifier analysis investigates the co-occurrence of a large number of adverbials with the various verb forms. It finds that certain groups of specifiers which have hitherto been considered markers for the present perfect are in fact very poor indicators. Specifiers indicating a period of time lasting up to the moment of utterance, however, are found to be very reliable indicators. With one exception no significant difference was found between the British and American corpora in this respect. A functional-semantic analysis examines the various theories of the present perfect against the background of the results of the empirical investigation and finds them to be insufficient in one or more respects. In the final chapter the division between tense and aspect is shown to be artificial and a model of the present perfect is presented which is based on the idea of multilayered aspectual values. The model is centred on the unifying concept of phragmatisation - the closing of the event time-frame. According to this model, discourse topics involving the present perfect are perceived to describe an event which takes place in a time frame which is not closed to the deictic zero point at the moment of utterance. The final section describes which factors are operative in the phragmatisation or closing of event time frames.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-203).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the mass nouns in Tshivenda. The specific mass nouns in each nominal class will then be investigated to see whether they have certain morphological and syntactic features which are different from count nouns. Chapter one is the introduction of this study. It describes the aim, organisation and method of the study. Chapter two is the overview of the literature on mass nouns. It gives overview of the most prominent words on mass nouns in general. Some of the prominent works on this alternation include the following: Pelletier (1979a, 1979b,); Ware (1979), Cartwright (1979), McCawley (1979) Chierchia (1982), Link (1983) and Eschenbach (1993). Chapter three investigates which nouns may be mass nouns, the purpose of the classification of nouns in wordnet, nominal classes in Tshivenda and the morphological and syntactic features of mass and count nouns. Chapter four is the conclusion of the study, the summary as well as investigation into the morphological, syntactic and semantic feature of plurality. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die meervoudige naamwoorde in Tshivenda. Die spesifieke meervoudige naamwoorde sal elkeen in sy normale klas geondersoek word om te sien of hulle sekere morfologiese en sintaktiese eienskappe het, wat nie ooreen stem met tel naamwoorde. Hoofstuk 1 is die inleiding van hierdie studie. Dit beskryf die doelwit, organisasie en metode van die studie. Hoofstuk 2 is ‘n oorsig van die literatuur aangaande meervoudige naamwoorde. Hierdie is ‘n oorsig van die mees prominente meervoudige naamwoorde in die algemeen. Sommige van die prominente werke van hierdie nasie sluit die volgende in: Pelletier 91979a; 1979b), Ware (1979), Cartwright (1979), McCawley (1979), Chierchia (1982), Link (1983) en Eschenbach (1993). Hoofstuk 3 identifiseer meervoudige naamwoorde. Die doel van die klasifikasie van naamwoorde in woordnet, normale klassie in Tshivenda en die morfologiese en sintaktiese eienskappe van meervoudigheid. Hoofstuk 4 is die konklusie van die studie, die opsomming as ook die ondersoek in die morfologiese, sinktaktiese en semantieke eienskappe van meervoudigheid.