No description available.

No description available.

by Tan Lee Yong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-157). / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two --- The Aspectual Properties of Motion Verbs / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- The classification of verbs in English with regard to aspectual properties --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2 --- The classification of verbs in Chinese with regard to aspectual properties / Chapter 2.3 --- The aspectual properties of motion verbs --- p.26 / Chapter 2.4 --- Conclusion --- p.36 / Chapter Chapter Three --- The Ergativity of Motion Verbs / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.38 / Chapter 3.1 --- What is ergativity? --- p.38 / Chapter 3.2 --- The semantic approach to ergativity --- p.41 / Chapter 3.3 --- The syntactic approach to ergativity --- p.46 / Chapter 3.4 --- The syntactic-semantic approach to ergativity --- p.49 / Chapter 3.5 --- The ergativity of motion verbs --- p.60 / Chapter 3.6 --- The interrelationship of ergativity and aspectuality of motion verbs --- p.66 / Chapter 3.7 --- Ergativity in Chinese --- p.78 / Chapter 3.8 --- Conclusion --- p.91 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Lexicalization Patterns of Motion Verbs / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.94 / Chapter 4.1 --- What are lexicalization patterns? --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2 --- More on the properties of motion verbs --- p.97 / Chapter 4.3 --- Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs: a crosslinguistic review --- p.100 / Chapter 4.4 --- Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in English --- p.112 / Chapter 4.5 --- Lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in Chinese --- p.121 / Chapter 4.6 --- Conclusion --- p.135 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Summary and Conclusion --- p.136 / Notes --- p.145 / References --- p.148 / Appendix 1 A comprehensive list of motion verbs in English --- p.158 / Appendix 2 A comprehensive list of motion verbs (roots only) in Chinese --- p.160

Tsai, Ya Ching. / Thesis submitted in: December 2008. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-160). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; includes Chinese characters. / Acknowledgement --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / 摘要 --- p.iii / Table of contents --- p.iv / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Objective --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Ambiguity detection --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Definition of ambiguity --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- Lexical ambiguity --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- Structural ambiguity --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Structure of the thesis --- p.8 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1 --- Prosodic phonology --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Prosodic hierarchy --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- "Syllable, foot and phonological word" --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Clitics --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.1.3 --- Clitic group --- p.16 / Chapter 2.1.1.4 --- Phonological phrase --- p.19 / Chapter 2.1.1.5 --- Intonational phrase --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Organization of prosodic structure --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Stress clash --- p.28 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Eurhythmic rule --- p.29 / Chapter 2.1.2.3 --- Stress-timing vs. syllable-timing --- p.31 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Syntax and phonology interaction --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2 --- Prosodic disambiguation --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Previous studies and preliminary findings --- p.35 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Disambiguation strategies --- p.36 / Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- Intonational phrasing --- p.37 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Accent placement --- p.38 / Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- Pause insertion and lengthening --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2.2.4 --- Pitch reset --- p.41 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Examples of prosodic disambiguation devices in Italian --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Examples of prosodic disambiguation devices in Chinese --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Different approaches in accounting for disambiguation --- p.48 / Chapter 2.2.5.1 --- Syntactic approach --- p.51 / Chapter 2.2.5.2 --- Prosodic approach --- p.52 / Chapter 3. --- Methodology --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1 --- ToBI Annotation System --- p.55 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- ToBI for Italian --- p.57 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- ToBI for Mandarin --- p.58 / Chapter 3.2 --- Assumptions and research questions --- p.60 / Chapter 3.3 --- Production experiment --- p.62 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Chinese --- p.64 / Chapter 3.3.1.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3.1.2 --- A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities --- p.66 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.1 --- Pro-drop ambiguity --- p.70 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.2 --- Polysemous de --- p.73 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.3 --- Modifier grouping ambiguity --- p.76 / Chapter 3.3.1.2.4 --- Attachment ambiguity --- p.77 / Chapter 3.3.1.3 --- The role of intonational phrasing in prosodic disambiguation --- p.78 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Italian --- p.81 / Chapter 3.3.2.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.82 / Chapter 3.3.2.2 --- A preview of the various syntactic ambiguities --- p.85 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.1 --- Pro-drop ambiguity --- p.86 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.2 --- Modifier grouping ambiguity --- p.90 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.3 --- Attachment ambiguity --- p.91 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.4 --- Relative clause ambiguity --- p.94 / Chapter 3.3.2.2.5 --- Homographic ambiguity --- p.96 / Chapter 3.3.2.3 --- Salience of accent placement --- p.98 / Chapter 3.3.2.4 --- Universality of semantic ambiguity --- p.100 / Chapter 3.4 --- Perception experiment --- p.101 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Experiment procedure --- p.102 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Discussion --- p.104 / Chapter 3.4.2.1 --- Better prediction by the prosodic approach --- p.106 / Chapter 3.4.2.2 --- The preferred reading effect --- p.106 / Chapter 3.4.2.3 --- Peculiarity of two toneless suffixes and how it is reflected in prosody --- p.110 / Chapter 3.4.2.4 --- Parenthetical expressions as an intonational phrase? --- p.112 / Chapter 3.5 --- General discussion --- p.114 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusion --- p.119 / Chapter 4.1 --- Summary --- p.119 / Chapter 4.2 --- Significance --- p.127 / Chapter 4.3 --- Limitations and future perspectives --- p.127 / Appendices / Appendix I --- p.129 / Appendix II --- p.131 / Appendix III --- p.143 / Appendix IV --- p.145 / Appendix V --- p.153 / Appendix VI --- p.154 / Appendix VII --- p.156 / Bibliography --- p.157 / List of Figures / Figure 2.1 Pitch reset --- p.42 / Figure 2.2 Major intonation group --- p.42 / "Figure 3.1 ToBI transcription of the English sentence If he can, then there´ةs no argument about it" --- p.57 / "Figure 3.2 ToBIt transcription of the Italian sentence No, no, niente. Disse. Un lieve capogiro" --- p.58 / Figure 3.3 M一ToBI transcription of the Mandarin sentence Weili mailarou --- p.59 / Figure 3.4 The wave form of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III --- p.83 / Figure 3.5 Annotation example of Speaker T reading (2a) from Appendix III --- p.83 / Figure 3.6 Percentage of correct responses according to ambiguity types --- p.110 / List of Tables / Table 2.1 Relations between the syntactic and prosodic structures of ambiguous sentences & percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning of ambiguous sentences --- p.53 / Table 2.2 Italian examples of different types of ambiguous sentences --- p.54 / Table 3.1 Chinese ambiguity based on Nespor and Vogel´ةs ten relation types --- p.64 / Table 3.2 Performance of the Chinese informants at real or potential I boundaries --- p.68 / Table 3.3 Performance of the Italian informants at intermediate and intonational phrase boundaries --- p.84 / Table 3.4 Percentage of responses corresponding to intended meaning --- p.105

No description available.

This thesis presents an account of the nature of structured propositions and addresses a series of questions that arise from that proposal. Chapter 1 presents the account and explains how it meets standard objections to such views. Chapter 2 responds to the objection that this version of propositionalism is really a form of sententialism by arguing for the distinct advantages of the propositionalist view. Chapter 3 argues against a closely related view of propositions by way of general principles about how to construct such theories. Chapter 4 illustrates how a theory of propositions of the sort proposed can be defended against a recent argument that propositions need not play a central role in linguistic theory.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis defends Semantic Pluralism, the view that sentences express sets of propositions in context. It puts forward two arguments against Contextualism, the main opposing view, on which each sentence expresses exactly one proposition in context. It spells out two versions of Pluralism: Flexible Pluralism, which takes most sentences to be context-sensitive, and Strong Pluralism, which denies that context-sensitivity is widespread. And it defends Flexible Pluralism and Strong Pluralism from a number of objections.

本論文從詞彙語義的角度探討二語英語中的低被動化現象。本文將就常見的低被動化英語動詞，以動詞語義為基礎，進行類型劃分及解析。通過審視一個香港學習者語料庫中的低被動化結構，本文將確定二語英語中低被動化結構的性質以及分佈情況。基於一組因果及物性的語義特徵，語料庫中經常被學習者低被動化的動詞，將劃分為四類型：一）改變位置動詞，二）三方動詞，三）動態效應動詞，及四）非施事動詞；四主類型再劃分為九次類型。本論文將以語義特徵，例如力傳遞、因果關係和結束點，詳細解析每個低被動化動詞。這項就二語英語中低被動化動詞的類型劃分，不單能夠從語義的角度解析低被動化現象，亦可以用作分析其他與語態有關的二語現象，如泛被動化，以及應用於語言教學。 / This dissertation is a lexical semantic study of underpassivized verbs in L2 English. By adopting a verb-oriented and meaning-based approach to underpassivization, this study produces a lexical semantic classification and analysis of frequently underpassivized verbs. A Hong Kong learner corpus is examined in order to determine the nature and extent of underpassivized constructions in L2 English. Based on a set of semantic features of cause-effect transitivity, underpassivization-prone verbs in the corpus are classified into four types, namely 1) Change of position verbs, 2) Tripartite verbs, 3) Dynamic effect verbs and 4) Non-agentive verbs. A total of nine sub-types are identified, and each verb is analyzed according to semantic features such as force transmission, causation, affectedness and telicity. The typology not only provides a lexical semantic account of L2 underpassivization but can also be applied to analyze other voice-related L2 phenomena such as overpassivization and to inform pedagogical practices. / The present study is an initial attempt to apply findings from lexical semantics to the description and explanation of learner errors. Previous studies mainly regard L2 underpassivization as a syntactic phenomenon that can be accounted for using transfer, and argue that L2 underpassivization is the result of the transfer of the topic-comment structure in L1s such as Chinese and Japanese to English (Yip 1995). The transfer theory overlooks the role verb meaning plays in voice-related errors, and is limited in its ability to explain the L2 phenomenon fully. This study investigates underpassivization as a lexical semantic phenomenon, drawing from previous works on proto-roles (Dowty 1991), event structure (Croft 1994) and transitivity (Hopper & Thompson 1980; Tsunoda 1985), and following the tradition in lexical semantics of analyzing verb meaning based on argument alternations (Pinker 1989; Levin 1993). It is believed that when learners underpassivize verbs, they are detransitivizing and decausativizing an originally transitive event. Using the features of cause-effect transitivity, the study shows that reduced transitivity will cause problems for learners in their construal of the event’s cause-effect relation and hence their allocation of thematic roles in the verb’s argument structure, resulting in underpassivization. It is hoped that by focusing on argument structure and event dynamics, this study can offer insights into the impact of verb meaning in the construal of transitivity and the use and misuse of grammatical voice. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Wong, Suzanne Shu-Shan. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-235). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Wong, Suzanne Shu-Shan.