M.A. (German) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The classification of predicates according to their aspectual properties has a long history, dating back to Aristotle. Perhaps the most influential classification can be attributed to Vendler (1967). The time schemata to distinguish his four classes relies on a combination of entailment patterns and behaviours of "verbs" in different structures. Since Vendler, many researchers have revisited this classification, differing on both the proposed number of classes as well as the ways in which they are derived. Although they use different diagnostics to motivate their systems, what these approaches seem to share in common is the claim that aspectual classes are universal. This thesis addresses this claim and proposes that based on data from Skwxwu7mesh (a.k.a. Squamish), the representations of predicates vary crosslinguistically. I argue for a classification based on the presence/absence of intrinsic initial and final points in predicate representations. Chapters Two and Three are concerned with final points and initial points, respectively. I present four diagnostics which I argue test for the presence of final points and two diagnostics that test for the presence of initial points. Based on the results of these tests, I propose a modification of Rothstein's (2004) predicate templates (that in turn are a modification of Dowty's 1979 templates) to account for the classification of Skwxwu7mesh predicate classes that emerges. Chapters Four and Five are concerned with perfectivity and imperfectivity, respectively. In these chapters, I motivate the claim that Skwxwu7mesh has both a progressive marker and an imperfective marker. I propose that adopting Dowty's (1979) analysis of the progressive and Kratzer's (1998) analysis of the imperfective, along with the predicate representations introduced in chapters two and three, can derive the readings of progressive and imperfective predicates in Skwxwu7mesh. Based on a small study involving 10 native speakers of English who are not linguists, in Chapter Six I briefly revisit English aspectual classes. Using the results of some of the diagnostics from chapters two and three, I show the contrast between English and Skwxwu7mesh predicate representations, highlighting the claim that aspectual classes do indeed vary cross-linguistically. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

This thesis discusses four selected topics on Yoruba nominal expressions: the syntax of possessives, the construal of bare nouns, the marking of specificity and salience, and plural marking strategies. Regarding possessives, it is proposed that they have one base structure (a v P shell). The difference in surface linear order between verbal and nominal genitives is determined by which of the two arguments move. In nominal genitives, the possessum moves. In verbal genitives, it is the possessor that moves. Regarding the interpretation of Yoruba bare nouns, it is shown that they can be construed in one of three ways: as generics, as indefinites, or as definites. First, generics may be lexically conditioned (with permanent state predicates) or grammatically conditioned (with transitory predicates through the use of imperfective maa-n). Second, wherever a generic construal is illicit, an indefinite construal is licit. Third, definite construals are discourse-linked. Regarding specificity, it is shown that Yoruba overtly marks specificity on NPs with the element kan. Regarding salience, it is shown that definite DPs are morphologically marked as salient (by virtue of being unique, in an identity relation or additive) through the use of ndd. Finally, regarding plural marking, it is shown that Yoruba uses three different strategies: contextually, semantically, or morphologically determined plurality. It is proposed that the deployment of the PLURAL feature is determined by feature percolation or feature matching. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Dispersion of mass is a measure of the deviation of transportation of fluid in a reactor from ideal reactor behavior (perfect mixing or plug flow) caused by the combined effects of diffusion, convection and migration. Axial dispersion is always undesirable because it reduces the driving force of the reaction and therefore causes a lower level of conversion. On the other hand, transverse dispersion is often a desirable feature since good transverse mixing will reduce the transverse concentration and temperature gradients and hence improve the selectivity of a thermochemical reactor. Transverse dispersion of mass is of more importance in a three-dimensional flow-by electrochemical reactor than that in a thermochemical reactor because the potential drop is in the transverse direction and the reaction rate and selectivity are determined by the potential as well as concentration and temperature distributions. The transverse dispersion of mass is expected to have a more profound effect on the performance of a 3D electrochemical reactor due to the strong interaction among the concentration, temperature and potential distributions in the transverse direction. In the present work, the axial and transverse dispersion of mass were studied with a twodimensional dispersion model in two types of rectangular packed bed: i) randomly packed glass beads with the average bead diameter of 2 mm and a macroscopic bed porosity of 0.41; ii) a representation of a 3D flow-by electrode - consisting of a bed of carbon felt with the carbon fibre diameter of 20 urn and a macroscopic bed porosity of 0.95. A tracer stimulation-response system was set up and axial and transverse dispersion of In Blackfoot, DPs appear to take obligatory wide scope with respect to the universal quantifier while bare nouns take obligatory narrow scope with respect to the universal quantifier. I propose that the difference in scope-taking properties of Blackfoot nominals is a consequence of their syntactic position. I propose that over argument DPs are adjoined to the clause whereas bare nouns are base generated in an argument position. I suggest that the scope properties fall out from this distinction in the syntax. The Blackfoot universal quantifier, ohkan-, is a preverb. That is, ohkan- occurs as a part of the verb stem preceding the verb root itself. I propose that ohkan- is head of its own QP which takes the VP as its complement. I follow Sportiche (1998) in categorizing ohkan- as a stranded quantifier since it is base generated external to VP. Bare nouns, since they are generated within VP, are structurally inferior to ohkan-, since they are within its c-command domain. The adjoined DPs, however, are structurally superior to ohkan-, since they are adjoined to the clause. I propose that the structural superiority of DPs translates to their obligatory wide scope. Conversely, the structural inferiority of bare nouns translates to their obligatory narrow scope. Blackfoot is a relatively understudied Algonquian language spoken in Southern Alberta and Northern Montana. The Blackfoot data presented in this work come primarily from my own work with two Blackfoot speakers. Both of my language consultants hail from Southern Alberta speak and the Blood dialect of Blackfoot. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Orientador: Sonia Maria Lazzarini Cyrino / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T19:24:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Prim_CristinadeSouza_D.pdf: 1135362 bytes, checksum: 6e65e87a4ffa2b0dcf7a6ddeafb1314f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: Buscamos com esta tese trazer uma nova forma de analisar a sintaxe e a semântica dos adjetivos que ocorrem dentro dos NP/DPs do Português Brasileiro. De forma geral, a literatura oferece uma explicação baseada na correlação posição-interpretação do adjetivo, o que mostrou não dar conta de uma série de dados. Neste trabalho, defendemos que os adjetivos são gerados à direita do nome, em adjunção, com exceção dos exclusivamente pré-nominais, e que são os adjetivos, e não os nomes, que se movem para uma posição mais alta que o nome. A motivação do movimento parte do determinante, que, a depender de seus traços, oferece ambiente para hospedagem do adjetivo qualificativo movido. No caso dos DPs referenciais, o determinante que é específico projeta uma categoria TopP, capaz de receber o adjetivo, também específico. Caso o determinante não seja específico, não há projeção que possa receber o adjetivo qualificativo, pois TopP não é projetado nestes casos, e por isso, o adjetivo não pode se mover. Também argumentamos que no caso dos DPs quantificacionais, o adjetivo poderá se mover para uma projeção focal. Assim, mostramos que a comparação entre o movimento do adjetivo com a periferia esquerda da sentença dá conta de resolver os problemas que as propostas anteriores apresentavam, além de também oferecer explicação para o que a literatura já havia alcançado. A proposta é econômica, na medida que somente uma classe de adjetivos se move, e os demais movimentos que possam ocorrer são independentes da leitura e dos requisitos do adjetivo / Abstract: This dissertation aims to bring a new way of analyzing the syntax and the semantics of adjectives in the NP/DPs of Brazilian Portuguese. Generally the literature gives an explanation based on the correlation position-interpretation of the adjective, but it cannot solve many cases. In this work we defend that adjectives, except those exclusively prenominal, are generated, in addition, on the right side of the noun, and that adjectives, instead of nouns, move to a higher position. The determiner motivates this movement and, depending on its features, offers an ambience to host the qualifying adjective. In the case of referential DPs, the specific determiner projects a TopP category that becomes able to receive the adjective, which is also specific. If the determiner is not specific, there is not a projection able to receive the qualifying adjective because, in this case, there is not a projected TopP and then the adjective cannot be moved. We also discuss that adjectives can be moved to a focal projection in quantificational DPs cases. In this way, we show that the comparison between the movement of the adjective and the left periphery of the sentence can solve the problems presented in other analysis, besides offering an explanation to what literature had already achieved. Our proposal is economic since only one class of adjectives is moved and the other movements are independent from the readings and the requirements of adjectives / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutora em Linguística

The objective of the diploma thesis Preconception of the Syntactic Relations of Coordiantion, Aposition and Dominance at Elementary School is to discover whether pupils in the 5th , 6th and 7th grade of elementary school are able to distinguish syntactic relations. At first, the issue of the preconception is defined in the context of constructivist teaching concept, which works with the preconceptions actively. After that, the concept of syntactic relations is described in linguistic literature and textbooks, Framework Educational Programme, and methodological publications. A research tool which consists of special prepared exercises for the research purpose of this thesis was used to investigate the preconception of syntactic relations. The pupils did these exercises individually. By means of semi-structured dialogues it was investigated, how were the pupils thinking during the work. The dialogues were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The research sample comprised of 35 pupils from the 5th to 7th grade of a Prague elementary school. The research shows that the pupils are able to think about syntactic relations on a pre-conceptual basis spontaneously but the interference of the school teaching shows in the way of their thinking, namely in a formal approach to categorization and primary looking...

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Humanities. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 210-215. / Ph.D.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. / Bibliography: leaves 256-259. / by Marcia Christine Linebarger. / Ph.D.