In this study a set of rules that generate certain time expressions in English is constructed. The methodology used is mainly that outlined by Noam Chomsky in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965). The discussion is confined to those time expressions that are single words, single phrases, or sequences of phrases in surface structure. These have the basic deep structure Prep + Det + N (S'), where N has the syntactic feature [+ Time]. Surface structure single word time expressions are derived from this deep structure by deleting Prep and rewriting the NP as a single lexical item; surface structure sequences of phrases are derived by applying the relative clause transformation to the embedded S. Chomsky's list of syntactic features for nouns is extended by adding some inherent features and some selectional features. The additions are needed to distinguish nouns that can occur in time expressions from those that cannot, to state the collocation restrictions between some prepositions and determiners and the time nouns, and to state certain ordering restrictions on surface structure sequences of phrases. The time expressions considered are subcategorized into Locative Time and Duration Time on the basis of collocation with some subclasses of Verb. These subcategories are formally distinct in that their prepositions are mutually exclusive. Locative Time expressions are further sub-categorized into Dynamic Time expressions, those whose collocation restrictions with Auxiliary expansions are linguistically determinable, and Static Time expressions, those whose collocation restrictions are not linguistically determinable. These two subcategories are, again, formally distinct, for their determiners are mutually exclusive. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This thesis is the first work devoted specifically to the syntax of wh-questions in a Southern Interior Salish language. As such, it provides a descriptive foundation for future work on the syntax of Okanagan, as well as forming the basis for comparative investigation of wh-questions both within the Southern Interior branch of the Salish family and between the Southern Interior and other better known branches. Chapter 2 examines the basic word order patterns for clauses and describes the distribution of determiners and complementizers in cleft constructions. Chapter 3 compares three potential analyses of wh-questions for Okanagan: a wh-in-situ analysis,, a wh-movement analysis, and a cleft analysis. I show that a wh-in-situ analysis was not viable for Okanagan on the basis of a comparison of word order possibilities in non-wh sentences and wh-questions. I then turned to the other two possible analyses, a wh-movement analysis along the lines of English, and a cleft analysis, as suggested for other Salish languages by Davis et al (1993) and Kroeber (1991, 1999). Choosing between these analyses proved much more difficult: evidence exists both for and against each analysis, and I was unable to choose between them. Chapter 4 examines multiple wh-questions in Okanagan. It appeared possible for at least some speakers to produce multiple wh-questions with either two argument wh-phrases or an argument and an adjunct wh-phrase. The latter type of multiple wh-question showed an interesting type of reverse superiority effect: speakers consistently preferred to place the argument wh-phrase in preverbal position and the adjunct wh-phrase in post-verbal position. If this really is a superiority effect, it implies that the relative structural positions of adjuncts and arguments are the opposite of those found in English. Chapter 5 investigates long-range wh-dependencies. First of all, I established that such dependencies are indeed possible. I show that long-range dependencies are sensitive to at least three standard island constraints: the Complex Noun Phrase Constraint, the Wh-Island Constraint and the Adjunct Island Constraint. Though I was unable to choose between a wh-movement and a wh-cleft analysis for wh-questions, my research unequivocally establishes the existence of A-bar movement dependencies in Okanagan. This is demonstrated by the existence of long-range movement assymetries as shown by superiority effects in multiple wh-questions and by the existence of adjunct island effects which argue strongly that there must be a configurational basis for the argument/adjunct distinction contra the Pronominal Argument Hypothesis (see Jelinek and Demers 1994 on Northern Straits Salish). Another important consequence of this work is the distinction between two types of focus structure in Okanagan. On the one hand, as in other Salish languages, a nominal predicate (including a wh-predicate based on the argument wh-words swit and stim') may occur with a relative clause introduced by the determiner i?; on the other hand both adjunct and argument DP's (including wh-adjuncts) may occur in cleft structures introduced by one of the complementizers ki?and ta?. Though this distinction corresponds in some ways to that between 'bare' and 'introduced' clefts in other Salish languages (see Kroeber 1999, pg. 370-373), the details of the introduced cleft construction in particular differ in significant ways from the rest of Salish. It remains to be seen how other Southern Interior languages behave in this respect. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

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The thesis describes research into graphical notations for software engineering, with a principal interest in ways of formalizing them. The research seeks to provide a theoretical basis that will help in designing both notations and the software tools that process them. The work starts from a survey of literature on notation, followed by a review of techniques for formal description and for computational handling of notations. The survey concentrates on collecting views of the benefits and the problems attending notation use in software development; the review covers picture description languages, grammars and tools such as generic editors and visual programming environments. The main problem of notation is found to be a lack of any coherent, rigorous description methods. The current approaches to this problem are analysed as lacking in consensus on syntax specification and also lacking a clear focus on a defined concept of notated expression. To address these deficiencies, the thesis embarks upon an exploration of serniotic, linguistic and logical theory; this culminates in a proposed formalization of serniosis in notations, using categorial model theory as a mathematical foundation. An argument about the structure of sign systems leads to an analysis of notation into a layered system of tractable theories, spanning the gap between expressive pictorial medium and subject domain. This notion of 'tectonic' theory aims to treat both diagrams and formulae together. The research gives details of how syntactic structure can be sketched in a mathematical sense, with examples applying to software development diagrams, offering a new solution to the problem of notation specification. Based on these methods, the thesis discusses directions for resolving the harder problems of supporting notation design, processing and computer-aided generic editing. A number of future research areas are thereby opened up. For practical trial of the ideas, the work proceeds to the development and partial implementation of a system to aid the design of notations and editors. Finally the thesis is evaluated as a contribution to theory in an area which has not attracted a standard approach.

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Postpositives (in particular, aut-, u-, av, tls) , which do not stand in initial position, have a strong traditional tendency in early Greek word-order to stand in 'peninitial' (second) position; but by classical times this has been modified by frequent 'deferment' to later positions. The thesis is a preliminary to a study of the causes of deferment through comparison of peninitial and deferred instances in which the author has free choice between different word-orders, i.e. is constrained neither by rules associated with his dialect or period nor by habitual formulae. Rules, which reduce the number of 'possible' positions, are listed, and their exceptions studied, in Chapter Two, and Formulae, which may explain, by attraction to the position following particular words, individual cases of both peninitial position and deferment, in Chapter Three. In Chapter One, possible causes of deferment are discussed: 'unit-formation', 'colon-formation', 'formulaism', Comparison of passages in Homer and Herodotus suggests that in many cases these overlap, different causes reinforcing each other; this will make it difficult to eliminate the possibility that further causes may exist. Despite grounds for doubting that grammatical relations determine word-order, there are many cases where a deferred postpositive follows its most closely-related verb; it is revealed that the change from prevalence of peninitial position in Homer to deferment in Herodotus is accompanied more than anything else by an increase in the order verb--postpositive. This theme is continued in Chapter Two with the discovery in Rules XXIV ff. that not only does av not come later than directly after its verb but the others studied are similarly influenced by elements, verbal or substantial, to which they 'belong'; thus the problem of relations with the verb reduces in normal usage to two possibilities, either somewhere before or directly after; the latter is a primary phenomenon compatible with peninitial position but often causing deferment. The tables proving Rules XXV ff. reveal interesting patterns which may be stylometrically useful. In Chapter Four, the conclusions are summed up, and some applied to textual problems in the texts mainly studied (Thucydides, Plato, Demosthenes) and tentatively to detecting discrepancies of style in the spurious and suspected works of the Platonic corpus.

M.A. (African Languages) / In this dissertation the copulative in Tsonga is analyzed in all its aspects. The treatment of copulatives in literature on Tsonga is discussed in detail and views of authors on other South African languages compared with it. A theoretical framework for the description of copulatives is offered, including such aspects as the definition of the word, the verb categories of the language, and the terminology needed for the subject. A principled basis for the classification of types of copulatives is then given, after which the identification, descriptive, stative and inchoative copulatives of Tsonga are analyzed in detail.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy