NEGATION is a semantic feature found mainly on clause/sentence level. Negation in Afrikaans is characterised by (a) NEG1-forms represented by various particles which are located within the major constituents of the sentence (eg. in the auxiliary, as part of the subject-nominal etc.), and (b) NEG2 that is the closing particle (= NIE2) in sentence-final position.

In this thesis I discuss the problem of negative polarity items (NPls). NPis are items that have to be licensed by a certain group of expressions. In this group of expressions which can trigger NPIs we find, among other things: negations, adversative expressions, questions and conditionals. I show that there is an important problem for a grammatical approach to negative polarity: the group of expressions which can licence NPls can't be adequately defined in a grammatical way. There is, however, a semantic way of defining the group of expressions that can licence NPIs. In semantics the group is often referred to as the group of "triggers". It can be proven logically that the group of triggers can be divided into four subgroups: a group of downward-entailing expressions, antimultiplicative expressions, anti-additive expressions and antimorphic expressions. By carrying out a corpus study I find evidence for the hypothesis that the way in which NPIs are licenced by the triggers with different logical properties originates from the different grammatical classes of NPIs (negative polarity nouns, negative polarity adjectives and negative polarity verbs). Since there is evidence for this causal relation, I argue that a grammatical approach to NPI-triggering is necessary from a formal point of view. I give a Minimalist account of NPI-triggering. To make the Minimalist Program suitable for NPI-triggering I have to assume, however, that the semantic information about triggers is available in the lexicon of the MP.

This thesis aims to examine the issues involved in utilising digital images and assess whether image processing techniques can be used as a cost-effective method of reconstructing the image found in a deteriorated cellulose acetate negative. Negatives affected by the vinegar syndrome are found in large numbers within Australian institutions. This was confirmed by a survey (using a questionnaire) undertaken at the National Library of Australia in 2000. The survey also found that although these collections are large, and hence the level of deterioration variable, little could be done to restore any of the negatives once deterioration had begun. Storing negatives at low temperature and low relative humidity slows down the breakdown of cellulose acetate; however, it cannot reverse the process once it has commenced. Although removing the gelatine pellicular from the deteriorated cellulose acetate support (making the image easier to view) a possible method of restoration, this becomes unfeasible when dealing with a large collection. As a result, how to manage cellulose acetate negatives once they have deteriorated becomes problematic. Image-processing techniques used to digitally restore these negatives were examined via a series of case studies. These examinations were undertaken using two software packages-the Image Processing Tool kit (IPTK) and OPTIMAS. Deteriorated cellulose acetate negatives were scanned, then a number of program filters were applied to the digital image to determine whether disfiguring elements (referred to as channelling elements) resulting from the deteriorated support could be digitally removed. IPTK and OPTIMAS were not completely successful in removing the deteriorated elements from the digital version. The results highlighted that a number of issues relating to the use of digital technology needed to be addressed. These issues included knowledge of basic technical terms, an understanding of digital language, and how to include the use of digital technology into a long-term strategy for archiving a digitised collection. This thesis showed that issues relating to utilising digital systems could be addressed by implementing a preservation management plan. A preservation management plan can be used to incorporate the goals of digitising, the long-term issues of retaining digital files, ongoing access relating to the digital file, hardware and software, and the importance of having the relevant expertise when undertaking such a project. Due to the limitations of the printed hardcopy displaying features in a number of the images (figures) outlined in this thesis, a compact disk (CD) has been included with this submission and can be found at the end of this document.

An agreement on guilt and punishment The presented thesis deals with the relatively new institute of the criminal procedure, namely the agreement on guilt and punishment (hereinafter also referred to as "agreement") that was implemented into Czech law by an amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure, namely by the Act no. 193/2012 Sb., effective from 1 September 2012. The introductory chapter deals with a closer description of the agreement on guilt and punishment. The author presents first available definitions of the agreement and points up its questionable classification as one of the so called "deviations" from the regular criminal procedure. The thesis evaluates the harmonization of this institute with the basic principles of criminal procedure, the fulfilment of which is decisive for the typical character of the continental criminal procedure. In this chapter, the thesis also deals with the question whether the agreed sanction is capable of fulfilling the purpose of punishment as such. The second chapter of the thesis is focused on the prerequisites that are necessary for the prosecutor and the accused to be allowed to enter into the agreement on guilt and punishment. Further, the chapter elaborates on the negotiation process and legal requisites of the agreement. Last but not least, the...

by Hou Qi'an. / Includes bibliographical references / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1986

No description available.

This study is an examination of the role of sociolinguistics in the process of grammaticalization. The modern French negative pas outlasted its competitors among postverbal negators to be selected for inclusion in the modern language. This dissertation seeks to explain why that is so by using the sociolinguistic framework of social network theory. Social network theory postulates that linguistic variables are spread by means of weak, uni-dimensional social links between individuals. Using this framework, it is postulated that medieval Jewish merchants from southern France were responsible for the spread of pas from its area of dialectal predominance in the south to other regions of the country. Dialectological, historical and sociological support for that hypothesis is presented as evidence of the plausibility of the hypothesis. / text

The logic of natural language negation (e.g. no) is prima facie at odds with an exclusively CLASSICAL LOGIC based on SET THEORY. The negation of classical logic obeys the LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION (according to which an element cannot be both in and not in a set) and the LAW OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE (according to which an element either is or is not in a set). In contrast, natural language negation tolerates APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS (as in, Do you like your supper?---Yes and no) and UNEXCLUDED MIDDLES (as in, Do you love your supper?--- No; Do you hate your supper?---No). These prima facie non-classical phenomena relate to non-set theoretic INTERPRETIVE STRUCTURES, particularly OBJECT STRUCTURE, i.e. that objects may possess properties in part but not in whole (e.g. one might love one part of a supper but hate another), and PREDICATE DIMENSIONALITY , i.e. that properties may have mid-range values (e.g. one might evaluate the supper as a whole as an average between the two extremes). I describe several experiments exploring adults' and children's grasp of object structure and predicate dimensionality and their relation to natural language negation, using two different reasoning tasks: the ability to resolve apparent contradictions and the ability to draw inferences about unexcluded middles. Results suggest that even the negation of children as young as age three is not exclusively classical and set theoretic, but rather reflects a principled grasp of object structure and predicate dimensionality. I argue that children's grasp of natural language negation is guided by sophisticated LOGICAL RESOURCES that relate to the NATURAL LOGIC of common objects and their properties, particularly object structure and predicate dimensionality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed January 9, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 258-271).

A robust knowledge of numbers, and their magnitudes, is thought to provide students a strong basis for later mathematics learning and achievement (see Siegler, 2016). The current study examined 7th grade students’ (N = 193) knowledge of numerical magnitudes, how this knowledge varied depending on the number’s type (integer or non-integer) and the number’s polarity (positive or negative), and the strategies that students use while estimating different types of numbers. The first experiment of the current study assessed students’ magnitude knowledge through a number line packet that used all-positive, all-negative, and bidirectional scales that spanned from negative to positive numbers; on these number line scales, students were asked to estimate whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. While prior literature has commonly assessed magnitude knowledge of positive integers (i.e., whole numbers) and non-integers (i.e., non-whole numbers), and the literature on negative numbers is growing, the current study is the first to directly explore students’ understanding of positive and negative magnitudes together with the use of all-negative and all-positive number line scales. Results from mixed linear models illustrated that a number’s polarity affects students’ estimates on the all-positive and all-negative scales, as estimates of negative and positive numbers differed in both accuracy and linearity. However, negative and positive estimates on the bidirectional scales were not significantly different from one another. Composite scores were created to reflect students’ performance on four types of number line scales, those that asked students to estimate positive integers, negative integers, positive non-integers, and negative non-integers. Analyses with these composite scores established that both polarity and number type separately affect students’ estimates—negative estimates had more error and were less linear than positive estimates, and non-integer estimates had more error and were less linear than integer estimates. The second experiment of this study used a think-aloud task to examine the strategies that students used while completing the number line task, and how these strategies differed depending on the number line’s overall scale, polarity, and the type of number being estimated (i.e., integers or non-integers). While some strategies were found to be prevalent across all types of number line scales, other strategy choices differed depending on the polarity of the scale, or the type of numbers being estimated. Findings from this study support the integrated theory of numerical development; mainly, that by the 7th grade students have integrated their knowledge of numbers into a unified system that houses both positive and negative numbers, and integers and non-integers. Educational implications are also discussed. / Educational Psychology