This thesis is a general description of the morphology and syntax of the Biak language. The Biak language belongs to the West New Guinea subgroup of the Austronesian language family and is spoken by around 50,000 to 70,000 speakers in West Papua in the northern part of the Geelvink Bay. The thesis consists of 7 main chapters that cover demographic and ethnographic information of the language, morphology, grammatical categories, basic constituent order, noun compounding and denominalization, relative clauses, and predicate nominal constructions. The main findings of the thesis are: • The Biak language is predominantly a head-initial language. • The Biak language has morphological variation from monomorphemic to polymorphemic with the polymorphemic being the dominant pattern in the language. • Inflectional patterns on verbal and prepositional predicates, demonstratives, and possessive pronouns are divided into two patterns: the consonantal pattern and the vocal pattern. • Biak has alienable and inalienable nouns. Alienability in Biak is a syntactic distinction, not exactly corresponding to the semantic distinction. • The basic constituent order is SVO or AVP. Variations occur with predicate nominal (OV) and internally headed relative clause which uses SOV pattern. • Three types of relative clauses were identified: (i) Post nominal relative clause; (ii) Headless relative clause; and, (iii) Internally headed relative clause. The Biak language allows stacked and nested relative clauses. Two kinds of predicate nominal constructions were identified: (i) copular clitics (clitic –ri, -s-, and free pronoun clitics) and (ii) copular verbs –iri and iso. The two kinds of predicate nominal constructions can be distinguished syntactically.

This dissertation pays critical attention to the "community" concept in archaeological research, casting it as the flexible and impermanent loci of identity formation and social reproduction. In three articles, it investigates various iterations and transformations of the Arikara community in North Dakota after European contact. First, I examine the ethnohistoric record of the Upper Missouri River to investigate how increased flexibility in Arikara settlement strategies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries yielded new community configurations, with particular emphasis on Arikara coresidence with their occasional enemies, the Mandans. The second article analyzes archaeological spatial data to elucidate how the organization of open space at the nineteenth- century coalescent settlement of Like-A-Fishhook Village structured interactions between the Arikara and the Mandan-Hidatsa. The third article explores how the Arikara navigated the reconfiguration of their community space as a result of allotment policies during the early twentieth century, and how the now-inundated settlement of Nishu is situated in the social memory and contemporary identity of the Arikara people. The Arikara case demonstrates that social and spatial configurations of community are not always commensurate, and that understanding the multidimensionality of belonging requires both archaeological and ethnographic approaches.

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Li, Haoze. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-163). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.v / Table of Contents --- p.vii / List of Abbreviations --- p.x / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- What are focus intervention effects --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Theoretical framework --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Minimalist Program --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Classification of features --- p.5 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Agree --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3 --- Previous studies of Mandarin wh-questions --- p.7 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- wh-nominals --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- wh-adverbials --- p.10 / Chapter 1.4 --- Organization of the thesis --- p.18 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Literature review --- p.21 / Chapter 2.1 --- Two types of intervention effects --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2 --- LF movement blocking --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3 --- Separation Principle --- p.26 / Chapter 2.4 --- Agree blocking --- p.36 / Chapter 2.5 --- Competition effect --- p.39 / Chapter 2.6 --- Summary --- p.43 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Mandarin contrastive focus particles --- p.44 / Chapter 3.1 --- Focus --- p.44 / Chapter 3.2 --- Information focus vs. contrastive focus --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Semantic interpretation --- p.47 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Syntactic distribution --- p.50 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Syntactic association --- p.51 / Chapter 3.3 --- Mandarin contrastive focus particles --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Semantic Properties --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Syntactic Distributions --- p.58 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Association with focused constituents --- p.65 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- "Inner focus, Outer focus and Agree" --- p.70 / Chapter 3.4 --- Summary --- p.73 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Focus intervention effects --- p.75 / Chapter 4.1 --- Focus intervention effects in wh-questions with wh-nominals --- p.75 / Chapter 4.2 --- Focus intervention effects in wh-questions with wh-adverbials --- p.78 / Chapter 4.3 --- F-XP association and F-Wh association --- p.91 / Chapter 4.4 --- Weakening or canceling contexts --- p.98 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Embedded contexts --- p.99 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- D-linking contexts --- p.102 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- wh-fronting contexts --- p.105 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.108 / Chapter Chapter Five --- The syntactic analysis of focus intervention effects --- p.110 / Chapter 5.1 --- Inadequacies of previous proposals --- p.110 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Soh's (2005) Separation principle --- p.111 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Kim's (2006) Agree blocking analysis --- p.112 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Yang's (2008) Competition effect --- p.114 / Chapter 5.2 --- Interrogative wh-words and focus --- p.115 / Chapter 5.3 --- The syntactic mechanism of focus intervention effects --- p.117 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Proposal --- p.117 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Configurations with focus intervention effects --- p.119 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Configurations without focus intervention effects --- p.121 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- Interim summary --- p.123 / Chapter 5.4 --- Alternative analysis and residual issues --- p.123 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Focus conflict --- p.123 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Residual issues --- p.126 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.133 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Conclusion --- p.136 / Chapter 6.1 --- Summary --- p.136 / Chapter 6.2 --- Contributions of the current study --- p.138 / Chapter 6.3 --- Residual issues --- p.139 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Individual feature matching vs. feature matrix matching --- p.140 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- LF movement of contrastive focus --- p.143 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Multiple wh-questions and LF unselective binding --- p.145 / Chapter 6.3.4 --- Focus intervention effects are not related to LF representations --- p.148 / Bibliography --- p.157

by Li, Chi Ho. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40). / Abstract --- p.i / Introduction --- p.1 / Mathematical Linguistics in a Nutshell --- p.4 / Two Classical Arguments --- p.8 / The Arguments from Sluicing and Doubling Relative Constructions --- p.11 / The Argument from the English such that constructions --- p.15 / The Argument from German constructions --- p.20 / The Argument from Feature Agreement --- p.23 / The Argument from Unbounded Dependency --- p.28 / Conclusion --- p.35 / Glossary --- p.37 / Bibliography --- p.39

Chin Kin-Chung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-201). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abbreviations and Symbols --- p.vi / Abstract (English) --- p.vii / Abstract (Chinese) --- p.viii / Chapter Chapter One --- Characteristics of Compounds: An Overview --- p.1 / Chapter 1.0 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- General Properties of Compounds --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Lexical Properties --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Phrasal Properties --- p.12 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- Complexity of the Status of Compounds --- p.16 / Chapter 1.2 --- Relation between Morphology and Syntax --- p.16 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Lexicalist Approach --- p.18 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Syntactic Approach --- p.19 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Parallel Approach --- p.20 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- A Note on the Lexicon --- p.21 / Chapter 1.3 --- Research Objectives --- p.24 / Chapter 1.4 --- Summary and Organization of the Thesis --- p.29 / Chapter Chapter Two --- "Notions of Word, Compound and Phrase" --- p.31 / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.31 / Chapter 2.1 --- Criteria of Wordhood --- p.32 / Chapter 2.2 --- Distinction between Compounds and Phrases --- p.38 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Introduction --- p.39 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Syntactic Aspect --- p.43 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Semantic Aspect --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Morphological and Phonological Aspects --- p.48 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Summary --- p.50 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (LIH) --- p.52 / Chapter 2.4 --- Further Consideration on the Nature of Compound --- p.60 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Compounding and Other Combinatory Processes --- p.60 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Status of the Constituents --- p.62 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Degree of Separability --- p.64 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Definitions of Compounds --- p.66 / Chapter 2.5 --- Summary --- p.69 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Issues on Cantonese Verb-Object Compounds (VOCs) --- p.70 / Chapter 3.0 --- Introduction --- p.70 / Chapter 3.1 --- General Properties of Cantonese VOCs --- p.74 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Meaning --- p.75 / Chapter 3.1.1.1 --- Compositionality of Meaning --- p.75 / Chapter 3.1.1.2 --- Anaphoric Reference --- p.79 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Movement --- p.80 / Chapter 3.1.2.1 --- Topicalization --- p.80 / Chapter 3.1.2.2 --- Passivization --- p.83 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Separability --- p.84 / Chapter 3.1.3.1 --- Semantic Object --- p.85 / Chapter 3.1.3.2 --- Aspect Markers --- p.88 / Chapter 3.1.3.3 --- Duration and Frequency Adverbials --- p.91 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Status of the Cantonese VOCs --- p.94 / Chapter 3.2 --- Analyses of VOCs --- p.96 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- S.-F. Huang (1984) --- p.96 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- C.-T. Huang (1984) --- p.99 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Paul (1988) --- p.103 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Wang (1994) --- p.105 / Chapter 3.2.5 --- Her (1997) --- p.110 / Chapter 3.3 --- Existence of Two Types of VOCs in Cantonese --- p.113 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Distinction between Lexical and Phrasal VOCs --- p.113 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Diagnostic Tests for the Lexical-Phrasal VOC Distinction --- p.117 / Chapter 3.4 --- Summary --- p.120 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Nature and Formation of Cantonese VOCs --- p.121 / Chapter 4.0 --- Introduction --- p.121 / Chapter 4.1 --- Theoretical Assumptions --- p.123 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Parallel Morphology --- p.123 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Lexical-Semantic and Lexical-Syntactic Representations --- p.134 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Lexical Syntax --- p.139 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- VP Shell --- p.141 / Chapter 4.2 --- Levels of Formation of Cantonese VOCs --- p.143 / Chapter 4.3 --- Mechanism of the Formation Processes --- p.147 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Issue of Transitivity --- p.147 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Formation of Lexical VOCs --- p.154 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Formation of Phrasal VOCs --- p.158 / Chapter 4.4 --- Phenomena in Relation to Cantonese VOCs --- p.161 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Separation of Constituents of Phrasal VOCs --- p.161 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Positions of Aspect Markers --- p.168 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary and Theoretical Consequences --- p.172 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Concluding Remarks --- p.176 / Endnotes --- p.181 / References --- p.191

The topic of this thesis is abstraction over theories of formal semantics for natural language. It is motivated by the belief that a metatheoretical perspective can contribute both to a better theoretical understanding of semantic theories, and to improved practical mechanisms for developing theories of semantics and combining them with theories of syntax. The argument for a new way to understand semantic theories rest spartly on the present difficulty of accurately comparing and clasifying theories, aswell as on the desire to easily combine theories that concentrate on different areas of semantics. There is a strong case for encouraging more modularity in the structure of semantic theories, to promote a division of labour, and potentially the development of reusable semantic modules. A more abstract approach to the syntax-semantics interface holds out the hope of further benefits, notably a degree of guaranteed semantic coherence via typesor constraints. Two case studies of semantic abstraction are presented. First,alternative characterizations of intensional abstraction and predication are developed with respect to three different semantic theories, but in a theory-independent fashion. Second,an approach to semantic abstraction recently proposed by Johnson and Kayis analyzed in detail,and the nature of its abstraction described with formal specifications. Finaly, a programme for modular semantic specifications is described, and applied to the area of quantification and anaphora,demonstrating succesfuly that theory-independent devices can be used to simultaneously abstract across both semantic theories and syntax-semantics interfaces.

This thesis is an investigation of phenomena at the interface between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, with the aim of arguing for a view of semantic interpretation as lexically driven yet contextually dependent. I examine regular, generative processes which operate over the lexicon to induce verbal sense shifts, and discuss the interaction of these processes with the linguistic or discourse context. I concentrate on phenomena where only an interaction between all three linguistic knowledge sources can explain the constraints on verb use: conventionalised lexical semantic knowledge constrains productive syntactic processes, while pragmatic reasoning is both constrained by and constrains the potential interpretations given to certain verbs. The phenomena which are closely examined are the behaviour of PP sentential modifiers (specifically dative and directional PPs) with respect to the lexical semantic representation of the verb phrases they modify, resultative constructions, and logical metonymy. The analysis is couched in terms of a lexical semantic representation drawing on Davis (1995), Jackendoff (1983, 1990), and Pustejovsky (1991, 1995) which aims to capture “linguistically relevant” components of meaning. The representation is shown to have utility for modeling of the interaction between the syntactic form of an utterance and its meaning. I introduce a formalisation of the representation within the framework of Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Pollard and Sag 1994), and rely on the model of discourse coherence proposed by Lascarides and Asher (1992), Discourse in Commonsense Entailment. I furthermore discuss the implications of the contextual dependency of semantic interpretation for lexicon design and computational processing in Natural Language Understanding systems.

The present thesis investigates in how properties of a reader’s first language (L1) have an influence on syntactic processing in a second language (L2). While the Competition Model (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982, 1987, 1989, MacWhinney, 1997) predicts that syntactic properties of the L1 can have an influence on L2 processing, the Shallow-Structure Account (Clahsen & Felser, 2006) suggests that an L2 speaker’s representation of an L2 sentence is shallower, lacks syntactic detail, and is therefore not detailed enough for properties of the L1 to have an influence on L2 processing (Papadopoulou & Clahsen, 2003). In two sets of studies, I investigate whether L2 speakers of English activate syntactic information from their L1 while processing English sentences. In Experiments 1-4, native speakers of German, and control groups of native speakers of French and English, are confronted with English sentences consisting of a word order which exists in both English and German, but which represents different underlying syntactic structures in both languages. Results suggest that native speakers of German activate syntactic information from their L1 while reading such sentences. Experiments 5-7 represent an attempt to address both the issue of L1 influence and the issue of shallow processing within the context of the same experimental design. Native speakers of German, and a control group of native English speakers, read grammatically incorrect English sentences with a word order which would either be grammatically correct in German, or grammatically incorrect in both English and German. In this set of experiments, we found evidence against an influence of syntactic properties of the L1. Results also suggest that contrary to the predictions of the shallow-structure account, L2 speakers fully parse the syntactic structure of an L2 sentence, and compute detailed syntactic representations.