Code-mixing, defined as intra-sentential language alternation, is known to demonstrate structurally determined patterns of restriction. Universal constraints have been proposed to account for these structural restrictions (Poplack (1980), Woolford (1983), Di Sciullo, Muysken and Singh (1986)) but have had limited success in accounting for code-mixing between typologically diverse languages. This thesis examines the structural principles that apply universally to the interaction of languages in code-mixed sentences. We argue that systematic cross-linguistic restrictions on code-mixing can be accounted for by a syntactic constraint that is sensitive to the distinction between functional and lexical categories. / We propose the constraint of Language Indexation, according to which (structurally) adjacent categories of like functional/lexical category status must be realised in the same language. We show how this proposal accounts for code-mixed data from a range of language pairs, including Tagalog/English, Moroccan Arabic/French, Swahili/English, Irish/English, Hindi/English, Spanish/English and French/English. A difference in the application of Language Indexation in nominal versus verbal projections is discussed with reference to Tagalog/English and Moroccan Arabic/French code-mixing. Finally, we briefly examine the implications of Language Indexation with respect to the code-mixing of aphasic bilinguals.

Recent developments in linguistic theory carried out within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995; Adger 2003;) provide a functional and concrete framework for an analysis of noun phrases in the Indonesian language, a Western-Malayo Polynesian sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. An analysis of Indonesian noun phrase structure within this framework demonstrates that the head noun occurs in a base-generated position, at the bottom of a DP, while pre- and post-nominal modifiers are contained within a number of additional projections that merge above the head noun. In this thesis, the proposal is made for a relatively unrestricted adjunction analysis, whereby head adjunction via Merge allows for the direct expansion of the head N at various levels of the Indonesian DP. Evidence is presented to show that the adjoined status of attributive nouns and adjectives, a plural feature [PL], and the feature [DEF] generates a complex hierarchical structure in which there is no predefined order between a specifier or complement and the head noun. In addition, it is argued that bare nouns are neutral with respect to number and, given that number-marking, possession and (in)definiteness are optional, all projections that merge above the head N are optional and context is needed to accurately interpret an Indonesian bare noun.

No description available.

This thesis proposes a modification of Chomsky's (1992) theory of locality to deal with restructuring phenomena which allow an apparent violation of the locality condition on certain local processes. Various restructuring phenomena including long-distance NP movement exemplified by long-distance Object Preposing (Chapter 2) and long-distance head movement exemplified by clitic climbing (Chapter 3) are examined cross linguistically. Long-distance anaphora (Chapter 4) are also examined based on the view the locality on various types of anaphor-antecedent relationships follow from the theory of movement. / It is argued that the peculiar behavior of restructuring constructions in terms of locality follows from the lexical properties of restructuring verbs that allows a defective Tense to occur in the complement clause. The following effects result: (i) Case checking within the embedded clause becomes impossible; (ii) the defective Tense triggers incorporation of the infinitive verb into the matrix verb. As a result, the embedded element that requires Case is forced to raise into the matrix clause as a last resort operation, hence motivation long-distance movement. / In order to reconcile long-distance movement with the economy principle which requires chain links to be minimal, this thesis refines Chomsky's (1992) theory of locality. The proposed hypothesis claims that the locality condition on certain operations such as NP movement and head movement follows from the economy principle in such a way that an element can move to the closest position in which its morphological requirement can be satisfied. This notion of the shortest movement is further clarified in that the domain in which the shortest movement requirement is satisfied can be extended if there is an appropriate linked chain formed by head movement. The proposed system not only provides principled account for the phenomena of restructuring, but also has some important implications for the notion of economy of derivation.

No description available.

Storing the history of objects in a program is a common task. Web browsers remember which websites we have visited, drawing programs maintain a list of the images we have modified recently and the undo button in a wordprocessor allows us to go back to a previous state of a document. Maintaining the history of an object in a program has traditionally required programmers either to write specific code for handling the historical data, or to use a library which supports history logging. We propose that maintaining the history of objects in a program could be simplified by providing support at the language level for storing and manipulating the past versions of objects. History variables are variables in a programming language which store not only their current value, but also the values they have contained in the past. Some existing languages do provide support for history variables. However these languages typically have many limits and restrictions on use of history variables. In this thesis we discuss a complete implementation of history variables in an imperative programming language. We discuss the semantics of history variables for scalar types, arrays, pointers, strings, and user defined types. We also introduce an additional construct called an 'atomic block' which allows us to temporarily suspend the logging of a history variable. Using the mathematical system of Hoare logic we formally prove the correctness of our informal semantics for atomic blocks and each of the history variable types we introduce. Finally, we develop an experimental language and compiler with support for history variables. The language and compiler allow us to investigate the practical aspects of implementing history variables and to compare the performance of history variables with their non- history counterparts.

This thesis has analyzed syntactical errors made in written English by Brazilian-Portuguese-speaking students of English as a foreign language. The errors were analyzed and explained so as to determine whether the students use their native competence in Portuguese or their transitional competence in English in their hypothesizing in the target language. In case they use the former, their performance in the target language most likely shows a great deal of native language interference; in case they use the latter, their errors are mostly based on overgeneralizations, false analogies within English itself, or are caused by insufficient knowledge of the rule system of English, or by simple carelessness.By means f this careful analysis the investigator supported, at least partially, the hypothesis that native language interference, while an important cause, is not the sole cause of error in foreign-language performance, since approximately 57% of the errors were due to the interference of the mother tongue.

This study presents a pragmatic viewpoint toward the analysis of definiteness, regarding the universal, primitive notions of topic, theme, focus, emphasis, specificity, reference, and restrictivity as the controlling features of discourse which are coded in derivative syntactic structures such as the Finnish case selection and word order and the English determiner system in irregular ways. The explanation of the English article as a mere marker of definiteness which is to be translated into Finnish as case, word order, and stress variations does not reveal how each language deals with nounrelated discourse functions. But if the pragmatic motivation controlling the expression of definiteness is first analyzed as an organizing principle in the syntax of an utterance, then the language-specific, superficial manifestations can be identified in a more exhaustive manner.The basic hypothesis in the study was that definiteness is a grammatical concept which is derived from the universal pragmatic functions but may not always be established in each language separately as a syntactic category. It was shown how the pragmatic notions of topicality, thematicity, focality, emphasis, specificity, reference, restrictivity,.and presuppositionality interact with the derived features of case, word order, stress, and function words in Finnish. It was observed that due to their biassed typological nature, languages combine the primitives in different ways so that a language which lacks a morphological or lexical system of marking definiteness (Finnish) must allow for more extensive pragmatic control of word order than a language which has an overt article system (English) in order to reflect the pragmatic conditions of an utterance.It was suggested in the study that the primary function of case markings (specifically, the nominative/accusative vs. partitive contrast) in Finnish is not the expression of definiteness through the totality/ partiality contrast and that the order of sentence elements is not always a direct indicator of definiteness or indefiniteness. Instead, the Finnish case selection is a result of pragmatic functions such as topicality, focality, completeness of action, specificity, referentiality, and emphasis, whereas word order in its marked/unmarked forms is related to givenness/newness and thus, topicality/focality. Seven Subject Rules and four Object Rules were formulated to account for the typological limits within which the pragmatic control of sentence elements in Finnish must operate.The study concluded that definiteness is a pragmatic consequence of a number of different things which are not coded in Finnish as they are in English. Whereas English has syntacticized definiteness and Finnish has not, the discourse functions which correspond to Finnish case and word order and the English article system are interpreted pragmatically in ways that are not equivalent between the two languages. Because definiteness is subject to syntactic limitations which themselves are contingent on pragmatic factors,: it is appropriate to speak of definiteness as a derivative function which can be attributed only to languages with an overt article system.

The dissertation investigates syntactic and semantic aspects of the indefinite pronoun system in Modern Hebrew and consists of an experimental part and a theoretical part. The experimental part presents the grammaticality judgment task conducted to test three theoretical questions: (1) the relation between negation and the licensing of AF `any' and KOL `any'; (2) the contrast between EYZE `some' and EYZESEHU `some' in terms of specificity; and (3) the correlation between syntactic position and free choice readings. Three main theoretical findings are contributed by this work. First, it is shown that from a typological viewpoint, Hebrew, a Semitic language, patterns with Romance and Germanic languages, rather than Japanese-type languages, in having indefinite pronouns specialized for particular operators available in the discourse. Second, the thesis proposes a novel unified syntax-semantics for KOL which accounts for its interpretational variability. Working with the Kratzer and Shimoyama (2002) framework where indefinite pronouns generate sets of individual alternatives, the semantics of a KOL--modified noun phrase is formalized as a variable and containing a restriction. When this restriction ranges over kinds, KOL receives a generic reading; when the restriction is over a contextually specified set of entities, KOL has an episodic reading. In these cases, the KOL--phrase moves to the argument position of a universal quantifier which binds the individual alternatives generated by the KOL--phrase. If KOL stays in situ, the individual alternatives are allowed to expand into propositional alternatives, resulting in the free choice reading. Third, I discuss the DP-internal structure of [eyze(N)se-hu (N)] and [(N) kol(N)se-hu], treating 'se-hu' as a CP. I propose that there is a correlation between the postnominal position and the free choice readings of these pronouns, suggesting that domain restrictions, usually derived in the semantics-pragmatics, may also be encoded in the syntax. If this hypothesis is on the right track, it could provide us with a better understanding of how and when in the process of language acquisition domain restrictions found with indefinite pronouns are acquired.

Recent developments in linguistic theory carried out within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995; Adger 2003;) provide a functional and concrete framework for an analysis of noun phrases in the Indonesian language, a Western-Malayo Polynesian sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. An analysis of Indonesian noun phrase structure within this framework demonstrates that the head noun occurs in a base-generated position, at the bottom of a DP, while pre- and post-nominal modifiers are contained within a number of additional projections that merge above the head noun. In this thesis, the proposal is made for a relatively unrestricted adjunction analysis, whereby head adjunction via Merge allows for the direct expansion of the head N at various levels of the Indonesian DP. Evidence is presented to show that the adjoined status of attributive nouns and adjectives, a plural feature [PL], and the feature [DEF] generates a complex hierarchical structure in which there is no predefined order between a specifier or complement and the head noun. In addition, it is argued that bare nouns are neutral with respect to number and, given that number-marking, possession and (in)definiteness are optional, all projections that merge above the head N are optional and context is needed to accurately interpret an Indonesian bare noun.