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This thesis examines the diverse functions of -ji in Gugu- Yalanji, a language of Northeastern Australia. A general introduction to the syntax of the language is given. The verbal affix -Ji and its effect on sentences is detailed in Chapter I. Chapter II shows that the function of -ji_ in Yidiny and Dyirbal, two neighboring languages, is to intransitivize verbs to allow sentence coordination. Sentence coordination does not appear to be the primary function of Ji in Gugu-Yalanji. Other functions of the verbal affix J_ in Yidin and Dyirbal are examined in Chapter III. The affix -_ appears to be sensitive to the features of transitivity and marks transitive verbs as intransitive, shown in Chapter IV. Chapter V develops a new hypothesis regarding the use of -j in Gugu-Yalanji. There, after considering other uses of J as a nonverbal affix, it is concluded that the suffix is actually a formal mark of stativity.

[pt] A pespectiva da tradição gramatical com relação ao verbo ser é a de que se trata de um verbo cuja função é apenas a de ligar o sujeito ao seu predicativo, sendo desta forma tratado no limite da estrutura oracional, descontextualizado, como um constituinte sem expressão significativa, ou seja, um verbo que não apresenta transitividade verbal. Esta tese tem por objetivo propor um novo ponto de vista acrescentando um outro entendimento sobre o verbo ser. A pesquisa teve como orientação teórico- metodológica a perspectiva da lingüística sistêmico-funcional. A análise foi realizada em textos de opinião e editoriais jornalísticos online de jornais de grande circulação. Os resultados da análise revelaram que o verbo ser desempenha uma função mais ampla, a saber, uma função no discurso. As conclusões alcançadas contribuem para ampliar o entendimento do verbo ser no campo dos estudos da análise e descrição da língua portuguesa, assim como no campo dos estudos da análise do discurso. / [en] Traditional grammar considers ser [to be] as a verb whose sole function is to link the Subject to its Predicative, and therefore only analyzed at the limits of the clause structure, de-contextualized, as a meaningless constituent, i.e., a verb that does not present any verbal transitivity. The objective of this study is to propose a new viewpoint that adds an additional understanding of the verb ser. The theoretical-methodological orientation of this work is Systemic-Functional Linguistics (LSF). The analysis was based on texts extracted from the opinion and editorial pages of major Brazilian newspapers. The results of the analysis reveal that the verb ser performs a more comprehensive function, that is, a function in discourse. The conclusions reached contribute to enhance our understanding of the verb ser in the field of the analysis and description of the Portuguese language, as well as in the domain of discourse analysis.

Este trabalho tem por objeto de estudo um fenômeno do português do Brasil mais comumente encontrado em textos formais. Trata-se do pronome fraco se precedendo verbos infinitivos. Esse item compete com zero na indeterminação do sujeito em orações encaixadas, mais precisamente em orações completivas de nome e adjetivo, temporais e finais. Propõe-se descrever os fatores condicionadores da inserção do se em sentenças nãofinitas do português brasileiro e promover um análise da questão à luz da teoria gerativa no seu modelo de Princípios e Parâmetros (Chomsky 1981, 1986a). Tomou-se como corpus textos formais de alunos da pós-graduação de diversas áreas do conhecimento da Universidade de São Paulo, hipotetizando que o teor científico do texto proporcionaria a estratégia de indeterminação por nós analisada. Em seguida, foram elaborados testes de produção junto aos alunos da graduação dessa mesma universidade a fim de verificar se as respostas produzidas por eles corroborariam os resultados encontrados nas dissertações e teses. Dentre os fatores mais relevantes para justificar a inserção de se nas construções com verbos infinitivos, destacou-se a preposição. Para a análise interpretativa desse achado, seguimos a proposta de Mioto & Kato (2002). / This dissertation aims at studying a Brazilian Portuguese phenomenon commonly found in formal texts. It is the se insertion as subject of infinitive clauses. This particle competes with the null category in the subject indetermination in embedded clauses, more precisely in the complement of noun and adjective clauses and clauses of time and finality. It is intended to describe the conditioning factors of the se insertion in non-finite sentences from Brazilian Portuguese and promote an analysis of the matter having the Generative Theory in its model of Principles and Parameters (Chomsky 1981, 1986a) as a reference. At first, it was used as corpus formal texts by graduate students from different areas of knowledge from Universidade de São Paulo, hypothesizing that the text scientific wording would allow the strategy of the indetermination analyzed in this dissertation. Secondly, production tests were elaborated with undergraduate students from the same university in order to verify if the answers produced by them would confirm the results found in the dissertations and theses. Among the most relevant factors to justify the se insertion in the constructions with infinitive verbs, the preposition stood up. For the interpretative analysis, we followed Mioto & Kato (2002) proposal.

A ideia deste trabalho é apresentar a conjetura de Boyland para o anel e mostrar algums resultados nessa direção. Tal conjectura diz que: Dado um homeomorfismo irrotacional do anel, que possui uma medida com número de rotação positivo, é verdade que, neste caso, existem pontos com número de rotação negativo? Para dar uma resposta parcial a esta pregunta, nesta dissertação (baseada no estudo do [7]) começamos considerando os homeomorfismos do anel que preservam orientação, as componentes de fronteira, com número de rotação positivos em ambas fronteiras, e que tem un levantamento transitivo (o motivo desta hipoteses vem de [3]), mostrando que neste caso 0 está no interior do conjunto de rotação. Este resultado vai permitir provar a conjetura para os homeomorfismos do anel irrotacionais, sem pontos fixos na fronteira e com um levantamento transitivo. Além disso vai permitir estudar a dinâmica de tais homeomorfismos. No final do trabalho, estendemos algums dos teoremas provados ao longo dos capítulos anteriores a um conjunto maior de homeomorfismos e estudamos o comportamento de tais homeomorfismos com base nestes resultados. / The idea of this work is to present Boyland´s Conjecture for the annulus and show some results in its direction. The conjecture is the following: Given a homeomorphism of the annulus, which has a measure with positive rotation number, is it true that, in this case, there are points with negative rotation number?. To give a partial answer to this question, in this dissertation (based on [7]) we begin considering the homeomorphisms of the annulus that preserve orientation and boundary components, with positive rotation numbers in the boundaries, with has a transitive lift (the reason for this hypothesis is in [3]), and we show that 0 is in the interior of the rotation set. This result will be of help to prove the Boyland´s Conjecture for rotationless homeomorphisms of the annulus, without fixed points in the boundaries and with a transitive lift. In addition, we will be able to study the dynamics of such homeomorphisms. In the end of this work, we extend some of the theorems proved in the previous chapters to a bigger set of homeomorphisms and we study the behavior of such homeomorphisms using these results.

Combining corpus contrastive interlanguage analysis and usage-based approaches to second language acquisition, the present study targeted the use of English alternating ditransitive constructions by Chinese EFL learners. English alternating ditransitive constructions refer to argument structures that can appear both in the double object construction (DOC) and the prepositional to-dative construction (DAT). / A contrastive analysis of the use of English ditransitive constructions was made between a native English corpus – The Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS) and a learner corpus – The Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC). CLEC is further divided into two sub-corpora based on participants’ educational levels: ST2 (beginner corpus) and ST5&6 (advanced learner corpus). The corpus retrieval software WordSmith 5.0 was used for extracting ditransitive verbs. 16 target verbs were selected on the basis of strict criteria. Systematic analysis was then made in terms of three variables, i.e. pronominality, weight, and semantic classes. / The overall results showed no clear-cut differences in the proportions of DOC versus DAT between the native English corpus and the learner corpus, where DOC (69%) is used much more frequently than DAT (31%), in spite of between-verb variations. It was also found that although Chinese EFL learners have similar sensitivity to ditransitive verbs’ distinctiveness for DOC or DAT with native students, differences still exist regarding the performance of certain individual verbs. / With regard to the three variables under investigation, great differences were found between LOCNESS and CLEC, as well as within the two learner sub-corpora. In terms of pronominality, learners, beginning learners in particular, have a stronger tendency to use personal pronouns as indirect object in DOC, and also use pronouns as prepositional complement in DAT. With regard to weight, beginning learners use the shortest and least complex constituents in ditransitive constructions. In relation to semantic classes, Inherent Transfer is the most frequently used sense among all three groups, but learners are more likely to use the sense of Communication than native students. / A case study was conducted focusing on the prototypical ditransitive verb give. Regarding the variables of pronominality and weight, results were similar to those obtained from the 16 target verbs. As for semantic classes of give, generally speaking, Chinese learners prefer to use the senses of Transfer and Communication, while native students are particularly in favor of employing Enablement and Permission senses, which require the use of more abstract nouns. / In sum, beginning learners show an exemplar-based learning process, with frequent use of pronouns, short constituents, and less various semantic classes. An examination of English textbooks used by beginning learners provided much evidence for the priming effect of input in foreign language learning of ditransitive constructions. Non-target-like formulaic sequences were detected from both beginning and advanced learner corpora. Other impact factors like L1 influence and lack of genre awareness were also incorporated for discussion. / Based on findings from learner English, the study has contributed to usage-based approaches to second language learning, by showing an exemplar-based learning process of Chinese EFL learners, and proving the priming effect of input from English textbooks. It also has given specific pedagogical implications for compilation of teaching materials and classroom teaching practice. / 本研究結合了語料庫中介語對比分析和基於使用的二語習得研究方法，重點探討了中國英語學習者使用英語與格換位結構的情況。與格換位結構指的是能夠在雙賓結構（DOC）和介賓結構（DAT）之間轉換的論元結構。 / 研究選取了兩個語料庫進行與格換位結構的對比：LOCNESS（英語本族語者語料庫）和CLEC（中國英語學習者語料庫）。根據參與者的受教育水平，CLEC又分為兩個子語料庫——ST2（初級學習者）和ST5&6（高級學習者）。通過嚴格的挑選標準，研究確定了十六個目標動詞，分別從人稱代詞的使用、長度、以及語義分類三個變量方面進行全面系統的分析。 / 總的研究結果沒有顯示出本族語者語料庫和學習者語料庫在雙賓和介賓結構比例上的明顯差別，兩個語料庫都顯示，雖然存在動詞之間的差別，但總體來說雙賓比介賓使用的更加頻繁。研究還發現，中國學習者和本族語學生對動詞的結構偏好有相似的敏感度，但對個別動詞的處理方面仍然有差別。 / 對於研究的三個變量而言，LOCNESS和CLEC之間，以及CLEC兩個子語料庫之間都存在很大差異。學習者，尤其是初級學習者更加傾向於使用人稱代詞作為雙賓結構中的間接賓語，並且傾向於用代詞作介賓結構中的介詞補語。初級學習者使用的內部結構最短、最簡單。另外，就語義分類來講，“轉移”是三組語料庫用的最多的語義，但學習者比本族語者更多的使用“交流”這一語義。 / 作為最典型的與格換位動詞，give被挑選出做個案研究。結果表明，在人稱代詞使用和內部結構的長度方面，結果與十六個目標動詞的總結果相似。對於give的語義分類，總體來說，中國學習者更喜歡使用“轉移”和“交流”方面的語義，而本族語者尤其傾向使用“允許”、“許可”方面的語義。 / 總結來講，初級學習者的學習過程是基於範例一步一步的學習過程，體現在頻繁使用代詞，內部結構偏短，語義表達單一等。通過調查初級學習者使用的英語教材，研究發現了語言輸入對外語學習者學習與格換位結構的啟動效應。學習者語料庫中還出現了非目標語式的慣用表達。另外，討論中也涉及了其他的影響因素，例如母語影響、學習者缺乏寫作體裁意識等。 / 通過對學習者英語使用的研究，本研究發現了中國英語學習者基於範例的學習過程，以及英語教材在學習過程中的啟動效應，從而對基於使用的二語習得研究方法做出了一定的理論貢獻。研究還對教材和課堂教學實踐提出了具體可行的建議。 / Xu, Qi. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-207). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 05, October, 2016). / Xu, Qi. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

English has an extraordinary number of labile verbs, that is, verbs that can be used both transitively with a causative sense and intransitively with an inchoative sense. This corpus-based study investigates the evolution of the verb grow from exclusively intransitive to labile in British English in the Late Modern English period. A random sample of 500 instances of the verb grow was drawn from the period 1710-1780 as well as from the period 1850-1920 of the Corpus of Late Modern English Texts in order to track diachronic changes. The instances in the samples were categorized according to their verb pattern and type of complement (if any), and instances of the past participle grown were also categorized based on the auxiliary used (be/have/none). The study suggests that grow came to be used transitively when resultative intransitive constructions (e.g. be grown (over)) were reanalyzed as passives; that the use of noun phrase complements with copular grow decreased and became archaic to make the distinction between copular and transitive uses less ambiguous; and that the fact that the be-auxiliary was replaced by the have-auxiliary in perfect constructions helped avoid ambiguity between intransitive and transitive uses of grow. Thus, the study provides some empirical evidence for Visser's (1963) hypothesis that the change from be- to have-perfects played a central role in the acquisition of lability.

Human and animal decision-making is known to violate rational expectations in a variety of contexts. Statistical structures of real-world environments may account for such seemingly irrational behavior. In a computerized experiment, 16 capuchins, 7 rhesus monkeys, and 30 humans chose between up to three options of different value. The options disappeared and became available again with different probabilities. Subjects overwhelmingly chose transitively (A>B, B>C, and A>C) in the control condition, where doing so maximized overall gain. However, most subjects also adhered to transitivity in the test condition, where it was suboptimal but led to negligible losses compared to the optimal strategy. Only a few of the capuchins were able to maximize long-term gain by violating transitivity. Adhering to rational choice principles may facilitate the formation of near-optimal decision rules when short- and long-term goals align. Such cognitive shortcuts may have evolved to preserve mental resources.

Este trabalho tem por objeto de estudo um fenômeno do português do Brasil mais comumente encontrado em textos formais. Trata-se do pronome fraco se precedendo verbos infinitivos. Esse item compete com zero na indeterminação do sujeito em orações encaixadas, mais precisamente em orações completivas de nome e adjetivo, temporais e finais. Propõe-se descrever os fatores condicionadores da inserção do se em sentenças nãofinitas do português brasileiro e promover um análise da questão à luz da teoria gerativa no seu modelo de Princípios e Parâmetros (Chomsky 1981, 1986a). Tomou-se como corpus textos formais de alunos da pós-graduação de diversas áreas do conhecimento da Universidade de São Paulo, hipotetizando que o teor científico do texto proporcionaria a estratégia de indeterminação por nós analisada. Em seguida, foram elaborados testes de produção junto aos alunos da graduação dessa mesma universidade a fim de verificar se as respostas produzidas por eles corroborariam os resultados encontrados nas dissertações e teses. Dentre os fatores mais relevantes para justificar a inserção de se nas construções com verbos infinitivos, destacou-se a preposição. Para a análise interpretativa desse achado, seguimos a proposta de Mioto & Kato (2002). / This dissertation aims at studying a Brazilian Portuguese phenomenon commonly found in formal texts. It is the se insertion as subject of infinitive clauses. This particle competes with the null category in the subject indetermination in embedded clauses, more precisely in the complement of noun and adjective clauses and clauses of time and finality. It is intended to describe the conditioning factors of the se insertion in non-finite sentences from Brazilian Portuguese and promote an analysis of the matter having the Generative Theory in its model of Principles and Parameters (Chomsky 1981, 1986a) as a reference. At first, it was used as corpus formal texts by graduate students from different areas of knowledge from Universidade de São Paulo, hypothesizing that the text scientific wording would allow the strategy of the indetermination analyzed in this dissertation. Secondly, production tests were elaborated with undergraduate students from the same university in order to verify if the answers produced by them would confirm the results found in the dissertations and theses. Among the most relevant factors to justify the se insertion in the constructions with infinitive verbs, the preposition stood up. For the interpretative analysis, we followed Mioto & Kato (2002) proposal.

A ideia deste trabalho é apresentar a conjetura de Boyland para o anel e mostrar algums resultados nessa direção. Tal conjectura diz que: Dado um homeomorfismo irrotacional do anel, que possui uma medida com número de rotação positivo, é verdade que, neste caso, existem pontos com número de rotação negativo? Para dar uma resposta parcial a esta pregunta, nesta dissertação (baseada no estudo do [7]) começamos considerando os homeomorfismos do anel que preservam orientação, as componentes de fronteira, com número de rotação positivos em ambas fronteiras, e que tem un levantamento transitivo (o motivo desta hipoteses vem de [3]), mostrando que neste caso 0 está no interior do conjunto de rotação. Este resultado vai permitir provar a conjetura para os homeomorfismos do anel irrotacionais, sem pontos fixos na fronteira e com um levantamento transitivo. Além disso vai permitir estudar a dinâmica de tais homeomorfismos. No final do trabalho, estendemos algums dos teoremas provados ao longo dos capítulos anteriores a um conjunto maior de homeomorfismos e estudamos o comportamento de tais homeomorfismos com base nestes resultados. / The idea of this work is to present Boyland´s Conjecture for the annulus and show some results in its direction. The conjecture is the following: Given a homeomorphism of the annulus, which has a measure with positive rotation number, is it true that, in this case, there are points with negative rotation number?. To give a partial answer to this question, in this dissertation (based on [7]) we begin considering the homeomorphisms of the annulus that preserve orientation and boundary components, with positive rotation numbers in the boundaries, with has a transitive lift (the reason for this hypothesis is in [3]), and we show that 0 is in the interior of the rotation set. This result will be of help to prove the Boyland´s Conjecture for rotationless homeomorphisms of the annulus, without fixed points in the boundaries and with a transitive lift. In addition, we will be able to study the dynamics of such homeomorphisms. In the end of this work, we extend some of the theorems proved in the previous chapters to a bigger set of homeomorphisms and we study the behavior of such homeomorphisms using these results.