bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Contemporary Reactions to Rudolf Meringer’s Speech Error Research
Authors: Cutler Anne
Published: November 2010

Rudolf Meringer (1859–1931) published two large collections of speech errors, in 1895 and 1908. Although the idea that errors in spontaneous speech might be of linguistic interest did not originate with Meringer, he was the first to produce a large collection of error data and a detailed theoretical analysis of error phenomena. Contemporary reaction to Meringer’s two speech error books is analysed in this essay. Firstly, direct comment at the time, which ranged from enthusiastic praise to dismissal of the project as trivial and uninteresting, is analysed; dismissive reactions, it is seen, came from those who were in any case Meringer’s opponents on broader issues of theoretical orientation. The following section deals with the correctness of Meringer’s analysis of error phenomena, which met its chief challenge at the time from Sigmund Freud’s contention that speech errors were interesting for reasons not of linguistics but of individual psychopathology. Thirdly, Meringer’s devotion to the observational method is described; this led him into a controversy with contemporaries who preferred the research methods of experimental psychology.
Lucretius on the Origin of Language
Authors: Janson Tore
Published: November 2010

The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c. 99–55 B.C.) deserves a place in the history of linguistics because of his views on the origin of language. He was the first one to draw the parallel between the sounds of animals and the beginnings of human speech, and the first one to clearly envisage the creation of language as a fact of fundamental importance for the social organization of man. His ideas are related to modern research in the area in an interesting way.
La Dominance Hémisphérique Pour Le Langage
Authors: Lebrun Yvan , Leleux Chantal
Published: November 2010

A partir des travaux de Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) et de Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796–1881), qui localisent la faculté de parole dans les lobes antérieurs du cerveau, de Marc Dax (1770–1837), qui fut le premier à se rendre compte qu’un lésion de l’hémisphère gauche entraîne bien plus souvent des troubles phasiques qu’une lésion de l’hémisphère droit, et enfin de Paul Broca (1824–80), qui donna à la théorie une forme prégnante, se développe la notion de dominance hémisphérique pour le langage, c’est-à-dire l’idée qu’un des deux hémisphères cérébraux, généralement le gauche, est plus important pour le langage que son homologue.
Distinguo
Authors: Dinneen Francis P.
Published: November 2010

In this paper some basic ideas and terms employed by the Modistae are explained and exemplified, particularly the concepts of matter and form, act and potency, and then related to similar concepts in modern linguistics. The distinction of vox, dictio and pars orationis in modistic work is discussed and dictio is compared to Semitic triliteral roots. Neither can be part of spoken language. The distinctions of modes of being, modes of signifying and modes of existing are discussed, and it is pointed out that conceptions of language or linguistics can vary, depending on how the modes are employed. From this perspective, lexical decomposition is discussed, and the ability of language to abbreviate is cited as one of its most effective processes. The suggestiveness of analysing kill as cause/become/not/alive is compared with decomposition of other verbs, notably fetch and read. The proposed verbal classification of Case Grammar and especially the covert case roles are discussed. It is suggested that the perspective of the Modistae can help us see some problems here in a different light. In particular, analysis of reciprocal relations, found in forms like marry, exchange and swap lead to the proposal that the restriction on cases other than Object occurring more than once in a case frame needs reexamination.
Two Medieval Critics of Traditional Grammar
Authors: Henry Desmond Paul
Published: November 2010

The converging criticisms of traditional grammar undertaken by Anselm of Canterbury and Boethius of Dacia involve their deprecation of the roles of usage and experience and their expulsion of substance from adjectival meaning. However, usage, experience, and fact turn out to be relevant in completing the truncated functors involved in their interpretation of adjectival meaning. The identification of these functors in terms of Leśniewski systems and the categorial indices described by Lejewski serves to determine the status of their critical enterprise in general and of the modi significandi in particular.
“Legere Est Agere”
Authors: Kneepkens C. H.
Published: November 2010

This contribution gives a detailed analysis of the first Quaestio of the collection of grammatical quaestiones preserved in the MS Oxford, CCC 250, ff.30vb-33vb (§ § 1–3); an attempt is made to assign the Quaestio its proper place in the development of 12th-century linguistic thought (§ § 4–6). The subject matter of the Quaestio is the various interpretations of the infinitive used in a proposition as a noun (in vi nominis) as exemplified by “legere est agere”, a topic closely related to the discussions on the status of the dictum propositionis. The anonymous author deals with it from a logical point of view, and his main concern appears to be the truth of the proposition. The influence of contemporary views as the ‘contextual approach’ is shown by his proposal to judge the interpretation of the infinitive according to the syntactic structures of the propositions. His conditional interpretation of the proposition “legere est agere” in the sense of “si quis legit, agit” in the case of an ‘impersonal interpretation’ of the infinitives and the copula is judged worthy of our attention (§ 3). § 4 is devoted to discussions of this topic (and related questions) in 12th-century texts on logic. Special attention is paid to Abailard’s ‘impersonal interpretation’ of the infinitive in his theory on the ‘dictum propositionis’, and to the Ars Meliduna and the Dialectica Monacensis for the use of the term ‘attributum’. The minor textbooks of logic are considered to be the direct source of the example “legere est agere”. We find a comprehensive treatment of the question at issue in the Summa on the Priscianus minor by the Parisian Master Robertus (fi. ca.1160), but now from a grammatical point of view (§ 5). His main concern is the congruity of the construction. He admits both interpretations: in vi verbi and in vi nominis, but does not make any further sub-distinction of the use in vi nominis. Twice Robertus refers to an opinion adhered to by the author of our Quaestio, but rejected by Robertus himself. — An edition of the Quaestio is appended.
On Some 12th and 13th Century Doctrines of Restriction
Authors: Libera Alain de
Published: November 2010

The problem of the variation of the truth-status of the propositions over time is one of the favourite topics of the logicians as soon as the end of the XIIth century. The aim of the present article is to acknowledge the various theories of restriction provided in the 12th and 13th centuries, to solve semantic problems by means of contextual determination. Given the texts presently available, up to seven different doctrines are accounted for, depending on whether or not subjects and predicates, on the one hand, substantial and accidental terms, on the other hand, are actually distinguished. Among those doctrines, particular attention is paid to that of the so-called Dialectica Mona-censis. This anonymous treatise, dating from the last decades of the 12th century, introduces two different theories. The first one suffers from a discrepancy between the content of the rules of restriction through present, past and future tense verbs and that of the various conditions laid down in these rules. Thus, though substantial and accidental terms have theoretically the same supposition, whether they be subjects or predicates, in each different tensed form of the verbs, the author practically draws a line between substantial terms like ‘homo’ and accidental ones, like ‘album’. As a matter of fact, the truth of the proposition “homo curret” at instant S (Reichenbach’s ‘point of speech’) necessarily entails that of “homo currit” at instant E (the ‘point of event’), but this is not the case with ‘album’ in “album curret”, since that which is now white (point S) might very well be no longer white at time E. Those difficulties determine a second theory which offers a more satisfying account of the difference between substantial and accidental terms. Finally, a comparison is made between the first theory in the Dialectica and William of Sherwood’s account of the compounded and divided senses of the propositions, and a parallel is suggested with modern paraphrases using A. N. Prior’s tense operators.
Occam et les Demonstratfs
Authors: Panaccio Claude
Published: November 2010

Sur le plan théorique, la sémantique de Guillaume d’Occam n’accorde pas aux pronoms démonstratifs beaucoup d’intérêt. Elle laisse soupçonner qu’au niveau du discours mental — qui est logiquement pur —, ils sont réductibles aux noms propres. Sur le plan opératoire cependant, Occam recourt systématiquement à leurs services dans certains des passages les plus délicats de la théorie sémantique, notamment dans les définitions de “genus ”, “significare ”, “supposition”, dans la théorie de la suppositio personalis et dans la théorie de l’induction, là où il s’agit d’établir, entre le domaine des signes, où se trouve confinée la généralité, et le domaine ontologique, habité seulement par des individus, un lien direct et immédiat. Cet écart peut s’expliquer de la façon suivante. D’une part, l’occamisme est tributaire de la tradition grammaticale pour laquelle les pronoms ne sont que les substituts des noms. D’autre part il a besoin, de par sa logique interne, d’une catégorie spéciale de signes — appelés ici des désigna-teurs directs – dont il ne donne pas la théorie et qui correspondent étroitement aux “noms propres logiques ” de l’atomisme logique de Russell; dans le langage ordinaire, auquel Occam se limite, ce sont précisément les démonstratifs qui sont le plus apparentés à ces désignateurs directs, et c’est pourquoi Occam fait spontanément appel à eux. Les démonstratifs constituent ainsi en pratique le pendant linguistique de l’appréhension intuitive théorisée dans la gnoséologie occamiste.
Monolingualism and Multilingualism in the 14th Century
Authors: Richter Michael
Published: November 2010

While not enough is known about most medieval polyglots with regard to the ways in which they acquired languages in addition to their mother tongue, there exist untapped sources for the later Middle Ages about people who were bi- or multi-lingual. One such source is presented here containing information about the distribution of a knowledge of Latin among lay people in Poland in the year 1339. Although the sample available from the source analysed here is rather small, by placing the people who knew Latin in the context of their equals who did not, the emerging pattern indicates trends which are not unexpected. Knowledge of Latin increased both with higher social status and with urbanisation. Quite apart from these specific trends, the general picture shows a considerable knowledge of Latin among the Polish laity in the 14th century. Comparison with a similar analysis carried out for 14-century England confirms some of these findings, though a different socio-linguistic background there manifests itself in differences in the detailed pattern.
William of Sherwood’s Treatise on Obligations
Authors: Stump Eleonore
Published: November 2010

This paper investigates the nature and function of scholastic logical work on Obligationen as they are presented in William of Sherwood’s treatise on the subject. After a brief survey of contemporary discussion of Obligationen, I explain the nature of an obligations disputation, as Sherwood presents it, and make some suggestions about the sources of and reasons for early scholastic interest in obligations. Taking into account various other 13th-century treatises on obligations, I analyze several sections of Sherwood’s treatise in order to indicate what the purpose and function of obligations are in Sherwood’s treatment of them. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the relation between obligations and insolubilia.
Louis Meigret, Humaniste Et Linguiste
Authors: Hausmann Franz-Josef
Published: November 2010

Louis Meigret, un des grands linguistes du XVIe siècle, reste imparfaitement connu, surtout paree que la plupart de ses oeuvres sont écrites dans une ortho-graphe illisible. Aucune monographie n’était jusqu’alors consacré à cet auteur. L’article, condensant un livre à paraître, retrace la biographie de l’humaniste entre 1531–1558 et présente les activités du traducteur, du réformateur de l’orthographe et du grammairien. II révèle tant les influences subies que son originalité. La Grammaire de 1550 y est tout particulièrement analysée. Elle n’a pu être appréciée à sa juste valeur que par la linguistique structural du XXe siècle.
Graphemics and the History of Phonology
Authors: Hospers J. H.
Published: November 2010

It has often been said that the invention of the alphabet marked the beginning of phonology, in a prescientific sense of the word of course. On the other hand, it has also been said (F. Balk-Smit Duyzentkunst 1978) that "the phoneme concept would never have been developed without the alphabetic script". Apart, however from this ‘chicken-or-egg’ problem the assumption of Mrs. Balk is in itself a sign that something has been changing in linguistics the last decade or two. Writing has come into the picture again. Linguistic structuralism was based exclusively on spoken language, but, thanks to the work of such scholars as H. J. Uldall, J. Vachek and W. Haas, the insight has grown that writing is worth studying also linguistically. If this is so, the following question arises: What remains of the above mentioned relation between phoneme and alphabet (or vice versa) if T.G.G. is right in saying that a phonological level corresponding to a psycholinguistic reality does not exist (Chomsky & Halle 1968)? Mrs. Balk has proved in her article that, in any case the notion ‘phoneme’ does exist and that certain specifications and elaborations of this concept contain alphabetic alements, though most orthographies are morphono-logical and not merely phonological. The history and science of writing (I J. Gelb’s ‘grammatology’) also teach us that not only the alphabetic but also the syllabographic scripts were from the beginning already of a morphonological kind. Especially such grammatologists and semitists as Gelb and E. Reiner have drawn attention to the use of what they call ‘morphographemics’ (= morpho-phonemic spellings) in the ancient Akkadian writing system. And G. M. Schramm, J. C. L. Gibson, S. Morag and others did the same with regard to Classical Hebrew. So, perhaps, we are safe in concluding that there is some unconscious operation of a morphophoneme concept in the human mind.
The legitimate fathers of speech errors
Authors: Anwar Mohamed Sami
Published: November 2010

The history of speech errors is reviewed in the West and traced back to its origin in Medieval Arabic linguistics. It is claimed that Rudolf Meringer (1859–1931), the Austrian linguist was not the first scholar to start speech error studies. Some western as well as many Arab linguists were interested in speech errors long before him. It is claimed that Meringer may have been under the influence of Arabic books on speech errors since he thaught at the Orientalische Akademie in Vienna and was in touch with Orientalists interested in speech-error studies. The paper also points out how the interest of Arab linguists in this area emanated from their fear that such errors may lead to the corruption of Arabic and misunderstandings of the Qu’ān. Arab linguists collected speech errors made by educated and uneducated people from different parts of the Arabic-speaking world. Such errors were related to language use, social setting, and cultural factors. Linguistic explanations were also provided such as assimilation, substitution, nearness of point of articulation, anticipation, deletion, addition, and analogy as well as hypercorrection. This helped greatly in the development of empirical studies of phonetics, grammar, lexicography, dialects, the Arabic writing system, and scholarship concerning the Qur’ān.
The ‘Risala’ of Yehuda Ibn Quraysh and its Place in Hebrew Linguistics
Authors: Bekkum W. Jacques Van
Published: November 2010

TheRisālaof Yěhuda Ibn Quraysh (10th century) has evoked many suggestions and presuppositions among modern scholars with regard to its place within the development of Hebrew linguistics. This paper does not deal extensively with theRisālaon its own, but examines possible connections of theRisālawith contemporary and later linguistic works. In the first place, an article of Allony (1970) is discussed, in which the author states that the second chapter of theRisālawas influenced by a work of Sacadya Gaon, theKitāb al-sab-cīn lafza al-mufrada.However, his arguments are not convincing, as already observed by Becker (1977) and Téné (1980). Ibn Quraysh was completely independent from the works of Sacadya Gaon and in fact stood outside the tradition in the study of the Hebrew language which Sacadya Gaon had established. Ibn Quraysh did not have a lasting influence on later grammarians because of his unusual linguistic approach. Direct influence is demonstrable in theKitāb Jāmical-’Alfāzof al-Fāsī. In this connection the problem is discussed, whether Ibn Quraysh was a Qaraite, like al-Fāsī, as some scholars have thought. Works of later grammarians like Ibn Tamīm, Ibn Janāh and Ibn Hayyūj are considered, but their alleged dependence upon theRisālais disproved. The most interesting connection lies between theRisālaand theKitāb al-Muwāzanaby Ibn Bārūn. This book is clearly a comparative work like theRisāla.Ibn Bārūn, too, is aware of the kinship of certain Semitic languages and he shares particular views of Ibn Quraysh regarding lexical explanations and Hebrew grammar. But it is remarkable that the works of Ibn Quraysh and Ibn Bārūn did not make an impact on the later development of Hebrew linguistics and did not succeed in focusing attention on the comparative aspect in the study of Hebrew and Arabic. Reasons for this are given by Téné (1980). It is clear that both theRisālaand theKitāb al-Muwāzanarepresent an episodic development within the history of Hebrew linguistics, which was not developed by later Hebrew linguists until modern scholars of comparative linguistics took it up again.
The use of proper names as a testing device in Sībawayhi’s Kitāb
Authors: Carter M. G.
Published: November 2010

On numerous occasions Sībawayhi (d.2nd/8th century) asks his master al-Khalīl how certain elements (not necessarily nouns) would behave if used as a man or woman’s name. The purpose of these questions is evidently to test the morphological range of Arabic nouns, and proper names were chosen as the testing device because they are a class of nouns which can be arbitrarily coined from any source. At the same time the artificially created ‘name’ serves another purpose, i.e., to transfer a given element into the metalanguage. Several sets of examples are listed, in which various linguistic axioms can be seen to be tested, e.g. the minimal constituents of a noun, prosodie limitations, inflectional restrictions on nouns transferred from verbal and other categories, correlation between noun pattern and full or partial inflection, relationship between gender and inflection, assimilation by non-nouns to nearest available noun pattern on transfer to noun status, use of verbatim quotation when the limit of possible assimilation is passed (i.e., when phrases and sentences are used as proper names). Evidence is presented to show that both master and pupil were well aware of the opportunities afforded by the proper name for testing morphology (even of imaginary words) as well as for introducing items into the metalanguage. It is suggested that this procedure, if not actually invented by al-Khalīl, was certainly first elaborated and exploited by him. That the proper name test falls largely into disuse after theKitābis probably due to the shift away from descriptive and towards prescriptive grammar: other linguistic games emerge instead, which have an unmistakably pedagogical function, e.g. parsing exercises, constructing words from non-existent roots etc.
Les ‘Partes Orationis’ Dans Le Kitāb Al-’Uṣūl D’Ibn Al-Sarrāj
Authors: Troupeau Gérard
Published: November 2010

Cette contribution est constituée par la présentation et la traduction des premières pages du Kitāb al-’Usūl fī l-nahw, dans lesquelles Ibn al-Sarrāj, grammairien de Baghdad du IVe/Xe siècle, définit les trois sortes de mots dont se compose la langue arabe: le nom, l’opération (= le verbe) et la particule. Dans ces définitions, très différentes de celles des premiers grammairiens, on relève une influence très nette de la logique aristotélicienne. Adoptées et transmises par les élèves d’Ibn al-Sarrāj, ces définitions prévaudront, par la suite, chez la plupart des grammairiens arabes.
The 15th-Century Controversy on the Language Spoken by the Ancient Romans
Authors: Tavoni Mirko
Published: November 2010

In the antechamber of Pope Eugene IV in 1435 there took place a debate among a group of Apostolic Secretaries which was to continue to excite the interest of leading Italian humanists for many decades there after and even into the 16th century. A number of these Secretaries, among them Biondo Flavio, argued that in ancient Rome literate and illiterate spoke a Latin which, though obviously differing in lexical, syntactic and stylistic complexity, was basically one and the same language. The spokesman for the others, Leonardo Bruni, maintained that thevulgusmust have used avulgaris sermoas sharply distinct from thelatina ac litterata linguaas the vernacular of their own times was from Latin. As has rightly been pointed out, the disagreement between these humanists was more nominal than real in that the arguments put forward derive directly from diverging notions of ‘language’ and ‘grammar’: hence the two sides evaluate diglossia in the 15th-century society and, therefore, the situation in ancient Rome, by different criteria. This article (which summarizes a forthcoming book), traces the sources for and analyses the terminologies employed in the various texts in an attempt to make their true meaning plain and also uncover the underlying reasons for mutual misunderstanding. It also points out the major shifts of focus which occurred in the subsequent controversy. While Leon Battista Alberti exploited the discussion for a pro-volgare campaign of his own, Guarino Guarini’s exploration of the termlitteralisrepresents one of the most sophisticated points of view adopted by a grammarian, and the polemic between Poggio Bracciolini and Lorenzo Valla overlatineandgrammatice loquireflects a division within the humanist movement of more far-reaching implications.
Phonetics in 16th-Century Italy
Authors: Izzo Herbert J.
Published: November 2010

This paper, which contends that Renaissance linguistics has remained undervalued despite the progress of current linguistic historiography, examines and compares the works of two 16th-century writers on Italian pronunciation, Giorgio Bartoli (1534–83) and John David Rhys (1534–1609). Both show an unexpected sophistication in their articulatory descriptions and in their strict distinction between phonology and orthography as well as considerable knowledge of and an objective attitude toward other European languages and dialects. One of them, moreover, sets up a system of consonant classification which foreshadows modern feature analysis.
19th-Century Italian
Authors: Hall Robert A.
Published: November 2010

The novelist Edmondo de Amicis (1846–1908) was an important figure in the discussions of standard literary Italian at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. In his influential book L’idioma gentile (1905), he advocated a compromise between two extreme positions, pro- and anti-Tuscan, towards the Questione della lingua or language-problem, which had been a subject of debate for over four hundred years. While supporting the claims of Tuscan usage to be regarded as a model, de Amicis rejected the doctrine favored by his fellow-novelist Alessandro Manzoni (the ‘soluzione manzoniana’) that the spoken language of the Florentine upper classes should be the only standard. Especially with regard to the value of dialects, de Amicis took a more liberal position than the extreme pro-Florentine purists of the 19th century. De Amicis exerted a strong influence, especially through the schools (where his works were widely read), and the actual solution to the problem of standard Italian after 1870 deserves to be called ‘deAmicisian’ rather than ‘Manzonian’.
The Source of Sango's 'BE'
Authors: Samarin William J.
Published: November 2010

The verb 'be' in Pidgin Sango is an innovation, for vernacular Sango has no copula. The development in Sango had important grammatical consequences. It is argued, with data both from Ngbandi and Kituba, that the most likely source of this verb is some form of Kikongo, which went through the process of pidginization in the nineteenth century.
Pidgin Hawaiian
Authors: Roberts Julian M.
Published: November 2010

Evidence recently unearthed in documentary sources (such as voyage accounts and Hawaiian-language newspapers) has failed to support the theory that the predominant plantation language and lingua franca of Hawaii's polyglot population in the 19th century was an English-lexifier pidgin. Available evidence actually indicates that a pidginized variety of Hawaiian (which began to develop almost immediately after first contact) formed the original plantation language, and began to be displaced by pidgin English only in the 1880s and 1890s. This Hawaiian-lexifier pidgin also served as a general communicative medium in competition with pidgin English outside the plantation communities. Its prevalence may explain the slow development of pidgin English in Hawaii and late creolization.
The Origins of Lesser Antillean French Creole
Authors: Wylie Jonathan
Published: November 2010

A survey of literary and lexical evidence — early French descriptions of Martinique and its neighboring islands, and the etymologies of modern Dominican names for fish and parts of dugout canoes — suggests that Lesser Antillean French Creole did not take shape until the first decades of the 18th century, some 70 years after French colonization got seriously underway in 1635. The language's progenitors included a Spanish-Carib-French pidgin used between French settlers, their African slaves, and the islands' aboriginal inhabitants; a simplified form of French; and Standard French. No African influences are attested before the 1690s.
Relexification in Creole Genesis
Authors: Lefebvre Claire
Published: November 2010

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, I present a formal representation of the process of relexification hypothesized to play a role in the formation of creole languages. Second, I show how this process operates on the basis of a subset of Haitian data.
A Basque Nautical Pidgin
Authors: Bakker Peter
Published: November 2010

The paper deals with a Basque Nautical Pidgin from which a number of sentences have been preserved in a seventeenth century Basque-Icelandic word list. These sentences are interesting for several reasons. First, Basque may throw an interesting light on the pidginization process because it is not an Indo-European language and has several unusual features. Second, although the sentences come from a Basque word list compiled by an Icelander, there are also some words from other languages, of which English is the most prominent. It is suggested that the knowledge of an English Nautical Pidgin played a role in the formation of this pidgin. Third, in the current debate on the origin of fu and similar markers as complementizers, many claims have been made. In this Basque Pidgin, twelve of the fifteen sentences contain the lexical item for in diverse functions. The use of for in the pidgin is compared with similar lexical items in four other pidgins. It is argued that there was some transmission of the use of for in these pidgins to the for in creoles.
Binding Theory, Bioprogram, And Creolization
Authors: Carden Guy , Stewart William A.
Published: November 2010

Bickerton and others have proposed models of creolization in which a creole with a bioprogram-unmarked grammar appears with the first generation of native speakers. When we construct the history of reflexives and anti-reflexives in Haitian Creole, we find instead a gradual development over more than 200 years, starting from a typologically unusual system that seems an unlikely candidate for the unmarked setting of the bioprogram, and passing through one or two intermediate stages to the typologically unmarked present-day system. A comparison with the limited available data on first and second language acquisition suggests that a model of creolization based on functional considerations and inheritance from a preceding pidgin will account for this history at least as well as a model based on first language acquisition. The history of Haitian Creole Binding Theory thus shows a classical "deep creole" acting much like Sankoffs analysis of Tok Pisin, and quite unlike the predictions of Bickerton's model or any model that predicts that a stable creole will develop in a single generation. This Haitian Creole data therefore implies a gradualist model of creolization, in which "creolization" is seen as a process extending over a number of generations of native speakers.
The Development of Aspectual Markers in Anglo-Caribbean English
Authors: Williams Jeffrey P.
Published: November 2010

The English dialects spoken by the scattered white minority in the Caribbean are important in that they provide linguistic clues to the nature of the Anglophone component in the development of the Caribbean Anglophone Creoles. The British dialect sources for aspectual markers in Anglo-Caribbean English are discussed in the light of the dialect contact and mixing that was the sociolinguistic product of English colonization. Koineization in the development of Anglo-Caribbean English is argued for, with suggestions for further research involving Anglo-Caribbean English and the Caribbean Anglophone Creoles.
The Origins of Fanagalo
Authors: Mesthrie Rajend
Published: November 2010

This paper examines, and refutes, the currently most popular hypothesis concerning the origin of Fanagalo, namely, that it arose on the plantation fields of Natal among indentured East Indian migrants who arrived there from 1860 onwards. Can a pidgin be initiated by a group of migrants from differing linguistic backgrounds in a plantation situation, and still remain in widespread use without showing any substrate influences? If the Indian origin hypothesis is correct, this would indeed be the case: a "crystallized" southern African Pidgin, stable for about a hundred years, would have been created in the sugar plantations of Natal by migrant indentured Indian workers without any tangible influences from any of the five or so Indic and Dravidian languages involved. However, structural and lexical evidence indicates otherwise. Written sources (a first-hand account by an English settler from about 1905, and two published accounts by an English missionary) suggest that the use of Fanagalo in Natal predated the arrival of Indian immigrants by at least ten years. Regarding the origins of Fanagalo, one other viable alternative is examined — the Eastern Cape in the early 1800s. The conclusion is that the most likely site for Fanagalo's genesis was Natal in the mid-nineteenth century.
Notes on the Creole Portuguese of Bidau, East Timor
Authors: Baxter Alan N.
Published: November 2010

This paper discusses a variety of Southeast Asian Creole Portuguese (henceforth SACP) formerly spoken in Bidau, Dili, East Timor. An outline of the sociohistorical setting of the language is followed by a discussion of data sources and references to Bidau Creole Portuguese (BCP) in the literature on Timor. Included is a discussion of an unpublished letter from the Vigário Geral of Timor to Hugo Schuchardt, containing a comparative list of sentences in "corrupt Portuguese," Metropolitan Portuguese, and Tetum. The body of the paper is concerned with the analysis and description of a limited and fragmentary corpus that was tape recorded in the early 1950s by the Missao Antropológica de Timor. These materials, together with the available written sources, permit a preliminary account of certain aspects of the phonology (the sequence V + [ng], palatal affricates, [r], and reflexes of Old Portuguese /ei/ and /l/) and the morphosyn-tax of the creole (the NP, the genetive possessive construction, the predicate, the negators and TMA system, and clause structure). Comparisons are made with other varieties of East Asian Creole Portuguese and SACP throughout. It is found that the language of Bidau is closely related to the creoles of Malacca and Macao.
Haitian Creole
Authors: Déprez Viviane
Published: November 2010

Haitian Creole has been argued to be a pro-drop language whose null subjects are licensed by syntactic clitics (DeGraff 1993). This paper analyzes the properties of Haitian Creole pronominal subjects, expletive and argumentai, and argues on the basis of syntactic, phonological, and comparative considerations that Haitian Creole is better analyzed as a language whose argumentai subjects cannot be null and whose pronominal subjects occur in argumentai positions and cliticize in the phonological component.
Languages With and Without Objects
Authors: Siewierska Anna
Published: November 2010

Among the theoretical frameworks which consider grammatical relations to be a possible but not necessary level of clausal organization, the approach to the object relation espoused in Simon Dik's (1978, 198g, 1997) Functional Grammar is the most restrictive. Unlike various other models of grammar, only one object relation is recognized and its presence in a language is conditional on the existence of a productive dative-shift opposition relating predications depicting the same states of affairs, as in the case of the English The teacher gave the picture to the child and The teacher gave the child a picture. Taking the existence of pairs of clauses such as these as a diagnostic of the object relation heavily reduces the number of languages manifesting an object relation, so the presence of an object relation emerges as a potentially interesting typological parameter. But do the languages manifesting an object relation, in this restrictive sense of the term, have any properties in common other than the object relation? Little attention has been given to this issue either by Functional Grammarians or other linguists who adopt a similar view of the object relation. The present paper seeks to redress this situation by exploring the cross-linguistic applicability of the object relation, as defined in FG, in an extensive sample of genetically and geographically stratified languages. It examines the typological characteristics of the languages with objects in the FG sense of the term and establishes the typological profile most likely leading to the presence of an object relation.
Effected Objects in English and Spanish
Authors: Martinez-Vazquez Montserrat
Published: November 2010

This paper examines resulting objects in English and Spanish. Fillmore's (1968) concept of effected object, e.g. He built the table has been extended to include certain resulting objects which are not sub categorized by their verbs: He kicked a hole in the door, She smiled her thanks or They pushed their way through the crowd. These constructions, we argue, are formed by fusing two semantic predicates into one: the object expresses a result while the verb designates the means by which the intended result is achieved. An analysis of corpus examples demonstrates that they are neither totally lexicalized nor regular productive patterns. The intermediate lexicalized position in question is due to a gradual metaphoric process found in this English construction, a process not allowed in Spanish. The paper concludes that the inability of Spanish to fuse two semantic predicates in this lexically unfilled resulting construction, which works independently of the particular lexical items that instantiate it, may be a consequence of the rigidity of its lexical items, which are strongly marked by morphology. The lack of inflectional information of most English words, on the contrary, confers more grammatical power to the construction.
FIVE KEPLER TARGET STARS THAT SHOW MULTIPLE TRANSITING EXOPLANET CANDIDATES
Authors: Steffen Jason H. , Batalha Natalie M. , Borucki William J. , Buchhave Lars A. , Caldwell Douglas A. , Cochran William D. , Endl Michael , Fabrycky Daniel C. , Fressin François , Ford Eric B. , Fortney Jonathan J. , Haas Michael J. , Holman Matthew J. , Howell Steve B. , Isaacson Howard , Jenkins Jon M. , Koch David , Latham David W. , Lissauer Jack J. , Moorhead Althea V. , Morehead Robert C. , Marcy Geoffrey , MacQueen Phillip J. , Quinn Samuel N. , Ragozzine Darin , Rowe Jason F. , Sasselov Dimitar D. , Seager Sara , Torres Guillermo , Welsh William F.
Published: November 2010

We present and discuss five candidate exoplanetary systems identified with the Kepler spacecraft. These five systems show transits from multiple exoplanet candidates. Should these objects prove to be planetary in nature, then these five systems open new opportunities for the field of exoplanets and provide new insights into the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems. We discuss the methods used to identify multiple transiting objects from the Kepler photometry as well as the false-positive rejection methods that have been applied to these data. One system shows transits from three distinct objects while the remaining four systems show transits from two objects. Three systems have planet candidates that are near mean motion commensurabilities—two near 2:1 and one just outside 5:2. We discuss the implications that multi-transiting systems have on the distribution of orbital inclinations in planetary systems, and hence their dynamical histories, as well as their likely masses and chemical compositions. A Monte Carlo study indicates that, with additional data, most of these systems should exhibit detectable transit timing variations (TTVs) due to gravitational interactions, though none are apparent in these data. We also discuss new challenges that arise in TTV analyses due to the presence of more than two planets in a system.
Plasma diagnostics and device properties of AlGaN/GaN HEMT passivated with SiN deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition
Authors: Romero M F , Sanz M M , Tanarro I , Jiménez A , Muñoz E
Published: November 2010

In this work, silicon nitride thin films have been deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition on both silicon samples and AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) grown on sapphire substrates. Commercial parallel-plate RF plasma equipment has been used. During depositions, the dissociation rates of SiH4 and NH3 precursors and the formation of H2 and N2 have been analysed by mass spectrometry as a function of the NH3/SiH4 flow ratio and the RF power applied to the plasma reactor. Afterwards, the properties of the films and the HEMT electrical characteristics have been studied. Plasma composition has been correlated with the SiN deposition rate, refractive index, H content and the final electric characteristics of the passivated transistors.
Observation of the hollow cathode effect from a dielectric cathode
Authors: Hwang Hyeon Seok , Oh Jin Young , Kim Youn Sang , Lee Se Jong , Song Kie Moon , Baik Hong Koo
Published: November 2010

The hollow cathode effect (HCE) is investigated in the dielectric hollow cathode structure in a Ne–Xe mixture at 4%. The influence of the dielectric is shown experimentally by the relationship between voltage and current peaks. The linearity of reduced current density confirms the existence of the HCE and shows that cathode fall has the same value at every pD condition. Varying the pD, the variation in the discharge mode can be measured with IR intensity emitted from the plasma and photographs of discharge in the visible part of the spectra. Voltages and current in the range of 3 kV at 10 µA were used. We suggest an electrode configuration reinforced in cathode sputtering for the display panel and light source using the dielectric hollow cathode discharge (DHCD), and introducing a mechanism of the DHCD mode.
Dielectric relaxation and polaronic hopping in Al-substituted Sm1.5Sr0.5NiO4 ceramics
Authors: Liu Xiao Qiang , Jia Bo Wen , Yang Wen Zhi , Cheng Ji Peng , Chen Xiang Ming
Published: November 2010

The structure and dielectric properties of Sm1.5Sr0.5Ni1−x
Al
x
O4 (x = 0.3, 0.5) ceramics were presented. A single orthorhombic phase was obtained in Sm1.5Sr0.5Ni0.7Al0.3O4 ceramics, while minor impurities existed in Sm1.5Sr0.5Ni0.5Al0.5O4 ceramics. Temperature stable giant dielectric response was observed in these two ceramics, and only one dielectric relaxation was found. After comparing the activation energies of dielectric relaxation and electrical conduction, the giant dielectric response should be attributed to the adiabatic small polaronic hopping process, and the dielectric behaviour of the samples with different aluminium contents confirmed the correlation between the dielectric response and electrical conduction.
Magnetic and microwave-absorption properties of SnO-coated α-Fe(Sn) nanocapsules
Authors: Wang Z H , He X , Wang X , Han Z , Geng D Y , Zhu Y L , Zhang Z D
Published: November 2010

A series of SnO-coated α-Fe solid-solution nanocapsules were fabricated by a modified arc-discharge technique from Fe1−x
Sn
x
targets with x = 0, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at%. The core and shells change with changing Sn concentration (0, 2, 3, 4 and 5 at%) in the Fe1−x
Sn
x
targets used in the preparation. An in-depth study of the complex permittivity and permeability reveals that the SnO-coated α-Fe solid-solution nanocapsules with 3 at% Sn exhibit excellent microwave-absorption properties among the present SnO-coated Fe solid-solution nanocapsules, due to a proper electromagnetic match in the microstructure, the strong natural resonance as well as dipolar polarization mechanisms.
Paintomics: a web based tool for the joint visualization of transcriptomics and metabolomics data
Authors: García-Alcalde Fernando , García-López Federico , Dopazo Joaquín , Conesa Ana
Published: November 2010

Motivation: The development of the omics technologies such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics has made possible the realization of systems biology studies where biological systems are interrogated at different levels of biochemical activity (gene expression, protein activity and/or metabolite concentration). An effective approach to the analysis of these complex datasets is the joined visualization of the disparate biomolecular data on the framework of known biological pathways.

Results: We have developed the Paintomics web server as an easy-to-use bioinformatics resource that facilitates the integrated visual analysis of experiments where transcriptomics and metabolomics data have been measured on different conditions for the same samples. Basically, Paintomics takes complete transcriptomics and metabolomics datasets, together with lists of significant gene or metabolite changes, and paints this information on KEGG pathway maps.

Availability: Paintomics is freely available at http://www.paintomics.org.

Contact:  aconesa@cipf.es
Long-term maintenance of immediate or delayed extinction is determined by the extinction-test interval
Authors: Johnson Justin S. , Escobar Martha , Kimble Whitney L.
Published: November 2010

Short acquisition-extinction intervals (immediate extinction) can lead to either more or less spontaneous recovery than long acquisition-extinction intervals (delayed extinction). Using rat subjects, we observed less spontaneous recovery following immediate than delayed extinction (Experiment 1). However, this was the case only if a relatively long extinction-test interval was used; a relatively short extinction-test interval yielded the opposite result (Experiment 2). Previous data appear consistent with this observation suggesting that, although delayed extinction appears more beneficial in the short term, immediate extinction may have more favorable long-term effects. These observations may have important implications for attenuation of relapse in clinical situations.
‘Silent’ priming of translation-dependent LTP by β-adrenergic receptors involves phosphorylation and recruitment of AMPA receptors
Authors: Tenorio Gustavo , Connor Steven A. , Guévremont Diane , Abraham Wickliffe C. , Williams Joanna , O'Dell Thomas J. , Nguyen Peter V.
Published: November 2010

The capacity for long-term changes in synaptic efficacy can be altered by prior synaptic activity, a process known as “metaplasticity.” Activation of receptors for modulatory neurotransmitters can trigger downstream signaling cascades that persist beyond initial receptor activation and may thus have metaplastic effects. Because activation of β-adrenergic receptors (β-ARs) strongly enhances the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampal CA1 region, we examined whether activation of these receptors also had metaplastic effects on LTP induction. Our results show that activation of β-ARs induces a protein synthesis-dependent form of metaplasticity that primes the future induction of late-phase LTP by a subthreshold stimulus. β-AR activation also induced a long-lasting increase in phosphorylation of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) GluA1 subunits at a protein kinase A (PKA) site (S845) and transiently activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Consistent with this, inhibitors of PKA and ERK blocked the metaplastic effects of β-AR activation. β-AR activation also induced a prolonged, translation-dependent increase in cell surface levels of GluA1 subunit-containing AMPA receptors. Our results indicate that β-ARs can modulate hippocampal synaptic plasticity by priming synapses for the future induction of late-phase LTP through up-regulation of translational processes, one consequence of which is the trafficking of AMPARs to the cell surface.