Topics in the syntax and semantics of Blackfoot quantifiers and nominals
Creators: name: Glougie, Jennifer R. S.
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2009

description: Dispersion of mass is a measure of the deviation of transportation of fluid in a reactor from ideal reactor behavior (perfect mixing or plug flow) caused by the combined effects of diffusion, convection and migration. Axial dispersion is always undesirable because it reduces the driving force of the reaction and therefore causes a lower level of conversion. On the other hand, transverse dispersion is often a desirable feature since good transverse mixing will reduce the transverse concentration and temperature gradients and hence improve the selectivity of a thermochemical reactor. Transverse dispersion of mass is of more importance in a three-dimensional flow-by electrochemical reactor than that in a thermochemical reactor because the potential drop is in the transverse direction and the reaction rate and selectivity are determined by the potential as well as concentration and temperature distributions. The transverse dispersion of mass is expected to have a more profound effect on the performance of a 3D electrochemical reactor due to the strong interaction among the concentration, temperature and potential distributions in the transverse direction. In the present work, the axial and transverse dispersion of mass were studied with a twodimensional dispersion model in two types of rectangular packed bed: i) randomly packed glass beads with the average bead diameter of 2 mm and a macroscopic bed porosity of 0.41; ii) a representation of a 3D flow-by electrode - consisting of a bed of carbon felt with the carbon fibre diameter of 20 urn and a macroscopic bed porosity of 0.95. A tracer stimulation-response system was set up and axial and transverse dispersion of In Blackfoot, DPs appear to take obligatory wide scope with respect to the universal quantifier while bare nouns take obligatory narrow scope with respect to the universal quantifier. I propose that the difference in scope-taking properties of Blackfoot nominals is a consequence of their syntactic position. I propose that over argument DPs are adjoined to the clause whereas bare nouns are base generated in an argument position. I suggest that the scope properties fall out from this distinction in the syntax. The Blackfoot universal quantifier, ohkan-, is a preverb. That is, ohkan- occurs as a part of the verb stem preceding the verb root itself. I propose that ohkan- is head of its own QP which takes the VP as its complement. I follow Sportiche (1998) in categorizing ohkan- as a stranded quantifier since it is base generated external to VP. Bare nouns, since they are generated within VP, are structurally inferior to ohkan-, since they are within its c-command domain. The adjoined DPs, however, are structurally superior to ohkan-, since they are adjoined to the clause. I propose that the structural superiority of DPs translates to their obligatory wide scope. Conversely, the structural inferiority of bare nouns translates to their obligatory narrow scope. Blackfoot is a relatively understudied Algonquian language spoken in Southern Alberta and Northern Montana. The Blackfoot data presented in this work come primarily from my own work with two Blackfoot speakers. Both of my language consultants hail from Southern Alberta speak and the Blood dialect of Blackfoot.