Quantity superlatives in Germanic, or, ‘Life on the fault line between adjective and determiner'

This paper concerns the superlative forms of the words many, much, few, and little, and their equivalents in other Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dalecarlian, Icelandic, and Faroese). It demonstrates that every possible relationship between definiteness and interpretation is attested. It also demonstrates that agreement mismatches are found with relative readings and with proportional readings, but different kinds of agreement mismatches in each case. One consistent pattern is that a quantity superlative with adverbial morphology and neuter singular agreement features is used with relative superlatives. On the other hand, quantity superlatives with proportional readings always agree in number. I conclude that quantity superlatives are not structurally analogous to quality superlatives on either relative or proportional readings, but they depart from a plain attributive structure in different ways. On relative readings they can be akin to pseudopartitives (as in a cup of tea), while proportional readings are more closely related to partitives (as in a piece of the cake). More specifically, I suggest that the agreement features of a superlative exhibits depend on the domain from which the target is drawn (the target-domain hypothesis). When the target is a degree, as it is with adverbial superlatives and certain relative superlatives, default neuter singular emerges. Definiteness there is driven by the same process that drives definiteness with adverbial superlatives. With proportional readings, the target argument of the superlative is a subpart or subset of the domain indicated by the substance noun, hence number agreement. Subtle aspects of how the comparison class and the superlative marker are construed determine definiteness for proportional readings.http://eecoppock.info/germanic.pdfAccepted manuscrip

Betting on Quantum Objects

Dutch book arguments have been applied to beliefs about the outcomes of measurements of quantum systems, but not to beliefs about quantum objects prior to measurement. In this paper, we prove a quantum version of the probabilists' Dutch book theorem that applies to both sorts of beliefs: roughly, if ideal beliefs are given by vector states, all and only Born-rule probabilities avoid Dutch books. This theorem and associated results have implications for operational and realist interpretations of the logic of a Hilbert lattice. In the latter case, we show that the defenders of the eigenstate-value orthodoxy face a trilemma. Those who favor vague properties avoid the trilemma, admitting all and only those beliefs about quantum objects that avoid Dutch books.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; improved operational semantics, results unchange

Presenting GECO : an eyetracking corpus of monolingual and bilingual sentence reading

This paper introduces GECO, the Ghent Eye-tracking Corpus, a monolingual and bilingual corpus of eye-tracking data of participants reading a complete novel. English monolinguals and Dutch-English bilinguals read an entire novel, which was presented in paragraphs on the screen. The bilinguals read half of the novel in their first language, and the other half in their second language. In this paper we describe the distributions and descriptive statistics of the most important reading time measures for the two groups of participants. This large eye-tracking corpus is perfectly suited for both exploratory purposes as well as more directed hypothesis testing, and it can guide the formulation of ideas and theories about naturalistic reading processes in a meaningful context. Most importantly, this corpus has the potential to evaluate the generalizability of monolingual and bilingual language theories and models to reading of long texts and narratives

Negative concord and (multiple) agree: a case study of West Flemish

This paper examines the formalization of negative concord in terms of the Minimalist Program, focusing entirely on negative concord in West Flemish. It is shown that a recent analysis of negative concord which advocates Multiple Agree is empirically inadequate. Instead of Multiple Agree, it is argued that a particular implementation of the simpler and less powerful binary Agree is superior in deriving the data in questio

On an alternative to long A´-movement in German and Dutch

This paper provides an analysis of an alternative strategy to A´-movement in both German and Dutch where the extracted constituent is preceded by a preposition and a coreferential pronoun appears in the extraction site. The construction has properties of both binding and movement: Whereas reconstruction effects suggest movement out of the embedded clause, there is strong evidence that the operator constituent is linked to an A-position in the matrix clause; this paradox is resolved by assuming a Control-like approach that involves movement from the embedded clause into a theta-position in the matrix clause with subsequent short A´- movement. The coreferential pronoun is interpreted as a resumptive heading a Big-DP which hosts the antecedent in its specifier

Doing confirmation with ja/nee hoor. Sequential and prosodic characteristics of a Dutch discourse particle

This paper offers sequential-interactional and prosodic observations on the confirmation forms ja hoor / nee hoor ('yes'+particle hoor / 'no' + hoor) in Dutch talk-in-interaction, as part of a larger analysis of the form and function of the particle hoor. We show that ja/nee hoor is used as a marked confirmation in sequentially specifiable context-types. When used as a response to queries, the speaker marks doing confirmation as programmatically motivated. When used in environments that further §[ sequence expansion], ja/nee hoor resists such expansion. Thus, the use of ja/nee hoor is motivated by an orientation to multiple levels of discourse organization. Ja/nee hoor is associated with recurrent pitch contours which are systematically distributed across environments of use. We discuss our findings in relation to previous findings on the use of hoor in Dutch

The Power of the Covenant Idea for Leadership, Reform, and Ethical Behavior

The study of leadership is awash with numerous concepts, many of which overlap. To the student and the scholar, finding a starting point and integrative theme for leadership ideas which extend from interpersonal to organizational contexts can be dizzying. This paper proposes the idea of covenant as a unifying metaphor for these valuable and often overlapping leadership ideas. The covenantal approach has had a tremendous impact on the history of Western legal and perhaps, more importantly, social and cultural thought and therefore might offer us a realistic and practical approach to effective leadership. In particular, we will see that a covenantal model emphasizes the following: 1) An ethos of empowerment, mutual care, and mutual accountability; 2) A leadership style of servant leadership; 3) A process of participative decision-making; 4) A structure of non-centralization; and 5) A culture of spirituality in the workplace

The end of work or work without end? The role of voters' beliefs in shaping policies of early exit

The rise and fall of policies regulating early exit from labour markets remains enigmatic for comparative politics. Most explanations focus on structural or institutional causes. A missing source of national variation, this discussion paper argues, lies in cross-country differences in voters attitude. Whereas in some European countries voters would not think that there is a trade-off between the employment of older and younger workers, in others this is a dominant paradigm. I describe these differences in opinion, as well as their potential and limits for explaining reform in this policy area. A multi-level analysis of Eurobarometer data shows that low employment rates and high levels of labour market regulation lead more people to believe in such a trade-off. This belief is rather the result of voters perceptions of how labour markets work than the result of their personal situation. -- Der vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft fällt es schwer, den Aufstieg und Niedergang von Politiken, die das vorzeitige Ausscheiden aus dem Erwerbsleben bestimmen, zu verstehen. Die meisten Erklärungen hierzu ziehen strukturelle oder institutionelle Ursachen heran. In diesem Diskussionspapier wird argumentiert, dass eine fehlende Quelle nationaler Variation in unterschiedlichen Einstellungen von Wählern liegt. Während in manchen europäischen Ländern Wähler nicht an einen Zielkonflikt zwischen der Beschäftigung älterer und jüngerer Arbeitnehmer glauben, ist dies in anderen ein starkes Paradigma. Ich skizziere die Unterschiede in den Meinungen und diskutiere, inwiefern sie zur Erklärung von Reformprozessen beitragen. Eine Mehrebenenanalyse von Eurobarometerdaten zeigt, dass niedrige Beschäftigungsraten und hoher Kündigungsschutz eher Menschen dazu bringen, an diesen Zielkonflikt zu glauben. Der Glaube an den Zielkonflikt ist weniger das Resultat der tatsächlichen, persönlichen Situation der Wähler, als vielmehr ein Produkt dessen, wie Menschen die Funktionsweise des Arbeitsmarktes wahrnehmen.

Sociodemographic, psychological and politicocultural correlates in Flemish students' attitudes towards French and English

An analysis of 100 Flemish high-school students' attitudes towards French and English (both foreign languages) revealed complex links etween personality factors, gender, politicocultural identity, communicative behaviour and foreign language attitudes. Attitudes towards English were found to be much more positive than those towards French, despite the fact that the participants had enjoyed a longer and more intense formal instruction in French (it being their second language). The independent variables were found to have stronger effects for French than for English, with the exception of politicocultural identity of the participant, which had a strong effect on attitudes towards French but not English. Overall, it seems that social factors, including exposure to the foreign languages, are linked with lowerlevel personality dimensions and thus shape attitudes towards these languages