6 research outputs found
Prosodic Noun Incorporation and Verb-Initial Syntax
To date, no real consensus has emerged among syntacticians about how to derive verb-initial order (V1); but the two main approaches, -raising and VP-raising, receive particularly widespread support in the literature. The syntax of Niuean pseudo noun incorporation (PNI) has played an important role in the propagation of the VP-raising analysis (Massam 2001), especially for VSO languages and languages with a VSO option.
In this thesis, I present an analysis of the prosody of Niuean PNI and show that the PNI verb and incorporated argument form a prosodic constituent. While this result is consistent with the syntactic analysis of Massam (2001), it is also consistent with a prosodic restructuring analysis that explains the VOS order of PNI by appealing to prosodic well-formedness. I take the second approach. Specifically, the principle behind Selkirk's (1984) Sense Unit Condition requires that the verb and its internal argument(s) form a unique phonological phrase. In order to satisfy this requirement, the incorporated argument moves into a position adjacent to the verb at PF. Positionally motivated categorical feature sharing (Adger and Svenonius 2011; Pesetsky and Torrego 2007) allows PF to reference the head-argument relationship between the verb and its internal argument, even though they are not sent to PF in structurally adjacent positions.
The main result for the syntactic analysis of Niuean is that -raising replaces VP-raising. The benefits of the -raising approach include i) less phonologically vacuous structure in places where Niuean has overt morphology, e.g., a perpetually null in the face of overt tense markers; and ii) observance of the idea that thematic roles are correlated to structural positions. Thus, the prosodic analysis of Niuean PNI has a number of positive outcomes for Niuean syntax, as well as the potential to simplify the derivation of VSO cross-linguistically.Linguistic
Ingénierie des exigences pour la conception d'architectures de sécurité de systÚmes embarqués distribués
During the last ten years, the impact of security concerns on the development and exploration of distributed embedded systems never ceased to grow. This is mainly related to the fact that these systems are increasingly interconnected and thus vulnerable to attacks, and that the economic interest in attacking them has simultane- ously increased. In such a context, requirement engineering methodologies and tools have become necessary to take appropriate decisions regarding security early on. Security requirements engineering should thus strongly support the elicitation and specifica- tion of software security issues and solutions well before designers and developers are committed to a particular implementation. However, and that is especially true in embedded systems, security requirements should not be considered only as the abstract expression of a set of properties independently from the system architecture or from the threats and attacks that may occur. We believe this consideration is of utmost importance for security requirements engineering to be the driving force behind the design and implementation of a secure system. We thus describe in this thesis a security engineering requirement methodology depending upon a constant dialog between the design of system functions, the requirements that are attached to them, the design and development of the system architecture, and the assessment of the threats to system assets. Our approach in particular relies on a knowledge-centric approach to security requirement engineering, applicable from the early phases of system conceptualization to the enforcement of security requirements.Au cours des dix dernieÌres anneÌes, lâimpact des questions de seÌcuriteÌ sur le deÌveloppement et la mise en oeuvre des systeÌmes embarqueÌs distribueÌs nâa jamais cesseÌ de croiÌtre. Ceci est principalement lieÌ aÌ lâinterconnexion toujours plus importante de ces systeÌmes qui les rend vulneÌrables aux attaques, ainsi quâaÌ lâinteÌreÌt eÌconomique dâattaquer ces systeÌmes qui sâest simultaneÌment accru. Dans un tel contexte, meÌthodologies et outils dâingeÌnierie des exigences de seÌcuriteÌ sont devenus indispensables pour prendre des deÌcisions approprieÌes quant a` la seÌcuriteÌ, et ce le plus toÌt possible. LâingeÌnierie des exigences devrait donc fournir une aide substantielle aÌ lâexplicitation et aÌ la speÌcification des probleÌmes et solutions de seÌcuriteÌ des logiciels bien avant que concepteurs et deÌveloppeurs ne soient engageÌs dans une implantation en particulier. Toutefois, et câest particulieÌrement vrai dans les systeÌmes embarqueÌs, les exigences de seÌcuriteÌ ne doivent pas eÌtre consideÌreÌes seulement comme lâexpression abstraite dâun ensemble de proprieÌteÌs indeÌpendamment de lâarchitecture systeÌme ou des menaces et des attaques qui pourraient y survenir. Nous estimons que cette consideÌration est dâune importance capitale pour faire de lâingeÌnierie des exigences un guide et un moteur de la conception et de la mise en Ćuvre dâun systeÌme seÌcuriseÌ. Notre approche sâappuie en particulier sur une approche centreÌe sur les connaissances de lâingeÌnierie des exigences de seÌcuriteÌ, applicable deÌs les premieÌres phases de conception du systeÌme jusquâaÌ la mise en application des exigences de seÌcuriteÌ dans lâimplantation
On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar
This book is about reconstructing the grammar of Proto-Bantu, the ancestral language at the origin of current-day Bantu languages. While Bantu is a low-level branch of Niger-Congo, the worldâs biggest phylum, it is still Africaâs biggest language family. This edited volume attempts to retrieve the phonology, morphology and syntax used by the earliest Bantu speakers to communicate with each other, discusses methods to do so, and looks at issues raised by these academic endeavours. It is a collective effort involving a fine mix of junior and senior scholars representing several generations of expert historical-comparative Bantu research. It is the first systematic approach to Proto-Bantu grammar since Meeussenâs Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions (1967). Based on new bodies of evidence from the last five decades, most notably from northwestern Bantu languages, this book considerably transforms our understanding of Proto-Bantu grammar and offers new methodological approaches to Bantu grammatical reconstruction
Agreement, case, and switch-reference in Amahuaca
This dissertation probes the nature of the syntactic operation of Agree through the lens of the morphosyntax of Amahuaca, an endangered Panoan language of the Peruvian Amazon. I take as my empirical focus two interrelated case studies in Amahuaca syntax: 1) the split ergative case system, and 2) the extensive switch-reference system. In the domain of case, I argue that overt ergative case morphology in Amahuaca expones agreement of the transitive subject with multiple functional heads. This leads to a distinction between the features needed for abstract ergative case (agreement only with v), and the features needed to trigger overt ergative case (agreement with both v and T). This distinction between abstract and morphological case factors into the analysis of the switch-reference system of Amahuaca, which I argue is sensitive to abstract case. In addition to case-sensitivity, Amahuacaâs switch-reference system shows the typologically unusual property of tracking the reference of all arguments of the verb, not only subjects. I propose that this system arises through adjunct complementizer agreement that probes both the adjunct and matrix arguments directly through cyclic expansion of the probe. Through these two investigations, I conclude that Amahuaca provides support for a narrowly cyclic model of Agree in which each instance of Merge defines a new cycle of Agree (Rezac 2003, 2004; BĂ©jar and Rezac 2009). Further, the empirical facts can be most straightforwardly accounted for if we assume that some probes are insatiable, agreeing with all possible goals in their search space (Deal 2015b). Finally, despite the fact that some agreement in Amahuaca appears to be long distance, I argue that the data can be captured under the fairly conservative assumption that Agree is always under c-command and is always phase-bound