Diachronic change in the semantic configuration of six verb-preposition combinations

In this paper we analyse the semantic load that prepositions In and On contribute to six verb-preposition combinations following the syntactic pattern “V + prep. + n/pron.”. The analysis is grounded on real language use examples extracted from two different corpora belonging to two different historical periods of the English language (present Contemporary English and Early Modern English). Our main aim is to check whether the semantic configuration of each one of these combinations is maintained or has undergone some change over time. If diachronic change has been the case, the purpose of the paper is also to show the role of topology, dynamics and function in sense extensions, as well as the patterns of these extensions. Semantic extension grounded on basic topological senses may show a difference to those semantic changes originated in functional senses

Pattern matching in compilers

In this thesis we develop tools for effective and flexible pattern matching. We introduce a new pattern matching system called amethyst. Amethyst is not only a generator of parsers of programming languages, but can also serve as an alternative to tools for matching regular expressions. Our framework also produces dynamic parsers. Its intended use is in the context of IDE (accurate syntax highlighting and error detection on the fly). Amethyst offers pattern matching of general data structures. This makes it a useful tool for implementing compiler optimizations such as constant folding, instruction scheduling, and dataflow analysis in general. The parsers produced are essentially top-down parsers. Linear time complexity is obtained by introducing the novel notion of structured grammars and regularized regular expressions. Amethyst uses techniques known from compiler optimizations to produce effective parsers.Comment: master thesi

Ditransitive verbs and the ditransitive construction: a diachronic perspective

This paper argues for the adoption of a construction-based perspective to the investigation of diachronic shifts in valency, which is a hitherto largely neglected topic in the framework of valency grammar. On the basis of a comparison of the set of verbs attested in the double object argument structure pattern in a corpus of 18th-century British English with the construction's present-day semantic range, I will distinguish between three kinds of valency shifts. It will be shown that the semantic ranges of schematic argument structure constructions are subject to diachronic change, and that the shifts in valency observed in individual verbs are often part of more general changes at the level of the associated argument structure constructions. The latter part of the paper explores frequency shifts in valency and constructional semantics