Voice syncretism

This book provides a comprehensive typological account of voice syncretism, focusing on resemblance in formal verbal marking between two or more of the following seven voices: passives, antipassives, reflexives, reciprocals, anticausatives, causatives, and applicatives. It covers voice syncretism from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and has been structured in a manner that facilitates convenient access to information about specific patterns of voice syncretism, their distribution and development. The book is based on a survey of voice syncretism in 222 geographically and genealogically diverse languages, but also thoroughly revisits previous research on the phenomenon. Voice syncretism is approached systematically by establishing and exploring patterns of voice syncretism that can logically be posited for the seven voices of focus in the book: 21 simplex patterns when one considers two of the seven voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal syncretism), and 99 complex patterns when one considers more than two of the voices sharing the same marking (e.g. reflexive-reciprocal-anticausative syncretism). In a similar vein, 42 paths of development can logically be posited if it is assumed that voice marking in each of the seven voices can potentially develop one of the other six voice functions (e.g. reflexive voice marking developing a reciprocal function). This approach enables the discussion of both voice syncretism that has received considerable attention in the literature (notably middle syncretism involving the reflexive, reciprocal, anticausative and/or passive voices) and voice syncretism that has received little or no treatment in the past (including seemingly contradictory patterns such as causative-anticausative and passive-antipassive syncretism). In the survey almost all simplex patterns are attested in addition to seventeen complex patterns. In terms of diachrony, evidence is presented and discussed for twenty paths of development. The book strives to highlight the variation found in voice syncretism across the world’s languages and encourage further research into the phenomenon

Degradation patterns of silicone-based dielectric elastomers in electrical fields

Silicone elastomers have been heavily investigated as candidates for the flexible insulator material in dielectric elastomer transducers and are as such almost ideal candidates because of their inherent softness and compliance. However, silicone elastomers suffer from low dielectric permittivity. This shortcoming has been attempted optimized through different approaches during recent years. Material optimization with the sole purpose of increasing the dielectric permittivity may lead to the introduction of problematic phenomena such as premature electrical breakdown due to high leakage currents of the thin elastomer film. Within this work, electrical breakdown phenomena of various types of permittivity-enhanced silicone elastomers are investigated. Results showed that different types of polymer backbone chemistries lead to differences in electrical breakdown patterns, which were revealed through SEM imaging. This may pave the way towards a better understanding of electrical breakdown mechanisms of dielectric elastomers and potentially lead to materials with increased electrical breakdown strengths

Self-Healing, High-Permittivity Silicone Dielectric Elastomer

Currently used dielectric elastomers do not have the ability to self-heal after detrimental events such as tearing or electrical breakdown, which are critical issues in relation to product reliability and lifetime. In this paper, we present a self-healing dielectric elastomer that additionally possesses high dielectric permittivity and consists of an interpenetrating polymer network of silicone elastomer and ionic silicone species that are cross-linked through proton exchange between amines and acids. The ionically cross-linked silicone provides self-healing properties after electrical breakdown or cuts made directly to the material due to the reassembly of the ionic bonds that are broken during damage. The dielectric elastomers presented in this paper pave the way to increased lifetimes and the ability of dielectric elastomers to survive millions of cycles in high-voltage conditions

Towards a typology of voice syncretism

This dissertation is a typological study of the cross-linguistic diversity in the syncretism between two or more of the following seven voices: passives, antipassives, reflexives, reciprocals, anticausatives, causatives, and applicatives. The study is primarily based on a survey of 222 genealogically and geographically diverse languages, but also addresses data from dozens more. The main goal of the dissertation is to systematically describe variation in voice syncretism across the world’s languages from a range of different perspectives both synchronically and diachronically, including formal marking, combinations – or patterns – of syncretism, and distribution. The findings of the dissertation show that voice syncretism is a cross-linguistically prevalent phenomenon attested in almost half of the surveyed languages. More than forty different patterns of syncretism are attested in these languages, many patterns of which have hitherto received little or no prior treatment in the literature. These patterns vary greatly in marking, complexity, frequency, and distribution, which suggests that voice syncretism is a more diverse phenomenon than hitherto acknowledged. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the said syncretism can evolve along various diachronic pathways, several of which appear to be bidirectional, indicating that the diachrony of voice syncretism is more intricate than previously assumed. The dissertation is structured in a manner that allows for information on individual patterns of voice syncretism to be conveniently accessed, and it is thus hoped that it will serve as a reference and starting point for further research on the topic.Denna dissertation är en typologisk studie av den tvärspråkliga diversiteten i synkretismen mellan två eller flera av de följande verbala konstruktionerna: passiver, antipassiver, reflexiver, reciproker, antikausativer, kausativer, och applikativer (i brist på en övergripande svensk term kallas dessa konstruktioner hädanefter ”röster” efter det engelska begreppet ”voice,” jmf. engelska versionen av denna abstrakt). Studien är primärt baserad på en undersökning av 222 genetiskt och geografiskt olikartade språk, men beaktar också data från ett flertal andra språk. Huvudsyftet är att systematiskt beskriva variationen i röst-relaterad synkretism inom världens språk från olika perspektiv både synkroniskt och diakroniskt, inklusive grammatisk markering, kombinationer – eller mönster – av synkretism, samt distribution. Dissertationens resultat visar att röst-relaterad synkretism är ett tvärspråkligt vanligt fenomen som finns i över hälften av de undersökta språken. Det finns belägg för mer än fyrtio olika mönster av synkretism i dessa språk, inklusive många mönster som inte tidigare har undersökts eller endast har undersökts i begränsad utsträckning. Mönstren varierar mycket beträffande grammatisk markering, komplexitet, frekvens och distribution, vilket tyder på att röst-relaterad synkretism är ett mer mångfaldigt fenomen än vad man hittills har antagit. Det påvisas dessutom att sådan synkretism kan uppstå via olikartade diakroniska utvecklingsvägar, enkelriktade såväl som dubbelriktade, vilket indikerar att också dess diakroni är mer invecklad än vad tidigare har förmodats. Dissertationen är strukturerad på ett sätt som underlättar tillgången till information om individuella mönster av röst-relaterad synkretism, och förhoppningsvis kan den därmed fungera som referens och utgångspunkt för framtidig forskning om ämnet