41 research outputs found
Incorporated nominals as antecedents for anaphora, or How to save the thematic arguments theory
The paper discusses the incorporation facts, mainly from Hungarian and Hindi, and the extended version of DRT developed by Farkas and de Swart (2003) to capture the properties of incorporated nominals across languages. It is shown that though the framework as defined by Farkas and de Swart does not derive all predictions it was aimed to derive by the authors, it can be easily extended into a version which does predict the relevant data. However, after examining more closely the data from Hungarian-type incorporation languages, I put forward a preliminary hypothesis alternative to Farkas and de Swart’s proposal, namely, that the possibility of anaphora to singular incorporated nominals is not a parameter of a language, but arises in languages like Hungarian if and only if the context makes it clear that the maximal entity denoted by the incorporated nominal is at most atomic. It is left for future empirical research to find out whether this hypothesis can actually account for the whole range of relevant data
The problem of counterfactual de re attitudes
The problem of counterfactual attitudes de re was identified by Ninan (2008) as a challenge for standard theories of de re. I show that once counterfactual non-de re attitudes are properly analyzed, trivial composition of such an analysis for them with the analysis of doxastic de re provides the solution to the problem. Thus there is no independent phenomenon of counterfactual attitudes de re, and therefore no problem as such
Including Explicit Priors on Phase Duration in Bayesian 14C Dating
Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates directly integrates information obtained through archaeological analysis. Here, I explain how to add known information/reasonable assumptions about the length of a deposition phase, using the example of date sequences from two Early Neolithic communities in the Aegean whose dating has been hotly debated, i.e. basal Knossos (Crete) and Nea Nikomedeia (Northern Greece). The consequences of the re-evaluation of their dates are discussed for the broader picture of the Neolithisation in the Aegean and for the chronology of the regional use of stamps
Four pieces for modality, context and usage
Thesis (Ph. D. in Linguistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-269).The main part of this dissertation consists of four loosely connected chapters on the semantics of modals. The chapters inform each other and employ similar methods, but generally each one is self-contained and can be read in isolation. Chapter 2 introduces new semantics for epistemic modality. I argue that the epistemic modal base consists of the propositions that can be obtained by the interlocutors early enough to affect their resolution of their current practical goal. Integrated into the standard contextualist semantics, the new definition successfully accounts for two sets of data that have been claimed to falsify standard contextualism, namely from disagreement dialogues and complements of attitude verbs. Chapter 3 traces the historical rise of the may-under-hope construction, as in I hope we may succeed. In that construction, the modal does not contribute its normal existential modal force. It turns out that despite the construction's archaic flavor in Present-Day English, it is a very recent innovation that arose not earlier than the 16th century. I put forward a hypothesis that the may-under-hope construction arose as the replacement of an earlier construction where the inflectional subjunctive under verbs of hoping was used to mark a specific type of formal hopes about good health. Chapter 4 proposes that O(ld) E(nglish) *motan, the ancestor of Modern English must, was a variable-force modal somewhat similar to the variable-force modals of the American Pacific Northwest. I argue that in Alfredian OE, motan(p) presupposed that if p gets a chance to actualize, it will. I also argue that several centuries later, in the 'AB' dialect, Early Middle English *moten is was genuinely ambiguous between possibility and necessity. Thus a new trajectory of semantic change is discovered: variable force, to ambiguity between possibility and necessity, to regular necessity. Chapter 5 argues that, first, restrictions on the relative scope of deontics and clausemate negation can hardly be all captured within the syntactic component, and second, that capturing some of them can be due to semantic filters on representations. I support the second claim by showing how such semantic filters on scope may arise historically, using Russian stoit 'should' and English have to as examples.by Igor Yanovich.Ph.D.in Linguistic
Modeling of GERDA Phase II data
The GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment at the Gran Sasso underground
laboratory (LNGS) of INFN is searching for neutrinoless double-beta
() decay of Ge. The technological challenge of GERDA is
to operate in a "background-free" regime in the region of interest (ROI) after
analysis cuts for the full 100kgyr target exposure of the
experiment. A careful modeling and decomposition of the full-range energy
spectrum is essential to predict the shape and composition of events in the ROI
around for the search, to extract a precise
measurement of the half-life of the double-beta decay mode with neutrinos
() and in order to identify the location of residual
impurities. The latter will permit future experiments to build strategies in
order to further lower the background and achieve even better sensitivities. In
this article the background decomposition prior to analysis cuts is presented
for GERDA Phase II. The background model fit yields a flat spectrum in the ROI
with a background index (BI) of cts/(kgkeVyr) for the enriched BEGe data set and
cts/(kgkeVyr) for the
enriched coaxial data set. These values are similar to the one of Gerda Phase I
despite a much larger number of detectors and hence radioactive hardware
components
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Modeling of GERDA Phase II data
The GERmanium Detector Array (Gerda) experiment at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) of INFN is searching for neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of 76Ge. The technological challenge of Gerda is to operate in a “background-free” regime in the region of interest (ROI) after analysis cuts for the full 100 kg·yr target exposure of the experiment. A careful modeling and decomposition of the full-range energy spectrum is essential to predict the shape and composition of events in the ROI around Qββ for the 0νββ search, to extract a precise measurement of the half-life of the double-beta decay mode with neutrinos (2νββ) and in order to identify the location of residual impurities. The latter will permit future experiments to build strategies in order to further lower the background and achieve even better sensitivities. In this article the background decomposition prior to analysis cuts is presented for Gerda Phase II. The background model fit yields a flat spectrum in the ROI with a background index (BI) of 16.04+0.78−0.85⋅10−3 cts/(keV·kg·yr) for the enriched BEGe data set and 14.68+0.47−0.52⋅10−3 cts/(keV·kg·yr) for the enriched coaxial data set. These values are similar to the one of Phase I despite a much larger number of detectors and hence radioactive hardware components
Joint modelling of radiocarbon dates from Ulucak V (Anatolian Late Neolithic)
The Neolithic site of Ulucak (Central-Western Anatolia) presents one of the best currently available sequences for the beginning of the Neolithic way of life in the region. Ulucak’s crucial phase V features a gradual rise in the variety and importance of pottery and of other clay objects. This phase’s dating has wide implications for cultural relations within Anatolia and the Aegean. I present a joint Bayesian model for Ulucak V, resolving problems of the earlier modeling by adding an old-wood probabilistic correction. The obtained model corrects the previous estimates of 6500–6000 calBCE for Ulucak V to a likely considerably shorter period within 6400/6300–6000/5900 calBCE, and raises the possibility of a hiatus between the aceramic Ulucak VI and the pottery-bearing Ulucak V