Wh-in-situ and the Spanish DP: Movement or no movement?

Two main theories compete to analyze wh-in-situ constructions in the Spanish clause: The “movement approach” (Uribe-Etxebarria (2002) and Etxepare and Uribe-Etxebarria (2005)) and the “in situ approach” (Reglero (2004, 2005)). According to Uribe-Etxebarria (2002) and Etxepare and Uribe-Etxebarria (2005), Spanish wh-in-situ questions have a complex syntax and involve two movement operations. First, the wh-word moves to Spec CP overtly. Then, the non-interrogative material (i.e. the remnant IP) moves over the displaced wh-word. Reglero (2004, 2005) argues against massive overt movement. She proposes that the properties of wh-in situ constructions are the result of the interplay of syntactic and phonological properties of these elements. This paper examines in detail wh-in-situ constructions in the nominal domain. The descriptive generalization is that wh-extraction is different from wh-in-situ in Spanish DPs, and it is not possible to analyze wh-in-situ as the result of movement. Crucially, the only requirement for wh-in-situ in the clausal and the nominal domains is the Sentence Final Requirement. That is, the presence of a wh-in-situ alters the neutral word order possibilities in the nominal domain. According to the evidence presented, the paper argues that a unified analysis of Spanish wh-in-situ is possible by appealing to Reglero’s non-movement approach

Preguntas múltiples en euskera

This paper evaluates Bošković's (1999) proposal with respect to question formation in Basque. This language allows two strategies to ask a question such as «who bought what?». One possibility is that one wh-phrase fronts and the other stays in situ. The other possibility is that both wh-phrases move overtly to the front of the sentence. Regardless of the strategy employed, Superiority effects always show up in this language. The present study is the first attempt to offer an account of the mechanisms underlying multiple questions formation in Basque. Previous research (Ortiz de Urbina 1995, 1999) has found that wh-words in Basque behave very similarly to elements bearing focus. However, there are no detailed studies dealing with multiple question formation in this language. This paper offers an analysis of multiple questions in Basque which will help us gain understanding of the nature of «wh»-movement in this language

Wh-Islands in L2 Spanish and L2 English: Between Poverty of the Stimulus and Data Assessment

This paper sheds light on the acquisition of wh-islands in L2 English spoken by native speakers of Spanish and L2 Spanish spoken by native speakers of English as well as on the distribution of wh-islands in L1 Spanish. A grammaticality judgment task with a 7-point Likert scale provides evidence that wh-island effects are present in L1 and L2 Spanish as well as L1 and L2 English. The L1 Spanish facts challenge the received view of wh-islands in this language, in keeping with recent developments which show that islands are more widely attested across languages than previously thought. These facts also highlight the dialogue between L2 research and replication studies thanks to the use of native control groups

The transcriptional and mutational landscapes of lipid metabolism-related genes in colon cancer

Metabolic alterations encountered in tumors are well recognized and considered as a hallmark of cancer. In addition to Warburg Effect, epidemiological and experimental studies support the crucial role of lipid metabolism in colorectal cancer (CRC). The overexpression of four lipid metabolism-related genes (ABCA1, ACSL1, AGPAT1 and SCD genes) has been proposed as prognostic marker of stage II CRC (ColoLipidGene signature). In order to explore in depth the transcriptomic and genomic scenarios of ABCA1, ACSL1, AGPAT1 and SCD genes, we performed a transcriptomic meta-analysis in more than one thousand CRC individuals. Additionally we analyzed their genomic coding sequence in 95 patients, to find variants that could orchestrate CRC prognosis. We found that genetic variant rs3071, located on SCD gene, defines a 9.77% of stage II CRC patients with high risk of death. Moreover, individuals with upregulation of ABCA1 and AGPAT1 expression have an increased risk of CRC recurrence, independently of tumor stage. ABCA1 emerges as one of the main contributors to signature's prognostic effect. Indeed, both high ABCA1 expression and presence of tumoral genetic variants located in ABCA1 coding region, seem to be associated with CRC risk of death. In addition the non-synonymous polymorphism rs2230808, located on ABCA1, is associated with gene expression. Patients carrying at least one copy of minor allele showed higher levels of ABCA1 expression than patients carrying homozygous major allele. This study broaden the prognostic value of ABCA1, ACSL1, AGPAT1 and SCD genes, independently of CRC tumor stage, leading to future precision medicine approaches and "omics"-guided therapiesMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad del Gobierno de España (MINECO, Plan Nacional I+D+i AGL2016-76736-C3), Gobierno regional de la Comunidad de Madrid (P2013/ABI-2728, ALIBIRD-CM) and EU Structural Fund

Singularities of surface mixing activity in the Western Mediterranean influence bluefin tuna larval habitats

Understanding how the surface dynamics of the ocean influence the spawning and larval ecology of many large pelagic species, in particular tuna species, is a major challenge. For temperate tunas, the selection of geographically restricted spawning grounds is influenced by environmental conditions, but the influence of surface mixing properties on the early life stages of these species remains poorly understood. Here, based on ichthyoplankton samples collected over 4 yr and satellite-derived finite size Lyapunov exponents (FSLEs), we examined how horizontal mixing activity drives the probability of presence of Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus larvae. We further analyzed the spatial and temporal scales of the FSLE variability at which the relationship between larval presence and mesoscale activity is maximized. We found that moderate mixing activity strongly favors the spatial-temporal distribution of larval habitats, evidencing an optimal environmental window of bluefin tuna spawning and early life development within the mesoscale dynamics. During the spawning season, the Balearic Sea presents a unique spatial and temporal hydrodynamic scenario within the Western Mediterranean. These results can be used for developing oceanographic indicators and improving larval abundance indices that are currently used in Atlantic bluefin tuna stock assessments.En prensa2,48

Desarrollo de alimentos funcionales adaptados a nuevos avances en la genética

III Congreso de Alimentación, Nutrición y Dietética. Combinar la nutrición comunitaria y personalizada: nuevos retos

A\u27-dependencies in Spanish and Basque

This dissertation offers a study of A′-dependencies in Spanish and Basque. More specifically, I analyze wh-movement, its interaction with Focus and Topic and the adjacency requirement between wh-phrases and the verb. In order to offer an analysis of these phenomena, I explore the following topics: in situ questions in Spanish, (multiple) question formation in Basque, and comparative subdeletion phenomena in Spanish. ^ In chapter 2 I provide an account of the behavior of wh-in-situ questions in Spanish. The analysis pursued in the chapter reveals that the distribution of in situ wh-phrases is governed by phonological properties. More precisely, in situ wh-phrases in Spanish need to appear last within their intonational phrase. This generalization captures the behavior of all in situ wh-phrases in this language. ^ In chapter 3 I discuss the strategies Basque employs to formulate a multiple wh-question. I show that in the in situ strategy no wh-phrase remains in situ in the structure: the postverbal wh-phrase raises overtly to check a topic feature. I offer an analysis for Multiple Wh-fronting structures in which the wh-phrase closer to the verb is focalized and the rest of the wh-phrases are topicalized. I propose that Basque has a head with two features: Attract-all-discourse and Attract-1Topic (cf. Bošković 1999, 2002). Under this analysis, all wh-phrases bearing focus or topic are moved to the front of the sentence. Furthermore, the highest wh-phrase must move first. The fact that only one wh-phrase is focalized follows from the adjacency requirement of a PF verbal affix. ^ In chapter 4 I examine the role of contrastive focus in comparative subdeletion constructions in Spanish. Spanish allows Comparative Subdeletion under the two following circumstances: obligatory verb gapping and word order alteration of the elements in the comparative clause (“Inversion Strategy”). I capture the Spanish data by appealing to the claim that there is a strong focus feature requirement in the “Inversion Strategy”. I claim that the NP containing the quantity term must undergo overt movement to check a strong focus feature. If the feature is not checked, the derivation can still be rescued by deleting the strong feature in PF.