On English turn out and Spanish resultar mirative constructions. A case of ongoing grammaticalization?

This article focuses on the diachronic development of English turn out and Spanish resultar ‘turn out’ mirative constructions. Having undergone processes of semantic generalization over time, both verbs express evidential and, most prominently, mirative nuances in the present-day languages. This study explores the mechanisms that condition the evolution of turn out and resultar from their original meanings as lexical resultative and change-of-state verbs towards their eventual subjectification and grammaticalization as predicates conveying evidential and mirative senses. The present-day mirative constructions take that- and infinitival complement clauses in both languages. The analysis suggested here shows that both verbs exhibit diverging, though closely related, paths and degrees of grammaticalization. Moreover, this study delves into the further development of these predicates as parenthetical expressions. While English parenthetical turns out has already been grammaticalized, Spanish resulta may be on its way to becoming a grammaticalized parenthetical.S

Analogy-driven change: the emergence and development of mirative end up constructions in American English

This article explores the diachronic development of mirative end up in American English, which emerged in the late nineteenth century and which seems to be, at present, in the process of becoming a parenthetical element. The rise of the various mirative end up constructions is argued to be the result of both pragmatic enrichment and paradigmatic analogy, motivated by a series of semantically and formally related expressions, most prominently by mirative turn out. Moreover, the article delves into the process of cooptation to explain the emergence of parenthetical instances in the present-day language. Cooptation is understood as an intrinsically analogical-driven mechanism when it entails the eventual grammaticalization of formulaic parenthetical constructions. Data for the present study were taken from a variety of diachronic and synchronic sources, which include COHA, COCA and NOW, among others.S

A semiclassical condition for chaos based on Pesin theorem

A semiclassical method to determine if the classical limit of a quantum system is chaotic or not, based on Pesin theorem, is presented. The method is applied to a phenomenological Gamow--type model and it is concluded that its classical limit is chaotic

Electron cooling in probe collection from magnetized plasmas with anomalous transport

The electron-retarding range of the current-voltage characteristic of a flat Langmuir probe perpendicular to a strong magnetic field in a fully ionized plasma is analysed allowing for anomalous (Bohm) cross-field transport and temperature changes in the collection process. With probe size and ion thermal gyroradius comparable, and smaller than the electron mean free path, there is an outer quasineutral region with ion viscosity determinant in allowing nonambipolar parallel and cross flow. A potential overshoot lying either at the base or inside the quasineutral region both makes ions follow Boltzmann's law at negative bias and extends the electron-retarding range to probe bias e(j)p ~ +2Too. Electron heating and cooling occur roughly at positive and negative bias, with a re-minimum around efa ~ - 2 7 ^ ; far from the probe heat conduction cools and heats electrons at and radially away from the probe axis, respectively. The potential overshoot with no thermal effects would reduce the electron current Ie, making the In Ie versus 4>p graph downwards-concave,but cooling further reduces Ie substantially, and may tilt the slope upwards past the temperature minimum. The domain of strict validity of our analysis is narrow in case of low ion mass (deuterium), breaking down with the ion Boltzmann law

Probe current in a magnetized,collisional plasma revisited

An old analysis of probe current in a strongly magnetized plasma is reconsidered. It is shown that, in the collisional limit, the plasma beyond the sheath heats up in the collection process at positive probe bias enough. The modified current is compared to the current collected in the case of collection due to Bohm diffusion

Performance of coupled ED-tether/ion thrsuter system

Use of propulsion systems that couple electyrodynamic tethers to ion thrusters, as suggested in the literature, is discussed. The system establishes electrical contact with the ionospheric plasma, at the anodic end of the tether, by ejecting ions instead of collecting electrons; also, the ion thruster adds its thrust to the Lorentz force on the tether. In this paper, we analyze the performance of this coupled system, as measured by the ratio of mission impulse (thrust times mission duration) to the overall system mass, which includes the power subsystem mass, the tether subsystem mass, and the propellant mass consumed in the ion thruster. It is shown that a tether acting by itself, collecting electrons at its anodic end, substantially outperforms the coupled system for times longer than a characteristic time of the ion thruster, for which propellant mass equals the power subsystem mass; for shorter times performances are shown to be similar

Electron current to a probe in a magnetized, collisional plasma

Collisional analysis of electron collection by a probe in a strongly magnetized, fully ionized plasma is carried out. A solution to the complete set of macroscopic equations with classical transport coefficients that is wholly consistent in the domain is determined; R and le are probe radius and electron gyroradius, respectively. If R2/le 2 is large compared with mi/3me probe large compared with ion gyroradius, ion–electron energy exchange—rather than electron heat diffusion—keeps electrons isothermal. For smaller probes at negative bias, however, electron cooling occurs in the plasma beyond the sheath, with a potential overshoot lying well away from it. The probe characteristic in the electron-retarding range may then mimic the characteristic for a two electron-temperature plasma and lead to an overestimate of electron temperature; the validity of these results for other transport models is discusse

The rise and development of parenthetical needless to say: An assumed evidential strategy

The article traces the diachronic development of the assumed evidential needless to say. This parenthetical expression allows the speaker to make certain assertions regarding the obviousness of what s/he is about to say, thus serving as an evidential strategy that marks the information conveyed as being based on inference and/or assumed or general knowledge. Parenthetical needless to say has its roots in the Early Modern English needless to-INF construction (meaning ‘it is unnecessary to do something’), which originally licensed a wide range of infinitives. Over the course of time, however, it became restricted to uses with utterance verbs, eventually giving rise to the grammaticalized evidential expression needless to say. In fact, it is only in Late Modern English that the evidential pragmatic inferences become conventionalized and that the first parenthetical uses of the construction are attested. In Present-day English, parenthetical needless to say occurs primarily at the left periphery with forward scopeS