16 research outputs found
Finiteness and children with specific language impairment: an exploratory study
Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are well known for their difficulties in mastering the inflectional paradigms; in the case of learning German they also have problems with the appropriate verb position, in particular with the verb in second position. This paper explores the possibilities of applying a broader concept of finiteness to data from children with SLI in order to put their deficits, or rather their skills, into a wider perspective. The concept, as developed by Klein (1998, 2000), suggests that finiteness is tied to the assertion that a certain state of affairs is valid with regard to some topic time; that is, finiteness relates the propositional content to the topic component. Its realization involves the interaction of various grammatical devices and, possibly, lexical means like temporal adverbs. Furthermore, in the acquisition of finiteness it has been found that scope particles play a major role in both first- and second-language learning. The purpose of this paper is to analyze to what extent three German-learning children with SLI have mastered these grammatical and lexical means and to pinpoint the phase in the development of finiteness they have reached. The data to be examined are mostly narrative and taken from conversations and experiments. It will be shown that each child chooses a different developmental path to come to grips with the interaction of these devices
Solving loop equations by Hitchin systems via holography in large-N QCD_4
For (planar) closed self-avoiding loops we construct a "holographic" map from
the loop equations of large-N QCD_4 to an effective action defined over
infinite rank Hitchin bundles. The effective action is constructed densely
embedding Hitchin systems into the functional integral of a partially quenched
or twisted Eguchi-Kawai model, by means of the resolution of identity into the
gauge orbits of the microcanonical ensemble and by changing variables from the
moduli fields of Hitchin systems to the moduli of the corresponding holomorphic
de Rham local systems. The key point is that the contour integral that occurs
in the loop equations for the de Rham local systems can be reduced to the
computation of a residue in a certain regularization. The outcome is that, for
self-avoiding loops, the original loop equations are implied by the critical
equation of an effective action computed in terms of the localisation
determinant and of the Jacobian of the change of variables to the de Rham local
systems. We check, at lowest order in powers of the moduli fields, that the
localisation determinant reproduces exactly the first coefficient of the beta
function.Comment: 65 pages, late