Taraldsen’s generalization in diachrony : evidence from a diachronic corpus

International audienceWe present the first large scale quantitative investigation of the syncretisation of verbal subject agreement in Medieval French and test a classic analysis which relates non-syncretic agreement and null subjects as parts of the same grammar (e.g. Rizzi 1986, Adams 1987, Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1998, Roberts 2010, Sheehan to appear). We show that agreement syncretisation and the emergence of overt pronominal subjects proceeded at the same rate. On the Constant Rate Hypothesis of Kroch (1989), which states that a grammatical change has the same rate in different contexts, these results are compatible with the traditional analysis. However, we show that this analysis also generates a number of predictions which are not borne out by the quantitative data. We conclude that a more complex model of interaction of subject and inflection parameters is needed

Geometry of Gaussian free field sign clusters and random interlacements

For a large class of amenable transient weighted graphs $G$, we prove that the sign clusters of the Gaussian free field on $G$ fall into a regime of strong supercriticality, in which two infinite sign clusters dominate (one for each sign), and finite sign clusters are necessarily tiny, with overwhelming probability. Examples of graphs belonging to this class include regular lattices like $\mathbb{Z}^d$, for $d \geqslant 3$, but also more intricate geometries, such as Cayley graphs of suitably growing (finitely generated) non-Abelian groups, and cases in which random walks exhibit anomalous diffusive behavior, for instance various fractal graphs. As a consequence, we also show that the vacant set of random interlacements on these objects, introduced by Sznitman in arXiv:0704.2560, and which is intimately linked to the free field, contains an infinite connected component at small intensities. In particular, this result settles an open problem from arXiv:1010.1490.Comment: 73 page

Hyperspectral Super-Resolution with Coupled Tucker Approximation: Recoverability and SVD-based algorithms

We propose a novel approach for hyperspectral super-resolution, that is based on low-rank tensor approximation for a coupled low-rank multilinear (Tucker) model. We show that the correct recovery holds for a wide range of multilinear ranks. For coupled tensor approximation, we propose two SVD-based algorithms that are simple and fast, but with a performance comparable to the state-of-the-art methods. The approach is applicable to the case of unknown spatial degradation and to the pansharpening problem.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, in Pres

Écrire la voyance. Présence de Dante Alighieri dans Les proscrits de Balzac

Cet article s’intéresse à la représentation que fait Honoré de Balzac de Dante Alighieri dans sa nouvelle Les proscrits (1831). Balzac donne vie au plus grand poète de l’époque médiévale pour rappeler à ses lecteurs que l’écrivain de génie tient nécessairement du voyant. Le Poète véritable serait celui dont la faculté de seconde vue lève le voile, ne serait-ce que partiellement, sur les mystères métaphysiques de la création. On suggère en conclusion que, par le choix du titre général de Comédie humaine, Balzac se réclame implicitement de l’autorité de Dante pour écrire une oeuvre visionnaire et mystique.This paper studies the representation of Dante Alighieri in Balzac’s short story Les proscrits (1831). Balzac summons the greatest medieval poet in order to remind his readers that a writer of genius is necessarily something of a seer. The true Poet is endowed with the gift of second sight, which enables him to partially unveil the metaphysical mysteries of creation. The conclusion suggests that, by his choice of the general title La comédie humaine, Balzac implicitly uses Dante’s authority to justify the writing of a visionary and mystical work