Efficient marking of argument focus: A trade-off between focus particles and word order in Sinhala

Colloquial Sinhala has focus concord constructions in which finite verbs with the suffix -e mark argument focus. In such constructions, the focal constituent is optionally marked via a focus particle, via movement to a postverbal (rather than preverbal) position, or via a combination of a focus particle and postverbal position. In this paper, I quantitatively analyze the preferred position of focal constituents marked by the three focus particles =yi, tamaa and tamai, as well as those not marked by any particle. Using data from a news website, I show that marking via a particle and the movement to the postverbal position are not randomly used. Rather, focal constituents marked by a focus particle are less likely to occur preverbally, while those not marked by a particle are more likely to occur postverbally. Moreover, among constituents marked by a focus particle, those marked by the particle =yi are more likely to occur postverbally. Based on these findings, I argue that the positional tendencies of focal constituents can be regarded as efficient marking patterns. When a constituent is marked by a focus particle, it is less likely to occur preverbally because the focal constituent is already explicit and the marking by the position would be redundant. The preference of =yi for the postverbal position does not seem to follow this general tendency until one takes into account that it requires less effort to produce =yi due to its phonological status. With this in mind, the distribution of constituents marked by =yi can also be regarded as an efficient pattern. The discussion in this paper contributes to both the typology of efficiency and the typology of optional focus marking

A DC to 40GHz Low Cost Surface Mountable RF-VIA TM Package

The ultimate goal for low cost packages for millimeterwave MMIC is to realize a miniature, light weight surface mount type package. This paper describes the design technologies of newly developed package, where we optimized via design by multilayer ceramic structure. As a result, insertion loss is about –0.5dB at 40 GHz (measurement include mounting board + one feedthrough) has been realized

Role of co-contraction of antagonist muscles during predatory strike in the mantis

The 11th International Symposium on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines. Kobe University, Japan. 2023-06-06/09. Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines Organizing Committee.Poster Session P2

Analytical study of the dynamical behavior of loading buckets interacting with bulk materials

A new analytical model has been developed to calculate the dynamical behavior of a column on which buckets loading and interacting with bulk materials, such as iron ore and coal with various grain sizes, are set. A set of linear equations of motion was obtained by considering the effective load, the stiffness, and the friction of materials. From the analysis of the equation, the growth of vibration in a column was indicated, which was caused by the cross term of a stiffness matrix because of the interaction between buckets and a material. In addition, bucket speed was found to affect the damping of the vibration through the critical condition ∆xω~v B where ∆x is bucket displacement, ω is the characteristic frequency of a column , and v is bucket speed. A simplified characteristic function was obtained for the stability of a system and compared with the results of a laboratory-scale experiment in order to evaluate the analytical model