Räume und Grenzen in der Laienmetasprache. Eine Metaphernanalyse zu Sprache und Sprecher

In folk linguistic studies people provide information about their perception and evaluation of languages and their speakers. In so doing, they use different strategies of verbalization. Frequently, they conceptualize space, boundaries, and crossings in drawing on mental concepts as metaphors and metonymies. This paper shows, based on a study on language attitudes in German-speaking Switzerland, the strategies laypeople use to organize their mental (language) spaces. For this purpose, I shall discuss recent data, collected via questionnaires and interviews, which illustrate how language attitudes are conceptualized and verbalized through metaphors and metonymies, and how the relationship between language and speaker is established through the process of indexicalization and iconization

Artikelparadigmen : Form, Funktion und syntaktisch-semantische Analyse von definiten Determinierern im Schweizerdeutschen

Viele Dialekte des Schweizerdeutschen verfügen über drei Paradigmen für standarddeutsches der, die, das: einen reduzierten Artikel de, d, s, einen vollen Artikel dä, di, das und ein proximales Demonstrativum dää, die, daas. Die vorliegende Arbeit ist dem Nachweis gewidmet, dass sich die drei Paradigmen nicht nur in ihrer Form, sondern auch in ihrer semantischen Funktion und in ihrer syntaktischen Analyse unterscheiden – und dass für die schweizerdeutschen Daten von einer starken Korrelation zwischen Morphologie, Semantik und Syntax ausgegangen werden kann. Hierfür werden im ersten Teil der Arbeit die morphologische Ausgestaltung der Paradigmen und die semantische Funktion von definiten Determinierern referiert. Anhand der Grammatiken zu den schweizerdeutschen Dialekten und verschiedener Datenkorpora wird aufgezeigt, dass eine Morphologie-Semantik-Korrelation besteht, insofern jedes Paradigma prototypisch für eine der drei semantischen Funktionen (Bezug auf Wissen, Bezug auf Text, Bezug auf Welt) verwendet wird. Zudem lässt sich zeigen, dass diejenigen Fälle, die aus diesem Raster fallen (insbesondere Modifikationsstrukturen mit Relativsätzen), nicht willkürliche Abweichungen darstellen, sondern dass die Artikelsetzung auch in diesen Kontexten strikten semantischen Bedingungen unterliegt. Im zweiten Teil wird eine semantisch-syntaktische Analyse im Rahmen der Generativen Syntax vorgestellt, die den eruierten semantisch-syntaktischen Merkmalsstrukturen der drei Paradigmen Rechnung trägt, indem in der Nominalphrase drei funktionale Kategorien für die drei relevanten Merkmale, i.e. [DEF] für Definitheit, [ANAPH] für Anaphorizität und [Dx] für Deixis angenommen werden. In Swiss German, there are three different paradigms for Standard German der, die, das: a reduced article de, d, s, a full article dä, di, das, and a proximal demonstrative pronoun dää, die, daas. This dissertation is focused on showing that these paradigms not only differ with respect to their morphologic form but also with respect to their semantic function and to their syntactic analysis. Based on the Swiss German data there is evidence for a strong correlation between morphology, semantics, and syntax. The first part of the thesis provides the paradigm’s different morphologic forms as well as the main semantic functions of definite determiners. The data in Swiss German dialect grammars and several data corpora suggest a correlation between morphology and semantics: each paradigm is used prototypically for one of the three semantic functions (reference to knowledge, reference to the text, reference to the world). Some contexts, especially modification structures with relative clauses, appear to weaken the correlation established in the analysis. However, it can be shown that the use of articles in these contexts follows its own strictly semantic rules. In the second part of the thesis, a semantic-syntactic analysis within the framework of Generative Syntax is proposed: the semantic-syntactic features of the three paradigms are accommodated by assuming three functional categories in the nominal phrase for the features in question, i.e. [DEF] for definiteness, [ANAPH] for anaphoricity, and [Dx] for deixis

Feasibility study of simultaneous physical examination and dynamic MR imaging of medial collateral ligament knee injuries in a 1.5-T large-bore magnet

Objective: To determine the feasibility of evaluating medial knee joint laxity with dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and simultaneous physical joint examination in a large-bore 1.5-T system. Materials and Methods: The study included 10 patients (5 women, 5 men; mean age 35years) with clinically diagnosed and categorized acute injuries of the medial collateral ligament (MCL). Intermittent valgus stress was applied separately to both the affected and the contralateral knee joint during dynamic MR imaging with a two-dimensional fast low-angle shot sequence. The width of the medial joint space and the opening angle between the femoral condyles and the tibial plateau were measured. Results obtained from dynamic MR imaging of the affected knee were compared with morphological MCL changes on static MRI, to kinematics of the contralateral side and to the clinical grading of MCL injuries. Results: On clinical examination, all patients had grade 2 MCL injuries except one, who had a grade 1 lesion. Using morphological MRI criteria, 9 grade II and 1 grade III injuries were seen. Mean medial joint space width and opening angles of all affected knees were 2.8mm and 2.7° respectively, compared with 1.7mm and 2.1° on the contralateral side. The Wilcoxon signed rank test indicated that the differences in width (P = 0.005) and opening angle (P = 0.037) between the affected and contralateral knees were significant. Conclusion: Dynamic MR imaging and simultaneous physical joint examination is feasible. Our results suggest that this technique might enable the imaging documentation of medial ligamentous knee instabilit

Quantitative MRI can detect subclinical disease progression in muscular dystrophy

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) is a rare autosomal dominant muscular dystrophy with late onset and slow progression. The aim of this study was to compare different methods of quantitative MRI in the follow-up of OPMD to semiquantitative evaluation of MRI images and to functional parameters. We examined 8patients with genetically confirmed OPMD and 5healthy volunteers twice at an interval of 13months. Motor function measurements (MFM) were assessed. Imaging at 1.5T (Siemens Magnetom Avanto) comprised two axial slice groups at the largest diameter of thigh and calf and included T1w TSE, 2-point Dixon for muscular fat fraction (MFF) and a multi-contrast TSE sequence to calculate quantitative T2 values. T1 images were analyzed using Fischer's semiquantitative 5-point (0-4) scale. MFM and visual scores showed no significant difference over the study period. Overall T2 values increased in patients over the study period from 49.4 to 51.6ms, MFF increased from 19.2 to 20.7%. Neither T2 values nor MFF increased in controls. Changes in T2 correlated with the time interval between examinations (r 2=0.42). In this small pilot trial, it was shown that quantitative muscle MRI can detect subclinical changes in patients with OPMD. Quantitative MRI might, therefore, be a useful tool for monitoring disease progression in future therapeutic trial

Local slow wave activity in regular sleep reveals individual risk preferences

In many everyday life situations, we have to make decisions under varying degrees of risk. Even though previous research has shown that the manipulation of sleep affects risky decision-making, it yet remains to be understood how regular, healthy sleep relates to risk preferences. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between individual, temporally stable neural sleep characteristics and individual differences in risk preferences in healthy adults. Sleep data were collected using a portable high-density EEG system at participants’ home. Results revealed a significant negative correlation between local sleep depth, as reflected in slow-wave activity (SWA) in a cluster of 5 electrodes located over the right prefrontal cortex and risk-taking behavior. This finding remained significant when controlling for total sleep time. Moreover, the association between SWA over the right prefrontal cortex and risk preferences was very similar in all sleep cycles. Our findings suggest that sleep depth in the right prefrontal cortex, an area involved in self-regulation, might serve as a dispositional indicator of lower self-regulatory abilities, which is expressed in greater risk-taking behavior

Local slow-wave activity over the right prefrontal cortex reveals individual risk preferences.

In everyday life, we have to make decisions under varying degrees of risk. Even though previous research has shown that the manipulation of sleep affects risky decision-making, it remains unknown whether individual, temporally stable neural sleep characteristics relate to individual differences in risk preferences. Here, we collected sleep data under normal conditions in fifty-four healthy adults using a portable high-density EEG at participants' home. Whole-brain corrected for multiple testing, we found that lower slow-wave activity (SWA, an indicator of sleep depth) in a cluster of electrodes over the right prefrontal cortex is associated with higher individual risk propensity. Importantly, the association between local sleep depth and risk preferences remained significant when controlling for total sleep time and for time spent in deep sleep, i.e., sleep stages N2 and N3. Moreover, the association between risk preferences and SWA over the right prefrontal cortex was very similar in all sleep cycles. Because the right prefrontal cortex plays a central role in cognitive control functions, we speculate that local sleep depth in this area, as reflected by SWA, might serve as a dispositional indicator of self-regulatory ability, which in turn reflects risk preferences

Accuracy of chest radiographs in the emergency diagnosis of heart failure

The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of chest radiographic findings of heart failure (HF) in current patients presenting with dyspnea in the emergency department. In a secondary analysis of the BASEL study, initial chest radiographs of 277 patients with acute dyspnea were evaluated by two radiologists blinded to the adjudicated diagnosis (56% had the final diagnosis of HF). Predefined radiographic criteria of HF were used. Statistical analysis included receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and calculation of a logistic regression model including B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels. The reader's overall impression showed the highest area under the ROC curve for the diagnosis of HF in both supine and erect patient positions (0.855 and 0.857). Among individual radiographic findings, peribronchial cuffing in the supine position (0.829) showed the highest accuracies. The lowest accuracy was found for the vascular pedicle width in the supine position (0.461). Logistic regression analysis showed no significant differences between the reader's overall impression, the radiographic model, and BNP testing. In our study, the combination of radiographic features provided valuable information and was of comparable accuracy as BNP-testing for the diagnosis of H