No Rush to Judgment : The Case against Japanese as an Isolate

The Ohio State University日本語はこれまで,韓国語や満州語,タミール語などの言語と比較されてきたが,これらの言語と日本語との間の系統関係について説得力のある説はこれまでに提示されていない。このことを,日本語には「同じ系統に属する言語がない」という意味にとらえれば,日本語は孤立言語であるということになる。孤立言語とは,共通祖語から共に発達した他の言語が全て絶滅してしまい,一つだけが生き残ったと考えられる言語のことである。日本語を孤立言語として扱ったとしても,例えば日本語話者の祖先がいつどこからこの地域にやってきたのか,というような,日本語の発達経緯に関するさまざまな疑問を解明することにはならない。だが,日本語と他の言語との系統関係を探り続けることで得られる知識は,たとえ不完全なものであるにしろ,日本語が孤立言語であると結論づけてしまうよりも,言語学的に貢献するところが大きい。多様性に富み規模が大きないくつかの言語族(例えば,インド・ヨーロッパ語族,オーストロネシア語族,中国語族)は,その共通祖語が話されていた年代がいつごろであるかについてかなり正確にわかっているが,これらの言語の存続が五千年を超えるものは一つもない。それゆえに,日本語が厳密な意味での孤立言語であるという主張は,同時に,日本語が非常に古い言語であるということ,また,日本語が発達してきたと考えられるその途方もない長い時間の中で,同じ祖語から派生した日本語以外の全ての言語が絶滅する運命をたどったのだと主張することになる。そのような状況に至った経緯をさまざまに想像するのはたやすいが,本論文において詳しく検証するように,いかなる仮定的状況についても,言語学的あるいは非言語学的側面から立証することは難しい。日本の先史について言えば,関連する言語以外の情報がかなり豊富に存在するので,言語の発達経緯の研究過程で,そのような情報を,言語学的仮説の範疇を特定したり修正してゆくために大いに利用すべきである。At present, no one has offered a definitive demonstration that the Japanese language is related to Korean, Manchu, Tamil, or any other language to which it has been compared. Thus, technically speaking, Japanese is an isolate, a language whose ancestors and all their other progeny now appear to be extinct. But to say that Japanese is an isolate does not answer specific questions, such as when and from where the earliest speakers of Japanese came to their present range. On the contrary, to claim that it does so is very different from merely giving reasons to reject this or that purported answer. We have reasonably good estimates of the age of several large, highly diverse families of languages (e.g. Indo-European, Austronesian, Sinitic), and none is more than about 5,000 years old. Therefore, to say that Japanese is an isolate in the strong sense is to claim that it must be extraordinarily old, and that fate has annihilated every one of the other descendants of its ultimate ancestor over its immense lifespan. It is easy to imagine different prehistories in which such a situation arose, but none gets support from either non-linguistic or linguistic data, which are reviewed in detail in this paper. In the case of Japanese, pertinent non-linguistic evidence is copious and particularly useful in limiting the scope of realistic linguistic hypotheses

High-energy Particle Acceleration and Production of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays in the Giant Lobes of Centaurus A

‘The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14265.xThe nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A is poorly studied at high frequencies with conventional radio telescopes because of its very large angular size, but is one of a very few extragalactic objects to be detected and resolved by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).We have used the five-year WMAP data for Cen A to constrain the high-frequency radio spectra of the 10-degree giant lobes and to search for spectral changes as a function of position along the lobes. We show that the high-frequency radio spectra of the northern and southern giant lobes are significantly different: the spectrum of the southern lobe steepens monotonically (and is steeper further from the active nucleus) whereas the spectrum of the northern lobe remains consistent with a power law. The inferred differences in the northern and southern giant lobes may be the result of real differences in their high-energy particle acceleration histories, perhaps due to the influence of the northern middle lobe, an intermediate-scale feature which has no detectable southern counterpart. In light of these results, we discuss the prospects for Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) detections of inverse-Compton emission from the giant lobes and the lobes’ possible role in the production of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory. We show that the possibility of a GLAST detection depends sensitively on the physical conditions in the giant lobes, with the northern lobe more likely to be detected, and that any emission observed by GLAST is likely to be restricted to the soft end of the GLAST energy band. On the other hand we argue that the estimated conditions in the giant lobes imply that UHECRs can be accelerated there, with a potentially detectable -ray signature at GeV-TeV energies.Peer reviewe

Magnetic Fields of Accreting X-Ray Pulsars with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer

Using a consistent set of models, we parameterized the X-ray spectra of all accreting pulsars in the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer database which exhibit Cyclotron Resonance Scattering Features (CRSFs, or cyclotron lines). These sources in our sample are Her X-1, 4U 0115+63, Cen X-3, 4U 1626-67, XTE J1946-274, Vela X-1, 4U 1907+09, 4U 1538-52, GX 301-2, and 4U 0352+309 (X Per). We searched for correlations among the spectral parameters, concentrating on how the cyclotron line energy relates to the continuum and therefore how the neutron star B-field influences the X-Ray emission. As expected, we found a correlation between the CRSF energy and the spectral cutoff energy. However, with our consistent set of fits we found that the relationship is more complex than what has been reported previously. Also, we found that not only does the width of the cyclotron line correlate with the energy (as suggested by theory), but that the width scaled by the energy correlates with the depth of the feature. We discuss the implications of these results, including the possibility that accretion directly affects the relative alignment of the neutron star spin and dipole axes. Lastly, we comment on the current state of fitting phenomenological models to spectra in the RXTE/BeppoSAX era and the need for better theoretical models of the X-Ray continua of accreting pulsars.Comment: 36 Pages, 9 Figures, 9 Tables, ApJ in pres

Funny walking : the rise, fall and rise of the Anglo-American comic eccentric dancer

This article will attempt to reposition comic eccentric dance as a metamorphic form that still, surprisingly, exists, and is to be found with reasonable ubiquity, in renewed incarna-tions within twenty first century media. Tracing the origins of comic eccentric dance through examples of earlier comedy performance, and drawing from Bergson’s comic theory of body misalliance, this article will dis-cuss this particularly ludic fusion of music and comedy. Further changes to the form affected by modernist preoccupations during the new Jazz Age at the turn of the twentieth century will be suggested. Finally, ways in which the formulation lives on in twenty-first century in-carnations in the comedy work of, for instance, Jimmy Fallon and Ricky Gervase, and in popular television shows such as Strictly Come Dancing (BBC 2004 - ) and Britain’s Got Talent (ITV 2006 - ) will be posited

Strong spin triplet contribution of the first removal state in the insulating regime of Bi2Sr2Ca1-xYxCu2O8+delta

The experimental dispersion of the first removal state in the insulating regime of Bi2Sr2Ca1-xYxCu2O8+delta is found to differ significantly from that of other parent materials: oxyclorides and La2CuO4 . For Y-contents of 0.92 > x > 0.55 due to nonstoichiometric effects in the Bi-O layers, the hole concentration in the CuO2 -layers is almost constant and on the contrary the crystal lattice parameters a,b,c change very strongly. This (a,b) parameter increase and c parameter decrease results in an unconventional three peak structure at (0,0);(pi/2, pi/2);(pi,pi) for x=0.92. We can describe the experimental data only beyond the framework of the 3-band pd-model involving the representations of a new triplet counterpart for the Zhang-Rice singlet state.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Development of a southern hemisphere subtropical wetland (Welsby Lagoon, south-east Queensland, Australia) through the last glacial cycle

Continuous records of terrestrial environmental and climatic variability that extend beyond the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in Australia are rare. Furthermore, where long records do exist, interpretations of climate and ecological change can be hampered by marked changes in sedimentary environment which, in turn, affect the taphonomy of palaeoecological remains. As a consequence, in order to determine how wetland systems responded to climatic and environmental changes, we first need to understand how their depositional environment changed through time. Here we document the development of freshwater Welsby Lagoon, south-east Queensland, from a 12.7 m sediment sequence with a basal age of ca. 130,000 years. We present a variety of proxies reflecting change within the wetland. Carbon and nitrogen concentrations and carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios are used to infer the source of organic matter. However, the nitrogen limited nature of the catchment soils and presence of the colonial algae Botryococcus meant that organic material with C:N ≥ 20 is likely to be derived from autochthonous sources rather than terrestrial sources. A combination of photosynthetic pigments, plant macrofossils, aquatic pollen and sedimentary lignin was used to identify the sources of organic matter and the changing nature of this wetland. Since its formation, Welsby Lagoon has undergone a progressive change from an open-water, algae and cyanobacteria dominated, freshwater lacustrine system, to an aquatic macrophyte-dominated palustrine swamp after ca. 40 ka. It did not revert to lacustrine conditions during the Holocene, despite what is widely viewed as an increase in the regional moisture balance, most likely due to continual infilling of the wetland with sediment. With so few records of terrestrial change throughout MIS3 and MIS4, adequately understanding the development of sites like Welsby Lagoon is imperative to advancing our knowledge of this important environmental and cultural period in Australia's history, which encompasses events such as the extinction of megafauna and human colonisation of the continent

Challenging Masculinity in CSR Disclosures: Silencing of Women’s Voices in Tanzania’s Mining Industry

This paper presents a feminist analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a male-dominated industry within a developing country context. It seeks to raise awareness of the silencing of women’s voices in CSR reports produced by mining companies in Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in Africa, and women are often marginalised in employment and social policy considerations. Drawing on work by Hélène Cixous, a post-structuralist/radical feminist scholar, the paper challenges the masculinity of CSR discourses that have repeatedly masked the voices and concerns of ‘other’ marginalised social groups, notably women. Using interpretative ethnographic case studies, the paper provides much-needed empirical evidence to show how gender imbalances remain prevalent in the Tanzanian mining sector. This evidence draws attention to the dynamics faced by many women working in or living around mining areas in Tanzania. The paper argues that CSR, a discourse enmeshed with the patriarchal logic of the contemporary capitalist system, is entangled with tensions, class conflicts and struggles which need to be unpacked and acknowledged. The paper considers the possibility of policy reforms in order to promote gender balance in the Tanzanian mining sector and create a platform for women’s concerns to be voiced

Study protocol for preventing early-onset pneumonia in young children through maternal immunisation: a multi-centre randomised controlled trial (PneuMatters)

Background: Preventing and/or reducing acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs) in young children will lead to substantial short and long-term clinical benefits. While immunisation with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) reduces paediatric ALRIs, its efficacy for reducing infant ALRIs following maternal immunisation has not been studied. Compared to other PCVs, the 10-valent pneumococcal-Haemophilus influenzae Protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV) is unique as it includes target antigens from two common lower airway pathogens, pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides and protein D, which is a conserved H. influenzae outer membrane lipoprotein. Aims: The primary aim of this randomised controlled trial (RCT) is to determine whether vaccinating pregnant women with PHiD-CV (compared to controls) reduces ALRIs in their infants' first year of life. Our secondary aims are to evaluate the impact of maternal PHiD-CV vaccination on different ALRI definitions and, in a subgroup, the infants' nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococci and H. influenzae, and their immune responses to pneumococcal vaccine type serotypes and protein D. Methods: We are undertaking a parallel, multicentre, superiority RCT (1:1 allocation) at four sites across two countries (Australia, Malaysia). Healthy pregnant Australian First Nation or Malaysian women aged 17-40 years with singleton pregnancies between 27+6 and 34+6 weeks gestation are randomly assigned to receive either a single dose of PHiD-CV or usual care. Treatment allocation is concealed. Study outcome assessors are blinded to treatment arms. Our primary outcome is the rate of medically attended ALRIs by 12-months of age. Blood and nasopharyngeal swabs are collected from infants at birth, and at ages 6- and 12-months (in a subset). Our planned sample size (n = 292) provides 88% power (includes 10% anticipated loss to follow-up). Discussion: Results from this RCT potentially leads to prevention of early and recurrent ALRIs and thus preservation of lung health during the infant's vulnerable period when lung growth is maximum. The multicentre nature of our study increases the generalisability of its future findings and is complemented by assessing the microbiological and immunological outcomes in a subset of infants. Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=374381, identifier: ACTRN12618000150246.Anne B. Chang, Maree Toombs, Mark D. Chatfield, Remai Mitchell, Siew M. Fong, Michael J. Binks ... at al