Sentential Word Order and the Syntax of Question Particles

Polar question particles in languages with VO word order pose a problem for the otherwise robust Final-Over-Final Constraint, which rules out a head-final phrase immediately dominating a head-initial phrase (Holmberg 2000). This paper offers a description of these particles and the constraint, and offers data supporting the hypothesis that these final particles are different from their initial counterparts in a fundamental way

Null Subjects in Northeast English

This paper presents data and analysis relating to null subjects in spoken colloquial English. While English is not a „pro-drop? language (i.e. subjects must usually be overt), a corpus of speech collected on Tyneside and Wearside in 2007 shows that null subjects are permitted in finite clauses in certain contexts. This paper analyses these examples and follow-up questionnaires, and compares the data with the other types of null subject described in the literature (pro-drop, topic-drop, early null subjects, aphasics? null subjects and „diary-drop?), ultimately concluding that the colloquial English phenomenon is most closely related to diary- drop

Effects of Discourse on Control

This study examined discourse effects on obligatory and non-obligatory control interpretations. 70 participants undertook three online forced-choice surveys, which monitored preferred interpretations in complement control, verbal-gerund-subject control, long-distance control and final temporal adjunct control. Survey 1 ascertained their baseline interpretations of the empty category in these constructions. Survey 2 cued the critical sentences used in survey 1 with a weakly established topic of discourse and survey 3 cued them with a strongly established one. Reference assignment in complement control remained consistent across all three conditions, illustrating that pragmatics does not infiltrate this structurally regulated and syntactically unambiguous construction. Changes in interpretation were found in the remaining three constructions. An accessibility-motivated scale of influence, combining three independent discourse factors (topic, linear distance and competition) is created to model reference determination in verbal-gerund-subject control and long-distance control. The results for temporal adjunct control are novel. They revealed a much stronger susceptibility to pragmatic interference than that reported in the literature yet the construction behaved differently from non-obligatory control under discourse pressure. We propose a structural account for final temporal adjunct control, which permits the evident interpretation shift, whilst still excluding arbitrary and sentence-external interpretations

A cheeky investigation: Tracking the semantic change of <i>cheeky</i> from monkeys to wines

The present study focuses on the word cheeky which, in the past few decades, has taken on a new meaning (‘mildly illicit’) in addition to, and partly overtaking, its original meaning (‘impudent’). We examine how this semantic change is spreading in different age groups and in different parts of the English-speaking world. As we demonstrate, the newer meaning of cheeky is associated with younger speakers, so we examine whether this correlates with different age groups’ understanding of the new form. Furthermore, in its original sense, cheeky was used more frequently in the United Kingdom than in North America. If the earlier meaning was already marked for North America, how is the newer form understood by speakers there

Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection

Methods of Nature: Landscapes from the Gettysburg College Collection is the third annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods course. The exhibition is an exciting academic endeavor and incredible opportunity for engaged learning, research, and curatorial experience. The five student curators are Molly Chason ’17, Leah Falk ’18, Shannon Gross ’17, Bailey Harper ’19 and Laura Waters ’19. The selection of artworks in this exhibition includes the depiction of landscape in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century French, American and East Asian cultural traditions in various art forms from traditional media of paintings and prints to utilitarian artifacts of porcelain and a paper folding fan. Landscape paintings in this exhibition are inspired by nature, specific locales and literature. Each object carries a distinctive characteristic, a mood, and an ambience. Collectively, they present a multifaceted view of the landscape in the heart and mind of the artists and intended viewers. [excerpt]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/artcatalogs/1020/thumbnail.jp

Some characteristics of Southeast English preposition-dropping

Preposition-dropping is widespread in British English varieties, but the construction found in Southeast England differs from the descriptions of Northwest Englishes, patterning more closely with Greek and Romance varieties. The determiner is obligatorily absent, the argument must be a directional Goal, the verb must be semantically weak come or go, and the location must be familiar, anaphoric or a place name. These characteristics are explained if the noun undergoes N-to-D movement to gain a definite interpretation, requiring omission of the determiner and lack of modification, and the null directional preposition to conflates with v for licensing, removing the possibility of manner-of-motion verbs

Subjecthood and argument structure

This book reconsiders the role of order and structure in syntax, focusing on fundamental issues such as word order and grammatical functions. The first group of papers in the collection asks what word order can tell us about syntactic structure, using evidence from V2, object shift, word order gaps and different kinds of movement. The second group of papers all address the issue of subjecthood in some way, and examine how certain subject properties vary across languages: expression of subjects, expletive subjects, quirky and locative subjects. All of the papers address in some way the tension between modelling what can vary across languages whilst improving our understanding of what might be universal to human language

Assessing the Awareness of Lead Hazards in the Greater Burlington Area

Introduction. Lead is a heavy metal found in and around homes built before 1978, comprising more than 80% of the housing stock in Chittenden County, Vermont. Lead exposure during infancy and childhood can have deleterious effects on development. Our study assessed baseline community understanding of potential household lead hazards in Chittenden County, Vermont. Methods.. 123 paper, 10-question surveys were randomly administered to Chittenden County, VT residents to assess recognition of lead toxicology symptoms and awareness of lead safety programs. Scores were treated as continuous variables, demographically grouped, and analyzed using non-parametric statistical analysis (Mann-Whitney & Kruskal-Wallis). Individual questions were treated as dichotomous variables, demographically grouped and analyzed using chi-squared testing. Results.. 48% of survey participants understood the interaction between ADHD and lead or knew the importance of window maintenance. 54.5% were aware of the Burlington Lead Program\u27s assistance program. Participants earning less than $60,000 and those with less than a graduate degree scored statistically lower (p Conclusion.. Lesser-known lead poisoning symptoms and home interventions that decrease lead exposure should be emphasized to the community. High-risk groups requiring targeted education include those who rent, have lower income and education levels. Primary care providers could serve a larger role in educating patients. Additional efforts should be made to publicize services offered by the Burlington Lead Program.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1241/thumbnail.jp

I didn't write this talk because syntax: A syntactic analysis of because NOUN

I didn’t write this talk because syntax The novel construction because X is illustrated in (1), where because appears with a bare noun complement and no linking of. (1) I wore my skeleton leggings on Wednesday because Hallowe’en. In previous work the complement of because has been analysed as a propositional ‘non-sentential’ element (in the sense of Progovac 2006) rather than part of a true subordinate clause, selected and fully integrated into the main clause. This raises an interesting question about the behaviour of negative sentences with this construction. The presence of a because adjunct normally provides the possibility of ambiguity about the scope of the negation, as illustrated in (2) and (3) (and as noted many years ago by e.g. Lakoff (1970) and Linebarger (1987): (2) I didn’t wear my skeleton leggings on Wednesday because of Hallowe’en. = negation scope over the VP = I didn’t wear my skeleton leggings on Wednesday, and the reason was Hallowe’en (perhaps I’m saving them to wear on Thursday, when it is Hallowe’en). (3) I didn’t wear my skeleton leggings on Wednesday because of Hallowe’en. = negation scope over just the because adverbial = I wore my skeleton leggings on Wednesday, but not because of Hallowe’en (perhaps they were the only clean thing I had to wear that day). When the because X construction is used, the ambiguity seems to disappear, leaving only the VP negation reading. This talk describes a study testing this intuition on 74 respondents to an online grammaticality judgement survey. Participants were presented with sentences like those in (1) and (2), both with and without of, and asked whether the meaning corresponded to VP negation, adverbial negation, both, or neither (this allowed respondents to indicate that a sentence was ungrammatical, as this construction is not possible for all speakers). As expected, sentences with a standard CP or PP complement were almost never judged ungrammatical, and just 7% of the because X type were. Of the remaining responses, VP negation was overwhelmingly favoured for both types of sentence, with just under 5% of responses selecting adverbial negation in both cases. However, the crucial question was whether the rate of ‘both’ options fell under the because X condition, as predicted by our hypothesis that the adverbial negation reading is not possible with this sentence structure. This was supported by the data, with ‘both’ responses falling from 29% to just 7% across the pairs, and the ‘VP negation’ option correspondingly increasing along with ‘ungrammatical’. The experiment therefore demonstrates that, without intonational cues, a) VP negation is the unmarked reading; b) Adverbial negation is only possible as a second option if VP negation is also possible; c) The adverbial negation reading is strongly dispreferred in because X sentences. This result in fact answers one of the most fundamental questions about the construction: if one adopts a syntactic analysis of neg-raising (e.g. Collins & Postal 2014), it shows that it cannot be a surface phonological effect, with of simply unpronounced but still present in the syntax. If this were the case, this difference in behaviour is unexplained. In this talk, we argue that the because-adverbial is prevented from either having the option of a high or low adjunction site as generally assumed, and instead being restricted to low adjunction to VP, or from having the inherent focus assumed by Kawamura (2008) that permits the ambiguity of reference. This new, ‘internetese’ usage of English thus provides insight into the scope of negation, focus and adverbial attachment

Valence band offset of the ZnO/AlN heterojunction determined by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy

The valence band offset of ZnO/AlN heterojunctions is determined by high resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The valence band of ZnO is found to be 0.43±0.17 eV below that of AlN. Together with the resulting conduction band offset of 3.29±0.20 eV, this indicates that a type-II (staggered) band line up exists at the ZnO/AlN heterojunction. Using the III-nitride band offsets and the transitivity rule, the valence band offsets for ZnO/GaN and ZnO/InN heterojunctions are derived as 1.37 and 1.95 eV, respectively, significantly higher than the previously determined values