Third Person References: Forms and Functions in Two Spoken Genres of Spanish

This volume, a case study on the grammar of third person references in two genres of spoken Ecuadorian Spanish, examines from a discourse-analytic perspective how genre affects linguistic patterns and how researchers can look for and interpret genre effects. This marks a timely contribution to corpus linguistics, as many linguists are choosing to work with empirical data. Corpus based approaches have many advantages and are useful in the comparison of different languages as well as varieties of the same language, but what is often overlooked in such comparisons is the genre of language under examination. As this case study shows, genre is an important factor in interpreting patterns and distributions of forms. The book also contributes toward theories of anaphora, referentiality and Preferred Argument Structure. It is relevant for scholars who work with referentiality, genre differences, third person references, and interactional linguistics, as well as those interested in Spanish morphosyntax. [From the Publisher]https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1096/thumbnail.jp

Implementation and validation of the LHC SUSY searches with MadAnalysis 5

Separate, validated implementations of the ATLAS and CMS new physics analyses are necessary to fully exploit the potential of these searches. To this end, we use MadAnalysis 5, a public framework for collider phenomenology. In this talk, we present recent developments of MadAnalysis 5, as well as a new public database of reimplemented LHC analyses. The validation of one ATLAS and one CMS search for supersymmetry, present in the database, is also summarized.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Presented at the The Second Annual Conference on Large Hadron Collider Physics (LHCP 2014), New York, U.S.A, June 2-7, 2014. To appear in the proceeding

Imagining Modernity: Kant's Wager on Possibility

In the introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason (2nd edition), Kant claims that a transcendental cognition is a one ‘that is occupied not so much with objects but rather with our mode of cognition of objects insofar as is this ought to be possible a priori (a priori möglich sein soll)’. In this paper, I argue that Kant scholarship should take into account the specific signification of the term ‘sollen’, which might require us to reconsider the usual distinction between the system of freedom and the system of nature. Following a Fichtean perspective, I will try to show that, even if ‘sollen’ in this context does not refer to a duty in the strict sense, it does refer to the demand that transcendental philosophy itself be possible. I will argue that this demand is contingent at its very origin and, accordingly, expresses a particular kind of ‘freedom’. On this basis I will consider the tribunal of reason enacted in the Critique of Pure Reason as a tribunal that emerges from a free decision, in which the transcendental philosopher imagines its own possibility. Because it is a ‘free’ and ‘contingent’ tribunal, it cannot exceed the status of a problematic philosophical strategy

Higgs coupling measurements and impact on the MSSM

Run I of the LHC has not revealed any sign of new physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). However, the discovery of an SM-like Higgs boson with mass around 125 GeV opens up new possibilities for probing various BSM scenarios with enlarged Higgs sectors and/or new particles affecting the loop-induced processes or opening new decay modes. We will present how we derive constraints on new physics from the Higgs measurements performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. The impact of these measurements will then be assessed in the context of the general phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and in the MSSM with a light neutralino as a dark matter candidate.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Presented at the XXII. International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects (DIS 2014), Warsaw, Poland, 28 April - 2 May 2014. To appear in the proceeding

Another Look at the Present Perfect in an Andean Variety of Spanish: Grammaticalization and Evidentiality in Quiteño Spanish

The existence of an extensive body of literature on the Present Perfect (PP), both Spanish-specific (cf. Alarcos Llorach 1947, Copple 2011, Escobar 1997, Gili Gaya 1972, Howe 2013, Rodríguez Louro 2009, Schwenter 1994, Schwenter & Torres Cacoullos 2008, inter alia) and cross-linguistic studies (cf. Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca, 1994, Comrie 1976 Harris, 1982, Squartini & Bertinetto 2000, inter alia), attests to the complexity of accurately describing the uses, meanings and functions of the PP. Among the studies of the PP in Spanish, two main approaches are employed. In one approach, the grammaticalization, analysis of temporal and aspectual uses of the PP are emphasized, and the PP is often examined in relation to the Preterit (Pret) (cf. Copple 2009, 2011, Hernández 2004, Howe & Schwenter 2003, Jara Yupanqui 2006, Rodríguez Louro & Howe 2010, Rodríguez Louro & Jara Yupanqui 2011, Schwenter 1994, Schwenter & Torres Cacoullos 2008, Serrano 1994, 1996, inter alia). Another approach focuses on non-temporal and non-aspectual uses of the PP, with particular attention to contact situations that appear to have produced innovative evidential uses of the PP (cf. Escobar 1997, Klee & Ocampo 1995, Mendoza 1991, Rojas-Sosa 2008, Stratford 1991, inter alia). The specific goals of this paper are to situate the grammaticalization of the Quiteño PP in relation to that of other varieties of Spanish, and to quantitatively test claims that the PP in this variety has acquired evidential meaning. [excerpt