A unified account of causal clause sequences in Mandarin Chinese and its implications

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuoyan Song ◽  
Hongyin Tao
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Skewed Distribution ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Telephone Conversation ◽  
Initial Sequence ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Default Form

Causal clauses introduced by yīnwèi in Chinese can have either an initial position or a final position with regard to the main clause. While traditional grammars have treated the initial sequence as the default form, numerous discourse-based studies have shown just the opposite. However, few have attempted to explain why both sequence orders exist and why they have skewed distribution patterns across discourse registers. In this paper we use a telephone conversation corpus and a written Chinese corpus as data and provide a comprehensive analysis of the usage patterns. Our main findings are that final and initial causal clause sequences are ostensibly two different linguistic constructions, functioning as an interactional device and an information-sharing device, respectively. Quantitative distributional disparities are seen as a function of the discourse utilities of the linguistic devices in question and the communicative demands of different registers. From a cross-linguistic perspective, our findings raise questions about the ways in which universal and language-specific properties of clause sequencing can be better understood.

scholarly journals Initial laryngeal neutralisation in Tyrolean

Phonology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Vietti ◽  
Birgit Alber ◽  
Barbara Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Acoustic Parameters ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Closure Duration

In the Southern Bavarian variety of Tyrolean, laryngeal contrasts undergo a typologically interesting process of neutralisation in word-initial position. We undertake an acoustic analysis of Tyrolean stops in word-initial, word-medial intersonorant and word-final contexts, as well as in obstruent clusters, investigating the role of the acoustic parameters VOT, prevoicing, closure duration and F0 and H1–H2* on following vowels in implementing contrast, if any. Results show that stops contrast word-medially via [voice] (supported by the acoustic cues of closure duration and F0), and are neutralised completely in word-final position and in obstruent clusters. Word-initially, neutralisation is subject to inter- and intraspeaker variability, and is sensitive to place of articulation. Aspiration plays no role in implementing laryngeal contrasts in Tyrolean.

Journal Impact Factors Do Not Equitably Reflect Academic Staff Performance in Different Medical Subspecialties

2004 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 531-536
Author(s):  
Richard J. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Academic Staff ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Skewed Distribution ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Separate Analysis ◽  
Medical Specialties ◽  
Staff Performance ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThe simplest variables to quantify on an academic curriculum vitae are the impact factors (IFs) of journals in which articles have been published. As a result, these measures are increasingly used as part of academic staff assessment. The present study tests the hypotheses that IFs exhibit patterns that are consistent between journals of different specialties and that these IFs reflect the quality of staff academic performance.MethodsThe IFs of a sample of journals from each of four medical specialties—medicine, oncology, genetics, and public and occupational health—were downloaded from the Science Citation Index and compared. Overall and specialty-specific journal IF frequencies were analyzed with respect to distribution patterns, averages, and skew.ResultsApproximately 91% of journal IFs fell within the 0 to 5 range, with 97% being less than 10. The overall IF distribution featured a positive skew and a mean of 2.5. Separate analysis of the journal specialty subsets revealed significant differences in IF means (genetics 3.4 > oncology 3.1 > medicine 2.0 > public health 1.6; p < .006), all of which well exceeded the respective IF medians. Journals from the general medicine category exhibited both the lowest IF median (0.7) and the most positively skewed distribution.ConclusionThe distribution of IFs exhibits degrees of skew, numeric average, and spread that differ significantly between journal specialty subsets. This suggests that factors other than random variations underlie much of the IF variation between specialty journals and reduces the plausibility of a reliable correlation between IFs and the quality of academic staff performance. It is concluded that a dominant emphasis on IFs in academic recruitment and promotion may select for long-term faculty characteristics other than academic quality alone.

scholarly journals The necessitive impersonal REIK(Ė)TI ‘need’: the rise of modal meaning

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Erika Jasionytė-Mikučionienė ◽  
Jolanta Šinkūnienė
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Patterns Of Use ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Over Time

The focus of the paper is on the frequency, distribution patterns and semantic profile of the necessitive impersonal reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in old and contemporary Lithuanian texts. The study employs corpus based quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the patterns of use of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in the Database of Old Writings (16th-17th centuries) as well as the fiction sub-corpus of the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language and the humanities and biomedical sciences sub-corpora of the Corpus of Academic Lithuanian (CorALit). The study follows van der Auwera and Plungian’s (1998) modality framework. The quantitative analysis shows that the present tense form reikia ‘need.PRS.3’ is the dominating one across all the sub-corpora analysed. The results of the qualitative study indicate that the deontic sub-type of participant external modality is prevailing in the old Lithuanian texts as well as in the fiction sub-corpus and in the biomedical sciences texts of the contemporary Lithuanian. The discourse of the humanities displays a fairly frequent employment of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ for discourse organising functions alongside the deontic uses. Although the usage patterns of reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in the biomedical sciences and the humanities share certain common features, they also point to discipline specific trends of argumentation. It is also important to observe that the objective deontic reik(ė)ti ‘need’ seems to gradually acquire the features of subjective deontic modality over time, which corresponds to the typical subjectification cline (cf. Traugott 1989).

An Analysis of Students Problem To Pronounce Aspirated /P/, /T/, /K/ at Initial Position of English Words

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
Widya Juli Astria
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
English Department ◽  
Final Position ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Learning English

The purpose of this research was to analyze the third semester students’ problem in learning English basic sounds pronunciation. The research design was case study. The data were collected by recording the students’ pronunciation. The subject of the research were the third Semester Students of English Department at Universitas Ekasakti). The result of the research was found that Each aspirated /p/, /t/, /k/ have two allophones, [ph] and [p], [th] and [t], [kh] and [k]. Then, all instances of [ph] occured immediately before a stressed vowel. It can be said that the following rule: /p/ becomes [ph] when it occured before a stressed vowel or initial position of English words. Moreover, aspirated /p/, /t/, /k/ sounds were really pronounced in two different ways. First, when these sounds came at the beginning of the word they are always followed by a puff of breath. Second, if aspirated /p/, /t/, and /k/ occur at the end of final position of English words, it is not necessary to pronounce them by following a puff of breath. In following there is a chart of aspirated /p/, /t/, /k/ sounds at initial position of English words

An Argument for Phonological Stress in French: the syntagm over contrast

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Shanti Ulfsbjorninn
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Phonological Word ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
French Word ◽  
Lively Debate

Abstract It is standardly assumed that French does not have word-stress, rather it has phrase-level prominence. I will advance a number of arguments, many of which have appeared already in the literature, that cumulatively suggest that French roots are characterized by phonological prominence, even if this is non-contrastive. By prominence, I mean a syntagmatically distributed strength that has all the phonological characteristics of stress in other Romance languages. I will remain agnostic about the nature of that stress, eschewing the lively debate about whether French has feet, and if so what type, and at what level. The structure of the argument is as follows. French demonstrably has phonological word-final strength but one wonders what the source of this strength is. Positionally, the initial position is strong and, independently of cases where it is reinforced by other factors, the final position is weak. I will argue, based on parallels with other Romance languages, that French word-final strength derives from root-final phonological stress. The broader significance of this conclusion is that syntagmatic properties are enough to motivate underlying forms, even in the absence of paradigmatic contrasts (minimal pairs).

Clause order and syntactic integration patterns in Dutch conditionals

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Alex Reuneker
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Text Mode

Abstract Conditional clauses in Dutch can occur in sentence-initial and sentence-final position. For sentence-initial conditionals, a number of syntactic integration patterns are available. This corpus study investigates to what extent clause order and syntactic integration are associated with text mode (spoken, written) and register (formal, informal). Sentence-initial position of the conditional clause is shown to be most frequent in both modes and registers, although sentence-final position is more frequent than one would expect based on the literature, especially in written texts. The distribution of syntactic integration patterns shows a clear difference between modes, as full integration of the conditional clause into the main clause is most frequent in written texts, whereas the use of the resumptive element dan (‘then’) is most frequent in spoken texts.

scholarly journals Oceanic protists with different forms of acquired phototrophy display contrasting biogeographies and abundance

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1860) ◽  
pp. 20170664 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. G. Leles ◽  
A. Mitra ◽  
K. J. Flynn ◽  
D. K. Stoecker ◽  
P. J. Hansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Field Data ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
High Biomass ◽  
Marine Research ◽  
Marine Food Web ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Patterns ◽  
Functional Types ◽  
Marine Food ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

This first comprehensive analysis of the global biogeography of marine protistan plankton with acquired phototrophy shows these mixotrophic organisms to be ubiquitous and abundant; however, their biogeography differs markedly between different functional groups. These mixotrophs, lacking a constitutive capacity for photosynthesis (i.e. non-constitutive mixotrophs, NCMs), acquire their phototrophic potential through either integration of prey-plastids or through endosymbiotic associations with photosynthetic microbes. Analysis of field data reveals that 40–60% of plankton traditionally labelled as (non-phototrophic) microzooplankton are actually NCMs, employing acquired phototrophy in addition to phagotrophy. Specialist NCMs acquire chloroplasts or endosymbionts from specific prey, while generalist NCMs obtain chloroplasts from a variety of prey. These contrasting functional types of NCMs exhibit distinct seasonal and spatial global distribution patterns. Mixotrophs reliant on ‘stolen’ chloroplasts, controlled by prey diversity and abundance, dominate in high-biomass areas. Mixotrophs harbouring intact symbionts are present in all waters and dominate particularly in oligotrophic open ocean systems. The contrasting temporal and spatial patterns of distribution of different mixotroph functional types across the oceanic provinces, as revealed in this study, challenges traditional interpretations of marine food web structures. Mixotrophs with acquired phototrophy (NCMs) warrant greater recognition in marine research.

Dysarthria of Adult Cerebral Palsy

1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Platt ◽  
Gavin Andrews ◽  
Pauline M. Howie
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Palsy ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Confusion Matrix ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Speech Task ◽  
Position Errors ◽  
Confusion Matrices

The articulation errors of 32 spastic and 18 athetoid males, aged 17–55 years, were analyzed using a confusion matrix paradigm. The subjects had a diagnosis of congenital cerebral palsy, and adequate intelligence, hearing, and ability to perform the speech task. Phonetic transcriptions were made of single-word utterances which contained 49 selected phonemes: 22 word-initial consonants, 18 word-final consonants and nine vowels. Errors of substitution, omission and distortion were categorized on confusion matrices such that patterns could be observed. It was found that within-manner errors (place or voicing errors or both) exceeded between-manner errors by a substantial amount, more so on final consonants. The predominant within-manner errors occurred on fricative phonemes for both initial and final positions. Affricate within-manner errors, all of devoicing, were also frequent in final position. The predominant between-manner initial position errors involved liquid-to-glide and affricate-to-stop changes, and for final position, affricate-to-fricative. Phoneme omission occurred three times more frequently on final than on initial consonants. The error data of individual subjects were found to correspond with the identified overall group patterns. Those with markedly reduced speech intelligibility demonstrated the same patterns of error as the overall group. The implications for treatment are discussed.

Positional Transference and Sound Learning

1972 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seline Stein Hirsch ◽  
John M. Panagos
Keyword(s):  
Initial Position ◽  
Final Position ◽  
The Third ◽  
Positive Transference ◽  
Sound Learning

3 groups of naive adults were tested on their pronunciations of a foreign sound after one received no phonetic pretraining, another practiced the sound in the initial position, and the third learned it in the final. A significant positive transference effect indicated that practicing an unknown sound in the initial position facilitates its pronunciation in the final position.

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